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Students to Pay Penalties in File-Sharing Case

Four college students agree to pay up to $17,500 each to settle lawsuits brought against each of them by the Recording Industry Association of America. They allegedly ran campus file-sharing networks that promoted unauthorized song-swapping. NPR's Laura Sydell reports.

The Big Stories Behind Small Seeds: This Man Wants To Save Them All

The modern farm-to-table movement has renewed interest in heirloom fruits and vegetables. But long before the trend, John Coykendall has been on a mission to preserve rare heirloom seeds and document their heritage. "We lost so much over time. That's why it's so important now to save what's left," says Coykendall, the master gardener at the luxurious mountain retreat Blackberry Farm in his native Tennessee. Coykendall has more than 500 varieties gathered from small farmers and backyard gardeners around the world. The bulk of his collection comes from the American South — Appalachia and here in rural Washington Parish, La., near the Mississippi state line. "It's the unique sense of place that you find here," he says. "They've retained their sense of integrity, character, way of life, farming ways." On a recent visit, he stopped by the Circle T Feed and Seed in Franklinton, La. "For me it's especially the seed," he says, walking straight to the back of the store to an aisle of cardboard bins filled with vegetable seeds. Dressed in denim overalls, Coykendall rummages through the seed sacks looking for varieties you can only find here — like the Louisiana purple pod bean. "It makes a pretty bean — beautiful display growing," he says. "The pods are solid purple but when you cook these, once the steam hits them, they turn green again." Coykendall is like a walking, talking seed catalogue. For nearly half a century, he's been collecting seeds and the stories of the people who grow them. Coykendall keeps detailed journals of all of his seed expeditions, something he calls "memory banking." "A little bit of ancestral history," he explains. "Where you were living? Where did this seed come from? Did it come from your grandmother or grandfather? Was it brought here from somewhere else? How do you grow it? How was it cooked?" He's a trained artist as well as a seed preservationist, so the journal entries include lovely drawings of the seeds, their plants and the surrounding landscape. "They're little artifacts, each one of them," says Louisiana producer Christina Melton. She's helping Coykendall organize his journals into a book. There are more than a hundred of them. "It's something that that is a real resource for people in trying to re-establish people's ties to the food that they eat," she says. Melton made a public television documentary about Coykendall called Deeply Rooted. It's been circulating for private screenings at Slow Food USA chapters around the country. (You can view the full film here for free through Nov. 25.) On this trip to Washington parish, the subject is peas as Coykendall visits local farmer Mike Lang. "Like we say, John, we ain't never met a pea we didn't like," Lang says. Lang lives, and plants, on what used to be his grandfather's land, named Graybuck Holler. Sitting around a table in the sun porch, the men sift through Lang's collection of field peas, many of them varieties that Coykendall has found and restored to the community. "We're saving it now," Lang says, showing the seeds he keeps stored in plastic bins in his freezer. "It's in our court now, Coykendall says. "Something happens to it — now it's our fault." One pea they are saving for posterity is the "Unknown Pea of Washington Parish" — a prized variety that had been passed down for generations, but then went missing from local farms for decades. "The Unknown Pea goes way back in time," says Coykendall. "Probably late 1800s, early 1900s. And they called it the Unknown Pea because nobody knew where it came from." Coykendall says farmers used to plant the Unknown Pea right in their cornfields — the stalks serving as stakes for the climbing pea shoots. Without even looking at his notes, he can tell you this kind of history about hundreds of seeds. "It's kinda like having grandchildren," he says. "You've got to remember their names." "And their birthdays," adds Lang. The birthdays are when certain varieties gained popularity on U.S. farms. But Coykendall says most of the plants have deeper roots. "The genetic homeland of the field pea is the Niger river basin in Africa." Says Coykendall. "So they came over in association with the slave trade." Knowing the history of our food, he says, is part of knowing who we are. "And if somebody doesn't record it, put it down, it's going to be lost for all time," he warns. "That goes for the seeds. This is the living part of it. Living heritage. Our agricultural heritage." Coykendall says the work has grown even more important as industrial farming practices threaten the old farming ways, and the bio-diversity of crops. Some of his collection is available to growers through the Seed Savers Exchange — a non-profit group that preserves heirloom crops, and stores endangered seeds in an underground freezer vault in Iowa. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: All this farm-to-table stuff in restaurants these days has renewed interest in heirloom fruits and vegetables. But long before the most recent enthusiasm, there's bee

Mediterranean Migration Crisis Represents Scope Of Smuggling Business

NPR's Robert Siegel speaks with Leonard Doyle of the International Organization for Migration, which estimates that more than 21,000 migrants have made it to Europe since the beginning of the year.

ENCORE: Coronavirus Victims: Pastor, Mentor And Mother Robbin Hardy

Robbin Hardy was a pastor and the founder of the Girls Enrichment Mentorship Services in Baton Rouge, La. She died from COVID-19 at the age 56 in April of 2020.

Mexicans Weigh In On Obama's Visit

As President Obama visits Mexico, what do Mexicans think about him? And how do they see Mexico's relationship with the United States?

New Documentary Explores History Of Jews and Basketball

Long before Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal dominated men’s professional basketball, Jewish basketball teams were all the rage in the early 20th century. A new documentary called “First Basket” takes a look at this piece of basketball history, and how it shaped the start of the NBA. Host Michel Martin speaks with the film's director David Vyorst.

Suspect Dead After Shooting At GOP Baseball Practice In Virginia

A gunman opened fire Wednesday morning as members of Congress were playing baseball in Alexandria, Va. At least five victims were shot, including Republican Congressman Steve Scalise.

Mexico Votes In First National Referendum Today, But The Question At Stake Is Murky

Mexicans go to the polls today to vote in a referendum on whether former presidents can be investigated and tried for corruption.

Trump Tests Midterm Message On Immigration, MS-13 'Animals' During Tenn. Rally

Updated at 9:27 a.m. ET President Trump tried out his own midterm playbook Tuesday at a campaign rally in Tennessee by ramping up his rhetoric on illegal immigration and gang-related crimes. The president's main goal with the Nashville event was to campaign for GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who finds herself in a close Senate contest with former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen that could be pivotal in deciding control of the Senate. "I've never heard of this guy — who is he?" Trump chided Bredesen. "He's an absolute tool of Chuck Schumer, and of course the MS-13 lover Nancy Pelosi." It was a new moniker for the House minority leader, and Trump doubled down on controversial comments he'd made earlier this month about the drug gang. "What was the name?" the president prodded the crowd, who yelled back "Animals!" "They're not human beings," Trump added, saying that they use "glaring loopholes in our immigration laws" in order "to infiltrate our country" and rape, murder and "cut people up into little pieces." Trump did touch briefly on other issues that Republicans want to be a focus of their midterm messaging, such as the GOP's tax cuts and the economy, but it was immigration that was the overarching focus of his speech. Meanwhile, congressional leaders have been working to avoid a fight on immigration as moderates have been pushing for action on the Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Trump defended his hardline immigration rhetoric, central to his 2016 campaign, as an asset for the midterms. "And you can say what you want, but I think border security and security in general is a great issue for the Republican Party," Trump said. "I think it's a great issue, not a bad issue." The White House has repeatedly highlighted victims of gang violence as evidence that the U.S. needs more stringent immigration laws, including rolling back some forms of legal immigration. Critics, however, say the administration is simply exploiting such tragedies for political gain and to disparage Hispanic immigrants. It's a campaign tactic that GOP gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie tried in last year's Virginia elections — and lost handily. But Trump ramped up his original rhetoric on immigration and MS-13 on Thursday night, nonetheless, even returning to some of his tried and true favorites from the presidential campaign trail. On his prized southern U.S. border wall — which he's struggled to get congressional funding for — Trump promised the crowd that "in the end Mexico's gonna pay for the wall," implying it would be done via renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). "They're gonna pay for the wall, and they're going to enjoy it," the president went on to claim. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, however, had a very different response later via Twitter. Trump carried Tennessee in 2016 by 26 points, so his efforts on behalf of Blackburn can greatly buoy her in the state against Bredesen, a popular former two-term governor who was easily re-elected last in 2006. Trump was largely on message Tuesday night, not even veering off to talk about the news of the day — ABC's cancellation of Roseanne after its star Roseanne Barr went on a racist Twitter rant. Earlier this year, the president had called the comedian, whose character was a Trump supporter, to congratulate her on its ratings dominance. Instead, Trump did try to tie "Phil Whatever-The-Hell-His-Name-Is," — who's tried to campaign on bipartisanship and pragmatism — to the national Democratic Party as a whole. "If Bredesen were ever to get elected, he would do whatever Chuck and Nancy" want, Trump said. "They don't want the wall, they want open borders, they're more interested in taking care of criminals than they are of taking care of you — Bredesen donated a lot of money to the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton." "Crooked Hillary!" Trump added gleefully, as the crowd predictably returned to the routine campaign trail chant of "Lock her up! Lock her up!" The full-throated endorsement of Blackburn was important for her, as she struggled early on to unify some of the state GOP behind her in her quest to succeed retiring Sen. Bob Corker, who briefly flirted with reversing his decision not to seek re-election. However, the sometimes Trump critic would have likely lost to Blackburn in the primary. After saying he wouldn't run, in a CNN interview Corker made glowing remarks about Bredesen but only muted, general comments about Blackburn without using her name. Blackburn has long been a vocal Trump backer, and in brief remarks to the crowd she promised she'd be a stalwart ally for the president if elected. "Tennessee needs a senator who is going to support President Donald Trump and I am going to be there to stand with President Donald Trump to take your Tennessee values to Washington, D.C.," Blackburn pledged. Corker has tried to mend fences with Trump after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman questioned the president's fi

News Brief: Sen. Flake Won't Seek Re-Election, Court Rules For Unauthorized Immigrant's Abortion

Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona said he will not seek re-election in a speech lambasting President Trump. Also, a court has ruled in favor of an unauthorized immigrant's right to an abortion.

Retailers Hope for Post-Christmas Surge in Sales

As the holiday shopping period enters its final days, stores have slashed their prices and are encouraging customers to spend gift cards right away in hopes of boosting their sales figures. Discount chains are reporting disappointing sales, but upscale stores are doing well. Hear NPR's Renee Montagne.

New In Paperback Aug. 6-12

Fiction and nonfiction releases from Adam Johnson, Ronald Kessler and Peter D. Ward.

Crime Statistics In California

Fifteen years ago, California voters passed the strictest three strikes sentencing law in the nation. It doubled the penalties for second felonies that were serious or violent. The so-called third strike carries a mandatory prison sentence of 25 years to life. Take a look at the crimes committed as of June 2009 that put people behind bars.

HBCUs Erasing Student Debt With Federal Funds Brings Hope For Students And Schools

Carrington Wigham thought it was a normal Monday. She was wrapping up her junior year at Florida A&M University, a historically Black university in Tallahassee, Fla., and had signed on to her online student portal to register for classes for her last year of college — a process that she said on a normal day is stressful because she had to look into her remaining tuition balance. On a normal day, she would see she owed the school $8,000. She'd call her mom and they would try to figure out how to pay, so Wigham could graduate on time. But this Monday was not a normal day. Wigham was one of 7,946 students at FAMU who had their tuition balance erased thanks to funds from the CARES Act that many historically Black colleges and universities have put directly toward student debts. Her remaining balance on this very not normal Monday was $0. Direct investment in students helps the school, too The CARES Act, passed in March 2020, gave $1 billion to HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions specifically. More than 20 of the roughly 100 HBCUs around the country have been using these funds to help their students pay off debts owed to the school. "We started looking early on what we might do to support our students," Larry Robinson, president of Florida A&M University, told NPR. At FAMU, more than 60% of students receive financial aid through federal Pell Grants and the average household income is less than $50,000 a year, Robinson said. Supporting students financially during the pandemic was a "natural" step. Walter Kimbrough, president of Dillard University, an HBCU in New Orleans, said the process of HBCUs applying the funds directly to students' bills also benefits the university. "What you end up having happen is the students will drop out because they can't pay the debt that they owe, then the school doesn't have that money that they budgeted for and that student might not come back, which lowers the graduation rate," Kimbrough told NPR. "So for us, it makes a lot of sense because you can eliminate that debt so that the student can continue with their education and graduate," he said. "It's a win for everybody in this situation." Low graduation rates, Kimbrough said, are a constant point of criticism toward HBCUs and the low rates are often directly tied to students not being able to afford their education. "It is one of those challenges that money actually can fix it," he said. Student debt impacts Black students differently Data shows Black students take longer to pay off their debt than white students; they are also more likely to default on their loans. Additionally, Black graduates, on average, make less money than their white peers, even with a college degree. Canceling student debt, many advocates argue, is one of the fastest ways to close the Black-white wealth gap. But Kimbrough also points out that for some HBCU students, having their tuition balances forgiven by their school isn't necessarily related to the burden Black students face in paying off their student debt after graduation. He says the students who need the immediate financial help sometimes aren't able to get loans from a bank in the first place, given their current financial situation. "These folks can't get their money, period," he said, "For these students, when there is a gap and they can't pay, they just don't finish school." Wigham says she's noticed on campus when a student doesn't return the next semester. "When I notice students who don't usually return from the semester, they're like, 'Oh, I wasn't able to register for classes because I had outstanding balance.' That is just so heartbreaking, but that is reality," she said. "That narrative is way too familiar for students across this country." Students can look ahead with more hope HBCU leaders like Robinson said more than anything, though, they hope helping students with their tuition balances shows how much HBCUs prioritize their students — and shows their students what it means to give back and care for people who are facing challenging times. "We expect our students to be excellent while they're here and do great things when they leave, but that's not enough. ... They really have to leave here with an appreciation for those have haven't been as fortunate, those who are still struggling," Robinson said. And for students like Wigham, it also provides a feeling that's hard to find when you're young and saddled with debt: hope. "I am just so, so, so, so hopeful the future will be bright," Wigham said. "Sometimes people feel like giving up, people feel discouraged but when little miracles like this happen, it's reassurance, for sure."

'The Host' Rewrites the Monster-Movie Rules

The average monster movie spends most of its time introducing us to characters we hope will die sooner rather than later. The Host, by Korean director Bong Joon-ho, inverts this formula with amazing success. The movie pits a 40-foot mutant salamander against a squabbling family that must stick together to save itself. It's a film that moves effortlessly from scenes of grief to slapstick comedy, and back again. Rick Kleffel reports for member station KUSP. DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Debbie Elliott. "The Host," a new film from South Korea, features a hungry mutant amphibian and a quirky family. Its opening in the U.S. this weekend has been eagerly awaited by science fiction fans like Rick Kleffel. He thinks "The Host" could redefine an old genre. RICK KLEFFEL: It turns out all this time they've been making monster movies backwards. (Soundbite of movie, "The Host") KLEFFEL: When we go to the theater to see a creature feature, we're going to see the monster. Yet most of these films don't offer us more than a glimpse of one until well into the show, and even by the end, we're lucky to see more than a moment of special effects. The average monster movie spends most of its time introducing us to characters we hope will die sooner rather than later. Just so we can get a glimpse of what we paid to see. Suspense is all well and good, and movies like "Jaws" and "Alien" use it effectively, but it only go so far. Scary noises and monster vision camera angles that don't show what you're supposed to be scared of can serve to dilute fear rather than build it. We want the pay-off. "The Host" by Korean director Bong Joon-ho, inverts this formula with amazing success. An American scientist orders his Korean subordinate to dump toxic chemicals down a drain that will flush them into the local environment. Then, six years later, and just 12 minutes into the movie, we're in bright daylight in an open field at the edge of the Han River. (Soundbite of movie, "The Host") Park Gang-Du, a dozy noodle seller, joins a crowd staring at something big hanging from the bridge. Is it construction equipment? No. It's a 40-foot mutant salamander that drops into the water and clumsily climbs up on the shore and emerges to snap up any panicked passerby it can grab. We see this happening not just from the ground, but from the perspective of riders on an elevated train with a startling surreal clarity. A huge monster is on the loose. (Soundbite of movie, "The Host") KLEFFEL: In the expertly choreographed confusion that follows, the monster grabs Gang-Du's daughter, Hyun-Seo, and finds itself pitted against the entire Park family - Gang-Du, his sister, a champion archer; his brother, an unemployed college grad slacker; and Hyun-Seo's crabby grandfather. They're rounded up because American doctors warned that the monster may be the host to a deadly virus. While they're in the hospital, Hyun-Seo calls them from her cell phone and tells them she's alive in the monster's lair. It's up to her squabbling, dysfunctional family to escape from captivity so they can find and save her. (Soundbite of music) KLEFFEL: Think of "The Host" as "The Royal Tenenbaums vs. Godzilla" and you get the idea. Bong Joon-ho grabs your attention with a rocking monster, then follows through with a witty movie that offers comedy, horror and charisma as the Park family tracks it down. The film moves effortlessly from scenes of grief to slapstick comedy and makes sure you know the monster has just as much personality as the family. You're involved on a visceral level with the monster and on a genuine emotional level with the family. We're not dozing off waiting for three generations of the Park family to die. Instead we see them full of life, matched by a monster that has an appetite for life. Structuring "The Host" backwards, with the monster appearing first and then driving the character development that follows, proves to be an amazing bit of forward thinking. For NPR News, I'm Rick Kleffel.

