Search results for

NPR's Peter Kenyon reports that the marriage tax penalty reduction bill was passed in Congress. President Clinton is expected to veto it because of changes which add up to $50-Billion dollars over ten years. The bill is part of a Republican strategy to parcel out tax reduction votes one at a time over the presidential campaign season.

NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports that kids are attending summer schools in record numbers. In St. Louis, about half of all students are enrolled in summer classes. Parents, teachers and police are pleased with the trend. And lots of kids seem to enjoy summer school, too. But the evidence is mixed on whether it improves academic performance.

Plans for a World War Two monument on the National Mall in Washington, seem to be moving forward despite opposition from some groups (including some veterans). Those opposed say the design and location would clutter the National Mall; violate the integrity of the Lincoln Memorial and its' surroundings; and may even be illegal. Alex Van Oss reports.

Linda talks to S.L. Price, senior writer at Sports Illustrated, about Cuban baseball player Andy Morales, who has repeatedly tried to defect from Cuba to the United States. Morales is currently being detained by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, after successfully crossing the Florida Strait to an island off Key West.

NPR's John Ydstie reports that Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan gave his bi-annual state of the U.S. economy speech on Capitol Hill yesterday. Greenspan was upbeat and said the economy seems to be slowing to a more healthy pace.

It's taken a quarter century of watching and waiting, but physicists have finally caught up with an elementary particle called the tau neutrino. These elusive subatomic particles are one of the fundamental bits that make up the matter of the universe. NPR's David Kestenbaum reports scientists at the Fermi National Accellerator Laboratory near Chicago found direct evidence of the particle, which had been theorized, but never proven, to exist.

There's a poem about neutrinos that many physicists have tacked to their walls. It's by John Updike, and it's titled, Cosmic Gall. (1:00) Click here to read the poem

NPR's Madeline Brand reports that Vice President Al Gore took his presidential campaign into the heart of Texas, visiting San Antonio, and criticizing Governor George W. Bush's tax breaks for oil companies.

The House has passed two measures that would loosen the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. One would end enforcement of the ban on sales of food and drugs to Cuba; the other would end enforcement of the ban on travel by Americans to Cuba. It's uncertain that either provision will become law this year, because Senate Majority Leader Trentt Lott is opposed to any easing of restrictions against Cuba.

NPR's Anne Sutton reports on the shortfall in salmon returns in Western Alaskan waters for the second year in a row. State Governor Tony Knowles has already started the paperwork to provide state aid; now the state is seeking federal assistance too.