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Impeachment Latest; India demonstrations; UN Climate Conference

Impeachment moves to the Senate this week and Republicans are making no secret of their allegiance to President Trump. In Madrid, the UN Climate Conference ends in disappointment. And demonstrators in India are protesting a new law that would limit the rights of Muslims.

Twin Sisters Give Birth On The Same Day, At Same Time

Leah Rodgers gave birth to a son at 1:18 a.m. MT in Denver last Thursday. An hour later in La Jolla, Calif., at 1:18 a.m. PT, Leah's twin sister, Sarah Mariuz, welcomed a daughter.

Sharapova Models Fashion Student's Blinking Dress

Former Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova wore a prototype dress that is designed to light up when the wearer's cell phone rings. British fashion student Georgie Davis dreamed up the knee-length sleeveless white dress as part of a school project. The project was done in conjunction with mobile phone-maker Sony Ericsson to figure out ways to incorporate new technology into fashion.

3 Police Shot, 1 Fatally, In Ambush-Style Attacks

Three police officers were shot, including one fatally, in separate ambush-style attacks in San Antonio, St. Louis and Sanibel, Florida. A fourth officer was also shot outside of Kansas City, Missouri, however that was not said to be a targeted attack. Here & Now‘s Robin Young talks about the attacks with Shelley Kofler (@ShelleyKofler), news director for Texas Public Radio, and Rachel Lippmann (@rlippmann), a reporter for St. Louis Public Radio.

Chief of the Houston Police Department Comments On Policing Reforms

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Chief of the Houston Police Department Art Acevedo about his Wednesday testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

Too Weird To Be True? In China, You Never Can Tell

Here are some of the recent news stories that went viral in China that you may have missed: The man who tried to smuggle his pet turtle onto a plane inside a hamburger box. The zoo that tried to pass off a Tibetan mastiff as a lion. And the 1 million cockroaches that escaped from a cockroach "nursery." Foreign news coverage of China is often deadly serious, focusing on topics such as politics, corruption, pollution and food safety. But China — like the United States — also produces a steady stream of funny, bizarre and outrageous news stories. And these days, you don't have to read Chinese to enjoy them. A growing number of websites are making these offbeat tales increasingly available to English-speaking audiences. One of the more amusing recent stories began as an investigative TV report about an exotic fungus unearthed by a farmer in western China's Shaanxi province. "A village in Shaanxi is purported to have found this incredible rare mushroom," explains James Griffiths, the editor of Shanghaiist, an English-language news blog launched in 2005 that draws about half a million readers a month. (It's owned by Gothamist, a U.S.-based company that runs a network of city blogs.) Villagers said they had come across it as they hit bedrock while drilling a new well. Griffiths describes the news report in which a female TV reporter "picks up the mushroom and shows it off and the villagers are all standing in the back looking proud. And basically, the moment it hit the Internet, everyone pointed out: 'That's a sex toy!' " The next day, the TV program issued an apology, noting that the reporter was still very young and "unwise to the ways of the world." Soon afterward, the inevitable cellphone video surfaced showing a street vendor trying to sell more "magic mushrooms" for up to $3,000 apiece. He played the TV report on his laptop as a testimonial and batted away skeptical questions. "The news is real," the con man says with a straight face. "How can it be a lie?" China's Internet is a target-rich environment for stuff like this. "We've got over a billion people here," says Griffiths, a 24-year-old Briton. "It's not hard to find weird stories." What's Hot With China's Netizens ChinaSMACK, which is written by Chinese nationals, was one of the first English-language blogs to highlight strange stories. It started in 2008 and now claims about 750,000 readers a month. ChinaSMACK's specialty is translating comments by Chinese Web users on articles so English readers can get a sense of popular opinion here. Recent posts include a photo of a Chinese official eating a pear with his phone off the hook, which helps explain why it's often impossible to get through to government offices. Another post shows pictures of a 22-year-old intern who parked a Maserati in the middle of a city street. Chinese readers figured she was the daughter of a tycoon, a military officer or worse. "Some may think this car is bought by a government official [for] his mistress," says Peter Nie, a junior editor with ChinaSMACK who translated the story. Nie lives in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu and says he works for ChinaSMACK in exchange for beer money. Mistresses are big on social media here because they are so common. ChinaSMACK recently posted an episode of a TV show that was supposed to be about traffic safety. A cheerful, friendly cop pulls over a couple for not wearing their seat belts. Having forgotten his license, the driver calls his wife to bring it to him. His passenger — a pretty, 20-something in a blue sundress — panics and flees the scene. After the wife arrives, the cop indicates that the AWOL passenger still owes an 81 cent fine for not wearing her seat belt. Already suspicious, the wife quickly realizes who her husband has been out with and becomes angry. "Now, you guys know how important respecting traffic regulations is, right?" read one comment. ChinaSMACK is run by a woman in Shanghai who goes by the Internet handle "Fauna." She says she likes to remain anonymous to avoid trolls. In an online interview, she says that she started the site to practice her English and expose foreigners to stories that interested Chinese people. "I hope ChinaSMACK can be an interesting way to learn more about what Chinese netizens are paying attention to and how they think, feel, and react," she writes. China's "Daily Show" One of the newest entrants to the field of English-language blogs is China Daily Show, which takes its name from Comedy Central's The Daily Show and China Daily, the Chinese government's English-language newspaper. "It's a satirical news site with fake headlines," says the editor, a British citizen who asks to be identified by his first name, Robert. He prefers anonymity to avoid trouble with the authorities. "Of course being in China, quite a lot of those headlines either end up becoming true or are very close to being the truth," Robert adds. China Daily Show's tagline is "the only news source visible from outer spa

Derrick Baskin And Dominique Morisseau On 'Ain't Too Proud'

<em>Ain't Too Proud</em>, a musical based on Motown legends The Temptations, is up for 12 Tony Awards. NPR's Noel King talks with actor Derrick Baskin and writer Dominique Morisseau.

In A Family's First House, A Lasting Lesson: You Can Always Give

Her mother was an immigrant from Mexico. Her father was a foreman at a food-packing plant. She and her four siblings were raised together in a small trailer in the late 1960s. So, when Alicia Beltrán-Castañeda's family was finally able to afford a house of their own, it was a special moment. "I remember watching my dad paint the walls, and just thinking, 'This house is so huge!' " Beltrán-Castañeda tells her own daughter Serena Castañeda, on a visit with StoryCorps in Salinas, Calif. "I loved my room. And I had a nice full-sized bed and my pink cover and my dust ruffles." Her father died when she was just 13, leaving her mother, a community coordinator for the local school district, to raise five children on her own with a mortgage to pay. Yet, despite the strain of their financial situation, her mother didn't lose sight of those less fortunate than her own family. "I remember, I came home one day and my bed was gone," Beltrán-Castañeda says. "And so when my mom got home, you know, I kind of gave her a little bit of attitude, like, 'Where's my bed?' " Her mom told her that she had given it to a family that had come from Mexico with nothing. At the time, Beltrán-Castañeda was unimpressed: It wasn't her problem, she told her mother. She just wanted her own bed. And so, her mother told her to come with her. "She took me to the kitchen, she gave me some grocery bags. We started clearing out the cupboards — cans of peas, cans of corn. And I was putting them in the bag," Beltrán-Castañeda says, when finally she asked her mom just what it was they were doing — only to be told to be quiet and keep filling up the bag. Then her mother took her to the house that now had Beltrán-Castañeda's bed. In the house was a family of seven, Beltrán-Castañeda says, and in her bed now was the mother of a newborn child. All about the mother were her children, in a one-room house with a dirt floor. "I walked out of there crying," she tells her daughter. "Because I was ashamed. Because I didn't realize just how much Grandma gave us. And these parents just want food, and they're the people that keep this whole area going because they're the farmworkers." In that moment, she felt like an ungrateful kid. These days, Alicia Beltrán-Castañeda is a special education teacher in Salinas, Calif., in the very same district where her mother worked and where she and her daughter attended school. And Beltrán-Castañeda still carries with her the lessons her mother taught her. "You know, she had high standards in herself," she tells her daughter. "And I cannot think of anybody more wise than Grandma." Audio produced for Morning Edition by Von Diaz. StoryCorps is a national nonprofit that gives people the chance to interview friends and loved ones about their lives. These conversations are archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, allowing participants to leave a legacy for future generations. Learn more, including how to interview someone in your life, at StoryCorps.org.

When Park Rangers Become Immigration Enforcers

National Park Service law enforcement are trained for many tasks<strong>, </strong>but they are not often trained on the one thing they find themselves doing on a surprisingly regular basis: immigration enforcement.

Pregnant Women Among Asylum Seekers Sent To Mexico To Wait For Immigration Court

To stem the flow of migrants across the southern border, the Trump administration is sending asylum seekers to Mexico to await their day in U.S. immigration court. This includes some pregnant women.

Watch ÌFÉ, Delaporte, Femina-X And More, Live At Nuevofest 2018

This Sunday, July 15, watch a live stream of Nuevofest 2018, a Latin music festival hosted by Philadelphia's WXPN and AfroTaíno Productions with performances by seven outstanding artists. You can catch all the action here via VuHaus, public radio's music-discovery video platform. More info on the event and each artist can be found at Latinroots.org. Find an approximate schedule of performances below; all listings are in Eastern time. Set Times 4:45 p.m. - Delaporte5:20 p.m. - Elena & Los Fulanos6:00 p.m. - Femina-X6:50 p.m. - Dos Santos7:35 p.m. - Very Be Careful8:25 p.m. - ÌFÉ9:15 p.m. - Orquesta Akokán

Earthquake Doesn't Stop Virginia Elections Though Some Polling Goes Outdoors

It takes more than a magnitude 5.8 earthquake to stop democracy, even in a part of the country unaccustomed to merely moderate-sized earthquakes. Virginia is holding some primaries Tuesday and the state's board of elections alerted voters that polling is still on, even near the quake's epicenter in rural Louisa County, about 90 miles south of Washington, D.C. The election board reported on its Twitter feed: VirginiaSBE Virginia SBE The polls in Louisa County, near the epicenter of the earthquake are operating. #vaelections and VirginiaSBE Virginia SBE It is confirmed York, Gloucester, Fairfax, Culpeper Counties are conducting voting in SOME precincts, in the parking lots.#vaelections

Photos: 2010 Midterm Elections

Photographs show the results of the 2010 midterm elections.

Survey Assesses How Well College Graduates Are Doing In Life

The Gallup poll done with Purdue University researchers measures graduates' personal and professional well-being. The idea is that the college experience plays a part in determining that outcome.

Rona Brinlee, The BookMark

You Know When The Men Are Gone By Siobhan Fallon, hardcover, 227 pages; Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, list price: $23.95 In eight loosely connected stories, Siobhan Fallon microscopically examines the lives of women left behind at Fort Hood when the men deploy. While these women are not technically "real", their stories, which reflect what life is like on a military base when the men leave and the women and children are left to fend for themselves, certainly feel genuine. There are women who have trouble waiting and others who worry about their husbands' fidelity. There are men who have adapted so well to war that it makes more sense to them than being home and others who don't trust their wives while they're away. Then, of course, there are those who return wounded or not at all. Not only do you know when the men are gone, you also know when the men are home — and the stories about when they return are just as compelling as those about their absence. 22 Britannia Road By Amanda Hodgkinson, hardcover, 336 pages; Pamela Dorman Books, list price: $26.95 In Amanda Hodgkinson's debut novel, survivors of World War II try to reconstruct a life as a family in a new country. A husband, wife and son are reuniting after being apart for six years. On the surface, the three have all the ingredients for a happy ending: The wife and child are safe, and the husband has a job and a house for them. But nothing is ever so simple. Neither husband nor wife is the same person that each knew before the war; each has secrets about what happened during those long years apart. The house at 22 Britannia Road offers hope, and yet it can't protect its residents from the secrets they keep. Hodgkinson has a talent for introducing complicated characters who tear at your heart and keep you worrying and wondering about them. She also knows how to let secrets simmer and boil over in surprising ways. World Without Fish By Mark Kurlansky, illustrated by Frank Stockton; hardcover, 192 pages; Workman Publishing Company: list price: $16.95 In World Without Fish, Mark Kurlansky ponders what the world would be like without fish and how we got ourselves in this predicament. He presents information and proposes actions to remedy the problem and does it all in a visually appealing book that includes beautiful drawings, large and colorful text describing the issues and even a graphic novel that winds through the book. While there are three main causes for the problem — over fishing, pollution, and climate change — Kurlansky is the first to admit that reversing the trend is complicated. Nonetheless, he offers some ideas and bestows his faith in the next generation to accept the challenge. Ostensibly for young adults, World Without Fish is a primer and a call to action for readers of all ages. Swamplandia! By Karen Russell; hardcover, 320 pages; Knopf, list price: $24.95 Karen Russell's debut novel centers on Swamplandia!, a fictional 100-acre theme park in Florida that is run by the alligator-wrestling Bigtree clan. As is the case with most good entertainment, much of Swamplandia! and the Bigtree family is all smoke and mirrors. The head of the family, a man called Chief, has absolutely no Indian heritage; rather he is descended from Ohio coal miners. His wife, Hilola knows how to charm an alligator and an audience, but when Hilola dies, business literally goes to hell as tourists switch their allegiance to the World of Darkness, a competing park. As it follows each member of the Bigtree family and how they try to save the family business, this wonderfully wacky work of Florida fiction becomes a poignant examination of family relationships. The Poison Tree By Erin Kelly; hardcover, 336 pages; Pamela Dorman Books, list price: $26.95 Erin Kelly's novel The Poison Tree starts with a car speeding away from somewhere, someone or something. Then, it's 10 years later, and a woman and her daughter are on their way to prison to pick up the woman's husband and the girl's father. You know there's a murder, and you even know who committed it. Most of all you know there's lots you don't know about how we got to this point. Clues that only hint at the truth keep you riveted and remind you that you'd better pay attention. As the details unfold, the characters get more complex, as Kelly keeps the surprises coming until the very last page.

U.S. To Play Brazil In Women's World Cup

Warmed up? We've got football, soccer, baseball and basketball stories spanning three continents and 49 states. Stories include: a debate on NCAA football teams creating self-imposed sanctions for rules violations, an update on the women's soccer World Cup and a roundup of the losses in the sports world. Host Scott Simon talks with NPR's Tom Goldman.

Full DNA Rundown Can Predict Future Health

Commentator David Ewing Duncan has become the first human to be screened for almost all known genetic disorders. A biotech company trying out its new genetic testing kits, put David through a day's worth of examinations, charting most of his DNA maladies. While some critics are suspicious of the new procedures and others worry about a future of genetic discrimination, David found that he might fend of a number of diseases despite his DNA's predisposition toward a range of illnesses.

