JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
Hi, Lynn.
LYNN NEARY: Hi. Good to be here.
LUDDEN: So you have a list. You whittled it down to five top picks. How did you do that?
NEARY: Just the idea of what that means for the slaves, because they're so close to freedom. So what...
LUDDEN: Up there in the North.
NEARY: Yes, and the problems that it causes because in fact, one of these young women, in fact, sees this as an opportunity for escape.
LUDDEN: Wow. So two historical novels. What else is on your list?
NEARY: So this one is Detective Frank Mackey, and he goes back to his old neighborhood to investigate a crime and gets embroiled in - with his family, who he thought he had left behind forever. And this is the story - as much about a dysfunctional family as it is about crime.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
NEARY: Which, I think people always like to discuss dysfunctional families.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
NEARY: So that's my crime novel choice.
LUDDEN: All right, and the others?
NEARY: And then I also think that like a lot of times - I don't know if you find this, Jennifer; I know you're in a book club - that sometimes you just want a pretty quick read.
LUDDEN: Yes.
NEARY: Right?
LUDDEN: So we hit that patch. Yes, absolutely.
NEARY: What Paul Auster does in "Sunset Park" that I think is interesting is, it's kind of a meditation on what home means and what it means to be homeless, what it means to come home after you've been in self-imposed exile. And he sets up, in a very - sort of gentle way, the backdrop of what's really going in this country around housing and the housing crisis.
LUDDEN: Is it set in contemporary times, then...
NEARY: Yes, it is.
LUDDEN: ...since 2008?
NEARY: It's set in contemporary times. It is not about the housing crisis - I don't want to lead people astray - but he sets that up as the backdrop for this story about what home means.
LUDDEN: So there are so many groups out there recommending book club books. I mean, it feels like, you know, publishers must - and bookstores must really be counting on this whole genre it's become.
NEARY: I think it has become something of an industry. And yes, publishers - when you get press releases from publishers on different books, they might even say, this is a great book club pick. And sometimes, I think they have almost stereotyped a certain kind of book that they think book clubs might like - very often. Because I think they think of book clubs as being mostly women, and I think that's a possibility that they are. "The Help" might be an example of that, which has been a perennial best-seller now for a couple of years. And I think, probably, a lot of book clubs are picking up on "The Help."
LUDDEN: A very fun read.
NEARY: As a matter of fact, Paul Harding, who wrote "Tinkers," which won the Pulitzer Prize last year, when I interviewed him, he told me that he got the buzz going on that book by going to book clubs and...
LUDDEN: Really?
NEARY: Yeah. Mm-hmm. And eventually, the buzz got loud enough that the Pulitzer Prize committee heard about it. So now, he's got a best-seller on his hands.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
LUDDEN: So Lynn, has your book club made some picks for the coming year?
NEARY: Yes, and one of the books that we're going to read early in the year is a book that's gotten a whole lot of attention this past year, and that is "Freedom," by Jonathan Franzen. And I have to tell you, it was a controversial pick because some people just felt like they'd heard too much about it. Some people are not crazy about Jonathan Franzen. But I think in the end, the group decided we have heard so much about it, let's read it, and let's decide for ourselves what this - whether this is a good book or not.
LUDDEN: NPR's Lynn Leary.
NEARY: Good to be here.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
NPR's Allison Aubrey has more.
ALLISON AUBREY: So what did you have for breakfast here this morning?
M: Coffee and a scone.
AUBREY: How about you?
M: Coffee and a croissant.
AUBREY: Oh, that's a good breakfast.
M: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
AUBREY: What is it, actually?
M: It's like bacon, egg and cheese in like, a bread roll.
AUBREY: With a few layers of sausage thrown in, too.
M: Yeah, it's probably going to cut a couple years off my life. But I mean, it's really good, so I'm enjoying myself right now. You should get one, actually.
AUBREY: Beegah says he usually does not eat this way. At home, he wouldn't think of loading up on triple portions of fatty foods for breakfast. But traveling, being on the go - it turns out Beegah's brain is processing food differently than if he were having a quiet meal in his own kitchen. The sensory overload can really throw off judgment, or inure us to the sensation of feeling full. Scientists are just beginning to understand how this disruption works.
LUDDEN: I think there are lots of factors that come together to ultimately influence how much we eat.
AUBREY: Higgs recently measured the differences between people who ate their lunch mindfully - paying attention to each bite of food - compared to people who watched TV or worked on their computers while eating.
LUDDEN: When people are distracted from their lunch, we find that given the opportunity later in the day to consume cookies, they actually eat more cookies than if they weren't distracted when they ate their lunch.
AUBREY: In a recent study from the University of Manchester and Unilever, researcher Andy Woods experimented with varying levels of background noise in a dining room. He found as it gets louder, people lose their ability to perceive saltiness and sweetness. And he says there is one more thing...
M: We also, though, found an intriguing link between food liking and background noise preference - such that when the person had quite liked the background noise, they would report that the food was more liked.
AUBREY: But inevitably, we have to step back out into the world again, where temptation is everywhere.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
M: I think there's so much emphasis on food all the time.
AUBREY: As scone and coffee lover Caree Scott says, look no further than magazines displayed at the grocery store checkout. They're all the same.
M: On every issue, there's a thing that says lose 20 pounds, you know, by spring, and then right underneath there, there's a picture of a cake.
AUBREY: Scott says the contradiction is almost laughable.
M: You can't have both. You can't lose weight and also have the cake.
AUBREY: Allison Aubrey, NPR News.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
From member station WPLN, Blake Farmer reports.
BLAKE FARMER: The last time soldiers crowded Patty Rucci's gun shop, they were shopping not for themselves but to arm their wives during the deployment. Rucci recommends a pistol-grip shotgun, which just needs to be cocked to get the message across to intruders.
FARMER: It's a very distinct sound. It's lock and load.
FARMER: With the 101st Airborne deploying five times since September 11, 2001, economic highs and lows have become a routine.
FARMER: To manage through the rollercoaster, Rucci has diversified. She now has a skateboard shop, an odds and ends store she calls Just Stuff, and a locksmith service, which brings some business even when soldiers are gone.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINE)
FARMER: These are mostly for motor pools, barracks. But our work on the road - as far as lockouts and re-keys - pick up a little bit more when they're here, because there's more of them with vehicles here to lock their keys in, and they do - a lot.
FARMER: Emily Burchfield would like to stop quizzing her daughters about where their father is, and the kid-friendly version of what he's doing.
FARMER: What does he do at his faraway work?
FARMER: He shoot the bad guys.
FARMER: Yeah. He does shoot the bad guys. Why does he shoot the bad guys?
FARMER: They're not nice.
FARMER: Because they're not nice?
FARMER: Staff Sergeant Philip Burchfield, deployed with the Rakkasans of the 3rd Brigade - the unit is first in line to come home since it was the first to fly out last January.
FARMER: The countdown begins, obviously, the day he leaves, although you're insane if you start counting that early.
FARMER: To preoccupy herself, Burchfield stays busy chasing her preschool-aged girls. She and her husband are also in a kind of competition to see who can lose the most weight.
FARMER: Like, I started working out like, right when he left, and I've lost 42 pounds since he left.
FARMER: Forty-two pounds?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
FARMER: It's amazing what stress does to you.
FARMER: This deployment has been particularly stressful compared with the last, to Iraq - where Burchfield says her husband didn't shoot anybody. In Afghanistan, she says, he uses his weapon every day. He even earned a Bronze Star for running through gunfire to save one of his men.
FARMER: I was furious because I told him when he left, no hero crap.
FARMER: Firefights and roadside bombs have killed more than 100 Fort Campbell soldiers since March, the post's highest casualty rate in the post-Vietnam era. Fearing the effects of combat that can follow soldiers home, the Army's top brass is focused on making the 101st Airborne's reintegration as smooth as possible.
FARMER: They're telling us that they are prepared to augment and help.
FARMER: Major General Frank Wiercinski is the rear detachment commander at Fort Campbell.
FARMER: It could be financial. It could be behavioral health. It could more folks that have busted themselves up over there, and just didn't want to say anything 'til they got back because they'd be sent back out of the fight. So you may need more orthopedists.
FARMER: For NPR News, I'm Blake Farmer in Nashville.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
NPR's Debbie Elliott talked with the singer on her recent visit to his hometown, New Orleans.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT: Aaron Neville is an icon here, and with his linebacker shoulders and signature dagger tattoo on his cheek, there's no going incognito in his hotel lobby.
LUDDEN: Hello. How are you?
M: How are you...
LUDDEN: I'm good. I love your voice.
M: Well, thank you. Thank you for the love...
LUDDEN: Thank you.
ELLIOTT: Neville hasn't lived in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina flooded his home in 2005. Now, he splits his time between New York and Covington, Louisiana. But the first track on his new CD certainly conjures images of what his native city has been through.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STAND BY ME")
M: (Singing) When the storm of life is raging, Lord stand by me.
ELLIOTT: The CD is arranged as if you were in a church service. And this song, "Stand By Me," is the opening prayer.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STAND BY ME")
M: (Speaking) I started listening to gospel when I was a little boy, and my grandmother used to rock me on her lap. And she listened to Doctor Daddy-o. He was the disc jockey for the gospel station here in New Orleans. And he would be playing stuff by the Blind Boys and Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Mahalia, Dixie Hummingbirds and all them guys, you know. So I was initiated into it at an early age.
ELLIOTT: He's reminiscing as we drive along the bumpy back streets of uptown New Orleans. These are his old stomping grounds, he says.
M: This house over on the right is where we grew up, when I moved over here from 13 - right there, with the green on the door.
ELLIOTT: Someone has wrapped the door with sparkly green Christmas paper. It's one side of a duplex - two narrow clapboard houses that share a front porch.
M: They call them shotguns and camelbacks.
ELLIOTT: When he and his brothers were growing up, Neville says, people here had a rhythm to the way they walked that came from the music they listened to. For him, it was doo-wop and locals Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino and Professor Longhair.
M: My dad and my mom were big Nat King Cole fans, so they had everything he did. And I used to sing my way into the movies singing one of his songs. They'd say, Neville, sing me a song and I'll let you in - you know.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
ELLIOTT: What song?
M: (Singing) Pretend you're happy when you're blue. It isn't very hard to do.
ELLIOTT: He'd get in to see westerns with Roy Rogers and Gene Autry.
M: Yodel along with them. And I'd come back in the project, and I had a mop stick, named Kemo Sabe, I'd ride for my horse, you know. It was cool. I had the fastest mop stick in the project.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
ELLIOTT: There's a bit of country twang underlying the gospel on the new CD.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I KNOW I'VE BEEN CHANGED")
M: (Singing) I know I've been changed, oh I, I know I've been changed, oh I, I know I've been changed. The angels in heaven gonna sign my name. The angels in heaven gonna sign my name. I know I got religion...
ELLIOTT: Neville turns 70 this month, and has lived the changed life he sings about. A gold charm of St. Jude dangles from his left earlobe.
M: Saint of hopeless cases.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
ELLIOTT: Neville made his first record in 1960.
M: I had just got out of jail, and I wrote that song in jail. It was: Every day along about 1, I'm dreaming of you and my little son. And every day along about 2, I'm so lonesome and so blue. Every day along about 3, I'm dreaming of the day that I'll be free.
ELLIOTT: Fifty years later, he is again singing about freedom.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OH, FREEDOM")
M: (Speaking) I don't know. I always feel I'm blessed, you know. I thank God for letting me use his voice. That's how I see it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OH, FREEDOM")
M: (Singing) No more weeping, no more weeping, no more weeping over me.
ELLIOTT: On the way back to the hotel, we stop at the St. Jude Shrine at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in New Orleans. This is Neville's place of solace.
M: I feel like a little kid, you know. I just feel safe.
ELLIOTT: He's needed the haven. His wife of 48 years, Joelle, died after a long battle with cancer four years ago. And he says it's still hard to see what Katrina has done to his hometown.
M: I get sad sometimes, 'cause it's been all that time and so much hasn't been done, you know. You're passing all those neighborhoods, and there's still some people coming back, you know, but a lot of places - some of them are never coming back. But one thing about New Orleans, you can't break their spirit.
ELLIOTT: Neville remarried last month and is touring with the new CD. There's always hope, he says, looking out at the Christmas lights strung along the wrought-iron balconies of the French Quarter.
M: There ain't no place like New Orleans. It's one of a kind.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ELLIOTT: Debbie Elliott, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHY CAN'T YOU LIVE SO GOD CAN USE YOU")
M: (Singing) You ought to live so God can use you anywhere, Lord, anytime.
LUDDEN: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Scott Simon returns next week. I'm Jennifer Ludden.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHY CAN'T YOU LIVE SO GOD CAN USE YOU")
M: (Singing) You ought to sing so God can use you, anywhere, Lord, anytime. You ought to sing so God can use you, anywhere...
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Scott Simon's away. I'm Jennifer Ludden. Happy New Year.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY")
LUDDEN: It was the beginning of a new generation's unprecedented explosion. The baby boomers had arrived.
(SOUNDBITE OF JIMI HENDRIX SONG, "ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER")
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
P: And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LUDDEN: ...of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.
LUDDEN: A cultural revolution transformed America when they came of age in the 1960s. It's hard to believe but today, the first of these boomers turns 65.
M: There are roughly 76 million people defined as baby boomers in this country - anyone who was born from 1946 to 1964.
LUDDEN: Steve Cone is executive vice president of AARP.
M: There are 7,000 boomers a day who will be turning 65 in 2011 - which is a significant birthday, for sure.
LUDDEN: Sixty-five used to be the age Americans stopped working, kicked back, and embarked on serious leisure to make up for all those decades of the daily grind. But just like every other stage of life they've gone through, the boomers are expected to transform how we think about retirement.
M: My name is Stephanie Zirkin. My birthday is May 14, 1946.
M: I'm Stan Zirkin. My birthday is March 14, 1945.
LUDDEN: So you're officially a boomer; you're almost a boomer.
M: Close enough.
LUDDEN: The Zirkins live in a cozy rowhouse in Greenbelt, Maryland, in the Washington, D.C., suburbs. Stephanie and Stan are short, with salt and pepper hair - mostly salt - and lots of energy, which they need.
STEPHEN: Uh, where's the book?
M: It's on one of the Macs, sweetie.
LUDDEN: Since their daughter split from her husband, Stephanie has stepped in as a main caregiver for her 6-year-old grandson, Stephen.
M: (Reading) This word is "which."
STEPHEN: (Reading) Which animal eats plants?
M: Uh-huh.
STEPHEN: Which animal...
M: Animals.
STEPHEN: Ostrich.
M: Other...
STEPHEN: Other animals?
LUDDEN: When his mom's working, Stephanie picks up Stephen at the bus stop after school. She supervises homework, sometimes feeds him dinner. She adores children and is happy to help. Still...
M: To be perfectly frank, by the time Stephen came along, I was kind of tired out. But I always wanted to have a grandchild that I could take care of on a daily basis. I just hadn't pictured it happening that far along.
LUDDEN: When the Zirkins' daughter, Rachel, separated from her husband, Stan found another way to help out.
M: The one thing that I could do was make sure that she knew she had a nice place to live. So I dipped into my savings and bought her a condominium, which is, you know, a hundred yards from here. And you know, I thought I was - I was feeling, you know, very secure when I ended my mortgage a few years ago, but now I have another one.
LUDDEN: The condo is just around the corner.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR OPENING)
LUDDEN: Hi there. How are you?
RACHEL DUDA: Hi; nice to meet you.
LUDDEN: The Zirkins' 41-year-old daughter, Rachel Duda, is grateful for the condo and her mom's babysitting.
M: It's a godsend. Having her here, especially with my son and, you know, with going through divorce and everything else like that, it's been wonderful having family around. And Stephen is just thriving because of it, I think. It's like he's being raised by a village - which is a good thing. I mean, sometimes it really does take that.
LUDDEN: Back at the Zirkins', Stephanie gets dinner going. Stan has spent the day at his office in Washington, D.C., commuting home via Metro to the kiss- and-ride, then driving the few miles from there. It's a routine he's not about to give up.
M: And I work for the National Labor Relations Board, and I'm the branch chief of the contempt litigation branch. Love the work- and I've spent my entire career doing good for people who might otherwise be powerless, and that's a feeling that I can't imagine being duplicated anyplace else.
M: Friends of mine asked me if he was going to take early retirement from government, which he was eligible for 10 years ago. And I said, not 'til they pry the fare card from his cold, dead fingers. He loves his job.
LUDDEN: And that, too, is typical. Steve Cone says AARP surveyed those hitting 65 this year.
M: You know, it hasn't been such a great financial environment, or economic environment - as we all well know - over the past few years. And so when you turn 65, you start thinking about, well, how many productive years, you know, are ahead, and where am I financially?
LUDDEN: You asked an interesting question. You said: What would be the best 65th birthday gift that someone would like? And what did they say?
M: I think the first answer was financial security, followed closely by: I'd like to have good health, now and in the future.
LUDDEN: It's not just the recent recession that's put boomers' financial security at risk.
DUDA: What's the likelihood that baby boomers are now entering their golden years?
M: Much less likely than that for retirees in earlier years. We're having a contraction in all aspects of the retirement income system, so boomers are going to face a much tougher time than their parents faced.
LUDDEN: What can you tell us about how prepared, you know, the average baby boomer is as they hit 65? What have they saved, on average?
M: Fifty-one percent of working households today will not be able to maintain their standard of living once they retire. In terms of the early boomers, that number is somewhat lower; it's at 41 percent.
LUDDEN: Then there's the exploding cost of health care; the shrinking value of homes; the fact, she says, that Americans simply do not save enough. And, oh yes, everyone's living a lot longer.
M: What we're trying to do is have people save over a 40-year work life for 20 years in retirement. And the arithmetic just really doesn't work out, if you think about it. People just don't get enough income during that period to support themselves, raise their family, and meet all their needs, plus put aside a pile big enough to live for 20 years in retirement. So that's not workable. I think we really need to change the age at which people stop working, and then people have a fighting chance to have some security in retirement.
LUDDEN: It's entirely possible today that someone can actually spend more years in retirement than they did in the workforce. Stephanie and Stan Zirkin each have a parent in their 90s.
M: My father is 97. He still lives in the house that we moved into in 1957. He lives alone. He's still got all his marbles - maybe even acquired another few. He's tough.
LUDDEN: The Zirkins say their parents are still financially independent. And unlike many, they feel they have saved well for retirement. Stephanie believes their sense of thrift may speak more to their Depression-era parents than the rest of her generation. Still, looking after aging parents on one end, and struggling children on the other, is probably no one's retirement dream. And yet Steve Cone says the AARP survey shows an extraordinary, and characteristic, resilience.
M: Boomers feel very optimistic about A, their future and B, what they've accomplished. So there was very little response saying - you know - I really haven't done everything I've wanted to do. I think the number was in the 80 percent range in terms of people saying, you know, I'm happy where I am in life. And I think that's a fantastic poll indicator that this generation has always been optimistic, has always felt that they could do more, and regardless of their work environment, don't really want to quote-unquote retire from life.
M: A lot of my contemporaries have retired already. I was curious to see what they would do in retirement, and there is not a traditional retiree among them.
LUDDEN: Again, Stan Zirkin.
M: One of the guys decided he really majored in the wrong subject in college, so he's back in college. He's taking anthropology, I think, and that's his new love. And he says he intends to stay until he gets another degree, just for the heck of it. Another one, he used his retirement - some of his retirement money to purchase rundown houses, and he's renovating them himself. So the people that I've been in contact with, when they retire, they're not going to Florida and sitting by the pool and watching TV and getting fat. They are not retiring. They are simply going to a different stage of their life.
LUDDEN: Stephanie says this is fine by her - no need to have Stan lounging around the house all day. And really, she's busy enough. So what is she looking forward to in the coming decades?
MS: Ooh. Great-grandchildren.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF CHILD SQUEALING)
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LUDDEN: You're listening to NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
U: (Singing) I made my New Year's resolution. Tell you what I'm going to do. Just forget about the old year and a things we used to do...
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
For that we turn to Dana Milbank. He's an author and columnist for the Washington Post. He joins us from NB Studio Services in Costa Mesa, California. Welcome.
M: Good to be with you, Jennifer.
LUDDEN: What are your resolutions for President Obama, looking into 2011?
M: Well, I am proposing that President Obama's resolution should be to enroll in Pilates classes for the New Year. Now, you may think this is confusing because he is, in fact, in quite good shape. But the constant complaint from everybody is he doesn't really stand up in negotiations - his spine isn't stiff enough. So Pilates would give him that core strength that I think he would...
LUDDEN: One wouldn't say he's already twisted himself into a pretzel a number of times?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: I think more the - more abdominal work, the lower back, just strengthen that - stiffen that spine. I think he's going to stand up well, not only to the Democrats but to the opposition Republicans as well.
LUDDEN: Moving on to Congress, the 111th Congress. It did end up being quite productive, one of the most productive sessions ever. You wouldn't know it from the approval ratings. Now, next week, we've got a whole new class coming in - and some chastened Democrats there. What are your resolutions for this body?
M: But each Republican has to be paired with a Democrat. They have to learn to build some trust this year. They have to learn that they are, in fact, human - that they're not up against some evil enemy every moment of the day. And I think this kind of blindfolding and trust-building exercise will get the job done.
LUDDEN: And you would love to cover that, I know.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: I would. In fact, I'd be happy to participate. I wouldn't guarantee that I'd catch the guy if he fell backwards.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
LUDDEN: OK, moving on to us, the electorate. You know, politics, it is a bit of a spectator sport. I'm sure we're going to see some jockeying ahead of the 2012 presidential election. What should we all resolve?
M: Jennifer, this is - I know we say it every year - this is the year we are finally going to go on a diet. If you look at the polls, no matter - everything that we need to do - as a government, as a society - we need to cut the debt, we need to cut the spending, we need to increase the taxes - all of these painful things, we're not willing to go. The polls show, repeatedly, we're not willing to do the hard things. So this is the year. We're going to eat the vegetables. We're going to eat the fiber. And we're really going to cut some of the fat out. That would be my resolution for America.
LUDDEN: Can we still have a little dessert?
M: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: Jennifer, you can have a little deficit. It's OK.
LUDDEN: Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, thanks so much.
M: My pleasure.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
Now, I was taught patience is a virtue. Actually, my mom tried to drive home that point since I've never had much of it. But even I can feel the shift. My 12-minute Metro ride to work used to feel like a welcome time-out. These days, I catch myself irritated at this unproductive chunk of time. Why can't I order new pants through my Blackberry from an underground tunnel?
C: Then again, it has occurred to me this little device could be a wonderful travel companion, something that keeps his sanity - and mine - at the airport, on a plane, in a long line for Dumbo the Flying Elephant. Though I guess if we go back to Disney, I won't have to remember the handheld. For better or worse, they'll have us covered.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
To find out more, we're joined by NPR's Kabul bureau chief, Quill Lawrence. Hi there, Quill.
QUILL LAWRENCE: Good morning.
LUDDEN: What is the scope of this civilian surge?
LAWRENCE: The budget for USAID is to four billion dollars this year, so it's a vast effort.
LUDDEN: And how's it going? I mean, what kind of challenges is this effort running into?
LAWRENCE: And it's very hard to hire qualified people in Afghanistan, which is one of the biggest problems with waste and corruption here.
LUDDEN: Would you have any sense of, you know, are Afghans receptive to these kinds of reforms?
LAWRENCE: So there's just a lot of capacity that needs to be built. And when you hear a foreign organization talking about wanting a quick impact rule of law improvement project, well, the answer of most of the aid communities, such a thing doesn't exist. You need to go through education and get an educated population that in a couple of decades might be able to improve a justice system, for example.
LUDDEN: The head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, was in Kabul today as part of this civilian push. What's that about?
LAWRENCE: And she's also meeting with high level Afghan government officials, including President Karzai.
LUDDEN: NPR's Quill Lawrence in Kabul. Thanks so much.
LAWRENCE: Thank you. Happy New Year.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
On Monday, candidates vying to chair the Republican National Committee will hold a debate. Incumbent Michael Steele led the GOP to big gains in Congress and at the state level in November, yet he's still fighting for his job.
W: Joining us now is Joy-Ann Reid. She's a Miami Herald columnist and editor of the blog ReidReport.com, and she's in the studios of WLRN. Welcome to the show, Joy.
M: Hi, Jennifer. Great to be here.
LUDDEN: So remind us. Now, by all past measures, having your party do better than the other party means you get to keep your job, is that right? But not so in chairman Michael Steele's case?
M: And he's not the kind of chairman who stays in the background and does his job. He wanted to be out front. He wanted to be on TV. And unfortunately, he was - and not in a good way.
LUDDEN: Now, he still wants the job, though, but he's got five challengers. Who are the more viable candidates?
M: And then you've also got Gentry Collins, who actually worked for Michael Steele. He was his political director. He's seen as kind of an outlier candidate. He doesn't have a lot of support, in part because he worked for Michael Steele.
LUDDEN: So the role maybe has become more high-profile. But you've also got, you know, we've got the Internet, social media playing a bigger role in fundraising and rallying public support. Has the nature of the job of party chair changed in these times?
M: The next RNC chair is going to start with only about $1.9 million in the bank. Are they as important when you can raise money so many other ways? I'm not sure.
LUDDEN: Well, what is each party doing right, and what do you think they need to do better?
M: So if the DNC and the RNC can just focus on organizing their state parties, both parties will be better off.
LUDDEN: Joy-Ann Reid, editor of the Reid Report and columnist for the Miami Herald, and she joined us from the studios of WLRN. Thank you very much.
M: Thank you.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
Joining us to talk about the numbers and their implications is NPR's Washington correspondent Brian Naylor. Hi there.
BRIAN NAYLOR: Hi, Jennifer.
LUDDEN: The overall population, we have been told, is now more than 308 million. Besides knowing which states had the biggest gains, do we have any specific breakdown of that?
NAYLOR: And those numbers will be the ones that actually form the basis of how state officials draw the new congressional district lines. So we won't really see the redistricting process in full swing until February or so.
LUDDEN: So what do we know at this point?
NAYLOR: And by the way, it's not so much increased immigration but an increased birth rate in the Hispanic community that attributed for the growth.
LUDDEN: I believe I have read that Texas is a good example of this. That state is slated to gain four seats in Congress?
NAYLOR: Right.
LUDDEN: What does that mean politically?
NAYLOR: But that doesn't automatically mean that the Congressional seats will all go to Republicans. They have to be actually allocated based on where the population is. So, it's thought that maybe two of Texas's new seats could go to areas that have seen a growth in Hispanic population, and so maybe that's good news for Democrats.
LUDDEN: What other states are expected to gain seats?
NAYLOR: In the South, Florida. In the West, Arizona, Nevada. And those are all states that have a significant and growing Hispanic population.
LUDDEN: So despite a lot of headlines touting the census as good news for Republicans, it's not necessarily all bad news for Democrats?
NAYLOR: Yeah. Not necessarily. But the thing is that Democrats have not been able to always get Hispanics to turn out to vote for them. And so it has been a challenge in the past, and it will be a challenge.
LUDDEN: What about the states set to lose seats in Congress?
NAYLOR: Ohio loses two seats. The entire process is controlled by Republicans, and so it's possible two Democratic incumbents will be jeopardy. One might be Dennis Kucinich, who ran for President a couple of years ago, and he's so worried about losing his seat that he's already begun reaching out to supporters to lobby on his behalf.
LUDDEN: And Brian, there was one state that actually lost population in the past decade.
NAYLOR: Right, Michigan. All the other states grew at least a little bit. Michigan had a small decline in population. Not so much people moving out, but no one was moving in, and it's because of the economy and lack of jobs, and the inability to create new jobs.
LUDDEN: So what else can we look forward to learning this year, as more information from the 2010 census comes out?
NAYLOR: He says that not many people did that then, but he thinks now with President Obama, with big sports stars like Tiger Woods identifying with different races, that maybe more Americans will come forward and that we'll have a more complete picture of who we are as a people.
LUDDEN: NPR's Brian Naylor. Thank you so much.
NAYLOR: Thanks, Jennifer.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
Vermont Public Radio's Charlotte Albright has this report from the Mountain View Farm Animal Sanctuary.
CHARLOTTE ALBRIGHT: It all started with a donkey named Emma.
M: She was a little, tiny baby - just barely born.
ALBRIGHT: This is Jeff Ruggles, chief caretaker at the sanctuary.
M: And they expected her not to make it. She's 8 or 9 years old now, and she's a sweetheart. Everybody loves Emma, and Emma loves any kid that'll come around.
ALBRIGHT: Caretaker Ruggles says that's all over now.
M: They have everything they need. They don't have to worry about being hurt. They don't have to worry about being killed or anything. They're here, and they'll be here until we have to put them in the ground.
(SOUNDBITE OF A GOAT)
ALBRIGHT: Ruggles loves to show off the refugees, like this curvy-horned, salt- and-pepper-colored goat named Buster.
M: He came from an abused home. They never took care of him. His toenails - oh, really, really bad. His hooves were almost like, four inches long. And it took us almost a year to get his feet back into shape.
ALBRIGHT: On this frigid, sunny day, the menagerie - about a dozen animals - welcomes a newcomer: an old horse brought from a nearby resort. She's too shaky and infirm to tote tourists around.
M: Easy...
ALBRIGHT: If it weren't for this refuge, Atwood tells caretaker Ruggles, she might have had to say an even sadder good-bye.
M: I said, well, I'd rather see her put down than see her go to a bad place. She won't go to a bad place. I won't let her. And she's not.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: No, she's not.
M: I got my way. So I'm happy.
M: She's in the best place she can dream of.
ATWOOD: Yeah, I think she is.
ALBRIGHT: For NPR News, I'm Charlotte Albright in East Burke, Vermont.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
U: (Singing) I made my New Year's resolution...
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
And welcome.
M: Thank you so much.
LUDDEN: Let's start with music. It was a very big year for Beyonce and Lady Gaga. They ruled the charts. Taylor Swift really came into her own. She sold a million copies of her album "Speak Now" in its debut week. What are your resolutions for her, looking ahead to 2011?
M: Well, I have two resolutions. It's always nice to have a resolution that focuses on improving your life. But I would love for her to get a little bit more edge. I mean, I like her because she's got this very lady-like image. But it would be nice to see a little bit more of her edge come out. I love graciousness; she was so gracious during the Kanye West controversy. But wouldn't it be nice for her to just - I don't know, get in a Twitter war with someone, you know?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: Or just deck some kind of obnoxious fan in a bar. Just a little bit of a bite. It's time to get in a bar fight, Taylor. Come on. We know you got it in you. She's tough as nails. And it would just be nice for her to come into her own as a fully formed woman. You can't be peaches and cream all the time, Taylor.
NEARY: Two A-list movie stars didn't have such a good 2010. Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston had a few box office flops. What should they do to get back on track?
M: Well, obviously, getting into some kind of a pitched public battle about relationships is not going to change anything.
LUDDEN: It's been tried.
M: And as for Jennifer, she's a lovely person inside and out, and she should go do some really awesome art-house films, something like a "Blue Valentine." Go for it.
LUDDEN: All right. Moving on to TV, "American Idol" returns later this month. It will have two new judges, Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez. Simon Cowell is gone.
M: Mmm.
LUDDEN: Any resolutions for the newbies on the block?
M: Is that show still on? Wow.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: You know, I would like them to be nice. I would like their resolution to be kind. And I'd like a few more hugs. I'd like the kids to get hugged a little bit more.
LUDDEN: Oh, that's a nice idea.
M: (Singing) Would you like fries with that shake?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: So let's just be kinder. I'd like a kinder, gentler "American Idol" this season.
LUDDEN: Finally, we have the highest-paid actor on TV, Charlie Sheen of "Two and a Half Men." He makes over a million dollars an episode. But as readers of the gossip pages know, he's had a troubled personal life. Resolutions for Charlie Sheen.
M: I've been - I'm always the one who saves the soap bar and tries to recycle, and hangs up her towel. And from now on, it's going to be nothing but broken lamps and shards of crystal in every hotel room that I stay in - because apparently, that gets you a million dollars an episode.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
LUDDEN: Aisha, this was fun. Thank you.
M: Oh, it was pleasure. Everybody, save yourselves from disappointment: Don't make resolutions. You'll only disappoint yourself.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
Welcome.
JOE NOCERA: Thanks for having me, Jennifer.
LUDDEN: Joe, you wrote that it took the judge - is this right - more than three days to read his decision against Mikhail Khodorkovsky?
NOCERA: Yes. It was an 800-page decision. Although people who were in the courtroom tell me that basically he was just reading by and large from the prosecutor's initial indictment.
LUDDEN: Okay. So explain this case briefly to us.
NOCERA: Well, the political aspect of it is, you know, he is Vladimir Putin's number one enemy, and Putin has had him in jail for six or seven years on trumped up tax charges. They appropriated the company Yukos that he ran, which was, by the way, the best run company in Russia. They gave it to another state-run oil company. And now with his parole approaching, they don't want him out of jail. So they've made even more absurd charges this time around. And, you know, he was found, of course, guilty as charged.
LUDDEN: So six more years in jail. From a business perspective, how do you think this will impact Russia's economy?
NOCERA: Russia is a country in desperate need of foreign capital. It's about to try and do a two-year privatization program where it's going to sell off minority shares of state-run companies. And one of the companies where it's going to sell these minority shares is Rosneft. Rosneft is the company that wound up with all the Yukos assets. So basically, having stolen investors' assets six years ago, they now want to resell them...
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
NOCERA: ...these stolen assets, to a new round of investments. It's part of the reason why Russia has had such a terrible time sort of climbing out of economic difficulty, because foreign investors don't want to do business there.
LUDDEN: Now what about specifically, you know, economic relations between Russia and the U.S.?
NOCERA: Well, they won't change that much. I mean the Obama administration has for the first time made some, you know, moderately strong statements about this case. But the truth of the matter is that the U.S. and Russia have, you know, nuclear treaties and so many things that they have to deal with that it's a little unlikely, and a little unfortunate, I would add, that the administration is not going to put this case at the top of their grievances, but they probably won't.
LUDDEN: Okay. Well, Joe, before we let you go, it's the start of a new year and we're putting a twist here on some traditional resolutions, something we're calling New Year's resolutions for other people.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
LUDDEN: So here's your chance. What resolutions would you like to offer for the movers and shakers in the economy?
NOCERA: All right. So resolution number one, the House Republicans and the Financial Services Committee have vowed to reform Fannie and Freddie and try and get the government out of the housing market. Given the fact that the government now guarantees 95 percent of all mortgages and without which there would be no housing market, I wish them well in this resolution but I think it's going to go the way of most New Year's resolutions.
LUDDEN: Along with the diet.
NOCERA: That's number one.
LUDDEN: Okay.
NOCERA: Resolution number three for me is Ben Bernanke resolves that the next time he comes up with a stimulus plan, it won't sound like a cruise ship.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
LUDDEN: Do you have acronym ready?
NOCERA: Yeah, I haven't figured that out yet. That's my resolution. But, you know, this one was called QE2, for quantitative easing number two.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
NOCERA: My final resolution is for President Obama. His resolution is going to somehow figure out how to make Elizabeth Warren the official Senate-appointed head of the new Consumer Protection Bureau, which I might add starts up officially in July.
LUDDEN: And she's in there temporarily now, right?
NOCERA: That's right, and she's done it without Senate appointment, but she's quote-unquote an adviser to the president, and she has not officially got this job. But, you know, I do think she would be the best person for the job. She cares about these issues passionately. She understands them. It's good that she's in there helping to set up this agency. So I'm hoping that this is one resolution that the president, who has proved to be remarkably effective since the November election, is one that he can pull off.
LUDDEN: Joe, thank you.
NOCERA: Thanks so much for having me. And Happy New Year.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
Welcome.
MATTHEW WASNIEWSKI: Thank you.
LUDDEN: It seems to me we've already had sightings of members of Congress, you know, sneaking peeks at their devices in the chamber. What have the rules been, and how have they been followed until now?
WASNIEWSKI: Well, in 1995 a rule went into effect banning all electronic devices on the floor. But 2003 that rule was modified to specifically say no wireless telephones or personal computers. And the technology has kind of caught up to us. And so this rule will allow members to bring other electronic devices and computers as long as they don't impeded decorum, as you mentioned.
LUDDEN: And who decides that?
WASNIEWSKI: Well, that's up to the discretion of the speaker, what will impede decorum. It's kind of a fine line to walk.
LUDDEN: Well, the House has walked this line before, going back a bit in time. Tobacco was an issue, something else that people have found addictive like their BlackBerrys. Tell us how the chambers dealt with tobacco.
WASNIEWSKI: When it comes to smoking and tobacco, Congress was way ahead of the curve. The House banned smoking in the chamber and in the galleries while the House was in session in 1871.
LUDDEN: What made it an issue then?
WASNIEWSKI: But it was limited to just the chamber. Members could smoke in the Speaker's Lobby. They could smoke in other places in the Capitol. In 2007, Speaker Nancy Pelosi banned smoking on the House side of the Capitol.
LUDDEN: In the early 20th century the House had to adapt to another trend - women in Congress. I take it some thought that women's clothing would impede decorum.
WASNIEWSKI: And so some of the things that she would do, she would insists on being called congressman. And a lot of the early women did this. She would not get on an elevator if a male representative allowed her to go ahead. She would decline. And she also would sit on the floor and she would watch women come onto the floor. And if they were wearing dresses she believed were too frilly or if they tried to wear a hat on the floor, she would go up and say something to them.
LUDDEN: As historian then of the House, let me ask you what perhaps has been the worst breach of decorum in the chamber?
WASNIEWSKI: But it really spoke to the sectional tensions that were going on. I mean, afterwards members are toasting themselves in the chamber and everyone's laughing it off. Alexander Stephens from Georgia, who would soon become the Confederate vice president, wrote home and said I don't know how much longer the Union can last under these circumstances.
LUDDEN: Well, I guess it makes things today look just downright civil.
WASNIEWSKI: It does.
LUDDEN: Thank you.
WASNIEWSKI: Thank you, and Happy New Year.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
The Pittsburg Penguins and the Washington Capitals face off tonight in the annual NHL Winter Classic. The game's been pushed back because of rain. Gemma Hooley reports that in preparation for the event, Pittsburgh's Heinz Field has undergone a transformation from football gridiron to outdoor hockey rink.
GEMMA HOOLEY: Ask any player what it's like to skate outdoors, and they'll all give you that look, the look Penguins forward Michael Rupp has right now - a secret smile, a faraway gaze, a quick trip back to childhood games on frozen ponds.
MICHAEL RUPP: Did you ever go swimming in the nude? It's kind of similar to that, I guess. It's a freeing experience. Like you're just sitting there and you've got the air around you. You can see it. It's a pretty cool feeling.
HOOLEY: NHL ice master Dan Craig has been out here for a week now, spraying paper-thin layers of hot water to build dense ice. He makes it sound a whole lot simpler than it is.
DAN CRAIG: I put water in an ice cube tray and I put it in the freezer. And I take a whole bunch of those ice cube trays and I put them down and I make a hockey rink out of them.
HOOLEY: Don Renzulli is special events chief for the NHL. His job is to create iconic visual moments for these outdoor games.
DON RENZULLI: Without snow this year it was a little bit difficult. So we have a lot of the fake snow out there. We've painted grass. There'll be strobes going off underneath the fake snow that you'll see, and then at the end of the anthems we'll have pyro going off on the top of the building.
HOOLEY: With the ice built and the stage set, it comes down now to nature's thermostat. Renzulli and Craig have been pouring over radar maps and barometric pressure readings.
RENZULLI: Yeah, there's rain. They're calling for rain, but we're looking now for rain patterns. So if we can get a pocket of, you know, three, four hours in there, you know, that's what we're looking for right now.
HOOLEY: The rink crew and ice truck can deal with some rain and with higher- than normal temperatures. But the players wear visors, and seeing the 100-mile- an-hour puck in pouring rain will be tough.
RENZULLI: It's like your windshield. If you don't turn the windshield wipers on, sometimes you can't see. We want to make sure they're safe, and I think we also want to make sure that this is right for the fan.
HOOLEY: Unidentified Man: So it sounds like they're doing a sound check. And it's getting a little louder and louder and louder, and they're also doing (unintelligible) light check around the stands, so it's a great day.
HOOLEY: Inside, on the clean icesheet, Washington Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner had a chance to skate in the team's only practice before the big game.
KARL ALZNER: It's just different. I think just getting that wind in your face. I just like to feel a breeze. I like to - it's pretty much like you're just a little kid again, and that's - you know, that for so many guys grew up(ph) learning their hockey.
HOOLEY: For NPR News, I'm Gemma Hooley.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
Time now for football.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LUDDEN: Howard, we know you have some resolutions for the sports world. We'll get to those in a moment. First, let's look at Sunday's games. Who's playing to be a spoiler and who's playing to win?
HOWARD BRYANT: And, of course, you've got a game in the NFC as well which is not a spoiler game, it's a winner take all game between two mediocre teams - St. Louis and Seattle. If Seattle wins, they will be in the playoffs. If St. Louis wins, they get in. And of course, if Seattle wins it'll be the first time that a team with a losing record, 7-9, will actually win a division and make the playoffs.
LUDDEN: Hmm. OK, but, Howard, you know, for the uneducated in football like myself, explain what is the point of being a spoiler?
BRYANT: And also, believe me, all these guys know each other. A lot of these guys went to school together. There's a bragging rights element to this too, of being the one to knock one of your rivals out of the playoffs. And so at least in the off season, even if you didn't have a good season, at least you can remind your buddies that you were still good enough to keep them from reaching their goal too.
LUDDEN: OK, Howard, you are now the Zeus of the sports arena. Let's ask you, what New Year's resolutions do you have for the sports world?
BRYANT: Which means no rock music when you're going up to hit. No music when your closer is coming into the game. No pyrotechnics and the exploding scoreboards and such. Just the old times. Old organ music and the PA announcer announcing who's coming up to play. I think that the sensory overload - we can get that six days a week. I think Sunday should be nice and quiet.
LUDDEN: Bring back the Cracker Jacks?
BRYANT: And last but not least, I would think something for the fans. I think that both in the NBA and the NFL, going into 2011, you have potential work stoppages in both. You could have two leagues on strike. And I think that the most important thing for them would be to think about the fans and realize that the game only has value if the fans keep coming. And you really don't want to send the message to the fans that this game is no longer valuable.
LUDDEN: Sounds like something good to hope for. Howard Bryant, senior writer for ESPN the magazine, ESPN.com, and ESPN the party hat. Happy New Year.
BRYANT: Happy New Year, Jennifer. My pleasure.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
Mark Jannot, welcome again.
MR: It's great to be here, Jennifer.
LUDDEN: So 2010 seemed to be a great year for touch-screen technology. I'm thinking of the iPhone and other mobile devices. But I take it you see a shift coming.
MR: You'll be standing in front of your television and you'll be, you know, waving your hands. It's basically like playing charades with your electronics, I think. So it's another form of entertainment, I guess.
LUDDEN: Oh, no. So - but that means my kids can't play in front of the TV, then. That would throw things off.
MR: I think there will be very carefully defined gestures. But yes, I'm looking forward to the crazy chaos that's caused by unintended gestures - causing, you know, volume raising, channel shifting, that kind of thing.
LUDDEN: Now, 2010 also saw a growing new market for 3D televisions. What's happening there?
MR: So the great trend that we're seeing emerge is glasses-free 3D - naked-eye 3D, and it's already sort of about to emerge on the Nintendo 3DS handheld game. And that's the way it's going to emerge in this year, on small screens and smartphones, and things like that. But within the next couple of years, we should see actual TV screens - where you can watch your shows and your sports in glorious 3D, without having to look like a geek.
LUDDEN: Turning to automobiles now, you say cars are going to get smarter in the name of safety.
MR: The - sort of first example of this in the new year is from Volvo, with their pedestrian-detection system, which will actually notice if there is a pedestrian in the roadway up to 160 feet away. And if it senses that you aren't noticing - basically by, you know, seeing that you haven't slowed down - it will sound an alarm. And if you still don't do anything, it will actually start braking without your efforts.
LUDDEN: Wow.
MR: And there's another - a new safety feature coming out from Ford, called curve control. This is a system that senses when you're entering a curve - you know, like a highway off-ramp - too quickly, and it automatically reduces your speeds by up to 10 miles an hour in one second, in order to keep you safe and keep you from rolling over, potentially. Fifty thousand accidents a year are caused by people entering curves too quickly.
LUDDEN: Finally, I got to say, I am skeptical about this next item. You say 2011 will be the year of the flying car?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MR: Or drivable airplane - it's maybe a small semantic distinction. But this is something that we at Popular Science have been touting for practically our entire 130 years.
LUDDEN: I can see it on the cover, yes.
MR: So you're not just, you know, you're backing out of your garage and taking off on the street in front of your house. You do have to drive it to an airport. But it is a great transition, as it's called, towards our ultimate dream of the flying car.
LUDDEN: All right. So I guess we now know that old cartoon, the Jetsons, was set in 2011.
MR: There you go. The future is upon us.
LUDDEN: Mark Jannot, editor-in-chief of Popular Science magazine. He joined us from NPR's New York bureau. Thank you so much.
MR: Thanks, Jennifer.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
JENNIFER LUDDEN, Host:
Jake Shimabukuro has redefined this traditional Hawaiian instrument. He's been described as a ukulele virtuoso, grabbing the musical baton from Tiny Tim and setting it on fire.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "UKULELE BROTHERS")
LUDDEN: That's called "Ukulele Brothers," off Jake Shimabukuro's new album, titled "Peace, Love, Ukulele." And he joins us from the studios of Hawaii Public Radio. Welcome.
JAKE SHIMABUKURO: Aloha.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
LUDDEN: So for those who may not know much about the ukulele here, tell us about the fun little instrument that you play.
SHIMABUKURO: Well, it is a fun little instrument. You know, I've been playing it since I would four years old. It has four strings, it looks like a mini guitar, and it has just a very cute, friendly sound, for lack of, you know, better words. But I always feel that the sound of the ukulele is kind of - it's so peaceful, you know, and I think of it as an instrument of peace, you know. I tell people all the time that if everyone played the ukulele, the world would be a better place.
LUDDEN: And you can strum or pick the strings like a guitar, is that right?
SHIMABUKURO: Yeah. It's, you know, the range of the ukulele is a little, you know, it's quite limited. You have two octaves. Your lowest note is a third string, which is the C-string, and that's actually middle C on the piano. So if you play the piano, you have - the lowest note is middle C, and then I have a C above that, and then one more C above that. So basically two octaves is all that you have.
LUDDEN: Can you give us that - let's here that range there. You've got a ukulele with you.
SHIMABUKURO: Sure. So this is my lowest note. This is the open third string.
(SOUNDBITE OF UKULELE)
SHIMABUKURO: And that's like middle C on the piano. And then I have a C above that.
(SOUNDBITE OF UKULELE)
SHIMABUKURO: And then I have another C way up here.
(SOUNDBITE OF UKULELE)
SHIMABUKURO: So that's it. You know, basically two octaves to work with.
LUDDEN: So does that - is that limitation what maybe has been responsible for the instrument not really getting much respect over the years?
SHIMABUKURO: It's not - because the strings are nylon, it's not painful in your fingers. So, you know, it's almost like a - it's like a yoga session almost, you know, just strumming, strumming a couple of chords. It's like an entire yoga session.
LUDDEN: But I have read that it is not easy to play well, which you do. Let's listen to some of your finger picking on track nine, a work called "Five Dollars Unleaded 2010."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FIVE DOLLARS UNLEADED 2010")
LUDDEN: You said you started playing at age four. Can you tell us about that?
SHIMABUKURO: You know, so if I heard a guitar piece I really wanted to play, or a piano piece I really wanted to play, I had to learn it on the ukulele.
LUDDEN: You certainly are open to a wide range of works here. You're known for reinterpreting the ukulele, and also reimagining some classic songs one normally would not think of of being on the ukulele. Let's give a listen to one of your pieces on this new album. It's Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HALLELUJAH")
SHIMABUKURO: You know, covering the song of another artist is kind of like wearing your favorite basketball player's jersey. You know, it's like putting on your Michael Jordan jersey or something. So when you cover a song like "Hallelujah," it's really just about putting on a Leonard Cohen jersey and just saying that I'm a huge fan. You know, Leonard Cohen is amazing, just a mastermind, and really one of the great geniuses of our time.
LUDDEN: There's another song on here I just have to ask you about - "Bohemian Rhapsody."
SHIMABUKURO: Oh, yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
LUDDEN: Why?
SHIMABUKURO: That was a, you know, I - you know, whenever I do interviews, people ask me, you know, so you do all kinds of, you know, different genres of music, and so do you thing that any song is possible to play on the ukulele? You know, and I'll often say, yeah, I think, you know, if you use your imagination, I think, you know, any song can be played on the ukulele. And they'll always stump me with - they always say, well, can you play "Bohemian Rhapsody"? You know? And...
LUDDEN: Ah. So this is your answer to the challenge.
SHIMABUKURO: You know, so I was like, okay. Well, you know, earlier this year I thought, well, I better put my, you know, put my money where my mouth is. So I sat down with the song and I listened to it, and I just thought, wow, how would I pull this off on the ukulele, you know. Because it's not just about, you know, getting the right notes and all of that, but it's about really capturing the spirit and the energy of the song, you know. Because when you listen to "Bohemian Rhapsody" from beginning to end, I mean, Freddie Mercury takes you on this journey.
LUDDEN: Before you start playing, let's get our goodbyes in here. Jake Shimabukuro, he joined us from the studios of Hawaii Public Radio. His new CD is titled "Peace, Love, Ukulele." Thank you so much.
SHIMABUKURO: No, thank you. All right. So here is my - here is me putting on my Freddie Mercury jersey now.
(SOUNDBITE OF UKULELE)
SHIMABUKURO: Here is "Bohemian Rhapsody."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY")
LUDDEN: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Scott Simon's back next week. I'm Jennifer Ludden.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
There are lots of predictions about the media, economy, and politics in the new year. WEEKEND EDITION food commentator Bonnie Wolf serves up some 2011 trends that may whet your appetite.
BONNIE WOLF: Every year, I predict the death of the cupcake. I'm always wrong. But this year, there will be real competition from the humble pie. Trend-spotters are calling pie the food of the year. Texas and New York restaurants offer pie happy hours. Pies are showing up at weddings, and pie shops are opening in a neighborhood near you. Pies come in sweet and savory, maxi and mini, deep dish and deep-fried.
If pies are the new cupcakes, New York Magazine says vegetables are the new meat. No more the supporting actors, vegetables are stars. Remember food guru Michael Pollan's mantra? Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. It's getting some serious traction. And when Mario Batali - the prince of pork - embraces meatless Mondays, you know the times they are a-changing.
One of the most glam vegetables will be kale. Look for the frilly bouquet of slightly bitter, dark greens both cooked and raw in a salad. Root vegetables, meanwhile, are the new heirloom. These gnarled vegetables such as salsify, Jerusalem artichokes and celery root are about to step onto the food fashion runway.
Child nutrition is definitely on the national radar screen. Childhood obesity has been called the new tobacco. We'll see top chefs in school cafeterias and more healthful choices on kids' menus in restaurants.
At the same time, junk food is going upscale. I have reports of foie gras wrapped in cotton candy and restaurant-made Cheeto-like snacks. After years of gourmet hamburgers, hot dogs may be the new popular kids. They're moving from street carts to brick and mortar buildings. Watch for them on your block.
We'll also see more pop-up restaurants. Chefs find underused restaurant space and take it over for a few days a week. Of course, they use the freshest, most local ingredients and reservations are hard to get, increasing their cachet, sort of like speakeasies. And food halls like the one at Harrods in London are opening in the U.S.
Mario Batali and the Bastianich family recently opened Eataly, a 50,000 square foot shrine to Italian food in New York. And the Plaza Hotel now houses the Plaza Food Hall, a food hall-cum-food court. Watch for other European-style food markets in California and Washington, D.C.
Whatever you eat, be sure to save room for a slice of pie.
HANSEN: Bonnie Wolf is author of "Talking With My Mouth Full," and editor of NPR's Kitchen Window.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
While many Americans are sweeping up tinsel, in Ukrainian, Russian and other Orthodox churches, preparations are still under way for Christmas, which is celebrated on January 7th. At the Christmas Eve feast, many will eat pierogies. Traditionally, these dumplings are made at home, but as Deena Prichep reports from Portland, Oregon, they're becoming a parish industry.
DEENA PRICHEP: Myra Petrouchtchak is in the basement of St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Church, a small parish of about 50 people in southeast Portland. She's sitting with a few dozen others, stuffing and shaping potato pierogies by hand - over 2,000 pierogies. They've developed a following in the neighborhood.
Ms. MYRA PETROUCHTCHAK (St. John The Baptist Ukrainian Church): People come here and say that those pierogies remind them about their childhood. Not only Ukrainian people, some German people, Polish people. And it's like, oh, my grandmother used to do that.
PRICHEP: Petrouchtchak and her husband, the priest at this parish, started weekly pierogi sales when they came to the church five years ago. And they've raised enough money to renovate the church basement. But from the beginning, this was more than just a fundraiser.
Ms. PETROUCHTCHAK: It was good for the parish community, you know, because many young women didn't know how to make pierogies, you know, or didn't have time to make pierogies at home. But here, all children can learn how to do it, you know, and carry on the tradition.
PRICHEP: And lots of kids are helping. The older ones shape pierogies, and the littlest ones carry trays from the kitchen. Andrea Roelofs is third-generation Ukrainian-American, and explains that while the kids learn about their Ukrainian heritage, the adults get something out of it, too.
Ms. ANDREA ROELOFS (Ukrainian-American): It's a great way to socialize. They come in and they're a little frustrated with something. By the time they leave, they're fine. It's cheaper than a psychologist.
PRICHEP: People really do seem to be enjoying themselves, and they want me to join in.
Ms. PETROUCHTCHAK: You want to try? You want to try to do with us? We can teach you. It's easy. Put the potatoes, fold it together. You try it, it's delicious.
PRICHEP: And she's right, it is delicious, especially topped with sour cream and caramelized onions. But as it turns out, the pierogies aren't totally traditional. Usually they'd be made with a bit of cottage cheese, but St. John's uses cheddar instead.
And parish member Maria Kamsha says the results might be a little too good.
Ms. MARIA KAMSHA (Parish Member, St. John The Baptist Ukrainian Church): My children will say, Mom, you know, your pierogies that you make at home, they are not quite that good as the ones that are at the church.
PRICHEP: Kamsha is wistful about the change. While the exact recipe may have evolved, the heart of the tradition - friends and family coming together over pierogies - is not in any danger of dying out.
For NPR News, I'm Deena Prichep.
(Soundbite of "A Love Supreme")
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Guitarist John McLaughlin never saw saxophonist John Coltrane perform. The jazz icon died in 1967, before McLaughlin had the chance. But John Coltrane's historic album "A Love Supreme" has inspired every twist and turn of John McLaughlin's career since he first heard it.
Now the master guitarist has composed an album inspired by his passion for "A Love Supreme." It's called "To The One." It's been nominated for a Grammy award in the best contemporary jazz album category. John McLaughlin is in the studio at member station KUSP in Santa Cruz, California.
Thanks for joining us, and congratulations on your Grammy nomination.
Mr. JOHN McLAUGHLIN (Musician): Thank you, Liane. Thank you. Nice to be here.
HANSEN: It's wonderful to talk to you and I really want to talk about the -first, the album that inspired "To The One" and your career, John Coltrane's "Love Supreme." I mean, this is such an iconic, important album to a lot of people who are fans of jazz, and a pivotal one in the development of the genre.
When you first heard it, what did it mean to you?
Mr. McLAUGHLIN: Quite frankly, Liane, I couldn't hear the music. I couldn't hear it. It was just over my head. It took me, actually, a year of listening to that record almost every day to finally hear what he was doing musically. But this was the first time - and for me, this was really significant - that the spiritual dimension had been integrated into the world of jazz music. And this, for me, is a phenomenal contribution of what he made.
(Soundbite of music)
HANSEN: Your album is one that is not one for instant gratification, although it is beautiful to listen to the first time. But there are layers of meaning in this. There are six parts to "To The One" and it begins with the tune you call "Discovery."
(Soundbite of song "Discovery")
HANSEN: Are there echoes of Coltrane in this? We open the door to this recording, and there's a little bit of Coltrane echo in there.
Mr. McLAUGHLIN: Undoubtedly. And I'm very happy about that. It actually was not at all my intention to make any kind of homage. I had the idea to make a record simply because the music came. I didn't sit down and say, okay, now I'm going to write a record, I'm going to write music. I can't do that.
HANSEN: But you were I think unconsciously - perhaps subconsciously, channeling that spirit of Coltrane. His own piece "Pursuant" is a little similar to "Discovery" whether you knew you were doing it or not. And discovery is always the first part of a journey, really.
Mr. McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, it is. I mean, discovery in life. We discover things. We're born, we're young, we wake up, I mean, for me, I was in this magical world. And I was born in the country, so I was lucky in that sense, so I would see - I was surrounded by nature. But for me, the whole world was magical when I was a kid. And, of course, we grow up and we become a little more cynical. And so, in a way, I think probably more - it would be more appropriate if it was rediscovery. But that's maybe a little too pretentious.
HANSEN: Growing up - where were you growing up, what music were you listening to?
Mr. McLAUGHLIN: I was born in a very small village in Yorkshire. Emily Bronte country, Liane. My mother was an amateur violinist, God bless her. And so, there was really just classical music in the house.
But perhaps one small anecdote I could tell you I think really marked me for life. Because I was about five years old, and my mom had put the "Ninth Symphony" of Beethoven on the record player. And at the very end of this "Ninth Symphony," there's the vocal quartet that comes in that is just really sublime, especially when you think Beethoven was deaf when he wrote it. I mean, it's just really extraordinary.
And so I was sitting in this chair and suddenly this vocal quartet came on, and my hair stood on end, and the hair on my arms and my neck, and I was having this experience that I knew was directly connected to this music. But a five-year-old boy, what do you know? You don't really understand. But I knew it was from the music. And I think it's from this experience that determined that I would be a musician in life.
(Soundbite of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony)
HANSEN: In various forms of spiritual theology, Zen included, life is described as a journey. It's not a destination. And there's a tune on your album, "To The One" - "Fine Line" - about spiritual awakening and the fact that it's not - you can be awakened, but will it be sustained? I mean, there's a Biblical story about seeds falling on fertile ground or in the thorns or in the rocks. Is "Fine Line" what you're expressing there? You've had this spiritual awakening, and you want to try to stay on the path and it's a very thin, fine one.
Mr. McLAUGHLIN: Absolutely. Everybody's spiritual, without exception. But it's a kind of path and the path is very broad. And at the same time, we're very susceptible to falling off, which of course, over the years I've done. But it's really a question of awareness of your own nature.
HANSEN: We're talking to guitarist John McLaughlin. His new recording with the band The Fourth Dimension is called "To The One."
I'm interested in a quotation that you attribute to Miles Davis and it actually works into a question the musicians that you're playing with now. Now, Miles Davis said, play like you don't know how to play. And Gary Husband, who is the keyboard player and one of the drummers on this CD, Gary Husband said you gave him so many instructions about how to drum, he was completely confused. So he just played his heart out.
And were you deliberately confusing him or was it a way of trying to communicate what you wanted, or you really just wanted him to go at it for himself?
Mr. McLAUGHLIN: What I want people to do in the band, is I want them to be who they really are and I want them to play how they want to play. But I think we should perhaps give the listeners just a little bit background on that cryptic quote. Because I had been in New York a day, and I'd been invited by Miles to participate on the "In A Silent Way" recording, which was, I mean, I was just -nervous is not the word.
There I was in the studio, and there was a tune called "In A Silent Way," which is a Joe Zawinul tune. And Joe, he didn't know there was a guitar player coming, so the only thing he could do was photocopy his piano part and give it to me. So I had a piano part in the studio.
So we ran it down, Miles didn't like it. We ran it down another time, he didn't like it. This is when he stopped, and he looked at me, he said, I want to hear it on the guitar. I said, you want these piano chords in the melody? Yes. So I said, that's going to take me a minute just to put it together because it's not a guitar part. And he said, is that a fact? So already, you know, sweat was running down my back. I'm thinking, what am I going to do here? I've got this piano part, and he wants me to do the whole thing.
So after about ten seconds, he looked at me and he said that famous quote, play it like you don't know how to play the guitar. Play it like you don't know how to play the guitar. So I threw out the chords, I threw out the rhythm. I threw it all out, and I just played the melody, and I just played it real simple. And I was just astonished because he had been able to pull out of me something that I didn't know I could do.
(Soundbite of song "In A Silent Way")
HANSEN: Where do you move next, musically?
Mr. McLAUGHLIN: I'm not really moving anywhere, Liane.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. McLAUGHLIN: Sitting right here, chatting with you.
HANSEN: You're staying in one place with your eyes closed, right.
Mr. McLAUGHLIN: The thing is, every day is new to me. So I'm not like I was yesterday in some subtle, small way. And so I don't even stop to consider where I'm headed, because it's - I'm actually indifferent to that now. I'm just happy to be here right now in this moment because it's really the only one that I really have, isn't it?
HANSEN: John McLaughlin's new CD is called "To The One," and it's been nominated for a Grammy award. And he spoke to us from Santa Cruz, California. What a conversation. Thank you so much.
Mr. McLAUGHLIN: Oh, thank you, Liane. What a pleasure.
(Soundbite of music)
HANSEN: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Hockey players' careers are built on talent, training and sometimes luck. The same could be said for classical musicians, who have to navigate through the tricky and somewhat limited career options. This is especially daunting for those players fresh out of school.
In New York, Jeff Lunden reports that Carnegie Hall and the Juilliard School have developed a program to address these concerns. It's called The Academy.
JEFF LUNDEN: The idea for the academy began over a meal. Carnegie Hall executive director, Clive Gillinson, and Juilliard school president, Joseph Polisi, were talking about the challenges young classical musicians face today.
Gillinson says they both agreed that talent alone isn't enough - they have to be teachers and entrepreneurs.
Mr. CLIVE GILLINSON (Executive Director, Carnegie Hall): How do we deliver, to the best young musicians, a skill set that will enable them to define their own lives as musicians, around what their own talent is? You know, rather than having to say: Ah, I'm going to have to apply for that job or I'm going to have to apply for that job, because that I think is the box, which will enable me to earn a living as a musician.
We're saying, you've actually got the capacity to define your own life.
LUNDEN: So, Gillinson and Polisi designed a program they hope will produce great musicians, who are also great communicators. Every two years, they select 20 fellows. Each receives a stipend of $25,000 a year, health insurance and access to the best teachers and coaches at Juilliard.
They work three days a week, 30 weeks a year on the very highest musical level - performing on one of Carnegie's stages with musicians like Sir Simon Rattle -and on the most basic musical level, teaching in New York City Public Schools.
Juilliard President Joseph Polisi.
Dr. JOSEPH POLISI (President, The Julliard School): They fit into the mold of what one would call in the United States today, teaching artists. In other words, they teach their art and they do it through their performance and through their instrument.
LUNDEN: One of the fellows beginning the program is Nathan Schram, a genial 23-year-old viola player. He was a Navy brat who grew up all over the country and got a music degree at Indiana University. Last year, Schram got an email inviting him to audition for The Academy.
Mr. NATHAN SCHRAM (Fellow, Academy): I was thrilled. It sounded great. It sounded like it was going to help me communicate better with audiences. I was going to find a newer audience. I was going to help people that might otherwise not be able to experience music, and maybe I can learn something from them, too. And now I'm here, day one.
(Soundbite of children)
LUNDEN: Day One is in mid-October at P.S. 75, an elementary school in Bushwick, an immigrant and working class neighborhood in Brooklyn, where Zelman Bokser teaches violin.
Mr. ZELMAN BOKSER (Violin Teacher, P.S. 75): You know, I think you would describe this school as under-resourced. It's not a very high socioeconomic neighborhood.
LUNDEN: But even with limited resources, Bokser has created a vibrant music program. In a school of 650 students, he's teaching 83 of them to play the violin.
Mr. BOKSER: What's amazing is that these kids are competitive with kids in any other public school in the city. So these kids have played in Carnegie Hall and at Lincoln Center, at the Apollo Theatre and lots of other places. And there are very few schools that have had those opportunities. So we're really lucky.
(Soundbite of violins)
LUNDEN: And Bokser says they're really lucky to now have a professional musician in their midst.
Mr. SCHRAM: My name is Nathan Schram. I'll be coming in about twice a month, working with you all and learning from Mr. Bokser and also helping him out as much as I can. So I actually play viola, which I'll introduce to you later. But I've been playing for 13 years now. I started when I was 10.
Unidentified Child #1: Wow.
Mr. SCHRAM: Which makes me how old?
Unidentified Child #2: Thirteen...
Unidentified Child #3: Twenty-two.
Unidentified Children: Twenty-two.
Mr. SCHRAM: Ten plus 13?
Unidentified Children: Twenty-three.
Mr. SCHRAM: Twenty-three, nice.
LUNDEN: Bokser divides the class in half and has Schram help with tuning the violins.
(Soundbite of violins)
LUNDEN: ...and help out with musical exercises.
(Soundbite of music)
LUNDEN: As the class winds down, Schram brings out his viola.
(Soundbite of viola)
(Soundbite of cheering and applause)
LUNDEN: A month later, Nathan Schramm is back. He's hatched a plan to do some improvisations with Zelman Bokser.
Mr. SCHRAM: I'm trying to explain to them that music can also have character. Music can describe people. It can be a character in itself. And just trying to develop on their understanding of music and what's possible they can do with it.
LUNDEN: So the third and fourth grade beginning class decides Nathan should improvise a piece that expresses who he is.
Mr. SCHRAM: So how would you describe me?
(Soundbite of conversation)
Unidentified Child #4: Kind person, helpful.
Mr. SCHRAM: Helpful, kind and helpful. Okay, I'm going to try to express who I am, as a kind and helpful person, on the violin.
(Soundbite of violin music)
LUNDEN: Fourth graders Jolessa Guzman and Calista Condili are impressed.
Ms. JOLESSA GUZMAN (Student, P.S. 75): They just popped it up in their mind. I don't - they didn't even rehearse for that.
Ms. CALISTA CONDILI (Student, P.S. 75): Exactly.
LUNDEN: And Calista finds herself inspired.
Ms. CONDILI: When I am in fifth grade, I would like to play in Carnegie Hall and hear all the people clap just for me.
LUNDEN: Nathan Schram says working with the kids thus far has been inspiring for him, too.
Mr. SCHRAM: You know, the kids are wonderful. I'm amazed at how well-behaved they are, how excited they are about music. They're very receptive. You can work with them and if someone doesn't get something the first time, they'll get it the second. I mean, it's just, you see - I didn't expect to have such quick results.
LUNDEN: For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.
(Soundbite of violin music)
HANSEN: NPR will check in with Nathan Schram periodically during his two year residency with the Academy, as he introduces kids to the music of Brahms for the first time, and works with Sir Simon Rattle.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
As in any war, Mexico needs allies if it expects to win. One nation offering support is Colombia, which was besieged by drug violence 20 years ago. With its experience in fighting cocaine traffickers and increasing success in its current battles against a big guerilla army, Colombia's expertise in counter insurgency has grown. Now, Mexican forces are tapping into that expertise in their own fight against drug cartels.
NPR's Juan Forero has details from a training field in Cajica, Colombia.
JUAN FORERO: Carlos Nieves is just a gumshoe Mexican police investigator. But here he is, in the dead of night, some 8,500 feet high in the mountains of central Colombia.
Officer CARLOS NIEVES (Investigator, Mexico Police Department): (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: His superiors tell him and more than 60 other cops and soldiers from across Latin America, about the hardships ahead - hours and hours of hiking through thick brush, with temperatures near freezing.
(Soundbite of footsteps)
FORERO: He's outfitted in olive green camouflage and carries a 50-pound knapsack and an automatic rifle.
Officer NIEVES: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: He also hasn't slept in five days, Nieves says. That's been hard, he says, but it's been worth it. That's because after four months, Nieves and a handful of other Mexican policemen and soldiers are finishing the toughest of commando training courses. And not just from anyone, it's from Colombia's elite Jungla, or jungle unit.
Part of the national police, it's sort of like a SWAT team but one that targets the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC, Colombia's biggest rebel group, some 9,000 fighters-strong. A group that holds territory, carries out ambushes, wields weapons of war - everything from AK-47s, to anti-tank busters to 50 caliber machine guns.
Officer NIEVES: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: The kind of weaponry that Nieves, the policeman, says he sees in raids in Mexico.
There are many ways that Mexico is different from Colombia. Most importantly, there's no rebel army there trying to overthrow the state. Yet, Mexico's violence is spiraling out of control, as in the Colombia of 20 years ago. Medellin cartel leader Pablo Escobar was at the height of his powers.
And there are other similarities. One is that the narcos in Mexico are increasingly starting to control territory and ambush Mexican forces.
Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos told NPR that Colombia can provide training and intelligence gathering. Colombia can also help to better prepare Mexican investigators and court officials for drug cases.
President JUAN MANUEL SANTOS (Columbia): We don't want to sound like we know it all, you know, because we are constantly learning because these people are constantly adapting to new circumstances. And what we can do is work together, in order to help this very difficult situation that Mexico is going through.
(Soundbite of gunfire)
FORERO: Here outside Cajica, what the Mexicans are learning is to take the fight to the enemy.
(Soundbite of gunfire)
FORERO: At 5 A.M., gunfire signals a simulated assault on what's supposed to be a FARC camp.
(Soundbite of gunfire)
FORERO: The trainees swoop into the FARC stronghold.
(Soundbite of yelling)
FORERO: But not everything is going as planned. The FARC commander, dubbed the Little Fat Man, is nowhere to be found. A Jungla commando overseeing the whole thing mocks the trainees, making sure they know they're failing at their mission.
Unidentified Man: (Foreign language spoken)
(Soundbite of laughter and conversation)
FORERO: Yet, in four months, the Mexicans have learned about explosives and assault rifles. They've done jungle training. They've learned how to raid heavily fortified houses. They've patrolled rivers.
It'll all come in handy, says Carlos Mejia, another policeman from Mexico.
Officer CARLOS MEJIA (Mexican Police): (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: The training has been hard, says Mejia, but he feels better prepared for the violence he expects to face back home.
(Soundbite of men chanting)
FORERO: It's now daylight out. And though they've been up for five days, the trainees are marching again, complete with a rousing song about the competence of Jungla commandos.
Unidentified Man 2: Jungla. Jungla. Jungla...
FORERO: They then shed their heavy packs and begin to crawl up a steep hill in the mud. With that, it's all over.
(Soundbite of men)
FORERO: It ends with the Jungla Oath and graduation from commando training.
Juan Forero, NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
2010 could not have ended soon enough for the millions of Americans who spent the year struggling to find jobs or avoid foreclosure notices. Now it's a new year, and lots of economists are seeing reasons for optimism.
Joining us to discuss those economic predictions is NPR's senior business editor, Marilyn Geewax. Marilyn, welcome back, and happy new year.
MARILYN GEEWAX: Thanks, Liane.
HANSEN: Will it be a happy new year? Will 2011 really be better than 2010?
GEEWAX: Let's hope so. This economic downturn started more than three years ago, and although the official recession is over, it just doesn't feel that way to a lot of Americans. We've had a painfully slow recovery. We still have so many people facing foreclosures, searching for work. But increasingly, economists say they see the evidence that growth is picking up.
In recent weeks, they've been raising their gross estimates, and at this point, the mainstream view is that the economy is going to grow at about three to three-and-a-half percent in 2011. That's vastly better than where we were a couple of years ago.
Remember when President Obama came into office, two years ago this month, the economy was shrinking by more than six percent. So without question, we're really in much better shape heading into 2011, but - and this is a very big but - three percent growth is still way too slow to create enough jobs to soak up those 15 million Americans who are looking for jobs. And to get the jobs market really going again, we need to have about 300,000 to 400,000 jobs created every month. And that's ten times the number of new jobs that we saw in November.
HANSEN: What about housing?
GEEWAX: The consensus view is that housing is moving into a recovery, but most of the improvement won't come until later in the year.
Last week, Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody's Analytics, shared his outlook with NPR.
Mr. MARK ZANDI (Chief Economist, Moody's Analytics): Well, housing hits bottom in 2011. It's been a five year road south. It's been a complete cratering of the market, but I think 2011 marks the end of that crash. We've got more price declines to go. We got a fair amount of foreclose property that are still going to come to market, but by summer-fall, I think the price declines will be over. By the end of the year, we'll have price stability, and by 2012 some price growth.
HANSEN: That's Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody's Analytics talking about the housing market. I'm speaking with Marilyn Geewax, NPR's senior business editor. Marilyn, what are the economic wild cards?
GEEWAX: Consumer prices and interest rates. Both of those could hold a lot of surprises for us. Some economists are still fearing deflation. In 2010, for the most part, inflation was very tame, so there's still this lingering fear the consumer demand could be so weak that prices could fall. And anybody who's seen the value of their home decline in recent years knows how painful deflation can be.
But other economists are worried that prices are about to shoot up. We've got oil prices rising sharply, crop prices have jumped up, too, and we could see significant food and fuel inflation in 2011. If U.S. consumers end up having to spend more on their gasoline and groceries, then there's less money for things like making the mortgage payment, buying clothes, going on vacation. All of that could really hurt the economy.
And then there's the interest rate puzzle. The Fed's been trying to restrain interest rates, but you know, we see mortgage rates rising in recent weeks, and some economists fear they could really take off in the coming year.
HANSEN: Finally, Marilyn, what about the stock market?
GEEWAX: The stock market was so volatile in 2010 that a lot of small investors were left feeling pretty discouraged and confused. But now, forecasters are saying that stocks are going to do really well in 2011 and we could see gains of 10 percent, maybe 20 percent.
And historically, the third year of a presidential term is a pretty good one. But there are always risks. Prices could plunge because of profit-taking, there could be some currency crisis.
So the stock market still feels pretty scary to most of us, but as I said, economists are not really focused on those risks and dangers for 2011. For the most part, right now, the outlook is positive with lots of forecasts out there calling for decent economic growth, fairly stable consumer prices and rising stock prices. So Liane, happy new year.
HANSEN: Indeed. NPR's senior business editor, Marilyn Geewax. Thank you, Marilyn.
GEEWAX: You're welcome, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
And joining us is puzzlemaster Will Shortz. Hey, Will, happy new year.
WILL SHORTZ: Happy new year, Liane.
HANSEN: You know, you asked me last week what my favorite Christmas gift was, and I told you it was a bag of coal, only because there were a few I hadn't opened. And I have to say my cousins in Mystic, Connecticut, Curt and Beth, sent me some earrings made out of sea glass, which are going to help me hold on until May when I move to the beach. Isn't that nice?
SHORTZ: That's very nice.
HANSEN: Why don't you remind us of the challenge you gave us last week?
SHORTZ: Yes. I said, name a famous American from the past, seven-letter last name. If you take the last two letters of this name, plus the first four letters, in that order, you'll name that person's profession. Who is it?
HANSEN: Who is it?
SHORTZ: Well, it's Henry David Thoreau, and among many things, he was an author.
HANSEN: Well, this week we received more than 1,500 entries, and that's a lot given it was a holiday weekend. And out of those, our chosen player is Eric Ross of Salt Lake City, Utah. Eric, how are you? Happy New Year.
Mr. ERIC ROSS: Thank you. I'm very good.
HANSEN: Have you been playing our puzzle a long time?
Mr. ROSS: About three years, and I'm very excited. It's been one of my goals to get on this program.
HANSEN: Oh, my goodness. Well, we better get to that item in your bucket list right now. Will, meet Eric, Eric meet Will. Let's play.
SHORTZ: All right. Eric and Liane, this is my annual year-end news quiz. Here's how it works. I'm going to give you some names that you probably never heard of before 2010, but that became famous during the past 12 months. You say who these are. And this was prepared with the help of two past year-end news quiz contestants, Kathy Baker and Tim Goodman.
All right. Number one is Scott Brown. Who is Scott Brown?
Mr. ROSS: Senator from New York?
SHORTZ: I'll give you half credit. Liane?
HANSEN: Senator is right, but it's actually Massachusetts.
SHORTZ: That's right. Republican. He won the seat of the late Ted Kennedy. Number two is Tony Hayward. Tony Hayward.
Mr. ROSS: I'm at a complete loss on that one.
SHORTZ: I'll give you - oh, Liane, do you know?
HANSEN: No. I was just going to ask for a hint. It sounds like a sports figure.
SHORTZ: He's an executive, or was an executive - business executive.
Mr. ROSS: Of Citibank.
SHORTZ: Nope. He was - I'll just tell you. He was the chairman of BP during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
HANSEN: Of course.
Mr. ROSS: Oh.
HANSEN: The one that it ruined his vacation or something. Yes.
SHORTZ: That's it. All right. Try this. Shirley Sherrod.
HANSEN: What do you think, Eric?
Mr. ROSS: Gosh, I don't know.
HANSEN: Is she the...
Mr. ROSS: I thought I knew the news well.
HANSEN: Yeah, so did I. I believe she is the woman who was let go of her job at the U.S. Department of Agriculture...
SHORTZ: That's right.
HANSEN: ...because she had something on tape that was taken out of context.
SHORTZ: Exactly. Very good. Elena Kagan.
Mr. ROSS: Supreme Court nominee.
HANSEN: And justice.
SHORTZ: Not just nominee, and new justice, yes. Steven Slater.
Mr. ROSS: That's the Jet Blue flight attendant who quit in spectacular fashion.
HANSEN: You betcha.
SHORTZ: Excellent. I am impressed. Okay. Here's a name that's big this year, but also was known before. Julian Assange.
Mr. ROSS: That's the founder of Wikileaks.
SHORTZ: That's it. And here's another one that was also known a little before 2010, Kathryn Bigelow.
Mr. ROSS: She won the Oscar for directing "Hurt Locker."
SHORTZ: Excellent. First woman to win the Oscar for best director. Liu Xiaobo, that's L-I-U X-I-A-B-O.
Mr. Ross: He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but was not allowed to attend, I believe.
HANSEN: Yes.
SHORTZ: Excellent. You're doing great. John Tyner T-Y-N-E-R. And I'll give you a hint. He's famous for saying something this year, and it's four words. He said four words that became famous.
Mr. ROSS: Well, I was hoping it was the rent is too damn high guy.
HANSEN: So did I. But no, I know that guy's name, which may be coming up, so hold onto it. All right. Four words. First word, sounds like.
SHORTZ: The first word is don't.
HANSEN: Oh, don't touch my junk.
SHORTZ: He said don't touch my junk during the TSA patdown. Good. How about Marc Mezvinsky? Marc Mezvinsky.
HANSEN: He was famous for getting married this year.
SHORTZ: Yes. He married - who did he marry, Eric?
Mr. ROSS: Oh, Chelsea Clinton.
HANSEN: Yeah.
SHORTZ: He married Chelsea Clinton, good. Here's a non-human. Paul the octopus.
Mr. ROSS: He predicted the World Cup.
SHORTZ: Was perfect in making predictions in the World Cup matches, yes. And your last one is neither a person, nor an animal, it's a thing. And the word is -let me say this again - Eyjafjallajokull.
HANSEN: Yep. Yep.
Mr. SHORTZ: And that's spelled E-Y-J-A-F-J-A-L-L-A-J-O-K-U-L-L.
Mr. ROSS: Oh, is it the volcano?
Mr. SHORTZ: It's the volcano in Iceland that erupted in April, snarling international air traffic. Nice job, guys.
HANSEN: Hey. Will, Eric, you did well. And did you know that if you changed the last letter in your name to an N, you'll get the first name of the author who's going to tell you what you get for playing our puzzle today?
She recently published a book full of handy tips, called "How to Build a Fire, and Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew." She appears in another portion of our program. Here is Erin Bried.
Ms. ERIN BRIED (Author, "How to Build a Fire, and Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew"): For playing our puzzle today, you'll get a WEEKEND EDITION lapel pin, the "Scrabble Deluxe Edition" from Parker Brothers, the book series "Will Shortz Presents KenKen" Volumes 1, 2 and 3 from St. Martin's Press, one of Will Shortz's "Puzzlemaster Decks of Riddles and Challenges" from Chronicle Books, and a CD compilation of NPR's Sunday Puzzles.
HANSEN: Tell us your public radio station before we let you go.
Mr. ROSS: It's KCPW and I have the mug right in front of me.
HANSEN: Oh, good for you.
(Soundbite of laughter)
HANSEN: Eric Ross of Salt Lake City, Utah, thanks so much for being our first player of the New Year.
Mr. ROSS: Thank you.
HANSEN: All right. Will, I'm sure you've got a challenge in your pocket to start the year off. What is it?
Mr. SHORTZ: Yes, it's a challenge - actually a challenging one, from listener Mark Leeper of Matawan, New Jersey.
Take a plural noun. It ends in the letter S. Insert a space somewhere in this word. The result will be a two-word phrase with the same meaning as the original word, except in the singular.
So again, start with a plural noun, ends in the letter S. Insert a space somewhere in the word, retaining the order of the letters. The result will be a two-word phrase with that has the same meaning as the original word, except in the singular. What word is this?
HANSEN: When you get the answer, go to our website, NPR.org/puzzle and click on the Submit Your Answer link. Only one entry per person, please. Our deadline is Thursday, 3 P.M. Eastern Time. Please include a phone number where we can reach you at about that time, because we'll be calling if you're the winner and you'll get to play on the air with the puzzle editor of The New York Times and WEEKEND EDITION's puzzlemaster, Will Shortz.
Thanks a lot, Will.
Mr. SHORTZ: Happy New Year, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
In Australia, dangerous floods have hit the northeastern part of the country, affecting more than 200,000 people since last week. There has been one confirmed death so far and the high waters are still advancing toward the low-lying coastal areas of Queensland.
Joining us on the line from Brisbane is Greg Goebel. He's the executive director of the Australian Red Cross. I guess it's good evening to you.
Mr. GREG GOEBEL (Executive Director, Australian Red Cross): Yes. Good morning to you, Liane.
HANSEN: Thank you. You know the area has been described - the area affected by the flood, as the size of France. How big is it actually?
Mr. GOEBEL: Well, it's actually the size of France and Germany combined. The area is actually something like about 850,000 square kilometers, so it's about - almost a third of our state is underwater, and it's affected, as you said, something like 200,000 people. So it's probably the biggest flood in the history of Queensland, and quite an amazing body of water.
It's a little bit different because you see floods in Europe that tend to have raging waters and you see mudslides. In Queensland, the water's a little bit like a crocodile. It just kind of creeps up and creeps up and creeps up, and all of a sudden, you say, oh, my goodness, you know, where did that come from?
HANSEN: And how high has it gotten so far, and how high is it getting?
Mr. GOEBEL: Our main town, Rockhampton, which has a population of 75,000 people, and in that town the roads are already cut, the rail lines are already cut, and the airport runway is now almost underwater. So the whole town is virtually cut off and we've started a number of forced evacuations now in that town.
HANSEN: Yeah. And how is the massive evacuation going? How are you carrying it out?
Mr. GOEBEL: Well, we've had mass evacuations so far in two towns. The town of Condamine was evacuated in the early hours of the morning, mainly by Black Hawk helicopters, into a town called Dalby. So it's a massive exercise. And those evacuations generally were by boat or by helicopter.
HANSON: And is there any relief effort underway for the people who are stranded and the evacuees?
Mr. GOEBEL: Well, the evacuees stay at - Red Cross runs the evacuation centers, so we have a number of staff already pre-positioned, I might say, in the town of Rockhampton. So I've got about 150 staff out there at the moment. And our aim really at this stage is to make sure that people are safe, they're well. But the main aim is to really make sure they're out of harm's way, and they'll stay there for as long as is needed.
HANSEN: Do you know why it happened? I mean, this is epic.
Mr. GOEBEL: Well, we've had a lot of water for this time of the year. I mean, Australia is a - it's a strange continent. We have floods in Queensland, we have dreadful bush fires in our southern states, and we've got massive heat waves in the western area. But we've had a lot of water, and then we were hit with a cyclone Tasha that dumped a huge amount of water.
In fact, there were a couple of low pressure systems that just coincided at the same time. And that water couldn't escape because the land had already been saturated by previous rain. So rather than be absorbed into the earth, it simply follows, you know, the land mass.
And unfortunately, the plains of Queensland are very flat, and it doesn't take much for them to flood.
HANSEN: Greg Goebel is the executive director of the Australian Red Cross. We reached him in Brisbane. Thank you and best of luck to you.
Mr. GOEBEL: Thank you very much.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
In just a few days, a wave of new Republicans will wash over the Capitol. More than 80 GOP freshman will be sworn in by a new Republican speaker of the House, John Boehner of Ohio.
These lawmakers say they want to change the way Washington works, starting with how new laws are written and passed. Boehner has promised that under his speakership, committees and their chairmen will have more power to craft legislation.
NPR's Andrea Seabrook can explain what this means, and Andrea, I want to ask you first, why is this a priority for John Boehner? Don't committees already write the bills?
ANDREA SEABROOK: Well, that's the way it's supposed to happen, Liane. Bills are crafted, but the truth is, bills are crafted by leadership in private meetings oftentimes. They're negotiated with the Senate and the White House, and John Boehner wants to move back to something that's called regular order: that the committees in fact themselves do a lot of work on the laws, they pass them through the committees, including with amendments, and bring them to the floor.
It's really kind of a big change, although you wouldn't think it would be.
HANSEN: Does he want to do this because he was once a committee chairman?
SEABROOK: I think that is one of the motivations here. I mean, he was the chairman, as you say, of Education and Workforce Committee from 2001 to 2006. He helped draft No Child Left Behind. And committee chairmen, if they're given their proper duties, they make themselves professionals at their subject, and Boehner knows what it's like to be a committee chairman and then have the leadership come drop some bill that was supposed to be yours, that you're a professional at, on the floor, that's already been negotiated with the Senate and already with the White House.
So I think he really wants to return to that, and he also is trying to reduce the size of committees to make it so that lawmakers themselves aren't on three or four committees, but they can really specialize and be on one or two seriously working committees.
HANSEN: And it sounds like that will make the committee chairman more powerful.
SEABROOK: Oh, the chairmen then become very powerful because they decide which versions of the bills actually come into the committee. They decide which amendments are allowed to be debated. They can really shape the way laws come to be.
HANSEN: Okay. Tax law is written by the Ways and Means Committee. The chair will be Michigan Republican Dave Camp.
SEABROOK: Yes. This year in particular is important, because the Republicans are coming into power and they really want to rewrite the tax code. Dave Camp himself is a staunch conservative. He's been in the leadership before, and there's a big push to do a major reform of the tax code under his chairmanship.
HANSEN: Another key player on money matters would also be Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who will lead the Budget Committee.
SEABROOK: Remember, Paul Ryan is the only man in Washington who has actually put out a proposal with his name on it that would bring the budget under control. And it would do it by cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits over time.
This is the third rail of politics. There are a lot of Republicans who would love to cut Medicare and Social Security, but refuse to say they would love to because their voters would turn around in outrage against them. So Ryan has become this sort of conservative hero in Washington, because he's the bold reformer who would change Social Security and Medicare.
Now, putting him in charge of the Budget Committee is a big signal from Boehner and the other leadership that they are serious about cutting budgets and changing the way Washington is run, changing in fact, perhaps, Social Security and Medicare. And we'll see how that works out.
HANSEN: Sounds like you'll have an interesting year, Andrea.
SEABROOK: As usual.
HANSEN: That's NPR's congressional correspondent, Andrea Seabrook. Thanks. Happy new year.
SEABROOK: Thanks Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Several top committees in the new Congress will be chaired by Republicans from California. But while their fortunes are rising in Washington, GOP lawmakers are becoming something of an endangered species in their home state.
In November, Democrats held onto their U.S. Senate seats, their congressional seats, and even increased their majority in the state assembly.
Now, some Republicans are contemplating their future in the golden state. NPR's Ina Jaffe has the story.
INA JAFFE: So how is it even possible that Republican Meg Whitman could spend around $170 million running for California governor and lose to Democrat Jerry Brown by a whopping 13 points?
Her campaign advisor, Mike Murphy, said on "Meet The Press" he took full responsibility for the loss, and then blamed it on California.
(Soundbite of interview with Mike Murphy)
Mr. MIKE MURPHY (Campaign Advisor for Meg Whitman): It's a very blue state and it's getting bluer. As the red, you know, wave kind of went one way, there was a bit of a blue riptide coming the other way.
JAFFE: In fact, nearly every California Republican running for a major office lost by double digits.
Mr. TONY QUINN (Political Analyst): What is very clear now is that really no one running as your ordinary, run-of-the-mill Republican could win statewide office.
JAFFE: That's non-partisan political analyst Tony Quinn. GOP registration is barely over 30 percent, and then there's what Quinn calls the Republicans' demographic problem.
Mr. QUINN: They have no growth at all among the people who are growing in this state.
JAFFE: Like the fastest growing group of all, Latinos.
(Soundbite of commercial in Spanish)
JAFFE: On Tuesday, we will vote, says this California campaign commercial. Tuesday yes, Arizona no. It's a reference to the controversial Arizona law allowing the police to check the immigration status of someone they suspect is in the country illegally.
Research shows that's what California Latinos are most worried about, says Maria Elena Durazo, the head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which sponsored the ad campaign.
Ms MARIA ELENA DURAZO (Los Angeles County Federation of Labor): More people knew specifically SB1070, the name of the Arizona law, than could name the candidates for governor.
JAFFE: So the campaign used the fear that a law like Arizona's might be passed in California to motivate Latinos to support the Democratic ticket.
Ms. DURAZO: It wasn't going to be purely anti-Meg Whitman that got people to the polls. It wasn't going to be just a pro-Jerry Brown. There had to something much, much deeper.
JAFFE: And in November, Latinos accounted for 22 percent of the vote, a stronger turnout than in the presidential election two years ago.
Mr. KEVIN SPILLANE (Republican Political Consultant): I think that what you're going to see is the Latino vote continue to grow in every election.
JAFFE: Says Republican political consultant Kevin Spillane. His candidate, Steve Cooley, was a standout among Republicans, losing the attorney general's race to Kamala Harris by less than one point. Spillane believes that Republicans share common ground with Latino voters on many issues.
Mr. SPILLANE: But the problem for us is we can't get beyond that immigration issue, so the points of commonality are not coming out.
JAFFE: Spillane believes that if Republicans want to start winning again, they may have to soften their hard-line stance on immigration. But conservatives here think their platform is fine the way it is.
Activist Mike Spence says they just need to do a better job of communicating.
Mr. MIKE SPENCE (Activist): If you actually have a position that's strong, and you're able to articulate it and defend it, even if people disagree with it, they at least respect your ability to lead and to stand for something.
JAFFE: And that he says can lead to victories.
Mr. SPENCE: That's how Ronald Reagan, who wasn't supposed to be president of the United States, won.
JAFFE: But that was three decades ago, and California is living up to its reputation as the state that doesn't look back.
Ina Jaffe, NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
As we just heard, economists are predicting a positive outlook for the stock market this coming year, and investors are beginning to agree.
To talk more about this, Roben Farzad is in our New York bureau. He's a senior writer at Bloomberg Business Week. Welcome back to the program, Roben.
Mr. ROBEN FARZAD (Senior Writer, Bloomberg Business Week): Liane, it's my pleasure.
HANSEN: For the past few years, Americans have been pulling their money out of U.S. stock funds, probably for good reason. Eight months ago in May, there was a 20 minute stock plunge and it made investors more scared than ever. Is the tide really turning now?
Mr. FARZAD: We don't know. But we have, for the first time in at least eight months seen money flow into U.S. equity funds, after what's been really an epic outflow for the better part of two years. And that could be a good and a bad thing, in that, one, a good thing, you want investors to feel their oats and participate in a market, you know. It's not the kind of - the grudge, I'm never talking to you again type of mentality that we've had for much of the past 24 months.
But on the other hand, they are coming to a market that's already rallied 80, 85 percent from its low. So if you hated it at 6,600, well, why do you suddenly adore it at 11,500?
HANSEN: Can you explain why investors are returning to stocks?
Mr. FARZAD: Look, that alternatives are just so atrocious. The Fed has been bringing down interest rates to emergency levels to smoke you out of cash. You know, investors have been pouring into bond funds in kind of Internet-bubble fashion this year. I think the number is we've seen close to $700 billion going to bond funds since January of 2009.
But ultimately when you see your bank promoting, you know, half percent savings on checking accounts, you're realizing you can't subsist on this, and you're looking left and right and seeing pension funds in trouble and states going back and reneging on their obligation, you suddenly realize that maybe I have no choice but to go back into the market in some respect.
HANSEN: But you've said this trend could be problematic for individual investors. Why? What do you mean?
Mr. FARZAD: Time and again, individual investors have shown a propensity to sell at the lows and buy at the highs. And when we, you know, it's contrarian indicator, the smart money on the street says when the little guy buys in, I'm out. You know, Warren Buffett famously said that he's greedy when other people are fearful.
And maybe this is the beginning of something. Maybe it's just a flash in the pan, but if finally you're seeing some of this restive money being deployed into the stock market and going into January, when it's, you know, Roth IRA season and you're finally looking at your brokerage statements and writing out these checks, that could potentially evince some performance chasing, which has never really ended well for individual investors.
HANSEN: Right. They don't calculate too well. So if you're saying that jumping into the market right now is a bad idea for individual investors, what should they do instead?
Mr. FARZAD: They should be devout agnostics, I like to say, when it comes to this. To kind of have a strong gut. Look, the market is back to where it was before Lehman Brothers blew up. If you had fallen into a well, or, you know, something worse and just woken up today, or been retrieved out of this thing, you'd look at the numbers and, wow, by and large nothing happened, nothing transpired over the past two years.
Well, that shows that staying the course, having some modicum of discipline really pays over the long haul. Unfortunately, everybody else was really worried out there, and with just cause. I mean, banks were having difficulty staying solvent. We were worried that banks were going to renege on their dividends. Why should you give the stock market the time of day? Especially after something like the flash crash.
And so people pulled their money out and said, never again, and this wasn't the first time it happened. Certainly the Internet bust and tech bust, back in the late '90s laid old hopes bare, and so, you know, once, twice fooled, what's going to happen the third time?
This is something that unfortunately it's kind of a co-dependency that we need in this country. There's no way that people are going to make ends meet without returns above what bonds and cash are giving them now. So it's this kind of reluctant, holding their nose going back to the market.
HANSEN: Roben Farzad is a senior writer at Bloomberg Business Week, and he joined us from our New York bureau. Thank you, happy new year.
Mr. FARZAD: Right back at you, thank you.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
The news media have done more than their share of navel-gazing throughout the years. But 2010 was particularly rich for self-scrutiny.
NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik is in New York. He's covered the coverage in 2010. Happy new year, David.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK: Happy new year, Liane.
HANSEN: There were individual stories. The Stewart/Colbert rally, the Wikileaks, I mean, different news stories that all had value individually. But if you put all of these stories in a cauldron, would you see some common ingredients?
FOLKENFLIK: I guess the one thread that I've been trying to tease out through the year involves the question of trust, or another way to describe it is authoritativeness. That is, where do people trust to turn to, to get the news? Where do they look to and say, that's information that I find useful, and that's information that I believe in. And I think we're seeing some transitions in how people define that.
HANSEN: Let's start with a big story, the Wikileaks document dump. This really tested the bounds of what you call authoritativeness or trust. What were the issues at stake?
FOLKENFLIK: There are some competing interests at stake. Wikileaks, of course, has obtained a treasure trove, many hundreds of thousands of documents, official cables, that have been classified to varying degrees of secrecy. Earlier in the year, questions of videotape of American attack in Iraq several years ago, now a question of diplomatic cables being published more recently.
And the question is, who controls this information? Is it the government that creates and classifies this information, or a website that says, hey, we can post it, and in this case, we can do it in concert with a number of very distinguished news organizations throughout the globe.
Julian Assange, the leader of Wikileaks, actually spoke with our colleague Robert Siegel earlier this year. Here's how he described the usefulness of the documents they obtained.
Mr. JULIAN ASSANGE (Wikileaks): These raw facts can be interpreted by others who are trying to propose alternative policies - by academics, by journalists, and by the people concerned with the war directly, soldiers and the Afghanis.
FOLKENFLIK: And Assange describes himself as the editor-in-chief, and that is, of course, a journalistic title. But people question, is he a journalist, is he a source, is he a conduit? He obviously himself does have an agenda politically in the sense that he's very much against American military action abroad.
HANSEN: Several journalists actually made news in 2010 after being fired or disciplined for personal statements. Here's just a clip of some of the voices that you may recognize.
Mr. RICK SANCHEZ: I'm telling you that everybody who runs CNN is a lot like Stewart, and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart. And to imply that somehow they, the people in this country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority? Yeah.
Mr. JUAN WILLIAMS: I mean, look, Bill. I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country, but when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb, and I think, you know, they're identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.
Rabbi DAVID NESENHOFF (RabbiLive.com): Any comments on Israel? We're asking everybody today, any comments...
Ms. HELEN THOMAS: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.
HANSEN: That's longtime White House correspondent, Helen Thomas, preceded by Juan Williams, whose comments on Fox led to his dismissal from NPR. And we began with Rick Sanchez on CNN.
David Folkenflik, their dismissals raised a lot of questions about how journalists should behave. Have the rules changed, and if they have, why?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, the rules may not have quite have changed, but expectations are evolving, and the nature of news organizations themselves are evolving. So, you know, you have somebody like Juan Williams, our former colleague here at NPR, which sees itself as a straight-ahead news organization. Williams was operating in a climate that rewards strongly held opinion and personal assertion, over at Fox News and on cable.
Rick Sanchez, CNN says, you know, we're straight-ahead despite having critics from various sides. It says, you know, we can't be in the position of having our anchors create such controversy with statements that seem to us beyond the pale.
Helen Thomas, you know, was a columnist, an opinion journalist by this point for Hearst Newspapers after many decades as a wire service reporter. Her comments were seen as very much beyond the pale as well.
HANSEN: Jon Stewart also continued to make news. I mean, he calls "The Daily Show" fake news, but he made news for the way he satirically covered the news media. But when he was involved in the push to get the Senate to act on health benefits for 9/11 first responders, there was absolutely no mockery involved. Let's hear what he said.
(Soundbite of "The Daily Show")
Mr. JON STEWART ("The Daily Show"): This bill would provide $7 million in medical and financial benefits for Ground Zero workers who get sick, and they're going to pay for it by closing a corporate tax loophole. It's a win, win, win, win, just (bleep) do it.
HANSEN: David Folkenflik, do you think the mandate from Jon Stewart's viewers has changed? I mean, do they expect him to take action now rather than just entertain them?
FOLKENFLIK: I think it's really about what Jon Stewart sees his role as in this kind of news culture and ecosystem. He says, look, I'm not a journalist, but he certainly does some rather serious interviews, or interviews that get at serious points with newsmakers and consequential figures. When he took this job over from Craig Kilborn, he said, I want to do satire with a point.
And I think you saw that with that so-called Rally To Restore Sanity that he did with Stephen Colbert on the Washington Mall. They had a point to make, and they were talking about the hyper-heated rhetoric that we had that they both feel gets in the way of constructive political ends.
He is willing to do satire with a point. And when no one else is paying attention, he's willing to make it quite pointed indeed.
HANSEN: NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. Thanks a lot, David.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Two of hockey's biggest rivals met outdoors last night to play in what some call the Super Bowl of hockey. It may have been rainy and almost balmy at the Bridgestone Winter Classic in Pittsburgh's Heinz Field, but the sold-out event between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals excited hockey fans everywhere. The Caps ended up winning three to one.
Scott Burnside covers hockey for ESPN.com and he is on the phone from Pittsburgh. Hey, Scott.
Mr. SCOTT BURNSIDE (Sportswriter, ESPN.com): Good morning. How are things?
HANSEN: I want to ask you, did the game live up to its hype?
Mr. BURNSIDE: I mean, it certainly did. This was different from any of the other - the previous three Winter Classics. Obviously with the weather, always a storyline when you take a major sporting event outside. But the first time in the four-year history of the Winter Classics, of course, the start time was pushed back from 1 P.M. to 8 P.M. because of persistent rain.
And then the rain did fall periodically throughout the game, and was quite heavy in the third period. And I think, you know, will spark some debate about the legitimacy of doing this kind of event and what it means for the game.
But all-in-all, again, and I think another terrific storyline for what has become one of the most important events on the NHL calendar.
HANSEN: Yeah, it's been going on for four years now. This is the warmest one to date. How was the ice last night?
Mr. BURNSIDE: Well, I talked to a lot of players afterwards and I think surprisingly, perhaps, the ice wasn't all that bad. The puck didn't stick, which Washington coach Bruce Boudreau said he thought was going to be a real issue. It didn't. The puck did bounce a lot more. You had two of the game's top skilled teams on the ice. And you didn't see a lot of that skill on display, because of the rain and the puck bouncing. So you didn't see the kind of dramatic skill set that you might otherwise have seen.
But you did see a lot of shots on goal and a lot of action. And so, you know, it's - if your glass is half full it was still a pretty compelling game.
HANSEN: So the NHL actually chooses the teams to play. So what was special about this match-up between the Penguins and the Capitals other than, you know, like the distance on the turnpike?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. BURNSIDE: Well, I mean, you do have a natural rivalry between, I think, the two of the game's most dynamic players. Sidney Crosby having a season for the ages, a season that is putting a lot of people in mind of Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux at their prime. He's running away with NHL scoring title.
Alexander Ovechkin not as dramatic this year points wise, but he is - and since the end of the lockout - has been the game's, I think, single most dynamic player, the way he plays, his personality. And the two have a natural rivalry. They don't particularly like each other. The Penguins defeated Washington in the playoffs en route to a Stanley Cup in 2009, in I think one of the - maybe one of the most compelling playoff series in recent memory.
So there is a natural rivalry. And then to take it all to a stage where 68,111 people are sitting in the rain on New Year's Day to watch them compete, I think this, yeah, this probably was as good a match-up as there's been in the Winter Classic four-year history.
HANSEN: Scott Burnside covers hockey for ESPN.com, and we reached him in Pittsburgh. Thanks a lot, Scott.
Mr. BURNSIDE: Any time.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
Twenty-ten was a tough year for the American economy. There was some growth and some jobs were created but not nearly enough to keep up with continuing high rates of unemployment. However, there was at least one economic bright spot last year - agriculture.
To explain, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is in the studio at Iowa Public Radio in Des Moines. Welcome back to the program. Thanks for taking time out of your holiday.
Secretary TOM VILSACK (Department of Agriculture): It's great to be with you.
HANSEN: Start, if you will, with a summary of what 2010 was like for the U.S. agricultural industry.
Sec. VILSACK: Well, it was a good year for farmers. Thirty-four percent increase in net farm income, driven in large part because we had a very good year in terms of ag exports. We often talk about in the economy about a trade deficit with other countries but in agriculture, the United States of America has a trade surplus.
We anticipate and expect that it'll probably be in the neighborhood of $41 billion more agricultural products that we sell to the rest of world than we purchase from the rest of the world. And each billion dollars of agricultural sales generates somewhere between eight and nine thousand jobs, so it's not only helping farm income, but it's also increasing employment opportunities.
HANSEN: Why was there growth there when so many other sectors were struggling?
Sec. VILSACK: Well, a couple of reasons, I think. First of all, the American brand - American agriculture is well respected around the world, and certainly we provide quality. We're seeing emerging middle classes in countries like China and India, so there is a growing market for what we grow and raise.
There's - I think, also the United States Department of Agriculture is taking a much more strategic look at ag's exports. We're essentially looking at each country individually, as opposed to basically treating all countries the same. There are various places on the market continuum, if you will. There are fragile markets like in Afghanistan, where you're not likely to do much trade but you could potentially in the long run develop a relationship where trade may take place.
There are closed markets like in India where you're working to break down barriers. There are emerging markets like China where you're looking at this large middle class. And then there are mature markets like a Japan, where you are working to make sure that you can compete with the rest of the world.
Each market, each country has a different focus. And when you utilize your resources in a very targeted way, you have more success.
HANSEN: What products are you talking about?
Sec. VILSACK: Well, we've had obviously a substantial amount of soybeans sold to China. China is now the number one purchaser of Americans soybeans. In fact, they purchase about one-half of all the soybeans that are sold on the world market. Corn, obviously, is also part of it. But wheat, hogs, poultry - there's a whole wide variety of products, fruits and vegetables, that we are also involved in selling. Just about everything we raise, we're in a position to export.
HANSEN: I'm speaking with the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
Secretary Vilsack, you paint a pretty rosy picture but a number of farmers are still struggling. I mean, it's been hard, bad weather from over the past year. Other folks are just having a tough time because the economy is so poor. Is your prognosis as rosy for these American farmers in 2011?
Sec. VILSACK: Well, I think it's important for listeners to understand that there are really in a sense three different types of farmers in America today. If you take a look at farming as it's defined by the USDA, which is 2.2 million people who are in this business, about 1.3 million of those 2.2 million are what would often be referred to as hobby farmers. These are people that have a small acreage in the back of a rural homestead. They may have been orchard. They may sell items at a farmers market. They may sell more than a thousand dollars worth of product, and based on the definition they are farmers.
These are the folks who do not make money from farming. They likely lose money but they have off-farm income, probably pretty good off-farm income, and so its obviously a tax write-off opportunity.
Then there are about 600,000 folks who sell less than $250,000 in sales. They would be midsized operations. They are the folks who struggle. They are the folks who need off-farm income. They are the folks who need conservation programs because they have land that may be not as productive as some other farming operations. They struggle and USDA has to be there to help them.
And then there are roughly 300,000 folks who basically produce 85 percent of what we consume and what we export. They did pretty well in this economy. And we need to continue to focus on them, because they produce most of what we consume and they're also the ones who are generating the exports that, in turn, generate the jobs.
So there is a divergence and USDA has to be responsive in a sense to all three groups of farmers, because all of them populate rural care areas of the country. The rural unemployment rate is going down at a faster rate then the general unemployment rate nationally. And one of the reasons is because the president is very focused on trying to create opportunities in all parts of the country, and we're using our resources to do so.
HANSEN: The Farm Bill is up for renewal in 2012. Members of Congress and a lot of interest groups are already working on it. What do you want to see in the new bill?
Sec. VILSACK: Well, one thing I think we need to be concerned about in America is how many people are actually going to be able to farm and how we replace those who are retiring and those who pass away.
Over 30 percent of our farmers are over the age of 65. The average age of the farmer in America is 57 today. We had a 30 percent increase in the number of farmers over the age of 75 and a 20 percent decrease in the number of farmers under the age of 25.
So as we fashion a new Farm Bill, one focus has got to be: How do we make sure that young people have an opportunity to get into the farming business. This is a capital intensive business. It requires a great deal of credit. If you're going to do it in any size, it requires access to markets. It's very sophisticated in terms of marketing. The technology can be expensive.
So we have to begin to discuss ways in which we can encourage younger people, the next generation, to be interested in and create the opportunity for them to be farmers. And that's farmers of commercial size, but also the small and medium sized operations.
HANSEN: Tom Vilsack is the head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He joined us from Iowa Public Radio in Des Moines. Secretary Vilsack, thank you so much for taking time away from your holiday.
Sec. VILSACK: You bet. Have a great New Year.
HANSEN: You, too.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
For many travelers, the holiday season has not been very festive. Thousands of people were stuck in airports or waiting for canceled or delayed flights to be rescheduled during a blizzard that hit the East Coast Christmas weekend. The bad weather caused a domino effect, as flights were canceled and planes were routed away from the storm.
Joe Sharkey is the business travel columnist for The New York Times, and he's in the studio of member station KUAZ in Tucson, Arizona. Welcome to the program, first of all. And happy new year.
Mr. JOE SHARKEY (Columnist, The New York Times): Thank you, Liane. Same to you.
HANSEN: Do you have a sense of just how many flights were delayed or canceled over the holidays?
Mr. SHARKEY: Yeah, I think the figure is about 10,000.
HANSEN: Whoa.
Mr. SHARKEY: That's sort of a rough number but that's a pretty good number.
HANSEN: And we're just talking about domestic flights. I mean...
Mr. SHARKEY: Yes.
HANSEN: ...into the United States.
Mr. SHARKEY: Over a five-day period, 10,000. So it was a sort of a pitiful performance. But the air travel system, my impression is that the air travel system had a stress test and the results were not very good at all.
HANSEN: Now, a federal regulation that was put in place in April forbids airlines from leaving passengers on the tarmac for more than three hours. And if airlines don't comply, they're subject to hefty fines. How did this new rule play out this past week, in the middle of this mess?
Mr. SHARKEY: I think it was a factor, Liane. I don't think it was the driving factor, because obviously this was a major snowstorm and the New York airports were a mess. But the Tarmac Rule, as it's called, which fines airlines up to $27,500 per passenger for flights that are on the tarmac for over three hours, that was a definite factor.
The incentive is there to, if there's any doubt about whether you're going to have a plane stuck on the tarmac, just cancel that flight preemptively. So it contributed to the mess in some ways.
In other ways, do you want to be in the airport, which may resemble the, you know, the battlefield from "Gone With the Wind" or do you want to be on an airplane for eight hours? And, you know, the answer that every one of us would give is, well, I'd rather be in the airport, as bad as it might be there.
HANSEN: Well, during the blizzard, there were passengers on some international flights that were stuck on the tarmac in New York for many, many hours. There was one case, Cathay Pacific passengers coming from Bangkok waited for 12 hours to get off the plane. Does the rule apply to international flights?
Mr. SHARKEY: No, it does not. And there you see the difference. That's a really good example, the Cathay flight - 12 hours. Imagine 12 hours on an airplane, the airplane is full, you can't walk around. Things deteriorate real quickly inside that metal tube, particularly when the lights start to go and, you know, the restrooms start to get backed up and, you know, that's a tough 12 hours. I wouldn't want to do it.
HANSEN: So is it because it's an international airline, the fact that it comes from a different country?
Mr. SHARKEY: Yeah, that's right. The DOT rules do not yet cover international airlines and things like that. You can't just sort of willy-nilly impose fines on a foreign entity in air travel, as far as I understand it.
I know that Secretary LaHood at the Transportation Department, who's a bear on this issue and who's responsible for the Tarmac Rule, the DOT is trying to work on a way that would lasso in international airlines in some way, shape or form to at least let them know that there is a consequence to stranding people, you know, for 12 hours. And the consequence can be rather severe but we haven't yet seen what they're going to do. I would expect that we're going to hear something soon, because there's so much pressure from this particular crisis.
HANSEN: But looking forward to 2011, it seems from what you're saying about what happened over this holiday season and the fact that the airlines are not interested in playing this $27,500 fine for every passenger that's stuck on the tarmac for three hours, that when weather occurs, we're going to see more flights canceled.
Mr. SHARKEY: I think so. I think that we've already seen those numbers going up. And there's an argument between DOT and the airlines about how many flights actually have been canceled. Not, you know, not last week but before that because of this rule. The airlines say a lot. DOT says, nah, you know, you're cooking these numbers.
But yeah, I think from my point of view, more flights are being canceled on just the idea that bad weather might occur. Whereas before, you would try, you know, the pilot, the captain would try to get the airplane off the ground even if it meant sitting for a couple of hours.
HANSEN: Joe Sharkey is a business travel columnist for The New York Times and he spoke to us from member station KUAZ in Tucson, Arizona. Thanks again. And again, happy new year.
Mr. SHARKEY: Thank you and happy new year to you, Liane.
HANSEN: You're listening to NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
Mexico's drug war continues to claim victims at an astounding rate and there are no signs that the violence will ease any time soon. In 2010 alone, the death toll in Mexican drug violence was more than double the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq during the past seven years.
NPR's Jason Beaubien has been covering the drug wars. He is in Mexico City. Hi, Jason.
JASON BEAUBIEN: Good morning.
HANSEN: Twenty-ten was the fourth year of President Felipe Calderon's drug war. How did that year go compared to the first three?
BEAUBIEN: Unfortunately things have just been getting worse in 2010. Almost a 30 percent increase in the number of drug-related killings compared to 2009, and 2009 had set a record as the deadliest year on record in this drug war. So things continue to get worse.
And if you look at some places like Ciudad Juarez, right across from El Paso, Texas, more than 3000 people were killed in a city of about a million and a half people in 2010. So, things continue just to get more deadly in this drug war of President Calderon's.
HANSEN: Be specific. I mean, usually I ask reporters what were the high points of the story that they've covered in the past year. But I think really the question to you is, what were the low points in the Mexican drug war?
BEAUBIEN: I think we had a massacre of 72 migrants in Tamaulipas this year, all killed on one ranch, all together. These are migrants who were heading to the United States. They had been captured by one of these gangs. The drug gangs don't only do drugs. They also moved migrants. They do extortion. They do other rackets. And they had these 72 migrants on a farm and they just murdered them all.
In addition to these migrants being killed in Tamaulipas, the man who is about to become the governor of Tamaulipas - he was leading in the polls, he was just days away from the election - he was gunned down, along with this campaign staff in a convoy of Chevy Suburbans that were covered in electoral banners for his campaign. This was Rodolfo Torre.
You also had one of the leaders of the PAN Party, which is President Calderon's party, he was kidnapped and held captive for seven months. Reports are that his family paid $20 million for him to be released.
You also had car bombs in Juarez. You had violence spreading to Monterrey, which was considered a very safe city, an industrial city sort of in the north of the country. And this growing sense of insecurity that has been really flourishing in parts of the country that had been relatively safe before.
HANSEN: Have there been any successes this year?
BEAUBIEN: From President Felipe Calderon's perspective, there have been successes. His goal has been to go after the top leaders of these cartels and he's been fairly successful in 2010 in ways that he hadn't been in the past. The Beltran Leyva brothers, who are based sort of in Guerrero, southwest of Mexico City, that cartel sort of fell into pieces. They managed to take out the top leader right in the end of 2009, took down his brother a little bit later, one of their top guys was captured a bit after that.
Then, further up on the border, south of Texas in Matamoros, they killed a top leader of the Gulf cartel. La Familia, which operates out of the Michoacan, they caught one of their top guys just this month. So sort of all across the country there has been attack on the top leaders of some of the most powerful cartels in Mexico. That said, you still have the Sinaloan cartel and the Zetas, who have been relatively untouched by this war.
HANSEN: And what you expect to happen in 2011?
BEAUBIEN: Unfortunately it appears that the momentum is that things are going to just continued to get worse, that the conflicts are going to flare up again all across the country, in parts of the country that are remote, in parts of the country that are very urban. That is what it seems like we're heading towards.
Obviously, for Calderon, the big fish out there is Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, the head of the Sinaloan cartel. He's been gaining more and more power as these other cartels have gotten beaten down. So if we were to fall into 2011, that would certainly be a big victory for Calderon in this war.
But there's no sign that the violence is letting up right now. And I think at least into the early part of 2011, that's going to continue.
HANSEN: NPR's Jason Beaubien in Mexico City. Thanks a lot, Jason. Happy New Year.
BEAUBIEN: Happy New Year to you too, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
America's space program is scheduled to undergo a fundamental shift in 2011. Unless something changes by the end of the year, NASA will no longer have a rocket to send astronauts into space. The space shuttle program is being retired, and for the moment there is no American replacement rocket capable of sending people into orbit.
To talk about rockets and more of what's ahead for the new year in space, NPR science correspondent Joe Palca is in the house. And first of all, Joe, how did NASA get into this situation?
JOE PALCA: Well, as you say, they decided they were going to retire the shuttles and that makes sense. They're 30 years old. They were an expensive program to operate, and seemed like after 30 years it might be time to get something new.
So NASA began this large program to come up with a replacement. And then the Obama administration decided they didn't want to do that. So they basically cancelled the program.
Interestingly, the L.A. Times reports recently that they still have to pay like $500 million in this fiscal year, because Congress hasn't gotten around to cutting off the funding yet. But that's another story.
HANSEN: So NASA is abandoning manned space flight?
PALCA: Well, no, they're not. The plan is, they've got contracts with the Russian space agency to send astronauts to the space station, the international space station, on the Soyuz launch system, the capsule, to get astronauts into space. And they've been doing that already. I mean, that's already been an alternative way of getting up there for American astronauts.
And the other thing that's happening is there is going to be some private companies that are jumping into this space launch business. SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, are some of the ones that have been very public about their activities. There are some others that might be a little more, you know, sort of cagey about what they're up to. But the idea is that NASA will buy launch services from a commercial entity.
HANSEN: But there will be at least two more shuttle flights this coming year?
PALCA: Yeah. And one of them is one of those exciting supply missions where they bring up lots of equipment. And then the other one is a little more interesting in that it's bringing up a major scientific experiment that's supposed to measure charged particles and cosmic rays. And there could be a third shuttle, and this is one of these funny things.
So, since the Columbia accident, NASA's policy is to have a space shuttle waiting in case they have to send up a rescue mission if one gets into space and it's been damaged and they don't want to let it come back down to earth. So they have one that's waiting after the last shuttle mission, but then some people said, well, if it's just waiting there, why don't we launch it, because it's fully ready to be launched.
And so NASA said, well, we will if you tell us to. And right now, Congress has said, we're not sure yet. So, of course, if they launch one, then do they have another one standing by? This could go on forever. But I think they're talking about doing one. So it could be three this year, but there's two on the books.
HANSEN: It's always so interesting to talk about human space flight, but there are also some interesting unmanned missions that will be launched in 2011. Can you elaborate on some of them?
PALCA: Well, sure. One of them that's kind of cool is the Juno spacecraft. That's the solar-powered spacecraft that's heading off to Jupiter. And then there's GRAIL. It's actually twin spacecraft that are going to be used to determine the interior of our moon, which I think is kind of cool.
And then, the big one is, in Thanksgiving, the next Mars Rover is going to go off. It's the Mars science laboratory. If you think of the last rover as sort of like dune buggies, this is more like an SUV, although it's still smaller than an SUV.
HANSEN: Yeah. I remember we talked back in January 4th, 2004 about the first Rover, and that was supposed to last about, what, a week?
PALCA: Right. That was the Spirit Rover, and a few weeks later it was the twin Rover Opportunity that went up, and they were supposed to last 90 days. So, talk about your successful program. Ninety days expected launch, now we're into seven years. But I have to say that we might have to declare Spirit dead sometime this year.
They had to shut off almost all of its instruments before the winter started because they didn't think they'd have enough power - they're solar powered also. So they shut everything down and they said, when the sun comes back up, we hope to hear from you. Well, the sun's come back up and they haven't heard anything.
Now, they've got some time. It might wake up, but it might not, and that would be sad.
HANSEN: But it's not dead yet.
PALCA: Well, not officially.
HANSEN: NPR's science correspondent, Joe Palca. Joe, thanks a lot. Happy new year.
PALCA: Happy new year to you.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
Over the years, if we were lucky, we received good advice from people of older generations. Sometimes, however, that advice doesn't stick. I'm not talking about the big life issues. I mean the little things - how to change the oil in your car, how to shake hands properly, or how to sew a button.
In 2009, Erin Bried published a book with advice about things your grandmother knew. Her new book is called, "How To Build A Fire And Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew." Erin Bried is in our New York studio. Happy new year to you.
Ms. ERIN BRIED (Author, "How To Build A Fire And Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew"): Happy new year to you, too.
HANSEN: There seems to be a lot of great advice on how to be thrifty. Was that a common thread among these grandfathers?
Ms. BRIED: Absolutely. They were all born before 1927. So they all lived through the Great Depression, and I heard a lot of stories about being resourceful and making do.
One of the grandfathers I talked to was Joe Toth(ph), who was an electrician in Pennsylvania. He was born outside of Buffalo, New York, and he had 11 siblings. He used to wear knickers, as did all the boys at the time, and they had these elastic bands or, you know, bands under their knees. He would do his part to help his family by walking around the neighborhood and looking for fruit trees. And he would climb these trees and he would fill his pockets, and because they were holey, his entire knickers, with fruit. And he would waddle home with his entire pants full of fruit, and that's what he did as a young boy to help feed his family.
But I think those lessons about being thrifty and being resourceful stayed with them from childhood throughout their lives.
HANSEN: The ability to change a tire is invaluable information. So it only follows I should ask you, how many tires have you successfully changed on your own?
Ms. BRIED: I'm happy to say I have changed three tires to date, and thankfully not all at the same time.
HANSEN: And did you get the advice from these gentlemen?
Ms. BRIED: Well, it's easier now that I have this advice from them, but because I've interviewed grandfathers as the source of this book, I've heard a lot of people say, oh, this is a great book for boys, this is a great book for men. And I heard the same thing about the grandmother book, "How To Sew A Button," this is great for girls and great for women. Man or woman, everybody should know how to change a tire or cook their own dinner. It does not discriminate.
HANSEN: Did you actually ask these men how to write a love letter? I mean, did they blush or did they volunteer information readily?
Ms. BRIED: I heard the sweetest love stories talking to these guys. And the one that I always think of is again from Joe Toth, and he met his wife before he shipped off to the war. And she was actually dating his best friend. And he told his friend, if you screw up with Frances, she is mine. And his friend did screw up, and then he shipped out to the Pacific, and spent a few years on a boat, and he stayed in touch with her by writing love letters the whole time.
And he told me he would look through a big book of quotations, and he'd find inspiration, and then he'd sort of riff off of this singular quote that he found. And he said he thinks he really won her heart because he addressed every letter, Dear Mush, and he signed every one, Loves ya, your JoJo.
HANSEN: I personally don't need this piece of advice, but how does one properly wax a mustache?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. BRIED: You know, I have to say there are two tips in the book that are for men only, and that's how to wax a mustache and how to grow a beard. And I have not personally tried either of those, I'm happy to report.
HANSEN: Do you remember the advice, though?
Ms. BRIED: Sure. You just, you know, you get a wax that matches the color of your mustache. And you get - there's a tiny little mustache brush, and you just brush it in and work the wax to the side, and then you can sculpt the ends however you'd like. You know, you can do the Salvador Dali whoosh, or the, you know, the Snidely Whiplash curl. You can get really artsy with that.
HANSEN: At the beginning of your book, you say you only knew one of your grandfathers. What's the best piece of advice you learned from him?
Ms. BRIED: Well, you know, I have two great memories of my grandfather, and one is he used to let me shine his bald head with a rag, which I got such a kick out of. And he also taught me to play the guitar. And I still have the guitar that he loaned to me. And he passed away a few years ago, but I still have that guitar, I still play it. And I still wonder what else I could have learned from him if only I'd asked.
And that's an important lesson I took away from the book. It's that a lot of people in my generation, you know, we think we're too smart to ask our grandparents these questions or we think, you know, they're just old, we must know better. But if we don't sit down and ask these questions of our grandparents, these stories will be lost forever.
Actually, Bill Holloman, one of the gentlemen I interviewed for the book...
HANSEN: Who was a Tuskegee Airman, I'll point out.
Ms. BRIED: That's right. He was the first black helicopter pilot in the Air Force. He passed away a few weeks after our last interview. And I just feel so honored and privileged that I had the chance to ask him these stories that even his children had never heard. He was a Red Tail, which meant he piloted the planes that escorted bombers on missions. And he said when he got there he sent Hitler a telegram and told him he was coming for him.
And I said, well, did Hitler ever write you back? And he said, he didn't write me back, but he listened and then he quit.
HANSEN: Great story.
Ms. BRIED: Yeah.
HANSEN: I should point out, this isn't just a how-to book, you know, step one, step two, step three. It's all about living. Are you taking a particular piece of advice from your interviews with these gentlemen to heart and putting into practice?
Ms. BRIED: Yeah. One of the common threads I noticed in all the grandfathers is when - I called many of them out of blue, and some of them I had introductions to through their children or grandchildren. I called them and I said, I need your help. And without hesitation, every single one of them said, what do you need?
And this reminds me of a story I heard from Bill Holloman. He grew up in St. Louis, and he said his family wasn't flush during the Depression. His father was a postal carrier, his mom stayed at home. He had a few siblings. And his mom always set three extra plates at dinner, in case he had, you know, he ran across any kids who were hungry at the ball field or whatever, who wanted to come home and needed a meal.
And when I think about what all these grandfathers had in common and what makes this so-called greatest generation so great is that when times were hard, they pulled together. And now, when we're faced with hard times, we have that same choice. We can either come together or fall apart. And I think, you know, what I learned from them is the way I want to live my life. I want to come together. I want to answer the call. I want to help out where I can.
HANSEN: Erin Bried is the author of "How To Build A Fire And Other Handy Things Your Grandfather Knew." She's also a senior staff writer at Self Magazine, and she joined us from our New York bureau. Thank you so much.
Ms. BRIED: Thank you.
HANSEN: If you have a piece of advice that you would like to share with us, visit the NPR WEEKEND EDITION Facebook page.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's Ina Jaffe has this look at Schwarzenegger's governorship and his legacy.
INA JAFFE: Unidentified Man: It's the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO")
JAFFE: When he announced his candidacy for California governor on "The Tonight Show."
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: It was the most difficult decision that I've made in my entire life - except the one in 1978, when I decided to get a bikini wax.
JAFFE: He took advantage of a unique opportunity - an unprecedented election to recall Democratic Governor Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger won easily and brought his macho swagger and Hollywood flash to the Capitol.
DON PERATA: I'd never been around that kind of star power before.
JAFFE: Says Democrat and former Senate leader Don Perata.
PERATA: I was really stunned by the way people reacted to him and the enormity of his popularity.
JAFFE: Politically, this new governor was hard to define. He was a Republican and fiscal conservative who also supported gay rights and gun control. People didn't just expect Arnold Schwarzenegger to govern California; they expected him to save it. It was an expectation the new governor did nothing to discourage in his inauguration speech.
SCHWARZENEGGER: I have never been afraid of the fight, and I have never been afraid of the hard work. I will not rest until our fiscal house is in order. I will not rest until California is a competitive job-creating machine. I will not rest until the people of California come to see their government as a partner in their lives, and not a roadblock to their dreams.
JAFFE: But Schwarzenegger himself created a roadblock that very day, say his critics. He rolled back the unpopular car tax, leaving a $4 billion hole in the budget. Two years later, Schwarzenegger made a devastating decision. He called a special election on a raft of ballot measures that targeted a lot of things that Democrats and unions hold dear.
JIM BRULTE: I just never thought that a fight where you're taking on every special interest makes a lot of sense.
JAFFE: That's Schwarzenegger's fellow Republican and former Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte.
BRULTE: In Hollywood, the one guy with the pistol beats the 15 guys with machine guns, but in the real world, I don't know that that's the way it works.
JAFFE: The superstar governor who'd promised to fix California's financial mess presented voters with a hodgepodge of measures. Only one of them had anything to do with the budget. The others dealt with political reform and teacher tenure. Schwarzenegger also wanted to make it harder for unions to spend dues money on politics, which made them spend money like water to go after him.
(SOUNDBITE OF ADVERTISEMENT)
JAFFE: Governor, I voted for you because I trusted what you said.
MONTAGNE: Unidentified Man #4 (Police Officer): But you're just one broken promise after another.
JAFFE: Those disappointed voices in this TV spot, belong to uniformed police officers.
MONTAGNE: Unidentified Man #5 (Police Officer): You're not the governor we thought you'd be.
JAFFE: All of Schwarzenegger's initiatives were defeated, leading him to do something rare for politicians: He apologized, sort of, during his State of the State speech.
SCHWARZENEGGER: I have absorbed my defeat and I have learned my lesson.
JAFFE: But he lost his aura of invincibility forever. Former Senate leader Don Perata says Schwarzenegger became a man without a country. His fellow Republicans reviled him for working with the majority Democrats. And those Democrats in the legislature felt like they could now confront him.
PERATA: I've got a vote and you don't. I've got a vote and you need it, and so what are you going to do about it? You just can't make things happen the way you could on a Hollywood set. You just can't do it in politics.
JAFFE: As California's budget deficit has grown and the economy has tanked, there's a nagging feeling that it didn't have to be this way, says journalist Lou Cannon, who has written biographies of California's other celebrity governor, Ronald Reagan.
LOU CANNON: Schwarzenegger could have come out for more revenue sources early on, when he was popular. And he chose, for whatever reason, not to do that. And I think that he didn't take advantage of his political honeymoon.
JAFFE: But Cannon says that history may judge Schwarzenegger much differently than the voters do now.
CANNON: If you're making a judgment now, I have a sense of disappointment that Schwarzenegger didn't fulfill his promise. But I don't think the final judgment is in.
JAFFE: Bill Magavern, head of the Sierra Club of California, says Schwarzenegger has been a great ambassador for the issue of climate change.
BILL MAGAVERN: Schwarzenegger reaches people who might otherwise not be listening when global warming is discussed.
JAFFE: But Magavern complains that Schwarzenegger has been too easy on major polluters, that he's been inconsistent on offshore drilling and that he tried to shut down the state parks to save money.
MAGAVERN: There've been those who have painted him as the green governor. That's an oversimplification. There have been others who have said: Oh, it's all phony. It's all press releases and photo ops - and that's also an oversimplification.
JAFFE: There is more agreement on another one of Schwarzenegger's initiatives: a nearly $40 billion program to rebuild the state's decaying roads, bridges and levees. Not very sexy, but former Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte predicts it'll make both voters and politicians happy for years to come.
BRULTE: For the next decade or two, politicians of both parties will be going to ribbon cuttings and groundbreakings, taking political credit for initiatives that began under Arnold Schwarzenegger.
JAFFE: Finally, there are two Schwarzenegger initiatives that, love them or hate them, are going to shake up California elections. First, legislative districts will now be drawn by an independent commission, instead of the legislature. And from now on, all candidates in primary elections will run on a single ballot. The top two will make it to the runoff, even if they're both from the same party.
BRULTE: Those two political reforms, in and of themselves, are truly historic.
JAFFE: Ina Jaffe, NPR News.
MONTAGNE: California's newly elected governor, Democrat Jerry Brown, will take the oath of office later today. This will be Brown's third term as governor. He was one of its youngest governors when elected back in the 1970s, and is now its oldest. In keeping with the tough financial times, the affair, the inauguration, is being described elegant but modest.
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MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
In another report in our series 50 Great Voices, NPR's Felix Contreras tells us how he did it.
FELIX CONTRERAS: Flamenco singing is one of life's deeper musical mysteries.
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CAMARON DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: We hear traces of Africa, by way of the Moors. You can also hear bits of Punjabi singing. There are Persian, Arabic and even Jewish cultures in the DNA of flamenco.
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DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: Some say it's almost impossible to understand the subtle nuances of the vocal tradition, because flamenco singing is so complex. Even Paco de Lucia, Spain's most celebrated flamenco guitarist, says it's a hard nut to crack.
PACO DE LUCIA: (Spanish spoken)
CONTRERAS: He says it is the purest expression of flamenco, and because of that, it is difficult to understand. Outside of Spain, flamenco singing is the least valued, he says, because it is so complex and difficult to grasp.
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DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: As he began his career, flamenco was still a connoisseur's music, hardly part of the Spanish popular mainstream. So as he started to revolutionize the music in the early 1970s, you'd think that it was a somewhat quiet rebellion, noticed only by die-hard aficionados and musicians. Think again.
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CONTRERAS: We listened to a cut called "Son Tus Ojos Dos Estrellas," from an early album by the duo.
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DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: Now, is that some kind of establishing his presence? Is that a technique to do that?
BROOK ZERN: Yes, the tradition is to begin a song and tune up your voice with a syllable, usually I-E, which he did.
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DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: And then eventually, he gets - and then he gets into the lyric.
ZERN: Yes.
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DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: I think what people hear are the trills - the unusual trills and the almost non-Western intervals between the notes.
ZERN: Flamenco music uses microtonal intervals all the time, and nobody cut them closer and did them more precisely, technically, than this young artist.
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DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
ZERN: What's happening: He's saying, by the way, they tell me you're deceiving me, and I just hate to think about that.
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DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: That'll raise your blood pressure.
ZERN: Yeah, that's it. It's jealousy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SON TUS OJOS DOS ESTRELLAS")
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
ZERN: Here he goes.
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DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: What was it that he did there?
ZERN: It's improvisational, in a jazz sense, that it's in the moment. It's something that he won't do again, and there it is. Live with it.
CONTRERAS: Let's listen to it again.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SON TUS OJOS DOS ESTRELLAS")
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
CONTRERAS: It's his last phrase at the end, right?
ZERN: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SON TUS OJOS DOS ESTRELLAS")
DE LA ISLA: (Singing in Spanish)
ZERN: The Spaniards have a word, rematar, to end something. And that's when you sum it all up, wrap it up. And there's no better way to end this particular light style song, but very gypsy - the bulerias - than what he just did there.
CONTRERAS: Felix Contreras, NPR News.
INSKEEP: Unidentified Woman #1: (Singing in foreign language)
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DIANNE REEVES: Unidentified Man: (Vocalizing)
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Jon Hamilton reports that it's becoming popular even though scientists are not sure whether it's a safe or effective treatment for children.
JON HAMILTON: It's no wonder parents have such high hopes for oxytocin. So do a lot of researchers, like Jennifer Bartz at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
JENNIFER BARTZ: I think it definitely has promise, you know, and that's why we're studying it.
HAMILTON: Bartz says a dose given in a nasal spray seems to promote feelings of trust and empathy and bonding in both men and women. These are often impaired in people with autism.
BARTZ: Autism is associated with deficits in social cognition and social functioning. People have thought, well, perhaps oxytocin might be a good treatment for those deficits in autism.
HAMILTON: So Bartz and others have been testing this idea. One study in her lab looked at people's ability to recognize emotions in others. She says people with autistic traits usually aren't as good at this as other people.
BARTZ: But on oxytocin, their performance was indistinguishable. So we were really excited about this because it really suggests that it might be especially helpful for this population.
HAMILTON: Sue Carter, a biologist at the Brain-Body Center at the University of Illinois, says that's not much to go on.
SUE CARTER: If I had an autistic child, I would not try this because I wouldn't want my child to be one who we later discovered had been harmed in some way. At the moment, this is a very premature experiment and hasn't even been studied in kids.
HAMILTON: Oxytocin affects the part of the nervous system that controls things like heart rate, breathing and digestion. Prescription versions carry warnings about side effects, including bleeding and seizures. And Carter says that's just from short-term treatment with the hormone.
CARTER: The big problem here is that there isn't any research to speak of at all on the long-term effects of oxytocin, the effects of repeated treatments, at least in children.
HAMILTON: Geraldine Dawson is chief science officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks and a researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She says there's a pressing need for rigorous scientific studies of the hormone.
GERALDINE DAWSON: Some physicians are already administering oxytocin to children sometimes as young as two years of age. So it's very important that we good science behind that. Is it really effective? Which children is it most effective for? And importantly, are there any adverse effects?
HAMILTON: Jon Hamilton, NPR News.
INSKEEP: And that's Your Health for this Monday morning.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Today in Your Health, a look at therapies being sold online for children with autism. We'll hear in a moment about a hormone that's being advertised as a way to improve the social skills of autistic children. We begin with a therapy that's not proven to cure autism, though it's being pedaled that way online. It does work to bring down dangerously high levels of lead. NPR's April Fulton followed one young patient.
APRIL FULTON: Sherri Oliver lives in a small town on the eastern shore of Maryland. It's a two hour bus ride to Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital in Baltimore, and she's brought her daughter, Katie.
SHERRI OLIVER: We're here for the lead clinic. Katie's got a seriously high lead level.
FULTON: Katie Dail is a fast-moving first grader with copper-colored hair. Katie has bright brown eyes but has trouble making eye contact. She doesn't really speak.
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OLIVER: She has autism, okay? But she makes progress and sometimes she doesn't.
FULTON: Now, six-year-old Katie's not here for autism treatment. The treatment she's been getting, chelation therapy, is to get her lead levels down. Lead poisoning can cause serious behavioral problems and lower IQs in any child. Oliver says when Katie's lead levels are up she gets irritable and has more trouble learning.
OLIVER: She takes all of my attention.
FULTON: Lead in the body is notoriously hard to get rid of. Last year, Katie was in the hospital 19 days while nurses gave her chelation. Chelation puts a chemical into the body that binds to lead and other heavy metals and helps flush them out. But it's got a lot of drawbacks.
OLIVER: It's nasty stuff. But it had to be done.
FULTON: Nasty, Katie's mom says, because the chelation pill smells really bad.
FULTON: You ever been near a building when they're getting their roof done, you know, and the smell just gets in your mouth? That's what it smells like.
FULTON: Nurse Practitioner Barbara Moore runs the lead clinic here at Mount Washington. She says there's a worse problem with chelation. Even in the right hands, chelation can cause serious health issues.
BARBARA MOORE: A child during chelation needs close monitoring to make sure their kidneys are able to handle the lead burden as it's being metabolized in the body, make sure their liver is Okay, make sure their white blood cell count is Okay.
FULTON: Plus, it doesn't cure the damage the metal has already done to the brain.
MOORE: What we try to do is prevent any further damage.
FULTON: She says the more lead-filled paint chips, dirt and toys that go into children's mouths the more likely they are to develop behavioral problems: headaches, sleeplessness - classic symptoms of lead poisoning. It's especially hard to keep an eye on the symptoms of kids with developmental difficulties like Katie.
MOORE: Katie, look at me for a minute.
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MOORE: Good job. Okay.
FULTON: Moore brings Katie and her mom into an exam room. Katie watches TV while Moore listens to her breathing and reads her chart. Moore talks to Katie's mom.
MOORE: So her last lead level was 36. So it came down - what we were hoping for - slowly coming down.
FULTON: But there's a chance Katie might have to go into the hospital for more chelation if her levels get worse. Recently, a new challenge has popped up for Moore and her staff - chelation kits for sale on the Internet. The kits claim to cure autism or Alzheimer's or hardening of the arteries without professional medical help. Moore says the products aren't safe.
MOORE: I don't recommend the oral chelation that you can get over the Internet or over the counter. We don't know what the safe level is of administering to a child or to anybody else, really.
FULTON: Recently, the Food and Drug Administration sent warning letters to eight companies selling illegal chelation therapies. FDA's Michael Levy says the agency is cracking down.
MICHAEL LEVY: We are very concerned that the marketers of these products are preying on the most vulnerable consumers.
FULTON: Consumers like Katie's mom, Sherry Oliver, with very sick kids. Before Oliver left the clinic, I asked her if she ever considered one of those online chelation kits.
OLIVER: I actually looked into that. And, no, absolutely not. Most of them I couldn't find out what was in them, where they were from, who made it, nothing.
FULTON: She says she doesn't want to make Katie's problems worse.
OLIVER: I just can't. I can't risk it.
FULTON: April Fulton, NPR News.
MONTAGNE: To see photos of Katie Dail and learn more about chelation visit our website at npr.org.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's Carrie Johnson reports on how the Justice Department is getting ready.
CARRIE JOHNSON: Robert Raben worked at the Justice Department back then, and now he's advising department leaders to buckle their seatbelts.
ROBERT RABEN: In a sadly partisan and charged environment, very few opportunities to make the other party look bad go without waste.
LAMAR SMITH: It's only when the administration is not cooperating that you get into serious investigations or issuing subpoenas.
JOHNSON: That's Texas Republican Lamar Smith taking a low key approach.
SMITH: We're going to give the administration every opportunity to cooperate. And when we have hearings, I think they'll supply the witnesses, they'll give us the answers that we want.
JOHNSON: This week, he'll formally take the gavel as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Smith says he'll start to hold oversight hearings in February. And some of the items on the agenda this year might sound familiar. Remember that island prison in Cuba?
SMITH: You know we have a first class facility there. I've been to Guantanamo. We've spent millions of dollars on it. That is the exact right place to house terrorists, as long as the war on terrorism continues.
JOHNSON: There's more on the GOP list, including civil rights disputes and claims by conservative lawyers in the department that the Obama administration failed to protect white voters in an intimidation case in Philadelphia.
SMITH: There are a number of instances, such as those involving the New Black Panthers where the administration appears not to have enforced the law equally and we may well get into that and look at that in some time in the future.
JOHNSON: Other areas such as the effectiveness of law enforcement on the Southwest border, lighter prison sentences in drug cases, and the Justice Department's legal challenge to Arizona's tough anti immigrant law may draw Smith's fire, too. But Attorney General Eric Holder has been working overtime to mend fences with Smith. It started last year when Holder approached the Texas lawmaker at a football game and asked him to be nice. Here's Holder describing his recent charm offensive.
ERIC HOLDER: There have been a number of social occasions where we've had an opportunity to get together: at the White House, a Redskins game, I had him over for lunch, I guess, a couple of weeks or so ago.
JOHNSON: Here's former Justice lobbyist Robert Raben. He says the challenge will be making sure that department leaders don't get sidetracked by endless congressional hearings, and when they're on Capitol Hill, knowing how to turn sometimes hostile questions to their advantage.
RABEN: Explaining your decisions becomes significantly more important when you are under subpoena, under oath, in front of a camera, constantly questioned about decisions that you've made.
JOHNSON: Attorney General Holder tried to strike a positive note at a recent press conference.
HOLDER: And I hope that we'll have a chance to focus on things that are not going to be politically attractive, but will be of substance and things that have an impact on the day to day lives of the American people.
JOHNSON: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
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STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Many lenders put foreclosures on hold over the holidays, but their temporary freeze is now over. Thousands of foreclosed properties are expected to hit the market in the weeks and months ahead. NPR's Tamara Keith reports.
TAMARA KEITH: In the fall, many lenders put evictions on hold while they reviewed their foreclosure procedures. Rick Sharga, of the firm Realty Trac, says that's behind us now and the pace of foreclosures is about to pick up.
RICK SHARGA: I'd be really, really surprised if we didn't see a, probably record quarter in the first quarter of this year.
KEITH: Sharga expects banks will repossess close to 100,000 homes in January alone.
SHARGA: We always have a seasonal uptick in the first quarter and I think it will be accelerated because of delays that the servicers will be making up for in the first couple months.
KEITH: Realtors are bracing themselves for an increasing number of vacant homes waiting for buyers. But Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, says it doesn't come as a surprise.
LAWRENCE YUN: These properties will be coming onto the market, that is a given.
KEITH: He says there is a massive shadow inventory, homes not yet on the market where the owners are more than 90 days behind on their payments.
YUN: It's just inevitable that they will go into a foreclosure.
KEITH: Now, Yun says he doesn't expect all these properties to dump onto the market in a single month. It will be gradual. But the question is whether the already fragile housing market will be able to handle them.
YUN: Hopefully the improving economy, job creation, will provide the necessary housing demand to absorb the shadow inventory that will be reaching the market.
KEITH: Tamara Keith, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
In a conversation the other day, one of the new Republican chairmen in the House of Representatives offered some perspective on his situation. During two decades in Congress, he said he's been twice in the minority and now he's beginning a second time in the majority. He says he will be mindful of his experience as a new Congress takes office this week.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Brian Naylor reports on what they've learned.
BRIAN NAYLOR: In January 1995, it was a new world on Capitol Hill. For the first time in four decades, Republicans were running the show, chairing the committees, making the rules, setting the agenda. And Speaker Newt Gingrich presided over it all, surprising many with an uncharacteristic tone of bipartisanship.
NEWT GINGRICH: If each of us will reach out prayerfully and try to genuinely understand the other, if we'll recognize that in this building we symbolize America writ small, that we have an obligation to talk with each other, then I think, a year from now, we can look on the 104th Congress as a truly amazing institution, without regard to party.
NAYLOR: Sixteen years later, a new crop of enthusiastic, idealistic Republicans is poised to take the reins. And the similarities between then and now are striking, says Princeton University political scientist, Julian Zelizer.
JULIAN ZELIZER: In 1994, you had a class of conservative Republicans who saw themselves as part of the conservative movement, who felt closer to activists and political organizations on the right than to Washington. And they came into Washington to change the way things were done.
NAYLOR: Former Democratic Congressman, Martin Frost.
MARTIN FROST: This really started with Newt Gingrich because he saw the path to power in '94 as to being the path of personal destruction of members, going after them on all kinds of ethical and personal basis, which wasn't necessarily the case prior to that time.
NAYLOR: Mickey Edwards, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma agrees. Now vice president of the Aspen Institute, Edwards says the polarization of Congress that began in 1995, contributes to an air of dysfunction that remains today.
MICKEY EDWARDS: Not only is there this excessive, hyperbolic focus on party, but if I disagree with you, I can't talk to you. I can't be civil to you. The idea of actually having a good relationship with somebody whose views are somewhat different from your own, has gone out the window.
NAYLOR: Princeton's Julian Zelizer.
ZELIZER: One of the great differences between this class and that class is 1994, meaning they have a memory of what happened to those Republicans - both how they lost some of their political capital, and ultimately, how they lost some of their enthusiasm to shake up the system, rather than to be part of the system.
NAYLOR: Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio is one of many who hopes to change the rules in the new Senate.
SHERROD BROWN: I mean the Senate is too shrouded in mystery to the public, and too hide-bound in its traditions in doing the public's business.
NAYLOR: Brian Naylor, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Here's NPR's Elizabeth Shogren.
ELIZABETH SHOGREN: Smith says he still hasn't figured out how the new rules will change his project. But one thing is certain: They give a new weapon to the plant's opponents.
DAVID SMITH: The environmental organizations, I mean, their goal is to challenge any coal plant. Another regulation just gives them another avenue to make another challenge.
SHOGREN: Attorney Cale Jaffe from the Southern Environmental Law Center has been fighting the plant.
CALE JAFFE: Now, finally we've got the rules that are beginning to require power companies to account for their global warming pollution. That's an historic turn of events.
SHOGREN: Jeffrey Holmstead, who headed EPA's air pollution office under President Bush, predicts the new requirements will increase energy costs and halt industrial construction. That's because there's no clear rule book. Officials will evaluate each project to see what technologies could cut its pollution.
JEFFREY HOLMSTEAD: It slows everybody down 'cause nobody has any idea what the rules are going to be.
SHOGREN: Holmstead, who now represents energy companies as a lawyer, says companies that do try to get permits will be stymied by red tape and challenges from environmental groups.
HOLMSTEAD: That is a huge part of the problem. There are multiple opportunities for it to be challenged and held up.
GINA MCCARTHY: We'll be able to issue these permits. We will not slow down the economy.
SHOGREN: Gina McCarthy now heads EPA's air pollution office. She says agency and state officials will only require companies to use existing technologies, but in ways that make plants as energy efficient as possible.
MCCARTHY: So that the pollution they emit is as minimal as possible to get the job done.
SHOGREN: Elizabeth Shogren, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
On the first Monday of a new year, it's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Here's NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman.
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TOM BOWMAN: More than a hundred protesters marched in front of the White House a few weeks ago, carrying signs and calling for American troops to come home from Afghanistan. Among them was Daniel Ellsberg, one of the famous dissidents from the Vietnam era.
DANIEL ELLSBERG: I know that people here understand that this war is as hopeless and wrong as the war we participated in in Vietnam and that it's not going to end by a presidential initiative. It will only be because the American public has awakened to their responsibilities and the realities of this war.
BOWMAN: One of them is Jim McGovern, a Democrat from Massachusetts.
JIM MCGOVERN: We've lost some of the finest men and women in our country. We're going broke because we're borrowing all the money to pay for the war and we're not talking about it in Washington. It's unbelievable.
BOWMAN: Richard Armitage, who served as deputy secretary of state under President Bush when the Afghan war began, says Afghanistan has largely been set aside as an issue.
RICHARD ARMITAGE: I certainly noticed a lack of debate during the campaign, in November. I was shocked by it but domestic issues ruled out.
BOWMAN: Former Deputy Secretary Of State Richard Armitage says that dynamic could begin to change in the coming months.
ARMITAGE: I think towards the spring, as people start getting more serious about both casualties and the deficit, that there will be a - somewhat more discussion about this issue.
BOWMAN: Senator J. William Fulbright organized a month-long series of hearings in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He reviewed a half dozen separate proposals to end the war.
WILLIAM FULBRIGHT: I hope that the hearings will result in greater public understanding of the policy alternatives available and positive congressional action to end American participation in the war.
BOWMAN: Fulbright found support from a 27-year-old Vietnam veteran named John Kerry, the man who now leads the same committee. The young Kerry was blunt in his criticism.
INSKEEP: Someone has to die so that President Nixon won't be, and these are his words, the first president to lose a war.
BOWMAN: Senator Kerry is not saying Afghanistan is a mistake, though he did ask some basic questions last summer.
KERRY: Ultimately, we need a better understanding of exactly what the definition of success is in Afghanistan, and what an acceptable state looks like there and how achievable it is.
BOWMAN: In the New Year, Kerry plans on holding what he calls a robust series of hearings on Afghanistan's government and its security forces.
BOWMAN: Congressman McGovern is suggesting another topic.
MCGOVERN: And I believe very strongly that what we need to be talking about is an exit strategy. How do we extricate ourselves from this mess?
BOWMAN: For his part, Richard Armitage and other defense analysts are coming up with possible alternative strategies, if he says there's no real progress in Afghanistan this year.
MONTAGNE: Tom Bowman, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
For 21 of the last 25 years the city of Louisville, Kentucky has had the same mayor. And Jerry Abramson, the departing mayor, remains popular with many residents. He's being replaced by a businessman who inherits a city facing a lot of financial trouble. Gabe Bullard of member station WFPL reports.
GABE BULLARD: Jerry Abramson is Louisville's biggest cheerleader. He's quick to point out the good in almost anything that happens here, like the construction of a grocery store.
JERRY ABRAMSON: Those who wait. You may wait for a while, but never give up hope. And today is the day that we will break ground on a new grocery store for this neighborhood.
BULLARD: No one else will be mayor of Louisville for as long as Abramson. It's impossible. He served the maximum three terms as mayor of the old city of Louisville, then returned for two more terms when the city and county governments merged. Now he's running for lieutenant governor, and many Louisvillians are mourning their loss, including these callers on a public radio talk show the mayor appeared on.
INSKEEP: Unidentified Man #2: The place is cleaner, it's more beautiful and there is a tremendous amount of city pride.
INSKEEP: I also want to thank you so much for your tremendous energy and enthusiasm and leadership.
BULLARD: That energy is Abramson's trademark. It's something his successor, businessman Greg Fischer, is not known for. Here's Fischer the day after the election, talking about building his administration.
GREG FISCHER: Who's here, who wants to stay, are the folks here do they want to be the best in the world at what they're doing?
TOM OWEN: Mayor Fischer is much lower key, as best I can tell....
BULLARD: Tom Owen is a city councilman and historian. He says Fischer's laid- back demeanor is different, but it isn't necessarily bad.
OWEN: I won't mind Mayor Fischer when he says, we got troubles. Let's pick them off one at a time and try to deal with them.
BULLARD: Louisville's budget situation is tenuous. The city will soon owe millions to employee pensions. And businesses have moved thousands of jobs out of the city over the last decade. Despite that, Abramson remains popular. But Fischer's spokesman Chris Poynter says there's noticeable fatigue in the city, mostly with how the government is run. Poynter was also Abramson's spokesman, and he says the city needs a new mayor to move forward.
CHRIS POYNTER: In some ways our city has been lethargic, and I think we're going to get sort of a jolt.
BULLARD: But it won't be easy. Fischer narrowly won the election and doesn't yet have the widespread popularity or clout Abramson does. When he's asked about the challenges Fischer will face, Abramson says too much is being made of his impending absence.
ABRAMSON: I don't know how I was in 19 - January of 1986 when I first took over. I mean, it takes some time. If you mean - it takes time to get your sea legs and to get comfortable with the responsibilities - I'm sure it was that way for me, I'm sure it was that way for any new mayor.
BULLARD: Fischer isn't worried either. He describes the transition the way he explains most things - in business terms.
FISCHER: I've been involved in buying companies and improving companies, so this is a similar process that we're going through with the transition here.
BULLARD: For NPR news, I'm Gabe Bullard in Louisville.
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INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's business news starts with a battle over airline tickets.
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INSKEEP: American Airlines will no longer list flights on the Internet travel site Expedia. American has also stopped using Orbitz to sell flights. It's part of an effort to drive Web traffic and sales directly to American's own website. American has also been feuding with Expedia over the commissions the airline has to pay for flights sold through that website.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
The money comes from investment bank Goldman Sachs and a Russian investment firm. The venture comes amid ongoing talks that Facebook is preparing for a public stock offering and the deal is based on an estimate that Facebook is worth about $50 billion. That makes for social networking site more valuable than eBay or Time Warner.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Eleanor Beardsley has our story.
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ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: The southern French city of Toulouse is a festive place any time of year. In January, a dusting of snow covers its red tiled rooftops and an outdoor market buzzes with shoppers and vendors selling everything from jewelry to mulled wine.
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BEARDSLEY: But just a block from this pedestrian paradise, the city drivers face the daily reality of Toulouse gridlock.
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BEARDSLEY: Sandrine Boulot is trying to inch out of a tiny parking space to join a long line of cars slowly making its way up one of the city's narrow, medieval streets. Her two-year-old sleeps in the back seat. A 35 euro ticket for parking in a delivery zone lies on the dashboard.
SANDRINE BOULOT: (Foreign language spoken) (Through translator) If I'm lucky, I find a place. If not, I just go around and around and around until I do. It is so difficult to park in Toulouse.
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BEARDSLEY: That's exactly what deputy mayor Alexandre Marciel wants to put an end to with his new parking aide.
ALEXANDRE MARCIEL: The system is very simply: You have just to have a look on your smartphone and, you know, in real time, if parking spot is free or no.
BEARDSLEY: Marciel says the invention will cut down on gridlock and help the city to manage its parking spaces more effectively. And it will help the environment. Studies show that 60 percent of urban pollution in France is due to idling cars - many searching for a place to park. That also translates into millions of wasted hours for the drivers, says Marciel.
MARCIEL: I can reduce the waste of time; I can reduce the spending gasoline, yes? It's very important I think for the planet.
BEARDSLEY: Tony Marchand, Lyberta's technical director, points to a section of road where tiny receptors have been implanted just under the pavement.
TONY MARCHAND: (Foreign language spoken) (Through translator) These receptors send the information to that little box over there which then transmits it to a central server which sends it out to your telephone in real time.
BEARDSLEY: Marchand says that while several such parking schemes are being developed in the world, Lyberta is the only one that doesn't need a satellite connection. So it doesn't have the same problem as GPS systems, which are often blocked by narrow streets or tall buildings.
(SOUNDBITE OF ELEVATOR BELL)
BEARDSLEY: At the Toulouse headquarters of the French Space Research Agency, Antonio Guell says he's in charge of bringing space research down to earth. He says Lyberta took advantage of space technologies developed and patented in France over the last few years.
ANTONIO GUELL: (Through translator) They were researched and patented to help stratospheric balloons carrying scientific instruments land on Venus and communicate with each other without using heavy-duty transmission equipment. And that's really the advantage of Lyberta - that it works without a satellite.
BEARDSLEY: For NPR News, I'm Eleanor Beardsley in Toulouse, France.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Today's last word in business is magic flute.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: Musician Seth Hunter tried it out and comments on this video posted online.
SETH HUNTER: So it sounds perfect in terms of the acoustics. If you just stick some of the keys matching together, I think this thing will feel good.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Unidentified Woman (Auctioneer): 236,000, 236,100...
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: Unidentified Woman (Auctioneer): 237,500 dollars, third and final, taking no further bids.
DEL BARCO: Professional real estate investors camp out at these public auctions whispering into cell phones and tapping into their laptops before bidding.
ROBERT WASMUND: Of course we're buying a lot of these properties without ever being inside them - at trustees, courthouse steps.
DEL BARCO: Robert Wasmund is a partner with Anchor Loans who says buying a house even sight unseen is worth it if the price is right. They'll make repairs and resell the houses for a profit in a matter of weeks or months. It's a practice known as flipping.
WASMUND: Flipping, that's the biggest new thing across the country.
DEL BARCO: New because it's happening in one of the country's worse housing markets. Some parts of Los Angeles are littered with foreclosed homes. Anchor Loan sees opportunity. Wasmund recognizes that flippers are sometimes perceived as vultures.
WASMUND: People feel like it's not a positive thing, because maybe they're breeding the same type of situation as we ran into before. But of course, the flippers like us, we feel completely opposite that we are taking these homes that people have lost that are in disrepair, fixing and putting these homes back into consumer's hand, is the way we feel.
DEL BARCO: Wasmund says his company is trying to help the local housing market recover. Anchor not only buys and flips houses, it lends money to others who want to do the same. Just a few years ago, flipping houses was a ticket to quick, easy money, says Stuart Gabriel, a real estate expert at UCLA.
STUART GABRIEL: It became increasingly easy to purchase a home, hang on to it for a few months, maybe put a little lipstick on the pig, as the expression was, and then to turn it over, you know, pretty swell profit.
DEL BARCO: Then the housing bubble burst.
GABRIEL: And of course in today's world, short run turnover of housing for investor purposes has become a very dangerous game. It's fraught with a high level of uncertainty, and hence, a high level of risk.
DEL BARCO: Risky like poker, which five of the principals at Anchor Loan played professionally. The company's cofounder was even inducted into poker's World Series Hall of Fame.
WASMUND: We are experts in risk-reward analysis.
DEL BARCO: Executive Vice President Wasmund says the skills he and his partners learned at cards are extremely useful in the house flipping business.
WASMUND: No doubt about it, very important. Key to real estate, in general, is being unemotional, being able to look at all the information, analyze the information, and make objective decisions without being emotional - just like in poker.
DEL BARCO: Another key is knowing where and when to play their hand.
(SOUNDBITE OF SCRAPING WALL PAPER)
DEL BARCO: Construction workers scrape faded wall paper from the dining room of a rundown house next to the freeway in L.A.'s Pico-Union neighborhood. Anchor Vice President Robert Fragoso says the company bought the two-bedroom house for $180,000 in cash at a public auction.
ROBERT FRAGOSO: This house was pretty well neglected. It looked like it was a hodge podge of different remodels and we'll essentially take it back down to the basics and remodel it.
DEL BARCO: Now after just one month, crews have completely gutted and redone the interior, painted the exterior, and re-landscaped the yard. Fragoso figures Anchor spent about $40,000 on the fix up. It's already set to go back on the market for about $100,000 more than it cost to buy.
FRAGOSO: We get paid for creating a nice polished diamond out of a rock. We try to identify niche pockets.
DEL BARCO: Niche pockets like South L.A. and other lower-end markets filled with bank owned homes, places where Anchor sometimes offers up cash for keys to property owners who just want out quickly. Fragoso says a company's MO is to turn over as many of these houses as quickly as possible for profits of 12 to 15 percent. It's a volume game.
FRAGOSO: You know, there's a lot of investors who are out there looking for a homerun deal every single time. And our business model is that, you know, we're looking for singles and doubles. You'll hit the occasional home run and grand slam here and there, but you can't build a business that way. And so you build your business, you know, hitting singles and that's how the best ball players have been around.
DEL BARCO: Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Joe Palca reports.
JOE PALCA: Salvia divinorum is a plant. It's a member of the mint family. Smoking it sends users on an otherworldly voyage.
MATTHEW JOHNSON: Some people would speculate that it's another dimension. Others would describe it as the spirit world.
PALCA: For example, people on the drug psilocybin - what makes magic mushrooms hallucinogenic - are aware of the real world around them and can function in it. During the brief-but-potent high, people on salvia can barely move, and they feel as if they've left planet Earth.
JOHNSON: A completely different reality where they're interacting with things they're either calling entities or angels or figures that have even given themselves names in this otherworldly experience.
PALCA: Johnson wanted to see if there were any physical side effects to this mental trip. So he invited people who had used other hallucinogens to try salvia and looked to see if there were any potentially harmful spikes in heart rate or blood pressure.
JOHNSON: Under the conditions of the study, it did appear to be a physiologically safe drug.
PALCA: At least for the things Johnson measured. But he says while the drug may not be harmful physically, it can be mentally.
JOHNSON: There's the psychological toxicity. That is to say, this is a strong drug and people can do strange, potentially dangerous things when they're on it.
PALCA: Salvia belongs to a class of drugs that activate something called the kappa opioid receptor. Heroin and morphine also activate opioid receptors, but they activate the mu opioid receptor.
ELENA CHARTOFF: When you activate the mu receptor, like you do with heroin or morphine, you get a euphoric - you get a rush, a high.
PALCA: Elena Chartoff studies opioid receptors at McLean Hospital in Boston.
CHARTOFF: But when you activate the kappa receptor with a drug, you get kind of the opposite effect, that depressive-like effect.
PALCA: Salvinorin A, the active ingredient in salvia, has a powerful effect on the kappa opioid receptors. Chartoff says scientists are looking at ways to take molecules like Salvinorin A...
CHARTOFF: And altering them using a chemistry to develop compounds that have all the beneficial properties, but don't have the disadvantages.
PALCA: Hallucinations are generally considered an unwanted side effect in drug therapies. But pharmacologist Bryan Roth of the University of North Carolina says those properties may be useful for neuroscientists.
BRYAN ROTH: One of the things to me that's interesting about drugs that are hallucinogens is they alter the way we see reality.
PALCA: Roth is trying to figure out which brain circuits Salvinorin A acts on - where in the brain we decide what's real and what's not.
ROTH: You know, what could be more important than how we view reality, right?
PALCA: Joe Palca, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Jesse Baker reports from New York.
JESSE BAKER: There's an office party going on for Gawker's West Coast tech writers. They're just some of the 130 people working for Nick Denton around the country. But Denton doesn't want to get me a drink. He wants to show me what he calls the big board.
NICK DENTON: It's like a NASDAQ for content.
BAKER: It's a massive, flat-screen monitor, constantly updating, in real time, Gawker Media's top stories.
DENTON: It's a scary prospect for some people. It's exhilarating for most of our staff.
BAKER: Jessica Coen is editor of Jezebel, a Gawker site for women that considers itself the antidote to glossy magazines. Coen says getting page hits is crucial, but so is getting the story first.
JESSICA COEN: Nick is very much of the mind that you do it now. And the emphasis is to get it out there and be as correct as you can, but don't let that stand in the way of getting the story out there.
BAKER: The idea for the original site came to Nick Denton when he was working at that most respectable old-school newspaper: The Financial Times.
DENTON: The stories that I would like to read about are not the stories that appear on the FT's front page or inside pages, but the stories that journalists tell each other after hours.
BAKER: Denton is in his mid-40s, British, and so unimpressed by American journalistic ethics that he'll go where most American journalists wouldn't dare: Denton will pay his sources.
DENTON: Blogs have developed a reputation for being fun, quick but also nasty, exposing unpleasant truths about people, saying things which upset people.
GABY DARBYSHIRE: We get a lot of complaints.
BAKER: That's Gaby Darbyshire, the chief operating officer and the lawyer who fields all Gawker media's legal threats.
DARBYSHIRE: There's no publisher in the world that will take down a story simply because a subject doesn't like what was said about them. So most of them go nowhere.
BAKER: So, despite objections, Gawker posted the Scientology recruitment video Tom Cruise didn't want you to see.
(SOUNDBITE OF SCIENTOLOGY VIDEO)
TOM CRUISE: My opinion is is that, look, you're either on board or you're not on board. OK? But just - if you're on board, you're on board just like the rest of us. Period.
DENTON: Sarah Palin's private e-mails, Brett Favre's stalking of a sideline reporter - we have made our names for the wider public on these stories.
BAKER: For years, Gawker's empire has built an audience of millions of monthly readers, largely by posting a flurry of caustic takes on stories pulled from other places. But now there'll be just one big story splashed across the front of each of Gawker's sites. Denton is intending to showcase writers who do deeper, original reporting.
KEN DOCTOR: It makes a lot of sense for 2011.
BAKER: Ken Doctor is a digital media industry analyst for the consulting firm Outsell.
DOCTOR: It's actually right in line with what we're seeing from other older, legacy-branded media.
BAKER: Denton wants the Gawker sites to draw in upscale readers who see themselves interested in more than just gossip, and the advertisers who want to reach them.
DENTON: I would like to show the full range of content, from scurrilous and sensationalist through to beautiful and uplifting, because people can't live on snark and viscous gossip alone.
BAKER: For NPR News, I'm Jesse Baker.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
The Lancet's executive editor is Dr. Bill Summerskill. Among the concerns he found in the New Year's edition from a hundred years ago: cancer, tuberculosis and health care for those who couldn't afford it.
BILL SUMMERSKILL: So there were great concerns amongst those who cared for people what was going to happen to less advantaged people as situations worsened. So that started out by ringing a real bell with me, because those are topics that we worry about today.
MONTAGNE: There's another issue that shows up in the journal itself, and it's a concern that is still with us. And that is the correspondent from New York reporting on a crackdown on trade in rotten eggs. So food safety was on their mind.
SUMMERSKILL: And I think you can't help but read that and rejoice at the recent passage through Congress of the new food safety legislation.
MONTAGNE: Was there one thing in this editorial or this issue that brought into stark relief for you how far we've come?
SUMMERSKILL: And I think a specific example was in 1909, I believe, Paul Ehrlich had introduced Salvarsan, which was the first specific treatment for syphilis. And this marked the dawn of the anti-microbial era. So we see a number of pieces in here about the remarkable treatment effects of Salvarsan on syphilis.
HIV: You know, I didn't realize that there was a time when we regarded HIV as such an incurable problem.
MONTAGNE: Dr. Summerskill, thank you very much for joining us.
SUMMERSKILL: Thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Bill Summerskill is the executive editor of the medical journal the Lancet. He joined us from the journal's office in London.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Pro football's regular season is over, so we know the full playoff picture. The playoffs begin Saturday when the Seattle Seahawks play the defending Super Bowl champion, New Orleans Saints. The Jets and Colts also play that first day.
MONTAGNE: It will be a quiet time for other teams. The Dallas Cowboys' cavernous stadium will host the Super Bowl, but after a losing season, the Cowboys will definitely not be on the field. The New York Giants also missed the playoffs, despite winning their final game.
INSKEEP: The Minnesota Vikings are also done. And in what has become something of a tradition, Brett Favre says he is retiring - again. This time, he says he really means it.
MONTAGNE: Favre's 20th season was marked by injuries. And there's the recent $50,000 fine the league levied against him for not cooperating with an investigation over tawdry text messages he allegedly sent.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
V: It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
People who heard this program over the summer may recall that we played a little U2 - from Moscow. It was the band's first ever concert in Russia. And to help sing Bob Dylan's classic "Knocking on Heaven's Door," Bono brought up a man named Yuri Shevchuk.
BONO: You might know this man.
INSKEEP: NPR's Moscow correspondent David Greene caught up with Yuri Shevchuk, a musician who within Russia's borders is bigger than Bono.
DAVID GREENE: Yuri Shevchuk has been described as Russia's Bruce Springsteen. Back in Soviet times, Shevchuk cleaned streets for a living before forming a band in the '80s and growing into an iconic rocker.
YURI SHEVCHUK: (Russian spoken) (Singing in Russian)
GREENE: I was so lonely, he says. The lyrics came to me immediately.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
SHEVCHUK: (Singing in Russian)
GREENE: Shevchuk has always connected with working people. He's captured the beauty and pain of everyday life and in Russian society. His family was exiled by Josef Stalin to Siberia, and that's where Shevchuk was born and grew up.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OCEN")
GREENE: He released this enduring hit "Ocen," or "Autumn," in 1992 after the Soviet collapse. The song is still widely popular today. Shevchuk sings about what will happen to the Russian motherland: Will we crawl? Will we find an answer? Will we ever see the dawn? Those questions, Shevchuk says, apply today more than ever.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OCEN")
SHEVCHUK: (Singing in Russian)
GREENE: Many artists face that dilemma: whether to keep their message in the music or engage the establishment directly. Shevchuk has often engaged, attending rallies or peace demonstrations. But many in Russia see his frustration now reaching the boiling point. He's fed up that so few people are speaking out.
SHEVCHUK: (Through translator) The word democracy, we've got to return trust to this word. These days it's used as if it's a profanity. People were fed up with 1992, 1993. There was nothing to eat. We were humiliated. And that was all under the banner of democracy. But we've never really tried democracy in our country. To return trust to this word will be hard work.
GREENE: And Shevchuk himself went to work - at an event this past spring that stunned people here.
SHEVCHUK: (Russian spoken)
GREENE: He and other artists were invited to a roundtable with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to discuss helping children with cancer. The event was carried live on TV, and when it was Shevchuk's turn, he began asking Putin why there's no free press in Russia and why citizens have to fear the police. Putin listened, stone-faced, his chin in his hand. When the prime minister was answering, at one point he scolded the musician for interrupting.
(SOUNDBITE OF OVERLAPPING VOICES)
GREENE: Putin's answer was boilerplate, essentially that Russians must endure certain sacrifices in order to truly develop as a democracy. But rarely, if ever, had the powerful prime minister been challenged so publicly.
SHEVCHUK: (Russian spoken)
GREENE: Yuri Shevchuk says the political opposition in Russia is being shaped now. President Dmitry Medvedev talks about more open democracy, and the country, Shevchuk insists, is starting to stir. But there was little evidence of Shevchuk unleashing that passion in society at his recent concert in Moscow.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)
GREENE: The arena was packed with thousands, loud and ready to party. Shevchuk egged them on. He began with an old Soviet police song. Behind the musician, a Jumbotron played video of modern-day Russian police officers in humiliating moments, downing beers on the street or sleeping on the job. But Shevchuk's fans seemed a little antsy, even bored - as if(ph) they were waiting for the real show. The musician tried to explain himself.
SHEVCHUK: (Russian spoken)
GREENE: Guys, maybe tomorrow people will write that it was a political rally, he said. This is not about politics. It's simple: We're the citizens of this country. We want equality before the law.
SHEVCHUK: (Russian spoken)
GREENE: The awkward moment passed as soon as Shevchuk got rocking.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ARTEMY TROITSKY: He was always trying to be, you know, where the pain is.
GREENE: Artemy Troitsky is a popular music critic who attended the concert. Many Russian musicians, he says, are veering away from having any political voice. But Shevchuk, he says, senses opportunity.
TROITSKY: Something is going on right now. You know, it's not so boring and down as it used to be from the beginning of the Putin's rule. So I think that Yuri is very much in the right place in the right time, and I think the country needs him like no one else.
ILONA NABATOVA: Yes, he's the one(ph). He's a legend, really. And I started listening to Yuri Shevchuk when I was a small child.
GREENE: That's 27-year-old Ilona Nabatova. She's educated, fluent in English, and works for a German company in Moscow - and she's embarrassed by the state of democracy in her country. This concert was supposed to be her escape.
NABATOVA: The Russian reality is so, but we want to go to his concerts and just relax, because his lyrics and his texts are really great. And we want to just get obstructed from what is going on.
GREENE: Nabatova appreciates what Shevchuk's trying to do. She's just not confident his political voice will make much difference. And you can hear that when she talks about her favorite song.
NABATOVA: "Eta V'sor" - it's translated as that's it, that's all. That's traditionally for - I don't know how many years - for 30 years, his last song in every concert. It's the song which he will sing: That's all that remains after me.
GREENE: What do you think he means by that?
NABATOVA: I think he means that, well, he's trying to do much, what he can, and that's what will be left from him.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ETA V'SOR")
SHEVCHUK: (Singing in Russian)
GREENE: One lyric of this song - Pasmoltri na meenya, ne malchee - may actually sum up what Shevchuk is imploring young Russians to do: Look at me, and do not be silent.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ETA V'SOR")
SHEVCHUK: (Singing in Russian)
GREENE: David Greene, NPR News, Moscow.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ETA V'SOR")
SHEVCHUK: (Singing in Russian)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
D: NPR's Julie Rovner takes a look at how that could play out.
JULIE ROVNER: Incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor doesn't mince any words when it comes to Republicans' plans for the new health law.
ERIC CANTOR: You will see the Republican-led House put a bill across the floor that will call for a full repeal of the Obama Health Care Bill. That will be one of the first things we will do.
ROVNER: But while House Republicans are likely to hail it as a major victory and campaign promise kept, it's unlikely to get far in the Senate, which remains controlled by Democrats. So, says Cantor, House Republicans will then turn to Plan B.
CANTOR: We will intend to work with the House committees to make sure that we can delay and de-fund the ObamaCare bill.
ROVNER: But again, House Republicans can't act alone. And even delaying or de- funding it won't be easy.
HENRY WAXMAN: I think that the president and the Senate will resist that.
ROVNER: That's Henry Waxman. He's the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and a leading backer of the new law. He says that because of the way the law is written, about the only way House Republicans can deny funding to implement it is by forcing a shutdown of the entire federal government.
WAXMAN: If they want to get things into a stalemate, I don't think that that's going to make them popular with the American people.
ROVNER: Still, Republicans do have other tools they can use, says Michael Cannon of the libertarian CATO Institute, particularly the power that comes with gaining control of congressional committees.
MICHAEL CANNON: They can do a series of congressional hearings and commission reports about particular aspects of this law. They can look into the behavior of the administration, both during the congressional debate and since the law's enactment.
ROVNER: But Democratic Congressman Waxman says he's looking forward to the GOP hearings. He says they might actually be just what the law needs to build public support, rather than tear it down.
WAXMAN: I think the series of hearings would be a good thing, because it'll educate the Republicans who didn't pay any attention to the bill while it was going through the Congress. And I think the public, the more they hear about this bill, the more they're going to like it.
ROVNER: Drew Altman, president of the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation, says the next couple of years will represent a race of sorts, between the people who want to get the law implemented and those who want to see it repealed.
DREW ALTMAN: Because the benefits of the law are largely popular. And once the insurance reforms and the tax credits and all the benefits of the legislation are in place, and benefiting not just the 30 million people who directly get a Medicaid expansion or a tax subsidy, but also their family members and their friends who see the benefits of the law, then it's going to be much harder for the critics of the law to roll it back.
ROVNER: But that won't happen until 2014. In the meantime, even if Republicans can't do much to change the law now, Altman says they have good reason to keep hating it. It keeps their otherwise fractious party unified and looking ahead to the next election.
ALTMAN: Certainly a considerable element of this is political positioning for 2012, and keeping the right revved up because the law is unpopular with the political right.
ROVNER: Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Welcome to the program.
MARK OLIVER: Glad to be here.
INSKEEP: What did you see when you got to the banks of the river?
OLIVER: Well, there was a lot of dead white bodies. I mean, they were just rowed(ph) up along the banks. The interesting thing is the Arkansas River's got a series of locks and dams on it, and they make pools. And this was one pool where we had this die-off, and the pool above and below, we looked and we couldn't find any dead drum.
INSKEEP: Now, forgive me for sounding cynical, but when I first heard about a massive die-off, my first cynical thought was, well, somebody's fishing with dynamite again. But...
OLIVER: No. This one - we would've seen all different species if that had been the case. That does happen every now and then, but not this time.
INSKEEP: So what could've killed just one kind of fish, the freshwater drum, in such large numbers?
OLIVER: Normally it's a disease, either a bacterial infection or a viral infection.
INSKEEP: When you looked at the fish - the dead fish - was it obvious that they were diseased? Did you see something on the outside of them, for example?
OLIVER: No, sir(ph). I didn't see anything. They looked fine. There weren't any lesions or marks on them in any way. A lot of times that's the case with diseases.
INSKEEP: Mr. Goad, what happened in the Arkansas town of Beebe on New Year's Eve?
DAVID GOAD: We believe something disturbed those birds, whether it was storms or fireworks going off. They don't handle stress very well. And if they were asleep in the roost site and they got woke up suddenly with a shock, then chances are they would've been running into each other and hitting limbs and everything else.
INSKEEP: Meaning that they would actually manage to fly away. They would manage to escape some little distance but then be so panicked that they would not know what to do and...
GOAD: Just die. If they're shocked off that roost site, then they're just flying to beat 60 to try to get out of there, if you will. And they'd just get overcome with stress and they just can't handle it.
INSKEEP: Have you ever seen thousands of birds affected like this?
GOAD: No, I never have. I mean, there's die-offs. I mean, one fish or animal gets sick and it spreads quickly through that population. So it's not uncommon. I think it's pretty weird that it all happened at once.
INSKEEP: So what is your next step in each of these investigations?
OLIVER: Well, on the fish end - on the drum we've taken samples to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. They have a lab. They'll tell us if they can tell us what diseases it was, is what we're anticipating.
INSKEEP: And what is your next step in the bird investigation?
GOAD: Thanks very much.
GOAD: Thank you, sir.
INSKEEP: Thanks to you as well.
OLIVER: Thank you.
INSKEEP: They're investigating the unrelated but simultaneous die-offs of birds and fish in Arkansas.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Most mainstream news organizations in the U.S. promise to report without fear of favor, as the saying goes. Even so, many Americans believe the media is biased. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik wanted to get a look at a media landscape where newspapers quite openly and proudly have a point of view. Here's his report from London.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK: To American eyes, the British media operate in a looking- glass world, one in which the major TV news channels - the BBC and Sky - try to serve up the news without opinion. Whereas the big daily papers are pretty clear about theirs. Take The Guardian.
POLLY CURTIS: We have (unintelligible) to be the world's leading liberal voice. And we are left-leaning, but essentially liberal at our heart.
FOLKENFLIK: Polly Curtis is guiding me around the back corridors of the Houses of Parliament. She's a reporter who covers the government for the paper.
CURTIS: It is a very interesting time for us. We have traditionally been a Labor paper. And this election we backed the Lib Dems, which was controversial within the paper and outside the paper as well, especially seeing as they ended up in the coalition with Conservatives, which nobody really saw coming.
FOLKENFLIK: Such ideological sympathies in the press influence the way politicians look at reporters. Nick Boles is a Conservative member of Parliament from England's East Midlands region.
NICK BOLES: If a Guardian journalist were to interview me, I would definitely assume that they would be trying to penetrate into areas of weakness in what the government's doing or where there are likely to be failures or particular policies that they are very worried about. Whereas with The Telegraph, I'd(ph) probably be more likely to be thinking that they were looking for ways in which the government was betraying the Conservative cause.
FOLKENFLIK: He's not crazy about the way either treats him. British newspapers are notoriously brawling and fratricidal. But Bowles says he knows what he's getting.
BOLES: In Britain, we feel that it's better to know where people are coming from and then to make up your own mind about what you think based on reviewing perhaps more than one source. Because the truth is, nobody can be completely impartial and objective. And the idea that The New York Times doesn't have a political point of view is ridiculous. It does, but it twists itself into knots in an attempt to pretend that it doesn't.
FOLKENFLIK: The first voice you'll hear belongs to Labor leader Ed Miliband, claiming Cameron is out of touch with working-class Britons.
ED MILIBAND: It's no wonder that today we learn the foreign secretary describes this gang as the children of Thatcher. It sounds just like the 1980s.
FOLKENFLIK: David Cameron.
DAVID CAMERON: Let me say this: I'd rather be a child of Thatcher than a son of Brown.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)
FOLKENFLIK: Gordon Brown being the notoriously unpopular prime minster who led the Labor Party to defeat last year. The exchange is in all the newspapers the next day, with Cameron the winner, though each paper has its distinct take.
ALAN RUSBRIDGER: I think it's quite a striking thing about the British press that you get this polemical battle over the basis for what news is, which I feel is to a large extent missing in the American scene.
FOLKENFLIK: That's Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger. He argues British papers give more room than their American counterparts to voices that challenge conventional wisdom.
RUSBRIDGER: No judgments are free of ideologies, so who you choose to quote and how you structure stories are highly political judgments. I think that's the problem with trying to place too much faith in something called objectivity.
FOLKENFLIK: Back over at the main lobby in Westminster Palace, surrounded by marble statues of prime ministers dating back centuries, Anne Begg says she checks all the papers each day, but finds them lacking. She's a Labor member of Parliament from Aberdeen.
ANNE BEGG: One of the concerns I have with some of the print media is that it's almost all comment, which is always partial and is always partisan. As opposed to how you cover a news story. In that respect, I don't know if you could call them as newspapers anymore - they're perhaps comment papers.
FOLKENFLIK: Curtis and others at The Guardian say that BBC's presence allows them the leeway to ask questions informed by the views at the heart of her paper.
CURTIS: We care about civil liberties. We care about deprivation. We care about people getting a fair deal from a government. But I think kind of the core of the paper is its reporting, and your reporting is fair - even to opponents of the views at the heart of the paper.
FOLKENFLIK: David Folkenflik, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
As Eleanor Beardsley reports, a part of France's most cherished cultural landmark will soon be turned into a luxury hotel.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Hundreds of shivering tourists line up across an immense, cobbled courtyard to visit the Palace of Versailles. Home to the French monarchy since Louis XIV, Versailles is a monument to royal grandeur. Soon, the palace may also become known for its five-star hotel.
MIKAEL HAUTCHAMP: UNINTELLIGIBLE
BEARDSLEY: Known as the Hotel du Grand Controle, the mansion was built in the 1680s to serve as the offices and home of the king's treasurer, where he lived with his family and servants. The Hotel du Grand Controle was evacuated, along with the rest of Versailles, during the French Revolution. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it fell into further disrepair.
HAUTCHAMP: The walls here, it's completely crumbling in parts. Many parts of this building are in this very damaged situation. It's very difficult for us, because our mission is to save the heritage.
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BEARDSLEY: The restoration is the first in a series of commercial projects aimed at saving French monuments, and visitors will now have chance to see what it felt like to sleep at the palace of Versailles.
HAUTCHAMP: So, when you're here in the bedroom, you open the window and you have this view. So we can see here the Orangerie. And here you can see the castle.
BEARDSLEY: Louise Grether is managing the project for the Belgium hotel company, Ivy.
LOUISE GRETHER: It's quite a pioneering initiative in France for somebody to be able to have the right to take on a project like this in such a historic monument and transform this into an economic project.
BEARDSLEY: Pour quoi pas, says Denise Mosset.
DENISE MOSSET: (French spoken)
BEARDSLEY: It surprised me at first, says Mosset. But if we don't have the money to restore it, this is better than letting it fall into ruin.
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BEARDSLEY: Near the palace, bookshop owner Serge Bessiere says he thinks the new hotel will be a fabulous place to stay and celebrate any occasion. Partying, he says, is part of Versailles' history.
SERGE BESSIERE: (Through translator) Louis XIV never stopped throwing sumptuous feasts and parties to show he was the Sun King and to keep everyone at his mercy.
BEARDSLEY: For NPR News, I'm Eleanor Beardsley, in Versailles.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
An American writer moved to India and found a country that's dramatically changing. What may be changing most is India's frame of mind.
ANAND GIRIDHARADAS: India has become, in a way that has not been, a land of opportunity for millions and millions and millions of people.
INSKEEP: A land of opportunity, he said. The journalist Anand Giridharadas says that's new. Giridharadas grew up outside Cleveland, Ohio, and then he moved to India, the land of his ancestors. His book "India Calling" describes India's growing economy and the new possibilities it has created, something we might see as American style chances to get ahead. Yet he also explores a country riddled with ancient divisions of class and caste.
GIRIDHARADAS: In India you're eternally a master and eternally a servant. And servants in many ways have been seen and taught to see themselves as being not someone who is situationally inferior, but someone who is eternally, intrinsically inferior.
INSKEEP: What happened when you encountered a servant who didn't quite realize who you were?
GIRIDHARADAS: And I suddenly saw the man have this total human metamorphosis, and he shrunk right in front of me, from a master to a servant. And his whole body, his physiology changed, and he started apologizing with his presence and with his words. And you realize that almost every Indian is engaged in both of these transactions at different moments of their days, superior to some, inferior to others. And as an Indian poet once said, never thinking to resist the one kick from above, nor to refrain from giving the kick below.
INSKEEP: All right, let's talk about that. Did you meet anybody who managed to transcend these boundaries or move from one station in life to another?
GIRIDHARADAS: And he watched how they dressed, how they gestured, how they talked, what kind of cars they drive - he memorized everything about them and mimicked it, and slowly set out to become them.
INSKEEP: How did it work out?
GIRIDHARADAS: He is now - he runs an English language academy and he runs a roller skating academy. Roller Skating is this huge craze in small town India. And he's a lecturer at, like, seven colleges, teaching people English. And he's made himself the guy in this small town of 50,000 in the middle of India, he's made himself the guy who you need to go see in that town if you want to get out of that town.
INSKEEP: Well, you know, I want to ask you, as an American who grew up in suburban Cleveland and then went to live in India. You've lived in these two countries that seem to be at different places right now. You have an India, that as you point out, has this incredible image right now and is seen as the future, but as you point out, that is actually very problematic. You've come from an America where there seems to be a great fear of decline, although, you know, we shouldn't miss the fact that it's still the greatest economy the world has ever seen.
GIRIDHARADAS: Yeah.
INSKEEP: I wonder how the elusions are changing and how much the realities are really changing in these two countries right now.
GIRIDHARADAS: And I think in India, the opposite is true, which is there's so much optimism and foreign investment flowing et cetera that people sometimes get diluted into thinking this whole thing is going to be wrapped up in about five years. But in many ways, India still has a lot to work out. And one of the risks of a boom is that it becomes easy to forget that.
INSKEEP: Anand Giridharads is the author of "India Calling." Thanks very much.
GIRIDHARADAS: Thank you. $00.00
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg has a personal take on the 19th century mansion-turned-museum.
SUSAN STAMBERG: Duncan Phillips great-niece, Alice Phillips Swistel, remembers making similar visits as a child, although she didn't smoke. Uncle Duncan once came into the nursery where Alice was playing.
ALICE PHILLIPS SWISTEL: And he sat and watched me blow soap bubbles - bubbles, because he just loved the color of the bubbles, floating. And I thought that's very unusual for an adult to want to sit here and not even talk.
STAMBERG: He was unusual. He loved to look and to buy what he loved. Phillips Director Dorothy Kosinski says Duncan Phillips looked with his eyes and his heart.
DOROTHY KOSINSKI: It was never about trophies. I don't think he really thought in those terms. There was a sense of a love affair that Phillips looks at this and says, oh, my God. I've got to have this.
STAMBERG: Alice Phillips Swistel.
PHILLIPS SWISTEL: He decided that art, for him, was a way to pull out of depression and to stimulate his love of life and ideas and thinking.
STAMBERG: Since then, many have found strength, as well as beauty, at Duncan Phillips' museum. I went there right after 9/11 to be surrounded, in the midst of all that horror and confusion, by some eternals: Renoir's remarkable "Luncheon of the Boating Party," Goyas, Van Goghs, Cezannes - some comforts.
WILLIAM CHRISTENBERRY: Somebody once said the Phillips is like an easy armchair.
STAMBERG: Alfred Molina, who recently portrayed Rothko on Broadway in the play "Red," came to experience the painter here. Years ago, seeing Rothkos in London, Molina didn't get him.
ALFRED MOLINA: I thought, you know, okay. You know, they're a bit dark. They're a bit gloomy.
STAMBERG: Preparing to play Rothko, Molina read up on the painter and then visited the Phillips' Rothko Room, a small and silent space - simple wooden bench in the center, big, dark, glowing canvases on all four walls.
MOLINA: I found it very moving, looking at those paintings in that room, the sense of getting lost inside them. I found it very emotional.
STAMBERG: Just what Rothko wanted, says Alfred Molina.
MOLINA: He didn't want a room full of rational people saying, yes, oh, I like the way the blue turns into green. He wanted someone to be moved, to be, you know, to be changed by them.
STAMBERG: Another artist, author Julia Alvarez, found courage at the Phillips. You see how many connections people make there? At the age of 34 - divorced with no children, so a failure in her Dominican Republic culture - Alvarez had spent years as a struggling writer.
JULIA ALVAREZ: In face, I called myself a migrant poet. I'd go anywhere where I got a job teaching poetry in the schools, in prisons, nursing homes, wherever.
STAMBERG: In 1984, she got a teaching and writing fellowship in Washington. Each day, on her way to school, she passed the Phillips. One day, Alvarez decided to go inside.
ALVAREZ: I went in there and I wandered into this big, wood-paneled room, and I fell in love.
STAMBERG: She spotted a small painting from 1894 by Pierre Bonnard called "The Circus Rider." See it at npr.org.
ALVAREZ: That little circus rider was on top of this horse that was such a powerful steed, that it was racing out of the canvas. The canvas cut it off at the neck.
STAMBERG: The rider, in her pink tights and short, white costume, lies on one hip along the horse's back. She is holding on, not exactly for dear life, but with great purpose. Behind her in the stands, some circus-goers all clad in black. To Julia Alvarez, they looked like judges, just waiting for the rider to lose her grip - but no.
ALVAREZ: So all during that year, whenever I had to give a big reading, whenever I had to go in and teach a workshop, I'd drop in and get my little infusion of hope. And I really think she carried me through that year.
STAMBERG: So Alvarez had to do some hunting before she found her circus rider once again. And when she did...
ALVAREZ: My eyes filled, and I said so here we are.
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ALVAREZ: Here we are. And when no one was looking, I'll say this on Public Radio, I reached up and I touched the canvas.
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STAMBERG: I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News.
MONTAGNE: And this is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Kelly McEvers reports from Baghdad.
KELLY MCEVERS: Over the past two years, U.S. troops have remained in Iraq under a treaty between the two countries known as a status of forces agreement. It's set to expire at the end of this year. But American generals and Iraqi politicians have long hinted that the two sides might reach a deal to extend the deadline - if, of course, the Iraqi government formally requested it. Then came an interview Maliki granted the Wall Street Journal last week. In it he said the existing agreement is, quote, "sealed," that it's subject to neither extension nor alteration. But he did seem to leave open the possibility of a new agreement.
MOHAMMAD AL ASKARI: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: Mohammad al Askari is Maliki's defense spokesmen. He explained the Iraqi government's public position this way.
AL ASKARI: Unidentified Man: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: James Jeffrey is the American ambassador here. He says what could happen is that some U.S. military personnel, namely officers and trainers, would remain in Iraq under the auspices of the embassy. This is already the case in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and elsewhere. Jeffrey says from the American perspective, at least, this would be perfectly legal.
JAMES JEFFREY: This is a normal part of a normal embassy in an area of the world where we have a large number of military sales and a robust security relationship. And it has nothing to do with stationing troops.
MCEVERS: Stephen Biddle at the Council on Foreign Relations says some U.S. troops should stay, mainly to play the role of peacekeepers between Sunnis and Shiites and Arabs and Kurds. That's not the kind of role, he says, that a corps of military officers attached to an embassy could play.
STEPHEN BIDDLE: If these guys are staff and not combat, then there are only certain discreet functions they can physically perform. I think having soldiers with weapons and some ability to kill people, visibly part of a column, is different than having what amounts to an office worker in a uniform.
MCEVERS: Kelly McEvers, NPR News, Baghdad.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
In recent months, we've been reporting on this program, about a growing threat facing many countries - cyber attacks. And today we're going to hear about the first country that actually experienced a cyber war - the Baltic nation of Estonia. In 2007, government, financial and media computer networks were hit by a series of paralyzing attacks. Estonian authorities suspect Russia was responsible. Now, Estonia is a model for how a country might defend itself. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.
TOM GJELTEN: The government has organized what it calls a Total Defense League, mostly civilians, ready to mobilize in the event of any foreign threat. Jaak Aaviksoo is Estonia's defense minister.
JAAK AAVIKSOO: Insurgent activity against an occupying force sits deep in the Estonian understanding of fighting back. And I think that builds the foundation for understanding total defense in the case of Estonia.
GJELTEN: Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo, interviewed while visiting Washington recently, says an elite division of the country's Total Defense League is dedicated to cyber security.
AAVIKSOO: We have created a Cyber Defense League that brings together people, specialists in cyber defense, who work in the private sector, as well as in different government agencies. They bring it together to prepare for possible cyber contingencies.
GJELTEN: Defense Minister Aaviksoo says it's so important for Estonia to have a skilled cyber army that the authorities there may even institute a draft to make sure every cyber expert in the country is available in a true national emergency.
AAVIKSOO: We are thinking of introducing this conscript service, a cyber service. This is an idea that we've been playing around. We don't have neither the mechanisms nor laws in place for that. But that might be one option.
GJELTEN: Stewart Baker tried to coordinate cyber defense efforts at the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush. A Cyber Defense League like Estonia's, he says, would've been really helpful.
STEWART BAKER: It means people are keeping their skills up to date in the private sector, and those skills can be called on in an emergency, which is the only time the government really needs all of them. That's a very sensible approach. And I wish we had the same kind of relationship with our IT sector that they obviously have with theirs.
GJELTEN: But Stewart Baker says it's been hard in the United States to promote public- private collaboration in cybersecurity.
BAKER: The people who work in IT in the U.S. tend to be quite suspicious of government. Maybe they think that they're so much smarter than governments that they'll be able to handle an attack on their own. But there's a standoffishness that makes it much harder to have that kind of easy confidence that you can call on people in an emergency and that they'll be respond.
GJELTEN: Estonia's firsthand experience with cyber war has probably made it easier for authorities there to implement innovative security measures, from its Cyber Defense League to a new requirement for using digital IDs to carry out many online transactions. Many countries would face resistance to such efforts.
NATO: Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And Soraya, help us understand how this is all unfolding.
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: And so the tensions are rising, even though the incident is now a few days ago.
MONTAGNE: Give us a little background here. Christians in Egypt - it's an old community. Who are they exactly and where are they concentrated?
SARHADDI NELSON: And so they really are merged with the Muslims. They don't live separately. They're not a different ethnicity. They're just Egyptian Christians who never converted when Islam came to Egypt.
MONTAGNE: And Soraya, haven't Egyptian Christians long complained of discrimination?
SARHADDI NELSON: For example, that Christians are converting Muslims secretly and doing all sorts of things that sort of raise the ire or sensitivities on the Muslim sides, and the government doesn't seem to do anything to stop that.
MONTAGNE: And how is the government responding to this? I know Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, came out rather quickly with a statement about this.
SARHADDI NELSON: And this time, the Christians say, they won't put up with it.
MONTAGNE: Soraya, thanks very much.
SARHADDI NELSON: You're welcome, Renee.
MONTAGNE: That's NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson speaking to us from Cairo.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's business news starts with Arctic drilling still on hold.
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INSKEEP: Shell cannot drill without these permits, which now go back to the EPA for further review.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Joanna Kakissis reports from Athens.
JOANNA KAKISSIS: More than 40,000 illegal migrants entered Greece last year through the land border with Turkey, says Public Order Minister Christos Papoutsis. He told the Greek news agency this weekend that the country must build a fence on part of the border and deport those undocumented migrants who are not refugees. Greece, he says, can no longer accommodate new migrants. Unemployment here is more than 12 percent.
NIEMA GANDOR: (Foreign language spoken)
KAKISSIS: For NPR News, I'm Joanna Kakissis, in Athens.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
David, good morning. Happy New Year.
DAVID WESSEL: Happy New Year, Steve.
INSKEEP: So do the Republicans in the House, controlling the House, know what they want to do when it comes to economic policy?
WESSEL: They're going to pass a bill next week, probably, that will repeal the Obama health care initiative. They know it won't get through the Senate, and they haven't said how they would propose to cut health care spending or maintain access for people who are uninsured or deal with aging or technology. So they know what they want, they just haven't been able to explain to us the specifics.
INSKEEP: Well, it's interesting you say rhetorically they know what they want to do, because when they talk about cutting spending, aren't economists saying that government spending in the short-term - not the long-term - but in the short-term has actually been helpful to the economy?
WESSEL: Well, that's true. Keynesian economists and those who work for the president think government spending has been an important part of offsetting the depressed private demand. They don't quite subscribe to that theory, and the kind of spending cuts they're talking about they think are wasteful spending or spending that people don't want. They're taking their cue from the voters who said that - in their opinion - that government got too big.
INSKEEP: So what are the likely earliest points of conflict here?
WESSEL: Well, there's going to be some fights over what's called rescissions, repealing spending that's already been approved by Congress, such as the 12 billion or so remaining of the original Obama stimulus. There is this need to keep the government going to fund the government after March. The current authorization expires in March. And the Republicans say they want to cut $100 billion out of spending other than Defense veterans and national security. That would mean a 20 percent cut in everything else. That seems pretty heroic. And finally, there's going to be a confrontation about raising the debt ceiling. It's now at $14.3 trillion. The government's likely to hit that level in March or April. Speaker Boehner says they're going to do it. They're not going to let a government default. But the question is: What conditions will Republicans put on that in order to make this must-pass legislation get through?
INSKEEP: Oh, you say default because the government is in such a situation that it would need to borrow more to be continuing to pay its existing debts. That's the situation.
WESSEL: Exactly. Exactly. Even if they cut spending now, they can't cut the deficit to zero. That means they'll be borrowing more, and they need authorization to do that.
INSKEEP: We've talked about some of the points of conflict. I wonder if we get to an issue like free trade, is there an area where the administration and Congress, Republicans in Congress, might find common ground?
WESSEL: There might be. You know, there's a pending South Korea free trade agreement. There's likely to be opposition, both from liberal Democrats and some populist Republicans. If it passes, it will only pass because President Obama and the leaders of the Republican Party in Congress find some of their members willing to vote for it. I suspect that won't be partisan. It'll be contentious, but it won't be a Republican-versus-Democrat thing.
INSKEEP: David, thanks very much, as always.
WESSEL: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: David Wessel is economics editor of The Wall Street Journal and a regular guest here on MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
The consumer electronics industry is holding its annual conference this week in Las Vegas. At the Consumer Electronics Show, companies roll out their new gizmos. And one could see the solution to lagging 3D TV sales there - not lower prices, not better programming, but new glasses, which is why our last word in business today is 3D chic.
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MONTAGNE: That's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Don Gonyea reports.
DON GONYEA: Among his challengers is Ann Wagner, a former ambassador and Missouri Republican Party official. Here's how she opened the debate yesterday.
ANN WAGNER: How can an organization that has lost its credibility; is $20 million in debt; is steeped in mismanagement, distractions, and drama, actually lead us into the next election cycle of 2012 and offer change?
GONYEA: Steele, has been accused of lavish spending on travel and on office remodeling, money that could have gone to campaigns. He wasn't attacked directly on that at yesterday's debate, but it was the subtext to statements like this from candidate Maria Cino, who is a former Bush administration official.
MARIA CINO: The first thing is get our fiscal house in order. We have to practice what we preach as Republicans, and I think we need to get our debt under control.
GONYEA: Steele defended himself.
MICHAEL STEELE: My record stands for itself. We won.
GONYEA: Unidentified Man (Moderator): Starting with Maria Cino, how many guns do you own?
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CINO: None.
GONYEA: Michael Steele also said none. Wisconsin GOP chairman, Reince Pribius, said five; Michigan's former Republican Party Chair, Saul Anuzis, said four. Then came Anne Wagner.
WAGNER: Well, I may surprise y'all, but we just got a new gun safe for Christmas, and I think there are about 16 in there. Every - everything from pistols and a Glock to shotguns, rifles; and my son, who's on a combat weapons team at WestPoint, has an assault rifle on status report too. So there you go.
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GONYEA: Unidentified Man (Moderator): Mr. Steele, can Sarah Palin win a general election?
STEELE: Yes.
GONYEA: Like Steele, the others all nodded and quickly answered yes. There was a lot of talk about what it means to be a Republican. Each spoke of family values, shrinking the government, lower taxes, a strong military. At one point, the moderator asked what disqualifies someone from being a Republican. Here's Reince Priebus.
REINCE PRIEBUS: If you're pro-abortion, pro-stimulus, pro-GM bailout, pro-AIG, well, you know, guess what? You might not be a Republican.
GONYEA: Michael Steele had a different view.
STEELE: But we cannot be a party that sits back with a litmus test and excludes. And the national chairman cannot go into a state and say, you're less Republican than you are; therefore, I will not talk with you and only talk with you.
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STEELE: That is not the Republican Party I joined at 17 years old.
GONYEA: Steele is the incumbent and an underdog in this race. The decision will be made by the 168 delegates who have a vote, most are state Republican Party officials. You need 85 to win. Now at one point yesterday, Steele seemed to acknowledge what many say is his likely fate in this election.
STEELE: Because all of us at some point are going to need to retire - it's probably sooner than later for some - and the reality of it is that we need to - we need to make certain that the next generation is prepared and ready to step up.
GONYEA: Don Gonyea, NPR News, Washington.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And, Ofeibea, the Western African leaders seem to be a fix. Twice they've given President Gbagbo his marching orders. Twice he's refused to go.
OFEIBEA QUIST: If there is any sort of military intervention in Ivory Coast it could spark not only the civil war again but a regional conflict. So African leaders are in a difficult position, because many of them have their nationals living either as seculars or as expatriates in Ivory Coast. So there might be recrimination. There might be reprisals against them. Everybody is thinking very quickly.
MONTAGNE: Well, right. So this ultimatum gets closer that is, OK, you said armed intervention, here we are. How likely is it actually to happen?
QUIST: But now that Laurent Gbagbo has effectively said I am not going. I am the elected leader. And West African presidents have said, well, if you don't go we'll be forced to push you. This could drag out for weeks and weeks and months and months.
MONTAGNE: Well, if you had to say there would be or wouldn't be, what would be your thought?
QUIST: I think I'd have to hedge my bets, Renee, and say there may be, but it would be very reluctant. West Africa doesn't need a war at the moment. And the countries that would be likely to contribute troops - Nigeria, the biggest regional power, Senegal and others have other priorities on their plate. Nigeria has its own security problems and key elections coming now. Nobody wants to commit troops and get burdened with what could be urban warfare in a neighboring country.
MONTAGNE: The challenger Alassane Ouattara was declared the winner by Ivory Coast electoral commission. Also the international community supports that call. Where does this impasse leave him and his supporters?
QUIST: MONTAGNE; Ofeibea, thanks very much.
QUIST: Always a pleasure.
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
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STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And here in California, the latest political trend isn't just retro, it's vintage. Jerry Brown, the Democrat who spent decades in office as governor, mayor and state attorney general, is back in the state house. He took the oath of office in a short, no-frills ceremony yesterday. As John Myers of member station KQED reports, Governor Brown faces a state long on problems and short on politicians willing to compromise.
JOHN MYERS: Rarely does a politician's actual oath of office ever seem newsworthy or poignant. But for Jerry Brown, the once-and-now again governor of California, you have to always expect the unexpected.
JERRY BROWN: Unidentified Woman: Without any mental reservation.
BROWN: Unidentified Woman: Or...
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BROWN: Really. No mental reservations.
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MYERS: After Brown took the oath of office, standing beside his wife, Anne, the governor said no budget plan will work if partisan gridlock continues to dominate.
BROWN: There's no other way forward. In this crisis, we simply have to learn to work together as Californians first, members of a political party second.
MYERS: Jerry Brown, who was last governor in 1983, pledged it on day one, and he likened it to the way things used to be.
BROWN: Every Californian is heir to some form of powerful tradition, some history of overcoming challenges much more daunting than the ones we face today. From the native peoples who survived the total transformation in their way of life, to the most recent arrival, stories of courage abound.
MYERS: Brown's task now is convincing recalcitrant lawmakers to summon that courage. Legislative leaders say the new governor has been meeting with them privately since winning the election back in November. Democrat John Perez of Los Angeles is the speaker of the California state Assembly.
JOHN PEREZ: We're very sober about understanding the challenges that we face. It's going to be difficult to find the solutions that make the most sense. But we're committed to working with the governor and doing that.
MYERS: But Republicans in Sacramento, while appreciative of Governor Jerry Brown's willingness to talk, still seem unconvinced. The governor has not made any official statement, but most political and policy insiders say they now expect Brown will ask voters to weigh in, later this year, on the budget. And all expect him to ask for an extension of temporary tax increases. Connie Conway is the Republican leader of the state Assembly.
CONNIE CONWAY: No more taxes. Make do with what we have. I think that's what most Californians are having to do with their own budget.
MYERS: Jerry Brown seems to have accepted that very little other than the budget will be on his agenda for the foreseeable future. But Brown seems, if not unfazed, undaunted.
BROWN: With realism, with confidence, with loyalty, in the deepest sense, to California, to my forbearers and to posterity as our song says: California here I come, right back where I started from.
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MYERS: For NPR News, I'm John Myers in Sacramento.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
A P: You are listening to MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Thank you for joining us.
DECLAN WALSH: Hello.
MONTAGNE: Now, you are there, I gather, at the hospital where the governor's body has been taken. Can you just tell us briefly what happened?
WALSH: Well, so far, it appears that one of the guards in Governor Taseer's protective convoy shot him up to nine times a couple of hours ago, just outside a very busy shopping area here in Islamabad. And the man killed Governor Taseer, and then surrendered immediately. And it appears that he told some police and some photographers who turned up on the scene very shortly afterwards that he had done this because Governor Taseer had supported reforms to Pakistan's controversial blasphemy laws, and that this guy did not agree with this. And he said, apparently, that it had been his honor to kill Governor Taseer.
MONTAGNE: Yes. Give us, then, a little background. Those blasphemy laws, some protests about them have been in the news lately. Give us a thumbnail description of exactly what that issue is.
WALSH: It's one of the most controversial issues in Pakistan over the past couple of months. It's crystallized around the case of a Christian woman who was sentenced to be stoned to death last year in one of these blasphemy laws. Pakistan's blasphemy laws have been around for a decade, but they are seen as a tool that's used to discriminate against minorities and settle scores. And so there's been a lot of outrage about this woman's case. She's the first woman to be stoned to death. And that case has triggered sort of the groundswell among progressive Pakistanis for reform of the blasphemy laws. However, very few politicians have really stood out in public and supported these reforms, and Governor Taseer was one of the very few figures to do so.
MONTAGNE: And I gather he was burned in effigy at one of these protests.
WALSH: That's right. Governor Taseer and another parliamentarian, a female called Sherry Rehman, are the two figures from the governing party who have not been afraid to take on the forces of the religious right, if you like, and in seeking reform of these laws.
MONTAGNE: Now, this is the highest-profile assassination since the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Why was Governor Taseer so important?
WALSH: Well, as he's governor of Punjab, which is the most populous province, and it's also the politically most important province. He's the close confidant of President Asif Ali Zardari, and he is also someone who was close to Benazir Bhutto before she was assassinated. And in a broader sense, this is yet another death of a senior Pakistani figure in bizarre circumstances.
MONTAGNE: And does this have larger political implications? I mean, could this really hurt the government?
WALSH: I think this gives a sense of the just how almost nobody in Pakistan, really, can be guaranteed of their security. And we've seen attacks against President Musharraf when he was in power. He narrowly escaped several assassination attempts. Of course, Benazir Bhutto was killed in 2007. Now Governor Taseer, one of the most powerful and outspoken political figures in the country, has been killed. And in all of those cases, in fact, the assailants were people from the extreme fringes of society, people who previously were marginal in Pakistan, but have become increasingly powerful and have shown that they have the ability to take out some of the most influential people in authority.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much.
WALSH: My pleasure.
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Medical education in the United States is going through a growth spurt. After decades without a single new medical school and the closing of several old ones, five new schools have opened since last year. Ten more are being accredited and several more are planned. It's a response to the growing doctor shortage, especially primary care physicians.
Along with producing more doctors, many of the new schools will try to do something else, and that's reshape medical education. NPR's Greg Allen reports on one of the new schools at Florida International University in Miami.
GREG ALLEN: Miguel Flores and Eric Liss are part of a class of second-year med students who are learning how to conduct a physical exam. And how better to learn than on each other?
Unidentified Man #1: Like try to supinate(ph).
Unidentified Man #2: And what is it? Bicipital tendonitis. Do you feel pain?
Unidentified Man #1: Yeah, exactly. (Unintelligible)...
ALLEN: This kind of practical instruction has long been an important part of medical education. Teaching future doctors how to interview and examine patients is the first step toward treating them. At Florida International University's new medical school, students start working on those skills in their first year. Many medical schools also have students work with a practicing physician who acts as a mentor and a teacher in a clinic or ER.
Mr. MICHAEL HANN (Medical Student): But for us, they're much more developed.
ALLEN: Michael Han is a second-year medical student.
Mr. HAN: It's integrated into our curriculum. We go there and we don't just do history taking. We help the physicians taking physical exams. You know, we get input in things. We interact with the community. It's a much more developed program.
ALLEN: The dean here, Dr. John Rock, has long worked in medical education, at Johns Hopkins and as chancellor of Louisiana State University's Health Sciences Center. Starting a new medical school, he says, gave him and other educators a chance to try something innovative: a community-based medical curriculum.
At FIU, every medical student is assigned a neighborhood in the Miami area and a family who lives there. Rock says their mission is to improve the health of the family and the quality of life in the neighborhood.
Dr. JOHN ROCK (Dean, Florida International University Medical School): We've adopted those neighborhoods, and we never leave. Clearly, we have a commitment to those neighborhoods, to be there and to work with households and with the community to address the socio-determinants of health care.
ALLEN: Rock says he wants his medical school to produce more primary care physicians. But he also believes the school's commitment to community care will also make better doctors of the students who pursue specialties.
Doctors like Joe Greer. Greer helped plan and shape FIU's community care-based curriculum. He's a gastroenterologist who founded and directs Camillus Health Concern, a free clinic in Miami that cares for the poor and the homeless. He's served as an adviser to two presidents and received a MacArthur Award. He believes medicine and medical education have to be better.
Dr. JOE GREER (Director, Camillus Health Concern): What we've become is a nation of interventionalists. If you're dying, I'll save you. But it's sort of like in America we won't let you die, but we'll let you suffer. So how do we get beyond that?
ALLEN: By putting students in the neighborhoods, Greer says they can begin to learn that treating a disease oftentimes means more than just treating a single patient.
Dr. GREER: Somebody comes in because they're diabetic. Why are they diabetic? Well, maybe it's because they're obese. Well, why are they obese? Well, maybe it's the type of food they have access to and they're in a poor neighborhood and they have no access to fresh fruits or vegetables. Well, people should take personal responsibility. Why aren't they exercising? Well, the gang sort of prevents you from doing that. OK? Plus, it's South Florida. It's 100 degrees in the summer, 70 percent humidity, and there's no shade or pools in these poor neighborhoods.
ALLEN: Through the community care program, which they call Neighborhood Help, the doctors at FIU say they're determined to make actual, measurable improvements in the health and quality of life in the neighborhoods they've adopted.
For some students, who've come from other parts of the country or from affluent families, plunging into some of Miami's poorer communities is an eye-opening experience. But there are others, like Patricio Lau, who moved to Miami from Nicaragua when he was 14, for whom it's a homecoming.
Mr. PATRICIO LAU (Medical Student): One of the neighborhoods we're working with is trailer parks. So I'm used to - I have lived there. That's why it's one of the good things about Neighborhood Help, because I feel that I can actually give back to the neighborhoods that I am from.
ALLEN: Other new and established medical schools are also making commitments to community-based medicine. Dr. Joe Greer says it's clear medicine and medical education have to change. And in that way, a brand new medical school like FIU, he says, has an advantage.
Dr. GREER: Changing a curriculum in a medical school is like turning a battleship in a pool. Luckily, all we had was a raft. Now, our job is to make sure that raft is pointed in the right direction, so when it becomes a battleship, it has the ability to turn when the turns are needed, to adjust to society.
ALLEN: Greer says he feels as a medical educator he has another charge as well: to help give students the inner strength and inspiration they need to carry them through their careers. You have these great young minds and incredible hearts, he says. It's our job to make sure they stay that way.
Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Now let's move from natural resources to a cultural resource: music. A new $250 million museum in Phoenix is collecting the tools of that trade.
NPR's Ted Robbins visited the Musical Instrument Museum.
TED ROBBINS: Instead of "Name That Tune," let's play "Name That Instrument."
(Soundbite of trumpet playing)
ROBBINS: That's a trumpet, of course. Now try this one.
(Soundbite of morin khuur playing)
ROBBINS: A fiddle? Nope. It's a morin khuur from Mongolia, a stringed instrument with a body that looks like a square guitar. It's held in the lap and played with a bow.
(Soundbite of guitar playing)
ROBBINS: That's a guitar. You might have guessed, but you'd never guess that its body is made out of a rectangular Castrol oil can from South Africa. These are three of 10,000 instruments in the collection of the Musical Instrument Museum.
The MIM, as its becoming known, calls itself the world's largest global instrument museum. But when you first walk in, it's sort of a shock - the museum is quiet, even though it's...
Dr. BILL DEWALT (Director, Musical Instrument Museum): It's one of the most quiet museums you'll ever be in, because everybody is listening to the sound through the headphones.
ROBBINS: That's museum director Bill DeWalt. The headphones make sense. The place would have been cacophonous with all the instruments playing out loud. Instead, wireless headphones activate when you walk up to a display, which has the instrument itself and a video showing a musician playing it in its native setting.
(Soundbite of flamenco music)
ROBBINS: The experience is private, just you and the headphones. But it's also communal, since the person next to you is hearing the same thing at the same time.
(Soundbite of drums)
ROBBINS: Carol Gadd is making her second visit here, this time without her family so she can concentrate on the differences in musical cultures.
Ms. CAROL GADD: Yeah, especially the Latin-American countries, I thought I knew a lot of the beats. And I guess I was wrong.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. GADD: Like the Cuban beats and the Puerto Rican beats.
(Soundbite of song, "Imagine")
Mr. JOHN LENNON (Singer-Songwriter): (Singing) Imagine all the people...
ROBBINS: Some to the individual instruments here are iconic.
(Soundbite of song, "Imagine")
Mr. LENNON: (Singing) ...sharing all the world...
ROBBINS: For instance, the museum has the light-brown, upright Steinway piano John Lennon used when he composed "Imagine."
Mr. LENNON: (Singing) You can say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one...
ROBBINS: Lennon's piano is on long-term loan. Most instruments were bought from collectors or found in utterly remote places.
Museum director Bill DeWalt tells the story of a curator trying to get Somali instruments, but she couldn't get into Somalia.
Dr. DEWALT: And so what she was able to actually do was to embed herself in a U.N. convoy that was going to a refugee camp in eastern Kenya - Somali refugees. And she was able to collect Somalian instruments from those refugees living in the camp.
ROBBINS: The building and the collection were financed by Bob Ulrich, the founder and former CEO of Target Stores. Instruments from 200 countries are on display. Each is different, yet overall, a drum is a drum - whether it's from New Guinea... [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: Bob Ulrich was CEO of Target Stores, but not a founder of the company.]
(Soundbite of drumming)
ROBBINS: ...or Africa...
(Soundbite of drumming)
Unidentified Man: (Singing in foreign language)
ROBBINS: ...or North America.
(Soundbite of drumming)
Unidentified Group: (Singing in foreign language)
Dr. DEWALT: Music is something that is played in the same kinds of situations everywhere. It's played for celebrations. It's played for funerals. It's played as part of military pageants. People everywhere in the world have felt this need to create these amplifiers of human emotion.
ROBBINS: Now, thousands of those emotion amplifiers are in one place.
Ted Robbins, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Clothing companies are hoping to boost sales by harnessing a new Internet trend called fashion hauling. It's based on a simple desire by people to tell other people what they just bought: Hey, check it out. What a great deal. You should see my shirt.
Only now people are recording their shopping hauls on video and uploading them on YouTube. It's sort of like starring in your own personal QVC channel.
Some of these shoppers are turning into minor celebrities, as Elisabeth Harrison from member station WRNI reports.
Ms. AUDREY MCCLELLAND: This is exactly - I hope these are on sale.
ELISABETH HARRISON: Audrey McClelland is in her element, hunting for a bargain at Old Navy. She selects a pair of fleece pants with blue and green stripes, on sale for $8.
Ms. MCCLELLAND: I always go into the store with at least a mindset of what I'm looking for. And today it's all about the pajamas.
HARRISON: McClelland left a career in fashion to raise four young sons. When she gets home from her shopping trip, she will make a video about what she bought and post it on her blog momgenerations.com - and on YouTube.
(Soundbite of video)
Ms. MCCLELLAND: I went to Old Navy today. This is a fashion hauling video from Old Navy. Henry(ph), you want to help me?
Unidentified Child: Yes.
Ms. MCCLELLAND: Okay, come here.
HARRISON: McClelland is a shopping hauler.
Kate Rose of Google says it's one of the fastest growing trends on YouTube.
Ms. KATE ROSE (Google): Searches for the term shopping haul, at least as of November of this year, were up 150 percent. As far as the number of videos, the last count that we had was a little over 200,000 haul videos, so there are a lot of people that are getting involved to do this.
Ms. BLAIR FOWLER: Hey, everyone. O-M-G double-H-K-P. I don't know what that means. I just made it up, but...
HARRISON: That's Blair Fowler, a teenager from Tennessee, who along with her older sister Elle is an icon of fashion hauling. In this video, she sits on bed framed in medium close-up and shows off a new dress.
Ms. FOWLER: And it's black, it's scoop neck, and it has this really cute beaded design. But it's just a simple black dress and I got this because it's going to be good, especially with the holidays coming around ex-specially(ph), I know it's especially I was raised to say ex-specially, so that's what I'm going to say.
