DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Breast cancer remained at the center of a debate in the year 2012. According to one recent analysis, regular mammograms have not reduced the rate of advanced breast cancers, but the exams have led more than a million women to be diagnosed with tumors that didn't need to be treated. Defenders of regular mammograms say the analysis is deeply flawed. And they're promoting new technology that promises to find even more and smaller breast tumors. With all these conflicting claims, some women are forgoing regular mammograms. Others are doubling down - getting radical treatment for precancerous tumors that many experts think would never cause harm. NPR's Richard Knox has the story.
RICHARD KNOX, BYLINE: To stake out the boundaries of this debate, I talked to three people with very different viewpoints. Shannon Brownlee has written books about what she calls American medicine's tendency to overdiagnose and overtreat disease.
SHANNON BROWNLEE: Right now, mammography is not presented as an individual choice. It is presented as a got-to-do-it.
KNOX: Dr. Daniel Kopans of Harvard is one of the fiercest advocates of routine mammograms.
DR. DANIEL KOPANS: Why would you ignore the opportunity to find something early, knowing that the science proves that it saves lives?
KNOX: And Dr. Otis Brawley is chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, a prominent leader of the nation's cancer establishment.
DR. OTIS BRAWLEY: I do believe that about one in five women who have a localized breast cancer has a tumor that really does not need treatment.
KNOX: I asked myself how a woman can sort through the thicket of apparently irreconcilable opinions. Because really, she has no choice. Women over 40 have to decide what to do - or not do - about getting regular mammograms. Shannon Brownlee's made up her mind. She's 56, and she doesn't get regular mammograms. But it wasn't easy.
BROWNLEE: We have been told for, oh, almost a century now that catching cancer early is always a good thing. So when people come along and say, well, maybe screening might not always be such a great thing, it's very, very difficult to contemplate that.
KNOX: As she delved into the subject, Brownlee was impressed with the downside of routine mammograms. Over 10 years, annual mammograms will find something suspicious in 60 percent of women. And 35 percent will be told they need a breast biopsy. That will find breast cancer in about half a percent. And many experts believe some of those would never have caused a problem if they hadn't been diagnosed.
When Brownlee decided she didn't want an annual mammogram, that put her at loggerheads with her doctor.
BROWNLEE: She would say, You have to get a mammogram. And I would demur. And she would say, not a week goes by that a patient of mine didn't have her life saved by getting a mammogram. And I wanted to say how do you know, 'cause you can't know after the fact.
KNOX: That, in fact, is true. While studies show routine mammograms do save lives overall, even their staunchest advocates acknowledge you can't know in a particular case.
Eventually, Brownlee and her doctor worked it out. She said she'd get an occasional mammogram in her 50s, and promised the doctor she'd get treated if an invasive cancer was found.
Dr. Dan Kopans dismisses critics of mammography as unscientific. He has an answer to those who lament the high rate of falsely positive mammograms; those indicating something suspicious that turns out not to be cancer. He's invented a 3D mammogram called tomosynthesis.
KOPANS: I can page through the breast as if it's the pages in a book.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINERY)
KNOX: In a small closet of a room at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Kopans is demonstrating his invention. By the way, he says he has no financial interest in companies marketing the technology. It uses a computer to create 3D pictures of the breast. It subtracts a lot of the visual noise in 2D mammograms that obscures many breast tumors.
KOPANS: Now I'm pointing to a cancer that is much more easily seen because we've gotten what's in front and what's in back out of the way.
KNOX: Kopans says 3D mammograms, which the FDA approved last year, will drastically reduce the percentage of women who are called back after a routine mammogram for further tests, to see if there's something that needs to be biopsied. 3D mammograms will detect more and smaller breast cancers. That, after all, is the point.
KOPANS: It's pretty clear we detect more cancers with it.
KNOX: Would you say there's a potential problem here, that as you increase the detection of cancers, you're going to increase the detection of cancers that probably don't need to be treated?
KOPANS: I think that's a theoretical possibility. All I can say is that it's clear that finding smaller cancers saves lives. Now your question is, does finding more small cancers, is that better? The answer is, I would say it should be. I have no absolute proof.
KNOX: This concept may be strange. But a lot of cancer experts these days think not all cancers, including breast cancers, need treatment. Doctors call this overdiagnosis.
Dr. Otis Brawley of the Cancer Society worries that finding more small breast cancers will increase overdiagnosis.
BRAWLEY: Some of the 3D imaging machines are just spectacular in diagnosing small lesions. Now, we don't know that they're diagnosing small lesions that need to be diagnosed and need to be treated.
KNOX: But Brawley says research is underway to answer that important question.
BRAWLEY: We're on the verge of some tests to actually be able to say, Mrs. Smith, you've got breast cancer but it's the kind we need to watch. Mrs. Jones, you've got breast cancer, it's the kind that we need to treat.
KNOX: He thinks that's five to 10 years off. Meanwhile, the Cancer Society recommends that women get regular mammograms starting in their 40s, as long as they understand it may lead them into difficult choices about what to do next.
Richard Knox, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let's keep talking about energy - solar energy now. 2012 was a good year for solar energy, we're told, and the U.S. is on track to install a record number of solar power systems in this new year - thanks in large part to low cost solar panels from China. That last part is a bit awkward for American manufacturers.
As Lauren Sommer reports from member station KQED, one response is that federal officials have put trade tariffs on Chinese solar panels.
LAUREN SOMMER, BYLINE: Things look busy at the SunPower solar manufacturing plant in Silicon Valley. Workers are screwing frames onto shiny six-foot solar panels as they come off the line.
(SOUNDBITE OF DRILLING)
SOMMER: This plant has a long list of notable visitors - governors, lawmakers, federal officials. It's because SunPower is a top supplier, and because there aren't many solar plants left to visit.
TOM WERNER: It's going to require being lonely to be one of the winners but it's unfortunate that there aren't many American solar companies.
SOMMER: Tom Werner is the CEO of SunPower. He says the growing market for solar has attracted competition. Chinese manufacturers scaled up quickly and in just four years, solar panel prices fell 75 percent.
WERNER: The economics have gotten way, way more challenging. Difficult for some companies to make it.
SOMMER: SunPower is just hoping to break even this year. Several American manufacturers filed a trade complaint against China, saying companies there are getting illegal subsidies.
In November, the U.S. International Trade Commission agreed and locked in trade tariffs of up to 36 percent. Werner says while SunPower didn't directly join the complaint, it does stand to gain.
WERNER: Let's just say it won't hurt our pricing but I don't know if it will be a big advantage.
SOMMER: The solar industry doesn't need more bad news, says Werner - especially after the political scandal of one particular bankrupt solar company.
WERNER: It's amazing how many people know the name of that company.
SOMMER: Solyndra is the company that shall-not-be-named, kind of like Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter.
WERNER: Well see, if I name the company then I'm just propagating the whole deal.
(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE, MARACAS SHAKING)
SOMMER: It's an entirely different story for solar installers. At Sungevity's Oakland headquarters, company president Danny Kennedy introduces me to the sales team.
DANNY KENNEDY: So the maraca shake happens when there's a sale.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARACAS)
SOMMER: Sungevity is one part power company, one part Internet startup. The team here designs rooftop solar systems virtually by using satellite photos of each house.
KENNEDY: We grew gangbusters in 2010. Doubled again in '11. Have continued to grow this year.
SOMMER: Sungevity gets its solar panels from the U.S., Korea and from China. Even with the trade tariffs, prices haven't gone up much because Chinese solar companies have found a loophole. There's no tariff if the individual silicon solar cells are made outside of China but then assembled into panels in Chinese factories. Kennedy says focusing on manufacturing jobs is a mistake.
KENNEDY: There's more job density in the sales, finance, installation and maintenance end of the value chain than there is in the factory. It's probably a ratio of about three to one.
SOMMER: Kennedy says a trade war with China puts those jobs at risk.
KENNEDY: We're growing faster than any industry over a hundred billion dollars in value in the global economy. And yet, there is this nabobs of negativity around us that are causing concerns in the investment community. It's crazy talk.
DAN KAMMEN: It is totally a teenager in a lot of ways.
SOMMER: Dan Kammen is an energy professor at UC Berkeley.
KAMMEN: The industry is growing dramatically. There's also incredible turmoil. And there are some of these teenagers who are clearly going to be young prodigies and others who are going to need to go into rehab.
SOMMER: Kammen says when companies fight over market share and race to the lowest price, startups with cutting-edge technology just can't compete. Losing that innovation, he says, could be the real cost of a solar trade war.
For NPR News, I'm Lauren Sommer in San Francisco.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Many years ago, a young Chad Griffin came out as gay in his hometown of Arkadelphia, Arkansas. He's gone on to become president of the Human Rights Campaign, a powerful gay rights group in Washington, D.C.
As part of our collaboration with Oxford American magazine, covering life in the South, NPR's Claire O'Neill caught up with Griffin on a visit to his hometown.
CLAIRE O'NEILL, BYLINE: Chad Griffin has made a name for himself in the elite political circles of Washington and L.A. But ask people in his hometown of Arkadelphia - population 10,000 - if his name rings a bell.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Chad Griffin, sure doesn't. What's he do?
O'NEILL: Well, according to OUT magazine, he's one of the most powerful gay rights leaders in the country. But of course, even the mighty can have humble origins.
CHAD GRIFFIN: Growing up in Arkadelphia, I don't know if some of you knew I was gay. I didn't yet know.
O'NEILL: That's Griffin.
GRIFFIN: If you did, why didn't you tell me?
(LAUGHTER)
GRIFFIN: It would have made that process so much easier.
O'NEILL: On his first day as head of the Human Rights Campaign, Griffin went home. The morning started at the Honeycomb Restaurant on Main Street, where he spoke to his friends and family at a breakfast in his honor.
GRIFFIN: I never knew that I knew another gay person when I was growing up. And Jason laughs.
(LAUGHTER)
O'NEILL: Jason Sheeler, that's Griffin's friend from high school who's visiting from Texas where he lives now. Neither of them were out as teenagers, as Jason remembers outside of the Honeycomb Restaurant.
JASON SHEELER: This wasn't always the easiest place in the world to grow up for sure, particularly for young boys who don't excel at football, basketball, baseball or whatever. You know, we definitely were called fag. And here on Main Street, I even whisper the word, right? 'Cause it takes you right back to how you were as a 16-year-old boy who kind of didn't know what the heck was going on.
O'NEILL: Chad Griffin may not have known what was going on with his sexuality, but he knew one thing: He wanted to go places. At just 19, he volunteered for a local politician named Bill Clinton, and rode that wave all the way to the White House. Later, as a political consultant, he played a big part in getting conservatives and liberals to work together to overturn California's Prop 8 ban on gay marriage.
GRIFFIN: If you don't talk to those who disagree with you, you're never ultimately going to bring them to your side.
O'NEILL: Griffin has a knack for politics, it seems, but also knows how to compromise. And his friend Rob Fisher says he's always been able to get his way.
ROB FISHER: His mom can tell you stories about, I wouldn't say manipulating, but being able to talk her or any teacher into anything.
O'NEILL: Or even the big wigs. Griffin was one of President Obama's top campaign bundlers. He's credited as influencing Obama's public support of gay marriage.
But back home in Arkansas, politics require a different dialect. And making change is a delicate dance.
JERRY COX: Most people in Arkansas have a very open live and let live attitude.
O'NEILL: Jerry Cox heads up the Arkansas Family Council.
COX: So if you said, what do people think about gays in Arkansas, they would be, like, eh, whatever.
O'NEILL: In 2008, Jerry Cox led an Arkansas vote banning gay couples from adopting. It was later struck down by the State Supreme Court, but still he reflects longstanding attitudes about upholding traditional marriage.
COX: Where the issue comes in is when people come in and says, I'm gay and I want to redefine what marriage is. And people say, whoa, wait a minute, marriage has been this way for thousands of years - one man, one woman. We like it the way it is and don't want it to be redefined.
O'NEILL: In the South, and wherever home may be, tradition can be a powerful force, which makes it hard to change. And even harder sometimes to just be honest with your family. Griffin's mom, Betty Hightower, wasn't surprised when her son came out in his 20s. There was no major drama. But she recalls, sitting on her back porch, it wasn't easy.
BETTY HIGHTOWER: I was raised Missionary Baptist, very conservative. And at first, it really was hard for me to say my son is gay. At one time, I was telling this person that Chad was gay. I wasn't saying it to get any kind of sympathy. I don't know, we were just talking about Chad. And he said, well, don't worry about it, God forgives all sins. And a knife went through me.
I told him very quickly that we all have had sins but this was not one of Chad's sins. Now he had sins.
(LAUGHTER)
HIGHTOWER: But this was not something he needed to be forgiven for.
O'NEILL: Not all parents share this attitude though. And Griffin says that's what motivates him; kids from small towns, like him, who think they have to hide who they are. On this day, he's back in Arkansas, holding a Q&A and opens the floor to questions from the audience.
ALYSS: I'm 19 years old. I'm the daughter of a Pentecostal preacher. They don't know I'm here...
O'NEILL: This is 19-year-old Alyss. Well, actually, it's not her real name. It's what she goes by in college in Little Rock. When she's home with her parents, she goes by her birth name. When she was 15, her parents found her MySpace page and saw that she was questioning her sexuality. She tells more of the story outside, after the Q&A.
ALYSS: And mom started crying. Dad pulled out a Bible, chanting verses, chanting all this stuff, angry, extremely red-faced.
O'NEILL: Alyss's dad's a preacher. He said she could continue to live with them under one condition - that she say she's straight, and so she did.
ALYSS: Because I don't want to be kicked out of the house again. So I just deal with it. I mean, they're my parents.
(LAUGHTER)
O'NEILL: She says that if she told them the truth, they'd disown her.
ALYSS: Oh, yeah. Oh, especially with my dad, like, being a Pentecostal preacher. This is the peak of his career, I guess. Like, more people are coming to the church that I don't want to ruin it for him. You know?
O'NEILL: Chad Griffin gave her some advice and brought her story back with her to Washington.
GRIFFIN: Someone who is that young, who should be worried about things like your next exam, instead her worry is having to go in and out of the closet, so that she can hide her identity from her own parents. That's the young person that motivates me day in and day out.
O'NEILL: This where Chad Griffin's Southern roots come in. If he can pivot from pressuring the president one day, and the next to handing a microphone to closeted kids like Alyss in Arkadelphia. Well, she can tell you what that means.
ALYSS: Having someone from this state, president of the HRC, that's big. That's big for Arkansas.
O'NEILL: And change, she says, is already afoot at home in the South.
Claire O'Neill, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENE: And you can see Chad Griffin touring around his hometown in a video by Oxford American magazine at our website, npr.org. On this first day of the new year, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Happy New Year. This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
When we review a year just past, it's a tradition to round up the year's most important advances in science. But any such list may miss a subtlety. Many ideas that change the world do not spring from one flash of discovery.
NPR's Richard Harris reports that our understanding of nature and our technology often evolve.
RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE: Chances are, list makers will choose the discovery of the Higgs boson as the most important discovery of 2012. The Higgs is a long-sought building block of the universe. It finally put in an appearance at an accelerator in Europe. But Sam Arbesman, a scientist and mathematician at the Kauffman Foundation, says the discovery doesn't seem to be revolutionary.
SAM ARBESMAN: There are certainly a number of physicists who are actually a little disappointed. They were kind of hoping to find something a little bit different than what all the models predicted.
HARRIS: Instead, they got a discovery that mostly assures them the universe works pretty well the way they thought it did. So big news doesn't necessarily change the way we look at the world.
Arbesman and science historian Patrick McCray took a few minutes recently to talk about the nature of discoveries in science and technology. Their clean audio connections are, fittingly enough, courtesy of a recently invented iPhone app.
McCray, at the University of California Santa Barbara, says revolutionary discoveries don't necessarily announce themselves when they happen. Consider this story.
PATRICK MCCRAY: In 1988, two scientists, a Frenchman and a German, discovered a basic physics phenomenon known as giant magnetoresistance.
HARRIS: The discovery seemed so arcane, it didn't make a splash like the Higgs boson. But as it turns out, this phenomenon provided an extraordinarily powerful new way to get data on and off a magnetic disk.
MCCRAY: And became the basis for a multibillion-dollar market in computer hard drives.
HARRIS: A technology revolution, and eventually a Nobel Prize for the scientists. But Sam Arbesman says even this story distorts how science often progresses.
ARBESMAN: It's not necessarily true that we need to find these singular, big discoveries, because the truth is, the way we make discoveries is oftentimes based on the accumulation of a lot of smaller insights and smaller ideas and discoveries. And oftentimes, in the aggregate, those kinds of things - the things that we expect, or the things that we don't expect - are often what drive science.
HARRIS: One classic example of this is the observation that the Earth's surface is always rearranging itself, as continental plates drift around the globe. Patrick McCray says this theory, now called plate tectonics, was proposed in 1912.
MCCRAY: But it took decades for enough evidence to be accumulated to support the theory, and also for scientists to come around to the idea that the continents were moving.
HARRIS: That's now an indispensible way of understanding many things about our world - not just about what drives earthquakes, but how animal species came to be distributed around the planet. Arbesman says this kind of slow burn happens more often than you might think.
ARBESMAN: I think the laser, initially, in terms of a technology, was one of these great examples where it was a really cool thing, but I think no one had any idea what it could be used for. Now it's ubiquitous.
HARRIS: There's a lesson in that for Arbesman. It's not so easy to figure out what fields of science to fund in order to get breakthroughs in return.
ARBESMAN: The truth is we don't really have a good track record at predicting which ones are going to be relevant in the long term. And we want to make sure that we support the creation of knowledge. And to do that, we have to really make sure that we support everything all across the board.
HARRIS: That means, of course, most of the time, we will be supporting research that may fill in facts around the edges, but won't be revolutionary.
For Patrick McCray, one of the most notable trends in science this year wasn't a discovery at all. It has to do with how much the public accepts what scientists tell them.
MCCRAY: Debates over climate change, evolution, whether vaccines cause autism, things like that, all are part of the larger debates about the role and place of experts in American society.
HARRIS: McCray says Americans still accept that science is a way to learn truths, but people are less likely to trust scientists as objective experts.
MCCRAY: And I think it's certainly something that a decade from now, we might look back upon and find quite curious and, indeed, quite serious.
HARRIS: That trend affects how we make use of the discoveries that flow from science, so it also matters a lot.
Richard Harris, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some of the lowest-paid workers in this country will earn a little more starting today. The minimum wage is going up in 10 states including Rhode Island. This is today's Business Bottom Line. Here's Rhode Island Public Radio's Catherine Welch.
JULIO FONSECA: How are you doing, my friend?
CATHERINE WELCH, BYLINE: Cafe Zog in Providence is a cozy, quirky place where you can grab a coffee and bagel to go or nab a booth, then head to the counter to order a hot breakfast.
FONSECA: Morning. How you doing, my friend?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Can I have an egg white and a grilled veggie wrap?
WELCH: There are two colleges nearby, so cafe owner Julio Fonseca tends to hire students or recent grads.
FONSECA: They start at a minimum wage. After a few months, if they stay, we usually reward them according to their work ethics.
WELCH: Sydonia Lary has worked at the cafe long enough to get a bump in pay. As an artist working two hourly-wage jobs, she says it's difficult to make ends meet.
SYDONIA LARY: I mean, in this economy, everything is so expensive nowadays. And trying to pay rent and get groceries and whatever your mode of transportation may be and only making $7.40 an hour, it just doesn't really cut it.
WELCH: Rhode Island's hiking its minimum wage from that $7.40 to $7.75. For workers like Lary, this is good news - not so much for her boss.
FONSECA: Every time something goes up, we can't raise the prices, otherwise we're going to price ourselves out of the market. So it's very tough.
WELCH: Bill Vernon's with the National Federation of Independent Business, a group that tends to fight against wage hikes. He says higher wages will force businesses to refrain from hiring, and that will harm young workers looking for that entry-level job.
BILL VERNON: An increase in the minimum wage eliminates that low rung on the ladder that people can step on to get ahead.
WELCH: States can set their own minimum wage. There are some exceptions, but for the most part, the federal wage is the least someone can make. In the 10 states raising theirs today, nearly a million workers will benefit. Washington State has bumped its up to $9.19 an hour. That's almost two dollars more than in neighboring Idaho. T. William Lester is a regional economist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and part of a research team that looked at minimum wages along state lines.
T. WILLIAM LESTER: It's not like all the businesses that used to be in Washington State found it now way more worthwhile to relocate to Idaho and to take advantage of the lower minimum wage.
WELCH: In fact, the research team looked at every county that borders a state line and found that a rising minimum wage had no impact on employment. It actually cut costs by reducing turnover.
VERNON: And when you raise the minimum wage, you kind of are raising the bar.
WELCH: The National Federation of Independent Business' Bill Vernon says legislatures in some 40 states will look at raising their minimum wage this year. And lawmakers on Capitol Hill are kicking around the idea of bumping up the $7.25 federal minimum wage by about two dollars. Vernon says he could see Congress agreeing to a $1 raise, but that would take compromise - something that hasn't been around much in Washington these days. For NPR News, I'm Catherine Welch in Providence, Rhode Island.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Okay. Most of the world's population now lives in cities. Some live in mega cities, metropolitan areas of 10 million or more. And while many of those giant cities are shimmering centers of economic growth, some are also centers of corruption and violence and social unrest, places where many different kinds of people come together and open fire. Karachi, Pakistan just finished a year marked by sectarian killings, kidnappings and extortion.
Police say crime is growing more professional and more lethal and they think that maybe due to a new alliance between local militia groups in the Pakistani Taliban. Here's NPR's Dina Temple-Raston.
DINA TEMPLE-RASTON, BYLINE: The sad truth about Karachi today is that whatever your religion, your ethnicity or your political party, someone wants to kill you for it. And Zohra Yusuf, the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, says last year, killings were almost entirely about religion.
ZOHRA YUSUF: It's a good day for Karachi when there are only, let's say, five or so people killed, because on an average, it would be eight to 10. There are days of (unintelligible) you know, it goes beyond that.
TEMPLE-RASTON: 2,500 people died in violent crimes in Karachi in 2012. That's a 50 percent increase over the year before. And Yusuf says part of the reason is because religious extremist groups, local anti-Shia organizations, have joined forces with the Pakistani Taliban to devastating effect. Targeted killings used to just involved drive-by shootings, which was bad enough. Now there are car bombs and suicide vests.
Yusuf says the Taliban have spent time in Karachi before, but this time it's different. This time, they're staying.
YUSUF: They used to come here for rest and recreation when they were fighting, and they would come here for fundraising.
TEMPLE-RASTON: The new entrenchment is one of the things that worries Chaudhry Aslam, a senior counter-terrorism officer at the Crime Investigation Department of the Karachi Police. He's been a Taliban target. The group had sent suicide bombers to his office, to his home and almost succeeded in assassinating him last year.
CHAUDHRY ASLAM: (Through translator) It's not that there are a huge number of Taliban and they've somehow captured Karachi. But they are coming to meet with the local people and plan operations, and in some cases, when we haven't arrested them, they have succeeded in attacking the city.
TEMPLE-RASTON: He says the Pakistani Taliban slip into the city of 18 million in small hard-to-track cells. It's only been recently, Chaudhry said, that they've been able to confirm that the Pakistani Taliban is playing a role in the targeted killings in the city. Sectarian killers they've arrested have admitted that they were working with the terrorist group.
ASLAM: (Through translator) They told us that they had united with the Taliban in the name of jihad.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Aktari Beygum is a 65-year-old mother of eight. Her 20-year-old son, Shahzad, was a victim of sectarian violence. He and his friends went to protest against an anti-Shia march wearing what they usually wear, the traditional Shia dress, a black shawa(ph) chemise with a colorful piece of thread around their wrists. Beygum says she watched Shahzad's murder from her doorstep.
AKTARI BEYGUM: (Through translator) The protesters came and started shouting, Shias are kaffirs, Shia are infidels. And Shazad got so angry, he started pelting the protesters with stones.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Then, she said, a van appeared from nowhere and the men inside opened fire on her son. And in her words, he joined his imam.
BEYGUM: (Speaking foreign language)
TEMPLE-RASTON: He fell into her arms just before he died. No one was arrested for his killing. The judge said it was a riot, so no one person could be held responsible. On the other side of the city in a mixed neighborhood known as Arafat Town, Gul Mohammed Khan is sitting cross legged on the floor. He's a big man with a white beard down to his chest.
Although he's Sunni, the sectarian violence has touched his family as well. In the past two years, he has lost three sons to targeted killings. Two were gunned down in October and it all began with a threat.
GUL MOHAMMED KHAN: (Through translator) four guys told my brother, we've already killed two of your nephews, and we will kill them all.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Two days later, he says, men on motorcycles drove by the family shop and sprayed it with bullets. His 25-year-old son Abul Wahed was killed on the spot. His 30-year-old son Ismael was shot seven times but survived. Now, Khan says, he's raising his sons' children.
KHAN: (Through translator) Your loved ones are your loved ones. These were simple guys earning their livelihood honestly. It is too difficult to put into words. When I look at my grandchildren, I see my sons.
TEMPLE-RASTON: He has four sons left, but he has sent them all away. Karachi, he says, is too dangerous. Chaudhry, the Karachi police department's top terrorism cop, says they're trying. Police raided an area in Karachi known as mini Waziristan several months ago and found explosives and bunkers. But these operations are rare because police feel outgunned.
We're fighting them with limited resources, he said, and trying to tie the noose around their necks. The Taliban's role in the sectarian violence is only part of the picture. In order to fully understand what kind of year 2012 was for Karachi residents, you have to know about this.
(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE CALL IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
TEMPLE-RASTON: This is a real recording of an extortion call caught on a wire tap by the Karachi police last year.
(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE CALL IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
TEMPLE-RASTON: According to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce, phone calls like this one have rattled nearly every small business owner in the city. Last month, in one day, four remote control blasts were detonated within hours of each other in various parts of the city, destroying store fronts and a hotel. Two people were killed and 10 others hurt.
Authorities linked the attacks to extortionists. Anjum Nisar is the former president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and I asked him to estimate just how many extortion cases there were in Karachi last year. He didn't hesitate.
ANJUM NISAR: Thousands of cases, thousands.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Thousands of cases in every sector of the economy, from textiles to heavy industry. Nisar said the complaints about extortion began flowing into his office in 2008, but local authorities ignored the problem. Now, he says, they can't control it. Many of the gangsters now shaking down local businessmen are part of the establishment in Karachi. They represent the armed wings of Pakistan's political parties.
Originally, he said, they were all about keeping order in the neighborhoods and getting out the vote. Then they began to solicit political contributions. Eventually, they demanded them. He says the government needs to step in.
NISAR: It's the job of the government to curb or kill this menace, once and for all.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Karachi's Pakistan's commercial hub and the engine of its economy, so the trouble here ripples across the country, which is why the lawlessness worries more than just local officials. Economists say the law and order problem is knocking between two and three percentage points off Pakistani's overall GDP. What's more, the unending violence is creating a more psychic change. People in Karachi are genuinely scared.
Beygum, the Shia woman whose son died at the rally, says that she's always on edge, just waiting for something bad to happen. Her one remaining son, Syed Abbas Hussein, says the constant tension wears on everyone.
SYED ABBAS HUSSEIN: (Speaking foreign language)
TEMPLE-RASTON: If they have to kill us, he says, they should just do it all at once instead of one at a time. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News, Islamabad.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Now, let's keep talking about money. Each year, the nation's banks handle tens of millions of transactions and some of them are dirty. Some involve drug money, others involve companies doing secret deals with countries like Iran and Syria in defiance of trade sanctions. But as NPR's Carrie Johnson reports, if the Justice Department has its way, banks will be forced to change, to spot illegal transactions and blow the whistle before any money moves through the system.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Federal prosecutors have already collected more than $4 billion from some of the world's biggest financial institutions, banks charged with looking the other way when dirty money passed through their accounts. Carl Levin, a U.S. senator from Michigan, spent more than two years investigating those shady deals. Levin described his findings this way at a recent hearing.
SEN. CARL LEVIN: Wrongdoers can use U.S. dollars and U.S. wire transfers to commit crimes, arm terror groups, produce and transport illegal drugs, loot government coffers and even pursue weapons of mass destruction.
JOHNSON: Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer says stopping these kinds of crimes is the goal of the new push against money laundering.
LANNY BREUER: Certainly, one of the things we want to do is not just put criminals in jail, but we want to take away their ill-gotten gains; and we don't want to permit them to use our financial institutions to hide the money that they have stolen.
JOHNSON: The Justice Department is relying on a law called the Bank Secrecy Act. It requires financial institutions to be on the lookout for sketchy transactions. It's a 40-year-old law, but Justice just recently put more energy into enforcing it. Eugene Ludwig led the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in the Clinton years.
EUGENE LUDWIG: Willie Sutton, the bank robber, said - they asked him, why does he rob banks? And he said, because that's where the money is. And so why does the banking industry get involved in this? And it's because money flows, go through banks.
JOHNSON: Banks like HSBC, a British bank that agreed a few weeks ago to pay nearly $2 billion to settle money laundering allegations. Another British bank, Standard Chartered, was charged with handling money for companies tied to regimes in Iran, Sudan and Libya. Standard Chartered coughed up more than $200 million to settle those charges last month.
Then, there's the financial service known as MoneyGram. Its international reach comes across in this ad.
(SOUNDBITE OF AD)
JOHNSON: MoneyGram recently forfeited $100 million for overlooking widespread marketing scams by its agents. The scam artists preyed on senior citizens and other vulnerable people; 25 agents have been charged with crimes in that case. But Eugene Ludwig, the former currency official, says prosecutors and bank regulators can't catch all the fraud, so they're depending on the banks themselves to do a better job.
LUDWIG: Banks are not set up, historically - really - to be kind of quasi law-enforcement enterprises, which is really what the U.S. government's asking of them.
JOHNSON: Every time a financial institution makes a fix, criminals try to work around it. Ludwig calls it a cat-and-mouse game.
LUDWIG: Fair or not, it's what the government is demanding of our enterprises, and everybody has to face up to that reality, I think.
JOHNSON: Tom Perrelli is a former Justice Department official.
TOM PERRELLI: This area is similar to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act - which has been an area of focus for the Justice Department for some time - are areas where companies can unquestionably, comply with the law; but it requires training, and some constant supervision over personnel all across the world.
JOHNSON: If banks are going to comply, he says, bankers and their lawyers are going to have to do a lot more work this year. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Many of the nation's orchestras are hoping 2013 can mark a new beginning. Orchestras were once seemingly untouchable, but their financial problems piled up in 2012. There were strikes, lock-outs and bankruptcies. Minnesota Public Radio's Euan Kerr reports on the orchestras as they look to the future.
EUAN KERR, BYLINE: There's been little seasonal cheer in Minnesota's orchestra community.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Singing) Hey, music lover, don't let them break the band. Minnesota orchestra is the best band in the land.
KERR: Protests erupted after managements at both the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra locked out their musicians when they rejected contracts which cut salaries by tens of thousands of dollars and reduced the size of the orchestras. They're not alone, says Minnesota Orchestra President Michael Henson.
MICHAEL HENSON: Philadelphia, Detroit, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, St. Louis.
KERR: Both the Minnesota Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra face large deficits, caused by declining revenues, increased expenses and the lingering effects of the poor economy. So Henson says his ensemble needs to cut $6 million a year from its budget, and that means cutting musicians' salaries.
HENSON: That is an approach that most orchestras have sought to avoid over the years because, for the most part, they have sought to avoid the conflict that that produces.
KERR: Stanford economist Robert J. Flanagan published "The Perilous Life of Symphony Orchestras," a book based on his study of the finances of more than 60 top orchestras. He resists using the term tipping point, but he says the funding model for orchestras has always been problematic, and the economic downturn brought things to a head. Many communities established orchestras in the 1960s and '70s aided by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the philanthropic support of foundations and individuals. However, costs increased, and orchestras have become more dependent on those donations to keep ticket prices affordable. Flanagan says many orchestra boards also wanted to be generous to the musicians in the orchestras they loved.
ROBERT J. FLANAGAN: And, of course, there are two signatures on every collective bargaining agreement, so some of it reflects what the musicians push for, but some of it reflects what management seeks to sign off on. And it appears that over the years, many collective bargaining agreements have provided for more expense than the communities in which the symphonies are located can afford.
KERR: And this, according to Detroit Symphony music director Leonard Slatkin, leaves an important question to be answered by each community.
LEONARD SLATKIN: How are we going to balance the incredible skill of these musicians, the need for music in the different communities, and what is a very difficult time in this country economically?
KERR: However, there are some who say it's not all bleak in the orchestra world. Bruce Ridge leads ICSOM, the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians. He plays double bass with the South Carolina Symphony. He points to the New Jersey Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Houston Symphony, which have all had extremely successful fundraising years. He says the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. just negotiated a four-year contract, which included raises for musicians.
BRUCE RIDGE: The question really to be asked is not why some orchestras have had difficulty, but rather: How are the other orchestras that are doing so well, how have they succeeded?
KERR: That's a question which can only be answered one orchestra at a time. For NPR News, I'm Euan Kerr in St Paul.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
The Chicago-based Tribune Company, the corporate owner of the L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and 23 local TV stations, emerged from bankruptcy yesterday after a messy four-year process.
As NPR's David Folkenflik reports, Tribune's future may look very different from its newsy past.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: The company's new controlling owners are the investment firms Oaktree and Angelo Gordon, which bought out creditors at a reduced rate, and JPMorgan - the company's chief lender. They are expected to sell the papers when they can and to auction off some of the television stations.
The new board is stocked with Hollywood heavyweights and the former interim CEO of Yahoo - nary a news leader among them.
Business media analyst and consultant Kevin Doctor says that omission is no accident.
KEVIN DOCTOR: You look at this as an old fashioned game of monopoly. There are these brands that people know well.
FOLKENFLIK: Doctor runs the blog, Newsonomics.
DOCTOR: But the question is when they come out of bankruptcy and are owned by financial people, not by publishers or by TV people, what are they worth on the market?
FOLKENFLIK: The eight papers were collectively valued at $623 million dollars - less than it cost to acquire the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly Daily News six years ago.
Aides to Rupert Murdoch have signaled his interest in the L.A. Times, while Warren Buffett says he'd like to acquire the Allentown Morning Call.
Meanwhile, Tribune's future appears to lie in entertainment and cable television. The board member who is expected to lead the company formerly led Discovery and FX, and under him media may well mean everything but the newspapers that defined Tribune for decades.
DOCTOR: I think it's pretty clear that as Peter Liguori becomes the CEO, that this is a media company. So it may be called the Tribune Company but the Tribune nameplate and it really its reason for being out of the Chicago Tribune and the long history there, will pass into history.
FOLKENFLIK: For now, Tribune has no comment. David Folkenflik, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Along with decent finances, it takes a lot of talent and practice to play in an orchestra. The same goes for being able to make people laugh. And even some of the most brilliant comedians can have a hard time of it. Let's listen to the usually great Johnny Carson in one of his not-so-great moments on the "Tonight Show."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TONIGHT SHOW")
(LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: Carson's sidekick, Ed McMahon, had to laugh at that, but nobody else was required. Not knowing how a joke will go over is part of the exhilaration of being a comic. But imagine if comedians could get it right every time. Some Web-based startups are trying to figure out the algorithm for funny. Alex Schmidt reports.
ALEX SCHMIDT, BYLINE: Peter McGraw, director of the Humor Research Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder, is not fooling around.
PETER MCGRAW: This is not a place that has shelves and shelves of rubber chickens and whoopee cushions.
SCHMIDT: Actually, the lab is one of the first mainstream psychological attempts to study people's reactions to humor and how they can be used in the real world - in public service announcements, for example. McGraw says humor is notoriously tough to study.
MCGRAW: It's pretty easy to make people sad. But when it comes to humor, what one person finds funny, another person is offended, and yet another person is bored by it. And so to conduct this research really broadly ends up being difficult.
SCHMIDT: McGraw thinks figuring out the key to laughter could be used in the business world. He's advising a new startup called Laffster.
DANIEL ALTMANN: Log onto the app. It's showing you how to vote here.
SCHMIDT: I'm going to click through the directions. I'm testing the most recent Laffster mobile app with CEO Daniel Altmann. Kind of like Pandora recommends music or Netflix recommends movies, Laffster recommends comedy. The first video I click in the app is Joe Biden's appearance on the TV show "Parks and Rec."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "PARKS AND RECREATION")
SCHMIDT: I thought the clip was pretty funny, so I gave it a thumbs-up. Videos are defined by attributes, like sarcastic, demeaning, subtle or dirty. By noticing what I like, Laffster tries to recommend more movies, keep me laughing and keep me watching. Daniel Altmann wants to license out the technology, too.
ALTMANN: Can someone else plug in the Laffster technology and drive three times the amount of videos, three times the amount of ads watched and ultimately drive revenue? Because they're coming there, and they're interacting. They're engaging.
SCHMIDT: Other startups are trying to harness humor differently. Julia Kamin is founder of dating website Make Each Other Laugh, currently in beta. If two people on her site laugh at the same stuff, her software will send them on a date. There will be no joke categories or analysis at all. In fact, she doesn't want to understand the magic of why two people click through humor.
JULIA KAMIN: One of the things that gives us excitement in life is that there are things that are always going to be elusive, no matter how much we're able to crunch data.
SCHMIDT: Kamin quoted author E.B. White, who famously said that analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog: The frog dies, and who cares about its insides? Humor researcher Peter McGraw draws a different conclusion.
MCGRAW: I like to say that if frogs are like jokes, there's a lot of sick frogs out there.
SCHMIDT: And, McGraw says, if by dissecting frogs we can improve humor, then by all means, pass the scalpel. For NPR News, I'm Alex Schmidt.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene. Most of the time your health is a private matter between you and your doctor. But when you're Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it is hard not to provide some information.
INSKEEP: One day after a very brief statement about her medical condition, her doctors gave more details. They say a brain scan revealed a blood clot that was situated in the space between the brain and skull behind her right ear. She was admitted Sunday to New York Presbyterian Hospital, though doctors say they're confident she will make a full recovery. NPR's Joe Palca reports.
JOE PALCA, BYLINE: The secretary has been unwell for some weeks now. She had a stomach virus and while she was recovering from that she fainted and struck her head, resulting in a concussion. The clot she has is in something called the right transverse sinus. Sinuses are like gutters that drain blood from the brain to large veins. Those veins return the blood to the heart. The transverse sinus is just one of several sinuses in the head. The technical term for Secretary Clinton's condition is a right transverse sinus venous thrombosis. Lee Schwamm is vice chairman of neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He's not Secretary Clinton's doctor, but he's treated patients with her condition. So, what is a thrombosis of a sinus?
DR. LEE SCHWAMM: So, a thrombosis of a sinus is when that sinus backs up like a plugged gutter with leaves. In this case, with clot.
PALCA: Now, if the blood that backs up can't find another way to drain from the brain, there can be severe problems. But that does not seem to be the case with Secretary Clinton.
SCHWAMM: Most people have alternative places that blood like this could drain.
PALCA: Doctors treating Secretary Clinton say to help dissolve the clot, they have begun treating her with blood thinners. Schwamm says this is a process that will take some time.
SCHWAMM: Treatment would usually be for several months. Usually three months or so.
PALCA: Secretary's Clinton's doctors say she will be released from the hospital once they determine the proper dose for her medication, something that varies from person to person. Her doctors say they expect the secretary will make a complete recovery. Her condition is not like having a stroke, where there can be lasting or even permanent deficits in movement or thinking. According to her doctors, the secretary is in good spirits. She's been engaging with her medical team, her family and her staff. Joe Palca, NPR News, Washington.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Rounding out the holiday season, Kwanza comes to an end today. It's the only official African-American holiday. And it began at the height of the 1960s black nationalist movement; just one year after Malcolm X was assassinated, and the Watts riots ripped through Los Angeles.
But the generation that helped create Kwanzaa is growing older, and the holiday doesn't seem to hold the same significance for many younger African-Americans. Journalist Gene Demby recently joined NPR, to report on issues of race and ethnicity. We asked him about where he thinks Kwanzaa stands today.
Gene, I think this is your first time on the air. Welcome to the NPR family.
GENE DEMBY, BYLINE: Thanks for having me.
GREENE: So it sounds like really, in the beginning, it was all about black power.
DEMBY: In its early stages, it was. But pretty quickly, it was adopted by big corporations as kind of a shorthand for diversity in America and multiculturalism.
GREENE: Became kind of another Hallmark holiday, in a way?
DEMBY: Sort of. One of the recurring criticisms of Kwanzaa is that its corporate presence has outpaced its actual participation.
GREENE: Mm-hmm.
DEMBY: I spoke to Professor Keith Mayes at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, who - literally - wrote the book on Kwanzaa. What Mayes says is that Kwanzaa kind of neatly mirrors the evolution of black politics over the last half-century. He pegged the heyday of Kwanzaa in the late '80s, early '90s. And if you think about what's happening at that time, you have Public Enemy; you have people at black student unions, and universities across the country, who are advocating for divestment from South Africa. There are all kinds of things happening, like that. And the currents that made that moment possible, have kind of waned, right? So, at that time, you think of someone like Al Sharpton, who is a radical in a track suit...
GREENE: Yeah.
DEMBY: who now, in 2012, he is kind of a mainstream Democratic figure. And so a lot of the currents that helped make Kwanzaa into kind of a countercultural force, have waned a little bit.
GREENE: So who is celebrating Kwanzaa today?
DEMBY: When I posed the question to Twitter about whether people observed or not, one of the things that people kept saying was that their exposure to Kwanzaa was in either school assemblies or in churches; and once they kind of left those bases, they no longer adhere.
GREENE: So people were tweeting you back, to talk about Kwanzaa?
DEMBY: Yeah, a lot of people were. Everyone seemed to find that the principles that Kwanzaa celebrates - you know, self-reliance, creativity, unity - they seem to value those principles, even if they don't necessarily celebrate the rituals.
GREENE: You mentioned that as a child, you celebrated Kwanzaa in some ways. Tell me what role it played in your life, you know, growing up; and how you celebrate today, if you do.
DEMBY: In my Catholic Church growing up, there was a kinara near the advent wreath. Part of the ritual of the holiday is the candles for each of the principles of Kwanzaa. There are seven principles...
GREENE: OK.
DEMBY: ...and on every day, you light one of the candles. And so I think I was like a lot of kids in the '90s for whom Kwanzaa was kind of in the background - at least where I grew up. It didn't take a lot of primacy. A good friend of mine wrote a piece for theroot.com; in which she said that her family had tried for a while, to do Kwanzaa. And part of it is, you have to get over the kind of initial psychic barrier to something that is not part of the firmament of holiday celebrations.
GREENE: It takes a certain amount of energy to say: I'm going to try something different, and be different.
DEMBY: Right. I've been in places where people have been really sincere in their observance of Kwanzaa. But there are other places where I think a lot of people feel that people are trying to make Kwanzaa happen. And I think that's always a hurdle.
GREENE: And all this makes me wonder, what do you see as the future of the holiday? I mean, could it catch on, you know, more - again, or are we going to see it kind of wither away?
DEMBY: Well, Mayes - he's not pessimistic about Kwanzaa, but he feels that it's already plateaued. He feels that the heyday was firmly in the late '80s and early '90s; and that because the kind of political currents that made that moment possible have kind of dissipated, that there isn't the same kind of stuff fueling Kwanzaa's growth. You know, we have a black first family, but it's not clear if they celebrate it. It kind of exists in the background, and people kind of acknowledge its existence. But it doesn't have the kind of cultural primacy that it might have had maybe 20 years ago.
GREENE: So on the last day of Kwanzaa, would I say Happy Kwanzaa? Or what do...
DEMBY: I think you're supposed to say the name of the principle of the last day of Kwanzaa. I'm not sure what that Kwanzaa principle is. But I think Happy Kwanzaa is a sufficient response - or a sufficient salutation.
GREENE: Well, Happy Kwanzaa to you.
DEMBY: Happy Kwanzaa to you, too.
GREENE: Gene, thanks for coming by.
DEMBY: No problem.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENE: NPR's Gene Demby covers race and ethnicity. And by the way, we looked up that last day's Kwanzaa principle. It's imani, which means faith.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
On the first morning of 2013, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene.
The party went until the morning hours here in Washington. We're talking about the gathering on Capitol Hill. Senators were voting around 2:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
INSKEEP: They approved an agreement to alter the higher taxes and spending cuts that become law today. The House would have to agree to these changes to become reality. And after the plan passed the Senate overwhelmingly, 89-8, the House resumes business today.
GREENE: The agreement has the backing of the White House. It would shield all but the very wealthiest Americans from automatic tax increases. Across-the-board spending cuts would also be postponed for at least two months.
INSKEEP: Here's NPR's Scott Horsley.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: The tentative deal was hammered out with numerous telephone calls between Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. The two men have years of negotiating history in the Senate. By midday yesterday, they'd come to terms on the most contentious issue, agreeing to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the vast majority of Americans.
At the White House, President Obama surrounded himself with middle income supporters, calling on lawmakers to finish the job.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: For now our most immediate priority is to stop taxes going up for middle-class families, starting tomorrow. I think that is a modest goal that we can accomplish. Democrats and Republicans in Congress have to get this done, but they're not there yet.
HORSLEY: Even as he tried to win over reluctant Republicans, Mr. Obama also had to contend with defecting Democrats. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin says if the Biden/McConnell plan is meant to be the rescue package, he'd rather take his chances with the fiscal cliff.
SENATOR TOM HARKIN: As I've said before, no deal is better than a bad deal, and this looks like a very bad deal the way this is shaping up.
HORSLEY: Harkin complains the White House went too far in accommodating Republicans, making Bush-era tax cuts permanent not just for the middle class, but for households making up to $450,000. That's a windfall for the wealthy, who Mr. Obama has long said need to pay more in taxes. Even the president's preferred cut-off of $250,000 is more than generous enough for the Iowa Democrat.
HARKIN: If you make $250,000 a year, you're not middle-class; you're in the top two percent of income earners in America. Have we forgotten that the average income earners in America are making 25, 30, 40, 50, 60 thousand dollars a year? That's the real middle-class in America.
HORSLEY: The tentative deal, which also includes higher estate, dividend and capital gains taxes, would raise an estimated $620 billion in new revenue over the next decade. That's less revenue than the president wanted and less than he could collect automatically from wealthy households by simply going over the cliff.
In exchange, the White House did win a one-year extension of unemployment benefits and a five-year extension of several tax credits that benefit the working class. Mr. Obama acknowledged this deal falls short of the grand deficit-cutting bargain he was trying to negotiate with House Speaker John Boehner. But he says he's willing to tackle the problem one step at a time.
OBAMA: We're going to still have more work to do. We still have deficits that have to be dealt with. We're still going to have to think about how we put our economy on a long-term trajectory of growth.
HORSLEY: In addition to a deal on taxes, negotiators struggled with how to avoid big spending cuts also set to take effect this week. Neither party likes those cuts which hit nearly every area of government, except health care. But they disagreed on how to replace them. At one point yesterday, McConnell argued for merely pocketing the tax deal and saving the spending discussion for another day.
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Let's take what's been agreed to and get moving. We all want to protect taxpayers and we can get it done now.
HORSLEY: Instead, McConnell and the White House agreed to postpone the spending cuts for a mere two months. That means Congress could be wrestling with the cuts again right around the time the government is bumping up against the debt ceiling. Mr. Obama insists he won't negotiate with Republicans over raising the debt limit. But critics complain his concession on taxes will only embolden the GOP for a showdown that could do far more lasting damage to the economy than the fiscal cliff.
While Republicans say any increase in the debt ceiling must be matched by equivalent spending cuts, the president says he'll continue to push for more tax revenue.
OBAMA: If we're going to be serious about deficit reduction and debt reduction, then it's going to have to be a matter of shared sacrifice - at least as long as I'm president, and I'm going to be president for the next four years...
(APPLAUSE)
HORSLEY: As 2013 begins, it appears those could be four more years of fiscal brinksmanship. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
It has been a busy year in Mexico's war on drugs. The administration of former President Felipe Calderon struck major blows to the country's largest cartels, slowing the violence that has claimed more than 50,000 lives.
But the new president, Enrique Pena Nieto, says he'll change tactics. He wants to go after the crime associated with drug trafficking instead of taking down crime bosses. His new attorney general says this is the right strategy, since the number of crime gangs working in the country has grown significantly.
Here's NPR's Carrie Kahn.
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Mexican anti-drug officials nabbed some of the country's top kingpins last year. They got a key Sinaloa cartel lieutenant who had radically altered his appearance with plastic surgery, several capos of the ultra-violent Zeta cartel, and arrested a top leader of the now-weakened Gulf Cartel. Out of 39 on its most-wanted List, the Calderon administration got 12.
But despite the headlines and accolades accompanying each arrest, Mexico's new President Enrique Pena Nieto says the kingpin strategy is not for him. He prefers going after the extortionists, kidnappers and street criminals that he says terrorize innocent Mexicans.
(SOUNDBITE OF WEB VIDEO)
KAHN: Highlights from a recent speech outlining his new anti-drug violence plan were set to music and posted on the official presidential website.
(SOUNDBITE OF WEB VIDEO)
KAHN: We will all work together to bring peace to Mexico, says Pena. He quickly dismantled the previous administration's Public Security ministry and transferred national crime coordination to the Interior Department. And he says he will form a 10,000-strong national police force, although he hasn't given a specific start date.
On national radio two weeks ago, his newly-appointed Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam kept up the attack on the previous administration. Murillo said the kingpin strategy may have removed the leaders of some cartels, but it just created smaller, more violent factions. Murillo then stunned many by saying 60 to 80 crime cartels now operate in the country.
ATTORNEY GENERAL JESUS MURILLO KARAM: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: This has just brought more fragmentation and more brutality, says Murillo.
However, not everyone was stunned by the much higher cartel figure. Jorge Chabat of Mexico's Center for Research and Teaching in Economics says the former administration was aware its strategy would create small gangs. They just didn't publicize a number.
JORGE CHABAT: I ask you what is worse: To have big criminal violent organizations, or small criminal violent organizations? I think it is bad in both ways, though.
KAHN: He says the incoming Pena administration would have criticized its predecessor no matter what. And he adds despite Pena's attempts to distance himself from the strategy of the past six years, his new 10,000-man national police force will also rely heavily on the military.
John Burton of the Stratfor Intelligence Group doesn't see much difference between the two administration's strategies, either, although he was impressed with the attorney general's recent public comments.
JOHN BURTON: There's better intelligence collection on what's actually taking place, which gives you some visibility into what's occurring. I think that's positive.
KAHN: But Burton says what officials do with that information will be key. He says coordination between local, state and federal forces is a perennial problem, as is corruption, which will inevitably be President Pena's biggest crime-fighting challenge in 2013.
Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Mexico City.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
NPR business news starts with record prices at the pump.
You may already have a sense of this from your bank statement, but now AAA has confirmed that the average price of a gallon of gasoline hit a record in 2012. The group says the national average for the year was $3.60. That is nine cents higher than the average in 2011, which was the previous record. For 2013, AAA thinks increased domestic oil production will help keep prices lower.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Today's last word in business is old news.
The postal service famously vows that neither snow nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night will stop its carriers from their appointed rounds. But the postal creed does not say how long that will take.
The other day, the mail carrier made a delivery to the Scranton Times-Tribune. It was a calendar, a gift from the publicity department of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Maybe you're aware the Pennsylvania Railroad has been out of business for decades. It was a calendar from 1950. It is unknown what caused the 63-year delay in delivery.
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Happy New Year.
Let's start with the upside. Congress has yet to rattle the financial markets so far in 2013.
GREENE: Of course, the markets are closed on this New Year's Day, as the House considers a deal on taxes and spending. The Senate has already approved that plan by a huge majority.
INSKEEP: It would raise taxes on the wealthy, extend the tax cuts for everybody else, and temporarily put off the big spending cuts that are due later this year.
NPR's John Ydstie is with us to talk through this deal, what it means for all of us. John, good morning.
JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve. Happy New Year.
INSKEEP: Thank you very much. OK, so it is January 1st, they have not changed the rules -tax laws or spending laws - which means technically we've gone over the fiscal cliff. How's it feel in the air here?
YDSTIE: Well, technically the Bush tax cuts expired at midnight, that's true, along with some Obama era tax cuts. But most of those tax cuts are reinstated by this deal so the effects are minimal. In addition, it's New Year's Day, as you said, the markets around the world are closed so there's no danger of markets going off the rails, as the House debates this.
INSKEEP: As the House debates, yeah.
YDSTIE: Right. As for the hundred and $110 billion in spending cuts that were part of the fiscal cliff, this deal would push that deadline off for two months setting up yet another battle. At the same time, the Congress and the president will once again be required to raise the debt ceiling - so look for another fight in two months.
INSKEEP: Well, wait. The debt ceiling, so they've avoided this opportunity to implode the economy, but they have better chances up ahead.
YDSTIE: Exactly.
INSKEEP: OK, we'll look forward to that. But meanwhile, there is this deal which the House we expect will take up today, consider today. They haven't promised to vote for it but they're going to consider today. What would it do to everybody's taxes if it becomes law?
YDSTIE: Well, honestly, the biggest effect is that the Bush era tax cuts will be extended for all individuals with incomes below $400,000 and households below $450,000.
INSKEEP: OK.
YDSTIE: But taxpayers above those levels would see their top tax rates go to 39.6 percent for their earned income over those amounts. The deal also calls for high income people to pay higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains - the profits they make on the sale of stocks and other assets. That rate would rise from 15 percent, where it is now, to 20 percent.
INSKEEP: I want to ask you about something, John Ydstie. The president campaigned in the 2012 election on raising taxes or letting taxes go back up on the wealthy. He defined as people earning more than $250,000 a year. You just said 400, $450,000 a year, whether you're single person or a couple. That's a different benchmark.
YDSTIE: Yeah, obviously the president did compromise. But the deal does call for individuals above $250,000, and households above $300,000, to take a bit of a hit. That's because tax credits and tax deductions for things like mortgages, just would be phased out, starting at those income levels.
INSKEEP: OK, so they'll pay a little more...
YDSTIE: Right.
INSKEEP: ...depending on who you are and exactly what your tax return has set. Now, below $250,000, does nothing change from 2012?
YDSTIE: To a large extent, no - nothing changes. Tax rates on earned income will remain where they were last year. The tax rates those folks paid, below $250,000 on dividends and capital gains, remains at 15 percent. And middle-class folks won't be threatens any longer by the Alternative Minimum Tax, which actually treats them as if they were rich - that's been patched, permanently.
there are also a number of tax credits, enacted under President Obama, largely favoring lower income people, that will be extended for five years by this deal, including college tax breaks, enhanced child and earned income tax credits as well.
INSKEEP: OK, but there's also the matter of the payroll taxes that millions of Americans pay that support Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. There's been a brake on those the last couple of years. What happens to that now?
YDSTIE: Right, the idea was to keep money in people's pockets so they could spend it to stimulate the economy. But now we'll go back to paying the full 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax on annual earnings of $113,000. That's two percent more than we paid last year. For taxpayers who make $50,000 a year, it means their take-home pay, over the course of 2013, will be a thousand dollars less.
INSKEEP: OK. So the payroll tax break goes away. Now, what about the estate tax, taxes on inheritance, which they were also negotiating?
YDSTIE: Well, this deal keeps the threshold for estate taxes at $5 million for individuals and $10 million for couples, but the tax rate on estates above those values will go up from 35 to 40 percent.
INSKEEP: OK, so that changes.
YDSTIE: And another very important part of this deal is that unemployment benefits have been extended for two million of the long term unemployed who would have lost their benefits at the end of January.
INSKEEP: Let me just mention that those long term unemployed are left over from the last recession. There was fear that the fiscal cliff could lead to another recession. Have they changed things enough, very briefly, John, for a recession to be avoided here?
YDSTIE: I think they probably have, Steve, but this deal doesn't do very much to reduce long term deficits.
INSKEEP: Which was the other problem they were discussing. John, thanks.
YDSTIE: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's John Ydstie.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Imagine getting ready to vote in an election and having no idea what the parties stand for or even who's running for which party. Well, that's close to the reality in Israel, where the political stakes are always high. Parliamentary elections are in just three weeks but a series of dizzying political maneuvers has left voters confused. Sheera Frenkel reports.
SHEERA FRENKEL, BYLINE: A couple of weeks ago, this advertisement by the left-wing Meretz Party went viral.
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FRENKEL: In it, a group of old men talk about how they will vote in Israel's upcoming election. Here, one of them is saying, I'll vote for that one woman if I can just figure out what party she's in. His friends fumble the various political party names and then conclude: what does it matter? They're all the same. In the months leading up to the January 22nd vote, Israeli politicians from a myriad of political parties have swapped and shifted alliances at a dizzying rate, leaving many Israeli voters unsure of who they are voting for. Michal Voll, a psychologist in Tel Aviv, says that many Israelis are still unclear what the parties stand for or what differentiates them.
MICHAL VOLL: People here are very tired, you know, of hearing about, and it all sounds like the same kind of mumbo-jumbo stuff. And so I think the parties need to say something. I mean, some of them haven't really even said anything.
FRENKEL: In Israel, there are no set debates or platforms where parties can hammer out their positions on various issues. Each party constructs its own campaign, and runs as a list. At the top of that list is the party's candidates for prime minister. Polls consistently show sitting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party winning a majority of the votes in a strengthened right-wing alliance. The same polls show dwindling support for Israel's longstanding left wing movements, including Meretz and the Labor Party. Amnon Krakotzkin, professor of Jewish history at Ben Gurion University, says that some in Israel are abandoning what he calls the old-fashioned left-wing in favor of new parties - some of them surprising.
AMNON KRAKOTZKIN: I think in these elections you will find more Israeli Jews supporting the Arab parties.
FRENKEL: A handful of political groups representing Israel's Arab citizens have long had a few seats in the Israeli parliament but have failed to draw the support of left-wing Israelis. But this year, a new party called Da'am has gained momentum with a joint list of Jews and Arabs fighting for socioeconomic changes. It is headed by Asmaa Agbarieh-Zahalka, a young mother and political activist.
CROWD: (Singing in foreign language)
FRENKEL: In this campaign ad, video of the Arab Spring movements in Egypt and Tunisia plays in the background as Asmaa says that Israelis and Palestinians need to join the region in revolution. Zahalka says that what makes her party unique is that it draws support from all sectors of society.
ASMAA AGBARIEH-ZAHALKA: Arabs and Jews and Russians, all kind of sectors that used to vote as sectors and in this election decided that they want to bring a change to bring peace and to bring social change.
FRENKEL: She says that until now Israel's left has consisted of groups like the Labor Party, that have become more centrist in their views, and of Meretz which she calls bourgeois and disconnected from the people.
AGBARIEH-ZAHALKA: I think that there is a sort of desert. There is no left in the meaning of being with the workers, being with the people. The people feel that they are alone.
FRENKEL: She says her party has gained momentum but it's not easy to be a new movement in Israel. Then she laughs, adds that the old movements have already confused people enough with their swapping and switching. What Israel needs now, she says, is to start with a clean slate. For NPR News, I'm Sheera Frenkel.
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Good morning, I'm David Greene.
Democracy sure works in mysterious ways. In Seguin, Texas, a December city council election ended in a dead tie. Both candidates received 141 votes. So it was up to the mayor to settle things. The law gave him some options: drawing straws or tossing dice. He chose an old coin toss. The silver dollar landed, it was tails, and immediately Jeannette Crabb was sworn into a four-year term. She's coming to office with quite a mandate.
It's MORNING EDITION.
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Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep. Americans enjoy freedom of speech. Michigan's Lake Superior State University just wishes we wouldn't abuse it so much. The school issued its annual list of annoying expressions to ban. The list includes: trending, bucket list, kick the can down the road and spoiler alert. The top phrase to ban is: fiscal cliff, but spoiler alert - once that phrase is gone we may face some new phrase describing the next political mess.
It's MORNING EDITION.
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This New Year could mean a new cost for the craft store chain Hobby Lobby. The federal health care law requires employee insurance plans to cover emergency contraceptives. Hobby Lobby's owners did not want to do that. They say drugs commonly known by names like the morning-after pill are tantamount to abortion.
Now, the Supreme Court has turned aside Hobby Lobby's request to block the mandate. So, starting today, the company could be fined as much as $1.3 million per day for defying the law.
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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene.
We have the outline of a tax-and-spending deal approved overnight by the Senate. It passed shortly after the fiscal cliff deadline, when higher taxes and spending cuts formally took effect. Under this plan, taxes would go up for wealthy Americans, generally meaning individuals making more than $400,000.
INSKEEP: They would stay the same for everybody else. Scheduled spending cuts have been put off for a couple of months to allow more negotiation, and now this deal goes to the House of Representatives, where Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma is Republican deputy whip, a member of the leadership. And he's on the line.
Congressman, welcome back to the program.
REPRESENTATIVE TOM COLE: Hey. It's great to be with you.
INSKEEP: Is this a good deal?
COLE: Yes, it is. You know, from a, you know, standpoint of the American people, it gives them tax certainty. It protects almost every single American from a major tax increase. You know, like every other deal, people could quibble with the individual items, but I think given the alternatives, this is not only an excellent deal - it, you know, is something, honestly, Republicans can be pleased with. It's a compromise on both sides, and I don't think it's going to have a difficult time getting passed.
INSKEEP: Well, people who have been closely following this have known that you have called for Republicans approving something a little like this for quite some time. Other members of the House of Representatives have been more skeptical, though. As somebody who has to count the votes, are there the votes for this plan in the House Representatives?
COLE: I really believe there are. We haven't done a formal whip count today. We'll have a conference at 1 o'clock this afternoon. But, again, this is a pretty big win. And we have to remember, obviously, that Democrats will be bringing a considerable number of votes to the table, as well, because it is an agreement between the two parties. So I really don't anticipate too much of a problem.
INSKEEP: And if you did a big wing of the Republican conference, the Republican side of the aisle who rejected this, you would not refuse to bring it to the floor?
COLE: No, I don't think so at all. That's, again, my opinion. I've not talked to the speaker or anybody in leadership, but you look at the parameters of this deal, and it's a very good deal, in my opinion. From a Republican standpoint, it makes, you know, it makes 80-plus, close to 90 percent of the Bush tax cuts permanent for, you know, 98-plus percent of the American people. That's something we couldn't do when George Bush was president and we had both houses of Congress. So - and the alternative, of course, would be a tax increase on everyone. So I don't see why in the world most Republicans wouldn't vote for this. I think we'll get a very strong majority.
INSKEEP: And do you think - given that it is New Years Day, that the fiscal cliff deadline has already passed and that the financial markets will open tomorrow - do you think you need to get this done today?
COLE: Well, in my opinion, yes. You know, I think when you actually arrive at a deal and the Senate's acted, honestly, the longer you leave a deal sitting on the table, the more somebody finds something that they don't like. And so this is one of those cases where I think speed is a virtue. And I do think that markets are a factor in this consideration, as well.
INSKEEP: One other thing, Congressman Cole: This is a smaller deal than some people had talked about, as you know very well. And the spending cuts that are taking effect legally today, they have been put off under this deal, but not ended. They have not been replaced or reworked in any way. And, of course, there's a battle over the debt ceiling looming in the next couple of months. Are the bigger battles actually ahead, here?
COLE: They actually are, Steve. You know, I think you've put your finger right on the problem. Republicans have argued all along this is a spending problem. This is, you know, something that's going to take spending cuts and take entitlement reform. I think those things are clearly on the table. And honestly, from a Republican standpoint, you're in a much stronger position now, because the tax issue is off the table. It's basically been settled. And the only other place for revenue, from the president's perspective, would be a major overhaul of the entire tax code - something we need to do, something we want to work on with the president. But, you know, the chances of raising taxes now on anybody anytime soon, absent some sort of deal that lowers rates as it eliminates deductions, is really nil.
INSKEEP: Do House Republicans believe it would be responsible to use the debt ceiling, the federal debt limit as leverage to negotiate and pressure the president, as happened in 2011?
COLE: Well, they think the debt ceiling is something that ought to be approached and appropriated. Look, just willy-nilly raising the debt limit, when you're running trillion-dollar deficits - and we've done that for four consecutive years - that, I think, is the irresponsible thing. You've got to force the country to the table - the Democrats to the table - in terms of: What are the tough decisions we're going to make on spending?
So, you know, the Boehner rule, which is we're certainly willing to raise the debt ceiling, but we want to offset with long-term cuts or reforms of comparable or more money I think will probably apply in this case.
INSKEEP: And just in a couple of seconds: Are Republicans still going to be fighting for more defense spending? Because those big defense cuts are still scheduled to take effect in a couple months.
COLE: Well, we're going try and defend, I think, as many defense as they can. We've already cut defense spending by about a half-a-trillion dollars over the next decade, and there's literally going to be 75,000 fewer soldiers, 20,000 fewer Marines - I can go through the statistics for you - within five years. So we've already had a round of cuts. I think more cuts would be irresponsible. And, frankly, that's one way the president, also, is concerned, as commander-in-chief. He's not looking for a smaller military than he's already got.
INSKEEP: All right. Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, as a pleasure. Thanks.
COLE: Thank you.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
One of the quickest ways to fight malaria is to kill mosquitoes which spread it. While many people ponder how to do that, some scientists pursue the opposite goal, finding better ways to cultivate mosquitoes so researchers can study them.
NPR's Jason Beaubien caught up with a malaria researcher who passionately tends a colony of mosquitoes in Thailand.
JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE: Chiara Adolina refers to her mosquitoes affectionately as my girls. Because only female mosquitoes transmit malaria, this malaria researcher is far more interested in the females in her colony than the males.
CHIARA ADOLINA: The female mosquitoes bite just because they need the proteins of blood to make the shell of their eggs. So they're pregnant ladies.
(SOUNDBITE OF BUZZING)
BEAUBIEN: As she's speaking, she extends her arm into a mosquito cage giving the insects, in her words, breakfast. Several dozen mosquitoes spread across her forearm and jam their proboscises into her skin.
ADOLINA: Can you see how fat they become? Look at the tummy.
BEAUBIEN: Adolina is raising this colony of mosquitoes at the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, a remote research post on the Thai/Myanmar border. Her spotlessly clean laboratory is kept at a steady 28 degrees Centigrade. The mosquitoes buzz about in file-box sized cages.
So if they don't eat off of you, they won't lay the eggs?
ADOLINA: They will die probably, yeah. That's why when you see mosquitoes and they really want to bite you, it's not because they're hungry. They really need to lay the eggs so they need their blood meal.
BEAUBIEN: Most of the mosquitoes on her arm now have dark swollen bellies, but they're still trying to probe into her skin some more.
ADOLINA: Sometimes - now they're feeding. Sometimes they get - look, they're all fed. But now there will come others. They feed maybe five minutes. But some of them, they're just trying to find the capillary. They just go around and it takes longer.
BEAUBIEN: A few minutes after the mosquitoes have filled themselves on Adolina's blood, most of the bite marks on her skin have disappeared. She says her body has gotten used to the bites and they hardly itch any more.
In addition to her cages of adult mosquitoes, the Italian scientist has to tend to the creatures during the egg, the larvae and pupae stages too.
ADOLINA: The - well, I work on malaria transmission. So I study the biology of the parasite of malaria inside the mosquito.
BEAUBIEN: She's working with a drug that tries to kill the parasite inside people during an asymptomatic stage of the infection, at a time when the person hasn't yet shown signs of being sick. The goal is to stop the parasite from moving back and forth between humans and mosquitoes.
ADOLINA: But...
(SOUNDBITE OF A SIGH)
ADOLINA: ...it's a clever parasite. It's really clever, really, really clever - so there's always a way to escape or to survive. You know?
BEAUBIEN: While working in Britain a few years ago, Adolina was able to feed her mosquitoes on reheated rabbit's blood from a blood bank. Here in Thailand however she has mosquitoes that will only dine on live human blood.
ADOLINA: Mosquitoes in Asia are really, really difficult to rear, really difficult; very delicate, very spoiled. If you put them in a cage, they won't mate.
BEAUBIEN: Which means she has to artificially inseminate each tiny female in the colony.
ADOLINA: It's very difficult. It takes lots of time.
(LAUGHTER)
BEAUBIEN: All this so that she's able to study these mosquitoes and the potentially deadly parasites inside them.
Jason Beaubien, NPR News.
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Now, politics aside, the Pentagon has been struggling to build evermore sophisticated weapons at an affordable cost. And the classic example is an airplane we'll talk about next.
The F-35 is supposed to be cost-effective, a plane so versatile it works for the Air Force, the Navy, the Marines. But it's become the most expensive military procurement program in history.
The plane is now in the sky, and NPR's Larry Abramson has the first of two reports.
LARRY ABRAMSON, BYLINE: On a cold fall morning at Eglin Air Force Base near Pensacola, Florida, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Lee Kloos watches a fellow pilot prepare an F-35 for launch. Kloos loves the technology, from the advanced helmet that lets him see in the dark, to the stealth technology that lets him hide from radar. Some of that stealth design is built right into the smooth shape of the plane.
LT. COL. LEE KLOOS: When he closes these weapon bay doors, everything is going to clean up really nicely on this jet, whereas compared down there to the F-16, he's hanging external tanks, and of course, if he had weapons, he'd be hanging external weapons all over the aircraft. So, a very clean, slick jet to fly.
ABRAMSON: Weapons and fuel are kept in internal bays, so there are no sharp edges or bumps that will show up on radar. The military says stealth is key to dealing with future threats and to staying ahead of the Chinese and the Russians. For years, pilots like Kloos have relied on the un-stealthy F-16, the workhorse of the fighter fleet. But the F-16 is long in the tooth, and the U.S. has not bought any new copies for years. So the F-35 is supposed to pick up its mission: enforcing no-fly zones or supporting special ops teams.
(SOUNDBITE OF JET ENGINES)
ABRAMSON: The pilot starts the plane's single engine and hits the runway for a training run.
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ABRAMSON: But despite its sleek profile, the F-35 is loaded down with problems.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: VPS-13, we're going to keep all air space, no birdbaths. And that's it. Anything for me?
ABRAMSON: In a control room, pilots in green jumpsuits check on the weather near Eglin. The military is eager to show off this plane, to show that it's not just a flying money pit. But even though the F-35 is in the air, it still faces years of testing before it can go into battle. Major Matt Johnson explains that his pilots are still working on the instruction manual.
MAJ. MATT JOHNSON: We know how we think the jet should take off, what we've seen from developmental tests. But what we're trying to do is codify that and put it in writing, and write those publications that, in previous jets, were already written by the time you get to training. Well, we're doing that here.
ABRAMSON: Thanks to a strategy known as concurrency, the F-35 is being flown and tested at the same time. Concurrency was supposed to speed up the F-35's development, but the jet is years late. Lockheed has been locked in arguments with the Pentagon over who should pay for the fixes that are needed as test pilots work out the kinks. A big selling point for this plane is that it's supposed to satisfy pilots from the Air Force, the Marines and the Navy. They've all relied on a roster of up to 10 aircraft to land on carriers, do aerial combat and conduct surveillance. Major Adam Levine says for Marine fliers like himself, the F-35 is supposed to replace three different planes.
MAJ. ADAM LEVINE: The F-18 Hornet, the AV-8B Harrier and the Prowler jamming airplane that the Marine Corps currently employs.
ABRAMSON: But to do that, manufacturer Lockheed had to mess with the sleek shape of this plane and add a special feature. Major Levine walks me over to the Marine version, which sports a noticeable bump behind the cockpit. That's the home of a powerful fan.
LEVINE: That fan, in turn, provides the necessary thrust and lift when the aircraft performs the short takeoff and vertical landing.
ABRAMSON: Vertical landings let the jet land like a helicopter and let it take off on short runways - critical functions for the Marines. But that bump also makes the plane less stealthy, and it's added greatly to the cost. The Marine version of the plane is nearly a third more expensive than the Air Force variant. And trying to hide a tailhook for carrier landings inside the Navy version has also been a problem.
LT. COL. TODD LAFORTUNE: (unintelligible) out there.
ABRAMSON: Lieutenant Colonel Todd LaFortune walks away from his plane after a training run. He's still wearing his pressure suit and is a little flushed from his flight. LaFortune is now qualified to be an F-35 instructor. He'll never fly an old F-16 again.
LAFORTUNE: We decided once you start flying the F-35, we're not going to be dual-qualified. So now, I should be done with the F-16 for the rest of my life. That was a sad day, but it's one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life was being selected to come fly this aircraft and then get to actually fly it now. It's pretty neat.
ABRAMSON: That transition is emblematic of what the military is going through. Here at Eglin, they're building everything, from new training facilities to maintenance hangars to prepare for their share of the more than 2,000 planes the U.S. military plans to buy. The Pentagon is wedded to this plane, despite cries from many that the Joint Strike Fighter will break the bank and steal money from the rest of the defense budget. Later today, why some critics think the F-35 must be cancelled. Larry Abramson, NPR News.
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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene. Good morning.
With all the political battles, it's easy to forget sometimes that Congress is a place where people work together and get to know each other. And each new Congress means welcoming fresh faces and saying goodbye to long time members.
The 113th Congress, which convenes tomorrow, will be the first one in 40 years without California Democratic Congressman Pete Stark. He was defeated in November by a fellow Democrat.
As NPR's Julie Rovner reports, he leaves a long-lasting mark on the nation's health care system.
JULIE ROVNER, BYLINE: Just how influential has Pete Stark been in his four decades when it comes to health policy? Very, says John Rother. He's president and CEO of the National Coalition on Health Care, a nonpartisan group working to improve the nation's health care system.
JOHN ROTHER: He's been part of almost every piece of health legislation that's been enacted, including the Affordable Care Act. And many of the changes and improvements in Medicare trace to him as well.
ROVNER: Stark himself singles out two pieces of legislation of which he's particularly proud, both from the 1980s.
REPRESENTATIVE PETE STARK: I guess in terms of results, COBRA, 40 million people probably have used it. That and EMTALA. Those two are major changes in the health delivery system.
ROVNER: COBRA is the 1986 law that allows people to remain on their employer's health insurance plans after they leave their job, as long as they pay the full premium. EMTALA is the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. It requires hospitals that participate in Medicare or Medicaid to see and stabilize anyone who shows up in their emergency rooms regardless of their insurance status.
California Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, who's worked with Stark for 38 of the past 40 years, says EMTALA is a much bigger deal than many people realize.
REPRESENTATIVE HENRY WAXMAN: Imagine what it would be like in this country if somebody was bought into an emergency room, and because they didn't have insurance they were just turned away to bleed to death in the streets.
ROVNER: What exactly made Stark such an effective legislator? It certainly hasn't his manner. In fact, says John Rother, Stark's mouth has long had a penchant for getting him in trouble.
ROTHER: Pete is a combination of a person who speaks his mind - sometimes before thinking things through - but who actually does the work and has got the legislative record to prove it. So while he gets people exasperated with occasional off-the-cuff remarks, when you look at the work that's been produced under his name, it's truly impressive.
ROVNER: Some of the things Stark has had to apologize for include calling former GOP Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan, who was black, a quote, "disgrace to his race," and suggesting former Connecticut Republican Representative Nancy Johnson learned about health via, quote, "pillow talk," because her husband was a doctor.
But for all his partisan jabs, Stark had an almost legendary working relationship with Ohio Congressman Bill Gradison, who was the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. Most of the time Stark was chairman.
STARK: Never once did we report a bill out of that subcommittee that he and I did not both co-sponsor and end up supporting on the floor.
ROVNER: Gradison, now teaching at Duke University's business school, says Stark went out of his way to be cooperative.
BILL GRADISON: At the beginning of every year, he and I and our senior staffs would sit down, talk about the issues that we anticipated would be coming up in that next year and talk about potential subjects for hearings and potential witnesses, and there was a lot of give and take.
ROVNER: But first and foremost, says Congressman Waxman, Stark spent most of his career fighting for the Medicare program his subcommittee oversaw.
WAXMAN: He devoted his career to Medicare, making sure it worked, beneficiaries were protected. We got the best we could for money we were spending, and to avoid spending money that wasn't going to directly help people who are in the Medicare program.
ROVNER: And what will Stark miss most when he leaves Congress? He says it's getting up and looking in the mirror every morning.
STARK: And say, hey, I'm going to do something today that's going to make life better for somebody. And that's pretty - when I was a banker I get up in the morning and say, whose car am I going to repossess or whose house am I going to foreclose? And that didn't start you out on a very nice approach for the rest of the day.
ROVNER: Stark says he hasn't decided what he'll do next, but it will likely involve helping disadvantaged children.
Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
2012 was in many ways an important year for gay rights. The president came out in favor of gay marriage. Voters legalized it in three more states. And the American Psychiatric Association removed transgender from the category of mental disorders. A lot has changed since Ellen DeGeneres awkwardly came out on her TV sitcom back in 1997.
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GREENE: Ellen DeGeneres in 1997. NPR's Neda Ulaby turned on the television to see how gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people are being represented culturally today.
NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: The pop culture gay flavor of the minute: white gay dads.
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ULABY: Like on the show, "The New Normal."
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ULABY: It's a mini-boomlet, says real life white gay dad Joshua Gamson. As a sociologist, he says pop culture wants mainly to find gay men as promiscuous and deviant, not monogamous and devoted to their families.
JOSHUA GAMSON: It does seem like a strong counter-stereotype of how gay men have been portrayed over the last, whatever, 50 years.
ULABY: This TV trend took off with "Modern Family."
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MAX MUTCHNICK: "Modern Family" introduced us to the whole world of gay-bies.
ULABY: That's Max Mutchnick. He helped create "Will and Grace." His latest show, also gay-themed, was recently cancelled. But Mutchnick says any show with openly gay characters should reflect people audiences could know in their real lives.
MUTCHNICK: They see that couple in the park and they see that couple at school with these gay-bies and so it feels right.
ULABY: And it apparently feels right for a multi-billion dollar company like Covergirl to hire Ellen DeGeneres to peddle cosmetics.
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ULABY: Or for a leading gay character on a network sitcom to carefully crush stereotypes. Like Max, the dumpy bro on the show "Happy Ending."
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ULABY: Or for a celebrated cable drama to play up a campy subplot about a closeted lesbian teacher in the 1960s.
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ULABY: "American Horror Story" attracts millions of viewers. It was dreamed up by Ryan Murphy, who is also responsible for the shows "The New Normal" and "Glee." We're going to travel back in time to his own experiences back in the 1960s and '70s.
RYAN MURPHY: I was a little sad gay boy growing up in Indiana and my visions of what were gay were what I saw on TV - Paul Lynde on "The Hollywood Squares," who I loved, and Charles Nelson Reilly on the "Password" shows.
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ULABY: All gay audiences had were signifiers and stereotypes, and they clung to them, says Dave Kohan. He's Max Mutchnick's straight collaborator.
DAVE KOHAN: I remember this show called "Love, Sidney."
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ULABY: A lot of gay people do. A ridiculously saccharine sitcom where Tony Randall played a wealthy gay man living with a little girl and her mom. But Kohan remembers the characters' sexuality as barely even an open secret.
KOHAN: He wasn't gay. He was shy. It was another three-letter word ending in Y. We always said he went to shy bars.
ULABY: What a staggering sea change when you fast forward to what's on TV today. "Glee," arguably the gayest show on network television, models what it's like to be a gay kid and even how to parent one, says Ryan Murphy.
MURPHY: The Kurt/Dad story on "Glee" was completely based on the relationship I wished I had had with my father.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GLEE")
ULABY: Back in the days of "Love, Sidney," even a shy character courted controversy. Today there are so many gay characters, "Glee"'s had to deal with a kind of opposite controversy, fans complaining vociferously about gay characters not being affectionate enough. His fans, says Ryan Murphy, keep track.
MURPHY: If you're going to show a straight couple kiss, show a gay couple kiss, so that they feel like, okay, there's hope for me. There's a way for me. I'm worthy of that happiness.
ULABY: Ensuring equality is something television lacks, says Susan Feniger. She's a celebrity chef who often appears on television. She says if an alien was to come from outer space and learn about gay people just from TV, they'd get a totally false impression.
SUSAN FENIGER: I think if someone were to come from outer space, they might think that it's only men who are out there that are gay, and you might think that they're all a little bit queen-y.
ULABY: Last fall, Gallup released findings about its largest poll ever about gay Americans. Slightly more women identified as gay than men and more African-Americans, Asians and Latinos said they were GLBT than whites. So where's that on TV?
TRISH BENDIX: Well, actually, there have been a lot of women of color, which has been great.
ULABY: Trish Bendix runs a website called After Ellen. It tracks lesbian representation on TV. She rattled off at least half a dozen shows with nonwhite queer female characters - "White Collar," "The Good Wife," "Underemployed" on MTV.
BENDIX: "Pretty Little Liars" has a multiracial lesbian. "Gray's Anatomy," Callie is bisexual and she's also a woman of color, and Santana on "Glee."
ULABY: The problem, says Bendix, is mostly these are exoticized slinky fems in bit roles.
BENDIX: It's like the other is always going to be the other, and so it's like we'll just pile the other-ness on the one person.
ULABY: There's a place where sexual others have long found a natural home on television, on reality shows, all the way back to the very first one. In "American Family," aired on PBS in 1973, it followed a family over an inadvertently eventful year that included a son coming out. Then "The Real World." Then "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy."
Suddenly TV screens swelled with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender characters on reality shows from "The Voice" to RuPaul's "Drag Race."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "DRAG RACE")
ULABY: Maybe it's because the genre depends absolutely on a sense of authenticity, says Susan Feniger.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Hi, Susan.
FENIGER: Hi.
ULABY: She competed on "Top Chef Masters."
FENIGER: My partner now of 15 years, I actually wooed her at one of my restaurants.
ULABY: Feniger says if you've had to define yourself as different, you end up with a sense of self useful in reality casting.
FENIGER: Reality TV, if you're comfortable in yourself and who you are, then why wouldn't you be openly out, especially now. Being out is hip right now.
ULABY: Right now. Gay representation on TV is seemingly boundless, winning "The Amazing Race," anchoring the news. There's even an entire gay cable channel, Logo, and gay and straight audiences are relishing gay TV villains that not too long ago might have been denounced as offensive caricatures.
(SOUNDBITE FROM "DOWNTON ABBEY")
ULABY: Take Thomas, the evil gay footman on "Downton Abbey." The character once might have been seen as a homophobic stereotype. Now he just blends into an expanding universe. And guess what? It's even bigger than the actual number of gay people in the population. A study by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation shows 4.4 of characters on TV are gay.
That's more than the actual percentage of gay Americans. Gallup says it's 3.3 percent. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.
GREENE: And you hear Neda's reporting on MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
On top of their concerns about terrorism, sectarian violence, the Taliban and their painful relationship with the United States, people in Pakistan are talking about privacy.
The lower house of Pakistan's Parliament passed what's called the Investigation for Fair Trial Bill. It is the Pakistani version of the Patriot Act. It clears the way for intelligence and law enforcement agencies to tap phones, monitor Internet traffic and follow people they suspect are terrorists.
Of course, it's an open secret that security agencies in Pakistan already do this, but the new bill will give them legal cover. NPR's Dina Temple Raston-Raston reports from Islamabad.
DINA TEMPLE-RASTON, BYLINE: The Investigation for Fair Trial Bill has been presented to the Pakistani people as a way to update existing law and bring the rules for investigation in Pakistan into the 21st century. Officials say that in order to fight against terror, they need to be allowed to capture emails, listen in on cell phone calls and track Internet searches so they can root out terrorists.
HARRIS KHALIQ: I'm Harris Khaliq and I'm a poet and columnist.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Khaliq has been watching the bill wind its way through Parliament.
KHALIQ: There are two sides to the argument. One, is that this is a country at war, a war within a war within the region. So, you need certain laws to protect people from terrorist activity.
TEMPLE-RASTON: That side of the argument should sound familiar, but it is the other side of the argument that makes it distinctly Pakistani. The concern is not that ordinary citizens might get caught up in this, the worry is that security agencies in Pakistan will use the new powers to blackmail politicians. Harris Khaliq explains.
KHALIQ: Pakistan has a checkered political history, and we, as citizens, are really wary of a situation where these laws or such policies are actually used to oppress political opponents, or whoever is in power.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Aasim Sajjad is a professor of political economy at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.
AASIM SAJJAD: Frankly, to be honest, you know, it's not as if this act, per se, would be required for this sort of, sort of big brother apparatus to operate. I mean, if they can operate in any case...
TEMPLE-RASTON: He's worried the security agencies will use the law as an excuse to go even further.
SAJJAD: The state, the intelligence apparatus is historically been so powerful and so unaccountable that there's a feeling that, you know, this is sort of - we're just totally - would be surrendering every last remaining bit of independence of civil liberties.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Still, aside from university professors and the liberal elite, opposition to the bill has been muted. While news of the bill made the front pages of the English language papers here, there was barely a whisper about it in the Urdu press.
SAJJAD: Amongst a fairly limited circle, you know, activists and observers, there's been concern...
TEMPLE-RASTON: Again, Aasim Sajjad of Quaid-e-Azam University:
SAJJAD: ...but it hasn't generated or garnered the kind of response that, you know, I think would be necessary for there to be actually some kind of countervailing push-back to prevent something like this from going through.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Mohman Hussein Baluch is a Ph.D. candidate in Pakistani studies as the university, and his reaction was typical. If he isn't doing anything wrong, he said, he has nothing to fear.
MOHMAN HUSSEIN BALUCH: If I'm not doing anything wrong - I'm a peaceful citizen of Pakistan - I believe in peace, that I'm not worried about this.
TEMPLE-RASTON: The bill passed the lower house of Parliament and is awaiting approval from the Senate. That's expected to happen in the next week or so, and the president is expected to sign it into law.
Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News, Islamabad.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Another musician is staging a British invasion. Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is 21 years old, already a household name in the U.K. and set to go on tour with American country pop star Taylor Swift this year. His debut studio album, "Plus," has topped charts around the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A TEAM")
ED SHEERAN: (Singing) They say she's in class A Team, stuck in her daydream, been this way since 18. But lately, her face seems slowly sunk-in, wasting...
GREENE: This is the song, "A Team," which just received a Grammy nomination for song of the year. Fans recognize Sheeran with his messy red hair and arm plastered with tattoos. The musician spent years couch surfing before leaping to stardom last year. Sheeran talked about managing his success and his new music when he dropped by our studios. Ed Sheeran, thank you for coming in and chatting with us.
SHEERAN: Thank you for having me.
GREENE: This song, "A Team," that really has put you on the map here in the U.S....
SHEERAN: Thank you.
GREENE: ...it's a dark song.
SHEERAN: Yeah. I'm still surprised that people on radio are playing it. I'm not going to really explain the kind of whole depth of it until it kind of goes off radio, though, because I feel like if I was to say what the words actually meant, people might stop playing it.
GREENE: You worry about that.
SHEERAN: Yeah, yeah. It got taken off a station down south. They were spinning it on Power, and then they found out what it was about and then took it off. I mean, I'm very open with saying that it was written about, you know, a woman I met at a homeless shelter. But the specific lyrics in the song, the people haven't picked up on.
GREENE: We can say it's - I mean, it's a drug-addiction thing.
SHEERAN: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A TEAM")
GREENE: As a songwriter, is that frustrating in some way, that you wrote this song? It came from a very, you know, a deep place, but you kind of - for it to be successful, you don't necessarily want people to know exactly what it's about?
SHEERAN: No. I'd like - I know there a lot of songwriters like that, and they, you know - musicians can get really kind of hell-bent on being cool and keeping their creativity and stuff. But once you've made a song and you put it out there, you don't own it anymore. The public own it. It's their song. It might be their song that they wake up to, or their song they have a shower to, or their song that they drive home to or their song they cry to, scream to, have babies to, have weddings to - like, it isn't your song anymore. I remember in school, when we were studying poetry and we had to write our opinion on what a poem meant, and I'm sure that the poet back in the day might have been like, well, actually, no, it means this.
GREENE: Not what I was saying.
SHEERAN: Yeah, yeah.
GREENE: Some of the songs on "Plus" were inspired, as I understand it, from a wicked girlfriend - and that's using your word. I mean, is this wicked in a good way? Is it wicked...
SHEERAN: Yeah. Wicked, in England, means like bitching, you know, like...
GREENE: Wicked good.
