NPR News

Pages

The Salt
3:06 am
Tue June 18, 2013

Hot Dogs, Bacon And Red Meat Tied To Increased Diabetes Risk

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 1:52 pm

You've likely heard about the link between sugar consumption and Type 2 diabetes. But fresh research ties another dietary pattern to increased risk of the disease, too: eating too much red meat.

Read more
Around the Nation
3:05 am
Tue June 18, 2013

Why Buy A House When You Can Buy A Mountain?

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 1:55 pm

It's not your everyday real estate deal. A team of young entrepreneurs persuaded about 50 deep-pocketed investors to help them purchase a mountain. The deal just closed in April, and development on Utah's nearly 10,000-acre Powder Mountain is now underway.

"When we made those first phone calls, everybody's like, what? That being said, they know that we aren't kidding," says Jeff Rosenthal, co-founder of Summit, the group that led the purchase of the peak.

Read more
Education
2:56 am
Tue June 18, 2013

Study: Teacher Prep Programs Get Failing Marks

Credit iStockphoto.com
Teachers are not coming out of the nation's colleges of education ready, according to a study released Tuesday by U.S.News & World Report and the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 1:52 pm

The U.S. spends more than $7 billion a year preparing classroom teachers, but teachers are not coming out of the nation's colleges of education ready, according to a study released Tuesday by U.S.News & World Report and the National Council on Teacher Quality.

The study says most schools of education are in disarray.

Read more
The Two-Way
7:21 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Obama Would Veto House's Farm Bill, White House Says

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 3:12 pm

President Obama will be advised to veto a multi-year farm bill slated to be discussed in the House this week, the White House says. The administration issued a statement on the legislation Monday afternoon, criticizing it for cutting food programs for the poor.

At more than 575 pages, the bipartisan bill was introduced by Reps. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and Collin Peterson, D-Minn., the chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Agriculture.

Read more
The Salt
6:31 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Dirty Spuds? Alleged Potato Cartel Accused Of Price Fixing

Credit iStockphoto.com
Clearly, he's as surprised by the allegations as the rest of us.

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 4:09 pm

Editor's Note: Many of you noted that the price for a 10-pound bag of potatoes cited in the lawsuit seems ridiculously high. So we look into the matter further — you can read what we found in this follow-up post.

High-tech spying with satellites. Intimidation. Price fixing.

Read more
The Two-Way
6:15 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Woman Freed In Indiana Was A Convict On Death Row At 16

Credit Lake County PD / AP
Paula Cooper was freed from prison Monday, nearly three decades after being sentenced to death for murder. She's seen here in a 1985 police photo.

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 6:46 pm

Paula Cooper, 43, left prison Monday morning, decades after she became America's youngest resident of death row at age 16. She had confessed to the 1985 murder of Bible studies teacher Ruth Pelke, 78, in Gary, Ind. Cooper's death sentence was commuted in 1989, after widespread appeals for mercy.

Read more
Shots - Health News
6:03 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

The Human Voice May Not Spark Pleasure In Children With Autism

Credit Rich Pedroncelli / AP
Instructional assistant Jessica Reeder touches her nose to get Jacob Day, 3, who has autism, to focus his attention on her during a therapy session in April 2007.

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 11:31 am

The human voice appears to trigger pleasure circuits in the brains of typical kids, but not children with autism, a Stanford University team reports. The finding could explain why many children with autism seem indifferent to spoken words.

Read more
Monkey See
5:18 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Teens Find The Right Tools For Their Social-Media Jobs

Credit Anatoliy Babiy / iStockphoto.com
When you need to illustrate a story about proliferating social-media platforms, it's good to know that an enterprising stock photographer has probably thought about it already.

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 5:45 pm

Once upon a time, it was MySpace. (Huh. Turns out you can still link to it.) Then Facebook happened. And Twitter. And beyond those two dominant social-media platforms, there are a host of other, newer options for staying in touch and letting the digital universe get a look at your life. And for certain kinds of sharing, some of those other options make more sense to tech-savvy teens than the Big Two do.

Read more
Code Switch
5:12 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

How Do You Teach The Civil Rights Movement?

Credit Jim Bourdier / AP
A protestor is carried away from a demonstration in Jacksonville 50 years ago.

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 9:37 pm

Note: As part of NPR's series on the summer of 1963, reporter Cory Turner headed to Jackson, Miss. to take a look at how folks are teaching the Civil Rights movement to kids who weren't a part of it — and making the lessons stick.

Much has changed in the past 50 years, since the height of the Civil Rights movement. But how do you teach the Civil Rights to kids who haven't ever experienced it? In Jackson, Miss., Fannie Lou Hamer Institute's Summer Youth Workshop tackles that question.

Read more
Shots - Health News
4:40 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

After Long Search, Komen Foundation Replaces Brinker As CEO

Credit Getty Images
Nancy Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, seen at a dinner honoring the recipients of the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors in December.

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 9:45 am

The Komen Foundation for the Cure has a new chief executive.

Dr. Judith Salerno, 61, a geriatrician, is replacing Nancy Brinker, the philanthropy's founder and longtime CEO, the group said Monday.

"Judy's years of proven leadership in public policy and research make her the right choice to lead all aspects of Komen's mission," said Linda Custard, chair of the Komen board, in a statement.

Read more
Energy
4:36 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Calif. Wonders About Energy Future After Nuclear Plant Closes

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 5:45 pm

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

In Southern California, the power grid is always a hot topic. It's a part of the country that is all too familiar with the rolling blackouts. And now there is more reason for concern about the region's capacity to generate electricity. The San Onofre nuclear power plant is shutting down for good, thanks to worn-out parts. It's been off-line for more than a year after a pipe was found leaking radioactive steam. At its peak, San Onofre provided power for 1.4 million homes.

Read more
Europe
4:26 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Northern Ireland A Poignant Location For G-8 Summit

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 5:45 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

In his speech in Belfast, President Obama talked at length about the transformation of that city from conflict zone to a city bustling with normal healthy daily life. He got the biggest burst of applause when he tossed in a bit of Irish vernacular.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Students lounge at cafes asking each other, what's the crack?

BLOCK: What's the crack? Translation, how you doin'? Are you having fun?

OBAMA: So to paraphrase Seamus Hayden(ph), it's the manifestation of sheer bloody genius. This island is now chic.

Read more
Law
4:26 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Supreme Court Strikes Down Arizona Voting Rule

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 8:27 pm

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down a state-mandated requirement that prospective voters in Arizona provide proof of citizenship to be able to register to vote in national elections. But some experts are concerned that the court may have inserted a few "poison pills" in its opinion that would damage voting-rights protections someday down the road.

Read more
World
4:26 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

G-8 Summit To Tackle Trade, Syria, Slow Economic Growth

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 5:45 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And I'm Robert Siegel. We begin this hour with the annual Group of 8 summit in Northern Ireland. Today, President Obama and the other G8 leaders huddled at a resort there. Among the many topics, the bloody civil war in Syria. President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down to talk about Syria, acknowledging that they have, as Mr. Obama said, differing perspectives.

Read more
Around the Nation
4:26 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Collection Of Kids' Shoes Carries Message About Gun Violence

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 5:45 pm

Old shoes can tell a story. A mother in New Jersey is hoping her exhibit of old shoes will help young people avoid violence. She's trying to collect a pair of shoes connected to every young person killed by gun violence in the U.S. in 1998 — the year her son was shot to death.

Pages