From NPR News

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors, and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

After a few more days of escalating hoopla, the Super Bowl between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots kicks off on Sunday evening, but whether you've got a small financial interest in the game or if you're just waiting for the ads, there are stories on the field in Indianapolis - the Brady legacy, salsa dancer Victor Cruz, hometown boy Mathias Kiwanuka, and of course the medical epic of the high-ankle sprain. What story will you follow in Super Bowl XLVI?

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. From the Harlem Renaissance to black power, Langston Hughes spoke to the life of African-Americans. The neglected son of a famous abolitionist family, he immersed himself in books. Eighteen years old and just out of high school, he saw sunset on the muddy Mississippi from a train and wrote the poem that introduced the world to Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

You may remember Anthony Mackie as the uptight sergeant who defused bombs in Baghdad with Jeremy Renner in the Oscar-winner "The Hurt Locker."

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE HURT LOCKER")

JEREMY RENNER: (as Sergeant First Class William James) That wasn't so bad. First time working together. What do you think?

ANTHONY MACKIE: (as Sergeant J.T. Sanborn) I think us working together means I talk to you and you talk to me.

RENNER: (as Sergeant First Class William James) We going on a date, Sanborn?

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. The good news, even in the recession, came from American manufacturing. Output is up one-third over the past decade. But over just about that same period of time, six million manufacturing jobs disappeared. About as many people work in manufacturing now as did at the end of the Depression, though our population has more than doubled.

Three years ago, venture capitalists were pouring billions of dollars into technologies like solar power, wind power, biofuels and fuel cells. The federal government followed, directing some $44.5 billion into clean technology from late 2009 to late 2011 through loans, subsidies and tax incentives.

But now the clean-tech industry is facing leaner times, in part because of cheaper natural gas prices, the effects of the financial crisis and China's growing solar industry.

We should pause to note the death of Angelo Dundee, the "genial trainer" of 15 world champion boxers, most notably Muhammad Ali.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Ferry Sinks Off Papua New Guinea: 200+ Rescued, But 100+ Missing.

-- Anger, Blame And Protests In Egypt After Deadly Soccer Riot.

Cue the song "Anything You Can Do," from the musical "Annie Get Your Gun." The Obama and Romney campaigns have for all practical purposes started waging their general-election campaigns against each other.

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits fell by 12,000 last week, to 367,000 from 379,000 the week before, the Employment and Training Administration just reported.

The agency also said that "the 4-week moving average was 375,750, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised average of 377,750."

"In the end, it wasn't even close," The Seattle Times writes this morning.

By a 28-21 vote early Wednesday evening, the Washington State Senate approved a bill legalizing gay marriage in the state.

The tragic riot following a soccer game Wednesday in Port Said, Egypt, which left more than 70 people dead and at least 1,000 wounded, "highlights the problems with security in this country," NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson said earlier today in a conversation with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep.

Breaking "news" at 7:27 a.m. ET: Punxsutawney Phil predicts six more weeks of winter. He saw "many shadows."

Our original post:

It's that time again.

Time for Americans to pause and watch as a Pennsylvania groundhog supposedly tells us whether we will or won't have six more weeks of winter.

Punxsutawney Phil is due to emerge from his "burrow" at 7:20 a.m ET.

"Rescuers have plucked 238 survivors from waters off Papua New Guinea after a ferry carrying up to 350 people sank," officials tell The Australian. The newspaper adds that officials say it's too early to declare whether the vessel was overloaded and what caused the disaster.

A report by congressional Republicans places new blame for the botched gun-trafficking operation known as Fast and Furious at the feet of federal agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who failed to share information and coordinate with sister law enforcement agencies.

Even in the dead of winter, the Russian city of St. Petersburg, with its church spires, palaces and waterways, is one of the world's truly beautiful cities. It was here that the Russian revolution began, and it's here where Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev cut their teeth politically.