Stuck Inside? Here's Your TV Streaming Strategy

There are a lot of new television shows coming at you right now, thanks in part to the flood of new TV streaming services. The choices are exciting, and with the extra TV time social distancing is giving us, we might actually have time to catch up on some of the many offerings. Comic Jim Gaffigan summed it up best in a funny bit from his Netflix special — yes, there's a touch of irony here — called Cinco. "Sometimes I open my Netflix and (say) ... 'I'm not going to make a dent here,'" he cracks, pretending to put off friends asking if he's seen Game of Thrones by admitting, "I'm a little behind ... Give me a week, my wife had a dumb baby." The numbers are a little intimidating. In a recent study, the TV ratings service Nielsen found 60 percent of Americans subscribe to at least one streaming service (although the Pew Research Center also says roughly 25 percent of Americans lack broadband Internet access at home). And when Nielsen counted all the shows available, across all kinds of programs and platforms, they found more than 646,000 unique titles were available to watch last year. There are more shows coming, as deep-pocketed media and technology companies develop new services, creating something of a streaming war. Apple TV+ and Disney+ debuted in November 2019, while HBO Max, NBC's Peacock and short-form streamer Quibi will be available to consumers by May 2020. But fear not. We've got some tips to help you pick out the streaming services that are actually worth your time. 1. Accept that the options will feel a little overwhelming, at least at first. Beibei Li, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University, studies the connection between human decisions and disruptive technology. She says the kinds of decisions people make in selecting streaming services are the types of choices we are the worst at making. One reason, she says: they involve "high dimensional" features – in other words, lots of detailed factors that are tough to sort and compare, like programming lineups, brand name, price, creative quality and more. Also, people often don't know what exactly they want to watch on TV. "This is like getting a gym membership," she says, laughing. "You thought you're going to go, but then (it turns out) you just like the idea you have the membership ... So you thought you (wanted to) binge watch all these TV shows, you get a Netflix membership and then you realize you didn't watch much." I'm pleading the fifth when it comes to questions about my gym membership. But that does lead to the next tip ... 2. Track your viewing and create a TV diary. Spend a week writing down what you actually watch on TV — not what you remember watching later or what you want people to think you watch — and you may be surprised by the results. I predict you'll learn a couple of things. First, if you're strict with yourself, you may realize there are a lot fewer programs and outlets on your "must see" list than expected. Second, it will be obvious what your ideal lineup of streaming services should include. Caissie St. Onge, a TV writer and producer who served as showrunner for the now-cancelled E! talk show Busy Tonight, says she doesn't like the idea of paying for lots of TV content she might not watch. "I do have that guilty kind of feeling where ... I shouldn't be spending even a few dollars on this thing that I'm not really looking in on," she adds. "I don't have a great deal of time to watch television myself. So I do rely a lot on what I hear, word of mouth [from friends]. And that does help me make my selections a little bit." 3. Choose a few base services with a wide array of content, then add smaller platforms to suit your needs. I've grouped streaming services into a few different categories; an effective TV strategy will likely involve signing up for a mix of them. Megaproviders: Streamers that want to provide all or most of the programs you watch. These are services with lots of material, across lots of genres, including lots of original and repurposed/library content. The list includes Netflix, Hulu and the soon-to-debut HBO Max. Add-on services: These platforms can't encompass all of most people's TV habits, but they still have lots of great original and library material. I'd include Apple TV+, Disney+, PBS Passport and CBS All Access here. Quirky faves: These streaming services are focused on very specific tastes, like horror-focused Shudder or anglophile platforms Acorn and Britbox. Free stuff: Some streamers don't have subscriptions fees, like Facebook Watch, Tubi, Pluto TV, the non-premium version of YouTube and IMDB TV. But be warned: many of these platforms do have advertisements, so the piper gets paid one way or another. A good strategy would include a few megaproviders as a base, with a rotating mix of add ons services and a quirky fave or two along with some free stuff to round everything out. 4. Don't be afraid to experiment and tweak your lineup of streaming services. Quite a few streaming

Weekly Wrap: "Pick A Side."

NPR reporter Kirk Siegler and Southern California Public Radio reporter Priska Neely join Sam to talk through the week that was: Charlottesville and the President's reaction to it, the reaction to that by corporations and everyone else, the so-called "alt left", Steve Bannon's late-breaking departure from the White House — plus a back-to-school scene, Queens of the Stone Age, a call to a listener in Colorado, and the best things that happened to listeners all week. Email the show at samsanders@npr.org and follow Sam on Twitter @samsanders.

Rising Cost of Oil And The Global Recession

What caused the current global recession? Untenable debt levels around the world and risky and under-regulated financial systems are surely to blame. But the rising price of oil in the months and years leading up the crisis has gotten little consideration so far. That's surprising since two major recessions in recent decades, in 1973 and 1979, have been widely attributed (at least partially) to preceding shocks in oil prices. Now, a surprise finding by the Internal Energy Agency, which is expected to be published tomorrow, reportedly attributes more of the recent crisis on rising oil prices than previously understood. According to the Financial Times, which got a draft summary of the report, the IEA concludes higher oil prices made oil-importing countries more vulnerable to the financial crisis. Read More >> According to the story: The IEA concludes "the run-up in oil prices from 2003 to mid-2008 played "an important, albeit secondary" role in the global economic downturn that took hold last year. The agency points out that it had warned in 2006 that the effect of high oil prices from the preceding four years had not yet worked their way through the world economy, and that further increases in prices would "pose a significant threat to the world economy, by causing a worsening of current account imbalances and by triggering abrupt exchange rate realignments, a rise in interest rates and a slump in house and other asset prices". With crude futures topping $80 Monday, the fact that an authority like the IEA is attributing more of the recent recession on oil prices is all the more intriguing.

Quest for Treatments Chief Topic at SARS Conference

As efforts build to find an effective treatment for severe acute respiratory syndrome, doctors gather at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C. Researchers familiar with the struggle to combat HIV and AIDS are lending their expertise to the SARS battle. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and NPR's Joanne Silberner.

Rocking with Southern Culture on the Skids

Southern Culture on the Skids (known to fans as SCOTS) brings the trailer park into your living room -- unless your living room is already in a trailer park. NPR's John Ydstie speaks with founding guitarist Rick Miller, bass player and singer Mary Huff and percussionist Dave Hartman about the group's latest CD, Mojo Box. Miller formed SCOTS in Chapel Hill, N.C., in 1985, where he was attending college. The band played straightforward roots rock that blended surf guitar and southern boogie, reflecting the guitarist's personal history. Miller's youth was divided between North Carolina and Southern California. SCOTS began to build a regional following and the band soon gained national attention. But Miller, Huff and Hartman have remained true to their local origins. Mojo Box, released in early 2004, is the band's eighth full-length CD. Earlier efforts include Laquered Up and Liquored Down, Plastic Seat Sweat and Too Much Pork for One Fork.

U.S. Auto Sales Plummet: Where Is The Bottom?

The auto industry continues to take a beating as U.S. sales plummeted 18 percent last year. In December alone, sales dropped 36 percent. Two of the Detroit Three automakers were particularly hard-hit. General Motors Corp. sold 3 million vehicles, its lowest level in half a century, while Chrysler sold 1.5 million, down 30 percent. The only other companies that saw vehicle sales fall more than 30 percent last year were Jaguar Land Rover and Isuzu, and both sell mostly trucks. U.S. truck sales overall were down 25 percent to 6.5 million; car sales fell 10 percent to 6.7 million. Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Corp., which announced Tuesday that it's suspending production at its 12 plants in Japan for 11 days in February and March, saw its U.S. sales drop 15 percent to 2.2 million vehicles last year. Overall, U.S. sales fell to 13 million vehicles, compared with 16 million in 2007. Sales may fall further this year: Consulting firm IHS Global Insight forecasts U.S. auto sales will dip to 10.3 million in 2009 as the economy continues to falter. From NPR staff and wire reports

Senate Passes Overhaul Of Food Safety System

The Senate has approved new food safety rules that consumer advocates are calling historic. Among other things, the bill would allow the Food and Drug Administration to order the recall of contaminated food, something it doesn't have the power to do now.

Mexico Arrests Accused Mexican Drug Lord

NPR's Jason Beaubien talks to Melissa Block about today's arrest of one of Mexico's top drug lords. The alleged Tijuana drug kingpin known as "El Teo" reportedly was arrested on the Baja California peninsula. His arrest marks the third triumph this month for the Mexican president in his war on drug cartels.

States Target Hybrids As Gas Tax Revenues Ebb

Americans are buying less gasoline than they did just a few years back. While many people believe this is a good thing, it does present a problem: Most road construction is paid for with fuel taxes. Less gas tax revenue means less money for roads. One reason gas purchases are down is that more people are driving more efficient cars, such as hybrid and electric vehicles. Now states are looking for solutions, including charging hybrids extra fees or imposing fees based on miles driven. Sara Busch of Havertown, Pa., owns a 2011 Chevrolet Volt. "I'm really a stickler about staying below the speed limit — not to avoid a ticket but to maintain efficiency," she says. Recently, Busch says, she was achieving 94 miles to the gallon. That means she rarely stops at a gas station — good news for her, but not for the federal Highway Trust Fund. For each gallon of gas sold in the U.S., 18.3 cents goes into the fund. Most of that is dedicated to road construction. This system worked well for about five decades — until the most recent recession, when people started driving less. In 2008, the fund ran out of money. Polly Trottenberg, undersecretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Transportation, reminded a congressional subcommittee in July that Congress has been allocating money in recent years to keep the fund solvent. "By the end of 2014, the Highway Trust Fund will be nearly depleted again and Congress will have transferred, over the course of the recent years, $54 billion in general funds to keep the program afloat," Trottenberg testified. Some members of Congress have talked about raising the federal gas tax, but there's been no movement on that. On top of the federal gas tax, each state levies its own tax, mostly to pay for roads. These range from 8 cents a gallon in Alaska to about 50 cents a gallon in New York. State lawmakers have been searching for ways to make up the lost revenue. "We've found more than 240 bills that have been introduced in 39 states and DC," says Jaime Rall, senior policy specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Rall says 22 states have enacted legislation. She says Vermont, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia are moving away from a cents-per-gallon tax and toward a percent-based gas tax. That could raise more money and help gas tax collections keep up with inflation. Oregon is planning a program that could eventually replace that state's gas tax with a "road usage charge." The state will begin in 2015 with 5,000 volunteer participants who may pay 1.5 cents for every mile they drive. While details haven't been worked out yet, the state agency plans to make several options available for measuring miles traveled. That may include using "infotainment" systems in newer cars — these often include navigation and smartphone integration along with the stereo system, says the program's manager, Jim Whitty with the Oregon Department of Transportation. If auto manufacturers include a way to track miles traveled, Whitty says, that would make a tax like this a lot easier to administer and simpler for users. "They wouldn't have to add anything to the car," Whitty says. "All they have to say, is say, 'I want to use my system and agree to the report of those miles to the tax processor.' " That makes sense to Toyota Prius owner Len Shatz of Cheltenham, Pa. "Let's say I drive 10 or 15 miles a day," says Shatz. "I shouldn't have to pay as much as someone who uses the roads a lot more." A few states have considered something Washington state and Virginia have already done: charge an extra fee for electric and hybrid cars to make up for lost gas tax revenue. Prius owner Pamela Harvey of Glenside, Pa., does not like that and argues it's fair for gas guzzlers to foot more of the country's road construction bill. "We should be the ones who get the bonus, for driving hybrids and moving this country forward," she says. As federal and state policymakers look for ways to resolve the problem of declining gas tax revenue, here's one big problem they are likely to face: The gas tax has been relatively invisible for decades now — it was just part of the cost of a gallon of gas. But whatever comes next could be much more visible, such as a tax bill at the end of the year for how many miles you traveled. That could make implementing a solution to the current problem more difficult. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: Hybrids and other fuel efficient cars are causing a problem for state and federal highway agencies. Money for road construction comes primarily from gas taxes. But thanks in part to cars that are more fuel frugal, Americans are buying less gasoline. Gas sales peaked in 2007 and are expected to continue to decline. So, policymakers are looking for new ways to raise money to build and repair roads. More from NPR's Jeff Brady. JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: One reason gas purchases are down, people like Sara Busch of Havertown, Pennsylvania, are buying hybrid and electric cars. SARA BUSCH: Its push-button

Obama Sings Again: Belts A Bit Of 'Sweet Home Chicago'

Since we could all use a brief break from the bad news: It might not be quite as surprising as when he sang a few lines from Let's Stay Together, but President Obama last night belted out a bit of the blues. During an In Performance at the White House concert featuring B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck and other blues greats, the president sang a bit of Sweet Home Chicago. As The Associated Press reports: " 'Come on, baby don't you want to go?' the president sang out twice, handing off the mic to B.B. King momentarily, and then taking it back to tack on 'sweet home Chicago' at the end." An edited version of the show is due on PBS-TV next Monday night. In the meantime, the AP has some highlights on this video. Update at 10:45 a.m. ET. President's Crooning Disappears From AP's Video, But It's Still Out There: Our apologies — the video we put up earlier has been "removed by the user" and replaced by a version that doesn't show the president singing. But, there are many other clips showing up on YouTube that still have him included — including this official version from the White House.

Police Officer Fired for Smoking

Wayne Jeffrey was fired from his job as a police officer for smoking tobacco off-duty. Not only that, but the action was based on an anonymous letter. It sounds ridiculous, but Jeffrey, like other Massachusetts police officers and firefighters hired since 1988, signed a pledge not to smoke. NPR's Chris Arnold reports.

Despite Pledge, Compromise Eludes Congress, Bush

President Bush's veto Tuesday evening of the Iraq war-spending bill tied to a deadline for withdrawal, and Democratic leaders' insistence on an end to the war, shows bipartisanship remains elusive. Democrats promised voters after last fall's elections that there would be better cooperation across the aisle. But there's little evidence that bipartisanship ever lived in Congress. Soon after the elections, congressional leaders and President Bush were on the spin. "The American people want their leaders in Washington to set aside partisan differences, conduct ourselves in a civil matter," Mr. Bush said. "Democrats pledge civility and bipartisanship in Congress," added House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. Added Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada: "We will need to work with our friends on the Republican side of the aisle to reach some consensus." And this from House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio: "Republicans and Democrats can disagree without being disagreeable." Tuesday's veto emphasizes that things are lot different several months later. "A veto means denying our troops the resources and the strategy that they need. After more than four years of a failed policy it's time for Iraq to take responsibility for its own future," Reid said Tuesday at a bill-signing ceremony. Republicans struck back. Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia called the Democrats' actions political theater. "The Democrats are marking the 85th day they have held the emergency funding captive by holding an enrollment ceremony for a bill they know will be vetoed," said Cantor, chief deputy whip for the Republicans. Both parties say their legislative work on the Iraq war is of the most solemn importance. The problem, according to critics, is that they wield solemnity like a weapon rather than as a reason to come together and cooperate. Earlier this week several Washington think-tanks got together to hold a kind of summit on bipartisanship. The Brookings Institution, American Enterprise Institute, and the University of Pennsylvania gathered scholars to dissect this thorny problem. Thomas Mann of Brookings said the result depends on basic respect and civility. "You have to be able to accept the legitimacy of the motives of those with whom you disagree, and you have to be willing to engage seriously in their arguments," Mann said, adding that there's little of that on Capitol Hill. Boehner, who attended the conference, admitted that the wrangling over Iraq funding has proved to be a partisan stalemate. "There is no debate. There is no conversation. We are talking past each other because we're talking about two completely different outcomes," he said. STEVE INSKEEP, host: These are not the best days for bipartisanship in Congress, even though lawmakers and analysts alike say voters expect more cooperation. NPR's Andrea Seabrook examines why it's not happening. ANDREA SEABROOK: To say bipartisanship is dead would assume it was alive at some point, and right now there is little evidence it ever lived in Congress. Sure, there were a lot of big words and gestures at the beginning of the year, after historic elections in which voters chose to split their government between two opposing parties. President GEORGE W. BUSH: The American people want their leaders in Washington to set aside partisan differences, conduct ourselves in an ethical manner. Representative NANCY PELOSI (Democrat, California; Speaker of the House): Democrats pledge civility and bipartisanship. Senator HARRY REID (Democrat, Nevada; Senate Majority Leader): ...Put 60 votes on the board, that means we will need to work with our friends on the Republican side of the aisle. Representative JOHN BOEHNER (Republican, Ohio): Republicans and Democrats can disagree without being disagreeable. We're confident that we can work together. SEABROOK: President Bush, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid and House Republican leader John Boehner. Maybe you remember when we first played this for you in January. Now, in May, things sound and look a lot different. Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid filed into a gilded ceremonial office in the Capitol yesterday to officially sign the war-funding bill President Bush would later veto. Sen. REID: A veto means denying our troops the resources and the strategy that they need. After more than four years of failed policy it's time for Iraq to take the responsibility for its own future. SEABROOK: This ritual bill signing is called an enrollment ceremony. It's reserved for bills the party in power wants to call attention to. Across the street from the Capitol, Republicans struck back. Chief Deputy Whip Eric Cantor called the Democrats' actions political theater. Representative ERIC CANTOR (Republican, Virginia; Chief Deputy Whip): The Democrats are marking the 85th day they have held the emergency troop funding captive by hosting an enrollment ceremony for a bill that they know will be vetoed. SEAB

New DOJ Filing: TikTok's Owner Is 'A Mouthpiece' Of Chinese Communist Party

Updated 2:56 p.m. ET Saturday The Trump administration is accusing the chief executive of ByteDance, the owner of video-sharing app TikTok, of being "a mouthpiece" for the Chinese Communist Party and alleging that the tech company has a close relationship with Beijing authorities that endangers the security of Americans. The Justice Department on Friday night filed the Trump administration's most thorough explanation of its push to ban TikTok in a legal filing in response to TikTok's lawsuit asking a federal judge to stop Trump's ban from taking effect on midnight Sunday. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols has scheduled a hearing for 9:30 a.m. Sunday to decide whether the Trump administration's ban will take effect. In the submission to the court, Justice Department lawyers say ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming has made public statements showing he is "committed to promoting" the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party. TikTok has for months distanced itself from its corporate owner, ByteDance, asserting that data on the more than 100 million U.S. users is stored primarily in Virginia, with backup in Singapore. But the Trump administration says it has evidence that some data is being transmitted to China, claiming such information can be accessed by Chinese authorities to track Americans and build dossiers that could be deployed for blackmail. Furthermore, Justice Department officials say ByteDance is beholden to Chinese laws that may require the company to assist in surveillance and intelligence operations at the direction of the Chinese government. TikTok strenuously denies it ever has or will in the future cooperate with any demands from China's authoritarian regime. But the Trump administration said Friday that a recent study showed that 37% of the IP addresses TikTok's Android users connect to are based in China. The Trump administration, however, did not offer any direct evidence that TikTok's U.S. data has ever been assessed by Beijing officials. The Justice Department filed all of the documents under seal earlier Friday, an unusual move for a government response to a motion for a preliminary injunction. Several hours later, Justice Department lawyers refiled the documents with a number of sections redacted pertaining to how exactly TikTok allegedly transmits Americans' data to China. In a response filed on Saturday, lawyers for TikTok suggest the app is being unfairly singled out, pointing to how theoretical concerns about whether China's government can gain access to American user data can be made about a number of U.S. tech companies that have a presence in the country. "The same is true for many American tech companies, who have substantial engineering resources in China and, in some cases, data sharing agreements with Chinese companies," TikTok lawyer John Hall wrote. In another document newly public on Friday that the Trump administration submitted as an attachment to its primary filing, the Commerce Department detailed its concerns with TikTok in an intelligence and security assessment. Trump officials point to a number of instances that allegedly show that ByteDance has a cozy relationship with Beijing authorities. ByteDance, according to the document, employs 130 Chinese Communist Party members at ByteDance's Beijing office. In June 2018, according to the Commerce Department memo, ByteDance employees organized a party in which they faced a Chinese Communist Party flag, "raised their right hand, clenched their fists, and reiterated their guarantee as a party member and vowed to never betray the party." Trump officials allege that although ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming is not a member of the Chinese Communist Party, he issued a public apology to the government in April 2018 over one of ByteDance's apps that appeared to have irked authorities. "Our product took the wrong path, and content appeared that was incommensurate with socialist core values," Yiming said then. Reports of Communist Party officials being embedded at ByteDance are not accurate, TikTok said in its Saturday submission to the court. Hall, a lawyer for TikTok, said what is really driving Trump's push to ban the app is a desire to score political points. "The reason why the Commerce Department relies on its hollow anecdotes is that national security was pretext for banning TikTok, and that the real reason was the President's wish to use such a U.S. ban, or what he could extract in return for lifting it, as political campaign fodder," Hall wrote. The suggestion that U.S. user data goes to Chinese soil has also been strongly denied in recent court filings by the app. According to TikTok, the data on Americans is "sharded" or broken up into unidentifiable bits and stored across many different servers. Roland Cloutier, TikTok's global chief security officer, said in a sworn statement to the court that sensitive information like names, birthdays, home addresses phone numbers and contact lists are encrypted. "It is impossible to

Letters: Anger and Gloating

We received a record number of letters about our interview with a Clinton supporter who now plans to vote for McCain. She can't be for real, many said. Also, listeners wrote in with their gas-related gloats.