SHEERAN: Wicked good. So, yeah. She was just a very, very good girlfriend and spawned a lot of songs. There was this song I wrote for a boy band called One Direction, as well, called "Little Things," which pretty much sums her up, as well.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LITTLE THINGS")
GREENE: And that was a song that you wrote for One Direction.
SHEERAN: Well, actually, I wrote it for myself, but they ended up recording it and releasing it. Yeah.
GREENE: So your fans ecstatic about "Plus," the album, and your music. The critics have been a little more mixed. How have you kind of managed that?
SHEERAN: When it first happened, like, I had never had a bad review before. I'd gone through the past four years, you know, sleeping on sofas, but being kind of the golden boy within the eyes of the people around me. So when it first came out and I thought, all right, this is my album. This is what I put everything into. And when it came out and I got all those bad reviews, of course it hurt. Yeah, it did hurt. But the success, for one, kind of overshadowed it. Like, it did very, very well commercially. And then I started winning all these critically acclaimed awards that, you know, you wouldn't win if you were that kind of person. Like, I can't read a bad review on my album now and feel that it's true, because it's - commercially, it's doing well, and critically within the - that kind of thing, I'm happy.
GREENE: Your tattoos have made news.
SHEERAN: Yeah.
GREENE: Tell me about them. How many do you have? I've got...
SHEERAN: Eighty-seven.
GREENE: Eighty-seven tattoos?
SHEERAN: Eighty-seven tattoos.
GREENE: Wow. So, I'm looking at your left arm there. What am I seeing?
SHEERAN: They're all from different places around the world. So, I've got Canada, L.A., San Francisco.
GREENE: These are flags from different places?
SHEERAN: No, no. Like, there's a cat there. There's a maple leaf.
GREENE: And you sometimes get a new tattoo when you're celebrating something, like the success of an album?
SHEERAN: Yeah. Well, I've got - when I had song that I wrote with Taylor Swift on her record, and then she invited me on her tour, as well, and so I've got the name of the album tattooed there: "Red."
GREENE: And "Star Wars" toys? You pick those up, too, when something goes well?
SHEERAN: Yeah. I've been thinking about this, as well, because, like, I spend a lot of time in toy shops. And, obviously, as a 21-year-old lad, that's a bit odd. But I just think, like, you know, when you're little, you get the very minimum, you know, small toy. And you always go, I want the big box one that the kind of not-more-fortunate kids, but the spoiled kids would get. And not having that puts you in a very, very good place, and you remain kind of grounded and humble, because you aren't given everything on a plate. But now I have a bit more money, I guess. I want the big toy.
GREENE: So this is a younger Ed Sheeran kind of who didn't get the "Star Wars" toys just back in the day.
SHEERAN: Yeah.
GREENE: And saying, like, now, I can get it. I deserve them.
SHEERAN: Yeah, pretty much. Like, with Lego, I was a massive fan of Lego when I was younger, and I'd always get the little, small boxes. And I'd always go, oh, I really want the Death Star. Doesn't the Death Star look great? But it's, like, $600 or something like that. You know, so it's a bit ridiculous to get, yeah, for, like, a seven-year-old kid. You can't - like, who's going to make a 2,000-piece Death Star? And the other day, I just got my first place, and I was going to go stay there for a week. And I was, like, I need something to do, right? I'm going to get the Death Star. Walked in, bought Death Star, went home, made it. It was awesome.
GREENE: You've got the Death Star.
SHEERAN: Got the Death Star.
GREENE: So, this is the next sign of success, right?
SHEERAN: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LEGO HOUSE")
GREENE: You're so young. And if we talk about what's next, I mean, I guess there are all sorts of traps that, you know, young artists can fall into trying to, you know, do something different. What is your plan? What is your strategy for, you know, the next album?
SHEERAN: If I can put on my album in a car or on my headphones and listen to the whole thing and love it, that's what I'm going to be happy putting out there. I'm not going to necessarily make something because the critics on the last album said that it wasn't, you know, what they thought it should be. So, should I make an album that they want, or should I just kind of do what I want to do and be happy with it? I know that's quite a selfish way to look at things, but it often works out.
GREENE: Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, thanks so much for joining us.
SHEERAN: Thank you.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News, I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE: And I'm Steve Inskeep. This is the time of year when millions of Americans make resolutions. In many cases, they're the same resolutions - the same resolutions as your friends and neighbors, maybe even the same resolution you have made in years past. A resolution to lose some weight. NPR's Science Correspondent, Shankar Vedantam, joins us regularly to talk about social science research. He's here now to talk about a study that explored one dimension of making that resolution work. Shankar, what is it?
SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: Well, I spoke with Anne Klesse, she works at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. And she said she got the idea to study this one factor that affects weight loss resolutions, by looking at a television commercial recently. Here she is.
ANNE KLESSE: There's one commercial for (unintelligible) brand, which actually targets women that want to lose weight. And in this commercial there's a woman who wants to fit in a very nice dress. And to make herself more motivated, she puts a picture of a skinny model wearing this dress on the fridge and on the vending machine.
INSKEEP: OK. Aspirations - that's what she wants to aim for.
VEDANTAM: Exactly. I mean, the idea is that every time she sees the model on the fridge or the vending machine, it serves as motivation. And you see the same idea in health magazines in the checkout line in the supermarket. You know, six things you can do to lose weight by the summer. And all the men's magazines show these guys with washboard abs, and all the women's magazines show these skinny women in bikinis. Now, the research has been mixed, so far, about what the effect is of these models. I mean, so some of the research says, you know, seeing these people actually serves to lower our self esteem, because most of us realize we can't be like those people.
INSKEEP: I'll never look like that - you give up.
VEDANTAM: Exactly. But there's other research that says we can also be inspired by them. We can, sort of, say, well, maybe that's the kind of person I want to be, or that's the kind of body image I'd like to have; and so I'm going to try and work harder to try and figure out if it's possible. And what Klesse said is, let's try and figure out what actually works. Let's measure to see whether these models motivate us or de-motivate us.
INSKEEP: OK. So, how do you measure that?
VEDANTAM: So what she did is she set up set of experiments - she brought in about a hundred female volunteers who wanted to lose weight, and she gave them all diaries to keep track of what it was they were eating over time. This is a classic weight loss technique. (Unintelligible) was the experimental trick: some of the volunteers got a diary, and on the cover of the diary, there was a picture of this really, really skinny model - this skinny woman - and every page of the diary featured a picture of that really skinny woman. The other volunteers got diaries with a neutral image, they just got a picture of a measuring tape. Right? What do you think happened, Steve?
INSKEEP: I'm guessing that the people with the diaries with the skinny woman, either stopped keeping the diary or lied.
(LAUGHTER)
VEDANTAM: Well, neither. So they kept the diary, but what Klesse found, is that the people who had the diary with the skinny model, they had a dramatically different outcome than the women who got the neutral image.
KLESSE: Those people that saw the diary without the model on top, they were actually able to lose weight. Surprisingly, the people that were in the model condition, were not able to lose weight, and even worse, they actually, slightly gained weight.
INSKEEP: OK. So, looking at the ideal, actually caused people to do worse in these weight loss regimens.
VEDANTAM: That's exactly right. And what the researchers found, is that both groups of women did about the same at the start of the weight loss program - they stuck to their aims and goals. But after a few days, the women who were constantly seeing this very, very skinny model, they essentially fell off the wagon. And Klesse told me that she can understand what was happening in the minds of these volunteers.
KLESSE: Being constantly exposed, before and after eating - every time I'm writing in my diary, I'm reminded of this very skinny model. And the idea comes up that it is not attainable for me.
INSKEEP: OK. You mentioned women were being studied here. Does this same idea apply to men?
VEDANTAM: Well, I think the short answer is we don't know, Steve. I mean, speaking just for myself, seeing pictures of all those guys with the washboard abs has done nothing for my abs.
I was speaking with a Science Desk colleague of mine, Allison Aubrey, and she proposed an experiment where the guys were getting diaries, which featured, not pictures of guys with washboard abs, but pictures with a really skinny woman.
(LAUGHTER)
VEDANTAM: That had an effect on what the guys did. Now, of course, that would not only be a different experiment, it might even be a different kind of experiment.
INSKEEP: OK. Well, we'll see if she manages to get into that. Shankar, thanks very much.
VEDANTAM: Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Shankar Vedantam. He regularly joins us to talk about social science research. He's also on Twitter. He's @hiddenbrain.
You can also follow this program @morningedition, @nprgreene, and @nprinskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let me tell you, this is a guaranteed way to pass a few minutes in conversation. Ask our commentator Frank Deford about the laws on sports betting.
FRANK DEFORD: For those dearly devoted of you who paid attention to me in September, I noted that the best bet in the NFL had proven to be whenever a West Coast team played an East Coast team at night, because the Pacific players had their body clocks better set. There would be two such night games this year and sure enough, both times the West Coast team beat the point spread. Not only that, but the first game of the World Series also fit that formula. And sure enough, the underdog San Francisco Giants routed arguably the best pitcher in baseball, Justin Verlander of Detroit, and went on to sweep the series.
Unfortunately, since all you NPR listeners are, I'm sure, law-abiding citizens, only those relatively few of you living in the great Silver State of Nevada could have legally gotten bets down on my wise circadian tip. Thanks to a bizarre 1992 federal law, Nevada is blessed - the only state that can allow gamblers to bet legally on a single game, and thereby help fill the state coffers with a cut for facilitating the bets, what's called vigorish in the trade.
New Jersey seeks to buck the law and allow Nevada-style sports books. Predictably, the four major team sports and the NCAA have sued the Garden State to stop its effort to be as equal before the law as Nevada. And in a baffling decision, a U.S. district judge has somehow concluded that it's fair to argue that legal gambling in states, other than Nevada, would create a negative image about games. That's like the feds saying nobody but Georgia can legally grow peaches without damaging American peach taste buds.
Now consider, the NCAA, that noble bastion of hypocrisy, makes virtually all its money from its basketball championship - March Madness - which derives most of its popularity and hence it's TV bonanza, from illegal office pools. And, of course, the professional leagues - wink, wink - publicize fantasy leagues, which are nothing but betting vehicles.
Altogether, in the United States, betting on real games with illegal bookmakers is estimated at $380 billion a year. People bet sports everywhere - on the Internet the world over. Gambling, in fact, promotes interest in sports. The NFL in particular is, essentially, America's casino. But the sanctimonious commissioners and the blowhard who runs the NCAA, maintain, nonsensically, that legal gambling hurts the integrity of sports, while somehow illegal bookmaking remains beneficial for their games.
Also, if I were Chris Christie and Bruce Springsteen and Cory Booker and Bon Jovi and Snooki, I'd want to know why the federal government gives preferential treatment to one state over the other 49. I don't think those are fair constitutional odds.
INSKEEP: I just never expected Frank Deford to say, If I were Snooki, and go on with a thought.
It's a safe bet to say that Frank joins us each Wednesday from member station WSHU in Fairfield, Connecticut.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
OK, and let's turn to another study about weight. You might want to listen closely here. It suggests that being a little overweight may tip the odds in favor of living a longer life. That's right - researchers say there may be some benefit to having a little extra body fat.
But not so fast. As NPR's Allison Aubrey reports, no one is suggesting you ditch the exercising, or end the diet.
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: This isn't the first time that researchers have raised questions about the link between body weight and how long someone will live. While there's no debate that being severely obese will raise the risk of all kinds of illnesses and even cut some lives short, it's less clear what happens to people who are less overweight.
When Katherine Flegal, of the CDC, set out to answer this question, she wanted to include as many people as possible in her study; from as many places around the world as she could find.
KATHERINE FLEGAL: We searched all the literature - thousands of articles; found almost 100 articles with almost 3 million people that really addressed this question head on.
AUBREY: And she concludes that being overweight is actually associated with a lower risk of death. It's certainly not dramatic, but about a 6 percent decreased risk.
FLEGAL: Statistically significant.
AUBREY: So who are we talking about here? A lot more people than you might think. About one-third of all Americans fall into this category of overweight. And Flegal found that even among those who are technically slightly obese, there was no increased risk of death.
Now, at a time when we are bombarded with weight- loss messages, Flegal says it's not popular to suggest that heavier people may live longer. In fact, a few years back, when she published a paper that came to a similar conclusion, her findings were attacked.
FLEGAL: Our articles got called rubbish and ludicrous, that though - you know, it's really opened you up to a lot of criticism. I discovered - much to my sorrow - that this is a kind of a flashpoint for people.
AUBREY: One of the experts who takes issue with Flegal's conclusions is Walter Willett, of the Harvard School of Public Health. He's read her new paper, and he says he's not buying it.
WALTER WILLETT: This study is really a pile of rubbish, and no one should waste their time reading it.
AUBREY: Willet says it's not helpful to look simply at how people's BMIs - or body mass index - influence their risk of death, as this paper did, without knowing something about people's health or fitness. Some people are thin because they're ill, so of course they're at higher risk of dying. This study doesn't tease this apart. Also, he says, the analysis does not address the bigger, more important issues of quality of life. If an overweight person does live longer, is he or she living with chronic diseases?
WILLETT: We have a huge amount of other literature showing that people who gain weight or are overweight, have increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, many cancers, and many other conditions.
AUBREY: Willett says for listeners out there who want to know whether their body weight is a problem, one thing to do - rather than comparing your BMI to those around you - is to think about what you weighed when you were 20 years old.
WILLETT: For most people, our ideal weight - if we weren't seriously overweight at age 20 - is about what we weighed then. And that's why weight change is a good number to keep an eye on because it can be an early warning sign.
AUBREY: That you're on the path to more weight gain. Now, not everyone's convinced that the new paper is rubbish. Dr. Steven Heymsfield, of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, says there are a couple of scenarios in which extra body weight might help people live longer.
DR. STEVEN HEYMSFIELD: If you fall, and you fall on a vulnerable bone - like the hip - that having a little extra fat there might protect you from a hip fracture.
AUBREY: Or, he says, if an illness leaves you unable to eat, extra body fat could be useful. Heymsfield acknowledges this is just speculation. He says while this paper won't end the debate over whether a little extra body fat could be a good thing, he says it does show that the relationship between weight and health may be more complicated than just a simple calculation.
Allison Aubrey, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene. Congress can at least say it started the new year without blowing up the economy. The House approved a plan that eliminates scheduled higher taxes for most Americans, and puts off spending cuts for now. President Obama praised its passage last night.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
INSKEEP: That was the good news. Critics in both parties note the scaled-back agreement does not reduce the ominously large U.S. budget deficit. In fact, putting off tax hikes and spending cuts does exactly the opposite, and lawmakers dropped long-term proposals to manage federal debts.
GREENE: The measure passed the House last night, mainly with Democratic votes. Two-thirds of House Republicans opposed it. NPR's David Welna reports.
DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: Earlier in the day, even moderate House Republicans were up in arms over the bill sent over by a Senate that had voted in the middle of the night, and passed it 89 to 8. Steve LaTourette is a retiring Republican from Ohio.
REP. STEVE LATOURETTE: My recommendation would be to not take a package put together by a bunch of sleep-deprived octogenarians on New Year's Eve.
WELNA: Like many House Republicans, Arizona's Jeff Flake - who moves over to be his state's junior senator tomorrow - wanted to amend the Senate bill with a slew of spending cuts.
REP. JEFF FLAKE: We're over the cliff. Let's get some spending cuts. I - the - I know people are worried about the market response tomorrow. There may be a market response tomorrow; there will be a bigger response if we don't deal with debt and deficit in a serious way. So...
WELNA: But after two closed-door meetings of the House GOP caucus, it became clear that not enough Republicans were ready to risk blowing up the compromise struck in the Senate. The bill was then rushed to the House floor, and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi thanked Speaker John Boehner for his unusual willingness to allow a straight-up-or-down vote, even though a majority of Republicans ended up voting against the bill.
REP. NANCY PELOSI: While this bill doesn't accomplish all that we need to do to grow the economy, reduce the deficit and strengthen the middle-class, it is a good way for us to have a happy start to a new year by taking this first step.
WELNA: It is also a step that, while skirting the fiscal effects of going over the cliff, leaves the national debt to grow by another $4 trillion over the next decade. And as Virginia Democrat Jim Moran noted, last night's vote does little to settle other looming crises in store for the new Congress that starts tomorrow.
REP. JIM MORAN: It sets up three more fiscal cliffs over the next three months: when appropriation spending expires on March 27th, when the debt ceiling has to be increased at the end of February, and when the sequester has to be dealt with at the very same time.
WELNA: But for now, the first fiscal cliff - and its threat to the economy - are gone, along with 2012. David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.
GREENE: Republicans hope the budget game now turns in their favor. Having taken taxes off the table, Republicans can return to more comfortable ground of demanding that Democrats cut spending - or they could, except that many Republicans actually say they want to avoid scheduled cuts to the Pentagon.
INSKEEP: That's one of the complexities of the debate to come.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Most of America has prohibited telemarketing calls. More than 200 million people have put their names in the National Do Not Call Registry, which has been around about a decade. But companies still want the money to be made reaching out to you by phone. And that's today's business Bottom Line.
Regardless of the law, pre-recorded robocalls have flooded the country - offering everything from credit cards to new medications.
The Federal Trade Commission is seeking solutions, as NPR's Lauren Silverman reports.
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LAUREN SILVERMAN, BYLINE: This is the call interrupting dinners across the nation.
RACHEL: Hello, this is Rachel at Cardholder Services, calling in reference to your current credit card account. It is urgent that...
DAVID VLADECK: All of us have heard this so many times that it's like, you know, nails on a chalkboard for us.
SILVERMAN: That's David Vladeck. He's director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. He's been going after the Rachel's of the world for a long time, but says in the past few years the hunt has become much more difficult.
VLADECK: These calls are not like the calls we grew up with. They are computer blasted calls that are enabled by the Internet. The dialers are outside the United States generally, and these dialers are capable of blasting out an unfathomable number of telephone calls.
SILVERMAN: Last year, the FTC shut down one serial dialer called Asia Pacific. In an 18-month period it made over two and a half billion robocalls in the U.S.
VLADECK: Hello?
ROBOCALL: Your warrantee extended if it is not already...
SILVERMAN: The majority of telephone calls that deliver pre-recorded messages trying to sell you something are illegal - and Vladeck says they're not just annoying, they're dangerous.
VLADECK: Most of the robocalls we see are for scams that prey on people who are economically vulnerable.
SILVERMAN: The FTC does go after and sue dozens of robocall companies every year, but Vladeck admits it isn't enough. Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP, has given robocallers a cheap way to reach tens of millions of American consumers and stay offshore. So the FTC is looking for help.
VLADECK: We've offered $50,000 to the individual or small company that presents us with technology that will enable consumers or the telecoms that serve us to block this assault of unwanted robocalls.
SILVERMAN: So far, there are over 200 submissions.
SHAWN DAVIS: My name is Shawn Davis. I'm 27.
SILVERMAN: Shawn Davis is an IT technician in Boise, Idaho. His solution to the robocall problem is called Roboblock Twelve. It's a number verification system that requires callers to type in randomly generated numbers.
DAVIS: If they do find a way to get through, and you find out it's an automated solicitor, you just press star 6-6, which is no and it adds them to the block list.
SILVERMAN: A lot of submissions use technology to differentiate robots from humans - like those garbled numbers you have to decipher and type in online to prove you're human. But some are less technical.
NAOMI WALLS: Turn your phone off or unplug it.
SILVERMAN: Meet Naomi Walls. She's from Aurora, Colorado, and says ending robocalls is simple: turn your ringer off, and record this message.
WALLS: You have reached the Walls' residence. Due to the number of robocalls I'm receiving, I've turned off my phone so that it won't ring...
(LAUGHTER)
SILVERMAN: That lady laughing is Kara Swisher - co-editor of All Things Digital and one the judges for the robocall competition.
KARA SWISHER: OK, all right, I'll look upon it. That's a good solution. Yeah. That's a good solution to a lot of problems in life.
SILVERMAN: Swisher won't reveal which ideas she likes so far, but says the winner could get a lot more than money.
SWISHER: The people who invest in technology pay attention to all these incubators, all these competitions, all these hack-a-thons, so if there's an excellent solution, someone is going to pick it up.
SILVERMAN: You still have about two weeks to submit your idea.
Lauren Silverman, NPR News.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Let's begin NPR's business news with some fiscal deal details.
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GREENE: You might remember over the holiday season, we delved into some of the tax credit lawmakers were considering changing as part of a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff. We called it our 12 Days of Deductions.
Well, now with Congress giving the green light to an agreement that avoids widespread tax increases, we know where some of those credits stand. The deal provides a five-year extension of the earned income tax credit - that's an important one for lower income families. It also extends the child tax credit.
The law passed last night also provides a tax credit of up to $2,500 for college tuition.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In some struggling areas of the United States, foreign money is playing a key role in efforts to revive the economy. Billions of dollars have poured into this country through the federal government's EB-5 immigrant investor program. This grants permanent residency to foreign citizens if they invest at least half a million dollars into approved projects.
One of the largest projects using this program is in Vermont. In a part of the state where farmers are struggling and factories have closed, a ski resort developer is proposing a plan that involves more than half a billion dollars of foreign investment.
Charlotte Albright of Vermont Public Radio has the story.
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CHARLOTTE ALBRIGHT, BYLINE: In a remote region of Vermont known as the Northeast Kingdom, a skinny 19-year-old leans against a pick-up truck and watches his buddy operate an excavator at the Jay Peak ski resort.
TYLER FARRAND: I'm Tyler Farrand, and I'd like to be running an excavator some day, up on Jay Peak.
ALBRIGHT: Farrand's been getting by on part-time work, but he may soon have better opportunities. One of this ski resort's co-owners recently announced plans for an even more ambitious project. His name is Bill Stenger, and in this tiny corner of the country, he's making big headlines with announcements like this:
BILL STENGER: Today is not so much about Jay Peak, but it is about taking a program we have proven effective here and expanding its value to our surrounding community.
ALBRIGHT: The program Stenger is talking about at this press conference is the federal EB-5 visa program. It allows qualified foreigners who invest $500,000, and create at least 10 American jobs, to get green cards. Stenger successfully tapped this program to develop Jay Peak. Now, he's using it to bring in a bigger pot of money - nearly $600 million. So he's been on the road.
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ALBRIGHT: On a recent trip to China, more than a hundred investors came to Stenger's seminar and watched a video showing scenic aerial views of rolling green hills, and autumn foliage framing a pristine lake. It shows Stenger's plans for new ski lodges, a lakeside marina and conference center and a redeveloped city block in the town of Newport.
Already, a German window manufacturer plans to locate there, so will a Korean manufacturer of hi-tech artificial organs. Stenger doesn't doubt more foreign investors will come through.
STENGER: Because they like what they see, they appreciate the community, they sense the welcome environment and the quality of what we are doing, and that tips them in our direction.
ALBRIGHT: Back home, this burly but soft-spoken businessman wears a casual ski sweater and works out of a temporary trailer near one of his fancy new hotels. Vermonters see him as a savior. He says he's just trying to help keep his neighbors off the dole.
Full-time employment has been hard to come by here. But one of Stenger's main challenges is ironic: this is a sparsely populated region, so it may be hard find enough workers for his promised boom. Local schools are working on that now - they're training housekeepers, hotel managers and construction workers.
NANCY MCDERMOTT: It's the biggest initiative ever in Vermont, seven projects.
ALBRIGHT: At a career institute in Newport, business teacher Nancy McDermott uses a Power Point slide show to teach students about the new job openings. Many Vermonters have left to find work and she thinks Stenger's project will bring the back.
MCDERMOTT: So yes, I really think it's going to happen.
ALBRIGHT: State officials are also on board, working with schools and prospective employers to make sure skills match new jobs. That state involvement is a good sign, says economist Emily Blanchard.
EMILY BLANCHARD: Right, it's a small state and it seems like if the fairly small set of policymakers can demonstrate to potential investors that they're behind this project, that's going to go a long way in convincing firms, investors, individuals, that this is a good place to do business.
ALBRIGHT: Blanchard is an economist at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She says Stenger's plan is ambitious, but he might pull it off, thanks to the combination of state cooperation and wealthy foreigners hankering for U.S. visas.
And Stenger says, so far, he's banked about $160 million and he's got pledges from foreign investors for over $100 million more.
For NPR News, I'm Charlotte Albright, in Northeastern Vermont.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And our last word in business might make you hungry. It's crispity, crunchity Butterfinger, as in the peanut butter and chocolate candy bar, which designated the year 2013 as its 90-ish birthday.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
That's 90-ish because, while there is a trademark document that dates back to 1928, the company believes the candy bar was first promoted in 1923. So, you know, 85, 90, 90-ish is what the people at Nestle settled on as Butterfinger's official age.
GREENE: Now, the name comes from old sports slang from the '20s to describe ballplayers who couldn't quite hold onto baseballs or footballs, you know, they're butterfingers.
The Curtiss Candy Company, which was based in Chicago, made Butterfinger and also the Baby Ruth candy bar.
INSKEEP: They're both made now by Nestle.
(SOUNDBITE OF BUTTERFINGER COMMERCIAL)
GREENE: And that is Bart Simpson, Butterfinger's most famous spokesman. But that sweetness didn't last forever. After Butterfinger ended its contract with "The Simpsons," the candy became fair game for the show's writers. In one episode, Springfield is named the world's fattest town. In response, Marge Simpson takes on the Motherloving Sugar Company and gets sugar banned forever. All of Springfield's sugary treats end up in a bonfire.
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(LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: But somebody must, because the candy is still for sale, having survived its ribbing from "The Simpsons."
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
GREENE: And I'm David Greene.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Let's talk about everything that was left out of the fiscal cliff compromise approved by Congress yesterday. The measure does raise taxes for the wealthy and preserve tax cuts for others, and extend unemployment insurance again, among other things. But it left a huge amount of fighting for the New Year.
We're going to talk about that with NPR economics correspondent John Ydstie and NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley. Gentlemen, good morning.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Good morning.
JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK, this was referred to as a scaled-down deal, John Ydstie. What's not there?
YDSTIE: Well, there's not a lot of deficit reduction there, first of all. The most charitable accounting would be that there's maybe $650 billion in deficit reduction over 10 years, compared...
INSKEEP: (Unintelligible) higher taxes on the wealthy.
YDSTIE: That's right, versus about two trillion that we're talking about if we had a grand bargain that included entitlement reform. And, speaking of entitlement reform, no effort at reining in entitlements here, which are ultimately the biggest threat to the nation's finances going forward.
Also, no action on spending cuts. The automatic spending cuts that were part of the fiscal cliff were put off for two months, so we'll have a battle that's going to be fought then, along with the battle to raise the debt ceiling.
INSKEEP: And on the spending cuts, they were put in place because the national debt is getting too large.
YDSTIE: That's right.
INSKEEP: Everyone agreed there needed to be spending cuts. Everyone seemed to agree they hated these particular spending cuts. But they've neither gotten rid of them or reworked them or anything.
YDSTIE: Absolutely. So there's a big battle ahead.
INSKEEP: That's coming in the next few months.
Scott Horsley, what happens now?
HORSLEY: Well, House Republicans tried to shoehorn more spending cuts into this deal at the last minute. And that effort fell short, but they're no doubt going to keep trying. As John suggests, we're going to have another fight when the automatic spending cuts return. And the big leverage point for Republicans is going to be the upcoming fight over the debt ceiling. President Obama insisted again last night he won't play that game.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they've already racked up through the laws that they passed.
HORSLEY: Mr. Obama insists if Republicans want more spending cuts, those will have to be balanced with more tax increases. But, you know, he'll never have a stronger hand to win tax increases than he did right now when he could get them automatically without Republican votes. And that's why a lot of liberals are unhappy with the president for in effect leaving money on the table in this round.
INSKEEP: Oh, because they were talking about more than a trillion dollars in higher taxes, weren't they, Scott, and ended up with this 650 billion or so.
HORSLEY: That's right. And he could've had, you know, bigger tax increases simply by going over the cliff.
INSKEEP: Oh, simply by letting the higher taxes take affect that were already part of current law. Now, it's interesting that you say what you said, Scott Horsley, because we heard yesterday on this program from Tom Cole, a member of the House Republican leadership. And he was arguing that as this battle goes ahead, the leverage that you mentioned is going to be on the Republican side.
Let's listen.
REPRESENTATIVE TOM COLE: Honestly, from a Republican standpoint, you're in a much stronger position now because the tax issue is off the table. It's basically been settled. The chances of raising taxes now on anybody, anytime soon - absent some sort of deal that lowers rates as it eliminates deductions - is really nil.
INSKEEP: So they're able to turn the focus back on spending cuts, which is something Republicans would rather be talking about.
And John Ydstie, Scott mentioned the debt ceiling.
YDSTIE: Right.
INSKEEP: Federal borrowing authority, it's going to run out again in the next couple of months. And there's talk of a fight again. Can the country afford that, given what a disaster it was in 2011?
YDSTIE: Well, I think most business people and economists think we can't. We can't go through that again. The rating agencies have threatened further downgrades if we do. And...
INSKEEP: Oh, because the national debt was downgraded. The quality of the debt was downgraded last time.
YDSTIE: Well, yeah. It was downgraded last time, partly because of the political situation in Washington. And if you look back at the last debt ceiling standoff, it clearly led to uncertainty, erosion of confidence, and it slowed growth - kept businesses from hiring. So I think we don't want to go through that again, if we can avoid it.
INSKEEP: Well, Scott Horsley, given all the business that was left undone as part of this compromise, is there anything that lawmakers or the White House are feeling good about this morning?
HORSLEY: Well, yes. The president did win some victories in this deal. You mentioned the extension of unemployment benefits for a year. The president also won a five-year extension of some tax credits that primarily benefit working families. Together those are worth about $160 billion. There's also the certainty that comes from having middle class tax rates sustained without weeks of more bargaining. That's worth something.
But you know, the two parties have really different ideas about this deal and here's why. It's a classic compared-to-what question. Compared to last year's tax rates, this deal represents a tax hike for 98 percent of millionaires. That's why it's a tough bill for the GOP to swallow. But compared to the rates the wealthy would have been paying automatically this year, what the president could have gotten by going over the fiscal cliff, this deal represents a tax cut for 96 percent of millionaires.
So that's why you're hearing a lot of howling from the left.
INSKEEP: Okay. So a lot to argue about in the months ahead and we'll continue following it here. That's NPR's Scott Horsley and NPR's John Ydstie. Gentlemen, thanks to you both.
HORSLEY: You're welcome.
YDSTIE: You're welcome.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Let's turn now to a developing story in Alaska. A crew is trying to get aboard a massive oil drilling rig that ran aground in the Gulf of Alaska. Workers have already been evacuated and there is no risk of an oil spill here, but the rig is carrying thousands of gallons of diesel fuel. The rig is a key component of Shell Oil's controversial efforts to explore for oil in the Arctic Ocean, and joining us now with the latest on the situation in Alaska is NPR science correspondent Richard Harris.
Richard, good morning and thanks for coming in.
RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE: Good morning.
GREENE: So this rig actually ran aground on Monday night. What's going on? What's happened since then?
HARRIS: Well, the good news, it's still upright in the water.
GREENE: That's good news.
HARRIS: And as far as they can tell, there is not diesel fuel leaking out of it right now, but they really have not been able to get close to really take a good look and determine the damage. They tried twice yesterday to fly people out by helicopter to land on the rig, but the weather there is just crazy. It was like 40 foot waves, 50 mile an hour winds with gusts higher than that, so the idea of landing somebody on a helicopter on this rig was - they said forget about it.
They hope the weather forecast is better today. They're hoping they'll be able to get people out onto that rig so they can actually assess the damage, but right now they, you know, can only look at it from afar.
GREENE: Okay. So no risk of injuries, workers have been evacuated, people are trying to get aboard this thing to figure out exactly what's going on. You said no leaks so far, which makes you think that there might not be any environmental damage at this point. But what is the environmental risk and where is this? Is it a sensitive area up there?
HARRIS: Well, fortunately, it's not in the Arctic Ocean, which was where this rig was drilling in the summertime. This is actually fairly close to Anchorage. It's in the Gulf of Alaska, and the good news there is there are much better resources. There's a Coast Guard facility. There are, you know, tugboats, all sorts of other infrastructure there so they can actually get to this and really try to deal with this problem.
So that's the good news. But Alaska wildlife officials are concerned because there are endangered species out there, including an endangered seal, and of course Alaska cares a great deal about its fisheries, salmon and so on. And there are native villages not too far from there, and so there are a whole pile of concerns. But again, this is not an oil tanker full of oil. This is an oil rig that has 140,000 gallons of diesel, which is - you know, no fuel is good to spill.
But it's a relatively small quantity and it's not nearly as bad a crude oil.
GREENE: And important distinction to make, it sounds like. Take us back to Monday night. I mean why did this thing run aground?
HARRIS: Well, the rig is called the Kulluk and what happened was they were trying to tow it from Dutch Harbor, which is in the Aleutian Islands, down to Seattle for servicing, and they hit really bad weather. It's a long voyage. It's three or four weeks. They can't forecast that far ahead so they didn't really know what to expect out in the sea and they hit near hurricane force winds - huge, you know, 70 foot waves. I mean it was just - it really, really bad weather.
The tow rope got disconnected one way or the other. They don't know exactly how. The tugboats then ran into trouble that were trying to help it. It was adrift for a while. They had it back under control for a little while, but then in the end they realized that the tow boats were being towed into the rocks. They let it go. It went into the rocks and that's kind of where we are right now.
GREENE: Well, in the few seconds we have left, I mean there's a huge international competition to try and drill up there in the Arctic. How big a blow is this to Shell?
HARRIS: This could be a big setback for Shell, depending upon whether they can either repair this or replace this. They were hoping to be back next summer to finally get some of those holes drilled, and it's not at all clear at this point whether they'll be able to do that.
GREENE: All right. NPR's Richard Harris, thanks for coming in.
HARRIS: Sure.
GREENE: He was updating us on an oil drilling rig that has run aground in the Gulf of Alaska.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Now, as Frank pointed out, a lot of illegal sports betting is spurred by college basketball. But college football also keeps plenty of bookies in business, especially these past few weeks with all these bowl games.
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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
That's an ESPN announcer naming some of the 35 bowl games that have mostly, but not all, have been played by now.
The growing number of games gives many smaller colleges the rare chance to play in a big stadium and get on national TV.
GREENE: But the more college football adds bowl games to their list, the more complicated things become for two men, Brian Dixon and Tom Hall. As the Washington Post first reported, these guys have been trying, since 1984, to attend every Bowl Game in America. They go to one or two a year and hope at some point to fulfill their quest.
We caught up with Brian and Tom just before they added one more notch to their belt. It was the Military Bowl at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., San Jose State versus Bowling Green. The guys were in the parking lot getting pumped up, along with the marching bands.
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GREENE: Our first question was how they get away with these annual junkets? Tom said it takes some very understanding wives.
TOM HALL: Pre-nuptials, pre-nuptials - they knew what they were getting into before we got married. But they actually support us quite well. And it's one that's really kind of taken off, 'cause when we did it we really didn't think much about it. But now, to think that we've been able to keep this tradition and keep our friendship, and just keep everything going for 30 years is a story in itself.
GREENE: Of course, the story doesn't always go according to plan. There have been some close calls.
BRIAN DIXON: A few years ago the Denver Airport got shuttered in with a snow storm, right around the time the game was going to take place in Texas. So I had called Tom and I said Tom, I'm out of luck, man. My flights have been cancelled. The airport is closed. It's coming to an end. And he said 'get in your car.
I said but you don't know how terrible the roads are here. I mean people are telling you to stay off the roads in Colorado. He said, I don't care. So I drove, late into the night, went to the game. I think I was in Fort Worth a total of nine hours.
GREENE: It's a lot of driving and flying around the country, which can get pretty expensive. One thing that helps: People award their commitment with free tickets.
DIXON: We have a fun story that people seem to grab on to. And so, we've been really fortunate. I don't think we've paid for tickets since the 1990 Rose Bowl.
GREENE: Of the 35 college Bowl Games this year, there are six they have never attended. And Brian says when they get to the end of this quest, they will finally allow their wives to come. The destination: The Hawaii Bowl.
DIXON: Knowing when that will be, exactly, is hard to say, because the games keep changing. They add a few and they drop a few, so that could be five or six years away. It could be 10 years away. We're not sure. But that's kind of the thought, now, to make that the last.
GREENE: That's Brian Dixon and Tom Hall, on a never-ending quest to attend every single college Bowl Game. The list keeps growing so who knows? Before this is all over, they could end up at the NPR MORNING EDITION BOWL.
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GREENE: This is the NPR MORNING EDITION BOWL from NPR News. I'm David Greene.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
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DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Good morning, Iâm David Greene with a record that's for the birds. Twenty-two-year-old Josh Vandermeulen is happy as a lark about the record he set for number of birds sighted in Ontario, Canada. He drove thousands of miles to see 344 different bird species this year, six more than the previous record.
He told the Toronto Star he won't try for the record next year. He'll be spending more time with his girlfriend, who is not a birder, but she's training to be a vet. Birds of a feather...
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Developer Richard Marin says he's building the world's largest Ferris Wheel. It's planned for the shore of New York City's Staten Island. It's part of a larger development which is going ahead even though critics noted is partly in a flood zone. Flooding from Hurricane Sandy prompted Mr. Marin to make only minor adjustments. He says the project is a boon for Staten Island, and in fairness, the top of the Ferris Wheel will be above any storm surge. It's MORNING EDITION.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Fans of the show "Downton Abbey" will recognize this voice.
LAURA LINNEY: I'm Laura Linney, and this is MORNING EDITION's "Masterpiece Classic."
GREENE: The actress introduces each episode of the period drama, which returns to "Masterpiece Classic" on PBS this Sunday for its third season. When Laura Linney stopped by for a recent interview, she left behind that opening welcome for our next guests, the cast of "Downton Abbey."
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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
For those who don't know the show, "Downton Abbey" is a world choreographed by ritual and rank, where every person knows his place and everything is just so. The show focuses on a British aristocratic family, headed by the Earl of Grantham, Robert Crawley, and his wife Cora. It's set in the early 20th century, and following the First World War, major societal changes are rippling through the household - the family upstairs and the servants downstairs.
GREENE: We sat down with members of the cast to reflect on their roles and preview the new season. We'll hear in a moment from Jim Carter, who plays the devoted butler, Mr. Carson. But first, I wanted to start with the aristocrats at the top of the hierarchy at Downton Abbey. Hugh Bonneville, you play Lord Grantham, and Elizabeth McGovern, you play Lady Grantham. You all don't do very much other than get dressed when you hear the gong of a bell. You eat, you drink, you socialize. I mean, does that - do you ever wish that you had a job or something?
ELIZABETH MCGOVERN: I mean, I change clothes six times a day.
GREENE: You're busy.
MCGOVERN: And that is no means easy.
(LAUGHTER)
GREENE: You're very busy.
MCGOVERN: And I do my hair.
(LAUGHTER)
HUGH BONNEVILLE: No, it is a world that's removed from our world. Let's be honest. And I think there are very few aristocrats today who would live in such relaxed splendor as this generation did.
GREENE: I'm struck what you said right there. You said it's a world so different from our own world. I read something in the New York Times, a write-up describing things this way: How perversely comforting to turn our attention to a world where you will die where you were born and where the heroes are the rare overachievers who work their way up to butler from footman. Why, Elizabeth, is this comforting, in some way, to, you know, people today?
MCGOVERN: I think because in today's world, we all live with the burden of feeling that anything is possible if we're only clever enough, smart enough, work hard enough, that we can achieve any fluctuation in rank in society, and that there is a small disappointment if, for whatever reason, you haven't managed to earn a fortune or succeed in some huge way that you thought you would as a young person. And, I mean, there's something, of course, marvelous about that. I mean, personally, I wouldn't change that for anything. I wouldn't go back to the old way. But I think there was a comfort for people, to a certain extent, in knowing this is their role. This is their place.
GREENE: Your status is determined. You don't have to worry about...
MCGOVERN: Yes. There's no pressure about it. You do the most wonderful job you can.
GREENE: Yeah. Let's play a short scene from the new season. It's very early in the new season, so this is not going to be too horrible a spoiler, I promise. Our listeners in the United States are getting to watch. But this is Lord Grantham receiving some very unexpected, life-altering news.
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BONNEVILLE: (as Lord Grantham) Are you really telling me that all the money is gone?
JONATHAN COY: (as Murray) I'm afraid so.
BONNEVILLE: (as Lord Grantham) The lion's share of Cora's fortune. I won't give in, Murray. I've sacrificed too much to Downton to give in now. I refuse to be the failure, the earl who dropped the torch and let the flame go out.
GREENE: You really start to feel your vulnerability at this point.
BONNEVILLE: Well, absolutely. And this is a world before financial advisors. And, you know, if you had money, it made money, and it was as simple as that in that post-Industrial Revolution era. And so this is the big crisis point for Robert and for the estate. But at the same time, he wants things to go back to the way - the certainties that there were before the war.
GREENE: I want to go downstairs. We spent time with both of you, Lord and Lady Grantham, upstairs at Downton Abbey.
JIM CARTER: We wondered when you were getting to us.
GREENE: I know.
CARTER: I mean, I'm standing here with this silver tray in my hand for an hour now, waiting to give you this glass of wine.
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CARTER: (as Carson) William, are you aware the seam at your shoulder is coming apart?
THOMAS HOWES: (as William) I felt it go a bit earlier on. I'll mend it when we turn in.
CARTER: (as Carson) You will mend it now, and you will never again appear in public in a similar state of undress.
HOWES: (as William) No, Mr. Carson.
CARTER: (as Carson) To progress in your chosen career, William, you must remember that a good servant at all times retains a sense of pride and dignity that reflects that pride and dignity of the family he serves. And never make me remind you of it again.
GREENE: Jim Carter, Mr. Carson, the butler, he seems least-adaptable to the changes going on around him at Downton Abbey and in the world.
CARTER: Yeah. He's like the fabric of Downton Abbey itself, really. He's unchanging. He thinks happiness is two footmen in the dining room, and women kept out of the dining room, resists the forces of change, which, I think, Carson, you're on the loser, there, mate. I think change is coming, but he can't cope with it very well.
GREENE: I like that you're talking to your character, there. That's (unintelligible).
CARTER: Yes, yes. Come on, Carson. (unintelligible) Oh, no, sir.
GREENE: But what makes him tick? Why so threatened by change?
CARTER: I suppose, as Elizabeth was saying earlier, it's - for some people, a static situation is a secure situation. That is his security. People like this would be fairly institutionalized, really, as institutionalized as a long-term prisoner. Our lives are dictated by gongs and bells and the rhythm of the day that is dictated to us by the people upstairs. We live to serve them and to make their world perfect, and Carson takes immense pride in that. He has tremendous pride in the service that he gives. And quite a bit of status goes with it, as well. So for a man of presumably fairly low birth, he's attained considerable status. And he'll protect that, and protect the family at the same time.
GREENE: Did you have to learn actual skills of etiquette for these roles? I mean, you know, which fork to use and how to starch a shirt, tie a bowtie. I mean, were there lessons, a schooling for you?
CARTER: All that is - we're spoon-fed that kind of information, thank God. But the art department and the props department do a fantastic job, and the authenticity of everything we use is genuine. The food is genuine. The make - the menu is printed out in French, on the table in front of people for a formal dinner. And that's what they eat: mousseline of whatever-it-is.
GREENE: And the building, it's a real house, a real castle, that...
CARTER: Yes. Highclere Castle - I mean, we've put in the odd chair of our own, where theirs are too delicate for someone like Hugh to sit on.
(LAUGHTER)
CARTER: I don't know why that came out, there. Sorry. But everything is as you see it there. The big painting of a man on a horse at the end of the dining-room table is a genuine Van Dyck.
GREENE: It's the real thing.
CARTER: Yeah, it's the real thing.
GREENE: The voice of Jim Carter, who plays the loyal butler Mr. Carson on "Downton Abbey." We also heard from Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern, or shall we say Lord and Lady Grantham. They were not the only cast members who stopped by. Tomorrow, more voices, from the lowly kitchen maid to the conniving valet. Until then, you can test your knowledge of the inner workings of "Downton Abbey" with a quick quiz at our website, npr.org.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Well, Turkey's prime minister is taking on a soap opera. The soap opera is called "The Magnificent Century." It's a hugely popular account of a ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Suleiman the Magnificent. The Ottoman Empire, of course, included Turkey. The prime minister is not a fan, as we learn from NPR's Peter Kenyon in Istanbul.
PETER KENYON, BYLINE: He was the longest-running sultan of the Ottoman Empire during its peak of the power in the 16th century. Suleiman's forces took Belgrade and the Island of Rhodes, annexed much of Hungary, and launched the first unsuccessful Ottoman attack on Vienna.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KENYON: But for nearly the past two years, viewers of the soap opera "Magnificent Century" have seen a different Suleiman, one who lolls in bed with his favored lover and arbitrates disputes in a harem stocked with improbably beautiful women and girls. Most Turks seem to enjoy the show for what it is, a bodice-ripping tale of Ottoman court intrigue.
To be precise, no bodices were actually ripped in any of the episodes I saw, and anyone who's seen the Showtime series on the Tudors would find "Magnificent Century" quite tame. But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was so offended by the show that he recently vented his outrage, worrying that viewers at home and abroad might take this to be the real Suleiman.
PRIME MINISTER RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN: (Speaking foreign language)
KENYON: We don't recognize these TV ancestors, said Erdogan. His main complaint seems to be that the sultan was celebrated for his reworking of the Ottoman legal system. He's also known as kanuni, or lawgiver, and legendary for his swordsmanship on the field of battle, not in the harem. The simple show-biz fact that battle scenes do not make for addictive soap operas, while scenes of seductive harem girls dancing for their sultan clearly do, seems to have escaped the prime minister.
In fact, while Turkey's foreign policy ambitions are often met with skepticism, Turkish soap operas and TV series are a booming success. They're being exported to some 76 countries, according to U.N. figures, and earning tens of millions of dollars. The shows tackle subjects such as rape, women's rights, child brides, all in glossy packages filled with soap opera suspense, heady and tragic romances, and scene-chewing explosions of rage.
What dismays some Turks about Erdogan's rant is that after 10 years in power, he's showing signs of turning into a national scold. Analyst and columnist Yavuz Baydar says perhaps Erdogan is just trying to distract attention away from the worsening situation in Syria, plummeting ties with Iran, and recent signs of shakiness in Turkey's economy. But even so, Baydar says, this is not something a head of state should be spending time on.
YAVUZ BAYDAR: A prime minister should, particularly of a country like Turkey with 75 million, one of the first 16 economies in the world, should never get involved in the micro-management of culture, lifestyles and rewriting of history.
KENYON: Turkey expert Soner Cagaptay at the Washington Institute says there's another aspect to consider, a ruling party in Turkey that faces no opposition capable of reining in its conservative impulses.
SONER CAGAPTAY: Prime Minister Erdogan is increasingly emerging as the kingmaker of the country, with very few checks and balances that can exercise control over his authority.
KENYON: Soon after Erdogan's criticism, Turkish Airlines yanked "Magnificent Century" from its in-flight entertainment, and a lawmaker said he would push to make it a criminal offense to misrepresent past leaders. The producers and directors of the show, after initially basking in the unexpected publicity, stopped giving interviews.
On the other hand, maybe there's something to the old show biz adage about publicity after all. The program is going strong, airing in at least two dozen countries by one count. And after Turkish Airlines dropped the show, Emirates Airlines immediately picked it up. Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Istanbul.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
On a Thursday it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene. As a new Congress convenes today, John Boehner is hoping to keep his job as House Speaker - that despite a lot of criticism. Some of it erupted after the House shelved a Hurricane Sandy relief bill in the waning minutes of the last Congress. Boehner says the House will vote on a relief bill by January 15.
Two months after the storm, many families are still struggling. In Gerritsen Beach, a small neighborhood at the southern end of Brooklyn, the Hardy family is getting accustomed to some very tight quarters. Here's Marianne McCune from member station WNYC.
MARIANNE MCCUNE, BYLINE: The Hardy's house is currently just barely livable.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Aunt Heather's home.
(SOUNDBITE OF YELLING CHILD)
MCCUNE: They removed a fallen tree, replaced drywall, fixed the electricity and heat, and threw down rugs to keep the dust and mold from overwhelming them until they do the work the house really needs. Thirty-year old Heather Hardy is sort of glad to have a place to come home to.
HEATHER HARDY: There's nothing like being 30 and single and living home with mom. Sounds great.
(LAUGHTER)
MCCUNE: The Hardy family is closer knit than a lot of people could stand.
HARDY: Before the flood even happened, me and my daughter were kind of homeless. We were at a party here at my mom's house and one of my cousins came in and was like, Heather, your house is on fire.
MCCUNE: While they were waiting for the landlord to rebuild that place, she and her eight-year-old daughter Annie moved into her parents' two-and-a-half bedroom house. Her 23-year-old brother has the downstairs bedroom and her 24-year-old sister Kaitlyn comes here every afternoon to watch Annie and her own son. That was the situation when Sandy hit.
JOHN HARDY: We had everybody in the family here that night thinking it would be safer here.
MCCUNE: And then, Heather's dad says, the water started to seep in every crack.
HARDY: So me and my sister were dancing around, oh my God, water's coming in. Water's coming in. And my mom was like, get me a towel, you idiot.
HARDY: It went from no water in the house to our knees in a matter three minutes.
MCCUNE: John had recently injured his back.
HARDY: My son, who's 6'4", my nephew who's 6'4", had to pick me up and pass me out the window, along with all our grandkids.
ANNIE HARDY: Uncle Guy and Uncle Eric bumped my head on the window.
HARDY: Were you scared?
HARDY: A little. The only person I heard screaming was you. Get the door shut!
MCCUNE: In the days that followed, things happened in the emotional life of this family. First, the father of Kaitlyn's two-year-old boy showed up to help. Every day. And this is a guy who, over the summer, got drunk and beat up a neighbor. The family says he's also hit Kaitlyn. He was in rehab and she was trying to work things out again. But her parents were wary.
KAITLYN HARDY: I don't think they would have given him as open of a chance as they did because he helped them so much. He cut the tree down, he put walls up, he carried things for Daddy, he did everything that he was asked to do.
MOTHER: And she's right. We got to see the side of him that he wanted us to see.
HARDY: And the reason why I go back to him all the time and don't just leave like everybody tells me to.
MCCUNE: Heather is the oldest of the Hardy siblings. She's a professional boxer, but makes her living as a trainer. And she says post-Sandy she feels more stuck than ever.
HARDY: There's nothing in Gerritsen Beach to rent after Sandy. Because everybody's looking, there's so much competition. Nobody wants to rent to a single mom anyway, you know?
MCCUNE: Heather worries about her daughter Annie.
HARDY: You know, she's eight and everybody needs their own personal space. You know, my kid doesn't have that where she can come home from school and go to her room. I don't have anything to give her. That's super hard. It makes me really worried.
HARDY: Tie me up!
MCCUNE: Annie says she's fine with no room.
HARDY: I really don't mind.
MCCUNE: What about when we had our own apartment - you miss that?
HARDY: A little.
HARDY: If it was up to my mother, we'd all just stay in the house always. She's like, oh, we need to rebuild? OK. Let's just put on eight more bedrooms so that no one ever has to leave.
MCCUNE: Are you going to build bigger?
MOTHER: We are. We're going to put space aside for the two of them so Annie'll have her own space, Heather can have some privacy.
MCCUNE: One family in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn brought even closer together by Sandy - for better or worse. For NPR News, I'm Marianne McCune.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Here's a generational change: A San Francisco Bay Area prosecutor is about to become a congressman at the age of 32. He ousted an incumbent who had been in Congress for 40 years. The newcomer highlighted his opponent's gaffes in got out the vote with old fashion door-knocking, as well as high-tech mobile phone outreach. And that leads to the next step.
As he heads for Washington, D.C., KQED's Aarti Shahani reports that senior members of California's congressional delegation are working on pronouncing his name.
AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE: At a press conference the morning after November's elections, Senator Dianne Feinstein stumbled on her words.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Eric Stallwell(ph) is an apparently a very bright young man. As a matter of fact, he was an intern of my pal.
REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT ERIC SWALWELL: It's a thick name, yeah. It takes everyone time.
SHAHANI: It's not Stallwell. It's...
SWALWELL: Swalwell, Eric Swalwell.
SHAHANI: Eric Swalwell is at a Starbucks in his hometown of Dublin, California, sipping lemonade. The Democrat is about to be the second-youngest member of Congress. Swalwell has lived in DC just once, as a summer intern. The job was unpaid, so he worked mornings at a Washington Sports Club and evenings at a Tex-Mex restaurant.
SWALWELL: Many times, members of Congress would come in and, you know, I would give them their meals. And I tried to memorize their faces in the congressional face book, which was a kind of printed directory that they used to hand out.
SHAHANI: Swalwell wasn't planning to run for Congress. He was on a weekend vacation in Maryland with two childhood friends and made an appointment with Congressman Pete Stark to talk local business. At the last minute, Stark changed what was supposed to be a face-to-face meeting into a quick phone date.
The episode disappointed Swalwell, and led him to view the 81-year-old incumbent as someone who'd served honorably in the past.
SWALWELL: But I just didn't see his being up for it anymore. And so...
SHAHANI: Swalwell made a spur-of-the-moment decision to run for the House seat. Everyone from Democratic Party gatekeepers to his own parents told him he was throwing away his career.
SWALWELL: This is the biggest mistake, you know, of your life, because you're going to lose and, you know, anything you want to do in the future, you can just write that off. You know, it's not going to happen.
RICHARD SCHLACKMAN: I didn't think he had a chance in the world. Incumbent Democrats don't usually lose in the Bay Area.
SHAHANI: Richard Schlackman is a political consultant in San Francisco. He says the incumbent helped Swalwell build name recognition by refusing to debate him and falsely accusing him of taking bribes.
SCHLACKMAN: Pete Stark was doing a great campaign against himself. And it's a classic example, more importantly, of a candidate who hasn't had a real race in years.
SHAHANI: Because California has open primaries, the top two vote-getters face off in the general election. In the showdown between two Democrats, Senator Dianne Feinstein and other big names endorsed incumbent Stark, as is the custom. Swalwell relied on local politicians and local money for support, yet he won by a comfortable four-and-a-half point margin.
David McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University, says to keep his seat, Swalwell will have to distinguish himself on policy matters.
DAVID MCCUAN: Swalwell is a bit more fiscally conservative. He's not a Blue Dog Democrat. So the degree to which Swalwell as a newcomer, as a freshman, can position himself in the middle - and the middle's pretty squishy - is going to be also an important test for him.
SHAHANI: Swalwell plans to live in his district four days a week, to stay in touch with his constituency. And he wants to secure federal research money for his district's largest employer, the Lawrence Livermore Labs.
SWALWELL: Giving the laboratories that seed money which is needed - because too often, the capital is so great that no private organization or start-up is going to be able to make those types of upfront investments.
SHAHANI: Senior representatives say it'll be hard for the freshman Swalwell to raise cash, perhaps just a bit harder than getting Capitol Hill to say his name right.
For NPR News, I'm Aarti Shahani, in San Francisco.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
A photo hangs outside the office door of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. It shows her as speaker of the House. She walks the hallway lined with cheering supporters. The photo was from just after the passage of the health care law in 2010.
Soon after that, Democrats lost control of the House, and she's had few such moments since. A new Congress starts today with Pelosi still in the minority, outnumbered by Republicans with whom she profoundly disagrees.
REPRESENTATIVE NANCY PELOSI: There are many members in the Republican caucus who do not believe in government. And bless their hearts, they act upon their beliefs. So day to day, we vote here on issues that eliminate government initiatives for clean air, clean water, food safety, public safety, public education, public transportation, public housing, public health, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. They don't believe in a public role.
INSKEEP: House rules sharply limit the minority's power to block the majority, yet Pelosi's Democrats have had moments of tremendous relevance. On New Year's Day, for example, most Republicans revolted against a compromised deal on taxes to avert the fiscal cliff. Democrats delivered most of the votes to pass it.
Pelosi did that, even though many liberals disliked the bill. They said President Obama accepted smaller tax hikes than he could have, and left his party vulnerable in coming budget battles. That's where we started our talk with Pelosi.
Senator Tom Harkin, as you may know, said on NPR the other day that he thought that it was a terrible deal, one of the reasons being that you lose a lot of leverage. He said, and I'll just read here: The president, he says, gave all of our bargaining chips away. I don't know what we - Democrats, he means - have to bargain with Republicans on now, because taxes are settled. What's Senator Harkin missing?
PELOSI: With all due respect to Senator Harkin - and I respect him enormously - some of us have a different view. We believe that passing this legislation greatly strengthens the president's hand in negotiations that come next. Secondly, it serves as a model for bipartisan cooperation, which I hope will be an example that we follow. It is something that legislation that passed Senate 89 to eight, and by an overwhelming vote in the House - well, overwhelming vote by House Democrats and some Republicans, but in other words, a strong bipartisan vote. So, hopefully, it puts some matters to rest. It isn't a perfect bill. I never voted for a perfect bill. I haven't seen one yet. So I understand the concerns that some have about what it doesn't do, but a vote for what it does do.
INSKEEP: Well, explain how it improves your leverage, because the point of view of someone like Senator Harkin is that Republicans were desperate not to be blamed for a big tax increase in the middle class. That's now settled. They're not going to be blamed for that. And now you go into this battle over spending without that club to hold over them.
PELOSI: Well, our first - and foremost - priority is protecting the middle class, and we did not think that going over the cliff was a good idea for them because they all came over the cliff with us. It was very significant in that it decoupled tax cuts for the wealthy and tax cuts for the middle class. It made permanent the tax rate of 39.6, which is very important in terms of producing revenue as we go forward. It enshrined, for the next five years, issues like the middle-income tax cut, the child tax credit, the American Opportunity Tax Credit for Education and Unemployment for the next year. And I think that that was a victory for the middle class, victory for our country and a victory for President Obama.
INSKEEP: But how does it work here in the new Congress? Because you have Republicans who will want significant spending cuts that you don't like, and they can make threats to shut down the government. They can make threats over extending the debt ceiling, as they did in 2011, and they said they want to do again. What leverage do you have to push back on them?
PELOSI: Well, I really do not think that the president's leverage - or those of us who care about the middle class' leverage - would have been increased by going over the cliff. So it's a decision that you have to make. As I say to my members, you have to weigh the equities. What are the pluses and minuses of going forward? And I think the pluses far outweighed the minuses.
INSKEEP: What should the president do in a month or two when that debt ceiling deadline - whatever it precisely turns out to be - nears, and Republicans are demanding large spending cuts in order to extend the debt ceiling or raise it?
PELOSI: Well, I think the president's been very clear that these are two really unrelated issues. Congress has incurred these responsibilities. We have to pay the bill. I myself would use the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The president doesn't share my view. But I think that to the extent that the public is engaged in what these decisions are, the president's hand is strengthened for us to move forward in a way that does not question the full faith and credit of the United States of America.
INSKEEP: We should remind people, the 14th Amendment has a line about all the debts shall be paid.
PELOSI: That's right. Yes.
INSKEEP: You'd rather rely on that and overrule whatever Congress has passed requiring that there...
PELOSI: Yes, I would, but the president doesn't share my view. It doesn't overrule Congress. It says the debts will be paid. But the American people need to know in a very clear way what the choices are as we go forward. I don't think there's anybody in the country - except a few of my colleagues in Congress - who want the full faith and credit of the United States of America to be questioned. Even bringing up the subject a year and a half ago led to our downgrading of our credit rating - just discussion of it, even though we eventually did raise the debt limit. So I think it is a subject that we have to get to a wholesome place on. So it's not a hostage-taker.
INSKEEP: I'm wondering, even though there's such partisanship right now, when it gets down to the spending cuts side of this and seeking a couple trillion dollars over a decade, perhaps, to get out of the budget, is there actually a significant common ground? Is there some bipartisan support for reworking Medicare in some way, for restraining spending, for holding down defense spending, whatever else needs to be done?
PELOSI: Well, I certainly would hope so. The question, though, is what is your goal? If your goal is to strengthen Medicare and to strengthen Social Security and to sustain their strength over time, there's a way to do that that we can work in a bipartisan way.
INSKEEP: And save money?
PELOSI: And save - and sustain the program. In order to reduce the deficit - which is a very high priority for all of us - the size of our deficit is an immorality. We should not be heaping responsibilities onto the future, and that's why it was important to have more fairness in our tax code, and that's what we did passing the bill this week. But the finding of reductions, subjecting every federal dollar spent to harsh scrutiny as to whether the taxpayer is getting full value for the dollar is very important. And that holds true in defense, as well as on the domestic side. But it is important for us to remember that certain investments really create growth in our economy, which in turn brings money to the Treasury.
INSKEEP: Growth is the way out of this, you think - economic growth. Bring some more (unintelligible).
PELOSI: I think growth is very important. You cannot cut your way out of it, that's for sure. If you eliminated all of the discretionary - that means all of the spending that is not a part of entitlements, you still would only be partway there.
INSKEEP: You are beginning another Congress as the leader of the minority. You had hopes at one time of becoming speaker again. Do you still believe that you will speaker again?
PELOSI: I think that's probably the least-important question you can ask. I do hope that the Democrats will be in power again. I think events of this past Congress have demonstrated that when you had to get a job done, whether it was passing affordable health care, Wall Street reform that was so necessary, a long list of initiatives that were very positive and helpful to the middle class. So what it means to me personally, again, is unimportant. What it means to the American people, though, is important. And I certainly hope and will work very hard for the Democrats to win a majority again.
INSKEEP: Ms. Pelosi, thanks very much.
PELOSI: Thank you. Happy New Year to you.
INSKEEP: Nancy Pelosi is the House Democratic leader in the new Congress. She spoke in her office in the Capitol. We have extended an invitation to Speaker John Boehner to return to this program.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Music fans began the new year with a goodbye - to Patti Page who died on the holiday at age 85.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TENNESSEE WALTZ")
PATTI PAGE: (Singing) I was dancing with my darling to the Tennessee Waltz when an old friend I happened to see...
INSKEEP: She was a defining voice of post-war America. She sold more than 100 million records, many of them copies of the "Tennessee Waltz."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TENNESSEE WALTZ")
PAGE: (Singing) Yes, I lost my little darling the night they were playing, the beautiful Tennessee Waltz.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Patti Page was born Clara Ann Fowler in Oklahoma in 1927, one of 11 children. She grew up in the years of the Depression and World War Two. And as a teenager, she appeared on a radio show sponsored by the Page Milk Company. The regular Page-singer was out and so she took the name and kept it, and went on to record a series of hits.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DOGGIE IN THE WINDOW")
PAGE: (Singing) How Much is that doggie in the window?
(Singing) The one with the waggily tail. How much...
INSKEEP: The woman who took her name from the Page Milk Company radio show eventually had her own "Patti Page Show" on network TV. In 1999, she finally won a Grammy Award for a live recording at Carnegie Hall, "Practice, Practice, Practice."
GREENE: Her death comes amid plans to award her a Lifetime Achievement Grammy. A singer who worked with her, George Jones, remembers her by saying, she hit notes I never dreamed of.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DOGGIE IN THE WINDOW")
PAGE: (Singing) I do hope that doggies for sale.
INSKEEP: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
GREENE: And I'm David Greene.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Current TV has a new owner. The news channel founded in 2004 by former Vice President Al Gore has been sold to Al Jazeera. This is part of an effort by Al Jazeera - which is based in Qatar - to reach more viewers in the United States.
As NPR's Steve Henn reports, the deal is likely to net Gore millions, and it could bring Al Jazeera into more than 40 millions American homes.
STEVE HENN, BYLINE: In the past year, Al Jazeera has won some of the most prestigious awards in broadcast journalism. But Robert Wheelock, Al Jazeera's executive producer in the Americas, says the network has struggled to get its programs onto American television sets.
ROBERT WHEELOCK: I live in New York and Washington, and I can see it in both places. Otherwise, it's, you know, places like Burlington, Vermont.
HENN: And that's about it. Many cable networks were reluctant to carry the channel. But by buying Current TV from Al Gore and his partners, Al Jazeera will gain access to tens of millions of living rooms.
WHEELOCK: They're in about 60 million homes, currently, across America. We anticipate that we'll be in about 40 million of those. But, you know, look, it's a quantum leap for us.
HENN: In a statement, Al Gore said we're proud and pleased that Al Jazeera has bought Current TV. He added: Al Jazeera, like Current, believes that facts and truth lead to a better understanding of the world around us.
Al Jazeera declined to say how much it paid for Current. A year ago, analysts valued the network at half-a-billion dollars. In 2008, when Current attempted and failed to go public, Al Gore owned 25 percent.
Steve Henn, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
New unemployment and employment numbers come out for December tomorrow. And today, we'll try to figure out what perspective we should have on those numbers. Now, in the previous month's report, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent, which is a four-year low.
Nariman Behravesh is chief economist at IHS Global Insight, an international consulting firm. And he says it may be time to rethink what a good unemployment number is. We start here with a definition of full employment.
NARIMAN BEHRAVESH: Well, full employment is defined as basically everybody who's looking for a job or is looking to be employed is, in fact, employed.
INSKEEP: The first time I ever heard of this concept - when I was a teenager, maybe -people talked about full employment as being about a 5 percent unemployment rate. They didn't think of the zero percent unemployment rate. They said 5 percent.
BEHRAVESH: Well, and there are issues that won't ever get us down to zero. There's something called frictional unemployment, which is to say there's always going to be people between jobs. So at any given moment, there will be people who are out of a job and looking for a job. There's sort of structural employment issues in the sense that there may be some high-skilled that are waiting to be filled, but a lot of low-skilled workers who won't get those jobs. So there's always going to be some people who are going to be out there who can't quite find a job, but for very sort of straightforward reasons, not because the economy is a mess or because we're in a recession or anything like that.
INSKEEP: OK. So there's some number that's above zero that feels like full employment, or is awfully close to that, that's realistic to hope for. Has that number changed over time as the economy has changed?
BEHRAVESH: That is a number that does change. It changes with demographics. It changes with the business cycle, to some extent. So, for example, in the boom years of the 1990s and the 2000s, a lot of economists thought the unemployment - the full employment-unemployment rate was around 4 percent. Now the view is that just given all the changes that have occurred since the financial crisis, it may be closer to 6 percent. So it is a number that changes
INSKEEP: OK. This is disturbing to hear, because in the early 2000s, there was a recession - as you know very well - and the unemployment rate went up to six percent or so, and that was considered very, very bad. And now you're saying that that might be full employment in our changed economy? That might be the best we can hope for, is six?
BEHRAVESH: Now, the 2000-2001 recession was one of the mildest in the postwar period, whereas, of course, the recession we just went through was the worst since the Great Depression. So it is ironic that the high at that point of 6 percent is now viewed as full employment, basically. It's a little disturbing, but I think that's just the reality of where we are right now, relative to stay where we were four or five years ago.
INSKEEP: OK. So we've got the situation where six percent might be the best that we can aim for. We're in the sevens right now. At least it has, in recent months, been moving in the right direction. What would move it further in the right direction?
BEHRAVESH: Well, certainly, sustained growth ideally closer to 3 percent would help to bring the number down. Unfortunately, over the next year, we're probably only going to get about 2 percent growth, which means the unemployment rate is going to be stuck around sort of seven-and-a-half, maybe a little higher, for probably the better part of this year. But then our view is that the underlying strength in the economy will eventually start to kick in, as housing recovers, as consumer spending picks up, as businesses start to spend. So by the end of 2014, we have a shot at getting below seven and hopefully heading towards that full employment number of 6 percent.
INSKEEP: Are we never going to get to that 1990s-style 4 percent unemployment again in this country?
BEHRAVESH: I think a 4 percent number is probably unattainable in the next, say, five to six years. Again, a lot depends on sort of how the structure of the economy changes. You can never say never. But I would say in the coming decade, we probably will have a very hard time getting down to that 4 percent.
INSKEEP: Nariman Behravesh is author of "Spin-Free Economics." Thanks very much.
BEHRAVESH: My pleasure.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Now to television in this country. A joint venture between Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications seemed like a perfect TV recipe. But what the Oprah Winfrey Network started serving two years ago has not been very popular. NPR's Lauren Silverman reports the network has revised its programming and is trying to draw viewers in for another sample.
LAUREN SILVERMAN, BYLINE: When Oprah made the switch from syndicated TV show to cable network, fans like Antoinette Powell were supposed to follow.
ANTOINETTE POWELL: I belong to the cult of Oprah.
SILVERMAN: It should have been easy for OWN to reel her in.
POWELL: It's like, oh, it's going to be all Oprah all the time. That's kind of what I thought it was going to be, and it turned out to be just a little different than I thought it would be.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Shania Twain.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Shania Twain.
SILVERMAN: It wasn't just Shania Twain's reality show that was a disappointment for fans like Powell. There was a whole series of shows featuring forgotten celebrities that were all, well, downers.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: There's a lot of resentment.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It's been heartache after heartache.
SILVERMAN: The Judds, the O'Neals - the family feud shows were all failures for the network. But by far, the biggest disaster was "The Rosie Show."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE ROSIE SHOW")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Please help me welcome Rosie!
SILVERMAN: Discovery poured millions into the afternoon talk show. It revamped Oprah's old studio in Chicago, but it never found an audience and was yanked off the air in March. That same month, Oprah laid off 30 employees and fired OWN's CEO.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Is there a bigger embarrassment in the cable television space than the Oprah...
(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS BROADCASTS)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It has been a bumpy start for the billionaire queen of daytime TV...
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: With Oprah's struggles, whose couch does she sit on?
OPRAH WINFREY: I don't know of a worse week of my entire life.
SILVERMAN: One of the network's biggest problems, according to TV critic Eric Deggans, is that hardcore fans like Antoinette Powell were going through serious Oprah denial.
ERIC DEGGANS: People who watch OWN want to see Oprah. They don't want to see surrogates for Oprah. They don't want to see Oprah's best friends or, you know, celebrity pals. They want to see Oprah.
SILVERMAN: So OWN started new shows featuring Oprah and she made guest appearances in even more. Since then, ratings have started to climb. Exclusive interviews with stars like Rhianna and Justin Beiber pulled in millions of viewers, and the network's seen 10 straight months of growth. But Oprah's magic accounts for only part of OWN's rebound.
TV critic Deggans says the other ingredient is programming that attracts a specific demographic.
DEGGANS: It's obvious that these shows are friendly to African-American females.
SILVERMAN: Deggans is talking about two shows that also debuted last year - "Welcome To Sweetie Pie's"...
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "WELCOME TO SWEETIE PIE'S")
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: This is the moment I've been waiting for for two years.
SILVERMAN: And "Iyanla: Fix My Life."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "IYANLA: FIX MY LIFE")
IYANLA VANZANT: Just close your eyes for me.
SILVERMAN: These strong black women run businesses and offer advice.
LARRY GERBRANDT: Their greatest success is in targeting 25-54 African-American women.
SILVERMAN: Larry Gerbrandt is an analyst with Media Valuation Partners. He says this forward ratings momentum is likely to continue, especially now that Oprah's tapped media mogul Tyler Perry to create original scripted shows for the network. Discovery is betting Tyler Perry and Oprah, arguably the biggest names in media for African American women, can help OWN recover.
GERBRANDT: They've actually lost substantially more money than they had even originally budgeted. The good news is the network is on target to reach cash flow break even sometime in 2013.
SILVERMAN: That might now sound like great news, but Gerbrandt and Deggans agree, these are normal growing pains for any cable network. The difference is no one expected Oprah to have normal growing pains. Lauren Silverman, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Sandy prompted calls for greater resilience for America's cities, stronger tunnels, better electrical grids, flood barriers. Turns out reinforcing the social infrastructure may be just as important. Sociologist Eric Klinenberg writes in The New Yorker magazine, about what makes communities resilient in the face of climate change. His best example involves the city of Chicago. In July of 1995, more than 700 people died in one of the worst heat waves on record.
But two adjacent, nearly identical neighborhoods had very different rates of survival.
ERIC KLINENBERG: One is called Englewood, the other is called Auburn Gresham and they're literally next to each other. They have the same microclimate; both very poor, both lots of older people living alone. In Englewood, the death rate was about 33 per 100,000 residents.
INSKEEP: Really bad.
KLINENBERG: One of the highest in Chicago. In Auburn Gresham, it was three per 100,000 residents. It was safer than many places on the far more affluent and white north sides of Chicago.
INSKEEP: Auburn Gresham was safer in the heat wave?
KLINENBERG: Auburn Gresham is a neighborhood that has poverty, yes; and it's segregated, yes. But it has small commercial establishments that draw older people who are vulnerable to heat waves out of their homes and into public life. It has a viable social infrastructure.
INSKEEP: OK. So you're telling me that if I were to live in an old-style urban neighborhood, where there's a coffee shop down the street, where there's a corner store, where there's a corner dry cleaner, where people walk around and they may know the neighbors, and kids play on the street, that I am more likely to survive is a disaster because of the kind of community that I'm in?
KLINENBERG: For many disasters, that is absolutely true. And it's certainly true in everyday life. In Englewood, it's a neighborhood that had suffered from decades of abandonment. So many people had moved out and there'd been so much transition that people know their neighbors as well. Older people were more reluctant to leave their homes. And it turned out to be much more dangerous place during the heat wave.
It's also, I should say, much more dangerous every day. If you live in Auburn Gresham, you have a life expectancy that's five years longer than if you lived in Englewood - literally, the neighborhood next door.
INSKEEP: Well, let's extend the conversation. You learned this lesson looking at a heat wave in Chicago. You've now got cities across America and around the world facing a variety of challenges or potential challenges, because of climate change. How do you apply that lesson broadly?
KLINENBERG: Well, we need to think about when we invest in the new kind of homeland security - the homeland security projects that protects us from climate change, as well as from terrorism - that we invest in systems that have dual uses. They should protect us from an attack of the elements or extreme weather, but they should also make living conditions better every day. And there are all kinds of examples of that.
In fact, in Englewood, residents are trying to take their disadvantage, which is abandonment, and turn it into an advantage by creating urban gardens and urban farming; providing shade and better climate but also food and opportunity for more social cohesion.
INSKEEP: You know, we talk about resiliency, I think many people start out thinking of it as an engineering problem - where do we put the seawall against a hurricane, where do we put the concrete barrier against a terrorist bombing. And it seems that you're saying that resiliency is more of a social problem. How do we build a strong community that can deal with whatever may come up?
KLINENBERG: It's at least a combination of the physical and the social systems that we need to do. We always talk about the physical engineering that we need to protect cities, and systems and people during crises. We have failed to recognize the significance of our social infrastructure, the way in which communications matters, the way in which our relationships with neighbors, and family and friends matters; the way in which our neighborhood can protect or imperil us, depending on where we are.
As we remake our system for homeland security, in light of the risk we face with climate change, I sincerely hope that we invest in the social infrastructure. Because when a real disaster strikes, it's the social stuff that might make the difference between life and death.
INSKEEP: Eric Klinenberg is professor of Sociology at New York University. His article, "Adaptation," is in the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine.
Thanks very much.
KLINENBERG: My pleasure, thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
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This next story is about learning to fight to heal the scars of war. We're going to a part of the world that's known nothing but conflict for two decades, eastern Congo.
NPR's Gregory Warner found a spot in the city of Goma, where what's flying aren't grenades and bullets, but jabs and uppercuts.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS)
GREGORY WARNER, BYLINE: At six in the morning, even the streets of Goma have a sense of peace about them. Music spills from the store front churches and the normally terrifying motorcycle taxis give you a discounted first customer fare.
(SOUNDBITE OF WHIRRING)
WARNER: And 6 A.M. is the time that a group of young men, that call themselves the Friendship Club, gather in a concrete notch of an open-air soccer stadium to train. Lacking ropes or a ring, or in some cases sneakers, the men exchange jabs while their trainer and coach Kibomango looks on with a serene smile.
KIBOMANGO: Let's start again. I feel at ease when I see them practicing.
(Through Translator) Considering what we passed through, when I see young people practicing like this, it pleases me a lot.
WARNER: Thirty-five--year-old Kibumango is blind in his left eye from a bomb blast, which must be strange for his opponents because he boxes southpaw. The eye you see when he comes at you is shriveled, sunken, an old man's eye on a powerful body.
KIBOMANGO: It doesn't matter having one eye, because I'm used to fighting since my youth.
WARNER: Kibumango's whole childhood was a series of battles. First as a street boy fighting for food and turf, and then as a child soldier in the rebel army that brought the now-rulers of Congo to power. Today, the young men he coaches are 19, 20 years old, but already veterans, snatched up by militia groups to fight at age 10 or 12. Kibumango teaches them boxing as well as auto mechanics, with help from a local NGO called the Kivu Assistance and Reintegration Centre. It was started by Congolese peace activists.
KEDRIQUE MOKE: (Foreign language spoken)
WARNER: 19 year old Kedrique Moke boxes under the name Tyson.
MOKE: Yeah, I am very Tyson. I'm very, very good Tyson. I'm a champion of most of Congo.
WARNER: Is it like you fight like Tyson?
MOKE: Yah.
WARNER: Tyson was 10 years old when he was conscripted into the Union of Congolese Patriots - a rebel militia notorious for ethnic massacres, tortures and rapes.
MOKE: (Foreign language spoken)
WARNER: He says he doesn't remember very much.
MOKE: (Through Translator) What is true, we were given a sort of water which was spirit water. It changes your mind and whatever thing you do you don't know it. So if we killed, we killed, but we were not under control of ourselves.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: One, one, two, two, three, three, four, four...
WARNER: It might seem odd that teaching former killers the art of fighting could help them become better citizens or deal with their PTSD. But Kibomango says boxing and fighting are as different as sports and war. Raw brutality doesn't win matches. You have to pay attention and stay in control, not the way he recalls himself as a child soldier, lost in space.
KIBOMANGO: So when I say being in the space, it means that I wasn't really responsible for myself. I was someone that ready to be sent wherever. Go here, I go. Do this, I do. That's why I say that it was if I was in the space.
WARNER: Just three years ago, the one-eyed Kibomango rose up to become welterweight champion of his province. And this month, he and some of his trainees were going to the nationals. That is, until November, when a rebel group called M23 took over the city of Goma. The governor fled and took with him the money that the boxers were supposed to use to fly to the championship in Kinshasa.
So now, each night on TV, Kibomango watches other boxers fight his bouts. And instead of dealing with sports agents, he's dealing with a different kind of local recruiter.
KIBOMANGO: We are targeted. They would like to catch us again to put us in the army.
WARNER: The M23 rebels, though officially retreated from the city, still lurk around training sessions in civilian clothes.
KIBOMANGO: They say it's good there, things are going to be good. We're going to be mechanics, boxing there.
WARNER: They tell them - wait - you'll be able to be a mechanic and a boxer in the M23?
KIBOMANGO: (Through Translator) Yes and receive salaries. That's what they said.
FABRICE DJEF: (Foreign language spoken)
WARNER: As when talking, a young boxer, Fabrice Djef, interrupts. We are sons of Congo, he tells me. We'd die before we fought for M23 against our country.
But Kibomango says he's already lost two boxers to the M23. And he's not so quick to label his former trainees as traitors.
KIBOMANGO: So yes, they are being recruited. Even me, if it continues like this - because there's no other way of surviving without being a soldier - I can even go again to the army.
WARNER: Even if that means giving up boxing and going back to the fighting life.
Gregory Warner, NPR News, Nairobi.
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It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene.
Farmers and ranchers across this country expected to start the year with a new farm bill in place. This is an important piece of legislation to many people. It sets agricultural policy for the next five years.
When House and Senate negotiators were working feverishly over the weekend to come to a fiscal cliff deal, word leaked that the Agriculture Committees had finally come to an agreement on new farm legislation. But the larger fiscal cliff deal merely extended parts of a farm bill that expired in October.
Jeremy Bernfeld of member station KCUR in Kansas City reports that farmers are frustrated.
JEREMY BERNFELD, BYLINE: It takes months for most crops to grow, and farmers are used to waiting. But many farmers and ranchers say they've waited too long for a comprehensive farm bill and are fed up with Congress.
ALFRED BRANDT: Not surprised, but disappointed that they couldn't come together on something, and just leaving a lot of people kind of out there on a limb, not knowing what's going on.
BERNFELD: That's Alfred Brandt, who runs a dairy farm near Linn, Missouri. He milks about 150 cows on his pastoral farm just off a gravel road.
The farm bill is important to farmers like Brandt, because it sets all kinds of subsidy payments, disaster relief programs and conservation agendas. Farmers can't control much about their business, so they crave certainty about the aspects they can control. Without knowing what agriculture policy will look like next year, it's tough for them to make best-practice planting decisions. It's hard for ranchers and dairy producers to decide just how big their herds should be.
The farm bill is usually authorized for five years. But since Congress couldn't pass a new bill, it merely extended parts of the previous farm bill until the end of September, picking and choosing which programs to fund. That's nine more months of short-term policy, and nine more months of uncertainty for farmers like Brandt.
BRANDT: We're just kind of left out here on a lurch. We don't really know which we way we can turn. So we'd just like to know whether it's good or bad for us, but the uncertainty of it is the part that we don't like.
BERNFELD: Extending the farm bill also locks in another round of controversial direct payments. That means billions in government subsidies for some grain, cotton and soybean farmers, subsidies that even many of them don't think are necessary anymore.
And the extension doesn't include funding for disaster aid programs and programs designed to encourage young people to get back in to farming. It also doesn't fully fund programs that help support local farmers markets and agricultural research provisions.
Ferd Heofner with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition says merely extending the current farm bill hurts small, local farmers.
FERD HEOFNER: The takeaway is that we're going backwards in time, getting rid of the programs that I think the general public and the consumers are demanding. Those are the same programs that are getting terminated.
BERNFELD: The extension hit dairy producers especially hard. Many say the safety net for them is outdated, and the new farm bill would have created a program to protect them against higher feed costs.
Jerry Kozak heads the National Milk Producers Federation. He says last year's drought significantly raised the cost of feed, and that's chasing some dairy farmers out of business.
JERRY KOZAK: Whether it's dairy farming or producing Energizer batteries, no one can produce a product at a loss.
BERNFELD: Kozak says dairy farmers looking for a new safety net are out of luck, at least until the extension expires at the end of September.
KOZAK: Of course we're frustrated. And in the interim, as dairy farm families exit the business while we're still debating it, it clearly is going to fall on the heads of those who failed to bring this up for a vote.
BERNFELD: So even farmers - long-known for their patience - are growing weary of waiting on Congress.
For NPR News, I'm Jeremy Bernfeld.
GREENE: And Jeremy's story came to us from Harvest Public Media. That's a public radio reporting collaboration that focuses on agriculture and food production.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Despite their frustration with Congress, some farmers are relieved, but not because of the money they make on their crops. In part of the fiscal cliff deal, Congress extended a tax credit that benefits the wind energy industry. And that is today's bottom-line in business. The landscapes of Midwestern farm states have changed dramatically, due to wind power.
As NPR's Sonari Glinton reports, wind has also changed the landscape economically and politically.
SONARI GLINTON, BYLINE: Iowa has a lot to be proud of, and it's not just the state fair - awesome as it is - or amber waves of grain.
KIRK KRAFT: Iowa is so proud of our wind industry, that we actually promote it right on our drivers' license.
GLINTON: Kirk Kraft is with RPM Access, a small wind energy startup that puts wind turbines on farmland in Iowa.
KRAFT: The new drivers' licenses have a small wind turbine right on our license. And...
GLINTON: Oh, can I see? Can I see? Do you have yours on you?
KRAFT: Sure. Yeah. Right there.
GLINTON: Before Kraft was in the wind business, he was the mayor of Clear Lake, Iowa. He says wind energy can mean big money for small towns.
KRAFT: Because we pay property tax on our turbines, and by definition, we're in rural counties, because we need space. And lots of times, we're the largest property tax payer in the county when we get up and running.
GLINTON: The federal tax credit makes wind energy more competitive with other sources of power, in part because it helps make the most expensive part of the process cheaper: putting up the wind mills. But once they get up and going, wind energy companies then pay farmers rent for the land around every windmill. And after putting money in farmers' pockets, the companies turn around and pay local government fees and taxes.
GUY RICHARDSON: We'll probably see tax revenues of in the neighborhood $700,000 a year for the next 20 years.
GLINTON: Guy Richardson is a county supervisor in Greene County, Iowa.
RICHARDSON: So that's going to generate $14 million worth of tax income to the county, which is huge for a county our size. We're a county of under 10,000 people.
GLINTON: The tax credit was set to go away at the end of last year. But as part of the fiscal cliff deal, Congress extended the credit for another year. It's estimated that just that one year will cost the government about $12 billion.
Critics of the subsidies point out that wind is intermittent. You only get power from the wind when it blows, and wind power remains expensive when compared to other forms of energy.
Thomas Pyle is with the American Energy Alliance. His group has encouraged the end of the production tax credit.
THOMAS PYLE: It's not that the subsidies for the wind industry in and of themselves are bad, but it is part-and-parcel of a larger problem, and that is, is that the federal government is notoriously bad at energy policy. They have been for decades, and we think it's time for them to step aside.
GLINTON: The tax credits have garnered bipartisan, but not universal support.
Iowa's Republican Senator Chuck Grassley helped write the law that provides the credits, and many other Republican officials support wind energy, as well as the president. Wind energy companies lobbied hard to get the tax breaks extended. Again, Thomas Pyle.
PYLE: If they had spent their millions and millions of dollars to get their billions and billions in subsidies on figuring out how to make wind work in the marketplace in a more effective way these past 20 years, I think that they would be in much better shape for the next 20 years.
GLINTON: Wind proponents concede that there's not likely to be the political will to sustain the credits indefinitely. Meanwhile, many farmers have come to depend on wind energy.
ROYAL HOLZ: Farmers are always watching the weather. We used to watch the visor on the barn and on the corn crib and other things. And so now we watch them on the windmill.
GLINTON: Royal Holz is a third-generation corn farmer in Grand Junction, Iowa. Now he's got wind turbines on his farm. Just one windmill can give a farmer like Holz more than $8,000 a year.
HOLZ: Well, I just think of it as my 401k. Or farmers don't usually retire, but something for the future and just a little supplemental.
GLINTON: If Congress takes up comprehensive tax reform, the production tax credit is likely to be among the first to go. But wind energy advocates say they need just a few more years for the industry to stand on its own.
Sonari Glinton, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: We're glad you've come into this New Year with your public radio station, which brings you MORNING EDITION. Glad you're listening this morning. You can continue to follow us throughout the day on social media. You can find us on Facebook. We're also on Twitter. Among other handles, we're @MORNINGEDITION, @nprgreene and @nprinskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with a warning from Moody's.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: Congress may have approved a bill that averted the crisis - the manufactured crisis known as the fiscal cliff - but the credit-rating agency Moody's is not patting lawmakers on the back. Moody's said this weeks' deficit reduction deal did not produce meaningful improvement to the issue at hand: the country's debt burden and economic output. Moody's warned that if improvements are not made, the agency could downgrade the U.S. credit rating.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And that brings us to today's last word in business: melty money.
The Bank of Canada released new hundred dollar bills in 2011. The high-tech bank notes are made of polymers. They're sort of like plastic bills. The goal was to make them indestructible. They were put through a lot of tests. They were put through the wash, frozen, boiled. But some Canadians who have their hands on the money say the plastic bills melt when subjected to extreme heat.
Publicly, the Bank of Canada is not confirming any flaw. But this week, it did release internal records about the bills to the Canadian press. The pages though, were mostly blacked out, not shedding a whole lot of light on the bills. The bank says that's because doing so could "endanger national security or international relations," end quote. This clearly remains a very hot topic in Canada.
That is the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene.
One of the first things the new House of Representatives will do today is choose a leader. Speaker John Boehner expects to keep his job, though it's not as if the last few weeks have gone as he would have hoped.
INSKEEP: Boehner backed away from a broad deal on taxes and spending, when his fellow Republicans didn't support it. He then had to allow a vote on a smaller fiscal cliff deal, even though most Republicans opposed that too. And he finished the last Congress by blocking a vote on Hurricane Sandy relief, outraging Northeastern members of his own party.
The reporters who cover John Boehner in the House of Representatives include Robert Costa of National Review. He's in our studios. Welcome to the program.
ROBERT COSTA: Oh, great to join you.
INSKEEP: The impression is created that John Boehner is powerless to control his own caucus. Is he?