HARRISON: Believe it or not, this video has gotten nearly a million views in just a few months on YouTube. Numbers like that caught the attention of "Good Morning America," and recently there has even been talk of a reality TV show. Apparel chains like Forever 21 and TJ Maxx have also taken notice, offering gift cards, video contests and other incentives to the Fowler sisters and other haulers.
Professor ELAINE NOTARANTONIO (Bryant University School of Business): Consumer engagement is sort of the new hot strategy among marketers.
HARRISON: Elaine Notarantonio is a professor of marketing at the Bryant University School of Business. She says there's no doubt hauling can help companies generate buzz, but there can be a downside if haulers are perceived as being in the company's pockets.
Prof. NOTARANTONIO: Companies who do this, who provide gift cards or free merchandise to haulers, need to be aware of the potential downfall and what it could do to their image. It could jeopardize their image.
Ms. MCCLELLAND: So I went to Macy's and I got these Nine West boots. These were originally - let me see these were about $200. I got them for $59.
HARRISON: Blogger Audrey McClelland insists that she is true to her own opinions in her hauling videos, which focus on fashion advice for budget conscious moms. But she has used her videos and her blog to land paid spokesperson gigs for Tide and Staples. She also writes for the websites of Lifetime and TJ Maxx. When her husband was laid off in September, she hired him to work for her.
For NPR News, I'm Elisabeth Harrison in Providence.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
As we near the end of the college football bowl season, commentator Frank Deford is thinking about the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
FRANK DEFORD: The NCAA can fairly be called cynical and calculating and just plain stupid. But the latest of this year's many scandals primarily shows that big-time college football just doesn't work any longer with a model developed for a 19th century culture.
Okay, latest scandal: Ohio State. Five players, including the star quarterback Terrelle Pryor, are caught selling their own memorabilia. That is: doing business with stuff that is your property, like uniforms you wore yourself, merits punishment when you go down the NCAA rabbit hole.
Previous scandal: NCAA declares that the father of Cam Newton, Heisman Trophy winner at Auburn, tried to sell him to Mississippi State.
Other recent scandals: Reports from various and sundry agents and investigators that one way or another, college players are taking money, probably lots and lots of them.
Why should any of this be surprising? College football is a billion-dollar enterprise now, and everybody involved is making money, sometimes millions, except the players themselves. Human nature tells us that it is impossible to expect that the performers wouldn't also want to share in the bounty.
You know what the NCAA looks like now? Like the Soviet Union as it struggled to maintain communism in a changing world that wouldn't tolerate its outdated nonsense any longer.
Proof that the NCAA is being whipsawed by reality comes in its decisions in these last two scandals. It decided that somehow, Cam Newton didn't know that his own father was hustling his talent. It listened when the Ohio State Athletic Department pleaded that it hadn't done its job right in advising its players.
Newton and Auburn suffered no penalty. The Ohio State Five were suspended, but get this now: only at the start of next season.
Obviously, the NCAA made these curious decisions because it realized that expelling Newton or suspending the Buckeye players now would deal heavy financial losses to its distinguished member schools and its meal ticket, the bowl games, taking Auburn out of the championship BCS game and damaging the Sugar Bowl, where Ohio State played last night on ESPN, the network that the NCAA wants so much to please.
The NCAA is influenced by all the money at stake. It mouths crazy, old-fashioned moral pretense, keeping its players as serfs, yet is primarily just looking after the economic welfare of its so-called educational constituents.
Where is Ronald Reagan to holler: Mr. NCAA, tear down that wall of hypocrisy.
INSKEEP: Frank Deford hollers on Wednesdays from WSHU in Fairfield, Connecticut.
By the way, Terrelle Pryor, the Ohio State quarterback Frank mentioned, led his team to victory in the Sugar Bowl last night, 31 to 26 over Arkansas.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
The man who becomes speaker of the House today faces a balancing act. Republican John Boehner becomes one of the most powerful people in the nation in the midst of two wars and at a delicate moment for the economic recovery. So he will face an obligation to try to work with President Obama. At the same time, he will be leading Republican lawmakers who disagree with most, if not everything, that President Obama has done.
NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports on what to expect.
ANDREA SEABROOK: Think back to the fall of 2008, after the Democrats took the White House and kept control of Congress. Republican leaders met with President-elect Barack Obama. They discussed plans to work together on bipartisan solutions to the economic crisis. But Mr. Obama reminded the Republicans that the voters had spoken and that elections have consequences.
Well, what a difference two years makes. When Speaker-designate John Boehner met with Mr. Obama after this last election, he said he told the president...
Representative JOHN BOEHNER (Republican, Ohio; Speaker of the House): I'll always be upfront with him, honest with him and fair. But I've also told the president the American people have spoken, and it's time for Washington to listen.
SEABROOK: Boehner's first priority is to reform the House itself. He's already changed the schedule, giving lawmakers more time in their districts, cut the number of slots on each committee to make them leaner and more focused, and he's told chairmen to cut five percent from committee budgets.
If the American people are making do with less, Boehner says, so should Congress. And he says...
Rep. BOEHNER: Beginning on January 5th, the agenda of the House will be the agenda of the American people. And the people's priorities will be our priorities.
SEABROOK: Boehner says he wants to make the House a kind of outpost for the people's priorities inside the belly of the beast: Washington. This idea fits right in with Republicans' eternal campaign against Washington, and the problem of continuing to style themselves as outsiders after they take control.
Rep. BOEHNER: We're here today to put forth a new governing agenda, built by listening to the American people, that offers a new way forward.
SEABROOK: Last September, as the election neared, Boehner and other Republicans gathered staff and press at a lumber warehouse outside Washington, D.C., to release their Pledge to America, an outline of their priorities going forward. The main points: repeal the health care law, cut taxes and cut government spending.
Rep. BOEHNER: We don't underestimate how difficult this is going to be, given the economic circumstances that we face. But it's our pledge and our commitment to get ourselves on a path to balance the budget and to pay down the debt if we're going to save the future for our kids and grandkids.
SEABROOK: Boehner's mantra - words you'll hear often in the coming year - is: smaller, less costly and more accountable government.
And one more thing you should know about the new House speaker: Boehner grew up in a family with 12 kids. His father owned a bar. And Boehner likes to say...
Rep. BOEHNER: Trust me. All the skills I learned growing up are the skills I need to do my job.
SEABROOK: Boehner says in such a large family, you need to learn to get along, to do things together. And as for his dad's bar? Well, that taught him a lot, too, about hard work and people.
Rep. BOEHNER: I mopped floors. I cleaned dishes. I waited tables. I tended bar. You have to learn to deal with every character that walks in the door.
SEABROOK: Today, there are a lot of new characters walking in the door of the Capitol. More than 80 of them are newly-elected Republicans, many of them with support from the Tea Party Movement.
Republican ranks now span the political range from social moderates to conservative libertarians. So Boehner will have two big challenges - leading the House in a time of divided government and serious economic problems, and perhaps the more difficult test of his leadership: Holding together a broader Republican Party over the next two years.
Andrea Seabrook, NPR News, the Capitol.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Brazil is justly famous for the quality and range of its music. And all those musicians require a lot of instruments, many of which are made by hand. The craftsmen who make them are known as luthiers, which comes from the French word for lute. They can be found everywhere, from the biggest cities to the mountain hamlet of Sabara. And that's where Annie Murphy went for this story.
(Soundbite of music)
ANNIE MURPHY: That's Hamilton de Holanda, one of Brazil's best mandolin players. His instrument came from Vergilio Lima's modest workshop, filled with fine-toothed saws, lathes, and the smell of wood shavings, down a narrow street here in one of Brazil's oldest villages.
Portuguese explorers wound up here because of gold. With them, they brought instruments, exotic Baroque contraptions - violins, mandolins, and guitars. They were quickly adapted as the music and style of playing fused with other cultures, like the African countries of the slaves brought as manpower for mining.
Mr. VERGILIO LIMA (Luthier): (Through translator) Like everything in Brazil, it's a fusion of influences - classical music, popular music, folklore - so it has this really great quality.
MURPHY: Like Brazilian music, Lima's work has various influences.
Mr. LIMA: (Through translator) It was about music and handiwork. My mother played classical piano and my father adored birds. He loved to make his own cages to keep birds. It was a really rudimentary process, really artisanal, everything done by hand.
MURPHY: As a teenager, Lima also spent a year in the U.S., attending public school in Illinois. He didn't speak much English then, so he chose classes that relied less on language abilities, like math, science, and woodworking. Back in Brazil, he focused on crafting instruments. Three decades later, Lima is considered one of Brazil's best luthiers. He makes just 20 to 25 instruments a year, all of them built piece by piece.
Mr. LIMA: (Foreign language spoken)
MURPHY: He sorts through his tools, showing me pieces he inherited from his father and grandfather, who once used them for making bird cages.
Mr. LIMA: (Through translator) The main difference between an instrument made by an artisan and one made in a factory is that with the handmade instrument, the luthier has been there for every step - from the first cut of the wood, to the sound test of the finished instrument.
(Soundbite of sawing)
MURPHY: Lima cuts a piece of wood and marvels at its smell. He works with a special variety of jacaranda, also known as Brazilian rosewood. It's prized world-wide for its strength and resonance and has been so overharvested that now it's illegal to cut. Lima uses only recycled pieces, salvaged from old buildings and railroad ties.
(Soundbite of music)
He shows me a recently finished guitar, and plays a few bars. The instrument is beautiful - fine, curving lines, rich, full sound. Lima is a bit shy and stumbles ever so slightly.
Mr. LIMA: (Foreign language spoken)
MURPHY: He says, I think one of the motivations to make instruments was because I started to study guitar and I could never quite play what I wanted to play before an audience. My skill was in crafting the instruments for others to play. What I do is hidden and quiet.
For NPR News, I'm Annie Murphy in Sabara, Brazil.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
As we've been reporting today, Nancy Pelosi passes the gavel to a new speaker of the House, John Boehner. That phrase, passing the gavel, caught the ear of one of our producers. So NPR's Travis Larchuk looked into the expression.
TRAVIS LARCHUK: We should really be saying passing a gavel, because many, many gavels are used by the speaker of the House. And that's for a very simple reason.
Mr. MATT WASNIEWSKI (Historian): Gavels break, you know, from frequent use.
LARCHUK: Matt Wasniewski is a historian for the House of Representatives. And here's an example of what he means.
Mr. WASNIEWSKI: Joe Cannon, who was one of the great speakers in House history, in the early 20th century, we have accounts where he's gaveling away furiously and the head flies off and lands one or two rows down the rostrum among the reading clerks.
LARCHUK: Aside from the occasional gaveling accident, speakers also like to hand out gavels as souvenirs. Farar Elliott's a curator at the Capitol. She says things are different in the Senate, where there really is just one gavel. The Senate version's a bit more stately. It doesn't have a handle, and it looks like an hourglass-shaped paperweight made of ivory.
Ms. FARAR ELLIOTT (Curator): It dates back at least to the 1830s, maybe earlier. The gavel they have now is a replica of the original gavel, because in the 1950s, then-Vice President Richard Nixon was presiding over the Senate, and he rapped it and it broke.
LARCHUK: The government of India kindly sent a replacement, which the Senate has used ever since. But the House can be much rowdier. Four hundred thirty-five members with two-year terms make a lot more noise, and the polite tap of a piece of ivory just doesn't cut it.
(Soundbite of paper rustling)
LARCHUK: Here in the room at the Capitol, where artifacts from the House are stored, curator Farar Elliott's unwrapping some acid-free paper to show off one of the newer models.
Ms. ELLIOTT: This is a gavel of the variety that is used in the House chamber.
LARCHUK: And here's what it sounds like.
(Soundbite of banging)
LARCHUK: Over the years, House gavels have been made in different sizes with different materials. The current model?
Ms. ELLIOTT: It's made of maple. It has a lacquer finish on it, little lines are incised in it. They're burned in it, like a wood burning kit you might have used as a child.
LARCHUK: The new design looks a bit more sporty than the old version.
Ms. ELLIOTT: You know, times change.
LARCHUK: And the gavels are made onsite by carpenters at the Capitol. The Office of the Architect didn't want to discuss this on tape, but one of the guys who works there told me he expects they'll make a couple hundred gavels for this Congress.
Still, one of these gavels has managed to distinguish itself - a gavel set aside by the clerk of the House to use once every two years to open a new session of congress. Here's Farar Elliott.
Ms. ELLIOTT: This tradition does date all the way back to the last century.
LARCHUK: Yes. All the way back to the far-off year of 1999.
Ms. ELLIOTT: In 1999, the clerk of the House used a gavel to open the proceedings of Congress and decided to save that gavel and use it again to open every Congress. So the clerk took that one gavel, put a piece of Scotch tape around it so he would remember to use that gavel next time, and kept it.
LARCHUK: If you look at that gavel, you can still see the residue from the Scotch tape. This is how history is made.
Travis Larchuk, NPR News.
MONTAGNE: And you can see some historic gavels used in the House of Representatives at our website, npr.org.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The YouTube video shot in your bedroom now has a slicker competitor: A homemade computer-animated video, made with something called Xtranormal.
Nishat Kurwa of Turnstylenews.com tracked down the people who made some of her favorite videos.
NISHAT KURWA: The video that put Xtranormal on the map has more than 10 million views on YouTube. Two button-nosed, Hello Kitty-like characters of indeterminate species confront each other in a static, pastel scene with a lone cherry tree.
(Soundbite of YouTube video)
Unidentified Woman #1: If it's not an iPhone, why would I want it?
KURWA: The video takes a satirical jab at iPhone obsession. One of these beady-eyed creatures is plugging a rival smartphone brand.
(Soundbite of YouTube video)
Unidentified Man #1: Well, it's similar to an iPhone, but has a bigger screen.
Unidentified Woman #1: I don't care.
Unidentified Man #1: The Internet speeds are around three times faster.
Unidentified Woman #1: I don't care.
Unidentified Man #1: It can grant up three wishes, even if one of those wishes is for an iPhone
Unidentified Woman #1: I don't care.
KURWA: With Xtranormal, anyone can make a computer animated movie.
(Soundbite of an Xtranormal demo video)
Unidentified Man #2: Create a presentation for school. Be the host of a talk show.
KURWA: You hop on the site and choose a background and a couple of animated actors. To cast the irrational boss or the freaky neighbor, you can pick from Lego people, robots, or a gang of regular folks. A few celebrity characters are on hand for spoofs.
(Soundbite of an Xtranormal demo video)
Unidentified Man #2: Be who you want to be. Be you.
KURWA: You type in the script, add some basic facial expressions and gestures, and publish to the Web.
And Xtranormal Chief Technology Officer Sylvio Drouin says you could soon find that your video has inspired some competition.
Mr. SYLVIO DROUIN (Chief Technology Officer, Xtranormal): People tend come to our Web site to make a movie because they've watched another movie. We never invested $1 in marketing.
KURWA: Often, videos that hit the meme-creation jackpot are bringing gripes before the court of public opinion.
(Soundbite of YouTube video, "Black Marriage Negotiations")
Unidentified Woman #2: Sisters, where are all the good black men? I just can't find one.
KURWA: In this provocative short, called "Black Marriage Negotiations," the characters hash out tensions around black love and dating. A generic-looking black man and woman face off across a boardroom table. The woman rattles off a list of eyebrow-raising expectations, which include...
(Soundbite of YouTube video, "Black Marriage Negotiations")
Unidentified Woman #2: I want someone who earns six-figures.
Unidentified Man #3: That's me.
Unidentified Woman #2: A man who will pay all the bills, yet recognize I'm an independent woman.
Unidentified Man #3: What? How can you be independent when someone else pays all of your bills?
KURWA: Darroll Lawson created the video to extend a conversation that began on his "Philoso-Gs" radio show. He figured animation could take the bite out of a contentious issue.
Mr. DARROLL LAWSON (Host, "Philoso-Gs"): The pauses, the way he looks at the camera. And him...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. LAWSON: All of that lends to the comedic timing.
KURWA: Even when you're writing something that's not really meant to be funny -say, like this story - your video gets a humor boost from the computerized voice.
An Xtranormal video can be shared more widely than a Facebook status update, requires less commitment than a blog, and packs more visual allure and nuance than a Tweet. The most popular scripts have a formula. There's a wise guy who's the voice of reason and a tone deaf, argumentative partner.
In this one, a professor levels with a student who's bent on applying to grad school.
(Soundbite of YouTube video)
Unidentified Woman #3: You will teach 50 kids in one semester, while reading thousands of pages a week, and writing hundreds of pages for your jaded professors who are contemplating suicide daily. You will qualify for food stamps.
Unidentified Child: I will inspire students to think critically about literature.
KURWA: Allison Leslie made this video instead of blogging about the frustrations of humanities studies.
Ms. ALISON LESLIE (Creator, Xtranormal Video): Bloggings can sometimes come across as ranting.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. LESLIE: And in this format, ranting turns into humor in a way that people can consume it in a positive way.
KURWA: Xtranormal just hit the two million monthly user mark, and adds about 7,000 new creators a day.
For NPR News, I'm Nishat Kurwa.
(Soundbite of music)
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And that story is from Turnstylenews.com, an online news service from Youth Radio.
MONTAGNE: This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
We're coming up on the one year anniversary of the massive earthquake that destroyed much of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and killed more than 200,000 people. Today, rubble still covers much of the capital. More than a million people remain in improvised huts in makeshift encampments. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports that some progress is being made in Haiti, but it's coming slowly.
JASON BEAUBIEN: On January 12th of 2010, an earthquake of historic proportions hit a country unaccustomed to and unprepared for seismic activity. The violent shaking destroyed the national palace. It snapped the neck of the control tower at the airport. It toppled the piers at the port into the harbor. Cinder block houses disintegrated, leaving Port-au-Prince shrouded in a gray, powdery cloud of dust.
(Soundbite of motorcycle engine)
BEAUBIEN: A year later, parts of the city still appear post-apocalyptic. The damage, both physical and psychological, is everywhere. Thirty-six-year-old Renold Pierre didn't just lose his house.
Mr. RENOLD PIERRE: (Through translator) This picture you can see here, my children. Both of them died in the earthquake.
BEAUBIEN: Pierre's sons were two and four years old when the quake hit. The photo shows two round-cheeked boys propped on the hood of a parked car. Back in January, a woman who was trying to excavate one of her relatives from a collapsed office building told me there isn't a family in Haiti that isn't crying right now.
Almost a year later, the tears don't flow quite so freely, but they well up in Pierre's eyes as he gazes at the snapshot of the kids he lost.
Reginald Boulos, the head of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce, says it's still hard to comprehend the scale of this disaster.
Mr. REGINALD BOULOS (Director, Haitian Chamber of Commerce): Given the proportion of the destruction, 200,000, 300,000 people dead over - what? Two million people, 10 percent of the population? Imagine any city in the U.S. where 10 percent of the population would die overnight. People don't realize, I think, underestimate what this catastrophe was.
BEAUBIEN: Boulos says yes, the recovery has been slow, but sometimes he feels outsiders are asking too much of this impoverished nation. He recalls how on the day after the quake, he was negotiating with the minister of Finance to release shipping containers of food that were trapped on the docks.
Mr. BOULOS: This minister had just buried his son, who died in the earthquake. And he was there working with us. This is not highlighted enough, of the resilience, the dignity, the courage that people showed after the earthquake.
BEAUBIEN: The Finance Ministry's headquarters, like most government buildings, lay in ruins. The streets were blocked with debris. With more than 200,000 people dead, one of the first tasks was just to dispose of the bodies, many of which were dumped in mass graves. Others were burned in the streets.
Within days encampments sprung up anywhere where there was open space. People built shacks out of sheets, tarps, cardboard, scraps of wood.
(Soundbite of music)
BEAUBIEN: And a year later, most of them are still living in the same chaotic settlements. At a camp called La Piste, 50,000 people live on what used to be the military airport. Shops and simple restaurants have sprung up among the shacks. People bath in the open, splashing water from plastic buckets. Kids scamper in every direction. Even small casinos have popped up where you can wager a few coins on a carnival-style roulette table.
In front of Terese Basil's rusting sheet metal shack, a dumpster overflows with garbage.
Ms. TERESE BASIL: (Through translator) The trash is a problem for everyone, for everyone in the camp. So they come sometimes. They pick up the trash, but they don't do it often.
BEAUBIEN: Just behind Basil's house, Jean Yvonne's shelter is a patchwork of tarps stretched over a frame of sticks. The hut is just large enough for a single bed, which Yvonne shares with his wife and four kids.
Mr. JEAN YVONNE: (Foreign language spoken)
BEAUBIEN: Yvonne has no regular work. He says, every morning, he goes out and tries to find a way to feed his kids. But his life is stuck, and he says he has no idea when he'll leave here, when he'll move back into a regular home.
Despite more than 10,000 relief agencies working in the country and international donors pledging billions of dollars to reconstruct Haiti, most of the country hasn't yet gotten to reconstruction. In some neighborhoods, the process of clearing the rubble has barely begun. In others, men with sledge hammers demolish houses one swing at a time.
(Soundbite of hammering and shoveling rubble)
BEAUBIEN: Most of the debris that has been removed has been shoveled by work crews into trucks. Some parts of downtown were cleared with bulldozers, but these barren plots are mainly where government offices once stood. Schools have reopened, but in temporary plywood classrooms. As of November, aid agencies had built no new permanent housing in the Port-au-Prince area. And nationwide, fewer than 20,000 transitional shelters had been constructed for the roughly 1.5 million people displaced by the quake.
Mr. NIGEL FISHER (United Nations Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs, Haiti): Challenges are huge and what people need to realize is we are not just rebuilding after an earthquake.
BEAUBIEN: Nigel Fisher, the United Nation's coordinator for humanitarian affairs in Haiti, says it's not fair to say that nothing has been accomplished over the last year. Walking through Ravine Pintade, a steep ravine in Port-au-Prince that's now a field of rubble, Fisher says even before the quake, most Haitians lacked access to clean water, proper sewage facilities and health care.
Mr. FISHER: We're not rebuilding, because what existed for most poverty-stricken Haitians before was totally unacceptable. It's building. It's transformation, and that's going to take a long time.
BEAUBIEN: Making things more difficult, the cholera epidemic that hit in October has diverted resources away from the earthquake recovery effort and killed more than 3,000 people.
Haiti is on life-support, with international donors scrambling just to provide the very basics: water, tarps for shelter, bare-bones health care.
Mr. RICHARD WIDMAIER (Director, Radio Metropole): Haiti is doing what Haiti regularly does.
BEAUBIEN: Richard Widmaier is the head of Radio Metropole, an independent radio and television network in Port-au-Prince.
Mr. WIDMAIER: Haitians get up every morning and they try just to live off whatever they have. And they work. They're hard workers. And they try to reconstruct, those who can. And it's just their daily living in the circumstances they are right now.
Unidentified Group: (Singing in foreign language)
BEAUBIEN: The scars of last year's earthquake remain everywhere.
Unidentified Group: (Singing in foreign language)
BEAUBIEN: At the church Christ the King, people gather for mass inside the shell of what was once their grand cathedral. Only the outer walls of the church survived. Tentacles of rebar and jagged concrete buttresses reach towards the heavens. Like so many people in Port-au-Prince, the pastor says he has no idea when he'll be able to rebuild.
Unidentified Group: (Singing in foreign language)
BEAUBIEN: But if for a second you focus on the parishioners' faces, on their clean white shirts, on the girls in their colorful dresses, or if you close your eyes and just listen, you can hear that against this shattered backdrop, life goes on in Haiti.
Jason Beaubien, NPR News.
Unidentified Group: (Singing in foreign language)
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
A new Congress takes office today, and that includes a new speaker of the House.
MONTAGNE: John Boehner says he wants to start by reforming his own institution - for example, cutting members' budgets. We're profiling the speaker elsewhere in the program and at npr.org.
INSKEEP: Democrats still control the Senate and some of them are considering changes to their institution. They want to revise two Senate practices they say are overused.
MONTAGNE: One is the filibuster, which blocks bills from coming to a vote.
INSKEEP: The other is the secret hold, an anonymous way to stop a piece of Senate business.
Here's NPR's David Welna.
DAVID WELNA: It's mostly the newer Democratic senators who are gunning to place greater restrictions on the filibuster and secret holds; they're being led by New Mexico freshman Tom Udall, who nearly four months ago announced his strategy to bring about those changes.
Senator TOM UDALL (Democrat, New Mexico): At the beginning of the next Congress, I will move for the Senate to end debate and adopt its rules by a simple majority.
WELNA: The Senate requires approval by a two-thirds majority of 67 senators to change its rules. But as Udall points out, the Constitution simply says each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, and says nothing about a supermajority being required to do so. And since the Senate traditionally approves its standing rules the first day it's in session, Udall says doing so by a simple majority of 51 senators - as well as amending those rules - would be the Constitutional option.
Sen. UDALL: The Constitutional option is our chance to fix the rules that are being abused, rules that have encouraged obstruction like none ever seen before in this chamber.
WELNA: Democrats held a record-setting 89 votes in the last Congress to try to end GOP filibusters. They also saw dozens of President Obama's nominees fail to get Senate confirmation votes due to anonymous holds placed by Republicans.
Tennessee's Lamar Alexander is the Senate's third-ranking Republican. He calls the attempt to change the rules today a nullification of the November election, in which Republicans picked up half a dozen more seats in the Senate.
Here's Alexander yesterday at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank.
Senator LAMAR ALEXANDER (Republican, Tennessee): Voters who turned out in November are going to be pretty disappointed when they learn the first thing that some Democrats want to do is to cut off the right of people they elected in November to make their voices heard on the floor of the United States Senate.
WELNA: But New Mexico's Tom Udall told NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED this week that his purpose is not to do away with the filibuster.
Sen. UDALL: We aren't changing the actual filibuster. We're modifying around the edges. We're making more transparency. We're trying to do this in a bipartisan way. We're trying to protect minority rights.
WELNA: Udall plans to offer a resolution making several changes. It would end the use of filibusters to keep bills from even coming to the floor. It would end secret holds. It would require those staging a filibuster to stay on the Senate floor continuously and debate. And it would guarantee the minority the right to offer a certain number of amendments on any bill under consideration.
But GOP Senator Alexander says Democrats are being short-sighted if they think curtailing the use of the filibuster is in their best interest.
Sen. ALEXANDER: Those who want to create a freight train running through the Senate today, as it does in the House, might think about whether they will want that freight train running through the Senate in two years, when the freight train might be the Tea Party Express.
WELNA: All the Senate Democrats who are returning today signed a letter last month endorsing a revision of the filibuster rules - but they did not spell out just what should be done.
Rutgers University Congressional expert Ross Baker does not foresee any major changes.
Professor ROSS BAKER (Rutgers University): After all is said and done, I think the filibuster will be left pretty much as it is. I just think there are too many people strategizing about the - too many Democrats, particularly, concerned about being in the minority and understanding, of course, that preeminently the filibuster is the gift of the minority in the Senate.
WELNA: What's most likely to happen is that today's Senate session will be kept open for several weeks. That would give Democrats time to try to strike a deal on filibuster rules with Republicans before exercising the constitutional option.
David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Yesterday on this program, we heard a story from London about the boisterous world of British newspapers and how they, unlike their American counterparts, openly embrace a point of view. Today, NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik brings us an influential media critic who argues that mainstream American journalists do cling to their own ideology. It's not exactly on the right, not exactly on the left. He calls it the voice from nowhere.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK: What with websites and cable talk shows, it's hardly as though opinions are hard to come by in today's media landscape.
(Soundbites of TV shows)
Mr. KEITH OLBERMANN (MSNBC): In exchange, we're selling out a principal campaign pledge and the people to whom and for whom...
Unidentified Man #1: They, on the other hand, are calling for a revolution...
Unidentified Woman: You know what? No. It's not...
Unidentified Man #2: That's all it's going to do.
Unidentified Woman: ...what we should be spending our time...
FOLKENFLIK: But media critic Jay Rosen says mainstream news reporters don't tell you what they think enough of the time.
Mr. JAY ROSEN (Media Critic): I'd like to know something about their background, like where they're from, who some of their heroes and villains are, any convictions - deeply held convictions - they've developed by reporting on the story over a long period of time.
FOLKENFLIK: Rosen is an associate professor of journalism at New York University. He says there would be a real benefit to such disclosure.
Mr. ROSEN: We can tell where the person is coming from and apply whatever discount rate we want to what they're saying. And I also think that it's more likely to generate trust. And this is the main reason I recommend here's where I'm coming from as a replacement for the view from nowhere.
FOLKENFLIK: The view from nowhere - that's the name Rosen gives to what he says is the media's true ideology, a way of falsely advertising that they can be trusted because they don't have any dog in the fight. For much of the conventional press that is, of course, crazy talk.
Mr. LEONARD DOWNIE (Former Executive Editor, Washington Post): I believe�The Washington Post�does make clear where we're coming from. Where we're coming from in our news gathering is no partisanship or ideology of any kind. We are transparent about where we're coming from. And our reporting speaks for itself. It is not coming from a point of view.
FOLKENFLIK: That's Leonard Downie, the�Post's former executive editor and a leading advocate of impartiality in reporting. He went so far as to not vote when he was editor. Downie says true objectivity is an unrealizable goal but that dedicated journalists working together can carry out vital watchdog reporting without carrying a brief for any particular side. It's that impartiality that allows readers to trust his paper, Downie says.
Mr. DOWNIE: I would be very disturbed if�The Washington Post�tomorrow became an avowedly conservative or avowedly liberal newspaper. But you make it seem like all we have to do is admit that's what we already are when, in fact, it would mean changing what we are.
FOLKENFLIK: So, for example, NBC News suspended opinion hosts Keith Olbermann and Joe Scarborough for failing to get approval to make contributions to political candidates. And NPR terminated the contract of former news analyst Juan Williams for repeatedly voicing personal views.
Downie and Rosen agree on one thing: The principle of impartiality is an accident of economics. A century ago there were several newspapers in every big city and each allied to a political faction, but as papers died off, the surviving dailies sought to strip blatant opinion out of their news pages to appeal to a wider audience.
But those values are under siege. Rosen points to the decision of Peter S. Goodman to leave his job as national economics correspondent for�The New York Times�to become business editor at the liberal Huffington Post. Goodman says he's less sure his shift represents anything so grand.
Mr. PETER S. GOODMAN (Business Editor, Huffington Post): I mean, this is not about ranting. It's not about getting individuals elected. It's about the same mission that I think has been part of quality journalism forever, which is uncovering truths that aren't always so easy to uncover.
FOLKENFLIK: Then again, Goodman says his reporters will have some liberties other might not.
Mr. GOODMAN: I don't want them feeling like they just have to hand - you know, well, these people said this and those people said that; here, dear reader -you know, you figure it out. I would like them engaged in a process of getting to a satisfying conclusion.
FOLKENFLIK: Conservatives have complained for years about what they see as a pervasive liberal sensibility in the media. This is different. Rosen says that view from nowhere too often limits political reporters to obsessing about winners and losers - who's up or down - rather than the harder work of determining who's telling the truth or the effects of the policies those politicians adopt.
Mr. ROSEN: Removing all bias from their reports is something professional journalists actually aren't very good at. And they shouldn't say that they can do this, because it's very clear to most of the people on the receiving end that they fail at this all the time.
FOLKENFLIK: Jay Rosen argues that journalists will rebuild trust only if they reveal their beliefs, not suppress them.
David Folkenflik, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Last year's BP oil spill guaranteed that offshore drilling would remain a huge political issue. It pits the demand for energy against concern for the environment. A similar battle is going on far from any coastline. Companies bid for the right to drill on public lands in the Rocky Mountains. And environmental groups have found they can slow drilling by challenging the drilling leases.
NPR's Jeff Brady reports.
JEFF BRADY: Cary Brus has been dealing with this controversy for several years now. He's vice president of the Nerd Gas Company in Casper, Wyoming, and he says environmental challenges are slowing down business.
Mr. CARY BRUS (Vice President, Nerd Gas Company): We're tired of spending our money, having the government cash our check and taking our money and not issuing the leases. We believe it's a breach of contract. It's a contractual obligation. They took our money. We want our leases - pretty simple.
BRADY: The Mineral Leasing Act says the Bureau of Land Management has 60 days to award a lease. But a government report last summer found the BLM was able to do that less than 10 percent of the time in the Rocky Mountain region. Brus' company is one of several suing the BLM, claiming the agency is breaking the law. But these leases also are subject to other regulations designed to protect the environment.
We're with Joy Bannon of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, bouncing along a dirt road near the state border with Colorado. Suddenly, she spots the reason her group challenged a lease sale here.
(Soundbite of door shutting)
BRADY: We jump out of the truck, and Bannon points about a half-mile down the road.
Ms. JOY BANNON (Wyoming Wildlife Federation): There's about 20 to 30 antelope -pronghorn - grazing and milling about.
BRADY: Bannon says this is where pronghorn antelope come in the winter to feed. In this place, the whipping wind blows snow around and exposes grass and shrubs for the animals to eat. Nearby, she says, there's also an important winter-time habitat for mule deer and sage grouse. If drilling were allowed here, Bannon says that would put these animals at risk.
Ms. BANNON: One of the great things about this state is we have world-class wildlife. We also have world-class energy resources, and so we need to find a balance of that.
BRADY: Environmental groups have worried that places like this were being handed over to the oil and gas industry without much scrutiny.
Mr. ERIK MOLVAR (Director, Biodiversity Conservation Alliance): Under the last half of the Bush administration, there was an avalanche of oil and gas leasing activity.
BRADY: Erik Molvar heads the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance in Laramie. He says groups started challenging leases as a way of slowing that avalanche. Molvar says public land in Wyoming should be available for all kinds of uses, including recreation.
Mr. MOLVAR: For so many years, the oil and gas industry has had the entire pie of all the public lands all to themselves. And so, of course, they're going to be very upset at the idea that somebody should come in and say that these public lands don't belong to them exclusively.
BRADY: At the BLM office in Cheyenne, Julie Weaver says the agency's focus changed from oil and gas to renewable energy after President Obama was sworn in nearly two years ago. And she says that made it difficult to get leases awarded on time.
Ms. JULIE WEAVER (Bureau of Land Management): Prior to February 2009, we were about two months behind. So we were doing it within 60, 90 days. After the change in the administration, we had to step back and do some reevaluation, and because of that, we have a backlog.
BRADY: Weaver says the agency is changing its leasing process so that concerns from environmental groups are addressed before a lease goes to auction. That likely will lead to fewer leases sold and less money for the federal treasury. Kathleen Sgamma with the Western Energy Alliance says her industry is starting to lose interest in drilling on public land.
Ms. KATHLEEN SGAMMA (Western Energy Alliance): I think you have seen some pullback in activity as we've gotten very clear signals from this administration that it's going to be difficult to get leases, it's going to be difficult to get permits and project approvals.
BRADY: Sgamma says that's a shame, because her industry could be providing thousands of jobs at a time the country needs them.
Jeff Brady, NPR News, Denver.�
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Among the new Republicans being sworn in today are two African-American lawmakers. It's been seven years since there was last an African-American Republican serving in Congress. That was J.C. Watts. The newcomers are Allen West of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina. And one intriguing question is whether they will join the all-Democratic, traditionally liberal Congressional Black Caucus.
For some analysis, we reached Jason Johnson. He's a political science professor at Hiram College in Ohio.
Thank you for joining us.
Professor JASON JOHNSON (Hiram College): Glad to be here.
MONTAGNE: Now, tell us a little bit more about these two congressmen, Allen West and Tim Scott. You know, what are their politics specifically?
Prof. JOHNSON: Well, it's interesting. When you look at the politics of Allen West, he is your quintessential Tea Party member. He's to the far right. I mean he has been known to sort of cavort with Birthers. You know, he claims that, you know, the vast majority of the government should be scaled back. You know, he's an extremely right wing candidate, which is fascinating given that he comes from Broward County, Florida.
Then you have Tim Scott, who, while he's from a significantly more conservative district, is actually seen as the one who's more likely to at least reach out to the Congressional Black Caucus, whether or not he actually officially becomes a member.
MONTAGNE: Both of these congressmen came from either white or predominantly white districts?
Mr. JOHNSON: Yes, yes, both of them did. I don't think that makes them any less concerned or any less sensitive to the needs of African-American voters who happen to be in their district.
MONTAGNE: On what issues could these two lawmakers find common cause with the Congressional Black Caucus?
Mr. JOHNSON: Well, the thing is, the Congressional Black Caucus's primary reason for existing is to have a collective group of political leaders who are interested in the unique circumstances of African-Americans, and that is something that in most cases should and often does transcend party lines.
So certain kinds of health care policies that may have to deal with sickle cell or hypertension, certain issues that have to do with schools - these are all areas where all of the members could actually share interest in policy. So while it's unique that the Congressional Black Caucus is primarily Democrat, it doesn't mean that the issues that they agree upon have to be specifically Democratic issues.
MONTAGNE: Now, we've been talking about the House. There is not a single African-American senator in this Congress. Is that significant?
Mr. JOHNSON: Not really, not to most African-American voters. Look, the fact of the matter is, you know, descriptive representation, which is having somebody that looks like you in office, it's not something that African-Americans are often privileged enough to have. I mean, reality is there have been very few African-American senators throughout this country's history.
And so most black voters are less concerned about the color of the person representing him than they are with the policies that that person will deliver to their particular constituency. So you know, that on top of the fact that there happens to be an African-American or a black American in the White House - I don't think most black voters are concerned about the Senate.
MONTAGNE: What do you make of the fact that while the African-American representation in the House of Representatives has gone up by two in this last election - if you want to put it this way - those two turned out to be Republicans.
Mr. JOHNSON: Here's the thing: If you look at three generations, you look at the baby boom generation of African-Americans, they're primarily Democrats. If you look to the Greatest Generation beforehand, you know, they voted Republican till the 1960s. If you look at Generation X, let alone Millennials, you know, there's a, you know, the African-American vote is much more up for grabs than many people expect. And white Republicans are much more likely and much more comfortable in voting for minorities, as we saw in the 2010 midterms, than they have ever been in the past.
So what we're seeing here is a change in many voter attitudes across race and across parties. So I think the significance of these two men demonstrates that not only are there changes coming to the CBC, but we may see more African-American, more Indian-American, as we saw Nikki Haley in South Carolina or what we saw in New Mexico - we will see probably a much more diverse Republican Party coming to Congress, coming to Senate, and coming to governors' mansions over the next 10 years.
MONTAGNE: Jason Johnson is politics editor for The Source magazine and also professor of political science and communications at Hiram College in Ohio. Thank you very much for joining us.
Mr. JOHNSON: Thank you.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
As Congressman Darrell Issa prepared to take over a powerful House committee, he delivered a message on Fox News Sunday.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Set aside for a moment the substance of what you're about to hear the congressman saying and consider how long it takes him to say it.
(Soundbite of TV show, "Fox News Sunday")
Representative DARRELL ISSA (Republican, California): The sooner the administration figures out that the enemy is the bureaucracy and the wasteful spending, not the other party, the better off we'll be.
INSKEEP: That took a little under nine seconds, which means it's the average length of a soundbite in broadcast news stories.
MONTAGNE: It's been this way since at least 1992, when a University of California professor found that TV networks were broadcasting fewer politicians' words.
Mr. CRAIG FEHRMAN (Boston Globe): What he discovered was that the length of political soundbites shrank from 43 seconds in 1968 all the way down to nine seconds in 1988.
MONTAGNE: Craig Fehrman reviewed the history of the shrinking soundbite in the Boston Globe this week.
Mr. FEHRMAN: CBS decided that they were going to unveil a new policy for their coverage of the 1992 presidential campaign. That was going to be that no soundbite, no matter how pithy or profound it was, was going to run unless it lasted at least 30 seconds.
President BILL CLINTON: Al Gore is a leading expert in foreign policy, national security and arms control...
MONTAGNE: That's Bill Clinton speaking during that 1992 campaign. He had no trouble filling extra time. But many candidates had learned to keep their thoughts very, very short, as CBS soon realized.
Mr. FEHRMAN: What they quickly found was that they had to keep throwing out soundbites that simply weren't long enough. This actually led to less of the candidates talking on the air and more paraphrase from journalists. There were so many things that would have to change for 30 second soundbites to work that the experiment quickly failed.
INSKEEP: And today soundbites remain very short. Not long ago, the satirical newspaper The Onion mocked the 24-second news cycle. Politicians have adapted by choosing a few words that convey the strongest possible meanings in nine seconds or less.
Mr. FRANK LUNTZ (Republican Pollster): Instead of drilling for oil, exploring for energy. Instead of health care reform, the government takeover of health care.
INSKEEP: Republican pollster Frank Luntz advises politicians to use phrases that in effect try to win the argument without taking the time for argument.
Mr. LUNTZ: To be perfectly candid, I've made a very nice living out of creating soundbites, but as an academic, a professor and an author, I really wish that we had more time, more information, more discussion, and less soundbites.
MONTAGNE: There is one significant development in recent years: Online platforms like YouTube and Twitter allow politicians to reach the public directly. Of course tweets are limited to 140 characters - words that would take about nine seconds to say.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And now a look at the evolving media - Russian style. Last summer, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev joined the tweeting masses with his own Twitter page, called Kremlin Russia. And almost immediately another Twitter feed appeared: Kermlin Russia. It's a satirical version whose faux presidential tweets are actually the work of two young Russians dubbed Masha and Sasha. With 58,000 followers and growing, it's a bit of a sensation on the Russian language Web.
Julia Ioffe, the Moscow correspondent for Foreign Policy magazine, wrote about Kermlin Russia for the latest issue.
Good morning.
Ms. JULIA IOFFE (Foreign Policy Magazine): Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So which lines have you been finding the funniest?
Ms. IOFFE: The ones that just state the most simply just how greedy government officials are. For example, when a list surfaced in a Russian newspaper of all of the bureaucrat's children who have at age 22 these very profitable businesses, Kermlin tweeted something like: Local governors need to have more children so that we can have more successful young entrepreneurs.
(Soundbite of laughter)
MONTAGNE: When you imagine him sitting writing, Dmitry Medvedev, sitting in his office writing this, well, it adds to the absurdity but it adds to the fun.
Ms. IOFFE: Absolutely. Medvedev's character is a little absurd. And I think the reason that a lot of these tweets are funny is that they are so blunt and that really echoes a kind of brazenness with which everything is done - the brazenness with which government funds just disappear. Recently they've discovered that the one kilometer of roads, which they're building in preparation for the 2014 Olympics, it's the most expensive in the world.
MONTAGNE: And there's actually a tweet.
Ms. IOFFE: Yes. It goes something along the lines of: In order to save 327 billion rubles, we've decided to move the Olympics to Vancouver, where everything is already ready.
(Soundbite of laughter)
MONTAGNE: You write that this Twitter feed is continuing a long tradition in Russia.
Ms. IOFFE: That's right. The most recent example of this is something called anekdoty. They are short can jokes that were just kind of launched into society and were repeated over and over and over again. It was a way of sharing information and analysis when the media was completely controlled by the then-Soviet state.
MONTAGNE: So a joke - one of the jokes would be what?
Ms. IOFFE: For example, you know, when Brezhnev was still in power, he and the ruling class - they were the octogenarians, they were extremely old - so one of the jokes was asking why one bureaucrat would go to meet foreign leaders at the airport, whereas one would wait at the Kremlin for them. And the answer was, well, this one operates on battery power and the other one plugs into the wall.
(Soundbite of laughter)
MONTAGNE: I do see similarities.
Let me just ask you kind of a straightforward question. Tweeting is often jaunty and light and certainly ironic. How much influence do you think it's really having?
Ms. IOFFE: It has a lot of influence because it's become a steam valve for a lot the people who are the most active thinkers and readers and followers of the news, who follow the details of government corruption and ineptitude and who are deeply frustrated by it.
There's a concept in Russian literature called laughing through tears. It's a very necessary comic relief, because usually the system is very inert and very difficult to change, even by the people who ostensibly matter.
MONTAGNE: Julia Ioffe is the Moscow correspondent for Foreign Policy magazine. Her article on the Twitter feed Kermlin Russia is in the latest issue.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Ms. IOFFE: Oh, thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: The Kremlin won't say whether Medvedev follows the faux Twitter feed. But Masha and Sasha are certain he's aware of it and possibly influenced. The Russian president recently changed his Twitter account from Kremlin Russia to Medvedev Russia.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Regulators are curious about the social network. That's the top of NPR's business news.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at a recent deal between Facebook and Goldman Sachs. That's according to today's Wall Street Journal. Despite some talk of going public, Facebook is still a private company. And because it has fewer than 500 shareholders, it is not required to disclose certain financial information.
But in the deal reported earlier this week, Goldman Sachs is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Facebook. The investment bank also plans to create a separate investment vehicle that will allow its top clients to buy stakes in Facebook.
Regulators are looking at whether this circumvents financial disclosure rules.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
U.S. car companies ended 2010 with such a strong finish, they're boosting their forecasts for 2011.
Here's Tracy Samilton of Michigan Radio.
TRACY SAMILTON: Car sales in the U.S. showed some welcome signs of new life in December. Except for Toyota, still struggling from its recall crisis, car companies reported a significant boost in sales compared to the same month a year ago.
Rebecca Lindland is an analyst with IHS Automotive. She lives and works in Boston.
Ms. REBECCA LINDLAND (Analyst, IHS Automotive): There was a lot of concern, especially at the end there, that the East Coast would just be buried in our blizzard, but in fact everyone dug out and they went to dealerships.
SAMILTON: December was good to all three Detroit automakers. Ford's sales were up an impressive 19 percent over the same month in 2009. Chrysler's sales rose 16 percent. Sales were also up 16 percent for GM's remaining four brands.
Lindland says domestic car companies no longer seem to be starring into the abyss.
Ms. LINDLAND: The Detroit Big Three really, really came through 2010 far better than anybody expected.
SAMILTON: The improvement means it's no longer crazy talk to shoot for car sales topping 13 million this year. The wildcard will be a spike in gas prices. But even there, Detroit automakers are prepared. Ford has two new gas-sipping cars, the Fiesta and the Focus. GM has the Volt and the Cruze. Even Chrysler or technically its Italian partner - will launch a mini car with great gas mileage, the Fiat 500.
For NPR News, I'm Tracy Samilton in Ann Arbor.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And our last word in business today is location, location, location.
It's an old saying in real estate, but video rental company Netflix is about to snag some prime property inside many homes.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Starting this spring, people who buy a Blu-ray player or Web-enabled television from one of many major brands will find a Netflix button right there on the remote control. Pressing the button launches Netflix software. This would make it easier to pay for movies via that service.
Presumably, your itchy finger would then give Netflix an advantage over competitors like Amazon or Apple.
MONTAGNE: Netflix pioneered the business of sending people movies in the mail to save them the trouble of going to the store.
INSKEEP: Then Netflix made videos available by computers, saving the trouble of going to the mailbox.
MONTAGNE: The new remote is designed to help people save the trouble of going to the computer.
And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And as Andrea just noted, high on the agenda of many Republicans is a repeal of the health care law passed by the last Congress. We're going to step back from the scene in Washington now to look at where things stand with implementing that law.
Alan Weil is the executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy. He joined us to take stock of what's going on at the state level.
Mr. ALAN WEIL (Executive Director, National Academy for State Health Policy): States are at the absolute heart of implementing the new health care law. Timelines are tight, even though many of the provisions don't actually take effect until 2014.
If they can have a productive discussion and debate in 2011, they can set the course and meet the timelines. If they're stuck, either because of political battles or ideological divisions that they can't overcome, they're going to find themselves in a very tough position trying to catch up in the next couple of years getting done what has to be done to implement the law.
MONTAGNE: A major provision of the law involves health care exchanges. States are designing their own. What is there to know about those exchanges?
Mr. WEIL: Health insurance exchanges create a marketplace where consumers -whether it's individuals or small businesses - can come and see a set of coverage options. They'll have tools to compare them on price, on benefits, on quality. It's a marketplace that's designed to function more efficiently with more information, more transparency than anything we have today.
The second role that the exchange performs is to be the conduit for federal tax credits that are designed to reduce the cost of insurance for people who don't have coverage through their job. So if your employer does not offer coverage, you can come to the exchange, you have the choices of plans that anyone would have, but you also will be able to obtain a federal tax credit that will reduce the cost of that coverage.
MONTAGNE: And what is the range of things states could be doing? And, in fact, from what you know, give us some examples of what they are starting to do.
Mr. WEIL: We should expect a pretty broad range of state approaches. The federal law is quite broad, and so states can either adopt what is often termed as a highly regulatory or aggressive purchaser model, where they actually negotiate prices with plans. They exclude plans that they feel are not offering the value or the product that the state feels is appropriate to sell.
At the other extreme, we would expect to see some states take all comers. If a plan is licensed to offer products in that state and they offer products within the broad parameters of what the federal law requires, they can sell their wares on the exchange. It's a less regulatory approach at the state level, and I think we should expect to see everything from one end to the other, to many in between.
MONTAGNE: Could you give a specific example of each of those versions?
Mr. WEIL: Many people refer to Utah now as a model for a free market exchange. They set this up prior to enactment of the federal law. So it doesn't do everything that an exchange has to do under the new law, but its general approach is to create an open door for insurance plans. There's no regulatory role for the exchange. They're simply passing on whatever the insurance companies offer to the consumers who want to buy them.
Massachusetts is often held up as the other end of the spectrum, if you will. They are more active in how they select the insurance plans that can participate in their insurance exchange. They negotiate over rates. They are more structured in terms of the benefit design. They have data and reporting expectations that purchasers might demand, but that in a Utah model, are not expected of the plans.
So those are not necessarily the book ends, but those are the two real world examples that people tend to point to to show the two different approaches.
MONTAGNE: Well, do you think the law is as politicized at the state level as it has been at the national level?
Mr. WEIL: The law is as politicized at the state level as it is at the federal level, which is not often the case. But there's more motivation and I think more trust and more good will that lets you move from that ideological and political disagreement to actually developing policies that help the people in your state.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for joining us.
Mr. WEIL: Oh, you're quite welcome.
MONTAGNE: Alan Weil is the executive director of the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Now let's remember a musician whose instruments conveyed a lot of emotion. Gerry Rafferty died this week at 63. He might have been most famous for the song "Baker Street," including a soaring saxophone solo. But this morning, we'll play a song from the same album called "The Arc."
Rafferty sings here about beginning a journey and hoping to meet again.
(Soundbite of song, "The Arc")
Mr. GERRY RAFFERTY (Singer, Songwriter): (Singing) And we'll sail out on the water. Yes, we'll feel the sea grow. Yes, we'll meet out on the water, where are all strangers are known.
INSKEEP: The late Gerry Rafferty on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
NASA scientists met recently at its jet propulsion lab here in California for some star gazing of the Hollywood kind. Hoping to nudge producers towards more realistic sci-fi movies, the scientists came up with lists of the best and worst. Winner for the most absurd: the apocalyptic flick�"2012," which used bad science to create a deluge. NASA had to put up a special website to field questions from moviegoers fearing the end of the world.
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep, with the stolen car news. A man in Jerome, Idaho walked into the sheriff's office and demanded to be deported. Police said no. So he stole a police car, and now he gets his wish.
Police in Paris, Tennessee, arrested a drunk driver. No news there, except that she's a 77-year-old grandmother who led them on a chase. And then there's the man in Arlington, Virginia, arrested as he drove away very slowly. He had stolen a golf cart.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Family and supporters of a slain Pakistani governor held his funeral today. Salman Taseer was shot by one of his own bodyguards. The governor Punjab province had criticized a blasphemy law. He said it was unfair that it was used to sentence a Christian woman to death. The governor was also a businessman and a newspaper publisher. Rashid Rahman edited his paper, the Daily Times, and he's on the line.
Welcome to the program, sir.
Mr. RASHID RAHMAN (Editor, The Daily Times): Thank you.
INSKEEP: What was the funeral like today?
Mr. RAHMAN: Well, it was huge. I mean, we had the funeral prayers in the governor's house, and it was enormous. And then, from there, of course, in a small cavalcade of cars, his coffin was brought to a burial ground very near his home in the cantonment area of Lahore. That was a smaller gathering, basically family and close friends, but a very emotional moment, nevertheless.
INSKEEP: Let me dwell on that for a moment, because one of the fears coming out of this assassination, if you have a relatively moderate politician - a secular politician, anyway - who was speaking out against intolerance and who is killed, there was a fear that there would be a chilling effect, that other people would not speak out. Does the size of this funeral say something to you?
Mr. RAHMAN: I do not think that people have been intimidated. If anything, I think there have been - alarms have gone off that, you know, this has gone too far now, and it is time that the liberal and democratic and progressive forces in Pakistani society unite and show the same kind of solidarity and effectiveness organizationally as the right wing extremists and jihadi parties seem to achieve without too much effort. Unless that happens - and that is -will be the majority, incidentally, let me tell you. Despite the fact that, you know, terrorism holds the field as far as news for Pakistan is concerned, they have never been in a majority. They are still a marginal force. It's just that the other side hasn't got its act together.
INSKEEP: Well, let me ask about the strength of that marginal force. You have an assassin, here - an accused assassin, we should say. But we're told -according to news reports - that he was able to fire more than two dozen times. Nobody stopped him. His fellow guards looked on and did not stop him. And somehow, rather than him being dragged directly into custody, he somehow had time to stop and chat with a TV crew before being taken into custody. What happened there?
Mr. RAHMAN: Well, not exactly that way. What happened was that he had an automatic weapon. And he unloaded his magazine into the governor's body from behind. He was dead on arrival at the hospital.
INSKEEP: OK.
Mr. RAHMAN: It is a suspicious circumstance that the rest of the security detail did not respond. Once he had emptied his magazine, he had time to put down his weapon, put up his hands and surrender and to be taken to a police van where the media got hold of him and where he was able to make some remarks that we heard on our media here. And the thrust of those remarks was: no remorse. He felt he had done the right thing. He'd done his religious duty. He had killed a blasphemer.
INSKEEP: Have there been voices inside Pakistan that have expressed support for the assassin?
Mr. RAHMAN: Yes, there have, as a matter of fact. These messages have been circulating on, you know, SMS and email, and what have you. Whereas they're feeling very triumphant that they think that they've done something marvelous, I think the rest of society is feeling very alarmed and appalled.
INSKEEP: Rashid Rahman, editor of the Daily Times newspaper, was an employee and friend of the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, assassinated this week.
Thank you, sir.
Mr. RAHMAN: Thank you.
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And even occasional viewers of primetime TV, those who barely watch TV at all, have likely seen the work of one director, in particular. That's because Paris Barclay has directed old-school favorites like "E.R." and the buzziest of new shows like "Glee," plus the "West Wing," "Lost," "CSI" and others.
Now he's executive producer for the show "In Treatment" on HBO, and NPR's Neda Ulaby has this profile.
(Soundbite of conversation)
NEDA ULABY: In a dumpy, dim editing room, Paris Barclay and his editor, Joe Hobeck, are intently scrutinizing a scene from "In Treatment." They're looking for flaws in a scene where a teenaged boy is showing his therapist pictures on a camera.
(Soundbite of series, "In Treatment")
Mr. JOE HOBECK (Television Editor): Go to the next one.
Mr. PARIS BARCLAY (Television Director): What, this?
Mr. HOBECK: Yeah.
Mr. BARCLAY: Ew!
Mr. HOBECK: So that's this guy that - on my corner who...
Mr. BARCLAY: Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. What is the shot that's happening when he gets up and just becomes a nothing shot? What is that?
ULABY: Barclay's sprawled on a lumpy, brown couch, as if he's in therapy. He's figuring out the best shots with his editor, who's sitting in front of a TV and manipulating the editing software.
Mr. HOBECK: This shot basically starts here. So...
Mr. BARCLAY: It starts there?
Mr. HOBECK: Well, there's a big pause before he leans in.
Mr. BARCLAY: All right, let's roll back.
ULABY: This is how you direct a TV show, once everything's in the can. There's a real challenge to making a therapist talking to a client look interesting. The setup's so inherently static, it's kind of a joke on set.
Mr. HOBECK: Okay. Now, everybody get ready, here comes our action sequence.
(Soundbite of laughter)
ULABY: Someone's getting up off the couch.
Mr. HOBECK: Basically, getting up and going out the door becomes the action sequence.
(Soundbite of laughter)
ULABY: But Paris Barclay actually does direct action sequences in gritty police procedurals.
(Soundbite of TV show)
Unidentified Man #1: Gracie, get the hell down. Call for backup now.
ULABY: And he's orchestrated flashy musical numbers on "Glee.
(Soundbite of TV show, "Glee")
(Soundbite of song, "Proud Mary")
Unidentified Woman: (Singing) Big wheels keep on turning. Proud Mary keep on burning.
ULABY: And he's directed a famous "West Wing" walk-and-talk.
(Soundbite of TV show, "West Wing")
Unidentified Man #2: Porous borders between the U.S. and Canada and the governors of Washington...
Mr. BARCLAY: I'm booked six months in advance. I'm famous for doing a lot of episode number two's. After someone has spent, like, millions on the pilot, I'm the person that they call and say, okay, we're doing this second episode, and we only have $2.95. But we want it to look exactly like the 10 to $20 million pilot.
ULABY: The guy who created "Glee," Ryan Murphy, has credited Barclay with helping "Glee" find its groove. Barclay is known for immersing himself in the visual culture of the shows he directs: the look, rhythm, language, sensibility to bring out each show at its best.
Mr. BARCLAY: It's not about saying, oh, this would be so fantastic, "In Treatment." I'm going to shoot it like Quentin Tarantino would, just to show how incredibly clever I can be.
ULABY: A lot of people don't understand there's not a lot of continuity in television directing.
Mr. KURT SUTTER (Creator, "Sons of Anarchy"): You're in and out. It's a pretty thankless task, sometimes, for directors.
ULABY: Kurt Sutter created the FX show "Sons of Anarchy." It's a critically acclaimed series about a gun-smuggling motorcycle gang.
(Soundbite of TV show, "Sons of Anarchy")
Mr. CHARLIE HUNNAM (Actor): (as Jackson Jax Teller) Got a garage filled with AK-47s. Need a place to assemble and store them.
Unidentified Man #3: I've got a strip club down on 95 - huge basement, private.
Mr. HUNNAM: (as Jackson Jax Teller) Sounds perfect.
ULABY: Sutter brought in Paris Barclay to direct the third episode.
Mr. SUTTER: In my mind, it was the episode where I really had a sense of, okay, this is really the formula that works.
ULABY: And now he's got Barclay on board as basically a director-in-residence.
Mr. SUTTER: Quite honestly, thematically, there's nobody that understands what it's more to be an outsider or an outlaw, if you will, than a gay black man.
ULABY: Before Paris Barclay became the first black board member of the Directors Guild, before his Emmys and Peabody Award, he was a kid from a rough Chicago neighborhood. He won a scholarship to an elite Midwestern boarding school. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: Paris Barclay was not the first black board member of the Directors Guild of America. Barclay is the first black officer of the DGA board.]
Mr. BARCLAY: I was going to be the first black student in this very small, very white school in Indiana - which, by the way, is the home of the KKK. And I thought to myself, I need some backup. So I didn't want to go alone.
ULABY: So he finagled another scholarship for his brother.
In high school, Barclay developed a taste for theater. At Harvard, he wrote for Hasty Pudding shows. When he graduated in 1979, he went from advertising to directing music videos for the likes of LL Cool J.
(Soundbite of music)
ULABY: Now, Paris Barclay is one of a very few openly gay, black decision-makers in Hollywood. He's used to hearing the same line from other industry executives when they see scripts with characters like him.
Mr. BARCLAY: That's just too much. Isn't it enough that they're just gay? Or isn't it enough that they're just black? As if, you know, one cross is enough to bear. But if they're gay and black, I just think that's just too overwhelming.
ULABY: Barclay and his husband have adopted two kids from the Los Angeles foster care system.
Mr. BARCLAY: There's 35,000 kids in foster care just in this sort of L.A. County region. Many of them are dark-skinned like myself, and are not being adopted because of that. And that made me furious.
ULABY: Barclay said their impulse was to adopt as many as possible.
Mr. BARCLAY: But we settled on two. We thought, let's not be too ambitious. And since then, they've changed our lives.
ULABY: Having kids has made Paris Barclay more interested in developing shows for tweens. He's working on a couple that takes on intolerance, because, he says, that's the crisis of his kids' generation.
Neda Ulaby, NPR News.
MONTAGNE: And this is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Conventional wisdom suggests that a bad economy would lead to a rising crime rate. But in many big cities around the country the murder rate is way down. Take Los Angeles, where the number of homicides last year was the lowest it's been in more than four decades. NPR's Mandalit del Barco looks at some of the reasons.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: Christmas morning was bloody in L.A.'s Echo Park neighborhood, when one man was shot dead and three pedestrians were wounded by a group of men riding in a car.�It used to be this way often when Echo Park was a violent gangland, but not so much anymore, say Jose Larumbe and his 12-year-old son Jesus.
Mr. JOSE LARUMBE: Years ago, yeah, it used to be wild, you know. People was getting crazy. But now...
Mr. JESUS LARUMBE: Relaxed.
Mr. LARUMBE: Police doing something.
DEL BARCO: Larumbe's 15-year-old daughter Griselda and her friend Michelle Figueroa say they don't hear as much gunfire or see as much gang graffiti as they used to.
Ms. GRISELDA LARUMBE: Before, there used to be like lots more gangsters. Like they're not doing so much damage anymore.
Mr. JESUS LARUMBE: You don't see those people with their pants like - just skinny jeans for everybody.
Ms. GRISELDA LARUMBE: That's the style.
DEL BARCO: It's not just the new fashion trend. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced there were 297 homicides in Los Angeles last year, the lowest number since 1967.
Mayor ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA (Democrat, Los Angeles): This achievement is particularly noteworthy given the state of the economy. You walk downtown, you go to Hollywood - this isn't hyperbole, everybody. We all know, it's a changed place.
DEL BARCO: Villaraigosa notes it's a huge drop from the more than 1,000 murders that happened in 1992, the height of a massive drug epidemic. Today, more than half of the city's homicides are still gang-related. But the mayor says things have improved because of former gang members turned interventionists.
Mayor VILLARAIGOSA: Who immediately after a shooting make sure that they're calming the waters in communities where otherwise there might have been a retaliation.
DEL BARCO: Police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters another reason was he was finally was able to hire enough officers to patrol the city and work with the community to prevent crime.
Police Chief CHARLIE BECK (Los Angeles Police Department): For the past nine years - nine years, and no other city's done this - crime has dropped every year in Los Angeles, every year.
DEL BARCO: Last year, New York, San Francisco and Milwaukee, to name a few, saw a slight uptick in killings. But even there,�and across much of the country,�homicides have been on a decade-long decline.
Professor MARK KLEIMAN (UCLA): Crime generally has been going down since 1994. It is now about half its 1994 level. I mean, it's a spectacularly dramatic social change.
DEL BARCO: UCLA public policy Professor Mark Kleiman says police departments have new crime-predicting tools and sometimes better community relations. Sentences are stricter and there are more prisons.
Kleiman says there's another big difference between now and the early 1990s, when the crack epidemic was at its peak.
Prof. KLEIMAN: Partly the crack dealers have learned how to do business without killing�each other. In the early days, there was a gold rush and people were literally shooting each other on the street corners.
But also they were heavily armed and shooting each other over petty interpersonal disputes. And that's calmed down a little bit, partly for the simple reason that a lot of the people who would now be committing murder in L.A. are dead, and a lot of the rest are doing life in prison.
DEL BARCO: Criminologists have various theories on the decrease of homicides, from changes in demographics to economic factors. But experts can only speculate, and they can't predict if the downward trend will continue.
Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And let's go a little bit west, now, to the Gulf of Mexico, because we have a follow-up on last year's BP oil spill. The commission that President Obama appointed to investigate the disaster is releasing its full, final report next week.
NPR's Elizabeth Shogren got an early look at a key chapter, which includes sharp criticism directed at multiple targets.
ELIZABETH SHOGREN: When William Reilly became the co-chairman of the commission, he expected to uncover a story about one bad actor: BP. But instead, he found that Halliburton and Transocean were deeply implicated.
Mr. WILLIAM REILLY (Co-Chair, National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil and Offshore Drilling): I was surprised and shocked.
SHOGREN: Those two companies are mainstays of the offshore drilling industry. TransOcean provides and staffs rigs, Halliburton provides cement to secure the wells and other services. Reilly headed the EPA under the first President Bush and is now a board member of oil giant Conoco-Philips. He says the companies made baffling decisions that played a role in the disaster.
Mr. REILLY: Given that both of these companies, plus BP, are active in virtually every ocean, I have concluded, reluctantly, that we have a system-wide problem that is going to require a system-wide solution.
SHOGREN: The commission outlines what went wrong on the Deepwater Horizon, detailing one mistake after another that BP and its contractors made on the rig and on shore. In one example, rig operators were doing something called a negative pressure test to make sure a cement job was working to prevent gas from leaking. As Reilly points out, the operators didn't like a reading they were getting from the drill pipe, so they did a second test on another piece of equipment, which came out better.
Mr. REILLY: Inexplicably, a decision was made to take the reassuring test result without trying to figure out why it was it was inconsistent with the information coming up the drill pipe.
SHOGREN: The report blames operators for failing to communicate the inconsistent results to anyone on shore, and states that if they had, the blowout may not have happened. In another example, before the accident, Halliburton found that the cement slurry that it planned to use was not stable, but Halliburton did little to warn BP. Reilly says these and other errors all point to bad management and bad communication. The decisions the companies made saved time and money but increased the risk of a blowout.
Mr. REILLY: The fact that there was a pattern is what created a sense in the minds of the commission that this is a large problem.
SHOGREN: The commission pointedly and repeatedly blames the companies, and says the government failed to adequately oversee them. Transocean, BP, and Halliburton each declined to comment. But the president of the American Petroleum Institute, Jack Gerard, stresses that the Deepwater Horizon was an exception.
Mr. JACK GERARD (President, American Petroleum Institute): The oil and gas industry has been in the Gulf of Mexico for 65 years and we've drilled over 42,000 wells in the Gulf of Mexico. This was the first incident that has occurred of this magnitude.
SHOGREN: He says since the accident, the industry made changes and should be given the green light to fully resume drilling in the Gulf.
Mr. GERARD: We've focused like a laser on improving our safety activities.
SHOGREN: The new agency that regulates the industry, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, has made drilling rules tougher, but not tough enough, according to the commission. It wants beefier government oversight. But the commission doesn't think the agency can do the job alone. Instead, the commission will recommend that industry start policing itself. It wants the companies to create a safety institute, like one formed by the nuclear energy industry after the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.
Commission member Frances Beinecke is president of the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council.
Ms. FRANCES BEINECKE (President, Natural Resources Defense Council): They're the ones with the expertise, they should be bringing the whole industry up to what are the best operating standards and seek constant improvement.
SHOGREN: She says this and other recommendations from the commission would help prevent future tragedies.
Ms. BEINECKE: If they're adopted. But if they're not, the risk is as great as ever that this could happen again and again.
SHOGREN: The full report is expected out next Tuesday. It will critique efforts to stop the flow of oil and clean up the mess, and spell out the commission's recommendations.
Elizabeth Shogren, NPR News, Washington.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: And you can read for yourself the advance chapter of the oil spill commission's final report. We've posted it at npr.org.
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
China and India have two of the world's fastest growing economies, but that rapid growth also means there's a risk of inflation. And inflation, especially when it comes to food prices, is a major cause of concern for leaders in the world's two most populous countries.
We have reports this morning from both India and China, and we begin with NPR's Louisa Lim in Beijing, where Chinese inflation is over five percent and food prices are soaring.
LOUISA LIM: Not so long ago, northern Chinese winters meant one thing: cabbage - day in, day out. Just four years ago, cabbages were so cheap, they were being given away for free as a promotional tactic. But visit a Beijing market today and, oh, how times have changed.
Ms. XU SHENGRU: (Foreign language spoken)
LIM: Cabbage has doubled in price since last year, says Xu Shengru, as she grudgingly hands over money for three big cabbages. Everything is much more expensive than last year, she grumbles. We may be dissatisfied, but we still need to eat.
LIM: The papers are full of horror stories: rice up 30 percent in just 10 days, Sichuan peppers up by an unbelievable thousand percent.
Tsinghua University's Patrick Chovanec says this is just the start.
Mr. PATRICK CHOVANEC (Tsinghua University): I think that what we're seeing in consumer inflation right now is really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of inflationary pressure in China.
Unidentified Woman: (Foreign language spoken)
LIM: The government has launched an all-out campaign against inflation. China's state-run TV news has shown Premier Wen Jiabao stalking supermarket aisles. There was a surprise interest rate hike on Christmas Day. One day later, Wen Jiabao took part in a very rare live radio show. No emotion was spared as he addressed listener concerns about inflation.
Premiere WEN JIABAO (China): (Through translator) Your words hurt my heart. The central government has already taken 16 different measures. Looking at the situation now, we absolutely have the ability to control the rise of prices. I have confidence.
LIM: Inflation is an acutely sensitive political issue here in China, where double-digit inflation fueled discontent in the run-up to the 1989 protests on Tiananmen Square. Today, bad weather and speculation are cited as factors behind the price rises.
The government's already imposed price controls on some foods. Projected December figures bring inflation down slightly from current levels. This offers short-term relief, but Patrick Chovanec says such measures won't solve the underlying problem.
Mr. CHOVANEC: In my view, the primary reason why there's so much inflationary pressure in China right now is the maintenance of the currency peg. When dollars flow into China, in order to keep the exchange rate steady, the Chinese central bank has to go in and buy those dollars, and it buys those dollars, it issues renminbi, it adds to the money supply. And normally that would fuel inflation, unless China runs a constantly tightening monetary policy to compensate, and it hasn't been anywhere near doing that over the past couple years.
LIM: So higher prices could be here to stay. This ballad of lament recently hit the Web.
(Soundbite of song)
Unidentified Woman #2: (Singing in foreign language)
LIM: The lyrics go: Cheap things no longer exist, normal people can't afford to eat green vegetables. It decries corruption and rising house prices and ends by asking: Wouldn't we be better off returning to the '80s?
This shows how rising food prices represent a Pandora's Box of discontent, whereby three decades of progress are undermined by the fact that people feel they can no longer afford to buy their cabbage.
Louisa Lim, NPR News, Beijing.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
As in China, people in India are being stretched by a surge in food prices. And in India what has stirred the greatest outrage is the price of onions. Onions are a pungent mainstay of Indian cooking, and over the past year they've gone up 40 percent. Analysts blame both crop failures and a food distribution system that allows middlemen to manipulate food prices.
NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from New Delhi.
COREY FLINTOFF: The narrow alleys of south Delhi's I.N.A. Market are lined with vegetable stalls, brimming with fresh produce of all kinds. One thing is in short supply though: onions.
Grocer R.L. Setty says an unusually wet summer made for a poor harvest in many areas.
Mr. R.L. SETTY (Grocer): Onion, this is at this time rain. It's no good quality.
FLINTOFF: He says he's hoping the price crunch will ease when the government starts bringing imported onions to Delhi next week.
Virender Khaneja, who sells spices at the Durga Masala Store, says it's not just onions - he's paying higher wholesale prices for all sorts of spices as well. He says middlemen - he calls them market mafia - are creating fake scarcities by holding back certain commodities until the prices rise.
Mr. VIRENDER KHANEJA (Durga Masala Store): Some market mafia are there. They keep five, six tons, 10 tons, on the side.
FLINTOFF: It's only after the price goes up, he says, that the middlemen send the produce to market.
Dr. Ripul Oberoi, shopping at the market with his wife, says the result is that prices seem to go higher every day.
Dr. RIPUL OBEROI: And for a consumer, for a middle-class person, or slightly below middle class, it's very difficult to have the daily routine items that everybody has to have to survive.
FLINTOFF: Jayati Ghosh, a professor of economics at Nehru University in Delhi, says the real pain is being felt by India's poor majority. For most middle-class people, food is a relatively small part of the budget.
Professor JAYATI GHOSH (Nehru University): But here, for about 60 percent of the population, if the price of food goes up by 10 percent, that means one less meal a day. It means children not getting milk. We're talking about very severe effects.
FLINTOFF: Ghosh blames the Indian government, which she says doesn't have an effective policy for managing food. She says the government needs to set up a system that can provide critical foods at reasonable prices that would dampen the effect of speculation in the marketplace.
Ms. GHOSH: I'm not going to do away with private, obviously not, and especially small traders are critical in the whole system. But you have to have a system that provides the essential food items, which is basic food grain, basic vegetables, edible oils, sugar.
FLINTOFF: Ghosh rejects the criticism that such a system would be a turn away from the free market ideas that India has embraced during its surging economic growth. She notes that the United States has similar programs, such as food stamps, designed to make food available to the lowest-income Americans.
Ms. GHOSH: You know, I think there are some things that are just too important to be left to the free market, and food is one of them, because food is essential. You have to feed your population. You can't say, well, too bad. If you don't have the money you can just starve to death. So food has to be managed.
FLINTOFF: India's government has taken short-term steps to manage the onion crisis, such as banning the export of Indian onions and importing onions from abroad.
The political leaders have every reason to be leery. Anger over high food prices, and especially onion prices, has contributed to election losses for India's ruling parties in the past, and many fear it could happen again.
Corey Flintoff, NPR News, New Delhi.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
A new Congress is making most of the political headlines this week. But many states are also getting to know their new governors.
INSKEEP: The governors face many of the toughest choices right now.
MONTAGNE: Unlike the federal government, most states can't run deficits.
INSKEEP: They're running out of the stimulus money that some used to stay afloat.
MONTAGNE: And they're straining to get their economies moving.
INSKEEP: So over the next two weeks, we're going to profile some of the nation's 29 new governors. We start in Florida, where the new governor is Republican Rick Scott.
Here's NPR's Greg Allen.
GREG ALLEN: Some other states have toned down their inaugural festivities this year in a nod to the economy, but not Florida.
(Soundbite of music)
ALLEN: Rick Scott's inauguration festivities stretched over two days and included a parade, dinners, breakfasts and a ball. The price tag: Some $3 million - mostly raised from lobbyists and business interests.
Governor RICK SCOTT (Republican, Florida): I, Rick Scott, do solemnly swear...
Unidentified Man: That I will support, protect and defend...
Gov. SCOTT: ...that I will support, protect and defend...
Unidentified Man: ...the constitution and government...
ALLEN: It's been a tough few years in Florida. The housing collapse has made the state a leader in foreclosures. Unemployment is at 12 percent, two points above the national average.
Outside Florida's old State Capitol in Tallahassee Tuesday, under live oaks and Spanish moss, Scott told Floridians he's ready to make good on his campaign slogan: Let's get to work.
Gov. SCOTT: Once we take the right steps, I'm absolutely convinced that Florida will become the most exciting place in the world to live and work.
ALLEN: Scott is a millionaire and the former CEO of the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, Columbia/HCA. Shortly after he stepped down, the company paid the biggest fine ever for Medicare fraud.
Scott won the governor's race by running as an outsider, spending some $70 million of his own money. He's promised to streamline government and weed out unnecessary regulations. In his address, he said the government should be lean, and do little more than provide a safety net. Prosperity, he says, comes from the private sector.
(Soundbite of applause)
Gov. SCOTT: Faced with a deep recession, some say the answer is to expand the role of government. That's the approach the administration is taking in Washington. That is absolutely the wrong approach.
(Soundbite of applause)
ALLEN: Scott has long criticized President Obama and the new healthcare law.
His first challenge as governor will be to come up with a plan that closes Florida's $3 billion budget deficit. To do so, he's floated a raft of ideas -many of them controversial. He wants to cut the state workforce by five percent. He's vowed to slash a billion dollars from the state prisons and to reform the state's pension system. He's also promised to phase out the state's business income tax and slash property taxes.
He'll be aided by the fact that Florida's legislature is controlled by Republicans, many of whom share his governing philosophy.
But Lance deHaven-Smith says finding the money for all that won't be easy. DeHaven-Smith is a political science professor at Florida State University.
Professor LANCE DEHAVEN-SMITH (Political Science, Florida State University): We've got a budget that's really lean as it is. And many of the obligations we have are things you can't just undo. You're not going to be able to do away with Medicaid or something like that. Even small changes are difficult there. So, I just have a question in my mind about just how realistic these plans are.
ALLEN: As a first-time office holder - who only moved to Florida several years ago - to many in the state, Scott is still an enigma. With his election, he proved that he has determination, money and strong convictions. Floridians now wait to hear his agenda.
He's said, for instance, that he wants to expand Florida's small school voucher program to include all of the state's students - a proposal tried on a smaller scale by former Governor Jeb Bush and which the courts found unconstitutional.
Coming after four years of the moderate Charlie Crist, Scott is returning Florida to conservative leadership reminiscent of the Jeb Bush era. Bush attended Scott's inaugural and acknowledged the two men have similar views about government.
Former Governor JEB BUSH (Republican, Florida): I think he instinctively - he's an instinctive conservative. He doesn't start with the premise that the government's role is to solve a problem if there's another way to do it.
ALLEN: Scott has said he'll run government like a business. He's already finding that doing so presents its own challenges. To staff his administration, he's looked mostly to the private sector, but has had problems filling many of the jobs - in part, because of the lower government pay scale.
After first requesting their resignations, Scott has asked hundreds of Crist administration staffers to stay on for another few months while he searches for replacements.
Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
Republicans, who assumed much more power this week, are promising to change the way that Congress does business. For lawmakers in the House, that means changing some of the rules for doing business.
The Democrats, who still control the Senate, are also pushing to change the rules, and both of these efforts are igniting some early partisan fights.
NPR's Audie Cornish was watching the first day of a new Congress.
AUDIE CORNISH: The first woman speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, turned over the gavel and the power to John Boehner yesterday.
Representative NANCY PELOSI (Democrat, California): I now pass this gavel, which is larger than most gavels here, but the gavel of choice of Mr. Speaker Boehner. I now pass this...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Rep. PELOSI: I now pass this gavel and the sacred trust that goes with it to the new speaker. God bless you, Speaker Boehner.
(Soundbite of cheering)
CORNISH: The Ohio Republican waved away his standing ovation.
Representative JOHN BOEHNER (Republican, Ohio; Speaker of the House): It's still just me.
(Soundbite of laughter)
CORNISH: The mood was light, but Boehner acknowledged there is a great deal of what he called scar tissue from partisan warfare. The new speaker said he would treat the post differently.
Rep. BOEHNER: Mindful of the lessons of the past, that we open a new chapter. Legislators and the public will have three days to read a bill before it comes to a vote. Legislation will be more focused, properly scrutinized, and constitutionally sound. Committees, once bloated, will be smaller, with a renewed mission.
CORNISH: But the first bit of legislation set to come to the floor seemed to kick off a new era of battle, with Democrats crying foul over new rules mandating spending cuts and the GOP's refusal to open up the planned health care overhaul repeal to amendments.
Across the Capitol, a battle over rules was under way in the Senate as well. Majority Leader Harry Reid returned to the Senate with an eye on changing the filibuster rules. Those are the parliamentary procedures that allow opponents of legislation to slow or halt debate.
Senator HARRY REID (Democrat, Nevada; Senate Majority Leader): We may not agree yet on how to fix the problem, but no one can credibly claim problems don't exist. No one who has watched this body operate since the current minority took office can say that it functions just fine. That wouldn't be true, would be dishonest.
CORNISH: There are varying proposals out there. For instance, some, like Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill, argued lawmakers should not have the option of so-called secret holds, which allow senators to block measures anonymously.
Senator CLAIRE MCCASKILL (Democrat, Missouri): Nothing is more hypocritical than all the sanctimonious stuff I'm hearing down the hall about the new era, no more business as usual. No more - we're going to have accountability and transparency. But yet we seem to be embroiled down on this end of the hall with not even being able to get beyond a secret hold.
CORNISH: But Reid used a parliamentary strategy in kicking off debate that angered Republicans. He's technically extending the legislative day over the next few weeks so as to take advantage of the narrow window when a simple majority is all it takes to change the rules. And the proposed changes didn't go over very well on the other side of the aisle.
Senator MITCH MCCONNELL (Republican, Kentucky; Senate Minority Leader): Do our friends across the aisle really want to create a situation where two or four or six years from now they suddenly find themselves completely powerless to prevent Republicans from overturning legislation they themselves have worked so hard to enact?
CORNISH: Kentucky Republican and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Democrats they were making a mistake.
Sen. MCCONNELL: The founders crafted the Senate to be different. They crafted it to be a deliberate, a thoughtful place. And changing the rules in the way thats been proposed would unalterably change the Senate itself.
CORNISH: The debate is far from over. The Senate plans to take it up in a few weeks when they return from a winter break. Meanwhile, House Republicans have only just begun. Today, Speaker Boehner will have the Constitution read aloud on the House floor, and then, Republicans say, they're going to squeeze in a vote to repeal the health care overhaul and the first round of spending cuts, all before President Obama's State of the Union address at the end of the month.
Audie Cornish, NPR News, the Capitol.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
There are 96 new members of the House of Representatives and nearly all of them are Republicans.
NPR's Don Gonyea spent yesterday with one new GOP member who found that before you legislate, it's good to caffeinate.
DON GONYEA: David Schweikert is from Arizona's 5th District. That's Tempe and Scottsdale, and a huge swath of the desert. He defeated a Democratic incumbent. He sees the federal debt as a looming crisis. But early yesterday morning he was simply trying to figure out the new cappuccino machine in his office.
Representative DAVID SCHWEIKERT (Republican, Arizona): Okay. So we got foam, now all we need is some coffee and the milk.
(Soundbite of laughter)
(Soundbite of coffee machine)
Rep. SCHWEIKERT: I think we may have finally reached success. So it's not getting sworn in today. It's getting the espresso maker to actually work.
GONYEA: Schweikert explains that he bought the machine with his own money as a perk for his staff and himself. His 20-something chief of staff hands him a printed copy of the day's schedule. He looks it over. It's jam-packed. There's a 9 a.m. bipartisan prayer service.
Rep. SCHWEIKERT: Then we're going to go over and go get our official pin and official ID for Joyce, my wife, and myself. Then we have another couple television interviews in the rotunda. Then I have a couple phone calls to make. Then we walk over to the floor of the House, and it begins.
GONYEA: But first, his staffers still trickle in. There's a live phone interview with a TV station back home.
Rep. SCHWEIKERT: Hi there, it's David Schweikert. I was told to call in right about now.
Unidentified Woman #1: Yes. Just one second.
Unidentified Man (News Anchor): Good morning.
Rep. SCHWEIKERT: Good morning.
GONYEA: The anchor raises a topic Schweikert is asked about a lot: the health care law. The new congressman's response is right in line with the Republican Party playbook on the issue.
Rep. SCHWEIKERT: The reality of it is it's a job-killing health care reform bill as it is today. And if one of our greatest needs, particularly in Arizona, is we have to create more jobs, we have to create economic growth, then we have to step up and reverse the bad parts of this health care reform.
GONYEA: Schweikert ran for this seat back in 2008 and lost. Then he rode the Republican wave to victory last November. He got help from the Tea Party movement, which promises to keep the pressure on him and others it backed in the election. Schweikert says he's OK with that.
Rep. SCHWEIKERT: If the Tea Party stays consistent on its fiscal conservatism, I have the feeling we're going to be best of friends. I've been a debt hawk for 20 years.
GONYEA: On another issue, he says that right now he's a no vote on raising the debt ceiling, though he doesn't say what cuts need to be made to get spending under control.
Rep. SCHWEIKERT: No matter what happens, we're in for tough medicine.
GONYEA: By mid-morning yesterday, after the prayer service and after the interviews and after getting his congressional voting card, it was back to the office for a reception for friends, supporters, some family of staffers, and at least one lobbyist who dropped by to make introductions. Still, the basic chores of setting up shop kept coming.
Rep. SCHWEIKERT: You've reached our office after hours or we're all on other lines.
GONYEA: Things like recording the outgoing message for the office voicemail.
Rep. SCHWEIKERT: ...leave a message and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
Unidentified Woman #2: You want to hear it?
Rep. SCHWEIKERT: I want you to listen to it and see if you're comfortable with that.
GONYEA: The morning flies by; suddenly it's close to noon, the scheduled start time for the first meeting of the new Congress. Schweikert, his wife Joyce, and his staff navigate the maze of underground tunnels that connect his building to the Capitol itself. He talks as he walks.
Rep. SCHWEIKERT: There's that sense that - that antsiness of, OK, the ceremony stuff is great. Let's get our teeth into something. We're executing tradition, as we should, and then, you know, we have the people's work to do.
GONYEA: And with that, Schweikert walks into the chamber to be sworn in as part of the new GOP majority.
Don Gonyea, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Other companies are pushing new products at this week's Consumer Electronics Show.�It's the biggest annual showcase for anything you want to buy that involves screens, remotes or buttons. There are more than 100,000 people roaming 1.6 million square feet of floor space - 1.6 million square feet of floor space. It's like, I don't know, maybe 16 gigantic, big-box stores.
Among the people roaming that space is NPR's Laura Sydell, who's on the line.
Hi, Laura.
LAURA SYDELL: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: I understand you started off by buying a pedometer. How much have you walked so far?
SYDELL: Well, I would say, yesterday alone, I walked over five miles going back and forth from press conferences and demos and luxury hotels.
(Soundbite of laughter)
INSKEEP: Wow. Okay. So what did you see?
SYDELL: I saw what I would say the big theme this year is: connectivity. So you've got all kinds of connected devices, which we've seen in the past. But what's particularly interesting this year is that you're seeing a lot of connected devices that are talking to each other. So your phone is talking to your TV, things like that. So, device talks to device.
INSKEEP: Meaning that I can pick up my telephone - and what? Call up a program? Call up a movie? Use it as a remote? What are you talking about?
SYDELL: Well, a variety of things. I think my favorite, right now, connected device: Sony Ericsson just put out a new phone, or they're about to put out a phone, the Xperia Arc. And this phone, you can, say, watch a movie while you're coming home from work on the train. And when you get home, if you haven't finished the movie, you can connect the phone to your TV and finish watching the movie.
INSKEEP: Oh, on the bigger screen that you've presumably got at home now, I suppose.
SYDELL: Exactly. So all those devices are talking to each other, you know, and you're going to have tablet computers that are able to connect to your TV, and all sorts of stuff like that. And then there's the cars.
INSKEEP: Well, let's talk about the cars. A gentleman was telling me this story about the notion that you could be listening to the radio on your phone - which people now do, Internet radio. You get in the car, and the car notices that you're listening to the radio and picks it up on the car speakers. Could that be true?
SYDELL: Absolutely. That is distinctly possible, because what you're starting to see are Internet-connected cars. So this year, Toyota is going to come out with its N Tune system. They're going to start putting this in their cars, and there's basically going to be, in your car, an Internet-connected device. There'll be a screen, a touch screen. It'll also have voice recognition. It'll have OpenTable. So you'll be to, for example, make a reservation at the restaurant you're going to. Let's hope that the voice recognition works well and that you're not using your fingers while you're doing that. But you'll have things like that.
You also have the possibility of devices that will connect to older cars. So there's a company called Mavizon Technologies, and they've got this device that'll connect to most cars made after 1996. And it will connect your car to the Internet and, for example, if you can't find your car in a parking lot, it'll send a signal to your iPhone telling you where your car is.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SYDELL: (unintelligible), right?
INSKEEP: A little GPS direction to find your...
(Soundbite of laughter)
SYDELL: Exactly. No, it's great. And believe me, I could use that.
INSKEEP: Well, I'd like to know, Laura Sydell, I mean, you cover this all the time. Even the new stuff may be a little old to you. Is there some device that you've run across that really made you stop in your tracks?
SYDELL: Well, here was one that I just found kind of amusing. So you know we've had radar detection systems in cars for a while. It lets you know when you're driving along if there's going to be a police car that's trying to track whether you're going too fast. Well, now they have one that is a social radar device.
So if your car sees that there is a radar system nearby, it will tweet to other people who have the system and let them know that the cops are there with a speed trap.
INSKEEP: Laura Sydell, drive safely out there in Las Vegas, okay?
SYDELL: All right. Thanks a lot, Steve.
INSKEEP: NPR's Laura Sydell is at the Consumer Electronics Show.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
Our next guest has been both a commander in the war in Afghanistan and a critic of the way it's been carried out. General Sir David Richards is Great Britain's chief of Defence Staff. That's the equivalent of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs here in the U.S.
Back in 2006, General Richards was head of NATO forces in Afghanistan. He faced a Taliban that had just that year regrouped and was fighting hard to get back their heartland - Kandahar. I began by asking him about a prediction he made back in 2006.
At one time you said something quite dramatic, that if there wasn't more reconstruction and that if Afghans didn't see an improvement in their lives in six months, you said, 70 percent of Afghans would go over to the Taliban. That didn't exactly happen. I mean, the Taliban did flow in. Afghans still mostly aren't behind them.
General Sir DAVID RICHARDS (Chief of Defence Staff, Great Britain): Well, I -as ever, you know, the soundbite has caught up with me. I didn't actually say 70 percent could go to the Taliban.
What I was saying is that about 10 percent of the population, give or take, mainly in the South, were sympathetic to the Taliban. Twenty percent were hotly opposed and still certainly are. But 70 percent, if you like, were floating voters, and that there was a risk that if we didn't get the reconstruction development and governance side of the equation right, that 70 percent would progressively turn towards the Taliban.
So I'm delighted that the polls reveal that a good majority of Afghans are still with us and still want us to succeed. But I would also emphasize that we're taking too long in delivering it and we need to get on with it.
MONTAGNE: Now, British troops were in charge of a large swath of southern Afghanistan at this point - 2006, 2007 - just at the point at which the Taliban was becoming resurgent. British troops were, you know, based in Helmand Province, as today U.S. Marines are fighting there.
I'm wondering, had you had the tens of thousands of troops that are there now, had you had them, would things be different now?
Gen. RICHARDS: I like to think that without a doubt they would've been different. I remember debating it with people like Mr. Rumsfeld, that back in 2005, '06, there were insufficient resources going into Afghanistan, a vacuum was created, and we've been playing catch-up ever since. The problem was that we were all eyes on Iraq.
I actually can say with hand on heart - and I speak a lot to General Petraeus -that many of the things that he's doing today were things that we were articulating but unable to do back in 2006. And I only wish we had been able to do it.
MONTAGNE: When you were head of the NATO effort in Afghanistan five years ago, did you find yourself pleading for help from NATO countries that were just not interested in fighting?
Gen. RICHARDS: Well, I don't think pleading. I don't think generals do pleading. I certainly articulated the case, as General Petraeus does today. That is part of your job at that level and you've got to explain why you need more resources and what will happen in your judgment if you don't get them.
The key is to make sure that we allow the development and nonmilitary effort to catch up and then keep pace with all that military effort. And I think if we can get that right, then we have every reason to be optimistic.
MONTAGNE: Although you have also written and spoken about problems with aid in Afghanistan. I mean, over all these years, aid is one of the biggest chunks of the economy and a distorting element of the economy.
I have to say one maybe slightly startling comment that you made - and I'm going to quote you - said it may have been better and more efficient if the international community had simply air-dropped bundles of money throughout the country. What about that? How would aid be better used?
Gen. RICHARDS: Well, it's a very interesting philosophical point, the effect of aid. It can have a pernicious effect. Too much aid has been focused on very worthwhile activities, but not enough on the bare essentials of what makes any community, any people, work, if you like.
And I mean, essentially I used to say, and still do, that what Afghanistan most needs is electricity, irrigation, roads and employment. And we now need to focus, I think, more on the generation of jobs, in the four years, I'll say, that we've now got left to get this right, so they can take the thing forward themselves.
MONTAGNE: There's long been talk in Afghanistan of a window of opportunity. And at the moment we're at a turning point. How many more turning points in your opinion are left?
Gen. RICHARDS: Well, my own view is that this is it. There's no doubt that domestic support - i.e., U.S. and British and other European domestic support for the operation - is, shall we say, slightly fragile. The nations in the area, the region that we're talking about, they don't want us to go on doing this forever.
I think if there is no clear signs of progress over, shall we say, the period of particularly late 2011-2012, then we will have to assess again whether we've got it right. And this is our - not necessarily our final, but this is certainly our best chance now of getting it right. We've got the resources. We've got the troop numbers. It won't go on like that forever, so we've got to get it right.
MONTAGNE: General, thank you very much for joining us.
Gen. RICHARDS: A pleasure, and thank you.
MONTAGNE: General Sir David Richards, the United Kingdom's chief of Defence Staff. He spoke to us in Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Next, we have a story of what an American soldier did to fill time. Between bursts of action, American troops abroad face long stretches of waiting. And when Army Sergeant Bob Persch was shipping out to Eastern Afghanistan a couple of years ago, he discussed an idea with his commander.
Sergeant BOB PERSCH (U.S. Army): I've wanted to learn how to play the guitar for the majority of my life that I can remember, and we had talked about getting a couple of guitars once we got in theater, buy them off of soldiers that were leaving, going back home. And he would play, and I would learn.
INSKEEP: That was the idea, but they couldn't find any guitars. So Sergeant Persch had another idea.
Sgt. PERSCH: I had a copy of the Acoustic Guitar magazine that I had picked up at a PX somewhere between, you know, Alabama and Afghanistan. I did like a general-form email, and I sent to everybody in that magazine that had anything to do with guitars. I sent probably about 120 emails out that night.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
One of those emails went to Robin Weber at Guitar Gallery in White House, Tennessee.
Ms. ROBIN WEBER (Proprietor, Guitar Gallery): You know, I sell guitars for a living. Music is my passion, and I know how important it is for me to play the guitar every day. I can't imagine being deployed overseas and not having your guitar.
MONTAGNE: Robin and Guitar Gallery started donating guitars - first one, then eight. She shipped them to Afghanistan.
INSKEEP: Each instrument, plus shipping, cost her several hundred dollars. Sergeant Persch took delivery at a forward operating base - or FOB, as the troops called them - and then he started making deliveries.
Sgt. PERSCH: I'm an engineer with the Army, so a lot of what I did while I was in theater was fly to different FOBs that had either been attacked or needed to be expanded. And we went to a FOB that had some damage to it, and we had just received another guitar. I did not have a recipient, and so I just packed it up and I took it with me. And I got off that helicopter with that guitar in my hand, and one of the young troops that was there said: Are you going to play the guitar while you're here? And I said well, I will, I said, but my intent was to give it to somebody. There were five or six guys in the group that played, and the look on their faces...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Sgt. PERSCH: ...was pretty amazing.
MONTAGNE: The arrangement between Bob Persch and Robin Weber became so popular, they started a website that takes donations, both money and instruments. It's guitarsfortroops.com.
INSKEEP: Guitarsfortroops.com. They now send about one guitar each week to Afghanistan or Iraq.
Sergeant Persch has since returned from his deployment. And we'll leave you with a sound of a video he shot while inside Afghanistan. It's a soldier playing one of the donated guitars.
(Soundbite of song, "Nothing Else Matters")
INSKEEP: Play them if you got them.
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
NPR's business news starts with China to the rescue in Europe.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: Chinese officials are on a mission to Europe. Spain's leading daily newspaper reports that Beijing is prepared to buy six billion euros, or nearly $8 billion of Spanish government debt. This number has not been confirmed by Chinese officials, but the country has stated its willingness to buy Spanish debt.
This comes as Spain struggles to sell government bonds in the financial markets. Investors are worried about Spain's finances, and that is driving up interest rates that Spain must pay. China has been buying more and more EU government debt and expanding its influence in Europe.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The Ford Motor Company continues to accelerate, at least in one influential ranking. A new survey by Consumer Reports places Ford just a hair behind Toyota as the top car brand.
Michigan Radio's Tracy Samilton reports.
TRACY SAMILTON: According to Consumer Reports, car owners perceive the Ford brand as nearly equal to the Toyota brand, and on key factors of safety, quality and value, they rank Ford better than Toyota. Ford also was best non-luxury brand in a recent J.D. Power survey.
Jesse Toprak is an analyst with TrueCar.com.
Mr. JESSE TOPRAK (Analyst, TrueCar.com): This was long-term planning that is now paying off.
SAMILTON: Toprak says Ford set its sights on catching up to Toyota more than four years ago. The company took out a huge loan that it used to get through the recession without government help and to improve its cars.
Mr. TOPRAK: If you look at Ford's product portfolio now, it is the best they've ever made, not even close to anything else they've ever made in the past.
SAMILTON: As for Toyota, no one expects the company to just relinquish its crown as the quality leader without a fight.
Dave Sullivan, an analyst with AutoPacific, thinks Toyota eventually will recover.
Mr. DAN SULLIVAN (Analyst, AutoPacific): People that have a Toyota love a Toyota, want to buy another Toyota. But people that don't are scared of going after Toyota because of all the recalls. And the recalls haven't stopped.
SAMILTON: Ford says it will keep up the pressure. The company plans to introduce several new vehicles this year.
For NPR News, I'm Tracy Samilton in Ann Arbor.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And our last word in business today is about a new name for an old technology. The word is heat ball, and the old technology is incandescent light bulbs.
Officials in the U.S. and Europe are phasing out this old-fashioned lighting technology to save energy. But German businessman Siegfried Rotthauser is working around the new rules by calling his bulbs heat balls. On his website he describes his products as, quote, "small heating devices." He states they are not lamps. They just look like light bulbs and happen to fit in light sockets.
And this shows how much people love their incandescent light bulbs. According to one report, the heat balls are a hot item. The first batch of 4,000 sold out in three days.
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The debt crisis in Europe is still playing out and there are plenty of danger signs ahead. Big bailouts have been put together to rescue Greece and Ireland, but the bailouts and other efforts have not restored the confidence of the bond traders, those who invest much-needed funds today in hopes of turning a profit later. Since the bond markets play such an important role in the crisis, we sent NPR's London correspondent, Philip Reeves, to find out more about them.
PHILIP REEVES: If you could understand how these markets work, then you understand a large part of the crisis itself. To find out more, we've come here to a caf� called the City Coffee Lounge in the middle of the city of London on a bitterly cold winter's morning. And we're joined by Phil Tyson. He's a bond strategist with MF Global.
And I want to begin by asking you a simple question, what do we mean when we talk about the bond markets?
Mr. PHIL TYSON (MF Global): Essentially, a bond's like an IOU that a government will issue in order to borrow money. So investors will invest in the bonds. They will, in other words, be lending the country or the sovereign money; and the sovereign or the country will be then paying a coupon to them, which is like a set interest rate on that money annually or semiannually, for the life of the bond.
REEVES: And the investors, they're in this for a profit?
Mr. TYSON: Exactly, yes, they expect to see the value of their investments go up as most investors do. So they get very concerned, as we're seeing at the moment in Europe, when there is a risk - an increasing risk associated with that investment.
REEVES: And you're seeing increasing risk across Europe, so in order for investors to lend money to countries with shaky economies, they're going to need enticements, like much higher interest rates. But this creates a cyclical problem, because the more a country has to pay in interest...
Mr. TYSON: ...the more it costs a country to fund themselves.
REEVES: This word contagion keeps being bandied around, the idea that this European sovereign debt crisis passes from one country to another. How does it work?
Mr. TYSON: Well, I mean, essentially what you've got is a situation of a big recession. And essentially we saw six months ago in May, we have this bailout of Greece. Six months on, we have a situation where Greece is back to where it was six months ago. And I think all these bond markets and all these investors are looking at this, and they're saying, well, is this really going to be the cure for the problems? And we're not addressing the fundamental problems in the market, which is, you know, how do we get Ireland and Greece and potentially Portugal and Spain out of this hole? Because they are having to sanction significant cuts in spending, and significant tax hikes, which in turn increases a downside risk to growth for their economy. And also if growth is lower, then the budget deficit will get higher, and it's like a vicious circle.
REEVES: We keep talking about this as a sovereign debt crisis, but it looks to me as if a portion, a significant portion of the sovereignty of the nations we're talking about, is actually held by the bond markets.
Mr. TYSON: Yes, exactly. I mean, you know, all these sovereigns are fully dependent on the bond markets to manage their funding. So it's critically important.
REEVES: What do you think a breakup of the euro would actually look like?
Mr. TYSON: I mean people have speculated that, you know, potentially it could be Germany that jumps ship in the end. I think they'll find some sort of solution to avoid this scenario, but if we do go down the breakup route, then I think that it would end up being more of a two-tier effect, where you have the core economies in one euro bloc, and you have the southern European economies either in a euro bloc of their own, or they split up and go their own way.
REEVES: A breakup in the eurozone would cause a major hiatus for the global economy. As the financial markets swing into action in the new year, fears are swirling about the need for another financial bailout in Portugal. It's clear that all eyes will be on these troubled economies throughout 2011.
Philip Reeves, NPR News, London.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Let's bring in another voice from London, to talk about this some more. Philip Coggan is a columnist and capital markets editor for the Economist magazine. Mr. Coggan, I'm sorry I can't offer you a cup of coffee, but welcome to the program.
Mr. PHILIP COGGAN (Economist Magazine): Thank you very much, Steve.
INSKEEP: We heard the bond trader say that all of these efforts, these bailouts, are not addressing the fundamental problems. That makes me wonder if this crisis is really not over.
Mr. COGGAN: It's definitely not over. In fact, you only have to look at the latest problem for Portugal, which has borrowed money for six months. A year ago it was paying less than one percent to borrow for that length of time. It's most recent cost of borrowing is 3.7 percent, so it's gone up six-fold in the course of a year.
INSKEEP: So the bond traders who do the calculations here are not happy about the risks and that's why they're charging higher interest rates. What's going wrong?
Mr. COGGAN: Well, a couple of fundamental problems. These economies still run trade deficits with the rest of the world. And in the old days they used to devalue their currencies to make their exports more competitive and solve the problem. But now they're a member of a single currency. They cannot devalue their currencies. So the only way to make the economies more competitive is to actually cut costs and wages within that economy. But that's a very, very painful process and bond investors worry that they won't go through with it, so the alternative, then, would be not to pay back their creditors.
INSKEEP: I don't want to get too abstract here, but as you talk, I am thinking about the period leading up to the Great Depression, when the world financial system was on what's called the gold standard and, basically, the financial system ceased to work. Is that the situation with the euro right now - the rules, basically, don't make sense anymore?
Mr. COGGAN: Well, it's a very good analogy, Steve. Just as in that period, countries had to choose between maintaining the value of money, sticking to the gold standard, or their domestic economy - jobs in the domestic economy. And many of them struggled for years and years to stick with gold and eventually gave up because the pain was just too great. And similarly, now, countries have to choose between paying back their creditors and a long period of suffering for their voters. And it's not surprising that the voters tend to opt to not taking that pain and make the creditors pay in the long run. And that's essentially what happened in the 1930s, by going off gold, countries were not paying you back in the same dollars, the same pounds, as when the debt was taken out.
INSKEEP: So what are the real alternatives here, then, for European nations facing severe debts?
Mr. COGGAN: Well, the first, which was mentioned in your report, is the idea of leaving the euro and that would allow them to devalue their currency as they had in the past. The problem with that option is that their debts are denominated in euros.
INSKEEP: Oh, even if you go away from the euro, someone is going to want to be paid back in euros. You've got a problem.
Mr. COGGAN: In euros, exactly. If you leave the euro, you will default. So the second option would be to default and stay within the euro. Now that's been staved off, for the moment, by these rescue packages that have been introduced for Greece and for Ireland. But the problem there is that these countries are still paying five, six percent on that debt, and that's more than they can afford to pay. If you're paying five or six percent, and your economy isn't growing five or six percent per year - which they certainly aren't in Ireland and Greece - then the debt burden just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. It's like trying to fill a bath in which the plug hole is bigger than the capacity of the taps. The money is running out faster than they're putting it in and that's the long-term problem that faces Greece, Ireland, and possibly Portugal, which is why markets are so skeptical.
INSKEEP: Philip Coggan is capital markets editor for the Economist magazine. Thanks very much.
Mr. COGGAN: Thank you.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
When Congress opened yesterday, with a new Republican majority in the House, the first item of business was voting in a package of new rules. Those rules can have an effect on how and which bills become law. Republicans made significant changes in the rules, which has left the Democrats crying foul. NPR's Andrea Seabrook explains.
ANDREA SEABROOK: It is the hallmark of American democracy - the peaceful transfer of power between political opponents. Yesterday, after the new speaker, Republican John Boehner, took the gavel from the former speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, Boehner outlined his plans as head of the new majority.
Representative JOHN BOEHNER (Republican, Ohio): Our aim will be to give the government back to the American people. In seeking this goal, we will part with some of the rituals that have come to characterize this institution under majorities both Republican and Democrat alike.
SEABROOK: Under the Republicans' new rules, every bill must refer to a specific part of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to take up such legislation. Boehner said Republicans will dispense with the idea that bigger bills are better and faster legislating is good.
The rules require all bills to be posted online at least three days before they come to the House floor. And Boehner said the most important change will be in how the rules stymie spending increases and, he said, encourage spending cuts.
Rep. BOEHNER: And we will start by cutting Congress's own budget.
(Soundbite of applause)
SEABROOK: Perhaps the biggest change is in a budgetary practice Democrats enacted to rein in the deficit. It's called pay-as-you-go, and it forced lawmakers to pay for every new dollar spent with a cut elsewhere or tax increase equal to that dollar.
Yesterday, California Republican David Dreier, the chairman of the Rules committee, said that didn't really address what Republicans see as the big problem in Congress.
Representative DAVID DREIER (Republican, California): We don't have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.
SEABROOK: So now instead of pay-as-you-go, Republicans have created a rule they call cut-as-you-go. Meaning, every new dollar spent by Congress must be offset with a dollar cut elsewhere. No tax increases can pay for that spending, said Dreier.
Rep. DRIER: Rather than pairing spending with job-killing tax increases, we will pair it with spending cuts.
SEABROOK: This drew the most ire from Democrats, like Louise Slaughter of New York, the ranking member of the Rules committee. She quoted from a Washington Post editorial.
Representative LOUISE SLAUGHTER (Democrat, New York): Tax cuts for the wealthiest are fully protected, but tax help for those at the other end of the income spectrum? Forget about it.
SEABROOK: The cut-as-you-go rule doesn't even allow lawmakers to close a tax loophole to pay for new spending. And the reason, say Republicans, is that the only way to tackle massive budget deficits is to start cutting; though they did write themselves a few exceptions to their rules, ticking off Democrats.
Representative FRANK PALLONE (Democrat, New Jersey): Today's rules package reveals only one thing, and that is hypocrisy.
SEABROOK: Frank Pallone, of New Jersey, said, take the new health care law. It actually lowers the deficit over the next ten years, but Republicans want to repeal it. So they wrote into their rules an exemption that allows them to ignore the increase in spending it would cause to repeal the law.
Other rules changes would prohibit Congress from passing commemorative legislation, strip delegates of American territories of their voting rights on the floor, and give the chairman of the Budget committee the authority to set spending levels for this year.
But it's more the procedural changes that Speaker Boehner seemed more proud of - smaller, more focused committees, their meetings streamed live online.
Rep. BOEHNER: In time, I believe this framework will allow the House to be a place where the people's will is done.
SEABROOK: And one last change? There will be more time in the schedule for lawmakers to be back home with the people.
Andrea Seabrook, NPR News, the Capitol.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Barnes and Noble announced, this morning, that it had its strongest holiday sales in a decade - with BarnesandNoble.com up nearly 80 percent compared to last year's holiday season, and its stores were up nearly 10 percent. That dramatic increase was spurred by sales of its popular e-reader, the Nook. And that good news comes as its competitor, Borders, is fighting even to keep its stores open.
NPR's Lynn Neary reports.
LYNN NEARY: Larry Kirshbaum has been watching the growth of superstores since his student days in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the hometown of Borders.
Mr. LARRY KIRSHBAUM: The superstore really changed the whole character of the book business.
NEARY: Kirshbaum should know. He went on to become the head of the Time Warner book group and now has his own literary agency. Kirshbaum says stores like Borders and Barnes and Noble greatly expanded the market for publishers, because they carry so many titles and are located in so many parts of the country.
Mr. KIRSHBAUM: They're so integrally connected to the growth of the business over the past 30, 40 years, that any diminution of their size and scope is going to be painful for the industry.
NEARY: So when Borders announced that it was delaying payments to some of its vendors while it sought refinancing, the book world reeled. Everyone knew Borders was in financial trouble, but the company's statement painted a grim picture of the situation. Borders spokeswoman Mary Davis reads an excerpt from the statement.
Ms. MARY DAVIS (Spokeswoman, Borders Books): Borders stated that there can be no assurance that it will be successful in refinancing its senior credit facilities, or restructuring its vendor financing arrangements.
NEARY: The statement went on to say that it's possible the company could experience a liquidity shortfall. It didn't mention the word bankruptcy, but bankruptcy or worse was on everyone's mind.
No one, says Fordham University marketing Professor Al Greco, wants to see the end of Borders.
Professor AL GRECO (Marketing, Fordham University): This would be a horrendous event for authors and agents who would lose money, for consumers and for the book publishers - not a happy situation for anybody.
NEARY: Among those who would be upset if Borders did not survive is 25-year-old Megan Isaacson, who would hate to lose her Borders store in Meridian, Idaho.
Ms. MEGAN ISAACSON: I would be super disappointed.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. ISAACSON: And then I'd probably have to go find somewhere else. I'd, you know, have to go to, like, Barnes and Noble, which I find is too big.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. ISAACSON: Or I'd have to search out some independent ones. Or go on line.
NEARY: Consumers buying books from online retailers like Amazon is one of the factors that led to Borders' troubles. The retailer has also suffered from frequent changes in management. And unlike Barnes and Noble, which came out with its popular e-reader the Nook, Borders was ill-prepared to compete in the digital book market.
But Michael Norris, a publishing analyst with Simba Information, says even a competitor like Barnes and Noble could be hurt if Borders went under.
Mr. MICHAEL NORRIS (Senior Trade Book Analyst, Simba Information): I don't think that anyone at Barnes and Noble's headquarters is going to be celebrating if Borders goes out of business, because I just don't think that would benefit them at all. And I think that they would benefit, as would all consumers, by having a healthy number of bookstores that are committed to the future of the product in the competition for business.
NEARY: Borders is meeting this week with publishers in an effort to work out new payment terms. And publishers have their own bills to pay, says Al Greco. But in this situation, they may have no choice.
Prof. GRECO: The publishers may have to go along and help Borders out, in order to not create a catastrophic situation in the book business.
NEARY: Barnes and Noble has issued its own statement about Borders meetings with publishers: It says the playing field should be even, and publishers should give the same terms to all booksellers.
Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.
INSKEEP: Barnes and Noble's e-reader is selling well, along with Amazon's Kindle and the Sony Reader. Other readers have not succeeded at all. Apple's wildly popular iPad prevented a number of e-readers from even reaching the market last year.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
So we say goodbye this morning to the Plastic Logic Que. It was promoted as a business-oriented device with a big screen, the size of a full sheet of paper. Its spring release never happened.
INSKEEP: Bookeen Orizon was a six-inch device that claimed to have a smooth touch and no glare problems. Not really sure if that's true, because it never hit stores in 2010.
MONTAGNE: Then there was the Skiff, with a big touch-screen display that was supposed to appeal to newspaper and magazine readers. But that didn't float.
INSKEEP: None of these disappointments will prevent more companies from diving into the e-reader business in 2011. A Chinese company is unveiling an e-reader with color e-ink, promoting a full-color display without the glare from a screen.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Here's one way you could sum up TV viewing in 2010: There was more and there was less.
NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports on Nielsen's ratings for the past year.
ELIZABETH BLAIR: A TV record was broken last year.
(Soundbite of a crowd cheering)
Unidentified Man: He's going to score - 16 yards.
BLAIR: 106.5 million people watched the New Orleans Saints win their first Super Bowl, making it the most-watched TV event ever. It beat the record previously held by the final episode of "MASH" in 1983: It had 105.9 million viewers.
Mr. STEPHEN BATTAGLIO (Business Editor, TV Guide): And a lot of people thought that record would never be topped.
BLAIR: Stephen Battaglio, business editor for TV Guide, says that's because people have so many more channels today than they did back in 1983, the slices of the pie have gotten a lot smaller.
Consumers can also watch TV whenever they want. Digital video recorders, or DVRs, are now in 38 percent of all homes - up 30 percent from last year.
Battaglio thinks that's partly why only a live sports event could break "MASH's" record.
Mr. BATTAGLIO: A live event like the Super Bowl, you've got to be there. You've got to be in front of the set so you can talk about it the next day and be a part of national conversation.
BLAIR: Sports dominated the Top 10 cable ratings for 2010: the NFL on ESPN, Major League Baseball on TBS. The biggest non-sports hit on cable was TNT's "Rizzoli & Isles," a police drama starring Angie Harmon.
(Soundbite of TV show, "Rizzoli & Isles")
Ms. SASHA ALEXANDER (Actor): (as Dr. Maura Isles) Did you actually tackle him?
Ms. ANGIE HARMON (Actor): (as Detective Jane Rizzoli) Yes, like a linebacker.
BLAIR: DVR has helped "Mad Men" more than any other show.
(Soundbite of TV show, "Mad Men")
Mr. JOHN HAMM (Actor): (as Don Draper) So as of today, Sterling, Cooper, Draper, Price will no longer take tobacco accounts.
BLAIR: Its audience nearly doubled when you count DVR playback.
The usual suspects topped Nielsen's ratings for regularly scheduled series last year: NBC's "Sunday Night Football," "Dancing with the Stars." And in the number one and two spots, "American Idol."
The amount of time Americans spent watching TV remained steady at about 34 hours per week.
Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
A spilled cup of coffee can ruin a shirt or it can force an emergency landing, as it did Monday night on a flight from Chicago to Frankfurt. During a moment of light turbulence, the pilot spilled coffee on some equipment in the cockpit. That caused a malfunction that radio-signaled a hijacking. The crew stopped the false alert, then decided to divert to Toronto anyway, where the 241 passengers spent the night.
This is MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
John Coughlin's wife was having a baby, which was coming too fast. So Coughlin drove his wife toward a Manchester, New Hampshire, hospital at 102 miles per hour. Soon a state trooper was chasing them, so the Coughlins called 9-1-1. They got a message back to the trooper, who then escorted them to the hospital. The baby was born six minutes after arrival. The trooper congratulated Coughlin, then gave him a speeding ticket.
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Brett Neely has this report on where the new jobs are coming from.
BRETT NEELY: The jobs are out there. But sometimes, as Jessica Cooper found out, it takes six months and lowered expectations to find them. She's an experienced bookkeeper in the construction industry - no jobs there for awhile. Throughout her job search, she kept seeing lots of jobs in the health care industry - which kept adding positions through the recession.
M: And I felt like every time I was doing a job search, it was for nurses and physician assistants and things like that, and I don't have any training in that sort of a thing.
NEELY: So Cooper wound up with a part-time job selling clothes at The Gap. It pays $12 less an hour than her old job.
M: It was kind of disappointing, but at the same time, I mean, I knew that was the way it was going to be. I just needed a job.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: So I went for it.
NEELY: Macy's spokesman Jim Sluzewski says the chain will add 3,500 positions over the next two years to beef up its online operations. Many of the jobs will be relatively low-paying jobs packing boxes for shipment. But Sluzewski says the company is hiring plenty of other workers, too.
M: Merchants - which are buyers and planners - to programmers, to software engineers.
NEELY: While many large companies are once again profitable, labor economist Gary Burtless at the Brookings Institution says they're cautious about spending the big cushions of cash they've built up.
M: Businesses have to be confident that the demand for the good or product that they sell is going to be reliably bigger in the future than it is right now.
NEELY: That rings true for Bill Cave in Fort Mill, South Carolina. He's been unemployed for two years and finally starts a new job on Monday.
M: The job is a temporary position. It's for a staffing company, doing research on the clients that they have.
NEELY: Most of those jobs are thanks to orders from overseas, says Boeing spokesman Tim Neale.
M: Particularly in Asia and the Middle East, but also in places like Africa and Latin America, where passenger traffic is on the rise.
NEELY: Brett Neely, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Afterward, both students went on to successful careers. Holmes became a doctor, and Hunter is now Charlayne Hunter-Gault, who has reported over the years for NPR News. She remembers the day they walked onto campus in January 1961.
CHARLAYNE HUNTER: And we were led by - accompanied by Vernon Jordan, who was on the legal team that had won the case, and my mother, who was about five feet, four inches tall, Hamp's father and Hamp. And we had no security or anything, and we just walked into this crowd so confident that we were doing the right thing, that I just don't think we ever for a moment thought about being afraid.
HUNTER: Don't walk so fast. My legs are not as long as yours.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
HUNTER: So, you know, we had - we maintained our moments of sanity, I think, by being just who we were.
INSKEEP: Didn't you have to do this twice, though? You went for a day. Then it was advised that you stay away for a while, for your own safety. And then...
HUNTER: Well, it was advised because there was a riot outside my dormitory the second night I was on campus. I lived in a dorm room that was isolated from the other students. The girls lived on the second floor. I lived on the first.
INSKEEP: And all of a sudden, in the middle of one of these chants, a brick was hurled through the window. And, you know, in those days, I might have been a historical symbol, but I was also a 19-year-old girl and I loved clothes. And the thing I thought about as that brick came through my window was, oh, my goodness. There's glass all over my clothes.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: Oh, man.
HUNTER: And as I walked out of the dorm, the girls had come down from the second floor. They were all assembled down there because tear gas had been thrown to disperse the crowds - somewhat belatedly. And so they had been told to change their sheets, in case some of the gas got in the sheets.
HUNTER: And then our lawyers went back to the courts the very next day, and we were readmitted and came back the following Monday, just to give us time to catch our breaths.
INSKEEP: Did it ever feel normal?
HUNTER: Well, I guess there were times when it felt pretty normal. Yeah, there were students in the journalism school who became friends. And then there was a teacher, who just passed recently. Her name was Frances Wallace. And she had seen from her window, up high in the building where she lived, the rioting students. And when things calmed down, she invited me over for tea.
HUNTER: J.D. Salinger and Robert Frost, all the people that I was enamored with as a student of English. And those were precious days. And the tea was pretty good, too.
INSKEEP: How do you think your life might be different if you had gone somewhere else to college?
HUNTER: Well, you know, my lifelong dream had been to be a journalist. But I think my path was different in one way because of the notoriety of the case. I was invited to come to New York by that legendary editor, William Shawn...
INSKEEP: He was the editor of the New Yorker magazine for many years.
HUNTER: And one of the things I learned about journalism and journalists is that you don't have to be an advocate for something you care about. But you can care about something and do it in a totally acceptable, journalistic way, without violating any kind principles.
HUNTER: Well, now, look. If anybody was going to get scoop, if anything was scoop-able, he was going to get it. You know?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
HUNTER: So I learned that you can develop your sources and be nice to people. So I was able to be an observer, as well as a participant, and fortunately, of an age where I could learn and benefit, looking at the good and the bad.
INSKEEP: Thanks very much.
HUNTER: Thank you, Steve.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
F: NPR's Frank Langfitt reports that the voting may be the easy part.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARCHING BAND)
FRANK LANGFITT: The mood in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan, is boisterous these days. Marching bands and sound trucks roam the streets, urging people to vote for independence. But after next week's polling, the real work begins. Southern Sudan is nearly the size of Texas but has hardly any paved roads. Corruption is rampant. And illiteracy hovers around 60 percent.
INSKEEP: Juba University, the biggest school in the south. But right now I'm here in one of the dorm areas and it's frankly really trashed. There are lots of broken windows, there's garbage all over the courtyard, the floors are flooded. And I'm next to a bunch of goats here who are eating into a bag of rotted food.
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LANGFITT: Conditions inside the dorm room are no better. Wow.
U: Yeah. it is our room.
LANGFITT: William Simon is 24. He's studying finance in hopes of getting a job at a bank.
M: The number of the students is very high. Most of them are sharing beds. Others are sleeping outside even. Some people have left the university because the condition is very bad. People are scrambling for food.
LANGFITT: The Reverend Milton Lado, the school's acting deputy academic secretary, agrees.
LANGFITT: It's terrible, it is terrible, but as time goes, we hope things will improve.
LANGFITT: Lado says the school can't afford to expand. He's hoping for help from foreign organizations.
LANGFITT: Our expectations are that once the referendum is over, we expect some good Samaritans to come in and assist the university.
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LANGFITT: Philip Waiwai handles road maintenance for the government here. He says many rural roads wash out in the rainy season, including the 370-mile route from Juba, the capital, to Malakol, another major city of one million.
M: The end of May to November, you can't use that road.
LANGFITT: So how do people get from Malakol to Juba?
M: Well, you fly. You use charter planes to come, to come to Juba.
LANGFITT: Waiwai has high hopes for Southern Sudan's transport system. In the next couple of months, his department will start an asphalt highway to the Ugandan border. But he says the government has to generate more money to build more roads, and keep it out of the hands of crooked officials.
M: We need to have a system where the taxes collected are transparently used for development, not to go to some individual pockets. So we suspect that the corruption is still very high.
LANGFITT: Corruption is very high. I speak from experience. On two recent trips to Juba, police shook down my taxi driver for bribes. A female cop was pretty blunt earlier this week.
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U: Stop the car, stop the car. Pay money.
LANGFITT: Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Juba, Southern Sudan.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Some federal judges are feeling swamped. About 10 percent of seats on the federal bench are now vacant and that is creating a backlog of cases in the courts. Dozens of judicial nominations that would fill those seats have not been confirmed by the Senate. This week President Obama re-nominated 42 judicial candidates, hoping they will be confirmed the second time around. NPR's Carrie Johnson has our report.
CARRIE JOHNSON: There are so many vacancies on the federal courts that judges themselves are starting to sound the alarm. Judge Alex Kozinski leads the 9th Circuit Appeals Court based in California. He and his colleagues wrote to the Senate a few months ago, describing their desperate situation.
ALEX KOZINSKI: What we're seeing is that a number of our district courts are swamped with cases, and really in very bad need of judicial appointments.
JOHNSON: Criminal cases in those busy courthouses take priority. That means, Kozinski says, that civil disputes can take years to resolve. Cases that challenge the denial of Social Security benefits, deportation orders, and important environmental disputes. He's worried about what those delays mean to people who have real problems.
KOZINSKI: What they used to say on "People's Court" - don't take the law into your own hands, take them to court. That's the American way. And once people realize that you go to court and nothing happens, I think they are going to be looking for other ways of resolving the disputes.
JOHNSON: Chief Justice John Roberts recently called on the Senate to move urgently. And leaders at the American Bar Association are speaking out too.
STEPHEN ZACK: There is no priority higher for the ABA, to make sure that we have a fully staffed and fully operating federal bench.
JOHNSON: That's Stephen Zack. He's president of the ABA. And he's been getting an earful from judges who feel overwhelmed and from nominees who have been going nowhere in the Senate.
ZACK: Quite a few nominees came out of committee with no recorded opposition. None. That means that neither side said there was any reason for them not to be confirmed. So this is not a philosophical Republican/Democrat issue. These are issues that are much deeper as far as, you know, how government is being operated.
JOHNSON: Russell Wheeler studies judicial vacancies at the Brookings Institution. And he says similar reforms are in order for judge nominees.
RUSSELL WHEELER: There is a realization that what we have here is just broken government. The government ought to be able to fill vacancies on the bench without having a food fight over almost every one of them.
JOHNSON: Wheeler says that courts along the Southwest border, crowded with immigration cases, are feeling the pinch - as are courts in Florida, Georgia, and Illinois. Tim Lewis used to be a judge on the 3rd Circuit Appeals Court in Philadelphia.
TIM LEWIS: This has become a progressively degenerating process, and frankly a national disgrace, and I don't have confidence that this will abate any time soon.
JOHNSON: Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
When a woman at the movies starts crying, it may be having an effect on her male companion. That may not surprise many guys out there, but this could. It may affect her male companion even if he can't see the tears. That's the conclusion of a team of Israeli scientists. NPR's Joe Palca has more.
JOE PALCA: You don't have to be a psychologist to know that tears can have a powerful effect. You see someone cry, and anger tends to turn to compassion. But a group of Israeli scientists wondered if the effect was strictly visual. In other words, might there be some chemical in human tears that was responsible for that urge to care for someone? So they advertised for males or females willing to donate tears.
IDAN FRUMIN: We got, mainly, female donors.
PALCA: Idan Frumin is a biochemist at the Weizmann Institute for Science in Rehovot. He and his colleagues decided to see whether just smelling a woman's tears had a measurable effect on men. So they had their female tear donors watch sad movies, then they took a few drops of a woman's tears, and had men sniff them to see if the tears had any recognizable smell.
INSKEEP: And they don't.
PALCA: Even though they didn't smell anything, Frumin and his colleagues still asked their subjects to fill out a questionnaire.
INSKEEP: One of the questions in the questionnaire was: What is the state of sexual arousal of this specific subject in this specific moment? And to our amazement, we saw that - a drop in arousal.
PALCA: Thomas Cleland is a psychologist at Cornell University.
THOMAS CLELAND: It's probably the best study yet showing that chemical communication between humans is a reality.
PALCA: But psychologist James Cherry, of Boston University, says while the Israeli study convinces him that there is some chemical signal, you can't say it's only in tears from the Israeli experiments.
INSKEEP: Certainly, there are effects. But whatever substance, or substances, that may be there could be found in a lot of places. You just don't know that.
PALCA: Psychologist Ad Vingerhoets, of Tilburg University in the Netherlands, has also been studying human tears. He says women's tears may reduce male testosterone and sexual arousal, but that's not the main effect.
INSKEEP: It's my hypothesis that tears - has an effect not primarily on testosterone, but on oxytocin.
PALCA: Joe Palca, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
At the same time, a few states, including California, are moving ahead quickly with implementation. From member station KQED in San Francisco, Sarah Varney has more.
SARAH VARNEY: California has blazed many trails - from wheatgrass shots to personal computing. But with the health overhaul, it's shaping up less as a trailblazer and more as a renegade. Its congressional delegation and new crop of state leaders, including new California insurance chief Dave Jones, are not only embracing the law, but championing it.
M: As to my first priority - the implementation of health care reform - I believe it is important to move forward here in California, even if a new Republican majority in the House of Representatives wants to turn the clock back and deny Americans health care reform.
VARNEY: And like a good 'ole barn-raising, the California insurance exchange - a centerpiece of the plan - is rising out of the earth, practically overnight, with help from both parties. Earlier this week, outgoing Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made two appointments to the board that will oversee the exchange. One was his chief of staff, Democrat Susan Kennedy. The other was former secretary of Health and Human Services Kim Belshe, a Republican.
M: California wasn't starting from scratch with implementation.
VARNEY: Belshe led Schwarzenegger's effort to remake the state's insurance market in 2007, a plan similar to what is now federal law. The proposal failed, but Belshe says it created momentum.
M: California's guiding motto for health reform implementation has been 2014 is tomorrow. And it's true that many federal reforms are not slated to take effect until 2014, but the magnitude and the import of the state responsibilities require action now.
VARNEY: Still, strong support for the health law isn't surprising, says Democratic political consultant, Chris Lehane. California Democrats have a big lead in voter registration, in part due to a loyal - and growing - Latino population.
M: Part of it is the demographics. I think part of it is just the culture that exists out in California - people are forward looking, they embrace change.
VARNEY: California's enthusiasm is buoyed, no doubt, by the fact that the state won't pay for the expanded coverage out of its own depleted vault - at least not right away. And it has a lot to gain. The state has legions of uninsured residents, many of whom work in low-paying, service-sector and agricultural jobs. And some 3.4 million people are projected to gain coverage by mid-decade.
M: There is a huge benefit for folks in California from this legislation.
VARNEY: Robert Restuccia is head of Community Catalyst - a Boston-based consumer advocacy group that supports the federal law.
M: You have an insurance market that really discriminates against anyone who is sick. You have one of the highest number of uninsured. You have a delivery system that's underfinanced.
VARNEY: For NPR News, I'm Sarah Varney in San Francisco.
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INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Here's Chana Joffe-Walt from our Planet Money team.
CHANA JOFFE: The man responsible for averting another global economic meltdown has a small frame. He scribbles every other word and number he speaks onto a pad of paper - and he's got a really good name for the job.
M: Angel. Angel. I don't know how to pronounce it in English. We say here: Angel. It's Angel, I mean, like Charlie's Angels.
JOFFE: Angel, Angel Borges. He spells out in big letters, Angel, with his pen and paper. Angel is a banking specialist and a few months ago he got a call requesting that he please assist in saving the Spanish banking system, more specifically to try to save a very peculiar type of Spanish bank called cajas de ahorros - small, very local banks that are at the center of Spain's banking crisis. More than half of Spanish banking deposits are in this kind of bank. And they're not run by bankers but by local politicians, or in some cases, priests.
INSKEEP: The cajas have been safe and boring. That has been the traditional until a few years back.
JOFFE: A few years back, when Spain joined the euro. This is Luis Garicano, by the way. He's an economist at the London School of Economics. And he says being part of the euro meant cajas could borrow money cheap. Being in the midst of a real estate bubble in Spain meant the cajas could lend it out and make a lot of money.
JOFFE: housing, office space. One caja opened a theme park. Another caja opened an airport in La Mancha, 120 miles from Madrid.
M: Your listeners will know La Mancha as the area where Don Quixote lived. And it's as empty as it was in the time of Don Quixote. It's a big plain with cereal fields. You can imagine it as completely empty. And in the middle of that plain there's an airport to which nobody wants to fly.
JOFFE: Which means Spain has to do something to convince those investors - no, no, no, no, things are OK here. Do not stop lending.
INSKEEP: Enter Angel and his pen and paper.
M: OK. One year ago there were 46 savings banks in Spain, 46. From 46 to 12, you need to find combinations of these. So some of them were...
JOFFE: So who's going to get partnered with who?
M: Yes, that's it.
JOFFE: Angel had worked with a lot of cajas before, so they hired him to facilitate the process - to try to help find each other and team up. He would arrange meetings between banks.
M: First of all, we'll talk without any type of commitment, anything like that. Let's know each other, to see whether there's some, what we call here in Spain what is chemistry, chemistry between them. And if there were some good looks between the two of them, we will go along. I mean, let's work together and what would be a nice arrangement of what would be a...
JOFFE: So you're like the man arranging marriages between cajas.
M: Something like that, yeah, yeah, something like that. So it was funny, was funny, the process.
JOFFE: It was funny for a little while. There were good looks, there was chemistry, there were dreams. Angel would arrange more meetings, and it would all be going well until inevitably someone at the table would ask the question...
M: Who's going to lead? Who's going to lead?
JOFFE: Who's going to be in charge?
M: Yes. Who's going to be in charge?
JOFFE: That was the hardest question. And there were other problems.
M: If you have two saving banks who are going to merge, you don't need two accounting departments. You don't need two risk departments. You don't need two marketing departments. You only need one. And for that you need to fire some people.
JOFFE: Luis Garicano, the economist, says these are tiny problems, though, compared with the fundamental question - who is going to lead - which in a lot of cases hasn't exactly been resolved.
M: And the worst case is, for example, Caixa Nova, Caixa Galicia, two cajas from the northwest of Spain. What they have done is they take turns. They have decided that one CEO is going to be the CEO for 18 months and the other guy will be there after 18 months. And in every position from the top to the bottom, they've put a general director and a vice general director and a marketing head and a co-marketing head and a finance head and co-finance head - and so they have two jobs for every - absolutely every function.
JOFFE: The mergers were supposed to be completed as of January 1st. And for the most part they were. Now, are the merged banks necessarily better off? Well, even their matchmaker, Angel Borges, told me he is sure there is going to be more problems and more mergers will be needed.
M: I don't know if it's going to be next month or next 18 months or next three years, but they are going to have - I don't know...
JOFFE: You think this is only the beginning?
M: Sure, definitely. Definitely.
JOFFE: Chana Joffe-Walt, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Here's NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro.
LOURDES GARCIA: Prime Minister Netanyahu gave an interview at the end of last month to Israel's Channel 10, and the first question out of the presenter's mouth...
GARCIA: (Foreign language spoken)
GARCIA: The journalist was referring to a speech that Avigdor Lieberman gave to foreign ambassadors in Israel the night before.
M: (Foreign language spoken)
GARCIA: David Horowitz is the editor of The Jerusalem Post.
M: What you have here are a pair of ambitious politicians - one of whom is the prime minister, the other of whom, in my opinion, certainly would like to be and thinks that he may be in time.
GARCIA: Netanyahu was born here and has a history of political service. His party, Likud, has long been a part of the political establishment and takes a more nuanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian issue, endorsing peace talks. And, says Horowitz, the two men have very different ways of getting their message across.
M: Netanyahu is, you know, now in his second term as prime minister. He's very capable of sensitive rhetoric and crafting sophisticated messages. He's very good in public. Lieberman is much blunter and delights in that. He wants his audience to understand very clearly that he's very pessimistic about this or he's very certain about that, so the rhetorical styles are very, very different.
GARCIA: Itzhak Galnoor is a professor of political science at Hebrew University. He says Lieberman uses the Foreign Ministry to push forward his party's agenda, and that often puts him in conflict with the prime minister.
INSKEEP: We have a minister of foreign affairs that doesn't distinguish between his state responsibilities and his party goals. He behaves like a party leader and uses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to advocate a partisan view. And so in this sense he doesn't represent - not only the government, doesn't even represent the state of Israel, or even the coalition.
GARCIA: Dore Gold is the head of a right-wing think tank with close ties to the government. He says the concerns over tensions between the two men are overblown. He notes that members of the prime minister's cabinet come from different parties, including left-leaning Labor.
M: It's true there's been a lot of focus on the relations between Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But look at the case of Defense Minister Ehud Barak. He has given public addresses speaking about Israel dividing Jerusalem, which is completely against the policies of the Likud Party - certainly against Mr. Lieberman's party. So is that a problem? It's a parliamentary democracy. There are different views.
GARCIA: Gold acknowledges, though, that that reality often makes it hard to distinguish what the real policies of the Israeli government are.
INSKEEP: Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News, Jerusalem.
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STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's Friday morning, time again for StoryCorps. Americans are talking about their lives in this project. Rob Littlefield was inspired to share his story by others who've spoken out against bullying in recent months. At StoryCorps, Rob remembered junior high school, and what happened when his classmates learned he was gay.
M: I lived that year not ever being able to talk to anybody about it. You know, I can remember my parents saying, what's going on - you know, why did this happen? And at that age, you know, you're scared to death. And the only way that I could see out of that situation was to take my life. I thought about it; I thought about it hard.
B: At 55 years old, I look at this finger still, all the time. I can't help but look at that finger, and I could remember the names of those kids when I was 13. I wonder what they think of their gay grandson. I wonder what they think of their gay son. Well, I just wonder how they're living their lives today.
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INSKEEP: That's Rob Littlefield at StoryCorps in Oklahoma City. His interview will be archived in the StoryCorps collection at the Library of Congress. And by the way, you can get this project's podcast at npr.org.
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STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports.
WENDY KAUFMAN: Holly Petraeus has been tireless in her efforts to protect members of the military from predatory lending and other abusive practices. For the past six years, she's been working on behalf of service members at the Better Business Bureau, and she knows what she's talking about. She said she and her husband were themselves easy prey as a young Army couple.
KAUFMAN: We made some of the rookie financial mistakes that I counsel people against today: buying the expensive sports car, signing an apartment rental contract sight unseen based on a slick brochure, putting money into a questionable investment opportunity without doing any serious research simply because it promised great returns.
KAUFMAN: Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, says Petraeus is the perfect individual to set up the office. He cites her knowledge and commitment. He adds the country will benefit when service members are on sound financial footing.
KAUFMAN: A service member who's worrying about whether their family can pay their bills or being harassed by creditors just can't function effectively.
KAUFMAN: Wendy Kaufman, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
The fallout from NPR's dismissal of former news analyst Juan Williams has claimed NPR's top news executive, Ellen Weiss. As NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik reports, the announcement of her resignation yesterday coincided with the release of the findings of an external review of the incident.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, Host:
It is a startling fall for Weiss, the senior vice president for news who worked her way up the ranks over nearly three decades at NPR. Nonetheless, says Robert Siegel, host of ALL THINGS CONSIDERED and a longtime and an admiring colleague, the logic was clear.
ROBERT SIEGEL: It doesn't surprise me that somebody was going to go after the incredibly sloppy, messy and often embarrassing severance of Juan Williams. I don't think that Ellen's leaving is a measure of her work over the years. I think it was this one, very poorly handled event.
FOLKENFLIK: Weiss's career at NPR unraveled with a single call - the one back in October, in which she told Williams he had made one too many inappropriate remarks. He had made those remarks on Fox News - where he had been a paid commentator - about fearing airline passengers in Muslim garb. The way Weiss fired him became the flashpoint for a heated public debate. NPR board chairman Dave Edwards.
M: I think we all know that the termination was not handled in the best possible way. Management has previously acknowledged that fact. They've admitted the fact that it was done hastily. And I think we all know that that contributed to a lot of the misunderstandings and criticisms of NPR.
FOLKENFLIK: NPR CEO Vivian Schiller was given a vote of support by that board yesterday, as she was shortly after the incident. This time, however, it was accompanied by a rebuke. She lost last year's bonus. Schiller said she accepted responsibility for her involvement in the affair, which included a verbal gaffe that required her to apologize to Williams.
M: This has been a very difficult episode for everyone involved at NPR, and at our public radio stations. And I regret the impact it's had.
FOLKENFLIK: After Williams was dismissed by NPR, Fox gave him a $2 million, three-year contract. Williams spoke on Fox News yesterday about being fired by Weiss for those remarks about Muslims.
M: That statement, she said, was evidence of bigotry, that she felt that it was no longer any place for me because I had crossed the lines of her journalistic standard. I think what I crossed was her politically correct red line in the sand.
FOLKENFLIK: Yesterday, it was Weiss' turn to leave NPR. Robert Siegel says she was a creature of NPR through and through, even during an increasingly multimedia age.
SIEGEL: She was a very, very strong advocate within NPR for the radio programs that she had produced, and that she had worked with when she was editing our national reporting.
FOLKENFLIK: David Folkenflik, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
The news from our southwest border is usually about increased security, more fences, more agents, more unmanned aerial vehicles. Yesterday the federal government announced it plans to reopen a border crossing. It's between Texas and Mexico and it was shut down after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. NPR's John Burnett reports that local residents are elated.
JOHN BURNETT: Fearing terrorists sneaking up from Mexico, the U.S, government shut down this informal crossing, and others like it, up and down the border. On Thursday, Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, Alan Bursin, stood in the national park and made a startling announcement.
M: There's a great expression in Spanish: el futuro ya no es lo que era antes. The future is not what it used to be. And you never can go back, but you can go forward. This crossing which will mean so much to the local communities can be accomplished without, in any way at all, compromising the security of the American homeland.
BURNETT: The actual crossing will be via ferry boat, the second one on the southwest border. A Border Patrol official says the leaky rowboat from Boquillas will be replaced by an approved river-worthy watercraft operated by a park concessionaire. Construction on a combination park visitor center and passport- control building will begin next summer. And they hope the first visitors can float across by April of 2012. Today, Boquillas del Carmen is nearly dead, depending, as it did, almost totally on the national park.
M: When we shut it down, they had no way to get food, work, gas; I mean most of these towns are a good five, six hours from any other real village.
BURNETT: That's Cynta de Narvaez, a retired river guide and crossborder activist who lives in nearby Terlingua. After the Border Patrol closed the crossing, she says she had to travel 12 hours, through Del Rio, to get to the families she was helping in Boquillas.
M: April of 2012, I think that's fantastic. It's beautiful over there, there's incredible mountains, and the people there are friendly and they've been shut off for quite some time.
BURNETT: A Border Patrol official says the Interior Department and the Department of Homeland Security have been quietly working for the past two years to make this happen. Last year, President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon signed a joint statement pledging both countries' interest to protect wild lands on opposite sides of the river. It's an idea that's been around for more than 70 years. Rick LoBello is education curator at the El Paso Zoo and a longtime advocate for a bi-national park.
M: So I think it's great news for the people of Mexico in that area, for Big Bend National Park, for ecotourism, and for the hopes of an international park some day.
BURNETT: John Burnett, NPR News, Austin.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Chicago holds a primary election next month as it moves to select a successor to the retiring mayor, Richard Daley. It's the most contentious mayoral race in decades and it opens a window on the racial and ethnic divides in one of America's largest and most vibrant cities. We begin with NPR's Cheryl Corley.
CHERYL CORLEY: 35th and King Drive on Chicago's South Side is in a historic black neighborhood called Bronzeville. Walking to his office, community activist Mark Allen says race is a constant in Chicago politics and there's nothing wrong with black Chicagoans backing an African-American for mayor.
M: Like the late Mayor Washington used to say, every ethnic group whose political power rises up likes to see people come from their community. So I don't even understand why it's a big deal that the black community would decide it may be our turn again.
CORLEY: Waiting for a bus at 35th Street, Muriel Stacker and Maurice Jones had different opinions about the mayoral race.
M: Whoever is going to really help people, that's who I'm for, and I don't know who that is at this moment.
M: It's time for a chance to get a black lady to be the next mayor of the city of Chicago.
CORLEY: Using the 1983 election roadmap, African-American activists held meetings, pressing to find a consensus candidate in hopes of unifying the black vote. Carol Moseley Braun emerged as a choice. Two other leading black contenders, a congressman and a state legislator, dropped out of the race and offered her their support. Harold Lucas heads Chicago's Black Metropolis Convention and Tourism Council. He says those three would have split the black vote.
M: In Chicago, about five percent of the population is Asian. There's a near equal proportion of blacks, whites and Latinos.
M: Five years ago, people were saying that the next mayor was going to be a Hispanic.
CORLEY: Omar Lopez, the convener of the Chicago Latino Coalition 2011, says Mayor Daley's retirement announcement came much earlier than expected.
M: And so at the time, you know, we never said we were going with a Latino, African-American or white. We said we want to look at them. We want to see who ends up in the ballot and find out which one would be the best mayor for all of Chicago.
CORLEY: At Lazos Tacos, a 24-hour restaurant in Chicago's diverse Humboldt Park neighborhood, white patron Chris Hahn says race won't be a factor in his choice for mayor.
M: I'd rather have a candidate, instead of like someone who says, oh, I'm the candidate for this race. Because then, well, what about everybody else? No matter which race they're for, a third or two-thirds of the rest of the city isn't that race.
CORLEY: Cheryl Corley, NPR News, Chicago.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Congressman, good morning.
R: Well, good morning. How are you doing?
INSKEEP: We heard in that report an activist say of the black community, it may be our turn again. Is it the black community's turn to have the mayor of Chicago?
R: Chicago is one of the most segregated big cities in North America. And most population groups live in three community areas. In order to win an election, one would definitely need to maximize the potential of a base, because many of the individual citizens are isolated from each other. And so their thinking is kind of based along the lines of the community to some degree where they live.
INSKEEP: Are you saying that Chicago is too segregated even in 2011 for a candidate to really broadly appeal to lots of different kinds of people based on an idea, as opposed to an identity?
R: Well, it's not impossible, but it's a long stretch. And individuals have to work extremely hard. They have to spend time in places where they don't normally go. If you don't, then, of course, you've got to rely upon mass media. It takes a lot of money to run television commercials and radio ads in Chicago for two months.
INSKEEP: Now, when you withdrew from the race as part of an effort to unify the black vote behind one candidate, is part of the presumption there that people who are African-American in Chicago had better vote for that one candidate?
R: Well, I withdrew because I knew that coming from the same philosophical community as Carol Moseley Braun, coming from basically the same geographic community, and coming from essentially the same resource community, that we would split all of that. I just believe that Carol Moseley Braun think more like I think, would do more things the same way I would do them. And you should vote for people, I think, who think most like you.
INSKEEP: Congressman, some of the news reports of this have suggested that African-American politicians wanted to unify, if possible, behind a single candidate in part because they wanted to be sure to be able to overcome the candidacy of Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's former chief of staff. Is there some kind of friction between Rahm Emanuel and African-American politicians in Chicago?
R: Well, I'm not so sure that they just wanted to overcome friction or the candidacy of Rahm Emanuel. I think Rahm Emanuel was projected as the front-runner.
INSKEEP: But is there some friction with Rahm Emanuel specifically and black politicians in Chicago?
R: Well, I don't know about Chicago, but there has been - you know, Rahm did not necessarily enjoy the best relationship with the Congressional Black Caucus. I mean, that's kind of where Rahm operated, you know, out of the White House.
INSKEEP: Why did he not have a good relationship with the Congressional Black Caucus?
R: Well, partly because some of the policies that - you know, the Congressional Black Caucus has wanted the Obama administration to do more of what I would call targeting, that is to deal specifically with some of the disparities that exist.
INSKEEP: You're talking about helping the poor, helping minorities, crafting bills that are more specific to that goal.
R: Absolute, directly. I mean, that saves it.
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R: You know, there are some instances where the best help for certain situations is really money. And you can talk everything else, but if there is no money, there is no resource. I mean, you talk about a city like Chicago, where 50 percent of the African-American males between the ages of 16 and 22 don't go to school and don't have a job. They need something special, you know what I mean?
INSKEEP: Congressman Danny Davis of Chicago, thanks very much.
R: Thank you. It's my pleasure.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
NPR's business news starts with a fight over health care costs.
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INSKEEP: California's top insurance watchdog is asking one of the state's biggest health companies to delay a planned rate increase. The increase would affect almost 200,000 policyholders. For some people, the rate hike by Blue Shield of California would be as high as 59 percent. It would be the third rate hike since last fall.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius voiced her concerns in Washington, where Republicans in Congress are pushing to repeal the new health care law.
Blue Shield says the increase is not related to health care overhauls in Washington. The company says it's facing higher prices from health care providers, increased use from policyholders and healthier people dropping their coverage.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And today's last word in business comes from Tokyo. It's expensive sushi.
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INSKEEP: That's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
We're going to get some analysis now from NPR's economics correspondent John Ydstie. John, good morning.
JOHN YDSTIE: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: Okay. What does that meh mean in real terms here?
YDSTIE: And that's what I'm hearing from economists this morning, that the big drop in the unemployment rate is probably a statistical anomaly. They're expecting it to go back up again in the coming months. But the 103,000 job creation number is a disappointment.
INSKEEP: Well, let's just make sure that people understand why these numbers sometimes don't match up. The 9.4 percent is the percentage of people out of work who are looking for work. But that size of the workforce can go up, it can go down. The number of jobs available can go up and go down, and so you sometimes have the numbers heading in different directions. Although we can point out here, John Ydstie, that both numbers seem to have gone at least slightly in the direction we want them to go, just not, you're saying, as far as people had hoped.
YDSTIE: It's going to be a long hard slog, partly because we have key industries like housing and commercial construction flat on their back. They were big employers and they're not going to be adding many jobs any time soon. Also, state local government budgets are in horrible shape. And they're going to be laying off workers this year. That's also going to be a drag.
INSKEEP: Now, let's remember, in these numbers, private sector employment grew but actually government employment shrank, slightly, by about 10,000 jobs. How does all this affect the long-term unemployed, John?
YDSTIE: Well, the long - number of long-term unemployed actually remained about the same. The number of unemployed dropped by 556,000. That's why we got that big drop in the unemployment rate. But again, economists are looking at that number and thinking that it's going to turn around and go back up in the next couple of months. So we'll see more unemployed in the household survey in the next couple of months and probably a higher rate of unemployment.
INSKEEP: All of this comes after Congress and the White House agreed on some major economic changes just at the end of the year - extending President Bush's tax cuts, adding some other tax cuts, extending unemployment. What do people see is the next possible steps given the latest news?
YDSTIE: The Republicans are calling for cuts in the federal budget, figuring that, you know, if the government gets its finances in order, it will provide a better climate for business. But if those cuts come too soon, it could take demand out of the economy and damage growth. And I'm quite sure the White House would not allow that to happen. So I think not likely to see a lot from the White House in Congress, but the Fed will continue its easing, trying to keep the economy going.
INSKEEP: John, thanks very much.
YDSTIE: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's economics correspondent John Ydstie.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson was listening to the president's announcement.
INSKEEP: Today I am proud to announce the appointment of an experienced public servant, a devoted patriot, my friend, fellow Chicagoan, Bill Daley to serve as my chief of staff.
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MARA LIASSON: That's President Barack Obama yesterday, in the East Room, making the single most important move in what aides say is a major retooling of the White House staff. Daley was the commerce secretary in the Clinton administration and he's currently an executive with JP Morgan Chase. That would make him one of those fat cat investment bankers the president once famously criticized. But president Obama explained, Bill Daley is much more than that.
INSKEEP: He's led major corporations. He possesses a deep understanding of how jobs are created and how to grow our economy. And, needless to say, Bill also has a smidgen of awareness of how our system of government and politics works. You might say it is a genetic trait.
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LIASSON: Daley, of course, is steeped in Democratic Party politics. He is the brother of current Chicago Mayor, Richard Daley, and the son of former longtime Chicago Mayor, Richard Daley. He referred to that legacy yesterday.
LIASSON: Fifty years ago this month, I visited the White House with my parents and my brothers and sisters, to visit a young president who went on to show great strength, leadership and vision in the face of enormous challenges in those times. You, Mr. President, are proving your strength, your leadership, your vision during a most difficult time for our nation and for the world.
LIASSON: Daley's appointment was criticized by liberal groups but hailed by the Chamber of Commerce, one of the president's most powerful opponents. Ken Duberstein, who was chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan, says the choice of Daley meets a lot of the president's needs, including reaching out to Republicans in Congress.
LIASSON: He has appointed somebody who is experienced, well versed in the tribal politics of Washington as well as Chicago, somebody who has been around the track and who will do, not only the White House staff job, but also be a very public spokesman for the administration.
LIASSON: And says Duberstein, Daley's ability to coordinate seamlessly with the reelection effort is another key element in his selection.
LIASSON: Bill can reach all the power players on Capitol Hill, so it's really a two-for in the sense of building bridges to the business community, building bridges to the people on Capitol Hill, and helping President Obama build a bridge back to the American people, having been spanked pretty hard in the last November election.
LIASSON: Mara Liasson, NPR News, the White House.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. $00.00
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
President Obama's administration is also circulating a plan that could reopen U.S. highways to cross-border truck traffic from Mexico. The move could ease trade ties between the two countries. But unionized truck drivers here in the United States are not happy. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY: Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Philip Reeves explains.
PHILIP REEVES: Philip Reeves, NPR News, London.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And also, let's mention today, that jobs are being cut in the U.S. military - not right now, though. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he plans to reduce the size of the Army and Marine Corps by up to 47,000 troops, beginning 2015. That, hopefully, will be after the largest U.S. obligations in Afghanistan have been met.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Many consumers seem to have spent more in December, but not necessarily at Best Buy. The consumer electronics chain said today its revenue in December fell 1.6 percent compared with the same month last year. The company cited weak sales of TVs and video game-related products. Better deals at rivals may also have siphoned away sales, which were down 4 percent at outlets that have been open for more than a year.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Next week marks the one year anniversary of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. The quake killed more than 200,000 people, left a million and a half homeless, and destroyed the capital of what was already the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports the challenges facing the Caribbean nation and the international relief agencies that are trying to help remain huge.
JASON BEAUBIEN: Where do you start: Rubble removal? Housing? Water? Toilets? Jobs? A government? Haiti's needs are so great right now that pondering them can be overwhelming.
One year after the quake and months after billions of dollars in assistance have been pledged, Gregory Bateau is tired of waiting for someone, some agency, some aid group, to rebuild his school in Port-au-Prince.
Mr. GREGORY BATEAU: (Foreign language spoken)
BEAUBIEN: The school collapsed on January 12, Bateau says. The students need to go back to school, so we are building a structure for the kids to come and receive instruction.
Except they aren't constructing another three-story concrete building. Bateau and a crew of four other men are hammering together rough-hewn sticks, which will serve as frames for improvised classrooms.
The school used to have 4,000 students attending classes in three different shifts. When the quake hit just after 5:00 p.m., much of the school was empty -not because classes were over but because most of the students hadn't paid their tuition for the New Year. The teachers had sent home early everyone who was behind on their school fees.
Mr. BATEAU: (Foreign language spoken)
BEAUBIEN: Thanks to God we had sent them out because of the money, Bateau says. If we hadn't, more than six children would have died.
Bateau says a Japanese aid agency tore down the building and hauled off the debris. Several other international groups, he says, promised to reconstruct the school but never did. He hopes in 2001 he'll find a way to completely rebuild. But for now, he simply wants a place for students to gather.
Dr. STEFANO ZANINNI (Doctors Without Borders): I think Haiti that is still waiting of a new future.
BEAUBIEN: Stefano Zaninni is the head of Doctors Without Borders in Haiti. Zaninni says the slow pace of the recovery is itself a problem for Haitians.
Dr. ZANINNI: The problem is not to live in a tent. The problem is to feel not involved in these decisions. It is not being aware about what our future will be in the next years.
BEAUBIEN: At the time of the disaster, Doctors Without Borders had a major operation in Haiti. But since the quake they've more than quadrupled their staff and now run 10 hospitals, mainly in Port-au-Prince.
Access to health care was so bad in Haiti before the earthquake that Zaninni says Haitians actually have better health care now than they did a year ago. But he says the response of international aid groups at times failed to address fundamental problems.
For instance, Doctors Without Borders is now involved in cleaning drainage canals and chlorinating water as part of their efforts to suppress cholera in Cite Soleil. There are more than 10,000 relief agencies working in Haiti and it puzzles Zaninni that this task is ultimately left for a group of doctors. He says the international response was generous but at times it lacked coordination.
Dr. ZANINNI: Sometimes different actors or NGOs especially was fighting to put a flag in the same area or in the same spot. And I think this is something we should reflect about.
BEAUBIEN: The deputy mayor of the Delmas section of Port-au-Prince, Jean Gael, has also been reflecting lately about what has and hasn't been accomplished since the quake.
Gael is walking through a market in Delmas near where the mayor's office with their own funds recently rebuilt an important bridge. The deputy mayor says at times the international community doesn't understand what Haiti needs. He says the impoverished country doesn't need food or care packages for people living in the camps.
Mr. JEAN GAEL (Deputy Mayor, Delmas Section, Port-au-Prince, Haiti): (Through translator) What we need here is resources, human resources, like skills. We need tractors, loaders to make the roads and to make gardens for all people to live. We have great vision in this community, but we have no means to implement our vision. Amen(ph).
BEAUBIEN: When he thinks back over the last year, Gael is proud and frustrated at the same time. He shows off a new school and a playground that have opened, but then he points out a retaining wall along a river that desperately needs to be replaced, bridges that have to be rebuilt, and thousands of destroyed houses waiting to be demolished.
Annie Foster, the senior emergency adviser for Save the Children, agrees that what Haiti needs right now are human resources and skills. Foster says some things have improved a lot this year. People are no longer sleeping on the street. Many kids have been able to go back to school. Water is getting delivered regularly at the camps.
Ms. ANNIE FOSTER (Save the Children): But still, I mean you can see, there's a long way for us to go. It's really a struggle here in Haiti. I've worked in a lot of different emergencies and his one's really, I think, the most challenging.
BEAUBIEN: Foster says why this is has fueled many late night debates at the Save the Children compound.
Before the earthquake, political, economic and social power were all concentrated in Port-au-Prince. The earthquake then struck at the heart of the nation.
But Foster brings up the same issue as Deputy Mayor Gael when pondering the slow pace of the recovery. She says it's hard for Save the Children to find skilled Haitian professionals to run their programs.
Ms. FOSTER: There's a big draw to the United States for professional people in Haiti. If they have a good education and the opportunity, they often leave. So that's a struggle for us.
BEAUBIEN: And it's just one of the many struggles playing out in Haiti, as the country enters its second year of recovery from the earthquake.
Jason Beaubien, NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
The New Horizons International Music Association is a non-profit group that helps people over 50 learn how to play an instrument. They've been around for two decades, but they've had a big increase in participation recently. There are now more than 7,000 members. Michigan Radio's Kyle Norris spent time with several senior musicians in Grand Rapids.
KYLE NORRIS: We are in a church basement. And rehearsal for the Beginners Swing Band is just getting started. Most of the musicians here are in their 60s and 70s. You've got four saxophonists, two trumpeters, a trombonist, a baritone player, a pianist, and a guy on drums. And a lot of them are brand spanking new to their instruments.
Unidentified Man: One, two, three, four.
(Soundbite of music)
NORRIS: Pat Conlon plays the big baritone sax in the group. He hasn't played music since he was a young man.
Mr. PAT CONLON: It is totally distracting. No matter what's going on in your life, when you're playing music, nothing else is in your head. It's like a big tranquilizer for a lot of us, just plain fun.
NORRIS: And he could use some fun. Right now Conlon has some money problems.
Mr. CONLON: Well, I'm like most folks. You know, I got great big hits in my IRA accounts, pushing us right up against the wall. So we're very unhappy campers financially now, but this is away from all that.
Ms. NANCY SUMMERS-MEEUSEN (West Michigan New Horizons Music Ensembles): Are you going to sit there and just covet your little piece of the pie or are you going to make yourself happy?
NORRIS: That's Nancy Summers-Meeusen. She directs the West Michigan New Horizons Music Ensembles. And swing band is part of that group. Summers-Meeusen says she's seen people gravitate to music despite some tough situations.
(Soundbite of music)
NORRIS: Music certainly makes Eilene Riggs happy. She played trombone for a short time in high school and loved it, but didn't play after that. Still, whenever she'd hear music, it'd stop her in her tracks.
Ms. EILENE RIGGS: Oh, when I'd see a band I'd - got to stop, I got to listen to this band. If there was a parade, I had to be there to listen to it, because just the drum beat just made my heart race. I just loved the music. And I'd hear the trombones, I say(ph), oh boy, I want to do that again. I want to do that so bad.
NORRIS: So Riggs bought a trombone at a garage sale. And now she plays in the Saline New Horizons band. Last year, Riggs went to band camp for adults at Interlochen near Traverse City. She says the experience was magical. She says it was the high point of her life.
For NPR News, I'm Kyle Norris.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Tijuana, like a number of other border towns in Mexico, has a reputation for drug violence and American tourists seeking cheap and sometimes seedy nightlife. Music lovers in the know have been heading to TJ, as it's known for years, to hit clubs just off a street called La Revolucion.
(Soundbite of song, "Have You Heard")
Ms. CECI BASTIDA (Singer): (Singing in Spanish)
SIMON: They go to hear singers, including Ceci Bastida. She grew up in Tijuana near the beach, but lives in Los Angeles now. Her new CD is called "Veo La Marea" or "I See the Tide." Ceci Bastida joins us from NPR West. Thanks so much for being with us.
Ms. BASTIDA: Thank you for having me.
SIMON: And good to have you here. You know, we're listening to "Have You Heard," the first track on your album. This is a club song about a drug war.
Ms. BASTIDA: Well, I wanted to talk a little bit about the drug war happening right now in Mexico. It's a bit of a criticism of our president's strategy, where he's trying to get rid of these leaders of cartels. And in my opinion, that is not the strategy to fix this problem. And I don't think that I have the ideal way of dealing with this, obviously, but I think it's important to focus on other things.
SIMON: With a club song.
Ms. BASTIDA: I wanted it to be a fun song, and it's a little strange, and people ask me this often, because it's such a serious topic. But in the end I'm also, you know, I'm a musician and I like to create songs that are danceable and that are powerful. And so I wanted to mix them in. And I think it ends up happening a lot with a lot of my other songs.
(Soundbite of song, "Have You Heard")
Ms. BASTIDA: (Singing in Spanish) Hambo, hambo, have you heard? Pop's gonna buy me a mockingbird...
SIMON: You've been singing for a living for some time now, haven't you?
Ms. BASTIDA: Since I was 15, yeah.
SIMON: You were in a band called Tijuana No, right?
Ms. BASTIDA: Right, right.
SIMON: In the early 1990s. And what do you remember from that time, being a teenager and performing?
Ms. BASTIDA: Back then, when I discovered that I could play in a band and that that I could hang out with these people that I had a lot of things in common with, the only thing that I wanted to do was play. I ended up playing with this band for a little over 12 years. But in the beginning it was just about having fun and then all of the sudden feeling like I could identify with all of these other people that I didn't know before.
SIMON: Where'd you play in Tijuana?
Ms. BASTIDA: We would play in all kinds of different places. I mean, there were bars. The weird part was that I was so young and so I wasn't able to hang out in these bars. So it was just play the show and leave.
SIMON: Any chance you brought your homework along and did it at the table of these clubs?
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: All right. I thought I'd have to ask. Okay?
Ms. BASTIDA: I actually did because we had this - every Wednesday we were playing at this club (unintelligible) revolution (unintelligible) that wasn't like the nicest club. I'd bring my homework and work on it. You know, we'd do two sets and, you know, a few people dance and then they'd leave and have to go to high school.
SIMON: We're speaking with Ceci Bastida about her new CD, "Veo La Marea."
And why do you live in L.A. now?
Ms. BASTIDA: I was living in Mexico City before I moved here and I thought it was important for me to kind of move away from the world that I was living in in Mexico City and I wanted to try L.A. And L.A.'s also such a Latino city and it's so close to Tijuana that it's so easy for me to just, you know, go to my car and go down and visit my family and come back.
So, I don't know. Los Angeles feels just really, really familiar to me. It always has.
SIMON: You do a version of a song by the Go-Gos, which was a 1980, I think I can call it, an L.A. girl group that was a little bit pop and a little bit punk. Let's listen to your version of "This Town."
(Soundbite of song, "This Town")
Ms. BASTIDA: (Singing) We all know the chosen toys, of catty girls and pretty boys. Make up that face, jump in the race. Life's a kick in this town...
SIMON: So they're are the original lyrics. Now here's a part that you wrote in Spanish. Let's listen.
(Soundbite of song, "This Town")
Ms. BASTIDA: (Singing in Spanish) Life's a kick in this town...
SIMON: Now, what's the story you're adding here?
Ms. BASTIDA: This is such a Los Angeles story and I thought I only kind of focused on a particular side of L.A., and I wanted to add, you know, the Latino presence. I wanted to add this and talk a little bit about all of these people that are here who are doing a lot of these jobs that people don't seem to sometimes pay attention to. But we're all here and it's difficult to ignore.
SIMON: Well, I guess, and why would you want to ignore it? I mean, for example, you write about - sing about some of the Mexican nannies taking care of children. There's no important job in the life of a city than that.
Ms. BASTIDA: Yes, definitely.
SIMON: I want to talk a little bit about this song even more, 'cause you have the glamour and the grit of L.A. at the same time, plus maybe some political points. And also you have a lot going on musically. You've got a horn section. Let's listen to that.
(Soundbite of song, "This Town")
Ms. BASTIDA: (Singing in Spanish)
Unidentified Man: (Singing in Spanish)
SIMON: Horns have a kind of ska flavor to them.
Ms. BASTIDA: Yeah, it would seem like it. And in the end I wanted to also bring in a little bit of Mexican music, and this is Banda - music from the north of Mexico. And I love it. I think it's a very powerful music. And just adding it to this song, it just makes total sense.
(Soundbite of song, "This Town")
Ms. BASTIDA: (Singing) This town is our town, it is so glamorous, I bet you'd live here if you could and be one of us. This town is our town, it is so glamorous. I bet you'd live here if you could and be one of us...
SIMON: Let's listen to another track, "No Me Conoceras."
(Soundbite of song, "No Me Conoceras")
Ms. BASTIDA: (Singing in Spanish)
SIMON: Not a dance beat here. This is a song about the almost oldest mystery of all, I guess, isn't it?
Ms. BASTIDA: Yes. I wrote this song based on this novel that I really liked by Andrew Sean Greer. And I've read the story of a marriage which I fell in love with, and when I read this book, I really liked it and I thought it was a great story to tell, so that's what I wanted to do. And this story talks about a man that - a kid that grows with an old man's body and how he's becoming younger as the years go by and how he has the opportunity to fall in love with this woman three times in his life and the woman never recognizes him because he looks different.
So I just wanted to do something like that, which I've never done before.
SIMON: What are some of the differences in writing a personal love song as opposed to, let's say, a personal social or political song?
Ms. BASTIDA: For me, for whatever reason, the social-political ones come out a little bit more naturally. I really love beautiful love songs and when people are able to write them, I'm in awe of them. But for me, for some reason, it just goes more the social-political. And it's just, you know, it's part of my life and it's part of everybody's life. And, you know, we all are affected by these things and these wars, for example, that happen, and that I feel like, you know, it's important to talk about them.
SIMON: Ms. Bastida, so nice talking to you.
Ms. BASTIDA: So great talking to you, Scott. Thank you.
SIMON: Ceci Bastida. Her new CD is "Veo La Marea." And you can hear tracks from her new CD at our website, NPR.org. And to hear Ceci Bastida talk about some of her favorite recordings for NPR's Latin alternative podcast, check out Alt.Latino at NPR.org/AltLatino.
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
(Soundbite of song, "Let Me Entertain You")
Ms. NATALIE WOOD (Actor): (Singing) Let me entertain you.
SIMON: To say that Gypsy Rose Lee was a stripper is a bit like calling Frank Sinatra a saloon singer. Yes, but - she was the most popular theatrical entertainer of her time, famed as much for her wit as her shtick. Yes, she slipped off certain articles of clothing. But you'd see just as much flesh in a Doris Day movie, and Gypsy Rose Lee flung gloves or ribbons into the audience, but always left her admirers wanting more.
(Soundbite of recording)
(Soundbite of applause)
Ms. GYPSY ROSE LEE (Burlesque Entertainer): That's all there is. There isn't any more.
(Soundbite of applause)
Unidentified Man: Do it like you did when you did in (unintelligible).
Ms. LEE: Oh boys, I couldn't. I'd catch cold.
SIMON: Karen Abbott has written a book about this extraordinary entertainer. Her book is: "American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare, The Life And Times Of Gypsy Rose Lee."
Thanks so much for being with us.
Ms. KAREN ABBOTT (Author): Thanks so much for having me, Scott.
SIMON: Give us a sense of what it was like to watch Gypsy Rose Lee perform on stage.
Ms. ABBOTT: Well, Gypsy was one of a kind. I mean when you saw her, you had never seen anything like her before and you never would again. One of my grandmother's cousins saw Gypsy perform and he said that Gypsy took a full 15 minutes to peel off a single glove.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. ABBOTT: And that she was so damn good at it that he gladly would have given her 15 more.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. ABBOTT: Anyone who could make peeling a glove that enticing, I need to know more about this woman, and luckily, she just continued to fascinate me.
SIMON: Well, part of it - I mentioned shtick. Part of it was the patter that she kept up while she entertained.
Ms. ABBOTT: Yeah, that's true. She became known as the intellectual stripper.
(Soundbite of recording)
Ms. LEE: Have you the faintest idea about the private life of an exotic dancer? Well, up until a few years ago, it was New York's second largest industry.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. LEE: Now, a fan dancer's education requires years of concentration and for the sake of explanation, take a look at me.
Ms. ABBOTT: Her great accomplishment I think, with her stripping was the idea of blending sex and comedy, and she was the only one to really latch on to that. And, of course, she started drawing big names. I mean H.L. Mencken is the one who coined the word ecdysiast in her in her honor. She became, you know, good friends with many New York literati and became an author herself. So it was sort of the idea that here's a stripper who puts on more than she takes off and uses her wit to entice people, and the idea of turning performance into desire. She really understood that people wanted most what they'll never have.
SIMON: Between her mother, Rose, and her sister, Baby June, who later became known, of course, by the name June Havoc, the actress, Gypsy Rose Lee, or Louise, as she was born, grew up in just about the most famously dysfunctional family of all time - the Hovick family of Seattle. Bring us inside that family, if you could.
Ms. ABBOTT: Oh, you know, Scott, it was the most interesting and the most wrenching part of the research. I would spend hours in Lincoln Center looking through their archives and these letters back and forth to each other, and it was so volatile and erratic. And in one note Rose would be telling Gypsy how much she loved her and please forgive her for the awful past. Then the next note she would be threatening to blackmail her for all the dark and secret things she'd done before she became famous.
Growing up, I mean it was - those girls were abused in a way. They didn't have any schooling. They were not brought to doctors or dentists. Their mother pitted them against one another and taught them to trust no one but her, especially men. There was a whole theme of distrust of men running through that family. And, of course, the mother, she was not well, as June Havoc says very frankly now, she was mentally ill, and today there would be help for.
SIMON: How did Louise Hovick, almost in the space of an afternoon, in the way you tell it, reinvent herself as Gypsy Rose Lee?
Ms. ABBOTT: You know, I love that. Gypsy was nothing if not calculating. She was at a theater and the main lead had gotten, either gotten sick or had been arrested. There's a little discrepancy about that story. Can I quote myself really quick here?
SIMON: Yeah, of course you can.
Ms. ABBOTT: She told the manager that she could fill in for his missing lead, strip scenes and all, and then she sat down before her dressing room mirror and met her creation for the very first time. And she started speaking to herself in the mirror and she told herself she was pretty and she was going to be a star.
And Gypsy the person had a really conflicted, tortured relationship with Gypsy Rose Lee the creation. She was forever caught between her humble roots and her ambition to be accepted by the cultural literary elite. She loved Gypsy Rose Lee because it brought her all of these things that she wanted, fame and money and security, but she also (unintelligible) the limitations of her creation. She sort of lived in an exquisite trap she herself had set.
(Soundbite of movie, "Gypsy")
Ms. WOOD: (as Gypsy Rose Lee) Oh mama, look at me now. I'm a star. Look. Look how I live. Look at my friends. Look where I'm going. I'm not staying in burlesque. I'm moving, maybe up, maybe down, but wherever it is, I'm enjoying it.
SIMON: By the way, we're speaking with Karen Abbott. Her new book, "American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare, The Life And Times Of Gypsy Rose Lee."
Help us appreciate how big Gypsy Rose Lee was.
Ms. ABBOTT: Gypsy, you know, at one time was called the most popular entertainer in the world. She was more popular than Eleanor Roosevelt. During the World's Fair they took a poll and she beat Eleanor Roosevelt in that poll.
SIMON: Mm-hmm.
Ms. ABBOTT: Life magazine called her - she was the only person in the world with a public body and a private mind, both equally exciting. And her greatest trick was sort of it belonged to everyone without anyone truly knowing her. It was a masterful magician's trick she had. Of course, during World War II she was the favorite of the soldiers. They actually named a fighter jet - a stripped-down fighter jet - the Gypsy Rose Lee. And 10 regiments selected her as their sweetheart. So her popularity just, it was widespread, and she somehow touched everybody in a certain way.
(Soundbite of music)
SIMON: The musical "Gypsy," of course, was drawn from her own memoir. To what degree was that story that we see on stage these days and that we know from songs, to what degree was it Gypsy Rose Lee's invention and to what degree was it invented by Art Laurents, the playwright?
Ms. ABBOTT: I don't think that the play adheres much to the real story. It adheres partly to the story Gypsy tells in her memoir. But the story that she tells in her memoir is sort of a sunnier, more optimistic version than what really happened in real life. I mean on the stage her mother Rose is this sort of erratic but kindly and just ambitious, but not - certainly not homicidal woman who just really wanted to have the best for her daughters and celebrate their talents.
(Soundbite of movie, "Gypsy")
Ms. ROSALIND RUSSELL (Actor): (as Mama Rose) (Singing) I had a dream. I dreamed it for you, June. It wasn't for me, Herbie. And if it wasn't for me, just where would you be, Miss Gypsy Rose Lee?
Ms. ABBOTT: In real life, you know, their mother was not somebody who had their best interests at heart all the time. And I think Gypsy's way of coping with the reality of her mother and with the reality of life was to make it a joke, as she did with many things. And she just made her mother a punchline, and that was the way that she could get her mother across. Otherwise, she said, no one would believe her. She didn't think anyone would actually believe the real story, so she made her mother a joke.
And Arthur Laurents' part in it, he - I think he adhered pretty closely to the memoir.
SIMON: When Gypsy Rose Lee would sometimes refer to herself as a prude, was she just trying to be funny?
Ms. ABBOTT: I think she was a bit of a prude, I mean deep down. And I say that because she had a very complicated relationship with sex. She didn't consider herself to really be a sexual person, but yet here she is being held up as a sex object. She was a prude, in the sense that she did not want to expose herself - and that's both literally and figuratively.
When she was on stage during her performance, she would never turn around. She did not want to see, anyone to see her from the back side. And she also had a very complicated costume arrangement and she didn't want people to see her tricks and how she kept everything together and how she removed everything so smoothly. It was prudery, but it was also private. She was a very private person.
SIMON: She wrote all the time too, didn't she?
Ms. ABBOTT: She did. She was a voracious reader and a voracious writer. She, in fact, joined the writers' colony in Brooklyn for a time and she worked there with George Davis and W. H. Auden and Carson McCullers, who she became very good friends with. And while Gypsy was there she was working on her first novel, called "The G-String Murders," which drew, you know, of course, much from her burlesque background.
SIMON: Yeah.
Ms. ABBOTT: I mean it was a bestseller, and you know, wrote several essays for The New Yorker and sort of cemented her status as a member of the literati.
SIMON: You know, Karen, I don't know what moves me to say this, but even separated as we are by decades, I found myself reading this book and - and falling hard for Gypsy Rose Lee.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. ABBOTT: That's interesting. I always wonder what people's reactions are going to be to her. You know, my feelings toward her changed as I wrote the book. I felt sorry for her. I admired her. I was terrified of her. I wanted to be her friend. I never wanted to see her - run into her anywhere. You know, it just sort of was all over the place, so it's interesting that you say that.
SIMON: Well, you read the book and you realize she was, although a sex object, she was really nobody's sex object. She was - she created herself.
Ms. ABBOTT: Yeah. She was very much her own creation and I hope that comes across. You know, especially in this age of manufactured celebrity, here's somebody who's just a true original. Who else but Gypsy Rose Lee would get a telegram from Eleanor Roosevelt that said: May your bare ass always be shining.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. ABBOTT: So I thought, you know, that perfectly exemplified Gypsy as highbrow and lowbrow. I mean here's Eleanor Roosevelt actually sending a telegram to someone that says that. I thought that was fantastic.
SIMON: Well, Karen, very good to talk to you. Thanks so much.
Ms. ABBOTT: Thanks so much, Scott. I had a great time.
SIMON: Karen Abbott, her new book, "American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare, The Life And Times Of Gypsy Rose Lee."
(Soundbite of song, "You Gotta Have A Gimmick")
Unidentified Woman #1: (Singing) If you wanna grind it, wait till you refined it.
Unidentified Woman #2: (Singing) If you wanna thump it, bump it with a trumpet.
Unidentified Women: (Singing) So get yourself a gimmick and you too, can be a star.
SIMON: Let us entertain you. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
New year, new Congress, same old health care debate. At least that's how it sounded on the House floor yesterday. The new Republican majority started the process to repeal last year's sweeping healthcare overhaul. It's one of their top priorities. NPR's Julie Rovner reports on the preliminary round.
JULIE ROVNER: As the House settled in to debate the rule that would set up next Wednesday's big vote, there were a lot of new faces. But the arguments they made had a familiar ring to them. Here's Republican freshman Richard Nugent of Florida.
Representative RICHARD NUGENT (Republican, Florida): Everybody knows that the healthcare system's broken and that reform is needed. However, the unconstitutional job-killing mandates of Obamacare are not the answer.
ROVNER: Democrats are countering those arguments with a spirited defense of their own. They're focusing on some of the more popular provisions that are already in effect and helping their constituents.
California Congresswoman Doris Matsui talked about a young woman in her district who couldn't get insurance because she had a thyroid problem. The law helped her get back on her parents' health plan. She also talked about a senior named Gary who's getting help with his drug costs because he falls into the so-called donut hole in Medicare prescription drug coverage.
Representative DORIS MATSUI (Democrat, California): Repeal would mean that Gary and thousands of other seniors in my district would see no relief from this Part D donut hole. This is unacceptable.
ROVNER: Much of the debate on the repeal yesterday, though, centered on the cost of the massive law to the federal budget - just like it did last year, when the law first passed. Democrats argued then, and now, that the law is more than fully paid for; it actually reduces the deficit. And the Congressional Budget Office, Congress's official scoring referee, agreed.
So it was no surprise that on Thursday, CBO said repealing the law would add to the deficit. Specifically, it said it would add around $230 billion over the next 10 years.
But Republicans, like Indiana's Mike Pence, scoff at that notion.
Rep. MIKE PENCE (Republican, Indiana): Only in Washington, D.C. could you say you were going to spend trillions of dollars and save people money. And this morning, only in Washington, D.C. could you say that repealing a $2.7 trillion government takeover of health care is actually going to cost money.
ROVNER: So Republicans have simply decided to ignore CBO when it comes to the health care law. They've exempted this bill from new rules that would otherwise require offsetting budget cuts for any bill that adds to the deficit. That's brought charges of hypocrisy from Democrats, including Rules Committee ranking member Louise Slaughter
Representative LOUISE SLAUGHTER (Democrat, New York): Estimates provided by the CBO are the singular authoritative figures upon which we make all of our decisions and have for decades. Even if some don't like what the numbers tell us, we know that numbers don't lie.
ROVNER: But House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he doesn't really blame the CBO; he blames the Democrats for giving the CBO bad numbers to work with.
Representative ERIC CANTOR (Republican, Virginia): CBO scores what's put in front of them. There's nothing that has changed about the flawed assumptions underlying the old score of the Obamacare bill. Only the dates have changed. This is the same gimmicks, producing more false deficit reduction, and in fact real spending increases.
ROVNER: But whether the repeal bill increases the deficit or not doesn't really matter, because it's not likely to get very far after it passes the House next week. Democratic leaders in the Senate say they won't take it up in that chamber, and President Obama has already vowed to veto it in the unlikely event it reaches his desk.
So why are Republicans pursuing what they know is basically a symbolic action? Because they said they would. Here's how House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier put it.
Representative DAVID DREIR (Republican, California): The commitment was made that we would have an up-or-down vote on repeal, and that's exactly what we are doing.
ROVNER: And that vote is now scheduled for next Wednesday - after seven more hours of debate.
Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This week's announcement by NewSouth Books that it's publishing a new edition of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" in which a racial slur that begins with the letter N is replaced with the word slave stirs up conflicting reactions.
On the one hand, the effrontery - the vapid, smiley-faced effrontery, as the great Twain biographer Ron Powers put it - to replace a word that a genius pointedly used more than 200 times when he wrote the book in 1885 seems a bit like covering the large gaping wounds shown in Picasso's "Guernica" with Band-Aids.
But there are already scores of editions in print in which the N-word appears, and every year it seems some school district somewhere refuses to read "Huckleberry Finn" because of it.
Dr. Allen Gribben, the Auburn University Twain scholar who's edited this new version, says he just doesn't want one word to keep students from reading a great book.
Mark Twain wrote conflicts into Huck Finn's soul. Huck was a river kid of the 1830s who ran away from so-called civilized life with his guardian, Miss Watson. He throws in with Jim, a slave who's escaped Miss Watson and is trying to get to freedom. Huck and Jim run, rob, and scrounge together to survive. Jim refuses to run off when the going gets tough, and Huck refuses to betray Jim for a reward, even though his conscience reminds him that under the law Jim is stolen goods. All right then, Huck screams at himself, I'll go to hell.
As Mark Twain wrote in his lecture notes: A sound heart is a surer guide than an ill-trained conscience.
I thought of that this week when the House of Representatives read the Constitution of the United States but dropped several sections that were later amended, like Article 1, Section 2 that classified slaves as three-fifths of a human being. Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland said: We failed to show the American people that our ability to constantly improve on what the founders gave us is a blessing, not a reason for divisiveness.
It's vital for artists, of all people, not to be sanctimonious. Art is supposed to puncture sanctimony. Conrad, Kipling, Gilbert and Sullivan, all wrote great works of literature in which they used the N-word when it was more slang than epithet. Editors and publishers often changed them through subsequent publications, arguing that their historical context had changed too.
But take the N-word out of "Huckleberry Finn" and you take away a chance for students to learn and adults to remember the history that made the story daring and bold before it got labeled and shelved as a classic.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
The Labor Department says the U.S. economy gained 103,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate fell to 9.4 percent from 9.8. It might sound like good news, but many economists hoped to see much stronger job growth. NPR's Chris Arnold reports.
CHRIS ARNOLD: To make the most of the increase in jobs, President Obama yesterday held a news conference at a window factory in Landover, Maryland. It's been hiring on workers. The president spoke after going on a tour of the business, Thompson Creek Manufacturing.
President BARACK OBAMA: Thompson Creek was able to grow its work force from 200 employees to nearly 300 employees in just one year.
ARNOLD: The president said that his administration has been enacting policies to try to promote job growth, such as tax credits for businesses that hire workers.
President. OBAMA: We also passed a tax credit for products like energy-saving windows, and that led to a 55 percent boost in the sales at this firm.
ARNOLD: Looking back over the past year at hiring around the country, the president was upbeat.
President. OBAMA: The trend is clear. We saw 12 straight months of private sector job growth. That's the first time that's been true since 2006. The economy added 1.3 million jobs last year. And each quarter was stronger than the previous quarter, which means that the pace of hiring is beginning to pick up.
ARNOLD: Still, a snail moves faster when it comes out of its shell and starts oozing forward, and the jobs growth picture hasn't been improving much more quickly than that.
Mr. NARIMAN BEHRAVESH (Chief Economist, IHS Global Insight): Improving but not great.
ARNOLD: Nariman Behravesh is chief economist IHS Global Insight. He was not too excited by the 103,000 jobs that the economy gained in December.
Mr. BEHRAVESH: This number was a little disappointing 'cause we and a lot of other people expected it to be closer to 200,000. But the good news is businesses are feeling more optimistic. All the surveys of business sentiment(ph) suggested that businesses are feeling better about things. They are going to hire, but it certainly looks like they're still hiring at a fairly slow pace.
ARNOLD: The problem is that the economy needs to add around 150,000 jobs every month just to keep pace with population growth and people coming back into the workforce. And while we may have gained a million jobs last year, as the president said, the country lost nearly eight and a half million jobs the two years prior. So that level of job growth is...
Mr. BEN BERNANKE (Chairman, Federal Reserve): A pace insufficient to materially reduce the unemployment rate.
ARNOLD: Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke about this at a hearing in D.C. on Friday. His comments seemed to throw some cold water on the optimism being expressed by the Obama administration. He said the members of the Federal Open Market Committee are estimating just how long it will take for most out-of-work Americans to get back to work.
Mr. BERNANKE: Most participants expected the unemployment rate to be close to eight percent two years from now. At this rate of improvement, it could take four to five more years for the job market to normalize fully.
ARNOLD: That's a pretty disheartening prediction. Michael Linden is an economist with the liberal-leaning think tank the Center for American Progress.
Mr. MICHAEL LINDEN (Economist, Center for American Progress): So this actually speaks to the ludicrous-ness - that's not really a word - the craziness of laying anybody off on the public side right now.
ARNOLD: Most economists agree that the country needs a credible plan to reduce the federal deficit, and that will likely mean cutbacks in government spending. But in the short term, some economists are calling for even more spending to prop up local and state governments so that they don't have to lay off more people and make the unemployment problem even worse.
Chris Arnold, NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
We're joined now by Randall Jameson and Toni Chinakas of Cleveland. We met them last year when we did some stories from Cleveland to try to put human faces on unemployment statistics. Mr. Jameson and Miss Chinakas have both been unemployed for the better part of two years. They join us by phone from their respective homes in Greater Cleveland. Randy, Toni, so good to have you back with us. Thanks very much.
Mr. RANDALL JAMESON: Thank you, Scott. Appreciate it. Happy New Year.
Mr. TONI CHINAKAS: Happy New Year, Scott. Thank you so much for having us.
SIMON: Well, Happy New Year to both of you. So no change in the job status for either of you?
Mr. JAMESON: No. Still looking.
Mr. CHINAKAS: Yes. That would be the same for me as well.
SIMON: Has this meant a change in strategy or attitude for either of you? Randy?
Mr. JAMESON: Yes, it has. I'm no longer just looking for tech-related jobs, even though that's my most current avocation. No. The door's been swung wide open.
SIMON: Toni?
Mr. CHINAKAS: Well, as a matter of fact, a few times I've actually taken off my Master's experience just to try to get my foot in the door. And in September I accepted a temporary assignment. And it's embarrassing to say, but I don't do much other than open mail.
SIMON: So you've learned to conceal your Master's degree sometimes?
Mr. CHINAKAS: Yes.
Mr. JAMESON: Same also, yes. Depending on what the minimum requirements are, I'll either leave it on or take it off my resume.
Mr. CHINAKAS: Yeah. I'm at a point where I'm either overqualified or under-qualified. In the middle - I feel like the sandwich.
SIMON: Randall, when you see talking heads on television or hear them on the radio say things are picking up and going to be better in 2011, does that make you hopeful?
Mr. JAMESON: Literally, yes, but then that literally yes is cut short immediately. 'Cause yes, things are looking up. And I think everyone agrees across the board that the worst is absolutely behind us. However - capital H -some of the good news coming out about the firms looking to hire, new projects coming up - we're going to have a casino in probably three years.
But you see some things like (unintelligible) hire 60 new additional jobs in the next five years. Well, that's wonderful. Personally, I'm four weeks from my 99th week of benefits. I'm going to be a 99er unless something happens real quick here. So while that is good news in the macro, at the individual level it really isn't any different.
SIMON: And Toni, how do you feel when you hear...
Mr. CHINAKAS: You know, I I'm actually feeling a little more optimistic, because I feel like Cleveland is due for things to change around, 'cause quite frankly we've been in a downward spiral since 9/11. We've lost a lot of manufacturing here. I don't have anything in the fire, but for some weird reason I feel a little more optimistic for 2011.
Mr. JAMESON: Toni's right. I mean, there is good stuff happening. It's that in-between part where Toni and I just gotta find something.
Mr. CHINAKAS: Right.
Mr. JAMESON: We can keep going until maybe we can take advantage of those things when those projects are running(ph).
SIMON: Unemployment benefits run out at 100 weeks, don't they?
Mr. JAMESON: Ninety-nine, sir.
SIMON: You worried about health care?
Mr. JAMESON: In that regard, no. As retired military, I am set as far as the medical side. That takes a big chunk of worry out of it.
SIMON: Toni, what are what are your concerns now?
Mr. CHINAKAS: The same concerns I had in 2010. I don't have any benefits. I don't have any health care. I'm actually living on my student loans - I hate to admit it - and actually those came due and I had to call them up and - you know, it's funny because I'm writing my own blog post, 2010: A Year in Review. And I basically wrote that what I've learned from this unemployment - on a positive note, I don't need much to survive.
I don't need, you know, material things. I remember my father, God rest his soul, I remember him saying, you know, if you have your health you have everything. And I am very grateful really for the small things that I think a lot of people take for granted.
SIMON: Randall Jameson, Toni Chinakas, thanks so much.
Mr. CHINAKAS: Thank you, Scott. Always a pleasure.
Mr. JAMESON: Thank you.
SIMON: Take care. Talk to you later.
Mr. CHINAKAS: Bye. Thanks.
Mr. JAMESON: OK, bye.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
President Obama filled some key job openings at the White House this week. Two veterans of the Clinton administration are stepping in as chief of staff and head of the president's economic policy team, and soon Mr. Obama will have to fill a vacancy in the White House press room. NPR's Scott Horsley reports on what one insider calls a pretty major retooling, as President Obama prepares for the second half of his term.
SCOTT HORSLEY: President Obama plans to keep his foot on the economic gas pedal this year, trying to rev up a still sputtering job creation machine. Riding shotgun in that effort will be Gene Sperling, Mr. Obama's choice to replace Larry Summers as director of his economic policy team.
President BARACK OBAMA: He's a public servant who has devoted his life to making this economy work and making it work specifically for middle-class families. Now, one of the reasons I selected Gene is he's done this before.
HORSLEY: Sperling held the same position in the Clinton administration when he worked with a Republican Congress to help balance the federal budget. Clinton-era colleague Laura Tyson thinks that experience will be valuable in the Obama White House as the president turns his attention to controlling runaway deficits.
Ms. LAURA TYSON: Certainly in this next two years, the focus of economic policy is going to be on the federal budget.
HORSLEY: President Obama tapped another Chicagoan this week to fill the chief of staff job that Rahm Emanuel gave up to run for mayor of that city. William Daley is an investment banker who served as commerce secretary under President Clinton.
President. OBAMA: He's led major corporations, he possesses a deep understanding of how jobs are created and how to grow our economy.
HORSLEY: Daley's also a board member for The Third Way think-tank in Washington, which advocates centrist policies on the economy and national security. Third Way President Jonathan Cowan calls Daley a good choice at an important pivot point for the president.
Mr. JONATHAN COWAN (President, The Third Way): Bringing in someone who is a tremendous manager, who has a private sector background and is a true moderate Democrat is exactly the trifecta that will enable them to position themselves best for 2012 and get big things done in the next two years.
HORSLEY: Daley's appointment is one of a number of recent moves by the president seen as outreach to the business community. After last month's trade deal with South Korea, the administration moved this week to ease trade tensions with Mexico, with a first step towards lifting a U.S. ban on Mexican trucks.
The president also agreed to speak next month at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has fiercely criticized many of his policies. Cowan says none of this is an accident.
Mr. COWAN: What you're seeing in the last two months is the administration make some very strong moves towards the middle. The administration understands that they are going to need to work across the aisle and that reelection ultimately runs through recharging the economy and winning back the center of the electorate that Democrats lost in 2010.
HORSLEY: Other personnel changes are in the works. David Plouffe, who managed the president's 2008 campaign, starts work at the White House on Monday. Ultimately he'll take the place of political advisor David Axelrod, who's leaving soon to prepare for the 2012 reelection bid.
And White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced this week he'll be stepping down in February to become a paid advisor to the reelection campaign. After working for Mr. Obama for almost seven years, Gibbs said, it's time to take a break.
Mr. ROBERT GIBBS (White House Press Secretary): Obviously this was not an easy decision but I think this is a very natural time period to make the decision to recharge a little bit.
HORSLEY: No new spokesman has been named yet. Gibbs predicts all the newcomers will bring a somewhat different look and style to the White House, given new personalities, new demands and a new political environment in the capital.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
The earthquake sparked a huge outpouring of donations to U.S. charities -nearly $2 billion. A lot of the money went to immediate relief, but complaints are growing that desperately needed funds have not been spent.
NPR's Carrie Kahn has been tracking charity spending in Haiti for the last year. She's at the U.N. Logistics Base, right next to the airport there in Port-au-Prince, and joins us.
Carrie, thanks for being with us.
CARRIE KAHN: Thanks for having me.
SIMON: We've just heard Jason Beaubien report that progress is - is mixed. You were in Haiti within hours of the earthquake. You've been back a number of times. What's your impression?
KAHN: I definitely agree with Jason, it is mixed. You do see progress. Before, huge buildings pancaked, leaning over sidewalks, leaning over other buildings, were everywhere in the city. But you can get through now. I was amazed when we were driving from the airport just recently - back roads are cleared. So you do see progress.
But then again, you know, you see hundreds of thousands of people still living in - I can't think of any other word but wretched - wretched camps, under tents. And I hate to tents because in some places all they are is a tarp and a few big sticks. And there are very few latrines. Fresh water is given in some of the camps but not in all.
So for the vast majority of people it's still a very difficult situation here.
SIMON: Now, the $2 billion that Americans donated privately to organizations, including the Red Cross or Oxfam USA, do we know how that money has been spent?
KAHN: We do to some degree. There is a question about the accountability of these organizations and their transparency. Americans were incredibly generous to Haiti. This is one of the largest recipients of international aid from private organization ever.
You know, the tsunami affected how many - many countries. This is a small country, which has received the largest amount of private donations. And the aid groups are accountable to their donors but you don't really get detailed accounts of what they do. A lot of them put out annual reports. We're getting a lot of those right now because it has been a year since the earthquake, and you get these aggregate numbers.
But one of the other big concerns is that when you look at the money spent, many of them are still holding on to a lot of money. If you look at the American Red Cross, which got the lion's share of the generosity of U.S. donors, they raised a half a billion dollars, they still have half of that in the bank.
SIMON: And why is the money still in bank accounts?
KAHN: They says it would have been very irresponsible of them to just come in and spend so much money so quickly, and that they are determined to engage in long-term recovery for people.
SIMON: There's been some criticism within the charitable community too, hasn't there been, about the pace of recovery in Haiti?
KAHN: Yes, and that's what's most surprising. You usually don't hear international aid groups criticizing one another. Oxfam just came out with a very strongly-worded report of what they felt was a slow pace of recovery here in this last year. And they highlighted some of the people that they felt were to blame. Mostly they said it was inaction by the Haitian government and not enough coordination happening.
But Doctors Without Borders also came out with a strong condemnation of the lack of coordination between humanitarian groups.
SIMON: Does Doctors Without Borders, or any of the other groups or(ph) - who've been criticized, a lack of coordination - nominate any organization or group to do that, seeing as how there's at the moment not really a responsible government?
KAHN: I asked that exact question to one of the lead U.N. officials here. There is not one entity that can take such a strong-hand role. The government does not have the capacity to do it. And the U.N. cannot take that role - it's not their mission.
So it's frustrating, but this is the way humanitarian aid is run.
SIMON: NPR's Carrie Kahn in Port-au-Prince, thanks so much.
KAHN: You're very welcome. Thanks for having me.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Police logs in the newspaper are often kind of dull: names, dates and a terse description of the crime committed, usually about all you get. But the Rochester Times Police Log is packed with poetry and puns.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports.
DAN GORENSTEIN: Listen to this.
Mr. JOHN NOLAN (Editor, Rochester Times): At Halloween upon a street where youngsters go for Trick-or-Treat, a worried parent calls the cops. His kid has been handed Hall's cough drops. A curiosity has gripped us - Cherry, Mint or Eucalyptus? Dad makes the point it's medication not the stuff of celebration. Police check out this plot of terror and find it was a simple error.
GORENSTEIN: John Nolan writes the police log and edits the Rochester Times. He's delivered tales of odd and scary behavior for some 22 years now - some of it with his signature puns, some of it in rhyme. But Nolan used to write it like everyone else.
Mr. NOLAN: Kind of tedious and dreadful.
GORENSTEIN: So one night he decided to try a little experiment
Mr. NOLAN: (Unintelligible)wrote: A dog barks on 10 Rod Road. And I added: Deep in a forest a berry drops, because I had been reading some Japanese haikus so that was in mind.
GORENSTEIN: Managing editor Rod Doherty says he's a little surprised just how popular Nolan's police log is.
Mr. ROD DOHERTY (Executive Editor, Rochester Times): If it doesn't appear, I will start to hear from people: Where's the Rochester Police Log? Of course(ph) I started thinking, hey, we put all this on the news and the paper all the time, and you're calling up because the police log's not in there.
Mr. NOLAN: On Winter Street, a lady pushes a gentleman through a window to air a grievance.
GORENSTEIN: Some readers point out: These are serious issues, not jokes. That line about airing a grievance makes you smile, until you think about what happened. Was that sexual assault? Was it a break-in? To a certain extent Nolan agrees with the sentiment.
After 17 years as a Glasgow, Scotland cop, he understands the ugliness of crime. But he says it's that job that taught him how to cope.
Mr. NOLAN: You'd see the very worst of behavior. But it was always lightened a little bit or softened by sort of gallows humor. That's how people get by.
GORENSTEIN: Nolan doesn't just want people chuckle - he's using crime to tell a story about how people live together.
Mr. NOLAN: 5:47 p.m., with only a crescent moon teens have to fight under a street light. 1:27 a.m., The people in the raucous Granite Street apartment are at it again, banging on walls and yelling louder than ever. 8:12 p.m., spring has arrived - a bike is stolen from a Charles Street driveway.
GORENSTEIN: Nolan thinks one reader nailed it when he said the log is gritty, with the self-confidence to poke fun at its own goings-on.
For NPR News, I'm Dan Gorenstein in Concorde, New Hampshire.
Mr. NOLAN: In a different part of town, there is another cause to frown. Trick-or-treaters all are shocked, for after a man's door is knocked he answers it not how he should. He keeps appearing in the nude.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
Who done it? You know, who wrote the first detective novel? Way before Chandler, Hammett or Robert Parker. Maybe somebody who wrote it in the parlor with a quill pen.
With all the clues and answers: our own literary detective, Paul Collin, who's done some sleuthing and figured out who wrote the first detective novel. He joins us from the studios of Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland.
Thanks very much for being back with us, Paul.
Professor PAUL COLLINS (Portland State University): Oh, it's good to be here.
SIMON: So what was it, Paul?
Prof. COLLINS: "The Notting Hill Mystery." You know, the usual suspects are Edgar Allen Poe, 'cause he wrote "The Murder in the Rue Morgue," in 1841, which, you know, most people would consider to really be the first piece of detective fiction. It's the first short story with a detective at the center of it. Or Wilkie Collins, who wrote "The Moonstone," and he kind of married Poe's idea with the sprawling novels of Dickens. And that was in 1868.
Almost all of the elements that we associate with detective fiction you can actually find in those early works - the kind of eccentric but brilliant detective, the bumbling local constables, the mystery in a country manor, red herrings, re-enacting the crime - all that stuff is in there. And so, you know, they're typically thought of as kind of the parents of the genre.
It turns out that there is kind of an eccentric uncle living in the attic though.
SIMON: So who done it?
Prof. COLLINS: Well, Charles Felix did it. But the real mystery is we don't know who Charles Felix is, or at least didn't. I actually first came across this a while back when I was reading "The Moonstone." And there was a footnote in it mentioning most people consider this sort of the first detective novel, but by the way, there's an earlier one, called "The Notting Hill Mystery," that came out in 1862, and nobody knows who wrote it.
And that was pretty much the whole footnote. And I went: What?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Prof. COLLINS: And so I started to look into it.
SIMON: Wow. And?
Prof. COLLINS: Well...
SIMON: ...don't leave us hanging, man. You know?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Prof. COLLINS: So, yeah, "The Notting Hill Mystery" was this - it's a mystery that appeared initially in a magazine, a once-a-week magazine which was kind of a direct competitor to Charles Dickens's magazine, which was Household Words. And it started to run in late 1862 and it ran in eight installments going into 1863.
And the story behind "The Notting Hill Mystery," it's set-up as a series of letters from a private investigator to an insurance company, that they've hired him because the Baron R, who's just identified by his initial - as common with Victorian novels - and his wife, Madam R - his wife has passed away.
And his wife has passed away because she was sleepwalking and went into the baron's private laboratory - because he was an enthusiastic amateur chemist, and in her sleepwalking picked up a bottle of acid and drank it.
SIMON: Paul?
Prof. COLLINS: And the insurance...
SIMON: Paul? Paul, hold up for a moment. Ready?
Prof. COLLINS: Sure.
SIMON: (Singing) Da-da-da-dum.
(Speaking) Go ahead.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Prof. COLLINS: So it turns out the baron has a life insurance policy on his wife. And in looking at this...
SIMON: Ooh-ooh.
Prof. COLLINS: Yes.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Prof. COLLINS: Well, it gets worse. They discover that he doesn't have just one insurance policy for 5,000 pounds. He's actually taken out five life insurance policies, each worth 5,000 pounds with five different insurance companies.
They put a private investigator on the case to see if really her death was an accident. And what he unravels is not just one murder, but three, and that the baron actually is clearly responsible for them. And that's actually made fairly clear actually from the onset of the book, but you don't know how he did it.
And by the end of the book, you know how he did it but you cannot figure how anyone can catch him. He's basically committed the perfect crime.
SIMON: My gosh. Is it possible for you tell what kind of affect this might have had?
Prof. COLLINS: Well, you know, it's curious. It came out in magazine form first. And then about three years later, in 1865, it was published in book form. And when the book came out, it attracted very favorable reviews. And reviewers were really struck by - this hadn't been done before.
The whole idea of a detective novel was basically new to them. And in fact, they almost didn't even know how to react to it or how to explain it to their readers. One of the reviews that came out said: This is best understood like a game of solitaire or like a puzzle that you've been handed to figure out.
The genre didn't really exist at that point so they had to explain to readers that the whole idea behind this is that you've been handed a puzzle.
SIMON: Of course the question that remains, Paul: Who was Charles Felix?
Mr. COLLINS: His identity has been hidden for 149 years, but his real name is Charles Warren Adams. And, in fact, they didn't know back then either. There was actually a handbook of fictitious names that came out in 1868, and it has Charles Felix listed in it, and when you look next to it, there's a pair of empty brackets; they didn't know the real name.
And so I started searching around, and at first I wasn't able to find anything either. There was absolutely no hint of who this was. And, in fact, I went to the publisher's archives for Saunders & Otley, which was the publisher; there were no letters from the publisher to the author, which was really weird.
And so what I started to do is I started to - I noticed that this guy, the so-called Charles Felix, had written another book, called "Velvet Lawn" that had actually been published by Saunders & Otley a year earlier, and so I started looking around for the authorship of that. And after going through hundreds and hundreds of documents and old newspaper articles, I finally hit upon it. And I can read it to you. It's the one clue to his identity.
This is actually in a literary gossip column from the Manchester Times for May 14, 1864. By the way, I love the idea that there could have been a literary gossip column.
SIMON: Yeah, those days are gone, yeah.
Mr. COLLINS: Yeah.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. COLLINS: And it's just a single sentence. It reads: It is understood that "Velvet Lawn," by Charles Felix, the new novel announced by Saunders, Otley and Company, is by Mr. Charles Warren Adams, now the sole representative of the firm.
So the reason there was no correspondence between the publisher and the author...
SIMON: Oh, because he is the...
Mr. COLLINS: He is the author.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: Yes. He's the publisher and the author.
Mr. COLLINS: Yeah.
SIMON: Oh my.
Paul Collins, our literary detective. His essay on "The Notting Hill Mystery" appears tomorrow in the Sunday New York Times.
Paul, thanks so much for clearing this mystery up.
Mr. COLLINS: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
We caught up with two new lawmakers who cast their votes next week, one Republican, one Democrat.
First, Republican Congressman Bill Huizenga. He has a background in small business, and just this week he was sworn in to represent Michigan's 2nd Congressional District. We reached him yesterday at his new office at the Capitol.
Congressman Huizenga, thanks very much for being with us.
Representative BILL HUIZENGA (Republican, Michigan): Scott, my pleasure.
SIMON: Explain to me what's behind the idea that the number one priority apparently now seems to be reversing health care overhaul.
Rep. HUIZENGA: Well, I think that this is about fulfilling campaign promises. I think that if we don't move ahead with this - we being the Republican House of Representatives - because a number of people have brought up, well, isn't this really an exercise in futility, the Senate's really not going to pass it, Obama's not going to pass it.
But if we don't do this, the people that elected us are going to say, hey, there they go again. They said they were going to do one thing and they're not doing it.
SIMON: Does it have anything to do with job creation?
Rep. HUIZENGA: Oh, absolutely. The feedback that I get from whether it's big businesses - and I have a lot of Tier 1, Tier 2 automotive suppliers and office furniture manufacturers, and some heavy manufacturers, but also a lot of small businesses in my district in Western Michigan, and they're talking about the premium increases that they're getting from their insurance companies just because of this bill.
So I do believe that that's another step, is putting it back into the hands of us as consumers.
SIMON: I have an impression that a lot of members of your freshman class are not lawyers or career politicians, but come from other careers. Does that seem to be the case?
Rep. HUIZENGA: You know, it's a real mix, actually. We've got a number of people, myself, for example - I had been the district director for a congressman for six years before I was elected to the state legislature, all while owning a small business - a small family business. There's a number of people that have had both a private sector as well as a public sector aspect to their lives, and I think that's what makes it maybe a little unique, kind of like myself, coming in with a foot firmly planted in both worlds.
(Soundbite of buzzer)
Rep. HUIZENGA: The - sorry, that a voting buzzer going off in the background, so I've got 10 minutes before I have to literally run across to the Capitol.
SIMON: All right. Well, we'll just take a couple more minutes. You weren't elected to talk to us.
Rep. HUIZENGA: That's exactly right. I'm not - as much as it enjoyable, I do need to make sure that the people of the 2nd District are earning their - you know, I'm earning my keep, so...
SIMON: If there's one thing you really want to do over the next year, what is it?
Rep. HUIZENGA: We have to create an atmosphere for private job expansion. You know, the private sector creates prosperity, the public sector doesn't. And we've got to create an atmosphere that's going to allow the private sector to go out and be successful, to add those jobs, and that's then tied into, I think, the other things that's extremely important, which is the debt and the deficit. You know, our spending has got to has got to come in line with what our revenues are, and that's really my focus.
SIMON: Bill Huizenga represents Michigan's 2nd District. We will mention, you've got a vote to make. We're recording this on a Friday. You have a vote to make so we'll let you do the business you were elected to do rather than talk to us. But we hope to talk to you again. Thank you, Congressman.
Rep. HUIZENGA: I appreciate it, Scott. Have a great day.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Now we turn to another freshman member of the House of Representative, Colleen Hanabusa of Hawaii. Representative Hanabusa is one of only nine new Democrats who join the House of Representatives this year.
Representative Hanabusa, thanks so much for being with us.
Representative COLLEEN HANABUSA (Democrat, Hawaii): Well, thanks for having me.
SIMON: You were, again(ph), a president to the state Senate in Hawaii, so you know politics. What do you want to do?
Rep. HANABUSA: When I grow up? No...
SIMON: I hope...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Rep. HANABUSA: (Unintelligible) want to do...
SIMON: I hope it's this. I mean...
Rep. HANABUSA: Yeah. What I'd like to see is I'd like to have the ability to ensure that what - our economy is improving, our numbers are getting better. And I attribute a lot of that to the fact that we have had the benefit of federal funding, and Hawaii's economy is able to stabilize because of the fact that we have, well, not only military presence, but we've always had the benefit of federal funding. And that's what I want to ensure that we continue.
SIMON: Do you think Congress is an effective institution?
Rep. HANABUSA: Congress has got to be an effective institution, simply because it is the institution that's going to have to address the problems that this nation is in. There's no place else to go. Like in - when you're in a state legislature, you can always say, well, you know, the Fed's got to take care of this or Congress has got to take care of this. But when you're here, it's like there's no one else to pass the buck to. So I don't think people will ever be happy with Congress and no one's ever happy with any legislative body that they have.
SIMON: You represent Honolulu.
Rep. HANABUSA: I represent Honolulu.
SIMON: And what particular interest do you think you'd like to bring to Congress representing your district?
Rep. HANABUSA: First of all, I'd like to bring to them the ability to recognize that, one, there is a way to work together. But more importantly than that, there's also a way as to how we work. So there are different views, because we are never going to be alike and the regions that each of us represent are - to a large extent it's going to dictate how a particular elected official views specific issues, that someone who is in a swing state, for example, you know, you'd like to be able to have the ability to ensure that that person can vote a certain way if they need to vote a certain way, if they want to reflect the vote of their constituency.
SIMON: I must say, you sound more practical than ideological.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Rep. HANABUSA: The bottom line is, our job is to get legislation passed. You can't just vote no. I saw people - the easiest thing you can do is to kill things, you just vote no or you block or dig in. But the real challenge in one's skill as a legislator is to know what's fundamentally your core. But also being able to reach out, compromise, and get to some piece of legislation that you believe you can get passed. That's where I'm practical.
Representative Colleen Hanabusa, one of nine freshmen Democrats in the House of Representatives.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Rep. HANABUSA: Thank you for having me.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
There used to be a saying about the first Mayor Daley: Daley doesn't want to be president, he just wants to send one of his boys down to the White House. Now he has, as William Daley becomes White House chief of staff.
The great columnist Mike Royko used to refer to the mayor's sons, Rich and Bill Daley, as Prince Larry and Prince Curly. But columnists can be as wrong as politicians. Richard M. Daley is now completing his sixth term as mayor of Chicago, and Bill Daley is being called to the White House. Richard J. Daley was a legend. It would please any father to see that his sons haven't been eclipsed by his shadow.
(Soundbite of music)
SIMON: You're listening to NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
Violence has broken out as millions of people in Africa's largest country prepare to vote tomorrow on whether to split the nation in two. At least six people, including four rebels, were killed today in an attack on military forces in Juba, the capital of Southern Sudan. The Southern Sudanese people are poised to create the world's newest state after two decades of civil war with the North.
NPR's Frank Langfitt has the story from Juba.
(Soundbite of music)
FRANK LANGFITT: Thousands of people are pouring through the streets of Juba in advance of tomorrow's big vote. They're driving in vans, they're on foot, they're waving flags, and singing. And the message from everybody you talk to is the same. They don't want to be a part of Sudan anymore. They want their own country.
Mr. JOHN MOJULE(ph): At last independence, at last. This is our time.
(Soundbite of laughter)
LANGFITT: John Mojule fled this country during the civil war, a time of incredible carnage. Sudan's Arab North armed militias that burned, raped and looted villages in the country's Christian and animist South. The conflict cost two million lives and became Africa's longest civil war. Now Mojule is back from exile in Uganda to witness what he hopes will be the birth of a nation.
Mr. MOJULE: Our people have suffered so much - so, so, much, and oppression of the Arabs. Of course not all Arabs, but the fundamentalists. But now here we have our(ph) opportunity, one vote, then our oppressors will be gone.
LANGFITT: How do you feel oppressed?
Mr. MOJULE: Look at Juba, the biggest village in the whole world - no water system, not toilet, no nothing. Huh? Now we need development.
LANGFITT: This is Southerner's biggest complaint. They say the North exploited their resources - including oil then neglected the region.
A few miles from the rally's excitement, the mood is more sober. And Southern Sudan's dire poverty and challenges come into relief.
The United Nations' World Food Program is handing out sacks of sorghum to Southerners who've just returned from the North to vote and live. There's no work for them here.
Kators Andrato Salvatore(ph) has already gone through her first two rations. She comes to beg for more.
Ms. KATORS ANDRATO SALVATORE (Through translator) I'm not sure my husband can get a job or not. Now we're really suffering. Even the food we've received is finished. I don't know where to find more food.
LANGFITT: Over the next week, Southern Sudanese will have a chance to choose their own fate. Then they'll have to figure out how to make the most of that opportunity.
Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Juba, Southern Sudan.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Another African nation at a crossroads is Ivory Coast. Six weeks after a disputed election, Ivory Coast remains a kind of tinderbox, locked in a political impasse, with two rival presidents and parallel governments. The incumbent clings to power, despite mounting pressure for him to step down. His challenger remains under the protection of UN peacekeepers, trying to govern from a hotel.
As NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports, there are lingering fears of a return to armed conflict in the West African nation, as well as talk of possible regional military intervention.
OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON: Ivory Coast's president for the past decade, Laurent Gbagbo, remains ensconced in the presidential palace, with the support of the army. Gbagbo insists he is the duly re-elected leader and is resisting calls to concede defeat in November's vote and hand over to his presidential rival, Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara was declared the winner by Ivory Coast's election commission, certified by the UN, before that decision was overturned by the Constitutional Council in favor of Gbagbo.
Since the New Year, the West African regional bloc has sent two high-level mediation missions to try to resolve the Ivorian stand-off. This was after a stern warning to Gbagbo to step aside or face being ousted by possible military force.
This week, an increasingly impatient Ouattara called on his neighbors from the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, to make good on their pledge.
Mr. ALASSANE OUATTARA (Presidential Candidate, Ivory Coast): ECOWAS has said clearly that Mr. Laurent Gbagbo should leave office, because he has lost the election. If he persists, they say they'll use any other means, including legitimate force. I'm pretty sure this will happen sooner than you think.
Laurent Gbagbo is not sincere. He wants to bring in arms, munitions and mercenaries, because he wants to stay in office .
QUIST-ARCTON: Ouattara says Gbagbo is simply trying to buy time and that elite forces could uproot him, without the need for a full-scale military operation in Ivory Coast. But the resolve of West African leaders began to show cracks this week. Ghana announced it was overstretched on peacekeeping duties, and now the Ghanaian president, John Atta-Mills, says he opposes military intervention in Ivory Coast.
President JOHN ATTA-MILLS (Ghana): Some of us believe in quiet diplomacy, and that is exactly what we are doing. There are some who have expressed reservations about the success of the intended military operation. As a person, I do not think that this military operation is going to bring peace to Cote d'Ivoire.
QUIST-ARCTON: President Mills said Ghana would support any measures to implement democratic ideals in Ivory Coast, and those, say the UN, the African Union, the White House and others, are that the will of the Ivorian electorate must be respected, with Ouattara as the new president.
Washington has imposed a travel ban and assets freeze on Gbagbo and his close associates. Johnnie Carson is the senior U.S. diplomat for Africa.
Mr. JOHNNIE CARSON (U.S. Diplomat): There is no question that the election in the Ivory Coast was stolen by President Gbagbo and those around him. We believe President Gbagbo still has an opportunity to accept a number of offers. But the longer this crisis goes on, the chances for those opportunities to remain diminish.
QUIST-ARCTON: Apart from targeted international sanctions, Gbagbo and his entourage could face possible criminal responsibility for killings and other violations since the election. That's the warning from the UN Human Rights Commission and the International Criminal Court.
Meanwhile, Ivorians are weary of conflict. Ba Coulibaly is a teacher in the commercial capital, Abidjan.
Mr. BA COULIBALY (Teacher): We have so many soldiers in the street now. Things are not really, really working well. We're hoping it will come back to normal.
QUIST-ARCTON: A feeling shared by many in Ivory Coast.
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Dakar.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Sixty-six Americans were taken hostage by Iranian students who captured the U.S. embassy in Tehran in November of 1979. Some were released within weeks, but 52 of the hostages, from U.S. Marine guards and secretaries to the charge d'affaires of the embassy, were held for 444 days. But six Americans who were outside the embassy compound escaped capture and got back to the United States because they called friends for help.
For three months, Canada's ambassador to Iran, Ken Taylor, and other Canadian embassy employees, hid those six Americans in their own quarters and at great personal risk. They also collected intelligence and helped the CIA concoct a plan to bring their American guests out safely, even as it meant closing the Canadian embassy.
Thirty years after what's been called the Canadian Caper, Robert Wright tells the tale in his book called "Our Man in Tehran."
We're joined by that man now - former Canadian ambassador to Iran, Ken Taylor, who joins us from New York.
Thanks so much for being with us, Mr. Ambassador.
Mr. KEN TAYLOR (Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran): Well, thank you for the welcome.
SIMON: We want to bring you back 30 years almost to the day, and this is this is how Knowlton Nash, hosting the national newscast on CBC, brought the news to Canadians.
Mr. TAYLOR: Mm-hmm.
(Soundbite of CBC broadcast)
Mr. KNOWLTON NASH (CBC): Good evening. Canada has secretly helped six American diplomats escape from Iran. The Americans had been hidden in Canada's embassy in Tehran for three months, ever since the seizure of the American embassy and 50 people by Muslim militants. They were smuggled out of Iran this weekend using false Canadian passports. The daring escape explains why Canada's embassy was suddenly closed yesterday.
SIMON: If I can put you on the spot, I want to talk about - because it must have gone through your mind - the potential hazards to you and other Canadian embassy employees as you undertook all this. Because if what you were trying to do had been discovered, it - I assume - would've exposed you to the same kind of imprisonment the U.S. hostages had.
Mr. TAYLOR: There were really two dimensions to it. One, the harboring the six diplomats would have had consequences ranging from, say, being declared persona non grata and asked to leave the country the next day, to most of the staff having to leave and some of us apprehended and sent into the compound along with our U.S. colleagues.
The other element - that is, preparing and working with a CIA agent and one of my own staff on preparing the groundwork for the Eagle Claw raid - would have had far different consequences. This, of course, was operating an espionage center within the Canadian embassy, which we felt quite rightly placed to do. But both situations placed the embassy in certain degrees of jeopardy. But my staff and myself, we were quite prepared to take that risk, as I'm sure my colleagues at the American embassy would've done in different situations.
SIMON: To draw you out about this, because I think if there's one aspect that hasn't been reported over the years, it's the degree to which you and I guess an employee in the embassy named Jim Edward...
Mr. TAYLOR: Yes.
SIMON: ...actually provided what we would call intelligence information to the CIA.
Mr. TAYLOR: Yes. It was intelligence information provided on(ph) our channel, was directly to Ottawa, who then would turn it to the U.S. embassy in Ottawa, then to the parties in Washington. I think a fair amount of the information went to the Delta Force, a fair amount to the Pentagon, and certainly the CIA as well.
But the situation, Scott, in Tehran at that time was that there were no U.S. agents, there was no presence that was well undercover. There were no so-called(ph) sleeper agents. And the U.S. was left with a bare cupboard.
And the pressure was growing that some sort of response, some sort of retaliation, or some sort of visible effort to get the diplomats back, if in fact diplomacy seemed to be failing, was a pressure that Washington felt quite acutely.
