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Business
4:00 am
Fri January 20, 2012

The Last Word In Business

Renee Montagne has the Last Word in business.

Election 2012
4:00 am
Fri January 20, 2012

Santorum Struggles To Finding His Footing In S.C.

On the campaign trail, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum often discusses his opposition to abortion rights and gay marriage. That message served him well in Iowa with its large contingent of evangelical voters. Christian conservatives are also dominant in South Carolina, which votes Saturday. Santorum hopes to repeat his Iowa performance, but he's been struggling to keep pace in polls.

Election 2012
4:00 am
Fri January 20, 2012

Republican SuperPAC Ads Target GOP Rivals

GOP presidential campaigns and superPACs have been spending millions of dollars on TV and radio advertising ahead of Saturday's South Carolina primary. While the negative superPAC ads air, the candidates are delivering a more positive message.

Election 2012
4:00 am
Fri January 20, 2012

Gingrich Begins Debate Denying He Sought Open Marriage

Newt Gingrich's swift rise has been fueled by one thing above all — his forceful performances in the debates. And Thursday night, Gingrich was dominant from the start when he got the first question. It was about an explosive television interview with his ex-wife Marianne.

Movies
4:00 am
Fri January 20, 2012

'Red Tails' Fought Racism And World War II Foes

It took George Lucas more than two decades to bring the movie Red Tails to the screen. It was all the way back in the late '80s that the man behind Star Wars and Indiana Jones fell under the spell of another story of adventure, this one with real-life heroes — the African-American fighter pilots of World War II.

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Election 2012
4:00 am
Fri January 20, 2012

ABC Airs Interview With Gingrich's Ex-Wife Marianne

Originally published on Fri January 20, 2012 7:54 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

As Mara just mentioned, the debate last night opened with a question about a claim made by Gingrich's ex-wife. Well, Marianne Gingrich gave her exclusive interview to ABC's "Nightline," putting the candidate's personal life in the spotlight once again. NPR's Tamara Keith has more.

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: The interview was incredibly hyped, in part because Marianne Gingrich has been silent so far on her ex-husband's presidential candidacy. This was her first television interview since their 1999 divorce.

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Politics
4:00 am
Fri January 20, 2012

As 'Citizens United' Turns 2, SuperPACs Draw Protests

Credit Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Dozens of televisions display a political advertisement with the image of GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich at a store in Urbandale, Iowa, on Dec. 27. Republican candidates and their superPACs have spent millions on television and radio ads.

Saturday is South Carolina's Republican presidential primary. It's also the second anniversary of the Supreme Court's famous Citizens United decision.

That's the case that allows corporations to explicitly support or attack specific candidates. The day will be marked with attack ads — and protests.

The Republican presidential race has covered just three states so far. And superPACs linked to candidates Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul have spent a total of $20 million. They're feeding voters a heavy diet of negativity.

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It's All Politics
12:40 am
Fri January 20, 2012

Gingrich, Santorum Shine, Romney Doesn't At Last Debate Before S.C. Primary

Credit David Goldman / AP
Republican presidential candidates (from left) Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul participate in the GOP presidential candidate debate at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday.

The last Republican presidential debate before Saturday's South Carolina primary was expected to be lively. It didn't disappoint.

It was clear, even before the four remaining candidates met on the stage in Charleston, SC, that at least three of them would face some fairly high-stakes moments that could change the course of the contest. The question going into the debate was would they be able to master those moments?

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Monkey See
12:01 am
Fri January 20, 2012

Stephen Colbert Wants You To Know: That's Definitely Not His SuperPAC

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 11:06 am

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert is running for president. He's parodying the process — including, now, superPACS — in the same way he has parodied cable news. He's getting plenty of attention, but to really look into his political practical joke, I needed to go upstairs and find Peter Overby, NPR's man on campaign finance. I warned him it would seem like a dumb question, but I needed his help. What, exactly, is a superPAC?

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Africa
12:01 am
Fri January 20, 2012

For Moroccan Activists, The King's Reforms Fall Short

Credit Azzouz Boukallouch / AP
Morocco's King Mohammed VI introduced reforms after protests began last February. But activists say the measures didn't go far enough and they are still taking to the streets. Here, the king is shown in his palace in Rabat last June 17.

When a pro-democracy movement took to the streets of Morocco last February, King Mohammed VI, who's been on the throne for more than decade, responded swiftly.

Within weeks, the king proposed a new constitution and snap elections. The Moroccan example of reforms without violence was hailed by some as a model.

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Your Money
12:01 am
Fri January 20, 2012

How Property Taxes Climb, Even If Home Value Drops

Credit Brian Bull / WCPN
Shaker Heights in Cleveland has some of the highest property tax rates in the state (roughly $3,700 per $100,000 of assessed home value).