COSTA: Well, John Boehner failed to pass Plan B, and that was a devastating loss for him and control in this caucus. But he comes to the floor today as speaker of the House, trying to win reelection, trying to get that gavel once again. I think he has the support. I've been following all of these Republican conference meetings. He has the support.
The question is, moving forward - even though he still will probably have speaker's gavel - will he be in a position to make deals with the president, to make deals with the Senate on the big fiscal issues? And I'm not so sure about that.
INSKEEP: Why is it that it's so difficult for him to line up his membership behind him? I mean this is a House of Representatives where traditionally there's been a lot of discipline and the speaker has been a very, very powerful person.
COSTA: One of the main reasons, of course, is that during the whipping process, you no longer have earmarks. Earmarks used to be the key part of the whipping process.
INSKEEP: Let's remind people: whipping is lining up votes. It's getting people...
COSTA: That's right. When you're counting noses, you can offer some federal pork. But no longer can you do that. All Republicans have sworn off earmarks. So now Boehner has to just try to go on the floor and woo votes one by one, just argue it based on principle. And that's not very easy to do, as we've seen in the past few weeks.
INSKEEP: So you have lawmakers who will basically look at the speaker of the House and say, well, what can you do for me? And Boehner can't answer that question because of the way he's chosen to do his job.
COSTA: I think Boehner is really a better political operator than a lot of people give him credit for. Because he's in this tough situation. He's with many conservatives in the House who are always frustrated, yet a lot of conservative activists want to challenge John Boehner, but no one in the House leadership is willing to run against Boehner.
Boehner is pretty safe right now in his power because no one really wants his job as speaker of the House. It's very tough to herd these (unintelligible).
INSKEEP: Do conservatives, the most conservative Republicans in the House, trust John Boehner, even if they will not vote the way that he wants them to vote?
COSTA: They have trusted him. For instance, they enabled him to go to the president and have these closed-door negotiations, trying to get a grand bargain of sorts as the fiscal cliff approaches. But Boehner last night went in front of the entire Republican caucus and said for no longer will he have any kind of closed-door meeting with the president. And that's a key sign that the conference has had enough of Boehner negotiating off to the side with the president.
INSKEEP: Wait a minute. He's saying I'm not going to try with President Obama behind closed doors?
COSTA: No, it's not that - he said - Boehner said he's going to try to do it through regular order. That means he's not going to go have all these White House huddles with the president, trying to hash out something on the fiscal issues. He's going to try to just do it through the House floor, and that's much more complicated.
INSKEEP: Boehner always wanted to be speaker of the House. Or wanted for a very long time to be speaker of the House, and was tearful when he finally got the job. How frustrated is he by the job now?
COSTA: I think he's frustrated in the sense - remember, this is a guy who grew up in working-class southern Ohio, sweeping floors at his family's Andy's Cafe. And he's tough. He was tough in the 1990s when he lost his leadership position. A lot of people thought he'd retire from the House in '97, '98 when he fell out of leadership.
But he's a guy who stays on, fights on. And he's also good at wooing members, at bringing members together, even at the tough moments. And that's what he's been able to do, stay in power right now.
INSKEEP: One other thing, Robert Costa, right at the end of Congress, as we mentioned, he declined to allow a vote on hurricane relief for Hurricane Sandy, outraged members of his own party. You have Peter King, a New York Republican, saying New York and New Jersey residents should stop contributing to my own party. People were outraged. Why did he do that? Why did Boehner do that?
COSTA: So when the House brought this fiscal cliff vote to the floor, it was a very tough vote. A lot of Republicans were very unhappy that the Senate cobbled together this deal and they had to vote on the deal as a clean - no amendments. And so Boehner didn't want to put pressure on the House to come have another vote on stimulus spending. A lot of Republicans consider the Sandy relief to be stimulus spending. And he didn't want to do that out of respect to his Republican colleagues. Of course their complaints happen.
But this is a good example of how Boehner operates. He heard the complaints from Peter King and others, but he brought Peter King to his office. He had a meeting yesterday at 3:00; he was able to smooth out the differences. Everything's settled. That's how John Boehner works.
INSKEEP: He said we'll vote on this in the next Congress.
COSTA: That's right.
INSKEEP: Although this is, it sounds like, another indication of the limitations of this man's power.
COSTA: That's very true. John Boehner didn't want to have the vote. People pressured it. John Boehner worked with the people who were pressuring him. He's someone who doesn't act like a dictator within the House, but at the same time he does try to have his own agenda.
INSKEEP: Robert Costa of National Review, thanks very much.
COSTA: Thank you.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
We heard Robert just talk about there how John Boehner may change his relationship with the White House and President Obama as things go forward. The president last night signed the bill that Congress passed to avoid that much-feared fiscal cliff, and as we've been discussing on this program, there are many skirmishes ahead over taxes and spending in the coming year.
And let's turn now, as we often do, to David Wessel. He's the economics editor of The Wall Street Journal and also author of "Red Ink," a recent book on the federal budget. David, good morning, and welcome back.
DAVID WESSEL: Good morning.
GREENE: And Happy New Year.
WESSEL: And same to you.
GREENE: So Congress acted in time, just in time, to avoid these across-the-board spending cuts and widespread tax increases that we were hearing about and causing so much alarm. But let's talk about the work that's left. What is left undone?
WESSEL: Well, basically three things. One, Congress only put off these across-the-board spending cuts called sequester in Washington for a couple of months. They come back in March unless Congress does something else. Second, it didn't do anything about raising the limit on federal borrowing, and federal borrowing is now up against that limit. And third, of course, it didn't finish the job of putting the federal budget onto a sustainable trajectory.
GREENE: So I mean really a lot of this was just delayed and not taken care of. I mean...
WESSEL: Absolutely.
GREENE: So what's the plan going ahead? I mean is there a plan coming together for dealing with all of this?
WESSEL: Well, if there is, they haven't shared it with the press. I mean there's so many bruises and so many tensions among the major players, not only within the House Republican caucus, but between House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, between Harry Reid and his Republican colleague Mitch McConnell, between both Democrats and Republican leaders with the White House, that it's hard to imagine some grand bargain that gets the job done.
But there are a few action-forcing events. There is, as I said, these across-the-board spending cuts that come back and the federal debt ceiling. So this is just really a break in the action. This was something like half time in the Super Bowl.
GREENE: And we'll get to the second half soon with a lot more drama probably.
WESSEL: Exactly.
GREENE: Well, as we get to the drama and to having all of these people on Capitol Hill trying to work together, one thing they'll be facing is what to do about the debt limit. When exactly does the government hit that debt limit?
WESSEL: Well, actually, the government has hit the legal limit on borrowing, which is something a little bit over $16 trillion. Treasury's now doing this thing that they do. They move money around, delay making certain payments, which buys them a couple of months. There's no precise date here, but analysts say the government won't have the money to pay its bills much beyond the end of February.
GREENE: Soon.
WESSEL: Yeah. Very soon. So we're going to have another round of this thing, and of course it was the debt ceiling fight in August 2011 that brought us the fiscal cliff in the first place. You can already see the battle lines. The president says I'm going to negotiate with Congress about this. The Republicans say, we're not going to raise the debt limit unless you cut spending.
The president says, oh, hey man, I told you if we're going to cut spending, we're going to raise taxes again. And so it's all the same cast with the same lines, just a different quarter of the game.
GREENE: But one thing that we've noticed is the stock market doesn't seem to be all that worried about these coming fights, at least not - at least not yet.
WESSEL: Yeah, I can't figure out the stock market. I mean in Washington we're anticipating another nail-biter sometime in the next couple of months, but yesterday was the best day the stock market had had in more than a year. There was a giant sigh of relief, not only on Wall Street but in stock markets around the world, that the American political system had managed at the last minute to avoid shooting the U.S. economy in the head.
Markets can be fickle, though, and they're going to be watching to see if Mr. Obama, perhaps in his State of the Union address, has some strategy to engage Congress in the next couple of months, perhaps this time dealing more with the Senate at the beginning rather than going through this game with the House so we don't go back to the fiscal cliff in just a few weeks.
GREENE: There were some business winners in this whole fiscal deal, weren't there? Some people are really happy right now?
WESSEL: Absolutely. I mean there's been all this talk about loopholes for business in the tax code and every single tax credit for business that you can ever think of that was about to expire was extended. There's a tax break for making stuff in American Samoa. There's a tax break for rum that's made in Puerto Rico, and of course there's also this incentive that businesses get if they make additional investment, something that was put in during the recession that was supposed to end and has been extended yet again.
GREENE: All right, David. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll be following this closely right along with you.
WESSEL: Good. You're welcome.
GREENE: That's The Wall Street Journal economics editor David Wessel, who joins us often here on MORNING EDITION. And you are listening to MORNING EDITION here on NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Remember these words by William Faulkner: The past is never dead, it's not even past. This next story takes us into the present and past of Mackinac Island, Michigan, which was fought over in the War of 1812. It's considered sacred by Indian tribes, who buried chiefs in its soil. Today the 200-year-old city located in northern Lake Huron is a popular destination for tourists, but the demolition of old buildings is stoking a debate about how to hold onto the past while also trying to profit from it.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Here's Peter Payette of Interlochen Public Radio.
PETER PAYETTE, BYLINE: People who worry about the future of Mackinac Island will tell you it's becoming like just about every other tourist destination. Frank Pompa has a summer place here. He says he heard a tourist say it, a boy talking to his father as they looked down historic Main Street.
FRANK POMPA: And the little boy just yells out to his dad; he says, Daddy, Daddy, look. It looks just like Disneyland. And I just kind of thought to myself, boy, out of the mouths of babes. This little kid could see it.
PAYETTE: But unlike Disneyland, Mackinac Island is a real city, with gorgeous historic buildings and an 18th century fort. This isn't a place filled with facades made to look old and workers who take off costumes at the end of each day. Main Street here is a colorful mix of hotels and shops, lined up tightly along the narrow street, with balconies above.
They banned automobiles here at the turn of the last century and the entire island is a National Landmark, one of the first selected for that status. Close to a million people come to visit every year. And Nancy May, a third generation resident, says they find something unique.
NANCY MAY: And they see horses going by and people on bicycles. It's the only place in America you can experience this, the only place.
(SOUNDBITE OF CONSTRUCTION)
PAYETTE: Winter is construction season here and the builders have been busy lately. Two more hotels were proposed for the downtown, which is only a few city blocks. That's why some residents fear the historic character of Mackinac Island is slipping from their grasp. Between 1970 and 2000, more than 100 buildings were torn down.
In 2002, the National Park Service put the island's landmark status on a watch list, noting there are no protections for these structures. The only way to stop the demolitions is to create historic districts. And a plan to do that is ready for a final vote of the city council.
But the idea is not welcome by many here in the business community. The issue was stirred up recently up when a 125-year-old cottage on Main Street was torn down to make way for a new hotel. Ira Green is the developer who demolished McNally Cottage. Sitting at lunch at the Village Inn, he says the building was obsolete.
IRA GREEN: Everything about it didn't work. Had the owners been able to maintain it, I'm sure they would of but they couldn't, so they had to let it go.
PAYETTE: Green says if people want to maintain old buildings, they can buy them and do so. But he says they shouldn't put that financial burden on him. He agrees preserving the charm of the island is crucial, but he questions just who gets to decide where to draw the line.
GREEN: Is it OK for the third party to come in and say to me, you can't really take down this building and recreate it good enough? And I have to go, honestly? That building that you wanted saved had windows in it that were rotted out but the replacement windows are fine. Why not the replacement structure?
PAYETTE: There's lots of money at stake. Property downtown sells for millions of dollars these days. An owner who suddenly loses the right to tear down an old building can take a big financial hit. Advocates of the historic district say that without these buildings the very reason visitors are drawn to Mackinac Island will be lost. Business owners counter that they've been good stewards of this island. That dispute is now in the hands of local politicians who will decide whether old buildings deserve protections. And most are business owners. For NPR News, I'm Peter Payette.
INSKEEP: Covering the here and now as well as the there and then, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.
You've seen this happen, maybe done it yourself. You approach an intersection, the light turns yellow, but instead of slowing to a stop, you accelerate and blow through. Chinese authorities have now outlawed this practice. New rules say yellow is the new red. It means stop. The change has prompted vocal protest, even at the official Chinese news agency. One Chinese critic says the new rules are contrary to Newton's First Law about momentum.
It's MORNING EDITION.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Good morning. I'm David Greene. Don't play with the iPad if Mom tells you not to, especially if Mom's a prankster. Eight-year-old Kenyon was looking at a car on eBay. Mom told him he accidentally bought it for $50,000.
KENYON: Is that true? Did I?
MOM: I'm afraid so.
GREENE: She posted his reaction on YouTube.
KENYON: It was a Mustang. I didn't mean to buy it.
GREENE: Mom quickly came clean and said her family laughs with and sometimes at each other. It's MORNING EDITION.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
No, you haven't accidentally switched stations. This is still public radio. We're just rocking out to the band Judas Priest.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
GREENE: This is a favorite band of music writer Laina Dawes. She is all about their loud and fast guitars, the piercing vocals - and she loves to see them perform live. But now I'm going to tell you something that shouldn't matter: She's a black woman. This, she says, can make things very uncomfortable out on the metal scene. She's been verbally harassed and told she's not welcome.
LAINA DAWES: There's still a lot of resistance in terms of who should be listening to what genre of music based on their gender and their ethnicity, which is - does not make any sense to me, you know, in 2012.
GREENE: But that's the reality, and Laina Dawes writes about in issue in her new book, "What Are You Doing Here?" Dawes' story takes us back to when she was a child. The band Kiss grabbed hold of her.
DAWES: I was just enthralled with their make-up, and they looked really scary and really exciting. And right after that I asked my parents if they could buy me a Kiss record. And so I received "Kiss Double Platinum" when I turned eight years old.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DEUCE")
GENE SIMMONS: (singing) Baby, if you're feeling good. Baby, if you're feeling nice. You know your man is working hard. He's worth a deuce.
DAWES: Being 11 or 12 years old, I really resonated with the sound of anger and my internal struggles or what I was going through. And I found that listening to the music in my bedroom, being able to just, you know, feel like you could scream and yell and really express your anger, that really helped me out when I was a kid.
GREENE: What were these inner struggles that made you want to scream at your parents and scream at teachers and so forth?
DAWES: Well, my background is I was adopted. I grew up in a very rural part, outside of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. I went to a primarily all white school, so we dealt with a lot of racism. So my parents, even though they were always there and supportive as much as they could be, I didn't feel that they were taking my concerns seriously.
Like, you know, getting on the school bus and things being thrown at you, and teased and racial insults. As soon as I got home, I knew that I couldn't tell my parents. I knew that they wouldn't understand, and that really caused a lot of depression for me as a kid, because I really didn't feel like I had anyone to talk to about it.
GREENE: So you're coming home from school having been the only black child on the school bus and feeling a lot of racism. You come home and you don't even feel like you can talk to your parents. You just go right to your room.
DAWES: Right. Right. I just - subconsciously I knew that I was on my own. I didn't feel like anyone would really understand. Or, I guess not even that - that would do anything about it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
GREENE: When was the first time that you started to feel like this world of metal was not very welcoming to a black woman?
(LAUGHTER)
DAWES: Well, it was funny. Because I was in high school and there was a boy who went to another high school. And so he was really into metal, and we would talk on the phone. And I remember that he said that he wanted to meet me at a shopping mall on the weekend.
And he said, well, what do you look like? I said, well, I'm black and this and this. And he hung up the phone. I never heard from him again.
GREENE: As soon as you told him that you were black.
DAWES: Right. And also from, you know, other reactions of, you know, my black female friends in high school and their parents wondering why I'm wearing a Def Leppard T-shirt or whatever, and really kind of questioning me on my cultural legitimacy as a black person.
All of those together made me really understand at a pretty young age, that, as a black woman, I'm not supposed to be doing this, and there's something wrong with me because I enjoy this music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
DAWES: In some ways, black communities, you know, music is so integral in terms of a storytelling mechanism. Back in the blues era, African-American women were actually able to talk about their hardships and sorrows through music, and be very personal. To listen to that is a real sign of cultural legitimacy.
Hip-hop, because it's also obviously a black-centric music form, when I was in my 20s and hip-hop was coming out, a lot of black people felt that if you listened to hip-hop, that means that you're really black, that you're proud of yourself, that you know who you are.
So when black people listen to quote/unquote "white-centric" music - which is rock 'n' roll, or country, or heavy metal, punk, hardcore - it's seen that they are somehow not proud of who they are, they would prefer to be somebody else outside of being black. And it's seen as a slap in the face.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
GREENE: How has crossing this very difficult boundary changed you?
DAWES: I think it's just made me a stronger person. I mean, things that you find that you really are passionate about, they usually don't come easy to you. I've had experiences at concerts and shows that have really hurt me and have really made me think, why am I doing this again?
(LAUGHTER)
DAWES: Like what's the point. And really, when it comes down to it, it's the music. It makes me feel so good that I'm willing to put up with the occasional challenging experience in order to do something that I've really wanted to do since I was a child. And at 11, 12 years old I never thought I would be doing what I'm doing today.
GREENE: Laina Dawes, thank you so much for talking to us about this.
DAWES: Great. Well, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.
GREENE: She's the author of "What Are You Doing Here?: A Black Woman's Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal." And if you would like to read an excerpt from "What Are You Doing Here?" - we have it up at our website, npr.org.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We've also been reporting this week on the extra provisions in that fiscal cliff deal that Congress passed on New Year's Day. NPR's Julie Rovner reports there were some key changes to health policy included as well.
JULIE ROVNER, BYLINE: The health care change that got the most attention saved doctors who treat Medicare patients from a cut in their pay. A really, really big cut, says David Bronson. He's president of the American College of Physicians and an internist in Cleveland, Ohio.
DAVID BRONSON: We know that this would really devastate access to seniors, to just cut payment rates by almost 27 percent, and that would be a terrible thing for the American public.
ROVNER: Because a cut that big would almost certainly drive doctors to stop taking new Medicare patients and perhaps even drop existing ones. But the language in the bill wasn't exactly what doctors were hoping for. It's just another one-year delay in what's become a familiar series since what just about everyone agrees is a flawed payment formula began calling for cuts in 2002.
BRONSON: We're happy that the cuts aren't going into place, but we're hopeful that somehow this year a long term solution to get a stable payment system for physicians will get done.
ROVNER: Of course that's been the plan every year since 2003, when Congress first started putting the cuts off. It hasn't happened yet. Meanwhile, in the shorter term, Bronson says doctors are worried about what might happen when the across-the-board cuts known as the sequester are back on the table in just eight more weeks.
BRONSON: We're particularly concerned about graduate medical education.
ROVNER: That's the program where the federal government helps pay for the training of young doctors, nurses and other medical professionals.
BRONSON: That has been listed as a potential place where cuts could be made, and graduate medical education is vital to the medical workforce in this country. And we need to be expanding it, not reducing it.
ROVNER: But a health program no one was watching already got eliminated as part of the fiscal cliff deal. It was called the CLASS Act, and it was originally part of the 2010 health law. Originally added to the bill just before his death by Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, the CLASS program was intended to provide moderate cost, publicly administered, long-term-care insurance that would provide moderate benefits in return. Larry Minnix is president of Leading Age, a group of more than 6,000 nonprofit providers of services to seniors and people with disabilities.
LARRY MINNIX: Long-term care, in the broadest sense of it, is responsible for people, including families, the 355 days a year they're not in the hospital and the 22 hours a day they're not in the doctor's office. And there was no product available for those people and we thought it was time that that gap be filled.
ROVNER: Republicans, however, saw the CLASS Act as a new and potentially unlimited government program that couldn't possibly pay for itself. Says Minnix...
MINNIX: We went from something that most every family is going to need but nobody wanted to talk about, into the most controversial part of it.
ROVNER: So in October of 2011, with the entire health law under legal attack, Obama officials put the CLASS Act into what Minnix refers to as an administration-induced coma.
MINNIX: We understand why they did it. It became too controversial at a controversial time.
ROVNER: But the administration had successfully fended off efforts to repeal the program, until now. At the insistence of West Virginia Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller, CLASS was replaced by a new bipartisan commission charged with coming up with plans for helping Americans pay for long-term care. But it's still essentially back to square one for the program, and for Medicare, worries health policy analyst Bob Laszewski, which has been a major sticking point in all the recent budget battles. And it's likely to come up again in upcoming fights over the delayed budget cuts, raising the debt ceiling, and when last year's temporary spending bills expire, all before the end of March.
BOB LASZEWSKI: We're going to have three more cliff issues over the next three months, but we don't even have a Medicare entitlement fix on the table, from either side.
ROVNER: Which means the 113th Congress is almost certain to get off to a rocky start. Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Every year around this time, tens of thousands of people take part in a kind of birdwatching marathon. It's happening in Canada, Latin America and throughout the United States. Many participants get up in the middle of the night, brave frigid winter temperatures, and do whatever else it takes to count as many birds as they can in 24 hours.
And as NPR's Véronique LaCapra reports, these counts are telling scientists a lot about how birds across the Americas are doing.
BRUICE HILL: I have a flashlight here. Oh, you've got one there.
VERONIQUE LACAPRA, BYLINE: It's just after 6:30 on a cold winter morning in northern Virginia. It's still really dark, and a hazy, almost full moon hangs just above the horizon. Members of the Loudoun County bird count are standing in the middle of a gravel road. They're trying to trick an eastern screech owl into calling out.
(SOUNDBITE OF SCREECH OWL)
LACAPRA: That's a Smartphone app recording that Bruce Hill and his bird count team are using.
HILL: If they hear their own call, they will typically respond, either territorially or because they're interested in finding a mate, something like that.
LACAPRA: Hill says he can recognize about 300 different species just by hearing them. He's been doing this bird count for at least 20 years.
HILL: It is definitely addictive.
LACAPRA: It's known as the Christmas Bird Count, but teams have from mid-December to January 5 to get their counting done. Geoff LeBaron directs the program for the National Audubon Society, which consolidates the data.
GEOFF LEBARON: There are people that fly across the country or crisscross the country to do counts.
LACAPRA: LeBaron did his first holiday bird count in the late '70s and has hardly missed a year since. He says the count started back in 1900, as a reaction to a very different holiday tradition. The Side Hunt, as it was known, had teams competing not to count birds but to shoot and kill them. That first year, 27 people participated in the count. LeBaron says this winter they're expecting more than 60,000.
LEBARON: And it's pretty much the same people doing it the same way in the same areas at the same time of year every year, so you get really good trend data over time.
LACAPRA: David Bonter is a bird scientist with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
DAVID BONTER: We're seeing some really big changes in where birds are being seen across North America.
LACAPRA: One big change is that many birds are expanding their winter ranges further north.
BONTER: Very likely the warming climate has something to do with that. The birds are often limited at the northern edge of their range by severe winter weather, and with a series of mild winters, that allows birds to survive at the northern limits of their range where they may not have in the past.
LACAPRA: Scientists are also seeing changes due to spreading industrial-scale agriculture and urban development. Prairie birds are declining, but birds that go to feeders - like cardinals and jays - are doing great.
HILL: So we're going to walk down this way a little ways, and try again for a barred owl.
LACAPRA: Back at the Virginia bird count, it's almost sunrise. Bruce Hill and his team have been at it for about an hour. The group has found plenty of birds: nuthatches, chickadees, a flicker, even a bald eagle perched on a distant tree. But no owls.
HILL: A lot of times you'll just walk right by owls and not even know it, they usually just sit very still, and they're usually near a trunk somewhere, and unless you're really looking for them hard, you'll miss them.
LACAPRA: My hands and feet are starting to get a little numb. Then suddenly we see it.
HILL: There he is. There's a barred owl right there, flying.
LACAPRA: The large brown bird glides across the road in front of us, then disappears into a patch of cedar trees.
HILL: Excellent.
LACAPRA: By the end of the day, Hill and his team will have racked up a total of 67 species - almost 4,300 birds. Not a record, but still pretty good. Veronique LaCapra, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And it is Friday morning; time for StoryCorps, the project recording the lives of everyday Americans. Today we hear from Reginald Mason, who came to StoryCorps to talk about growing up in New York City. It was the 1970s, and Reginald was being raised by a single mom in Harlem.
REGINALD MASON: My mother was very tough on me because my father passed away when I was 11. So she made me, and shaped me, as a man; which to me, was very difficult for a woman to do without a father being around. But she did a good job. She was very strict. The first time my mother told me that she actually loved me, I was 32, you know.
And growing up, she couldn't handle the household financially. So I remember many months with no lights and, you know, being laughed at - at school - for wearing blue and black, mismatched socks. And she would just try to compensate. She would just buy a whole lot of candles, and try to make it so I can at least get dressed for school and have something to eat, you know. When you start living off ketchup and hot water and black bean soup, and it's all you can afford, you start to think: I don't want to go back to this.
The jobs that she was doing, it was tearing her body down. So I was headed for the streets. I needed to make some fast money, and I did. I was hustling. And I knew if she saw me, she'd pin me down. So I just avoided her, you know. I - have people in the streets say, your mom is coming! Run around the corner. But years later, I've worked for the Department of Sanitation; worked for the Post Office. And I went to college.
Now, my mother, she's in a nursing home. I go every Sunday and take the paper, and I read to her. She's blind. I remember when I was telling my mother that I got promoted. She took her glasses off, like she could see, and she said one line: "It all paid off." And she was right.
INSKEEP: That's Reginald Mason at StoryCorps, in New York. His mother died shortly after he recorded that interview. His interview will be archived, along with all the others, at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. And as always, you can get the StoryCorps podcast at npr.org.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
On the first Friday of the year, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene. Good morning. We have heard on this program about cases of blasphemy - people accused of insulting or offending religious figures. There have been cases in Muslim countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan. It turns out seven European countries with Christian traditions also have laws on their books making blasphemy a crime.
The laws are generally not enforced, but in Greece, since the economic crisis hit nationalists have called for charges against people accused of insulting God or the Greek Orthodox Church. They've put a lot of pressure on prosecutors. Joanna Kakissis reports on two cases that are set to go to trial this year.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING)
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: Until he died in 1994, a Greek monk named Elder Paisios told Greeks to turn to faith in hard times. In this old recording, he's chanting at a church service. Elder Paisios is said to have predicted the economic crisis and a triumphant return of a Greek empire. With unemployment now at Great Depression levels, many Greeks see him as a prophet. But that bothers Philippos Loizos, a 27-year-old scientist.
PHILIPPOS LOIZOS: (Through translator) It seems like every time there's a crisis in Greece, there's a search for saviors. We wait for a sign from God or an enlightened leader. Greeks haven't figured out how to problem-solve, so we wait for someone else to save us.
KAKISSIS: Loizos set up a Facebook page in 2011, arguing that Elder Paisios was xenophobic and close-minded. He also mocked the monk's name - Paisios became Pastitsios, like the Greek pasta dish. He even photoshopped a slice of pastitsio onto the monk's face.
LOIZOS: (Through translator) I got a lot of postings and messages through the page. Most were against what I was doing, and I got threatened and called names. But some people said bravo, we're with you.
KAKISSIS: In September of 2012, police arrested Loizos. He was charged with blasphemy, which carries up to six months in prison. Many Greeks see his case as a theocratic stifling of free speech. It was the first of two blasphemy arrests in 2012. In the years before the crisis, Greece rarely invoked the law, a version of which has been in the penal code since the 1850s.
Back then, many other European countries had blasphemy laws because God was seen as determining the community's destiny, says David Nash, a history professor at Oxford Brookes University in Great Britain.
DAVID NASH: If you go back to the origins of blasphemy laws in Medieval times, they're very much about protecting the community.
KAKISSIS: But in the 20th century, Nash says, most European countries took action to separate church and state and have phased out blasphemy laws. In Greece, the Orthodox Church remains powerful but does not get involved with the law, says Haris Konidaris, a spokesman for Archbishop Ieronymos of Greece.
HARIS KONIDARIS: The church or the archbishop cannot act as a persecutor or as an investigator. That's not the business of the church or the archbishop.
KAKISSIS: Christian activists have pushed prosecutors to make blasphemy arrests in the past. But in the last year, the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party has also called for arrests during speeches in Parliament. Yannis Ktistakis, a human-rights attorney, says the blasphemy law fits into their agenda.
YANNIS KTISTAKIS: It's the political agenda of the nationalists. They think that now is the time to call all the Greeks to think about their special identity.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
KAKISSIS: On the pretext of defending Greek identity and the Greek Orthodox faith, a Golden Dawn parliamentary deputy screamed obscenities as he led a mob that stormed a controversial play this October. This YouTube video shows the mob, which includes bearded priests throwing rocks at those attending the Greek production of "Corpus Christi," the Terrence McNally play that portrays Jesus and his apostles as gay men in Texas.
The director, Laertis Vassiliou, says it was like being attacked by a Christian Taliban.
LAERTIS VASSILIOU: For two months they were threatening our lives. Every day, every day there were letters saying to us you will burn to hell. They said to my parents that we will bring your son in a box - cut in pieces and in a box.
KAKISSIS: Archbishop Ieronymos strongly condemned the violence, though he says the play and the Elder Paisios Facebook parody by Philippos Loizos are blasphemous. The state has charged Vassiliou and his cast under the blasphemy law but has dropped the charge against Loizos. He still faces trial this year for the separate charge of insulting religion - which carries up to two years in prison. For NPR News, I'm Joanna Kakissis in Athens.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Eighty-four members of the new House of Representatives are freshmen, meaning they're newly-elected. Some, however, are not freshmen for the first time. Florida Democrat Alan Grayson, for example, was a freshman four years ago and made a name for himself with biting comments about Republicans, like this one during the healthcare debate.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
REPRESENTATIVE ALAN GRAYSON: If you get sick, America, the Republican healthcare plan is this: die quickly.
INSKEEP: The national attention Grayson received for remarks like that did not help him at the end of his first term, when he failed to win reelection.
But now, after a two-year break, Alan Grayson is back, a freshman once again, as NPR's Greg Allen reports from Miami.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: In Orlando, Florida, about 50 people - mostly members of the area's large Puerto Rican community - gathered recently for a candlelight vigil.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Everybody, take our candles now and start lighting up. We're going to...
ALLEN: They were there to draw attention to the gun violence claiming lives in Puerto Rico, Florida and Newtown, Connecticut. One of those speaking was the area's incoming congressman, Alan Grayson, who said the first step towards stopping violence is overcoming community apathy.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
GRAYSON: And that, in the end, is the only and the only true solution to our problems. The people united can never be defeated.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Amen.
GRAYSON: The people united can never be defeated.
ALLEN: It's a chant more often heard from labor organizers than congressmen. Although he was out of Congress for two years, Alan Grayson never really went away. He continued fundraising and working for progressive causes and was a regular guest on MSNBC and other cable channels.
In November, he easily won in a newly-drawn district that's 40 percent Hispanic. Grayson says that's because his progressive views appeal to his Latino constituents.
GRAYSON: They have social needs that generally mean that they ally themselves with progressive forces and, in many cases, represent and embody those progressive forces. Many of the most liberal members of the incoming Congress right now, the new members of Congress are Hispanics.
ALLEN: Like many Floridians, Alan Grayson is originally from up north, New York. He worked his way through Harvard, earning a law degree and Masters in Public Policy. Before entering politics, he made millions as the head of a telecommunications company and as an attorney who prosecuted contract fraud cases against defense contractors.
Grayson says the reason he's developed a national following is, in his words: I just say what others are thinking. Asked, for example, about the prospects that the House might pass gun control legislation in the next session, he's skeptical.
GRAYSON: I think many Republican members of Congress are afraid that if they supported anything resembling reasonable gun control, they would lose the next primary, and the NRA would see to it they lost the next primary.
ALLEN: It's those kinds of unvarnished comments that, in his first term, made Grayson a hero to many liberal Democrats and a villain to many conservative Republicans. In 2008, he won in a traditionally Republican district in the Democratic wave that elected President Obama. Two years later, he lost his bid for reelection by a wide margin.
David Wasserman, an analyst with Cook Political Report, says in this year's successful election bid, Grayson's campaign seemed to tone down his activist image.
DAVID WASSERMAN: Is there a chance he's a more civil member over the next two years? I think only time will tell. But there are some indications that he's a wiser person for having won and lost before.
ALLEN: As for toning down his comments once he returns to Washington, Grayson says: Don't count on it. For example, here's what he had to say when I asked him if he thought Republicans could successfully appeal to Hispanic voters.
GRAYSON: No, because for every Hispanic vote they pick up, they'll lose four or five racist votes. The Republican Party has been - in many respects, with all due respect - the party of racism in this country, going back to the time of Nixon. I don't see that changing anytime soon.
ALLEN: Grayson says he sees things in black and white. On bipartisanship, he says Americans shouldn't be fooled into thinking it's a magic wand that can bridge the gap between the two parties.
This term, for the first time, Grayson joins the Democratic leadership in the House, winning the job of regional whip. Surely, that calls for him to change his style.
GRAYSON: Well, let me put it this way: I know how to handle the whip.
(LAUGHTER)
ALLEN: OK. Well, does that somehow suggest you'll need to be more moderate in terms of your approach to people, or the...
GRAYSON: Is that how you see people who wield whips, as moderates?
(LAUGHTER)
GRAYSON: That's interesting. I never really thought of it that way. I'll have to give it some thought.
ALLEN: Grayson says the main way in which this term will be different from his first stint in Congress is that he's now in a safe district. He beat his opponent by 25 points - which means he's likely to be there for some time to come.
Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.
DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: The actor Matt Damon told our colleague Linda Wertheimer recently that he wanted to make a movie about American identity and where we are in the country right now. The subject he chose: hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. It's a controversial drilling technology that has sparked debate and divided communities in parts of the country.
Damon's movie "Promised Land" opened in select theaters last week and will be showing in theaters across the country beginning today. Now, we don't normally turn to NPR's Jeff Brady for movie reviews. He covers energy issues. But Jeff has been listening to different kinds of critics. Environmentalists are giving "Promised Land" a thumbs up. Those in the natural gas industry are giving it two thumbs down.
JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: Overall, issues explored in the film are very real. Hydraulic fracturing makes it possible to tap into natural gas reservoirs deep underground. That's lead to drilling booms that are transforming rural communities into industrial zones. But first, a gas company has to convince a landowner to allow them to drill. That's the job of actor Matt Damon's character.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM "PROMISED LAND")
MATT DAMON: (as Steve Butler) I'm not selling them natural gas, I'm selling them the only way they have to get back.
BRADY: Like the real-life industry, Damon's character argues that natural gas drilling will save communities by giving farmers and landowners much-needed income. Damon's character and his co-worker, played by Frances McDormand, focus their sales pitches on the upside of natural gas production.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PROMISED LAND")
FRANCES MCDORMAND: (as Sue Thomason) Even before the drilling, the initial phase of development will boost your town's tax revenue. That means that money will be injected into your town immediately.
BRADY: In the real world, there are significant environmental concerns surrounding gas drilling and fracking. In the movie, these emerge at a town hall meeting. A high school science teacher, played by Hal Holbrook, interrupts a local politician who's a less-than-honest cheerleader for the gas industry.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PROMISED LAND")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Excuse me?
HAL HOLBROOK: (as Frank Yates) The project is called fracking.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as character) That's right. That's right, Frank. Now, if you'd let me finish, please, we have...
HOLBROOK: (as Frank Yates) I would encourage all of you, when you go home, to Google that word and see what you find.
BRADY: Later, a man who bills himself as an environmentalist, played by John Krasinski, comes to town. He stokes the opposition and delivers a simplistic and misleading demonstration of drilling and fracking to a class of grade-school kids. Here he is punching holes in a plastic bag, dumping a mixture of chemicals over a model farm.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PROMISED LAND")
JOHN KRASINSKI: (as Dustin Noble) So when they go to do that drilling, I'll show you what happens. Oh, gross. What is that?
BRADY: The film remains in the realm of fiction as the town debates an upcoming vote on whether drilling and fracking should be allowed. In the real world, there's almost never a vote. Kate Sinding is an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
KATE SINDING: In Pennsylvania, where this film was made, municipalities have very little authority over what happens. They certainly don't get an up-and-down vote.
BRADY: Whether drilling happens depends more on state laws and regulations. Still, Sinding says this film is valuable because it outlines the conundrum communities face when drillers come to town. There's the money, but also the environmental risks. The natural gas industry, on the other hand, sees little value in this film.
STEVE FORDE: Well, I think the overriding impression that most should carry away from this is that it is a complete work of fiction.
BRADY: Steve Forde is with the Marcellus Shale Coalition based in Pittsburgh. He says the real truth will come as people watch what his industry does over the long term.
FORDE: This film may run in theaters for a several weeks, maybe a couple of months, depending on its success at the box office. But the work of our industry is going to continue for generations to come.
BRADY: Forde's group is appealing to moviegoers in its own way. The coalition is airing advertisements in Pennsylvania theaters, asking people to visit an industry website, where natural gas drillers and their allies present their side of the story. Jeff Brady, NPR News.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
The Federal Trade Commission has closed its long running anti-trust investigation of Google. While the search giant agreed to change some of its business practices, the FTC did not launch a formal anti-trust case against the company or impose any financial penalties.
Here's NPR's Steve Henn.
STEVE HENN, BYLINE: For Google, the biggest threat to its business was that the FTC might decide bring an anti-trust case against the company or attempt to regulate the how Google displays its search results. So, Thursday's announcement by FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz, came as a huge relief.
JON LEIBOWITZ: Today's bi-partisan commission action brings to an end the commission's investigation of Google in a fashion calculated to bring maximum relief to American consumers in a timely way.
HENN: In its settlement with the FTC, Google agreed to scale back its patent wars against its rivals in the mobile phone industry. It promised to make it easier for small businesses to advertise on competing search engines. And Leibowitz says Google pledged to stop copying content from other websites without permission for use in its own local search results.
LEIBOWITZ: Now, some may believe that the commission should have done more in this case, perhaps because they are locked into hand-to-hand combat with Google around the world - or perhaps in a mistaken believe that criticizing us will influence the outcome in other jurisdictions.
HENN: Many of Google's competitors say the search giant unfairly favors its own services in its search results. So if you type in shoes - you'll see Google shopping results in the upper right.
LEIBOWITZ: If you type in something for shopping, I will bet you lunch what you will see on anything you hit shopping - it won't be the other sites - it will be the Google results.
HENN: Matt Reilly is a former FTC attorney who now represents FairSearch, an industry group critical of Google.
MATT REILLY: I can tell you if I were still at the commission, I would have recommended litigating this based on the evidence I have seen.
HENN: Reilly now hopes that regulators in Europe will step in and crack down on Google - even without the Federal Trade Commission's support.
Steve Henn, NPR News, Silicon Valley.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with a roundup of auto sales.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: We mentioned the other day that auto sales numbers for 2012 were looking like they were going to be very good. Now we have the numbers. For the auto industry, sales increased by 13 percent in 2012 and the major carmakers were profitable.
NPR's Sonari Glinton tells us why.
SONARI GLINTON, BYLINE: 2012 brought with it the third straight year of double digit growth for the auto industry.
Alec Gutierrez is an industry analyst with Kelley Blue Book. He says that the industry as a whole is doing something it's never really done before.
ALEC GUTIERREZ: So really, while more and more vehicles were sold this year, it's really a testament to the manufacturers and their ability to provide the vehicles that consumers actually want to drive and desire.
GLINTON: So the auto industry as whole is finally learning a lesson you might learn if you, say, set up a set up a lemonade stand: Sell people what they want. It's like econ 101 - or as Gutierrez says...
(LAUGHTER)
GUTIERREZ: Introduction to pre-econ.
GLINTON: Here's a list of the major players whose sales improved by the most in 2012. Volkswagen was up 35 percent, that's big, even for a company that's relatively small in the U.S. Toyota 27, Honda 24. They both had bad years in 2011 because of the Japanese tsunami so there was a lot of room for growth. Chrysler had the biggest increase for an American company, 21 percent.
OK, here's where the numbers fall off a cliff. Ford had an increase of 4.7 percent and General Motors was up 3.7.
Jessica Caldwell is with Edmunds.com and she says you can expect GM and Ford to do better next year, but...
JESSICA CALDWELL: You kind of wonder what went wrong there. But it's not necessarily something that went wrong, it was just the fact that their competitors had such a high increase and skewed the average so differently.
GLINTON: Meanwhile, Alec Gutierrez says even without help from a strong economy, the entire industry nailed it in 2012.
GUTIERREZ: Those of us in the industry have for a long time recognized that we're really in the most competitive market that we've ever seen. I mean there are strong competitive and viable alternatives available from all manufacturers in the marketplace, whether it's Hyundai, Volkswagen, Honda, Chevrolet or Ford. What's interesting to me is that it seems as though the message has not yet reached the average consumer.
GLINTON: Eh, that's what Super Bowls are for.
Sonari Glinton NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In California, companies cannot force their employees to hand over their social media passwords. Universities cannot do this for students either. It's the latest state to bar institutions from trying to keep tabs on their current or prospective workers.
NPR's Kirk Siegler reports.
KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: Now let's say you've cleared the first round of a job interview and you're trying to impress your potential new boss. She asks for your Facebook password. She just wants to check out some of your photos or that status update you wrote when you were tipsy on New Year's, you know, just to make sure you check out. No way, you'd say, right?
The problem is that if you really need a job, you may be inclined to turn over your personal digital or social media credentials.
Brad Shearer, a Washington DC-based social media and tech law attorney. He helped draft California's new social media privacy act. More and more people are living their lives online, and Shearer says laws like these are a win for the protection of privacy.
BRAD SHEARER: You have to ask this question: is it okay for your employer to be able to bug your home phone, or bug your home?
SIEGLER: But at the same time, Shearer says, employers shouldn't have to be responsible for what their employees do online. He says a new law in Michigan addresses this problem as well.
In total, six states now have some sort of social media privacy law; Michigan, California, Illinois, Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland. Expect more to follow suit in the coming year, even though this actually worries some electronic privacy advocates.
Kurt Opsahl is a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.
KURT OPSAHL: So I think there actually are a lot of dangers associated with legislatures trying to regulate technology with law. The better solution for all of this would be for employers to simply stop doing this, without the need for government intervention.
SIEGLER: Or, says Opsahl, a uniform, single set of rules for every state. The new Congress may consider federal legislation that attempts to do just that.
Kirk Siegler, NPR News.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
It is the moment of truth in the National Football League - playoff time. Pack the fridge, warm up the recliner because there are some great matchups this weekend. Now, when the season began, we asked quarterback Joe Theismann for his predictions. He was right on target, so we called him back.
Joe Theismann, welcome back to the program.
JOE THEISMANN: Thank you, David. Always good to join you.
GREENE: So when we talked at the beginning of the season, we were sort of predicting that this was going to be the year of the quarterback. A lot of exciting rookies, some great quarterbacks in their prime; we kind of nailed it, didn't we?
(LAUGHTER)
THEISMANN: No, actually, I think the young guys - in particular, Russell Wilson, Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck, and Colin Kaepernick coming on late - really exceeded expectations. The fact that Peyton Manning was able to do the things that he was able to do this year, makes him a candidate for both the comeback player of the year and the MVP. I think the way it's going to shake out, though, you have the usual suspects that have showed up in the playoffs; and now, just a tremendously exciting variety of young players at the quarterback position that I think have infused just a ton of energy back into football.
GREENE: I want to kind of take a few of these names separately. I mean, you brought up Peyton Manning, who we were talking about when he - you know, after this really tough neck injury, he goes to a new team, the Denver Broncos. I mean, this has been stunning, what he's done.
THEISMANN: It really has. And the fact that Peyton has played at the level he's played at, after the injury, is the only surprise when it comes to Peyton - his work ethic, the type of player he is. When Peyton Manning became a member of the Denver Broncos, he made everybody 10 to 15 percent better. Every player or coach that works with Peyton, if you don't put in that supreme effort, you're going to feel like you let him down, and no one wants to do that.
GREENE: You brought up Robert Griffin III - your former team, the Washington Redskins. That last game of the regular season against the Dallas Cowboys, I was just waiting to see if he finally cracked under the pressure, as a rookie. And he didn't just not crack, he wins that game. I mean, as a rookie, how much pressure is on him?
THEISMANN: Oh, I think there was tremendous pressure on Robert Griffin III. The Washington Redskins fans - and I'm sure the organization - focused all their attention on Robert coming to Washington. I think the Heisman Trophy race really got him ready for all the attention that he is now getting. And certainly, in a city that's been starved for wins, he was the perfect answer.
GREENE: Take me to the other side of the football. If you are a veteran defensive coordinator on the sideline, what is the key to shake a rookie quarterback - and to really knock him off his feet, and get a victory?
THEISMANN: Normally, it's to hit him a lot. It doesn't matter who you are; whether you're a rookie or veteran, if you get banged around a lot in the pocket, you start to see ghosts. You start to see pressure that really isn't there.
GREENE: Any predictions, Joe Theismann? I don't want to put you on the spot, but - well, I do want to put you on the spot. Any predictions?
(LAUGHTER)
THEISMANN: Sure. I think that the winner of the Seattle-Washington game will play in the NFC Championship game, for the chance to go to the Super Bowl. I think in the AFC, it's going to be a Tom Brady-Peyton Manning. And who's going to come out of that? I would probably lean towards New England because they've gotten better on defense, and that was the area they needed to improve.
As far as, you know, Washington goes, you've got San Francisco sitting there. They lost Mario Manningham, which is a big loss for them. Atlanta has shown, at times, that they're vulnerable. They've had a lot of fourth-quarter victories. That's a little scary when you get into the playoffs, because it's one and you're out.
GREENE: All right, so the New England Patriots against, in the Super Bowl?
THEISMANN: You know, this is going to sound very Homer-ish, but I think the Redskins can get there.
GREENE: Don't worry. I'm not going to call you biased at all.
(LAUGHTER)
GREENE: Thanks for talking to us again.
THEISMANN: Thanks, David.
GREENE: That's Joe Theismann, Super Bowl-winning quarterback with the Washington Redskins.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene. 2012 was a year of slow economic recovery, and this morning we have a final snapshot of the jobs picture for last year. In December, U.S. employers continued to add jobs at a modest but steady pace. Despite worries about the fiscal cliff, the unemployment rate for December stood at 7.8 percent. There were no big surprises in this morning's report from the Labor Department, and NPR's Yuki Noguchi joins me in the studio to take a closer look at the numbers. And Yuki, what are you seeing here? What are the main trends?
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: Well, as you mentioned, the broader trend lines here really haven't changed much; 155,000 new jobs were added last month. That is in line with expectations, and by the way, almost exactly the average number of jobs added every month in 2012. So the Labor Department is also saying unemployment rate is unchanged, at 7.8 percent. That's because November's rate was revised up a notch. So while it appears to go up, there's actually no change. For the whole year, 1.8 million new jobs added.
GREENE: Well, you know, at the end of last year so much was made of this fiscal cliff battle in Congress - businesses being hesitant to hire until Congress settled things. Congress settled some, not other stuff. They left a lot of the big decisions for later. What do you feel like businesses are saying at this point?
NOGUCHI: Well, you know, we're not really seeing evidence that that affected the hiring level, because the hiring level remains at where it's been all year and in fact for the past two years. A lot of businesses did threaten to halt hiring and investment as a result of uncertainty about tax rates. Now, could December have been better had it not been for the fiscal cliff debate? Possibly. On the other hand, it wasn't worse.
One more thing about that. Congress, as you know, only dealt with half of the equation - so spending cuts and raising the debt ceiling still remain on the table. And the new Congress will have to strike more deals in coming weeks. Government cost-cutting is still a big concern for businesses, and analysts also believe economic growth slowed pretty dramatically in the fourth quarter. So you could still see a hiring slowdown in coming months.
GREENE: And we should say that this report was dealing with a time before Congress dealt with part of the fiscal cliff.
NOGUCHI: That's right. These surveys are taken in the middle of the month.
What about Superstorm Sandy? There was some speculation that December's jobs report, which shows some unusual blips or effects as a result of that big storm - I mean did construction get a boost from, you know, the rebuilding after...
Yeah, that appears to be the case. Yeah, construction added 30,000 jobs last month. That makes December the best month to land a construction job in almost two years. Partly that's because the housing sector is, you know, moving again, gaining strength. But a lot of that, as you mentioned, is repair and rebuild efforts after Sandy. Health care, food services and manufacturing also added jobs. Retail, which had been really strong for the previous three months, lost a few jobs. And government lost 13,000 jobs.
GREENE: Okay, so this unemployment number we've gotten - things are at 7.8 percent for December. Step back and give us a sense of where 2012 started and where it ended and what it means.
NOGUCHI: Well, 2012 started with an employment rate of 8.3 percent. There were 12.8, so almost 13 million people at the beginning of the year who were unemployed. Now the rate is down half a percent and there 600,000 fewer unemployed people. The optimist's take would be, well, we're chipping away. The pessimist's take is, at this rate of 150,000 new jobs every month it would take six and a half years to get every one of those people working again.
GREENE: That's a long time.
NOGUCHI: That is a long time.
GREENE: And that doesn't even take into account all the people who might be on the sidelines waiting until the job market improves to even start looking, right?
NOGUCHI: And that's a very key point, David. Last month, labor force participation didn't change. That means the number of people working or looking for work remains stuck at a significantly lower level than when the recession began. And labor economists really worry about that. We need about 100,000 new jobs just to keep pace with immigration and graduating students and all the people who enter the labor force in any given month. And as you mentioned, millions of people have left the workforce in the downturn. Some of those people have retired and therefore, you know, will never come back. But some of them will certainly try if and when the economy improves.
GREENE: NPR's Yuki Noguchi, thanks so much.
NOGUCHI: Thank you, David.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let's go to West Africa, now, to explore one of the world's great centers of filmmaking. We hear more about Hollywood in California or Bollywood in India's Bombay - or Mumbai - then there's Nollywood, Nigeria's film industry which is one of the world's largest film industries. Nollywood DVDs are sold throughout Africa, Europe, North America and the Caribbean.
These films are generally made in English, on a low budget, and they have a huge female fan base. Most of the powerful players, however, are men. There's one major exception. That's writer and producer Emem Isong. Reporter Wills Glasspiegel caught up with her in Lagos.
WILLS GLASSPIEGEL, BYLINE: Emem Isong is a Nollywood powerhouse. She's written 60 movies and produced 15. She got her start when she quit a job in banking to write movie scripts.
EMEM ISONG: So many Africans want to hear their voices. So many Nigerians want to see their people, they want to see people like them going through what they are going through. And we tell a lot of human stories.
GLASSPIEGEL: In the mid '90s, Isong made her first blockbuster for about $300 U.S. dollars. Back then, most Nollywood movies dealt with darker themes - crime, corruption, failed marriage and the occult.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: And the gods have closed their ears. Seasons change, but only gods know why.
GLASSPIEGEL: With her movies, Emem Isong brought levity to Nollywood, and a new genre: twist-of-fate love stories and romantic comedies.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Relationship, dating, marriage. I'm what you'd call SSS: Single and Seriously Searching.
GLASSPIEGEL: Romantic-comedies like this caught on, today it's the most popular genre in Nollywood.
ISONG: At that time, I was being accused of being a little bit too Westernized, but I said, well, we are not living in the villages. I'm living in contemporary Lagos. So I'm going to write about what I'm used to, what I know, how I live.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "BURSTING OUT")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Majid) Do you know what the most attractive part of a woman?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as Genevieve) What is it?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Majid) Her brain, I find that very attractive and I want to know you more.
GLASSPIEGEL: That's "Bursting Out," Emem Isong's movie about a scruffy bike messenger who falls in love with a wealthy businesswoman. Nollywood's fans - who are predominately women - identify with the stories in Isong's movies, and with Isong, because she's a pioneer in a male-dominated industry.
ISONG: Male producers in Nigeria like to portray women as weaklings, and I don't think the African woman is a weakling. The African woman is strong and the African woman can hold her own in any way. And that's what they don't like.
GLASSPIEGEL: Emem Isong also runs a film school in the Surulere section of Lagos.
ISONG: So I wanted some kind of meeting point where people could come, not just for auditions and to meet like minds, but also to train.
GLASSPIEGEL: Isong thinks a sense of place and professionalism will strengthen and broaden the Nollywood industry. And she may be right. Scottish producer, Andrea Calderwood, was recently in Nigeria shooting an international mainstream film that features both Nollywood and Western stars.
ANDREA CALDERWOOD: It's like the Latin American filmmakers a few years ago, from films like "Amores Peros" and "City of God," where they can continue to make films for the home market but can also be recognized abroad as well and I think the Nigerian film industry is round about that point.
GLASSPIEGEL: Back in Lagos, Emem Isong is internationalizing from the ground up. Her new movie, "I'll Take My Chances," focuses on a love affair between a village priestess and a traveler from the U.S.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "I'LL TAKE MY CHANCES")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Ike) Relax, I'm a foreigner, and I hear that they respect foreigners in your land.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as Priestess) Not foreigners who disrespect the customs of the land.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Ike) I'm in love with one of your women, is that also disrespectful?
GLASSPIEGEL: For "I'll Take My Chances," Emem flew in cinematographers from New York and a white actress from Canada.
ISONG: I wanted to do something that was kind of cross-cultural. It was the biggest budget movie I've ever done. Like I always say, I did take my chances on this one.
GLASSPIEGEL: Nollywood started as a home video industry, the movies sold on VHS cassettes. But today, Isong premieres at fancy Lagos theaters and distributes online. She's shooting for new horizons in West Africa, and for screens large and small across the globe. For NPR News, this is Wills Glasspiegel.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And let's consider a recent decision by Congress in today's Bottom Line in business. We know money's tight these days. So tight that Congress voted to increase taxes for the first time in many years.
But as NPR's Elizabeth Shogren reports, lawmakers, at the same time, Congress OK'd billions of dollars in tax breaks for green energy.
ELIZABETH SHOGREN, BYLINE: Whether you're a homeowner who bought an energy-saving refrigerator last year or a company hoping to build a wind farm, the new tax package may give you a reason to cheer.
Kateri Callahan is president of the Alliance to Save Energy.
KATERI CALLAHAN: It's got something in there, a Christmas gift if you will, for almost everyone: American homeowners, workers who commute via transit and manufacturers of efficient equipment, like clothes washers, dryers, refrigerators.
SHOGREN: Homeowners can save up to $500 on taxes for 2012 or 2013 if they install more insulation or an energy efficient furnace.
The tax package is especially meaningful to clean energy businesses that rely on tax benefits to stay profitable.
Jennifer Case is the CEO of New Leaf Biofuel. It's a San Diego company that turns used cooking oil into diesel. She and colleagues had been betting on Congress to come through for them. So they're breathing a huge sigh of relief.
JENNIFER CASE: And everybody was thrilled and now it's back to work today to sell the fuel that we now can afford to make.
SHOGREN: Last year was a difficult year for New Leaf because Congress let a one-dollar-a-gallon tax break for biodiesel expire. Even so, Case's company decided to triple the capacity of its plant. Case was hoping that Congress would re-instate the benefit, it did.
CASE: I think coming to work everyday it a gamble. But so far, it's been a good gamble.
SHOGREN: Daniel Kunz runs a company called U.S. Geothermal. It creates electricity from sources of super hot water that occur naturally under ground. When it looked like Congress might not renew tax credits for renewable energy, his company shelved plans to expand one of its plants.
But then, Congress not only extended the tax credit for renewable energy projects, but it also changed the rules. Now, instead of needing to complete a project by the end of 2013 to be eligible, a company only has to start construction by the end of the year.
DANIEL KUNZ: In fact, this is going to help us make a decision, an economic decision, to go forward on a project that otherwise might not.
SHOGREN: The tax benefits for green energy that Congress extended were originally created over the last decade. At the time, it seemed that energy sources, especially homegrown ones, were scarce. The country also seemed to be on the verge of setting limits on emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
KEVIN BOOK: There was a sensible reason to want to subsidize a transformation.
SHOGREN: Energy Analyst Kevin Book says it's harder to make a case for renewable energy now, given the booms in natural gas and oil.
BOOK: Well, all of these things are different now. Demand is declining, supply is increasing, the decarbonization mandate has weakened if not disappeared and practically speaking, energy security isn't the risk that it used to be.
SHOGREN: Book predicts that the New Year's tax package may be the last big payday for green energy.
But Daniel Kunz from U.S. Geothermal says the United States should keep investing in renewable energy.
KUNZ: It will never be the cure-all energy source, but it is a gift to our children when we build these things to have clean energy sources.
SHOGREN: These projects will produce less pollution, including greenhouse gases. They also can save money over the long haul because, unlike say a natural gas plant, they don't need to keep buying fuel.
Elizabeth Shogren NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENE: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene.
This week, United Nations investigators offered account of people killed in Syria. They find the violence even more deadly than long-time visitors realized.
Let's meet with one of those regular visitors, NPR's Deborah Amos.
INSKEEP: She's covered that country since before the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. That uprising, now a civil war, has lasted close to two years, and Deb Amos is here to talk through what she's seen and what happens next.
Deb, welcome back to the program.
DEBORAH AMOS, BYLINE: Thank you very much, Steve.
INSKEEP: You know, from a distance, it feels like this conflict is not changing or moving at all, but it must feel a little different every single time you cross that border into Syria.
AMOS: Every time I cross the border. What's striking this time is commerce. The rebels have control of five border posts, the Turkish border and one with Iraq. And in two occasions when I crossed the border, I was astonished by Turkish trucks, hundreds of them lined up on the border where Syrians come and pick up blankets, tents, flour - that was very different. And in one border crossing, the rebels were charging a tax.
INSKEEP: OK. So we have commerce. We have taxes, of a sort, being collected. I suppose there's not a Consumer Product Safety Commission, but it's beginning to sound like there's almost a government there.
AMOS: There are people who are beginning to set up local governments. They have offices for relief. They have offices for medicine. They have offices for security. Those things are beginning to evolve in these northern towns where the Assad government has essentially disappeared. There is also an overwhelming need to take care of the displaced. There are more than two million people now in Syria who are living rough. The international community has not moved inside Syria yet, so this is up to the rebels to care for them and these emerging local councils.
INSKEEP: These displaced people, these are from cities where there's been severe fighting, and they've just fled to rebel held areas? Is that right?
AMOS: Yes. This has been a remarkable year of violence. The death count in Syria has spiraled to about 5,000 a month. And this week, the U.N. revised their total death count to about 60,000, and 2012 has been so much violent than 2011.
INSKEEP: I don't feel like, from this distance - I mean, we've heard your amazing reporting, and our colleagues' amazing reporting, but I don't think from this distance that we have a real visceral sense of how violent this conflict has been. Even that number, 60,000, it's a shocking number, and I'm not sure that even that conveys what's going on.
AMOS: Let me try to explain it this way, because I was struck by this. I visited some schools along the border. These are refugee kids. Many of these schools are run by Syrian parents, Syrian teachers who are volunteering. And where you see the damage of this kind of violence is in the reaction of the children. One teacher told me that the kids only paint in red, and it's almost impossible for them to draw human beings without blood coming out of them. These kids have been traumatized by what has happened to them. And I want you to listen to a young woman. Her name is Rahav Tenowi(ph). She's 20 years old, and she's now a guidance counselor in the town of Antakya. And here's what she said about the way that these children think.
RAHAV TENOWI: All their dreams, to kill Bashar.
AMOS: The president of Syria.
TENOWI: Yes. Yes. Here, not all the families, but a lot of them are always teaching his children, we have to kill him.
AMOS: This is the result of this kind of violence in Syria.
INSKEEP: So you have refugees who are so determined that Bashar al-Assad should be killed that they're teaching their children. And yet, Bashar al-Assad doesn't seem to be going anywhere. You played us some tape of some weeks ago of Assad himself saying that he was made in Syria, he intends to live and die in Syria. He's not going anywhere.
AMOS: The comment comes as the international community is trying to work some sort of negotiated settlement, some way to have a transitional government. The newly formed opposition says no dice. We are not talking until Bashar al-Assad leaves.
The Russians - who are Syria's closest ally - say that they aren't necessarily supporting President Bashar al-Assad, but they cannot force him out of the country. There is serious worry about total regime collapse. Imagine loose chemical weapons, armed groups across the country. And that is why the international community is pushing so hard. But there is no light in that tunnel.
INSKEEP: Deb Amos, why has it been so much worse is Syria than in, really, any of the other countries where these uprisings have taken place?
AMOS: I think because of Syria's history and its geography. Let's talk about history first. Bashar al-Assad is using his father's playbook. When his father was president 30 years ago, there was an uprising in a town called Hama. And he leveled the town to put down the revolt. Bashar al-Assad has been brutally repressing towns that side with the rebels.
Let's also talk about Syria as a strategic lynchpin in the region. This is a country with strategic borders: Israel, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan. If there's a change in leadership in Syria from this Alawite-dominated regime to a Sunni Muslim one, that changes the balance of power across the region. This could be a historical change. And that is why international players, regional players are so wary of change in Syria.
INSKEEP: Now you talked about the possibility of chaos. Do American officials that you talk with have a clear sense of who would be in charge in Syria if Assad were to go?
AMOS: I would say the answer to that is no, which keeps them up at night, that there is no obvious leadership in Syria when and if Bashar al-Assad goes. I think it is more likely when now than if. There is not a government to step into Bashar al-Assad's place. There are local leaders. Some of them are armed.
INSKEEP: Some must worry about radical Islamists.
AMOS: This is the year that radical Islamists emerged in Syria. They were bit-players earlier this year, but they emerged as the clearest and best fighters on the battlefield. They have more arms. They have more funds than the more secular groups. The U.S. government has sanctioned one particular group, the al-Nusra Front, only making them more popular with Syrians, because they argue these people are doing the best of any group to take down the Assad regime. And so we will sleep with the devil if it takes that to get rid of this regime.
And there were protests a few weeks ago where some towns said we are all Nusra Front. And that is very new for Syria. This conflict has radicalized people.
INSKEEP: You know, that brings up another point. Some months ago, we heard a story from our colleague Kelly McEvers, who spoke with a Syrian woman who was angry at the United States for not helping more and said: We will not forget that you forgot about us. Are there no fans of the United States among the opposition?
AMOS: There was early in the revolt, because the argument that many of the protesters made is: We want what you want. We share your values. We want dignity. We want freedom. We want democracy. As this conflict has become a grinding and brutal war, many Syrians do note that American policy has done nothing to undermine the rule of Bashar al-Assad.
I have to say that it is unlikely for them to go back to friendship with the Russians and the Iranians. Remember that these revolutionaries hate the Russians and Iranians as much as they do the Americans for not helping them. But this country will have to find a path to move back into the international system, and it is more likely that it will be a Western orientation than the one that it has had for the past 40 years.
INSKEEP: NPR's Deborah Amos is between visits to Syria. Deborah, thanks very much for your work.
AMOS: Thank you.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Yesterday, we brought you into the aristocratic world of "Downton Abbey." OK, cue the music.
(SOUNDBITE OF "DOWNTON ABBEY" THEME MUSIC)
GREENE: The show returns to "Masterpiece Classic" on PBS for its third season this Sunday. The British period drama follows the family of Lord and Lady Grantham, along with their faithful servants.
JIM CARTER: Our lives are dictated by gongs and bells, and the rhythm of the day. It is dictated to us by the people upstairs. We live to serve them, and to make their world perfect.
GREENE: That's Jim Carter, who plays the loyal butler, Mr. Carson. He stopped by our studios recently, along with other members of the "Downton Abbey" cast. We'll hear first today from the actress Sophie McShera, who plays young Daisy. She's at the bottom of the hierarchy in the household, toiling in the kitchen under the watchful eye of the cook, Mrs. Patmore.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "DOWNTON ABBEY")
LESLEY NICOL: (as Mrs. Patmore) Go to bed when you're done.
SOPHIE MCSHERA: (as Daisy Mason) I'll go to bed when I'm ready.
NICOL: (as Mrs. Patmore) What's happened to you? Have you swapped places with your evil twin?
MCSHERA: (as Daisy Mason) I'd like to know where the new kitchen maid is. That's what you promised. They've got a new footman. Where's the kitchen maid?
NICOL: (as Mrs. Patmore) I know, and I'm sorry. But I spoke to Mr. Carson tonight, and they won't be taking anyone new on.
MCSHERA: (as Daisy Mason) Except a footman.
NICOL: (as Mrs. Patmore) I don't know how Mr. Carson managed it because his lordship's put his foot down. But you're called my assistant now, and you've seven shillings extra every month.
MCSHERA: (as Daisy Mason) You've still kept me here with a dishonest representation.
NICOL: (as Mrs. Patmore) Oh, dear, have you swallowed a dictionary?
(LAUGHTER)
GREENE: Sophie, how much preparation reading, studying did you do to get ready to play, you know, a young woman kind of in this place at this time?
MCSHERA: I cannot tell a lie.
(LAUGHTER)
MCSHERA: I...
(LAUGHTER)
GREENE: Don't tell a lie.
(LAUGHTER)
MCSHERA: We have an amazing historical expert, called Alastair Bruce, who tells us loads that we need to know. But I'm not a bookish actress that's reading lots of books about maids - which maybe I should be, but I'm not. And so I kind of know what I need to know, to get by. And when I don't know something, I'll just ask Alastair because he knows everything.
GREENE: Rob James-Collier, you play Thomas, who, I mean, I just - he's one nasty character.
(LAUGHTER)
ROB JAMES-COLLIER: Thank you very much.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "DOWNTON ABBEY")
MATT MILNE: (as Alfred) I asked Thomas, though, to get to my...
JAMES-COLLIER: (as Thomas Barrow) I owe you - what's this?
MILNE: (as Alfred) The stuff you gave me to clean the tails, burned a hole in them.
JAMES-COLLIER: (as Thomas Barrow) No such thing. I gave you some soda crystals, that's all. If you used them wrongly, it's not my fault. This is what comes of making him run before he could walk.
GREENE: Thomas is gay, in the closet; you know, seems so heartless, so manipulating, so often. I mean, is he misunderstood in any way?
JAMES-COLLIER: I think so. The more I play Thomas, I've started to think why he is how he is. And I think it's definitely rooted in his sexuality because we must remember, this was a time where being a homosexual is illegal, and it was also against God. And it was a more godly time back then. So you have, sort of, society condemning anything to do with homosexuality; describing it as foul and twisted. And if society is being negative and aggressive towards you, I think it's only human nature to maybe react to that as a defense mechanism, and be aggressive back towards society.
GREENE: It sounds like this is something you've thought about a lot, as you've kind of decided how to play the character.
JAMES-COLLIER: Well, we've got a lot of time between scenes. So I thought, instead of procrastinating...
MCSHERA: We think about a lot of things.
GREENE: Be productive.
JAMES-COLLIER: Be productive, and actually think about my character for once.
GREENE: OK, that last voice there was Rob James-Collier, who plays Thomas. We brought the rest of the cast in, at this point. As we go on, you'll hear Jim Carter, who plays the butler, Mr. Carson; later, the esteemed Lord and Lady Grantham, played Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern. But first, Joanne Froggatt, who plays Anna, the level-headed lady's maid. Now you, our listeners, sent us some questions on Facebook, and we tried out this one.
How uncomfortable are these costumes?
JOANNE FROGGATT: Very. (LAUGHTER)
GREENE: Yeah?
FROGGATT: Well, for the ladies, seasons 1 and 2, the corsets were very, very restrictive; and very tight. So after 12 hours in one, you were really, you know, desperate to get it off, and go home and put your jeans on. And I don't know how, as a - housemaids, you know, these girls did manual labor in those things because they - you know, you can't bend in them. It's difficult to tie your shoelaces in one. So - but season 3, the - because of the fashion change, the corsets changed as well, because the shape changed.
GREENE: I imagine it's hard to act in them, too. I mean, it's...
FROGGATT: Um, yeah. I should imagine, it's a lot harder to act in one on the stage. You'd have to be very - you know, careful how tight you had your corset so you could still breathe and project, and everything.
CARTER: The costumes, whilst they were uncomfortable to wear, they do dictate how you stand, how you behave. You can't slouch. You can't be relaxed in those costumes. And we have to remember at all times, it was, you know, a very formal era. Chairbacks were not for your back to rest on. They were for servants to pull out. You never slumped. You're always - certainly, the servants, you're always on the...
GREENE: Yeah.
CARTER: ...yeah, always at attention.
GREENE: Sophie, you play Daisy. You wear a very dirty costume, down in the kitchen. Are you washing that thing, or is it...
MCSHERA: I am, yeah. Mine's not that uncomfortable because I've been wearing it for three years, so I've stretched it out.
(LAUGHTER)
MCSHERA: But yeah, it's getting washed. I know I - somehow, I've told the world that I stink.
GREENE: You are here to declare that that is not true.
MCSHERA: (LAUGHTER) And I went out with a costume designer the other night, and she's livid with me. She said, stop telling everyone we don't wash our costume. And they do wash them, but they are - sometimes we film really long days, and day after day after day. So, you know, sometimes it might not get washed for two days, maybe. Maybe that's what I meant.
CARTER: But there is a bit of fashion envy between downstairs and upstairs, isn't there. I mean, let's face it.
FROGGATT: Not at all, Jim. Not at all.
(LAUGHTER)
CARTER: Oh, I've heard you, as you wear the same black dress for three years; and the hemlines are going up, and the bustles are reducing, upstairs.
GREENE: You just want to put on the tails sometime and look formal, exquisite.
CARTER: Yeah.
FROGGATT: I have to admit, yes.
(LAUGHTER)
GREENE: So we have two of you from upstairs, and four of you from downstairs. Who has more fun doing the filming? Where's the fun?
VARIOUS CAST MEMBERS: Downstairs. (LAUGHTER)
GREENE: GREENE: It seems to be unanimous.
HUGH BONNEVILLE: Well, we have plenty fun upstairs. What are you talking about? We get a suite in a beautiful house. We get to play silly parlor games in between takes, waiting for the cameras to set-up. But no, I'm sure there's a lot more banter and bread roll-throwing in the kitchen.
ELIZABETH MCGOVERN: It's just a rumor I hear.
CARTER: And there's a formality to the scenes upstairs - which bleeds into the behavior, I think, really. You know, the...
GREENE: Your behavior - I mean, as people up there.
CARTER: As actors, yeah, because you're spaced around a dinner table three feet apart and you - you know, being obedient English actors, we sit in our places. We're waiting to work. You know, there's not so much hurly-burly upstairs.
GREENE: It just doesn't seem right to throw an egg at someone, as a joke.
CARTER: Not really. I mean...
MCGOVERN: It's not quite the same.
CARTER: Although Maggie Smith's a bit of a tinker like that.
(LAUGHTER)
GREENE: Well, thank you all so, so much for stopping by. And we've all gotten to know you onscreen, and it's been really, really fun to get to know you in person.
MCSHERA: Thank you.
VARIOUS CAST MEMBERS: Thanks for having us.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENE: That was Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Rob James-Collier, Sophie McShera, Jim Carter and Joanne Froggatt, the cast of "Downton Abbey." And you can see the new season on "Masterpiece Classic" on PBS, this Sunday.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
OK, I'm a dog person myself. But from seeing all of the cat photos on my friend's Facebook pages and watching YouTube videos, I know how many cat lovers are out there. And today's last word in business might be right up your alley.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The last word is: cat cafe.
An entrepreneur in London is raising money online to open a coffee shop that is feline-friendly.
GREENE: Here's the idea: Get a cappuccino, scone, connect to Wi-Fi and snuggle with a kitty. A local animal welfare group is helping to ensure that cats in the shop are healthy and friendly. Cat cafes are already popular in some Asian cities, where many landlords don't allow pets. And that's the case in the lot of London flats, as well.
INSKEEP: We do not know if patrons of the kitty coffee shop would be allowed to use their laser pointers to play with the cat.
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
GREENE: And I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And let's consider the technology behind movie-making. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has not made its Oscar nominations yet, but it has already announced some awards in the technical category.
DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: And one of the Oscars goes to Cooke Optics Limited. The Academy says the British company gets an award of merit because it helped define the look of motion pictures over the last century. Its innovations over the years have included zoom lenses for movie cameras and lenses that don't require bright light.
INSKEEP: The lenses produce what's known in the industry as the Cooke look, warm natural images on the screen. From Charlie Chaplin to "Gone With The Wind," James Bond and Harry Potter, the lenses have been an important part of Hollywood since the early days of film. The cameramen who accompanied Edmund Hillary to Mount Everest and Ernest Shackleton to Antarctica used them too.
GREENE: Cooke Optics will receive its Oscar on February 9. That is a couple of weeks ahead of the big Academy Awards broadcast.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
If you're driving, please take a moment to be sure you're awake. A survey finds one of every 24 adults admits to falling asleep at the wheel. Health officials say they suspect the true number is higher. Some people don't realize when they drop off for a second or...
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Steve. Hey, hey, hey, Steve.
INSKEEP: Anyway, drivers most likely to nod off are men, according to this survey, or people between 25 and 34.
It's MORNING EDITION.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Good morning. I'm David Greene. At this point in the program we sometimes tell you about record-breaking feats. Well, this one takes the cake. Sunday is Three Kings Day and in Mexico some bakers are celebrating in a big way. Rosca de Reyes is a sweet bread with a Baby Jesus figurine baked inside.
This version will weigh 10 tons, and the cake's border will stretch nearly a mile. A mile. Tradition says the person who gets the slice with the plastic Jesus has to host a party. Hope it's a big house. You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
First, people wore suits and ties, dresses or skirts to work. Then came casual Fridays. Then the tech industry destroyed dress codes. Congress is one of the last places people dress up, and we know how that's turned out.
Now the tech industry leads the way back. The Wall Street Journal reports some companies have formal Fridays now. Suits and ties have returned, a way for employees to escape the oppressive conformity of wearing hoodies and jeans. You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer. "The Death of Bees," by Lisa O'Donnell, is a story about two young girls. It's told in their voices, and in the voice of their elderly neighbor. The older girl, Marnie, kicks things off. And if you believe - as I do - that the first sentences of a novel are very important and often, the most difficult for a writer, try this beginning paragraph - the prologue to the novel.
LISA O'DONNELL: (Reading) Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today, I am 15. Today, I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them are beloved.
WERTHEIMER: That's Author Lisa O'Donnell. She is from Scotland, as you can hear. She lives in Los Angeles; but she joins us from Rome, where she's on vacation. Welcome to our program.
O'DONNELL: Hi.
WERTHEIMER: Let me ask you about those first lines. That's kind of jumping in at the deep end, don't you think? I mean, how did you decide to begin that way?
O'DONNELL: Well, I actually thought about writing it as a screenplay, to begin with. And I thought of a girl who had lost her parents, speaking. I looked at those lines for a really long time before I decided they were going to be a novel. That's really why I came up with them. I wanted a little girl who was by herself, neglected, alone. And I toyed with the idea of having the parents go on holiday and just abandoning them, but that wasn't enough for my sick mind.
(LAUGHTER)
O'DONNELL: I came up with the idea of burying them in the back garden.
WERTHEIMER: Now, this is a narrated novel. There's nothing in the voice of the author. Everything is in the voice of the characters in the book; the two girls - Marnie is the older girl and Nelly, the younger - and then there is their neighbor, whose name is Lennie. Perhaps you could just sort of introduce us to those three people.
O'DONNELL: Marnie is 15. She's tough, talks from the hip, mature, responsible; but she's still a child. She's sexually active. She drinks too much. She's doing a whole lot of things that she shouldn't really be doing for her age. She's older than her years, but there was no one in her life to stop her doing those things. Her parents were very neglectful of her. And, you know, these are people that just weren't paying attention to the children. They were more interested in their own lives and the abuses that they were putting upon themselves.
WERTHEIMER: And then there's Nellie.
O'DONNELL: And then there's Nellie. And she's, you know, she's got slight autism. She speaks like the Queen of England. And she's...
WERTHEIMER: (LAUGHTER) She really does. It's very funny, her - the way Nellie talks.
O'DONNELL: Yeah. She doesn't want to grow up. She wants to pretend everything around her that's happening, isn't really happening. So she hides behind this language, and she hides behind Marnie. And as the book progresses, we see Nellie becoming more mature; and we see Marnie becoming a little bit more vulnerable, and not quite as tough as she sets out in the beginning. And together, I hope, the reader sees these two girls coming to meet in the middle.
WERTHEIMER: Now, there's Lennie, who is the neighbor.
O'DONNELL: Yeah. Then there's Lennie. And Lennie came about, basically, through my absolute respect for the older generation. I was raised by my grandmother. And she really grounded my sister and I. And I'm really grateful for my grandparents. And I hope I recognize that gratitude by creating this older figure that comes in to save Marnie and Nellie. He observes that they're by themselves. And he has his own issues. He has his own remorses in life. He's incredibly lonely for his partner, that he lost. And he sees these two girls as a chance to redeem himself, and also to fill in the blank in his own life. And he takes them in, and he takes care of them. And this unusual family develops.
WERTHEIMER: Now, the beginning chapters of the book are quite gruesome, especially the account of Marnie and Nellie deciding that they would conceal the bodies of their parents. It takes them about a week to decide what to do. And by that time, the corpses are quite nasty. And that chapter, I must say, that's a little hard to take.
O'DONNELL: Somebody said that as well. They find it quite difficult to get through those chapters. Well, I had been humorous before those chapters, so I knew that the people would struggle through them 'cause they knew - they were assured of some laughs beyond it.
(LAUGHTER)
WERTHEIMER: Do you think of this as a young adult book? I mean, every calamity that parents fear for their children - poverty, drugs, dangerous sex, abuse - these girls are exposed to all of it.
O'DONNELL: Well, I think there's a narrow margin. I hate saying this, but there are 15-year-olds and there are 15-year-olds. Young girls do fantasize about the absence of their own parents, wishing they weren't around. It's not a nice thing to say about, you know, frustrated teenagers. But I don't think that there's anything in there that would surprise your average parent. I think that they're aware of the dangers their children face. And if they're not, they should be.
WERTHEIMER: I was especially drawn to Marnie, I must say, who is determined to keep her sister with her. She's frightened that little Nellie would never survive foster care. Now, I wonder, could you read to us from page 9? It's Marnie, the older girl, who is talking - the paragraph right at the bottom of the page.
O'DONNELL: (Reading) I suppose I've always taken care of us, really. I was changing nappies at 5 years old and shopping at 7; cleaning and doing laundry as soon as I knew my way to the launderette, and pushing Nellie about in her wee buggy when I was 6. They used to call me wee (unintelligible) - that's how useless Jean and Izzie(ph) were. They just never showed up for anything, and it was always left for me, and left to Nellie when she got old enough. They were never there for us. They were absent. At least now, we know where they are.
WERTHEIMER: (LAUGHTER) And they're always making jokes about this - at least now, we know where they are. They make jokes about them being in the garden. Now, at a couple of points in the book, the girls talk about the trap of DNA. And what they mean by that is welfare officials left them with their dreadful parents, rather than putting them in foster care years before, because they were their parents. And most of the book, after the parents are in the garden, is about the children's effort to sort of reconstitute - or create a family that they ought to have had.
O'DONNELL: Absolutely. Well, with Lennie's help, they're able to form a family. But Marnie, from the beginning of the book, is someone who simply doesn't trust the adult world. And, you know, she makes her - she believes herself to be an adult. And as the novel develops, Marnie comes to realize: I'm still a child. And the flip side for her sister is, she comes to realize: I'm not a child. I need to grow up, and I need to support my sister.
WERTHEIMER: Lisa O'Donnell's book, "The Death of Bees," was published this week. Lisa O'Donnell, thank you very much.
O'DONNELL: Thank you.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
Few Western countries are as tough about home ownership as Germany, where not even half the citizens own property. Banks there have stringent lending rules. Would-be homebuyers are usually asked to provide hefty down payments. And most Germans don't even think about buying a home until they're settled and financially secure. But the European debt crisis appears to be changing those traditions. Some officials warn the resulting run on property is driving up prices and threatening Germany's economy. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson has this report from Berlin.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
ANNE RINEY: This is historically protected.
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON, BYLINE: Real estate agent Anne Riney takes her client, Christian Ehrler, up the stairs to a two-bedroom apartment for sale in a trendy neighborhood of Berlin Mitte.
CHRISTIAN EHRLER: I already heard about it.
NELSON: Ehrler is hoping to buy this $476,000 apartment with a bank loan covering the full cost. With such a big loan, he's taking the unusual step of using his parent's home in southern Germany as collateral.
EHRLER: It's a good thing to invest and in such a location. The prices will be increased for sure.
NELSON: Ehrler's goal is to get a mortgage with less than a 3 percent interest rate. That's less than half the rate his parents paid for their mortgage. He adds that he's not the only one with plans to buy a home.
EHRLER: It's funny. At the moment, all my friends are looking for.
(LAUGHTER)
NELSON: These days, buyers lured by low interest rates or seeking a safer way to invest money are flooding the market here in Berlin and other German cities, looking to snap up property any way they can get it. The growing demand has driven prices up real estate prices by as much as 20 percent in some areas in the past year. And it's not only Germans like Ehrler who are shopping. International investors are pulling their money out of struggling countries like Italy and Greece to buy property here. Real estate agent Anne Riney says foreign buyers are attracted to Germany's financial stability.
RINEY: In Germany, growth is slow and steady, which is a healthy type of growth because it does have basis in reality, whereas in other countries, you'll often get growth from a hype, whereas the value of the property and the asking price didn't have any real relationship.
NELSON: A growing number of analysts and officials are warning that Germany is not immune to the kind of real estate bubble that crippled the United States and other Western countries. Stefan Mitropoulos is an analyst with Germany's HeLaBa bank.
STEFAN MITROPOULOS: (Foreign language spoken)
NELSON: He says the buying spree has sent German property prices soaring in recent years, leading buyers to assume large loans that many can't afford. That means Germany, which has footed much of the bill for Greek and other European bailouts, could soon face tough financial times of its own. Mitropoulos recalls a similar rise in property prices at the time of reunification that he says paralyzed the housing market here for more than a decade.
MITROPOULOS: (Foreign language spoken)
NELSON: But he adds that Germany's traditionally conservative banking practices should help reduce the risk of widespread financial disaster as experienced by other countries where the real estate bubble burst. Berlin real estate agent Anne Riney agrees, adding that German banks already take steps to protect against property devaluations.
RINEY: They take the market value and knock 20 percent off it and use this as their value for orientation. They usually give a loan for 80 percent of that.
NELSON: What those banks will lend to buyers coming from abroad is even less, Riney adds. Some of those buyers have to put up as much as 60 percent as a down payment. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Berlin.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WERTHEIMER: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
Looking for a London pied-a-terre? How about a four-bedroom duplex overlooking Hyde Park? Yours, for about $25 million. In most of the U.K., property prices are slumping, but in some of London's most upscale neighborhoods they're soaring. Vicki Barker reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF SWEEPING)
VICKI BARKER, BYLINE: Robin Perona sweeps the sidewalk at Egerton Crescent. It's a gracious semi-circle of white townhouses in fashionable Chelsea. In the 1990s, they cost about $700,000 each. Today, the average price is some $13 million - or eight million British pounds. Perona shakes his head when told he's sweeping Britain's most expensive street.
ROBIN PERONA: Eight million pounds? I don't know.
(LAUGHTER)
BARKER: Across central London, mega-rich foreign buyers are pricing the merely-wealthy locals out of the market and creating a niche.
JOSHUA AYRES: So, you have three bedrooms upstairs.
BARKER: In Bayswater, Joshua Ayres of the property firm Hamptons International is showing The Lancasters, 75 fully-decorated luxury apartments.
AYRES: Your master bedroom, your kitchen, your living room all have these grand double-height rooms.
BARKER: The developers bought up five adjoining white stucco mansions, preserved their historic facades then married the grandeur of 19th century interiors with the latest technology and luxury.
AYRES: So, we have all under-floor heating, ceiling heating in these double-height rooms, as well.
BARKER: There's a spa - of course - 24-hour valet parking and a staff of five on constant duty. A year after completion, The Lancasters is almost completely sold out. And 80 percent of the buyers have been non-Brits. James Wardle of Hamptons International.
JAMES WARDLE, HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL: It's the perfect blend. It's exactly what your internationals are looking for. They want to feel like they're a part of London, and yet they also want the facilities that they're accustomed to.
MARIE HARRISON: There's a wall of money coming from not just China, which everybody predicted, but is coming from Italy, France, Greece.
BARKER: Marie Harrison of the property firm Harpers and Harrison in upscale Kensington. She says many of her foreign clients have no intention of living in the places they buy. It seems word among the world's super-rich is that the three safest havens in these uncertain times are gold, the Swiss franc and London property, where, historically, prices have doubled every decade. So, Harrison finds herself selling houses originally built for London's middle class but which her own middle-class professional children will likely never be able to afford. For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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With all that's going on in the Middle East right now, it's easy to forget that the Arab Spring began just two years ago in Tunisia. Singer Emel Mathlouthi has been called "The Voice of the Tunisian Revolution." A video of one of her songs went viral and became an anthem for protesters during the December 2010 uprising. She released her debut album in the United States last year. Betto Arcos caught up with her in Los Angeles and has this profile.
BETTO ARCOS, BYLINE: Emel Mathlouthi grew up listening to an eclectic mix of music - from traditional Tunisian songs to her father's record collection.
EMEL MATHLOUTHI: He was listening to vinyls of European classical music and some old jazz and old blues from America like Mahalia Jackson and Jack Dupree.
ARCOS: Mathlouthi started performing when she was 15 and joined a band in college. But she says there was no way for a young independent musician, let alone a woman, to get heard in Tunisia.
MATHLOUTHI: I couldn't be a professional musician there because there was no structures, there was no help from the government for music like I was doing. And I couldn't go on TV, I couldn't go to the radio, so I couldn't reach a larger audience.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DHALEM")
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Kill me. I write a song. Imprison me. I will sing a story.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DHALEM")
ARCOS: Mathlouthi didn't help her chances of getting on government-controlled media when she started writing songs against the regime of then President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. She decided to move to France and began working on the songs for her first album. One is called "Dhalem" or "Tyrant."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DHALEM")
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Time will carry you away. My melodies are eternal. Oh, tyrant, you'll see a day when you become a victim. Kill me. I write a song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DHALEM")
ARCOS: Mathlouthi says she was writing a lot of songs like this, but nothing was happening in Tunisia.
MATHLOUTHI: I was posting my songs on the social medias and I was trying to reach a larger audience, especially in Tunisia, so I can talk to them and I can give them all my strength. But I felt, from time to time, you know, like everyone and every artist, I was desperate and I was saying, so the dictatorship is growing and I am here, like, writing songs, and so what?
ARCOS: Then, she remembered a poem by the Palestinian writer Mahmoud Darwish called "There is on this Land what is Worth Living."
MATHLOUTHI: I realize that the power is to write songs because the songs are eternal, the melodies will be here like witnesses. But the dictatorship and the persons will go.
ARCOS: In the Summer of 2007, at the iconic Place de la Bastille in Paris , where the French Revolution began, Mathlouthi sang "Klemti Horra," "My Word is Free" to an audience of tens of thousands. A video of the performance reached Tunisia and resonated with protesters in the streets.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KLEMTI HORRA")
MC RAI: She has so much courage to sing that, around that time.
ARCOS: MC Rai is a 35-year-old Tunisian singer and composer, based in San Francisco.
RAI: When the dictators in Tunisia, the old regime, were in the top of their power, for her to even have the courage to sing that, when she was living still between France and Tunisia, I thought she really was true artist because that's what the art is about.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KLEMTI HORRA")
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I am those who are free and never fear. I am the secrets that will never die. I am the voice of those who would not give in.
ARCOS: Four years later, Mathlouthi returned to the streets of Tunis to sing "Klemti Horra" just hours before President Ben Ali fled the country.
MATHLOUTHI: (Singing in foreign language)
ARCOS: The last song on Emel Mathlouthi's album is called "Yezzi," "Enough." It begins with a simple folk melody and unfolds into three cinematic images. In the first part, Mathlouthi sampled sounds of the Arab Spring street protests.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YEZZI")
ARCOS: The second part includes the last speech by the deposed Tunisian president.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YEZZI")
ARCOS: And the third part begins with announcement of the resignation of Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YEZZI")
ARCOS: The chorus says freedom is in the street, freedom is in the countryside, not inside your house.
MATHLOUTHI: And I think it still can talk to Arab governments because we are not seeing so much changes, not really. We made revolutions but maybe we are welcoming a new dictator, so we don't know.
