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Author Interviews
6:17 am
Sat February 25, 2012

'Watergate' Revisited: Inside The Criminal Minds

Originally published on Thu March 29, 2012 5:18 pm

During the summer of 1972, five men were arrested in the middle of the night for breaking into the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C.

The breach went to the very top. Watergate toppled the Nixon administration and became an iconic (and exhaustively studied) American political scandal. In his new novel, Watergate, Thomas Mallon gives the story a fresh twist, retelling it from the perspectives of the involved parties — from seven different points of view.

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Environment
6:13 am
Sat February 25, 2012

Who's A Park For? Dog Owners Fight Park Service

Credit Amy Standen / KQED
Rancho Corral de Tierra Park in Northern California recently became part of the National Parks System. Now dogs are required to be on leash, angering some community members.

Originally published on Thu March 29, 2012 5:18 pm

Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California's Bay Area is expanding, quite literally, up next to some people's backyards. And while you might think neighbors would be thrilled to see this scenic landscape preserved, the relationship between the National Park Service and locals is off to a rocky start.

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Arts & Life
6:12 am
Sat February 25, 2012

In Tombstone, The O.K. Corral Still Looms Large

Credit Gillian Ferris Kohl
Tourists in Tombstone visit the O.K. Corral exhibits.

Originally published on Thu March 29, 2012 5:18 pm

In the late 1880s, a silver strike turned the dusty town of Tombstone, Ariz., into a cosmopolitan hot spot. There were casinos, oyster bars and shops filled with the latest Paris fashions.

But when the silver ran out, Tombstone almost died. Only one thing has kept it alive for the past century: the 1881 shootout at the O.K. Corral, re-enacted daily.

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Middle East
6:11 am
Sat February 25, 2012

In Egypt, Christian-Muslim Tension Is On The Rise

Credit Khalil Hamra / AP
A Coptic Christian man holds a cross made of flowers during a clash between Christians and Muslims in Cairo in November. Relations are becoming more strained between the two communities, and there has been periodic violence.

Originally published on Thu March 29, 2012 5:18 pm

Blackened rubble is all that is left of Abskharon Suleiman's appliance store in the northern Egyptian village of Sharbat.

Suleiman is a Coptic Christian, and his upstairs apartment, as well as his children's homes and shops, were gutted and looted in an attack last month by young Muslim men.

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Middle East
6:11 am
Sat February 25, 2012

Clinton Steps Up Calls For A Halt To Violence In Syria

Credit EPA /Landov
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a press conference at a conference on Syria in Tunis, Tunisia, on Friday. The participants were united in their calls for a ceasefire and for Syrian President Bashar Assad to allow humanitarian aid into his country.

Originally published on Thu March 29, 2012 5:18 pm

Syrians are looking to the world in their hour of need and "we cannot let them down," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday at an international conference on Syria held in Tunisia.

The dozens of countries represented at the conference, Clinton said, are united in their demands: Syrian President Bashar Assad must allow much-needed aid to his people and silence his guns or face more isolation and pressure.

But debate continues over what other steps countries in the region could take.

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Arts & Life
6:10 am
Sat February 25, 2012

Athena's Library, The Quirky Pillar Of Providence

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 11:02 am

With a bit of reverence, librarians carefully wind an antique library clock near the circulation desk in a temple of learning called the Providence Athenaeum.

This is one of the oldest libraries in the United States, a 19th-century library with the soul of a 21st-century rave party. In fact, the Rhode Island institution has been called a national model for civic engagement.

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Education
6:10 am
Sat February 25, 2012

Saving Kansas City Schools Means Rescuing A City

Credit Tom Bullock / NPR
Kansas City public schools have lost accreditation. The city is struggling with how to move forward, especially since education impacts many aspects of the area's development.

Originally published on Thu March 29, 2012 5:18 pm

The entire public school system in Kansas City, Mo., has flunked.

The state board of education revoked its accreditation on Jan. 1. Public schools met just three of the 14 standards set by the board for basic proficiency. They received failing grades for attendance, graduation rates, plus math and reading and writing scores.

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Presidential Race
6:09 am
Sat February 25, 2012

On Romney's Michigan Tour, A Change Of Pace

Credit Gerald Herbert / AP
Mitt Romney greets patrons at a restaurant called The Mitt in Mount Clemens, Mich., on Friday. The candidate hasn't done as much handshaking lately, given the size of the recent primary states.

Originally published on Thu March 29, 2012 5:18 pm

Mitt Romney is on a bus tour across Michigan, hoping to win the votes of the state where he grew up. With primary day on Tuesday, Romney seems to have closed the gap in polls with Rick Santorum.

This trip has the feel of those early days campaigning back in New Hampshire, before any votes were actually cast: the long bus rides, the snowy landscape, even the impromptu restaurant drop-ins.

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A Blog Supreme
4:00 am
Sat February 25, 2012

Shannon Powell: New Orleans Rhythm, Straight From The Source

Credit Clayton Call / Redferns
Shannon Powell performs with the Palm Court Jazz Band at the 2010 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Originally published on Thu March 29, 2012 5:18 pm

It is said of Shannon Powell that he's part of New Orleans' musical DNA — that he knows things only local drummers know.

Powell, 49, is the A-list drummer in town. He's played with Dr. John, Harry Connick Jr., Nicholas Payton, R&B guitarist Earl King and Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.