And accordingly, President Carter turned to Prime Minister Clark and asked if we would be prepared in concert with one agent from the CIA to do that under the cover of the Canadian embassy.
SIMON: The Canadian cabinet in an extraordinary session - maybe, as I gather, perhaps not - without quite realizing what they were doing, authorized the issuance of these six passports. The passports were Canadian. The visa stamps were the CIA.
Mr. TAYLOR: Yes. The passports were Canadian. And all the personal identification papers we put together in Canada.
SIMON: Yeah. And that's - in spycraft - they call that pocket litter, because you have to have things like gas receipts and...
Mr. TAYLOR: So for instance, we had a Canadian driver's license. We had credit cards. We had - you name it. And all that work was done in Canada.
SIMON: Well, I have to ask, Mr. Ambassador, from the people at the passport office to the people who phonied up these receipts, did they have any idea what they were participating in?
Mr. TAYLOR: I think in their minds they certainly did. But I think they said, well, this is what I've been instructed to do and I've been asked not to be curious. I think in that extent the number of people who had to be taken into confidence was quite wide. And in that sense it was quite remarkable that there were no leaks and that this managed to work its way through very stealthily without disclosure.
SIMON: And how did the CIA manage to put together these visa stamps?
Mr. TAYLOR: Well, the CIA have quite a repertoire of visa stamps, I think. They have quite a sample room. Depending on where you want to travel, it's like Liberty or American Express.
SIMON: As you go over this story 30 years after fact, I think one of the things that strikes you immediately is that the offer to help was instinctive. It was a reflex. You didn't check with anybody to do that.
Mr. TAYLOR: No. I think it was a natural thing to do, particularly given the nature of the relationship between Canada and the U.S. Diplomacy was in peril. These people were in jeopardy. And instinctively - I think you used the right word, Scott - instinctively we said we'll do what we can, join us.
SIMON: I've read that probably not a month goes by that some American doesn't come up to you and shake your hand.
Mr. TAYLOR: Yes. It's - I enjoy that, of course, because it is a sense saying to Canada: this is what you did. And Americans - U.S. citizens have long memories, particularly when they feel themselves in a dilemma where they're looking for an ally and that ally is there and is prepared to act on their behalf whatever the consequences.
SIMON: Former Canadian ambassador to Iran, Ken Taylor.
Well, Ambassador Taylor, a real honor to talk to you. Thank you so much, sir.
Mr. TAYLOR: Well, I've enjoyed it. And looking back, it sounds trite, but it seems almost like yesterday.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
Time for sports.
(Soundbite of music)
SIMON: It's the wild, wild wildcard weekend in the NFL. Eight teams compete to stay alive. And, of course, Monday night, playing for all the Tostitos in the championship bowl, finally the Oregon Ducks take on Auburn and its Heisman winning quarterback Cam Newton to determine who the real college champion is after all these weeks. NPR's sports correspondent Tom Goldman joins us from out West.
Tom, thanks for being with us.
TOM GOLDMAN: My pleasure, Scott.
SIMON: We're both very busy people. And, of course, the number two Bears have earned that bye and are relaxing this weekend. All getting pedicures, I'm sure. See who they'll play next weekend at home. So guide some of what we ought to pay attention to this weekend. Let's start with the AFC. What should we watch?
GOLDMAN: We've got a great game between the New York Jets at the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts kind of the studious, disciplined team. And of course the blabbermouth Jets, largely because of head coach Rex Ryan. But the Jets say they love the way Rex Ryan runs his mouth off, because it takes the attention away from them.
But I don't know if they have the...
SIMON: You don't play with the coach's mouth though. OK?
GOLDMAN: No, you don't. And you play with a team. And I'm not sure their team has what it takes to back up the talk. Their pass rush hasn't been that effective. Their veteran running back LaDainian Tomlinson has been slowing down, as running backs do when they get into their 30s.
And Indianapolis, after a rough regular season with a ton of key injuries, seems to be rounding into form. They've won four straight games. Their running game is back. And that'll force the Jets to pay attention to the Colts runners. They can't just key on quarterback Peyton Manning, which makes Manning that much more effective. So I think you've got to give the Colts with the great Peyton Manning the edge here.
SIMON: And the NFC?
GOLDMAN: Well, the NFC, two interesting games. Today you've got New Orleans at Seattle. And don't be fooled by what seems like a lopsided matchup. The Saints are the defending Super Bowl champions. The Seahawks got into the playoffs with a stinky 7-9 regular season record. They won(ph) - first to win their division with a losing record.
But the Saints running back core is banged up. Drew Brees will have to throw a lot, which he does very well, quarterback Drew Brees. But he's been throwing a lot of interceptions. And Seattle plays very well at home with a raucous home crowd. You know, beware a team that has nothing to lose and is being written off because of that bad regular season record.
And then tomorrow night, Scott, we've got Green Bay at Philadelphia. Can the Packers defense stop Michael Vick, quarterback Michael Vick for the Eagles, who's had the best season of his career? It'll be very interesting to see.
SIMON: And finally, of course, Oregon versus Auburn on Monday. I mean, two teams who think they're better than Texas Christian. But I guess we won't be able to prove that.
GOLDMAN: That's right. The current postseason system of college football doesn't allow for a playoff, meaning undefeated TCU can't get in on the action. Now, that said, you've got a really good matchup between number one ranked Auburn and number two Oregon - two high powered offenses. People are expecting lots and lots of points scored in this game Monday night. So I think one of the real keys to this game will be which defense can at least temporarily slow down the opponent's offense.
SIMON: Tell me about the storyline. We have the matchup of two African-American quarterbacks.
GOLDMAN: I guess what's noteworthy is that no one's really making a big deal about Cam Newton being the Auburn starting quarterback and Darron Thomas being the Oregon starting quarterback - two African-American athletes. Used to be where you didn't see a lot of African Americans playing in this position. A lot of people said it was racism. A lot of people said that it was because people didn't believe blacks could lead a team. That's changed, obviously.
The great African-American quarterback Warren Moon said it wasn't always racism in the past when coaches shifted black players from the quarterback position to, say, defensive back or running back. They wanted the best athletes in those positions.
Now there's a premium on the quarterback position. You want your best athletes there - players who can run and throw and do everything, like the guys we're going to see tomorrow night in the championship game.
SIMON: NPR's Tom Goldman. Thanks so much.
GOLDMAN: You're welcome, Scott.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
While African-American quarterbacks are earning accolades for leading their teams on the gridiron, African-American head coaches aren't having nearly as much success. Big-time college football did have a record number of African-American head coaches this season - 13 out of 120. And that's an improvement. Three years ago, there were just six. But of those 13 who coached this year, just one - Charlie Strong at Louisville - had a winning record. He went seven for six. Another, Joseph Joker Phillips of the University of Kentucky, will post a record of seven and six as well if his team can beat the Pitt Panthers in today's BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama.
Why do African-American coaches often seem to struggle at college football's top level? NPR's Mike Pesca looked into it.
MIKE PESCA: Richard Lapchick, aside from being the president of the National Consortium for Academics and Sport, coauthored "The Autobiography of Eddie Robinson," who amassed 408 coaching victories.
Mr. RICHARD LAPCHICK (President, National Consortium for Academics and Sport): When I first met Coach Eddie Robinson at Grambling State in 1997, we talked about the fact that there were only eight African-American head coaches at the time. And when he died and I helped deliver part of his eulogy, I had to mention that 11 years later there were only five African-American head coaches.
PESCA: Robinson's Grambling teams, along with most of the powerhouse historically black colleges, played Division 1-AA football. Robinson was the winningest coach in 1-AA history, but he was never offered or even interviewed for a head coaching job in the more prestigious Division 1-A. 1-A football, now known as Division 1 football bowl subdivision, had only white coaches for most of its history and has just recently cracked double digits among its 120 schools.
Floyd Keith of the Black Coaches Association marks that as a real achievement
Mr. FLOYD KEITH (Black Coaches Association): That's an all-time high, and I think it speaks well of the breakthrough particularly here in the last two years.
PESCA: But of all the black coaches who will return next year, only one had a winning record this year. There are caveats to make - two fired coaches had winning records and the coaches of Florida International and Navy, both winning programs, are Latino and Samoan, respectively. But the fact remains that pending the results of today's Kentucky game, the cumulative record of the African-American coaches returning to their division 1-A jobs was 39 and 94 this year.
Bill Connolly of the website Football Outsiders researched the issue.
Mr. BILL CONNOLLY (Football Outsiders): Some of these jobs are just bad jobs and it would have taken a miracle worker to succeed with them, it seemed. So, they just never really had a chance. and not only that, but then when they left that job, they had a black mark on their resume, so it was pretty difficult for them to get another one.
PESCA: Connolly concluded that on average African-American coaches have taken over programs that have been, quote, "somewhere between tumble and tailspin." Richard Lapchick says what coaches who take over these kinds of teams need is patience from their bosses, not an attribute often ascribed to big-time college football.
Mr. LAPCHICK: The hiring cycle is now pretty much if you don't produce a winner after three years, four on outside, you're not going to be there very long.
PESCA: The same is true in the NFL, by the way, but African-American head coaches have thrived there. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have determined that black coaches in the NFL outperformed their white counterparts from 1990-2002, but now the perforce advantage has been eliminated.
That's actually good news in terms of racial equality because it means that it's no longer the case that African-Americans have to be better coaches than whites in order to be hired as a head coach in the NFL. But teams in the NFL have roughly equal resources, whereas in college football there are huge disparities.
So, as of today, African-Americans in the NCAA are gradually being invited into the head coaches' club, but they're mostly assigned to its dingier precincts.
Mike Pesca, NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Sure, he has been listed as one of the top 100 guitarists of the 20th century, and no less a god of the instrument than Eric Clapton has acknowledged his chops. But really, need we say anymore about Eric Johnson's guitar virtuosity than to note that his song, "Cliffs of Dover," is the ultimate and winning challenge of the video game "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock."
Now, Eric Johnson brings those fast fingers to a new CD. It's called "Up Close."
(Soundbite of song, "Fat Daddy")
HANSEN: That's "Fat Daddy," off Eric Johnson's latest CD, "Up Close" - which features appearances by Steve Miller, Jimmie Vaughan, Sonny Landreth and Jonny Lang. Eric Johnson joins us now from member station KUT in Austin, Texas. Welcome to the program, Eric.
Mr. ERIC JOHNSON (Guitarist): Thanks, Liane. It's great to be with you.
HANSEN: Nice to have you here. And Austin is, of course, one of America's great music towns - the place where you grew up, the place where you started slipping in and then playing in clubs as a teenager. Tell us what that scene was like back then. Who did you see when you were sipping your Coca-Cola?
Mr. JOHNSON: Steve Miller actually played through Texas and Janis Joplin was doing stuff down on the coast and, you know, of course, Willie Nelson and Johnny Winters and, of course, Jimmie and Stevie Vaughan. It always seemed to be kind of, you know, you just - it wasn't that you took it for granted, but you just thought it might have been the general status quo for the rest of the world, you know. And then the first time I left Austin and actually went to L.A., I was like, wow, where are the clubs, where are all the bands?
(Soundbite of song, "Austin")
HANSEN: You actually have a tribute to your musical hometown called, appropriately, "Austin" on the new CD with the young bluesman Jonny Lang on vocals. Let's just hear a little bit.
(Soundbite of song, "Austin")
Mr. JONNY LANG (Singer): (Singing) I was born in Austin, on a summer day. Medicine from Georgetown made me strong on my way.
HANSEN: Lovely tribute to your hometown, Austin, Eric Johnson. You worked as a session guitarist for Cat Stevens, Christopher Cross, Carole King. What did you learn as a sideman that you now use as your own, performing self?
Mr. JOHNSON: I think you try to be a little discriminant about what you bring musically to somebody else's thing - where it's not about so much attention on what I would do for them, but how can I best serve their music and help put a little bit of proportion behind it. And that's always kind of been the name of the game whenever I do a session.
I think it taught me - and you know, and I still do it all the time, do sessions for people; I enjoy doing it - it puts me in a perspective where I can kind of help my arranging chops or my orchestration chops or how you can, you know, infuse whatever you do to just kind of lift somebody a little bit. And it also teaches you a little bit about being a little more detached. It becomes about their song or their music.
And you know, you bring what you can, but you have to stay a little bit detached. And I think that's therapeutic to have that perspective as well as the other.
HANSEN: I want to play a little more from the new CD, particularly a version of the old Electric Flag - I actually remember them - the song "Texas." It's a killer track. You have Steve Miller on vocals, and the other great Austin musician, Jimmy Vaughn, on guitar. And again, it's called "Texas."
(Soundbite of song, "Texas")
Mr. STEVE MILLER (Singer): (Singing) Well, I just got back from Texas, baby. Little girl, you didn't even know I was gone. Well, I just got back from Texas, baby. You didn't even know I was gone. When you saw me on the street now, baby, yeah, you treated me just like a Ringling Brothers clown.
HANSEN: Oh boy, that's a blues tune makes me want to order some barbecue. It's really sweet. But it's the only cover on the album. Why do it?
Mr. JOHNSON: Well, you know, it was like, a live thing. We just did it for fun. And I kind of wore that album out when I was a kid - "It's a Long Time Coming," the Electric Flag. Mike Bloomfield and Buddy Miles wrote that tune, and it was one of my favorite tunes off the Electric Flag record; always dug it.
(Soundbite of song, "Texas")
HANSEN: You seem to have a lot of influences. I mean, I'll be listening, and I think I hear Mark Knopfler. Or I think I'm starting to hear Steely Dan or -obviously - Eric Clapton. Were these the sort of influences you picked up while you were listening to all that music as a kid?
Mr. JOHNSON: Yeah, it really was. I mean, when I was a kid, my dad was into all types of music, and he was always playing me records from the time I was 3 years old. And you know, you can look in any style of music and find magic. And it's really that spirit behind the music rather than the style of music. Career-wise, I don't know if it's the best thing in the world to be kind of into different styles, but I think passion-wise or love of music or joy or sustaining your own investment in what you do - I think it's good, in a way, because it gives you a little wider spectrum to go to and stuff.
HANSEN: Yeah. Jimi Hendrix a big influence on you as well?
Mr. JOHNSON: Big time, yeah. It's because he was such a well-rounded musician. He was a real advocate of rhythm guitar as well as lead guitar. And through that, he was just a great arranger and orchestrator. It was about the whole musicality of it. And I've always admired that about him mostly.
(Soundbite of song)
Unidentified Man: (Singing) Finding all it's meant to be with visions of eternity, pass the (unintelligible) inside, various disguise...
HANSEN: Well, certainly, the opening to that tune is very Hendrix-influenced.
Mr. JOHNSON: Yeah, yeah.
HANSEN: We're talking to guitarist Eric Johnson about his new CD, "Up Close."
This is your first recording in more than five years. Is that a typical musical gestation period for you?
Mr. JOHNSON: Yeah, it kind of is. I mean, I can take longer or less time. I've done both. I'd like to make more music and just let it happen a little bit more, you know, instead of belaboring over it too much. I mean, it's kind of like an arc and a wave. You know, you can reach the summit, and then the rest of it is kind of diminishing return. So you got to really get a reality check on where that summit is, you know.
And my intention, sometimes, is to go too far, you know. So, I'm trying to readjust that summit - where you go, you know what? This is cool right here. Let's go with that and float with that - and not worry about option number 460, you know.
HANSEN: I'm interested that some of the songs on this are really, quite short. I mean, "Awaken" is only 65 seconds; "Traverse" is a minute and 18 seconds; "The Sea and the Mountain," one minute 50 seconds. I mean, really, is - sometimes, the musical thought is just short and sweet?
Mr. JOHNSON: Actually, what that was, was a complete improvisation. And it just happened on the fly. We just pushed record, and just - play whatever I wanted. And the whole premise of those three pieces was to completely just play off the top of your head, just in the moment, total - 100 percent improvisation. And that's what kind of resulted of like, multilayering - of just the improvisation.
And then when it was all finished, it seemed to make sense to kind of float it in and out like in three segues, instead of having it be all one piece. So, that's how - it's actually the same piece, and it just fades in and fades out in three different places in the record.
HANSEN: Let's hear the first part, "Awaken," in its entirety.
(Soundbite of song, "Awaken")
HANSEN: That's the 65-second cut "Awaken." I mentioned that you collaborated with some terrific musicians on this CD, but I have also read that there are at least two other people you'd like to team up with: Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell.
Mr. JOHNSON: Oh yeah, among many others. I mean, there's so many people I admire and love but yeah, they were huge influences on...
HANSEN: Songwriting, I bet.
Mr. JOHNSON: Yeah, just the songwriting. And yeah, Stevie Wonder, to me - I mean, he's, in many ways, I mean, you know, the Beatles and Stevie Wonder. I mean, that's it. That's the quintessential top of the whole pop thing 'cause it's just the beautiful music, and the spirit and the message of what their energy was, and frequency.
And I'll listen to them for my whole - it's an inspiration to last a lifetime, you know.
HANSEN: Speaking with us from KUT in Austin, Texas, Eric Johnson. His new CD is called "Up Close." Thank you so much, and good luck to you.
Mr. JOHNSON: Thanks, Liane. It's been a pleasure.
(Soundbite of music)
HANSEN: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
And joining us is puzzlemaster Will Shortz. Hey, Will.
WILL SHORTZ: Hi, Liane.
HANSEN: Can I say something about the challenge you gave last week?
SHORTZ: Yes.
HANSEN: It was hard. It was so hard - we'll let you repeat it and then we'll actually tell you how many entries we got. Repeat the challenge.
SHORTZ: Yes. It came from listener Mark Leeper of Matawan, New Jersey. I said take a plural noun - it ends in the letter S - insert a space somewhere in the word. The result will be a two-word phrase that has the same meaning as the original word except in the singular. What words are these?
HANSEN: And your answer?
SHORTZ: Well, the original word is ayes A-Y-E-S, and if you put a space between the A and the Y, you get a yes, which is the singular form of ayes.
HANSEN: We received fewer than 200 entries, but we did pick a player who did get the answer right. It's Isaac Moses of Chesterfield, Missouri. Hi, Isaac.
Mr. ISAAC MOSES: Hi, Liane.
HANSEN: What do you do in Chesterfield?
Mr. MOSES: I work for the St. Louis Metro. I do technology stuff to support the public transit.
HANSEN: And have you been playing our puzzle for a long time?
Mr. MOSES: I go all the way back to the podcast days, actually.
HANSEN: Good for you. That was, I think, one of our more recent delivery systems of our puzzle segment. But you are ready to play on the radio, aren't you?
Mr. MOSES: Absolutely.
HANSEN: I can tell. Will, meet Isaac. Let's play.
SHORTZ: All right, Isaac. Every answer today is a made-up two-word phrase in which the two words look like they should rhyme but they don't. For example, if I gave you the clue: desire's trousers, you would say want's pants.
Mr. MOSES: OK.
SHORTZ: Number one is listens to grizzlies.
Mr. MOSES: Hears bears.
SHORTZ: Hears bears is right. Number two: exhibits cattle.
Mr. MOSES: Shows cows.
HANSEN: Yeah.
SHORTZ: That's it. Holds stinging insects.
HANSEN: Holds.
SHORTZ: Holds tightly stinging insects.
HANSEN: I'm going for wasp.
SHORTZ: Yes.
HANSEN: Is that right?
SHORTZ: Um-hum.
HANSEN: OK. So...
SHORTZ: Holds, holds, stinging insects.
Mr. MOSES: Clasps wasps.
HANSEN: Clasps.
SHORTZ: Clasps wasps, good. That's tough to say.
HANSEN: It is.
SHORTZ: Try this one: provides mates for husbands.
Mr. MOSES: Mates for husbands.
SHORTZ: Well, what are mates for husbands?
Mr. MOSES: Wives. Oh, OK.
SHORTZ: Yes, um-hum.
HANSEN: Gives.
SHORTZ: There you go. Gives wives. Good one.
Mr. MOSES: Sure.
SHORTZ: All right. How about this: outlaws graceful birds.
Mr. MOSES: Prohibit, proscribe.
SHORTZ: In one syllable.
HANSEN: Bans.
SHORTZ: There you go. Graceful birds.
Mr. MOSES: Ban swan.
SHORTZ: Bans swans, good. Try this one: wheels out Barbies.
Mr. MOSES: Rolls dolls.
SHORTZ: Rolls dolls. That was fast. Good. Injures hunting dogs. Injures hunting dogs.
Mr. MOSES: Wounds hounds.
HANSEN: Yeah.
SHORTZ: Oh, that's good. Cuts plumbing items in two.
Mr. MOSES: So, that'd be pipes?
SHORTZ: No.
HANSEN: That's what I had.
SHORTZ: OK. What is cuts in two?
HANSEN: Halves.
SHORTZ: Yes.
HANSEN: Oh really?
SHORTZ: Um-hum.
Mr. MOSES: Valves.
HANSEN: Valves.
SHORTZ: There you go.
HANSEN: Oh, Isaac. Nice.
SHORTZ: Halves valves, good. Takes the rough edges off magicians' sticks.
Mr. MOSES: Sands wands.
SHORTZ: Good. Interrupts series of wins - that's W-I-N-S. Interrupts series of wins.
Mr. MOSES: A streak.
SHORTZ: Streaks, yes. Um-hum. Interrupts?
Mr. MOSES: Break?
HANSEN: Yeah.
SHORTZ: Break streak. Good. And your last one is a pedicurist.
HANSEN: Foot something?
SHORTZ: And it's not foot. What part of the foot?
HANSEN: Pedicurist, toes.
SHORTZ: Yes. Toes is right. What's the verb that goes with that? Is a pedicurist?
HANSEN: I hate these ones that don't rhyme, 'cause you never can think of them. Are you really saying does toes?
SHORTZ: Does toes, that's it.
HANSEN: Isaac.
Mr. MOSES: Thanks for helping.
HANSEN: Hey, yeah, you bet. Thank you. I think we really made a good team here. We really made a good team. Well, to tell you what you're going to get for playing our puzzle today, Isaac, we have a very, very, very funny man. He's the creator of the hit television show, "The Office." Next week, he's the host of the Golden Globe Awards. And here's Golden Globe winner himself Ricky Gervais.
Mr. RICKY GERVAIS (Comedian, Actor): Thanks, Liane. For playing our puzzle today, you'll get a WEEKEND EDITION lapel pin, the "Scrabble Deluxe Edition" from Parker Brothers, the book series "Will Shortz Presents KenKen" Volumes 1, 2 and 3 -
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. GERVAIS: from St. Martin's Press - in case you wondered who published that - one of Will Shortz's "Puzzlemaster Decks of Riddles and Challenges" from Chronicle Books - guess St. Martins Press wasnt interested - and a CD compilation of NPR's Sunday Puzzles. Wow. Ho-ho-ho.
HANSEN: I just hear his voice and it makes me laugh. Are you familiar with his work, Isaac?
Mr. MOSES: Oh, yeah. He's a funny guy.
HANSEN: He certainly is. And you know what? You can hear the interview I did with Ricky Gervais next week, when the Golden Globes are going to be awarded. And I have to say, I was almost crying during the entire interview.
(Soundbite of laughter)
HANSEN: Before I let you go, Isaac, tell us your member station.
Mr. MOSES: That would be KWMU 90.7 in St. Louis.
HANSEN: Oh, boy. You know everything about it. Isaac Moses of Chesterfield, Missouri, thanks a lot for playing the puzzle with us today. It was great to have you own my team.
Mr. MOSES: Thanks a lot, Liane. And, Will, that was fun.
HANSEN: Okay.
Mr. SHORTZ: Thank you.
HANSEN: All right, Will, you have something fun for next week?
Mr. SHORTZ: Yes. Name an article of apparel in the plural form, ending in the letter S. Rearrange the letters to name an article of apparel in the singular form. What things to wear are these?
So again, an article of apparel in the plural form, ending in the letter S. Rearrange the letters to name an article of apparel in the single form. What things to wear are these?
HANSEN: When you have the answer go to our website, NPR.org/puzzle and click on the Submit Your Answer link. Only one entry per person, please. Our deadline is Thursday at 3 P.M. Eastern Time. Please include a phone number where we can reach you at about that time, because we will call if youre the winner. And you'll get to play on the air with the puzzle editor of The New York Times and WEEKEND EDITION's puzzlemaster, Will Shortz.
Thanks a lot, Will.
Mr. SHORTZ: Thanks, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Today, a more detailed picture of Jared Lee Loughner is emerging. The suspect is being held in the shooting yesterday of congresswoman Giffords and many others. Police are also seeking a second, older man who they say may have been involved.
NPR's Ari Shapiro joins us to discuss the investigation. Good morning, Ari.
ARI SHAPIRO: Hi, Liane.
HANSEN: Ari, what's known now about Loughner?
SHAPIRO: He's 22 years old. He lives - or lived near the scene of the crime. He apparently went to Pima Community College, which is in Tucson. And Clarence Dupnik, the sheriff in Pima County, said there's reason to believe Loughner has a mental issue. Later, he described Loughner as unhinged. Some YouTube videos that Loughner recently posted certainly support that theory.
Here's some of what Sherriff Dupnik said yesterday.
Sheriff CLARENCE DUBNIK (Pima County, Arizona): As we understand it, there have been law-enforcement contact with the individual, where he made threats to kill.
SHAPIRO: And Dupnik wouldn't say where those threats were aimed at - who they were aimed at. He also said that Loughner has a criminal record, but he wouldn't go into greater detail about what the offenses were.
HANSEN: What was in those YouTube videos you mentioned?
SHAPIRO: Well, we were able to find six videos, all of them posted in the last few months. The most recent one is titled "America: Your Last Memory as a Terrorist Country." It shows a hunched-over man in a hooded sweatshirt, burning an American flag in a desert landscape. And the soundtrack to the video is the song called "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor."
There are other videos that have long, written tirades that are often disjointed. They talk about the government, about currency, about grammar. In one those videos, he writes: The majority of citizens in the United States of America have never read the United States of America's Constitution.
In another, he says: I can't trust the current government because of the ratifications. The government is employing mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar.
SHAPIRO: In these videos, he writes that teachers are con artists. He goes on at length about being what he called a conscience dreamer. And at one point, he claims in a video to be a military recruit. But yesterday, an Army spokesman said that Loughner applied for the military and was rejected. They wouldn't explain why he's rejected - why he was rejected - because of privacy rules.
And then on the YouTube profile page, Loughner also lists some of his favorite books. And you know, you never want to read too much into this sort of thing, but some are about political dystopias. There's "Brave New World" and "Animal Farm," by George Orwell, on the list. There are other books that are about fantasy worlds, like "Through the Looking Glass" and "Alice in Wonderland." And then there are some that are overtly connected to political ideology, like "Mein Kampf" and "The Communist Manifesto."
One final thing about his online paper trail: He had a MySpace page that was taken down soon after the shooting yesterday. We were unable to see it, but a few news organizations say that just before the shooting - hours before - he posted a goodbye message, saying: Goodbye, dear friends. Please don't be mad at
HANSEN: Police are looking for a second man. Do you know anything about him?
SHAPIRO: Well, law-enforcement officials wouldn't - don't know who this man is. Last night, Sheriff Dupnik said they have reason to believe that Loughner came to the grocery store with another individual, who may in some way be involved but not as a shooter.
Here's part of what he said.
Sheriff DUPNIK: And as much as we would like to find this person - and we have pictures of him - at some point in the near future, hopefully, we'll be allowed to provide the public with that.
SHAPIRO: And later in the night, law-enforcement officials did release that photo. It appears to be from a supermarket security camera. And police asked for the public's help finding the man in the photo. They described him as a Caucasian male, approximately 40 to 50 years old with dark hair, last seen wearing blue jeans and a dark-blue jacket.
HANSEN: Is there any information yet about the motive?
SHAPIRO: Well, as Audie mentioned, there's a lot of speculation about the motive. Law-enforcement officials are not saying anything about the motive. But you know, of course, Arizona has been the center for some of the hottest debates in the country - over health care, illegal immigration, other political controversies.
This suspect, as Sheriff Dupnik said, was unhinged. But yesterday, Dupnik also seemed to suggest that the passion surrounding political debates may have spurred on the shooter.
Sheriff DUPNIK: When you look at unbalanced people, how they are - how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths, about tearing down the government; the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona, I think, has become sort of the capital.
SHAPIRO: A reporter said to the sheriff: If you're not going to talk about motive, how do we know vitriol is what caused this? And the sheriff replied: You don't know.
HANSEN: NPR's Ari Shapiro. Thank you, Ari.
SHAPIRO: You're welcome.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
It was just after 10 yesterday morning in Tucson, Arizona, a Saturday -people running errands, out shopping. Jacqueline Jackson was at the Safeway store on Ina Road. She had worked for Gabrielle Giffords, and she saw the congresswoman and her staff in front of the store, talking with constituents. She said hi, went to her car to get her cell phone to call her husband, and turned to go back.
Ms. JACQUELINE JACKSON: When I turn around and look - and the shooter was just standing clear as can be, like he did this every day, calm - pow, pow, pow, pow, pow; just shooting. And people were diving on the ground, and jumping behind and...
HANSEN: Jacqueline Jackson spoke with NPR's Ted Robbins.
Ms. JACKSON: And it's exactly where I was standing about 30 seconds before. I mean, if I had not gone to get my cell phone, I would either be dead or wounded.
HANSEN: Ted Robbins is in Tucson. And Ted, a terrible description there. What more is known about what happened yesterday?
TED ROBBINS: Liane, let's mention that Jackie Jackson is married to Peter Michaels, the news director at our member station in Tucson, KUAZ. And listeners might have heard him on the air yesterday morning, in fact. She was shaken, but lucky. Nineteen people were shot by the gunman. Six of them died, including John Roll, the presiding federal judge for Arizona, and a 9-year-old girl.
Congresswoman Giffords was flown to University Medical Center in Tucson. She had a bullet wound to the head at close range. She underwent surgery and remarkably - so far, anyway - one of her surgeons says he is optimistic about her survival. He said she responded to directions when she was brought out of anesthesia, but things can change quickly with a head wound.
The shooter was tackled and held by two men at the scene while he still had bullets in his semiautomatic weapon. A number of local law-enforcement agencies responded, headed by the Pima County Sheriff's Office and then the FBI.
HANSEN: What's known about the man in custody, Jared Loughner?
ROBBINS: Well, he's 22 years old, lived in a middle-class part of northwest Tucson, near where the shooting took place. Sheriff Clarence Dupnik called him disturbed. And in fact, Loughner has seven minutes of YouTube videos, with music and text. And he rants about not needing to obey federal law, and the need for a new currency.
The FBI has him in custody. Authorities say they don't think he acted alone. They released a photo of an older man they are looking for, who may have been at the scene.
HANSEN: A number of lawmakers spoke out after the shooting. President Obama called it a tragedy for our entire country. Senator John McCain said he was horrified. There must also be an amount of sadness out there as well.
ROBBINS: I think it's fair to say that this community is in shock. A crowd gathered at the hospital with candles and signs, holding a vigil for congresswoman Giffords. Her husband, who is an astronaut and a naval officer, is there. More people were at her congressional office. And let's listen to Lizzie Griffin(ph), who is a former Marine captain who served in Vietnam. She is a constituent, and she worked with Giffords on veterans' issues.
MS. LIZZIE GRIFFIN: She was involved with so many things related to the veterans and to the families, and to the soldiers coming back with mild brain trauma injuries and PTSD; and fighting for the families and for the counseling - and just out there. I mean, semper fi, just always faithful. I mean, she just - it was true that she wouldn't have any guards today because that's who she is. She'd just walk right up, and you'd give her a hug.
ROBBINS: And you know, last night, there was a suspicious package left in her office; it was detonated by Tucson police. No known connection as we know - as we know of yet.
HANSEN: And in the 30 seconds we have left, there is a political dimension. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik yesterday talked about the vitriol in the political climate. What do you make of his statement?
ROBBINS: Well, Sheriff Dupnik is a fellow Democrat. He was admittedly emotional. And last fall's congressional campaign here was very ugly - lots of name-calling and attacks. Someone broke the glass in Giffords' office door. And we should note that people on all sides have expressed shock and sadness. And she had - Giffords barely won against a Tea Party Republican. On the other hand, some folks are saying that we should withhold judgment for a few days until we find out a motive, and perhaps people calm down.
HANSEN: NPR's Ted Robbins in Tucson. Thank you a lot, Ted.
ROBBINS: You're welcome.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Congresswoman Giffords was just sworn in to her third term on Wednesday. Back in 2007, she talked to NPR about her first re-election campaign, and what she had learned on the job.
Representative GABRIELLE GIFFORDS (Democrat, Arizona): For me, you know, it's to take the job seriously - but to take yourself far less seriously. I'm doing a job that is an honor to do. But the issues are really what matters. I'm an individual that's a voice from my community. I'm working hard, but not to get too full of yourself and think that you're the only person out there that can do the job.
HANSEN: That's Representative Gabrielle Giffords, speaking in 2007. Congressman Ed Pastor is a Democrat who represents Arizona's 4th District. He's a colleague and friend of Giffords. He's on the line. Congressman, thank you for your time.
Representative ED PASTOR (Democrat, Arizona): Good morning. Thank you very much.
HANSEN: First, our sympathies - and just to ask: The representative was holding a Congress on Your Corner event in Tucson so she could meet her constituents in person. Was that common for her?
Mr. PASTOR: Yes, it was. She believed that that was a very effective way of meeting her constituents. And she had made up her mind. She told me, while we were here this last week, that she was going to be more aggressive in terms of meeting her constituents as well as - she felt she was one of the last voices of a moderate Democrat in the Democratic caucus. And she wanted to ensure that the Democratic caucus paid attention to people like her, represented a district that was a swing district, leaned Republican but yet was able to win.
HANSEN: What was her outlook for this Congress? She narrowly won re-election this past November and...
Mr. PASTOR: Well, she expressed to me that it was going to be - this last race, I think she raised $4 million. And that took a toll on her because - I could see her last year, she was constantly working on the campaign, doing fundraising. And she told me: Ed, in the redistricting, I'm going to need some help because it's getting tougher and tougher.
HANSEN: The motive of yesterday's attack is really still not known. But a lot of concern has been expressed about the angry rhetoric in politics nowadays, and the effects it may have. What's your reaction to that?
Mr. PASTOR: Well, I mean, today you have news 24-7, in some cases not even news. It takes a certain ideology, certain TV channels and radio stations have commentators who are making a living by spewing hate - on both sides of the ideology. You have people who, through the Internet, through their blogs - and tweeters, etc. - and remaining anonymous, were able to almost bring up anything and spew hatred.
And so you can tell, as a member of Congress - I'm sure Gabby did, too - that she could tell when a particular radio jock spewed something because we just instantly began getting those emails over a particular issue. And so this 24-7, constant politicizing of every issue and ideology, it becomes pretty tough because it gets people excited.
HANSEN: Congressman Ed Pastor represents Arizona's 4th Congressional District. He joined us by phone from Washington, D.C. Thank you so much and again, our sympathies.
Mr. PASTOR: Thank you. And you have a good day. And my prayers are with Gabby and her family.
HANSEN: Thank you.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Federal Judge John Roll was among those killed in yesterday's shooting in Tucson. Roll was the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Arizona. U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts called Roll a wise jurist who selflessly served Arizona, and the nation, with great distinction.
NPR's Brian Naylor has this profile.
BRIAN NAYLOR: John McCarthy Roll was born in Pittsburgh in 1947. He was appointed to the federal bench by the first President Bush, in 1991. Before that, he had been a U.S. attorney and a state court judge. Former Republican congressman Jim Kolbe, who preceded Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona's 8th Congressional District, also knew Judge Roll. In fact, he was there when he was sworn in.
Former Representative JIM KOLBE (Republican, Arizona): He was one of the most likeable people I've known. He was, I think, a very fair-minded judge. I never appeared before him or watched him in action, but he had a tremendous reputation with attorneys in Tucson as being a very fair-minded and very thoughtful judge, and one who really knew the law.
NAYLOR: Kolbe says Roll was active in the Boys Club, and that he'll be missed in the community. University of Arizona Law professor Andy Silverman remembers Roll as conscientious.
Professor ANDY SILVERMAN (Law, University of Arizona): He was low-key, hard-working, you know, conscientious. He was conservative. You know, I don't remember him ever being politically involved, even before he was on the bench.
NAYLOR: Roll presided over a fair number of controversial cases. In 1994, he struck down a part of the Brady Law that required local police to conduct background checks of gun buyers. Roll was involved in a case in 2009 that had prompted death threats against him. It was a $32 million civil rights suit filed against an Arizona rancher by a group of illegal immigrants. When Roll ruled the case could proceed, he received more than 200 phone calls - some threatening the judge and his family. The U.S. Marshals Office had provided security at the time.
Roll became chief judge of the Arizona district in 2006. He'd spoken out on the need for more judges to hear Arizona's many drug and immigration cases. Silverman says they made up the bulk of Roll's case load.
Mr. SILVERMAN: He tried - particularly - a lot of criminal cases, which dominates the type of cases that we have in this district.
NAYLOR: Roll was also involved in Operation Streamline, a controversial program that brings expedited criminal charges against even first-time illegal immigrants. Roll told NPR last year that his court didn't make the policy, but carried out the wishes of the Congress and the executive branch.
Mr. JOHN ROLL (U.S. District Court Judge): We tried to - in Arizona - to make certain that rights aren't violated or trampled by this. And streamlined isn't the same as assembly line justice. It means that - it just means that there are a large number of cases at that particular level, that are analyzed and heard each day.
NAYLOR: Judge Roll is survived by his wife and three children.
Brian Naylor, NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
In Iraq, the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has returned after nearly four years in exile. Sadr's militia, the Mahdi army, waged fierce battles against U.S. troops early in the war, and is thought to have led Shiite death squads during the sectarian war in 2006 and 2007. Sadr left Iraq around that time to flee an arrest warrant for ordering the killing of a rival cleric, and to pursue religious studies in Iran.
Now that he's thrown his support behind the government of incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the warrant appears to have been canceled. NPR's Kelly McEvers watched Sadr's comeback speech Saturday in the holy city of Najaf, and sent this report.
KELLY MCEVERS: It was a dramatic moment when Sadr took the podium. Thousands of his supporters, most of them poor and disenfranchised Shiites, waited on the narrow street where Sadr was born. As he rose up before them with his black turban and black beard, the men beat their chests and heads in the traditional Shiite style, and wept.
(Soundbite of crowd crying)
MCEVERS: Sadr himself paused to wipe his eyes. He led the group in prayer, and then gave a quick speech.
(Soundbite of Muqtada Al-Sadr's speech)
MCEVERS: Sadr spoke not as the commander-in-chief of an anti-government, anti-American militia but as a politician. His bodyguards passed out Iraqi flags for supporters to wave. Instead of "Death to America," the chants were "No to America."
(Soundbite of Muqtada Al-Sadr's speech)
(Soundbite of crowd chanting in foreign language)
MCEVERS: Instead of calling on his constituents to take up arms, he said armed resistance to what he calls the American occupation should be reserved for just a few trained specialists. Most people, he said, should resist with their hearts.
(Soundbite of Muqtada Al-Sadr's speech)
MCEVERS: Sadr then turned his attention to the Iraqi government, whose forces his militia also battled in the past. If officials don't provide you with basic services, like clean water and reliable electricity, then we will oppose them, he said.
(Soundbite of Muqtada Al-Sadr's speech)
MCEVERS: But, he said, we will oppose them politically, within the system.
Sadr's change in tone might sound subtle to an American listener, but analysts here say it's an important shift. Many point to the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. Both movements are considered to be clients of Iran; both have gained seats in parliament; and both have built their message on resistance to an enemy occupier.
In Lebanon, that occupier was Israel. But when Israeli troops pulled out of Lebanon in 2000, the group styled a new message of resistance. In his speech, Sadr said that resistance will go on forever.
(Soundbite of Muqtada Al-Sadr's speech)
MCEVERS: Afterward, Sadr supporters loaded into buses, and headed back to their villages around Iraq's Shiite south.
(Soundbite of horn honking)
MCEVERS: We asked them: If U.S. troops stick to their deadline and leave Iraq by the end of this year, what will there be to resist?
Mr. AHMED ALLAWI: (foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: We don't know, says Ahmed Allawi(ph). That's up to our leader.
Back here in the capital, many people seem willing to wait and see if Sadr really has changed. Some Sunni families aren't so sure. Ibrahim Ismail Ibrahim's(ph) three brothers were killed during the sectarian war; and his father was beaten, shot to death, and thrown in the trash. Ibrahim believes the killers belong to Sadr's Mahdi army.
Mr. IBRAHIM ISMAIL IBRAHIM: (foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: As many Iraqis say, when it's a matter of blood, you never forget.
(Soundbite of crowd singing in foreign language)
MCEVERS: Kelly McEvers, NPR News, Baghdad.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
In federal court in El Paso, Texas, tomorrow, Cuban exile and former CIA employee Luis Posada Carriles goes on trial. Posada's name may not ring a bell, but in Cuba and in Miami's Cuban-American community, he is a well-known and polarizing figure.
Posada faces charges related to his alleged involvement in a series of hotel bombings in Havana in the mid-'90s. From Miami, NPR's Greg Allen has this story.
GREG ALLEN: Terrorist or freedom fighter? For many years, how you answered that question about Luis Posada depended largely on where you lived - Havana or Miami. Posada, who's now 82 years old, has fought to overthrow Fidel Castro for most of his life. He took part in the Bay of Pigs operation and later joined the CIA - until the mid-'70s, when he began organizing his own operations to destabilize the Cuban regime.
Venezuela and Cuba have long charged he was behind the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed 73 people. The incident at the center of the trial in El Paso involves a bomb set off at a Havana hotel in 1997, that killed an Italian tourist. A year later, a reporter for the New York Times taped an interview with Posada. Prosecutors are presenting those tapes as key evidence in the trial.
Peter Kornbluh, with the National Security Archive, says in the government transcripts of the tapes, Posada clearly admits his responsibility.
Mr. PETER KORNBLUH (National Security Archive): He said to the New York Times: I sleep like a baby; it's sad that somebody was killed, but we have to keep going. He is asked: Do you take credit for these bombings as an act of war? And he says, si.
ALLEN: Posada's defense attorneys take issue with the government transcripts. In transcripts they prepared, when asked about his involvement in the bombing, rather than si, they say Posada's answer was unintelligible. It will ultimately be up to the jury to decide what Posada admits to on the tapes.
In an unprecedented move, the U.S. may also introduce evidence on the Havana bombing gathered by the government of Cuba. Cuban officials will also testify. Posada's lawyer questions the credibility of allowing representatives of a country that's on the U.S. list of states that support terrorism, testify about a bombing.
Cuban-American writer and commentator Humberto Fontova agrees. Of the Cuban witnesses, he says...
Mr. HUMBERTO FONTOVA (Writer, Commentator): They're representatives of a totalitarian regime whose co-founder, Che Guevara, said the following: Judicial evidence is an archaic, bourgeois detail. Now, does it make sense to have officials from that regime at this trial?
ALLEN: Fontova says he doesn't know if Posada was involved in the bombing or not, but he explains his sympathy for Posada - and other aging Cuban militants accused of terrorism - this way:
Mr. FONTOVA: Put yourself in these men's places. The men of the Bay of Pigs generation, and the tremendous sense of betrayal that they felt, you know - to them, the battle wasn't over.
ALLEN: Posada isn't being charged with terrorism, but perjury related to testimony at an immigration hearing. In 2005, after decades of living abroad, Posada turned up in Miami and asked first for asylum, then naturalization. Eventually, that request was denied, and Posada was charged with lying and several other immigration violations.
The Obama administration significantly upped the ante when it added perjury charges related to the Cuban bombing to the indictment against Posada. The trial beginning tomorrow will mark the first time he'll have to answer in a U.S. courtroom to longstanding charges.
Watching the trial closely will be Livio Di Celmo, brother of the Italian tourist who was killed in the Havana hotel. Di Celmo says he believes the U.S. will never brand Posada as a terrorist.
Mr. LIVIO DI CELMO: But it doesn't matter. The families of his victims will continue to ask for justice. Not only to ask for justice but also to raise awareness in the American population - because I think that the American people should be more aware of what has been going on with terrorism against Cuba.
ALLEN: The trial will be closely followed in Miami, where Posada has been living while out on bail - as something of a celebrity. Also in Cuba, where officials often refer to him as the Osama bin Laden of Latin America.
Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
And now to a story about another major cultural group in Miami: the city's Haitian community. Wednesday will mark the one-year anniversary of the massive, 7.0 earthquake hitting Haiti. About 300,000 people were killed and a year later, much of the country remains in ruins. Many survivors sought refuge in the United States, most arriving in south Florida.
As Shannon Novak reports from Miami, those who hoped to return to a rebuilt Haiti are now struggling with frustration and despair.
SHANNON NOVAK: Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood sounds and looks much the same. Buildings are painted in pastels of blues, pinks and yellows; and music fills the air. But there seems to be an emptiness, a sadness, when you look into people's eyes.
Ms. CANDY METELLUS CHER-FRERE (Owner, Sonny's Record and Video Store): OK. But you can get five for 20. You have two here...
NOVAK: Business is slow at Sonny's Record and Video Store. Owner Candy Metellus Cher-Frere says entertainment remains largely a luxury.
Ms. CHER-FRERE: The ideal, the goal, is to come to America to be able to support whoever's still back there. We are resilient people, and we like to have fun; we like to, you know, be entertained. But when you have families, you know, sleeping in the street, you know, in tent cities, it's kind of hard to concentrate on those things.
NOVAK: In the year since the earthquake, many locals have family from Haiti now living with them. Most are sending money to Haiti to support family remaining there. But down the street at San La Haitian Community Center, shell-shocked earthquake survivors still fill the waiting room, seeking whatever help they can get.
This center is run by Gepsy Metellis. Like many here, she wonders what happened to all the money donated for Haitian recovery. She also wonders how she'll help all these people without additional resources.
Ms. GEPSY METELLIS (San La Haitian Community Center): You know, at times I find myself feeling so sad and so frustrated. I feel it coming on right now. Right? (Soundbite of crying)
NOVAK: Planeload after planeload of Haitians landed in Miami to join the roughly half-million Haitians already living in the U.S. Locals here expected much more aid, and a better coordinated assistance effort. Haitian advocates here say the increased demand for services far exceeds what is now available.
Vierjela Jean is an elderly woman who survived the earthquake, and arrived in Miami just last month. Looking striking with her hair wrapped in a traditional Haitian scarf, she speaks through a translator about symptoms that have plagued her since the earthquake.
Ms. VIERJELA JEAN: (through translator) Sometimes, she feels like her blood is boiling - all over. It's like an electrical shock that is going through her body. And when it's like that, she feels cramps all over her legs, all over. It's still happening to her.
NOVAK: Haitian community leaders here say they don't have the funds to properly care for these survivors. In addition, many Haitian-Americans are still dealing with the loss of loved ones and other hardships since the earthquake.
Miami-Dade School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho recalls how suddenly, about 1,500 new students enrolled in school - with special needs.
Mr. ALBERTO CARVALHO (Superintendent, Miami-Dade Public Schools): These were kids in fear, kids that refused to sleep in their own beds. They kept a glass of water filled because that was the way - in the island - that they could determine the tremors. And they kept it by their nightstand. So a traumatic experience, told time after time by these young men and women.
NOVAK: The school system deployed psychologists who are still assisting the students in the difficult adjustment.
Marie Paule Woodson is sitting with clients at the Miami chapter of Pham, the Haitian women's organization. She says even a year later, the demand is overwhelming.
Ms. MARIE PAULE WOODSON: Those people have never seen someone - a counselor, psychologist - to help them deal with the effects that the earthquake has had on them.
NOVAK: After the earthquake, there was some optimism that it would provide an opportunity to finally build a new and better Haiti. But now, after only one year, many Haitians living here say they feel forgotten. And like Haiti itself, Miami's Haitian community appears, to many, to be cracking.
For NPR News, I'm Shannon Novak in Miami.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Throughout today's program, we're reporting on the shooting in Tucson yesterday that left six people dead and at least a dozen wounded, including Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Reaction was swift and heartfelt, especially from Giffords' fellow Arizona lawmakers.
Governor Jan Brewer said: All of Arizona is shocked and deeply saddened by the horrific tragedy. She added, I am just heartbroken. Gabby is more than just a colleague; she is my friend. She has always been a noble public servant.
Senator John Kyl offered condolences to the family of U.S. District Court Judge John Roll and others who were killed and wounded. He said: We pray for the recovery of Representative Giffords and the others who remain in critical condition. Congresswoman Giffords is also a good friend, and I find it especially saddening that such a heinous crime would occur while she was fulfilling her congressional responsibilities.
Arizona Senator John McCain said he was horrified by the attack. Whoever did this, he said, whatever their reason, they are a disgrace to Arizona, this country and the human race; and they deserve and will receive the contempt of all decent people and the strongest punishment of the law.
(Soundbite of music)
HANSEN: You can follow this story throughout the day on this public radio station, and at NPR.org.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
On January 10, 1861, Florida became the third state to secede from the Union, after South Carolina and Mississippi. Eight other states would soon follow, igniting the bloodiest war in American history.
WEEKEND EDITION commentator and Florida native Diane Roberts explores why the Civil War still has such a hold on the Southern imagination.
DIANE ROBERTS: I used to drive my grandfather, Edgar Lafayette Roberts, to Natural Bridge Park, a few miles south of Tallahassee on the St. Marks River. His grandfather, Luther Tucker, fought there in 1865. Luther was 16 years old, part of the cadet corps which chased Union forces back down the river to the Gulf of Mexico.
My grandfather liked to go there to remember Luther and also Luther's brother, Charles Broward Tucker, who died just after the Battle of Fredericksburg; and Luther's cousin, Washington Broward, who died in a Union prison; and his other grandfather, Richard Roberts, who somehow survived the nine-month siege of Petersburg and made it home to the north Florida swamps.
Americans tend to look to the future, not the past. But old times are not forgotten, can't be forgotten, even here in Florida. We had plantations, lynchings, Klan cross burnings, white citizens' councils, segregated water fountains. Florida bears as much shame as Mississippi or Alabama.
Secession, the first shots at Fort Sumter - that was 150 years ago, yet the reverberations haven't died away. The governor of Virginia declares Confederate History Month without mentioning slavery, and an uproar ensues. The governor of Mississippi insists segregation wasn't that bad, then is forced to back down. Some white Southerners claim they just want to honor their ancestors. Many descendants of slaves beg to differ.
It doesn't matter if your people arrived on the Mayflower, were kidnapped from the Gold Coast of Africa, docked at Ellis Island, or took a plane from Mumbai. The issues of 1861 haunt us still - race, states' rights, the interpretation of the Constitution, the definition of who is American.
We're even still talking about secession. There are groups from Texas to Alaska that want independence from the United States. The war didn't finish the debate. It was merely a violent interruption.
There's not much to see now at Natural Bridge - a few earthworks dug by the soldiers and one of those big, wedding cake monuments put up by the Daughters of the Confederacy. It lists the names of the dead and says in big letters: Lest we forget. We won't. We can't.
HANSEN: Diane Roberts is the author of "Dream State: A History of Florida."
LIANE HANSEN, host:
In the world of college football, the name Bill Hancock invariably gets a smile - which is ironic because if you say the name of Bill Hancocks employer, often youll get a sneer.
Hancock is the executive director of the Bowl Championship Series - or as its known to its many critics, the event thats killing college football. The BCS uses computers and polls to match the two top-ranked teams in a title game. Those critics would rather have a more inclusive playoff.
Tomorrow night in Glendale, Arizona, this years two top teams, Auburn and Oregon, play for the BCS championship.
As NPRs Tom Goldman reports, Bill Hancock is happily doing his job amidst the grumbling.
TOM GOLDMAN: They come in waves - reporters at a college football media event this past week find the tall man with the wire-rim glasses and easy manner.
Mr. BILL HANCOCK (Executive Director, Bowl Championship Series): See you, Christine.
Unidentified Reporter #1: Bye-bye.
Mr. HANCOCK: Take care. Hey, Rachel.
Unidentified Reporter #2: Hey, good morning. How are you?
GOLDMAN: Yahoo Sports national columnist Dan Wetzel wasnt part of the hotel ballroom scene in Scottsdale. But he knows the meet-and-greet was genuine.
Mr. DAN WETZEL (National Columnist, Yahoo Sports): When Bill Hancock asks you how youre doing, he actually wants to know the answer. I dont think you find that often in American society anymore.
GOLDMAN: High praise, especially from a guy who co-wrote a book titled Death to the BCS. It came out a couple of months ago, and already is in its fourth printing. Wetzels book says the current system of running college footballs postseason, with no playoffs, hurts the universities financially and - says Wetzel - doesnt serve the competitive interests of players and fans.
There is the well-researched BCS bashing by journalists like Wetzel. Then, there are firebombs...
Mr. JAMES CARVILLE (Political Consultant/Commentator): The people that run the BCS are the most short-sighted, mental midgets anywhere in sports administration, anywhere in the world.
GOLDMAN: ...thrown by public figures like James Carville, which leaves Bill Hancock a bit confused.
Mr. HANCOCK: I dont understand some of the anger about it. The invective is a little hard to deal with, but it doesnt again, it doesnt get me down.
GOLDMAN: If anything, it motivates Hancock to get to work - affably, of course.
Mr. HANCOCK: Hi, this is Bill Hancock with the BCS. Im good, except Im late.
GOLDMAN: BCS championship week, which means even more interviews than Hancock normally gives. In 2009, his bosses wanted Hancock to be more aggressive in, as he puts it, telling the story of why the BCS is important.
This phone interview Friday was with a radio host named Chris in Atlanta.
Mr. HANCOCK: We get it that some people would like to do something different. But what we have now gives us a compelling regular season, and a bowl system that benefits way more teams than a playoff ever would.
GOLDMAN: The BCS hired Hancock in 2005, partly because he had the right temperament for what one BCS official calls a thankless job. Hancock has a natural sense of humor. When he was in his 20s, he and his brother owned the local newspaper in his hometown of Hobart, Oklahoma. He had the freedom to do anything with the paper. And he did, one beautiful spring day.
Mr. HANCOCK: The front page was blank except for one line. It said: Todays Front Page Canceled On Account Of Spring Fever.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. HANCOCK: And then on Page 2, I put a banner headline that said: OK, If You Got To Have News, Here It Is. And we put some news on it.
GOLDMAN: And the barbs from BCS bashers arent quite as sharp to a man whos known the pain of losing a child. Thirty-one-year-old Will Hancock died in a plane crash in 2001. Bill wrote a book about coping with the death. It endeared him even more to the college football press corps - the same press corps that will keep hammering away at the BCS while Hancock keeps smiling - he hopes.
Mr. HANCOCK: Ive told a couple of dear friends that if you see me changing because of all this, let me know because I dont want to become someone different.
GOLDMAN: So far, so good.
Tom Goldman, NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
January is a great time of year to cocoon on the couch with a nice cocktail. After all that holiday cheer, you're probably tired. And all you want to do is watch a little television. Well, January is a good time for that, too. It begins what's called the Shoulder Season, when networks offer both new shows and season premieres of existing ones.
And this year, a new network had its debut. To learn more, we've reached Jeff Jensen on a phone line with a few technical problems. He's a senior writer for Entertainment Weekly in Los Angeles.
And Jeff, before we get to some of the new shows that are getting buzz, on New Year's Day, the Oprah Winfrey Network - or OWN - went on the air. How was the first week of broadcasts?
Mr. JEFF JENSEN (Senior Writer, Entertainment Weekly): Well, it struck me as something of Oprah light. It certainly came with a lot of high expectations, and it seems that they weren't totally met. And it certainly seemed capable of living up to that hype last week. You know, it launched with like, 1 million viewers on a weekend. But then it started to drop significantly over the week to a more middling figure - though competitive with rival networks like Oxygen and Lifetime.
And so it's not a cultural force. It's off to a good start but maybe not the start that people thought that an Oprah network would launch to.
HANSEN: Speaking of cultural forces, American Idol returns this month, without two of the three original judges. Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul are gone. Steven Tyler, lead singer for Aerosmith, and Jennifer Lopez will replace them. Are there other changes?
Mr. JENSEN: Oh, yeah. There's going to be changes to some key rounds in the competition. For example, instead of - sort of like stretching out the cutting down of 24 final contestants over three weeks, they're going to do that in one week, in a real - kind of compelling and dramatic way.
There's going to be changes to the set. There's going to be changes to the whole mentor process. We'll see if it works. You know, I kind of dont know if this is sort of like American Idol 2.0," or if this is sort of like the cover band version of "American Idol."
HANSEN: Let's talk about some premium channels. Tonight on Showtime, William H. Macy stars as the head of a dysfunctional Chicago family. And it's actually an adaptation of a British show. And there are two other remakes debuting tonight. Another one on Showtime, with Matt LeBlanc, and one on PBS. What's up with the British invasion?
Mr. JENSEN: Whats up with the British invasion, I think, is networks - both on cable and broadcast - kind of desperate to like, find new energy and new, creative ideas. Cable has developed a really good - sort of formula for finding some success you know, edgy material that can be a showcase for a strong actor.
William H. Macy is like, just one of the most respected character actors. "Shameless" is a really good fit for Showtime. Showtime loves these shows about really messy, edgy men whose lives are kind of falling apart, and they're engaged in high-risk behavior.
Characters like "Dexter" or "Californication," with David Duchovny.
HANSEN: Right. Oh, but we have to - on the distaff side, you've got "Weeds" - with a woman with a crazy family.
Mr. JENSEN: I know. Yeah, I mean, like cable is the home of our antiheroes - you know, people taking some chances to sort of make ends meet. You know, "Breaking Bad" is all about that and it's like, one of the best shows on television.
You know, with "Shameless," I just dont know, though. A single father, he's a drunk, he's got to make the kids take care of themselves - I dont know if I want to watch that.
HANSEN: Other, smaller networks - I mean, the USA network, TNT - their original programming during the season seems to be doing very well - I mean, shows like "Burn Notice," "Men of a Certain Age," "White Collar." Why do you think these shows are doing so well?
Mr. JENSEN: I think TNT and USA are doing really well for themselves because they have sort of identified just a very specific niche that they're trying to hit. And they're offering solid, fun entertainment that broadcast television used to do really well - shows like "Covert Affairs" and "Psyched"; "The Closer" is one of my favorite shows. They found these real great, compelling showcases for movie actors to sort of come to TV, and sort of try their wares there.
HANSEN: Finally, the networks, whats coming up? As a geek, I imagine you're looking forward to NBCs "The Cape."
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. JENSEN: I love the superhero stuff. And this superhero show - "The Cape" revels in the superhero conventions. It has a costume that comes to life. It's a show that actually kind of believes in heroism in a rather cynical world. I had a good time watching "The Cape."
HANSEN: The winter press tour was held in Pasadena, California. Thats where people like you get to see the new shows and the new stars. Is there one thing that really made you, you know, take your eyes off your BlackBerry and pay attention?
Mr. JENSEN: I think that two of the huge events of this sort of second half of the television season actually come at the end, when we see a genre that is going to be really risky, it's going to be really expensive but it's going to get a lot of attention. And this is sort of like the sci-fi fantasy epic.
HBO has a show called "Game of Thrones," thats sort of adapted from a series of novels that are very popular. There's a lot of heat on that show.
And then there's "Terra Nova," thats going to launch with a two-hour movie. It's from producer Steven Spielberg. The premise is that people from the future have to go to the distant past and colonize - sort of like primeval times -because the future has become too toxic to live.
And these are examples of very expensive, sci-fi genre stuff that could capture a lot of imaginations - or be extremely expensive failures.
HANSEN: Our apologies for the technical issues with the phone line.
Jeff Jensen is a senior writer for Entertainment Weekly. Several new TV shows, and new episodes of established series, begin tonight. Thanks, Jeff. Don't spend too much time on the couch.
Mr. JENSEN: Thank you very much for having me.
HANSEN: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Im Liane Hansen.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
WEEKEND EDITION SATURDAY host Scott Simon and his family are friends with Congresswoman Giffords. He offers these personal thoughts this morning.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Gabby Giffords has true grit. I don't mean the kind you see in movies, but the grit to work hard, love your family, and serve your country. She is smart, sharp, funny and, as so many of her colleagues have noted over this past day, brave.
The next time you're tempted to mock members of Congress, you might think about Gabby, who flies back and forth across the country every week, losing sleep, missing her family, wearing herself down but determined to cast tough votes and fly back home to answer for them.
Our families are friends. We don't talk a lot about politics when we get together as much as kids and parents, great quesadillas, and all the new movies we never get a chance to see. We swap jokes and dreams.
Gabrielle Giffords went to Scripps College and Cornell, was a Fulbright scholar in Mexico, worked in New York finance, and came back to Tucson to run her family's tire business before entering politics. Her husband, Mark Kelly, is an astronaut, and the family member that people usually worry about.
But last spring, after Gabby voted for health-care overhaul, somebody shot a pellet gun into the glass of her Tucson office. I don't think I violate any confidence just to say Gabby has worried that intemperate people - I'll call them nuts and cranks - are poisoning politics in the state she loves.
She seems to cherish the sometimes curmudgeonly independence of her district. I've heard her complain about the constant strain of raising money and getting middle seats on long airplane flights, but never about meeting with her constituents, even if it's just to hear harangues.
The people who were shot alongside her yesterday, including those who died, were her friends and neighbors. I know her family wants the media to pay attention to them, too.
Gabrielle Giffords has always had close, fierce election battles in which she's been counted out but comes back to win. She's fighting for her life now. But she knows how to do that. A lot of people have learned: Never count out Gabby Giffords.
HANSEN: And that was my colleague, WEEKEND EDITION SATURDAY host Scott Simon.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
In Sudan, voting starts today in a referendum that will likely break that nation in two and create the world's newest country. It's an oil-rich but deeply impoverished region. Six years after a U.S.-brokered peace deal ended decades of conflict between Sudan's North and South, Southerners are choosing whether to go it alone as an independent nation.
NPR's Frank Langfitt is in Southern Sudan, where he has spent the day out at village polling stations. And, Frank, where are you and what has your day been like?
FRANK LANGFITT: Well, right now I'm at a place called Kulipapa. It's a small village, maybe 600 people, about an hour's drive out of the Southern Sudanese capitol of Juba. And people started showing up here around 7:00, polls opened at 8:00. And just the scene is quite something. It's just people are getting together under a tree and casting their votes. I went on and visited about five or six polling places, things seem to be going pretty smoothly so far.
HANSEN: Tell us a little bit more about Southern Sudan. I mean, it's about as large as France. But, as I mentioned, it's deeply impoverished. In fact, it only got paved roads about four ago. Gives us more description of the place.
LANGFITT: Absolutely. Let me describe the drive out here this morning. We left the tarmac road and there's not that much of it in Juba, and then you're on dirt road all the way - lots of deep ruts. And you would see people riding their bikes. They actually can't even ride their bikes on the road, so people who gather wood would be, like, loading on the back and walking down the road, with wood on the back of their bike 'cause they couldn't ride without falling over.
There aren't many schools out here. It's mostly scrub. The houses are made of wood and thatched huts. There's no - water, you get from the stream. It's about the best you can do. So it really is incredibly underdeveloped, even by, you know, East African standards.
HANSEN: There have been clashes between rebel groups and the Southern government forces in the past few days. Has that had an affect on today's balloting - the voting? You seem to say it's peaceful so far.
LANGFITT: So far. Of course, keep in mind, it's a huge swath of land so anything can be happening, you know, hours away by flight and you wouldn't know it. But going south of Juba, everything is very calm. You do see soldiers. They have AK-47s, but they're very relaxed and that's really basically a remnant from the war. People down here are fine.
I think people are a little more concerned as you get up towards the border area with the North that there could be clashes with rebels, there could be clashes with Arab militias coming in from the North.
But so far, I think people have, coming up to this vote, people have been increasingly confident that Sudan would be able to do something its never really been able to do before. And that's make a big, big political decision without a lot of bloodshed.
HANSEN: As a whole, Sudan is Africa's largest nation. If the South chooses independence, the North will lose a third of its land, millions of people, most of its oil wealth. Any idea what is anticipated after the vote?
LANGFITT: Well, I think that's really the tricky part. The North, as you said, is going to lose a lot of power and they're in the middle of negotiations over revenue sharing on oil, exact demarcation of the border, and that's where things could get dicey.
There's also an area called Abeiya, which is a disputed area on the northern side of the border. And they just have figured out that mostly Southerners live there - they want to be a part of the South. They haven't been able to resolve that conflict over who should actually get that section.
So, so far, things are peaceful. But I think in the coming weeks and months, people are going to really be keeping an eye on this place because not all these big issues have been resolved yet.
HANSEN: And the results won't really be available for a quite a while, right?
LANGFITT: They won't. I mean we won't hear final results for a number of weeks. But the fact of the matter is - this is my second visit to Southern Sudan in two months - I've never met a single person in the South who's going to vote for unity.
Everybody is bitter about the war. They want their independence. They want to be their own country.
HANSEN: NPR's Frank Langfitt in Southern Sudan. Frank, thank you very much.
LANGFITT: You're very welcome, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
In Northern Sudan, few people are happy about the prospect of the country splitting.
NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. She reports that many Northerners want to know how a divided Sudan will affect their pocketbooks.
(Soundbite of vehicles)
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: The fear the Northern Sudanese have about the prospect of division can be felt at the gas stations.
(Soundbite of a gas pump and conversation)
NELSON: Everyone interviewed at this filling station in Khartoum blamed the referendum for a recent and painful hike in the price of gasoline.
(Soundbite of conversation)
NELSON: Drivers squabbled with station attendants over the close to one dollar per gallon increase.
Nearby, gas station manager Ehab Hassan says he shares their frustration. He, like every Northerner interviewed for this story, opposes independence for Southern Sudan. Hassan believes gas hikes are just the beginning of the problems for a divided Sudan. He points to rising food prices and persistent double-digit inflation. Hassan says he worries about his children.
What kind of life do you think they will have in North Sudan?
Mr. EHAB HASSAN (Manager, Gas Station): (Through Translator) He says (unintelligible) is a bad future, bad future.
Mr. HASSAN: That's correct, bad future.
NELSON: Such pessimism is widespread across Khartoum. Northerners are quick to blame their woes on the prospect of an independent South. Many here believe fuel prices have risen because most of the nation's oil fields are in the South and would be controlled by the new nation.
Instead, officials and economic experts say the fuel increase is due to the elimination of subsidies by the government, to make Sudan more appealing to foreign investment.
Laura James is an economic expert with the Assessment and Evaluation Commission, which monitors and supports the internationally-backed peace treaty between Northern and Southern Sudanese leaders. She says that Sudan has for years been seeking alternatives to its dwindling oil reserves. And in addition to private sector development, has been working on ways to boost its agriculture.
Dr. LAURA JAMES (Economic/Political Analyst, Assessment and Evaluation Commission): I think perhaps there is a new sense of urgency but plans were in place long before the prospective division.
NELSON: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is trying to persuade citizens who aren't from the South that the referendum could end the violent clashes that have plagued Sudan for decades. But he and other Northern officials concede the prospect of losing a third of the land and key natural resources is tough to swallow.
Ibrahim Ghandour is secretary of political relations for the ruling National Congress Party.
Mr. IBRAHIM GHANDOUR (Secretary, National Congress Party): We won't be mourning, as the president said. But we won't be rejoicing, as our brothers in the South may do. But we will start a new page.
NELSON: That new page has some who live in the North very worried, especially after President Bashir vowed in recent days to turn Northern Sudan into a conservative Islamic state, one dominated by Arab language and culture.
Non-Arab Southerners living in the North are especially fearful they will be attacked in the coming days by their neighbors opposed to the partition. More than a million Southern Sudanese fleeing conflict and famine in their homeland now live in slums ringing Khartoum.
Polling stations have been established around the city. But fears are prompting many of them to forgo voting in the referendum.
(Soundbite of a crowd)
NELSON: Like here in Jabarona, Southerners here told NPR they had been standing in line for days with their belongings, often fighting with their neighbors for space on the trickle of buses and trucks sent by Southern Sudanese officials to bring them home.
(Soundbite of an argument)
NELSON: Reverend Ramadan Chan Liol is a Southerner. He also is the general secretary of the Sudan Council of Churches, and he believes their fears are justified.
Reverend RAMADAN CHAN LIOL (General Secretary, Sudan Council of Churches): People will come out, but of course with fear and we also expect some intimidations and, you know, some restrictions to not to let them go to the polls.
NELSON: Liol says he won't be voting in the North. He is traveling to his hometown to vote.
NELSON: Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Khartoum.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Many states across the country have some big budget holes to fill this year and public employees are worried about what that means for them.
In New York, newly elected Governor Andrew Cuomo wants to slash state agencies and freeze public workers' pay for a year.
And in California, which is struggling to close a $28 billion deficit, Jerry Brown is sending mixed signals to the labor allies who helped him get elected governor.
NPR's Richard Gonzales reports.
RICHARD GONZALES: Jerry Brown's return to the governor's office after nearly 30 years was a stripped down, no frills affair. And he wasted no words warning that California's budget promises pain and sacrifice.
Governor JERRY BROWN (Democrat, California): Choices have to be made and difficult decisions taken. At this stage of my life, I've not come here to embrace delay and denial.
(Soundbite of applause)
GONZALES: Brown said closing the budget gap means putting everything on the table - schools, prisons, the environment.
Gov. BROWN: We'll also have to look at our system of pensions and how to ensure they're transparent and actuarially sound and fair - fair to the workers and fair to the taxpayers.
GONZALES: That line drew no applause from the labor-friendly audience. Two hours later, Brown dropped by a union-sponsored inauguration party featuring free hot dogs and mariachi music.
(Soundbite of music)
GONZALES: It was called The People's Inauguration Party and its organizers, the Orange County Employees Association, had hoped Brown would address the crowd of several thousand. Instead, he and his wife grabbed a quick hot dog, chatted with a few dozen people and then abruptly left.
More than a few of the assembled union members felt dissed.
Mr. STEVE TROMBETTA (High School Teacher): They put a speaker up here and everybody says he's going to be here and then he doesn't even show up. I mean, he shows up and shakes a few hands, has a hot dog. You know, it's crap.
GONZALES: High school teacher Steve Trombetta said he had waited two hours to hear Brown speak.
Mr. TROMBETTA: You know, speak to the people. He doesn't have to kowtow to the unions but he has to at least come out and say something, you know.
GONZALES: One can only speculate whether Jerry Brown intended to send a message that he isn't beholden to unions that spent millions on his reelection campaign. But even if Brown is trying to stand tough with the public employee's union, it's clear that he'll need them to go along with his budget slashing program, particularly in the area of pensions, which cost the state about $5 billion a year.
Mr. ED MENDEL: He's not a newcomer to this issue.
GONZALES: Ed Mendel writes an influential blog on California's public pension crisis. He says when Brown was last governor in the early 1980s he proposed scaling back pensions for new state employees.
Mr. MENDEL: When he was running for governor this time he had an eight point pension plan, and two of the points were higher contributions from employees and lower pensions for new hires.
GONZALES: Now, he has to sell those ideas to a handful of public employee unions. The ever-unpredictable Brown recently appointed two attorneys with long records of representing unions to negotiate on his behalf.
Mr. STEVE MAVIGLIO (Democratic Campaign Strategist): To me, it's like stealing two pitchers from the other team right before the World Series.
GONZALES: Democratic campaign strategist Steve Maviglio.
Mr. MAVIGLIO: These two guys have lived and breathed labor relations their whole lives, so they're trusted by labor. And, you know, as you send somebody you trust to deliver the news, and there's going to be a lot of bad news delivered.
GONZALES: The biggest union without a contract is the prison guards who clashed with Brown's predecessor, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ryan Sherman is a spokesman for the guards union.
Mr. RYAN SHERMAN (Spokesman, Prison Guards Union, California): I'm certain bad news that he's going to be delivering is there's not going to be a pay raise. Everybody in the state understands that, you know, the tough fiscal times, and it would make sense if you've got a guy that's fair sitting across the table from you that understands where you're coming from. Makes it a lot easier to negotiate even during tough fiscal times.
GONZALES: During the election campaign, Brown's critics predicted he'd give away the store to the unions. But in California, there's no money to give away.
Richard Gonzales, NPR News, San Francisco.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Last night, at the Statehouse in Phoenix, Arizona, stunned residents gathered for a vigil.
(Soundbite of bagpipes playing "Amazing Grace")
HANSEN: Bagpipes sounded in honor of the victims of yesterday's tragic shooting. In addition to the wounding of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of federal judge John Roll, five others were murdered, and 12 more wounded.
Among the dead: congresswoman Giffords' director of community outreach, Gabe Zimmerman, age 30; Dorothy Morris, age 76; Dorwin Stoddard, also 76; and Phyllis Scheck, age 79.
But the death that hit many of us the deepest is that of the youngest victim, 9-year-old Christina Taylor Greene, who had gone to the event to meet the congresswoman. Christina was the granddaughter of former Philadelphia Phillies manager Dallas Greene. According to the Arizona Daily Star, she was an athletic child who liked to swim, and was the only girl on her Little League team. She played second base.
Christina Greene had just been elected to the student council at her elementary school. She told her parents she wanted to attend Penn State and make a career of helping those less fortunate. She loved ballet, hip-hop and jazz.
Our thoughts go out to all the families and friends of those shot yesterday in Tucson. You can follow coverage throughout the day on this public radio station, and at NPR.org.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This weekend, 200 people are plowing through the 135 chapters of Herman Melville's epic "Moby Dick" at the whaling museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Pippin Ross went over to listen to the nonstop reading marathon.
(Soundbite of bell ringing)
PIPPIN ROSS: The "Moby Dick" marathon begins as Ray Veary, a local assistant district attorney dressed like a gentleman of the 1800s, offers the book's opening line.
Mr. RAY VEARY (Assistant District Attorney): (Reading) Call me Ishmael.
ROSS: Here's the Cliff Notes - a young man name Ishmael hops a whaling ship out of New Bedford. He gets a gig with Captain Ahab, a guy obsessed with revenge for Moby Dick, a mega-sperm whale who smashed up one of his ships and chopped off one of his legs. At first, New Bedford Mayor Peter Lang reads about Ishmael's early days on the ship.
Mr. PETER LANG (Mayor, New Bedford, Massachusetts): True, they rather ought to be about some and make me jump from spar to spar like a grasshopper...
ROSS: About 200 people seated in chairs and snuggled on blankets are library-like quiet, reading along with books and iPads. Only when Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank reads about Ishmael learning he has to share a bed does the crowd softly chuckle.
Representative BARNEY FRANK (Democrat, Massachusetts): (Reading) At any rate, I made my mind and if so turned out that we sleep together, he must undress and get into bed before I did.
ROSS: The crowd is mostly into the meaning of Melville's writing. Congressman Frank sees the story as America's first step toward going green.
Mr. FRANK: It's a kind of striking thing to think that these enormous wondrous creatures were killed and captured only for their oil. And it was the discovery of electricity, an alternative form of energy, that led to the end of whaling.
ROSS: There aren't many young people in the crowd. Sixteen-year-old Brian Chaliff(ph) says his dad convinced him it would be easier to hear, not read, the book.
Mr. BRIAN CHALIFF: The book is obviously the great American novel and the, you know, our dad, he was an English major in college.
ROSS: Self-described Melvillian David Dowling says doing the marathon read feels like being at sea.
Mr. DAVID DOWLING: We find ourselves going through these sort of roller-coaster moments all the way through those 25 hours. And, you know, invariably we'll get readers who really do nail the language.
ROSS: Like Phil Austin, who is practicing his "Moby Dick" lingo in a private corner.
Mr. PHIL AUSTIN: (Reading) Before the mast, belike, bespeak, bestir, bethink, betoken, bilge pump, billow.
ROSS: Like Captain Ahab, everyone seems determined to capture Moby Dick.
For NPR News, I'm Pippin Ross.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
When we first meet the heroine of Susan Vreeland's new historical novel, Clara Driscoll is a widow and returning to work for Louis Comfort Tiffany. He made the stained-glass windows and lamps. His father, Charles, made the silver and jewelry. It was just before the 1893 World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago, and Tiffany windows would be on prominent display.
Clara Driscoll supervises the women who execute Mr. Tiffany's designs. Susan Vreeland's novel is called "Clara and Mr. Tiffany." And Susan Vreeland is in the studio at KPBS in San Diego, California. Welcome to the program.
Ms. SUSAN VREELAND (Author, "Clara and Mr. Tiffany"): Thank you. Nice to be here.
HANSEN: Who is the real Clara Driscoll?
Ms. VREELAND: It most likely is Clara who conceived of stained-glass lamp shades. They really were not made before her tenure at Tiffany Studios. But in addition, she really engaged as much as she could with the City of New York, and all of its changes happening at the turn of the 20th century.
And she took an interest in the lives of the women that worked in her studio. They called themselves the Tiffany Girls. I'm sure they wouldn't have had that name today.
HANSEN: But that was the times.
Ms. VREELAND: That's right, that's right. And she was a woman a bit ahead of her time because she followed the politics of the day, even though she couldn't vote. She ultimately led a labor action of the women because the men at Tiffany Studios began to be threatened by the success of the women. At first, the lamps were only made by Clara's department. And the men went on strike, to try to shut the women down and get their department eliminated completely. So Clara had to take action. She did it admirably, I might say.
HANSEN: How would you describe Clara and Louis Tiffany's relationship? She seems to know him very, very well. His mannerisms - when he comes on the factory floor, he'll be, you know, ticking his cane that he doesn't really need. I think you describe him as Napoleonic at one point. What was the nature of their relationship? She seemed to have a pretty good one with him. She would jibe him a little bit.
Ms. VREELAND: Yes. She didn't call him Little Napoleon to his face, nor did she call him the peacock, which she thought of him as at times. But she did tease him and nobody else, of course, felt the security to do that. But she knew that he needed her, and that he was becoming more and more famous because of her and because of the lamps.
There were times, however, that oh, he rankled her and was arbitrary. And that didn't sit well with her.
HANSEN: Yeah. Did Clara ever get any credit? You mentioned an exhibition of Tiffany's work, but did Clara finally get some credit for her ideas and her designs?
Ms. VREELAND: I wish I could say yes, Liane.
HANSEN: No, not yet, huh?
Ms. VREELAND: She did win this bronze medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900. But he, himself, never gave her public notice. And I have to say that that was his policy not just for Clara, or not just for the women, but for the male designers, too. There were a few whose work was credited, but not Clara.
HANSEN: This book - I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to be as much a book about the unsung and sometimes ultimate contribution of women at the time.
Ms. VREELAND: Well, I think so. She was leading these women against the men at a time when women in labor were developing unions of their own. She witnessed so many things in New York - changes like the advent of the subway, of electricity in the streets. She was fascinated with the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty. So I had to give these changes and developments cameo roles as she engaged with New York.
HANSEN: Is that why you wrote this as fiction - it gives you that license and that liberty?
Ms. VREELAND: Yes.
HANSEN: Yes.
Ms. VREELAND: Yes. And it also - you know, there's a list of the Tiffany Girls and their nationalities and their birthdates. But we don't know too much about their personalities. So a novel could allow me to develop their ancillary stories, too.
HANSEN: Do you know why Tiffany jewelry and silver survived, and the glass company died out?
Ms. VREELAND: Well, I could say diamonds are a girl's best friend, and that never changes. But the taste for art did change. There arrived a new aesthetic in America - which was sleeker, simpler, straighter lines. And art nouveau went out of fashion. But Tiffany hung onto it. The company, Tiffany Studios, ended up in bankruptcy in 1930 - early '30s.
HANSEN: And what happened to Clara?
Ms. VREELAND: She eventually left Tiffany's to marry. And after she left Tiffany, she didn't continue working with glass. She developed a business designing silk scarves - hand-painted silk scarves, but none of those are extent; there's no way of tracing them. She probably sold them to a department store there in New York.
HANSEN: Isn't it interesting now that museum shops will sell scarves that are directly prints from the Tiffany windows?
Ms. VREELAND: Oh, yes. I have two.
(Soundbite of laughter)
HANSEN: That's only right and just, I think. Susan Vreeland's new historical novel is called "Clara and Mr. Tiffany." Susan Vreeland is in the studios of KPBS in San Diego. Thank you so much.
Ms. VREELAND: Oh, it's been my pleasure, Liane.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
So more can be better for kids, and apparently that is also true with language and words. NPR's Alix Spiegel reports that some old research has led to new programs focused on words.
ALIX SPIEGEL: So for years, she and a professor at the university named Todd Risley worked tirelessly to expand the vocabularies of these 4-year-olds.
BETTY HART: We tried everything we knew without success. We couldn't do it. We tried everything. Everything we could.
SPIEGEL: The problem, they realized, was that they weren't getting to the kids early enough. Which led to this question.
HART: Since age four was too late, when was early enough?
SPIEGEL: To find out, Hart and Risley embarked on an unbelievably ambitious research project. They decided they would follow 40 families - poor, rich and in-between - for the first three years of their child's life. Literally, record and count the words that were said to these children.
HART: Unidentified Woman: (Singing) (unintelligible)
SPIEGEL: Unidentified Woman: What happened to your bed?
INSKEEP: Unidentified Woman: You wee-weed on it? Yeah.
SPIEGEL: According to their research, the average child in a welfare home hears 600 words an hour, a professional child, 2,100.
HART: Children in professional families are talked to three times as much as the average child in a welfare family.
SPIEGEL: It was no wonder then that the underprivileged kids they saw at their preschool often lagged behind at school. And personally, Hart says, seeing those numbers made her more than demoralized.
HART: Horrified might be a better word. Horrified when you see that the differences are so great, and you think of trying to make up those differences. You just look at it and say, you know, it's hopeless.
SPIEGEL: And so all over the country programs have cropped up to teach low-income parents things like how to talk to your baby while walking down the street or how to talk to your baby while playing with a toy.
ALAN MENDELSOHN: Okay, I'm going to bring up the first video now.
SPIEGEL: Dr. Mendelsohn describes a video of a mom with her two-month-old baby.
MENDELSOHN: In this case, the specialist probably suggested ways the mother could use the mirror to verbally engage the baby, by talking about reflections, eye color. Changing these micro-interactions adds up to macro-differences. To all the millions of words Betty Hart's children were missing, and Mendelsohn says his program can clearly teach micro-interactions.
MENDELSOHN: Mothers had roughly a doubling in the amount of certain kinds of labeling activities. A 50 percent increase in the degree to which they sort of talked about what was going on in the surroundings of the child.
SPIEGEL: But Russ Whitehurst, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, warns that teaching a low-income mother to talk to her baby isn't going to transform the child.
RUSS WHITEHURST: If that's not followed with good stimulation in school with continued positive parent interactions, if that experience isn't built on, it's not likely to have an enduring effect.
SPIEGEL: Alix Spiegel, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Here's NPR's Mike Pesca.
MIKE PESCA: Unidentified Man #1: Patriots' head coach Bill Belichick has thrown acid in the face of his star quarterback, Tom Brady, apparently out of jealousy that Brady was handsome and loved, while he himself was a hideous monster.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW "THE ONION SPORTSDOME")
PESCA: Unidentified Man #3. I kill Bud Selig, ex-owner, loves to watch the players get screwed high and low.
(SOUNDBITE OF "THE ONION SPORTSDOME")
PESCA: But the joke isn't wouldn't it be funny to kill Bud Selig or the entire line of the Oakland Raiders, which also is proposed. It's the hyperbolic lack of perspective that characterizes the sports media.
INSKEEP: Unidentified Man #4: Our homes, our cars, our Internet access, our showers and whatever's in our fridge. All of it is yours, Albert. The buffet is open.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE ONION SPORTSDOME")
(SOUNDBITE OF A ROADWAY)
PESCA: The clip was supposedly taken from an outdoor press conference. Did you notice how the mic sounded different from the studio anchor who introduced the clip, and how the public official's mic picked up the sound of traffic?
INSKEEP: Mike Pesca, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Newborn babies may be a bundle of joy, but they are a heavy bundle of joy. Scientists say human babies weigh proportionally more at birth than the babies of any other primate species. Now, an anthropologist in Boston has shown that our earliest human ancestors probably had big babies, too. And it's something that may have influenced the development of modern human societies. NPR's Joe Palca investigates.
JOE PALCA: You can admire the human species, but you have to be realistic.
D: Humans are strange in all sorts of ways.
PALCA: Jeremy DeSilva is an anthropologist at Boston University. How are humans strange? Well, walking upright on two legs is strange; our newborns are almost totally helpless; and they're big.
D: Our babies are unusually large. They have unusually large heads. They have unusually large bodies compared to other primates.
PALCA: A newborn ape typically weighs about 3 percent of what its mother weighs. For humans, that jumps to 6 percent. DeSilva wondered if this were true for a species like Australopithecus, that came millions of years before modern humans. But there's a fundamental difficulty answering that question.
D: We don't have fossilized remains of newborns.
PALCA: DeSilva came up with a clever way around that problem. It's a two-step process. First, you use adult skulls to estimate the newborn's skull size. That can be done very accurately for all primates. DeSilva was able to analyze a dozen Australopithecus skulls.
D: So once you have the size of the head, there is what researchers have called the 12-percent rule.
PALCA: The 12-percent rule says that the brain represents 12 percent of the total body weight.
D: It's not exactly 12 percent. In fact, in the apes, it tends to be more 10 percent.
PALCA: This change in relative birth size was a critical development. DeSilva believes birthing large babies probably influenced human culture.
D: The whole expression that it takes a village is, in part, rooted in the fact that we have really big infants that are pretty helpless. If we wanted to get anything done, we have to hand them off.
PALCA: Life was changing in other ways for Australopithecus. Two and a half million years ago, these guys began swapping a life in trees for one on solid ground. Owen Lovejoy is an anthropologist at Kent State University in Ohio.
D: One of the things, I think, that goes along with the switch to upright walking and terrestriality is a switch to a more substantive infant that has a higher chance of survival.
PALCA: If the trend to proportionally larger babies was nearly complete two and a half million years ago when Australopithecus showed up, when did it begin? Anthropologist Robert Martin, of the Field Museum in Chicago, thinks the answer is an even older human relative called Sahelanthropus.
D: I did some quick calculations after you sent me the paper, and it looks as though Sahelanthropus was intermediate between the great apes and Australopithecus. So it looks as though Sahelanthropus might already have started along that pathway 7 million years ago.
PALCA: Joe Palca, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Today, California's new Governor Jerry Brown unveils a new state budget. By necessity it's expected to include pain. The state is facing a deficit that could be as high as $28 billion. That's for one state. We're looking at Governor Brown this morning as part of our series on some of the challenges facing the nation's new governors. John Myers of member station KQED reports that Brown will not have much time to solve the state's budget crisis.
JOHN MYERS: Jerry Brown's inaugural speech last week began with a reminder of three big promises he made during his campaign for governor.
JERRY BROWN: No more smoke and mirrors on the budget. No empty promises. Second, no new taxes unless the people vote for them. And third, return, as much as possible, decisions and authority to cities and counties and schools.
MYERS: He's also poised to launch an ambitious and complex effort to transfer power to local governments over services they provide, but ones the state controls and pays for. Brown says he's under no illusions about the battles that kind of change may spark.
BROWN: Government, state and local, is wired together in a particular way. And as we rewire it, there will be people who object because power gets shifted, funds move in one direction rather than another.
MYERS: Those income, sales, and car taxes are worth about $8 billion dollars. And education advocates are already preparing a statewide campaign. Bob Wells is with the Association of California School Administrators.
BOB WELLS: We look forward to being part of a coalition that takes the message to voters that we need great schools in California. And you do have to pay for it.
MYERS: But the voters can't consider the issue if the state legislature doesn't place the question on the ballot. And that means a handful of Republican legislators have to go along with Governor Brown. So far, they seem dead set against it. Connie Conway, the Republican leader of the California State Assembly, says voters rejected those same taxes two years ago.
CONNIE CONWAY: And I think they have spoken loud and clear. Quit trying to tax me more. I've told you once, I've told you twice, are you really going to make me tell you that a third time?
MYERS: And nothing about either the choices or the problems facing California seems new. While most states across the nation face budget gaps, their dilemmas can largely be traced to the recession. But even when California's economy was strong and unemployment was low, the state was running in the red. And to make matters even worse: just one month after last October's latest budget ever came news the state's deficit was already back.
MAC TAYLOR: People probably want to know is well, you fixed it. You balanced your budget. Why are you coming back again and saying there's another problem?
MYERS: Mac Taylor leads the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, which advises the state legislature on the budget. Taylor says many of California's recent budgets have been balanced with temporary, stopgap measures. Now, the state's lawmakers have little choice but to face the problem head on.
TAYLOR: They should look at all programs. You can't solve this budget problem by just being a little more efficient. You're going to have to make decisions that there are certain services we can no longer afford, at this time or within the near future.
MYERS: For NPR News, I'm John Myers, in Sacramento.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
We begin our coverage with NPR's Martin Kaste.
MARTIN KASTE: The Pima County Sheriff's office says Jared Loughner arrived at the Tucson Safeway by cab. For a time, investigators suspected the driver of being an accomplice - an idea they later dropped. Thirteen minutes after Loughner's arrival, at 10:12 a.m., the first 911 calls came in.
(SOUNDBITE OF 911 CALL)
U: Hello, 911, there was a shooting at Safeway, where Gabrielle Giffords was.
KASTE: It didn't take long before the system was flooded with calls from around the shopping complex.
U: Who? Okay, and there's other people that are injured?
U: Many people. There's multiple people shot.
U: Okay. Oh, my God.
KASTE: FBI director Robert Mueller.
KASTE: I believe we have an indication that he attended a similar event.
KASTE: Director Mueller wouldn't speculate about motivations, but he did point a finger at what he called inciteful speech on the internet.
KASTE: And that absolutely presents a challenge for us, particularly when it results in what would be lone wolves or lone offenders undertaking attacks.
KASTE: And yet, it could have been even worse. The shooting stopped when it did, say authorities, because of the intervention of a handful of citizens. Patricia Maisch is one of them. Sitting outside her home on Sunday evening, a desert sunset to her left, she recalled those long moments on Saturday morning when the gunman drew near.
KASTE: I was laying on the ground, and I was wondering how it was going to feel to be shot.
KASTE: But then, she says, the gunman was suddenly on the ground next to her, tackled by two men.
KASTE: And somebody yelled, get the gun. So I immediately knelt up over him, 'cause he was right there on - almost on top of me, so he was reaching in his pocket and - with his left hand - and he pulled out a magazine, or a clip, and so I was able to grab the magazine and get a hold of it so that he couldn't.
KASTE: Martin Kaste, NPR News, Tucson.
TED ROBBINS: Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik thinks he knows, at least in part. Dupnik, a Democrat blames right-wing talk radio, TV and Internet activity fomenting anti-government sentiment.
CLARENCE DUPNIK: The rhetoric about hatred, about mistrust of government, about paranoia of how government operates has impact on people, especially who are unbalanced personalities to begin with.
ROBBINS: Dupnik also opposes Arizona's lenient gun laws. It's one of only three states which allow concealed weapons without permits or training.
DUPNIK: I have never been a proponent of letting everybody in this state carry weapons under any circumstances that they want. And that's almost where we are.
ROBBINS: But some of Gabrielle Giffords' constituents I talked with at a Starbucks next to a supermarket much like the one where the attack occurred weren't so sure that mattered.
AL CHESSER: I just don't see that as contributing to the incident.
ROBBINS: Al Chesser is a retired Tucson police officer.
CHESSER: This is an individual that would have found a way to do harm one way or another.
ROBBINS: Chesser is a Republican who likes Giffords personally. But he voted for her opponent last fall, Tea Party Republican Jesse Kelly. Giffords barely won the election, a third term in this swing district with land along the border and pockets of deep conservatism, but with most of its population in more moderate Tucson.
ROBBINS: What does the attack mean? What does it say about this area?
CHESSER: Well, I really don't think it says anything about the district or about Arizona. It's not an isolated incident in the sense that these things - you know, how often do we turn on the evening news and find a similar story?
ROBBINS: That doesn't mean Chesser is discounting what happened.
CHESSER: People all over here are still reeling from this. This guy would have probably done the same thing if he'd lived in Colorado or New Jersey.
ROBBINS: Maybe, but right now, Arizona is the topic of endless commentary and criticism.
COREY FERRUGIA: I think, obviously, it can happen anywhere, and it does.
ROBBINS: Corey Ferrugia sat nearby reading a book, which may have been an antidote to his mood - a self-help business book on manifesting positive things in your life.
FERRUGIA: It's a really, really sad thing for me. I'm a Tucson native and, you know, to see this scene in, like, national news has been very, very sad.
ROBBINS: Ferrugia co-owns a fledgling music school. He's a registered independent, who met and voted for Giffords, yet he agrees the attack says little about Tucson. He just can't believe it happened here.
FERRUGIA: It's a very close-to-home kind of feeling. And that's - if anything, it's a shock, you know, in probably the most humbling way, you know.
ROBBINS: Tanya Davis sat on a bench drinking chai and feeding her 18-month-old daughter Sophie. Davis is a Democrat and Giffords supporter. While she agrees it was an isolated incident by a disturbed individual, she says it might have been prevented.
TANYA DAVIS: You know, it sounds like it might have be a result of not having enough resources for people with mental health issues, but I don't feel like it's directly, from what I understand, related to the politics here.
ROBBINS: Chief of trauma surgery, Dr. Peter Rhee, says it's a good sign that she's been responsive to directions before and after surgery.
PETER RHEE: We'll ask her: Show me two fingers. That takes specific brain power to do. So, she was able to give us that, and that was enough for us to know that she's alive inside there and that she's not dead, and that was what gave us so much optimism.
ROBBINS: Ted Robbins, NPR News, Tucson.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Frank Langfitt drove out from the southern capital of Juba to visit some rural polling sites yesterday.
FRANK LANGFITT: Peres Juan Ebele is a motivated voter. She walked an hour in her purple flip-flops to be among the first to the polls this morning. Ebele has a message in English for the government of northern Sudan.
M: They now going bye-bye.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
LANGFITT: Like many southern Sudanese, Ebele despises the leaders in Khartoum, the northern capital. Ebele, who's about 40, says the north began raiding her village before she was born.
M: (Foreign language spoken)
LANGFITT: Mathias Mogul Mohammad(ph) is a local elder who's chairing the polling station. He says 24 villagers died in a massacre as early as 1969.
M: There are more attacks.
LANGFITT: How many altogether? Any idea?
M: Oh, that cannot be counted. Imagine in a war of 17 years, from time to time, they make attacks. And even this place was a lot (unintelligible) vacant. People all went out.
LANGFITT: How long was it vacant for?
M: For more than 20 years.
LANGFITT: In 2005, the United States brokered a peace agreement. This week's referendum, which runs through Saturday, was part of the deal. Turnout was heavy yesterday, with lines running 500 deep in Juba.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)
LANGFITT: But Cole Mannas(ph), the United Nations election observer, says things seem to be going well.
M: This is the far center(ph) of Khartoum. It's going on peaceful, and that's what we want.
LANGFITT: And have there been any reports of any problems here in the Juba area or south of Juba?
M: Not at all.
LANGFITT: In the days leading up to the vote, there were military clashes in southern Sudan's oil-rich unity state and tribal violence in the disputed region of Abyei. The numbers are fuzzy, but more than two dozen people may have been killed. Polling on Sunday, though, appeared to pass without incident.
U: (Singing in foreign language)
LANGFITT: Mogga Jackson is a Baptist preacher in the village of Ganji Payam. He's wrapping up a small Sunday service beneath a tree. Jackson says he'll vote for independence, because the north has ignored the basic needs of poor villages like his - things like health care and clean water.
M: There's no doctors which can come and help us. Water isn't available. We have to go to the stream, and get water from the streams.
LANGFITT: Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Juba, Southern Sudan.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is watching them from the capital Khartoum. Hi, Soraya.
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: What are you seeing where you are?
SARHADDI NELSON: And the other reason is that the southerners who did stay to vote, there was not much encouragement on the part of the southern officials to get those people to register, because they're actually for unity - people who built their lives and businesses here and are not necessarily looking for Sudan to split apart.
INSKEEP: OK. So, those are the southerners who are in the capital, Khartoum, who are able to vote at a distance, as it were, in this referendum on the independence of southern Sudan. What about northerners? People who are watching, perhaps, their country, from their perspective, being torn apart here?
SARHADDI NELSON: They're not very happy. I mean, they're trying to put on a brave face, but they are, indeed, very, very concerned about what their future holds, especially since many of the oil fields that are in Sudan will be part of the south once the new borders are drawn if, in fact, the partition happens.
INSKEEP: Look, this is for peace. This is to prevent war. This will make for a better Sudan. We'll have a stronger Sudan for it. I mean, he really is trying to pump his people up. But there definitely is not much jubilation up here in the north.
INSKEEP: That's interesting you mention that some natural resources would go away from Sudan if independence is achieved for the south. What other challenges would there be for the remainder of the country, the northern portion of Sudan, if this referendum succeeds?
SARHADDI NELSON: The other thing I should mention here in the north is that there is - has been for a while, and is now accelerating an effort to privatize the economy, to make it more friendly for foreign investment, which is badly needed to help reduce debt here.
INSKEEP: Soraya, thanks.
SARHADDI NELSON: You're welcome, Steve.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: Now, there was hope for a peaceful referendum, but this morning, we are hearing some reports of violence in a border region between the north and south of Sudan. We'll bring you more as we learn it on NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
A leaky oil pipeline is the top of NPR's business news this morning.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's the second time in the past year that the 33-year-old pipeline has been shut down.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Sonari Glinton previews the country's biggest auto show, as automakers hope to put recent trouble behind them.
SONARI GLINTON: In the starring role, The Chevy Volt, with supporting roles going to Nissan's electric LEAF, Ford's new all electric Focus and...
REBECCA LINDLAND: Toyota is bringing out their new Prius and alternative body styles are expected as well.
GLINTON: Rebecca Lindland is the auto analyst and, for our purposes, the critic. She says what you probably won't hear, the bad stuff that happened last year, especially for Toyota.
LINDLAND: The word recall will not be uttered at their press conference.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
GLINTON: Lindland and other industry watchers are hoping this year's the auto show is kind of a snoozer - just a regular year, especially in terms of sales.
LINDLAND: So as the economy starts to recover, the industry should start to recover as well. So this year's going to be significantly better and hopefully a little bit more stable than last year.
GLINTON: Sonari Glinton, NPR News, Detroit.
A: NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports on what it means for Israel and for the region.
LOURDES GARCIA: This is a story of decades of thankless toil, an amazing discovery and the problems that too much of a good thing bring to a region as contentious as the Middle East. It's a story about how Israel - a famously energy-dependent country - found gas.
M: The sweet taste of success, finally reaching the goal.
GARCIA: That's Yigal Landau the CEO of Ratio Oil Exploration. The announcement late last month of the Leviathan field caps a stunning two years here. In 2009, the Tamar field was discovered, also a huge find. U.S. based Noble Energy and a group of Israeli companies like Ratio Oil toiled for decades here without success. They struck dry well after dry well.
M: Israel is known to be the land of milk and honey, never before gas and oil in these magnitudes have ever been found.
GARCIA: It's kicked off a craze and companies like Ratio Oil are finally reaping the benefits.
M: People like these Cinderella stories of companies such as my own company, Ratio Oil, that went up 1,000 times its original price per share; it became the most popular stock in Israel and everybody are talking about that and this is natural.
GARCIA: Booming energy sector aside - and make no mistake it is booming - the energy index of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange went up over 1,500 percent last year, there are broader benefits to the bonanza.
GARCIA: In five to seven years time, according to our estimates, about 70 percent of Israel's electricity will be produced from natural gas, which is much cheaper than oil and much more environmentally friendly.
GARCIA: Mor, the energy analyst, says Israel currently has one of the lowest taxes on energy companies in the world.
M: It is a legitimate dispute over the right of the public to enjoy from the profits of natural resources, since the prevailing petroleum law was legislated in 1952 about 60 years ago, and it was not changed since then. So it's about time.
GARCIA: Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And today's last word in business comes from a comedian. He's got his own more realistic version of the TV reality show "Millionaire Matchmaker."
(SOUNDBITE OF BRAVO'S REALITY SHOW, "MILLIONAIRE MATCHMAKER")
PATTI STANGER: Meet my millionaire. I'm a third generation matchmaker with an extremely high success rate.
INSKEEP: At any event hall in Brooklyn tonight, Liam McEneaney will kick off "Hundredaire Matchmaker."
M: You know, you're not meeting Mr. or Mrs. Right. You're meeting Mr. or Mrs. Right in front of you, willing to talk to you.
INSKEEP: This is for singles with mere hundreds in their bank accounts and for those who will not be turned be off when their date offers them Bud Light instead of a Chardonnay.
INSKEEP: That's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Here's NPR's Andrea Seabrook.
ANDREA SEABROOK: It was a normal Saturday for members of Congress. Some met with local business leaders; others sat with constituents, listening to concerns. And for many, it was a day off after a packed week of ceremony at the beginning of the new Congress.
INSKEEP: Arizona Republican David Schweikert couldn't believe it.
SEABROOK: It was hard to know, is it real? Is this someone doing a scam on the Internet? And then as the information got more and more serious, you very quickly understood the gravity and the horror of what just happened.
SEABROOK: Speaker Boehner went before cameras yesterday, to express the feeling of many lawmakers.
SEABROOK: An attack on one who serves, is an attack on all who serve. Such acts of violence have no place in our society.
SEABROOK: Most lawmakers regularly interact with constituents in public places, and have now begun to question their own security.
SEABROOK: We must, in a democracy, have access to our constituents.
SEABROOK: Emanuel Cleaver is a Democrat from Missouri, and the head of the Congressional Black Caucus. He spoke on NBC.
SEABROOK: The public is being riled up to the point where those kinds of events and opportunities for people to express their opinions to us, are becoming a little volatile.
SEABROOK: Toxic, dark, hostile, bitter - these are the words people use to describe the state of politics these days. And they are the complete antithesis of what congresswoman Giffords stands for.
H: And there were calls for turning down the heat of political discourse and renewing a sense of camaraderie and mutual patriotism among lawmakers because, as Speaker Boehner said yesterday...
SEABROOK: Public service is a high honor. But these tragic events remind us that all of us, in our roles in service to our fellow citizens - comes with a risk.
SEABROOK: Andrea Seabrook, NPR News, the Capitol.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Cokie, good morning.
COKIE ROBERTS: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What are some past attacks and congressional responses here?
ROBERTS: And each one - after each one, the Capitol has just gotten more and more and more secure, more of a bastion, harder for individuals to walk through and to really enjoy. But individual members of Congress, with the exception of members of the leadership, have not had security and that is something now that you're hearing a lot of talk about.
INSKEEP: Well, we just heard a congressman in Andrea Seabrook's report, just now, express concern about whether it was going to be harder for members of Congress to meet the public from now on.
ROBERTS: Well, the sergeant at arms is, today, briefing members of Congress about what they should do in terms of security. But look, Steve, if this shooter was alienated from government, and if alienation from government is, you know, what this is all about, nothing could alienate the public more than cutting off members of Congress from their constituents. I mean, usually this alienation has nothing to do with individual members; it has to do with institutions. And the more members interact with their voters and their constituents, the more - the better the view of government is. So if the effect is to cut members of Congress off, then this guy will have succeeded in heightening anti-government feeling.
INSKEEP: Now we should be clear, we don't know precisely the motives of the shooter. Everything we've heard about him makes him seem strange. We will learn more about him as the days go on. But the alienation that you talk about is widespread, and there's been a lot of talk in the last couple of days about the tone of political rhetoric, the nasty, bitter, or hostile tone of political rhetoric. Is that likely to change, Cokie Roberts?
ROBERTS: You know, unfortunately Steve, what we've learned over the years is that changing the tone has a tendency to last a lot shorter period of time than security measures, which last a lot longer.
INSKEEP: OK, thanks very much. That's NPR's Cokie Roberts, who joins us with analysis most Mondays.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Now one of the victims of the weekend's shooting was Gabriel Zimmerman, legislative aide to Congresswoman Giffords, serving as her outreach director. Zimmerman was known as a conciliator with a deft touch when it came to working with difficult or angry people. Sommer Mathis was his high school friend.
SOMMER MATHIS: I was not at all surprised to learn that he had devoted his life to social work and public service and helping people. That's just exactly the kind of person that he was.
INSKEEP: Gabriel Zimmerman, who was 30 years old, was recently engaged to be married and was killed on Saturday.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
One year ago, China suspended military exchanges and security talks with the United States. China was protesting American arms sales to Taiwan. American Defense Secretary Robert Gates is now in China. He's on a mission to revive those ties. NPR's Louisa Lim reports from Beijing on today's meeting between Gates and the Chinese defense chief.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LOUISA LIM: The U.S. Defense secretary, Robert Gates, started the day with an official welcome ceremony followed by a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Liang Guanglie. Gates spoke of the need to insulate military ties from politics.
INSKEEP: We are in strong agreement that in order to reduce the chances of miscommunication, misunderstanding or miscalculation, it is important that our military to military ties are solid, consistent, and not subject to political - shifting political winds.
LIM: For his part, China's defense minister reiterated his opposition to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.
LIM: (Through Translator) We also hope United States will pay sufficient attention to the concerns of the Chinese side and in taking measures in - gradually remove or reduce the obstacles that stand in the way of our military relations.
LIM: Liang Guanglie also stressed that China's military development doesn't threaten the world. This follows U.S. concerns over Beijing's new weaponry. Just days ago, China's prototype stealth fighter was revealed to be making test runs. The U.S. had originally only believed that would be operational in 2020. Now, that's been moved forward to 2018. But one former PLA major general, Xu Guangyu, told NPR he believes the stealth fighter could be operational within five or six years. Xu is now part of China Arms Control and Disarmament Association. He says the West must understand China's military can't be frozen in time.
LIM: (Through Translator) There's a kind of national discrimination against China. We're not excessive in our things. Our planes are much worse than American ones - 10 to 20 years behind. Some people need to change their imperialist way of thinking. China can't always have pigtails and bound feet, and that level of backwardness be considered normal.
LIM: Australian defense analyst Ross Babbage, of the Kokoda Foundation, says nobody else has this type of weapons.
LIM: The term that we tend to use in the west is anti-access area denial. It does summarize, pretty clearly, what the core of a lot of the Chinese strategy appears to be - that is, to prevent U.S. and allied forces operating with great freedom in the western Pacific. You know, there's a real risk here, that the Western strategy is being undermined very rapidly. And there's a need to really completely rethink where we're going and how we exist.
LIM: But former Chinese Major General Xu Guangyu disagrees. He says China's military is still primarily defensive, though he admits China may become more vocal as it becomes more powerful.
LIM: (Through Translator) We call it active defense strategy. That means we want to defend the integrity of our territorial sovereignty. If we're invaded or attacked, we defend absolutely. We don't want to challenge America at all. If the U.S. wants to be the world policeman, the big boss, that's its business. We just want one thing: Don't bully us anymore.
LIM: Louisa Lim, NPR News, Beijing.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
So that's one set of high level meetings. Let's talk about another. The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is visiting President Obama today in Washington. The French leader would like to talk about money, in particular he wants to start a dialog about reshaping the world monetary system. France is hosting the G8 and G20 summits of leading industrial nations later this year, and Sarkozy would like to reduce the role of the U.S. dollar as the world's primary reserve currency. Eleanor Beardsley reports from Paris.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, FRENCH NATIONAL ANTHEM)
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, Host:
The New Year's Eve address by the president is always a big deal in France. This year, Sarkozy said the economic crisis meant hosting the G8 and G20 summits was a huge responsibility. France, he said, would strive to build a more regulated, less brutal world. And he said there must be radical changes.
NICOLAS SARKOZY: (Through Translator) The system put in place in 1945 is for a world that doesn't exist anymore. Today we have flexible exchange rates and new currencies. What's the sense of a model based on the accumulation of dollar reserves? It's simply unstable and makes part of the world dependent on American monetary policy.
BEARDSLEY: In the United States, the talk is all about China's undervalued currency. But much of the rest world is also affected by the weak dollar, says Philippe Dessertine, head of Paris' High Finance Institute.
PHILIPPE DESSERTINE: (Through translator) A large majority of countries feel that using the dollar as the only reserve currency is very dangerous. Just look at the Federal Reserve's latest actions, which favors the U.S., but has consequences for the rest of the world. Emerging countries and Europe really want to change that.
BEARDSLEY: Nicholas Dungan, a U.S. based advisor with the French Institute of International and Strategic Relations, says America cannot control the international monetary system by itself. But the U.S. is still reluctant to surrender the dollar's dominant position.
NICHOLAS DUNGAN: What Sarkozy is proposing has some uniquely European and indeed some uniquely French aspects to it, particularly with respect to international financial regulation, trying to stabilize currency rates, trying to stabilize commodity prices. Those are not going to be the areas where the United States, and indeed Obama, is most receptive.
BEARDSLEY: For NPR News, I'm Eleanor Beardsley in Paris.
INSKEEP: And you hear Eleanor's reports right here on MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Now, let's get more details on the condition of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. NPR's Jeff Brady explains why doctors are optimistic after last weekend's shooting.
JEFF BRADY: Doctors say the bullet that struck Giffords head traveled through the left side of her brain. That's the side that generally controls the right side of the body and speaking. The chances of surviving such an injury are slim. Doing so and being able to follow simple commands is even slimmer. But Dr. Peter Rhee says he asked Giffords to show him two fingers and she did. That's significant because it shows higher brain function. More than once, Doctor Rhee said he's optimistic about how Giffords is doing.
PETER RHEE: She's in a medical coma right now. We have induced that coma in order to rest her during the time periods. But we very frequently wake her up to see what her progress is, to make sure that something catastrophic isn't occurring while she's asleep.
BRADY: The big concern now is swelling of the brain. As of Sunday morning, doctors said that wasn't a problem. Doctors don't feel comfortable predicting what lasting effects Giffords will suffer because of this attack. Dr. Michael Lemole is the chief of neurosurgery at University Medical Center in Tucson.
MICHAEL LEMOLE: In neurosurgery, we talk about recovery on the order of month to years. And, in fact, we don't even close the book on it until we're several years out. There is a general rule of thumb that the faster you recover the better your recovery will be. But again, that is a general rule of thumb and does not apply, necessarily, in all individual cases.
BRADY: Jeff Brady, NPR News, Tucson.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And we're going to hear now from a young man whose quick instincts may have saved Congresswoman Gifford's life. Daniel Hernandez is a junior at the University of Arizona with what he describes as limited training in first aid and triage. Saturday was his fifth day as an intern in Congresswoman Gifford's district office.
DANIEL HERNANDEZ: So the first thing I did was to pick her up and prop her up against my chest to make sure that she could breathe properly. Once I was sure that she was able to breathe properly and wouldn't asphyxiate, the next thing I did was to apply pressure to her wounds to make sure that we could stem the blood loss.
INSKEEP: He did. She survived. Intern Daniel Hernandez describing his role in helping to save the life of Congresswoman Gifford.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Congressman, thank you very much for joining us.
JIM KOLBE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: Would you give us a sense of what kind of a person Judge Roll was?
KOLBE: But he was just a - just one of these really gentle, kind people that you just couldn't help but like.
INSKEEP: When he had his own security, when he was in those sensitive cases involving guns or involving immigration, what did he talk of - did he talk about that, his security?
KOLBE: I don't think - no. He never did to me, talk about it. I think it was just one of those things that the marshals felt that there was a need for security because of the sensitivity of the case that he was handling. As you know, there's been - along the border there, with the drug cases, there's been a tremendous amount of violence. And they felt that there needed to be some protection for this individual.
INSKEEP: Although, if he was a judge's judge, I imagine he took that security and went ahead and ruled as he ruled.
KOLBE: He did. He was known for making very fair rulings. I think they were ones that generally got upheld. I don't - I have looked at the statistics - were very often usually upheld at the Ninth Circuit with the next level of appeal, because the rulings were good rulings.
INSKEEP: Mr. Kolbe, I want to ask about the broader political climate in which this shooting toke place. Now, we should emphasize, we don't really know the motives of the shooter. We just have pieces of the evidence. But the sheriff in Tucson did raise the question of the tone of political rhetoric in the time leading up to this shooting. What are your thoughts on that?
KOLBE: This looks, from everything we can see so far - and obviously, the investigation is going on. But from everything we can see, it appears that this is a very deranged individual who acted on his own without, seemingly, any kind of political motivation. Certainly nothing I've seen of his writings on Twitter and Facebook and elsewhere suggests that there was any kind of coherence to what he was doing.
INSKEEP: Yeah, coherence would be the word dismissing. There are certainly references to political text and so forth, but it's not clear what the motive would be.
KOLBE: Right.
INSKEEP: That said, you were talking about what you would say in a political seminar in that kind of situation. What would you advise Americans to do, going forward?
KOLBE: But, again, I want to emphasize, I don't think - I don't see a connection between what I'm saying there and this particular incident.
INSKEEP: Mr. Kolbe, thanks very much for joining us once again.
KOLBE: Thank you very much.
INSKEEP: Jim Kolbe was the congressman representing Arizona's Eight District. He's a Republican. He was replaced in that district by Gabrielle Giffords, who is recovering today.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Hi, Tom.
TOM GOLDMAN: Hi, Steve. How are you?
INSKEEP: I'm doing okay. Thanks. Let's just review here. This is the - correct me if I'm wrong - is it the 88th or 89th bowl game of the season, but this is the one for the title?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
GOLDMAN: I thought it was in triple figures. But, yeah, it is the biggie.
INSKEEP: And so, how good is this match-up going to be?
GOLDMAN: Another indication of the madness: The judicial system in Alabama, where Auburn is located, is delaying cases so people can watch the game. And an indicted casino owner, charged with bribing Alabama politicians, he got a 72-hour pass to come to Arizona to watch the game.
INSKEEP: Well, you know, if you've already got your tickets...
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: ...you've got to be able to use them. The judge is going to be sympathetic.
GOLDMAN: That's right, even if you're indicted. Exactly.
INSKEEP: Now, Auburn has not won a national title in more than 50 years. Oregon has not won. What makes this game so special?
GOLDMAN: Some don't believe he didn't know - mostly Oregon fans, and they wish he wasn't eligible for the game.
INSKEEP: I guess you're one of those Oregon fans.
GOLDMAN: Well, busted. Okay?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
GOLDMAN: I'm an Oregon alum, Steve.
INSKEEP: Right.
GOLDMAN: I will have you know, however, that I am not letting that affect my job. In fact, a Duck fan who's a friend, he berated me for not accepting a quacker - that's a kazoo in the shape of a duckbill that makes quacking noise. And I won't make that now. He said I should have one in the press box. I told him I have my ethics.
INSKEEP: But now, what about Auburn? I mean, I assume you're going to pay attention to the other team, here. What has really made them so successful?
GOLDMAN: Well, Cam Newton has made them successful, and they've got a great defense, a great defensive line headed by defensive tackle named Nick Fairley. He's an All-American. A very good team, but you've got to put squarely on the shoulders of Cam Newton. They wouldn't be the same team without him.
INSKEEP: So how will the Ducks compete?
GOLDMAN: Well, they're not going to stop Newton. What they would like to do is pressure him with their defensive line. Oregon doesn't want him to get comfortable and set up his ability to pass or pick out running lanes. And that's a big challenge for Oregon, because Auburn has a massive offensive line. The players average 304 pounds. It's hard to push them around.
INSKEEP: Okay, so Auburn's got some big guys. But Oregon's has got the quackers. You blow the quackers at them a couple times, and they'll have nothing left.
GOLDMAN: Yeah, it'll make them fall over - either that, or the Ducks' speed, because the Ducks have this hurry-up offense that leaves opponents gassed. They're the fastest team in the nation. And Auburn just is going to try and prevent them from running passed them.
INSKEEP: Tom, thanks very much.
GOLDMAN: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's sports correspondent Tom Goldman, covering tonight's national championship college football game.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
The six people killed on Saturday include Dorwin Stoddard, a retired construction worker. At age 76, he remained active in his church, helping the sick and the homeless. He did that work with his wife. They'd been friends most of their lives, then married in their 60s. When the gunman started shooting, Mr. Stoddard covered his wife to protect her. Stoddard was killed. Mavy Stoddard survived.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
She volunteered at a church. She sewed aprons and quilts. And we're told that she decorated many of those aprons and quilts with the logo of her favorite football team, the New York Giants. She was the oldest victim.
A: Nine years old, a third grader, had an interest in government, had been recently elected to her student council. A neighbor took her to visit the congresswoman to see her government in action. She was born on 9/11.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
A: It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
In Your Health today the topic is children. We're going to hear what's been learned from a study that counted the millions of words that parents say to their young children. But first we'll talk about childhood vaccines. In the February issues of the Journal of Infectious Disease researchers confirm what many doctors had suspected. Two doses of the chickenpox vaccine work better than one. NPR's Patti Neighmond reports.
PATTI NEIGHMOND: Outbreaks like the one in 2001 at Forest Hills Elementary School in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHILDREN PLAYING)
PAUL CIESLAK: In this particular school the kids were highly vaccinated. So we were struck by the fact that we had an outbreak at all to begin with.
NEIGHMOND: Which is why infectious disease specialist Paul Cieslak with Oregon's Department of Human Services decided to investigate further.
CIESLAK: Our first thought was the vaccine may not be working as well as we had thought.
NEIGHMOND: After study, the answer - yes. Federal officials now recommend children get two doses of the vaccine. Infectious disease specialist William Schaffner advises the government.
WILLIAM SCHAFFNER: The first dose acquaints the immune system with this vaccine and it gets revved up. But the second dose gives it, well, a kick in the pants. Now it really produces the amount of antibody that will be sustained and strong enough to protect the child completely from the infection.
NEIGHMOND: Which isn't just an annoying childhood rite of passage, says Schaffner, as many parents may think. Chickenpox can cause serious problems.
SCHAFFNER: Some children can get pneumonia. Others can be hospitalized with chickenpox encephalitis. If the disease is transmitted to a pregnant woman, she can get serious pneumonia and have a miscarriage.
NEIGHMOND: The recommendation for a second dose of chickenpox vaccine is now being studied by health departments across the country, including Oregon, with one great irony. Oregon's Dr. Cieslak.
CIESLAK: So it's one of those situations where we're supposed to be studying it, but where are the cases. So I think the bottom line is that the two-dose recommendation has really shut down chickenpox.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
NEIGHMOND: Patti Neighmond, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
A year ago this week, Haiti buckled when it was hit by a huge earthquake. Americans responded by giving nearly $2 billion to hundreds of charities. Much of that money remains unspent, leading to criticism that the international aid response has not moved fast enough. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.
CARRIE KAHN: About 200 young people gather on the back patio of the headquarters of the American Red Cross in Haiti. All have on clean white t-shirts with the charity's bright red logo emblazoned on the front and back.
Unidentified Man: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: They count the number of small soap bars as they fill up Red Cross backpacks.
Mr. JEAN LOUIS EMMANUEL: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: Jean Louis Emmanuel is one of the young health promoters. He says, everyday they head out to 60 tent encampments throughout Port-au-Prince. He shows people how to properly wash their hands, especially after going to the bathroom and eating, to prevent the spread of cholera.
Mr. EMMANUEL: (Through Translator) Without this job, I would have no work at all.
KAHN: The American Red Cross says it has helped hundreds of thousands of Haitians and spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars in the past year. However, it raised nearly twice that amount and has been criticized for not spending more.
The Red Cross isn't the only charity with much of its donations still in the bank. A survey of 60 U.S. charities, by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, shows that less than 40 percent of the nearly one and a half billion dollars they raised has been spent.
(Soundbite of vehicles)
KAHN: Julie Sell of the American Red Cross says it would be foolish to spend so much money so quickly.
Ms. JULIE SELL (Spokesperson, Haitian Delegation, American Red Cross): The Red Cross has a real commitment to spending those dollars, wisely and transparently.
KAHN: You can see aid deliveries all over the city. But there are still nearly a million people living under tents and tarps. Few reconstruction projects have begun and cholera continues to claim lives.
Doctors Without Borders head, Unni Karunakara, says it's unconscionable that aid groups launched cholera fundraising appeals when their coffers remain filled.
Dr. UNNI KARUNAKARA (President, Doctors Without Borders): We are indeed accountable to the Haitian people. I think we have a lot of explaining to do.
KAHN: Oxfam just released a report criticizing the slow pace of recovery. And watchdog groups, like the Disaster Accountability Project, are pushing U.S. charities to divulge more information about their activities.
Ben Smilowitz heads the project.
Mr. BEN SMILOWITZ (Executive Director, Disaster Accountability Project): If a donor is going to invest in an organization to do relief work, they should know how detailed that organization's activities are. Go to these groups' Web sites, and try and figure out how sustained their operations are with the information they're given.
KAHN: His organization sent a survey to 200 groups, working in Haiti, about their programs - only 38 responded.
Dr. NIGEL FISHER (Deputy Special Representative, Stabilization Mission in Haiti, United Nations): I think the criticism is simplistic and it shows a lack of understanding.
KAHN: U.N. Deputy Special Representative Nigel Fisher coordinates the work of non-governmental agencies, NGOs. He says there are thousands of groups working in Haiti, but the vast majority are small, faith-based organizations. Much of the work is done by about 20 large NGOs and he admits coordination was difficult at first.
Dr. FISHER: Coordination is about persuasion, it's about getting consensus. It is about deciding on priorities, when people have different points of view. And sometimes you can't do that overnight.
KAHN: Aid workers say it's challenging working in Haiti. It's the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with few resources. Many say it feels like for every step forward, they take two back.
(Soundbite of sawing)
KAHN: Take the situation in this tent encampment near Cite Soleil, one of the largest slums of Port-au-Prince. Construction of 18-by-9 foot wooden shelters is fast and furious for many of the 800 families who've been living under tents and tarps.
The land is owned by the Haitian government, but it took until last summer for federal authorities to finally allow the Red Cross to build sturdier homes. Then, a local official stepped in and took away half the land to build a school. That means hundreds in this camp will remain in tents indefinitely.
Wislyn Jean Charles was one of the lucky ones who got a new shelter.
Ms. WISLYN JEAN CHARLES: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: She says now they can stand up inside a dry home. She has plastic flowers decorating the walls and a huge framed painting of the Last Supper over a full size dining room set.
Ms. CHARLES: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: She says she is so thankful to the foreigners for their help and hopes they all have long lives.
Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Port-au-Prince.
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Economists are debating whether to come up with a code of ethics for their profession. This comes in the wake of the financial crisis and questions about faulty forecasting and what some see as a growing distrust of economists.
Kirk Siegler of member station KUNC attended the annual meeting of the American Economics Association in Denver and sent us this report.
KIRK SIEGLER: A few years ago, one of economist George DeMartino's students asked him a question about ethics he couldn't answer. So the University of Denver professor went to the website of his professional organization, the American Economic Association, or AEA, but he found nothing at all about ethics. Puzzled, he did some research.
Professor GEORGE DEMARTINO (Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver): In the 1920s, a businessmen's association wrote a letter to the AEA, saying, we're studying codes of conduct, please send us yours. And the secretary of the AEA wrote back a letter that said, in full, quote, "While our middle name is ethics, we have no code, hence I cannot comply with your request."
SIEGLER: DeMartino learned there has actually been resistance by many economists to a formal code of ethics.
Prof. DEMARTINO: Economists have had an allergy to ethics for much of the profession's existence, certainly throughout the 20th century. Economists have thought of themselves as kind of objective scientists doing objective scientific work.
SIEGLER: But so much has changed in the wake of the global financial crisis. There are mounting criticisms that more economists should have warned of the housing bubble. And then the recent film "Inside Job" highlighted academic economists providing testimony about the meltdown, even as they were getting paid by financial firms.
(Soundbite of talking)
SIEGLER: All of this sparked nearly 300 economists to send a petition to the American Economic Association ahead of its annual meeting. It urges the group to adopt a formal ethical code, much like what doctors follow, lawyers, journalists, too.
Professor CHRISTIAN WELLER (Economics, University of Massachusetts-Boston): I think the public generally has a growing distrust of economists.
SIEGLER: Christian Weller signed the petition. He teaches economics at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Over coffee one morning at the conference, he says a formal code would restore credibility to the profession.
Prof. WELLER: Whenever you turn on the TV, whenever you open a newspaper, there is some economist pontificating about something. And I think that the public should know whether the opinion from the economist is truly a neutral credible opinion, or whether there is some real clear financial interest at stake here.
SIEGLER: But some prominent economists like David Colander of Middlebury College still bristle at this notion of a formal code. One evening in the bar of the Sheraton Hotel, Colander tells me only a small slice of the profession even takes advisory roles with think-tanks or politicians.
Professor DAVID COLANDER (Economics, Middlebury College): Economists do all kinds of different things, and to have a code that's going to capture what they do is quite hard.
SIEGLER: Colander says economists should be disclosing conflicts of interests, but universities and governments should do the policing. The University of Denver's George DeMartino isn't sure a formal code is as necessary as the conversation that's taking place.
Prof. DEMARTINO: The most important economists in the world who make decisions that bear on the life chances of millions of people, have not had five minutes of training at any point in their professional careers in the ethical issues that arise in economics. I'm not aware of any other important profession about which that could be said.
SIEGLER: And the only concrete action to come out of the convention was a unanimous vote to re-examine standards of practice and the ethical challenges facing economists.
For NPR News, I'm Kirk Siegler in Denver.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
We will continue to bring you the latest on the Tucson shooting, and also keep an eye on other stories around the world. In fact, around the universe. A big hot rock is making news this morning. That's because the hot rock is actually a planet orbiting a star 560 light-years away. It is claimed to be the smallest planet discovered outside our solar system.
NPR's Joe Palca reports.
JOE PALCA: Natalie Batalha is the deputy science team leader for NASA's Kepler space telescope. Astronomers designed Kepler to look for much smaller, solid planets more like Earth. And at a news conference yesterday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, Batalha said they'd found one.
Dr. NATALIE BATALHA (Deputy Science Team Leader, NASA Kepler Mission Team): I'm here today to announce the discovery of Kepler's first rocky planet, Kepler-10b.
PALCA: Kepler-10b is only 40 percent larger than Earth. Batalha says Kepler can detect planets like this by measuring the minute decrease in light when the planet passes in front of its star. The dip in light is tiny. Batalha says think of it in terms of light bulbs.
Dr. BATALHA: You've got 10,000 light bulbs and you take just one away - that's the brightness change that we're trying to measure.
PALCA: Actually, Kepler-10b caused its star to dim one and a half light bulbs, but you get the idea. Kepler-10b may be earth-sized and rocky like Earth, but it's not likely to be inhabited. That's because it orbits once every 20 hours, putting it so close to its star that the planet's surface temperature is around 2,500 degrees - a bit toasty for life.
Joe Palca, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
In the past, presidents have been able to unify the country during tragic moments like these. In today's partisan climate, even these potentially unifying moments can be hard to pull off, as NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson reports.
MARA LIASSON: In times of tragedy, many Americans look to the president for reassurance. At these times, he is the consoler-in-chief. Ronald Reagan performed this role beautifully in his speech honoring the astronauts who died when the space shuttle Challenger blew up in 1986.
President RONALD REAGAN: We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.
LIASSON: And George W. Bush had this impromptu, but effective moment as he shouted through a bullhorn on top of a pile of rubble at the World Trade Center site in September 2001.
(Soundbite of clapping)
President GEORGE W. BUSH: I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who...
(Soundbite of cheering and applause)
President BUSH: ...and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.
(Soundbite of cheering)
LIASSON: President Reagan spoke after a terrible accident, President Bush after a terrorist attack. But in 1995, President Bill Clinton faced a situation more similar to the one Barack Obama faces today: An attack on federal employees at the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.
(Soundbite of applause)
President BILL CLINTON: Let us let our own children know that we will stand against the forces of fear. When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it. In the face of death, let us honor life.
LIASSON: That's President Clinton speaking at the memorial service for the Oklahoma City victims - a speech that's widely viewed as helping him recover politically. But, says his press secretary Mike McCurry, that wasn't clear at the time.
Mr. MIKE MCCURRY (Former Press Secretary, Clinton Administration): There was some sense that that was a moment that really allowed him to say things that the whole country felt, and it was the first time since the 1994 election that he'd an opportunity to do that. So it was, in retrospect, critical, but at the moment, it was just such an awful tragedy that you didn't really stop to think about what is the impact going to be politically.
LIASSON: Of course, that's not possible anymore, says McCurry, in a time when we chew up and spit out political ramifications more quickly than we did 16 years ago. Already, people are writing about President Obama's Oklahoma City moment.
Mr. MCCURRY: The only way you get any political advantage from a terrible moment like this is by not trying to take political advantage of the moment. And you can't, I mean, because then it's just - everything looks so incredibly phony and it's done for the wrong purposes. And the only things that make these presidential moments truly powerful is when they're completely authentic.
LIASSON: At the memorial service, President Clinton didn't suggest conservative talk show hosts were in any way responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing, but he did make the connection in other remarks.
Pres. CLINTON: They spread hate. They leave the impression by their very words that violence is acceptable.
LIASSON: Today, liberal commentators wasted no time blaming the Arizona shootings on a climate of hate created by the right. And conservative voices pushed back - talk show host Rush Limbaugh accusing the media of trying to engineer an Oklahoma City bombing for President Obama. Mike McCurry says that's an area where the president should tread carefully, if at all.
Mr. MCCURRY: The conversation already beginning about the culture of discourse that we have in this country will lead in the wrong direction if it becomes the sole point of how we consider this. And I - this is really about mourning the loss of people who died. The important thing is to focus on what the country really needs. The country really needs the president to give voice to things that we all feel.
LIASSON: Yesterday at the White House, President Obama suggested he would be speaking at a memorial service in Arizona, and made it clear he understands the task before him.
President BARACK OBAMA: I think it's going to be important, I think for the country as a whole as well as the people of Arizona, to feel as if we are speaking this directly to our sense of loss, but also speaking to our hopes for the future and how, out of this tragedy, we can come together as a stronger nation.
LIASSON: A tall order even for an oratorically gifted president in today's hyperpartisan climate, where every word, phrase and gesture is dissected for its possible political consequence.
Mara Liasson, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is deciding whether to take a big leap.
(Soundbite of cheering)
MONTAGNE: A crowd cheered Pawlenty at a 2005 ice fishing festival as he leaped into freezing water. The jump he's considering now is whether to seek the Republican nomination for president.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Today, Pawlenty releases a book calls "Courage to Stand." It recounts his early life growing up in South St. Paul, Minnesota, the home of giant stockyards back then. Pawlenty writes of the awful smell, and also the community's pride.
Former Governor TIM PAWLENTY (Republican, Minnesota): There's a street that ran through the stockyards and the meat-packing plants and it was just full of bars and restaurants and the hubbub of all of that. It wasn't always pretty but there was a vibrancy to it and kind of a hopeful sense. And people, even if they missed the educational rung for whatever reason - you know, they were disenfranchised, disadvantaged, disconnected - as long as they weren't disabled, they could still often go get what my dad called a strong-back job. And they could support a family often with a living wage and benefits, and life for those families, at least during those times, was good.
INSKEEP: Many years later, Governor Pawlenty tried to help his state adapt to a changing economy. He also gained wide attention for Minnesota's efforts to rework the health care system. That may surprise some people, since Tim Pawlenty also joined a lawsuit against President Obama's health care law. Pawlenty argues that Americans can do more to restrain what they pay health care providers.
Mr. PAWLENTY: Don't just say we're going to pay you for endless volumes of procedures. We've got to start paying them for better health and better health care outcomes, and that's what we've done in Minnesota, and when you do those kinds of things, even in the primitive or early-stage ways that we've done it, it's extremely promising and it works.
INSKEEP: You got involved in Minnesota in a program that encourages health care providers to charge differently. If somebody has an operation and there are seven different things involved in the operation, from an X-ray to the charge for the surgeon, they just charge one price, right? It's for the basket of care that you need, is that correct?
Mr. PAWLENTY: Yeah. We've done a number of reforms in Minnesota. That reform that you mentioned begins to say to providers, you know, we're going to give you an amount for, say, for example, a knee replacement.
INSKEEP: And don't send a separate bill for every Q-tip or bandage or whatever might be used.
Mr. PAWLENTY: Exactly, exactly. You know, if you think about it, if you were in the business getting paid for how many words come out of your mouth and you were given no limits on how long you could talk, what do you think you would do?
INSKEEP: I'd be fired already. That's okay.
Mr. PAWLENTY: You'd be talking all day. You'd be on the radio all day. And I analogize it to a wedding. I say to people, you know, go to two weddings. Go to one with an open bar, where the alcohol and the drinks are free, and go to one where there's a cash bar. You'll see very different behaviors.
INSKEEP: Well, here's something that makes me curious, just as a citizen, trying to figure out how people's positions differ. You've just described to me this system whereby health care providers are incentivized, even instructed, to charge differently, to charge for a service rather than every little individual thing as line items and the prices can go wildly out of control.
Doesn't President Obama's health care law include a pilot program that does exactly the same thing?
Mr. PAWLENTY: Well, it has all kinds of little pilot projects in it, but fundamentally that's not the direction the law or the health care delivery system's going to go. And importantly, it also has to be attached to outcome. So in Minnesota we have a program where we pay providers more if they get better outcomes and follow better protocols.
So for example, in diabetes and heart disease, we're not interested just in how many procedures you're to perform, we're interested in did this person get optimal care? Did they get better quicker? And if they did, and you get more and more of your patient load meeting those kinds of criteria, we'll pay you more as a provider.
But this notion that we're just going to have an open checkbook to all these folks who can bill us endlessly based on how much volumes and procedures, and the consumers have no knowledge really about price or quality, that's a completely screwed-up system.
INSKEEP: Well, that's the system we have now. But doesn't...
Mr. PAWLENTY: Exactly.
INSKEEP: ...the health care law that was passed by Congress try to address some of those very same issues that you say you're concerned about?
Mr. PAWLENTY: Well, I think what it does is to say we're going to expand access through government subsidies mostly to the current system as it's currently configured with the exception of a few pilot projects. And so I think what President Obama's proposal is ultimately going to do is it's going to expand access but it is going to do nothing to control costs. And for most Americans, their primary concern about their health care is that it's becoming unaffordable.
INSKEEP: If you're going to talk about controlling costs, doesn't that open you to the same argument that was made against the White House and against the Democrats in Congress - they're trying to restrict our health care, they're trying to make sure that we can't get the health care we need, that kind of argument?
Mr. PAWLENTY: No. You know, the principle behind what we try to do - and I'll give you one other real-life example - with our state employees, the costs were going through the roof so we created a new system. We said, look, you can go anywhere you want, but if you choose to go somewhere that's really expensive with poor results, you're paying more. And if you choose to go somewhere that has better results and is more efficient, you'll pay less.
People now have an incentive to make wise decisions and comparison shop. And even in the rudimentary form it's in in Minnesota, it works.
INSKEEP: But there were conservatives over the past couple of years who found it terrifying that the government would get involved in deciding which treatments were effective, which treatments were not worth the money.
Mr. PAWLENTY: Well, again, the ultimate goal here isn't for anyone to decide which treatments are good or bad.
INSKEEP: But you're deciding what you're going to pay for and how much.
Mr. PAWLENTY: No, but as a proxy for outcomes people sometimes want to pay for best protocols, but that isn't the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is to say we're going to pay for better outcomes. If you go someplace with bad outcomes and it's really expensive, you'll pay more of the bill.
INSKEEP: Well, let me ask another thing that perhaps you can offer advice on. We can presume that Republicans in Congress will vote to repeal President Obama's health care law. We can presume that repeal will not go very far, since Democrats still control the Senate and the White House. And as that battle goes on, there will be the question about whether there is something Congress might pass that might improve the health care situation.
If asked for one piece of advice, whether large or small, what would you suggest that people in Congress consider in the next two years?
Mr. PAWLENTY: Payment reform and stop paying for volumes and procedures and start paying, at least in part, for better health care outcomes.
INSKEEP: Take that pilot program and actually make that something broad that applies to millions of people.
Mr. PAWLENTY: Yes. The pilot program's interesting and it's, in general, might be of some value, but it was tucked in there, I think, to satisfy some of the Republicans and doesn't have, I don't think, broader, deep impact.
INSKEEP: One other thing, Governor Pawlenty. Many people are expecting you to run for president. How will you decide if you really do?
Mr. PAWLENTY: Well, I've got this book tour coming up. After that I'll decide what's next. And I am considering running in 2012, but I won't make that final decision until probably, you know, later this quarter or early next quarter.
INSKEEP: What's the latest moment that you have to decide?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. PAWLENTY: Well, you know, technically, I suppose, you could let it drag on.
INSKEEP: Oh, but you know how it goes. You've got to raise money, you've got to build support.
Mr. PAWLENTY: Sure. You know, for somebody like me, I think, whose name ID is not very high yet and from a relatively small state, you know, I think you'd want to start earlier rather than later compared to some of the others who are more well-known or got more of a running start.
INSKEEP: Whose advice are you seeking?
Mr. PAWLENTY: My wife's.
INSKEEP: What's she telling you?
(Soundbite of laughter)
INSKEEP: Spousal privilege? Are you going to claim spousal privilege here?
Mr. PAWLENTY: Yeah, spousal privilege. She's a loving and encouraging spouse, no matter what I do.
(Soundbite of laughter)
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: Tim Pawlenty was until this month the governor of Minnesota. His new book is called "Courage to Stand."
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
When a gunman fired on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at a public meeting, people said it was an attack on democracy itself. Now Americans work to uphold another part of the democratic system, giving the defendant a fair day in court.
MONTAGNE: Jared Lee Loughner made his first appearance in federal court yesterday afternoon in Tucson. He's charged with the shooting rampage that left six dead and 14 wounded, including, of course, Democratic Congresswoman Giffords.
INSKEEP: He has not yet been asked to enter a plea.
NPR's Martin Kaste reports the next big issue may be where to hear the case.
MARTIN KASTE: Contrary to some people's expectations, Jared Loughner did not seem crazy. His head was shaved and his wrists were in handcuffs, but he answered the judge's questions with terse clarity.
His attorney, Judy Clarke of San Diego, sometimes touched him on the back, rubbing his shoulder blades and at one point whispering, You okay? Magistrate Judge Lawrence Anderson read out the charges: murder and attempted murder of federal employees, and one count of attempted assassination of a member of Congress. Asked if he understood the charges, Loughner said yes.
Federal prosecutors called Loughner a flight risk and a danger to the community, and the court ordered him held without bail, and then the judge looked the defendant in the eye and he said, Good luck to you, Mr. Loughner.
At the same hour, back in Tucson, FBI agents continued to build the case against Loughner, taking photos and measurements at the site of the massacre outside the Safeway.
Neighboring stores have now re-opened, but customers like Paul Madewell are still keenly aware of what happened here.
Mr. PAUL MADEWELL: What he did was wrong. Why kill all those six people? That little girl - that little girl had nothing to do with anything in the world.
KASTE: There's still a lot of questions about the days and months leading up to the shooting and the alleged shooter's state of mind. It was already known that Loughner was once arrested for drug possession. But law enforcement sources tell NPR that Loughner had numerous contacts with campus police too, at Pima Community College.
Fellow students complained about his disruptions in classes and in the library, and when he was suspended last September, the college informed his parents that he'd be barred from campus until he could show a letter from a mental health professional attesting that he didn't pose a danger. Sources say his parents met with college officials, but that it was not clear that they'd taken the situation seriously.
Mr. RON ARLT: I think he's very lucid.
KASTE: Walking by the Safeway, Ron Arlt says he doesn't buy the notion that Loughner was insane. He calls the case against him open and shut.
Mr. ARLT: I mean he's guilty. I mean there's no doubt about it. He didn't get away. He was apprehended right here.
KASTE: Arlt is a devout Catholic, as was Federal Judge John Roll, one of the six people killed here. Arlt often saw Roll at church.
Mr. ARLT: I went to Mass today. And I have to say that I know John went to Mass on a daily basis, and I just felt like I was taking his place today.
KASTE: But despite his Catholic faith, Arlt says he wouldn't be upset about Loughner getting the death penalty.
Such is the intensity of feeling against Loughner. His defense attorney has already raised the question of whether he can get a fair trial in Arizona. All the federal judges in Tucson have already recused themselves from the case because of the death of their colleague, Judge Roll. But Loughner attorney Judy Clark yesterday told the court that she has great concern about the case being handled by any Arizona judge.
Coming out of the Walgreens next to the scene of the shooting, Linda Drummond says she, for one, wouldn't mind to see the trial go somewhere else.
Ms. LINDA DRUMMOND: I don't have a problem with that. I mean I'm sure that all of the residents here in Tucson are a little too close to it - like I said, let alone that the federal judge was killed here. I'd like to see it out of our community and I'd like to see things get back to normal.
KASTE: Loughner's next court date is in two weeks, scheduled for the federal courthouse in Phoenix, at least for now.
Martin Kaste, NPR News, Tucson.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The Tucson shootings have also had a powerful impact here in Washington, D.C. Congresswoman Giffords is well-known and well-liked by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. And the death of her staff member has been a blow to all those who work on Capitol Hill.
At the Capitol, congressional staffers and visitors are remembering those who died and offering their support to those who were wounded.
NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.
ANDREA SEABROOK: It started in the morning. Tourists began leaving flowers at the base of the marble steps that lead to the Capitol Rotunda. In the bitter cold, they came to pay tribute to the victims of the Tucson shooting.
Mr. SALVADOR MARISCAL: Well, it affects all of us. Violence anywhere in the world affects everybody.
SEABROOK: Salvador and Virginia Mariscal are wrapped tight in their coats but still shiver. They're from San Diego and they were surprised to see so much security around the Capitol - police armed with assault rifles.
Ms. VIRGINIA MARISCAL: And with this incident, we can see why they have so much security. We see why and we agree.
SEABROOK: A young couple strolls up the walk around the Capitol building, taking in the view of classical stone buildings. Marie Senyay is from Puerto Rico.
Ms. MARIE SENYAY: All of these buildings have flags at half-mast and I know why. So every time I walk by one of them, the thought comes back into my head.
SEABROOK: Her companion, Sam Chereskin, is left wondering.
Mr. SAM CHERESKIN: How many times do you have to see death to start actually wondering and caring about life? I don't know. Why? Why?
SEABROOK: Inside one of the congressional office buildings, a small table sits in the center of a large white marble rotunda. On it are two guest books - one for well wishes for the survivors of the attack and one for condolences. Theresa Cuomo Smith has brought her three children here. They're visiting from Malone, New York.
Ms. THERESA CUOMO SMITH: Today we were able to sign the condolence book. I said that I hope that the Lord Jesus Christ, the prince of peace, would bring peace to the victims' families, to our country, and to our world.
SEABROOK: Teresa's daughter Blanche is a college student.
Ms. BLANCHE CUOMO SMITH: I wrote that Jesus may wipe every tear away.
SEABROOK: Then the oldest son...
Mr. SILAS CUOMO SMITH: I'm Silas. I'm 11. And I'm sad about what happened and I wrote that God would comfort the families of the victims.
SEABROOK: And the youngest, Isaac, who didn't write in the book...
Mr. ISAAC CUOMO SMITH: But I did pray that they would be comforted.
SEABROOK: Upstairs from the rotunda is a large meeting room where the House and Senate chaplains and a prominent Washington rabbi held an interfaith service. Jon Lane, a former intern, attended.
Mr. JONATHAN LANE: It was just a really peaceful service, an opportunity to reflect. But it also reflected particularly on the experiences of congressional staff.
SEABROOK: Lane says people outside of Washington may underestimate the role of a congressional staffer.
Mr. LANE: I mean, anyone who spent any amount of time, whether on the Hill or in a district office, you know, is there side-by-side with the representative serving the constituents and helping them improve their lives and deal with the government.
SEABROOK: Take Sheldon Harris. When he was just out of school, he worked with a few other people on the staff of the House Rules Committee. And Harris stayed for a decade.
Mr. SHELDON HARRIS (Attorney/Lobbyist): We all stayed on, you know, for years and years in these jobs where, you know, the days were unbelievably long and the pay was nothing what you could make in the private sector, 'cause you really believed you were making it a better place, this country.
SEABROOK: Today, Harris is an attorney and a lobbyist, but he came back to the Capitol for the service to be with other congressional staffers and remember the staffer who died in Saturday's attack, 30-year-old Gabe Zimmerman.
Mr. HARRIS: To see what happened and how angry our country has gotten is just heartbreaking, just heartbreaking.
SEABROOK: Andrea Seabrook, NPR News.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: Tomorrow, President Obama will pay tribute to the victims of that shooting. He'll be in Tucson, speaking at a memorial service for the victims, and as he does, to the nation as well.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Toyota has been making news for all the wrong reasons over the past year or so. Since late 2009, the company has recalled more than 11 million of its vehicles. Just last month the automaker agreed to pay $32 million in fines to settle an investigation into its handling of two recalls. And a reinvigorated U.S. car industry could make the road ahead more difficult for Toyota. NPR's Sonari Glinton reports on Toyota's prospects from the Detroit Auto Show.
SONARI GLINTON: When Akio Toyoda, the president and CEO of Toyota, was last in the news, he was under tremendous scrutiny. Toyoda was pressured into appearing before Congress. Here he is offering his condolences to the Saylor family, who lost four members in a fiery crash near San Diego.
Mr. AKIO TOYODA (CEO, Toyota): I would like to send my prayers again, and I will do everything in my power to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.
GLINTON: That was February 2010. But at the North American International Auto Show this week, there was no mention of the tragedy. When Akio Toyoda took the stage to help announce the expansion of the Prius brand, he pointed to Americans' loyalty for Toyota products.
Mr. TOYODA: We intend to continue to earn that customer loyalty with even greater dedication to quality, safety and customer care.
Mr. MICHAEL ROBINET (IHS Automotive): This is all new territory for Toyota, and they're really learning on the fly in some respects.
GLINTON: Michael Robinet is an auto analyst with IHS Automotive. So how has Toyota been dealing with the aftermath of the recall?
Mr. ROBINET: Probably the grade you'd give them is maybe more like a C.
GLINTON: Robinet says in many ways Toyota's fall from grace forced it to look at how it does business. It had to change how it communicates internally as well as with dealers, suppliers, and customers. Again, Michael Robinet.
Mr. ROBINET: In some respects they underestimated the level of the public reaction to the situations, and in some respects underestimated how really serious this situation was.
GLINTON: Robinet says the company has made strides since its darkest hours. As part of its attempt to reshape its image, Toyota announced, just ahead of the Detroit auto show, it's launching a safety research center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That center will focus on finding ways to reduce driver distraction.
But while Toyota was trying to regain its balance, the American auto industry was moving ahead. Ford and GM both stepped in to try to take a share of the marketplace.
Mr. BOB CARTER (North American General Manager, Toyota): Ford and General Motors call out Toyota more in their advertising than they do each other.
GLINTON: Bob Carter is Toyota's North American general manager. He says despite the new competition, his company is still the one to beat. Carter says he's confident. He announced Toyota's own version of a plug-in hybrid that will compete directly with Chevy's electric Volt.
Mr. CARTER: Competition breeds this kind of product being offered to the U.S. public.
GLINTON: So are you saying that a stronger U.S. auto industry makes you better?
Mr. CARTER: Absolutely it does. And I think a stronger Toyota will help make the U.S. markets better. We push each other.
GLINTON: Carter says no company is better positioned to conquer the future. But that's essentially what every other auto executive says.
Sonari Glinton, NPR News, Detroit.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
This is the kind of moment you learn about in school, one of the moments that defines this country. No matter how awful the crime, the suspect is entitled to a defense in court. The defense of the accused Tucson shooter is now in the hands of a prominent lawyer.
Judy Clarke is a death penalty expert who has taken on some of this country's most high-profile cases. Amita Sharma reports from member station KPBS in San Diego.
AMITA SHARMA: Those who know Judy Clarke say she's never shied away from defending some of the most reviled people in recent history. She represented Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Her other clients include Atlanta Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, 9/11 co-conspirator Zacarias�Moussaoui, and Susan Smith - the South Carolina mother who drowned her two sons in 1994.
Mr. GERALD BLANK (Attorney): She's a specialist in representing people charged with some of the most heinous crimes you can imagine. And she does it with a great deal of compassion and objectivity and thoroughness.
SHARMA: Gerald Blank is a criminal defense attorney in San Diego and a longtime friend of Clarke's. He says she takes on difficult cases out of principle and conviction.
Mr. BLANK: I believe she takes the toughest of the tough cases because she believes in them. If you really want to see the justice system work and obtain justice for someone, that's where it's really needed.
SHARMA: Clarke once ran the federal defenders office in San Diego. Now she's in private practice. But she remains active with the Federal Death Penalty Resource Council. The group helps judges find lawyers in federal death penalty cases. Blank says Clarke is a natural fit for the Loughner case.
Mr. BLANK: She is deemed to be a nationwide specialist in the application of the federal death penalty and really knows the law in that area and is very effective as an advocate.
SHARMA: Clarke's clients in the Unabomber and Olympic bomber cases both pleaded guilty, avoiding trials and the death penalty. San Diego criminal defense lawyer Knut Johnson used to work for Clarke at the federal defenders office.
Mr. KNUT JOHNSON (Attorney): She's a tremendous attorney. One of the best, if not the best.
SHARMA: Johnson says that's especially true in the Susan Smith case.
Mr. JOHNSON: Susan Smith did not receive the death penalty. You know, if you want to describe that as a win, that's a win.
SHARMA: Clarke argued that Smith was mentally ill when she murdered her sons. California Western Law School professor Mario Conte says Clarke's unpretentious style plays well with jurors.
Professor MARIO CONTE (California Western Law School): There's not a whole lot of flash and buzzers. She's very down home, extremely talented. And I think jurors really relate to her because she's real. There's no put-on in the courtroom. No airs.
SHARMA: Conte says Clarke has dedicated her life to her career and is hardworking to the point of being scary, a trait that is unlikely to change in the months ahead. Her client, Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner, is facing five federal counts. The charges include two counts of killing employees of the federal government and an attempted assassination of a member of Congress.
As with her previous clients, Conte says Clarke will have to avoid emotion and do what's best for Loughner.
Prof. CONTE: The ultimate objective - the ultimate objective is to save his life.
SHARMA: Conte says if anyone can do that, it's Judy Clarke.
For NPR News, I'm Amita Sharma in San Diego.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And now for an update on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. Doctors treating her say they have been encouraged by her progress so far. They say it appears the bullet that passed through the left side of her head did not damage the most critical parts of her brain. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports that neurosurgeons watching the case say Giffords has a chance of recovery if she remains stable for just a couple more days.
JON HAMILTON: During a press conference at University Medical Center in Tucson yesterday, doctors said Giffords' condition hadn't changed, and that was a good thing. Dr. Michael Lemole is one of the surgeons who operated on Giffords. He says she was continuing to respond to the sort of simple commands that test a patient's ability to communicate.
Dr. MICHAEL LEMOLE (University Medical Center): It could be showing us their thumb, perhaps two fingers, gripping a hand, wiggling toes. All of those are simple commands that she can do even though, for example, she has a breathing tube in place that would preclude more complex communication.
HAMILTON: That's remarkable with the type of injury that's usually fatal.
Neil Martin, the chairman of neurosurgery at UCLA, says it means the initial damage from the bullet wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.
Dr. NEIL MARTIN (UCLA): You know, there are about as many favorable signs so far as one could have when dealing with a gunshot wound to the brain.
HAMILTON: But Martin says that in public remarks the doctors treating Giffords have avoided addressing certain questions.
NEIL MARTIN: What we have not heard is whether or not she has any movement in the right arm or hand. That is critically important, because the right arm and hand control centers are close by, adjacent to the critical language centers in the left cerebral hemisphere, and that apparently was the area impacted by the bullet.
HAMILTON: Martin also says that Giffords is still in the time period when patients with brain injuries can get worse quickly.
Dr. MARTIN: Although the prognostic signs for survival are good, there still is a possibility that despite the best possible medical care, some serious complication could arise and be very, very critical.
HAMILTON: The biggest concern is usually swelling of the brain.
Henry Brem, the chief of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, says that can cause two different problems.
Dr. HENRY BREM (Chief of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital): The swelling in and of itself could be a problem because if it's compressed in a thick skull then it can cause damage to the brain. But even more significantly, if the brain swells, then it can have difficulty getting enough blood and then you can have secondary strokes.
HAMILTON: The doctors treating Giffords have tried to head off these complications by temporarily removing a part of her skull. That gives her brain some room to swell. But Brem says there are other risks too, including bleeding, blood clots, infection and seizures.
Dr. BREM: Seizures can occur in any surgery. Any kind of injury to the brain there's a 4 or 5 percent risk of having a seizure.
HAMILTON: That's rarely a fatal problem, though.
Jonathan Jagid, a neurosurgeon at the University of Miami, says what happens to Giffords next will depend largely on her doctors' ability to keep their patient stable for at least another couple of days.
Dr. JONATHAN JAGID (Neurosurgeon, University of Miami): The strategy now is just to very aggressively keep the pressure inside the skull at a normal level.
HAMILTON: Until the risk of swelling begins to go down.
Dr. JAGID: As long as they can keep that under control, that in conjunction with her initial exam being as good as it was, I think it's likely that she can make a very reasonable recovery from the injury.
HAMILTON: But neurosurgeons say a reasonable recovery rarely means a complete recovery. Most people who suffer gunshot wounds to the head and survive have some long-term problems. These may include memory lapses, difficulty with speech, loss of vision, and weakness or paralysis on one side of the body.
Jon Hamilton, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
NPR's business news starts with a clash of the mobile phone carriers.
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INSKEEP: Today, Verizon is expected to announce it will start offering the Apple iPhone 4 in February. Until now, the popular Internet smartphone has been sold exclusively by Verizon's rival, AT&T. That was the only service you could get.
The announcement comes after years of speculation and changes in the competitive landscape of the mobile phone industry. Now, after battling years of complaints about AT&T service, AT&T will have to fight to keep its customers from defecting.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And in the battle between two social networking sites, one competitor seems to be fading. While Facebook continues to add millions of users, its rival MySpace is expected today to announce that it's laying off more than 500 employees. That's according to today's Wall Street Journal, whose parent company News Corp. also owns MySpace. The layoffs will cut in half the MySpace workforce.
Despite a redesign earlier this year, the focus on music and video entertainment, MySpace has been increasingly overshadowed by Facebook.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Let's talk about education now, the for-profit education industry. One of the big players, the Apollo Group reported a drop in the number of new students. The company, which owns the University of Phoenix, says it continues to make plenty of money but the weak enrollment figures may continue as it searches for students who are more likely to graduate.
Here's NPR's Larry Abramson.
LARRY ABRAMSON: The Apollo Group stock has been trading at the lowest price in years, thanks to the threat of stiffer regulations from Washington. The Department of Education wants schools like the University of Phoenix to focus much more on making sure students can repay their loans and to slow down their aggressive recruiting.
In an earnings call Monday, executives at the largest for-profit educator say they're doing just that.
Chief financial officer Brian Swartz says the number of new recruits dropped 42 percent compared with a year ago, and he says that trend will grow.
Mr. BRIAN SWARTZ (CFO, University of Phoenix): Because of the large decline in new enrollment, coupled with the graduation of some of our existing student population, we expect increasing decline in total enrollment as we move through the year.
ABRAMSON: The question now is whether investors will stay loyal to Phoenix and other for-profits, which have lost the explosive growth that led to the high stock prices of the last decade. Much will depend on the details of new government rules expected out as soon as next month.
For-profit giant Strayer University just announced a 20-percent drop in new enrollments compared with a year ago.
Larry Abramson, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Now, let's talk about environmental standards. The Philadelphia Eagles may be out of the playoffs but fans can console themselves with the knowledge that their stadium may soon be the greenest. And it's not just that green is one of the Eagles' colors.
Eagles' owner Jeffrey Lurie and his wife Christina Lurie have been retrofitting Lincoln Financial Field. They're adding wind turbines, solar panels and a biodiesel power plant.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The changes are aimed partly at reducing utility costs, which are the second biggest expense for the team, behind payroll, according to the LA Times.
There will also be plenty of recycling, of course. Even the beer cups are made from biodegradable plastic and will be composted along with the grass clippings from the field.
And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
Tomorrow, we hear the formal remembrance of the victims of the Tucson shooting. President Obama will be among those speaking at a service after Saturday's mass shooting.
INSKEEP: Today, we sample the informal conversation. The shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the murder of six others has dominated people's thoughts in Tucson, Arizona.
NPR's Ted Robbins went to a popular gathering place in the city's downtown.
(Soundbite of music)
TED ROBBINS: Upbeat bluegrass music seems a little odd for the occasion. But it makes sense because runners and walkers meet every Monday to socialize on the patio of Maynard's Market and Kitchen, in the old train depot in downtown Tucson. Their motto is: Get out - as in get out of your house and meet people.
Last night was just a little different.
(Soundbite of a crowd)
Ms. JANNIE COX (Organizer, Meet Me at Maynards): All right, everyone can get their ribbons on the other side of the patio. Get a ribbon for your sleeve.
ROBBINS: A black ribbon. Older people, younger people, babies in strollers gathered, a lot more people than on the usual Monday, may be 250.
For some, like Sarah Evans(ph), it was the first they'd been in public since the shooting Saturday.
Ms. SARAH EVANS: It's kind of like 9/11 for me. It took me a long time to wrap my head around the complexity of all the events that happened.
ROBBINS: The tears are never too far away as she talks. It will be a while before the processing is complete, if it ever is.
As the runners and walkers are about to set off, organizer Jannie Cox has only two instructions: Obey the traffic laws, and be compassionate with one another - even if it's for a moment with a stranger in the grocery store.
Ms. COX: Say hello. Say hope you're having a great day. Do it from your heart, starting tonight, for the rest of your life. Maybe that could have made a difference years ago with this young man, and maybe not. But we can make a difference going forward.
(Soundbite of crowd chatter)
ROBBINS: Eight miles north in the shopping center where the shooting took place, Steve Minton(ph) says he has a hard time feeling compassionate toward Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old accused of the massacre, especially, says Minton, if he were picked for Loughner's jury.
Mr. STEVE MINTON: Well, if I were picked, I would be inclined to push for the death penalty for Jared Loughner. I mean, how can you look favorably on someone who came here with the express purpose of committing wholesale slaughter?
ROBBINS: Jared Lee Loughner could face the death penalty. He was taken from Tucson to the federal courthouse in Phoenix, where he entered the courtroom head shaved, heavily shackled, wearing a tan jumpsuit.
Loughner faces five federal counts: Attempted assassination of a member of Congress, two murder counts of federal employees - Judge John Roll and Giffords' staff member, Gabe Zimmerman - and two attempted murder charges.
Loughner did not enter a plea. It's expected he'll face state charges, as well.
As for Giffords, she is the only survivor still in critical condition. But Dr. Peter Rhee, head of trauma surgery at University Medical Center in Tucson, continues to be optimistic.
Dr. PETER RHEE (Chief of Trauma Surgery, University Medical Center): At this phase, things are going very well. So the worry about the swelling is gone.
ROBBINS: The dangerous swelling typical of brain injuries is not taking place, says Rhee, because surgeons removed part of Giffords' skull to lessen the pressure.
The congresswoman continues to signal and respond to directions to move her hands. But she is not, as they say, out of the woods.
Ted Robbins, NPR News, Tucson.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
The former Republican leader in the House of Representatives is facing prison time. Tom Delay was sentenced yesterday to three years for conspiring to send laundered money to Republican candidates. And so we can say that Tom Delay kept his word. He told us in 2007 he would never give up.
I wonder, are you prepared to say that you will not take a plea bargain, no matter what?
Mr. TOM DELAY (Former Republican Representative, Texas; Former House Majority Leader): No matter what. I'm not guilty of anything. And I will not succumb to the Democrats' criminalization of politics.
INSKEEP: Former House Majority leader Tom Delay echoed that statement in court yesterday. As he received his sentence, he insisted he had done nothing wrong.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Yemen has been much talked about in recent months as a base of terrorist operations. And in remarks just last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that this Middle Eastern country poses a global threat. Today, she arrived in Yemen for an official visit.
Yemen, which is on the Arabian Peninsula, has seen a surge in al-Qaida activity and internal unrest. Al-Qaida's arm in Yemen has been linked to last year's Time Square bombing attempt and the foiled cargo package bomb last fall. The U.S. is trying to help Yemen's government fight extremists.
NPR's Michele Kelemen is traveling with Secretary Clinton, and she joins us now from the capital, Sanaa.
Good morning, Michele.
MICHELE KELEMEN: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: What is Secretary Clinton doing there?
KELEMEN: Well, she's actually the first secretary of state in about 20 years to come to Yemen. She says that military-to-military cooperation is not enough, and she wants to broaden relations. So in addition to talking about counterterrorism, she's reaching out to civil society here. She's talking about the need for political reforms. And, for example, one thing she's paying particular attention to is child marriage. She's paying tribute today to a girl who escaped an abusive child marriage when she was just 10 years old. So we're going to hear a lot about civil society development in this, which is the Arab world's poorest country.
MONTAGNE: But as you just mentioned, counterterrorism is an issue there, and that, what, is surely the focus of her comments.
KELEMEN: Yeah. I mean, she, clearly, by being here, wants to show Americans that the Obama administration is focused on this issue. She's also telling Yemenis that it's in their interests - not just American interest - to make sure al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula is not given safe haven. It's a key part of her talks with President Saleh here.
You know, the other problem is, though, that while the U.S. wants him to be fighting al-Qaida, he's also facing a rebellion in the north of the country, a secessionist moment in the south. So the Obama administration has been careful to make sure that its aid in counterterrorism isn't used to fuel any of those conflicts. So it's a very fine line she has to walk here.
MONTAGNE: And Yemen is one of the poorest countries in the world. Does her visit, though, also include new U.S. aid commitments?
KELEMEN: She isn't announcing any new aid, but she is talking about how the U.S. is rebalancing its aid. In 2010, it - the aid commitment was about $300 million. Nearly half of that now is for non-military assistance. This is a country that Secretary Clinton points out is running out of oil. It's running out of water. So development issues are crucial for it, and the U.S. wants to support that. What it gives, however, is far less than what you see it giving in places like Pakistan.
MONTAGNE: Given Yemen's reputation as having these terrorist operations going there, I imagine security is tight for the secretary.
KELEMEN: Yes. I mean, we couldn't report on it until we arrived here today. Security is very tight. The embassy has been - has come under attack before, so it's been very careful movements around the city as we come here.
MONTAGNE: Michele, thanks very much.
KELEMEN: Thank you.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Michele Kelemen, traveling with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking to us from the capital of Yemen.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
For the first time since 1957, the Auburn Tigers are the champions of college football. Auburn won the BCS National Championship last night, with a thrilling 22-19 victory over the University of Oregon. They clinched the win with a last second field goal, just one of many dramatic moments in a game that also delivered some unexpected heroes. NPR's Tom Goldman was there and filed this report.
TOM GOLDMAN: An electrifying end of game comeback by Oregon, a stunning 37 yard run by Auburn, a championship winning field goal - much to talk about, but not yet. That's because Auburn's senior linebacker Josh Bynes and his buddies on defense get top billing, finally.
Mr. JOSH BYNES (Linebacker, Auburn Tigers): Just like I told defense before we got on the bus to come here, throughout the whole week of preparation and everything before this game, they haven't shown not one defensive highlight. So what that tells us, defense? So basically, we've got to play at another level and show then what kind of defense we are today.
GOLDMAN: So Oregon star running back LaMichael James can blame ESPN, because that highlight-starved Auburn defense grounded James. He gained only 49 yards. Had his running mate, Kenjon Barner, been able to squeeze out just one yard late in the third quarter how different the outcome might've been.
(Soundbite of crowd roaring)
That's the sound of the part of the stadium wearing Auburn orange going nuts. It was fourth down with one yard to go for an Oregon touchdown. The Ducks decided not to try a field goal and sent Barner hurtling toward the end zone instead. That roar tells the outcome.
Throughout the game, Auburn's defensive line, led by all-American Nick Fairley, manhandled Oregon's offensive line. Leading up to the game Auburn heard all about Oregon's top-rated offense, averaging more than 49 points per game and doing it at warp speed. But the Tigers were ready, thanks to exhausting preparation, especially for a guy like the 6'5, 298 pound Fairley.
Mr. NICK FAIRLEY (Auburn Tigers): You know, we probably did like 2,000 jump ropes the whole time we was off. So, like I said, they were tired. I was tired. We were just going to see who was going to hit who in the mouth last.
GOLDMAN: With two and a half minutes left in the game, it became anyone's guess who'd land that last punch. Oregon's defense forced a fumble by Auburn's star quarterback Cam Newton. The Ducks offense then finally moved the ball down the field. And the two and a half minute mark, quarterback Darron Thomas flipped a short pass to LaMichael James.
(Soundbite of crowd roaring)
That's the yellow half of the stadium going bonkers. Oregon followed the touchdown with a two-point conversion - 19 to 19. But the quacking soon faded as Auburn drove back down the field, aided by that aforementioned stunning 37-yard run. Auburn running back Michael Dyer went down in the grasp of an Oregon defender, rolled over, popped up, looked around and kept going.
Mr. MICHAEL DYER (Auburn Tigers): All I knew was the whistle wasn't blown and my coach was saying go. And I just kind of continued to get some yards and keep the play going and keep the ball in offensive hands.
GOLDMAN: It was ruled that Dyer's knee never hit the ground. He followed up with a run that ended up just short of the goal line. Two seconds left, Auburn place kicker Wes Byrum finished the job - a 19-yard, championship winning, field goal.
The confetti fell, the Tigers danced. The Ducks shuffled away - this close to their first title ever and fully aware that this eagerly anticipated game lived up to its billing, even without lots of points on the board. Cliff Harris is an Oregon defensive back.
Mr. CLIFF HARRIS (Oregon Ducks): It was just a battle, you know. I hope y'all enjoyed the show we put on for you guys.
GOLDMAN: We did, Cliff.
Tom Goldman, NPR News, Scottsdale, Arizona.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
The shootings in Tucson, Arizona have prompted a call for a change to gun laws.
MONTAGNE: Representative Carolyn McCarthy wants to make that change. A gunman killed her husband and wounded her son on the Long Island railroad back in 1993, and McCarthy was elected to Congress as an advocate for gun control.
INSKEEP: In Saturday's shooting, the gunman fired a Glock semiautomatic pistol. The Democratic representative is focusing not on the weapon here but on the magazine, which held at least 30 bullets.
Let's review some history so that we have this clear. In the 1990s, an assault weapons ban was passed in the United States. After a decade, it expired in 2004. The magazine that was used over the weekend would've been illegal during that decade, but, of course, it is quite legal now. Is that correct?
Representative CAROLYN MCCARTHY (Democrat, New York): That's correct. A clip can carry anywhere from 10 bullets, all the way up to 33, depending on the manufacturer.
INSKEEP: And so you want legislation that specifically targets that kind of magazine, not actually the weapons themselves?
Rep. MCCARTHY: No. The weapons in themselves - number one, I have to look at, you know, what can actually pass in Congress and have it signed by the president. The House and the Senate are pro-gun houses. So with that being said, I have to find something that will be reasonable to the majority of the members so that we can cut down.
You have to understand, with the large amounts of bullets that were held in the magazine he was able to spray and shoot, unfortunately, an awful lot of very innocent victims.
INSKEEP: It's interesting that you mention that the House and Senate, as you describe them, are pro-gun right now. The Democratic Party has, I think it's fair to say, has very much quieted down or backed off its efforts at gun control in recent years. Doesn't that suggest that there is just not the kind of political support that there might once have been for measures like the kind you are advocating here?
Rep. MCCARTHY: Well, you're absolutely right. But I did pass legislation after the Virginia Tech shooting, which President Bush did sign. I was able to get it through the House and the Senate, you know. With my history, unfortunately, with my family suffering through gun violence, it's something that I feel passionately about, that even though the odds are certainly always uphill, that doesn't mean that I will stop fighting to try to change that.
INSKEEP: As you know, there are Republicans, as well as Democrats, who have signed onto stricter background checks of various kinds when people go to legally purchase weapons. Why do you feel that that is now not enough?
Rep. MCCARTHY: Well, it's not enough, mainly because people on the outside, let's say for a gun show, there are many people that go to gun shows and buy guns off private people and don't go through any background checks. So, I mean, even though there are laws out there, there are always ways that you need to look at and how do you fine-tune it.
INSKEEP: What would you say to gun rights supporters who may be listening to you and feeling that you're politicizing this rather extreme tragedy to push the bill that you're describing?
Rep. MCCARTHY: No. that's absolutely not true. I've been working on gun issues for the last 14 years, since I've been in Congress. This is something I'm passionate about, as much as they are passionate about say their Second Amendment rights.
We're not dealing about guns here. We're dealing about a piece of equipment that goes to the gun. I think when you think about just common sense here, large capacity clips that can basically, in my opinion, be weapons of mass destruction, should not be available to the average citizen. They will be available to our military. They will be available to our police officers.
INSKEEP: How often have you had an opportunity to work with Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman who was shot?
Rep. MCCARTHY: Certainly she was a moderate. I'm considered a new Democrat, which would be considered moderate. And with that being said, you know, we agreed on many issues and we always try to work with both sides of the aisle. And I think that's something that we've had in common.
INSKEEP: It is interesting, though, and maybe it does suggest the shift in the Democratic Party that we've talked about here, in that she is a Democrat and she favors gun rights.
Rep. MCCARTHY: She does favor gun rights, but she also does look at the legislation that she feels is fair. So she goes for whatever she feels will protect her constituents.
INSKEEP: Congressman Carolyn McCarthy, thanks very much.
Rep. MCCARTHY: Thank you so much for having me on. Always a pleasure.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
The latest thriller novel from Brad Meltzer supposes that the president of the United States has a private ring of spies. "The Inner Circle" imagines that the spy ring is passed on from one president to the next. Meltzer says his fictional plot grew out of a real life experience.
Mr. BRAD MELTZER (Author, "The Inner Circle"): A few years ago, the Department Homeland Security asked me to come in and brainstorm different ways that terrorists attack the United States. And my first thought was, if they're calling me, we have bigger problems than anybody thinks.
INSKEEP: Mm-hmm.
Mr. MELTZER: But I was honored to be part of what they called the Red Cell Program. And the Red Cell Program brings together out-of-the box thinkers to really look at problems in a very different way. So they would put me with a chemist. They put me with a Secret Service agent. And, obviously as a novelist, I was just one of those regular citizens who they brought in.
INSKEEP: But it got you thinking about history.
Mr. MELTZER: Everything gets me thinking about history and say where else has this happened? Who else taps civilians? And George Washington was the first. He started his secret spy ring, called the Culper Ring. And the Culper Ring helped Washington move information during the Revolutionary War. They used to write in invisible ink. They used to use code names. It was a fascinating thing.
Most people didn't even know who they were for over a hundred years, because they took their secrets to the grave.
I went to my National Security folks who helped me with the Red Cell Program. And I said what if you found out that George Washington's secret spy ring still existed today? And one of my folks in Homeland Security said to me: What makes you think it doesn't?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. MELTZER: I said what are you talking about? Right, I mean this is the moment you wait for. And I said what are you talking about? And he said to me: Why would he ever disband it?
And that's when the little hairs go up and you say okay, I got the plot for my next novel.
INSKEEP: If it's a novel.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. MELTZER: If it's a novel, right. I might be moving it to the nonfiction side when he told me that. But I became obsessed with looking. Okay, how do we do this? If each president has to tell the next president that they have this secret spy ring that was started by George Washington, how do they move that information?
And I found this great story. It is a true story, that during his last moments in the White House, Ronald Reagan wrote a secret letter to former President Bush, who was taking over that day. And he wrote: Don't let the turkeys get you down. And he left that letter for Bush, who then left a letter for Clinton, who left a letter for W, who left a letter for Obama.
It is the greatest secret tradition of the modern presidency. And I thought, you know, what if that's how they move information. So I went to the very best person I could think of to test it. I went to former President George H. W. Bush, the dad. And I sent him a letter and I said: Could George Washington's spy ring exist to this very day, and could presidents move the information in that letter that's in the White House when they leave office?
INSKEEP: This would be the great moment, if he said: I could neither confirm nor deny what you're saying, or some such thing. But he didn't say that, I suppose.
Mr. MELTZER: You know, I was begging for him to say that. What he did is he sent the actual secret letter he wrote to Bill Clinton, in the last moments when Bush was in office. So my first thought is: He sent me a secret code.
The truth was, what he did send me was the greatest secret of the U.S. presidency. And it was just that reminder that there are people in this office. We put them on these great pedestals and we inevitably throw them down these deep ditches. But we forget that they are us. They are still human people doing very human things.
INSKEEP: We don't have time here to read the whole text of the letter. But you could just read for me the last couple sentences - the parting words before...
Mr. MELTZER: The parting words is: I am rooting hard for you. And I just was so taken by that.
INSKEEP: Is there any sense, has there been any sense reported, of what those later letters from one president to another have said?
Mr. MELTZER: You better believe I've spent the last six months of my life hunting those down and trying to find them all. I don't even think these letters are in archives. These letters are private.
INSKEEP: Well, that's interesting, since this became part of a novel that you wrote about, an archivist working at the National Archives and stumbling upon this great secret of a spy ring dating back to George Washington.
Mr. MELTZER: Yeah, and that was the goal, is, you know, I had no idea that Bush was going to take it so seriously. But he's helped me with other books in the past and this one is about George Washington's spy ring still existing till this day. We don't know what they're doing or who they work for, but a young archivist in the Archives is about to find out and that's where "The Inner Circle" opens. It also opens with the story of these letters.
INSKEEP: Brad Meltzer's new book is "The Inner Circle."
Mr. Meltzer, thanks very much.
Mr. MELTZER: Thank you, sir.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Now for another story of historic significance, this one we know is true.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's about the man whose exploits in the 101st Airborne Division during World War II were chronicled in the HBO series "Band of Brothers." Dick Winters has died at age 92.
MONTAGNE: He led Easy Company. He and his soldiers parachuted into Normandy for the D-Day invasion. They liberated a Nazi concentration camp and later captured Hitler's mountaintop retreat.
NPR's Tom Bowman has this remembrance.
TOM BOWMAN: Dick Winters was a little-known retiree in rural Pennsylvania, until the fall of 2001. That's when the HBO series "Band of Brothers" aired. Ten million people watched the first night.
The series was based on the book by historian Stephen Ambrose. It told the story of one company of World War II soldiers in Europe. The company's leader was Dick Winters.
Mr. CLANCY LYALL (Veteran, Easy Company, World War II): I'd go through hell with him. You know, no question about it. We all had the same feeling about him too, I'll tell you
BOWMAN: That's Clancy Lyall who served as a private in Easy Company, under Winters.
Mr. LYALL: Everything we had to do, he was there right with us. He wouldn't run. You know?
BOWMAN: Winters led from the front. Some of his soldiers were amazed he survived the war. On D-Day, Winters led an attack on a German gun battery, destroying the weapons firing at the American troops on Normandy's Utah Beach. Winters was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest award for valor.
Winters always played down his heroism. In the HBO series, Winters recalled a question that a fellow veteran was got from his grandson. Here's how Winters told it.
Mr. DICK WINTERS (Commander, Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment): Grandpa, were you a hero in the war? Grandpa said, No, but I served in a company of heroes.
BOWMAN: It was Winters' favorite line. Just a few years ago, Winters wrote a memoir. Cole Kingseed, a retired Army colonel, helped with it. He recalls what Winters told him after the manuscript was completed.
Colonel COLE KINGSEED (U.S. Army, Retired): Wars don't make men and women great. But it sometimes takes war to bring out the greatness in men and women.
BOWMAN: Winters wasn't sure he would live through the war. He told writer Stephen Ambrose that he knelt down and prayed after D-Day. That comment inspired a scene in "Band of Brothers."
Here's actor Damian Lewis portraying Winters.
(Soundbite of movie, "Band of Brothers")
Mr. DAMIAN LEWIS (Actor): (as Dick Winters) And if somehow I manage to get home again, I promised God and myself that I would find a quiet piece of land someplace and spend the rest of my life in peace.
BOWMAN: Winters found that quiet piece of land. He bought a farm outside Hershey, Pennsylvania, where he spent the rest of his life.
Tom Bowman, NPR News, Washington.
MONTAGNE: This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Two weeks of flooding in Australia have covered an area the size of France and Germany combined. And this week, Australia got what it didn't need, more heavy summer rains. It is summer in Australia, of course. Yesterday, a flash flood sent a wall of water through a town, and from the descriptions, we're not sure flash flood quite covers the magnitude of this.
We're going to talk about it with Neale Maynard. He's in Brisbane, Australia. He's an editor of the Courier Mail newspaper, which has been covering this story.
Welcome to the program.
Mr. NEALE MAYNARD (Editor, Courier Mail): Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: Let's talk about this wall of water. What happened, exactly?
Mr. MAYNARD: There's been very heavy rain in Queensland for weeks now. Yesterday afternoon, a particularly intense cell moved over the city of Towamba, which is a mountain city of about 130,000 people. They had very, very heavy rain, something like four or five inches on top of all the other rain they'd had.
Towamba is a city 2,000 feet above sea level. It doesn't normally flood. In fact, it's been - just about ran out of water last summer. All of a sudden, there was this wall of water that ripped through the middle of the city. It picked cars up and threw them into trees. It wrapped cars around railway ridge posts, killed a number of people. And then a lot of that heavy rain also caused more flash flooding at the bottom of the mountain range that the city is on. And there's been a number of deaths there, as well.
INSKEEP: I'm trying to figure out the mechanics of getting so much water going in the first place. Was Towamba at the bottom of some kind of valley or funnel? The...
Mr. MAYNARD: There's a valley up there, yes, but nobody had ever seen anything like this up there. Some people were saying that the wall of water, at one stage, was 20 feet high. It's just such a freak phenomenon in an area like that, which the local reservoir was almost empty, and now the place is flooded.
The death toll from both the Towamba disaster yesterday and also one in the Lockyer Valley - which is a fruit and vegetable growing area west of Brisbane -is a confirmed toll of nine people are dead. However, the state government fears that that toll could more than double. Authorities are still searching for bodies, and also - because the flooding was so widespread and so severe -they're worried that a great more many people may yet be found. Currently, there's something like 66 people missing in the region.
INSKEEP: Now, Towamba, is the area drying out now, or has some of the water remained?
Mr. MAYNARD: Look, it's still raining. Most of that water - a lot of the water that appeared yesterday has sort of run off, but there's still reasonable heavy rain around southeast Queensland. That's the state that Towamba's in. And everybody is hoping that will ease.
Unfortunately for Brisbane, a lot of the water that fell on, I guess Towamba, the Lockyer Valley and closer to the coast, is flowing into the Brisbane River catchment. And we're expecting pretty major flooding here, possibly the worst flooding in 35 years, on Thursday this week. Brisbane hasn't seen a flood of this proportion or what authorities expect of a very long time.
So there was panic buying in the supermarkets today. People were buying - are selling out of bread, the bottled water. And I guess when the flooding was happening in central Queensland in cities like Rockhampton and Bundaberg, more recently, had major river levels moving through them, everyone in Brisbane looked up north and thought, oh. It's just one of those things. But now it's coming this way, and we're all about to experience something that most of us don't want to see.
INSKEEP: Neale Maynard is an editor for the Courier Mail newspaper, which is in Brisbane, Australia. Thanks very much.
Mr. MAYNARD: Oh, you're welcome.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
This would probably make for a very short episode of "CSI." Two men broke into a convenience store in Sheffield, Alabama, stole cigarettes, cigars and a donation change box from the counter. The high tech examination of the crime scene revealed that there was snow on the ground and footprints led away from the store. Police followed the footprints all the way to the home of a suspect who lived only a few blocks away.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
Bears and coyotes roaming the backyards of America hardly merit a mention, much less a 911 call. But in a village in Germany, the sight of a man walking a tiger cub was enough for one resident to call the police. They didn't arrest him, though. It turns out he was caring for three tigers while the Russian circus he works for was on a break. So police gave him a permit to walk the tigers, as long as he notifies them first.
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's Brian Naylor reports.
BRIAN NAYLOR: As the director of Kansas City's airport, Mark VanLoh is expecting to be busy this winter:
MONTAGNE: I will be giving a lot of tours in the next few months, from airports all over the country, coming to Kansas City to check us out.
NAYLOR: They'll be coming to check out not Kansas City's terminal or runways, but its security screeners. The Kansas City International Airport is one of 17 in the U.S. where the screeners work for private contractors, not the Transportation Security Administration. And that, VanLoh says, makes a difference.
MONTAGNE: In my opinion, these contract employees, they're not federal employees, they're not guaranteed a job for life. And in this case of private screening, if they don't meet the performance goals or maybe they're consistently rude, or maybe they miss objects that go through the machine, they are terminated. I can't remember how easy that would be to do with a federal employee. I don't think it is.
NAYLOR: But Republican Congressman John Mica maintains the private contract screeners are better. Mica is the new chairman of the House Transportation Committee. Last November, before he even took the reins at the committee, he sent letters to some 200 airports, urging they consider converting from TSA screeners to a private screening program. Mica's office did not respond to requests for an interview. But it in a clip posted on his website, Mica cited a Government Accountability Office report.
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C: The private screening under federal supervision works and performs statistically, significantly better. So our main purpose here is in getting better screening and better performance, not to mention that we can get better cost for the taxpayers.
NAYLOR: Mica says the TSA has become, in his words, an unwieldy bureaucracy with 67,000 employees, something, he said, that was never envisioned. The TSA will only say that that its officers are efficient and effective, and can respond with agility as new potential threats are identified. It's not clear that hiring private screeners saves the government any money. A two-year-old GAO report found it was actually 17 percent more expensive for the TSA to hire private contractors, but a spokesman says that gap has probably narrowed. And aviation analyst Robert Mann, a former airline executive, is dubious about returning to what he says was a fragmented system prior to 9/11.
MONTAGNE: It is likely that a private contractor would manage front line employees to a different customer service standard than would a federal work force. But if they're required to use the same technology, if they're required to meet the same screening standards and techniques, then the likelihood is it's a nicer wrapper on the same process.
NAYLOR: Brian Naylor, NPR News, Washington.
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MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Well, and there is, of course, one place where you might want to watch the commercials, and that's the Super Bowl...
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Oh, okay.
MONTAGNE: As for the game itself, commentator Frank Deford says don't mess with it.
FRANK DEFORD: Ah, but the Super Bowl constitution has been amended, too. When Commissioner Pete Rozelle - the General Washington of the pro football wars - found peace and created the Super Bowl, his guiding principal was that the heart of winter was no time to play important football games. No, the championship must be exported to more benign latitudes.
MONTAGNE: And sacrilege to the memory of Pete Rozelle: The 2014 Super Bowl itself will actually be played in New Jersey, a snow-covered land whose governor was pilloried for abandoning the state to take refuge in Disneyworld. Jersey? Not so sure.
NFL: The chubby governor who leaves New Jersey for Florida, or the fat-cat NFL which foists the Super Bowl on us right there?
NFL: But NFL ratings are sky high and winter is great for television, precisely because the frosty weather keeps many Americans inside, where they can gather round the high-definition and watch January from the safety of their homes.
MONTAGNE: Frank Deford comes to us every Wednesday from member station WSHU in Fairfield, Connecticut.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Reporter Ryan Morden takes us to the home of the most contaminated property in the northern New York town of Massena.
RYAN MORDEN: Here on Main Street in front of Town Hall, Massena's newly elected mayor, James Hidy, says it used to be vibrant back in the '70s, when he was an employee at the General Motors plant.
JAMES HIDY: I moved to Detroit, transferred to Detroit, moved back after 25 years and, you know, it's just not the town that it was. Obviously General Motors has left. Everything downsized.
MORDEN: A regional task force is charged with figuring out how the sparsely populated community can cope with the loss of the power train plant, one the area's biggest economic drivers. Patrick Turbett is the head of that task force.
PATRICK TURBETT: When you pick up the newspaper or you turn on the TV and you see someone from GM with a big smile on their face, you know, patting themselves on the back on how well they're doing, and you're the person living in the community with the EPA Superfund site and all your people laid off, it's a little hard to be as happy.
MORDEN: The plant's Superfund designation means it has hazardous substances in the soil. The EPA's Anne Kelly oversees the Massena property and says because of that, and several other reasons, the building will be demolished. For one...
ANNE KELLY: The facility is very outdated.
MORDEN: At 50 years old, the building itself has become a hazard.
KELLY: Chemicals that have been used - paints, mercury switches, asbestos - there are a number of contaminants that are incidental to manufacturing that will be a waste stream(ph) from this facility.
MORDEN: Back in front of Town Hall, Massena Mayor James Hidy says he doesn't expect to land another big manufacturer that can bring 1,000 or 2,000 jobs.
HIDY: I look at it as a new chapter for Massena. You know, manufacturing as we knew it yesterday is just not here - throughout the U.S.
MORDEN: For NPR News, I'm Ryan Morden.
TV: NPR's Neda Ulaby reports.
NEDA ULABY: Dan Portnoy is not a big TV watcher. He follows very few shows, but he likes his favorites a lot.
DAN PORTNOY: I'm a big fan of "Mad Men," and so I watch it religiously.
ULABY: Unidentified Man #1: No.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHAMPOO COMMERCIAL)
ULABY: You're getting shorter. You've lost a tooth. You're drunk. You're sober. A little bit of both.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
ULABY: Now, it looked like "Mad Men." It sounded like "Mad Men." But it was an ad for shampoo.
PORTNOY: I felt snookered
ULABY: Still, Portnoy had to admit the ad was diabolically effective.
PORTNOY: By the time you realize that it's an advertisement, you're pretty much all the way through the commercial.
ULABY: About 40 percent of U.S. households have digital video recorders. That means 40 percent of households can easily speed over commercials. So it helps a show like "Top Chef" get advertisers if it sprinkles attention-grabbing bits of content inside advertising blocs - or, as they're called in the industry, pods.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, "TOP CHEF")
ULABY: Unidentified Woman #1: Sooner or later, though...
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "TOP CHEF")
ULABY: Unidentified Man #4: Shake what your mama gave you.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "TOP CHEF")
ULABY: There's other kinds of podbusters, too, like the ones featuring actors from whatever show you're watching. You've seen that if you follow "Glee" or "30 Rock."
(SOUNDBITE OF A COMMERCIAL)
: I was a real good hugger.
NBC: For exclusive "30 Rock" holiday fun times, card members go to NBC.com/AmericanExpress.
ULABY: One ad executive told me the most effective podbusters drive viewers online, where they'll use social media to interact with their programs and the products that sponsor them.
MIKE ROSEN: We have data that will show, second- by-second, what viewers are doing during these commercial breaks, what kind of behaviors are going on. So we've gotten a much better sense of what works and what doesn't work.
ULABY: Neda Ulaby, NPR News.
: By the way, we've gathered a few of these podbuster ads at our website. If you're curious, you can go to npr.org. But if you don't have time to do that, don't worry. The ads will sneak up on you, anyway.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
The rise of the smart phone has made it easy to access the internet anytime, anywhere. And one of the most popular destinations is Wikipedia, which turns 10 years old this week. The free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit has become part of our cultural fabric. We called out to our fans on Facebook and followers on Twitter, and asked them to tell us the most interesting thing they learned through Wikipedia.
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MONTAGNE: I found out that an old boyfriend of mine had been named the minister of the interior in Greece.
MONTAGNE: Switzerland is roughly the size of San Bernardino County in Southern California.
MONTAGNE: The stoic Greek philosopher Chrysippus, I think is how you pronounce it, actually died of laughing.
MONTAGNE: If I'm looking at a squirrel and I wonder, well why's a squirrel doing this or what kind of squirrel is that, I'll go on Wikipedia.
MONTAGNE: Wikipedia plays an integral part in me believing in transubstantiation. Once a person believes in transubstantiation, the Catholic Church really is your only choice. So in a not so roundabout way, Wikipedia really kind of forced me to become Catholic.
MONTAGNE: The legend of the cactus cat, which is a prickly cat-like beast who cuts open cacti and drinks the fermented juice, becomes drunk, and howls through the night.
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MONTAGNE: That was Ashley Sapp of Indiana, along with Devin Kasper of North Dakota, Sharol Gauthier in Utah, Melvin Davis the Third in Georgia, and Josh Winn of California. For more on Wikipedia's first decade, here's NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin.
SELENA SIMMONS: So, in that montage, you heard from Melvin Davis the third.
MONTAGNE: Well, why are these squirrels black on one side of town? Why are they brown on the other side of town?
SIMMONS: Davis is a sophomore at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He says in high school, his teachers told him never to use Wikipedia.
MONTAGNE: But now, professors are saying things like if you can find another reputable source to back up what you find on Wikipedia, that's completely fine.
SIMMONS: Still, teachers and librarians tend to be leery of the site. I walked upstairs to talk to NPR's own reference librarian Kee Malesky.
MONTAGNE: I kind of, as a professional researcher, question the value of using a site like that when you don't have the basic trust that the information is accurate and up to date, and dependable.
SIMMONS: Kee even keeps a running document of the site's flubs. She's not absolutely opposed to the concept of a free encyclopedia, and says it can be a good starting place for reference links or to get the gist of a topic.
MONTAGNE: But I don't know how you deal with the fact that anyone can, and unfortunately often does, insert incorrect material for what appear to be malicious reasons.
SIMMONS: Andrew Lih is a journalism professor at the University of Southern California, and wrote the book, "The Wikipedia Revolution." He says, about five years ago, there was a perfect storm. Wikipedia began saturating Google results, and several high-profile errors forced Wikipedia to pull back from their completely free and open editing policy. That has cut down on some of the problems, but the site is still inherently unreliable. Lih says given that, most people find the site's articles to be more reliable than they expect. And Wikipedia has spawned a new skepticism.
P: People started to look at how reliable Britannica was and start to really fact check their articles. They start to look at should we be trusting the New York Times as much, even NPR, BBC, these kind of folks.
SIMMONS: Lih says the English language Wikipedia has plateaued at 3.5 million articles, and looking forward, the site needs to figure out how to keep expanding. One way to do that is by funding programs that move Wikipedia's content off the net.
MONTAGNE: Whether it's by DVD or CD, by mobiles, by printed matter...
SIMMONS: Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News.
MONTAGNE: OK. So our listeners say they use Wikipedia to learn about everything from the Smurfs to the Hell's Angels, and you can join that discussion online at npr.org and also on our Facebook page.
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MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
America's defense secretary has been in China for the past three days. Robert Gates met with his Chinese counterpart and other military officials - small steps towards building relations there. NPR's Jackie Northam reports that there are many other efforts underway to help define the constantly shifting U.S.- China relationship.
JACKIE NORTHAM: Dean Cheng, a China expert with the Heritage Foundation, says all this activity is taking place because the U.S. and China are at a pivotal junction in their relationship.
DEAN CHENG: I think that what we are seeing is an administration that is trying to reset China policy along the lines of the previous reset regarding Russian policy.
NORTHAM: Cynthia Watson, a professor of strategy at the National War College, says the Obama administration has made clear it wants a stable relationship with China.
CYNTHIA WATSON: The president has said several times, and has had other people in the administration repeat, that we want to have an ongoing relationship with China, we want to have a military to military relationship with China. We want to understand better what they're doing. We assume they want to understand better what we're doing.
NORTHAM: The Heritage Foundation's Cheng says the complex Sino-American relationship is especially dynamic now because of China's growing strength - economically, politically, and militarily. And he says the Obama administration is trying to articulate how it hopes China will use that newfound power.
CHENG: The hope here is to be able to influence China into following a path that is more transparent, one that takes into account the legitimate concerns of its neighbors, and to reach some kind of modus vivendi between Washington and Beijing. Unfortunately, China's general lack of transparency, its tendency towards secrecy, especially in the security field, makes that very hard to do.
NORTHAM: Abraham Denmark, a China specialist at the Center for a New American Security, says part of the problem is that China itself may be uncertain which direction it's heading. He says there are divisions within the ruling Communist Party and the powerful military over this issue.
ABRAHAM DENMARK: China's forward path has not been determined. We see different elements of China's approach. Sometimes China acts very positively, very constructively, sometimes exclusionary and somewhat negative and aggressive. So we're not sure what direction China is moving in.
NORTHAM: One thing that is certain: As China's power increases, so too does its expectation that the U.S. will make certain accommodations, says University of Virginia Professor Harry Harding, a long-time China watcher.
HARRY HARDING: If the United States was going to ask things of China, China was now in a position to begin to ask things of the United States, such things as agreeing to end arms sales to Taiwan, agreeing to stop having military exercises or reconnaissance missions close in to Chinese shoreline, near Chinese waters.
NORTHAM: Harding says the U.S. hasn't agreed to do any of these things. Conversely, China hasn't addressed U.S. concerns over issues such as human rights, trade imbalance and the strength of its currency. Harding says he worries those lingering, unresolved issues could fester. But he says overall the U.S.-China relationship is resilient.
HARDING: I think that there was a lot of pessimism exactly a year ago. There was a lot of concern that there was going to be a big crack-up in U.S.- China relations. Many people thought that was going to be the result of the global downturn, resulting in pretty open trade wars. That didn't happen. And I think that it shows that despite all of the differences and all of the tensions, the two countries are very highly interdependent.
NORTHAM: Jackie Northam, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
We're going to take a moment, this morning, to remember Margaret Whiting. Even if you don't know the name you may well have heard her voice on some old recording, because she was one of the most popular singers in the 1940s and '50s. She was raised around legendary American songwriters and became one of their best interpreters. And she died Monday evening at the Actors' Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey, at the age of 86. NPR's Elizabeth Blair has this remembrance.
ELIZABETH BLAIR: In the 1940s, "Moonlight in Vermont" became Margaret Whiting's signature song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MOONLIGHT IN VERMONT")
MARGARET WHITING: (Singing) Evening summer breeze. Warbling of a meadowlark. Moonlight in Vermont. You and I and moonlight in Vermont.
BLAIR: When Margaret was a child, the Whiting household was a popular place to hang out for some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Her father Richard co- wrote hits like "Hooray for Hollywood" and "Too Marvelous for Words." His friends included "Wizard of Oz" composer Harold Arlen and songwriter Johnny Mercer. Her aunt was a vaudeville star.
MICHAEL FEINSTEIN: Margaret came out of the womb with musical instincts that cannot really be learned.
BLAIR: Cabaret performer and historian, Michael Feinstein.
FEINSTEIN: She not only had the instincts but had this powerful instrument.
BLAIR: Margaret Whiting told reporter Jeff London about the first song she recorded for Mercer.
WHITING: (Singing) That old black magic has me in its spell, that old black magic that you weave so well.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLACK MAGIC")
BLAIR: Michael Feinstein says Margaret Whiting was not necessarily a screen beauty like some of her peers, but she communicated a song like an actor.
FEINSTEIN: She would sublimate her own personality to bring through what the songs were trying to say. And that's why songwriters love her so much, and I think audiences did, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TIME AFTER TIME")
WHITING: (Singing) Time after time I tell myself that I'm so lucky to be loving you.
BLAIR: Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE")
WHITING: (Singing) I really can't stay.
JOHNNY MERCER: (Singing) But, baby, it's cold outside.
WHITING: (Singing) I've got to go away.
MERCER: (Singing) But, baby, it's cold outside.
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Dina, good morning.
DINA TEMPLE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: What are investigators learning?
TEMPLE: You know, a case has to be built. And it helps the prosecution if there actually is a motive found.
INSKEEP: And that motive rests somewhere in a mind that, by the indications we have so far, was in some way disturbed. Which does raise the question of how, even with hundreds of agents, you pin that down.
TEMPLE: Basically, anybody who's had any contact with him in the past three to five years, they're trying to find him - find those people and find out what might have motivated him.
INSKEEP: Now, these hundreds of agents, Dina, you described this as a Bureau Special or they describe it as a Bureau Special. What does that mean exactly?
TEMPLE: You know, he was killed, as it turns out, by an organized crime figure named Charles Harrelson. And just as an aside, do you remember Woody Harrelson from "Cheers," the bartender?
INSKEEP: Oh, sure.
TEMPLE: It was his dad who actually killed this judge. Anyway, this was an early Bureau Special. And now this Tucson case is the latest one.
INSKEEP: Now, you said that that took months to do that investigation. Does anybody have any idea how long it might take to have the fullest view possible of what really happened in Tucson, Arizona, and what the shooter was really thinking - the alleged shooter was really thinking?
TEMPLE: And they have to build a case, and then, of course, bring it before jury.
INSKEEP: Dina, thanks as always.
TEMPLE: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Dina Temple-Raston this morning.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
The federal commission that examined last year's BP oil spill has issued its final report and it's full of recommendations for the offshore oil and gas industry. Some call on the industry to change its ways, others urged the government to take additional steps. One recurring theme is that everyone in this business needs to apply more brainpower. NPR's Richard Harris reports.
RICHARD HARRIS: It's true that no amount of planning and clear thinking can reduce the risk of an accident to zero, but at yesterday's news conference unveiling the commission's final recommendations, co-chairman Bob Graham said there's no doubt we can do better.
M: It's not asking too much that our approach in the United States be at least equivalent of the best practices in the world. They are not that today and sadly the United States has one of the lesser records in terms of the safety of its offshore drilling practices.
HARRIS: The commission found one reason for that is that federal regulators have been focused on checking off boxes on checklists instead of applying the kind of brainpower it should have been.
M: Science has not been given a sufficient seat at the table. Actually, I think that is a considerable understatement - it has been virtually shut out.
HARRIS: That shortcoming was highlighted in all sorts of ways during the deadly blowout in the Gulf of Mexico last April. Bill Reilly is the commission's other co-chairman.
M: The early response to that spill is evidence of the degree of un-preparation, and this commission is critical, even harsh, about some of the faulting early efforts to get a grip on the problem, to identify the flow rate, to contain the blowing well.
HARRIS: And the commission singled out the need for much better scientific research up in the Arctic Ocean, which is potentially the next frontier for offshore oil exploration. Commission member Fran Ulmer says not only research, but much better preparation is needed in that punishing and fragile environment.
M: For us to be able to move forward, whether it's with oil and gas development or any other development, we need to be prepared as a nation. And a number of studies have indicated that the Coast Guard does not have adequate capability to be able to respond appropriately in the Arctic.
HARRIS: Marilyn Heiman at the Pew Environment Group doesn't go that far, but she praises the commission's call for a more thorough assessment of drilling in the Arctic.
M: We need to have better response planning and preparedness in place to protect the Arctic ecosystem as well as the shoreline.
HARRIS: Richard Harris, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Did you hear, just now, Jason talking about an enormous pile of rubble that was about to fall over? An estimated 20 million cubic feet of debris was created by the earthquake. And only about five percent of it has been cleared. Whole neighborhoods remain choked with rubble, and residents cannot begin rebuilding until it's removed. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports on how some residents are not waiting for the government. They're dealing with the debris by hand.
CARRIE KAHN: The buildings are so close to each other, conversations and tiny church gatherings easily waft out open windows.
U: (Singing in foreign language)
KAHN: The quake crumbled hundreds of the two and three-story homes here. There's no way a bulldozer can get in. But this is Haiti, and people have found a way.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRUSHING RUBBLE)
KAHN: Niek de Goethe of CRS says 15 machines are now in Haiti, imported from Swaziland. He says 32 more are on the way.
M: It's such an appropriate solution for Haiti. I mean, imagine trying to get heavy equipment, you know, down the hill where there's no road. And you can, you know - this is what you need. Otherwise, they're going to be there, you know, 10, 20 years from now.
KAHN: Amos Laguerre is sweating profusely. He makes about $5 a day cranking.
M: (Through translator) It's hard, but we work, however. We - big effort, to as - to get the work done.
KAHN: It takes three men to do the crushing. Two crank the handles, while one drops boulder-size debris between the metal crushers. Singing helps the men get through the mind-numbing labor.
U: (Singing in foreign language)
KAHN: The bags of recycled rubble are mixed with cement and poured to make the foundations of temporary wooden shelters Catholic Charities hands out to residents.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRUSHING RUBBLE)
KAHN: Soly Santhea and her family are living in one of CRS's wooden shelters, in the same spot where their two-story house collapsed. It took them weeks to clear the rubble, but they had no other option. Her mother, father and two siblings were living in a nearby tent encampment. But a few months ago, the owner of the land evicted everyone.
M: (Through translator) We never even dreamed of coming back here. Everything was so destroyed. You couldn't even get into the neighborhood.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRUSHING RUBBLE)
KAHN: But Santhea says she went to the Catholic Charities office over and over again, and finally they came up with the idea to bring in the hand-cranked rubble crusher.
M: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: Ferdilia Escane, Santhea's mom, says if it weren't for her daughter, dozens of families wouldn't have been able to clear their lots and come back home.
M: (Through translator) She was key in getting our neighborhood cleaned up. It's not just me saying this. Everyone knows what she did. She got us organized, got us help. And she's just a girl. I'm so proud of her.
KAHN: Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Port-au-Prince.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Jeff Brady has our story from Tucson.
JEFF BRADY: Reporters have been camped outside the home where 22-year-old Jared Loughner lived with his parents. Tuesday afternoon, two unidentified men emerged and handed out a statement from the family. It reads: This is a very difficult time for us. We ask the media to respect our privacy. There are no words that can possibly express how we feel. We wish that there were, so we could make you feel better. We don't understand why this happened. It may not make any difference, but we wish that we could change the heinous events of Saturday. We care very deeply about the victims and their families. We are so very sorry for their loss. Thank you, the Loughner family.
(SOUNDBITE OF ORGAN MUSIC)
U: (Singing) We walk by faith and not by sight.
BRADY: Here's Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas.
BRADY: The tragedy of that Saturday morning will haunt us for a long, long time.
BRADY: Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcano also was invited to speak to the crowd, which included the family of nine-year-old Christina Green.
BRADY: One who in her short life - in her nine years of life - had already come forth as a servant leader. Let us honor her life by working and serving in this community and serving God in this world.
BRADY: Giffords remains at University Medical Center in critical condition after a bullet traveled through the left side of her brain. Doctor Michael Lemole says she's able to breathe on her own now, but a ventilator is remaining in place to reduce the risk of pneumonia. Lemole said beyond that, not much has changed in recent days.
BRADY: It's week-to-week, month-to-month, and I know everyone wants to hear new results every day, but as long as we don't backslide and as long as she holds her own, that's good. That keeps us hopeful.
BRADY: At a hospital briefing Tuesday, family members of others who were injured during the shooting also spoke. Penny Wilson was there with her sister, who offered support as Wilson spoke in front of the dozen or so cameras lined up. Their mother is Mavy Stoddard, who was shot in the leg and released from the hospital Monday.
MONTAGNE: Our mother is doing quite well, actually. She has a lot of strength and...
MONTAGNE: Courage.
MONTAGNE: ...courage, and she will go forward. She has a long road ahead of her, but her condition is good, I think.
BRADY: Bill Hileman also was at the briefing to talk about his wife Susan, who brought nine-year-old Christina Green to meet Representative Giffords. Hileman says his wife will recover from her physical wounds, but psychologically it'll be difficult.
MONTAGNE: In her clearest-headed state, she is quite understanding that this was the act of a madman and that blame does no good for anybody. Unfortunately, we're all human and we have dark moments where the inevitable occurs and we're going to have that as an ongoing issue to deal with.
BRADY: Jeff Brady, NPR News, Tucson.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Welcome to the program.
MONTAGNE: Thanks for having me.
MONTAGNE: There were some pretty over-the-top moments during the campaign for Congresswoman Giffords' seat. One of those moments was her opponent's fundraiser, that he called Target Victory, and he invited his supporters to fire M-16s with him. This disturbed her. Did you ever discuss these sort of actions with her?
MONTAGNE: I didn't talk too much with her about the specifics of this campaign. I certainly followed it. But I think that this passion for her - and I'll use that term - to try to overcome this partisanship and bridge it, has been something really since she was first elected as a state rep. But this campaign, I think, took it to a whole 'nother level. But it is something she's worked on for years, and I think that's one of the reasons why she's able to get elected in that district is because people see her as somebody who can rise above these things.
MONTAGNE: There's been a lot of talk about Sarah Palin's website that showed Congresswoman Giffords' district in what looks like crosshairs. You know, obviously we do not have any reason to think that this shooter even had an interest in Sarah Palin or was connected to her at all. But Congresswoman Giffords was sufficiently disturbed by that website that she said that this image - and I'm quoting her - could have dangerous consequences.
MONTAGNE: Well, I think that Gabby made a good point. I don't have any reason to believe that this particular tragedy was related to this problem that's out there, but it's out there. And whether it's safety or whether it's just discouraging folks from attending town hall meetings and contacting their representatives and believing that we can come to solutions, I think if we're going to honor Gabby and these other victims, we have to address this problem. You know, there's plenty of blame for everybody to go around here - you know, and I include myself in that. I mean, no, I don't think there's a single elected official or candidate for higher office who has not done or said something that you really wish you hadn't done or said.
MONTAGNE: Well, let me ask you then - your own Senate primary election, you were running against Tea Party candidate Rand Paul. It got pretty unpleasant. You never, nor did he, use violent images. But what do you regret? You say you regret - what do you regret about what you did that in that race?
MONTAGNE: And you know, we really tried to keep ours issues-based in our campaign, but I lost.
MONTAGNE: You lost, but then he - but then, you know, he won in a race where his Democratic opponent attacked him pretty fiercely.
MONTAGNE: It was an unfortunate incident. I don't want to blame Dr. Paul for it or anything like that, but it does show that sometimes these things can happen and spill over.
MONTAGNE: Trey Grayson, you have resigned as Kentucky's secretary of state and you're about to go to Harvard University and head its Institute of Politics. Do you think that there will be a change in the way politics and political races are conducted?
MONTAGNE: I suspect there will not be a big change. But if we could have a little change, oftentimes that our country faces critical moments where you see things and we do change as a nation - but, you know, after 9/11 we talked about bringing the country together and we did that for a little bit and then we got divided again. But my hope is that maybe this time will be different, and I'm going to try to do my part to see that it can be.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for joining us.
MONTAGNE: Glad to be here. Thanks for having me.
MONTAGNE: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And independent laboratory released a study last month that found chromium-6 in the tap water of more than two dozen American cities. And yesterday the EPA urged cities to check their water supplies for the metal twice per year. As we've reported, scientists do not agree on how much chromium-6 a person would have to consume to put his or her health at risk.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Illinois is close to joining 15 other states that do not have the death penalty. Illinois placed a moratorium on executions a decade ago, after several wrongfully convicted death row inmates were exonerated. Now lawmakers have passed and sent to the governor a bill to repeal the death penalty altogether. From Springfield, Illinois, NPR's David Schaper reports.
DAVID SCHAPER: Randy Steidl spent more than 17 years in prison and 12 of them on Illinois' death row for the 1986 brutal double murder of a couple in the downstate town of Paris, Illinois.
M: The prosecutor and the police used the town drunk, a drug addict woman, and a jailhouse snitch to gain their convictions, with no physical or forensic evidence tying me to the crime, and I had a corroborated alibi.
SCHAPER: That wrongful conviction cost Steidl 17 years, three months and three weeks of his life.
M: It's not just what it did to me. It's the unspeakable effects it had on my family. I had a nine-year-old son at the time and a 15-year-old daughter. They grew up without me. I had to watch them grow up in pictures.
SCHAPER: A decade later, a majority of Illinois lawmakers say the system is irreparably broken. On the floor of the Illinois Senate, Republican Dan Duffy told his colleagues the death penalty doesn't make the state safer and has been an ineffective and expensive waste of resources.
INSKEEP: Illinois has spent millions of dollars for decades trying to correct the death penalty's flawed process. What we have learned after all this time is that the system cannot be fixed. To continue on a path which is flawed would be a critical mistake.
SCHAPER: But during two hours of emotional debate in the Illinois Senate, capital punishment supporters made the case that the death penalty is a vital law enforcement tool. Republican John Millner is a former suburban Chicago police chief. He says just the threat of the death penalty often leads murderers to take plea bargains instead of going to trial.
INSKEEP: The victims' families, the pain, I'm telling you, I sit with these people, I talk to these people, I know these people - I see what changes go on in their lives. And they're - they're struggling with this. And now they have to go to trial and when they go to trial, they have to relive this entire situation again. Folks, this is painful.
SCHAPER: Others argue the death penalty is a deterrent and is needed for the most heinous crimes, with some invoking this past weekend's shootings in Arizona, an argument Chicago Democrat Rickey Hendon refuted.
INSKEEP: Arizona's got the death penalty. It didn't stop that crank. It didn't stop that idiot. It's not the deterrent that you think.
SCHAPER: David Schaper, NPR News, in Springfield, Illinois.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
We're going next into the heart of the rainforest and into the heart of the past. The Amazon has traditionally been described as a vast virgin jungle where people have barely left a mark. The only inhabitants were believed to be hunter-gatherers. The rainforest was considered too hostile to have supported big civilizations in the past.
But archaeologists are now saying that instead of being a historical black hole, the Amazon was once home to large, even advanced, civilizations when Europeans arrived hundreds of years ago. NPR's Juan Forero traveled into the Peruvian jungle to visit one newly discovered site.
(Soundbite of engine starting)
JUAN FORERO: The small engine on a dugout canoe finally catches. And moments later, Augusto Oyuela, an archaeologist from the University of Florida, is gliding into the jungle. There are monkeys, bright-colored birds, and a forest so thick it's hard to make headway - wild, as if it's been like this forever. Except that here, scientists say it wasn't.
Instead, says Oyuela, a thriving and advanced Indian civilization once ruled here. He says the proof is under his feet and all around: from poor soils that were enriched, to orchards of semi-domesticated fruit trees.
Dr. AUGUSTO OYUELA (Archaeologist, University of Florida): All this forest has been selected by the humans through hundreds of years of use.
FORERO: This scene, scientists say, is repeated over and over again across Amazonia. Using ground-penetrating radar and other technologies, archaeologists are increasingly excavating causeways, moats and other manmade works. That has prompted archaeologists like the Brazilian Eduardo Neves to rethink what the Amazon looked like before the Europeans arrived.
Dr. EDUARDO NEVES (Archaeologist): The idea that the Amazon represents a pristine forest, one of the last places in the world that has been untouched by human action, it's just falling apart.
FORERO: There are detractors, of course, who say the new theories are based more on wishful thinking than science. But these days, conferences assembling hundreds of archaeologists convene to discuss the new findings. And there are acclaimed books about the discoveries, like Charles Mann's "1491" and David Grann's "Lost City of Z."
The new thinking has given much more credence to the reports the Spanish explorers penned in the early 1500s. They had written about finding cities gleaming white. But because there were no majestic stone ruins - and later generations of explorers encountered primitive bands of hunters - science considered that Amazonia had pretty much always been the way it is today. Then came Anna Roosevelt and her excavations in the late 1980s at Marajo Island at the mouth of the Amazon.
Dr. ANNA ROOSEVELT (Archaeologist): They have magnitude. They have complexity. They are amazing, and they are not primitive.
FORERO: She spoke of the civilization she uncovered after finding elaborate pottery, house foundations and signs of extensive agriculture. Many others later followed deep into the jungle, including Augusto Oyuela, the University of Florida archaeologist.
(Soundbite of hacking forest with machete)
FORERO: Wearing gloves, netting and long sleeves to ward off mosquitoes, Oyuela pushes into the forest and explains the evidence. The biggest clue is perhaps the soil, which here - as elsewhere across Amazonia - was too poor to sustain a civilization. So the Indians simply altered it.
Dr. OYUELA: What you have here is a high content of charcoal, phosphorus and calcium.
FORERO: Adding those elements, Oyuela explains, created soil as nutrient-rich as the American Midwest. And then there are the trees.
Dr. OYUELA: This is a landscape that every tree, or most of the trees that you see today, has been selected by the history, by the use of the past.
FORERO: He means the semi-domesticated clusters of palms, descendants of fruit tree orchards managed by Indians centuries ago. Today, of course, the great civilization that Oyuela says thrived here is gone - the Omaguas that Spanish explorers said they'd encountered. But their descendants remain, including the man who led Oyuela to this spot, Daniel Saldana. He's now farming right here, on land enriched by his ancestors.
Juan Forero, NPR News.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
NPR: Europe's most powerful economy.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
: Germany's economy grew by a very strong 3.6 percent last year. Government officials released those GDP figures just this morning. It was the fastest growth rate for Germany in the past two decades. Exports are the fuel powering Europe's largest economy. Germany is the world's second biggest exporter after China.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
From London, Vicki Barker has more.
VICKI BARKER: Virgin Atlantic's chief financial officer, Julie Southern, says the decision to withhold payment was not taken lightly.
JULIE SOUTHERN: When the service is provided, we have no trouble paying the fees. When the service is not provided for a prolonged period of time and passengers are disrupted as a result, then we think this is an appropriate course of action.
BARKER: Aviation analyst John Strickland says part of the assessment will be whether the British climate is changing, with longer, snowier winters becoming the norm.
JOHN STRICKLAND: Heathrow has had snow equipment, but the key question will be: Will it need more if those weather conditions are going to change for the long term?
BARKER: For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker, in London.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Unidentified Man: (Italian spoken)
SYLVIA POGGIOLI: There's a carnival atmosphere in Rome at the end of the Christmas holidays, when Romans and tourists flock to Piazza Navona. Reggie Mudd from Nashville, Tennessee is snapping of the crowds and Baroque fountains. He has heard about the new hotel tax, but he's unfazed about the extra cost.
REGGIE MUDD: I mean, coming to Italy is expensive, you know, to begin with. So a little bit more, I mean, are you not going to come because of it? I don't think so.
POGGIOLI: However, Italian tourist Giorgio Severini, visiting with his family of four, is angry.
GIORGIO SEVERINI: (Through Translator) I guess we have to pay, but I don't know whether it's justified. And, in any case, they should have warned us ahead of time.
POGGIOLI: The Rome City Council estimates it will raise more than a $100 million a year. And it promises to use the funds to remove some of the city's major shortcomings and offer better services. That's a tall order.
(SOUNDBITE OF TRAFFIC)
POGGIOLI: Roman traffic is so bad, it even drowns out church bells. And walking in this city is a feat not for the fainthearted. Pedestrians have to elbow their way through thousands of cars parked along narrow streets and watch out not to sprain their ankles on ever-present potholes and broken cobblestones.
(SOUNDBITE OF RINGING BELLS)
POGGIOLI: Francesca Corsetti, concierge at a three-star hotel in central Rome, says her clients' number one complaint is about the poor quality of public transportation.
FRANCESCA CORSETTI: (Through Translator) No one is happy about this tax, that's for sure, both because it's steep and because nobody knows whether services will really improve.
POGGIOLI: Independent tour operator Giorgio Sansa is worried. He says Italy is already losing ground to Spain, Greece and Turkey, which are much cheaper.
GIORGIO SANSA: We are too expensive. We don't realize that we need tourism. We have so much to offer. We have so much to show. We have some of the best cuisine in the world. We have culture, arts, but that's not enough. We also have to watch our prices, because people are looking for the good bargain.
POGGIOLI: Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
(Soundbite of movie, "Dr. No")
SEAN CONNERY: (as James Bond) The name's Bond - James Bond.
INSKEEP: That's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Verizon wireless announced, yesterday, that it will begin selling its own version of the iPhone. This move is being called a game changer in the world of smart phones. Until now if you wanted one of the iPhones you had to sign up with AT&T. That was it. Now Verizon will begin offering the phone to its 93 million customers. NPR's Jim Zarroli looks at how the competitive landscape has shifted in wireless.
JIM ZARROLI: Tim Cook is chief operating officer at Apple and he says ever since his company started selling the iPhone in 2007, he's heard the same question over and over again.
TIM COOK: I can't tell you the number of times that I've been asked, and my colleagues have asked, when will the iPhone work on the Verizon network?
ZARROLI: The question has come because Verizon didn't sell the iPhone, at least until now. Yesterday, Verizon said it will offer the phone starting at $200 each for those who sign up for a two year service contract. Verizon wouldn't talk about its monthly pricing plans, nor would it say whether it would offer unlimited data plans to customers, but it did say it will sell the phone to some of its customers online, and then a bit later in Apple and Verizon stores. Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead.
DAN MEAD: We are confident that wireless consumers everywhere will welcome this device, will welcome this partnership, and will welcome the superior experience of the iPhone 4 on the Verizon Wireless network.
ZARROLI: Verizon and AT&T are the countries two biggest wireless carriers and they compete intensely. The fact that AT&T has been the exclusive distributor of the smart phone since its launch was a huge advantage for the company. But now, that advantage has probably been neutralized. Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin:
CHARLES GOLVIN: It certainly takes away one of the most powerful pieces of ammunition that AT&T has had over the past several years: that if you wanted the iPhone, AT&T was where you had to go to get it.