Weekly Standard: War On Taxes

Daniel Harper is The Weekly Standard's online editor. President Obama and the Democratic party sure are fighting wars on many fronts. NBC reports that "the Obama campaign is calling on Mitt Romney to release his — as well as those going back several years." "Mitt Romney's defiance of decades of precedent set by presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle, including his own father, begs the question — what does he have to hide?" Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina asked in a statement. "Did he exploit loopholes in the tax code by keeping his investments offshore and is that why he's protecting those loopholes now? Why did he open a Swiss bank account instead of an American bank account and establish a corporation in Bermuda instead of on our shores? Did he pay a lower income tax rate than the 13.9 percent he paid in 2010 and is that why he opposes the Buffett Rule to ensure millionaires don't pay less taxes than middle-class families?" This isn't an issue that's going to go away anytime soon, it seems. And obviously Obama and the Democrats think the tax issue is a good one for them. But consider what happened with the war on women. It has seemed to backfire — with Democrats now backing away. "I'm not a fan of the term," a DNC spokesman said in an interview. "I mean, I'm sure I've probably used it. We all fall into these easy vernaculars... but we in the DNC have not been running a campaign based on the term 'war on Women.' That's a myth cooked up by Republicans." So, will the upcoming war on taxes meet the same fate of the last one started by Obama and the Democratic party? Or we are several news cycles away from the next ceasefire?

Ken Burns And Lynn Novick On 'The Vietnam War'

The epic story of the Vietnam War is told in a new 10-part series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. They talk with Lulu Garcia-Navarro.

The Costs Of Sexual Abuse In The Military

A new study says sexual assault and harassment in the U.S. military is causing troops to leave prematurely, hurting readiness. The report shows how costs of sex crimes extend beyond the victims hurt.

How A Meteorologist Does His Job When Climate Change Is Politicized

NPR's Sarah McCammon speaks with meteorologist Matthew Cappucci about the challenges of communicating about climate science during the weather report.

On The Money with Chris DiSimio from 91.7 WVXU

Chris meets with Stacey Tisdale and Paula Boyer Kennedy, authors of The True Cost of Happiness: The Real Story Behind Managing Your Money.

President Trump Contradicts Head Of CDC Regarding Vaccine, Masks

Trump says a COVID-19 vaccine could be ready by the end of 2020. At the same time, the top communications official at Health and Human Services is going on leave after comments he made on Facebook.

Where Teacher Walkouts Fit In The History Of Government Jobs

Tens of thousands of school teachers across Arizona and Colorado continue statewide walkouts Friday. For years, employees across the public sector &#8212; including teachers &#8212; have seen a decline in benefits and pay, raising questions about the impact on the larger middle class. Here & Now&#8216;s Robin Young speaks with historians Ed Ayers (@edward_l_ayers) and Nathan Connolly (@ndbconnolly) about &#8220;the government job&#8221; from early America to the New Deal to today. Ayers and Connolly are co-hosts of the podcast &#8220;BackStory,&#8221; which is produced at Virginia Humanities.

Colorado Adopts Denver's 'Rocky Mountain High'

The state of Colorado has a new state anthem. Lawmakers passed a resolution Monday adopting John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" as one of the state's official songs.

Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott,

Pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, PT's Young Artist in Residence this week, joins violinist Ani Kavafian and hornist Robert Routch (ROOTCH) for a concert performance of the Horn Trio in E-flat by Johannes Brahms. Recorded last month in Alice Tully Hall of New York City's Lincoln Center. (Wojcik Recordings)

Baathists Offer Adjustment Classes

Former officials and functionaries in Saddam Hussein's Baath Party are beginning a course in "De-Baathification." In six-week courses that will be held around the country in coming months, former party members will come face to face with some of the victims of Saddam's rule. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

The State Of The Union Through Your Eyes

Today, President Obama will deliver his fifth State of the Union address. He'll talk about the past year and he'll lay out his vision for the year to come. A few days ago we asked NPR listeners to show us the state of the union through their lens. We wanted to get a feel of where Americans feel their country stands. As you might expect, the responses we received ranged from those who thought the country was in tatters, to those who were in a pretty good place in their life and gave the country's situation a rating of 8 out of 10. Thirty-two-year-old Colin Hosten, of Connecticut, took a photograph of an American flag, still waving but tattered. "I happened to look up and see it and the first thought in my mind was how symbolic it was — about the state of American politics and in some ways of American society today," he told us. "It's kind of like this fabric that's been torn in two." Thirty-year-old Anthony Rizzo, of New Jersey, told us he lost his job in 2008. Since then, he said, it's been a struggle. He chose a historical photograph from the Great Depression of an advertising man desperately seeking employment. That's how Rizzo feels and he hopes that President Obama addresses that today.

The Future Of American History

College history majors used to study The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Today perhaps they should also be studying the decline and fall of history majors. Since 2010, the number of history majors at Ohio State University has dropped by more than 30 percent, according to a May 9 Columbus Dispatch story. Meanwhile, the number of students majoring in history at the University of Cincinnati has fallen by 33 percent since 2010. At the University of Illinois, the Daily Illini noted on April 2 that the number of students enrolled in the college's history department has fallen precipitously in the past 10 years — from 521 in 2005 to 167 in 2015. These recent stories reflect a 2013 report from the American Historical Association showing a downward trend in undergraduate students earning degrees in history. So why is the number of history majors diminishing? "Experts blame anxieties about the job market for steering students into fields they think will translate to jobs quickly after graduation," the Columbus Dispatch story observes. "Often that's the STEM disciplines that politicians have championed — science, technology, engineering and mathematics." More Inclusive Teaching American history in the contemporary classroom — and in the coming years — holds some particular, and complicated, challenges. To put the challenges in some context, we contacted a trio of American history professors. In your teaching experience, do students these days seem to be more interested in American history than students in the past, or less interested? Michele Gillespie has been teaching American history since 1990. She is also Dean of the College at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N. C. "My students still gravitate toward American history," Gillespie says, "but they are much more interested these days in seeing that history in a broader world context, whether we are looking at American slavery, the American Civil War, or social movements like civil rights." Students today, Gillespie says, "are much more likely to critique American and European scholars for only using Western comparative contexts, and my students are also inclined to bring comparisons from their other courses on African, Latin American, East Asian, South Asian and Middle East history into my U.S. history courses." The result: "It makes for a dynamic, exciting classroom, one in which my students, who see themselves as global citizens in many respects, are taking real ownership." Annelise Orleck, a professor of American history at Dartmouth College, has also been teaching at the college level for 25 years. "My classes are bigger and I am now getting quite a few students who are deeply interested, willing to do a great deal of work," Orleck says, "especially because I teach American history in a way that is more inclusive and challenging of dominant myths than most of them were exposed to in high school." "Students are just as interested in history now as they were in the past," says Allyson Hobbs, an assistant professor in the history department at Stanford University. "Students have always looked to history to better understand their worlds. Professors have the responsibility of making history accessible to students so that they can make better sense of their lives and so that they can see the connections and similarities between their life circumstances and the life circumstances of their parents and grandparents." Dismantled Notions What are a couple of the particular challenges of teaching American history in 2015? "Unfortunately," says Allyson Hobbs, "there has been a decline in the value that many people place on history and the humanities, more generally. Particularly in Silicon Valley, there is a major emphasis on the technology industry, which leads many students to major in computer science or engineering. Still, computer scientists will create more useful and revolutionary products and services if they have a deeper understanding of the world around them, which comes from the study of history. "The value of history lies in its ability to help us to better understand the present," says Hobbs. "This is particularly salient now given the tragedies of police violence, the massacre in Charleston, and the problems of economic inequality, poverty, educational disparities and mass incarceration. But this history is painful to face. It is a challenge for history professors to help students grapple with these societal issues." The major challenge in teaching American history, according to Annelise Orleck, "is that this is a wildly diverse nation and it is complicated to try to do justice to the stories of the many kinds of people who have made and lived American history." Another major difficulty, Orleck says, "is grappling with how to teach painful histories — histories of slavery, Native American genocide, Jim Crow and lynching, Japanese internment — in ways that are accessible and useful to students and that challenge them emotionally and intellectu

The Prague Radio Symphony

The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor Vladimir Valek perform Antonin Dvorak's Slavonic Dance No. 12 in D-flat major, Op. 72, No. 4. From a concert last August at Dvorak Hall in Prague. (Czech Radio/European Broadcasting Union)

Debate on Iraq Issue

The debate in the nation's capital over whether a war against Iraq ought to be unilateral or multi-lateral -- and whether it should be sooner or later -- seems to have overwhelmed any voice opposing a war of any kind. Robert Siegel talks with <EM>Progressive</EM> magazine editor Matt Rothschild, who says though the voice of the anti-war movement is not very noticeable in Washington, it is being heard elsewhere in America. (5:00) <br /> <A href="http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/transcripts/2002/sep/021001.rothschild.html">Read the Transcript</a>

Neko Case from Walt Disney Concert Hall

As a singer for the power-pop group The New Pornographers, Neko Case belts out artful tunes with one of the most powerful and seductive voices in rock. Her solo work is steeped more in bittersweet country and gospel. Case combines the best of both worlds in a full concert, recorded live on Nov. 16, 2007, from Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, with host Alex Cohen. Early in her music career, Case played drums in punk bands. But her views on music changed when she heard an obscure spiritual album by Bessie Griffin & Her Gospel Pearls. "I was 19," Case says. "I was heavily into punk rock, and punk rock was really dogmatic and macho. But this record made me feel like, you know what, these people are singing about something they really care about. These ladies aren't kidding. And they sing about religion with more passion than anybody sings about anything — not about love or sex or violence or anything. It's like their voices are these crazy cannons or something. I wanted to be able to sing like that, because I thought that must've felt really good." Case has since released half a dozen solo albums. The latest, 2006's Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, is her most popular and critically acclaimed CD to date. Discoveries at Walt Disney Concert Hall is an eclectic mix of 10 concert specials recorded live at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and hosted by Renee Montagne. From singer-songwriters to classical, world music and Broadway stars, it's a celebration of the diversity of our thriving musical culture.

Test Scheduled for Space Station Computers

The international space station's recently repaired computers face a final test Monday to determine if the station can function on its own, which would allow the shuttle Atlantis to return to Earth. Monday's test will determine if the two Russian computers can control the station's orientation in orbit, which allow the station's solar array to point toward the sun and generate power for oxygen generators and other vital equipment. If the test goes smoothly, Atlantis will decouple from the station Tuesday and return to Earth on Thursday. After all six of the space station's computers crashed last week, Atlantis' thrusters were used to help the station maintain its position. During the test, Atlantis' thrusters will take control of the joined craft so it can change positions to dump waste and water. Then, the Russian thrusters onboard the space station will take over. During the second part of the test, U.S. computers will send commands to the Russian thrusters. "That's a big step in our checkout of the computers to make sure everything is working correctly," said flight director Holly Ridings. "It's one of those things we want to see before we undock." Atlantis, which has been docked at the station since June 10, will stay another day only if needed. The station's computers were up and running following Saturday's computer malfunction that had left NASA and Russian flight controllers with a set of frustrating options if the problem couldn't be resolved. Two of the processors took longer to revive and are now on standby mode, but can be used, if needed. Astronaut's completed their fourth and final spacewalk of the mission on Sunday. NASA's Patrick Forrester and Steven Swanson activated a rotating joint so a new pair of solar wings can track the sun and provide power to the station. The solar arrays were delivered to the station by Atlantis as part of its mission of continued work on the long-running construction project on the space station, scheduled for completion in 2010. Early Monday morning flight controllers successfully tested the rotating joint, moving it five degrees. During a more thorough test later in the morning, the joint began rotating automatically, allowing the solar arrays to track the sun. Written by Kayla Webley from NPR reports and the Associated Press.

What Latinx Film Critics Have to Say

Four Latinx film critics: Claudia Puig, Vanessa Erazo, Monica Castillo, and Manuel Betancourt sat down with Latino USA to talk about what it means to be a film critic, what they see their role should be as Hollywood aims to embrace more diversity, and the politics of popular film rating system, Rotten Tomatoes.

Searching for One Man

NPR's David Molpus reports on the attempt eight years ago to snatch warlord Mohamed Aideed from Somalia. The mission by U.S. Army Rangers and elements of the Delta Force ended in failure.

Swine Flu Crisis Ebbing (In Washington)

You can tell the swine flu crisis is winding down, at least for official Washington, because there's not much federal officials are now saying that we haven't heard before. Such was the case with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's media briefing this afternoon. She said nothing new, save that there are now 286 confirmed cases in the U.S. that have now spread to 36 states with just about all of those cases being mild. And even that wasn't really new since the Centers for Disease Control had reported that earlier in the day. There were only six questions from the reporters. One of them was from a reporter who asked Napolitano, who had earlier said that officials were cautiously optimistic that the flu would be mild and limited in its reach, specifically what she was cautiously optimistic about. She essentially repeated herself. It was that kind of press conference. Again, no news. One measure of how under control the flu outbreak appears to be from the Obama Administration's perspective is that the White House went ahead with a previously scheduled tabletop exercise to game out how its officials would respond to another large Katrina-like storm since the official start of hurricane season is merely weeks away. Read More >> The hurricane season officially ends at the end of November. By that time, the next flu season should be in full swing and swine flu may be giving federal offcials a whole lot more to talk about should it come back with a vengeance. But for now, there's the very strong sense that the nation may have dodged a viral bullet this time.

Wrigley: Maybe We Won't Sell Caffeinated Gum After All

Less than two weeks after launching its Alert Energy Caffeine Gum, the Wrigley Company decided that maybe the world wasn't ready for amped-up chewing gum after all. On April 30, the day after Alert Energy launched, the Food and Drug Administration said it was going to take a "fresh look" at caffeinated foods, particularly their effect on children and teenagers. Being out front on caffeinated confections evidently wasn't a comfortable place to be. Yesterday, the Wrigley Co. said it has "paused" sales of Alert Energy, which came in brightly-colored packages. Each pellet of gum contained 40 milligrams of caffeine, about the amount in a half-cup of coffee. "After discussions with the FDA, we have a greater appreciation for its concern about the proliferation of caffeine in the nation's food supply," Casey Keller, Wrigley's president for North America, said in a statement. Keller called for "changes in the regulatory framework to better guide the consumers and the industry about the appropriate level and use of caffeinated products." The surge of caffeinated energy drink and, to a lesser extent, food products, has alarmed pediatricians. In 2011 the American Academy of Pediatrics said that children and teenagers should avoid caffeinated drinks, since caffeine boosts heart rate, interferes with sleep, and increases anxiety. Alert Energy was marketed "in a safe and responsible manner to consumers 25 years and older," Keller's statement said. No word on how that might have been enforced, since nobody's carding kids who buy gum at the local mini-mart.