Missy Mazzoli: The Sound Of Indie-Classical

Sometimes, the most fertile ground for young classical composers is not concert halls, but rock clubs. Missy Mazzoli, the composer, keyboardist, bandleader and curator from Brooklyn, N.Y., is at the center of a group of emergent musicians who are classically trained, but who've also had experience working in rock bands. Mazzoli plays keyboards (note that I didn't say "piano" -- her keyboards tend to be electronic) and leads an all-female quintet called Victoire. Violin, clarinet, bass and two electronic keyboards add up to a sound that exists somewhere between chamber music and the vaguely defined, mostly instrumental "post-rock" scene. Some of her works include taped sounds of voices, machinery and the like, and her approach to tonality is refreshingly strange. Mazzoli directs the annual MATA Festival in New York, devoted to composers even younger than she is. She also claims to possess some softball skills, though whenever I've asked her to play with the WNYC co-ed team, she always seems to have a lame excuse like, "I can't, I'm in Fiji." Mazzoli does play out a fair bit with the band, but also finds time to write orchestral works -- one of her compositions, These Worlds in Us, was just performed by the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. The self-described "delinquent tap dancer and insomniac composer" recently brought her group Victoire to our New York studio for this live performance.

What Do You Think Are The Greatest Albums Made By Women?

Around a year ago, a group of women connected within the NPR universe started having a conversation about music. We had a plan to make a list, one that would challenge decades-old assumptions about what and who matters most in popular music. Our idea was a simple one: Put women at the center, instead of just including a few somewhere around number seven or 32. And don't label this list as an alternative to the standard ones topped (inevitably) by Dylan, The Beatles, Nirvana and Biggie; challenge readers to think of this list as a new canon, standing at the center of popular music history instead of in some pink anteroom. Turning the Tables: The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women hit the Internet July 24, 2017 and caused an instant sensation, including plenty of arguments. Many rejoiced at seeing Joni Mitchell next to Lauryn Hill next to Nina Simone in the Top Ten, and artists as diverse as Anita Baker, The Slits and the Spice Girls claiming space further down. Others quickly assembled their own lists, throwing light on what we'd merely acknowledged, including heavy metal, classical music and country. These alternative canons made sense to us, and we expanded upon them with the Shocking Omissions series, in which writers argued for the inclusion of artists we'd left off. We want to keep this process going, and the next step involves you. We're going to finish the first season of Turning the Tables with a list that mirrors our original, only created by our readers. To participate, fill out the poll on this page by the end of Monday, April 2 with your picks for the greatest albums made by women since 1964, and tell us why they belong on this list. We welcome voters from across the gender spectrum. We'll publish the results April 9 — and we'll also announce our new season of Turning the Tables then. Our new canon is still blossoming. This was the point: not only to show that popular music history does not have to be a story of great men and a few women who lived up to their standards, but that the contributions of women are dazzlingly various and ongoing, and that a feminist canon is an open one, constantly shifting to accommodate new perspectives. We hope you'll add yours. The conversation we've begun is never-ending. Our canon grows like a garden, not like a skyscraper. There's no ceiling on it.

Low Price of Beer in U.K. Vexes Anti-Alcohol Groups

Beer costs less than bottled water and soda in many British supermarkets. Anti-alcohol campaigners aren't happy about that. They are calling for the government to impose higher taxes on booze, and make it less easily available.

All Those 140-Character Twitter Messages Amount To Petabytes Of Data Every Year

Every day, Twitter users generate tons of data. According to the Technology Review Editors' Blog, all those 140-character messages "add up to 12 terabytes of data every day." "This wealth of data seems overwhelming but Twitter believes it contains a lot of insights that could be useful to it as a business," Erica Naone writes. So, what does the company do with all that information? According to the company's analytics lead, Kevin Weil, Twitter "tracks when users shift from posting infrequently to becoming regular participants, and looks for features that might have influenced the change." Read More Weil is responsible for "managing and mining big data at Twitter." At the Web 2.0 Expo in New York, he said "the company has also determined that users who access the service from mobile devices typically become much more engaged with the site," Naone reports. Twitter is also asking some more open-ended questions. Weil said the company is interested in what influences retweets (posts from one user that are reposted by another). And Twitter has discovered that it can make good guesses about the topics a user is interested in by looking at the users he follows that don't follow him back. Asking such specific questions of huge quantities of data is a common problem for successful Web companies. Weil explained that Twitter benefits from a variety of open-source software developed by companies such as Google, Yahoo, and Facebook. These tools are designed to deal with storing and processing data that's too voluminous to manage on even the largest single machine.

Italy's Top Court Upholds Berlusconi's Acquittal In 'Bunga Bunga' Case

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's acquittal in the "bunga bunga" case has been upheld by the Court of Cassation, the country's highest court. Berlusconi was convicted in 2013 on charges that he paid for sex with an underage prostitute and then abused his power to cover up the crime. But last year, an appeals court overturned the seven-year sentence against the controversial former Italian leader. On Tuesday, despite, prosecutors' appeals for a new trial, Italy's highest court upheld the acquittal. The Associated Press reports that the court deliberated for more than nine hours before releasing its decision late Tuesday local time. The court will release its reasoning within 90 days, the news agency reported. "It's a great success," defense attorney Michaela Andresano said, according to the AP. "The court accepted our arguments and rejected the prosecutors' appeal." Berlusconi has always denied the sex charges against him and attributed the case to leftist opponents. But as we have previously reported, he was also convicted of tax fraud in 2012 and, as a result, banned from public office and expelled from Italy's Senate. Last week, the former Italian leader completed community service for that offense. Reuters reports that Tuesday's decision gives Berlusconi a political boost. It adds that it comes as "the conservative leader is struggling to hold together his Forza Italia party and maintain a front-line role in Italian politics." The party has lost support since its leader was convicted in the tax fraud case.

USDA Terminates Deadly Cat Experiments, Plans To Adopt Out Remaining Animals

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Tuesday that it's putting an end to a controversial research program that led scientists to kill thousands of cats over decades. Since 1982 the USDA's Agricultural Research Services division had been conducting experiments that involved infecting cats with toxoplasmosis — a disease usually caused by eating undercooked contaminated meat — in order to study the foodborne illness. Once the cats were infected and the parasite harvested, the felines were put down. In a statement announcing the decision, the agency said "toxoplasmosis research has been redirected and the use of cats as part of any research protocol in any ARS laboratory has been discontinued and will not be reinstated." Additionally, the USDA said it is in the process of putting the 14 remaining uninfected cats up for adoption by agency employees. The experiments came under increasing scrutiny over the past year, and public outcry intensified over recent weeks in the wake of a report by the White Coat Waste Project that found the USDA's researchers also forced the lab cats to eat dog and cat meat obtained in overseas markets. The aim of that seemingly gruesome practice — dubbed "kitten cannibalism" by critics — was to understand how widespread the parasitic disease is in animals around the world, Justin Goodman, vice president of the White Coat Waste Project, a group that works to end government animal testing, told NPR. "We are elated that after a year of campaigning we have relegated the slaughter of kittens to the litter box of history," Goodman said. He said the organization obtained details about the agency's active protocols through a Freedom of Information Act request "that detailed how the USDA was breeding 100 kittens a year in a Maryland lab." "At eight weeks, [scientists] would feed them infected meat, harvest parasitic eggs from their feces to be used in other experiments, then kill them," Goodman said. He estimates more than 3,000 cats have been killed since the founding of the research program at a cost of about $22 million to taxpayers. "Kittens become immune after two weeks, and still the USDA was incinerating them," Goodman said. Kim Kaplan, a USDA spokeswoman, told NPR 239 cats were euthanized between 2013 to 2018, adding that the lab discontinued infecting cats in September. The nonprofit group's reporting brought widespread attention to the controversial program and resulted in bipartisan legislation to ban animal testing by the USDA. In May, Reps. Mike Bishop, R-Mich., and Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., introduced a bill called the "Kittens in Traumatic Testing Ends Now Act of 2018," also known as the KITTEN Act, to stop the USDA from using cats and kittens in experiments. That was followed in December by a Senate version of the bill, introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. "The USDA made the right decision today, and I applaud them for their willingness to change course," Merkley said in a statement. "It's a good day for our four-legged friends across America," he said, adding that it was past time the "archaic practice and horrific treatment" was stopped. Panetta responded to the announcement by saying, "I commend the USDA for their decision to end this type of testing on kittens. They listened to the people and responded appropriately to our concerns. This is how our institutions, our government, and our democracy should and must work." "With all the awful reports coming out, it was clear that Americans opposed USDA's cruel testing on kittens. This is a decisive victory against government animal abuse and wasteful spending," Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., another cosponsor of the House bill, said on Wednesday. Mast also thanked Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue "for his leadership in ensuring no more kittens are ever used in research and that the last cats remaining at USDA can be adopted." According to the USDA, its research has helped to cut the prevalence of the Toxoplasma gondii parasite by as much as 50 percent in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates more than 40 million Americans may be infected with the parasite. While the vast majority of those infected have no symptoms, it can be deadly for people with weak immune systems, such as children and HIV patients. The USDA said it is "continually assessing our research and priorities and aligning our resources to the problems of highest national priority." "Over the course of this research, [the Agricultural Research Service] worked to minimize reliance on cats," the USDA said. As recently as November, an independent panel advising the USDA ruled that the risk to human health was too great to allow infected cats to be placed for adoption. It is the same panel that recommended that cats that were never infected should be made available for adoption.

Sports: Hopefuls Battle For NFL Glory

The NFL playoffs are well under way. Eight teams are still standing, but two will be sent home on Saturday. Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine joins host Scott Simon to discuss the latest news in sports.

Battles Ease, Iraq PM Offers Amnesty for Some

Clashes between Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's supporters and U.S. forces continue to erupt in Baghdad and Najaf, but reportedly the battles have lessened in intensity. Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi extends an olive branch. Hear NPR's Scott Simon and NPR's Ivan Watson.

In Syria, Assyrian Christians Cling On After ISIS Onslaught

On a sky-blue Sunday morning in the little town of Tell Tamer in northeastern Syria, sunlight pours through olive trees, dappling the path to a church that has for almost a century been the center of an Assyrian Christian community. But inside the Church of Our Lady, the sound of sobbing mixes with the ancient Aramaic chants. Photographs of three people are on display at the front, propped up on white cloths embroidered with roses, next to silver crosses and golden bells; the mass is in their memory. A year ago, ISIS fighters staged an offensive from the nearby Abdelaziz mountain, pouring into a string of small villages along the Khabur River Valley. The hamlets were mainly populated by Christians from the ancient Assyrian ethnicity, which traces its roots in the Middle East back more than 6,000 years, and which is now Christian. "At 4 in the morning, we heard clashes," says Georgette Melki, speaking after the service. "Tak-tak-tak-tak-tak." After four years of Syria's civil war they were used to sporadic fighting. But as it got louder she got out of bed to see Islamic State fighters overrunning her tiny village of Tell Shamiran — "like ants," she says. Melki says the extremists destroyed the church, looted houses and captured about 300 people from several villages. The extremists separated their captives into men and women and drove for miles to the town of Shadadi, where they were held. Some prisoners were later moved to the Islamic State's Syrian stronghold of Raqqa. She says they were imprisoned but their treatment was not cruel. ISIS has raped, injured and killed thousands of people from the Yazidi religious minority and Shiite Muslims, whom it considers infidels. But they do not usually subject Christians to the same treatment. After months of negotiations between Assyrian clergy and representatives of the militants, most of those captured were released. No one will confirm the terms of the deal but several people close to the negotiations say ransoms were paid. But at least three people were killed, among them one of Melki's sons. She doesn't know why he was killed. "I don't know why they treated us like this," she says. "We didn't do anything. We were in our village, in our houses." The ISIS assault was the latest shock to a community which has struggled to cling to this verdant — if remote — area. Although Assyrians have lived for millennia in an area now divided between Turkey, Syria and Iraq, there were none in the Khabur River Valley a century ago. But after an Assyrian community was attacked in Iraq, they came here as refugees, resettled when Syria was under the French Mandate in the 1930s. According to research by former U.S. diplomat Alberto M. Fernandez in the 1990s, many of their children emigrated, meaning the villages remained tiny, with just a few hundred people in some of them. Miniature mud-built churches were only gradually replaced with cinderblock ones. In Tell Tamer, the largest settlement, the larger Church of Our Lady was built in the 1980s. It became these Assyrians' focal point, even as the Muslim — mainly Kurdish — population of the town grew and the Assyrians became a minority there. Still, hundreds of families remained. But the ISIS threat has brought the community to the brink of extinction, says priest Bekos Ishaya. With Kurdish forces helping the Assyrians, Islamic State fighters were pushed out of the string of villages along the river. They never entered Tell Tamer, which was better protected. But the experience, and subsequent attacks including a devastating bombing, drove hundreds to leave the area or the country, says Ishaya. "There were only 450 [Assyrian] families in Tell Tamer before the crisis," he says. "Now there are 100." But the grey-bearded priest, who remembers when the church that he lives behind was built, swears he will remain. He says God compared priests with light in the darkness. "The priest must be an example for the people, and he must be first in everything," he says. He adds that the people who left Syria "are not comfortable. I talk to them every day on the phone, our people. They are not happy." They will only be happy, he insists, if they return to their roots. There are also young men in uniform with weapons here. To protect their area, they have formed a militia, which is now part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance supported by the U.S. in its fight against ISIS. Their spokesman is Kino Gabriel: tall, broad-chested, 26 years old. He says the community decided to arm themselves when they looked to the Christians of Iraq, who have been brutally targeted but never formed organized armed groups. I ask how it felt the first time he put on a uniform. "You feel strong," he says, laughing. "It is l think something cultural that when you wear a uniform, take up arms, you feel stronger." Gabriel urges people not to leave these villages and tells people living abroad to come back and help rebuild. He believes people should return to their roo

Southern Baptists Split With Donald Trump On Refugee Resettlement

Southern Baptists are one of the most reliably Republican religious groups in the U.S. But in a week when the party's presumptive presidential nominee has expanded on his proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, the Southern Baptist Convention is taking a different approach. During the annual meeting of Southern Baptist churches in St. Louis, participants weighed in on a variety of hot-button issues, among them the controversy over refugee resettlement. Participants voted to approve a resolution urging Southern Baptist churches and families to welcome refugees, affirming "that refugees are people loved by God, made in His image, and that Christian love should be extended to them as special objects of God's mercy in a world that has displaced them from their homelands." The resolution also called on the government to "implement the strictest security measures possible" in screening refugees applying to enter the country. A History Of Welcoming Refugees It's not the first time conservative Christians have weighed in on the issue. Last November, the National Association of Evangelicals called on believers to welcome Syrian refugees. That came in the aftermath of the Paris attacks as many elected officials — mostly Republicans — called for a halt to immigration of those refugees. Matthew Soerens of the evangelical refugee resettlement group World Relief praised the move, noting that churchgoers of many religious denominations are eager to aid refugees, and are "strongly opposed to governmental efforts that would block their ability to be a part of this sort of ministry." Soerens says Donald Trump's proposal to bar immigration from countries with a "proven history of terrorism" would likely keep out Christians and other religious minorities as well. "Trump's proposal would close the doors of our country to persecuted individuals of all backgrounds from these countries, presumably, and local churches do not want to be a part of turning our backs on the persecuted church," Soerens wrote in an email to NPR. Affirming Religious Freedom For Muslims The question of religious freedom — and how it should apply to Muslims — was also part of the discussion at the convention. At one point, John Wofford, a pastor from Arkansas, stood up to ask why a Southern Baptist should support the right of Muslims living in the United States to build mosques when, as Wofford put it, "these people threaten our very way of existence as Christians and Americans?" Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission responded unequivocally: "Sometimes we have to deal with questions that are really complicated," Moore said. "This isn't one of those things." As the crowd applauded, Moore cautioned Southern Baptists that religious freedom has to be for everyone. "When you have a government that says we can decide whether or not a house of worship can be constructed based upon the theological beliefs of that house of worship," Moore said, "then there are going to be Southern Baptist churches in San Francisco and New York and throughout this country who are not going to be able to build." Orlando, LGBT Rights And Southern Baptists The convention also passed a resolution mourning the victims of this week's mass shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub, and calling on church members to pray, donate blood and offer other forms of support. Some critics noted, however, that the Orlando resolution made no mention of LGBT rights or the fact that many of the victims appear to have been targeted because of their sexuality. The constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention explicitly states that churches that "affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior" are not "in cooperation" with the organization as a whole, and the organization has repeatedly passed resolutions condemning homosexuality. This year, a new resolution reiterated the belief that marriage is "between one man and one woman." While the resolution didn't mention gay and lesbian victims, outgoing SBC President Ronnie Floyd said in an address to attendees that an "attack against gay Americans in Orlando is an attack against each one of us," adding that Christians should oppose violence and bigotry against "anyone in this world," according to minutes kept by Baptist Press. Calling For An End To The Display Of The Confederate Battle Flag Southern Baptists also weighed in on another emotional issue at the intersection of race, religion and violence. Almost exactly a year after the murder of nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., set off a debate over the Confederate battle flag, the Southern Baptist Convention approved a resolution calling on "our brothers and sisters in Christ to discontinue the display of the Confederate battle flag as a sign of solidarity with the whole Body of Christ, including our African-American brothers and sisters." That's notable for a church that has its roots in the history of

Bombs Kill Ten in Israel; Talks Delayed

Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and Hamas have both claimed responsibility for suicide bombings that left at least ten dead in the Israeli port of Ashdod. The attack led Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to cancel talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia. Hear NPR's John Ydstie and NPR's Julie McCarthy.