ZARROLI: With some 93 million customers, Verizon Wireless has a huge untapped market for the iPhone. And there are plenty of potential customers who may have thought about getting an iPhone, but didn't want to switch carriers. Verizon is also hoping to lure some disgruntled customers from AT&T, people like Eric Sunday(ph). He bought the iPhone when it first came out.
ERIC SUNDAY: I think AT&T has had the strangle hold on it, so I've seen them take away like the unlimited data plan and some different things like that that I wasn't necessarily happy with. And I think if you have more competition between the carriers, it's just going to be better for the consumer.
ZARROLI: But Sunday can't change carriers now. Like a lot of people, he signed a long-term contract with AT&T. Golvin says because of that, Verizon shouldn't count on taking too many customers away from its rival.
GOVLIN: Most of those iPhone customers are already on a long-term contract with AT&T and I think not very many of them will be willing to pay the significant early termination fee to get out of that contract and go get the phone on the Verizon network.
ZARROLI: Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's Morning Edition from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
NPR: Good morning.
JASON BEAUBIEN: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: Jason, 200,000 people died on this day a year ago today, how are Haitians marking this tragedy?
BEAUBIEN: MONTAGNE; And, Jason, you arrived there and begin reporting right after the earthquake. Remind us what it was like a year ago.
BEAUBIEN: A year later, things are obviously much better than that. But that was a day that Haitians say that they're never going to forget.
MONTAGNE: And what about today? When you walk around the city, what do you see?
BEAUBIEN: So there's a lot of frustration here with where things are right now, with a sense that people want to be moving forward faster than things moved over this last year.
MONTAGNE: Well, yesterday, former President Bill Clinton joined Haiti's prime minister to announce a new investment in Haiti. They say it will create thousands of jobs. Have business and commerce come back to life at all since the quake?
BEAUBIEN: In Port-au-Prince, commerce has come back in terms of a lot of the commerce that was always here, people doing things in the streets, people selling things. You know, right underneath some rubble that's about to - looks like it's about to fall over, you'll have women selling oranges and selling slippers and selling medicine. That kind of commerce has come back, but certainly, this is a difficult place to work. A lot of the infrastructure has been damaged and - you know, this country has a long, long way to go to getting back to normal.
MONTAGNE: And just very briefly, Jason, Haiti's recovery has been bedeviled by cholera and also political chaos. Is there any sense of optimism that things will get better any time soon?
BEAUBIEN: The big question is when will things get better? I think Haitians have confidence that, yes, things will get better, but the question is how long is that going to take.
MONTAGNE: Joining us from Port-au-Prince, NPR's Jason Beaubien, thanks very much.
BEAUBIEN: You're welcome.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
A rough Persian Gulf equivalent of a Super Bowl was played yesterday in Doha, Qatar. The game featured Iraq and Iran on the soccer field. The two neighbors are arch rivals, fueled by a long history of conflict and war.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Iraq, dressed in all white, scored the game's first goal. But just before halftime, Iran - dressed in red - evened the score.
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
(Soundbite of movie "A Christmas Story")
SCOTT SCHWARTZ: (as "Flick") Are you kidding? Stick my tongue to that stupid pole? That's dumb!
MONTAGNE: (as "Schwartz") That's 'cause you know it'll stick.
SCHWARTZ: You're full of it!
ROBB: Oh yeah?
SCHWARTZ: Yeah!
ROBB: Well, I double-dog-dare you!
MONTAGNE: Before firefighters freed him, the Oklahoma boy spent 10 minutes on tiptoes with his tongue stuck to a stop sign. It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Not long ago, my family took a carriage ride around Philadelphia. The driver mentioned Thaddeus Kosciuszko and said he was the guy who built New Jersey's Kosciuszko Bridge. Never mind that Kosciuszko was a Revolutionary War hero in the 1700s and the bridge was finished in 1939. Now, Philadelphia tour guides are in court. They are challenging a 2008 law that would require them to pass a history test. They say it violates free speech. It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And now to what we consider art. From Egypt, a major exhibit in this country is going home. The King Tut exhibit has been here five-and-a-half years in eight cities, and has received nearly eight million visitors. A specially designed museum is going up in Egypt and will permanently house the gilded treasures of the boy king.
MONTAGNE: spectacle, art and archeology.
Jesse Baker has our report.
JESSE BAKER: The ancient Egyptians believed if your name lived on after you died, then you would enjoy eternal life. If they're right, King Tut is a pretty spry 3,000-year-old. King Tut is a phenomenon and a cultural touchstone.
Stephen Colbert's top story of 2010 was the pharaoh's missing metaphoric royal jewels.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE COLBERT REPORT")
MONTAGNE: So what could this Egyptian treasure be? Well, it turns out Princess Scota was the half sister of King Tut. Oh, my Ra.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BAKER: King Tut provoked laughter even 30 years ago. This is Steve Martin's homage.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KING TUT")
MONTAGNE: (Singing) Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia, King Tut.
BAKER: Now, for a few more days, some of Egypt's most prized and promoted possessions can be found in the heart of Manhattan's Times Square, tucked between the Broadway production of "Spider-Man" and the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
BAKER: You are sealed into a tomb-like room to start the exhibit and shown a short film narrated by Omar Sharif. The film ends. Doors to the gallery open into darkness. The only light you see is that illuminating a statue of a boy. This is your introduction to King Tut.
(SOUNDBITE OF KING TUT EXHIBIT FILM)
MONTAGNE: Come face to face with the boy king, the ruler, the commander, Tutankhamen.
BAKER: Consider seven-year-old Cordelia Zawaraski unimpressed. She came to see one thing.
MONTAGNE: The mummy.
BAKER: What did it look like?
MONTAGNE: How do I know? It's not open.
BAKER: Not only is Tut's mummy not open, to be honest, it's not really on display here in New York. Instead, the exhibit features a life-sized, 3D replica based on CT scans of the actual mummy. Tut's real remains have never left the Valley of the Kings.
There are twice as many artifacts on display here than in the landmark King Tut Exhibit in the late 1970s.
MONTAGNE: When the exhibition toured in the '70s, Egypt saw very little money from that very, very successful exhibition.
BAKER: That's Mark Lach, senior vice president of Arts and Exhibitions International. That's the organization that collaborated with the Egyptian government to bring King Tut back to the U.S.
So basically, what was billed in the 1970s as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and displayed for a few bucks, 30-some years later become a twice-in-a-lifetime opportunity and charged 29.50 a ticket.
MONTAGNE: I think bringing the exhibition here to the United States to raise funds for Egypt was a very important part of the reasoning to bring the exhibit1ion to the United States.
BAKER: Tut and his golden entourage will return to Egypt having earned about $80 million. The money will be spread around. Some will aid the preservation of Egyptian temples and monuments. But the majority will pay for the construction of The Grand Egyptian Museum - the final, final resting place for the Boy King's treasures. No more traveling exhibits, we're told.
New Yorker Michael Gold said he was happy to get in just under the wire.
MONTAGNE: And I had a lot of these things in my house. I wanted to come to see the real things, you know. Thank goodness I came to see it before it disappeared. I couldn't wait another 40 years.
BAKER: There's one more stop on the king's comeback tour in Melbourne, Australia, as the relics await completion of the museum in Giza.
For NPR News, I'm Jesse Baker.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
So that's the latest thinking on a common childhood ailment, and now we're going to explore a scientific question that's more geared toward the elderly: how to make better artificial bones and teeth.
A tiny marine creature might hold the key here. This unexpected possibility comes from a relatively new branch of science called biomaterials. These are materials inspired by what animals and plants make. As NPR's Joe Palca reports, before you can copy what animals do, you have to understand how they do it.
JOE PALCA: If you think about it, it's rather remarkable that creatures with squishy insides like oysters and clams can make rock hard shells and creatures with squishy insides like us can make bones and teeth.
Derk Joester of Northwestern University is interested in how soft things make hard things, so he studies the chiton.
DERK JOESTER: The chiton is a sea creature. It belongs to the mollusks, the bivalves - so the clams and the snails belong to.
PALCA: Chitons are small, rather flat, and oval in shape. The chiton Joester studies is called Chaetopleura apiculata, and it has a rather odd way of getting a meal.
JOESTER: This particular organism literally chews rock in order to feed.
PALCA: It grinds down rock to get at algae and other food particles that might be sandwiched in the rock.
JOESTER: And for that it needs incredibly tough and hard teeth.
PALCA: In fact, Joester says, chiton teeth are one of the hardest and toughest materials known in nature.
JOESTER: They also have a very particular structure that allows them to self-sharpen to a certain degree.
PALCA: A trick Joester would like to be able to replicate in the lab.
JOESTER: Imagine, you know, a knife that keeps its edge forever.
PALCA: But before you can contemplate making such a thing in the lab, you need to know how the chiton does it.
JOESTER: For that we're using one of the most powerful microscopes, the so-called atom probe.
PALCA: He focuses this microscope at the place where the soft organic molecules of the chiton's innards are shaping the rock-hard inorganic minerals of the chiton's teeth.
JOESTER: The microscope really works by plucking a sample apart.
PALCA: Essentially one atom at a time. As he reports in the journal Nature, Joester says they're now getting a better handle on how the chiton uses organic proteins to form tiny pockets that the hard inorganic minerals grow into to make sharp, hard teeth.
Laura Estroff is impressed.
LAURA ESTROFF: This is an unprecedented level of detail.
PALCA: Estroff is a professor of materials science and engineering at Cornell University. When material scientists try to make things in the lab, they frequently have to resort to high temperatures and extreme pressures to force materials into useful shapes. And yet Estroff says the chiton is able to make its remarkable teeth in regular old seawater and with no special equipment. That's why they're worth studying.
Estroff says the key to understanding how they do it is where the soft and hard parts come together.
ESTROFF: Anywhere from mollusk shells to teeth to bone, there's always an organic scaffold upon which the inorganic crystals get grown.
PALCA: She says Joester's atom probe microscope gives a detailed picture of how those scaffolds form.
ESTROFF: What's really cool about this is not only do they image it, but they get composition information as they image it.
PALCA: And that should help scientists take what they learn from how chitons and other creatures make remarkable structures such as shells and teeth and use that to make new biomaterials in the lab.
Derk Joester says it's not all that surprising that primitive creatures like chitons have developed some clever tricks, such as making self-sharpening teeth.
JOESTER: Nature has had 500-odd million years of a head start in product development. And so they have been able to find some really creative and efficient solutions to engineering problems.
PALCA: Engineering problems such as making a better artificial hip joint or a better dental implant.
And if that doesn't work, creating the truly self-sharpening knife would probably be a top seller on late-night television.
Joe Palca, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
To hear Vice President Joe Biden tell it, American troops in Afghanistan have arrested the momentum of the Taliban insurgency. Biden was just there. He also said that U.S. troops would start leaving as Afghan troop numbers build up. To help make that happen, American commanders in Afghanistan are pushing for the rapid creation of local community police forces. Of course, that means creating yet another armed group in a fractured country.
NPR's Quil Lawrence is traveling with American soldiers in the eastern province of Ghazni.
QUIL LAWRENCE: About 100 miles south of Kabul, Ghazni province is a world away from the capital. The province is mostly Pashtun. On election day last year, Taliban threats kept voters away from the few polling stations considered safe enough to open. One hundred ten thousand people live here in Andar district. Exactly three of them went to cast a vote.
(SOUNDBITE OF POUNDING)
LAWRENCE: The soldiers of 3rd Battalion, 187th infantry, travel everywhere outside their tiny fort in titanic, mine-resistant trucks. For the four months they've been here in Andar district, they've skirmished almost every day. Lieutenant Colonel David Fivecoat speaks of the enemy in personal terms.
DAVID FIVECOAT: After four months of tough fighting, we've attrited his capabilities and have begun the slow process of every counterinsurgency of turning the control back over to the government.
LAWRENCE: But it's not the first time NATO troops have tried to take back Andar District from the Taliban, and it's not the second time. In 2006, the U.S. Army's Operation Mountain Fury was supposed to clear Ghazni province. So were sporadic raids in 2007. U.S. soldiers from the 187th got here in September, replacing Polish NATO soldiers. But now the strategy is different.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHICKENS CLUCKING)
LAWRENCE: Chickens scatter in the yard, as Captain Aaron T. Schwengler and a platoon of B Company soldiers enter the farmyard of a village elder, in a hamlet called Bangi. With soldiers on the roof keeping watch, Schwengler takes off his helmet and sits on the ground for tea.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)
AARON T: We appreciate the hospitality, having us here in Bangi. It's always nice to come here, because we don't get shot at. And I appreciate that.
Unidentified Man #1: (Foreign language spoken)
LAWRENCE: Schwengler isn't joking, and the elders don't laugh. He can't say that about many villages in the district. Bangi is close enough to Bravo Company's base that the Taliban shy away from it. Schwengler has promised money to rebuild irrigation canals in the village, and he's asked about building a school here - which Bangi hasn't had since the 1970s. But he wants something in return.
SCHWENGLER: President Karzai, along with the leaders of the coalition forces, have developed a program called the community watch program.
LAWRENCE: Schwengler is hoping to recruit, pay and arm a squad of the new community watch program. The program has changed its name several times since summer, but it's based on the one in Iraq that helped turn the tide against al- Qaida. B Company has been canvassing the local villages, hoping to get elders to come to their base for a shura, a council, to start forming the village guard.
MUHAMMAD: (Foreign language spoken)
LAWRENCE: One village elder, Muhammad, says he agrees with everything that Captain Schwengler and the local district governor want to do, and he promises to come to the shura to discuss it.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)
LAWRENCE: But two days later, shura day, it's only the two elders from Bangi who turn up at the base. Schwengler says the other villages are too scared to show.
SCHWENGLER: The Taliban come in after we did and told them not to support the shura and not to show up.
LAWRENCE: Even the elders from Bangi have reservations about the program.
MUHAMMAD: (Foreign language spoken)
LAWRENCE: We tried that program during the Russian occupation, says Muhammad, and when we armed people, they went and joined the insurgency.
The elders leave the base with a promise to consider it, especially if other villages go first.
SCHWENGLER: And if one village does it, others will follow. It's just a matter of that one village being brave enough, and do it successfully.
LAWRENCE: Captain Schwengler got some more encouraging news the following day. A few dozen elders did meet with the captain off base and at the invitation of the district governor. They started talking about setting up a community watch, but no one has signed up yet.
Quil Lawrence, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
When it comes to children and ear infections, there's some new thinking. For years, medical researchers have tried to convince doctors not to use antibiotics to treat ear infections in children. Now two new studies turned that advice on its head. They say young children with ear infections should get antibiotics, and right away.
NPR's Richard Knox reports.
RICHARD KNOX: Nothing sends more kids to the doctor than middle ear infections, and nothing causes doctors to write more prescriptions for antibiotics.
DAVID SPIRO: The scope of this is huge. We prescribe approximately 13 million prescriptions every years for ear infections - 13 million.
KNOX: David Spiro of Oregon Health Sciences University says that's a real problem.
Many researchers say kids don't need antibiotics because their ear infections usually get better on their own, and antibiotic resistance is a really big problem. The more antibiotics doctors prescribe, the more germs change to avoid getting killed.
Spiro says a wait-and-see approach works. He did a study where parents got a prescription with instructions to hold off on the medicine for 48 hours.
SPIRO: We found that children in the wait-and-see group, parents did not fill the prescription approximately two-thirds of the time.
KNOX: And the earaches went away anyway.
Six years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics made it official. They told doctors it's OK to adopt the wait-and-see approach. Even so, only about 20 percent of doctors have adopted it, mostly because parents and doctors want kids to get immediate relief from earache pain.
Now the highly regarded New England Journal of Medicine is publishing two studies that overturn wait and see. One is from the United States, the other from Finland. The studies looked at more than 600 children with middle ear infections.
Dr. Alejandro Hoberman of the University of Pittsburgh says half of the kids were given immediate antibiotic treatment and half got a placebo.
ALEJANDRO HOBERMAN: More young children with an ear infection recover more quickly when given the right antibiotic.
KNOX: That is, given the right antibiotic with no delay.
Hoberman says he did this study because he thinks things had gone too far with the wait-and-see approach.
HOBERMAN: What these studies are going to do is swing the pendulum to where it needs to be.
KNOX: Dr. Jerome Klein of Boston University says the new studies ought to settle the debate.
JEROME KLEIN: These studies are about as good as one could get in settling the question.
KNOX: But Klein says the new research may not persuade doctors who strongly support the wait-and-see approach. Some worry the result of the new studies will be more antibiotic resistance.
But Hoberman thinks resistance can be limited if doctors are careful to prescribe antibiotics only for children who truly have ear infections. That means getting a good look at the sick child's eardrum. If it's bulging outward, he says, that almost always means there's a bacterial infection in the middle ear. Hoberman says parents can help the doctor make a good diagnosis.
HOBERMAN: When they are told that your child may have or has an ear infection, it's OK to ask how bulging is the eardrum.
KNOX: He admits it's not easy for doctors to get a good look at the eardrum of a squirming infant or toddler who's got a painful earache. But with a couple of people to help hold the child down and then give plenty of hugs, it can be done.
Richard Knox, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
On a Thursday morning, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
We're going to hear now about a Republican push to get more of the Hispanic vote. Those voters have heavily favored Democratic candidates in most recent elections. One exception was President George W. Bush, who was seen as a friend to Hispanics and did relatively well with those voters. Today his brother is among the Republican leaders launching a new effort in Miami to reach out to this fastest-growing group in America.
NPR's Mara Liasson reports.
MARA LIASSON: Hispanic Republican candidates had some big successes in November. Marco Rubio was elected to the Senate in Florida. Brian Sandoval and Susanna Martinez won the governorships of Nevada and New Mexico. But Republicans overall still lost the Hispanic vote nationwide by about 2-1, not much different from the results in 2008. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush wants to change that.
JEB BUSH: The challenge, though, is that we have a situation right now where Republicans send out signals that Hispanics aren't wanted in our party, not by policy so much as by tone.
LIASSON: But it's more than just the tone. It's one issue in particular. Alfonso Aguilar is the executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles and a participant in today's conference.
ALFONSO AGUILAR: Latinos are inherently conservative. They're socially conservative, they are entrepreneurial. They're pro-business. Immigration is that one issue that prevents us from winning the support of Latino voters.
LIASSON: The last attempt at immigration reform in Congress - a bill that would've allowed young people brought here illegally as children to become citizens if they enrolled in college or the military - got only eight Republican votes in the House and three in the Senate. Immigration activist Frank Sharry says that shows how much has changed since George W. Bush tried to pass a law that would've provided a path to legalization for undocumented workers.
FRANK SHARRY: Republicans have lurched to the right since Jeb Bush's brother made a heroic attempt to pass comprehensive immigration reform back in 2007. Clearly there's a tremendous fear among Republicans that primary challenges will result from being centrist on immigration. It's cost them with the fastest-growing group of new voters in the country - Latinos - for whom immigration has become a defining issue.
LIASSON: Even though anti-immigrant voices seem to getting louder inside the GOP, Jeb Bush is convinced they do not speak for most on the right.
BUSH: That view is in the minority, even in the Republican Party. But I think if you got to the point where legitimate emotional concerns about the lack of border security and the lack of rule of law, once those issues subsided, then you would find a great majority of people that would support some solution to the large number of people that are here illegally.
LIASSON: Bush isn't the only one trying to solve this problem. Newt Gingrich, a potential presidential candidate and a thought leader inside the party, talks about creating a zone between amnesty and mass deportation. Columnist Ruben Navarrette, who's also speaking at the conference in Miami, says there is a new conversation going on beneath the surface in the GOP, particularly when it comes to the push by some Republicans to repeal the 14th Amendment in order to deny birthright citizenship to children born to undocumented parents.
RUBEN NAVARRETTE: They're not fools. They realize that there are those places where they can overplay their hand. And I think the 14th Amendment change is a perfect example of a bridge too far. It's poison. You play with that and I am never ever going to be able to go before a group of Hispanic women, OK, mothers - madres and tias - and convince them that the Republican Party isn't anything but a bunch of ogres.
LIASSON: Another small but encouraging sign to Alfonso Aguilar is the decision to deny Iowa Congressman Steve King the chairmanship of the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee. King is one of the party's most strident voices on the issue.
AGUILAR: To me the message is, Steve King, you're too loud and you're saying things that are very offensive. We don't want to see that. That's a very good first step: reject the ugly rhetoric. The question now is, can Republicans propose the immigration solutions that go beyond enforcement only? And if we do, Hispanics will respond very favorably.
LIASSON: If Republicans can't go beyond enforcement only, says Ruben Navarrettte, the GOP is doomed as a national party.
NAVARRETTE: Demographics do not lie. They will never again elect a Republican president if they don't get this right in short order, because Hispanics are increasing in population at a rate where they're going to wipe away everything else.
LIASSON: Hispanics are expected to reach 30 percent of the population by 2050. And speaking of Republican presidents, Frank Sharry points out that only one potential GOP candidate - former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty - is attending the conference in Miami this week.
SHARRY: Republicans are flummoxed on how to talk about this issue in a way that doesn't incite the base against them and that reaches out to Latinos and says I get you. The only person in the Republican Party who did that successfully was George W. Bush. And he won that coveted threshold of 40 percent of the Latino vote in 2004 that powered his way to reelection.
LIASSON: And that is the cold hard math of the GOP's problem. In 2012, they need to find a way to win more than 40 percent of the Hispanic vote, and not just in Florida, but in other swing states like Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.
Mara Liasson, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And we go now to the wind-swept high altitude planes of Bolivia, known as the Altiplano. A food grown there has long been a staple in Bolivia, and is now increasingly popular in the U.S. It's called quinoa. It's high in protein and iron and its recent embrace abroad has pushed up the price of quinoa. In Bolivia it now sells for seven times what it did just a decade ago. Reporter Annie Murphy has more.
ANNIE MURPHY: The Bolivian Altiplano doesn't look like good farmland. It doesn't even look fertile.
Everything here is covered in bleached-out scrub and rocks. It's a really barren landscape. There are just a few llamas grazing and some whirls of dust.
But this seemingly hostile environment has ideal conditions for quinoa. It's about two miles above sea level, sandy and arid. The nearby Uyuni salt flat provides the right minerals. And dung from herds of grazing llamas and sheep mean good fertilizer.
Farmer Ernesto Choquetopa admires the soil. He says quinoa's recent popularity is changing farmers' lives.
MONTAGNE: (Foreign language spoken)
MURPHY: Before people didn't go to study, he says. They were born, they grew up, and that was it. They went on to herd sheep and llamas. Nothing more. Now people here, he says, we think about doing something with our lives. Thanks to his earnings from quinoa, Choquetopa's oldest daughter is now at university, studying medicine. And area farmers are increasingly turning to quinoa.
Dark green quinoa plants stretch before us in long, spindly rows. They have cone-shaped flowers, filled with edible seeds and look like a cross between broccoli and lupines. Once ready for harvest, they'll turn gold, deep red, even purple.
Choquetopa is part of an association of organic farmers, and his harvest will go to their processing plant.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINE IN PROCESSING PLANT)
MURPHY: Here it's cleaned, rinsed, packaged, and bought by exporters like Fabricio Nunez, general manager of Andean Organics which sources quinoa to places like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: Andean Naturals, not Andean Organics]
MONTAGNE: Once we promoted it and the product was on the shelves, it really started flying off the shelves. People are still looking more and more and more for quinoa and we're not able to supply it as fast as they want it.
MURPHY: But for all the health benefits and the way sales support farmers, popularity abroad is raising prices and gradually making it harder for Bolivians to buy quinoa. Nunez says a few years ago, 16 ounces of Andean Organics quinoa retailed for $2.00 at Trader Joe's. Now it's $4.00. And if prices keep climbing, quinoa could stop showing up in traditional soups and porridges in Bolivia.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR PASSING)
MURPHY: But, on this street corner in downtown La Paz, quinoa remains a popular breakfast. The delicate, curly seeds are served with hot milk and sugar, as a thick drink.
(SOUNDBITE OF LIQUID POURING)
MURPHY: And at about 30 cents for an eight-ounce cup, it's still cheap even by Bolivian standards. The Bolivian government is backing quinoa, supporting loans to small farmers, and promoting internal consumption by giving rations to pregnant women and young children. Doctor Margarita Flores works for Bolivia's Ministry of Health, and oversees the program.
D: (Foreign language spoken)
MURPHY: Flores says that a drop in production would worry the government, because Bolivia has obligations at home and abroad to produce quinoa and because it's part of the country's strategy to fight malnutrition.
The challenge is striking a balance. In spite of growing prosperity, many quinoa farmers are concerned about the environment. In Ernesto Choquetapo's community, people who use chemical fertilizers or uproot native grasses around quinoa fields are fined, or even punished.
MONTAGNE: (Foreign language spoken)
MURPHY: We want to keep the production sustainable, he says. We don't want to exploit every bit of it. This piece of earth has to support our kids and grandchildren, too.
For NPR News, I'm Annie Murphy in Bolivia.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Now let's talk about the cold hard math of taxes.
Illinois lawmakers have voted to drastically increase the state's income tax. Supporters of the move say it's necessary to help produce the state's estimated $15 billion budget deficit, and Governor Pat Quinn has promised to sign it.
NPR's David Schaper reports.
DAVID SCHAPER: Illinois is a fiscal mess. The budget crisis here is considered the worst in the nation. The state is months behind in paying its bills, and it's not just venders and social service agencies waiting to be paid, but schools and local governments too.
The state's been borrowing so much and racking up such a huge debt that Illinois' credit rating is now tied with California as the lowest in the country.
Calling his state a fiscal house on fire, Democratic Governor Pat Quinn says in order to keep Illinois from becoming fiscally insolvent, the state's residents and businesses need to pay higher taxes.
PAT QUINN: It's important for the state government not to be a fiscal basket case.
SCHAPER: So in the waning moments of a lame duck session early Wednesday, with Quinn's backing but no Republican support and not a single vote to spare, Illinois lawmakers voted to raise the state's personal income tax rate from three percent to five and the corporate tax from 4.8 percent to seven.
QUINN: The concept here is this is a temporary income tax to deal with the immediate fiscal emergency our state faces.
SCHAPER: The income tax increase would raise close to $7 billion a year, and it caps some state spending. But the new revenue alone won't close Illinois' gaping budget hole, and Illinois Republicans blast majority Democrats for not including significant spending cuts.
In the heated floor debate, Republican State Senator Kyle McCarter said the tax hike will kill jobs and cripple businesses in Illinois, with one exception.
KYLE MCCARTER: Here's an investment tip for you: Put your money in moving vans. It'll be in high demand.
SCHAPER: Already the Republican governors of Wisconsin and Indiana are using Illinois' tax increase as a marketing tool to try to lure Illinois businesses across the border.
QUINN: Well, lots of luck to them, but that's not going to happen.
SCHAPER: An unconcerned Illinois Governor Quinn points out that Wisconsin's income tax rates remains much higher than Illinois'. But that doesn't make this whopping tax increase of almost 67 percent any easier for Illinois residents to swallow, even among those waiting in line to meet Governor Quinn at an open house at the governor's mansion after his inauguration earlier this week.
ANITA STRAUTMANIS: I think there's a lot that needs to be cleaned up first. Then we should talk about raising the, you know, raising the income tax.
SCHAPER: Anita Strautmanis of the Chicago suburb of Deerfield wants to see spending cuts and fixes for the state's pension problems. And as for this tax increase being temporary...
STRAUTMANIS: I don't believe that. Once you raise something, it doesn't go down.
SCHAPER: But others are willing to pay more to end Illinois' perennial budget crises, including Southern Illinoisan Billie Henderson.
BILLIE HENDERSON: I think that would generate a lot of revenue for Illinois. And I think, you know, we've been in trouble for so long, I think it's our responsibility to help get the state back on its feet.
SCHAPER: Illinois' income tax increase is retroactive to January 1st, meaning by the time the governor signs it and the revenue department begins collecting, that first paycheck deduction could be quite large.
David Schaper, NPR News, in Springfield, Illinois.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Let's catch up now on the fight over a historic high school in Detroit. Cass Technical High School was closed six years ago after a new school was built next door. The old building produced an impressive roster of alumni - ranging from the carmaker John Delorean and actress Ellen Burstyn to singer Diana Ross and jazz bassist Ron Carter. Some Cass Tech alumni are now trying to save the building, even as wrecking crews have begun to do their work. From Detroit, reporter Chris McCarus has the story.
CHRIS MCCARUS: Cass Tech's architectural style is called industrial gothic. It's eight stories of gray brick, limestone and marble. For 90 years, as many as 4,000 students at a time attended school in the building. One of them was comedian and actress Lily Tomlin.
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LILY TOMLIN: (As Ernestine) One ringy dingy. Two ringy - oh, gracious. Good afternoon.
MCCARUS: Tomlin says Cass Tech made a lasting impression on her.
TOMLIN: It was a very special school. You know, it could have been anything - housing or anything. I don't why they demolish these places to make a parking lot.
MCCARUS: From where architect Michael Poris is standing, you can see the new Cass Tech building that opened in 2005. But he fixes his gaze instead on the arches of the old building next door. School officials never fenced it off or boarded it up, and so vandals have had their way with it. But with the roar of I-75 in the background, Poris says it's still structurally sound and should be redeveloped.
MICHAEL PORIS: You could create an art center for artists in Detroit, which we have a lot of.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MCCARUS: Cass turned out two Miss USA's and notable scientists, business leaders and musicians too numerous to list. One contemporary one is Jack White of the group The White Stripes.
JACK WHITE: I played marimba on one of my albums. And I learned how to play marimba in a class at that school. They had a marimba there and we were expected to learn a scale on it.
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WHITE: Going to school there at age 14 was like all of a sudden you were going to Harvard or something. It seemed like you were going to college.
MCCARUS: But nostalgia for high school hasn't translated into keeping Cass Tech from the wrecking ball. City officials announced this week that they would close half of the Detroit public schools, in part because of a school budget deficit topping $325 million. But they're still ready to pay at least three million to tear down Cass Tech. Tammy Deane says administrators just don't want to be responsible for it anymore.
TAMMY DEANE: Cass Tech is a different story because it is right next to an open school with our kids in it. Our kids have to walk past it every day. We've got it constantly being vandalized, constantly being broken into. It's a safety issue.
RAY LITT: This whole business of clearing up this eyesore and being concerned about the safety of our students because of the shape of the building I think is being used as an excuse.
MCCARUS: That's Ray Litt, who graduated from Cass in 1948. Walking over broken glass inside the building, he's been its unofficial caretaker since it was abandoned.
Demolition crews are using generators to help rip out the materials and equipment still left inside. Litt has been trying to rally the 60,000 alumni for money and ideas. There is one developer, though, who appears interested in saving the old Cass Tech.
RICHARD BARON: You could do a number of things there.
MCCARUS: That's Richard Baron, a native Detroiter now based in St. Louis.
BARON: The question is how to pull together enough folks and generate enough interest that the decision to preserve it is the most important thing.
MCCARUS: Richard Baron flew to Detroit yesterday. He's prospecting for tenants and trying to raise the $150 million it would take to redevelop Detroit schools' most famous building.
For NPR News, I'm Chris McCarus.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
When President Obama came to Tucson last night, thousands of people filled a basketball arena. Thousands more spilled over into a nearby football stadium, and a nation was listening after the killings of six people and the wounding of a member of Congress.
The president said he'd come to pray with the crowd, and after the shooting, which happened at a political gathering, the president called on Americans to treat each other more civilly.
We begin our coverage with NPR White House correspondent Ari Shapiro.
ARI SHAPIRO: President Obama went first to the hospital where Congresswoman Giffords and other victims who survived Saturday's shooting are recovering. The motorcade passed a woman holding a sign that thanked the Obamas and said: Tucson is hurting.
University of Arizona student Greg McCormick was waiting for a glimpse of the president, and waiting to hear what he'd say at the memorial service.
GREG MCCORMICK: It's definitely about leadership. It's moments like this that actually pull our country together, and who better to be at the center of that than the president of the United States of America?
SHAPIRO: But the president began his speech by saying tonight I'm just one of you.
BARACK OBAMA: I have come here tonight as an American who, like all Americans, kneels to pray with you today and will stand by you tomorrow.
SHAPIRO: He described in detail the lives of those who died last Saturday: community volunteers, retirees, husbands, wives, a federal judge, and nine- year-old Christina Taylor Green.
OBAMA: Our hearts are broken by their sudden passing. Our hearts are broken - and yet our hearts also have reason for fullness.
SHAPIRO: He talked about the people who survived the shooting, those like Congresswoman Giffords, who are fighting to recover, and the heroes who helped save them. One of those saviors spoke earlier in the program. Twenty-year-old Daniel Hernandez was an intern for Giffords. He rushed to her side after she was shot in the head. Yesterday he said: Save the title of hero for others.
DANIEL HERNANDEZ: I thank you for this opportunity but I say we must reject the title of hero and reserve it for those who deserve it, and those who deserve it are the public servants and the first responders and the people who have made sure that they have dedicated their life to taking care of others.
SHAPIRO: President Obama would not allow it.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: And Daniel, I'm sorry, you may deny it, but we've decided you are a hero because you ran through the chaos to minister to your boss, and tended to her wounds and helped keep her alive.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE AND CHEERING)
SHAPIRO: Mr. Obama said the actions of those who lived and who died last Saturday are a challenge to everyone to be a better person.
OBAMA: If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let's make sure it's worthy of those we have lost.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SHAPIRO: After a long sustained applause, President Obama completed the thought.
OBAMA: Let's make sure it's not on the usual plane of politics and point scoring and pettiness that drifts away in the next news cycle.
SHAPIRO: It's a version of the plea Mr. Obama has been making ever since he was a senator, to disagree without being disagreeable. His argument last night was: Don't do it because I told you to. Do it because those who died would have wanted you to.
OBAMA: We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another, that's entirely up to us.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: And I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
SHAPIRO: In the audience, at least for the moment, it seemed as though it could be true. The front rows were full of lawmakers and judges, Republicans and Democrats, who are often at each other's throats. But on this night there was no visible hostility among them. The president ended his memorial speech by saying he believes in this idealized dream of America because a child like Christina Taylor Green believed in it. She served on her student council. She valued public service. And last Saturday morning she wanted to meet her congresswoman.
OBAMA: I want to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it. All of us - we should do everything we can to do to make sure this country lives up to our children's expectations.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE AND CHEERING)
SHAPIRO: As the stadium cameras panned across the crowd, the large screens overhead showed people in the audience wiping away tears.
Ari Shapiro, NPR News, travelling with the president.
TED ROBBINS: This is Ted Robbins. If that was the most moving moment of the memorial, this, for the crowd, was the most thrilling.
BARACK OBAMA: Her husband Mark is here and he allows me to share this with you. Right after we went to visit, a few minutes after we left her room and some of her colleagues from Congress were in the room, Gabby opened her eyes for the first time.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Gabby opened her eyes for the first time.
ROBBINS: She opened her eyes and tried to focus. Her husband, Mark, asked her to give a thumbs up if she could see. Instead, Gabrielle Giffords raised her entire arm.
Her long-time campaign chairman, Michael McNulty, was overwhelmed by the news.
MICHAEL MCNULTY: We all were so worried that she wasn't going to make it last weekend, that there's little glimmers of hope that happen day after day after day, it's sort of biblical. It's just amazing to see her come back.
ROBBINS: Another of Giffords' aides, Mark Kimble, said the president's visit itself eased some pain.
MARK KIMBLE: It's very difficult to keep doing this, to keep working day after day, but he really, I thought, inspired us and comforted us a tremendous amount.
ROBBINS: The city of Tucson has been haunted by last Saturday's events. Last night, one man in the audience knew firsthand what it's like to keep going after coming face to face with a killer. Roger Sulzgeber is one of three people who tackled the accused gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, and kept him from firing again. Sulzgeber says this is the first time he's told his story publicly.
ROGER SULZGEBER: I had my knee on that artery that runs down behind your ear to your shoulder, and I had his arm twisted behind my - his back. And I'd never been that close to killing someone, but I didn't.
ROBBINS: And for Sulzgeber, the memorial service was a way to lift some darkness from that memory.
SULZGEBER: This whole thing here was kind of the flipside of that to me, which was really a good thing.
ROBBINS: The hugs and the tears seemed to lift everyone's mood, and especially the president's talk of healing and civility. Bob Wallace teaches philosophy at the University of Arizona. Cathy Coosminoff(ph) is his wife.
CATHY COOSMINOFF: He inspired us to respectfully disagree.
BOB WALLACE: Widen the circle of concern, he said.
KUZMANOFF: Yeah.
WALLACE: Absolutely right.
KUZMANOFF: It was wonderful.
WALLACE: Everybody counts.
ROBBINS: The University of Arizona's McKale Center Arena was filled. Thousands more sat in the cold in the football stadium and watched the ceremony on a big screen TV.
I caught Britney Galati walking home with two friends. She's a student at the university.
BRITNEY GALATI: After watching that, I really feel that, you know, the message was sent out to everyone and everyone seemed to support it.
ROBBINS: It's true, many of those who went to the memorial were Obama supporters, but Republicans and independents as well as Democrats seemed to embrace the president's message last night. Now, says Tucson's mayor, Republican Bob Walkup, the challenge is to act on the sentiment.
BOB WALKUP: How do we get everybody to come together and start making good things happen, is really the speech that he was giving us. And as I walk around and talk to people, they're waiting for - they're waiting for us to...
ROBBINS: As leaders?
WALKUP: As leaders, to figure out what is the next thing we're going to do.
ROBBINS: Walkup suggested mayors across the country could get together, organize, and promote civility in their cities. It's a start, he said.
Ted Robbins, NPR News, Tucson.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's business news starts with foreclosure numbers that are grim.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: The number of homes seized by banks last year topped one million, according to the foreclosure research firm RealtyTrac. And the number would have been higher, says RealtyTrac, if not for the robo-signing scandal that came to light last fall. That prompted many banks to halt or delay foreclosure proceedings. Those delays could spill over into this year. Foreclosures are expected to be even higher, as banks continue processing millions of delinquent home loans.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Today the Obama administration is rolling out a plan to help small companies export more. It's part of the administration's plan to double American exports by 2015.
NPR's Brett Neely reports.
BRETT NEELY: One of the key players in this plan is a little-known government agency. The Export-Import Bank of the United States - that's Exim Bank for short - gives loan guarantees to American companies selling their goods abroad. The Exim Bank plans to double its support for small businesses to $9 billion by 2015. With the help of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several large banks, including HSBC and Wells Fargo, the Exim Bank will promote its loan guarantees to small businesses across the country.
Exim Bank president Fred Hochberg says the program pays for itself.
FRED HOCHBERG: We charge a fee for the loans and the fees cover all of our administrative costs, all of our loan losses, so this is done at absolutely no cost to the taxpayer whatsoever. We are totally and completely self-sustaining.
NEELY: The bank helped small businesses get $4.5 billion worth of loans in 2009. But that's less than a quarter of the $21 billion the bank supported that year.
Georgetown economist Michael Czinkota says the bank traditionally supports big companies.
MICHALE CZINKOTA: It's easier to finance the sale of an airplane, let's say a Boeing jet, as a one transaction than financing 50 transactions with smaller sized firms.
NEELY: With unemployment still high, the administration hopes more exports by U.S. firms will also translate into more jobs.
Brett Neely, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
President Obama has other plans for business. He may try to overhaul the way companies are taxed.
To find out more, we turn to David Wessel. He's economics editor of The Wall Street Journal and a frequent guest on our program.
Good morning, David.
DAVID WESSEL: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: What exactly is the White House considering?
WESSEL: The administration is talking about proposing some pretty far- reaching changes to the way we tax business. Basically they want to lower the 35 percent corporate tax rate, which is one of the highest in the world, and pay for it by closing loopholes, eliminating deductions, and wiping out credits that have been crafted by Congress to encourage businesses to do things that Congress thinks business should do.
If the president proceeds, he's likely to insist that any changes raise as much money as the existing corporate tax does. It raised about 190 billion last year, a little less than usual, because the economy was so lousy.
MONTAGNE: Well, what would that mean? I mean if it's going to raise money to reduce the deficit, is that part of the issue or is it about cutting the money that corporations pay in taxes so in theory they will create jobs?
WESSEL: Actually neither. It's kind of a good question. What's the point of going through all the hassle of getting a bill like this through Congress if it isn't going to raise money to reduce the deficit and it isn't going to cut the overall amount of money that businesses pay in taxes?
And the idea is this, that over the past quarter century, the corporate tax has grown some barnacles. Some of them were crafted to encourage investment, others were narrow provisions with little economic merit, and so it has a very high sticker price. But many companies actually pay less than the sticker price. It represents a shrinking share of federal revenues. So what the president's going to say if he goes ahead with this is to say, we can make the system more efficient, we can make America more competitive, people won't have to spend so much time trying to figure out how to navigate around the loopholes and byways of the corporate tax. And he'll say that it's going to increase economic growth in the long run.
Now, the truth be told, it probably won't do much to increase economic growth, at least that's what economists say. But it's one of the few options on the table that the president can use that is kind of free, because he can make the corporate taxes to more efficient, make businesses work better without costing a lot of money.
MONTAGNE: And what does the business community think about this?
WESSEL: Well, the business community is divided because for every dollar one company saves, another company will have to pay another dollar in taxes. The winners are going to be happy, the losers won't be. The question is whether enough of them think it's a good deal for them and whether the flexibility and simplification or some of the other changes that come along with it might be in their interest.
For instance, the U.S is the only major economy in the world that tries to tax multinational companies on their worldwide profits, not just the profits made at home. Japan and the UK recently gave up with that and that's kind of unsustainable, and businesses would like to see that changed. If that's part of the deal, they'd be much more willing to come along with it.
MONTAGNE: So what are the chances Obama can pull this off?
WESSEL: Well, it's really too early to say. Secretary Geithner of the Treasury is meeting with a dozen or so corporate CFOs this week to talk about it. A number of Republicans have expressed interest in it. All signs are the president is going to propose something, perhaps in the State of the Union. He won't, though, spell out exactly which deductions he's going to get rid of, just sort of put down the idea of doing revenue and neutral tax reform. But it's a long shot, because any reform that is revenue neutral, meaning there is a loser for every winner, begins with the odds running against it.
MONTAGNE: David, thanks very much.
WESSEL: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: David Wessel is economics editor of the Wall Street Journal.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And today's last word in business is: you've got junk mail.
The U.S. Postal Service just made it easier for companies to blanket your neighborhood with junk mail. Starting this year, marketers no longer have to provide exact addresses when they send out flyers or letters or other junk on a designated route. They only need to write the words postal customer, and the post office will deliver it to - whoever. The change is aimed at helping smaller businesses who now don't have to buy expensive mailing lists and address every envelope.
The Postal Service also hopes to bring in more business and keep snail mail growing as companies increasingly shift their marketing to the Internet.
And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
On the same evening that Americans paused to remember six dead in Tucson, people in Haiti paused to remember the deaths of thousands.
INSKEEP: One year after an earthquake, it's estimated that one million people are living amid rubble. They're living in tents. It was all too easy to look around and remember the disaster.
MONTAGNE: Haitian leaders are telling residents to have patience, and that's exactly the quality that for many people is running out.
NPR's Carrie Kahn begins our coverage.
CARRIE KAHN: At 4:53 yesterday afternoon, Haiti stood still. It was a moment to remember that same time a year ago, when everything moved.
JUNIOR LOUHA: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: Junior Louha says he was sitting in front of his work, a carpentry shop, when everything began to shake. His first instinct was to run back inside the shop, but the walls began to crumble. He says he just stood in the street as the roar of the quake grew louder and the ground shook harder.
LOUHA: (Through Translator) I ran home as fast as I could. There were so many dead bodies. I got to my house and couldn't believe my eyes. It had collapsed. The roof was on the ground. I dropped to my knees and screamed, Jesus, no. Not my children. No my wife.
KAHN: Neighbors came and told him his children had survived, his wife, too. But one year later, the whole family is still living in a tent in the sprawling encampment on what was once the city's country club. He says he never thought they would be here a whole year.
All over the country, Haitians spent the day remembering. Businesses and schools were closed. Commemorations were held, as well as church Masses.
(SOUNDBITE OF A HYMN)
KAHN: At the ruins of the National Cathedral, where the once majestic pink church stood, thousands dressed in white shirts, gathered to mourn the dead and celebrate the survivors. The Pope's envoy to Haiti, Cardinal Robert Sarah, told the crowd that the country must rise out of poverty.
ROBERT SARAH: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: To do that, he said people, will have to work together, fight political turmoil, and corruption. He urged Haiti's youth not to blindly follow politicians who just want power - a clear reference to the volatile political situation engulfing the country. The second round of presidential elections has been indefinitely postponed amid allegations of fraud and voter intimidation during the first round.
Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive did not address the current political instability at a press conference yesterday. He and former U.S. president Bill Clinton gave a one year report on the progress of the Interim Recovery Commission, the two co-chairs.
JEAN: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: Speaking through a translator, Bellerive acknowledged the criticism of the Commission, that it has not made enough progress in the past year.
BELLERIVE: (Through Translator) While we need to move quicker, we cannot move quicker than the funds.
KAHN: He says only 15 percent of the more than $5 billion pledged to Haiti from donor countries has arrived. President Clinton said he understands the frustration people living in the camps must feel. He said he would go crazy if he had to live there.
BILL CLINTON: I would imagine that we have another six months to a year of very hard work before there is a general feeling on the street in Haiti that this thing is working. There were just too many people who have been hurt too bad who have lost too much.
KAHN: Both men urged Haitians to be patient.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SEWING MACHINE)
KAHN: Sitting at his sewing machine, in his tiny tent in one of the largest encampments in the city, Tou Tou Vitale said at the time of the earthquake he was at his house sewing then too.
TOU TOU VITALE: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: He says he had lots of clients and was able to provide well for his six children.
TOU VITALE: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: Now he has no more clients, his children are hungry, and he can't afford to send them to school. He says they want patience - Vitale looks up from the bright orange school uniform he's sewing and says, I have no patience while my children suffer.
Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Port-au-Prince.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
After last year's earthquake, the Obama administration suspended the deportations of Haitians. But as early as next week, the government plans to resume deporting Haitians with criminal records back to their home country.
NPR's Greg Allen reports.
GREG ALLEN: The Department of Homeland Security says some 300 Haitians, now in custody in Louisiana, soon will be deported. DHS says deportation is preferable to releasing large numbers of people with criminal convictions back into the community.
One of those set for deportation is Harry Mocombe. Until 2009, he lived on this quite residential street in North Miami.
(SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING)
ALLEN: This is his partner. She's 27, but prefers her name not be used. Although she and Mocombe are both legal residents, she worries that publicity about his pending deportation could affect her job.
Unidentified Woman: We had a good relationship. And we had a baby together.
ALLEN: Things changed in May of 2009. That's when Mocombe was arrested and later convicted on a theft charge. Since then, he's been in government custody.
Woman: And then, they put an immigration hold on him. And then he told me like he was going to be here, don't worry, they're not going to send him back to Haiti. So...
ALLEN: So it's very difficult then its sounds like?
Woman: Yeah, it's very hard.
ALLEN: Haitians and advocacy groups have asked the government to halt the planned deportations and they've gone a step further - to the Organization of American States. Mocombe is one of five Haitians who have filed a petition with the OAS, asking the group to call on the U.S. to halt the deportations. In Mocombe's case, his partner says, the deportation is causing hardship not just for the couple, but also their 6 year old son. He has a rare degenerative disease and requires constant care.
Haitian-Americans and their advocates say this is not the time to be deporting Haitians - even those with criminal records-back to their homeland. Cheryl Little is the executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami.
CHERYL LITTLE: They'll likely be jailed upon return. Conditions in the jails are beyond horrific. There have been cholera outbreaks in jails lately. We believe in many cases, this could amount to a death sentence.
ALLEN: News of the impending deportations comes as Haitians in the U.S. are facing another important date - the deadline for applying for temporary protected status. Marleine Bastien, head of a community group, Haitian Women of Miami, says the deportations have spread fear and distrust throughout the community, discouraging many Haitians from applying.
MARLEINE BASTIEN: This new measure reinforces people's belief that the government is out to get them, that they want to close the doors in the face of Haitians by any means necessary no matter how horrible the conditions are in the motherland.
ALLEN: Haitian advocacy groups say with just days left until the deadline, they believe nearly half of those eligible for TPS may not yet have applied. In recent weeks, Haitian advocacy groups and others concerned about the slow pace of recovery on the island have focused on a third immigration issue. In Haiti, there are some 55,000 people with family members in the U.S. and who have approved visas, but are on a waiting list preventing them from coming here. Cheryl Little is one of many calling on the Obama administration to expedite the Haitian family reunifications.
LITTLE: They've done everything our government's required of them to come here legally and be reunited with loved ones who are lawful permanent residents and citizens. And yet, we're making them wait for seven, ten years? I mean it's absolutely ridiculous.
ALLEN: Three years ago, advocates point out, the Department of Homeland Security expedited family reunifications for Cubans - citing among other things, urgent humanitarian reasons. A year ago, after the earthquake, when the Obama administration announced it was granting temporary protected status to Haitians, activist Marleine Bastien says she was happy that U.S. policies toward her people appeared to be changing. But recent events have brought her back to earth.
BASTIEN: Well, unfortunately for Haiti, sadly enough, the more things change, the more they remain the same.
ALLEN: As early as next week, Harry Mocombe and other Haitians in U.S. custody may be observing the one year anniversary of the earthquake by being forcibly returned home by the U.S. government.
Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.
MONTAGNE: And for more on our recent coverage of Haiti, you can go to our website, npr.org. There you'll find a photo essay by NPR photographer David Gilkey. You can see pictures taken just after the earthquake and what those places look like today.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And let's go next to Brisbane, Australia. If Americans saw that city on a map, they might say Brisbane. There's been massive flooding there, dozens of people are still missing and parts of the city remain under water. But authorities say flood waters crested overnight, sparing Australia's third largest city from what could have been even more severe damage. NPR's Anthony Kuhn is there.
ANTHONY KUHN: In one flooded Brisbane neighborhood, kayakers paddled past a gas station and a McDonald's restaurant up to its golden arches in coffee-colored water. In some places, lines of debris mark the high points from which the waters are now retreating. In the end, the high point was about three foot lower than the city's last big floods in 1974. Nearby, Nicki Churan(ph) and her colleagues are salvaging computers from the office of their building inspection company.
NICKI CHURAN: It's one of our offices and it's been entirely flooded on the lower level of the property. And we've discovered that it's got fuel from the automotive industrial properties that are around, submerged all at the back, which we believe is a fire hazard.
KUHN: Churan explains that the damage is not visible from the front.
CHURAN: It's come in from the rear, so these properties here are all partially flooded. It looks fine at our front, but our entire back is as deep as that Walsh Street sign. This is all at the back. It is all destroyed. It's just the other side that looks normal.
KUHN: Some residents tried to return to their homes but found them inaccessible. I ran into residents Campbell Easton and Christine Dickson as they searched for a way to get back to their apartment.
It's very frustrating not to be able to get back. It could take several days, right?
CAMPBELL EASTON: Yeah, we'd like a change of clothes and...
CHRISTINE DICKSON: Yeah, and an inhaler.
EASTON: Yeah, just that sort of stuff that we didn't really think about when we left.
KUHN: In all, some 35 Brisbane neighborhoods and suburbs were inundated. Nearly 120,000 buildings are without power. Economists estimate the floods could cause Brisbane around $6 billion worth of damage. The premier or governor of the state of Queensland, Anna Bligh, summed up the losses at a press briefing this morning.
ANNA BLIGH: Queensland is reeling this morning from the worst natural disaster in our history and possibly in the history of our nation. As we look across Queensland and see three-quarters of our state having experienced the devastation of raging flood waters, we now face a reconstruction task of post-war proportions.
KUHN: Some of the damage, Bligh point out, is symbolic, such as the destruction of the city's iconic riverside boardwalk
BLIGH: I don't think there's any more powerful symbol of what's happened to the modern city of Brisbane than the sight of our floating walkway drifting down the Brisbane River this morning. It's a loss that we will all experience.
KUHN: How fast Brisbane rebuilds will depend in part on the final two months of the rainy season. It will take days for dams around Brisbane will release water downstream to lower their levels. And the ground here is already too saturated to absorb much more water.
Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Brisbane.
INSKEEP: So that's the story in Australia. We're also following floods in Brazil. Hundreds of people have been killed there. Flood waters and landslides ravaged mountain towns outside Rio De Janeiro. And we still do not have a full picture of the damage because rescue workers are still reaching more remote villages.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Try to stick to the facts, here. Some media reports this week have said that gun sales have increased dramatically since the shootings in Tucson, Arizona. There are some indications that gun sales have gone up in some places, though the national trend is actually modest.
One part of this story may be real. Gun enthusiasts are apparently snapping up the kind of high-capacity ammunition magazines used in last weekend's shooting. NPR's Larry Abramson reports.
LARRY ABRAMSON: Federal statistics indicate that the background checks conducted for gun purchases did increase on Monday, but only by five percent nationally, compared with the same day last year. Kristen Rand of the Violence Policy Center says those numbers do not translate directly into the number of guns sold.
ABRAMSON: The FBI is very clear in saying that those numbers do not reflect gun sales, because they incorporate a lot of other things like background checks for concealed carry holders.
ABRAMSON: Some states, like Indiana, did see a 25 percent jump on Monday. But there could be many reasons for that - a special offer on a new gun, for example. Don Davis of Don's Guns and Galleries in Indianapolis says he has not seen much of a rise in sales. But people are coming to his shooting range to fire their Glock 19s, the handgun Jared Loughner used.
ABRAMSON: But we've noticed a lot of young people shooting their high-capacity Glocks and seeing - I think they're seeing how - why the guy couldn't change clips real quick, because it's really not that much of a big deal.
ABRAMSON: Davis says his customers want to see if they can reload more quickly than Loughner did. He was apparently tackled by bystanders as he tried to reload. He'd already fired off 31 shots in rapid succession, thanks to a special high-capacity magazine. He had another one of these with him, along with two standard magazines.
Those ammunition magazines are flying off the shelves at Glockmeister, an Arizona store in Mesa and Phoenix. Steven Zacker is the operations manager.
ABRAMSON: Specifically, the G-18 magazine, which is the 33-round, nine-millimeter caliber magazine, we've seen well over 1,000 percent increase in sales on that particular item.
ABRAMSON: Zacker says gun sales have not risen in his store. He says customers say they're concerned that these high-capacity magazines will be banned. And they have some reason. Kristen Rand of the Violence Policy Center, which advocates for stronger gun laws, says her group is putting all its efforts behind getting these high-capacity magazines outlawed.
ABRAMSON: We think that the most effective thing that can be done - taking into account the current political climate - is to ban the manufacture and future transfer of high-capacity ammunition magazines like the one used in the Arizona shooting.
ABRAMSON: Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy plans to introduce a ban on high-capacity magazines as soon as next week. It will face tough odds in this Congress. The National Rifle Association, which has opposed such laws, would only say that at this time, anything other than prayers for the victims and their families would be inappropriate.
On its website, the organization makes no mention of the threat of additional gun controls. Steven Zacker of Glockmeister says he thinks some buyers are grabbing onto an item that might become rare and valuable. Whatever the reason, he's very uncomfortable with the attention his store is getting.
ABRAMSON: We want to high five and say, wow, wow, our numbers are just great and it's wonderful for business. But it's a terrible way to do well in business.
ABRAMSON: Analysts say it's much too soon to say for sure that the shooting has sparked new weapons sales. But they say, as a rule, when new restrictions are even mentioned, gun buyers tend to react quickly.
Larry Abramson, NPR News, Washington.
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INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
Given how much we hear about women fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan, the reality is that women are - as they have been traditionally - barred from actual combat units.
MONTAGNE: The current wars have blurred what is known as the front lines and what is and is not combat. Now, the fact that women are in the middle of the fight is being acknowledged by a high-ranking military commission, and it is set to recommend the combat rules be changed.
NPR's national security correspondent Rachel Martin is here with us this morning to talk more about it.
Good morning.
RACHEL MARTIN: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: First of all, Rachel, what does this combat exclusion policy for women say?
MARTIN: Well, it's a Pentagon rule that says the hundreds of thousands of women currently serving in the military cannot explicitly be assigned to combat units. That's things like artillery or infantry units. They can be attached to support these units, which can be dangerous in and of itself, actually. But they can't be officially assigned to them.
MONTAGNE: And tell us what the commission is looking into.
MARTIN: Well, this is a congressionally appointed commission. It's made up of high-ranking retired and active-duty military officers. And they were ordered by Congress to think about how to make the force more diverse and to increase recruitment. And part of that was debating the role of women in the military and thinking about whether or not to roll back this combat exclusion policy.
MONTAGNE: Now, women, you might think - you know, traditionally, women haven't been in combat units because the thought is they don't belong there. And it may be hard for men serving alongside them in combat situations. So why is the commission expected to recommend that the policy be changed?
MARTIN: Well, there are several big issues here. A major one is the issue of promotion, because the quickest and most direct way, Renee, to rise through the ranks is to be in these top - to get to these top positions is by getting combat assignments. But women can't get those jobs. So it can end up limiting their promotion opportunities.
Another big issue is that the policy doesn't reflect what's already happening in a war where, as you mentioned, the front lines are really blurred and women are already in combat.
Here's an exchange. Let's listen, from one of the commission's meetings last fall. This is retired Marine Lieutenant General Frank Petersen asking a question to a panel of military women.
FRANK PETERSEN: Here's my problem. We're talking about ground combat, nose-to-nose with the bad guys, living in the mud, no hygiene and no TV. How many of you would volunteer to live like that?
TAMMY DUCKWORTH: I've lived like that. I've lived out there with the guys, and I would do it. It's about the job.
MARTIN: So, Renee, that was Tammy Duckworth replying there. She was an Apache helicopter pilot who served in Iraq. She lost both of her legs in that war. And now she's now the number two at the Department Of Veterans Affairs. And that exchange gives you a sense of the tone of this debate.
And there are other issues that have been really controversial. The issue of recruitment. Some say it'll increase recruitment of women. Others say it'll actually deter women from joining, if they have the option of going into combat. There's also the issue of retention. If you open up these jobs to women, will they stay in them? What if they get pregnant and they can't deploy? And finally, the issue of unit cohesion. Will having women in these intense fighting situations undermine morale in some way?
MONTAGNE: And that was a big argument with "don't ask, don't tell."
MARTIN: Exactly. We heard that a lot. And several members of the commission actually referenced that debate over "don't ask, don't tell." They say since those arguments have now been put to rest - that it's be determined that letting openly gay people serve won't damage unit cohesion - that to make the same argument about women just doesn't hold water.
MONTAGNE: So what's next?
MARTIN: Well, the commission is meeting today and tomorrow to finalize the draft report. But the final version goes to Congress and the White House in mid-March. We're told that resolution about the combat exclusion policy will not change, that it will stick. But this is really the only - the first step. It could be a long time before this policy is actually changed, if it ever is. But this recommendation from a high-level commission will definitely stir up public debate on the issue.
MONTAGNE: Rachel, thanks very much.
MARTIN: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: Rachel Martin is NPR's national security correspondent.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
This next story speaks to the complexities of living in China right now. It involves a prominent Chinese artist and architect. His work includes a role in the famous Bird's Nest Stadium used in the 2008 Olympics. More recently, he built a studio that was meant to be a cultural magnet for Shanghai. He did that with the government's encouragement. And when it was all but done, the government tore it down this week.
NPR's Rob Gifford is following the strange story of the artist Ai Weiwei.
Hi, Rob.
ROB GIFFORD: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: What was this studio, exactly?
GIFFORD: Well, as you say, he was encouraged to build it. It was on the outskirts of Shanghai, and it was supposed to be a kind of artist village, the center of an artist village. He's been part of those of kind of areas in Beijing, and I think Shanghai was looking to him for spicing up the artistic world here. In Shanghai, they always feel they're lagging behind Beijing a little bit.
But then, yes, he fell foul of the authorities, and they came at very short notice on Tuesday and knocked the whole thing down.
INSKEEP: So we're not talking about a room when we say a studio. We're talking about a complex. Why would the government demolish it?
GIFFORD: Well, he says himself that it's a retaliation for his support of democrats and dissidents and political causes that the Communist Party doesn't like. Why, then, might they have asked him to build it in the first place? Well, because he walks a very fine line, as you suggested. He helped to design the Bird's Nest Stadium that we all saw at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
And so he walks this fine line between knowing the authorities and having worked with them, and actually being a real thorn in their side. And it seems that things have tightened up here, and they decided that they didn't want him anymore to be the center of this artist community.
INSKEEP: So there was a brief moment, perhaps, of things being a little more open. Now things would seem to be a little bit more closed. But why wouldn't they just arrest him if they don't like what he's doing politically?
GIFFORD: Well, that's a good question. A lot of the focus, as you know, has been on Liu Xiaobo, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize who's serving an 11-year jail sentence for being politically provocative.
I think there's a few reasons that they haven't touched Ai Weiwei. One of them is that his father was a very famous poet in the Communist era and apparently one of Chairman Mao's favorite poets. And I think those connections have probably protected Ai Weiwei over the years.
A: not much political freedom here, plenty of economic freedom, a lot of artistic freedom - but a very fine line and only a very small space for political activists to work in.
And I think he's going to have to watch his step very carefully, indeed. Or he could end up in the same condition as Liu Xiaobo, being detained and being arrested.
INSKEEP: NPR's Rob Gifford, helping to explain those complexities.
Rob, thanks very much.
GIFFORD: Thank you, Steve.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
Leaders of Darby Township, Pennsylvania approved a new parking violation. It's a saving-a-space violation. After all this winter snow, some people use traffic cones or chairs to save the parking spots they shoveled. Township commissioners do not approve. They say this can lead to fights. Now you can have your fight with the parking police, because saving a space is a violation punishable by a fine of up to $300.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
: alcohol poisoning. Officials believe the starlings were flying under the influence after eating grape residue left over from the process of making wine.
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Ari Shapiro visited Eisen during one of his last days at the White House and discovered that this is not just any foreign posting. It completes a circle that began more than half a century ago.
ARI SHAPIRO: On Norm Eisen's desk - right next to a basic Czech language textbook - he keeps a black and white photograph in a gold frame.
NORM EISEN: This is my mom's passport photo when she came to the United States. I've blown it up.
SHAPIRO: Norm Eisen's mother Frieda was born in Czechoslovakia in 1923. When she was 21, the Nazis took her to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
EISEN: My mom is a Holocaust survivor, and this country offered shelter to my parents. And so for me, the freedoms that we enjoy - the privileges that we have as Americans - are very, very precious.
SHAPIRO: Now Eisen is making a pilgrimage back to his mother's home country. The immigrant mentality is the connective tissue between Norm Eisen's new life as the U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, and his old life as White House ethics czar. He is zealous about government openness.
EISEN: That is a part of the connection between the American government and the American people that keeps our democracy vital, that keeps us in a leadership position really throughout the world. And this really is a government of, by and for the people.
SHAPIRO: Some of those efforts didn't pan out. The whistleblower bill failed in the last day of the lame-duck session in Congress, and the campaign spending bill only received 59 votes in the Senate - one short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.
EISEN: When you swing for the fences, there will be times when you don't quite connect. Sometimes you try for the home run, you get a single or a double or a triple. But we measure progress not just in minutes or hours or days, but in longer increments of time.
SHAPIRO: One of the most striking things about Eisen's tenure is the way advocates outside of the government describe him. When you talk to environmental activists, or union leaders, you hear a lot of grumbling about the White House and promises unfulfilled. But talk about Eisen with good government advocates like Fred Wertheimer of the Group Democracy 21 and it's a different story.
FRED WERTHEIMER: We've never had an advocate in the White House so deeply committed and aggressive on the issues of government integrity, accountability and transparency.
SHAPIRO: Many credit Eisen's success to his close relationship with the president. The men have been friends since they were in law school together. One telling story involves the LA Lakers. Eisen is a lifelong fan. And when the basketball team visited the White House, President Obama went to a Boys and Girls Club with them for a community service project and took Eisen along. The Lakers gave Mr. Obama an autographed basketball.
EISEN: And afterward, as we were heading back to the motorcade, he did flip me a no-look pass. Fortunately, I had my wits about me, and I caught the basketball and that is the source of that story.
SHAPIRO: Now, Norm Eisen is leaving Washington behind for the land of his mother's birth in the Czech Republic.
EISEN: The residence of the ambassador was the headquarters of the Nazi general staff in World War II. We have the privilege to be moving in, and we will put up mezuzot on the doorposts and make the kitchen kosher.
SHAPIRO: Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.
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INSKEEP: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
H: From Miami, NPR's Greg Allen reports.
GREG ALLEN: For Bruce Weber, Miami is home.
BRUCE WEBER: I first came here working for Calvin Klein, and we went down to South Beach. And I fell in love with the beach and the water.
ALLEN: But he's here not just for the beach. Weber is also drawn to Miami's neighborhoods.
WEBER: You know, people always say to me: Well, what's the best part of Miami? And I say it's people, because they're all so many characters.
ALLEN: Weber says he asked Demme what he could do to help Haiti.
WEBER: And he said, Bruce, take your camera, go to Krome. Go to the people of Little Haiti.
ALLEN: That's Krome, as in the Krome Detention Center, a federal facility near Miami where Haitians are held, pending deportation. In 2003, he went there with Haitian advocates and was shocked at what he found. Weber says he's visited prisons before on photo assignments.
WEBER: But never did I have a chill like I did when I went to Krome. And I saw men just treated so terribly because of where they're from and who they are.
ALLEN: Krome and the plight of Haitian asylum seekers is far from the world of models, celebrities and fashion where Bruce Weber is one of the most sought-after photographers. But while taking those assignments, Weber has always found time for more personal work, such as his 2007 film profiling a gritty Miami neighborhood: "Liberty City is Like Paris to Me."
WEBER: The people in this community suffered through the riots of the 1980s, and they experienced continual poverty and unjust immigration laws. But they were able to rebuild and rise far above what others once thought was impossible.
ALLEN: For his journey through the Haitian community, Weber had an expert guide. Marleine Bastien is well-known through her work with the non-profit group she heads, Haitian Women of Miami. She introduced him to the community and worked with him almost as a collaborator.
MARLEINE BASTIEN: He's able to communicate to them in ways that other people can't. And he becomes like their interpreter. He touches their soul, and then he's interpreting to others what the Haitian people have been through.
ALLEN: In the exhibit, his photo shows four young women smiling - beautiful, with a lot of personality. That was especially so, Weber says, with one of the girls, Barbara Adrien.
WEBER: Her personality was so strong and so vibrant that I can only compare it to the time I was photographing Leonardo DiCaprio when he was a young boy. We went to Coney Island together, and it was just like an explosion of life. You could have taken a million pictures of her. You could have made a million movies about her.
ALLEN: Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Time again for StoryCorps. The shooting rampage in Tucson that targeted Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords brought back painful memories for Erin Ryan. She's the youngest daughter of the late Leo Ryan. He was the California Congressman who traveled to Guyana in 1978 to investigate the settlement in Jonestown, which was built by cult leader Jim Jones. When Congressman Ryan tried to bring cult members back to the U.S. he was gunned down. Eric Ryan remembers it wasn't the first time her father took risks in search of answers.
ERIN RYAN: I've always said to myself that I was lucky that he was my dad, and I was lucky to have had him for the years that I had him. And that's what you have to hold onto.
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MONTAGNE: Erin Ryan for StoryCorps in Washington, D.C. She's now a lawyer who works for the Congresswoman who holds her father's old seat. Her recording will be archived at the American Folk Life Center at the Library of Congress. And you can subscribe to the StoryCorps podcast at npr.org.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
We've reporting this week on Haiti's struggle to rebuild from its earthquake a year ago that turned the capital city, Port-au-Prince, into a death trap. Earthquake engineers say many casualties could have been avoided if buildings had been built better. Now engineers are trying to improve construction standards, as NPR's Christopher Joyce reports.
CHRISTOPHER JOYCE: In Port-au-Prince, there is so much rubble on sidewalks that people walk in the street. Everywhere, buildings sag in a state of semi- collapse. When engineer Pierre Fouche returned there after the quake, he hardly recognized his hometown.
PIERRE FOUCHE: When I got there it was a shock. Basically, it was like I lost all of my landmarks.
JOYCE: When the quake hit, Fouche was studying earthquake engineering at the University of Buffalo in New York. He knew that Haiti lacked building codes, that people built houses on steep hillsides or on soft ground, that they used shoddy materials, and now he fears the city will rebuild the same way.
FOUCHE: Some people, they are simply starting to reconstruct their homes because they need someplace to live in. And this is actually tragic.
JOYCE: Tragic because the country lacks people who know how to build for earthquakes. At the time of the quake, Fouche says he was Haiti's only quake engineer.
FOUCHE: We don't know when the next one is going to happen, and if we don't want to have 200,000 people dying, then this is something that has to be done. At some point the government will have to do it.
JOYCE: The government has not, however. So quake engineer Andre Filiatrault at the University of Buffalo has organized quake seminars for Haitian engineers. Filiatrault says most of the masonry buildings he's seen in Haiti cannot handle the side to side shaking that a quake creates. The walls develop cracks and then holes.
ANDRE FILIATRAULT: And if you have too much of a hole in the wall, then it can't support the slab above, and that's where all these slabs collapse on top of each other, which we call pancake collapse.
JOYCE: Filiatrault says you can fix that cheaply with something called confined masonry. You build a cinder block wall and at each end the blocks are set like a vertical row of teeth, with every other one missing. Then you pour concrete down and over that row of teeth to make vertical columns that anchor the wall.
FILIATRAULT: You cast your column into the wall such that it's a then integral part of the wall. So basically the wall becomes interlocked into the column.
JOYCE: Roger Bilham is a seismologist at the University of Colorado who's studied the past 30 years of earthquakes. He says poverty and corruption kill because they undercut construction standards. People cheat.
ROGER BILHAM: You can go to a collapsed building with a hammer or a screwdriver and test the quality of the cement. If you can put your screwdriver in and write your name in it, obviously the cement is completely inadequate.
JOYCE: In Haiti, Bilham says it wasn't so much corruption as poverty that doomed so many buildings. But he suspects that may change as money to rebuild pours into the country.
BILHAM: The corruption that does exist in the form of bribery, shortcuts, inexpensive materials and so on, I'm sure that's going to kick in. People are going to do whatever they can.
JOYCE: Christopher Joyce, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Here's NPR's David Kestenbaum.
DAVID KESTENBAUM: A beauty contest. That is how the famous and somewhat eccentric economist John Maynard Keynes described the stock market in 1936. The contest he imagined worked like this: You get a bunch of photos of women's faces and have people vote. The game is to try to pick the winner - not necessarily who you think is the prettiest, but who you think everyone else will pick.
PIETRA RIVOLI: It made sense for me immediately. And I thought it had such interesting implications.
KESTENBAUM: Keynes wrote about the beauty contest: It's not about picking the prettiest faces, quote, "nor even those that average opinion genuinely thinks the prettiest. We have reached the third degree, where we devote out intelligences to anticipating what average opinion expects the average opinion to be."
PROF: He is talking about sort of some kind of a strange, exponential psychological process, where I'm trying to figure out what you think and you're trying to figure out what the next guy thinks, and that guy is trying to figure out what the other guy thinks. And the key danger is that nobody's really thinking.
KESTENBAUM: With Pietra's guidance, we tested this out with an online experiment. Instead of a beauty contest, we set up a cuteness contest with three animals.
KESTENBAUM: What do you think is cutest?
PROF: I picked the polar bear. I like the white fur, and I also thought that the whole skating on your belly on the ice thing as adorable.
KESTENBAUM: And here's someone from Group B, Marla Wood, a listener from Colorado.
MARLA WOOD: I actually had a hard time finding any of them particularly cute - oddly.
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KESTENBAUM: What did you think was the cutest, first?
WOOD: I guess the loris was the cutest.
KESTENBAUM: So, but you were asked to pick the animal you thought everyone else would pick as the cutest.
WOOD: Yes. Correct.
KESTENBAUM: So what did you pick?
WOOD: I chose the cat - the kitten, I should say - for two reasons: One was it was the least appealing to me, which I find is generally the case. I'm always on the outside, in my opinion.
KESTENBAUM: What if the market was entirely filled with Marlas, right? Then basically, you know, there's a huge kitten bubble. And no one actually thinks kittens are cute.
PROF: And there we have the subprime.
KESTENBAUM: The subprime housing bubble. Even if you thought it was a bubble, there was still someone else willing to buy. So it made sense to stay in the game.
INSKEEP: Pietra Rivoli says when she hears on the news about the stock market doing this or that, she sometimes thinks: beauty contest.
PROF: There's been some academic research on this that says, you know, there's a lot of price movement in individual stocks - and in the market as whole - that we can't explain, you know, with kind of fundamental, rational stories.
KESTENBAUM: David Kestenbaum, NPR News.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
INSKEEP: We don't know the shooter's motive but...
MONTAGNE: After the "but," people have speculated about everything from insanity to the tone of politics. This morning, to be clear, we still don't know the motive of Jared Loughner. He's accused of killing six people at a congresswoman's public meeting.
INSKEEP: NPR's Alix Spiegel found a detailed study of past assassins and would-be assassins. It offers insight into what makes a person pull the trigger.
ALIX SPIEGEL: It's well-known that in March of 1981, John Hinckley attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan. What's not well-known is that several years later, the life of the president - and the life of the vice president - were threatened again - in fact, not just once.
D: In the space of 18 months, four situations came to the attention of the Secret Service.
SPIEGEL: This is Robert Fein, who in the mid-'80s was working with the Secret Service as a psychologist. In two of these incidents, he says, people with weapons and an intent to kill appeared at public events. In two, they were intercepted before the events. Now, all four of these cases were ultimately prosecuted, though the government didn't exactly advertise it.
D: These were not stories that hit the news, but they were situations that caused great concern for protectors. So after these incidents, the Secret Service leadership got together and said, we really would like to know more about the behaviors of these people.
SPIEGEL: And so Fein and a Secret Service agent named Brian Vossekuil undertook the most extensive study of assassins and would-be assassins ever done. They identified 83 people who had completed assassinations, or made assassination attempts, since 1949 - some cases were known to the public, some not - and collected every document they could find. But also, Fein and Vossekuil went to visit many of these people in jail - went with a very particular pitch.
D: We're here because we're in the business of trying to protect people and prevent these kinds of attacks. You are one of the few experts because you've engaged in this behavior. We would like to talk with you to understand your perspectives, your life. And many people said: I would be very glad to talk with you.
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D: How did you feel about Vice President Bush at the time, as a person?
U: Bush was the vice president, running for president. He was a very important person, a very famous person.
SPIEGEL: In 1999, they published the results in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. And the insights of this study are really interesting to look at in light of the Arizona shooting. Perhaps the most interesting finding - at least, to me - is that according to Fein and Vossekuil, assassinations of political figures were almost never for political reasons.
D: It was very, very rare for the primary motive to be political, though there were a number of attackers who appeared to clothe their motives with some political rhetoric.
SPIEGEL: What emerges from the study is that rather than being politically motivated, most of the assassins and would-be assassins simply felt invisible. In the year before their attacks, most struggled with acute reversals and disappointment in their lives - which, the paper argues, often led to their true motive: They didn't want to be nonentities.
D: They experienced failure after failure after failure, and decided rather than being a nobody, they wanted to be a somebody.
SPIEGEL: Randy Borum is a professor at the University of South Florida, who worked on this study.
INSKEEP: If the objective is notoriety or fame, that's the most efficient instrumental mechanism by which to achieve that. I don't mean to be flip about that, but a public official is likely to bring them a substantial amount of recognition instantly, without having to achieve something.
SPIEGEL: In the interview tapes of the man who attempted to assassinate George H.W. Bush, you hear very clearly this longing for fame.
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U: Being on the front page of every newspaper in the country.
SPIEGEL: And one thing Borum and Fein say about choosing a political figure - as opposed to, for example, a show business celebrity - is that the attacker is able to associate himself with a broader political movement or goal, which allows the assassin not to see himself as such a bad person. In this way, Borum says, assassins are basically murderers in search of a cause.
INSKEEP: People make decisions to act, and then from that construct for themselves - and potentially, for others - a narrative about why that is OK, or how this could be justified. It's sort of a reverse pattern from what we would typically think.
SPIEGEL: You can see this very clearly, Borum says, from the way many of the assassins in the study chose their targets. Though occasionally they'd fixate on a single person who represented a clear political position, many just went from target to target to target.
INSKEEP: About half of the assassins in this study had multiple targets - or what sometimes is referred to as directions of interest - throughout the course of deliberating about an attack.
SPIEGEL: For example, there was one guy who was fixated on his governor until he heard the vice president was coming to his area.
INSKEEP: He said he had read enough to know that there hadn't been anybody who had attempted to assassinate a sitting vice president of the United States.
SPIEGEL: So he made the vice president his target. He told the researchers that he thought this would get him more attention from historians.
INSKEEP: In the books on assassination, there might even be a whole chapter on him.
SPIEGEL: Now, the other assumption that people make about assassins is that they're insane, people completely divorced from reality. But this study, to a degree, rejects that idea as too simplistic. Yes, the authors write, many of the people were experiencing, or had experienced, serious mental health issues. Forty-four percent had a history of depression; 43, a history of delusional ideas. But as Robert Fein points out, the way these people sought to address what they saw as their main problems - anonymity and failure - wasn't inherently crazy.
MONTAGNE: There's nothing crazy about thinking that if I attacked the president or a major public official, I'd get a lot of attention. I would get a lot of attention. My goal was notoriety. That's why I brought the weapon.
SPIEGEL: And, Fein says, most of the assassins and would-be assassins weren't totally disorganized by mental illness, either.
MONTAGNE: They were quite organized, because one has to be organized - to at least, some extent - to attack a public official.
SPIEGEL: Alix Spiegel, NPR News, Washington.
INSKEEP: Gabrielle Giffords' health continues to improve after opening her eyes on Wednesday.
MONTAGNE: On Thursday, she sat up with assistance, and began moving her arms and legs. Her husband, NASA astronaut Mark Kelly, is at her side.
INSKEEP: And at his request, NASA has selected a backup in case he's not able to join a space mission he's slated to command in April.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Sectarian violence in Iraq has mostly subsided. We're talking about the divisions between Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims, which turned into terrible bloodshed after Saddam Hussein was thrown out of power in 2003. The question of sect is still an important part of people's identities, even if the streets are a little quieter. That question even permeates decisions about food. NPR's Kelly McEvers has this report on sectarian chicken.
KELLY MCEVERS: Full disclosure. We first heard about this story in our own kitchen, here in Baghdad. For months we were eating a brand of chicken called Sadia. It's produced abroad and distributed in this region by predominantly Sunni Arab countries. Bashir Ahmed, who does a lot of the cooking, says all of a sudden Sadia was forbidden.
BASHIR AHMED: (Through translator) The majority here, they told me we're not going to eat Sadia anymore. So if you bring Sadia, you have to tell us in advance, so we do not eat it. So I had to bring Khafeel.
MCEVERS: At a wholesale market in east Baghdad, the first thing you see in the chicken section is a big poster with the fatwa, or religious ruling, that sanctions Khafeel chicken. But many people say the religious institution that issued the fatwa is also profiting from the boost in sales of Khafeel chicken. Shop owner Abu Zuhair says that's wrong.
ABU ZUHAIR: (Through translator) This should not be a money issue. It should be a way for the religious establishment to help poor people.
MCEVERS: It's common to complain about corruption in Iraq. But it's actually impolite to overtly talk about sectarianism, says Shirouk Abayachi, who heads an Iraqi think tank.
SHIROUK ABAYACHI: For me, and for other Iraqis, we hate this word, sectarian. We hate it. We try - we avoid to announce it anymore or to have it in our speech.
MCEVERS: Back in our kitchen, we've decided to buy chicken from Turkey as a kind of compromise. But that's not good enough for reporter Leith Hammoudi.
LEITH HAMMOUDI: Turkey is not - I don't know what - I don't trust Turkey. I don't really trust them.
MCEVERS: So are we going to get to point, though, where we have like, OK, here's Khafeel for you and Sadia for you?
HAMMOUDI: I hope we don't reach this thing.
MCEVERS: Kelly McEvers, NPR News, Baghdad.
: NPR's Sonari Glinton reports on how long it will take for all this electricity to come to you.
SONARI GLINTON: Here it is, the big news out of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit:
U: And the 2011 North American Car of the Year is the Chevrolet Volt.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)
GLINTON: The Chevy Volt, the electric car with a back-up gas engine, is clearly the star of the Detroit Auto Show. But it's certainly not the only electric car or hybrid in the game.
: Tesla, Nissan Leaf, Smart E, Mini E, Mercedes SLS E.
GLINTON: That's Jessica Caldwell. She's an analyst with Edmunds.com; it's an automotive website. She could keep listing the cars for a while. But here's the question: Are there enough electric cars in production so that if you wanted a to buy one, you could get one right now?
: You can't really get one. If you get one, it's going to be secondhand because there's such a high demand for those vehicles right now.
GLINTON: Tony DiSalle is head of marketing for the Chevy Volt.
: Today, a lot of our customers are early-tech adopters - typically, the first on the block to have an iPhone or an iPad.
GLINTON: Or an electric car.
: That's going to migrate through time. And so the most important thing is for consumers - mass-market consumers - to understand the benefits of the Volt.
GLINTON: So in the coming years, what exactly is a mass market?
: We've announced 10,000 units for sale during the 2011 calendar year.
GLINTON: And next year?
: We'll sell 45,000 units - or build 45,000 units for sale here in the United States.
GLINTON: To give you an idea of how many cars that is, Porsche sold 25,000 cars in the U.S. These are not tremendous numbers.
: Look, the electrification of America's fleet is not going to occur overnight.
GLINTON: That is Bob Lutz. He just retired as vice chairman of General Motors. Lutz takes credit, often, for the Chevy Volt. He says electrification will be a gradual process.
: And if you take yourself out to the year 2025, and you look at what percentage of the total vehicle market is going to be electric, it'll probably be 10 to 15 percent. But will it suddenly flip and like, within two years you go into a showroom and half the cars are electric? The answer is no. That's going to take a long time.
GLINTON: Sonari Glinton, NPR News, Detroit.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Here's Lisa Chow of member station WNYC.
LISA CHOW: Next week, the Treasury Department will offer 600,000 unbanked Americans a debit card that can receive direct deposits.
M: I mean, I think the government is doing this to try to get more folks into the banking system.
CHOW: Chi Chi Wu is an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center. She says the program isn't cost-free. Some people will have to pay $4.95 a month for the debit card. But she says that's a lot cheaper than the current options. The challenge will be whether the government's letter will get through to people.
M: It's not just another piece of junk mail. It's, you know, actually, legitimately from Treasury, and it's something that could save them money.
CHOW: For NPR News, I'm Lisa Chow in New York.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
In case you haven't heard, it's National Radon Action Month.
(SOUNDBITE OF AD)
U: A national radon test is about to begin.
INSKEEP: Indeed it is. Every January, the EPA and other federal agencies hit the airwaves to tell us that radon gas can kill, and that every home should be tested. This is serious. But as NPR's Jon Hamilton reports, that message skips over many complexities surrounding the risks from radon.
JON HAMILTON: Radon is a heavy, radioactive gas that can seep out of the soil into basements and other parts of a house. There's no question that inhaling a lot of radon is bad for you.
(SOUNDBITE OF AD)
U: Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer.
HAMILTON: Phil Price is a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. He's spent a lot of time studying radon. Price is willing to accept the government's rough estimate that radon causes about 21,000 deaths from lung cancer each year. But, he says, people should know something about that number.
HAMILTON: A large fraction of those estimated deaths are thought to be among smokers. One way to think of it is, it's just one of the things that goes along with smoking - is that it increases your chance of radon-related lung cancer.
HAMILTON: Price says that piece of information has important implications.
HAMILTON: If you want to reduce the number of radon-induced lung cancer deaths in the country, one thing you could do is reduce radon for everybody. A better thing would be to reduce radon just for the smokers maybe, because they're the ones with the largest risk from radon. But of course, you'd do even better by getting them to stop smoking.
HAMILTON: Price also takes issue with this message...
(SOUNDBITE OF AD)
U: Radon can be found all over the U.S., and in any type of building, including homes, offices and schools.
HAMILTON: It's true, of course. But Price says the message tends to gloss over the huge role played by geography.
HAMILTON: If you live in the Louisiana Bayou, there's a lot better ways to spend even a small amount of time and money, to reduce your risk of premature death, than doing a radon test.
HAMILTON: That's because very, very few homes in that part of the country have high levels of radon. Meanwhile, in parts of the Midwest, lots of homes have worrisome levels. Then there's the question of how much radon is too much.
(SOUNDBITE OF AD)
U: If tests show four or more picocuries of air, simple, effective and non-expensive action should be taken to reduce the level of radon.
HAMILTON: So Field and other scientists began studying regular people in Iowa. And their study suggested that the EPA's action level...
(SOUNDBITE OF AD)
U: ...four or more picocuries of air...
HAMILTON: Bill Field says the target should be perhaps half that level.
HAMILTON: By everyone in the Unites States going down to four picocuries per liter, we're only eliminating about one-third of the radon-induced lung cancers.
HAMILTON: Jon Hamilton, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Don Gonyea reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF A CROWD)
DON GONYEA: It was one final day of campaigning yesterday ahead of today's vote at the RNC's annual winter meeting. In the wide corridor of a hotel convention complex just outside Washington, Michael Steele seemed relaxed as he worked to hang onto his job. He walks as he talks.
MICHAEL STEELE: Unidentified Man: How are you?
STEELE: Unidentified Man: Doing great.
STEELE: Look, you're still eating, man. Come on.
GONYEA: Steele is as easy going as ever - polite, but not inclined to handicap his chances with a couple of reporters.
STEELE: I've gotten out of the prediction business a long time ago. So, it's good seeing you guys.
GONYEA: Thank you. Thanks.
STEELE: All right, take care.
GONYEA: Reid Wilson is the editor-in-chief of the National Journal's Hotline.
REID WILSON: There was a serious lack of funding here, because Michael Steele was not able to pull in the same kind of donations that the RNC has seen in previous years.
GONYEA: Also running is Ann Wagner. She's a longtime party activist and a former U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg. Wagner acknowledges that a lot of big money for last year's congressional elections bypassed the RNC. But she insists the role of the Republican National Committee has not diminished.
ANN WAGNER: I still think it is the premier political institution in America, and would say even the world. And there are some things that it can and must do well, and especially during a presidential cycle year.
GONYEA: Here's candidate Saul Anuzis.
SAUL ANUZIS: I think clearly the first question will be whether or not we re-elect Steele. But I do think there's consensus for change. And I think we'll probably go - I would not be surprised if we go five to six ballots. And if some of the candidates have different strategies to stay in longer, it could go six, seven, eight.
GONYEA: Hotline's Reid Wilson says this year, RNC delegates are looking for a good manager and a great fundraiser. But they may be looking for something else, as well.
WILSON: Don Gonyea, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Turin.
SYLVIA POGGIOLI: Unidentified Man #2: (Italian spoken)
POGGIOLI: Unidentified Woman: No, no, no. (Italian spoken)
POGGIOLI: In one of Europe's most unionized countries, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is trying to overhaul decades of labor relations by moving away from the national contract and making new demands on Mirafiori workers to ensure greater competitiveness and productivity. In exchange, he says Fiat will invest $1.3 billion in a new joint venture with Chrysler. But Marchionne warned what will happen if the no votes win.
SERGIO MARCHIONNE: (Through translator) If 51 percent vote no, Fiat will not invest in Mirafiori and will leave Italy.
POGGIOLI: Mirafiori is a symbol. It was the center of the country's industrial revolution and propelled post-war reconstruction. It was the heartbeat of the Italian labor movement. Now, the Marchionne plan includes fewer work breaks, more shifts, according to market demand, sickness benefits cutbacks and restrictions on the right to strike. Worker Antonio Cimino is convinced Marchionne wants to use Mirafiori to dismantle decades of Italian workers' hard-earned rights.
ANTONIO CIMINO: (Through translator) Mirafiori is just the first step. Other industries will do the same, scrap the national contract and impose what they want. Then workers' rights will no longer exist anywhere. It's a battle that goes beyond Fiat.
POGGIOLI: Italy has an alphabet soup of unions: FIM-CISL, UILM and so on. And here at Mirafiori, most of them have already agreed to the plan.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)
POGGIOLI: Unidentified Man #3: The crisis has been under way for three years. Many industries are dying. Banks are holding onto their money. If nothing improves, unemployment will skyrocket this year. We want to ensure our future. That's why we broke labor unity and approved the Marchionne plan.
POGGIOLI: Unidentified Group: (Chanting in foreign language)
POGGIOLI: Thousands of workers take to the streets in a torch-lit march. They chant slogans reminiscent of Italian labor triumphs of the late 1960s. One of the march organizers, Paolo Flores D'Arcais - who's a leading Italian intellectual - says Marchionne's plan is authoritarian and illegal. But he acknowledges that today's economic reality has sharply undermined labor's bargaining power.
PAOLO FLORES D: Sixty-eight was a moment of struggle, but in an economic period of growth. Today, one young worker out of three is without work, and so this is a social tragedy, and this changes completely the balance of forces.
POGGIOLI: Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Turin.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
The North African country of Tunisia has prospered in recent years, and is a popular destination for Western tourists who go there for its beaches and antiquities. But its people have been living under an authoritarian president who's ruled for nearly a quarter of a century.
Last night, they took to the streets, celebrating what could be a turning point. The president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, agreed to sweeping reforms and says he won't run for reelection in 2014.
Eleanor Beardsley is in the capital, Tunis, and joins us now.
Hello, Eleanor.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: You know, remind us of what's behind all of this, how it got started.
BEARDSLEY: Well, I love the way one French newspaper characterized President Ben Ali and Tunisia. He said he's a little Caesar of a democratic facade. And that's really what Tunisia is. It's not a real democracy. There's no real freedom of speech. The press is censored. Opposition has either been jailed or exiled. There's cronyism, corruption.
It is a peaceful tourist destination. Europeans love to come to the beaches. And all that has worked for a while because when the economy was OK, people accepted, you know, a lesser degree of freedoms. But then when the economy tanked, things went bad.
And what happened was a young man, university educated, in the south of the country, couldn't find a job, like many young Tunisians. And so he bought a stand and started selling fruits and vegetables. Well, the government confiscated his stand and apparently slapped him in the face and humiliated him.
And so he was so frustrated, he set himself on fire in front of the town hall, and he died. And that struck a chord with people, because many people are unemployed. Many people, you know, are educated and they just can't make ends meet.
It not only struck a chord with people in Tunisia of all ages and, you know, economic backgrounds, but also throughout the Arab world. There's a lot of pent-up frustration over the economy, over rulers that keep people tamped down. So that just ignited the country, and young people started rioting.
MONTAGNE: And initially, the government responded itself with violence. It -protestors were shot and killed.
BEARDSLEY: That's right. Even by the government's own admission, 23 people were killed. The opposition says about 50 people were killed. Yeah, apparently, government snipers shot people from rooftops.
So it was very bad violence. The whole world - and the Arab world, in particular - has been watching Tunisia, because this - it's a huge crisis. The government was shocked by the people's outpouring of anger, because, as you said, President Ben Ali has ruled for 23 years, and there's been nothing like this before.
MONTAGNE: What made the president change?
BEARDSLEY: Well, Renee, it seems that he was shocked and overwhelmed by the violence that's been going on here for the past month. He went on TV last night, and he said to the Tunisian people: I have heard you. I've understood you. And he really spoke to them. And people said for the first time, he used the Tunisia dialect and not classical Arabic. And he told them: I'm going to give you press freedoms. I'm going to open up the country and give you freedoms. I'm not going to run again in 2014. He promised no more violence. He promised jobs.
So he really seemed - he was contrite. He was sorry about the deaths. And he gave them what they wanted. So, you know, in 24 hours, the country completely changed.
After President Ben Ali's speech, people just poured out into the streets screaming, you know, you're the father of our country. We love you. We love Ben Ali. I mean, they just couldn't tell you how much they loved him. So everything has completely changed in the last, I'd say, 12 hours.
MONTAGNE: And I suppose, just briefly, the question is: Will that last, and will he deliver?
BEARDSLEY: Well, Renee, that's what everyone's waiting to see. There's been a turning point. The crisis has been averted for now. But he has to stick to his promises.
And I think we'll something immediately, because the opposition is holding a demonstration today. And I can already hear it out into the street - out in the street right now. And people are sounding angry. So what are the opposition people going to say? Are they going to think that what Ben Ali did was enough? So we'll see pretty soon.
MONTAGNE: Eleanor, thanks very much.
Eleanor Beardsley, speaking to us from Tunis, Tunisia.
BEARDSLEY: Thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: And we'll continue to bring you updates on these anti-government protests as we get new information through the morning.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's business news starts with Intel's strong results.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: The company says last quarter's gains were driven largely by businesses buying new server systems. Many companies had frozen spending during the recession; Intel says it's planning a big boost in its own spending, on new factories and equipment.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And today's last word in business is about another spectacle that's getting off to a slow start. The word is "Spider-Man" delayed again.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
That could be the new name for the Broadway musical "Spider-Man." The show was supposed to open in December, but the accident-plagued production has been postponed and postponed and yesterday, producers delayed the opening yet again. It's now set for mid-March.
INSKEEP: Now, it's not as if the show isn't pulling in some money already. "Spider-Man's" been in previews. That's when producers can still make changes to the show. And the previews have been packed with theatergoers who are paying about $65 - up to $275 - to see the show.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Joining us now to discuss some of the other political news in a very busy week is NPR's Mara Liasson. Good morning.
MARA LIASSON: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: President Obama wanted to give a healing speech. Did he succeed?
LIASSON: I mean, conservatives who are ardent opponents of the president said he did strike the right tone, he did pull it off. And I think for Mr. Obama it was a chance to get back to what the White House sometimes refers to as first principles, to that image that he projected back in 2008 when he ran for president as someone who could bridge the partisan divides, and even in 2004 when he gave his maiden speech at the Democratic Convention in Boston and talked about how we're not a bunch of red states or blue states, we're the United States.
MONTAGNE: And one of the most significant figures in the Republican Party, Sarah Palin, also weighed in this week on the Tucson shootings. She was rather forced to, in a way.
LIASSON: But still, there are many Republicans even, who thought that Sarah Palin sounded defensive in that video like she was the victim. And there's - the video itself, as most of what Sarah Palin does, caused a lot of controversy. Some people thought it was aimed too much at her ardent base and not at the center.
MONTAGNE: Well, a lot has been made about how the shootings might though tone down the shrill political discourse that we've been hearing. What do you think? Do you think it will last?
LIASSON: Now, the Congress did suspend regular business this week, but next week the health care debate will resume, there will be a vote on repealing the president's health care bill in the House of Representatives, and that I think will be the first test. How do people discuss this extremely polarizing and controversial piece - law actually, not just piece of legislation when they do debate this next week?
MONTAGNE: And Mara, what about President Obama's presidency, I mean, could his handling of this tragedy have a significant and lasting impact on his presidency?
LIASSON: Like all ambitious presidents, President Obama had become a polarizing figure, but he's had some opportunities to turn that around since the elections, starting with the bipartisan compromises in the lame duck, and now his - what many people consider to be pitch-perfect response to the Tucson shootings. The question is how is he going to build on that. He has a chance very soon to build on the themes in that memorial address because in very short order, just 11 days from now, he will give the State of the Union address, which is the highest profile event any president gives in the course of a year.
MONTAGNE: Mara, thanks very much
LIASSON: Thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Mara Liasson. You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Next we're going to follow up on the killing of a governor in Pakistan. He was assassinated for opposing a blasphemy law under which a Christian woman was sentenced to death. After the shooting of the governor one week ago, we heard from a Pakistani editor who was hoping this event would galvanize opposition to religious extremists. Something else may be happening instead. It involves the lawyers' movement, a famous force for democracy in Pakistan. To learn more about what's going on we've reached out to Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani journalist based in the city of Lahore. Welcome back to the program, sir.
AHMED RASHID: Thank you.
INSKEEP: Well, would you remind us who the lawyers were two or three years ago, what they were seen as doing two or three years ago?
RASHID: Now it must be said then, a lot of the lawyers are extremely right-wing and very conservative, but they united with liberal lawyers in a common demand for a return to democracy allowing Benazir Bhutto to come back to the country, the holding of elections, and the reinstatement of the chief justice.
INSKEEP: That was the position they took at a historic moment in Pakistan and now the governor of the Punjab Province where you are has been assassinated by one of his own bodyguards apparently. That's the man who is accused. And what position have the lawyers taken on that case?
RASHID: One of the religious extremist organizations issued a threat to the daughter of Salman Taseer because she had given an interview to the BBC and she had written an article, and one of these religious groups issued a death threat to her. And this religious leader has not been arrested and likewise, all those defending the killer, there's been no action taken against them.
INSKEEP: I want to make sure I clarify what we're talking about here, because if you're a lawyer, obviously any defendant is entitled to a defense, is entitled to a lawyer. That's part of the legal system. Are you saying these 1,000 lawyers who've signed up on behalf of the defendant are going beyond legal advocacy here?
RASHID: Well, yes, because what they're doing is that they're expressing their political point of view, which is that they believe that the killer was totally justified in killing the governor. And they're expressing their support for the killer and they're expressing their support for what he said, which was I stand by the blasphemy law. I'm a slave of the Prophet Mohammed and I will do whatever he says. Now those few words that he uttered as he was being put into a police car is what has really motivated these lawyers to defend him.
INSKEEP: In what way would it be the rule of law to kill a man as he leaves lunch?
RASHID: Well, the real question here is not a question of blasphemy or no blasphemy, it's a question that, you know, nobody is allowed to take the law into their own hands. And these are lawyers who should be respecting the law, which is obviously - I mean one of the tenants of the law is that you don't go around murdering people. And here we have the lawyers actually suggesting that murdering who they don't like, politically speaking, is justified.
INSKEEP: So what does this mean for a secular Pakistan?
RASHID: Well, I think it really is a sign of breakdown. It's a sign of breakdown of law and order. The fundamentalists now seem to have got a cause celebre. They have - they're on a roll now. They're acting much more threateningly. Many of these fundamentalists what to overthrow the government and impose an Islamic system. The government itself is very paralyzed, they're not taking any measures. So people are very, very deeply worried by this quite dramatic and sudden turn of events.
INSKEEP: Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist and author. He's on the line from Lahore. His book is "Descent Into Chaos." Thanks very much.
RASHID: Thank you.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Mike, good morning.
MIKE PESCA: Sorry to be upon you.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: Get off of me.
PESCA: Move if it hurts.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: Four games this weekend, including the Patriots and the New York Jets. What makes that a marquis game for a lot of people?
PESCA: And his opposite number, the coach of the Patriots, Bill Belichick, the perfect word for him is cipher. The man has never said anything revealing in his life.
INSKEEP: Our teams are equal. We lost by 42 points because of me. And it's all on me. And I'm not exactly sure what he's doing, but he's doing something - I think trying to alleviate pressure from his players. But there's something weird and interesting with Rex Ryan.
INSKEEP: Yeah, well, it's interesting. The Jets themselves have been rather brash this week. The cornerback, Antonio Cromartie - I'm just going to read this bit of wire copy here: Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie called Patriots quarterback Tom Brady an expletive on Tuesday.
INSKEEP: You, sir, are an expletive.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: In any event, a little bit of trash talking going on, the way that this (unintelligible).
PESCA: They beat Peyton Manning's Colts last week by neutralizing the quarterback, usually by controlling the ball, by dropping back into coverage, so not blitzing too much. Maybe they'll do the same against Brady. It's the absolute key to the game.
INSKEEP: Just got a minute here to get through three games very quickly. One of them is Pittsburgh versus Baltimore.
PESCA: This is - these two are division rivals. In fact, all the teams in the playoffs have played each other before. The last four games have all been decided by four points. There's no reason to think this won't be tough, this won't be hard-hitting and this won't be close. These are usually great games.
INSKEEP: What about that other conference, the NFC?
PESCA: Let's not give them short shrift. The Atlanta Falcons, they have a great home field advantage. The Green Bay Packers, their opponents, they were supposed to be a preseason favorite, faltered in the middle of the season. I expect both quarterbacks - Matt Ryan, who has a 20 and two record at home for the Falcons - to shine. And I think Aaron Rogers of the Packers can do the same. Again, it should be a good game.
INSKEEP: OK. So that's one game. The other game?
PESCA: Yeah, this should not be a good game. I will say that the Seahawks, even though they beat the Chicago Bears in Chicago earlier in the season, they have a very, very long shot at winning. They're a terrible road team. We said it last week. And everyone who said that the Seahawks wouldn't win looks foolish this week. But it's very hard to see how the Seahawks can beat the Bears in Chicago.
INSKEEP: OK. Mike, thanks very much, as always.
PESCA: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's sports correspondent Mike Pesca.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
"The Green Hornet" goes on display in theaters this week, and our critic Kenneth Turan has this review.
KENNETH TURAN: The Hornet is technically not a superhero at all. Like Batman, The Hornet fights crime from behind a mask with just his ordinary human powers - plus some nifty inventions.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE GREEN HORNET")
JAY CHOU: (as Kato) We'll need a car.
SETH ROGEN: (as Britt Reid/The Green Hornet) Hells, yes. We'll need a car.
CHOU: (as Kato) With some weapons.
ROGEN: (as Britt Reid/The Green Hornet) Hmm.
CHOU: (as Kato) And armor.
ROGEN: (as Britt Reid/The Green Hornet) Cool rims. Spinning rims.
CHOU: (as Kato) I can do that.
ROGEN: (as Britt Reid/The Green Hornet) Kato, I want you to take my hand. I want you to come with me on this adventure.
TURAN: An unexpected death shakes Britt up. He teams with Kato, played by Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou, to form a crime-fighting team that is never quite sure what it's doing.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE GREEN HORNET")
ROGEN: (as Britt Reid/The Green Hornet) Kato, I think this was the greatest moment in my entire life.
CHOU: (as Kato) I know. Mine, too.
TURAN: The performer who looks really lost in these ruins is Cameron Diaz, playing the woman whose affections the boys ineptly battle each other for. Girls are such a bore, the Hornet proclaims at one point - not as much of a bore, however, as a hornet without its sting.
(SOUNDBITE OF "GREEN HORNET" THEME MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Protests from a conservative Catholic group prompted the video to be taken down. Now, New York City's Museum of Modern Art says it had purchased the video and put it on display.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
MONTAGNE: It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Hi, Eleanor.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Hello, Steve.
INSKEEP: What have you seen on the streets in the last few hours?
BEARDSLEY: Right under my window the police beat some protesters with truncheons. I saw it. And now a state of emergency has been declared and it's a frightening situation. It seems to be getting worse and worse.
INSKEEP: What started all this?
BEARDSLEY: So that just set it off.
INSKEEP: We've just got a few seconds here, but isn't this government that's now under pressure - this president, who is under pressure to leave office - an ally of the United States?
BEARDSLEY: Absolutely. Because I guess, you know, he was seen as a bulwark against the Islamist insurgents. So we saw it like that. But the people today say please support us, people, we are not Islamist radicals, we just want a real democracy. And they're asking the West to support the people and no longer this corrupt leader.
INSKEEP: Eleanor Beardsley, thanks for your work throughout the morning. Thank you very much.
BEARDSLEY: Good to talk with you, Steve.
INSKEEP: That's Eleanor Beardsley in Tunis, Tunisia, where there are continuing protests against the long-serving president there.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
Our man Jeff Lunden has the story.
JEFF LUNDEN: As cult classics go, "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T" is definitely one of the kookiest.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DO-MI-DO DUDS")
SIMON: (Singing) I want my undulating undies with the marabou frills; I want my beautiful bolero with the porcupine quills; I want my purple nylon girdle with the orange blossom buds; 'cause I'm going do-mi-do-ing in my do-mi-do duds.
LUNDEN: Singer Michael Feinstein is a fan.
MICHAEL FEINSTEIN: This film definitely has a very large and devoted following. And it's something that people discover and either love it and have this thing for it, or they just don't get it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DO-MI-DO DUDS")
SIMON: (Singing) I want my polka-dotted dickie with the crinoline fringe; for I'm going do-mi-do-ing on a do-mi-do binge.
LUNDEN: Feinstein gets it. He loves the movie, with music by Frederick Hollander and lyrics by Dr. Seuss, so much that he's spent the past 30 years gathering every scrap of music recorded for it. And he found so much material that it fills three CDs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TEN LITTLE FINGERS")
SIMON: (Singing) Ten little dancing maidens dancing oh so fine. Ten happy little fingers and they're mine all mine. They're mine. They're mine.
LUNDEN: "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T" is a Technicolor fantasy - mostly an extended dream sequence of a boy who doesn't want to practice the piano. He imagines a cock-eyed castle where his teacher, now the evil Dr. Terwilliker, has hypnotized his mother and taken 500 boys prisoner so they can play his music on 5,000 key piano.
(SOUNDBITE OF PIANO MUSIC)
FEINSTEIN: This is a movie that was a 1950s sort of homage or sequel, perhaps, to "The Wizard of Oz," in that they wanted to create a very significant children's musical fantasy.
LUNDEN: Unidentified Man #2: (Singing) Push door dungeon. (Unintelligible) simple torture.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ELEVATOR SONG")
FEINSTEIN: The movie was previewed and there was one problem: it scared the heck out of all the little kids. And they ended up cutting half of the musical numbers.
LUNDEN: Mary Healy and Peter Lind Hayes, who were married in real life, starred as the hypnotized mother and the plumber who saves her. Actress Kathy Lind Hayes is their daughter.
KATHY LINDSEY HAYES: My dad had this film at home and he would pull down the projection screen and they always said, oh, we wish we could get a better version - so much has been cut.
LUNDEN: Cut songs, like this one, are featured in the CD set.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU OPEN MY EYES")
MARY HEALY: (Singing) I look to the skies thanking the stars that you're here.
PETER LINDSEY HAYES: (Singing) It seems that my 4th of July came in spring this year...
LUNDEN: The CDs really showcase the music of Frederick Hollander, a German composer probably best known for writing "The Blue Angel," starring Marlene Dietrich. Alan Lareau is writing his biography.
ALAN LAREAU: Frederick Hollander is one of the most unappreciated Hollywood composers of the '30s and '40s, even though he was also very prolific.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LUNDEN: While Lareau likes the songs Hollander wrote for the film, he thinks the composer's best work is in the film's ballet sequence.
LAREAU: The great highlight of the score is the dungeon ballet, where musicians who do not play the piano have been consigned and they burst out of the background in moldy green tatters of their orchestral tuxedos and play us a totally surrealist ballet that's a montage of different styles, playing delightful Seussian instruments.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GEORGE CHAKIRIS: I was a trombone.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
LUNDEN: George Chakiris, who became famous as Bernardo in the film of "West Side Story," made his Hollywood debut - at age 20 - in the dungeon ballet.
CHAKIRIS: For this particular sequence they needed, I believe, it was 60 - six-zero - male dancers. And at that time it was the Screen Extras Guild and there were not that many male dancers in the Guild, so guys who were not members of the Guild were allowed to audition. So, I auditioned and I got the job and I made enough money to actually join the Guild as well. So, it was a good thing.
LUNDEN: The film might've been a good thing for Chakiris, but not so for Theodore Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss. It was a big flop. Alan Lareau says Seuss referred to it as...
LAREAU: The debaculous fiasco.
LUNDEN: But Kathy Lind Hayes found herself at a screening of "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T" in Pasadena a few years ago.
LINDSEY HAYES: Unidentified Man #3: (Singing) (Unintelligible) this time we got together 'cause it's get together weather and in get together weather together is just what we've got to get.
(SOUNDBITE OF "GET TOGETHER WEATHER")
LUNDEN: And Michael Feinstein hopes the CD set will attract some new fans.
FEINSTEIN: This is the first official release of the music, and even though some of it doesn't sound terrific, a lot of it does. And it will sound better than it has ever sounded before. So it's a wonderful feeling after nearly three decades to see this thing in existence.
LUNDEN: For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
James Blunt was a British army captain serving in Kosovo. He saw humanity at some of its worst. When(ph) he became a successful musician, his breakthrough song celebrated humanity at its best, but still had a tug on the heart.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL")
JAMES BLUNT: (Singing) You're beautiful. You're beautiful. You're beautiful, it's true.
SIMON: James Blunt's latest and third album is "Some Kind of Trouble." James Blunt joins us now from our studios in London. Thanks so much for being with us.
BLUNT: It's very good to be here with you.
SIMON: I'm not sure I quite understand that story, how you went from the army into becoming a musician and a heartthrob.
BLUNT: And so I walked into my boss's office, my commanding officer, and I saluted him and said, Colonel, I resign. Here's my demo CD. I'm off.
SIMON: Now, you're from a military family, as I recall, aren't you?
BLUNT: Yeah, yeah. My father was in the army. That's, you know, how I was introduced to it. As a result, I traveled around a lot as a child, from growing up in Cypress in the south of England, in Yorkshire in the north, in Hong Kong. I moved around a lot.
SIMON: I'm just wondering what his reaction was, your family's reaction was like when you said I'm going to give this up to - to chase my muse.
BLUNT: He gave me some really good advice, and I'm so glad he did. He said that to leave the army, which was a steady job with an income and career prospects, then leave it and go into the music business was a gamble. And my response was, well, hey dad, you know, I don't think success should be measured necessarily in finances and how much you make but instead in how much you enjoy it. And he said, you know what, if that's what you're going for, go for your life.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Let's listen to this first song on the album, "Stay the Night."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STAY THE NIGHT")
BLUNT: (Singing) It's 72 degrees, zero chance of rain. Been a perfect day. We're all spinning on our heels, so far away from real. Been to California. We watch sunsets from our car, we (unintelligible) and by the time that it was dark, you and me have something, yeah.
SIMON: This is a very peppy song. And...
BLUNT: Yes. It's happier than I've ever been.
SIMON: And it has the feeling, particularly at the beginning, of somebody from Britain who gets to California and says, wow, the sun shines here. Imagine that.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BLUNT: It's true. I was lucky enough to go and hang out there for the recording of both my first two albums. And I loved the experience there and you can tell that(ph) - exactly that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STAY THE NIGHT")
BLUNT: (Singing) Yeah...
SIMON: Is there some kind of story behind the name, the title of this CD, "Some Kind of Trouble"?
BLUNT: Yeah, really, I think it's just because there's trouble in all the songs, but not necessarily, you know, bad trouble, sad trouble. Lots of the songs talk about the kind of trouble that I would like to be getting into.
SIMON: Such as?
BLUNT: I can leave that to your imagine, but I'm sure it's the same kind as you.
SIMON: For much of your life, were you in the habit of using music, song, to work through things in your life?
BLUNT: To a degree, yeah, I think so. I think, you know, I'm a British man, ex-army, and so we traditionally have no emotion. I think my mother would describe me as emotionally stunted. And so perhaps music has been a great way of finding some form of expression. Because if you ask, you know, an ex-soldier from England how they feel on their worst possible day when their, you know, all their possessions or, you know, emotional ties or people of any meaning have been taken away from them, I think my answer would have to be, I'm fine, thank you.
SIMON: Your mum would call you emotionally stunted? They're usually the ones that recognize the ways in which, you know, we're sensitive and gaping open wounds.
BLUNT: No. I think she beat that out of me from a very early age, but I learned to enjoy the beatings.
SIMON: Oh my word.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SIMON: I don't know whether to take you seriously when you say something like that.
BLUNT: No, I wouldn't, I wouldn't worry for me, I promise.
SIMON: Well, let's listen to another one of your songs. This one is "These Are the Words."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THESE ARE THE WORDS")
BLUNT: (Singing) (Unintelligible) town, we were sweethearts from college. She was always around. We were good for each other but some things, they just don't work out. There were tears in my eyes when she walked way, we had planned to get married someday, but the promises were broken before they were even made. Now I'm dancing with a broken heart, ain't no doctor who can make it stop...
SIMON: Do you have to go back into that place in your heart that's been hurt to write a song like this?
BLUNT: You know, I know some of the words might sound nostalgic and slightly sad, but I think that would be the wrong way of taking them. I see it as a sense of freedom. It's dancing with a broken heart, but it's - it's, you know, dancing's something that's fun. It's about escapism.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THESE ARE THE WORDS")
BLUNT: (Singing) Now I'm dancing with a broken heart, ain't no doctor who can make it stop (unintelligible) now I'm dancing with a broken heart. Ain't no doctor who can make it stop. Singing these are the words that I'm never gonna say again.
SIMON: You were part of a ceremonial regiment in the army at one point, right?
BLUNT: Yes. My regiment is a reconnaissance regiment. I crept around in bushes and fired this very dangerous laser at people during a bombing campaign in Kosovo. But I also then had the option, in my last two years, to come out to London and working alongside all the pomp and ceremony in London, and so I was called the queen's horse guard.
SIMON: It just occurred to me: you would be in the royal wedding that's coming up if you were still in the army.
BLUNT: Yes. If they're bringing out their horse guards themselves, then yeah, I would've been among - in amongst that.
SIMON: And I guess it's still a possibility you could sing at some point during the royal wedding.
BLUNT: I think I'd probably do funerals better than weddings.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Why is that?
BLUNT: I don't know. I think "Goodbye My Lover," it's one of the songs from my first album, which here in the U.K. they had some poll, it was the number one song played at people's funerals.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GOODBYE MY LOVER")
BLUNT: (Speaking) Since then I've done another song, I've done it for divorces - it's called "I'll Take Everything." So I'm trying to cover all the options.
SIMON: So you're a troubadour of death and divorce?
BLUNT: Well, you know, these things happen a lot.
SIMON: Do you have any general opinion about critics you'd like to share with us?
BLUNT: I'm sure they're very nice when they're asleep.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Now, I think you have a gorgeous voice and I like your material. We have to note: some critics don't share my assessment, do they?
BLUNT: No, absolutely. First and foremost, music is about personal taste, and thank God for that. And I'm really lucky that, you know, that I've put some music out and millions of people have enjoyed it. And for that it's great. Some critics have not enjoyed it so much. And you know, would I prefer to have critical acclaim from them or the millions of people who get the albums and turn out for the concerts? I think probably the latter.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Mr. Blunt, good talking to you, sir.
BLUNT: Very good to talk to you too. Thanks for having me.
SIMON: James Blunt, joining us from London. His latest album, "Some Kind of Trouble," is out on Tuesday. To hear more music by James Blunt, you can go to one of our websites, NPRMusic.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOME KIND OF TROUBLE")
BLUNT: (Singing) So many choices, but they're all disappointments and they only steal me away from you. I'm into our private bubble, let's get into all kinds of trouble. Slide over here, let your hands feel the way. There's no better message to communicate...
SIMON: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
NBC: Which is why it's so good to hear...
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "LAW AND ORDER")
STEVEN ZIRNKILTON: In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police who investigate crime...
TV: U.K.")
SIMON: ...and the crown prosecutors who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: "Law and Order: U.K." began its second season this week on BBC America. Dick Wolf is the executive producer. And like the original, it has stories ripped from the headlines, wisecracking cops in trench coats walking into the squad room debating the likes of vegetarian sausages.
TV: U.K.")
BRADLEY WALSH: (as Ronnie Brooks) Mattie, what are you talking about? Sausages are made from meat, not soy. And they certainly ain't made from vegetables.
JAMIE BAMBER: (as Matt Devlin) Why should veggies be denied the pleasure of the sausage roll? And let's face it, Ron, it is half the fat.
WALSH: (as Ronnie Brooks) And half the taste. I'll have you know, I'm at the peak of my fitness.
SIMON: Thanks for being with us.
BAMBER: My very great pleasure, Scott.
SIMON: Thank you for being with us.
WALSH: Hi, Scott.
SIMON: So were you conscious of kind of replicating the wise old cop, cute young cop duo that Jerry Orbach and Benjamin Bratt played for so long?
BAMBER: I speak for myself. I have to say I wasn't really, because I was...
SIMON: You're the cute one.
BAMBER: Oh, am I?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Oh, wait. Is that the wrong thing to say, Mr. Walsh?
WALSH: No, no, that's fine, Scott. He really is the cute one. Don't worry about that. He's very wicked.
BAMBER: Although, you know, I'm sure we have inherited a lot of, you know, what Jerry Orbach and his partner did originally. And we are indebted to them. But, you know, you try and do your own thing - eh, Brad?
WALSH: Absolutely. Having said that, I mean I didn't know the show. I honestly didn't, so there was nothing I could do other than bring what I could to the table, and what the directors told me, and how it worked alongside Jamie. So for me it was very unfamiliar territory.
SIMON: Mr. Walsh, you were once the warm-up act for Tom Jones?
WALSH: Yes, indeed. I was.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
WALSH: And do you know Shirley Bassey? Do you know that singer?
SIMON: Of course. We had the pleasure of interviewing Dame Shirley not long ago. Yes.
WALSH: It just seemed like a good idea at the time. There was nothing else to do.
BAMBER: Oh, you haven't packed in, love. He still makes us laugh when the camera's not rolling there, Scott.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BAMBER: Yeah.
WALSH: But it was something I enjoyed. But, you know, time to move on. It's a young man's game - standup comedy.
SIMON: And yet, of course, you're - the character that you play now, DS Ronnie Brooks is, if anything, he's the dramatic center.
WALSH: Well, I think he's the wizened old mainstay that's the sort of good cop, bad cop type guy you need, I guess. He's seen it all, done it all. He's come through alcoholism and two marriages. And he needs someone young and vibrant and handsome with him to sort of bounce off. And that's why Jamie's there and it's good. It's really good.
SIMON: How do you see your character, Jamie Bamber?
BAMBER: He's very keen to convict people. And Ronnie is a bit slower and a bit more measured, and he's lived life. So that's why they're a good team. I think they have mutually exclusive energies. And they sort of fit together well.
SIMON: Mr. Walsh, you were once a pro football player for British football?
WALSH: Yeah, I was what you'd call a Third Division player. There was the Premier League, the First Division, or the Third Division...
BAMBER: He's very modest, Scott. He played. He played professionally, which is pretty hard to do, 'cause there's a lot of soccer players at home.
WALSH: Considering I only have one leg as well.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
WALSH: That's the most extraordinary thing, quite frankly.
SIMON: You are a great actor.
BAMBER: Didn't your coach tell you that you were on the team because you kept everyone laughing on the bus or something?
WALSH: Yes, that's exactly. That is exactly...
BAMBER: That was one of your primary functions.
WALSH: After that I packed it in and became an actor, oddly enough, and then there wasn't enough work in that and then stand-up comedy.
BAMBER: You've had about five careers, haven't you.
WALSH: I have, yes.
BAMBER: And made a success of each of them. That's very impressive.
WALSH: Well, I don't know about that, mate, not such a success of that. But, yeah, you know, sort a bit about.
SIMON: Does it help, I mean and recognizing that the British approach is different from the American method, but does it help when you've had so many careers when you're playing a kind of knock-around character like Ronnie Brooks, who - Detective Superintendent Ronnie Brooks, who has seen a lot of life?
WALSH: Do you know what, Scott - it's not about that, really. I mean I've, to be honest with you, I've never had an acting lesson. But I've been at drama school for 50 years. And what that means is I'm learning every day. Every person I see has a story to tell. Every day I learn something new, and you know, you go through life's experiences and if you can bring every experience, at some point somewhere in every drama or every story that you have to portray, you will come across an emotion or a feeling you have had some point in your life. And as long as you can go back to that point and that reference, that sort of Rolodex of emotions, then you're sort of halfway there, and alongside yourself and of the other actor who's playing opposite you, and the director, you will come up with what would sort of be the emotion that you need, really, and that's the way I do it.
SIMON: Mr. Bamber, is it fun to be out and filming on the streets of London?
BAMBER: Oh, yeah. I love it. I love it.
WALSH: Yeah.
BAMBER: I mean we don't have the hugest sets. It's "Law and Order" on a budget the way we do it in the UK, inevitably; we're a smaller market. The joy for me is when we get - let loose in the middle of the West End of London. And we don't have - we have a very small crew and we don't shut any streets down and we shoot with cameras on shoulders and pedestrians walk by and they, you know, invariably now and then, you know, a school kid grins at the camera and we have to go again.
WALSH: Yeah.
BAMBER: But we tend to do them in one, you know, whole scenes in one shot.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "LAW AND ORDER: UK")
WALSH: (as Ronnie Brooks) So (unintelligible) can't afford to live in the area anymore?
BAMBER: (as Matt Devlin) They move to areas where they can afford it.
WALSH: (as Ronnie Brooks) What about when that gets gentrified, where do they go then?
BAMBER: And Brad and I get to run off into various little holes in-between, in-between takes and grab a coffee or a nice lunch somewhere.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
WALSH: Yeah.
BAMBER: We're really putting London front and center as the sort of central character of the show. And, yeah, having also been away from London for a while, it was a, you know, real blast for me to do that stuff. I absolutely love that bit and we've had some really great laughs, haven't we?
WALSH: Oh, yeah (unintelligible) yeah. I mean oddly enough, Jay, where I'm speaking to you from now, Bush House on the Aldwych, is right at the bottom of Kingsway, where we just, we filmed (unintelligible) Clements is there, and it's amazing.
BAMBER: There's barely a street left we haven't done something in, you know, in the West End of London.
WALSH: Yeah.
BAMBER: And it's fantastic fun. And Scott Bradley is a very recognizable character at home. Everyone thinks they know...
SIMON: Sure. Coronation Street for you...
BAMBER: Whatever it is, and Bradley has an equally vociferous retort to give, and I just love watching it.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SIMON: A lot of Americans watching this will recognize the street life of a great city in London, as they did in New York. But they'll be thrown by the barristers wearing wigs.
BAMBER: And rightly. It's weird.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BAMBER: It's weird. Why can't the British get over their traditions? Yeah, it's very odd, but that's what we bring to the party, I suppose. We have our own little eccentricities and color that the British legal system, you know, provides. The barristers aren't allowed to walk around the court either, which poses a real problem for the director and cinematographer in terms of how to bring energy to the scenes, because they are rooted to the spot. And there are little things like that. Also they can't, they don't talk directly to the jury very often. But there are certain, yeah, certain little things about our system that are particular and we have to sort of celebrate them, because that's what makes, you know, our show worth doing as opposed to just, you know, airing reruns of the original.
SIMON: Well, gentlemen, thank you both very much. I enjoy your work a lot. It's a great show. So glad we could talk to you.
BAMBER: Thank you.
WALSH: Thank you, Scott. Cheers, mate.
SIMON: Jamie Bamber at NPR West. Bradley Walsh in London. The second season of the "Law and Order: UK" airs Friday nights, 9:00 Eastern and Pacific time, on BBC America.
WALSH: Dum-dum.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
Quick - name some British beverages. There's a pint of ale, cup of tea, but don't forget London dry gin. At one time it really did come from London, and during the gin craze of the 18th century the city's back streets were filled with people making it and guzzling it. Nowadays, most gin is produced by large distilleries outside the capital. But a small band of enthusiasts are bringing the gin industry back to London, as Katie Bilboa reports.
KATIE BILBOA: Inside their garage-cum-workshop sits their master distiller, Jared Brown.
JARED BROWN: Gin was born because King William of Orange in around 1689 proclaimed that distilling would be a great way to use up the surplus of grain in the country.
BILBOA: Brown moved to the U.K. with his British wife after learning to distill gin back in Idaho. He's just finished writing a history of alcohol.
BROWN: In the 1700s, one out of every four habitable structures in Greater London housed a gin still, and a lot of them were not making good gin. Some were making fabulous gin, but others - small pubs - were shoveling sawdust off the floor at the end of the night into the still, and that was killing quite a few people.
BILBOA: So when Sipsmith said they wanted to make high quality gin commercially but on a very small scale, Brown says the bureaucracy was thrown into confusion.
BROWN: It was not a matter of people saying that it couldn't be done, just people saying that it hadn't been done, and they had no idea how to go about doing it.
(SOUNDBITE OF LIQUID POURING)
SAM GALSWORTHY: Prudence here is a thing of copper beauty. She's a small thing. And they always say the best things come in small packages.
BILBOA: On dark wooden shelves nearby sit big glass jars of exotic botanicals. These are the natural ingredients - such as juniper, licorice root and cassia bark - that are added during the distillation process to give the gin a specific flavor.
GALSWORTHY: This is a Macedonian coriander - using one's thumb to grind it in, and then putting your nose into it again. There's a wonderful bit of lavender, there's pineapple almost too; there's citrus in abundance, mint, and some tropical fruits. I mean, ah, it's such glorious...
(SOUNDBITE OF SNIFFING)
BILBOA: They only have an 80-gallon capacity, but Sipsmith already have some pretty exclusive customers, including Harrods and the Dorchester Hotel. It's also sold at the local corner shop, and Jared Brown says the neighbors often pop in to show friends their community distillery.
BROWN: If I leave this world with people drinking better than when I came in, I'll die a happy man.
BILBOA: Katie Bilboa, NPR News, London.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
At their annual retreat yesterday in Baltimore, House Republicans talked about how they'll proceed. NPR's Audie Cornish reports.
AUDIE CORNISH: There were plenty of reminders of the past week's events at this retreat, starting with the large numbers of police and security posted at the meeting hotel. Congressman Peter Roskam of Illinois said the solemn tone was especially pronounced among the 80-plus lawmakers in the freshman class.
PETER ROSKAM: There is a seriousness of purpose that has come with their presence. There's no hubris, there's no triumphalism, there's no chest thumping. These are people who have come to accomplish something.
CORNISH: This time, though, Republicans were playing down their newfound power. Here's GOP Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
ERIC CANTOR: We as Republicans do not control this federal government; the other party does.
CORNISH: Another one of the weekend speakers who had a hand in that earlier takeover, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, reiterated the point.
HALEY BARBOUR: There was a time in 1995 when a lot of people in America seemed to think that we were running the government. In fact, there were some Republicans in Congress who seemed to think we were running the government. I could remember the statement somebody made that Bill Clinton was irrelevant. Well, the Democrats control the Senate, they control the presidency, so we're not running the government. We're not going to be able to, but we can try to stop bad things.
CORNISH: But many Republicans vow to vote against the higher limit in their campaigns. So the GOP is moving carefully, says Florida Congressman Tom Rooney.
TOM ROONEY: Right now, I think everybody's sending a cautionary tone that we're worried about making the vote. That's not what the election was about last November. So, if we can case this vote in a way that sort of also shows our seriousness for getting the debt under control, I think it will be good for our party and good for the country.
CORNISH: Speaking of tone, everyone is talking about toning down the debates in Washington across the board in the aftermath of the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords. Senate Democrat Mark Udall and others are proposing to end the usual partisan divide in the seating of the members for the State of the Union address later this month. Republican Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy says it's an idea worth considering.
KEVIN MCCARTHY: I think the action that you're seeing, where members are now saying, hey yeah, why don't we sit next to one another, we are all one House - that's the action that you'll see. And it doesn't take a call from somebody, 'cause nobody hasn't(ph). I think you're going to find that people are willing to do it and wanting to do it and not because someone's out telling them to do it.
CORNISH: Audie Cornish, NPR News, Baltimore.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
We've met people who consider themselves conservatives who say fine with me if two men want to get married, and people who consider themselves liberals who say just don't mess with my right to own a gun.
G: Because of the people of Tucson, the terrible events in which six people were killed and 13 wounded will not just be remembered as a crime, but for the glimpse Tucson gave us into the resilience of the human soul.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Calexico. You're listening to NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
The new chairman's name is Reince Priebus. And although Republicans won the House in November, Michael Steele's tenure was contentious. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.
DON GONYEA: Finally, on the seventh ballot, Priebus went over the top. Moments later, he addressed the delegates.
REINCE PRIEBUS: I just want to thank God, I want to thank Jesus for this moment. I just - I am so blessed, and I said that to you so many times.
GONYEA: But yesterday was not just about welcoming a new RNC chairman. It was also about saying goodbye to the old one. Michael Steele dropped out after four ballots. He spoke briefly, softly, his voice tinged with emotion.
MICHAEL STEELE: We've done a lot of good things. We've worked hard. We've built the party. But it's very clear, the party wants to do something a little different and hopefully a little bit better. And this is tough because, you know, it is what it is.
GONYEA: During his two years, Steele lost the confidence of the RNC. Former close allies, Reince Priebus among them, turned against him. They criticized his management style. He was in the news too much for the wrong reasons - lavish spending on travel and questionable priorities. And there were fundraising difficulties. Many big donors stayed away, and the organization has racked up a debt that it said yesterday now totals $21 million. But in his concession speech, Steele pointed to the election results in November. He called that his legacy even amid the distractions.
STEELE: Despite the noise, we've had - Lord knows, we've had a lot of noise, haven't we, Jan(ph)? Despite the difficulties, we won.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
GONYEA: Afterward, former RNC chairman and current delegate Mike Duncan of Kentucky said Steele bowed out gracefully, but the change was needed.
MIKE DUNCAN: The party wants to go in a different direction. We've got to bring our major donors back into the party. There's such a big taskforce ahead to pay off the debt and then to get ready for the presidential campaign for the nominee in 2012.
GONYEA: Meanwhile, Tea Party activists applauded the selection of Reince Priebus. In Wisconsin last year he worked with the Tea Party, joining forces to help the GOP carry all of the state's big races. Russ Walker is with Freedom Works, one of the leading organizers in the Tea Party movement.
RUSS WALKER: Some states, you know, you have really this disconnect between the grassroots and the establishment and the party. And you just don't see that in places like Wisconsin, and I think you don't see that with a guy like Reince.
GONYEA: Moments later, out in the lobby, Priebus held his first news conference as chairman. He was asked about the Tea Party, which took on establishment GOP favorites in primaries last year, and which has already been critical of the new GOP leadership on the Hill.
PRIEBUS: I'm part of the grassroots movement. One of the things I've said is that our party is part of the conservative movement in this country. We're not in competition with it. We're going to do it right, we're going to do it together, and we're going to win in 2012. So thank you very much.
GONYEA: Don Gonyea, NPR News, Washington.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
Howard Berkes has the latest in NPR's ongoing investigation of Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine. Howard, thanks so much for being with us.
HOWARD BERKES: Good to be with you.
SIMON: And what kind of safety systems are we talking about and why were they so critical?
BERKES: We're talking about water suppression systems, a fire suppression system that feeds the long wall mining machine in the Upper Big Branch mine that is believed to be the source of this explosion that took place there. This mining machine has a huge cutting tool called a shearer, and these water systems work to keep coal dust down as the shearer cuts into the coal. It works to keep sparks under control as the shearer sometimes hits rock, and it's there if a fire starts, and it's there also if there's some kind of small ignition that starts. These kinds of water systems can kind of keep that controlled and maybe even snuff it out.
SIMON: But there's a lot to suggest they weren't working properly before the explosion.
BERKES: And the bottom line on this is that the theory is that a small fireball, as I mentioned, was created by methane gas hitting sparks on this cutting tool. And so the idea is if all this stuff was working, you know, maybe it would've helped tamper that fireball, quench it, control it.
SIMON: But if they weren't working properly, it set in motion circumstances that could lead to an explosion.
BERKES: This huge explosion happened, went two miles through the mine. Twenty-nine miners were killed.
SIMON: Howard, what's the status of the criminal and civil cases against Massey Energy?
BERKES: And it's basically a wrongful death suit and it was filed by families of two of the victims of the Upper Big Branch explosion. And it cites these facts now in the amended complaint.
SIMON: And how close might investigators be to determining what really caused this terrible tragedy?
BERKES: There are strong indications that they have finished up the underground investigation; they have finished up more than 300 interviews - maybe have a few to go - and we think that perhaps by the first anniversary of this tragedy on April 5, we'll have some reports out that will give us a good sense of what happened. And the information that we've now reported is part of that good sense that they have of what might have taken place.
SIMON: NPR's Howard Berkes, thanks so much.
BERKES: Thank you, Scott.
SIMON: You can find an animated map illustrating possible causes of the Upper Big Branch explosion on our website, NPR.org.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
So now that Verizon's Droid did Droid Does, will the iPhone become the Apple of its eye? Do you think we're doing this story just to feed you a lot of clever wordplay? Our friend from the world of business, Joe Nocera, is in our New York bureau. Joe, thanks very much for being with us.
JOE NOCERA: Thanks for having me, Scott, but I hope the questions are a little...
SIMON: A little more clear than that. Yeah, I know. Oh, I'm exhausted. So, how and why did the Droid surpass the iPhone so quickly?
NOCERA: So the Google operating system, which is Android, has allowed Samsung and Motorola and a lot of other cell phone companies to create iPhone-like devices. They're not quite the iPhone but they're close enough. And that is what Verizon Wireless has really promoted and marketed and its customers have really gone for in a big way, and that has scared Apple, frankly.
SIMON: And that's what made Apple decide that it had to end its exclusive relationship with AT&T?
NOCERA: Now, one of the interesting things about it is that the AT&T contract with Apple is really quite onerous and completely in favor of iPhone and to the detriment to AT&T. The Verizon Wireless contract, from the little we know about it, seems to be much more even-handed. And that kind of shows that Verizon Wireless really was in the driver's seat here.
SIMON: But does the Droid, as a piece of technology, go the way of the 8-track?
NOCERA: Oh, I don't think that will happen at all. First of all, a lot of people are locked into contracts. Second of all, the Android's a pretty good phone. And it does certain things that the iPhone doesn't do. For instance, the phone call doesn't drop. And...
SIMON: Which is considered to be kind of fundamental with a, you know, telephone device.
NOCERA: And I might add, if the battery wears down, you can replace it, which you can't do with an iPhone. There will be tons of people who get the iPhone, but I think the Android has the potential to go toe-to-toe with it for quite a while.
SIMON: But with, we assume, more customers over the horizon for Verizon, if I might put it that way.
NOCERA: You just won't stop, will you?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SIMON: I'm on a tear now. Can the Verizon network handle the increased volume?
NOCERA: So, first of all, that will be tested. Second of all, what happens in the tech world is they keep coming up with more and more apps, more and more complicated apps, more and more apps that use more data. So Verizon is going to have to, you know, keep expanding the network, it's going to have to keep getting better to keep things from breaking down.
AT: AT&T always gets blamed for everything bad that happens to the iPhone. It's all AT&T's fault. But the truth is, if you actually look into it a little bit, some of the problems have been created by iPhone flaws as well. And so one of the things that's going to happen here is that if there are phone problems, it's going to be a lot harder for Apple to blame it all on Verizon the way they have always been able to blame it all on AT&T.
SIMON: Joe Nocera writes the Talking Business column for the New York Times. Joe, thanks for being with us, whatever technology.
NOCERA: Thank you, Scott.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
Our friend and fellow broadcaster Richard Glover joins us from the studios of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney. Richard, thanks so much for being with us.
RICHARD GLOVER: Scott, it's a pleasure. I was thinking about the last time I got the chance to talk to you and it was from the Victorian bushfires, the like of which we'd never even seen in Australia, and 173 people died. And I talked to you about the devastation of that day, and here we are two years later and we're talking about flooding in Victoria, in New South Wales, and most dramatically in Queensland.
SIMON: Help us understand what this has meant to people.
GLOVER: People have talked about the 10, 20, 30 Olympic swimming pools a second coming down, this kind of enormous force of water. The cleanup is beginning but the devastation has been incredible.
SIMON: Richard, is this cycle of drought and flooding something that Australians know well?
GLOVER: Hmm. You know, there's been a debate about global warming and, you know, I guess most people think it probably - it probably is worse and it may have an impact. But yes, it is something which we are used to.
SIMON: And the curious thing about the floods, of course, is even though they're terrible and destructive, they also bring with them - in some parts of the country - this incredible life. I mean the desert has bloomed in this amazing way, wildflowers through the desert. Almost biblical lushness comes to the inland of Australia.
SIMON: You know, Richard, we still hear from people about our conversation in 2009, about the wildfires and what happened to koalas, who are - well, who are beloved figures, I think, in America, as well as Australia. How are they doing? How are the animals doing?
GLOVER: Well, you know, you'd want to be up a tree, wouldn't you? Like a koala. I mean, again, the animal life is such a part of Australia, isn't it? Because the rains brought mice, because there was suddenly all this lush growth, the mice brought snakes. And so one of the problems for the poor people of Queensland is that just as they've have been trying to cope with all the mud sluicing around their house and the water, they've found the one dry room in the house and - guess what - there's a few other visitors there too.
SIMON: Thanks so much, Richard.
GLOVER: Thank you, Scott.
: Thanks for being with us.
PARKE KUNKLE: Thank you, Scott. It's a pleasure to be here.
: First, I've always wanted to begin an interview this way. What's your sign?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
KUNKLE: I usually tell people I'm a vegetarian.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
: Now, I also have to ask. This 13th sign you've come up with - Ophiuchus?
KUNKLE: Ophiuchus, yes.
: A guy in my line of work could get into an awful lot of trouble trying to pronounce it.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
KUNKLE: I understand. It's tough enough for us astronomers to do it.
: Why was this called for? What was wrong with the Babylonian calendar?
KUNKLE: But today the sun is in Sagittarius. And it's just due to the wobble or the precession of the Earth's axis.
: How new is this wobble? I mean has...
KUNKLE: Right.
: ...have we always wobbled or is this just something since the Mets won the World Series in 1969?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
KUNKLE: That could have caused a little wiggle and wobble. The Earth has been precessing, wobbling like this, for billions of years. We just, as humans, found out about it in about 130 B.C. And basically astronomers and astrologers have been talking about it ever since.
: For people who believe in it, does this render every horoscope moot?
KUNKLE: I think probably not. Astrologers aren't really using the actual position of the sun in the real constellation. So I don't think it's going to change anything in astrology. But the sun actually goes through Ophiuchus for about 18 days in December, so it'd be kind of fun to be born in early December. You could be an Ophiuchan then.
: I wonder if the word had been minted. I don't mind telling you, it could be fun to tell someone I'm an Ophiuchan.
KUNKLE: It actually could be. And Ophiuchus is a serpent-bearer so I can imagine all sorts of stories.
: Thanks very much for being with us.
KUNKLE: (Soundbite of song, "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In"
THE FIFTH DIMENSION: (Singing) And love will steer the stars. This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. Age of Aquarius. Aquarius...
: This NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
Unidentified People (Singing) Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can...
(SOUNDBITE OF "SPIDERMAN" THEME SONG)
SIMON: Except open on Broadway. "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" has delayed its opening for the fifth time, the show's producers announced this week. Four people have been injured during rehearsals and previews since last November. Inspectors are examining the show's safety procedures. It takes a lot of modern technology to get Spidey to fly. The producers say that the increased preview period will allow for more technical rehearsals.
U: Unidentified People (Singing) Whenever there's a hang up you'll find the Spider-Man.
(SOUNDBITE OF "SPIDERMAN" THEME SONG)
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
A week ago today, a deranged man with a gun tried to kill Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. When his rampage was over, six people were dead and 13 were wounded. Congresswoman Giffords is recovering from a gunshot to the head. And as NPR's Ted Robbins reports, the city of Tucson is also recovering.
TED ROBBINS: Things like that don't happen here. That's a common response to inexplicable tragedy in a community. But the point is, the shooting did not just happen in Tucson, it happened to Tucson, and Tucson is trying to get its strength back.
GRACE PARRA: It's just going to take one day at a time and, you know, just be there, you know, be there for each other.
ROBBINS: Grace Parra is at Buddy's Bazaar on the playground of Walter Douglas Elementary School on Tucson's west side. It's a monthly gathering where low income families get food from the Tucson community food bank.
ALYSSA CESAR: Squash and oranges. Lemons are good.
ROBBINS: Unidentified Woman: So what you're going to do is (unintelligible) as you can, okay?
ROBBINS: Members of the University of Arizona swim team are helping the kids make glass and clay tiles for a big school mosaic. It was Jeannette Mare's idea. She runs a non-profit called Ben's Bells, which promotes kindness.
JEANNETTE MARE: With every of kindness you do, you're helping to heal this community. So if people can think about the people that we've lost, the people who died and the people that are injured, and in their honor do kindness wherever they are, and that that is no small thing.
ROBBINS: It's no small thing to heal when kids like seven-year-old Joey Parra(ph), Grace's son, are still asking questions about the shooting like this...
JOEY PARRA: She was just walking and then stopped and he just came up to her and shot her?
ROBBINS: Gabby Giffords was walking with constituents when she got shot. And Walter Douglas principal Tamara McAllister says talking is one way the school has been dealing with the tragedy.
TAMARA MCALLISTER: Because when they get their feelings and their questions out, they feel safer and they feel better, and that's what we're here to do.
ROBBINS: Taber MacCallum is a friend of Giffords, and head of Paragon Space Development, a Tucson aerospace company. He says that's one reason the city has responded by opening rather than closing itself off.
TABER M: It's all of our experience, rather than being a sort of a circle the wagon thing, I, you know, I need to hide this piece of shame.
ROBBINS: MacCallum is starting a fund in Giffords' honor to promote leadership in the space industry. He says it's one of many ways to channel energy into something positive to repair Tucson's image, and to promote civil discourse.
CALLUM: Well, I do think there's an opportunity to have Tucson seen or known as the beginning of the change, or the agent of change.
ROBBINS: For those directly involved, of course, healing is tough. Jacqueline Jackson used to work for Gabby Giffords. Last Saturday she was shopping at the Safeway near her home and talking with the Congresswoman's staff. She left to get her cell phone in her car, and the shooting began in front of her.
JACQUELINE JACKSON: The images are just locked in my brain, certainly. And it does comes back. It's been real - it's been hard to sleep, and I haven't been able to eat much at all.
ROBBINS: Jackson says she's simultaneously feeling bone-deep sorrow for those who were lost and profound gratitude that she is alive and that Gabby Giffords seems to be recovering. But she says along with the horrifying scene, there's another image which comes to her.
JACKSON: I think of this image of a tree that's hit by lightening, and that lightning's hit and the tree keeps growing, but it grows sideways or it goes around what this wound is. And at some level I think all of us, you know, were hit by lightening.
ROBBINS: Ted Robbins, NPR News, Tucson.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
We're joined by Eric Deggans, television and media critic for the St. Petersburg Times. He joins us from his newspaper in Florida. Mr. Deggans, thanks so much for being with us.
ERIC DEGGANS: Thank you for having me.
SIMON: Has heated rhetoric become a format?
DEGGANS: Oh, yes. It's a format that earns millions of dollars for several people, particularly in cable news, and particularly on talk radio. Contentious political debate is what fuels ratings and what earns big profits.
SIMON: In the wake of the shootings in Tucson, were there some comments about the vitriol that were in a sense vitriolic in themselves?
DEGGANS: Yeah. I'm thinking in particular of Bill O'Reilly, who took on the New York Times saying that they were demonizing conservatives when - and cited a line from a New York Times editorial that actually said that the contentious debate about the healthcare law, the new healthcare legislation, increased death threats against Democratic lawmakers, which was, you know, true.
SIMON: People have observed over the past few years, for example, that, you know, this just didn't happen when 63 million people watched Walter Cronkite every night. But I don't know, hasn't colorful and even intemperate speech been a part of politics and journalism?
DEGGANS: And we've reached a point where we can't agree on object facts. We can't agree on things that typically we used to be able to agree on, even when we were at our most contentious. You know, you can't necessarily say that this shooting was inspired by political rhetoric, but certainly it's a wake-up call that can make you take another look at what's happening, and take some sort of corrective action.
SIMON: You mentioned Bill O'Reilly. Keith Olbermann over on MSNBC, who kind of baits Bill O'Reilly often on his broadcast, he seemed to own up to maybe using some intemperate speech.
DEGGANS: So while I agree with him, and I'm glad that he's willing to put that out there on the table publically, it's easier for him to do that because it fits his brand as a commentator.
SIMON: I was interested in something you wrote this week in answer to people that say, look, this is just talk, it's just rhetoric, there's no proof that rhetoric leads to action.
DEGGANS: Right. Well, what I noticed is that we have an entire free broadcasting media system built on the idea that media images promote specific action. That's the point of commercials on television, the idea that you present a product in an attractive way and it makes people want to buy it. And so if that is good enough to fuel an $8 billion TV commercial industry and pay, by the way, the salaries of Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow and everybody else who works on free television, then certainly that notion might be something that we might want to think about when it comes to the kind of really extreme rhetoric that we've seen out there.
SIMON: For a number of reasons, maybe because it simply entertaining, do we exaggerate the influence of cable news outlets? And I ask because just a fraction of the number of people that watch Brian Williams or Diane Sawyer every night, or for that matter tune to NPR, are actually watching the cable news services.
DEGGANS: Yeah, that's true. I do think that we tend to over- emphasize their impact, because us commentators and media people and journalists, we have these cable channels playing in our newsrooms and in our offices all day. But I will also say that these channels tend to be watched by people who are more likely to vote. These channels tend to be watched by people who are more likely to have standing in their community. They set the tone for the debate that filters down into the community in other ways. So it's important to keep an eye on it.
SIMON: So I don't have to tell you, Eric, nothing gets on the air these days without going through focus groups. I don't mean individual remarks so much as formats and approaches to programming and that sort of thing. So is the media just providing what the people want and the people don't realize they're getting effected by or are people constructing this for themselves?
DEGGANS: Oh, I don't think there's any doubt that the audience has voted, and they prefer, particularly in prime time, on cable news and in talk radio, they prefer these formats where there's this contentious debate. But again, you know, if you let people, I'm sure they would drive any speed they wanted to on the roads, you know. But we all decided sort of as a society that it's important to have speed limits. And I'm not suggesting a law like a speed limit, but what I'm saying is, we all agree that even though we would like to have as much freedom as possible, sometimes it makes sense for us all to observe some limits for the common good.
SIMON: Eric Deggans, television media critic at the St. Petersburg Times and he writes a popular media blog called "The Feed." Thanks so much.
DEGGANS: This was really enjoyable. Thank you very much.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
Eleanor, thanks for being with us.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: With pleasure, Scott.
SIMON: And help us understand what life is like there in Tunis since the departure of President Ben Ali and what people are saying and doing.
BEARDSLEY: I did talk to a couple people and it seems mixed right now. Some people are very happy. They say we're going to have the democracy we wanted. They're so happy that Ben Ali has fled. But others are fearful because they see that there's been looting and, you know, a lot of stores were burned. The train station was burned last night. And so they fear that there could be a clamp-down even harder now. One thing is sure - there are a lot of police out, so it's still very, very tense.
SIMON: Yesterday Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi said that he'd temporarily take over for the president. But I gather that now seems to be in doubt. So what's the direction of the leadership of the country?
BEARDSLEY: That's right. Apparently that would have maybe given the possibility for Ben Ali to come back. What happened is that's not in the constitution. Now the speaker of the House, a person called Fouad Mebazaa, is going to take over. And it's in Tunisia's constitution, there must be elections within 60 days. So I spoke with actually someone who's head of one of the main opposition parties. He's been in Paris for 10 years. He is very excited. He's coming back, he said, Tuesday, and he's going to run to be in the government. He says if there are real and fair elections and they go by our constitution, this is fine. And he says with the speaker of the House in charge and elections in 60 days, that is completely in line with what they should do with the constitution.
SIMON: Eleanor, how does this affect the region potentially?
BEARDSLEY: Well, you know, I was reading and it said the last time a leader in the Arab world was chased from power was in 1985 in the Sudan. So this time around there's Al Arabiya, there's Al-Jazeera - everyone has been watching it nonstop on these cable channels. There's actually an Egyptian guy staying in our hotel and he says this is big, this is sort of a wake-up call. You know, Arab leaders realize - because a lot of them are also keeping their populations clamped down, there's corruption, it's the same thing. There's a lot of young people unemployed. So they're nervously watching this and they know their populations are seeing it, so they are taking heed. I mean it could be a lesson for them. So people are - you know, for the first time all the Arab world is watching what's going on in the neighboring countries, so they're definitely going to draw some lessons from what happened in Tunisia.
SIMON: And what should we watch for next?
BEARDSLEY: Well, I spoke to this opposition leader again and he said what's going on right now - and I felt this, Scott - is the police of Ben Ali are trying to create fear and chaos on the streets with the looting and things. And I was actually interrogated by - he looked like a civilian but it was one of these young police. They want Ben Ali to come back, which isn't going to happen, but they're trying to sew chaos to make it look like the country can't live without him, to make it look like thugs overthrew the regime. And so right now it's really insecure out there on the streets. But what we're looking for next is, you know, the speaker of the House to probably talk to the nation and for them to set an election date and for the violence to calm down and for people to go about living again. But right now it's still very tense. People are waiting to see what's going to happen next.
SIMON: Eleanor Beardsley in Tunis. Thanks so much.
BEARDSLEY: Great to be with you, Scott.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
NPR's Peter Kenyon is in Beirut, where he found the Lebanese gift for breezy adaptability to crisis tempered with anxiety for the future.
PETER KENYON: As the saying goes in this gorgeous, war-battered Mediterranean capital, no government, no problem.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KENYON: At a cafe in the Hamra neighborhood, television host Sawsan al Sayed threads her way between tables laden with coffee, cocktails and water pipes to explain the proper way to respond to a government that disappears.
SIMON: (Through translator) The Lebanese are used to this situation. Like one day there's a government, one day there isn't a government. They accept everything and they're flexible. And they wait and see.
KENYON: The secretary general of the March 14th Movement, Faris Souhaid, says the March 8th opposition wanted Lebanon to denounce and withdraw funding from the international tribunal before indictments are issued. He says March 14th refused because he believes the indictments will show that Hezbollah, which considers itself a resistance force against Israel, broke its pledge never to turn its weapons against its own people.
SIMON: I think that after the indictment there is no division between 8 and March 14. The division will be between murderers and victims.
KENYON: Back at the cafe, TV host Sawsan Sayed, who works for an Arab women's channel, ponders the question: What do Lebanese women want to see from the next government?
SIMON: Women in Lebanon cares about beauty, not more. They don't like politics. And they hate politic man.
KENYON: Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Beirut.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
Thanks so much for being with us.
BRUCE RIEDEL: It's a pleasure to be here.
SIMON: And what does this assassination say about Pakistan at the moment?
RIEDEL: Pakistan is today probably the most dangerous country in the world - a uniquely combustible place where issues like the future of Islam, the future of democracy, but also nuclear weapons, nuclear war, terrorism, all come together in one place.
SIMON: And let me hone in on that phrase uniquely combustible, because I know that you even mean it in all senses. Does it concern you that at a time when the United States and other powers are assured don't worry about Pakistan's nuclear weapons because they are in the hands of people who have been vetted and are trustworthy, that somebody who was a member of this elite protective force, who was vetted and trustworthy, should apparently take this action?
RIEDEL: Oh, I think it's very concerning. We now know, reading the Pakistani press, that this individual on 18 occasions in the last year served as the bodyguard for either the president or the prime minister of Pakistan. This man, who had a known proclivity for Islamic extremism, if that's how good the vetting process is for bodyguards, it raises serious questions about the vetting process in the nuclear weapons program.
SIMON: And help us read the significance of something like this. It is reported that not a single registered mullah in the city of Lahore was willing to read Mr. Taseer's funeral prayers because they were too scared.
RIEDEL: The assassination of Mr. Taseer is bad enough, but it's the reaction to the assassination which is really disturbing. The assassin has been honored. The murdered governor has been generally forgotten, and no one in Pakistan is speaking out for him. In other words, in this battle for the soul of Pakistan, the Islamic extremists have scored an important victory in intimidating their opponents in the last couple of weeks.
SIMON: Mr. Riedel, I think anybody listening would be struck by the fact that what you seem to be describing is a kind of civil war. Not north against south, east against west, but almost block by block.
RIEDEL: It may not be full-scale civil war yet, but it's certainly approaching civil war. And a battle that now rages not just in the extreme northwest tribal zones, which we hear about all the time - the Waziristans - but in every major Pakistani city.
SIMON: Of course, we note that President Zardari traveled to the United States this week. Is the United States talking to the wrong person?
RIEDEL: My point is it's important to bear in mind with all of Pakistan's problems that there are civilian leaders. There's a civil society. There's a middle class that wants to get back to that vision of a moderate, modern Pakistan. We should recognize they're in the struggle of their lifetime. That struggle is immensely important to us. And we need to help those who want to build a modern Pakistan, not an Islamic emirate aligned with al-Qaida.
SIMON: Bruce Riedel, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, thanks so much.
RIEDEL: My pleasure.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
Richard Holbrooke made the language of diplomacy blunt, and often famously profane. He stared straight across the table at Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic and called him a war criminal - a real profanity. Mr. Holbrooke helped bring in the NATO airstrikes against Serbian guns that had strangled Sarajevo for four years. They drove Serbia into peace talks. At yesterday's memorial, President Obama said...
BARACK OBAMA: He understood American power in all its complexity and believed that when it is applied with purpose and principle, it can tip the scales of history.
SIMON: President Obama announced that a new American award for diplomacy will be named for him.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday will be celebrated on Monday, would've turned 82 today. A new honor for Dr. King is set to open in Washington, D.C. in August - s $120 million memorial, paid for mostly with private and corporate donations. NPR's Allison Keyes recently toured the site and she has this report.
ALLISON KEYES: A blast of winter weather this week left the site muddy and a little slippery. But the major features on this four-acre site are in place - and if you close your eyes, you can almost hear the rustling of the 185 cherry trees that are being planted here.
HARRY JOHNSON: If you look to your left, that's the part of the south wall...
KEYES: Memorial Foundation president Harry Johnson led a tour through the site - beginning with the path that will lead through the sculpture called the Mountain of Despair. He loves the stone and urged visitors to touch it.
JOHNSON: This is granite. And if you look at the tone of the granite - beige in color, brown and black speckles - resembling a person of color.
KEYES: Looking through the mountain - which is split into two pieces - you see a third stone - called the Stone of Hope. The concept comes from Dr. King's legendary "I Have a Dream" speech - as he spoke about his faith that one day the races would join together as sisters and brothers.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARTIN LUTHER KING: With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
KEYES: Once past the mountain, visitors will follow the sweeping arc of the inscription wall - a tapering crescent containing 14 of Dr. King's quotes.
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
KEYES: Washington, D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton read part of one of the inscriptions aloud. She's a longtime civil rights activist, and was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial behind Dr. King as he spoke. Norton says this memorial is what the nation needs, even if it is beyond what an unpretentious man would've wanted.
HOLMES NORTON: This is not simply a memorial to King. It's a memorial to the movement he led, and that is how he would regard it. One has to really come to grips with the deep humility of this man. He would never have wanted a memorial like this.
KEYES: This memorial, says Washington, D.C. Mayor Vince Gray, and King's beliefs, will inspire young people - especially since we live in a world of violence.
VINCE GRAY: What we hope is that those who are role models in the lives of our children - especially their parents - will bring them down here and help them understand the significance of these words and help them understand who this man was.
KEYES: Allison Keyes, NPR News, Washington.
SIMON: This is NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, Host:
Time for sports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Morning, Howard.
HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott. You're in all of your glory playing a team that doesn't have a winning record in the playoffs. I hope you're happy.
SIMON: Seattle - actually, I'm very happy about that part. But, you know, Seattle looked good next(ph) week. But first, let's not talk about my obsessions but about yours.
BRYANT: Fine.
SIMON: In the AFC, the Jets and the New England Patriots - these are two teams who know each other, don't like each other. I just got a good tweet from Scott Edward Anderson, who asked: Does Rex Ryan have Tom Brady's number?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BRYANT: Well...
SIMON: I don't think he means his cell phone number.
BRYANT: And even when you've got this blowout game the last time, you're thinking that, OK, it's not going to end here. Of course there's going to be round three in the playoffs. And it will be a great culmination for either team. One team loves to shut the other one up.
HBO: If you like rivalries like I do - I'm not a big Cinderella guy; I like teams that have been beating each other up for years going at it for the big prize - it's your weekend. Not a Cinderella guy at all.
SIMON: Oh, I can tell. Well, listen, Captain Bligh, over at the NFC we've got Matt Ryan and the Falcons, who have the best record, obviously; Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. Those seem to be surging. They're on a roll.
BRYANT: And then, of course, there's...
SIMON: But that was before Jay Cutler was playing.
BRYANT: And then, of course, there's the Chicago Bears. There's Jay Cutler, where everyone looks at their defense. They look at the Bears. They look at the wins.
SIMON: Devin Hester. I'm naming my daughters Devin and Hester for the weekend.
BRYANT: So it's a really great contrast. AFC - old school rivalries. NFC - you've got somebody trying to say, hey, look at us, we deserve to be here, we're the best team.
SIMON: Thanks so much.
BRYANT: Scott, you've got to win this weekend.
SIMON: Oh, yeah. You bet. I'm trying. I'm doing my part.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
NPR's Daniel Zwerdling made a foray into the New York kitchen of a mother and daughter duo whose dishes are inspired by the time they spent in Tuscany.
DANIEL ZWERDLING: Some mothers and daughters both love to knit. Some mothers and daughters love to play tennis. Sara Jenkins and her mother both live and breathe food. Sara's written a cookbook, maybe you've seen her on TV.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "BEYOND THE DISH")
STEPHEN FRIED: Hey, welcome to "Beyond the Dish." We have a very special day for you today. We'll be meeting with Chef Sara Jenkins from the acclaimed Porchetta Restaurant in the East Village.
SARA JENKINS: Unidentified Man: How are you?
JENKINS: How are you?
ZWERDLING: Sara's mother is Nancy Harmon Jenkins. She's been writing cookbooks and articles about cooking since Sarah was a kid. So, it seemed like it'd be the most natural thing in the world to ask mother and daughter to cook together. We went to Sara's apartment. She has one of those tiny New York kitchens, like a postage stamp.
JENKINS: Oh, look at that. A lovely cast iron pan.
ZWERDLING: Sara's going to teach us how to make long, fat bucatini noodles tossed with caramelized purple cabbage.
JENKINS: Cut the cabbage in half. And then I'm going to slice it nice and thin.
ZWERDLING: And then she'll add walnuts and bacon and breadcrumbs.
JENKINS: I like to fry my breadcrumbs in olive oil and I like to season them with garlic and parsley and a little bit of chili. So, I'm just going to chop it all up.
ZWERDLING: And finally, she'll stir in a healthy stream of cream. Meanwhile, her mother Nancy's going to make a salad.
JENKINS: Do we have some parsley in here?
NANCY HARMON JENKINS: I bought parsley for my salad. Do you want it for yours?
JENKINS: I want some parsley.
HARMON JENKINS: Well, you can have some but not all of it. All right?
ZWERDLING: And as they dice and slice together, it doesn't take long to realize that this mother and daughter have a powerful bond - and the usual mother- daughter tension. In fact, Sara says her mother tried to discourage her from going into the restaurant business.
JENKINS: She said don't just become a cook.
HARMON JENKINS: I never said anything of the kind. Never, ever.
ZWERDLING: Nancy Harmon Jenkins used to be married to a foreign correspondent. So, the family lived in England and Spain.
HARMON JENKINS: And then a year and a half in France and then back to Madrid again and then to Beirut.
ZWERDLING: Then they moved to Rome and they bought an ancient farmhouse in Tuscany, in a steep mountain valley. That was back in 1971. But Nancy says in some ways, it was like the 1800s.
HARMON JENKINS: Our next door neighbors, whom we got to know very quickly, they had no running water inside the house.
JENKINS: We didn't have a telephone until 1981, I think.
HARMON JENKINS: We had what we called a valley telegraph. Somebody would call me at the bottega up on the main road, which was the shop on the main road. A person would call and would say I'd like to speak to Senora Jenkins please. And they would say, oh, senora, (unintelligible). And it would go back and forth all the way down the valley until it got to me. I would jump in my chinquchento(ph), drive up the road, pick up the telephone and say, pronto.
ZWERDLING: And let's just pause talking for a while. What do you do next?
JENKINS: We're going brown the bacon and let all the fat sort of render out of it and then we'll brown the cabbage in that fat.
ZWERDLING: Some of Sara's first food memories are from that valley in Tuscany. Every summer, everybody in the valley had a harvest festival right after they threshed the wheat.
JENKINS: And everybody sat down under a grape arbor because they all still had grape arbors then. And this incredible feast came out very simple, all food made by them, you know. Olive oil from their trees, bread from their grain.
HARMON JENKINS: Prosciutto from their pigs.
JENKINS: ...from their pigs with cantaloupe melons that came out of their garden. Pasta would be eggs from their chickens.
ZWERDLING: You're forgetting the wine, I think.
JENKINS: Oh, and the wine, yeah. But I was eight.
HARMON JENKINS: Are you going to put the rest of that cabbage in too?
JENKINS: Yeah, but I'm not ready yet.
ZWERDLING: Mother, stop pushing.
JENKINS: Please, mother. I can do it myself.
ZWERDLING: Sara's raising her eyebrows.
JENKINS: So, I'm going to add the walnuts and the rosemary now.
HARMON JENKINS: We had walnut trees in Tuscany.
ZWERDLING: Finally, almost everything comes together in that cast iron pan - melted cabbage, crispy bacon, the walnuts and herbs. Sara stirs in some cream.
JENKINS: Organic cream.
ZWERDLING: Now, if people were wanting to cut down a little more on fat in this dish, could they leave out the cream?
JENKINS: You could totally leave out the cream.
HARMON JENKINS: I mean, use low-fat cream, why not?
JENKINS: I don't know if that would work.
ZWERDLING: So, when did the two of you start cooking together?
HARMON JENKINS: We never really cook together.
ZWERDLING: Really?
HARMON JENKINS: Yeah. I mean, I'm a very...
JENKINS: She's a very controlling person and I am also a very controlling person.
HARMON JENKINS: It's hard for two controlling people to work in the kitchen together.
ZWERDLING: I do detect, I think, a teeny bit of mother-daughter...
HARMON JENKINS: Rivalry?
ZWERDLING: ...rivalry in the kitchen.
HARMON JENKINS: Well, I don't think it really is rivalry. I'm very proud of Sara. I don't get to say this very often but I really think she's done a fantastic thing. She's a much better cook than I am. I probably know a lot more about food than she does, on the other hand.
ZWERDLING: And now Sara drains the pasta that's been roiling in a big pot.
JENKINS: OK. Now, one has to eat immediately because pasta has to be eaten when it's hot.
ZWERDLING: Force me. And so what do you call it? What's the Italian name?
JENKINS: There is no Italian name for this. It's not Italian.
ZWERDLING: For NPR News, I'm Daniel Zwerdling.
HANSEN: And, by the way, Sara Jenkins is the daughter of NPR's senior foreign editor Lauren Jenkins and you can find the recipe you just heard at npr.org.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
NPR's David Welna reports.
DAVID WELNA: California Democrat Jane Harman used her time at the podium, though, to suggest Congress actually do something.
JANE HARMAN: We should revisit sensible federal laws to control access to guns and ammunition. At a minimum, I believe we must promptly restore the expired federal ban on extended magazine clips.
WELNA: The lawmaker who's leading the efforts to reinstate the ban on large-capacity magazines is New York Democrat Carolyn McCarthy. Seventeen years ago, it was another gunman using such magazines who killed McCarthy's husband and seriously wounded her son on the Long Island Railroad.
CAROLYN MCCARTHY: What I'm trying to do is not take away the right of someone to own a gun, but just basically look at the large-capacity clips. And people have to remember that the gun that they use can still have a clip in it - 10 bullets and one in the chamber, that's 11 bullets. So if you're using it for self-defense at home, there's plenty of ammo there for them.
WELNA: McCarthy plans to reintroduce a bill this week that outlaws large-volume bullet magazines. For Texas Republican Kevin Brady, it's a lost cause.
KEVIN BRADY: I'm not supportive of it and I don't think it will gain much traction in the House.
WELNA: Like Brady, Indiana Republican Mike Pence says what happened in Tucson should not be blamed on a public policy that needs fixing.
MIKE PENCE: I think what we had here was a despicable human being who engaged in a barbarous act against defenseless civilians and a deeply respected colleague. And I think we should focus on holding that individual to account.
WELNA: New Jersey Democrat Rush Holt, who's co-sponsoring McCarthy's bill, says to say Congress has no responsibility to act is naive.
RUSH HOLT: Yes, there are crazy people out there - all the more reason why we should have gun safety legislation.
WELNA: But it's not just Republicans putting the brakes on reinstating the high-capacity magazine ban. Texas Democrat Silvestre Reyes says, as a former Border Patrol chief, he can see a point in such a ban.
SILVESTRE REYES: But I really don't think right now is the right time. We need to make sure that the political climate is settled, a little more settled than right after an attack on a member of Congress. You know, I just don't think it's going to go anywhere.
WELNA: Congresswoman McCarthy says there's a reason why so many of her fellow Democrats balk at tightening gun laws.
MCCARTHY: It's called the NRA. They have a lot of power down here. And a lot of members here are petrified of them, that they will basically go against them in an election and make that member lose.
WELNA: David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Here's Ricky Gervais in an interview in 2004 after he received those first Golden Globe nominations. And I wanted to know how he would handle the red carpet.
M: Oh, I don't like that sort of thing. I feel so self-conscious. And even the word celebrity is mildly embarrassing to me. The good thing is that no one knows who I am. They probably think I'm a waiter.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: So I'm going to wear a red jacket, and then I think the people will leave me alone, definitely. That's it. In fact, I'm looking forward to some anonymity again, because I can't even go shopping for pants now without people looking in my basket.
HANSEN: And Ricky Gervais joins us. Welcome back to the program.
M: Hello. It's like I'm head waiter now.
HANSEN: Yeah. (Laughing) Rather than just waiter.
M: I've come a long way.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
HANSEN: Yeah, exactly.
M: Yeah.
HANSEN: So is stardom everything you thought it would be?
M: And the plus side of fame is you get a table at a restaurant. You know, there's no queue. You know -
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: You go through a special door at the airport. I've met my heroes. You know, there are obviously plus sides to being recognized but I think that - I hope to think that the reasons I get to work with my heroes is 'cause they respect my work, as opposed to they've just seen my face on the telly for something.
HANSEN: Yeah. Of the heroes you have met, which one left you speechless?
M: Well, I don't think I've ever been speechless.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: Well, Elmo.
HANSEN: Elmo?
M: David Bowie was always a hero, which was just incredible to - I mean, I wrote a song with David Bowie.
HANSEN: Right, in your show "Extras," right?
M: Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, it's strange. You know, it's like, just did a cameo in the Muppet movie. I'm worried I'm dying and the doctors got together with everyone in Hollywood and said, just let him do what he wants.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: He's not going to...
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: Just let him do anything. Let him be in all his favorite TV shows. I've been in the, you know, "The Simpsons," "Family Guy." I've just done a thing for "Curb Your Enthusiasm." "The Office" was a hit in America...
HANSEN: Oh, yeah.
M: If any directors are out there, I'm not an action hero.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: Okay, that is my pitch to Scorsese or Spielberg.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
HANSEN: I was a big fan of your series "Extras," simply because I think you just told it like it is on a movie set in a very, very funny way. But I've read you're working on a new comedy called "Life's Too Short."
M: Yeah.
HANSEN: Can you tell us something about that?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: So yeah, we're working on that now and we're filming that in May, June. And I'll certainly be recruiting at the Golden Globes for a few A-listers to pop up like they did in "Extras."
HANSEN: No doubt. You know, you're in a perfect position to take us backstage at the Golden Globes 'cause, of course, we only see what we see on TV. First of all, as the host, do you get better perks than the nominees or the presenters?
M: I can do anything.
HANSEN: Yeah?
M: I can have people ejected from the building if they look at me the wrong way.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: It doesn't matter who they are. I could...
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: No. It's, you know, I'd be lying if I still didn't, sort of like a smile come across my face when I see a little icon walk up to me and say hello. It's crazy. You know, it is strange. You know, I had a normal job until I was about 36, 37, and now, Harrison Ford coming up to me and saying, good job and just making a joke. George Clooney coming up and saying, hi, I'm George. And I go, yeah, I recognize your face from all those films. You know?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: It's crazy. I'm walking down the corridor and Al Pacino walks up to me. He goes, I just saw you in a terrific film about lying - terrific. And I go, yeah, you've been in a few good films as well yourself.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: It's mad. It's crazy. I should...
HANSEN: Your voice just went up about an octave.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: You know, I shouldn't - I shouldn't be there. They shouldn't have allowed me a career.
HANSEN: How do you prepare for hosting the show? I mean, you did it last year and it was - I mean, you got great ratings and you were so good you were asked back. Can you improvise or do you have to stick to a script?
M: There's no script.
HANSEN: No script.
M: I told them when they invited me last year, I said I don't want to be scripted. I want to say anything I want. They didn't even look at the script. So I go up there with a few ideas and I wouldn't be any good if it wasn't like that. You know, if they wanted someone to read an Autocue, there's lots of better people than me at that and they look better. So whenever I'm hired, I'm hired for my particular cocktail of skills or lack of them. And as Sinatra said, I've got to do it my way, really.
HANSEN: And will you do it with a cocktail again?
M: I don't see what the fuss was. Look, I'm drinking now. Look, listen to that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SLURPING)
M: It's a lovely French beer called Lef(ph).
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: You can't advertise, can you? Any way, it's lovely. Yeah, I love a drink. That's no - don't forget, in England, you got to remember, right, that a beer - that's like a soft drink in England. If you're hungover or something and you go, I'm not drinking tonight, I'll just have a beer. It's really no big deal.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: And, you know, it's great to do "Sesame Street" and "The Simpsons" and The Muppets and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and all those things. They're fantastic. They're an absolute honor. But they're not part of my body of work.
HANSEN: Winston Churchill said, if you find a job you really love, you'll never work again. And that's what it feels like, you know. I went from the laziest, least ambitious man in the world to a workaholic, 'cause I can't believe my luck. I cannot believe my luck. And some people listening to this are agreeing with me.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
HANSEN: Comedian and actor Ricky Gervais is the host of tonight's 68th Annual Golden Globe Award ceremonies. His animated series, "The Ricky Gervais Show," just began its second season on HBO. Thanks a lot for talking with us and have a great time.
M: Cheers. Thanks. See you later.
HANSEN: To see a video of Ricky Gervais hanging out with "Sesame Street's" Elmo, visit NPR.org.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Here to talk about all of this is NPR's senior business editor Marilyn Geewax. Welcome back, Marilyn.
MARILYN GEEWAX: Good morning, Liane.
HANSEN: Why is trade policy getting so much attention?
GEEWAX: So, just last week, the federal government released the data for November and it showed exports were up for the third straight month to about $160 billion. That means President Obama is going to push hard for increases in exports. And he's set a goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2015.
HANSEN: Well, what is the administration doing to make this happen?
GEEWAX: So, now when the new Congress is settling in, the White House is going to push for approval for free trade agreements, also called FTAs, that have already been worked out with other countries.
HANSEN: What does the business community say about this?
GEEWAX: Well, last week I went to hear the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's annual State of American Business address. Tom Donohue, the Chamber's president, was emphatic about the need for these FTAs. Here's what he said.
TOM DONOHUE: The administration must work urgently with the new Congress to approve the South Korean and Colombian and Panama agreements. We will pull out all the stops we can to help the administration get the votes to pass these bills.
GEEWAX: Liane, you know, the chamber is pretty good at getting what it wants when it decides to pull out all the stops.
HANSEN: Yeah, but where do these free trade agreements stand in Congress?
GEEWAX: So, if Congress approves it, it would be by far the biggest trade deal that we've had since the North American Free Trade Agreement - that was NAFTA - in 1994.
HANSEN: Well, Marilyn, if business interests are for it and President Obama supports it, then it should pass, right?
GEEWAX: But, you know, given that the tech community, the Chamber of Commerce, the United Auto Workers are all behind the agreement, I think most people bet that the administration will get its way on this.
GEEWAX: NPR senior business editor Marilyn Geewax. Thanks as always, Marilyn.
HANSEN: You're welcome, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
And joining us is puzzlemaster Will Shortz. Hey, Will.
WILL SHORTZ: Hey, Liane.
HANSEN: How you doing?
SHORTZ: Excellent. How you doing?
HANSEN: Very well, thank you. You sound like you might have a bit of a cold but no, no?
SHORTZ: No. Just clearing my throat, that's all. Despite the cold, I'm fine.
HANSEN: Yeah. By about this time of year that's when the atmosphere kind of dries up a little bit. And I know I have problems with my sinuses. Well, enough about our physical health. We're here to exercise our brains. Remind us - you see what I mean - remind us of the challenge you gave us last week.
SHORTZ: Yes. I said, name an article of apparel in the plural form ending in the letter S. I said rearrange the letters to name an article of apparel in the singular form. What things to wear are these?
HANSEN: And what was your intended answer?
SHORTZ: Well, the answer is coats to ascot. We also had a few people who suggested taps that you wear on your feet and you can rearrange those to make spat, which you can also wear on your shoes. And then there were hose and shoe, but hose is not a plural ending in S, so we didn't accept that answer.
HANSEN: All right. Well, you did accept coats and ascot and our winner sent in coats and ascot. Her name is Frances Boynton from Henrico, Virginia. Hi, Frances.
FRANCES BOYNTON: Hi. How are you, Liane?
HANSEN: I am very well. Where is Henrico?
BOYNTON: It's right outside Richmond. They changed it a couple of years ago because they weren't getting the tax revenue from the online sales.
HANSEN: Oh, OK. What do you do in Richmond?
BOYNTON: I am a secretary for the state department of general services.
HANSEN: And how long have you been playing the puzzle? That's the operative question.
BOYNTON: Well, I don't think I ever actually sent in a postcard but I've been playing since the postcard days.
HANSEN: What changed your mind about sending in entries?
BOYNTON: It got easier.
HANSEN: That's because you've been listening for 20 years. That's what makes it easier. Well, after all this time are you ready to play?
BOYNTON: Yes.
HANSEN: All right. Will, meet Frances. Let's play.
SHORTZ: All right, Frances. Today's puzzle has an independent streak. Every answer is a familiar two-word phrase, name or title containing the consecutive letters I-N-D, as in independent. For example, if I gave you the clue: 19th century British prime minister, you would say Benjamin Disraeli, which ends in I-N and starts with D.
BOYNTON: OK.
HANSEN: OK. So, just to get it straight, the first word has to end in I-N and the second word begins with D.
SHORTZ: That's correct.
HANSEN: All right.
SHORTZ: All right. Here's number one: a ceremony performed by Native Americans to end a drought.
BOYNTON: Rain dance.
SHORTZ: That's right. Number two: beauty is only this.
BOYNTON: Skin deep.
SHORTZ: Uh-huh. President Roosevelt's given names.
BOYNTON: Franklin Delano.
SHORTZ: That's it. Title character in a Charles Dickens' mystery.
BOYNTON: Edwin Drood.
HANSEN: Nice.
SHORTZ: Excellent. Fast food franchise with baked goods and coffee.
BOYNTON: Dunkin' Donuts.
SHORTZ: Good. Action star in "The Fast and the Furious" and "Triple X."
BOYNTON: Uh-oh.
HANSEN: Uh-oh. Ran right up against that popular culture wall, right?
BOYNTON: Yeah. All right. I-N, ends in D.
HANSEN: Right.
SHORTZ: Could you picture him with a shaved head?
BOYNTON: Oh, Vin Diesel.
HANSEN: Yes.
SHORTZ: Good job. A railroad station.
BOYNTON: Train depot.
SHORTZ: That's it. Coke, Pepsi or 7-Up, for example, when bought at a restaurant.
BOYNTON: Something drink.
SHORTZ: Yes. And where would you...
BOYNTON: Oh, fountain.
SHORTZ: Fountain drink, good. A soft drink made by Pepsi.
BOYNTON: Mountain Dew.
SHORTZ: That's it. Cleveland's leading newspaper.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BOYNTON: Oh, dear.
HANSEN: This is tough if you don't know it.
BOYNTON: Yeah. Something dispatch.
HANSEN: No. Because I know I'll just give it: the Plain Dealer.
SHORTZ: The Plain Dealer, good. Try this one: Duke Ellington jazz standard.
BOYNTON: "Satin doll."
HANSEN: Nice.
SHORTZ: Good job. Person who interprets the news to his political advantage, say.
BOYNTON: Spin doctor.
SHORTZ: That's it. Departure of scientists and intellectuals from one country to abroad.
BOYNTON: Oh, brain drain.
SHORTZ: That's it. An entree.
BOYNTON: Entree. Main dish.
SHORTZ: Uh-huh. And your last one: a book in which you might look anno domini or e pluribus unum.
HANSEN: Well, that's Latin, right?
SHORTZ: Latin, and what book...
BOYNTON: Oh, Latin dictionary.
SHORTZ: Latin dictionary.
BOYNTON: Thanks, Liane.
SHORTZ: Nice work.
HANSEN: Anytime. You are phenomenal, Frances. You've been waiting this long and you're so good.
BOYNTON: Well, thank you.
HANSEN: Nice work. And we have someone very special to tell you what you'll get for playing our puzzle today. Here's actress Shirley Jones - yes, that Shirley Jones.
BOYNTON: Oh, cool.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV THEME SONG, "C'MON GET HAPPY")
THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY: (Singing) Hello, world. Here's a song that we're singing...
SHIRLEY JONES: For playing our puzzle today, you'll get a WEEKEND EDITION lapel pin, the "Scrabble Deluxe Edition" from Parker Brothers, the book series "Will Shortz Presents KenKen" Volumes 1, 2 and 3 from St. Martin's Press, one of Will Shortz's "Puzzlemaster Decks of Riddles and Challenges" from Chronicle Books, and a CD compilation of NPR's Sunday Puzzles.
PARTRIDGE FAMILY: (Singing) We'll make you happy.
HANSEN: Well, Frances, are you happy?
BOYNTON: Oh, yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BOYNTON: I'm so excited. This has been so much fun.
HANSEN: And before we let you go, my dear, what's your public radio station?
BOYNTON: It's WCVE in Richmond.
HANSEN: Well, Frances Boynton from Henrico, Virginia, you were a great player. Thanks for playing with us.
BOYNTON: Thank you.
HANSEN: All right, Will. We're waiting for the challenge for next week.
SHORTZ: So again, take the first seven letters of the alphabet, A through G, change one of these to another letter that's also one of the letters from A through G. Rearrange the result to spell a familiar seven-letter word. What word is it?
HANSEN: Thanks a lot, Will.
SHORTZ: Thanks, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
NPR's Martin Kaste reports that even though alleged gunman Jared Loughner was caught at the scene gun in the hand, the case is not open and shut.
MARTIN KASTE: The first few hours of this investigation were described as organized chaos. That's certainly what Roger Salzgeber remembers.
KASTE: That was pretty hectic. I probably had my name taken down at least six times by different sheriff's department officers as I sat on the curb pretty devastated.
KASTE: Salzgeber was one of the men who tackled Loughner and one of dozens of firsthand witnesses to the crime. Eventually, he and his wife got their turns inside the sheriff department's RV, where they were interviewed at length. A deputy asked most of the questions, he says, with an FBI agent listening in. Then a few days later, they came to his house.
KASTE: A gentleman came out and went over our car one more time in excruciating detail looking, you know, for scratches or stray bullets, 'cause I think they have more or had more shell casings than they could find bullets.
KASTE: This attention to excruciating detail is remarkable given the magnitude of the case. The Pima County attorney's office says so far, victims and witnesses total about 150 people.
U: We got about 20 minutes left at the (unintelligible)...
KASTE: At the sheriff's department, deputies monitor live aerial surveillance video of the funeral of one of the shooting victims. Captain Frank Duarte says the investigation itself is now entering a new phase.
C: Most of the investigation at this point will now begin to do the forensics piece, doing up the research and all the pieces that you need to bring the puzzle together.
KASTE: With the physical evidence mostly gathered, attention is now shifting from what happened outside the Safeway to what happened in the days and weeks before the shooting. And Loughner's defense team will dig even further back.
P: The defense lawyer's job is to learn everything that there is to learn, that can possibly be known about her client.
KASTE: David Bruck is a clinical professor at the Washington and Lee School of Law. He's worked on similar high-profile murder cases as co-counsel for Loughner's new lawyer, Judy Clarke. He says Clarke most certainly already has private investigators on the case.
KASTE: There has to be a thorough, a truly exhaustive investigation of the defendants' background, his life, what - his road in life, where he came from, why he may have done this, what his informative experiences were. It's an investigation that goes back generations.
KASTE: Bruck says the investigators will want to know if mental illness runs in the family, but not necessarily in order to mount an insanity defense.
KASTE: The insanity defense means the person is legally not guilty, however, a guilty defendant still can and very often does present evidence at the sentencing part of the trial about mental afflictions that may have affected his blameworthiness at the time of the crime.
KASTE: Martin Kaste, NPR News, Tucson.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Joining us to talk about the debate and how the tone might change in the wake of the Arizona shootings is NPR health policy correspondent Julie Rovner. Nice to see you, Julie.
JULIE ROVNER: Nice to be here.
HANSEN: Remind why the debate is happening now at the very beginning of the congressional session.
ROVNER: Well, it's something Republicans promised they would do during the elections. A number of these new members were elected with a vow to repeal this law. Now, the Republicans also know that this full repeal isn't going to go anywhere in the Senate. Even if it did, President Obama would veto it. So, it's really something - a vote they want to get over with and done so they can get on to other things, Plan B, if you will.
HANSEN: What's Plan B?
ROVNER: Now, I should also add that over in the Senate, Democrats, who still control things in that chamber, are planning a series of hearings of their own to try to help educate the public about what's in the law, so the public doesn't get such a one-sided message from the Republican House.
HANSEN: We mentioned tone. Do you think the tone of the debate will actually change given the events of the past week?
ROVNER: Well, it's still a little hard to tell. Some things haven't changed. The name of the bill they're voting on this week, for example, much to the dismay of some of the Democrats, is still the Repealing the Job Killing Health Care Law Act. But in some other ways, we're already seeing a marked different. For example, here's House majority leader Eric Cantor from a news conference with reporters the week before last.
ROVNER: This is a job-killing health care bill. The bill itself spends entirely too much money. We know it's a trillion-dollar-plus price tag to the bill. That's money we don't have. And we just need to repeal it as the American people have spoken out.
ROVNER: Now, I have to add that Cantor isn't among the more fire-breathing Republicans. But in announcing that the vote was being rescheduled for this week, a spokeswoman for Cantor put out this statement. And I want to read from it because it's got a very, very different tone.
HANSEN: As the White House noted, it's important for Congress to get back to work and to that end, we will resume thoughtful consideration of the health care bill next week. Americans have legitimate concerns about the cost of the new health care law and its effect on the ability to grow jobs in our country. It is our expectation that the debate will continue to focus on those substantive policy differences surrounding the new law.
HANSEN: Do you think the Democrats will tone things down as well?
ROVNER: Well, I imagine they will. You know, Republicans haven't been alone in using this heated rhetoric when it comes to health care. This was Ed Markey of Massachusetts on the floor the week before last.
ROVNER: The Republicans don't care, repeal shows they don't care about sick children with medical bills pushing families into bankruptcy, they don't care about grandma and grandpa who need help paying for prescription drugs.
HANSEN: Do you think a change in tone will have an effect on the outcome?
ROVNER: No. I think all the Republicans will vote for repeal, all the Democrats or virtually most of the Democrats will vote against repeal. But at least it may be a kinder and gentler debate.
HANSEN: NPR's health policy correspondent Julie Rovner. Thanks, Julie.
ROVNER: You're welcome.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
The president will deliver his State of the Union speech on the 25th of this month. This past week, Colorado Senator Mark Udall suggested that Democrats and Republicans sit together in the House chamber for the speech. Traditionally, the party sits on opposite sides. Senator Udall is on the line. Thanks for taking the time. Welcome to the program.
MARK UDALL: Hi, Liane. Thanks for having me on.
HANSEN: Isn't it a rule that the parties have separate seating arrangements?
UDALL: It is not a rule, it is a custom. It's a custom that's in some ways understandable, Liane. But it just seemed to me, given the elevated rhetoric of the last couple of years and the tragedy in Tucson and the need for us to really come together in a unified way, one way to do that, one way to present a symbolic front to the country would be to sit together and change that custom.
HANSEN: Have they ever sat together?
UDALL: So, there's no hard and fast rule that we can't sit together.
HANSEN: Practically speaking, though, wouldn't there be like a scramble for seats? I mean, would people save seats for one another? Would it kind of be like, you know, the middle school lunchroom where all the cool kids are sitting in one place and saving seats for another?
UDALL: And you'd have a nice mix of senators on both sides of the chamber. The House members tend to come to the chamber and wave and there's open seating. But if there's a general feeling in the House that they ought to mix their seating arrangements, it could happen just organically.
HANSEN: Have you had any response from your own party, the Democrats?
UDALL: I've had a lot of support from both parties. Senators Shaheen, Wyden, Begich, Boxer, McCaskill in my party think it's an excellent idea. I should add Senator Gillibrand as well. And then Senator McCain, Senator Murkowski, Senator Snowe, and then that intrepid Independent Joe Lieberman have all let me know that it's a good idea and they'll join me in making the statement sitting among Republicans and Democrats alike.
HANSEN: So, you're going to do it no matter what?
UDALL: I am. I'm going to walk down the aisle - sound like I'm getting married again, don't I? And normally my custom would be to take a left and go sit over on the Democratic side of the House chamber but I'll take a right. I predict there'll be a lot of senators who join me.
HANSEN: Mark Udall is the Democratic senator from Colorado. Good luck with your plan. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
UDALL: Thank you.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
From member station KDNK in Carbondale, Colorado, Conrad Wilson has more.
CONRAD WILSON: A log's first stop at the Delta Timber Company is the delivery yard and Joel Green.
JOEL GREEN: I unload the log trucks when they come in and then I put the logs up on the deck to go through the mill.
WILSON: The log's next stop is Greg Teil and his four-and-a-half-foot circular blade.
GREG TEIL: This job pretty much determines production of the sawmill.
WILSON: Teil's worked here for 12 years.
TEIL: I've got friends that don't have jobs, so yeah, I'm thankful to have a job. That's for sure.
WILSON: Through various owners and names, this sawmill's been around since the early 1950s. And even though it's relatively small, it's the state's second largest mill. It sells wood all over the country and even overseas. But when the housing market crashed two years ago, the demand for lumber dried up.
ERIC SORENSON: Similar to many other mills, that meant loss of revenue and put us on a really tight situation.
WILSON: That's Eric Sorenson. He's co-owned the mill for the last 20 years. By tight, he means Delta Timber almost closed. Sorenson says it was painful, especially thinking about letting go loyal employees.
SORENSON: The decision affected more than just ourselves. And so, to fold up would not only affect us, but it would be a reflection on a piece of the fabric of the community that would be lost as well, so part of it's a matter of pride. Nobody wants to fail.
BUTCH BERNHARDT: We went from a record demand to one of the lowest demands since World War II.
WILSON: Butch Bernhardt is with the Western Wood Products Association, an industry group. He says there were two million housing starts in 2005. But that plummeted to about 600,000 last year.
BERNHARDT: The housing crisis has created the worst downturn in the history of the lumber industry. Housing has typically led the U.S. economy out of recessions.
WILSON: Linda Sanchez heads up the Delta Area Chamber of Commerce.
LINDA SANCHEZ: We look at those monies coming back into our community. They're shopping with our local merchants, you know, they buy their groceries, their fuel, everything. Their taxes come to our city. And that's what helps Delta thrive.
SORENSON: Unidentified Man: Not bad today.
WILSON: Back at the mill, Soreson walks by the stacks of lumber marked with his company's logo. It's clear he's proud that through a lot of hard work, he's been able to keep his company going.
SORENSON: I think those of us who have survived will have a foothold for the markets coming.
WILSON: For NPR News, I'm Conrad Wilson.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Barbara Armstrong runs Armstrong Beefalo Farm in El Paso, Arkansas. It's a small farm where she raises a cross between a cow and a buffalo. She sells the meat at local farmer's markets. Barbara Armstrong is at member station KUAR in Little Rock. Welcome to the program.
BARBARA ARMSTRONG: Good morning. Thank you.
HANSEN: Carol Keiser-Long comes from the world of corporate agriculture. She is the president of C-Bar Cattle Company, a cattle raising and feeding operation in Kansas, Nebraska and Illinois. And she joins us from Georgia Public Radio in Atlanta. Welcome to you, as well.
CAROL KEISER: Thank you. Good morning.
HANSEN: A lot of people would actually be surprised that so many women are farmers. Barbara Armstrong, when you meet people for the time, what kind of reaction do you get when you tell them you're a farmer?
ARMSTRONG: Well, the men are just kind of - take a step back and think, you really do do these things? You really do drive a tractor? You really do take care of those animals? You do all the working? And I'm, yes I do. Typically, the women will think that when you say that you're a woman in agriculture that you do the other stuff. You're not actually out there in the fields doing the actual work. So, I kind of run across both groups that really appreciate what I do or admire what I do and then I have those that think I'm just absolutely crazy.
HANSEN: Yeah. Carol Keiser-Long, you work in the world of corporate agriculture. Do you get the same reaction?
KEISER: In fact, one of my first jobs at the seed yard, they said, well, you're going to have to prove yourself. So, one of my first jobs was to clean waters. And, you know, in a feed lot, it's very necessary, it's very important, it's not a very pretty job. So, as I did that and as I did some of those other simple tasks and I ended up treating and processing cattle every day. And some days there was 5,000 head of cattle that I would run through the shoot and take care of, process. And basically I started my own business then and started feeding cattle, finishing cattle and developing an inventory and scaling up.
ARMSTRONG: For 18 years, I ran the farm by myself. I mean, I did everything that needed to be done, working the cattle. And I didn't have 5,000 to deal with, but, you know, I also had to raise two boys and provide for my family.
HANSEN: Carol, according to the most recent USDA figures, women are actually one of the fastest growing groups of farmers. And you, yourself, are on national boards in agriculture organizations. Why do you think so many women are turning to farming?
KEISER: I think women have the multitasking, the flexibility. They are very good entrepreneurs, innovators. And so, I think the world has found out that, hey, women have a place in production agriculture.
HANSEN: How has the economy affected the women farmers that you know, Barbara?
ARMSTRONG: I don't think that it has really impacted. It's one of those things, you don't talk bad about a farmer with your mouth full. And that we have to eat. And so people were going to purchase this and they would rather know their farmer and support their farmer locally to help the economy. People love to buy from a woman.
HANSEN: Really?
ARMSTRONG: Yes.
HANSEN: Why do you think that is?
ARMSTRONG: 'Cause we like to talk, we like to share things, you know. We, you know, we talk about our kids but we talk about our animals, too. We got pictures of our kids and our animals. And it's just that connection there.
HANSEN: Carol, how do you think women are changing the agriculture industry?
KEISER: You know, just as Barbara mentioned, we just have a stronger presence in the industry. I think half of the feed lots I do business in, the females are driving the feed trucks. And they can detect a sick animal a little bit better because we're so used to detecting sickness in our kids.
ARMSTRONG: And I think we as women, that healthy food for our families is important, and I think that's why there's more women out there starting to look at - even if it is just backyard gardening - because it's important to give their family healthy food. And those women are just as much part of agriculture as I am, you know. Our grandparents, that's how they made it, you know. They had to grow everything. And their spouses, their partners, were right there alongside with them doing the same thing, although the man got most of the credit and the women did not.
KEISER: In fact, you mentioned your grandparents - my grandparents made it through the Depression because they could produce their own food. And then the excess they produced above and beyond what their own needs, they could barter for gasoline and, you know, rations and that type of thing.
HANSEN: Two women continuing a family tradition. Carol Keiser-Long is the president of C-Bar Cattle Company and spoke to use from Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta. Thank you so much.
KEISER: You're most welcome.
HANSEN: And Barbara Armstrong runs Armstrong Beefalo Farm in El Paso, Arkansas. She spoke to us from member station KUAR in Little Rock. Thank you, Barbara.
ARMSTRONG: Thank you.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Much of last week's program was devoted to the coverage of the shootings in Tucson. We followed the police investigation as it unfolded and details slowly began to emerge. And we took a moment out to remember the six people who were killed.
(SOUNDBITE OF BAGPIPES)
HANSEN: Last night, at the Statehouse in Phoenix, Arizona, stunned residents gathered for a vigil.
(SOUNDBITE OF BAGPIPES PLAYING "AMAZING GRACE")
HANSEN: Bagpipes sounded in honor of the victims of yesterday's tragic shooting. In addition to the wounding of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and the killing of federal judge John Roll, five others were murdered and 12 more wounded. Among the dead: Congresswoman Giffords' director of community outreach, Gabe Zimmerman, age 30; Dorothy Morris, age 76; Dorwin...
HANSEN: My colleague WEEKEND EDITION SATURDAY host Scott Simon and his family are friends with Gabrielle Giffords and her family. Last week, Scott had this personal essay about the Congresswoman. Here's an excerpt.
SCOTT SIMON: She seems to cherish the curmudgeonly independence of her district. I've heard her complain about the constant strain of raising money and getting middle seats on long airplane flights but never about meeting with her constituents, even if it's just to hear harangues. The people who were shot alongside her yesterday, including those who died, were her friends and neighbors. I know her family wants the media...
HANSEN: Listener Don Gillam(ph) went to our website and wrote that Scott's commentary forced him to stop and pause for a moment. I'm so sorry, he wrote. I've become almost numb to news stories about tragedy. We hear them every day, but listening to the stories about Representative Giffords, then hearing details about the nine-year-old girl that died, I just can't hold the tears back. So sad.
HANSEN: We want to hear from you. Go to NPR.org and click on the Contact Us link. We're also on Facebook and Twitter @NPRWeekend, or you can send me a tweet @NPRLiane. And that's spelled L-I-A-N-E.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
NPR's Ted Robbins reports.
TED ROBBINS: Rick Krieger(ph) got to the Pima County Fairgrounds at 7 A.M. to be first in line for tickets to the Crossroads of the West Gun Show. He said he rarely misses one of these shows.
RICK KRIEGER: You know, I like to come out here and look just like other people like to go shopping at Wal-Mart. I like coming here. They have more things that I like to look at.
ROBBINS: Krieger works at a Veteran's Administration Hospital pharmacy. He said he believes the old saying that guns don't kill people, people kill people. Instead of blaming the availability of guns for last weekend's massacre, Krieger blames the mental health system for failing to flag the accused gunman.
KRIEGER: Mentally ill individual, very troubled individual that unfortunately slipped through the cracks somehow. And I think that's what we need to look at, is how did this fellow get missed.
ROBBINS: As he waited to go in, Rick Birch(ph) echoed a common worry here - that the violent act will result in strict gun control laws.
RICK BIRCH: when they ban the guns or if they ban the guns, only the criminals will have them. At least this way, we know that the law-abiding citizens that are armed will be able to protect themselves and that's what our Constitution allows us to do.
ROBBINS: As people entered the hall they passed a box for donations to the Tragedy in Tucson Victims Fund. Next to the box, a sign for the NRA, above, a flag at half staff.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE "PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE")
ROBBINS: Gun show promoter Bob Templeton said sales of firearms and ammo in general have been brisk. Templeton agreed that people are buying firearms because they fear politicians will use the shooting to push gun control.
BOB TEMPLETON: Attempt to capitalize on that tragedy and push forward their personal and political agendas to limit or restrict or eliminate private ownership of firearms in America.
ROBBINS: Unidentified Man #2: No.
ROBBINS: Ted Robbins, NPR News, Tucson.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
C.J. Karamargin is the communications director for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. And he is on the phone. Thanks for taking our call. I know this is a difficult time for you and your staff.
KARAMARGIN: Thank you, Liane.
HANSEN: You opened the office on Monday, right after the shooting. Why so soon?
KARAMARGIN: There's another important reason, Liane. And that is that we're sending a message. No matter what horrific act of violence might befall us, we're not going to be deterred from doing the job of our government. And it's really that simple.
HANSEN: I know you and your staff are mourning the loss of Gabe Zimmerman, who was the director of community outreach, one of the six people to die in the shootings. I know how hard that must be for you, as his colleague. But is his loss affecting the work being done in your office?
KARAMARGIN: We are grieving. We are grieving for a trusted colleague, a friend, a buddy - in my case, someone that I used to work out with and talk about history and politics with. Gabe's death is going to leave a gaping hole in our office and in our hearts. There's no question about that. But Gabe, too, would want us to persevere.
HANSEN: Let me ask you just some questions about procedure, if you don't mind. While Congresswoman Giffords is in recovery, how will she be able to vote on legislation? Can she vote by proxy?
KARAMARGIN: I don't know. I think it is still so soon after the tragedy that we are just beginning to look into this and what it entails.
HANSEN: Yeah, and I bet you're also looking into her committee work, as well.
KARAMARGIN: Yes. The congresswoman was very active on Capitol Hill. She's a member of three committees: Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Science and Technology. And right now, we are just beginning to explore what the implications will be.
HANSEN: Two other staffers, Pam Simon and Ron Barber, were wounded in the incident. And Pam Simon returned to work this past week. How is she doing?
KARAMARGIN: Liane, it's an amazing scene. Right underneath the sign that says U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, we have essentially a makeshift shrine with the candles burning and the flowers and teddy bears. It's really quite a sight to see. I think it is a great expression of support on the part of our community.
HANSEN: C.J. Karamargin is the communications director for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and we reached him in Congresswoman Giffords' Tucson office. Thanks you for your time.
KARAMARGIN: Thank you, Liane.
HANSEN: Doctors reported yesterday that Congresswoman Giffords no longer has a ventilator to help her breathe, though she remains in critical condition.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
NPR's Rob Gifford is in Shanghai. And, Rob, how important is this visit to China and the Chinese?
ROB GIFFORD: But I think for the ordinary people I've spoken to, they don't actually care too much. It's amazing. I think they're really too busy either making a million dollars or scraping just to get by.
HANSEN: What specifically, then, do the Chinese leaders hope to accomplish while they're here in the United States?
GIFFORD: The places he's going to in Chicago, a school that teaches Mandarin, an auto- parts biz that China has invested in to show that China is actually creating jobs in United States, and a joint clean energy project to show that China cares about the environment - all these things trying to present China as a partner.
HANSEN: Some Americans say it's the most important China/U.S. summit since Nixon went to China. A new era, China is stronger. Do the Chinese have the same opinion?
GIFFORD: I think the Chinese see themselves as much weaker than the West does. And that's because, of course, they live here and they see the domestic problems that the Chinese government has. They see this summit certainly as important. But, as I mentioned, I think they just have so many problems here that they are thinking much more of those things. They'll see the prestige that President Hu gets, but that's really more of their focus here at home at the moment.
HANSEN: How likely are the Chinese, though, to make concessions on issues the U.S. sees as important - things like trade ties, currency revaluation and, of course, North Korea?
GIFFORD: Well, I think President Hu will make all sorts of friendly noises about considering this and that and the other. But I think, in the end, his domestic pressures are going to be too strong. And I think even though he will say some friendly words, I think he may well hang tough on all sorts of things like those issues because he knows he has to do what's right for China and not what's right for America. And that will be the conflict - trying to present a charm offensive to the American people, when he's still hanging tough on issues that are dear to American hearts.
HANSEN: NPR's Rob Gifford in Shanghai. Rob, thank you.
GIFFORD: Thank you, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Unidentified Man: (Foreign language spoken)
(SOUNDBITE OF A VEHICLES)
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Daloumi says President Ben Ali tried to block the cell phone videos of the first killings of protesters in the south of the country.
SALOUAH DALOUMI: He make a firewall to filter this video. But we can make upload and we can download it in the laptop. And after, we give it to the people.
BEARDSLEY: Daloumi says those videos were the Tunisian people's connection with reality. They soon spread like wildfire and were picked up by global cable networks, BBC World and al-Jazeera. No one here trusts the Tunisian media, says Daloumi.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SONG)
BEARDSLEY: She calls the state television a complete joke. Indeed, on Friday when demonstrations and riots engulfed Tunis, the official channel played music and aired call-in chat shows, never even mentioning what was going on in the streets.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING PROTESTORS)
BEARDSLEY: Mohamed Ben Hazouz(ph) is a blogger and software engineer. He says Friday's massive demonstration was completely organized on the Internet. He calls what happened in Tunisia the world's first cyber-net revolution.
MOHAMED BEN HAZOUZ: Everyone in Tunisia was connected to the Internet, to the site of the bloggers, to the site of Facebook, to Twitter, to organize the revolution.
BEARDSLEY: But government authorities were no match for Tunisia's tech-savvy youth, says Claire Spencer, a Middle East specialist at London-based think tank Chatham House.
CLAIRE SPENCER: I think there is definitely a generation who've understood the technology of how to circumvent banned websites. The moment something is banned, somebody in this country is breaking through it and going around it. So it's been counterproductive in recent years in terms of a control strategy.
BEARDSLEY: Spencer says the ouster of dictators in places like Libya and Egypt may not be imminent, but she feels changes are on the horizon.
SPENCER: This is a generation that is educated, is well-informed, that will be more demanding of their rights to participate, to have a civic role in their state, and not to sit through gerrymandered elections and lack of participation in the economy.
BEARDSLEY: For NPR news, I'm Eleanor Beardsley in Tunis.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
For insight, we've invited Beverly Macy to our studios here in Washington, D.C. She is CEO of the social media marketing conference Gravity Summit and the author of "The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing." It is so nice to meet you, Beverly.
BEVERLY MACY: Nice to be here.
HANSEN: Let's begin with the MySpace news. After announcing the lay-offs, News Corp, the media conglomerate which owns MySpace, said it's considering selling the site. Is the site worth buying?
MACY: Will we see it totally die out? That remains to be seen. So, we'll have to watch and see.
HANSEN: Let's talk about Facebook because it reportedly raised $500 million from the investment firm Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor. And the deal values Facebook at $50 billion - which means it's worth twice as much as Starbucks and Dell. What's going on?
MACY: But businesses are also looking at this. It's very exciting and we're just at the very beginning.
HANSEN: But what does it mean that a company like Goldman Sachs is reconsidering social media as a business practice?
MACY: Something's going on and this will cause people to really take a look.
HANSEN: Groupon, which is the online coupon site, said it closed a round of funding worth something like $950 million. The company had turned down a $6 billion acquisition from Google. Can you explain why a company like, well, Facebook but Groupon could be worth that much money?
MACY: They believe that they're just at the beginning of really a whole new business process and a whole new revenue stream. And I think they're right.
HANSEN: Getting back to possible clouds on the horizon, the difference between the tech bubble 10 years ago and now is that this time the companies are privately held. Do you expect them to initiate public offering?
MACY: And these companies are earning revenue and they're going to continue to earn revenue, so they can take their time. But we will see companies absolutely hit the ball out of the park. We'll see a couple of failures along the way, as well.
HANSEN: Beverly Macy is CEO of the social media marketing conference Gravity Summit and author of "The Power of Real-Time Social Media Marketing," and she joined us here in our Washington, D.C. studio. Thank you so much, Beverly.
MACY: Thanks for having me.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
For a preview, Douglas Robson, who reports on tennis for USA Today, joins us from member station KQED. Welcome to the program.
DOUGLAS ROBSON: Oh, it's a pleasure to be here.
HANSEN: Now, I understand you're not attending the Australian Open this year but you've been to other Australian Opens a number of times. How does this compare to the other Grand Slam events?
ROBSON: Well, Roger Federer once called the Australian Open the happy slam. If Wimbledon is staid and clubby and traditional and the U.S. Open is high octane and glitz, the Australian Open feels like a giant Barbie break. There's a real festive atmosphere.
HANSEN: Yeah. Let's talk about this season's cast of characters. Rafael Nadal of Spain, Roger Federer, they've had this great rivalry in recent years. What do you expect from them in Australia and this entire season?
ROBSON: Federer, of course, is the record holder. He has 16 majors, more than any other player, and is a defending Australian Open champion. And he comes in after really being the hottest player on tour the last few months. He beat Nadal in the year-end championships. But you almost have to tip Federer as the favorite.
HANSEN: Who are you watching on the women's side?
ROBSON: I think with the Williams sisters sort of being in and out - Serena is the defending champ in Australia and won't be there, Venus will be there but she's hardly played in the last few months and it's hard to know what to expect from her.
HANSEN: Are you excited about this season?
ROBSON: I mean, you've got Federer who's sort of walking on air and Nadal who's the muscular grinder and it's a great contrast in a really special time in the sport.
HANSEN: The Australian Open begins tomorrow. Douglas Robson covers tennis for USA Today and he joined us from NPR member station KQED. Thanks so much.
ROBSON: Thank you.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Others may remember her Oscar-winning role as Lulu Baines in the 1960 film "Elmer Gantry," or her performance as Laurie in the film version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PEOPLE WILL SAY WE'RE IN LOVE")
SHIRLEY JONES: (Singing) Don't throw bouquets at me. Don't please my folks too much. Don't laugh at my jokes too much. People will say we're in love...
HANSEN: That's Shirley Jones singing "People Will Say We're in Love" from the 1955 film "Oklahoma." Shirley Jones has always loved to sing and she's still doing it. She has a new CD out called "A Tribute to Richard Rodgers." And Shirley Jones joins us from NPR West in Culver City. Thanks so much. Welcome to the program.
JONES: Thank you. It's nice to be here.
HANSEN: When I say that you were the darling of the musical partnership, I mean you were under contract to Rodgers and Hammerstein.
JONES: That's right.
HANSEN: What did that mean to be under contract to them?
JONES: Three weeks later, I was in my first Broadway show - I never got to college - "South Pacific," and within the year I was playing the lead in the motion picture, "Oklahoma."
HANSEN: Amazing. There are two selections by Rodgers and Hammerstein on here.
JONES: Yeah.
HANSEN: The song "I Have Dreamed."
JONES: Yes, I love that.
HANSEN: Why that one? What show is it from?
JONES: "King and I," "The King and I."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I HAVE DREAMED")
JONES: (Singing) I have dreamed that your arms are lovely. I have dreamed what a joy you'd be. I have dreamed every word you whispered, when you're close, close to me.
HANSEN: Are you singing in a lower register on this CD?
JONES: Yes, I am. And, you know, when Les Brown called me about doing it, I remember my husband, he said, but she doesn't sing that way. She's, you know, she sings in the high range, she does this - and Les Brown said, we'll change that.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
JONES: He meant it, too. I was thrilled.
HANSEN: Really?
JONES: So, I love it, and when he said let's do it, I said that's fabulous. It'll give me a new identity, you know?
HANSEN: And I should mention that you worked with Les Brown, Jr., the son of Les Brown who had his band of renown, I remember, as a bandleader.
JONES: I sang with his father, too.
HANSEN: Did you really?
JONES: Yes.
HANSEN: Oh wow.
JONES: A couple of shows, I believe it was television.
HANSEN: Wow. You sing, it seems, in the same range as your speaking voice. And I had read that Les Brown, Jr. wanted to create a kind of intimate atmosphere.
JONES: That's right. It's very warm, it's very sexy in many ways, you know. And Les was responsible for that in a way.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I HAVE DREAMED")
JONES: (Singing) ...dreams I loved you so. That by now I think I know what it's like to be loved by you. I will love being loved by you.
HANSEN: And, of course, we're coming up on Oscar season and when you received your Oscar 51 years ago for supporting actress in "Elmer Gantry," what do you remember about that night?
JONES: But it gave me the longevity that I've had in my career. My career was virtually over because they stopped making musical motion pictures. You know, they didn't fare too well in Europe. The European market didn't accept them. And they were so expensive to make and they decided, nah, we don't need these anymore. So, my career was over because they thought if you were a singer, for some strange reason you weren't an actress.
HANSEN: Let's hear a Rodgers and Hart tune, "Spring is Here."
JONES: Oh, I love that one too.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SPRING IS HERE")
JONES: (Singing) Spring is here. Why doesn't the breeze delight me? Stars appear. Why doesn't the night invite me? Maybe it's because nobody loves me. Spring is here I hear.
HANSEN: Is it true you turned down the role of Carol Brady in "The Brady Bunch"?
JONES: That's true.
HANSEN: Why? That's weird.
JONES: But I turned down "The Brady Bunch" because it was just another, for me, ordinary mom with a lot of kids and they had been doing shows like that. Then "The Partridge Family" was offered to me and I loved the idea of, you know, a musical family. And the most important part for me is that my children - I had three sons and stepson, David Cassidy - but my three sons had been all over the world with me on movie locations. But now it was school time and I had to figure out a way to stay home and raise my kids and still work.
HANSEN: Have you been Shirley Partridge?
JONES: Yes, I have...
HANSEN: (unintelligible)...
JONES: ...most of my life. I'm telling you, the only people that know that I did more than that are people my age.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
HANSEN: We'll end with a song, a beautiful song, "Bewitched, Bothered"...
JONES: Oh great.
HANSEN: ..."and Bewildered." Wonderful song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEWITCHED, BOTHERED AND BEWILDERED")
JONES: (Singing) I'm wild again, beguiled again, a simpering, whimpering child again. Bewitched, bothered and bewildered and I...
HANSEN: How do you keep your voice in shape?
JONES: I try to sing a little bit every day, I really do. I never had to do that when I was younger. You know, I could get up at 3:00 in the morning and sing a high C. I can't do that anymore. It's now just placement of notes, you know, more with me now and placement of words. There are certain words that I can sing brilliantly and other words that are hard for me to sing...
HANSEN: Like what.
JONES: ...depending on where they go. The A sounds are hard for a singer. The aw sounds are easy. The E sounds are easy, you know. The ooh sounds are hard.
HANSEN: So, bothered is harder to sing than bewildered.
JONES: (Singing) Bewitched, bothered and bewildered.
HANSEN: Is that your singing for the day?
JONES: That's my singing for the day.
HANSEN: Are you sure?
JONES: (Singing) A blue moon, you saw me standing alone without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own. That's on there, too.
HANSEN: The inimitable Shirley Jones. Her new CD is called "A Tribute to Richard Rodgers," and Ms. Jones joined us from our studio at NPR West in Culver City. What a treat. Thank you so much for being on the show.
JONES: Thank you. It was nice to be on the show. Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLUE MOON")
JONES: (Singing) And then there suddenly appeared before me, the only one my arms will ever hold. I heard somebody whisper please adore me. And when I looked, the moon had turned to gold...
HANSEN: Shirley Jones performs the songs of Rodgers and Hart from her new CD beginning March 15th at Feinstein's in New York.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Reporter Habiba Nosheen met several times, over the course of five years, with a woman we'll call Fatima. This woman and others in our story have asked us to conceal their identities to protect them against reprisals in a country hostile towards gays and lesbians.
HABIBA NOSHEEN: I met Fatima alone for the first time at a cafe in Pakistan, in the City of Lahore five years ago. Fatima was 23 at the time and studying law. She wore blue jeans and a loose shirt, and sported short, boyish hair. That was the first sign she wasn't a typical Pakistani girl.
MONTAGNE: I'm a lesbian, she says hesitantly.
FATIMA: I think I knew since a very early age. It felt quite isolating, I feel. Like I didn't see people or kids around me feel the same way.
NOSHEEN: She suspects that many gays and lesbians are murdered by their own familiy or clans in honor killings. Fatima grew up in a house with sisters who were always obsessing over boys, a reality that, Fatima says, she could never relate to.
FATIMA: From the time that I've known this about myself, every day that I've felt that I wished I was just like everybody else.
NOSHEEN: But her attraction to women became undeniable when she found herself in love with her best friend in high school. She was 18 and finally worked up the nerve to tell her.
FATIMA: What was really surprising - like I really didn't expect her to like me back. I really didn't. It was one of the best surprises of my life. I just thought I am going to tell her and she's just going to be like, are you crazy?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
FATIMA: What's wrong with you? And the fact that she didn't say that blew my mind.
NOSHEEN: Fatima says she can understand why her girlfriend made that decision.
FATIMA: I mean, I think from the time that you're born, you're socialized into believing that homosexuality is unnatural, it is a disease and it is completely prohibited.
NOSHEEN: That sense of abnormality, Fatima says, haunts her.
FATIMA: My insides are at war with each other. There are days I wake up and think I should just embrace myself. And there are days I wake up and think I should kill myself.
NOSHEEN: Leaving the country, Fatima says, is not an option. She thinks it's her calling to be a human rights lawyer in Pakistan.
(SOUNDBITE OF VEHICLES)
NOSHEEN: A few days after our first meeting, we meet again in her car. Fatima skillfully navigates her way through the chaotic streets of Lahore.
U: (Foreign language spoken)
NOSHEEN: As we sit in her white Honda, she says she decided to tell her grandmother that she had been in love with her best friend. Her grandmother says...
FATIMA: That's why I hated that girl. You know, I just hated that girl. And miraculously, actually, later in the night when she came back from work, like she's completely fine towards me - like that discussion had not taken place. She was, the way I looked at it, in complete denial of the whole thing.
NOSHEEN: How's it going?
FATIMA: Good. How's it going with you? Hello. Why don't you come up, have a cup of tea or something?
NOSHEEN: Fatima brings me to her apartment and her girlfriend gives me a tour of their place.
KIRAN: We're in our living room, which is full of lots of light and big windows. Yeah, this is our home.
NOSHEEN: Soon after the two met, Fatima decided to get a divorce from her husband.
FATIMA: Well, I said, you know, I am a lesbian.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
FATIMA: I am in love with a woman, I need to get out of this marriage, please. All hell broke loose, essentially.
NOSHEEN: So you said no one would ever imagine that you guys are lesbians?
KARIN: I don't think so. I mean, I think it would take some doing.
FATIMA: Yeah, it's not within the realm of, you know, possibility.
KARIN: Yeah.
FATIMA: People don't usually contemplate two women living together, that they are into each other.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
FATIMA: Good for us.
KARIN: Because in our society, women don't have sexual needs, desires, drives whatever - and those that do, run brothels.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
KARIN: You know? You're just, either you are a nice girl or a fast girl. So if we are fast girls, it means that men come visit us. If we are nice girls, it means that girls come visit us - which works out.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
NOSHEEN: For NPR News, I'm Habiba Nosheen.
MONTAGNE: You can hear other stories from our series The Hidden World of Girls: Girls and the Women They Become at our website, NPR.org.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Elizabeth Fielder of member station WHYY reports.
ELIZABETH FIEDLER: Standing in front of the Camden Laundromat he's owned for about 30 years, Carmelo Villegas points to a boarded-up house across the street. It's a drug haven, he says. Villegas says life here will be more dangerous after the layoffs.
MONTAGNE: It's like giving a license to these crooks to come in and try to take over.
FIEDLER: Villegas steps inside the laundromat, where it's warmer. He tells a harrowing story of being shot at by robbers. He says with the city and state strapped for cash, the federal government should step in.
MONTAGNE: We've been having a lot of wars in here, the United States. That's billions and billions of dollars they're spending. Why they don't spend it here in the country, defending our own people here? You know?
FIEDLER: There is at least one similarity between the long-time laundromat owner and Camden Police Chief John Scott Thomson: They're both dedicated to this city.
C: I've spent the last 17 years of my life putting it on the line in this city. Many people I know and love reside in this city, work in this city. I'm married to this city.
FIEDLER: As Camden's police chief, Thomson's in charge of preventing the sort of pandemonium many residents predict.
C: It appears on the layoffs, we will lose 163 officers on January 18th, which is approximately 45 percent of the police department. We are pushing the officers that we have remaining down and out into the field. When it's all said and done, the game plan that we are moving forward with, we will have 92 percent of the organization in the field. Post-layoff, our streets numbers will be three-and-a-half percent less than what they currently are today.
FIEDLER: The president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Camden, John Williamson, has his doubts.
MONTAGNE: You cannot cover the same amount of ground at the same amount of time with less. You may be able to cover the same amount of ground, but just by the sheer reduction in numbers, the time responses are definitely going to be longer. And if you've been the victim of a crime, you know, exactly how much of a delay is OK?
FIEDLER: Camden Mayor Dana Redd says with less money from the state of New Jersey, the city faces a $26.5 million budget gap, and she had little choice but to push forward with the layoffs. But she's still hoping some jobs can be saved.
MONTAGNE: If we receive meaningful concessions from police and fire, it certainly will lessen the number of layoffs.
FIEDLER: Twenty-five-year-old William Johnson has been a Camden firefighter for almost five years. He served in Iraq as a Marine and says if he's laid off, he'll dedicate himself to the Marines and may re-enlist. Sitting in his parents' modest East Camden home where he grew up, Johnson says it's going be dangerous for the firefighters who are left.
MONTAGNE: A lot more fires that's going to get started, or happen in abandoned places that we were trained to protect. So for whoever's left in the city working, it's going to be very, very dangerous for them.
FIELDER: Johnson's father, William Johnson, Sr. says even if the city gets more dangerous after the layoffs, he's not planning to leave.