ARCOS: Still, Emel Mathlouthi has hope for the region. In her song "The Road is Long," she sings: My country stands above all tyrants and oppression, and despite the long road ahead, my heart will forever shelter, a love of freedom. For NPR News, I'm Betto Arcos.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE ROAD IS LONG")
WERTHEIMER: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Scott Simon is back next week. I'm Linda Wertheimer.
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This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer. When President Obama finally announced a fiscal cliff agreement late Tuesday night, he thanked several people who helped make it happen. But the first person he mentioned was standing right next to him.
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PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: In particular, I want to thank the work that was done by my extraordinary vice president, Joe Biden.
WERTHEIMER: In the final hours of the standoff, Republican Mitch O'Connell asked Biden to help push a deal over the finish line. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: The Republican leader's last name was misspoken. It is McConnell.] It was certainly not the first time the vice president has played that role. NPR's Ari Shapiro has this profile of Biden the back-room negotiator.
ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: In 2009, Vice President Biden's chief economist Jared Bernstein was in an Oval Office meeting with the president. In the middle of the meeting, Bernstein remembers, the phone rang.
JARED BERNSTEIN: And it's Arlen Specter announcing that he's going to become a Democrat and give the Democrats the majority in the Senate. And the president took the call and was extremely pleased. And when he got off the phone, he said something to the effect of, you know, that was Joe Biden's work.
SHAPIRO: The White House has an entire Legislative Affairs office whose only job is to keep in touch with Congress. But often this vice president acts as a one-man shop doing the job on his own. Bernstein says everyone in the White House acknowledges this.
BERNSTEIN: Not only is it recognized as one of his strengths, but it's one of the reasons he's there. I mean, you're talking about a president who was in Washington and the Senate for all of two years, and a vice president who was there for 36.
SHAPIRO: President Obama has a reputation for being aloof, especially with members of Congress. He doesn't take lawmakers golfing. He doesn't invite them over for movie night. He doesn't schmooze. Vice President Biden is just the opposite. This week, he greeted incoming Senators and their families at the start of the new Congress. He gave bear hugs, workout advice, and facial caresses.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Come on, mom. Take a chance. Ruin your reputation here.
(LAUGHTER)
SHAPIRO: That side of Biden is easy to mock. Critics dismiss him as a gaffe-prone windbag who talks more than he listens. That's what veteran Republican staffer Jack Howard had heard before he met Biden in 1994. Howard was working for Newt Gingrich in the House at the time. Congress was deadlocked over a crime bill. They were still in the office deep into the August recess, when Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joe Biden came over to help break the logjam.
JACK HOWARD: You know, my first reaction is why is he coming over here to try to help this? And my experience to that point had pretty much been only what I'd seen or heard from other people which, you know, was kind of a caricature of him. But all those notions were quickly dispelled within hours.
SHAPIRO: Howard says Biden was there until two or three in the morning, night after night, sleeves rolled up, pushing everyone towards a deal.
HOWARD: The Republican members quickly came to realize we could trust the guy. And he was a straight shooter. You know, he kind of knew what our limits were, and he was quite candid in terms of telling us what his limits were. And once you kind of get that established, that's the first real predicate to a successful negotiation.
SHAPIRO: That 1994 crime bill ultimately came through. It's one in a long series of deals from Biden's time in the Senate. He struck many of them with people who were his utter political opposite. And those relationships endured to the very end. Former Democratic Senator Ted Kaufman was Biden's chief of staff for years.
TED KAUFMAN: Senator Strom Thurmond, who I think has a reputation for being among the most conservative members of the Senate in history, and Jesse Helms, who probably would be in the top ten along with Thurmond, both of those senators had asked that when they died they'd asked Senator Biden to be one of the people to give the eulogy at their memorial service.
SHAPIRO: With that history, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made this final overture last weekend as a fiscal cliff deal seems to be slipping out of reach.
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: The vice president and I have worked on solutions before and I believe we can again.
SHAPIRO: Sure enough, that's what happened - and it won't be the last time. Vice President Biden's next task is to lead the administration effort on gun control, an issue where Republicans and Democrats are at least as far apart as they were on the fiscal cliff. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.
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In New Orleans, music fans are rebuilding The Duplex once owned by Henry Roeland Byrd, otherwise known as Professor Longhair. It's hard to exaggerate the cultural debt the city owes to Professor Longhair, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and an inspiration to all modern-day New Orleans piano players. Gwen Thompkins, host of WWNO's Music Inside Out reports.
GWEN THOMPKINS, BYLINE: The Duplex is a two-story wood framed building on the tough side of Terpsichore Street in New Orleans. It has wood floors, high ceilings and a nice fireplace. But this old house is empty - no furniture, no walls, no electricity, no toilet. Iron bars hide the windows. There's a lockbox on the door. And the facade is three different shades of blech, blurgh and blah. So, let's face it - you're not going to care about Henry Roeland Byrd's house until you've heard Professor Longhair's music.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
THOMPKINS: That's a recording from 1970s. But Professor Longhair had been playing that way since 1940s. Longhair's style of piano helped create a new musical tradition new musical tradition in New Orleans - a post-World War II, modern sound that reverberated up and down the national charts. If you've ever heard New Orleans piano greats like Fats Domino, Eddie Bo, James Booker or Dr. John then you've already met Professor Longhair in the ether. Allen Toussaint is a piano player who's written and produced music for more than 50 years.
ALLEN TOUSSAINT: I am a disciple of Professor Longhair. There's Professor Longhair and then the rest of us.
(LAUGHTER)
THOMPKINS: In a 1979 interview Longhair gave to the CBC shortly before his death, he came to a similar conclusion.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED INTERVIEW)
PROFESSOR LONGHAIR: Every youngster in New Orleans had came by me in some form or fashion to either look, listen or show them something. I can go back as far as Sugar Boy and Eddie Bo, Guitar Slim. Mac - well, y'all call him Dr. John - Mac Rebbenack is really his name - all those kids used to stand around the door, Fats and all of them. They was very small. They were so small they had to stand outside and do the same thing that I was doing when I was learning from Toots Washington and them. I couldn't go into the joints because they had alcohol in there, you know.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
THOMPKINS: The learning curve could be steep. Longhair, whose friends call him Fess, sang in his one language.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TIPITINA")
LONGHAIR: (Singing)
JASON BERRY: They don't make songs like that much anymore.
THOMPKINS: Writer Jason Berry says Professor Longhair's songs speak to life's divine comedy. Berry co- wrote "Up From the Cradle of Jazz," a definitive book on modern New Orleans music.
BERRY: Fess was able to turn them into these lyrical carousels.
THOMPKINS: And yet, lyrical carousels don't pay the rent. Longhair's career died in the 1960s. But a decade later, with the help of a few tireless fans, he was back recording, performing and touring. And at the age of 57, Longhair married his longtime paramour, with whom he'd already raised six children. Later, he bought the duplex on Terpsichore Street. Pat Walton Byrd is their youngest daughter.
PAT WALTON BYRD: He just couldn't wait to put my mother in a house. It was more of like, when we first started I couldn't do this. But you were patient with me. You loved me. You believed in me. And now it's my time to provide for you as a man. And even though our kids are grown, this is where our life actually starts in our first home. The '70s became his best years.
THOMPKINS: But in January 1980, as his most ambitious album reached record stores and amid plans to tour with The Clash, Longhair died in his sleep. Alice, his wife, became severely disabled and died several years later. Pat Byrd was her mother's full-time caregiver. And were it not for the damage from Hurricane Katrina, she would be in the house right now.
STEVE ARMBRUSTER: Pat has been essentially homeless for seven years.
THOMPKINS: Steve Armbruster managed Longhair briefly and has spearheaded the effort to get Pat Byrd and her son back home.
ARMBRUSTER: She's had places to stay. Friends who would let her stay here or there, or she would rent apartments. But it's not the same as having your own house.
THOMPKINS: Like any number of homeowners following Katrina, Byrd fell prey to an unethical contractor who reportedly fleeced her of more than $100,000 and delivered almost nothing. An impoverished Byrd went to the district attorney and the contractor committed suicide.
KEVIN KRECIJE: Ready?
THOMPKINS: Um-hum. I'm ready.
KRECIJE: All right.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR CLOSING)
THOMPKINS: Enter the Tipitina's Foundation, the United Way and a non-profit building organization called Project Homecoming. Together, they're raising money to renovate the house and create a small museum dedicated to Longhair. If all goes well, Pat Byrd and her son will be able to move in to their side of the duplex sometime next year. Kevin Krecije is with Project Homecoming.
KRECIJE: And then part of the upstairs is going to be a rental because a really good idea is to have a little bit of rental income for folks who are kind of struggling to get back on their feet so that there is some sustainable income there to help support the museum, to help support Pat and her son.
THOMPKINS: And who wouldn't want to live in, like, Professor Longhair's house?
KRECIJE: Exactly, yeah. It's a great...
THOMPKINS: I mean, you could charge anything.
KRECIJE: You could, you could, yeah.
THOMPKINS: I mean, just the thrill of it. It's like moving into Graceland.
KRECIJE: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it'd better than moving into Graceland. Graceland's kitchen isn't that nice.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
DR JOHN: (Singing) If I had a million dollars...
THOMPKINS: Dr. John was among the headliners at a recent Tipitina's Foundation concert for the house.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
JOHN: (Singing) Give me the (unintelligible). Give me the ride, well, I need (unintelligible)...
THOMPKINS: And nearly every other act playing around New Orleans that night owed something to Longhair, too. Former Radiators bassist Reggie Scanlan was making a live recording at a nearby club. He spent a year touring with Longhair.
REGGIE SCANLAN: Louis Armstrong had his starting point with jazz and stuff, but as far as the R&B, Fess deserves to have a museum. He deserves to have his music available for people to either learn or learn about. It's like anything else that you want to learn about. You got to go to the source.
THOMPKINS: When the Professor Longhair Museum is finished, Scanlan says he'll visit the house on Terpsichore Street. He's never been there before. But chances are he won't need directions. Longhair couldn't have chosen a better address. Terpsichore is the New Orleans way of pronouncing Terp-SI-cho-ree, the muse of lyric poetry and dance. For NPR News, this is Gwen Thompkins in New Orleans.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
LONGHAIR: (Singing) Oh, little boys called me Dr. Professor Longhair, but the girls all call me a little ol' lovin' man. (unintelligible) babe, I got the remedies right here in my hand...
WERTHEIMER: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Scott Simon returns next week. I'm Linda Wertheimer.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Scott Simon is away. I'm Linda Wertheimer.
This week saw both a frantic finally to the much unloved 112th Congress, and hours later the swearing in of the new 113th. The cast of lawmakers and their leaders is mostly unchanged, and as NPR's David Welna reports, the same can be said for Capitol Hill's never-ending drama over taxes, deficits and spending.
DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: What was arguably this week's most sensational congressional moment did not even take place in Washington. On Wednesday in Trenton, New Jersey, Republican Governor Chris Christie blasted the GOP-led House for closing down the last Congress without even considering a Superstorm Sandy disaster relief bill.
GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE: There's only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims: the House majority and their speaker, John Boehner.
WELNA: Within hours, Speaker Boehner reversed course. He agreed to let the newly convened House take up part of the relief package, which it easily passed yesterday, and consider the rest of the aid in 10 days.
So while House Republicans have vowed to cut spending, the first legislation this new Congress voted on could add $60 billion to the national debt. After narrowly getting re-elected speaker on Thursday - despite a minor revolt by fellow Republicans - Boehner acknowledged what a challenge his job's become.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER: Public service was never meant to be an easy living. Extraordinary challenges demand extraordinary leadership.
WELNA: Late in the evening of New Year's Day, Boehner did do something extraordinary for a Republican speaker - he brought the fiscal cliff bill passed overwhelmingly by the Senate to the House floor for a vote, even though most Republicans opposed it.
Doing so broke an unwritten rule they've operated under for years, which is that only those bills that have the support of the majority of the GOP majority get voted on. Most of the votes for the fiscal cliff bill came from House Democrats.
One was Washington state's Jim McDermott, who praised Boehner.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM MCDERMOTT: He made the right judgment for the people and for the country, and if his crazies want to sit over on the sidelines and, you know, throw rocks or yell or scream or do whatever they want, that's fine. But they're going to be more and more marginalized if John Boehner continues down this path of doing what's best for the American people.
WELNA: But out on the windy front steps of the Capitol, conservative Ohio Republican Jim Jordan said Boehner's straying from the majority of the majority rule was just a one-off event.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM JORDAN: I think that was a unique situation, you know - midnight on New Year's Day, end of the session. I think that was a unique situation. I don't think you're going to see that in the future.
WELNA: That it's not really setting a new precedent.
JORDAN: No. I don't think it's going to happen. I don't see it happening in the future. I think you're going to see our conference come together around Republican and conservative principles.
WELNA: Jordan says the next chance to do so will be when President Obama asks Congress to raise the debt ceiling probably later next month. But the president said Tuesday he's having no more debt ceiling fights with Congress.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: While I'll negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they've already racked up through the laws that they passed.
WELNA: Any more deficit reduction, the president added, will have to balance spending cuts with new revenue. GOP leaders on the Hill responded by declaring the revenue debate finished.
Congressional expert Jack Pitney of Claremont McKenna College says for Hill Republicans, it's now all about cutting spending.
JACK PITNEY: They believe that President Obama won a victory on taxes, and they're thirsting for a victory of their own.
WELNA: Indeed, the Senate's new Number two Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, wrote yesterday that, quote, "It may be necessary to partially shut down the government."
That brought a tart warning from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
SENATOR HARRY REID: I think Mr. Cornyn better be careful. That's a stupid thing to do. He's strained for a fight; he's going to wind up losing it.
WELNA: Meet the new Congress, much like the old Congress.
David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.
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This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer in for Scott Simon. The latest government figures show moderate but steady job growth in December. But these gains don't mean the same thing for everyone out of work. For the millions of people still struggling with long-term unemployment, the outlook has not improved very much. As NPR's Ailsa Chang reports, getting these workers back into the workforce is going to take a lot longer.
AILSA CHANG, BYLINE: When you're the first person in your family to finish college after growing up in one of the roughest sections of Brooklyn, you kind of expect things to happen for you. But Alecia Warthen has spent the last eight months learning to swallow her pride. She had earned an accounting degree and worked as a bookkeeper the last decade. Then she lost her job with the City of New York last April. And now she's telling local grocery stores she'll do anything - mop floors, stock shelves, bag groceries - anything, for a job. This morning, we're at FoodTown in the Bronx.
ALECIA WARTHEN: Hey, I just came because I put in an application a few weeks back, to see what type of jobs that you had open 'cause I'm looking for work.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: They just closed one of my other FoodTown stores, and we're absorbing their help right now. So, I have nothing open right now.
WARTHEN: Oh. OK, then.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: OK?
WARTHEN: All right. Thanks a lot. I appreciate that. This is sad. This is so sad. Let's go. I'm going back home.
CHANG: Warthen says she's applied for more than a hundred jobs since her lay-off and gotten only four interviews so far. She's tried making clothes to sell and even peddled homemade body lotions. But nothing's helped. It wasn't supposed to be this way. Warthen, who's 43, is used to taking care of her own problems. She raised six kids as a single mom and always had a job. Now, she and the three children who are still in the house are living on food stamps and $400 a week in unemployment insurance.
WARTHEN: I've always tried to aim high for myself, instill the same values in my kids and stuff. And just to think that everything has come down to this, it's like, make you feel like you just went to school for nothing, for nothing.
CHANG: Warthen is one of roughly five million people who are what they call the long-term unemployed - people who've been out of work for at least a half year. So many jobless workers fall into this category, it's skewed the numbers. Now, the average period a person in the U.S. stays unemployed is about 40 weeks. And it's been that way for a year and a half. So, even though the unemployment rate is coming down, the length of time people remain unemployed continues to be pretty high. John Silvia is the chief economist at Wells Fargo.
JOHN SILVIA: Remember, prior to 2007, this average duration was more like 20 weeks, not 40 weeks. So, we're dealing with a very, very different kind of labor market than we did prior to 2007.
CHANG: Silvia says there are expanding sectors in this new labor market, like health care and education. But he says the main reason people are staying unemployed is a skill set gap. Those growing sectors need skills many long-term unemployed people just don't have, especially those in their 40s and 50s. And the longer someone remains unemployed, the more she'll be perceived as a person without the right skill set. That's what Bonny Williams has seen. He helps run New York Staffing Services, a job placement center in Manhattan.
BONNY WILLIAMS: It does look undesirable because from an employer perspective, they're looking that this person has to be retrained to get up to speed for what we're looking for. So, they'd rather spend the time with someone who's just coming off an assignment because they're looking as though they're job-ready versus someone who may have been a bit stale being out of work for some time.
CHANG: So, Williams says even though he is placing more workers these days, the people first in line to get the new jobs are the ones who've been out of work the shortest time. That means prospects continue to be dim for people like Alecia Warthen. She's already started to pull money out of both her life insurance policy and retirement account. And to save on electricity now, her house goes pitch black every night before 11 o'clock. Ailsa Chang, NPR News.
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Jobless people are struggling to pay their bills, Congress is debating debt and deficit, but the state of Illinois appears to be careening towards its own fiscal cliff. Illinois has a pension fund shortfall of nearly $100 billion - by far, the biggest pension shortfall in the nation. And as NPR's David Schaper reports from Chicago, the clock is ticking for the state's governor and lawmakers to approve pension reforms before a new legislature is sworn in next week.
DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE: Simply put, Illinois's unfunded pension liability is just massive.
GOVERNOR PAT QUINN: Well, it's 96-billion dollars of liability and that's been accumulated over many, many years.
SCHAPER: Illinois democratic Governor Pat Quinn says his state's pension problems date back at least 70 years.
QUINN: And there have been 12 governors, 13 speakers of the House, and 13 presidents of the Senate that have come and gone and the issue has kind of confounded our predecessors.
SCHAPER: Over those many years, Illinois' teachers, state troopers, university professors and other state employees have been paying their fair share, contributing about 8 to 12 percent of their salaries out of every paycheck to their pension funds. But the state hasn't. Illinois's governors and lawmakers have frequently shortchanged the pension systems and they've even skipped some pension payments altogether so that they could more freely spend on things more popular with the voters, such as schools, highways, health care and prisons. The result, says Governor Quinn, is this huge pension shortfall that is growing bigger by the day.
QUINN: Our liability every day goes up by $17 million. So, you know, we've got to deal with this.
SCHAPER: Quinn says without changes the state's pension payment next fiscal year will be quadruple what it was just five years ago. That leaves a lot less money for education, hospitals, health care and roads, a point the governor's office drives home in an informational video.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
SCHAPER: The video shows a cartoon snake - Squeezy, the Pension Python - squeezing the state capitol. It's a tactic that amuses some, but has also been mocked by others, including some legislators. Meantime, Illinois's credit rating continues to drop and according to Moody's, is now the lowest among all 50 states. Lawrence Msall of a Chicago-based budget watchdog group called the Civic Federation says time is running out.
LAWRENCE MSALL: The state is in a financial crisis. The state needs to act. The longer it waits, the more expensive it gets and the more difficult it will be to stabilize the state.
SCHAPER: Msall says if the legislature doesn't act soon, Illinois's pension funds could eventually run out of money.
GROUP OF ILLINOIS TEACHERS: (Chanting) Whose pension? Our pension. Whose pension? Our pension.
SCHAPER: Illinois teachers, state employees and retirees are outraged.
TEACHERS: (Chanting) Our pension. Our pension...
SCHAPER: Hundreds of them rallied in the state capitol this week to protest not just the under-funding of their pensions but also pending legislation that tries to fix the problem, by in part, reducing their pension benefits.
HENRY BAYER: There is an assault on our retirement security.
SCHAPER: Henry Bayer heads up the union representing most Illinois state employees, and he says the politicians haven't lived up to their promises.
BAYER: Look, we're willing to work toward a solution to the problem but we are not willing to have the burden of their past failures put on our backs.
SCHAPER: Bayer warns that any changes to benefits will likely be challenged in court, as Illinois's constitution prohibits pension benefits from being diminished. But a tax increase to shore up the pension funds isn't likely because Illinois just raised its income tax two years ago. Governor Quinn and legislative leaders will be meeting over the weekend in a race to broker a pension compromise before the Illinois legislature's lame-duck session ends and a new legislature is sworn in on Wednesday. David Schaper, NPR News, Chicago.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
Two and a half weeks from now, President Obama will stand on the western steps of the Capitol Building, recite the oath of office and deliver his second inaugural address. His inauguration falls on the national Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It's a confluence certain to be recognized by the president, who invoked King's words in a campaign speech in Iowa in the very early days of his first presidential run.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I chose to run in this election, at the moment, because of what Dr. King called the fierce urgency of now. Because we are at a defining moment in our history.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED SPEECH)
WERTHEIMER: Martin Luther King Jr. He was speaking at the 1963 March on Washington. Taylor Branch won the Pulitzer Prize for his history of the struggles for civil rights. He has a new book, "The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement." And he joins us from WYPR in Baltimore. Taylor, thank you so much for being with us.
TAYLOR BRANCH: Thank you, Linda. Nice to be here.
WERTHEIMER: Now, your new book takes 18 events, important historic markers in the civil rights movement, and the first of them was the Montgomery bus boycott, which began when a seamstress named Rosa Parks was arrested when she refused to move to the back of the bus. Can you draw a historical line from that moment in the civil rights movement to Barack Obama's presidency?
BRANCH: Yes, I can. I think that that's fairly easy and really resonant to do at this moment. Fifty years after the March on Washington - 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, by the way. So, we have a lot of resonant things happening now. Dr. King went home two days after Rosa Parks was arrested to give a speech about what it meant. And that was his first public speech. And he achieved such an amazing resonance with his audience that day that he became forever a public person. That's the beginning of a movement toward freedom that we still celebrate.
WERTHEIMER: President Obama's been in office for nearly four years. Has his election and time in office, do you think, has it changed race relations at all or prospects for African-Americans and others? Has it fulfilled some kind of promise?
BRANCH: Only very slowly, which is the way race beguiles us in history. I think it's fair to say that his first term has had probably less overt discussion about race than many, even though he's the first African-American president. He certainly hasn't initiated very much. And I think what that shows is that we're still fundamentally uncomfortable with discussing race openly in public. It's a step forward that we have an African-American president. But race has taught us in American history that things take an awful long to adapt and become comfortable.
WERTHEIMER: Just after Barack Obama's election in 2008, you said on our air that his victory was a symbol of potential. You, I take it, do not feel that the president has fulfilled that potential?
BRANCH: Well, I think that the president has been coping with a fiscal and economic crisis and a crisis of confidence and stagnation in the country. But I don't think that he or anyone else would say that this is a jubilee moment in U.S. history. I think he has done some remarkably good things, but no one should be celebrating any sort of millennium. We are 50 years from not only the March on Washington but the time that George Wallace in January 50 years took the oath of office as governor of Alabama saying segregation now, segregation forever. That has passed. Segregation is gone. But George Wallace invented a good many of the slogans of modern politics, including tax and spend liberals taking over big government, and a conspiracy of the media to concentrate all affected power in the central government in Washington. And those sorts of things still dominate a lot of our politics, indicating that just as it took us 100 years to get over the Civil War, when we had an incandescent moment about race, it's taking us 50 years to get over the effects of the 1960s and the remarkable witness that Dr. King's movement set in motion.
WERTHEIMER: Let me ask you what you think is left on Dr. King's agenda.
BRANCH: On Dr. King's agenda. Well, the best expression of it was in his Nobel Prize lecture when he said that he thought democracy was a great inspiration for non-violent witness against the three great scourges of the world, which is racism, war and poverty, which he called violence of the spirit and violence of the flesh. There is still plenty of that all over the world today, and what's lacking is the kind of spirit he had that the risk that's most productive is when we express faith in our common beliefs and not in our violence in trying to answer it. That's what democracy is after all. King was the only one who said the prosaic fact that democracy is about votes and votes are about non-violence; how we decide to create power out of agreements instead of our of fights. That example has receded to a large degree in a world that's so divided and so violent.
WERTHEIMER: Taylor Branch is the author of a new book, "The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement." He joined us from WYPR in Baltimore. Thank you.
BRANCH: Thank you, Linda.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
In Pakistan, there's a cafe called the Second Floor. It's listed in a local Karachi social blog as one of the coolest cafes in town. Since it opened its doors five years ago, it's become a haven in a city more known for its violence than its civil discourse. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston paid a visit.
DINA TEMPLE-RASTON, BYLINE: The artwork on the front stoop of the Second Floor Cafe in Karachi says it all.
SABEEN MAHMUD: I wanted something right at the entrance...
TEMPLE-RASTON: That's Shameen Mahmud. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: Mahmud's first name is Sabeen.] She runs the Second Floor. And she's showing me a painting of a giant Escape Key on the stoop...
MAHMUD: Indicating that when you enter this space, you will escape from the world for a little while. So, one of our artist friends just stenciled that.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Shameen Mahmud is a 30-something social activist in Karachi, and what she's created sounds simple enough. She opened a place where people could gather to exchange ideas while eating organic wraps and sipping lattes.
MAHMUD: We have art exhibitions. We have book readings. We have talks, film screenings, theater, dance - essentially, anything that covers the realm of arts and culture, science and technology - and ideas.
TEMPLE-RASTON: If you were in Greenwich Village or SoHo in New York, this would sound like more of the same. But this being Pakistan, the Second Floor is unusual. When lawyers demonstrated after then-Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf fired dozens of senior judges in 2007, demonstrators planned their next moves at the Second Floor.
MAHMUD: We used to do these flash protests, and we used to just tell all these guys that we're going be here at such and such a time. We'd organize them over SMS.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Organizing demonstrations by SMS - or text messaging - back in 2007. A former Pakistani naval researcher named Ayesha Siddiqa, was looking for a place for a reading. She'd written a controversial book on Pakistan's military business interests. The Second Floor offered to host the event.
ZAHEER KIDVAI: We got telephone calls from agencies - so did she - that we shouldn't have it.
TEMPLE-RASTON: That's Zaheer Kidvai, who helped open the Second Floor. And he talked to the intelligence officials from the Inter-Services Intelligence, who called.
KIDVAI: My answer was, this is just a discussion. And so if you don't like the idea of what she's written, then come there. Don't bring guns; don't bring anything. Just come there.
TEMPLE-RASTON: And they did. Shameen Mahmud said the ISI agents were easy to spot, and they asked pro-army questions. But it all worked out just fine, she says.
MAHMUD: I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that I don't know about, that goes on; that I'm not aware of - because I know that the agencies visit. And you know, people will show up from the ISI, and from here and there. And they're just people; they're just doing their jobs. And I wish they didn't have those jobs, but they have not troubled us.
HEDRANI: It's the only place in Karachi, you know, that actually serves people like us.
TEMPLE-RASTON: That's 21-year-old Hedrani, a film student and a regular customer.
HEDRANI: You can really have nice conversations out here with just general, random, people. You can just walk up to people and have good conversations.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Of course, that's why the Second Floor was created in the first place - to spark discussion, says Zaheer Kidvai.
KIDVAI: It's nice to see them sit down in conversations and discuss - whether it's politics or religion, or anything else - things that are not allowed to be talked about in public here.
TEMPLE-RASTON: The Second Floor hopes to keep that conversation going. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News, Islamabad.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
Senator Jeanne Shaheen is one of the members of the new 113th Congress. Shaheen is the senior senator from New Hampshire despite the fact that she's still in her first term. She was elected in 2008. Before that, she was New Hampshire's first woman governor. She remains the only woman to serve both as governor and senator, an accomplishment that seems to suit New Hampshire, which this week became the first state ever to send an entirely female delegation to Washington.
Senator Shaheen, welcome to the program.
SENATOR JEANNE SHAHEEN: Great to be with you.
WERTHEIMER: Now, when you first ran for the United States Senate, did you imagine that you would be part of such a bitterly divided, gridlocked institution?
SHAHEEN: No, and it's disappointing that it is so divided.
WERTHEIMER: Looking in from the outside, it looks like it can't be a very satisfying or even pleasant place to work, especially for a Democrat.
SHAHEEN: Well, I think the reality is while there are these partisan differences, the fact is individual senators work together very well. And, you know, now we have 20 women in the Senate, and I think the women have historically had a very good relationship in the Senate that has crossed those partisan divides. So I'm hoping that that will continue.
WERTHEIMER: Do you think that women have come anywhere close to some sort of critical mass, enough women there to make some kind of difference?
SHAHEEN: This year there will be eight women chairing committees in the Senate. I think that's critical. Now, obviously there are 20 of us, so we make up 20 percent of the Senate. Women make up over 50 percent of the population, so we still have a long way to go.
WERTHEIMER: You come to the Senate from being the governor of your state, which is an executive office. Governors have power. Governors can make things happen. Now you're one of 100. How does that feel?
SHAHEEN: Being governor and being in the Senate is sort of like apples and oranges. As governor, as you pointed out, you do have a very loud megaphone. You can better set an agenda and try and pursue that.
In the Senate, as one of the 100, you not only have to go by Senate rules, which I think are very arcane and there are some aspects of them that really need to be changed, like the filibuster. But also you are dealing with the seniority system, which is another issue in the Senate that makes it challenging.
WERTHEIMER: Now that the fiscal cliff has passed, the next big bump in the road is likely to be the debt ceiling. The president and Republican leaders are both already drawing the lines in the sand. I wonder, is there much that you as a first-term senator can personally do if Congress comes to yet another full stop?
SHAHEEN: Well, certainly one of the things I did a year and a half ago when we were having this debate was to try and make sure the people in New Hampshire understood what was at stake. It's astounding to me that people are willing to gamble with the full faith and credit of the United States. It's just unforgivable and irresponsible to think that people would be using this as a bargaining chip in trying to deal with this country's debt and deficits.
WERTHEIMER: But do you think when the president says he's not going to negotiate about the debt ceiling, that Congress is just simply going to have pass the debt ceiling and negotiate somewhere else, do you think he's going to be able to make that stick?
SHAHEEN: Well, I certainly hope so because I do think we need to be negotiating somewhere else. We saw what happened to the U.S. economy a year and a half ago when we passed the budget control act and when up to the brink and the credit rating of the country took a hit. There were significant costs to this country in the billions of dollars, and for those people who say they want to cut spending, that certainly doesn't seem to me to be a good way to do it. So I think we need to get serious about our debt and deficits but we need to do it in a way that puts aside this brinksmanship and looks at the issue in a serious way that recognizes that in order to deal with this we're all going to have to compromise.
WERTHEIMER: Let me ask you what you think about this business of New Hampshire having an all-girl delegation? How did that happen? Why did that happen do you think?
SHAHEEN: Well, we also have a woman governor. We have a woman speaker of the house and we have a chief justice of our supreme court who is also a woman, as is the chief justice of our superior court. This is our second woman governor. As you point out, we have an all-female delegation to Washington and I think it's about time.
WERTHEIMER: Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Senator, thank you.
SHAHEEN: Good to be with you.
(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS CONFERENCE)
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
At a news conference earlier this week, President Obama tried to put pressure on Republicans and federal budget negotiations. The president said he would not accept spending cuts from Republicans without some tax increases. Then he used a phrase that raised a few eyebrows.
: If they think that's going to be the formula for how we solve this thing, then they've got another thing coming.
WERTHEIMER: That's because apparently this is one oft-misused phrase. Here's our resident fact maven, NPR librarian Kee Malesky.
KEE MALESKY, BYLINE: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the original phrase was "to have another think coming" - meaning, to be greatly mistaken.
WERTHEIMER: In other words it's a K, not a G. That's certainly the way it used to be printed. To quote from an 1898 edition of the newspaper The Quincy Whig...
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Reading) "Chicago thinks it wants a new charter. Chicago has another think coming. It doesn't need a new charter as much as it needs some honest officials."
WERTHEIMER: Misheard enough times, think became thing. So how should modern newspapers transcribe the president's remarks? Let's listen to the president one more time.
(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS CONFERENCE)
WERTHEIMER: Now, I think it's a close call. But the official White House transcript landed on "thing." And in the end so did the paper of record, The New York Times. And if that's the case, it would seem the president is with the majority on this usage.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE "TOUCH OF EVIL")
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE "LOSING ISAIAH")
WERTHEIMER: Lines from movies, "Touch of Evil" and "Losing Isaiah." And let's give some credit to the '80s. That decade gave us this hit, from the band Judas Priest.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING")
WERTHEIMER: You're listening to NPR News.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer. Since its revolution, Egypt has faced enormous political hurdles. But another problem that was lurking in the background is now front and center - money. The country is facing a rapidly shrinking currency reserve. And now the newly elected president, Mohamed Morsi, is fighting to prove that Egypt can qualify for a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. Joining me on the line now from Cairo is Farah Halime. She is a business reporter. She runs a blog called Rebel Economy. Farah Halime, welcome.
FARAH HALIME: Thank you.
WERTHEIMER: Now the Egyptian pound declined sharply this week. Can you tell us why? Can you tell us what's happening?
HALIME: Well, the pound has fallen about 3 percent in one week alone because of a crisis of confidence. The political situation has deteriorated to such an extent that investors and Egyptians have lost faith in the government's ability to stabilize the economy. And because of a series of decisions they have decided to swap their pound for dollars because of a fear that the pound will devalue further. And that's why we're seeing the pound falling to 6.4 to a dollar, whereas it was about 6 pounds to a dollar for many months and years before this happened.
WERTHEIMER: Well, so what happens to the economy when the currency takes a hit like that?
HALIME: The most significant impact will be on what Egypt is buying. So the first impact really will be Egypt's imports of wheat. It's the biggest net importer of wheat in the world. It's also a major importer of sugar and tea. So the prices of these commodities will be more heavily felt for Egypt. And that will obviously translate to Egypt's people and its families. So you're going to see many of Egypt's society really suffering as a result.
WERTHEIMER: Well, now Egypt has historically been a country which has heavily subsidized certain sort of staples that individuals and business need, things like cooking oil, bread, gasoline. The price is held artificially low by subsidies. Can Egypt continue to do that with the currency going down?
HALIME: Egypt has now, you know, got to a point where this addiction to subsidies is well and truly over. They can't do it for much longer and it's time to make those reforms. There are plans to put these into force this year but we're still waiting to hear what happens.
WERTHEIMER: Now an IMF mission, I understand, is headed to Egypt to talk again about that $4.8 billion loan agreement, which has already been postponed once. Where are they now on the agreement and how important is it that Egypt get it?
HALIME: This is a crucial agreement for Egypt because it acts as a catalyst. It's really more than just $4.8 billion. It's about approximately $14 billion of additional financial support that would be unlocked because of this deal going through. And investors are waiting for this agreement to be signed so that they can go back into Egypt with confidence.
WERTHEIMER: What does President Morsi need to do to get a grip on this situation, to help to ease his economic problems and restore the interest in investing in Egypt that has existed until now?
HALIME: You know, he's made a few different decisions in the last month that has really been the cause behind this crisis in Egypt. He decided to delay a very critical learn for Egypt. He also pushed through a very contentious constitution. He also announced reforms that were then retracted. So that caused a lot of confusion. And the central bank and the government can no longer spend more money. They've run out of money and that's why we're seeing, you know, people panicking and changing their money. And that has significant impact.
WERTHEIMER: Farah Halime is a business reporter working in Cairo. She runs the blog Rebel Economy. Thank you very much for joining us.
HALIME: Thank you.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
Greece has had a turbulent 2012 with frequent protests, two elections, and predictions that the country would ditch the euro. After the eurozone provided billions in bailout loans last month, a Greek prime minister declared a fresh start for his country. But a scandal over a list of wealthy Greeks with Swiss bank accounts is roiling the country's fragile government. Joanna Kakissis reports.
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: In 2009, French authorities discovered the stolen details of about 100,000 Swiss bank accounts. The French finance ministry, then led by Christine Lagarde, used the information to collect the equivalent of about $1.5 billion in unpaid taxes. The Lagarde list - as it's now known - was then shared with other European countries. Spain, Italy and Great Britain also used it to go after tax evaders. But Greece did not, says Nick Malkoutzis, a newspaper editor and analyst in Athens.
NICK MALKOUTZIS: And what we saw in Greece was that this list was passed around from finance minister to the financial crime squad, and then back again; and so on. And no one really did anything with it.
KAKISSIS: No one is surprised the list was not investigated since tax evasion, especially by the wealthy, has been a problem here for years. Former finance ministry official Diomidis Spinellis says the country loses billions in revenue every year because of corruption and loopholes in tax law.
DIOMIDIS SPINELLIS: If it's vague, if it can't be interpreted in various ways, those who are corrupt will exploit it.
KAKISSIS: Many Greeks also feel exploited by politicians. The public didn't even know the Lagarde list existed until the middle of last year. Last October, as speculation mounted over who was on the list, magazine editor Kostas Vaxevanis published what he says are the roughly 2,000 names on it.
KOSTA VAXEVANIS: (Through translator) The bosses of our politicians are on this list - industrialists, media magnates, those who influence laws, and take money out of the country. They're all there.
KAKISSIS: The Greek state arrested Vaxevanis, and tried him for privacy violations. He was acquitted, though he faces a retrial. Greeks have since hardened their belief that politicians are shielding the wealthy and well-connected from the taxes crushing the middle class, says Nick Malkoutzis.
MALKOUTZIS: There is a sense - very much - over the last couple of years that the burden of the crisis is being carried by the majority of the population, and the minority's getting away without paying anything. And I think people want to see that rectified.
KAKISSIS: One finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, is accused of tampering with the Lagarde list and could face criminal charges. Political science professor Thanos Veremis says he hopes any investigation into the list, and how it was handled, is thorough and fair.
THANOS VEREMIS: Well, if it isn't fair, God save us. Then it will be a witch hunt. People are mad, and they hurt economically. And obviously, they're after blood.
KAKISSIS: Part of Greece's problem, Malkoutzis says, is that institutions have failed.
MALKOUTZIS: It's always relied on personalities and individuals having to do things, rather than having a proper process in place. And I think that's the best thing that we can hope to come from this- is that we fix those weaknesses in the system because otherwise, we'll never be able to move forward.
KAKISSIS: The Lagarde list fiasco has prodded the government to move forward on investigating tax cheats. It's now scrutinizing the finances of about 15,000 Greeks who sent around $5 billion abroad in the last three years.
For NPR News I'm Joanna Kakissis in Athens.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
It's hard to tell whether the ongoing conflict in Eastern Congo is a battle between rival ethnic groups, or a fight for resources. There are so many militant groups in Eastern Congo with so many shifting alliances and demands. But a tiny ethnic minority in Congo has been at the center of this conflict for the past 20 years. NPR's Gregory Warner tells their story from the Eastern Congoli city of Goma.
GREGORY WARNER, BYLINE: There's a song that Joseph Mwugira heard over and over as a kid on the playground growing up. It's a song that almost every Tutsi in Congo has learned by heart. He refused to sing it for my microphone but agreed to speak the words.
JOSEPH MWUGIRA: (Foreign language spoken)
WARNER: It means the Tutsi are stuffed into the Katindo building, and it refers to a seemingly minor incident in 1959 before Joseph was even born when a wave of Tutsis fleeing persecution in Rwanda crossed the border into Goma and were put up for a few months in an unfinished tenement building abandoned by the Belgians.
JASON STEARNS: It sounds extremely innocent. In other words, you're just saying that there was a lot of Tutsi came and they stayed in this house.
WARNER: But, says Jason Stearns, author of the book "Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: A History of the Congo Wars," underneath that ditty two vicious stereotypes are hiding. First, the Tutsi as outsider.
STEARNS: This emphasizes the immigrant nature of the Tutsi community. In other words these people are not Congolese. Remember how they came in across the border in the 1960s?
WARNER: And second is that verb, stuffed, like you'd stuff a chicken or a thing, Tutsi is something less than human. This hate song that's persisted for 50 years shed some light on why Joseph Mwugira and many other Tutsis say they support the rebels known as the M23. As he puts it, Tutsis need protection in Congo and they're not going to get it from the government.
MWUGIRA: (Through Translator) We live a political situation that not only does not answer to or deal with the real problems of the Congolese but they want to give the excuse that scapegoats are the Tutsi.
WARNER: The M23, for its part, is led by accused war criminals. So to get some idea of why Congolese Tutsi would still support their presence in the country we have to step back to 1996. This is two years after the Rwandan genocide, where up to a million Tutsis were killed. The Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, dispatches troops into Congo to organize militias and hunt for Hutu genocidaires who crossed the border and were now attacking Congolese Tutsis.
But the Tutsi militias did not stop at military protection. They actually took over the city of Goma and installed a more Tutsi friendly administration. Jason Stearns says Tutsis in Congo immediately felt the difference.
STEARNS: People felt safe, safer at least. People felt culturally more accepted. They saw their own people in power. They saw their own people running customs, administration, the police under the rule of these various Rwandan-backed rebellions in Eastern Congo that controlled Goma between 1996 and 2006 roughly.
WARNER: The M23 is just the latest in a series of Tutsi-led rebellions, although they don't formally describe themselves as a pro-Tutsi group. In the kaleidoscope of military factions marauding Eastern Congo, it can be hard to keep track of anyone's platform. In fact, the M23 rebels, who at least report to protect Tutsi interests, have now teamed up with other militants spouting Tutsi hate speech, groups who have raped and killed Tutsis.
Fidel Bafilemba tracks crimes against humanity as a researcher for the Enough Project, a D.C.-based advocacy group. He says the M23 is nothing but a criminal syndicate out to control as much of Congo's mineral wealth as possible.
FIDEL BAFILEMBA: So please do not blame or frame this as a Tutsi community struggle. It's an insult even to the Rwandan genocide Tutsi victims.
WARNER: Even a few Tutsis are publically rejecting the group. Enock Sebineza is a leader of Congo's largest Tutsi community, the Bunyamulenge of South Kivu. I reached him on an awful cell phone connection from his home.
ENOCK SEBINEZA: (Through Translator) Powerful countries like Rwanda have deceived the international community by saying they are in Congo to protect us. Rather, this war aims to feed the hatred against us. This is a goal.
WARNER: He says the M23 is stoking the ethnic war, making Congolese hate Tutsis even more. And he and others have received death threats just for saying this. Gregory Warner, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WERTHEIMER: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
Barge traffic on the Mississippi River could grind to a halt in the next few days. Water levels on the nation's largest waterway are very low in certain parts of the river because of the most severe drought in decades. Mark Fletcher is the co-owner of Ceres Barge Line in East St. Louis and he joins us from KWMU. Welcome.
MARK FLETCHER: Hello. Welcome from the Gateway of the West.
WERTHEIMER: So how bad is it out there at the gateway?
FLETCHER: Well, you know, remarkably for the lack of moisture that we've had, the Corps of Engineers has done a fantastic job of keeping the channel open at a time when 30 days ago we would've predicted some real problems with only a max of 8-foot drafts. And it's not so much for the barges. We can make the barges any draft we need to. It's the towboats, the mainline hull towboats that very many of them can't transit in an 8-foot draft. They really need 9-foot plus to really get through up and down the river.
WERTHEIMER: So they - the barges, because they're flat on the bottom, if you just take some of the cargo off they ride high in the water and you can get through.
FLETCHER: That's correct.
WERTHEIMER: So are there parts of the river that can't handle this barge traffic now?
FLETCHER: No. The river's still open. There are some intermittent closures. We had two contractors on the scene at Thebes, Illinois as it's called, which is south of St. Louis about halfway down to Cairo, Illinois. And they're removing what has been referred to as rock pinnacles, rock boulders that are in the channel, that as the water levels go down will present themselves as a problem, a severe problem to anything that would come in contact with them.
WERTHEIMER: So has this kind of thing happened before, that the river has become impassable because of a lack of water?
FLETCHER: Well, to my knowledge the most severe low-water issue, or recorded, is back in the '40s in St. Louis. But in recent history, the drought of 1988 comes to mind at a time when we had severe shoaling issues and draft restrictions, Cairo and south as well as Cairo to St. Louis.
WERTHEIMER: So it's low but it's not impassable. Is that having an impact on your personal economy?
FLETCHER: Well, it does. It has financial impact. As a precaution, we've lowered to some 8-foot drafts from - now and again, then back to 9-foot drafts. About every foot of draft of ag products it probably costs us four to $6,000 in revenue.
WERTHEIMER: Is there really anything to solve this problem except maybe pray for rain?
(LAUGHTER)
FLETCHER: Well, a lot of good wishes for rain would be awfully helpful. And to have some of these fronts kind of push further north than they've been pushing in the last, oh, really the last year-and-a-half I guess, or last year.
WERTHEIMER: Well, Mr. Fletcher, thank you very much.
FLETCHER: Linda, you've done a great job. We appreciate it, and like you say, let's have everybody pray for a little rain.
(LAUGHTER)
WERTHEIMER: Mark Fletcher is co-owner of the Ceres Barge Line in East St. Louis. This is NPR News.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News, I'm Linda Wertheimer. Time now for sports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WERTHEIMER: Today, the National Football League's postseason kicks off. Four games, three rookie quarterbacks, two divisional rivals, and almost certainly, one last home game for one of the best linebackers of all time. And in college, Notre Dame and Alabama together claim 25 national titles. Who will add another to the trophy case on Monday night? Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN the Magazine joins me now. Good morning, Howard.
HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Linda. How are you?
WERTHEIMER: I'm good. And I have to say that the biggest sport story, certainly around here, is the resurgence of the Washington Redskins, who beat their arch rivals the Cowboys last week to secure a home game in the playoffs. And they will playing the Seahawks.
BRYANT: It's terrific. It's one thing when you have a player like Robert Griffin III, the great rookie quarterback and all the hype surrounding him. And everyone's talking about how good he's going to be. But it's quite another thing for him to live up to it. He has been terrific. He's been everything that everyone thought he was going to be. He can run, he can throw and he's charismatic and he's fun. He's really done everything that the team could ask of him.
And Russell Wilson is a guy that nobody really thought was going to be a great player. He was supposed to be a backup and here he is leading his team to the playoffs. So it's going to be a really great matchup. But I think that, once again, no matter who wins, people who really do win are the fans because these are two electric quarterbacks. They're very exciting to watch. It's going to be a great game.
And I think the thing that I like most about it too is that you look at them and you say, wow both of these guys and their teams have a pretty big future.
WERTHEIMER: Now both of those quarterbacks, RG3 as we think of him, and Russell Wilson for the Seahawks, they're rookies. That seems to be a trend.
BRYANT: It is, and it's a trend obviously because the NFL is a quarterback's league. And as we know there are very few great teams unless you've got a classic, classic defense like the '85 Bears or the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, where you're going to win without a great quarterback. And this is it. This is the league. You look at Tom Brady. You look at Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay. You look at all of them. And now the kid in Indianapolis, replacing Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck. Once again, if you've got a quarterback, you've got a chance in the NFL. And for these young players to do it right now immediately coming out of college is pretty exciting.
WERTHEIMER: Now, also there is a soon-to-be retired Ray Lewis playing for the Ravens. This might be his last game?
BRYANT: It could be. It could be because once again, Indianapolis is a good team. I think that Baltimore is probably going to be favored slightly because they are at home, and is going to be an emotional rise to make sure that Ray Lewis goes into retirement very - they make it very difficult to send him into retirement. And to do that they'd have to win this game.
And I think that you look at his career, there are very few players in the history of the game who have been such a presence; a dominant presence such as Ray Lewis, won a championship in 2000. Obviously, he's had his share of controversy as well, but he has been a remarkable, remarkable player.
WERTHEIMER: Now those games are tomorrow. Anything to say, very quickly, about today's games?
BRYANT: Well, I think the big game obviously is the Packers and the Vikings, a legendary game against - the two rivals, division rivals, going at it. And once again, remember that Green Bay was 15 and 1 last year and didn't quite get there, so I think they're heavily motivated this year to try to turn that around.
WERTHEIMER: Are you looking forward to Notre Dame and Alabama?
BRYANT: Also talking about legendary teams going at each other for the championship in college on Monday. And once again, you've got two teams that do not give up a lot of points. One team is giving up 10.3 points a game, the other one's giving up 10.6. And so it's going to be a defensive battle. I don't like the fact that they hadn't played in 44 days, so hopefully they won't be too rusty.
WERTHEIMER: OK. Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN the Magazine, thank you so much.
BRYANT: Thank you, Linda. Happy New Year.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
The end of football is in sight, so what to do with that couch? What about another classic rivalry? An old fashioned spy versus spy Cold War drama?
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE AMERICANS")
MATTHEW RHYS: (as Phillip) Super secret spies living next door. They look like us, they speak better English than we do. According to Misha, they're not allowed to say a single word in Russian once they get here. I mean, come on. Someone's been reading too many spy novels. Talking figment of the imagination.
WERTHEIMER: Or not. In this TV series, "The Americans," that's exactly who we meet - a very attractive all-American family, except the parents are KGB agents. I asked Joe Weisberg, the creator the show, which premieres this month on FX, why is Cold War nostalgia popular now?
JOE WEISBERG: I think that enough time has passed that we can actually look back on it, odd as it might sound, a little bit fondly. And one of the things about our show is that the heroes of our show actually work for the other side. They're actually KGB officers. And I think that five or even 10 years after the Cold War, I don't really think you could have done a show where you ask people to identify with KGB officers. But I think enough time has gone by now that you can.
WERTHEIMER: You're a retired CIA agent yourself, aren't you?
WEISBERG: Yes. I don't know if retired is quite the right word because that implies that I maybe had a long and fruitful career in the CIA, which I did not. I worked there for about four years. So, I tend to say that I resigned.
WERTHEIMER: Well, now, the KGB officers in your series are a couple of gorgeous young people. These are the bad guys, or are they - I mean, they sort of give you the feeling that they might be the good guys. And everybody looks like a model in this program. I mean, it makes it sort of hard to know which ones we're supposed to be rooting for.
(LAUGHTER)
WEISBERG: Yes. Well, that's really the whole idea of the show, is that hopefully there's some confusion between who the good guys are who the bad guys are. And my real hope is that people will fully identify with and fully root for the heroes of the show, and that sort of once or twice in every episode you'll sort of be going along, you'll be rooting for them, they'll be doing their mission, you'll be hoping they succeed, hoping they make it and then all of the sudden, they'll succeed, they'll accomplish their mission, and you'll go, uh-oh, they just did this horrible thing that's devastatingly bad for the U.S. government. How could I have been rooting for them this whole time?
WERTHEIMER: They are very sympathetic characters. And at times, they seem themselves to be conflicted about their mission.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE AMERICANS")
KERI RUSSELL, ACTOR: (as Elizabeth) Why can't we do this together? Because I'm a KGB officer. Don't you understand that? After all these years, I would, I would go to jail, I would die, I would lose everything before I betray my country.
WEISBERG: That's a scene where Elizabeth, who's the wife in this couple, talks about her lifelong devotion and dedication to the KGB. Now, on the other side, she's married to a guy who has started to waver. After all this time in America, he started to be, to a certain degree, seduced by its charms. And who wouldn't be, except Elizabeth?
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE AMERICANS")
RHYS: (as Phillip) We've been here a long time. What's so bad about it, you know? The electricity works all the time, food's pretty great, closet space...
ACTOR: (as Elizabeth) Is that what you care about?
RHYS: No. I care about everything.
ACTOR: Not the motherland.
RHYS: I do, but our family comes first.
WERTHEIMER: Now, is this based on real history? I mean, could there possibly have been a network of KGB agents who blended in perfectly the way these people do? I mean, in this show, they live in suburbia, they speak perfect English, they actually have children who were born in America, who go to American public schools. I mean, it just looks real.
WEISBERG: I think based on the real history - is the right way to put it, or inspired by the real history - the KGB from the '30s onward in the United States, and in fact across the world, did run networks of spies who blended into various countries as citizens of those countries. The place where we've taken a little bit of liberty for the sake of storytelling is that we've had them trained in the Soviet Union to be absolutely perfect English speakers, who speak the language without any accent. And that's not quite accurate. The KGB illegals, who you actually had in America, did have accents from whatever countries. But that didn't really pose an obstacle to blending into America because we are in fact a country of immigrants.
WERTHEIMER: The thing that I kept thinking about when I was watching it, is that these particular spies have the misfortune of having an FBI agent move in next door, which was fairly amazing. But the other thing is I wonder, I mean, are we going to find that they have a big network? Are we going to find out about a network?
WEISBERG: The honest truth is we haven't totally decided yet. You know, there certainly are other KGB illegals spread out across the United States. This is true both in reality and in our conception of how the show works. If and when they will meet them or carry out other operations with them we'll have to see.
WERTHEIMER: Joe Weisberg wrote the new show "The Americans," which premieres later this month on FX. Joe Weisberg, thank you.
WEISBERG: Thank you, Linda.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:
Back in Washington, when the new members of Congress showed up this week to be sworn in, there were all sorts of photo ops, but one of them stands out for me - women who are members of Congress, gathered on the steps of the capitol. There are 101 women in the 113th Congress. It's a world record - or at least a record for the U.S. Congress. There are 20 women who will be in the newly convened Senate and 81 who will serve in the House. Posing for their picture on the Capitol steps - they make quite a crowd - delighted, excited, capable-looking women. There's a slightly bigger crowd in a version of the picture circulated by Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi; four women who came late to the photo op were Photoshopped into the top row. And they are a colorful group.
Now, please excuse the fashion commentary but it's a big change from the early days when women in Congress tended to dress as conservatively as men do - black, brown and navy blue trouser suits, maybe go wild with gray. Blending in, one of the guys. That's gone. Now, there's lots of speculation about what difference, if any, a sizeable group of women might make to our national legislature. Here's one: when I first covered the House, the members' washroom was at one end of the chamber. It had a swinging door, like a western saloon. But, in fact, you could see right in. That wasn't a problem, apparently, because there were not many women around. Now, the leaders have nipped one end off the parliamentarian's office and made a ladies room at the other end of the chamber. Can 101 women change a deadlocked and dysfunctional legislature? Perhaps they will be able to reach across party lines more easily than some of their male colleagues do. Perhaps because, as voters told the Pew Research Center in 2008, women are twice as outgoing as men. People polled see women as substantially more honest and more intelligent. And perhaps a clue as to why more women were elected this year, women are much more compassionate. That might suggest that in tough times voters like the idea of women looking after their interests. We'll see what happens.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WERTHEIMER: You're listening to NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In the 1970s, a new sound began to emerge from West Africa. Afrobeat - strains of traditional African call-and-response mixed with elements of funk and jazz, and a lot of energy. Fela Kuti was known as the father of Afrobeat, but he passed away more than a decade ago.
One Brooklyn-based band has spent years doing its part to push the genre forward. Their name is Antibalas.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SONG)
MARTIN: Antibalas is a big group with a big sound, 11 musicians altogether. They started making music in New York in the late 1980s. For the past five years, the band members have been busy with separate projects, including the creation of an Afrobeat musical on Broadway. But with their latest album, simply called "Antibalas," they have reunited.
A while back, we sat down with two of those members: the band's founder and baritone sax player, Martin Perna, and the lead singer, Amayo. They say this is the album, where after years of tinkering and toiling away at individual songs, everything fell perfectly into place.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SONG)
AMAYO: You know, we've got a lot of tunes and like we play over and over again. And it takes, sometimes, a year or two, before the song actually starts to make some sense.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SONG)
AMAYO: That's the beauty of being in an orchestra of this size. You know, you let the song kind of marinate, as you would like a fine meal, you know, or a fine wine. So I think this record is, for me, a fine wine. You know, it finally matured.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: What is it about this music - Afrobeat - that lends itself to a group that size? I mean, do you need a lot of people playing a lot of different instruments...
AMAYO: Yes.
MARTIN: ...to bring this to life?
AMAYO: Absolutely, it's like a network. Each piece has its own role. You know? And because of the size of the band it also dictates that it needs to be played for a longer period of time. 'Cause you can't play this style of music, like, five or six minutes and really get the effect of it. You have to go at least half an hour.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN PERNA: It's definitely some types of music are transactional. And when this music is done right in the right context, it's transformational. That has so much to do with the ambient temperature of the room. So this being a tropical music, sometimes you come to the stage all fired up and it's an outdoor show - 55 degrees out - so the best we can do is...
MARTIN: Which doesn't work for you.
PERNA: No. Well...
(LAUGHTER)
PERNA: Well, the best we can do is turn up the AC. A lot of times...
MARTIN: You do?
AMAYO: Yeah.
PERNA: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of times we're powerless though. For an example, we did a show a couple years ago in New York City, in December, in the street. Like, it was a, you know, a proper stage and everything - Mayor Bloomberg came. And we asked to have these big gas heaters on the side of the stage to just blow hot air; at least on our part, because when it's cold, the wind instruments - the trumpets, saxophones, trombone - actually go down in pitch.
So, if you're playing in cold weather, it's this whole struggle, like you're walking on a balance beam to just keep your horn in pitch, and constantly adjusting. And when you're having that struggle, there's no way in you can really groove or connect with the rest of the band.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: At this stage in your band's evolution, you've kind of come into your own - you've all grown up individually, your music has evolved. Does this mean that Antibalas is going to be your number one priority moving forward? I mean...
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: ...each of you and all the band members have all these different projects going. Are you at a new place?
PERNA: It's really hard to say. So much of that, that the music industry at it's worst point ever for a band like us - 11, 12 musicians who are making original music. Eleven people sounds like a lot. But in the early days, we were taking 13, 14 people on the road. And so, this 11 is like a skeleton crew. And even then, it's every day, our manager is: Well, how can we save money here? Can you guys do one meal a day for the next three weeks?
(LAUGHTER)
PERNA: 'Cause if you could, you know, you'd be able to pay your phone bill the next month.
(LAUGHTER)
PERNA: Like, that's a little bit extreme but it's tough. Artistically, things are going better than they've ever been. But financially, it's going to be a crisis and it's hard, 'cause I think most of us want to be doing this as much as we can.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SONG, "HIM BELLY NO GO SWEET")
MARTIN: The album is called "Antibalas." Martin Perna and Amayo of the band Antibalas joined us in our Washington studios.
Thanks to both of you.
PERNA: Thank you.
AMAYO: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SONG, "HIM BELLY NO GO SWEET")
MARTIN: And you can hear a few tracks from Antibalas' new album at nprmusic.org.
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SONG, "HIM BELLY NO GO SWEET")
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In Pakistan, girls education made front-page headlines this past fall when a 15-year-old education activist named Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban in northwest Pakistan. Her crime: defying the Taliban by encouraging girls to go to school. Malala, who was released from the hospital last week, has become a symbol for school reform in Pakistan.
And as NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports, there are a number of education activists picking up where Malala left off.
DINA TEMPLE-RASTON, BYLINE: In Pakistan, 25-year-old Humaira Bachal has become a crusader.
HUMAIRA BACHAL: (Foreign language spoken)
TEMPLE-RASTON: Education is a basic need and a fundamental right for every human being, she says. I want to change the way my community looks at education, and I will continue this struggle until my last breath.
(Foreign language spoken)
That's from a documentary series that aired here in Pakistan this fall. It came from Pakistan's first award-winning filmmaker, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy. There were six films, each focusing on an extraordinary Pakistani, and Humaira was one of them.
On screen, Humaira looks larger than life - and bold. In person, she is barely five feet tall; self-assured but also a little shy. She says her advocacy work began with herself in an area of Karachi called Moach Goth.
BACHAL: (Foreign language spoken)
TEMPLE-RASTON: After primary school my father said I didn't need anymore education, she says. He said that I was only going to go out and get married and have children.
But Humaira and her mother had other ideas. She began attending middle school secretly. Her father didn't find out until three years later, when he discovered that she was going to sit for the 9th grade entrance examination.
BACHAL: (Foreign language spoken)
TEMPLE-RASTON: My father was furious, she says. He beat me and he beat my mother.
But Humaira sat for the 9th grade entrance exam anyway, and eventually her father relented. Ninth grade, Humaira says, opened her eyes. She realized that in the area where she lived, the children were all playing in the streets - they weren't in school. And Humaira, at the age of 14, thought that was wrong.
ROSHAN CHITRAHAR: Education of girls, this is not today's issue. It's a historical issue, right?
TEMPLE-RASTON: That's Roshan Chitrahar. He leads the U.N.'s education program in Pakistan.
CHITRAHAR: And we have to bring, you know, a perspective to these people that educating a girl is a valuable investment. And we have to think about some sort of change in the culture; thinking, and the thinking of the people.
TEMPLE-RASTON: And that was what Humaira decided to do. She started recruiting students in her neighborhood for a small private school she had opened.
BACHAL: Salaam alaikum.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Going door to door, she met with fathers who did not want their daughters to go to school.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)
BACHAL: (Foreign language spoken)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)
BACHAL: (Foreign language spoken)
TEMPLE-RASTON: It is a waste to give education to women, one father told Humaira. But if they have dinner on the table when I come home, they can go to school.
The door to door campaign was successful. Humaira now runs a school with 22 teachers and 1200 students. And thanks to the documentary, she is one of the most famous school advocates in the country. I asked her if she was worried about her advocacy in the wake of the shooting of 15-year-old Malala in October. Just the opposite, she said.
BACHAL: (Foreign language spoken)
TEMPLE-RASTON: I am not worried about this anymore. Now I'm not afraid, she says. It is not just one Malala or one Humaira who raised a voice to change this situation. There are a lot of other girls who are trying to change things, she says. And with a smile, she adds, even if they kill 100 Humairas, they won't be able to stop us.
Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News, Lahore.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: You're listening to NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In just the last couple years, we've seen makeshift memorials popping up in front of shooting sites in Newtown, Connecticut, Aurora, Colorado and Tucson, Arizona. Volunteers save many of the tributes for archiving and permanent memorials. Still, there's a lot of trash. For some people in Tucson, sending that refuse to the landfill felt like sacrilege.
NPR's Ted Robbins tells us what they did with it instead.
TED ROBBINS, BYLINE: Brad Holland had big plans for the empty lot he owns in mid-town Tucson.
BRAD HOLLAND: This was going to be my dream house before the economy collapsed. So I had a big empty lot and said, wow, a lot of good can come out of this.
ROBBINS: He and the neighborhood decided to turn it into a community garden - 21 plots, about 50 gardeners. They were about to till the soil for planting two years ago when a gunman opened fire in another part of town, killing six and wounding 13. Among those wounded was a neighbor who lived across the street from the garden, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
Within days, candles, signs, pictures and flowers piled up in front of the hospital, the shooting site and her district office. Her staff knew the shrines had to come down sometime. But they couldn't bring themselves to throw it all away. A month after the shooting, neighbors gathered at the garden to go through a moving van full of mementos.
MEG JOHNSON: I was in charge of getting the volunteers in the neighborhood to go through the plant material.
ROBBINS: Meg Johnson has one of the garden plots.
JOHNSON: So we literally took apart every bouquet and every potted plant, and the bulbs were saved. We planted the bulbs in this plot.
ROBBINS: Twenty-feet of irises are a couple months from blooming again. Some teddy bears were sent by mistake. They went to a warehouse. Notes and cards, attached to bouquets and pots, went for archiving too. The clear plastic sticks which hold cards in potted plants now hold crop labels. The rest was composted.
JOHNSON: It took us five Saturdays working three or four hours every Saturday, to go through all the material that was here. It was quite a neighborhood event.
ROBBINS: The wounds from the shooting, emotional and physical, took longer to heal than the garden took to grow. Gabby Giffords visited home during her recovery in Houston from the gunshot wound to her head. Brad Holland says she wanted to see the garden.
HOLLAND: The first lunch she had when she came back to my house, came over for lunch, everything came out of the garden.
ROBBINS: She ate your tomatoes.
JOHNSON: This is my first broccoli I've ever grown.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBBINS: Now the veggies are being harvested again. This is Tucson - despite an occasional frost, you can grow a lot in the winter.
HOLLAND: The greens are hearty. Here's the arugula, spinach, kale, tomato plants are all gone but we still have tomatoes that are ripening on the ground.
ROBBINS: Gabby Giffords moved back to Tucson last fall, though not back to this neighborhood. There are really few indications the garden was ever part of the tragedy - just evidence of what grew from it.
Ted Robbins, NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Hokey Pokey is more than a children's song and dance. It's the name of a magical universe where kids are in charge and there is not an adult in sight. It's the creation of Jerry Spinelli, and the setting of his new book titled exactly that - "Hokey Pokey." In this universe, there are loads of bikes, endless cartoons, a cuddle station even and dessert for lunch every day - a kid's paradise - until one morning a boy named Jack wakes up and something is different: his bike is gone. Jerry Spinelli joins me from WHYY in Philadelphia. Welcome to the program.
JERRY SPINELLI: My pleasure. Thank you, Rachel.
MARTIN: So, you have invented this magical place called Hokey Pokey. What does it look like?
SPINELLI: I'm not sure why but for some reason it felt to me that the right kind of landscape for this place where kids live has a kind of Old West feel to it. And so you have items like the Great Plains and Bluff and so forth. And it has a definite feel of the Old West.
MARTIN: The whole book, the whole narrative takes place in one day. And, as we said, it opens when the main character, Jack, wakes up and realizes that his bike, which is his most precious possession, is gone. It's been taken by a girl. Why is this devastating for Jack to have the bike stolen?
SPINELLI: Because it's his identity. It's kind of like his horse. In the old Westerns, you know, where the movie would end not with a cowboy kissing the girl but kissing his horse and going off into the sunset. And so I decided not only that there should be one bike but that there should be a whole herd of them. And so in Hokey Pokey, bikes are kind of more than bikes alone. They become mustangs. They become creatures that rip up the dust as they gallop across the Great Plains.
MARTIN: When kids first arrive in Hokey Pokey, they each get half of a walnut shell in their pocket. It just kind of appears. And the shell tells a story that every kid in Hokey Pokey knows. What is that story?
SPINELLI: That story is the tale of the kid. There is a statue in Hokey Pokey of a kid with a baseball cap and he's pointing to what appears to be the far horizon. In one sense, no one is sure where it comes from but in the other sense, there is the story, the myth. And it tells the story of the kid and the time that he discovered that he was going to leave Hokey Pokey. And the other little kids couldn't abide that possibility, and so they kidnapped him and slathered him with mud that dried and now there he stands, a dried mud statue forever in the center of Hokey Pokey.
MARTIN: Could I ask you to read from page 149? This is a little bit more about that statue and the story that all the Hokey Pokers know.
SPINELLI: (Reading) Big kids know something little kids do not. The story ends not with a period but with a question mark. It's as if there's an ending beyond the ending, a suspicion that there is more to the story than the walnut shell is telling. The older you get, the closer you feel to the real ending. But you never quite get there.
MARTIN: There's something a little sad about this idea. I mean, the kids in Hokey Pokey don't want to grow up. And it's inevitable in life and in the book, it starts to happen. And it's not considered a big grand adventure to grow up. It's something to be avoided.
SPINELLI: It kind of has that feel to it, yes. But not in the sense that they're not open to more possibilities and that they don't envy all the privileges of adulthood. It's that they really can't think beyond today. Every day is today in Hokey Pokey. And they have their own problems. And among them are kids who do not necessarily have their own best interests in mind. And so Albert the Destroyer sort of represents that element.
MARTIN: I mean, he's essentially a bully. I mean, at the...
SPINELLI: Exactly.
MARTIN: ...beginning of the book, he dumps one of the littlest kids into this huge dirty sock pile and stands there and laughs while the little kid is crying. What made Albert mean?
SPINELLI: In Albert's past was an incident when he found himself riding his tricycle and some big kids grabbed him, turned him upside down, broke his tricycle. And he's been wounded ever since.
MARTIN: There are some really great insults in this book - very kid insults. Nothing like being called donkey lips or watermelon head; pimple brain is another good one. What is the key to writing a good insult?
SPINELLI: Putting yourself in the place of the insulter and the insultee, and thinking what's going to bother them the most. One of those exchanges, I wound up with them calling each other the ultimate bad word, and that was him calling her a girl and her calling him a boy.
MARTIN: Nothing like the truth.
SPINELLI: It doesn't get worse than that. Yeah.
MARTIN: Is Hokey Pokey the way you remember the world as a child? I mean, it's such a fantastical place. Is this a product of your own childhood imagination?
SPINELLI: Well, it's otherworldly from our point of view. As I see it through the eyes of a kid, it's certainly not otherworldly at all. This is a real world to these kids as expressed by the father of Jack toward the end of the book, when he says kids, they live in their own little world. Who hasn't said that? And that kind of got me thinking, and one thing led to another until we have this book here called "Hokey Pokey."
MARTIN: Jerry Spinelli. His newest book is called "Hokey Pokey." He joined us from WHYY in Philadelphia. Mr. Spinelli, thanks so much for talking with us.
SPINELLI: My pleasure. Thank you, Rachel.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It's the moment fantasy fans have been waiting for. After more than 20 years and 13 doorstopper volumes, the last book in the bestselling "Wheel of Time" series comes out on Tuesday. It's an epic battle between good and evil - think "Game of Thrones" but more so - more characters, more magic, more everything. Petra Mayer is an editor with NPR Books. And she has read all 14 "Wheel of Time" books, and she has this appreciation.
PETRA MAYER, BYLINE: It's here, it's here, it's here. It's "A Memory of Light." It's the last "Wheel of Time" book, and it's in my hot little hands. True to form, it's enormous: two and a half pounds, two and a quarter inches thick, and 909 pages - all of it to tell the story of a backcountry farm boy who finds out he's the Dragon Reborn, a hero out of prophecies, destined to defeat the Dark One, and probably die doing it. Here is how author Robert Jordan described the story, when he was asked to summarize it:
HARRIET MCDOUGAL: Cultures clash, worlds change, cope.
MAYER: You'll note that's not actually Robert Jordan. It's his widow and editor Harriet McDougal. Tragically, Jordan could not finish his epic work by himself. The series he originally planned as six books had stretched to book eleven when he died in 2007. McDougal picked fantasy author Brandon Sanderson to finish the last book, which - no surprise here - grew from one, to three volumes.
BRANDON SANDERSON: It was like getting hit with a freight train. There was, you know, all this continuity and all these characters, it was a massive undertaking.
MAYER: Oh yeah, the characters. There are 2,000 of them. And that's the thing about the "Wheel of Time" - the writing is workmanlike. But the world sucks you in and doesn't let you go. Those 2,000 characters are at play across ages and continents, each with their own distinct languages, customs, food, ethnic groups, military tactics - oh my god, you could pretty much just blow a couple of months figuring it all out. Brandon Sanderson says he actually had to rely on the "Wheel of Time" fan community to keep it all straight in his head. He also had the notes that Jordan dictated on his deathbed and the very last chapter. Again, Harriet McDougal.
MCDOUGAL: I picked him up at the airport and brought him back to my house, and said, well, I have some soup for your supper, and he said, what I'd really like is the end of the series.
MAYER: And the end is at hand. The last battle will be fought, well, next Tuesday. McDougal says her feelings are very mixed. As for me, I first started reading these books 15 years ago; I made the mistake of asking my grad school hall mate Marie if she had anything that would help me procrastinate. So, Marie Giorda of Austin, Texas, if you're out there somewhere, tell me what do I read next? Petra Mayer, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: This is NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In Mexico, people are rethinking the centuries-old tradition of midwifery. These days, the majority of babies are born in hospitals, but that hasn't helped reduce the number of maternal deaths. So, health officials are now betting a new kind of midwife, one trained in a clinical setting, could offer a solution. Reporter Monica Ortiz Uribe visited a newly opened school in southern Mexico that's educating the next generation of midwives.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Foreign language spoken)
CLASS: (Foreign language spoken)
MONICA ORTIZ URIBE, BYLINE: Inside this classroom, young women sit up straight in tiny desks and answer their teacher's questions in chorus. Their round brown faces and thick black hair are typical of this mostly indigenous region in the state of Guerrero. Many are descendants of an aging practice. They're the daughters, granddaughters or nieces or of traditional midwives. They are also the freshman class of Mexico's first public midwifery school.
AMERICA MADRID SIMON: (Foreign language spoken)
URIBE: America Madrid Simon is a slightly shy 21-year-old who sits near the back of the class. She says when I first told people I was studying midwifery, they laughed at me. They said that's for grandmothers. As Mexico's public health system has pushed more and more women to give birth in hospitals, it's created a stigma that midwifery is old fashioned and has no place in modern medicine. Now, traditional midwives are attending fewer and fewer births. But that strategy hasn't necessarily worked out for the best.
SIMON: (Foreign language spoken)
URIBE: Madrid says her village is an hour and a half from the nearest road by foot. We have a small clinic, she says, but there's no nurse or doctor there.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)
URIBE: The village of Tlatquiltzingo is tucked in the mountains of Guerrero. Here boney mutts, goats and piglets freely roam the dirt paths. People work in the fields and speak Nahuatl, their native tongue. This is where babies used to be born.
(SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING)
MACRINA MARTINEZ: (Foreign language spoken)
URIBE: They were born into the arms of women like Macrina Martinez, the village midwife. She delivered her first set of twins almost 30 years ago. Today, she mostly does home visits before and after a baby is born. Most women in childbirth are sent to the hospital 30 minutes away. But in an emergency, rugged dirt roads make it extremely difficult to get there quickly. Even women who arrive in time have no guarantee they'll get optimal care.
GUADALUPE MAINERO: What's going on now in Mexico is the majority of the hospitals are oversaturated and so it's a big problem.
URIBE: Guadalupe Mainero is director of Guerrero's new midwifery school. She says doctors are sometimes overwhelmed by the numbers of normal births, some of which used to happen at home. That leaves them less time to deal with high-risk births. This is where the midwifery school could help. The students' curriculum marries traditional midwifery with modern medicine. They learn the old arts like massaging bellies with long shawls while also studying gynecology, obstetrics and basic nursing. When they graduate in four years, they'll have a license and be able to work in urban hospitals and rural clinics. But is Mexico ready to embrace these new professional midwives?
DR. DYLIS WALKER: There's a huge resistance to the idea that a professional midwife could work independently, side by side and on an equal setting as a physician.
URIBE: Dr. Dylis Walker is an American obstetrician who's done extensive research in Mexico.
WALKER: The settings in which professional midwives are working, there's a little bit of friction and conflict, and then eventually they reach this point that there's a very mutually beneficial relationship if you can have professional midwives working side by side with physicians. And in the end, the ones that benefit are the women and their babies.
URIBE: Nationwide, reform is still a long way ahead, although there are signs of progress. In 2011, the federal government passed a law recognizing professional midwives as part of the public health system.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHATTER)
URIBE: And the students in Guerrero are determined to succeed. They know better than anyone the hardships that confront their communities and how they can help. In that way traditions begun long ago will endure. For NPR News, I'm Monica Ortiz Uribe.
MARTIN: That story was produced in collaboration with reporter Lillian Lopez and Round Earth Media's Mexico Reporting Project.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Now, a story about mime on the radio. Yes, this will probably end up as a skit on "Saturday Night Live." It is OK, we can take it. So, without further ado...
The experimental Swiss mime troupe known as Mummenschanz took Broadway by storm in the 1970s. Now, the masked performers are bringing their hard-to-describe characters back to the U.S. for a national tour celebrating the group's 40th anniversary.
Andrea Shea of member station WBUR caught up with them in Boston.
ANDREA SHEA, BYLINE: Picture a pair of performers dressed in black, wearing velvet masks with large notepads attached - two for eyes and one for a mouth. They pull out fat magic markers and doodle eye and mouth expressions on individual sheets of the pads; wide eyes, smiles, then pouts, grimaces.
(SOUNDBITE OF A PERFORMANCE)
SHEA: They're engaging in a silent conversation by ripping off the pages to reveal each new expression.
(SOUNDBITE OF A PERFORMANCE)
FLORIANNA FRASSETTO: They're competing of who speaks best and who speaks biggest and who speaks greatest.
SHEA: Sixty-two-year-old Florianna Frassetto is one of the three performers who dreamed up Mummenschanz's Notepad People" in the early 1970s.
FRASSETTO: Finally, they just don't find the correct communication level and so they start tearing one another's faces off.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Ow.
FRASSETTO: Occasionally, it happens in life.
SHEA: This isn't your white-faced, Marcel Marceau mime. Mummenschanz's bizarre masks, costumes and choreography cloak the human form, to tell stories that convey messages about our lives. Frassetto describes a creature she calls The Blob. On stage, it struggles to get its amorphous figure up onto a platform.
FRASSETTO: It's trying to get on a higher level and it doesn't find the balance. It gets sucked down and it falls off. Everyone identifies with it. Let alone that a lot of people nowadays identify with it because they're so fat. But I won't be nasty, even though - change your food, nutrition values. I'm all for it, I'm going to start a political party.
SHEA: Mummenschanz began in Switzerland as three artists and hippies with counter-cultural ideas. Frassetto, Andres Bossard and Bernie Schurch also had an eye for trash. They recycled ventilation tubes into giant Slinkies they could crawl inside and animate on stage. They used toilet paper rolls, suitcases, masking tape, wads of clay - and they took their junk around the world. But Frassetto says when they landed on Broadway in 1977, they figured...
FRASSETTO: Well, we'll stay four weeks. We will write postcards to everybody and say, hey, we're on Broadway, kids. And then we started selling out for the next X-months and we stayed on three years.
SHEA: At the time the show was revolutionary. Kermit the Frog was ahead of the curve, hosting Mummenschanz on "The Muppet Show' in 1976.
(SOUNDBITE OF "THE MUPPET SHOW")
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SHEA: A human-sized caterpillar's plump, plush body shimmies up a ramp. When it curls up into a ball, like a water bug does, it looks strong and graceful, offering a hint of the athletic performer inside. It was one of the creations that made Mummenschanz an international success. Then, in 1992, member Andres Bossard died of AIDS. The troupe carried on.
Bernie Schurch, the third performer and Frassetto's ex-husband, moved off the stage and into the director's chair for this tour. So Frassetto is working with three new members, including Philip Egli, a choreographer and dancer from Switzerland.
PHILIP EGLI: In Switzerland, it's a brand like the Swiss chocolate almost.
SHEA: The 46-year-old Egli grew up on Mummenschanz.
EGLI: As a child, one of my first theatre experiences was that I went to Zurich with my mother, with my brothers and sisters, and we went to see some strange theatre piece. And coming out of the theatre, I probably saw from then on the cars not as cars but faces with two eyes.
SHEA: Mummenschanz makes us see objects and ourselves differently, Egli says. Nothing is as it appears. The troupe took a lunchtime audience by surprise with a pop-up performance in Boston's Quincy Market.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Oh, look at that. Look at that.
SHEA: A huge gloved hand as big as a person, sits on top of legs in black tights. It sneaks up and grabs a passerby. The effect is surreal and funny.
Forty-two-year-old Brian Woods was in Boston for business with no idea what he was watching.
BRIAN WOODS: But this is a pretty cool act - innovative. I've seen things like Blue Man Group. But I've not seen anybody do anything quite like this, so this is pretty cool.
SHEA: The magazine Variety actually described Blue Man Group as Mummenschanz on acid. Performer Egli says the troupe's success lies in its simplicity.
The most beautiful pieces also in dance, they start from a black space. They don't start with the set and the costumes. They start with some people on stage. I like to talk about human beings, even if we are now in masks and we hide actually very much in Mummenschanz, but we talk about us. No?
Of course he's speaking figuratively. They never talk on stage. But in interviews, founder Florianna Frassetto is surprisingly chatty for mime.
FRASSETTO: Well, I guess I shut up the whole day, then I have to let it out. Right?
(LAUGHTER)
SHEA: For NPR News, I'm Andrea Shea.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. The election is two months behind us, the new Congress has just begun, but already some Americans are considering yet another vote. In this case, we're talking about a possible vacancy in the U.S. Senate. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has been nominated to serve as U.S. secretary of state. If he's confirmed, that would create a chance for a political comeback for the former senator from Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown. Brown was just unseated in November's election. From member station WBUR in Boston, Curt Nickisch reports on Brown's unusual second chance.
CURT NICKISCH, BYLINE: You know how grade school kids, when they lose a game, call for a do-over? Well, that's basically what Scott Brown has the chance to do in Massachusetts politics.
JEFF BERRY: Do-overs in the space of a couple of months are rare.
NICKISCH: Jeff Berry is a political scientist at Tufts University. That's where Scott Brown went to college. Berry says it's clear that Brown is well aware of his unique opportunity.
SCOTT BROWN FORMER REPUBLICAN SENATOR, MASSACHUSETTS: And I accept the decision of the voters.
NICKISCH: Just listen back to Scott Brown's concession speech from election night. He had just lost a contentious race against Elizabeth Warren, the most expensive Senate race in American history. But Brown was extremely gracious and almost shrugged off the loss as a bump in the road.
MASSACHUSETTS: There are no obstacles you can't overcome, and defeat is only temporary.
NICKISCH: Brown repeated that refrain in his farewell speech from the Senate floor last month. Fare-the-well? Not really. The speech sounded more like: Goodbye-for-now.
MASSACHUSETTS: You know, depending on what happens and where we go - all of us - we may obviously meet again.
NICKISCH: Those senators in the audience do have some say over whether they meet again. If they confirm John Kerry to become secretary of state, as expected, his vacant Senate seat would be filled in a special election, likely this summer. Political analyst Jeff Berry says Scott Brown just finished a campaign. He still has an organization and campaign money left over. Berry says Brown is the automatic frontrunner, who won't have to worry about winning a party primary.
BERRY: The Republican Party in Massachusetts has no one else, literally no one else, that can run a competitive race against whoever the Democrats nominate. So, it's Scott Brown or bust.
NICKISCH: Massachusetts Democrats want to make it a bust. They were caught by surprise three years ago when Scott Brown came from nowhere to win Ted Kennedy's Senate seat. State party chairman John Walsh says Democrats won't be embarrassed again.
JOHN WALSH: We spent about a year and a half trying to make sure Scott Brown didn't continue in the Senate. Nobody's interested in sending him down there to negate Elizabeth Warren's votes right now. We'll be ready.
NICKISCH: The first Democrat to say he's running is Congressman Ed Markey. And key Massachusetts Democrats, including Senator John Kerry, are lining up behind him. They want to avoid a bruising primary, when the winner would have only six weeks after that to wage a general election campaign. But U.S. Representatives Michael Capuano and Stephen Lynch are also seriously considering running. Congressman Jim McGovern is not, but says an open Senate seat is a rare opportunity for ambitious Democrats, and he expects Ed Markey won't be alone.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM MCGOVERN: Look, I mean, in a perfect world, it'd be nice if there was one candidate. But the notion that someone's going to clear the field, I'm not sure that's realistic.
NICKISCH: While the Democratic field takes shape, Republican Scott Brown can just sit back and watch how things play out. He hasn't said whether he's running. Tufts political scientist Jeff Berry says Brown would have to have a compelling reason not to take another crack with this rare chance at a do-over.
BERRY: Scott Brown is going to have as much money as he needs. This is an opportunity for the national Republican Party to bloody the nose of Barack Obama. And they're not going to let this opportunity to pass by. And it's all the sweeter if it comes from Massachusetts, which is a very, very blue state.
NICKISCH: If Scott Brown does run, it would be his third Senate campaign within four years. For NPR News, I'm Curt Nickisch, in Boston.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Attention American history buffs: here's a name you might not have heard before.
SUSAN JACOBY: Robert Ingersoll was one of the most famous people in America in the last quarter of the 19th century.
MARTIN: That's Susan Jacoby. She's written a new biography about the man who was known as The Great Agnostic.
JACOBY: He went around the country. He spoke to more people than presidents. He was also an active mover and shaker behind the scenes in the Republican Party.
MARTIN: So why has Robert Ingersoll been mostly forgotten?
JACOBY: He spoke out in favor of the separation of church and state, explaining Darwin's Theory of Evolution to people, and basically battling government interference in religion. Because of this, as The New York Times said - in his obituary when he died in 1899 - he couldn't run for public office even though he was a big deal behind the scenes in the Republican Party.
Because even then, although most of the Republican presidents from Lincoln on didn't even belong to a church, you still if you were an open agnostic or atheist could not hope to run for public office. And one of the reasons I most admire him is he gave up a public career. He thought it was more important to talk about the ways in which fundamentalist religion was a bad thing.
MARTIN: Well, let's talk a little bit about how the message was received. You say he was obviously a big proponent of separation of church and state. He spoke out against any kind of fundamentalist religious views. How did that go over at the time?
JACOBY: He had enormous audiences. After the Civil War, Americans started reading about Darwin's Theory of Evolution, which was first published in 1859. There was also enormous immigration of both Jews and Catholics from southern Italy and the Slavic countries after 1880. So, it was a time of enormous change. And he was received with interest and, of course, with enormous controversy. Ingersoll was probably the first person who said: I don't believe in a God that a lot of people had ever seen.
MARTIN: Well, let's talk a little bit about his influences. His father, interestingly enough, was a minister. Obviously, he chose a very different path.
JACOBY: Like Abraham Lincoln, who was his hero, Ingersoll had very little formal schooling. But because his father was a minister, there was a library, and there was a library of all of the things that Ingersoll came not to believe. There is nothing like reading the Bible literally to make you question it. Ingersoll said that quite often.
MARTIN: Was he close with his father? What was their relationship like?
JACOBY: His father was a very unsuccessful minister, not because he wasn't orthodox in religion but because he was an abolitionist. And one of the religious lies that Americans cling to today is that, quote, "religion," unquote, all religion was in favor of the abolition of slavery. This was not true of mainstream religion in the North for a long time. A lot of Presbyterians in the North, when Ingersoll's father was a minister, were a lot more concerned about keeping their ties with the Southern churches of their denomination than they were with anything to do with slavery. So, Ingersoll's father, while he was rigidly orthodox in religious matters, was strongly anti-slavery. So, this may have had more influence on him than any reaction against his father's religious orthodoxy.
MARTIN: It wasn't enough for Ingersoll to just hold these views privately. He proselytized, in essence. What was his intention?
JACOBY: One of the things Ingersoll wanted to do, the most important thing he wanted to do, was revive the secular portion of America's revolutionary history. He did not want to deny the role of religion in the founding of America but he wanted to put it in its perspective. To this question we hear today, was America founded as a Christian nation, as controversial then as it is now, Ingersoll's answer was no. And he went around explaining why it was no. May I read you what he had to say...
MARTIN: Please.
JACOBY: ...about what officeholders had to do in order to be considered for office, how they had to deny their views on separation...
MARTIN: Sure.
JACOBY: ...of church and state? Here is what he said in 1885: (Reading) At present, the successful office-seeker is a good deal like the center of the earth. He weighs nothing himself but draws everything else to him. There are so many churches and so many isms it's impossible for an independent man to succeed in a political career. Candidates are forced to pretend they are Catholic with Protestant proclivities or Christians with liberal tendencies or temperance men who now and then who take a glass of wine. Although they are not members of any church, their wives are, and that they subscribe liberally to all. The result of all of this is we reward hypocrisy and elect men entirely destitute of real principle. And this will never change until the people become grand enough to do their own thinking. I think that's very appropriate after the clownish performance of Congress at the end of its session this year.
MARTIN: Well, and that leads to the question: what do you think Ingersoll would think about today's political climate when we live in a political culture where someone's religious identity is a big part of their electability?
JACOBY: I think what would have astonished men like Ingersoll is the survival of fundamentalism. I don't think that they would have been at all surprised that people are still religious. I think they would have been very surprised that anybody by the end of the 20th century would have been running for office on the platform that the Bible is literally true.
MARTIN: Susan Jacoby. The book is called "The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Free Thought." Ms. Jacoby, thanks so much for taking the time.
JACOBY: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: And you're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. Hit pause on this New Year's resolutions because it is time for the puzzle.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: Joining me now for the first puzzle of the year 2013 is WEEKEND EDITION's puzzle-master, Will Shortz. He's at member station WBAA at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Good morning, Will.
WILL SHORTZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Rachel.
MARTIN: OK. Before we recap last week's challenge, Will, I understand we have a little mythological business to sort out, right?
SHORTZ: Yes. Last week, I identified Odin as a name from classical mythology. Actually, technically, classical mythology means Greek or Roman mythology. And Odin is mythological but not classical.
MARTIN: OK. So, thank you to those listeners out there for helping us keep our mythology facts straight. Now, onto this week's puzzle. Will, what was our challenge?
SHORTZ: Yes. I came from listener Ben Bass of Chicago. And it sounded a little complicated, but really wasn't too hard. The challenge was first to name a U.S. state capital then rearrange its letters to spell the name of another American city. Then remove one letter and read the result backward to spell a third American city. And finally, move the first letter of that to the end to spell a fourth American city. And I said all these four cities are in different states. Well, the answers were: Salem, Oregon, Selma, Alabama, Ames, Iowa and Mesa, Arizona.
