Folk Show
9:19 pm
Sun December 18, 2011

Folk Calendar 12.18.11

Monday, December 19

>>>Natalie MacMaster at St. Johnsbury Academy ~ St. Johnsbury, VT ~ 7pm ~ 802-748-2600

www.CatamountArts.com

Thursday, December 22 & Friday, December 23

>>>Relative Strangers Reunion Concerts

at Hooker-Dunham Theater & Gallery ~ Brattleboro, VT ~ 7:30 PM ~ www.twilightmusic.org, 802-254-9276

Friday, December 23

>>>Harvey Reid &Joyce Andersen

at the First Parish Church ~ Dover, NH ~ 7:30pm ~ www.seacoastguitar.org

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Folk Show
8:11 pm
Sun December 18, 2011

Folk Show Playlist 12.4.11

 

Song/Artist/Album/Label

Johnny's An Angel/Tom Dean & Rex FowlerImagined - John Lennon Song Project/Tom Dean and Rex Fowler

No Joke/Pat Donohue/Nobody's Fault/Bluesky Records

Old White Men/Vance Gilbert/Old White Men/Disismye Music

Sunday in Paradise/Curt Bessette/Single /Curt Bressette

Across The Water/Ari & Mia/Unruly Heart/Ari & Mia

The Bushes Of Jerusalem/Mick Moloney and Athena Tergis/An Irish Christmas, A Musical Solstice Celebration/Irish Arts Center

Second Chances/Hot Tuna/Steady As She Goes/Red House Records

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Leaving Iraq
8:27 am
Sun December 18, 2011

With Huge Embassy, U.S. Still A Presence In Iraq

Credit Handout / Getty Images
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani speaks at the opening of the huge U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Jan. 5, 2009. It is the largest U.S. Embassy in the world.

Originally published on Sat December 17, 2011 9:00 pm

As the final U.S. troops leave Iraq, they leave behind the largest U.S. Embassy in the world.

There will be about 16,000 people working for the State Department at the embassy in Baghdad and consulates elsewhere in Iraq.

At least 5,000 of those in Iraq will be private security contractors, and there are lots of questions about whether the State Department is ready to run such a big operation in such a volatile country.

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A former NPR Moscow bureau chief, Michele Kelemen now covers the State Department and Washington's diplomatic corps. Her reports can be heard on all NPR News programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

In her latest beat, Kelemen has been traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from Asia to the Middle East and Europe, tracking the Obama administration's broad foreign policy agenda. She also followed the two previous Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell and was part of the NPR team that won the 2007 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the war in Iraq.

As NPR's Moscow bureau chief, Kelemen chronicled the end of the Yeltsin era and Vladimir Putin's consolidation of power. She recounted the terrible toll of the latest war in Chechnya and the tragedy of the sinking of the nuclear submarine Kursk. She also brought to listeners a lighter side of Russia, with stories about modern day Russian literature and sports.

Kelemen came to NPR in September 1998, after eight years working for the Voice of America. There, she learned the ropes as a news writer, newscaster and show host.

Michele earned her Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Russian and East European Affairs and International Economics.

Mitt Romney
8:20 am
Sun December 18, 2011

Romney Seeks Gingrich's Tea Party Lead In S.C.

Credit Richard Ellis / Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a town hall meeting Saturday in Charleston, S.C. Romney is hoping to gain conservative support following the endorsement of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Originally published on Sun December 18, 2011 6:15 am

It was warm and beautiful in the seaside resort of Myrtle Beach, S.C., Saturday, where Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney held his final town hall meeting of the weekend. As he stood surrounded by supporters wearing campaign T-shirts, Romney's mood seemed as sunny as the 65-degree weather outside.

Romney had a lot to be happy about. South Carolina's Tea Party-backed Gov. Nikki Haley had not only endorsed him, she regaled him with glowing tributes at every campaign stop in the multi-city tour.

Lining Up With The Tea Party

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Remembrances
7:03 am
Sun December 18, 2011

Albright Remembers Havel As An Artist, Hero

Originally published on Sun December 18, 2011 6:32 pm

Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright who led a revolution to bring down the country's communist regime, died Sunday morning at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic. He was 75.

Havel's close friend, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, was born in Czechoslovakia. She says he fit right in the center of the modern history of Eastern Europe.

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EarthTalk
12:00 am
Sun December 18, 2011

Asthma Rates on the Increase

Credit iStock/Thinkstock

EarthTalk®
E - The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that asthma rates in the U.S. have doubled in the last three decades? What's behind this troubling trend and what can we do to reverse it?                 -- Patrick, via e-mail

 

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EarthTalk
12:00 am
Sun December 18, 2011

Why Should I Bother to Recycle?

Credit iStock/Thinkstock

EarthTalk®
E - The Environmental Magazine

 

Dear EarthTalk: Recycling can be a somewhat time-consuming task; so can you please provide some benefits of taking the time to separate my trash?                             -- Joseph Jiminez, Houston, TX

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The Two-Way
9:39 pm
Sat December 17, 2011

Senate OKs Two More Months For Payroll Tax Cut

Originally published on Sat December 17, 2011 1:49 pm

The U.S. Senate wrapped up a tumultuous year of divided government with votes that keep the federal government funded through September and extend expiring unemployment benefits and a payroll tax cut another two months.

In a rare Saturday year-end session, the Senate's action averted a shutdown but was not the last word on the payroll tax cut extension.

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David Welna is NPR's congressional correspondent.

Serving in this role since the final days of the Clinton administration and primarily following the Senate, Welna reports on many issues he covered earlier in his career reporting both inside and outside of the United States. In addition he's covered the September 11, 2001 attacks, the wars that followed, and the economic downturn and recession. Prior to this position, Welna covered the 2000 presidential election and the post-election vote count battle in Florida.

In mid-1998, after 15 years of reporting from abroad for NPR, Welna joined NPR's Chicago bureau. During that posting, he reported on a wide range of issues: changes in Midwestern agriculture that are putting pressures on small farmers, how foreign conflicts and economic crises affect people in the heartland, and efforts to improve public education. His background in Latin America informed his coverage of the saga of Elian Gonzalez both in Miami and Cuba.

Welna first filed stories for NPR as a freelancer in 1982, based in Buenos Aires. From there, and subsequently from Rio de Janeiro, he covered events throughout South America. In 1995, Welna became the chief of NPR's Mexico bureau.

Additionally, he has reported for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, The Financial Times, and The Times of London. Welna's photography has appeared in Esquire, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Covering a wide range of stories in Latin America, Welna chronicled the wrenching 1985 trial of Argentina's former military leaders who presided over the disappearance of tens of thousands of suspected dissidents. In Brazil, he visited a town in Sao Paulo state called Americana where former slaveholders from America relocated after the Civil War. Welna covered the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the mass exodus of Cubans who fled the island on rafts in 1994, the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, and the US intervention in Haiti to restore Jean Bertrand Aristide to Haiti's presidency.

Welna was honored with the 2011 Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress, given by the National Press Foundation. In 1995, Welna he was awarded an Overseas Press Club award for his coverage of Haiti. During that same year he was chosen by the Latin American Studies Association to receive their annual award for distinguished coverage of Latin America. Welna was awarded a 1997 Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. In 2002, Welna was elected by his colleagues to a two-year term as a member of the Executive Committee of the Congressional Radio-Television Correspondents' Galleries.

A native of Minnesota, Welna graduated magna cum laude from Carleton College in Northfield, MN, with a Bachelor of Arts and distinction in Latin American Studies. He speaks fluent Spanish, French, and Portuguese.

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