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The Two-Way
11:00 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Supreme Court Takes Case On Prayer At Government Meetings

Credit Jonathan Ernst / Reuters /Landov
The Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C., earlier this year.

A challenge to the way a western New York State town board has had prayers read before its public meetings has made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The justices announced Monday morning that they will hear oral arguments in the case of Greece, N.Y. v. Galloway, Susan.

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The Two-Way
11:00 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Immigration Officers' Union Will Oppose Senate Bill

Credit John Moore / Getty Images
U.S. Office of Air and Marine pilot Jake Dreher guards the border along the Rio Grande River in Mission, Texas.

The union that represents 12,000 officers who process immigration applications said they will oppose a bipartisan bill that seeks to overhaul the nation's immigration policies.

As Fox News reports, The National CIS Council is the second union to oppose the bill being discussed in Congress. The National ICE Council, which represents Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, has expressed its opposition to the bill for a while now.

Fox reports:

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The Two-Way
8:41 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Pledging Not To 'Screw It Up,' Yahoo Seals Deal For Tumblr

Credit Fred Dufour / AFP/Getty Images
They're coming together: Yahoo will pay $1.1 billion to acquire Tumblr.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 9:06 am

The news that broke Sunday is now official.

Yahoo confirmed early Monday morning that it is buying Tumblr in a deal worth about $1.1 billion. "Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business," Yahoo added.

In its statement announcing the deal, Yahoo says that:

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The Two-Way
8:08 am
Mon May 20, 2013

FBI Agents Killed In Training Accident Worked In Elite Unit

Credit FBI.gov
Members of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team during a training exercise in Quantico, Va. Two FBI agents who were part of the unit died Friday during a training exercise offshore near Virginia Beach, Va.
Law
8:02 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Court Case Winds Down In New York's Stop-And-Frisk Challenge

Credit Seth Wenig / AP
Protesters participate in a rally near the federal courthouse March 18 in New York. Lawyers for four men who say they were illegally stopped said many of the 5 million people stopped, questioned and sometimes frisked by police in the past decade were wrongly targeted because of their race.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 10:11 am

Closing arguments are set to take place Monday in the federal class action trial involving New York City's stop-and-frisk policy. The trial has been going on for two months in Manhattan.

Plaintiffs in Floyd v. City of New York claim the New York Police Department, its supervisors and its union pressured police officers to stop, question and frisk hundreds of thousands of people each year, even establishing quotas. They argue that 88 percent of the stops involved blacks and Hispanics, mostly men, and were in fact a form of racial profiling.

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The Two-Way
7:22 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Book News: J.K. Rowling Tells 'Harry Potter' Backstories

Credit Ben Pruchnie / Getty Images
J.K. Rowling.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

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Europe
7:00 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Germany May Have Paid A Price For Its Financial Power

Germans had to finance bailouts for countries like Greece, and imposed austerity measures in return. Those who disapprove may have struck back. People across the continent and beyond watched the Eurovision song contest. The German entry finished near the bottom, with countries giving the Germans no points at all

Around the Nation
6:55 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Right Lottery Numbers, Wrong Date

A California woman turned on the TV last week and saw she had the winning numbers in Wednesday's drawing. She thought she had won $360 million. It turns out she bought her ticket an hour after Wednesday's drawing.

The Two-Way
6:52 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Nation's Midsection Braces For More Severe Storms

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 11:14 am

There's no relief today for folks in the nation's midsection.

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Around the Nation
5:15 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Growing Vegetables From Seeds Take Root For Many Gardeners

More and more gardeners are bypassing the local nursery and instead starting their veggies from seed. Seeds are often cheaper and they give growers a bigger choice of varieties. At a community garden in Venice, Calif., students learn the ins and outs of gardening from scratch.

Politics
5:06 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Why Congress Has Reasons Not To Be Bipartsan

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:19 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now let's look little more deeply at this narrative of scandal. NPR's Scott Horsley has more.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: When President Obama gets frustrated with the gridlock in Washington, he sometimes looks back wistfully to the decades after World War II. Back then, he suggests Republicans and Democrats managed to work together, despite their differences, building highways, protecting consumers, and educating generations of workers.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

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Energy
5:06 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Calif. Law To Require Ships To Cut Pollution

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:28 am

California is about to become the first state to require shore power at its ports. A new law mandates at least half of a shipping line's fleet to shut down their diesel engines and plug into shore-side electric power when they unload their cargo. It's part of a larger effort to cut pollution at the state's busiest ports, but costs have been a sticking point.

Business
5:06 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Yahoo To Buy Tumblr In An Attempt To Revitalize Itself

Yahoo is expected to announce Monday that it's acquiring the social media site Tumblr, in a deal The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets are reporting to be worth about $1.1 billion. Some analysts are calling the acquisition an effort by Yahoo to be "cool and relevant" again.

It's All Politics
3:07 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Is There Really A Second-Term Curse?

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 11:15 am

The phrase "second term curse" is so familiar that it's become a cliche of American politics. Whether it's President Richard Nixon's resignation or President Bill Clinton's impeachment, presidents tend to have a tough time during the back half of an eight-year presidency.

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Around the Nation
3:07 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Advocates Struggle To Reach Growing Ranks Of Suburban Poor

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 2:30 pm

Poverty has grown everywhere in the U.S. in recent years, but mostly in the suburbs. During the 2000s, it grew twice as fast in suburban areas as in cities, with more than 16 million poor people now living in the nation's suburbs — more than in urban or rural areas.

Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, says this shift in poverty can be seen in Montgomery County, Md., right outside the nation's capital.

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Arts & Life
3:06 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Nostalgia For Sale As Captain Kangaroo's Pals Are Auctioned Off

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 10:38 am

The classic children's show Captain Kangaroo aired on TV for nearly 30 years, starting in 1955. After its creator and star, Bob Keeshan, died in 2004, his estate donated a few of his beloved hand puppets to the Smithsonian.

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Parallels
3:05 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Children Of China's Wealthy Learn Expensive Lessons

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 7:07 am

In China, having too much money is a relatively new problem. But the rapidly growing country is second only to the U.S. in its number of billionaires, according to Forbes magazine. And now an enterprising company has set up a course for kids born into wealthy families, who are learning how to deal with the excesses of extraordinary wealth.

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Shots - Health News
3:04 am
Mon May 20, 2013

If Your Shrink Is A Bot, How Do You Respond?

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 11:30 am

Health
3:03 am
Mon May 20, 2013

Bans Of Same-Sex Marriage Can Take A Psychological Toll

Credit Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images
Opponents of same-sex marriage participate in the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C., on March 26, as the Supreme Court hears arguments on California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 9:25 am

As the country awaits two important Supreme Court decisions involving state laws on same-sex marriage, a small but consistent body of research suggests that laws that ban gay marriage — or approve it — can affect the mental health of gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans.

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