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The Two-Way
6:09 am
Tue August 21, 2012

Diana Nyad Ends Latest Bid To Swim From Cuba To Key West

Credit Christi Barli / AFP/Getty Images
Diana Nyad in the Florida Straits on Monday.

Originally published on Tue August 21, 2012 9:21 am

Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad has ended her third recent attempt to swim the 100 miles or so from Cuba to Key West, Florida, her official Twitter page says.

That word followed reports from ABC News' Good Morning America and CNN.

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The Two-Way
5:23 am
Tue August 21, 2012

As Deadline To Drop Out Nears, Rep. Akin's Best Defender Is His Opponent

Credit Orlin Wagner / AP
Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., talking with reporters at the Missouri State Fair last week.

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 4:47 am

  • NPR's Brian Naylor on 'Morning Edition'
  • Tim Lloyd of St. Louis Public Radio, on 'Morning Edition'
Participation Nation
5:12 am
Tue August 21, 2012

Drug Free in Dublin, N.H.

Credit Michael Loccisano / Getty Images
Sofia Capria of Phoenix House.

As a volunteer at the Phoenix House Academy of Dublin, 21-year-old Sofia Capria helps teenagers battle drug and alcohol addiction — just as she did herself three years ago.

"Right away, I was hooked," Sofia says of her own drug use, which began at age 11. But for her, the road to recovery wasn't easy.

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Around the Nation
5:04 am
Tue August 21, 2012

Wealthy Koch Brother Builds Old West Town

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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Around the Nation
4:58 am
Tue August 21, 2012

10-Year-Old Son Gets Dad Help For Bee Stings

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

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Election 2012
4:30 am
Tue August 21, 2012

Campaign Contribution Totals Reveal Complex Picture

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A moment ago we heard warnings that Todd Akin will lose financial support if he stays in the race. For a campaign, of course, money is like oxygen, and the presidential campaigns have set out their latest reports on how they're breathing. President Obama and Mitt Romney each have an advantage, depending on which bank account you're looking at. NPR's Peter Overby reports.

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Business
4:11 am
Tue August 21, 2012

Drought Dries Up Crops, But Not Airline Schedules

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The airline industry is having a better than expected summer. Airline stocks have been on the rise and customer service is improving. These days, airlines are less likely to lose your luggage. They're also seeing the highest percent of on-time arrivals since the government started keeping track in the late 1980s.

NPR's Sonari Glinton reports the industry is getting some help from an unlikely source.

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Business
3:20 am
Tue August 21, 2012

Business News

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with a really big apple.

It was bound to happen. Apple has surpassed Microsoft as the most valuable company ever. That happened when Apple stock hit $665 per share yesterday, boosting its market value to nearly $624 billion. Microsoft had held the record for market capitalization since 1999. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

Politics
3:20 am
Tue August 21, 2012

Obama Surprises Reporters In White House Briefing Room

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And I'm David Greene.

President Obama will be out talking to voters today, with events in the battleground states of Ohio and Nevada. But by this time in an election year, a sitting president is campaigning even when he's home. The president made a surprise appearance, yesterday, in the White House briefing room. You can imagine what most of the questions were about. Here's NPR's Scott Horsley.

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Music News
3:20 am
Tue August 21, 2012

Tim Storms Holds Record For Lowest Sung Note

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

OK, we're about to hit a new low. The London-based record label Decca held a competition earlier this year. The label was looking for someone who could sing an incredibly low note: the low E.

TIM STORMS: (Singing) E.

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NPR Story
2:45 am
Tue August 21, 2012

UCLA's Business School Wants To Cut Ties To State Funds

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The business school at UCLA wants to go into business for itself. The Anderson School of Management is part of a public university. Of course, it's in California and the school's leaders find that being part of public education in California right now is a little maddening. Budget battles and state budget cuts have become normal.

Will Stone reports on what the school wants to do instead.

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NPR Story
2:45 am
Tue August 21, 2012

The Last Word In Business

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And our last word in business today is: pumped up kicks.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Nike will soon release its priciest shoe.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The latest Lebron James-branded basketball shoe, known as - the Lebron X Nike Plus - is expected to retail for $315. I'm hoping that's for a pair, David, and not per shoe.

Anyway, it apparently includes some motion sensing technology - motion sensing technology that can record how high players jump when wearing them.

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NPR Story
2:45 am
Tue August 21, 2012

GOP Leaders Encourage Akin To Quit Senate Race

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin was going to face trouble, no matter what. But it's Akin's fate that he also faces a deadline today.

GREENE: If he should withdraw from the U.S. Senate race by 5 o'clock Central Time this afternoon, it will be easy for party officials to name a replacement. And he is under pressure not to miss this opportunity.