Iran May Follow Venezuela In Launching Its Own Cryptocurrency

Iran has announced its intent to establish a national cryptocurrency. In a tweet posted Wednesday, an Iranian official said that a test model for a "cloud-based digital currency" is being developed for submission to the Iranian banking system. The official, Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, heads Iran's Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. Jahromi made the announcement after a meeting with the state-owned Post Bank of Iran. It is not yet clear what role the currency will play in the Iranian banking system. Iran's central bank has hinted at regulating cryptocurrencies in the past, even suggesting the adoption of an "infrastructure" to integrate digital currencies into the country's financial system. But the central bank backpedaled on Wednesday just as news of the state-sponsored digital currency went public. In a statement reported by Iran Front Page news, the Central Bank of Iran highlighted the "highly unreliable and risky" nature of cryptocurrency markets. It warned that Iranians "may lose their financial assets" in a space marked by extreme volatility and "pyramid scheme"-like businesses. The announcement comes on the heels of Venezuela's oil-backed "petro" cryptocurrency launch earlier this week. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claims that the cryptocurrency has raised over $700 million for the cash-strapped country. But doubts remain over the currency's long-term viability, as Venezuela struggles to profit from the oil reserves that are supposed to back it. There are fears that the rise of state-backed cryptocurrencies could pose a challenge to international efforts to regulate financial transactions and impose sanctions. The countries most interested in the technology – Iran, Venezuela and Russia – are all targeted by U.S. sanctions. The Treasury Department has warned that U.S. citizens purchasing these currencies may be violating sanctions laws. And just last month, Treasury officials told Congress that rogue states and international criminal organizations are using virtual currencies "to launder their ill-gotten gains."

Goshute Tribal Leaders Indicted

Leaders of the Skull Valley Band of the Goshute Indians are indicted for bank fraud, theft and filing false tax returns. The tribe had tried to bring a nuclear waste storage facility to its Utah reservation against the wishes of many people in the state. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel and NPR's Howard Berkes.

After A 35-Year Run, NPR's Programming Chief Is Leaving

After almost 35 years at NPR, Ellen McDonnell, the network's executive editor for news programming, is stepping down. The network announced the news in a memo to staff on Thursday. "Ellen is as much a part of NPR's DNA as she is a presence in our daily lives," NPR's Chief Content Officer Kinsey Wilson wrote. "She has touched and transformed nearly every aspect of NPR News, her creativity and zeal surpassed only by her generosity of spirit. When you describe Ellen the words you hear over and over are transparent and authentic. She is the real deal." In her role, McDonnell was tasked with overseeing all of NPR's news programs, including the network's flagship news magazines Morning Edition and All Things Considered. McDonnell joined NPR in 1979 as a news writer. She then worked her way from overnight producer on Morning Edition to becoming the show's executive producer — a role she held from 1998 to 2007. McDonnell's exit closely follows the departure of Margaret Low Smith, who left her position as senior vice president for news in August to become president of The Atlantic's live events business. Wilson said that in light of those two high-level departures, "we will take a wide view of how best to match talent to the organization's needs." The news of McDonnell's retirement also comes just months after NPR welcomed a new CEO. On July 1, Jarl Mohn became the network's fifth permanent or acting CEO since January 2009. McDonnell, Wilson said, will likely remain at NPR until the end of the year.

Think You Know The Real Christopher Columbus?

Columbus Day is a national holiday, celebrated with parades and songs. While most Americans know that Columbus sailed the ocean blue, many of the facts surrounding the voyage remain misunderstood. Guest host Tony Cox speaks with historian William Fowler to set the record straight on some of the popular myths surrounding Christopher Columbus and his voyage.

Car Guiding Cleveland Race Sent Wrong Way

Some competitors racing in Cleveland must have thought it was the toughest ten kilometers ever. The race was supposed to be a little over 6 miles. A car was supposed to lead the way along the proper route. But race officials say at one point, a police officer sent the car the wrong way. Between 200 and 300 racers followed after, adding an extra 2.7 miles to their route. Some of the results may have to be changed.

Diving Back To The Bottom Of The Mariana Trench

Robert Siegel talks to retired Navy Captain Don Walsh about the attempt by movie director James Cameron to take a submersible capsule to the bottom of the Mariana Trench — the deepest spot on Earth. Walsh says the National Geographic and James Cameron expedition will be a combination of science and adventure, because Cameron is a storyteller and dedicated amateur explorer. Walsh made a 1960 dive to the same trench.

Feds Testing New Wildfire Strategy

Thousands of firefighters are at work on wildfires burning in a dozen states, including a massive blaze at Montana's Glacier National Park. But in some lightly populated areas of the West, officials are deciding to let some fires burn. NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports.

Fresh Air Weekend: The Lonely Island, Kanye West And Carl Hiaasen

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: Samberg, Taccone And Schaffer: Three's Not A 'Lonely Island': As the brains behind the hip-hop parody group responsible for digital shorts like "D--- in a Box," Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer have produced some of the funniest Saturday Night Live material in recent memory. Here, they talk about comedy, Yo! MTV Raps and adolescence. On 'Yeezus,' Kanye West Sounds Strikingly Self-Aware: West has been busy in both the music and gossip worlds: He's just released a new album, titled Yeezus, and fathered a child. Rock critic Ken Tucker says West's constant blending of his public life and his music makes his new record all the more striking — and at times problematic. Florida-Grown Fiction: Hiaasen Satirizes The Sunshine State: Novelist and Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen writes with passion and purpose about the state he loves. His latest book, Bad Monkey, is an offbeat murder mystery set in Key West. You can listen to the original interviews here: Samberg, Taccone And Schaffer: Three's Not A 'Lonely Island' On 'Yeezus,' Kanye West Sounds Strikingly Self-Aware Florida-Grown Fiction: Hiaasen Satirizes The Sunshine State

From One Of Ted's Recommended

From one of Ted's recommended recordings, an ensemble of musicians from the Marlboro Music Festival performs the finale of the Mendelssohn Octet. (Sony Classical SMK 46251)

Korean Air Investigation Report

NPR's Mary Ann Akers reports on the completion of the report on the 1997 crash of a Korean Air Lines jumbo jet in Guam. The accident killed 228 people. The National Transportation Safety Board blames the pilot of the je t, but also says the Federal Aviation Administration shares some of the blame.

Coast Guard Says Cargo Ship Sank; Body Of 1 Crew Member Found

Updated 5:30 p.m. ET Extinguishing hope that the cargo ship that went missing near the Bahamas could have survived a Thursday encounter with Hurricane Joaquin, the Coast Guard announced Monday that the ship, El Faro, sank, according to the Associated Press. The Coast Guard also found an unidentified body of one crew member. Several "survival suits" were spotted floating in the water, one of which contained the body. In addition, an empty, heavily damaged lifeboat was found. Barry Young of Jacksonville, Fla., whose grand-nephew, Shawn Riviera, was a crew member on El Faro, said his family is tempering their hope that Riviera could be alive with the reality of the situation. He spoke with Jessica Palombo of WJCT, Jacksonville's NPR member station. "The Coast Guard did say that they are still seeing debris. They've found other survival suits, they called them gummy suits, so they're trying to find each and every one to make sure there's not a person in that suit who's alive, who they can rescue and take back to their families," Young said, adding that the Coast Guard is now adding vessels to the search. "It does give you hope, but to be honest with you, the reality of it, we don't see it as coming out any other way than tragic." U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor told the media that the search has shifted from finding the vessel to rescuing passengers who may still be alive. "We are still looking for survivors or any signs of life," he said. "The search for survivors continues." The ship, owned by Tote Maritime, set out from Jacksonville, Fla., on Sept. 29 laden with commercial goods and 33 crew members — 28 Americans and five from Poland. On Thursday, the ship lost power and communication and began to take on water as it passed an island in the southeastern Bahamas, about 10 miles from the center of the hurricane, according to the AP. Fedor says it appears that the crew was forced to abandon the sinking ship in a Category 4 hurricane. "So you're talking up to 140 mile an hour winds, seas upwards of 50 feet, visibility basically at zero. Those are challenging conditions to survive in." Laurie Bobillot of Maine, whose 24-year-old daughter, Danielle Randolph, was a crew member on the ship, said she received a message from her daughter before the ship went down. "Not sure you've been following the weather at all," Bobillot read during an interview with WGME, Portland's CBS affiliate. "But there's a hurricane out here and we are heading straight into it, Category 3. Last we checked, winds are super bad and seas are not great. Love to everyone." On Friday, the Coast Guard deployed a rescue helicopter to look for El Faro, but found no sign of it. The CEO of a Tote Maritime subsidiary in Jacksonville, Phil Greene, says Captain Michael Davidson thought he could pass in front of the storm, but the ship had a problem with its propulsion system and ended up without power in Joaquin's path. On Saturday, the Coast Guard reported finding a life ring from the ship and Navy and Air Force planes and ships joined the search. The following day, the Coast Guard found large debris that appeared to include material from the ship, along with oil on the surface of the water. Joseph Murphy, a former master of commercial ships and now an instructor at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, told Here & Now that he can understand why the tragedy occurred. "Unfortunately, while people may think we have perfect information, we do not. When they sailed, it was reported as a tropical storm, something that ship has gone through many times in that very same areas," he said. "What was not anticipated or known was the intensification of the storm and its development into a Category 4." Murphy said that one of the academy's graduates was aboard the ship. He characterized the loss as one of the "perils of the sea." He said the ship "had the best of equipment, it was well inspected. The crew were well trained. They were simply overwhelmed by the force of nature." But for the families of those lost at sea, these words are small comfort. Young says his family is struggling with the situation. "My family as a whole, we're just banding together to support each other. That's all we can do right now," Young says. He says Riviera was a cook on the ship and describes his grand-nephew as a "go-getter" with two children and one on the way. Young said the tragedy has been hard on his family, especially his niece — Shawn is her only child.

Ship's Captain Remembered in 'Simple Courage'

Author Frank Delaney was nine years old when the story of the merchant ship The Flying Enterprise and its captain Kurt Carlsen reverberated around the world in 1952. More than a half-century later, Delaney has written a book about it called <em>Simple Courage: A True Story of Peril on the Sea.</em>

Fox News Names Roger Ailes' Replacements

Two Fox News insiders have been tapped to fill the shoes of outgoing Chairman and Chief Executive Roger Ailes, who was forced to resign as a result of allegations he sexually harassed a former female news anchor. Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy were named as co-presidents in a statement released by Fox News Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch. Shine will direct all programming at Fox News and Fox Business Network. Abernethy will handle the business side: finance, sales, advertising and distribution for both networks. Fox News also announced the retirement of Mark Kranz, chief financial officer, who had been with the network since 1997. "Bill Shine has developed and produced a signature primetime that has dominated the cable news landscape for 14 of his 20 years with FOX News," Murdoch said in his statement. "Jack was integral to the launch and success of FOX News nearly 20 years ago and we're delighted he's returning to take on this additional role. " Shine and Abernethy were promoted as the company is dealing with the fallout from a lawsuit filed by former anchor Gretchen Carlson, alleging that Ailes pressured her for sex and then retaliated against her when she rebuffed him. Since then, several other female employees, past and current, have made similar allegations.

This One-Way Trip To Mars Is Brought To You By ...

In New York on Monday, a group of scientists and entrepreneurs launched a quixotic program that could allow you (yes you!) to make a trip to Mars. But you can't come back. The Mars One nonprofit organization announced that it is now open to applicants interested in making a commercially sponsored one-way mission to Mars. This isn't the first proposed Mars mission on the books. NASA has it as a long-term goal to send astronauts to the red planet. And space entrepreneur Dennis Tito recently announced plans to send a couple for a fly-by in 2018. But Mars One stands apart in very important ways: First, it will strive to be self-financed by selling the astronaut selection process, launch and landing as a reality television show. Second, the lucky winners will live out their lives in an inflatable habitat on another planet. "If somebody's an outdoors person who says, 'I need my mountains, I need to smell the flowers,' then it's not the mission for him," says Norbert Kraft, the group's chief medical officer. Mars One co-founder Bas Lansdorp says that the idea of selling the trip as prime-time television really seemed doable after he saw the revenue numbers from the London Olympics. That event garnered more than $4 billion in just over three weeks, he says. With that in mind, the mission's $6 billion price tag "is actually a bargain." In fact, there will be a lot more to watch than the launch and landing. Even today, visitors to the Mars One website can check out public videos from applicants and vote on who they like the most. Those liked more will be more likely to go on to the next round of astronaut selection. Future rounds will be televised: Participants in each nation will square off against each other with only a single participant making his or her way to years of training. That final round will be an internationally broadcast show in which six teams of four vie for the chance to get voted off of Earth. It sounds crazy. But is it really crazier than shows about people who hunt alligators or drive trucks on roads of ice? Lansdorp says that he has consulted with Big Brother co-creator Paul Römer, who thinks that the show could work. Over the years, Lansdorp says, viewers will develop a close connection to the astronaut applicants. "That's why it will stay interesting for a very, very long time," he says. Lansdorp says that his biggest worry at the moment is his ability to raise the money needed to send rovers and supplies to Mars in advance of the 2023 landing. But he hopes that the astronaut application process will help to raise money. "We are already receiving a lot of interest from [broadcasters]," he says. The application itself might be a money-maker, too: It will cost U.S. residents $38 to put their name down for a one-way journey.

India G-7 Delegation Forced To Self-Isolate After Positive Coronavirus Tests

MUMBAI, India — India's top diplomat and his entourage have been forced to self-isolate, participating in a G-7 foreign ministers meeting only virtually — from hotel rooms near the venue in London — after at least two members of the Indian delegation tested positive for the coronavirus. India is currently battling the world's biggest COVID-19 wave, and is thus on the United Kingdom's Red List, meaning travel from India into the U.K. is restricted. The rules stipulate that while regular Indians are barred from entering the U.K., diplomats may do so, but are required to self-isolate. It appears that India's minister of external affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, was granted an exception to that rule, because he has held several in-person meetings, including with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, since arriving in London on Monday. British media reported that two members of Jaishankar's delegation had since tested positive. In a tweet, Jaishankar said he had been made aware of the exposure Tuesday evening. "As a measure of abundant caution and also out of consideration for others, I decided to conduct my engagements in the virtual mode," he wrote. "That will be the case with the G7 Meeting today as well." "We deeply regret that Foreign Minister Jaishankar will be unable to attend the meeting today in person but will now attend virtually, but this is exactly why we have put in place strict COVID protocols and daily testing," a senior British diplomat was quoted by Reuters as saying. Jaishankar's meeting Monday with Blinken was their first in-person meeting since the Biden administration assumed office. U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel also met Tuesday with Jaishankar, tweeting a photo of them wearing masks. The news of Jaishankar's trip to London, as well as the positive coronavirus tests among his staff, sparked criticism back home in India. Some Indians questioned the wisdom of his travel at an all-hands-on-deck moment in the pandemic. The country has confirmed more than 300,000 coronavirus cases daily for the past two weeks, and its health care system is collapsing. On Wednesday, India confirmed more than 382,000 new cases and 3,780 deaths — its highest single-day death toll since the pandemic began. "Man travelled to London just to hold virtual meeting with G-7 leaders. Why wasted so much money and time?" one Indian wrote on Twitter. "You should have stayed in India and held meeting virtually." In a report issued last week, the World Health Organization said India now accounts for nearly half of all new global cases. Crematoriums in the country have been overwhelmed, and scientists say the real number of deaths may be much higher than the officially reported numbers. Meanwhile, coronavirus testing has fallen sharply in India, so it's not clear whether the surge has peaked. In late April, the United Kingdom imposed travel restrictions on anyone arriving there after having transited India in the previous 10 days. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson last month called off a planned visit to India "in view of the prevailing COVID situation." The U.S. has imposed similar restrictions. Although India itself is not a member of the G-7 – which includes Britain, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — it was among the countries invited to attend the first such meeting of the group's foreign ministers in more than two years. Australia, South Korea and South Africa were also invited to the gathering, which sets the stage for the G-7 leaders summit in Cornwall, England, next month. Jaishankar and his delegation arrived in London on Monday for a four-day visit at the invitation of British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. The Indian delegation had been expected to attend a face-to-face bilateral meeting with Raab in Kent on Thursday, but that is now expected to be held virtually, India's Economic Times reports. NPR's Scott Neuman reported from Washington.

Eyewitness at Gettysburg

the voice of William V. Rathvon, who as a nine-year-old boy, watched and listened to Abraham Lincoln deliver his address at Gettysburg in November 1863. The story was told in 1938 and recorded on a 78 r.p.m. record. We will air a 5-6 minute excerpt. This item came to us as a result of our QUEST HOTLINE 202-408-0300. A family in Pallatine, Illinois had this recording to share with us. Rathvon was a distant relative. No other Gettysburg eyewitness is known to have recorded their memories on record.

