Mark Memmott

Credit Doby Photography / NPR

Mark Memmott is one of the hosts of NPR's "The Two-Way" news blog.

"The Two-Way," which Memmott helped to launched when he came to NPR in 2009, focuses on breaking news, analysis, and the most compelling stories being reported by NPR News and other news media.

Before joining NPR, Memmott worked for nearly 25 years as a reporter and editor at USA Today. He focused on a range of coverage from politics, foreign affairs, economics, and the media. He's reported from places across the Unites States and the world, including half a dozen trips to Afghanistan in 2002-2003.

During his time at USA Today, Memmott, helped launch and lead three USAToday.com news blogs: "On Deadline;" "The Oval;" and "On Politics," the site's 2008 presidential campaign blog.

Pages

The Two-Way
7:55 am
Mon March 5, 2012

Limbaugh Loses Seventh Advertiser Over Comments About Law Student

Credit Ron Edmonds / AP
Rush Limbaugh.

ProFlowers on Sunday became the seventh advertiser to pull adds from conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh's nationally syndicated program in the wake of his charge last week that a Georgetown University law student is a "slut" and a "prostitute" because she believes insurers should cover the cost of women's contraception services.

Read more
The Two-Way
7:30 am
Mon March 5, 2012

Toddler's Death Brings Toll From Latest Tornadoes To 39

Credit Scott Olson / Getty Images
In Henryville, Ind., on Sunday, Janet Clark stood outside what remains of her home, which was destroyed in Friday's tornado.
  • Erica Peterson reporting on 'Morning Edition'

There's more sad news from the stretch of five states across the Midwest and South that were slammed by tornadoes on Friday.

Read more
The Two-Way
12:45 pm
Fri March 2, 2012

Student Is Outraged By Rush Limbaugh Calling Her A 'Slut' And 'Prostitute'

Credit Alex Wong / Getty Images
Sandra Fluke, a third-year law student at Georgetown University, during her House testimony about contraceptives and insurance coverage.

Originally published on Fri March 2, 2012 3:04 pm

Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University law student who has become a "poster child" for Democrats since Republicans wouldn't let her testify at a House hearing about President Obama's policy on contraception, said today she was stunned and outraged Wednesday when conservative radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh called her a "slut" and "prostitute" on his nationally syndicated show.

Read more
The Two-Way
10:25 am
Fri March 2, 2012

California Woman Awarded $168 Million In Workplace Harassment Case

Credit Christophe Ena / AP
The scales of justice tipped toward the plaintiff in this case.

A California woman's nearly $168 million award from a jury is "believed to be the largest for a single victim of workplace harassment in U.S. history," the Los Angeles Times reports.

Read more
The Two-Way
9:35 am
Fri March 2, 2012

Taliban Claims It Killed More Than 20 Rival Militants In Pakistan

Among the reports of more deadly violence in Pakistan today — about 70 people were killed in three incidents, DAWN reports — is word that about 20 of the deaths were the result of one militant group attacking another.

Read more
The Two-Way
8:35 am
Fri March 2, 2012

Red Cross Aid Convoy Arrives In Devastated Syrian City

After weeks of shelling and sniper fire from Syrian Army forces, the people who remain in the Baba Amr district of the city of Homs may finally get some aid from the outside world today.

Read more
The Two-Way
7:50 am
Fri March 2, 2012

Ohio School Reopens, Coach Who Chased Shooter Says 'I'm Not A Hero'

Credit Tony Dejak / AP
Chardon High School assistant football coach Frank Hall.
The Two-Way
7:25 am
Fri March 2, 2012

Tornado Trauma: Five Died On One Short Street; More Storms Due Today

Five of the estimated 13 deaths from the tornadoes that pounded Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee on Wednesday happened on one "short avenue in a tight-knit neighborhood" of Harrisburg, Ill., the Los Angeles Times writes today.

Brady Street was pummeled. "There are no words to describe this," Dena McDonald, whose mother was killed there, tells the Times. The newspaper describes the aftermath this way:

Read more
The Two-Way
1:35 pm
Thu March 1, 2012

Russia, China Join Call For Syria To Let U.N. Human Rights Official Visit

In what Israel's Haaretz.com is referring to as a "rare move" by longtime supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, Russia and China today joined other members of the U.N. Security Council in calling on Syria to let U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos see what's happening inside that nation.