MARTIN: And roughly 650 of our listeners sent in the correct answer. And our randomly selected winner this week is Zvi Rosen of Berkeley, California. He joins us on the phone. Congratulations, Zvi.
ZVI ROSEN: Thank you so much. Hi, Rachel. Hi, Will.
MARTIN: So...
SHORTZ: Hey, there.
MARTIN: ...are you a geography buff? Is this kind of how you figured out the answer?
ROSEN: Not too much. I do like anagrams, though.
MARTIN: Anagrams, OK. Good for you. And what do you do in Berkeley?
ROSEN: I'm a math student at UC Berkeley.
MARTIN: OK. Math - sometimes we get math puzzles. Do we have one of those in the works, Will?
SHORTZ: No math, but we do have anagrams, so Zvi is in luck.
MARTIN: OK. Anagrams. Without further ado, Will, take it away.
SHORTZ: All right, Zvi and Rachel. This week's puzzle celebrates ringing in the New Year. Take the letters Y-E-A-R, add one letter and scramble to make a new word that answers the clue. For example, adding the letter B to the year, with the clue: maker of aspirin, you would say Bayer.
MARTIN: Aha. OK. Zvi, you got it?
ROSEN: Yep. Sounds good.
MARTIN: All right. Let's do it.
SHORTZ: All right. Number one: add the letter D to year to make prepared.
ROSEN: Repaired?
SHORTZ: Prepared.
ROSEN: Prepared. Ready.
SHORTZ: Ready is it. Number two: add the letter F, as in Frank, to make a sprite. And it's a variant spelling.
ROSEN: A faery.
SHORTZ: Faery is it, F-A-E-R-Y. Good. Add an L to make before the deadline.
ROSEN: Early.
SHORTZ: Uh-huh. Now, add an L to make certain race.
ROSEN: A relay.
SHORTZ: Relay, good. Add an M to make one of the Ms in MGM.
ROSEN: Mayer.
SHORTZ: That's right. Add an N to make ache for.
ROSEN: A score.
SHORTZ: Ache for, A-C-H-E. And actually you don't even have to anagram this time.
ROSEN: Yearn.
MARTIN: Yeah.
SHORTZ: Yeah. Just add an N at the end. Add a P to make the first explorer to reach the North Pole.
ROSEN: Peary.
SHORTZ: Peary is it. Add a P again to get to make good on, as a loan.
ROSEN: Repay.
SHORTZ: Um-hum. Add an S to make singer Leo with the 1970's number one hit "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing."
ROSEN: Oh, gosh.
SHORTZ: Oh, this is before your time but...
ROSEN: Yeah, I think so.
SHORTZ: But maybe you can get it. Add an S and then...
ROSEN: Sayer.
SHORTZ: Sayer, yeah, Will Sayer, good.
MARTIN: Nice.
SHORTZ: Add a T to make lachrymose.
ROSEN: Teary.
SHORTZ: Teary is it. Add a V to make a big name in office products.
ROSEN: A V?
SHORTZ: Yeah.
MARTIN: V.
ROSEN: Rachel, I think I need help.
MARTIN: Oh man, OK. Office products. Oh, is it Avery?
SHORTZ: Avery, yeah. Avery Office Products, good. Add a W to make tired.
ROSEN: Weary.
SHORTZ: That's it. And here's your last one: this time take the phrase New Year and add an H to get a good place to solve puzzles. Eight letters all together.
MARTIN: A good place to solve puzzles.
SHORTZ: Starts with A. I'll tell you the second...
ROSEN: Anywhere.
MARTIN: Ah, anywhere.
SHORTZ: Solve puzzles anywhere. Good job.
MARTIN: Zvi, that was great. Well done.
ROSEN: Thanks.
MARTIN: And for playing the puzzle today, you'll get a WEEKEND EDITION lapel pin and, of course, puzzle books and games. You can read all about it at npr.org/puzzle. And before we let you go, Zvi, what is your public radio station?
ROSEN: KQED in San Francisco.
MARTIN: My alma mater. Zvi Rosen of Berkeley, California, thanks so much for playing the puzzle.
ROSEN: Thank you. I had a great time.
MARTIN: OK, Will. What's the challenge for next week?
SHORTZ: Yes, it comes for the great American puzzle maker, Sam Loyd. And it appeared in a puzzle column in the Woman's Home Companion in January 1913, exactly a hundred years ago.
Draw a square that is four boxes by four boxes per side, containing 16 small boxes altogether. There are 10 ways to have four boxes in a line: four horizontal rows, four vertical columns, plus the two long diagonals. Also, there are eight other shorter diagonals of two or three squares each. And the object is to place markers in 10 of the boxes so that as many of the lines as possible have either two or four markers in them.
What is the maximum number of lines that can have either two or four markers, and how do you do it?
So again, a four by four box and there are 18 lines altogether, across, down and diagonally. Place 10 markers in boxes so that as many of the lines as possible have either two or four markers each. How do you do it?
MARTIN: OK, when you have the answer, go to our website, npr.org/puzzle and click on the Submit Your Answer link - just one entry per person, please. And our deadline for entries is Thursday, January 10th at 3 P.M. Eastern. Please include a phone number where we can reach you at about that time. And if you're the winner we'll give you a call, and you will get to play on the air with the puzzle editor of The New York Times and WEEKEND EDITION's puzzle-master, Will Shortz.
Thanks so much, Will.
SHORTZ: Thanks, Rachel.
(SOUNDBITE OF THEME MUSIC)
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
If you're a child of the 1970s or '80s, you probably sat in front of a television on Saturday morning and at some point saw this:
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK")
MARTIN: Those little animated lessons that taught us why that scrap of paper was loitering on the Capitol steps or the finer points of grammar.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: Or should that and the finer points of grammar.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
MARTIN: Believe it or not, "Schoolhouse Rock" is 40 years old. And to mark this rather frightening occasion, we reached Bob Dorough. He composed, conducted and even sang much of "Schoolhouse Rock." But he didn't start in children's music. Dorough started playing with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Miles Davis.
BOB DOROUGH: Oh, there I was in New York City just trying to make a living. Actually, my jazz work was a little slow and I was dabbling in advertising music just to make ends meet. And by then I was married and had a daughter, so I needed that bread.
MARTIN: His boss came to him with a problem.
DOROUGH: My sons cannot memorize their times tables yet they sing along with Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones, and they get their words, so why don't we put the multiplication tables to music, and we'll call it "Multiplication Rock." What do you think, Bob?
MARTIN: And what did you think?
DOROUGH: Well, I was a little hesitant, but originally it was just an idea for a phonograph record in a workbook. We eventually wound up on television.
MARTIN: What was the first multiplication song that you did?
DOROUGH: Well I went home and I studied it a little bit and I got the idea of three is the magic number. Then I looked in a magic book and, sure enough, three is one of the magic numbers.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: Can you sing us a little bit of that first song, "Three is the"...
DOROUGH: Oh, yes. (Singing) Three is the magic number. Yes, it is. It's a magic number.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
MARTIN: I have to say, Mr. Dorough, you can sing pretty darn well.
DOROUGH: I know.
(LAUGHTER)
DOROUGH: Well, you see, I was a jazz singer when they found me.
MARTIN: When you were writing these songs, you had a young daughter. She was in grade school at the time, as I understand. Did she...
DOROUGH: She was.
MARTIN: ...did she help you with this? I mean, did you know how to write a kid's song?
DOROUGH: She did. Well, I'd always sort of heeded the children, paid attention to them. And I had seized upon this idea there's a chance to communicate with children. Most of all, I had no idea it would end up to be on television.
MARTIN: You also, not just about math, you wrote songs about grammar that helped kids kind of understand the parts of speech. We mentioned "Conjunction Junction," which is a personal favorite of mine. Was it easier for you to write math songs or grammar songs? Or was there a difference?
DOROUGH: Math is much easier. I discovered there was no such thing as a grammar rule. I mean, we were all reading grammar books and, you know, what is grammar? I wrote a song they didn't buy. It was called "Grammar's Not Your Grandma. It's Your Grammar."
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: They didn't buy that one, huh?
DOROUGH: No, they didn't buy it. I did a demo and everything.
MARTIN: Oh, shoot.
DOROUGH: Finally, they just said let's just do the eight parts of speech, you know.
MARTIN: Well, you've written so many tunes over the years. I know they all probably hold a special place in your heart, but I will still ask. Do you have a favorite?
DOROUGH: Well, I sort of like "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly." That's one of the grammar songs. And it began with me just sort of thinking lolly, lolly, lolly as a little refrain. Like you might say tra la la. Lolly, lolly, lolly, get your adverbs here.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOLLY, LOLLY, LOLLY")
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOLLY, LOLLY, LOLLY")
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOLLY, LOLLY, LOLLY")
MARTIN: You can hear Bob Dorough at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. tonight, where he's leading a sing-a-long in honor of the 40th anniversary of "Schoolhouse Rock." Mr. Dorough, thanks so much for talking with us.
DOROUGH: Thank you, Rachel.
MARTIN: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. President Obama has said he wants quick action to tighten the nation's gun laws. And in Connecticut, the governor says he'd like the same. His state was the scene of last month's tragic shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
But when it comes to gun control, at least one town in Connecticut isn't waiting for others to act. Jeff Cohen, from member station WNPR, has more.
JEFF COHEN, BYLINE: Weston is a small town, and its government meetings are probably like others around the country.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: OK, I'd like to call this selectmen's meeting to order. Tonight's...
COHEN: As people shuffle into the meeting, they start with the pledge.
GROUP: I pledge allegiance, to the flag...
COHEN: And they move on to the kind of agenda items you might expect: appointments to the commission on aging, some talk of the budget and a report from two fourth-grade girls on why they want to eliminate plastic bags.
But then there was one item, Item 7. It's about guns.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: OK, next item on our agenda is discussion/petition regarding the assault weapons ordinances.
COHEN: There's not a lot of gun violence in Weston. But they're talking about a new proposal to restrict guns here because of what happened in Newtown, just 20 miles away. The plan has three main points. Violate one of them and you'll get hit with a $500 fine.
Dennis Tracey is one of Weston's three elected officials called selectmen.
DENNIS TRACEY: First, is it bans assault weapons and automatic weapons, as well as high capacity magazines, which are not appropriate in our town for sporting purposes. Second, it requires safe and secure storage of weapons when they're not being used. And third, it requires the registration of all firearms in town.
COHEN: About 10,000 people live in Weston. In Connecticut, there are no county governments, so towns have a lot of authority. They run their own schools, their own police forces and they write their own laws. This system of government is what makes Connecticut both charming and cumbersome.
Dennis Tracey is an attorney who works in New York City. He's also a Republican who helped write the proposed gun law. He doesn't think federal or state politicians are getting the job done on gun control. Neither does Gayle Weinstein. She's Weston's first selectwoman and a Democrat.
GAYLE WEINSTEIN: I think it's incredibly important that we drive the policy and that we stand up and say this is going to be unacceptable in the town of Weston. And that we're going to put laws in place to protect the residents of our town when it comes to things like gun control.
COHEN: About a dozen residents showed up for the public meeting. One of them was Mark Harper. He's a city employee and also a gun owner. Back in 1990, he helped write the town's existing gun ordinance. It bans the use of military-style weapons like machine guns and the kind of rifle used in the Sandy Hook shootings. But it doesn't ban their possession.
I asked Harper whether his support of that measure made him unpopular in the gun community. He says he's dealt with outsiders in the gun lobby before.
MARK HARPER: I'm not afraid to speak and I told them to shut up - they don't live here - and this is our town and we're going to do what we want to do, so hit the road. This is Weston, it's a small town. I was born and raised here. I raised my family here. I want the town to be safe. And that's the way it is.
COHEN: But he has a problem with the proposed law as it's written. Don't tell him or others to register their guns with the town because they won't. And don't tell them which guns they can and can't own.
HARPER: I have a constitutional right to possess whatever guns I want. And you have in here that you're trying to ban the possession of those firearms. That will be challenged.
COHEN: And these are just some of the questions without easy answers. What if a gun club in town has a tournament and a guest brings their guns? Are they supposed to register them with the town for the weekend? And how do you enforce the part of the law that deals with storing guns? Do you go into someone's house to see if their weapons are locked up?
This is what people in this small town of Weston, Connecticut are grappling with as they debate whether to make changes to their community's gun laws.
For NPR News, I'm Jeff Cohen.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER: If all members-elect will raise their right hands. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that you...
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
House Speaker John Boehner stood before the House of Representatives last week and asked a batch of newly-elected members to take the oath of office. There are, in all, 82 fresh faces.
BOEHNER: And that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of office on which you are about to enter, so help you God.
FRESHMEN REPRESENTATIVES: I do.
BOEHNER: Congratulations. You're now members of the 113th congress.
(APPLAUSE)
MARTIN: But it's a challenging time for the new Congress. Tough choices about federal spending cuts still linger and a fight over the federal debt ceiling promises to be contentious. To talk more about what we can expect from the 113th Congress, we have invited two members of the freshman class onto the program. Ami Bera - he's a Democrat from California and he joins us in our studio. Thanks for being with us.
REPRESENTATIVE AMI BERA: Thank you for having me.
MARTIN: And Rodney Davis, he's a Republican from Illinois, on the line from his office. Thanks to you as well.
REPRESENTATIVE RODNEY DAVIS: Well, thank you. And thank you, Dr. Bera.
MARTIN: I would like to start by playing another clip of tape. Last week, the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, just tore into Congress. He was furious that Congress had delayed passing an aid package for victims of Superstorm Sandy. Let's take a listen.
GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE: Everything is the subject of one-upmanship. Everything is a possibility, a potential piece of bait for the political game. And it's just - it is why the American people hate Congress.
MARTIN: Governor Christie was articulating that a lot of Americans are feeling right now, as you two both are well aware. Polling has shown that only about 20 percent of Americans approve of Congress, which is dismal to say the least. So, why would you want to be part of this party, right now, a body that is held in such low esteem by the American public? I'll start with Congressman Bera.
BERA: Yeah. I think both Congressman Davis and myself have a deep love for this county. And we probably share the same frustration that we've got to start coming together and finding common ground and moving forward.
DAVIS: This is something that I talked about throughout my entire campaign. And Governor Christie's right. It seems like over the last couple of years every piece of legislation was used as a political hammer by one side or the other. And the American people spoke, and they like a divided government but they are not happy with the status quo.
MARTIN: So, let's talk a little bit about specifics. What would the two of you do differently as you move forward?
BERA: Well, I think we could all agree that our infrastructure needs rebuilding, that a great way to recreate jobs is to start investing in our infrastructure, rebuilding our roads, our highways. Then, you know, if we agree on the goal, then we can have vibrant dialogue and discussion about how we fund and move towards that goal. But let's say, yeah, this is something we want to accomplish. Now, let's talk about how we get there.
MARTIN: Congressman Davis, do you agree that rebuilding America's infrastructure is perhaps a place where there can be some common ground?
DAVIS: I absolutely do. It was one of the pillars of my campaign. I was one of the few Republican candidates in the nation to talk about the need for a new highway reauthorization bill. That is a true stimulus. We have to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. It's only costing Americans more.
MARTIN: That's also a big spending program, which your party has not been willing to embrace necessarily.
DAVIS: Well, and that's why we need folks who are like me who are willing to say let's not just go across the board and make cuts. And what we have to do is work together. And when we work together, we'll reprioritize the way Washington spends money. And when we do, we can begin to spend it on the things that we don't mind sending our tax dollars here for.
MARTIN: What about the Democrats? Do you see that there is an appetite for rethinking entitlement reform?
BERA: Absolutely. All through orientation and throughout the campaign, we talked about the importance of not burdening our children with the debt that we're incurring right now. There's no way to talk about that without actually looking at Medicare and looking at how we approach slowing down this rampant growth and the cost of Medicare. But there's a smart way to do that. For the listeners out there, I'm a physician who's worked in health care his whole professional life. There's places where if could actually start the conversation and actually listen to each other, I think there's lots of room for compromise here.
MARTIN: Congressman Davis, do you agree, especially when it comes to the health care policy, the new health care law?
DAVIS: We may have some differences in opinion on the Affordable Care Act. But, you know, I'm a realist, and although I campaigned saying I would rather have a health care plan that mirrors the one that we put forth during our efforts, I know that any effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act is wasted time and wasted energy out there in Washington. It's not going to go anywhere. And I'll be one standing up in the Republican caucus saying let's quit wasting our time and let's start addressing some major issues that the American people want us to address. Because they're not only going to punish our party, they're going to punish everyone. And we need to ensure that we provide some solutions that we all talked about during our campaigns and that now we're here to begin the process to actually implement.
MARTIN: That's Congressman Rodney Davis, Republican from Illinois. Thanks for joining us.
DAVIS: Thank you.
MARTIN: And Congressman Ami Bera, Democrat from California. Thanks to you as well.
BERA: Thank you for having me.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
For a handful of Republican congressmen, the new legislative session opened not with a spirit of cooperation but with an act of defiance. It happened Thursday, as each member of the House of Representatives cast a vote for their party's leader.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: The roll now will be called. And those responding to their names will indicate by surname the nominee of their choosing.
MARTIN: The clerk ticked through the roster alphabetically. Early on, there were rumors of a possible coup to oust Speaker John Boehner, a rebellion by some Republicans unhappy with his leadership. But as the clerk got to the Ys, it became clear the Speaker would have enough votes to keep his job.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Yoder.
REPRESENTATIVE KEVIN YODER: John Boehner.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Boehner.
MARTIN: But then with just one vote needed to seal the deal, the clerk called on a freshly minted congressman from Florida.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Yoho.
MARTIN: And rather than handing Boehner the victory, freshman Ted Yoho took a stand.
REPRESENTATIVE TED YOHO: Eric Cantor.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Cantor.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHATTER)
MARTIN: Murmurs broke out of the floor. Yoho was one of 12 Republicans who didn't support Boehner. But he still won enough votes to remain speaker of the House. Congressman Yoho later told CNN that his vote was a message of sorts.
YOHO: What I did is - what we did is we are challenging leadership to let them know we're going to hold them accountable just like I get held accountable in my district by my constituents. And we want to let them know that we're watching.
MARTIN: And no doubt Speaker Boehner will be watching Congressman Yoho and other restive Republicans right back.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: And you're listening to NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. Venezuela is fast approaching a political crisis. President Hugo Chavez is supposed to be sworn in to a fourth term this week, but he hasn't been seen in public since December 11th. He's been in Cuba receiving treatment for a recurrence of pelvic cancer, and according to his associates, complications have put him in a, quote, "delicate situation." It's not clear if or when Chavez will return to Venezuela. NPR's Juan Forero is covering this story and he joins us on the line from Caracas. Good morning, Juan.
JUAN FORERO, BYLINE: Good morning, Rachel.
MARTIN: So, at this point, what do we know about Chavez' condition?
FORERO: Well, we know Chavez has had a tumor and that he's had four operations since June of 2011. But there's no word on what kind of cancer he has, where exactly it's located, if it's an aggressive malignant cancer. What's happened since he's gone to Cuba is that his ministers have gone on air to talk about the gravity of the situation and that he has what they've called a severe respiratory infection. So, that has some here wondering if he's in a coma or hooked up to a machine to help him breathe. The lack of information has simply fed swirling rumors. And for many Venezuelans, all of this is quite astonishing because Chavez was leader who would normally hold forth on television every day, sometimes for hours at a time. He was a constant in their lives. And for now, at least, he's gone.
MARTIN: So, you say his advisors are calling the situation grave. Are they saying anything about his return?
FORERO: The latest indications from Chavez' top two lieutenants is that he won't be back for his swearing-in. On Friday, the vice president, Nicolas Maduro, in a long interview with state television, said that the constitution does not mandate that the president take the oath of office on the 10th - that's this Thursday. The constitution is somewhat vague on the point. It actually says the president should be inaugurated on the 10th before the National Assembly. But then it goes on to say if he can't be there then the Supreme Court can swear him in. Maduro says that's the likely option and that it can happen at a later date. And on Saturday, the president of the National Assembly, a guy named Diosdado Cabello, said the same thing. So, we're talking later date when Chavez would return, although we don't know when that would be.
MARTIN: What about the political opposition in Venezuela? What's their response?
FORERO: Well, the opposition is opposing the government on this - no surprise there. They point out that the constitution says that if the president can't govern anymore because he's dead of because he's so incapacitated that he can't operate, then the president of the Assembly would be in charge, or the vice president. It sort of depends on the dates when these things occur. Then a new election must be called. But both Maduro and Cabello say the opposition is simply trying to create instability. They call such points of view nothing more than psychological warfare.
MARTIN: You mention a couple of different possibilities for leadership after Chavez. But if he isn't sworn in on Thursday, who is in charge then?
FORERO: Oddly enough, Chavez is in charge. He's not here. He's in Cuba. We haven't heard from him and likely won't, at least in the coming days, but he's in charge. That's what's his aides are saying. Maduro, who's the vice president, was pretty clear that he's not in charge and does not want to be in charge. He says he's simply following orders and is doing so at the president's will. Keep in mind, though, that we don't even know that the president is conscious. Maduro hasn't said.
MARTIN: There's obviously a great deal of turmoil in the government right now. How is all of this going over among ordinary Venezuelans?
FORERO: It's an unusual time here. Many people are still on Christmas holiday. So, Caracas, the capital, is very quiet, eerily silent in a way. But I went to the main public square to talk to Chavez' supporters and they were strongly supportive of Maduro and Cabello and said they didn't understand why the opposition is demanding to know more details about Chavez's health. They said that their comandante, their commander, will be back - maybe not on Thursday, but that he'll be back. And because they recently re-elected him, they said that the will of the people is clear; that the country should simply be patient and wait for him to return.
MARTIN: NPR's Juan Forero in Caracas, Venezuela. Thanks very much, Juan.
FORERO: Thank you.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This past week, Al-Jazeera made a big move that gave it a bigger slice of the American television audience. The Qatar-based news agency recently took over Current TV - that's the cable channel founded by former Vice President Al Gore. The deal will make Al-Jazeera available in more than 40 million homes across the United States. Until now, Al-Jazeera English has only been available in New York, Washington, D.C. and a handful of other areas. Following the deal, I sat down with Al-Jazeera's executive producer for the Americas, Bob Wheelock, and I asked him if he thought Al-Jazeera would be able to cater to a much broader U.S. market.
BOB WHEELOCK: The biggest challenge you face as a reporter for Al-Jazeera - or a producer - is how to make that story that you're working pertinent to a guy in Istanbul at an Internet cafe, someone in Belfast and someone in Kentland, Indiana.
MARTIN: I imagine all of this still has to be worked out, the particulars of the program...
WHEELOCK: Oh, yeah.
MARTIN: ...but anything you can tell us about, you know, what we could expect to see?
WHEELOCK: Well, I think one of the things you will see is still international news. We have an incredibly strong documentary unit, which, you know, ask around and see how many people still have those and we will put those programs on the air - "Witness," "Fault Lines." Our challenge is going to be to come up with new programming that is more tailored to a domestic U.S. and Latin American audience. If I could tell a quick anecdote, because you never know who's watching - I love in New York and Washington. I went to an office supply store in Brooklyn. It's run by Hasidim. The guy says, oh, you're getting some stuff for work. I said yeah. He said, what do you do? And I thought do I go there? And I said I work for Al-Jazeera. And he said channel 92. It's my favorite news channel. Thank you very much. The most honest news I get on TV.
MARTIN: So, there was an Hasidic Jew in Brooklyn, New York...
WHEELOCK: Yeah. You don't know. Every day I meet cab drivers. I had to go to physical therapist the other day. He was sitting there telling me how frustrated he is that he can't get it, you know, easier on TV. You know, I had to keep my mouth shut. But I won't have to keep my mouth shut anymore and it feels great.
MARTIN: There was a time in the not-so-distant past when Al-Jazeera had a reputation, especially in some political circles in the United States, as being sympathetic to al-Qaida. Do you still get that kind of criticism? And does this acquisition represent some kind of turning point, do you think, when it comes to changing minds, changing perceptions?
WHEELOCK: The, quote, "bias," that did exist, clearly. I think our work has wiped a lot of that away. The Royal Television Society last year gave us cable network of the year. You know, it's a largely British audience and award and we won it. That speaks volumes, I think. It really does. We're not going to do anything different because we're on in America. You know, I've told the reporters you're going to do the same thing you've always done - find the best story and tell it.
MARTIN: You talk about the challenges of programming across continents for different cultures. And different demographics have a different tolerance level for certain details, shall we say. And Al-Jazeera has been known to put some graphic stuff out about world events, tragedies, attacks that happen, terrorist events, even airing excerpts of tapes released by al-Qaida or terrorist affiliates. Has the network tamped that down over the years to cater to an American audience, or are there plans to do so with this expansion?
WHEELOCK: No. What we do is try to produce news broadcasts that are editorially correct. They're not always politically correct. We take a couple of hits for that. You know, there's a certain hypocrisy involved in some of the people who've criticized, you know, you got a tape from al-Qaida and you've ran it. First of all, it's not run until it's authenticated, and I happen to know being at another network at the time, you know, the foreign desk was often calling and trying to see if they could get that tape.
MARTIN: The American network.
WHEELOCK: Yeah. The difference was Al-Jazeera made it available. A lot of the networks got those tapes. I think there was a tendency to, you know, let's see who puts it on first and then it's OK if we do it, or we show a clip of it because, you know, they did it. Well, we did it. You can't cover wars, you can't cover droughts and famines, you can't cover rape in India or the shooting of a little girl in Pakistan without sometimes showing some images that are ugly - not and do it right. That's what we do. It's not done easily. It's not done without consultation with an editorial board in Doha. And my producers come to me often, you know, do you think this is too much? And, yeah, I rein them in sometimes 'cause there's certain things that you don't need to show. What's the news value? That's all. What's the news value?
MARTIN: Bob Wheelock. He is Al-Jazeera's executive producer of the Americas. Mr. Wheelock, thanks so much for coming in.
WHEELOCK: Thank you, Rachel.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
2012 was a great year for U.S. movie ticket sales - nearly $11 billion. Some of the highest grossing films include "The Avengers."
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE AVENGERS")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (as character) What have I to fear?
ROBERT DOWNEY JR: (as Tony Sparks) The Avengers - that's what we call ourselves. Earth's mightiest heroes type thing.
MARTIN: "The Dark Knight Rises."
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE DARK KNIGHT RISES")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (as character) I need to see Bruce Wayne.
MICHAEL CAINE: (as Alfred) I'm sorry. Mr. Wayne doesn't take unscheduled calls.
MARTIN: And, of course...
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "SKYFALL")
DANIEL CRAIG: (as James Bond) Bond, James Bond.
MARTIN: But how much attention do we really pay when watching these films? All of them had errors in continuity. You know how it goes: one moment an actor is nursing a wound on his left shoulder and the next moment he's clutching his right. Or there's a near-empty glass on a counter and, poof, it's full. The website MovieMistakes.com has a list of some of the biggest errors in last year's films. John Sandys runs the website and he joins me from the BBC in Surrey, England. John, welcome to the program.
JOHN SANDYS: Thank you.
MARTIN: So, the movie at the top of your list for mistakes and continuity issues from last year is "Men in Black 3." What are some of the more glaring mistakes of inconsistencies?
SANDYS: Well, I think 'cause "Men in Black 3" travels back and forth in time, it means you've got a whole host of factual mistakes as well, which it opens itself up to. One which jumped at me was in Cape Canaveral in 1969, we see the flag of Spain waving, but it's the wrong flag. It's the current era flag, not the 1969-era flag. I mean, it's hardly a major research job. I don't know whether they thought it wasn't worth looking into or they just thought, well, no one will care.
MARTIN: Second on your list is the latest Bond film, "Skyfall." What were some of the standout mistakes in that film?
SANDYS: One is in the London Underground. The escalators in the London Underground have got hard barriers down the middle, precisely to stop people sliding them, because it's ridiculously dangerous. But Bond is chasing a bad guy and they both slide straight down the middle, 'cause it makes for a brilliant shot. But I think I heard from so many Londoners just say, well, this would never happen. They (unintelligible) ridiculous. Probably just annoyed they've tried it themselves and failed.
MARTIN: According to your website, what is the movie with the most errors of all time?
SANDYS: The most of all time is "Apocalypse Now," which has got 395 mistakes in it. There's a famous sequence when "Ride of the Valkyries" is playing as they swoop in for an attack on the village.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SANDYS: And you can see a tape is being played on a tape recorder. And the music we're hearing is apparently from that, except the tape isn't actually going over the heads reading it. So, we should be hearing nothing.
MARTIN: So, have you been to the movies this year?
SANDYS: No, not yet. I'm going to see "The Impossible," which is the tsunami film, on Monday.
MARTIN: This is with Naomi Watts starring.
SANDYS: Yes. But I imagine, 'cause that's a fairly sort of epic, dramatic tale, I'll hopefully just get far too caught up in the story to be looking for mistakes.
MARTIN: John Sands. He joined me from the BBC in Surrey. John, thanks so much for talking with us.
SANDYS: Thank you. Anytime.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE END")
MARTIN: This is NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
For more on the crisis in Syria, I'm joined by Andrew Tabler. He's the author of "In the Lion's Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle with Syria." He's here with me in the studio.
Good morning. Thanks for coming in.
ANDREW TABLER: My pleasure.
MARTIN: So, as we just heard Kelly McEvers say the war in Syria appears to be in a stalemate. Assad appears to have has dug his heels in with this address. Where are we right now in this crisis?
TABLER: We have a really interesting situation, in that President Assad seems to be in some sort of bubble, and really detached from the reality which is sort of on the ground. And that's a real problem for those that support the Assad regime, such as Russia and Iran. And on the other hand, we have the regime's battle against an opposition which is increasingly fragmented and really doesn't have one head.
So it's very difficult also for the West and for the Arab countries, and for the regional countries who back them to deal with them as well. So, you know, this storm in Syria, this hurricane that's been gathering for the better part of two years is just grown considerably worse over the last 24 hours, and I think is accented by this speech.
MARTIN: What about the plan that he put forward in this speech? This is something that we have heard before. They are the same proposals that he has put out there. Why didn't these proposals take root before when he first proposed it?
TABLER: Well, there are proposals by the international community about how to settle this, and there's called the Geneva Memorandum of June 30. And then that followed up the Annan Six Point Plan. That's one thing, President Assad just gave us his version of those plans. OK? And that's not a deal. That's just his version of them. And his version of them is the rebels have to stop fighting and then the regime will stop fighting, and then they'll talk and Assad doesn't go. And, of course, that's no deal for anyone and no deal for the opposition.
MARTIN: So what does that mean, especially for the international community? What are the next steps?
TABLER: It's going to be really interesting to see how Lakhdar Brahimi response to this because, of course, he was expecting something much more and he didn't get it.
MARTIN: He's the U.N.'s special envoy.
TABLER: Exactly, and he's the one who took over from Kofi Annan. And he's the one who's been trying to cut the baby in half in Syria. It's not going to be possible to come up with some sort of deal, given the position of the Syrian president. So I predict that I think things are going to get much worse here in the coming weeks and months. And we're headed for a much wider war in Syria.
MARTIN: But, Andrew Tabler, does - in your opinion - does Assad have to go, in order for Syria to stabilize and move forward?
TABLER: Yeah, I think that he does because in order for there to be a negotiated solution, Assad would definitely have to go. If that doesn't happen, then I think the rebels and their backers in the region will continue to support - they'll continue to fight against the regime. And we will just have a long, bloody war in Syria that will eventually depose Assad.
Now, whether the entire regime goes, or it's a rump regime or a reconstituted regime - when they're pushed out of the north and east - I don't know. It's like looking into a crystal ball, but it's increasingly cloudy.
MARTIN: That's Andrew Tabler. He is the author of "In the Lion's Den: An Eyewitness Account of Washington's Battle with Syria."
Andrew Tabler, thanks so much for coming in.
TABLER: My pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The children's author, Roald Dahl's most famous stories may strain belief, certainly, though some of us are hoping to find a golden ticket in a bar of chocolate someday. But in his book, "James and the Giant Peach," Dahl came up with a mostly plausible way to move a giant piece of stone fruit: A flock of 501 seagulls. But some physics students from England's Leicester University weren't so sure.
Figuring the potential weight of the peach, which Dahl wrote was about the size of a small house, they multiplied its density by its volume and calculated that you'd need more than 2.4 million seagulls to get that peach into the air.
We're hoping the students next school project figures out the scientific elements of the potion that actually grew that giant peach in the first place.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. And it's time for sports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: And that triumphant music is especially appropriate today because hockey has been saved. The NHL and the Players Association announced this morning that they've reached a tentative agreement to end their lockout - and just in the nick of time. It had already wiped out more than half of the season. With more on the deal, NPR's Mike Pesca joins us, as he does every Sunday. Hey, Mike.
MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: Hey.
MARTIN: So, this agreement came after this big old marathon session - 16 hours of negotiating. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the head of the Players Association, Donald Fehr, spoke to the press. Frankly, they looked like they'd been negotiating for 16 hours. What did they say?
PESCA: Well, if you know both those guys, they have the pallor of the boardroom or the ice rink. So, you know, they're not exactly models, as far as that. So, they didn't give a lot of detail then personally in that press conference but we did get some telling details about what the agreement would include. And basically there are going to be some revenue sharing, which was a big bone of contention - 50-50 revenue sharing. There is going to be a salary cap of about $64 million next season. And Donald Fehr said this:
DONALD FEHR: Hopefully, within just a very few days, the fans can get back to watching people who are skating, not the two of us.
PESCA: Right. Yeah, don't watch the two of us. You know, the season - we're not sure exactly how many games will be played - 48 or 50 - but they'll have lost over 500 games. And that hurts the sport.
MARTIN: So, the question a lot of hockey fans are no doubt asking: why did this take so long?
PESCA: Yes. And we saw this with the NFL labor negotiations. We saw that with the NBA. We even saw this with the fiscal cliff. And I think what people maybe don't understand is the lay public wants one set of things, which is both those guys to come together. But the negotiating parties have different interests, and they think - the negotiating parties - well, if we hold out to the last minute, we'll get a better deal, we'll make up more money in the long term. And some of the dynamic going on with hockey was this: the players, as part of their negotiation, got $300 million in make-whole money. So, whatever money they lost during the lockout they know they were going to make up a lot of it. And a lot of the teams claim - and there's a lot of evidence that this is true -that they flat-out lose money. The Rangers make money; the Toronto Maple Leafs make money. But, you know, something like 25 of the teams say that the more hockey we play the more money we lose. So, if you think about it, both sides were sort of disincentivized to come together to a deal. Plus, I think both sides really genuinely don't like each other. So, it was a little different when we saw the football negotiations settle. Owners were hugging players, saying what great people you were. So, none of that with hockey.
MARTIN: So, you know, but the fans, people have been miffed about this. Do you think that there's going to be some kind of backlash?
PESCA: Miffed is the lowest state of ire of the hockey fan, right? Here's the thing: hockey fans are really dedicated. In fact, to some extent, I think the sport is sort of controlled by the most dedicated fans in all of sports, which is good and bad. I mean, they love their sport but sometimes they don't allow it to evolve into modernity, with such issues like fighting. Yeah. So, the fans who love hockey are definitely happy and are going to come back. What hockey needed to do, however, was build on forward momentum. The L.A. Kings just won the Stanley Cup. That's a huge market. And instead of having a hockey season, you know, just a few months after the last one ended, we waited so long I think they let some of that momentum slip away. That could be a problem.
MARTIN: OK. You have a curveball for us this week?
PESCA: I do. This was Oregon versus Kansas State. There was an unusual call in that game. How do I know it was an unusual call? Well, listen to what the referee said:
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: On the play, on the previous play, we have an unusual ruling...
PESCA: You don't hear the referee admit to that. Right, right. What happened was there was an extra points try, you know, a simple kick. Oregon kicked it. Kansas State blocked it, but the ball went into the end zone. Kansas State jumped on it and then Oregon tackled the Kansas State player in the end zone. This resulted in a one-point safety, which in the books looks exactly like the extra point was scored. But a one-point safety is so very rare in college that researchers found that it has happened only four times in the history of college football at all levels, which include NAIA and Division III schools. And at big-time college football, it has only happened one other time. And the crazy thing is the announcer doing that game, Oregon versus Kansas State, was the same announcer...
MARTIN: What?
PESCA: ...who was doing - yes, Brad Nessler. And the super crazy thing - now, this is my opinion - is that that Brad Nessler fact, that he was involved in both one-point safeties, isn't even the most shocking...
MARTIN: No way.
PESCA: ...Brad Nessler fact of the game. Listen to what Brad Nessler admitted during the broadcast.
BRAD NESSLER: Plays the piano, the violin and the mandolin. I'll be honest with you, I didn't even know what a mandolin was.
PESCA: In talking about the Kansas State quarterback, Brad Nessler admitted he doesn't know what a mandolin is. He will not be invited to join the Decembrists in their next recording session.
MARTIN: Cue the music. NPR's Mike Pesca. Thanks, Mike.
PESCA: You're welcome.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has delivered a rare national address to his people, his first since early June. He appeared defiant in the face of the uprising that has raged for two years. The U.N. now says 60,000 people have died in Syria since a protest movement was met with a bloody crackdown that exploded into a civil war.
NPR's Kelly McEvers joins us from Antakya, Turkey, not far from the Syrian border. Kelly, there have been rumors about this speech for days. What were the expectations?
KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: People were calling this the Solution Speech, saying it was going to be his response to the whirlwind of diplomatic activity in recent weeks. That diplomatic activity was an effort to really broker some kind of peace plan. It was led by a United Nations Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. He was in Damascus, Syria's capital. He spent time in Russia. He was in Cairo with the Syrian opposition, trying to come up with some kind of an agreement.
And there was a sense that Assad was going to give, even if just a tiny, little bit - a few inches - that he would agree to some kind of cease-fire, that he might call for a dialogue for those who oppose him. But basically, none of that happened in this speech.
MARTIN: OK, so what did he say?
MCEVERS: He said the same thing he's been saying for nearly two years now. He said that the Syrian regime is not facing a revolution. This is not a legitimate opposition with legitimate demands. Instead, it's fighting terrorists, jihadists, al-Qaida, people who are funded from outside countries.
And take a listen to this.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: (Through Translator) The conflict is between the nation and its enemies, between the people and the criminal killers.
MCEVERS: That's President Assad speaking through an interpreter. And again, just blaming the terrorists for all the violence in the country; taking no responsibility himself, saying the only way to deal with such people is a security solution.
At one point in the speech, he did put forward a list of purposed, you know, sort of political reforms. But on it, you know, changing the constitution and national dialogue. But honestly, we've seen these before - many times before, and little has changed on the ground.
MARTIN: So, if this was a retread, what was he trying to accomplish? Who was he trying to reach with this address?
MCEVERS: It's clear that he was rallying support inside the country and with the few allies that he still has in the world - you know, Iran, Russia, China to some degree - to show that he's still strong. I mean, this speech was delivered in an opera house in Syria's capital, packed with people who would leap to their feet and pump their fists, and shouted his name whenever he talked about defending the country. So this speech was for them, to reassure them that he's still strong.
You know, there was one moment though, one possible glimmer of hope for those who oppose Assad. He did say right at the end of the speech - a quick line - something akin to, you know: Positions don't last forever - meaning, like the position of the president - Syria will last forever. I will go one day, but the country stays.
MARTIN: Kelly, there's obviously still a war going on in Syria. Does the Syrian military have an advantage right now?
MCEVERS: It's really hard to say. I mean I think most people would call it a stalemate. You've got a lot of fighting going on in the capital, Damascus, in a lot of these suburban areas where rebels do control these areas. The army is pounding these areas. I think people saw that the rebels had some momentum maybe a month ago. I don't know if they have that momentum any more.
MARTIN: NPR's Kelly McEvers in Antakya, Turkey near the Syrian border. Thanks so much, Kelly.
MCEVERS: You're welcome.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let's just say right up front that the author Simon Garfield loves maps. Many hang on the walls of his home in London. His house in fact is filled with them. And so is his latest book, "On the Map." He studies the history of maps and their effect on human progress. Mr. Garfield's map obsession began when he was a boy and discovered the famous map of the Tube, the London subway.
SIMON GARFIELD: What's sort of extraordinary about it, it's sort of the most reproduced, geographically inaccurate map that you could find. So it looks as though every stop on the Tube is about a mile apart. But in fact they vary from, you know, a few hundred yards to kind of four or five miles. And so it creates a very kind of neat picture of London. If you're a tourist, you arrive, and the first time you think, this is going to be so easy.
It's only when you actually get out of the underground you realize it's not so easy. But, I mean, when I looked at the map for the first time, the places at the end of the line, at the end of the Metropolitan line or the Piccadilly line, seemed to me the most exotic places you could ever go in the world. They were like sort of my Antarctica, I suppose, in a way. And so really, ever since then, I've been really fascinated by maps.
INSKEEP: There is something, as you point out in the book, about a map that makes you want to travel, makes you want to go to whatever is pictured there.
GARFIELD: I think the great appeal to me is not only the fact that you can plan and you can dream and you're almost there, by looking at the maps, you're sort of almost there. But the other great appeal, really, is how it sort of relates to our history, you know, how it sort of tells our kind of human tales.
INSKEEP: And that brings us to the other point because you mentioned inaccuracies, deliberate inaccuracies in the London underground map. In going through your history of maps here, I notice you frequently use the word distortion. The maps are distorted, sometimes unintentionally, but sometimes quite intentionally because whoever is drawing the map has a purpose in mind.
GARFIELD: Exactly. I mean, maps, as you say, they are political, carry great kind of untruths. The biggest distortion of all, I suppose, is, you know, the famous sort of Mercator map from the 16th century, which we still use now. You know, that is the traditional map that you have on your classroom wall.
INSKEEP: Let's describe that to make sure that people can picture it. This is the map where the latitudinal lines, instead of coming together like they would at the top of the earth, it's flat and so they are parallel and so everything becomes huge near the North and South Poles, like Greenland is immense. Canada is ridiculously large.
GARFIELD: Exactly right. So Greenland is shown, you know, as the size of Africa, which Africa is 10 times or more larger than Greenland. You know, the other point is that it's a bit like the famous phrase that history is written by the winners, by the victors. And it's the same with mapmakers. If you have the power to commission a map or make your own map, you're going to make it reflect your world and reflect your views.
So that could be, you know, if you had a strong Christian worldview, you would put Jerusalem in the middle of the map. In ancient Greece, you would go right back and it would be Rhodes, you know, the island of Rhodes, you know, off Greece, which is now what you would regard mostly as a kind of holiday island. And it absolutely relies on tourism and not much else. But, you know, in ancient Greece, it was the center of world maps because it was such a, you know, a big economic center of trade and port.
It tells you a lot about kind of world history, how we saw ourselves. That's the wonderful thing really about old maps, is - well, obviously, you realize how the world has changed, but you realize, you know, how we place ourselves upon it when the map was drawn.
INSKEEP: So these maps aren't just describing what's there. They're describing a point of view about what is there. Is there a map in your study of the history of maps that you would regard as actually evil?
GARFIELD: Well, I suppose I have a kind of interesting thought on that really, is that I quite like inaccuracies. I quite like things that aren't quite right, really. I mean, you don't want to be a sailor on a boat trying to get to a particular place and have a map that's wrong, but you also kind of say, well, actually this is how we make a lot of our discoveries, you know.
I mean, you could say, you could argue that one of the principle maps, without doubt, that Columbus used was drawn up hundreds of years before, the great library of Alexandria by Claudius Ptolemy and although he modeled his maps very much from scientific principles, using information from navigators and from other previous scholars. He just got things wrong as well.
So I don't think you'd regard him as kind of evil 'cause I think he was actually on sort of best intentions, but he did just kind of make things up and that's sort of the other - one other fact with the kind of history of maps is sort of how much we abhor a blank space on a map, you know. We kind of hate that because it suggests ignorance and it suggests that we're not in control somehow.
So, you know, he got the whole kind of latitude wrong of where Asia was on the maps, which is why Columbus found America and didn't get to his riches in, you know, Japan and the Indies.
INSKEEP: Oh, 'cause he thought it was just a short hop across to Japan.
GARFIELD: Exactly. He thought that the journey would be a third of the one that he actually had to do to get to Japan, which is why he hit South America instead.
INSKEEP: OK. So now we're in an age of satellite mapping, of GPS. Are we better off?
GARFIELD: Well, I fall into two camps here. I use, you know, my maps on my phone. And it's far easier to put my GPS on than to have to consult a map. But gosh, I mean, do we lose a lot. We lose, you know, the beauty of maps. We lose the romance of maps. We lose that terrible feeling that we'll never be able to fold up a map again.
And I think the other thing, you know, we lose is a real sense of how big the world is. Because now we look at our maps and there's a real sense of, OK, get me to where I want to go, you know. Now, you get the feeling, actually, it's all about me,
INSKEEP: Oh, because if I look at a GPS map, there's a dot where I am and that's the middle of everything no matter what else happens.
GARFIELD: Exactly. It's a terribly sort of egocentric way of looking at the world. So I think the view of where we are in the world, in the history of the world, is changing. And I think in a way it's one of the biggest, if not the biggest impact of the digital and technological revolution; is how we see ourselves in the world. And in a way that was the idea of the book, to kind of look back and tell these great tales and to think about what we might be losing in the process of accepting all these extremely good and generally very accurate maps of the world on our phones.
INSKEEP: Simon Garfield is the author of "On the Map." Thanks very much.
GARFIELD: I enjoyed it.
INSKEEP: We're glad that we're on your map, your mental map anyway, thanks to your public radio station, which brings you MORNING EDITION. We're also on your social media map. If you'd like, you can find us on Facebook. We're also on Twitter. Got many handles there, including @MorningEdition@NPRGreene and @NPRInskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some people in Brazil are trying to stop the downside of Brazil's economic growth. The country has become a major player in agribusiness, exporting beef, soybeans, and corn. The trouble is that agriculture grows when farmers wipe out more of the Amazon forest.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
But environmentalists face a tough adversary: One of the most forceful champions of Brazil's agribusiness is a powerful politician who is both a farmer and the head of the country's most influential agricultural association. In fact, she's pushing for agribusiness to produce much more. NPR's Juan Forero sent us this profile.
JUAN FORERO, BYLINE: In some ways, Katia Abreu is still an old-fashioned farmer, one who rides her chestnut mare, Billy Jean, to tour her farm in Tocantins state in north-central Brazil. She glides the horse along a gravel road, which soon turns to dirt, and along fields of sorghum and corn. She has plans for more.
KATIA ABREU: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: Soon, we're going to produce fish, she says, and lamb. There will be soybeans and fields of tall grass for cattle, Abreu says, lots of cattle. This farm, one of three Abreu owns, has 12,000 acres - sizable even by Brazilian standards. And so is Katia Abreu's influence.
She's president of Brazil's National Agriculture Confederation, which represents five million farmers and ranchers. And she heads the influential Ruralist bloc of land-owning senators and representatives in Congress. She's also built a relationship with one of the world's most powerful women.
ABREU: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: I work with Dilma, Abreu says, meaning Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. She and I work to improve conditions and strengthen agribusiness in Brazil. That's worrisome to environmentalists, who acknowledge that in Abreu, they face a determined and sophisticated voice for big agro.
Environmentalists say farmers and ranchers want to loosen restrictions on land use and expand into the forests - including the world's biggest, the Amazon. Christian Poirier is an activist with the group Amazon Watch.
CHRISTIAN POIRIER: It's clear that the intention of the Ruralist bloc in Katia Abreu's group is to expand the agricultural frontier to the detriment of forests by felling forests in an unprecedented way in the Amazon for the profits of large agricultural interests.
FORERO: Abreu recently led the Ruralists in a bruising battle in Congress, pushing hard for fewer restrictions on the use of land to vastly jack up production.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)
FORERO: That led to passage of a land use law that environmentalists say softened restrictions on farmers and ranchers.
Silvio Costa heads the watchdog group Congress in Focus, and he says the land use law passed because of the overwhelming power big agro has in Congress, where 40 percent of all lawmakers are big landowners or their allies.
SILVIO COSTA: Subjects related to agriculture, to land ownership are not discussed in Brazil or in the Brazilian Congress in a democratic way. Because there's a group with power to approve anything they want, they just approve.
FORERO: Katia Abreu says she knows what people think about landowners. Her group commissioned surveys showing that Brazilians see landholders as truculent, dangerous, powerful and violent. That's why her confederation recently hired Pele, the biggest soccer star Brazil ever had, a national hero.
(SOUNDBITE OF COMMERCIAL)
FORERO: He touts Brazilian agriculture in this new TV ad, and says Brazil is, like him, a champion, a champion in food production - food needed to help feed a hungry world. That, in fact, is Abreu's message, that as big as Brazil's food production already is, it can and should be bigger.
ABREU: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: She says that productivity can improve on the same amount of land with more efficient land use and technologies like genetically modified crops. Environmentalists have doubts. But as she walks across her farm, Abreu stresses how ecologically minded she is. She stops at a clump of trees and pulls at low-hanging cashew nuts.
ABREU: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: And she says that she loves to plant, and that every year, she plants trees like these. Juan Forero, NPR News.
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This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Today in "Your Health," counseling for young people. We're going to look at mental health on college campuses. But we begin with teens and exercise. It is well-known that routine physical activity benefits both body and mind. NPR's Patti Neighmond reports on a study that examines how much exercise can improve a teenager's attitude.
PATTI NEIGHMOND, BYLINE: Researchers found physical activity can help teenagers in two, powerful ways. One is confidence. Take 16-year-old volleyball player Jennifer Ramirez.
JENNIFER RAMIREZ: I've made something of myself, I feel. I feel like I'm not just like everyone else. Like, we all work hard to be something and like, it pays off and people recognize it. So it feels good.
NEIGHMOND: Then, there's sociability - friends. Here's 17-year-old teammate Carly O'Sullivan.
CARLY O'SULLIVAN: I really don't care what other people think anymore. So I can be myself around anyone. And I think a lot of people, I've grown friendships with them because I really like myself.
NEIGHMOND: Both girls are on the Bogota High School volleyball team in northern New Jersey. And their experience gaining confidence and winning friends, illustrates just what researchers in the Netherlands found when they surveyed 7,000 Dutch students between the ages of 11 and 16. The study appeared in the journal "Clinical Psychological Science." Yale University child psychologist Alan Kazdin is editor. He says the findings show just how bountiful the benefits of exercise can be.
ALAN KAZDIN: I think it'd be too strong to call it an elixir, but it has the broad effects of something like that.
NEIGHMOND: In the study, teenagers who took part in organized sports had a more positive self-image, and greater self-esteem, than teens who weren't physically active. They were simply happier, says Kazdin; more grounded, and less likely to engage in problematic behavior.
KAZDIN: Like social withdrawal and anxiety, and also getting into trouble and being aggressive against others, and being overactive. Those things are lower with increased exercise.
NEIGHMOND: And that positive self-image extended into the classroom. Carly O'Sullivan.
CARLY: I think that my thoughts are more valuable now. And even if I have, like, the wrong answer, whatever, at least I'm making an effort to participate.
NEIGHMOND: The study also found those kids who are on teams had more friends. That could be the result of greater confidence, or simply the camaraderie of being on a team. Jennifer Ramirez.
JENNIFER: We're pretty much, like, a family. I could trust them; like, they're like my sisters. And that's what I really like.
NEIGHMOND: Jennifer and Carly's volleyball team has worked with sports psychology coach Greg Chertok. He says when it comes to being more sociable, the study findings are something of a chicken-and-egg dilemma. Does the exercise make teenagers more confident, or do more confident teenagers take part in sports?
GREG CHERTOK: I think that teenagers who have positive self-perceptions are more likely to test their mettle, and to insert themselves into competitive environments; and to insert themselves into mentally and physically demanding situations.
NEIGHMOND: Now, the findings don't mean every teenager should be on a sports team. Exercise in any form, says psychologist Kazdin, is well worth it. That could be a dance class or jogging, Wii sports - any physical activity. With school budget cuts, though, physical education is often the first thing to go; a big mistake, says Kazdin.
KAZDIN: Mental and physical health are enhanced by this. And this might be the first class you include in any school curriculum, rather than the one you get rid of. And you would do it even if you didn't like exercise because we know now that exercise enhances school academic performance.
NEIGHMOND: That, along with the social and emotional benefits found in this study, add up to a strong argument for teenagers to either take part in sports, or to commit themselves to some form of daily exercise.
Patti Neighmond, NPR News.
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Over the past decade, colleges and universities have seen an influx of students with mental health needs. That's partly because teenagers have better access to treatment, so those with more serious conditions in high school are now better able to move on to college; plus, more students are comfortable seeking help - all of which is putting increased pressure on mental health services. Jenny Gold visited one school - the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville - to find out how it's managing.
JENNY GOLD, BYLINE: Miranda Dale had her first breakdown during her freshman year at U.Va. It was 2 a.m. on a Saturday, and she hadn't left her dorm room in days.
MIRANDA DALE: I honestly didn't really know what to do. And I was really timid to call because I just - I had heard rumors that, you know, like - you know, at a huge university, you're just a number, you know; and you're not going to actually get through to anyone.
GOLD: But when she called the school's counseling line, someone answered right away; gave her tips on how to get through the night; helped her get a prescription for an anti-anxiety med; and booked her an appointment for Monday. Dale was eventually diagnosed with bipolar type II, a mood disorder that usually requires medication.
DALE: College is already hard enough if you don't have a mental illness. And when you do have something that's, like, binding you down, it can be stressful sometimes.
GOLD: Dale only saw a university counselor that once. They sent her to a private therapist off campus, instead. It wasn't free - like sessions at the counseling center are - but Dale had insurance, and it helped free up space for other students. This triage system is one way U.Va. makes sure they see as many students as possible. Last year, they were able to accommodate 9,000 visits. Psychologist Russ Federman is a counselor at the center.
RUSS FEDERMAN: If a student needs to come in, we have a phone conversation with them, usually about 20 minutes in duration. We assess their current functioning. Are they sleeping? Are they getting to class? What's their substance use like? Are they having thoughts of self-harm?
GOLD: Students in crisis are seen immediately. Another quarter of callers are referred to off-campus therapists right away. But most are squeezed in whenever there's an opening, and seen for about five to 10 sessions. That's what happened to senior Meredith Was. She started feeling depressed this fall, as she thought about graduation.
MEREDITH WAS: There's not a sense of security that having a college degree is going to guarantee you a job. And that is enormously stressful because you don't what's going to happen to you. You don't know how you're going to support yourself; how you're going to float.
GOLD: Recently, anxiety outpaced depression as the number one student complaint on college campuses; something Alison Malmon says has a lot to do with the current economy. Malmon is the president and founder of Active Minds, a mental health advocacy group with chapters on campuses across the country. She says overall, schools are getting better.
ALISON MALMON: Not everything is great. Not everything is a perfect scenario. We would love for all students to be able to get all of the unlimited visits they could get on campus. But with resources being so scarce, and with so many more students seeking out the care that they need, schools have had to adjust.
GOLD: Federman has found another way to help: a bipolar support group for students like Miranda Dale. Bipolar students are at high risk for dropping out, or even attempting suicide. But many end up seeing a psychiatrist just once every six weeks, for medication maintenance.
FEDERMAN: In the life of a university student with bipolar disorder, a lot can change in one, two or three weeks' time. And we find that it's really important to have rapid-response capability.
GOLD: In the bipolar support group, they're able to see the students all at once, every week, instead of tying up individual therapy time. Dale joined the group last year.
DALE: This fall, I remember going into the session. I was in a little bit of a hypomanic up-phase, kind of. And the one girl in the group was - who knew me from last year was like, wait a minute; like, slow down, Miranda; like, I've seen last-year-depressed Miranda, anxious Miranda. Like, something's going on. So it's not just about Dr. Federman. It's mostly like, your peers can have some of the most insight.
GOLD: No matter the issue, Federman says the important thing is for students to seek help, when they need it.
FEDERMAN: We really want students to know that it is OK to reach out for help; and there's no shame in having anxiety or depression, or anything. I mean, it's just part of the human condition.
GOLD: Especially, he says, during the college years. For NPR News, I'm Jenny Gold.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: Jenny Gold is with our partner Kaiser Health News, which is a nonprofit news service.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Starbucks is not just an iconic brand. It's an iconic business model. You start with something mundane - like a cup of coffee - and you take that product, as well as the price, upscale. Then, you keep adding more and more features at the high end. The company reported $13.3 billion in sales in 2012. And as it keeps trying to expand its market, it's tapping into the work of high-end designers. Here's Kaomi Goetz, of member station WSHU.
KAOMI GOETZ, BYLINE: You might remember Natalie Portman in "Black Swan."
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "BLACK SWAN")
GOETZ: The actress played a ballerina in the 2010 film. Her portrayal was even more memorable by her edgy, artsy costumes. They were designed by an upstart, small fashion house called Rodarte. Never heard of it, you say? You're not alone.
Do you know Rodarte?
SCOTT TATE: What - Rodarte? No.
GOETZ: Do you know what Rodarte is?
TOM LINDBERGH: I do not.
GOETZ: Granted, Minnesotans Scott Tate and Tom Lindbergh are not the typical Rodarte clients, but the men are Starbucks drinkers. And Starbucks recently sold several items designed by Rodarte, including a to-go tumbler for $12.95. Neither Rodarte nor Starbucks would comment for this story, but the coffee seller is the latest mass retailer to jump on this designer trend. Target pioneered the concept in 1999, with housewares by architect Michael Graves. Joshua Thomas is a spokesperson for Target.
JOSHUA THOMAS: It always starts with the customer at Target. What have they been receptive to, in the past? Where are they at, currently?
GOETZ: Like offering lower-priced versions of designer fashions - called Go International - that began in 2006. Suddenly, everyday shoppers could buy clothes by names they read about on fashion blogs, and in magazines. Many of the clothes would sell out on the first day. Target's Thomas says it's about staying current.
THOMAS: We try to one-up ourselves - try to make it new, try to make it fresh.
GOETZ: Britt Beemer studies consumer behavior at America's Research Group. He says a high-end name isn't a sure thing.
BRITT BEEMER: When you bring in someone like an outside designer to do something, it's not their name. It's the product and the look and the design, and the merchandising.
GOETZ: He says Target regulars didn't think the products warranted the higher prices. Some Starbucks drinkers are also price-conscious. Last year, Beemer says a lot of people said they cut out Starbucks coffees, to save money.
BEEMER: I'm sure they've lost some volume because of consumers cutting back. So I'm sure they're trying now to look at some things and say, OK, how could I sell more to my - to customers I currently have?
GOETZ: But what's in it for designers? Clearly, money and introduction to a larger buying public. But Rodarte clothes aren't exactly easy to find, and industry watchers say Rodarte has yet to find a sustainable market for its artful clothes. Still, the name has cache with a certain type of customer, like Grace Brace of Minneapolis. The 26-year-old Target employee says the collection didn't make her go to Starbucks any more than usual. But while there, she contemplated buying a mug.
GRACE BRACE: I almost did yesterday, but I didn't. And the store's out of them, so I can't today.
GOETZ: Staff at the Minneapolis Starbucks Brace goes to, says the collection has since sold out.
For NPR News, I'm Kaomi Goetz.
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This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. The mass shootings of recent months tend to obscure a larger reality. If you live in the United States, it is a lot less likely than it used to be that someone will kill you. The nationwide murder rate has significantly declined the past couple of decades. Yet if you start plotting murders on a map, you will still find outbreaks - like outbreaks of disease.
Consider the city we'll focus on morning, Chicago, where 506 people were murdered in 2012. That's a sharp increase from the year before. We're going to start our conversation with NPR's justice correspondent Carrie Johnson. She's in our studios.
Carrie, welcome.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Thanks, Steve.
INSKEEP: So why would Chicago be so different than the national trend?
JOHNSON: I've been talking with some experts about this, including criminologists who have studied and worked in Chicago. And they point to some factors including Chicago's long history of warring street gangs - people who belong to real-life gangs that fight each other on a regular basis. There's also a lot of concentration of - pockets of poverty, and some educational deficits. I point out that for last year, for 2012, the murder rates were particularly high in the first quarter of last year. They started to stable off - level off, after that.
INSKEEP: OK. So you have different periods of time where there are spurts of homicides. Do you also have specific locations where you have spurts of homicides?
JOHNSON: Steve, this is something that criminologists are looking at right now. I talked with David Kennedy, who's at the John Jay College in New York; who's been studying Chicago, and other places around the country. He says we shouldn't even think of this as a national problem. Instead it's a really, really local problem.
DAVID KENNEDY: Even city homicide stories are not really about cities. They're about neighborhoods within cities. And even in the most dangerous hot spots, nearly everybody who lives there will not carry a gun, will not use a gun, is not a gang member. Homicide comes down to very, very small numbers of very singular people.
INSKEEP: You know, I'm beginning to think of one of those Internet maps, like Google Maps; where you can start with the United States but zoom into a state, to a city; and maybe beyond that, to a neighborhood. He's even telling us, look at a street corner; look at a house.
JOHNSON: Absolutely. And not just specific locations, but specific groups of people who interact with each other, like street gang members, because so many people in a particular neighborhood go about their daily lives without ever thinking of committing a criminal offense, let alone a murder.
INSKEEP: Most of the people there aren't involved in crime at all, and may not even be affected by crime.
JOHNSON: That's right, Steve. And in fact, it may be counterintuitive to be treating all those people like suspects because they may not want to cooperate with law enforcement when something bad does happen.
INSKEEP: OK. So do police in Chicago have their heads around this?
JOHNSON: Police in Chicago, and around the country, are increasingly focusing on what they call hot spots. These are particular areas where crime is high, and violent crime is particularly high. I spoke with Richard Rosenfeld, who's at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, who's studying this, too.
RICHARD ROSENFELD: The hot-spots effort - that is, putting police on the dots; putting police where crime is highly concentrated and very frequent - does tend to reduce crime without, by the way, moving crime around the corner, to areas where the police are less present.
INSKEEP: OK. So police are getting more and more thoughtful about this - more and more data-driven, thinking more and more locally -and yet there are places where the crime rate goes up; the homicide rate goes up. Chicago, which we're talking about, is one of them. So let us try to figure out why. We've contacted Alex Kotlowitz. He wrote the book "There Are No Children Here," about Chicago. He also co-produced a documentary called "The Interrupters," which profiled a program that aims to stop homicides.
Welcome to the program, sir.
ALEX KOTLOWITZ: Well, thanks, Steve. Thanks for having me.
INSKEEP: OK. So we know we want to think about this as a local problem, a neighborhood problem, even a street-corner problem; an individual problem. What's wrong in those Chicago hot spots, in a year like 2012 - when the rate went up?
KOTLOWITZ: Well, you know, a couple of things. I mean, I think David Kennedy is right. It is a very localized problem. And, I mean, the blunt truth of the matter is that the vast majority of homicides, in a place like Chicago, take place in very poor, predominantly African-American and Latino communities. I mean, it's very concentrated. It's very easy to live in the city, and not be exposed to the violence at all.
But having said that, I think it's a mistake to think about it as just a gang problem; as a problem that doesn't affect even the good people living in these neighborhoods. I mean, you look at the homicide rates in Chicago, for example; 506 people killed last year. I haven't seen, yet, the rates on the shootings but typically, the number of people shot in a year is four times the homicide rate; which means that an additional 2,000 people were shot and injured. And the kind of trauma that it has on a community is profound, whether you're involved in the - directly involved in the violence or not.
I think the other thing - the other mistake to make, in a place like Chicago - you know, typically, we talk about the gang violence in the city. But the truth of the matter is, is that the gangs have really fallen apart. They're nothing what they used to be. In fact, you find that the kids now talk about themselves belonging to cliques - one group on one block, and one group on another. And the sad part of it is, is that so many of these shootings are over what are such petty matters.
INSKEEP: So in effect, what you're saying is that the gangs are micro-local. I mean, they're fragments of what they used to be, but still quite violent from time to time.
KOTLOWITZ: Right, but not - it's not necessarily because of gang warfare. I mean, it used to be - 20 years ago, the gangs were very hierarchical. There was this really robust drug trade and so - so much of the violence was over turf. And that's not necessarily the case today.
INSKEEP: So if you look at Chicago going back up over the 500 annual homicide rate, do you see a situation where in this city as a whole - or in these neighborhoods, in these hot spots - progress has stalled, compared to the rest of the country?
KOTLOWITZ: Well, I think, you know, some perspective - 20 years ago, the homicide rate in Chicago was twice what it is today. So there's been, in some ways, terrific progress over the past couple of decades. Having said that, I think that 506 murders is untenable. And I will tell you - just spending time out in the streets, in these communities - the thing that sort of mystifies me, is the violence feels just as intense now as it did 20 years ago, despite the fact that it's been reduced in half.
INSKEEP: Why would that be?
KOTLOWITZ: Well, I think partly because in Chicago and - as in other cities, with the exception of New York - they've torn down the public housing high-rises. And so they were so isolated from the rest of the city, that so much of went on there kind of went unnoticed. And now, so much of that violence has spilled out into the neighborhoods. I think that's part of it. I think part of it, too, is because the gangs have fractured - that sometimes, the violence feels more random.
INSKEEP: So they've eliminated these pockets of extreme homicides, extreme crime, and yet there are still these places where it feels very oppressive.
KOTLOWITZ: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you got into a community like Englewood or West Garfield Park, on the city's West Side; and these are communities that, you know, are traumatized by the shootings, which happen on a reasonably regular basis.
INSKEEP: Carrie Johnson, you're nodding sadly.
JOHNSON: Yeah. Steve, I point out that Chicago is not the only major city with these kinds of pockets of inequality and problems. Experts I spoke with talked about Philadelphia as having a real problem with shootings, violent crime and homicides; and to a lesser extent, places like Detroit and Baltimore. Dallas even had some problems in 2012. There's certainly a list - despite the overall low homicide rates around the country - of cities that are not doing as well.
INSKEEP: So we have this long-term decline, Alex Kotlowitz. But we're looking at this one city - Chicago - where there was a sharp and troubling increase, at least in 2012. As someone who's in the city of Chicago, do you feel like you're - do you feel like that's just a spike that will go away, or that the trend is moving in a worse direction?
KOTLOWITZ: You know, it's hard to say, and I don't want to pretend to have prophetic powers. But I will tell you, whether it's 508 or 408 or 608, they're incredibly troubling when you begin to break it down, and look how concentrated they are. And those numbers are, in my mind, unacceptable and unimaginable. And they take enormously - an enormous toll on the spirit of both individuals, and on neighborhoods.
INSKEEP: Alex Kotlowitz's newest book is "Never a City So Real." Thanks for joining us.
KOTLOWITZ: Well, thanks for having me.
INSKEEP: And we also spoke with NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson. Thanks to you.
JOHNSON: Thank you.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
More than a thousand protesters rallied in the Ohio town of Steubenville over the weekend. They were demanding that action be taken over rape allegations involving local high school football players. As M.L. Schultze from member station WKSU reports, with the case going viral on social media and gaining international attention, emotions are running high in this small Ohio town.
M.L. SCHULTZE, BYLINE: With fewer than 20,000 residents, Steubenville sits along the Ohio River, squeezed between the hills of eastern Ohio and the mountains of West Virginia; about 40 miles west of Pittsburgh. You get there on Route 22, and you'll likely lose your cellphone service along the way. But that isolation has not protected this city from some largely unwelcome attention.
UNIDENTIFED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Charge them all! Charge them all! Charge them...
SCHULTZE: The protesters are here to support a teen girl, who was allegedly raped at a series of end-of-summer parties. Many protesting are loosely affiliated with the hacker network Anonymous. But Becky Weaver isn't. She's a resident of a small town just up the river.
BECKY WEAVER: This girl - don't have a voice right now. We want to be her voice. We want the cops to hear her, to know her. Like, as a mother of three girls, if it would be my girl, I want her to be heard.
SCHULTZE: Two Steubenville high school football players have been charged with rape, and will be tried next month. But many here think others should also be charged, and suspect local police of covering up for other players in a town where football is king.
But Steubenville police say that's just not true, and are turning to social media to highlight their investigations since allegations first spread in August that the West Virginia girl, reportedly drunk, was carried from party to party and sexually assaulted. Police here say they've interviewed 59 people.
Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla says their investigation has been thorough, and the rape charges against the two 16-year-old boys are the only ones expected. On Saturday, he also told the protesters that he shares their revulsion at a newly released video showing a former Steubenville player, who has not been charged with a crime, mocking the incident. On it, he repeatedly laughs while calling the passed-out girl dead.
FRED ABDALLA: It was disgusting. It's nauseating. It's sickening. Like I said, you can't arrest somebody for being stupid. But when I hear...
UNIDENTIFED WOMAN: Yes, you can!
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Shouting)
ABDALLA: Can I finish? What I'm hearing on the video - if it was my daughter, I would leave her dead - disgusting, is what I said it was. And I'll say it again, the same day - today.
SCHULTZE: The 12-minute video has already racked up more than half-a-million views.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED TEEN #1: Say if that was your daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED TEEN #2: But it isn't.
UNIDENTIFIED TEEN #3: (LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED TEEN #1: If it was.
UNIDENTIFIED TEEN #2: If that was my daughter, I wouldn't care. I'd just let her be dead.
UNIDENTIFIED TEEN #3: (LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED TEEN #1: Yeah, you would. Listen to yourself.
UNIDENTIFIED TEEN #2: I would.
UNIDENTIFIED TEEN #1: No, you wouldn't.
UNIDENTIFIED TEEN #2: I'm listening to myself fine.
UNIDENTIFIED TEEN #4: (LAUGHTER)
SCHULTZE: To many of the protesters, this video is another piece of evidence that there's a conspiracy here. But Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine urges caution. He took over the case after local prosecutor Jane Hanlin stepped aside because her son plays football for Steubenville High.
MIKE DEWINE: There is a difference between being insensitive, doing immoral things; and committing a crime. And what I am confined to by Ohio law, is what is a crime.
SCHULTZE: But many here say multiple Twitter messages and photos from that night suggest a number of people did not even report a crime had taken place. Jan Leach is the former editor of the Akron Beacon Journal, and runs a Poynter journalism ethics workshop. She says the case represents both the strength and weaknesses of the social media world.
JAN LEACH: So before anybody is empowered, I would hope there would be thought-about responsibility. What is the potential benefit - and there are great benefits to this story coming to light in this way - and what is the potential harm?
SCHULTZE: It's that harm that concerns Simon Feaster, manager of the football team back in the 1980s.
SIMON FEASTER: We're a small town, and we do a lot around here. People, they come together, but something like this? Now, you're just breaking the town up. You don't have to come here every Saturday, keep putting this on and doing all this - because everywhere we go now, we're going to be labeled. Here come the rapists; here come the rapists. You can't put that on everybody.
SCHULTZE: But for many here now, it seems that everybody in Steubenville, charged or not, is under the glare of rape allegations spread through social media, around the world.
For NPR News, I'm M.L. Schultze.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
You can smoke marijuana just for fun now, in Colorado. It is legal. But two months after voters overwhelmingly approved the ballot measure that made it legal, there's still no way to buy it legally. That's because the state is busy crafting new regulations for a drug that's still illegal at the federal level.
As Colorado Public Radio's Ben Markus reports, that's just one of the many daunting challenges facing a state task force that meets today.
BEN MARKUS, BYLINE: Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper did not want his state to legalize marijuana. During the campaign, he said Colorado is known for many great things, and marijuana should not be one of them. And so it was during a somewhat somber press conference that the governor announced he had signed the legalization into law.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
MARKUS: So Hickenlooper set up a 24-member task force to make recommendations on everything from regulations for new pot shops, to keeping the drug out of kids' hands. That's a lot of work. But Colorado has one, huge advantage: The state already has a regulated and thriving medical marijuana industry.
(SOUNDBITE OF WAREHOUSE FANS)
MARKUS: In a north Denver warehouse, Elliot Klug, owner of Pink House Dispensary, proudly displays his crop of bright-green marijuana plants.
ELLIOT KLUG: This is the vegetative room. So here you got the very early stages of the plant before we send it in to harvest.
MARKUS: On the snow-lined streets outside, it's freezing. But in here, it's summer. Fluorescent light floods the room, and big fans keep the warm air flowing. Klug points out that each plant has a number attached to it.
KLUG: We track every gram, every plant. Every plant has a serial number. So there you see the regulation in effect.
MARKUS: This is the cornerstone of Colorado's medical marijuana regulations: tracking the drug from a little seed to a flowering plant, to the final sale in the retail shop. Many of these medical marijuana regulations will simply be copied into the new recreational marijuana laws. But Klug has a bigger problem: He can't open a bank account because the drug is still against federal law. That makes banks regulated by the federal government nervous.
KLUG: It's huge. We're a cash-only right now.
MARKUS: That means he can't get a loan, can't write checks for payroll. Gov. Hickenlooper's chief legal counsel, Jack Finlaw, a co-chair of the marijuana task force, agrees that this will also be a huge problem for recreational growers.
JACK FINLAW: It's not good to have these small businesses handling so much cash. It would be safer for everybody if they could bank like a normal business could.
MARKUS: Last year, the Colorado legislature floated the idea of a co-op or credit union for the state's more than 500 medical pot shops, but the bill failed.The task force is also charged with addressing recreational marijuana's social consequences. Task force member Dr. Christian Thurstone runs one of the largest addiction-treatment centers in the state. He's seen a threefold increase in the number of kids seeking treatment, mostly for medical marijuana.
DR. CHRISTIAN THURSTONE: We've made mistakes in regulating alcohol and tobacco. And we have a chance, now, to really learn from those mistakes - and to try to get it right this time.
MARKUS: He says that means tight controls on advertising, and some kind of educational campaign that dispels the myth that marijuana is harmless. The task force must make its recommendations by the end of next month, and the legislature has until May to adopt some version of them. There's still one, big cloud hanging over the whole process: The Obama administration hasn't signaled if it'll even allow retail marijuana shops.
For NPR News, I'm Ben Markus in Denver.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with a Google executive in North Korea.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: The executive is Eric Schmidt of Google. He's visiting the Hermit Kingdom, where few people have ever been allowed access to Google, let alone the billions of Web pages it can search for information.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Schmidt is part of a delegation led by former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. The group is on what's billed as a private humanitarian mission, in part aimed at helping free an American citizen detained there.
INSKEEP: Now, Richardson says that Schmidt has joined the group as a private citizen. Some members of the delegation have attempted to explain what the Google chairman intends to do while there, but the more they say, the less clear it is.
MONTAGNE: We do know that Google's Schmidt is a big advocate of Internet connectivity, which would give him plenty to discuss with the North Koreans. And we know the trip is proceeding, despite objections by the State Department. U.S. diplomats call the timing of the trip unhelpful, since North Korea recently launched a satellite.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now, today's last word in business is phygital. No, that's not a word describing how you feel about two hours into watching "The Hobbit." This movie's going on and feeling a little phygital. No, it's not a feeling. It's a concept that computer manufacturer Lenovo announced over the weekend at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Phygital means part physical, part digital. It refers to the way you can play games on the other thing Lenovo unveiled in Las Vegas, what it calls its IdeaCenter Horizon table PC.
INSKEEP: This is a 27-inch, touch-screen computer so big, it can double as a board game. You lay it down horizontally, sort of like a table, and accommodate several users, up to 10 fingers on the screen at once. You can play digital versions of old-style board games.
MONTAGNE: Yeah. That's great. I mean, people once played games like Risk or Monopoly on a simple cardboard square. But now you can play the same game, Steve...
INSKEEP: Mm-hmm.
MONTAGNE: ...on a screen that costs about $1,700.
(LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: And if 27 inches still sounds a little cramped, the company says it's also working on a 39-inch table PC.
MONTAGNE: And that is the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
On a Monday, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
President Obama wants a Republican to be his next secretary of Defense, and some Republicans really don't like the choice.
INSKEEP: Senator Chuck Hagel is a Vietnam veteran. He's a former Nebraska senator, but some of his former colleagues in Congress insist they want answers to a variety of objections that have been raised in recent days.
NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman is on the line. Tom, good morning.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: And Happy New Year. What attracts the president to Hagel even knowing that these objections are coming?
BOWMAN: Well, first of all, he's a Republican and there is a bipartisan element here. And more importantly, he's in line with the president's thinking. Like the president, he's wary of America being entangled in long wars. He'd prefer to leave Afghanistan faster. And also, you know, Hagel was against the surge of troops in Iraq back in 2007, much like then-Senator Barack Obama. And also Hagel's call for more defense cuts - so that echoes with what the president has said, as well.
INSKEEP: OK, so a lot of issues on which the president and Hagel agree. And yet, this is a guy with a fairly conservative voting record when he was in the Senate. How tough will the fight be for him?
BOWMAN: Well, there is opposition to him, particularly when Republicans like Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham. They said they would oppose him, that he's not tough enough on Iran and that he prefers sanctions to talk of military action. And they also note that he opposed sanctions on Iran in some of his votes, but Hagel has supported sanctions in other votes when he was a member of the Senate.
Also, he seen by some as anti-Israel. He made some comments about the pro-Israeli lobby and its influence in Washington, and that mere remark has rankled some people. But, you know, now the White House and Hagel supporters are pushing back hard. They point to his writings and speeches and votes, which they say show strong support for Israel. They point to a book he wrote where he talks about the special historic bond with Israel; a speech last year where Hagel said the U.S. must keep ratcheting up sanctions on Iran to keep the pressure on.
And then, finally they single out people like Daniel Kurtzer, the U.S. ambassador to Israel under President George W. Bush, who calls Hagel a friend of Israel, but also one who is willing to have frank discussions about certain Israeli policies.
INSKEEP: It's interesting. It's almost like we have a confirmation fight already here when you say all these things, Tom Bowman, and he's just now about to be nominated. I wonder if part of the political thinking on the part of the White House here also, as you said, he's a Republican, there's a bipartisan element to this. It's also a challenge to Republicans, isn't it? It's almost daring them to shoot down one of their own.
BOWMAN: You know, I think it is. Obviously, he's had fights with the Republicans over the budgets and the fiscal cliff and so forth. And there's a lot of criticism of Susan Rice, who he thought about for Secretary of State. So this is a way to kind of hit the Republicans hard on this; dare them to knock down one of their own. Even though, again, some Republicans don't see Chuck Hagel as much of a Republican because he's been willing to buck the party in past years.
INSKEEP: Is there something about his record, particularly his military record, which would be unusual for a secretary of Defense?
BOWMAN: There is. He would be the first secretary of Defense that has served as a grunt in ground combat. You know, going back 65 years when we, you know, started the Defense Department, when most of his predecessors, you know, worked as staff officers in rear echelon assignments. And that really, I think, has a profound effect on him. Again, that's why he's weary - maybe much more wary than other politicians - in sending American troops into harm's way.
INSKEEP: Tom, thanks very much.
BOWMAN: You're welcome, Steve.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman this morning, with news that Chuck Hagel is expected to be nominated as President Obama Secretary of Defense.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And joining us now, as she does most Monday, is Cokie Roberts. Good morning.
COKIE ROBERTS, BYLINE: Hi, Renee. Happy New Year.
MONTAGNE: Happy New Year to you. So, Cokie, we seem to be getting the next year, or this new year, right back where we ended in the last Congress, and that's bickering over everything. And as we've just heard, that includes, big time, the president's cabinet appointment of a former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel. Tell us more about what's going on there, a little bit more history.
ROBERTS: Well, it's an interesting case. Yes, he's a Republican, but he's backed Democratic Senate candidates in the last couple of elections, candidates who lost. And as you heard from Tom, he's rubbed some of his former fellow senators the wrong way. Look, it usually works to appoint a senator as it seems to be with John Kerry as the nominee for secretary of State, even though he's not a beloved character in the Senate.
But it can backfire if to know a senator is not to love him and that, apparently is the case with some senators and Chuck Hagel. That happened with George H.W. Bush's pick in 1989, John Tower, a senator from Texas. He had been chairman of the Armed Services Committee and then after he left the Senate he headed the Tower Commission, which was very critical of Ronald Reagan's handling of the Iran-Contra affair.
He had been part of the strategic arms reduction talks in Geneva. I mean, you'd think, just looking at the paper, that this would sail through. The problem was that members of the Senate didn't like John Tower. They accused him of excessive drinking and womanizing and I was uncomfortably right in the middle of it because he came on the Sunday show, where I was a questioner, to defend himself and ended up making it worse. He went forward to the Senate for vote, did not withdraw his name and was defeated. His nomination for the cabinet post was defeated by his fellow senators, 53 to 47.
So it's a cautionary tale. Republicans were very loud and clear yesterday that they were against Hagel, many of them. Lindsey Graham saying it's an in-your-face nomination. And you have to keep in mind, when someone is accused of being anti-Israel, as some have said about Hagel, that that becomes an issue in the evangelical community, which is very pro-Israel and, of course, the base of the Republican Party.
MONTAGNE: And it's problematic for Chuck Hagel, is also that it's not just Republicans. He might have some trouble among Democrats as well.
ROBERTS: Well, the Democrats are sort of grumbling that why is the president going to the mat on this one when he didn't do it for Susan Rice for secretary of State. And there have been conversations about Hagel's comments about gays. Today, in the Washington Post, there's a full-page ad by the Log Cabin Republicans opposing Hagel's statements on gays. He has apologized for some of those.
MONTAGNE: Although many of them - the main one was years ago, 14, 15 years.
ROBERTS: But - and he has apologized for it. It was about a nominee for a diplomatic post. But it is something where people would normally, if they like the guy, be ready to forgive. But -and they once did like Hagel a lot better than they're liking him now.
MONTAGNE: Well, nobody in Washington seems to be liking anyone much these days. Last week at this time, we'll all remember a deal over the fiscal cliff was finally coming together. There was hope this might serve as a bipartisan template for Congress to confront the debt ceiling and another threat of across-the-board budget cuts...
ROBERTS: Yeah, not so much.
MONTAGNE: Instead, what?
ROBERTS: No. Instead, we heard yesterday all the same talking points over and over again. The Republicans saying that's it on taxes. We're not talking about taxes anymore. And why do we keep doing these last-minute things? And the Democrats saying, we've already given on cuts. We did that all last year. We can't just do this with cuts. Then there's always the question of other issues, Renee, gun control being at the top.
And the one person who does seem to be able to make deals these days and cross party lines is Vice President Joe Biden. He's been put in charge of the working group on guns and on gun violence. And I was struck yesterday by the number of Republicans and Democrats who said let's wait and see what the vice president comes up with before we decide on guns.
MONTAGNE: Cokie, thanks very much. Cokie Roberts joins us most Mondays to discuss politics.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
College football's present and past collide in tonight's BSC title game. Two of the most storied programs in history - Alabama and Notre Dame - face off in Miami to decide the season's champion. There is a lot at stake. The Alabama Crimson Tide is trying to confirm dynasty status by winning its third title in four years. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are trying to cap an undefeated season by showing they're more than a fabled name that hasn't been great on the field for a couple of decades.
NPR's sports correspondent Tom Goldman is in Miami. Good morning.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Hello, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So there's a tremendous amount of hype and also history behind this game, but for all the anticipation, Tom, I gather fans are in for a night of grind-it-out meat and potatoes football.
GOLDMAN: You are correct. All the football experts are saying this game is going to be won in the trenches where the big offensive and defensive lines collide. In fact, college football writer John Brandon says the match-up will be a startling collision of agile beef, as he calls it. In particular when Alabama has the ball.
Its tremendous offensive line is led by Barrett Jones and Chance Warmack. They are run blockers extraordinaire. Opposite them, the Notre Dame defensive front seven - that's the Fighting Irish strength - with linebacker Manti Te'o, a Heisman trophy finalist and 300-pound defensive lineman Louis Nix and Stephon Tuitt - an absolute wall.
Notre Dame gave up the fewest points per game - 10.3 - of any team in the nation, gave up only two rushing touchdowns. Alabama scored 35 rushing touchdowns this season, so something's got to give. And Renee, a challenge to viewers. Instead of watching the ball like we naturally do, see how long you can watch the lines and figure out who's winning the battle there.
MONTAGNE: But still, Tom, there will be a lot of attention focused on the - what's known as skill positions - quarterbacks, running backs, receivers. How do the teams match up in those categories?
GOLDMAN: Well, Alabama has two runners - Eddie Lacy and T.J. Yeldon; both gained at least a thousand yards this season. Alabama also has a very experienced quarterback in A.J. McCarron. He's a junior and he's already got one national title to his credit. Notre Dame has a young quarterback, Everett Golson, who some are saying could be the wild card in this game.
He runs well, and Alabama's defense, as good as it is, has had some trouble with mobile quarterbacks. Golson's favorite passing target is Tyler Eifert, and he could be a tough guy for Alabama to cover.
MONTAGNE: Then just finally, there's that tradition that both of these teams have trailing behind them. Could we go so far as to say that there's a cultural rivalry going on here in this game?
GOLDMAN: Oh, I think that's safe to say. When I got to the airport here, I watched two Alabama fans interact with the traditional Roll Tide exchange. Then one of them followed up with: Roll Republicans. Indiana, home to Notre Dame, voted Republican in last year's presidential election. But there is still a North/South red/blue kind of chippiness going on, and actually beyond chippiness, Alabama fans are steamed about this t-shirt that Notre Dame fans have been wearing leading up to tonight's game.
It says Catholics versus Cousins, a reference to a nasty stereotype of Southerners marrying within the family. Notre Dame fans see virtue in their football program for its success on the field and for the high ethical standards that are supposed to accompany that success. Notre Dame haters, including BamaNation, see arrogance. So it goes, Renee, at the BSC National Championship.
MONTAGNE: All right. Tom, thanks very much.
GOLDMAN: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: NPR's sports correspondent Tom Goldman speaking to us from Miami.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
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And I'm Steve Inskeep. Last week's fiscal cliff deal not only raised payroll taxes for working Americans and hiked the income tax for the top 2 percent, it also extended tax breaks and preferences for a wide range of industries and special interests. We've been hearing about this for days, and NPR's Steve Henn has even more.
STEVE HENN, BYLINE: Generally, the phrase "special interest tax break" is a dirty one in Washington; as are its close cousins, the tax loophole or tax extender. But after the fiscal cliff deal was signed into law last week, President Obama was eager to trumpet some of the special tax breaks the deal preserved.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We extended tax credits for families with children, and tuition tax credits that are helping millions of families pay for college.
HENN: The president also boasted about tax credits for clean energy. But the deal included some tax benefits the president didn't brag about - like this one.
(SOUNDBITE OF AD)
HENN: There is a close to half-billion-dollar tax benefit aimed at rum producers based in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
(SOUNDBITE OF NASCAR BROADCAST)
HENN: There are tens of millions of dollars for NASCAR racetrack owners, and hundreds of millions in special tax deductions for films shot in the U.S.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HURRAY FOR HOLLYWOOD")
VICTOR FLEISCHER: You know, it's a funny thing to look at because it's pitched as a bill that raises taxes. But then tucked into it are all the tax extenders.
HENN: Victor Fleischer is a law professor and tax expert at the University of Colorado. He says that these special tax breaks are worth tens of billions.
FLEISCHER: Which, from a tax policy perspective as an academic, very few of those make any sense at all. I mean, this is exactly the wrong direction in terms of tax reform.
HENN: For years now, Fleischer has been one of the most outspoken critics in the country of a tax treatment known to accountants as carried interest. Fleischer calls it a loophole. It allows money managers at hedge funds, private equity firms and venture capitalists to avoid paying income tax on some of their earnings. Instead, some of the fees they charge their clients are treated as capital gains, and taxed at a much lower rate.
FLEISCHER: Even though the fund manager is getting this payment in exchange for services that they provide - it's labor income, it's not investment income for the fund manager - it's nonetheless taxed at the lower, long-term capital gains rate.
HENN: That rate is now going up from 15 to 20 percent, but it's still roughly half the 40 percent they'd have to pay if the money were treated as ordinary income. Collectively, this tax break is worth billions each year to some of the wealthiest people in America. Carried interest even became an issue in the presidential campaign.
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HENN: Yet despite that, the carried interest deduction survived the fiscal showdown last week and emerged almost unscathed.
FLEISCHER: The issue keeps coming up, but the various lobbying groups have been effective in maintaining the status quo.
HENN: According to the Center for Responsive Politics, executives at hedge funds, private equity firms and venture capital companies gave more than $100 million to political candidates and outside groups from both parties, during the last election. And these industries spent more than $40 million on lobbying, in the past two years.