Derrick Bell, Influential Legal Scholar, Dies At 80

Derrick Bell, the first tenured black professor at Harvard Law School, died of carcinoid cancer in New York City on Wednesday. He was 80. The influential legal scholar championed the "critical race theory," an idea that begins with the premise that racism is ingrained in American life and laws — even in laws aimed at righting the wrongs of racism. Bell was also known for divisive career choices. "I think that you have to risk divisiveness in order to really make points," he told member station WAMU in 1996. "The people who are not divisive are both boring and they're often enough not saying anything!" Bell's career moves certainly said something. He resigned as dean of the University of Oregon School of Law when an Asian-American woman was denied tenure. Then in 1990, he went on unpaid leave from Harvard, vowing not to return until a black woman was hired into a tenured position — something Harvard, at that point, had never done. He ultimately became a visiting professor at NYU, where he worked until he died. Bell wrote not only about law and theory, but also about how to live an ethical life. "We can't wait for leaders," he told NPR in 2002. "God is within us to a certain extent, you know, and we have to justify the miracle of our existence not by driving the E Class Mercedes — nothing wrong with that, but that should not be our goal. Our goal should be to justify our existence by loving God, by loving others." Bell also loved to use stories — parables and even music — to explore the experience of racism. In a book called Gospel Choirs, he wrote that gospel "echoes the tempos of the soul searching for God's peace in the midst of a hostile world." He spoke about one hymn in particular called "Don't Feel No Ways Tired." It popped into his head while he was lecturing on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. "As I was looking down at the upturned faces of all those students, waiting to hear what I had to say on that day that means so much to us all, that song slipped into my mind," he said. "And I opened my mouth and sang." GUY RAZ, HOST: Now, we're going to remember an influential legal scholar who died yesterday. Derrick Bell was the first tenured black professor at Harvard Law School, and he championed something called critical race theory: an idea that begins with the premise that racism is ingrained in American life and laws, even in laws aimed at righting the wrongs of racism. Derrick Bell was also known for divisive career choices, as he told member station WAMU in 1996. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED AUDIO) RAZ: Well, Derrick Bell's career moves certainly said something. He resigned as dean of the University of Oregon School of Law when an Asian-American woman was denied tenure. Then in 1990, he went on unpaid leave from Harvard, vowing not to return until a black woman was hired into a tenured position - something Harvard at that point had never done. He ultimately became a visiting professor at NYU, where he worked until he died. And he wrote not only about law and theory but about how to live an ethical life - something he spoke about on NPR in 2002. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED AUDIO) RAZ: Derrick Bell also loved to use stories, parables, even music to explore the experience of racism. In a book called "Gospel Choirs," he wrote that gospel echoes the tempos of the soul searching for God's peace in the midst of a hostile world. And he spoke about one hymn in particular called "Don't Feel No Ways Tired." It popped into his head while he was lecturing on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. He wrote: As I was looking down at the upturned faces of all those students, waiting to hear what I had to say on that day that means so much to us all, that song slipped into my mind, and I opened my mouth and sang. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T FEEL NO WAYS TIRED") RAZ: That's James Cleveland - singing "Don't Feel No Ways Tired." Derrick Bell died yesterday in New York City from carcinoid cancer. He was 80 years old. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DON'T FEEL NO WAYS TIRED") RAZ: You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.

The California Report

Delta Smelt Affect State's Water Supply. End Music.

Obama Moves To Delay Cancellations Of Insurance Plans

President Obama announced Thursday that Americans who have had their health insurance plans canceled because of his Affordable Care Act can keep those plans for another year if they wish. Those cancellations — most effective on Jan. 1 — have sparked intense criticism of the ACA, in part because the president pledged many times that if Americans liked the health plans they had, they wouldn't have to give them up under the terms of his program. Obama also said that problems with the HealthCare.gov website and with the cancellations of some American's health insurance policies are "on me." Several times in remarks at a White House news conference, the president turned to football analogies. "We fumbled the rollout on this health care law," he said at one point. We updated this post as he spoke. Update at 12:55 p.m. ET. "We're Going To Get This Done": As we suspected, the president was winding up his remarks. He finishes by saying of the fixes he wants made to the ACA that "we're going to get this done." Update at 12:52 p.m. ET. "I Am Not A Perfect Man": He remembers saying when he first ran for president that "I am not a perfect man and I will not be a perfect president," Obama says as he continues to talk about the ACA's problems. But he also said back then, Obama adds, that he would "wake up every day" and work as hard as he can. Those are pledges he hasn't broken, says the president: He's not perfect and he believes he continues to "work as hard as I can to make things better for folks." It sounds as if he's winding up the news conference. Update at 12:47 p.m. ET. "Two Fumbles On A Big Game": Yet another football reference. His team has had "two fumbles on a big game, but the game's not over," Obama says — referring to the troubled website and the cancellation of some Americans' insurance plans. Update at 12:45 p.m. ET. Another Football Reference: Doing some "Monday morning quarterbacking," Obama says that "two years ago, as we were thinking about this, we might have done more to be sure we were breaking the mold on setting this up." Update at 12:40 p.m. ET. Majority Of People Will Find The Website Working By Nov. 30, But No Guarantee of Perfection: Will the HealthCare.gov website be fixed by Nov. 30 as his aides have promised? Obama says that by then "the majority of people that go to the website will see a website that's working the way it's supposed to." But, he adds, "it's not possible for me to guarantee that 100 percent of the people, 100 percent of the time, will have a perfectly seamless, smooth experience." Update at 12:25 p.m. ET. He Didn't Expect Cancellations: Obama has come under sharp criticism for saying many times that Americans could keep their health insurance policies if they liked them, only to watch as many received cancellation notices. as the ACA went into effect. He says his expectation was that "98 percent" of policyholders would see no change or find they could get plans with better options, and that others would see their plans covered by the "grandfather clause" that was designed to keep them in place. It's "on me" that many plans were cancelled, Obama says. Update at 12:20 p.m. ET. He's Not "Stupid Enough" To Say It Would Work If He Knew It Wouldn't: Reminded that he said many times before it launched that it would be easy to buy health care insurance on the new HealthCare.gov website, the president says "I was not informed" that there were concerns about whether the website was ready for its Oct. 1 launch. "I don't think I'm stupid enough to say 'this is going to be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity' a week before [the launch] ... if I thought it wasn't going to work," Obama says. Update at 12:15 p.m. ET. "We fumbled." "We fumbled the rollout on this health care law," Obama says. As for his falling approval rating, the president says that "we just came out of a shutdown ... and the next thing [Americans] know is that the president's health care reform can't get the website to work. ... I understand why people are frustrated." Update at 12:12 p.m. ET. Extending Plans: He's announcing, Obama says, that "insurers can extend plans that otherwise would be canceled" because they don't meet the new law's basic requirements. Those extensions would go through 2014. The administration is also asking, he says, that those insurers tell policyholders "what protections those new plans don't include" and that the new health insurance exchanges may offer "new options with better coverage and tax credits." Update at 12:08 p.m. ET. "Problem No. 1": The president concedes that "problem No. 1" is making sure the HealthCare.gov website "works like it's supposed to." Update at 12:03 p.m. ET. The President Begins: Obama is at the microphone. He says he will be taking a few questions at the end of his remarks. First, though, he offers his condolences to the people of the Philippines, where Typhoon Haiyan hit one week ago. He urges Americans to go to WhiteHouse.gov/typhoon to find organization tha

No Hope Of Survivors In Black Hawk Crash, Military Says

After finding only debris and human remains in the area where a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Florida Tuesday night with 11 people aboard, officials at Eglin Air Force Base say the mission has transitioned from a search and rescue into a recovery effort. "At this point, we are not hopeful for survivors," said Col. Monte Cannon, vice-commander of the 96th Test Wing. "Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the family members and the units where our soldiers and Marines call home." Update at 1:30 p.m. ET: Two Soldiers Confirmed Dead The bodies of two soldiers who died in the crash have been recovered, according to a statement from the Louisiana National Guard. "It is with a heavy heart that we announce that two of our own have perished in this tragic accident," said Maj. Gen. Glenn H. Curtis, the adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard. "We believe the other two remain with the aircraft." Curtis added, "The entire military community mourns the loss of our friends that we consider family." Our original post continues: Last night, a candlelight vigil was held for the crash victims at the Navarre Pier in the Florida Panhandle, according to the Pensacola News Journal. The helicopter had seven Marines and four members of the Louisiana National Guard on board when it crashed during a night-time training exercise. The Marines had been assigned to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, as part of the Marine Special Operations Regiment. Names of those on the helicopter aren't being released, as the military works on informing their next of kin. Earlier, officials said the crew of the Black Hawk had previously been deployed to Iraq and had also helped respond to large-scale disasters such as the BP oil spill and Hurricane Katrina. As the operation moves into being a recovery effort, Eglin's public affairs office says, investigators will also take control, seeking possible explanations for the crash. As we reported Wednesday, the incident came amid intensely foggy conditions that have persisted through the effort to find the downed helicopter's passengers and crew. Announcing the change in the mission Thursday, Cannon also thanked the many groups that helped in the search operation, including the Eglin Fire Department and more than 100 participants from local fire and police departments agencies, the Coast Guard, and the Red Cross.

Gabriel García Márquez&#8217;s Son On His Father&#8217;s Final Days And Legacy

“My father complained that one of the things he hated most about death was that it would be the only aspect of his life he would not be able to write about,” writes Rodrigo Garcia, Gabriel García Márquez’s son. In his new memoir, “A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son’s Memoir of Gabriel García Márquez and Mercedes Barcha,” Garcia chronicles the final days of his father’s life during his battle with dementia, with his wife Mercedes by his side. Everything he lived through, witnessed, and thought was in his books, fictionalized or ciphered. ‘If you can live without writing, don’t write,’ he often said. I am among those who cannot live without writing, so I trust he would be forgiving. Another of his pronouncements that I will take my own grave is this: ‘There is nothing better than something well written.’ We talk with Garcia about his father’s legacy, and the path he forged as a filmmaker in the U.S.

All Songs Considered for Friday, 11 May 2007

This week's mix includes new music from The White Stripes and Rufus Wainwright, previously unreleased work from Elliott Smith, a classic reissue from Emerson, Lake and Palmer, England's folktronica group Tunng, and Battles. With host Bob Boilen.

Minorities In Chinese Internment Camps Forced To Sew Clothes for U.S. Brand

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with the AP's Dake Kang about his reporting that minorities in Chinese internment camps are being forced to perform menial labor, including sewing clothes for a U.S. sports brand.

CIA Head Goss Testifies CIA Does Not Use Torture

CIA Director Porter Goss testifies before Congress on whether the agency used torture. Goss said the agency is not using any illegal techniques "at this time."

Watch Jamila Woods Perform 'Holy' Backstage At Austin City Limits

Jamila Woods concluded her inaugural Austin City Limits music festival with a stop by KUTX's backstage recording studio. The private set featured a stripped down version of her song, "Holy."

Singer/Songwriter Jhené Aiko Displays Her Ambition And Range On 'Trip'

Aiko created some of the music on <em>Trip</em> as a response to losing her brother to cancer. Critic Ken Tucker says the album features sorrow and grief — as well as an attempt to escape from sadness.

Togo Leader's Departure Seen as Win for Democracy

African leaders lift sanctions against the tiny West African nation of Togo after the new president, Faure Gnassingbe, stepped down under domestic and international pressure. He assumed power when his father, Togo's longtime ruler Gnassingbe Eyadema, died on Feb. 5. Togolese have rallied in the streets to demand democratic rule.

One Officer Dead, Several Shot By Gunman At LA Airport

(Click here to jump to our latest updates.) A lone gunman walked into one of the nation's busiest airports Friday in Los Angeles and opened fire with an assault rifle, killing at least one transportation security officer and wounding another, police and TSA officials say. Authorities have identified the shooting suspect as Paul Anthony Ciancia, 23, originally of New Jersey. Officials did not immediately provide a motive for the assault. The attack left at least seven people needing medical treatment (including the shooter), officials said, and forced the evacuation of a terminal and delays of flights coming into and out of the airport. At least one of the injured is listed in critical condition, a hospital official said. The gunman, officials said, was taken into custody after exchanging fire with airport police. LAX Police Chief Patrick Gannon said the assailant "pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and opened fire in the terminal." LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said that the situation could have been much worse, reports NPR's Newcast. "The fact that these officers were able to neutralize the threat as they did," Garcetti said. "There were more than 100 more rounds that could have literally killed everybody in that terminal." As happens when stories such as this are developing, there was a considerable amount of conflicting information in the early hours. We're focusing on authorities who should have direct knowledge of the situation and news outlets with reporters who are at the scene or have trusted sources. Hit your "refresh" button to be sure you're seeing our latest updates. Update at 11:50 p.m. ET: Agent Identified The TSA has been identified the slain officer as Gerardo I. Hernandez, 39. A second agent was shot, but has not been identified. Officials provided no other details about Hernandez. Update at 8:20 p.m. ET: Suspect Chased In Exchange Of Gunfire: NPR's Kirk Siegler tells All Things Considered that the gunman "would have had to get through the security area while firing this [assault] rifle." "[Then] down a relatively long hallway and the gate area where there are restaurants and of course people waiting to board," he said. "We are told that this entire time, he was being chased by airport police in an exchange of gunfire. At one point an airport police officer was hit, as was the suspect. They did manage then to bring him into custody." Update at 7:10 p.m. ET. FBI: One Wounded Is TSA Officer: Special Agent in Charge David Bowdich, of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, confirmed the identity and age of the suspect and said that he was originally from New Jersey. Bowdich said one of the wounded is a TSA officer. He said others appeared to have "evasion injuries" from trying to escape the shooter. Update at 6:30 p.m. ET. Alleged Gunman Identified: NPR has confirmed the identity of the shooting suspect as 23-year-old Paul Anthony Ciancia. NPR's Kirk Siegler spoke with Stacy McLennan, who was waiting in line at the Air Canada check-in counter when the shots rang out. "I was at ticketing and one of the TSA agents turned around and said so and so had been shot and we turned around and it was a really young kid, TSA agent, and he had blood coming out of his abdomen and there was blood coming out from his hand," McLennan said. "We all were just standing there and didn't know what to do, and the next thing we knew, they said 'run, run,' and so we all just took off running." Update at 5:10 p.m. ET. Witness: 'We Just Hit The Deck': Xavier Savant, who witnessed the shooting, tells The Associated Press that he was waiting in a security line when he heard a "bam, bam, bam" burst of gunfire. He and others "just hit the deck. Everybody in the line hit the floor and shots just continued," Savant said. He said the shots subsided and people bolted through past the scanners and made their way to the tarmac. Update at 4:00 p.m. ET. TSA: 'Multiple' Officers Shot, One Dead; Shooter Not TSA Worker: This statement from a TSA official: "Earlier this morning, a shooting occurred at Terminal 3 at Los Angeles International Airport. Multiple Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) were shot, one fatally. Additional details will be addressed by the FBI and local law enforcement who are investigating the shooting." Separately, NPR has been told by the LA Coroner's Office that a 40-year-old male is dead, but no further information was available. A spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents TSA workers, says: "We have received first-hand confirmation from a reliable source that the shooter was not a TSO." Meanwhile, UCLA Medical Center Director Dr. Lynne McCullough told reporters that the hospital is treating three adult male patients from the airport shooting — one is in critical condition; two are listed as fair. Update at 3:05 p.m. ET. No Confirmation Of Deaths: While several local news outlets are reporting they've been told that there have been one or two fatalities, airport Polic

Amidst Political Tumult, Salvadoran Artists Across The Country Discuss Their Work

El Salvador is in the headlines this week, as the Trump Administration announced changes to a form of protective immigration status that could eventually affect over 200,000 Salvadorans living in this country. But how much do you really know about El Salvador, beyond this recent immigration news and the usual reports of gang violence? Curiously, Jessica Diaz-Hurtado and I had already planned an elaborate, cross-country round table with some Salvadoran artists for this week's show... and then the immigration news broke days before we were scheduled to record the it. It became more important than ever to us. The voices assembled for this show reflect a cross-section of the Salvadoran diaspora: three were born here in the US; one was born amidst the violence of the civil war of the 1980s; and our own Jessica Diaz-Hurtado, who is half Salvadoran. Their experiences are manifested in art that is not always part of the wider conversation of Latin American art. We hope to help change that with this show, through giving voice to folks who are sometimes marginalized even within the Latinx experience. Jessica Alvarenga is a visual artist who lives in Houston, exploring the intimacy of the Central American experience through her photography project called Witness the Isthmus. Veronica Melendez is making art in the DC metro area that is asking its audience to reevaluate iconic images that feel familiar to the Central American experience. She's co-created La Horchata Zine, a zine creating spaces for Central American art. Yesika Salgado uses words to explore identity, as well as the larger Salvadoran community of Southern California. Poetry is power, and in her recently published book illustrates how something as common as a mango takes on larger than life significance. And in New York, Johanna Toruño is making a stand amidst the Afro-Caribbean cultures to remind us we have more in common withe each other than we have differences, but to also celebrate those differences. The streets of New York are the canvas for her Unapologetically Brown series. The conversation got real deep, real fast — as would be expected when the topic of conversation is a country that has not had a break in soul-shattering violence for at least 40 years. (Hell, longer if we go all the way back to the Spanish invasion in the 15th century.) There was also lots of laughter this week. What do you expect when four badass women, some of whom did not know each other before this week, bond over things like the beautiful names of small towns in El Salvador or the smell of burning wood in the morning? This week's show is longer than normal, but not long enough to uncover all the emotions that come from a lifetime of having to explain El Salvador is its own country, not part of Guatemala, or Honduras or Mexico. And there is more to that shared identity than negative headlines.