Syria so far has not allowed Amos to visit.

Read more
The Two-Way
12:20 pm
Thu March 1, 2012

Senate Says No To Challenge Of Obama's Birth Control Policy

Originally published on Thu March 1, 2012 12:21 pm

By a 51-48 vote, the Senate just set aside an effort to reverse the Obama administration's policy requiring most employers to provide health insurance plans that cover the cost of women's contraception methods.

Read more
The Two-Way
11:25 am
Thu March 1, 2012

Detained Americans On Their Way Out Of Egypt

Seven American democracy advocates who had been prevented for weeks from leaving Egypt and were accused of being there illegally are now on their way out of the country, NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Cairo.

"They are walking through security in the VIP terminal at the Cairo Airport," she just said in an email to our Newscast desk.

Read more
The Two-Way
9:40 am
Thu March 1, 2012

Andrew Breitbart, Controversial Web Provocateur, Has Died

Credit Andrew Burton / Getty Images
Andrew Breitbart last June.

Andrew Breitbart, who cultivated controversy with his BigGovernment website and was a conservative thorn in the sides of many liberals, has died, his newssite's editor-in-chief, Joel Pollak, just said he can confirm. He emailed that word to The Two-Way moments ago.

In a post on BigGovernment, it's reported that "Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles." He would turn 43 this year.

Read more
The Two-Way
9:00 am
Thu March 1, 2012

Anti-Assad Fighters Said To Be Retreating From Beseiged Syrian District

Credit Gianluigi Guercia / AFP/Getty Images
Syrian mourners on Wednesday carried the body of a man who was killed in fighting near Homs.

There are reports from several news outlets that fighters who have been battling the Syrian Army in the beseiged Baba Amr district of Homs are retreating from that area.

Read more
The Two-Way
8:38 am
Thu March 1, 2012

Jobless Claims Ticked Down Again, Consumer Spending Edged Up

There were 2,000 fewer first-time claims for unemployment last week than in the week before, the Employment and Training Administration reports.

It says there were 351,000 such filings.

Read more
The Two-Way
8:10 am
Thu March 1, 2012

Death Toll From Midwest, Southern Storms Put At 13

Credit Scott Olson / Getty Images
Vehicles and other possessions lie scattered in Harrisburg, Ill.

A fourth death in Tennessee appears to have brought the toll from severe storms that swept through parts of the Midwest and South on Wednesday to at least 13.

Chrissy Keuper of WUOT-FM in at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville has told our Newscast Desk about the fourth fatality in the Volunteer State.

Read more
The Two-Way
7:30 am
Thu March 1, 2012

Two More Americans Killed In Afghanistan

Credit AFP/Getty Images
Feb. 23: Afghan demonstrators burn a U.S. flag during a protest in Afghanistan's Helmand province.
  • NPR's Tom Bowman, on 'Morning Edition'

Two more American military personnel were killed in Southern Afghanistan today when, officials believe, an Afghan civilian grabbed a weapon from an Afghan soldier and opened fire, NPR's Quil Lawrence reports from Kabul. At least one other attacker may also have been involved.

Quil adds that "we don't know yet whether this attack is linked to the Quran burnings, which set off so much violence — including the killing of four U.S. servicemen in the week that followed."

Read more
The Two-Way
5:35 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

Priest Was Wrong To Deny Communion To Lesbian, Archdiocese Says

Credit Saeed Khan / AFP/Getty Images

There's been lots of talk on the Web and the news channels today about The Washington Post's front page account of what happened when Barbara Johnson went to Communion on Saturday during the funeral mass for her mother in Gaithersburg, Md.

The priest, Rev. Marcel Guarnizo said he would not give her the sacrament because she is a sinner.

Johnson is a lesbian.

Read more
The Two-Way
5:00 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

VIDEO: Amazingly Close Up View Of A Woodpecker

The Two-Way
1:36 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

Davy Jones Of The Monkees Has Died

Credit Keystone Features / Getty Images
Davy Jones back in the day (September 1968).

Davy Jones, who thrilled many a young girl's heart back in the '60s as a member of the Monkees, has died.

TMZ broke the news. It reports being told by the medical examiner's office in Martin County, Fla., of the 66-year-old singer's death. The English-born Jones apparently lived in that part of Florida.

Read more

Pages