Zimmerman Is Reportedly Arrested; Prosecutor Has 'New Information'

Florida state attorney Angela Corey, who is acting as a special prosecutor in the high-profile shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin, has scheduled a 6 p.m. ET news conference to "release new information" regarding the case, her office just announced. Update at 6:10 p.m. ET: As we are reporting in a new post, George Zimmerman has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, Corey announced this afternoon. Please read the new post for further updates. Update at 5:45 p.m. ET: George Zimmerman has now been arrested, according to reports by the Associated Press. Citing a law enforcement official, the news agency says Zimmerman "will be charged with second-degree murder and is in custody." Our original post continues: That word comes as several news outlets are saying they've been told by a law enforcement source that George Zimmerman is going to face criminal charges in connection with the Feb. 26 incident in Sanford, Fla. The Washington Post was the first organization to report that development. Update at 3:50 p.m. ET: Martin's parents declined to answer reporters' questions about the possibility that charges against Zimmerman were pending, saying they had not confirmed the new development Wednesday afternoon. "I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, justice will be served" in the case, Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, told the AP. The family's attorney, Ben Crump, said, "We don't need anybody taking these matters into their own hands." Our original post continues: The African-American teen's death, which Zimmerman has told police was an act of self defense, has reignited the national conversation about race relations. Martin's family and supporters contend he was a victim of racial profiling by Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who had reported to police that he had seen a "suspicious" person in his neighborhood and had been following the boy's movements. The teenager's family and their supporters also say local officials were too quick to believe Zimmerman's explanation and to let him claim the protection of Florida's "stand your ground" law.

Templeton Prize Winner Blends Science and Religion

Physicist Charles Townes talks about his efforts to blend science and religion. Townes, a Nobel Laureate, on Wednesday won the Templeton Prize for his work in the field of religion.

Iran Hardliners Target Dual Nationals

Courts there recently sentenced three Iranian-Americans to prison. An Iranian-Canadian academic speaks out about her time in an Iranian prison earlier this year.

California Proposal Could Fund Water Projects

California lawmakers came to an agreement on a $7.5 billion bond package to address the state's drought. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the proposal, and now the public will vote on the measure in November.

From Our Readers On Dylan's Electric Guitar: 'That Is Chutzpah'

We told readers not to "get excited" in our headline about PBS' History Detectives potentially misidentifying a guitar from Bob Dylan's first electric performance. Our commenters took our advice, but they certainly showed some ire that the guitar, famous or not, would not have been returned to the artist in the first place. Says "c g:" "It's not rock star memorabilia until the rock star is dead. As long as Bob Dylan is still alive, that stuff is called his Gear, and taking it is stealing." In regards to Dawn Peterson's request to Dylan's lawyers that he waive claim to the instrument, "Lily Davis" pronounces: "That is chutzpah." She continues: "While Dylan may not be completely lucid, I do think that as an artist he would know if he didn't have that guitar. Every guitarist I know can tell you what guitars they have owned over the years, even the ones who don't remember anything else about the 60's and 70's."

Garland Jeffreys Applies His 'Truth Serum'

Jeffreys has gone as long as 13 years between releases, but now he's back in full force and recently celebrated his 70th birthday. Guest host Don Gonyea talks with New York rocker Garland Jeffreys about his new album, <em>Truth Serum.</em>

Israeli Parliament Schedules Unprecedented Early Elections

Voters in Israel will go the polls for the second time this year after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu missed a midnight deadline to form a coalition government. The Israeli parliament, prompted by Netanyahu, has voted to hold new elections Sept. 17. The move comes after elections were just held in April and appeared to give Netanyahu a fourth consecutive term in office. The Knesset voted 74-45, on a bill sponsored by Netanyahu's Likud party, to dissolve itself and call for new elections. Had Netanyahu not prompted the call for new elections, Israel's ceremonial president could have chosen someone else to try to form a government. The call for new elections is a surprising turn of events for Netanyahu who is widely considered Israel's most powerful politician. As NPR's Daniel Estrin reported on All Things Considered, it is unprecedented to have new balloting scheduled just a month after the previous elections. Estrin said there were two sticking points keeping Netanyahu from forming a majority government: "The official reason given was that former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman had very high conditions. He demanded a mandatory military draft for Orthodox Jews and ultra-orthodox parties refused that. "But the bigger picture here is that Netanyahu is facing legal troubles. That is his chief concern. And by the end of this year he is going to be facing likely corruption charges. So he had been trying to build a coalition that would grant him immunity from prosecution while he's in office. So things got complicated because he was trying to weave in his immunity into the deals he was trying to make with these parties." Estrin also reported that the new elections could delay the political components of a peace plan, such as borders and the issue of a Palestinian state, that is being fashioned in the White House by President Trump's advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Netanyahu is months away from being Israel's longest-serving prime minister, having held the job for one term in the 1990s and for the last decade.

Meditative Chamber Music

Harpist Mariko Anraku and flutist Emmanuel Pahud step out of their respective orchestra jobs to record some chamber music together. Here's their version of the "Meditation" from Massenet's opera <EM>Thais.</EM>

Protest Music for a New Generation

Even before the Bush administration embarked on the current war in Iraq, many musicians were speaking out in opposition. Music veterans of the antiwar movement from a generation ago say that society and the media have changed significantly since the end of the Vietnam War -- and that's changed musical protest. In New York City recently, NPR's Rick Karr attended a musical happening that straddled that generation gap. The show at the Public Theater brought together some of the biggest names of protest music in the 1960s with a younger group of musicians -- this time, to come together to speak out against another war. They performed songs from The Vietnam Songbook -- a volume of protest music compiled in 1969. The concert was organized by musicians Don Fleming and Kim Rancourt, with the support of The Alan Lomax Archive and The Smithsonian Institution. The Alan Lomax Archive is named after the late ethnomusicologist, record producer and radio host/writer who played a huge part in preserving the American folk song tradition. The show kicked off with a group of songs performed by the dean of protest singers, 83-year-old Pete Seeger. Not everyone believes that music alone can change the world. As editor of the folk music magazine Sing Out! in the 1960s, Irwin Silber catalogued scores of Vietnam War protest songs. Silber says that while music provided a focus for opposition to the Vietnam War, he doesn't think it changed many people's minds. "It's not the music that changes people... there was a cultural change," he tells Karr. "And the music egged it on, but also became a reflection of it at the same time." Silber's wife, singer and activist Barbara Dane, was one of the featured artists at the Joe's Pub gig. She says mass culture has never been very good at transmitting the messages that are included in pop songs. "So much of it gets sidetracked or watered down or confused," she says. And some of Dane and Silber's fellow antiwar musicians say that's exactly what's happened to American culture since Vietnam. Bill Homans -- AKA Watermelon Slim -- is a Vietnam veteran who became an antiwar activist and musician when he left the Army in 1970. "The people in this next generation have not had an issue to coalesce around for... 20 years, or more. It is difficult when a culture has behaviorally modified kids these days, such that their most important concerns are titty rings and tattoos." However, the new generation is protesting in its own very modern way -- by recording protest-oriented music and posting it for downloading on Web sites, for free.

How Did California's Primaries Work Out For Democrats?

Steve Inskeep talks to Eric Bauman, chairman of the California Democratic Party, about Tuesday's primaries that are expected to set the scene for November's midterm elections.

Canada Stops Its Defense Of Asbestos, As Quebec's Mines Close For Good

Canada's leaders have ended their country's longstanding resistance to asbestos being called a dangerous material under United Nations guidelines, a decision that reflects a shift in the leadership of Quebec province, home of Canada's asbestos industry. Quebec's incoming premier, Pauline Marois, promised late in her campaign that she would shut down the region's asbestos mines for good. She says that she will use money that would have gone to restart the mines to diversify the local economy. As Dan Karpenchuk reports for NPR's Newscast unit: "Canadian industry minister Christian Paradis made the announcement in the town of Thetford Mines, in the heart of Quebec's asbestos belt. He blamed the incoming separatist government in Quebec for promising to cancel a $58 million loan that would have reopened Canada's last major asbestos mine." "Paradis says it means hundreds of workers will remain without jobs. But he says it would no longer make sense for Ottawa to support the asbestos industry when Quebec, the only province that produces it, will prohibit its exploitation." The CBC reports that in 2010, "Canada was producing 150,000 tonnes of asbestos annually, all of it in Quebec, and exporting 90 percent — worth about $90 million — to developing countries." Canada has long been criticized for its stance on asbestos. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and others have been steadfast in their support of the industry, resisting efforts to include asbestos in the U.N. Rotterdam Convention, a treaty that lists chrysotile and other forms of the material as hazardous. Writing in The Toronto Star, columnist David Olive says, "Canada's hypocrisy on asbestos has long been malodorous. Like almost all advanced countries, Canada has banned most domestic uses of asbestos, whose fire-retardant properties are greatly outweighed by its carcinogenic ones. Harper has been spending millions of dollars to remove the last traces of asbestos in the Parliament Buildings and his official residence at 24 Sussex Drive." Back in 2010, NPR's Brenda Wilson summed up the broader dispute over asbestos: "On one side is the World Health Organization contending that all types cause cancer and that its continued use, primarily in countries like China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and other places will only prolong the epidemic of cancers related to its use. The cancers can take up to 30 to 40 years to develop." "On the other side is the proud little town of Asbestos, two hours outside Montreal, Canada, where BBC producer Steve Bradshaw says, 'There's a mine in the center of town that is as deep as the Eiffel Tower is high.'" Canada's asbestos industry has been in a recent decline — earlier this year, the Chrysotile Institute, a powerful industry lobbying group, closed after it stopped receiving government support. News of Canada's shift came out late Friday — evidence, perhaps, that Canadian politicians, like their counterparts to the south, prefer to save problematic news for the end of the week, when they can "dump" them into the mix of weekend plans and movie reviews that many people concern themselves with on Fridays.

Trayvon Martin Death: Police Video Shows No Signs Of Zimmerman's Injuries

A police video of George Zimmerman in the hours after he shot and killed Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26 does not show any obvious evidence of the injuries Zimmerman reportedly received during what he says was an altercation that ended with him firing his handgun in self defense. ABC News obtained the footage and aired it Wednesday evening. As it reports: "The initial police report noted that Zimmerman was bleeding from the back of the head and nose, and after medical attention it was decided that he was in good enough condition to travel in a police cruiser to the Sanford, Fla., police station for questioning. "His lawyer later insisted that Zimmerman's nose had been broken in his scuffle with 17-year-old Martin." The Orlando Sentinel adds that Zimmerman was " tended at the scene by paramedics but told them he did not need to go to a hospital, police reported." So it is possible that paramedics cleaned any blood before Zimmerman arrived at the police station. Martin's death has become a national story because his family and supporters have made the case that the 17-year-old African-American teen was a victim of racial profiling — first by Zimmerman and then by authorities who declined to arrest the shooter. There have been marches and rallies in various cities, and calls from Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill for Zimmerman's arrest. There have also been calls for changes to the "stand your ground" laws, in Florida and 16 other states. Those statutes make it easier for citizens, such as Zimmerman, to claim self defense. In related news, Zimmerman's father — Robert Zimmerman — has told WOFL Fox 35-TV in Orlando about some of what his son has said concerning what happened the evening of Feb. 26. George Zimmerman, 28, had called police to say he saw a "suspicious" young man walking through his neighborhood. Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, was told by the dispatcher that he did not need to follow the person. According to Robert Zimmerman, his son says he then walked to the next street in order to "get an address for the police" that could then be relayed to the officers who would be sent to check out his report. "It's my understanding," Robert Zimmerman said, that Trayvon Martin then approached the older man and the fatal confrontation began. George Zimmerman has reportedly told police that Martin knocked him to the ground and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times.

WSU Finds New President In Missouri

Washington State University has signed a high profile recruit... but not the sports kind. The school has hired away the president of the University of Missouri to take the same job in Pullman. Tom Banse reports.

5 Takeaways From The 1st Democratic Debate

If the overarching question heading into the first debate of the 2020 presidential primary for Democratic voters was "Who can you see as president up there?" it's not certain they got a clear answer. Rather than fireworks — toward each other or President Trump — the candidates took a cautious approach. Will that be the approach on Night 2, Thursday night, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden on the same stage? Here are five takeaways from Wednesday night's debate: 1. Elizabeth Warren was consistent. Of all the candidates, the Massachusetts senator came in as the biggest star and, because of that, probably had the most pressure on her. But she was consistent, sticking to policy and her vision for the United States. The impression she made with her answer to the first question set the tone. She was asked a fastball down the middle about whether her succession of big policy proposals would be too much change for the country, and she went to her bread-and-butter response: that a "thinner and thinner slice" of the country is getting ahead and that this needs to change. That's a home run for what she's trying to do with her candidacy. We will see, though, if going out on the plank to say that she supports eliminating private health insurance comes back to haunt her if she gets the nomination. It was remarkable that she and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio were the only ones to raise their hands to say they did. 2. The gloves stayed on — and the shape of the race stays the same. The moderators tried with the first two questions to stir up a fight between the progressive and pragmatic wings of the Democratic Party, calling on Warren and then shifting to Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar on whether the field was going too far. But Klobuchar didn't take the bait. "I had to sit back and say, 'This is the first debate,' " Klobuchar said afterward on MSNBC, pointing out that she would have liked to have talked more about Russia and farm policy. That meant the shape of the race did not change. It's a reminder that it's early, and until the lines become more sharply defined, the candidates may hold back, although the dynamics for Thursday night's debate may be different. 3. They didn't take the fight to Trump. It is remarkable that the candidates had relatively little to say about President Trump. It was almost as if he didn't exist — and the candidates cared more about Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. But Trump is running for reelection — and reelection campaigns almost always come down to referendums on sitting presidents and their policies. None of the candidates really made the case as to why they are best equipped to take the fight to Trump. That's especially glaring given that Democratic voters are saying that what matters most to them is electability and that what they want more than anything is to beat Trump. Even Trump was unperturbed by the debate, dismissing it as boring, and he reserved his biggest criticism for NBC's technical difficulties. 4. Beto O'Rourke did not help his cause. Warren needed to be consistent, and she was. Klobuchar is still in the conversation and had a couple of good moments. But former Rep. Beto O'Rourke shared the middle of the stage with Warren; he needed a good debate, but struggled at times. He often looked overshadowed, and his lack of policy specifics was glaring, especially standing next to Warren. It was that way right from the start when the moderator asked him whether he supports a marginal tax rate of 70% on high-income earners making $10 million a year or more. He deflected and started speaking in Spanish three sentences later. Later, O'Rourke had a hard time defending himself on immigration policy against his fellow Texan, Julián Castro, who had a strong debate, speaking for marginalized people and communities. It's always especially damning when a candidate plays into a narrative of them that's already out there — and for O'Rourke, that rap is that he's light on policy specifics. 5. Tonight's another night. The first Democrat presidential debate continues Thursday night and will include Biden, Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris of California and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Will Trump be more of a factor? Do the gloves come off against Biden? Does Harris break out finally? Is Buttigieg able to handle the scrutiny after the police shooting in South Bend that sidelined him from the campaign? Will foreign policy be more of an issue for this group of candidates? Will there be any surprising moments? If Democrats watching at home weren't thrilled with their choices onstage Wednesday night, they'll have another crop of 10 to pick from Thursday.

