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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington.

When former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens returned to civilian life, he heard his fellow veterans asked the same question over and over: What do I do now? Part of the problem is the economy. Veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq face unemployment rates even higher than that in the general population. Part of it's mutual incomprehension. Vets say employers don't understand how the skills they learned in the military can translate.

Republicans have their former Democratic star at their convention this week in Artur Davis — and now Democrats have their answer in Charlie Crist.

The former governor and former Republican will speak next week at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, the party confirmed this morning. "I'm very pleased, at least in a small way, to try to help the president," Crist told NPR.

Tax rates have been a constant theme of this election cycle. Mostly, it's because Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is one of the wealthiest men to run for president and the rate at which he has paid federal taxes has been the subject of much discussion.

With nearly 700 food carts licensed last year, Portland, Ore., is arguable a leader in the mobile food revolution. Lucky residents can choose between Iraqi-Jewish sabich, yeasted Belgian liege waffles, or Indonesian rendang, all served out of a friendly window on the sidewalk. But all of these mobile meals come with a downside — namely, trash.

Phyllis and Darren Sudman started Simon's Fund in 2005, after their 3-month-old son Simon died in his sleep. They learned later that Simon had an undetected silent heart condition.

Today, Simon's Fund provides free heart screenings to children throughout the Philadelphia area to prevent other families from experiencing the same tragedy.

Regina Spektor plays the piano so loudly, she has to convince piano tuners to adjust the instrument to her liking.

"It gets so loud that the strings reverberate in a certain way," Spektor says. "And I always want them to work on the voicing and to soften the hammers, and they get kind of argumentative with me — they're like, 'You're not supposed to play this loud.'"

Even some Republicans don't think the loss of Monday's proceedings at their party's national convention in Tampa, due to Tropical Storm Isaac, will matter much in the grand scheme of things.

"The whole drama of the hurricane's very unique here," says David Woodard, a GOP consultant who teaches at Clemson University. "Suppose Isaac wiped out the whole convention — who cares?"

Conventions clearly are a diminished thing, Woodard says. They no longer decide who the presidential nominees are going to be, in anything but a strictly formal sense.

Political conventions, even ones that have been delayed a day by a tropical storm, are all about getting a party's message out to the nation.

Minutes ago in the Tampa Convention Center, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky used a sit-down with USA Today and Gannett correspondents to restate one key argument Republicans have been making and will continue to make through Election Day:

All eyes are on Tampa as Republicans get together to fire up their base, and attract independents to the fold. But one poll shows Mitt Romney with zero percent of African-Americans supporting him. Host Michel Martin discusses outreach to black voters with Tara Wall. She's a senior communications adviser with the Mitt Romney for President campaign.

During the last convention season, the U.S. was facing a frightening moment in its economic history. Home sales were shutting down, employers were slashing payrolls, and financial institutions were lurching toward chaos. Host Michel Martin talks with NPR's Marilyn Geewax about how the economic outlook has changed in the last four years.

The NFL is in a pay dispute with referees, and replacement refs have been working the preseason. Players and unionized officials say the substitutes are struggling, and that it'll only get worse. They cite safety as their biggest concern. Host Michel Martin discusses the issue with Pablo Torre of Sports Illustrated.

Tropical Storm Isaac slammed Haiti with heavy rain and strong winds. Although the damage is less than feared, the country is still trying to rebuild after the devastating 2010 earthquake. Host Michel Martin speaks with Haiti's First Lady Sophia Martelly to learn more about how they were affected by the storm.

The Donald isn't done yet with the "birther" conspiracy.

Developer/reality show star/sort-of politician Donald Trump brought his unique personality to Florida on Sunday and for at least a few minutes took some of the spotlight away from the Republican National Convention in Tampa and tropical storm Isaac out in the Gulf of Mexico.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

When a doglover gets to an age when she can't care for a dog anymore, it can be a huge loss.

Since 2009, Simon, a Golden Retriever and his owner, Pat, have been visiting Alice — who is 94 years old and legally blind — in her home near Toms River.

For years, Alice enjoyed the companionship of a dog. Now because of health problems, she cannot. So every week she looks forward to her visits with Pat and Simon, who are part of the Caregiver Canines program.

A Chinese city set the record for the most women to participate in a parade while wearing bikinis. Over the weekend, Ocean City, Md., set out to break the record of 1,085 — but fell far short at 325. Organizers blame the rainy weather for holding down turnout.

The Republican National Convention will come to order at 2 p.m. in Tampa, Fla., and then quickly go into recess. Because of Tropical Storm Isaac, the main events have been delayed until Tuesday. This is the second convention in a row where the GOP had to delay the opening because of bad weather.

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died over the weekend at the age of 82. Steve Inskeep talks to Neil Degrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, about Armstrong's impact on space exploration.

Republicans have decided to delay the official start of their presidential nominating convention until Tuesday. Tropical Storm Isaac is causing weather-related issues around Tampa, Florida. As the convention is about to begin, polls show GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is tied with President Obama.

Tropical Storm Isaac is expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it churns through the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. While its exact track is still uncertain, parts of Florida are being hit by the storms outer bands. Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana are preparing as well.

John Walker Lindh was a middle-class kid in Northern California who converted to Islam and went to travel the world. U.S. authorities eventually captured him in Afghanistan after Sept. 11, when he was allegedly fighting alongside the Taliban.

His story was the focus of a Law and Order episode, and a song called "John Walker's Blues" by Steve Earle.

For the past five years, Lindh has been living in a secret prison facility in Indiana with convicted terrorists, neo-Nazis and other inmates who get special monitoring.

After a month-long offensive in Aleppo, Syria's largest city, rebels are struggling under a fierce counter offensive by the Syrian military and the outcome is far from clear. But the future of Aleppo, the country's financial hub, is already under discussion in secret meetings on the Turkish border.

Over cups of sweat tea in a Turkish border hotel, Moeihmen Abdul Rahman, a lawyer from Aleppo, sits down for his first meeting with Abu Riad, a commander from the Al Tawheed brigade, a coalition of rebel militias leading the assault on Aleppo.

The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday announced its first major shift on circumcision in more than a decade, concluding that the health benefits of the procedure clearly outweigh any risks.

"There is clear evidence that supports the health benefits of circumcision," said Susan Blank, who led the 14-member task force that formulated the new policy being published in the journal Pediatrics.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he favors keeping all of the Bush-era tax cuts and then adding some more. To pay for these cuts, he would reduce or eliminate some of the tax deductions that many Americans have come to rely on. But his proposals are already facing a lot of resistance.

As we age, our sleep patterns change. We've all heard the complaints: "I wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep!"

Some sleep experts estimate that as many as 40 percent of older adults suffer sleeping problems such as sleep apnea and insomnia. Now, researchers have found a link between disrupted sleep and cognitive decline.