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Latin America
2:39 am
Tue August 21, 2012

Cuba Views China, Vietnam As Economic Hope

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Cuba is one of the world's last remaining communist states. Cuba's allies in China and Vietnam also maintain firm one-party rule, but have prospered by introducing market principles to their economic models. With Cuban President Raul Castro easing government controls on property rights and private enterprise, many are wondering if the struggling island is looking to Asia for a way forward.

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Dead Stop
1:33 am
Tue August 21, 2012

Deaths Tell The Story Of Life In Old Hong Kong

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Below a noisy flyover alongside Hong Kong's Happy Valley racecourse, there's a little-noticed green oasis stretching up the hillside, punctuated by imposing Victorian chest tombs, granite obelisks and delicate angels. This is Hong Kong cemetery, the last resting place of the early settlers who colonized the island, starting in the 1840s.

For my mother, Patricia Lim, the cemetery is a repository of the island's early untold early history.

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Shots - Health Blog
1:29 am
Tue August 21, 2012

High School Daze: The Perils of Sacrificing Sleep for Late-Night Studying

Credit iStockphoto.com
It may not be the best strategy to stay up late and cram. A new study finds that when teens don't get the sleep they need, all kinds of things can go poorly.

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

High school students with heavy academic course loads often find the demands of homework colliding with the need for adequate sleep.

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Middle East
1:29 am
Tue August 21, 2012

Don't Charge That Electric Car Battery, Just Change It

Credit Tara Todras-Whitehill for NPR
Better Place is building a network of electric car battery changing stations throughout Israel. The idea is to make changing a spent electric battery as easy as pulling into the gas station for gasoline. Here, Better Place CEO Shai Agassi is shown in front of a cutaway model of an electric car at the company's showroom in Tel Aviv earlier this month.

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

It looks like a bright new car wash, but it's a battery swapping station for electric cars in Israel. When a vehicle pulls up, it is slowly pulled through a conveyor. The spent battery is taken out and replaced with one that is fully charged. The entire process takes less than five minutes.

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Shots - Health Blog
1:28 am
Tue August 21, 2012

Health Law Gives Medicare Fraud Fighters New Weapons

Credit iStockphoto.com
With help from the Affordable Care Act, government fraud investigators will make more use of computer programs to detect Medicare and Medicaid scams.

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

Fighting health care fraud in the U.S. can seem like an endless game of Whack-a-Mole. When government fraud squads crack down on one scheme, another pops up close by.

But the fraud squads that look for scams in the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs have some new weapons: tools and funding provided by the Affordable Care Act.

Medicare and Medicaid pay out some $750 billion each year to more than 1.5 million doctors, hospitals and medical suppliers. By many estimates, about $65 billion a year is lost to fraud.

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The Salt
1:24 am
Tue August 21, 2012

How A Biofuel Dream Called Jatropha Came Crashing Down

Credit Kambou Sia / AFP/Getty Images
A man harvests fruits of the Jatropha tree in Taabo, Ivory Coast. Jatropha, which is grown in many parts of the world, has fallen from favor as a diesel fuel substitute.

Originally published on Mon October 22, 2012 8:37 am

From Congress to The Colbert Report, people are talking about the Midwestern drought and debating whether it makes sense to convert the country's shrinking corn supplies into ethanol to power our cars.

It's the latest installment of the long-running food vs. fuel battle.

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First And Main
1:23 am
Tue August 21, 2012

In Wis. Swing County, Voters Criticize 'Handouts'

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 7:01 am

As the presidential election nears, Morning Edition is visiting swing counties in swing states for our series First and Main. We're listening to voters where they live — to understand what's shaping their thinking this election year. This week, we're spending time in Winnebago County, Wis.

We began our conversations in the lakeside city of Oshkosh, at a cafe on Main Street. But now, we're heading outside town to the Winnebago County Fair, where I was eager to taste Wisconsin's most famous food: cheese curds.

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The Two-Way
5:14 pm
Mon August 20, 2012

JetBlue Fined $90K For Not Telling Passengers They Were Allowed To Deplane

Credit Joe Raedle / Getty Images
A JetBlue Airways aircraft.

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 5:19 pm

The Department of Transportation said it has fined JetBlue $90,000, after it failed to inform passengers that they could leave a plane that sat at the gate for close to three hours.

DOT said that violated airline protection rules that went into effect in April 2010. The rule says that if passengers can get off the plane, they should be informed that they can do so and they should be given updates every 30 minutes.