Meet the Puzzle Writers

For this first season of Ask Me Another, we picked the brains of more than a dozen game writers to devise the puzzles you hear each week on the show. Writers from across the country submitted games to be reviewed by our staff for possible use on the air (and getting one past AMA puzzle editor Art Chung is no small task). Every week at the end of the show, we acknowledge and thank all the game writers for that particular episode. But Shawn Kennedy and Dan Schofield, proved invaluable. About Shawn Kennedy For three summers, Shawn Kennedy helped Will Shortz edit the New York Times crossword puzzle. Kennedy has written for eight TV game shows, and he writes spatial logic puzzles for the annual U.S. Puzzle Championship. His latest book is Pun Amok: The Word Game With Crazy Clues. See if you can solve these clues from the book: 1. Mug shot = E?P?E?SO; 2. They hang around swingers at parties = P?N?TA?; 3. Employee who works a lot = C?R S?L?SM?N [Answers: 1. espresso, 2. pinatas, 3. car salesman] About Dan Schofield Dan Schofield has been a writer and producer for numerous TV game shows. After probing the minds of aspiring millionaires on ABC, high school students on MTV, sports junkies on ESPN, and pop culture obsessives on VH1 (among others), he's happy to have found a place on NPR for all those ideas deemed "too nerdy" in his past work. He has also written episodes of TV shows, including ED an Monk.But his proudest creation is his baby daughter, Anna. Hmm, maybe a game about palindromic names...

Cleveland Indians Staging a Baseball Comeback

As the baseball playoffs near, the Cleveland Indians are making a big comeback. They're now a threat to overtake the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central Division. Michele Norris talks with sports commentator, Stefan Fatsis.

Parents Wait As More Swine Flu Vaccine Is Produced

More than 40 children have died over the last two months. Many parents looking for the vaccine have had trouble finding it, while others have concerns about the vaccine's safety. Dr. Carol Baker, a pediatrician who chairs the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's advisory committee, talks with Renee Montagne, about children and the swine flu.

Are You Done With That? Photographing The Results Of Your Good Will

Consider the stuff of our everyday lives — the clothes, the sheets, the toys and games. It's essential for a time, but inevitably, eventually, it all gets trashed — or donated. And that donation process can seem a bit like magic. We drop off our used stuff, and the items disappear — or so we think. But what truly becomes of it? Where does it go? And what does it look like? Freelance photographer Wesley Law wanted to know. So when a friend told him about St. Louis' Goodwill Outlet store — one of several throughout the country that serve as liquidation centers for Goodwill retail stores — Law was intent on finding a way inside. It took him nine months. And when he finally got access, he found an awesome panorama — thousands of items leftover from Goodwill stores around the country, crammed together in bales as large as 5 feet tall by 7 feet wide, awaiting transport to new destinations. Initially, Law thought he'd shoot the scene as a landscape, to capture the size and scope of the facility and its contents. But on a second visit, he started considering the bales individually. "I realized when I got close to these things that they each have their own personality. They have their own identity," he says. Some were made entirely of old bedding; others were bundles of clothes and cardboard. Law says he considered each bale to be an artifact of real experiences and moments in peoples' lives. He says seeing the plastic bales filled with the dolls, toys and games of childhood was especially moving. "I think when people look at what's embedded in these things it evokes our past and our memories," he says. Of course, Law says, it would be nice if we consumed and wasted less. But he says his work has no specific environmental agenda. "I'm not getting on a soap box or a high horse. This project is merely showing the bizarre beauty in these huge bales," he says. For the next phase of the project, Law hopes to make large-scale prints to show in galleries, and he's looking for funding through Kickstarter. After that, he'd like to make more photographs — this time, of the bales at their final resting place. The problem is, he doesn't know where that is. "I tend to get curious about things. I want to find out where these things go," he says. He's heard they get shipped to Los Angeles and Texas, and perhaps Asia to be recycled or sold. But Law says he has some more investigating to do to — and for now, he's still searching for the final resting place of all our good will.

Michelle Obama's Take On 'Lean In'? 'That &#%! Doesn't Work'

Michelle Obama's fans have often remarked that she comes across as authentic even as her every move is analyzed, and sometimes criticized. One such moment of candor occurred this weekend, as the former first lady took the stage at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, the latest stop on the arena-filling tour for her memoir, Becoming. As she spoke with her friend, the poet Elizabeth Alexander, Obama talked about the challenges of balancing career and family. "Marriage still ain't equal, y'all," she said, according to Vanity Fair. "It ain't equal. I tell women that whole 'you can have it all' — mmm, nope, not at the same time, that's a lie. It's not always enough to lean in because that s*** doesn't work." The writer and cultural commentator Touré was there and tweeted that the audience "freaked out" when Obama used the curse word — and that the former first lady herself said she "forgot where she was for a moment." Cellphone cameras were recording as she realized what she'd said. "I'm back now," Obama said, smiling and looking a bit sheepish. She rephrased her assessment. "But sometimes that stuff doesn't work." "So oftentimes it's not equal. And you feel a bit resentful about it. And so then it's time to go to marriage counseling," she added, to delighted laughter from the audience. Obama's mention of "lean in" was a reference to Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg's mantra and 2013 book that called on women to be more assertive in the workplace. Sandberg has been under scrutiny following a New York Times report last month that she had played an active role in a campaign to discredit Facebook's critics. On Twitter, some took offense to Obama's use of a curse word. But many were delighted at the glimpse of a more casual Obama, perhaps freer now than in the White House years. "I love it. She can say whatever she wants now. Finally," tweeted one person. "This is how I picture Auntie Mich in er'yday convo cause she's a real one," wrote another. "She's right you know," tweeted another. "There was a generation of us who were told we could have it all and felt somewhat a failure when we knew we couldn't. Thanks for validating what we knew all along, Michelle." The advice for women to lean in has been criticized before. In a widely read 2012 essay in The Atlantic titled "Why Women Still Can't Have It All," Anne-Marie Slaughter wrote of the impossible situations many women confront as they try to balance career and family. Slaughter, a Princeton professor and former director of policy planning at the U.S. Department of State (and who is now CEO and president at think tank New America), wrote: "When a woman starts thinking about having children, Sandberg said, 'she doesn't raise her hand anymore ... she starts leaning back.' Although couched in terms of encouragement, Sandberg's exhortation contains more than a note of reproach. We who have made it to the top, or are striving to get there, are essentially saying to the women in the generation behind us: 'What's the matter with you?' " Sandberg herself has acknowledged that despite plenty of leaning, the world hasn't made much progress toward equal representation of women since her book came out in 2013. "In terms of women in leadership roles, we are not better off," she told USA Today last year. "We are stuck at less than 6 percent of the Fortune 500 CEO jobs and their equivalent in almost every country in the world. There were 19 countries run by women when Lean In was published. Today there are 11. Congressional numbers have inched up a tiny bit. And so, overall, we are not seeing a major increase in female leadership in any industry or in any government in the world, and I think that's a shame." The goal, she said, is for women to run half of all companies, and men to run half of all homes. "As much as I wish that could happen in four years, I don't think that's a likely time period," said Sandberg. "But I think it can happen sooner than we think. Part of it is having that aspiration and that goal. I think we too often suffer from the tyranny of low expectations."

It's Hard For These Dads To Talk About Love ... But They Do

It's Father's Day! While the holiday isn't formally celebrated in the rural area of southern India where I live, I still have to tell my dad how much I appreciate him, love him and how thankful I am for all he has done — although I'm a little apprehensive about how he will respond to my mushy affections. It's not uncommon for fathers to struggle with expressing their love for their children, but also with loving their children equally. Some rejoice at the birth of a son and grieve when a daughter is born. I decided to go out and ask a trio of dads in my village to share their thoughts about fatherhood with me. Mayilsami Some people in India may grieve when a daughter is born, but not Mayilsami. The 67-year-old retired factory worker says he tries to raise his daughter in the "jolliest" way possible. "Whatever she asked, I would give her," he says, "so maybe that was the way I expressed my affection." But he acknowledges that, like other fathers, he's often so busy earning a living that "we lose touch with our children." His advice to younger fathers: "Work less and invest more in your family. Try to speak more to your children." Rajagopal Rajagopal, 76, raised his daughter as a single dad after his wife's death at a young age. "I had to make sure I let her know that she was loved," he says. "Expressing love is usually easier for the mother." When it comes to boys versus girls, Rajagopal says that it's part of the "culture" to favor sons. "If I had a son I would give my house and land to him, not my daughter," he says. Regardless of the child's gender, he says, discipline is key. "If you do this when they are young," he says, "then you won't need to discipline them when they grow older and get into family feuds." Ganesan The 62-year-old former mill worker has four daughters, all of whom are married. "I did my best to help my daughters in their schoolwork and to get them married," he says. But he does wish he had had a son. "You have to see it from the perspective that boys will be the ones to lift you up when you need help," he says. "With the girl, you have to pay dowry to get her married and then she belongs to her husband and in-laws. This is embedded within our culture." It wasn't easy being a dad, he says. "I struggled a bit to share my feelings, and things got even worse after my daughters got married," he admits. "I could not even talk to them, and they treated me terribly — maybe that is because of the lack of communication and affection I showed them as a father." Now, Ganesan spends a lot of time with his grandchildren. The most important thing a father can do, he says, is "show our children that we are capable of love, just like their mothers."

Sympathy for the Undecided Voter

Tragedy struck Sarah as a child when she couldn't pick a single color crayon. In college, she couldn't rate Hegel or Marx. She went nuts when offered caffeinated or decaf coffee. Now the 2004 election: she loses it. Satirists Bruce Kluger and David Slavin offer a dramatic portrait of indecision.

What Silicon Valley Is Saying About The Snapchat IPO

In one of the most highly anticipated IPO’s of the year, Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. It&#8217;s relatively early for a social media company like this to go public, but some analysts are betting co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel can deliver. Here & Now&#8216;s Jeremy Hobson speaks with Queena Sook Kim (@queenasookkim), senior editor of KQED&#8217;s Silicon Valley desk.

Week in Review: Guantanamo, Patriot Act, Iraq, Iran

Senior news analyst Daniel Schorr reviews the week's news with Scott Simon. Events include the debate over Guantanamo Bay, limits on the Patriot Act, an exit strategy for Iraq, the "Downing Street" memo and the elections in Iran.

Treme Brass Band: Living And Breathing New Orleans

The Treme Brass Band lives and breathes New Orleans traditions. The band often leads jazz funerals and "second line" street parades. They've been featured on the HBO series Treme and in Spike Lee's documentaries about Hurricane Katrina. Late Wednesday nights, you can find the band jamming at a down-home joint in New Orleans called the Candlelight Lounge. It's packed with new TV fans and loyal locals. "They fabulous, they wonderful," says Buster Andrews, 37. "Old Treme neighborhood band been around here all my life." A funky mix of both seasoned and younger musicians rotate in and out of the band, led by 67-year-old snare drummer Benny Jones, Sr. His band has helped to keep alive a New Orleans brass band tradition that began at the turn of the last century. "Still need somebody to do the traditional music so we can pass that to the younger generation," says Jones. "Somebody got to hold that spot down." That includes leading dancers through the streets to mourn and celebrate. The band stays rooted in the customs of an earlier era, such as a dress code. "Sound good, look good," says Jones. "My band always had the black pants, white shirts, ties, coats. That's a New Orleans tradition. What the older bands did years ago." The Treme Brass Band has been a training ground for other musicians. Sam Williams, who now has his own funk band, says, "If you haven't played with the Treme, [you] don't know what's up." Cool Uncle Lionel Central to the band's popularity is the stylish bass drummer, Lionel Paul Batiste, Sr. "Uncle Lionel," as he's known, is never without his dark sunglasses, hat, two-tone shoes, gold watch and rings. "Uncle's the man, know what I'm saying?" says Williams. "Just a real cool daddy. He gets all the women." Batiste enjoys the attention. "I keeps myself up," he says. The debonair 78-year-old gets attention whether he's flirting on the dance floor, grand-marshaling a Mardi Gras parade or just strutting down the streets of the French Quarter. His iconic image now looms over Times Square on a banner for Spike Lee's latest New Orleans documentary. "It makes me feel real proud I'm getting my recognition," he says from the Backstreet Cultural Museum in Treme. "I always try to put a smile on someone's face." Batiste grew up dancing on Bourbon Street and playing in kazoo bands. But he's most famous for keeping time with his ragtag, upright bass drum with a cymbal on top. Earlier this year, he lost that drum during a parade. "The fellow 'sposed to be watching it, he was half drunk," he recalls. Immediately, the word went out over radio station WWOZ. "When the drum was stolen, we took it very seriously," says DJ George Ingmire. "There were a lot of people very upset about it. When you think of New Orleans, one of the things you think of is the bass drum as a symbol. Forget the steaming bowl of gumbo or the beignets, the cliches. It's Lionel's drum that makes it. Hitting it with a wire coat hanger, that's New Orleans to me." Uncle Lionel's drum turned up within a day. He likes to tell the story of his drum during Hurricane Katrina. When the levees broke and flooded the streets, he was still at his house in the Treme. "I was watching the water rise and drinking my liquor," he says. "I didn't want to leave, but I'm glad I did. Yeah I'm glad I did." True to form, Uncle Lionel evacuated in style. "I used my bass drum and turned it flat. Just paddled my feet," he laughs, remembering how he used his drum as a life raft. "And, of course, I had my liquor on top there." The drum saved him as he paddled to safety. "It's still in good condition,"' he says, smiling. "It's still taking that beating." I'll Fly Away The musicians in the Treme Brass Band lost friends and family, their homes and instruments to the storm. Some lived for a time in Red Cross shelters and toxic FEMA trailers, or with relatives scattered across the country. But many managed to work their way back. And when Spike Lee made his documentary When the Levees Broke, he featured the band leading a jazz funeral for Hurricane Katrina. Clarinet player Michael White says they paraded and danced through the devastated Lower 9th ward. "You could feel when we were going through the streets undiscovered bodies and remains in some of the houses and the spirit was very strong that day," says White, a professor at Xavier University. "I remember the silence of the loss of people was very powerful and very haunting. " Five years after Katrina, most of the Treme Brass Band members are back in New Orleans. But Benny Jones isn't finished rebuilding his flooded house. And he says, despite their newfound TV fame, the jazz musicians are still struggling. "We making money just to survive, pay our bills, keep food on the table for our children, our grandkids," he says. "We surviving pretty good. Ain't like we rich. I'm thinking about trying to go to the Oprah Winfrey Show, take the band there, perform there, tell them we need money." "Ain't that right," nods Uncle Lionel, wit

What's the Plural of 'Enough Already'?