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Music Interviews
7:46 pm
Fri February 24, 2012

Robert Glasper: A Unified Field Theory For Black Music

Credit Mike Schreiber
Robert Glasper leads his band through experiments in jazz, hip-hop, R&B and rock on his new album, Black Radio.

Originally published on Sat February 25, 2012 6:31 pm

When some of the biggest names in R&B and hip-hop are clamoring to be on a jazz record, you know you're dealing with a special kind of jazz musician.

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The Two-Way
6:46 pm
Fri February 24, 2012

Gadhafi's Compound, Slowly Being Erased From History

Credit Marco Longari / AFP/Getty Images
Libyans attend the Friday market the gardens inside the Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli, on Oct. 28, 2011.

"I don't know why the traffic is like this," he said. "It's Friday just before prayers; where are all these people going?"

My friend Emad and I had been driving around the perimeter of Bab al-Azizia, Gadhafi's notorious compound just outside downtown Tripoli. It was here that NATO concentrated many of its bombing runs, as did President Reagan in the 1980s. Now the outer walls are a crumbling mess, covered with anti-Gadhafi graffiti.

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Around the Nation
6:01 pm
Fri February 24, 2012

N.J.: NYPD Crossed The Line In Monitoring Muslims

Credit Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Mohamed El filali, of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, gathers with Muslim students and community leaders in Newark on Friday to address the monitoring of New Jersey Muslims by the NYPD.

Originally published on Fri February 24, 2012 8:37 pm

Ever since Sept. 11, the New York Police Department has been aggressively gathering intelligence to help prevent another terrorist attack.

Now, those tactics are provoking new controversy in New Jersey after The Associated Press published a confidential, 60-page NYPD report from 2007 containing detailed information on dozens of mosques and Muslim-owned businesses in nearby Newark.

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The Message Machine
5:57 pm
Fri February 24, 2012

2012 Political TV: Ads, Lies And Videotape

Credit Restore Our Future
An image from a superPAC ad attacking Newt Gingrich, whose campaign called on TV stations to pull the ad off the air.
All Tech Considered
5:19 pm
Fri February 24, 2012

Google's Goggles: Is The Future Right Before Our Eyes?

Credit AFP / AFP/Getty Images
What would the world look like seen through Google's eyes?

Like flying cars and time travel, eye glasses with computing power have long been sci-fi fantasy, relegated to Terminator movies and the like. Now it appears that Google may be a few months from selling a version of their own.

Google glasses — which may be released as a "beta" product — could put smartphone capabilities such as GPS maps, weather, time, Web streaming and more inches from your eyeball.

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NPR Story
5:13 pm
Fri February 24, 2012

One Of Last Movie Theater Organs Pipes On

Seattle has one of the country's few working movie theater organs. Jim Riggs plays the theater's Wurlitzer organ while silent movies are screened. Recently he performed during a screening of 1927's Wings, the only silent film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The Two-Way
5:10 pm
Fri February 24, 2012

Syrian Official: Army Is Protecting Syrian People From Armed Groups

Credit Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images
Zouheir Jabbour says many of the videos and images coming out of Syria are a fabrication. Here, a badly injured man lies in a bed at a makeshift clinic in the Syrian city of Idlib on Friday.

The charge d'affaires of the Syrian Embassy in Washington says all the reports coming out of Syria are "absolutely wrong."

Zouheir Jabbour told All Things Considered's Melissa Block that even the reports issued by the United Nations and the Arab League are wrong.

"In the time of computers, you can fabricate whatever you like and go to Al Jazeera and go to Al Arabiya and you can see all that fabrication," Jabbour said.

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The Two-Way
4:53 pm
Fri February 24, 2012

Monsanto Agrees To Pay Up $93 Million In Agent Orange Settlement

We are getting more details about that preliminary agreement to settle an "Agent Orange" related class-action lawsuit filed against the Monsanto Company. We reported yesterday that Monsanto agreed to settle a case over pollution claims made on behalf of current and former residents of the small town of Nitro, West Virginia.

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The Salt
4:42 pm
Fri February 24, 2012

Menu Math: When Counting Fast Food Calories Requires A Calculator

Credit Ed Ou / AP
Calorie counts like the one on this McDonald's drive-thru in New York are intended to help people make healthier choices. But researchers say they're often too confusing.

It's a simple enough idea: Know how many calories are in those fast food meals, and you'll make a better choice between them.

But when students at the Columbia University School of Nursing tried to nail down the calories on 70 menus at 12 eateries in New York's Harlem neighborhood, they found it pretty much impossible, even with a calculator.

One big problem: Many items are listed with a calorie range, but with no clues as to how those ranges are determined. For example:

  • A bucket of chicken was 2,200 to 5,860 calories.

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It's All Politics
4:36 pm
Fri February 24, 2012

Fred Who? He's Republican, He's Gay, And He's Competing For Michigan Delegates

Originally published on Fri February 24, 2012 6:36 pm

Middle East
4:25 pm
Fri February 24, 2012

Syrian Official Says Media Coverage Is Manipulated

Melissa Block talks to Zouheir Jabbour, Chief of Mission of the Syrian Embassy in Washington, DC, about the call for a ceasefire in Homs and the allegations of atrocities by the Syrian regime.

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