MONTAGNE: I'm the block captain out here. You know, we've been trying to keep this section nice and free from a whole bunch of stuff happening to this part of the city.
FIEDLER: For NPR News, I'm Elizabeth Fiedler.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Here's NPR's Patti Neighmond with some simple and easy ways to recognize when someone should seek professional help.
PATTI NEIGHMOND: Dr. Jerald Kay of Wright State University in Ohio sees students who have brought some problems with them and students who find college life too much to handle on their own. Recently, he treated a 22-year-old male student whose friends were worried about recent behaviors and pressured the student to seek help.
NEIGHMOND: They were worried about the number of drinks he was having on the weekend, to the point of passing out or blacking out; the fact that he had removed himself from all kind of social contact.
NEIGHMOND: And they were worried about his weight loss - about 15 pounds in six weeks.
NEIGHMOND: And he was not sleeping. And to my surprise, he acknowledged that he had had a plan that he would hang himself in the closet of his dormitory on the clothes hook.
FIELDER: Kay says there a number of warning signs friends and family can be on the lookout for, including trouble with academics.
NEIGHMOND: A lot of the young people I see begin to miss class. They're not able to complete assignments, and you get the sense that academically, they're going down in a spiral.
FIELDER: And often dropping out of extracurricular activities, as well, spending more and more time alone. Psychologist Katherine Nordal is an official with the American Psychological Association. She says it's important to know that severe mental health problems don't suddenly appear. Symptoms grow slowly, she says, and insidiously over time.
NEIGHMOND: Whether it's distancing yourself from friends, losing interest in things that you enjoyed doing before, becoming more irritable or angry, having outbursts at people that are close to you, changes in emotionality from maybe being a pretty even-keel person to having unexpected problems or unexplainable problems with tearfulness.
FIELDER: These are signs to watch out for, especially if they come to dominate the young person's daily behavior. Complicating the situation, many students are in college towns nowhere near their family or old friends, the very people who really know them.
NEIGHMOND: I think oftentimes, our friends and people that we're close to - whether it's family members or friends - are folks who will see changes in someone's behavior or personality or mood, maybe often before the individual does.
FIELDER: Even so, new friends can still help, especially if they see obvious erratic or antisocial behavior. Nordal says that's the time to step in.
NEIGHMOND: Well, if you're a parent or a friend that's concerned about someone, I think the first thing that you need to do is approach your child or approach your friend and let them know of your concern and let them know what you have observed about them that makes you concerned, offer a good listening ear and let them know that if they would like to get some help, that you're very willing to try to help them find the resources that they need.
FIEDLER: And once students do get into treatment, psychiatrist Kay says it works.
NEIGHMOND: The treatments we do have are effective. And young people have, in most cases, a fair amount of resilience. And with the appropriate kind of intervention, it can be life-changing.
FIELDER: Patti Neighmond, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
There is a way to prevent shingles, though as NPR's Richard Knox reports, relatively few people have taken advantage of it.
RICHARD KNOX: When Julie Fair first got shingles, she and her doctor thought it was a pulled muscle in her back. Then three days later, an angry, red rash began to spread.
JULIE FAIR: It started in one specific spot on my back, and then wrapped around, as if a large hand were wrapping around my side.
KNOX: Soon, she was gripped by incredible pain.
FAIR: If the bedding at night moved over me, I would just scream. I mean, it was excruciating. Taking a shower was painful. Really, really the most extreme pain I've ever had.
KNOX: More than childbirth.
FAIR: Yes. More than childbirth, because it just was constant.
KNOX: The good news is there's a vaccine against shingles. It's been available for four years.
RAFAEL HARPAZ: This vaccine can prevent life-shattering disease.
KNOX: Bottom line: The vaccine prevents shingles 55 percent of the time. It's even better at preventing the most severe cases.
HARPAZ: If you look at preventing something like six months worth of severe pain, it's over 70 percent effective.
KNOX: To figure out why, I went to see Dr. Richard Dupee. He's a geriatrics specialist at the Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
RICHARD DUPEE: The recommendation is for everybody over the age of 60 to get a shot.
KNOX: Have you had one?
DUPEE: No.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
KNOX: First, there have been repeated shortages. Merck, the vaccine's maker, says it can't make enough.
DUPEE: So we have not given a shingles vaccination here for about a week.
KNOX: Hmm. You just can't get it.
DUPEE: Can't get it.
KNOX: Another problem is the vaccine, called Zostavax, needs to be kept frozen. Most doctors don't have freezers in their offices, so they send patients to drug stores.
DUPEE: Most pharmacies don't have enough freezer space to handle the volume of Zostavax that we would need. So they order it, freeze it, the patient picks it up, comes in here, and we give them the shot.
KNOX: Perhaps the biggest roadblock is that people just don't take shingles very seriously until they've had it.
DUPEE: We're not aggressive enough, and the patients are not aggressive enough. But if you've seen a case, one case, you become a believer.
KNOX: I'll get my shot.
DUPEE: Yeah. Me, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
KNOX: You promise?
DUPEE: I will.
KNOX: One more thing: Julie Fair, who suffered so much five years ago, wants to know if she should get the vaccine, even those she's already had shingles.
FAIR: I want to be sure, because I really don't want to go through an episode like this.
KNOX: Richard Knox, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
When you get a chance to look at old TV ads, they can seem positively laughable.
(SOUNDBITE OF OLD SPICE COMMERCIAL)
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
U: Sense it, the power of Old Spice: the mark of a man.
MONTAGNE: Thanks for coming on the program.
MONTAGNE: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
MONTAGNE: So, you know, we've got the Super Bowl coming up, and that is the biggest advertising moment of the year, with TV commercials almost as much a draw as the game. But generally, advertising these days is not focused as much on TV spots. Is that not true?
MONTAGNE: That's very true. I think the Super Bowl is a great example of some of the bigger changes that have happened in the industry. You know, historically, you had brands who would create these commercials for the Super Bowl and spend millions of dollars making the ad, and then the ad would run for its 30 seconds, and then that would be it, more or less. And I think now what a lot of advertisers are doing with the Super Bowl, are still running the ad because it's still a mass vehicle, but also using that and then activating it somehow online, whether that's though Facebook or Twitter or having a contest. There's some ongoing conversation with the consumer that happens.
MONTAGNE: Well, let's use a hugely successful ad from last year to break this down just a little bit. It started out on TV, and then it migrated to the - then it showed up on the Internet. People sent it to each other. People sought it out because they heard about it. It's the Old Spice ad "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like."
(SOUNDBITE OF OLD SPICE COMMERCIAL)
MONTAGNE: (as Old Spice Guy) Hello, ladies. Look at your man, now back to me, now back at your man, now back to me. Sadly, he isn't me. But if he stopped using lady-scented body wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he's me.
MONTAGNE: So I think the reason this ad was so successful is that, first of all, it was just hilariously funny. You know, he starts in the bathroom. He's wearing nothing but a towel, and he's got chiseled abs and he's a great-looking guy, and he says hello, ladies. And then it goes from there. He moves from his bathroom onto a beach, and then it ends with "I'm on a horse." And it's sort of absurd. And I think that's why it just captured everybody's imagination. And I think it was one of the rare examples from the last few years of an ad that, you know, you'd walk into your hairdresser or whoever, and they had seen it. That TV commercial then became an online phenomenon. It was, you know, watched by tens of millions of people online, and then you had countless parodies. They had people who...
MONTAGNE: Which - parodies, which speak, of course, to today, people want to interact.
MONTAGNE: And in the case of Old Spice, according to the agency, they pointed to a lot of different metrics. But at the end of the day, they also reported 107 percent sales increase by the time the TV campaign and the online campaign had run their course.
MONTAGNE: We've been talking about certain ways of participating. There's also another level, and that's literally, physically with - interacting with the product. There's an online test drive from Mitsubishi.
MONTAGNE: Yeah. That was the really interesting example. Mitsubishi and their agency created this means by which you could - sitting at home in your underwear - do a test drive. And that's not a virtual test drive, like not pretend to drive a car on your computer. That's easy. This was actually - you could control a physical car that was driving around a track by sitting at home. And I think now the most interesting campaigns are bringing the digital and physical worlds together.
MONTAGNE: How is the industry, Madison Avenue - I'm thinking of the big, storied agencies. Are they adapting, or is a lot of this coming from, you know, scrappy newcomers?
MONTAGNE: A lot of the big agencies over the years became built around TV commercials. And so when the Internet happened and it meant that TV wasn't the only way to interact with people, the big agencies were slow to respond. And I think now, it's taken a little while, but big agencies are starting to do more interesting digital work. But you also have a whole new generation of, as you call them, scrappy new companies that were built post-digital revolution and that weren't built around one media.
MONTAGNE: What might we see next?
MONTAGNE: Yeah. I think it's going to be really, really interesting in the next couple of years. I think, obviously, mobile is an exploding area. And I think now with smart phones and location awareness and tablets and, you know, you've got multiple screens speaking to each other, I think you're going to see a lot of the most interesting things in advertising happening with that.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for joining us.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much.
MONTAGNE: Teressa Iezzi is editor of Creativity, an online publication that's part of Ad Age.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
We're going to go back 50 years, now, to the day that President Dwight Eisenhower gave his farewell address to the nation. He had just finished two terms in office, and it was just days before the new president, John F. Kennedy, was to be sworn in. In his speech, Eisenhower - who was a retired five-star Army general, the man who led the allies on D-Day - warned about what he called the immense military establishment that had joined with a large arms industry.
P: In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
MONTAGNE: Good morning.
TOM BOWMAN: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Why was Eisenhower worried about what he called the military-industrial complex?
BOWMAN: He also went on to say that he was worried about the military and the arms industry getting so much power that they would be a threat to democracy - those are his words now - that civilians would lose control of this military-industrial complex.
MONTAGNE: But this very thing - this military-industrial complex - emerged while he was president.
BOWMAN: That's right. And Eisenhower had his own answer to that question in the speech. Let's listen.
P: Until the last of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of ploughshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions.
BOWMAN: So that's one thing - a permanent arms industry. Before this, you would have companies like Ford, for example, they built everything from jeeps to bombers, then went back to building cars. Now, that changed after the Korean War.
MONTAGNE: So that's the industry part of it. What about the military half?
BOWMAN: And, Renee, there's another thing, too. Eisenhower decided to rely more and more on nuclear weapons, which, of course, meant sophisticated technology. The Cold War, in essence, became a technology race with the Soviets. It required its own industry of very specialized systems. So a company like Ford, going from cars to Jeeps is one thing, cars to missile, is quite another.
MONTAGNE: So Eisenhower seems to have believed that he - and this is strong language - but in a sense, created a monster, then during his tenure, tried to put it on a leash.
BOWMAN: The Pentagon budget actually decreased throughout his presidency. He kept saying he wanted a budget the country could afford, and he upset all the military services with his budget cuts - especially the Air Force. And he knew the Pentagon had a tendency to overstate its case and always ask for more than what was needed.
H: "The jet plane that roars overhead costs three quarters of a million dollars. That's more than a man will make in his lifetime. What world can afford this kind of thing for long?"
MONTAGNE: In that farewell speech, Eisenhower talks about the military and industry, but he did not mention Congress and its role in defense budgets.
BOWMAN: So a lot of times Congress will add to the Pentagon budget and the military doesn't really need this or want this.
MONTAGNE: What does Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex mean for America today?
BOWMAN: Let's listen.
S: Does the number of warships we have and are building really put America at risk when the U.S. battle fleet is larger than the next 13 navies combined, 11 of which are our partners and allies? Is it a dire threat, that by 2020 the United Sates will have only 20 times more advanced stealth fighters than China? These are the kinds of questions Eisenhower asked as commander-in-chief. They are the kinds of questions I believe he would ask today.
MONTAGNE: And that's coming from the secretary of Defense, Robert Gates. He almost sounds, Tom, as if the size of the U.S. military is beyond his control.
BOWMAN: And here's Secretary Gates again, talking about that.
S: What it takes is the political will and willingness, as Eisenhower possessed, to make hard choices, choices that will displease powerful people, both inside the Pentagon and out.
BOWMAN: Some say that one thing that could create the political will is the nation's budget deficit. Only that might force cuts in the overall Defense budget.
MONTAGNE: It's NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's Rachel Martin tells us how the history was written and how the father of one fallen soldier is trying to change it.
MONTAGNE: My name is Dave Brostrom, and I'm the father of 1st Lt. Jonathan Brostrom that was killed in action in the Battle of Wanat on 13 July, 2008.
RACHEL MARTIN: Dave Brostom is a retired Army colonel. He's spent the last two and a half years consumed with the details of that battle.
MONTAGNE: It's very rare to have an infantry platoon totally rendered combat-ineffective, almost decimated by insurgents. Nothing made sense about what happened.
MARTIN: Here are the rough facts: Lt. Jonathan Brostrom and other members of his platoon were building a small outpost in a village in the eastern part of Afghanistan. The area was known to be hostile to American forces but Brostrom's commanders were hoping he could win over the locals. After four days on the ground, Brostrom, who's the platoon leader, hadn't had much luck and then in the early morning hours of the fifth day, the outpost was attacked. Apache helicopters arrived about 30 minutes later to help. This is gun camera video from those Apaches, provided to NBC News.
U: Is it clear?
U: I'm looking. Cross to the left. (Unintelligible) Romeo.
U: Firing.
U: I do not have that (unintelligible).
MARTIN: After about four hours, it was all over. Nine American soldiers had been killed.
MONTAGNE: It was a Sunday morning. We were doing our ritual, coming back from church and planning to go out to the beach.
MARTIN: Dave Brostrom remembers that day clearly.
MONTAGNE: And the doorbell rang and there was two people there at the front door - a captain chaplain and a major - who told us that our son had been killed by small arms fire in Afghanistan.
MARTIN: Several investigations have tried to answer those questions with different conclusions. One found that three of Brostrom's commanding officers were derelict in their duties. Then a few months later, another one reversed that decision. Now finally there's the Army's official history of the battle, which Dave Brostrom says puts too much blame on his son.
MONTAGNE: And this book will be put on the shelf for students and junior officers to pull out to try to get lessons learned on what went wrong in Afghanistan. And I just want the Army to get it right.
MARTIN: He's meeting today with top military officials at Fort Leavenworth to try to get it changed.
MONTAGNE: It really focuses on the platoon level and it's quick to blame the platoon leadership for the majority of the mistakes that the company and battalion made during the planning and execution of Wanat.
MARTIN: Brostrom thinks more senior officers should be held responsible because as he reads the history, he thinks his son is being singled out.
MONTAGNE: You know, at the end of the day, I think he did a pretty damn good job with what he had. Unfortunately, it cost him his life and those of eight other soldiers but it wasn't his fault. They were put in an untenable situation and the Army has refused to acknowledge that.
D: It is not our purpose to adjudicate blame.
MARTIN: Dr. William Robertson is the director of the Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth and is one of the officials Brostrom will meet today. His team's history never explicitly blames Lieutenant Brostrom but it does raise questions about his judgment - where he decided to build an observation post and why he wasn't conducting patrols in the village. Still, Robertson says the Army's history is accurate and fair.
MONTAGNE: No one said this is who you blame, this is who you exonerate. It's simply the result of several professional historians trying to work in their craft to try to tell a very sad but a very heroic story.
MARTIN: Dave Brostrom says he wants the Army to be able to learn from its mistakes and that means holding the right people accountable. But he admits this is personal.
MONTAGNE: Part of this is making sure the record's straight. My grandson thinks his father was a hero, which he was.
MARTIN: Rachel Martin, NPR News.
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MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
As Eleanor Beardsley reports, after years of living under the feared police squads, Tunisians now look to the army to keep them safe.
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ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Human rights activist Masoud Ramdhani said the gunfight broke out as the army tried to root out other members of Ben Ali's elite police force.
MONTAGNE: These people have got arms and munitions and they continue to use these arms to terrify people.
BEARDSLEY: Masoud and other Tunisians say Ben Ali's henchmen are sowing chaos to try to make the country fail. The former Tunisian president built his system with the help of his powerful police force. According to one European human rights report, they played a role in all political, social and cultural aspects of Tunisian life.
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BEARDSLEY: Tunisians downright loathe Ben Ali's personal security police, especially since his forces opened fire on protesters over the last month. Cell phone videos posted on Facebook showing the killing of protesters by police snipers enraged people and helped stoke the revolution.
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BEARDSLEY: This reporter witnessed policemen beating young protesters with truncheons in a back alley under her hotel window just before Ben Ali fled. Minutes later, a frightened young man knocked at my door, asking if I could hide him from the police.
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BEARDSLEY: During the final mass protest last Friday, just before police attacked with tear gas, many people poured out their grievances to reporters over Ben Ali's regime. The raw emotion in this woman's voice says it all. She was too afraid to give her name.
U: (Foreign language spoken) (Through translator) Thirty police came to my house and took my child away last March. He's just a student. I still don't know where he is. They are monsters and liars.
BEARDSLEY: Since Ben Ali's departure, the veil of fear is slowly lifting. Sixty-year-old Benusef Houtman explains to me, out on the open streets, how Tunisians feel about the police and the army. He says he never would have talked so openly a week ago.
MONTAGNE: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: Moncef Marzouki is the head of a Tunisian opposition party and has been living in exile in Paris for the last decade. He'll be coming home this week to take part in Tunisia's new democracy.
BEARDSLEY: (Through translator) All of the Tunisian people are confident in the army, that it will stop these gangs who are trying to sow confusion, and that it will be the guarantor of our peaceful transition to democracy.
BEARDSLEY: Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Tunis.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Let's look now at a much-talked-about transition for a cable talk show based on a household name. Over the last decade, CNN lost the lead in the cable news ratings as its primetime audience dropped off dramatically. So, after Larry King announced he was leaving his show last year, CNN executives made a surprising choice aimed at reviving those sagging ratings. It hired British journalist Piers Morgan to take King's place. He debuts tonight.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK: CNN has been teasing viewers with appearances by Piers Morgan with other anchors, such as Anderson Cooper.
PIERS MORGAN: So, Anderson, obviously, you'll be the poster boy for CNN.
ANDERSON COOPER: Oh, is that right?
MORGAN: Well, so you told me.
FOLKENFLIK: We know him as a reality show judge on "America's Got Talent," but in London media circles Piers Morgan is at once famous and infamous: a talent himself who has repeatedly gotten into ethical hot water. Media executive Kelvin MacKenzie counts himself among his fans and says Morgan will do well on TV.
KELVIN MACKENZIE: He has an engaging personality, Piers. So, he's likely to get along with most folk. And it doesn't really matter whether you're the king or the dustman. You know, he's at ease with both. He's a good guy.
FOLKENFLIK: MacKenzie is Morgan's former boss and mentor.
MACKENZIE: Piers has a sort of a cheeky, chappier way of putting the sort of more difficult question.
FOLKENFLIK: In fact, I heard three different British editors call him a cheeky chappy. In this context, a bloke who can be reverent without being blatantly disrespectful. So, recall that moment when an unemployed 47-year-old Scottish amateur named Susan Boyle catapulted to fame on a British reality show.
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SUSAN BOYLE: (Singing) I dreamed a dream in time gone by...
FOLKENFLIK: Piers Morgan helped give her career a push as a judge on that show.
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MORGAN: No one is laughing now. That was stunning. I mean, incredible performance.
FOLKENFLIK: Piers Morgan is the kind of celebrity journalist who visibly revels in his status. It was true from the start - when Kelvin MacKenzie hired him as editor of a daily column about pop culture at The Sun, one of the U.K.'s saucier tabloids that made a fortune for Rupert Murdoch. The column featured big pictures of Morgan with celebrities, young and old.
MACKENZIE: What he began to do was take his ego and make it as big a deal that they'd met Piers Morgan as Piers Morgan had met Frank Sinatra, if you see what I mean. Now that you see how it's all worked out for Piers, you have to wonder whether this actually was Piers all the time.
FOLKENFLIK: His reporters hustled after stories about aristocrats, actors, politicians and entertainers while he partied at night. But as the British editor and media critic Roy Greenslade says...
ROY GREENSLADE: He then committed two grievous errors there as well.
FOLKENFLIK: It fit neatly into his nearly lonely campaign against the war, but the pictures were shown to have been fakes. Roy Greenslade.
GREENSLADE: If he had been prepared to apologize to his readers, apologize to the regiment that was named and so on, I think he would have kept his job and I think that that would have been understandable. We all understand human error.
FOLKENFLIK: Instead, Morgan didn't apologize to anyone and the Mirror fired him. Indeed, in a video recently posted on CNN's website, Morgan said inquiries involving British and U.S. troops proved that such behavior did take place.
MORGAN: I believe that we'd exposed a wider truth. I still don't really know what those pictures were, but at the time even the military thought they were genuine.
FOLKENFLIK: For a while after his firing Morgan fell from view - but not for long. He emerged as a TV star in the U.K. As an interviewer, he knew all the top celebrities and political figures and won acclaim from drawing a display of emotion from that most awkward and withdrawn of figures, then British prime minister Gordon Brown, talking about the loss of his infant daughter.
GORDON BROWN: And she was baptized and we were with her and I held her as she died. Sarah and I just, we find it very difficult because...
FOLKENFLIK: David Folkenflik, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Another Brit hosted the Golden Globes last night. Ricky Gervais kicked off the evening with biting humor directed at his fellow actors.
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MONTAGNE: Welcome to the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards, live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. It's going to be a night of partying and heavy drinking - or as Charlie Sheen calls it, breakfast.
MONTAGNE: When Robert Downey, Jr. stepped on stage, he showed he was not amused.
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MONTAGNE: Aside from the fact that it's been hugely mean-spirited with mildly sinister undertones, I'd say the vibe of the show is pretty good so far, wouldn't you?
MONTAGNE: That criticism didn't stop Gervais. Other victims of his snarky witticisms included Cher, Hugh Hefner, the cast of "Sex and the City," and one of Demi Moore's two husbands.
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MONTAGNE: Please welcome Ashton Kutcher's dad, Bruce Willis.
MONTAGNE: Veteran actor Robert De Niro accepted a Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award with some self-deprecating humor.
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MONTAGNE: Thank you for this extraordinary honor. I was very, very moved and gratified when you made the announcement two months ago, well before you had a chance to review "Little Fockers."
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MONTAGNE: And the night's big winner was "The Social Network," the movie that looks at the birth of Facebook. It picked up four awards, including Best Dramatic Picture and Best Director for David Fincher. The TV show "Glee" won three awards, one of which went to Chris Colfer for best supporting actor. Colfer plays an openly gay character on the TV show and had this message for young people:
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MONTAGNE: Most importantly, to all the amazing kids that watch our show and the kids that our show celebrates, who are constantly told no by people in their environments, by bullies at school, that they can't be who they are or have what they want because of who they are, well, screw that, kids. Thank you.
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MONTAGNE: Other winners included a movie about a lesbian couple, "The Kids Are All Right," for best comedy movie. Natalie Portman won best actress in a drama - the ballet thriller "Black Swan." And Colin Firth captured the best actor award in a drama for his portrayal of a king who struggles to overcome the stutter that keeps him from speaking to his people in the movie "The King's Speech."
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's business news begins with a call for action on China's currency.
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MONTAGNE: Chinese President Hu Jintao will pay a state visit to Washington this week. Some Democratic senators plan to mark the occasion by introducing a measure that targets what they consider an undervalued Chinese currency. The relatively cheap Chinese currency makes its exports cheap and makes American exports comparatively expensive. The measure would impose penalties that include tariffs and would prevent Chinese companies from receiving U.S. government contracts.
: And today, our last word in business today is seven more ounces.
S: And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's Jason Beaubien reports on his surprise return to the Haitian capital.
JASON BEAUBIEN: Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier landed at the Port-au-Prince airport last night and was whisked out of the compound in a black Toyota SUV.
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BEAUBIEN: Twenty-four-year-old Daverne Sanon said, now Haiti is just suffering.
MONTAGNE: (Foreign language spoken)
BEAUBIEN: Sanon said all of the exiled presidents should be allowed to return. He says Haiti has suffered the earthquake, cholera and the current president, Rene Preval.
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BEAUBIEN: Thirty-five-year-old Robinson Marquis, who was standing nearby, said Baby Doc was Haiti's last great president.
MONTAGNE: Since he left the country, we don't have no country. So I hope when he come back, we're going to have an army and a country. And the country is going to be beautiful again, say, like the way from way back since he been left since '86.
BEAUBIEN: Duvalier arrives as Haiti is in the midst of another political crisis. Presidential elections in November disintegrated into chaos, with 12 of the 19 candidates claiming there was massive fraud at the polls. Official results from the election still haven't been released. The second round of the race is in limbo. And it appears that President Preval's term will expire on February 7th, before a new head of state is chosen.
MONTAGNE: In an interview with NPR last week, President Preval recounted a conversation he'd had with a U.S. diplomat about the fate that so many other former Haitian presidents have suffered. He speaks, at first, through a translator.
P: (Through Translator) I said that for 25 years, it's not normal that no president was able to complete his term in Haiti.
P: Except one. The one you are talking to.
BEAUBIEN: Presidential candidate Michel Martelly, also speaking to NPR last week, said the exiled former presidents remain an issue. Martelly said if elected, his administration would welcome back ousted presidents Jean Bertrand Aristide and Baby Doc Duvalier.
MONTAGNE: I'd rather talk about clemency for everyone. So we stop talking about names. We want to talk country. We want to talk about solidarity, fraternity, one nation, one people with progress and move forward.
BEAUBIEN: Jason Beaubien, NPR News, Port-au-Prince.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Good morning.
COKIE ROBERTS: Hi, Renee.
MONTAGNE: And, Cokie, you were in Haiti earlier this month and spoke to U.S. officials about the situation there. What did they say and what does this arrival of Baby Doc mean for the situation?
ROBERTS: And Baby Doc's return is likely to just set things back, even more than cholera has, by throwing the entire situation into just greater confusion. So, you know, another big issue for a very troubled country.
MONTAGNE: Well, let's switch gears here and turn to politics in the United States. The House Republicans plan to take up the repeal of the big health care law this week. They postponed, as I think people know, last week, because of the shootings in Tucson. Do you think the debate will reflect a new tone in Washington?
ROBERTS: Well, the debate starts tomorrow, so we'll see. Members of both parties are calling for a measured, thoughtful conversation as opposed to name calling and hurtling accusations. Some Democrats are even saying they look forward to it. Here's New York Senator Chuck Schumer.
ROBERTS: First, we welcome, in a certain sense, their attempt to repeal it, because it gives us a second chance to make a first impression.
ROBERTS: But, you know, frankly Renee, it's easy for the Democrats not to get too hot and bothered about this health care repeal, because they know it's not going anywhere. I mean, it's not going to pass the Democratic Senate. It certainly would never get a presidential signature, and the real question on the substance of health care is whether Republicans succeed, down the line, in cutting off funds to implement some parts of the legislation rather than this wholesale repeal, which is basically symbolic.
MONTAGNE: The other very big issue is the government's growing debt. It's now surged to $14 trillion, just under the legal limit, so Congress has to vote to raise the ceiling, but the politics of doing so in a recession are very tricky. I mean, how are the parties approaching it? The Republicans are absolutely saying no. But?
ROBERTS: Well, the debt ceiling is always problematic. Nobody likes to vote to raise it, but it becomes part of the downside of holding the majority. If you don't raise the limit, the government could be in a position of not honoring its obligations to everyone, from Social Security recipients to defense contractors. And of course you could have a government shutdown, and that didn't work so well for the Republicans the last time that happened when they were in control of Congress and a Democratic president was in the White House. But these Republicans are getting pressure from outside Congress. Here's Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty - former governor:
MONTAGNE: As to the federal government, they should not raise the debt ceiling. I believe they should pass legislation, allow them to sequence the spending as the revenues come in to make sure they don't default, and then have the debate about what other spending can be reduced.
ROBERTS: Now he was talking on Fox News Sunday. Pawlenty, of course, is a likely presidential candidate for 2012. And yes, Renee, that election is already upon us and will have a big impact on Republicans in Congress as the year goes forward.
MONTAGNE: Thanks very much, NPR's Cokie Roberts.
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MONTAGNE: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Today, the nation remembers Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He helped lead the fight for civil rights and equality that changed this country. Decades after his assassination, his message continues to inspire a new generation. This weekend, African American and Jewish high school students here in Washington, D.C. got together to talk about Dr. King's legacy. NPR's Allison Keyes joined them.
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ALLISON KEYES: People were smiling and tapping their feet at Temple Micah in northwest Washington during Friday's evening Shabbat.
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KEYES: They offered friendly greetings to the 2011 class of Operation Understanding D.C. sitting in the audience. The night's program included the reading of an excerpt from Dr. King's "I Have A Dream Speech," and two guest speakers who just completed OUDC's program, 18-year-old Emily Aronson is one of them.
EMILY ARONSON: I saw history come to life and traced the progression of my faith.
KEYES: The teens then travel to various cities from New York to Georgia and Alabama, ending in Memphis where Dr. King was assassinated. Aronson says King's message inspired them.
ARONSON: We kind of like followed him. And then seeing where he died, it was - I mean, that left like a really big, lasting impression. That was the last day of the journey for us.
KEYES: Zann Ballsun-Simms is 17 and told the Temple what it was like to stand at the National Civil Rights Museum in the recreation of the room where Dr. King stayed, and see the piece of original concrete still stained with his blood.
ZANN BALLSUN: I must have stood there for a good 10 minutes. It was unbelievable to think that someone who did nothing but promote peace could be killed in such a violent way. It made me angry, sad, and confused all at once.
KEYES: But Ballsun-Simms says she also learned that African Americans weren't the only victims of lynching in the south. She cites the case of Leo Frank - a Jewish man lynched in 1915 Georgia for the killing of a 13-year-old white girl.
BALLSUN: I never heard of a white man being lynched before. But it further indicated to me the fact that Jews were considered as much outsiders as blacks.
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KEYES: Seventeen-year-old Curtis Tiger is one of the 24 students just starting the program, and says he's excited to have the chance to broaden his horizons with Jewish students and learn their outlook on society in America. He thinks Dr. King would be proud to see the groups come together.
CURTIS TIGER: We're following in his footsteps - he did the same thing as us, uh, we're doing the same thing as him - fighting for social justice - and basically what we're going to do, is kind of like take on where he left off.
DANIEL MILLER: Dr. King really backed, like, everything, like all the values and all the things we've been talking about and are going to be talking about for the rest of the year.
KEYES: Seventeen-year-old Daniel Miller, another new participant, says he's really interested in learning to run the prejudice reduction workshops that are part of this program.
MILLER: I'm hoping to, you know, become, like, more of a leader.
KEYES: Chaundra Christmas-Rouse is sixteen. She says she hopes Operation Understanding D.C. will help her learn new ways to tackle frank conversations between diverse communities without violence.
CHAUNDRA CHRISTMAS: What this program does is, you know, say it's okay to approach me and ask me a question that, you know, you just don't know what you don't know. And so, I don't know, I feel like this really gives you the tools to kind of handle those type of awkward situations.
KEYES: Allison Keyes, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Martin Luther King's civil rights campaign included a call for equal access to public spaces. Today, the internet is one of those public spaces, and access for African Americans differs from that of whites. IT consultant Anjuan Simmons joins us to talk about some of those differences. Good morning.
MONTAGNE: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: Let's talk about access to the internet. Theoretically, of course, it's all equal, but in fact, there are different ways in which African Americans get on the Internet. What's one of them?
MONTAGNE: What we're finding is cell phones are a common way that people of color are getting online. And one reason for that is, as opposed to a laptop, which often costs several hundred dollars, you can get a subsidized cell phone from a carrier for a lot less. And so you have a cost savings where you can get a cell phone that has a relatively high speed connection to the Internet, and I think that that low cost, ease of access, mobile approach is really attractive to African Americans.
MONTAGNE: So more so than whites, African Americans get on the internet through cell phones. Does that affect how they use social media?
MONTAGNE: Yes, since so many people of color have access to the Internet through their cell phones, then they are accessing sites like Facebook and Twitter online. And the limitation to doing that is it's hard to edit a resume from a mobile phone. We don't see a lot of people starting really sophisticated online businesses through mobile technology and I think that that's one thing that, unless changes are made, may hold back African Americans as they get into the internet and access this brand new open space.
MONTAGNE: So while mobile devices have expanded access to the Internet, they limit the experience on the Internet for African Americans?
MONTAGNE: When it comes to doing sophisticated activities like creating the next Facebook, that's where I want people of color to go. And mobile phones really don't do that at this point.
MONTAGNE: Where do you go then if what you can afford is a mobile phone, but what you need is a laptop?
MONTAGNE: So I think being a little bit smarter and making a better choice and getting a netbook or even the new tablet, you know, craze, the iPad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, we're seeing low-powered ways to get computing power that I think need to be leveraged by people of color.
MONTAGNE: IT Consultant Anjuan Simmons is director of Adverlyze, an online marketing company. He also writes for Black Web 2.0. Thanks very much for joining us.
MONTAGNE: Thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: And you can follow this program on social media. You'll find us on Facebook, and on Twitter, we're @MORNING EDITION.
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MONTAGNE: This is MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
In Florida, an argument between the state and federal government is heating up. For more than a year, Florida has fought with the Environmental Protection Agency over new water quality standards. It is the first state required to implement these strict guidelines and says it's being singled out unfairly. Florida Public Radio's Trimmel Gomes reports.
TRIMMEL GOMES: To show what this legal battle is all about, Manley Fuller with the Florida Wildlife Federation paddles a canoe down the Wakulla River near Tallahassee.
MONTAGNE: If it was a little warmer, I normally would just jump in and just shove us around and go on, but I'm going to be a little more fastidious today.
GOMES: It's one of the coldest days of the season in North Florida. As Fuller glides across the water, he tries to show why his organization sued the EPA in 2008 to make the state comply with the Clean Water Act.
MONTAGNE: There is a lot of algae on these aquatic plants, growing on it, but it's not as evident today as it sometimes is.
GOMES: Fuller says too much phosphorus and nitrogen from fertilizer and storm water runoff could lead to massive algae blooms. Scientists say those can kill fish and animals and cause breathing problems in humans. But the state's business leaders say it's not much of a problem. Barney Bishop is president of the lobbying group Associated Industries of Florida.
MONTAGNE: This is the federal government coming down and trying to tell the state of Florida what to do. And quite frankly, we don't need no stinking feds telling us what to do here in Florida.
GOMES: Bishop says the EPA is picking on the state by imposing strict new numeric standards of measuring water pollution to boost the water quality standards in lakes and rivers. The EPA's regional administrator, Gwen Keyes-Fleming, says they aren't picking on Florida, it just so happens to be the first state it's examined.
MONTAGNE: Our job is to make sure we take each state and each situation as it comes. Again, we recognize the geographical diversity of Florida versus other states. We'll look at it as a state-by-state basis.
GOMES: Thirteen other states have already accepted similar rules voluntarily. The fact that the federal government forced Florida to adopt them has rippled across the country, says Don Parrish of the Washington-based American Farm Bureau Federation.
MONTAGNE: Other states are looking at Florida as the bellwether on this, and as clearly as state officials understand and recognize, this is taking away local control, local government, local governance and investing it in EPA.
GOMES: But Monica Reimer says that's not necessarily a bad thing. She's a lawyer with Earthjustice, the organization responsible for forcing the EPA to act. She says, in the past, the state used to wait until environmental issues were already a problem.
MONTAGNE: What that really means is, is that until the water turns green, everything is OK. And as we have learned to our great cost in the Everglades, when you wait until a water resource has deteriorated it is extremely costly and almost impossible to get it back to some sort of normal condition.
GOMES: Just before he left office, former Florida attorney general Bill McCollum filed a major lawsuit against the federal government. He says the EPA rushed to judgment only to settle its battle with Earthjustice. He argues the rules are unfair and arbitrary.
MONTAGNE: They put the horse before the cart to settle this lawsuit and that's going to cost Floridians a lot of money if this goes forward, and we're going to have criteria that shouldn't be applied to one body of water being applied to that body of water - just all kinds of lawsuits and litigations, and it's a mess.
GOMES: For NPR News, I'm Trimmel Gomes in Tallahassee.
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MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Meanwhile, the investigation continues into what motivated the accused gunman. Here's NPR's Jeff Brady with the latest.
JEFF BRADY: The alleged gunman, 22-year-old Jared Loughner, is in federal custody and the FBI has taken the lead role in the investigation. Pima County Sheriff Spokesman Jason Ogan says federal agents have control of the evidence now. But there is still the matter of state charges that could be filed against Loughner.
JASON OGAN: We are still going through some things and we have meetings with the county attorney here later this week to discuss what charges are, you know, we going to pursue. Can we mirror the federal charges? You know, is it going to be a double-jeopardy kind of deal? Or do we have to, you know, scale back a little?
BRADY: At the Safeway where the shooting happened, the store reopened this weekend and shoppers gingerly pushed carts past a memorial near the front door. There are piles of flowers, lit candles, stuffed animals.
PEG ANDERSON: There's a sign that says United against hate and violence.
BRADY: Peg Anderson lives just about a quarter-mile from here and she stopped by to take a picture. Thinking back to a week ago, she remembers all the talk, prompted by Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, that a nasty political environment might have led to the shooting. Then Anderson agreed, but now says she's not sure. She wonders how anyone could know what was happening in Jared Loughner's mind.
ANDERSON: And so I think it's dangerous to attribute it to anything that has been said or happened, but I can understand why there's that reaction. I had that reaction myself. And I do think this has made everybody sit up and pay attention to how they treat each other.
BRADY: Jeff Brady, NPR News, Tucson.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
MONTAGNE: It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Here in the U.S., many small businesses can face limitations because they don't take credit cards.
The fees and other costs associated with processing plastic is a turnoff for many of these small businesses, so they stick to cash. But new technologies are making it easier for even the taco truck guy or the local plumber to take on-the-spot credit card payments.
Reporter Vanessa Romo reports.
(Soundbite of electric weed-whacker)
VANESSA ROMO: Jeff Barber and Kurt Schuyer are standing at the top of a steep driveway, looking out over a freshly mowed lawn in old Agoura Hills in Southern California. Barber is holding an electric weed-whacker, and Schuyer is holding his iPhone.
Mr. KURT SCHUYER (Co-owner, HybridLawns): I'll go get the homeowner here.
ROMO: Together they own HybridLawns, an environmentally friendly landscaping company. And using Schuyer's smartphone and a small gadget called Square, they're about to bill a client for a month's worth of work.
Mr. SCHUYER: We got the $70 in here for your monthly payment.
Unidentified Woman: All right.
Mr. SCHUYER: And I'll take your card. And it's simple, just a quick swipe like that. There we go. It's authorizing now.
ROMO: Schuyer and Barber started their business two years ago when the pair were laid off from their respective construction jobs.
Mr. SCHUYER: And you've been approved. So I just need to...
ROMO: Since then, they've been mowing lawns, pruning hedges and scooping up leaves for about 20 clients. But Barber says like a lot of small businesses, they've had trouble collecting regular payments.
Mr. JEFF BARBER (Co-owner, HybridLawns): We were trying to go paperless, because we're eco-friendly, but for the most part, you know, we just emailed people. You know, email here's your bill, you know, pay us your bill. Send us a check. Here comes a snail mail. Sometimes they kind of drag their heels a little bit.
ROMO: They say getting paid can sometimes take weeks, which is why they got the Square device: a credit card reader about the size of a postage stamp that plugs into the headphone jack of either an iPhone, Android or iPad. So now, when they show up at the pretty yellow ranch house, Jackie Lacomb can't do what she usually does with a bill.
Ms. JACKIE LACOMB: It sits there forever, and I forget about it. So this makes it great, because it's done as soon as they, you know, come by with the bill, it's here. I'm finished.
Mr. JACK DORSEY (Co-founder, Square and Twitter): We dramatically simplified the way people can start accepting payments so that you can accept them from anywhere.
ROMO: Jack Dorsey is one of the founders of Square. If his name sounds familiar, it's because he's also the co-founder of Twitter. Dorsey says he was thinking about entrepreneurs like Schuyer and Barber when he came up with the idea for Square on-the-go small or micro business owners.
Square opened its doors to the public in October. The device and the software are free. The company takes a flat 2.75 percent of each transaction, plus 15 cents - cheaper than fees charged by most other credit card payment systems.
Mr. DORSEY: And you have to pay off a bunch of these set-up fees and monthly minimums and other fees that look a little bit odd. All you have to do with Square is download it, sign up, and we give you a free reader, and you can start accepting card payments.
ROMO: Square is now processing millions of dollars in mobile transactions every week. More than 45 million people in the U.S. have a smartphone and, as money-exchanging portals, they're a fairly untapped market. Right now, there are only a few products. There's Intuit, another credit card-swiping device made just for the iPhone. Also, a handful of banks let you deposit checks by taking pictures of them, and Chase allows person-to-person deposits via email.
All of this virtual moving of money has people worried about fraud. John Hering of Lookout Mobile Security says that's why companies like Square have built in stringent security measures from the start.
Mr. JOHN HERING (Lookout Mobile Security): They're using very strong encryption and a number of the best industry practices. Now, it's going to be very important that anyone adopting a mobile payment technology makes sure that they're taking steps to keep their mobile device itself safe.
ROMO: In other words, treat your phone like your wallet. Don't leave it lying on a park bench. Hering says rather than fearing the future, think of it as extreme convenience with a little common sense security.
Mr. HERING: When we look at mobile payments in general, I think that it's really the future in terms of payments.
ROMO: Smartphones are the fastest growing segment of the mobile phone market, which means mobile payments are growing, as well. So the next time you're eyeing a brownie at a PTA bake sale with no money and no checkbook, you may want to ask if they take plastic.
For NPR News, I'm Vanessa Romo.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
We will be getting new numbers on the U.S. housing market this week. The ongoing wave of foreclosures has kept housing in the doldrums and now there's a new chapter unfolding in this crisis. This month, the state Supreme Court in Massachusetts issued a ruling in a foreclosure case that sent banks' stocks down sharply. NPR's Chris Arnold reports from Boston.
CHRIS ARNOLD: To understand what's been going on in the world of mortgages, I've climbed into my car here and I'm pulling out the title to my car. And if you've ever bought or sold a used car, you know that on the back of this piece of paper there's a place that you sign when you sell the car. Here is says: the assignment of certificate of title by owner. And it turns out this is very similar to what happens with mortgages.
Mr. KEVIN COSTELLO (Attorney): That's exactly right. And this is - to use the car analogy - this is like the car gets sold once; it then gets sold 10 more times except that piece of paper never gets signed again.
ARNOLD: Kevin Costello is an attorney in Boston who represents homeowners. He says in recent years, more mortgages were packaged into securities on Wall Street. They were often sold to different parties again and again and in some cases the systems broke down for keeping the required legal paper trail. And so banks that are trying to foreclose sometimes can't prove to a judge that they actually have the legal right to do that.
Mr. COSTELLO: In order for that foreclosure to be appropriate, you have to show that the originator assigned the interest to entity A, who then assigned the interest to entity B, all the way down to whoever it is that's showing up to foreclose on your house.
ARNOLD: If it turns out that there are legal questions surrounding the mortgages for millions of homes facing foreclosure, that could mean pretty big trouble for the banks.
That's what sent bank stocks down after this recent so-called Ibanez decision by the state Supreme Court in Massachusetts. The banks were basically arguing they should be able to foreclose anyway. But, Costello explains, the judge not only disagreed, he disagreed pretty strongly.
Mr. COSTELLO: The term that he uses is utter carelessness with which the banks documented the titles to their assets.
Mr. GARY KLEIN (Attorney): The importance to me of Ibanez is that the court is saying that banks are not above the law.
ARNOLD: That's Gary Klein. He heads up the legal team that Costello's on. They're seeking a class action status on a related lawsuit on behalf of homeowners.
Wells Fargo, one of the banks involved in the Ibanez case, released a statement. It said, quote, "Wells Fargo believes that the court's ruling does not prevent foreclosures on loans in securitizations. The court simply set forth a standard legal process that mortgage servicers must follow in Massachusetts."
And in Massachusetts and other states, in many cases, the banks may be able to sort out their paperwork problems given time. It's also unclear though how many mortgages are even faulty. Gary Klein:
Mr. KLEIN: I think that's something that we don't know yet. I think there's reason to believe that this problem affects a lot of foreclosures, but not every foreclosure.
ARNOLD: Some analysts think this faulty paperwork could also open up the banks to litigation from investors who lost money on securities that are backed by home loans that went bad.
Randall Wray is an economics professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
Professor RANDALL WRAY (Economics, University of Missouri, Kansas City): It means that what we have been calling mortgage-backed securities aren't. They're not backed by mortgages.
ARNOLD: Wray says if the paperwork wasn't done right, investors could argue that they were sold faulty securities and demand their money back from the banks.
Wray's fellow professor in Kansas City, William Black, agrees. He's a lawyer, a criminologist and a former federal bank regulator. He says it used to be that banks were punctilious about mortgage paperwork.
Professor WILLIAM BLACK (Law and Economics, University of Missouri, Kansas City): You had to get everything right. You had to have copies of all the documents. That was the very mark of a banker. And now it's, you know, the equivalent of "Girls Gone Wild." It's just that it's now banks gone wild.
ARNOLD: So, what happens next for the major banks? Marty Regalia is chief economist with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. MARTY REGALIA (Chief Economist, U.S. Chamber of Commerce): Could it be terrible? Yes. Do we think it's at that stage? Not based on what we've seen yet. More than likely we're going to see something in the middle. It won't be as good as we hoped. It won't be as bad as we fear.
ARNOLD: Some other economists, too, predict that these legal problems will probably slow down foreclosures, but not derail the whole banking system.
Gary Klein is hoping that all this will give homeowners some more leverage, and push banks to work out alternatives to foreclosures to keep more people in their homes.
Chris Arnold, NPR News, Boston.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
At a time when U.S. companies are producing relatively few new jobs, some wealthy immigrants are especially welcome. In return for investing in an American enterprise that creates jobs, a well-off foreigner can get a green card. Vermont Public Radio's Charlotte Albright takes us to a ski resort that's cashing in on the arrangement.
CHARLOTTE ALBRIGHT: �This season, snow is plentiful, but working capital is always hard to come by in this hardscrabble corner of Vermont. Bill Stenger owns Jay Peak, a popular resort only two miles from Canada. He's found mountains of money overseas.
Mr. BILL STENGER (Owner, Jay Peak): We've raised almost $200 million of equity capital to transform Jay Peak from a winter-only ski resort to a true 52-week a year resort facility.
ALBRIGHT: In addition to about 80 well-groomed trails, there's a snazzy hotel, an ice arena, and a golf course.
(Soundbite of tractor)
And construction has begun on a huge water park. The glass dome will keep it toasty in the winter and can be rolled back in the summer. Stenger proudly points to Caterpillar tractors, American-made machines employing about 50 local workers.
Mr. STENGER: They were all born and raised in this area, went to North Country high school, the career center, some to Vermont Tech and now they're working at Jay Peak building this facility.
ALBRIGHT: Some of that work is being paid for by investors like Anthony Korda. He's a British lawyer who followed the EB5 rules, investing the minimum $500,000 in Jay Peak and creating at least ten jobs. The feds took a few months to trace the source of that foreign money, and conducted background checks before issuing his green card. Now he's an immigration lawyer in Naples, Florida who connects other foreign investors to the EB5 program...
(Soundbite of saw)
ALBRIGHT: ...and he's building a stylish new house in his adopted home.
Mr. ANTHONY KORDA (Immigration Attorney): The EB5 program has given us a new life and yes, it's given me a new business to go into, and it's an interesting one, too.
ALBRIGHT: Interesting, because he helps clients from all over the world find the best, safest American projects to invest in. They can do that through one of about 80 regional EB5 centers nationwide.
Korda says the centers are popping up all over the place, now that equity capital isn't easy to get from American banks. But processing the visas can take months or even years, so investors are rushing to get in the pipeline before the scheduled sunset date in September 2012.
Mr. KORDA: Unless Congress does renew the program either permanently or again for a lengthy period, it starts to lose its appeal.
ALBRIGHT: To keep investors coming confidently into EB5, its many bipartisan supporters are already trying to drum up Congressional support for its renewal. They know if it gets attached to a controversial immigration bill, it could get bogged down and expire.
Only 10,000 visas are set aside for EB5, a small fraction of the yearly total allotment. That quota has never been met. But the investors who have climbed aboard have brought more than a billion dollars into American businesses, generating tens of thousands of jobs. That's a point EB5 cheerleaders will make, if they're faced with opposition from anti-immigration groups.
For NPR News, I'm Charlotte Albright, in northern Vermont.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Most great piano music comes straight from the middle of the keyboard.
(Soundbite of piano music)
INSKEEP: If you were the one sitting at the piano playing a piece like this, your fingers would mostly stay right in front of you. You'd rarely go to the tinkly high notes off to your right, or the booming bass notes off to your left. Yet a craftsman in Australia thinks the instrument has room to grow. He's added more keys at each end.
And Neva Grant reports on a really grand piano.
NEVA GRANT: It weighs 1400 pounds, but can sound as fragile as spun glass...
(Soundbite of piano music)
GRANT: ...or as tough as a foghorn.
(Soundbite of piano music)
GRANT: The Stuart and Sons grand piano has 14 more keys than most, which means the lowest and highest notes live very much on the edge. To show you, let's first sit down at the Yamaha grand at NPR, with the typical 88 keys.
(Soundbite of piano music)
GRANT: On the left-hand side of the piano, you can go down this low.
(Soundbite of piano music)
GRANT: On the Stuart piano, you can go nine notes lower.
(Soundbite of piano music)
GRANT: Now the high notes. First on the Yamaha grand, we can go up to here.
(Soundbite of piano music)
GRANT: And on the Stuart: Five extra notes up.
(Soundbite of piano music)
Mr. WAYNE STUART (Piano Designer, Stuart and Sons): I would hate to go back to playing an 88-note piano; can't stand it, too limited.
GRANT: Piano designer Wayne Stuart says a few other grands can play as low as his 102-key model, but none can play as high. It's a great feat of acrobatics, you might say. But those extra notes really aren't that musical. So why have them? For color, says Stuart, and resonance.
Mr. STUART: There's a tremendous amount...
(Soundbite of piano keys)
Mr. STUART: ...of energy there in the low octave notes. You can hear the power.
GRANT: Actually, you can sense the power, even in pieces where the lowest notes aren't played.
(Soundbite of piano music)
Mr. GERARD WILLEMS (Concert Pianist): Beethoven might have actually loved the sound of the Stuart piano.
GRANT: Concert pianist Gerard Willems has recorded most of Beethoven's works on a Stuart grand. Willems says Beethoven only had about 70 keys on his piano, and he would have used more notes if he'd had them. But don't focus too much on the keys, he says. This Stuart piano has other innovations, its strings vibrate differently from other pianos. So even when you play many notes at once, says Willems, each sound rings out clear and separate.
Mr. WILLEMS: It's almost like, sort of taking wool and you pull the wool apart. And you can feel, and you can sense and smell each different layer of the sound.
(Soundbite of piano music)
GRANT: But if the Stuart piano is going to attract more attention, it has to attract living composers to write for it. And that's starting to happen.
(Soundbite of piano music)
Ms. FIONA JOY HAWKINS (Composer/Musician): It's probably the best piano I've ever played on.
GRANT: New Age jazz musician Fiona Joy Hawkins has composed pieces for the Stuart piano. Listen for those whispery high notes.
(Soundbite of piano music)
Ms. HAWKINS: What it lends itself to is the ability to get a lot more from a single note. It just doesn't have any bend in the decay, it just goes straight. It goes forever so you get these incredible harmonics that last.
(Soundbite of piano music)
GRANT: Some people say the Stuart has a distinctly Australian sound, as clear and bright as sun on the beach. But even here in Australia, the instrument has its critics. Pianist and music Professor Geoffrey Lancaster would not say this piano is sunny.
Professor GEOFFREY LANCASTER (Music Department, Australian National University): I find the sounds very cold. They don't have that dimension of warmth that, say, a great Steinway does. It's this clarity - this so-called clarity, this crystalline quality - it's really quite icy.
GRANT: The Stuart grand can't expect to compete with a giant like Steinway; only about 40 of the pianos have been sold worldwide.
But Geoffrey Lancaster says the Stuart raises an important question. When do we stop innovating?
Prof. LANCASTER: The idea back even 150 years ago was that each piano should be a masterpiece in its own right; and should not necessarily resemble the piano that was made before it. That's changed, of course. We now have pianos from many fine makers around the world, which are all fundamentally the same. So I'm all for innovation in the modern piano.
GRANT: And how you innovate, he says, depends as always on personal taste. And if you want a Stuart, you'll need personal finances, too. The top model cost $300,000 delivered.
For NPR News, I'm Neva Grant in Sydney.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
There may be no relationship more complex or more important than the one President Obama tends to starting tonight.
MONTAGNE: It's the U.S. relationship with China. Chinese president Hu Jintao visits Washington for a summit.
INSKEEP: When the U.S. needs leverage to use against North Korea, it looks to China.
MONTAGNE: And when security experts think of the future of the world, they often wonder China's up to.
INSKEEP: Right now, as Americans think about their economy, many question China.
Here's NPR's John Ydstie.
JOHN YDSTIE: With U.S.-China security issues in the headlines recently, some analysts have predicted economic issues will take a back seat at this summit. China specialist Nicholas Lardy of the Peterson Institute for International Economics is not one of them.
Mr. NICHOLAS LARDY (Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics): When we remain in a position of fragile, sluggish domestic growth, and unemployment above nine percent, it's almost inevitable the economic issues are going to be very, very high on the agenda.
YDSTIE: Including the long running U.S. concern that China is artificially suppressing the value of its currency, the yuan, to make its exports more attractive overseas. That makes it harder for the U.S. and other countries to compete. In a speech last week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that's got to change.
Secretary TIMOTHY GEITHNER (Department of the Treasury): We believe it's in China's interest to allow the currency to appreciate more rapidly in response to market forces. And we believe China will do so, because the alternative would be too costly both for China, and for China's relations with the rest of the world.
YDSTIE: The other big issue, said Geithner, is the theft of U.S. intellectual property, from software to movies, by Chinese businesses.
Myron Brilliant of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce agrees.
Mr. MYRON BRILLIANT (Senior Vice President for International Affairs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce): We need to see more robust efforts on the enforcement side; more protection of patents from foreigners and more support generally in how we deal with intellectual property issues in the marketplace.
YDSTIE: Geithner suggested that if China agreed to solve the currency and intellectual property issues, the U.S. could accommodate some of China's priorities, including greater access to U.S. high tech products and more opportunities to invest in the United States.
Sec. GEITHNER: We are willing to make progress on these issues. But it's important to recognize that our ability to do so will depend, of course, on how much progress we see from China.
YDSTIE: But a grand bargain is not likely at this summit says Nicholas Lardy. One reason, he says, is that China's leaders worry that if the yuan appreciates too fast it could hurt the country's exports and cause domestic unrest.
Mr. LARDY: The export sector employs tens of millions of people, and they fear if they allow too rapid appreciation they'll get significantly higher unemployment, that workers will be out in the street.
YDSTIE: And China's leaders can't risk that kind of instability.
But there's an indirect force that could raise the cost of China's exports and make U.S. goods more competitive: inflation. Right now, China is experiencing a bout of rapid inflation and that could have the same economic impact as a government-engineered hike in the value of the yuan.
But, Arthur Kroeber, who edits China Economic Quarterly in Beijing, says the inflation solution might not be enough to satisfy American politicians.
Mr. ARTHUR KROBER (Editor, China Economic Quarterly): The problem is a political one, which is that, you know, people in Congress want to see the exchange rate rise, and they won't be happy if the exchange rate doesn't rise but you get the same effect through an increase in inflation.
YDSTIE: A major deal on intellectual property issues also appears unlikely, though incremental progress was made last month when the Chinese government agreed to make sure that at least the software used in government offices is not pirated.
Nicholas Lardy says solving specific highly technical issues like those surrounding intellectual property is not the role of summits between presidents. Arthur Kroeber agrees.
Mr. KROEBER: I think the question about the summit is not will it achieve this or that specific goal, but will it create a tone, a positive tone, for the relationship.
YDSTIE: If Mr. Obama and Mr. Hu succeed in that, it makes it much more likely the two country's negotiators will make progress in the future on specific issues. Kroeber says that will improve a relationship between the countries that is already broad and deep, despite the waves of disagreement that often roil the surface.
John Ydstie, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Let's stay in Southern California for our next report, because veterans of the police force in Los Angeles are rising up against a change in the rules. It's the latest in a series of reforms intended to guard against corruption.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The changes have come since the 1990s, when some rogue officers were caught stealing drugs and cash from street gangs.
NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports on the new rule that has some cops saying they've had enough.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: The LAPD is now asking all its gang and narcotics officers to reveal information about their bank accounts, mortgages and credit cards.
The idea is to look for signs of a crooked cop, one who's on the take. But that infuriates many gang investigators who are now threatening to leave their assignments.
One retired cop says the city's going too far.
Mr. WES MCBRIDE (President, California Gang Investigators Association): They have no right to know what I might make going to Vegas gambling. They have no right what I make on my personal investments. They have no right to know how much my wife makes. They have no right to know that I inherited money.
DEL BARCO: Wes McBride heads the California Gang Investigators Association and worked for nearly four decades as an L.A. County deputy. He says revealing personal information leaves cops vulnerable to thieves and does nothing to ferret out corruption.
Mr. MCBRIDE: If they have no reason to suspect that I'm a crook and there are other avenues open to find that out, I mean, that wouldn't catch anybody -unless I'm really stupid and I put that money in my own personal bank account. And I think Perez put all his money in a box.
DEL BARCO: That would Rafael Perez, the central figure of a corruption scandal that rocked the LAPD in the 1990s. He and more than 70 anti-gang unit officers in L.A.'s Rampart division were found to be planting evidence, framing and even shooting alleged gang members. Officer Perez was also convicted of stealing and reselling hundreds of thousand dollars of seized cocaine.
In the aftermath of the scandal, both the feds and the city's police commission demanded reforms, which include the new requirement that gang and narcotics investigators turn over their financial records.
Captain DAVID LINDSAY (LAPD, Northeast Division): I do intend to do that, as a show of good faith and leadership.
DEL BARCO: That's Northeast Division Captain David Lindsay. He's not required to open his bank records. He's doing it to set an example for his gang unit officers. But Lindsay says he knows many veteran gang and narcotics cops would rather be reassigned than have their finances exposed.
Capt. LINDSAY: They'll work a regular patrol car. They still work the areas where they've - have knowledge of the gangs, although they are assigned to radio calls, they'll handle calls for service like other officers.
DEL BARCO: This comes at a time when Los Angeles is seeing the fewest number of homicides in 40 years, and gang-related crime has dropped dramatically. LAPD officials say they don't intend to let those numbers slip, but Wes McBride fears the disclosure policy will hurt the department's effort to crack down on gangs and narcotics, especially if the most experienced investigators leave the beat.
Mr. MCBRIDE: You lose the old timers, the guys that know what's happening, guys that know - you know, they arrested this guy's father when he was a gang member, that type of thing. Those guys are leaving.
DEL BARCO: The LAPD is already under budget constraints and has had trouble recruiting officers to the gang crime units. McBride says it's a tough enough assignment without having to reveal personal information.
Mr. MCBRIDE: We used to lose lot of guys out of the gang units out of stress, because it is a stressful job. You know, you're dealing with the most - the single most dangerous people, identifiable group, in the nation - the most violent. They kill more people than any other criminal element, and these guys have to go out there at night and chase them.
DEL BARCO: L.A. gang and narcotics officers have till the end of March to reveal their finances or go back to answering regular patrol calls.
Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Every so often, a successful local company takes its business national. We'll report next on a firm that makes its national business local. LivingSocial is one of many websites working to connect local restaurants, stores, beauty shops and other enterprises with more customers. They do it in city after city. The other day, we walked into their offices in Washington, D.C., and we found a lot of people working between the exposed brick walls.
Ms. MOIRE GRIFFIN (LivingSocial): We've been growing tremendously, and already have folks living in the hallways.
INSKEEP: People have just had tables set up out here in the hallway space. We're squeezing past them.
We're walking past the cubicles with LivingSocial's Moire Griffin.
I notice a killer whale here in the space.
Ms. GRIFFIN: Yeah. It's so...
INSKEEP: A couple of giant, inflated killer whale - are they inflated, or some other kind of...
Ms. GRIFFIN: They're inflatable whales. The whale is very important to LivingSocial.
INSKEEP: How so?
Ms. GRIFFIN: If we have a deal that does really, really well, we say it whaled. It's a whale of a deal.
INSKEEP: Much of the workforce toils beneath those whales which hang from the ceiling. The deals may be a cheap restaurant meal, or an entire vacation package. And when we stopped by the desk of LivingSocial's Sean Quill, he brought up the website, showing the cities where the company operates.
Could you just start reading some of them off for me?
Mr. SEAN QUILL (LivingSocial): Sure. We're in Akron, Canton, Albuquerque, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Baton Rouge...
INSKEEP: People in each of these cities get directed to promotions near them.
Mr. QUILL: The consumer, the merchant and LivingSocial have to bring value, as a collective. And if we do that, we all benefit.
INSKEEP: Hundreds of companies have elbowed their way into this swiftly growing market. Groupon is the largest and most famous. LivingSocial says it's growing fast, along with its workforce.
Mr. TIM O'SHAUGHNESSY (CEO, LivingSocial): I think in 2010, we're adding about a person a day.
INSKEEP: A person a day.
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: Yep.
INSKEEP: We sat down with Living Social's CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy. He's 29, and his privately run company says it made hundreds of millions of dollars last year. O'Shaughnessy's challenge now is to manage his company's growth without losing focus.
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: The pure hiring process and on-boarding and making sure that everybody understands the culture of the company and the business are difficult tasks. And if you get those wrong, it can be one of the most detrimental things that could occur to the company.
INSKEEP: It's funny. If I think about the company that I work for, they've been around for a few decades. If I start talking about the culture of the company, I may end up talking about something that's evolved over 25 years.
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: Mm-hmm.
INSKEEP: What is the culture of the company here, given that it is so very new?
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: Well, I think that it's important, especially with so many people coming on so fast, I almost have a stated culture, you know, having a culture of risk taking. I mean, one of the things I like to say around the office is if you're not making at least one decision a month where you are genuinely nervous about it, you're probably not trying hard enough.
INSKEEP: What's an example of a risk that has been taken recently?
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: When we were really starting to grow this business, we actually started to go and advertise and promote our service in markets that we weren't live in. You know, we didn't have a ton of cash in the bank, but we so believed in the model that we said, you know what? We're going to really regret if we don't go and really try and use our balance sheet to acquire as many users and get as many people on the service as we can.
We completely threw our budget out the window. But we, in a very, very short period of time, launched a ton of markets, got a lot of users on the product and service, and basically said we're pretty sure if we get the growth that we think that we can do, that we'll be able to raise more venture capital funding, because the model should work.
INSKEEP: I'm remembering a phrase from back when the economy was better, people talked about the burn rate of different companies, the amount of time that you can survive on the cash you have available. Basically, you drastically shortened your burn rate gambling that you would get more revenue in in time, before you ran out of money.
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: Correct. So we took our burn rate from about a 12-month time frame down to about a month-and-a-half timeframe in the span of about a week.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: And so it was a risk, and I certainly was nervous about it.
INSKEEP: So you knew that if this didn't work out, in six weeks, you were going to be out of cash?
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: It was kind of a put your chips in the middle of the table.
INSKEEP: And you basically said, this is the moment we're going to go national. That's really what you were saying.
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: That's right. You know, the space was evolving so fast, that it might get away from us.
INSKEEP: Somebody else would capture that space.
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: Exactly.
INSKEEP: Now that raises the next question, because you've got hundreds of people trying this. You must always be looking over your shoulder in a business like this. Somebody else might come up with something else slightly different, and you end up being the MySpace and somebody else ends up being the Facebook.
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: I think if you are operating your business in a looking-backwards way, as opposed to looking forward, you've essentially changed the mindset from being offensive to being defensive. That's when you - your innovation starts to slip, and that's when you start to change the culture of the organization and really not be able to be driving ahead for market leadership.
INSKEEP: Last question: What's the gong about? There's a gong here in the office with us.
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: When there's a big milestone, the gong gets broken out, and then it reverbs all the way through the office so everybody knows about it.
INSKEEP: I actually wondered if I was going to find out that my time was up for this interview with the gong.
Mr. O'SHAUGHNESSY: Well, would you like to close out with a good gong whack?
(Soundbite of gong)
INSKEEP: The man holding the mallet for the gong is Tim O'Shaughnessy, CEO of LivingSocial, a swiftly growing Web company.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Doctors in Tucson, Arizona are now talking about the day that Representative Gabrielle Giffords will be released from the hospital. One of the surgeons taking care of her said yesterday she could be transferred to a rehabilitation center within weeks, maybe even within days. And in an interview with ABC News, Giffords' husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, described one sign of her recovery.
Mr. MARK KELLY (Astronaut): She's in the ICU, you know, gone through this traumatic injury, and she spent 10 minutes giving me a neck massage. And I'm pretty sure she wouldn't do that for somebody else. And she's looking me in the eye...
INSKEEP: That's astronaut Mark Kelly. We have more this morning from NPR's Jeff Brady.
JEFF BRADY: A miracle: That's what doctors have called Representative Giffords' recovery to this point. A bullet traveled all the way through the left side of her brain - doctors say from front to back.
Still just days after the shooting, doctors said she was able to follow simple commands. Then during a visit from fellow members of Congress last week, she opened her eyes. Doctors were almost giddy. On Saturday, a breathing tube was removed from Giffords' mouth, and Dr. Randall Friese said her husband, Mark Kelly, reported that she smiled.
Dr. RANDALL FRIESE: (University Medical Center): I wasn't there. Mark told me that he thought he may have seen a smile. We're all very optimistic. So we could be wrong. But we all want to see the best, and sometimes we see what we want to see. But if he says she's smiling, I buy it.
BRADY: On Saturday, surgeons performed a tracheotomy on Giffords, installing a new breathing tube in her throat and inserting a feeding tube. They also repaired damage to the top of her eye socket on the right side. Giffords was taken off a respirator, and her condition was upgraded from critical to serious. Dr. Michael Lamole delivered the good news.
Dr. MICHAEL LAMOLE (University Medical Center): I'm happy to say that within a few hours of the surgery, she was waking up. And through the weekend, she came back to the same baseline she had been before the surgery, that same level of interaction she's been having with us. And that's all very good.
BRADY: Lamole says Giffords' family is looking for a rehabilitation center now, and she could be moved out of the hospital within days to weeks. But then a reporter asked a question that has come up at nearly every briefing: How much movement does Giffords have on the right and left sides of her body?
Dr. LAMOLE: Again, I'm going to be real cagey with you here, like I have been in the past. The family really doesn't want to go into that detail at this time.
BRADY: While a lot of information has been released, it's clear that some is being held back. Gabrielle Giffords is a member of Congress and a public figure. Still, she enjoys the same rights to medical privacy that you and I do. That means every piece of news the doctors have delivered so far was approved by her family first.
Anita Allen is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Professor ANITA ALLEN (University of Pennsylvania Law School): No one believes that we're being fed false information. I think we're being fed information which is positive and hopeful and leaving open, you know, the possibility that she might well recover to a greater extent than some of our worst fears might suggest.
BRADY: Allen says the public should be grateful for the bits of information that have been released, because under current privacy laws, Giffords' family could have said nothing. And frankly, says Allen, under similar circumstances, that's what a lot of us would want.
Prof. ALLEN: It's very - it's a little embarrassing, a little awkward, a little sensitive to have every aspect of one's self revealed to other people when, you know, when one's in pain, when one doesn't look one's best, sound one's best.
BRADY: Allen says maybe Representative Giffords deserves a little private space, room to heal without all the gory details known to everyone. And, perhaps with that in mind, the University Medical Center doctors say they're not planning any more briefings until there's a significant change in Giffords' status.
Jeff Brady, NPR News, Tucson.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Congress returns this week with a vote to repeal the nation's health care law. While the measure will pass, the Republican-controlled House, it won't make it through the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Our next guest advises the Republican leadership in both the House and the Senate. Republican pollster David Winston spent the weekend at the House GOP's retreat in Baltimore and he joined us in our studio.
Good morning.
Mr. DAVID WINSTON (Republican Pollster, Strategist): Good morning.
MONTAGNE: Recent polls are showing that support and opposition to the law remain just about equally divided the health care law. Aside from the fact that fulfilling a Republican campaign promise is important, what is the strategy in continuing with this vote?
Mr. WINSTON: Well, first off, I would suggest that actually some of the polls have shown the margin a little bit wider. Generally, it's either neutral or has been slightly negative toward the law.
With the strategy here is, is one, it was a campaign promise but the other dynamic is Republicans feel that this is an important debate to have and so the idea is let's get it through the House and then we can get into the debate with the Senate and the president in terms of, so, what should this look like?
MONTAGNE: And the tone of the debate?
Mr. WINSTON: I think you're going to see the tone of the debate be exactly the way John Boehner said it would when he came in as speaker, when he said we can disagree without being disagreeable.
MONTAGNE: John Boehner, though, has actually changed a little bit of the language already - what had been referred to by Republicans as a job-killing bill is now being referred to in a slightly different way.
Mr. WINSTON: I think he's describing it as job-destroying.
MONTAGNE: I mean, subtle but different.
Mr. WINSTON: No. And, again, this gets to who he is. Look, was he has to have and he understands that both sides are going to have very strong positions and they need to be able to debate those positions. I would suggest to you the Republicans won the political debate on health care...
MONTAGNE: And the election.
Mr. WINSTON: ...and - and the election - and so therefore with the dynamic that John Boehner's trying to set up is saying, Okay, here's our position, let's have a debate about where we should go.
MONTAGNE: There has been quite a chorus from Republican leaders to the effect that the Democrats still control Washington. What is the thinking with that? It sounds like lowering expectations.
Mr. WINSTON: It's setting up and understanding what the realistic situation. Look, Democrats still have significant control over the process by having the Senate and the White House. And so understanding that as we try to move forward, this is going to be a very difficult process.
Now, haven't said that, the challenge to both the Republicans and Democrats is people want to see something done. And if there's a perception that one side is playing politics - and I'm not saying which one; I'm just saying if it's perceived - that will be a negative for that particular side.
MONTAGNE: On the other hand, there are many voters - and I'll say in the Tea Party - who are quite passionate about getting very dramatic things done and who were the big part of the Republican win. Might that be a problem for Republicans?
Mr. WINSTON: No. I think in talking to Tea Party members what you find is, yes, Tea Party members have some very clear beliefs but they also want to see progress made. And they also sense there's this sense of responsibility. So, for example, when you talk about increasing the debt ceiling, there's an understanding that we have to maintain our obligations in terms of our financial commitments.
But having said that, there's an expectation that there are going to be some additional items within that that will move this country more towards fiscal responsibility. And so it's the sense of don't simply just acquiesce but you have to maintain your obligations as well and so how do you effectively balance that?
MONTAGNE: As a Republican strategist, what do you see as the major pitfalls, the dangers for Republicans going forward in trying to achieve their agenda under complicated circumstances?
Mr. WINSTON: Let me start at a much broader level, and I would suggest this isn't necessarily the problem Republicans face; it's every speaker. This is the same problem Nancy Pelosi had, Dennis Hastert, Newt Gingrich, Jim Wright. I mean, just go back over time. And that is you're managing a majority coalition; you've got a lot of members who don't necessarily agree on everything.
Now, one of the things I will tell you that is John Boehner's strength is the ability to get everybody pointed in the right direction. It's one of the singularly most difficult thing for leaders to do. It is one of his key strengths. It is also one of his key challenges.
MONTAGNE: Republican pollster David Winston advises Republican leaders in the House and the Senate. Thank you very much for joining us.
Mr. WINSTON: Thanks for having me.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
In all of its articles and amendments, the Constitution does not specifically authorize Supreme Court justices to tell jokes on the bench.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
But it doesn't forbid humor either, and some justices have apparently taken a generous reading of our founding law.
INSKEEP: In case after case, the justices hold oral arguments, sparring with lawyers and with each other, and Ryan Malphurs studied those arguments in search of witty remarks.
MONTAGNE: He published his findings as a dissertation at Texas A and M.
Mr. RYAN MALPHURS (Attorney): The name the study is "People Did Sometimes Stick Things Down My Underwear."
INSKEEP: That title comes from an actual remark by Justice Stephen Breyer in 2009. The court was hearing arguments in a case where a teenage girl was strip-searched for drugs. Justice Breyer was attempting to understand the circumstances of the search and his comments did not come out quite right.
Justice STEPHEN BREYER (U.S. Supreme Court): You know, we did take off our clothes once a day - we changed for gym. OK? And in my experience too, people did sometimes stick things in my underwear. Well, not my underwear.
(Soundbite of laughter)
MONTAGNE: Malphurs studied all of the notations of laughter that were entered into the court record during the 2006-2007 term.
Mr. MALPHURS: They're very quick-witted and they enjoy the intellectual quip occasionally.
INSKEEP: Occasionally. He found 131 instances in which laughter followed a comment from the bench.
MONTAGNE: Some were unintentional. Before becoming a justice, Elena Kagan appeared before the court and mistakenly called Antonin Scalia Mr. Chief Justice. The real chief justice, John Roberts, responded.
Justice ELENA KAGAN (U.S. Supreme Court): Mr. Chief - excuse me, Justice Scalia, I didn't mean to promote you quite so quickly.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Justice JOHN ROBERTS (Chief Justice, U.S. Supreme Court): Thanks for thinking it was a promotion.
INSKEEP: According to the dissertation, Justice Scalia cracked the most jokes. Let's hear an exchange from 2005 in which a light bulb in the courtroom blew out. First, you're going to hear Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and then Justices Scalia and Roberts.
Justice RUTH BADER GINSBURG (U.S. Supreme Court): And it's only fair that your adversary should be able to...
(Soundbite of noise)
Justice ANTONIN SCALIA (U.S. Supreme Court): Light bulb went out.
Justice ROBERTS: It's a trick they play on new chief justices all the time.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Justice SCALIA: Happy Halloween.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Justice GINSBURG: That's the idea.
Justice ROBERTS: Take your time.
Justice SCALIA: We're even more in the dark now than before.
(Soundbite of laughter)
MONTAGNE: Supreme Court humor from which there is no appeal.
INSKEEP: Ryan Malphurs' study in the current issue of the Communication Law Review. It's based on his dissertation.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
Let's go to Southern California now, to a city that has long indentified itself as African-American. In Compton, changing demographics have landed the city in court. Latinos have overtaken African-Americans there as the largest ethnic group, but blacks still dominate the city politically. Now, a group of Latinos is suing to change the way city council members are elected in Compton, to give Latino neighborhoods more power.
Krissy Clark of member station KQED has the story.
KRISSY CLARK: If you stand outside Compton's city council chambers, through the glass doors, you'll see a giant mural in the lobby.
Mr. JOAQUIN AVILA (Attorney): Portraits of African-American elected officials.
CLARK: Like the first black mayor, elected after years of segregation, in 1969. But Joaquin Avila sees what's not in the mural.
Mr. AVILA: I think it's a very incomplete picture. Basically, we're invisible.
CLARK: By we, Avila means Compton's Latinos, who made up just a small part of the city when he was growing up here in the 1960s. But in the last few decades, Latinos have grown to more than 60 percent of Compton's population, and 40 percent of eligible voters. At least eight have run for city office in that time. And yet, Avila says...
Mr. AVILA: There had never been a Latino on the city council. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that you have a problem.
CLARK: But it could take a voting rights lawyer like Avila to solve it. He's representing three Latinos suing Compton under the California Voting Rights Act. They want to restructure city council elections so they give more opportunity for Latino candidates. The goal is ambitious and technical. To understand it, consider the city council campaign of one former candidate.
Mr. PEDRO PALLAN (Bakery Owner): Pedro Pallan. I established a business here in Compton, the bakery.
CLARK: In the early 1990s, Pallan almost won a council seat. He said he had lots of open support in the Latino parts of town where he lived and worked. But in the African-American neighborhoods, those who backed him were discrete.
Mr. PALLAN: And they told me flatly, I cannot walk with you. My community would make me feel like a traitor for voting other than African-American.
CLARK: This is what political scientist Lisa Garcia Bedolla calls racially polarized voting. She teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.
Professor LISA GARCIA BEDOLLA (University of California, Berkeley): If you can show that along racial lines, people are voting in particular ways and that that's consistent, that's the place where you need some sort of remedy, so that the folks who are continually losing have some ability to be represented.
CLARK: In cities with racial polarization, where council members are chosen at large, it can be nearly impossible for minorities to win. Garcia Bedolla says in places from the Deep South to San Francisco, a move to district elections has opened the doors of city governments to minorities. And it could do the same in Compton.
Prof. BEDOLLA: The fundamental difficulty is how do you honor the history of the African-American community in that city, while at the same time understanding that the city demographics have changed?
Mr. BENJAMIN HOLIFIELD: Honorable mayor, city council staff, ladies and gentleman.
CLARK: At a recent Compton city council meeting, silver-haired Benjamin Holifield stands at the microphone to comment on police issues. Almost everyone in the room, including him, is black. The mayor, the entire city council and most of the audience. At a break, Holifield describes a time when these meetings looked very different.
Mr. HOLIFIELD: I used to go to the city council here when it was all white, and they'd run me out of there. They'd say we're going to go out to closed session, so I'd leave. Then when I leave, I'd find out later they came right back out and started the meeting over again. So really, they threw me out.
CLARK: He says years of political organizing and a severe bout of white flight slowly changed things. Craig Cornwell, Compton's city attorney, says the same thing will eventually happen for Latinos. He's defending the city in the lawsuit.
Mr. CRAIG CORNWELL (City Attorney, Compton): Having your vote count is a tenet of this country and what a lot of people of various ethnicities have fought for.
CLARK: Cornwell argues the problem's not the structure of elections, but that only 7 percent of Compton's eligible citizens bother to vote.
Mr. CORNWELL: I think what's really at issue here is increasing voter participation of all ethnicities for the city of Compton.
CLARK: But voter apathy is a vicious cycle. In court today, the Latino plaintiffs will argue that the current at large election system actually heightens disengagement. Since Latinos are in the minority, even if every one voted for the same candidate, it wouldn't be enough. If the judge agrees, he could freeze Compton's city council elections until the lawsuit's resolved.
For NPR news, I'm Krissy Clark.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
China's global reach is at the top of NPR's business news this morning.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: China continues to expand its influence around the world, especially in developing countries.
The Financial Times newspaper reports that over the last two years, Chinese state banks have issued loans worth more than $110 billion to other governments and private companies. That is more than all the loans issued by the World Bank, the multinational organization whose main mission is lending to developing countries, including China.
Some of China's loans have been to oil-producing countries like Russia, Venezuela and Brazil. Beijing has lent to Indian companies to buy power equipment and to African countries to help build their infrastructure.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And as loans go out from China, money is flowing into China. It's coming from foreign companies, trying to get a piece of the rapidly growing market in that country. Chinese officials said today that foreign direct investment into factories, real estate and other businesses reached a record $105 billion last year, and that is up more than 17 percent from the previous year.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And today's last word in business is about technology stirring up controversy in Huntington Beach, California. The word is: social shaming.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This seaside town is known for its bars, its surfing and unfortunately, it's high number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities. A city councilman there wants to address the problem using the social networking site Facebook.
INSKEEP: Councilman Devin Dwyer has proposed posting, on Facebook, the mug shot of anyone arrested more than once for driving while drunk. He initially wanted to post a photo of anybody caught driving under the influence, but scaled back his plan.
MONTAGNE: Still, he's getting pushback from privacy advocates and local police who don't like the idea of this virtual wall of shame. Some say it won't act as a deterrent. One law professor says it's not really appropriate to shame someone before they've been convicted of something.
And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
Tunisia has had only two presidents since it obtained independence in 1957. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: Tunisia declared independence from France in 1956; the republic was established in 1957.]
The most recent of those presidents fled on Friday after more than two decades in power, and now Tunisia is trying something new - something. We're not sure what yet. A coalition government was formed yesterday, and opposition figures have been included in the leadership for the first time.
We're going to talk about this with NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson. She's on the line from the Tunisian capital, Tunis.
Soraya, so who's running the country?
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Well, it's a coalition government. And as you mentioned, for the first time, you have opposition groups, like the Progressive Democratic Party, and even a former communist party called Movement for Renewal. And their members or their officials are now in the government, holding ministerial positions and other spots.
But the rest of the government is made up of ruling party members, including the prime minister, the defense minister, the foreign minister and the interior minister. And all of these were close allies of the ousted president.
Now, I've talked to some opposition members to see what they think about the coalition. They're not thrilled with it. They say it's not perfect, but they do insist that none of the former regime members in the new coalition are dirty or have blood on their hands.
INSKEEP: I suppose this raises the question, then, as to whether the opposition leaders who've agreed to participate in this government can bring the crowds on the streets along with them, or whether the people will push in some other direction.
NELSON: Well, the people certainly claim independence from the opposition groups or anybody. The protestors say that they have no leaders, and they're not very happy about the coalition government. And so you still are seeing protests. In fact, I went to a protest that came before the announcement was even officially made, that the coalition government had been formed. And that's because people were getting word that former regime members were still in it, and they wanted them out.
However, there are some other people who are protesting who are for this uprising, who say that they will try and give the coalition government a chance.
INSKEEP: Soraya, I'm trying to figure out exactly who is in the opposition that is part of the government, who's out on the streets, and where Islamist parties fit into all of this, if at all.
NELSON: Well, the opposition members who are in the government are part of so-called legal opposition parties that existed but were politically weak, if you will, and really had no say during the former rule by President Ben Ali.
So the Islamist factions and other groups are actually outside that periphery. They are not considered legal. And so what the coalition government is doing is making some of these factions legal. Although some of the opposition members said they don't want fake groups, if you will, coming in.
And so, as a result, there are people who are still on the outside, but that are going to be made legal - like these Islamic factions - that will then be allowed to run in any future elections. But how popular they will be is another question.
Certainly, there doesn't seem to be much traction here for Islamic groups in Tunis, not with the protestors that I've talked to. For example, I was interviewing one person yesterday who was saying that they should have the right to be running and to take part in a democratic society.
But then other protestors, when they heard this interview, started protesting and saying no. You know, they were objecting to what was being said, saying: No, these Islamists have no rights at all. So there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of conservative fervor here, at least that I've seen in the capital.
INSKEEP: Have any members of the new government said what they intend to do?
NELSON: For one thing, the prime minister, Mohamed Ghannouchi, he's pledged to free political prisoners and lift restrictions on political parties and certain human rights groups. The government has said it will also create three commissions to address political reform and to investigate corruption and bribery. And Ghannouchi says he'll also look into abuses by the police and other security forces during the recent upheaval.
INSKEEP: Are the police still active on the streets and maintaining order?
NELSON: Absolutely. Yesterday, this protest that I was covering was dispersed when security forces began firing water cannons and tear gas, as well as firing some shots into the air. So they're still out there. But there seems to be a little bit of a change of attitude among the people. They don't seem to be as angry as - with the police as they were.
I'm not sure they feel as favorably disposed to them as they do the army. They feel the army is actually on their side. It's really unclear why they really feel that way, because it's not like the army is actually participating in this upheaval.
They do feel the police now are going after former Ben Ali militias and people that were loyal to the former president. So they're not quite as angry with the security forces as they were.
INSKEEP: NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia.
Soraya, thanks very much.
NELSON: You're welcome, Steve.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
That popular revolution in Tunisia has been followed closely in the Arab world, where no one has seen anything like this before. And much of the information has circulated via social media.
The repercussions for the wider region are unpredictable, as NPR's Deborah Amos reports from one of the most tightly controlled countries there, Saudi Arabia.
DEBORAH AMOS: As Saudis watch Tunisia's street protests force an unpopular ruler from office, many celebrated, mostly online. Demonstrations and public gatherings are banned here. But recently, social media postings on Facebook and Twitter reflect some measure of public opinion. Young Saudi bloggers provided non-stop coverage.
(Soundbite of cell phone video)
Unidentified Man: (Shouting in foreign language)
AMOS: This cell phone video was featured on a blog called Saudi Jeans. I don't know what's more amazing, wrote blogger Ahmed Omran: the man screaming Tunisia is free, or the women crying while shooting the video with her phone.
(Soundbite of cell phone video)
(Soundbite of woman crying)
AMOS: But celebration turned to anger when the Saudi government announced Tunisia's ousted president had been given refuge in the kingdom. And the heated debate on Saudi blogs was another indication that the anger that exploded in Tunisia was spreading, even into the repressed political landscape of Saudi Arabia.
(Soundbite of men talking in foreign language)
AMOS: Each week, this group of men gather to talk about politics. Most are activists, businessmen and academics. They're willing to speak publicly about human rights. And some have been jailed for that effort, but they say Tunisia has inspired them.
Matook Al Faleh, a political science professor, says the causes for rage and revolt are shared across the Arab world.
Professor MATOOK AL FALEH (Political Science): There is some kind of similarity - you know, for example, unemployment here, there is no participation here, no accountability for the government, all Arab countries.
AMOS: Faleh has created a Facebook page where he posts advice to Tunisians: don't kill people, use the courts to hold your leaders accountable.
With so much at stake, Faleh worries the Tunisian example could still go wrong with long-term chaos in the streets, revenge killings, or outside interference. Could a Tunisian-style revolt happen in Saudi Arabia or the other countries in the Gulf?
Prof. FALEH: Probably things in the Gulf area would take some time.
AMOS: Still, there's no doubt Arab leaders have been unsettled by events celebrated on the streets and on the Web. These activists cite reports that in Kuwait, the government has awarded cash grants to its citizens. In Syria and Jordan, austerity plans have suddenly been reversed. Measures - everyone here says - have come about because of a popular uprising in Tunisia. This is something new and exciting, says Abdul Rathman Habeeb.
Mr. ABDUL RATHMAN HABEEB: Because we are looking for some good example. We don't have it. Since hundreds of years, we haven't yet had any good example here for society or for government, leaders or people.
AMOS: Habeeb hopes that the revolt in Tunisia will become a democratic revolution.
Mr. HABEEB: Most of us happy what happened there, but some of us, like me, we are so worried. We don't know what is going to be.
AMOS: You mean if it doesn't become a better ruled place than it was.
Mr. HABEEB: We are seeing now. We don't know. It's so difficult.
AMOS: Difficult because after all the celebrations, the street revolt is just the beginning of the story in Tunisia and in the Arab world.
Deborah Amos, NPR News, Riyadh.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Apple is facing some uncertainty. CEO Steve Jobs says he's temporarily stepping down. Jobs has had pancreatic cancer and a liver transplant, and now says he needs to deal with unspecified health issues. He says he still will be involved with major strategic decisions, but for now, the maker of the iPad and iPhone will be run by another executive, Tim Cook.
NPR's Jim Zarroli reports on who he is.
JIM ZARROLI: Steve Jobs' reputation has grown so big over the years, that some of the company's other executives, like Tim Cook, have been left in his shadow. James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research, says Cook is not exactly a household name.
Mr. JAMES MCQUIVEY (Analyst, Forrester Research): Steve Jobs is the face of the company, and so it's no surprise that people are scratching their heads and saying: Tim Cook who?
ZARROLI: In fact, Cook has been at Apple since 1998. He presided over the company the last time Jobs took a medical leave. He has been at Jobs' side during the roll-out of some of the company's biggest successes, including the iPhone and the iPod. Last week, when Verizon Wireless announced it would begin selling the iPhone, it was Cook, not Jobs, who appeared at the press conference to speak on Apple's behalf.
Mr. TIM COOK (Chief Operating Officer, Apple): Since 2007, the iPhone has been a phenomenal success and has completely changed the expectation of what you carry in your pocket.
ZARROLI: In the tech world, Cook has seen as a skilled manager, someone who knows how to keep the company's various parts moving. And McQuivey says that's no small thing.
Mr. MCQUIVEY: This is someone who takes the vision that Steve hands down to the company and makes it work, makes it work on time.
ZARROLI: But Apple is a company formed around the personality of a single leader. And if Jobs stays away for a long time, it will undoubtedly create a leadership vacuum. The question is whether Cook or anyone else will be able to fill Jobs' shoes.
Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Today, the president of China has dinner with President Obama at the White House. It's part of an effort to improve a strained relationship. As another part of that effort, China just announced $600 million in deals with American companies. Many Americans are suspicious or even fearful of a rising China. It turns out the Chinese don't think so much of us either. NPR's Louisa Lim has the view from Beijing.
LOUISA LIM: As President Hu arrives in the U.S., public opinion here in Beijing appears to be hardening. A recent poll found that 80 percent of Chinese surveyed blamed the U.S. for the deterioration in ties. The financial crisis has hastened a geopolitical shift. Beijing's $907 billion in U.S. treasuries give it a new hold over Washington. Now the state-run mouthpiece, the People's Daily describes China as a money tree for the U.S. Jin Canrong from Renmin University in Beijing says Chinese officials have been caught off guard.
Professor JIN CANRONG (School of International Studies, Renmin University): The financial crisis not only changed the balance of power physically between China and the States, but also changed the psychological context. The States side, to some extent, is too sensitive - lack of confidence. That's a new phenomenon for China. It used to be China deal with confident, humorous United States.
LIM: For its part, China's not been shy about showing off its rising confidence, last week testing its prototype stealth fighter during the visit of Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The past year has also seen increasingly assertive Chinese behavior in territorial disputes. And as some perceive a U.S. in decline, Chinese public opinion has been out ahead of the government on some issues. That could cause difficulties, according to Sun Zhe from Tsinghua University.
Professor SUN ZHE (Director of the Center for U.S.-China Relations, Tsinghua University): The cybernationalism is really high, the anti-American sentiment. Some people think that China cannot compromise to the U.S. in terms of RMB, the intellectual property rights and some other human rights issues. For both countries, we have to educate our own people on how important this bilateral relationship is.
Unidentified Man #1: (Foreign language spoken)
LIM: China's actively trying to brand its image in the U.S. Here local media report on a new campaign launched yesterday in Times Square, showing Chinese celebrities. And Beijing's also concerned with gaining appropriate respect for its new status.
Unidentified Woman: (Shouting in foreign language)
Unidentified Man #2: (Foreign language spoken)
LIM: President Hu's last visit to the White House in 2006 was marred by protocol errors, particularly when the welcome ceremony was interrupted by a protestor from the Falun Gong sect, which is banned in China. Kenneth Lieberthal from the Brookings Institution says the Chinese were also dismayed they hadn't been granted a state dinner.
Mr. KENNETH LIEBERTHAL (Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy and Global Economy an Development, Brookings Institution): There were additional incidents that occurred that I think never made it into the public domain. But, for example, there was a demonstration in Lafayette Park, right next to the presidential guesthouse. And that demonstration kept President Hu up until late at night from all the noise.
I'm certain the White House this time is spending a lot of time and effort to make sure that similar things do not occur on this visit.
(Soundbite of music)
LIM: This time there will be the pomp and circumstance of a state dinner. But Lieberthal cautions against high expectations. Instead he points to recent progress, such as the Chinese currency's appreciation, a more active Chinese role on North Korea and the restoration of military ties.
Mr. LIEBERTHAL: Most of the deliverables for this summit have already been delivered. So in a variety of areas that are very important, the Chinese have moved significantly in the run-up to the summit. That's part of what you use the summit for.
LIM: And many Chinese academics believe that President Hu should be assuring President Obama that actually Beijing isn't really seeking change. Jin Canrong again.
Prof. CANRONG: China should make it more clear to the States that China is a status quo power, China prefers the maintenance of current international regime, and because China itself benefits a lot from that.
LIM: In short, despite the hype, the new relationship may not look that different from the old one. Given China's dual identity as both a strategic partner and a strategic competitor, many here fear it can only be a matter of time before any feel-good vibes from the summit dissipate into yet more friction.
Louisa Lim, NPR News, Beijing.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
As you might've heard, the friction between some popular travel websites and the airline industry has caused American Airlines to fly off on its own. The result is that someone using Orbitz or Expedia to search for a flight from, say, Chicago to Dallas won't find a single fare on those sites from American.
And this dispute in the airline industry could make it harder in the future to make side-by-side fare and flight comparisons. NPR's Brett Neely explains what it's all about.
BRETT NEELY: This is a story about trying to cut out the middleman. At the center of this dispute is a company called Sabre. Sabre takes fares and flight information from airlines and provides that information to another set of middlemen - travel agents and websites. Airlines pay fees to Sabre, and other so-called global distribution system companies, for every ticket booked through those systems.
Henry Harteveldt is an airline analyst with Forrester Research.
Mr. HENRY HARTEVELDT (Principal Analyst, Travel Industry, Forrester Research): The business model American is unhappy with is one that it created back in the 1970s.
NEELY: That's right, American Airlines created Sabre to computerize travel bookings and is now fighting with its offspring. Harteveldt says the business model made sense in the '70s, when computers were big and expensive and travel agents ruled the industry. But those days have passed and today Sabre is independent of American.
It also now handles things like car rentals, hotel reservations and cruise bookings. But American says Sabre's fees for booking air travel are too high.
The airline industry looks with corporate jealousy at Southwest Airlines, which rarely puts its fares on other websites.
Even though consumers spend billions on airline tickets every year, margins are very thin in the business. Any money American saves on those ticketing fees flows straight to its bottom-line.
In addition, analyst Henry Harteveldt says airlines increasingly make money by up-selling things that used to be free.
Mr. HARTEVELDT: American would like a travel agent to be able to offer that customer maybe a bundle that includes priority boarding, access to a priority screening line, and maybe a seat in the front of the economy cabin.
NEELY: And American Airlines executives think travelers would buy more of those bundles if travel agents and websites connected directly to American's computers, instead of going through Sabre.
But Orbitz and Expedia don't want their users to have that direct link. Chris Kroeger is a senior vice president at Sabre, and says those bundles American wants to offer undermine the apples-to-apples price comparison that the Sabre system offers.
Mr. CHRIS KROEGER (Senior Vice President, Sabre Travel Network): Travelers want and demand to see a full price and they want to be able to easily compare options.
NEELY: While American says it's happy to show prices, it also wants to show potential passengers what else it has to offer, like fancy upgrades - for an additional fee, of course.
American Airlines executive Cory Garner says the airline is sick of being viewed as nothing more than a flying bus.
Mr. CORY GARNER (Director of Distribution Strategy, American Airlines): Our view is that the airline product is not a commodity and hasn't been a commodity. But the way the displays are sorted and oriented today, it portrays a picture as if all airlines are exactly the same.
NEELY: So what does this dispute mean for travelers? Analyst Henry Harteveldt thinks the reservation system will certainly get more fragmented, as airlines keep trying to cut out the middlemen and get passengers to book through their own websites.
Mr. HARTEVELDT: The way this could affect us as consumers may mean more searching for flights, where you'd have to go to different websites to be able compare the flights and prices between airlines, and then going to different websites to buy them.
NEELY: As expected, the airline industry is watching this fight closely because the winner, Sabre or American, will probably set the terms for much of the rest of the industry.
Brett Neely, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And now we're going to hear how some struggling orchestras in this country are trying to innovate their way out of big financial challenges. Those challenges have led to a four-month strike by musicians in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; musicians who would normally be performing music like this, Aaron Copland's "Hoe-Down."
(Soundbite of music, "Hoe-Down")
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
So the strike is on in Detroit, and Louisville's orchestra recently filed for bankruptcy. The Honolulu Symphony folded last month, and orchestras from Cleveland to Charleston are facing financial problems. However, it's not all gloom.
MONTAGNE: The Washington Post's classical music critic Anne Midgette told NPR in 2009 that financial troubles are forcing classical music out of its box.
Ms. ANNE MIDGETTE (Classical Music Critic, The Washington Post): Orchestras are trying to come out of the ivory tower and engage a little bit. And I think they're going to have to in some way in order to survive. I don't think you can just fall back on the model anymore that we offer the greatest music in the world and you'd better like that. And I think that's a good thing for the field.
MONTAGNE: The Metropolitan Opera, for instance, began live broadcasting their operas in movie theaters around the world.
Many young classical artists are also experimenting with the fusion of electronica and classical music, artists like Mason Bates, an electronica DJ and composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
(Soundbite of music, "Deliver us from Evil")
INSKEEP: This composition is called "Deliver us from Evil." The hope is that innovative, modern works like this one will deliver America's orchestras.
Now, at npr.org/music, you'll find a new conversation on classical music, which you can join. Leave your comment at npr.org/music.
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
Sal Esposito of Boston was summoned for jury duty last week, even though Sal is a cat. Sal's owner Anna Esposito sent back the form, checking off one official disqualification: Sal can't speak English. She also sent a note from the vet. As she told local news, when they ask him guilty or not guilty, what's he supposed to say? Meow? But she couldn't get the summons scratched. Sal is still expected to appear for jury duty in March.
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
A Montana public safety video led to a mystery. The video encouraged people not to drink and drive.
Unidentified Man: If you plan to drink, plan to have a friend get you home.
INSKEEP: It featured a horse picking up a guy at a bar. This got people wondering if it's legal to ride a horse while drunk. The Helena police chief says there is, in fact, no law against this. When John Wayne and Clint Eastwood did it in all those movies, it was fine.
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And our last word in business is sacre bleu. In France, baguette prices are rising. The long, crusty loaves are the bread of life for this nation. French consume more than eight billion baguettes each year, according to Bloomberg News. That's about 23 million a day. But wheat prices on global markets have almost doubled over the last year, partly because of droughts and floods affecting crops in wheat-producing countries like Russia and Canada. So French bakeries are starting to pass on the higher costs to consumers in what amounts to about a few cents a loaf. There's no indication yet of any large-scale shift to the brioche or the croissant, or other French-baked goods.
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Tina Brown, editor of The Daily Beast and Newsweek is back with us again. She's a regular guest on this program in a feature we call Word of Mouth. She tells us what she's been reading, recommendations for the rest of us to pick up. Hi Tina.
TINA BROWN: Hi Steve, how are you?
INSKEEP: I'm doing fine, thanks very much, and we've got three reading selections here and our theme is choice, or really lack of choice, situations in which people find out they have less choice than they thought at the time. The first is Stephen L. Carter, distinguished writer of fiction and non- fiction, and book is called "The Violence of Peace." What is it?
BROWN: Well, Stephen Carter's book is really a brilliant meditation on the morality of war and how Obama is faring as a war president. And what he says, which is the dilemma that Obama finds himself in, is that he ran as a peace candidate, but he acts, of course, now, as a war president. And how he's had to accommodate himself, in a sense, to the absolutely unknown pressure of office that transforms the occupier of the Oval Office.
INSKEEP: You have a situation where he argued against President George W. Bush's foreign policy, but in a number of key instances, he's ended up following a similar policy even if the style is different.
BROWN: But, you know, rather than rushing to condemn him, Carter, you know, who most of us would see, I think, as a liberal, he's a law professor at Yale, he knows Obama quite well. He regards this really as a signal of the vehement attacks on Bush, in fact were rather overblown. He said it's so dangerous an age, we dare not treat arguments over warfare as opportunities to indulge our partisan side. There's not a Bush water fight adopted by Obama, there's an American way to fight. Put most simply, we fight to win.
INSKEEP: And there are American interests, which any president is going to be compelled to look after in the ways that are available to him at the time.
BROWN: And he describes watching a TV account of a fierce battle in Southern Iraq, that tells how many American soldiers died, but not what piece of ground they were contesting. And he says that if Obama regards the wars that he's fighting as moral imperatives, which much of this book discussed, then he really must be willing to talk about winning as well, which he feels he doesn't do enough of.
INSKEEP: So the peace candidate becomes a war president, discovers, perhaps, that he had a little less choice than he may have thought when he was campaigning. Let's talk about another way in which people may have less choice than they realize. David Brooks, a columnist in the New York Times, and contributor to NPR, by the way, writes in the New Yorker about the human mind.
BROWN: You know, he just as one is surprised to see that here is Stephen Carter writing, really, a book that sort of praises Bush, here's David Brooks, the consummate intellectual thinker, writing about the necessities of understanding the inner flows of consciousness; which are as important, says he, than the intellectual mind that, you know, in a way, you would expect him to be extolling.
INSKEEP: He gives an example of a married couple. What's he talking about here?
BROWN: And right now we're only kind of very, very focused on the outward part. I mean parents are getting their kids, now, more and more to follow this road of, you know, excessive achieving aspects for education, which are really ignoring some of these other components, which he thinks are just as important.
INSKEEP: Although that's hard for Americans to do, to just let go, let it flow. That's just not the way people think, necessarily, consciously.
BROWN: No, not at all. There's not much downtime in American life.
INSKEEP: So David Brooks' article is in the New Yorker. There's another article in Outside Online. Outside magazine takes a look at the outdoors, and Hampton Sides reports on people who spend time outdoors. They've chosen to rescue people, to save lives, but they can't get away, they can't choose to turn off the part of their mind that is disturbed by what they do.
BROWN: He says, you know, when you're doing these jobs, you pick up an arm and it disarticulates. And all these visions, as he starts to unravel, start to haunt his mind. They become what he calls a slideshow of horror. He can't get them out of his mind. He can no longer cut them off, and he gradually has a breakdown and he's sent to rehab because he becomes addicted to Percocet. He starts to have this blank stare. He sobs all the time, and what he's trying to do now, now that he's recovered, is to raise consciousness for first responders.
INSKEEP: But he's not a first responder himself anymore?
BROWN: No, he's not. And, you know, you understand just how tough it must be. It's something I've never read before. It's a really vivid account of what it's like to be on the mountain in Aspen.
INSKEEP: So do you have any idea why you chose to read these particular articles, Tina Brown, or did something in the subconscious mind drive you?
BROWN: I'm so eclectic, you know, I'm such a magpie with stuff, and something hits me. I don't know. Maybe it's the snow for Hampton Sides, maybe it's caring a lot about how out of touch we all seem to be in our public life, in a wa,y with the very important issues of the emotional content that feeds into decisions as well as just the facts.
INSKEEP: Tina, always a pleasure to talk with you.
BROWN: Thank you.
INSKEEP: Tina Brown of The Daily Beast and Newsweek.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: We call the feature Word of Mouth, and you can find more excerpts and links for the writing we discussed at npr.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
The House of Representatives is set to vote today on repealing the health care overhaul. That vote is largely seen as symbolic. While there's no question that the repeal bill will get through the Republican-dominated House, it has no chance in the Democratic-majority Senate. Still, as NPR's Julie Rovner reports, this exercise is setting the tone for a health care debate that's sure to continue.
JULIE ROVNER: The formal title of the House GOP bill is, quote, "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." But in the wake of the recent shootings in Arizona, the phrase job-killing was barely mentioned during the first few hours of debate on the House floor yesterday. Instead, Republicans like Lamar Smith of Texas used more restrained language to describe their distaste with the health measure passed last year.
LAMAR SMITH: I support this legislation that repeals the Democrat's job-stifling, cost-increasing, freedom-limiting health care law.
ROVNER: And some Republicans, like Smith's fellow Texan Ted Poe, were able to make their feelings known by being pointed rather than personal.
TED POE: And if you like the efficiency of the post office, the competence of FEMA, and the compassion of the IRS, we will love the nationalized health care bill.
ROVNER: Many, like Michigan freshman Justin Amash, say the law simply gives the federal government too much power, particularly the requirement that nearly every American either have health insurance or else pay a penalty.
JUSTIN AMASH: If this law is constitutional, if Congress has such broad power, our limited federal government will have become limitless.
ROVNER: Burke, who was profiled by NPR last fall, has wrestled over the years with lifetime caps on various insurance policies he'd have on the job.
ED BURKE: Once you have reached your lifetime cap, you would be forced to pay the rest of your health care out-of-pocket or to change jobs, and sometimes even careers, in order to have health benefits and a new cap.
ROVNER: But Burke told the Democratic lawmakers he no longer has to worry.
BURKE: Our new patient's rights prohibit insurance companies from having such caps, and even removed annual limits so that any insured American can receive all the care they need without fear.
ROVNER: The Democrats also heard from Claudette Therriault of Sabattus, Maine. Therriault and her husband are seniors on Medicare who have high drug costs and have come face-to-face with the program's so-called doughnut hole. It forces people to pay for their own drugs while still paying monthly drug insurance premiums. In the Therriault's case it was thousands of dollars.
CLAUDETTE THERRIAULT: We didn't foresee this, and it was devastating. This is four house payments for us. We had to choose between defaulting on our loan or my husband's health.
ROVNER: Therriault says she's looking forward to this year, when the new law will provide a 50 percent discount for brand name drugs once seniors reach that donut hole threshold.
THERRIAULT: This assistance could have saved us thousands last year.
ROVNER: Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Howard, good morning.
HOWARD BERKES: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: What did investigators say about this deadly accident - how it started?
BERKES: Now problem number two, a water spraying system that's supposed to help control sparks wasn't working. Now investigators point out that the water sprayers also help control coal dust, which is explosive. The sparks ignited the methane in what is described as a small fireball. But without the sprayers to control or extinguish that ignition and with coal dust to fuel it, it exploded. Investigators reported excessive coal dust spread throughout the mine and that fed the blast, sending it coursing more than two miles underground.
MONTAGNE: It sounds like a lot of things went wrong in this Massey Energy mine. Did investigators explain that?
BERKES: Now, some people did ask about federal oversight - were regulators doing enough? And the officials said regulators cited the mine repeatedly, they closed unsafe areas at times but Massey Energy would fix the problem so they could start cutting coal again and the violations would return.
MONTAGNE: And Howard, we're calling this a working theory. Does that mean that there is some uncertainty about what went wrong?
BERKES: I'm told that investigators were careful not to say that this is their final and firm conclusion. They're still working through evidence and it'll be 60 to 90 days, they said, before they'll have a final report. They also pointed out that there's a federal criminal investigation that's still underway. And by the way, the investigators themselves will talk publicly about their tentative findings in a news conference later this morning.
MONTAGNE: And any response so far from the owner of the Upper Big Branch mine, Massey Energy?
BERKES: Massey is set to conduct its own briefing for the families Friday morning in Charleston, West Virginia. And the company has had its own theory - based essentially on a natural and massive infusion of methane or natural gas that overwhelmed all the safety systems. Last night, one of the government's experts refuted that theory by presenting evidence he said contradicts it. We'll get Massey's response to that and the rest of the government's tentative conclusions I'm sure on Friday.
MONTAGNE: Howard, thanks very much.
BERKES: You're welcome, Renee.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Howard Berkes reporting from Beckley, West Virginia.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Neda Ulaby has this remembrance.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DO THE LOCO-MOTION")
NEDA ULABY: Don Kirshner once told an interviewer: I can't tell you how good my life story is, but the songs will make a great soundtrack.
LITTLE EVA: (Singing) Everybody is doing a brand new dance now...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ON BROADWAY")
DRIFTERS: (Singing) They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU'VE LOST THAT LOVING FEELING")
THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS: (Singing) You've lost that loving feeling...
CYNTHIA WEIL: He really was one of the greatest publishers ever.
ULABY: That's Cynthia Weil. She co-wrote "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" with her husband Barry Mann. Don Kirshner signed them to his music publishing company when they were in their early 20's.
WEIL: All of his writers were like a pack of crazy kids who all wanted to talk to him.
ULABY: Kirshner's writers included Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Neil Diamond. And Cynthia Weil says they'd all camp out in front of his office in the Brill Building to get his attention.
WEIL: And I remember once chasing after him and getting halfway into men's' room before we both realized where he was and where I was and that I didn't belong there.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SPLISH SPLASH")
BOBBY DARIN: (Singing) Splish splash, I was taking a bath...
ULABY: Singer Bobby Darin was Kirshner's ticket into the music industry. They met right after high school and - let's fast-forward to 1959. Bobby Darin is on a famous show that reunited celebrities with people from their pasts. It's "This Is Your Life," and they've hit the point when Darin turned 18.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THIS IS YOUR LIFE")
RALPH EDWARDS: ...writing songs and you find a songwriting partner and here he is now, now president of Nevins-Kirshner Music Limited from New York City, your best man at his wedding, Donny Kirshner.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
ULABY: The singer and his producer reminisced with the host, Ralph Edwards, about their start trying to write songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THIS IS YOUR LIFE")
EDWARDS: How many, Donny
DARIN: Well, we wrote about 25, Ralph. And 10 of them were published. None of them were real big hits. They were bombs.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
KIRSHNER: They were probably all bombs.
ULABY: From that humble beginning, Kirshner built a publishing and recording powerhouse, so successful he sold it in 1961 to Columbia. He became president of one of its music divisions. There, he laid the foundation of a legacy in prefab pop.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SUGAR SUGAR")
ULABY: It was Kirshner who helped assemble the Monkees and later, the Archies - an animated group on the kids' TV show that sold over six million copies of this.
THE ARCHIES: Sugar, ah, honey-honey...
ULABY: Mr. Don Kirshner (Host, "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert"): Canada is stirring musically, and one of the forerunners of action from the north is the boogying group the Guess Who...
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "DON KIRSHNER'S ROCK CONCERT")
ULABY: The New Yorker's music editor Ben Greenman barely remembers Kirshner's two TV shows from the 1970s - "In Concert" and "Rock Concert" - when they were first broadcast. But he says, go to YouTube and you'll thank Kirshner for some of the earliest TV appearances of a ton of great rock bands: Led Zeppelin, Sly and the Family Stone, The Police.
BEN GREENMAN: There's just no end of it. If you go back and look, it's a little museum of everything that was good.
KIRSHNER: Displaying high energy and excitement, here they are, New York's own: The Ramones.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
ULABY: Neda Ulaby, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE RAMONES)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Here's a word of warning from commentator Frank Deford.
FRANK DEFORD: It's a cruel moral dilemma for the doctors, as the youthful sweet seduction of sport trumps the everyday grace of a healthy middle age.
MONTAGNE: The comments of Frank Deford who comes to us every Wednesday from member station WSHU in Fairfield, Connecticut.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
State and local governments are starting a year of just trying to get by. Nassau County on New York's Long Island is among the wealthiest places in America, but its troubled finances could force the state to take control. Here's NPR's Jim Zarroli.
JIM ZARROLI: When police arrest someone for child abuse in Nassau County, the victims are often brought here to begin healing. It's called a safe place, and it's run by a nonprofit called the Coalition Against Child Abuse and Neglect. These days, says executive director Cynthia Scott, the organization's future is uncertain.
CYNTHIA SCOTT: I guess there's a piece of all of us that we're holding our breaths, because I don't know that we know all that much about it or what to expect, should that happen.
ZARROLI: The problem is that the coalition gets much of its money from Nassau County, which is struggling with a budget crisis. This crisis has been years in the making, says Lawrence Levy, who heads the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University.
LAWRENCE LEVY: Even without the recession hitting the county as hard as it did, the county was still on a trajectory where it was spending more than it was taking in. And it was papering over this structural deficit by borrowing, by overestimating revenues and by underestimating expenditures.
ZARROLI: Nassau County is home to some very wealthy people. "The Great Gatsby" was set here. But much of the population is more middle-class.
FRANK RUSSO: And then we got four bedrooms up here. This was the...
ZARROLI: Frank Russo is retired from his job as a manager at AT&T. But he still lives in the house he bought in Port Washington in 1975. He and his wife raised seven children here.
RUSSO: Three girls were in here, two boys in here, two boys in here.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
ZARROLI: In the years since Russo bought the house, local property taxes have gone from about $3,000 a year to nearly 16,000.
RUSSO: My income is my pension and my Social Security. That's 98 percent of my income. And this has taken a big part of it - the property taxes. It's the single biggest expense I'd say that we have. Nothing else comes near it.
ZARROLI: George Maragos is the county's new comptroller.
GEORGE MARAGOS: Nassau County is one of the highest tax counties in the country. We have a net outflow of people and businesses from this county. We need to make it attractive for our young families to stay here.
ZARROLI: Republicans like Maragos see the move as a power grab by the state legislature.
MARAGOS: You have unelected officials making judgments as to who to penalize and who to tax. And that we think unfair and inappropriate and somewhat undemocratic.
ZARROLI: But if the unions won't go along, county officials will have to make large cuts in services. Maragos says the county spends a lot more than it needs to.
MARAGOS: Does the county need to operate a rifle range? Do we need to be in the business of operating golf courses? It may have been great some years ago when there was a lot of money, as an additional service to the public. But is it something the taxpayer want to pay and subsidize?
ZARROLI: But Hofstra's Lawrence Levy isn't sure how much budget-cutting Nassau County residents are really ready for. Levy says county officials are in a real bind.
LEVY: They have voters who love their services. They want a cop on every corner. They want a park on every block. They want to know that the bus is going to come when the bus is supposed to come. But if you say, okay, great, we've got to raise your property taxes three or four or five percent, they'll vote you out of office.
ZARROLI: Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Bill, welcome back to the program.
BILL ADAIR: Thanks for having me.
INSKEEP: Let's start with health care here. Let's remember how major health care was for the president. This is actually a lot of promises.
ADAIR: It is. In fact, at one time I think we counted three dozen of Obama's 506 promises that we're tracking that were affected by the health care law. And many of them moved to our most advanced rating - promise kept. Some of them moved to compromise, but Obama made tremendous progress when he passed that law.
INSKEEP: Now, let me try to figure this out, though. If the president has signed the bill into law, but then it should somehow get repealed all the way by Republicans in Congress, would that count as a promise kept or a promise broken for the president of the United States?
ADAIR: At that point we'll need to change our ratings.
INSKEEP: OK. Well, on the Republican side, if they do vote as expected in the House today to repeal the health care law, do they get a promise kept from you?
ADAIR: No. That one will go to in the works. The promise is repeal the law. And the vote today won't repeal the law. It's just a vote of one House of Congress and it would then, of course, have to go to the Senate. So at this point, the Republicans will make progress today. It just won't be the final word on that promise.
INSKEEP: Bill Adair of PolitiFact.com, you said more than 500 promises are being tracked that were made by President Obama in 2008?
ADAIR: Five hundred and six. It's just an astounding number, everything from promises for families who have autistic children to Western wildfires to climate change.
INSKEEP: So how's he doing, 506 promises, we're midway through his term?
ADAIR: He's also made tremendous progress through the economic stimulus bill which kept many of the promises he made. Overall, he's kept 26 percent of his 506 promises. We've rated eight percent compromise and seven percent promise broken.
INSKEEP: Promise broken. Some people will point to the extension of President Bush's tax cuts. That was something that he was against, tax cuts for the wealthy, that is.
ADAIR: We're also going to see a lot of his smaller promises that we've rated in the works that are going to go to stalled or even promise broken because he doesn't have the control of House committees anymore.
INSKEEP: Now on the Republican side, more than 50 promises are being tracked.
ADAIR: We collected 57 promises for our GOP Pledge-O-Meter, and they've already made some progress. They have one promise kept and eight promises already rated in the works.
INSKEEP: Such as?
ADAIR: They said that they would publish the text of bills online for three days before a vote. We've got that one in the works. We've got one promise kept for their promise to cut Congress's budget. They did that instantly when they took control the first week of January.
INSKEEP: What, if you look down these lists for President Obama and the Republicans and Congress, are some of the more obscure promises that out of the campaign trail they said they were going to work on?
ADAIR: Yeah, a couple that we really enjoyed. One was the Obama promise to help species adapt to climate change. We decided that that meant air conditioners for bears, which are probably not going to get funded now that the Republicans are controlling the House.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: Did he misspeak? Help species adapt - not deal with climate change, but help species adapt to climate change?
ADAIR: My personal favorite was his promise to push for a playoff system for college football.
INSKEEP: Mm-hmm.
ADAIR: That's one we've got rated stalled. The BCS is still to be reckoned with.
INSKEEP: Bill Adair of PolitiFact.com, thanks as always for coming by.
ADAIR: Thanks for having me.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Here's NPR's legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.
NINA TOTENBERG: At the high court yesterday, however, nobody seemed to dispute the legality of the state secrets privilege. General Dynamics lawyer Paul Smith, speaking afterwards, put the question this way.
PAUL SMITH: What the case is about today is sorting out who bears the burden of the fact that the case couldn't be fully litigated.
TOTENBERG: Inside the courtroom, lawyer Carter Phillips, representing both companies, faced questions from some justices who seemed loath to intervene in the contracting process.
INSKEEP: But arguing the other side of the case, Solicitor General Neal Katyal contended the government should get back the money that it paid upfront for a contract never fulfilled.
SMITH: Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
As NPR's Tamara Keith reports, members in the military have special protections but in this case, they didn't work.
TAMARA KEITH: Julia Rowles and her husband, Marine Captain Jonathon Rowles, have been fighting with Chase bank for years - basically, ever since Captain Rowles was commissioned as an officer in 2006.
KEITH: They would say, we will take your house. We will report you to the credit agency. This is a bad situation that you don't want to be getting into. Pay us today. They were harassing us for money that we did not owe them.
KEITH: Her husband once got a collection call at 3 a.m. And none of that was supposed to happen. Under a federal law called the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, most troops can get their mortgage interest rates reduced to 6 percent while on active duty, and foreclosures aren't allowed. Rowles says her husband, who is now overseas, was granted the lower interest rate, but Chase didn't adjust its records.
KEITH: They kept still charging us 9 and 10 percent, and we were paying upwards to $2,000 when we should have only been paying $1,400.
KEITH: But attorney Dick Harpootlian in Columbia, South Carolina, isn't ready to accept the apology. He's one of the lawyers representing the Rowles family in what he hopes will become a class-action lawsuit against Chase.
KEITH: I was a prosecutor for 12 years. Everybody that got caught taking money that wasn't theirs always said they were sorry, offered to give it back and call it even. And that's just not what ought to happen in cases like this.
KEITH: This latest incident is further proof of why we need a strong consumer financial protection agency.
KEITH: That's Elizabeth Warren, a special assistant to President Obama. She's putting together the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It was created by Congress to look out for consumers in the wake of the financial crisis, and will also focus on protecting military families.
KEITH: We need a cop on the beat. The laws are in place, but there's no one to enforce them and no one to speak up for these families. This is just wrong.
KEITH: Warren says the laws exist so service members can concentrate on doing their jobs.
KEITH: Not be worried about paperwork and bills, and whether or not a loved one is being harassed for money that's not even owed.
KEITH: Yesterday, Warren visited Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, to talk to military families about their financial concerns. She was joined by Holly Petraeus, the wife of General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Mrs. Petraeus was one of the first hires for the new consumer bureau.
KEITH: I really can't think of anything better to be doing while my husband is deployed - forever - than, you know, working on a project like this.
KEITH: Tamara Keith, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Jason Beaubien reports from Port-au-Prince.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING CROWD)
JASON BEAUBIEN: Baurice Telemaque was holding a flyer with a photo of Jean-Claude Duvalier that said: Welcome Home, in Creole.
BAURICE TELEMAQUE: (Foreign language spoken)
BEAUBIEN: Telemaque said if the police are going to arrest Duvalier they'll have to arrest the whole country.
(SOUNDBITE OF SIRENS AND PROTESTORS)
BEAUBIEN: State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. is concerned that Duvalier's return comes at a bad time.
CROWLEY: If I look at the list of challenges that Haiti faces today, having a former dictator return to Haiti just adds to Haiti's ongoing burden.
BEAUBIEN: Evans Paul was a journalist during Baby Doc's reign. Paul recounts how he was beaten by Duvalier's Tonton Macouts, after interviewing a prominent dissident in exile.
EVANS PAUL: (Through Translator) They listened to all my tapes and they beat me. What was hard is not just because they had beaten me, they asked me to count every time I got beaten. I counted about 80 hits.
BEAUBIEN: Paul says he never saw his father who abducted and disappeared by the regime. He says they never even had a funeral for his dad.
PAUL: (Through Translator) We always hoped one day he would come back. Because sometimes the regime would put somebody in jail, in prison for five, 10, 12 years and then, all of a sudden, the person comes back home.
BEAUBIEN: Paul says he was stunned to hear that Baby Doc had returned from exile but adds that he's not looking for revenge.
PAUL: (Through Translator) I want a justice with reconciliation, for Jean Claude to recognize his fault without him be jailed.
BEAUBIEN: Jason Beaubien, NPR News, Port-au-Prince.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's Tom Gjelten explains.
TOM GJELTEN: It makes for a very complicated relationship, says China expert David Finkelstein, from the Center for Naval Analyses.
DAVID FINKELSTEIN: There are so many different bureaucracies that are dealing with each other across the Pacific that the two presidents, to a certain degree, are maestros trying to orchestrate all the various parts of their governments to move this relationship to a much more cooperative footing.
GJELTEN: The United States is a mature nation, with well developed institutions and years of practice in superpower diplomacy. China is a rising nation, rising so fast it can hardly manage its own growth. Though it's not a democracy, it has some of democracy's problems.
EVAN FEIGENBAUM: Even authoritarian political systems do have politics.
GJELTEN: Evan Feigenbaum is Asia direction at the Eurasia consulting group.
FEIGENBAUM: Chinese leaders are trading off contending policy views all the time.
GJELTEN: Contending views, for example, on economic policy. One group is linked to the big state enterprises and the big exporters. They're looking for help from the Chinese government, a subsidized exchange rate, for example, so their products sell at lower prices on the international market. This hurts US exporters. And this is where President Obama has to deal with politics. Many members of Congress favor a get tough policy with China on the currency issue. President Obama and his team have to recognize that President Hu and his team will be sensitive to the interests of the Chinese exporters. But economist Eswar Prasad, of Cornell University, says there are other interest groups in China, ones the Obama Administration may be tempted to reach out to.
ESWAR PRASAD: You do have slightly more reformist people within the government, and especially a group of fairly influential academics, who feel that, in fact, these firms would do a lot better if they were exposed to foreign competition, and that this is where China's future lies.
GJELTEN: David Finkelstein thinks one of the problems is that President Hu and his vice president, Xi Jenping, are the only civilians with positions of responsibility over the Chinese armed forces.
FINKELSTEIN: So we have a Chinese military that is civilian poor, not a lot of suits running around the Chinese defense establishment. It's mostly all uniforms, except for Hu Jintao and Xi Jenping.
GJELTEN: Chinese military leaders have lately sounded more aggressive in their rhetoric than the civilians, just as some economic officials favor more open policies than others. But it may be dangerous for the Obama Administration to try to support some interests in China and ignore others.
CHENG LI: We should not choose who are the friends in China, who are the enemies in China. It's not that simple.
GJELTEN: Cheng Li is a China analyst at the Brookings Institution.
LI: We should not use ideological term to see these are the reformers, these are the communists, these are the hardliners, these are liberals. Sometimes liberals, on the economic front, could be hardliners on the political front.
GJELTEN: Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Unidentified Man: (Foreign language spoken)
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Tear gas didn't stop these key protestors, who stayed on this key thoroughfare in central Tunis after most people fled. They shouted and handed out leaflets printed with the names of regime members who are now in the new government.
NAJEED: (Foreign language spoken)
SARHADDI NELSON: Many more Tunisians, however, feel it's too risky to give the ruling party another chance.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)
SARHADDI NELSON: Like Mahtou Mosen(ph), a physics teacher and counselor.
MAHTOU MOSEN: We want the coalition that's in place fully, the will of the people, democracy, freedom and the basic need of the population: food, water, clean air, jobs and overall, national dignity. We are not banana's republic.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING)
SARHADDI NELSON: University lecturer Fahti Halel(ph) says he and others here worry corruption, in particular, is likely to be covered up.
FAHTI HALEL: They are asking for a radical change that gets away from the past, because corruption is deeply entrenched, you know, in all the apparatus of the state.
SARHADDI NELSON: Lawyer Mohammed Abbou, a dissident who spent two-and-a-half years in jail under the former regime, represents a Tunisian businessman who says he was forced to pay $150,000 to one of the former first lady's brothers in 2008.
MOHAMMED ABBOU: (Foreign language spoken)
SARHADDI NELSON: Abbou says the businessman was told he needed to pay the bribe in order to spring his Hong Kong shipment from Tunisian Customs. His client filed a complaint, but instead, the police arrested him outside his lawyer's office. The case has gone nowhere, Abbou adds.
ABBOU: (Foreign language spoken)
SARHADDI NELSON: He fears that isn't likely to change, given who the new government has been assigning to tackle corruption. Abbou says a prosecutor who blocked cases against the ruling family during the regime has now been assigned as a watchdog. That prosecutor has been asked by the new government to investigate the ousted president's head of security. He expressed similar doubts about a commission announced this week by the prime minister to investigate corruption.
ABBOU: (Foreign language spoken)
SARHADDI NELSON: Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Tunis.
MONTAGNE: And just this morning, Switzerland announced it is freezing former President Ben Ali's assets to help in any corruption case that may be brought against him.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Here's NPR's Sylvia Poggioli.
SYLVIA POGGIOLI: Prosecutors also suspect Berlusconi abused his powers to spring her from police custody when she was detained for theft. Berlusconi has branded the probe a subversive plot aimed at toppling him from power. In a televised address Sunday, he appeared extremely tense.
SILVIO BERLUSCONI: (Through translator) The charges against me are totally unfounded, actually laughable. The police officer denies I put pressure on him, and the minor denies she had sex with me and asserts she presented herself as a 24-year-old.
POGGIOLI: Here's an actress reading conversations about hush money that Ruby Heartthrob had with friends.
INSKEEP: (Through translator) My case scares everyone. It's worse than all the others. I told Silvio I want five million euros to compensate for my name being dragged in the mud. Silvio said: Ruby, I'll cover you in gold. The important thing is that you hide everything. Make it look like you're crazy.
POGGIOLI: The enraged leader of the opposition Democratic Party, Pier Luigi Bersani, said Berlusconi is not above the law and must step down.
PIER LUIGI BERSANI: Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Federal regulators approved the merger of a giant company that produces television programs and a giant company that distributes them. NBC-Universal is merging with Comcast. The Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission did attach conditions, though. Regulators are trying to guard against this new company using its size and strength to stifle competition. NPR's Joel Rose reports.
JOEL ROSE: It took more than a year. But Comcast finally got the prize it wanted: NBC-Universal, and its wide and deep roster of TV shows, cable channels and movies. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts sounded almost relieved in a conference call with reporters yesterday.
BRIAN ROBERTS: All of us at Comcast and NBC-Universal are incredibly excited today. We believe the new company will be well positioned to compete - and to compete fairly - in today's fast- changing marketplace.
ROSE: There was never much doubt that federal regulators would approve the merger. But there was plenty of suspense around what conditions they would attach to the deal. The Justice Department's antitrust division was concerned about the possible effect of combining the nation's biggest Internet provider with one of its top content producers. Here's Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney on her own conference call.
CHRISTINE VARNEY: The transaction had the potential to stifle new online competition. The settlement we are announcing today ensures that the transaction will not chill the nascent competition posed by online competitors.
ROSE: Varney says the conditions imposed by the Justice Department and the FCC will make it harder for Comcast to abuse its new power. Take, for example, Hulu.
(SOUNDBITE OF COMMERCIAL)
ALEC BALDWIN: That's absurd. TV only softens the brain, like a ripe banana. To take it all the way, we've created Hulu.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
ROSE: Many consumer advocates, including Gigi Sohn at the non-profit Public Knowledge, say regulators struck the right balance.
GIGI SOHN: I think they set some baselines for the future of competition with online video. And I think that's the most important part of the conditions. And that is something that the FCC had not done before.
ROSE: Regulators also took steps to ensure that the new company has to share its programming with other online video competitors that it doesn't own, including Netflix and Apple TV. And Comcast agreed not to slow or block the Internet traffic of its rivals - at least, for 7 years. Still, that wasn't enough for some critics.
MICHAEL COPPS: I'm not saying there are no benefits attached to this deal at all. But they just at the end of the day don't measure up, where you can say, yes, this deal is good for American consumers. Because it's not.
ROSE: FCC Commissioner Michael Copps is worried the merger will lead to fewer choices and higher prices for consumers. And he's not impressed by Comcast's promise to inject more diversity into its programming and its Board of Directors.
COPPS: We've got a real problem with diversity and media in this country. And that's not fixed by having one person on a board, nice though that is. It doesn't get to the crux of the problem.
ROSE: Joel Rose, NPR News, New York.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's business news starts with gains in American manufacturing.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: However, the job gains follow a decade in which manufacturing in this country lost millions of jobs.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
As NPR's Chris Arnold reports, some economists would like to see more action from Washington.
CHRIS ARNOLD: After crashing down around 30 percent in many areas, home prices appeared to be leveling off a few months ago. That was with the help of a federal homebuyer tax credit. But in recent months, after that tax credit expired, prices in many areas have been sliding lower again.
CHRIS MAYER: And those foreclosures are starting to push prices down again.
ARNOLD: Chris Mayer is an economist with Columbia University. He says he'd like to see Congress and the Obama administration do more to shore up housing.
MAYER: I think the government has just looked and said, you know what, we've done a bunch of stuff with housing, nothing's really worked, maybe we'll just sort of hope for the best.
ARNOLD: Mayer says that's a mistake because the market is still very fragile. And he thinks it's become too hard for average people to qualify to buy a home or even just to refinance. As the new Congress gets underway, Mayer hopes that legislation will move forward that could make it easier for millions of Americans to qualify to refinance.
MAYER: I think the government can still help those people. You know, you're talking about savings in many cases of hundreds of dollars a month - a big amount for households that are struggling to get by.
ARNOLD: Chris Arnold, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
The husband of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords says he has not told his wife what happened to her on January 8th. Astronaut Mark Kelly says he also hasn't told her that a close aide was killed during the shooting. Mark Kelly spoke with Arizona Public Media yesterday. NPR's Jeff Brady sat in on the interview and has this report.
JEFF BRADY: Mark Kelly says he's just now starting to catch up on sleep and he spends his days meeting with doctors and nurses to make sure his wife is getting the best care. He's not revealing to Giffords the heavier details of what happened to her yet. Kelly says she likely wouldn't remember anyway, because of her injuries.
MARK KELLY: So I've told her where she is. That she's at UMC and she's got great care and I introduce her to the doctors and the nurses, but we haven't explained to her what happened. I think the best thing, from what I've been told, is as she starts to ask what happened, then you answer the questions.
BRADY: Kelly says this ordeal has been difficult on his two daughters, especially the hours after the shooting when NPR incorrectly reported that Representative Giffords had died.
KELLY: And we had the news on and it was reported that their stepmother was killed. And we lived with that for about 15, 20 minutes. And it was devastating to them and my mother, who was there, and to me. But that was like the lowest of the low point and ever since then, you know, everything's been positive and she's been getting better.
BRADY: Hospital workers unwrap plastic from the flowers, hoping that will help them last longer in the warm sun. There's a strong smell of scented candles as Tucson resident Shirley Murray slowly walked through the memorial.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLASTIC CRINKLING)
SHIRLEY MURRAY: Well, my husband wanted to take a picture and we just came to be a part of the community.
BRADY: Everywhere there are photos of victims - the injured and the dead. Tina Newell brought her children, hoping they'd learn something.
TINA NEWELL: That, you know, there is a lot of evil in the world, there is tragedy. But we also come together as a community for strength and help one another.
BRADY: Mark Kelly says he's come down to the memorial - a few times at night and then on Monday.
KELLY: During the day, I grabbed a teddy bear, brought it into her room and I was hoping that nobody would say, hey, what's going on there? Why are you taking that teddy bear? But now it's on her bed.
BRADY: Jeff Brady, NPR News, Tucson.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Good morning.
LAURENCE LEAMER: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: You know, let's look back to begin. You were a member of the Peace Corps yourself, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. What did Sargent Shriver do to make it so successful?
LEAMER: And it worked incredibly well. It changed us more than it changed the world. But the Peace Corps is beyond the Peace Corps now. It's all kinds of young people and not so young people, in so many different ways are going out to the world and investigating the world and trying to help people.
MONTAGNE: He also launched another high-minded program, the Johnson administration's war on poverty. And he was passionate about it. Here's a clip from him in a 1995 interview on the program FRESH AIR.
SARGENT SHRIVER: We believed that the way to get out of poverty was through human effort, helped by government, helped by private enterprise systems, or charity, so to speak. But a person had to have the desire. They had to have the motivation to move themselves out of poverty.
MONTAGNE: Now, he was idealistic, but also he had political ambitions, which were - you might say of the Kennedy dynasty, it giveth and taketh away.
LEAMER: In 1960, he wanted to run for governor of Illinois. He couldn't, because his brother-in-law was running for president.
MONTAGNE: His brother-in-law, John F. Kennedy.
LEAMER: In '76, when Sarge ran on his own in the primaries, his brother-in-law Senator Ted Kennedy was not impressed and did not help him. So Sarg lost as much as he gained.
MONTAGNE: So, in fact, Sargent Shriver never did realize his political ambitions?
LEAMER: We must mention Special Olympics, too. That is part of his and his wife's legacy - Eunice Kennedy Shriver, one of the great women of the 20th century. That all of the world now, those with mental retardation are treated a different way and our whole mentality's different.
MONTAGNE: What would you remember the most about him? I mean, when you talk about legacy he has a huge legacy. But what would that be for you?
LEAMER: I asked him once, why do you go to mass every morning. And he said, because I need God everyday. He was indeed a public servant of a kind we do not have very much of anymore.
MONTAGNE: Thanks very much.
LEAMER: Thank you very much.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And you're listening to MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Most scientists say that one of the key distinctions between humans and other animals is our ability to use language. Today, we have a story that blurs the boundary between human language and animal noises, and it comes to us from our friends at Radiolab.
(SOUNDBITE FROM RADIOLAB)
JAD ABUMRAD: Hey, Renee.
MONTAGNE: That's Jad Abumrad, from WNYC.
ROBERT KRULWICH: And this is me, Robert Krulwich. Radiolab is a show where we get curious, and we explore ideas.
ABUMRAD: Yeah, and sometimes we talk to animals.
MONTAGNE: OK.
ABUMRAD: Well, not really. But we do have a story about a kind of animal talk.
KRULWICH: We ran across it not in dolphins and not in chimps, but in the prairie dog
ABUMRAD: Woo.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ABUMRAD: Prairie dogs.
KRULWICH: So here's the thing: Prairie dogs are these little, rodent-like animals. They live under the ground, in burrows. And when their community is invaded, they - you know - pop out of the burrow...
(SOUNDBITE OF POPPING SOUNDING EFFECT)
KRULWICH: ...and they go, uh-oh. Here comes the - whatever.
P: Sounds kind of like chee-chee-chee-chee.
(SOUNDBITE OF A PRAIRIE DOG CHIRPING)
ABUMRAD: So we spoke with this guy...
P: My name is Con Slobodchikoff, professor emeritus at Northern Arizona University.
ABUMRAD: ...who's spent a whole lot of time...
P: Sitting out in the colonies.
ABUMRAD: ...recording prairie dog calls. And he now believes that these simple, little rodents are like nature's wordsmiths.
P: Well, the thing is that, initially, I recorded...
ABUMRAD: For instance, he began by telling us that the prairie dogs have different kinds of chee's.
KRULWICH: Different warning cries.
P: For different kinds of predators.
ABUMRAD: For example...
P: Humans, coyotes...
KRULWICH: And...
ABUMRAD: Dogs.
P: Right.
ABUMRAD: Is this the kind of thing that we would actually be able to hear the difference between the calls?
P: I'm guessing that you could hear the difference.
KRULWICH: You want to try it, Jad?
ABUMRAD: Soren, could you just play those samples?
SOREN: All right, so here's one.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRAIRIE DOGS CHIRPING)
SOREN: This is another one.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRAIRIE DOGS CHIRPING)
KRULWICH: All right.
ABUMRAD: OK.
SOREN: Here you go. This is a third.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRAIRIE DOGS CHIRPING)
ABUMRAD: Those represent different predators?
P: Yup.
KRULWICH: I - I don't - I can't tell the difference.
ABUMRAD: Can you? I mean, do you know what they are?
P: Human, dog, coyote.
KRULWICH: Oh.
ABUMRAD: Wow.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: So guys, wait. How does he - I mean, what difference is he hearing?
KRULWICH: Well, he told us at first that, like us, he couldn't tell the difference. But then he took the sounds back to his lab.
P: Where we had a machine that allowed us to measure a series of frequency and time elements in the call.
KRULWICH: And what this computer does is, it takes the sound that the prairie dogs make, and it essentially looks inside for the ingredients inside the sound.
MONTAGNE: And what does that mean?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
ABUMRAD: Well, it's kind of hard to hear with the chirp. But let me demonstrate with a different sound...
(SOUNDBITE OF A SOUND WAVE HUM)
ABUMRAD: ...which to us sounds like a solid piece of noise.
MONTAGNE: OK, yeah.
ABUMRAD: If you take away all of the high frequencies...
(SOUNDBITE OF A SOUND WAVE HUM)
MONTAGNE: It just - it becomes like a low, bass buzz.
ABUMRAD: Yeah, exactly. But now, if you add those high frequencies back in really slowly...
(SOUNDBITE OF A SOUND WAVE HUM)
MONTAGNE: Yeah, OK.
ABUMRAD: You'll start to hear these hidden overtones just pop out.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SOUND WAVE HUM)
MONTAGNE: Uh-huh. So these sounds are kind of hidden in that original sound?
ABUMRAD: Exactly. So in other words, this sound...
(SOUNDBITE OF A SOUND WAVE HUM)
ABUMRAD: ...is filled with little ghost notes that we can't hear. And certainly, the same is true of this sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRAIRIE DOGS CHIRPING)
ABUMRAD: Except in the case of the prairie dogs, it seems their ears are tuned to hear all the different sounds within the chirp. It probably sounds to them like this whole layer cake of tones.
KRULWICH: And Con's computer noticed that the noise they made when a human walked through their village was different in tone from the noise they made when a coyote walked through their village. It was consistently different.
P: But there was a problem.
KRULWICH: When he zoomed in on the oh-oh-here-come-the-human calls...
(SOUNDBITE OF PRAIRIE DOGS CHIRPING)
KRULWICH: ...these ones here.
ABUMRAD: He saw that from one human call to the next, there was a lot of subtle variation.
P: Much, much more than I would expect.
KRULWICH: And that's when it hit him.
ABUMRAD: What if...
KRULWICH: What if...
ABUMRAD: What if...
P: What if they could be describing the individual humans?
KRULWICH: Oh.
P: Now, at that time, no one suspected that this might even be a possibility. But I thought well, let's try it and see what happens.
ABUMRAD: So Con recruited four humans.
KRULWICH: And he had them dress exactly the same: same boots, same blue jeans, same sunglasses - everything the same, except the color of their shirts.
P: We had a person in a blue T-shirt; a person in a green T- shirt; person in a yellow shirt; person in a gray shirt.
ABUMRAD: Then he asked each of them to walk through the prairie dog village.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
KRULWICH: One by one.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRAIRIE DOGS CHIRPING)
ABUMRAD: Prairie dogs made their chirps.
P: And when we analyzed the results, there were significant differences.
ABUMRAD: Like, what kind?
P: They essentially clustered around the colors.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KRULWICH: Does that mean you think you can hear them saying: Here comes the human in blue...
P: Right.
KRULWICH: ...versus here comes the human in yellow?
P: Right.
MONTAGNE: Wow.
ABUMRAD: Really?
P: Oh, I was astounded.
MONTAGNE: That's pretty cool.
P: I was astounded.
KRULWICH: Then he was like well, wait a second. These humans, they're not just different in their shirt colors. They're different in all kinds of ways.
P: Some of the humans were taller. Some of the humans were shorter.
ABUMRAD: So he went back, re-analyzed the chirps, looked a little more closely.
P: And...
ABUMRAD: He realized...
P: We could tease out...
ABUMRAD: The prairie dogs were also commenting about...
P: The general size of the human. Essentially, they were saying, here comes the tall human in the blue; versus here comes the short human in the yellow.
KRULWICH: And then, almost to kind of top himself, he says, OK - if they can do colors and they can do shapes of animals, how about something totally abstract...
P: And it was just...
KRULWICH: ...not from nature?
P: ...off-the-wall idea at that time.
KRULWICH: He went back into the prairie dog field, and he built two large, wooden boxes.
P: Sitting on stilts.
ABUMRAD: A good distance from each other.
P: A hundred and fifty feet. And we strung wires between the two towers.
KRULWICH: His team then made cardboard cutouts of three different shapes.
P: A circle, a square and a triangle.
KRULWICH: And then they ran them out along the wire - kind of like laundry, fluttering above you in the breeze.
P: Each shape would emerge from one of the tower blinds...
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
P: ...and fly something like about three feet over the prairie dog town. And what we found was that the prairie dogs could tell the triangle from the circle very easily. But they could not seem to tell the difference between a square and a circle.
ABUMRAD: Huh. Why not?
P: Well, my guess is that triangles kind of look like hawks.
ABUMRAD: Mm.
P: Circles and squares kind of look like terrestrial predators.
ABUMRAD: Nonetheless, what you've got here is a little rodent with a remarkably big vocabulary, including - but probably not limited to - short, fat, skinny, tall, blue, green, yellow, gray, coyote, human hawk, triangle and/or square.
KRULWICH: Yay.
ABUMRAD: Not bad.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: You guys, that is so cool.
KRULWICH: It is.
MONTAGNE: I mean, prairie dogs.
KRULWICH: Yeah. And Con says this is the most sophisticated form of animal communication ever recorded.
ABUMRAD: And we should say, he also thinks maybe other animals can do this kind of thing. It's just really hard to capture - record - and figure out what's going on.
MONTAGNE: Well, thank you both for sharing that one with us this morning.
ABUMRAD: Our pleasure. Thanks, Renee.
KRULWICH: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOURET'S "FIRST SUITE IN D")
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
This music heralded the first episode of "Masterpiece Theatre" 40 years ago this month. What came next was the stately, well-dressed host, sitting in an armchair next to some dusty books.
(SOUNDBITE OF FIRST "MASTERPIECE THEATRE" EPISODE)
MONTAGNE: Good evening. I'm Alistair Cooke. We open, tonight, a new television theater which in the next year, will show you plays adapted from...
MONTAGNE: Notice he said next year. Alistair Cooke was a respected journalist at the time, and he refused offers to host the new series. When he finally agreed, he signed a one-year contract. Here's "Masterpiece's" executive producer, Rebecca Eaton.
MONTAGNE: After he saw the first show, he was so dubious about the possibility that the whole thing could be a success, that he thought it would just fade away after one season.
MONTAGNE: Fade away, it did not. And Alistair Cooke hosted for 21 years. The show originally came to America through the PBS station WGBH in Boston. It was a way for the station to fill up the roster of a very new, public television network. Robert Thompson is a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University. He says "Masterpiece Theatre" appealed to audiences looking for a change from the commercial fare of the '60s.
P: In 1971, we'd gone through a decade of talking horses and genies, and witches that were housewives...
MONTAGNE: In contrast, the programs broadcast on "Masterpiece Theatre" were adaptations of great literature, and original dramas. They had top-notch production quality, with the BBC's funding power behind it. And they featured British acting giants previously unseen by American audiences - the likes of Judi Dench, Helen Mirren and later, Colin Firth in "Pride and Prejudice."
(SOUNDBITE OF "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE")
MONTAGNE: (As Mr. Darcy) I believe every disposition has a tendency to some particular evil.
MONTAGNE: (As Elizabeth Bennet) Your defect is a propensity to hate everyone.
MONTAGNE: (As Mr. DARCY) Well, yours is willfully to misunderstand them.
MONTAGNE: Colin Firth, for one, is still reaping the benefits of that early exposure as Mr. Darcy. Over the decades, executive producer Rebecca Eaton says "Masterpiece" has garnered fans ranging from Whoopi Goldberg to Michael Bloomberg, to the Tea Party's Christine O'Donnell. It has gone through changes from the theme...
(SOUNDBITE OF REVISED "MASTERPIECE THEATER" THEME MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: To the name - from "Masterpiece Theatre" to just plain "Masterpiece."
MONTAGNE: We were scaring people off, with the theater. Particularly theater spelled the British way, which is T-H-E-A-T-R-E.
MONTAGNE: Still, "Masterpiece" is, today, the home of costume drama. And like any icon, it will always have imitators - like, say, another famous PBS name.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW "SESAME STREET")
U: (As Cookie Monster) Good evening. Alistair Cookie here, welcome to "Monsterpiece Theatre."
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
When a couple gets divorced, the sale of their home can play a huge role in the settlement. The house is often their biggest asset. And usually, it has to be sold so they can split the proceeds and finalize the divorce. Sara Lerner, of member station KUOW in Seattle, reports couples in this predicament provide a specialized real estate market.
SARA LERNER: With three kids under the age of 5, Hourieh Mansoori's husband walked out.
MONTAGNE: I was confused as to what was happening to me after 10 years of marriage. You know, you think it's for better or for worse, and he's not there to help me. And I was in - basically, in a confusion state of mind.
LERNER: Still, she had to put her house on the market, a market in which her neighbors' homes were not selling. And the house had to sparkle while she packed it up to move from Washington state to Texas.
MONTAGNE: At the time when you are going through the most difficult time of your life - they call divorce worse than death - to have someone that's there for you and assists you, and makes you feel like they're here to help you in every step of the way with selling your house, it's really - it's godsent.
MONTAGNE: Really, it's a simple, singular goal - and that's to as efficiently as possible get to the end of the road, which is the sale of their home.
LERNER: Scott Weeda was Mansoori's Realtor. He says he's learned how to handle these sensitive situations with parting couples.
MONTAGNE: I never try to force them to communicate together, which means a lot of separate and duplicate communication so that neither ever has the impression that I'm trying to force the agenda of one on the other.
LERNER: Weeda glides through the John Scott Real Estate headquarters outside Seattle. He has an office at the agency, which is in itself a sign of success. Many of his colleagues share a general workroom.
MONTAGNE: Hey, Steve.
U: Hi, how are you?
MONTAGNE: I'm well, thanks.
LERNER: Most Realtors avoid divorce sales because of all the extra problems that can come up, and the high emotion. Sometimes, Weeda's clients tell him all the details of a contentious situation.
MONTAGNE: My role at that point, when someone needs to get something off their chest, is simply to let that happen because if people aren't able to express themselves, then it causes frustration. And the last thing that I need is for a husband or for a wife to be frustrated with me because they are perceiving that I'm not - that I don't get it.
LERNER: Some divorce lawyers even refer their clients to real estate agents who specialize in divorce. Joanna Roth practices family law in Seattle.
MONTAGNE: My job is to help people reach agreements in divorce. So as much as I can, I try to get clients to work with their spouse. And if they're working with a Realtor who has some understanding of what people are going through in divorce, then I think they have a better chance at reaching agreement on the sales price and on the sales terms.
LERNER: Roth says the Realtor's relationship with a client can go further than the attorney's.
MONTAGNE: It's more intimate, in a way, working with people in their houses and helping them go through their things, and helping them box them up.
LERNER: She says her clients deal with serious emotional upheaval, not only with a divorce, but even just with selling the family home.
MONTAGNE: My clients typically are hungry for some compassion.
MONTAGNE: I can honestly look at almost every one of my clients and say, I understand what you are feeling right now.
LERNER: Weeda himself divorced two years ago - right when the housing market tanked. He has five kids; it wasn't easy. After the split, he realized he liked helping people who are going through the same thing.
MONTAGNE: I felt alone when I was going through it personally. And I know that usually, if they let me participate how I work best in participating, they won't feel alone in the process. And that's important to me.
LERNER: For NPR News, I'm Sara Lerner in Seattle.
H: Grace Hood, of member station KUNC, reports.
GRACE HOOD: So far, consumers don't mind paying extra for the meat. It's averaging $7 per pound - up $2 from a year ago.
U: Bison burgers, table 31.
HOOD: Accountants Cory Vann and Reid Schellhous are having bison burgers for lunch at Ted's Montana Grill in Denver.
HOOD: So how does it taste?
: It's a little bit sweeter and a slightly different texture, I'd say - a little bit smoother.
HOOD: For these number crunchers, $12 per burger isn't a deterrent.
: I mean, if it was twice as much as beef, I think I would probably stick with beef. But only a couple dollars' difference - and so it's not that big of a deal.
HOOD: A recent supply shortage forced the restaurant to raise its prices on bison. But General Manager Scott Procop says so far, customer demand is holding steady.
: We started prepping more of the beef, but it stayed in line still with the prices. You know, they're willing to pay the extra price for the product.
HOOD: Bison is a niche market - 92,000 head were processed in North America last year. That's less than one day's beef production in the United States. As prices continue to rise, many in the industry expect customers to push back. That's led the bison trade association to launch a massive recruiting effort to bring more ranchers into the business.
: Watch out for the barbed wire.
HOOD: People like Chandler Morton. He's stringing electrical fence wire, preparing grazing land for his 15 recently purchased bison.
: OK, let me stop here and take a break.
HOOD: Morton's in his mid-30s, and has a master's degree in accounting. His disdain for sitting behind a desk led him to start an animal hide tanning store, which he's now using to fund an up-start bison business.
: I think there's several years to go before we can even come close to matching the demand. So that's what exciting about it. Because there's not too many industries you can look at in 2011 and say that's what's happening.
HOOD: But it will take time for Morton to grow his herd. A female bison can't have her first calf until she's 3. That's compared to age 2 for beef cows. It may sound like a shortcoming, but this can actually be an asset according to Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association.
: The good thing is with the higher prices, that is all going right back to the ranchers right now. And that's a great signal for ranchers to build their herds.
HOOD: While ranchers may be benefiting, processors like Rocky Mountain Natural Meats are not. President Bob Dineen started this business out of his Nissan station wagon decades ago. Today, his factory supplies meat to Whole Foods and Ted's Montana Grill.
: We've increased sales in the 10 to 20 percent range pretty much every year - this year being on the lower end of that because of supply issues.
HOOD: Last year, the industry saw some growing pains. Rocky Mountain Natural Meats initiated its largest recall ever due to possible contamination of E. coli bacteria. Dineen says the plant tests daily for it, and maintains that growing the business means preserving the quality customers expect.
(SOUNDBITE OF DINERS)
HOOD: Back at Ted's Montana Grill, diner Cory Vann says he probably couldn't taste the difference between beef and bison if he were blindfolded. And right now, that's part of the appeal for consumers like Vann, who also cooks the lower- fat meat at home.
: Yeah, we've made like a Bolognese with bison instead of ground beef before. You know, we'll make burgers at home, but even taco meat you can make with bison instead.
HOOD: For NPR News, I'm Grace Hood.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Now, no matter where the trial is held, the judge will be Larry Burns of San Diego. Amita Sharma, of member station KPBS, has a profile.
AMITA SHARMA: Former U.S. Attorney Peter Nunez hired Burns as a federal prosecutor and has watched his career closely.
SHARMA: He's distinguished himself on the bench as a no-nonsense judge, controls his courtroom. I think he is an excellent choice to preside over a case of this magnitude.
SHARMA: President Bush appointed Burns as a federal judge in 2003. Today, Burns is one of the few who have handled federal death penalty cases. Judge Thomas Whelan is one of Burns' colleagues. He says that death penalty experience is likely to come in handy in the case against Jared Loughner.
SHARMA: A case like this doesn't have as many pitfalls for a judge, in my opinion, as what I would call a whodunit case. I think pretty much here, everybody knows what happened and who did it. It's more or less what is it - what's the level of punishment that should be meted out here?
SHARMA: But Judge Whelan says the case does have other complications because it includes the murders of a 9-year-old girl, a federal judge, and the attempted assassination of a U.S. representative.
SHARMA: And anytime you're dealing with a case like this, there's a lot of emotions. You'll have a lot of people that will be interested in every ruling he makes, and a lot of people that will be second-guessing, probably, every ruling that he makes.
SHARMA: Still, Whelan says no one should second-guess whether Burns can be impartial in a case involving the murder of a fellow federal judge.
SHARMA: He's the kind of judge that, in my opinion, is going to call the balls and strikes as he sees them, without any regard to who the victim was or who's making the objection.
SHARMA: Mr. KNUT JOHNSON (Attorney) He expects the lawyers in front of him to be able to handle the deadlines that he sets. He doesn't believe in any undue delay. And he has very firm ideas of when cases can and should be tried.
SHARMA: Judge Burns has worked with Loughner's defense attorney in the past. Judy Clarke ran the federal defender's office in San Diego when Burns was a top prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's office, and they fought cases against each other. Johnson says there's a lot of respect between the two.
SHARMA: Judge Burns recognizes that when Judy does something, it's for a legitimate reason - it's to make her client's situation better - and that she plays by the rules.
SHARMA: For NPR News, I'm Amita Sharma in San Diego.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Over the next few minutes, we're going to hear about the latest legal developments coming out of the shootings in Tucson. Jared Loughner has now been indicted by a federal grand jury for the attempted assassination of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and attempted murder of two of her aides. Arizona prosecutors may yet add state charges of their own but the initial focus will be on the federal case. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports that for Jared Loughner, an insanity defense would be a tough sell at the federal level - and even tougher in a state court.
CARRIE JOHNSON: Things got a lot more difficult for defendants who wanted to plead insanity after John Hinckley shot President Ronald Reagan 30 years ago this March. The outcry was so great that Congress changed federal law.
MONTAGNE: The defense now has to prove by clear and convincing evidence, which is an extremely high burden, that the defendant did not understand the wrongfulness of his conduct.
JOHNSON: That's Barry Boss. He's defended clients who say they're too sick to be held responsible for their actions.
MONTAGNE: And that's a very difficult thing to establish because even in the most delusional people, there is often some evidence that they did things to avoid getting caught.
JOHNSON: And that they took lots of steps to carry out their mission.
F: That kind of detail could help prosecutors convince a jury that Loughner wasn't legally insane.
L: They don't like excuses.
MONTAGNE: People out in the community really reject mental health defenses. They don't like them; they don't buy them.
JOHNSON: Legal experts say it's even harder to win an insanity defense in Arizona than in the federal system because the U.S. Supreme Court limited the kind of evidence that defendants could present in an Arizona case back in 2006.
MONTAGNE: The process involves a review by a special committee, and Attorney General Eric Holder would make the ultimate decision. Again, here's legal expert Barry Boss.
MONTAGNE: The bottom line is, even if you can't get to the point where you can succeed upon an insanity defense, you will create mitigating evidence that can be used to argue against the death penalty. A realistic goal in a case like this, from a defense perspective, is to save Loughner's life.
JOHNSON: That's the way it was with the Oklahoma City bombing. Aitan Goelman worked on that federal case back in 1995.
MONTAGNE: The D.A. in Oklahoma City said from the beginning that, you know, he planned to - whatever happened in the federal case, to prosecute the perpetrators in Oklahoma state court because out of the 168 people murdered in that crime, there was only federal jurisdiction over the eight federal agents.
JOHNSON: Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Iran and six world powers gather in Istanbul tomorrow for a new round of nuclear talks. Iran continues to insist it is not seeking nuclear weapons and that its nuclear rights, including the right to enrich uranium, are not up for discussion. NPR's Istanbul correspondent Peter Kenyon recently visited Vienna, home of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He has this report on what Iran has done - and not done - to worry nuclear experts.
PETER KENYON: Here are a few examples. For several years, the IAEA has known that Iran was working with laser-based uranium enrichment. Former IAEA Director General, Pierre Goldschmidt, says Iran's interest in this cutting-edge technology raised a number of questions.
PIERRE GOLDSCHMIDT: Laser uranium enrichment technology is one of the most difficult and sophisticated enrichment technology. So far it had no industrial or commercial application.
KENYON: Goldschmidt says the site at Lashkar Abad where this technology was apparently used was shut down by the Iranians. But that didn't answer one key question: what was Iran enriching the uranium for?
GOLDSCHMIDT: The agency determined - and this is all public information - that they had this enrichment facility, and that some part of the design of the equipments were relevant for the production of high-enriched uranium.
KENYON: Highly enriched uranium is not necessary for nuclear energy production, but is highly desirable for nuclear weapons. Iran says enrichment is its right, no matter what technique it may choose. But this gets to a key problem for the IAEA - it only sees what Iran lets it see. Some of the most dramatic discoveries have come from international intelligence or Iranian opposition groups. The revelation of a previously secret enrichment plant near the city of Qom in 2009 is a case in point. Another example: A few years ago, the agency learned of a 15-page document Iran had received that discussed converting uranium gas into uranium metal hemispheres. A process that experts say could be part of designing a nuclear weapon. Former IAEA inspector, Ollie Heinonen, now at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, says at that point, the questions became more serious.
OLLIE HEINONEN: Why would you have such kind of document? Well, Iran said that they got it without asking. But the fact is that the document is there, it came from Pakistan, that's clear. And the both of them acknowledge that this is to do with the nuclear weapon design.
KENYON: The agency has also confronted Iran with information suggesting that Iran had been involved in high-explosive testing and other activity relevant to nuclear weapon research and design. Iran said some of the testing was for conventional weapons only, and dismissed other allegations as a disinformation campaign by its enemies. Heinonen says the only way to put these suspicions to rest is to have a thorough and open discussion between Iran's nuclear experts and the I.A.E.A. But he says for the negotiators coming to Istanbul, getting to that point is probably too much to ask out of this two day session.
HEINONEN: Well, I think that still people are now testing waters. But they are talking and I hope that now after this round people start to get closer and look at what needs to be done. It has to be a cooperative effort. It has to be also, you know, attractive to the Iranian side, so I hope that someone has the magic formula.
KENYON: Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Istanbul.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
On a Thursday morning, it's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Officials opened an investigation yesterday into the ex-president, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, and arrested dozens of his family members for having allegedly plundered millions of dollars.
INSKEEP: Government ministers who'd been part of Ben Ali's ruling party have reportedly quit the party in an effort to distance themselves from the former ruler. The new interim president promised a total break from the past.
MONTAGNE: As Eleanor Beardsley reports, life in the streets has calmed down, but the Tunisian people are no longer afraid to speak out.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Everywhere around Tunis, it seems that people can't stop talking. Cafes are packed with chattering coffee drinkers, while clusters of people engaged in animated discussions block the sidewalks. And unlike the old days, no subject is taboo.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)
BEARDSLEY: In front of Tunisia's high court, scores of lawyers laugh and converse in the warm January sun. The judicial system was heavily controlled under President Ben Ali, and lawyers here say they feel like they've been released from a sort of prison. Hassan Larbi describes the best part of the revolution.
HASSAN LARBI: Freedom, people can talk freely. They can say whatever they want. We can criticize the government, and that's why we're happy.
BEARDSLEY: Unidentified Group: (Chanting in foreign language)
BEARDSLEY: Unidentified Woman: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: Across town in this working class neighborhood, 28-year-old Bessim Zitouni says he supports the government. He says Ben Ali's henchmen have all fled, and not everyone in the ex-president's party is bad.
BESSIM ZITOUNI: (Through translator) We're in a critical period now, but we're going to come through it. Tunisians have great solidarity. And that will see us through. I know we're going to have a great future.
BEARDSLEY: Omeyya Seddik is a member of the main opposition party in the government. He says they are trying to convince the politicians who resigned from the interim Cabinet to come back. This government must work, he says.
OMEYYA SEDDIK: Unidentified Group: (Chanting in foreign language)
BEARDSLEY: Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Tunis.
A: gleaning. Old Testament scriptures kept farmers from picking their fields and vineyards clean, with instructions to leave the edges for orphans, widows and travelers. As Blake Farmer of member station WPLN reports, modern-day gleaning is more about preventing waste.
BLAKE FARMER: Food gets left in the field for all kinds of reasons. Mechanical harvesting misses a lot. Sometimes, the crops aren't pretty enough for supermarket shelves.
FARMER: The statistics are that 96 billion pounds of food - this is pre-consumer food - goes to waste in this country.
FARMER: And the U.S. Department of Agriculture's totals are going up, not down. Linda Tozer works for the Society of St. Andrew, which recently added an office in Tennessee. The organization coordinates farmers around the Southeast and out West.
FARMER: What we are trying to do is build a network that will take food that would not make it to market for a variety of reasons, and get it to agencies that are feeding the hungry.
NATHANIEL SMART: Where should I put this?
FARMER: I think you're going to put it right over here.
SMART: I already weighed it.
U: That's great.
SMART: Want to see?
U: You could - OK.
SMART: See?
FARMER: At Jackson Farms in Pikeville, Tennessee, Nathaniel Smart heaves a mesh bag of red and green bell peppers from a scale, and drops it on a growing pile. This 5-year-old and his dad are key to what makes gleaning work: free labor.
SMART: Let me find a big, ripe one. And to pick it, I just pull it.
FARMER: There's nothing wrong with these peppers, but they're not worth the farmer's time. Johnny Jackson has more than he knows what to do with in a chocked-full storehouse.
FARMER: You got supply and demand - is the first rule of the deal. And if you've got more supply then you have got demand for it, it's going to go to waste.
FARMER: But Jackson says it's hard to plan for gleaning. He has just a few days between when he's decided he's sold all he can, and when the produce goes bad. On short notice, the Society of St. Andrew gathered a preacher, a Girl Scout troop and a few neighbors, like Mary Beth Sanders.
FARMER: I just got an email, some farmer friends passing around word of this activity.
FARMER: Sanders' frayed, straw hat gives her away as a part-time farmer. Even she is surprised by how much goes to waste.
FARMER: I mean, you pass farms up here all the time that - just peppers rotting on the ground or on the vine. And it's not cool.
SMART: That one's actually my daddy's.
FARMER: Linda Tozer says her gleaners could spend all weekend here picking several thousand pounds more, but she has her own logistics problem. No one else is lined up to take the vegetables.
FARMER: Isn't that horrible? But we have done this much, and that's more than if we hadn't shown up. So that's the way we've got to look at it.
FARMER: For NPR News, I'm Blake Farmer in Nashville.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It turns out that valuable samples of other dangerous microbes get destroyed all the time. Here's NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce.
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE: But then the government decided this disease had potential as a bioweapon. So it was added to a special list of pathogens that could potentially be used by terrorists against crops or people. Once it became a so-called select agent, all research had to be carefully restricted. So that meant the end to business as usual for Anne Vidaver's slime disease work.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Essentially, I had to either receive special permission to work with it, or destroy it.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Getting this special permission wouldn't be easy. It would mean things like putting in new lab security, and doing background checks of personnel.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: It would have required an enormous amount of funding and time. That did not work out.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: That kind of loss worries Michael Imperiale.
INSKEEP: Some of these microbes might be valuable down the line.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: To get a sense of how many collections might have been lost, Imperiale recently sent a survey to microbiologists across the country.
INSKEEP: Although we know that the 12 or 13 or 14 institutions from whom we heard destroyed what they had, we don't know how many others there were out there. So we don't have a good - we can't say well, X-percent of the strains were destroyed, or something like that.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: But another researcher, who worked on the recent survey, reports that microbe destruction is still happening. Arturo Casadevall is a scientist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: They're going to say to you that yes, there are mechanisms in place for the transfer of these things. But what is not recognized is that these mechanisms are complex. They require a lot of energy, and they require the person to put a lot of energy into doing so.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says most doctors and researchers just don't have the time.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Let's say that at any hospital, you recover from a patient one of these agents. You have only a few days by which to either send it to a collection, or to destroy it.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: The Chinese pandas at Washington's National Zoo will remain for at least five more years.
INSKEEP: That, of course, was one of the easier deals to make. It involved millions of dollars instead of billions or trillions, and the pompatus visit has not completely obscured the difficult relationship between the two countries. We got a glimpse of that yesterday as the two presidents held a press conference and in the moment, NPR's Rob Gifford will analyze President Hu's remarks.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Cheryl Corley looks at how Chicago hopes to capitalize.
CHERYL CORLEY, Host:
President Hu's first official stop in Chicago will be a business meeting, and then a welcome dinner hosted by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. No word on whether he's visiting Chicago's Chinatown. But Michael Moy(ph), eating lunch at Chi Cafe in Chinatown Square, says just about everyone knows President Hu will be here.
MONTAGNE: I think it's great. Oh, I hope they can bring us more business over here.
CORLEY: It doesn't hurt that Chicago is President Obama's hometown. But Chicago Mayor Richard Daley has put significant time and effort into cultivating a relationship with Chinese leaders. When he announced last week that President Hu would visit the city he said:
MONTAGNE: It is big deal - big, big, big, big.
CORLEY: And he explains why it's so significant.
MONTAGNE: We believe we can establish Chicago as a Chinese economic gateway to America.
CORLEY: Even so, Northwestern University political scientist Stephen Nelson warns not to be too hopeful.
D: At this point, China is a powerhouse for lower-skilled, manufactured products - things like textiles and - sort of basic machine parts. And the Midwest and the Northeast, we haven't been doing that for a long time.
CORLEY: So China, he says, has an advantage producing those goods. The visit by President Hu and other dignitaries, says Nelson, may be a signal that China will be more receptive to accepting the high-tech manufactured goods where the U.S. has an advantage.
U: (Foreign language spoken)
U: (Foreign language spoken)
U: (Foreign language spoken)
U: (Foreign language spoken)
CORLEY: Tomorrow, President Hu will visit the Confucius Institute, a program which along with the Chicago Public Schools, teaches 12,000 kids across the city Mandarin Chinese. The Institute is located at Walter Payton High School. That's where several students were playing a Chinese version of "Simon Says" before taking a test. Fifteen-year-old Jockson(ph) Beard, already proficient in French and Spanish, has been studying Chinese for five years.
MONTAGNE: Well, I figure China's rising very quickly, possibly above the U.S., and it's important to know the language if you want to build a business relationship.
CORLEY: Benita Boettner, with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, says U.S. and Chinese government and business leaders will hold a forum without President Hu tomorrow, and as many as 60 Chinese and American companies will sign a variety of agreements.
MONTAGNE: No one's tried to quantify yet - obviously - the impact of this visit other than to say that of course, it's hugely important to the region.
CORLEY: Ted Fishman, the author of "China Inc.," says the Chinese visit is a payoff that comes from Mayor Daley's close connections. Whether it remains a payoff, he says, is an open question.
MONTAGNE: The first kind of investment that foreign firms make in the United States are investments to acquire intellectual property from industry. So if the kinds of businesses China is interested in are the kinds it can export back to China and keep the production in China, then these kinds of relationships will be a mixed blessing.
CORLEY: Cheryl Corley, NPR News. Chicago.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's China correspondent Rob Gifford was listening. He's going to help us interpret what was said. Hi, Rob.
ROB GIFFORD: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: Let's listen to a little bit of this press conference. The two presidents were trying to accentuate the positive.
INSKEEP: The positive, constructive, cooperative U.S.-China relationship is good for the United States. We just had a very good meeting with the business leaders from both our countries.
INSKEEP: That's President Obama at the news conference. China's President Hu also spoke in those positive terms, but then added something else.
INSKEEP: (Through Translator) We discussed some disagreements in economic and trade area, and we will continue to appropriately resolve these according to the principle of mutual respect and consultation on an equal footing.
INSKEEP: That's China's president, speaking through an interpreter there. Rob, what do you hear when you listen to those statements?
GIFFORD: There weren't really any breakthroughs yesterday - we weren't really expecting any - but the fact that they're talking to each other, agreeing to disagree on other issues as well as meeting in a very formal but relatively friendly context, I think that's the issue in itself - that the relationship is solid and going forward.
INSKEEP: When Hu Jintao talks about mutual respect and consultation on an equal footing, what I'm tempted to hear there is hey, United States, don't think you're the world leader.
GIFFORD: I think that's very much the case. Probably President Hu was actually having to rein in that confidence a little bit. Some have called it hubris. I think a lot of people saying China has a got a little bit too overconfident about how well it has done through the economic crisis.
INSKEEP: Now, President Obama did speak bluntly about a Chinese policy having to do with their currency. He wants the currency to be revaluated, and he called this part of the problem - to which Hu Jintao said nothing. What do you take from the silence there?
GIFFORD: I think part of that is just the usual Chinese attitude of not wanting to be lectured to in public. But I think it's also that China feels that it is already addressing this issue. They have said over the last few months that they're committed to reforming their exchange rate policies. And many of the experts I speak to here in Asia believe that they are.
INSKEEP: Of course, that currency issue affects the value of Chinese products sold in the U.S. as well as American products sold in China. I want to ask about one other thing, Rob Gifford, because President Obama mentioned human rights; a couple of reporters at this press conference mentioned the human rights situation in China. And here, through an interpreter, is what Hu Jintao had to say in response.
INSKEEP: (Through Translator) China is a developing country with a huge population, and also a developing country in a crucial stage of reform. In this context, China still faces many challenges in economic and social development. And a lot still needs to be done in China in terms of human rights.
INSKEEP: Such an interesting statement because it begins sounding like he is excusing a poor human rights record, but ends by saying a lot still needs to be done. Does that mean that he wants to do it?
GIFFORD: I think he was speaking much more broadly about things like economic and social rights, which is always the way the Chinese pitch this issue.
INSKEEP: NPR's Rob Gifford, interpreting the words as well as the silences in the joint press conference of the presidents of the U.S. and China. Rob, thanks very much.
GIFFORD: Thank you, Steve.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro visited a tiny village on the edge of Jerusalem.
LOURDES GARCIA: In Walaja's recent history, the village has been moved, its people scattered, its land eroded and now, they're facing isolation. Palestinians here say it's a microcosm of the conflict. And it shows no signs of abating.
MONTAGNE: My name is Ahmed Darash. My village is al-Walaja.
GARCIA: We are sitting near the village spring on a blustery winter day with one of the village elders.
MONTAGNE: (Foreign language spoken)
GARCIA: Slowly, they began to rebuild the village on land located in what was then territory controlled by Jordan. Then, after the 1967 war, Israel took over the area. Land was slowly expropriated, Darash says. Houses were demolished. And then the settlements started to rise.
MONTAGNE: (Foreign language spoken)
GARCIA: And then, recently, came the news that more land was going to be confiscated to finish building a wall that will completely fence the village in.
MONTAGNE: (Through translator) This wall will eat up more than 2,000 dunams of Walaja land.
GARCIA: Land that has two important landmarks that are essential to village life. We walk down into the farmlands that nestle in a steep valley. Nadia Awadalah lives in al-Walaja.
MONTAGNE: (Through translator) All this area in front of you here is going to be confiscated by the Israelis. It includes graveyards - a graveyard here to your right and a graveyard here to your left. There's also a spring of water from which the whole village gets its water. They want to include it in the area which they want to confiscate.
GARCIA: Underneath a row of trees are several mounds built into the hillside. Among those buried here was a young man who was killed during the first Palestinian uprising in the late 1980s. His father just died this past month but, says Nadia, they buried him in another part of the village.
MONTAGNE: (Through translator) One reason why we did not bury his father here is because of the risk that we take in burying a new one here. Imagine burying him, and then the Israelis coming and opening the grave and desecrating his grave. So we did not take a chance.
GARCIA: The villagers have petitioned the court to stop construction of the wall near the graves and spring. And while the case is being reviewed, building in this area has halted. But nearby, work is continuing on a new access road for settlers. It, too, is on land that was once part of Walaja. And above them in Har Gilo, new homes are being built. Meanwhile, the villagers say any new home they try to build is under threat of demolition by Israel.
MONTAGNE: (Foreign language spoken)
GARCIA: Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Welcome to the program.
GERALD FEIERSTEIN: Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.
MONTAGNE: Let's begin with some basics. What is driving al-Qaida and has allowed it to get a foothold in Yemen?
FEIERSTEIN: Well, I think that there are a number of factors that are operating here. One, of course, is that many of the senior operatives and the roots of the organization itself really rest in the Arabian Peninsula. Many of the senior people are either Saudi or Yemeni. There is a significant population of Yemenis who are associated with al-Qaida in Afghanistan who are now in Guantanamo. There is a population that is tribal oriented that has that has many of the characteristics of the tribes in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And as the pressure on al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan increased, many of those individuals moved and it was natural for them to go to Yemen.
MONTAGNE: Well, one thing we know from Pakistan is that the use of drones by the U.S. has alienated the population. And we know from WikiLeaks that in Yemen diplomatic cables suggest that the president thought it was a good idea to claim droned strikes as his own - not to let the population know that these were in fact done by the U.S. What going forward is the feeling about those strikes?
FEIERSTEIN: You know, we provide them with different kinds of assistance, with training and equipping, their forces, but at the end of the day, I think that we want to limit our engagement to that kind of a role and not take a much more active profile in Yemen.
MONTAGNE: Critics believe though, the current president Saleh, has an interest in maintaining a level of threat so that he can prosper off American aid and intervention. I mean, it allows him to justify his rule and also keep opponents at bay.
FEIERSTEIN: Right. There is this theory that...
MONTAGNE: And it's held by his own people.
FEIERSTEIN: And many of his own people hold that theory.
MONTAGNE: I mean they would go so far as to say some, you know, al-Qaida doesn't even exist.
FEIERSTEIN: Right. People do question the seriousness of the threat to Yemen from violent extremist organizations. But I would say that from our own information, which is not necessarily derived entirely from the government of Yemen, we're pretty confident that al-Qaida and the Arabian Peninsula is a serious threat, and I think that we're confident President Selah is a good partner for the United States in these issues.
MONTAGNE: How is this administration trying to strike a balance between supporting a country where stability is very important and having an ally is important against the problem of having as a friend and ally a government that is viewed by a large swath of its own people as repressive?
FEIERSTEIN: But at the same time, we also have to recognize that we have an immediate challenge. There is a direct threat to U.S. national security that comes out of the ability of al-Qaida and the Arabian Peninsula and other violent extremist groups to operate in Yemen. And we need both for our own security interests as well as the security interests of the Yemeni people themselves and of the region and of the world to address those.
MONTAGNE: Ambassador, thank you.
FEIERSTEIN: It was a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's business news starts with cuts to California's aerospace industry.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: Boeing cites declining orders as the reason for the job cuts. The factory is expected to shut down completely by the end of next year.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Now, the government is pushing nonpetroleum alternatives, as NPR's Elizabeth Shogren reports.
ELIZABETH SHOGREN: Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan says people will start seeing the logo this spring.
MONTAGNE: Consumers want to know, with the plethora of labeling claims in the marketplace, that what they're investing their dollars in is meaningful; that it's backed by some sort of certification.
SHOGREN: Companies already have introduced thousands of products made from plants or animals instead of petroleum. That's because of a law that requires the federal government to buy such products - if they exist and are affordable.
MONTAGNE: We probably would not see the growth of these products without this program.
SHOGREN: Stephen Censky is the executive director of the American Soybean Association. His group pushed Congress to require the switch.
MONTAGNE: That helps drive demand, and then it scales up manufacturing so then it can be available to the general public.
SHOGREN: Elizabeth Shogren, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
David "Cricket" Shaw, of the Library Bar in Columbus, Ohio, says you might drink it without knowing it.
M: Say you just walk into a place and you just order a cranberry and vodka, you're getting that. Usually, it's the house - or the well, they call it.
INSKEEP: Kamchatka vodka is named after a Russian peninsula that sticks out into the Pacific Ocean, but it is actually distilled in Kentucky.
M: Saying it's good may be an overstatement; you don't do shots with it. It's a mixer.
INSKEEP: That's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Yesterday's vote in the House of Representatives is not likely to change a single person's health care. House Republicans voted to repeal the Health Care Law. Senate Democrats say they will not bring that measure to a vote at all.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Andrea Seabrook was listening.
ANDREA SEABROOK: New York Democrat Steve Israel told the story of Hannah Watson, a girl from Bay Shore, Long Island, who was born with spina bifida. She's had multiple surgeries and a kidney transplant, all before the age of 12, said Israel.
STEVE ISRAEL: At 12 years old, three months after her last surgery, her insurance company told her that she had reached her annual cap and they would not pay for additional treatment. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Hannah was able to finally get on her parents' insurance, at an affordable rate, with no lifetime caps.
SEABROOK: Republicans, too, came armed with stories. Jeb Hensarling of Texas said, just two days ago, he was in the Methodist Hospital of San Antonio.
JEB HENSARLING: My mother had a large tumor removed from her head. They wheeled her away at 7:20 in the morning. By noon, I was talking to her, along with the rest of my family.
SEABROOK: With great doctors in an excellent hospital, Hensarling said his mother is fine. But...
HENSARLING: I'm not sure that would be the outcome in Canada, the U.K., anywhere in Europe. No disrespect to our president, but when it comes to the health of my mother, I don't want this president or any president, or his bureaucrats or commissions, making decisions for my loved ones.
SEABROOK: Republicans called the law: A government takeover of health care. Tea Party favorite, Minnesota's Michele Bachmann called it: The crown jewel of socialism - all arguments that drive New York Democrat Anthony Weiner batty.
ANTHONY WEINER: You know, I want to just advise people watching at home, playing that now popular drinking game of you take a shot whenever Republicans say something that's not true. Please, assign a designated driver - this is going to be a long afternoon.
SEABROOK: Weiner says it's one of Republicans main debate tactics: Make stuff up.
WEINER: A hundred and thirty thousand new agencies, not true; new IRS agents, not true; death panels, not true; no tort reform in it, not true.
SEABROOK: House Speaker John Boehner said Republicans are on the side of American public opinion, that after two years of debate, November's election was a referendum on the Health Care Law, and they won. Now, said Boehner, Republicans are simply doing what they said they'd do.
JOHN BOEHNER: We listened to the people. We made a commitment to them, a pledge to make their priorities our priorities.
SEABROOK: Andrea Seabrook, NPR News, the Capitol.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Good morning.
MONTAGNE: Good morning. Thanks for having me.
MONTAGNE: Before we get to the new chairman, what exactly will be the power that he wields as the chairman of this particular committee?
MONTAGNE: You know, it's very interesting. The House rules say this committee may investigate quote, any matter. So literally, Darrell Issa has the power - has subpoena power, and he can subpoena anyone for any reason he wants. Now, obviously, he's bound by politics and the Republican leadership, who will keep him on somewhat of a leash. But it's a very powerful committee.
MONTAGNE: So investigate bad ideas, perhaps, your bad politics, but even bad deeds.
MONTAGNE: It can be anything. It can be a simple - and Chairman Issa has very carefully said that the last election was about spending, and that is his main priority. But he's being very careful these days to make sure that the public does not think that this committee is going to go out on partisan witch hunts. And that is the history of this committee.
MONTAGNE: Yes because in the past, this committee has been used to - at least - go after leaders of the other party.
MONTAGNE: Yeah. I mean, the history - if you think of Washington in the last few decades as just characterized by pure, partisan warfare, this committee has been at the center of some of the biggest battles. Back in the '90s, a congressman named Dan Burton - he really investigated the heck out of the Clinton administration; followed a lot of what were really conspiracy theories, and I think embarrassed himself in the process because he became known for chasing, you know, wild goose hunts. So Issa's very conscious of that history, very conscious of Dan Burton's reputation being sullied by his investigations, and is being very careful not to go down that same road.
MONTAGNE: Your profile of congressman Issa spends a lot of time in his background, his history...
MONTAGNE: Yeah.
MONTAGNE: ...going back to when he was in his early 20s...
MONTAGNE: Yeah.
MONTAGNE: ...and some of the things that have dogged him. Describe some of that for us.
MONTAGNE: There are basically, that we know of, five incidents.
MONTAGNE: From what years?
MONTAGNE: From 1972 to 1982. There was one concealed weapon charge; there were three incidents involving stolen cars; and there was - the most serious allegation was his former business associates accuse him of burning down a building for the insurance money. Now, these are really serious allegations. They came up first when Darrell Issa ran in the Republican primary for the Senate from California, in 1998. These allegations probably cost him that primary. And this stuff has never gone away. As he said to me - he said, you can always build a circumstantial case.
MONTAGNE: The fire that destroyed his factory, the insurance company concluded it was arson. The Ohio state fire marshal, you write, never determined the cause of the fire. No charges were brought, but this fire back in 1982 - we're talking almost 30 years ago...
MONTAGNE: Yeah.
MONTAGNE: ...has haunted him to this day. I am wondering how you think that's affected him.
MONTAGNE: Well, I think the jury is out because he has not started his committee's work yet - or he's just starting it now. I will say this: Given the fact that during about 12 years of his life, he was charged or accused of committing crimes - he was investigated for sometimes weeks; in the case of the arson, that case went on for two years - so you think in that period of his life, being investigated, having to go to court, thinking perhaps that you're going to go to jail if these cases aren't dismissed, I wonder if maybe that has some impact on the care with which he will investigate this administration.
MONTAGNE: As you write, he's put certain things off-limits in terms of President Obama's past.
MONTAGNE: Yeah. Yeah, I mean...
MONTAGNE: Like the birther issue.
MONTAGNE: Well, in the line that he's drawn - and this is sort of interesting, given his own past - is, he wants to look at things that the Obama administration has done since Obama was elected. In other words, nothing personal to Obama before his election. And that's very different than what happened with Bill Clinton.
MONTAGNE: Ryan Lizza's profile of congressman Darrell Issa, titled "Don't Look Back," is in the current New Yorker.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
It was one year ago today that the Supreme Court handed down a highly controversial decision involving money used in political campaigns. It was a 5-4 ruling in the case known as Citizens United. It gave corporations and unions the freedom to spend as much as they like to support or attack political candidates. A year later, lawyers and advocates are discovering it has sharply altered the debate over political money. NPR's Peter Overby reports.
PETER OVERBY: One day shy of the anniversary, the Federal Election Commission was still trying yesterday to carry out the Supreme Court's edict.
Commissioner DON MCGAHN (Republican, Federal Election Commission): We're here today on what should be a happy occasion for those of us who have sought clarity in the law, less regulation.
OVERBY: That's Republican Commissioner Don McGahn. He and the other two Republicans wanted new rules that didn't mandate disclosure of big contributions to outside money groups - the organizations that put up thousands of attack ads last year.
The three Democrats wanted the mandatory disclosure, so the commission deadlocked. Here's Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub.
Ms. ELLEN WEINTRAUB (Democrat, Commissioner, Federal Election Commission): Promoting transparency in American elections is central to the Commission's mission, and this transparency in turn is essential to the success of this, the world's oldest democracy. We don't believe in doing things in secret.
OVERBY: This is how things go in the post-Citizens United world of political money deadlocks, protests, and a steady push toward deregulation.
Protestors against Citizens United are going to Capitol Hill today. They want a constitutional amendment to limit corporate spending. Some business leaders will join them, including Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.
One hundred forty-seven former senators and House members are endorsing public financing for congressional elections. And yesterday, the watchdog group Common Cause, alleged that Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas had close ties to conservative activists who benefited from the Citizens United ruling. Common Cause president Bob Edgar said the Justice Department should investigate.
Mr. BOB EDGAR (President, Common Cause): If the department finds evidence of a conflict on the part of either justice, Common Cause asks that the Solicitor General petition the court to vacate the Citizens United decision.
OVERBY: But Citizens United has helped to upend the debate over political money - so much so that the American Future Fund ran this radio ad earlier this month for a 2012 Senate race.
(Soundbite of American Future Fund ad)
Unidentified Woman: Isn't it time Kent Conrad kept his promise and worked to balance the budget? Call Kent Conrad.
OVERBY: And it was treated as just part of the political game. Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, said this week he won't seek re-election.
A year ago, Democrats thought they saw an advantage in attacking Citizens United. Here's President Obama in his State of the Union message.
President BARACK OBAMA: Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests.
OVERBY: But voters didn't embrace the issue and those floodgates didn't open all the way. Without disclosure requirements it's impossible to know how much came from corporate funds.
Michael Franz is a political scientist with the Wesleyan Media Project tracking political ads.
Mr. MICHAEL FRANZ (Political scientist, Wesleyan Media Project): So the effect of Citizens United in 2010 may not have been as huge. But what the court did in Citizens United could suggest huge effects for other campaign finance laws down the road.
OVERBY: First of all, disclosure is under attack.
Michael Boos is counsel to the group Citizens United.
Mr. MICHAEL BOOS (General Counsel, Citizens United): Just because it may be constitutional to impose these disclosure rules, doesn't mean it makes for sound policy.
OVERBY: House Republicans plan to vote next week to kill off public financing in presidential elections. The federal ban on foreign donors faces a court challenge. And the Center for Competitive Politics, an anti-regulation group, wants to undo the ban on corporate contributions to federal candidates. This was one of the first campaign finance laws on the books. The center says the corporate world is far different than it was in 1907 when Congress imposed that ban.
Peter Overby, NPR News, Washington.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Portland, Oregon is ready for its close-up.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Tonight, the city gets its own sketch comedy TV show. It's called "Portlandia," on the Independent Film Channel. The program may extend the fame of Portland, which up to now, has been better known for its food, its music and, of course, as the hometown of NPR correspondent Ari Shapiro.
ARI SHAPIRO: Near Carrie Brownstein's home in Portland, there is a locally owned, environmentally friendly pet store. Carrie shops there, but sometimes she feels a little judged.
Ms. CARRIE BROWNSTEIN (Actor/Comedy Writer): When you go in, we're selling lamb bones and meat, and you can even buy, like, a trachea. But then when you ask for a leather leash, they say: Oh, my gosh. We do not sell anything with leather. And I just think: How am I supposed to do this? Like, I just want to be a good person. Now I just want to go to PetSmart.
SHAPIRO: That, in a nutshell, is Portlandia. One sketch takes place in a restaurant, where the waitress tells Carrie and her co-star Fred Armisen about the chicken on the menu.
(Soundbite of TV show, "Portlandia")
Ms. JAIME LANGTON (Actor): (as Waitress) Woodland-raised chicken that's been fed a diet of sheep's milk, soy and hazelnuts.
Mr. FRED ARMISEN (Actor, Comedy Writer): (as Fred) And this is local?
Ms. LANGTON: (as Waitress) Yes, absolutely.
Mr. ARMISEN: (as Fred) I'm going to ask you just one more time: Is it local?
Ms. LANGTON: (as Waitress) It is.
Ms. BROWNSTEIN: (as Carrie) Is that USDA organic or Oregon organic or Portland organic?
Ms. LANGTON: (as Waitress) It's just all across the board, organic.
Mr. ARMISEN: (as Fred) A hazelnut - these are local?
SHAPIRO: Fred Armisen is best known for playing President Obama on "Saturday Night Live." He and Carrie have been friends for years. They created a series of Web sketches that eventually spawned this show.
Carrie didn't have any TV experience. She was in the band Sleater-Kinney, and she once wrote a blog about music for npr.org. In making this show, she had the advantage of being local.
Ms. BROWNSTEIN: For me, it is an absolute love letter to Portland. I've tried to live elsewhere, and I can't. I always come back here.
SHAPIRO: I should mention that you, Carrie Brownstein, are sitting here in the interview wearing a plaid shirt.
Ms. BROWNSTEIN: I am. I actually took off a flannel shirt to come down here and be interviewed by you.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SHAPIRO: I asked Carrie to take me on a tour of my hometown, to places so emphatically Portland that they could translate almost verbatim to the show "Portlandia."
We walk to a tiny independent bookstore called Reading Frenzy. Andrea Deacon volunteers here.
Ms. ANDREA DEACON (Volunteer, Reading Frenzy): Pretty much, you know, the goal is to have things that are kind of hard to find at most, like mainstream, you know, bookstores, or things like that.
SHAPIRO: Carrie, what've you got there?
Ms. BROWNSTEIN: I have Issue Number Two of "Moldy Soy," which the burning question on the cover of this issue is: Is he still a vegan boy? It's a $2 zine.
SHAPIRO: Oh, wait. And I just have to say, the superhero with the V on the cover is saying: That time with the pizza was totally an accident. They said it was vegan cheese.
This bookstore was the model for one of the "Portlandia" sketches. Fred and Carrie play the owners of a feminist bookstore, concerned about everything except selling books. Actor Steve Buscemi makes a cameo as a customer who just wants to buy a book and leave.
(Soundbite of TV show, "Portlandia")
Mr. STEVE BUSCEMI (Actor): (as Customer) Do you want me to buy something now?
Ms. BROWNSTEIN: (as Carrie) Yes.
Mr. BUSCEMI: (as Customer) This is good, "She's No Lady."
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. ARMISEN: (as Fred) That's actually a series, so there's another 14, so you've got to subscribe.
Mr. BUSCEMI: (as Customer) Yeah, I just want this one.
Mr. ARMISEN: (as Fred) It's a series book, so those are...
Ms. BROWNSTEIN: (as Carrie) That's the thing. Book 13, you find out she is a lady. And it pains me to imagine you not knowing her journey.
SHAPIRO: It's a safe bet that next to almost any business in real or imaginary Portland, there is a coffee shop. Next door to Reading Frenzy is Courier Coffee.
(Soundbite of coffee grinders)
SHAPIRO: The owners roast sustainably harvested coffee beans in a garage. They use ceramic coffee cups that their friend made. The company only delivers beans within bicycling distance. It's easy to imagine one of Fred's characters from "Portlandia" stopping by.
(Soundbite of TV show, "Portlandia")
Mr. ARMISEN: (as Fred) Watch out: Bike, bike, bike, bike, bike. Cars, man. Why? I don't have a driver's license. I don't need it. I got a bike lane here. Hey, I get this whole lane. Ten-feet rule. Oregon state law, 10 feet. Hey birds, you guys have little bikes?
(Soundbite of a whistle)
SHAPIRO: The cyclists at Courier Coffee are not so intense. But they do have a specially-designed cargo bicycle that can carry 200 pounds of beans.
Tyler Hauptman and Ryan Donaldson are behind the bar. They roll up their sleeves to show their coffee tattoos.
Mr. TYLER HAUPTMAN (Employee, Courier Coffee): I have a cup and cross-spoons on my lower arm.
SHAPIRO: That's cup and crossed-spoons - like a skull and crossbones, but with a coffee theme.
Mr. HAUPTMAN: And then I have a French press surrounded by a coffee tree on my shoulder. Ryan has a port-a-filter.
Mr. RYAN DONALDSON (Employee, Courier Coffee): Mine is just a steaming port-a-filter on the back of my arm.
SHAPIRO: The port-a-filter is the handle thing people put in the espresso machines?
Mr. DONALDSON: Right, yeah.
SHAPIRO: Okay.
There is also a menu of pastries baked in-house.
Mr. HAUPTMAN: Holding true, there is one vegan on staff at Courier Coffee. And that's me. So we'll usually have one or two vegan things.
Ms. BROWNSTEIN: Vegans have really benefitted from affirmative action here in Portland.
SHAPIRO: Just down the block from courier coffee is a shop called Tender Loving Empire. Every corner is crammed full of locally made art, music and clothing.
Carrie Brownstein says a little while ago, she had an epiphany about stores like this.
Ms. BROWNSTEIN: I realized that the shorthand for something being art was just to have a bird on it.
SHAPIRO: Here's how that theory translated to the show, "Portlandia."
(Soundbite of TV show, "Portlandia")
Ms. BROWNSTEIN: (as Lisa Eversman) What a sad little tote bag. I know, I'll put a bird on it. Did you see this bag before? I didn't. Now there's a bird. It's flying. It's free.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SHAPIRO: Back in the real Portland, we put Carrie's theory to the test.
Mr. ANDREW SLOAN (Minister of Creative Content, Tender Loving Empire): If I just sat here and talked about every single bird item, we would be here for an hour or two. So I'm just going to breeze through it.
SHAPIRO: At Tender Loving Empire, Andrew Sloan's business card says: Minister of Creative Content.
Mr. SLOAN: Here's two brass birds kissing in front of a cloud on a necklace. Here we have a tie with - looks like a sparrow chasing a worm. A little owl here. Here's a rooster. Here's two little lovebirds together there.
SHAPIRO: Can I just mention that the 10 things with birds on them that you've just named are in a one-square foot radius? We have not moved.
Mr. SLOAN: We haven't actually taken one step to our right or left. Could you help but notice the wings spanning from the center of that mythological cat?
Ms. BROWNSTEIN: Even cats have to be birds in Portland in order to get any respect.
Mr. SLOAN: Everything I've seen about "Portlandia" is going to squash Portland. Like, you just watch that show, and you're just like no. Yes, but no.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. BROWNSTEIN: I feel the same way, but I feel like that's what it's like to live here, a little bit. There's a part of you that's cringing, but at the same time you wouldn't live anywhere else.
SHAPIRO: The first episode of "Portlandia" airs tonight on IFC.
Ari Shapiro, NPR News.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: We've got clips from "Portlandia" on the blog Monkey See at our Web site, npr.org.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Next week, President Obama draws on a power that only presidents have. Republicans won the last congressional election, but the president alone has the power to command the nation's attention on occasions like next Tuesday. That's when he delivers the State of the Union address.
NPR's Mara Liasson reports on the president's effort to reframe the debate.
MARA LIASSON: Here's how former Clinton White House aide Bill Galston describes Mr. Obama's challenge when he walks into the House chamber Tuesday night.
Mr. BILL GALSTON (Former Clinton White House Aide): He knows and the American people know that we're not out of the woods economically yet - that we have an enormous challenge of growth of jobs on the one hand and of long-term fiscal stability on the other. And that is going to put pressure on the president to go big and go long.
LIASSON: In the State of the Union, says Galston, the president has to lay out his solutions for the big economic challenges facing the country
Mr. GALSTON: The dirty little secret is that the economic growth model that we've lived off for the past three decades and more, which is driven by household demand, has hit a wall. We're going to have to think of new models of growth, and I think the president has an opportunity to open that conversation, which is something the American people are crying out for.
LIASSON: In fact, polls show many Americans think the country is in decline and that our economy is about to be overtaken by China. Republicans have their solution: smaller government and less spending. Now, White House officials say the president's State of the Union address will present his own optimistic vision of how to make America number one in the world again. Here's press secretary Robert Gibbs.
Mr. ROBERT GIBBS (White House Press Secretary): The great majority of his speech will be on the steps that we need to take in the short term that relate to jobs, and steps that we need to take in the medium and the long term to put our fiscal house in order, and to increase our competitiveness and our innovation that allows us to create the jobs of tomorrow.
LIASSON: The president has been testing themes for his State of the Union speech for months. In December in North Carolina, he compared today's economic challenge to 1957, when the Soviet Union sent a satellite called Sputnik into orbit, causing the United States to wake up and boost its investments in science and technology.
President BARACK OBAMA: Fifty years later, our generation's Sputnik moment is back. This is our moment. If the recession has taught us anything, it's that we cannot go back to an economy that's driven by too much spending, too much borrowing, running up credit cards, taking out a lot of home equity loans, paper profits that are built on financial speculation. We've got to rebuild on a new and stronger foundation for economic growth.
LIASSON: The details of exactly what the president will propose on issues like tax reform, spending and the deficit are still under wraps. But White House officials say by the end of the speech, the president's strategy will be clear.
Former Clinton speechwriter Don Baer points out that the Obama White House has just been restocked with high-level Clinton alumni - all veterans of an earlier version of the economic strategy President Obama is about to lay out. Baer calls it cut-and-invest economics.
Mr. DON BAER (Chief Strategy Officer, Burson-Marsteller): He's going to have to propose cuts in existing programs - some of which maybe are outmoded, and certainly bloated, so that we can reinvest in the sort of things that are designed to grow the economy and create opportunity.
LIASSON: President Obama not only has an opportunity to start a new economic conversation next Tuesday - he's got, all of a sudden, a more welcoming political climate. White House officials are breathing easier now that the president's approval ratings are going up, after the bipartisan compromises of the lame-duck session and the president's well-received speech in Tucson. Now, says Galston, Mr. Obama can build on that.
Mr. GALSTON: He has the opportunity in this speech to continue to be the president of all the people, which has been at the heart of his political appeal since he burst on the scene in 2004. It's what the American people want him to be. It's what they thought he would be when they elected him president. It's what they're still hoping he can be.
LIASSON: The reservoir of goodwill is showing up in a series of new polls and it's why the president also has a political opportunity next Tuesday - to accelerate the modest momentum he created for himself over the past two months.
Mara Liasson, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Americans political and business leaders have also been pressuring China to loosen the country's strict controls over its currency. And in at least one way, China has loosened its grip. If you walk into the Bank of China branch in New York or Los Angeles, you can now open a personal savings account, denominated, not in dollars, but in yuan - the Chinese currency, which is also sometimes called the renminbi.
NPR's David Kestenbaum, with our Planet Money Team, explains the significance of that.
DAVID KESTENBAUM: This may not sound like a big deal. But one way, China keeps control over its exchange rate is by tightly controlling its currency, the yuan. China limits the amount of yuan bills you can take in and out of the country. As a foreigner, its been very difficult to actually own yuan. But now, through one of these savings accounts, you can.
Unidentified Woman: Thank you for calling the bank the Bank of China, Chinatown Branch. (Foreign language spoken)
KESTENBAUM: The Bank of China started offering the accounts quietly a few months ago. I called up to request an interview, and a spokesman said no thanks. Eswar Prasad, professor at Cornell, says: what do you expect?
Professor ESWAR PRASAD: Surprise, surprise. Its a little odd. You would think that they're sort of keen to get their message out. This is supposed to be part of the effort to get the renminbi well-known.
KESTENBAUM: But also, as a bank, they should say hey, we've got these savings accounts. You know, come open an account. Right?
Professor PRASAD: Yeah, exactly. And they're going to pay you nothing in interest. But since you're still dying to have these accounts, youre welcome to them.
KESTENBAUM: They pay a little interest, but not much. Prasad says at this point, the accounts are a symbol. Even for people doing business in China, these things wouldnt be very useful, because most transactions between U.S. and Chinese business are done in, yep, the dollar.
Professor PRASAD: It's more like just a joy of holding a little bit of yuan, which for an individual investor, it's very difficult to do otherwise.
KESTENBAUM: These accounts are something investors might be interested in. Ken Rogoff is an economist at Harvard.
Mr. KEN ROGOFF (Economist, Harvard): Most people think that the Chinese currency is cheap. And eventually it's going to go up, a lot. So if you can open a bank account in New York and just buy Chinese currency, you have significant possibility that the yuan will rise over time. It went up three percent last year, three and a half percent. It could go up more, and probably eventually and eventually being over the next 10 or 15 years probably go up 100 percent. I mean some very significant amount.
KESTENBAUM: These savings accounts are the sort of thing China would have been very nervous about in the past. If everyone opens up bank accounts and holds yuan in them, thats an increase in demand for yuan, which would make it worth more against the dollar.
And remember, China wants to keep it down, to keep its goods cheap abroad, to boost its exports. That fear is probably why, the yuan savings accounts, like the currency, have a lot of controls on them. You cant put more than $20,000 in over the course of a year. And for currency traders, yuan isnt even on the radar yet.
Mr. ANDREW SPANTON (Foreign exchange trader): We've been trading today, the Euro, U.S. dollar, the dollar yen, the pound dollar, dollar Swiss, traded euro yen, pound yen, Aussi yen, luna yen, thats the Canadian dollar, luna yen...
KESTENBAUM: This is Andrew Spanton, a foreign exchange trader, also has an online radio show, "Global Markets Radio."
Mr. SPANTON: A pound against the Australian dollar.
KESTENBAUM: Have you ever traded the Chinese currency?
Mr. SPANTON: Never, no desire. No desire at all.
KESTENBAUM: Something like $4 trillion worth of currency trades on these markets every day. Very little of it is yuan.
Mr. SPANTON: It's hard to trade a currency that is manipulated on a day to day basis. It's like you're trading against the house.
KESTENBAUM: So you can think of the savings accounts as like a little coming out party for the yuan. China is saying, one day this will be a regular global currency. One day, we will do what you want, we will stop managing the exchange rate. One day, in fact, the yuan may rival the dollar.
David Kestenbaum, NPR News.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
In the House, the new Republican majority is pressing ahead with its agenda. The House voted to repeal the health overhaul law on Wednesday, and yesterday turned to another controversial issue: Abortion.
As NPR's Julie Rovner reports, Republican leaders are hoping legislation to further restrict abortion can also help weaken support for the health overhaul bill.
JULIE ROVNER: Abortion rights supporters say the new Republican majority is overplaying its hand by making restricting abortion a priority. Nancy Keenan is president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Ms. NANCY KEENAN (President, NARAL Pro-Choice America): The 2010 elections were about jobs and the economy and it was not an endorsement of an anti-choice agenda.
ROVNER: But you wouldn't know that from listening to House Speaker John Boehner.
Representative JOHN BOEHNER (Republican, Ohio; Speaker of the House): A ban on taxpayer funding of abortions is the will of the people and ought to be the will of the land.
ROVNER: Boehner appeared at a news conference yesterday with Republican Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, the long-time chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus. Smith has introduced legislation that would write into permanent law existing abortion restrictions; restrictions that currently have to be renewed by Congress every year.
Representative CHRIS SMITH (Republican, New Jersey; Chairman, Pro-Life Caucus): Our new bill is designed to permanently end any U.S. government financial support for abortion whether it be direct funding or by tax credits or any other subsidy.
ROVNER: This isn't the first time Smith has tried to make permanent various annual abortion restrictions, but this year is different. His bill has been officially designated H.R. 3, signaling it's a top priority for the leadership.
Smith's bill isn't the only major piece of abortion legislation that's likely to get an early vote in the House though. Republican Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, another longtime abortion opponent, now chairs the health subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He has a bill he says would close loopholes in the health law that allows abortion funding.
Representative JOE PITTS (Republican, Pennsylvania): They've opened the proverbial floodgates for federal money to pour into abortion services and with it they have incentivized an extremely controversial practice. This is simply not acceptable.
ROVNER: But whether the health law actually does allow federal abortion funding is still the subject of a heated debate. While abortion opponents say it does, abortion-rights groups say it does not. And not only that, supporters of abortion rights say it actually puts new restrictions on the procedure. That's because it requires women to buy separate insurance policies if they want abortion coverage provided by their insurance plan.
Donna Crane is NARAL's policy director.
Ms. DONNA CRANE (Policy Director, NARAL): Eighty-seven percent of plans sold in this country today do include abortion coverage as a standard benefit. It's basically sort of the industry standard.
ROVNER: Other surveys have found abortion coverage less pervasive than that, but still widespread.
But it's not just abortion-rights groups that say the law didn't expand abortion access. Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University and prominent anti-abortion voice, says what many Republicans are saying about the law and abortion is simply not so.
Professor TIMOTHY JOST (Law, Washington and Lee University): Both the federal court in Virginia and the Ohio Elections Commission determined that the claim that the Affordable Care Act funds abortion is false. The question is not whether we're going to strip abortion funding from health care reform. The question is how much further Congress is willing to go to remove tax subsidies for abortion coverage that is currently available.
ROVNER: Congressman Smith's Bill would do more than just write into law existing abortion restrictions. It would also eliminate tax benefits for insurance policies that cover abortion - even abortions in most cases of medical necessity.
NARAL's Donna Crane says the effect could be far reaching.
Ms. CRANE: If you are a health insurance plan and you are selling your product and all of a sudden it becomes that much more expensive, because there are tax penalties imposed on it, you're probably going to change the nature of your product. And in this case, we're quite certain that Chris Smith intends for health insurance plans to drop their abortion coverage.
ROVNER: Unlike the bill to repeal the entire health law, which is given basically no chance of passing the Senate, anti-abortion legislation is seen as having a good chance. That's because many Democrats in that chamber oppose abortion rights too.
Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.
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MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
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STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It is Friday morning, which means it's time for StoryCorps, the project that gives you the opportunity to look back on your life. That's what Laura Greenberg did, recently, when she spoke with her daughter Rebecca. Laura's story starts in Queens, New York where she grew up during the 1950s.
Ms. LAURA GREENBERG: My father would be in his boxer shorts in front of the stereo with a baton. He loved classical music. And he would play it really loud, and he would conduct the orchestra. And he's a little, fat bald man. And he's get behind the wheel of a car and he'd become like a Napoleon, he became nuts. He gave everybody the finger. He never used the brakes. And I remember being so frightened, I'd sit in the back on the floor, crying, 'cause, I said, we're going to die!
The problem growing up in my home was that I didn't know what was normal. We're yelling and we're pinching and we're hugging and we're cursing and we peed with the door open. I mean I didn't know this was not normal behavior. I didn't know people had secrets, you didnt tell your mother everything.
Ms. REBECCA GREENBERG: When did you learn?
Ms. LAURA GREENBERG: Well, it's still hard.
Ms. REBECCA GREENBERG: Who were your old boyfriends? How many did you have?
Ms. LAURA GREENBERG: I didn't have a lot of boyfriends. I had the neighbor boy. My mother loved him, but he wore his pants really high. And he had an under bite ew, God. But nobody wanted to have sex with me, really, 'til I met your father. He was cute, but very, very quiet and I scared the crap out of him. The first time he kissed me he had a nosebleed all over his face he was so nervous. It was terrible. It was, I don't know. Still married, 35 years later. Unbelievable.
After college, Daddy wanted to go and see the world. And my mother was just a wreck. I mean, she put a compress on her head, and she just went to bed for six months 'til I came home. She would write me at American Express offices where we would pick up our mail. And every one says: Call home, immediately. Mother. So I thought my father died every two weeks. I thought something terrible happened, but she just wanted to hear my voice.
Ms. REBECCA GREENBERG: Has your life been different than what you imagined?
Ms. LAURA GREENBERG: Yeah, a little bit. I married a Jewish lawyer and he makes no money. So, I thought I'd found success. And, you know, he's an indigent defense criminal lawyer and he saves lives. But, we made two great kids. And when I knew I was having a daughter, I called my mother, and she says, every mother should have a daughter. And she died before you were born.
Ms. REBECCA GREENBERG: But I have her name.
Ms. LAURA GREENBERG: You have her name. You were named after her.
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Ms. LAURA GREENBERG: And she would have been very happy.
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INSKEEP: No, it's not a new book by David Sedaris. That's Laura Greenberg with her daughter Rebecca at StoryCorps in Atlanta. Their conversation will be archived in the Library of Congress, along with all StoryCorps interviews. And the project's Podcast is at npr.org.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
As the earth warms up, many plants and animals are moving uphill to keep their cool. Conservationists are anticipating much more of this, as they make plans to help natural systems adapt to a warming planet. But a new study in Science magazine finds that plants in Northern California are bucking this uphill trend. NPR's Richard Harris explains.
RICHARD HARRIS: Coping with climate change is, quite literally, an uphill struggle for ecosystems looking to remain in a temperature zone where they do best.
Mr. SOLOMON DOBROWSKI (University of Montana): We see it, consistently, for mobile species such as insects and animals. A lot of the real foundation studies for this have come out of studies looking at butterflies, for example.
HARRIS: So Solomon Dobrowski, at the University of Montana, expected he'd see the same trend when he looked into historical movements of plants in a vast area of Northern California. He dug through a remarkable record of the region's vegetation collected back in the 1930s, thanks to a federal project started during the Great Depression. He then compared that with modern vegetation surveys.
Mr. DOBROWSKI: And what we found was counter to our expectations. We found that, in fact, the preponderance of plants that in our study area - which is probably the northern half of the state, would be the simplest way to describe it - had actually moved downhill, roughly 80 meters - so about 240 feet.
HARRIS: Individual plants don't move, of course, but the optimal range of many different species has been creeping downhill. So, more new seeds sprouted downhill, and more new plants took root. And this was true not just for annual plants, but for bushes and even trees. Why would that be, he wondered, considering that the area has warmed up? He and his colleagues say the answer lies, not in the temperature, but in the amount of life-giving rain and snow. It turns out this region has been getting wetter.
Mr. DOBROWSKI: These plants are tracking water availability more so than temperature.
HARRIS: Not that big a surprise, when you come to think of it. But until now, ecologists doing this kind of study had mostly noticed a trend linked with temperature. Dobrowski says that still holds, in many cases, but...
Mr. DOBROWSKI: The simple message that things are going to move uphill and towards the poles may not be the answer in all cases.
HARRIS: This adds some pretty big wrinkles to conservation plans. For example, it's not always a good assumption that protecting areas upslope from plants will help protect their future habitat as the climate changes. Plus, Dobrowski says, if ecosystems see their optimal temperature moving uphill and their water supply moving downhill, that could be quite awkward at times.
Mr. DOBROWSKI: If a number of plants are moving down slope and organisms that are adapted to rely on those plants such as butterflies, for example, which are more constrained by temperature and moving upslope, you could have situations in which plants and animal communities are even disrupted further.
HARRIS: This is quite a sobering finding for ecologists trying to anticipate what will happen to natural systems in the coming century. Scott Loarie, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution of Science on the Stanford campus, says most of the research has been focused on the warming part of global warming.
Mr. SCOTT LOARIE (Researcher, Carnegie Institution of Science): One of the reasons that so many of our results on what we expect will happen with climate change have centered on temperatures, because we know the most about temperature. Pretty much all of our evidence shows that the earth is going to get hotter, and there's very little dispute about that. We don't know very much about precipitation, but that doesn't mean to say that we dont think precipitation is important.
HARRIS: Loarie says the new study underlines just how important precipitation can be. Unfortunately, in many parts of the world, scientists simply can't say whether climate change in the long run will bring more moisture or more drought. Loarie says California is a case in point. The various climate forecasts disagree.
Mr. LOARIE: So it's really a crap shoot in California, whether we're facing a drier or wetter future.
HARRIS: And that means it's entirely possible that the plant communities that have been marching downhill for the past 80 years, will eventually reverse course and head back up the slopes.
Richard Harris, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
China's President Hu Jintao heads home today after a visit to America filled with the pageantry reserved for the most honored guest. Hu's reception in Washington befits China's new status as a global economic power. Just a few years ago, China trailed far behind the U.S. and other western countries. China's growth has been so dramatic and comes so quickly that economists are debating just how to measure its new economic might. Here's NPR's Tom Gjelten.
TOM GJELTEN: Normally we compare economies by estimating the value of what's produced in each country and then saying how much that would be in U.S. dollars. That's the gross domestic product or GDP. The U.S. GDP is about $14.6 trillion. China's about 5.7 trillion.
But Arvind Subramanian of the Peterson Institute for International Economics highlights a problem here: $5.7 trillion goes further in a developing country like China than it does in the United States.
Mr. ARVIND SUBRAMANIAN (Peterson Institute for International Economics): If you go to a developing country, say, the amount it would cost you to get a haircut or go to a doctor would be much cheaper than what it would be in the United States.
GJELTEN: So another way to compare economies is by their purchasing power: how many haircuts and doctor visits the Chinese economy could buy versus how many haircuts and doctor visits the American economy could buy.
Mr. SUBRAMANIAN: If you make that correction, which is called purchasing power correction, I find that the Chinese economy is $14.8 trillion, which is larger than the size of the American economy.
GJELTEN: China's economy, actually larger than America's. All depending on how you measure them. In fact, people suspect this, whether it's true or not. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that a plurality of Americans are convinced China is already the dominant economic power on the planet.
Mr. ROBERT ALIBER (Economist): We've been brainwashed.
GJELTEN: Economist Robert Aliber is an expert at international economic comparisons.
Mr. ALIBER: The general sense that China is an economic powerhouse, that's far-fetched.
GJELTEN: Aliber, a retired University of Chicago professor, agrees that according to purchasing power China's economy is bigger than its GDP figures suggest. But he points out that much of what China adds to the world economy is cheap labor. And he says China's GDP figures may actually overstate the value of its housing. On a recent trip to China, Aliber noticed that many urban apartments are unoccupied, so their value is unproven.
Mr. ALIBER: Somebody has to buy these apartments in the end or their prices will decline. And so China is at the near terminal stage of a massive housing bubble.
GJELTEN: If that bubble bursts, China's economic figures wouldn't look so good.
Stephen Roach, formerly the chief economist at Morgan Stanley, has another problem with comparing the Chinese and U.S. economies: It's apples and oranges. Going just by the numbers, he says, doesn't take into account how the U.S. and Chinese economies are just different: China has much lower per capita income.
Professor STEPHEN ROACH (Yale School of Management): The standard of living of people, the character of the GDP in terms of whether it leads to environmental degradation, pollution, widening income inequalities.
GJELTEN: On the other hand, maybe this debate over who's got the bigger - or better - economy right now misses the larger point. Roach, now a professor at the Yale School of Management, looks at the trend, and there is no room for doubt: China will pass us.
Prof. ROACH: We can pick apart the numbers and say, well, it's going to happen in 20 years, 10 years, or if we're creative in the way we recast statistics, maybe it happened yesterday. But the Chinese economy will certainly become the largest and most dominant economy in the world.
GJELTEN: Which is why President Hu got the red carpet treatment this week.
Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And now for the story of a man who released so many classified U.S. documents on Iraq: Julian Assange. It's been several years since the founder of WikiLeaks left his own country, Australia, but Assange remains at the center of an intense national debate there.
NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports on how he's viewed in his home country.
Unidentified Group: (Chanting) Hands off WikiLeaks.
ANTHONY KUHN: Hands off WikiLeaks, protesters shouted at a rally last month here in the capital of Julian Assange's home state of Queensland. Over the past couple of months, WikiLeaks supporters have protested in cities across Australia.
Local media have editorialized that Prime Minister Julia Gillard misjudged the degree of public support for Assange last month when she accused him of breaking U.S. and possibly Australian laws.
Prime MINISTER JULIA GILLARD (Australia): Let's not try and put any glosses on this. It would not happen, information would not be on WikiLeaks, if there had not been an illegal act undertaken.
KUHN: Gillard backed down a bit when an Australian Federal Police investigation concluded that no Australian law had been broken. But she insisted that Assange was in the wrong.
Prime Minister GILLARD: The release of all of this documentation has been grossly irresponsible, and I stand by the remarks that I've made about this previously.
KUHN: Gillard's words cost her some support among members of her ruling Labor Party. Some members felt that Gillard had unfairly pre-judged Assange, and that whatever Assange had done, his legal rights as an Australian citizen should be upheld.
Lawmaker Sharon Grierson, who sits on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, sees the Assange case as a litmus test for freedom of speech and information.
Ms. SHARON GRIERSON (MP, Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, Australia): We're a government that's improved freedom of information. So it seems to me slightly hypocritical that we would make that judgment very quickly about the information being released.
KUHN: Robert Stary is Assange's lawyer, based in Melbourne. He believes his client's defense should be pretty straightforward, because he considers Assange to be a journalist, protected by U.S. First Amendment guarantees of free speech.
But Stary is worried about some other possibilities.
Mr. ROBERT STARY (Attorney): Our main concern is really the possible extradition to the U.S. We've been troubled by the sort of rhetoric that has come out of various political commentators, and principally Republican politicians - Sarah Palin and the like - saying that Mr. Assange should be executed, assassinated.
KUHN: On her Facebook page, Palin suggests that Assange should be, quote, "pursued with the same urgency as al-Qaida and Taliban leaders," unquote.
Anyone who incites others to commit violence against his client, even outside Australia, Stary says, is violating Australian law and can be held accountable for it.
Mr. STARY: And certainly, if Sarah Palin or any of those other politicians come to Australia, for whatever purpose, then we can initiate a private prosecution, and that's what we intend to do.
KUHN: There is debate in the U.S. and elsewhere about whether Julian Assange is indeed a journalist, as WikiLeaks lacks the clear editorial structure of more traditional media. But many Australian journalists consider Assange one of them.
Ms. LOUISE CONNOR (Secretary, Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Victoria Branch): Julian Assange has been a member of our union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, for the past three or four years.
KUHN: Louise Connor is secretary of the Victoria Branch of the union, the main body representing Australian journalists. She says her union believes WikiLeaks has acted in line with the union's code of journalistic ethics. She adds that Assange is certainly no more at fault than other traditional media who have also published the classified documents.
Ms. CONNOR: The material is clearly in the public interest. Other media organizations have also judged it to be in the public interest when they have published. He's not the only person that's publishing the information, but it seems to us that the rhetoric around him isn't being extended to other journalists.
KUHN: U.S. diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show that Australian officials, including Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, are far more demoralized by the state of affairs in Afghanistan than they let on in public. Australia's 1,500 troops form the largest non-NATO foreign contingent in Afghanistan.
Assange's lawyer, Robert Stary, says most Australians actually support the alliance with the U.S., but...
Mr. STARY: We see ourselves, albeit a junior partner, but an equal partner to the U.S. We don't like the fact that we've been misled or that our politicians have a sycophantic or subservient attitude.
KUHN: Stary says the alliance has become a something of a sacred cow in Australia, and Julian Assange is paying the price for shedding an unflattering light on it.
Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Brisbane.
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MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
When pro football fans gather at a bar to watch a game on TV, they're often rooting for the same team, the local team. But this Sunday, when the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears meet for a spot in the Super Bowl, there may be plenty of mixing going on. This is a matter of geography. You've got a Wisconsin team. You've got an Illinois team. The states share a border. For some reason, they have yet to put up a border fence. And near the Illinois-Wisconsin state line, many bars cater to both Packers and Bears fans.
Here's Chuck Quirmbach of Wisconsin Public Radio.
CHUCK QUIRMBACH: The Illinois-Wisconsin border is also the border between Cheeseheads - a common nickname for Wisconsin residents - and Flatlanders, what some Wisconsinites call those who live in Illinois. But when it comes to football, the distinction is blurred. Kenosha, Wisconsin, is along the state line, and this week the local newspaper noted that while the city is divided over a lot of issues, none more so than the Bears versus Packers.