From A New 2-Cd Set, Pianist

From a new 2-CD set, pianist Maria Joao Pires (mah-REE-ah zhoh-OW pee-REZ) performs the Impromptu in E-flat Major, D. 899, No. 2, by Franz Schubert. (DG 457 550-2)

Walking Into Syria: A Reporter's Visit To Where Rebels Are 'Running The Show'

Getting into Syria has been a journalistic obsession since anti-regime protests began there in March 2011. The choices have been risky or next to impossible. The Syrian regime has given out few journalists' visas (full disclosure, I got a legal visa to Syria in June). So, for the most part, many journalists have taken the hazardous decision to cross the border illegally, taking risky smuggling routes, to cover a story so dangerous that two of our colleagues, Anthony Shadid of The New York Times and Marie Colvin of The Sunday Times, died in Syria. Sunday night, I unexpectedly walked into Syria. A Turkish border official happily stamped by passport with a loud thwack and waved me through the border crossing near the Turkish town of Kilis in southern Turkey. I was on my way to cover an Iftar dinner, when Muslims break the fast at sunset during the holy month of Ramadan. The dinner was hosted by a rebel brigade based in the Syrian town of Azaz. Hundreds of displaced families were camped out at the Syrian border control office waiting to break their fast before they crossed into Turkey. Revolution Flag Flutters; Read More: Walking to Syria at sunset, the most striking thing is the new symbols on display. The Syrian revolution flag flutters alongside the distinctive Turkish flag. The rebels of the Free Syrian army took control of three border stations along the Turkish frontier in July. The mile walk to the Syria side was cut short when a car slowed to a halt and three young men in fatigues offered a ride. Unfailingly polite, they proposed a chauffer service to the border post or further into Syria. I was there to see the Iftar dinner for the familes at the border. The meal was catered by Mohammed Adeeb, who said he had raised the money from wealthy businessmen from Azaz. The organization was impressive. Abeed unloaded a truck filled with boxes of bottled water, cartons of yogurt and a Syrian dish called lahm bajin, which are meat pies. This sunset feast marked the end of Ramadan and, traditionally, the start of a three-day celebration known as Eid El Fitr, but no one was celebrating here. Many of these Syrians had packed in a hurry and headed for the Turkish border before dawn. They were all running from the unpredictable Syrian air force attacks that have flattened apartment buildings and turned neighborhoods into rubble. One father put forward his six year old son, Ahmed, who showed off his cast. "I was afraid. There was shelling," he said in a whisper. These Syrians hoped to join the more than 70,000 displaced persons who have already crossed into Turkey. Just a few months ago, the trip was as risky as a journalist's journey to Syria, thru smuggling routes to the frontier. Now, the border is open and the displaced can drive, but the camps are so overcrowded that many will sleep at this dusty border post until Turkish authorities can build a new camp. That may take days. The exodus has increased dramatically just in the last month. Turkey announced today that it can handle no more than 100,000 Syrians and proposed a buffer zone inside the country. That's not likely to stop the flow of frightened Syrians. The rebel brigade from the town of Azaz keeps order here. There is a bus to take the weary passengers to Turkey. I hop on board. There is one stop before we cross. The bus driver, a young man in army fatigues, throws his weapon to a rebel guard at the border in a smooth gesture that has been practiced many times. The rebels are prohibited from taking weapons into Turkey. But in every other way, they are running the show. (Deborah Amos covers the Middle East for NPR News.)

Can Marriage Save Single Mothers From Poverty?

Newly released census figures show a long-standing and glaring contrast: A third of families headed by single mothers are in poverty, and they are four times more likely than married-couple families to be poor. The disparity is on the rise, and as the number of single mothers grows, analysts are debating if more marriages could mean less poverty. For many conservatives, the answer is simple: Promote marriages as a balm for poverty. Last week, the Heritage Foundation issued a report called "Marriage: America's Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty." In his run for the Republican presidential ticket, Rick Santorum proclaimed three simple steps to stay out of poverty: "Work. Graduate from high school. And get married before you have children." The calculation came from Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who notes that more than 40 percent of all U.S. births are now outside marriage. "There's no question in my mind that the change in family structure in the U.S., meaning the growth of single-parent families, has played a role in increasing poverty and inequality," Sawhill says. Of course, she says, increased poverty and inequality have also been greatly exacerbated by the recession. "But it is a lot harder if you only have one earner in the family to weather a downturn in the economy," Sawhill says. Actually increasing marriage, or preventing divorce, is no simple feat. The Bush administration spent nearly $1 billion on marriage education classes for lower-income couples. The Obama administration continued them on a smaller scale. The effort has widely been deemed a failure. The state of Florida asked social psychologist Benjamin Karney of UCLA to look into the classes' effectiveness. He says they aimed to help with things like communication and understanding. "But lower-income groups are significantly more likely to say having a job is more important for marriage," Karney says. "Having money in the bank is more important for marriage. And the problems that they have are not relational problems, they're economic problems." Stephanie Coontz, who teaches history and family studies at The Evergreen State College, says women know they'll be better off if they marry a man who earns a good wage, but they may not have that option. "In many low-income communities, there are not many men like that available," she says. "Poverty is as often a cause of unwed motherhood as it is a result." Coontz says some women choose not to marry, even if a man is already working hard. A big problem, she says, is that many men today are getting paid less than their fathers were paid at the same age. "By 2007, and that's before the start of the recession, the average employed guy with a high school degree made almost $4 less an hour, in constant dollars, than his counterpart in 1979," Coontz says. Economic stress is also strongly linked to divorce, which is now far more common among lower-income couples than the college educated. Both Coontz and Sawhill say the problem transcends the ranks of the poor: A growing number of single moms has some college education. "This is not an inner-city phenomenon anymore, which many people seem to assume it is," Sawhill says. "This is now a mainstream phenomenon and getting stronger every year." Even in the middle class, Sawhill says, parenting alone is tough, and such women are at greater risk of falling into poverty. RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: New census figures show that nearly a third of families headed by a single mother live in poverty. In fact, they're four times more likely to be poor than married couple families. It's a longstanding disparity that's led a number of analysts and politicians to tout marriage as a solution to curbing poverty. Others say it's not so simple, as NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports. JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: Just last week, the Heritage Foundation put out a report called "Marriage: America's Greatest Weapon Against Child Poverty." And if you followed the Republican presidential contest, it was hard to miss former candidate Rick Santorum proclaim three simple steps to stay out of poverty. RICK SANTORUM: Work, graduate from high school, and get married before you have children. Those three things... LUDDEN: That calculation came from Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, who notes that more than 40 percent of all U.S. births are now outside marriage. ISABEL SAWHILL: There is no question in my mind that the change in family structure in the U.S., meaning the growth of single parent families, has played a role in increasing poverty and inequality. LUDDEN: Of course, Sawhill says, that's also been greatly exacerbated by the recession. SAWHILL: But it is a lot harder if you only have one earner in the family to weather a downturn in the economy. LUDDEN: So the temptation has been to promote marriage. The Bush administration tried hard, spending nearly a billion dollars in federal and state money on marriage education classes for lower

'May Allah Bless France!' Tells The Story Of France's Hip-Hop Gatekeepers

Think back to the 1990s — to movies like Boyz n the Hood or Menace II Society. Now, imagine one of those movies shot in black and white, with prayer beads and scenes from a mosque. And imagine it all in French. That's the recipe for the new film, May Allah Bless France!, opening in the US next week. The man behind the camera is also the character at the heart of the film. His name is Abd Al Malik, and he's a big deal in France. He's a best-selling rapper, a poet and an acclaimed author, and, now, a filmmaker. A slim and youthful 40, Al Malik was born to Congolese Catholic parents but is an observant Muslim. He says May Allah Bless France! isn't just a hip-hop movie. "My movie isn't just a visual exercise — it's deeply political," he says. "It has political value because it can be useful to the community." That community is in the depressed suburbs of France. The film opens with a montage of black and brown faces against the tower blocks of the city of Strasbourg. Cut to images of SWAT teams breaking down doors in the neighborhood and wrestling with suspects under arrest. These are the same communities that have been under scrutiny since the attacks at Charlie Hebdo earlier this year. It's where so many of France's millions of Muslim immigrants live, and, as in the communities they mirror in the US, hip-hop is the soundtrack here. On the song "Tin Soldier," Al Malik recounts the violence he saw as a young man. "I'd seen death by overdose, firearm, blade or rope," he raps. "A smile and some attention may have made a difference. We'd have been normal and not child soldiers." It's this song that helped make him a star in France nearly 10 years ago years ago, when he says the music needed a dose of reality. "There are a lot of misperceptions about urban culture and hip-hop, so as a rapper I wanted to bring some truth to this from the voice of someone who knows that reality," Al Malik explains. "I want to do the same with Islam. The people who experience this every day, unfortunately, can't speak out for themselves, so that's what I wanted to do." If you're going to understand the French Muslim experience, you have to listen to hip-hop — at least according to author Hisham Aidi. He's written about Muslim youth culture in his book Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture. "France is the second biggest market for hip hop in the world outside the US. Some of the leading hip-hop artists in France are Muslim, either the children of immigrants or converts," Aidi says. "So Muslim artists are really the gatekeepers of hip-hop culture in France, and Abd Al Malik was one of the pioneers." May Allah Bless France! is the story of how he reached that point. It begins on the streets of Strasbourg as a teenage Al Malik is shown swaggering across the street on his way to school, thinking out loud, spitting rhymes. "My library, my books are my only bling bling," he raps. And that scene is a good example of what he brings to the music, Aidi says. "He's one cerebral rapper. This is a man who said that French hip-hop artists are the children of Public Enemy and Jacques Derrida," he says of Al Malik. But while that complicated mix of hip-hop and postmodern philosophy was swirling in Al Malik's mind, violence and gunfire were all around him. The film shows drug deals, funerals and police raids — all familiar sights to someone who grew up like Al Malik, the rapper says. "In the banlieues, or the suburbs, things can quickly turn to tragedy because of what these kids are exposed to everyday. I've seen people die with my own eyes because they think they're invincible, that they're Scarface in their own movie. They're dying from drugs, heroin and just living a dangerous lifestyle," he says. Abd Al Malik got pulled into that toxic mix as a teenager. He says at the heart of the problem is the fact and he and his friends didn't feel French. There's a scene early in the movie in which Al Malik and his friends have been arrested for throwing stones at cops. His irritated uncle bails them out, but he's not just angry about the crime. He warns them about knowing their place. "In the film, when the Uncle says, 'We love this country but this country doesn't love us,' that's really the problem," he says. "Symbolically, the French Republic is the mother of all its citizens. And as a mother, it should love all its children with the same amount of love, maybe even more for those who are fragile, the weaker ones from the suburbs." Abd Al Malik says education helped him become stronger, and the title song from his film makes that point. He says the song is about extremism feeding on ignorance, and finding the solution in education. "We have to teach religion in schools," he says. "There's a lot of talk but children don't really have access to knowledge. If they really knew what Islam is really about, they wouldn't be fooled by any radical preacher who tells them that Islam is X, Y or Z. They would know better." But some young Muslim ra

Nick Offerman Shares His Love Of Woodworking In 'Good Clean Fun'

Comedian and actor Nick Offerman became a star as the Libertarian Ron Swanson in the hit sitcom, <em>Parks and Recreation</em>. He's also pretty good in the woodshop. In fact, building things out of wood is a serious passion. And he's written about it in his latest book, <em>Good Clean Fun</em>.

Goldman Sachs Forced To Pay Up Over Mortgage-Backed Securities

The Justice Department announced today that Goldman Sachs will pay $5 billion to settle probes into the sale of mortgage-backed securities in the lead-up to the 2008 financial crisis. Goldman Sachs had disclosed the deal in January, but today&#8217;s official announcement includes further details of the agreement. This is the fifth multibillion-dollar settlement reached with a major bank in the wake of the financial crisis. Here & Now&#8217;s Peter O&#8217;Dowd speaks with Jill Schlesinger of CBS News about the investigations and settlements. Guest Jill Schlesinger, business analyst with CBS News and host of “Jill on Money.” She tweets @jillonmoney.

At Least 7 People Fatally Shot In Dallas Suburb; Officer Kills Suspect

Seven people were shot and killed at a home in a Dallas suburb where they had reportedly gathered to watch a football game, authorities and neighbors say. A police officer who arrived on the scene exchanged gunfire with the suspected shooter, who was killed. Two other people were wounded in the incident, police said. There was no immediate word on their conditions. The shooting occurred around 8 p.m. local time Sunday in Plano, about 20 miles northeast of Dallas. The victims, who were all said to be adults, had held an afternoon barbecue ahead of the Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants game, according to neighbors. A nearby officer heard gunfire and responded, The Dallas Morning News reports. The officer "made entry, and that's when he observed several victims inside and then engaged the suspect," police spokesman David Tilley was quoted as saying by the Morning News. "We're looking into a motive," Tilley said, adding that the relationship between the victims and the shooter was unknown as yet. However, the newspaper writes that: "A neighbor said a friend of one of the homeowners said the violence had been sparked by a domestic dispute. ... The couple identified in public records as the homeowners sought a divorce in July." The police spokesman said the shooting was unusual for Plano. He declined to say whether police had been called to the house in the past, according to The Associated Press. One neighbor, Stacey Glover, told the Morning News that the party had started in the afternoon, with people laughing and grilling outside. The newspaper reports: "She heard shots about 8 p.m., opened her door and smelled gunpowder. When police arrived, she heard them yelling, 'Hands up' before more shots rang out."

Aisha Tyler, David Hornsby, Jordan Ranks America, The AV Club

Aisha Tyler funnels her childhood outsider-y experiences toward comedy and performance. She's on the animated FX show Archer. David Hornsby talks about building comedic stories from his real life relationships. His new animated FX show is called Unsupervised. Plus, the AV Club shares their recommendations and Jordan Morris puts America in its place ... by ranking everything.

Supreme Court Could Be Headed To A Major Unraveling Of Public School Funding

In a case with potentially profound implications, the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority seemed ready to invalidate a provision of the Montana state constitution that bars aid to religious schools. A decision like that would work a sea change in constitutional law, significantly removing the longstanding high wall of separation between church and state. The focal point of Wednesday's argument was a ruling by the Montana Supreme Court that struck down a tax subsidy for both religious and nonreligious private schools. The Montana court said that the subsidy violated a state constitutional provision barring any state aid to religious schools, whether direct or indirect. On the steps of the Supreme Court Wednesday, Kendra Espinoza, a divorced mother of two, explained why she is challenging that ruling. "We are a Christian family and I want those values taught at school," she said. "Our morals as a society come from the Bible. I feel we are being excluded simply because we are people of religious background." Vocal Supreme Court justices Thirty-seven other states have no-aid state constitutional provisions similar to Montana's, and for decades conservative religious groups and school-choice advocates have sought to get rid of them. On Wednesday, though, that goal looked a lot closer. Five of the justices at some time in their lives attended private Catholic schools, and some of them were particularly vocal. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that the history of excluding religious schools from public funding has its roots in the "religious bigotry against Catholics" in the late 1800s. He seemed to dismiss arguments made by the state's lawyer that Montana had completely rewritten its constitution in 1972, without any such bias. Mae Nan Ellingson, one of the delegates to that convention, said afterward that there were ministers and "people of all faiths" at the convention who overwhelmingly had supported the no-aid provision. "We didn't think that public funds should be used to support private parochial education but rather that public funds need to support public education," she said. The justices, however, seemed uninterested in that record. 'A radical decision' Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito compared the exclusion of parochial schools from taxpayer-funded aid programs to unconstitutional discrimination based on race. That view suggested that Wednesday's case has the potential for much broader public funding of parochial schools. It wasn't enough, for instance, that the Montana court treated all private schools the same way, whether they were religious or not. As Justice Elena Kagan put it, once the Montana court invalidated the tax subsidy for all private schools, weren't they all "in the same boat?" No, replied lawyer Richard Komer, representing the religious parents. He maintained that the no-aid provision in the state constitution is itself a violation of the federal constitution. And he also argued that because the state constitution illegally discriminated against religious schools and families, the tax-credit program must be revived. In short, that the state has no discretion to abolish it. "That would be a radical decision," said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Justice Stephen Breyer wondered where the plaintiffs' equal-treatment argument would end. He noted major school systems spend billions in taxpayer money to fund the public schools. "If I decide for you," he asked, would these school systems "have to give proportionate amounts to parochial schools?" Deputy Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall, representing the Trump administration, basically answered "yes." "You can't deny a generally available public benefit" to an otherwise qualified institution "based solely on its religious character," he said. Representing the state of Montana, lawyer Adam Unikowsky told the justices that the states until now have generally had the power "to decide that they're only going to fund the public school system." But Justice Kavanaugh repeatedly seemed to suggest that religious families who want to send their children to parochial schools should be treated equally under the constitution. Just how far the Supreme Court will go in that regard may depend on Chief Justice Roberts, who, after a long night at the impeachment trial, did not entirely tip his hand.

NCAA 'Madness' Marches Toward Sweet 16

By Sunday night, the NCAA championship hopes of 48 teams will have been dashed in four furious days of play, leaving 16 to play on. <em>Boston Globe</em> sports editor Joe Sullivan offers his insights on the action so far.

Slate's Kausfiles: Arnold Fools Dems and the Press

<EM>Slate</EM> contributor Mickey Kaus tells NPR's Alex Chadwick that Schwarzenegger successfully and brilliantly fooled both the press and the Democrats into thinking he wouldn't run.

Rock Critic Ken Tucker

Rock Critic Ken Tucker reviews the music of The Vines, Spoon, and Apples in Stereo.