John Nielsen did a story this morning about the cul-de-sac... in particular, one he lived on as a child. It was a great piece, full of the lively writing and delightful insights that make John such a pleasure to listen to on the air. But he seems to have upset some listeners, and he asked me to pass along this message: Joe - Please tell our listeners to stop insisting that the plural of "cul-de-sac" is "culs-de-sac." I am sure they're right, but I am just as sure that no one on the cul-de-sac I lived on as a kid said anything but "cul-de-sacs." I mean what's next? "Sevens Eleven"? Illiterately yours, John If you want another chance to spot the errors in John's work, he's on tomorrow morning with a story about rhino poaching in Nepal.

Not Your Abuela's Music: A Deep Dive Into Mexican Regional Music

When I was a teenager, I spent a summer playing drums with my uncle's accordion conjunto, a small group of guitar, bass, drums and, of course, an accordion. We played standard Mexican bar music: cumbias, boleros and corridos.... lots of corridos. Nowadays the record industry would refer to my uncle's band as "Regional Mexican Music": it has its own Grammy and Latin Grammy categories; there is an entire radio industry built around the music; Regional Mexican Music is quickly outpacing reggaetón as the most streamed genre of Spanish-language music; and yet, it is barely noticed outside of millions of fans — largely millennials and Gen Z listeners who have their eyes and ears on the future while reaching back to the traditions of their parents and abuelitos. What's important to remember is that "Mexican Regional" is a catch-all term. Historically, accordions have been king as these styles travelled north and south, so most of the conversations around this music are dominated by corridos and boleros performed in the norteño style. But a closer look at the Billboard charts and streaming numbers show a curious mix of corridos and trap music rising from the streets of major metropolitan areas with large Latinx and African American populations — looking at you, SoCal and Houston! So if you thought Mexican Regional was the sound of your grandparents, tune in this week to see how your abuela may be the hippest member of your familia.

Members Of The St. Luke's

Members of the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble perform the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 by Johann Sebastian Bach. Recorded in concert earlier this month at the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, NY. (Abeshouse Recordings)

After Massive Snowstorm, East Coast Digs Out — And Lives It Up

Shovelful by shovelful, snowplow by snowplow, the East Coast is digging its way out from underneath an enormous winter storm that blanketed much of the region with up to 3 feet of snow. And as high winds and 36 hours of snow give way to clear skies and sunshine, some people are taking to the wintry landscape with glee. More and more streets are becoming passable, as snow crews clear the roads — although authorities in many regions still urge caution from drivers. New York City's transportation systems are back up and running, for the most part, and a citywide travel ban was lifted at 7 a.m. on Sunday. Broadway shows have resumed. The New York Stock Exchange plans to open on Monday as normal. Still, the effects of the storm are far from finished. Flights are still being canceled, with the impact stretching into Monday, and some local governments and schools are planning to stay shut one extra day. Some legislators, meanwhile, are getting a whole week off. The U.S. House of Representatives — which has been adjourned for more than a week, and was due to take up votes again on Tuesday — has canceled votes until Feb. 1 because of the weather, Reuters reports. The storm had many serious consequences — from impaired travel to casualties to the as-yet-untallied cost of coastal flooding. But it also brought delight: not just to the National Zoo's giant panda but to snow lovers across the region. The fun started even before the snow stopped — whether it was a pickup game of snow football with D.C. police ... ... Washington-area kids burning off their cabin fever with some (now legal!) sledding on Capitol Hill ... ... Casey Neistat defying the travel ban in New York City to chase some thrills on a snowboard (with another surprising police appearance) ... ... or a kayak zooming down a road in West Virginia. This volume of snow is rare for most of the millions of people affected by this storm. That it arrived on a weekend — when even people who don't normally get snow days can enjoy it — is an added perk. And since the sun came out, the occasion has been marked with snowball fights, skiing and sledding up and down the coast.

Deutsche Oper Berlin: A Trojan Tale For Modern Times

The epic scale of Hector Berlioz's Les Troyens requires an equally grand cast and staging to keep an audience captivated. It wasn't until the 20th century that the opera received a full-length performance, which clocks in at five hours with two intermissions. Berlioz, who had set out to capture the mythical historicism of Virgil, the human tragedy of Shakespeare and the splendor of Grand Opéra, only lived to see an abbreviated version at the work's 1864 Paris premiere. Here you can listen to the love duet "Nuit d'Ivresse." This season at the Deutsche Oper, for the first time since 1930, the opera has returned to the Berlin stage. The production, as seen on March 11th, had to its credit two of Europe's finest singers, Anna Caterina Antonacci and Daniela Barcellona, in the leading female roles. David Pountney's staging laid out Berlioz's philosophical juxtapositions in broad, sometimes tasteful strokes, and Donald Runnicles led the house orchestra in a taut performance that underscored the music's sumptuous lines. According to the tradition of Grand Opéra, the opera is divided into two tableaux. The first takes us to Troy, where Cassandra's premonitions fail to prevent the city's downfall. As the prophetess, Antonacci carried the first two acts with a predictably ravishing performance, soaring effortlessly above the orchestra and ensemble numbers. Her dramatic portrayal was equally convincing as she conveyed a mixture of torment, innocence and despair. Markus Brück made a valiant effort as the prince Choroebus, but his voice was not expansive enough to match hers. More effective was the dark, bellicose orchestral accompaniment, often dominated by the brass section in the opera's first half, which Runnicles balanced well with the large chorus and soloists. Pountney unfortunately started on a hokey note with the Trojans running around aimlessly in clunky armor. The apparition of the horse as a massive, slightly decaying head and leg that descended upon the stage seemed in keeping with Berlioz's monumental vision, but the rusty metallic structure of piled cots that served as the site of suicide for Cassandra and the women of Troy perplexed me. The same edifice later served as Dido's funeral pyre, creating a bit more coherence. The second tableau, culminating in Dido's famous self-sacrifice, begins at a thriving palace in Carthage, where she laments the loss of her murdered husband and eventually falls for Aeneas. Daniela Barcellona was a superlative Queen, floating through Berlioz's phases with rich bel canto lyricism as she basked in the splendor of Pountney's scene of dreamy pastels. As Aeneas, Ian Storey ultimately failed to meet her standards. In the love duet "Nuit d'Ivresse," which makes a somewhat delayed appearance at the end of the fourth act, his voice was not round or gentle enough. Storey made a better impression in his determined solo passages of the final act. The supporting cast fared well, with Ceri Williams's lush, full-bodied mezzo providing an ideal vocal counterpart to Barcellona as Dido's sister Anna. Tenor Gregory Warren delivered a stand-out performance as Iapo, the soubrette Heidi Stober used her bright voice to fine effect as Ascanius, and Reinhard Hagen was powerful as Dido's minster Narbal. Choreography by Renato Zanella ranged from jarring athletic movements in the first act's interlude to a more elegant opening dance for the fourth act that occasionally conjured the music's wistful references to ballet, melding insouciance with classic grandeur. Even in our post-, post-modern world, the story of Virgil's Aeneid remains timeless, and perhaps Berlioz's musical rendition has found a place as well.

Gal Gadot Shines As 'Wonder Woman,' Despite The Film's By-The-Numbers Plot

DC Comics' new <em>Wonder Woman </em>adaptation centers on a trained warrior who hates war. Critic David Edelstein says the heroine is the best part of the film's "tacky superhero universe."

Plena Lessons For The Rhythmically Challenged

This week, NPR Music is streaming the entirety of Esta Plena, the new album by saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenon. Hear the full album preview as part of our Exclusive First Listen series. Miguel Zenon, a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition, spent the better part of last year studying plena, a folkloric music of his native Puerto Rico. He mixes it with modern jazz on Esta Plena, his new recording. Curious as I was about it, the very least I could do was take the subway to his Upper Manhattan home to pick his brain. I headed uptown on a Friday afternoon, and I brought @arodjazz with me. (He interns on The Checkout every Friday.) During the interview, Zenon explained the roles of each of the three hand drums -- the requinto, the segundo, and the seguidor -- that give plena its distinctive rhythmic pattern. [Ed.: Hear the interview in full next week on The Checkout.] Then we played. Read More >> OK, so "played" may be an overstatement. If you think that listening to a couple of morons banging out the lamest plena ever with a MacArthur Genius has some charm, then you owe it to yourself to hear the authentic stuff. Hector "Tito" Matos is arguably the greatest requinto player of his generation. He leads Viento de Agua, a group that plays traditional plena. Here, Matos plays and sings in the unadulterated narrative style you might find on a street corner in Villa Palmeras, the neighborhood in Santurce, Puerto Rico where he learned the music. "Ahora Si (All Right Now)," from Viento de Agua, Materia Prima (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings). Purchase: Smithsonian Folkways Tito Matos also plays requinto and sings lead on half the songs on Miguel Zenon's Esta Plena. All this week, you can preview all of it, streaming on demand at NPR Music.

Hillary Clinton Adds Sizzle To Iowa Steak Fry

Former Secretary of State and one-time Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton returned to Iowa yesterday for the first time since her third place finish in the Iowa caucuses in 2008. Clinton was the featured speaker at the same event at which she kicked off her 2007 presidential campaign, Democratic Senator Tom Harkin&#8217;s annual steak fry. It was the 37th and last steak fry for Harkin, who is stepping down from his Senate seat. And even Harkin admitted that Clinton stole the show. From the Here & Now Contributors Network, Iowa Public Radio’s Joyce Russell has the story. Iowa Public Radio: Hillary Clinton Fuels 2016 Speculation at Final Harkin Steak Fry Reporter Joyce Russell, reporter for Iowa Public Radio.

3 Strings And A Snakeskin: Okinawa's Native Instrument

Jamaica has reggae and Hawaii has its distinct, Polynesian-influenced melodies. But far more obscure — because it's not sung in the English language — is another island-music genre: the native songs of Okinawa in subtropical Japan. Okinawan music remains enormously popular at home, and has been featured in collaborations with Western artists like Ry Cooder, as well as the world-music label of David Byrne. In the capital of Naha, student Kazuki Oyama sits cross-legged on the campus of Okinawa University and runs through a number with his performing-arts club. The long-necked instrument they're playing looks like a banjo, but it's covered in snakeskin and has just three strings. Oyama says the simple-looking instrument — known as the sanshin — is tough to master. "Unlike the guitar, you pluck the strings one at a time and the music is written not as notes, but as Chinese characters," Oyama says. British writer John Potter was so besotted with the Okinawan vibe, he moved to the city three years ago. "More than anywhere else in Japan, Okinawan music still plays a big part in people's lives," Potter says. "Even though younger people might be more interested in modern pop music and hip-hop and things like that, they would also — even if they didn't have a tremendous interest in Okinawan music — they would also know about it. It's just there all the time." Okinawans are renowned for their longevity, strong community ties and laid-back attitude. That's kept traditional music front and center as native music grew irrelevant in the rest of modern Japan. Music here is so ubiquitous, Potter says, it even follows Okinawans long after they're gone — it's played at grave sites, when families pay respects to their ancestors. Love, Booze And Hot Water At the Shimaumui pub in downtown Naha, 41-year-old musician Taku Oshiro says his lyrics, sung in the vanishing Okinawan dialect, cover the full range of human drama. "Since this is music by the common folk, the themes are love, romantic problems, or someone got drunk and in hot water," Oshiro says. "They're like songs anywhere. It's also about life lessons and hopes for a good harvest." Okinawan music, which dates back centuries, features the call-and-response phrasing also common in African cultures. "The sanshin comes in between the words; it fleshes out the words, fills in the spaces in between the words rather than playing melodies," Potter says. "So it's used in a kind of different way to maybe a guitar accompaniment. You won't find a big sanshin solo in the middle of the song — it's simply used to accompany the words and make the words stand out more." Rehabilitation Ethnomusicologist Matt Gillan says this music — once the culture of a scorned Japanese underclass — has been dramatically rehabilitated in recent decades. He recalls an elderly sanshin musician who was warned early in his life to find a different career. "The sanshin had this image of rather undesirable characters who drank too much and messed around with women," Gillan says. "So he became a professional musician anyway. About seven years ago, he was made a 'living national treasure' by the Japanese government." Sanshin has also been blended with Western instruments to create a hybrid, like in the song "Haisai Ojisan," by local legend Shoukichi Kina. Repeatedly subject to foreign occupation, most Okinawans, remarkably, don't sing the blues, but have maintained a sunny outlook on life — an attitude that colors their music. This strikes many outsiders as ironic, given the former independent kingdom's turbulent and tragic history. In their art, as in their lives, Okinawans keep saying that things will all work out in the end. DAVID GREENE, HOST: In Japan, the native songs of Okinawa remain enormously popular. Internationally, Okinawan music has been featured in works by Western artists like Ry Cooder and the world music label of David Byrne. Lucy Craft recently went to Okinawa to find the secret of its success. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) KAZUKI OYAMA: (Foreign language spoken) LUCY CRAFT, BYLINE: Sitting cross-legged on the campus of Okinawa University, student Kazuki Oyama runs through a number with his performing arts club. The long-necked instrument they're playing looks like a banjo, but it's covered in snakeskin and has just three strings. Oyama says the simple-looking instrument - known as the sanshin - is tough to master. OYAMA: (Through translator) Unlike the guitar, you pluck the strings one at a time. And the music is not written as notes, but as Chinese characters. CRAFT: British writer John Potter was so besotted with the Okinawan vibe, he moved here three years ago. JOHN POTTER: More than anywhere else in Japan, Okinawan music still plays a big part in peoples' lives. Even though younger people might be more interested in modern pop music and hip-hop and things like that, they would also, even if they didn't have a tremendous interest in Okinawan music, they'd also know about it, because it's just there

'Avenue Q' Solves A Lyrical Dilemma In High Style

If you're familiar with Avenue Q, the Broadway hit that is, in fact, a raunchy puppet musical while being much more than a raunchy puppet musical, you know that the closing number, "For Now," features a line about George Bush that generally got a roar during the opening years of the Broadway run. Now, of course, the line -- which you can hear above in a performance of the song by the cast at an appearance in Bryant Park in 2007 -- is a little outdated, so the show started auditioning possible replacements. Ultimately, though, they kept it. I saw the show on tour here in D.C. in February, and I have to say, I think the line got a stronger response now than when I saw it on Broadway in 2005. I'm not surprised it wasn't fussed with. If you're considering seeing the tour, by the way, I'd highly recommend it -- I enjoyed the touring production just as much as the Broadway production, much to my own surprise. You never know what you're in for with a touring show you know well about which you have lots of expectations, but it was very satisfying.