Mark Heesen lobbies for the National Venture Capital Association. He's been arguing for years that using the tax code to encourage venture capitalists to take risks, and try to build new companies, makes sense.
MARK HEESEN: If you are looking at any place that is creating jobs, it's in the emerging growth company sector, and that's exactly where the venture capitalists play.
HENN: For now, at least, that argument has carried the day, but both sides agree this fight isn't over. The debate about carried interest is likely to return to the capital in the next few months, as Washington continues to search for ways to get the deficit under control.
Steve Henn, NPR News, Silicon Valley.
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You might have heard about efforts in France to hit its super-rich with super-high taxes. An even bigger challenge is getting France's less-competitive labor practices under control. The French economy is still considered solid, but analysts say much-needed labor reforms have to happen soon. Still, changing work habits and a cherished way of life won't be easy, as Eleanor Beardsley reports in today's Business Bottom Line.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST OF PROTEST)
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: 2012 ended in France with massive protests by steel workers. They were demonstrating to save jobs and two blast furnaces, set to be shut down in the east of the country. The Indian billionaire owner of the plant was demonized, and there were calls to nationalize the facility to save the jobs.
That's something that hasn't been done since the last socialist president, Francois Mitterrand, was in power 30 years ago. Despite being elected on promises to create jobs with public spending, the current socialist president, Francois Hollande, has morphed into a fiscal disciplinarian. The grave state of the French economy gave him no choice.
PRESIDENT FRANCOIS HOLLANDE: (French spoken)
BEARDSLEY: Speaking at the New Year, Hollande said his top priorities in 2013 were reducing the deficit and increasing French competitiveness. He is also bringing employers and unions together, in talks to reform the French labor market.
HERVE BOUYHOL: The labor market reform that is being discussed is really crucial. And it is the - unique opportunity to change the functioning of the labor market deeply.
BEARDSLEY: That's economist Herve Bouyhol, with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
BOUYHOL: But when you do reforms - and especially, deep reforms - there are always losers.
BEARDSLEY: Even more than increasing taxes, changing French labor laws will shake people up. That's because it goes to the heart of hard-won workers' rights, and a cherished way of life here. But only the far left denies that some of the country's labor laws may be decreasing its ability to compete. France has lost 750,000 industrial jobs in the last decade. And its percentage of European exports has shrunk, from 13 to 9 percent.
France is envious of Germany's thriving, midsize companies. France has giant corporations, and thousands of smaller companies with 49 employees each. That's because at 50 employees, a stringent labor code kicks in that makes it nearly impossible to get rid of a worker. Laurence Parisot is head of the French organization of small and medium-size businesses, the MEDEF.
LAURENCE PARISOT: (Through translator) Today in France, employers have an absolute fear of hiring, and that's what we must change. Instead, we have some politicians spouting off about nationalization. This is certainly not the kind of talk that will lure investors, and help modernize our economy.
BEARDSLEY: Former conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy became a lightning rod for unions and the left, as he tried to ram through reforms. Analysts say leftist Hollande may just have a chance to make some real changes with his softer approach. By bringing unions and employers together, Hollande is hoping to emulate the kind of breakthrough achieved by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a decade ago, when he launched deep reforms that revived the moribund German economy.
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BEARDSLEY: This Home Depot-type store in Paris does a booming business on the weekends - at least on Saturdays; on Sundays, it's closed. French stores are allowed to open a maximum of five Sundays a year, unless they are directly involved in the tourist or sports industry. Unions are in a heated battle with several major French retailers, to keep it that way.
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BEARDSLEY: Recently, workers picketed outside Madame Parisot's Small Business Federation. Mohammed Elakermi explains what's at stake.
MOHAMMED ELAKERMI: The kids are off, of course, on Sundays. And the rest of the week, they're in school. So if there's no Sunday to spend with the family, then what other day are we going to spend? And moreover, we think that workers are more productive when they have that time off with their family.
BEARDSLEY: Hollande, whose poll numbers have been falling, has the unenviable task of trying to boost job creation and competitiveness while protecting the French way of life. Pundits predict 2013 will be a most difficult year for everyone - workers, unions, bosses and especially, the French president.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Writer, director and producer Amy Sherman-Palladino made her name with shows in which large numbers of women interact onscreen, and large numbers of women tend to watch. Her ensemble casts include kids to seniors.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The characters are smart, witty, offbeat and fast-talking.
MONTAGNE: "Gilmore Girls" helped establish the WB Network, now known as the CW.
INSKEEP: ABC Family is about to start the winter season of her new show, "Bunheads," a name taken from the nickname for ballerinas.
MONTAGNE: As part of our series Watch This, Amy Sherman-Palladino joined us from NPR West to talk about what she watches. That includes shows she watches while writing.
INSKEEP: You know, it's hard for me to imagine concentrating with the TV on right in front of me, but that is exactly what she does.
AMY SHERMAN-PALLADINO: I can't write in silence. Too many voices in my head. It gets very - it's a battle.
INSKEEP: So more voices is the answer to that.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: Yeah, to drown out the other voices. I don't know, it's a big voice thing. There's something about rhythm. I write a lot of rhythm 'cause it's fast and yappy. And there's something about having Woody Allen - very, very familiar Woody Allen going on in the background that it's somehow - it's music to me.
INSKEEP: Well, let's go through some of this list. One of the movies on here is Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters" from 1986. It's been years since I've seen this. What's it about?
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: It's one of his classic, some say his best, about a group of sisters and their loves, lives, and it's just classic vintage Woody Allen at his like top, top of his game. And these sisters who are so deeply - their lives are so intertwined and yet there's a lot of jealousy and a lot of resentment. And it's just delicious.
INSKEEP: And when you talk about dialogue that has a rhythm to it, there's great, great Woody Allen dialogue.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: Brilliant. In addition to the really wonderful female characters that he writes, he writes just great jokes. I really appreciate that.
INSKEEP: You flagged for us what you describe as perhaps your favorite joke of all time.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: Yes. The joke with Max von Sydow when he's been watching TV, and Barbara Hershey comes back and she's just been having an affair with Michael Caine - and he's an artist, he doesn't leave the loft. And he's got a joke about Jesus that is just - I can listen to that. -I think I use it on a Christmas invitation once.
INSKEEP: Well, it's short enough to fit on a Christmas invitation. Let's listen.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "HANNAH AND HER SISTERS")
(LAUGHTER)
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: It's great. It's just great, and it doesn't get better than that, 'cause it's real. It's a joke that's funny on its own. But the backdrop of the scene, you know, she's just come in and she's thinking, do I tell him that I've just been sleeping with my sister's husband? And he's just rambling on about wrestling and TV and the ridiculous - what people watch and what they do. And it's just genius. It's genius.
INSKEEP: Now, you have also put on this list a couple of television programs that are not comedy, although they have their funny moments. Both of them police dramas: "The Wire" and "NYPD Blue" Season 1.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: Season 1.
INSKEEP: OK, why Season 1?
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: 'Cause it was the best season of the show.
INSKEEP: Dennis Franz, David Caruso, OK.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: It was just great. It was before Caruso knew he was Caruso. It was Dennis Franz at his most screwed-upness. You know, I mean he gets - he sleeps with a hooker and gets shot in the pilot. Enjoy. But it had a lot of - again, because the characters were so strong - there were such great things going on - it had a lot of comedy in it, weirdly.
You know, I think the best dramas always have great, great comedy in it.
INSKEEP: Now, when we think of vivid and realistic characters, this leads me directly into the next item on your list, a Mel Brooks/Carl Reiner comedy routine called "The 2,000-Year-Old Man."
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: Best comedy album ever. The jokes in that are just so - there's runs in that that just are hysterical.
INSKEEP: Well, when you talk about a run, let's listen to one of these runs. And this is Reiner, who's interviewing Mel Brooks, who's playing this 2,000-year-old man.
(SOUNDBITE OF COMEDY ALBUM, "THE 2,000-YEAR-OLD MAN")
INSKEEP: You know, that has a kind of Bob Newhart quality, where the pauses and the searching for the word are as funny as anything that he actually says.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: Yeah, my father was a Bronx/Catskills comic. And I grew up with a lot of voices in the backyard, eating and smoking funny cigarettes and making each other laugh. And it was those rhythms that are in that album that to me are like - that's what makes me laugh.
INSKEEP: OK. Well, let's just go right to some dancing then. Let's listen to some of this and then we'll talk about it. This is another item on your list, a 1948 American musical, "Easter Parade," Judy Garland here.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "EASTER PARADE")
INSKEEP: Let me make sure I get this right. She's with Fred Astaire there, right?
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: She's with Fred Astaire.
INSKEEP: And they're kind of dressed like bums. They live on - unshaven bums.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: They're dressed like bums, yeah. You know, Judy Garland - who I am completely obsessed with, I love her - she had great comic timing. She was actually a very funny lady. For all of her unbelievable singing, her comedy is incredible. She makes me laugh all the time.
INSKEEP: Since we've talked about rhythm, maybe it's appropriate that we're going to go out here now on music. You have named a soundtrack. What is it?
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: I got into this weird rhythm of - the final pass through any script on "Gilmore Girls," I would listen to the "Gosford Park" soundtrack.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: It's a movie I loved. And there was a feeling that the music sort of hung in the air in my office. And it sort of allowed me to just do that fine - I don't know, that final pass through.
INSKEEP: It was just music that helped you crowd out those other voices.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: Yeah, I don't know. I just - I love that soundtrack.
INSKEEP: Well, Amy Sherman-Palladino, it's been a pleasure talking with you.
SHERMAN-PALLADINO: Well, thank you, sir. It's been a pleasure talking with you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: Amy Sherman-Palladino is the creator and executive producer of "Bunheads." The show has its winter premiere tonight on ABC Family.
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.
Police in Framingham, Massachusetts received word of somebody egging a house. They investigated and found the suspect was a cop, and so was the victim. Investigators say the homeowner is a police sergeant in Newton, Massachusetts. He's the superior officer of the guy who was tossing the eggs. The Metro West Daily News reports that both men were off-duty at the time, and both insist it was just a joke between friends.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
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Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne with the story of not a cat burglar but a cat smuggler. It begins when guards at a Brazilian prison noticed a bulky cat wandering on prison grounds. Upon investigating they discovered that the small black and white cat was hauling in saws, drills, a cell phone and a charger - all taped to its body. Having thwarted a prison break, officials say all the prisoners are suspects because, they say, the cat does not speak. It's MORNING EDITION.
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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
President Obama wants a Republican to be his next secretary of Defense, and some Republicans really don't like the choice.
Senator Chuck Hagel is a decorated Vietnam combat veteran. He's a former Nebraska senator but some of his former colleagues in Congress are reluctant to endorse him. The president could also get pushback for another nomination he's expected to announce today, counterterrorism advisor John Brennan to head the CIA.
NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman joins us now to talk about the president's picks. Good morning.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So, now we've been hearing about the choice of Hagel, so let's you and I begin with the latest news-breaking this morning, which is John Brennan heading up the CIA - or being nominated to do that. Talk to us about his record.
BOWMAN: Well, John Brennan, of course, is the chief counterterrorism advisor to President Obama. He's been involved in everything from the bin Laden raid to taking the fights to al-Qaida in Somalia, and he was a career officer at the CIA for decades. And what's interesting, Renee, is Brennan withdrew his name from consideration as CIA director in 2008 when President Obama first came in over concerns about his support for what was called enhanced interrogation techniques - now some would call that torture - during President George W. Bush's tenure.
So you could see some opposition from Democrats, as well as some Republicans to Brennan's nomination.
MONTAGNE: Well, let's turn to the other nomination President Obama is expected to announce today. Former Senator Chuck Hagel for the Defense Department. Why Chuck Hagel?
BOWMAN: Well, a number of reasons. First of all, he's a Republican, so there's a bipartisan element here. And more importantly, he's in line with the president's thinking. Like the president, he's wary of America being entangled in long wars. He would prefer to leave Afghanistan a little faster maybe than some of the generals. And Hagel was also against the surge of troops in Iraq back in 2007, much like then-Senator Barack Obama. And also, Hagel's call for more defense cuts. So that echoes with what the president has been saying, as well.
MONTAGNE: And what is it about Chuck Hagel that his former colleagues in the Senate don't like? I mean, how tough will this fight be?
BOWMAN: You know, it could be pretty tough. There's, you know, growing opposition in the Republican ranks. He's seen - Hagel's seen as not tough enough on Iran. He's seen as not as strong a supporter of Israel as they would like. And the White House has been hearing these charges for weeks, and they're pushing back strongly. They're pointing to his writings and speeches and votes when he was on the Hill, saying he's strongly supportive of Israel. They point to a book he wrote, where he talks about the, quote, "special and historic bond," end of quote, with Israel. The speech last year where Hagel said the U.S. must keep ratcheting up sanctions on Iran to keep the pressure on. And they're also, you know, trotting out people that support Hagel like Daniel Kurtzer, the U.S. ambassador to Israel under President George W. Bush. He called Hagel a friend of Israel. But also one who's willing to have frank discussions about certain Israeli policies.
MONTAGNE: Well, you know, kind of would a Republican dare shoot down a Republican? I mean, is it possible that the president put him out there partly because they wouldn't dare do that?
BOWMAN: You know, I think that's part of it maybe, that, you know, it would be hard for Republicans to disown one of their own. But here's the other thing. A lot of Republicans don't see Hagel as a Republican. They see him too much as a maverick. He's bucked the party on a number of votes and issues over the years. So, again, some would not have a problem voting against Chuck Hagel 'cause he's not seen as one of them.
MONTAGNE: All right. NPR's Tom Bowman. Thank you very much.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Every teacher comes to know this challenge: How do you break through and truly connect with your students? Jake Scott, who teaches high school in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. has had some success by turning to music. Our colleague David Greene went to see and hear how he does it.
DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: It's fourth period at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, and students are filing into a classroom at the end of a very long hallway.
JAKE SCOTT: All right, guys, here we go. First bell, call you to attention. Second bell, thank you for your cooperation. Third bell, letting you know you have detention.
GREENE: Jake Scott, who covers as both varsity wrestling coach and math teacher, calls his algebra class to order. But some students are more orderly than others.
SCOTT: I already told you guys, this will not work out. You guys don't bring out the best in each other. Don't sit next to each other.
GREENE: Keeping control of the class is one thing, but holding their attention through complicated calculations and theorems is a whole other challenge. And so Jake Scott gets a little extra help from his alter ego, 2 Pi.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SCOTT: (Rapping) Have a seat, folks, this class is in session. Mr. 2 Pi, can you tell me the objective of this lesson? Students will be able to solve quadratic equations, using the quadratic formula and some simple calculations.
GREENE: About three years ago, Scott started infusing rap and lyrics into his lessons.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SCOTT: (Rapping) The value you get is the link to side C. Master these five tools, a triangle expert you'll be. Triangles, one by one...
GREENE: His alias, 2 Pi, comes from a math formula, one that I'm not even going to try to explain. But as 2 Pi, the rapping math teacher, Jake Scott makes learning math cool, and he develops a connection with his students.
SCOTT: Students are bored so quickly. You know, the videos that they watch, they see one person on the screen for more than five seconds, they're like, I'm tired of this guy already. You know, so I think that I got to jump around, include commercials in there where I'm addressing, you know, their personal behavior.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SCOTT: (Rapping) What's the quadratic formula? Yeah, we'll get to that, but first remove those shades and that baseball cap.
I'm addressing relationships. I'm addressing respect for their parents. And I think that all those things have to happen in order for me to maintain the students' attention.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SCOTT: (Rapping) When you take the values you get, divide them by 2A...
OK, good. So, we take the square root of B-squared minus 4AC. Then we add it and subtract it with the opposite of B. Take the value you get and divide it - the entire thing by 2A. And that's solving the "Quadratic Formulatic" way. All right?
GREENE: Montgomery Blair is a huge suburban high school with a diverse population. Students come from various neighborhoods, some rougher than others, and many students struggle when they first start.
As I understand it, there's some empathy here. You struggled when you were...
SCOTT: Oh, absolutely.
GREENE: ...when you were a student.
SCOTT: I mean, from seventh through ninth grade, those were lost years. I grew up in Capitol Heights, Maryland. The status quo there, you know, was, you know, you sold drugs. We stole cars. It was just normal.
GREENE: All of that was part of your life, too.
SCOTT: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I remember being pulled over for riding on a stolen motorbike, kneeling down on the gravel just waiting for my parents to come and identify who I was for me to be released. I mean, that was normal. That was fun.
GREENE: Fun?
SCOTT: Yeah, it was what was done for fun. And for me, it was wrestling that transitioned my life when I finally joined a sport. And there was a connection. I didn't know what it felt like to be in organized sports. I mean, we played pickup, basketball and football on the streets. But, you know, being a part of a team, getting a uniform, getting a physical, I mean, those were huge things. You know, it felt surreal, like, man, I'm with the Redskins now. I got a real uniform.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SCOTT: (Rapping) And with careful calculations, answer three and one. Well, I got six and 10. Come on, son. How'd you get X equals one? Ain't no number in front of X. Please tell that you're kidding, 'cause I'm about to be vexed.
GREENE: Jake Scott grew up the youngest of 17 children, and both of his parents had physical ailments. His father went blind when Jake was still a child. Turns out, his knack for math was a result of his tough upbringing.
SCOTT: You know, when my dad lost his sight, I started doing accounting for him. And math was the one area that I was able to succeed in. Because of my time in the streets, my vocabulary wasn't very extensive, and so I shied away from English. I was bored to death by history. Math, on the other hand, I didn't need to know how to speak well in order to do well in math.
GREENE: And your dad was actually asking you to help, like, pay the bills?
SCOTT: Yes. I mean, I wrote checks, balanced the checkbook.
GREENE: How old were you at that point?
SCOTT: I was, like, 12, 13. See, I was very helpful when I look back. It helped me to grow on my appreciation for numbers.
GREENE: Talk about becoming a man at an early age.
SCOTT: That's right. That's right. So that was pretty challenging, but it was life. You know, it's what needed to be done.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SCOTT: Goes by the name of arithmetic and algebra. You know what I'm saying? (unintelligible)
OK, good. Now, guys, I'm going to use this for just one second to talk to you guys about something that's very serious. This is a joke, but in reality, you guys have to use your lunchtime very seriously. You need to be the person who goes down, gets your lunch, brings it back up, and you're studying for quiz one. In all seriousness, it's funny in the video, but this is your life, guys. This is your high school record, and it's following you. All right?
GREENE: Connection seems like a powerful word to you. I mean, is that in the classroom with rapping and (unintelligible).
SCOTT: Yeah. I think that's huge. I mean, I think that, I mean, we can preach to kids until they turn blue and we turn blue. But if there's no connection, then there's no response. I mean, I constantly search for ways to connect with students with the language, with conversations, music. Some students are more difficult than others, depending on their - what they have at home. Some students hate being called by their last name. And so I ask, well, why? You know, and...
GREENE: What's the answer?
SCOTT: Well, there have been different answers. One: I'm named after my dad. I don't like my dad. I don't want that name. The interesting thing is once we have those conversations, that's the connection. And they feel like they've given me a piece of them, and I feel like they've given me a piece of them. And I respect them more. And they respect me more.
GREENE: That's pre-calculus and algebra teacher Jake Scott. He teaches - and raps - at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. He's currently working on his seventh math rap video.
So, we heard the video in the classroom. Can you give us a little in the flesh, out here in the hallway?
SCOTT: OK. (Rapping) Yo, this is 2 Pi, coming at you like Kris Kringle. I'm bringing you gifts to help you solve triangles. If you can solve the tri, then you can solve the problem. You'll be knocking out problems like your last name is Ali. See, the triangle is the mother of all polygons. If you can solve it, then your math game is tight like LeBron's. But if you can't solve triangles, you're a rookie, my friend. You're going to drop the ball. You can say that again.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: Funny - David Greene didn't sing along with him like he did to Barry Manilow. Anyway, you can watch Jake Scott's math videos at NPRMusic.org.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
When the Pulitzer Prize committee gave "Water by the Spoonful" its drama award last year, it did so on the basis of reading the script. Now that script, about an Iraq war veteran, is being brought to life in the first New York production of the play, opening off-Broadway this evening.
Jeff Lunden reports.
JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: The cliche about writers is they should write what they know, and that old saw has certainly worked for Quiara Alegría Hudes. The 35-year-old playwright has mined her Puerto Rican family's stories into a series of plays, a musical, and even a children's book. "Water by the Spoonful" is the second play in a trilogy which features a character named Elliot, an injured Iraq war veteran who's returned to his home in North Philadelphia.
Elliot is based on Hudes' cousin, also named Elliot. She says she went to visit him on a military base, shortly after he returned from Iraq.
QUIARA ALEGRÍA HUDES: I just remember the instant I saw him, there was just something changed in his eye. You know, he was still absolutely the same young clown of a cousin I had always known and had grown up with, loving, but there was something different. And I felt that I might never understand it. And that's the simple spark that it came from.
LUNDEN: As Hudes' began writing about Elliot's experiences, she says she noticed...
HUDES: There were just more and more young people in the city showing up in uniform and especially in the Latino neighborhood, which is where Elliot was raised in North Philly. And I thought, it's not just Elliot's story. This is going to be the story of a generation.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "WATER BY THE SPOONFUL")
ARMANDO RIESCO: (as Elliot) (Unintelligible) with American cheese on whole grain (unintelligible) on flatbread? Are we good so far?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (as character) (Unintelligible)
RIESCO: (as Elliot) (Unintelligible) chocolate chip cookies?
LUNDEN: Armando Riesco has played Elliot since the first play premiered in 2006 and will be playing him in the final installment of the trilogy, when it opens in Chicago this spring. In "Water by the Spoonful," Elliot is haunted by his experiences in Iraq and working in a mind-numbing job at a sandwich shop. Riesco says he went online to veterans' chat rooms to do some research.
RIESCO: The very first story that I found there was a 24-year-old Marine that came back with a leg injury, that was working a dead-end job and who just did not know what to do with his anger. And I thought there's a lot of this out there.
LUNDEN: The online world is a large part of "Water by the Spoonful," though it doesn't seem directly related to Elliot's story - at least for most of the play's first act.
According to director Davis McCallum...
DAVID MCCALLUM: The play is in part about families because there's a blood family in North Philly. And then there's a family of choice that kind of congregates in this online chat room.
LUNDEN: An online chat room for recovering crack addicts. These two stories work in parallel for the first act and eventually collide in the second. McCallum says the relationships in the online community are every bit as real as the ones in the flesh and blood family, for the most part.
MCCALLUM: They're so close in every way, except for physically. There's a moment late in the play where two characters meet, face-to-face, for the first time. And it's really a great piece of writing, because you realize that they know everything about the other person, you know, except for what they look like and what their name is - which we think of as two of the most fundamental ways people define themselves.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "WATER BY THE SPOONFUL")
LIZA COLON-ZAYAS: (as Odessa/HaikuMom) Any time you feel like using, log on here instead.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (as character) What's in it?
COLON-ZAYAS: When it comes to junkies, I got lower than the dungeon. Once upon a time I had a beautiful family too. Now all I have is six years clean.
LUNDEN: Where these two worlds meet is in a character named Odessa - or HaikuMom, which is her online alias. In the play's explosive second act, the audience discovers how this calm, placid, nurturing figure in the chat room became estranged from her family, which includes Elliot. Liza Colon-Zayas plays the troubled character, who finds her better self online.
COLON-ZAYAS: You can remake yourself and you can re-imagine yourself and start fresh in a way that she can't do in her own community with her own family.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "WATER BY THE SPOONFUL")
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC TONES)
COLON-ZAYAS: (as Odessa/HaikuMom) Ninety-one days. Smile, you guys. Orangutan. Jesus. I thought my primate friend had disappeared back into the jungle.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as character) Disappeared, yes. Jungle - happily, no.
LUNDEN: Ultimately, all the characters in "Water by the Spoonful" are dealing with deep reservoirs of pain and guilt, and are knocked down by their demons, says director Davis McCallum.
MCCALLUM: One of the central things about the play is, after you get knocked down, by what means and through what set of actions do you go about the process of getting back up?
LUNDEN: That, playwright Quiara Alegría says, is what leads to a hopeful ending, as these disparate characters, with their disparate stories, come together in sometimes surprising ways.
HUDES: You know, I think "Water by the Spoonful" has what I would almost call three love stories, though the love is not necessarily romantic at all. But I think it is, in some ways, a play about finding love and grace and companionship in unexpected places.
LUNDEN: As for the real Elliot, Hudes says her 27-year-old cousin has succeeded in rebuilding his life. He's now employed full-time, going to college in the evenings, and will be there tonight for the opening.
HUDES: There's a lot of gratitude in both directions, and I'm excited for him to see this play again. And I'm excited for him to walk the red carpet and kind of stand up tall and flash his big cheeseburger smile and, you know, be honored as a young American man.
LUNDEN: "Water by the Spoonful" plays at Second Stage, off-Broadway, through January 27. The third play of the Elliot trilogy, "The Happiest Song Plays Last," begins performances at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on April 13.
For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Let's talk now about this year's flu season. The Centers for Disease Control warns that flu is spreading earlier than usual, and it's spreading fast. A least 18 children have died from the flu. The best protection is a flu shot, which is recommended even for young children. But experts say even that isn't a guarantee that you won't get sick.
To talk more about what makes this season different, we're joined by NPR health correspondent Rob Stein. Good morning.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So health officials are warning that this could be a particularly bad year. Why is that?
STEIN: Well, there's really two reasons. The first one is, as you mentioned, that it's a relatively early flu season. The flu hasn't gotten going this early in the season in about a decade - so, about a month ahead of time. And the second reason is one of the main strains that's circulating is what they call the H3N2 strain. And in past years, that's been particularly nasty. It's gotten a lot more people sick, and they've gotten much sicker and it's caused more deaths than usual.
MONTAGNE: For that reason, then, health officials are urging people to get their flu shots. I mean, it seems a little late, but I'm guessing it can still help.
STEIN: Yes, absolutely. The flu vaccine is definitely the best way to protect yourself from getting the flu. And there's plenty of vaccine out there, and there's definitely plenty of time to get vaccinated. It'll still protect people throughout the season. And this is especially important for people who are higher risk from the flu, and that includes the elderly, children and people with health problems. They're the ones that health officials really urge strongly to go out and get vaccinated as soon as possible. And the good news is, is that the vaccine so far seems like a pretty good match. It should be, hopefully, very protective against the strains that are circulating out there. There are three strains in the vaccine, and all three seem to be fairly closely matched with the predominant strains that are circulating. So that suggests that they should provide high protection for people against getting the flu this year.
MONTAGNE: Well, right, but, I mean, I know several people who've gotten really, really sick and have had gotten flu shots. Why is that?
STEIN: Right. There are several reasons why that could be: One is that even when the vaccine works, it's not 100 percent effective. In fact, it seems in past years, typically, it's about 60 percent effective. So even if you get a shot, it doesn't necessarily you're going to be completely protected. Another reason is that it takes about two weeks for the vaccine's protection to kick in. So if you get the shot, but then get exposed to the flu before the immunity has built up, then you still could get sick. And also, there are lots of other viruses that are out there circulating that cause symptoms that are very similar to the flu. There are viruses called adenoviruses and rhinoviruses. These are kind of bad cold viruses. The flu vaccine's not going to protect you against them at all. So if you get exposed to them, you're still going to get very sick. And also, there's also a possibility of other strains that are not covered by the vaccine.
MONTAGNE: What would be the advice for people if they do get sick?
STEIN: They should go to their doctor and get tested. And there are drugs out there - antiviral drugs like Tamiflu that can shorten the course of getting sick. It's usually the most effective if you start taking it within 48 hours of getting the flu. So it's important to get in there and get the drug soon. And it's not recommended for everybody, but it is definitely recommended for people who are at high-risk from the flu. And that tends to be elderly people, children, people with other health problems or people who are very sick or in the hospital with the flu.
MONTAGNE: And how much longer can we expect flu season to last?
STEIN: Yeah, that's a key question. Because it started so early, health officials are really wondering how long it's going to last. It could end up lasting as long as it typically does, into the late winter, early spring. In that case, it could end up being a more particularly severe season. Or it could end up petering out early, and it could end up being just a normal flu season, just started early and ended early. We'll just have to wait and see. One of the thing about the flu is you can never predict what's going to happen from one year to the next.
MONTAGNE: Rob, thanks very much.
STEIN: Thank you.
MONTAGNE: Rob Stein is NPR's health correspondent.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now, if you are sick with the flu, there's only so much you can do. You can get rest, drink plenty of liquids, and maybe spend some time trying to figure out who passed on the illness. And there's an app to help you with that last part.
MONTAGNE: The Facebook application is called "Help, I Have the Flu." It will search the profiles of your friends to see if they've written the words coughing or fever - those keywords.
INSKEEP: This app is, of course, sponsored by a pharmaceutical company, which sells expectorants and decongestants.
MONTAGNE: But if you're not that interested in the flu blame game, you can find more scientific information. The Centers for Disease Control sponsors Flu View, which lets you use an iPhone to track influenza activity levels throughout the country.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
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And I'm Steve Inskeep.
The man who's run Afghan for more than a decade now is meeting his most vital ally for talks about the future. President Hamid Karzai is in Washington this week. He's meeting President Obama and other senior officials, and they're discussing U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, after the bulk of American and NATO forces leave at the end of 2014. One vital issue here is how many American troops will remain after that date.
Here's NPR's Jackie Northam.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: Presidents Obama and Karzai have met several times in the past, and not always on the best of terms. Regardless of the tone of this meeting, it comes at a critical time, says Andrew Wilder, director of the Afghanistan-Pakistan programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
ANDREW WILDER: It's very significant. Sometimes you have presidents meet once it comes time to sign an agreement, but this one actually comes at a time when some very important agreements and policies are being negotiated and are very much in flux - in particular, the bilateral security agreement.
NORTHAM: That agreement will authorize the size of a residual U.S. force in Afghanistan post-2014. At the moment, estimates vary from nine to 15,000 troops for counterterrorism operations and training Afghan forces. Karzai claims he wants a prolonged U.S. security presence, but at the same time, has been increasingly critical of the actions of American troops in Afghanistan.
Wilder, who just returned from a visit to Kabul, says many of Afghanistan's elite are worried about what Karzai may say or do in Washington.
WILDER: And that whole dynamic within Afghanistan is generating concerns that a meeting that doesn't go well could lead to a decision to bring home the remaining U.S. troops more quickly than I think most Afghans would feel comfortable about, because they're worried that would be politically destabilizing.
NORTHAM: President Obama - facing a war-weary public and domestic budgetary pressure - is expected to soon announce how many of the 66,000 troops now in Afghanistan will withdraw by the end of this year.
Tom Lynch, a South Asia specialist at the National Defense University, says Mr. Obama - along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta - will likely be looking for some commitments during their meetings with President Karzai.
TOM LYNCH: That Karzai himself is committed to continuing to improve governance in his country, that he's committed to staying the course in terms of many of the human rights advances, the education advances, the quality of life advances.
NORTHAM: And that Karzai stay out of Afghanistan's 2014 presidential election. There are some concerns that Karzai may try to extend his term, even though he's constitutionally barred from doing so, or try to install one of his family or inner circle in the presidential palace.
Lynch says Karzai will need to convince the administration that he will not waver on any of his commitments.
LYNCH: It's very important that Karzai come here, make a case that America is still a friend, make a case that, you know, despite some of the things that have gone on, that have been frustrating for Afghans, that there is a need to continue this relationship.
NORTHAM: Especially as Karzai will be bringing a shopping list with him. He's looking for drones, helicopters and other military hardware.
Anthony Cordesman, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says it's unlikely Karzai will get all that he wants. And Cordesman says a lot could change between now and the end of 2014.
ANTHONY CORDESMAN: Trying to predict where we're going to be two years in the future is something we simply can't do. And we can't make promises, and frankly, we can't make them but neither can President Karzai, particularly since he isn't going to be in office when we complete this transition.
NORTHAM: President Karzai is due to give a speech on Friday, after several days of meetings with administration officials, including President Obama. The speech may be an opportunity to gauge how talks fared between the two leaders.
Jackie Northam, NPR News, Washington.
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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
President Obama's pick to run the Defense Department has experience wearing combat boots. And he might want to lace them back up for his upcoming confirmation hearing. Chuck Hagel is a Republican and a former senator from Nebraska. He became the president's official nominee for secretary of Defense. The president also tapped to be the next director of the CIA, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan.
He urged the Senate to act quickly to confirm both nominees, but NPR's Scott Horsley reports there could be at least one battle brewing.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Chuck Hagel would be the first defense secretary to have worn the uniform of an enlisted man. And also the first was fought in Vietnam. Hagel won two purple hearts and still carries some of the scars and shrapnel from that war. Mr. Obama says that makes him the kind of Pentagon leader U.S. troops deserve.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: He understands that sending young Americans to fight and bleed in the dirt and mud, that's something we only do when it's absolutely necessary.
HORSLEY: As a senator, Hagel initially supported the war in Iraq, but later became one of its most outspoken critics. That's made him an outcast with some of his fellow Republicans, who also accuse Hagel of being insufficiently supportive of Israel.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham told CNN his nomination is an in-your-face pick by the president.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Quite frankly, Chuck Hagel is out of the mainstream of thinking, I believe, on most issues.
HORSLEY: Peter Beinart is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, who also edits the Open Zion blog of The Daily Beast. He says unlike most Republicans in Congress, Hagel was humbled by what he witnessed in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he remains wary of any U.S. military intervention in Iran.
PETER BEINART: The real question is why is the mainstream, as Lindsey Graham defined it, still consider to be where American foreign policy should be.
HORSLEY: In announcing the nomination yesterday, Mr. Obama said he welcomes Hagel's straight talk and his willingness to challenge conventional wisdom. Hagel said he's grateful for a chance to serve, as the war in Afghanistan winds down.
CHUCK HAGEL: Mr. President, I will always give you my honest and most informed counsel.
HORSLEY: In an interview with his home state newspaper, the Lincoln Journal Star, Hagel said his critics have completely distorted his record, with charges that he's lukewarm towards Israel and soft on Iran. While he opposed unilateral sanctions against Iran as ineffective, Hagel said he supports international sanctions. Mr. Obama calls that attitude a big plus for Hagel.
OBAMA: He understands that America stands strongest when we stand with allies and with friends.
HORSLEY: Hagel also raised eyebrows among gay rights groups for arguing back in 1998, that a, quote, "openly, aggressively gay man would not make an effective ambassador." Last month, Hagel apologized for those comments.
Fred Sainz, of the Human Rights Campaign, thinks Hagel could put this criticism to rest, if he speaks up clearly for gay rights during his confirmation hearing.
FRED SAINZ: Those comments due date back 15 or more years. And we very clearly know that Americans have very quickly evolved on the issues of gay and lesbian equality.
HORSLEY: The issue is important because the Defense Department is still adjusting to having openly gay service members.
The Pentagon will also be adjusting to smaller budgets in the years to come. Beinart says Hagel is well-suited for that.
BEINART: My suspicion is that's one of the reasons that Obama likes Hagel, because he thinks that Hagel sees the defense budget in the larger context. A massive military budget and a huge global military footprint don't actually make you stronger if they're driving you deeper into debt.
HORSLEY: Mr. Obama also nominated his top counterterrorism adviser to head the CIA. John Brennan is a longtime veteran of the intelligence agency, who spent the last four years as the president's watchdog for disasters. It's often Brennan's job to inform the president about mayhem, like last month's elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. He rarely lets his guard down, Mr. Obama says, even during a presidential vacation on Martha's Vineyard.
OBAMA: It was in the summer. It's August, he's in full suit and tie.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: And one of the reporters asked him: Don't you ever get any downtime. And John said, I don't do downtime.
(LAUGHTER)
HORSLEY: One person who is looking forward to more downtime is the current Defense secretary, Leon Panetta. After years in Washington, Panetta says he's eager to retire to his California walnut farm, where he jokes he'll be dealing with a different set of nuts.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
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The Shell oil drilling rig that ran aground off Alaska last week is now anchored in a quiet harbor so divers can assess the damage. Wildlife officials say they have seen no evidence of a spill from the vessel, which was carrying tanks of diesel fuel. But the accident does raise questions about Shell's plans to drill for oil in the remote and fragile ecosystem of the Arctic.
NPR's Richard Harris reports.
RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE: When towboats lost control of this massive drilling rig during a big storm, it seemed possible that the story would end in calamity. Shell had spent $300 million outfitting this rig to work in the icy Arctic, and as it sat on the rocks, pounded by punishing waves, the worst-case scenario for Shell looked pretty bad. But yesterday, after officials decided it was still seaworthy, a tugboat managed to pluck it off the rocks with relative ease.
RICHARD BURKE: Sometimes you get lucky.
HARRIS: Richard Burke is a former marine-salvage operator, now at the SUNY Maritime College. He says the rig's thick hull - built for ice - apparently helped it stand up to a week of winds and swells that could have destroyed a weaker vessel. And through it all, the Kulluk's hull apparently remained intact - a big plus for its recovery.
BURKE: Usually, it's harder. But I'm sure the salvage master is very happy with this outcome.
HARRIS: Shell also breathed a big sigh of relief, though the story is far from over. The Kulluk was on its way to Seattle for maintenance. And once it ran aground, large waves damaged parts of the vessel's superstructure. Seawater also found its way into the rig's diesel generators, apparently through open hatches. Burke says if there is damage to the steal hull, that's often not too difficult to fix, as long as the vessel can get to a dry dock.
BURKE: The real problem is going to be machinery and electrical damage, because those components can be difficult to replace. They're expensive, and they're - and sometimes there's a long lead time to get them.
HARRIS: If repairs take more than a few months, Shell may not be able to resume its exploratory drilling in the Arctic next summer. And hardware damage isn't the only problem Shell faces. There's also damage to its reputation. Environmental activists and some members of Congress are asking the Obama administration to investigate and re-think letting oil companies operate in the fragile Arctic.
Eleanor Huffines, with the Pew Environment Group in Anchorage, says Shell was fortunate that this rig ran aground near Kodiak Island, Alaska, where there is a major Coast Guard base. If the accident had occurred in the distant Arctic Ocean, the response would have been far slower and less robust, she says.
ELEANOR HUFFINES: It's a thousand miles from the drilling sites, at a minimum. And so the Coast Guard has made - take some small steps forward to put seasonal equipment up in the Arctic. But we have a lot more to do to be spill-response ready.
HARRIS: Pew and other groups are hoping to navigate the delicate politics of Washington, D.C. to press for tighter regulations on Arctic drilling.
HUFFINES: While there may be support for drilling, the expectations are that we should be leaders. We should demonstrate that we can do this safely and protect the communities and the ecosystem at the same time.
HARRIS: A spokesman for Shell says it's too early to say whether the incident will, in fact, affect the company's plans to keep exploring for oil in the Arctic Ocean.
Curtis Smith is at Shell Alaska.
CURTIS SMITH: We have a long history of working offshore Alaska, and we are proud of that. But when something like this happens, you have to own it. You have to learn from it, and we certainly will.
HARRIS: There are always things you can do to improve operations. But Richard Burke, at the SUNY Maritime College, says some things you just can't fix.
BURKE: This is a very, very adverse environment. It's one of the worst pieces of water in the world. It's not uncommon for tows to break loose from towing vessels under such conditions.
HARRIS: That will be on everyone's minds when it's time to hook up another tow line to the Kulluk so it can continue its journey south to Seattle.
Richard Harris, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And some other news. Federal officials along and investigators from Boeing are trying to determine exactly what caused a fire on a brand new 787 Dreamliner passenger jet parked at the Boston's Logan Airport yesterday.
As NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports, the fire, is the latest in a string of electrical systems problems on Boeing's flagship airliner.
WENDY KAUFMAN, BYLINE: The Japan Airlines jet carrying about 185 people had just landed after a long flight from Tokyo. Passengers hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary and they'd all gotten off the plane safely. But a few minutes later, cleaning crews and a mechanic encountered smoke onboard the jet.
Matt Brelis of Massport, which operates the airport, says firefighters responded quickly.
MATT BRELIS: They used thermal imaging to locate a heat source and found a fire in a compartment bay in the belly of the aircraft.
Boeing has not yet provided any details about the fire but Massport officials said the fire began in a battery that was part of an auxiliary power unit. The APU is typically used only when a plane is on the ground and its engines turned off. So, it seems unlikely that the fire began in flight.
KAUFMAN: Still, the incident, once again, raises questions about the electrical systems on the 787 jet. Aviation analyst Scott Hamilton.
SCOTT HAMILTON: Not that long ago, United Airlines had an emergency landing with the 787 that was traced to down to a generator and instrumentation problem. A delivery flight of a Qatar 787 was put down early in London for the same reason.
KAUFMAN: Indeed, back in 2010, one of the aircraft's test flights ended with an onboard fire. A piece of debris inside an electrical control panel caused a short, then a fire, and then the plane lost primary electrical power. The aircraft program that was already years late and well over budget had to ground its test fleet for several weeks.
Last month, yet another problem emerged. The FAA ordered inspections of all the 787s in service after it received reports of fuel leaks on two of the aircraft.
Richard Aboulafia, another industry analyst, notes that the 787 is an innovative airplane. Aside from the use of new composite materials, its electrical systems are more sophisticated and complex than in older Boeing models.
RICHARD ABOULAFIA: They're bringing a lot of new big and small technologies to market with this plane, and so you're going to continue to see glitches like these.
KAUFMAN: Aboulafia says he sees no reason to doubt the overall integrity of the 787 and he suspects the cause of yesterday's fire will be relatively easy to address. Nonetheless, he says...
ABOULAFIA: The problem is, of course, at some point it becomes a serious perception problem, where customer perception acquires a life of its own and people go from riding the buzz of a new jet to avoiding it.
KAUFMAN: So far, Boeing has delivered 50 787s. All but half a dozen have gone to foreign airlines. United is the only domestic carrier that has them. Aboulafia notes that thus far, no major airline has cancelled orders for the 787 because of design or mechanical problems. Indeed, the airplane maker currently has about 800 orders on its books for the plane it calls the Dreamliner.
Wendy Kaufman, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And Eastman Kodak, the troubled photography industry giant, stopped making digital cameras almost a year ago, but soon consumers will see the brand on shelves once more - thanks to an agreement that lends the Kodak name to another company.
Kate O'Connell of member station WXXI has more.
KATE O'CONNELL, BYLINE: You may start noticing the Kodak brand on digital products in the next few months, but they'll be designed and manufactured by JK Imaging. Kodak spokesperson Krista Gleason says the deal shows that, despite the company's highly publicized financial problems, the name still has business value.
KRISTA GLEASON: This is good news because it reinforces the strength and value of the Kodak brand worldwide, including in the consumer space.
O'CONNELL: Pete Canalichio dispenses advice on branding for consulting company The Blake Project. He says that Kodak's move carries a little risk.
PETE CANALICHIO: Whenever you give your brand to someone else, you're risking that that third party may do some things with your brand that would not be good for the brand, they may diminish some equities of the brand.
O'CONNELL: Kodak's Krista Gleason says the company has been licensing its brand to several other companies for years. The global agreement will see the first camera products on the shelves by the second quarter of this year. JK Imaging got its start in 2005.
The company didn't answer requests for interviews, but in a statement, they described the partnership with Kodak as, quote, "a natural fit for the two companies." The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
For NPR News, I'm Kate O'Connell in Rochester, New York.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some other news: Some of the biggest banks in the country have agreed to pay more than $18 billion to settle allegations of wrongdoing in their mortgage lending. That's today's "Business Bottom Line."
Bank of America said yesterday it would pay more than $10 billion to the mortgage company Fannie Mae because of bad loans sold during the housing boom. And in a separate settlement, 10 banks agreed to pay more than $8 billion in total, to settle claims that they made errors in foreclosing on people's homes. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: These two settlements aren't really related but together, they underscore how damaging the housing crash was for homeowners, and how pervasive a problem it's been for banks.During the housing boom, a lot of banks wrote risky mortgages that later turned sour. And the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which purchase home loans, found themselves stuck with a lot of bad debt.
Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, says Fannie and Freddie later sued the banks, saying they had lent money to risky borrowers.
GUY CECALA: There are, literally - you know, tens of billions of dollars of claims outstanding to many lenders. Out front, by far, has been Bank of America.
ZARROLI: Cecala says Bank of America was never a big player in the risky mortgage market. But in 2008, it bought Countrywide Financial - which was. And it became legally responsible for its debts.
Yesterday, the bank said it had agreed to settle the claims filed by Fannie Mae. Cecala says the bank was under pressure to make peace with Fannie Mae.
CECALA: Investors basically hammered Bank of America because it had this huge liability to Fannie Mae. And they saw it on their earnings release every quarter, and it had a negative effect.
ZARROLI: When the mortgage market finally collapsed around 2008, a lot of lenders began foreclosing on homeowners. And it soon became clear that a lot of them were cutting corners in the foreclosure process. That was the genesis of yesterday's second settlement. Bank officials were accused of signing foreclosure documents without adequately reviewing them.
Alys Cohen is with the National Consumer Law Center.
ALYS COHEN: The banks were not holding up their end of the bargain. You're not supposed to be able to take someone's house if you don't have the authority to take their house.
ZARROLI: Cohen says these weren't just paperwork errors. She maintains that some homeowners might have been eligible for loan-modification programs that would have saved their properties, if banks hadn't rushed them into foreclosure. But it was never clear how many homeowners were hurt by the errors, and whether they would have lost their homes anyway. Regulators set up a program to review the documents of people who'd lost their homes. But Guy Cecala says the program wasn't a big success.
CECALA: There were relatively few borrowers that responded to the request to step forward. And the ones that did, the reviewers found very little evidence of actual losses.
ZARROLI: But critics say there were problems with the program. For instance, the people who reviewed the documents weren't well-trained in what to look for. So they say the result underestimates how much people lost as a result of bank error.
Yesterday, U.S. officials said they had let the program expire. They also said 10 banks had agreed to pay more than $8 billion to victims of foreclosure error. Alys Cohen says it's good that some money is going to homeowners.
COHEN: That said, the total amount is woefully inadequate, and so significantly undercompensates homeowners, that it raises real questions about - about the regulators.
ZARROLI: Federal regulators say they were able to get some data about how widespread these bank errors were, and they will release it down the road. In the meantime, they say it's time to provide at least some money to the victims of bank error.
Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez has been absent from the public eye for weeks. He went to Cuba a month ago for another round of cancer surgery. Since then there have been few details released about the state of his health. Chavez is supposed to be back home this Thursday to take the oath of office and start his fourth presidential term. But as NPR's Juan Forero reports from Venezuela's capital, it's looking increasingly like Chavez won't show up.
JUAN FORERO, BYLINE: In the Bolivar Plaza of downtown Caracas, Chavez's passionate supporters arrive carrying photographs of their leader.
(SOUNDBITE OF RALLY)
FORERO: And singing songs urging Chavez on. Music blares from loudspeakers, repeating over and over: Chavez, my commander is here to stay.
(SOUNDBITE OF RALLY)
FORERO: But Chavez is most definitely not here. And increasingly, many Venezuelans wonder if he'll ever be back. He flew to Cuba, Venezuela's closest ally, for an operation that took place on December 11. It was surgery that was so delicate that the president named a successor before leaving. What little has been reported about his health since has not been good.
ERNESTO VILLEGAS: (Spanish spoken)
FORERO: Right after the surgery, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas went on state television to say that Chavez was suffering from internal bleeding. Then at the end of December, things seemed to worsen.
NICOLAS MADURO: (Spanish spoken)
FORERO: Nicolas Maduro, the vice president, read a statement from Havana, saying there were complications and there were risks. Days later, the word from the government was that Chavez had a severe lung infection.
Never in Chavez's year and a half battle with cancer have officials said what kind of cancer he has, where in his body it's located, or what the prognosis is. Instead, state television plays commercial after commercial, showing Chavez with his followers. As in this one, where he tells a group of young men to work hard for the benefit of the country.
(SOUNDBITE OF COMMERCIAL)
PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ: (Spanish spoken)
FORERO: Yet while heart-warming videos of El Comandante air, government officials have offered signals that Chavez will not return by Thursday. The constitution says that the inauguration should take place that day before the Congress. But Vice President Maduro has called that a formality.
MADURO: (Spanish spoken)
FORERO: In an interview on state television, Maduro said there's flexibility built into the constitution. And that because the president was reelected in October, he went on, there's continuity from one term to the next. He says that the constitution permits Chavez to also be sworn in by the Supreme Court, and that the date can be pushed back.
CARLOS AYALA: That doesn't make sense at all.
FORERO: Constitutional lawyer Carlos Ayala says the constitution is clear and doesn't support the government's argument.
AYALA: So it's not that we elect a president for an undetermined term, for an uncertain term. We elect presidents for a mandate to take place beginning one day and finishing one day. And that's what constitutional democracy is all about.
FORERO: He says that if Chavez can't show up on Thursday, then the constitution says the head of the congress becomes interim leader. Chavez could later return and be sworn in.
But what's vital, Ayala says, is that the public learn more about Chavez's health. Perhaps through a medical board commissioned to travel to Cuba.
AYALA: None of that is being done. And we have just been told that he's coming, that we have already enough information.
(SOUNDBITE OF A CROWD)
FORERO: At the Plaza Bolivar in central Caracas though, Chavez's red-shirted supporters say they've heard enough about the president's health. One of them is Milia Duarte, who's 50 and a self-styled Chavista.
MILIA DUARTE: (Spanish spoken)
FORERO: There have been reports every day, she says, and they've been clear. I'm pleased and feel like I'm informed. She also says she's going hoping for Chavez to return.
Juan Forero, NPR News, Caracas.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
A dispute over an editorial in a Chinese newspaper has ignited a national debate in China over freedom of the press. Hundreds of people protested yesterday outside a progressive newspaper in Southern China, complaining about official censorship and calling for an open news media.
NPR's Frank Langfitt has been following this story, and joins us to talk about it. And, Frank, first of all, what caused this uproar? What was in this editorial?
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Well, the paper is called Southern Weekend. It's a progressive newspaper in South China. And originally, there was a New Year's editorial calling for China to adhere to its own constitution. Now, that sounds pretty innocuous, but it really isn't, because the constitution, as it's written here, calls for free speech, free press and rule of law. The Communist Party doesn't really allow that, because it's really a direct threat to its power in the long run.
So the editorial was rewritten. And, in fact, the new editorial that was - apparently, people are saying was rewritten under pressure from the propaganda department, actually praised the Communist Party and its leadership of the country - not at all what the original writers intended.
MONTAGNE: How did reporters and editors at Southern Weekend react to this?
LANGFITT: Well, there was a lot of anger, and reporters felt that the editorial had been censored. And yesterday, as you mentioned, hundreds of people came out. And this is kind of a rare public protest when it comes to censorship. Even - there were people out in the streets yesterday posting pictures of themselves on Chinese Twitter, called Weibo.
There was one picture of a guy with thick glasses and a spiky haircut, holding up a handwritten sign, saying end press censorship, and that Chinese people want freedom. And then things kind of ballooned from there. On the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, you have a lot of celebrities and movie stars, and they got in on this, saying they were supporting the paper, and they wanted to see more press freedom. And a lot of these celebrities have tens of millions of followers here, so the story really kind of went from there.
MONTAGNE: So how did the government react to all this public support for a free press?
LANGFITT: There's no official word from the top, and cops didn't break up the demonstration yesterday. But Global Times - which is very conservative, state-run paper - put out an editorial criticizing the protest and saying China can't actually have, you know, what we in the West would consider a free press. And they blamed people - what they call external activists - for hijacking the issue.
What was interesting is that some of China's big Web portals, which are much more commercial, they were forced to run this editorial. And they did it as orders, but they actually posted disclaimers, saying they didn't agree with what the government was saying. So there's really a sign of a split.
MONTAGNE: Well, this is all very interesting. And, I mean, what does this episode tell us about where China might be heading?
LANGFITT: Well, you know, you have a new group of leaders coming in. And at the end of the 18th Party Congress, a couple of months ago, they said there would be a lot of economic reform here. But there were no plans for political reform, that the party would very much stay in charge. And the things that people are asking for - like a free press and a rule of law - would actually threaten that rule.
So although this is a small event, you know, in South China, it's really about much bigger issues, and kind of big disagreement about the kind of future direction of the country. There are a lot of intellectuals, people who've traveled abroad who want to see a much more open society, and you still have a Communist Party that wants to really stay in control.
MONTAGNE: Well, then, is there any sense at this point how this might end?
LANGFITT: You know, the protest seemed to really dissipate. It was much smaller today. And usually, this stuff has flared up over the years, and usually they end up with some sort of a crackdown and some people losing their jobs. I mean, in the short run, it's very clear that the government has all the levers of power here and can really put down this kind of a rebellion.
The problem in the longer term is that people in China, especially journalists, are getting more sophisticated. They have greater expectations. So you're probably going to see more and more of this sort of stuff.
MONTAGNE: Frank, thanks very much.
LANGFITT: Happy to do it, Renee.
MONTAGNE: That's NPR's Frank Langfitt, speaking to us from Shanghai.
And Google has quietly surrendered in one of its censorship battles with Chinese officials. Last year, the company introduced a feature called The Great Chinese Firewall.
INSKEEP: The Great Chinese Firewall was designed to alert users in China when their searches contained politically-sensitive phrases, so they could work around those phrases and hopefully avoid being blocked by Chinese censors. But within a day of its launch, Chinese authorities disabled this feature.
MONTAGNE: Even after Google got it working again, censors were able to continue disrupting and disabling searches on topics, like the names of corrupt Chinese officials. Google this week admitted that the cat-and-mouse game was counterproductive and gave it up.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with record profits for Samsung.
Samsung Electronics announced profits of more than $8 billion for the final quarter of 2012. That's a 90 percent increase from that same period last year. It's also the fifth consecutive quarter of record profits for Samsung.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The company's success is largely thanks to its Galaxy smartphone. That line of phone helped Samsung become the world's biggest phone maker surpassing Nokia last year.
MONTAGNE: Samsung's Japanese competitor Sony is also looking to smartphones, in an effort to turn around its flagging fortunes. This week at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, Sony unveiled an innovation useful for people who like to do their chatting and texting in the bathroom. That would be a water-resistant smartphone.
INSKEEP: You know, a protective plastic cover that seals the phone's various ports, meaning that if you should accidentally drop it in the tub or in the toilet, for that matter, or jump in the swimming pool with your phone in your pocket - not that I've ever done that, very often...
MONTAGNE: It would all be fine, huh?
INSKEEP: It would all be fine. Sony says the water-resistant smartphone can survive underwater for up to 30 minutes without damage.
MONTAGNE: And Sony thinks it's on to a winner, pointing out that a survey show one in 10 people have dropped their phone in the toilet at some point.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And today's last word in business is, Macca's, which is Australian for McDonald's.
(SOUNDBITE OF MCDONALD'S COMMERCIAL)
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Roll up on Macca's new grand chicken burger. A hand of the said chicken breast, crisp bread onion rings...
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The nickname Macca is so ingrained in the Australian - or rather the Aussie lexicon - that executives of the burger chain are allowing some McDonald's restaurants Down Under to change their signs to read Macca's. It's the first time McDonald's has done that anywhere in the world.
INSKEEP: You've got to follow the local dialect. But it's only temporary to honor Australia Day later this month, the holiday marking the nation's founding. In February, the signs go back to the more formal McDonald's.
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good day, mate. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Well, let's follow up now on the complex problem of gun violence. We reported yesterday on Chicago where the murder rate spiked in 2012, going against a long-term national decline in homicide.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We focused on the hyper-local factors that prompt many murders to cluster near a single corner or within a small group of people. Some of you wrote in to ask about another factor. You asked, why hasn't Chicago's gun ban prevented the killings? That's a loaded question given the national debate over gun control laws, which is all the more reason to check it out. NPR's Carrie Johnson is back with us again. Carrie, good morning.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Thanks.
INSKEEP: OK. What are the rules for handguns in Chicago?
JOHNSON: Well, there were two places in the country, Steve, that still had sweeping bans on handguns. They were Chicago and Washington, D.C. But the Supreme Court in a pair of cases in 2008 and 2010 threw out those sweeping bans, so no more outright bans on handgun ownership in these places, but still some pretty tight restrictions.
It's worth noting, Steve, as we did yesterday, homicide rates for D.C. are at record or near-record lows as of 2012, but Chicago had a sharp spike in murders last year.
INSKEEP: OK. So, a couple of different cities here. They don't really have handgun bans anymore. They do have tight restrictions. One, crime spiked. The other went down. That's what you're telling me?
JOHNSON: That's exactly right. So, based on that evidence alone, not enough to say whether this works.
INSKEEP: What if we broaden out this discussion and ask about other kinds of regulations? There are so many different kinds of gun laws in so many different cities and states across the country.
JOHNSON: Steve, the big debate right now, in most states, is over whether concealed carry of weapons is an effective strategy and an effective regulatory approach. And New York, California and Illinois all have relatively strict rules in place that would make it pretty hard for someone to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
INSKEEP: You can do it, but it's very, very difficult, OK.
JOHNSON: Yes. In Illinois, an appeals court recently struck down its concealed carry law, so state lawmakers there are trying to figure out new rules. But there are big questions about how effective they are. There's a big contrast, though, Steve, because in New York City and in New York state where violent crime is at record lows, they have a more holistic regulatory approach to guns. And they believe that enforcement of the strict laws that they have and making sure that people who want to carry a concealed weapon and demonstrate they have a real need to do so is something that's going to work.
INSKEEP: OK. So, this gets down to a couple of fundamental questions here. And one of them is this. I mean, people will ask. There are states that are more strict. There are states that are more liberal, they're more open. They've encouraged people to carry weapons or even made it easier for people to fire those weapons. Is there any evidence about which approach is better at battling crime?
JOHNSON: Well, the last big national study that was done was back in 2004 by the National Academy of Sciences, which determined there was no credible evidence one way or another that gun controls reduced or increased violent crime. Some of the people I've spoken with over the last couple of days, including people at the Second Amendment Foundation, big supporters of gun rights, still continue to believe that more guns means less crime.
But other criminologists out there say it depends on what you define as a gun control regulation and what else you do.
INSKEEP: And that gets to maybe the fundamental point here. You mentioned that example of New York where they do lots of things, not just have gun restrictions. Is that really the fundamental question here? It's not what gun laws you have, but how you use them, how you police the streets, how effective you are and many different strategies of battling crime.
JOHNSON: Regulations are just one part of an approach to fighting crime and criminologists and economists who studied these issues say the number of police on the street and what they do may be the most important factor here.
INSKEEP: Carrie, thanks very much.
JOHNSON: Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: That's NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson in our studios this morning.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Let's hear now two critical views of the foreign policy and national security team that President Obama is assembling for his second term. Yesterday, the president nominated his longtime aide John Brennan as director of the CIA. He named Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator, as secretary of Defense.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute opposes these nominees. Vali Nasr, a former advisor to the Obama administration, supports the nominees, but has emerged as a critic of the president's policies. Pletka contends the president had far better choices than Chuck Hagel.
DANIELLE PLETKA: And instead, the president picks this man who has omni-directionally managed to offend everybody, whether it's Jews, homosexuals, Republicans or it's Democrats, he's really been out there with a track record that, to my mind, is mind-boggling. I don't get the choice.
INSKEEP: And can I just mention, he's been accused of being anti-Israel. His defenders have already leaped up before he was even nominated to state that a lot of his remarks on that score have been taken out of context. Is it fairer to say that he simply does not necessarily agree with the current Israeli government's current policies?
PLETKA: You know, that's a really common way of defending people who are hostile to the state of Israel for being the Jewish state. I don't want to indict the man by who's come out to support him, but any time that you get positive ratings by press TV in Iran, it's probably not a good sign.
INSKEEP: Vali Nasr?
VALI NASR: Well, Senator Hagel's views on Iran and on Israel, they ought to be debated. But the key question is: to what extent will he have the perch in this job to actually formulate U.S. foreign policy on these areas. And I think he will not. I mean, Iran policy and Israel policy are very tightly managed by the White House.
That was the case in the first four years. And then, it's going to be the State Department that's going to be carrying the torch on negotiations with Iran, rallying the allies around sanctions with Iran. These are not going to be within the domain of the Defense Department.
INSKEEP: Let me just ask you both, what is the central job, the central duty of the next secretary of Defense going to be?
PLETKA: Clearly, it is going to be to manage the decline of American national security. What we're going to see in the coming months are huge fights between the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives on funding for the Defense Department. If Senator Hagel is confirmed, we are going to have in place someone who is a strong advocate of aggressive cuts at the Defense Department.
INSKEEP: Vali, you may not agree with the notion that he's there to manage the decline of American national security, but it is a brutal reality. Whoever is secretary of Defense is going to be having to do it with a lot less money than projected. It sounds like this is going to demand a lot of creativity, whether Hagel gets the job or not.
NASR: Well, I think creativity and also relations with Congress, and I think the reason why the president went with a Republican is that there would be a certain degree of relationship with the other side of the House in order to create bipartisan support for these changes.
INSKEEP: Danielle Pletka, is it a good idea to have a Republican, even if you're strongly opposed to this Republican?
PLETKA: I think that it's good to have somebody who's competent in the job, who's going to have the confidence of the men and women in the building and of our troops that he's going to make decisions that are consistent, yes, with the president's views, but that are protecting the interests of the Pentagon as a whole. I don't see Chuck Hagel as that man.
INSKEEP: Let me ask about another nomination that was made yesterday; John Brennan to be the head of the CIA, something the president wanted to do some years ago, backed away from and now he's actually done it. What do you think of that nomination?
PLETKA: If I were John Brennan, I would be out there fanning the flames of the Chuck Hagel controversy because if this were the only nomination we were hearing about, I think that Brennan would have ended up being an extraordinarily controversial nominee.
INSKEEP: Why?
PLETKA: Well, he's done a number of things. One of them was to talk about the important search for moderates within Hezbollah. Another one was to defend the notion of jihad as an important tenet of Islam. When the person in charge of counterterrorism at the White House starts describing jihad as something we need to understand, a legitimate tenet of Islam, I start to worry a little bit about it.
When it's taken in concert with his strange statements on Hezbollah and building up moderates and other activities that have caused a lot of concern, then I start to worry.
INSKEEP: Can I just, before we pick that up, I've just gone and looked up the statement that John Brennan made about jihad. He was giving a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and he basically said the United States should not talk about jihadists because Muslims hearing those statements will have different definitions of jihad in their minds.
I'm wondering if that's just not an effort to talk to the world in a way that the world doesn't misunderstand, as opposed to some sign that he's a secret jihadist.
PLETKA: I don't think anybody suggested he's a secret jihadist, just that he doesn't understand what he's talking about. And that's the kind of condescending claptrap that gets us in a lot of trouble. I really don't need anybody at the White House teaching the world about what they should properly say about Islam. We all know what jihadists are.
Arabs refer to jihadists and they're not talking about the Koranic observation of learning that Mr. Brennan seems to think he's referring to.
INSKEEP: Isn't this kind of what the Bush administration was focused on for many years, talking about Islam the right way?
PLETKA: You bet.
INSKEEP: And you disagree with that.
PLETKA: And they stunk at it. It was Orwellian. I condemned it when they did it and I think equally little of it in the Obama administration.
INSKEEP: Well, let me ask, what do you think the defining challenge of the second term is going to be when it comes to foreign policy. This is an administration, of course, that's trying to wind down a war in Afghanistan, that's trying to make a big pivot to East Asia. And there are so many other things going on that may be beyond the administration's control. What's the defining challenge?
NASR: Well, I think, you know, the first time, our foreign policy was based on a set of assumptions that are not holding. Number one, is that we thought that we could be done with them at (unintelligible). We just pack up and go to Asia.
INSKEEP: Didn't happen.
NASR: It didn't happen and then we also thought going to Asia is going to be simple, is not going to be fraught with new challenges. We're finding that China and Japan are beginning to butt heads, that China and Southeast Asian countries are developing difficulty. And it doesn't seem like we've actually stopped to take in the pulse and decided to recalibrate things.
Secondly, it's much more evident that the administration continues to be primarily focused on domestic issues. So there's the fiscal issues, there's gun control, there's a whole set of things that the administration wants to do in the second term. They're fairly ambitious, which means that, you know, foreign policy is going to continue to play the second fiddle.
And you have a world that is in turmoil, and I think what you would like to see at this turning of the page with the administration is that we show willingness to take stock of where we were and accept the fact that, you know, many of those assumptions are no longer holding and it's time for a new strategy.
INSKEEP: Danielle Pletka, you get the last word.
PLETKA: I think that the financial challenges are going to be very substantial. I think that there is a substantial and growing majority of people in the United States and especially in our government in both parties who really do want to see the United States turn inward. It's going to be a challenge for every one of us who believes in internationalism and the opportunity to hide behind the budget is a golden one for those who are neo-isolationists.
INSKEEP: Vali Nasr is a former advisor to the Obama administration and among other things, is dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Thanks very much for coming by.
NASR: Thank you.
INSKEEP: And Danielle Pletka is a vice president of foreign defense policy at the American Enterprise Institute. Good to talk with you also.
PLETKA: Always a pleasure.
INSKEEP: And you've been hearing them both right here on MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
In a Colorado courtroom, prosecutors have begun laying out their case against James Holmes. He is the accused gunman in a mass shooting at an Aurora, Colorado movie theater last July. That shooting left 12 people dead and scores injured. Holmes is now charged with 166 counts of murder, attempted murder, and other offenses.
Yesterday a packed courtroom listened to emotional testimony by police and medical examiners about the scene they found inside the theater. Colorado Public Radio's Megan Verlee is covering the pre-trial hearing and she's with us to talk about it. Good morning.
MEGAN VERLEE, BYLINE: Morning.
MONTAGNE: Tell us what the scene was that these first responders described when they arrived at the theater.
VERLEE: Well, they described a very chaotic scene - victims running, screaming from the theater. The first testimony yesterday came from Jason Oviatt, a patrol officer who was one of the first on the scene. He described running toward the back door of theater nine with his gun drawn, seeing a man standing by a white car whom he mistook for a police officer at first because he was wearing a gasmask and tactical gear.
And then as he got closer, Oviatt said he realized that the man was not joining in the scene the way everyone else was. He wasn't running towards anything. And that man turned out to be James Holmes. Apparently Oviatt and other officers were able to arrest him with very little incident. Holmes was quite compliant. They didn't get any sense of why he walked away from the attack in the theater.
That's still a question mark after yesterday's testimony. We also heard officers describe going into the theater and it seems like that was quite a horrific scene. One described nearly slipping because there was so much blood on the floor of the theater.
And they said they had to be shout to be heard inside; it was so loud from the screams of victims, from the sound of the movie, and from the sounds of dozens and dozens of cell phones people had apparently left behind when they fled, all ringing with concerned family members and friends calling them.
MONTAGNE: I gather there was evidence suggesting premeditation on the part of James Holmes.
VERLEE: That is something that prosecutors want to prove in this case. Apparently he purchased his movie ticket on July 8, almost two weeks before the attack. They also described in detail the tactical gear that he'd had to order and the numbers of magazines and ammunition clips that he had brought into the theater.
MONTAGNE: Now, the hearing continues today. What is expected?
VERLEE: I think we'll hear more law enforcement officers. That's definitely the backbone of the prosecution. Yesterday they really got through the murder charges. Today I think we're going to hear the attempted murder charges, of which there are more than 100. So we've got law enforcement officers talking about interviewing victims, the kind of injuries victims had, the memories that they recounted of the attack. And I think we're just going to hear a lot of those through the course of the day.
MONTAGNE: This, of course, is a preliminary hearing. James Holmes has not entered a plea yet. What is expected? Because there has been a lot of talk about an insanity defense.
VERLEE: I think that's what everyone watching this case proceed to trial expects him to plead. It's very likely that the District Attorney may pursue a death penalty case, in which case the not guilty by reason of insanity is one way that he can avoid that. You could see the defense potentially laying out some of the groundwork for that in the hearing yesterday.
They questioned Oviatt closely about Holmes' demeanor, that he did appear detached from events, that he did appear detached from events, that he apparently was disheveled and smelled very unwashed, that his pupils were giant and dilated. So even though they haven't entered that plea yet, you can see them starting to try and shape some of that as this preliminary hearing goes on.
MONTAGNE: Megan Verlee is a reporter with Colorado Public Radio. Thanks very much.
VERLEE: Thank you.
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
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This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. The good news for Notre Dame fans is that they should be well rested this morning. They had no reason to stay up late last night. Alabama took the fight out of the Irish, 42-14, defeating the previously undefeated team and winning the BCS championship. NPR's Tom Goldman was at the game in Miami.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: I know. I know. Rule number one in sports is it ain't over till it's over. Till the gun sounds. Till the fat lady sings. But with only four seconds gone in the second quarter last night, it sure seemed like the fat lady was warming up.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERS)
GOLDMAN: Alabama running back T. J. Yeldon's one yard score made it 21 to nothing. And it made the Crimson Tide three for three. They'd had the ball three times. Each time they scored a touchdown. Those gaudy regular season stats for the Notre Dame defense - 10.3 points per game allowed, best in the nation - the stats were being obliterated by the guys in red and white who were living out the team slogan: Roll tide.
After another score made it 28 to nothing at halftime, a disheartened Paul Froning, Notre Dame class of 1992, pondered possible second half adjustments.
PAUL FRONING: They have to establish something at the line of scrimmage. They have to calm down and they need to stop doing stupid stuff.
GOLDMAN: His wife Kim chose the religious route, this being Notre Dame and all.
KIM FRONING: I was saying the rosary in there.
P. FRONING: Yeah. It didn't work.
K. FRONING: It didn't work. But it can't hurt at this point.
P. FRONING: You've got to work on your time in purgatory or something.
GOLDMAN: The team's time in purgatory was just getting started. Another Alabama touchdown in the third quarter and the stat guys started getting silly with the numbers. Alabama, they announced, went 107 minutes and seven seconds over three BCS title games, in 2010, 2012, and last night, without letting their opponent score.
Even though Notre Dame did eventually score, it was clear long before the end that Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban was going to get questions about the D-word. In a post-game press conference, Saban said he's not interested in words like dynasty. But the often sour-looking coaching whiz did let his coiffed hair down a bit.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
NICK SABAN: You know, whether I look it or not, I'm happy as hell.
GOLDMAN: So how did this lopsided game happen? Sitting in the Notre Dame locker room, 326-pound defensive lineman Louis Nix said the Fighting Irish didn't play their game. They missed tackles. When asked why, Nix showed he's been paying attention in philosophy class.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
LOUIS NIX: Can you tell me why we're on Earth? Can you tell me what is gravity? How do you know it exists? You know, I can't explain it. We missed tackles and that's it, so...
GOLDMAN: Alabama center Barrett Jones had a pretty good explanation. He says Nix and the other Notre Dame defenders are really good at shedding blockers on the opposing offensive line, thus making it easier to tackle the opposing running backs. Jones says the Alabama offensive linemen did a great job of sticking to the Notre Dame defenders.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
BARRETT JONES: We really just worked on getting our hands inside and really locking onto them and we were able to make some big plays because of that. Because our backs are strong enough to run through arm tackles.
GOLDMAN: Those running backs breaking through arm tackles, T. J. Yeldon and Eddie Lacy, gained a combined 248 yards and scored two touchdowns. Jones says during the game, Notre Dame defenders were saying those guys are awesome. Barrett Jones says that goes for his quarterback, A.J. McCarron, as well.
Jones shoved McCarron when McCarron yelled at him late in the game. Jones said afterwards, no worries, they love each other - just competitive guys trying to do what no team had done for 15 years - win three titles in four seasons and have the sporting world call you a dynasty. Even if you don't like the term. Tom Goldman, NPR News, Miami.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Let's take a moment to remember the writer Richard Ben Cramer. He died Monday in Baltimore of complications from lung cancer at the age of 62.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Cramer's books include a 1,000-page work on the 1988 presidential campaign, called "What It Takes."
MONTAGNE: Though it was panned at first, it became essential reading for anyone learning about politics. He profiled candidates like Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis and George H.W. Bush.
INSKEEP: With rare depth and energy, Cramer tracked the lifelong struggles that drove one man to the White House and drove other candidates excruciatingly close before they came away with nothing. He wrote of the way a losing candidate is thrown back on himself and forced to find a way to go on.
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, with a story of an actual lone wolf. He's called OR7, because he was the seventh gray wolf in Oregon outfitted with a GPS tracking collar. Unlike most gray wolves, he strayed far from home, down to California, where he's roamed thousands of miles. Though he does get along with coyotes here, scientists say OR7 may be looking for a new pack or mate. But they don't think he'll get lucky, since the last gray wolf seen here was back in 1924.
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. A Chinese man worried his son spent too much playing online video games. He was especially worried because the 23-year-old was out of work. So the father went online and hired virtual assassins to kill his son's avatar. He hoped his son would give up and get a job. A gamer's blog reports the son discovered the plot, asking his attackers why they whacked him every time he logged in. He told his father he's just waiting for the right job. It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The town of Encinitas, California is aiming to enhance the performance of its students through yoga. Yoga studios in the coastal town, just north of San Diego, are as prevalent as Starbucks outlets in other American cities. In fact it's known as the yoga capital of America. So when yoga became part of school gym classes there, few people took notice. But one group of parents is protesting now. They say the classes promote Hinduism.
Here's Kyla Calvert of member station KPBS.
KYLA CALVERT, BYLINE: It's the first period of the day at Olivenhain Pioneer Elementary School, and Kristen McCloskey is leading about two dozen third graders through some familiar yoga poses.
KRISTEN MCCLOSKEY: All right, let's do our opening sequence A. Everyone take a big inhale, lift those arms up. Look up.
(SOUNDBITE OF CLAPPING)
CALVERT: At the end of the half-hour class, eight-year-old Jacob Hagen says he feels ready for the rest of his day.
JACOB HAGEN: Because you get to stretch out and it's good to be the first class because it wakes you up.
CALVERT: Schools across the country are focusing more on teaching students to make healthy choices. And Encinitas superintendent Tim Baird says yoga is just one part of the district's physical education curriculum.
TIM BAIRD: We also have a nutrition program, we also have a life skills program where kids learn about perseverance and responsibility.
CALVERT: The whole wellness program is supported by a half-million-dollar grant from the K.P. Jois Foundation. The Encinitas-based group promotes a kind of yoga called Ashtanga. It's also paying for researchers at the Universities of San Diego and Virginia to study whether the yoga classes affect things like attendance, behavior and student achievement.
But, when Mary Eady visited a yoga class at her son's school last year, she saw much more than a fitness program.
MARY EADY: They were being taught to thank the sun for their lives and the warmth that it brought, the life that it brought to the earth, and they were told to do that right before they did their sun salutation exercises.
CALVERT: Eady says those are religious teachings, so she opted her son out of the classes. And the more she reads about the Jois Foundation and its founders' beliefs in the spiritual benefits of Ashtanga yoga, the more convinced Eady is that it can't be separated from its Hindu roots.
EADY: It's stated in the curriculum that it's meant to shape the way that they view the world, it's meant to shape the way that they make life decisions. It's meant to shape the way that they regulate their emotions and the way that they view themselves.
DEAN BROYLES: And then the question becomes, if it is religious - which it is - who decides when enough religion has been stripped out of the program to make it legal?
CALVERT: That's Dean Broyles, lead attorney with the conservative Christian National Center for Law and Policy.
BROYLES: I mean that's the problem when you introduce religion into the curriculum and actually immerse and marinate children in the program.
CALVERT: Broyles is working with Eady and other Encinitas parents who want the classes made completely voluntary and moved to before or after the school day. They say school officials haven't responded to their specific concerns.
But what's being taught in the yoga program is typical of athletics programs for kids, says K.P. Jois Foundation director Eugene Ruffin.
EUGENE RUFFIN: They provide you with the exercise and the motivation for children and then they give you character exercises - thou shalt not steal, thou shall be honest, thou shall be respectful to adults.
CALVERT: Ruffin says those ideals aren't specific to Hinduism and don't conflict with his own Catholic upbringing.
Despite the controversy, most parents are happy with the classes, including Monique Cocco, who says her children certainly aren't learning about Hinduism.
MONIQUE COCCO: Absolutely not - no. What my daughter tells me is she did the pancake today and she lays down and then she cracks up because it's so funny.
CALVERT: Cocco hears from teachers that kids are calmer and more focused after yoga. And the school district says it's moving forward with plans to have the classes taught at all nine Encinitas schools this academic year.
For NPR News, I'm Kyla Calvert in San Diego.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The inner workings of government infuriate many Americans, but just now, the inner workings of China's government are fascinating to many Chinese. Chinese customers are buying a lot of books about Machiavellian office politics. You could call this genre bureaucracy lit, if you like, and aside from the entertainment value, aspiring civil servants read these books as how-to guides for their careers.
NPR's Louisa Lim has been studying this subject and compiled five secrets of success in China. Think of this as her audio book.
(SOUNDBITE OF PAPER RUSTLING)
LOUISA LIM, BYLINE: Lesson one: cultivate your connections. A friend of mine is a lower-level civil servant. His boss had a passion for soccer, and so the entire office was soccer-mad, playing games every week, watching overseas matches together, talking about the sport constantly. All of a sudden, the boss was transferred and a new one came in, whose love was photography. Immediately, all the underlings were snapping photos and buying expensive camera equipment with office funds. Soccer was never mentioned again.
Wang Xiaofang, the author of 13 bureaucracy lit books, describes why cultivating official connections is so important.
WANG XIAOFANG: (Through translator) Even the dogs and chickens of government officials go to heaven. Our officials, once they get power, they have power for life. This system of bureaucracy and power worship has become our cultural tradition. It's inside our bones.
LIM: Lesson two: learn to compromise, even if it makes you uncomfortable. The ultimate example is described in Wang's book, "The Civil Servant's Notebook." The fictional Old Leader is a fan of the Urine Cure. To show loyalty, his unfortunate underling overcomes his own disgust and drinks his own urine for five years. He's rewarded with a promotion.
The tightrope all aspiring civil servants must walk was described to me by Wang Yuewen, who started the craze for officialdom lit in 1999 with his novel, "Ink Painting."
WANG YUEWEN: (Through translator) China is a country where the reality is so powerful that the individual feels insignificant. So anyone with a sense of morality must learn to compromise with reality and find ways of getting things done without violating their bottom-line.
LIM: Lesson three, and this is key: Pick your camp well. Wang Xiaofang's real life story is an object lesson in the danger of ending up in the wrong camp. He spent almost two years as secretary to the deputy mayor of Shenyang, Ma Xiangdong. In 2001, Ma Xiangdong was found guilty of bribery and gambling away $3 million of public money. Ma was executed by lethal injection. Author Wang spent three years under investigation before being exonerated.
XIAOFANG: (Through translator) It was spiritual purgatory. When I was going through that political storm, there were three years when I didn't have any work. I had to wait and help with the investigations. It was soul-destroying. My friends were gone. It was very painful.
LIM: This brings us to lesson four: Know when to step away. After that experience, Wang Xiaofang left the civil service and became a writer. One character in his book describes the pressures on officials as being more than their flesh-and-blood bodies can withstand.
His fellow author, Wang Yuewen, lost his job after his first book came out. He warns that little lies end up having huge consequences.
YUEWEN: (Through translator) Telling lies, fakery and falsification of official statistics has become a national disaster. If it's not stopped, it could bring about a national catastrophe.
LIM: Lesson five: Take the long view. Wang Xiaofang hasn't published a book in two years. He has three finished novels ready to go, but no Chinese publisher dares touch them due to the political sensitivity surrounding the transition of power to a new generation of leaders. But he's still writing, onto his fourth unpublished book, quietly hopeful that one day, the political winds will change.
Louisa Lim, NPR news, Beijing.
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The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments today in a case testing whether police must get a warrant before forcing someone suspected of drunk driving to get a blood test. The high court has long held that search warrants are ordinarily required when government officials order intrusions into the body, such as drawing blood from an unwilling individual. But the court has also ruled that there can be exceptions during certain emergencies. Today's case from Missouri tests how broad the definition of an emergency may be. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports.
NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: Tyler McNeely was driving 56 miles an hour in a 45 mile-an-hour zone at 2:00 in the morning when he was stopped by state highway Patrolman Mark Winder. The officer administered four field sobriety tests. McNeely failed all of them, and when he refused to submit to a breathalyzer test, he was arrested and taken to a hospital, where he also refused to allow his blood to be drawn. Although Officer Winder in the past had gotten a warrant without difficulty in such situations, he didn't try to get one this time. He ordered the blood drawn. It showed alcohol well above the legal limit, and McNeely was charged with driving under the influence. At trial, though, the judge threw out the blood test because it was obtained without a warrant. The Missouri State Supreme Court unanimously agreed, noting that there were no events that would have interfered with getting a warrant; there was no accident to investigate, no injury requiring medical attention, and a judge was on call to review a warrant application quickly. The state court said that under these circumstances there was no justification for failure to get a warrant before forcing an unwilling suspect to have his blood drawn. The state of Missouri appealed, contending that because alcohol dissipates in the bloodstream over time, that alone constitutes an emergency situation that justifies forcing a blood draw without a warrant.
JOHN KOESTER: In the context of a drunk driving investigation, I think that it is a minimal intrusion.
TOTENBERG: John Koester is assistant prosecuting attorney in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
KOESTER: Our main point is that under the exigent circumstances exception, when we know for certain that important, reliable and probative evidence is in the process of being destroyed, a search warrant is not necessary because during any delay to obtain a search warrant you're allowing the best evidence of the crime to dissipate and be destroyed.
TOTENBERG: But the ACLU's Steven Shapiro, representing Tyler McNeely, counters that alcohol dissipates over a matter of hours, and that here, where there was no emergency events that could have interfered, a warrant could have been quickly obtained.
STEVEN SHAPIRO: And the arresting officer testified he'd never had problems getting warrants in the past.
TOTENBERG: Indeed, Officer Winder testified that the only reason he didn't get a warrant was that he'd seen an opinion from the state prosecutor's office saying that warrants were unnecessary in routine cases. That contradicted an opinion from the county attorney's office and a state police legal advisory. The ACLU's Shapiro explains the reason for the warrant this way.
SHAPIRO: For the police to order medical professionals to put a needle into your arm and take blood is a fairly significant both intrusion on your privacy and your bodily integrity, and that ought not to be a decision that the police are making without review by a judge.
TOTENBERG: Indeed, he observes, warrants can and were obtained in other cases in a half-hour or less, and a majority of states do require such warrants. He also notes that McNeely's refusal to agree to the blood test is not without consequences, since the refusal can be used as evidence against him at trial. The Obama administration, however, backs up Missouri in its contention that the need for quick blood-alcohol testing outweighs any individual privacy interest. Time, the government argues, is of the essence, since a person's blood alcohol starts to dissipate after he or she stops drinking. The government notes that in 2010 over 10,000 people were killed in motor vehicle accidents that involved alcohol-impaired drivers. That's one death every 51 minutes. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The results of this year's National Baseball Hall of Fame voting will be revealed later today. Now, I'm giving the exit polling. It appears that both Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens - as well as other candidates stained by accusations of steroid use - will not be admitted.
Here's sports commentator Frank Deford.
FRANK DEFORD, BYLINE: Among other reasons for not voting for them, I would suspect that Lance Armstrong is bound to have some carryover effect. At a certain point, when the circumstantial evidence for drug use is so compelling, who can possibly believe these guys?
Of course, on the other hand, you may subscribe to the belief that through all the eons of humankind on this Earth, only a handful of baseball players circa the end of the 20th century learned the secret of how to get stronger naturally, even as their bodies aged.
And, after all, it isn't as if the Hall of Fame voters are obliged to employ the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard. It's just a matter of denying somebody an honor. And given all the reasonable, reasonable doubt involved, that seems like a fair enough penalty to assess to the cheaters.
Good grief, they won't let Pete Rose, the player, into Cooperstown for breaking baseball law, even though what he was convicted occurred years after he was finished as a player. But unfortunately, Bonds and Clemens and their colleagues under suspicion can remain on ballot purgatory for as much as another 14 years, which will be even worse than having to periodically go through the interminable debate about raising the debt ceiling.
It's too bad, too, because arguing who gets into Halls of Fame used to be a bit of fun, except perhaps for the poor devils whose Hall-worthiness is being scrutinized. There is, for example, a very good pitcher from the 1980s, Jack Morris, who is in no way suspected of taking drugs. And Mr. Morris has become a serious candidate for admission this year. You think Chuck Hagel is going to be under a microscope just because he's up for a little Cabinet position? For weeks now, the breakdown of every ball and strike that poor Jack Morris ever threw has been dissected, diagnosed, critiqued and spread-sheeted.
You can't believe the minutiae that sports numbers freaks can come up with. Yes, once upon a time, sports history was made up of too much mythology. But now, never mind myth, even all the breath has been squeezed out of it, and sports history has been reduced to dueling statistics.
(LAUGHTER)
DEFORD: Well, except for those statistics during that benighted drug period when everything was skewed and the area of a baseball circle was pi-r-quadrupled.
The irony of it all - whether it is honest players like Jack Morris or the steroid suspects who are being considered - is that Marvin Miller, the labor leader, the single-most important person in baseball history who never wore a uniform, went to his grave recently after, once again, being rejected by the Hall.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: Commentary from Frank Deford, who joins us each Wednesday from member station WSHU in Connecticut.
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
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This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
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We're getting into the time of year when colleges pick their next freshman class. Schools are always on the lookout for bright kids from poor families. They want to increase the diversity on campus.
That's not always so easy though. And NPR's science correspondent Shankar Vedantam has been looking at some research that tries to understand why.
Hi, Shankar.
SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK, students at top universities tend to come from wealthy families, upper income families; that's the trend. What makes it so hard to break that trend?
VEDANTAM: Well, colleges have been trying very, very hard over the years to try and change that trend. So colleges send out people to the top high schools and they try and recruit students and say please apply to our institution. Many are offering very generous incentive programs. So a couple of years ago, for example, Harvard said if your family income is under $40,000, you cannot only get free tuition at Harvard, you can get free room and board.
I spoke with Caroline Hoxby. She's an economist at Stanford University. And I asked her what effect this incentive had on the enrollment of high achieving poor students at Harvard. Here's what she told me.
CAROLINE HOXBY: Well, enrollment didn't change very much. The number of students whose families had income below that threshold changed by only about 15 students, and the class at Harvard is about 1,650 freshmen.
INSKEEP: Wow, that's less than a one percent change, and you've taken the economics totally out of this. It's basically free to go to Harvard and they still don't have high achieving students showing up in any numbers.
VEDANTAM: Yeah, it was incredibly frustrating. And some college administrators told Hoxby that they had reluctantly come to the conclusion that there were only so many high achieving low income students, that it was a fixed pool, which is why increasing the incentives didn't make a difference really in the enrollment rate.
Hoxby said she decided to conduct a study and she said she started by asking herself what are the constraints that might keep a school from learning about a highly qualified student from a poor family?
HOXBY: The students whom they see are the students who apply. And if a student does not apply to any selective college or university, it's impossible for admissions staff to see that they are out there.
VEDANTAM: So what Hoxby found in her study is that the vast majority, 70 percent of low income high achieving students who end up going to these top colleges, they come from 15 metropolitan areas. So if you're a student at Stuyvesant in New York or Thomas Jefferson in Northern Virginia, these are high schools where you have college counselors. You have, if you're a kid, you see lots of peers going off to top colleges. College staff come to visit.
There's a whole process that encourages you to apply to these top colleges. And Hoxby and her colleague, Christopher Avery, find that if you're a high achieving low income student at one of these high schools, your odds of going to a top college are close to 100 percent. But if you're a high achieving low income student outside one of these metropolitan areas, your odds of going to these top colleges really plummets.
HOXBY: Imagine a student who is the only student who is a likely candidate for a place like Harvard or Stanford or University of Chicago, and he's not just the only student in his or her high school, but he's the only student that that high school has graduated like that in, say, three or four years.
VEDANTAM: So the thing to remember, Steve, is that there are 42,000 high schools in the United States. And what Hoxby and her colleague are finding is that outside of these big metropolitan areas, there is actually a vast reservoir of high achieving low income students who would be very good fits for the top colleges but are simply not applying.
INSKEEP: But they're in Indiana. They're in Kansas, wherever, and they don't have the connections or the expectations, you're saying, to even apply in the first place.