Millions of homeowners are finding out that their property taxes are either holding steady or climbing, even as their house may be worth much less. There may not be much they can do about it.

In Ohio, Cuyahoga County's fiscal officer, Wade Steen, has been taking many calls from unhappy homeowners. He says they most often live in a community where voters passed a recent levy. That's a property tax measure that boosts funding for things such as schools and libraries.

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Shots - Health Blog
12:01 am
Fri January 20, 2012

Dissolvable Tobacco Products Draw FDA Scrutiny

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a gathered a group of scientists and other experts to study flavored melt-in-your-mouth tobacco products.

The panel, meeting this week, will hear from two camps of stop-smoking advocates: those who worry that dissolvables are a gateway to smoking and others who say they help people kick the habit.

Gregory Conley, a 24-year-old law student at Rutgers University, pops a dissolvable during class or while he's studying.

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Planet Money
12:01 am
Fri January 20, 2012

Katy Perry's Perfect Game

If you listen to commercial radio, this is not news: Katy Perry had a huge year. She went No.1 five times. She was the most played artist on the radio. But the record industry is so weird, it's hard to know whether this kind of success translates into huge amounts of money.

So we asked.

I walked over to Katy Perry's record label. She's on Capital, which is under EMI. I met Greg Thompson, executive vice president of marketing and promotion at EMI.

"Did you guys end up in the black?" I asked.

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Asia
12:01 am
Fri January 20, 2012

Not-So-Happy New Year: Rail Website Woes In China

In China during the Lunar New Year holiday, more than 200 million people will travel home in the world's largest annual migration. Every year, Chinese tell horror stories about trying to get train tickets.

The season the New Year falls on Monday, and it was supposed to be different: For the first time, China's rail ministry created a website to reserve seats.

Things didn't work out as planned.

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Movie Reviews
12:01 am
Fri January 20, 2012

Carol Channing, Still Delightfully 'Larger Than Life'

Credit Peter James Zielinski / Entertainment One
Carol Channing — who turns 91 on Jan. 31 — appears in the 2010 Gypsy of the Year celebration, an annual salute to Broadway's hardest-working chorus performers.

Whenever the late New York Times caricaturist Al Hirschfeld sketched Carol Channing — whether picturing her as an indomitable Dolly Levi, swathed in feathers and sequins, or as carbon-crazed Lorelei Lee, eyes sparkling like the diamonds that were that splendid creature's best friends — he always made her appear a creature composed entirely of lipstick, mascara and hairspray.

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Movie Reviews
11:57 pm
Thu January 19, 2012

'Coriolanus': A People's Hero Turns On His Own

Ralph Fiennes showed up for a frenzied cameo near the end of Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, and her hand-held, adrenaline-charged approach clearly inspired his film of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, which he both acts and directs the bloody hell out of.

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StoryCorps
10:00 pm
Thu January 19, 2012

Using A New Voice To Enjoy Life After Cancer

Credit StoryCorps
Rene Foreman visited StoryCorps in Los Angeles with her daughter Michelle.

Originally published on Fri January 20, 2012 12:01 am

In 1999, Rene Foreman was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. She underwent surgery that saved her life; it also took her voice box. To speak, Rene now uses an electrolarynx — a small device that she holds against her throat to produce her voice, electronically.

Discussing how having a synthesized voice has changed her life, Rene, 70, told her daughter Michelle that the electrolarynx helps her to enjoy each day, even if it also makes her stand out in some ways.

Of those times, Michelle asks, "How do you feel when people turn around and look at you?"

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The Record
8:00 pm
Thu January 19, 2012

Megaupload Shut Down By The FBI

Credit Courtesy of Megaupload.

Originally published on Fri January 20, 2012 4:37 pm

Click the link above to listen to Laura Sydell's conversation with Morning Edition's David Greene about the Megaupload indictment and the attack on the Department of Justice's website by the group Anonymous.

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Opinion
6:26 pm
Thu January 19, 2012

For Two City Slickers, Survival Of The Savviest

Rhoda Janzen is the author of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress.

Recently my friend Peggy and I decided to make a jaunt from my house in Southwestern Michigan, across the state to Detroit. We took her car. At day's end we pulled into my remote driveway on Lake Allegan. It was then I realized that didn't have my keys. They were in fact, hanging in the little key box in my laundry room.

Oh no.

I had no way of getting into my home.

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The Two-Way
6:16 pm
Thu January 19, 2012

Feds Shut Down File-Sharing Site; Hackers Attack Justice Department Site

Originally published on Thu January 19, 2012 7:36 pm

Earlier today, the Justice Department announced it had charged seven people on counts of copyright infringement and conspiracy in what's being called one the biggest criminal copyright cases.

NPR's Carrie Johnson filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"The Justice Department accused Megaupload, a popular file sharing site, with helping millions of people gain access to pirated movies, music and TV programs, often before the items are released for sale.

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