Helen Reichert, Who Could Bounce Back From Stress, Dies At 109

A passing of note: Helen Reichert, who Morning Edition introduced to listeners in April, died on Sunday. She was 109. In that April commentary for Morning Edition, Dr. Mark Lachs said of his patient that: "Unusual longevity often has a genetic basis, and Reichert probably does have a gene that contributes to her unusual longevity. But she also exhibits a powerful trait geriatricians call adaptive competence. "I define it loosely as the ability to bounce back from stress. Many scientists view this solely as biological stress. But many of us who care for older patients see adaptive competence as psychologically critical as well. "You don't get to be 109 without life hurling a few curveballs at you, and Reichert has had more than her share: bereavement, gender discrimination, medical issues. And after each, she dusts herself off and moves on." She also enjoyed a beer, chocolate truffles and telling Lachs to mind his own business — she'd outlived several other physicians. Following Reichert's death, Lachs sent this message to our colleagues at Morning Edition: "Helen past away died peacefully on Sunday, just shy of her 110th birthday. I suspect her only regret would be not to see her beloved and longstanding home attendant Olive (who was credited with the photo you posted on your website) give birth to her first child later this year — Helen never had children and wanted to be in the delivery room with her. "When I saw her last week she was so excited by that prospect she could barely contain herself. Olive told me that earlier [Sunday, Reichert] put her hands on [Olive's] stomach and said — 'beautiful' — before passing quietly. How's that for going out on a high note?" Update at 4:30 p.m. ET: At the time of her death, Reichert was Cornell's oldest alumna, according to The Cornell Daily Sun. It adds that: "Throughout her life, Reichert vigorously promoted a rigid recipe for success: chocolate truffles, hamburgers, Budweiser beer, cigarettes and New York nightlife. Strictly forbidden were vegetables, exercising, getting up early and complaining." And it notes her nickname was "Happy."

Putting Men in the Classroom

The "Call Me Mister" program trains and certifies black men as teachers to work in South Carolina's public schools. Executive director Roy Jones explains how it works, along with program graduate Mark Joseph, who now teaches fifth grade at West Cliff Elementary in Greenville.

Republican Establishment Announces Plan To Fight Bannon

David Greene speaks with Steven Law of the Senate Leadership Fund, which helps get establishment Republicans elected, about its pushback against Steve Bannon's influence on the Republican Party.

Why A Man Dressed As A Mattress Needed To Win A $9 Million Sports Bet

In 2017, a Texan furniture salesman with a proclivity for dressing like a mattress got millions of dollars of insurance coverage at a casino. And it worked out perfectly. This is the story of Mattress Mack and his promise to refund thousands of mattress sales if the Astros won the World Series. Listen to the original Planet Money podcast episode here! Subscribe to our video series here — and while you're at it, subscribe to our podcast.

Italian Architects Look To Replicate Success Of N.Y. High Line In Rome

When the famed Italian architect Renzo Piano was named honorary Senator-For-Life in 2013, he handed over his spacious new office and hefty salary of some $15,000 a month to a team of young architects. They were given the task of helping salvage depressed outskirts of Italian cities. One project was inspired by New York City's High Line — the beloved public park built on a derelict rail line elevated above the streets of Manhattan. Italy is littered with 600 unfinished public works projects — incomplete highways, half-bridges going nowhere, skeletons of buildings. They're the offspring of bad governance, greed and state subsidies eaten up by graft. In Rome, there's an unfinished elevated track cutting through two peripheral neighborhoods, Serpentara and Vigne Nuove. Originally conceived as a 12-mile tramline, looping north to south outskirts, work on the project suddenly stopped in the mid-1990s. The reason is clouded in mystery. The result is just one mile of elevated, abandoned concrete. Under Piano's supervision, a team of young architects cleaned up what had become the local garbage dump below. And, using recycled materials, transformed a planned tram stop into a community space for art installations, concerts and workshops. Francesco Lorenzi, 32, says the architects took an abandoned part of the city and put life there. Lorenzi is one of 600 young architects who competed to join Piano's team of six. It's called G124 — the number on Piano's Senate office door. The project was inspired by New York's High Line. But here, the park will be below, and above, pedestrians and cyclists will use a path to get between two big green areas of district — Parco delle Sabine and Parco Talenti. The elevated park is about a 45-minute drive from the city center. These neighborhoods were born during the construction boom of the 1970s and '80s — when cozy relations between city authorities and real estate speculators made building permits easy to acquire. These suburbs are dominated by huge, gray, unattractive public housing projects. The nieghborhoods are made up of middle- and lower-middle-class residents who fled rising rents in the gentrifying city center. Alessandro Lungo, 30, grew up here. He studies architecture and is helping Piano's team trying to revive this edge of the big city. He's convinced the outskirts don't have to be incubators of alienation. "It's our place, it's our city," he says. "Not all the citizens of Rome live in the center. This is Rome, so we have to start to think that it is a good place. We just have to meet each other and connect and use this place in the right way." Rather than separating two neighborhoods, Lungo believes an elevated cycling-pedestrian path can help link them. "We always do: home, work, work, home, and all the landscape that is in the middle is like an unconsciousness landscape, no definition," he says. "So I need another kind of mobility to move slowly, to see around, to feel the place where I live." Piano is especially fond of the idea of an elevated walkway. "When you walk 25-30 feet above ground, it is a miracle," he says, "because you are still in the city — you feel in the city but you are flying above the city. You are in the middle of trees, and that is a moment of beauty." Even in the most fraying, desolate outskirts, Piano believes, a fragment of beauty can always be found. "It is just a beginning, but this is what the architect does," he says. "He grabs the little trace of beauty and he build[s] on that, what beauty can be." It's unclear when the project will be completed. It's now up to City Hall to earmark the estimated $600,000 to $700,000 needed to complete Rome's High Line — and nourish beauty in the urban periphery.

After A Long Day At The Computer Do You Have A Medical Problem?

It's 2:00 p.m. and you have a few more hours until the end of your workday. Your eyes sting, your vision is getting blurry and your head hurts. The computer screen that you've been staring at for the past six hours seems so bright that you want to shut your eyes. Sound familiar? We'd bet yes. Piotr Le, a Georgetown University grad student, thinks so, too. He used to work in consulting — and that meant staring at a computer screen for 12 or more hours every workday. "Partially I left because of the physical deterioration of my body," Le says. "A lot of eye rubbing. That's why my prescription got worse. I would wake up with neck pain and back pain." Depending on whether you consult an optometrist or an ophthalmologist, you might get different answers on what ails you. Is it computer vision syndrome? Is it digital eyestrain? Is it just dry eyes and some eyestrain? The most common definition is given by the American Optometric Association, which coined computer vision syndrome and digital eyestrain as a group of vision-related problems from viewing digital screens for a long time. The American Academy of Ophthalmology labels it digital-related eyestrain. The group emphasizes that extended reading and writing can also strain the eyes. Neither computer vision syndrome nor digital eyestrain is an official medical condition. They are more of a collection of symptoms that sometimes include headache, neck and shoulder pain. "Classification schemes do take time to develop, and so it may not have crept into medical coding," says Dr. Michael X. Repka, a Johns Hopkins ophthalmologist and clinical spokesman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Repka says in the past these symptoms would be lumped under asthenopia, a condition that encompasses eye fatigue, ache around the eyes, blurred vision and headache. Computer vision syndrome, he says, is considered to be under asthenopia in the ICD-10 medical coding system. "Computer vision syndrome ... is not a recognized medical entity," says James Sheedy, a professor of optometry at Pacific University and head of the Vision Ergonomics Research Laboratory. "A medical diagnosis is a condition where the anatomy or physiology isn't functioning properly. There are several different medical diagnoses that could be the cause of what is commonly called computer vision syndrome. There are different names put on it. Those are really names to create a black box where you put everything into ... but it's really the same thing." The fact that these symptoms are common is self-evident. Optometrists and ophthalmologists agree that many patients walk into their offices with these complaints. But is there enough evidence to upgrade their diagnostic status? "I think research is coming out now that this really is a different condition," says Mark Rosenfield, a professor at SUNY College of Optometry. "There is something about these screens that is different from paper and so we're trying to figure out what aspects of screens is it that is causing problems. People didn't look at paper for that length of time [that] people are looking at screens, so I think that could be a factor too — the fact that people are looking at these things for such long periods of time." So why do our digital screens cause us so much trouble? "We're not really designed to do full-time near work; we're designed to do part-time near work, and so to the extent that we have to do so much near work our eyes are in tension virtually all the time," says Steve Loomis, president of the American Optometric Association. "The average worker spends seven hours a day on some digital device. ... I'm among them and so what we know is that that means that the muscles in the eye are in a state of tension." In a review of studies for the journal Ophthalmic & Physiological Optics, Rosenfield found that we have more incomplete blinks during computer operations, which reduces the volume of tears in our eyes. Too few tears causes irritation and a burning sensation in the eyes. A more recent review of the syndrome in IOS Press lists other factors: glare from windows, overhead lights and the computer. Also, the particulars of how your computer or digital devices are arranged, including the height and viewing distance of the device from our eyes. We also tend to hold hand-held devices closer to our eyes than we should. "The eyes work best we know by looking down about 15 degrees in most desktop computer situations. This means that the top of the computer screen displays should be level with the eyes," Sheedy says. "If it's higher or lower than that the person tends to tilt the head back or forward and now they have an imbalance and this creates muscular tension and it can give them a neck ache." The evidence doesn't suggest these symptoms are permanent. They can be alleviated by changing our workplace habits. Anti-glare screen filters and eyedrops may help some. Optometrists say that some people who use reading glasses may benefit from trying g

Pulitzer Prize Winner Goodman Looks Back On Work

Ellen Goodman started out as a young reporter covering the women's movement. Now, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist is retiring. She looks back at the story she's covered most consistently over the last forty years: women.

Wesley Brown, Naval Academy Pioneer

Wesley Brown graduated from the Naval Academy in 1949. He was the first African American to do so. Five others had tried: three during Reconstruction and two during the 1930s, but all were forced out by intense racism and even violence. Brown, who began his military career with a stint in the Army before applying to the Naval Academy, also suffered great discrimination. A group of upper classman conspired against him, giving him undeserved demerits that nearly led to his dismissal. But others came to his defense, inside and outside of the academy, allowing him to succeed. He retired as a lieutenant commander after 20 years of Navy service. His story, and the story of the integration of the Academy are the subject of a new book, Breaking the Color Barrier, by historian Robert J. Schneller, Jr.

Palestinian Approval Envisions Resumption of Peace Effort

The Palestinian Legislative Council approves the Cabinet named by Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. The move paves the way for a new roadmap to peace between Israel and the Palestinians, drafted by the United States, the EU, Russia and the United Nations. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

Steven Pinker: Can Numbers Show Us That Progress Is Inevitable?

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode The Story Behind The Numbers. About Steven Pinker's TED Talk It might seem like the world is getting worse and worse. But psychologist Steven Pinker says that across the board, data suggests we've made a lot of progress. The question is — will it continue? About Steven Pinker Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and the Johnstone Family Professor in the Harvard Department of Psychology. His research covers everything from visual cognition and psycholinguistics to social relations. He is the author of several books, including his most recent: Enlightenment Now: the Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.

Katrina Home Bush Visited Still Stands Empty

In the archives of the White House Web site is an item from April 27 headlined: "President Visits Damaged Home in New Orleans, Louisiana." The pictures show President Bush with 74-year-old Ethel Williams. She's a resident of the Upper Ninth Ward whose home had to be totally gutted after the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina receded. President Bush stood with Williams that day and said she'd get help rebuilding her life. "We've got a strategy to help the good folks down here rebuild," the president said that day. "Part of it has to do with funding; part of it has to do with housing; and a lot of it has to do with encouraging volunteers from around the United States to come down and help people like Mrs. Williams. So we're proud to be here with you, Mrs. Williams, and God bless you." That was a big day for Williams. Volunteers from Catholic Charities showed up in the morning and cleared out her house. Everything was taken, even the walls and the flooring. Then, with just a half-hour of warning, the president of the United States arrived. But since that day, not much has happened. Williams' house has stood gutted, just as it was when the president left. Mrs. Williams has been living with her daughter in a part of the city across the Mississippi River. "I thought I'd be in my house by now," Williams said recently. Williams did get some initial help from FEMA. And the White House says she's in line to get federal rebuilding money that will be allocated by the state. But that may take a while. Williams says her memory of the day is a blur, but she feels the president left a different impression -- that her house could be totally rebuilt within a few months. Still, Williams says she's not angry at anyone -- especially not the president. She never voted for Mr. Bush, but she says she really felt a connection with him that day in April. She now calls the president a friend. She's confident that President Bush will make sure things work out: "You can't get me to say he won't, because he will. Watch." "What's your name? I'm gonna call you. I'm gonna prove it to you. Before you leave, let me know how to get in touch with you. I'm gonna call you." MELISSA BLOCK, host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block. If you log on to the White House Web site and you go to the archive of presidential news and scroll back to April 27, you find an item headlined President Visits Damaged Home in New Orleans, Louisiana. The pictures there show President Bush with 74-year-old Ethel Williams. Ethel Williams lived in the city's Ninth Ward. Her home had to be totally gutted after the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina had gone. President Bush stood with Mrs. Williams that day and said she'd get help rebuilding her life. This month NPR's David Greene went to check in with Ethel Williams. He has this report. DAVID GREENE reporting: When President Bush walked out of that house back in April, he came to the microphones with his left arm around Williams. President GEORGE W. BUSH: We've got a strategy to help the good folks down here rebuild. Part of it has to do with funding, part of it has to do with housing and a lot of it has to do with encouraging volunteers from around the United States to come down and help people like Mrs. Williams. So we're proud to be here with you, Mrs. Williams, and God bless you. Mrs. ETHEL WILLIAMS (Resident of New Orleans): I'm proud to be here, Mr. President, and I won't ever forget you. President BUSH: Well, you need to remember those people a lot quicker than remembering me, because they're the ones that are going to help. She promised to cook me a meal once we get the house up. Mrs. WILLIAMS: Oh yes, I'll cook you a meal and I thank all the volunteers and everyone that's helping to make everything work. President BUSH: Thank you all very much. GREENE: That was a big day for Mrs. Williams. Volunteers from Catholic Charities showed up in the morning and cleared out her house. Everything was taken, even the walls and the flooring. Then the President of the United States arrived with just a half-hour of warning. But since that day, not so much has happened. Her house has stood gutted, just as it was when the president left. Mrs. Williams has been living with her daughter in a part of the city across the Mississippi River. We went to find her and brought along a tape recording of what the president had said that day. (Soundbite of tape recording) President BUSH: She promised to cook me a meal once we get the house up. Mrs. WILLIAMS: Oh yes, I'll cook you a meal and I thank all the volunteers and everyone that's helping to make everything work. President BUSH: Thank you all very much. GREENE: What were you thinking would happen after that? You sounded pretty optimistic that day. Mrs. WILLIAMS: I thought I'd be in my house by now, and I could cook the meals, do all the things I said. GREENE: Mrs. Williams is 74 years old, a petite woman who has no trouble putting someone h