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QUIRMBACH: Some Kenosha taverns try to cater to fans of both teams. At Spanky's Bar and Brill, large flags, lighted beer signs and other items tout both the Packers and Bears. It's not just the customers who have different favorites. The employees do, too. While some managers say they're Packer Backers, bartender Leah Agazzi says she became a Bears fan early on and has stayed one, despite what happens at certain bars.
Ms. LEAH AGAZZI (Bartender, Spanky's Bar and Grill): Packer fans are kind of rude. You know, like, they say, like, a Bear fan is really rude, but if you're a Bear fan and you go to, like, a Packer bar, it's hard. Like, they're harsh.
QUIRMBACH: A few miles south of Kenosha is Winthrop Harbor, Illinois. The Time-Out Sports Pub appears to be safe Bears' country. A team flag flutters below the Stars and Stripes. And inside, owner Chris Athanasiadis goes behind the bar to show off his Bears memorabilia.
Mr. CHRIS ATHANASIADIS (Owner, Time-Out Sport Pub): That's Walter Payton's signed photograph. That's really rare. And this here is Walter Payton's signed jersey. It's a game-worn jersey. That's, like, my prize right there.
QUIRMBACH: But Athanasiadis says he'll try to tamp-down his enthusiasm on Sunday, because even with the Bears items on display, his bar attracts lots of Packers fans, fans like Robbie Hudrick, who lives in Illinois but says his devotion to Green Bay dates back to the early career of former Packers quarterback Brett Favre.
Mr. ROBBIE HUDRICK: As a younger child, it's more watching Favre lead the way he led and being who he was, and now it's stick with what you got.
Unidentified Woman: (unintelligible) the Packers will lose(ph).
(Soundbite of laughter)
Unidentified Man: Packers win. Come on.
Unidentified Woman: Yeah, Packers win. Yeah.
Unidentified Man: Yeah.
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QUIRMBACH: Any line between Packers and Bears territory blurs even further about 15 miles to the northwest, in the small town of Silver Lake, Wisconsin. In a bar painted green on the outside called the Packer Inn, Bert Iruk of Evanston, Illinois is halfway through a beer. He offers to sing the Bears fight song.
Mr. BERT IRUK: (Singing) Bear down, Chicago Bears. Make every play clear the way to victory.
QUIRMBACH: Another patron, Jerry Greiner of Trevor, Wisconsin, says he doesn't mind the Bears fans here, but he does love his Packers.
Mr. JERRY GREINER: I just never liked the city of Chicago. I'm a country boy. And you go north, you go north to the Packerland, to the tundra.
QUIRMBACH: It's likely any bar that can keep the peace between the rivals will be full again next month when either the Bears or the Packers will play in the Super Bowl.
For NPR News, I'm Chuck Quirmbach.
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INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Four teams remain in the NFL playoffs and this weekend they fight it out for two spots in the Super Bowl. We're going to talk about this with NPR's sports correspondent Mike Pesca. Mike, good morning.
MIKE PESCA: Hi.
INSKEEP: Okay. We begin here with the Chicago bears playing the Green Bay Packers.
PESCA: That is a quintessential NFL match-up - storied NFL teams. Oddly, they've only played one other time in the postseason. It was in 1941, a week after Pearl Harbor due to a quirk in scheduling.
INSKEEP: Yeah, we all remember that one. No, go on.
PESCA: Yeah, I had the Packers minus four in that one. So, this is only the second time they've ever played. Every year they play twice a year 'cause they're in the same division. People will point to the fact that at Soldier Field the Packers lost. But the Packers had 18 penalties in that game and so that might have been a factor.
Now, the outsider might say, wait, shouldn't the Bears be favored? They're the home team, they had more wins in the season. They Packers going into the year were thought to be a Super Bowl favorite, but they were so destroyed by injuries that they lost a lot of games, they feel off the radar a little bit. But now they're playing the kind of Packer football that people always thought they would. That's why there was slight favorite in this game.
And, of course, people are talking about their quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, as being the next NFL great quarterback.
INSKEEP: He was, if I'm not mistaken, 31 out of 36 - he threw the ball 36 times, completed 31 passes, last weekend to get into this championship game, which is practically no one's playing defense.
PESCA: Yeah. The key for a quarterback to do that is to get a lot of time or enough time to throw. Now, in the NFL, the average amount of time a quarterback has to throw the ball is 2.4 seconds - not a lot. So, what the line has to do -what the guys in front of him have to do - is hold their blocks for that time or longer.
INSKEEP: Keep the defense off for 2.5 seconds or three if you can manage it. Something like that.
PESCA: Oh, three, forget it. You don't know what to do with that amount of time.
The best player on the Bears' defense in Julius Peppers. He's an absolute beast when it comes to getting into the backfield, wrecking the quarterback's timing. I talked to a researcher at Menlo College named Ben Alamar, and all Ben Alamar did was time - sit with a stopwatch and time - every pass play in the NFL, and he showed that the Packers offensive line is actually pretty good.
And one of the little wrinkles people are talking about in this game is - let's take Julius Peppers, let's line him up against the rookie on the Packers' line - a guy name Bryan Bulaga. But Ben Alamar shows that Bulaga's been great against the pass. Bulaga could have been a very high pick - he has short arms so he fell a little bit to the Packers but he's been really allowing Aaron Rodgers to get a lot of time to throw.
And at least I like the fact that we talk about linemen in this game. It doesn't, you know, usually happen. It's usually the star players that get all the attention.
INSKEEP: I'm sorry, as you talk I just have this image still of the researcher on the edge of his couch hours at a time, eyes wide open, bags under his eyes, looks like a zombie just clicking a stopwatch.
PESCA: Yeah, he's saying everyone always says that college professors have it so easy.
INSKEEP: Well, apparently, the New York Jets line has been giving sufficient protection to Mark Sanchez, their quarterback, because he was very impressive, winning a game against the Patriots to get into this match-up this weekend now against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
PESCA: Mark Sanchez, a second-year quarterback, has kind of done something amazing, which is in the first round of the playoffs he beat Peyton Manning and in the second round of the playoffs he beat Tom Brady and now he's trying to beat Ben Roethlisberger. So, among those three quarterbacks, we're talking about six Super Bowls won. There are only two other quarterbacks in the NFL who have won a Super Bowl at all.
So, the Jets are the slight underdog here. These two teams played earlier in the year. The Jets won. The key in that game was that Troy Polamalu, the Pittsburgh defensive safety, was not in that game. Santonio Holmes, the Jets receiver, at a press conference earlier this week said that Troy Polamalu was the best player he's ever seen. And a lot of people would agree. This thinking is his presence could make the difference in the game.
But the Jets really do have a realistic chance of pulling the slight upset and making it to the second Super Bowl in their history.
INSKEEP: Mike, thanks very much.
PESCA: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: NPR's sports correspondent Mike Pesca.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
It's been a pivotal week in the investigation into the coal mine explosion last year in West Virginia that left 29 mine workers dead. The Mine Safety and Health Administration said there were multiple failures in maintenance and safety systems that contributed to that blast. This was difficult news for the families of those who died and most have kept their reactions private. But the sister of one lost miner decided to speak out. NPR's Howard Berkes has her story.
HOWARD BERKES: The photo on the mantel is from a time when the Jones family was whole. And everybody in it is smiling. Judy Jones Petersen smiles, at first, as she pulls it down, holding her white toy Chihuahua in one hand and this treasured memory in the other.
Ms. JUDY JONES PETERSEN: My mother, this beautiful saint, this angel, has not only lost my sister and my dad, but the losing of my brother has really taken its greatest toll.
BERKES: Dean Jones was 50 when he died April 5th in the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia's Coal River Valley. And Judy was six when Dean and his twin brother were born.
Dr. Petersen: This family will never be the same again. This family is fractured. There's no healing this family.
BERKES: Petersen smiles again as she places the photo back on the mantel. Look at my beautiful brother, she says. With that image and that loss, Petersen traveled from her Charleston home Tuesday night to an auditorium an hour away, where other Upper Big Branch families gathered. It was finally time to hear the official explanation, in a preliminary form they were told, of how and why their loved ones died.
Dr. Petersen: I could never have believed that there could have been such neglect. To allow this mine to be so far out of compliance. And if everything would have been running properly, no life would have been lost that night.
BERKES: Dean Jones was at the far end of that blast with a crew of eight. He was the section boss with 30 years underground.
Dr. Petersen: My brother was an obsessive-compulsive person about these issues of safety. But unfortunately the company standard would not allow people like my brother to look after the safety of his men.
BERKES: Dean's mother-in-law testified before a congressional committee about alleged threats of dismissal when Jones stopped his crew from producing coal in unsafe conditions. She also testified before a federal grand jury.
Jones stayed on the job, his sister says, because his son has cystic fibrosis, and might be difficult to insure in another job. That's how Judy Jones Petersen explains the pressure miners in general may feel to quietly tolerate the conditions at Upper Big Branch. But she has no patience for mine owner Massey Energy for allegedly allowing such conditions to exist.
Dr. Petersen: Where is the integrity in this system? And that has to change. That culture must change. And the reason I'm doing this, Howard, is I can't change anything about the wounds that have occurred for my family. But I don't want any other family to have to suffer what my family has had to suffer.
BERKES: Petersen is a physician, so she knows suffering and physical trauma. And she was one of the few family members who asked to see battered remains.
Dr. Petersen: Because I wanted to know from a scientific point of view how much force was generated on my brother and try to make a decision about whether or not my brother suffered. And when I looked at my brother in the body bag, it was - my brother was unrecognizable to me.
BERKES: Massey Energy had planned to conduct its own family briefing today but postponed it until next Friday because of a winter storm. Judy Jones Petersen says she'll be there, with vastly different images of her brother Dean etched in her memory, and armed with tough questions.
Howard Berkes, NPR News, Beckley, West Virginia.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
NPR business news starts with Warner Music buying and selling.
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INSKEEP: Warner is one of the worlds biggest record labels and its trying to play two melodies at once. Warner is exploring a sale of itself to new owners. Warner is currently owned by private investors who may be looking to cash out. But, at the same time, Warner is exploring the possibility of acquiring another firm, the struggling British music label EMI.
The New York Times first reported these developments. Today, The Wall Street Journal reports that Warner has hired the investment bank Goldman Sachs Group to help find buyers for part, or all of its businesses.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
President Obama will be in upstate New York today touring a General Electric factory and showcasing that company's successes. Mr. Obama just named GE's chief executive the head of a new panel on jobs and competitiveness. GE boss Jeff Immelt has been speaking about the need to focus on manufacturing and increase the country's exports.
Here's NPR's Chris Arnold.
CHRIS ARNOLD: In 1969, manufacturers employed 25 percent of American workers. These days, it's less than 10 percent. You look at a chart and it's just a steady and relentless downward trend.
Mr. FRANK VARGO (Vice president, National Association of Manufacturers): In employment. Not in manufacturing.
ARNOLD: Frank Vargo is a vice president at the National Association of Manufacturers. He says that people see job declines and they think that manufacturing itself is dying. In fact, he says, if you look at the products sold or shipped by U.S. manufacturers...
Mr. VARGO: In 2008, we shipped $5.5 trillion of product, an all-time record. So while employment steadily goes down, our sales or production steadily goes up.
ARNOLD: A big part of the reason is better technology. Smarter and better machines mean that U.S. factories can make more with fewer workers. That's why, as the president looks for ways to create manufacturing jobs, Vargo says he needs to look at increasing exports to boost sales.
Mr. VARGO: People say oh, you know, everything's made in China. They're not looking at the stuff that we make: the locomotives, the aircraft, the engines, the plastics and the pharmaceuticals. But the domestic market for manufactured goods, it grows slowly. The fast markets are overseas. We've got to sell overseas.
ARNOLD: Vargo says that means getting other countries to knock down trade barriers on everything from U.S. chemicals to Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
Chris Arnold, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Google is changing leaders. The company announced yesterday that its CEO Eric Schmidt is stepping down and handing the reins to one of the companies co-founders Larry Page.
NPR's Laura Sydell reports.
LAURA SYDELL: When Eric Schmidt took the job as Google CEO he was brought in to be the grown up - to counter the inexperience of its then 20-something founders - Sergey Brin and Larry Page. But, over the last year Schmidt's response to questions about privacy haven't made him look mature - they've made him look a little scary. He had this to say on CNBC about how the company collects personal information.
Mr. ERIC SCHMIDT (CEO, Google): If you have something that you don't want anyone to know maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.
SYDELL: Schmidt's comments made him the brunt of a few jokes. This popular YouTube video has a cartoon version of the CEO with a bunch of children.
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Unidentified Man: Come on kids. Get your ice cream. I already know your favorite flavors. Now hold still while we collect some of your secrets.
SYDELL: Publicly, Schmidt's image wasn't looking good says Danny Sullivan of searchengineland.com, which follows Google.
Mr. DANNY SULLIVAN (searchengineland.com): There've been times that I've looked at this and I've just thought, oh my god, you just probably need to stop talking and you can't do that if you're the CEO.
SYDELL: Schmidt is staying with Google but in a lower profile position as executive chairman. Schmidt has achieved a lot in the decade he's been CEO. When he arrived at Google at the offices there were disheveled engineers and programmers sleeping under desks. He professionalized the company. Google was taking in under $200 million a year in profit, last year it took in $29 billion.
Whit Andrews an analyst with Gartner doesn't think Schmidt is stepping down over a few poorly worded statements.
Mr. WHIT ANDREWS (Vice President and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner Research): Eric's results really do speak for themselves. He is not being replaced because of a few gaffs he may have made.
SYDELL: Yesterday, Google reported a 29 percent surge in profits, beating Wall Street expectations. Andrews thinks Google is worried about the future and new competition.
Mr. ANDREWS: Google clearly feels it must respond to Facebook and other software companies in a way that it feels Page is best capable of addressing.
has grown too much. Schmidt may have professionalized Google but some complain it doesn't have that old creative spark. All decisions were looked over by Schmidt as well as co-founders Page and Brin.
Forrester analyst Nate Eliot.
Mr. NATE ELLIOTT (Principal Analyst, Forrester Research): There's been a lot of talk over the last 10 years about the triumvirate structure they have over there and the fact that all three of them make decisions together and the thinking apparently, is that with just two of them those decisions will happen more quickly.
SYDELL: Putting the 37-year-old co-founder in charge might also give the company a facelift that will help it keep and attract talented employees, says analyst Sullivan.
Mr. SULLIVAN: Perhaps revitalizing that idea that Google is this innovative startup is part of all this I think. Both in terms of helping your investors feel reassured and also your own employees because they've, you know, had a problem where they've lost employees over to Facebook.
SYDELL: In a Tweet today, Schmidt wrote: day to day adult supervision is no longer needed. Larry Page will become CEO on April 4th.
Laura Sydell, NPR News, San Francisco.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And our last word in business today is the demise of the DVD. It wasn't so long ago, just a few years, that a character in the TV series "The Sopranos" took to hanging around the main character's house. He seemed excited by their great DVD player. Now the company that ships DVD's to your house is looking to a future beyond DVD's.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
That would be Netflix. It announced a change to its online business this week. That change makes it a bit harder for people who stream movies to also order physical discs to their homes. Unhappy customers accused Netflix of trying to kill off DVD subscriptions.
Spokesman Steve Swasey said no, not the case.
Mr. STEVE SWASEY (Vice President of Corporate Communications, Netflix): The objective is to keep the streaming as simple and as focused on streaming as possible.
MONTAGNE: But the fact is Netflix is planning to get rid of DVDs. The question is when?
Mr. SWASEY: We haven't said exactly when we forecast the demise of DVD. We think we'll be shipping DVDs for several more years.
INSKEEP: Several more years, but not forever.
MONTAGNE: And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
Chicago is President Hu Jintao's last stop in the United States and there he will mostly focus on the business ties between the U.S. and his country, China.
But one thing has dogged Hu's trip here to the U.S., China's human rights record.
MONTAGNE: Yesterday, Congressional leaders spent about an hour with the Chinese leader and broached the subject. Afterwards, House Speaker John Boehner said the Chinese have to do better on human rights and the U.S. has to hold them to account.
Congressman Chris Smith, Republican from New Jersey, is a long-time and vocal critic of China's human rights record. He joins us from his home here in Washington D.C. Welcome.
Rep. CHRIS SMITH (Republican, New Jersey): Thank you very much, Renee. Great to be on.
MONTAGNE: And Congressman Smith, you were not at that meeting yesterday, but you stood with Speaker Boehner afterwards. What is your understanding of what happened?
Rep. SMITH: Well, Speaker Boehner was very clear that violations of religious freedom, the persecution of people simply because of their faith, is totally unacceptable, and that people ought to have freedom to practice, whether to be Falun Gong, Catholics, Uighurs, Muslims or Buddhists in Tibet.
He also very strongly raised the problems with the one child per couple policy which, since 1979, has rendered brothers and sisters illegal in China and has relied on forced abortion and forced sterilization to achieve its end. It is the worst violation of women's rights ever.
MONTAGNE: Congressman Smith, you are a very fierce opponent of abortion rights here in this country, so this would be of great concern to you. But aside from that, give us another example of how you see the Chinese government abusing human rights.
Rep. SMITH: Sure. The use of torture against political prisoners, against democracy activists and human rights promoters is endemic.
If you're arrested for a trumped up charge, you will be tortured - sometimes to death - but often to extract confessions and the names of other people. And it's pervasive. It's not the exception, and this has been documented by the U.N. and by others. It is the rule.
And in the area of reporters, unfortunately, whether it be the internet or public or print media, everything is censored, and they actually go into people's emails to find out who's talking to who about religious freedom or human rights or the Dalai Lama, and they arrest them as well.
MONTAGNE: When pressed, Congressman when pressed at a news conference, President Hu did acknowledge the issue and he spoke of China being a developing country with a huge population and at a crucial stage of reform. And I'm quoting him: "A lot still needs to be done in China, in terms of human rights."
To you and those who are concerned, how important is it that he can see it even that much?
Rep. SMITH: Well, frankly, you know, you got to look at the people's deeds. His deeds, right up until the moment he's got onboard an airplane to come to the United States, has been to continue to incarcerate Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Not only does Hu Jintao persecute the individual activists, he also goes after the families of the dissidents, the families of those who pursue peaceful democratic change.
So, to make that kind of statement, you know, we need deeds. It's a dictatorship.
MONTAGNE: But with all respect, there are those who make an argument, and considered a strong argument, for working with China, helping it emerge as a country with more respect for human rights. What is the Republican Party - now that it is in the majority in the House - what efforts will you and the leadership make to influence U.S. policy towards China on human rights, and also without hurting other concerns of the Republican majority in the House, which has to do with creating jobs in the economy - all of which are tied in to China?
Rep. SMITH: Well, unfortunately, we've been losing jobs to China, particularly the manufacturing area. But I would argue that promoting human rights for people first, profit second, you're more apt to see a matriculation from this dictatorship to a democracy.
But we need to reassert, as Republicans and democrats yesterday's meeting with Speaker Boehner, was matched with good comments by Speaker - former Speaker -Pelosi. There is bipartisan support for human rights in China. Unfortunately the White House, they didn't get the memo.
MONTAGNE: Congressman Chris Smith, Republican from New Jersey: A vocal critic of China's human rights record. Thank you for joining us.
Rep. SMITH: Thank you very much, Renee.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
We go to news now on America's biggest purveyor of groceries and the first lady's campaign to improve children's eating habits. Wal-Mart has announced a five-year effort to make healthy food more accessible and affordable around the country. At a kickoff news conference, the first lady said the company's move has the potential to transform the entire food marketplace.
NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY: Michelle Obama says her push to make healthier food more widely available is rooted in her own experience not so long ago, before she became first lady, when she was just another busy working mom.
Ms. MICHELLE OBAMA: I remember standing in aisle after aisle in the grocery store searching high and low for the best options for my family, feeling so frustrated by how the healthy choice wasn't necessarily the affordable choice.
HORSLEY: Wal-Mart thinks it can change that. Senior Vice President Andrea Thomas says in the next five years, Wal-Mart will work with suppliers to reduce the salt and added sugar in thousands of prepared foods.
Standing in front of a display case filled with gleaming fruits and vegetables yesterday, Thomas said Wal-Mart is also using its supply chain know-how to shave costs off healthy items so eating right doesn't have to be more expensive.
Ms. ANDREA THOMAS (Senior Vice President of Private Brands, Wal-Mart): For instance, we're building more direct relationships with farmers. We believe we can save Americans who shop at Wal-Mart approximately one billion dollars per year on fresh fruits and vegetables.
HORSLEY: Wal-Mart will also develop a label to point shoppers to foods it considers healthy. And it's promising to build new stores in neighborhoods where food options are currently limited.
The initiative coincides with Wal-Mart's push into new urban markets, including Washington, D.C. Michelle Obama says the benefits are limited to a single retail chain.
Ms. OBAMA: When big companies like Wal-Mart make changes like this, that doesn't just affect the food sold in Wal-Mart, it affects the products that suppliers make and sell in grocery stores all across this country.
HORSLEY: As the nation's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart's already used its clout to change the way suppliers package and price their products.
Nutritionist Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina says the company can use that same leverage to make food makers cut down on salt and sugar.
Dr. BARRY POPKIN (Global Nutrition, University of North Carolina): They have the technology, they have the will and desire, and if Wal-Mart says we want you to do it, it will happen.
HORSLEY: Popkin adds it will be important to monitor Wal-Mart's actual results.
Over the last 30 years, he says, the cheapest calories have often come from sugary soft drinks and salty snacks. Wal-Mart could encourage customers to eat better simply by making healthy items more affordable.
Dr. POPKIN: Cost and price matters to all of America.
HORSLEY: Sarah Palin and others have mocked the first lady's campaign, saying children's nutrition should be left to parents, not the government. Michelle Obama insists her conservative critics have it all wrong.
Ms. OBAMA: It's not about government telling people what to do. That's not what this is about. It's about each of us in our own families, in our communities, standing up and demanding more for our kids. And it's about companies like Wal-Mart answering that call.
HORSLEY: That answer may not sway Wal-Mart's critics, including the union representing workers at competing grocery stores.
During the campaign, President Obama himself criticized Wal-Mart for low wages and benefits. A White House spokesman explained the new embrace of the company yesterday, saying lots has happened since 2007.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.
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MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Iraq is going through a wave of violence. It comes as the United States continues reducing its troop levels. This week alone, suicide bombers targeted police and police recruits in the cities of Tikrit and Baquba, both those cities north of Baghdad. And suicide bombers yesterday attacked Shiite pilgrims. They were on their way to an annual religious ceremony in the holy city of Karbala. More than 100 people have died this week, and hundreds more have been injured. And we're going to talk about this with NPR's Kelly McEvers, who reports from Iraq.
Hi, Kelly.
KELLY MCEVERS: Hi.
INSKEEP: I want to try to get this in context here, because there has been so much violence. How serious is the latest violence in the context of Iraq?
MCEVERS: Well, you know, in general, overall violence is on a downward trend in Iraq. During the sectarian fighting in 2006 and 2007, you saw hundreds of people being killed here every day. By contrast, last month, there was only about probably a hundred deaths from violence.
In fact, last year, the overall number of attacks was the lowest since the American invasion in 2003. But then you have these surprise attacks that seem to spring out of nowhere. Iraqis always tell me you should never get too complacent. You know, it's just the calm before the storm.
INSKEEP: And these are familiar-sounding attacks. When we hear about attacks on police and police recruits, those kinds of things have happened for years. Who committed the latest attacks, as far as anyone knows?
MCEVERS: So far, no one's claimed responsibility. But in the past, it's been Sunni militant groups, these al-Qaida-affiliated groups who target police recruits and Shiite pilgrims. This is a regular pattern for them.
And when I say al-Qaida-affiliated, I mean that they receive, you know, some guidance and leadership from the larger al-Qaida organization led by Osama bin Laden. But the local group here really is its own thing. It's called the Islamic State of Iraq, and it's been around for several years. You know, they have ministers and regional governors, kind of like a shadow government.
I mean, analysts say their aim is to take revenge against what they see as a U.S.-backed, Shiite-dominated government and, you know, to keep Iraq as unstable as possible, so they can maintain a foothold here.
INSKEEP: Although we should mention that this is in a moment when the United States is backing out of Iraq to a large degree, when the government says they want the United States to back away. Is this really an American problem when there's violence like this?
MCEVERS: You know, less and less so. The Americans continue to hammer home the message that, you know, it's the Iraqis who are taking the lead. It's the Iraqis who are responsible for their own security as they withdraw their troops by the end of this year.
Recently, the Iraqi police did nab a key cell. That cell was responsible for some other major, high-profile attacks recently. And those arrests did provide some interesting information about the Islamic State of Iraq: first, that these men are well-trained, that they carefully plan these attacks in advance -second, that they're really conscious about what gets the most media attention, you know, because they can't launch these huge-scale attacks anymore. So it's getting media attention that's important. And third, it showed that when one cell is caught, another one just moves in and takes its place.
INSKEEP: You just said can't launch these huge attacks anymore. Is that suggesting that the terrorist forces in Iraq are not what they once were?
MCEVERS: That's what Iraqi and American officials insist on. And when you look at the downward trend in numbers, I think that bears out. You don't see these huge attacks with enormous amounts of munitions packed into truck bombs, you know, attacking four hotels at a time, getting into really secure parts of, say, Baghdad or other major cities.
When they attack something like, say, a Christian church, you know, it's something that they know is going to get a lot of media attention. They even choose places - you know, recently the cell that was caught said that they chose the church because it was near media organizations who they knew would cover the story.
INSKEEP: Kelly, thanks very much.
MCEVERS: Sure.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Kelly McEvers, speaking to us today from Erbil, Iraq.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep, with congratulations to Los Angeles. It may be America's second largest city, but it's number one for rudeness.
RENEE MONTAGNE: What?
(Soundbite of laughter)
INSKEEP: That's, Renee's city. You're very polite. But Travel and Leisure�magazine says L.A. is even more rude than New York. Apparently, you talking to me is less rude than we simply must do lunch sometime. Washington is only the fifth most rude city in America, although it's not clear if that includes Congress.
You are listening to MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
Boy Scouts are no longer just tying knots or helping old people across the street. Now they're working as traffic cops. The Daily Mail reports members of one troop in England earned badges for helping officers catch speeding drivers. The 10 to 14-year-olds first learned to use laser speed guns, then they stopped two dozen motorists. Violators were given the option of a fine or a warning by the scouts. They all chose the warning.
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Bank of America reported a fourth-quarter loss of $1.2 billion total losses for last year. The nation's biggest bank amounted to more than $2 billion. Bank of America is still struggling with its purchase of the troubled mortgage lender, Countrywide Financial.
Also hurting the bottom line is billions of dollars the bank set aside to deal with disputes with mortgage investors.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Every Saturday afternoon for the past 80 years, the Metropolitan Opera has broadcast the work of such composers as Verdi, Wagner, and Mozart. The Met broadcasts are now the longest-running classical music program in the United States. But opera on the radio goes back even further, more than 100 years.
As Keith Brand reports, it too began at the Met.
KEITH BRAND: The marriage of opera and broadcasting began January 13th, 1910, at the Metropolitan Opera. It was an experimental broadcast, a decade before the appearance of the first radio stations in the U.S.
Mr. MARK SCHUBIN (Engineering consultant): The inventor who had arranged for the broadcast, Lee de Forest, had asked the radiotelegraph operators if they could kindly refrain from transmitting during the January 12th experiment, and they did.
BRAND: Mark Schubin is the Met's unofficial historian of media history.
Mr. SCHUBIN: But on the 13th, the inventor of the equipment that was used to pick up the opera decided that he should invite the press. But one of the radiotelegraph operators did not abide by the silence code, and there was crackles of static...
(Soundbite of crackling noise)
Mr. SCHUBIN: ...coming from his transmission of Morse code. And one of the reporters asked what the Morse code said, and it was, I have just taken my beer and now I take my seat.
BRAND: That first full opera, broadcast on January 13th, might very well have sounded like this...
(Soundbite of static) (Soundbite of opera music and singing)
BRAND: It took a number of years and some sober minds before regular opera broadcasts commenced on Christmas Day 1931. The Met was struggling financially because of the Depression, and the broadcasts provided access to a large audience - thus, the very first fundraising appeal.
Mrs. AUGUST BELMONT: We all realize that opera has grown from a private luxury to a national necessity. And the responsibility must pass from a limited group to an unlimited group...
BRAND: Mrs. August Belmont was the first woman on the board of directors of the Metropolitan Opera, and it was through these appeals that their finances were stabilized. But if it was one voice more than any other that ensured their success, it was Milton Cross.
Mr. MILTON CROSS (Radio announcer): Ladies and gentlemen, this afternoon, the Radio Corporation of America has the honor to present a performance by the Metropolitan Opera Company of Richard Wagners celebrated music drama Siegfried.
BRAND: From his seat at the old Metropolitan Opera House at 40th and Broadway, Cross brought the drama and spectacle of grand opera to millions of radio listeners across the country.
(Soundbite of music)
BRAND: Ned Eckhardt lived in Greenwich Village during the 1960s and remembers walking into a barbershop on a Saturday afternoon in New York when the broadcast was playing.
Mr. NED ECKHARDT: There were about 75 people in the barbershop; three barbers were singing the aria all together.
(Soundbite of opera music and singing)
Mr. ECKHARDT: And it was just such a great cacophony of wonderful sound. And when the aria was over, everybody cheered and went bravo and the three barbers took bows.
(Soundbite of music) (Soundbite of applause)
Ms. MARGARET JUNTWAIT (Host, Metropolitan Opera): One of the things that you hope to bring into a broadcast is a real sense of what we are all experiencing here at the Met.
BRAND: Margaret Juntwait is the current host of the Saturday broadcast and is only the third person to hold that job after Milton Cross and Peter Allen.
Ms. JUNTWAIT: If you are sitting in your home, you want to be able to meet the broadcast halfway with your imagination. You want to be able to picture what things look like on the stage. That's something that I got from Peter Allen and from Milton Cross, is creating an experience in the mind.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. JUNTWAIT: In her dream, a mother and daughter sit together, embracing each other. The father rushes in with other men, grabs the daughter.
BRAND: While the Met plans to continue the radio broadcasts, it has also recently been simulcasting some performances into movie theaters around the country.
For NPR News, I'm Keith Brand.
(Soundbite of opera music and singing)
SIMON: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
John Mearsheimer proposes a provocative question in his new book: When is it all right for leaders to lie to other leaders, other nations, or their own? Professor Mearsheimer, who teaches political science at the University of Chicago, provoked a lot of controversy with his last book, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy." He joins us from Chicago. Thanks very much for being with us.
Professor JOHN MEARSHEIMER (Political Science, University of Chicago; Author, "Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics," "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy"): My pleasure being here.
SIMON: And is it always wrong for leaders to lie?
Prof. MEARSHEIMER: No. It's sometimes - I'm sad to say - makes good strategic sense for leaders to lie not only to other countries but even their own people. The fact is that strategic lying is a useful tool of state craft.
SIMON: Professor Mearsheimer's new book is called "Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics." And I have to ask you: do people ask you why is the book with that title only 102 pages long?
Prof. MEARSHEIMER: Yes. The fact is that most people believe that leaders lie all the time. And I thought that when I first began the book. But I discovered actually not many examples of leaders lying to other countries and even not that many examples of leaders lying to their own public.
And just to show you how jaded most people are, they refuse to believe that. And they tell me I'm just not looking hard enough. There have to be countless examples out there. But the truth is there's not that much lying in international politics.
SIMON: And we should make plain you're not sympathetic to it as a human principle. The phrase you deploy is strategic deception I think.
Prof. MEARSHEIMER: Yeah. I mean, it pains me to actually make the argument that lying is sometimes a good thing. But international politics, as you know, is a rough business. And sometimes it makes very good sense to lie. I think the best example of this is how John F. Kennedy ended the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Khrushchev would only agree to take the Soviet missiles out of Cuba if Kennedy would take the Jupiter missiles out of Turkey. But Kennedy understood that if the American public and the Europeans, especially the Turks, found out that we were taking the Jupiter missiles out of Turkey that that would cause him enormous problems. And he probably wouldnt be able to consummate the deal.
So he told Khrushchev, in effect, that Khrushchev could not spell out the details of the agreement. And he told Khrushchev that if he was asked whether or not this deal had been cut, he would lie and his lieutenants would lie and said no such deal had been cut.
Now, I think that lie made eminently good sense because it helped end the Cuban Missile Crisis. And it think, given that general thermal nuclear war might have resulted if that crisis had not ended, it made sense for Kennedy to lie.
SIMON: Let me follow up a bit. Recognizing certainly that averting thermal nuclear wars - a goal devoutly to be desired - did that deception that ended the Cuban Missile Crisis, have the effect of establishing what amounts to a false gold standard for successful U.S. action; because it wasnt advertised that a compromise had ended the crisis but standing firm and not buckling?
Prof. MEARSHEIMER: I think you can make that argument. I think it's very rarely the case that any policy decision is all good. There's almost always some downside, and I think thats true.
I also think, you know, in that particular case, Kennedy was lying to the American public. And for a democracy, I think it's not a particularly healthy thing for a leader to lie to his or her public. But the fact is that there are cases where it sometimes makes very good sense.
SIMON: Do you have, Professor Mearsheimer, any general reaction to WikiLeaks?
Prof. MEARSHEIMER: Well, Im very interested in WikiLeaks. One of the key arguments in the book that I make, is that leaders appear to lie less often to other countries than they do to their own publics. And when you look at the WikiLeaks documents that have been released so far, what you see is that most of the lies - at least most of the lies that I've been able to uncover -involve leaders lying to their own public, not lying to other countries.
SIMON: You seem to have certain tolerance in the book for what we call spinning, in part because if everybody knows thats what you're doing they can read the tea leaves, or they can read between your lines.
Prof. MEARSHEIMER: Right. I think that spinning is not lying. It's where people exaggerate their positive attributes and downplay or conceal their negative attributes.
If you were to ask President Obama how does he think about the state of the economy today and where it's headed, he would spin like crazy. He would emphasize all the positive aspects of our present economic situation. And he would downplay or not talk about the more negative aspects. I think politicians are perennial spinners. This is what they do for a living.
But spinning is very different than lying. Lying is where you actually betray someone's trust by telling him or her something that you know to be false. And it's very difficult for that person to be able to figure that you're lying, because the person trusts you, and you say this lie with great assurance.
SIMON: John Mearsheimer who's the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. His new book, "Why Leaders Lie: The Truth About Lying in International Politics."
Thanks so much for being with us.
Prof. MEARSHEIMER: Thanks for having me, Scott.
SIMON: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
We're going to talk about a book for children right now. Not with our old friend Daniel Pinkwater. We need a little mathematical expertise for this one. The book is called You Can Count On Monsters and it's about prime numbers and prime factorizations.
Thankfully, we have a math whiz, our old friend Keith Devlin on the line. He joins us from Stanford.
Welcome back, Keith.
Mr. KEITH DEVLIN (The Math Guy): Thanks, Scott. It's good to be talking about a math book I can actually enjoy.
SIMON: The book, You Can Count On Monsters, is written by Richard Evan Schwartz, and hes a math professor at Brown University. I'm assuming you guys go to conventions together or something, right?
Mr. DEVLIN: I actually haven't met the author but I was at a convention a couple of weeks ago. I was browsing the book display.
SIMON: Mm-hmm.
Mr. DEVLIN: This one book in the corner just jumped out, I grabbed over, I talked to the publisher and I said, I've got to talk to Scott about this on NPR. This is one of the most amazing math books for kids I have ever seen.
SIMON: Well, help us understand it. Firstly, the illustrations are extraordinary.
Mr. DEVLIN: Oh, yeah, they just jump out. Its beautiful. I mean the author, who is a professor of mathematics at Brown, has this incredible ability to do really good artwork. The kind of artwork that appeals to anyone from the ages of sort of two or three years old all the way to being elderly like myself. Its great colors, it's wonderful, and yet because he knows the mathematics, he very skillfully and subtly embeds mathematical ideas into the drawings. You can tell it's sort of mathematical because his monsters in the book. It's all about monsters.
SIMON: Every number gets a monster.
Mr. DEVLIN: Thats right, and they look vaguely geometrical. And the prime monsters are monsters that can't be broken up into simpler monsters, like the prime numbers, and the composite monsters are made up of simpler monsters. In fact, if you look at each composite monster, part of the fun is figuring out how the artist has embedded all of the prime monsters in it, so the monsters follow the structure of the numbers. It's beautifully done.
SIMON: And whats the best working definition of a prime number?
Mr. DEVLIN: A prime number is a number thats only divisible by itself and one. One itself is excluded, so the examples are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19. Composite numbers, the non-primes, are the ones which can be broken up into a product of smaller numbers, like four, which is 2x2, six, which is 2x3 or 15, which is 3x5.
SIMON: Take a look, Keith. You have the book in front of you?
Mr. DEVLIN: I have the book in front of me.
SIMON: Take a look at 31.
Mr. DEVLIN: The number 31. Okay, lets have a look. Its on six, six, six, six, six...
SIMON: Its just beautifully serpentine.
Mr. DEVLIN: Oh, the serpentine, the snake and you have to find out where there's a 31. And my guess is there's probably 31 corners in there. But I might be wrong. I might have to sit down and count and kids would love to do the counting. Kids love to recognize patterns. They love to count.
SIMON: Yes.
Mr. DEVLIN: And each of these you have to find out where is the 31 in there and its gorgeous. I mean the other nice thing is the diagrams are clearly geometrical, because they have corners and edges, but they have personalities.
SIMON: Yeah.
Mr. DEVLIN: I mean these monsters are fun creatures that you would like to have as pets or I would.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: No, I would too, particularly 31.
Mr. DEVLIN: Yeah. Yeah.
SIMON: Youngsters can start thumbing through this book at any age and really begin to...
Mr. DEVLIN: I would think at any age, yeah.
SIMON: ...begin to understand at the age of lets say five or six I should think.
Mr. DEVLIN: Yeah. And the parents, I mean parents, even the nonmathematical parents, don't really need to be afraid of this one because the parent can learn as he or she is going along, because there's a little guide at the front and a little bit of information at the back to help you understand what's going on. And it's only counting in multiplication.
SIMON: The illustrations in this book help make a visual association for youngsters so that it's characterized in their heads. It's not just, forgive me saying this to you Keith, it's not just a bunch of numbers. Theyve become kind of real properties of the way they see the world.
Mr. DEVLIN: Oh, indeed. And thats the point. The thing that distinguishes mathematicians is that we at some stage in our development, we develop this understanding that numbers do have personalities, they have structures, they have relationships, we form that but most people don't manage to get it.
What Schwartz has managed to do is use his own skill as an artist to bring out some of the personalities. And the point is that what he brings out through his art is actually structure and the personality that those of us in the business have always seen; we just haven't got the tools and the ability to make it accessible the way Schwartz has managed. Its the skill he has an artist that makes it work.
SIMON: Keith, thanks so much for bringing this to our attention.
Mr. DEVLIN: My pleasure. I'm just delighted to get the word about this wonderful book out there.
SIMON: Our Math Guy, Keith Devlin, speaking from Stanford.
Thanks so much, Keith.
Mr. DEVLIN: Okay. Great. That was fun.
SIMON: And you can see a slide show of the illustrations in "You Can Count On Monsters" on our website, npr.org.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
It's not often that artists from the United States and Cuba work together in Havana. Collaboration between two photographers with life experiences takes a new look at Old Havana. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT: Nestor Marti is 38 and a photojournalist in Cuba's bustling capital city. Chip Cooper is 60 and known for artistic, composed shots of the Alabama countryside. Both of them typically work alone, but for the last two years they've been a team, walking the narrow streets and wide plazas of Old Havana.
Mr. NESTOR MARTI (Photojournalist, Cuba): You're working step by step, side by side, then you show me the picture, I show you the picture, or show him the pictures, and you make a different way. Not his way, not my way, it's our way, you know? It's like a balance, it's our dance.
ELLIOTT: But before they could fall into step, Marti says, they had to find a common bond. They discovered it in the work of Walker Evans, who had photographed Cuba in the 1930s before his seminal portraits of Alabama tenant farmers in the book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men."
Chip Cooper says Evans provided inspiration for how they could work together, despite their different backgrounds.
Mr. CHIP COOPER (Photographer, Alabama): All that we thought about was let's take what Walker Evans did, and if it requires to be journalist or artist, it doesn't really matter. It's just gonna be.
ELLIOTT: The collaboration grew out of the Alabama-Cuba Initiative, an academic exchange program at the University of Alabama, where Cooper is a teacher and artist-in-residence.
The state of Alabama, with its port in Mobile, is a major exporter of agricultural products to Cuba an estimated $18.6 million worth in 2009 most of it chicken meat. State trade officials have long advocated building relationships with Cuba, should the U.S. ease trade restrictions.
Mr. COOPER: Why don't we start here with - this is Nestor's photograph that he took in a very popular square in Havana.
Mr. MARTI: It used to be a market in the 18th and 19th century.
ELLIOTT: Strolling through a recent exhibit at the University of Alabama, Nestor Marti says he and Cooper set out to document the restoration of Old Havana, the cultural and historical center of the island.
Mr. MARTI: We tried to show here the people of Havana, the feeling of a living city.
Mr. COOPER: Things happened very quickly. It's a moment of time.
ELLIOTT: That meant Chip Cooper had to ditch his trusty tripod.
Mr. COOPER: What Nestor does day in and day out in Havana, he's a street photographer and shoots with an artistic eye. Most of my work is in landscape. I live in a rural area of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. So what Nestor helped me do is to learn that spontaneity in an urban setting.
ELLIOTT: You can see that lesson in a striking portrait of an old man with a weathered face, intense eyes and a crooked Cuba baseball cap. Cooper says he noticed the man walking down the street some 60 feet away, and waited, camera-ready as the flow of people streamed by, his subject oblivious until the last minute.
Mr. COOPER: And what I waited for was eye contact between he and my lens. And it to me is one of my strongest photographs that says, I am a survivor. I have a right to be here.
Mr. MARTI: This guy lived a lot of things. Probably the most important part of the 20th century, okay? There was a lot change. He lived part of that, the revolution, all the process with the things, the good things, bad things, the wrong things, the right things.
ELLIOTT: The work includes intimate portraits like this, but also grander shots of the centuries-old architecture and colorful markets in Old Havana. And there were surprises, like when the duo stopped for a break from the midday sun in front of a large, corrugated metal garage-like door and noticed a smaller, 4-foot opening.
Mr. COOPER: And at the same moment Nestor and I see somebody come out of this hole bent over, opened the door and stepped out and closed this door.
Mr. MARTI: We say, wow, what is this? We discovered the place, or the place discovered us. Inside an evangelical church service, worshippers on wooden benches, eyes closed and arms raised in praise.
Mr. COOPER: It's a world within a world. And I think that really is what this exhibit is about - is on the surface it is one thing; when you start digging down, and you found a whole other world almost like a forbidden place.
ELLIOTT: About 200 of Cooper and Marti's images have been combined for an exhibit called "Havana - Side by Side," which has been on display in both Cuba and Tuscaloosa. They're working now on a book that will be published later this year.
Mr. COOPER: I hope from this body of work and what Nestor and I felt from the very beginning is to give a glimpse into a society that most Americans really don't know much about other than Fidel, cigars and Cuba is an island. That this is island of people very much like us. They have their hopes and dreams, they have their goals and they have their desperation.
ELLIOTT: The final portrait in the collection is a woman, her head wrapped in a white scarf, hands raised to her chin, eyes gazing upward.
Debbie Elliott, NPR News.
SIMON: And you can see photos from the exhibition on NPR's photoblog, The Picture Show, on our website NPR.org.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
In the deep of winter it's nice to be taken on a journey - if only in our minds. The new album, "Cape Dory," does just that.
(Soundbite of song, "Take Me Somewhere")
TENNIS: (Singing) Sitting in the sand, waiting for you to reach the plan. Sitting in the sand, waiting for you to reach the plan. (unintelligible) take me right there...
SIMON: This retro pop-infused album was written and recorded by the husband and wife team Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore while they journeyed on the Atlantic in a 30-foot sailboat. They call their band Tennis. And they join us now from across the Atlantic at BBC studios in Glasgow. Thank you both very much for being with us.
Ms. ALAINA MOORE (Singer): Thanks for having us.
Mr. PATRICK RILEY (Singer): Yeah, thank you.
SIMON: I had read your blog of the journey and you know what is...firstly, I liked it a lot. We...
Ms. MOORE: Thank you.
SIMON: When you talk about sailing up and down of the eastern coast of the United States on the Atlantic, there's almost no mention of music.
Ms. MOORE: I know, yeah. That was definitely not something that we had on our minds at the time. It was all about sailing. We were trying to immerse ourselves into our new lifestyle and get everything we could out of the experience. It wasn't until later that we felt so inspired by the experiences that we had that we wanted to kind of invest it all into something and we decided to use music.
SIMON: But I'm guessing you just don't decide to write an album and start learning instruments. Music must have been a part of your lives before this.
Mr. RILEY: Yeah, it certainly was for both of us. Alaina kind of grew up classically trained in piano and I grew up playing guitar most of my life in various bands that were extremely unsuccessful.
SIMON: Wow. And what was there about sailing that made you decide to get your instruments out again and start making music?
Ms. MOORE: I think it was because we had so much time left to ourselves, you know, to read and write and be a part of nature. Sailing is such a simple life without a lot of distractions. And you suddenly feel more productive and more thoughtful and...
Mr. RILEY: Yeah, you feel like the rawest form of experience, like an experience devoid of judgment or opinions from other people. And I think it just yields itself to, like, more creativity or something.
Ms. MOORE: Absolutely.
SIMON: Talk a bit about the structure of this album. It begins with that song, "Take Me Somewhere," which we heard, and winds up, the penultimate song is "Baltimore" because you wind up your journey at the Port of Baltimore.
Ms. MOORE: Right.
SIMON: So, does the play of the album match your trip?
Ms. MOORE: It does...
Mr. RILEY: Yeah.
Ms. MOORE: ...chronologically and otherwise. It follows us from port to port and also from, you know, "Take Me Somewhere" was, like, the dream of going sailing.
Mr. RILEY: Yeah, I think that's when I had, like, convinced Alaina to come with me.
Ms. MOORE: Exactly.
Mr. RILEY: It was, like, OK for her to commit to that idea.
SIMON: You guys were unmarried then, right?
Ms. MOORE: Yeah. We hadn't really considered getting married although we considered ourselves life partners. But whenever we said that nobody really understood what we meant. It ended up being easier to just be married, but after we had spent so much time living in a small space together, we felt really confident in that decision.
SIMON: Yeah. Well, I mean, I've read in your blog that actually when other people would come onboard the boat you couldn't wait for them to leave.
Ms. MOORE: I know. We were really surprised. We always thought we'd be excited for the reprieve in company but actually we were just excited to just go back to our own place.
Mr. RILEY: We, like, know each other so well that it's gotten to the point where we're unbelievably codependent.
SIMON: Aw. Well, I mean, well, welcome to adulthood.
Ms. MOORE: I guess so.
SIMON: Let's listen to another song here - fun, light, pop, but it sounds a little harrowing too - "Marathon."
(Soundbite of song, "Marathon")
TENNIS: (Singing) Coconut Grove is a very small cove, separated from the sea by a shifting shoal. We didn't realize that we had arrived at high tide, high tide, barely made it out alive. Ooh...
SIMON: What are some of your musical influences?
Mr. RILEY: I feel like for the album, at least, we sought most of our influences in, like, comfort music, if you will, like music that just reminds you of a time when things were simpler, things were just easier to comprehend.
SIMON: This sounds like a '60s girl band.
Mr. RILEY: Yeah.
Ms. MOORE: Absolutely.
Mr. RILEY: I think that's a good way to put it because a lot of our influences were of that era.
(Soundbite of song, "Marathon")
SIMON: The Wall of Sound.
Mr. RILEY: Phil Spector, yeah. He...
Ms. MOORE: Absolutely. We really like that style of production. And then for me I grew up mostly watching musicals. So, you know, Judy Garland, and I mean, like, Brenda Lee and Jackie DeShannon. Those were my favorite vocalists. That's definitely what I drew on when we made our music - '40s, '50s, '60s, I love it so much.
Mr. RILEY: But for me, it kind of came later. I think I was, like, always that kid who had to be listening to the newest, coolest music in order to preserve my vanity or something.
Ms. MOORE: And I've been, like, hopelessly outdated.
Mr. RILEY: But I, like, came full circle. It was just like I felt like new music was just getting a little beyond my comprehension, whereas it's so much easier to take in, like, a pop gem from the '50s and just relax and not have to rationalize it.
SIMON: Let's listen to another cut, if we could, here. This is "South Carolina."
(Soundbite of song, "South Carolina")
TENNIS: (Singing) South Carolina really makes a man. If the South can't do it then no one can. The morning breeze is my favorite part. Carry South Carolina deep in my heart, whoa. We'll make a family in the quiet country. You and me, in simplicity. Oooh.
SIMON: Should every couple who thinks they want to get married take a trip in a small boat together?
Ms. MOORE: Absolutely.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. MOORE: I can't tell you how many couples we come across where - or actually if you look at sailing ads you'll see that a great beautiful brand new boats being sold in Hawaii 'cause the husband and wife sailed to Hawaii together and then divorced and now it's on the market.
Mr. RILEY: Yeah. We read those ads all the time. And if you...
Ms. MOORE: All the time.
SIMON: I didn't know that. Oh mercy, you guys have learned a lot already.
Mr. RILEY: Yeah.
Ms. MOORE: We have.
SIMON: Well, but something happened in the middle of that journey where you realized you were willing to make that commitment that you just couldn't relate to before - let me put it that way.
Mr. RILEY: Yeah, yeah. I think it was a pretty large hoop to jump through but once we jumped through it...
Ms. MOORE: I think we just realized we were capable of more than we thought.
SIMON: That's a wonderful thought. I mean, we should all learn that at a few stages in our lives.
Mr. RILEY: Yeah.
SIMON: Something occurs to me as we're sitting here: why on earth are you called tennis?
Ms. MOORE: Actually, it just started as a joke. You may have noticed the title of our blog: White Satin Gloves.
SIMON: Yeah.
Ms. MOORE: We've been teasing ourselves for a long time that from an outsider's perspective, we might look very WASPy. We sail; Patrick played tennis growing up and we just started to just make fun of ourselves and it became a running inside joke. So, when we started our band, I thought it would be funny to call it Tennis.
SIMON: Well, and so it is.
Ms. MOORE: So it is. We try not to overthink things.
SIMON: Any song you think we should go out on?
Ms. MOORE: "Long Boat Pass."
Mr. RILEY: Yeah, that one's a pretty heroic experience in our minds.
SIMON: Tell us a little bit about the song.
Ms. MOORE: "Long Boat Pass" is about the first time we anchored away from our marina and it was extremely challenging. And then there was a gale for a whole weekend and we had to learn how to be anchored during a gale, and it was extremely trying. And we were incredibly proud of ourselves when it was over and that's one of the first songs I wrote.
SIMON: Let's listen a little bit.
(Soundbite of song, "Long Boat Pass")
TENNIS: (Singing) Darling, you know I love you. I love you, oh. I'll stay with you, ask me to, ask me to, oh...
SIMON: So, is that the rhythm of the rocking of the storm that we hear or...
Ms. MOORE: Yeah, it is. Well, it's such a slightly optimistic music because we came through, but the lyrics just tell me telling Patrick essentially I'm going to trust you that this is not the worst idea we've ever had and hope we make it through.
Mr. RILEY: But at that point we were so confident that we were going to lose the boat by running it into a bridge at one point or lose it by getting blown into a coral reef so our spirits were low.
SIMON: You know, I must say, you managed to utter what is the credo of almost successful marriage, which is: this is not the worst mistake you've ever made.
Ms. MOORE: Yeah, absolutely.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. RILEY: It's a good way to put it.
Ms. MOORE: Our parents tease us that we went through our first year of marriage the year before we got married.
Mr. RILEY: Yeah.
SIMON: Well, good luck to you in all ways.
Ms. MOORE: Thank you.
Mr. RILEY: Thank you so much.
SIMON: Very nice talking to you.
Ms. MOORE: You as well.
SIMON: The new album, "Cape Dory." Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore speaking with us from Glasgow.
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords left Tucson yesterday, nearly two weeks to the day that she was shot at a community event there. She's now at a Houston medical center where she will start her rehabilitation, which could last for several months.
As Representative Giffords was being to an Air Force base outside of Tucson, people lined the streets and cheered. Tucson surgeon, Randall Friese made the trip to Houston with Gabby Giffords.
Dr. RANDALL FRIESE (Surgeon, University of Arizona Medical Center): When we were traveling through the streets of Tucson, there was several times we could hear applause in the ambulance with Gabby, and she responded very well to that, smiling and, in fact, even tearing a little bit. It was very emotional, and very special.
SIMON: Representative Gifford's husband, the astronaut, Mark Kelly, accompanied her aboard a private jet along with family members, a nurse, and doctors from both Tucson and Houston. At the Memorial Hermann Medical Center in Houston, neurosurgeon Dong Kim said at a press conference that he was impressed with how well Representative Giffords is doing.
Dr. DONG KIM (Neurosurgeon, Memorial Hermann Medical Center, Houston): She looks spectacular in all ways. She came into the ICU and she was alert, awake, calm, she looked comfortable.
SIMON: But as optimistic as her doctors seem to be, they say that Representative Giffords is just starting down a long and arduous road.
NPR's Richard Knox looks at what her rehab might be like.
RICHARD KNOX: It's been quite a week for Gabrielle Giffords, her family, her medical team, and the millions of Americans who have followed her progress through daily press conferences.
This is woman who was brought into a Tucson hospital comatose with a gunshot wound that passed through clear through her brain. But by the end of the week, she was sitting up in a chair. Physical therapists got her to her feet and even outside in the sun.
She's reportedly scrolled through photos on an iPad and looked at get well cards. She's picked out different stuffed animals, and identified objects by color.
When Giffords arrived in Houston, Dr. Gerard Francisco, who will lead the rehab team, couldn't have been more upbeat.
Dr. GERARD FRANCISCO (Chief Medical Officer, Memorial Hermann Medical Center, Houston): She has great rehabilitation potential. I think those three words will sum it up, great rehabilitation potential. She will keep us busy, and we will keep her busy as well.
KNOX: That's just a hint of what Giffords faces over the next months. Dr. Steve Williams, the chief of rehabilitation medicine at Boston Medical Center, he's been following Giffords' case.
Dr. STEVE WILLIAMS (Chief of Rehabilitation Medicine, Boston Medical Center): I tell patients when they arrive that they're going to work harder than probably they've ever worked in their lives. They'll work to the point of exhaustion, but the payoff is very good in the end.
KNOX: Despite the encouraging signs, there's a lot that doctors don't know about the extent of Giffords' brain injury. For instance, they're not sure how much damage has been done to the areas that control her right arm and leg. Doctors say right now they appear severely weakened or paralyzed, so a lot of work will focus on that.
But the biggest questions have to do with her cognitive, or thinking ability. She's already demonstrated much of that is intact. She can follow simple commands, such as, raise your hand. To find out more, Williams says the Houston team will need to put her through progressively more complicated tests.
Dr. WILLIAMS: To follow a command that has many processes such as, close your eyes, stick out your tongue, and raise your hand, she needs to remember the sequence of events. She needs to be able to perform all the events, and that's a complex task.
KNOX: And specialists will also test her ability to think abstractly. That's not easy with someone who isn't yet able to talk. But Jeffrey Wertheimer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles says there are yes-or-no questions that can get at that.
Dr. JEFFREY WERTHEIMER (Neuropsychologist, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles): I may say, does the moon burn your skin? Okay. So I may throw something a little more complex, a little more ambiguous, it's little more abstract.
KNOX: Wertheimer, a neuropsychologist, says different tests probe the ability of brain-injured patients to concentrate.
Dr. WERTHEIMER: When you have left-hemisphere damage, going from the left eyebrow area back, one can expect some difficulties with attention and concentration. So we may be more vulnerable to distraction.
KNOX: Once Giffords can speak, assuming she does, Williams says she'll be asked to do endless mental drills.
Dr. WILLIAMS: So the patient does the same task over and over and over so that they really learn and it maps into their memory.
KNOX: So this is sort of like cognitive calisthenics.
Dr. WILLIAMS: Yes. So it's kind of like when we were all in second grade, and we were doing multiplication tables time and time and time again and singing the songs so that we could remember that two times two was four and two times three was six.
KNOX: All this will take many months. Progress can go in fits and starts. It's not possible to know how far a given patient will get, or how fast.
Dr. WILLIAMS: One of the parts that is most difficult, I think, is waiting waiting to see what happens. We look for the brain to be able to take over functions for areas that were injured. And all that takes time.
KNOX: Williams says the best strategy is to set achievable, short-term goals and let those achievements add up over time.
Richard Knox, NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Now that we've covered lying, let's talk about stealing. There's been a really big heist in Europe, thieves have made off with about $40 million worth of -no, not jewels, not art - carbon emission permits.
NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.
TOM GJELTEN: This is every bit a case of 21st century crime, both in terms of what was stolen and how. In Europe, authorities try to fight global warming by limiting carbon emissions. They allocate a quantity of carbon emission permits to each country, and those levels can't be exceeded. Each country's government then issues those permits to companies that produce carbon power plants or paper mills, for example.
Mr. HENRY DERWENT (President and CEO, International Emissions Trading Association): It is essentially an allowance.
GJELTEN: Henry Derwent is president of the International Emissions Trading Association.
Mr. DERWENT: This piece of paper allows my company to emit a ton of carbon dioxide through a combustion process.
GJELTEN: So that piece of paper has value. Companies that produce less carbon than they're permitted can sell what's left of their allowance to companies that produce more than they should. There's actually a market where these allowances are traded electronically. And whats happened over the past few months, but especially in the last week, is that some criminals were able to break into one of the registries where those carbon allowances were recorded.
Next, says Henry Derwent, they were able to change who owns what.
Mr. DERWENT: Then if you make sure that it's transferred to an account that you own and you sell it very quickly, then you've essentially got something for nothing, sold it for a lot, and you get out of town with all the dollars in your bag.
GJELTEN: A cybertheft like that would not have happened 20 years ago, nor would a carbon emission allowance have had any value 20 years ago. What this theft proves, Derwent points out, is that in Europe carbon emission allowances are now seen as commodities.
Mr. DERWENT: Like gold, like wheat, like whatever. That means that people treat it very, very seriously. But it also means that it's got value on the market. And if you find that you're not defending it, as you would something of value, if your security is lax, hey, people are going to recognize if you, you know, if you dont recognize that this is valuable, we do and we'll try and steal it from you.
GJELTEN: So from Derwent's point of view, there's a silver lining to this story: It shows that European attempts to limit carbon emissions must be working.
On the other hand, if companies start worrying that their carbon allowances could get stolen, the whole system could fail. So the European Commission is anxious to put an end to this new crime. For the time being, trading in carbon allowances has been suspended.
Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.
SIMON: This is NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
President Obama says his job in the next two years is to put the economy into overdrive. To help that task he's called on the CEO of General Electric to lead a new business advisory board. Jeffrey Immelt's assignment is to look for ways to encourage private employers to hire more workers.
NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY: Jeffrey Immelt has already been working closely with the White House. He served on an earlier advisory board and late last year Immelt joined the president on a trade mission to Mumbai, India, where the GE chief executive expressed great interest in that country's fast-growing demand for electric generators.
Mr. JEFFREY IMMELT (Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, GE): My first trip to India was 25 years ago. There was a shortage of electricity. I'm happy to say 25 years later there's still a shortage of electricity. I view that as a business opportunity for GE and we plan to capitalize on our share of that trillion-dollar opportunity in energy.
HORSLEY: Immelt came home from that trip with a contract worth $755 million to supply electric turbines to an Indian power company. Much of the work is being done at a GE factory in Schenectady, New York. Mr. Obama toured that plant yesterday and was excited to see 90 percent of the factory's output is headed overseas.
President BARACK OBAMA: As I was walking through the plant, you guys had put up some handy signs so I knew what I was looking at. And I noticed on all of them, they said, you know, this is going to Kuwait; this is going to India; this is going to Saudi Arabia. That's where the customers are and we want to sell them products made here in America.
HORSLEY: Boosting exports is a key part of the president's plan to grow the economy without sending U.S. consumers deeper into debt. He says the Indian contract alone helps to support some 1,600 jobs in Schenectady.
But while GE has been adding to its workforce, many other companies have not. Mr. Obama says it's great that the U.S. economy is growing again, but it's time to translate that growth into more jobs.
Mr. OBAMA: Our challenge is to do everything we can to make it easier for folks to bring products to market and to start and expand new businesses and to grow and hire new workers. I want plants like this all across America. You guys are a model of what's possible.
HORSLEY: Towards that end, Mr. Obama has appointed GE boss Immelt to lead a new president's council on jobs and competitiveness with a goal of boosting private sector hiring. Immelt wrote an op-ed column for the Washington Post yesterday, saying the panel will focus on manufacturing, exports and innovation.
Stock analyst Daniel Holland, who follows GE for Morningstar, says Immelt's own record in those areas is encouraging.
Mr. DANIEL HOLLAND (Stock Analyst, Morningstar): Most people viewed him as a thoughtful manager, somebody that's prudent, making sure that the company's able to grow within itself, you know, and doesn't take massive risks with the core franchise.
HORSLEY: GE reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings yesterday of four and a half billion dollars. The company that Thomas Edison founded continues to invest a healthy chunk of its money in research and development.
Mr. Obama notes that GE's spending millions of dollars on advanced equipment for its Schenectady plant, taking advantage of a new tax break.
The president wants the government to keep making similar investments in long-term growth, even as he looks for ways to cut spending elsewhere in the federal budget. Speaking to his workers in New York yesterday, Immelt said he feels a responsibility to make the U.S. the most competitive country in the world.
Mr. IMMELT: We know in GE, the future's given to no one. We have to compete. We have to win. And I know that this team can compete with anybody in the world.
Unidentified Man #1: That's right.
(Soundbite of cheers and applauding)
Mr. IMMELT: We can absolutely do what it takes.
HORSLEY: The president says he'll soon be announcing other members of the advisory panel, including labor leaders, economists and other business people. He'll also have more to say about jobs and global competition in next week's State of the Union speech.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
For a couple of generations of Americans, and not just Americans, John F. Kennedy has been Mr. Right: the image we look for in a leader, someone fresh, witty, and graceful. Presidents as disparate as Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and President Obama have had flashes of JFK.
It is stirring to see the film of his inaugural, 50 years ago this week, the young president, filled with "vig-ah," as he called it, no topcoat in the cold, his eloquence bursting into clouds as he declared: Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.
It is impossible to see the young president, who would be assassinated a thousand days later, and not wonder: what if?
And really, who knows? John F. Kennedy was charming, funny, and self-effacing, and he could also be a rich brat and a cunning Boston pol. Fifty years later, we can forget that he was elected president by just a hair.
He told Jackie Robinson, who endorsed Richard Nixon in 1960 because of it, that he didn't know much about African-Americans, although he deployed the federal government to enforce school integration. It's fair to wonder if John Kennedy would have had the personal commitment to civil rights that Lyndon Johnson demonstrated or the political nerve to lose his party the votes of southern states.
And President Johnson felt that he had only fulfilled John F. Kennedy's oratory, policies, and the counsel of Kennedy's best and brightest to send more and more U.S. troops to Vietnam.
What if John Kennedy had lived, and the civil rights and anti-war movements had grown to regard him as an antagonist, rather than the lost president of their dreams? What if more aggressive reporting had uncovered Kennedy-sanctioned assassination plots or the secret agreement with the Soviets to withdraw U.S. missiles from Turkey? What if some of the president's most reckless romantic indiscretions, including a mobster's moll and an East German spy, had been revealed?
But even a half a century later, Jack Kennedy's sheer skill and charm is mesmerizing. By the time he died, he had painfully acquired wisdom in the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban missile crisis. He told students at American University, just months before he was shot, that he sought peace. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, he said, the kind that enables men and nations to grow, and to hope not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women.
This week we might remember why John Kennedy's assassination was not only a crime and a tragedy, but a theft of history.
(Soundbite of song)
Unidentified Man: (Singing) Who can do the job he begins? Kennedy can. Kennedy can.
(Soundbite of music)
SIMON: And you're listening to NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
Last weekend, it was the Republicans; this weekend, Democrats gathered to talk policy and strategy for the next two years. President Obama flew to Maryland's Eastern Shore last night to join his party's annual retreat and talk to colleagues about the way forward.
This year, Democrats have a lot on which to reflect after a wave of rejection from voters and a new role as House minority. NPR's Andrea Seabrook is at the retreat and filed this report.
ANDREA SEABROOK: They could have slunked down here to Cambridge, Maryland with their energy sapped and their spirits downtrodden, but the congressmen here says Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer:
Representative STENY HOYER (Democrat, Maryland): Do not have a minority psychology. Their psychology is to act, to promote, to offer solutions to the challenges that confront our country, as we have been doing, and they are working.
SEABROOK: They're just not working fast enough, says Hoyer, hence the theme of Democrats' retreat this year: jobs and the economy. The slogan: make it in America. It's a double entendre. Democrats want people to chase opportunity, make it in America and they want to spark new manufacturing businesses, make it in America.
They hope this idea is something all kinds of people can get behind: conservatives, liberals, businesses and unions. In fact, here at the retreat, both the CEO of the Ford Motor Company and the president of the United Auto Workers spoke - two people who might be opponents on another day - were united around Democrats' manufacturing agenda.
This on the same day that President Obama set up a new council on jobs and competitiveness and named the corporate CEO of GE to head it, Jeffrey Immelt. Assistant Democratic leader Jim Clyburn called these moves great strives forward.
Representative JIM CLYBURN (Democrat, South Carolina): I think that signals a tremendous new direction for the economy of this country. We are going to see a surge in the jobs created in this country and I think the appointment of Jeff Immelt signals that.
SEABROOK: Now, of course, the news out of the Democrats' retreat is pretty tightly controlled, but outside of the official press conferences and message memos, rank and file lawmakers say there's a lot of soul searching going on. Democrats are poring over election maps, reading deep into polls and questioning analysts trying to understand as clearly as they can why they lost so hard in November.
They've heard from panels, says Missouri's Emanuel Cleaver, made up of lawmakers who only barely reclaim their seats.
Representative EMANUEL CLEAVER (Democrat, Missouri): We've even had members who lost, who came in and told us why they lost, including the congressmen from this district.
SEABROOK: And in their strategy sessions for the coming year, and especially when it comes to health care, Cleaver says it's not all high-minded planning. There's a healthy dose of realism.
Mr. CLEAVER: I'm probably not supposed to say this. I think I'm supposed say: We're still going to push and get this and that and this. The truth of the matter is they will seek to defund; we will work to defend.
SEABROOK: Hard defense - and then there's the red meat. Forget philosophy and agendas and policies and what you're left with is pure politics. New York Steve Israel is the head of the new Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. That's the organization in charge of getting Democrats elected. And he's already out there playing offense.
Israel says Republicans have only been in power for a couple of weeks and they're already showing their real priorities.
Mr. STEVE ISRAEL (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee): They promised they would create jobs and instead they say we're going to repeal health care. They only jobs they created were for press secretaries to draft press releases on repeal of health care that was not going to happen because the Senate and the president won't support it.
SEABROOK: Israel says he will keep calling Republicans' fouls 'til he convinces voters that they should put Democrats back in charge of the House.
Andrea Seabrook, NPR News, Cambridge, Maryland.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
The latest round of international talks on Iran's nuclear program concluded. In Istanbul today on a sour note, the lead international negotiator said she was disappointed that Iran wasn't ready to respond to the proposals that six world powers brought to the table. Negotiators from those six nations want verifiable assurances from Iran that it is solely interested in civilian uses for nuclear technology, while Iran wants to end sanctions that have damaged its economy.
NPR's Peter Kenyon is at the site of the talks along the shores of the Basra Strait. Peter, thanks for being with us.
PETER KENYON: You're welcome, Scott.
SIMON: And why didn't this round succeed do you think?
KENYON: Well, I think we'd have to say the low expectations have been met. But perhaps there's a glimmer of optimism for the future, and that's because Catherine Ashton, the EU Foreign Policy Chief, did say the main message was that after a day and a half of talks that this was not the conclusion she was hoping for, that the international side came prepared with practical proposals, detailed, were ensuring greater transparency in Iran's nuclear program and with some confidence-building measures.
But she said Iran just wasn't ready to respond without putting preconditions on the talks. And that wasn't acceptable. She said there's no further talks planned but she did say the door remains open should Iran make a decision to respond at some point in the future.
SIMON: And what kind of conditions did Iran put out there?
KENYON: There were two basic conditions, Scott. The international side would put forward a proposal, as I understand it, and the Iranians would respond, well, OK, but first international sanctions should be suspended. Or Iran's right to control the entire nuclear fuel cycle - in other words, the right to enrich uranium ought to be recognized and respected by the rest of the world.
Now, there's many nuclear experts who will tell you as a practical matter, Iran's already demonstrated the ability to enrich uranium and at some point that could well be part of the deal that is in exchange for, say, much more intrusive inspections or more guarantees that no fuel's being diverted into a weapons program.
But that's not something the international side will be likely to put on the table at this point.
SIMON: We understand there nearly was an agreement on the fuel swap proposal to assist a medical research reactor in Tehran in 2009. Is there any hope of trying to bring back the basic form of that agreement?
KENYON: There was hope of trying to bring back a modified version of that. In 2009, as you mentioned, it was agreed to temporarily but then Iran backed out of it. Now, a modified version would have to involve quite a bit more of Iran's stockpile of uranium because it's significantly larger now. But, again, Catherine Ashton said Iran wasn't prepared to respond substantively. They still had these preconditions. She, again, holds out hope that may be resurrected in the future however.
SIMON: Peter, from what you can discern there, are either side feeling much pressure to make any much progress?
KENYON: Well, that actually is one of the more interesting questions because Iran has a lot going on right now. There's economic subsidy reform going on that's raising a lot of prices of basic goods on the street, causing a lot of economic pain. There is political infighting among the conservative political classes there.
In that atmosphere, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is very keen to hang onto important, extremely popular issues, such as the nuclear rights issue. So, that makes it difficult on their side.
And then on the international side, especially, analysts say in Washington and in Israel there's some satisfaction now at these effects of sanctions and at the covert operations, such as the Stuxnet computer virus that apparently attacked Iran's centrifuges. So, that leaves people feeling that neither side is really feeling pushed to make difficult choices right now.
At the same time, you have to say that enrichment program of Iran is still plodding along, still bringing it closer to having a nuclear weapon, should it want one, and there's no guarantee conditions are going to get any better. So, we shall see what happens.
And, as I said, there is no next round of talks at this point but Lady Ashton says the door is still open.
SIMON: NPR's Peter Kenyon in Istanbul. Thank you so much.
KENYON: You're welcome, Scott.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
It has been a rough week for the 29 families who lost loved ones in last April's coal mine disaster in West Virginia. Federal investigators described what likely happened and why in a private four-hour briefing on Tuesday. Mine owner Massey Energy will provide its own briefing for the families next week.
NPR's Howard Berkes reports on the dueling narratives that the victims' families are trying to sort out.
HOWARD BERKES: Remember that both mine owner Massey Energy and the Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA, have strong self-interest in how this investigation turns out. Both could be culpable.
MSHA briefed the families of the victims last week.
Mr. GENE JONES (Electrical Engineer): My first thought when I saw that was, like, wow, how could anyone miss that? Who was doing the job?
BERKES: Gene Jones is an electrical engineer whose brother Dean was a Massey Energy section boss when he died inside the Upper Big Branch Mine.
Mr. JONES: Was MSHA doing their job? Was Massey doing their job? Who's actually responsible for that?
BERKES: The mine safety agency detailed a litany of maintenance and safety system failures the day Upper Big Branch erupted, including too much explosive coal dust and worn bits causing excessive sparks on a cutting machine called a shearer, which also had broken and missing water sprayers. The machines in the mine were not in compliance, MSHA said. The explosion and deaths were preventable.
Mr. JONES: It's like production before safety to me. It's like they didn't have the time to do anything but get the coal out of the mines.
BERKES: That's also based on what Jones was told by his brother and other miners.
Mr. JONES: And you wonder where MSHA or anybody was at on the inspections. I mean, how can anyone miss something like that? Sounds like to me they have no authority other than to give you citations, and to me they ought to be able to close the mines completely.
BERKES: This is how coal mine safety Chief Kevin Stricklin answered the where was MSHA question at a teleconference Wednesday with reporters:
Mr. KEVIN STRICKLIN (Chief, Mine Safety and Health Administration): That's something that we'll look into, Howard. We have an internal review that's separate to this investigation. But, I mean, when I look at the numbers, we've issued more orders at this particular mine than any mine in the country. In addition, the mining environment changes dramatically in one shift.
BERKES: Those orders temporarily closed sections of the mine considered too dangerous to operate until problems were fixed. But MSHA and its parent agency, the Labor Department, failed to use its toughest enforcement tools. These are reserved for mines with repeated and persistent violations, like Upper Big Branch, and could put mines under federal court supervision.
Dean Jones's sister Judy, a Charleston physician, is more troubled by the failures blamed on Massey Energy.
Dr. JUDY JONES PETERSEN (General Practitioner): And nobody understands the cruelty of losing this wonderful life out of this family when it was a senseless loss. It was a completely preventable accident.
BERKES: Massey Energy won't discuss its theory about the explosion until it meets with Upper Big Branch families next week. But general counsel Shane Harvey dismisses MSHA's findings.
Mr. SHANE HARVEY (General Counsel, Massey Energy): We don't currently believe that there were issues with the bits or the sprays on the shearer that contributed to the explosion. Second, we don't believe that coal dust played a meaningful role in the explosion. What we believe at this time was that the mine exploded due to a sudden infusion of high levels of natural gas.
BERKES: Reporters refer to this as Massey's Act of God theory because it places blame on natural forces that were seemingly uncontrollable. MSHA's experts say the evidence completely rules out a gas infusion, but even if that caused the blast, it was also manageable because it's a known phenomenon at Upper Big Branch and the agency and MSHA discussed ways to address it four years ago.
Gene Jones shares his sister's frustration about these dueling narratives.
Mr. JONES: Part of it is understanding it. There's no logic here, because it should never have happened. That's the hard part. It's obvious that it's preventable. And I shouldn't be sitting here today talking to you because of that.
BERKES: Gene Jones and Judy Jones-Peterson say they'll attend Massey Energy's family briefing next week. It's close to what would have been their brother Dean's 51st birthday.
Howard Berkes, NPR News, Beckley, West Virginia.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Im Scott Simon.
(Soundbite of music) Time for sports. Standing tall as Zeus upon the fields of Thessaly, the Monsters of the Midway Sunday gird for battle upon the frozen Midwest tundra, dreaming of Packers vanquished like Typhon beneath Mount Etna. Yeah, and the Jets are playing the Steelers.
Joined now by NPR's Tom Goldman. Morning, Tom.
TOM GOLDMAN: You're nutty.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: Well, oh, what big revelation to people listening, especially.
Listen, I guarantee you are mostly going to talk about football. But I want to begin with a story this week youve reported: The latest Lance Armstrong controversy. New charges have persisted in blood doping. If a cc of this is true, is there a consequence or end to all this?
GOLDMAN: Possible indictments, possible trials, more mucks certainly for the sport of league cycling.
You know, Scott, an interesting small print story amidst these headlines about Armstrong. You remember Floyd Landis, the cyclist who's doping admission last year and doping allegations against Armstrong prompted the current criminal investigation? Landis announced he's retiring from the sport and he had this parting shot.
He said: The fight versus doping can't be won. You have to legalize it, medically monitor it, and make sure people dont hurt themselves.
Is that crazy or maybe worth it to make it part of the discussion?
SIMON: Okay, the main event. New York Jets play the Steelers in Pittsburgh for the AFC Championship. Jets beat the Steelers last month, the regular season. But would any sane man or, for that matter, you or me, bet against Ben Roethlisberger in the playoffs?
GOLDMAN: You know, the Jets have been wonderful on the road, beating Peyton Manning and the Colts, of course, and Tom Brady and the Patriots - the Porsches and Cadillacs of quarterbacks and team. But, you know, with Big Ben and the Steelers, they're playing a big four-wheel drive rig that loves going off-road.
(Soundbite of laughter)
GOLDMAN: You know, if the Jets bring the rush on Ben Roethlisberger, it's hard to bring him down. He's as big as many of the defenders. He loves going off-script. When the game breaks down into a schoolyard game, as they like to say, Roethlisberger shines.
So combine that with super safety Troy Polamalu, the best run defense in the NFL, big game experience. Scott, this is the fourth AFC Championship for all these guys since 2005. No, in answer to your question, I wouldnt bet against Pittsburgh.
SIMON: Yeah. Yeah, Im going to say Steelers 28, Jets 17. Now...
GOLDMAN: I think thats good.
SIMON: Okay. And you? Huh? Huh?
GOLDMAN: I dont know about the score but I think the Steelers, yeah.
SIMON: All right. Now, I dont have to tell anybody about how I feel about this game. But devoted a Bear fan, as I am, nobody has a hotter hand now than Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. And the three-point advantage the odds makers have given them seems even a little small to me.
GOLDMAN: Well, you know, I think the odds makers are very cognizant of a very good Chicago defense. You know, a classic Chicago Defense: great pass rush, linebackers, theyve got good defensive backs, too. Aaron Rodgers is as good as his offensive line is. And certainly the, you know, the Bears are going to be bringing it.
SIMON: Yeah, I want to know how he throws the ball sitting on his keister
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: with Julius Peppers all over him.
GOLDMAN: He's good enough to maybe do that.
SIMON: Yeah, you know he is. Now could the great Devin Hester make the difference?
GOLDMAN: He could. You know, in a tight game, certainly field position is a big issue here. And, you know, especially if it's cold, any - you know
SIMON: It'll be cold, Tom. It'll be cold.
GOLDMAN: It'll be cold, yeah. But, you know, with his great punt returning, yes, putting the Bears in good position he could, as he often does, make the difference.
SIMON: Okay, predictions.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: All right, Ill go first.
GOLDMAN: Yeah.
SIMON: President Obama, Im going to go with his prediction. He said Bears 20, the Packs 17; Bears 20 on a Matt Forte touchdown run, a Cutler to Hester pass and two Robbie Gold field goals.
GOLDMAN: I like it. Im not going to go to the - against the president or you. I like the ring of that Pittsburgh-Chicago Super Bowl. You got to use the John Facenda voice with that.
SIMON: Oh, my gosh. Two great Midwestern teams joined in battle upon the throes and tundra that stretches between the Alleghenies and Lake Michigan.
(Soundbite of laughter)
GOLDMAN: Oh, my God.
SIMON: And - oh, Matt Forte, how could I mispronounce his name?
NPR's Tom Goldman, thanks.
GOLDMAN: It's always a pleasure.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
We're joined now by one of the greatest Green Bay Packers of all time, who played in many Bears-Packers games. Jerry Kramer, an offensive lineman for 11 years under Vince Lombardi, a five-time All-Star, a man who threw that block in the Ice Bowl that enabled Bart Starr to score the winning touchdown in the 1967 championship on a frigid field.
Mr. Kramer also co-authored, with the late Dick Schaapp, the bestseller "Instant Replay." He joins us from Phoenix.
Mr. Kramer, thanks so much for being with us.
Mr. JERRY KRAMER (Former Offensive Lineman, NFL; Author of "Instant Replay"): Thank you, Scott. A pleasure being with you and thanks for having me on.
SIMON: Something special about Bear-Packer games?
Mr. KRAMER: Oh, boy.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: Yes, sir?
Mr. KRAMER: If you're a Bear fan or a Packer fan, or a Bear player or a Packer player, there is definitely something special about a Bear-Packer game.
SIMON: Well, help us understand that.
Mr. KRAMER: Well, I guess the first inclination I got was when I was rookie. So I'm downtown getting a newspaper and I walk out of the shop and there was a little white-haired grandmother walking in the store and she says, are you a football player? I said yes ma'am, I am. And she says, are you ready for those blankety-blank Bears?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. KRAMER: In fact, my jaw dropped. I mean I went ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh. And I said, yes ma'am, I think we are. Yes ma'am. It's a big game, almost as big as a conference championship. Your heart gets pumping and you breathe a little faster and you don't sleep as well, and you get ready for those blankety-blank Bears.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: You know, I haven't been sleeping well this week either and I'm not even playing; Im just watching it.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: Do the two teams have a similar approach to the game of football historically?
Mr. KRAMER: You know, the Bears have always had a great middle linebacker and I think they have focused on defense much more so than the Packers. You look back at Bill George, at Butkus, at Singletary, at Urlacher today, theyve got, always have had a great middle linebacker.
SIMON: Yeah.
Mr. KRAMER: We have maybe had a great quarterback with Bart, and Brett and Aaron seem to be following in that tradition. So there seems to be and it's always a defensive struggle it seems like.
SIMON: Mr. Kramer, when you're playing days are all over, can you be friends with a Bear fan or even a former Bear player?
Mr. KRAMER: You know, Mike Ditka and I have become pretty good pals. We used to play in golf tournaments together. And one of my most enjoyable times was beating Ditka at Gin.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. KRAMER: We...
SIMON: He's a very serious Gin player.
Mr. KRAMER: Oh, he would get up and hed stomp around the room, the bar and tear the cards in half and throw them against the wall and give me another deck of cards. And I got such a kick out of that. I just loved to get to him.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. KRAMER: And he was, you know, we were still competing.
SIMON: Is - as Coach Lombardi said is winning not just the most important thing but the only thing?
Mr. KRAMER: Coach Lombardi's philosophy could better be described as making the total effort to win is everything: fairly, squarely, decently, by the rules. He had another thought that I love, Scott, thats part of one of his speeches. He said all the rings, all the color, all the money, all the display linger only in the memory for a short time and are soon gone. But the will to win, the will to excel, these are the things that endure. And these are the things that are far more important than any of the events that occasion them. So develop in you the will to win, the will to excel.
SIMON: Green Bay Packers great, Jerry Kramer. Thanks so much.
Mr. KRAMER: Thank you. Been a pleasure being with you.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Just as there's much work ahead in Congresswoman Giffords' recovery, there is much to be done to heal the nation's political wounds. This week, Mayor Bob Walkup of Tucson had a proposal. The winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Mr. Walkup urged his counterparts to sign a civility accord - calls on mayors to quote, "strive to understand different perspectives," choose words carefully.
Mayor Walkup, who is a Republican, joins us in our studios. Thanks so much for coming in.
Mayor BOB WALKUP (Mayor, Tucson, Arizona): It's my great pleasure.
SIMON: You met with President Obama.
Mayor WALKUP: I did.
SIMON: And things were civil?
Mayor WALKUP: Well, for the Mayor to - first of all welcome the President to Tucson on Wednesday of last week, what an event that was for our community. It changed everything. But now here I am at the conference of mayors, and we kind of hatched this as a result of the President's visit to Tucson. And every mayor said, oh, sign me up. We are ready to do this.
And mayors are the guys that are in front of the public all the time at the council meetings, and so it just took off, and I'm very pleased to say it was adopted and we're now moving to the next step.
SIMON: Well, give us some particulars. How would you change political rhetoric at the local level, if you could?
Mayor WALKUP: All of us that are in political life today are confronted with the public. Sometimes - or not understand what we're doing and why we're doing it. And like Gabby will tell you if she were here, that it seems to have gotten worse over the last couple of years.
So we said, well, let's try - let's try at the base level of the - all elected officials are elected for the moment, but we're all human beings. So why don't we shape up our - kind of our personal values and who we are as individuals, and let's start there.
SIMON: After hearing similar vows, in the U.S. Congress there was, of course, debate this week about repeal of President Obama's health care overhaul that passed last year, and I think it's safe to say that debate got a little heated. You know, words like socialist and Nazi were tossed back and forth. And it raises the question, is asking politicians to conspicuously tone down their rhetoric a little bit like asking 12-year-old boys not to make naughty jokes. It's just what they do.
Mayor WALKUP: But they don't have to do. And as a parent, you know, there comes a time in a parent's life when you take your son aside and say, you know, we're not using bad language in this house. He said, but dad, you know, they say these words all the time at school. I said, not in this house.
SIMON: Mm-hmm.
Mayor WALKUP: Oh, okay, dad. So I think that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to say, okay, we know, we understand the aisle, but if there was a group of people that had a chance, it would be mayors.
SIMON: Because you're so relentlessly exposed to the public.
Mayor WALKUP: Twenty-four hours a day.
SIMON: Yeah.
MAYOR WALKUP: And mayors traditionally are the ones that have to make judgments, not whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, and I'll tell you, all you have to do is be a mayor for a little bit and you'll understand that that's what it's all about. So it is a matter of the common good.
SIMON: Mm-hmm.
Mayor WALKUP: So I think we - the mayors have a chance. If the mayors started doing it, maybe we can pass it to our commissions and committees that we have in the cities. So maybe we can take that to the nonprofits and maybe the faith-based organizations, and then maybe itll drive up to the state level and then swing over to the federal level.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mayor WALKUP: That's the objective.
SIMON: Mr. Mayor, does Tucson have something the rest of us can learn from right now?
Mayor WALKUP: Well...
SIMON: That youve learned?
Mayor WALKUP: I've learned, I could start in on a list of things that I've learned. I've renewed my pride in a city. And I'm proud - I cannot tell you, how proud I am of the city. And I also, when the president said civility, come on gang, let's be sure our prioritys right, I learned that and I'm going to carry that ball.
SIMON: For civility.
Mayor WALKUP: Yeah.
SIMON: And Mr. Mayor, I mean is civility just a matter of saying...
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: ...of saying please and thank you after you've made a hideous observation about someone or...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mayor WALKUP: Of course, it is. But its also a place that you're not going to tolerate abusive behavior.
SIMON: Mm-hmm.
Mayor WALKUP: We have city council meetings, people get up there and if somebody has a statement on their particular position, boy, if I hear one boo in the audience, boy, I bang it down. I said don't you do that again. You can share a position but I do not want one single abusive remark on anybody's part.
Well, when I do that and I've kind of sometimes I raise up out of the chair, nobody violates that principle. So it's like kids, you know, we started this conversation with son, were not using bad language in this house.
SIMON: Bob Walkup, the mayor of Tucson, thanks so much for being with us.
Mayor WALKUP: My great pleasure.
(Soundbite of music)
SIMON: Youre listening to NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
Viewers of MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" heard a surprise announcement last night.
Mr. KEITH OLBERMANN (Host, "Countdown with Keith Olbermann"): I think the same fantasy has popped into the head of everybody in my business who has ever been told what I've been told: That this is going to be the last edition of your show.
SIMON: With those words, Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's highest-rated host, announced that hes leaving the network.
MSNBC issued a three-sentence statement saying it had ended its contract with Mr. Olbermann, thanked him for what it called his integral role in MSNBC's success and said, we wish him well in his future endeavors.
NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik is following the story.
David, thanks for joining us.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK: You bet.
SIMON: Did Keith Olbermann jump or was he pushed?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, you know, specifically, we don't know. What we do know is that Mr. Olbermann had an extremely contentious relationship with the executives who run MSNBC, as he has at other places, including ESPN, where he really made his national name in the past.
What he said last night in his show was simply he told viewers that, you know, quote, All thats surrounded the show was too much for me. Behind the scenes really, there had been a lot of tension and it had been accelerated by instances in which in the past the head of General Electric, the owner of NBC, had to intervene to kind of quell this ongoing on-air feud between him and Bill O'Reilly of the Fox News Channel.
And also the question last fall when Olbermann had to be punished by MSNBC President Phil Griffin for giving political contributions to several Democratic candidates for Congress. Olbermann was essentially unrepentant after his two-day suspension and returned to air making the case that opinion journalists aren't surprising anyone by having party affinities.
You know, there's one other question that's being raised by a lot of Olbermann's fans and supporters in the blogosphere and it's the question of whether the cable giant Comcast, which has just gotten regulatory approval to take over NBC and its sister networks, including MSNBC, whether Comcast had something to do with that - whether there was some political payoff. About the only thing that Comcast and NBC officials would comment on the record last night was to say that Comcast has not taken operational control of MSNBC yet and had nothing to do with the decision, that it was informed of the decision by MSNBC and NBC News officials after the fact.
SIMON: And what did Keith Olbermann and his show do for MSNBC?
FOLKENFLIK: Mr. Olbermann and his show Countdown defined MSNBC and made it into a ratings and profitable success. MSNBC had really lurched about for a defining approach since its inception in 1996. What Olbermann did, he defined it as a voice of opposition during the Bush years. He defined it as a place, much like Fox News is clearly on the right it's prime time. A place where liberals could find their concerns and voices heard in a way that hadn't been the case on cable networks. So he took it to the left and built a - you know, they built a cadre of fairly like-minded prime time opinion hosts and suddenly MSNBC shot above CNN to be the second-highest rated cable news show in the country.
SIMON: And what does MSNBC do to fill the hour now?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, theyve built the bench a lot in the last couple of years. They take Lawrence O'Donnell, whose show The Last Word, appeared later in the evening, and they're going to plug it in at 8PM, which is when Olbermann's show on the East Coast time aired. And at 10 o'clock they're taking Ed Schultz, whod been a long time radio show host, who they've been grooming and having as a host of late, and they're putting him from six o'clock up there till 10 o'clock at night.
They feel they've got a deeper bench. Theyre clearly building around Rachel Maddow, something of a protege of Mr. Olbermann's, a former Air America host on radio, who really has groomed over the years and did quite a strong presence on her own right. The real question is can she continue to get such strong ratings in the absence of the lead-in of Mr. Olbermann?
SIMON: Um-huh. And with a contract reportedly worth $30 million, presumably he doesn't have to do anything else immediately but any indication?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, not only does he not have to do anything else immediately, but under the terms of the buyout, MSNBC made it quite clear last night that he doesn't get to work for any of their television competitors. You know, he has a strong presence, he's built up a quite a following on Twitter, he could well do something in radio, he could do it on the web, or he could count his money and figure out what he wants to do next. There've been a lot of chapters in this bumpy but illustrious career.
SIMON: NPR's David Folkenflik, thanks so much.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Chinese President Hu Jintao is back in China after a visit this week to the United States. Hu first met with President Obama and top administration officials in Washington, D.C., then he headed to Chicago, where he was greeted by Mayor Richard J. Daley. Forgive me.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: Hes gone, isn't he? Mayor Richard M. Daley and Midwestern business leaders who courted Hu in an effort create more jobs and business for the region.
NPR's Cheryl Corley reports.
CHERYL CORLEY: It was a whirlwind tour of the city for China's president. When he arrived in Chicago, he attended a brief private gathering with business leaders and then a formal dinner with Chicago's corporate and political elite.
(Soundbite of violin music)
CORLEY: That's where Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who has long been a champion of closer ties to China, detailed the city's relationship with the world's most populous country.
(Soundbite of applause)
Mayor RICHARD DALEY (Democrat, Chicago): We have hosted each other's visitors and government leaders, exchanged art and music, shared business ideas, technology and medical expertise.
CORLEY: And the goal now, says Daley, is to make the city the most China-friendly in the United States. For his part, President Hu, speaking through an interpreter, said exports from Midwestern states have grown rapidly.
President HU JINTAO (China): (Through Translator) Some forecasts show that China-U.S. trade is expected to exceed $500 billion U.S. dollars by 2015.
(Soundbite of applause)
CORLEY: This was Hu's first visit to Chicago, and outside the downtown hotel where he spoke, supporters and protesters lined up behind barricades as police kept a close watch along Chicago's Michigan Avenue.
(Soundbite of drums)
CORLEY: Student Ping-Ting Li had traveled from downstate Illinois and was excited the Chinese president made Chicago his only other stop during his U.S. stay:
Ms. PING-TING LI: It's means that we have a really great friendship between the two countries. He's not only reaching our citizens.
CORLEY: Across the street from Hu supporters, protesters, like Ronald Schupp(ph), shouted shame, charging that the Chinese president had a hand in human rights abuses against Tibet.
Mr. RONALD SCHUPP: And I'm here today joining these wonderful Tibetans to tell the Chinese Communist Party that their actions against Tibet are obscene.
(Soundbite of protestors)
CORLEY: There was no controversy during Hu's visit to Chicago's Walter Payton High School, home to the Confucius Institute, which focuses on teaching Chinese language and culture.
(Soundbite of singing)
CORLEY: In the school's recital hall, students offered a mix of American and Chinese culture, singing songs and performing Chinese dances.
President HU: (Foreign language spoken)
CORLEY: Hu thanked the students, told them to value their time, and invited some of the faculty and students to his country. Then he headed to an expo showcasing the products of several Chinese companies that have a presence in the Midwest. There are some 300 Chicago-based companies in China.
At a forum being held while Hu was in town, there was a contract signing ceremony for ventures between dozens of U.S. and Chinese companies. Illinois Governor Pat Quinn said another agreement for the U.S. sale of soybeans to China was worth nearly $2 billion dollars.
Governor PAT QUINN (Democrat, Chicago): And having such a great market as the people of China is really helpful to our economy.
CORLEY: Exactly the reason why the officials here say President Hu's visit to Chicago was a good step for both countries.
Cheryl Corley, NPR News, Chicago.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Planning for out-of-town visitors can be a huge chore. Do they like meat loaf? What do they want to see besides Disneyland? The situation can be especially awkward when the visitor is the leader of a super-power to whom you owe a lot of money, a country with conflicting interests, and conflicting views on urgent issues. And oh, last time the visitor stopped by, things didn't go so well.
That was the starting point for the Obama administration this week when they received Chinese President Hu Jintao: sought to strike just the right note to indicate respect without groveling.
With President Hu's U.S. visit done, we stop for a post-game etiquette review with Ken Lieberthal. He oversaw China policy in the Clinton White House. He's director of the John L. Thorton China Center at the Brookings Institution.
Mr. Lieberthal, thanks very much for being with us.
Mr. KEN LIEBERTHAL (Director, John L. Thorton China Center, Brookings Institution): Pleasure to be with you.
SIMON: Now help us remember exactly what happened last time, I guess in 2006. There was a slip-up involving Taiwan, for example.
Mr. LIEBERTHAL: There was more than one slip-up in 2006. First of all, President George W. Bush, who by the way got along very well with President Hu Jintao, their personal chemistry was really quite good, refused to have President Hu here for a full state visit. So he gave him a visit that was one notch down the protocol order, an official working visit. That turned out to be only the beginning of the trouble. At the arrival ceremony the translator mistakenly announced the anthem being played would be that of the Republic of China instead of the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China is the name of the government on Taiwan seen as illegitimate by Beijing.
Then a dissident got into the arrival ceremony and began to remonstrate very loudly as President Hu began his remarks. And as it turns out, she was able to continue for a full five minutes.
SIMON: Would we be correct to assume that the president gets at least a brief and maybe more about some language pitfalls that ought to be avoided?
Mr. LIEBERTHAL: I am sure that he sought and received advice on the kind of personal etiquette of a discussion with the Chinese leader. One of the things I would say to him - and I did say to President Clinton and others, is that Chinese will often, when asked a question, give the first part of an answer and then pause. And they pause to consider the rest of the answer. And after an uncomfortably long break, will then pick up again and often say the most interesting thing in response to your question.
Americans tend to detest pauses. So when someone pauses, we culturally are just so anxious to jump in, that we start talking and you never get the second part of the answer.
SIMON: I'm just letting that all sink in. Tell me about something as fundamental as the seating chart.
Mr. LIEBERTHAL: The Chinese read more into what is conveyed by where someone is seated and who is seated next to them, than most Americans would. They see it as reflecting respect. I recently co-managed a U.S. clean energy forum, and not surprisingly, the Chinese handed us the protocol order going from one to 116, and asked for our protocol order in return. And frankly, I defy anyone to rank 116 Americans in protocol order. We just don't think in quite the same terms.
SIMON: Do people remember slights?
Mr. LIEBERTHAL: Of course they do.
SIMON: So there's not a feeling of well, that was a previous administration, or I know you had nothing to do with...
Mr. LIEBERTHAL: You can be very sure, I am utterly confident when I say the White House devoted enormous attention to making sure that if there were any slights in this visit, they weren't going to be the same ones that occurred in 2006, and you can be sure the Chinese were focused like a laser beam on that.
SIMON: How does the man who won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize shake hands and give a state dinner to a man who imprisons the 2010 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize?
Mr. LIEBERTHAL: The President welcomed Hu Jintao here, not to agree with him on everything, but to establish the best possible capacity to work together on the issues that are of tremendous importance where we can work together, and to at the same time express our views on issues where we disagree, and Hu Jintao did the same thing in turn. That's a mature relationship. It is not always fun, but it is very necessary.
SIMON: Mr. Lieberthal, thanks so much.
Mr. LIEBERTHAL: My pleasure, good to be with you.
SIMON: Ken Lieberthal, director of the John L. Thorton China Center at the Brookings Institution.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Like thousands of other American students, Sasha Obama is studying Chinese in her grade school. So this week when a man from China visited her parents, nine-year-old Sasha had the chance to brush up her language skills with a native speaker.
Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor, told reporters that Sasha practiced some Mandarin phrases with President Hu Jintao following the ceremonies to welcome him to the White House. Not every child has the opportunity to try out their first phrases of Chinese with the President of China, said Mr. Rhodes. I think that speaks to there is an interest in the United States and China, and a desire to get to know the country better.
Will Sasha Obama now get extra credit for speaking to the President of China without relying on the State Department interpreter?
SCOTT SIMON, host:
You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News
Time now for your comments. Yvonne Hubmayer(ph) of Rochester, Minnesota listened with interest and appreciation to our interview with Australian broadcaster, Richard Glover, about the devastating floods in Queensland. Ms. Hubmayer is from Australia, and quoted a song by a fellow countryman, John Williamson, called, "Thargomindah." You wait two years for a decent rain to save a thirsty crop, now it's going yellow 'cause the bloody rain won't stop. But that's the way it is where inland rivers flow, and irony that real bush people know.
We heard from many of you about last week's discussion with Erik Deggins of the St. Petersburg Times about vitriol in the media. Kathy Corcoran of Flagstaff, Arizona thought we missed why conservatives are frustrated. The point conservatives are trying to make is that there is enough vitriol to go around, she writes. It's not from one side as the media suggests.
We spoke last week with the stars of - dum dum - Law and Order UK, and found out that Bradley Walsh was once a comedian.
Mr. BRADLEY WALSH (Actor): I probably packed it in about 12 years ago and then started acting. It just seemed like a good idea at the time, there was nothing else to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Oh, you haven't packed it in, love. He still makes us laugh when the camera's not rolling (unintelligible). Yeah.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. WALSH: But it was something I enjoyed, but, you know, time to move on. It's a young man's game, stand-up comedy.
SIMON: Bianca DeLille of Washington, D.C. says she loves the show. I didn't know anything about the actors, so it was a total kick in the pants to learn about their backgrounds and get a glimpse of their personalities.
(Soundbite of Song, "The Kids' Song")
Mr. TOMMY RETTIG (Singing): Now just because we're kids, because we're sort of small, because we're closer to the ground, and you are bigger pound by pound. You have no right, you have no right to push and shove us little kids around.
SIMON: With the soundtrack from "5,000 Fingers of Dr. T" was released. The 1953 movie musical was the brainchild of Dr. Seuss, and it bombed. Not with our listeners. It's clearly a passionate fan base out there.
David Munoz from West Linn, Oregon remembers the film from an annual all-night movie festival at UC Santa Cruz. Well, though each year the bevy of films might change, one thing remained constant, "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T" was always the last film shown. Those of us able to make it to the end were always amazed, if not dazed and confused, by this surrealistic feature that always was a topic of discussion while walking back to the dorms as the sun was coming up.
If we left you dazed or confused, send us a note. You can write us by going to our website, NPR.org, click on contact us. You can reach us on Twitter too.
I'm NPR's Scott Simon
SCOTT SIMON, host:
We met Milton Rogovin in the summer of 2003. He'd been an optometrist in Buffalo, New York in the 1950s and enough of an activist to get blacklisted. How does an optometrist get blacklisted, we wondered. Did you only correct vision for the left eye? He laughed.
Silenced by the politics of the time, Milton Rogovin began to take photographs on Buffalo's lower West Side. Not photos of celebrities posing or ducking from flashbulbs, but portraits of the kind of people who rarely appeared in photographs. But Rogovin said he wanted to take portraits of what the Puerto Rican families on Buffalo's lower West Side called Los Olvidados, the forgotten ones; not to document poverty, but humanity.
Family portraits and celebrations, Saturday night parties, Sunday services, and the everyday jobs of people who wore hardhats, watch caps and firefighter's helmets. The look in the eyes of his subjects were often arresting. They seemed to lock eyes with Milton Rogovin's camera. He told us:
Mr. MILTON ROGOVIN (Photographer): I never told them how to stand or what to do. All I suggested to them was that they look at the camera. That was all I ever did. And most of them feel so good that somebody wanted to photograph them, pay attention to them.
SIMON: Over the decades, his photographs began to appear in galleries and museums. With increasing recognition, he traveled to take photos in Appalachia and Latin America. He always shot black and white film, with an old Rolleiflex camera: it seemed to suspend his portraits in a kind of timelessness.
Milton Rogovin didn't start taking photographs until he was 48. By the time that he died this week at the age of 101, the archives of the man who was once blacklisted were housed in the U.S. Library of Congress.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
A White House speechwriter works on hundreds of presidential addresses every year. Few get more scrutiny than the State of the Union. President Obama's writers are presumably putting the finishing touches on his address.
NPR's Ari Shapiro spoke with a group of former White House speechwriters about why this speech is different from all the others.
ARI SHAPIRO: For a speechwriter, there is a conflict in the State of the Union Address. It's the speech that gets all the attention, where the president lays out his agenda for the year ahead. But as far as poetry, arc and theme, it can also be the clunkiest speech of the year.
Ms. MARY KATE CARY (Former Speechwriter, White House): They can be an absolute legislative laundry list, and that doesn't make it very fun to write.
SHAPIRO: Mary Kate Cary was a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush.
Ms. CARY: On one hand, it's nice to have the glory of saying well, I wrote the State of the Union Address. But really, you'd rather want to be known for writing the Inaugural Address. That's where the poetry is, and the State of the Union is a bit of a slog, I think.
SHAPIRO: Most presidential speeches take shape vertically. That is to say, one speechwriter is in charge. He or she sends it up the White House ladder until it reaches the president.
The State of the Union takes shape horizontally. Every department and agency submits its plans for the coming year. Everyone has an opinion about what the speech should say. And that can be a management challenge, says former George W. Bush speechwriter John McConnell.
Mr. JOHN MCCONNELL (Former Speechwriter, White House): You get a lot of suggestions from throughout the administration, of things that need to go in the speech. You get suggested language, at times, from people. And you have to give everything fair consideration.
SHAPIRO: The planning takes months; it starts before Christmas.
Mr. MCCONNELL: In my experience, it took about seven days - three writers, seven days to do the first draft of the State of the Union.
SHAPIRO: This year, people familiar with the process say White House speechwriters were working on a draft on Saturday, January 8th. That day, a gunman opened fire in Arizona, shooting congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords through the head and killing several others.
For the team writing the State of the Union, the attack meant the mood of the speech had to change. During marathon revision sessions, they struggled over how to appropriately reflect the moment that the country is in - both after Tucson, and after more than two years of economic struggles.
Former Clinton speechwriter Jeff Shesol says Tuesday's address can't just be a sequel to the eulogy President Obama delivered in Arizona.
Mr. JEFF SHESOL (Former Speechwriter, White House): An event like Tucson will certainly have an effect. That said, it's been clear already that he's going to talk about the deficit. He's going to talk about spending cuts. He is very likely going to talk about tax reform. Those things were already going to be in the speech, and they will still be in the speech irrespective of what happened in Tucson.
SHAPIRO: Still, the attacks will be a part of this speech. People from Tucson will almost certainly sit with the first lady in the House Gallery. And former Clinton speechwriter Michael Waldman says the president would be foolish not to use this moment to build on the political gains from the Tucson speech.
Mr. MICHAEL WALDMAN (Former Speechwriter, White House): President Obama will want to use a speech like this to reassert his standing not as a divisive, partisan figure, but as a leader for the whole country. He really began to do that with the success in the lame-duck session of Congress, and with the powerful and very widely praised eulogy in Tucson. But this speech is the next chance to do that.
SHAPIRO: And the need for someone who can work with both parties is stronger now than ever. Behind President Obama, Republican House Speaker John Boehner will be sitting in the chair that Democrat Nancy Pelosi occupied last year. So one option is for Mr. Obama to strike a conciliatory tone with Republicans.
But former Bush speechwriter John McConnell says thats not the only option.
Mr. MCCONNELL: I think back to President Bush in 2007, when he was facing a new majority. And his back was against the wall, in a sense, because he was trying to push the troop surge in Iraq, and the support for that was very thin in the Congress. And he went in there, in the State of the Union, and he gave a very powerful message and had them on their feet.
SHAPIRO: And that year, even though Democrats controlled Congress, the troop surge happened.
Ari Shapiro, NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
General Motors and Chrysler came to this year's North American International Auto Show with new models, fresh momentum, and a lot of buzz. More people are buying new cars, and the U.S. auto industry in general seems to be making a comeback.
But NPR's Sonari Glinton explains that many analysts question whether GM and Chrysler can be profitable in the long run if all they do is sell cars.
SONARI GLINTON: If you ever bought a car, you know the drill. First, you figure out what car you want, and then you look for a dealer - preferably, one you can trust.
(Soundbite of car commercial)
GLENN (Bangor Car Care): Hey, everyone, Glenn again from Bangor Car Care, and we're not horsing around. We have over 200 vehicles to choose from...
GLINTON: Not all car dealers are loud and crazy. Joe Sesi is a dealer. He rarely does commercials. He focuses on long-term relationships.
Mr. JOE SESI (Car Dealer): My family's had this business for 68 years, and I've been doing it for about 42.
GLINTON: And to build the relationships, he says you have to focus on all parts of the deal. Sesi sells Ford's Lincoln brand, among others. He says it's best when a car company can also make loans.
Mr. SESI: If we have the vehicles - the products that serve your need - and we take care of you, and we take care of your financing and you trust us, you have a real business then.
GLINTON: Here's the thing about the relationship: You may change your car every few years, and only see a dealer a few times, but your ties to the lender? They go on and on. Here's Joe Sesi.
Mr. SESI: I have customers that may have had 20 or 25 Ford credit accounts -oh, yeah. That's a lot of cars.
GLINTON: Ford Motor Credit is what industry insiders call a captive finance arm - meaning, its main job is to offer car loans.
Mr. SESI: When we finance through a captive, the chances of that consumer purchasing another vehicle from us are much greater than when we finance through a third party.
GLINTON: And that's what you want.
Mr. SESI: And that's what we want. That's why having a captive is very important to car companies.
GLINTON: Think of Ford or Toyota as car companies that are also big banks. They make money on all sides of the transaction - they make money lending to customers and dealers. When you're about to pay off your loan, they know it. And they start to send you incentives to buy a new car. That's not true for all the big car companies.
Mr. GEORGE MAGLIANO (Analyst, IHS Automotive): GM got rid of GMAC, and Chrysler spun off Chrysler Credit. They found that that - it really hurt their sales activity, and put them at a competitive disadvantage.
GLINTON: George Magliano is an analyst with IHS Automotive. He says when GM and Chrysler lost their finance arms in the economic crisis and bankruptcy, it changed how they do business.
Mr. MAGLIANO: It limits their ability to be aggressive, especially in lease activity and in going after the subprime or the entry-level consumer.
GLINTON: Magliano says a car company with an internal bank or captive finance arm has more information. That means it knows more about the risk it takes on customers with less-than-perfect credit.
Mr. MAGLIANO: Without the ability to control the captive finance companies, chances are these people would not get the car or truck loan.
GLINTON: Those entry-level customers represent a lot of the business. The analysts say that for General Motors or Chrysler to really make a comeback, they need to get back in the loan business. GM has repeatedly made attempts to buy back at least a part of GMAC - now, Allied Financial. So far, they've been turned down.
Joe Sesi says GM and Chrysler need to get back those captive finance arms.
Mr. SESI: What we find is our happiest customers are the ones that finance with the captive - because it's in their best interest to stay engaged, communicate if there's any issues, work them out. And so, they do help us make deals.
GLINTON: Joe Sesi says in the car business, it's still all about the relationship.
Sonari Glinton, NPR News, Detroit.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Back in the day - say, 1993 - there was an indie band from D.C. called the Dismemberment Plan. As the decade progressed, so did they: selling out shows, putting out CDs, touring the world with Pearl Jam. By the year 2000, they had quit their day jobs. It's not that they were making a ton of money, but because they were on tour so often. The band had a less-than-huge but very dedicated following.
In September 2003, the Dismemberment Plan broke up. The band members drifted back into the workaday world. Drummer Joe Easley became an engineer at NASA, working on robotics; bassist Eric Axelson works with Rock the Vote's high school civics program; singer Travis Morrison has a job at the Huffington Post; and guitarist Jason Caddell does freelance audio work.
But civilian life, it appears, was too tame for these guys. The Dismemberment Plan reunited; is heading back on the road; and has just reissued its most popular album, called "Emergency & I."
(Soundbite of song, "The City")
THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN: (Singing) Well, now, I notice the street lamp's hum, the ghosts of graffiti, they couldn't quite erase. The blank face stares on the subway as people go home. The parks lay empty like my unmade bed, the streets are silent like my lifeless telephone, and this is where I live but it never felt less at home...
HANSEN: That's "The City," from the Dismemberment Plan's newly remastered recording from 1999, "Emergency & I." Two of the band members are in our D.C. studio. First, singer Travis Morrison, welcome to the program.
Mr. TRAVIS MORRISON (Singer, The Dismemberment Plan): Hello.
HANSEN: And guitarist Jason Caddell, thank you for coming in.
Mr. JASON CADDELL (Guitarist, The Dismemberment Plan): Oh, of course.
HANSEN: Now, I didn't know about your band and your music before I heard about your reunion, so I listened to this new version of "Emergency & I." And I really had some head-banging fun with it.
Mr. MORRISON: You've got to be careful when you do that.
HANSEN: I do, especially when I'm driving. Why did you decide to get back together? Let me start with Travis.
Mr. MORRISON: Well, we re-released "Emergency & I" on vinyl, and we wanted people to know about it. And we still like each other and we still like the songs, and we still like to play music.
HANSEN: And you have already sold out shows in D.C., Philly, Boston and New York. Travis, did you expect that kind of welcome back?
Mr. MORRISON: No, no. I'm always convinced that there'll be 15 people.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. MORRISON: I don't think we ever sold out a show ahead of time when we were a band from the start to the finish, until the very last show in Washington.
HANSEN: Yeah. And I would bet that your fans who are attending these shows will insist you play some of your popular blasts from the past. We want to hear one now. This is a tune called "What Do You Want Me to Say."
(Soundbite of song, "What Do You Want Me to Say")
THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN: (Singing) I lost my membership card to the human race, so don't forget the face, because I know that I do belong here. Go down the checklist; let's see. Feelings are good, dishonesty is bad, and keeping it inside is worse still...
HANSEN: Jason, what are your thoughts on revisiting these songs as a guitarist?
Mr. CADDELL: It's amazing to me - kind of the size of the universe between just walking back in the room after seven years off, and where we were when we stopped. There are a thousand little details that you don't ever notice about your playing, and about your communication, until you've been away from them for a long time. And so to hear us play now and, you know, we've been using the record sometimes as reference, compared to then it is a pretty astounding difference.
But I do feel like my priorities as a musician are so much different than they were then.
HANSEN: Sure. I want to go back to the fact that you are releasing this on vinyl. Is it because of the sound that you get on a record, or is it just a nostalgia? 'Cause it seems to go both ways with vinyl that's being released now.
Mr. CADDELL: Records do sound different than CDs but frankly, I don't think any of us are like, sitting at home in our cardigans with our pipes, in front of the hi-fi, you know, kind of deal. And I think, you know, there's so much about vinyl records that's more than just the fact that it happens to be an analog sine wave as opposed to a bunch of bits in a row. I mean, it's much bigger art. We can do some really wonderful things with the packaging.
And there is, you know, there is that echo - that sort of nostalgic, this is what music used to be, that I think is emotionally resonant with some people.
Mr. MORRISON: It's a storage medium that has a potential to be beautiful in a way that the CD does not. After years of these jewel cases, you're pushing on these little plastic things in the middle with your thumb to make it - to pop out.
HANSEN: That's if you can get the jewel case open.
Mr. MORRISON: If you can get the jewel case open, and you might crack the CD. And it's a hard, shiny, plastic, unpleasant, unhappy little medium.
HANSEN: How about the tune "Back and Forth"? I mean, the lyrics begin: There's a kind of music that reminds me of you. It's all clear, expensive drinks and shiny shirts, and the click of heels as they descend from the taxi like the first foot on the moon. Oh, and it glows with ache and if it hits me right, it's almost too much to take. I mean, that is some imagery. It's kind of - there's a "Sex and the City" moment there, where...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. MORRISON: Clearly, the intent.
HANSEN: Surely. Let's hear some more of the tune.
(Soundbite of song, "Back and Forth")
THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN: (Singing) There's a kind of music that reminds me of you. It's all clear, expensive drinks and shiny shirts and the click of heels as they descend from the taxi like the first foot on the moon. Oh, and it glows with ache. And if it hits me right, it's almost too much to take.
HANSEN: I'm speaking with two members of the band the Dismemberment Plan - they have reunited - singer Travis Morrison and guitarist Jason Caddell.
Again, you've got that driving beat, that rolling beat behind it, and the guitar and the lyrics, obviously - almost too much to take in on a first hearing. There are so many moving parts in your music. You know, you do the punk stuff, you do kind of the hip-hop stuff, the rock, the R&B. How, in theory, does a song get from notes on a napkin to a full-blown performance?
Mr. MORRISON: It's a miracle.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. MORRISON: It's a miracle. I mean, I think just raw effort. I mean, the story of "Back and Forth" is, from my angle, is pretty great, which is that the verses are just based on "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" by Dylan. Their structures are completely the same, yeah. Not maybe emotional intent.
But the chorus, I was walking to work and I started singing it to myself, and it was almost like I had like, this feeling of a song.
(Soundbite of song, "Back and Forth")
THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN: (Singing) Back and forth and back...
Mr. MORRISON: But I didn't know how it sounded. I didn't know what it was. But I was kind of singing like, (Singing) somebody scream, all right - and then I went to work. Then we had rehearsal that day and I walked in, and Eric and Joe were playing the groove. I walked in, and it was almost like walking into a space where they had been playing it for all eternity. It was just boom-boom-boom-boom-boom. And I was like, that's the song I was writing.
So as a lyricist, I might have a concept, and I might have even mocked something up at home that I stubbornly thought was how the song was supposed to go. But all that would go out the window when we would all get together, and there would be collective creation happening. And then you would just look for juxtapositions between those concepts, and between the raw interaction that was going on between the musicians.
Mr. CADDELL: I mean, it's still exactly the same. Like, the four of us get in a room together and like, we still are four nerds that love music, and love to sort of bounce it off each other.
(Soundbite of song, "You Are Invited")
THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN: (Singing) I got it in the mail one morning, there was no return address, just my name in gold leaf on the front...
HANSEN: Your tune "You Are Invited" tells the tale of an anonymous invitation that comes in the mail. Was this for all the kids out there who never fit in, never got invited anywhere - and was that both of you?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. CADDELL: You get older and I think you get more comfortable in your place in the world. I think when you're 24, you're kind of auto-yearning - or you feel auto-left out, you know what I mean? Like, it's just in you and then you get older and you get incredibly nostalgic for that time in your life and that place in the world. It's just, you can't win.
(Soundbite of music)
HANSEN: Why did you guys break up in 2003? I mean, you were on, it seems, the cusp of hitting the...
Mr. MORRISON: We weren't.
HANSEN: You weren't. What do you mean, you weren't?
Mr. MORRISON: Everybody says that, yeah.
Mr. CADDELL: I mean, there's absolutely, positively no way to tell what would have happened if we had been at it for a while longer. But the truth of the matter is, we had been doing it for 10 years - and it's a lot of work.
Mr. CADDELL: Yeah, absolutely.
Mr. MORRISON: I was like...
Mr. CADDELL: I'll tell you what, I don't think we were on the cusp. I think we were on the cusp of being a club lifer band. And sometimes over the last seven years, I would look at peers who were kind of maintaining, and I would feel some pining for it. I would feel some pangs of like, the road not taken. But now, I feel like I took my medicine in terms of life and now, this is just incredibly fun.
HANSEN: When you returned to a working life, you don't work for people who give you standing ovations every time you've done something well. Was that a hard adjustment to make?
Mr. MORRISON: Actually, I'll tell you what, I've never had co-workers that rode me as hard as my bandmates.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. MORRISON: Everything I've had to deal with in business - and I'm in computer programming for advertising, which is like, hectic and insane and the client's freaking out - I hear that 17 times a day. I'm like, you know what, I was in a band driving 25 hours overnight to get from Seattle to Fargo, to open up for Veruca Salt. So you can't tell me nothing.
Mr. CADDELL: And I'll tell you what, the thing about it for me is like, by the time that 2003 rolled around, I think what I personally needed very much was a - kind of a direct feedback loop of accomplishment. Because there's a far distance between standing on stage and reading record reviews, and having people buy your music. There's a big difference between that and directly knowing that you've done a good job and you've achieved something and, you know, your bank account is starting to get out of the emergency zone. Those things are hugely important.
Mr. MORRISON: And it's extraordinarily ironic because people that have never done it think, oh, you must feel so fulfilled and so lauded. And on the one hand, I do very much feel like we've - and not to get crazy about it - but we've done good things in the world, the four of us. And I think we have that as an achievement. Now, it's time to do the next thing.
HANSEN: Jason Caddell and Travis Morrison of the newly reconstituted band the Dismemberment Plan. Their reissued record - yes, vinyl record - is called "Emergency & I." Thank you both for coming in.
Mr. MORRISON: Thank you.
Mr. CADDELL: Thank you.
(Soundbite of music)
HANSEN: "Spider in the Snow," from the Dismemberment Plan's album "Emergency & I."
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
For more than half a century, John Cohen has photographed the likes of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie. He's made films about Jack Kerouac, recorded rural musicians, and made plenty of his own music. He's a co-founder of the New Lost City Ramblers, a string band that set the standard for authenticity in the 1950s folk boom. And at the age of 78, Cohen is still at it.
Karen Michel visited him at his home in upstate New York, and sent this profile.
KAREN MICHEL: There's a big pile of timber ready for cutting into firewood, just outside of John Cohen's snug, wood-heated home, about an hour north of New York City.
Mr. JOHN COHEN (Musician, Photographer, Filmmaker): I can live up here in Putnam County, New York, on an old farm - like I'm supposed to.
MICHEL: One of the seminal figures in the 1950s folk revival, Cohen grew up in New York City.
Mr. COHEN: So I have a hunch - and it's just a hunch - that Im hungry to find out all those things that I didnt have access to.
This, apparently, was a smoke house...
MICHEL: It's here, in what Cohen calls his inner sanctum, that he keeps the relics and results of his more than 50 years of exploring the stories and lives of others - as a still photographer, filmmaker and sound recordist.
Mr. COHEN: A very low...
MICHEL: In 1954, while still a student at Yale, Cohen went to Peru knowing only two words of Quechua - the name of an unusual singer, popular at the time.
Mr. COHEN: Yma Sumac, which means how beautiful. So imagine the scenario. Im walking across a plain and there's a woman sitting there outside of her little house, weaving. And I walked up to her, pointed at what she's doing, I say yma sumac. Suddenly she's smiling, and I sit down with her. And then I point to different parts of the loom and say, yma, yma, yma, sutiki - how is it called? And she'd tell me, and I'd write this down.
So there was already a back and forth of me interested in what she was doing. And I was not doing this as a technique. I was there to find out.
MICHEL: Three years later, he headed for Kentucky, where he met banjoist and singer Roscoe Holcomb.
(Soundbite of banjo music)
Mr. ROSCOE HOLCOMB (Banjoist and Singer): This is Roscoe Holcomb. And the title of this song is "The Stingy Woman Blues." I made it myself.
(Singing) Stingy woman, come sit down on my knee...
MICHEL: Holcomb became the subject of a classic Cohen film, "The High Lonesome Sound." Sometime after he finished it, Cohen took the film back to the village of Daisy.
Mr. COHEN: Getting a projector, telling the community, showing the film, and very curious to hear what the people's comments were. Hey, look, Aunt Jane painted her porch. It wasnt painted back then. That was the only comment I got after all that political correctness.
Mr. HOLCOMB: (Singing) The more you cry, woman, the further that you drive me away.
MICHEL: Between visits to Kentucky and Peru, Cohen lived in a downtown New York City apartment, next door to photographer Robert Frank. When Frank shot the iconic beat film "Pull My Daisy," Cohen took the stills. When young Bob Dylan came to Greenwich Village, Cohen took his photos, too, on the roof of the building.
And there's a famous shot of Woody Guthrie, curly hair sprouting from the top of his narrow head, framed by the hulking backs of two acoustic guitarists. That picture was the image used for a show of Cohen's still photos, films and music, at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., in 1997.
Mr. COHEN: This picture of Woody Guthrie, I had taken him out from Greystone State Institution, where he was - you know, he had problems. They didnt know that he had Huntington's Chorea. But the haircut that he has in that is an institutional haircut. They give it to prisoners anywhere, mental patients, it's just government issue. So Lyle Lovett or leave it - took it.
Thats a good identity. I mean, how many people - how many Johnny Cashes and - all have found their identity with the prisoners, the outcasts and all that, and the music of those people?
MICHEL: That music - or some of it - is also Cohen's music. A banjo player since high school, he began learning the music of the old-timers while he was at Yale. And soon after, he formed the New Lost City Ramblers.
(Soundbite of song, "How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?")
THE NEW LOST CITY RAMBLERS (Folk Band): (Singing) There once was a time when everything was cheap. But now, prices nearly puts a man to sleep. When we pay our grocery bill, we just feel like a making our will. Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live?
Mr. COHEN: In the very first notes that I wrote for the very first New Lost City Ramblers album, I said: There's a side of ourselves that goes out trying to change the world into our own image. And there's another side of ourselves that goes out trying to find our image in the outside world. And I think it's that second one that's kind of forced me to become who I am.
(Soundbite of song, "Old Age Pension Check")
THE NEW LOST CITY RAMBLERS: (Singing) When that old age pension check comes to our door, we won't have to dread the poorhouse anymore. Oh, we're old and bent and gray. Good times will be back to stay when our old age pension check comes to our door.
MICHEL: It's through the Ramblers that Tom Rankin, director of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, was exposed to Cohen's multifaceted work.
Professor TOM RANKIN (Director, Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University): One of the things you can really see from John Cohen is, you don't have to see yourself as limited. You don't have to pigeonhole yourself. And you can follow that - kind of almost naive passion of interest, and do most anything. And you can be a participant, and you can be an observer.
Mr. COHEN: I'm an artist rather than a documentarian or something.
MICHEL: But not long ago, back in his barn, Cohen sort of put the lie to that. Rummaging around, he found footage for his most recent film, a follow-up on Roscoe Holcomb.
Mr. COHEN: About 20 years ago, I made my last film in Peru. And I said: I've done 15 films; that's enough. And then I remembered - out in the barn, I had all this footage that didn't make its way into my very first film, which was back in 1962. And I went out to the barn - I still have my old editing machine - and found some beautiful music, and some devastating stories from Roscoe about how hard his life was. And that's what gave me the impetus to make the new movie.
MICHEL: That film is just out on DVD, along with the original Holcomb documentary. There's also "John Cohen, Past, Present, Peru: A Collection of CDs, DVDs, Photos and Text," and a new book about the New Lost City Ramblers.
Mr. COHEN: I'm mean, Im 78 years old, and I didn't expect to have this much attention come to my work. And I'm very happy that it's happening. And I'd like people to see it - because it should be seen.
MICHEL: For NPR News, Im Karen Michel.
(Soundbite of banjo music)
HANSEN: You can see a slideshow of John Cohen's photos, including that shot of Woody Guthrie, at our website, NPRMusic.org.
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Im Liane Hansen.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Tomorrow in New York, a fashion revolution will be commemorated. In November 1973 at the Palace of Versailles, a select group of African-American models made American fashion a contender on the world stage.
NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates reports that around 200 people will gather tomorrow afternoon at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum, to celebrate.
KAREN GRIGSBY BATES: It was the fashion equivalent of a first-class prize fight - the Thrilla in Manila, only with high heels, not boxing gloves.
In this corner, the titans of French haute couture: the houses of Yves St. Laurent, Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, Emanuel Ungaro and Pierre Cardin -elegant, proper, traditional. Josephine Baker, the iconic American expatriate, opened for them.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. JOSEPHINE BAKER (Singer): (Singing in French)
GRIGSBY BATES: And in this corner, some of America's best and brightest: Anne Klein, Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Halston and a swiftly rising star, Stephen Burrows. Liza Minnelli did the honors.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. LIZA MINNELLI (Singer): (Singing) I want to step out down the Champs D'Elysees, do some window shopping on the Rue de la Paix. That's for me. Bonjour Paris.
GRIGSBY BATES: The audience was star-studded, too: plenty of American socialites, one of the richest women in France, and the former Grace Kelly, now Princess Grace of Monaco.
But as important as those ladies were, the event was transformed by the presence of several African-American models. At evening's end, fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert, who dreamed up the event, described it this way:
Mr. HAROLD KODA (Curator, Met Costume Institute): She said, you know, it was as if on this cold night, all the windows of Versailles had been blown open.
GRIGSBY BATES: That's Harold Koda, curator in charge of the Met's Costume Institute. He interviewed many people who were at Versailles.
Mr. KODA: And they all said that what made the event so special - and what made the presentation of the Americans so riveting, magical and overwhelmed the presentations of the French - was the presence of African-American models.
GRIGSBY BATES: Sandi Bass began her European modeling career the same year as the Versailles event, and remembers how excited she was to hear about black models triumphing in the cradle of the French fashion establishment.
Ms. SANDI BASS (Model): There was a certain kind of walk that we had at the time - and I'm just going to say, it was pretty much the black girls' walk. We were free, we were spirited, we would smile. We would even almost kind of - it was like a little trot down the runway.
GRIGSBY BATES: Bass says that after Versailles, a number of French designers turned to black girls as models and as inspiration. She worked for Givenchy for several years.
Ms. BASS: We had no holds barred. The personalities just flourished and opened, and this created an excitement for the designers as well as the audience.
GRIGSBY BATES: Fashion historian Barbara Summers enjoyed a 17-year career with Ford, one of America's top modeling agencies. She says the models at Versailles caught the world's attention, in part, because of their numbers. While there had been black models before, they were considered exotic rarities.
Ms. BARBARA SUMMERS (Fashion Historian, Model): At Versailles, they had never seen so many flagrantly beautiful black women at one time. So that was a revolution.
GRIGSBY BATES: The turning-heads kind of revolution, not the chopping-heads kind.
Summers says the Versailles audience was used to the chilly remoteness of the models who showcased European couture.
Ms. SUMMERS: Black girls changed all that. They plugged fashion into what was happening now.
(Soundbite of song, "My First, My Last, My Everything")
Mr. BARRY WHITE (Singer): (Singing) My everything...
Ms. SUMMERS: And that meant R&B, rock and roll, dancing, music, popular culture. They brought the electricity of popular culture into fashion.
GRIGSBY BATES: The Costume Institute's Harold Koda says Versailles came at the moment the world was changing. It was getting younger; there was lots of social upheaval; and people were ready for change.
Barbara Summers believes the black models who presented at Versailles were pioneers in overturning a restrictive, outmoded aesthetic.
Ms. SUMMERS: They weren't planning on being revolutionaries, but they happened to be at the right place at the right time. And for a revolution to take place at Versailles - let me tell you: For these little black girls to be running around, kicking up a fuss and, you know, showing off, it had to be absolutely thrilling.
GRIGSBY BATES: On Monday, the grown-up version of those little black girls will gather to be applauded again for their contribution to the fashion world. Viva la revolucion.
Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
And joining us is puzzlemaster Will Shortz. Hi, Will.
WILL SHORTZ: Hi, Liane.
HANSEN: You know what I love about today? You can say it's easy as 1-2-3.
SHORTZ: Uh-huh, uh-huh. You know, I was just noticing recently the date was, of course, 1-11-11, and in November it's going to be even better. It'll be 11-11-11.
HANSEN: I bet people are planning weddings right now, as we speak.
Well, I don't know how easy the challenge was last week but why don't you repeat it for us.
SHORTZ: Yes. It came from listener Mike Shteyman of Reisterstown, Maryland. I said: Take the first seven letters of the alphabet - A through G - change one of these letters to another that's also either A-B-C-D-E-F or G, rearrange the result to spell a familiar seven-letter word. What word is it?
HANSEN: And your answer?
SHORTZ: Answer is feedbag.
HANSEN: Well, it wasn't too hard, I guess, because we received more than 1,200 entries, and that's a little more than we've been receiving in a while. And out of those entries, our winner is Barbara Larcom from Baltimore, Maryland. Hi there, Barbara.
Ms. BARBARA LARCOM: Hi, Liane.
HANSEN: What do you do in Baltimore?
Ms. LARCOM: Well, I am very active with the sister city project called Casa Baltimore Limay, connected with Nicaragua. And I play the piano for a Catholic church and I'm doing some contractual work with Alliance for Global Justice.
HANSEN: Wow. All that fun and work in Charm City, huh?
Ms. LARCOM: That's right.
HANSEN: How long have you been playing the puzzle?
Ms. LARCOM: Well, this is my first entry in fact, although I've been listening for about two years.
HANSEN: And how long did it take you to solve this one?
Ms. LARCOM: Less than 15 minutes. I thought this one was easier than some.
HANSEN: All right. And you were courageous enough to send in an entry and we picked you. And are you ready to play?
Ms. LARCOM: I hope so.
HANSEN: Me, too. All right, Will, meet Barbara. Let's play.
SHORTZ: All right, Barbara, today's puzzle is called To B or Not Two B. Every answer is a familiar word with a doubled B - that is two Bs in a row somewhere inside it. I'll give you an anagram in the other letters in the word. You tell me the word. For example, if I said oat O-A-T, you would say abbot.
Ms. LARCOM: Oh, OK.
SHORTZ: All right. Number one is air A-I-R.
Ms. LARCOM: Oh dear.
HANSEN: And the Bs have to be together so...
SHORTZ: The Bs will be together in that word.
Ms. LARCOM: Rabbi.
SHORTZ: Rabbi - you didn't need a hint. Number two is loge L-O-G-E.
Ms. LARCOM: Gobble.
SHORTZ: Gobble, good. Hays H-A-Y-S.
Ms. LARCOM: Shabby.
HANSEN: Yeah.
SHORTZ: Shabby, good job. Line L-I-N-E.
Ms. LARCOM: Nibble.
SHORTZ: Nibble, good. Lead L-E-A-D.
Ms. LARCOM: Dabble.
SHORTZ: Oh, that's fast. Inge I-N-G-E.
Ms. LARCOM: Ebbing.
SHORTZ: Ebbing, good one. Noir N-O-I-R.
Ms. LARCOM: Ribbon.
SHORTZ: Ribbon, good. OK. Rita R-I-T-A.
Ms. LARCOM: Rabbit.
SHORTZ: Uh-huh. Hasta H-A-S-T-A.
Ms. LARCOM: Oh gosh, getting harder. Shabbat.
SHORTZ: Shabbat or Sabbath, either way. Lutes L-U-T-E-S.
Ms. LARCOM: Stubble.
SHORTZ: Stubble, good.
HANSEN: You're so fast.
SHORTZ: Cagier C-A-G-I-E-R.
Ms. LARCOM: Cribbage.
SHORTZ: I can give you a hint - cribbage.
HANSEN: Good.
SHORTZ: No hint needed. Good one. Slicer S-L-I-C-E-R. And this is a verb that describes what you probably do, what you're doing on the paper right now. What you do for...
Ms. LARCOM: Oh, scribble.
SHORTZ: Scribble is right. And your last one is mulled M-U-L-L-E-D. And your hint is: the answer is something that you are not.
Ms. LARCOM: Oh dear.
SHORTZ: Something you...
Ms. LARCOM: Oh, dumbbell.
SHORTZ: Dumbbell, good job.
HANSEN: Dumbbell. Barbara, leaving me in the dust when it comes to the puzzle. Man, you are good, man. Nice work. Well, you know you get some things for playing the puzzle today and we have someone special to tell you about them. He is a former British Army captain turned musician, James Blunt.
Mr. JAMES BLUNT (Musician): For playing our puzzle today, you'll get a WEEKEND EDITION lapel pin, the "Scrabble Deluxe Edition" from Parker Brothers, the book series "Will Shortz Presents KenKen" Volumes 1, 2 and 3 from St. Martins Press, one of Will Shortzs "Puzzlemaster Decks of Riddles and Challenges" from Chronicle Books, and a CD compilation of NPRs Sunday Puzzles.
HANSEN: What do you think, Barbara?
Ms. LARCOM: Oh, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.
HANSEN: Ah, it's been our pleasure. You know, I could listen to someone with an English accent read the phone book and I would be mesmerized.
So before we let you go, Barbara, what member station do you listen to?
Ms. LARCOM: WAMU in D.C.
HANSEN: All right, Barbara Larcom from Baltimore, Maryland. You were fabulous. Thanks a lot for playing with us today.
Ms. LARCOM: Thank you.
HANSEN: All right, Will. We got to do this again for next week. What have you got?
Mr. SHORTZ: Yes, name a nationality. The third, fourth, fifth, sixth and 10th letters in order name a country. Also the fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth and 12th letters in order name a country. And neither country is related to the nationality. What nationality is it?
So again, nationality, letters three, four, five, six and 10 name a country. And letters four, five, seven, nine and 12 name a country. Neither country is related to the nationality. What nationality is it?
HANSEN: Oh, boy. Get your pencil sharpened. When you have the answer, go to our website, NPR.org/slash puzzle and click on the Submit Your Answer link. Only one entry per person, please. Our deadline is 3 P.M. Thursday, Eastern Time that is. Please include a phone number where we can reach you at about that time. We'll call if youre the winner and you'll get to play on the air with the puzzle editor of The New York Times and WEEKEND EDITION's puzzle-master, Will Shortz.
Will, thanks a lot.
Mr. SHORTZ: Thanks, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
Two weeks after the horrific shootings in Tucson, people are still talking about what might have motivated the gunman. Why did he open fire on so many innocent people, and why did he target Democratic congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords?
The suspect reportedly has said nothing since the shooting, but NPR's Wade Goodwyn reports he said plenty before, in a series of web postings that are open to interpretation.
WADE GOODWYN: Giffords' accused gunman, Jared Loughner, left a trail of evidence on the Internet, clues about his state of mind. Mark Potok is the director of the Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center,and he's been combing through Loughner's writings.
Mr. MARK POTOK (Director, Intelligence Project, Southern Poverty Law Center): And I thought quite clearly, overall, he was very mentally ill and also virtually illiterate, extremely difficult to follow.
GOODWYN: Potok says that beneath the rambling discourse, a hint, an outline of political ideology is evident.
Mr. POTOK: I also felt that this was a person who was mentally ill, who had absorbed some very particular ideas from the radical right and in particular, from conspiracy theorists on the radical right.
GOODWYN: Potok believes that though Loughner is mentally disturbed, it's no accident that he allegedly targeted Giffords.
Mr. POTOK: It seems to me just as likely that someone like Loughner might have targeted his own family, or a McDonald's restaurant - or an elementary school, God help us. But he chose to attack the highest representative of the federal government in his area. So I think it's legitimate to wonder, how did this man select his target? That seems to me distinct from somehow trying to blame Sarah Palin.
GOODWYN: Loughner's writings and videos on YouTube, MySpace, and a conspiracy website called Above Top Secret reveal, above all, a deep distrust of the federal government. Some of his posts reflect relatively conventional far-right-wing ideas - for example, that the American currency is worthless because it's not backed by gold and silver. Loughner especially seems to believe that NASA is in the business of perpetuating frauds - that the space station is really empty, and that the Mars Rover program is a fake.
Loughner also wrote about the government trying to use grammar to enslave citizens through mind control - a theory he may have borrowed from patriot conspiracy theorist David Wynn Miller. Chip Berlet, a political research associate, says Loughner also wrote about something called the second American Constitution. That refers to the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments after Reconstruction, which freed the slaves and granted citizenship to anyone born in the U.S.
Mr. CHIP BERLET (Political Research Associate): In white supremacist circles, and in certain right-wing conspiracy circles, the argument is that these Reconstruction amendments invalidated the actual first, legitimate Constitution and that ever since then, the government of the United States has been operating illegally.
GOODWYN: In the aftermath of the shooting, there were accusations by Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik that were subsequently echoed by others on the left. The contention was that angry political rhetoric by conservative talk radio and other right-wing pundits and politicians - about health-care reform and so-called treasonous Democrats - might have goaded Loughner to target a Democratic congresswoman. That's been met by scorn in conservative quarters.
Mr. CHARLES HELLER (Radio Talk Show Host, Liberty Watch): What a bunch of horse crap. I mean, give me a break.
GOODWYN: Charles Heller is a radio talk show host of Liberty Watch and America Armed and Free, in Tucson. Heller says if you read Jared Loughner's postings, you can see one thing clearly: He's mentally unbalanced. The rest is ridiculous speculation by liberals trying to make political hay out of a tragedy.
Mr. HELLER: There's no way of knowing whether he was angry at the government or not. His writings would seem to indicate that was true, but how do we know that he wasn't angry about his French toast that morning? We just don't.
GOODWYN: Amber Troy is a linguistics student at the University of Arizona who shared a poetry class with Jared Loughner at the local community college. Troy says that Loughner would bring up subjects like currency conspiracies, but that he was so incoherent he was practically unintelligible.
Ms. AMBER TROY: I mean, I don't even remember what we were talking about at the point when he was talking about currency. Like, the topic wasn't even related to anything political or currency or anything. But I remember it being very -like, out of nowhere.
GOODWYN: Troy says Loughner seemed so out of it, she doubts his motivations were political. In some ways, the debate about Loughner's alleged motives mirrors the debate about violent video games that followed the school shootings in Paducah, Jonesboro and Columbine.
Dr. Michael Brennan is the president of the Arizona Psychiatric Society,and the medical director at a hospital in Phoenix.
Dr. MICHAEL BRENNAN (President, Arizona Psychiatric Society): Lots of people have the idea that government is less than benign. But when it takes on a very concerted effort to specifically try and undermine you and somehow control you as though you were slave-like, that takes on a delusional proportion. And a delusion is a false, fixed belief that is not amenable to reason.
GOODWYN: Brennan says there are more people than we might think who are prone to political delusions. Some of those delusions simply skirt the edges of logic while others are out there - way out there. But Brennan says delusional rarely equals violent - rarely, but not never.
Wade Goodwyn, NPR News, Tucson.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Randy and Amy Loughner have been living in virtual seclusion since the events of January 8th. The parents of Jared Loughner rarely leave their Tucson home, and have few visitors. They're also emotionally isolated. Few know what it's like to be the relative of a person who is accused of committing a horrible crime.
As Joseph Goldstein wrote in the New York Times, the Loughners have now, quote: joined a circle whose membership is a curse, unquote.
In that circle, you can find Robert Hyde of Albuquerque. His brother killed five people, including two police officers. David Kaczynski, the brother of the man known as the Unabomber, is also a member. Both men have reached out to the Loughners.
David Kaczynski called Loughner's public defender. He left a message that he was available to listen if the parents wanted to talk to someone with a similar experience. Robert Hyde sent a letter to the Loughner's home. It was an invitation to contact him, and to tell them that what happened was not their fault.
But perhaps the most charitable response has come from Captain Mark Kelly, the husband of Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman who was wounded in the Tucson shootings. This past week, he told ABC News that he was open to the idea of meeting with the Loughners. In his words: They've got to be hurting in this situation as much as anybody.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This weekend, those on both sides of the abortion debate are recognizing the 38th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade. Yet more than a generation after the court legalized the procedure nationwide, the debate is as polarized and divisive as ever.
On Capitol Hill this past week, Republicans followed up their successful vote on a bill to repeal the health overhaul law with the announcement that they would be voting on further abortion restrictions.
NPR's Julie Rovner is here to discuss what this means. Welcome back, Julie.
JULIE ROVNER: Thanks, Liane.
HANSEN: Health care and abortion are among the most contentious issues on the domestic agenda, yet the new House Republican majority is making them a priority. Why?
ROVNER: Well, you know, they may be contentious within the population as a whole, but they're actually not all that contentious within the new House Republican majority. In fact, there aren't that many things that the new House Republicans agree on, but two of those things appear to be that they want to repeal the health law, and they want to put more restrictions on federal abortion funding.
HANSEN: Are those two things linked?
ROVNER: Yes, in fact, they are. And they're not only linked, but they also fulfill another useful goal for the Republicans, which is to divide the Democrats. Last year's health bill, as you'll recall, almost didn't become law because Democrats were so split over abortion. In the end, the bill did ban almost all federal funding for abortion, which is actually the status quo under restrictions that Congress renews every year in a series of different spending bills.
But abortion opponents wanted to make those restrictions permanent so they wouldn't have to do it every year. Abortion rights groups didn't want that to happen. In the end, they fought to a very uneasy draw, with President Obama issuing an executive order banning federal funding for abortion - which got those last few Democratic votes that they needed.
There's still a lot of dispute about what the law does and doesn't do insofar as banning abortion. Several Democrats who oppose abortion actually lost their seats last year to Republican opponents, who charged that they voted for expanded abortion funding. So now, Republicans have introduced a bill they say would close abortion loopholes in the health law that could enable abortion funding in the future.
Then they also have a second bill that would make permanent those year- by-year restrictions on federal abortion funding.
HANSEN: What does that mean for Democrats?
ROVNER: Well, when it comes to abortion, both parties have members on both sides of the issue. But right now, it's fair to say that there are fewer Republicans who support abortion rights then there are Democrats who oppose abortion. And in the Senate, in particular, there are way more Democrats than Republicans who are up for re-election in 2012, and many of them are from states that it's going to be very difficult for Democrats, like Virginia and Montana and Florida. So it's hard to imagine that those senators want to vote repeatedly on abortion, which is, of course, exactly what Republicans would like to force them to do.
HANSEN: What happens next?
ROVNER: Well, you know, these hot-button social issues get introduced, often, with a lot of fanfare and then put on the back burner. But I don't think that's going to happen this time - first because as I said, it suits Republicans' political agenda to try to force Democrats to take these repeated abortion votes; but second, the House Republican leadership seems really eager to do this.
Speaker John Boehner spoke about this frequently during the election campaign and since he has become speaker. Plus, you have, now, the chairman of the House health subcommittee on the Energy and Commerce Committee, Joe Pitts, a longtime abortion foe. So he's in a position to actually move some of these bills. So I think we're going to see repeated abortion votes as we go into the next weeks and months.
HANSEN: Will the same thing happen that happened with the health overhaul repeal in the House? I mean, it's going to be dead in the Senate. Will it be the same for the abortion issue?
ROVNER: No, probably not. The health bill would have to be really brought up as a single bill. A lot of these abortion issues can be brought up as amendments to other bills, particularly as amendments to spending bills. It's easier to force votes on a lot of abortion issues, and I think that's exactly what Senate Republicans intend to do.
HANSEN: NPR's Julie Rovner. Thank you, Julie.
ROVNER: You're welcome.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
The Federal Communications Commission approved Comcast's merger with NBC Universal this past week, but that approval came with conditions. The deal creates a media giant that will control much of what viewers watch and the way they access it, including many of the shows on television and the cable that delivers them to viewers.
The new company will connect millions of homes to the Internet and control one of Hollywood's biggest movie studios. In other words, if you watch, download, subscribe or buy a ticket, you may be doing business with the new merged company.
Joe Flint has been covering the story for the Los Angeles Times and he joins us from Los Angeles. Hi, Joe.
Mr. JOE FLINT (Los Angeles Times): Hello.
HANSEN: How big a deal is this?
Mr. FLINT: It's a very big deal. Basically, it is combining the nation's largest distribution company, Comcast, which has over 22 million cable subscribers, another 16, 17 million broadband subscribers, with NBC Universal, which owns, of course, NBC, Universal Pictures, cable networks such as USA, Bravo, CNBC, Sci-Fi. It's the first really big - I hate to sound cliche - but 21st century media merger. And a combination of distribution and content is what has so many people concerned about it.
HANSEN: Now, there were no clear antitrust issues. NBC Universal and Comcast operate in different markets. But the FCC was very concerned about this. Why?
Mr. FLINT: Both the FCC and Justice Department really scrutinized this deal. And, as you note, there were, on the surface, no anti-competitive issues. But even though on paper there weren't any rules to violate, just the sheer magnitude of the merger and lumping together content and distribution caused a lot of concern, specifically when it comes to new areas, such as online video.
Comcast is primarily a cable operate and the government wants to make sure that Comcast armed with all this new content doesn't do anything to stifle the growth of what will likely be the biggest competition to cable - online video.
HANSEN: Now, to get the deal through the companies had to make a lot of promises about how they would do business. I mean, what did they agree to do and what does it mean for the average television viewer or consumer?
Mr. FLINT: There were two elements to the deal and one had to do with the public interest aspects to it. And in that case, Comcast was offering to do more children's programming, more programming aimed at minorities. They agreed to add a Hispanic board member. They did a lot of outreach to different communities to try to get sort of backing.
A lot of that, a cynic might say, is a little bit of window dressing because the real issues here for consumers and for the media industry is what Comcast will do with all this new power they have. And on that note, basically, the FCC and Justice Department laid down conditions that they hope will make it very difficult for Comcast to, one, withhold their own content from competing distribution services and, two, not carry rival programming on their own distribution services.
You know, in the online world, basically if there's an online video competitor that is able to get programming from, say, a Disney or a Warner Brothers or a NewsCorp, then Comcast would have to do a similar deal with that company. Those are the sorts of conditions that the government put in that they hope will stop Comcast from any plans it might have of stifling the growth of online video and new distribution platforms.
HANSEN: What about - I mean, let's talk just a little bit about money. Will consumers still be able to get, I mean, just Internet service at a reasonable price?
Mr. FLINT: Yes. One of the conditions actually of the deal is that, you know, Comcast has to sell its Internet service to consumers who just want that and maybe don't want a cable box. You know, all of that will be in place. The interest part for consumers - and we won't know until a few years down the road - is just how effective these conditions will be in not limiting the development of online video.
One of the great concerns of the cable industry is consumers dropping their cable subscription and just keeping a broadband connection, figuring they can get all their entertainment that way. And, you know, that's something that we'll see play out in the next three to five years, whether these conditions were tough enough to encourage growth of the online video marketplace.
HANSEN: Joe Flint of the Los Angeles Times. Thank you very much.
Mr. FLINT: Thank you.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
It's National Pie Day, in honor of what the American Pie Council calls America's favorite dessert. A fresh-baked, still-warm, sometimes ice-cream-topped pie is more than just an indulgence to Beth Howard. It changed her life. Beth Howard is a writer, blogger and, of course, a pie baker. Welcome to the program, Beth.
Ms. BETH HOWARD (Writer): Thank you, Liane. It's nice to be here.
HANSEN: What does pie mean to you?
Ms. HOWARD: Well, pie, first of all, means comfort and beyond comfort, sharing and simplicity. And I quit a high-tech dot-com job back in 2001 because I was just so tired of the technology and the stress and the virtual environments and just - pie seemed so grounding and tactile, and a way to sort of get back to my roots.
HANSEN: Your roots. I noticed the emails from you and with a signature - sent from my Pie Phone. Clearly you love what you do. What was it that got you into pie?
Ms. HOWARD: I first learned how to make pie when I was 17, when I got caught stealing apples from the orchard of an old man, a grumpy old guy. I was on a bicycle trip down the coast of Washington state - and got in trouble. And he turned out to be a pastry chef and invited us in, and taught us his craft. So that was where it all started. And then, like I said, after I quit the dot-com job, I turned to pie as this thing to sort of nurture me back to life.
And I baked pies in Malibu for a living - well, if you can call living in Malibu on minimum wage. It sure was a fun job.
HANSEN: Wow. I also understand that baking and sharing your pies has helped you through a difficult time recently. How so?
Ms. HOWARD: Well, my husband, Marcus, he died 16 months ago of a ruptured aorta, and it was a total shock. And I was pretty much unable to function for quite a few months. And then I was in Los Angeles, and I ran into a friend of a friend who said, I know that you have a blog. And she had worked in television, and she wanted to do a pie documentary.
So the two of us got together and did a television shoot. And that made me realize that I was onto something, that pie makes people happy. When you talk about pie, they just start smiling. And everybody has a pie story.
HANSEN: So how should one celebrate Pie Day?
Ms. HOWARD: I am a firm believer that when you do something nice for others, it makes you feel better yourself. And there are a lot of people out there suffering, and pie is the best way to cheer somebody up. I think everybody should just make a pie and give a slice away - or if you can't make your own pie, it doesn't matter, just let's go out and have a piece of pie and a cup of coffee. It's a way for people to spend time together, remember what's important in life.
HANSEN: Any advice for the novice pie baker?
Ms. HOWARD: Don't be afraid, don't be intimidated by pie dough. It's just having fun and relaxing, and knowing that it's not about perfection.
HANSEN: Beth Howard is a pie baker, writer, and author of the blog The World Needs More Pie. Happy Pie Day, Beth.
Ms. HOWARD: Thank you, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Football, winter, Chicago, Pittsburgh - four words that go well together. Later today, the Chicago Bears will play host to the Green Bay Packers in football's longest running rivalry. The Steelers play host to the New York Jets. It's the NFL conference finals and the winners go on to play in Super Bowl XLV.
NPR's Mike Pesca is as geared up as anyone. So, Mike, you got your face paint and your big foam finger?
MIKE PESCA: Yes, four foam fingers with four number ones 'cause I dont want to tip my hand. Literally, I guess, in this case.
(Soundbite of laughter)
PESCA: I know that there'd been a lot of conversations about these games. But what I thought we'd do here is may be look at them in a different way, if thats all right with you. Unless you want to talk about who has gap responsibility in the fourth reset.
HANSEN: Well, if I knew what gap responsibility - whatever that meant, then we could talk about it. But I'd rather hear what you have to say. So take it.
PESCA: Well, all the games come down to the Mikes. Each team, as it turns out, has a Team Mike - a person named Mike in a decision-making position - and the choices that those Mikes make could decide the game.
HANSEN: Now, two of the head coaches are named Mike.
PESCA: Yes. And let's start with the Packers' head coach Mike McCarthy. Beyond being the head coach, he also calls all the plays for the Packers' offense, and they have a great offense. Aaron Rodgers is their quarterback. There is a school of thought that says Aaron Rodgers - because he is so young and so promising - might actually be, over the next decade, the best quarterback in the NFL.
A lot of that comes down to McCarthy's play-calling. And against the Bears' defense, which is a very good defense, he's going to have to be a little more creative than he has been in the past. Because as good as the tools that McCarthy has on offense are, they haven't scored a lot of points against the Bears.
HANSEN: And who's the Chicago Mike in question?
PESCA: The Chicago Mike is the Bears offensive coordinator, Mike Martz. Mike Martz was the architect of those great St. Louis Rams' team. They were called the Greatest Show on Turf. The feeling was he loves to throw the ball around the field, aerial assaults and so forth. And he came to Chicago and people said, well, is he going to be able to graft that sort of offense - which was played in a dome, not at the swampy and often wet and windy Chicago field, and Mike Martz has shown that he's just simply a very smart guy.
He didnt transfer it whole sale. He worked with Chicago's offense and the tools they had in place. The downfall of the Bears' offense for a longtime was their offensive line. But luckily, their offensive line coach, whose name happens to be Mike Tice, has gotten their line in order. So this game will have two kind of genius play-callers, both named Mike against each other.
HANSEN: What about the Jets?
PESCA: Jets have a defensive coordinator named Mike Pettine. Jets head coach Rex Ryan works with his defensive coordinator Mike Pettine in a way that no other head coach and no other defensive coordinator works. Usually in the NFL, either a coach will call the defensive plays or the coordinator will call the defensive plays. But Ryan and Pettine collaborate. And it's not written down or decided beforehand how they're going to collaborate.
Sometimes they would debate and yell at each other so much but eventually the plays would be called correctly. And the defensive play-calling - the defensive alignment, how smart the Jets have been on defense - has absolutely been the key to their march through the playoffs thus far.
HANSEN: And then there's the Steelers' head coach, Mike Tomlin.
PESCA: This is cheating a little bit because unlike all the other Mikes we've talked about, Tomlin is not involved in calling specific plays at specific times. But he is a really good and, I think, under-rated coach. But how he inspires his team and if he gets them up to playing, get revenge on the Jets -cause the Steelers had lost to the Jets a couple weeks earlier - that, of course, is going to be a key.
HANSEN: And because it's all about the Mikes, NPR's Mike Pesca thanks a lot.
PESCA: Yeah, that was a little self-serving of me. But you are welcome.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Im Liane Hansen.
President Barack Obama heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday night to deliver the State of the Union Address - his first in front of the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives. And yesterday afternoon, he offered a preview.
President BARACK OBAMA: My principle focus, my number one focus, is going to be making sure that we are competitive, that we are growing, and we are creating jobs - not just now, but well into the future. And that's what is going to be the main topic of the State of the Union.
HANSEN: The president in a YouTube video he released yesterday.
Polls show more Americans approve of the job he's doing than in recent months.
NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson has been looking into whats at stake for the president, and what else we can expect to hear from him on Tuesday night. She joins us. Hi, Mara.
MARA LIASSON: Hi, Liane.
HANSEN: The president said yesterday, the economy will be the principle focus. Is it also likely he'll address the ideas of cooperation and unity in Washington?
LIASSON: Yes, he will talk about things where he thinks there is common ground with Republicans - like education and trade and fiscal responsibility. He certainly doesnt want to cut spending in the same way the Republicans do, but he will talk about cutting spending and re-examining regulations. I think that he will be stressing some of those themes of cooperation and unity, that he stressed in the Tucson memorial address. But he's also going to be laying out his vision for American competiveness and innovation.
HANSEN: And what other themes do you expect?
LIASSON: Well, I think the political goal for the president in this speech and over the next two years, and through his re-election campaign, is to convince Americans that he has an optimistic vision of how to make America number one again. That is what the White House says. They want the president to convince the American people that we're turning a corner; we have a tremendous amount of work to do in the economy, but the crisis is abating.
Big questions in the speech is how much detail is he going to give about tax reform, for instance, and deficit reduction. He's certainly going to talk about fiscal responsibility, but the deficit reduction commission gave him a strategy of combining tax reform - that is, lowering rates and broadening the base, which has support across the political spectrum - with deficit reduction.
And it sounds like he's not going to go into too much detail on that. He is going to talk about the importance of fiscal responsibility, but he also has to push back against the Republicans a little bit, who are calling for deep and immediate spending cuts. The president wants more spending on infrastructure and education and research. He doesnt want to get into the position where he's merely defending spending in the abstract, across the board.
He wants to put the Republicans on the defensive so that they have to explain why we shouldnt invest in infrastructure, education and research.
HANSEN: Last year, the president called out the Supreme Court. Justice Alito, of course, gestured back. Do you expect to see changes in terms of the tone and atmosphere?
LIASSON: Yes, I certainly do. We dont know how many Democrats and Republicans will be mixing and mingling - sitting with each other on the opposite sides of aisle. But the president definitely comes into the hall at a time when civility is the watch word. Everybody is going to be on their best behavior. I dont think you're going to see any kinds of confrontations like that.
HANSEN: And finally, what do you make of the fact that the Republicans have chosen the new head of the House Budget Committee to speak, congressman Paul Ryan from Wisconsin?
LIASSON: Well, what I make of that is that the Republicans are putting cutting spending first and foremost. Paul Ryan is associated with a budget plan that until now, hasnt had too many other Republicans signing on but calling for deep spending cuts, voucherizing Medicare for younger workers - really, a radical restructuring of government, a downsizing of government that he says is the answer to America's economic ills. And they're putting him front and center.
It tells you that they see the big battles, certainly in the next six months, as -over spending, spending and spending.
HANSEN: NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Mara, thank you.
LIASSON: Thank you, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Even before the State of the Union, the ground is being laid for the 2012 campaign. As always, New Hampshire is likely to play a key role. This weekend, Granite State Republicans elected a new state party chairman. The local headlines will tell you that a Tea Party favorite won that contest. Others will tell you that Mitt Romney won a somewhat meaningless presidential poll.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Josh Rogers was there.
JOSH ROGERS: In New Hampshire's first ever presidential straw poll, Mitt Romney bested his nearest rivals, Ron Paul and Tim Pawlenty, by 20-plus points. That result isnt much of a surprise; Romney was governor of neighboring Massachusetts. But even so, New Hampshire State Senator Jack Barnes, who backs Romney, sees the results as a kind of talisman.
State Senator JACK BARNES (Republican, New Hampshire): Romney and Pawlenty, thats the ticket. It should just be automatic.
Unidentified Man: Romney and Palin for vice president.
State. Sen. BARNES: Oh, Jesus.
ROGERS: But we are a year away from the primary. More front and center is the battle for state Republican chairman.
(Soundbite of chanting, "Jack")
ROGERS: The chanting was for Jack Kimball, the Tea Party activist who upset Juliana Bergeron, a self-described Goldwater girl, who was favored by much of the establishment, including outgoing party Chairman John H. Sununu. Prior to the vote, Sununu all but told party regulars a Kimball victory could jeopardize local Republican gains that were made in the 2010 elections.
Mr. JOHN H. SUNUNU (Chairman, Republican Party, New Hampshire): We dont want to be seen as a party that's a sliver of a party, because we cannot win without the support of those independents and Democrats who came and joined us this year.
ROGERS: When Kimball spoke he, too, stressed the need for party unity - but he didnt stop there.
Mr. JACK KIMBALL (Chairman-Elect, Republican Party, New Hampshire): This is also about liberty. This is also about freedom. That, plus our Constitution, will be at the forefront of my mind. It is a new day in the State of New Hampshire.
(Soundbite of cheering and applause)
ROGERS: But if there's any doubt about the significance of electing a new, New Hampshire Republican Party chairman, it was dismissed by a phone call from a prospective friend and prospective presidential candidate, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
Mr. KIMBALL: Let's just say thats the conversation I just had. So yes, he was congratulating me and told me he's looking forward to working with me, as we go down the road.
ROGERS: Kimball is likely to receive plenty more congratulatory calls, perhaps from Mitt Romney, maybe from Sarah Palin in this state that holds the first presidential primary a year from now.
For NPR News, Im Josh Rogers in Concord, New Hampshire.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Im Liane Hansen.
This past week, police in Nairobi were caught on camera preparing for what witnesses said was an execution of three unarmed suspects, at point-blank range in the middle of morning rush hour traffic. The photos appeared in one of Kenya's leading newspapers and sparked a public outcry.
Frank Langfitt, NPR's East Africa correspondent, lives in Nairobi and joins us to explain what happened and put it in some context. First, Frank, describe the photos.
FRANK LANGFITT: Actually, Liane, Im looking now at the photos on the Daily Nation, the newspaper here. And there's one of a plainclothes policeman with his pistol drawn, pointing at two of the men on the ground. And then the next photograph is of two of the same two men, and it's clear that theyve been shot and it looks like they're dead. There's a little bit of blood.
One of the witnesses told the newspaper that just before the shooting, a cop told them, lie down so we can finish you.
And to put this in some context, this happened on Lang'ata Road. It's a very busy road. I drive it fairly often. In Washington, it would be like if somebody, a cop did this on Connecticut Avenue, or in New York, 8th Avenue at rush hour.
HANSEN: What do the police say about this?
LANGFITT: Well, they're saying they were pursuing these guys, that they were robbers. And, indeed, family members say at least two of them did have criminal records, had been prison. And police initially told, I think, reporters before the photos came out that this had been a shootout. But the photos suggest very much otherwise.
Now, since the photos came out, theyve suspended three officers. They say they're investigating.
HANSEN: And what kind of reaction have you heard from the people on the streets in Nairobi?
LANGFITT: Mostly horror. But the interesting thing is not surprise. The Kenyan police have a very bad reputation for kind of seeing themselves above the law.
In 2009, there was U.N. report about the police saying, quote, "they frequently execute individuals and that a climate of impunity prevails." So when you talk to people here, they say these things happen a lot. Police chase down suspects and they just shoot them in cold blood. The difference here it was caught on film.
Now, this morning, I was in my neighborhood and I spoke to a guy named Kenson Mohavany(ph). He's a motorcycle taxi driver. And here's how he put it.
Mr. KENSON MOHAVANY (Taxi Driver): In Kenya, this is not the first time. It is usual.
LANGFITT: Do you think anything will change? Do you think these cops will get in trouble?
Mr. MOHAVANY: No. No. No. No, there not getting in any trouble. In fact, they are going just to be changed from the station they are working to the other station somewhere else.
LANGFITT: Why do police continue to get away with killing people here?
Mr. MOHAVANY: Because the government is not ready to reform them. Yeah, if the government stops them, there'd be change.
HANSEN: And, Frank Langfitt, do some people in Kenya actually support this kind of police killing?
LANGFITT: Well, I think there are some. At least one this morning that I talked to, this guy that I was talking to in my neighborhood also said these are truly criminals, the cops actually had the right to shoot them, even if they had been disarmed. And his argument is the judiciary here is so corrupt that these guys would have just walked free.
And the context here - and this is no excuse at all - is Nairobi does have big crime problems. There's a lot of carjacking here. I, frankly, dont drive at night much. And the nickname here in East Africa for Nairobi is Nairobbery.
So some people in the community here are pretty fed up.
HANSEN: Is there a larger lesson about the country to be learned?
LANGFITT: I think there is. I mean, one of the things is it's really about poor government institutions that plague countries like Kenya and some other African nations. There's been progress on the continent in some places. But if you look at Kenya, it really is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The last elections ended with claims of rigging and a lot of violence.
So a lot of locals are disillusioned and distrustful. And they feel like you need stronger, more reliable and just government institutions to make this a safer and more stable country.
HANSEN: NPR's Frank Langfitt in Nairobi, Kenya. Thank you, Frank.
LANGFITT: You're very welcome, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
In Tunisia, street protests continue this weekend against the interim government. Many protestors complain the new leadership still has too many allies of outed dictator Ben Ali. The transitional government has promised to hold new elections as soon as possible. But many in the North African country are insisting on a clean break with the old regime.
NPR's Eric Westervelt reports from the rural town where the revolt started.
ERIC WESTERVELT: The massive street protest that included scores from urban Tunis's educated middle-classes, played a key role in driving autocrat Ben Ali from power.
(Soundbite of chanting protestors)
WESTERVELT: But the revolution began on this dusty main street of Sidi Bouzid, four hours south of the capital.
(Soundbite of chanting protestors)
WESTERVELT: On Saturday, a crowd of young people again marched up what until a few days ago was named in honor of Ben Ali. It's been renamed Mohamed Bouazizi Avenue, after the 26-year-old street vendor who set himself on fire in mid-December in front of the local government building here.
His family say Bouazizi acted after repeatedly being harassed, humiliated and shaken down by a local female inspector and local police. Nearby, large pictures of Bouazizi wearing a slight grin declare him the first light of the revolution.
Twenty-seven-year-old school teacher Amin Bayawi(ph) turned out to protest the first day, and he continues to take to the streets. He says Bouazizi's act quickly symbolized the frustration of all impoverished Tunisians, fed up with rampant corruption, repression and economic stagnation - issues that have hit the opportunity-starved Tunisian interior particularly hard.
Bayawi says, here where it all began, theyll keep the pressure on the interim government to bring about real and lasting change.
(Soundbite of protestors)
Mr. AMIN BAYAWI: The international challenge are making the protest worldwide. All the people speak about the Tunisian revolution. And we dont like to lose this opportunity of democracy. We are going to fight for this revolution to the end.
WESTERVELT: Others are not just worried about the makeup of the interim government. There's fear the army made a quiet coup. The military is in firm control of security. Its tanks and heavy weapons protect all key facilities across the country.
Forty-four-year-old education consultant, Mohaiba Shakir(ph) sees troubling signs, like cryptic announcements on state TV that ex-security chiefs and members of the former dictator's family have been arrested. But there are no details. The army and provisional government, Shakir says, need to show much more transparency about whats really going on.
Ms. MOHAIBA SHAKIR (Education Consultant): To show the people that they are really working for the people. For example, they say that they arrested more than 30 people but we cannot see them on TV. Why not?
WESTERVELT: And the once omnipresent Mukhabarat, the secret police, where have they all gone, she asks? Adding, there are still many questions we want answered.
Eric Westervelt, NPR News, Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Some of the strongest images to come out of the revolution in Tunisia were blurry and shaky, taken on cell phones. The pictures and video of mass protests and the brutal government crackdown were posted to such sites as YouTube and Facebook.
Those videos helped galvanize the country and send its president into exile. But Marc Lynch says dont be too quick to give social media all the credit for the Tunisian revolution. Lynch is the director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University. And he's in the studio. Welcome to the program.
Professor MARC LYNCH (Director, Institute for Middle East Studies, George Washington University): Thanks.
HANSEN: You say it's simplistic to call what happened in Tunisia a Twitter revolution. Why is that?
Prof. LYNCH: Well, Twitter mattered, as did Facebook, YouTube, SMS and a whole range of social media. But for them to have the full impact that they had, they needed to get those images out into the mass media where people who weren't in the network would be able to see them.
Now, al-Jazeera and other Arab satellite television stations had a very difficult time reporting from Tunisia. Their offices were shuttered. Their journalists were shutdown. So they needed to find another way to cover the country. They have actually perfected the art of using this kind of social media to get video, to get images through having to cover places like Iraq, where they were also banned. So they were very well-placed to do this.
They carefully monitored the Facebook pages, the YouTube sites. They got the images. They got the videos. And then they rebroadcast them. That then brought those images and videos to a much broader audience, and it couldnt be controlled by the Tunisian government anymore.
HANSEN: There have been comparisons to other autocratic regimes in that world since all of this happened. In your opinion, how likely is it that something like this will happen elsewhere?
Prof. LYNCH: I have to admit that Im a skeptic because I think that the other Arab regimes have learned the lesson. And the lesson is not be nicer to your people. It's if you see any sign of protest, stop it right away.
So what you're seeing right now are the Arab regimes are being very cautious about allowing demonstrations. And they're also doing things to try and buy off their people. They're slashing prices. They're clearly all now on their guard and are not going to be taken by surprise.
HANSEN: Well, let's talk about one: Egypt. A Facebook group is calling for protest on January 25th, and tens of thousands of people claim they're going to attend. And given what just happened in Tunisia, how do you think this kind of event is going to play out?
Prof. LYNCH: We'll all be watching it really carefully. The Egyptians have been protesting for years. This is not something which is new. The idea of trying to consciously emulate the Tunisian model of, like, these waves of protest that sweep the entire country is something which they would very much like to see work.
But we have to wait and see. I mean, there are very real differences in Tunisia and in Egypt.
HANSEN: But do you think these social media platforms, while they may not be the reason that these events have occurred in Tunisia, do you expect the social media platforms to play an even bigger role in the future?
Prof. LYNCH: The social media platforms clearly played an important role but everything now rests on whether the army decides to move quickly towards genuine democratic elections and allows the banned parties, like the Islamist Anetha Party(ph), to register and compete. So, this is not the time to stop paying attention to Tunisia just because the big images of protest have gone away because, in a sense, we don't yet know if there's been a fundamental change.
HANSEN: Marc Lynch is an associate professor of political science and the director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University. His Abu Aardvark blog is on ForeignPolicy.com. Thanks for coming in.
Prof. LYNCH: Thank you.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Haiti's former dictator, Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, faced a new challenge when he returned from exile this past week: an aggressive and free news media.
NPR's Jason Beaubien covered a tumultuous week in Haiti and found himself hanging out for long hours with the Port-au-Prince press corps. As he recounts in this Reporter's Notebook, it's a feisty group.
(Soundbite of people speaking Creole)
JASON BEAUBIEN: You've never done a media scrum until you've done a Haitian media scrum. Cameras are constantly swinging at cranium level, shoving matches break out just as the hapless interviewee finally starts to say something quotable. Photographers could care less about the needs of radio reporters who are trying to obtain clean audio. Radio reporters could care less about photographers' desire for portraits that are not bisected by a microphone. And print reporters don't care about anyone.
Unidentified Man: Don't push me, OK? Don't push.
BEAUBIEN: Sunglasses, baseball caps fumbled into the churning mass get crushed underfoot. And as a press corps they're predatory - they stake out, they chase, they pounce.
(Soundbite of reporters speaking Creole)
BEAUBIEN: A judge pulls up to the front of the Caribe Hotel, where Jean Claude Duvalier is staying. The judge's bodyguards open the door of his SUV and then abandon him to a swarm of three dozen journalists. The aging public official is surrounded and can't even find the door of the hotel.
Haitian journalists have no qualms about scaling chain-link fences. They squirt through police lines, they crush foliage and bushes.
(Soundbite of reporters yelling in Creole)
BEAUBIEN: "Baby Doc" Duvalier, as president, cowed the press, using his dreaded secret police, the Tonton Macoute, to make reporters stay in line.
(Soundbite of reporters yelling in Creole)
BEAUBIEN: Twenty-five years later when he flew back in from exile, the reporters were so aggressive that security forces used pepper spray and batons to keep them away from the toppled dictator. At Duvalier's hotel, his former ambassador to France, Henry Robert Sterling, held court in the center of the violent media storm. Sterling, who at the point was claiming to be Baby Doc's spokesman, was serving up quotes like this one in several languages...
Mr. HENRY ROBERT STERLING (Former Haitian Ambassador to France): (Spanish spoken)
BEAUBIEN: I have absolutely no idea what's going on here, he said. But the press kept pushing, asking for more details about what exactly he didn't know. They pester, they badger, they ring details out of uncooperative government officials.
(Soundbite of horn honking)
BEAUBIEN: Later, as a screaming convoy of police SUVs hauled Duvalier into court, our producer got hit by a carful of reporters. The media car didn't even stop to see if he was OK. The Haitian journalists are scary if you're their prey but, ultimately, they're a lively part of an emerging democracy and they're doing something that "Baby Doc" never would've allowed during his reign - demanding information about what's going on in their country.
Jason Beaubien, NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
Time now for your letters. On last week's show, we had a conversation about the largest minority group in the agriculture industry - women. We spoke with farmers Barbara Armstrong and Carol Keiser-Long.
Ms. CAROL KEISER-LONG (Farmer): I can go back in my history and I can tell you that the opportunities for a female to aspire in agriculture were extremely limited. And so I was discouraged from going into a male-dominated field and so I said, well, watch me do it.
HANSEN: Following that conversation, listener Monte Bohannon of Portsmouth, New Hampshire wrote: My family owns a dairy farm in central New Hampshire and five generations of women have lived the farmer's life there. They do everything from work the fields, feed, milk and tend the cows, build amazing vegetable and flower gardens. They're the keepers of not only family histories but the essential processes of living from the fruits of your own labor.
Kathy Gunther of Penn Yan, New York also wrote: We are very fortunate in our small school district to have a great Future Farmers of America, FFA, program. We have a teacher who has taught these students - girls and boys included -that there is more to agriculture than just dairy cows and manure. We have a lot of girls in this program and most of them have graduated from this school district and gone into the agricultural world in some form or another.
Last week, Democratic Senator Mark Udall of Colorado spoke to us about the idea of Democrats and Republicans sitting together in the House chamber for the State of Union speech. Listener Jeffrey Bendix(ph) of Cleveland Heights, Ohio has this suggestion: An easy way to make this happen would be for senators and representatives to sit in alphabetical order. This method would provide for members who are afraid of being perceived by voters as fraternizing with members of the other party.
And from political divides to family ties, last week I spoke to the matriarch of the Partridge family, Shirley Jones.
Ms. SHIRLEY JONES (Actress, Singer): I'm telling you, the only people know that I did more than that are people my age.
HANSEN: Well, Ann Ardeness(ph) of Syracuse, New York begs to differ. She wrote: I can assure her that that is not true in the slightest. I am 31 and, as a teenager, adored her in "The Music Man," "Carousel," and in particular, "Oklahoma." To date, I have never seen a single episode of "The Partridge Family."
(Soundbite of song, "I Think I Love You")
THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY: (Singing) I think I love you, I think I love you. This morning, I woke up with this feeling, I didn't know how to deal with...
HANSEN: We want to hear from you. Go to NPR.org and click on the Contact Us link. We're also on Facebook and Twitter and you can send a tweet to me @NPRLiane. That's L-I-A-N-E.
(Soundbite of song, "I Think I Love You")
THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY: (Singing) I think I love you, I think I love you. I think I love you, so what am I so afraid of? I'm afraid that I'm not sure of a love there is no cure for...
HANSEN: This is NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
(Soundbite of music)
HANSEN: We find out this week of Oscar will friend "The Social Network," if "The Fighter" could be a contender and whether or not "Toy Story 3" will prove to be more than just kid's stuff. On Tuesday morning, the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences will announce the nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards.
Movie critics and film buffs have their short lists and predictions already. Wesley Morris is film critic at the Boston Globe. He's at member station KPCW in Park City, Utah. Welcome to the program, Wesley.
Mr. WESLEY MORRIS (Film Critic, Boston Globe): Thank you, Liane.
HANSEN: I know you're there for the Sundance Festival, seeing the new crop of pictures. But I want to go back, obviously, to 2010 and Best Picture category. Which films do you think have the best chances of being nominated?
Mr. MORRIS: I think nine of these movies are fairly certain - "Black Swan," "The Kids Are All Right," "The Social Network," "The Town," "Toy Story 3," "The King's Speech," "Winter's Bone," "The Fighter," "Inception," and "True Grit." One of those may not make the cut. It might "The Town," it might be "Winter's Bone," which means that "127 Hours," the movie in which James Franco's arm gets caught by a boulder, could make the cut or "Shutter Island," which was very popular and directed by a popular member of the Academy, Martin Scorsese.
But, you know, it'll be interesting to see what actually the 10 movies turn out to be.
HANSEN: Well, this is the second year there will be 10 nominations in that category instead of five. I mean, what do you actually learn from knowing those extra five movies that are up for consideration?
Mr. MORRIS: Well, it's really interesting. I mean, when the Academy used to do this many years ago, I feel like it told a really interesting story of what the Academy liked and not just what we've been trained to think of as Academy Award movies. And I really like the idea of knowing what those bottom five movies are.
I mean, last year, "District 9" and "The Blind Side" and "An Education" - I don't think that those three movies would have been one of the five nominees if they'd kept the old system. But it really gave you a sense of what movies the people who make our movies like, and that's really interesting.
HANSEN: "Black Swan" also did quite well at the Golden Globes, garnering a Best Actress win for Natalie Portman, who plays a ballerina on the edge of sanity.
(Soundbite of movie, "Black Swan")
Mr. VINCENT CASSEL (Actor): (as Thomas Leroy) All that discipline for what?
Ms. NATALIE PORTMAN (Actress): (as Nina Sayers) I just want to be perfect.
Mr. CASSEL: (as Thomas Leroy) You what?
Ms. PORTMAN: (as Nina Sayers) Want to be perfect.
HANSEN: Chances that she'll get a nomination for Best Actress. Others?
Mr. MORRIS: Annette Bening, who's likely going to win for "The Kids are All Right." I mean, I think she was better in a different movie called "Mother and Child," but, I mean, I'm in a minority on that movie being as good as it is. Annette Bening's your likely winner. I mean, Natalie Portman could also win. And I think the other three women will probably be Nicole Kidman...
HANSEN: For "The Rabbit Hole."
Mr. MORRIS: ...for a film called "Rabbit Hole," Jennifer Lawrence for "Winter's Bone," who plays a girl looking for her father - she's very good in that. And your fifth nominee is going to be a crapshoot.
HANSEN: What about the 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld? Longshot for "True Grit"?
Mr. MORRIS: Well, it'll be interesting to see what happens to her because she's being campaigned for as a supporting actress to better her odds in the nomination. But she also has a shot at a Best Actress nomination because people have watched the movie and said she's in just about every scene. Who is she supporting?
(Soundbite of movie, "True Grit")
Ms. HAILEE STEINFELD (Actress): (as Mattie Ross) You have misjudged me if you think I am silly enough to give you $50 and watch you simply ride off.
Mr. JEFF BRIDGES (Actor): (as Rooster Cogburn) I'm a bonded U.S. marshal.
Ms. STEINFELD: (as Mattie Ross) That weighs but little with me. I will see the thing done.
Mr. MORRIS: So, I mean, you know, those are politics and it'll be interesting to see. 'Cause, you know, as a voter you can put her in either category. And so, it'll come down to which category did she get more votes in and whether, having it be unclear what her function is in the movie, splits the votes in both departments and she gets nothing.
HANSEN: So, what was your favorite picture of 2010?
Mr. MORRIS: This year, I kind of begged to make a list of 10 movies and didn't - without ranking them, and several of the possible Best Picture nominees are among them, but I also really like "Jackass 3D," which is nowhere near close to being a Best Picture nominee. Liane, I'm sorry.
HANSEN: That's OK. It's OK.
Mr. MORRIS: It's really good. I also liked "Mother and Child," that movie I mentioned before with Annette Bening and Kerry Washington and Naomi Watts. After "The Fighter," that's the best acting across the board in a motion picture I saw last year. And "Inside Job," a documentary about the financial crisis that - I mean, last year was one of the best years I can think of for non-fiction filmmaking, and I think that'll show up in the nominees.
But, I mean, forget the Oscars, I think that non-fiction films and documentary filmmaking is as strong in America as it ever has been. And many of the movies I saw last year, like a wonderful film called "Sweetgrass," about a bunch of sheep being herded for their last pasture basically up in Montana.
(Soundbite of movie, "Sweetgrass")
Mr. MORRIS: It's a beautiful, very moving, shrewdly well-made movie and has no shot at an Oscar for Best Picture. But I really loved it. And, you know, one of the things about movies is we all have our favorites. And there are people in the Academy who will have favorites that won't be nominated either. But it's interesting how these 10 movies can really start a conversation about what our movie-going year was like.
HANSEN: Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris joined us from member station KPCW in Park City, Utah. Thank you, Wesley.
Mr. MORRIS: Thank you.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
It was a pretty big deal when football star Michael Vick went to federal prison for running a brutal dogfighting ring. He's out and has been back on the field for the past two seasons, and he's trying to rehabilitate his image off the field.
Vick's team, the Philadelphia Eagles, has given money to the Humane Society for an anti-dogfighting program that it's just unveiled. Elizabeth Fiedler of member station WHYY went to Chicago to learn about how such programs work, and we warn our listeners that this report does contain graphic descriptions of abuse.
(Soundbite of barking dogs)
ELIZABETH FIEDLER: It's around noon on a Saturday. About a dozen people, many of them kids with dogs in tow, pile into an unassuming squat brick building on the west side of Chicago. The weekly pit bull training class is about to start.
Fourteen-year-old Terrence Murphy keeps his gray and white pit bull close by. He stops every once in a while to stare at the dog lovingly. Like Murphy, about 40 percent of the people in the classes used to fight dogs.
Mr. TERRENCE MURPHY: The guys that'd be on the block, they used to go in abandoned houses and fight dogs. Me and my cousin used to go in there and watch them, so we thought it was cool. So then we started getting dogs and started fighting dogs.
FIEDLER: Murphy has been bringing Cookie Monster here for about eight months, and before that, he brought another dog named Elmo.
Mr. MURPHY: We used to fight dogs. And the ones that was most injuries, we used to just hang them and kill them, beat it to death, set it on fire, drown it -all of that unhumane stuff.
FIEDLER: He says one day an outreach worker told him about the pit bull training team and convinced him to give it a shot. He says now he likes how Cookie Monster respects him.
Another former dog fighter named Anthony Pickett says he quit after he agreed to fight a dog named White Boy, a dog his kids loved.
Mr. ANTHONY PICKETT (Community Organizer, End Dogfighting): He won, but he came out real bloody and I couldn't take him back home to the girls. And they asked about this dog for a month, almost two months. But I had to hide him and sew him back up. That stopped me right in my tracks. I didn't want to hurt my kids. That was their favorite dog.
FIEDLER: Pickett says White Boy wasn't what he used to be after that fight.
Mr. PICKETT: His ear was damaged, around his face was damaged, his tail was kind of almost broke off from fighting - 'cause everything happens in a fight: Eyes get gouged out, ears get torn off, legs.
FIEDLER: Now, Pickett works for the End Dogfighting campaign, traveling the neighborhood recruiting former dogfighters and at-risk dog owners. It's a tough job since many of the fighters are making money and are suspicious he's with the police.
Tio Hardiman grew up in the projects on the West Side of Chicago and helped set up the End Dogfighting program about five years ago. He says kids like Terrence Murphy might fight their dogs for $100, but in a high-end operation similar to what Vick was involved in, the sums can be much larger.
He says Michael Vick represents a lot of young people across the country who are growing up in a culture of violence.
Mr. TIO HARDIMAN (Director, End Dogfighting, Chicago): He's giving his testimony to young men and women across America and educating these young guys, saying, Look, I fell from a high place in society, and you normally don't get a second chance.
FIEDLER: Hardiman says there's a connection between fighting pit bulls and struggling to live in a violent society. He says keeping guys out of the world of dogfighting is good for them, their dogs, their families and the rest of the community.
Mr. HARDIMAN: Now this guy is making sure his dog gets his shots. He's making sure the dog is eating a balanced diet. You know, all these things are very important. These guys are making sure the dogs get the proper exercise. It opens up a world of opportunity for these young men.
Mr. JEFF JENKINS (Lead Trainer, End Dogfighting): All right, listen up. Listen up, guys. Rule Number One: No hitting, kicking or screaming, yelling at your dogs. Rule Number Two: Both hands on the leash at all times.
FIEDLER: Back at the training class, Jeff Jenkins is laying out the ground rules. The dog owners are lined up along the walls, dogs at their sides. Orange cones and some hurdles for the dogs to jump over are set up around the room. Jenkins starts leading the group through basic skills.
Mr. JENKINS: You come around the cone and then you're gonna go right back to the box. Nice clean sit. And treat and praise. Okay?
Cookie Monster, let's see it.
(Soundbite of a whistle)
FIEDLER: Terrence Murphy leads Cookie Monster through the routine with ease. Murphy is proud of the dog, and Jenkins is proud of both of them.
Mr. JENKINS: He's an eight-month-old puppy, guys. But look at the focus he's getting; ears are up, tail is up, wagging - he's excited.
FIEDLER: Jenkins says it isn't easy to get kids like Murphy to come to the program. But once they try it, he says, it can change their lives. He hopes the skills Murphy and the other dog owners learn in class will help them excel in school, with their friends, and in other real-life situations.
For NPR News, I'm Elizabeth Fiedler.
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
Today in Your Health, the pros and cons of infant formulas. But first, the age-old practice of mothers sharing breast milk for babies is happening in new ways, on Facebook, even as the federal government is saying that mothers who share are risking the health of their babies.
NPR's Nancy Shute has more.
A few weeks ago, Lindsey Ward of Woodbridge, Virginia packed her two small children in the car, and drove to a rest stop on I-94. The 23-year-old woman was going to meet a truck driver.
Ms. LINDSEY WARD (Mother): He wasn't sure exactly what time, you know, he's a truck driver, you know, you run into traffic, it was cold, the weather, he had to go through the mountains.
SHUTE: The trucker had something that Lindsey was determined to get - breast milk for her baby.
Ms. WARD: I was waiting at the rest area, and he told me on the phone that his truck was red, and he was hauling logs, so that narrowed it down. And I saw him pull in, and then I saw him get out of the truck, and I just, you know, took a guess and walked over there and sure enough it was him, and he had the cooler full of milk.
SHUTE: The cooler held more than five gallons of his wife's breast milk.
Ms. WARD: I mean, it was kind of suspicious-looking, I'm sure, with coolers and exchange from a truck driver, and here I am this little frail-looking woman going up and picking up the coolers. I'm sure it looked awkward.
SHUTE: Lindsey had connected with the trucker's wife on Facebook. And since the woman lived about six hours away in West Virginia, Lindsey was happy that the trucker offered to deliver the milk.
Ms. WARD: I gave him a big old hug because I was very thankful for, you know, going out of his way and everything. I got into the car and before I started driving I got on my cell phone on Facebook and messaged his wife. I said, I hugged your husband, I hope that's okay. I was just, you know, so thankful.
SHUTE: This is not a journey that Lindsey has taken on lightly. She knows that the Food and Drug Administration says that moms shouldn't share breast milk because it could pose a health risk to babies.
Lori Feldman-Winter is a pediatrician and an expert on breastfeeding. She also thinks that milk sharing is too risky.
Dr. LORI FELDMAN-WINTER (Pediatrician): Because of the lack of surveillance for things such as infectious diseases or the possibility of any illicit substances that wouldn't be tested for.
SHUTE: Knowing about those risks has not stopped Lindsey from using donated milk. Lindsey had tried to nurse both her children, and it didn't work out. After her son was born in August, she started looking for other options.
Ms. WARD: If he can't have my milk, I'll find somebody else's milk, you know, breast milk is still breast milk no matter whose breast it's coming from.
SHUTE: Lindsey got online and found a human milk bank. These non-profit banks collect milk, donated from mothers who don't need it for their babies. They screen the donors for infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis, and they pasteurize the milk to make sure it's safe.
But the screening and processing can make the milk bank milk very expensive. Lindsey found that out herself.
Ms. WARD: They said that I would have to go through the doctor and get a prescription for breast milk, and that it would be $3.50 per ounce, and my jaw dropped.
SHUTE: So Lindsey got back on Facebook and posted that she needed breast milk for Joshua. Breastfeeding moms started offering their extra milk for free. Now she has a freezer filled to the brim with plastic bags of breast milk.
Ms. WARD: This milk right here, these two plastic bags, came from a mother in Charlottesville. All that milk came from a mother in Alexandria.
SHUTE: Lindsey has been feeding Joshua milk from several women. He's doing great. He gained ten pounds in four months.
Ms. WARD: There's more milk underneath here that came from a mother in West Virginia.
SHUTE: Today Lindsey is back in her car heading out on another milk run. She plugs the donor's address into her GPS.
(Soundbite of GPS)
SHUTE: Nobody's figured out the risk of milk sharing, but some experts told us that about three percent of the milk given to milk banks turns out to be contaminated. That might be the size of the risk that Lindsey's taking. She's decided to do her own informal screening of donors.
Ms. WARD: I ask about their diet and their lifestyle and, you know, do they consume alcohol, are they on any medications, have they had a history of STDs.
SHUTE: She sometimes looks at donors' blood tests.
Ms. WARD: It's standard to get blood work done when you're pregnant, so you can ask these women for their record and look at it, and see that they're clean.
SHUTE: There's one more layer of assurance that makes Lindsey believe the milk is safe: the donors' babies and her baby are all drinking the same milk.
Nancy Shute, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
As we just heard, breastfeeding can prove challenging for some mothers, and most American infants do drink formula at some point. Evidence shows that formula babies gained weight more rapidly, and in some cases too much weight. NPR's Patti Neighmond reports on what researchers found when they tested different types of formulas.
PATTI NEIGHMOND: Like most parents, raising a healthy baby topped the agenda for Ali Brownrigg and her husband.
Ms. ALISON BROWNRIGG: Would you like any more bottle?
NEIGHMOND: Brownrigg is feeding her seven-month-old with formula.
Ms. BROWNRIGG: Hungry baby.
(Soundbite of baby)
NEIGHMOND: Not her first choice, she says, but both her children were born prematurely and they ended up on formula.
Ms. BROWNRIGG: I was formula-fed and I feel like I'm okay. You know, that's all I cling to is, I'm okay, my kids will be okay too.
NEIGHMOND: But the decision about which formula to choose was one Brownrigg and her husband took very seriously.
Ms. BROWNRIGG: My husband spent some time in the grocery store aisle looking at the labels.
NEIGHMOND: And there were lots of labels to look at, advanced formula, iron supplemented formula, sensitive tummy formula, milk-based, soy based, protein-based, organic.
Ms. BROWNRIGG: We settled on one that she seemed to like and we tried to switch to the organic brands but she just didn't like the flavor. So he really spent a lot of time just examining the labels in the grocery store aisle.
NEIGHMOND: All formulas are regulated by federal health officials and pediatrician Nicolas Stettler, with Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, says they're all safe and effective. If infants like them and eat them, he says, they all maintain babies' health and their weight. The problem is formula-fed babies often gain too much weight.
Dr. NICHOLAS STETTLER (Pediatrician, Children's Hospital, Philadelphia): Infants who gain weight rapidly during infancy, during the first few months or even the first few weeks, are much more likely to become obese later in life when they are children and when they are adults.
NEIGHMOND: Five times more likely to be overweight. And Stettler says overweight children often have significant health problems.
Dr. STETTLER: We can see that their liver is affected, their lipids are affected, their blood sugar is affected. So we know that the kind of obesity that we're talking about in children is really affecting their physical health.
NEIGHMOND: So scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia wanted to see if one formula caused more rapid weight gain than another. Researchers compared a predigested protein formula typically used for infants with digestion problems with the far more commonly used cow-milk formula.
After seven months, biopsychologist Julie Mennella says the babies on cow-milk formula gained an average of two pounds more than the babies on protein formula, and that's a lot if you weigh only 15 pounds.
Dr. JULIE MENNELLA (Director, Education Outreach, Monell Chemical Senses Center): There's something in cow-milk formula, or something is lacking in cow-milk formula, that's resulting in babies overfeeding. I can give the same baby cow-milk formula on one day and protein hydrolysate formula on another, and that baby will satiate sooner and consume less formula on the protein hydrolysate day.
NEIGHMOND: But pediatrician Stettler says before you rush out to grocery stores to buy this expensive protein formula, remember, the findings of this study are very preliminary. And Stettler says there's just as much danger if your baby doesn't gain enough weight.
Dr. STETTLER: We know that children who gain weight too slowly during infancy have less neurological development and attain a lower I.Q. during childhood and adulthood.
NEIGHMOND: So the take-home message for parents, says Stettler, work with your pediatrician to monitor your baby's weight, make sure the baby is gaining enough but not too much.
Patti Neighmond, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
New York is one of the world's great theater cities. No one would argue with that, but it's not every day that some of the world's greatest actors and directors pay a visit to perform some of the world's greatest plays.
Jeff Lunden has this report.
JEFF LUNDEN: Joe Melillo, the Brooklyn Academy of Music's executive producer, says theatergoers are hungry for a diet of Ibsen, Gogol and Shakespeare. Ticket sales for BAM's classical theater season have been brisk.
Mr. JOE MELILLO (Executive Producer, Brooklyn Academy of Music): They're flying. They have, like, little wings. The tickets are flying out in the box office.
LUNDEN: And even if these plays are over 100 or 400 years old, the artists who are presenting them say they resonate for contemporary audiences. Take "John Gabriel Borkman," Henrik Ibsen's 1896 drama, which is currently playing at BAM. The title character, a banker, has been imprisoned for illegally investing his client's money. Think Bernie Madoff.
Actress Fiona Shaw plays Borkman's wife.
Ms. FIONA SHAW (Actor): You see the byproduct of these legal battles, that the families fall apart because financial difficulties or financial shame produces a terrible fallout in families.
LUNDEN: On an even more universal level, Ibsen's three characters are imprisoned by their own delusions and bitterness, says Alan Rickman, who plays Borkman, and Lindsay Duncan, who plays the woman he abandoned.
Mr. ALAN RICKMAN (Actor): They're locked in the past, aren't they? And they've all got different views of the past and, frankly, that's something I recognize...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. RICKMAN: ...from...
Ms. LINDSAY DUNCAN (Actor): Life.
Mr. RICKMAN: ...life and families.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. DUNCAN: They're just very exaggerated versions of people we all know.
Mr. RICKMAN: We all know them. We've all grown up with these people.
LUNDEN: In Ibsen's third act, the three characters, who have not seen each other for years, confront one another.
(Soundbite of play, "John Gabriel Borkman")
Ms. SHAW: (as Gunhild Borkman) What is this? What does he want done here with me?
Ms. DUNCAN: (as Ella Rentheim) He wants to reach some agreement with you, Gunhild.
Ms. SHAW: (as Gunhild Borkman) He never wanted to before.
Ms. DUNCAN: (as Ella Rentheim) Tonight, he does.
Ms. SHAW: (as Gunhild Borkman) The last time we faced each other, it was in court. I was summoned to testify.
Mr. RICKMAN: (as John Gabriel Borkman) Tonight, I want to testify.
LUNDEN: Delusional characters are at the heart of BAM's next presentation, as well. It's an adaptation of Nikolai Gogol's short story "The Diary of a Madman," starring Academy and Tony Award-winner Geoffrey Rush. Rush says even though Gogol wrote it about a mid-level bureaucrat in 1835 Russia, it feels like modern absurdist writing.
Mr. GEOFFREY RUSH (Actor): Gogol walks this very knife-edge, fine line between a very sharp observation of someone's descent into madness and, at the same time, playing fairly deliciously with their own sense of delusion.
LUNDEN: And Rush says, as he was discovering his character...
Mr. RUSH: I kept saying this is a Daffy Duck moment, where, you know, his beak has suddenly been smashed around to the back of his face. And we took a lot of inspiration from Chuck Jones, because he made that great quote at one point where he said: Bugs Bunny is the person we would probably all like to be. Daffy Duck is the person we probably really are. So it's a comment on that level of self-delusion of what our aspirations might be and how short they might fall.
(Soundbite of play, "The Diary of a Madman")
Mr. RUSH: (as Poprishchin) Why don't you take a good look in the mirror? He's got a head like one of those bottles you see in chemists'.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. RUSH: (as Poprishchin) What does he know of love? Oh, I know where this comes from. Beware, my lord, of jealousy. Pushkin.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. RUSH: (as Poprishchin) Someone.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. RUSH: (as Poprishchin) It's the green-eyed something or other. Oh, yes. No doubt you've noticed the thousand and one little preferences and benevolences he has bestowed on me, not a ruble to my name as if Jesus had not a shirt, and you can go to hell.
LUNDEN: If Geoffrey Rush's character descends into madness, the same is true of Shakespeare's "King Lear," which Derek Jacobi is bringing over from England. Michael Grandage has directed the production and says Jacobi told him...
Mr. MICHAEL GRANDAGE (Director, "King Lear"): Classical actors certainly go through hoops, and the first of them is the Hamlet hoop. And the last one usually is the Lear hoop. And if you pass, he says, the Hamlet test early on, then people say that you're allowed to play your Lear when you get to the right age.
(Soundbite of laughter)
LUNDEN: And at age 72, Jacobi has reached the right age.
Grandage says while the play has large political dimensions, Shakespeare has tapped into something more primal.
Mr. GRANDAGE: The center of the play is a great domestic drama, and he clearly was a man who was writing with a huge degree of knowledge about the nature of an aging parent.
(Soundbite of play, "King Lear")
Mr. DEREK JACOBI (Actor): (as King Lear) Monster ingratitude.
Unidentified Man #2: (as Fool) If thou wert my fool, nuncle, I'd have thee beaten for being old before thy time.
Mr. JACOBI: (as King Lear) How's that?
Unidentified Man #2: (as Fool) Thou should'st not have been old till thou had'st been wise.
Mr. JACOBI: (as King Lear) Oh, let me not be mad, not mad. Sweet heaven, keep me in temper: I would not be mad.
Mr. GRANDAGE: We have different words for it now. Of course, in Shakespeare's time it was called madness, and it's called madness throughout the play. But for madness, now we have dementia. We have a whole load of actual labels and labels where a modern audience - through the sad misfortune of their own families and their own aging parents or their own aging relations - have access to people who start to lose their mind, in some way.
(Soundbite of play, "King Lear")
Mr. JACOBI: (as King Lear) Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight? I am mightily abused and know not what to say. I will not swear these are my hands. I am a very foolish, fond old man. And to deal plainly, I fear I am not in my perfect mind. Me thinks I should know you and know this man; yet I am doubtful for I am mainly ignorant what place this is. And all the skill I have remembers not these garments, nor I know not where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me. For, as I am a man, I think this lady to be my child.
LUNDEN: Not all of BAM's classical theater season deals with madness and delusion. A production of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" is coming, as well.
For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.
MONTAGNE: And this is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
In Pakistan, the battle is intensifying between those who want a largely secular state and those who want a fundamentalist religious one. The governor of Punjab province, whose large population is at the heart of Pakistan, was assassinated recently after he spoke out against the country's strict blasphemy laws. And most shocking to secular Pakistanis, many on the religious right cheered the killing. NPR's Julie McCarthy has this report.
JULIE MCCARTHY: The assassination of Salman Taseer, an audacious advocate for modernism, revealed the conservative attitudes about Islam that are sweeping through Pakistan.
(Soundbite of call to prayer)
MCCARTHY: A visit to the cloth market in the old city of Lahore, with its deafening traffic and muffled call to prayer, illustrates a growing and dangerous dichotomy.
(Soundbite of traffic and crowd chattering)
MCCARTHY: We're in the Mehood Cloth Market here in Lahore and we're speaking with Zafar Iqbol, who has a fabric store here in the market.
Do you fear for the future here? I mean you had the voice of the governor, here, snuffed out. Do you fear for the future?
Mr. ZAFAR IQBOL (Cloth market vendor): (Foreign language spoken)
MCCARTHY: He says he feels utterly helpless here. He says we feel utterly helpless. The market is under the dominion of elements who have affiliations with religious parties, he believes. He says they've come along and they insist that they shut things down, and of course they're afraid not to, so they do close things down and they lose their business.
(Soundbite of motor revving)
MCCARTHY: A few of the men who run the trader's association here hoist themselves onto the counter of Iqbol's stall and lean in to listen, causing the owner obvious discomfort.
While Iqbol mourns the loss of the governor, his unannounced visitors feel anything but sorrow. Trader association vice president Mohammad Ilyas says the slain governor maligned Islam when he said Pakistan's strict laws on blasphemy had become a tool to oppress religious minorities.
Mr. MOHAMMAD ILYAS (Vice President, Traders Association): (Foreign language spoken)
MCCARTHY: He said it was totally wrong on the part of the governor to say that the blasphemy laws of Pakistan should be changed. He said, here, the governor not only criticized the law of the land, but he went out of his way to protect a woman, Asia Bibi, a Christian, who has been convicted of blaspheming.
Did he deserve to die?
Mr. ILYAS: (Foreign language spoken)
MCCARTHY: Mohammad Ilyas says the governor definitely deserved to die because he interfered with the religion of this country. If he hadn't interfered, he would not have been killed.
(Soundbite of chanting in foreign language)
MCCARTHY: Banners drape in the streets of the Punjab capital, Lahore, calling the governor's confessed killer, Mumtaz Qadri, a hero. Demonstrators at this small rally, cry...
CROWD: (Chanting in foreign language)
MCCARTHY: Quadri, you're followers are endless. Evidence that fundamentalism is becoming mainstream was found in the young lawyers who showered the assassin with rose petals as he entered court in Islamabad one day after the shooting.
Supreme Court Bar Association President, Asma Jahangir, says each time democracy begins to take hold in Pakistan, the extreme right wages an offensive that is more lethal than the one before.
Ms. ASMA JAHANGIR (Supreme Court Bar Association): Much more lethal. And there is a reason behind it. They do not want a democratic dispensation here. It doesn't suit them. They don't figure in there. They get marginalized there. So the murder of the governor was a part of that larger plan as well.
MCCARTHY: Parliamentarian Sherry Rehman also is facing death threats for proposing amendments to the blasphemy law, amendments that Islamists condemn. Rehman says sane voices have been silenced.
Ms. SHERRY REHMAN (Parliamentarian): None of them are seeking to offend sensibilities of any religion, let alone Muslims themselves.
MCCARTHY: Rehman's PPP Party, the party of President Asif Ali Zardari, has disowned any reform of the blasphemy laws. Historian Mubarak Ali says all of the mainstream parties have emboldened the religious right by kowtowing to the radical clerics who are roiling the streets.
Mr. MUBARAK ALI (Historian): Instead of fighting, instead of challenging, they just surrendered. And now these clerics, they are so powerful, they are so bold, that now they are threatening everybody.
MCCARTHY: Farid Piracha is the deputy secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's largest religious party.
Mr. FARID PIRACHA (Deputy Secretary General, Jamaat-e-Islami): If there is justice throughout the country, then you cannot see the scene like these scenes.
MCCARTHY: Jamaat-e-Islami's Islamic revivalist message has pushed Pakistan toward conservatism while preaching the dangers of a perceived U.S. war on Islam.
The radical right in Pakistan conflates religious dogma with policies of the United States. For Jamaat-e-Islami's Farid Piracha, they cannot be separated.
Mr. PIRACHA: And there is damage of more than 30,000 innocent people during this so-called war against terrorism. So, one cannot believe that America is not against Islam. America's total military actions are against the Muslim states.
MCCARTHY: U.S. drone attacks and the war in Afghanistan have produced a popular outcry, which radical Islamists exploit. Historian Mubarak Ali says extremists have expanded their constituency by emerging as the only alternative voice in a country where millions feel under threat by everything from the faltering economy to the lack of security.
Mr. ALI: They say that dictatorships didn't give them anything. Democracy didn't give them anything. So, they are exhorted that Islam is going to solve their problems, give them dignity in the society and rule of law. Because there is no other alternative, they believed it.
MCCARTHY: The extremists also benefit from the legacy of Zia al Haq, the 1980s dictator who undertook the Islamization of the schools that indoctrinated a generation in strict Islam.
Mr. ALI: As a result of this education, they have very closed minds.
MCCARTHY: As religious passions stifle liberal voices, one group won't be repressed.
(Soundbite of blasphemy production)
The Ajoka Theater staged a disturbing production about blasphemy this past week and dedicated it to the late governor. It's a study in brutality, with white-robed clerics in league with black-clad followers haranguing their victims as they hang them.
Physicist and social commentator Pervez Hoodbhoy was on hand for the performance.
Mr. PERVEZ HOODBHOY (Physicist, Social Commentator): That this play was shown in Islamabad is an act of courage. This is a country that stands at the very verge of religious fascism.
MCCARTHY: Hoodbhoy says he fears for the theater company.
I don't know when they might be targeted, he says.
The director says Ajoka Theater will continue performing and take the risk.
Julie McCarthy, NPR News.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And we're going to hear now about a man whose job it is to fight terrorism. He begins work today at the White House, and he's an expert on how people become radicalized. That's considered critical right now, because in several recent terror attacks in the United States, al-Qaida and its affiliates have recruited Americans to launch them.
NPR's Dina Temple-Raston has the story.
DINA TEMPLE-RASTON: In the past two years, dozens of American citizens and residents have been arrested on terrorism charges. In some cases, it's been young Muslims traveling overseas to train for violent jihad. In others, they actually tried to launch terrorist attacks.
Homegrown terrorism is now one of those things that keeps U.S. officials awake at night. Now there's someone new at the National Security Council who won't be getting much sleep. He's a former professor named Quintan Wiktorowicz, and he's an expert on how some people become terrorists.
Dr. CHRISTINE FAIR (Assistant Professor, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service): A number of years ago, before he went into government, he did some of the most path-breaking work, not only looking at who was susceptible to being radicalized, but most importantly, who was the most resistant to being radicalized.
TEMPLE-RASTON: That's Christine Fair. She's an expert on terrorism and radicalization at Georgetown University.
Dr. FAIR: And the findings that he came up with based upon his work really shattered some of the stereotypes that we have about Muslims and radicalization.
TEMPLE-RASTON: As part of his research, Wiktorowicz interviewed hundreds of Islamists in the U.K. What he found out was that, contrary to popular belief, very religious Muslims were the people who ended up being the most resistant to radicalization.
Dr. FAIR: And this has stayed with me, forever, in my work in Pakistan. It really was revelatory for me.
TEMPLE-RASTON: It turns out, it was the people who did not have a good grounding in the religion who were the most likely to be attracted by radical Islam.
Mr. PETER NEUMANN (Director, International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King's College, London): My name is Peter Neumann. I'm director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King's College, London.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Neumann has known Wiktorowicz for years, and got to know him better when Wiktorowicz was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in London three years ago. His job there was to see if he could learn from the British about how they dealt with radical Islamists and apply those lessons to the United States.
Neumann says that while in the U.K., Wiktorowicz reached out to a wide range of Muslim leaders - from moderates to extremists.
Mr. NEUMANN: He's very successfully mobilized a broad coalition of very different people in London, that are all coming together in order to oppose extremism and terrorism. No one else before has accomplished that.
TEMPLE-RASTON: It is on this point that Wiktorowicz apparently ran into trouble in the U.K. His coalition of Muslims was controversial because it included people some conservatives found too extreme. Neumann says that was part of the strategy.
Mr. NEUMANN: Quintan Wiktorowicz's approach has quite deliberately been to say that I want the tent to be as broad as possible. As long as they are opposed to extremism and terrorism, I want everyone to be part of that coalition.
TEMPLE RASTON: At the White House, his title will be senior director for global engagement. Terrorism experts say Wiktorowicz brings so much to his new job it could change the way the Obama administration deals with Muslims in America.
Right now, counter radicalization in the U.S. largely depends on law enforcement - on things like FBI outreach to Muslim communities. Neumann says that's been lacking.
Mr. NEUMANN: One of the important things about counter-radicalization is that perhaps 10 percent of it is law enforcement and intelligence, 90 percent of it are things that have relatively little to do with that.
TEMPLE-RASTON: He says counter-radicalization also has to include things like politicians visiting Muslim communities, a consistent message, and education about Islam among Muslims themselves, so they can better resist radical recruiters.
How Wiktorowitz will apply what he learned in Britain here is unclear. His first official day of work at the White House is today.
Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
We're learning more this morning about what has gone on behind the scenes in a decade of failed efforts by Israelis and Palestinians to make peace. According to confidential documents obtained by the news network Al-Jazeera, the Palestinian Authority offered large concessions on two key issues: giving up land in East Jerusalem - which the Palestinians want as part of their future state - and the question of what will happen to Palestinian refugees.
The authenticity of the documents has not been verified by the U.S. State Department, but the content of the 1,600 leaked documents offer startling details of years of peace negotiations.
NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro joins us on the line from Jerusalem.
Good morning.
LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: Bring us up to speed on sort of what the most import moments are in these documents.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, Renee, what we've seen are the first tranche of documents that Al-Jazeera obtained. In some cases, they are very detailed minutes of secret talks between Israelis and Palestinians and the Palestinians and American negotiators, and they stretch back for years and years, and they go up to the present. The most startling revelations, however, come from the description of talks between the Palestinians and Israelis when Ehud Olmert was prime minister. And as you know, the most recent round of peace talks have collapsed over the issue of Jewish settlements on occupied land.
The documents show the Palestinians in the last round of talks, though, offered historic concessions. For one, they said Israel could annex almost all the East Jerusalem settlements, and they offered to divide the old city, handing over part of the Armenian and the whole of the Jewish Quarter. Secondly, they offered concessions on the so-called Right of Return. There are millions of refugees and their descendents scattered around the Middle East. The Palestinians basically asked for a token number of them to be allowed back in.
And what the documents show is that Israel seemingly rejected all of these offers as not enough. Israel has always purported that they do not have a partner for peace in the Palestinians. But what analysts say these documents show is that the opposite seems to be true.
MONTAGNE: So then what has been the reaction so far?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, very quiet on the Israeli side. One of Ehud Olmert's negotiators came on the radio this morning, confirming the substance of the documents. But the Palestinians have come out saying that much of what these documents say isn't true. It's important to note that Al-Jazeera gave these documents also to the Guardian newspaper in Britain, and they independently verified them.
You can see why the PA might try and deny that the documents - what the documents show. This is hugely embarrassing for the Palestinian Authority, especially for chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. The documents detail him saying he would vote for now-opposition leader Tzipi Livni in the last elections. They show him using the Hebrew word for Jerusalem, Yerushalayim, and they show him complaining about how present Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won't take his calls. They basically feel that this is an attempt to undermine the Palestinian Authority and their negotiating.
MONTAGNE: So what do you expect the fallout to be?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, in the short term, I think it's pretty clear it's bad for the Palestinians. The Palestinian street - the Arab world, for that matter -won't like what they're hearing, especially on emotional issues like Jerusalem and refugees. And it strengthens the militant group Hamas' hand. They've already come out denouncing the Palestinian Authority, saying the documents show the PA is, quote, attempting to liquidate the Palestinian cause.
But, you know, analysts say, in the long term, this may damage Israel's standing in the international community. They come off as intransigent. All the headlines we've seen around the world is that Israel rejected many of these historic concessions by the Palestinians. And it shows that they possibly weren't that interested in making real concessions for peace. But the thing is I think we can't forget that these were talks that ultimately led nowhere. Whatever was offered or agreed to, no deal was ever struck. The legacy of these documents may ultimately be that they show, in painful detail, the huge hurdles there are for making peace in the region.
MONTAGNE: And just quickly, there are more documents to be released, right, by Al-Jazeera?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Oh, yeah. We are expecting, over the next few days, quite a few documents, and they won't make pleasant reading for the Palestinians, apparently. They're expected to detail how closely the Palestinian security services cooperate with the Israeli security services, and how Israel informed the Palestinian Authority it was going to invade the Gaza Strip in 2008. More to come.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, speaking to us from Jerusalem.
Thanks very much.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: You're welcome.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And the interim prime minister of Tunisia is facing pressure to resign, as Tunisians continue to criticize his ties to the ousted president. Protesters are still taking to the streets, and the military is exerting a strong presence across the country. Tunisia's provisional government made a series of arrests over the weekend and temporarily shut down a private TV station, all of which has raised questions about who is really in control.
Here's NPR's Eric Westervelt from the capital, Tunis.
Unidentified Group: (Chanting in foreign language)
ERIC WESTERVELT: The street protests in central Tunis are now so routine that the street vendors have set up shop. The revolution now comes with popcorn. And while the protests are peaceful, passions are still running very high.
A woman tells protester Adrees Yahyowee that not all members of the former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's party were corrupt and oppressive. And Yahyowee yells back at her.
Mr. ADREES YAHYOWEE: (Foreign language spoken)
WESTERVELT: Members of this dirty government helped Ben Ali escape, he says, adding: Freedom and democracy can't be born from a dirty government, from people with bloody hands.
Like thousands across the country, Yahyowee wants the interim government free of ties to the old regime and its party, the RCD. Despite the focus on that old party, there is concern the Tunisian military may be playing a much larger role now than many Tunisians caught up in the fervor and euphoria of revolt want to admit.
The army continues to guard strategic buildings and facilities, including the port, the state broadcasting building, the airport, the foreign ministry and more.
Attorney Makram Guebsi is with the political office of the PDP, an opposition party that is now part of the provisional government.
Mr. MAKRAM GUEBSI (Attorney, PDP): There are voices now in Tunis that are calling for military government. But simple citizens think that the army can give security, can gave give democracy, can give liberty for them. And this is a bigger mistake. It can be dangerous for the republic.
WESTERVELT: On Sunday, Tunisian state TV announced that the owner of a private TV network and his son were arrested for, quote, high treason and conspiracy against the country. It was similar to other recent cryptic announcements of arrests of former Ben Ali associates and family members.
But the interim government has offered few details. Who made the arrests, and under whose authority? What are the charges, and what are they based on? Where are they being held? Neither the interim government nor the military will say. And attorney Guebsi says it's not clear all members of the interim government are even in the loop.
As a party in the government...
Mr. GUEBSI: Yes.
WESTERVELT: ...are you getting accurate, clear information from the military?
Mr. GUEBSI: No. Really, no. No.
WESTERVELT: Some Tunisians decried the TV station's temporary closure as a worrying blow to free expression and the country's shaky, newfound freedom. The weekend's developments all seem to point to a growing internal power struggle between the interim government, former members of the ruling RCD Party, the military and security factions. It's also not clear what, if anything, has happened to the presidential guard and the secret police, both of which were key to the internal repression machine sustaining Ben Ali's autocratic rule. There have been some arrests, but again, no details.
Protestor Muheiba Shakir sees troubling signs.
Ms. MUHEIBA SHAKIR: If the secret police still exist and still reports the sorts of people, I am sure that today somebody is writing what I am saying and is going to report it. But, OK, I don't scare, because I know that I will not allow any person now, from now on, to make me silent. But I am not sure if next year, at this moment, I will say the same thing.
WESTERVELT: For now, anyway, most in the streets still feel the biggest threat to Tunisia's shaky democracy is from Ben Ali's allies, that they will co-opt the revolution. Protestor Souhlee Ahmed says he fears that much more than a military takeover.
Mr. SOUHLEE AHMED: The most dangerous thing for the revolution is the RCD, not the army. The army is with the people, with the revolution.
WESTERVELT: But how the power struggle will play out and how long the army will remain with the people before more openly asserting more control is unclear.
Eric Westervelt, NPR News, Tunis.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
An update now on the Tucson shootings and the charges the accused shooter is facing. Though six people died, the first charges against Jared Loughner are for attempted murder, including the attack on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She's now in a Houston hospital for rehabilitation and improving, doctors say.
Back in Arizona, Jared Loughner will appear in court today, arraigned for three charges in federal court in Phoenix.
Here's NPR's Ted Robbins.
TED ROBBINS: Six people were killed at the Congress On Your Corner event January 8th in Tucson, including federal Judge John Roll and nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green. But the three counts handed up against Jared Loughner by a federal grand jury last week were for the attempted murder of Congressman Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides, Ron Barber and Pam Simon. Those are the crimes Loughner's being arraigned on today. Other charges are coming.
David Bruck is a law professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia specializing in the defense of death penalty cases. He says the attempted murder charges are essentially a way to keep Loughner in custody.
Professor DAVID BRUCK (Law, Washington and Lee University): You can't just put someone in jail indefinitely on the prosecution's say-so. There has to be some judicial determination of whether there's probable cause to hold him. But when the grand jury returns an indictment, that settles that question. That means that the grand jury has found there is probable cause.
ROBBINS: David Bruck has worked with Judy Clarke, Loughner's defense attorney. He says three things will happen today: The judge will read the charges, unless Clarke waives the reading. The judge will explain Loughner's rights to him, and Loughner or his attorney will enter a plea. Bruck says a not guilty plea is probably the only one a judge would take.
Mr. BRUCK: I think it's rather unlikely that a court would accept a guilty plea just days after he's been indicted, because it would be very hard for the court to be satisfied that he really knew what he was doing this quickly.
ROBBINS: Knew what he was doing in court, that is. Whether Jared Loughner knew what he was doing on January 8th is another issue. His lawyers will have to decide whether to try to prove Loughner was insane, or if he's convicted, whether to try to prove it to avoid the death penalty.
Ron Barber has been told that federal and state proceedings could last years. He says he'll be prepared to testify.
Mr. RON BARBER (Aide to Representative Gabrielle Giffords): As you might expect, as all of the victims, we've already been interviewed by the FBI and by the U.S. attorney's office and the county attorney's office. I'm prepared for that, although I don't relish it.
ROBBINS: Barber heads Gabrielle Giffords' congressional district office in Tucson. He's recuperating at home from gunshot wounds to his cheek and to his leg. He says he'll have no trouble remembering what happened. He can't stop thinking about it.
Mr. BARBER: He came right past me as I was standing next to the congresswoman, and with some determination on his face, as I remember, shot her and then others. It was really clear. You know, I was conscious throughout the whole thing. So I remember it all, I think, very well. And that's the - those are the images that just don't stop playing.
ROBBINS: A Pima County sheriff's officer says video taken by cameras at the Safeway grocery store in Tucson show Barber being pushed to safety under a table by federal judge John Roll, who was then shot in the back then killed. Because he was the presiding federal judge for Arizona, other Arizona judges have recused themselves from hearing the Loughner case. So, Judge Larry Burns of the Southern District of California will hear it, though Jared Loughner's defense may ask for the entire case to be moved out of Arizona.
Ted Robbins, NPR News, Tucson.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
There will be some high-profile cases coming out of Guantanamo. When he came to office two years ago, President Obama promised to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, but politics got in the way. Congress barred the White House from bringing terrorism suspects onto American soil, and lawmakers made it harder to send detainees to third countries, as well.
NPR's Carrie Johnson reports on the only part of the process that's moving forward: trials before military commissions.