Five Coronavirus Treatments In Development

Right now, there is only one drug shown by rigorous scientific testing to be helpful for treating COVID-19. That drug is the antiviral medication called remdesivir, made by Gilead Sciences. But remdesivir's proven benefits are modest: reducing hospital stays from 15 to 11 days. So there's an urgent need for better therapies. The good news is that there are some on the horizon. Some are being tested now, some will be begin testing soon, and others are in the beginning of the pipeline. Convalescent plasma Researchers are expecting to see a benefit from treating COVID-19 with convalescent plasma. This is plasma taken from patients who have had the disease and recovered. Their plasma contains the antibodies their bodies made to successfully fight off the disease, so the theory goes that giving those antibodies to people currently sick with COVID-19 could help them recover. It's an approach that has been used in the past to treat diseases for which there were no effective medicines, including SARS and Ebola, although results are mixed. There are several efforts underway to expand the use of convalescent plasma for treating COVID-19 patients even before its benefit has been proven. The Mayo Clinic is leading one effort, Michigan State University leads another. A similar approach uses something called hyperimmune globulins. These are concentrated versions of the antibodies contained in the convalescent plasma. In addition to using plasma products for therapies, they might also be used to prevent infection in medical workers and other high-risk individuals. Antivirals Remdesivir is what's known as an antiviral drug. It blocks the ability of the coronavirus to make copies of itself and thereby spread through someone's body. Antiviral drugs that have been used to treat other viral infections including HIV are also being tried for COVID-19, so far without proven success. But a new kind of antiviral drug that appears promising is called EIDD-2801. It was created by scientists at a not-for-profit biotech company owned by Emory University. Studies in animals have shown it can reduce the symptoms of SARS, another disease caused by a coronavirus. Last month, the pharmaceutical giant Merck signed a collaborative agreement with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to develop EIDD-2801, which has already begun testing in humans in the United Kingdom. One significant advantage EIDD-2801 has over remdesivir is that it can be taken as a pill rather than intravenously. Monoclonal antibodies Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made molecules that can mimic the human immune system's antibodies. They can be used to target cancer cells, or other undesirable cells, such as those that have been infected with viruses. They have been used successfully to treat a wide ranger of diseases, from cancer to rheumatoid arthritis. They work by supplementing a person's own immune system with antibodies targeted against a specific invader. In the case of COVID-19, that would be antibodies targeted against specific regions of the coronavirus. From the earliest days on the pandemic, researchers have focused on monoclonal antibodies as a potential treatment. "There are a variety of monoclonal antibodies in development that look very good," says John Mellors, chief of infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The first to begin studies in humans is one developed by the Canadian biotech company AbCellera and the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly. A second drug based on monoclonal antibodies begins trials in humans today. The drug is actually a cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies, made by the pharmaceutical company Regeneron. In a forthcoming paper in the journal Science, company scientists show the cocktail approach can reduce the chance the virus will develop resistance to the drug. The new drug will be tested both as a treatment for patients with both mild and severe COVID-19 disease, and as a way to prevent people at high risk of getting infected with the coronavirus from developing the disease. Immune modulators One of the features of the coronavirus that makes it so devastating to human health is its ability to send someone's immune system into overdrive. Inflammation is a result of the immune system's own efforts to fight off a disease but if that inflammation runs out of control, it can cause severe damage. In the case of COVID-19, that damage is frequently to the lungs, making it hard for a patient to breathe. There are a variety to drugs already on the market that can be used to tamp down the immune response, and there are existing several drugs being tested on patients with COVID-19. The problem with these drugs is they suppress the immune system, so they may reduce someone's ability to fight off the virus, thereby making the viral infection worse. Clinicians say it will take time to learn when and how much of these drugs to use to be of most help to patients. The future It may be possible to design novel drugs for COVID-

'Will I Survive, Or Will I Die?' Stabbing Survivor Wondered

As he bled from a stab wound to his back Wednesday morning, the first thoughts that went through his mind were "will I survive, or will I die?" one of the high school students injured Wednesday in Murrysville, Pa., told reporters Thursday. Brett Hurt was among the first of more than 20 people (most of them students) injured when a young man wielding two steak knives began stabbing and slashing at other teens. During a remarkable news conference Thursday morning at Forbes Regional Hospital in Monroeville, Pa., the 16-year-old sophomore: -- Downplayed talk that he's a hero. Brett says he didn't protect his friend Gracey Evans from harm by shielding her from the attacker. Instead, he says it was Gracey who saved his life. While Gracey has told reporters she thinks Brett tried to push her out of the way, Brett says he had just been playfully knocking her around when he was stabbed from behind. He didn't see the attacker coming, he says. As he bled, Brett told reporters, it was his friend who put pressure on his wound. "Gracey saved my life," he said. -- Talked about the suspect, who he hopes can "forgive himself." Sixteen-year-old sophomore Alex Hribal is in custody and faces at least 25 charges (as an adult) stemming from the attack. Brett says he's met Alex a couple times but doesn't really know him. "I don't know his reputation," Brett said, "but after today he's going to have a bad one." Still, he appears to have some empathy. "He [Alex] has some issues he needs to work out," Brett said of the attacker, who he believes "made a really bad decision." While it will be difficult for victims to forgive their attacker, Brett said it's the accused who "most of all ... needs to forgive himself." Also at the news conference, Brett's mother — Amanda Hurt — expressed her: -- Thanks to Gracey. "There is nothing in the world I can do to make up for what that girl has done," she said. -- Thoughts about all the parents of those who were wounded. "I don't think any parent in the world would want to go through this agony," she said. -- Hope the attacker can find peace. "What have we done to alienate this child?" she wondered. "I hope his family can find peace ... and this child can find peace."

Last Clash Before N.H. Puts Clinton, Sanders In A Field Of Friendly Fire

The fifth debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders was their first appearance as a duet, and that helped to highlight some of their harmony – even as it heightened their crescendos of dissonance. With Martin O'Malley having suspended his campaign earlier in the week, the two remaining rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination met in New Hampshire on Thursday night — on stage together for nearly two hours. "I happen to respect the secretary very much; I hope it's mutual," said Sanders. And Clinton reciprocated: "If I'm so fortunate as to be the nominee," she said, "the first person I will call to talk to about where we go and how we get it done will be Sen. Sanders." They agreed on several issues of current (if not past) foreign policy and on certain issues of government priorities. Sanders once again declined to criticize Clinton for her controversial use of a private server to handle State Department emails. Clinton twice demurred when asked to comment on certain tactics of the Sanders campaign. But the two-hour showdown on MSNBC also featured flashes of the kind of conflict TV producers long for and pundits pore over. Near the end, Sanders, the populist and perhaps quixotic visionary, described how change would come. All that was needed, he said, was for Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to "look out the window and see a whole lot of people saying: 'Mitch, stop representing the billionaire class; start listening to working families.' And as president, that's what I will work hard on." For her part, Clinton still seemed to aspire to be the nation's pragmatic mechanic. When asked about adding or eliminating whole government departments, she replied: "I'm interested in making what we have work better." Sanders once again bore in on Clinton's campaign donations and speaking fees from Wall Street and other elements of big business. He again said the "business model of Wall Street is fraud," facilitated by government officials who had been its beneficiaries. And he contrasted his small-contribution fundraising to Clinton's buck-raking among the rich and well-connected elites. Seeming offended and in high dudgeon, Clinton denounced what she called "an artful smear." She challenged Sanders to identify a single vote she had cast or changed to pay off a donor. "If there's something you want to say, say it," she demanded. "Enough is enough." Sanders, however, continued his usual approach to this sensitive point, describing the enormity of the donations and other blandishments from Wall Street and the pharmaceutical industry in one breath, then talking about how favorably they are treated in the next. On her six-figure paid speeches, which Clinton has struggled mightily to justify, she said she had spoken to these groups only about her knowledge of world politics. MSNBC moderator Chuck Todd asked whether she would release transcripts of those speeches. "I don't know the status, but I'll certainly look into it," she replied. Sanders, too, came in for some spanking on matters of ethics. One of his ads has featured praise from an Iowa newspaper that actually endorsed Clinton. Sanders said the ad never claimed he had received the endorsement, but MSNBC moderator Rachel Maddow noted the ad was titled "Endorsement." On foreign policy, Clinton once again showed fluency and mastery of the field, while Sanders seemed stuck in first gear. But once again he offered his oft-repeated point: She may have the experience, but I had the judgment to vote against the Iraq War. In all likelihood, the two-hour session on MSNBC did not change the dynamic of the pending contest in this state, the site of the nation's first primary on Tuesday. Sanders had opened a 20-point lead on Clinton in two polls publicized just before the debate began. The Vermont senator has always had something of a boost in New Hampshire from his next-door-neighbor status. He has been a fixture in regional politics for 40 years, and a hero to the young people here as in Iowa and elsewhere. Sanders has come to embody the idea of a politician untainted by political money, or even by politics itself. He projects an anti-glamorous aura of ordinariness, concealing at times the sharpness of his mind and the sweeping scope of his views. There seemed little chance any of that would be altered, by this debate or anything else likely to happen in the remaining days before the primary. But Clinton was also aiming at an audience well beyond the 700 seats in the auditorium on the Durham campus of the University of New Hampshire. Her supreme confidence and sunny demeanor suggested she saw brighter days ahead, perhaps in voting venues well to the south and west. The campaign moves to South Carolina and Nevada later this month. On March 1, a dozen states will vote. Most are in the nation's Southeast. On March 15, Florida holds a primary that could be make or break for which candidate is trailing at that point. But before then, there will be at least two mor

At Age 101, She's A World Champ Runner

Man Kaur is 101, but her routine could tire most 20-somethings. Every day she wakes up at 4 a.m., bathes, washes clothes, makes tea, recites prayers until about 7 a.m. Sometimes she goes to the Gurdwara, the place of worship for Sikhs, other times she prays at home. And then she goes to the track for an hour of sprinting practice. And she's not just doing it for fun. A competitive runner, Kaur is a world record holder in her age group for several categories and is now training for the Asia Pacific Masters Games in Malaysia next September. Now you may be thinking ... is she really 101? Kaur doesn't have proof of her age but her oldest child does. When her baby's birth certificate was issued 81 years ago, Kaur was 20, so you do the math. The centenarian is a role model for women and runners everywhere. Just this November, she was declared the brand ambassador for a nonprofit organization called Pinkathon, which raises awareness of women's health issues — and encourages running as a way to improve physical fitness. At the Pinkathon announcement event, Kaur was literally mobbed by gushing women, many of whom started running in their 30s and 40s. "She's such a star," says Sonia Kulkarni, from the organization. "At her age, she's so fit, enthusiastic, alive, independent. She's a world champion!" Setting aside her customary track suit, Kaur dressed for the event in a pristine white tunic and traditional pleated trousers. Topping off her ensemble is her winner's blazer from her most recent championship win in New Zealand in April 2017. People are taking selfies with her and asking for her blessings. She's happy to chat with everyone. Behind her glasses, her eyes shine. "She's an inspiration and I'm so happy to have met her," says 40-year-old runner Raksha Muni. A Very, Very Late Start The diminutive Kaur hasn't been a lifetime runner. Far from it. She started running in 2009, when her son, Gurdev Singh, 79, urged her to take up track and field. Singh, the second of her three children, is her coach as well as cheerleader. He also a long-time track competitor: "I was on my college track team and in school, I ran track and I played on the [soccer] team. I have been running in the master level for the last 25 years." Singh has amassed more than 80 racing medals since 1992. What made him take his then 93-year-old mother to the track? It was mainly a whim, he explains — but also a desire to keep her fit. "She was very well, with no health problems, and she moved fast. So I took her to the university track with me and asked her to run 400 meters. She did it, slowly, and I thought 'Yes, She can do it.' " Kaur enjoyed it enough to want to return. She liked running, she said. And quickly she started to improve. Two years later, given how well she was doing, her son registered her for international events he was participating in. Kaur agreed with no hesitation. And she hasn't stopped. Last year, the great-grandmother was selected for the American Master Games in Canada, where won gold for her 81-second 100-meter dash. "After that she was very excited because so many people wanted to have a photo with her," says Singh. Her competition, most in their 70s and 80s, cheered wildly for her. She was a sensation! Not A Fan Of School Singh and his two siblings were natural athletes, but Kaur never had the chance to find out if she was good at sports. She was born in pre-partition India in 1916. Her mother died in childbirth; Kaur was raised by her paternal grandparents in Patiala, an erstwhile kingdom that was disbanded by the British after India gained independence. Her grandparents tried to send her to school when she was little, she recalls with a big grin, but she just wasn't interested in studying. "I would play truant. I preferred to run around, and then work a little to earn some money." In her childhood, she recalls earning coins for weaving drawstrings for pajamas as well as collecting twigs from the neem tree to sell as natural toothbrushes. In between, she milled wheat by hand and spun thread. In the early 1930s, she found employment as a nanny and maid to one of the 360 queens of the maharaja of Patiala. She worked in the palace, serving one of the queens and minding the prince. Kaur married in 1934 and went on to have three children. Later, she became a cook, working for families in many homes across the city. She's Won ... How Many Gold Medals?! Since starting her competitive career, Kaur has run in meets in Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan. And she's nailed 17 gold medals. In Auckland, New Zealand this April, she won gold for the 100-meter and 200-meter runs as well as two new sports: javelin and shot put. In those two events, she's sometimes the only contestant in her age bracket, so winning gold is a sure thing. But she doesn't just show up. In Auckland, Kaur broke the master category world record in javelin with her 16-foot throw. With her son's help, she works hard to become better and faster. Her

China Launches Orbiter, Shoots for Moon by 2020

This week, China launched Chang'e One, a robotic lunar orbiter. The mission is a step in a larger plan that would land a Chinese astronaut on the moon by 2020. The launch follows a Japanese-led moon launch and India is planning to launch its own lunar mission next year. Is a new global space race underway? Guests: Joan Johnson-Freese, chair of the Department of National Security Studies, Naval War College IRA FLATOW, host: This is TALK OF THE NATION: SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. A little bit later in the hour, we'll talk about the life of rocket engineer Wernher von Braun and the political judgments about him. But first, this week, China launched a rocket, carrying a satellite right to the moon. It's a probe. The Chang'e One, named after a mythical woman who travelled to the moon. And it's going to orbit the moon taking pictures and collecting data. Later missions onboard will send a - on the board, later missions, I guess, to be launched will send a lander to the surface. The Chinese are going to collect samples from the surface, eventually land humans there. Does this sound familiar to you? Well, we've been there before. It looks like China, though, is not the only country with eyes on the moon. Japan launched a mission last month to the moon. India scheduled to fire off its own moon shot early next year. And the U.S., of course - President Bush has plans to return to the moon, set up a base there, possibly a stepping stone to go into Mars. So are we going back to the days of an international space race? Joining me now is Joan Johnson-Freese. Joan Johnson-Freese, she's the chair of the Department of National Security Studies at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and author of several books and space programs around the world. She joins by phone. Welcome to the program. Dr. JOAN JOHNSON-FREESE (Chair, Department of National Security Studies, Naval War College) Thank you very much for having me. FLATOW: Is this deja vu all over again for you? Dr. JOHNSON-FREESE: Well, the Chinese have definitely read the Apollo playbook and know all the benefits that can be reaped from investments in space. FLATOW: Mm-hmm. Joan, is this about science and technology? Or is it about what eventually we turned into a political race? Dr. JOHNSON-FREESE: Well, techno-nationalism, the idea that you use technology to gain regional or global influence is certainly a driver, if not the primary driver, behind many of these space missions. FLATOW: Mm-hmm. Dr. JOHNSON-FREESE: But there is also - everything that we gain from Apollo -jobs, students gaining interest in science and technology, careers, spinoffs into many areas, including the military to be reaped from these space missions. FLATOW: Mm-hmm. Let's talk about what the mission actually is because I think it got virtually no coverage in this country. Dr. JOHNSON-FREESE: Very little. It's important to note that their robotic lunar mission - what this was all about - is very separate from its manned -from the Chinese manned program. In fact, it's as though - if they were in the United States, it would be as though one were funded by NASA and one from the Air Force. They're not all part of one big program. And the Chinese have never officially announced a manned lunar landing. They have several officials who have talked about it in terms of what they would like to do. But I think these robotic missions will be used as precursor technology demonstrations before they actually announce intentions to land a man on the moon. FLATOW: Mm-hmm. So this is going to be a probe that's going to orbit the moon and take picture. Dr. JOHNSON-FREESE: This one is an orbiter, right. FLATOW: Mm-hmm. Dr. JOHNSON-FREESE: And it will send back data for about a year. And then, of course, they have later on the books, intentions to send a lander and a rover. FLATOW: Do they have an actual time schedule for those? Dr. JOHNSON-FREESE: Oh, the Chinese time schedules are always very flexible. They change very frequently. I think, you know, right now, they're looking to have their complete robotic program completed within the next five to eight years. But I think that's pretty flexible. Their manned lunar program, they launch every two to three years. And there is this perception that they are technically beating the United States. I think that perception is created because they have long-term political will that we seem to be lacking. FLATOW: You think they'll get to the moon back - before we go back to the moon? They'll have their first… Dr. JOHNSON-FREESE: Yes, they do. It will be because they have the political will. It's a tortoise and a hare race. They are moving very slowly and incrementally. And the United States, if we had the money to put to our strategy, we could be there long before the Chinese. But space has always been an expandable government-spending priority. People are very supportive until you ask them to rank order space in terms of what they want to s

How Will the U.S. Engage Iran?