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The Two-Way
5:07 pm
Mon August 20, 2012

Death Of Handcuffed Man In Police Car Ruled A Suicide

Originally published on Tue August 21, 2012 4:42 am

A 21-year-old man whose hands were cuffed behind him in the back seat of a police car in Arkansas killed himself with a concealed handgun. That's according to an autopsy report released Monday into the death of Chavis Carter.

Carter died July 28 after being detained during a traffic stop. Police said he had an outstanding arrest warrant – later revealed to be drug-related. The driver and the passenger of the vehicle he was in were allowed to go.

Police searched Carter twice, but found no gun.

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The Two-Way
4:26 pm
Mon August 20, 2012

For First Time, Latinos Represent Largest Minority Group In Colleges

In a new study, The Pew Hispanic Center says that for the first time ever, Hispanics have become the largest minority group in the country's college campuses.

It's a report that marks many firsts for the ethnic group, which has been making great strides in education since 1972.

Among them: For the first time, there were more than 2 million latinos ages 18 to 24 enrolled. They reached a record 16.5 percent of all college enrollment. Hispanics make up a little more than a quarter of 18- to 24-year-olds enrolled in two-year colleges.

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All Tech Considered
3:46 pm
Mon August 20, 2012

Smartphone Apps Help More Singles Find The Boy (Or Girl) Next Door

Credit Sean Locke / iStockphoto.com
A growing number of smartphone apps use internal GPS to help singles locate potential mates nearby. While men are enthusiastic about the apps, women have been slower to adopt them.

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 4:02 pm

Pretty much every smartphone on the market today offers GPS. Apps of all kinds use that geo-locating ability to offer you the local weather forecast or help you find nearby restaurants.

There are also apps designed to help singles look for love, and the concept has been a hit — with men. The app Grindr, for gay men, has more than 4 million users worldwide. And straight guys are signing up for a bunch of dating apps, as well.

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NewsPoet: Writing The Day In Verse
3:46 pm
Mon August 20, 2012

NewsPoet: Tess Taylor Writes The Day In Verse

Credit Emily Bogle / NPR
Tess Taylor visits NPR headquarters in Washington on Monday.

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 4:38 pm

Today at All Things Considered, we continue a project we're calling NewsPoet. Each month, we bring in a poet to spend time in the newsroom — and at the end of the day, to compose a poem reflecting on the day's stories.

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The Two-Way
3:27 pm
Mon August 20, 2012

Low Waters Close 11-Mile Stretch Of Mississippi River

Credit Jim Salter / AP
A tow pushes a barge past a sandbar on the Mississippi River near the confluence with the Missouri River north of St. Louis., on Friday. Many sandbars normally under water on the two rivers are now exposed as the drought has caused river levels to drop.

An 11-mile stretch of the Mississippi River was closed today because of low waters levels.

The AP reports:

"Coast Guard spokesman Ryan Tippets told The Associated Press on Monday that the stretch of river near Greenville, Miss., has been closed intermittently since Aug. 11, when a vessel ran aground.

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It's All Politics
3:01 pm
Mon August 20, 2012

Issue Of Abortion Back In Spotlight In Swing States

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 5:15 pm

With women's issues front and center again in the presidential campaign, a bus tour through several swing states kicked off Monday in opposition to President Obama's views on abortion.

At the same time, the Obama campaign launched a new TV ad — aimed at some of the same voters in some of the same key states — criticizing Republican Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, on the issue.

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Participation Nation
2:33 pm
Mon August 20, 2012

A Simple Gesture In Paradise, Calif.

Credit Courtesy of A Simple Gesture
Cool green bags of food for the hungry from A Simple Gesture.

In 2010, my wife Karen and I — inspired by the Ashland Food Project in Oregon — founded A Simple Gesture in Paradise, a small northern California town.

Simply stated: We give a donor a cool green shopping bag. Every time she goes shopping for her own groceries she buys one extra non-perishable item and puts it in the cool green bag. Every two months a volunteer picks up the bag at the home and gives her another.

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Environment
2:20 pm
Mon August 20, 2012

Wood Energy Not 'Green' Enough, Says Mass.

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 4:02 pm

Wind and solar get lots of attention, but another kind of renewable power actually creates more energy in our country --wood. The state of Massachusetts on Friday decided that these plants aren't green enough to get some special breaks.

The Two-Way
1:46 pm
Mon August 20, 2012

Phyllis Diller, Legendary Comedian, Is Dead

Credit AP
In this May 20, 1966 file photo, comedian Phyllis Diller appears in character in the ABC-TV comedy series "The Pruitts of Southampton."

Originally published on Mon August 20, 2012 1:48 pm

Phyllis Diller, who was known for her trademark self-deprecating humor and laugh, has died at 95.

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