CARRIE JOHNSON: The Obama administration is preparing to relaunch military trials for Guantanamo detainees in the next several weeks, and that isn't going over well in the human rights community. Hina Shamsi works at the American Civil Liberties Union.
Ms. HINA SHAMSI (American Civil Liberties Union): We think that it is a major step backwards and a blow to efforts to restore the rule of law to Guantanamo. Because trying Guantanamo detainees in the military commission system is not going to achieve justice or certainty, because it's a system that is designed to ensure convictions, not fair trials.
JOHNSON: Glenn Sulmasy writes about the military system, and he says there's no question that it's fair.
Mr. GLENN SULMASY (Author): I think it's eminently fair. We should all be proud of our military men and women. I think they have so far been incredible in terms of what - you look at what the punishments given out for those brought before military commissions already.
JOHNSON: But even Sulmasy says he's worried about the image of restarting military trials at Guantanamo, mostly about how those images will appear to the rest of the world.
Mr. SULMASY: I think the actual process in the military commission - and the military commissions as a matter of law, are lawful, in accordance with international law and domestic law. As a matter of policy, I'm not certain that they haven't been tarnished irrevocably.
JOHNSON: Moving forward with military tribunals against some Guantanamo detainees has always been part of the White House plan. President Obama said in a May 2009 speech at the National Archives that he'd use both military commissions and civilian courts. But the civilian court plan has fallen by the wayside for now, putting all the attention on the military justice system. And experts say there are major challenges to trying detainees in that system.
One of the first new cases will likely involve Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who's accused of bombing the USS Cole. And scholar Eugene Fidell says it will pose a big question: How will military courts handle evidence tainted by harsh interrogations?
Professor EUGENE FIDELL (Senior Research Scholar, Yale Law School): Military commission judges are likely to be just as persnickety about evidence as federal judges. I must say I think that's going to be a very serious issue in these cases, particularly when evidence is offered that al-Nashiri, for example, was subject to waterboarding.
JOHNSON: Experts say the law that governs military tribunals is untested - so untested that it's not clear if detainees have basic rights, like the right to question intelligence agents who want to remain undercover. Under the U.S. Constitution, the right to challenge witnesses is allowed under what's called the Confrontation Clause. But Fidell says no one knows how far that extends in the military system.
Prof. FIDELL: That's the real point. It's that the government will be prevented from offering evidence that would violate the Confrontation Clause, because you have a right under the Constitution to confront the witnesses against you. And that, at times, prevents the submission of hearsay evidence.
JOHNSON: And there's another huge issue looming over the military justice system: How it will handle cases where a defendant could be sentenced to death. Experts say there hasn't been a military execution since 1961. That's when a U.S. soldier was court-martialed and put to death after raping and trying to kill a child in Austria. And there hasn't been a death penalty to come out of a military commission since World War II.
Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
(Soundbite of music)
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
President Obama gives his State of the Union address tomorrow night, and we've come to expect certain traditions. It will likely run long, one party will clap its hands raw, the other party will recruit an up-and-coming politician to give the rebuttal. And this year, that man is Wisconsin Republican Congressman Paul Ryan.
NPR's Robert Smith reports that if history is a guide, Ryan is in for a tough night.
ROBERT SMITH: No rock band would even consider going on stage after the Rolling Stones just finished their set, and yet every year, some young political star agrees to have the president of the United States as his or her opening act.
Think about it. The State of the Union, all that ceremony and gravitas, all that cheering, then just as the audience is filing out...
Gov. BOBBY JINDAL (Governor, Louisiana): Good evening and happy Mardi Gras. I'm Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana.
SMITH: And ten excruciating minutes later, someone who is being talked about as a future president is being compared to Kenneth, the page from "30 Rock."
(Soundbite of show, "30 Rock")
Mr. JACK McBRAYER (As Kenneth Parcell): I just want to say, I have been reading all the Internet hoo-ha about whether or not I sound like Governor Jindal.
Unidentified Man: That sounded just like him.
SMITH: This year the gutsy rebuttal giver is Congressman Paul Ryan. He's the man Republicans are counting on to keep millions of viewers from turning the channel to "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." To his credit, Ryan has proven that he can tussle with the president.
Rep. PAUL RYAN (Republican, Wisconsin): I serve as a ranking member of the budget committee, so I want to talk a little budget if you don't mind.
SMITH: Last year when President Obama visited a Republican congressional retreat, Ryan stood up.
Rep. RYAN: The discretionary spending, the bills that Congress has signed -that you signed into law, that has increased 84 percent.
President BARACK OBAMA: We'll have a - we'll have a longer debate on the budget numbers then.
SMITH: As you might be able to tell, Paul Ryan is one of the Republicans' biggest budget geeks. He's championed a plan to cut spending on Social Security and other entitlements. But he also says he wants to make deficit reductions sexy for the iPod generation.
Kenneth Mayer is a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin. He's watched Ryan's political career, and he says the congressman is a natural pick to give the response.
Mr. KENNETH MAYER (Professor, University of Wisconsin): He's young, he's substantive, he's very smart, and I think for the Republicans, he is the face that they would like to put on their agenda for the next two years.
SMITH: Ah, but how many young, smart politicians have ended up with egg on that pretty face after their State of the Union response? The last politician to parlay a rebuttal into a national political career was Governor Bill Clinton in 1985.
President BILL CLINTON: We have just heard the president of the United States address our nation, and by the way, Mr. President, happy birthday tonight. Our objective tonight is not to disagree with our president and his party, though our differences are many.
SMITH: But in the last 25 years, it's been more of a political curse than an honor. Usually the speech is boring and forgettable. That's the best case scenario. The worst is that you'll be mocked like Bobby Jindal or Virginia Governor Tim Kaine. His Democratic response to George Bush's State of the Union featured a cheesy fireplace and a delivery suitable for first graders.
Gov. TIM KAINE (Democratic, Virginia): Now, no parent makes their child pay the mortgage bill. Why should we allow this administration to pass down the bill for its reckless spending to our children and grandchildren?
SMITH: So why does a smart man like Congressman Paul Ryan even say yes to such a cursed invitation? Poli-Sci professor Kenneth Mayer has a theory.
Mr. KENNETH MAYER: Expectations are so low that anything that isn't an utter disaster will count as a smashing success.
SMITH: And even if he screws up, Mayer says that not that many viewers stick around to watch it. The response to the State of the Union is mostly for party diehards, journalists, and of course, these days, comedians.
Robert Smith, NPR News, New York.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
NPR's business news starts with a new delivery from Amazon.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: Amazon.com is planning to offer a regular home delivery service for groceries. The Financial Times reports that Amazon plans to focus on food and other low-priced household goods, the kinds of goods that people use most often. The company has had a pilot program for weekly home deliveries in Seattle, and is now recruiting staff for a broader rollout.
Amazon could face competition from Wal-Mart which, according to The Financial Times, is also developing an online strategy for groceries and other household goods.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And the nation's biggest banks have been reporting quarterly profits. Some of the numbers have been impressive. With the economy now growing, we wanted to find out if banks, that would be the lifeblood of an economy, have put the recession behind them.
So we called David Wessel. He's economics editor of The Wall Street Journal, a regular guest on MORNING EDITION. He joins us now. Good morning.
Mr. DAVID WESSEL (Economics Editor, The Wall Street Journal): Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Now Bank of America, the country's biggest bank, reported losses. But other big banks like JP Morgan, Citigroup, they made billions of dollars last year. What's the general picture then, for the banking industry?
Mr. WESSEL: Well, I think you'd have to say it's mixed. Most of the banks are doing better for sure. Citibank, which was a poster child of the bailout of troubled banks, managed to turn a profit in 2010 after two years of losses. Morgan Stanley had a good quarter. Goldman Sachs not so good. As you point out though, Bank of America lost $2.2 billion in 2010, and like some other banks, they are now coping with demand from private investors and from the government's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that the bank take back bad mortgages that they made because they didn't dot the I's and cross the T's.
And then there are the smaller banks which are not nearly so healthy. As of Friday another seven small banks have been closed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and that's on top of the 157 that were closed last year. So the small banks with a lot of commercial real estate loans are still not out of the woods.
MONTAGNE: Okay. Not out of the woods, but many banks are still healthier. Are they lending more these days?
Mr. WESSEL: Yes. That's the good news. The banks are beginning to lend more. The total amount of commercial and industrial business loans is up, led by the 25 biggest banks, the banks that Americans love to hate. But now that they are strong they're lending a little bit more. J.P. Morgan Chase, one of the big ones, says that its total loans increased six percent since the end of September.
Now while most of that growth is coming from loans to businesses, they say that credit card usage is up, 10 percent year over year. And consumer borrowing of all sorts is up a little bit. But none of this lending is near where we were before the recession. Banks have raised the bar for loans, and while they aren't ratcheting it higher, they aren't lowering it. They aren't getting more generous either.
MONTAGNE: And let's remember that they are new financial regulations. How are they affecting banks?
Mr. WESSEL: Well, they are beginning to affect them quite a bit. They're squeezing the fees banks can charge on debit cards. Regulators are fine-tuning what's known as the Volcker Rule, which says that if you want to be in the lending business you can't be doing a lot of investing for your own pocket, so banks have been pruning some of their trading operations. And the banks that make a lot of money in what's trading what's known as derivatives or bracing for rules that will force a lot of that business on to what's known as clearing houses, well, they'll be able to make less profit. And so we're beginning to see this. The new consumer agency is just beginning to get off the ground. So it's beginning to change the way they do business. But until they see the final rules we won't see how big the effect will be.
MONTAGNE: Now David, let's turn to bankers and their salaries, always of great interest to people like me out here. How are they doing?
Mr. WESSEL: Well, you know, once again, the bankers are doing pretty well. The CEO of Citibank, which took, who took only a dollar a year for the past couple of years, will get 1.75 million this year. Executives at J.P. Morgan Chase got 10 percent bigger stock grants for 2010. At Morgan Stanley for instance, the average worker paycheck, this is the high guys and the low guys averaged together, went up about eight percent last year to about $257,000 per employee.
But some of the banks, Morgan Stanley for instance, in anticipation of new bonus rules, are saying the bonuses we give you won't be able to get for three to five years. This was a change made because of the crisis so that if the things fall apart later you won't get the whole bonus.
MONTAGNE: And in the few seconds we have, a sort of big question for you. Federal Reserve officials are meeting this week. Do you have a sense of what their thinking is on the economy and whether they'll take any action on for instance interest rates?
Mr. WESSEL: Basically the Fed is pleased with the recent signs of strength in the U.S. economy, but most of them don't think the economy is ready to fly on its own. They're going to keep interest rates at zero where they've been for 25 months. For most of this year they're going to finishing buying the $600 billion worth of long-term treasuries that they agreed to buy in order to lower long-term interest rates.
They're beginning to take notice of the fact that although there's no inflation here, it's picking up overseas. Indeed, in today's Wall Street Journal we have an interview with the head of the European Central Bank who is worried about food, oil and raw material prices going up.
MONTAGNE: David Wessel is economics editor for The Wall Street Journal.
Thanks very much.
Mr. WESSEL: You're welcome.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And today's last word in business, whiskey rebellion.
In Minneapolis, a pub called the Local sells more Jameson Irish Whiskey than any other bar or restaurant in the world. Jameson is a big whiskey brand and its parent company, Pernod Ricard, confirmed Local's status. Local's sales are due in part to its passionate whiskey loving owner, Kieran Folliard.
Mr. KIERAN FOLLIARD (Owner, The Local): I'm actually only 25 but I look about 70. I mean all the whiskey I've been drinking myself over the years. I have down for 12 bottles a day.
MONTAGNE: Hey, I thought whiskey preserved you.
Folliard does say he's joking. But the Irishman has worked to cultivate sales, coming up with whiskey cocktails and nudging customers towards his favorite drink.
Mr. FOLLIARD: If somebody comes in and asks for a Jack and Coke, we'd say well, you know, you're in an Irish pub. You've got to try an Irish drink.
MONTAGNE: But Folliard is now jumping ship. He's giving Jameson the boot and launching his own whiskey brand. He'll import it from a small distillery in Ireland and says the move is more in keeping with his scrappy image. Selling his own brand will cut down on costs too.
Mr. FOLLIARD: It's a cutthroat environment and we've got to keep trying to figure out how to stay a step ahead of the posse.
MONTAGNE: Jameson's parent company, Pernod Ricard, was in public at least, magnanimous about losing its top seller. The company emailed NPR a statement saying it wished, quote, the Local the best with their new whiskey venture.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
When President Obama delivers his State of the Union message to Congress tomorrow night, he'll address a chamber filled with more opposition members than he's ever faced before, even as his approval ratings have risen in public opinion polls - that gives him some leverage with Republicans in Congress.
Joining us, as she does most Mondays, is NPR's news analyst Cokie Roberts. Good morning.
COKIE ROBERTS: Good morning, Renee. Welcome to the deep freeze.
(Soundbite of laughter)
ROBERTS: Bad time to be out of Southern California.
MONTAGNE: No, from Southern California to D.C., just in time for, you know, minus degrees.
Well, we are hearing a lot about how the president will be moving to the center in his speech tomorrow night. What exactly does that mean?
ROBERTS: Well, it means, in terms of substance, that he's going to talk about dealing with the deficit and debt in a responsible way, that's a quotation from his video released to his supporters yesterday. But in political terms, what it means is he's reaching out to those all-important independent voters who gave him a 15-point edge in 2008, and went to Republicans by eight points in 2010. So he needs them to come back to him and they seem to be doing it.
In a Wall Street Journal poll that was out at the end of last week, independents gave him higher approval than disapproval ratings for the first time since August of 2009. And that seems to be a result of the lame-duck Congress, reaching across party lines and working together, plus some afterglow from his speech in Tucson. And, of course, he'll be able to remind everyone of that tomorrow night.
It's, of course, essential to talk about the absence of Congresswoman Giffords from the hall. But we also hear from Giffords' spokesperson that some members of her medical team and the young volunteer who helped save her life will be featured guests of the president in the first lady's box.
MONTAGNE: And what about this business of having Democrats and Republicans sitting side-by-side, mingling for a change, during the speech?
(Soundbite of laughter)
MONTAGNE: Do you think that this will make any difference?
ROBERTS: I don't think it can hurt and it's taken on this life of its own. It was the - first, the suggestion of Mark Udall, the Democratic senator from Colorado. And yesterday, Senator McCain said that Mark Udall will sit where he, McCain, usually sits and McCain will sit with Mark Udall's cousin, Tom Udall, the senator from New Mexico.
McCain points out that he has a long connection with the family. What he didn't say is that he used to go, almost every day, to visit Arizona Congressman Mo Udall, Mark's father, when Mo Udall was hospitalized for Parkinson's disease. It's definitely a reminder of a gentler time.
It has become a little bit funny with people looking for dates to sit with at the State of the Union. And some matching-up went on the Sunday talk shows yesterday. But sometimes symbolism like this can make a difference.
MONTAGNE: Yeah, though, for Republicans, even though they're talking about bipartisanship, it's becoming clear they have to bring their own people together. There are even two different responses planned for the president's State of the Union message.
(Soundbite of laughter)
ROBERTS: Right, only one is official.
MONTAGNE: Okay.
ROBERTS: Wisconsin - Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee. And his will be the one carried by broadcasters. But Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann will issue her own, on TeaPartyExpress.org. It's all part of the Republican presidential campaign for 2012.
Republicans are going to have a hard time with their new members who are expecting big changes, particularly when it comes to government spending, but who've never had the experience of having to run on a record of specifics. And that's clearly what the Democrats are setting up, both in spending cuts and in health care, forcing the Republicans to vote on specifics.
MONTAGNE: Well, just briefly, let's talk about spending. First big fight likely to come today when Republicans introduce a plan to cut federal spending back to 2008 levels, doesn't sound like a lot of room for a bipartisanship there.
ROBERTS: Right. But Democrats have to be careful. The public really is concerned about the deficit. But when it gets to specifics versus amorphous cuts, it becomes much harder. Republican leader Eric Cantor learned that yesterday. He was asked, on "Meet the Press," about cutting money for cancer research, and he didn't say no. And so by the next show up, he was quoted as being for cutting cancer research.
That's not a winning position, Renee. And that's the kind of thing Democrats are going to try to do.
MONTAGNE: Thanks very much, NPR's news analyst Cokie Roberts.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Super Bowl XLV is set. The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Green Bay Packers. Both of those teams won their conference championship game yesterday by establishing an early lead, and then playing just enough defense to hold off their opponents.
NPR's Mike Pesca is here with more, good morning.
MIKE PESCA: Hello.
MONTAGNE: Hello. So let's start off by telling us how the Packers beat the Bears in Chicago.
PESCA: Well, this game, it had the tone and tenor that the Bears kept dodging bullets, and those bullets were being thrown by Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers and his Packers marched down the field to start the game, seven-nothing almost immediately. In the second quarter it was 14-nothing, and you almost got the sense they could do whatever they wanted to against the Bears, but they didn't.
They didn't increase the score for a while. And then what could have been the turning point of the game occurred in the third quarter - late in the third. Two Bears quarterbacks were removed from the game, the starter, Jay Cutler went down to injury, and his backup was pulled from the game because he was pretty bad.
So the Bears inserted their third string - what's called their emergency quarterback, Caleb Hanie. A little-known guy who had the opportunity to turn this into one of those Disney movies. Because when he came onto the field, he did give the Bears a spark. And this guy no one ever heard of started marching the Bears down the field, and it really became a game, but by the fourth quarter the Bears had pulled ahead and the - sorry, the Packers had stayed ahead, and the Bears just couldn't catch up.
A key play in the game was an interception return for a touchdown by one of the biggest men on the field, B.J. Raji. He scored for the Packers, 21-14 was the final score there.
MONTAGNE: And how about the Steelers who beat the Jets 24-19?
PESCA: This was kind of similar in that to start the game the Steelers came down and they - first drive for a touchdown. And the Steelers just dominated the first half. And the way they did it was through running. Now in the NFL these days, people do give lip service to how important the running game is, but really among coordinators, people want to throw the ball.
The last few Super Bowls have featured teams that have offered awesome passing games, but Rashard Mendenhall was just impossible to tackle by the Jets. And because of his running, he helps the Steelers establish a 24-3 halftime lead.
But the second half was all Jets. And so it was a tale of two halves, but the Steelers were better in their half, the first half, than the Jets were in their half. And that was really the difference in the game. The Steelers 24-19 over the Jets.
MONTAGNE: So what does the Super Bowl hold in store?
PESCA: Well, you know, this is - these are two great franchise, maybe two of the greatest. The Steelers have won six Super Bowls, the Packers have won three Super Bowls. They both did lose one Super Bowl. The Packers, in the days before there were Super Bowls played, they won nine championships, so they're both tough teams. They both play hard. They both play smart.
I see that the Packers are favorites, and that did kind of surprise me because they had a worse record than the Steelers going into the game. But if nothing else, it will be two interesting quarterbacks, Ben Roethlisberger for the Steelers and Aaron Rodgers for the Packers. They play different styles, and really good defenses and well-coached teams too.
MONTAGNE: And Mike, let's end this conversation by marking the passing of the man regarded as the founder of the modern fitness movement, Jack LaLanne. He died yesterday at the age of 96. And here he is speaking to NPR's Tom Goldman about exercising each and every day right to the end.
(Soundbite of Interview with Jack LaLanne)
TOM GOLDMAN: Ever missed a day...
Mr. JACK LaLANNE: Never missed a day.
GOLDMAN: ...ever had a - ever had a day of doubt?
Mr. LaLANNE: Never, never, never. It's my religion, it's my life. That's why I was put on this earth, I believe this, to help people.
MONTAGNE: And Mike, you have ten seconds to tell us what made Jack LaLanne so revolutionary.
PESCA: Somewhere a barge is undragged by a man's teeth. Jack LaLanne got it right. He told us that working out and lifting weights were good for us, and a lot of gurus have come and gone, but he was correct.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Mike Pesca. Thanks very much. This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News, good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
Lately, federal authorities have voiced concerns over a growing problem, people pointing cheap handheld lasers at aircraft. They can send an intense blinding light going into the cockpit of a plane or helicopter at night.
The number of laser attacks across the country doubled last year. Most were in the Los Angeles area. That's where NPR's Mandalit del Barco found one pilot who had a very close call.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO: Glendale is one of the many cities in southern California that counts on cops in the air to keep people safe. One of them is police sergeant Steve Robertson, who fires up his helicopter to do his daily rounds.
(Soundbite of helicopter)
DEL BARCO: Robertson is a veteran pilot who has seen just about everything. But one of the most dangerous things he's encountered was a powerful beam of green light from someone on the ground hitting his helicopter with a laser pointer.
Sgt. STEVEN ROBERTSON (Police Sergeant, Glendale, California): It immediately lighted up the whole cockpit and it hit both of my eyes and burned both my corneas. Instantly I was blinded. It felt like I was hit in the face with a baseball bat. Just an intense burning pain.
DEL BARCO: Robertson was incapacitated and would have crashed if his co-pilot hadn't been able to land the chopper. He recovered from his injuries, but since that incident back in the mid-'90s, Robertson says he and his fellow police pilots in Glendale have been targeted dozens of times by people shining cheap, easy-to-buy lasers. Robertson's at a loss to figure out what's running through their minds.
Sgt. ROBERTSON: There's been real no plausible explanation. I think the biggest part is they're surprised that we caught them. We have technology on board our aircraft that can pinpoint locations, can tell us address, can tell us property owners. So that's how we've been very successful.
DEL BARCO: Robertson says all their suspects have been young men in their late teens or early 20s, shining the lasers from apartment buildings, cars, or near the runways.
FAA administrator Randy Babbitt says the results can be disastrous.
Mr. RANDY BABBITT (Administrator, Federal Aviation Administration): Apparently they think the aircraft is, you know, a target they could test their laser on. But these are not toys, you know; shining one into a cockpit and blinding a pilot has some very, very serious ramifications.
DEL BARCO: The Los Angeles International Airport leads the nation in laser strikes. When you factor in several nearby suburban airports, there were more than 200 incidents in L.A. last year alone. That includes two commercial jet liners whose cockpits were hit by lasers while they were trying to land, and two Coast Guard helicopters that were grounded after laser flashes.
But it's a problem nationwide and around the world, and it's on the rise.
Mr. BABBITT: We don't think the people appreciate the seriousness of shining lasers at aircraft. These are very powerful. They weren't designed or intended to be used like this. Some of that is the availability, and some of it, let's hope, is not intentional.
DEL BARCO: Babbitt says part of the problem is handheld laser pointers are easily available for sale in home supply shops and on the Internet. Anyone can buy them; there are no age requirements.
YouTube videos show how to pop balloons or burn paper and wood with lasers, and young laser aficionados play with the handheld devices as though they were Star Wars light sabers.
(Soundbite of video)
DEL BARCO: Sergeant Robertson says the problem is not with the kind of lasers used in PowerPoint presentations, or for playing with cats or even stargazing. He says the new laser strikers use powerful green light that can beam for miles.
Sgt. ROBERTSON: There's many good reasons and uses obviously for lasers in the scientific and medical fields, but in the wrong hands it can wreak havoc.
DEL BARCO: The FAA says thankfully there have been no major accidents directly linked to laser strikes, but many cities and states are cracking down with new laws, and there's new technology to pinpoint where the laser beams are coming from. Just last week a 43-year-old man in Florida pleaded guilty to interfering with a sheriff's helicopter with a laser. He may be looking at 20 years in federal prison.
Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.
Workers at an aquarium in Ukraine didn't believe a visitor who told them one of its crocodiles had gulped down her cell phone, until that is, the croc started ringing. The woman said she was leaning over the water trying to get a photo when she dropped the phone right into the mouth of the crocodile.
The woman said she just wants to get her SIM card back with photos and addresses, but the poor croc hasn't been able to expel the phone.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.
Karma caught up with some Missouri teens last week. According to police, the three young men posed as good Samaritans just trying to help motorists stuck in the snow. But instead of helping the stranded motorists get free from their cars, police say the teens took their wallets and credit cards. Their getaway, though, was short-lived. The Kansas City Star reports that police found the suspects when they, too, got stuck in the snow.
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Moscow's busiest airport was rocked by a huge explosion today, what Russian officials are saying is an apparent terrorist attack. The Health Ministry is putting the number of dead at 30 or more, plus scores injured. Russia's local news agencies quote witnesses as saying the international arrivals hall quickly filled with so much smoke it was hard to see how many had died or were injured.
This attack follows a series of suicide bombings and other attacks in Russia. The Kremlin has blamed these earlier attacks on Muslim militants fighting for greater freedom from Moscow.
For more, we're joined by NPR's David Greene, who is at the airport now.
And, David, describe the scene around you.
DAVID GREENE: Hi, Renee. It's really surreal. I mean, the Russian way of dealing with events like this is to get back to business as usual as quickly as possible. That happened last spring when there were bombings on the Moscow subway, and here at the airport, you know, one entrance is shut down. There are emergency vehicles and that's where witnesses describe the really horrific scene several hours ago. But aside from that, you know, most of the airport is open. There are domestic flights that are still taking off, passengers arriving with their luggage. Some of whom might not even know that any of this took place until they get to the airport for a trip. So it's a strange scene.
MONTAGNE: Have you been able to get some eyewitness accounts or people there who are working there - have they been able to tell you what they saw happened?
GREENE: We just got here, Renee, and we spoke to one gentleman who worked at one of the rental car counters. And he described, you know, hearing the blast and then just seeing people running in terror. And what other eyewitnesses have told Russian media is it was just bloody and chaotic.
I mean, as you said, the airport terminal filled with smoke, people saw bodies being carried out, injured people on luggage carts, you know, bodies that were really dismembered being rushed to ambulances.
And, you know, if you've been through an international terminal, Renee, and -you know, it's pretty routine. You come through Customs. You go down - you know, you come to immigration, you go down, you get your luggage, you go through Customs. I've been through this terminal here in Domodedovo airport many times, and you can imagine people just going through that routine. And as we understand, you know, the explosion took place in the baggage area as people were, you know, arriving for their flights and collecting their luggage and ready to, you know, either begin a trip or head home.
MONTAGNE: Now, have authorities said anything about whether this was a suicide bombing, or something else? And also, who are they saying might be responsible? If they're saying militants, who might they be? Give us a little quick background.
GREENE: I mean, it's pretty early. President Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, he's canceled his trip to Davos for an economic forum. He is calling it an act of terror. He said he is going to go after whoever carried this attack out. You know, previous attacks in Russia, like the Metro bombings last year, officials linked to people who came up from the Russian Caucasus, the north Caucasus, which, you know, there is an Islamic insurgency down there and, you know, terrorist attacks have often been linked to that part of the country.
But here, you know, it's not clear yet. It's very early, Renee. There are a lot of conflicting reports about whether this might have been something that was planned for on an airplane that landed, if it was planned by someone here on the ground, and there are planes coming from different parts of Russia. Coming from all over the former Soviet Union, coming from the United States, coming from Europe, coming from the Middle East. So a lot of possibilities that I think officials are going to have to explore, but they are calling it an act of terror at this point.
MONTAGNE: Okay. Well, NPR will follow events as they unfold today. NPR's David Greene, thank you very much.
GREENE: Thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Speaking to us from Moscow's main airport where earlier today an explosion appears to have killed dozens and scores have been injured.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.
NINA TOTENBERG: For those of a certain age, the image is tattooed on memory.
U: Inauguration day dawns on a capital that had been almost paralyzed by a full-fledged blizzard.
TOTENBERG: The sky was so crystal clear, the white snow so dazzling and the glare of the sun so blinding that poet laureate Robert Frost couldn't read the poem he'd composed for the event. So he put aside the wind-ruffled pages and recited from memory another of his poems, "The Gift Outright."
M: The land was ours before we were the land's. She was our land more than a hundred years before we were her people.
TOTENBERG: He was the first poet asked to recite at an inaugural - a harbinger of things to come. President Kennedy spoke often of the need to promote the arts in our civilization. Here he is just a month before his death.
INSKEEP: I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft.
TOTENBERG: Kennedy Center president Michael Kaiser.
M: The Kennedys really believed that the people who make art, the people who write books, the people who have great scientific thoughts, had a very important role to play in society, and they honored them by putting a spotlight on them.
TOTENBERG: Fifty years later, the center is celebrating that pivotal moment for arts in America. The project has been on the drawing board for five years under Michael Kaiser's direction.
M: You can never be encyclopedic in a festival. So you start to think about highlights.
TOTENBERG: The events taking place include a new symphonic work featuring the words of President Kennedy, with Morgan Freeman and Richard Dreyfuss narrating. Performances by the American Ballet Theater, the organization that Mrs. Kennedy chaired until her death, exhibits featuring the work of artists with disabilities, because the Kennedys were such proponents of opportunity for the disabled, and events featuring young artists from tap dancers to musicians like Esperanza Spalding.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
M: (Singing) Why must you wonder, heaven isn't far.
TOTENBERG: Casals widow Marta Casals Istomin says her late husband struggled with the invitation and, finally, sent this letter to the president.
M: (Reading) May the music that I will play for you and for your friends symbolize my deep feelings for the American people and the faith and confidence we all have in you as leader of the free world.
TOTENBERG: On a November night in 1961, a glittering audience of women in ball gowns and men in white tie and tails gathered at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Among the guests was Alice Roosevelt Longworth, the daughter of Teddy Roosevelt - the last president for whom Casals had performed, more than a half century earlier at the dawn of the 20th century.
TOTENBERG: composers from Leonard Bernstein to Aaron Copland, conductors from Eugene Ormandy to Leopold Stokowski.
M: There was electricity. There was something - that people were here for something important.
TOTENBERG: Casals' widow Marta.
M: I was nervous because so many emotions at the same time. Casals was 85 years old, although I knew he was all right but, you know, these emotions can sometimes affect you. When I heard the first few notes, I knew it was going to be all right.
(SOUNDBITE OF CELLO MUSIC)
TOTENBERG: At the end of the program, there was silence, then explosive applause.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
M: Then Casals walked over to President Kennedy and Casals said: Now I will play for you the "Song of the Birds," which for me means my nostalgia for my country, and my hope for freedom and peace.
(SOUNDBITE OF "SONG OF THE BIRDS")
TOTENBERG: So emotional was the moment that you can occasionally hear Casals voice, a sound close to a small cry.
(SOUNDBITE OF "SONG OF THE BIRDS")
TOTENBERG: The next morning, a photograph of the concert would be emblazoned across the front page of The New York Times. Kennedy Center president Kaiser was a boy then, but he remembers the excitement generated by that concert.
M: It affected the way all of us viewed culture. This was the most glamorous event of the year. It was a cello recital.
TOTENBERG: And it's a recital that will be duplicated tonight at the Kennedy Center with cellist Yo-Yo Ma playing the pieces that Casals played on that night in 1961.
(SOUNDBITE OF "SONG OF THE BIRDS")
TOTENBERG: Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
INSKEEP: And you can hear all of that encore at npr.org. It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
In 1958, a young rockabilly performer recorded what became one of the biggest hits of her career.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LET'S HAVE A PARTY")
M: (Singing) Some people like to rock. Some people like to roll. But moving and a grooving's gonna satisfy my soul. Let's have a party. Woo.
INSKEEP: "Let's Have a Party" put Wanda Jackson on the map. With her bright-red lipstick, dangly earrings and high heels, Wanda Jackson was edgy for her time. She dated Elvis Presley and with his encouragement, became one of the first female rock and rollers.
INSKEEP: Jack White of the White Stripes. They collaborated on an album called "The Party Ain't Over."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RIP IT UP")
M: (Singing) Well, it's Saturday night and I just got paid. I'm a fool with my money, don't try to save. My heart says go, go have a time. And it's Saturday night, baby, I'm feeling fine. I'm gonna rip it up.
INSKEEP: In this new album, Jackson performs country, gospel and rockabilly tunes, all with her trademark growl.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RIP IT UP")
M: (Singing) I got me a date, and I won't be late. Pick me up in his '88.
INSKEEP: Jack White is the producer here - sometimes plays as well. The collaboration began when White invited Wanda Jackson to record a couple of songs in his Nashville studio. He wanted to cut a single in a medium that is dear to Jackson's heart: the vinyl 45.
M: I said, oh, happy day.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: To have that 45 single in my hand again was really a trip for me.
INSKEEP: So Jackson came to the studio a 73-year-old grandmother and born-again Christian, and she was not thrilled with the song Jack White had selected for her: an Amy Winehouse tune about infidelity.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU KNOW I'M NO GOOD")
M: (Singing) Meet you downstairs in the bar at night, your rolled-up sleeves and your skull T-shirt...
M: Well, at first, I said he's got to be kidding. He wants me to record this? You know - said I don't think it would be very believable in the first place. But he seemed little bit insistent.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU KNOW I'M NO GOOD")
M: I describe Jack - when I'm asked how is he to work with - describe him as a velvet-covered brick.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: I mean, you're not getting away until you get it the way he wants it, and what he's hearing up in his head.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
M: I just wanted to show that, you know, age don't matter.
INSKEEP: That's Jack White.
M: She can still sing a song just as good as the '50s, just right now, and the attitude can still be carried forth - you know, and not in a cute, novel way, either. I mean, for real.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SHAKING ALL OVER")
M: (Singing) The way you move in right up close to me. That's when I get the chills all over me.
INSKEEP: Jack White is 35 years old. He says he was a teenager the first time he heard Jackson's music.
M: So wild and so, just abrasive. You know, I can't imagine what it must have sounded like when that came out back then. That must have been pretty - it pricked up some ears around the country.
INSKEEP: Wanda Jackson was a rock and roll pioneer as a younger woman. And she still is today, as an older women fronting a hard-hitting rock band.
M: Golly. I hadn't thought about it that way but yeah, I feel pretty good about that.
INSKEEP: Wanda Jackson's new album is called "The Party Ain't Over," and you can listen to it at our website, nprmusic.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THUNDER ON THE MOUNTAIN")
M: Thunder on the mountain, heavy as can be. A mean old twister bearing down on me...
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
As NPR's Christopher Joyce reports, some biologists say the problem is not overfishing this time. It's the weather.
CHRISTOPHER JOYCE: Brad Burns started fishing for striped bass in 1960. Last week, I caught him by phone as he was running a booth for his group, Stripers Forever, at a fly-fishing show in New Jersey. He says his members have been singing the blues about stripers.
BRAD BURNS: What we hear from people that go striped bass fishing, the general trend very decidedly is down.
JOYCE: Stripers live in the ocean, as well as in estuaries and some rivers. Burns says members have been reporting fewer fish for the past five years. As for the cause...
BURNS: Well, I don't know, and I don't know that anybody does.
JOYCE: But Bob Wood thinks he might. Wood's a biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He studies his fish in a boxy little building on the Maryland shore of the Chesapeake Bay.
BOB WOOD: Come on in. And what we have here is a way to run controlled experiments on nutrition and disease.
JOYCE: Here, scientists keep vats full of striped bass and white perch, two species that spawn in the Bay. This is where Wood's team tries to figure out why striper numbers go up and go down. They thought they had the 1980s crash figured out.
WOOD: The striped bass crashed because of overfishing, and then it recovered because we closed the fishery.
JOYCE: But now Wood has new idea that's just taking shape.
WOOD: This research, at first glance, seems to call that into question. But it's not that easy.
JOYCE: This novel idea focuses not so much on fish, but on the weather, and especially the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, or the AMO. The AMO is a mash-up of wind and ocean currents, a flip-flop that happens every 35 years or so in the North Atlantic.
WOOD: Circulation changes in a way that warms the entire basin. And you can imagine if you warm the entire North Atlantic basin, you're changing the weather because the air and circulation patterns above the ocean are then affected.
JOYCE: Ed Martino is a fisheries scientist who works with Wood at NOAA. He says when that AMO shift happens, it affects the local weather along the Atlantic Coast.
ED MARTINO: You're talking about differences in temperature and precipitation, and therefore river flow or salinity, ultimately all affecting the base of the food chain. It's the way that the climate affects the microscopic plankton.
JOYCE: Then the AMO flips - drier springs, less rain, less food. After a lag, it looks like striper numbers start to decline. Wood says the past 100 years of fishing records show that very trend, which brings us to the present crash in stripers.
WOOD: It hasn't been so good in the last, say, five years. And it just so happens, this is also the time when the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation seems to be switching phase.
JOYCE: Janet Nye studies fish stocks for the federal Environmental Protection Agency. She thinks this research could help fisheries managers.
JANET NYE: We would be able to say, OK, for the next 35 years or so, we're pretty certain that the AMO is going to be more positive or warm. And we'd be able to say, these are the fish that respond favorably to that. You might be able to fish those more.
JOYCE: Or in a down cycle, says Bob Wood, fish less.
WOOD: If we know that there is this cycle coming up, a trend that we are beginning to enter, we can keep that in our heads as we set limits.
JOYCE: Christopher Joyce, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Here's NPR's Peter Kenyon.
PETER KENYON: Both proposals, officials say, met with Iranian insistence that no idea could be discussed so long as sanctions remain in place, and the world refuses to recognize Tehran's right to enrich uranium. But experts say that doesn't mean those ideas - and others - aren't worth discussing.
L: to create isotopes that help in medical diagnoses. Weapons-grade fuel is enriched to 90 percent.
F: the age and condition of the reactor itself.
M: It's old, and it's running out of fuel, and I think that they were a little bit worried about the safety and security because as you know, the reactor is, today, practically in the middle of the town.
KENYON: Heinonen, now at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, says if negotiators succeed in striking a new, bigger fuel-swap deal - bigger to account for Iran's growing stockpile of enriched uranium - they would be extending the life of this aging, urban reactor by some 10 years. So, he says, why not go for a bigger and ultimately safer proposal: Build a new research reactor - possibly down at Arak, site of a still-unfinished heavy water reactor.
M: What about building a modern research reactor? Put it to Arak, to this building which is not yet fully completed. It will take two, three years at least, you know, to design and build. And then after that process, you know, they have a brand-new, good research reactor which can produce, in a safe and secure manner, radioisotopes for all Iran, without any trouble.
KENYON: Such proposals would certainly break the current stalemate, analysts say, but they raise difficult questions. Bruno Tertrais, a nuclear expert with the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research, says building Iran a new research reactor is a fascinating idea. But what would the international side, known as the P5+1, get in return?
M: This is where it gets interesting. On paper, the idea of proposing Iran to build for them a new reactor devoted to the production of medical isotopes is a great idea. But I would expect that the P5+1 would demand a very big concession from the Iranians in return.
KENYON: Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Istanbul.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
INSKEEP: the filibuster. NPR's David Welna explains.
DAVID WELNA: The man leading the charge to change the Senate's rules on the filibuster is Tom Udall. He's a New Mexico Democrat, and he's been fuming since taking office two years ago about the record number of times Republicans have blocked bills and nominations by threatening to talk them to death, using that notorious right of the Senate minority known as the filibuster.
INSKEEP: The American people are fed up with it. They are fed up with us, and I don't blame them. We need to bring the workings of the Senate out of the shadows and restore its accountability. That begins with addressing our own dysfunction - specifically, the source of that dysfunction: the Senate rules.
WELNA: That was Udall on the Senate floor the first day that chamber met this year. Majority Leader Harry Reid backed him up.
INSKEEP: We may not agree yet on how to fix the problem, but no one can credibly claim problems don't exist. No one who has watched this body operate since the current minority took office can say that it functions just fine.
INSKEEP: We don't think the Senate rules are broken.
WELNA: That's Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. He and his fellow Republicans gained six Senate seats in November. It makes it that much harder for Democrats now to muster the 60 votes they need to stop a filibuster.
INSKEEP: And what we think is going on here is an opportunity - an effort to, in effect, to try to nullify the results of the election.
WELNA: Not so, says New Mexico Democrat Udall.
INSKEEP: My proposal is to make the Senate, of each Congress, accountable for all of our rules. This is what the Constitution provides for, and it's what our founders intended.
WELNA: And that's why Majority Leader Reid, earlier this month, froze the Senate in day one, and seemed to threaten he'd hold such a simple majority vote should a deal not be reached with Republicans.
INSKEEP: We hope that Republicans see the light of day and are willing to work with us. If not, we'll have to do something on our own.
WELNA: Senate Republicans do seem willing to agree to at least one of the rules changes Udall and other frustrated junior Senate Democrats are proposing: doing away with secret holds, those threats made anonymously to filibuster bills or nominations. Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley says holds should still be permitted - so long as they're not secret.
INSKEEP: If a senator then has a legitimate reason to object to proceedings to a bill, or a nominee, then he or she ought to have the guts to do so publicly.
WELNA: Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley is pushing yet another rules change - that a filibuster come to an end the moment its proponents stop talking on the Senate floor.
INSKEEP: We're saying yes, you can keep speaking, but you've got to speak. You can't go on vacation. You cannot hide from the American people. You cannot object and hide.
WELNA: But Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander says the onus properly belongs on those promoting a bill or nomination.
INSKEEP: If you think we're holding something up improperly, confront that senator. Run over him. You can do it. You've got the power to do it if you have 60 votes.
WELNA: Republicans seem confident Democrats won't resort to passing a set of rules changes by a simple majority. Rutgers University Senate expert Ross Baker says Democrats likely would have a hard time mustering even those 51 votes.
INSKEEP: Because there is the possibility that the Democrats may become the minority party after the 2012 election. And I suspect there are some Democratic senators, being strategic thinkers, are kind of projecting ahead to 2012 and saying, well, now wait a minute - we might want to have the filibuster intact - the way it is now - if we find ourselves in the minority.
WELNA: David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Here's NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.
NINA TOTENBERG: It could have been ugly. The blogosphere was bloviating about the appearance of partisanship. But the Tea Partiers, led by Representative Michele Bachmann, portrayed the event as respectful, and the handful of Democrats who attended agreed. Here's Republican Bachmann.
TOTENBERG: We were delighted with his remarks, and then he opened up to questions, and both Democrats and Republicans stood up and asked questions of the justice.
TOTENBERG: Legal ethics experts, by and large, agreed that Scalia violated no ethics rules, especially since he's spoken to liberal groups in the past. Northwestern Law School legal ethics expert Steven Lubet.
INSKEEP: There's nothing wrong with it. At most, it's a question of prudence, not ethics. And though it seems to be controversial, it's really not any different than giving a lecture at a law school.
TOTENBERG: Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics specialist from NYU Law School, said he views Scalia's appearance as healthy, and said he hopes that the same group will invite other justices with views different from Scalia's.
INSKEEP: So I think this is a good thing, and I think it should be encouraged and done maybe monthly, with a quiz at the end.
TOTENBERG: Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Ninety-six freshmen in the House of Representatives will hear their first State of the Union address as representatives tonight, and many are getting familiar with another Washington ritual, as NPR's Peter Overby reports.
PETER OVERBY: Alabama Republican Mo Brooks came off the House floor last week. He had just cast his vote to repeal the health care overhaul.
MO BROOKS: One of the most important things I have done in my life. It's awesome. It's inspirational. It's sobering.
OVERBY: Brooks is 56 years old. He's been a state lawmaker and a prosecutor. So he's used to the hassles of starting up a new office.
BROOKS: We're still working on getting our cell phones to work correctly, so that I can be notified promptly when my staff needs me to be someplace, or the speaker needs me to be someplace.
OVERBY: And at noon today, he'll be needed at lunch with four lobbyists who would be paying 500 to $2,000 each for the privilege. Mo Brooks isn't the only freshman doing this, not by a long shot. But he is the one who agreed to talk about it. He said he didn't know anything about his fundraising schedule. In fact, hadn't held a D.C. fundraiser since he was elected.
BROOKS: And if people have started scheduling fundraisers for me, I'm thankful. But I don't know when they are or where they are or the specifics of whoever's putting them together for me.
OVERBY: The schedule was put together by Michael Gula. He's one of the top fundraising consultants for GOP candidates, and he doesn't talk about his clients. But generally speaking, Gula says they've created a new atmosphere in the lobbying world.
MICHAEL GULA: Down on K Street now, people are really looking forward to building new relationships, meeting new people. People are really being aggressive in wanting to meet the new members.
OVERBY: And Nancy Bocskor, a veteran Republican fundraiser, says that leads to a natural conclusion.
NANCY BOCSKOR: Money's going to come to them whether they ask for it or not. So you're going to have some people that go: I never solicited their money. They chose to support me based on what I did.
ELLEN MILLER: The Washington-ization of the Washington outsiders.
OVERBY: That's what Ellen Miller calls it. She's a co-founder of the Sunlight Foundation, a watchdog group that got a hold of Congressman Brooks' fundraising schedule and posted it on its Political Party Time website. Miller says the small, intimate events are important. Big fundraising can come later.
MILLER: But the people who were there early on will have the close relationship and be able to walk in and see the member or his staff whenever he or she wants.
OVERBY: And politics is all about networking. David Rehr is a business executive and former lobbyist. He says new lawmakers need to meet key people around town: lobbyists, advisers, moneymen...
DAVID REHR: Because at some point, they'll help you either with your issues or getting reelected or being perceived as being more influential by other Washingtonians, so you can try to enact more change in the government.
OVERBY: Peter Overby, NPR News, Washington.
INSKEEP: You hear Peter's reporting on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Here's how things stand as of now in the Chicago mayor's race. Officials begin printing ballots today for the city elections, which come next month. And officials plan not to include the name of Rahm Emanuel. The former White House chief of staff was the front-runner in the race to be Chicago's next mayor. He's been knocked off the ballot by an Illinois appeals court, that said he did not meet the residency requirement. Emanuel's attorneys are appealing, but time is running short, as NPR's David Schaper reports.
DAVID SCHAPER: Former Chicago congressman Rahm Emanuel moved to Washington, D.C., two years ago to serve as President Obama's chief of staff. And he contends that even though he didn't return until October to run in the February 22nd election, he's still a resident.
M: I still own a home here - look forward to moving into it one day - vote from here, pay property taxes here.
SCHAPER: But now, in a controversial 2-1 ruling, an appellate court panel is reversing those earlier decisions, and ordering that Emanuel's name be left off the ballot. Chicago Board of Elections spokesman Jim Allen says printing begins today.
M: We'll be going to press with one less candidate on the ballot.
SCHAPER: Allen says even though the city elections are just four weeks away, the elections board held off on printing ballots until the appeals court ruled. Now, he says, they're in a race against time to get absentee ballots out in the mail and to program electronic voting machines for early voting, which begins next week.
M: This has been a long time coming. We have to hit the go button.
SCHAPER: Emanuel's attorneys file an appeal today with the Illinois Supreme Court, and ask for a stay to stop the printing of ballots. Emanuel says he has no doubt that in the end he will prevail, adding that the courts shouldn't be deciding this election.
M: I do believe that the people of the City of Chicago deserve the right to make a decision on who they want to be their next mayor.
SCHAPER: The latest polls had Emanuel leading the second-place candidate, former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun, by a 2-1 margin. So Moseley Braun is quickly trying to take advantage of Emanuel's court-delivered setback.
F: I'm hoping that supporters of Mr. Emanuel, supporters, people who are undecided, will choose to join our coalition of conscience, will choose to embrace the message that we have been consistently trying to bring to this city.
SCHAPER: But political observers say there really isn't much traction to gain just yet for Moseley Braun and Emanuel's other opponents: city clerk Miguel del Valle, and former school board president Gery Chico. Alan Gitelson is a political science professor at Loyola University of Chicago.
INSKEEP: So I think from all perspectives, really, we find that the election, in some ways, is kind of on an interesting hold.
SCHAPER: David Schaper, NPR News, Chicago.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Brett Neely reports on other measures the company is taking to find its footing in a crowded retail environment.
BRETT NEELY: J.C. Penney has been printing a catalog since 1963. At one point in time, Penney's catalog business had billions of dollars a year in sales. But as shoppers have migrated online, retail analyst Patty Edwards says those catalogs are now weighing down the company.
M: The cost of sending the catalogs - it just doesn't make sense when you can do it so much more efficiently on the Web.
NEELY: J.C. Penney wouldn't say how many employees it was laying off. It's also closing a small number of its poorest-performing stores and its entire outlet business. Even through the worst of the recession, Penney has stayed profitable. But Edwards says it has to watch its back.
M: Frankly, J.C. Penney has slowed, and has been left behind, by some of the more nimble, newer players that have gone to a more national stage.
NEELY: Brett Neely, NPR News.
: NPR's Nathan Rott explains how it works.
NATHAN ROTT: It's called the prevention plan.
(SOUNDBITE OF COMMERCIAL)
U: What if there was a way to get on a path to better health?
ROTT: And it's being called big business's newest way to crack into the health- care field. It's not health insurance or a replacement for the doctor, just a personalized prevention plan or health screening - at least for people that can get it online. Here's how it works: You buy a kit through the Internet from Sam's Club for $99. You then start by filling out an extensive health questionnaire, like you would at a doctor. Next, you mail a small blood sample, which you collect at home using the finger-stick that comes with your kit. And then you send that information to U.S. Preventive Medicine, a company headed by Christopher Fey.
M: Our technology actually digests all that information, analyzes it, and then turns it into a plan for you based on your current conditions, based on your family history, based on the facts you have given us.
ROTT: But now, the idea is being packaged, marketed and sold by a major retailer.
: Health care consumes a huge fraction of our U.S. GDP and so obviously, there's a lot of money there.
ROTT: That's Ateev Mehrotra. He's an analyst at the RAND Corporation, and a professor at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine. He says retailers have long looked at cracking into the multibillion-dollar health- care industry. Minute clinics, eye clinics, pharmacies - all are different attempts to do just that. The Prevention Plan, Mehrotra says, seems like just the latest stab at it.
M: The idea of retailers entering the prevention area, I think, is really interesting and innovative. If we can provide those prevention services closer to where they work, live or shop, I think that's a really exciting trend.
ROTT: Barbara Johnson's cart is loaded with groceries and paper towels. She'd rather the stores focus on items like that; let doctors deal with the health care.
M: I mean, it's just like if you needed a car. Would you come here to buy a car, or would you go to a dealership?
ROTT: Jerri Ward disagrees. There's a health care gap, she says. And if nobody else is going to fill it, why not retailers?
M: It makes sense. I mean, capitalism - everybody wants what? To make the money. And if you can make the money and serve the people, that's a good thing.
ROTT: Nathan Rott, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Moscow correspondent David Greene is covering the aftermath.
DAVID GREENE: The bomb erupted in a part of the airport that people know well. It's that spot where you gather to meet passengers. You scan the crowd emerging from customs, and you run to embrace your friends or loved ones as soon as you spot them.
J: people screaming, victims being loaded onto baggage carts.
M: Some of them were really badly injured. Everything was bloody - their head, their legs - and some of them were laying. They took two trolleys and were laying over the trolleys. And I think one of them was dead.
GREENE: It was surprising, though, how quickly life returned to normal - or at least, tried to. After reporting yesterday, my colleague and I searched for a cab driver to take us home, and we found 44-year-old Sergei Komarov. Turns out just hours earlier, he had been standing in the arrivals hall, waiting for a fare, when the bomb went off, spraying chunks of metal and shrapnel in all directions. Somehow, Sergei was spared - not the people around him.
M: (Through translator) One man, he fell down. His leg was torn off. He was crawling along, pulling himself by his hands. He was groaning and went on crawling, without a leg. And there were all these pieces of flesh. This is the first time I have ever seen this. I am in shock. I still can't get myself together.
GREENE: I asked Sergei why, after taking in such a grim scene, he was already back to work.
M: (Foreign language spoken)
GREENE: President Dmitri Medvedev was planning to head to Switzerland yesterday to brag about his country's economic potential while attending the World Economic Forum. Instead, Medvedev canceled and went on TV to talk about the bombing.
INSKEEP: (Through translator) After previous and similar events, we passed appropriate legislation, and we have to check how it has been applied because obviously, there have been lapses. And we must get to the bottom of this.
GREENE: In past attacks here, militants from the North Caucasus have been responsible. That's the volatile region of southern Russia where an Islamist insurgency is raging.
(SOUNDBITE OF DEMONSTRATION)
GREENE: And in the wake of any incident like this, there is the fear of retaliation against people of Caucasian descent. They often have darker complexions and face routine discrimination in Russia. Ethnic tensions were already high last month, when nationalists staged a series of riots in central Moscow, chanting slurs against Caucasians and yelling out: Russia is for Russians.
U: Russiya dla Russky.
(SOUNDBITE OF DEMONSTRATION)
GREENE: David Greene, NPR News, Moscow.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
The website Real Clear Politics shows movement in opinion polls. For the first time in months, President Obama's approval rating is above 50 percent. That comes just in time for tonight's State of the Union speech. The lawmakers he plans to address have higher ratings, too - though still very low, at 24 percent. And many people in the room tonight will know they need to create jobs in order to keep their own. Over the weekend, the president previewed his speech.
INSKEEP: My number one focus is going to be making sure that we are competitive, that we are growing and we are creating jobs, not just now but well into the future. And that's what is going to be the main topic of the State of the Union.
INSKEEP: When it comes to manufacturing, what is China getting right that the United States is not?
M: Now, those of us who are free marketeers would say, well, gee, you know, that's government interference. Well, I don't see that as government interference. I see that as the public sector establishing the rules of the road such that the private sector knows what those rules are and therefore, we can compete.
INSKEEP: Well, what do you think about the idea that the United States can still be the place where ideas are produced, where corporate headquarters are located, and even if an American company outsources some of their manufacturing or a lot of their manufacturing, there are still a lot of jobs being created in the United States by that economic activity?
M: Well, you know, at the end of the day, I think we have proof points that say that if you put all your eggs in one basket, and if you're just the idea owner, that you will eventually not generate the ideas that matter in terms of valuating your community, in terms of having the higher-paid jobs.
INSKEEP: What's an example of that?
M: Well, if you outsource electronics to countries that have initially cheap labor then obviously, they'll start making those devices. But then on top of that, they'll learn how to make the next one - better. And then they'll build the universities around that industry that actually generate the human capital. Then ultimately, what happens is the companies who've maybe initially outsourced start to build facilities there, and they start to build R centers alongside and ultimately, you'll outsource the creativity.
INSKEEP: When a lot of Americans think about manufacturing and manufacturing jobs overseas, it seems like a very simple question of cheaper labor. There are people overseas who will work for $3 a day - maybe even a dollar a day, in some cases - and work for wages that Americans would never dream of matching. It'd be a disaster if Americans matched those wages. And is it more complicated than that?
M: Industries that are high-technology - clean energy, solar, photovoltaics - that conversation, and why that is all moving overseas, is not about labor costs.
INSKEEP: Well, now, that's interesting because here you are, you're the CEO of a multinational corporation, you're a big supporter of American manufacturing - you've just written a book about boosting American manufacturing - but you mentioned that Dow Chemical has opened an R center in China. How do you, as a CEO, decide which of your operations to keep in the United States, and which to move abroad?
M: Basically, the rules of the road per country. In essence, do I have in country X, do I understand their tax policies? Do I understand their energy policies? What are they doing to me in terms of regulatory policy? We look at all items on the cost line, all items on the incentive line, and make decisions on that basis.
INSKEEP: OK. What are some lines there where the United States apparently doesn't do very well, since you have moved some operations overseas?
M: Well, I not only have high taxes, I have uncertain taxes. Right now, I have more regulations coming at me that are not fact-based, not science- based, not data-based. I actually don't even know what my costs are going to be in the next five years. And so I'm sitting back waiting for regulatory reform, and the government, of course, is now engaged on that - health care and the uncertainty around the health-care bill, and what's going to end up happening there. Energy policy - we've got lots of uncertainty in the energy policy regimen. I mean, I can keep going, but that's half a dozen.
INSKEEP: Well, you keep using the word uncertainty. It sounds like you almost don't care what the rules are as long as you know what they are and what they're going to be five years from now.
M: The choice - bad policy versus uncertain policy - is a tough choice. I don't think we have to go there.
INSKEEP: Is there some way in which, actually, you want an activist government, then?
M: You need the private sector to have an input; you need the public sector to have an input; and it needs to be brought together at a national level.
INSKEEP: Is there a little bit of a contradiction here? Because you're saying that your taxes are too high; you'd like corporate taxes to be lower. But at the same time, you want a government that is being more proactive, as you say, to provide better education, to provide better services, to upgrade society, to provide tax credits where necessary.
M: It's a virtuous circle, and I think that virtuous circle needs to be completed.
INSKEEP: Interesting dilemma here, though - was raised in the Financial Times in a quote from one of your fellow CEOs, the CEO of the company that makes Massey Ferguson products. He basically says one thing that everyone seems to be missing here is that if an American company wants to expand its sales abroad - in Brazil, say - they're likely to build a factory in Brazil. They're going to put it close to the market for any number of economic and political reasons. It's not going to increase U.S. exports, necessarily.
M: We can't lose this country having a manufacturing-based hub. Sure, we'll build factories around the world, but the hub needs to stay here.
INSKEEP: You're saying we at least still need to be making a lot of things here, and making things - at least for the domestic market - at a greater rate than we do.
M: And increasing the exports from it as a result. And then you get to the next idea and the next idea, and you keep making it here - and the next idea. And it continues a cascade where the United States continues to show the world why the last 50, 70 years was not a fluke.
INSKEEP: Andrew Liveris is the author of "Make It in America," and he's the CEO of Dow. Thanks very much.
M: Steve, thank you. Pleasure talking to you.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's business news starts with the rising price of food.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: This has not been a major concern here in the U.S. yet, but restaurants here are feeling the impact. The Los Angeles Times reports today that McDonald's may raise some of its prices to deal with the increased cost of beef and other ingredients.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Welcome to the program.
MELODY BARNES: Thanks so much for having me, Steve. It's a pleasure to be with you this morning.
INSKEEP: Great. Glad you're here. I want to get right to an issue that may be a subject of intense debate tonight and after tonight. Many Republicans in Congress have argued that cutting spending, federal spending, and shrinking the federal deficit is the most important thing that they can do right now to help the economy. Are they right?
BARNES: And at the same time, we'll all remember that this is the president that appointed the fiscal commission. He's quite serious about getting our financial house in order. But we have to balance those two things so we don't end up in a hole that we found ourselves in when we walked into office two years ago.
INSKEEP: Do you have proposals that you think you can get through this current Congress, where Republicans are much stronger than they were?
BARNES: Job creation is a top priority for the entire country, so we have to talk about ways that we're going to create those jobs. And, in fact, if you look at the work that we did during the lame-duck session, people are already talking about growths in the economy. We did that in a bipartisan fashion, and we did that in a way that we can spur jobs.
INSKEEP: Although, what investments in infrastructure is the president likely to propose here?
BARNES: So he'll be building on the kinds of themes that he's been talking about consistently.
INSKEEP: If those things are important to do, is the president going to propose spending cuts to offset those spending increases, so the deficit doesn't get worse?
BARNES: Well, again, making sure that we've got our financial house in order, that we are strengthening our economy for the future is something that the president is very, very serious about. Again, because of the work that he asked the fiscal commission to do, that he's asking my colleague OMB Director Jack Lew to do, and to do that in a bipartisan fashion, that's going to be - those are the building blocks for where we want to go in the future.
INSKEEP: But are you saying that to essentially lay the groundwork to argue that the spending needs to remain high for a little while longer and just argue that you're serious about cutting it later, is that essentially the argument you're making?
BARNES: It's about walking and chewing gum at the same time. You know, building the plane while we're flying it. And we're going to have to do these things consistently and consecutively.
INSKEEP: But just - you say consecutively, just so I understand: Do you want to cut the deficit right now, which is what some Republicans would want - many Republicans would want? Or are you saying let's cut the deficit later, but we need to spend now?
BARNES: I don't think the president would have appointed the fiscal commission if he weren't serious about looking at ways that we could address the deficit.
INSKEEP: But it's a question of timing: Now or later?
BARNES: Well, I think we're all going to have to listen to what the president says tonight. But again, these are smart investments. We have to address our financial issues so that we can make these investments and move forward and make sure that our economy is competitive, and that we're creating jobs. That's going to be the president's number one priority.
INSKEEP: Just got about 30 seconds here. But Carol Browner, the president's climate advisor, is leaving. Bill Daley is the new chief of staff, who's seen as very pro-business. People look at that and see a reshuffling of the economic team to become more business-friendly. In a few seconds, is that what the president is doing?
BARNES: And we're excited about Bill Daley coming in place and helping to set the direction under the president's leadership, as we think about taking responsibility for our deficits and investing in what is going to make America stronger.
INSKEEP: OK. Thanks very much.
BARNES: Great. Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: Melody Barnes is director of President Obama's Domestic Policy Council.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
When President Obama talks about the federal budget tonight, he's likely to talk about federal investments, instead of federal spending. Republicans don't like that. Here's Senator Mitch McConnell on "Fox News Sunday."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY")
MITCH MCCONNELL: With all due respect to her Democratic friends, any time they want to spend they call it investment. So I think you will hear the president talk about investing a lot Tuesday night.
BEN ZIMMER: They can prime the public with the idea that whenever you hear that word investment, you should really be thinking spending.
INSKEEP: That's Ben Zimmer, who writes the On Language column for the New York Times magazine.
ZIMMER: Any sort of spending initiative can be looked at as investment, if you look at it through the right light. And so the opposing party - in this case, the Republicans - would like to strip that term away from spending initiatives, and leave it just with that bare, ugly word spending, which has gotten such a bad rap, so that any type of government spending needs to have a certain kind of framing to it in order to be acceptable.
INSKEEP: Many political debates come down to what you call something. A famous example of recent years came when Republicans rebranded the federal estate tax as the death tax. Now, in a time of big deficits, it may matter if you see your federal dollars at work as spending or an investment.
ZIMMER: If we're buying some new wardrobe, we might think, well, this is just an investment for my future - perhaps for getting a better job, perhaps for future prospects for dating. Nobody wants to be accused of simply spending without any reasonable basis for it. What counts as a reasonable basis for spending, of course, will depend on your point of view.
INSKEEP: That's Ben Zimmer, who writes the On Language column for the New York Times magazine. If you invest some time tonight, you have a chance to hear President Obama's State of the Union speech and the Republican response from Congressman Paul Ryan on many NPR stations.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Odds are that people in Hollywood are getting up early this morning. That's because Oscar nominations are announced today, continuing the frenzy of an awards season that includes red carpets, gown fittings and ad campaigns. Reporter Kim Masters is following all the hubbub and she spoke with Renee Montagne.
RENEE MONTAGNE: Let's start with best picture. Ten films will be nominated, and I'd like to get the speed prediction of all 10.
KIM MASTERS: All right. Here I go. "Social Network," "King's Speech," "Black Swan," "The Fighter," "The Kids Are All Right," "Inception," "Toy Story," "True Grit." The three in contention for two remaining slots - "127 Hours," "The Town," and "Winter's Bone."
MONTAGNE: OK, so there you go - 11 contenders anyway. What about a clear favorite? I mean I would have thought that "Social Network" would have been right there.
MASTERS: And you would have had a lot of company, but this past Saturday the Producers Guild gave out their awards, and they are pretty good predictors. So up until then it had been "Social Network" with this critics group and "Social Network" for the Globe. But Saturday night "The King's Speech" won with the producers, and they were the ones who were early pickers of "The Hurt Locker" when it was up against "Avatar." They were early pickers of "No Country for Old Men." They bat pretty good when it comes to predicting Oscars, so now the race is on its ear and it's a real horse race.
MONTAGNE: And does that horse race then include the star of "The King's Speech," Colin Firth?
MASTERS: I feel like Colin Firth had locked up best actor, you know, when I saw it in Toronto. It is the story of King George the VI reluctantly having to take the thrown on the eve of World War II. He has a stammer. We're going to hear a clip now in which he meets his speech therapist, a commoner played by Geoffery Rush, for the first time.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE KING'S SPEECH")
GEOFFREY RUSH: (as Lionel Logue) In here it's better if we're equals.
COLIN FIRTH: (as King George VI) If we were equals, I wouldn't be here. I'd be at - at home with my wife and no one would give a damn.
MASTERS: Colin Firth feels like the guy to beat in best actor.
MONTAGNE: Let's move on to best actress.
MASTERS: Well, the best actress contest seems to be held in the hands right now of Natalie Portman. She's with a new guy. She's got the cute little baby bump. She's running around town telling everyone how happy she is. She is in "The Black Swan," which is a movie that has confounded expectations, certainly in Hollywood. Strange movie made by Darren Aronofsky, who did "The Wrestler," about, you know, sort of a psycho-drama behind the scenes, production of "Swan Lake." And let's take a listen to what might be an Oscar-winning performance by Natalie Portman.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "BLACK SWAN")
VINCENT CASSEL: (as Thomas Leroy) I see you obsess, getting each and every move perfectly right, but I never see you lose yourself. All that discipline for what?
NATALIE PORTMAN: (as Nina Sayers) I just want to be perfect.
CASSEL: (as Thomas Leary) You what?
PORTMAN: (as Nina Sayers) Want to be perfect.
MASTERS: Wants to be perfect, might win.
MONTAGNE: Last question on this - there's, I mean, plenty more to talk about with the Oscars, but I gather there's an issue this year over whether a couple of performances will be recognized as starring or supporting roles.
MASTERS: And the other one is Lesley Manville, a small movie called "Another Year." She plays sort of a confused and apparently alcoholic friend of this very happy married couple. It's a great performance. Supporting or best actress, or simply left out of the race - we'll soon find out.
INSKEEP: That's Kim Masters of The Hollywood Reporter, also host of THE BUSINESS on member station KCRW. And we'll check back with Kim after the nominations are announced later this morning.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
The Oregon Legislature opens next week with an unusual power-sharing arrangement. Since the House is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, they have elected two Speakers of the House. Chris Lehman of the Northwest News Network reports that many in Oregon are optimistic this will lead to more collaborative politics.
CHRIS LEHMAN: Last November wasn't just good for Republicans in the U.S. House. The GOP wrestled control from the Democrats in 20 state legislative chambers. But in Oregon, Republicans couldn't make it over the hump. When all the results were tallied, the Oregon House came up even: 30 Democrats, 30 Republicans. That left the top Democrat and the top Republican with plenty of logistical details to work out, starting with what to call themselves.
BRUCE HANNA: Republican speaker, Democratic speaker. We've talked co-speaker. It is difficult. There's no script written for it.
LEHMAN: The two also divvied up premium office space and worked out a plan on who gets to hold the gavel. They'll trade off every other day, says Democrat Roblan.
ARNIE ROBLAN: We will make it so that at the end of the day, people who look at this session will say, wow. They pretty much did that right down the middle.
LEHMAN: During a recent organizational meeting of the Human Services Committee, Democratic co-chair Carolyn Tomei tried to reassure members that she and her Republican counterpart, Vic Gilliam, will get along just fine.
CAROLYN TOMEI: We will have a positive experience. And if you don't have a positive experience, talk to him about it.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
VIC GILLIAM: And so it begins.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
TOMEI: And so it begins.
LEHMAN: Tied legislative chambers aren't as rare as you might think. In fact, they're so common that the non-partisan National Conference of State Legislatures has someone who keeps track of them. Brenda Erickson says there's been at least one tied state chamber following every general election since 1984.
BRENDA ERICKSON: We always tell the legislators that they should view it as a challenge, and not as a dilemma.
LEHMAN: Erickson says lawmakers have developed several models to deal with a tie. Some, like the Oregon House, try to divide control as evenly as possible. Others give one party the reigns for the first half of the session, and then switch at the midpoint. And there's always this method.
ERICKSON: In Wyoming, way back in 1974, they actually did a coin toss to break the tie.
SAL ESQUIVEL: We have a great opportunity here to do one of two things.
LEHMAN: Oregon Republican Sal Esquivel sits on four committees and has leadership roles in three of them.
ESQUIVEL: We can either get nothing done, or we can get a lot done. Every vote that comes out of this committee and comes out of this House will be bi-partisan.
LEHMAN: For NPR News, I'm Chris Lehman in Salem, Oregon.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann set out on his snowshoes yesterday to get a taste Of the winter weather and sent this audio postcard from the Champlain Valley in New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRUNCHING FOOTSTEPS)
BRIAN MANN: I'm back in the woods now, under towering white pines. And down the sleep slope of this little esker here, I can see the frozen brook - kind of a white vein cutting through the woods. And that's what I'm going to follow out to Lake Champlain.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRUNCHING FOOTSTEPS)
MANN: One of the joys of days like this is that if you have the right gear, you can really be outdoors and really enjoy this cold which transforms everything. There's kind of a different sort of stillness. And even the snow takes on this dry crunchy texture that tells you that it's really, really cold.
(SOUNDBITE OF CRUNCHING FOOTSTEPS)
MANN: I'm passing a set of coyote tracks - he's also following the ice. And right here, there's actually a tiny patch of open water surrounded by dense little bird tracks. And this is where the birds have been pecking open a hole where they can drink.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHIRPING BIRDS)
MANN: For NPR News, I'm Brian Mann in Westport, New York.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
TP: You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and here are clips from three of the films nominated for Best Picture.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "TRUE GRIT")
M: (as Mattie Ross) Can we depart this afternoon?
M: (as Rooster Cogburn) We? You are not going. That is no part of it.
M: (as Mattie Ross) You have misjudged me if you think I am silly enough to give you $50 and watch you simply ride off.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE KING'S SPEECH")
M: (As King George VI) You've destroyed the happiness of my family, all for the sake of ensnaring a star patient you couldn't possibly hope to resist. It will be like mad King George the stammerer.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE "THE SOCIAL NETWORK")
M: (as Mark Zuckerberg) I need you.
M: (as Eduardo Saverin) I'm here for you.
M: (as Mark Zuckerberg) No, I need the algorithm used to rank chess players.
M: (as Eduardo Saverin) Are you OK?
M: (as Mark Zuckerberg) We're ranking girls.
M: (as Eduardo Saverin) You mean, other students?
M: (as Mark Zuckerberg) Yeah.
M: (as Eduardo Saverin) You think this is such a good idea?
M: (as Mark Zuckerberg) I need the algorithm.
M: (as Eduardo Saverin) All right.
M: (as Mark Zuckerberg) I need the algorithm.
INSKEEP: Kim, good morning.
KIM MASTERS: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: What are some of the other seven films up for Best Picture here - at least one or two that we should keep an eye on?
MASTERS: Ten films up for Best Picture.
INSKEEP: Right. Total.
MASTERS: You just heard three. The other seven are "Inception," "127 Hours," "The Fighter," "Black Swan," "Toy Story 3," "Winter's Bone" and "The Kids are All Right."
INSKEEP: You said "127 Hours." Is that a movie about the Oscar presentations?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MASTERS: It could be, but it's a movie that a lot of people didn't necessarily want to watch, about this hiker who cut his arm off to get - escape with his life. And it's made the list.
INSKEEP: Well, when you have 10 films - we've talked about this in previous years - you have room for a little bit more creativity in the films that happen to get in, I suppose.
MASTERS: Certainly. A film like "Winter's Bone," I'm sure they're celebrating this morning - a very small film that could enjoy some kind of a bounce from this nomination.
INSKEEP: What about best actor and best actress?
MASTERS: Best actor - we, of course, have Colin Firth leading the pack for "The King's Speech." Also, Javier Bardem in "Biutiful," Jesse Eisenberg "The Social Network," Jeff Bridges for "True Grit," and James Franco - once again, cutting off that arm - in "127 Hours."
INSKEEP: Well, of course, if you cut off your arm, you could - you earn an Oscar, I suppose.
MASTERS: You deserve recognition. Yeah.
INSKEEP: Could I just mention - well, I mentioned that we heard Jeff Bridges in that clip earlier. We heard him interacting with Hailee Steinfeld. She got nominated for Best Supporting Actress - teenager.
MASTERS: She did, indeed. She's 14 years old. This is, basically, her first big gig. And a lot of people thought she would - might be in the Best Actress category, since she's in every frame of the film. But they - because of her youth, they did put her in supporting, along with Amy Adams from "The Fighter," Helena Bonham Carter for "The King's Speech," Melissa Leo, a strong contender for "The Fighter," and Jacki Weaver for a movie called "Animal Kingdom" - that most people probably haven't heard of, and one of those movies that gets a boost from this kind of mention.
INSKEEP: How are people feeling, as they look at the nominations this morning, and as they anticipated the nominations in recent days? Are people in Hollywood feeling like they made a good year of movies?
MASTERS: You know, I think what's interesting this time is that they are - there is a group of strong contenders. A lot of them are commercial hits as well as, you know, relatively artistically successful, more or less. And we have a real horse race this year because, you know, up until now, it's been "Social Network," "Social Network" and more "Social Network" picking up Globes, picking up critics' recognition. But Saturday night, the Producers Guild, a strong predictor, gave it to "King's Speech," and we have a major horse race in the Best Picture category.
INSKEEP: Kim, thanks very much.
MASTERS: Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: Kim Masters hosts THE BUSINESS on member station KCRW, and she is also editor-at-large for the Hollywood Reporter, bringing us up to date on today's Oscar nominations.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Let's go, next, to Cairo, Egypt where anti-government demonstrations have broken out on the streets. This is the kind of thing that people watch very closely in the Arab world in the wake of a revolution in Tunisia. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is in Cairo, she's on the streets. Soraya, what have you been seeing?
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: The police have been lobbing tear gas and firing water cannons to break up the crowds. The crowds will run back and forth, periodically, I mean, you know, to, sort of, basically escape the gas, and then they'll run back, or push back into the square. And it's pretty spectacular in the sense that normally the police would be even more, shall we say, they'd be more like, in the business of cordoning off this sort of activity. And they've been actually allowing quite a bit of freedom to these demonstrators, today, who've been marching all across the city, demanding higher minimum wage, demanding presidential term limits, demanding an end to the state of emergency, and wanting more freedom.
INSKEEP: Now, when you say presidential term limits, you're talking about a country where Hosni Mubarek has been the president of Egypt, and an authoritarian president, for the most part, for three decades. That's got to be a demand that, that, that is unmistakable if you're in authority in Egypt right now.
SARHADDI NELSON: Absolutely. I mean, there is a presidential election next year, and I think what protestors are hoping is that, by this sort of demonstration, perhaps some sort of pressure could be brought to bear, to change the rules, to change the constitution, to make it so that President Mubarek cannot run again or cannot appoint a successor, as many have alleged he would be planning to do.
INSKEEP: Are people, in their conversations or in the signs they're holding, in the speeches they're giving, alluding to the revolution, the overthrow of an authoritarian government in Tunisia?
SARHADDI NELSON: Yes, they're using that as their inspiration. There are a lot of phrases and slogans that are being chanted, here, that refer to Tunisia and been telling them: dear friends, take heart, we well continue where you left off. And, as many protestors that I interviewed today, said, they are the largest - or Egypt is the largest Arab nation. They'd like to take up this mantle, they don't want it to die with Tunisia. And there certainly is a lot of inspiration today. The crowds were being told, by organizers, anyway - we don't have official estimates yet. But certainly, even visually, looking at them, they're much larger than anything that's been seen in years.
INSKEEP: Is there any coherent leadership of this demonstration?
SARHADDI NELSON: There isn't. I mean, you have some of the groups that have been leading protests here in recent years, people that have used Facebook, people that have been associated with noble laureates, Mr. ElBaradei(ph), they are out here helping organizing it. But they wanted to make a special point today, of not group's banners represented, or any slogans being chanted representing particular groups - Muslim Brotherhood, etc. They want this to be an Egyptian peoples' effort. And that id type of face they are presenting here today.
INSKEEP: Soraya, thanks very much for the update.
SARHADDI NELSON: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is on the streets of Cairo, Egypt where serious demonstrations have broken out today. And we'll bring you more as we learn it. This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
We've been spending time with new governors in our occasional series on the challenges they face. In Ohio it's the worst budget crisis the state has seen in generations. And Republican John Kasich has just months to deal with it.
INSKEEP: That's because for the past couple of years federal stimulus dollars helped make up for Ohio's falling state revenues. Now the stimulus money has stopped and the state is looking at deep cuts in spending. NPR's Don Gonyea paid a visit to the governor.
DON GONYEA: Even before he took office, John Kasich signaled a blunt approach in dealing with the deficit and public relations. This is from a speech to the Ohio Farm Bureau last month. He's talking about a favorite target of politicians everywhere, the so-called special interests.
Governor JOHN KASICH (Republican, Ohio): They think they're going to be able to carve out their little piece of pork. They think they're going to keep their snouts in that trough. If they do, you lose, we all lose. I'm not going to stand for it.
GONYEA: Already a deadline looms. The law requires a balanced budget. A proposed new spending plan to eliminate a projected $8 billion shortfall needs to be submitted by mid-March. Still, Kasich says this is what governing is all about. And in his inaugural address he seemed to relish the challenge.
Gov. KASICH: Get ready for an exciting time. Put on the seat belt, because we're going.
GONYEA: Kasich spent nine terms in the U.S. House, where he chaired the budget committee. After leaving Congress a decade ago, he went to work for the now-bankrupt investment firm Lehman Brothers. Kasich also once hosted a weekly show on the Fox News Channel.
He got elected with just 49 percent of the vote, ousting Democratic incumbent Ted Strickland. Candidate Kasich tapped into long-term economic anxiety in Ohio, where the jobless rate is now just below 10 percent but was in double digits for most 2009 and '10.
Ohio State University's Paul Beck says you have to go back to the 1930s to find a budget crisis so serious in the state.
Professor PAUL BECK (Ohio State University): So it's a real challenge. It would've been a big challenge for any governor. I think it's a big challenge for Governor Kasich in particular, because he's already said he isn't going to raise taxes.
GONYEA: The state of the economy, and nearly 400,000 lost manufacturing jobs in the past decade, have hurt revenues and driven up demand for services in Ohio. Governor Kasich says government can work better with less. As for what is on the chopping block...
Gov. KASICH: We look at everything. We look at privatization. We look at killing things that don't work. There's just no options that are off the table, except tax increases, because we can't stomach them.
GONYEA: Under scrutiny are aid to cities, funding for education, possibly privatizing the Ohio lottery or leasing out the Ohio turnpike. That's just a partial list. Kasich also thinks huge savings can be gotten through changes to the Medicaid. And he promises to take on public employee unions and their pension and benefit plans.
Gov. KASICH: And of course the need to have civil service reform, which is bankrupting a lot of our cities through things like binding arbitration.
GONYEA: The pushback has already begun.
Unidentified Woman: One Ohio...
Unidentified People: Now.
Unidentified Woman: One Ohio...
Unidentified People: Now.
GONYEA: About 300 people representing a coalition of groups, including unions, protested outside the state capitol recently. They argued that the cuts Kasich is considering will disproportionately hurt working people and the poor.
State Representative Bob Hagan is a Democrat from the blue collar city of Youngstown. On Kasich's approach to the budget he says...
State Representative BOB HAGAN (Democrat, Ohio): To the victor go the spoils, and I understand that.
GONYEA: Republicans control the Ohio House and Senate. Hagan says given the budget situation, it's wrong to continue to continue to give big tax breaks to higher income residents when they've benefitted so much from big tax cuts over the past decade. His message for the governor...
State Rep. HAGAN: I think he has to be reminded that he only got 49 percent of the vote. That's not quite a mandate. I really want him to understand that there are a lot of people that could really be hurt and devastated by this.
GONYEA: At a statehouse luncheon for Ohio lawmakers from both parties, Kasich asked Democrats to work with him on the budget. But he also stated a political reality.
Gov. KASICH: Let's just be honest. Many of you are not going to go for this budget we're going to do. OK? I got that. That's cool. Republicans are going to probably carry most of the load. I hope I'm going to be wrong.
Gov. KASICH: Kasich did say to lawmakers he'll never let political differences get personal. But that doesn't mean Ohio isn't in for some bruising political battles. And they begin right away.
Don Gonyea, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
A Virginia teenager is back at home after being held in Kuwait for more than a month. Gulet Mohammed and his lawyers claim his return was delayed because he was on the American no-fly list. The U.S. government refuses to say whether he or anybody else is on that list, or is not on that list, for that matter.
The no-fly list has grown in recent years. We do know that. And so have the numbers of people complaining. NPR's Jamie Tarabay reports on how large the list actually is.
JAMIE TARABAY: Gulet Mohammed still doesn't have confirmation he's on the no-fly list. But the fact the Kuwaitis tried to force him onto a flight to the U.S. and failed made the case for his lawyer, Gadeir Abbas.
Mr. GADEIR ABBAS (Attorney): At that point it was clear that it was the United States and not the Kuwaitis that were mainly responsible for his continued detention. It really simplified our legal argument.
TARABAY: A district court judge agreed and ordered Mohammed home. His lawyers are now suing the government and waiting to find out if he's on the list. Timothy Healy is director of the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains the list.
Mr. TIMOTHY HEALY (Director, Terrorist Screening Center): We don't confirm or deny whether you're on the watch list. And candidly, people just assume they are, and 99.4 percent of the time they're wrong.
TARABAY: Healy says there has to be credible intelligence for authorities to put someone on the list: the passenger is considered a threat to the plane, could be traveling somewhere to commit a terrorist act, or went to a terrorist camp.
The 99.4 percent of people he says are wrong to believe they're on the list are people who go through second screenings but continue on to their flights. The actual number of people on the no-fly list isn't as high as you might think.
Mr. HEALY: About ten thousand. And then the U.S. citizens on the no-fly list is even much smaller, between 500 and 1,000.
TARABAY: And since people aren't told they're on the list, most don't find out till they're at the airport. Ben Wizner is an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. He thinks traveling to Yemen, as Gulet Mohammed did, is a red flag that could get you on the list.
Mr. BOB WIZNER (American Civil Liberties Union): And I think that if the class of people on the no-fly list is going to be defined that broadly, it really underscores the need for a fair process to sort out who belongs on it and who doesn't.
TARABAY: The ACLU has sued on behalf of 17 people who found themselves on the list - all American citizens, some with family in the Middle East. One is a dog trainer in Chicago. Others are former members of the U.S. military.
Mr. WIZNER: The lawsuit doesn't challenge the government's right to have a list like this. The lawsuit says at a minimum you have to give that person some ability to object.
TARABAY: Right now the main way people can object is to go to the Department of Homeland Security website and file a complaint. Timothy Healy, from the Terrorist Screening Center, says the challenge is trying to balance civil liberties with security. He says the list is necessary and points to one example to show that it works.
Mr. HEALY: Faisal Shahzad.
TARABAY: Shahzad was a suspect in the botched car bomb attempt in the middle of New York's Times Square last May. He was able to purchase a ticket and board a plane to Dubai. Law enforcement agents pulled him off the plane just before it took off.
Mr. HEALY: The benefit of being able to stop him from traveling on a plane was the no-fly list.
TARABAY: But Shahzad was able to still able to board his flight. Douglas Laird, former Secret Service and now aviation consultant, says the system isn't perfect and would-be terrorists can get around it.
Mr. DOUGLAS LAIRD (Aviation Consultant): If the person is a professional, it's too easy to change an identity. So for that reason I wouldn't put an awful lot of faith in the system.
TARABAY: Those in favor of the list describe it as a useful tool in the arsenal of national security. But they also say it shouldn't be the only one.
Jamie Tarabay, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
In pro football all the attention is focused on the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers, who will meet in the Super Bowl a week from Sunday, on February 6th.
Sports commentator Frank Deford is more interested in one of the coaches whose team came up just short of making it to the big game.
FRANK DEFORD: The New York Jets may have lost Sunday, but whoever wins the Super Bowl, in many respects the most memorable character of this NFL season was the Jets roly-poly coach, Rex Ryan. And please, I'm not talking about the foot-fetish business.
It is Ryan's ebullience, his braggadocio, that makes him so unusual. Football coaches tend to be phlegmatic, even distant, personalities - far different from baseball or basketball coaches, who almost by definition must be open and engaging. Many baseball managers are out-and-out raconteurs. Dealing with the media is as much a part of their job as tacking up the lineup card, for they must confront the press every day in their dugout salon, banter, and at least appear to enjoy the intercourse.
Football coaches, by contrast, are more like CEOs. They have large staffs, and so much of their work is so private that it borders on the monastic - going to the darkened office alone before dawn, watching game film hours on end. Bill Belichick of the Patriots is, of course, Exhibit A. He and others of the best football coaches are often referred to as intellectual giants, even geniuses.
Coaches in other sports tend instead to be praised as mere strategists, leaders, good people persons.
There's been a tendency to mock Ryan as a big-mouth clown, perhaps all the more so that he's fat and garrulous. But I think his critics - most everybody except his players - have missed the point. Football players have changed. They're not the strong but silent, little varsity soldiers of gridiron lore.
They're brash, narcissistic show-offs. They literally beat their breasts. You may not like that. You may hate the dancing and prancing around in the end zone, but it sure is the way of the football world now. Why do you think these swaggerers wouldn't want someone whose personality matches their own as their boss?
The idea that something inflammatory Ryan or his surrogate players would say about the opposition before a game, that that would stir up the other team, is so childish. It is just a tired old newspaper staple that grown-up professional athletes in a brutal game are sleeping dogs who will suddenly get riled up at what their opponents say beforehand if someone only pins up a clipping on the bulletin board. Oh, come on.
Rather, Ryan was a positive influence on his own team. His players loved his attitude. They loved it that he didn't act like just another buttoned-up, standard-issue football coach.
Okay, the Jets got beat. But for the long term, I think the example of Rex Ryan will be influential - the football coach who has some life and humor to him, who is an extension of the modern player's own personality. He may be an exception now, but for the future he may well be the new model pro football coach.
MONTAGNE: The comments of Frank Deford, who comes to us every Wednesday from member station WSHU in Fairfield, Connecticut.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
The first former Guantanamo detainee to be tried in a civilian court was sentenced yesterday to life in prison. Ahmed Ghailani has been convicted of conspiring with members of al-Qaida to bomb two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. Two hundred twenty-four people were killed in those attacks, and thousands were wounded.
Ghailani's trial became a test case of trying Guantanamo detainees in a civilian court, and NPR's Dina Temple-Raston was at the sentencing.
DINA TEMPLE-RASTON: The courtroom was packed. On one side, there were what they called victim observers: three long benches of people who had either lost someone in the 1998 attacks or survived the bombings themselves. One after another, they stood to address Ahmed Ghailani directly. They told him about sons and daughters and spouses they had lost. They talked about the bombing in gruesome detail. And one after another, they asked Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan to impose a penalty so Ghailani would feel, in the words of one victim, the same losses they felt.
Ms. LAURA PITTER (Human Rights Watch): Well, the victims have a dramatic impact on the court.
TEMPLE-RASTON: That's Laura Pitter, a counterterrorism advisor at Human Rights Watch.
Ms. PITTER: They were able to attend the trial, and they voiced their very articulate views about why he should be sentenced very severely.
TEMPLE-RASTON: The families called for a life sentence without parole - the maximum the judge could impose. Ghailani's defense team, for its part, tried to convince the judge that there were extenuating circumstances. Specifically, they claimed that Ghailani was tortured while in CIA and U.S. government custody, and had been held so long at Guantanamo, he deserved some leniency in sentencing. The judge found that argument unconvincing.
Ghailani's crime was so horrendous, he said, even if he was tortured or mistreated, it didn't diminish the severity of his crime. The reason that's important: because for the first time, a U.S. judge has addressed how a court might deal with the issue of prisoners who claim to be victims of U.S. torture. Again, Laura Pitter.
Ms. PITTER: Even though torture was an issue in the trial, it was still dealt with in a way that Ghailani still was convicted of a very serious charge, and he was sentenced to a very serious sentence: life without the possibility of parole.
TEMPLE-RASTON: After the sentencing, I walked outside with Karen Greenberg. She's the executive director of New York University's Law and Security Center.
Ms. KAREN GREENBERG (Executive Director, New York University's Law and Security Center): I wasn't surprised by the sentence.
TEMPLE-RASTON: What does this mean for civilian trials for Guantanamo detainees?
Ms. GREENBERG: Taking it at a distance, in a colder light, this trial worked. It was efficient. It was on point. It was not overly dramatic. There was no grandstanding, and the jury found themselves able to come to a verdict.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Greenberg says while Ghailani's trial may not have been the slam dunk prosecutors had anticipated, the case did show that for Guantanamo detainees, civilian courts can work.
Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News, New York.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Americans grow up learning that you are innocent until proven guilty. That's not so, it seems, in Russia, where defendants go to trial expecting to be found guilty - they're just hoping for a lenient sentence - and that's why few people were surprised when the man who was once the richest in Russia was recently convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to jail for a second term.
NPR's David Greene is reporting on Russia's rule of law. And David, would you remind us who this man was.
DAVID GREENE: I can, Steve. He's 47 years old, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is probably modern Russia's most famous prisoner. He was once the head of a giant oil company. But he also became known for speaking out against the Kremlin and he was arrested and sent to prison in 2003.
Now, just as Khodorkovsky was about to complete that sentence, a judge last month convicted him of embezzlement and money laundering and said that he's going to stay locked up in Siberia until 2017.
Mr. PAVEL KHODORKOVSKY: It would be great if people here would pay attention to my dad's case.
GREENE: That's the voice of Khodorkovsky's 25-year-old son, Pavel. He lives in New York and he hasn't seen his father in seven years. I interviewed Pavel last year when I was visiting the U.S.
Mr. KHODORKOVSKY: My dad's case is a very good illustration of one simple fact: There is no rule of law, there is no working judicial system in Russia.
GREENE: And Steve, critics say the judicial system in the Khodorkovsky case worked exactly the way that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wanted it to. Just a few days before Khodorkovsky's new conviction, the prime minister said on television that a thief belongs in jail. It was almost as if he gave the judge some kind of signal, some kind of instruction for what he was supposed to do.
In this case, and really thousands of others all across Russia, judges seem to behave like they're an extension of law enforcement, really a partner with the government. It's a judge's job to convict rather than interfere.
Alena Ledeneva, she's a professor of Russian society and politics at University College in London - here's how she sees it.
Professor ALENA LEDENEVA (University College, London): It's not even the fact of political pressure from above, but is pressure from within. Within the judiciary you've got this sense of dependency, that your career as a judge depends on your compliance with the way the system works.
GREENE: Many Russians, she said, have no faith in the system. They assume that many judges are corrupt or will just side with the most powerful person in the room.
Prof. LEDENEVA: People somehow do not even expect otherwise.
GREENE: Consider these numbers: According to the Russian Supreme Court, of nearly 800,000 criminal defendants brought into federal courts during the first nine months of last year, 99.3% were convicted.
(Soundbite of snowmobile)
GREENE: Let's look at the story of one defendant. His name is Andrei Grigoryev and he works as a federal forest ranger. The 43-year-old may have a small frame but he's a larger presence when he's in uniform, slicing through the landscape on a snowmobile. I met him out in the frozen forest near Zaraysk, a town two hours southeast of Moscow.
Mr. ANDREI GRIGORYEV: (Speaking Russian)
GREENE: He told me how he became tangled in the court system a year ago. He got this call that a group of hunters on snowmobiles were breaking the law, going after foxes and deer in a wildlife preserve near here. At first they fled, but then they turned and came after the officer.
Mr. GRIGORYEV: (Through translator) One of their snowmobiles knocked me down, hitting me in my right leg. I fell down in the snow. Another snowmobile sped by without stopping and another rushed me. I had a rifle with me. I fired a warning shot in the air so he wouldn't come and knock me down again.
GREENE: Finally, Grigoryev detained the hunting party, which included a local politician from Prime Minister Putin's United Russia Party. You're messing with the wrong bunch, they told him. And sure enough, by night's end the forest ranger was the one being arrested. The charge: abuse of power.
Mr. GRIGORYEV: (Through translator) The government investigator told me, my lawyer, and the witnesses, you guys must not mess around. Very important people are interested in the case and want to put Andrei Grigoryev in prison.
GREENE: The prosecutors, the government investigator, and that politician all refuse to be interviewed. One of the hunters, Dmitri Karpeyenkov, did give his version of events.
Mr. DMITRI KARPEYENKOV: (Speaking Russian)
GREENE: We were unarmed, just riding our snowmobiles, he said. He added that his group didn't do any killing, so the forest ranger must have planted carcasses as evidence. Karpeyenkov said he and his friends have not interfered with this trial in any way.
(Soundbite of metal clanging)
GREENE: There are two sides to this story. Yet wherever the truth lies, Russia's court system is all but certain to convict Andrei Grigoryev. That's why he's been spending a lot of time here in his home, bracing his family for the worst. The trial opens Friday and he's facing up to four to 10 years in jail. He'd be leaving behind his wife, their 11-year-old daughter and his parents, who all live together.
His wife, Svetlana, speaks a little English, and she wrote out a message she wanted to read.
Ms. SVETLANA GRIGORYEV: I think about it every day. I, my family, our daughter, live in this shock for almost one year. I hope for the justice to our family. I am sure that Andrei, my husband, is innocent.
INSKEEP: That's Svetlana Grigoryev, whose husband Andrei is facing a likely prison sentence in Russia. She spoke with our colleague, David Greene, who remains on the line.
And David, when you go and talk with Russian judges, what do they say about how the system works?
GREENE: It's not really easy to get them on the phone, as you can imagine, Steve. But I did speak to one for a long time. He came into our office: Alexander Merezhko(ph). He served for 19 years on a court in Moscow and he talks about this situation in a very sad way. I mean, he says that many judges are not bad people. They don't have it out for defendants, but they do feel like they're in this system. They have this mindset that, as he put it, a court is a law enforcement body, it's not a institution that's there to protect citizens.
So it's very different than what we're used to, certainly, in the United States. And I should say that this judge, Alexander Merezhko, he tried to be fair-minded back in 2003, 2004. His superiors started filing complaints about him. They said he was being too lenient, he was acquitting too many people, and he was fired.
INSKEEP: And as a reminder also, David Greene, you've got a country there with elections, with a president, with a prime minister. They can all say they're elected, but it's a little different than the way we would imagine democracy.
GREENE: I mean, a lot of European countries, the United States likes to paint Russia as, you know, a country with some problems but moving closer to democracy. But I do think this is a reminder that there are some fundamental ways that it's very different.
I mean, just after the Soviet collapsed, Steve, there was a movement to really make the judicial system here more independent. But under Vladimir Putin's rule, when he became president, he's now prime minister, you know, there's much more centralized authority, that the government was more powerful and the judiciary sort of fell in line with that.
Now, I should say that President Dmitry Medvedev has spoken very openly about this problem. I mean, he says it's a grave concern that people don't have faith in the courts. He admits that there is pressure on the courts from government officials, and he says he's going to try to find a way to give the courts their rightful place in Russian society, but he certainly hasn't given any indication when he'll actually be able to do that.
INSKEEP: David, thanks very much as always.
GREENE: Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: And impressive to hear you speaking Russian.
NPR's David Greene in Moscow.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
For American carmakers, China has been bright spot. Last year, General Motors sold more cars in China than it did in the U.S. But all those car sales have become a headache for Beijing. In one episode last summer, there was a 60 mile nine-day traffic jam outside the capital. City officials are now trying to reduce the number of cars on the road. Today they are holding their first ever license plate lottery.
NPR's Louisa Lim reports.
LOUISA LIM: I'm sitting in a traffic jam again, which is pretty much a daily occurrence for many Beijing residents. In fact, Beijing has spent, on average, 62 minutes every day on their rush hour commutes. IBM even helpfully did a survey of global commuter pain - this ranked Beijing, along with Mexico City, as having the world's worst traffic. Now, however, Beijing authorities have taken action, limiting the number of new cars on the road and not everybody's happy about that.
Ms. ELLA LEE: For me, I really hate this kind of limit. I hate it because I'm the kind of person never win the lottery. So I'm very worried, actually.
LIM: Ella Lee is a smart 20-something who works for a Western company. She has her eye on a BMW Series One. But she can't buy her dream car until she wins the license plate lottery. Beijing is only issuing 240,000 plates this year, less than a third the number issued last year.
(Soundbite of music)
LIM: That means Beijing's car salesrooms are ominously quiet. For Chen Xiaojun, who sells Chinese-made cars, mostly a minor brand called Haima, it's a disaster.
Mr. CHEN XIAOJUN (Car salesman): (Foreign language spoken) (Through Translator) In the past we sold 50 cars a month. Now we can probably only sell 10. We've already laid off three employees. Now we're wondering if we can continue in this business. We probably make less money than we would farming the land.
LIM: Insiders estimate about 100 Beijing car dealers will close down, mostly lower-end and domestic brands. The worst off are second-hand car dealers like Zhou Mingbing.
Mr. ZHOU MINGBING (Car dealer): (Foreign language spoken) (Through Translator) It's a huge attack for the second-hand car industry. It's like an eight magnitude earthquake. For one month we haven't earned a single penny. We just sit here waiting all day.
Unidentified Woman #1: (Foreign language spoken)
LIM: When the policy was announced at three o'clock one afternoon just before Christmas, it caused a frenzy. Would-be car buyers had until midnight that day to beat the deadline, and they flocked to dealerships, buying up anything they could lay their hands on. China's car market had been the world's fastest growing, with 47 percent growth two years ago. But Beijing's curbs coincide with the withdrawal of government stimulus measures to boost car sales.
CLSA's car analyst, Scott Laprise, says cars sales are coming down to earth with a bump.
Mr. SCOTT LAPRISE (Car analyst, CLSA): Well, it is a very big deal. We've come off of 40, then 30, and 30 percent growth. We're forecasting 13; we've been forecasting this for about a year and a half. So we have been expecting these policies to cool down. So does this impact on domestic carmakers and domestic car dealers that have been adding at a furious pace? It's not good news.
Unidentified Woman #2: (Foreign language spoken)
LIM: Today's first ever license plate lottery was broadcast live online. Only one in 10 applicants got lucky, and as predicted, Ella Lee was not among them. She doubts the new system will work.
Ms. LEE: I don't think this will effectively control Beijing auto situation. Many people, they are not planning to buy a car, but as long as you give this policy, many people think, oh, it's getting hard now and I have to be in line.
LIM: People watching the lottery online were critical of the process. Some even offered to sell their own cars to the losers, heralding the birth of a possible new black market.
One industry is benefiting from all this, the rental car industry. Anecdotal reports say some rental agencies have seen business skyrocket by 70 percent. Quotas or not, Beijing's days of gridlock look set to continue.
Louisa Lim, NPR News, Beijing.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
President Obama told the nation last night, with the economy moving out of crisis, it's time to refocus. He says he wants to look to the future.
MONTAGNE: In a time of big deficits, the president called for spending cuts, but also called for investments to make America more competitive.
We have coverage throughout our program, and we begin with NPR's Mara Liasson.
MARA LIASSON: Last night, Mr. Obama reached across the aisle, just like the dozens of lawmakers who sat with members of the other party. We will move forward together, the president said, or not at all. He delivered an optimistic vision of America's economic future, never once mentioning the stubbornly high unemployment rate. Instead, he described an economy two years after the recession, by noting the stock market and corporate profits had come roaring back. Now, he said, it's time to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.
President BARACK OBAMA: We have to make America the best place on Earth to do business. We need to take responsibility for our deficit and reform our government. That's how our people will prosper. That's how we'll win the future.
(Soundbite of applause)
LIASSON: Many Americans feel the country is in decline and the president struck a nationalistic note, pointing out that China and India educate their children earlier and longer, with more emphasis on math and science. He called for new government-led investment in technology, education and basic research, so that new jobs and industries take root in the U.S., not somewhere else.
President OBAMA: China's building faster trains and newer airports. Meanwhile, when our own engineers graded our nation's infrastructure, they gave us a D. We have to do better.
LIASSON: The president said he'd pay for new investments in areas like clean energy by getting rid of tax breaks for oil companies. But he also offered business an olive branch, a plan to bring down U.S. corporate tax rates, currently the highest in the world.
President OBAMA: So tonight I'm asking Democrats and Republicans to simplify the system. Get rid of the loopholes. Level the playing field. And use the savings to lower the corporate tax rate for the first time in 25 years without adding to our deficit.
(Soundbite of applause)
President OBAMA: It can be done.
LIASSON: And the president reached out to his Republican opponents on healthcare, saying he'd be happy to work with them to improve the law, by reigning in frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits, for instance. But he defended the law that House Republicans have already voted to repeal, painting them as preoccupied with the past.
(Soundbite of applause)
President OBAMA: So I say to this chamber tonight, instead of refighting the battles of the last two years, let's fix what needs fixing and let's move forward.
(Soundbite of applause)
LIASSON: The president also promised to develop a proposal to reorganize the federal government and make it more efficient.
President OBAMA: Then there's my favorite example: The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they're in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they're in saltwater.
(Soundbite of laughter)
President OBAMA: I hear it gets even more complicated once they're smoked.
(Soundbite of laughter)
LIASSON: He also promised to veto any bill with earmarks in it - sparking an immediate intramural fight with his own Democrats in Congress. And he offered his opening gambit in the big fight with Republicans over spending. They want to return to 2008 levels. The president offered a five-year freeze at 2010 levels. He said that would reduce the deficit and make room for investments.
White House aides say they're happy to have the contrast between what they call the president's thoughtful, targeted approach and the Republicans deep across-the-board cuts.
President OBAMA: Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may make you feel like you're flying high at first, but it won't take long before you feel the impact.
LIASSON: This argument over the size and role of government will preoccupy both parties all the way through the next presidential election. But Mr. Obama was careful not to be too specific about controversial subjects, like the deficit. Maybe he was feeling safer now that the economy and his own poll numbers have improved a bit. But he did acknowledge that his proposed freeze was just a down-payment on real deficit reduction.
President OBAMA: Most of the cuts and savings I proposed only address annual domestic spending, which represents a little more than 12 percent of our budget. To make further progress we have to stop pretending that cutting this kind of spending alone will be enough. It won't.
LIASSON: Real deficit reduction, the president said, will have to include cuts in health care, tax breaks, Medicare and Medicaid. White House aides promise more details in his budget due out in mid February.
In the State of the Union address, the president began to tell a new story about American competitiveness and jobs. Now he has to follow it up over the next two years, as he works to find areas of compromise with the Republicans and tries to convince voters that he has a plan to make America number one again.
Mara Liasson, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
After Mr. Obama finished his speech, lawmakers filed out of the House chamber and into Statuary Hall, where the press corps awaited.
NPR's Andrea Seabrook was among them and got reaction to the president's remarks.
ANDREA SEABROOK: It was Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger's first State of the Union.
Representative ADAM KINZINGER (Republican, Illinois): You know, this is something I've seen since I was a kid, and you always wonder what it would be like to be there, and then next thing you know, you hear the most famous line -you know, Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States - and you realize this is something that's happened hundreds of years before me and it'll continue a hundred years after.
SEABROOK: Kinzinger is one of the giant freshman class of new Republicans in the House. And like many in his party, one word in the president's speech caught his ear.
Rep. KINZINGER: You know, the code word's investment, which I think really means more spending. It's just a nice way to say it.
LIASSON: Kinzinger said Republicans won't let that nice word draw them into more deficit spending.
Oregon Democrat Earl Blumenauer wanted to hear a bit more depth from the president.
Representative EARL BLUMENAUER (Democrat, Oregon): I was a little concerned that we were really shy on details.
SEABROOK: Blumenauer is a strong advocate of public transportation and infrastructure renewal. He was glad Mr. Obama said the country needs to invest in those things, but Blumenauer is not sure how exactly the president is going to do that.
Mr. BLUMENAUER: With a five-year freeze on domestic spending and not doing it on the backs of vulnerable people, that to me is - is a bit of a stretch.
SEABROOK: Another one of those freshmen Republicans, Bill Huizenga of Michigan, was actually surprised to hear something he really liked in the State of the Union address, the part about making the tax code more fair.
Representative BILL HUIZENGA (Republican, Michigan): Closing some of those loopholes and really lowering the corporate tax rate - that, I think, is a positive thing. So the question is, is does it go far enough, fast enough - and from where I was sitting, the answer's no, but it's a good start.
SEABROOK: And members of both parties said they were inspired by one sentence in particular: We do big things in this country. Ohio's Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown loved it.
Senator SHERROD BROWN (Democrat, Ohio): That kind of call to our better side we don't have often enough from our leaders. We know how to out-compete and out-innovate anybody in the world, but we haven't been called to that standard in many years, and I think tonight the president did it and it's our obligation to move forward.
SEABROOK: Now, there was something lawmakers were reacting to last night other than the president's speech: themselves. Specifically, their seating arrangement. Many members of Congress paired up with someone from the opposite party in a show of bipartisan goodwill, but not everyone had a date and not everyone thought it was such a big deal.
Take California Democrat Brad Sherman.
Representative BRAD SHERMAN (Democrat, California): It's not a new experience to sit next to a Republican. It's not like they're from Mars or Uranus. Sitting next to a Republican is pretty much like sitting.
SEABROOK: And House freshman Republican Allen West of Florida thinks they should go back to sitting by party.
Representative ALLEN WEST (Republican, Florida): You know, we can talk about the Kumbaya moment, but the bottom line, as the president says, we're all Americans. We can have spirited debate, but at the end of the day we want what's best for this country. And just, you know, the gimmicks of the romper room sit-together, that has nothing to do with truly who we are.
SEABROOK: But Ohio's Republican Senator Rob Portman liked sitting with the others from Ohio, regardless of their party.
Senator ROB PORTMAN (Republican, Ohio): I thought it was great. I think it resulted in fewer standing ovations too, which is probably good, because we were more serious and maybe more focused on standing when appropriate but not just doing it on a partisan basis.
SEABROOK: Georgia Democrat John Lewis agreed.
Representative JOHN LEWIS (Democrat, Georgia): It meant a great deal. I've been here 24 years and I've never seen it like this before. The members felt good about what they were doing. And it's got to have an impact.
SEABROOK: Lewis said simply: We're human, we have feelings.
Andrea Seabrook, NPR News, the Capitol.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Let's move from Ohio's economy to the world economy. Political and business leaders from around the world have gathered this week at a Swiss ski resort, Davos, for the annual World Economic Forum. The forum opened today and will be looking at issues like world trade, currency rates, government debt, and inflation.
We called economist Nariman Behravesh, who's one of the people attending.
What is happening at Davos? Exactly how does it work?
Mr. NARIMAN BEHRAVESH (Economist, Global Insight): Davos works on a number of different levels. At one level you have the public meetings, panel discussions. And while those are interesting enough, that's really not where the substantive discussions take place. A lot of the very interesting discussions are in the private meetings and dinners and lunches between corporate leaders and politicians, between politicians and politicians, and sometimes there's actually progress made on some tricky issues. I think that in the end, those one on ones, those bilateral discussions, as they're called here, is where a lot of the progress is made.
INSKEEP: Can you think of something from a past year that happened that you realize six months later, nine months later, even a year and a half later, that that was a meeting or that was a face-to-face that may have really made a difference in the world economy?
Mr. BEHRAVESH: I think it's a little hard to tell on some of this stuff. But stuff that's come out subsequently, there were certainly discussions between, say the Israelis and the Palestinians in the mid-1990s, that opened some doors. There've been discussions on the financial crisis a couple of years ago in terms of bank regulation and so forth. But at the time it's very hard to tell because, you know, a lot of those meetings are very, very private.
INSKEEP: Would I be stepping too far to compare this to the Academy Awards for global leaders and financial exports, I mean not that there are awards handed out, but everybody steps out on the red carpet, everybody gets to be seen, everybody looks at everybody else being seen, that sort of thing?
Mr. BEHRAVESH: That very much is one level of this conference. But I think the reason why a lot of CEOs and politicians come here, but especially CEOs, is to sort of to take the temperature of other CEOs, if you will, to just get a sense of are we making the right business decisions here?
INSKEEP: There's been some attention to the sheer numbers of people the different countries are sending. What do you make of the fact that China and India are sending bigger delegations than they have in the past while the United States is sending a smaller delegation, perhaps because it would appear unseemly at a time of high unemployment in the U.S. to have a lot of officials hanging around a ski resort?
Mr. BEHRAVESH: I think there's a lot of symbolism to that that is not backed by substance. And by that I mean that, certainly the quality of the people from the U.S. coming here, still quite high. American business people and European business people want to connect with their Chinese and Indian counterpart, and that's very important. I mean, I think everybody understands that that's where the growth is going to be.
INSKEEP: Been an awful lot of anxiety in the United States, as I'm sure you know very well, about supposed American decline and an awful lot of discussion of a rising China, rising India, changing world order. That's the public discussion. What do you hear when you're in private with other executives, CEOs, and anybody else you may be able to talk with?
Mr. BEHRAVESH: I think a lot of the business leaders are much more interested in the opportunities that China forts the growing market there. What's they are most concerned about are the kind of barriers that China might be putting in place or has put in place, that would make that business difficult. Will they have access to China's and India's markets? Rather than somehow or other that China is going to catch up with the U.S. or India is going to catch up with the U.S. I think that's less on the radar screen for a lot of the business leaders.
INSKEEP: And why is that?
Mr. BEHRAVESH: Well, I think that their view of the world is, if China grows it'll benefit everybody. You know, the growing Chinese consumer market will be very good for U.S. businesses and U.S. employment in the end; for the Boeings of this world, for example, the Microsoft of this world, as will the workers in those companies. So I mean, they view this mostly as a positive thing.
INSKEEP: Nariman Behravesh is chief economist at IHS Global Insight.
Thanks very much.
Mr. BEHRAVESH: My pleasure.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
NPR's starts with another Toyota recall.
(Soundbite of music)
Toyota says it's recalling more than 1.7 million vehicles around the world for various defects, many involving fuel leakage. In the U.S., it's the Lexus models. About a quarter million of those luxury cars from 2006 through 2009 are being recalled. This latest, brings the number of Toyota recalls to nearly 16 million vehicles in just over a year.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Sixteen million vehicles. That's a number that actually exceeds the total number of vehicles sold by all automakers in the United States in a year.
New job offers are coming in for a man who was fired on Monday from a Chevy dealership in suburban Chicago. The man was dismissed from his sales job for wearing a Green Bay Packers tie to work the day after the Packers beat his hometown Chicago Bears to advance to the Super Bowl.
NPR's David Schaper reports.
DAVID SCHAPER: Maybe da message here is don't mess with da Bears at work in Chicago. No one at Webb Chevrolet in suburban Oak Lawn, Illinois would comment for this story, but general manager Jerry Roberts told other news outlets he did fire salesman John Stone for continuing to wear a green and yellow Green Bay Packers' tie after he asked Stone five times to take it off.
Roberts reportedly said the tie salted the wounds of potential customers who are Bears fans, and it undermined an advertising campaign the dealership has with the Bears.
But can you really legally be fired for wearing a tie supporting the rival of the boss's favorite team?
Professor RANDY SCHMIDT (University of Chicago Law School): Unfortunately, the short answer is yes, you can.
SCHAPER: Randy Schmidt is an expert in employment law at the University of Chicago's Law School.
Prof. SCHMIDT: The law doesn't protect you in terms of sports alliances. It protects you from other things, but not from that.
SCHAPER: Those other things include religion, race, age, sex, national origin, et cetera. Now, many teams' fans describe their devotion in religious terms, but Schmidt doubts the courts would see it that way. The fired salesman is coming out of this okay, though. He's already being offered a job at a rival Chevrolet dealership.
David Schaper, NPR News, Chicago.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And today's last word in business is solar powered pants.
The Silver Lining clothing company has developed a fashion line that integrates solar panels into its fabrics. Green fashionistas will be able to charge a mobile device by plugging it into a pocket of these loose fitting, striped cargo pants. Which work as long as you're sitting in the sun, I guess. But solar powered fashion is not cheap. The pants cost about $920 per pair.
And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
President Obama took part in an American tradition last night: the State of the Union Address. For years now, no matter who's president, MORNING EDITION has had a tradition of its own: checking the president's facts.
MONTAGNE: It's just one of several reports we'll hear throughout the program. NPR correspondents joined us to analyze a speech in which President Obama promoted his ideas to grow the economy.
President BARACK OBAMA: We are poised for progress. Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again.
MONTAGNE: NPR's John Ydstie covers the economy.
And, John, is the worst behind us?
JOHN YDSTIE: Well, the worst probably is behind us, but job growth is still very disappointing. And that was very much on the president's mind last night.
MONTAGNE: What was the president proposing to do to create more jobs?
YDSTIE: Well, a lot of the focus was on things that he's talked about before, including government investment in clean energy industries, in repairing infrastructure, and in things like high-speed rail. Now, those things cost money, and, of course, we're running big budget deficits. But he says he'll pay for them, and we'll see how he does that when he releases his budget in a couple of weeks.
One thing he says he will do is end subsidies for oil companies and direct that money to energy sources of the future.
MONTAGNE: And the president did have some ambitious goals on renewable energy.
Pres. OBAMA: With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with bio-fuels and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.
(Soundbite of applause)
MONTAGNE: NPR's Elizabeth Shogren covers energy, and Elizabeth is here with us.
Tell us: How far is the U.S. from that goal now?
ELIZABETH SHOGREN: Well, the new electric cars are just starting to come out. The Chevy Volt will have - says they'll bring out 45,000 in 2012. That's a long way from the million cars that the president's talking about.
He also talked about bringing out clean electricity, and he included a lot of different sources of energy in that, even natural gas and what he called clean coal. He wants to strive for a goal of 80 percent by 2035. And that's a very ambitious goal, especially because he's going to get a lot of pushback from Republicans in Congress.
MONTAGNE: Ambitious to the point where you would suggest it's not doable.
SHOGREN: Not with this Congress.
MONTAGNE: Thank you, Elizabeth.
To create jobs, the president also argued that there needs to be more focus on education. And he pointed to his big education initiative.
Pres. OBAMA: Race to the Top is the most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation. For less than one percent of what we spend on education each year, it has led over 40 states to raise their standards for teaching and learning.
MONTAGNE: Claudio Sanchez covers education.
How successful, Claudio, has Race to the Top been so far?
CLAUDIO SANCHEZ: It's a mixed record. Remember that the money for Race to the Top - about four and a half billion dollars - only went to 11 states and the District of Columbia. They were the winners of a competition that has turned out to be a big carrot at the end of a stick because to get this money, the winners had to agree to some pretty prescriptive ideas: closing down struggling schools, adopting new tests tied to rigorous standards.
The one area in which the president has found a great deal of Republican support is in his efforts to improve the quality of the nation's teachers, because of his willingness to take on the teachers' unions on issues like merit pay, tying teacher evaluation to students' performance - including test scores.
MONTAGNE: And the president also spoke of infrastructure projects, such as high-speed rail and expanding to most of the population high-speed Internet.
John Ydstie, let's bring you back in. Investment was a big theme of this State of the Union speech. In the official Republican rebuttal, Congressman Paul Ryan had this to say about that.
Representative PAUL RYAN (Republican, Wisconsin): Since taking office, President Obama has signed into law spending increases of nearly 25 percent for domestic government agencies, an 84 percent increase when you include the failed stimulus. All of this new government spending was sold as investment. Yet after two years, the unemployment rate remains above nine percent, and government has added over $3 trillion to our debt.
MONTAGNE: A lot of numbers there. But, John Ydstie, Congressman Ryan's assessment, is it correct?
YDSTIE: Well, it's certainly an assessment many Republicans share. And there's no doubt that President Obama has presided over massive increases in spending, in order to stimulate the economy and keep it from slipping back into recession. Whether that's a failed stimulus or not is arguable, certainly.
The economy is growing now. And I think economists of both persuasions agree that the stimulus spending played a big role in keeping the economy from sliding back into recession.
MONTAGNE: And the president did speak about something many Americans are concerned about: The trillion-dollar budget deficits and what he is going to do about it.
Pres. OBAMA: So tonight, I am proposing that starting this year, we freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years.
(Soundbite of applause)
Pres. OBAMA: Now, this would reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade, and will bring discretionary spending to the lowest share of our economy since Dwight Eisenhower was president.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Scott Horsley is with us in the studio, as well.
And how far will that freeze go in reducing the deficit?
SCOTT HORSLEY: Not very far. The president himself calls this merely a down payment on the kind of stats that would be needed to really address the red ink. We're talking, remember, not about the big entitlement programs, Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare. We're talking not about anything that has to do with national security. So it's really just a sliver of the overall federal budget that would even be affected by this freeze. We should say, too, that the president proposed a three-year freeze last year, and Congress never even got around to passing a budget.
MONTAGNE: And President Obama also mentioned his bipartisan fiscal commission, something he created to tackle the national debt, to offer some suggestions. Has he endorsed any of their really quite tough and austere recommendations?
HORSLEY: Yeah. The commission's recommendations really get to the heart of where the budget deficits are coming from. And the president has not endorsed the overall blueprint that the commission came out with, which includes big spending cuts and also tax increases. But what he does say is he likes their sort of holistic approach, which is that everything has to be on the table.
MONTAGNE: Let's bring in Julie Rovner, who covers health care. Here's what the president had to say about its effect on the deficit.
Pres. OBAMA: The health insurance law we passed last year will slow these rising costs, which is part of the reason that nonpartisan economists have said that repealing the health care law would add a quarter of a trillion dollars to our deficit. Still, I'm willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs, including one that Republicans suggested last year: medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits.
(Soundbite of applause)
MONTAGNE: Julie, talk to us about what he's just said.
JULIE ROVNER: Well, first of all, on his claim that it's a quarter of a trillion dollars to repeal the health care law, that is pretty close to what the Congressional Budget Office said. They actually - the number is $230 billion over 10 years. On medical malpractice reform, it's interesting - what the fact sheet the White House put out said is that the president supports state laws. The - of course, the Republicans in Congress want to do federal caps on damages. But even if they were to come together, that's really a tiny, tiny percentage of health care spending. So that wouldn't do very much to bring down health care costs, even if they could come to some kind of an agreement.
MONTAGNE: Julie, thank you.
In this State of the Union speech, the president spent just a few minutes on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. NPR's Tom Gjelten covers foreign policy. And Tom, what do you think accounts for so little space given to these engagements that are so costly in lives and treasure?
TOM GJELTEN: Well, Renee, I think it's because people mainly want to know when those wars will be over and when U.S. troops will be coming home, and there's not a lot of good news to report there. President Obama said the war in Iraq is coming to an end, but the political situation there is still unstable. In Afghanistan, the president said troops will begin to come home next summer, but he also said there's a lot of work still to do there, and I'm not sure Americans really want to be reminded of that.
MONTAGNE: Tom, thank you, and to all our NPR correspondents for joining us: Tom Gjelten, Julie Rovner, Scott Horsley, Elizabeth Shogren, Claudio Sanchez, John Ydstie, thank you very much.
INSKEEP: We've done this every year since 2005. President Bush was president then, President Obama now. Each year, the State of the Union speech is fact-checked as one part of our coverage throughout the morning of the speech.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Two events took place in China today that speak to the ways the Internet is forcing the government there to be accountable. First, the son of a senior police chief went on trial, accused of killing a young woman while he was driving drunk. Second, the premier of China urged Chinese citizens to voice their criticisms of the government and to speak out about injustice. While the Communist Party still rules China very firmly as a one-party state, NPR's Rob Gifford reports that the Internet is bringing change.
ROB GIFFORD: In October, Li Qiming, the son of a senior police official in the northern town of Baoding, drove his car, under the influence of alcohol, into two young women, killing one of them. As a crowd gathered and tried to detain him, the young man uttered the now infamous words: Sue me if you dare. My father is Li Gang.
For most of Chinese history, that would have been that. But in the early 21st century, with 450 million Chinese people now online, the story and photos of the incident spread like wildfire on the Internet.
(Soundbite of music)
Unidentified Group: (Singing in foreign language)
GIFFORD: The event even spawned a song, mocking Li Qiming. My father is Li Gang, it says. I don't need to worry about killing anyone with my car. David Bandurski of the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong says newspapers and magazines are still doing the best reporting in China. But for amplification, there's nothing like the Internet.
Mr. DAVID BANDURSKI (China Media Project, University of Hong Kong): Without the Internet, many of these stories would disappear. It's the Internet that's turning it into a national topic of discussion.
GIFFORD: And national it has been. The Internet coverage forced Li Gang himself onto national television to give a tearful apology. Outrage at corruption in China is now all over the Internet, but one site has, more than others, been at the forefront of trying to keep Communist Party officials accountable. It's called 703804.com, and it's based in the southeastern city of Wenzhou.
(Soundbite of music)
Unidentified Group: (Singing in foreign language)
GIFFORD: 703804.com hosts a mix of music and talk and social networking. It's most important section, though, is the one that allows local people to post details of local problems, including the names of corrupt local officials. The site was closed down dozens of times until a few years ago, when its founder, Ye Zhe, was approached by local government leaders. Ye Zhe says they proposed letting the website stay open in return for toning down some of the criticism.
Mr. YE ZHE (Founder, 703804.com): (Through translator) Our website became, shall we say, more disciplined, and the government became more tolerant. Now I think we can say that Internet supervision of the government in Wenzhou and government supervision of the Internet have reached what you might call a delicate balance.
GIFFORD: That has led some Chinese people to call 703804 a Chinese WikiLeaks. Ye Zhe laughs off the comparison, but gives examples of recent revelations on his website, such as a senior Communist Party official in Wenzhou who fled to France to avoid allegations of corruption. Despite its limitations, for the ordinary people of the city, such as businessman Li Chongzhen, it's a huge step forward in accountability.
Mr. LI CHONGZHEN (Businessman): (Through translator) We never thought we could do this before. In the past, you'd expect the police to come knocking on your door if you wrote stuff like that. Now we can kick a Communist Party secretary out of his job. It's incredible.
GIFFORD: Analysts say that Premier Wen Jiabao's call today for citizens to voice their criticisms of the government is also undoubtedly a result of the increased power of the Internet. David Bandurski at the University of Hong Kong, however, cautions there are still very clear limits for websites like 703804.
Mr. BANDURSKI: We can't see them as renegades, necessarily. We can't see them as socking it to the leadership. It will be tolerated to the extent that it tackles local-level corruption. Will this knock down top leaders of Wenzhou or from the province Zhejiang? I seriously doubt it.
GIFFORD: So, as with so much in China, the question to ask about how much accountability the Internet is bringing seems to be: compared to what? Compared to an open, fully free society? Well, it's nowhere near. But compared to China even six or seven years ago, the Internet has brought the country a long way.
Rob Gifford, NPR News, Wenzhou.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
In Afghanistan today, President Hamid Karzai inaugurated the country's parliament - finally. The swearing-in of lawmakers came after months of wrangling over complaints of fraud in last September's election. Karzai had ordered an even longer delay so that a special court - widely considered under his control - could address more complaints of fraud. Those allegations mostly came from the president's allies, who saw their share of parliament shrink.
NPR's Quil Lawrence in Kabul has been watching the events, and he joined us to talk about it.
Good morning.
QUIL LAWRENCE: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: And, Quil, as the parliament got under way, what did the president tell the lawmakers?
LAWRENCE: Well, he arrived under high security and marched down in front of an auditorium with the 240 new parliamentarians. He gave about an hour-long speech that had something for everyone, although it also had some contradictions -took some jabs at the international community, while he was still saying that he expected a long friendship with NATO.
He was praising Iran and Pakistan as friends, even though there's a lot of consistent evidence that one or both of these countries is aiding the insurgency in Afghanistan. He mentioned his recent trip to Russia, said he wanted to expand relations with Moscow.
The MPs in the audience greeted him with mostly stony looks, actually, from the former warlord sitting in the front row, to many of the newly elected MPs. They applauded only three times during the hour-long speech. And other than that, there was not even much in the way of nodding or smiles. Even Karzai's own ministers were sort of looking from side to side during the speech.
MONTAGNE: And the international community there had been putting lots of pressure on Karzai to stick with this parliament, the one elected in September. What role did the U.S. play in all of that?
LAWRENCE: Last week, it turned into a real showdown when President Karzai said that he needed another month to adjudicate complaints, mostly from some of his parliamentary allies and fellow ethnic Pashtuns. At that point, the parliament elect said that they were actually going to take the parliament themselves, cross police lines and inaugurate it without the president. And at that point, both the United Nations and the U.S. let it be known behind the scenes that they were behind the parliament. And after extensive talks, Karzai backed down.
MONTAGNE: And after staring down the president in this standoff, is this new parliament expected to be more active and independent than the last one?
LAWRENCE: Well, the new parliament's really a big wildcard. The previous legislature rarely managed to unite and counterbalance the president. But they did give him some trouble over his Cabinet appointments.
Looking out at the 240 seats that were listening to the president's speech this morning, you saw a lot of young people. Half of Afghanistan is under the age of 20. Some of the traditional parties led by warlords did very poorly. So there are fewer of them in the audience, many MPs calling themselves independent.
But around the country, I've heard a lot more skepticism than hope about these new independents. There's fears that Afghanistan's rampant corruption might be affecting them a lot more than any idea of unifying to provide a check and a balance to President Karzai.
MONTAGNE: Well, there's another thing. Yesterday, General David Petraeus gave a more upbeat assessment of military progress there. Does the parliament's inauguration mean Afghan governance itself is on the march?
LAWRENCE: Well, I just actually got back this morning from Kandahar. And I can tell you, down there in areas that have been cleared for the time being of insurgents after the U.S. troop surge this summer, there's still little or no state presence. Certainly sitting the parliament down today is a step, much better than if the delays had continued, which many in the international community had feared they would see an indefinite delay, with President Karzai ruling by decree. So better than if they hadn't sat, but we still have to wait and see.
MONTAGNE: Quil, thanks very much.
We've been speaking with NPR's Quil Lawrence in Kabul.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Let's talk next with two of the lawmakers who broke with a partisan tradition to sit next to each other at the State of the Union speech last night. Democrat Anthony Weiner represents part of New York City.
Welcome to the program, sir.
Representative ANTHONY WEINER (Democrat, New York): Thank you.
INSKEEP: And Republican Peter King represents New York City suburbs on Long Island.
Welcome to you.
Representative PETER KING (Republican, New York): Good morning.
INSKEEP: Key question, gentlemen, for both of you: When anybody sits together in a theater or a plane, which one of you got the armrest?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Rep. KING: Actually, in the Congress there are no armrests, per se. Both seats have them, I guess you'd say. So, no. We were fine. Anthony and I were crammed in with everybody else. It seemed like more people were on the House floor last night than I've seen before. Maybe I'm not used to sitting in the cheap seats with Anthony.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Rep. KING: But it did seem, I don't know, tighter and more congested. But overall, it was a very good evening.
INSKEEP: Mr. Weiner, how was the date?
Rep. WEINER: It was fun. There seems to be a lot more room on the Democratic side this year. I haven't quite figured out why. But it was good. Not only did Congressman King let me use the armrest, but he didn't throw nearly as many elbows as he usually does.
(Soundbite of laughter)
INSKEEP: Well, if I can just mention - there's a photo which people can see at npr.org of the two of you. And I'm not sure which line of the president's speech it is, but Congressman Weiner, you're standing and applauding. And, Congressman King, you look utterly dismayed.
(Soundbite of laughter)
INSKEEP: You seem to have had different reactions to this speech.
Rep. KING: Yeah, I mean, it was - I don't know if I was dismayed. I mean, you know, there are differences. There's - that's why I think this whole idea of the civility and everyone sitting together - I mean, to an extent, it's good to show that we can work together. But the fact is, there are real differences. You know, there are philosophical differences. There's political differences. And so, obviously, there's going to be lines that I would applaud. And more lines that Anthony would applaud.
To me, you know, it's not any type of symbol that you're not being respectful to the other side. But, obviously, if the president says something I don't agree with, I'm not going to applaud. I would never do anything to offend him.
INSKEEP: Sure.
Rep. KING: But anyway, there was - all in all, I thought it was a very friendly evening.
INSKEEP: Well, let me ask you both, very briefly: The president talked of investments in the future, talked of this as a Sputnik moment for the United States. Is there any investment that both of you would see as an investment, as opposed to a waste of money?
Rep. WEINER: Well, look, I think it is essential, just the way if you were building a business, you want to make consensus, you have to do it for a country, as well. And I think the president made that case. I bet there have many things over the course of time.
I know when we were trying to expand the East Side access to Manhattan, we both - I believe we both supported expanding the ability for the Long Island Rail Road to be able to get into New York City better, to get the cars off the road, both in my district and in Peter's. There are things like that that transcend politics.
But, you know, look, these are - as Peter said, there are a lot of issues of which there are big divides in the country. So there's no reason to believe that there wouldn't be those divides in the Congress, as well.
INSKEEP: Congressman King.
Rep. KING: Yeah. Actually, I strongly supported the East Side access project and other infrastructure projects. The question is, at a time right now, when we're trying to get control of spending, where we're trying to stabilize spending, and as the president said, calling for a five-year freeze, we have to decide what we can spend, where we can spend it. And projects we may otherwise want to support, we just can't right now.
So I thought that the president's speech was short on specifics. Now, I realize that a State of the Union speech is thematic. But I think in view of the severe fiscal crisis - not crisis, but certainly situation we do face, I wish the president had been a bit more specific. But again, State of the Union speeches are generally not that specific.
INSKEEP: Congressman King, let me stay with you for a moment. Many people will know that you're now chairman of a committee on Homeland Security and that you intend, we're told, to hold hearings into concern about Muslim radicals in the United States. What did you think when the president said in his speech last night, quote, American Muslims are part of our American family?
Rep. KING: Well, they are. I mean, the overwhelming majority - more than the overwhelming majority of Muslims are outstanding Americans. What I'm talking about is an effort by al-Qaida to actually go into the Muslim community and recruit. They've done that on a number of occasions. And that's what I think should be examined.
But, no. Muslims, obviously, are a growing part of our population. They make outstanding citizens, outstanding Americans. So I, you know, fully support that statement by the president.
INSKEEP: Although you've said you feel that the large number, even a majority -a vast majority of mosques in the United States are run by...
Rep. KING: Yeah, I do believe there are a number of mosques that are radicalized. I don't believe that imams and mosques necessarily represent the Muslim people. This is an issue I've actually discussed with a number of Muslims who draw the distinction between the position of an imam in the Muslim community, as opposed to, say, to a priest, minister or rabbi in the Catholic, Protestant and the Jewish communities.
INSKEEP: Congressman Weiner, you've got about 45 seconds. I'll give you the last word here.
Rep. WEINER: Well, I think that, you know, that Peter is going to have the challenge to show that these hearings are going to be fair. And whenever you start to identify one religious part of our country for investigation, it makes people nervous. But I do want to point out that that was one of the lines that both Peter and I stood up and clapped for: the important contributions of Muslim Americans.
INSKEEP: So you think you're not as far apart as people might assume on that issue?
Rep. WEINER: No. No. No. We're pretty far apart. Let's not get carried away. But we certainly did find things last night that we could agree upon. I would not have your listeners count on us doing this every year, but it was certainly worth doing for one year.
INSKEEP: Okay. Congressman Anthony Weiner, thanks very much for your time.
Rep. WEINER: Thank you.
INSKEEP: He's a Democrat from New York City. And Congressman Peter King, Republican, thank you as well.
Rep. KING: Thank you. Appreciate it.
INSKEEP: He represents Long Island.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And the two of them sat together last night at President Obama's State of the Union Speech. After that speech, it was the turn of the Republicans. Their official rebuttal was given by Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan. But minutes later, a group representing the Tea Party offered its own response, from Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.
As NPR's Robert Smith reports, Ryan and Bachmann had the same message, but different styles.
ROBERT SMITH: Michele Bachmann's plan was to look directly into the camera and tell America...
Representative MICHELE BACHMANN (Republican, Minnesota): The Tea Party is a dynamic force for good in our national conversation.
SMITH: The problem was, she was looking into the wrong camera. So for a national audience watching on CNN, the conservative seemed to be addressing someone else, somewhere vaguely offstage.
Rep. BACHMANN: And it's an honor for me to speak with you.
SMITH: If not to actually look you in the eye. It was confusing and distracting, much like the whole concept of the dueling rebuttals.
For the last few days, the concept has raised all these questions: Is there a split among conservatives? Was this another warning shot by the Tea Party across the bow of the Republican ship? Or was it a plot by the mainstream media to divide conservatives?
In the end, it was none of the above. It was a simple message - cut the size of government - delivered in two radically different performances. Paul Ryan chairs the House Budget Committee, and he gave his response in an empty conference room. He was careful to offer some conditional support for the president.
Representative PAUL RYAN (Republican, Wisconsin): I assure you that we want to work with the president to restrain federal spending.
SMITH: And Ryan even conceded that the president has been dealt a tough hand with the economy. But in a calm, methodical fashion, Ryan laid out how Republicans feel that the president had made matters worse - through his new healthcare law, by hiking discretionary spending. But Ryan never made it personal.
Rep. RYAN: Americans are skeptical of both political parties, and that skepticism is justified, especially when it comes to spending. So hold all of us accountable.
SMITH: A few minutes later, it was time for the Tea Party response. Michele Bachmann had no trouble laying all of the worries of the world at the feet of the president.
Rep. BACHMANN: For two years, President Obama made promises just like the ones we heard him make this evening. Yet still we have high unemployment, devalued housing prices, and the cost of gasoline is skyrocketing.
SMITH: Even with the strange off-camera gaze, Bachmann had 10 times the energy of Ryan. She waved her hands and pointed at charts and at a photo of the flag-raising at Iwo Jima. Whereas Ryan referred to the president's healthcare law, Bachmann called it...
Rep. BACHMANN: ObamaCare.
SMITH: It was almost as if Bachmann was translating the official Republican response into Tea Party-ese, which was kind of the point. The leaders of the Tea Party Express, who sponsored the speech, say they have no problem with Ryan or the Republican message. They just wanted to do something for their own members online, to show their independence.
In fact, Bachmann was staring off to the side into the Webcam that fed to the Tea Party site, instead of the TV camera. So for the conservative faithful, at least, she was looking right at them.
Robert Smith, NPR News, New York.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Now, in last night's State of the Union Address, President Obama said the United States needs to refocus on science and technology education.
President BARACK OBAMA: This is our generation's Sputnik moment. Two years ago I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven't seen since the height of the space race.
INSKEEP: For one Philadelphia technology student who got to watch in person, that speech was a second chance to have his own moment.
Carolyn Beeler reports from member station WHYY in Philadelphia.
CAROLYN BEELER: It was a quiet night at home for 17-year-old Azeem Hill. He watched the president's speech from his living room in West Philadelphia.
Mr. AZEEM HILL (High School Student): Oh, yeah. I see him. I saw him. I saw him. Yeah, there he was. He's like in the front row.
BEELER: Hill was searching the crowd shots on TV for his friend Brandon Ford, who was one of the students chosen to sit next to Michelle Obama during the speech.
Mr. HILL: He looked good. He was all dressed up and stuff with the president.
BEELER: Azeem and Brandon are on the West Philly Hybrid X Team, a high school club. The group got a lot of attention last year for outlasting teams of professionals and college students in an international competition to design fuel-efficient cars. In September, team members were invited to attend a White House speech announcing a new math and science initiative, where President Obama gave the team a shout-out.
President BARACK OBAMA: They certainly didn't have every advantage in life. What they had was a program that challenged them to solve problems and to work together, to learn and build and create. And that's the kind of spirit and ingenuity that we have to foster.
Mr. HILL: It was just a really cool, profound moment. You know, I'm sitting across from the president while he's giving his speech. Like, how many students can say that?
BEELER: But Brandon, he missed all this praise. He didn't have his I.D. on him, so he couldn't get through security and into the White House. He had to wait outside. A White House staffer said she felt bad and would try to do something nice for Brandon.
Mr. SIMON HAUGER (Director, West Philly Hybrid X Team): Our gut was, you know, a letter or a photo or something like that.
BEELER: That's Simon Hauger, director of the West Philly Hybrid X Team. Last week, Hauger was in the car with a team volunteer when a call came from Washington, asking if Brandon would like to sit with the first lady during the State of the Union.
Mr. HAUGER: We were utterly surprised and delighted. And like I said, it couldn't have happened to a nicer kid. He's really delightful.
Mr. HILL: Just to see that they went out their way and did that for the West Philly Hybrid X Team a second time really shows his appreciation not only for our team but for innovation, for the future and, you know, what we represent and what we're fighting for.
BEELER: As he watched the speech, Azeem said didn't agree with everything President Obama said about transforming science and technology education. Still, that doesn't mean he wouldn't have liked to be there for that speech.
Mr. HILL: I'm jealous because I want to be at the White House again. But I have schoolwork, so I'm staying home tonight. I'm proud of him. I am.
(Soundbite of laughter)
BEELER: For NPR News, I'm Carolyn Beeler in Philadelphia.
INSKEEP: And that's part of our State of the Union coverage, which we're hearing throughout today's MORNING EDITION. You can also find many things at NPR.org, including a transcript of the speech.
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
Just as his approval ratings were climbing, President Obama faced a setback. He said he would attend the Super Bowl if his hometown Chicago Bears made it. They just missed. Now the president faces the bitter, bitter job of traveling to Wisconsin, home of the Green Bay Packers, who beat the Bears. Republican Governor Scott Walker plans to give the president a gift. His staff won't say what the present is, but it may be Packers-related.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
An unlikely couple celebrates 10 years together this month at an eco-lodge in New Zealand. The pair has been inseparable since they met in 2001. She met him shortly after the death of her partner. He met her shortly after his birth. If it sounds unconventional, it is. He's a highland bull. She's a goose, and a possessive one. The gardener at the lodge says the goose is extremely jealous. A goose, after all, keeps the same partner for life.
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg has this look back to an earlier day, which demanded handmade solutions to film design challenges. And there's a new book out tracing a century of Hollywood art direction.
SUSAN STAMBERG: You want movie magic? Look at "Dr. Zhivago."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOMEWHERE MY LOVE")
STAMBERG: The Russian Revolution, hot passion in a very cold place.
CATHY WHITLOCK: I can remember seeing that film years ago and freezing in the theater.
STAMBERG: Cathy Whitlock is author of "Designs on Film: A Century of Hollywood Art Direction."
WHITLOCK: You just felt the coldness of that whole set. And ironically, that was filmed in the summer in Spain on a sound stage.
STAMBERG: Production designer John Box had to create an ice palace. An onion- domed love-nest was built. Then Box and his crew made it icy.
WHITLOCK: And they would literally spray all the architecture, the chandeliers, the interior furniture with hot wax, and then they'd pour cold water on it to create that ice effect.
STAMBERG: White wax solidified, glistening in places with handfuls of marble dust.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOP HAT, WHITE TIE AND TAILS")
FRED ASTAIRE: So I'm putting on my top hat, tying up my white tie, brushing off my tails.
STAMBERG: More glisten and gloss was created by 1930's production designers for the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies. The black-and-white films had art deco set designs and streamlined dance floors, fashioned at RKO with an early form of plastic.
WHITLOCK: The floors were made with a material, which was new at the time, called Bakelite. The dance floor was very hard to maintain. Of course, all the high heels were constantly scratching the floors. They had to go back and re- polish them between takes. So it was a high-maintenance material.
STAMBERG: Ginger Rogers doing everything Fred Astaire did backwards, and in high-scuffing heels.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVE THEME FROM CHINATOWN")
STAMBERG: "Chinatown," director Roman Polanski's 1974 classic about bringing water to Los Angeles.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "CHINATOWN")
JACK NICHOLSON: (as Jake Gittes) Mulvihill, what are you doing here?
ROY JENSON: (as Claude Mulvihill) They shut my water off. What's it to you?
NICHOLSON: (as Jake Gittes) How did you find out about it? You don't drink it. You don't take a bath in it.
STAMBERG: "Chinatown's" production designer Richard Sylbert made water and its absence the movie's visual motif.
WHITLOCK: You had to have parched landscape. You had to have colors that reflected this parched landscape - you know, hay, straw, orange-red, brown. You became thirsty watching that movie.
STAMBERG: The only green spots in "Chinatown" are places where rich people live, those powerful enough to bring water to their property. Everyone else suffered through the drought under a sky that's always white, no clouds.
THOMAS WALSH: Yeah. They would have shot to the south whenever possible, in overexposed sky.
STAMBERG: Author Cathy Whitlock says Jenkins and his team did their research at the paper's real offices in Washington, D.C.
WHITLOCK: They literally itemized, measured, photographed, detailed every square inch of that newsroom. It was really incredible. The Post sent them boxes of trash - a lot of papers, government directories, mail - things that they could use for authenticity to spread across the desk on the Burbank sound stage.
STAMBERG: Tom Walsh, the Art Directors Guild chief, says his people spent lots of time foraging for artifacts to make the magic of magic look real. Walsh calls them all cultural anthropologists - nice title.
WALSH: It is. You know, we have a lot of descriptions. I mean, also barkeep and, you know, department shrink.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
WALSH: You know, you - it's a long list.
STAMBERG: But we digress.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE WIZARD OF OZ")
JUDY GARLAND: (as Dorothy Gale) Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.
STAMBERG: So in the Golden Age of Hollywood, how did they make the yellow brick road for "The Wizard of Oz"? Not with bricks, natch. Can't dance on bricks. They painted brick shapes onto a flat floor. And the color?
WALSH: The story that I've heard is that the initial yellow that they used looked green in the camera test. Ultimately, they actually went down to the local hardware store and bought their industrial yellow paint, and it seemed to work just fine.
STAMBERG: In the Land of Oz, the Emerald City had colored horses: White, then purple, then bright-red, then yellow. How'd they do that?
WHITLOCK: The horses were colored with Jell-O crystals.
STAMBERG: And Cathy Whitlock says they had to keep re-coloring them, because between takes, the animals would lick off the sugary Jell-O.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, "GONE WITH THE WIND (TARA'S THEME)")
STAMBERG: Then there's the poor, starved Civil War horse pulling Scarlett O'Hara's wagon in "Gone with the Wind." William Cameron Menzies was the production designer.
WHITLOCK: Woebegone was the horse. And you remember the scene where she was going back to Tara and they were going over the bridge, and they were beating the horse and it just collapses? And they had to find a new horse, because the original one, that was supposedly thin, had gained weight and his ribs were no longer visible. So they had to paint dark shadows to make the horse look gaunt.
STAMBERG: They burned Atlanta in "Gone with the Wind." Or to recreate the burning of Atlanta, they burned leftover sets from "King Kong" and "The Garden of Allah" on a lot in Culver City, just blocks from where I'm speaking. It is said the flames were 500 feet high sometimes, and Culver City residents kept phoning local police and fire stations in great alarm.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, "GONE WITH THE WIND, TARA'S THEME")
STAMBERG: I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News, Culver City, California.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, "GONE WITH THE WIND, TARA'S THEME")
MONTAGNE: This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
People have been arguing for decades over how an abortion affects a woman's mental health. NPR's Nancy Shute has the results of a new study.
NANCY SHUTE: Robert Blum is an expert in the field of reproductive health, and a professor at Johns Hopkins. He did not work on this study.
D: This is an extremely, extremely well-done study. There is no evidence to support the notion that abortion predisposes a woman to psychiatric and mental health problems.
SHUTE: Blum, a former president of the Guttmacher Institute, would like to say goodbye to the political buzz words.
D: There is no post-abortion trauma, post-abortion syndrome, or anything of the like.
SHUTE: That's not surprising, says Nada Stotland. She's a professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College in Chicago. She says that women considering abortion are often struggling with problems with a partner or family members.
D: People have abortions, often, under troubled circumstances. You have an abortion because there's a problem.
SHUTE: What makes this study unique is that it looked at women who chose abortion, and also looked at women who chose to have the baby. Stotland says this gives us a much better picture of the stresses of abortion and childbirth.
D: Above all, it really fairly, fairly contrasts the outcomes of abortion with the outcomes of pregnancy.
SHUTE: The women who decided to have babies were doing great while they were pregnant. For some, that picture changed when they became mothers. Trine Munk- Olsen is the scientist who led the Danish study. She says they saw a sudden spike in new mothers who needed help with severe mental disorders.
M: Including psychosis and, for example, depression after delivery.
SHUTE: That's true not just in Denmark. As many as 25 percent of new mothers experience postpartum depression. It's a significant public health problem. Robert Blum, at Hopkins, says that new mothers need much more help.
D: We need to acknowledge and provide mental health support for a significant number of women who experience postpartum depression.
SHUTE: The message, then, is that pregnancy poses mental health challenges for women, whether they choose to give birth or choose to have an abortion. Stotland says that's why women need friends and family to stand by them.
D: They might not agree with your decision; that's not the same thing. But they have to support you. They have to know that no one else can make this decision but you.
SHUTE: Nancy Shute, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Millions of Americans remember a televised image that was broadcast over and over again, 25 years ago this week.
MONTAGNE: About a minute after liftoff on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle Challenger blew apart, killing all aboard, including Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher to become an astronaut. NPR's Joe Palca reports on how the tragedy affected this country and American attitudes towards science.
JOE PALCA: On January 28, 1986, President Ronald Reagan was scheduled to deliver his State of the Union speech, but Challenger changed those plans.
INSKEEP: Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss.
PALCA: President Reagan expressed in words what many people were feeling that day.
INSKEEP: It was a huge shock to the American people, because the space shuttle had come to represent our entire technological prowess.
PALCA: That's Senator Bill Nelson from Florida. At the time, he was congressman Bill Nelson. He was also astronaut Bill Nelson. His mission aboard the space shuttle Columbia had ended just 10 days earlier. Nelson says it was shocking enough just to think about what happened to Challenger.
INSKEEP: And when people suddenly saw on their television screens, that was played over and over, the close-up shot of those solid rocket boosters going off in different directions about 10 miles high in the Florida sky - I mean, this was a trauma to the nation's psyche.
PALCA: The country had to revisit that trauma 17 years later.
INSKEEP: This day has brought terrible news and great sadness to our country.
PALCA: The day was February 1, 2003. This time, it was President George W. Bush trying to help the country deal with tragedy in space.
INSKEEP: At 9 o'clock this morning, mission control in Houston lost contact with our space shuttle Columbia.
PALCA: There were no iconic pictures from the Columbia accident. It was just a vapor trail streaking across the sky, and some close-ups of bits of debris. But shocking as it was, the second loss of a space shuttle didn't hit the country in the gut the way the first one did. Jon Miller thinks he knows the reason for that. Miller is at the University of Michigan, where he studies public attitudes towards science.
INSKEEP: The first time it blew up, it was such a shock because most people thought it would never, ever happen. But once you get the idea that spacecraft sometimes have catastrophic events, then it becomes less of a shock.
INSKEEP: That's why the Challenger destruction seemed to affect day-to-day Americans a lot more than did Columbia years later.
PALCA: Bruce Lewenstein thinks the long-term impact of Challenger may be in how it changed the way Americans view science. Lewenstein is a professor of science communication at Cornell University. He says NASA had always been the good-news agency, freely sharing science news with journalists. But after Challenger, everyone at the agency clammed up - including scientists.
INSKEEP: People had this image that science didn't operate that way. But in fact, modern science, big science, does operate that way, and Challenger was one of the ways we discovered that - and perhaps one of the most dramatic ways we discovered that.
PALCA: Lewenstein says there was a positive legacy for NASA from the Challenger accident. When the Columbia accident occurred, the space agency certainly seemed to be more open about what was going on, a good move from a public relations perspective.
INSKEEP: They were more open with information. They were more careful to try to get different perspectives out there. They were more careful to try to make information available.
PALCA: Joe Palca, NPR News, Washington.
MONTAGNE: And you can find a timeline of the milestones in the American space program at our website, NPR.org/science.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
In Tunisia, women played an important part in the revelation that ousted a dictator there. Women in the North African nation have enjoyed near equality with men, which is near a rarity in the Arab world. And women want to make sure they maintain their status, as Eleanor Beardsley reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF WOMEN SINGING)
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Female voices rang out loud and clear during massive protests that brought down the authoritarian rule of President Ben Ali. In Tunis, old ladies, young girls, and women in black judges robes marched down the streets demanding that the dictator leave. Hardly anyone wears the Muslim headscarf in the capital, and women seem to be everywhere, taking part in everything, alongside men.
NA: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: I met 36-year-old Na-argi Najet, arguing with a group of men on the sidewalk. Turns out she was defending the country's provisional leaders. She did more than hold her own. The men were so impressed with her knowledge, they told her she should run for president. No one seemed to think being a woman was a hindrance.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR DOOR SHUTTING)
BEARDSLEY: Najet is a criminal lawyer. She lets me jump in a taxi with her as she heads to Tunis' courthouse. During the cab ride she explains the difference between Tunisian women and their sisters in the rest of the Arab world.
NAJET: (Through Translator) We feel more free and more civilized than other Arab women, and especially, since our revolution, we pity the women in neighboring countries. Look at Libya where they have to wear head scarves and can't even talk with men. This is a catastrophe.
BEARDSLEY: Many Tunisian women say they are now concerned about the potential return of Islamist parties banned under Ben Ali. But 31-year-old lawyer Asma Belkassem says she's not scared.
ASMA BELKASSEM: BEARDSLEY Tunisian women credit a 1956 civil rights code for their many freedoms and equality, as well as an excellent education system that is open to all. They also thank President Habib Bourguiba, their founding father, who led the independence struggle from France and wanted women to play a full role in Tunisian society. No one gives an ounce of credit to Ben Ali. Khadija Cherif is a long-time feminist activist. With the dictatorship over, she is once again allowed house visitors.
KHADIJA CHERIF: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: Cherif says that Ben Ali pretended to support women's rights to please the West. The return of Islamist parties to Tunisian politics could pose a threat, she says, but women will remain vigilant.
CHERIF: (Through translator) The force of the Tunisian feminist movement is that we've never separated it from the fight for democracy and a secular society. We will continue our combat, which is to make sure that religion remains completely separate from politics.
BEARDSLEY: Back at the courthouse, male lawyer Bilel Larbi has joined his female colleagues. He says the best way to measure relations between the sexes in Tunisia is to look at the demonstrations over the last month.
BILEL LARBI: (Through translator) Just look at how Tunisian women stood side by side with Tunisian men. They came out to the streets to protest in headscarves. They came out in miniskirts. It doesn't matter. They were there.
BEARDSLEY: For NPR news, I'm Eleanor Beardsley.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Ken, welcome to the program once again.
KENNETH TURAN: Good to be here.
INSKEEP: What are you watching?
TURAN: A lot of films, lot of films.
INSKEEP: Well, let's talk about dramatic films first. What stands out for you?
TURAN: Well, you know, the one that really stands out for me is a film called "Like Crazy." It's a romance. It stars Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones, a young British actress. And, you know, so many romances you feel like you're watching characters. With this film, because of the way it was made, you really feel like you're watching real people. The emotional connection in this film is really intense.
INSKEEP: How do they manage that?
TURAN: Well, the director Drake Doremus has a background in improvisation, but it's an unusual kind of improvisation. He starts with, like, two typed pages of information for every scene, and then the actors improvise off of this really detailed outline.
INSKEEP: Oh, OK.
TURAN: And you would never guess it's improvised. I am not a fan of improvisation, but this film really makes this method work.
INSKEEP: I understand there's also a film at the Sundance Film Festival that stars Paul Giamatti, a star for many people.
TURAN: And Paul Giamatti plays a lawyer who cuts a moral corner and, you know, comes to feel that, well, maybe this wasn't such a great idea.
INSKEEP: This is also a business occasion, right? Because you have people might actually buy these films and distribute these films if they love what they see at Sundance.
TURAN: Absolutely. And the business has been really stronger this year than in previous years. In fact, the film I mentioned, "Like Crazy," was the subject of a bidding war between several companies. The negotiations, I was told, went on to like a quarter to six in the morning, all night - which is a Sundance tradition - before it was sold. And it was sold to a major studio. It was sold to Paramount, which is highly unusual.
INSKEEP: This is kind of an amazing scene that you describe. It reminds me of old stories of political conventions from generations ago. Everybody would show up and nobody would really know who the presidential nominee was going to be. That's how they're buying and selling films at Sundance?
TURAN: It really is. It's like the Wild West. It really works that way. You know, they're different - people shuttle around from different hotel rooms. I mean, it's as dramatic, often, as anything on screen. Sometimes it's more dramatic than what's on the screen.
INSKEEP: I feel compelled to mention when I say the title of this next film, this documentary, I'm just saying the title here - "The Redemption of General Butt Naked."
TURAN: General Butt Naked is a real person. He was a feared militia leader during the Liberian civil wars. He did awful things. And at a certain point during the war, he really experienced a conversion. He became an evangelical Christian. And the filmmakers spent five years, off and on, with him. And the film doesn't really take sides. It just presents this man. And this is a very unusual man.
INSKEEP: So what are you still waiting to see, Ken Turan?
TURAN: This is about an experiment that happened in the 1970s when a, like, infant chimpanzee was taken from his parents and raised by a human family, with the hope that he would learn sign language and be able to communicate with humans. And the experiment was really on the people, as much as the chimpanzee. The way the people responded to the chimpanzee, what they did, what it showed about them is just fascinating.
INSKEEP: Ken, always a pleasure to talk with you.
TURAN: Likewise, Steve. Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Welcome to the program.
INSKEEP: Good morning.
INSKEEP: I'm just curious. As someone who works the streets, how closely do you follow the news of police shootings around the country - like the ones we've heard about this month?
INSKEEP: Well, as a matter of fact, the last two shifts in our night-shift briefing, we've looked at the news reports and discussed the officer-safety aspects of the shootings. And we want to keep our officers safe before we send them out on the streets, so we do keep track.
INSKEEP: This has got to be a moment where training is critical, because you are dealing in a civilian population. And I would imagine that even if somebody opens fire, your first inclination has to be not to shoot.
INSKEEP: Exactly. The approach we have to take cannot be like the military. We're civilian police. We have to know what our background is before we fire our weapons. We have to identify our target. We're not at war like police in Mexico, police in Afghanistan, and we do not have anywhere near that environment in America.
INSKEEP: One of the reasons we wanted to talk to you is that you wrote a letter to the editor of the Las Vegas newspaper making this very point. You said: We're not at war - and people who say we're at war because of police fatalities, they're exaggerating the case, you think.
INSKEEP: I do. We don't want to minimize what's happened. Every police officer that dies, it's a tragedy to the community and to the family, and to our profession. But I think we face a greater danger in indoctrinating employees, especially our new employees, into the mindset that it's us versus them.
INSKEEP: Would you explain some jargon to me? What did you mean when you said you have to know what your background is in a shooting situation?
INSKEEP: Well, if I was working the strip on a bike and somebody came out with a gun and started shooting at anything, I can't just pull my gun and shoot back. The first priority's the safety of the public that might be in the area.
INSKEEP: There's been at least one, rather well-publicized incident in 2006, in which you were involved - with a shooter in a hotel. What happened?
INSKEEP: We got a call that shots had been fired on the 21st floor of Harrah's Hotel. We raced to the scene, got enough officers together that we could make an approach down a long hallway. We saw the victim laying in the hallway moaning, asking for help. The door was closed, and the suspect was barricaded inside, as it turned out. A group of six or eight of us went down the hallway and we were able to drag the victim to safety, then evacuate the floor. And then we called our SWAT team. The SWAT team was able to blow out the window from the outside so that the snipers could see what was going on inside. And after a lot of negotiations and attempts to get the suspect out, they did enter. He had a gun, and they took him into custody. And I think he got 28 years in prison.
INSKEEP: I'm curious: In that whole, incredible sequence in which a guy pulled out a gun, actually shot people, barricaded himself in a hotel, did the police fire any gunshots?
INSKEEP: No, we did not.
INSKEEP: Would it have been safer for police if they had opened fire?
INSKEEP: Well, we didn't know who was in the room, how many people were in the room. One of the things I did, I was down on my knee with the victim, asking him what happened, how many people in the room. And we just did not have a shot. It's not as easy as it looks in the movies.
INSKEEP: This must be the part where it's important to you to not think of it as a war, because you have to think about who else might be killed.
INSKEEP: Exactly. We are training now, across the United States, for active shooters and even terrorist-type attacks, where we do deviate from our normal, cautious response. But we don't have acceptable casualties. Top priority of the police department in America is to avoid police officers and citizens dying, if we can prevent that.
INSKEEP: Thanks very much.
INSKEEP: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's national political correspondent Don Gonyea was with the president.
DON GONYEA: Mr. Obama took some ribbing about the way the Green Bay Packers knocked off his Chicago Bears on their way to the Super Bowl. But he rolled with it, using the words of the legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi as a transition to his own topic of the day.
BARACK OBAMA: He said there is no room for second place. There's only one place in my game, and that's first place.
GONYEA: The president then added...
OBAMA: That's the kind of determination to win that America needs to show right now. That's what we need to show. We need to win the future.
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GONYEA: Orion Energy moved to Manitowoc to start a new manufacturing operation in 2004. Since then it's grown to 250 employees and says it hopes to add 50 more this year. The company has gotten clean energy tax breaks and economic stimulus money. The president says it's a way for the government to help entrepreneurs.
OBAMA: A lot of times Wall Street doesn't necessarily want to take a chance on a good idea until they've seen it proven. Sometimes the research that's required, nobody wants to pay for it. And that's where we have to step in.
GONYEA: Politically, this is an important place for the president. He carried Wisconsin easily back in 2008. But in this past November's elections, the Republicans swept all the big races. The new governor is Scott Walker. He's been a strong critic of the president's economic policies. But yesterday, at the event at Orion, the governor was diplomatic when asked to react to Mr. Obama's message.
SCOTT WALKER: I think at a time when the federal government has a $1.5 trillion budget deficit, obviously all of us, Republican and Democrat alike, have to look very closely at how we're going to get out of that. I look at what the president said and what he said again today, and I hope his actions match his words, because if they do, we can find plenty of ways to work with this administration.
GONYEA: Just a few miles up the road in downtown Manitowoc, diners sit at the counter at Warren's Restaurant, where the president's visit even trumped talk of football.
JOHN TOBIN: It's a great thing for Manitowoc. I mean, to have the president of the United States, sitting president come to your town for the first time in history is probably pretty big for the city. Can't hurt.
GONYEA: That's 41-year-old John Tobin. He owns a sales/marketing business. He says he's an independent voter who supported Mr. Obama two years ago.
TOBIN: I did, but I wouldn't vote for him again.
GONYEA: Why?
TOBIN: I don't agree with the policies he's instituted in the first two years he's been in office.
GONYEA: Among other things, Tobin is unhappy with the new healthcare law. But seated just two stools away is 56-year-old Mike Pierce, who doesn't work because of a disability. He too is an independent. He says he did not vote for Mr. Obama. In fact, he didn't vote at all because he didn't like his choices. He says he watched the State of the Union Address, though, and was encouraged. But still...
MIKE PIERCE: I like a lot of the things that he's saying. I just hope it's just not all hot air.
GONYEA: Pierce says he likes the president's call to invest to create future jobs, but he'd like to see more jobs right now. Also having breakfast is Lianna Leonowicz.
LIANNA LEONOWICZ: I'm a crossing guard lady for the city of Manitowoc.
GONYEA: She says her husband is laid off. She too says she's an independent voter. She says she did not vote for the president, but that he has won her over.
LEONOWICZ: I am a supporter.
GONYEA: Why?
LEONOWICZ: I like a few of his ideas. He's for the people. He's coming to Manitowoc. You know, he didn't have to do this, but he's a people person.
GONYEA: Don Gonyea, NPR News, Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And the head of the Chamber of Commerce praised part of the State of the Union speech. The leader of the business group favors the president's call for infrastructure spending. He approved of it in a joint statement with the labor leader from the AFL-CIO.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Some people on the left are not happy to see the president position himself in the political center.
MONTAGNE: Well, the very term center is quite upsetting because that really, I think, is more appropriately defined as capitulation.
INSKEEP: Journalist Chris Hedges wrote a book criticizing the left - from farther left. His book "Death of the Liberal Class" argues that liberal politicians, academics and others have sold out, and he is no fan of the president's speech.
MONTAGNE: It was, clearly, a speech meant to mollify Wall Street. It had a great deal of hypocrisy in it, condemning what he called the parade of lobbyists for rigging government just after he appointed the top Washington representative of JPMorgan Chase to be his new chief of staff.
INSKEEP: William Daley?
MONTAGNE: Yeah. And I think one of the things that disturbed me most was this idea that somehow we're failing, the economy is failing because of a lack of education. It was a failure of regulation, a failure of government control - which unleashed rapacious forms of human greed and fraud.
INSKEEP: Let me play a piece of tape here. This is from the State of the Union address, and I'm just interested what you think of the president's language as he talks about increasing the competitiveness of America.
INSKEEP: In the coming months, my administration will develop a proposal to merge, consolidate and reorganize the federal government in a way that best serves the goal of a more competitive America. I will submit that proposal to Congress for a vote, and we will push to get it passed.
INSKEEP: Got some applause there.
MONTAGNE: Well, he quite consciously uses the language of the business community to indicate that he is pro-business.
INSKEEP: You mean the word competitiveness, talking about a...
MONTAGNE: Competitiveness...
INSKEEP: ...competitive America.
MONTAGNE: Investments in education, that kind of stuff.
INSKEEP: What's wrong with that? Don't people want America to be more competitive in the world marketplace?
MONTAGNE: Because government's not a corporation. Government is not about competition. Government is about addressing the necessities of citizens: health, education, housing, security, jobs, living wages, protection so that people have clean and safe water and food. It's not about business programs. And that, of course, is the ideology of the right wing - to not only make government serve corporations but essentially, reduce government and cut citizens loose.
INSKEEP: Well, you know the argument that is made against that. People will say look, we can't afford education, the social services - all those things you just mentioned - unless the economy is strong and businesses are strong, and people are making money and paying taxes.
MONTAGNE: Well, and they're right. But who's responsible for the debt peonage? It's not those people working extra shifts in Wal-Mart.
INSKEEP: You're talking about the fact that the United States has a huge public debt now, much of it...
MONTAGNE: Yeah...
INSKEEP: ...owed to overseas investors.
MONTAGNE: That's the fault of Wall Street. I mean, they're the people who ratcheted it up. They're the people we had to bail out. It's not the person working on a minimum-wage job, but they're the ones who are going to be made to suffer.
INSKEEP: You write, if I'm not mistaken, in this book, "The Death of the Liberal Class," that you actually think that - although you didn't like their methods - you thought the communists had the right analysis of the economy.
MONTAGNE: Partly.
INSKEEP: It's the workers against the bosses.
MONTAGNE: There's the penny capitalism in the farm town where I grew up, where farmers bring their products in and sell it. There's the regional capitalism of the local factory owner, hardware store owner, who lives in the community, invests in the community, sits on the school board. And then there's corporate capitalism, which is something else. Corporate capitalism is supra-national; it has no loyalty to the nation-state. It's hollowed our country out from the inside. It's a kind of global neo-feudalism. And it's corporate capitalism that frightens me.
INSKEEP: Chris Hedges is author of "Death of the Liberal Class." Thanks very much.
MONTAGNE: Thanks for having me.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Sudan is looking for better relations with the United States. In particular, the Sudanese want to get off a terrorism blacklist.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
President Obama's administration set a price for that. The U.S. said Sudan could be removed from that list if it accepted a vote for independence by the south of the country.
INSKEEP: The vote came this month, and as we await the formal results, Sudan's foreign minister traveled to Washington. Here's NPR's Michele Kelemen.
MICHELE KELEMEN: As he prepared to meet Secretary Clinton, Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti went through some of the reasons he thinks his country should be taken off the U.S. terrorism list. Even recent State Department reports about Sudan, he says, prove there's no reason his country should be on it.
ALI AHMED KARTI: From our part in Sudan, we had never done anything that harms the U.S. Why for should we be treated like this?
KELEMEN: Sudan was put on the list in 1993, when the U.S. accused it of harboring terrorists, including, for a time, Osama bin Laden. But recent State Department reports have said that Sudan has been cooperating on counterterrorism efforts. Foreign Minister Karti tells NPR that getting off the list would be a step toward more normal business and political ties with the U.S.
AHMED KARTI: Normalization itself will open doors for Americans to go to Sudan, see things with different eyes, and open doors for investments and everything. What's happening now from the World Bank and the IMF and others, they're all, you know, keeping away from Sudan just because U.S. has a different position.
KELEMEN: He argues that this issue should never have been connected to the North-South peace process. But the Obama administration did use it as leverage with Khartoum to make sure that the North kept its promises to allow a fair independence vote in the South. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to begin the process of removing Sudan from the list once the results are in from that referendum and once Sudan accepts the outcome.
HILLARY CLINTON: The United States and many other nations were encouraged by the peaceful execution of the referendum in the South. And we hope to continue working with the government in Khartoum on the remaining issues, which are many.
KELEMEN: Her spokesman, P.J. Crowley, says while there was a spirit of cooperation in the meeting yesterday, building normal relations takes time.
CROWLEY: We are poised to move ahead with the process of normalized relations, but there are a number of things that have to be done along the way.
KELEMEN: The conflict in the west of the country, in Darfur, which the U.S. called a genocide, is still unresolved, and the North and the South still have to negotiate several issues if the South is to become an independent state, including the borders and how to share oil revenues. As Sudan's Foreign Minister Karti points out, much of the country's oil is in the South, but the refineries and the port are in the North.
AHMED KARTI: We can discuss how can we benefit - both of us - from the oil that is coming from the South to the facilities throughout the North. This may be a blessing in itself. It may be one of the items that would connect South with North anyhow if there is any separation.
KELEMEN: Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Joining us from the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan is NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton. And Ofeibea, break down for us how cocoa came to be at the center of this political fight between the man who had been president and his challenger, who is claiming that he won, backed up by the international community.
OFEIBEA QUIST: And this has meant that the market price for cocoa has gone zooming up to a one-year high because of this problem here in Ivory Coast.
MONTAGNE: So what other strategies are these two men using to hang on, in the case of the incumbent president, hang onto the presidency, and in the case of the challenger, you know, grab a hold of it?
QUIST: For the challenger, Alassane Ouattara, it's the financial squeeze that's important to him, and he's already managed to get hold of Ivory Coast accounts at the regional central bank, which was also vital because Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent, who's refusing to step down, needs that money to pay civil servants and, of course, the security forces that he still controls.
MONTAGNE: So what about talk - and this has been going on since this dispute began - of possible intervention by Ivory Coast neighbors, which would be a pretty big deal, other African countries just going in there and shoving out the president?
QUIST: But African leaders are meeting at the weekend for an African Union summit. There are already cracks in what was a united front against Gbagbo, ordering him to step down. We'll have to see now which countries are going to support which presidential claimant.
MONTAGNE: We will keep following this with Ofeibea Quist-Arcton. Thank you, Ofeibea, very much.
QUIST: Always a pleasure.
MONTAGNE: And NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton was on the line from Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's business news starts with a downgrade for a major economy.
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MONTAGNE: Japan, now the world's third-largest economy, was downgraded today by the global credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's. S&P says it lowered Japan's double-A rating notch because of concerns over rising government debt. Ratings agencies evaluate the risk of government bonds, and a downgrade can make it more expensive for a government to borrow on international financial markets. Japan's economy minister called the move regrettable.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's David Welna reports.
DAVID WELNA: The CBO also predicts this year's budget deficit will reach a record one-and-a- half trillion dollars. That's too much for Maine Republican Senator Olympia Snowe.
OLYMPIA SNOWE: So it's clear to me that we have reached that tipping point. And if we continue on this current trajectory of spending as indicated by CBO, spending will represent 45 percent of the gross domestic product, and our national debt, as a part of the GDP, will be 90 percent in just nine years.
WELNA: Congressional Republicans say the solution is to slash spending. But Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad warns that doing so could plunge a fragile recovery into a double-dip recession.
KENT CONRAD: We need another 18 months to two years before we start imposing the really tough medicine that is going to have to be imposed if we're going to deal with this long-term debt threat.
GONYEA: David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
NPR's Chris Arnold reports.
CHRIS ARNOLD: Here's Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs from back then, being questioned by Commission Chairman Phil Angelides.
MONTAGNE: Everything is context driven. Look, how would you look at the risk of a hurricane? The season after we had four hurricanes on the East Coast, which was absolutely extraordinary, versus the year before.
MONTAGNE: Mr. Blankfein, I want to say this: Having sat on the board of the California Earthquake Authority, acts of God we'll exempt. These were acts of men and women.
MONTAGNE: I'm just saying that if you're asking me a question...
MONTAGNE: No. These were controllable, is my only observation.
MONTAGNE: I agree.
ARNOLD: Angelides' point appears to be the conclusion of the overall inquiry.
MONTAGNE: The key finding of the report was that this was not an accidental crisis.
ARNOLD: Mike Calhoun is the president of the nonprofit Center for Responsible Lending.
MONTAGNE: It happened because key players were richly rewarded, played loosely, and made highly leveraged gambles that ultimately devastated our economy. And that included - in particular - Wall Street companies that ordered up risky home loans and then packaged them deceptively and dumped them on investors, often fraudulently.
ARNOLD: But the report isn't just critical of financial firms. Regulators come under some pretty harsh criticism, too, for not intervening as a plague of bad home loans spread throughout the financial system.
MONTAGNE: The report hammers the Federal Reserve. It had the responsibility and authority to set mortgage rules for all types of mortgage lenders.
ARNOLD: William Black agrees. He's a law professor at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He's also a former regulator, and served on a similar commission that looked into the causes of the savings and loan debacle back in the wake of that crisis. He, too, thinks that the Federal Reserve shares a big part of the blame for ignoring warning signs. He says back in 2004, the FBI warned of an epidemic of mortgage fraud. And even before that, the giant subprime lender Ameriquest was investigated, and found to be making big profits by selling bad home loans to investors. But Black says the Fed did nothing.
P: Think of this as a river of toxic waste. The Fed could have stopped the river at its source, could have dammed it and dried it all up.
ARNOLD: Peter Wallison is on the commission, and wrote his own dissenting report.
MONTAGNE: My view is that this was fundamentally the government's fault. The government was creating demand for these mortgages.
ARNOLD: Chris Arnold, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
We're going to follow up this morning on President Obama's call to change the way American businesses are taxed.
MONTAGNE: In his State of the Union Speech, the president said lobbyists have rigged the corporate tax code.
BARACK OBAMA: Those with accountants or lawyers to work the system can end up paying no taxes at all. But all the rest are hit with one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. It makes no sense and it has to change.
MONTAGNE: Good morning.
DAVID WESSEL: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: From talking to the Treasury secretary, do you have a better idea this morning why the president would focus on this particular tax?
WESSEL: Yes, I think that the president has two objectives here. One is to make the economy grow a little bit faster, and he's looking for a set of things that can do that don't cost any money. This revenue-neutral corporate tax reform - every company that pays a little more, some other companies will pay a little less - he believes will help the economy grow a little faster.
INSKEEP: I love you, I love you, I love you, please hire some workers.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MONTAGNE: Well, he wants to lower the rate but also close loopholes, which would seem might raise the same amount of money. But it would seem like companies in the end pay the same amount of taxes.
WESSEL: It's an idea that if you simplify the tax code, you make the economy more efficient. And that's where you get the growth dividend.
MONTAGNE: So is that why one might go through all of this if it wouldn't actually lower overall taxes, and it wouldn't raise more revenue?
WELNA: Right. I think the president starts with the premise that we can't widen the deficit. So if you start with that, there's a lot of things you'd like to do that you can't. He thinks that this thing will make the economy function better and he's also knows that some of the companies will actually have big benefits. And he hopes that in changing the process maybe we can have some of them move some of their money from overseas to the U.S., or other things that would accomplish other objectives.
MONTAGNE: Well, how is this being received by businesses; either those that in fact will pay more, and also those who have learned to deal within the tax code as it is now, including loopholes?
WESSEL: And that will be the struggle if this moves forward in Congress. Business will be trying to get the overall business tax burden lowered, as a result of this.
MONTAGNE: What about, David, taxes for the rest of us?
WESSEL: My sense is that this is not a high priority, that this is kind of a talking point. He knows that the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Dave Camp, is interested in simplification of the individual tax code. But he talked so much more about corporate tax reform, it appears to me that is much higher on his priority list.
MONTAGNE: Well, going back to that, I mean are businesses sufficiently behind us that it has a good chance of happening?
WESSEL: Too soon to tell. We're in the first innings here. And I think what the president is saying to the businesses: If you want a simpler tax code, if you want lower rates, you guys are going to have to volunteer some credits or deductions or incentives that you want to get rid of. So this is the beginning of a negotiation, and I'd say it's less - it's 50/50 whether we actually get anywhere.
MONTAGNE: David, thanks very much.
WESSEL: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: David Wessel is economics editor of The Wall Street Journal.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
NPR's Peter Kenyon reports from Beirut.
PETER KENYON: At the downtown tent, where visitors have come since 2005 to see the burial site of slain Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, supporters of Hariri's son, Saad, have gathered each night since he was toppled from power by Hezbollah and its allies. Last night they vented their frustration at being relegated to minority opposition status.
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KENYON: Standing in the crowd, 60-year-old Leila Turk(ph) says as far as she's concerned, the new prime minister, Najib Mikati, was installed by force of intimidation. She is not among the many Lebanese who see Mikati as a unifying figure who has good ties with all of Lebanon's fractious communities. She hopes that he gets the message that the world is watching to see if Lebanon will continue to respect the international tribunal investigating Rafiq Hariri's assassination.
LEILA TURK: This is our first demand because there's never been justice in Lebanon. This is the first chance to have real justice with the international tribunal.
KENYON: But Omar Nashabe, editor of the leftist Al-Akhbar newspaper, which has supported Hezbollah, says there's no question that Mikati is expected to put some distance between Lebanon and the tribunal.
OMAR NASHABE: Yes, definitely. That was one of the main elements that led to Mr. Mikati being named the prime minister, because Mr. Mikati is the man who's going to find the solution for the problem with the tribunal.
KENYON: Critics have called for Lebanon to stop paying its share of the tribunal's budget and withdrawal all Lebanese participation. But Nashabe says the new prime minister is approaching the issue cautiously. He hopes that Mikati convenes a national conference to find a solution.
NASHABE: And as the conference is taking place, Prime Minister Mikati could request to put the tribunal on hold until a national consensus is reached.
KENYON: Standing away from the politicians and the cameras, a petite woman with an expressive wrinkled face considers the new situation. Zena Fallad(ph) says she's a 75-year-old Sunni woman who never thought she'd live to see the day when Hezbollah would be in power. When asked if she thinks this marks a new era in Lebanese politics, the rise of the Shiites, she doesn't mince words.
ZENA FALLAD: (Through Translator) No, we're not going to let them. We're going to bring the Israelis and the Americans to fight them.
KENYON: Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Beirut.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
First came the revolution in Tunisia. Now come protests elsewhere in the Arab world. In Egypt, they're calling for an end to three decades of rule by President Hosni Mubarak. The unrest has claimed the lives of several protesters and at least one policeman this week. The U.S. weighed in yesterday with some stronger-than-usual diplomatic language for its close ally. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Egypt to respond to the protesters' calls for reforms. Our correspondent in Cairo, NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, joins us on the line. And Soraya, what's happening today?
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: But in the - generally what seems to be happening, or the trend is that these sort of protests start picking up late in the afternoon and they go all the way through the night, into the predawn hours, and then things slow down for a little bit in the morning, where I guess, people are sort of catching their breath and getting some sleep.
MONTAGNE: You were in Tunisia earlier this month, Soraya. How do these protests there in Egypt compare?
SARHADDI NELSON: The other thing that's important to note is that we've seen police forces, we've seen demonstrators. We've seen nothing of the army, and I think that's going to be a really crucial role about whether the army comes out and stands on the side of the people or stands on the side of the government, or doesn't get involved at all.
MONTAGNE: And the protests, give us a sense of who's leading them.
SARHADDI NELSON: But it's important to note that Mohammed ElBaradei, the Nobel laureate, is expected to come back to Egypt tonight. He was seen, for a while anyway, as sort of a de facto leader of the opposition, or of the growing popular movement. It will be interesting to see if he tries to take on that role again when he returns.
MONTAGNE: Soraya, thanks very much for joining us.
SARHADDI NELSON: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson speaking to us from Cairo
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Public money for presidential candidates has been around since the 1970s. It's a program intended to balance the influence of big political donors. But in recent presidential campaigns, it has played a smaller role compared to private money, as campaign costs skyrocketed. Yesterday, as NPR's Peter Overby reports, the House voted to kill public financing.
PETER OVERBY: The bill to ax public financing came to the House floor via the Internet - specifically YouCut, a website where House Majority Leader Eric Cantor invites people to vote on targets for budget cutting. Cantor posted about the public financing system and got lots of hits, so he made it the first YouCut program to be voted on by the House.
ERIC CANTOR: Voting to end the presidential election campaign fund should be a no-brainer.
OVERBY: Republicans said yesterday that public financing obviously hasn't cleaned up politics. And Dan Lungren of California said keeping it going would cost about $612 million over the next decade.
DAN LUNGREN: Governing is choosing and prioritizing. This is $612 million that doesn't feed a single American, doesn't educate a single American.
OVERBY: So, the GOP argued, better to put the money into deficit reduction. Democrats were quick to tie their appeal bill to the gusher of undisclosed money in last year's midterm elections. Most of the hidden contributors gave to Republican advertising groups. Here's Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi.
NANCY PELOSI: We should come together to ensure that the American people are heard, that they are heard and that they are not drowned out by special interest dollars.
OVERBY: And Lynn Woolsey, of California, drew a connection to the way House Republicans handled the bill itself.
LYNN WOOLSEY: Keeping with the spirit of secrecy and lack of transparency, it's somehow fitting that this bill comes to the floor without any hearings, without any committee referral, without full debate or deliberation.
OVERBY: Illinois Republican, Aaron Schock, accused the president of what Schock called profound hypocrisy.
AARON SCHOCK: It was President Obama who killed it and made a mockery of public financing of president campaigns with his arrogant pressing of self advantage.
OVERBY: Democrat David Price of North Carolina responded.
DAVID PRICE: Talk about having it both ways. He comes onto this floor to condemn President Obama for opting out of the system, and then he proposes to abolish the system so that everybody has to opt out.
OVERBY: Michael Malbin is a political scientist, who several years ago, developed some proposals to revitalize public financing. He says there's a serious conversation that ought to happen.
MICHAEL MALBIN: The key question is whether any public financial system, a redesigned system, would serve good and is it a proper use of public funds.
OVERBY: Peter Overby, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Welcome to the program, sir.
NEIL BAROFSKY: Thank you. It's great to be back.
INSKEEP: Let's talk about whether the problem has been fixed, here. Why have you been saying that more bank bailouts are more or less inevitable?
BAROFSKY: Well, it's not just me saying it. It was really information that was provided to us by Secretary Geithner in an interview that we did with him in December with respect to a recent audit. And the problem is that the notion of too big to fail - these large financial institutions that were just too big to allow them to go under - since the 2008 bailouts, they've only gotten bigger and bigger, more concentrated, larger in size. And what's really discouraging is that if you look at how the market treats them, it treats them as if they're going to get a government bailout, which destroys market discipline and really puts us in a very dangerous place.
INSKEEP: Let me make sure I understand what you're saying. You're saying that credit rating agencies and investors, when they look at the risk of investing in a bank, they say, well, they can do whatever they want because the government will bail them out. That's what you think.
BAROFSKY: And they say this even with respect the deregulatory reform and the Dodd-Frank Act that Congress has put in place, that they still believe the United States, as a government, is one that is moderately high, that they're going to bailout a systemically significant or big bank.
INSKEEP: Isn't there some argument for that?
BAROFSKY: But second - and this is equally as important. It really doesn't matter unless they can convince the market that they're going to be able to rein these banks in and let one fail. Because even if they have all the tools in the world, if the market believes the government will bailout these institutions, then all of the disastrous consequences that flow - the banks getting bigger, they're not being disciplined, investors - all the dangers that you put out, investors putting money in without doing their homework because of the assumption that the bailout will continue, and the banks will continue to get bigger and bigger.
INSKEEP: You've mentioned a couple of times that the banks are getting bigger, that that's part of the reason that there's still this huge risk. It was a problem in 2008. You say it's a bigger problem now.
W: what you would do differently. Would you break up the banks if it were up to you?
BAROFSKY: Well, I think Sheila Bair - chairman of the FDIC, and who's part of this Financial Stability Oversight Council - she talks about one of the things that they can do to help accomplish that goal, and that's to use the provisions to identify where, if banks don't have a credible plan - if there's not a credible plan in place to resolve a bank, to wrap it up, to put it out of its misery if necessary without bringing down the whole system - to use those tools where necessary to shrink the banks and have them spin off the most dangerous portions of the banks so that there is a credible alternative, so the markets can be convinced that the government will not support these...
INSKEEP: Wait a minute. You're saying make sure the bank has that plan, even before there's a crisis. And if there's no plan, you've got to break up the bank. That's what you're saying.
BAROFSKY: I think that the regulators are going to have that opportunity, and I think that her suggestion is a good one.
INSKEEP: I've just got a few seconds here, and I know this is such a complicated topic. But I want to just get a bottom-line assessment of the Troubled Asset Relief Program. When you measure the results that the depression was - arguably, at least - prevented, that much of the money has been earned back, although not all of it. But in a few seconds, was this a good deal in the end, Mr. Barofsky?
BAROFSKY: It's hard to do in a few seconds. I think it was very successful for Wall Street. I think it was good for the country, and it provided(ph) what I think otherwise would have been a catastrophic financial collapse. But I think it's failed to meet some of its very important goals for helping those on Main Street, particularly keeping people in their homes, which was a specific goal of this program. And to date, it's failed to meet that goal.
INSKEEP: I think you did a great job in a few seconds there. And we'll be back - we'll have you back to talk in more detail. Neil Barofsky, thanks very much.
BAROFSKY: Thank you.
INSKEEP: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
A couple of years ago, we told you about a British university where you might pull an all-nighter studying this.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HARD DAY'S NIGHT")
JOHN LENNON: (Singing) It's been a hard day's night.
MONTAGNE: It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
We continue today with our series the Hidden World of Girls: Girls and the Women They Become. Our series is produced with the Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva. Today, we meet the wives of militants in Iraq. Those are the women who have given the insurgents food, shelter and children. Now that many militants - including those who are part of al-Qaida - have been caught or killed, it's the women who are left behind.
NPR's Kelly McEvers has their story.
KELLY MCEVERS: At first, Um Salah is leery.
UM SALAH: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: Twenty-one years old and stubborn, she comes from a traditional village in Diyala province, a former al-Qaida stronghold about an hour north of Baghdad. She won't give us her full name.
When we ask about her husband, she only says this.
UM SALAH: (Through translator) He was a good guy, and actually, no one would criticize him for anything. He was a good man.
MCEVERS: But we know different. We know Um Salah's husband was a high-ranking member of the Islamic State of Iraq, the local branch of al-Qaida. We also know he was accused of helping kill Um Salah's father, and that he was handed over to authorities by her own brother.
UM SALAH: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: Eventually, Um Salah admits that her husband was part of what she calls the resistance. She shows us a record of her marriage. It was performed by a religious cleric.
It's on a piece of notebook paper. Does it have a date, did he sign it?
Unidentified Woman #1 (Translator): Not signed, no date, nothing.
MCEVERS: What this means is Um Salah is not legally married, and that her two-and-a-half-year-old boy, Salah, is not registered with the government. No registration means no food ration card, no right to visit the hospital, no school.
Um Salah says that with her husband now in jail and accused of being a terrorist, she has no money and no hope. While she talks, Salah hangs on her shoulder.
UM SALAH: (Through translator) Sometimes, you know, when she is so much fed up with her situation, she would just pray for God: God, take my life. I mean, okay. I mean, let me die with my son, now.
MCEVERS: Aid groups say there are more than a hundred women like Um Salah in Diyala Province alone. With that in mind, the Iraqi government recently launched an anti-al-Qaida media campaign.
(Soundbite of a video)
Unidentified Man #1: (Foreign language spoken)
Unidentified Man #2: (Foreign language spoken)
Unidentified Man #1: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: A video showed authorities digging through a bomb-making factory, and it urged women not to marry insurgents. Marry a terrorist, and your children will have no rights, the campaign goes. Marry a terrorist, and you'll be shunned by society.
The program, broadcast on state TV, featured two women who said they were forced to marry foreign fighters.
Unidentified Woman #2: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: This woman says her uncle arranged a marriage with a Palestinian-born militant from Syria. The man was later killed in a raid by Iraqi troops.
About 20 women who once were married to militants have recently been detained. Ministry of Defense spokesman Mohammad al-Askari says he finds it hard to believe that any of them are totally innocent.
Mr. MOHAMMAD AL-ASKARI (Spokesman, Ministry of Defense): (Through translator) My personal opinion - and, of course, this is my personal opinion only - is that if you live with someone for sure, even if you don't know what he's doing, but you know his reactions, his mentality, his ideology, the way he reacts. So you should be knowing something about him, even as a woman living with him in one place.
Um Mohammad agrees. She's also from Diyala province, and she was also married to an insurgent. She says the people in her village willingly joined the insurgency because fighters promised to rid Iraq of the American invaders.
Ms. UM MOHAMMAD: (Through translator) Those guys, you know, had a very sweet talk. They were all pious people who prayed and fasted.
MCEVERS: Um Mohammad says the women naturally helped these men, who they saw as holy.
Ms. MOHAMMAD: (Through translator) They would hide men. When the men wanted to move, they would disguise them in women's clothes and help them. And, you know, if someone would come and ask about, where is he? They'd say, oh, we don't know, while he is hiding in her house.
MCEVERS: What the government is not doing is providing any kind of social services to the women like Um Mohammad who have been left behind - whether they're guilty of collaborating with the insurgency or not.
In a country with millions of orphans and widows, officials say it's tough to make a priority out of women who are seen as criminals, which means they're basically ignored by everyone, says Hanaa Edwar, who heads a local women's rights group.
Ms. HANAA EDWAR (Founder-Secretary-General, Iraqi al-Amal Association): They are not recognized, you know, in respecting their dignity. I mean that they miss their housing, they miss health protections. They miss education.
MCEVERS: Edwar says the only way out for most of these women is to marry again.
Rawaa Ismael is from Anbar province, another former al-Qaida stronghold. One day, insurgents showed up at her house and forced her to marry one of them.
Ms. RAWAA ISMAEL: (Through translator) We didn't have, like, a bedroom, a real bedroom. They just put me in the room, and I was raped, in the real sense of the word.
MCEVERS: After that, Rawaa and her mother fled. They were considering going to a women's shelter, but they were afraid that militants would come after them.
Ms. ISMAEL: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: Since then, they've been moving from house to house, relative to relative. Even their own people are ashamed of them.
Now Rawaa is staying with her sister, who is married. At least now, she says, there's a man in the house to take care of her.
Kelly McEvers, NPR News, Baghdad.
MONTAGNE: Isra' al Rubei'i contributed to this story in our series.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
In Massachusetts, 800 employees of a factory that makes solar panels are now looking for work, and the loss of their jobs at Evergreen Solar is a blow to Massachusetts.
Just three years ago, the state persuaded the company to open up in an old army base, hoping it would become a hub for green industry. And now the jobs are moving to China.
NPR's Tovia Smith reports.
TOVIA SMITH: On paper, this was a match made in heaven: young attractive green energy company willing to relocate, seeks generous admirer for mutually beneficial relationship. And environmentally-minded empty-nester, seeks trophy tenant to lavish and love.
Before you could say love at first sight, Evergreen moved in, began to reap millions in fringe benefits, and the family grew from one, to three to 800 employees. Until one day the state woke up to what was basically a note on the kitchen table saying Evergreen was leaving.
Mr. JACK BURROUGHS (Engineer): I was shocked.
SMITH: Jack Burroughs got the news just one week after starting work at Evergreen, while many are furious at Massachusetts for giving the company so much. Burroughs says maybe Evergreen didnt get enough.
Mr. BURROUGHS: I like the idea of the state supporting an industry such as this. But maybe there needs to be more federal support.
SMITH: Massachusetts Economic Development Secretary, Greg Bialecki agrees.
Mr. GREG BIALECKI (Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development): We feel like we gave it our best shot. And I think, realistically, we have to talk about what role the federal government is going to play to keep manufacturing here and not to let it go overseas.
SMITH: Indeed, Evergreen says don't blame us for walking out.
Mr. MICHAEL EL-HILLOW (CEO, Evergreen): Yes, its gone bad. But there are two sides to story.
SMITH: CEO Michael El-Hillow says Evergreen can't compete with companies in China that get way more government support. He says Washington needs to nurture fledgling industries.
Mr. EL-HILLOW: Its also the role of government, to make jobs for our citizens, our children. Thats their role. Or lets acknowledge that were going to lose in the job creation stream.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Professor EDWARD GLAESER (Economics, Harvard): Yeah. You know, it sort of has remarkable chutzpah doesnt it.
SMITH: Thats Harvard economics professor Edward Glaeser, who says government should not be playing venture capitalist and definitely shouldnt have invested in manufacturing in such a high-cost labor market.
Republican state representative, Brad Jones, says the state was seduced by a sexy new industry.
Representative BRAD JONES (Republican, Massachusetts): There was a leading with your heart, not your head, which was I really believe in this, and this is going to be great, this is going to put us on the map, and were going to be, you know, green, green, green, this is great. And I think that served to cloud judgment.
SMITH: Even Democratic supporters, like state Senator James Eldridge, are now expressing morning-after regret.
Senator JAMES ELDRIDGE (Democrat, Massachusetts): I admit that I was mistaken. I learned my lesson.
SMITH: The most important, get a better pre-nup.
State officials concede their deal could have been tougher, but ultimately, they say they will recover most of their investment if you count taxes that have come in and future benefits that will never be paid out, and they point to the hundreds who had jobs through three tough years.
But Harvard's Ed Glaeser says the biggest mistake would be to measure an energy policy by how it works as a jobs program.
Prof. GLAESER: We need a good energy policy. But the point of that policy should not be to maximize the number of employees. You know, if we try do energy and jobs together, I think we get neither a good energy program nor a good jobs program.
SMITH: So Massachusetts may have lost 800 jobs, but, Glaeser says, if the state's investment helps reduce long-term costs of green energy, well then, 'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Tovia Smith, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Scientists are still trying to pin down the early history of humans. The first modern humans evolved in Africa about 200,000 years ago. When and how they eventually left Africa and fanned out across the globe is still up for debate.
Some newly-discovered stone tools suggest that our ancestors might have left Africa much earlier and by a different route than previously thought.
NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports.
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE: The tools are primitive hand axes and scrapers made of stone. They were dug up next to a rocky desert mountain in the United Arab Emirates, by the Persian Gulf. And they're ancient, 100,000 to 125,000 years old. What's more, they look very similar to the tools made by the early humans living in East Africa around that time.
The startling implication is that these humans may have left Africa by heading right across the Arabian Peninsula.
Dr. SIMON ARMITAGE (Geologist, Royal Holloway, University of London): I think the interpretation of the site is probably going to be fairly contentious.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Simon Armitage works at the University of London and was part of the research team.
Dr. ARMITAGE: What it does is push back, by quite a lot, the timeframe in which we think anatomically modern humans - so you and me - migrated out of Africa where we'd evolved and subsequently began to populate the rest of the world.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Scientists have generally thought that modern humans departed from Africa around 60,000 years ago, by moving northward along the Nile, and then the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
But Armitage and his colleagues now think our ancestors may have set out tens of thousands of years earlier, when unusual climate conditions would have opened up a different route. Back then, the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea would have been drier and more narrow than it is today. Humans could have made an easy crossing to a place that would have looked very different from today's deserts.
Dr. ARMITAGE: The southern end of the Arabian Peninsula was actually quite wet, so it was a kind of savannah-type landscape. And that's reasonably conducive to human habitation.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: From there, humans could have moved on to Asia and beyond.
Researchers say the new report in the journal Science is provocative, but cautioned against making too many assumptions based on just one archaeological find.
Alison Brooks is an archaeologist at George Washington University.
Professor ALISON BROOKS (Anthropology Department, The George Washington University): I think that the comparisons to Africa from a few stone tools are always basically just a hypothesis. And we need more work and more stone tools to really cement that connection.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Brooks points out that no fossilized bones were found to show who really made these tools. The discovery site is outside the range of the Neanderthals. But there's no way to know what the tool makers looked like, and whether they really were our ancestors, who had left Africa, or some other group that independently invented the same techniques.
Prof. BROOKS: Certainly, it's a very intriguing find, and it should hopefully spur research in all kinds of places and directions that haven't been undertaken before.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Researchers say that's already started to happen.
Tony Marks is an archaeologist with Southern Methodist University in Dallas, who analyzed the tools. He says in the past, archaeologists believed that the windswept deserts of this region weren't such a great place to find artifacts buried in a way that preserved their history.
Dr. TONY MARKS (Anthropology Department, Southern Methodist University): So the fact that this material was really in the ground, undisturbed, was really exceptional.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: He predicts that as more expeditions get underway, they'll make more discoveries like this one.
Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Glenn Fine may be the most powerful law enforcement officer you've never heard of. Hes been the Justice Departments top watchdog for more than a decade, and during that time, Fine exposed widespread violations of civil liberties by the FBI, and he criticized Justice Department officials for injecting politics into hiring decisions.
Fine has decided to step down soon, but first, he sat down with NPR's Carrie Johnson.
CARRIE JOHNSON: A lot of people have underestimated Glenn Fine over the years, starting with his success in basketball. The San Antonio Spurs drafted him in 1979. Fine keeps a team poster on his wall to prove it.
Mr. GLENN FINE (Inspector General, Department of Justice): I'm quite short, I'm five foot nine, and they don't believe I played basketball. So I've taken to telling people, well, before I started this job as the inspector general I was six foot nine.
JOHNSON: Actually, Fine's stature has grown over 10 years as inspector general. One reason: the focus on national security at the Justice Department after the September 11th attacks. Fine exposed security flaws and privacy violations by the federal government. He trained his 400 employees to pick high value targets and he gave them the freedom to roam.
Michael Bromwich used to be the Justice Department's inspector general.
Mr. MICHAEL BROMWICH (Former Inspector General, Department of Justice): There were a lot of questionable and unfortunate things that were going on at the department that led to important investigations that the inspector general's office did and that Glenn led. And that helped inform the public and the Congress as to some of the things that were going on that shouldn't have been going on.
JOHNSON: During the middle years of the Bush administration, Fine found that politics motivated the hiring of lawyers for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and its summer interns. He also went after the FBI's use of national security letters to snoop on people. Some Republicans said that Fine was playing to the media and Democrats in Congress. But Fine says those kinds of complaints are to be expected in his line of work.
Mr. FINE: Whenever you're doing a sensitive report, it's bound to make someone unhappy. We're not going to be the most popular people here in the Department of Justice. But our job is to do an aggressive, tough, but fair review and to lay out the facts, and we try to do that.
JOHNSON: George Terwilliger is a Republican lawyer in Washington. He's defended several people under investigation by the inspector general. But he generally gives Fine good marks.
Mr. GEORGE TERWILLIGER (Former Deputy Attorney General, George H. W. Bush Administration): Any time you're in that position, the person investigating your client is an adversary, but I always found Glenn to be a worthy and respected adversary.
JOHNSON: Terwilliger says it's important for the White House to choose a replacement with experience leading big investigations. But he says there's another factor that's even more critical.
Mr. TERWILLIGER: I would hope that they would be nonpolitical, because the position is subject to politicization and political abuse.
JOHNSON: Justice Department sources say it could take a while for them to nominate someone to fill Glenn Fine's shoes. Fine's longtime deputy, Cynthia Schnedar, will lead the office for the time being.
Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: Youre listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
The Challenger anniversary comes on a Friday morning, which is when we hear from StoryCorps, and today we have memories of Ron McNair, one of the astronauts killed on the Challenger. McNair was only the second African-American to go into space. His brother Carl told a friend at StoryCorps that Ron showed the courage he would need to get to space as a boy growing up in South Carolina.
Mr. CARL MCNAIR: When he was nine years old, Ron, without my parents or myself knowing his whereabouts, decided to take a mile walk from our home down to the library, which was, of course, a public library, but not so public for blacks folks...
Mr. VERNON SKIPPER: OK.
Mr. MCNAIR: ...when you're talking about 1959. So as he was walking in there, all these folks were staring at him because they were white folk only. And they were looking at him, saying, you know, who is this Negro?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. MCNAIR: So he politely positioned himself in line to check out his books.
Well, this old(ph) librarian, she says, this library is not for coloreds. He said, well, I would like to check out these books. She says, young man, if you don't leave this library right now, I'm going to call the police.
So he just propped himself up on the counter and sat there and said, I'll wait.
So she called the police and subsequently called my mother. The police came down, two burly guys come and say, well, where's the disturbance? And she pointed to the little nine-year-old boy sitting up on the counter.
And he says, ma'am, what's the problem?
So my mother - and meanwhile, she was call - she comes down there praying the whole way there: Lordy, Jesus, please don't let them put my child in jail. And my mother asks the librarian, what's the problem?
Well, he wanted to check out the books, and you know your son shouldn't be down here.
And the police officer said, why don't you just give the kid the books?
And my mother said, he'll take good care of them.
And reluctantly the librarian gave Ron the books. And my mother said, what do you say?
He said, thank you, ma'am.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. MCNAIR: Later on, as youngsters, a show came on TV called "Star Trek". Now, "Star Trek" showed the future where there were black folk and white folk working together.
Mr. SKIPPER: Right.
Mr. MCNAIR: And I looked at it as science fiction, 'cause that wasn't going to happen, really. But Ronald saw it as science possibility.
Mr. SKIPPER: Um-hum.
Mr. MCNAIR: You know, he came up during a time when there was Neal Armstrong and all of those guys. So how was a colored boy from South Carolina wearing glasses, never flew a plane, how was he going to become an astronaut?
But Ron was one who didn't accept societal norms as being his norm. I mean that was for other people. And he got to be aboard his own Starship Enterprise.
(Soundbite of music)
MONTAGNE: That's Carl McNair, brother of astronaut Ronald McNair, one of seven who died aboard the shuttle Challenger. The library that Carl talked about will be dedicated to his brother tomorrow.
StoryCorps interviews are archived at the Library of Congress, and you can subscribe to the podcast at npr.org.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The Obama administration is trying to navigate the fast-changing realities in the Middle East. Hezbollah, which the U.S. calls a terrorist organization, is emerging as the main political power broker in Lebanon. Protesters in Tunisia toppled an autocrat, and as we just heard, many are taking to the streets in Egypt and calling for the ouster of the president.
NPR's Michele Kelemen reports on how the U.S. is trying to encourage change without leading to too much turmoil or anti-American backlash.
MICHELE KELEMEN: Some U.S. foreign policy watchers were so worried that the Obama administration wasn't doing enough to support democratic forces in Egypt last year that they formed a bipartisan working group to give the U.S. a wakeup call. One member, Robert Kagan of the Brookings Institution, says the U.S. is coming around now, but only after protesters took to the streets across Egypt.
Mr. ROBERT KAGAN (Brookings Institution): The illusion that the administration and a lot of people have been clinging to is that there is such a thing as stability in Egypt that they didn't want to shake up. But the days of stability in Egypt are over. Egypt is in transition because Mubarak is old and sick and the people are fed up with 30 years of dictatorship.
KELEMEN: He's been watching U.S. policy evolve as well. Just as protesters were about to topple Tunisia's president, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued what now looks to be a fairly prescient warning to Arab rulers - young people in the region are demanding change.
Secretary HILLARY CLINTON (U.S. State Department): People have grown tired of corrupt institutions and a stagnant political order. They are demanding reforms to make their governments more effective, more responsive and more open.
KELEMEN: When she made those comments in Qatar, she had just visited Yemen, another country now rocked by protests. Clinton heard plenty of complaints while she was there about Yemen's longtime ruler. So by the time she got to Qatar, she wanted to make her point as clearly as she could.
Sec. CLINTON: In too many places, in too many ways, the region's foundations are sinking into the sand.
KELEMEN: This week her top Middle East advisor went to Tunisia to encourage that country to prepare for elections. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman says the challenges facing Tunisia are similar to those facing the entire Arab world: a young population without enough jobs.
Mr. JEFFREY FELTMAN (Assistant Secretary of State): There's a youth bulge. Young people want to feel that they are participating not only in their economic future, but participating in how they're governed, participating in their future. We have often talked publicly as well as privately with leaders across the region about, yes, this is a challenge, this is a tremendous challenge, but it's also an opportunity.
KELEMEN: The U.S. says Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak should see the street protesters as an opportunity as well to implement reforms and respond to the legitimate grievances of the protesters. Marina Ottaway, who runs the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says the U.S. support for the protesters is still too guarded.
Ms. MARINA OTTAWAY (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace): By and large there is still an attitude of let us not rock the boat too much. These are our friends, these are our allies, and they need to make some changes, but let's not go too far.
KELEMEN: Egypt is a key ally with a powerful Islamist movement in the opposition. So there is some logic to the current U.S. position, Ottaway says, but there's also a problem.
Ms. OTTAWAY: It would make sense if there was not a track record of 30 years of a government that has never introduced any reform. In other words, I think it's a bit disingenuous to appeal to a regime like the Mubarak regime to introduce changes.
KELEMEN: In Lebanon, the U.S. faces a different challenge. Hezbollah, which is on the U.S. terrorism list, is emerging as the dominant force in government. And as Ottaway points out, the U.S. is on the sidelines.
Ms. OTTAWAY: The United States is very much a spectator, because the United States cannot act as a mediator.
KELEMEN: Lebanon is just the latest example, she says, of how the U.S. is losing clout in the region, unable to influence events the way it might want.
Michele Kelemen NPR News, the State Department.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was created by Congress to answer the question what caused the financial crisis. Yesterday, it released its answer -or rather, its answers. The commission released not one, not two, but three separate reports. The six Democrats on the commission came out with one report. Three of the commissions four Republicans issued a second, dissenting report. And one Republican came out with a report all his own.
Planet Moneys Alex Blumberg says the main majority report and the main minority report differ more in style than substance.
ALEX BLUMBERG: First, the statistics. The report of the Democratic majority: over 500 pages long. Number of footnotes: 6,711. The Republican minority report: just 26 pages long. Number of footnotes: nine. Both reports, of course, seek to explain the causes of the financial crisis, which plunged the world into recession, but the majority report reads a lot like a book, and a bit of a potboiler at that.
The commission conducted hundreds of hours of interviews, with industry insiders, policymakers, whistleblowers and regulators. And the pages of the majority report are strewn with quotes from these interviews - foreboding, eye-popping quotes. A veteran banker at Citigroup says that despite his warnings, his firm continued to loosen its mortgage lending standards, and quote, joined the other lemmings headed for the cliff.
Some sections of the report are downright cinematic. An upscale homebuilder in Bakersfield, California named Warren Peterson describes the exact day he realized that the housing bubble had popped. Normally, he told the commission, real estate agents would be lined up outside his office when he arrived at work, vying to buy the homes he built. But one Saturday in November 2005, quote, he was at the sales office and noticed that not a single purchaser had entered the building. He called a friend, also in the home-building business, who said hed noticed the same thing, and asked him what he thought about it. Its over, his friend told Peterson. End quote. End chapter.
The minority report dismisses these flourishes, writing quote, the majoritys 550-page report is more an account of bad events than a focused explanation of what happened and why. But even the minority, in their slim policy brief, gets in some dramatic moments. The CEOs of Wall Streets most troubled institutions had testified before the commission, and they all made essentially the same argument, we didnt do anything wrong, our firms were fine, if the market hadnt panicked and gone crazy, we wouldnt have needed a government rescue.
The Republican commissioners essentially smack this argument down, in firm, but wonkish, language. Each CEO, they write, was quote, unwilling to admit that his firm was insolvent or nearly so. In each case, the CEOs claims were highly unpersuasive. End quote.
And yet despite their differences in tone, the reports agree on a lot. They both point to the proliferation of exotic mortgages, the failures of regulators, the incompetence of Wall Street managers.
Why come out with these two separate versions? A lot of it comes down to one sentence in the majority report. A sentence that appears in the very beginning, on page 17 of the introduction, where the majority says quote, we conclude this financial crisis was avoidable,' and quote, the result of human action and inaction.
Mr. KEITH HENNESSEY (Commissioner, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission): I think that is, if not the key difference, is probably one of just a very small number.
BLUMBERG: This is Keith Hennessey, one of the three Republican authors of the dissenting report. He says, its just too simple to say in hindsight, if people would have just behaved differently, this crisis wouldnt have happened.
Mr. HENNESSEY: I think that the crisis was certainly not foreseen and I dont know that it was foreseeable. And given that I dont know that it was avoidable, right, then I dont know that it was avoidable. No.
BLUMBERG: I think its not un-trivial to say, that is a very frustrating answer. You know what I mean?
Mr. HENNESSEY: And its frustrating to me. Look. I had to help tell this story. I wanted more than anything to be able to tell a clear story that explains very precisely, you know, heres what we couldve foreseen and heres what we couldnt. But this is historic analysis as much as anything. And its very difficult to draw those conclusions.
BLUMBERG: Fortunately, you can draw your own conclusions now. All three reports are available for download, free, at the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission website, or in book form at bookstores all over the country and online.
I'm Alex Bloomberg, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
If you'd like some more upbeat reading, you could turn to the latest stock market reports.
Stocks have been moving steadily upward. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been trading right around 12,000. The market hasn't been at that level in more than two years, since before the financial crisis.
NPR's Chris Arnold reports.
CHRIS ARNOLD: The Dow Industrials tracks the stock prices of 30 big companies. Those firms represent a cross section of the economy. Theres manufacturing, the airplane maker Boeing, and the high tech company Cisco Systems. Theres drug companies, Pfizer and Merck, and others, ATT, DuPont, Caterpillar. So those stocks, taken together, have recovered a lot of ground. In fact, they've nearly doubled from where they were at the depths of the crisis. But what does that mean for the economy or the average person with a retirement account?
Unidentified Woman (Reporter): We're knocking on the door of Dow 12,000, so how do you...
ARNOLD: If you'd turned on the financial news channel CNBC this week, you might have found yourself wishing that you had a translator. Most people can wrap their head around the Dow Industrials Average, but after that, things can get a lot more complicated pretty fast.
Unidentified Woman: What would you advise to do right now, Dave?
DAVE: I'm seeing a lot of volume picking up in the VSX, which is the Vick's short-term ETF. But I would also recommend playing some reversion to the mean.
ARNOLD: This is really confusing.
DAVE: Maybe start taking some money out of the queues. You know, but why don't we rotate maybe into the KB, to the money center banks or the IYR, the wreaths. We're starting to see renewed confidence in the CNBS market (unintelligible)...
Mr. DAVID KOTOK (Economist, Chief Investment Officer, Cumberland Advisors): He's speaking a foreign language. I understand what he said.
ARNOLD: David Kotok is an economist and chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors. He manages billions of dollars for pension funds and other investors. He says when you blow away all the jargon, it's actually pretty simple: some investors out there are worried that the Dow is rising to the point where it might get ahead of itself now and fall back again.
And there's all sorts of complicated-sounding stuff that professionals do to hedge their risk. But Kotok himself is more optimistic.
Mr. KOTOK: In my opinion, the Dow will go through the 12,000 and may reach 13,000, although it might take a year to do it.
ARNOLD: Kotok says the Dow 12,000 takeaway for him, is that the market thinks that the economy is moving in the right direction and continuing to recover. Profits are strengthening, so the market's rising - that is, as long as nothing really bad happens anytime soon.
Mr. KOTOK: A big shock, like a $150 oil price or a bird flu pandemic or a war in Iran.
ARNOLD: As far as average investors, Kotok says the Dow at 12,000 signals something else: if people got scared and pulled money out of stocks - and a lot of people did that - and now they want to get back in...
Mr. KOTOK: The easy money in the stock market has been made. Fifty percent gains from your purchases are over.
Mr. SCOTT CLELAND (Precursor LLC): Dow 12,000 is a milestone.
ARNOLD: Scott Cleland with Precursor LLC is an industry consultant. He says the Dow may have come a long way back, but...
Mr. CLELAND: The economy is nowhere near back and employment is not back where it was.
ARNOLD: Cleland explains that big companies have been able to be profitable again by cutting jobs and trimming other expenses. But he says the housing market, the jobs market, those remain pretty ravaged by the recession and are only very slowly recovering. Still, the rising stock market is bound to cheer up a lot of average people who've been watching their retirement accounts get back up at least close to where they were before the stock market imploded.
Chris Arnold, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The fast-moving and dramatic revolution in Tunisia has had all the elements of a well-plotted tale: the young fruit seller who touched off the uprising by setting himself on fire, the mass protests that spread around the country, the dictator who abandoned his presidential palace and fled.
Walid Soliman is a Tunisian writer of fiction and he also translates novels into Arabic. We reached him in his office in Tunis.
Thank you for joining us.
Mr. WALID SOLIMAN (Writer): Thank you.
MONTAGNE: You translate into Arabic text, some of the finest literature in the world. To name just a couple: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa -Nobel Prize winners, both. Is there a story or a piece of literature that you would say, in a way, this was us, this was Tunisia?
Mr. SOLIMAN: Look, there is a novel, very interesting novel, written by a Tunisian novelist who lives in France. The name of the writer is Bubecker Ayetti(ph). The title of this novel is "The Last Citizen." This writer tried to publish this book in Tunisia but could not, so he published it in France. It deals with the atmosphere - the oppressive atmosphere of the Tunisian society at the time of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
MONTAGNE: We're talking about Ben Ali, the former president.
Mr. SOLIMAN: This work now, it will take more importance because it tried to analyze the situation of Tunisia and the time of where everybody will have feared to express himself. You fear from your neighbor, you fear from somebody at the coffee shop. You are sitting and you see the photo of the president everywhere - in the shops, in the streets. And really, you feel like you are in a novel of Franz Kafka.
It was really a Kafkaesque atmosphere. Some time you feel that the president will go out in your room or something. It was really, very oppressive. I think this novel, it describes this atmosphere very well.
MONTAGNE: What about now? From the outside, it seems like Tunisia has been transformed, at least for the moment. What now, if you stepped out of the world of Kafka, whose world would you step into?
Mr. SOLIMAN: Now I think, let me say that YouTube is open. You can read the political articles in Internet. You can read the moment you can find it. Because before, at the time of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the mode was central. Now, you can read all the political stuff you want. You can express yourself.
Now, for example, I can write on my wall on Facebook, whatever I want - there is no fear. And I think that Tunisian people now, they will not accept any regime who will not allow them to express themselves. And I am among those Tunisian people who I will not allow anybody to censor me from now on. Because now we know the value of freedom, of expression. And if a regime is able to give us freedom of expression, it is welcome. Otherwise, I think people, they will make another revolution.
MONTAGNE: If you had to put a title to the events of the last several weeks, what would you call it?
Mr. SOLIMAN: I would call it, actually, a nightmare.
MONTAGNE: Wow.
Mr. SOLIMAN: Yeah.
MONTAGNE: After the nightmare.
Mr. SOLIMAN: I think I would say it was a (unintelligible) nightmare because we were living in a strange regime. Nobody knows what happened, because they tried to impose their views and you should believe that you live in the paradise, because everything was manipulated - the figures, the statistics, everything. And they used to tell us you are in the best country. It's the country of freedom; it's the country of economical miracle. And people, they cannot believe that because they live every day in a very difficult reality.
So, when you compare the figures and the statistics with what you live, you feel as if you are in a very strange nightmare. So, that was our situation before the departure of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for joining us.
Mr. SOLIMAN: Thank you. Thank you.
MONTAGNE: Walid Soliman is a Tunisian writer of short stories.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Tunisia's upheaval has been called the Jasmine Revolution. Walid Soliman says that term did not come from the people of Tunisia.
Mr. WALID SOLIMAN (Writer): This name came from the French media.
INSKEEP: It came from the French media, and he says, from there it caught on in media outlets around the world. Revolutions with sweet-sounding names have become the norm in recent years.
Unidentified Man #1: Shortly after the Velvet Revolution...
Unidentified Man #2: ...the Rose Revolution.
LIANE HANSEN: Familiar names from the Orange Revolution...
Unidentified Woman #1: ...the Tulip Revolution...
GUY RAZ: Came to be known as the Green Revolution.
(Soundbite of people protesting)
MONTAGNE: Robert Lane Greene, a correspondent for The Economist, says the media promote the names for these revolutions.
Mr. ROBERT LANE GREENE (Correspondent, The Economist): It's outsiders connecting them in sort of a, I don't want to say lazy, but just shy of lazy shorthand.
MONTAGNE: Lazy shorthand that can have real effects on the ground. Once a name catches on, activists use it to unify fractious groups and win international attention and support.
INSKEEP: Of course, the term revolution can be hastily applied. Robert Greene, of The Economist, says nobody knows if an uprising is a revolution until it succeeds, and even then it may not last.
MONTAGNE: Ukraine had its Orange Revolution six years ago, but the president who was swept into power was later voted out of office last year.
INSKEEP: That Orange Revolution is also an example of how much importance people put on a name. Activists in Ukraine met with foreign marketers about coming up with a brand. Before it was the Orange Revolution, it was called the Chestnut Revolution didn't sound so inspiring.
Michael Quinion, who writes the World Wide Words newsletter, says other upheavals have gone through name changes.
Mr. MICHAEL QUINION (World Wide Words): The classic one is Kazakhstan, which started out being called the Pink Revolution, the Lemon Revolution, the Silk Revolution, the Daffodil Revolution.
INSKEEP: Ended up being the Tulip Revolution.
Tunisia's uprising has also been called the Twitter or WikiLeaks Revolution. The current name Jasmine well, it's a retread, it's been used to describe other protests in other countries - in Syria in 2005 and in Pakistan in 2007. Here's NPR's Philip Reeves talking about Pakistan's former foreign minister.
PHILIP REEVES: He calls it the Jasmine Revolution. Jasmine, because this is Pakistan's national flower.
INSKEEP: But it's also Tunisia's national flower. In fact, this is the second recent Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia. Some people use the same phrase to refer to the events in 1987 when Ben Ali came into power - the same president who was just ousted in the current Jasmine Revolution.
MONTAGNE: Walid Soliman says he respects Jasmine Revolution, or whatever name the people of Tunisia want to use.
Mr. SOLIMAN: We live inside, and for me it's just a Tunisian revolution. It's our revolution, Tunisia - not Jasmine or something else.
INSKEEP: By any name, Tunisia has a new government and today, we're watching events in Egypt where protesters are on the streets, as well as police. No accepted name, yet, describes what is happening there.
(Soundbite of song, "Revolution")
Mr. JOHN LENNON: (Singing) You say you want a revolution, well, you know.
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Rahm Emanuel is on the ballot in Chicago. Emanuel quit as President Obama's chief of staff a few months ago in order to run for mayor in his hometown. He was the front-runner in next month's election, until he was knocked off the ballot by an Illinois court, which ruled he did not meet residency requirements. But late yesterday, the state Supreme Court reversed that ruling.
From Chicago, NPR's David Schaper reports.
DAVID SCHAPER: A state appeals court had ruled earlier this week that Rahm Emanuel was not eligible to be a candidate for mayor of Chicago, because he did not live in the city for one full year prior to next month's election, as required by Illinois law.
The appellate justices agreed that for the purposes of voting, Emanuel maintained residency when he moved to Washington two years ago to serve as President Obama's chief of staff. But they ruled there is a higher residency standard for candidates.
Professor DAWN CLARK NETSCH (Law, Northwestern University): It developed a whole new standard here at virtually the 11th hour before the election in Chicago.
SCHAPER: Northwestern University law Professor Dawn Clark Netsch played a key role in re-drafting the Illinois constitution in 1970. She says the Illinois Supreme Court's unanimous decision to reverse the appeals court and reinstate Emanuel to the February 22nd ballot is the right call.
Prof. NETSCH: Nobody really questioned that he was a resident in the sense that he had been born, raised here, lived here, served Congress from here, but had gone off to serve the president of the United States.
SCHAPER: Netsch calls it troubling that the appellate justices would invent this new standard. The justices on the Illinois Supreme Court weren't nearly so nice. In a scathing majority opinion, five of the justices sharply rebuked the appellate court, calling its reasoning fundamentally flawed and mysterious, tossing out 150 years of settled residency law to create a new and undefined standard without any foundation in Illinois law.
Professor BILL KRESSE (St. Xavier University): I'm not at all surprised at the finding of the majority in the Supreme Court. I am somewhat troubled by the tenor of the case.
SCHAPER: Bill Kresse is a professor at St. Xavier University in Chicago, who is also a hearing officer for the city's Board of Elections.
Prof. KRESSE: It would seem that President Obama's call for civility may not have reached the Illinois Supreme Court.
SCHAPER: Kresse agrees with the two Supreme Court justices who wrote a separate opinion agreeing Emanuel should be on the ballot, but pointing out that the definition of residency in Illinois has not always been clear cut.
Attorneys for those who challenged his residency acknowledge that they have no recourse to appeal to the federal courts, so Emanuel is on the ballot for good.
Mr. RAHM EMANUEL (Mayoral Candidate, Chicago): I'm relieved for the city. I'm relieved for the voters, because they need the certainty that's important to them.
SCHAPER: At an elevated train platform in Chicago's Loop where he greeted evening commuters, Emanuel told reporters he's glad the residency fight is now behind him so he can focus on the issues in this campaign.