The United States says it will talk with Iran about its nuclear plans if Iran stops enriching uranium. Guests discuss Iran's nuclear future, and whether a U.S. offer to open talks will make a difference. Guests: Kasra Naji, correspondent for Australian ABC Jon Alterman, director, Middle East Program at CSIS Shaul Bakhash, Clarence Robinson professor of history at George Mason University NEAL CONAN, host: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Yesterday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the U.S. would join negotiations with Iran if Iran suspends its uranium enrichment program. It was the first time that Washington signaled a willingness to talk with Tehran since the hostage crisis 27 years ago. Both Secretary Rice, yesterday, and President Bush, speaking earlier today, made it clear that if Iran decides not to accept the offer, the U.S. and its European allies will ask the U.N. Security Counsel to impose economic sanctions. Iran's response to the offer has been mixed. Its foreign minister insists that Iran will not give up the enrichment program. But his statement did not rule out the possibility of talks with the U.S. Today, Secretary Rice meets in Vienna with top officials from Russia, China, and the so-called EU-3; that's Britain, France and Germany, to work out a package of incentives, if Iran agrees to give up pursuit of nuclear weapons. Iran maintains that uranium reprocessing and enrichment are part of a peaceful nuclear energy program, and its right. The change in American tactics follows the public letter that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed to President Bush three weeks ago, and pressure from Europe and from former secretaries of state to join negotiations on Iran's nuclear ambitions. Later on in the program, Motley Fool Dave Gardner answers your investment questions about the rundown on the stock market, the new Treasury secretary, and robotics. But first: Diplomacy with Iran. If you have a question about what's happened this week and what it means, give us a call. Our number here in Washington is 800-989-8255. That's 800-989-TALK. The email address is talk@npr.org. And we begin in Iraq with in - excuse me, in Iran with Kasra Naji, a correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He joins us by phone from his office in Tehran. Nice to have you on the program. Mr. KASRA NAJI (Correspondent, Australian Broadcasting Corporation): Thank you. CONAN: Is mixed a fair description of the Iranian government's response to the American offer? Mr. NAJI: I think mixed is a little bit optimistic. My own impression is that generally, the initial reactions have been somewhat negative. Although, for example, Iranian foreign minister, today was speaking, welcoming the statement by Secretary Rice - but at the same time, saying that Iran will not abandon its enrichment activities. The same message comes from the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry here, saying that there's no problem with direct talks based mutual respect. But the conditions - he said no conditions. We will enter talks without any conditions. Without any pre-conditions, I should say. So it doesn't look too good from here. And we've had, also, hard-line newspapers here, saying that this offer is not worth the paper it's written on. Pretty negative. CONAN: Pretty negative then. Has there been discussion among intellectuals on the street? Is there buzz about this? Mr. NAJI: Not really. Not much. It's not big news here in Iran. Their state owned radio and television, for example, they've been preoccupied with the anniversary of the death of the founder - or the founder of the Iranian Islamic Republic, the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini. And they've been having programs about that, really. It's not big news, although, many newspapers here published the news and headlined the news without much comment. The only comment was from this hard-lined newspaper, saying that this is a ploy to get Russia and China onboard. It has nothing to do with Iran. And Iran will not abandon its enrichment activities. On the street level, there's not a lot of information. People - many people didn't know about this, even, because it's not big news. CONAN: Mm-hmm. Mr. NAJI: And that, generally, it seems that when you talk to them, and when I asked them today, for example, whether they want to talk to the U.S. or not, their opinion is pretty divided. In a sense that some people say that, yes, why not, we can talk to anybody so far as our interests are secured. And some other people are saying that no, no, no. We've had enough from the U.S., and the United States cannot be trusted. So some people are negative. But generally, my own impression these days, reading the newspapers; listening to the radio and television here; talking to the people; is that I get the impression that it's sinking in, that the consequences of sanctions on Iran are going to be serious. And that has made people think again

'Soulcraft' Honors An Honest Day's Work

Matthew Crawford was on what most people would think was the "right track." Then he left his job as executive director at a think tank in Washington to open a motorcycle repair shop. In his new book, Shop Class as Soulcraft, he makes the case that our society has placed too great a value on white-collar work and not enough value on the trades. Crawford tells host Guy Raz that the mechanical arts have a special significance for our time because they cultivate the less glamorous virtue of attentiveness. Anyone looking for a good used machine tool should talk to Noel Dempsey, a dealer in Richmond, Virginia. Noel's bustling warehouse is full of metal lathes, milling machines,and table saws, and it turns out that much of it once resided in schools. EBay is awash in such equipment, also from schools. Most of this stuff has been kicking around the secondhand market for about fifteen years; it was in the 1990s that shop class started to become a thing of the past, as educators prepared students to become "knowledge workers." The disappearance of tools from our common education is the first step toward a wider ignorance of the world of artifacts we inhabit. And, in fact, an engineering culture has developed in recent years in which the object is to "hide the works," rendering many of the devices we depend on every day unintelligible to direct inspection. Lift the hood on some cars now (especially German ones), and the engine appears a bit like the shimmering, featureless obelisk that so enthralled the proto-humans in the opening scene of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Essentially, there is another hood under the hood. This creeping concealedness takes various forms. The fasteners holding small appliances together now often require esoteric screwdrivers not commonly available, apparently to prevent the curious or the angry from interrogating the innards. By way of contrast, older readers will recall that until recent decades, Sears catalogues included blown- up parts diagrams and conceptual schematics for all appliances and many other mechanical goods. It was simply taken for granted that such information would be demanded by the consumer. A decline in tool use would seem to betoken a shift in our relationship to our own stuff: more passive and more dependent. And indeed, there are fewer occasions for the kind of spiritedness that is called forth when we take things in hand for ourselves, whether to fix them or to make them. What ordinary people once made, they buy; and what they once fixed for themselves, they replace entirely or hire an expert to repair, whose expert fix often involves replacing an entire system because some minute component has failed. In this book I would like to speak up for an ideal that is timeless but finds little accommodation today: manual competence, and the stance it entails toward the built, material world. Neither as workers nor as consumers are we much called upon to exercise such competence, most of us anyway, and merely to recommend its cultivation is to risk the scorn of those who take themselves to be the most hardheaded: the hardheaded economist will point out the "opportunity costs" of spending one's time making what can be bought, and the hardheaded educator will say that it is irresponsible to educate the young for the trades, which are somehow identified as jobs of the past. But we might pause to consider just how hardheaded these presumptions are, and whether they don't, on the contrary, issue from a peculiar sort of idealism, one that insistently steers young people toward the most ghostly kinds of work. Around 1985, articles began to appear in education journals with such titles as "The Soaring Technology Revolution" and "Preparing Kids for High- Tech and the Global Future." Of course, there is nothing new about American futurism. What is new is the wedding of futurism to what might be called "virtualism": a vision of the future in which we somehow take leave of material reality and glide about in a pure information economy. New and yet not so new—for fifty years now we've been assured that we are headed for a "postindustrial society." While manufacturing jobs have certainly left our shores to a disturbing degree, the manual trades have not. If you need a deck built, or your car fixed, the Chinese are of no help. Because they are in China. And in fact there are chronic labor shortages in both construction and auto repair. Yet the trades and manufacturing have long been lumped together in the mind of the pundit class as "blue collar," and their requiem is intoned. More recently, this consensus has begun to show signs of cracking; in 2006 the Wall Street Journal wondered whether "skilled [manual] labor is becoming one of the few sure paths to a good living." This book is concerned less with economics than it is with the experience of making things and fixing things. I also want to consider what is at stake when such experiences recede from our common life. How does this af

Not My Job: We Ask 'Sopranos' Star Edie Falco 3 Questions About Tenors

Since Falco starred in The Sopranos, we've invited her to play a game called "Woke up this morning and got myself an aria" — three questions about tenors. <em>Originally broadcast April 21, 2018.</em>

Fresh Air Weekend: 'Veep' Actor Tony Hale; Sobriety And Sex; 'What A Fish Knows'

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: There's A Reason Why I Play Anxious Characters,' Says 'Veep' Actor Tony Hale: Hale played Buster on Arrested Development and is Gary Walsh on the HBO series Veep. "It comes from a lot of personal anxiety," Hale says. "It's really fun to bring that into the characters." Sobering Up, And Facing The Reality Of Sex Without 'Liquid Courage': Author Sarah Hepola had to rethink her sex life after she quit drinking when she was 35. "Nothing frightened me as much as sex without alcohol," she says. Fish Have Feelings, Too: The Inner Lives Of Our 'Underwater Cousins': Jonathan Balcombe, author of What A Fish Knows, says that fish have a conscious awareness — or "sentience" — that allows them to experience pain, recognize individual humans and have memory. You can listen to the original interviews here: 'There's A Reason Why I Play Anxious Characters,' Says 'Veep' Actor Tony Hale Sobering Up, And Facing The Reality Of Sex Without 'Liquid Courage' Fish Have Feelings, Too: The Inner Lives Of Our 'Underwater Cousins'

The Chesapeake Connect Podcast

Conversations with our region's leaders about the issues that shape our lives today and in the future. Chesapeake Connect is a program of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, the council of local governments serving central Maryland.

Mullen: Pakistan's Spy Agency Has Terrorist Links

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is on a delicate mission to Pakistan. With relations already frayed, Mullen shot back with his own specific complaints about the relationship between Pakistan's spy agency and one of the main Afghan insurgent groups.

'Adrift' In Time And Water, Lovers Battle To Find A Course

To date, the Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur has made one film about a fisherman who survived in freezing water after his boat capsized off the Ireland coast (The Deep), another about a blizzard that wiped eight climbers off the summit of Mount Everest in 1996 (Everest), and now one more about a hurricane that pummeled a yacht in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, leaving its sailors wounded and badly off-course. Kormákur is a disaster artist, the type of a filmmaker who likes to take his camera outside and witness resilient humans doing battle against the indomitable forces of nature. He even sports the nice, bushy beard of a true outdoorsman. Yet Adrift, his new film, succeeds because it's foremost a romance, even when the desperate necessities of survival command most of its attention. Based on the true story of Tami Oldham and Richard Sharp, two sailors who took their fateful ocean journey together in 1983, the film includes their courtship in Tahiti and their adventures at sea, but makes the crucial decision to interweave the two timelines, rather than follow a straight chronology. So what might have been a typical disaster movie about perfunctorily established characters heading into peril together—like, say, Kormákur's Everest—instead becomes a love story that keeps asserting and reinforcing itself as the film goes along. It's elegant in the cutting. In order for Adrift to work as conceived, the chemistry between the stars is crucial, and Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin, as Tami and Richard, sell the efficient sketchwork of the scripting. We have to believe that Richard could say a line like "I crossed half the world to find you" and not find it tacky or unbelievable, given their brief, whirlwind affair before hitting the water. Pieces of their backstories help sell their partnership: Both grew up with the sort of complicated family lives that had them gasping for fresh oxygen, and both share a devil-may-care sense of adventure. Their actions are physical and instinctual, and they develop an intimacy that's so much easier than dating rituals of fussbuckets confined to dry land. As Tami and Richard figure out their next step, an elderly couple (Jeffrey Thomas and Elizabeth Hawthorne) approach Richard, the more seasoned sailor the two, with an offer: For $10,000 and two first-class tickets back to the island, would he be willing to dock their beautifully appointed yacht in San Diego? The money would be enough to fund Tami and Richard's frugal seafaring for a year, and even if it weren't, the opportunity to take this journey together has its own priceless appeals. So off they head across the Pacific until they run smack into Hurricane Raymond, which shreds the boat, knocks Tami unconscious, and leaves Richard with injuries so severe that he's entirely incapacitated. He can give guidance and support to Tami, but otherwise he's dead weight. The ingenious structure of Adrift has one timeline chasing the other without ever catching up. The opening sequence finds Tami scrambling to find Richard and get her bearings after waking in a flooded cabin, then the film flashes back to her time working the docks in Tahiti, when she first trades come-hither glances with him. The earlier timeline takes a while to catch up to the point where the hurricane strikes, and the later one details a near-impossible to plan to drift toward the narrow target of Hawaii before the scant supplies of food and water run out. Scenes of the happy couple flirting at the market and doing their best From Here to Eternity on the shore are intercut with dangerous dives to free a jammed rudder and the rationing of canned sardines. Yet past and present rhyme beautifully with each other, to where gestures of affection and acts of resilience become one and the same, like the shorthand that develops between lovers. Kormákur can't outdo the minimalism of All is Lost, which devoted itself purely to the quiet fight against mounting catastrophe, so he opts for a large-scale swooner with cinematography by three-time Oscar-winner Robert Richardson and emotions that suit the panorama. There's a likelihood that Adrift would have been merely generic had it been sequenced more conventionally, but the effect of Tami and Richard communicating across an ocean of time gives the film a lift. The title has a double meaning, describing both their windswept amble through the Pacific and a shared philosophy of going wherever life takes them. If death is beyond the horizon, they're inclined to accept it and keep sailing off into the sunset.

Hospital Group Agrees to $21 Billion Buyout

HCA, the former Hospital Corporation of America, agrees to sell itself to a group of investors in a deal valued at more than $21 billion. The HCA board has approved the deal, which it plans to recommend to shareholders. But other bidders could emerge: The deal includes a provision allowing HCA's board to solicit better offers. The investment firms taking part in the deal include Merrill Lynch, Bain Capital and Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts. While it may not be a household name, HCA owns 176 hospitals and 92 ambulatory surgery centers, making it the largest hospital chain in the country. The family of Senate Majority leader William Frist, which founded the company, will also retain a significant equity position. The move is an attempt by the company to respond to changes in the industry. The marketplace for hospitals right now is very tight, with specialty hospitals emerging that often take the most lucrative business for themselves. That trend has left hospital chains like HCA with a dwindling pool of uninsured patients and costly treatment cases. HCA said today that its profit for the second quarter of this year was $295 million, down from $405 million a year earlier. ROBERT SIEGEL, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. MICHELE NORRIS, host: And I'm Michele Norris. It's one of the largest leveraged buyouts in U.S. history. The HCA Corporation, the biggest hospital chain in the country, said today it's being acquired by a group of private investors. The new owners will pay about $21 billion in cash and take on another $11 billion in debt. As NPR's Jim Zarroli reports, the buyout takes place at a time when many hospitals are feeling new financial strains. JIM ZARROLI reporting: HCA may not be a household name but it's a company that touches the lives of millions of people every year. The company owns 176 hospital and 92 outpatient surgery centers, making it the largest hospital chain in the country. Today, the company announced it's being acquired by a group of private capital firms, including KKR and Bain Capital. The family of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, which founded the company, will also retain a significant equity position. The move is an attempt by the company to respond to some big changes in the industry. Dr. JEAN MITCHELL (Georgetown University): The marketplace for hospitals right now is very, very difficult. ZARROLI: Jean Mitchell is a healthcare economist who teaches at Georgetown University. Mitchell says that as physician pay has gone down, doctors in some states have responded by starting hospitals of their own and they often refer some of the most lucrative cases there. Dr. MITCHELL: The issue is that the specialty hospitals tend to take the cream. They take the low-risk cases and they take the patients with better insurance coverage. ZARROLI: That's left hospital chains like HCA with more and more uninsured patients who sometimes need very costly treatments. HCA said today its profit for the second quarter of this year was $295 million, down from $405 million a year earlier. Cheryl Skolnick, who analyzes healthcare for CRT Capital, says companies like HCA still make attractive investments. Ms. SHERYL SKOLNICK (Analyst, CRT Capital): They still have very significant cash flows from operations. I mean, on a normalized basis, the business would generate somewhere between $2.5 and $3.5 billion a year in cash. That's a lot of money. ZARROLI: But Skolnick says that if companies like HCA are to keep generating profits, they'll need to make some major adjustments. For instance, she notes that Medicare is planning some big changes in the way it reimburses healthcare providers. These changes will force hospitals to shift resources around. Ms. SKOLNICK: And so you may want to close down or restructure some capacity, or not invest in new capacity in cardiac and orthopedic programs, but you might want to then redirect it to a burn unit. ZARROLI: Skolnick says these changes can take time and they can be unpopular with shareholders, who often have short-term expectations. Taking a company private can make it easier to carry out the changes that need to be made, says analyst Frank Morgan of Jefferies & Company. Mr. FRANK MORGAN (Analyst, Jefferies & Company): If you do make strategic changes, you have to answer to a much smaller constituency. You've got, you know, your three or four private investors, as opposed to thousands of shareholders around the country and thousands of analysts who are analyzing every move that you make. ZARROLI: For HCA, the decision to go private conveys other advantages, too. HCA will no longer have to pay dividends to shareholders and it won't have to comply with post-Enron accounting regulations that many companies consider onerous. That will give it the resources and the time to regroup and adjust to a competitive landscape that's turned a lot tougher. Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.

Senate Democrats Propose Surtax On Millionaires

Senate Democrats are making a change to President Obama's jobs bill. They want to pay for it by putting a five percent surtax on earnings over $1 million. Congressional Republicans were quick to dismiss the surtax idea.

From His February Concert

From his February concert at the University of Chicago's Mandel Hall, virtuoso pianist and Chopin expert Garrick Ohlsson plays Allegro de concert in A Major and Polonaise in A-flat by Frederic Chopin. (Ken Rasek Recordings)

Jobs Friday: Extremely Not Good

Forty-nine thousand. That's the number of jobs created in the US economy in the month of January. It's not a great number: worse than economists had expected. The longer-term trend isn't encouraging, either. Back in August, September, and October, the economy was creating almost a million jobs a month on average, as it recovered from the pandemic recession. But for the last three months, in response to the surge in coronavirus cases, the economy has been creating only about 29 thousand jobs per month. Those are the top-line numbers. Today we look at some of the data behind those figures: the gap between today's numbers and those of nearly a year ago, just before the pandemic; the number of people who dropped out of the labor force in January; and the number of permanently unemployed. Charts from The Federal Reserve Economic Data: Total Jobs Monthly Change in Jobs Permanent Job Losers Labor Force Participation Rate Music by Drop Electric. Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Newsletter. Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, PocketCasts and NPR One.

Talks Yield Possible Framework For Iran Nuclear Deal

Pressure is increasing for a deal over limiting Iran's nuclear program in exchange for reduced economic sanctions. Negotiators have one month until the current temporary agreement will expire.

When to Exit the Race

How does a candidate know when it's the right time to drop out of the race? We'll hear from Jerry Brown, who ran for the Democratic nomination in 1992 and stayed in until the convention.<br /> <br /> Guests: <br /><br /> <STRONG> Ken Rudin</STRONG> <br /> *NPR's political editor <br /><br /> <STRONG> Jennifer Duffy</STRONG> <br /> *Analyst with the <EM>Cook Political Report</EM><br /><br /> <STRONG>Jerry Brown</STRONG> <br /> *Mayor of Oakland<br /> *Democratic presidential candidate in 1992<br />

A Mississippi Family Decides to Return Home

Signs of recovery dot the Mississippi Gulf Coast: FEMA trailers are everywhere, debris has been removed, signs for slab and stump removal abound, and some businesses are open. Yet residents are in a holding pattern, waiting for word of money authorized by Congress in December 2005 to be funneled through the states, for federal loans and to find out about new elevation requirements. Karen and Buddy Clarke, and their 15-year-old son Harry, are an example of a family with mixed emotions over the slow rebuilding process. Their house was 10 feet from the bayou in Pass Christian, Miss. After Katrina, the Clarkes returned to an uninhabitable residence, filled with dead shrimp and fish in the mud inside. The Clarkes are living in neighboring Long Beach now, and have decided to go back to Pass Christian. It wasn't a decision that came easily, though. Buddy, a land surveyor, and Harry wanted to return, but Karen, a registered nurse, was not so sure. The family has lived in Pass Christian for 20 years, and Karen says the process of packing up and leaving every time a hurricane approaches had grown "too traumatic." But a plastic statue of St. Joseph helped change her mind. Karen, Buddy and Harry discuss how each dealt with the devastation of Hurricane Katrina -- and reached the decision to return to Pass Christian.