In HBO's 'Bessie,' Queen Latifah Stars As Empress Of The Blues

A Mississippi car accident in 1937 cut short the life of Bessie Smith. She was just 43 years old. But she'd already established her legacy as "Empress of the Blues" — a pioneering American performer who demanded respect and equal pay in a world dominated by men and controlled by whites. She'd also achieved a degree of infamy for her boozing, her brawling and her sexual appetites. Queen Latifah — who plays the title role in the HBO movie Bessie, which premieres tonight — has been working for more than 20 years to bring Bessie Smith's life to the screen and finally pulled it together with writer-director Dee Rees. NPR's Arun Rath spoke with both of them. You can hear the edited interview and some of Bessie Smith's and Queen Latifah's vocals at the audio link above. Read the full conversation below. Arun Rath: Queen Latifah, you're a singer — can you talk to us about why Bessie Smith was so important? Not just to blues or jazz or African-American music, but to singing? Queen Latifah: As a singer, listening to her... well, number one, I wish she was recorded with modern equipment because I think her vocals are so powerful. When you listen to the small inflections, her vibratos, the way she said certain words, like even if it's just saying "here" — or "heeyah" — I mean, I'm still working on how to say it the way she said it, but she had this crazy vibrato that was so different than anyone I had ever heard. And then the way she would just get really grindy, like "grrrr." That's the only way you could kind of write it — she says it with a "grrrr." But you can also hear how she jumps between different tempos and rhythms, and that's something I enjoy doing personally with my band members, when we jump from hip-hop to jazz to gospel. That's what Bessie could do — she had the capability to jump into any pocket. If she heard, then she could do it, and everybody else had to catch up and follow. Arun Rath: Is it true that you've been considering playing Bessie Smith for over 20 years? Queen Latifah: Yeah, this project came pretty early in my career as an actress. I was basically Queen Latifah, the hip-hop head, Queen Latifah, the rapper-turned-actress. It would have been kind of a life-changing, career-defining moment in my acting career at that time. It would have challenged me to do everything I've had to do [up until] now, but I would have had half the life experience that I could have brought to this project. So, it's just funny how life works. I'm so thankful that this happened at this time with this woman I'm sitting across from [gestures to director Dee Rees], who had a vision that was something I could apply myself to and sink myself into at this time with this life experience. Arun Rath: Dee, can you talk about how this project finally came together? It's a complicated life you're putting on screen. Dee Rees: I just really wanted to get behind the stories. This is a woman who is complicated, and even the way she's talked about is complicated. And no two people necessarily agree on who she was or how she was. And if I couldn't answer the "how," I wanted to answer the "why." I wanted to understand what's inside her, so I started with her lyrics, with the songs she wrote, to try to really understand her as an artist. I saw [lyrics] as the door into what was on her mind, what she loved, what she feared, and take a personal perspective on it, and help the audience get inside Bessie and really appreciate her as a person, not just as an entertainer. Arun Rath: It's amazing to see how — and you see this very early on in the film — she came from a very modest background, but very early on, she demanded and got fair payment. Dee Rees: Absolutely, yeah, you know, especially in a time where the terms were exploitive, kind of like no matter what you did, whether you were washing clothes or cleaning somebody's house or doing music, the terms were exploitive. So in that time, she was able to kind of demand what she was worth and able to organize herself in such a way that she was able to sing what she wants to sing, go on tour, build her own audience. So I imagine that little girl ... she did not stay in the yard. This little girl's not sticking around the house. She's running around the streets with boys, she's singing on the corner, she's making her own way. I think that speaks to her character that, at a very young age, she chose for herself how she wanted to be. Arun Rath: Queen Latifah, I don't want to be too simple in drawing parallels, but I couldn't help but think about how you made it in a very male-dominated world of hip-hop when you were pretty young. Did you draw on some of that for this? Queen Latifah: Yeah. Male-dominated world. There was so much to draw from. I think it was a weird balance of what Dee wanted to see in this piece and what my life actually was. So, once again, I'm glad that it didn't quite happen as early as it could have, because I had a lot more to relate to: how to stick up for yourself, how to

Plaxico's Trigger Travails A Sign Of Siege Mentality?

I just became a father again, and while we've yet to settle on what to call my newborn son, one name is definitely off the list: Plaxico. Many of the friends and family who have dropped by to visit — even those not normally interested in football — have asked my opinion about the Plaxico Burress affair. Their inquiry usually takes the form of a question: "Plaxico Burress — what an idiot, huh?" So I will say to you what I say to them. Yes, the New York Giants star wide receiver is an idiot for accidentally shooting himself in the leg at a Manhattan nightclub last weekend, jeopardizing his future with the team. Burress is now looking down the barrel of two weapons charges. But the Burress shooting is perhaps the result of a string of violent attacks on NFL players. January 2007: Denver Broncos defensive back Darrent Williams is shot and killed after leaving a nightclub. Broncos receiver Javon Walker is riding in the limo. September 2007: Houston Texans defensive back Dunta Robinson is the victim of a home invasion. Robinson says he and his family were forced to lie down at gunpoint and that the gunman told him, "You're a good player, so I'm not going to kill you." November 2007: Sean Taylor of the Washington Redskins is shot and killed in his home. June 2008: Walker, now with the Oakland Raiders, is robbed, beaten and found unconscious after leaving a Las Vegas nightclub. September 2008: Jacksonville Jaguars lineman Richard Collier is shot 14 times after leaving a nightclub. He is left partially paralyzed and has his left leg amputated below the knee. ESPN the Magazine chronicled these incidents in a story in which more than one player is quoted as saying that a gun makes him feel safe. The article clearly documents a siege mentality among NFL players. Although it never compares NFL crime rates with overall crime rates or addresses whether the two high-profile murders have skewed players' perceptions, in a way that doesn't matter. The salient point is that players whose job it is to listen to authority figures are told by team-hired security experts that they can become victims. So they begin to feel victimized and, voila, Burress tucks a gun in his pants, fiddles with the safety — and jeopardizes his health, his livelihood and his team's chances of success. It's important to note that Burress allegedly broke the law. He didn't have a handgun permit, and he certainly didn't have a concealed-carry permit. That's nearly impossible to get in New York City. But in many states, getting a concealed-carry permit is pretty much as easy as asking for one. It's called a "shall carry" law, and the vast majority of states have "shall issue" statutes on the books. So the upshot is that Burress is an idiot, and an unlucky idiot. Unlucky that he was in one of the cities with the toughest gun laws, and of course, unlucky that the gun went off. Odds Of An All-New York Super Bowl? The chances of a game pitting the Giants against the Jets, according to Aaron Schatz and the gurus at Football Outsiders: 3.4 percent. They calculate that the Jets have a 7.3 percent chance of making the championship game, while the Giants have a 46.7 percent shot. Jokers, Chokers And Mediocres A look at the NFL teams that are stuck in the middle, too weak to peak. (To see how the rest stack up, you can go to sites like ESPN or Fox or CBS.) Arizona Cardinals: They can't run, can't stop the run and can't stop the pass. They throw it well and catch it better, but their aerial skill doesn't mean they rise above mediocre. San Diego Chargers: According to the U.S. Census, no babies will be named Norv in San Diego this year. Plaxico Burress: OK, not a team, but still: Good at football, mediocre marksman. Though maybe his thigh made a threatening gesture. Green Bay Packers: Four losses of 4 points or fewer. Note to Pack: Last week I predicted a Carolina collapse, so you made me look bad this week. Now it's personal. Houston Texans: With this week's win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Texans rise to the ranks of the mediocre. Clever people picked these guys to make the playoffs. Yeah, the NFL playoffs, seriously.

Ellis Island Database

NPR's Margot Adler reports on the opening of The American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island. The records of immigrants who came through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924 are now available online. Ellis Island officials and the Mormons -- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- have worked together to create a searchable database containing about 70 percent of all arrivals to the Port of New York during that period. (4:30) <a href="http://www.ellisislandrecords.org" target="_new">www.ellisislandrecords.org</a>.

A Set Of Variations--Miles

A set of variations--Miles Hoffman's subject this hour--by Mikhail Glinka: They're based on a theme from Luigi Cherubini's (loo-EE-jee kair-roo-BEE-nee) "Fanisca" (fah-NEES-kuh). The pianist is Francesco Bertoldi (frahn-CHESS-koh bair-TOHL-dee). (Nuova Era CD 723)

German Pianist Lars Vogt

German pianist Lars Vogt (VOHT) and the National Orchestra of France, conducted by Leonard Slatkin, perform the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, by Robert Schumann. Recorded earlier this season at the Theatre of the Champs-Elysees (shah(n)-zay-lee-ZAY) in Paris. (Radio France/European Broadcasting Union)

HBO Documentary 'Meth Storm' Explores Drug's Scourge In Rural Arkansas

The new documentary &#8220;Meth Storm&#8221; shows how a potent form of meth and a lack of economic opportunity are devastating a rural Arkansas community. The film premieres Monday night on HBO. Here & Now&#8216;s Jeremy Hobson talks with filmmakers Brent and Craig Renaud. Interview Highlights On the magnitude of the meth crisis in rural Arkansas Craig Renaud: &#8220;I think the film is as much about poverty in the state as it is about meth addiction. And you have this perfect storm of these large amounts of methamphetamine coming in, at the same time that you have a loss of job opportunities and not a lot of things going on in these communities. And you hear the [Drug Enforcement Administration] in the film talk about, back in the days of meth labs, they would be surprised if they saw a pound at a time, and now they&#8217;re seeing 40- to 50-pound shipments a week coming into Arkansas. So the problem has gotten very overwhelming in these communities.&#8221; [Youtube] On how job losses have contributed to the crisis Brent Renaud: &#8220;There&#8217;s really been a perfect storm of things that have happened in this area and made it difficult to get jobs. And what we&#8217;re looking at now is a situation in which the kids in this film, you hear the sheriff say, &#8216;I don&#8217;t think they had a choice to do anything but get involved with the drug trade.&#8217; We&#8217;ve got kids who are now becoming teenagers, they&#8217;ve never known anyone who&#8217;s had a job, never known anyone who&#8217;s gone to college. What do we expect of these kids when we&#8217;re not giving them any other opportunities?&#8221; On why people don&#8217;t stop using meth, even after realizing how bad it is CR: &#8220;I think Teddy in the film, [Veronica&#8217;s] son, is a perfect example of this. We watched Teddy come out of jail three different times over the course of making this film, and even after doing 90-day treatment programs, coming out very sincerely wanting to stop &#8230; but we would watch him go back to these communities where everybody that he knows in that community is either using or dealing. You watch him go through sincere attempts to get a job to try to get his life back together for his kids. And then slowly the pressures of that environment, family members on [meth] and everybody else on it, and not being able to get a consistent job, and I think eventually he just gives in. And I think that&#8217;s indicative of the problem for a lot of people that just can&#8217;t get off the drugs.&#8221; BR: &#8220;It&#8217;s the forgotten America, and we&#8217;ve seen it in other places like inner-city Chicago as well, where there really are very few job opportunities, the educational opportunities are not very good. Your role models are involved in the drug industry, and you get a record at a very young age, and once you&#8217;ve got that record, it dogs you for life.&#8221; On connections between the meth crisis and the opioid addiction crisis CR: &#8220;I think there&#8217;s definitely a connection in terms of the way the United States is being flooded with these drugs. We watched the DEA for two years in Arkansas really struggling with keeping up with the mass amounts that are coming in, and you do these massive operations to take down one network and they&#8217;re immediately replaced by other people who are willing to step up and deal the drugs. And so I think that&#8217;s a big problem that you&#8217;re having with the opioid crisis and the methamphetamine crisis.&#8221; On what might end the cycle, and their goal in making the film BR: &#8220;I think education and jobs in these failing economies could help quite a bit in terms of giving an incentive to do something different. You hear Daniel, Veronica&#8217;s son, in the film talk about if he had a regular job, he would stop. And so I think that could help quite a bit.&#8221; CR: &#8220;Our goal &#8230; there&#8217;s so much in the larger culture around us in social media, so much judgment, and so much analysis and so much throwing dirt on everyone. And I think that our work is really a reaction against that. We&#8217;re trying to present stories from the subject&#8217;s point of view, very experiential stories, so that when people start having opinions about police officers or low-level drug addicts or even rural people in general, we&#8217;re hoping to give a little bit of context to those discussions.&#8221;

Roland Cazimero, Musician Who Helped Define Modern Hawaiian Culture, Dies At 66

Roland Cazimero, a guitarist and singer who helped define the nobly mellifluous sound of contemporary Hawaiian music, primarily as one-half of The Brothers Cazimero, died in Honolulu on Sunday at 66 years old, his twin sister, Kanoe, confirmed. No cause of death was given, though the artist suffered in recent years from congestive heart issues, diabetes and carpal tunnel syndrome. The Brothers Cazimero, with Robert on upright bass and Roland on 12-string acoustic guitar, had been a cornerstone of the Hawaiian music scene for the last 40 years, and arguably its singlemost influential group during that time. The duo's trademark sound, liltingly sweet but rhythmically strong, was always distinguished by a full-bodied vocal blend: Robert, an exceptionally gifted singer, sang lead, while Roland handled the high harmonies, often in an imploring Hawaiian falsetto. The Brothers Cazimero took flight precisely in step with, and at the center of, a cultural movement called the Hawaiian Renaissance, propelled by musicians, artisans and custodians of ancient hula and chant. In cadence and repertoire, the group honored the root sources of Hawaiian music. But Roland and Robert also had an instinct for pop songcraft, creating music that combined traditional materials with the earnest gleam of mainland folk-rockers like Crosby, Stills & Nash. The self-titled debut album by The Brothers Cazimero was released in 1975; its most recent, Destiny, was released in 2008. The duo was a perennial favorite at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards, Hawaii's version of the Grammys, winning enough "Song of the Year" honors to stock a compilation album, 20 Years of Hoku Award Winning Songs. As a live act, The Brothers Cazimero presented a study in contrasts; while Robert struck a tone of elegant precision, Roland played the part of a rascal and a wiseacre, which wasn't a stretch. Roland Kanoelani Cazimero was born 15 minutes after his sister Kanoe, in 1950, the youngest in a large family of 12 children, counting half-siblings. Their parents, William Ka`aihue Cazimero, Sr., and Elizabeth Kapeka Meheula, were local entertainers, and music was a constant presence around their house in the working-class Honolulu neighborhood of Kalihi. Roland graduated from Kamehameha High School in 1968, one year after Robert. Soon afterward they joined Peter Moon, a ukulele player and slack-key guitarist, in a group called The Sunday Manoa. Its 1969 album Guava Jam quickly became a bedrock document of the Hawaiian Renaissance, its declarative subtitle making plain their artistic intentions: "Contemporary Hawaiian Folk Music." Robert and Roland broke away from Sunday Manoa to form The Brothers Cazimero in 1974, becoming both torchbearers and cultural ambassadors. For a dozen years, beginning in the early '80s, they held a residency at the posh Monarch Room at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, performing mainly to delighted tourists. They also toured widely, appearing at Carnegie Hall. Politically motivated civil disobedience was a key subtext of the Hawaiian Renaissance, and Roland counted himself an enthusiastic member of the resistance. "I've been supporting sovereignty from day one," he once told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, recalling his efforts to house and supply the protesters who occupied the tiny island of Kaho`olawe in 1976. The following year, Roland collaborated with songwriter and chanter Keli`i Tau`a on an album called Hokule`a — The Musical Saga, paying tribute to the eponymous Polynesian voyaging canoe that traversed the oceans using only ancient navigation techniques. (The Hōkūle`a, a symbol of the Hawaiian renaissance, has remained active, completing a three-year circumnavigation of the globe just weeks ago.) Roland's first true solo effort was Pele, a 1979 concept album about the Hawaiian goddess of fire, complete with expository voiceover. The songs framed a mythological story in often personal terms, forming a clear narrative arc. The sound of the album combined pastoral folk with something approaching prog, as on a track called "A Promise Forgotten." Along with Robert and twin sister Kanoe, known as Tootsie, Roland is survived by his wife, Lauwa`e Cazimero; another brother, Rodney; and his children Hawai'iki Cazimero, John Devin Kumau C. McWilliams, Jonah Cazimero, Jordan Malama Cazimero-Chinen, and Justin Pono Cazimero-Chinen. The Brothers Cazimero played their last proper concert on Maui in 2014. Roland had to interrupt the performance, and was treated in a local hospital for walking pneumonia. During a recent interview with Leslie Wilcox for the PBS Hawaii program Long Story Short, Roland was asked whether Robert knew their playing days as The Brothers Cazimero were probably over. "I think he knows," he said. "I tell him that I'm very proud of him doing what he's doing, and that I want him to continue." He paused. "I miss playing with him a lot. I would love to play with him again, if possible."