Mr. EMANUEL: I've got to be honest. We're a pretty avid Scrabble-playing family. I have banned the word resident in Scrabble in our household. I never want to see it again. Even if you get it on a triple word, you're not allowed to use it. Thank you, guys.
SCHAPER: He then left for a live, televised debate, where he mixed it up with his three major opponents, City Clerk Miguel Del Valle, former School Board President Gery Chico, and former Senator Carol Moseley Braun. They're sharpening their attacks on Emanuel, as he reclaims the pole position in a race for Chicago mayor that is entering its final 25 days.
David Schaper, NPR News, Chicago.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
The White House is changing its public face. Jay Carney, who's been the spokesman for the vice president, will be the new press secretary, replacing Robert Gibbs. Carney was named yesterday. And NPR's Ari Shapiro has this profile.
ARI SHAPIRO: In a White House where people wear their Washington outsider status as a badge of honor, Jay Carney has always been different. While the outgoing press secretary Robert Gibbs grew up in Alabama, Carney was born in the Washington suburbs. He spent much of his working life here as a reporter. And his former colleagues say he has a deep understanding of the city.
When Carney was Washington Bureau Chief at Time Magazine, Ana Marie Cox was Washington editor of the magazine's website. She's now with GQ, and she describes Carney as funny, charming, and smart.
Ms. ANA MARIE COX (GQ): You know, Gibbs has a certain degree of contempt for the press that I think is hard to disguise. He has open contempt for the press, and I think that Jay does not.
SHAPIRO: That's partly because Carney was a member of the press for so long. He only left in 2008 to become communications director for then Vice President-elect Joe Biden.
Over two decades at Time, he reported from Moscow, Panama, and Havana. But he was best known for his work in Washington. On C-SPAN a few years ago, he described the role of the White House press secretary from the view of a White House correspondent.
Mr. JIM CARNEY (Press secretary, White House): There is a certain amount of information that the press secretary wants to convey. There's another pocket of information that he's willing to convey if, I believe, if provoked, or led that way by a question, or tricked, and you want to get to that.
SHAPIRO: He described the tightrope the press secretary must walk, between the president on one hand and the press corps on the other. And in a bit of self-deprecation, he offered an opinion on how he might someday do in the job.
Mr. CARNEY: The best press secretaries were very deft at serving, both their boss - the president, the white house, the administration - and the press. It's a tricky job. I'm sure I wouldn't be any good at it - but not disservicing either side.
SHAPIRO: In that same interview he described the luxury of working at a weekly magazine without daily or hourly deadlines. But that news cycle has changed dramatically. Just about everybody in the White House press corps now files online updates all day long. At a party for liberal bloggers in 2007, Carney spoke favorably of that growing online world.
Mr. CARNEY: I think that the blogosphere's critique of the mainstream media has been overwhelmingly helpful. And I think that it's made - by and large made major media pay a lot more attention to a lot of details that they should be paying attention to.
SHAPIRO: Carney's elevation was part of a broader change involving more than a dozen staffers that White House chief of staff Bill Daley described in a message to employees yesterday.
Daley is a new face at the White House himself. President Obama is trying to restructure his administration halfway through the term. The goal, according to Daley's memo, is to bring greater clarity to our structure and roles and enhance coordination and collaboration.
Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
In the United States Senate, four Republicans have announced the formation of a Tea Party Caucus. As NPR's Audie Cornish reports, they're following the lead of the House, where conservatives have already put together a caucus with more than 50 members.
AUDIE CORNISH: The first meeting of the Senate Tea Party caucus wasn't a tony backroom gathering of legislators in leather couches. Part post-election victory lap, part town hall meeting, the event included more than 120 invited activists from groups such as FreedomWorks, Tea Party Express, and Americans for Tax Reform. Here's Merrill Smith of the Republican Liberty Caucus.
Mr. MERRILL SMITH (Republican Liberty Caucus): We have to watch the Republicans. They're, you know, they're almost worse because they get your hopes up and then they dont deliver. I think they've gotten the message this time.
CORNISH: And the Senate Tea Party caucus was as notable for who wasn't there as for who was. Conservative favorites like Florida's Marco Rubio and New Hampshire's Kelly Ayotte have so far declined to join.
Four out of the 47 Senate Republicans formed the inaugural group: Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Senator Paul assured the crowd they hadn't been co-opted by the establishment, rather, it was the other way around.
Senator RAND PAUL (Republican, Kentucky): I went to my first State of the Union the other day and guess who now is against earmarks.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Sen. PAUL: The president of the United States has been co-opted by the Tea Party.
CORNISH: And Senator DeMint said the goal was to create an open forum.
Senator JIM DEMINT (Republican, South Carolina): So that we can give you a report on what we're trying to do and you can get up and tell us we're not doing enough.
CORNISH: First test of that pledge came almost immediately, when local Tea Party WDC member Lisa Miller prodded the senator on budget cutting.
Ms. LISA MILLER (Tea Party WDC): Would you be willing to present a bill that has at 1.4 trillion in cuts per annum? Because if you could just put forth something that allows us to see that we can reach a balanced budget this year or the next year, the Tea Party would be much more energized.
CORNISH: Thats triple the most conservative proposal floating around the Senate today.
Sen. DEMINT: We just are thinking that through. If I put down the things that have to be cut this year to get to cut 1.5 trillion, it would probably kill the idea because everybody starts realizing they have a...
Ms. MILLER: Try. Try. Try. We will back you up.
Sen. DEMINT: But no. But if you have...
CORNISH: The political wish list was long, but lawmakers pledged there would be more forums like this one to get things going.
Audie Cornish, NPR News, the Capitol.
(Soundbite of music)
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
NPR's business news starts with the earnings at Ford.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: And there are a lot of earnings. The country's second-largest automaker, Ford Motor, announced that it made 6.6 billion dollars last year. That is the highest profit since 1999. Ford has been reshaping itself, lowering costs and focusing on new models. Last year, its sales in the United States grew nearly 20 percent compared with 11 percent for the industry as a whole.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Amazon.com reported fourth-quarter profits of more than $400 million yesterday. The Internet retailer's profits were not as robust as some were hoping. Still, along with the financial numbers, Amazon also reported that its customers are now buying more digital books than books in any other format.
Heres more from NPRs Wendy Kaufman.
WENDY KAUFMAN: Last summer, Amazon said that sales of digital books had surpassed those of Hardcover versions. Yesterday, the company said downloadable digital books had surpassed paperbacks as well.
Author, Librarian and MORNING EDITION commentator, Nancy Pearl.
Ms. NANCY PEARL (Librarian, NancyPearl.com): I think that's significant that its paperbacks, because then its no longer price its convenience.
KAUFMAN: Pearls not surprised by the success of e-books but shes not happy about it.
Ms. PEARL: Most of the things that weve done to make life more convenient for people has come at a price, whether its having face-to-face interactions with your bookseller or your librarian, or wandering into the store to browse.
KAUFMAN: Amazon sold millions of its Kindle book reading devices over the holiday period. And the company said that for the first time ever, it had sales of more than $10 billion in a single quarter.
But says research analyst Aaron Kessler of the firm, Think Equity...
Mr. AARON KESSLER (Research analyst, Think Equity): Its a strong quarter but it fell short of investor expectations, so from that standpoint, it is a disappointment.
KAUFMAN: Spending especially on new distribution centers was up and overall profit margins were less than Wall Street expected.
Wendy Kaufman, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And our last word in business is about a bet on the Super Bowl, which will be played a week from Sunday when the Green Bay Packers face the Pittsburgh Steelers. Whoever wins won't just get Super Bowl rings, they'll get prized artwork.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Art museums in Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, Wisconsin are wagering masterpieces on the game. If the Steelers win, the Milwaukee Art Museum says it'll send over one of its treasures: a painting by the French impressionist, Gustave Caillebotte for a few months.
MONTAGNE: If the Packers prevail, the Carnegie Art Museum in Pittsburgh will send a Renoir to Milwaukee for a temporary loan.
INSKEEP: Now, its not the first time that museums have anteed art in the run-up to the Super Bowl.
MONTAGNE: Last year, art and football fans in New Orleans were able to gloat over a prized painting from Indianapolis, after the Saints beat the Colts.
INSKEEP: But I don't think it's really betting if it's a temporary loan of the painting, that's not serious. If you want to be serious about this bet, the artwork you win or lose the artwork with your team if you believe in it.
MONTAGNE: OK, even if it costs you millions and millions of dollars.
INSKEEP: Whatever, it's a game, it's a game. Thats the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
(Soundbite of music)
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Let's get the latest now from Egypt. Here's what we knew heading into this morning. Protests have been building all week against President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. More protests were planned in Cairo today, Friday, the day of prayer. The Internet was cut off by the government overnight, and there was a massive police presence on the streets.
NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson has been out among the crowds today. Soraya, what have you been seeing?
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Well, the call to prayer - we went to one particular mosque, because obviously it takes place at many mosques across the city. And Mustafa Muhammad(ph) was listed as a place where this is a mosque in the middle of the downtown area, and it was listed as a place where many people would show up. And sure enough, about 1,000 people were there, even before the prayer has ended.
And there were even more riot policemen, however. They gathered around the mosque. The imam from the mosque was appealing for calm. It was saying that people have a right or he was saying, I should say, that people have a right to demonstrate peacefully and to express their views and that the police should not engage them, and he was also calling on the protesters to stay calm.
But and initially that's what seemed to happen. The cordon of security forces and riot police gave way to the thousands initially it looked like 1,000 or 2,000 people, which quickly became I mean as my best estimate I would say 10 to 20 thousand people, just on this particular march that I was in.
Everyone is heading to Tahrir Square. That's the place that's not far from the Interior Ministry, where everybody or which sort of served as a flashpoint on Tuesday, and this is where people are trying to get to today.
However, about an hour into the march the police basically blocked off the people. They're not letting them enter the square area. They started lobbing tear gas and using water cannons. And they were lobbing so much tear gas that it was just spread all over the neighborhood. You could not escape it.
And there were children in this march. They were crying. Women, old women. Men. People fainting on the streets. But they were staying determined to stay there. About a a group of about 1,000 seemed to stay in place for about an hour at the time I left them.
Some of them came running back to me to say that the police were starting to light fires, tires on fire, basically, to try and suggest that the protesters were getting violent. They were very upset, the protesters, saying we are peaceful but we are determined, we are not going to stop. And so this is where the things stand at the moment, Steve.
INSKEEP: You mentioned tear gas everywhere. Are you okay?
NELSON: I'm okay. I got I mean I got a fair amount of it, but I'm out of it now, so what's really interesting is there are a lot of people driving around I shouldn't say a lot but there are some people driving around on the streets, that when they see you sort of staggering about, looking like you've been hit by tear gas, they will stop, they will give you a ride. I just had a young man who says that he doesn't have the lungs for it, he can't really take tear gas, but he's driving around town with eggs that he's throwing at the police officers and giving rides to stranded people like myself, who are trying get back to a phone line so we can phone in what's happening.
INSKEEP: Soraya, I want to make sure we have as global a picture as we can of what's happening here. You were at one particular mosque. You mentioned that up to 10,000 people perhaps started moving toward Tahrir Square, which is the place where everyone's trying to converge. I suppose we can presume that there are other people who prayed at other mosques today who are also trying to get to that square. There could be many thousands of people around Cairo?
NELSON: Absolutely. They are out in force today. The problem, of course, is that there are no means of communications. We have no phone lines other than land lines. All cell phones are down. All capability to Tweet or Facebook, use Facebook, which is the way that the protesters have been communicating with each other, is all gone.
There is nothing today. There is no way to talk to each other. And so it's kind amazing that as many people are out as they are and that they're able to converge the way they do.
INSKEEP: You mentioned that the imam of the mosque where you attended was telling the police to please be calm. Do you have any broader sense of what religious authorities are saying in this situation in Cairo?
NELSON: I do not. But it's important to note that these imams are they work for the religious authority, they're directed by the government here. So the fact that he would be saying something, appealing for calm and telling protesters they have the right to speak peacefully, is quite telling.
INSKEEP: NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is in Cairo, Egypt, bringing us the latest on protests there. And Soraya, we'll check in with you again. Thanks very much and be safe.
NELSON: Thank you, Steve. Thanks.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Twenty-five years ago today, the space shuttle Challenger exploded in the air just over a minute after liftoff.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
The seven people onboard included Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first teacher in space.
INSKEEP: And students in classrooms across America were glued to TV sets that morning.
MONTAGNE: No one thought anything bad would happen. It was an adventure. So teachers made a special point of showing the lift-off to their classes. One of those was first-grade teacher Ellen McKinney. She still teaches elementary school in McCall, Idaho, and joined us to talk about that time. Welcome to the program.
Ms. ELLEN MCKINNEY (Teacher): Thank you.
MONTAGNE: Leading up to the launch, what were you doing with your kids to prepare them for what was to be a memorable event for them?
Ms. MCKINNEY: It was a very exciting time. We were working to learn as much as we could. We experimented with toys in space. We watched training videos that have been provided to us through NASA. We played with rockets, we had stuff exploding. It was just a really fun time.
MONTAGNE: Christa McAuliffe was the first regular person to go up in space, and sort of perfect that she would be a teacher, because it would bring in a way all the kids along with her. Speaking before the launch - we have a clip of tape of her here - she seemed to be thinking really more about the teaching profession than the fact that she was going up in space.
(Soundbite of archived recording)
Ms. CHRISTA MCAULIFFE (Teacher): I was delighted that a teacher was chosen as the first space participant because there are so many of us who have daily contact with people, and that was a very exciting thing for me, to think that teachers were finally recognized as the good communicators that they are and that they reach so many students.
MONTAGNE: Did that give an extra glamour, if you will, to being a teacher?
Ms. MCKINNEY: It did. I think it brought recognition to something that we hold near and dear to ourselves, and Christa was just such an exemplary person, and she went as a teacher.
MONTAGNE: That tape comes from a profile that I had prepared to go on the air the night of the launch, and it turned from a profile of the crew into a remembrance. Take us back to that morning.
Ms. MCKINNEY: We had divided the 600 kids in our school into half of them in the library, half of them in the gym - had television monitors at that time. And when the T-minus started, there were cheers and exuberance, and we counted down.
And then it was silent. We stopped talking about what was happening. We had been saying, now watch for the solid rocket boosters to come off, we're going to be seeing that any minute. And then they weren't happening and then the explosion, and the kids quieted down. And we needed to tell them something's gone wrong. And they kept asking, you know, are those people dead? And we had to tell them yes. And that was probably one of the hardest things.
MONTAGNE: What lessons do you take 25 years later from the shuttle disaster for the young kids that you teach? I mean, do you still talk about it to your classrooms and do you think about it yourself?
Ms. MCKINNEY: Yes. We just finished a space study in the class I teach now, which is second grade. Of course, one of the questions was, and always is, is it dangerous, is there a risk? And there's always a child who will bring up that yes, there was an accident, but there are inherent risks involved and always will be. Students understand that. They can understand having dreams and hopes, and when they see that people are willing to take risks, they're more willing to take risks, like in their learning, and in adventure and in hope, but understanding that there's a line that you have to make a choice on.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for talking with us and sharing your memories with us.
Ms. MCKINNEY: Thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Second grade teacher Ellen McKinney, who was watching the Challenger shuttle lift off with her class when it exploded 25 years ago today.
And one more note on the elementary school in McCall, Idaho where she works. It was a teacher from that school who eventually did become the first teacher in space. That was Barbara Morgan, who went up in 2007, after applying many years earlier to go up in the Challenger. In that application Morgan wrote: I want to get some stardust on me.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Basketball's Yao Ming was China's first pro sports superstar. And now it looks like there's another on the rise. China's new sporting hero is a woman. And she plays tennis - very well. Tomorrow, 28-year-old Li Na will become the first Chinese player ever to make it to the finals of a grand slam tennis event. She meets Belgium's Kim Clijsters in the Australian Open. NPR's Louisa Lim joins us from Beijing to talk about her.
And Louisa, is everyone there in China talking about the Australian Open?
LOUISA LIM: Yes. It is actually quite big news over here. I mean, many of the Chinese papers have got pictures of her victory - Li Na victory moment pasted(ph) on the front page. And several of them have got two or three pages devoted to her. The China daily today called her a sporting pioneer of her time. And tennis officials are calling her things like the pride of China.
So it is a big deal. I mean, yesterday state-run TV even interrupted their programming on the main news channel to broadcast her match live. I think it's because the Chinese government has invested a huge amount in tennis. It's trying to build up a stable of tennis superstars pretty much from scratch. So her success is a vindication in some ways of that strategy.
MONTAGNE: And how popular is tennis in China?
LIM: Well, it's not really that popular at all. I mean, the sports that are really popular are those that China traditionally dominates in, things like ping-pong and badminton. And Li Na herself tells the story that 20 years ago, when her coach wanted her to switch from playing badminton to playing tennis, they asked her parents for permission. And her parents replied, well, what's tennis?
I mean, nowadays it's a bit different. And the latest figures are that 12 million Chinese play tennis regularly. It sounds a lot, but in a country of 1.3 billion, that's not really that much.
But the Chinese press, they do believe that if Li Na wins this match, she could inspire this whole new tennis craze in China. She herself has said she hopes that China will see a tennis boom like Russia's seen. And she hopes there'll be a whole sort of series of top flight players coming out of China within the next three to five years.
MONTAGNE: And I gather Li Na is unusually outspoken for a Chinese sports star. Tell us a bit about her.
LIM: Yes. Well, Internet users are calling her a symbol of the new China. And she is a really interesting role model. She's quite unconventional. She has a tattoo of a rose on her chest, which is very unusual for a Chinese sports star. And she speaks English and she's funny.
I mean, yesterday after her match she said that she wasn't on form to begin with because she'd been kept awake overnight by her husband snoring. And her husband is actually her coach, Jiang Shan.
And that's really one of the most interesting things about her, that she actually left China's national state-run sports system because she wanted the freedom to train the way she wanted and to choose her own coach. So she is a rebel. And in a country like China, where politics and sports are intertwined, there is a political dimension to her success.
And some of the newspapers are talking about that as well. I mean, the Hong Kong paper the South China Morning Post said in an editorial in her own way Li Na has shown the Communist Party that it need not fear greater individual freedoms.
MONTAGNE: And just very quickly, what are Li Na's chances tomorrow in the Australian Open?
LIM: Well, she's ranked number 11 in the world. Clijsters is number three. And they've met six times in the past. Clijsters won 4-2. But Li Na won in the last match, so it's really anyone's game.
But she is quite driven. And the running joke of the tournament has been that she has said if she wins, her husband/coach is going to allow her to go on a shopping spree with his credit card. So combine that with the draw of being the first Chinese tennis player to win a grand slam final, and she's got a lot to play for.
MONTAGNE: Louisa, thanks very much.
LIM: Thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Louisa Lim speaking from Beijing.
This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
This week, the Arab news channel Al-Jazeera published hundreds of secret documents that detail more than a decade of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. They include emails, the minutes of meetings, maps and other papers. Because they were apparently leaked from the Palestinian side - many of the documents bear the seal of the Palestinian Authority - the viewpoint here is one-sided. But they do provide insight into the most recent chapter of the stalled peace talks. Here's NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro.
LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO: Peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians are at a complete standstill. How did we get here?
(Soundbite of music)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: On Thursday, Al-Jazeera released all of the documents in its possession, and a portion deal with the latest era in peace negotiations. And what it shows is a great deal of dashed hopes.
Unidentified Man: June 2, 2009.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's two days before President Obama is slated to give his speech to the Muslim world. According to the minutes of a meeting between chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and his team, expectations are high. Erekat has just returned from Washington. He tells his team: The Washington I went to last week isn't the Washington I knew before. There is a growing sense in the U.S. that something must be done soon, he says. Washington is very concerned about the state of the Middle East.
Unidentified Man: September 30, 2009.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: The U.S. government has made a settlement freeze by the Israelis central to its Middle East policy. In a position paper the Palestinians draw up, they say that for any settlement freeze to be effective, it must include East Jerusalem, an area the Palestinians want for the capital of their future state.
Unidentified Man: October 21, 2009.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Saeb Erekat meets with U.S. Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, and his deputy, David Hale. He delivers the message that a partial freeze that excludes East Jerusalem won't bring the Palestinians back to the table.
Erekat is quoted as saying in the minutes of the meeting: We cannot have resumption of negotiations with this government. We will punish Netanyahu. He can't survive without a process with us. We won't give him the leverage of taking us for a ride and continuing settlements while we negotiate. Am I clear? Erekat asks. No direct negotiations unless there is a freeze that includes East Jerusalem, he says.
In November 2009, Israel implements a 10-month freeze. It does not include Jerusalem and there are other caveats.
Unidentified Man: January 15, 2010.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: In one of the last direct exchanges between U.S. and Palestinian officials documented by the Palestine Papers, Saeb Erekat is reduced to pleading with the U.S. He tells David Hale: Our credibility on the ground has never been so low. Now it's about survival.
Later that year, direct negotiations were launched between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. They lasted only a few weeks and prospects that they will resume look bleak. Settlements are again the main point of contention.
In an interview in Ramallah yesterday, senior Palestinian Authority official Nabil Shaath said the papers accurately reflect the disappointment the Palestinians feel with Mr. Obama.
Mr. NABIL SHAATH (Palestinian Authority): Well, there is a sense of betrayal. I mean, we are not his priority. It's very obvious. I mean, the total lack of resolve. And it's his statement - Mr. Obama's statement that in order to get any peace you should stop all settlement activities. And then he failed to seduce Mr. Netanyahu in doing what he should have done. This is really too much. I mean, this is really too much to take.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: David Ricci is a professor of political science at Hebrew University. He says he believes the president and his team were naive.
Professor DAVID RICCI (Hebrew University): Everybody here has been waiting for Obama for two years. And he really hasn't come. He sends George Mitchell. He sends Joe Biden. He sends Hillary Clinton, but he doesn't come himself. And that's not the way you make a deal in the Middle East. I don't think he understands the dynamics.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: The U.S. says it remains committed to helping forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. But Ricci says the U.S. needs to do more.
Prof. RICCI: In the Middle East you make a sulha, you make a deal between two warring tribes or warring families who aren't able to resolve their differences until a third party comes in and kind of gives them some way of making an adjustment that they couldn't make by themselves.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: You need the U.S. to pin things down, he says. But so far the American government hasn't done that.
Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
At Florida's Polk County Youth Fair, students auction off baked goods for up to $500. Nine-year-old Abigail Putnam got quite the shock, though, when her hazelnut chocolate cake fetched $10,000. The big spender was fertilizer company Mosaic. And Abigail's father is the state's agricultural commissioner. He called the purchase, quote, "awkward." The company is investigating. She donated $9,000 to the fair.
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep with the story of an artist at sea.
Nicholas Harrington is 16. His family owned a piano, which was trashed at a holiday party in South Florida. Mr. Harrington and three other people lifted the ruined piano onto a boat. They set up the piano on a sandbar in Biscayne Bay. Fish and Wildlife officials acknowledge the teenager was expressing his artistic side. But the family had to remove the piano to avoid criminal charges for dumping.
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Now, here's a story we've been following all morning long: Egyptians have protested in the streets again today. The protests began after midday prayers, which happen on Fridays.
Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, our correspondent in Cairo, has been out in the crowd. She followed a march of thousands of people heading toward a main square from the mosque where they had prayed. It is believed - although it's difficult to communicate - it's believed that other people were heading toward that same square from other mosques around Cairo.
We're keeping a close watch on this story. We'll bring you updates throughout the morning as police resist the protesters who are protesting the rule of Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt.
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
Every now and then somebody says of a guy, it's like he's married to his mother. That complaint is at the center of a divorce filing in Italy.
A woman arrived at an airport at Rome's airport to fly off to her honeymoon. Her husband met her at the airport and brought his mother along. He said she was too sick to leave at home. The bride went on that honeymoon, but when the mother-in-law also showed up for the holidays, the bride said she had had enough and filed for divorce.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
Let's get some analysis of today's protests in Cairo. What we know is that tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in the capital of Egypt. Egyptian security forces have responded with tear gas, batons and rubber bullets. People are protesting the decades-long rule of President Hosni Mubarak.
We're going to talk now with Edward Walker. He's a former United States ambassador to Egypt. He's following the story.
Ambassador, welcome to the program.
Mr. EDWARD WALKER (Former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt): Well, thank you very much.
INSKEEP: What we have here are data points. Our correspondent is on the ground, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, and saw thousands of people protesting. We have other reports of protests around Cairo. Can you help us pull these data points together? How serious do these protests seem to you?
Mr. WALKER: These are pretty serious protests. This is reminiscent of the 1977 riots that I went through, the bread riots. And it's very frightening if you're in the middle of it. And it always seems to be worse in some senses than it actually is if you get to the outskirts. I've got friends who have called and -in other parts of Egypt that have not seem quite this reaction. But if Mubarak doesn't take it seriously, he's making a big mistake.
INSKEEP: Well, it sounds like he is, or at least his security forces are taking seriously, based on the thousands and thousands of police on the streets. How tough are the security forces in Egypt?
Mr. WALKER: They're pretty darn tough. And if they can't handle it, the army would be brought in, and the army can handle it. They don't like to bring the army in to face citizens. It's not a nice thing to do.
If I had to guess, I would guess they would get this under control in the next few days. But if they don't take it as a big, big warning sign and start making some changes, it's just going to happen again. It'll get worse each time.
INSKEEP: Our correspondent, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, described one group of thousands of people who attempted to reach Tahrir Square in Cairo. That seemed to be the square where protestors had agreed to attempt to congregate. Let's listen to her description of what the police did to block them off.
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: They started lobbing tear gas and using water cannons. And they were lobbing so much tear gas that it was just spread all over the neighborhood. You could not escape it.
And there were children in this march. They were crying. Women, old women. Men. People fainting on the streets. But they were staying determined to stay there. About a a group of about 1,000 seemed to stay in place for about an hour at the time I left them.
INSKEEP: Is there a danger of a backlash if the security forces crack down too hard?
Mr. WALKER: Oh, absolutely. They can overdo it. But they've got pretty good experience with how to do this without causing too many martyrs. They will be very careful to try to avoid any use of live fire.
INSKEEP: This seems to be putting the United States in an awkward position. Americans would like to support democracy and democratic movements. And we certainly speak on behalf of them. But at the same time, the United States government has been very, very closely allied with this authoritarian government of President Hosni Mubarak. Are these protests good for the United States?
Mr. WALKER: Well, they are good for the United States if they manage to lead to some real, serious reform in Egypt. I think that the problem is - and I think the United States has been a little bit too reluctant to criticize our friends, because it is in our interests to make sure that these countries do remain stable. They can't do that if they're just going to just ignore the will and the desires of their people.
INSKEEP: And is there a possibility that this could lead to a more democratic Egypt? Because, of course, the fear is immediately raised of an Islamist government in Egypt.
Mr. WALKER: Well, you're going to have to take into account that fact that a good portion of the Egyptian people are Muslims, and that they are very religious people, and that there is going to have to be an element of Islam in any democrat government. But other countries have survived like this - Turkey, and so on. So I don't think it's impossible to arrange a compromise where Islamists have a voice, and the people have a voice.
INSKEEP: Very briefly, what would you tell President Obama to do if he called you up and asked you for a word of advice?
Mr. WALKER: I would tell him to get on the horn to Mubarak and tell him to stop this, and to start making some real changes in Egypt and promise the people that things are going to change. Otherwise, he isn't going to be around very much longer.
INSKEEP: Ambassador, thanks very much.
Mr. WALKER: You bet.
INSKEEP: Edward Walker's a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt. He's now teaching at Hamilton College in New York.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Sports fans love and live by bromides. You'll hear a lot of them in these days leading up to the Super Bowl: Game is won or lost on the line of scrimmage. Field position, that's the game. They're going to call a time-out now to ice the kicker, etcetera.
Now another University of Chicago economist has tried to apply some tenets of economic analysis to sports that his colleague Steve Levitt applied to the larger world with "Freakonomics."
Tobias Moskowitz, a behavioral economist and professor of finance at the University of Chicago, and Jon Wertheim, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, have written a new book, "Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports are Played and Games are Won."
Tobias Moskowitz and Jon Wertheim join us from New York.
Gentlemen, thanks very much for being with us.
Mr. JON WERTHEIM (Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated: Thank you.
Professor TOBIAS MOSKOWITZ (Finance, University of Chicago): Thank you.
SIMON: And let me begin with you first Professor Moskowitz. Your line of thinking begins with when you folks were together at summer camp.
Prof. MOSKOWITZ: Right. We go way back and we grew up in Indiana, met at summer camp in Michigan. He was at Bloomington. I was in West Lafayette. So were obviously college basketball fans but for rival teams. We've always had a love of sports and remained friends for many years.
SIMON: We're coming up to the Super Bowl, of course, and there is no home field advantage, but I'm fascinated by the section of the book where you folks suggest there is such a thing as home field advantage but not for the reasons a lot of us think.
Mr. WERTHEIM: Home teams get different calls than visiting teams. And we looked at...
SIMON: From the referees...
Mr. WERTHEIM: From the referees.
SIMON: ...from impartial officials.
Mr. WERTHEIM: From the impartial officials. And we looked at all sorts of data - how balls and strikes are called. We looked at replay and whether calls were being overturned in the NFL, red cards in soccer. And what we saw in a variety of sports and a variety of contexts was that officials were simply calling the game differently for the home team versus the road team, and when the games were closer that difference expanded. And when they knew they were being monitored, when there were cameras or whether there was replay, that difference, ironically went down.
And it just became pretty clear to us that this is where the home field advantage really resides.
SIMON: But officials are flown in from all over now, right?
Mr. MOSKOWITZ: What we think is that the root of this is social psychology, that people are influenced by group opinion. In sports is when the officials are calling things in favor of the home team, it's not on the obvious calls. You know, a pitch right down the middle of the plate, that's an obvious call; it's a strike. They don't try to give that to the home team. But when the pitch is uncertain, when it's on the corners, when you're not sure whether it's a strike or a ball, they tend to call it with the home crowd.
And part of it is the home crowd, of course, is biased and they see it in the home team's favor, and we think that influences the referees.
Mr. WERTHEIM: And nothing subversive. We don't think these refs are on the take, but it's just sort of a basic human nature.
SIMON: There's a bromide in football that when there's about to be a field goal attempt often the defensive team will call a timeout to so-called ice the kicker, to make him nervous. You say that's useless.
Mr. WERTHEIM: The data does not suggest that that's an effective strategy. But, again, this goes back to a theme that sort of recurred, which is basically, you know, risk, reward and perception and coaches wanting to save their jobs. And if you make that field goal, the obvious response from the fans and sports talk radio is: why didn't he call a timeout to ice the kicker? I mean, empirically, there's very little to support that but that's still guidelines that to kick the field goal and the coaches call a timeout.
And the irony of that is sometimes it even gives the kicker sort of dress rehearsal, that he can go ahead and kick the ball and it doesn't count and he can gauge the wind.
Mr. MOSKOWITZ: In fact, what I always find funny is that now it's almost expected that you'll call a timeout to ice the kicker. So, kickers expect it. So, you know, I think the right play might actually be not to do it. It might throw the kicker off.
But, Jon's right, we looked very hard in the data to try to find any effect from this and just couldn't. We actually even applied the same sort of analysis to basketball, where you see people try to ice the free throw shooter.
SIMON: You think teams punt too much on fourth down.
Mr. MOSKOWITZ: You know, one way to think about it is, you know, what's the expected number of points you'll get from any play. Another way to look at it is I got frustrated last week. I was watching the Bears game.
SIMON: Oh, a lot of us got frustrated watching the Bears game, but I digress, yeah.
Mr. MOSKOWITZ: And just to give you an example, they were, I think, you know, in Green Bay territory around the 40-yard line or so - can't kick a field goal from there. Fourth, I think, and a couple of yards, three or four yards, and, of course, they punt. Now, what happens when they punt? The most likely outcome, which is exactly what did happen, is it went into the end zone and the Packers got it at the 20. So, they gained something like 15 yards for giving up on fourth down, versus going for it. Even if they had failed, they would have been only slightly worse off - 15 yards. And they had a very good chance, perhaps, of making it and prolonging that drive. And those are things that can be difference makers.
SIMON: I was a little disappointed to read in the book that you, Tobias Moskowitz, big-name economist. You believe in randomness and even luck.
Mr. MOSKOWITZ: We as human beings have a very hard time understanding randomness and luck. And I think where we see this most evident are in streaks, so-called momentum or the hot hand. The idea being that that means that they're going to keep continuing to do well. The reality is when you look at the data, it's all pretty much consistent with randomness.
And the great example that I like to show people is, look, if you flip a coin 100 times, right, it's a random event. But that doesn't mean you won't get six or seven heads in a row at some point. Does that mean that there's a streak? That there's momentum in coin flipping? No, of course not.
It just means that whenever you have random occurrences you can get streaks just by chance. People don't like to attribute that to sports, but when you look at the data you can't refute that it's not just random. And I know that's controversial but certainly that's the data that we found. That was true in almost every sport.
SIMON: But Professor Moskowitz, let me pose the question that you folks take up in your last chapter: Why haven't the Chicago Cubs won a World Series in 150 years? All right, not 150 but 110.
Mr. MOSKOWITZ: That's a pretty bad streak, I agree. But I think there are some other elements besides just randomness there. One thing we talk about is economic incentives. So, with the Cubs in particular, we looked at how attendance moves with winning and losing percentage. And for the Cubs, it's perfectly stable. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. They're also at the 90-plus percent capacity whether the team's in first place or last place.
You know, fans in some sense impose an incentive on the team to produce wins by either showing up for the game or not when they're losing, and that doesn't seem to happen at Wrigley.
SIMON: Tobias Moskowitz, a behavioral economist and professor of finance at the University of Chicago, winner of the Fischer Black Prize for Finance Scholarship and L. Jon Wertheim, senior writer for Sports Illustrated. Their new book, "Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won." Gentlemen, thanks so much.
Mr. WERTHEIM: Thanks, Scott.
Mr. MOSKOWITZ: Thank you.
SIMON: And to read an excerpt from "Scorecasting," you can go to our website, NPR.org.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
One of three drugs used for lethal injections in most of the states that have the death penalty is just not available. Thats delayed some executions. In addition to that, the only U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental recently announced that it wouldnt make the drug anymore. And that's forced states to search for a new drug. And this week, Ohio officials say they've found one.
But as NPR's Kathy Lohr reports, the drug has not been tested, and that raises new legal issues.
KATHY LOHR: Thirty-five states have the death penalty, and corrections officials have been looking for options as the supply of sodium thiopental dwindled.
Ohio officials now say they'll use an alternative anesthetic, pentobarbital, which Oklahoma recently started using in its executions.
Mr. CARLO LOPARO (Ohio Prison Spokesman): The supply is readily available; it is manufactured in the United States - so all of those factors played into our decision to move to that drug.
LOHR: Ohio prison spokesman Carlo LoParo says the type of pentobarbital his state has chosen is used in some heart surgeries. Another version of the drug is used by veterinarians to euthanize animals. Pentobarbital is one of three drugs approved for use in Oklahoma executions. But LoParo says Ohio will use a large dose of this one drug.
Mr. LOPARO: Ohio's method of a single-drug protocol has been approved. And it's been about a year since that approval has occurred. We're simply switching the drug.
LOHR: LoParo says the new drug is widely available, although he would not release the name of Ohio's supplier, saying only that the company also supplies hospitals.
Mr. RICHARD DIETER (Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center): Well, Ohio may be the direction that other states follow.
LOHR: Richard Dieter is with the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, a group opposed to the death penalty. Ohio is one of two states that use only a single drug in their executions. But Dieter says it's not clear whether the new drug, pentobarbital, will do what it's supposed to do. Dieter says the issue here, the effectiveness of the anesthesia, is not yet known.
Mr. DIETER: So a new drug, you know, may have the same purpose, but it doesn't mean it has the same effect on human beings. And there's no way to experiment on executions except by doing them. So there's going to be challenges.
LOHR: Hospira, based in Illinois, announced last week that it would no longer produce sodium thiopental. But there's been a shortage of the drug for about a year, because the company was having difficulty getting the raw materials to make it. That forced at least four states to go out of the country to try to get it.
But some groups are wary of the imported drugs, and have filed lawsuits to force states to reveal where and how they got their supply. Natasha Minsker is with the ACLU of Northern California.
Ms. NATASHA MINSKER (Death Penalty Policy Director, ACLU): What are these execution drugs? Are they what they say they are? Will they work properly?
LOHR: Minsker says California officials were so desperate to get a supply that they contacted dozens of hospitals and other states to see if any would share. She says there's too much uncertainly about the quality of the supply that has turned up.
Ms. MINSKER: And this drug, in particular, is critical to whether or not the execution is being done in a proper manner, whether the execution is actually constitutional. So there's very real questions about whether these drugs can be used and should be used.
LOHR: An expert on lethal injection, Fordham Law School professor Deborah Denno says the issue is far from settled. She says legal battles will continue to get prison officials to reveal their sources and drug expiration dates.
Professor DEBORAH DENNO (Fordham University School of Law): I think this recent litigation shows that attorneys are going to pursue these kinds of issues to the bitter end. I see this as being a huge problem for states. It's going to delay executions, and there's no ready resolution for what states are going to do. What are they going to do?
LOHR: Most aren't telling. But in Ohio, officials say they still have enough of the old drug to carry out an execution set for next month. And they say theyll begin using the new drug, pentobarbital, in March.
Kathy Lohr, NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Tomorrow night, Ernest Borgnine will receive the Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild. Mr. Borgnine played tough guys in many Hollywood classics, including "From Here to Eternity" and "The Wild Bunch." Of course, he won an Oscar for playing nice in the 1955 film "Marty;" certainly had a hit TV series, "McHales Navy," in the 1960s.
Ernest Borgnine celebrated his 94th birthday last Monday, and hes still a working actor.
Pat Dowell reports.
PAT DOWELL: Tough guy Ernest Borgnine was set on his career path by his mom. He grew up in Connecticut, the son of Italian immigrants, and went into the Navy shortly after high school. When he got out at the end of World War II, he was looking for something to do, and his mother suggested acting.
Mr. ERNEST BORGNINE (Actor): Me, an actor? Are you kidding?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. BORGNINE: But when she said it, it suddenly - I dont know, I looked up and I saw that golden light and I said mom, thats what Im going to be.
DOWELL: He used his GI benefits to study acting and drew on his decade-long stint in the Navy for the first memorable movie role he played, a sadistic stockade sergeant in the Army drama "From Here to Eternity."
Mr. BORGNINE: I based Fatso Judson on a fellow that I knew in the Navy, a boatswain's mate that I - I liked him, but he was, oh, he was a hard character to get along with. He always had a cigar in his mouth. Now if the cigar was down, just kind of relaxing in his mouth, that was fine. But if that cigar stuck straight out, watch yourself.
DOWELL: Fatso Judson taunts and threatens a private, played by Frank Sinatra, after a barroom brawl.
(Soundbite of movie, From Here to Eternity)
Mr. BORGNINE: (as Sgt. Fatso Judson): Tough monkey. Guys like you end up in the stockade sooner or later. Some day you walk in, Ill be waiting. Ill show you a couple things.
DOWELL: He does, and Borgnine was known thereafter as the guy who killed Frank Sinatra and helped Sinatra win his 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Two years later, it was Borgnines turn. He won Best Actor for a role reversal in Marty, playing a good guy, the shy New Yorker who works in a butcher shop and knows too much about loneliness.
(Soundbite of movie, Marty)
Mr. BORGNINE: (as Marty) All my brothers and my brothers-in-law, they're always telling me Im a good-hearted guy I am. You dont get to be a goodhearted guy by accident. You get kicked around long enough you get to be a real professor of pain. I know exactly how you feel. And I also want you to know I'm having a very good time with you right now and really enjoying myself. So you see you're not such a dog as you think you are.
(Soundbite of music)
Ms. BETSY BLAIR (Actress): (as Clara) I'm having a very good time too.
Mr. BORGNINE: (as Marty) So there you are. So, Im not such a dog as I think I am.
Mr. SEAN PENN (Actor, director): Marty has to stick out. Its so indelible. But with a person like Ernest Borgnine, I find myself almost obliged to experience him as a body of work, and a continuing one.
DOWELL: Sean Penn directed Borgnine in a segment that was part of a collection of short films called September 11, about how the terrorist attacks on that day affected people around the world. Penn and Borgnine became friends.
Mr. PENN: Contrary to the kind of generational mythology that actors of that earlier generation are not adept at improvisation and so on, he was not only adept at it; he was very spontaneous and very game. So in many ways he became a second writer on the piece.
DOWELL: Borgnine played a New York widower immersed in his grief to the exclusion of all else, still talking to his absent wife, laying out her dress each day, even as the towers fall.
(Soundbite of movie, September 11)
(Soundbite of music)
Mr. BORGNINE: (as Segment U.S.): Something summery. Something summery. Oh, yes, this is it. Oh my goodness.
DOWELL: But Borgnine is best known for the smug ferocity of his great villains - the bully in the 1954 cult Western Johnny Guitar who knifes his roommate in the back...
(Soundbite of movie, Johnny Guitar)
(Soundbite of banging)
DOWELL: ...and then complains...
Mr. BORGNINE: (as Bart Lonergan) Some people just wont listen.
DOWELL: And Shack, the Depression Era railroad brute who delights in kicking hobos off his train in the 1973 drama Emperor of the North. But these characters are a mystery to the man who made them unforgettable.
Mr. BORGNINE: I havent the slightest idea where I got em. And as a matter of fact, I used to go home to my wife and I'd say, honey, am I really that kind of a person? Am I really that bad, to come up with a character like Shack? And, you know, it just didnt register with me, because I found myself doing things that I had never done in my life, and wouldnt do them, you know?
DOWELL: But hes also played super-heroes. Ernest Borgnine is the voice of Mermaid Man, who lives in retirement with sidekick Barnacle Boy, in SpongeBob SquarePants.
(Soundbite of Nickelodeons SpongeBob SquarePants)
Mr. RODGER BUMPASS (Actor): (as Squidward Tenacles) I told ya, I'm not hungry Mermaid Man.
Mr. BORGNINE: (as Mermaid Man) Nonsense Barnacle Boy. We've got to keep up our strength to fight against evil.
DOWELL: Borgnine has no favorite among his movies, he insists, although there is one that he admits is close to his heart: Sam Peckinpahs 1969 classic The Wild Bunch.
Mr. BORGNINE: I think The Wild Bunch was about the most fun for me, and the one that stands out more in my mind than anything else. It was the last of the great Westerns, I think.
DOWELL: Borgnine played an aging bandit alongside William Holden, trying to understand why an old comrade in arms has gotten out of prison by agreeing to lead a railroad posse against the bunch.
(Soundbite of movie, The Wild Bunch)
Mr. WILLIAM HOLDEN (Actor): (as Pike Bishop) They got Freddy. It looks like hes hit pretty bad.
Mr. BORGNINE: (as Dutch Engstrom) Damn that Deke Thornton to hell.
Mr. HOLDEN: (as Pike Bishop) What would you do in his place? He gave his word.
Mr. BORGNINE: (as Dutch Engstrom) Gave his word to a railroad.
Mr. HOLDEN: (as Pike Bishop) Its his word.
Mr. BORGNINE: (as Dutch Engstrom) That aint what counts. Its who you give it to.
DOWELL: Ernest Borgnine says he enjoys every acting job. Sean Penn says thats a key to Borgnines personal and professional longevity.
Mr. PENN: He's that unusual creature we call a happy person, and I think that does a lot for the health.
DOWELL: But one thing that Borgnine doesnt enjoy is watching his finished work.
Mr. BORGNINE: I just dont like my puss on the screen.
DOWELL: But he watches anyway.
Mr. BORGNINE: I say dummy, you could have done better. Listen, it's the only way you learn, you know.
(Soundbite of laughter)
DOWELL: And at 94, Ernest Borgnine is still reading scripts, still acting, and still learning.
For NPR News this is Pat Dowell.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
When Camel Zekri was a kid hanging onto the back of his parents' Peugeot, the drive home from Paris to southern Algeria - little like being in a movie, finding his musical roots. Now, he's one of the foremost afro-jazz artists in Europe. Camel Zekri refuses the kind of cultural definitions many American jazz performers use to describe their music.
In this report, Camel Zekri tells Frank Browning how learning to make his own kind of music enabled him to form his own Franco-African identity.
FRANK BROWNING: Camel Zekri is a man whose life and art emerged from the clash of two cultures.
(Soundbite of music)
BROWNING: At their most extreme, Camel Zekri's free improvisations are no closer to the spirit ceremonies his parents knew in Algeria than they are to the formal music he studied at Paris conservatories.
(Soundbite of music)
BROWNING: Zekri says it took him a quarter century to bring his music and his identities together.
Mr. CAMEL ZEKRI (Musician): (Through Translator) There were two separate parts of my life. In Algeria, I didn't speak of France and the music I did here -classical, jazz, reggae. But here in France, I was never doing or talking about Arabic or Algerian music I did there.
BROWNING: Camel Zekri is a big man - around six-feet-four, just under 200 pounds. In Europe, he's generally seen as an improvisational jazz musician.
(Soundbite of music)
BROWNING: But Zekri scrunches up his eyebrows when you ask him if his music is really jazz.
Mr. ZEKRI: (Through Translator) Jazz is a word; it's not the music. Why not salsa? Why not Bossa Nova? Reggae? You can't say this is not jazz. It's an encounter among people who have given us music. It's not one person who has given us this music, it's a meeting of different people and cultures.
BROWNING: He set aside classical technique. He changed the placement of his hands, he expanded the scale to encompass Arabic, Berber and African sounds. Sitting in his modest apartment outside Paris, he picked up his guitar to illustrate.
(Soundbite of music)
BROWNING: Last winter, Camel Zekri encountered a world beyond music. He collaborated with the National Dance Theatre of Caen on a new work. Nine dancers - three French, three Japanese and three from Congo - joined with Camel Zekri.
(Soundbite of music)
BROWNING: Hela Fatoumi, one of the choreographers, says that Zekri's approach to music was the perfect match for the company's creole-style improvisational dance.
Ms. HELA FATOUMI (Choreographer, National Dance Theater of Caen): We need really musician that be in the moment with the dance that the dance and the music rise in the same time. Camel is an artist so open mind and so purist. (Soundbite of music)
BROWNING: Camel Zekri says that when it comes to pushing musical boundaries, his great breakthrough came when he and his partner, Dominique Chevaucher, started a series of Euro-African musical cruises along some of sub-Saharan Africa's major rivers.
(Soundbite of music)
BROWNING: They called these water music and at each river village indigenous musicians would join them.
(Soundbite of music)
BROWNING: In 2000, they found themselves in a tiny village in Burkina Faso, waiting for their boat to be delivered overland by truck. Each night, they played impromptu for their hosts until finally the boat arrived. Chevaucher says it was too big for them to unload alone.
Ms. DOMINIQUE CHEVAUCHER (Musician): The village decided to stop to work and 250 men, maybe more, come and help us to take the boat from the truck, all the village.
BROWNING: Young and old, they hoisted the wooden boat onto their shoulders and carried it into the water.
Ms. CHEVAUCHER: We say thank you, thank you, thank you. But they say, no, we want to thank you for this, and they organize a big ceremony for us. And we see a ceremony which is very difficult to see. So, it was something magic.
BROWNING: It was exactly the kind of exchange Camel Zekri had been seeking.
Mr. ZEKRI: (Through Translator) It enabled me to find a balance within myself -an African and at the same time a European by training and education. I needed to show both sides. So, the Festival of Water enabled me to gather everyone on a boat and to create improvisational music in each village collectively, together. It's the best way I could find to express who I am.
BROWNING: In October, at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris, Zekri and Chevaucher collaborated with musicians from Congo to mount one of the Water Festival pieces that they presented on the Congo River. Zekri says it marked one more step in integrating all of the pieces of his complex life.
For NPR News, I'm Frank Browning in Paris.
(Soundbite of music)
SIMON: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
(Soundbite of music)
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Charlie Parker was an original. His improvisations and harmonies still beguile and inspire almost 60 years after he died at the age of 34. His influence over jazz has lasted for generations and still affects musicians today.
(Soundbite of song, Yardbird Suite)
Mr. CHARLIE PARKER (Jazz saxophonist and composer): (Instrumental)
SIMON: Musicians still pay tribute to Bird on street corners, in clubs and on recordings, but it's tricky to pay your respects without sounding like some kind of imitation.
Saxophonist Joe Lovano took a different path to break down and build up something new from the art of an icon.
(Soundbite of song, Yardbird Suite)
Mr. JOE LOVANO (Saxophonist, composer): (Instrumental)
SIMON: Joe Lovano's new album is called Bird Songs, and in it he re-imagines Charlie Parker's music as supported by his working quintet, Us Five, which includes two drummers, a bass player, and a pianist. Joe Lovano joins us from Boston.
Thanks so much for being with us.
Mr. LOVANO: Thank you so much. It's a pleasure.
SIMON: Tell us about your family, very musical.
Mr. LOVANO: Well, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. And my dad, Tony Big T Lovano, played tenor saxophone and he grew up in a real musical family and learned from his brothers who also played saxophones. And my Uncle Carl played trumpet. My dad grew up in the swinging bebop eras, you know, and heard Charlie Parker play live. Spoke about him all the time and had a lot of his recordings. So I grew up as a kid studying the music and hearing the music and falling in love with the whole idea of creating music. And Charlie Parker's influence for me was from the beginning.
SIMON: Lets a little object lesson now. Why don't we listen to first Charlie Parkers famous rendition of Moose The Mooch.
Mr. LOVANO: Okay.
(Soundbite of song, Moose The Mooch)
Mr. PARKER: (Instrumental)
SIMON: And yours.
(Soundbite of song, Moose The Mooch)
Mr. LOVANO: (Instrumental)
SIMON: So obviously you slow it down a bit. But what else did you do?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. LOVANO: Well, I took little motifs that happened in the melody itself and put them in the rhythm section parts so I could phrase the theme, how I felt it, and had the rhythm section playing counterparts within what I was playing.
(Soundbite of song, Moose The Mooch)
Mr. LOVANO: I grew up listening not only to Charlie Parker and inspired by him, but his disciples. And I'm speaking of Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Max Roach; the music that they played and developed with Bird but also after Bird passed, how they became themselves within the inspiration of Charlie Parker. So a tune like this is really inspired by, of course, the blues - you feel the blues in it, but you also feel the influence of John Coltrane Quartet, for example, on this particular piece.
SIMON: And what can you tell us about Bird Yard?
Mr. LOVANO: Bird Yard is a original tune of mine that is inspired by Yardbird Suite. And I took the first four bars of Yardbird Suite. Be, bo-bo-bo, bop, bo-do-de, de, da. Bo, do-do-lo-be-de-da-da. Da, da, da, da, da, do-le-de, da. Bo, do-do-lo-be-de-da. And play this just that much.
The way it's structured its like three bars of 4/4 and a bar of 5/4. And I put it through five different keys and we play over that form. The rhythm section really just plays that melody and rhythm.
(Soundbite of song, Bird Yard)
Mr. LOVANO: And I improvise within that on an instrument, it's called an Aulochrome. Its a double soprano saxophone that you can actually harmonize on.
(Soundbite of song, Bird Yard)
Mr. LOVANO: Its the first woodwind instrument made to be played in this fashion. And it has a whole energy and a whole spark and sound of its own. So I took parts of Yardbird Suite and turned it into this kind of whirling dervish of a piece.
(Soundbite of song, Bird Yard)
SIMON: Whats that instrument called again?
Mr. LOVANO: Its called an Aulochrome and it was created by Francois Louis in Brussels. Now the Alos(ph) is an instrument from the Middle East and it's a double flute that you can play a drone on one side and finger some melodies on the other. So Francois took this concept and designed and put together two soprano saxophones.
(Soundbite of song, Bird Yard)
SIMON: Mr. Lovano, thanks so much.
Mr. LOVANO: Thank you. Its amazing to live in the world of music and it's a blessing.
SIMON: Joe Lovano, the great saxophonist and composer. His latest album with his Us Five Quintet is Bird Songs.
You can hear a recent concert at nprmusic.org.
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
There was one subject that was conspicuously absent from President Obama's State of the Union address this week. There were no new pledges to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Just hours before the president spoke to Congress, Ahmed Ghailani, the first Guantanamo detainee ever to be tried in a U.S. civilian court, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole, for helping al-Qaida to bomb two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998. Will his trial affect efforts to close Guantanamo?
NPR's Dina Temple-Raston joins us.
Dina, thanks for being with us.
DINA TEMPLE-RASTON: Youre welcome.
SIMON: And, as soon as President Obama came into office he signed an executive order promising to close Guantanamo Bay within a year. We're now into the third year of his presidency. Whats happened?
TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, I'm not sure the administration thinks anymore they're even going to be able to close Guantanamo during Obama's first term. You know, everything has worked against them. Third countries have been slow to accept detainees because naturally, theyve been accused of terrorism. The president put military trials for detainees on hold because he wanted to tinker with the rules that governed them. And then Congress passed this law that made it just about impossible for the administration to move detainees into the U.S. for these civilian trials. So in spite of their best intentions, theres still nearly 175 detainees languishing down in Guantanamo.
SIMON: Mm-hmm. We should make plain, that was the last Congress too, the Democratic Congress.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Yes.
SIMON: There was one related development this week, of course, and that was the sentencing of Ahmed Ghailani, and remind us about this case.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, Ghailani was accused of helping al-Qaida bomb two U.S. embassies, the one in Kenya and the one in Tanzania in 1998 and 224 people died and thousands of people were injured in those attacks. And he was brought to New York for trial basically because four other men whod been part of the embassy bombing plot were tried in the same courtroom in 2002, and they were all found guilty and they're all serving life sentences.
And back in November, a New York jury found Ghailani guilty of a single count of conspiracy. And that was a little bit controversial because he had actually been charged with more than 280 counts of murder and conspiracy and he ended up, you know, being found guilty on just one. But that was enough to get him a sentence of life in prison without parole. So the end result, however messy the process might have been, was what prosecutors were looking for.
SIMON: But one of the, if I may, extenuating circumstances in the case - and some of the others in Guantanamo we're told - was that Ghailani was allegedly tortured. Now how did that change the trial?
TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, it changed the trial of little bit, but mostly in terms of admissible evidence. A confession he allegedly provided to authorities was barred because there was some question as to whether or not it was obtained through torture. And there was a witness who claimed to have sold Ghailani the TNT needed for the embassy attacks, and he didn't testify for the same reason. You know, torture has really been this sort of cloud thats hung over this trial and the potential trials of any of the Guantanamo detainees and no one was quite sure how a civilian court would deal with the issue.
I mean. the thinking was that, you know, torture could be seen as grounds to dismiss a case or acquit in civilian courts. The problem is, is that if the government is worried about using all these different possible legal avenues to empty Guantanamo Bay prison and they're worried about civilian courts, then that's one less way that they can get the detainees out.
SIMON: So how did the judge in this week case deal with that issue?
TEMPLE-RASTON: With the issue of torture, he was pretty matter-of-fact. He said even if Ghailani had been tortured, it didn't take away from the severity of his crime and so it really didn't affect the judge's view of the sentence he deserved. So he just pretty summarily sentenced him to life without parole.
SIMON: Does the Ghailani sentence, because it was so tough on this one count, make the likelihood of more civilian trials greater?
TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, its still a hard slog because of this law that Congress passed, which basically, at least until September, bars detainees from coming to the U.S. for trials. And the Obama administration is trying figure out other ways to deal with detainees, you know, military trials. These things called military commissions are poised to begin again. And it looks like there's going to be a review process for other detainees. And that kind of cuts both ways. On one hand theres going to be a process by which detainees can ask why they're being held. But on the other hand, it is essentially codifies this idea of indefinite detention of holding someone without trial. I mean it says, we're not sure when youre going to trial. It says we're not even sure if youre going to trial. But here's a process by which you can contest the reasons the U.S. is holding you.
Its unclear how exactly it will work, but that's another thing that they're sort of moving forward on.
Attorney General Eric Holder keeps saying that civilian trials are still in the mix, but it's just really unclear when or how.
SIMON: NPR's Dina Temple-Raston. Thanks so much.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Youre welcome.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This year's State of the Union address came with a catchphrase.
President BARACK OBAMA: That's how we'll win the future. But if we want to win the future - and winning the future - the future is ours to win.
SIMON: The Obama team has a lot of experience with political slogans - change we can believe in, a huge hit. So was yes we can. Other promises, like recovery summer, failed. NPR's White House correspondent Ari Shapiro reports on whether win the future is a winner.
ARI SHAPIRO: Dan Balser runs the advertising department at the Creative Circus School of Advertising and Graphic Design. When I emailed him to see if he would talk with me for this story, I used the subject heading: Win the future. He later told me he almost deleted the message without reading it.
Mr. DAN BALSER (Advertising Department Head, Creative Circus School of Advertising and Graphic Design): My initial reaction as a consumer was I quickly ignored it. And then I started looking at it, OK, why did I ignore it?
SHAPIRO: He finds the phrase too thin - too amorphous. He's not sure what the president wants him to do. But he says there's hope for it.
Mr. BALSER: To me it reminds me of let's roll. It kind of gets into a rallying cry that is universal to Americans and it isn't either on the left or the right.
SHAPIRO: Win the future is not a new phrase. Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich titled his 2005 book, "Winning the Future." During last year's World Cup, the advertising firm Wieden and Kennedy coined the slogan, write the future for Nike.
Mark Fitzloff is Wieden and Kennedy's executive creative director. He likes win the future. He says it has teeth.
Mr. MARK FITZLOFF (Executive Creative Director, Wieden and Kennedy): It's certainly optimistic and bright and shiny, but it's also aggressive and competitive. And I think that in that way it's a slight shift from yes, we can, which in some ways is defensive in nature and certainly not combative.
SHAPIRO: Win the future sets up a contest, where America is one big team.
President OBAMA: We are part of the American family.
SHAPIRO: The president made this point repeatedly during Tuesday's State of the Union speech.
President OBAMA: We are still bound together as one people.
SHAPIRO: Lots of presidents have coined slogans and most failed to stick. President Clinton talked about the new covenant. Reagan and Nixon both had new federalism. One of the biggest duds was President Ford's whip inflation now.
Geoff Nunberg of UC Berkeley says the best predictor of a slogan's success is whether the program it's attached to succeeds. For example, Nunberg says people panned the phrase great society during the Johnson presidency.
Professor GEOFF NUNBERG (Information, UC Berkeley): It was considered at the time a pompous inflated choice of words. that Johnson initially had preferred a better deal, which didn't really take off. But because the program itself was so successful, the phrase is still with us.
SHAPIRO: Other times, political slogans have taken on a life of their own. Nunberg says Roosevelt never intended for the New Deal to be a slogan. It was just a phrase he dropped into his 1932 nomination acceptance speech at the last moment.
Prof. NUNBERG: It was picked up by the press. People liked the idea. For them it connoted a re-dealing of the cards. And certainly it was a very effective slogan for him long before it was attached to a political program.
SHAPIRO: Win the future also has the advantage of being vague. At the end of the recovery summer, people asked where the recovery was. The future, on the other hand, is always just around the corner.
Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.
SIMON: This is NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
We can expect to hear a lot about corporate taxes over the next few years. In his State of the Union address, President Obama said the current tax system is broken.
President BARACK OBAMA: Those with accountants or lawyers to work the system can end up paying no taxes at all. But all the rest are hit with one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and it has to change.
SIMON: Just how broken is the corporate tax system? We asked NPR's Brett Neely to find out.
BRETT NEELY: For an example of what the president was talking about, consider the tax rate paid by two of America's biggest companies: Wal-Mart and General Electric. Wal-Mart paid 34 cents for every dollar of profit it made in the past three years; General Electric paid just 3.6 cents on the dollar. Welcome to the mysterious world of the corporate income tax, says tax expert Len Burman at Syracuse University.
Professor LEN BURMAN (Tax, Syracuse University): There are big companies that consider their tax departments to be profit centers.
NEELY: That's right. Instead of concentrating on making light bulbs, power plants or whatnot, companies use the tax system to boost their profits. How do they do it? Burman says it helps to be large and have lots of overseas subsidiaries.
Mr. BURMAN: They make money by moving income overseas or in different kinds of activities or adjusting their accounting in such a way that they can pay less taxes than their competitors do.
NEELY: Companies say their behavior is driven by the fact that corporate taxes here in the U.S. are among the highest in the world. True, but there are other ways to look at it, says Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy Center in Washington.
Mr. ROBERTON WILLIAMS (Senior Fellow, Tax Policy Center): If you look at the statutory tax rate, the 35 percent tax rate, we're among the highest among industrialized countries. If you look at the effective tax rate, the actual tax rate that companies pay after all the adjustments they make, were much closer to the center of the pack.
NEELY: That's around 25 percent or so. And when companies work aggressively to minimize their U.S. taxes, they leave billions of dollars in profits parked overseas. Economist Len Burman says think about a company that moves its pharmaceutical plant from New Jersey to Ireland for tax purposes. In addition to the loss of American jobs, there are other costs to consider.
Mr. BURMAN: The company might say, well, it's worth incurring the transportation costs, hauling all the medicines back overseas from Ireland to the U.S. because of all the money they save on taxes, but that's just a pure waste.
NEELY: Pharmaceutical and biotech companies pay some of the lowest tax rates around - in the low single digits according to research from New York University. Most retailers - like Wal-Mart - pay the full 35 percent corporate tax rate.
Rachelle Bernstein is the tax counsel for the National Retail Federation.
Ms. RACHELLE BERNSTEIN (Vice President, Tax Counsel, National Retail Federation): Right now, we have the tax code that provides incentives for you to do this type of behavior or that type of behavior. The better way to do it, lower the rates, broaden the base and let businesses make the right decisions without the tax code getting in the way.
NEELY: And the difference is because Congress has showered the pharma and biotech industries with tax write-offs for research and development. Meanwhile, energy companies get tax breaks for exploration. But retailers and many companies that don't do much business overseas tend to get very few write-offs.
President Obama didn't lay out a detailed plan for reforming the corporate tax in his State of the Union speech. He said only that he wants to weed out the loopholes so that overall rates can be lower for everyone while raising the same amount of money. There is a precedent for the kind of tax reform he's proposing. Back in 1986, President Reagan reached a deal with Congress that cleaned out many loopholes.
Syracuse's Len Berman says that deal actually raised corporate taxes quite a bit while lowering individual tax rates.
Mr. BURMAN: There was a turning point when a bunch of corporate CEOs came to Washington and said, well, we really like this proposal even though you're going to hammer our companies because we personally are going to pay a whole lot less of income tax.
NEELY: But in the current fiscal environment, there may not be enough money to buy off CEOs with yet another round of tax cuts.
Brett Neely, NPR News, Washington.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Egypt this week seemed to be both poised to truly enter the 21st Century, and plunged back to 1980.
As protests have swelled, the Egyptian government methodically shut down almost all of the country's cell phone and Internet connections. All of the digital nerves that connect Egyptians to each other, and Egypt to the world e-mail, mobile phone calls and social networks were suddenly severed, and with astonishing ease, though there are reports that some service has returned today.
There are, apparently, only four Internet service providers in Egypt. So just a few phone calls from the government were all that were required to make phones go dead and screens go dark. The United States, by contrast, has thousands of Internet routes and providers. That can be maddening when you're trying to get a question about your monthly bill resolved. But a central shutdown here is unthinkable, if not impossible.
If the Egyptian government hoped that shutting down mobile phones, e-mail, text messages, Twitter and Facebook would close Egypt off from the world and choke the cries of protest, they were as naive as powerful people who sit in palaces surrounded by armies can be. Citizens were past tweeting and flickering anyway, and took to the streets. A confident, popular regime doesn't try to keep its citizens in the dark, and they picked up a scent of fear in the government's repression.
A professor of engineering at Cairo University named Omar Mohamad joined the protests this week. As he told one of our reporters: The regime used fear to control our nation for decades. That fear is gone right now.
In a country as free as ours, information is so free we can forget how precious and powerful it is. But authoritarian governments know that news, and even the nonsense and misinformation that goes with it, can be insurrectionary. That's why they try to hold news back, contain it, strain it, and dole it out to their citizens after it's been sugar-coated, like treats to obedient children.
It would be comforting to say that suppressing news and information never works. In fact, it often works well enough for countries to spend decades under one kind of authoritarian regime or another.
But the instinct for people to connect is strong and these days, it can span oceans as well as neighborhoods. Governments can try to take it away. But if they do, people still take to the streets.
(Soundbite of music)
SIMON: And you're listening to NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
Egypt stands at the edge of history today as President Hosni Mubarak faces the most serious challenge to his long, authoritarian reign. His cabinet has resigned on his orders, but there is no sign that he will join them. President Mubarak appeared on television last night, and promised to uphold the liberties of demonstrators. But he also pledged to quell anti-government protest forcefully.
His address apparently did little to tamp down the uprising against him. Protesters are back on the streets of Cairo, demanding Mr. Mubarak step down. They were confronted by soldiers and while no injuries have been reported today, security officials say that five days of protests have left at least 25 demonstrators and 10 police officers dead.
NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson joins us now from Tahrir Square in Cairo, which has been a focal point of the protests. And Soraya, what's the scene today?
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Well, the square is filling up very rapidly with many, many protesters. It looks like some people are getting off work or just arriving. Basically, the chants continue, and they're calling for Mr. Mubarak to go. They are not satisfied with the speech he gave last night. They don't want cabinet dissolution; they want him to leave.
And so at this stage, they are not willing to give up this revolution. And in fact, it's interesting because they're also not letting some of the politicians in opposition come out today to quote-unquote, co-opt their revolution, as one of the demonstrators told me.
SIMON: And Soraya, have you been able to get a handle on what the situation is like elsewhere in the country, outside of Cairo?
SARHADDI NELSON: I have not; unfortunately, the Internet is still down. You're not able to text message or SMS, or use any of the forms of communication that have allowed us to sort of keep track of what's going on. Certainly today, what I'm hearing from some of the people we've spoken to on the phone - from some of the activists - is that there are bodies that are turning up in some of the neighborhoods, in the far-lying neighborhoods in Cairo.
There apparently was a lot more violence yesterday than we even we saw here in Tahrir Square, which frankly reminded me of some of the films I've seen of Belfast. So it was pretty bad and apparently, only now the death toll and the number of people wounded is starting to come to light.
SIMON: What are soldiers doing?
SARHADDI NELSON: The soldiers are very relaxed. They're sitting on top of tanks. There's more of them coming in. They actually also have these personnel carriers in the tank. They're rolling in. There are many protesters standing on top with the soldiers, waving. It is amazing how receptive the crowd is to the army when you compare that to the way they were with the security forces yesterday. They are cheering them like - well, they're welcoming them like heroes.
(Soundbite of sirens)
SARHADDI NELSON: There are literally, 30 people on top of that armored personnel carrier that just drove by. There's a whole bunch of them coming in. This is a fire truck. There's a fire truck here. This is the first time we've seen it. I'm wondering if it's here to put out the fire at the National Democratic Party headquarters. Because there's fear - I should mention this - that their building is going to collapse, and it's right next to the National Museum. And you know, the fear is that there's going to be damage to the important artifacts there.
(Soundbite of siren)
SIMON: So Soraya, why are people cheering and crawling all over the tanks or armored personnel carriers? Are they certain the army's on their side?
SARHADDI NELSON: They are absolutely convinced of this. I'm not so sure yet because at this stage, the army is still being deployed by the government and by Mr. Mubarak. I mean, he's called them in to sort of replace the police who fled. So, it's unclear. But again, if you look at the body language of these officers, the way they have their guns pointed, they're very relaxed. They really do not seem to be in the mood to engage the public.
But they're also very serious. I mean, this is business. You know, when we tried talking to them, they certainly didn't want to talk to us. And they're here to preserve the peace, and preserve law and order. But again, the people feel - the people are treating them like heroes.
SIMON: Well - and I guess we'll see what happens when they're supposed to enforce the curfew.
SARHADDI NELSON: Exactly. That's, I think, going to be the telling point. Because if that curfew is in fact enforced in a violent way, then I think it'll be clear that the government is still in charge here.
SIMON: NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson in Cairo. Thanks so much.
SARHADDI NELSON: You're welcome.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Marc Lynch joins us in our studios. He's director of Middle East studies at George Washington University and - been closely watching the situation in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world. Professor, thanks very much for being with us.
Professor MARC LYNCH (Director, Middle East Studies, George Washington University): Yeah, thanks for inviting me.
SIMON: What are your feelings? Whose side is the army on?
Mr. LYNCH: Well, no one knows whose side the army is on, and I'm not even sure they, themselves, know yet. I think one of the big things that everybody's been trying to do is not just to know what the army will do, but to try and shape what the army will do. And I think if you listen carefully to what Hillary Clinton said, what President Obama said, I think there's a very clear effort going on to try and shape their calculations - to let them know that using violence would be unacceptable, and that there's a real need to move on.
SIMON: There have been so many protests against the Mubarak regime for years. What's your assessment now about what's made this different?
Mr. LYNCH: You know, this has been so remarkable for us all to watch because we've been watching these protests go on for nearly 10 years now, ever since the second intifada broke out. And there's this idea that because of Tunisia, suddenly the Arab street woke up. But that's really not the case.
I think that if you look at Egypt, this has been an extremely turbulent decade. But the problem is that each time they started to crest and they started to put pressure, they got beaten back and...
SIMON: Literally so.
Mr. LYNCH: Literally beaten back. And you remember very clearly the journalists, the protesters, the bloggers - people being beaten up and arrested. And there was this sense of almost like a tide coming in. And the waves would hit the beachhead, but it would never quite be enough. I think the difference this time is the demonstration effect from Tunisia and the idea that this is actually possible.
You can't understate the impact of hope and fear on the other side. Suddenly, the regime knows that it could lose and suddenly, the protesters feel that it's worth making the sacrifices because they could win.
SIMON: That raises the question: Is this 1989 for the Middle East?
Mr. LYNCH: Well, it could be. It's way too soon to know. I think that if you're inside Hosni Mubarak's head, he has to be thinking that if he can just ride out this fever then it'll break, and then he'll be able to go back to ruling the way he was before.
Again, you have to remember that these leaders are used to being illegitimate. They're used to their people not liking them. They're used to all of these kinds of compromise that they have to make to stay on the throne, and they're very determined to stay on the throne.
One of the lessons you could draw from Tunisia is that you have to start listening more to your people. But what seems clear is that Mubarak at least, the lesson he has drawn, is don't make concessions. Don't back down. Be tough. But it doesn't mean that it's going to work. And I think that when I listened to Hosni Mubarak's speech last night - which was delayed by many hours -there's a very real sense of unreality around it. I don't think it's going to work. I don't think that it's going to stop the protesters.
SIMON: And help us understand the finesse of U.S. policy in a situation like this.
Mr. LYNCH: Well, the United States, as you know, has an extremely difficult balancing act to walk. Protesters - and most Arabs - want Obama to come out very forcefully in favor of the people, in favor of change. Obama, on the other hand, has to balance the fact that Mubarak has been a close ally of the United States for 30 years, and everybody else in the region is watching how he responds to what's going on right now.
And so I think many people would like him to simply, you know, as they say, throw Mubarak under the bus. But imagine how it would look to the rest of the region if Obama had ditched Mubarak without even making a phone call? It really wouldn't...
SIMON: You mean, how it would look in Saudi Arabia, how it would...
Mr. LYNCH: In Saudi Arabia, in Jordan - across the region. So I think that what Obama's trying to do is to, on the one hand, show that he values this relationship and that he's giving Mubarak a chance. But if you listened carefully to his speech last night, he was not being lenient. There was a very clear and firm message that he expects to see change right now.
Clinton, Obama both sent very strong messages to the military about violence and not wanting to see large-scale, bloody repression. And there has been -sighting some pretty clear signs. If you listen to what people are talking about in the Arab media, a very clear sense that there are intense deliberations going on inside the regime right now about how to move on, and how to find some kind of soft exit for Mubarak.
SIMON: Marc Lynch, associate professor of political science and director of the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington. Thanks so much for being with us.
Mr. LYNCH: Thank you.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
The Pentagon is beginning to map out the way ahead for gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. military. You recall that late last year, Congress repealed "don't ask don't tell." How that will actually take place - well, that was left for the Pentagon to work out, and yesterday we got some of the details. NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman was there, and he's with us now. Good morning, Tom.
TOM BOWMAN: Hi, Scott.
SIMON: How long is this going to take?
BOWMAN: Well, we were told by Pentagon officials that the training will start sometime in February. Now, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he expects this all to be done sometime this year, but some Pentagon officials I speak with say they expect the training all to be done, maybe, by the spring.
You know, at that point, once the training is done, President Obama and senior military officials have to certify to Congress that having gays serve openly will not harm the military - not harm readiness, not harm recruiting and retention. So 60 days after that, gays can serve openly. So you're looking at the earliest time late summer before gays can serve openly in the military.
SIMON: Do we know what the training and education is going to be like?
BOWMAN: Well, we got a little taste of it. It looks like the services by next week will come up with - training plan for each of the services. And what we do know is that this is more than just your commander coming out and saying hey, everybody, gays can serve openly. There will be some detailed training.
And first of all, they'll explain to the troops that now, gays can serve in the military. We expect them to say that there will not be any sort of separate berthing or separate facilities for gay and lesbian troops. And they'll also tell them that, listen, you can't refuse to live or work with someone who is gay. And they'll also say, treat everybody with respect - that we're all in the military together; we all deserve respect. And that's what they'll keep hammering home.
And they've actually put out a handbook of frequently asked questions to help commanders.
SIMON: What are some of those questions? Or what are some of the problems they posit?
BOWMAN: Well, it's interesting. They say do not use the term homosexuality, 'cause that has negative connotations. They suggest using gay or lesbian, for example. And also, those opposed to ending "don't ask don't tell" - people of faith, for example, they say when you're talking about that, don't use the term fundamentalist or extremist. That has negative connotations. And they also have some vignettes to help commanders.
SIMON: Like casebook examples.
BOWMAN: Exactly. So here's one: You're an officer - executive officer in your unit, and while at a local shopping mall over the weekend, you observe two junior male service members assigned to your unit in civilian clothes, kissing and hugging in a food court. And it says the issue here is standards of conduct. Is this within the standard of personal and professional conduct?
And the discussion says public displays of affection are orientation-neutral. If the observed behavior crosses acceptable boundaries of conduct for your unit in service, then appropriate correction should be made. But your assessment should be made without regard to sexual orientation.
SIMON: We know there's opposition within the military. Do you have a handle, Tom, on how that might register itself?
BOWMAN: You know, nobody knows at this point. What we do know is that the chaplains in the military - some 3,000 of them - that many of them, when they were polled by the Pentagon, were against ending "don't ask don't tell" for moral reasons. So there could be some chaplains who leave over this. Also, Marine combat units, Army combat units, they polled more negative against having gays serve openly than other soldiers and Marines. So you could see some of them leave over this.
But for the most part, senior military officials said you may lose some people over this, but probably not too many.
SIMON: Mm-hmm. You mentioned the certification process. Is there, in fact, a chance that the military won't be able to certify, and the ban won't be repealed?
BOWMAN: No, I don't think so. The polls they've taken already think there will not be much disruption to the military by allowing gays to serve openly. All the service chiefs are now onboard, and they said we'll basically salute and carry this out.
SIMON: NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman. Thanks so much.
BOWMAN: You're welcome, Scott.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Eric Spiegel knows about corporate taxes. He's the chief executive officer of the Siemens Corporation. That's the U.S. division of the multinational engineering company Siemens AG that's based in Germany. Mr. Spiegel is traveling in Mexico but he's found a few minutes to talk with us about the Obama administration's plans for corporate tax reform. Mr. Spiegel, thanks so much for being with us.
Mr. ERIC SPIEGEL (Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Corporation): Thank you, Scott, for having me on.
SIMON: And first, let's understand the particular nature of your company. Is most of your corporate tax burden in the U.S. or Germany?
Mr. SPIEGEL: The U.S. is by far is the largest market for Siemens. It's basically about a quarter or 25 percent of everything that Siemens does globally. And the company globally is well over $100 billion a year, so it's a pretty good size business here in the U.S.
SIMON: And what's the difference in corporate tax rates between the U.S. and Germany?
Mr. SPIEGEL: I'm trying to think of the exact number but it's a substantially higher. I mean, I think the U.S. has the second- or third-highest corporate tax rate among developed countries.
SIMON: Given the nature of the kind of business Siemens does, do you ever contemplate moving more of your assets out of the United States?
Mr. SPIEGEL: Well, it's a big issue. Since I, you know, since I've been in the CEO role for just over a year, I can think of at least several big decisions that looked at putting assets either in the U.S. or in Asia or in other parts of the Americas and/or Europe. And, you know, when you run through the analysis of what these big investments cost and what the profitability of them is going to be, you know, corporate taxes obviously plays into the decision as to where you're going to locate these things.
Despite the fact that we're a player here in the U.S., there's no doubt that that has limited to some extent businesses that we would put here if the corporate tax rate were lower.
SIMON: It might be less of a matter if you're tempted to relocate the asset you have here elsewhere, than it's you dont want to put further assets here.
Mr. SPIEGEL: Yeah, I can think of at least a couple of cases where there was a decision not to put something here and put it somewhere else, just because the total economics. Now whether the corporate tax rate alone would have swung the decision, I think in some cases it probably would.
So, you know, we are building a new business. We just added four or five new manufacturing facilities in the last year here, because a lot of the things that the president talked about in his State of the Union the other night. I mean we've just broke ground on a new gas turbine plant in Charlotte, which is going to be aimed at not just the U.S. market but also export. We just are expanding are rail facility in Sacramento for light rail and medium-speed rail. We just expanded our wind facilities - or opened new wind facilities in Hutchinson, Kansas and Fort Madison, Iowa. And those were all decisions based on the size of the market here.
And I think this is a good time, by the way, the revitalization of manufacturing - it's starting now. In the first quarter of this year, our orders were up 23 percent and our sales were up 24 percent. And thats just a huge jump over last year. And we currently have 3,000 open jobs in the U.S. right now that we're trying to fill. And we're finding difficulty because a lot of those jobs are in engineering, science and technology, and things.
But it really bodes well, given - cause we're a pretty good proxy for the U.S. where so many industries including, you know, health care and most of the major industrial, and oil and gas, and energy and power. When our orders are up 23 percent, that typically means sales - translates into sales about 18 months down the road.
SIMON: Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, is going to be chairman of President Obama's job council. General Electric is, guessing, might even be your major competitor. Do you think he understands all this?
Mr. SPIEGEL: Yeah, I've been - Im on several committees and things in Washington with Jeff. And, you know, I think the good news about his appointment is that I think he understand a lot of these issues. Im hopeful that he can have a positive impact on helping to get jobs moving again and also to get some of these policies.
I think once you get the policies in place, you'll get companies making investments because investments require understanding the long term, not just putting some stimulus money in place or some investment tax credits. Those are short-term fixes. We really need some longer term policies in place. And then, you know, I think when I heard the president saying we need to set a better environment for business here in the U.S. If we do that and everyone understands what the rules are, then you're going to see people make investments. Then the market will work.
SIMON: Mr. Spiegel.
Mr. SPIEGEL: Yes.
SIMON: Are you a little surprised to hear this proposal from a Democratic administration?
Mr. SPIEGEL: Yeah...
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. SPIEGEL: I have to admit I've been in several events over the past couple of years where the president and other senior people for the administration have been in talking. And I've been at some of these meetings where people have raised the question of corporate tax, and it didnt get much discussion.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. SPIEGEL: I have to admit. You know, I've heard a lot of people say that a lot of the things he said in his State of the Union were things he's been talking about for quite a while. But I think this issue around the corporate rate and trying to find ways to reduce it, I think is really something new that I haven't seen the administration engaging, at least in the meetings that I've been in and some of the people I've been talking to.
So I think it that was definitely a change of course. I think the tone from the president sounded more pro-business than it has in the past. I think, you know, the devil is going to be in the details. It's going to be all about the execution now.
SIMON: Eric Spiegel, CEO of the Siemens Corporation, thank you so much.
Mr. SPIEGEL: Thank you.
SIMON: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Wisconsin has long been a battleground state in presidential elections, but it doesn't always get a lot of national attention in non-election years. All of the sudden this week, Wisconsin seemed to be the center of the political universe.
NPR national political correspondent Don Gonyea has this postcard.
DON GONYEA: It's not particularly easy to get to Manitowoc, Wisconsin, especially in January when you never know what the weather will be like. But there was President Obama on the morning after his State of the Union address.
(Soundbite of cheering and applause)
President BARACK OBAMA: Hello, everybody.
(Soundbite of cheering)
President OBAMA: Hello, Wisconsin.
(Soundbite of cheering and applause)
President OBAMA: Thank you. Thank you.
GONYEA: It was a big deal for this small city on Lake Michigan, even the state's newly-elected Republican governor, Scott Walker, showed up.
Governor SCOTT WALKER (Republican, Wisconsin): No matter what the reason for coming, I'll take the fact having the president of the United States here, regardless of party, is a strong positive sign for the State of Wisconsin. And for us, it's another way we can highlight some of our great businesses.
GONYEA: And the president wasn't the only one putting the spotlight on Wisconsin this week.
Representative PAUL RYAN (R-WI, Chairman, Budget Committee): Good evening. Im Congressman Paul Ryan from Janesville, Wisconsin, and chairman here at the House Budget Committee.
GONYEA: Ryan delivered the official GOP response to the State of the Union address Tuesday.
And there's another Wisconsinite in the news these days.
Mr. REINCE PRIEBUS (Chairman, Republican National Committee): Hi. Well, first of all, my name is Reince Priebus.
GONYEA: Priebus is the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, who spent the week retooling the party apparatus to take on President Obama in 2012. All of this means Wisconsin may be getting more close-ups in the national media.
At a downtown Manitowoc lunch counter, 41-year-old John Tobin says if the rest of the country learns more about the state in the process, that's just fine by him.
Mr. JOHN TOBIN: It's the heart of the country. I moved into to Wisconsin in '95, Manitowoc in '98. So Im married with five kids. It's a good place to live. It really is.
GONYEA: And we haven't even brought up football yet. The Green Bay Packers, Super Bowl bound after beating Mr. Obama's team, the Chicago Bears.
President OBAMA: Let me start by clearing something up. I am not here because I lost a bet.
(Soundbite of laughter and applause)
President OBAMA: I just wanted to be clear about that. I have already gotten three Green Bay jerseys.
(Soundbite of cheering and applause)
GONYEA: The president showing he's been taking notes on Wisconsin.
Don Gonyea, NPR News.
(Soundbite of song, "On Wisconsin")
SIMON: This is NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
The Sundance Film Festival wraps up tonight, with its awards ceremony for the best domestic and foreign films and documentaries. Who knows who'll win? Probably not Kevin Smith.
Karina Longworth is the film editor and a critic at L.A. Weekly. She joins us from member station KPCW in Park City, Utah.
Thanks so much for being with us.
Ms. KARINA LONGWORTH (Film Editor/Critic, LA Weekly): Thank you for having me.
SIMON: Let's start with this Kevin Smith speech, which has gotten just about, I guess, the most widely covered news coming out of the festival. He took the stage to make some remarks at the premier of his newest film, "Red State." What happened?
Ms. LONGWORTH: Well, he had told his fans, and anybody that was paying attention via Twitter, that he was going to auction off the film to the highest bidder after the screening. And instead of doing that, he made this lecture about Indie film distribution past, present and future, and announced that he was going to release the film himself.
He basically said he thinks the model of Indie film distribution is broken because it costs so much money for a studio to promote a film, that in the end, nobody makes any money. And so he said that because he made this film for $4 million through private investments, he could easily make that money back by releasing it himself, rather than allowing a studio to do it for him, and essentially losing money to the studio. Right.
SIMON: Why was that so objectionable?
Ms. LONGWORTH: It was objectionable because he invited all of the big guys into the room to hear that speech. The people that are objecting to that movie are people that wanted to be in business with him; that wanted to basically exploit him. And he was saying Im not going to let you do that.
SIMON: What are some of the other films that have been the most talked about there?
Ms. LONGWORTH: One film that I like a lot is "The Future," which is Miranda July's follow up to "Me and You and Everyone We Know," which was at Sundance in 2005. It's about a 30-something unmarried couple who are preparing to adopt a stray cat. The cat is in the hospital and they know they're going to get in a month. And they decide that once this cat enters their life, they're going to have a kind of responsibility that theyve never known before. So they should quit their jobs and live life to the fullest for 30 days. And that leads to disastrous results.
SIMON: I've heard a lot about "Project Nim."
Ms. LONGWORTH: "Project Nim" is great. It's directed by James Marsh who recently won an Oscar for the film "Man on Wire," which also premiered at Sundance. And it's a documentary about this experiment that a Columbia professor did. He took a chimpanzee away from its mother right after it was born and gave it to a family in York. And the family happened to be the family of a woman that this professor had used to be sexually involved with.
And he had the family raise the chimpanzee and teach it sign language, and treat it as though it was one of the children of the family, as though it was a human. What ends up happening is that the filmmaker creates these parallels between the professor and the chimpanzee, so that you understand nature versus nurture in a completely different way.
SIMON: What else are you hearing - people we ought to pay attention to, actors, directors, whatever?
Ms. LONGWORTH: Somebody that I definitely think has potential is Evan Glodell, who is the writer, director, star and editor of "Bellflower," which is this crazy movie about these kids who live in Oxnard, California, who build their own flame throwers and are obsessed with the apocalypse. And it's a romance but the romance and the apocalypse elements are completely fused together, and it's really violent and bloody. And I can't imagine any distributer ever buying it. And it's wonderful.
SIMON: Wow. Well...
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: With that endorsement and caution, thanks very much for making the time for us. Karina Longworth of L.A. Weekly, thanks so much.
Ms. LONGWORTH: Sure, thank you.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News, I'm Scott Simon.
Thousands of demonstrators have gathered in downtown Cairo for a fifth day today calling for an end to the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt for 30 years.
(Soundbite of protestors).
SIMON: Fraudulent, illegitimate, the chant of anti-Mubarak protestors today. Late last night Mr. Mubarak spoke on Egyptian national television ending days of silence as protests continued to build. He dismissed his cabinet and pledged to support freedom of expression, quote, "So long as it in within the parameters of the law." Here he is speaking through an interpreter.
President HOSNI MUBARAK (Egypt): (Through Translator) I have requested the government to step down today, and I will designate a new government - a new government as of tomorrow to shoulder new duties and to account for the priorities of the upcoming era.
SIMON: President Mubarak promised to address the demands of the protestors, but he made it clear that he intends to try to stay in power. And those words apparently haven't satisfied those who are still protesting on the streets of Cairo and in other cities.
Omar Mohamad teaches engineering at Cairo University, and yesterday he joined the throngs in the streets.
Professor OMAR MOHAMAD (Engineering, Cairo University): All people were out. You see little girls, you see old men, you see illiterate people, you see like high (unintelligible) people. Rich, poor, everybody was there. So it gave me the feeling that for the first time thereabout to smell the breeze of freedom.
SIMON: Omar Mohamad says Egyptians are ready for real change.
Mr. MOHAMAD: Tomorrow, the Egyptian people will not be the same as the Egyptian people of yesterday. They are different people. So I think it's about time to start thinking of how to try gain back our dignity, gain back our place, gain back our life.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
The protests in Egypt have a specific target: a man who has ruled his country with an iron fist for three decades. Hosni Mubarak was thrust into the presidency amid drama and bloodshed when Anwar Sadat was gunned down by Islamist assassins in 1981. And now, this unprecedented public uprising may hasten the 82-year-old Mr. Mubarak's exit.
NPR's Peter Kenyon lived in Cairo for six years. He joins us today from Beirut. Peter, thanks for being with us.
PETER KENYON: You're welcome, Scott.
SIMON: And as we watch these - I must say - riveting scenes from Cairo, from Alexandria, from Suez, it's almost hard to imagine that Hosni Mubarak was initially welcomed as a kind of comforting, stabilizing force.
KENYON: Well, that's exactly right, and he was. It's important to remember how traumatized Egypt was then. Sadat had done the unthinkable in the Arab world in those days; he'd made peace with Israel. Now, the Arab League had expelled Egypt, moved its headquarters from Cairo to Tunis, and so Egypt was under a great deal of pressure.
And Hosni Mubarak, he'd been picked as vice president precisely because he was a solid and non-threatening number two. He was standing next to Sadat when the president was gunned down by radical Islamists, and instantly became Egypt's president.
Now, in the early years, Egyptians loved Mubarak for what he was not. He wasn't an ambitious Arab nationalist like Gamal Abdel Nasser. He wasn't likely to spring big surprises on people, as Sadat had done. In his first term, he prevented disaster, enacted some modest reforms. And Egyptians were - if not thrilled, at least comforted to have him there.
SIMON: But even in those earlier days, were there signs that his approach to stability had more to do with - I'll put it this way - more to do with control than problem-solving?
KENYON: Well, I think that's right. Mubarak learned some lasting lessons from the fates of his predecessors. He prizes stability, above all. In the wake of the Sadat assassination, when mass arrests of Islamists were being carried out, he forced through a set of emergency laws that gave, basically, the powers of a martial law declaration to the military and security.
Those powers have remained in place. In other words, Mubarak's tenure, in effect, has been one long state of emergency. Now, after many of the most radical fundamentalists were arrested or fled, the state turned its sights on the Muslim Brotherhood, which it has portrayed as a dire threat to Egypt and the region ever since. And that - I must say - that's something that's played well in Washington.
SIMON: Now, there seemed to be a flurry of hope among members of the opposition in Egypt. I guess in 2005, the Bush administration was making, really, some very pronounced threats that it might reconsider its support for authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. What happened?
KENYON: Well, 2005 marked the first election where Mubarak's wasnt the only name on the ballot. Of course, he still won a huge victory. His opponent was thrown in jail for several years. Still, for Mubarak, it was a big concession at the time. But when it became clear that the Bush administration had no follow-up to its threats, the ruling party cracked down with even more intensity.
It was at this point that I heard my one Egyptian joke, Scott. With your permission, I'd like to tell it.
SIMON: Yeah, please.
KENYON: OK. Here it is. An aide comes rushing into Mubarak's office, waving a few sheets of paper. And he says, (foreign language spoken), Mr. President, here it is at last, your farewell address to the people. And Mubarak looks up from his desk and he says: Why, are they going somewhere?
(Soundbite of laughter)
SIMON: Well, that does raise this question, Peter. As you watch these ongoing protests, where does Egypt go from here? What are some of the possible outcomes?
KENYON: Well, clearly, the Army's views are going to be crucial, as people have said. The Army leadership was already thinking about who might come after Mubarak, because the Army's not that fond of Gamal Mubarak, the son, who some say was being groomed to succeed his father next year. But this - it really is new territory for Egypt. So we've got to be prepared for more surprises in any direction.
I wrote - a couple of years ago, in a piece - about what might come next, that Egyptians simply aren't revolutionary by nature, which is something I had been told over and over again during my six years living there. And they probably would wait and see what comes next.
But I also wrote at that time that there has been riots, general strikes and other protests that had raised another possibility - that even Egyptians can only take so much stagnation and desperation before there's an explosion of political unrest. And now it's come; Mubarak's still in power; and how he responds is going to be crucial.
SIMON: NPR's Peter Kenyon, thanks so much.
KENYON: You're welcome, Scott.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
President Obama spoke with Hosni Mubarak shortly after President Mubarak's speech last night, and he called on Egyptian authorities he said to refrain from violence against peaceful protestors, and he urged Mr. Mubarak to fulfill his promise to expand democracy and economic opportunity.
President BARACK OBAMA: What's needed right now are concrete steps that advance the rights of the Egyptian people. A meaningful dialogue between the government and its citizens, and a path of political change that leads to a future of greater freedom and greater opportunity, and justice for the Egyptian people.
SIMON: President Obama speaking from the White House last night. Joined now by NPR's senior Washington editor, Ron Elving. Ron, thanks for being with us.
RON ELVING: Good morning, Scott.
SIMON: And President Obama seemed to endorse the goals of the protestors in every way but the one they wanted most and the one that they consider essential, and that's the ouster of Mr. Mubarak himself. Help us understand what the President is trying to say.
ELVING: The President is trying to say that the United States has contradictory interests here. He is trying to tell the Egyptians that he supports them in their legitimate grievances as he keeps calling them, and he supports their right to protest, their right to call for the ouster of Mubarak, but he also has a great deal invested.
The United States has 30 years invested in the Mubarak regime, and we are not prepared to treat him in quite the same way that we were prepared to treat say, Ben Ali in Tunisia. So he is trying to set up a kind of dynamic here, in which we're sending a signal to Mubarak, but we're also sending a signal to the protesters and we're also talking to all the other Arab governments who are watching very carefully to see how much we stand by our long-time ally.
SIMON: After 30 years of support and I don't know how many billions of dollars of aid, what kind of leverage does the United States have in events now?
ELVING: Well, potentially quite a bit. The most significant thing, as you mentioned, is the money. We have threatened him with taking away that aid that we give him every year, by some reckonings, a billion and a half a billion dollars for the military just by itself - and if we were to do that, of course, that would mean a great deal to Mubarak in the future. But in the immediate present of a larger issue is the political backing. Will we call on him to step aside the way we have done in other situations, beleaguered leaders in other countries? Will we do what we could do to ease in transition for his regime and facilitated an exit for him? Thats what the people of Egypt are waiting to hear.
SIMON: Yeah. And help us, because we can cast back to examples like Ferdinand Marcos, when the U.S. government, Reagan administration I believe, decided to cut the cord then, what's the hesitation now? Is there some feeling in the White House that President Mubarak might in fact hold on?
ELVING: Thats part of the reason the administration is in such a defensive crouch through this whole crisis. I mean earlier in the week you heard those pro-regime remarks from Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton, talking about the stability of Egypt and the stability of the Mubarak regime. These are things that meant a great deal to the United States. Let's not forget that Egypt has been the linchpin and this regime has been the linchpin for our preserving the peace there for protecting Israel. Remember, those two agreements reached by presidents Clinton and President Carter and Clinton, and that has had enormous significance for keeping what stability we have had, what equilibrium we have had in that entire region. And remember again that there are other Arab governments watching what were doing.
SIMON: Is this a little bit at odds for what the president said in 2009 in Cairo?
ELVING: It is indeed, because there he was identifying himself, if you will, with legitimate aspirations and grievances of the millions and tens of millions of people not only in Egypt, which is the largest country in the region, 80 million and more, but also in other Arab countries as well and throughout the emerging world. Thats what we were trying to do in Cairo in 2009 and now we see where some of the fruits of that can come.
SIMON: And the White House wanted to talk about something else, other things this week, didn't it?
ELVING: Yes. They wanted a comeback strategy this month based on the Tucson speech and the State of the Union speech. Win the future was the phrase they wanted on everyone's lips this weekend. They've got a new cast in the White House. They've got Bill Daley as the new chief of staff. They've got a new spokesperson in Jay Carney. They have a new political director in David Plouffe, who comes back from the campaign. This is what they wanted to be talking about, not an international crisis of these proportions.
(Soundbite of music)
SIMON: Okay. Well, and thats life, and thats politics.
NPR senior editor, Washington, Ron Elving. Thanks very much for joining us.
Mr. ELVING: Thank you, Scott.
SIMON: And youre listening to NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
Rahm Emanuel's name is back on the ballot, this time for good. The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously overturned an appellate court ruling that Mr. Emanuel did not meet the Chicago's residency requirements to run for mayor, because he had lived in Washington D.C. while serving as President Obama's chief of staff and hadnt returned to reside in Chicago long enough before he started to run.
Got that? What an eventful week, that began with the ruling that knocked Mr. Emanuel off the ballot, the decision that put him back on and a debate of the mayoral candidates.
Carol Marin, a political columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and political editor for NBC 5 News, has been covering the campaign. She joins us now from member station WBEZ.
Woo. Thanks for being with us, Carol.
Ms. CAROL MARIN (Political columnist, Chicago Sun-Times; Political editor, NBC 5 News): My pleasure, Scott.
SIMON: What was the basis of the Supreme Court ruling, as you read it?
Ms. MARIN: The Supreme Court ruling in uncharacteristically, I think strong language, said that the appellate court didn't get it right. That it was trying to reverse 150 years of Illinois history in which once you've established a residency, if you go away for a bit to Congress, to be a judge, to your summer home in Florida, as long as you don't intend to abandon your home and your residency, you're a resident.
SIMON: Now, Mr. Emanuel won the court battle. Any political cost though, for being portrayed as some kind of out-of-towner?
Ms. MARIN: Quite the contrary, Scott. You know, Rahm Emanuel, whom you know and many of us in Chicago and the nation know, has some pretty hard and brittle edges. This has transformed him into a victim, a sympathetic character. It is the unintended consequence of the people who wanted to dump him from the ballot that Emanuel got tons of free media in addition to the millions he can spend on paid media and all of it cast him as the guy who people were trying to do something bad to.
SIMON: What about revelations in some of the financial reports that came out a few days before this that Mr. Emanuel had received hundreds of thousands of dollars from very famous people including, Steve Jobs, Steven Spielberg who, however eminent, are out-of-towners?
Ms. MARIN: They're all or not all - but many of them are out-of-towners. Many of them have a Hollywood connection, certainly a vast money connection. But it didn't seem to make a strenuous dent in Mr. Emanuel's image either. It showed that he had the juice to do what he needed to do. There are certainly critics who believe that money always controls these elections and that that's the basic unfairness of it all. And we should point out that Mr. Emanuel could only capture that money until December 31st, then the rules here in Illinois change for what you can raise in campaign financing. That $100,000 would have been only $5,000 a day after December 31st. So he's following the rules but those rules are interesting things.
SIMON: I guess it had been assumed that there was going to be a second round. Whats your feeling, your judgment, Carol? Is it approaching now just a little less than a month before this first round that it's possible that one of the candidates will get 50 percent or more?
Ms. MARIN: Its absolutely possible. As you know, this is a nonpartisan municipal election, though all the front runners are essentially Democrats.
Gery Chico, who one might argue, along with Carol Moseley Braun, are next in the pack. Miguel del Valle, who is the city clerk, he has very little money but a lot of community juice. And if one gets 50 percent plus one, they're the next mayor of the city of Chicago.
In the beginning, when there were many more candidates, that didnt look possible. But you can do the math right now and say that is within the reach of possibility. Emanuels polling at about 44 percent. His next closest contender is at about 22 percent, and so in the next three-and-a-half weeks its possible that that could be a one winner-take-all election.
SIMON: Political columnist and commentator Carol Marin. Thanks for so much.
Ms. MARIN: My pleasure. Take care, Scott.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Joshua Bell is an acclaimed violinist, a good sport, and a true showman. In 2007, he donned a disguise and played for almost an hour in a Washington, D.C. Metro station, and collected $32.17. He's also, of course, performed in the world's great concert halls and the White House.
This week, Mr. Bell was scheduled to headline a concert in Bethesda, Maryland's Strathmore Hall. When snowstorms struck, Mr. Bell's concert was canceled just a quarter of an hour before show-time. Three hundred people were already standing and dripping in the lobby.
A concert-goer named Dakota Korth told the Washington Post that they saw a man leaving with a violin case over his shoulder. It was Joshua Bell. I'm really sorry, the violinist reportedly said. I wanted to play for you guys, but they won't let me. Can you play something for us here, a woman asked. You played in the Metro.
So Joshua Bell played about a minute of his variations on "Yankee Doodle Dandy."
Dakota Korth said it took an hour for him to return home that night. But, quote, "It was a tolerable hour, having the chance to stand five feet from where he was playing."
(Soundbite of music)
You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News, I'm Scott Simon.
Time for sports.
(Soundbite of music)
And Kim Clijsters of Belgium won the women's title at the Australian Open today, defeating China's Li Na. On the men's side, Andy Murray hopes to bring home a victory to London from the commonwealth. Hey, where's the didgeridoo? I beg your pardon. You know, that long Australian horn. We don't have one to celebrate. We have our own Howard Bryant, who joins us from WFCR in Amherst, Mass., where the weather's a lot different than it is in Australia, isn't it?
Morning, Howard.
Mr. HOWARD BRYANT (Senior Writer, ESPN.com): Good morning, Scott. I'm glad we're not talking about Jay Cutler today. So I'm sorry about your Bears. But at least - you weren't calling him a quitter were you?
SIMON: No, no, I wasn't, as a matter of fact. No, a few other things, but not -someone who couldn't pass the ball very well but not a quitter. OK?
Tell us about Li Na. She is 28. How did she get to the finals?
Mr. BRYANT: She had a wonderful, wonderful tournament. And she got to the final by being very, very tough, by being extremely resilient. She had many chances, especially when you go up against Caroline Wozniacki, who's not going to make a lot of mistakes. And she's the number one player in the world.
And she came back and she fought and she fought really hard. And she became just a darling at the tournament. And at 28 - she'll be 29 next month - it was a real nice moment. And I think that if she can fight her injuries - I mean, that's one of the reasons why she hadn't been a great player of the past couple of years - then I think she could have a nice second part to her career.
SIMON: Kim Clijsters, of course, is the champ. All credit due. But she got there without beating Serena Williams. And does that take a little bit away?
Mr. BRYANT: Well, I think it does. It's almost like the Michael Jordan when -the Michael Jordan effect when he was gone in '94 and '95 and the Houston Rockets had won the championship there was this feeling like, OK, were they really champions because they didn't beat the number one.
But, you know, you have to play who's there. And Serena wasn't there. She was injured. So we'll see what happens when the French rolls around in May.
But Kim Clijsters earned it. She was great this tournament. She lost one set in the entire tournament, and it was to Li Na in the first set of the final. And she's won three majors before. This is the first one that she hadn't won outside of the U.S. she'd won three U.S. Opens.
But she was terrific. And she earned it. And she's beaten Serena head-to-head anyway. So it's not - she's not like Wozniacki, who I don't think is a real legitimate number one. Kim Clijsters is a legit champion. And she's gone head-to-head with Serena. She's gone head-to-head with Venus. She's gone head-to-head with Sharapova. She's played all the best. She's beaten the best and now she's won the Australian Open title. And it's very, very well deserved.
SIMON: And on the men's side. Andy Murray is practically carrying Trafalgar Square on his shoulders.
(Soundbite of laughter)
What kind of chance does he have?
Mr. BRYANT: I think he's got a great chance. He's beaten Djokovic the last three times that they've played, even though Djokovic had won the first four. So they've got this rivalry going back and forth.
And I think one of the things that Andy Murray's got to really pay attention to is the history. He is looking to be the first Brit since 1936 to actually win a men's singles title. And so there's a lot of history riding on this.
But also, I think that if he is aggressive - the beauty of Djokovic's game is his defense with a great deal of offense. These guys are going to hit the ball really hard at each other. It's going to be a really powerful match if you like these guys going baseline on each other. And also if Murray can take it to the net it's going to be a really great athletic match. I'm really looking forward to it.
SIMON: Howard Bryant, senior writer for ESPN.com, ESPN the magazine and ESPN the pick-up truck.
Thanks so much.
Mr. BRYANT: My pleasure, Scott.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Mr. Mazibuko, welcome to the program.
ALBERT MAZIBUKO: Thank you. It's nice for having me here.
HANSEN: Welcome to you, Mr. Goldstein.
MITCH GOLDSTEIN: Thank you very much.
HANSEN: I'd like to start with you, actually. Why an album of children's songs?
GOLDSTEIN: I've been to the farms where they grew up, outside of Ladysmith, and when I'm there with Joseph Shabalala, the founder of the group, and Albert, they share with me the stories of their childhood and the songs and what their parents used to teach them. And I thought if there was a way to bring that out in a CD, for the fans to listen to, it would be wonderful. So we sat down and came up with this idea of recording songs from their childhood.
HANSEN: Mr. Mazibuko, tell me a bit about the song - please forgive my pronunciation and correct it, "Imithi Gobakahle."
MAZIBUKO: Yes, "Imithi Gobakahle."
(SOUNDBITE OF THUNDER AND RAIN)
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IMITHI GOBAKAHLE")
LADYSMITH: (Singing in foreign language)
HANSEN: What is that song?
MAZIBUKO: That is the song that we play when the storms come. So it's a warning song that we call the children to come to a safe place.
HANSEN: And this is one you heard as a child?
MAZIBUKO: This is a song that we used to sing as children and my grandmother used to sing to us, and then my father also. And this is a song that is a wonderful song. It's got a great (unintelligible), harmonies are (unintelligible).
HANSEN: Yeah, I also happen to like the clap of thunder that begins it.
GOLDSTEIN: We wanted to add a little bit of the natural elements that they experienced on the farms of South Africa. So we didn't want to make it schmaltzy, so to speak. But we did want to add a bit of the natural elements that go on.
LADYSMITH: (Singing in foreign language)
HANSEN: How old are these songs? I mean do they go back centuries?
MAZIBUKO: I think they are very old, because when my grandmother tell me about the songs, she said that their parents were singing the same songs to them.
HANSEN: So you heard the songs from your grandmother, and chances are she heard it from her mother who heard from her mother, who heard from mother.
MAZIBUKO: Exactly.
HANSEN: Another song - again, my Zulu is not that good -"Ntulube," "N-tulube?" It's the one that translates to: A way, you river snake.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NTULUBE")
LADYSMITH: (Singing in foreign language)
MAZIBUKO: "Ntulube." Yeah, this is a song that we used to sing when we are going swimming. So when we are going to swimming, so we have another creature we don't want to share the water with, and like snakes and frogs and other creature. But there's only one creature that we want to swim with - it's a tortoise.
HANSEN: A tortoise. So you sing in hopes that the snakes will get out of your way in the river.
MAZIBUKO: Absolutely, yes.
HANSEN: Does it work?
MAZIBUKO: Yes, it works all the time. You can...
HANSEN: Really?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MAZIBUKO: You can see the frogs, they're jumping out of the water.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NTULUBE")
LADYSMITH: (Singing in foreign language)
HANSEN: Mr. Goldstein, how is he holding up after these years?
GOLDSTEIN: I every so often ask him if he still enjoys being on the road and traveling. And he says, this is my life, this is my love - this is what I want to do. He cannot imagine staying home and not traveling with the group.
HANSEN: Joseph Shabalala composed a song on this album called "Thalaza."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THALAZA")
LADYSMITH: (Singing in foreign language)
HANSEN: Mr. Mazibuko, what do the words mean in that song? Can you translate for us?
MAZIBUKO: So this is advice song that, don't abandon your relatives or your homes. So, as we say, "Thalaza" and then you say when you go there, so you will ask the people around where is my home. They said, we don't know. We don't know even what you are talking about, because you'll find other people who don't know your parents that were living there.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THALAZA")
LADYSMITH: (Singing in foreign language)
HANSEN: It's very nostalgic kind of song, too.
GOLDSTEIN: Joseph always says: To know yourself, you must walk in the footsteps of your ancestors. He's a big believer in tradition, in family and knowing where you come from. He feels that people who leave their homelands, and leave their towns and families, they lose a huge part of themselves.
HANSEN: I would guess that "Old McDonald had a Farm" is not originally a Zulu tune.
GOLDSTEIN: Of course, it is.
HANSEN: It - come on.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OLD MCDONALD HAD A FARM")
LADYSMITH: (Singing in foreign language)
GOLDSTEIN: We were sitting in the studio and we were working. And we were doing all these wonderful songs from the farm, and I just said hey, guys. Do you know this old traditional song, "Old McDonald had a Farm?" Some of the guys did and some of the others didn't, and so we just played around with it - singing it in Zulu. And everybody just had a great time with it. Everyone in the group loved doing it, so we just went for it. And it was just meant to be a fun song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OLD MCDONALD HAD A FARM")
LADYSMITH: (Singing in foreign language)
HANSEN: Mr. Mazibuko, does E-I, E-I-O translate into any language?
MAZIBUKO: No, I think this is a universal language.
HANSEN: E-I, E-I-O?
MAZIBUKO: Yes, yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
HANSEN: Thank you both very much.
MAZIBUKO: Welcome. Thank you very much.
GOLDSTEIN: Thank you very much.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OLD MCDONALD HAD A FARM")
LADYSMITH: (Singing in foreign language)
HANSEN: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OLD MCDONALD HAD A FARM")
LADYSMITH: (Singing in foreign language)
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
NPR's Jason Beaubien has more.
JASON BEAUBIEN: Larousse Dorcent runs a small grocery store from a shipping container in a dusty slum above the Haitian port city of Saint Marc. Pigs and chickens wander freely through the neighborhood. It looks like a place that technology forgot, except that for the last two months, customers at Dorcent's shop have been able to pay by cell phone.
LAROUSSE DORCENT: (Foreign language spoken)
BEAUBIEN: Dorcent punches a code into his own phone.
(SOUNDBITE OF A RING TONE)
BEAUBIEN: Instantly he gets a message showing that he's got 41,000 gourdes or just over a thousand U.S. dollars in his account. Dorcent says he likes that customers can pay from their phones straight to his.
DORCENT: (through translator) The first good reason I can give is when you're handing a lot of liquid cash, it's also being handled by a whole lot of other people throughout the country. And these days with cholera, it's safer to not be in contact with currency that's making its way throughout the country.
BEAUBIEN: Andrew Lucas manages the assistance program for Mercy Corps in Saint Marc.
ANDREW LUCAS: What we're doing is giving nine months of food rations. And so each month each family will receive around $40 in credit to buy four products. They can buy rice, oil, corn flour or beans.
BEAUBIEN: Food aid like this is not distributed at all in the severely damaged capital. The goal here is to encourage people to migrate out of Port-au-Prince and at the same time to help the families that have taken them in. Lucas says Mercy Corps used to be handing out printed food vouchers, but now they're giving each family a cheap cell phone loaded with $40 worth of T-cash.
LUCAS: For us actually, vouchers are difficult. It takes a lot of time to distribute them. We have to print them somewhere, distribute them each month, collect them.
BEAUBIEN: Greta Greathouse is with the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is putting up millions of dollars to help get these systems going.
GRETA GREATHOUSE: We wanted it kick-started now. We didn't want to wait for three years.
BEAUBIEN: Currently, only about 10 percent of Haitians have bank accounts. Mobile money has the potential to offer banking-type services - savings accounts, wire transfers, itemized account records - to millions of Haitians who currently don't have them. And Greathouse says mobile money offers advantages over traditional banks.
GREATHOUSE: It costs less. The costs are less than going to the bank and that's before you add in the cost of transport to go to the bank and the time it takes you. And it's safe.
PIERRE LIAUTAUD: I envision a time when every Haitian will figure out that he'd prefer getting paid this way than any other method.
BEAUBIEN: Liautaud says this was an important precursor to mobile money.
LIAUTAUD: It's an introduction not only to the technology but to the principle that I can send you something electronically that has value.
BEAUBIEN: Jason Beaubien, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
HANSEN: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
In its February issue, National Geographic explores underground Paris. And it's such a maze down there that even a lifelong caver like photographer Stephen Alvarez can get lost.
STEPHEN ALVAREZ: I've spent thousands of hours underground but I will go in here and I'm lost immediately. I mean, without someone to show me around I'd wander around until I died.
HANSEN: National Geographic's Stephen Alvarez invited NPR's intrepid Jacki Lyden along for several weeks. Jacki concentrated on the men and women who make up the cataphiles, clandestine urban spelunkers whose world lies 60 feet below the City of Light.
JACKI LYDEN: To be a cataphiles in the catacomb, it helps to have feline nerves for crawling through tight spaces. One of the most popular entrances to the labyrinth of the souterrain, the underground, lies off an abandoned railroad that encircles Paris. You hike along its tracks, preferably in the dark to avoid the police, and then squeeze through a human being-sized wormhole and drop 20 feet and 200 years back into the past, leaving the modern world far above you and lonely you, amid the silent bones, rocks and antiquities in yawing, pitched darkness. And it can be wet as well.
(SOUNDBITE OF PEOPLE SPEAKING FRENCH)
LYDEN: Our guide on my first night down with the National Geographic crew is a charming, 22-year-old French student, Daniel Garnier-Moiroux.
DANIEL GARNIER: What I'm doing is where I walk on one side and then move (unintelligible) on the other side.
LYDEN: Earnest with a long ponytail, was telling me how to walk through the flooded tunnels by straddling it, sliding my boots on a tiny underwater ledge. My boots shimmy right off - wet feet for hours.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPLASHING)
GARNIER: Are you OK?
LYDEN: Daniel is a student at the prestigious Ecole de Mines, the school of mines. Every year the school has a sort of field trip down below.
GARNIER: There are two second-year guides with a group of 10 freshmen. At some point, they say stop. They take everyone's lights and they give candles. And you explore the catacombs, a place you don't know, with candles. But the problem is you cannot see what's in front of you and the only thing you see is the candle. It's amazing. It's a completely different experience.
LYDEN: Daniel, do you think about how far underground you are when you're doing that?
GARNIER: Not really, not really.
LYDEN: What do you think about?
GARNIER: I know it's from 10 to 30 meters underground, depending on place. I know about the accidents that can happen. For example, there's a phenomenon that's called a fontis. That's when the ceiling collapses. And that created great problems. That's actually why they created the inspection of quarries.
LYDEN: Daniel points out the carbon black lettering etched into the stone walls - the best way for cataphiles to tell direction.
GARNIER: It's a number, then a letter, then another number. The number on the right is the year when that wall was made.
LYDEN: 1895.
GARNIER: K is for the first letter of the name of the inspector of the quarries who supervised this. And four is the number of the wall. That's the fourth wall he made in '85.
(SOUNDBITE OF PEOPLE SPEAKING FRENCH)
LYDEN: The muralist weaves over to us and gives us his one-word cata name:
PSYCKOSE: Psyckose.
LYDEN: Psyckose. Cata noms de cave are de rigeur because this is technically illegal, yet Psyckose has, for 30 years, been going down to what he calls the crossroads.
PSYCKOSE: The catacombs is the crossroad of the world. Everybody's coming here. You cross somebody from L.A., somebody from London, somebody from South Africa, somebody from...and everybody is totally naked because there is just dark. There's nothing. It's dead space, you know?
LYDEN: Well, metaphorically naked and not totally dead space.
(SOUNDBITE OF CORK POPPING)
LYDEN: There's another way to deal with all this dark space, and that's to light it up. While Stephen Alvarez sets out his cameras, one of our party, Louise, douses some batons with alcohol to create fire sticks.
(SOUNDBITE OF BANGING)
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
LYDEN: But we may have celebrated a bit too soon. Some of the tightest, most restricted spaces are still to come - the notorious Cathole. Spaces in which you feel as if you're being encased in rock as you wiggle through.
(SOUNDBITE OF SLIDING)
LYDEN: A week later with another cataphile comes the moment I've been dreading.
HANSEN: Can I leave you here for a couple of minutes?
LYDEN: Unidentified Man: I'll be right back.
LYDEN: Unidentified Man: Oh, you're not afraid to be alone here...
LYDEN: Unidentified Man: I'll be back soon.
LYDEN: The mural lies at the dead end of a tunnel. A robed figure is ferrying a woman over what looks like the River Stix.
GILLES ZEPREY: It was a painting by a Symbolist painter from the 19th century whose name is Arnold Detain(ph). I was fascinated by this picture because although it's about death, it's not a sad picture. You have a kind of peaceful state of mind or serenity about it.
LYDEN: Zeprey finished in April and painted four masks hovering above the painting. Below, he added an inscription.
ZEPREY: It's Latin inscription, which says in Guillaumot (Latin spoken); to walk in circle in the night and were consumed by fire. And particular thing about that inscription is that you can read it either one way or backwards and it reads the same.
LYDEN: It's a palindrome.
ZEPREY: It's a palindrome, exactly.
LYDEN: Zeprey, who now works for a large corporation and travels the world says this is the third mural he created in 15 years below ground.
ZEPREY: I wouldn't want too many people to know about it. Just keep it like a really secret place, something you can discover when you just walk in there by chance.
LYDEN: Actually, there's a lot you could stumble on by chance in this endless maze of tunnels. There's graffiti from the Reign of Terror, like a tiny painted guillotine and baskets for heads. Bunkers - both the French resistance and the Nazis had bunkers below. There's so much that cataphile historian Gilles Thomas has written the definitive atlas. He shows me what everyone wants to see.
GILLES THOMAS: Ladies first.
LYDEN: Thank you, ladies first.
THOMAS: If you want to cry, not (unintelligible).
LYDEN: If I want to cry...
THOMAS: You can't do it.
LYDEN: When Paris emptied its cemeteries in the central part of the city in the late 19th century, six million Parisians were disinterred and disarticulated. Some of their bones wound up as macabre art in the official consecrated catacombs - tourists welcome. The rest were left here in large, disorderly heaps of human bones, ossuaries.
THOMAS: There are six small ossuaries but we don't know how much, the bones of how many people are in these ossuaries.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LYDEN: OK. This may seem like an odd place to party, but cataphiles don't mind if they disturb the dead and raise the ghosts. The catacombs are considered great places for a rave.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LYDEN: Cat is a 24-year-old cataphile and is the only name she'll give me.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARTICLE DRAGGING)
LYDEN: We've met at a bus stop and crawled down a manhole together to the largest chamber I've yet seen below ground, which appears able to hold a couple hundred people. And she's asked me:
CAT: You want to crawl or do you want to walk?
LYDEN: Cat loves adventures and fellow adventurers.
CAT: And it's difficult to have a boyfriend who doesn't appreciate the same thing because you can't have a boyfriend and tell him every weekend, look, darling, I'm going underground with any man to drink and walk around. And I don't know what time I'll be coming home. And if I don't come home, it means that I'm at the police.
LYDEN: In fact, Cat's boyfriend arranged tonight's rave. But as I watched the crowd, I wonder, there are so many men gyrating around, what about the cops?
CAT: I've met them twice. It's part of the game, meeting the police. Because we're here - we know it's illegal. We're not supposed to be here. So, if you meet them, they'll bring you back at the surface, then fine you and then they'll tell you you're supposed to go home.
LYDEN: The police, also called cata-cops, may tolerate single cataphiles but they do crack down on parties. Tonight, it turns out, they're waiting up top by the manhole to arrest people one-by-one as they leave. So, Cat and another cataphile hatch an escape route, crawl out another way through an underground parking lot. I blithely agree until I see, sometime before dawn, what appears not much bigger than the eye of a needle.
DAVID BABINET: Your arms first, your both arms first. You want me to pull? Perfect.
LYDEN: Perfect. I'm in the sixth underground level of an underground parking lot. It's utterly surreal, and when we come out, it's pouring rain. The night ends with a whimper.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LYDEN: He's now a filmmaker, father and almost 40, but as a child, he forged a rebellious path. He calls the underground going downstairs, and he lives just above the catacombs.
BABINET: I started to go into catacombs in carriers. I was around 12 with some friends without going to school sometimes.
LYDEN: I'm sure you weren't telling your parents anything like this.
BABINET: They were aware of everything.
LYDEN: They were?
BABINET: Yes, they were.
LYDEN: What was their attitude about it?
BABINET: So, I was really a rebel before, so it was something very quiet to do that because I was not doing something really bad, you know, except going somewhere where it's forbidded, but it was like an obsession.
LYDEN: Have you thought about why?
BABINET: It's such a mystery, also the fear of the dark and notion of (unintelligible). To be afraid to get lost and to know like a parallel world under Paris, you know, which is kind of the inverse.
LYDEN: He points to a map on his computer.
BABINET: I want to show you where I'm living. We are very close to Le Clocherie de Lina(ph), which is a very famous French Parisian restaurant. I used to sleep underground just below this place.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LYDEN: Today, when Babinet walks a few blocks away and entertains clients at Le Clocherie de Lina, he could think about the famous who's come here - Hemingway and Gertrude Stein and Satchu(ph) and Devue Voi(ph), or about his boyhood days directly below in the catacombs.
BABINET: We were totally lost in time for one week.
LYDEN: You actually slept in a hammock slung down below this very place.
BABINET: It's like 24 meter below earth just right now. I will take you to the place on Sunday.
LYDEN: So, in early December, I went back to join Daniel and members of the freshmen class of Ecole de Mines as they descended on a chilly gray morning into the catacombs. They were being baptized by their classmates in the medieval robes.
GARNIER: Yeah, we have a secret (unintelligible) because kind of our item to teach. It's a very strict ritual.
LYDEN: You said people are dressed like monks?
GARNIER: You can never answer. I'm sorry.
LYDEN: All right.
(SOUNDBITE OF PEOPLE SPEAKING FRENCH)
LYDEN: Unidentified Man: (French spoken)
(SOUNDBITE OF SPLASHING)
LYDEN: Unidentified Woman: (French spoken)
LYDEN: Unidentified Man #2: (French spoken)
LYDEN: And then they celebrated with a song.
(SOUNDBITE OF PEOPLE SINGING IN FRENCH)
LYDEN: Jacki Lyden, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF PEOPLE SINGING)
HANSEN: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Welcome back, Marilyn.
MARILYN GEEWAX: Hi, Liane.
HANSEN: How serious is this? I mean are food prices really that high?
GEEWAX: So it's not surprising that today, in places like Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, political unrest is starting to break out again. In so many countries, prices are up 30 percent for basic things; rice, cooking oil, sugar, wheat. People are hungry. They're angry. And that's contributing to this political turmoil.
HANSEN: So why are the food prices rising?
GEEWAX: But even that isn't the whole story. There are other factors that are more complicated. You know, we've got currency fluctuations, trade policies, financial speculation in commodities markets, and energy policy - it plays a role too, because ethanol makers want to use more corn. So we've got a lot factors that are coming together and causing higher food prices.
HANSEN: But why is inflation so much worse in other countries? Americans haven't seen the huge price jumps here.
GEEWAX: But still, we're not going to be immune to these global pricing forces. The USDA thinks that in the coming year, prices will be up about three percent.
HANSEN: So what can be done?
GEEWAX: And now, we've got so many people moving into cities all over the world, more will have to be done to encourage urban farming. And then there are more controversial proposals, like increasing the use of genetically-modified seeds, controlling population, and opening up markets to more global trade.
HANSEN: NPR's senior business editor Marilyn Geewax. Thank you, Marilyn.
GEEWAX: You're welcome, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
And joining us, as always, is puzzlemaster Will Shortz. Hey, Will. How are you?
WILL SHORTZ: Excellent. How you doing, Liane?
HANSEN: All right. You built yourself a little snow igloo over the past week?
SHORTZ: No igloo, although I've been tempted. No, a lot of shoveling though.
HANSEN: A lot of shoveling, yeah. Well, remember, shovel with the knees and not with the back, right?
SHORTZ: Yeah.
HANSEN: Well, remind us of the challenge that you gave us last week before we got this snow.
SHORTZ: Yes. I said name a nationality. The third, fourth, fifth, sixth and 10th letters in order name a country. Also, the fourth, fifth, seventh, ninth and 12th letters in order name a country. I said neither country is related to the nationality. What nationality is it?
HANSEN: My goodness. This was tough, but you wouldn't know it by the people who were listening. First, the answer.
SHORTZ: It's Afghanistani, which is a variant of Afghani, and those letters I mentioned form Ghana and Haiti.
HANSEN: Well, we had another bumper crop of entries - more than 1,200, and from those entries we have a winner. He's Alan Lembitz from Boulder, Colorado. Hi, Alan. Congratulations.
ALAN LEMBITZ: Thank you, Liane. How are you?
HANSEN: I am well, thank you. What do you do in Boulder?
LEMBITZ: I'm a physician. I've had experience in the urgent care and emergency departments and I now do patient safety education and risk management for Colorado and Nebraska.
HANSEN: How long have you been playing our puzzle?
LEMBITZ: Five years.
HANSEN: Oh. And have you been sending in entries all that time?
LEMBITZ: When we get them, yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
HANSEN: That's the operative word. You sound ready to play, though. Are you? I am.
LEMBITZ: Yes, let's play.
HANSEN: All right. Let's do it. Will, meet Alan. And he said it: let's play.
SHORTZ: All right, Alan. Today, I've brought a collection of puzzles all about snow. And here's number one: you can rearrange the letters of snow to spell two common words. What are they?
HANSEN: Is wons a word, W-O-N-S? I don't think so.
SHORTZ: No. There's a currency won, but I think the plural is just won.
HANSEN: OK. Sown is what I've come up with.
SHORTZ: Sown, good, S-O-W-N. That's the hard one. There's an easier one now.
LEMBITZ: Owns.
HANSEN: Yes.
SHORTZ: Owns is it. Good job. Here's number two: the last name of what U.S. president contains the letters S-N-O-W in left-to-right order, although not consecutively?
LEMBITZ: Wilson.
SHORTZ: I'll give you a hint: it is a 20th century president.
LEMBITZ: Can you give me a decade?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SHORTZ: It's after 1950.
LEMBITZ: Eisenhower.
HANSEN: Yeah.
SHORTZ: Eisenhower is it. Good.
HANSEN: Well done, Alan.
SHORTZ: All right. Your next one: a seven-letter word for part of the day contains the letters S-N-O-W in left-to-right order, although not consecutively.
LEMBITZ: Sundown.
SHORTZ: Sundown, good. Now, this one I'm going to ask you to do in your head. Imagine the phrase no snow written in capital letters. If you double one of the letters and turn the result upside down, what familiar seven-letter word to you get?
LEMBITZ: Oh, monsoon.
SHORTZ: Monsoon, good.
HANSEN: Oh my.
SHORTZ: All right. There is a fictional character from story and film whose name contains two W's in a row. The first half of the name is snow. What is the second half?
LEMBITZ: White.
SHORTZ: Snow blank - Snow White, good. All right. Two compound words, starting with snow, end in the letters A-L-L. What are they?
HANSEN: Snow squall?
SHORTZ: Snow squall - that would be more a two-word phrase.
HANSEN: Yeah, that's...
SHORTZ: I'm looking for a compound word.
HANSEN: Snow-it-all - no, I'm sorry.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SHORTZ: Well, if you have a fight with somebody, what do you throw?
LEMBITZ: Snowball.
SHORTZ: A snowball, that's one of them. And if there was two inches of snow on the ground, that - you just - what's that?
LEMBITZ: Snowfall.
SHORTZ: Snowfall is it.
HANSEN: Oh, Alan. I'm so glad you're there. Keep it going.
SHORTZ: All right. Try this - it's a riddle: if I asked you what a snowman uses to keep his pants up, you would say a snow belt. Where can you save snow so it will collect interest?
LEMBITZ: Snow bank.
SHORTZ: Snow bank is it, good. And here's your last one: change one letter in snow to a new letter so as to make a common four-letter word. And the new letter is silent. What is this new four-letter word?
LEMBITZ: Know, K-N-O-W.
SHORTZ: K-N-O-W, good job.
HANSEN: To tell you what you'll get for playing our puzzle today is one of actually the top 100 guitarists of the 20th century. He hails from Texas, and I was able to speak with this charming musician a few weeks ago. Here's Eric Johnson.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUITAR MUSIC)
ERIC JOHNSON: For playing our puzzle today, you'll get a WEEKEND EDITION lapel pin, the Scrabble Deluxe Edition from Parker Brothers, the book series "Will Shortz Presents KenKen" Volumes 1, 2 and 3 from St. Martin's Press, one of Will Shortz's "Puzzlemaster Decks of Riddles and Challenges" from Chronicle Books, and a CD compilation of NPR's Sunday Puzzles.
HANSEN: All right, what do you think Alan?
LEMBITZ: Well, I'm very nervous. I am...
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
LEMBITZ: It was really fun. I appreciate it. Thank you.
HANSEN: Good, you worked hard for it, honey, really. You really, really did. Alan Lembitz from Boulder, before we let you go, what's your Public Radio station?
LEMBITZ: KUNC and it's remotely across our entire state, probably one of the largest ranges of any Public Radio.
HANSEN: Oh, shell it, Alan Lembitz from Boulder. Thanks again for playing with us today.
LEMBITZ: Thank you, Liane. Thank you, Will.
SHORTZ: Thanks a lot, Alan.
HANSEN: All right, Will. I think the steam coming out of my ears has melted all the snow within a 10-mile radius. But you do have a challenge for next week, right?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
SHORTZ: So again, a common with six letters, includes a Q, change the Q to an N, anagram the result and you will get a new word that's a synonym of the first one. What words are these?
HANSEN: Will, as always, thanks a lot.
SHORTZ: Thanks, Liane.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro is in Cairo. Lourdes, you've been out today. What did you see?
LOURDES GARCIA: And they're taking justice into their own hands because there is simply no police presence in many parts of the city. The Army is here but they are protecting pretty much only central locations or important buildings. They're not really widely available. And so citizens have simply come out and said, OK, we're going to take justice into our own hands; we're going to protect our families; we're going to protect our homes, and they seem to be doing just that.
HANSEN: And the protestors, what are they saying?
GARCIA: But speaking to the protestors, they say it's not enough. They want him and his cronies gone. They say Omar Suleiman is two sides of the same coin. Interestingly, when you speak to them they don't know what they want. They're not rallying around a central figure. They're not saying, you know, this person or that person. They say we want free and fair elections and we want this man, Hosni Mubarak, to leave the country and leave us alone.
HANSEN: There have been reports of a prison break in western Egypt. Do you know anything about that?
GARCIA: Well, there's not only reports of that particular prison break but we're hearing that there's been several prison breaks. In fact, one eyewitness report from a fellow reporter who was at a prison here in Cairo said that the inmates had taken over. They were having a shootout with security forces on the outside. So, very chaotic scene. That's something that really is worrying the citizenry here, reports that criminals are getting out of the prison system and indeed would be contributing to the general sense of chaos here.
HANSEN: The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert, urging tourists to avoid Egypt because of the situation. The U.S. is also providing evacuation flights for American citizens. Are you talking to any tourists who are stranded there?
GARCIA: They're not experiencing the Egypt that they were expecting, you know, the pharaohs and the Nile. Instead, as one tourist said to NPR, you know, revolution, it seems, is what this visit has been all about.
HANSEN: NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro in Cairo. Thank you.
GARCIA: You're welcome.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Egypt has been an ally of the United States for decades, and what happens there has a range of implications for U.S. objectives in the region. Martin Indyk is vice president and director of foreign policy at Brookings. He once served as U.S. ambassador to Israel. He's in our Washington studio. Thank you for coming in.
MARTIN INDYK: Thank you, Liane.
HANSEN: So, what is at stake here? The Obama administration has to safeguard American interests as well as support the will of the protestors. It's a difficult balancing act.
INDYK: And whether it's when it comes to peacemaking, Egypt is the largest country and the most powerful country to make peace with Israel three decades ago is the cornerstone of our efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.
HANSEN: And what effect might this uprising in Egypt have on the Israeli- Palestinian peace process?
INDYK: And Egypt is so much bigger, so much more important that if Mubarak does create a kind of tsunami effect in the region. On the other hand, the compact with the Egyptian people has clearly been broken. I think that Mubarak, by this point, is a dead man walking, and the United States has to get on the side of history if it's going to be able to preserve its interests here.
HANSEN: Does the announcement that the Obama administration would review its aid to Egypt seem as a threat to President Mubarak?
INDYK: I think that's a signal to the Egyptian military to not go out and shoot the demonstrators, that the United States cannot afford to be identified with a military crackdown of a popular movement to seek freedom of expression.
HANSEN: The United States also relies on Egypt to be a front against Islamic extremism in the Arab world. Do these protests change the scope of that particular partnership?
INDYK: Allahu Akbar is not the predominant call of the demonstrators. It is Mubarak has to go.
HANSEN: And briefly, what do you think is the best possible outcome here for the U.S.?
INDYK: And I think the fact that Mubarak has finally designated Suleiman head of the military intelligence as his vice president provides the key to movement forward. Suleiman needs to move against his leader and stand for new elections, presidential elections in which he should not stand.
HANSEN: Martin Indyk is vice president and director of foreign policy at Brookings. Thank you so much for coming in.
INDYK: Thank you.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Eleanor Beardsley is back in Tunis. She sends this report.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Life is slowly returning to normal in Tunis. Cafes are once again crowded with coffee drinkers soaking up the winter sun and stores have reopened.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHUTTERS OPENING)
BEARDSLEY: Enda Bassouni opened the shutters on her perfume boutique. She says sales are still way below normal, but life is better. She's says she's been watching what's going on in Egypt and is worried about all the deaths and violence. But she's pulling for the people.
ENDA BASSOUNI: (through translator) There are a lot of common points between Tunisia and Egypt and I want that government to leave. It's worse than a monarchy. He should be getting ready to flee to Saudi Arabia like our president.
BEARDSLEY: Mohamed Khelimi, who spent many years in jail under Tunisian autocrat Ben Ali, says it is marvelous to see what's going on in Egypt.
MOHAMED KHELIMI: I think that we have export a model of revolution, clean and pacifist revolution to all the dictator. This is very nice for all the Arab countries. I feel good, very, very, very nice. I cry victory.
(SOUNDBITE OF PEOPLE TALKING)
BEARDSLEY: Unidentified Man: (foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: Unidentified Man #2 (Waiter): (foreign language spoken)
(SOUNDBITE OF PEOPLE TALKING)
BEARDSLEY: Thirty-five-year-old Rhoudani Whaleed, who describes himself simply as a father, sums up the sentiment.
RHOUDANI WHALEED: (through translator) Humanity is conquering technology and here we are struggling for basic human rights and respect. We were all but forgotten. But now a giant tsunami has just hit the Arab world.
BEARDSLEY: Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Tunis.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
HANSEN: You're listening to NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
We have a series of reports now on how three states are dealing with this budget crisis, starting with NPR's Robert Smith in New York.
ROBERT SMITH: Unidentified Man: Watch it, watch it, ladies and gentlemen. This is without a doubt the most dangerous stunt to ever be performed before the public.
SMITH: Unidentified Man: And now, Houdini, are you ready to defy death?
HARRY HOUDINI: I'm ready.
SMITH: In New York State, a long line of governors have used the financial equivalent of smoke and mirrors. They've raised fees, borrowed money, and deployed gimmicks to balance the state budget. But the new governor, Andrew Cuomo, has promised, no more tricks.
ANDREW CUOMO: We spend too much money in this state. It is just an unsustainable rate of spending.
SMITH: So how will he's going to cut what the state needs: $10 billion? So far, the magician is not giving up his secrets.
CUOMO: We're going to reveal the budget when we reveal the budget and that's going to be next week.
SMITH: Cuomo spent his first month as governor avoiding talking about specific cuts. Instead, he's been traveling New York State trying to get an audience on his side, trying to convince people that business as usual is the most dangerous stunt.
STEVE GREENBERG: And the voters are very much liking what they're seeing from Andrew Cuomo in his first month in office.
SMITH: Steve Greenberg from the Sienna College Research Institute. He says Cuomo has a 70 percent favorability rating, but that won't last for long. In the 1953 movie of Houdini's life with Tony Curtis - Houdini realizes the audience doesn't love you unless you live up to the hype.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "HOUDINI")
TONY CURTIS: (as Houdini) Bess, people aren't going to stand in line to watch me pull rabbits out of a hat.
SMITH: For Houdini, the biggest danger was drowning in one of his water tricks. For Governor Cuomo:
GREENBERG: Unidentified Man: (as character) Ladies and gentlemen Houdini is now prepared to enter the pagoda torture cell.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "HOUDINI")
SMITH: Robert Smith, NPR News, New York.
KATHY LOHR: I'm Kathy Lohr in Atlanta, and things here are not as bad as in New York. But Georgia is struggling with at least a $1.3 billion shortfall and the new republican governor, Nathan Deal, is not downplaying the tough times.
NATHAN DEAL: Many politicians have long talked about reducing the size of government. My friends, we are doing it.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
LOHR: During the State of the State address, the governor said he would eliminate some 14,000 vacant jobs. He's also calling for state agencies to reduce budgets by an average of 7 percent. That means cuts to higher education, Medicaid and services for the elderly. But Deal says there's no other way.
DEAL: Our state's fortunes do not rise or fall on the size of state government.
LOHR: Alan Essig with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute says that's caused a kind of budget fatigue here.
ALAN ESSIG: It's not specifically the impact of this one budget but it's the cumulative effect of the last three years' worth of budget cuts that is really the big issue that faces Georgia.
LOHR: This year, legislators are talking about revamping the state tax code and perhaps even bringing back a tax on groceries. Some do want to reduce the overall tax rate, but Essig says in the past lawmakers were unwilling to raise taxes.
ESSIG: What we need is a more balanced approach in Georgia. We've depended almost entirely on budget cuts to balance our budgets and we can't cut our way to prosperity.
LOHR: Kathy Lohr, NPR News, Atlanta.
JOHN MYERS: Jerry Brown is a governor whose personal frugality is the stuff of legend. These days, he's preaching that same message to the public - a necessity, he says, in the face of a $25 billion budget shortfall.
JERRY BROWN: Each group in California that benefits from state money will come to Sacramento and will complain. The hallways are going to be crowded in the coming months of people who say: Please keep the money coming. And my message is: the money is not there.
MYERS: When Governor Brown's budget wasn't being hit as heartless, it was being called a drag on the economy. The biggest fight so far: his plan to eliminate local redevelopment agencies and divert the tax dollars to other government services. Those tax dollars provide an economic boost, says Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA: This is the wrong time to disincentivize, frankly, companies from coming to distressed areas of our city.
MYERS: To which Governor Jerry Brown, himself the former mayor of Oakland, says the question for local officials is this:
BROWN: If not you, who? Where do we get the money to replace that money?
MYERS: For NPR News, I'm John Myers in Sacramento.
C: David Skeel wrote the opinion page "Give the States a Way to go Bankrupt" for the Weekly Standard. Skeel is a professor of corporate law at the University of Pennsylvania and is in the studio of the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. Welcome to the program.
DAVID SKEEL: Oh, thanks so much for having me.
: Explain how this would work. I mean, how would a state like California in financial distress declare bankruptcy?
SKEEL: It also couldn't interfere directly with governmental decision making. But other than that, a state could file for bankruptcy pretty much the way an ordinary corporation files for bankruptcy.
: The National Governors Association in a written statement said: The mere existence of a law allowing states to declare bankruptcy only serves to increase interest rates, raise the costs of state government and create more volatility in the financial markets. How do you respond to the association?
SKEEL: And even with the troubled ones, often they can borrow relatively quickly after any credit crisis event.
: Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, has said he wasn't going to bring a bill like this forward. So, is there enough political will, do you think, to even move this proposal forward?
SKEEL: Well, that's the $64,000 question right now. If you look at the most recent polls, they give some reason for doubt about that, that we're not there right now. I think the odds that the Senate and the House and the president are going to be on board are still a little bit long, but I'm optimistic that this will at least get a serious hearing. Whether it will in fact be enacted, obviously, it's way too early to tell.
: David Skeel's piece, "Give the States a Way to Go Bankrupt," appears in the Weekly Standard, and he's the author of "The New Financial Deal." Skeel is a professor of corporate law at the University of Pennsylvania. He's in the studio at the Wharton Business School in Philadelphia. Thank you very much.
SKEEL: Oh, thank you.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Unidentified Woman: (Spanish spoken)
JOHN BURNETT: Unidentified Woman: (Spanish spoken)
BURNETT: Three years into Juarez's long nightmare of lawlessness, the indices are still grim. In the first month of the new year, the city has already witnessed 200 deaths - about seven a day. Last year's death toll surpassed 3,000. Most of the homicide victims are young men believed to be associated with the two drug mafias warring for control of this valuable smuggling corridor. But there are many innocents.
OLGA ESPARZA: (Spanish spoken)
BURNETT: Father Francisco Aquilano, wearing the brown robe of the Franciscan order, smiled wearily as he spoke of trying to maintain his congregation's faith. He says they hold six funerals a month at his church.
FRANCISCO AQUILANO: (Spanish spoken)
BURNETT: Unidentified Man: (Singing in Spanish)
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
BURNETT: Across town, in the Villas de Salvarcar neighborhood, workmen were pouring cement, laying sod, and putting stripes on baseball fields.
(SOUNDBITE OF HAMMERING)
BURNETT: Juarez residents have long complained about feeling abandoned by Mexico City. Jorge Luis Quintanilla was walking his dogs past the new complex with his granddaughter and he was clearly pleased about the addition to his working class neighborhood. But his satisfaction was bittersweet.
JORGE LUIS QUINTANILLA: (through translator) This is all good, but they didn't have to wait for this tragedy to give us a green space and other things for the community. It's late. They should have done it before, so the young people could have been playing sports instead of getting mixed up in gang things.
BURNETT: John Burnett, NPR News, El Paso.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
HANSEN: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Welcome to the program, Mark.
MARK BITTMAN: Well, thanks. It's great to be here.
HANSEN: All right. The Minimalist makes its exit. Why are you stopping?
BITTMAN: The Minimalist dies.
HANSEN: No.
BITTMAN: And 13 years, to me, 13 years doing one column - very narrowly defined, really - is enough.
HANSEN: Yeah, you picked 25 of your favorites from the 1,000-plus recipes you featured over the years to run in this past week's column, and I have to ask you about one of them: Stir Fry Chicken and Ketchup.
BITTMAN: The long and the short of it was: it's a basic stir fry but you make a sauce out of ketchup cooked with garlic and oil and chilies. And as a foundation of a sauce like that, the ketchup is amazing. And actually that dish inspired a column that we did entirely about ketchup and different uses of ketchup in good cooking, which was really fun. I can't remember any of them except for that stir fry, so maybe there aren't that many but it was a cool idea.
HANSEN: I have to ask: did you make the champagne cocktail that you featured on your last column?
BITTMAN: Anyway, I liked that champagne. The maple syrup instead of the sugar cube is, you know, it's accessible because you don't need the sugar cube, which is not something most people have around. But it also had a nice depth of flavor and I have to say it also increased my appreciation of bitters, which was nice.
HANSEN: What a nice way to say goodbye, huh?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
HANSEN: Mark Bittman is the author of "How to Cook Everything" and "Food Matters." His New York Times column, The Minimalist, ended its run this past week. Mark, thanks and cheers.
BITTMAN: Thanks, Liane. Take care.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
HANSEN: This is NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro has been touring the streets of Cairo today and she filed this report.
(SOUNDBITE OF CONVERSATIONS)
LOURDES GARCIA: All around the city, groups of armed young men like Mark Rafat are out in force
MARK RAFAT: We're trying to protect our neighborhood over here. Many assaults has been going on through the night. We've been able to capture many thieves
GARCIA: The police, says Rafat, have simply disappeared and the army is only protecting strategic locations.
RAFAT: There is no police forces. There's no army. We are trying to protect our neighborhoods before the thieves come into our homes and start assault on our families, and sisters and mothers.
GARCIA: Rafat said he had been participating in the demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak, but now he and hundreds of other young men in the neighborhood are standing guard instead.
RAFAT: We're in nightmare now. We don't know where that shall lead us.
(SOUNDBITE OF BROKEN GLASS)
GARCIA: Down the main street in the suburb of Giza, at least a dozen shops were looted. Mohammed Fawzi's souvenir shop was completely gutted, only broken glass remains.
MOHAMMED FAWZI: They stole all my shop - everything. Maybe more than 100 people they have weapons, that's why I can't do anything. Some people just doesn't love Egypt.
(SOUNDBITE OF TRAFFIC)
GARCIA: So I'm driving through the streets of Cairo, and this is a Sunday - it's the start of the working week. And what we're seeing is that most of the shops are shuttered, there are a lot less people out and about. And the shops that are open, people are crowding in trying to get supplies, predicting the worst.
(SOUNDBITE OF CONVERSATIONS)
GARCIA: Khaled Teki has also been taking part in the protests. But today, he was trying to get food and supplies for his family.
KHALED TEKI: Definitely the shops will close, and I'm worried about this. You can say for now it exists. But tomorrow or day after tomorrow, I don't think so.
GARCIA: Joyce Lanphere and her husband, Marvin, are from San Francisco.
MARVIN LANPHERE: I've never been in a situation like this before.
JOYCE LANPHERE: One of the people on the tour said yesterday, like the MasterCard ad: Camel ride $5, boat river cruise $50, revolution, priceless.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING PROTESTORS)
GARCIA: Ahmad Musleh was among the demonstrators.
AHMAD MUSLEH: (Through Translator) They are two faces of the same coin, actually.
GARCIA: Unidentified Man #1: No more Suleiman.
GARCIA: Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News, Cairo.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Thank you so much for making taking our call.
ALAA AL: Oh, thank you very much.
HANSEN: What are you seeing now where you are in downtown Cairo?
AL: I must tell you that it has become now evident that what happened yesterday by some people who attacked the civilians, and the robbery and all this, was an organized plan by the regime which was through all the police officers and police soldiers from the whole country, just to make the people scared.
HANSEN: Where do you think this is going now?
AL: So it seems to me that all dictators in the last minute try to calm the injured by decisions, which are not really what is demanded. What is demanded is that Mr. Mubarak must resign.
HANSEN: Dr. Alaa, do you think this can be resolved peacefully?
AL: When I say the system, it means more than the political regime. The whole system is no more functioning and it's a burden on millions of Egyptians, especially, young generation. I would say that what happened in Egypt is very similar to the revolution in 1968 in France, where millions of young French people wanted really to change the whole trend to get a new republic. And I think this is the moment in Egypt.
HANSEN: Thank you again, Dr. Alaa.
AL: Thank you.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
And, Frank, boy, why was this vote so decisive? Did you expect that?
FRANK LANGFITT: The South is very underdeveloped. There are maybe 25 miles of paved roads down here - it's nearly the size of Texas. So there was a real feeling that people wanted to have their own country and kind of a chance to choose their own destiny.
HANSEN: The United States brokered the peace agreement in 2005 between North and South Sudan. The Obama administration put a lot of pressure on the leaders in Khartoum not to sabotage the voting. How is the U.S. government viewed there in Juba?
LANGFITT: So I think that there's a lot appreciation here for what the has U.S. done. And I think it's largely seen so far as a foreign policy victory.
HANSEN: The countries surrounding Southern Sudan - the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic - they've been plagued by violence, terrible leadership. Are people worried that Southern Sudan might face similar problems once it's independent?
LANGFITT: A lot of the violence during war was actually Southerners fighting Southerners. And a lot of the rebels who are against the leadership here have come in from cold for the referendum. But there's worry that they may, after it becomes an independent country, frankly, go back to the bush and start fighting again and trying to get the spoils - which in this case, are a lot of oil reserves down here in the South.
HANSEN: So where do you go next in Southern Sudan?
LANGFITT: So I'm going up actually to look at a place where there was recently a raid, and try to look at what the government is doing to kind of reduce violence and bring more stability here before independence.
HANSEN: NPR's Frank Langfitt, safe travels, Frank. Thanks a lot.
LANGFITT: Thanks a lot, Liane.
HANSEN: You're listening to NPR News.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Senator Mikulski, thank you for inviting us to talk to you today in your office.
BARBARA MIKULSKI: Hi, Liane. As time has gone on, the office has gotten a little bit bigger, but the responsibilities have gotten very significant.
HANSEN: No doubt. What it was like, as a woman, to into walk into the Senate 25 years ago?
MIKULSKI: Well, first, it was an enormous thrill. And it was also very scary, because I felt it was not only Barb Mikulski that was coming into the Senate, but I was bringing half of the population with me. And I felt that if I didn't succeed that people would look down their nose at women succeeding, in truly a pretty big man's world.
HANSEN: Do you think being a woman at that time helped you politically, or hurt you in terms of getting things done? Because you were only one of a handful, so is the spotlight hotter on you?
MIKULSKI: So I went to work trying to work twice as hard to be twice good at being a legislator, in order to prove that we were up to the job and that I could really do the job.
HANSEN: Do you think with women running for public office today - as you said, there are 17 women senators - does it even bear mentioning now?
MIKULSKI: But while we work on the macro issues, we also bring the macaroni and cheese issues.
HANSEN: Every issue is a women's issue.
MIKULSKI: Well, that's what I said and that's all of, really, what the women say on both sides of the aisle. National security is a woman's issue. Fighting and dying for your country certainly is a family issue. You just ask those military families on multiple deployments, with the stress that they have to have. Balancing the budget - well, wow - that's a national issue and it's also a family issue. Because the way we balance our budget impacts the way the families will ultimately balance theirs.
HANSEN: What part of your personality, your political savvy can be traced right back to your Baltimore roots, do you think?
MIKULSKI: Well, I think I am who I am because of the wonderful mother and father I had, and the wonderful kind of schools that I went to. My mother and father owned a small neighborhood grocery store. And they believed that we - everyone who was our neighbor - was part of our extended family. And if they were having tough times, my father and mother tried to help them over that hump.
MIKULSKI: 5, "The Sermon on the Mount;" hunger and thirst after justice.
HANSEN: It is true you almost became a nun, but the discipline might have been too much?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MIKULSKI: No. Well, you know, everyone at my age that saw these wonderful women who taught us and dedicated their lives, we all wanted to emulate. But, you know, the nuns take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The one for me, the obedience - I think I would have had a tough time.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
MIKULSKI: But just ask Harry Reid or George Bush, and they would say the same thing.
HANSEN: Senator Barbara Mikulski, Democrat from Maryland, thank you for inviting us to your office on Capitol Hill. And thank you very much for your time.
MIKULSKI: Good to be with you.
LIANE HANSEN, Host:
Top American skaters have been competing at the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina. The annual event ends today. USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan is there and on the line Good morning, Christine.
CHRISTINE BRENNAN: Good morning, Liane.
HANSEN: Last night women's competition, bit of an upset.
BRENNAN: Only two women qualify for worlds, so Alissa Czisny moves on as does Rachael Flatt. And Nagasu's the odd woman out, which is too bad because she's certainly an up-and-coming star.
HANSEN: How does the men's competition shape up for tonight?
BRENNAN: Bradley waved goodbye after finishing fourth last year, figuring he was done. But so many people got on Facebook and Twitter urging him to come back that he finally did. He's an engaging, very enlightened, exciting skater out there and it'll be fun to watch him compete.
HANSEN: No surprises in ice dancing. We know these two...
BRENNAN: No, no surprises there at all. The Olympic silver medalists, Meryl Davis, Charlie White, won their third consecutive national title. And ice dancing has really been a strong point for the United States, really for the last two Olympic Games - two silver medals in a row - and I think we're seeing, again, just a dominating performance by Davis and White, who are in their early 20s. They're going to move on all the way to the 2014 Olympics probably with a whole bunch of young great teams right behind them.
HANSEN: Uh-huh. So, the winners of the U.S. national championships, where do they compete next?
BRENNAN: It's the world championships, the big competition - there's a couple of things in between. But the world championships are in Tokyo in March. And this is the first year of the four-year Olympic cycle. Building, building, beginning again, to the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, which, of course, will be a very big deal for all of these skaters.
HANSEN: Christine Brennan is a sports columnist for USA Today. She's in Greensboro, North Carolina, where she's covering the U.S. National Figure Skating Championships. Christine, thank you.
BRENNAN: Liane, it was my pleasure. Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
HANSEN: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Commentator Toni Bernhard has been living with a chronic illness for the last 10 years.
TONI BERNHARD (Author, How to Be Sick): In 2001, I had the next couple of decades of my life mapped out. I'd be teaching law, visiting my children, and attending Buddhist meditation retreats.
Suddenly, everything changed. I got sick with flu-like symptoms. A doctor said it appeared to be an acute viral infection.
I have yet to recover. The infection has left me mostly housebound, and often bed-bound.
For the first few years of being sick, I lived in what I can only describe as a state of shock. When I didnt recover, I blamed myself. It took me almost six years to find my way back to a life of fulfillment and joy. The journey started when I looked more deeply at the Buddhas first noble truth: Everyones life has its share of both joy and suffering. Resisting the plain fact of my illness only added mental suffering to the physical suffering.
And I remembered something a teacher had said: If your compassion doesnt include yourself, it is incomplete. This was a turning point for me. Slowly but surely, I stopped blaming myself for getting sick. I also took up a Buddhist practice called mudita: cultivating joy in the joy of others. I hoped it would be an antidote to the painful envy that overcame me when I heard of other people going to family gatherings, or even a movie. I didnt always succeed. I kept working at it, though, and gradually, the feeling of joy in others joy became genuine. Now when my husband visits our children and grandchildren, I feel as if hes there for both of us.
One of the toughest challenges was accepting isolation. But over time, I learned to open my heart and mind to being by myself. Ive had to be inventive. Instead of traveling to see my children, I stay close to them by instant messaging and texting. Ive traded the role of teacher for that of student, by studying classical music and opera.
It has taken several years and many tears to learn how to thrive in my new life. I still have rough days, when I wish I could do whatever I want. But really, who can do that anyway? On the whole, Im content and at peace with what I can do, even if its from the bed.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: Commentator Toni Bernhard is the author of How to Be Sick.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: Its MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
Today in "Your Health," we'll hear about coping with chronic illnesses. We'll start with the debate surrounding multiple sclerosis. The conventional view is that MS is caused by a misguided immune system that attacks the nerves of the brain and the spinal cord. This can lead to muscle weakness, paralysis, even death.
But an Italian physician, Paolo Zamboni, says the disease is really the result of blocked blood veins, and that treating MS may be as simple as opening up those veins. Here's reporter Gretchen Cuda Kroen.
GRETCHEN CUDA KROEN: One day seven years ago, after a long walk with his dog along the Hudson River in Manhattan, Marc Stecker noticed he was limping. Not long after, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Mr. MARC STECKER: Fast forward now, and my entire right side is pretty much paralyzed, and my left side is weakening.
CUDA KROEN: Stecker is now confined to a wheelchair, from where he writes a blog about his disease, called "The Wheelchair Kamikaze." More than a year ago, Stecker started writing about Zamboni's theory, which he calls chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI. He hypothesizes that people with MS have narrowed or blocked veins that prevent the blood in the brain from draining back to the heart. The blood pools up, leading to inflammation, which in turn causes the immune system to attack the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Stecker was hopeful.
Mr. STECKER: Because my disease is so aggressive, I have been very willing to be equally aggressive in trying to combat it.
CUDA KROEN: Stecker underwent a controversial treatment Zamboni calls the liberation procedure. His doctor inserted a tiny balloon inside blocked veins, to stretch the vessel walls open. It's a procedure called angioplasty, commonly used in the arteries of the heart but rarely used in veins.
Mr. STECKER: At first I was very skeptical, but anecdotal reports started coming through of almost miraculous results from it. So I decided that, you know, hey, it was worth a shot.
CUDA KROEN: But it didn't work. Although the doctor who treated him in New York found a significant blockage, he was unable to correct it, Stecker says.
Still, some would say Stecker was lucky. Many desperate patients have spent their life savings flying overseas to have the procedure, only to have it fail a few months later. Others elect to have tiny metal tubes, known as stents, placed in the veins to hold them open and have suffered serious complications, including life-threatening blood clots. Several patients have even died as a result.
Stecker says if he had it to do over again, he would have waited for more research, but he was anxious to try something that offered him the first real glimmer of hope for a cure.
Mr. STECKER: CCSVI equals hope, and a lot of MS patients just are completely devoid of hope. People don't want to have MS. They want to go back to who they used to be. You know, along comes this theory that offers an easy to understand solution so it's very, very, very seductive.
CUDA KROEN: It's so seductive, in fact, that Canadians and Americans with MS have been flocking overseas to get the liberation procedure, something that many researchers find very troubling. Robert Zivadinov, of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center in New York, says that not only is the procedure unsafe and costly to many patients, it's impeding necessary research.
Dr. ROBERT ZIVADINOV (Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center): Even if the treatment is not useful for patients with MS, I don't think that we can abandon the idea of vascular involvement in MS. And I think this merits very detailed understanding of what is going on.
CUDA KROEN: What is going on is still a bit of a mystery. Critics argue that although Zamboni's research suggests a vascular cause for MS, other studies don't. These discrepancies, and growing public controversy, prompted the Multiple Sclerosis Society to take Zamboni's claims seriously and fund a number of independent studies to investigate the relationship between CCSVI and MS.
Robert Fox is a neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic, currently overseeing one of the studies funded by an MS society grant. He says part of the confusion comes from variations in how CCSVI is measured.
Dr. ROBERT FOX (Neurologist, Cleveland Clinic): That's absolutely one of the potential problems in the previous studies - is, are the techs who got negative results, did they just not know how to do the ultrasound in the way that Dr. Zamboni described doing the ultrasound? And that's a very important issue.
(Soundbite of ultrasound exam)
CUDA KROEN: I watch while an ultrasound technician measures the veins in one of the patients in Fox's study.
Dr. FOX: I'll actually compress the neck; see how the vein collapsed? You can see the two walls come together, and you notice no clots in the vein. So that's good.
CUDA KROEN: Fox says he sent his technicians to a special training to learn how to properly measure the veins, because it's not something most technicians ever do. Meanwhile, in Buffalo, Zivadinov says his research on CCSVI already shows a clear picture emerging.
Dr. ZIVADINOV: CCSVI is not the cause of MS, but might be a consequence or a contributing factor to progression. And I think that has to be studied.
CUDA KROEN: Studying how the vascular system is involved in neurologic disease is an entirely new concept, argues Zivadinov - one that may have an impact beyond any single disease.
Dr. ZIVADINOV: What professor Zamboni discovered in terms of veins is something much bigger than multiple sclerosis, and we need to understand the role of the venous system in the pathology of the central nervous diseases and aging.
CUDA KROEN: Zamboni himself says that even if it turns out hes wrong, coming to a greater understanding of this disease would be the big reward both for him and thousands of MS patients.
For NPR News, I'm Gretchen Cuda Kroen in Cleveland.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, may be America's least-known great museum. It's filled with first-rate Old Masters, Renoirs, C�zannes, Picassos and South Asian sculptures. The place often has more European than American visitors - Europeans know about it, Americans do not. Even Californians who live nearby claim they've always meant to get there but, you know, it doesn't work out.
NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg, though, did get there. And she says a big, new book sheds light on the museum and the man who founded it.
SUSAN STAMBERG: Businessman Norton Simon - Hunt-Wesson Foods, Canada Dry, Avis, so many others - filled the galleries with his fabulous art collection. But making a visit, he never lingered.
Ms. SARA CAMPBELL (Senior Curator, Norton Simon Museum of Art): When he would come to the museum, he would make a circuit of every single work of art and walk as fast as he could.
STAMBERG: Senior Curator Sara Campbell is author of "Collector without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best."
Forty-one years ago, Mr. Simon hired Campbell as his typist. He was a wonderful boss, she says, loved soliciting opinions.
Ms. CAMPBELL: He asked everybody what they thought about the collection. And he would ask me, he would ask the most prestigious museum director, and he would ask his cook.
STAMBERG: Very democratic. But, Campbell says, usually he would go do whatever he wanted to do. Norton Simon asked a lot of questions.
Chief Curator Carol Togneri met him when she worked at the Getty Museum.
Ms. CAROL TOGNERI (Chief Curator): Mr. Simon was looking for my boss, who was the curator, and he wanted me to pass on the question to him: Of all the Raphaels in the world, which are the five best - and where does mine come in, in that top five? This was something that he did constantly.
STAMBERG: He wanted to have the best, be the best, get the best. And most often, he did - some 8,000 works of art, collected over three decades, starting in 1954. No more than 800 or 900 of them are on view at any one time in Pasadena, which means the Norton Simon Museum is small enough that you can see everything on a single visit, without getting exhausted or sore feet.
The place is rarely jammed, so visitors get a good look at the Degas dancers, the early Flemish tapestries, the 14th century Italian altarpieces, and Rembrandt's "Portrait Of A Boy" - thought to be his son Titus.
Ms. TOGNERI: He's adorable; those lips, those rosebud lips, those very innocent, sweet eyes looking out at you. And here's this young boy with golden locks, a furry hat that's bedecked with red feathers, and what may be some sort of a fur.
STAMBERG: You left out the adorable, little, rosy cheeks.
Ms. TOGNERI: The rosebud cheeks. It almost looks like his mother had lipstick and kissed him on one cheek.
STAMBERG: There are three Rembrandt paintings at the Norton Simon Museum. But the big one got away. Simon planned to bid against the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the master's "Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer." But he wouldn't go as high as $2.3 million for it. So it's in New York.
Author Sara Campbell says Mr. Simon kept careful track of the numbers.
Ms. CAMPBELL: He remembered every price he ever paid, what currency he bought it in, and what that currency traded for at the time, with dollars.
STAMBERG: Twenty years after he lost Rembrandt's "Aristotle," Norton Simon's purse strings had loosened considerably. He bought his most expensive artwork: 4.2 million for a 15th century resurrection scene by Flemish painter Derek Bouts.
Chief Curator Carol Togneri.
Ms. TOGNERI: There, in regal majesty, is the risen Jesus Christ.
STAMBERG: In red and - red robes wrapped...
Ms. TOGNERI: Beautiful red cloak, holding on to a cross with flying red banners.
STAMBERG: Is this a great painting? Is this a $4 million painting?
Ms. TOGNERI: It is. Indeed, it was worth $4 million then, and it's worth much more now.
STAMBERG: That's not what I'm asking.
Ms. TOGNERI: It is a $4 million painting, for its rarity.
STAMBERG: Is it a great painting?
Ms. TOGNERI: It is a great painting. I mean, look at the detail. Look at the way that that armor is painted - the reflection of that morning light, that brooding sky.
STAMBERG: Norton Simon's first buys were a late Renoir for $16,000; and a Dan Lutz, a 20th century American painter, for $300.
Senior Curator Sara Campbell tells why he bought them.
Ms. CAMPBELL: To decorate his house. He was building a new house in Hancock Park area of Los Angeles, and his wife found a decorator and started looking at artworks, and he was not pleased about the choices. And - happened to know an art gallery in Los Angeles in the Old Ambassador Hotel, and the art gallery was next door to his barbershop. And he would go in every Saturday morning to have his hair cut, and would see the artwork in the windows of this gallery.
STAMBERG: Over the next five years, Norton Simon bought 80 works of art, and spent about one and a half million dollars. He was a quick learner - important dealers in New York were his tutors - and a big spender.
Ms. CAMPBELL: Mr. Simon was an industrialist, businessman. And one of the practices that he used in his business was to acquire companies that were not doing well, and to turn them around. It was almost as if he collected companies. And I think that he became feverish about art in the same way.
STAMBERG: Doesn't sound as if this was a man who fell in love with a piece of art and simply had to have it.
Ms. CAMPBELL: I think he tried to keep a distance, an emotional distance, from artworks. There are times that he's been quoted saying: I have to maintain some distance from this or it will consume me - the collecting itself will consume me.
STAMBERG: I don't understand that. How do you understand that?
Ms. CAMPBELL: He wanted to be able to say: I'm going to be able to make enough money with this; I need to get rid of it - or walk away from a deal if a dealer is being too difficult. And sometimes it worked, that the dealers quickly lowered their price, and sometimes they didn't. But he had to be prepared to do that.
STAMBERG: Since 1974, the artworks Norton Simon collected have been on view at the handsome Pasadena museum that bears his name. In many ways, it's a museum of don'ts. They don't buy. And usually, they don't lend. They don't borrow. They don't put on blockbuster shows.
And yet what they do, displaying glorious works of art to any visitor who makes time for the voyage, they do with elegance and great style.
I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News, Southern California.
INSKEEP: And you can see the most expensive works Simon ever purchased, plus other art, at npr.org.
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
A lot of churches in this country have found an update to an old saying: The Lord giveth, and the bank taketh away. Lenders foreclosed on about 100 churches last year, which is a big increase from just a few years ago.
NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty looks at why.
BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY: A dozen years ago, Dan Burr and his wife started to worship with a few friends in their son's house in Fontana, California, about 80 miles from Los Angeles. Neighbors began to come; they brought their kids.
Mr. DAN BURR: And it began to grow. Before we knew it, we had a little, viable church.
HAGERTY: Eventually, Crossroads Community Church bought a building of its own -a dilapidated Boy's Club that members fixed up themselves. Those were the glory days. Fontana was one of the fastest growing cities in the country, church attendance was booming, and Burr began to make big plans.
Mr. BURR: We were looking at vast tracks of lands, and building family kind of community centers where there was both the church and there was day care, and there was youth centers and all kinds of things. And we were just really going to to do this all. And it was great - and then bam.
HAGERTY: The economic bottom fell out, and members started losing their jobs.
Mr. BURR: First of all, one in 10 - and then one in eight, and then one in six of our wage earners were out of work.
HAGERTY: Church offerings dropped 20 to 25 percent. The church cut staff, trimmed programs to the bone. But finally, it simply couldn't pay the mortgage. A year ago, it gave the building back to the bank. Now, members are renting it until the bank finds a buyer.
Mr. BURR: We built up this building in just blood, sweat and tears. To turn a ratty old piece of land into a gorgeously landscaped thing with - to just walk away from it, that's hard.
Mr. CHRIS MACKE (Senior strategist, CoStar Group): Houses of worship are subject to the same laws of economics as secular real estate.
HAGERTY: Chris Macke is a senior strategist at CoStar Group, which collected the data on church foreclosures. He says they went from a handful five years ago, to about a hundred last year. Most of the distressed churches are in the hardest-hit real estate markets - California, Michigan, Florida. Macke says churches were whacked by the same crosscurrents that flattened stores and other companies. Just as unemployed people resist buying new clothes or dining out, they put less in their church's offering plate. Add to that what Macke calls recency bias - churches had made plans and added debt in the flush years, believing the good times would continue to roll.
Mr. MACKE: They were making decisions based on what had been happening and seemed reasonable. And unfortunately, the downturn occurred, and it affected them.
HAGERTY: What made the problem acute this time, says Scott Rolfs at Ziegler, an investment banking firm that does church financing, was the easy credit in the mid-2000s.
Mr. SCOTT ROLFS (Managing director, Ziegler): There was a lot of money out there, and just as some home borrowers obtained mortgages that they probably shouldn't have gotten and wouldn't have qualified for under any other historical standards, you had a few churches with some overzealous lenders that ended up in that situation as well.
HAGERTY: But, he says, God is not about to be homeless.
Mr. ROLFS: For 99 percent of the church-going public in America, their church is coming through the recession just fine.
HAGERTY: After all, there are more than 300,000 houses of worship in the U.S., so a few dozen foreclosures does not spell the end times. In fact, mega churches, which like large companies have bigger reserves, saw their income increase 3 percent last year.
And for them, this is the time for a deal. Consider Triumph Church, a 10,000-member congregation in Detroit. Chief ministry officer Velva Flowers says a lot of their members worked for the auto industry and had to cut their offerings. But the church tightened its belt and drew new members, and those new members made up for the decline. Now, she says, the depressed market is working in their favor.
Ms. VELVA FLOWERS (Chief ministry officer, Triumph Church): I believe, because we have been cautious in all our spending, that we were able to take advantage of some opportunities that became available based upon the economic plight.
HAGERTY: They're negotiating to buy a church that was foreclosed on, for a song.
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Of all the government bailouts in the financial crisis, one of the most expensive was the rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Obama administration had promised to offer a restructuring plan by today, but that plan has been delayed.
NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY: Before their takeover two years ago, Fannie and Freddie existed in a kind of gray area. Both were independent, for-profit companies that helped finance home mortgages. But investors always suspected if Fannie and Freddie got into trouble, the government would bail them out. That turned out to be correct. And Alex Pollock, of the American Enterprise Institute, says it was a recipe for trouble.
Mr. ALEX POLLOCK (American Enterprise Institution): You could be a private company, and you might succeed and make a fortune, or you might go broke and lose everything. That's fine. Or you can be part of the government. But you can't be both at the same time.
HORSLEY: The implicit guarantee of government help allowed Fannie and Freddie to funnel lots of money from investors into the ballooning housing market. Pollock says when the balloon popped, the investors were taken care of, but taxpayers were stuck with a big bill: more than $130 billion so far.
Mr. POLLOCK: Ordinary American working stiffs are being taxed so that the bondholders can get paid off at par, when they should be taking losses on the investments they made. But they won't.
HORSLEY: There's widespread agreement now that Fannie and Freddie's model was broken. But there's plenty of disagreement about how much that contributed to the overall financial crisis - and about what should come next, as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said last summer.
Secretary TIMOTHY GEITHNER (Treasury Department): It's safe to say there's no clear consensus yet on how best to design a new system. But this administration will side with those who want fundamental change.
HORSLEY: The shape of that change is still forming, five months later. Conservatives like Pollock say the government should generally get out of the business of bankrolling mortgages, and leave most of that market to the private sector. But bond investor William Gross, of PIMCO, is skeptical.
Mr. WILLIAM GROSS (Bond Investor, PIMCO): Banks were the originators of these mortgages that went into Fannie and Freddie portfolios. And so to suggest that they can do a better job than Fannie or Freddie is certainly the pot calling the kettle black here.
HORSLEY: Gross says he'd be reluctant to invest in mortgages that didn't have government backing, unless the homeowners made down payments of, say, 30 percent, or paid a significantly higher interest rate.
Sarah Rosen Wartell, of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, says without some government support, the classic 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage would be out of reach for many families.
Ms. SARAH ROSEN WARTELL (Center for American Progress): The home is still the place where families have been able to build up for their retirement, for their entrepreneurial opportunities, to pay for their kids' college. I'm not sure those opportunities would be there anymore.
HORSLEY: Wartell proposes an alternative, in which private capital would bankroll mortgages, but there would also be a government insurance fund to guarantee those investments. Unlike Fannie and Freddie, the government would charge investors a fee to pay for that insurance. And it would only be available for high-quality mortgages - not the kind of so-called liar loans that were all too common during the housing bubble.
Ms. WARTELL: One lesson we've learned, crystal clear, is that we ought to be only supporting safe, secure, sustainable loans that it's rational to assume home buyers have the ability to repay.
HORSLEY: The fight over Fannie and Freddie is part of a larger debate about the appropriate role for government in supporting the U.S. housing market. Right now, that market is still fragile and heavily dependent on the government-run giants for new home loans. PIMCO's Gross says whatever the long-term future of housing finance, the immediate future is likely to be as messy as the present.
Mr. GROSS: It is definitely a food fight. And it will take time to resolve this. And cans will be kicked for several months, at least - and maybe even several years.
HORSLEY: The administration now says it will release its proposal for fixing Fannie and Freddie by mid-February.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Let's get an unfiltered look now at the war in Afghanistan. U.S. troops surged into southern Afghanistan last summer, pushing into Taliban territory and setting off fierce fighting. The region is called the Arghandab River Valley, and there American soldiers have faced Taliban snipers as well as landmines and booby-traps. The fighting has claimed hundreds of American and Afghan lives.
Civilians fled the area and some villages were so completely wired with bombs that the U.S. military razed them to the ground. We've heard reports about this from the military and from journalists traveling with the military, but today we have a report from NPR's Quil Lawrence, who visited the area without an American military escort.
QUIL LAWRENCE: This summer, U.S. troops in Arghandab had to unlearn one of their most basic instincts. When they took fire, they had to remember not to hit the dirt for cover. Arghandab was so full of homemade land mines - what the military calls IEDs - that lying down on the ground was more dangerous than standing up amid the bullets.
But Arghandab went quiet a couple of months ago, either because the U.S. troop surge finally drove the Taliban out or because the Taliban left, as the dense foliage they used as cover fell away for the winter.
Whichever the reason, Afghan police officer Khan Muhammad considered it safe enough to go home. When a journalist proposed driving to the village of Tarook Kalacha, he jumped at the chance to visit the house he hadn't seen for two years - or what's left of the house.
Mr. KHAN MUHAMMAD (Afghan Police Officer): (Foreign language spoken)
LAWRENCE: A few months ago, Khan Muhammad says, the Americans decided that Tarook Kalacha was so completely wired with bombs that the only way to save the village was to demolish it with airstrikes.
Mr. MUHAMMAD: (Foreign language spoken)
LAWRENCE: The policeman says he hasn't had a chance to claim any compensation for his damaged house because the Americans insist he must come to the village to get it. He was too busy working to go and also too afraid. Passing through the orchards, it's not hard to see why.
Khan Muhammad points out places along the road where bombs were defused, or where they claimed the lives of comrades, or where he himself was wounded. The low mud walls that Afghans use as grape arbors make perfect cover for snipers. When leaves and fruit cover the trees, the road may as well be a tunnel, a blind for a small army hiding in the orchard.
Khan Muhammad says it's not dangerous now, but he still asked five fellow cops to come along.
Mr. MUHAMMAD: (Foreign language spoken)
LAWRENCE: He quotes the Pashtun proverb: Even if your enemy is a jackal, prepare as if he were a lion.
But it looks like the Taliban fighters are gone, and the villagers are starting to pick up the pieces.
(Soundbite of sawing)
LAWRENCE: Half a mile outside Tarook Kalacha, a group of men use a two-man handsaw to make firewood out of a toppled mulberry tree that looks a hundred years old. American choppers fly high over what was an orchard and is now a dusty vacant lot.
Mr. HAJJI ROZI MUHAMMAD: (Foreign language spoken)
LAWRENCE: Hajji Rozi Muhammad, the white-haired landowner, says there were 200 pomegranate trees here until the Americans bombed and bulldozed the orchard.
Mr. HAJJI ROZI MUHAMMAD: (Through translator) (Unintelligible) there were mines, these IEDs. They told me there were IEDs.
LAWRENCE: It's clear this was a battlefield. Hajji Rozi points to bullet and shrapnel scars on the surviving trees. His house in Tarook Kalacha was also destroyed. In fact, the Americans have built a base right on top of where it sat, he says.
Mr. HAJJI ROZI MUHAMMAD: (Through translator) Of course I'm very disappointed and very angry. This was the income of my family. We were just feeding our kids with that, our family with that.
LAWRENCE: Hajji Rozi says he's not sure if the Americans had to bomb the area. He thinks with all America's technology there must have been a way to remove the bombs without flattening the orchard. He's not sure whether he should blame the Americans or the Taliban for the destruction.
(Soundbite of door closing)
LAWRENCE: Hajji Rozi gets in the car with the policeman and drives a short distance to what used to be a hamlet of 30 or 40 houses, Tarook Kalacha. It's a vast empty lot full of dust as dry as talcum powder. U.S. soldiers have built a small fort in the middle of it.
(Soundbite of construction)
LAWRENCE: But reconstruction is under way. Masons are building the stone foundation for a new mosque. And the American army captain in charge of reconstruction, Pat McGuigan, has stepped off the base to check in with the landowners.
You were here when the village was demolished as well?
Captain PAT MCGUIGAN (U.S. Army): Yeah. Well, it was cleared of IEDs, is how -is what happened. It was an HME producing - IED factories and mass production of HME going on in this village.
LAWRENCE: HME is homemade explosives.
McGuigan says the whole point was to make it safe for Afghans to return to this village and work the orchards again.
A lot of these guys are saying that they kind of wished that instead of basically dozing the village, you could have removed the bombs from the houses.
Capt. MCGUIGAN: Oh, we tried that. I mean, the first option was not dropping bombs. That is not course of action one. It was - we tried to get down into the village. Every time we would get about 400 meters north of here and be - and met by a colossal barrage of fire from the Taliban, or we would step on an IED and a soldier would lose his legs or his life.
LAWRENCE: The captain says the village elders couldn't go home either. Now many are back to meet McGuigan with hand-drawn plans to rebuild their houses based on aerial photos the Army gave them.
Capt. MCGUIGAN: Hamid(ph), do you have your plan, your engineer design for the houses, or no?
Unidentified Man: (Foreign language spoken)
LAWRENCE: McGuigan says fair compensation will be paid for the houses, the lost fruit harvest, and the rent for the land that the base is on now. No one here has claimed that any civilians died in the bombing. Everyone had already fled the fighting.
Captain McGuigan says the village elders said they would come back only if the base stays to protect them.
Capt. MCGUIGAN: They're extremely happy, extremely excited.
LAWRENCE: But the men seem more nervous than excited, perhaps shell-shocked from looking at the dust that was once their homes. Most think the Taliban will have a hard time coming back here in the spring, but they've just heard the news that the elder they put in charge of reconstruction, Dad Karim, was assassinated in Kandahar city, after many threatening letters from the Taliban.
On the way back to town, Khan Muhammad, the police officer, finally gets to see his house. With an American surveillance drone buzzing overhead, he kicks through the rubble of the house built after the Russians destroyed Tarook Kalacha in the 1980s.
He says he doesn't believe there were any bombs here, just maybe Taliban staying in the abandoned village. Standing on the ruins, Khan Muhammad says he's not sure what happens next.
Mr. KHAN MUHAMMAD: (Foreign language spoken)
LAWRENCE: If the Americans rebuild this village and help us stand on our own feet, and keep the Taliban out, then they will be our good friends, he says. But, he adds, if they leave us like this for the Taliban, they are our worst enemy.
The villagers say only God knows which it's going to be.
Quil Lawrence, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
NPR's business news starts with Asian markets sliding.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: Asian stocks were down, and oil prices have been up, on concerns about the political uncertainty in Egypt - at least, we assume that's why the markets are moving.
Nobody really knows why thousands, or even millions, of investors buy one stock of sell another. And it turns out that some Asian investors have other issues on their minds.
This week marks the Chinese New Year, and its the Year of the Golden Rabbit.
NPR's Louisa Lim reports on a brokerage in Hong Kong that issues market forecasts based on Chinese astrology.
LOUISA LIM: The Year of the Rabbit promises to be a hoppy new year. That's according to Hong Kong brokerage CLSA. Its annual forecast, based on the traditional Chinese beliefs of feng shui, warns of volatility ahead for Hong Kong's markets.
Heres CLSAs feng shui economist, Philip Chow.
Mr. PHILIP CHOW (Economist, CLSA): Last year; we were forecasting a tiger leap i.e. in the second half, the markets sort of shoot up, which is exactly what played out all the way until November. But the rabbit doesnt sort of leap; the rabbit hops. Every time it hops a bit up, it turns around. And then it sort of shoots up its ears and - try to see whether its safe to go on, and then it hops up again. Even on the way up, the stock markets going to be in a zigzag format, even though its sort of still northward bound.
LIM: As for investment advice based on the Chinese elements, CLSA concludes metal is hot, water is bubbling, fire is on fire.
Mr. CHOW: That will account for financials, and also some of the raw materials sectors, such as metallic mining or steel. The other sector thats water related would naturally involve something that's traveling: lodging stocks, gaming stocks, and also on the transport side, the airlines and shipping all fall into that category.
LIM: Be warned: The forecast is tongue-in-cheek. But feng shui investors should bear one thing in mind. Last year, CLSAs feng shui forecast was correct for nine out of the 12 months.
Louisa Lim, NPR News, Beijing.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
Protesters in Egypt have the attention of the world today. They've brought the most populist country in the Arab world to a standstill. The uncertainty has affected world stock markets, which are down today. The protesters prompted foreign governments to start bringing their citizens out of Egypt. They prompted President Hosni Mubarak to change his government. What we don't know is exactly when or exactly how the protesters can succeed in pushing Mubarak out the door.
NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson has been following almost a week of protests in Cairo.
(Soundbite of protest)
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: The unprecedented nature of Egypt's ongoing protests was clear from the first few hours. Chants like this one in Cairo that pronounced the people's determination to topple the government clearly sent a chill up officials' spines.
Joe Stork is a deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch.
Mr. JOE STORK (Human Rights Watch): You know, it was only in 2003, 2005 you started to hear people chanting about Hosni Mubarak, but actually ripping down his pictures and stuff in a very public way, and the demand for Mubarak to resign, get on the plane to Saudi Arabia, these kinds of chants - this is, this is new.
NELSON: Egyptian police and security forces were sent in to end the unrest. Then last Friday the government took the unprecedented step of shutting down the Internet and cell phones across the country to stop protestors from communicating with each other or the outside world, but the moves failed to end the uprising.
(Soundbite of protest)
NELSON: The number or protestors swelled in several major cities. Residents watching from their balconies and passersby on the streets joined in.
Many of these new protestors, like Nagla Rezi of Cairo, were quite angry.
Ms. NAGLA REZI: We need liberty, we need freedom. Internet is closed today and mobile phones, we can't connect to anyone. This is freedom? This is democratic that they say? Nothing, nothing is happening, just the image.
NELSON: Historian Mahmoud Sabit says Mubarak was caught off guard. Reached on his cell phone after service was partially restored, Sabit explains that by imposing continuous martial law and refusing to share power, Mubarak lost touch with the people he claims to represent.
Mr. MAHMOUD SABIT (Historian): After 30 years of repressing the Egyptian people, perhaps the leadership is rather contemptuous of their people, okay (unintelligible) and because of that they may have underestimated them in all this. But certainly it's a situation that they need to address soon.
(Soundbite of gunfire)
NELSON: The government tried and failed with a final violent crackdown at Cairo's now famous Tahrir Square.
President HOSNI MUBARAK: (Foreign language spoken)
NELSON: Mubarak's announcement on television that he was dissolving his cabinet but would remain in charge didn't satisfy protestors either.
(Soundbite of car horn and vehicles)
NELSON: The arrival of the army in Cairo's streets Saturday morning proved a turning point.
(Soundbite of cheering)
NELSON: The protestors were elated. And the soldiers quickly made it clear they were not there to interfere with the demonstrations.
Again, historian Sabit.
Mr. SABIT: The army is, after all, the defender of the state, not necessarily the defender of the regime. There is a difference.
NELSON: Sabit and other observers say it cost Mubarak a heavy political price to have to ask the army for help. For one, he took the unprecedented step of appointing a vice president, Omar Suleiman. He's considered a Mubarak confidant, but has close ties to the military. Suleiman was widely viewed as the army's preferred successor to Mubarak over his son Gamal, whom the president is said to have wanted.
Also, the new prime minister named by Mubarak is a former Air Force commander. Some observers say at this point the president is likely negotiating a graceful exit rather than trying to retain control.
Again, historian Sabit.
Mr. SABIT: I think he's got about a day or two, frankly, to make up his mind, really.
NELSON: Analysts say there are signals from the government that a transfer of power could well be underway. Some here say ideally the new vice president would head a caretaker government that incorporates some opposition figures. The police are also being redeployed but have not clashed with protestors again, at least not yet. And it's clear the Egyptian military, with its vast presence here and repeated flyovers by jets and helicopters, remains in charge of the streets.
Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Cairo.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Okay, so we heard an analyst there saying that Hosni Mubarak, long-time ally of the United States, has a day or two, in the analyst's opinion, to make up his mind what to do in this situation. Let's talk about the evolving U.S. position on this situation.
NPR's Michele Kelemen covers the State Department. She's on the line. Michele, good morning.
MICHELE KELEMEN: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: As best you can tell, does President Obama's administration know what it wants in this situation?
KELEMEN: Well, it knows what it doesn't want. It doesn't want a political vacuum here, and it doesn't want anything that the U.S does to backfire. So we've seen this administration's position changing, but quite carefully. It's gone from constantly reminding everyone what an important partner Mubarak has been to urging him to restrain the security forces, and now calling for what Secretary Clinton said yesterday, was an orderly transition to democracy.
INSKEEP: Interesting you use that word backfire - because you do have a situation where everybody knows at this point that Mubarak is reviled by many of his people but the U.S doesn't know who would replace him. That's what you're talking about when you say backfire.
KELEMEN: This is a very important country for the U.S. There are many unknowns out there. This is a movement, the protestors, that's relatively leaderless at the moment. So I think there's a lot of worries about - for the U.S. - about what comes next.
This is also a country where the U.S., you know, has called for these changes for a really long time and Mubarak has ignored them for a really long time. So it's not at all clear about how much influence the U.S. actually even has.
INSKEEP: What does the United States or what do American diplomats and other officials think of what President Mubarak has done the last several days - for instance, getting rid of his government, naming a vice president?
KELEMEN: Well, when Secretary Clinton made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows on television yesterday, she was asked on Fox News Sunday if she's satisfied with the changes, and she said no one is, least of all the Egyptian people. And you know, that's what they keep reminding of, that these are decisions for Egyptians to make, not for the U.S. But she did talk about the need to have a real plan going forward to lead to this transition to democracy.
You know, nobody's been talking about Vice President Suleiman, though he is a quite known quantity here - he's a former intelligence chief, he's been involved in all the key meetings with the Egyptians and the Americans lately, so they know him. You know, and I was reading one of the WikiLeaks cables over the weekend dating back to 2007, and it suggested that he was one of the possible successors of Mubarak and that he had been angry a few years earlier when Mubarak didn't name him as vice president as promised.
Well, now he's got the job, but we'll see if this government can even hang on.
INSKEEP: Well, it's interesting. You said that there are indications that maybe the U.S. has very little influence in this situation, but isn't the United States such a huge donor to Egypt's government, and particularly Egypt's military, that to some degree the United States could say what needs to happen or threaten to cut off aid?
KELEMEN: Well, they've used that bit of leverage very carefully. They've said that the U.S. is rethinking aid. That was a warning that was put out there on Friday and clearly meant to pressure the Egyptian military and the police to exercise restraint on the streets. It may have helped.
But the U.S., you know, has poured a lot of money into Egypt over the years and it hasn't really translated into a whole lot of leverage, at least with the Mubarak government. And Secretary Clinton was asked about this yesterday, and she said clearly that there's been no decision to cut off aid at this point.
INSKEEP: There's a more limited and immediate question of the safety of Americans in Egypt. What is the U.S. government doing to get people out?
KELEMEN: Well, it's authorized non-essential personnel at the embassy and families of diplomats to leave. It's offering also to help stranded Americans get on flights, and those flights will be starting today and they're expecting several thousand to leave.
INSKEEP: OK. Michele, thanks very much.
KELEMEN: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Michele Kelemen bringing us up to date on the U.S. government's response to the protests in Egypt.
We can also tell you, based on reports from the Associated Press, that some signs of normal life, or something like normal life, are reappearing in Cairo. Police and garbage collectors are appearing on the streets today. The military, as well as groups armed with clubs and machetes, kept the peace in many districts overnight. There has been a call for a general strike and protests continue. We'll bring you more as we learn it.
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
We're continuing to follow the protests in Egypt, and rest assured, so are leaders across the Arab world. One of the reasons that this is such a huge story is that like Egypt, many, many Arab nations have autocratic rulers who have been in power for decades and are watching to see what happens next.
Jay Solomon of the Wall Street Journal has spoken with one of those leaders, Bashar al-Assad, who is the ruler of Syria, as his father was before him. He's in Damascus, Syria.
Welcome to the program.
Mr. JAY SOLOMON (Reporter, Wall Street Journal): Thank you very much.
INSKEEP: So how worried is the president of Syria right now?
Mr. SOLOMON: You know, I think he comes across as pretty calm and confident. He definitely says a new era seems to be emerging in the Arab world, and he was very clear that he thought Arab leaders must do much more to listen to their people. I guess where he positions himself is that he was saying most of the governments that are being targeted are pro-Western, you know, they were allied with the U.S. on policies in Iraq or Afghanistan or the Arab-Israeli conflict, and that Syria has been, you know, of the Arab states, the most anti-American on a lot of these policies. They've been the most you know, they're still in conflict with Israel, and because that, his regime will be safe and that he has cover.
I think, obviously, people have questioned, because a lot of the unrest in Egypt doesn't seem to be driven by foreign policy issues. It's more economic or issues of democracy. So that still remains to be seen, but he was very engaging on these things. He was not sort of evasive, and he took it on pretty straight forward.
INSKEEP: Well, Bashar al-Assad has certainly tried to position himself as being a relatively moderate guy, or even a reforming guy. That's at least the position that he has taken, but it is a very autocratic country. Once he gets done confidently saying that he doesn't expect the protest to spread to his country, is he talking about any kinds of reforms of his own?
Mr. SOLOMON: I mean, he is. He was pretty specific, saying he wants to initiate municipal elections and new legislation that, you know, from NGOs and a new media law. I think a lot of people who have watched Syria closely in the human rights group are pretty skeptical. They said he - when he came into power just before 9/11, he was promising similar things, and none of them never really bore out.
He was very specific in the interview, saying, well, a lot of what I was hoping to do was hindered by the war in Iraq, the Bush administration, efforts to destabilize Syria, which is true. I mean, they were not the Bush administration was not quiet about that they thought Syria might follow Iraq. What is unclear is if things are calmer, if the situation in Lebanon and Iraq are calmer, it will push forward with a more aggressive reform period. That I think there's skepticism, but that's what he was saying.
INSKEEP: Mr. Solomon, in the few seconds we have left, do you have a sense of whether Bashar al-Assad is a popular leader on the streets of Damascus, or whether he could potentially face protests like we've seen in other countries?
Mr. SOLOMON: I think it's really hard. I mean, it's that people here are glued. If you go around the old city and everyone's watching Al-Jazeera and watching the Egypt thing, but the people we've talked to, they don't really translate what's going on to anything happening here. I mean, that's the sense right now. I guess things can change, and there's been some Facebook pages, comments about protests. But having only been here, flown in from Washington a few days ago, you certainly don't sense that there's much agitation. But what's - what we've seen, things do change.
INSKEEP: Jay Solomon of the Wall Street Journal is in Damascus, Syria. Thanks very much.
Mr. SOLOMON: Thank you.
INSKEEP: He spoke with Syria's president Bashar al-Assad.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Let's get some analysis now on the protests in Egypt. President Hosni Mubarak remains in power - or at least in office. Demonstrators called for a general strike today, though we're told that many shops are open. Dr. Maha Azzam is monitoring all of this. She's an associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, which is a think tank in London.
Welcome to the program.
Dr. MAHA AZZAM (Chatham House): Good morning.
INSKEEP: What do you think will determine if Mubarak can survive these protests?
Dr. AZZAM: I don't think Mr. Mubarak is going to survive the protests. I think that the demand of the protestors is that Mubarak must go. And the fact that Omar Suleiman has become the deputy president now means that we're in a situation where the mechanisms are being set in place to allow Mr. Mubarak a respectable exit. And pressure is also being put by the United States on the regime to find a way out and to work towards free and fair elections soon.
INSKEEP: Let's remember, Suleiman is the man who was named vice president. He was the military intelligence chief. Is the military essentially taking over here, as you see it?
Dr. AZZAM: The military has always been the bulwark of the regime. At the moment it is really at the forefront of the political process. But I think the demand of the Egyptians is that eventually there has to be some kind of civilian government.
INSKEEP: Is the opposition becoming more organized?
Dr. AZZAM: I think the opposition is still trying to get its act together. There is, of course, ElBaradei, the former head of the IAEA. There is other factions and other political groupings secular, democratic. And, of course, you've got the Muslim Brotherhood, the main Islamist party.
All these forces are trying to form some kind of organized opposition to the regime and may come up with a spokesman for themselves from among these groupings. It may well be ElBaradei who helps negotiate a transitional government with the military.
INSKEEP: I suppose the assumption or the fear of a lot of people in a situation like this is that Mubarak would be replaced by some kind of fundamentalist government, which of course that's the great narrative of the Arab world in recent years - fundamentalists versus pro-Western forces or modernist forces. Is there some third way possible here?
Dr. AZZAM: I think this has been played up tremendously and has helped maintain authoritarian regimes for a very long time to the detriment of the interests of the United States and its allies.
If you look at Egypt, the main political force with an Islamist leaning is the Muslim Brotherhood, which really has not been involved in any kind of violence throughout the period of Mr. Mubarak. On the contrary, it has tried to behave as a political group that wants reform. It's had candidates elected to parliament. And in parliament it didn't behave as an extremist group. And what we need to see in Egypt is an inclusive system that involves leftist groups, Islamist groups and others, so long as all these groups condemn the resort to violence.
INSKEEP: And are there also non-Islamists, if that's the proper term, forces within the opposition that are worth reckoning with here?
Dr. AZZAM: Yes. I think there are. I mean, the protestors that have come out, some of them are individuals who have come out in support of the slogans of the organizers. But there are certainly key actors here.
There's the April the 6th Movement that's very important. It's a democratic secular movement. There is Ayman Nour, a man who's been imprisoned in his political party under Mubarak for just attempting to run as president. These are secular and democratic forces.
And the Muslim Brotherhood is not opposed to any of them. They all seem to have formed some kind of unspoken coalition against the regime, calling for a more democratic political order in Egypt.
INSKEEP: Dr. Maha Azzam is an expert in political Islam. She's at Chatham House in London.
Thanks very much.
Dr. AZZAM: Thank you.
INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And todays last word in business is cookies.
It's that time of year when boxes and boxes of Girl Scout cookies begin filling up the pantry, though they usually don't stay for very long. Last year, troops sold nearly 200 million boxes, accounting for almost two-thirds of the Girl Scouts' budget. But in an effort to boost sales and cut costs, the Girl Scouts are looking to streamline their cookie line. Cookies that have not sold well are no longer available in certain parts of the country. Some Americans will have to do without cookies called Dulce de Leche or Thank You Berry Munch. Thin Mints, presumably, still available everywhere.
(Soundbite of music)
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
Protestors arriving today in Cairo's Tahrir Square found a different landscape than the day before. Overnight, the Egyptian army intensified its control of the square, and its moves underline the mystery of what the army is up to. Barricades now surround the square, and the military checks protestors on their way in, but still allows them in. What we don't know is if all this suggests the situation is more orderly or more dangerous.
NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro is in Cairo.
LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO: Inside Tahrir Square, protestors are camped out in tents and huddled around fires. Many say they've been there overnight, refusing to give ground in these demonstrations. The army, though, is tightening its cordon around what has become the heart of the demonstrations. Blast walls have been erected, and access restricted to the square.
Unidentified Man: (Foreign language spoken)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And the protestors expressed fear that a crackdown could be on its way. Tahir Abdul Aziz spent the night in the square.
Mr. TAHIR ABDUL AZIZ: It's the final day, OK? OK?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Why do you think it's the final day?
Mr. AZIZ: I think. I guess. OK? The conditions are changing.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But the protestors say they remained undaunted. Ahmed Nituali is a tour guide.
AHMED NITUALI (Tour Guide): I would die for this land. I'm telling you, for the very first time in my life, in 30 years, I feel proud of being Egyptian. When they used to ask me about my nationality, I used to say, actually, yes, alas, I am Egyptian. Unfortunately, I'm Egyptian. Today, it's different. Today, I - my head is high, and I say out loud: I am Egyptian.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Opposition figure and Nobel laureate Mohammed Elbaradei came to the square last night, but he's far from the anointed head of this protest movement, say demonstrators. Ahmed Idam is a dentist.
Dr. AHMED IDAM (Dentist): We have many good leaders. We have many good people. We can have good elections, fair elections, and the people can choose whatever they want. This is the best solution, I guess.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: In the midst of it all, there was the surreal scene of a group of three American students wheeling their bright suitcases through the demonstration. Tanver Khalam is from New York City.
Mr. TANVER KHALAM (Student): They want all their, like, students that are here to go to, like, the Zamalek dorms, which are obviously in Zamalek. And from there, they're going to, like, evacuate us to the U.S. embassy, I think, and then possibly send us either home, or to, like, Athens or Istanbul. I'm not sure.
It sucks. I mean, like, we were supposed to, like, be in our first day of classes yesterday. And, like, I was looking forward to here - you know, looking forward to being here for a semester, and, like, you know, now we have to leave.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: So the evacuations of foreigners here continue, and some wealthier Egyptians, too, are leaving the city. But for the first day since the crisis started, there's a returning sense of normalcy in the capital. There are a few traffic cops on the streets, although no police in many neighborhoods yet. There are mixed feelings about the possible police presence. Some support their return to duty, fearing looters and escaped prisoners. Others say they're part of the problem, and not the solution. The police here is feared at the fist of the Mubarak regime.
(Soundbite of car horn honking)
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Street sweepers are in action cleaning up debris, and some people are even returning to work. Some ATMs were working, and the Cairo Metro was busy. But it is far from business as usual here. The Internet is still being blocked by the government, and in neighborhoods across the city, men are continuing to patrol to make sure looters and thieves are kept away. Sarah Huwas has taken part in the protests, but today was in her neighborhood of Dokki. She says things are less chaotic.
Ms. SARAH HUWAS: It was significantly calmer. We had maybe two major incidents where we heard repeated gunfire.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: The protestors have called for a million-man march tomorrow. It remains to be seen if it will be allowed to go forward and how many people will show up. Analysts here say Mubarak may be digging in his heels, and he'll try to wait the protestors out, hoping the movement here will lose steam.
Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR NEWS, Cairo.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And let's remember that Cairo is the city where President Obama gave a major speech on the Muslim world in June of 2009.
President BARACK OBAMA: I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: The ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed, confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice, government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people, the freedom to live as you choose.
INSKEEP: Plenty of American presidents have said things like that. It is President Obama's fate to actually confront demands for more democracy on the largest of all Arab nations. We're going to get some analysis, as we do most Monday mornings, from NPR's Cokie Roberts.
Cokie, good morning.
COKIE ROBERTS: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: What challenges does this pose for the president?
ROBERTS: Oh, this is huge. This is one where the administration seems to be one step behind the developments in Egypt, as each step happens. Yesterday, the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went on five television programs and called for an orderly transition to representative government, meaning an orderly interim government until the elections, which are called for September. And she called for, quote, "concrete steps toward democracy - democratic and economic reform."
Now, the administration says it's not taking sides, but that no one is satisfied with Mubarak's handling of the demonstrators. Look, they are very clear. They don't want chaos. They again, that's a quotation from the Secretary of State. There's a fear that chaos could erupt, not only in Egypt, but spread throughout the Arab world, which would not only have political implications, but huge economic implications, of course, because of oil.
And the administration's having a hard time finding a winning position here, because Egypt has been an ally in terms of relations with Israel. It's one of the biggest recipients of U.S. aid. And if the United States just throws Mubarak under the bus, what does that say to other leaders in the Arab world who have been friendly with the United States?
But if you're not supportive of democratic movements, as you've just heard the president talking about, you know, who are we, then? What is the United States, if it's not supportive of democratic movements? What does it say to young people who are, of course, the vast majority in Arab countries, and does it incite terrorism to back away from democracy? So none of this is easy at all for this administration. But what you see is some shifting away from Mubarak in each subsequent statement.
INSKEEP: What are Republicans saying?
ROBERTS: The Republicans are backing the administration. They know this is tough, and Republican leaders basically went on the air yesterday saying whatever he says, that's fine.
INSKEEP: Is this, in some way, a distraction for President Obama? He wanted to be focusing on the economy about now.
ROBERTS: It's a tremendous distraction. This was the week when he was supposed last week and this week, when he was supposed to be out taking advantage of his State of the Union messaging, pivoting towards the kinds of programs that he was touting, education and job growth, going to places where you see jobs being creating, calling more for what he calls investments in those things, in education and infrastructure, what Republicans call spending. But instead of being able to make that kind of focus, the entire focus is on Egypt and questions about the U.S. leadership role. So, you know, the president can't control events. No matter whether you're president or not, the events can make or break you.
INSKEEP: I wonder if it's also a distraction for Republicans who also have their own domestic issues that they want to push at this moment. But the stage for better or worse does belong to the White House in a situation like this.
ROBERTS: Well, that's true. And it's interesting listening to Republican leaders. They yesterday, they were saying nice things about the president and saying Speaker Boehner said he thought the president was ready to have an adult conversation with the American people about big spending cuts that are needed. But Boehner then blamed the Senate majority leader for being intransigent. Look, there's some very big spending fights ahead, and the Republicans will be able to have those fights whether they're in the public eye or not.
INSKEEP: OK, thanks very much. Analysis, we get most Monday mornings, from NPR's Cokie Roberts.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Because Egypt is a poor country, many of its young men go abroad for work. More than a million Egyptians live in the oil-rich states of the Arabian Peninsula, and the top destination is Saudi Arabia. These Egyptians are waiting and watching the uprising at home, with hope mixed with fear.
NPR's Deborah Amos reports from the Saudi capital Riyadh.
DEBORAH AMOS: Most Egyptians working in the Saudi kingdom cheered the uprising back home. With the Internet down and phone lines jammed, they wait anxiously for word from their families, and they share the latest news of the protests.
AMR (Engineer): I'm happy, and I'm proud. I'm really proud. I'm really proud of what actually they do.
AMOS: Amr, a 32-year-old Egyptian, wants only his first name used. He works at a telecom company, mostly with other Egyptians.
AMR: And by the way, 99.9 percent out of them, they are with the protesters in Egypt, and they would love to join them. This is history. The people are making history now.
AMOS: History they can only watch. The money sent home, and the billions from Egyptians working abroad, helps keep the economy afloat. The Egyptians here are highly skilled doctors, teachers. Thirty-six-year-old Hani works at a high-tech company.
HANI: We have a community and, of course, Saudi Arabia has a lot of Egyptians here. We have like, millions, I think. And we're all happy, very happy and excited, and we are all dreaming to be there now.
AMOS: In Western capitals, Egyptians have demonstrated in solidarity with protesters back home. That's not possible here. Saudi Arabia's king publicly denounced the protests in Egypt. Police here and in Dubai dispersed small gatherings of Egyptians, who waved flags and sang the national anthem. Kuwait publicly warned that any protesters would be immediately deported along with their families. Hani said he understands the concerns.
HANI: We don't want to involve any country for our problems or involve any - to make troubles to any country for our problems. Our families there is doing a good job, a wonderful job, and I believe there is no need for any of this outside Egypt.
AMOS: But they must stay outside of Egypt. The reasons are part of the anger driving the revolt back home, especially for the young. Egypt's economy does not provide jobs for them, says Amr, the engineer.
AMR: I'm very well-educated. I'm from a very good family, but why I came here? Why I'm spending the best years of my life here outside my country? Why? Because I cannot find a way to secure a living in Egypt.
AMOS: And for many young Egyptians, the only way to afford getting married is to spend years working abroad. Amr is 33, and he's already worked for six years in Saudi Arabia.
AMR: That's why I left my country. I left my family. I left everyone to come here, to secure for me having a family, and to secure for me getting married, and to find a better way of living.
AMOS: For now, they watch and they worry, says Alaa, also an engineer who works in Riyadh.
ALAA: We only hope and pray for our people back in Egypt to be safe and secure.
AMOS: And for Hani, he wants the protests to go on until President Hosni Mubarak and his government step down.
Do you worry at all about the looting and the fires and how many people who have died?
HANI: Freedom has a cost. There is a cost for freedom. Everywhere, to get your freedom, you have to pay.
AMOS: Deborah Amos, NPR News, Riyadh.
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STEVE INSKEEP, host:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
When you hear the U.S. government talk about Egypt, you hear a government speaking carefully. It has expressed support for the political demands of the demonstrators, but it has not outright abandoned President Hosni Mubarak. That was the message that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered on five different television talk shows yesterday.
We're going to talk about the U.S. role with David Mack. He was a deputy assistant secretary of state under George H.W. Bush, the first President Bush.
Welcome to the program, Mr. Mack.
Mr. DAVID MACK (Middle East Institute; Former Assistant Secretary of State): I'm glad to be here. Thanks.
INSKEEP: What is the bottom-line U.S. interest in this situation?
Mr. MACK: The bottom-line U.S. interest is a framework of stability, as well as a - orderly transition to a more representative and democratic governing system.
INSKEEP: Which is complicated, because those two things may conflict at some point, I suppose.
Mr. MACK: Absolutely. But the point is, Steve, Egypt is an essential partner to the United States. It is, next to Turkey and perhaps Israel, the most important strategic ally the United States has in the region. That's not to say that any particular leader is an absolutely vital ally.
But we have to have a relationship with Egypt in order to keep the Arab-Israel peace process going, in order to confront radical terrorism of the al-Qaida type, and in order to have an orderly economic structure in the area, where oil and gas can flow from producers to consumers.
INSKEEP: I suppose this might explain the muted - some people would call it - or even lagging U.S. response, according to some analysts here, because you seem to be suggesting that the essential interest for the United States - or an essential interest for the United States is to have a good relationship with whoever comes out on top in this situation.
Mr. MACK: Well, that's right. But it's also worth noting that the United States has learned the hard way that it doesn't have as much influence as some people imagine in terms of determining who is in power, when somebody might leave power. That's long not been the case. The U.S. influence in Egypt - which is considerable - is mostly with the armed forces, which receives over a billion dollars in U.S. aid annually.
The U.S. provides virtually nothing to the police, for example. And economic aid has been in decline over the years. And Mubarak has shown a capacity for standing up to a different kind of U.S. approach, as shown in the early years of the Bush administration, when they were publicly trying to cajole him into making political changes. He is very resistant to this kind of public show of U.S. influence.
INSKEEP: Well, I'm glad you mentioned the armed forces and the U.S. support for the armed forces, because I want to ask you a question about Omar Suleiman, the man who has been named by Mubarak as vice president. He's the military intelligence chief, so he's seen as a military figure, representative of the military. What kind of a person is he?
Mr. MACK: Well, he's a great contrast to Mubarak. Omar Suleiman is careful, calculating, shrewd, obviously extremely intelligent. This comes across when you speak to him. By contrast, President Mubarak almost takes pride in being a little bit anti-intellectual. He's a rugged guy. He's decisive. He's very self-confident. George W. Bush comes to mind as an American parallel.
INSKEEP: So can Suleiman - do you think he's got the credibility to run the country, if it were turned over to him?
Mr. MACK: Well, he's got very strong support from the Egyptian military. And moreover, he seems to have the kind of personality that would enable him to negotiate a transitional arrangement with opposition leaders.
He, for example, has been a key negotiator with the Israelis, with the Palestinians - both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. He has those kinds of talents in his skill set.
INSKEEP: OK. Ambassador David Mack, thanks very much.
Mr. MACK: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: Former U.S. diplomat during the first Bush administration, more recently with the Middle East Institute.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And let's talk more about Egypt's military now with Shadi Hamid. He follows the region for the Brookings Institution. We found him in Doha, Qatar, in the Persian Gulf.
Welcome to the program.
Mr. SHADI HAMID (Brookings Institution): Thank you for having me.
INSKEEP: And we were just talking about the Egyptian military and the immense aid that they receive from the United States. Many people have wondered over the last several days what game exactly the military is playing - the way that they've come out onto the streets, the way that they've held their fire, they way that they've said they're supporting the people. What exactly are they doing?
Dr. HAMID: Well, so far, they've played a largely neutral role. They've refrained from getting involved and taking clear sides here. They've focused on securing major buildings and installations, but that's about it.
So, at this point, the military really could be the kingmaker. Right now, we're at an impasse. The protestors are not going to back down. They want Mubarak to step down. Mubarak doesn't want to step down. So we may be at the point where some outside force is needed to tip the balance one way or the other.
INSKEEP: Outside force. Who could that - meaning the military itself.
Dr. HAMID: Yes, the military is one possibility, and then the U.S. and the international community would be another option. It's worth noting that the U.S. does have considerable leverage here. As Ambassador Mack noted, the U.S. gives the Egyptian military $1.3 billion a year. There are close relationships between senior military staff in Egypt and their counterpart at the Pentagon. So in that sense, if the U.S. really did want to put pressure on the military, it could.
INSKEEP: And that's an interesting point, because when you hear about the demonstrators in Tahrir Square and the way that they have seemed to have taken over the square in recent days, it's hard not to think of a little bit of history and think of Tiananmen Square in China in 1989, where it seemed that the protestors had taken over. And then the moment came when the government moved in, when the tanks moved in, when the military moved in, and it was all over.
That would be a complicated decision for the Egyptian army to change its tactics, wouldn't it, because it's receiving so much aid for the United States.
Dr. HAMID: Yeah. Well, that type of massacre scenario looks less likely now. I think there was a lot of concern that was in the offing yesterday. But the momentum really now is with the protestors. If the military did decide to shoot, it would - it's difficult to do that when the whole world is watching, when the international community has made clear that massacres of this sort would be a red line.
It's a very risky move for the military. And do they want to be remembered as the military that defended the old order and prevented Egypt from moving forward and becoming a democracy?
I think the Tunisian model is instructive here. The Tunisian military, during their uprising, protected the people and actually forced the president to leave. So I think the Egyptian military here has a replicable model, if they want one.
INSKEEP: One other question in a few seconds, Mr. Hamid. There have been so many revolutions and uprisings, and some of them have turned out well, and some of them have evolved into dictatorships of different kinds, or authoritarian governments that replaced the old autocrats. Do you think that the leaders of the opposition movement here can be trusted to push for the right outcome, or even to succeed in getting a good outcome?
Dr. HAMID: They can certainly be trusted to do that more than the current regime. The current regime is one of the most autocratic in the region. It's made almost no progress. It's gotten worse over the last three decades. Of course, U.S. policymakers are going to be afraid that the Brotherhood will have growing influence in a new government.
INSKEEP: The Muslim Brotherhood.
Dr. HAMID: But Brotherhood isn't as - yeah, the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition force in Egypt. But they aren't as scary as, I think, sometimes people make them out to be. They are nonviolent. They are committed to the democratic process. They work with other secular opposition groups and cooperate with them.
INSKEEP: Okay.
Dr. HAMID: And, in any case, they'll be only one part of the future of Egypt.
INSKEEP: Okay, Mr. Hamid, thanks very much.
Dr. HAMID: Thanks for having me.
INSKEEP: Shadi Hamid, of the Brookings Institution, analyzing the situation this morning from Doha, Qatar.
This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
It's not too late to get a ticket to the Super Bowl. It just might have to be a plane ticket. At least three airlines have decided to offer the Super Bowl telecast on their flights. JetBlue will offer the service for free to passengers who just can't wait to land. Frontier and most Continental planes will also have the game but there, you have to pay $6 in order to watch - or else lean over toward the passenger who's next to you.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
A mountain climber in Scotland had just reached a summit when he lost his footing. Adam Potter, of Glasgow, fell 1,000 feet down a rocky slope. A military helicopter happened to be in the area and when they reached him, paramedics did not expect to find the climber alive - much less discover him standing up, reading a map. Potter suffered only scrapes and bruises after tumbling down from the height of the Eiffel Tower.
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
The people watching events in Egypt from the outside, include Saad Ibrahim. He's a longtime Egyptian human rights and democracy advocate, for which he was jailed as we've learned in his previous appearances on this program. He is now in exile and currently teaches sociology at Drew University.
Welcome back to the program, sir.
Dr. SAAD IBRAHIM: My pleasure.
INSKEEP: I imagine you watch these events with somewhat different eyes than most of us, because of your experiences. What do you see as you watch the televised images of people on the streets?
Dr. IBRAHIM: Well, first of all, it is a surprise to everybody, including Egyptians themselves, that over the years, the resentment has accumulated and came, now, to a blow in this critical days. Shortly after Tunisia, people feel empowered and feel that they can change the rulers, and they can do it peacefully. And this is a new turn in the history of the Middle East.
INSKEEP: Although, I do have to ask, because you know it from personal experience what strength does President Mubarak still have to draw on if he's still trying to maneuver to stay in power?
Dr. IBRAHIM: Very little in his own right. The only base he has now is the armed forces. And that armed forces, probably, the loyalty will not be there for very long. And, should things get out of hand, and he order them to open fire, I think that will be the end of it. Because in the history modern history of Egypt the army never opened fire on the people of Egypt. The people who used force were usually security police forces, but not the armed forces.
INSKEEP: What do you think of the response of the United States, to this situation? Most recently, U.S. diplomats, including Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, have spoken of urging an orderly transition to democratic rule more democratic rule.
Dr. IBRAHIM: Well, yes, it came a little bit hesitantly, but better late than never. And the best that the U.S. can do now, is to stand by the Egyptian people. Yes, smooth transition, fine. But to demand that Mubarak steps down to spare Egyptians further bloodshed, and that is a call. And I'm going to Congress and that will be, also, the message. It will prevail on Mubarak to step down. After all, America has supported him for 30 years. It's about time, support the Egyptian people, even for one year.
INSKEEP: Are you in a position, haven spoken to opposition leaders, to reassure the United States, to say to American officials look, we know Mubarak has been your ally, but you have nothing to fear in this situation, you can whole-heartedly support a change?
Dr. IBRAHIM: Yes.
INSKEEP: Very simple answer. You can tell Americans, directly, don't worry about your security interests; don't worry about Egypt's peace treaty with Israel; don't worry about what the next government is going to look like, everything's going to be fine?
Dr. IBRAHIM: Absolutely. Even the candidate for replacing Mubarak, Doctor ElBaradei, who is now poised to be the next president...
INSKEEP: Mohamed ElBaradei.
Dr. IBRAHIM: ...said that, yesterday, in an interview.
INSKEEP: He said, yesterday, in a television interview, that Egypt's security situation, security agreements with Israel and others will remain as they have been.
Dr. IBRAHIM: Absolutely. Yes.
INSKEEP: When you hear the news from Tahrir Square, which has been the center of the protests, do you find yourself wishing you were there?
Dr. IBRAHIM: Of course. Of course. (Unintelligible) feel vindicated, because I was the first one to blow the whistle on the scheme to pass power from father to son from Hosni Mubarak to Gamal Mubarak - as that was the trigger for my trouble with the regime. I think now, thousands of people know the truth, know that how autocratic, how tyrannical this regime was, but put a very smooth face on the tyranny, with a kind of a soft tyranny. He marketed himself, in the West, as being the bulwark for peace in the Middle East; as being the bulwark for fighting terrorism; and in effect, he did very little himself on either front.
INSKEEP: Saad Ibrahim is a longtime Egyptian human rights advocate. Thanks very much.
Dr. IBRAHIM: Thank you.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
World leaders seem to have settled on a phrase to describe the complaints of Egypt's protestors. They're saying the people have legitimate grievances. We know about Egypt's political repression, and next we'll talk about Egypt's economy with Max Rodenbeck. He's the Middle East correspondent for the Economist magazine. He's in Cairo.
Welcome to the program, sir.
Mr. MAX RODENBECK (East Correspondent, Economist Magazine): Thank you.
INSKEEP: We're talking here about the most populous Arab country, of course. Where's it rank, though, as an economic power?
Mr. RODENBECK: A little bit further down the line. I mean, it's a country where most people are poor, although Egypt's performed pretty well and it's economy has come up, there's a problem of distribution. The wealthy have gotten very much wealthier, and the middle class has grown, but there's a large chunk of the society that feels very left out.
INSKEEP: Has the state been deeply involved in the way the economy has evolved?
Mr. RODENBECK: Very much so. Because Egypt had a sort of socialist model of the economy for about 30 years, until 20 years ago, when there was a kind of shift towards a more capitalist model. And it - in many measures, it's been a success, in terms of creating wealth - the tourist industry, for example.
INSKEEP: What hasn't been so successful?
Mr. RODENBECK: Sharing the wealth, raising standards for the general public. And people have kind of put their finger on one problem, which is the standard of education. I mean, literacy has gone up. More and more people can read, but the schools are so bad that they often come out with very few skills. And so people aren't able to exploit very well the economic opportunities that exist.
INSKEEP: And when you've been moving about Cairo in the last several days, how often have people on the streets been talking about the economy as they describe why they're protesting?
Mr. RODENBECK: Very much so. But the real focus of these protests is political. People suffer economically, but I don't think they're expecting an economic miracle if the Mubarak regime disappears. Even after just a few days of unrest, the poor are suffering. Already, there are long lines - people waiting for bread, for example. And, in fact, one of the reasons why there hasn't been a similar revolt earlier is because so many people can't afford to stay a few days away from their jobs.
INSKEEP: Oh, no, this is very interesting, because there's been talk today of a general strike. But the reports we're hearing from Cairo suggest that that is not happening. Not everybody's shutting down. You're suggesting that people can't afford to do that.
Mr. RODENBECK: Many people can't afford to. And it's also the end of the month and people want their salaries, and banks are closed. But also, the organizers of this movement, they managed to mobilize huge numbers of people in the street for a very vaguely stated aims - multiple aims, the main one of which has been for Mubarak himself to go. But they don't really have the organizational power to push for a general strike - not yet. I may be wrong, but it's hard to see, judging by how many people need their wage. It might work in a week's time, when people are again angry with the government. But it's a bit early to tell.
INSKEEP: Well, now, that's really interesting, when you talk about vaguely stated aims, other than the demand that Mubarak should go. We've heard other analysts in our program today suggest that Mubarak seems to be near his end, that perhaps within a couple of days, he could be out of there. Do you see another possibility that these protests could continue remain unfocused, and that they could peter out over time?
Mr. RODENBECK: I tend to doubt that. I think that - what I'm saying that is that there were many, many different goals, and many people who joined in the protests had slightly different aims. The one thing that they unified on was getting rid of Mubarak. And it's a matter of, as time progresses, how well the opposition forces can again focus attention. I think that Mubarak's time is definitely up, and he's unquestionably going. I would agree with that. He's trying to get himself a graceful exit, that this is one of the things that will unfold in these coming days is grateful will his exit be and what exactly succeeds him. Is it the plan that he seems to be putting in place, or will the protests continue and push for more radical reform?
INSKEEP: Max Rodenbeck is Middle East correspondent for the Economist. He's in Cairo.
Thanks very much.
Mr. RODENBECK: Thank you.