Sectarian Violence Breaks Apart Iraqi Family

Many Iraqis are being forced to flee their homes under threat by sectarian gunmen. One NPR staff member in Baghdad explains how and why he has had to split his family up in the name of security.

The Marketplace Report: Optimism about Future Hiring

NPR's Madeleine Brand speaks with Tess Vigeland of <EM>Marketplace</EM> about a new survey from staffing company Manpower that finds an increasing number of employers believe they'll be hiring new workers soon.

Wilco Guitarist Nels Cline

Known for the avant-garde sound he brings to Wilco, Cline turns to ballads and jazz standards on his new album, 'Lovers.' He describes it as a "mood-music record" that isn't cheesy. Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Jonathan Safran Foer's third novel, 'Here I Am.'

Shooting Unfairly Links Violence With Mental Illness — Again

With the Army's disclosure that Army Spc. Ivan Lopez was being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder before he went on a shooting rampage Wednesday, there were once again questions about whether the Army could have prevented the violence at Fort Hood. Experts in mental health say (even as more facts about Lopez emerge) that it's highly unlikely the violence could have been predicted. Just raising that question, psychologists and psychiatrists say, shows how much Americans misunderstand the link between mental illness and violence. One national survey in 2006 found that most Americans — 60 percent — believed people with schizophrenia were likely to be violent. But the vast majority of people with psychiatric disorders are not violent. In fact, another study found they are far more likely to be the victims of violence, and that 1 in 4 experience violence every year. Dr. Carl Bell, a psychiatrist at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says being able to predict who will be violent in advance "is impossible." "The reality," Bell says, "is that prediction of violence is only useful in an immediate clinical situation: Someone comes in and says, 'I'm going to kill myself.' Then you take their word for it, and can predict violence in the short term. But you cannot use that to predict violence in the long term." Army officials said Thursday that Lopez had seen a psychiatrist in the past month, but there were no indications that he was suicidal. Dr. Thomas Grieger, a clinical and forensic psychiatrist who worked in military hospitals for three decades, says that one reason violence is so hard to predict is because it is so rare. "Acts of extreme violence and acts against yourself — suicide attempts — are so infrequent that it really becomes almost impossible to predict when any individual or situation is going to escalate to that," Grieger says. "So many factors come to play: interpersonal relationships, difficulty in the workplace, issues at home, career issues and true mental health issues like depression, bipolar disorder or psychosis." Medications are another complicating factor — which ones and whether a soldier was taking them. For many troops back from deployment, multiple medications are prescribed to deal with pain, mental health issues and other problems. Army officials say Lopez had been prescribed Ambien, a drug to help him sleep, and other medications to treat anxiety and depression. Still, there are a few factors that are more likely than others to be present among people who do become violent. The best predictor of future violence is whether a person with a psychiatric illness has been arrested or acted violently in the past. And people with substance abuse problems, on top of mental illness, are also at a greater risk of committing violence. Bell says there's growing study of "mass murder preceding suicide." In these cases, someone who goes on a shooting spree wants to die, but wants to do so in a way that gets a lot of attention. "There's a huge dynamic in suicide where people get angry because they're hurt," Bell says. "They say, 'I'll fix you. I will kill myself and I'll get even with you.' What better way to get even (and make a big splash) than to kill a bunch of people before you kill yourself?" It's been reported that Lopez shot himself, bringing his shooting spree to an end, after he was confronted by a police officer. This was the second mass shooting at Fort Hood in less than five years. Last year, Maj. Nidal Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was sentenced to death for killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the November 2009 shooting that remains the worst mass murder at a military installation. It's more reasonable to question whether the Army could have prevented Hasan's violence — but not because of mental illness. The FBI had seen email that Hasan had sent to the website of terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, expressing his own sympathy toward suicide bombers. And, as my NPR colleague Daniel Zwerdling reported, Hasan's supervisor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was so concerned about Hasan's "pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism" that he wrote a memo sharply criticizing the doctor. That kind of document could have ended a military career. But instead, the Army — with a shortage of psychiatrists and a flood of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems — kept Hasan working. After the 2009 shootings, the Pentagon commissioned a report on how to prevent a repeat of the shootings. The report made 47 recommendations for how to improve security. One was to improve training so that military personnel could better "identify contributing factors and behavioral indicators of potentially violent actors." Another was simply to realize that its own soldiers could be a threat. Another was to find ways to restrict the carrying of personal firearms on military bases. Lopez, it's been reported, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound from a .45-caliber S

This Fake News Series Was Popular In The 1930s

&#8220;The March of Time&#8221; news series began on radio and then replaced silent newsreels in movie theaters in the 1930s. Actors, including Orson Welles, impersonated newsmakers, and writers re-imagined events and used real news footage. KUOW&#8217;s Katy Sewall, host of &#8220;The Bittersweet Life&#8221; podcast, reports. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

A Rabbi And Pastor Say We Can Physically Distance And Still Celebrate Meaningful Holidays

On Wednesday, Jews will mark the first night of Passover with the traditional seder — a dinner retelling of the story of the Jews&#8217; exodus from slavery in Egypt. And later this week, Christians will observe Good Friday and Easter. But how to do it when community gathering — at the very heart of the celebrations — is not permitted? And can our more solitary observances still be meaningful? Yes, according to Rabbi Noam Marans and Pastor Jared Wellman (@JaredcWellman), who join host Robin Young to talk about this year&#8217;s unique challenges. This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

The Greatest Musicals? 'Singin' in the Rain' Tops List

The American Film Institute has revealed its latest list: The top 25 movie musicals of all time. NPR's Bob Mondello sent along this musing about the ranking. Personal confession -- The Sound of Music can still make me cry. "There's a place for us... somewhere a place for us," unless that is, we have an ounce of camp. When the American Film Institute released its list of cinema's greatest musicals this week, who'd have guessed they'd skip the sort of musical that really gets musicals -- the satires, the goofs, the shows that indicate a real love of form. I mean, these lists are made to be argued over, and there were bound to be a few kvetches and cavils, but seriously, why so serious? I mean, no one's going to argue with choices like Singin' in the Rain (#1), Wizard of Oz (#3) and Mary Poppins (#6), and it makes sense that if Broadway transfers make the list, they should be led by West Side Story (#2), which won a bigger slew of Oscars than almost anything, even if all those all-American, squeaky-clean, finger-snapping gang members look a little silly today. But at the other end of the AFI's top 25, a few selections seem to have been given too much credit for having been hits on stage (Guys & Dolls (#23), for instance, where a singing, hoofing Brando was just plain not a good idea). And there are enough of that sort of also-ran to make you wonder why they couldn't find room for a couple of the musical-mad musicals that make the form attractive to folks who don't go in for the super-sweet storylines of Rodgers & Hammerstein and the intricate rhyming of Cole Porter. Personally, for instance, I'd trade all those dancing cowhands in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (#21), for Tim Curry strutting around in fishnet stockings in Rocky Horror Picture Show. The Pontipee brothers, after all, are trapped in a dull, generic plot when they're not leaping over sawhorses, whereas there's a knowing awareness of form to Dr. Frank-N-Furter's gyrations that goes way beyond mere choreography. Grease (#20) was plenty popular with hopelessly devoted Travolta and Newton-John fans, but there's not a moment in it that's half as much fun as the sight of Carmen Miranda covered in fabric strawberries, fending off the hundreds of Busby Berkeley chorines who are rushing around holding six-foot bananas in The Gang's All Here. I also miss Umbrellas of Cherbourg (not even on the AFI's original ballot (PDF format)) with its candy-colored costuming, but admittedly, that's more specialized (and well, not American). Whatever... if the list gets people to sample a couple of movie musicals they'd missed somehow, I guess it's worthwhile. As for me, I'll just shuffle off to my cabin in the sky and whistle a happy tune as I make up my own list.

The News Roundup For February 7, 2020

This week, the Senate acquits President Donald Trump on two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Democratic National Committee calls for a recanvassing of the results from the Iowa caucuses, as candidates prepare for a debate Friday night in New Hampshire. Meanwhile, President Trump has spoken to Chinese president Xi Jinping about the coronavirus epidemic. Officials say more than 600 people have died from the disease in China. And President Trump also appeared to confirm that the U.S. killed the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in January. Elsewhere, South Africa issued an arrest warrant for former president Jacob Zuma. And Kenya's longest serving president dies, leaving a mixed legacy. For our conversation about domestic news, we spoke with Jessica Taylor, Senate and governors editor for The Cook Political Report; Katie Rogers, White House correspondent for The New York Times; and Gabe Fleisher, author and host of the "Wake Up To Politics" newsletter and podcast. And for our international roundup, we spoke with Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist; Uri Friedman, staff writer for The Atlantic; and Phillip Stewart, military affairs and intelligence correspondent for Reuters. Like what you hear? Find more of our programs online.

Brahms Looks Back to Bach

Some of the final compositions by Johannes Brahms were organ chorales in the style of his idol, Johann Sebastian Bach. From a concert at the San Diego Civic Theater, we'll hear one of those chorales, "Oh God, Thou Devout God," in an arrangement for string orchestra. Richard Tognetti leads the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Dylan Finds a New Generation of Avid Listeners

For the first time in 30 years, Bob Dylan has an album that is No. 1 on music sales charts. Musician David Was, who co-produced an album for Dylan some years ago, says it's more than just luck that makes a 65-year-old singer relevant to young music lovers.

Ben Carson Says A Screening Mechanism Needed To Resettle Syrians

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said he would require background checks on all Syrian migrants and war refugees before allowing them into the United States. Carson, a retired pediatric neurosurgeon, told NPR's Scott Simon that terrorists could be hiding among the hundreds of thousands of desperate refugees currently flooding Europe. The Obama administration has said it will resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S. over the next year. "We have to recognize that this is a splendid opportunity for the global jihadists to infiltrate those numbers with members of their own organization," Carson said. "So we would have to have in place a very excellent screening mechanism. Until we had such a mechanism in place, we should not be bringing anybody in." If such a screening system were in place, he said, "I would admit people that we need, people that can boost our economy based on their skills and what they bring in, and I don't know what that number is." New polls this week show Carson running a strong second among registered Republicans for their party's presidential nomination; some show him ahead of Democrat Hillary Clinton in a potential national contest for president. In his interview with Simon, Carson spoke more about refugees, as well as health care, religion in campaigns and his recent tour of Ferguson, Mo. Interview Highlights On what he learned from the people of Ferguson I came away with the idea that respect is the really the solution. We need to teach young people to respect authority, particularly respect the law. And we need to teach the law to respect the people. One lady was telling about a situation where there were 100 police officers on the block with armored vehicles, and she came out and asked one of the officers what was going on and he said, "Oh, nothing. Go back in the house." You know, that's not showing respect to people. On his health care proposal It would be vastly different [from Obamacare]. I would use health savings accounts, paid for with the very same dollars that pay for traditional health care with. It would give people enormous flexibility to shift money within their family. So that'll take care of three-quarters of the American population. It doesn't take care of the indigents. But how do we take care of them now? Medicaid. We can craft something that works very well. I know a lot of people in Washington would say, "Well, indigent people can't manage a health savings account. They're too stupid." But they're not too stupid. Somebody has a diabetic foot ulcer, they learn very quickly not to go to the emergency room where it costs five times more to take care of it. They go to the clinic. It's a whole other level of savings which we are not achieving right now ... On whether being a surgeon prepared him to be president Not in and of itself, but I think planning, utilizing a lot of resources, a lot of other people, to do complex things — even things that have never been done before — certainly helps ... I think it's a fallacy that only people in elected office can come up with solutions to solve our problems. I just think there's a different paradigm. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Dr. Ben Carson is on the rise. New polls this week show him running a strong second among registered Republicans for their party's presidential nomination. And a couple of polls show the retired pediatric neurosurgeon ahead of Hillary Clinton in any potential national contest for president. Dr. Ben Carson joins us. Thanks very much for being with us. BEN CARSON: Oh, my pleasure. SIMON: You toured Ferguson, Mo., on Friday, held a press conference and were obviously deeply moved by meeting with people there who felt they weren't respected by police. What did you learn? CARSON: Well, you know, I came away with the idea that respect is really the solution. We need to teach young people to respect authority - particularly, respect the law. But we need to teach the law to respect the people. You know, one lady was telling about a situation where there were a hundred police officers on the block with armored vehicles. And she came out and asked one of the officers what was going on. And he said, oh, nothing. Go back in the house. You know, that's not showing respect to people. But, by the same token, law officials put their lives on the line every single day for us, and I think we also owe them a degree of respect. SIMON: Question of the week - how many Syrian refugees would you admit to the United States if you were president now? CARSON: Well, we have to recognize that this is a splendid opportunity for the global jihadists to infiltrate those numbers with members of their own organization. So we would have to have in place a very excellent screening mechanism. Until we have such a mechanism in place, we should not be bringing anybody in. SIMON: Wouldn't a lot of innocent people be left to die? CARSON: You know, my point - not being that I don't