VEDANTAM: That's exactly right, that there isn't a mechanism, there isn't a social mechanism, there isn't a peer group that basically says this is what you do when you have grades that are this good.
INSKEEP: So what are colleges going to do about that?
VEDANTAM: Well, Hoxby is trying to come up with a way to reach the students. And she's actually conducting a separate study where she basically says let me take results from the SAT or the other standardized tests, which can identify these highly qualified students; and let me try and find a way to reach out to them. And so she's conducting a study where she's reaching out to the students and explaining to them, you have options to go to these top colleges.
Just because the sticker price at Harvard says 40,000 or 50,000 dollars a year, that doesn't mean that's what you will have to pay. For you the price might actually be zero.
She's not saying, by the way, that every one of these students has to be applying to an Ivy League college. But what she is saying is these students need to understand what their options are.
INSKEEP: There needs to be some micro-targeting.
VEDANTAM: Exactly.
INSKEEP: Shankar, thanks very much.
VEDANTAM: Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Shankar Vedantam. You follow him on Twitter @hiddenbrain. You follow this program @morningedition, @nprgreene, @nprinskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
When President John F. Kennedy was inaugurated in 1961, Robert Frost was asked to recite a poem. He wrote a new poem for the occasion called "Dedication." But when the time came for Frost to recite it, the glare of the snow kept him from reading the faint words on the page, so Frost recited another one of his poems from memory.
"The Gift Outright" spoke of how Americans came to posses this land, ending this way.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
MONTAGNE: Robert Frost, improvising there at the JFK inauguration. Frost was the first. Since then, only three other poets have taken part in inaugurations: Maya Angelou, Miller Williams and Elizabeth Alexander. Today, the Presidential Inaugural Committee announces this year's poet: Richard Blanco. A child of Cuban exiles, he's the first Hispanic and gay poet to be so honored, and he joined us to talk about it.
Welcome to the program.
RICHARD BLANCO: Hello, Renee. How are you?
MONTAGNE: I'm fine, thank you. This must be very exciting for you.
BLANCO: Oh, as you can imagine, I'm beyond - beside myself still, even though it's been a few weeks since I found out. I got a text message from my agent, who is usually very calm and very well-together fellow. And he texted me and said, you need to call me immediately. So luckily, I got in a traffic jam, and I was able to call him and I heard the news.
And, of course, it took me 10 minutes still of just being stunned, just thinking about my parents and my grandparents and all the struggles that they've been through, and how here I am, first-generation Cuban-American, and this great honor that has just come to me, and just feeling that sense of incredible gratitude and love.
MONTAGNE: Have you started writing the poem?
BLANCO: Well, I think I started writing it right there in my head on the way back home. Images started coming to me. What's interesting - as I think every inaugural poet has said - it's a very difficult assignment because it is an occasional poem. But writing about America is a topic that obsesses me in terms of cultural negotiation and my background as a Cuban-American. And so it wasn't a completely unfamiliar topic, except it's always been from a very deeply sort of personal, familial, lots of family lore and things like this.
So it's a subject I felt somewhat comfortable, but the challenge of it was how to maintain sort of that sense of intimacy and that conversational tone in a poem that obviously has to sort of encompass a whole lot more than just my family and my experience.
MONTAGNE: You weren't born in America. Tell us about that journey.
BLANCO: Well, as my sort of little tongue-in-cheek bio says, I was made in Cuba, assembled in Spain and imported to the United States, which means my mother left - she was seven months pregnant with me when she left Cuba. And at that time, in 1968, since there were no diplomatic relations, everybody had to go through what they called a third country. So we ended up in Spain.
Forty-five days later, I was born, and a few weeks after that, we got in a plane and immigrated once more to New York City. So by the time I was about two or three months old, I had figuratively and literally been in three countries, and could probably have claimed citizenship in any one of the three at that moment. And then eventually, when I was about three or four, we settled down in Miami.
And it's kind of, you know, as I look back on my life, as we all do, you kind of think: Is this some kind ironic or some kind of foreshadowing, of course, of what my work as a poet would be obsessed with? This whole idea of place and identity and what's home and what's not home, and which is in some ways such an American question that we're - we've been asking since, you know, since Whitman, trying to put that finger on America.
MONTAGNE: You do have a poem called "America," which tackles this complex world that you grew up in. I'd like you to read a few lines from it, just to know it's - you might give us a little explanation. It's from the point of view of a seven-year-old whose Cuban family always serves pork and yucca on Thanksgiving.
BLANCO: Right. And so this poem is sort of an angst, and that plea by the seven-year-old child that we have Thanksgiving the way it's supposed to be.
(Reading) A week before Thanksgiving, I explained to my abuelita about the Indians and the Mayflower, how Lincoln set the slaves free. I explained to my parents about the purple mountain's majesty, one if by land, two if by sea, the cherry tree, the tea party, the amber waves of grain, the masses yearning to be free, liberty and justice for all, until finally they agreed: this Thanksgiving we would have turkey, as well as pork.
(LAUGHTER)
BLANCO: So that was - and that's always what I've always had to negotiate. I mean, to this day, my mom will make a turkey, but she always has a backup pork roast in the oven, just in case, for those that don't eat turkey.
(LAUGHTER)
MONTAGNE: Four years ago, the inauguration of the first black president was a moment that was filled with history. As someone who writes a lot about cultural identity in America, do you think that that milestone has brought about any changes in our society four years later?
BLANCO: The immediate answer is, I think, yes. Specific changes - maybe again, in the way I look at the world as an artist - I don't know if it's something in the air that I definitely feel is different. I do remember that historic moment, and I remember thinking to myself it was one of the proudest moments I ever had as far as being proud of America in the sense of, like, I remember thinking to myself, you did it, America.
My life in America sort of feel a lot more open to possibility, and a lot more sort of dreaming a lot more of who I can be and what I can do. And proof is in the pudding, you know, in the sense of being here, an inaugural poet for this momentous occasion and the first Latino. I think that kind of mindset is contagious, and I think it's something that many people feel in the air.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for joining us, and congratulations.
BLANCO: Well, thank you, Renee. It's been a pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: That's poet Richard Blanco. Today, the Presidential Inauguration Committee announces he will be reading a poem especially composed to usher in the president's second term.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Hopefully, he'll be able to read the paper in the sun. The lineup for the inauguration was filled out a little further yesterday. Myrlie Evers-Williams will deliver the invocation at the ceremonial swearing in on January 21st. She's the widow of civil rights icon Medgar Evers, who was murdered outside their home in Mississippi 50 years ago. This is the first time that a woman will deliver the inaugural invocation, and it's also the first time that the prayer will not be delivered by a member of the clergy.
MONTAGNE: The benediction, however, will be delivered by a minister. Louie Giglio is the pastor of the Passion City Church in Atlanta. He's the founder of Passion Conferences, which holds annual spiritual gatherings aimed at young adults. Giglio is also a YouTube sensation, thanks to a sermon called "How Great is Our God." In the viral hit, he explores wonders of the science and preaches that they are evidence of God's grace. This is NPR News.
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And I'm Renee Montagne. Good morning. Weeks before President Obama officially nominated Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense, at a point when Hagel's name was just being floated, the lobbying battle was underway. That fight may be bigger than any other Cabinet nomination in history, as both friends and foes of the former Republican senator prepare to do battle on TV and the Internet. NPR's Peter Overby reports.
PETER OVERBY, BYLINE: As important as confirming a defense secretary might be, this Senate vote will come wrapped in all sorts of other issues, too. A win is critically important for President Obama. Last month, a conservative campaign demolished the chances of his apparent choice for secretary of state, Susan Rice.
Aaron David Miller of the Woodrow Wilson International Center is a former Middle East advisor to Democratic and Republican presidents.
AARON DAVID MILLER: It may be stormy. It may be a difficult fight, but the president has to win on this one. On the other side, I think the criticism is heightened by several factors.
OVERBY: For one thing, Republicans want to forge a more openly assertive foreign policy than the Obama administration has employed. And another thing: Many pro-Israel groups don't trust the president's instincts on Israel, which lead to this, the first TV ad of the anti-Hagel campaign.
(SOUNDBITE OF POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT)
OVERBY: The ad came from the Emergency Committee for Israel, a group organized by conservative leader William Kristol. It was a low-budget effort, just two days on cable in Washington, D.C. Michael Goldfarb, an advisor to the committee, says they're not worried about financing more messages.
MICHAEL GOLDFARB: You know, honestly, I expect that people are going to be coming to us looking to support our activities on this front, but right now, I think we have enough money in the bank to at least get started.
OVERBY: A more surprising attack came from a small national gay organization, the Log Cabin Republicans. They ran two full-page ads in the New York Times and the Washington Post. The group attacked Hagel, not only on gay rights - which he opposed as a senator 15 years ago - but also over things he had said about U.S. policy toward Israel and Iran.
Gregory Angelo, the group's interim director, said it's not unreasonable for the Log Cabin Republicans to branch out from their core issues.
GREGORY ANGELO: The fact is that there are some Log Cabin Republicans who put equality issues first and foremost, and there are some who put other issues first.
OVERBY: Issues, he said, such as small government, low taxes, a strong national defense.
ANGELO: And Log Cabin Republicans has forever been these two types of gay Republicans that have been coexisting.
OVERBY: Angelo declined to discuss how the group raised money for the ads. There's a similar effort mobilizing to support Hagel, but it's lagging several steps behind. A group of establishment foreign policy leaders, called the Bipartisan Group, put a pro-Hagel ad in the New York Times. It also ran small messages in a daily email published by Politico. The funding came from a longtime liberal donor, Bill Benter of Pittsburgh. Again, the topic was the Middle East. The Bipartisan Group said no one has been more steadfast than Hagel in supporting the U.S. commitment to Israel.
Brent Scowcroft was among the 11 signatories to the letter. He was national security advisor to two Republican presidents, and he's known Hagel for years.
BRENT SCOWCROFT: I will say what I think about Chuck Hagel to anybody who asks, but I don't consider myself a part of a campaign.
OVERBY: And while some of this is starting to resemble a political campaign, there is a critical difference. The electorate here is tiny: the U.S. Senate. And for the senators, it's just not a political equation. Aaron David Miller of the Wilson Center says that gives President Obama a bit of an edge.
MILLER: Unless his critics - and, here, we're talking about Republicans in the Senate - have a compelling case to deny a sitting, reelected, second-term president, his choice of Secretary of Defense, then Chuck Hagel will be confirmed.
OVERBY: But before that vote comes, the money is going to flow to political consultants and TV stations. Peter Overby, NPR News, Washington.
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And I'm Renee Montagne.
New York State already has some of the nation's toughest gun laws. And today Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to propose far-reaching new gun control measures during his State of the State address.
Getting those reforms through the state legislature may be another matter, as NPR's Joel Rose reports.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Ever since the shootings in neighboring Connecticut, Governor Cuomo has been saying he wants New York to pass tougher gun laws - starting by tightening up loopholes in the state's current laws.
(SOUNDBITE OF RADIO SHOW)
ROSE: Cuomo was interviewed last month on the Albany radio show of Fred Dicker, who's also a columnist for the New York Post. Dicker's show is often a friendly venue for the governor, which made their tense exchange about guns stand out even more.
At a press conference this week, Cuomo acknowledged that reshaping New York State's gun laws won't be easy.
: It is a very divisive topic. I can tell you - by the people who come up on the street and what they say, there's a lot of energy on both sides. Some people are vehemently against it. And some people think we've lost our minds by not passing it.
ROSE: Exactly what Cuomo will propose today is not clear. Speculation has focused on a ban on high-volume ammunition clips, and tighter regulation of semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15 Bushmaster rifle used in the Newtown shootings. That gun is currently produced at a factory in upstate New York.
Gun rights advocates here say the governor is taking the wrong approach. Tom King is president of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association.
TOM KING: Passing gun control legislation is an easy way of saying, hey, here we are, we're protecting you. Look what we've done. We're going to take these bad guns off the street. In fact, they're not. I know they're not. You know, the politicians know they're not. And any thinking person knows that that's not going to work.
ROSE: King supports an alternative plan to combat gun violence that was put forward over the weekend by Republicans in the state Senate. Their plan would focus on mental health, and on creating tougher penalties for buying, selling or using illegal guns.
It also has support from Michael Long, the influential chairman of the state's Conservative Party.
MICHAEL LONG: Certainly people in upstate New York feel very strongly about right to protect their property. And if they're law-abiding citizens, I don't see why we go after them. I think we ought to keep our focus on the criminal element and the people that use guns illegally.
ROSE: The Republican plan would place no new restrictions on the sale of guns, including the AR-15 rifle used in Newtown. But Governor Cuomo, a Democrat, says that doesn't go far enough.
: It misses the mark, pardon the pun, to put out a plan that doesn't ban assault weapons, with what we've seen.
ROSE: Jackie Hilly, director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, agrees. Hilly says the state's gun laws aren't as tough as New Yorkers may think they are.
JACKIE HILLY: The gun that was used in Connecticut is a gun that is legal in New York. And it's made in New York. And it is available without a background check, and you don't even have to have a license for it. I don't care where you live, whether it's Long Island or Utica, people would be shocked by that and want that law to be changed.
ROSE: That's what Governor Andrew Cuomo must be hoping as he prepares to give his State of the State speech today.
: I try to build political support. I believe if you build political support among the people, then the politicians follow. I think if you look at the track record we've had, that's the way it's worked.
ROSE: In his first two years in office, Governor Cuomo used that formula to get a lot of what he wanted from the legislature. But he's never put new gun laws near the top of his wish list before.
Joel Rose, NPR News, New York.
MONTAGNE: In related news yesterday, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal announced he will introduce legislation requiring instant background checks for people buying ammunition. Currently, background checks are only required for the sale of guns. Blumenthal told reporters that ammunition sales are, quote, "the black hole in gun violence prevention."
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie is a little less vocal about the lack of federal aid after Hurricane Sandy - a little less vocal, but not a lot.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Last week, the Republican governor denounced his own party's leaders in the House of Representatives. They declined to vote on Storm Aid, as the last Congress expired last week.
INSKEEP: House Republicans promised their moving now, but the job is not done, and yesterday Governor Christie delivered his annual State of the State speech.
NPR's Jeff Brady reports.
JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: Governor Christie said last week that he felt betrayed after fellow Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives failed to advance all of a $60 billion Sandy aid package. Yesterday in Trenton, Christie didn't specifically mention his GOP colleagues on Capitol Hill but he did talk about the 72 days his state has waited for federal help.
GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE: Seven times longer than the victims of Hurricane Katrina waited. And one thing I hope everyone in America now clearly understands, New Jersey, both Republicans and Democrats, will never stand silent when our citizens are being shortchanged.
BRADY: Christie's speech contained no new policy objectives. It was designed to boost morale in a state where he said 346,000 homes were damaged or destroyed by Sandy. Christie told stories of heroic New Jersey residents, like emergency room technician Marsha Hedgepeth.
CHRISTIE: Facing several feet of water on her flooded street, she swam - she swam - to higher ground; then she hitchhiked with a utility worker from Michigan.
BRADY: The governor says it was her day off but that Hedgepeth made it to the hospital and worked a 12-hour shift. Christie also praised the 17,000 utility workers who came from around the country to restore power after the storm. But the big message remained a call for federal aid and fairness.
CHRISTIE: We stood, we have stood with the citizens of Florida and Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, Iowa and Vermont, California and Missouri in their times of need. Now, I trust they will stand with us.
BRADY: Among the applauding lawmakers were a few mayors from hard-hit Jersey shore communities.
MAYOR DINA LONG: In terms of what I heard today about his speech, I would say that there was not a lot of specifics offered.
BRADY: Dina Long is mayor of Sea Bright, New Jersey.
LONG: We have had lots of moral support in the days post-Sandy, and unfortunately the financial support hasn't shown up yet. And so that's what we hope for in the days ahead.
BRADY: Nearby is Tom Kelaher, mayor of Toms River. He says federal aid is sorely needed in his township.
TOM KELAHER: We've lost at least 20 percent of our tax base. We need all the help we can to close that, and I think that'll help if we get that money.
BRADY: The U.S. Senate already has passed a $60 billion Sandy aid package. The House approved part of it last week and is expected to consider the rest of the package next week. Asked if Governor Christie should do more to help towns like his, Mayor Kelaher had only praise.
KELAHER: I couldn't think of anything else, and if I had - if he was standing right here now and he said what do you want, I don't think there's anything I could ask.
BRADY: Polls show Governor Christie enjoys a healthy job approval rating after Superstorm Sandy. That may be helpful for reelection later this year. And it could explain why much of his State of the State speech focused on the storm. But Democrats in New Jersey are trying to change the conversation. After Christie's speech, Democratic Assemblyman Lou Greenwald wanted to talk about the economy and the state's 9.6 percent unemployment rate.
LOU GREENWALD: A recent study that we just saw showed that New Jersey is the highest in the country of out-migration of New Jersey residents. That is a number that should alarm us. That is that people have lost hope and are leaving the state of New Jersey to live and chase their dreams elsewhere.
BRADY: And in spite of years of storm recovery ahead, in New Jersey another election season is underway. Jeff Brady, NPR News.
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We now have a better picture of people who are always present but not often noticed in upscale households around the world. The United Nations International Labor Organization, or ILO, compiled its first ever report on domestic workers. The report finds there are almost 53 million domestic workers in the world. The overwhelming majority are women and at least half have no legal rights or worker protections at all. NPR's Margot Adler reports.
MARGOT ADLER, BYLINE: People who clean houses, take care of children, care for the elderly - domestic workers - have rarely been on anyone's policy agenda. The ILO started working on this after they adopted a domestic worker's convention in 2011. The treaty, which enters into force in a year, seeks to establish reasonable working hours, wages, and freedom of association, among other goals. Martin Oelz works in Geneva with the ILO as a legal specialist on working conditions.
MARTIN OELZ: Domestic workers are often not covered by labor laws. They are not part of the policymaking in a range of areas, including care issues.
ADLER: Oelz says domestic workers are often unaware that they have rights even in countries where they do. He cited South Africa where one country where real progress has been made. Domestic workers were part of the anti-apartheid struggle. In the new South Africa there are minimum wage rules. The report found the most serious problems affect live-in domestics, who may be in a house 24 hours a day.
OELZ: We have also reports from human rights organizations that freedom of movement is actually restricted. So people are forced to stay in the house that they work for.
ADLER: And if they are immigrants, lack of language or knowledge of the country's laws is an additional barrier. In parts of the world, like some Arab countries, most domestic workers are immigrants. One fascinating statistic in the report is an unprecedented increase in the number of domestic workers since the mid-1990s - about 19 million. Once every science fiction reader thought housework would be a thing of the past. But the need is actually growing, says Oelz.
OELZ: We are having more need for care work in the home, because more women joined the labor force. And the increasing aging of populations plays also a role and leads us to a conclusion that domestic work will continue to be a growing sector.
ADLER: Other factors: countries with emerging economies have more middle-class households, and increasing inequality in some countries is leading more of the poor to seek this work. Oelz says getting statistics on domestic workers was itself a bit dicey. The ILO looked at 117 nations but had to use the statistical agencies of those countries.
OELZ: Our estimate is only as good as the national data is on which the estimate is based.
ADLER: But he says that the estimates are probably low and conservative, given the number of domestic workers who do not report their work or are in countries illegally. But beginning to get a sense of numbers, he says, is valuable because domestic workers often fall outside of national labor statistics and are not considered by policymakers who need numbers to affect policy change. Margot Adler, NPR News, New York.
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In Israel this week, the election campaign for a new parliament kicks into high gear. Last night the first television ads aired. Networks are required to leave long stretches of space for the ads. With the vote just two weeks off, opposition parties are hoping their TV spots will at last weaken the frontrunner, the prime minister's Likud Party.
NPR's Larry Abramson reports from Jerusalem.
LARRY ABRAMSON, BYLINE: Bunching a series of political ads into concentrated blocks is a tradition in Israeli politics. They run end to end for over an hour, and repeat at different times until the election. Big parties, like Likud, get more airtime because they have more seats in the Knesset or parliament. So viewers saw a lot of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, touting his accomplishments, such as the speech he made at the United Nations last year about Iran's nuclear threat.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
ABRAMSON: We believe, Livni says in tape from one of her past speeches, that the only way to keep Israel Jewish and democratic is to make every effort to reach an agreement in the Palestinian conflict.
Polls show that Livni and other centrist or left-wing parties don't have the votes to unseat Netanyahu. But they are hoping to erode his support, so he'll have to make concessions once a government is formed.
One man who apparently won votes from Netanyahu's supporters is using his status as a political maverick to mock traditional party ads. Naftali Bennett, son of American immigrants, starts his pitch with sweet music and doves flying. Then two young people come on to say we're not going to lull you with the usual nonsense.
(SOUNDBITE OF AD)
ABRAMSON: Bennett has gained support for his Jewish Home Party by artfully packaging a controversial message: Israel should not negotiate over the West Bank and should simply annex part of it.
(SOUNDBITE OF AD)
ABRAMSON: Naftali Bennett has been firing lots of verbal missiles at the prime minister, saying Netanyahu is open to a coalition government with the left. Some analysts here say that rhetoric has actually pushed Netanyahu's ruling coalition further to the right.
National security is important in any election here. But most of Tuesday's ads actually focused more on the social issues that led to mass demonstrations in 2011 protesting the high cost of living. The Labour Party ad showed tape of those gatherings...
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
ABRAMSON: ...saying that the call for social justice that started in the street must continue at the ballot box.
Sprinkled throughout are appeals from single interest parties that don't have a prayer of getting into the Knesset, calling simply for a cleaner environment or legalizing marijuana. They are part of the political circus here that has many acts. But the center ring is occupied by Benjamin Netanyahu, who seems certain to win his third term as prime minister. The question is whether the war of messages will push him to the right or to the left.
Larry Abramson, NPR News, Jerusalem.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And now for some further evidence that the front in the retail wars is shifting to the digital world. Target has announced it will match the online prices of Amazon.com and others.
NPR's Wendy Kaufman has more.
WENDY KAUFMAN, BYLINE: Last fall, Target said it would match the prices on major online sites during November and most of December. Yesterday, the retailer said it was extending that offer. The company says if customers can find the identical item at Amazon or at the online sites of Best Buy, Toys R Us or Wal-Mart within seven days of purchase, it will match the lower price - though there's lots of fine print in the retailers new policy.
Target knows all too well that increasingly, consumers are using mobile devices to check prices online as they cruise the aisles. And if the price is better somewhere else, that's where they buy it. It's a practice known as showrooming.
Greg Girard, an analyst at IDC Retail Insights, says about 48 million American consumers showroomed last year.
GREG GIRARD: And a lot of the hard lines that Target sells, primarily consumer electronics, children's games, appliances of any sort were some of the most heavily showroomed categories, and they're Target's bread and butter.
KAUFMAN: And Girard says...
GIRARD: For so many of the things they sell, price is a bottom line factor that consumers are thinking about.
KAUFMAN: Many experts believe other, primarily brick and mortar retailers, will follow Target's policy on price matching.
Wendy Kaufman, NPR News.
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The insurance company AIG is holding a board meeting today to decide whether to sue the United States government. You may recall AIG received a $182 billion bailout from Washington during the financial crisis in 2008. So turning around and suing the government might seem a little gauche. What AIG's board will actually decide here is whether to join an existing lawsuit, a multibillion-dollar lawsuit which was brought by the former AIG chief, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. He was a major shareholder before the bailout. He remains an investor, and he is very unhappy with the terms of the bailout.
Here's New York Times reporter Michael de la Merced.
MICHAEL DE LA MERCED: He says that as a shareholder he lost out and he's arguing that other shareholders have lost out as well, and that AIG has an obligation to them and not to taxpayers to try to get some of that money back. And so AIG now has the opportunity to come in and say whether it wants to join in the lawsuit, which is all leading up to the meeting when Mr. Greenberg and his lawyers, as well as representatives of the Treasury Department and the New York Federal Reserve, will come to AIG's board room and make presentations to the board and argue their case.
INSKEEP: I wonder if part of this - and I don't mean to question Mr. Greenberg's motives - but, you know, you're the head of a giant company, you get the company taken out from under you, it's a national humiliation, you know, wounded pride has to factor in here somewhere, doesn't it?
MERCED: It's probably safe to say. He was forced to resign from the company in 2005 after an investigation by Eliot Spitzer prompted the board to basically say Hank, you've got to go. And he's sort of nursed this grudge for a while, and so he's gone after various government agencies. And he's actually had squabbles with the company as well, and it wasn't until 2009 that he finally settled with the company over his ouster.
INSKEEP: What is Greenberg say the U.S. government should have done differently?
MERCED: What he's sort of saying now is that AIG did need some help, but not in terms of the government taking an 80 percent stake, not in terms of this really high, what he calls a punitive interest rate on the loan that had extended AIG. He thinks the government should have just provided AIG with a credit line that would've helped it weather the storm.
But what the government has consistently argued is, well, that wasn't really the choice. The choice here was either the board could have not taken our money and the company could have expired, it could have died. And the government has said that it's not really much of a choice because we were talking about saving this company and stabilizing the global financial system.
INSKEEP: So, based on your reporting, is the board seriously considering joining this lawsuit - the board of AIG?
MERCED: What they've tried to signal is that they want to take this whole idea of fulfilling its duty to shareholders very seriously. But I think reading through the tea leaves, the board would be really hard-pressed to go ahead and join this lawsuit. And as one professor we spoke to basically says, slap taxpayers in the face. AIG, its board and its CEO, Bob Benmosche, have definitely had a keen eye on the politics and the public reaction and that's why they've taken a lot of steps to thank taxpayers, say that we're going to repay taxpayers. And you'd have to assume they are very cognizant of what might happen if they decide to go ahead and join Mr. Greenberg in his lawsuit. But they want to at least show that they are very conscious of their duty to shareholders, even if they may ultimately decide not to join the lawsuit.
INSKEEP: Michael de la Merced of "The New York Times." Thanks very much.
MERCED: Thank you.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Yesterday, we took a moment to remember author and journalist Richard Ben Cramer, who died on Monday at the age of 62. He was best known for his seminal work of political reporting, "What it Takes."
But as NPR's Mike Pesca notes in this remembrance, Cramer was also a virtuoso sportswriter.
MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: Herculean reporting, compelling writing and bursts of insight borne of that research and wordsmanship were the hallmarks of Richard Ben Cramer. Just as he laid out how Bob Dole's occasional vicious put-down sprang from the same place as his fiery determination, Cramer explained how Ted Williams wanted fame, but could not stand celebrity.
Glenn Stout, creator of "The Best Sports Writing in America" series, co-edited one volume with Cramer and included the Cramer story "What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?" in "The Best American Sports Writing of the Century.'
GLENN STOUT: If you don't do that kind of reporting, you don't get that kind of material to work with, to use as a writer to really make it stand out.
PESCA: Stout says Cramer's profile of the Red Sox outfielder was an automatic inclusion on that list of the century's best. David Hirshey, who edited that piece for Esquire magazine, remembers that Cramer took on the assignment with little more than a side-door strategy.
DAVID HIRSHEY: He saw it as opportunity to go down to the Florida Keys and hang out with Ted Williams' fishing buddies, because he knew he couldn't get close to Williams unless he had some introduction.
PESCA: It took 10 days, but he met the great man and they talked and talked and talked. Upon completion, Cramer insisted his story couldn't be less than 15,000 words. Hirshey cut it by 10 percent. Then on the night the magazine closed, Cramer hung around the Esquire offices, cajoling three separate departments for the return of the full 15,000. Some say the longest home run Ted Williams was responsible for landed in Section 42 of Fenway Park. Others claim it was the June '86 edition of Esquire.
Then there was "Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life." Here's Cramer narrating the audio of his DiMaggio biography, talking about DiMaggio's father.
(SOUNDBITE OF AUDIO BOOK)
PESCA: But Cramer, a Yankee fanatic, unraveled Joltin' Joe's guarded reputation. The sourcing was impeccable, the storytelling compelling, the damage to DiMaggio complete. "The Hero's Life" indicts DiMaggio and, by extension, the culture that celebrated him.
But Cramer had some critics who were anything but pinstriped romantics. Writer Gay Talese says Cramer was a wonderful researcher and an energetic figure.
GAY TALESE: And on the other hand I sometimes felt sorry for the people he was writing about.
PESCA: Talese says, for instance, in his own reporting, he earned that DiMaggio frequented brothels and wasn't the first to pick up a check, but thought better of putting those facts into print. An artist - and Talese compares DiMaggio to an artist - should be judged mostly on the art. Cramer clearly thought of his sporting subjects less as artists and more as touchstones. He examined how they acted and how the world reacted. Cramer's tone often was tough, but as an artist himself, his portraits were compelling.
Mike Pesca, NPR News.
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Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, have formed a political action committee to support the prevention of gun violence. Their announcement came yesterday, the second anniversary of the mass shooting in Tucson that left six dead and wounded 13 people, including Giffords.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL RINGING)
INSKEEP: As we're hearing, churches and fire stations around Tucson rang bells in memory of the victims of that shooting and of some others since. The Tucson Police Department also held a gun buy-back yesterday, and authorities would like to destroy the 206 firearms that were turned in. The National Rifle Association, though, says that would violate Arizona law. NPR's Ted Robbins explains.
TED ROBBINS, BYLINE: A line of people with guns formed in front of the midtown Tucson Police Station well before the 9:00 a.m. starting time for the buy-back.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Serial number 009897.
ROBBINS: At a command post in the parking lot, officers checked weapons to make sure they hadn't been stolen or used in a crime, and took the guns. The people who turned them in got a $50 Safeway gift card for every gun, money donated by the grocery chain and by private contributors. Anna Jolivet had four old rifles she didn't want.
Were they just sitting in your closet?
ANNA JOLIVET: They belonged to my husband, and he passed away four years ago. And I haven't had any success in having someone take them off of me since then, so I thought this was a good time to turn them in.
ROBBINS: That was exactly what Republican Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik expected when he asked the police to do the buy-back. What he didn't expect was the response after he announced the event.
STEVE KOZACHIK: I've been getting threats. I've been getting emails. I've been getting phone calls in the office trying to, you know, shut this thing down, or we're going to sue you. Or who do you think you are?
ROBBINS: Todd Rathner may sue. Rathner is an Arizona lobbyist and a national board member of the NRA. He has no problem with a gun buy-back, but he does have a problem with the guns' fate once police take possession of them.
TODD RATHNER: We do believe that it's illegal for them to destroy those guns.
ROBBINS: Rathner says Arizona state law forces local governments to sell seized or abandoned property to the highest bidder.
RATHNER: If property has been abandoned to the police, then they are required by ARS 12-945 to sell it to a federally licensed firearms dealer, and that's exactly what they should do.
ROBBINS: That way, Rathner says the guns can be put back in circulation or given away. The Tucson city attorney calls that a misreading of the law. Councilman Kozachik says the guns aren't being abandoned. They're being turned in voluntarily.
KOZACHIK: This is about giving somebody the chance to say, look, I'm not comfortable having this weapon. Here's an opportunity for me to simply just get rid of it in a proper manner.
ROBBINS: Todd Rathner says the NRA will ask for an accounting of every weapon turned in, then go to court to stop the firearms from being destroyed. If that doesn't work, Rathner says they'll change the law.
RATHNER: We just go back and we tweak it and tune it up, and we work with our friends in the legislature and fix it so that they can't do it.
ROBBINS: At the gun buy-back, gun rights advocates held signs saying, cash for guns and pay double for your guns. As cars pulled into the parking lot, they asked drivers if they wanted to sell their guns privately rather than turn them in. There were few takers. Doug Deahn couldn't understand it.
DOUG DEAHN: Can't figure. They'd rather line up and give them away. I couldn't figure that out, for the record.
ROBBINS: What's to become of the weapons may still be unclear, but in the current political climate, this controversy seems to show - in Arizona, at least - it's tough for an owner to get rid of an unwanted gun. Ted Robbins, NPR News, Tucson.
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It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne. Good morning.
The drought is hurting farming operations in much of the Midwest and Southwest, and its next possible victim: barge traffic on the Mississippi River. There were fears that shipping on this crucial cargo route could come to a halt as early as this week, when water levels reach historic lows. But the Army Corps of Engineers says the river will likely stay open for shipping at least until the end of the month. Still, many businesses that send products up and down the river remain concerned about what the future holds.
Iowa Public Radio's Clay Masters begins his report along the river.
CLAY MASTERS, BYLINE: I'm standing along the snowy banks of the Mississippi River in Muscatine, Iowa. There's some light flurries in the air. Some geese are flying overhead. The water's about 10 feet deep here, but there are no barges moving on the river
TIM BLY: This is as low as I've ever seen it. So this is - it's pretty tough to get everything loaded.
MASTERS: That's Tim Bly, who manages this grain elevator owned by ag-giant Cargill in Muscatine, Iowa, along the Mississippi River. Standing on a windy levee, he wears a bright yellow vest, hard hat and has a thick, coal-black beard. Bly says they were already loading far less grain on barges before they stopped the traditional winter shutdown that's normal this far north on the Mississippi.
BLY: We had to lighten them up to a nine-foot draft because of the low water levels, which is about three or 4,000 bushels difference on a barge. It's that much less you're getting on each barge.
MASTERS: And that means more barges have to be used to fulfill contracts. Further down the river, south of St. Louis, barges are still plying the river. But because the water level forecast keeps changing, many companies can't plan far enough ahead.
Rick Calhoun is the president of Cargill's shipping company.
RICK CALHOUN: We're just holding barges back, hoping that we get enough water that we're able to transit at some time, and we're light-loading the barges.
MASTERS: Calhoun says in some cases, they've had to turn away overseas customers, losing their business entirely.
Mike Steenhoek heads the Soybean Transportation Coalition and says this is an especially bad time to be losing grain business. South American farmers are just starting to harvest their crops and global demand is fickle. It will just go elsewhere.
MIKE STEENHOEK: When the South American harvest comes online, U.S. exports dropped precipitously. And when the U.S. harvest comes online, their exports drop precipitously. So when you have a supply chain disruption at this time of year, it's kind of analogous to a supply chain disruption for retailers prior to Christmas.
MASTERS: And it's not just grain: energy sources like petroleum and coal, fertilizer that moves that up the river, all are facing shipping uncertainty, as well. So what are companies to do?
Chad Hart is an economist at Iowa State University, and says shipping freight on trucks is one option, but it's a lot more expensive, and not only hauls a lot less product than a barge, it burns a lot more fuel. Hart says moving commodities on rail is a better alternative, but there's a problem.
CHAD HART: Rail can be competitive on a cost-per-mile basis. But you've got to go where the rail goes, just like with barge, you got to go where the river goes. But we've designed the system around the river.
MASTERS: This is a river that runs more than 2,500 miles and spans 10 states. To keep the barges traveling, the Army Corps of Engineers released water last month from Carlyle Lake, just east of St. Louis. Increasingly, there are calls for the Corps to release waters from reservoirs on the Missouri River. It feeds into the Mississippi. But the Corps says that water is reserved for things like irrigation and recreation. And tapping that resource would take an act of Congress.
(SOUNDBITE OF RUSHING WATER)
MASTERS: Further down river, between Cairo, Illinois and St. Louis, is the Mississippi's weakest link. Here, the Army Corps is blasting rock and dredging river bottom to make it deeper. John Kennedy is the mayor of Thebes, Illinois a tiny town where the majority of this blasting and dredging work is being done. In his 35 years here, he's seen a lot on the river.
MAYOR JOHN KENNEDY: Just ungodly stuff on this old river over the years I've been here, you know. I've seen barges sink, hit the bridge. We was kids, one time we were down here messing around, and actually watched a barge hit the bridge
MASTERS: But one thing Kennedy has never seen is the river this low. The National Weather Service is forecasting that early next month, the Mississippi River in Thebes could be too shallow for any barge to traverse. The broader concern is that as the Mississippi dries up, so will some businesses that have long relied on it for transportation.
For NPR News, I'm Clay Masters.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with a hopeful economic sign.
Alcoa, the biggest aluminum producer in the United States, has announced that it posted a profit of more than $240 million in the last three months of 2012. That is a big improvement from the same quarter the year before when Alcoa lost $190 million.
Now Alcoa says the turnaround was helped by increased aluminum sales to the construction and aerospace industries, which is why this is considered a hopeful sign. People are doing something with that building material and analysts say this could point to more vibrant economic growth overall. The company predicts aluminum demand will double by the end of the decade.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And our last word in business today is Psyper Bowl.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GANGNAM STYLE")
MONTAGNE: South Korean pop star Psy took YouTube by storm with the viral sensation "Gangnam Style." Now he's setting his sights on the Super Bowl.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
He's going to appear in a Super Bowl ad for Wonderful Pistachios - one of the biggest retailers of the salted nuts, which are a favorite of armchair quarterbacks across the country. I'm not a Pistachio guy, didn't realize. Anyway, the commercial will include an alternate version of Psy's hit song. Made to the lyrics will be changed to extol the virtues of Pistachios.
MONTAGNE: The Super Bowl is by far the biggest TV event of the year. Thirty seconds of ad time this year will cost a company as much as $4 million. That's a record, according to CBS, which will be broadcasting the game.
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GANGNAM STYLE")
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some other news: More than 150,000 people have descended on Las Vegas - technology insiders, would-be insiders, reporters, maybe a few people who just wanted to see a casino that looks Venice. In addition to pulling a few slots, they're attending this year's Consumer Electronics Show.
The crowds are coming to Vegas, even though some of the biggest companies in the industry are skipping the event. Without Apple, Amazon, Microsoft or Google taking part, we asked NPR's Steve Henn if the show still matters.
STEVE HENN, BYLINE: The Consumer Electronic Show is supposed to give the world a glimpse of what's coming next in technology. But if you think about the most influential gadgets in recent years - Apple's iPhone, Amazon's Kindle, the iPad - none of them were introduced here at CES. But for many in the industry, like Sean Dardashti and Chuck Newell, this is still a must-see event.
SEAN DARDASHTI: This show is just like an amusement park, but you need to be present because...
CHUCK NEWELL: There's a lot going on. There's a lot of technology that is happening at this particular show.
JEFF JOSEPH: The show has evolved.
HENN: Jeff Joseph is the senior VP of communications with the Consumer Electronics Association, which runs this annual festival for gadget freaks. He says that what makes CES special is that it remains a place where even little companies can break through.
JOSEPH: One of my favorite stories here - I remember walking around, over a decade ago, and finding this little product in a small corner and wondering what the heck it was. Well, it was the first USB key fob. And I remember thinking, at the time, this is going to change the world; it's like the digital paper clip.
HENN: He also says as sensors and computers are built into more products, more big firms outside of the technology industry want to attend. Eight of the 10 biggest automakers are here. So is Lowe's, the home improvement store. So are health care companies. In fact, this year's show is the biggest ever. But here's the show's dirty little secret: Even though the C in CES stands for consumer, the show's really about businesses - technology businesses, talking to each other. They come here to check out each other's stuff, and look for new ideas and technologies to build into their own products. And all those big companies - like Apple and Microsoft - the ones that have pulled out of the show...
JOSEPH: The fact is, they are here at the show. They're not exhibiting, but they're here. You'll see them walking the floor.
HENN: Their executives are here, too; having meetings, looking for deals - even flying in entrepreneurs, to pick their brains. Last year, a tiny, little firm from Utah, called HzO, was one of the show's darlings. And HzO doesn't even make a product. It coats the insides of mobile phones and electronics with an incredibly thin film.
PAUL CLAYSON: That stops them from being damaged by water and all kinds of liquids.
HENN: Paul Clayson is the CEO. Last year here, thousands of reporters from all over the world saw him dunk an iPhone underwater, and then place a call.
CLAYSON: We have such a camera-friendly demo that we went viral. We've had over 10 million media views on the Internet, by the end of the show.
HENN: "Good Morning, America," "The New York Times," Fox News, "USA Today" all ran stories. Clayson says this was the only way his little company could have stepped out onto a global stage.
CLAYSON: One week after the show, I flew to Korea on business. Got up in the morning; got the English version of "The Korean Times" there, the newspaper; got it in my room and looked; and on the front page, there was HzO.
HENN: That exposure led to more business than HzO could really handle. Still, later this year, the first waterproof cellphone - using Clayson's technology - will hit the market.
CLAYSON: You know, it was really terrific for the company.
HENN: The Consumer Electronics Show can be a bit nuts. It features models, celebrities, writers, gawkers, entrepreneurs, and more than a few shysters. But if you want to see something new - say, someone turn a regular wall into a giant touchscreen - or if you want to meet a robot that will follow you around like a pet, this is still the place to come. Steve Henn, NPR News, Las Vegas.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.
To find the principal of Wrightsville Elementary in York, Pennsylvania, you might have to look on the roof. Students of Don Gillett are in a program tracking books they read. If they total 2,000 books in the next few months, he says he'll get a tent and a grill and live on the roof for a while. He's even involved the local baseball team. The more they win, the longer he'll stay up there.
You can't help but wonder if the principal secretly wants to spend a little bit of time above it all.
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Traffic jams, Donald Trump, cockroaches - all considered unpleasant things, but still more popular than our nation's lawmakers. After public policy polling found Congress' most recent approval rating is 9 percent, it decided, let's test Congress' charm against a couple of dozen other things. Root canals got more votes. The good news for Congress? It's still preferred to Lindsay Lohan, the Ebola virus and playground bullies. It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
This next story is about cafes, the kind of coffee houses where you hang out, meet your friends or find a quiet space to work. In most cafes, the rule is you pay for some food and you get to hang out for as long as it takes to consume it. Now an entrepreneur in Russia is trying something new. At his cafes, money buys time, and the food is free.
NPR's Corey Flintoff reports from Moscow.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)
COREY FLINTOFF, BYLINE: Welcome to Tsiferblat - or in English, the Clockface Cafe. Polina Poliakova will lead you to a cabinet filled with ancient alarm clocks.
POLINA POLIAKOVA: When you come to Tsiferblat, first what you should do is to take the watches...
FLINTOFF: She means clock, so you chose a clock - most of them say made in the USSR -and Poliakova notes down your time of arrival. You take the clock to your table as a marker and a reminder that you are now, literally, on the clock.
Clockface is the brain child of Ivan Meetin, a 28-year-old entrepreneur who got started in the business by experimenting with a cafe that ran solely on donations. Clockface is different.
IVAN MEETIN: Because you don't have to pay for coffee or tea or cookies. You should pay for time, and time costs - I hope - not that expensive.
FLINTOFF: By Moscow standards, it's not. You pay two rubles a minute for the first hour - just under four dollars for an hour - and then one ruble a minute for all the time beyond that. After five hours, it's all free, so you can never spend more than about $12 a person.
Clockface is much larger and busier than it looks from the outside. The clientele runs between about 18 and 30 years old, ranging from students in study groups to business people who crowd around a table that's bristling with computer screens. Poliakova leads the way through seven good-sized rooms, all decorated with homey furniture.
POLIAKOVA: This is the second big hall. It is the place for meeting people, and we have an amazing coffee machine.
FLINTOFF: Meetin says customers can bring their own food, as well. So many people use the space for parties and birthdays. You can bring anything, he says, except for alcohol and drugs. And there's no smoking. Tsiferblat provides space for classes and events, board games, books and newspapers, even art supplies.
POLIAKOVA: Paper, pencils, brushes for drawing, because we have a drawing club here on Tuesdays.
FLINTOFF: In fact, Meetin says that for him, the cafe is more of an educational or artistic project than a business.
MEETIN: Sometimes I call it the social network in the real life. I want people to communicate.
FLINTOFF: And in that sense, Meetin's idea is a throwback to what people did before there were social media. He may have just figured out a different way to make it pay. He has nine cafes up and running, seven in Russia and two in Ukraine. He already has plenty of competition in Russia from people who have taken the pay-by-the-minute cafe idea and tried to give it wider appeal by providing pop music and video games. Meetin calls that killing time.
Before he got into the cafe business, Meetin says he tried his hand at theater, art, music and literature.
MEETIN: I realized that I am not a genius.
FLINTOFF: But he also decided that he wanted to do something on the level of genius, to be as good at something of his own as his childhood favorite, Charlie Chaplin, was at comedy.
MEETIN: It's not Charlie Chaplin, of course. But somehow, it's a good thing, and I can say that I am satisfied with it.
FLINTOFF: Meetin is thinking of opening his next Clockface in London.
Corey Flintoff, NPR News, Moscow.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
There are a lot of places in this world where donkeys are a precious resource. Ethiopia is one. There, donkeys are seen as so important, there are even special hospitals to treat them.
NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton sent this postcard from the donkey sanctuary in Ethiopia's capital.
(SOUNDBITE OF A BRAYING DONKEY)
OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE: Ethiopia is both donkey heaven and donkey hell. Home to more than six million donkeys, it comes second only to China, which currently tops the global donkey stakes.
BOJIA ENDEBU: Yes, there is a good saying in Ethiopia: A farmer without a donkey is a donkey himself, because the donkey does lots of work of the farmer.
QUIST-ARCTON: Bojia Endebu is a veterinary surgeon and a seasoned donkey doctor. He's in charge of The Donkey Sanctuary across the country, located in four of Ethiopia's nine regions. The sanctuary began operating in 1986, and now offers free treatment at two stationary and seven mobile clinics.
ENDEBU: The objective of The Donkey Sanctuary is to improve the quality of life of donkeys in Ethiopia.
(SOUNDBITE OF COWBELLS AND VEHICLES)
QUIST-ARCTON: It's hectic in Addis Ababa's high density Markato neighborhood. You have to take care not to bump into donkeys, many wearing tinkly bells. They're everywhere, weaving in and out of traffic like a time warp, in stark contrast to a city that is modernizing dramatically with construction, cranes and wooden scaffolding. Trotting with loads on their backs, the donkeys seem oblivious of cars, humans and building sites.
(SOUNDBITE OF A BRAYING DONKEY)
QUIST-ARCTON: Dr. Chala Chaburte and his team have begun a day of consultations at the Markato Donkey Clinic. The vet says he owes a personal debt of gratitude to donkeys, because the work of his family's two donkeys helped pay his medical school fees.
CHALA CHABURTE: Yeah, I love donkeys. That is why as soon as I graduated from the university, I joined the project, The Donkey Sanctuary. Here, there are lot of problems of donkeys. For example, this donkey came with car accident.
QUIST-ARCTON: Other medical problems are tetanus, anthrax, hyena bites, livid, red back sores from overloading and colic from indigestible plastic bags the donkeys swallow. About half a dozen of them, all townies and suffering from all manner of ailments, are penned into a spacious enclosure with a large trough, waiting to be seen by Dr. Chala. Countrywide, Ethiopia's clinics treat, on average, 400,000 donkeys each year.
Tadesse Kasa, a tall man with crooked teeth and a disarming smile, has brought in his lame donkey Bula. Dr. Chala is cleaning the donkey's hoof.
CHABURTE: There are a lot of small stones inside the hoof of the donkey.
QUIST-ARCTON: While Bula's hoof is being scraped and cleaned with iodine and strapped up, Tadesse, like other donkey owners, says their animals are friends. Tadesse says the donkeys are very important to his family, because without them, they simply wouldn't be here.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRAYING DONKEYS)
QUIST-ARCTON: Here, here nods a delighted Dr. Chala, and it seems the donkeys agree.
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Addis Ababa.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Paul Salopek is a foreign correspondent who has traveled the world but has never traveled quite like this.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
He's now a National Geographic fellow, beginning a journey that will cover some 21,000 miles and takes seven years. He's calling it "Out of Eden."
INSKEEP: He calls it that because he's going to be tracing what anthropologists believe to be the path of ancient human migration. He starts in Africa, he's moving across Asia and then down through North and South America.
MONTAGNE: And except for that short leap over water, at the Behring Strait, he's hoping to make the entire journey on foot.
INSKEEP: Right now, he's in Ethiopia near the starting point.
Mr. Salopek, welcome to the program.
PAUL SALOPEK: Thank you for having me on.
INSKEEP: And where exactly are you in Ethiopia?
SALOPEK: I'm at an early man site called Herto Bouri, where some of the earliest archaic humans have been found, about 160,000 years old. So I thought this would be a good place to begin walking.
INSKEEP: You're in or near the Rift Valley?
SALOPEK: Yeah, I'm on the western side of the Rift, in a very dusty, little village right now. And the goats are coming in. The nomads are bringing in their camels. It's quite noisy here.
INSKEEP: And when you say Rift Valley, I mean that's one of them more evocative places names on the map of Africa. But give me a picture of it. What's the landscape like?
SALOPEK: It's parched. There are grasslands that are (unintelligible) yellow, stretching over to a flat horizon - and big, dusty blue volcanoes jutting up into the sky. Quite a beautiful desert.
INSKEEP: And you intend to walk from there, across several continents, on your way to South America?
SALOPEK: That's the plan, taking it one step at a time, northward into the Middle East and then across Eurasia; planning it basically year-by-year. On a seven-year journey, it's very hard to plan for year six. You've got to plan for year one and year two.
INSKEEP: You know, there's so many questions raised by this. But the first is why? Why do this?
SALOPEK: Short version is, I'm interested in narrative. I'm interested in storytelling. After jetting around the world as a foreign correspondent, after flying into stories, after driving into them, I thought - what would it be like to walk between stories? Not just to see about the stories that we're missing by flying over them, but to understand the connective tissue between all the major stories of our day. And so, I got this notion of going to stories at about three miles an hour; learning about them more thoroughly, perhaps bringing a deeper meaning to them.
INSKEEP: So you are following this ancient, ancient path of migration. But you are thinking about the present day as you go. You want to meet people along the way now.
SALOPEK: Correct, I don't want this to be misperceived as a journey about the past. I'm using the past as a roadmap. It's about how we've changed the world, and how the world is being radically altered, in our view, by such things as the Internet.
I'm starting out this walk with about 35 percent of the world is wired. By the time I reach Patagonia in 2020, about 80 to 90 percent of the world will be wired. These are fundamental changes in the way we view life here on the planet. And I'm very interested in exploring them, slowly.
INSKEEP: You mentioned people being wired. Does everybody have a cell phone there?
SALOPEK: You know, you would be surprised. The nomads here, the pastoralists are the Afar. And they wear these webbing belts with a big Jile, a big dagger in it - a traditional dagger, and many of them, next to their dagger, do indeed carry a cell phone.
INSKEEP: So people have these cell phones and that is something that's transforms a lot of people's lives in ways that they may not even realize. Do you see signs that the revolution in communications is transforming the lives of the nomads you're meeting?
SALOPEK: It's extraordinary, actually, connections beyond the immediate horizon that was people's lives for many, many generations. Being able to plan ahead, being able to call colleagues over the horizon to see about rain patterns and pasturage - this is happening all up and down the Rift Valley, not just here in Ethiopia but down in Kenya, as well.
INSKEEP: Mr. Salopek, since you're a veteran foreign correspondent, I don't have to tell you that your walk would take you through quite a number of troubled countries.
SALOPEK: Yeah, there will be challenges along the way. And often, they'll be challenges that I'm not even thinking of. My personal experience in these regions is that, the first impulse, even in turbulent areas, is not one of hostility - it's one of generosity. That's not to say that you can't get in a lot of trouble very fast; I have been in the past. But generally, the first reaction to people has been one of generosity
INSKEEP: People are excited to be a foreigner. They welcome you, don't they?
SALOPEK: Yeah, I think there is a natural curiosity that goes on. There's also this notion of being sacred clown. I'm this very odd person who shows up, inching over the horizon and it raises a lot more questions - even more than I could possibly answer in moving slowly. But people are very forgiving. And there will be difficulties. I'll be stymied. I'll find obstacles. I'll run into borders that are closed. That's part of the journey, improvising my way across the world. After all, our ancestors did the same 50 to 70,000 years ago.
INSKEEP: Although, as I look at the map, pretty early on it looks like you can't go anywhere unless you are able to walk across either Iraq or Syria. And then you have to get through Iran. That sounds pretty tough.
SALOPEK: Yeah, that's a - it is a bottleneck. And I know northern Iraq pretty well. I've worked there a long time. I have friends there. That's not going to be the most serious concern. I think the serious concern is what will Syria be like when I reach there 18 months from now. And what will our relations be with Iran, you know, six months later? It's hard to say.
I will try and improvises as I go. I'll try to plan. I'll be stopping along the way for months, not just to rest and recuperate, but to actually plan the next leg of the journey.
INSKEEP: Aren't there also a lot of climate dangers? I mean there are deserts to walk across. There are really high mountains to climb or circumvent.
SALOPEK: Yeah, the idea is not to turn it into a Herculean wilderness traverse. The journey is going to be challenging enough, so I don't - you know, if I'm faced with the Taklamakan Desert ahead of me, and an inhabited fringe to the right, my choice is going to be pretty obvious. I'll go where the people are, because I'll be living on local economies.
INSKEEP: I don't want to get to personal here. But do you have a family at home? And if so, what do they think of you setting off on a seven-year trip?
SALOPEK: I'm trying to protect them and not get in too much detail. But, Steven, what I will say on record is that they've been supportive of the idea. And my wife knew who she was marrying.
INSKEEP: Is she going to come and walk along with you part of the time?
SALOPEK: Yeah, where it's doable. She's not a journalist. She's not a writer. She's a visual artist. And Linda will be joining me in places where she can do her work. So she will pick a spot where she can perhaps sketch or paint. And I will walk to her.
INSKEEP: You'll walk to her, that's kind of romantic.
SALOPEK: Well, yeah. It is, isn't it?
(LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: It gives you a target in any event.
SALOPEK: That's right.
INSKEEP: Paul Salopek is a journalist who is beginning a walk along the path of human settlement, from Africa across Asia and down the Americas.
Thanks very much. Good luck. I hope to check in with you again, as you go.
SALOPEK: Thanks, Steven. I look forward to it.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: I'm looking at a map of his projected route. You can find it at NPR.org.
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The small town of Williston, North Dakota is booming. Oil workers have flooded the town and are busy drilling the surrounding countryside. But all this growth creates an economic problem and leads to a question: How do you turn a boom town, into a real town.
Here's David Kestenbaum with NPR's Planet Money team.
DAVID KESTENBAUM, BYLINE: To understand, how dramatically things have changed in Williston, meet Rich Vestal. Rich runs a supply company. You want salt, cement? He's your guy. But there was a time here when no one wanted anything.
RICH VESTAL: We didn't have an order for 32 days, straight. Yeah, it was pretty grim.
KESTENBAUM: Now, thanks to new drilling techniques, including fracking, things are very different. Rich has hired workers who come from all over the country. They needed a place to stay, so he bought a house.
VESTAL: Was down by our own warehouse, we paid about $10,000 for it.
KESTENBAUM: Then, bought another one.
VESTAL: Well we bought the house next door from the lady that lived next door. She passed away so we...
KESTENBAUM: Also, one by the cemetery.
VESTAL: And then we wound up - we bought 14 trailer houses up in a trailer park.
KESTENBAUM: There's more.
VESTAL: We bought some condos.
KESTENBAUM: Grand total?
VESTAL: We got 68 now?
KESTENBAUM: You have 68 houses.
VESTAL: Yup.
KESTENBAUM: In a boom town, there is never enough housing. Williston has gone from population 13,000 to 30,000.
(SOUNDBITE OF A DOOR)
GERARD FEIST: This is a one bedroom, 860 square feet...
KESTENBAUM: This apartment Gerard Feist is showing off, it was just built. It's very basic. You could be anywhere in America. Except for the one thing, the price.
FEIST: The rent on this one bedroom, $2100, I believe, per month.
KESTENBAUM: This is basically New York, Manhattan rate.
FEIST: It is, exactly.
KESTENBAUM: Could we negotiate the rent with you?
FEIST: No, it's non-negotiable.
KESTENBAUM: Outside, it is not Manhattan. There is one department store. And the next town of any size is a two hour drive.
So the question is: Will the workers who've come to town, move here, make this place their real home? Workers like this guy.
JIM WENTLAND: My name is Jim and I drive truck.
KESTENBAUM: Can I just say that's an awesome mustache?
WENTLAND: Oh, thank you. Been growing it for about 20 years now.
KESTENBAUM: Jim Wentland has a huge walrus mustache and a perfectly nice home, it's just 1,000 miles away in Washington State. He works here three weeks at a time, crazy long hours - then rushes home.
Would you think about moving here?
WENTLAND: No. Not going to bring my family up here. Not right now.
KESTENBAUM: What would need to change here?
WENTLAND: Something to do. Family activity-wise, what is there? Couple of movie houses and a bowling alley?
KESTENBAUM: What is there at home?
WENTLAND: Skate parks, they have soccer fields and city parks
KESTENBAUM: At this point, a woman standing nearby, Theresa Labor, chimes in. Williston has that, she says.
THERESA LABOR: We got a city park with a skate park in it right downtown. I don't live here either. But...
WENTLAND: You used to and you left.
(LAUGHTER)
LABOR: Right. And I don't...
KESTENBAUM: Got that on tape?
For Williston to become a place more people want to call home, it's going to need more stuff - more stores, more restaurants. But here, too, there's a problem - finding people to work in those places.
Shawn Wenko with the city's economic development office.
SHAWN WENKO: We have seven-tenths of one percent unemployment rate here.
KESTENBAUM: Wait, what's the unemployment rate?
WENKO: Seven-tenths of one percent.
KESTENBAUM: So that means less than 1-in-100 people are unemployed.
WENKO: Right, correct. If you're not working in western North Dakota, or Williston or Williams County, you're unemployable.
KESTENBAUM: There's a serious labor shortage in town. Even McDonalds, had trouble opening. So Williston is in this weird situation. People are reluctant to move here until there are more places like McDonalds. But it's hard for those stores to open until there are more people here. It's a chicken and egg problem. And the town's solution is to build a gigantic chicken. Or maybe it's an egg.
Actually it's a huge rec center. Again, Shawn Wenko.
WENKO: Workout facilities, you know, golf simulator batting cages. Tennis courts, racquetball courts. Basketball courts, a turf field to a running track. It's got three swimming pools in there.
KESTENBAUM: Three swimming pools?
WENKO: It's got three. It's got Olympic-size swimming pool, a dive pool and a lazy river.
KESTENBAUM: What's that?
WENKO: A kind of an inner tubing style of river.
KESTENBAUM: Indoors here in North Dakota?
WENKO: Indoor is correct.
KESTENBAUM: That's Williston's solution: Build and build and build. If everything works out, there could be 40,000 oil wells in the area. And someone will have to stick around to maintain them.
David Kestenbaum, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
On a Thursday, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
Who hasn't been driven crazy trying to watch a video online only to have it freeze, then start, then freeze again. The smooth loading of video clips, though, is not just important to viewers.
As NPR's Sami Yenigun reports, video providers also see it as critical.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
SAMI YENIGUN, BYLINE: You may have heard this one already.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
YENIGUN: You're showing a friend some hilarious video that you found online.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
YENIGUN: And right before you get the punchline...
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
YENIGUN: A little loading dial pops up in the middle of the screen.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
YENIGUN: Buffering kills comedic timing, and according to a study published by UMass professor Ramesh Sitaraman, it kills attention spans too.
RAMESH SITARAMAN: What we found was that people are pretty patient for up to two seconds.
YENIGUN: That's a really nice way of saying people are pretty impatient.
SITARAMAN: If you start out with, say, 100 users, if the video hasn't started in five seconds, about one-quarter of those viewers are gone, and if the video doesn't start up in 10 seconds, almost half the viewers are gone.
YENIGUN: If a video doesn't load in time, people get frustrated and click away. This may not come as a shock, but until now it hadn't come as an empirically supported fact either.
SITARAMAN: This is really the first large-scale study of this kind, that tries to relate video-streaming quality to viewer behavior.
YENIGUN: And when Professor Sitaraman says large scale, he means it. The study looked at close to 6.7 million viewers who watched almost 23 million videos played. So how long is too long? Depends on the device.
SITARAMAN: We found that people who had a lot of connectivity had also a lot of expectation potentially, and so they abandoned much sooner.
YENIGUN: For about half of the people who used a high speed fiber optic connection, five seconds is too long to wait. Mobile users will wait longer. For a business that serves an ad base of 800 million people a month, every second counts. The more users that click away, the bigger the problem.
ANDY BERKHEIMER: When we started to look into this problem, we found that kind of the existing player we had was not up to the task.
YENIGUN: That's Andy Berkheimer, engineering manager for YouTube. For the past two years, his team has been working on a project that makes sure your knock-knock jokes are delivered without the pauses.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
BERKHEIMER: And so we had to rewrite our entire player to give us more flexibility in how we handled network conditions.
YENIGUN: The need for flexibility has to do with bandwidth. Think of streaming video as being like a stream of liquid information. Bandwidth is the size of the pipe.
No matter where you are, no matter what type of device you're using, no matter what type of network you're on - at any time while you're watching a video, bandwidth can change.
So if that bandwidth, or pipe, constricts too much...
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER)
YENIGUN: ...the video stops playing. Here's how YouTube is solving this problem. They chop the video into a bunch of tiny pieces. From moment to moment, depending on how much bandwidth is available, they swap these pieces in and out as the video streams.
So if there's a ton of bandwidth, a high definition piece flows down the pipe, but if that pipe constricts, even for a second, a lower quality piece is swapped in.
SITARAMAN: And that way we can keep the data flowing uninterrupted, and we can choose a quality level that is right for the bandwidth conditions at that moment.
YENIGUN: And less load time means more video, more eyeballs, and more money for ads. But what's the cost?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
YENIGUN: Some films aren't always seen in their best light. For example, filmmaker Gregory Wilson just used state of the art camera equipment to film a Cheetah running full speed in super-slow motion. HD captures every stunning detail of the cat's fluid motion. But when you watch it online, who knows how it will look.
GREGORY WILSON: I would hope that, you know, the quality could be the best that it could be and be more on par with what I had originally captured.
YENIGUN: But since businesses need that video to run no matter what it looks like, the rest of us will likely see grainy cheetahs rather than stuttering punch lines.
Sami Yenigun, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some other news: today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today releases new rules on mortgages. These rules will restrict the kind of subprime lending that prompted the financial crisis, and they are the subject of today's Business Bottom Line. Regulators and banks are still trying to settle on lending standards that are neither too lax, nor too tight. Here's NPR's Yuki Noguchi.
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: About a decade ago, mortgage lenders started broadening their base of customers by offering an array of exotic loan products with esoteric names: subprime, Alt-A or ninja loans that required little-to-no documentation of income, teaser rates and option ARMs that offered low initial monthly payments that later ballooned. Those offers got millions of borrowers into loans they ultimately couldn't afford, and it resulted in one of the worst crashes in modern history. Richard Cordray is the director of the consumer watchdog agency that issued the new rules.
RICHARD CORDRAY: You know, it's important not to forget where we came from. We have a financial crisis and a lot of pain and misery in this country that was caused by reckless lending and toxic products that should never have been offered, and that this rule will see are never offered again.
NOGUCHI: Cordray says these products are now things of the past.
CORDRAY: We've gotten tens of thousands of mortgage complaints at this point. A big number of them are people who are in trouble now because of reckless lending practices that occurred before the crisis. If the consumer bureau had been in place 10 years ago, I think none of that would have occurred.
NOGUCHI: The bureau worked with banks and outside groups to hammer out the rules. Among other things, the rules define what are called qualified mortgages. These cap upfront fees at 3 percent of the loan amount, do not balloon over time and limit borrowers' debt payments to less than 43 percent of their pretax income.
In exchange, lenders that issue mortgages meeting those standards can reduce their legal liability. But these rules come at a time when lending standards have swung the other direction. Many believe it's become too hard for consumers to get mortgages. To try to address that problem and to encourage lenders to find a healthy middle ground, the bureau established an alternative, more permissive definition of qualified mortgage. So, for example, if a borrower's debts exceed the cap by a little, banks will still have some flexibility. By offering a more relaxed standard in the short term, the bureau hopes to give both the banks and consumers time to get through this period of relatively tight credit. The rules will go into effect next January.
SUSAN WACHTER: This is a major change.
NOGUCHI: Susan Wachter is a professor of real estate finance at Wharton. She says the new rules may mean some people will no longer be able to qualify for mortgages, but those who do will have a much better chance of staying in their homes. The banking industry often talks about the CFPB and its efforts with fear and loathing, but Wachter says the financial crisis demonstrated how all lenders suffer when there are lax lending standards. She says she expects many lenders will therefore throw their weight behind these new rules.
WACHTER: The risks were not understood. The risks were not understood, arguably, by industry itself, because the information was not out there. I think the banking industry itself is looking for safety from practices that have proven to be unsafe.
NOGUCHI: The bureau plans to announce another set of mortgage rules next week. Those will govern how lenders must handle loans once they are issued, and if they fall delinquent. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.
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Television makers are trying to find the next big thing that will get you to throw out your current TV and buy a new one. They thought it might be 3D TV. That didn't work out. So now they've come up with something new. They're showing it off this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which is where we found Rich Jaroslovsky. He writes about technology for Bloomberg News, and he told us about the newest new viewing experience.
RICH JAROSLOVSKY: It's called ultra HD-TV, and it's designed basically to make you think that the snazzy HD-TV that you have in your den is as inadequate as the old CRT TVs that you had before you replaced them with the snazzy new HD-TVs.
INSKEEP: Mm-hmm. People who've been following this know that HD-TV is just a far, far sharper picture. The color is supposed to be much more vivid. You can see far more wrinkles and flaws in people's faces. So what's it like when you look at ultra HD-TV? Do you see even more flaws and wrinkles?
JAROSLOVSKY: Well, essentially, imagine what you see in your den right now, and then quadruple it. You can see pores. You can see the veins on leaves. It's very immersive. You can get up really close, and you don't see the dots that make up the picture. These ultra HD-TVs have four times the pixel count of the existing HD-TVs, and they're actually working on ones that will have eight times the pixel count.
INSKEEP: Who is showing it off, and what did it look like? What were they showing on screen?
JAROSLOVSKY: Well, the - almost all of the major manufacturers that are here - Samsung, LG, Toshiba, Sony - most of them are promising to bring some of these to markets sometime this year. Sony has, I believe, an 84-incher out for a cool $25,000. But they all have created content specifically to show off the TVs, whether it's, you know, forest shots or cityscapes. And that raises one of the issues about these TVs, which is: Where is the content going to come from? Most of the content that's available today is not created for ultra HD-TV. And so you're going to have to ask the question of who's going to create the programming for this, and how's it going to get there?
INSKEEP: Oh, because anything that I watch is going to be on the older format. And then I guess there's a question of getting it to me, especially if I am getting programming via the Internet. Is there a bandwidth for four times as much image on the same screen?
JAROSLOVSKY: That's a big question. Right now, nobody is quite saying just how long it would take to download something. And since TV is increasingly moving to the Internet, that is one of the big questions. Another one is whether broadcasters, cable operators will be willing to create ultra HD channels. So I think initially what they're going to be doing is to sell these things as a better HD experience. But the real power of this won't get unlocked until you have the content available on cable systems, on satellite systems and over the Internet to be able to run these programs in their native mode.
INSKEEP: That raises a key question for me, Rich Jaroslovsky. As you were looking at the ultra HD-TV screens, did you cry? Did your heart beat faster? Did you fall in love with a person on screen? What happened?
JAROSLOVSKY: Well, I have to admit that at a certain point, I got a faraway look in my eyes and I began to imagine having one of these in my study at home or in the den, and maybe watching my beloved San Francisco Giants in glorious ultra HD-TV. But then when I saw the price tags that are going to be on these things, at least initially, it's sort of snapped me back to reality.
(LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: Maybe you don't need to see every single stitch on the baseball.
JAROSLOVSKY: Twenty-five thousand dollars for - even for an 84-inch TV is not a discussion I think I'd like to have with my family.
INSKEEP: Rich Jaroslovsky, it's always a pleasure to talk with you. Enjoy the rest of the show.
JAROSLOVSKY: Thanks so much, Steve.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
President Obama will nominate his chief of staff as the next treasury secretary later today. Jack Lew is a budget expert who could hit the ground running, as the Treasury tries to cope with a looming debt ceiling, automatic spending cuts and the ongoing push for long-term deficit reduction. Lew would be the latest nominee for a high-profile Cabinet post, as the president prepares for a second term.
NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: At a White House briefing yesterday, spokesman Jay Carney recapped what he called Jack Lew's stellar record, including a stint as President Clinton's budget director the last time the federal government ran a budget surplus.
JAY CARNEY: He is that rare person in Washington who has been here for years, who has done some very hard things and brokered some serious bipartisan agreements, and done it in a way that has earned the admiration of almost everybody he's worked with.
HORSLEY: Lew's West Wing office is decorated with WPA paintings of New York, illustrating his devotion both to his hometown and to the New Deal programs that grew out of the Great Depression.
As a boy, Lew campaigned for Eugene McCarthy. As a teenager, he got a job with another liberal icon: Bella Abzug. And as a young man, he went to work for Democratic House Speaker Tip O'Neill, an experience Mr. Obama cited when he tapped Lew for the White House chief of staff's job in 2011.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Ever since he began his career in public service as a top aide to Speaker Tip O'Neill, Jack has fought for an America where hard work and responsibility pay off, a place where everybody gets a fair shot.
HORSLEY: But if Lew shares Mr. Obama's commitment to the social safety net, he also shares his pragmatism about what's required to preserve it. Lew watched O'Neill and former President Ronald Reagan negotiate a rescue for Social Security that raised both taxes and the eligibility age.
Former Republican Senator Judd Gregg says that's the kind of deal that has eluded this president and Congress.
JUDD GREGG: Tip O'Neill, Ronald Reagan showed that you can substantively adjust your entitlement programs to make them more solvent so they're survivable. And that's the exact situation we're confronting with Medicare, Medicaid and - to a lesser degree - Social Security. It's going to require that these programs not be adjusted in a way that radically affects the beneficiaries, but adjusted in a way that delivers benefits in an affordable way and an effective way.
HORSLEY: As a top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Gregg worked extensively with Lew. He says he has great respect for the former budget director, despite their philosophical differences.
GREGG: He was easy to work with relative to the nuts and bolts of governing, and we had a pretty good working relationship at that level. In negotiating, I'm sure he's very tough. There's no question he's a tough negotiator.
HORSLEY: Too tough for some of today's Congressional Republicans.
An oversized photo in Lew's office shows him during the spring budget talks of 2011, when GOP lawmakers pushed for tens of billions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for keeping the lights in the government on. They ultimately cut a deal they thought would reduce spending by $38 billion. But when the Congressional Budget Office studied the details, the short-term savings amounted to less than 1 percent of that.
The outfoxed Republicans later urged the White House to send a different negotiator, complaining that Lew couldn't get to yes at the bargaining table. Despite that GOP grousing, former Democratic Senator Tom Daschle insists Lew is no ideologue.
TOM DASCHLE: I don't know that you could have a better negotiator than Jack. He's tough. And because he doesn't cave, I suppose there are those who wish they'd somebody who did. But that isn't what Jack Lew does.
HORSLEY: Republican Judd Gregg says he expects an intense confirmation process, as Senators air their differences over economic policy. But he says it's hard to argue with Lew's qualifications for the Treasury job.
The White House agrees. The president is eager to have a new secretary in place, in time for what's shaping up as a tumultuous season of budget battles.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
INSKEEP: During this season, the president also has other Cabinet jobs to fill. The secretary of labor, Hilda Solis, says she's leaving. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta have already said the same.
MONTAGNE: Hilda Solis was the first Latina to hold a senior Cabinet position. She says she's going home to begin a new future, which is expected to include running for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
INSKEEP: She leaves Washington with the praise of labor unions for pushing to enforce wage laws and job safety rules.
MONTAGNE: Which didn't make her popular with business groups, who have criticized her as uncooperative.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Today, Vice President Biden holds another meeting on gun policy and this time he's talking to gun owners and gun sellers. The meeting will include the National Rifle Association and representatives from Wal-Mart, which is the nation's largest gun retailer. It's part of a White House effort to come up with new gun policies by the end of the month, as NPR's national political correspondent Mara Liasson reports.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Vice President Biden has been talking to a wide variety of stakeholders in the gun policy debate. Yesterday, as he met with gun safety and victims groups at the White House, Mr. Biden said the administration wants urgent, immediate action.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: As the president said, if our actions result in only saving one life, they're worth taking. But I'm convinced we can affect the well being of millions of Americans and take thousands of people out of harm's way if we act responsibly.
LIASSON: The shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut galvanized the White House to push for more gun restrictions, but there's still a lot of resistance. The powerful National Rifle Association, which is sending a representative to today's meeting believes armed guards are the answer to violence at schools. Here's NRA head Wayne LaPierre at a press conference after the Newtown shootings.
(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS CONFERENCE)
LIASSON: The Biden group is expected to come up with a menu of proposals for the president to announce in his State of the Union address.
BIDEN: And I want to make it clear that we are not going to get caught up in the notion unless we can do everything we're going to do nothing. It's critically important we act.
LIASSON: The president has already called for renewing the ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines and for closing the gun show loophole. But those will be tough to pass through Congress, so in addition to legislation, Mr. Obama also plans to move forward with new regulations and executive orders, which need no congressional approval. The White House is looking at the possibility of a national gun background check database and ways to keep mentally ill people from owning firearms.
Mara Liasson, NPR News, the White House.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
As we've been hearing, following the deadly mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, politicians have taken a renewed interest in gun control. The governors of Connecticut and New York have been leading the effort. Jeff Cohen of member station WNPR in Hartford reports on the proposals that are emerging.
JEFF COHEN, BYLINE: In his State of the State address, Governor Andrew Cuomo said New York could be a model for the nation.
(SOUNDBITE OF STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS)
COHEN: Cuomo, a Democrat, wants tighter controls on the kinds of rifle used in the Sandy Hook shooting. He also wants to get rid of high-capacity ammunition clips, among other things. One state over, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy was uncharacteristically emotional as he addressed his state's legislature. The Democratic governor spoke of school staffers who died and of public safety workers who responded.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
COHEN: Like Cuomo, Malloy has spoken out against the type of high-capacity magazines used in Newtown. And he supported a federal assault weapons ban in the past. In his speech to the legislature, the governor said more guns in schools are not the answer.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
COHEN: Democratic legislators say they want to expand the state's definition of an assault weapon and prohibit the sale and possession of high-capacity magazines. Republican State Representative Arthur O'Neill says those two things will get serious consideration. He's the deputy Republican leader at-large. The goal, he says, should be to pass legislation that's specific.
STATE REPRESENTATIVE ARTHUR O'NEILL: What I think should reasonably be coming out of this session are changes to our laws that might reflect on things we could have done to have prevented the Newtown shootings and the massacre at Sandy Hook.
COHEN: Connecticut U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal has his eye on ammunition. The Democrat says he plans to introduce federal legislation later this month to mandate background checks for people buying ammunition.
SENATOR RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: Ammunition is really the black hole of current gun violence prevention measures. There are no background checks whatsoever on anyone who buys ammunition.
COHEN: When it comes to the constitutionality of his proposal, Blumenthal says reasonable measures that protect public safety are perfectly consistent with the Second Amendment. Mike Hammond takes a different view. He's legislative counsel to the organization Gun Owners of America. He looks at what's happening in places like Connecticut and New York and says it will all fail.
MIKE HAMMOND: And I think gun owners will, A, by mobilized and, B, succeed in probably killing all gun controls as a result of it.
COHEN: Because he says the only way to keep gun control legislation from overreaching is to stop it before it passes. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Cohen, in Hartford.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Being disabled does not have to be a disadvantage. That's the old saying anyway. And some people in Cincinnati want to live up to it. Their group is called May We Help. Handymen, technicians and engineers volunteer to make devices that help people with disabilities do things that others take for granted. Cheri Lawson of member station WNKU introduces us to one of the members.
CHERI LAWSON, BYLINE: Bill Sand loves to spend time in his basement. He calls it his man cave, but there's no big screen TV, sound system or beer cooler here.
(SOUNDBITE OF HAMMERING)
LAWSON: Just power tools and whatever else he needs to build things.
BILL SAND: So these will go through the planer a few more times.
LAWSON: This 66-year-old is like a lot of guys who tinker. But here's where Bill's a bit different. He designs and builds devices for people with disabilities - and he does it for free.
SAND: These are gifts that are special, that are life-changing.
LAWSON: Here in his home workshop, Bill has made a custom scooter for a little girl who can't walk, and cello stands for sisters, even though they don't have arms. Twelve-year-old Inga and 10-year-old Ylena Elena Petry of Pennsylvania play with their feet.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LAWSON: Their mom, Jennifer, says the girls used to prop their instruments on pillows on the floor. But that didn't really work out.
JENNIFER PETRY: We needed something to keep the cellos steady.
LAWSON: Inga uses her toes for everything, from eating to texting.
INGA PETRY: When my mom told me that we were going to get something so that my cello wouldn't wobble, I was really happy because I'd be able to play it better.
LAWSON: The Petrys are just one of the families Bill has helped pursue their dreams. He's made several one-of-a-kind devices for nine-year-old Ireland Reed. She has a rare genetic condition called Miller's Syndrome. She needs a special walker just to stand. Bill has become a regular visitor to Ireland's home in suburban Cincinnati.
(SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING)
SAND: Hello, Amy.
AMY REID: Hello. How are you?
SAND: Good.
REID: Ireland, it's Bill.
LAWSON: Ireland is excited to see Bill, and she rolls over to him on the scooter he made for her. The family calls it her shamrock express. It's given her mobility she'd never had before. Ireland's mom, Amy, calls Bill a godsend.
REID: It's like, how do you know? Bill, how do you know what we need when we don't even know what we need?
LAWSON: During this visit, Amy says Ireland is having trouble writing with her partially formed hand. Bill crouches so he can watch carefully as the child tries to hold a pencil. He puts his hand gently around hers, thinking about what he can do to help.
SAND: Ireland, I just want your hand. You just put your hand like this.
LAWSON: He brainstorms with Amy about what he might come up with but says even a simple solution might take five or six tries.
SAND: I'm thinking of something that'll glide real easy, that her hand is actually sitting on. Kind of like a mouse.
REID: We can't thank him enough. I can't find the words to really tell you how it's helped us and helped Ireland.
LAWSON: Bill Sand has done dozens of projects for families like the Reeds and Petrys.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LAWSON: Jennifer Petry says the mahogany cello stands Bill crafted for her kids are not only practical but beautiful.
PETRY: Just so beautiful. And I thought these are cello stands that my girls can get on stage with and not be ashamed.
SAND: I get to be Santa all year round. You know, every time I do a project, it's like Christmas all over.
LAWSON: The group May We Help is hoping to expand beyond its roots in the Midwest. They're talking about setting up a chapter in Florida and hope it will be the start to help millions of children and adults to pursue their passions despite their disabilities. For NPR News, I'm Cheri Lawson in Cincinnati.
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It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
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And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez will not make it to his own presidential inauguration today. He's still recovering after undergoing another round of cancer surgery in Cuba. If, in the end, Chavez does not return, he has said his successor should be his vice president, a man who's gone from being a bus driver to union leader, to becoming the heir apparent for the nation's top job.
NPR's Juan Forero has this profile of him.
JUAN FORERO, BYLINE: One of the distinguishing features of Nicolas Maduro is his unbending loyalty to Hugo Chavez, readily apparent in a speech he gave last month praising Chavez, right after the ailing leader had flown to Havana for his latest cancer surgery.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
FORERO: Unable to hold back tears, Maduro said Chavez would always have the people at his side.
Maduro, of course, is one of El Comandante's most disciplined followers. In an interview a week ago on state television, Maduro said he had no thirst for power.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV INTERVIEW)
FORERO: I have no personal ambitions of any kind, he added. I'm foreign minister because Chavez had that job for me. And if he wants me to one day drive a bus again, I'll do that, too.
But the reality is that Chavez is battling for his life. He's so incapacitated by his latest operation in Cuba that he won't be back to Venezuela today for his own inauguration. The Supreme Court said yesterday that's OK. Chavez can return to be sworn in when he's well enough.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FORERO: But there are many Venezuelans watching Maduro give nationally broadcast messages who assume he will lead the country one day soon.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
FORERO: He's the official who most often has gone on national television to provide details about Chavez's health. And he's frequently seen criticizing the opposition, which argues that Chavez can't miss his inauguration and still be president.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
FORERO: Those who know Maduro well describe a man who grew up in a working-class neighborhood with a thirst for learning about the world, about government.
Ismael Garcia remembers campaigning for Chavez, with Maduro at his side back in 1998.
ISMAEL GARCIA: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: Garcia says Maduro, who didn't go to college, wanted to learn about history in their long drives into the countryside.
Maduro also became a voracious reader, while rising through the ranks of the president's movement, Chavismo. He played a key role in writing the new constitution. But it was as foreign minister - a post he still holds - where Maduro made his mark - so says his old friend, Vladimir Villegas, a former deputy foreign minister.
VLADIMIR VILLEGAS: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: He's best interpreted what Chavez wants in his foreign policy, Villegas says.
That policy, though, has been worrisome to the United States. It includes building tight links with countries like Syria and Iran, which the Obama administration wants to isolate.
Michael Shifter, a policy analyst in Washington, says that Maduro is strongly ideological - close to Communist Cuba, fearful of American motives. But he says that a Maduro government could have a more pragmatic relationship with Washington. Shifter says that's because Maduro has long been known as a negotiator.
MICHAEL SHIFTER: He's somebody who is open, who you can talk to, and I think the United States would be interested in pursuing a channel of communication with the Venezuelan government. And Maduro would be seen as somebody they could talk to.
FORERO: The big question observers are asking themselves, though, is if Maduro could replace the larger-than-life president. Could he hold the disparate factions of Chavismo together?
Charles Shapiro is a former American ambassador here, and knows both Maduro and Chavez.
CHARLES SHAPIRO: And there's no one, as far as I'm aware, who can rival him at all, who has the same profile, and no one who has the same charisma or abilities to communicate with the base of support of Chavez.
FORERO: Shapiro says it's too soon to know if you can have Chavismo without Chavez.
Juan Forero, NPR News, Caracas.
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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
If Americans know one thing about the future American course in Afghanistan, it is probably the number 2014. That's the year the United States intends to end its combat mission - next year. President Obama meets this week with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai about the work that needs to be done before then.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And we've still got much to do. Ending the war in Afghanistan and caring for those who have borne the battle.
INSKEEP: So much to do that it's worth noting 2014 is not an end date. Thousands of troops and billions of U.S. dollars may go to Afghanistan for years afterward.
NPR's Tom Bowman reports.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: America's longest war is now entering year 12, longer than the Vietnam War, with still two years to go before the combat mission concludes at the end of 2014. And even after that, there will likely be at least several thousand U.S. troops in Afghanistan, with the primary mission of going after the remnants of al-Qaida - the very threat that got the United States involved in the first place.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL DAVID BARNO: The goal here, post-2014 especially, is to prevent further terrorist attacks on the United States from this part of the world.
BOWMAN: That's retired Lieutenant General David Barno, who once commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan and is now a defense analyst. He says American commandos, even after the combat mission technically ends, will fight alongside their Afghan counterparts.
BARNO: Put together most likely a combined U.S. and Afghan special operations force to go out and actually try and kill or capture the individuals in this al-Qaida cell.
BOWMAN: The White House also says that those kill and capture missions will be the top priority. Ben Rhodes is the president's deputy national security advisor. He spoke with reporters this week.
BEN RHODES: We have an objective of making sure there's no safe haven for al-Qaida within Afghanistan and making sure that the Afghan government has a security force that is sufficient to assure the stability of the Afghan government and the denial of that safe haven.
BOWMAN: Making sure that the Afghan government has a security force, he said. That means training them. And that's the second key mission after 2014. The question now before the president is this: How many American forces will it take to handle the training and counter-terror missions? There are a lot of estimates.
Again, General Barno.
BARNO: I think if the focus is on counter-terrorism and the focus is specifically on al-Qaida, I think that that can be done with a force of under 10,000 Americans in Afghanistan.
BOWMAN: That's far too low for Jeffrey Dressler. He's a defense analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, and favors a force of between 20 and 30 thousand Americans.
JEFFREY DRESSLER: Essentially a force of ten thousand or lower pretty much means you're going to be confined to the base, you're not really going to do much in terms of operations. And you're limited in terms of how far you can reach.
BOWMAN: Privately, military officials say they expect a final number of around 6,000 soldiers or fewer. And a decision is likely several months off. But the White House is looking to keep the numbers lower than the generals, and part of that is the expense involved. The Afghanistan mission during the past decade has cost more than $600 billion. That's on everything from military operations to economic aid. And for this year another $100 billion has been budgeted. And we're not done yet.
TODD HARRISON: We could come very close to a trillion dollars by the time the combat mission ends.
BOWMAN: That's Todd Harrison with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
HARRISON: Depending on how long we stay after that with supporting forces and the size of our forces, we could go over a trillion dollars.
BOWMAN: Its costs twice as much to maintain just one soldier in Afghanistan as it did in Iraq. That's because the country had little infrastructure, says Harrison, and the U.S. had to construct everything, from roads to buildings.
HARRISON: It's cost us about 1.2 million per troop, per year, in Afghanistan.
BOWMAN: So even a small force of, say, 3,000 U.S. troops would cost more than $3 billion each year after 2014. That doesn't include billions more for the Afghan troops. All for a war that's supposed to be near the end.
Tom Bowman, NPR News, Washington.
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Those decisions about U.S. troop levels will have an impact on the lives of people in Afghanistan, especially in places where the Taliban insurgency remains active, like Kandahar. Kandahar is, of course, the birthplace of the Taliban movement. And to find out more about what Afghans are thinking about the U.S. drawdown, we reached Ehsan Ullah Ehsan, who is the director of a school in Kandahar, the Kandahar Institute of Modern Studies, which has offered, for several years, instruction to girls in computers, English and business management.
Good morning.
EHSAN ULLAH EHSAN: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: So what is your sense of the confidence that people have in President Karzai's ability to maintain security without large numbers of U.S. troops?
EHSAN: You know, there are U.S. troops in many other countries and Afghan forces are working on maintaining security, peace, yet there is still a war going on. There are still difficulties, so people think that alone Afghan government is not fully ready to take full security of Afghanistan and provide the right kind of governments and justice.
MONTAGNE: At your school you are educating and have educated hundreds of girls, and one interesting thing about this school is you were training girls and young women to work, which is something very different in Afghanistan. What are the young women, the girls in your school, saying about this transitional moment? Are they concerned?
EHSAN: Well, those girls are still studying. They are very committed girls, and they continue to stay committed. What the girls - what we think - we see more crimes, of kidnaps, we are afraid of - bribe-taking, administrative corruption, and women(ph) rights violations. So if all of these are put together, the achievements over the 11 or 12 years that Afghanistan have made, my students and we, the teachers, feel we may lose unless international community continue to work with us and with the Afghan government.
MONTAGNE: Well, you're saying stay engaged, but clearly the troops are going to be leaving.
EHSAN: Exactly. We are not asking the international community to be directly underground, but we would like them to continue to train our forces and to continue to stay with us, providing either air support, providing logistics, providing advice, and working with our neighboring countries.
It is, yes, expensive for U.S. to keep all those forces here, troops in Afghanistan, but we would still ask that they leave behind some of the forces to help us because we cannot do it on our own.
MONTAGNE: Are you seeing any indication that Afghans, you know, like yourself, educated, working all these years to help Afghanistan progress, do you see any indication that people are, in a sense, packing their bags, you know, preparing for the worst?
EHSAN: You know, look, everything has been affected. It's in everybody's mind. When you do anything, they live for 2014. There are also people who are optimistic and they think, well, good things will happen. But this uncertainty, you know, is prevailing, because many people have become unemployed. With the international community there were lots of people employed. But there are also people who are happy when there is a war. They are happy when there is a chaos. They are happy when they control people like us, when they rule on us. So yes, there are people who are packing up because they say that if these warlords and drug lords and the Taliban and extremists come back, that would deteriorate, you know, the situation.
I hope it doesn't go that way. I hope the international community, especially the government of the United States of America, stay engaged with us and control these people and continue to control these people. We need international support very badly.
MONTAGNE: Ehsan Ullah Ehsan is the director of the Kandahar Institute of Modern Studies. Thanks very much for joining us.
EHSAN: Thank you very much for having me.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with job cuts on Wall Street.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: The investment bank Morgan Stanley has announced plans to shed 1,600 jobs - about half of those cuts here in the United States. The layoffs are said to target senior employees, management and executives - a move seen as aimed at cutting costs and boosting equity returns for the banks' investors. Those returns are still down about a quarter from the levels seen before the 2008 financial crisis.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And there's more trouble for Foxconn, the electronics giant which makes Apple products in China. The company is acknowledging that Chinese police are looking into allegations that Foxconn employees took bribes from parts suppliers.
NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from Shanghai.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Foxconn says it's cooperating with police and has brought in its own audit team to investigate alleged kickbacks. Foxconn's statement follows a report in the Taiwanese magazine Next, saying a Foxconn executive had been arrested last year as part of a bribery investigation. Foxconn, headquartered in Taiwan, has admitted no wrongdoing.
Bribery's common in Chinese industrial relations. Many foreign businessmen say they hate it, but argue they can't compete in China's intensely competitive marketplace without paying people off.
In recent years, Foxconn has become a lightening rod for labor rights activists because of workers' complaints and the company's assembly of high-profile Apple products.
In 2010, the Foxconn was hit with a series of worker suicides. And last September, thousands of employees trashed a Foxconn plant in northern China over what they saw as mistreatment by security guards.
Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Shanghai.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And today's last word in business goes out by special request to people listening in their cars. A new study finds that the music you listen to can affect how safely you drive.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Researchers at London Metropolitan University studied how drivers reacted to different playlists over 500 miles. Some of the safest music, we're told, included tunes by Norah Jones and Elton John. They're soft and slow-paced.
MONTAGNE: Hip-hop, dance and heavy metal music led to more aggressive driving. Subjects listening to classical music drove most erratically.
INSKEEP: Of course. Here's something interesting, also: Coldplay was one of the bands whose music induced safe driving. And this is not the first time that Coldplay has turned up in a study.
MONTAGNE: In 2010, researchers found Coldplay to be the best band to fall asleep to. Uh-oh.
INSKEEP: That doesn't sound especially safe for driving. Let us suggest you make sure you're well-rested before you drive while playing Coldplay. Failing that, you can always just listen to public radio news.
And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And keeping you awake - we hope, anyway - I'm Renee Montagne.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And here in L.A. red carpet season kicks into high gear this morning when the Oscar nominations are announced. From critics to film executives, 2012 is thought to be a very good year for movies.
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MONTAGNE: Scenes from "Silver Lining's Playbook," "Argo," and "Zero Dark Thirty," all considered contenders for Best Picture. To break down the Oscar race, Kim Masters joined us at NPR West. She's editor at large for the Hollywood Reporter. Good morning.
KIM MASTERS: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So Kim, run through the list of possible Best Picture nominees for us and, of course, it can be up to 10 and it sounds like quite a list.
MASTERS: Yeah. It's a really strong list. I think there will be a group that are for sure nominees; "Lincoln" from Steven Spielberg, "Argo," which is Ben Affleck's movie about the caper in Iran during the hostage crisis, "Les Mis," Tom Hooper's take on the Victor Hugo novel and musical, "Silver Lining's Playbook," from David O. Russell, it's a comedy about two people with some mental challenges, shall we say, "Zero Dark Thirty," has gotten a lot of publicity.
This one about the hunt for bin Laden from Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal. "Life of Pi," Ang Lee's movie based on the novel. I think those for sure are going to be nominated and then there's some that can still sneak in, "Beast of the Southern Wild" and others that are in contention and wouldn't shock anybody, "Django Unchained" from Quentin Tarantino might make the cut.
MONTAGNE: Well, let's go back for a moment to "Zero Dark Thirty." It's been very controversial for its depiction of torture. How might all of that criticism affect Oscar voters?
MASTERS: It is hard to say. I don't think it helps the movie. I think they'll be some people who don't want to see it because they've heard about the torture depiction. I think some people might be concerned about what the implications of the controversy are. Does the movie endorse torture? Some may want to spring to the defense of the filmmakers, but I think the bottom line is the movie is not an emotional movie with a big emotional payoff.
And a lot of Oscar pundits that I talk to feel that the Academy members are going to be more responsive to a movie with that big heart element.
MONTAGNE: Okay. Well, then in the acting categories, talk to us about who are the favorites.
MASTERS: I think Daniel Day Lewis has to be considered a lock for impersonating Lincoln. He's the lead candidate in Best Actor. In Best Actress, I think, you know, there are couple of contenders. Jennifer Lawrence, you might remember her from "Hunger Games," if you didn't see her in "Silver Lining's Playbook," but she plays a sort of a damaged young woman who finds some recovery through dance.
Jessica Chastain also maybe for playing Maya, the CIA agent in "Zero Dark Thirty." Supporting, I think Alan Arkin is so compelling. He plays a movie producer in a very humorous turn in "Argo" and I think a lot of people in Hollywood and the Academy might find that particularly appealing. And in Best Supporting Actress, I think Anne Hathaway.
I think everybody has seen her at least in a clip singing "I Dreamed a Dream" and I think that is the closest thing to a lock in this competition.
MONTAGNE: And Kim, this Oscar season really seems to stand out because several of these films have been big hits at the Box Office, unlike the last few Academy Awards when small films that hadn't attracted big audiences won big on Oscar night.
MASTERS: Yeah. You're thinking about movies like "The Artist," and "The Hurt Locker," which was a very small movie at the Box Office, even after it won. And this year, we not only have some big grosses, but we have the studios. We have "Argo" from Warner Brothers, "Les Mis" from Universal, "Life of Pi" from Fox. You know, these are not the sorts of movies that these studios have been making and yet they took a chance and they've been well rewarded in every instance so far.
And it's been a record year at the Box Office, over $10.6 billion. And more importantly, there are more ticket sales and that's been a good year for Hollywood and I think the interest in the Awards will carry along the interest for a few weeks to come.
MONTAGNE: Kim Masters hosts "The Business" on member station KCRW. Thanks very much.
MASTERS: Thank you, Renee.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
But let's not waste any more time on acclaimed movies. We have news of the Razzies, the annual spoof of the Academy Awards highlighting the years worst movies and performances.
MONTAGNE: Razzie winners are announced the night before the Oscars and the nominations came out this week. They went to some movies you might have forgotten, including "Battleship," and "That's My Boy." Acting nominations go to Adam Sandler, Tyler Perry and Katherine Heigel.
INSKEEP: Leading the pack is "Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2." It is to the Razzies what "Gone With The Wind" or "Avatar" have been to the Oscars. The vampire flick is up for 11 awards this year, including worst picture, worst director and worst screenplay.
MONTAGNE: "Twilight's" star Robert Pattinson is up for worst actor, but he didn't do as well or maybe we should say as badly as his co-star Kristen Stewart. She is nominated twice for worst actress in both "Twilight" and "Snow White and the Huntsman."
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Baseball writers send a message when they vote for candidates for the Hall of Fame, both in who they select and in who they pass up. And for the first time since 1996, only the eighth time in baseball history that baseball writers decided not to nominate anyone for induction. The winners are no one. The pool of candidates was one of the most star-studded ever. It included Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa - players all linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman joins me. Good morning.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Hello.
INSKEEP: OK. Before we get into the doping here, let's be clear. There will be an induction ceremony at the Hall of Fame. It just won't include any living players. Is that right?
GOLDMAN: Yeah. Let's give Deacon White his due, Steve. He was considered one of the best barehanded catchers in the game. He played in the late 1870s - and yes, there was a time when players didn't use gloves. Catchers used to stand a lot farther back from the pitcher than they do now. But, still, ouch. So congrats to the late Mr. White, who was elected to the Hall by a special committee.
INSKEEP: OK. So he gets in posthumously, but nobody living gets in. What's been the reaction to that?
GOLDMAN: The consensus is that writers have rendered a verdict - at least for now - on this period of time in baseball called the steroids era - the hardliners. I'll pick out Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated, who says he will never vote for steroid users and those suspected of steroid use. Steroids, he says, are in a category of their own when it comes to cheating.
You've got the other side of the argument. There were votes for Bonds. He got 36.2 percent. Clemens got 37.6, Sosa 12.5. You need at least 75 percent to get in.
Veteran writer, Jason Stark of ESPN says: A Hall of Fame without Bonds and Clemens? You cannot be serious. The problem, he says, is with the Hall. If you're going to honor the best players, you need to have best players in there. If you're not, then turn the Hall into a museum, which it is partly now, but a museum where you tell the story of the game, good and bad, but no plaques honoring the best.
INSKEEP: Although, does that mean that the likes of Bonds and Clemens will always be out of the Hall?
GOLDMAN: No. There's a 15-year window to be elected. There's a school of thought that in the next 15 years, attitudes toward doping will change.
I talked to Dr. John Hoberman. He's a doping historian. He says attitudes about performance-enhancing drugs often follow generational lines. And as older, more tradition-bound and steroid intolerant writers start to be replaced by younger guys, Dr. Hoberman believes that might bode well for the guys like Bonds and Clemens and others implicated in doping.
That said, you listen to Mark McGwire, the former slugger who admitted using banned drugs, he talks about how he'll never be elected to the Hall. And, in fact, his yes votes in this, his seventh year of eligibility, went down for a third straight year. So, for now, doping is still toxic.
INSKEEP: Now, amidst all of this news, of course, we have news that Lance Armstrong is going to talk to Oprah Winfrey about the allegations against him of doping in cycling.
GOLDMAN: Yeah. Word is that there will be some sort of honesty on the subject when this airs next week. It has been promoted as no-holds-barred. There are some legal cases pending. He could open himself up to a ton of liability. So we're not sure what exactly, if anything, he's going to say. If he just comes out with a general and vague sorry everyone, but doesn't say what he sorry for, that will be unsatisfying for many. Of course, if he's trying to get something out of a confession, a quid pro quo, involving, say, a reduction in his lifetime ban from officially sanctioned marathons and triathlons - his athletic focus now - he's going to have to get pretty specific. Anti-doping agencies will reduce the punishment, but only if the athlete late brings the goods. So we will see.
INSKEEP: Tom, thanks.
GOLDMAN: You're welcome.
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INSKEEP: That's NPR Tom Goldman, talking to us about the lack of living inductees into the baseball Hall of Fame this year.
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Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep, with an offer you probably can refuse. Washington, D.C. hotels offer luxury packages for those attending President Obama's second inauguration. The Madison Hotel offers one for $47,000. It includes four nights at the hotel, a car and driver, a shopping spree, and the services of a social media butler. You, too, could have someone follow you around, take your picture and chronicle your moves on Facebook and Twitter.
It's MORNING EDITION.
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Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne. A travel group in Britain is advertising a six-month job with an intriguing set of qualifications: comfortable in swimwear, happy to get wet at work. And this is key: mad about water parks. The job is water slide tester at the company's Splash World Resorts in places like Majorca and Turkey. It pays just okay, but the gig does promise plenty of thrills before the water slide tester retires that swimwear. It's MORNING EDITION.
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And this morning here in Los Angeles the nominations for the 85th Academy Awards were announced. The movie with the most nominations: Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," with 12 nods.
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MONTAGNE: We heard Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln and then just now the movie "Life of Pi," directed by Ang Lee, the second-most nominated movie with 11 nominations. The winners will be announced on February 24 at the Academy Awards. And joining us for a closer look is Linda Holmes, who writes NPR's pop culture blog, Monkey See. Any surprises, Linda? So far these two could have been expected.
LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: Those two were widely expected to do very well, and they did. I think the biggest surprises came in the director category, where Ben Affleck was not nominated for directing "Argo," and especially Katherine Bigelow was not nominated for directing "Zero Dark Thirty." She in particular, I think, was considered to be a lock and a very strong contender for the win. She wasn't nominated.
Instead of those two, you got essentially two directors of films that were not necessarily as much frontrunners - Michael Haneke, who is the director of the film "Amour," and also Benh Zeitlin, who is the director of a movie called "Beasts of the Southern Wild," which has not gotten as much publicity but is also very beloved.
MONTAGNE: Now, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "Amour" did well overall in these nominations, as did another smaller movie, "Silver Linings Playbook."
HOLMES: "Silver Linings Playbook" did very well. The film was nominated. The director was nominated. The screenplay was nominated. And it was nominated in all four acting categories - lead actor and actress and supporting actor and actress. That's a pretty impressive sweep. So those three all did well. They were all nominated for Best Picture, along with "Argo," "Django Unchained," "Les Miserables," "Life of Pi," and "Lincoln," as you mentioned, and "Zero Dark Thirty."
MONTAGNE: And let's talk momentarily about the actor/actress category - a pretty cool actress category, both the oldest and the youngest actresses ever nominated. I think that's right.
HOLMES: That is absolutely right. The oldest and youngest actresses ever. The oldest is Emmanuelle Riva, who is 85-years-old and is nominated for "Amour," and the youngest is Quvenzhane Wallis, nominated for "Beasts of the Southern Wild." She is nine years old now. She was five when she auditioned for the film. And there are some other actors who were nominated for widely decorated films, including Philip Seymour Hoffman is nominated for "The Master," Joaquin Phoenix is nominated for "The Master," Christoph Waltz for "Django Unchained," not Jamie Foxx, unfortunately.
And probably the biggest lock of this Oscars is Daniel Day-Lewis for "Lincoln."
MONTAGNE: Who is actually obviously nominated as predicted for best actor.
HOLMES: Absolutely.
MONTAGNE: So is there a takeaway from this year's roundup of nominations about the Academy Awards?
HOLMES: I think there is. When they originally expanded the field, it used to be five best picture nominees. It can now be anywhere between five and 10. I think the expectation was it would benefit bigger, more popular films. "The Dark Knight" was one of the ones that motivated that change in a lot of people's minds.
MONTAGNE: The original "Dark Knight."
HOLMES: Right. It's actually turned out to benefit, I think, some very small films, including "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and "Amour," both of which are a little off the beaten path for the Academy.
MONTAGNE: Linda, thanks very much.
HOLMES: Thank you.
MONTAGNE: Linda Holmes writes NPR's pop culture blog Monkee See.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
But let's not waste any more time on acclaimed movies. We have news of the Razzies, the annual spoof of the Academy Awards highlighting the year's worst movies and performances.
MONTAGNE: Razzie winners are announced the night before the Oscars and the nominations came out this week. They went to some movies you might have forgotten, including "Battleship" and "That's My Boy." Acting nominations go to Adam Sandler, Tyler Perry and Katherine Heigel.
INSKEEP: Leading the pack is "Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2." It is to the Razzies what "Gone With The Wind" or "Avatar" have been to the Oscars. The vampire flick is up for 11 awards this year, including worst picture, worst director and worst screenplay.
MONTAGNE: "Twilight" star Robert Pattinson is up for worst actor, but he didn't do as well, or maybe we should say as badly, as his co-star, Kristen Stewart. She is nominated twice for worst actress in both "Twilight" and "Snow White and the Huntsman."
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Let's turn now from the ethnic makeup of America to its changing physical landscape. Nature writer and commentator Craig Childs has been watching the dramatic transformation of a mighty river that is running dry.
CRAIG CHILDS: Small porpoises once swam in the brackish estuaries of the Colorado River delta. Jaguars stalked the river channels and marshes. It's not like that any more, though. The Colorado River no longer reaches the sea in Northern Mexico. It hasn't since 1983.
I sometimes travel through that dry Mexican country on foot. You walk across sand-swept bars of clam shells from the estuaries that used to be there. You have to carry all your water on your back. When you've got a week's worth, 80 pounds, you learn to measure every sip, shaking your bottle to feel how much is left before you drink again.
There are times you can't see a living thing to the horizon. Once I came across an abandoned cattle ranch 50 miles inland from the delta. A few leathery cow carcasses lay scattered. No one had been there in a while. Though the country was locked in a drought, I found the ranch's concrete cistern nearly full of water. The windmill had continued pumping whenever the wind blew, producing enough to fill the cistern five feet deep. The water was warm and laced with algae, and I drank it from a metal pail, dipping and pouring it over my face. It felt like a miracle.
On the U.S. side of the border, the Colorado River barely quenches Phoenix, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The Federal Bureau of Reclamation just put out a comprehensive report on the Colorado. One suggestion is to pipe part of the Missouri River hundreds of miles south, to take the pressure off the Colorado - that's unlikely to happen. More likely is an increase in desalinization plants.
The report made me think of that desert cistern. In this part of the world, water is not about green lawns and swimming pools. It's not about piling on infrastructure, growth adding to growth. Water here is about savoring and conserving.
I know folks in southern Arizona who harvest rainwater from their roofs. They keep up gardens from their cistern. I have friends near Tucson who built subtle berms across their desert property, changing the way rainwater flows. While water tables nearby dropped more than 200 feet from the strain of subdivisions, their well came up by 15.
These acts may seem like drops in the bucket, but they add up. The solutions are not always industrial. Sometimes they are about realizing the true weight of water, making it a miracle again.
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MONTAGNE: Commentator Craig Childs' most recent book is "Apocalyptic Planet." You can comment on his essay on the Opinion Page at NPR.org.
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
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And I'm Steve Inskeep.
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A lot of the email spam that winds up in people's mailboxes promises cheap medicines online. Viagra is among the drugs for sale this way. Many people who receive these emails may wonder who's selling this stuff and if anybody is really buying. Turns out the emails come from partnerships between spammers and rogue online pharmacies.
Tracey Samuelson of NPR's Planet Money Team reports on the dark side of the Internet.
TRACEY SAMUELSON, BYLINE: The inner workings of these industries actually emerged from a feud between two competing black-market pharmacies. In their heyday, they were two of the biggest rogue pharmacies in the world. Then someone hacked their digital files and they ended up in the hands of Brian Krebs, who reports on cyber security for his own site, Krebs on Security.
BRIAN KREBS: We're talking about the contact information, the bank account information, the email addresses, phone numbers, sometimes passport information, for many of the biggest spammers on the planet.
SAMUELSON: Plus the order history and credit card information of over a million customers of these two black market pharmacies, Rx-Promotion and SpamIt.
KREBS: These two programs, Rx-Promotion and SpamIt, probably are responsible for upwards of 50 or 60 percent of the spam that you or I got in our inboxes over the last five years. It's just a ridiculous amount of - of problems that these guys caused.
SAMUELSON: Stefan Savage, a professor of computer science and engineering at U.C. San Diego, also got a look at this data. And he used it to study the business model behind this usually hidden industry. At the center are these international pharmacies, often in places like Russia. But because they're in a shady business, selling prescription drugs without prescriptions, they can't simply run ads on TV. They need some other way to get the word out about their product, their pills. And historically, that's meant spam.
STEFAN SAVAGE: We wouldn't call what they're doing legitimate, it's illegal in this country, but the fundamental practice, is they are trying to advertise this product.
SAMUELSON: The spammer is like an independent contractor, they get paid on commission. And in these leaked documents, you can actually read conversations where an online pharmacy employee tries to recruit a hot new spammer to his team.
Hey. How about spamming for us? The employee asks in instant message. What are the payment conditions, the spammer replies? Well, the employee says, most people get to keep about 30 percent of their sales. But the spammer, he counters that he's really good at his job, that he has the ability to send 500 million spam emails in a single day. Eventually, the spammer and the online pharmacy employee, they agree the spammer will keep 40 percent of his sales.
So that's the advertising piece. But once a customer has chosen their drug of choice, then the pharmacy takes over. They find someone to process the credit card payment. And then, they actually have to get the drugs to the customer.
SAVAGE: They don't actually, typically, warehouse any drugs themselves. So they'll contract with third parties who have access, usually to generic drug manufacturing in India and China.
SAMUELSON: So now one question you might be asking is, are these drugs actually real? A guy named Dave Keck had that question as well when he ordered an acne medication called Accutane from a pharmacy in Latvia.
DAVE KECK: I called Walgreen's and they said it was going to be about $600 for a month's supply of what I researched is what I should take. And on this online pharmacy, I think it was like 40 bucks for same amount. So that was a no-brainer.
SAMUELSON: Keck knew the risk - both of taking a very strong drug without a doctor's supervision and of ordering drugs from abroad - it's technically illegal and he worried it might be a scam. But he decided to give it a go. He watched his credit card like a hawk for extra charges and then a few weeks later, he got a package from Turkey.
KECK: What I got from this pharmacy was in like kind of a binder. And they included one packaging of the actual medicine, but the rest was just kind of taped down to inside of this binder. So it looked pretty suspicious.
SAMUELSON: But the pills were in a sealed blister packs with branding that looked more legitimate. Just in Turkish. So Keck wondered whether the pills were real medicine or not. He figured no one would go through all this effort to just poison him.
KECK: No. I was thinking poison was going to be more expensive. These people probably just want to make money. So it's going to be a sugar pill or the real deal. And after I'd taken if for about a week, I was 100 percent sure that it was the real deal, just based on the side effects.
SAMUELSON: His skin dried up, his lips got really chapped, and his acne went away. So a lot of people who order from these pharmacies are ordering erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra, but Stefan Savage, the researcher, says up to 15 percent of orders come from customers like Keck - people who turn to these sites to treat everyday health problems, likely because they can't afford legal avenues to buy their medications. And according to Savage, people seem to mostly get what they pay for.
SAVAGE: I'll say, over 800 orders, we've maybe only had one time when we didn't get something. For legal reasons, we can't buy every drug and we're not equipped to test everything. I will say the drugs that we have tested, the right active ingredient has appeared in the right amounts.
SAMUELSON: Not all online pharmacies operate in the black market, but the Food and Drug Administration says Americans should only order from sites that are licensed and located in the U.S. Otherwise, there might not be proper oversight. And if these drugs wind up making you sicker in the long run, it's actually not such a bargain.
Tracey Samuelson, NPR News.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
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Hey, the second season of HBO's "Girls" begins on Sunday night. Critics love the series for the way that it follows the lives of women in their 20s. They've also been asking why the show is not more diverse.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The contrast is striking, when you compare it with shows that did focus on young women of color. NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates reports.
KAREN GRIGSBY BATES, BYLINE: By now, most of you have heard the buzz about "Girls." It's written by 26-year-old Lena Dunham, and stars a quartet of young women whose hopeful plans sometimes crash face-first into life's nasty realities.
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BATES: Ouch. The show's smart dialogue attracted writer Allison Samuels, a cultural critic for Newsweek-The Daily Beast.
ALLISON SAMUELS: I love the writing. I think it's really well done.
BATES: But she doesn't watch "Girls" regularly.
SAMUELS: At the end of the day, if you don't have someone that represents my reality as well, I feel like that's not an invitation for me to come in and watch.
BATES: "Girls" - the first season, anyway - is relentlessly white: the leading cast, the supporting cast, even the people on their Brooklyn streets. Samuels is African-American; so is Marissa Jennings, CEO of Socialgrlz, a mobile Web company designed for African-American teens. Jennings says she's watched a couple of episodes of "Girls," but it didn't sustain her interest.
MARISSA JENNINGS: The lack of African-American women portrayed in the show, it does bother me just because that's not the way of the world.
BATES: She remembers loving two shows, when she was younger, that were similar in construction to "Girls," but that felt more familiar.
JENNINGS: Well, growing up, I remember watching "Living Single" as well as "Girlfriends."
BATES: "Living Single" featured four young, professional women living in New York; and included Queen Latifah as Kadijah Jones, the penny-pinching editor of a small magazine. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: The character's name is Kadijah James. ]
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BATES: "Girlfriends" showed four friends in their early 30s, trying to lead grown-up lives in Los Angeles. The comedy focused a lot on balancing work and life pressures. It starred Tracee Ellis Ross as Joan Clayton, a driven lawyer who sometimes drove her other three friends a little crazy.
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BATES: Both casts were all-black. Mara Brock Akil, creator of "Girlfriends," says she loved TV friendships she saw as a young woman, but felt there was a hole.
MARA BROCK AKIL: I was a fan of "Friends." And "Sex and the City" was my favorite show, and I enjoyed that. I just didn't see my details - the women that I knew. I didn't see them included in the story. They weren't a part of the conversation.
BATES: So she created "Girlfriends," which ran for eight seasons, ending in 2008. But since then, times have changed, and so has Akil's focus. Her production company now works at BET. She says the current shows she's producing, while geared to black audiences, have casts that are becoming more multicultural because they need to reflect the reality of quickly changing demographics.
Her new shows include actors who are Dominican, Puerto Rican and Filipina. Akil says she's always looking to make sure the new additions make sense to the storyline, and don't just add color to the scenery.
AKIL: I try to choose organic diversity. I think that that's a problem - when you just start putting people together just because we need to have diversity.
BATES: Daily Beast writer Allison Samuels says the world is changing rapidly; and the entertainment industry had better realize that, or risk losing a lot of income. Producers like Shonda Rimes - who cast her hit ensemble dramas "Grey's Anatomy," "Private Practice" and "Scandal" with several lead actors of color - have shown that reflection of the real world can pay off in coveted ratings. Reflecting social change on TV is not a matter of ability, Samuels says, but will. So she thinks the television industry should do this, going forward...
SAMUELS: Be as open-minded about, I think, racial issues as it has been about gay issues. I think they've been ver - they've led the curve, on gay issues.
BATES: If TV shows can do the same thing with race and ethnicity, they might have a long future in a country that's no longer just black and white.
Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.
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And it's time now for StoryCorps, the project recording the stories of everyday Americans. And today, we're going to hear from Diane Tells His Name. She's a Lakota Indian. Growing up, she never knew anything about her heritage. She was adopted when she was a baby. And at StoryCorps, her daughter, Bonnie Buchanan, asks Diane about her childhood.
BONNIE BUCHANAN: When did you first feel like you were different?
DIANE TELLS HIS NAME: Probably elementary school. I had a younger sister, and I really didn't like doing the same things that she would do. She would do tea parties and play with dolls, and things like that; and I was always outside, looking at the clouds or the stars. And my sister was blond, tall and thin, like my mother; and I was round and brown.
(LAUGHTER)
TELLS HIS NAME: I remember going through the family albums, looking for my face in the old photographs, and I didn't see me. And eventually, when I was 37 years old, I happened to see a picture of my mom in October of 1951. And it shocked me because I was born in November of 1951 - and my mother was not pregnant. So that's when I knew that I was adopted.
BUCHANAN: How did you feel?
TELLS HIS NAME: It was very satisfying to know that I wasn't crazy. I didn't blame them. I wasn't angry with them. In 1951, you just didn't talk about those things. So when I got my original birth certificate, it said on there my birth mother's name; and it said that she was born at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. So I went to South Dakota to receive my Indian name, and get a crash course in how to be Indian.
After that, my husband and I told Indian Family Services we wanted to adopt a child from my tribe, a Lakota child. And finally, they faxed us a picture of a little Indian child, and she was drinking chocolate syrup out of a Hershey's bottle. And our son said, that's her! That's the one we need to adopt. And it was you.
BUCHANAN: (LAUGHTER)
TELLS HIS NAME: I started doing research on your family, and when I started looking at your family tree, I saw one of my relatives on your paper. So we are cousins. I thought that was just - that was amazing. I'm glad you're my baby.
BUCHANAN: I know. I'm glad you adopted me.
TELLS HIS NAME: I am, too. It's like our whole family was just planned out so that it would be best for all of us.
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INSKEEP: You can take a moment to collect yourself. That's Bonnie Buchanan with her mom, Diane Tells His Name; at StoryCorps in San Francisco. Their story will be archived with thousands of others, at the Library of Congress. The podcast is at npr.org.
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It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
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And I'm Renee Montagne. As Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner prepares to step down, an image stays in the mind. It's a newspaper photo of Geithner at his desk in the early months of his tenure, looking rather alone.
INSKEEP: The accompanying story noted that President Obama's administration was struggling to fill the jobs of Geithner's subordinates, leaving the Treasury undermanned during the biggest financial crisis in generations. Geithner weathered that storm and many later battles, and now finally prepares to step down.
MONTAGNE: President Obama nominated a successor, Jack Lew, yesterday. NPR economics correspondent John Ydstie has this look back at Tim Geithner's tenure.
JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: Tim Geithner has had a bruising four years at the Treasury. He took office when the U.S. economy was plunging into the worst recession since the Great Depression. Flanked by Geithner and Lew at the White House yesterday, the president praised his departing Treasury secretary for helping to get the economy back on track.
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YDSTIE: Mr. Obama went on to cite other issues Geithner shepherded, among them the financial reform and the rescue of the U.S. auto industry.
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YDSTIE: The sustained applause for Geithner from an audience that included his administration colleagues was in great contrast to the reception he often got on Capitol Hill. After less than a year in office, Republicans, like Texas Congressman Kevin Brady, were asking him to resign.
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YDSTIE: Geithner responded to that request with a burst of emotion, saying the president's policies had broken the back of the financial panic and turned the economy around.
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YDSTIE: Alan Blinder, a professor of economics at Princeton and a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, says history will view Tim Geithner as a successful Treasury secretary.
ALAN BLINDER: We will be vastly better off on the day Tim Geithner leaves office compared to the day he took office. There's just no doubt about that. So the progress will be huge.
YDSTIE: In listing Geithner's accomplishments, Blinder - who was also an economic adviser for the Clinton White House - points first to Geithner's handling of the financial crisis, especially the bank stress tests.
BLINDER: It was a modern equivalent of FDR's bank holiday. Geithner didn't have to go that far, close all the banks. The success and the plausibility of the results of the stress tests renewed confidence in the banks, and people stopped worrying about them going bust.
YDSTIE: But Geithner's record is not unblemished. Where he stumbled badly, says Blinder, was in handling the foreclosure crisis. Former FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair agrees. She says Geithner was too concerned about helping the big Wall Street banks.
SHEILA BAIR: They were successful in stabilizing those institutions, but they weren't successful in getting credit flowing to the real economy again. And we hardly spent any money on helping distressed homeowners. And, again, those distressed mortgages were at the heart of the problem.
YDSTIE: Bair also credits Geithner for the success of the bank stress tests and for other financial reforms. But ultimately, she argues, Geithner's Wall Street-centric view prolonged the country's economic problems.
BAIR: So, the economy is better, yes, but is it as good as it should be? No, it's not.
YDSTIE: Geithner would agree the economy still has a long way to go, but he stands behind the steps he took to bring it back from the edge of the abyss. John Ydstie, NPR News, Washington.
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For the first time in five decades, Cubans are about to be able to travel without having to get an exit permit. The change is part of broader immigration reform that are making it easier for Cubans to go abroad and also, importantly, to return.
Nick Miroff reports from Havana.
NICK MIROFF, BYLINE: One block from the massive U.S. Consulate in Havana is a place Cubans call Embassy Park, even though Washington technically doesn't have an embassy here and there isn't much left of the park.
The place is more like a holding pen for the dreams and despair of Cubans trying to get to the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Foreign language spoken)
MIROFF: Hundreds arrive here each day, some queuing up for hours under the broiling sun to wait for their names to be called by security guards.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Foreign language spoken)
MIROFF: Sergio Giral was waiting in a strip of shade cast by a nearby apartment building.
SERGIO GIRAL: (Foreign language spoken)
MIROFF: These measures that the government is taking are a good step, Giral says. Our rights have been oppressed for too long, he says, but Cuba is changing.
A handful of tiny, private businesses have sprouted up here to help Cubans fill out visa applications. In her cramped, crowded basement shop across from the consulate, Idalmis Socarras says she's seen the crowds swell since the Castro government announced in October, that Cubans would no longer need an exit permit to leave the country after January 14th.
IDALMIS SOCRRAS: (Foreign language spoken)
MIROFF: There are a lot more people because of the opening, Socarras says. It's good that our government is doing this, she adds, but it won't make it any easier to get a U.S. visa.
Fidel Castro put the travel restrictions in place in the early 1960s, when Cuba's professionals fled his communist revolution en mass. In the decades since, the government continued to insist the widely-resented measures were necessary to protect its socialist system from a brain drain of doctors, engineers and scientists - who'd gotten a free education from the state. But under the new policy, almost any Cuban with a passport will be free to travel or go abroad for work, even doctors.
Aurelio Alonso is a sociologist and the deputy editor of the Casa de las Americas journal in Havana.
AURELIO ALONSO: (Foreign language spoken)
MIROFF: There's a series of calculations here that I suppose the government has already made, Alonso says. If 10,000 professionals travel abroad and 500 don't return, that is the price to pay for having a better-qualified workforce. At least even the ones who don't return will be sending money home to their families, Alonso says.
Raul Castro seems to be betting that most Cubans will return, just as the ones who get exit permits generally do now. But restrictions will remain for certain Cubans in strategic occupations, like military officers or top scientists. The new law also says that any Cuban who's a deemed a threat to national security or any other public interest, can be denied a passport, language broad enough to include nearly any dissident.
Havana blogger and activist Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo says he has standing invitations from various universities abroad. But he's declaring himself on strike until Cuba grants full travel rights to all citizens.
ORLANDO LUIS PARDO LAZO: I'm really tired. I am not a hero. I am not making immolation for the Cuban citizen. I'm tired. Because when you got hope - I can travel, I can make a living, maybe they can pay me for my lecture or for my work - hope lights your soul and then the government exploits that. And can somehow - it's like a blackmailing, you know. No. No. No, I'm quitting. I don't want to travel, really, anymore, unless I am a free citizen.
MIROFF: The U.S. isn't the only country where Cubans will be trying to go. Ecuador has no visa requirement, so any Cuban who can afford a plane ticket can go there. And while foreign embassies in Havana are likely to tighten up visa requirements for some Cubans, they may eagerly welcome physicians and other skilled professionals, who know they can earn far more working almost anywhere else.
For NPR News, I'm Nick Miroff in Havana.
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MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
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Tomorrow marks the day three years ago when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti. Over 200,000 people are believed to have been killed by the quake and its aftermath, but the scale of the devastation means a final death toll will likely never be known. NPR's Jason Beaubien was among the first to report from the ruins of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Here he is three years ago, describing the scene to NPR just two days after the quake. He was at a hotel where parents had brought their injured children.
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MONTAGNE: Haunting images like that one were also captured by NPR photographer David Gilkey. He was with Jason, both offering a glimpse into the unimaginable. Now, three years later, David and Jason are back in Haiti together, and we got them on the line to talk about what's changed and what hasn't.
Good morning.
: Good morning.
DAVID GILKEY, BYLINE: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: And David, what were some of the first things that struck you going back to the same locations that you photographed when the destruction was still fresh? You know, I'm thinking of one photograph of the Grand Cathedral there, which you shot as a painfully beautiful wreck.
GILKEY: Yeah. About the only difference is the rubble that came down when the ceiling collapsed is gone. Other than that, the main structure, like a shipwreck, is still there, and it's really eerie. When you go back to the places where we were working immediately following the earthquake, that's sort of the thing that gets you.
You get this sort of pit in your stomach, because you know how many people died in these places. And so everywhere Jason and I go, you get this uneasy feeling, and it's hard to describe, but you remember it as this place that's sort of death. And even though that those reminders are gone, as far as structures, you still remember vividly the tragedy that happened in these places.
MONTAGNE: One of the biggest challenges right after the earthquake was housing. And, Jason, I remember you describing, three years ago, a line of about 300 tents, a real tent city that was built on a median of a busy road.
: Yeah. It was probably the craziest camp. It was right in the middle of this incredibly busy street. Well, all of that's gone now, and a lot of the camps have actually been removed. They've gone around with a system of, for the most part, paying people to leave, offering them rent subsidies for one year to get out of these camps. And they have managed to get hundreds of thousands of people out of many of the biggest camps that were scattered around Port-au-Prince.
MONTAGNE: David, you have two photos, a pair of photos showing a hillside just after the quake, then of crumbled homes kind of sliding down. And now, mostly, they appear to be rebuilt.
GILKEY: Yeah. You see the homes coming back, but you also know in the back of your mind when you look at them - for example, with these pictures - that another situation like three years ago, and they could all come tumbling down again.
MONTAGNE: Let me end with you, Jason. What has been your dominant impression? Is it Haiti, three years later, is there a sense of new life? Or ghosts of the old life?
: Haitians who lived through January 12th of 2010 will never forget that day. But what seems to have happened is that things have gone back to what life was like before for many, many people. There's very much just the sense that despite the billions of dollars that were pledged, despite all of these promises of grand plans to build back better, to do something different in Haiti, Haiti has just sort of, on its own, scrambled back to what it was like before the quake.
And some people are still living in camps, but there's sort of a sense that things have returned to difficult poverty, that same poverty that was here before that devastating quake three years ago.
MONTAGNE: Thank you both for joining us.
GILKEY: Thank you, Renee.
: Thanks, Renee.
MONTAGNE: That's global health correspondent Jason Beaubien and photographer David Gilkey speaking to us from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. David's images of Haiti then and now can be seen at npr.org.
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The aftermath of another show suggests a way to power all those new gadgets. The annual Pennsylvania Farm Show comes to a close this weekend, which means cows and roosters are heading home and vendors are packing up their hot sauce and mustards, which leaves one vital question. What happens to the farm show's biggest attraction - a giant sculpture made from 1,000 pounds of butter? NPR's Scott Detrow investigates.
SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: Each year's butter sculpture has a different theme. Last year it was a kid with his cow. This year's masterpiece took 10 days to complete, and the theme is a bit complicated.
SASHA MACLEAN: It kind of looks like there's a Thanksgiving feast on the table in front and then, like, some trees out in back. And there's a guy putting the star on the tree.
DETROW: Sasha MacLean is just one of the thousands who swarmed to the sculpture's eight-sided refrigerated display case during this week's show. But what happens after the lights go off, after the crowds drift away? Like Frosty the Snowman, a butter sculpture isn't meant to live forever.
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DETROW: The butter sculpture's fate isn't pretty. Brett Reinford and I are looking at it. We're on his farm near Mifflintown, Pennsylvania. There's a cement pad next to the cattle barn. A truck has dumped a big pile of rotting fruit, vegetables and other food from Wal-Mart.
BRETT REINFORD: Dogs out here every day - both of them - looking for cheese mostly.
DETROW: Brett Reinford says all of this food waste is going to be turned into energy in a methane digester. Next week that beautiful butter sculpture will be dumped here as well, along with the key ingredient, manure.
REINFORD: It runs our whole entire farm and enough for about 80 houses. So there's a lot of excess that we sell back to the grid.
DETROW: Here's how it works: Reinford and his father Steve grind up the food and dump it into the deep covered tank of cow manure, where everything is heated up and stored for 20 days. Yeah, it smells exactly how you'd think, but that smell means the pit is generating methane gas, as bacteria inside feast on the manure and produce.
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DETROW: And the digester collects the methane gas and pipes it to a nearby generator, which powers the Reinford farm. Since butter is essentially fat and fat contains a lot of concentrated energy, the sculpture will be a powerful fuel for the digester. Last year's sculpture provided Reinford's farm with about three days worth of electricity.
REINFORD: Yeah, they brought it down here in one of our trucks. And then we sent it through the grinder there, turned it into a mush. And then eventually it went into the digester. And of course it's 100 degrees in there, so it just turns into a nice liquid.
DETROW: The methane digester solves a lot of problems for the Reinfords, and the increasing number of dairy farmers across the country who have installed similar systems. It gives them free electricity and heat and some extra income from selling excess power back to the utilities. And Brett figures since the 500-cow dairy farm is producing all that manure anyway, they might as well get some income from it. The digester has a big up-front cost - around a million dollars. But once you factor in all the state and federal grants the Reinford farm used to purchase it, they'll earn that money back within three years. I ask him, though, if he's worried his family will get pegged as those methane people, especially now that they're taking in the butter sculpture.
REINFORD: Sometimes, but I don't know. It's such a good thing. We're not too concerned about that.
DETROW: Scott Detrow, NPR News.
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Five years ago today, Bank of America announced it was buying the troubled subprime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial for $40 billion. At the time, the financial crisis had not fully revealed itself, and many people thought Bank of America was getting a good deal. Instead, the acquisition has turned into a never-ending legal and financial nightmare. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: It's not hard to find people who will tell you that Bank of America's decision to acquire Countrywide Financial in January 2008 was quite simply the worst deal in the history of the financial services industry.
TONY PLATH: Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, they lost 40 billion, and they're still counting.
ZARROLI: Tony Plath is an associate professor of finance at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte.
PLATH: At the time, the strategy made sense. The price made sense. The problem was it was exactly the wrong acquisition at precisely the wrong time.
ZARROLI: When the deal took place, Bank of America, under its CEO Ken Lewis, was growing fast, mostly through acquisitions. And it was eager to expand its mortgage business. Founded by Angelo Mozilo, California-based Countrywide had exploded in growth by offering subprime mortgages to people with credit problems.
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ZARROLI: At the time of the deal, the housing market was already collapsing, and Countrywide was losing money, so it could be bought for a lot less than it would have cost a year earlier. Bank of America plunged ahead with a deal. Jon Finger runs and investment firm that owns almost a million shares of Bank of America stock.
JON FINGER: Ken Lewis and his board of directors were focused on building the size of the company rather than focusing on shareholder returns, and the result was disastrous.
ZARROLI: Finger says even before the deal was finalized, several states had sued Countrywide for mortgage abuses.
FINGER: At that point, Bank of America should have stepped back and either renegotiated the deal or cancelled the deal.
ZARROLI: But it did neither. Once the acquisition went through, Bank of America began pouring over Countrywide's books, and it was in for a rude shock. It turned out that the problems were much worse than anyone had suspected. Many of Countrywide's loans had gone to people who couldn't afford them, and with the housing market in turmoil, a flood of foreclosures was coming its way. Again, Tony Plath.
PLATH: That's when Bank of America recognized that they had purchased a mess.
ZARROLI: By 2009, Bank of America's stock price had fallen by 90 percent. The Countrywide debacle was one of the big reasons why Ken Lewis was forced out of office - that and the controversial acquisition of Merrell Lynch. Bank of America is legally liable for abuses committed by Countrywide, and it's been forced to spend $40 billion settling legal claims against it.
Jon Finger says the legal troubles have badly hurt Bank of America's brand.
FINGER: They are absolutely tarred with the same brush, even though they did not actually commit those acts themselves, but they've, you know, they've acquired that legacy of Countrywide's bad practices.
ZARROLI: This week, Bank of America agreed to pay more than $10 billion to settle claims filed by the mortgage company Fannie Mae, which had purchased a lot Countrywide's loans. The bank still faces numerous private lawsuits and regulatory investigations. All of this remains a tremendous distraction for Bank of America's management. Perhaps not surprisingly, the company that wanted to expand its mortgage business is now reducing it, says banking consultant Bert Ely(ph).
BERT ELY: It's - I think somewhat of an open question right now is to how significant Bank of America is going to be as a mortgage lender, say, five years from now.
ZARROLI: Today, Countrywide has come to symbolize some of the worst excesses of the housing boom, but it is the company that bought it five years ago, Bank of America, that is having to clean up much of the mess it left behind. Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.
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Another bank is facing fines for activities during the financial crisis. The Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to pay several hundred million dollars for the LIBOR scandal.
INSKEEP: LIBOR is the name for the average rate at which banks lend money to each other. That interest rate is also seen as a signal of bank's health.
MONTAGNE: And the Royal Bank of Scotland, among others, is accused of manipulating the rate to make banks seem safer than they were.
INSKEEP: Now the BBC reports the Royal Bank of Scotland is negotiation with American and British regulators over the size of the fine it will pay. Barclays and the Swiss bank UBS have already accepted huge fines. You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
[POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION:In the introduction to this report, we mistakenly say Bank of America bought Countrywide Financial for $40 billion. In fact, BoA paid $4 billion for Countrywide. As of early 2013, when this story was broadcast, BoA had paid about $40 billion in legal costs related to earlier claims made against Countrywide.]
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Heading in the other direction, American Express says it plans to lay off more than 5,000 workers in the coming year. These unexpected cuts come despite a strong holiday sales season.
NPR's Kirk Siegler reports.
KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: All told, the layoffs will account for about eight percent of American Express's entire workforce - most from the company's global travel business.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: American Express is one of the largest travel companies in the world, and you'll always get our support when you need it the most.
SIEGLER: The friendly travel agents featured in this ad are precisely what the company needs fewer of. Business travelers can just book or rebook plane tickets and hotels from their smart phones.
American Express CEO Ken Chenault put it a little more bluntly in a call with analysts.
KEN CHENAULT: One outcome of this ongoing shift to online is that we can serve a growing customer base with lower staffing levels.
SIEGLER: Despite the layoffs in Amex's travel business, Chenault says they'll add jobs in other divisions. That means that the overall workforce will still shrink, but only by four to six percent.
CHENAULT: The environment continues to be challenging, but I believe our core business results continue to show the strength of our franchise.
SIEGLER: One reason Chenault cited for that - despite the effects of Superstorm Sandy, the company did still report a sizable increase in consumer spending over last year. American Express will announce its formal earnings next week.
Kirk Siegler, NPR News.
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That big consumer electronics show in Las Vegas ends today. And while big tech firms like Google and Apple did not attend, an increasingly diverse range of companies took their place. With more and more devices connecting to the Internet, many companies are flocking to this festival of gadgets, hoping to bring all the appliances in your home online. NPR's Steve Henn reports.
STEVE HENN, BYLINE: The Internet isn't just for people anymore. What began as a way for human beings to communicate using computers, smartphones or tablets has evolved into a network that's connecting more and more machines to each other. And the machines have a lot to say. Meet Ivee.
JONATHON NOSTRANT: Hello, Ivy.
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HENN: That's Jonathon Nostrant, the founder and CEO of the company that makes Ivee.
NOSTRANT: What's the weather in London on Saturday?
IVEE: Saturday in London, the temperature will be 34 degrees. You can expect partly cloudy skies mid-morning.
HENN: Ivee is a next generation alarm clock.
NOSTRANT: So we started making voice-activated talking alarm clocks. And basically what we found is that people like to talk to devices. The biggest benefit with our products today is that they can set the time of the alarm, but tomorrow they're going to be able to do so much more.
HENN: Say you're chilly. Just tell Ivee to turn up the heat.
IVEE: OK. I've set your thermostat to 73.
HENN: Sensors that can connect to the Net are already embedded in some thermostats, scales, door locks, light switches, windows, and even some sprinkler systems. This is supposed to be the future, right? The smart connected home.
NOSTRANT: Typically people see the phone and the tablet as being the only interface to interact with the smart home.
HENN: But Nostrant thought, why not just talk to it? I mean do you really want to use your iPhone to turn on and off the lights?
NOSTRANT: Instead of taking your phone out of your pocket, sliding over the bar, hitting the app to get in the app, going to the button, selecting the lights on and off, why not just say, hello, Ivee, turn the lights on?
HENN: The thing is, Ivee is just one of dozens of different companies which are competing to get the smart home to actually work. There are crowd-funded start-ups like Smart Things. There are security companies, like ADT and Alarm.com. Even giant telecoms like Verizon - all want to sell you something to help you connect every little appliance you own to the Net. There's even one very big hardware store getting into this act: Lowe's.
KEVIN MARR: My name's Kevin Marr and my title VP of Smart Home for Lowe's.
HENN: When did Lowe's decide that it needed a VP for Smart Home? How long have you had this job?
MARR: Exactly a year - just a little over a year, but...
HENN: Marr has been building connected gadgets for so-called smart homes for more than a decade.
MARR: You walk out to your car and frankly everything in your car works, interacts with each other. You've got central locking, electric windows. The door locks when you turn the ignition on. You know, there's a logic to the way all these things work.
HENN: In the home, Marr says, these same kinds of technologies could help save energy and water. They can make your home safer. They could even send you a text if an elderly parent doesn't get up and fire up the coffee maker at the usual time.
MARR: Everything but everything is going to be connected to the Internet.
HENN: And a lot of good could come of that, so Lowe's created a simple control system called Iris you can install yourself, that can talk to almost any connected appliance Lowe's sells. In the past, companies built different kinds of sensors into products and all these little gizmos couldn't talk to each other.
MARR: And that's the advantage we have at Lowe's. We sell this stuff and we can talk with our vendors and we can say, look, guys, I want you to make it so that when it connects, it connects this way.
HENN: And if you're an executive at, say, Pella Windows or Whirlpool, when Lowe's calls, you take the call. So if you've been waiting years for a smart fridge to go with your smartphone, that wait could possibly be coming to an end. Steve Henn, NPR News.
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It's Friday and it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
As if the looming battles over the budget and debt ceiling are not enough, President Obama faces another delicate act with Congress.
INSKEEP: This one too grows out of the Constitution's separation of powers. The president gets to name his cabinet choices - as he's been doing. The Senate gets to confirm or reject them.
MONTAGNE: Some, like Defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel, face sharp questions. Others, like the Treasury secretary nominee, Jack Lew, would normally face no hostile questions at all. But these are not normal times.
NPR's Tamara Keith reports on the president's latest nomination and what happens now.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Jack Lew is a life-long public servant and budget wonk. He was a young congressional staffer involved in the 1986 tax reform, served two stints as the chief presidential budget writer - first under President Clinton and then in the Obama administration, and for about the last year he's been president's chief of staff.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Under President Clinton he presided over three budget surpluses in a row. So for all the talk out there about deficit reduction, making sure our books are balanced, this is the guy who did it, three times.
KEITH: On the lighter side, the president did say there was one issue with the nominee whose signature would grace the nation's paper currency. That signature looks kind of like the squiggle on top of a Hostess cupcake.
OBAMA: Jack assures me that he is going to work to make at least one letter legible in order not to debase our currency, should he be confirmed as secretary of the Treasury.
KEITH: Notice the phrase should he be confirmed. Throughout most of history, confirmation of cabinet level nominees was more a formality than anything else. Certainly there would be no doubt about someone like Lew, already confirmed multiple times. But now it's not so clear.
Republican senator from Alabama Jeff Sessions put out a scathing statement saying Lew must never be secretary of the Treasury, and calling him the architect of two of the worst budgets in American history. Lew is also getting some criticism from the left for a brief stint at Citibank. And it only takes one senator to put the brakes on a nomination, or at least to slow it down.
Sarah Binder is a professor of political science at George Washington University.
SARAH BINDER: Well, I mean it's just sort of emblematic of senators pushing their powers here, right, into an area where we've traditionally said that senators are willing to defer to the president.
KEITH: It's not clear yet whether this is all bluster or whether senators will end up filibustering one of the president's nominees.
Tevi Troy, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, traces this back to the failed Supreme Court nomination of Robert Bork - who was defeated not because of ethical or personal failings, but because of policy disagreements.
TEVI TROY: And when the Senate Democrats scored that scalp, there was thoughts on both sides of the aisles going forward that this was an effective method.
KEITH: Troy, who was deputy secretary of health under President George W. Bush, knows all about the sometimes lengthy confirmation process. He ultimately got unanimous Senate confirmation, but he says it took...
TROY: Longer than it should have, but overall it took less time than most folks. I figure I got it in about four and a half months.
KEITH: But he says it really has been different with top level cabinet positions.
TROY: Cabinet slots are definitively more protected even today in this more contentious environment than other slots. Other slots are much more likely to be held up.
KEITH: Still, there's a question. In fact, two years ago a Democratic senator held up Lew's confirmation to be director of the Office of Management and Budget for two months - over an unrelated policy disagreement. Which might explain why with each announcement President Obama calls on the Senate to move quickly.
Tamara Keith, NPR News, the Capitol.
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Let's hear another perspective on President Obama's choice for Defense secretary. Chuck Hagel faces sharp questions at the least on his way to Senate confirmation. Earlier this week on this program, the analyst Danielle Pletka argued that the former Republican senator has omnidirectionally offended everyone, with his views on Israel, talking to Iran, the war in Iraq, and much more.
Our next guest is a veteran diplomat who supports Chuck Hagel's nomination to be secretary of Defense. Ryan Crocker served under Presidents Obama, Bush and others, as ambassador to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
Mr. Crocker, welcome back to the program.
RYAN CROCKER: Thanks, Steve. Great to be here.
INSKEEP: Why support Chuck Hagel, Ambassador?
CROCKER: You know, I've known Senator Hagel since he entered the Senate. I first met him when I was preparing to go out to Syria as ambassador in the spring of 1998. And while there are a lot of high-quality senators on that committee, I was particularly impressed by his thoughtfulness, his knowledge and his understanding that America needed to be engaged in a complex, very difficult world.
INSKEEP: Well, how do you think it is that Chuck Hagel has been accused of alienating so many people with various remarks over the years?
CROCKER: Well, he is a wonderfully nice person but he is also a very strong person. He is not afraid to, you know, express a view without engaging whether or not it's popular.
INSKEEP: One of the reasons that Senator Hagel, former Senator Hagel, is controversial is that he became a vocal critic of the war in Iraq, which is a country where you served as ambassador at one time, of course. Was he right about his criticism?
CROCKER: He initially supported the war. When things started turning south, he became a critic of it. Well, the truth is, I had more own reservations about the war before it was launched, but once it was, I was all in, literally - I was in Iraq starting April 2003, I had my first stint. Where I think he wrong, quite frankly, was his opposition to the surge.
INSKEEP: This is the increase in troops at the end of the Bush administration that was seen as reducing the violence ultimately, or helping to reduce the violence.
CROCKER: Correct. I think that surge was crucial in turning the tide and at least giving Iraq a chance at long-term security and stability. So I'm not a lobbyist for Chuck Hagel. I think he was wrong on this one. But it's easy to get things not quite right. I've done it myself.
INSKEEP: Is there a major issue facing the U.S. right now, such as Iran, such as a the Middle East conflict or other issues where you have looked at Chuck Hagel's statements and thought, well, on that one he's right.
CROCKER: Broadly speaking, he is right virtually all of the time. Take Iran. He has been criticized for saying we should negotiate with the Iranians. Well, I'm someone who did negotiate with Iranians on two occasions - over Afghanistan and over Iraq. And negotiation doesn't mean concession. As I've tried to point out before, negotiations for which are carefully prepared allow you some insight into your adversary. And I believe that to be Senator Hagel's view. You know, let's talk if they'll talk. Let's see what we learn. Maybe it will lead somewhere, but even if it doesn't, then it tells you where they're at and what your other options are. And I remember a piece in the Washington Post last year in which he made clear that use of force has to stay on the table. I don't think it's anybody's preferred option - it's certainly not mine - but you got to hold it there. And you know, a failed negotiation may make clear what your real options are.
INSKEEP: One other thing, Ambassador Crocker - what does the nomination of Chuck Hagel say about the foreign policy that President Obama may wish to pursue in his second term?
CROCKER: That's a complex question and it's probably broader than I'm really able to address. But what I would say off the top of my head is that he is signaling, I think, with his nominations of both Senator Hagel and Senator Kerry that he is going to be internationally engaged. These are two great internationalists. And that he is intending to work with others to the fullest extent possible. Because neither Hagel or Kerry or unilateralists. They've always believed in working with others.
INSKEEP: Ryan Crocker is a former U.S. ambassador to everywhere, really - Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, couple of others places. Ambassador, thank you very much.
CROCKER: Thank you, Steve. It's a pleasure.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Major League Baseball has enacted new anti-doping policies that are being described as unprecedented in American professional sports. Yesterday, Major League Baseball and its Players Union said that starting next year they will be fighting the use of human growth hormone and testosterone - two allegedly popular banned substances.
NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman has been covering this story. Tom, good morning.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: Hard not to notice the timing of this, coming one day after the baseball writers failed to elect anyone to the Hall of Fame; largely because of concerns about past doping.
GOLDMAN: Yeah, a failure to elect players like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa - legendary players are linked to banned drugs. It was a reminder of a not so long ago era that baseball and its union would rather forget. It's widely believed they were complicit in letting doping flourish. So it was an egg-on-the-face day for baseball. And lo and behold, the next day lots of clapping on the back and pronouncements of baseball a leader in the fight against doping.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said the new policies had been in the works for a long time. But he said about the timing: It wasn't too bad, was it?
Whether it was a coincidence or public relations planning at its finest, there is pretty wide agreement that baseball has come a far way since the so-called steroids era.
INSKEEP: OK, let's talk about the future here. What, starting next year anyway, are they going to do exactly?
GOLDMAN: They will start unannounced random blood testing during the regular season for human growth hormone, HGH. It can help build muscle and help an athlete recover quicker from intensive workouts. Last year, baseball OK-ed blood testing for HGH in the majors in spring training in the off-season. But now it'll be in-season as well. Meaning, you know, there's no safe time to use for players who want to do that.
Also, baseball will start a more sophisticated approach to testosterone detection. They're going to work with the World Anti-Doping Agency on a program to create profiles of players that contain baseline measurements of testosterone and other data. That can be compared to drug test results to look for fluctuations and thus possible doping.
INSKEEP: Substances that you would naturally have in your body. The question is how much.
GOLDMAN: Exactly. Now, these steps, Steve, they move baseball way ahead of other North American pro sports leagues, and closer to the Olympic model of testing which really is the gold standard.
INSKEEP: Well, Tom, you mentioned a lot of backslapping inside baseball about taking this big step. What about when you step away from the sport. How are outside observers seeing all of this?
GOLDMAN: With a lot of praise, actually. The World Anti-Doping Agency called it a groundbreaking announcement. Longtime anti-doping advocate Dr. Gary Wadler praised the news as well. He called it a sea change because baseball, like other sports leagues, has been quite negative about HGH blood testing in recent years, calling it bad science.
Then the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, USADA - in the news lately for its report on Lance Armstrong - called the new policies a strong statement by the players and the league. USADA also through a little elbow to the ribs of the NFL, saying essentially, hey, guys, how 'bout you too. The NFL and its union have agreed to HGH testing, but so far nothing. And they don't have top-line testosterone tests either.
INSKEEP: The NFL has a problem with concussions and there's some news there.
GOLDMAN: There is. The National Institutes of Health announced yesterday that Junior Seau, the former great NFL linebacker who shot himself last May, had degenerative brain disease - chronic traumatic encephalopathy - a condition linked to head injury that can cause depression and dementia.
It's a sad story but not startling. We've heard this news before with other players whose lives ended allegedly in a concussion-induced haze. The question is, you know, what do we do with this mounting evidence? Where will it lead? A vastly different game, minor change, and just the realization that all you can do in a violent collision sport is, you know, try to control the problem - not eradicate it.
INSKEEP: Tom, thanks.
GOLDMAN: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman. It's NPR News.
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The United Nations Security Council held an emergency session last night. On the agenda: dramatic developments in the West African nation of Mali. Over the past two days, Islamist rebel groups linked to al-Qaida, groups that already control the northern half of the country, have made a successful push south. The Islamist militants took over northern Mali last year. And the new government there has been seeking international military help to take back the country.
NPR's Africa correspondent, Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, is monitoring the situation and joins us on the line to tell us more. Good morning.
OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE: Greetings.
MONTAGNE: Update us, if you will, Ofeibea, on exactly what is happening today in Mali.
QUIST-ARCTON: We have seen fighting in the heart of the country. The rebels claim to have taken the town of Kona, which isn't so far from Mopti - the gateway between the North, which is controlled by the rebels, and the government-controlled South. And that's why the Security Council has held this meeting, because there is a fear that the hundred thousand or so people who live in Mopti may be under threat.
And we're being told that this is not only a regional threat to West Africa and the Sahel, but a global threat by terrorist organizations and groups.
MONTAGNE: And of course, again, some of these groups are linked to an Africa version of al-Qaida. The U.N. Security Council meeting last night - what was the outcome of that?
QUIST-ARCTON: Well, they called for the swift deployment of an African-led force which they have already approved last month. But Renee, the problem is there's no real timetable. We've been told that first there has to be training by the U.S., the former colonial power, France, and others - of the Malian army. And this is the same Malian army that said it wasn't given the wherewithal to fight the rebellion in the first place.
And we're talking about rebels who, some of them, crossed from Libya where they were fighting with Moammar Gadhafi, heavily armed. But the questions are, when is this African-led force supposed to deploy? We're told in the fall, September or so. But obviously the crisis is now. Also a political roadmap dealing with the political concerns. So it's all a little uncertain about when things might happen.
MONTAGNE: Well, where does Mali then go from here?
QUIST-ARCTON: Renee, this is the question. Because you have the Malian president asking the former colonial power, France, and the U.N. Security Council, to help militarily, but they've already said no boots on the ground. So we'll see. But you have these Islamist jihadists in the North who have imposed strict Sharia law, who are forcing women to be veiled, who are cutting off people's limbs for alleged crimes, who have already destroyed ancient Sufi Muslim tombs in fabled cities like Timbuktu.
So the question is, if there is going to be a regional force, when will it be sent? And can it fight the rebels?
MONTAGNE: NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton joined us on the line from Accra, Ghana. Thank you very much.
QUIST-ARCTON: Always a pleasure.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
One of Spain's most troubled banks announced, this week, that it's laying off half of its staff - after being sold to a competitor for just one euro. Crippled by the housing market's collapse, Spanish banks are living off bailout loans from Europe. Those loans come with strings attached, including massive layoffs and strict new regulatory measures by Spain's central bank.
From Madrid, Lauren Frayer explains.
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LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Two years ago, this TV ad heralded the merger of seven Spanish banks, creating Bankia - Spain's biggest real estate lender. Across your TV screen scrolled the words: Today is the start of something big.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FRAYER: Now we know, Bankia was too big - and so was Spain's entire banking system. Bankia failed and was taken over by the government last year after the property market crashed. At the time, there was one bank branch for every couple hundred people in Spain.
JOSE ENRIQUE CONCEJO: We have for many, many years, been the most over-branched country in the world. That is changing, and that has to change.
FRAYER: Jose Enrique Concejo is the head of investment banking for Societe Generale here in Madrid. He says new Spanish banks kept popping up because real estate lending was so profitable. But not anymore.
CONCEJO: Depending on who you ask, the system has to reduce by at least 25 percent, maybe more, in terms of branches. And that applies, of course, to the employees.
FRAYER: About 55,000 bank employees will lose their jobs in the fallout. Spanish banks had to promise these layoffs in exchange for $50 billion in bailout loans from Europe so far. And the Bank of Spain had to promise tougher regulation. It plans to embed inspectors in the top 16 Spanish banks.
Regulators admit that during the boom years, they felt pressure to look the other way while lenders racked up risky debt, says Jose Ignacio Torreblanca, who heads the European Council on Foreign Relations here in Madrid.
JOSE IGNACIO TORREBLANCA: The regulators and the inspectors in the bank, they felt alone and they felt not backed by the government, in doing something which they all knew they had to do. But for political and economic reasons, nobody was interested in doing it.
FRAYER: There's a lot of anger in Spain now, at the banks for gambling in real estate, and at the government for failing to stop them. People are wondering what this is going to cost them.
Protesters gather often in front of the central bank's headquarters. And around the corner, Mario Gonzales waits in line outside his bankrupt mortgage lender, Bankia, with a foreclosure notice in hand. He says banks were so solicitous, in the boom years.
MARIO GONZALES: (Through Translator) Back then they treated you like a prince, like a king. When we had money and jobs, they would say, welcome. Come in, sit down. How much money do you need to buy your house? And the bank knew that we'd never be able to pay back that money. But they gave it to us anyway.
FRAYER: Now his house is being repossessed. But Spanish law requires that he still pay his mortgage. He's out of work, but if he finds a job, his salary will be seized by the bank for years to come.
Again, Torreblanca.
TORREBLANCA: People now feel that they've been entrapped into a system from which the banks can escape. They can be bailed out. But they, as citizens, cannot be bailed out. They cannot just cancel their debts and go, you know, home or elsewhere.
FRAYER: With this massive restructuring, Spanish banks may begin to pay for the mistakes of the past. But bank tellers, homeowners and the European taxpayer will also pay dearly.
KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: For NPR News, I'm Lauren Frayer in Madrid.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And today's last word in business is being set to music. Truth really is stranger than fiction, which is how a TV interview with President Richard Nixon could become a famous play, and how The New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright could create a forthcoming play on the Camp David accords. Now, an international Twitter war is becoming an opera.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Last summer, The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman criticized the economic austerity of Estonia.
INSKEEP: The Estonian president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, was furious.
MONTAGNE: He went on Twitter to declare, quote, "Let's write about something we know nothing about and be smug, overbearing and patronizing." More presidential tweets followed - some, laced with profanity.
INSKEEP: Now, a composer and a financial journalist have teamed up to produce an opera based on this exchange. The verbal fireworks can now be sung - something like, you know, (Singing) You're overbearing, patronizing, you know nothing....
MONTAGNE: (LAUGHTER) Well, it will only last 15 minutes, though, when it premieres in Estonia this April.
(SOUNDBITE OF HABANERA FROM OPERA "CARMEN")
INSKEEP: Oh, that's beautiful. And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with new jobs at Ford.
Ford announced today, that it plans to hire more than 2,200 white collar workers here in the U.S. The jobs will center around product development, manufacturing and IT. This continues an upswing in hiring at Ford. It added over 8,000 U.S. jobs last year. And yesterday, the automaker doubled its quarterly dividend to the highest level in seven years.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
India and Pakistan have fought wars over a disputed region in the Himalayas. And once again, this week, tensions are running high there. Indian and Pakistani troops have been exchanging heavy gunfire along the border, known as the Line of Control; with several soldiers killed on both sides. Each country has its own version of what set off the deadly fighting when they're supposed to be abiding by a cease-fire. NPR's Julie McCarthy reports.
JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE: Small skirmishes are not uncommon between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars over the contested region of Kashmir that both sides claim. But on Tuesday, India reported what it called the inhumane and barbaric treatment of two of its slain solders, who were found dead on the Indian side of the Line of Control.
The Indian Army said their bodies had been badly mutilated. Pakistan denied any cross-border incursion or that its soldiers were responsible. But India's senior officials said that Pakistan was in a state of denial. There have been conflicting reports about whether one of the soldiers had been beheaded, but the Indian Army spokesman, Jagdish Dahiya, said there is no doubt.
COL. JAGDISH DAHIYA: There is no contradiction. The bodies were mutilated, a man was beheaded, and there was mutilation marks on the other body also.
MCCARTHY: Indian military commentator Uday Bhaskar says the conduct is more in keeping with the practice of non-state actors, including Islamist extremists. And he says Pakistan's links with groups such as Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and other terrorist outfits has hardened attitudes in India.
UDAY BHASKAR: And despite India trying to convey upon them - whether it is Mumbai 2008, or otherwise - that there is no firm commitment to say that OK, we will stop supporting or engaging with terror groups, whether it is the Lashkar or Jaish or the Haqqanis. And that is where this interpretation in India, that this is the beginning of a long haul - which I think is very, very discouraging.
MCCARTHY: But Bhaskar says absent a smoking gun, India cannot say with certainly, who perpetrated the attack. Regardless, he says, there is public revulsion.
BHASKAR: I think what has caused the indignation in India, it's not just the death of a soldier but the degrading, the brutalization of a dead soldier.
MCCARTHY: Pakistan's foreign minister, Hina Rabbani, said the cross-border dispute should not derail the ongoing peace dialogue with India.
HINA RABBANI: We have a commitment to abide by the cease-fire, and to pursue mechanisms which exist to be able to deal with issues like this, and problems like this. And these are two countries which have had immense problems, in the past.
MCCARTHY: A report in "The Hindu" newspaper suggested that the Indian Army may have provoked the most recent clashes. The paper said when a 70-year-old grandmother managed to cross the Line of Control - unhindered - in September, to join her family in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, Indian officials became alarmed. She had exposed vulnerabilities in the defenses, and a new observation post was ordered built. Pakistan said that violated of the two nations' 10-year-old cease-fire agreement and fired warning shots, including mortars that killed three villagers.
"The Hindu" reports that India refused to stop the construction, saying it posed no threat to Pakistan. The Indian Army spokesman denied the report. But analyst Uday Bhaskar says the story was written by a highly credible journalist; and what began as an innocuous incident, that spiraled into clashes, is plausible. Julie McCarthy, NPR News, New Delhi.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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China's government has, for the moment, defused a struggle over censorship. Journalists at Southern Weekly, which is one of China's boldest newspapers, are back to work after a week-long strike. They walked out after government censors replaced on of their editorials - an editorial that called for reforms.
The journalists returned to work with assurances that at least they will not be punished. Their strike sparked wider protests and a crackdown, and tells us something about China's new leaders.
NPR's Louisa Lim reports from Beijing.
LOUISA LIM, BYLINE: For a few days this week, demands for free speech spilled out onto China's streets; something that's rarely happened since the Tiananmen protests of 1989.
As Southern Weekly journalists in Guangzhou engaged in silent battle with officials inside their building, their advocates outside were louder. This shows the popular demand for civil rights, says Zhang Hong, the deputy editor of the Economic Observer in Beijing; he believes the dangers of silence now outweigh the risk of speaking out.
ZHANG HONG: If I am going to live in this country for the coming years, for my daughter who will live in this country for the coming decades, if we don't speak out, I can't imagine what kind of world it will be. So, it's risky, yes or no?
LIM: For days, messages supporting the journalists seemed everywhere; hidden acrostics on major websites; another paper printing a paean to porridge, a word that in Chinese sounds the same as Southern Weekly. It seemed to be a window of opportunity; then, it closed.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)
LIM: Here a protestor in Guangzhou shouts that he's being kidnapped as he's bundled into a van by plainclothes police. Inside the building, journalists have struck an uneasy truce with censors.
The paper is back on the newsstands, without its political section. The message, Zhang says, is clear.
HONG: From this incident, we can see that the authorities have no intention to loosen their control on the media. They are not going to do what the people are looking forward to. They are not going to put the political reform on their agenda.
LIM: Now the machinery of state repression has swung into action. More than a dozen people were detained at the protests, some accused of illegal assembly. At least three celebrities say they've been called in by state security and warned off tweeting on the topic.
And in Hangzhou, 800 miles away from the protests, seven people were detained for holding a meeting to discuss free speech. I reached one of them, veteran activist Lu Gengsong, by phone. He's been warned he could be charged with inciting subversion.
LU GENGSONG: (Through Translator) After the new leadership came in, we thought Communist Party control might be more relaxed. We were holding an event to support Southern Weekly. We never imagined it would turn into such a huge deal, and we'd be detained.
LIM: Hopes had been high after a southern tour by China's new Communist leader, Xi Jinping. For Chinese people, the destination was symbolic, as the place where China's economic reforms began. For his part, Xi's launched a high-profile attack on official extravagance, signaling limited reform, according to Russell Leigh Moses of the Beijing Centre.
RUSSELL LEIGH MOSES: I think we're already looking at efforts at party reform. Political reform seems imply something larger, something deeper, something more extensive. We're not at that point now.
LIM: Others disagree. Huang Weiding is a retired publisher who's been consulted by the new leadership on ways to fight corruption. He says, in the Chinese context, party reform is political reform - the problem is how to change fast enough.
HUANG WEIDING: (Through Translator) In normal circumstances, reform is just tinkering with the system. You can't just replace the system. That would be revolution. Sometimes, people lack patience.
LIM: This week's collision between new media and old-school censorship shows how fast people's demands are changing. The danger facing China's new leaders is whether they can move quickly enough to fulfill those demands. Otherwise, more such clashes may loom.
Louisa Lim, NPR News, Beijing.
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Humboldt State University invited Jimmy Kimmel to come see for himself. The TV host mocked the university for its marijuana research program. He ran a fake commercial, saying graduates could enjoy careers like dog walking or Occupying Wall Street. The university and student body presidents wrote a letter saying the skit was funny, but unfair. And now the school has invited Kimmel to deliver its commencement address. No word if he'll bring a match.
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Nearly seven decades ago, a young soldier from Indiana left his green duffel bag on a French battlefield in World War II. This week, William Kadar's granddaughter, also an Army veteran, presented him with the bag still stenciled with his name and serial number. A teenager in France had found it in his own grandfather's house. Kadar was captured by the Germans, and has said: It's a miracle I came home.
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Amar'e, known as STAT, is 11 years old. He wants to dunk a basketball. He's one of the best players on his team but also the youngest. But then when he injures his eye, a doctor tells him to avoid practice for a week - the very week before his team's biggest game. His friends, Deuce, Mike, Coach Dunn are depending on him. So, how does young Amar'e meet his commitments to his teammates to play well and his family to get better? "STAT: Slam Dunk" is the latest book for middle school students from Amar'e Stoudemire, captain of the New York Knicks, a six-time all-star, father of three and an activist for education and involvement for young people. Amar'e Stoudemire joins us from New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
AMAR'E STOUDEMIRE: No problem. Thanks for having me.
SIMON: So, this is STAT, a character named after your nickname, which, of course, Standing Tall and Talented, when he was merely talented, not yet tall.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Is this a story from your boyhood in Florida?
STOUDEMIRE: Yeah. It's very similar. The book series actually mocks some stories from my childhood upbringing, for sure.
SIMON: Tell us a bit about your upbringing if you can. 'Cause in the book, this young STAT has a close, warm family, but I gather you've had some challenges.
STOUDEMIRE: Yeah, definitely. But I did - my father was a hardworking man and I grew up with him. And my friends, I was very close to all my friends. And all this is also inside the book series. My brother and I, he taught me basketball moves and book reports is very important. I had to turn in and make sure my father, made sure he understood I was making the proper grades. But, yeah, I mean, my childhood was definitely some challenges, but all in all, it was a great success and it was a lot of fun. But, again, definitely had challenges growing up and so that's why this book is an insightful book for the youth to understand that you may be faced with certain obstacles but here's a few tools that you need to succeed.
SIMON: And what do you see those tools as being?
STOUDEMIRE: Well, for one, understanding how important education is. That's very, very important for the young boys to understand that being smart is very cool and there's nothing wrong with being smart and intelligent. And, two, for all the athletes, for most of the young boys who love to play sports, there's going to be challenges also, whether it's injury, whether it's schoolwork, whether it's friends or peer pressure. You have to surround yourself around positive friends to have a successful start to your early career.
SIMON: Why has it been important for you to write books for young readers?
STOUDEMIRE: Well, a lot of young boys are starting to shy away from reading, as if it's not cool. And so I want to express the fact of how important reading really is to them. I remember when I was their age going to the bookstore. I went to the first book that had any type of athlete on the book, whether it's Jackie Robinson or whether it was Bill Russell, what have you. Whatever book I saw that had an athlete on it, you know, I bought that book, and I read that book and then that started to spark my mind to want to read more. So, I want that same effect to continue on.
SIMON: I don't want to give away what happens but I don't think anybody would be surprised to learn that maybe this young 11-year-old Amar'e in the book is able to finally figure out how to do what he wants to do with a basketball. But what are kids who aren't athletes supposed to take from a story like this?
STOUDEMIRE: Well, there's a lot of dialogue within the books that also talk about you bonding with your parents. For instance, in this book, it talks about me and my father, how I obeyed my parents and I was really - I took school serious and I had a great group of friends around me. That goes to show that all children around the world can take those three-pointers and apply that to their life. Now, the bonus is if you're an athlete or you play any sport, then you can also take the sports side of the book also with you.
SIMON: I found myself liking Amar'e's friends a lot in this book.
STOUDEMIRE: I got a pretty cool group of friends in this book.
SIMON: So, do we say we hope you had a nice Hanukkah to you?
STOUDEMIRE: Yeah, my Hanukah was brilliant. I had a beautiful Hanukkah.
SIMON: We should explain - you, I don't know if you've actually taken instruction, but you consider yourself to be Jewish.
STOUDEMIRE: Absolutely.
SIMON: You know, I had an idea that could be the greatest promotional stunt of all time in the NBA to have you bar-mitzvahed at half-court during halftime of a game between the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: I mean, I can't imagine a bigger crowd, you know?
STOUDEMIRE: That would be the all-time most sold crowd ever.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Barbara Streisand singing at your bar mitzvah. That would be pretty good too. Amar'e Stoudemire. His new book for middle school students is "STAT: Slam Dunk." Thanks so much for being with us.
STOUDEMIRE: No problem. Thank you.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Ten months after Haiti's devastating earthquake, a more insidious disaster struck: cholera. Haiti hadn't seen cholera for at least a century. Then suddenly, the first cases appeared near a camp for United Nations peacekeeping forces. Since then, the disease has struck nearly 640,000 people - one out of every 16 Haitians; and it's killed 8,000.
This month, the Haitian government is expected to unveil an ambitious plan to eliminate cholera. NPR's Richard Knox reports on the chances of success.
RICHARD KNOX, BYLINE: Cholera hit Haiti with a bang. Within two days of the first cases, a hospital 60 miles away was admitting a new cholera patient every three and a half minutes.
DANIELE LANTAGNE: Part of the reason that we think the outbreak grew so quickly was the Haitian population had no immunity to cholera; something like when the Europeans brought smallpox to the Americas, and it burned through the native populations.
KNOX: That's Daniele Lantagne of Tufts University in Massachusetts. She says comparison of the Haitian cholera strain with one circulating in Nepal around the same time, shows the two differed in only one out of 4 million genetic elements.
LANTAGNE: That's considered an exact match - the same strain of cholera.
KNOX: Most scientists now think Nepalese soldiers unwittingly brought cholera to Haiti, when they joined a U.N. peacekeeping force there in 2010. The outbreak started just downstream from their camp. Sewage from the camp spilled into a nearby river.
Lantagne was one of four scientists appointed by the U.N. to look into the matter. Their report concluded the outbreak was caused by quote, "a confluence of circumstances." She says the report would come out different today.
LANTAGNE: If we had had the additional scientific evidence, we definitely would have written the report - in 2011 - to state the most likely source of introduction was someone associated with the peacekeeping camp.
KNOX: That's important because the U.N. insists that however cholera got to Haiti, terrible sanitary conditions and lack of clean water there, are responsible for its explosive spread. Brian Concannon doesn't buy that.
BRIAN CONCANNON: It's like lighting a fire on a dry field on a windy day, and then blaming the wind or the drought for the fire.
KNOX: He's with the Institute for Justice and Democracy, in Haiti. A year ago, the group filed a legal claim against the U.N., demanding that it accept responsibility. The U.N. hasn't admitted anything. But last month, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced a plan to rid Haiti of cholera. Concannon says it's ambitious, but feasible.
CONCANNON: Cholera can certainly be eliminated from Haiti. It's been eliminated from the United States, from England, from many countries in South America. This is basically 19th century technology that needs to be installed in Haiti.
KNOX: The Haitian government is expected to release a detailed blueprint soon. That plan is expected to cost $2.2 billion, and take at least 10 years. So far, the U.N. has identified only 10 percent of the money. Concannon worries the rest may never be found.
CONCANNON: Dr. Jon Andrus acknowledges it's getting harder to raise money for Haiti, as the earthquake fades into history. He's deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization, an arm of the U.N.
DR. JON ANDRUS: It's a big challenge. The question is, can it be done? I believe it can. So we're ramping up efforts to do that.
KNOX: But even if the money can be found, it's going to take years to bring clean water and sewage treatment to Haiti. Meanwhile, people will still get cholera, and many more will die. One stopgap is to vaccinate Haitians at highest risk of cholera - such as the 266,000 babies born every year.
ANDRUS: Haiti has done some great things with vaccination. They've eliminated measles, rubella and polio; and you can't say that, in many countries in Europe. We believe they can do it.
KNOX: Cholera vaccination is 60 to 70 percent effective, and lasts about two years. And it will also take money. The U.N. says nothing has been decided yet on launching a cholera vaccination program in Haiti.
Richard Knox, NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. The men and women who lived through World War II are dying out. More than 16 million Americans served in uniform during the war. But by next year, there will be less than a million living veterans from that war. And that makes the mission of the National World War II Museum, in New Orleans, all the more urgent. This weekend, the museum is opening a new wing, part of a $300 million expansion. As NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports, the museum hopes that its new, interactive exhibits will give visitors a better understanding of the ethical and emotional challenges people faced in the war.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: For many people, the stakes - and the scale - of World War II are very hard to fathom. It was a war fought around the world against powerful, determined regimes in Europe and the Pacific. Some 65 million people died.
GORDON MUELLER: A lot of people take it for granted that we would've won, but nobody was sure about that when the war started.
BLAIR: Gordon Nick Mueller is president of the National World War II Museum. He and his friend, the late historian Stephen Ambrose, founded the museum, which opened in 2000. This week, construction workers and the museum staff were still busy putting on the final touches to the new wing, which is called the U.S. Freedom Pavilion: The Boeing Center. And showing America's industrial might during the war, is one of its objectives. Mueller says it was a time when Americans knew the threats were real. He says civilians and corporations came together, to help.
MUELLER: Bill Knudsen, from General Motors; and Don Nelson, from Sears; and all these major companies helped FDR and the military understand what was needed to mass produce planes and tanks and jeeps on a scale never, ever done before.
BLAIR: Alongside the big machinery used in big battles, the museum also looks at how the war affected individuals. Flashing across huge screens are the words: What would you do? Short films present some of the moral dilemmas people faced during World War II.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
BLAIR: Historian and author Rick Atkinson is one of the consultants to the National World War II Museum.
RICK ATKINSON: The United States interned thousands of Japanese-Americans. They were rounded up and put into camps. It was a disgraceful episode in our history.
BLAIR: Atkinson says as the need for manpower intensified, special Japanese-American units were formed.
ATKINSON: If you were young Japanese-American; and your parents, and your family, had been rounded up and put in a camp in Idaho or California, or someplace, and the conditions were austere; and you were treated as an enemy alien; would you volunteer to serve your country by joining one of these units?
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
BLAIR: Museum visitors will have to decide. They cast their votes, and later find out what really happened. In another scenario, you are a U.S. Army photographer at the liberation of the concentration camp Dachau.
ATKINSON: And when the camp was liberated in April 1945, of course, it was a horrible place.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
ATKINSON: The photographer was given the assignment to shoot the liberation, and what he photographed was murder.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
ATKINSON: If you are that photographer, do you then turn in the film that you have shot? Or do you - knowing that it will show American soldiers behaving badly, do you destroy the film?
BLAIR: Atkinson says these scenarios are grounded in history.
ATKINSON: And of course, a real moral dilemma, there's never a right choice. It's never easy. And that's the whole point.
BLAIR: The National World War II Museum also wants visitors to get a sense of the tension, and fear, that millions of American soldiers felt, including at the moment of an attack. So they've created what Nick Mueller calls a multisensory simulation experience.
MUELLER: So we're in the engine room of the USS Tang right now. And...
BLAIR: The museum has created a slightly larger replica of the submarine the USS Tang. In October of 1944, during a battle with Japanese ships, the submarine surfaced, and fired a torpedo that malfunctioned. The USS Tang sank after being hit by one of its own torpedoes. The museum has re-created its final mission. Inside the submarine, groups of visitors will re-enact the event. Each person will be given the name of an actual crew member from the USS Tang, and assigned a battle station.
MUELLER: When the torpedoes are fired, it'll be someone over there who will follow the order of the captain to fire the torpedo; press the button, and they go. And you'll see them being loaded. And then, of course, when that torpedo swings around and hits, this whole thing is going to jolt and is going to start sinking. And you're going to sense the water's coming in, and you're going to feel that blow and that you're going down.
BLAIR: When it's over, visitors will find out what happened to each crew member.
MUELLER: Captain O'Kane and the others were - a few others were thrown into the water, on the surface. And a number of others escaped from the bottom, using their Momsen lungs from 180 feet. Some died in the ascent. Nine survived, in total; were taken to Japanese prison camps and tortured for the next year or so.
BLAIR: By playing the role of an actual crew member, and by confronting the ethical issues that arose, Nick Mueller and historian Rick Atkinson hope World War II will be more palpable for visitors.
ATKINSON: For young people in particular, World War II is increasingly as remote as the Revolution or the Peloponnesian War. And this gives them an opportunity to understand it. It's very interactive. It's very vivid. Sometimes, it's very disturbing.
BLAIR: The new wing of the National World War II Museum, in New Orleans, opens this weekend. But they're not done expanding. Two more buildings are scheduled to open over the next few years. In one exhibit, visitors will be given a dog tag and follow the journey of an actual participant in the war.
Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Just who is the "Little Dancer, Aged 14" - the actual girl, cast in two-thirds of her life-size, in Edgar Degas' sculpture? That little dancer was Marie Van Goethem, one of three sisters left to fend for themselves after their father dies and their mother devotes much of what she earns as a washerwoman toward absinthe, to dull her days. But it's the era of Belle Epoque in Paris, a time remembered for gaslights and glitter.
Cathy Marie Buchanan has written a novel that tells the story of the sisters behind the masterpiece, "The Painted Girls." And Cathy Marie Buchanan, author of the previous best-seller, "The Day the Falls Stood Still," joins us from the CBC studios in Toronto. Thanks so much for being with us.
CATHY MARIE BUCHANAN: My pleasure.
SIMON: Did you see one of the wax reproductions that are in museums around the world and say, there's a novel?
BUCHANAN: What happened was I was watching a documentary that focused on "Little Dancer, Aged 14." And I learned about - sort of the seedier side of the Paris opera, and also about the pervasion of the young girl, Marie van Goethem, who modeled for the sculpture. It certainly flew in the face of my notions about ballet as a sort of high-minded pursuit. And I became quite fascinated with the idea of telling this young girl's story.
SIMON: And help us understand the Paris Opera Ballet, at the time. For example, there were "protectors and admirers" - I put that in quotes...
BUCHANAN: Yes.
SIMON: ...euphemisms - that would come to the ballet.
BUCHANAN: Many of the young girls at the ballet were from poor families - daughters of laundresses and sewing maids, and so on. They were sent there for the better life, which often meant becoming the mistress of a wealthy male patron of the dance. The girls were paid lower than subsistence-level wages. And it was very in vogue, with the wealthy male patrons of the dance, to have a ballet girl as a mistress.
SIMON: To what degree did you think it was important to be factual in what is, after all, a novel?
BUCHANAN: What I did with this book is, I stuck to the known facts of Marie van Goethem's life. I certainly had lots of opportunity to imagine a life for her because the facts that are known are scant. They know that she was a poor girl; that she grew up on the lower slopes of Montmartre; that her father was a tailor, that he had died; that her mother was a laundress. They know she was sent to the Paris Opera Ballet School at 13 years old; that she was later promoted to the corps de ballet. They also know that she was dismissed, at one point, for missing classes and going to class late. And then after that, she pretty much disappears from the historical record. So I did have lots of room for imagination.
SIMON: Help us understand Edgar Degas, at this particular time. What was his standing and reputation in the art world?
BUCHANAN: Degas was sort of on the brink of becoming a famous artist, but it hadn't yet happened for him. I mean, he wasn't part of the salon, which is where the accepted art was being shown. In 1881, when he exhibited "Little Dancer, Aged 14," there were a couple of critics that talked about it being the first truly modern sculpture, and so on. But most of the criticism was very negative; and talked about the statue being ugly, and wondered why Degas was putting something ugly out there, in the world. They said her face with imprinted with the detestable promise of every vice.
SIMON: I wonder if this is a projection or based on something you've read. Some of the most famous sketches that Degas made - of Marie, in particular - her eyes are down, which gives her that pensive, contemplative air. You suggest - without giving too much away, in this book - that she was reading the newspaper when they sketched her.
BUCHANAN: There is, in fact, one pastel widely believed to be Marie van Goethem, where she is reading the newspaper. But whether Marie van Goethem could, in fact, read is not known.
SIMON: I want you to read a section, if we could, where you describe Degas drawing Marie van Goethem.
BUCHANAN: (Reading) He began a set of drawings - simple drawings, lines of charcoal with a touch of white pastel; with my fingers resting on my chin, with my arms spread wide and holding my skirt with a hand upon the fallen strap of my bodice, as if pulling it up. Sometimes, he wanted my hair off my neck, up in a chignon. Sometimes, he liked it hanging down my back in a braid or even loose, collected over a shoulder. As often as not, I was naked. The part that never changed was always, he wanted my feet in fourth position. And I began to wonder if that was the great idea he was thinking up while he started that picture of me with the fan; that I would stand in fourth position, and he would draw me a hundred times. Afterward, I would look and see spindly arms upon the page, jutting hips, a chest hardly different from a boy's. I would peer deeper, trying to see what Degas did, and maybe I looked too hard because in the scribbled, black lines, I saw a girl vulgar in her face. I saw not a chance of grace upon the stage.
SIMON: It prompts the question, was the Belle Epoch really such a beautiful age?
BUCHANAN: You know, I don't think it was a beautiful age unless you're one of the wealthy chosen few. I was recently asked what time period I would like to have lived in. And I have to say, as a commoner and a woman, I have to pick now. I don't think there was any period in history that was as kind as today is, to the average person - the average woman, in particular.
SIMON: Cathy Marie Buchanan - her new novel, "The Painted Girls" - speaking from Toronto. Thanks so much for being with us.
BUCHANAN: You're welcome.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Bob Dylan has made some moves in his epical career that have left a few people puzzled. But the compilation that Mr. Dylan's record label recently released may be as odd as anything that he's ever put out. The label released a limited edition of the four-CD set, and only in Europe. As NPR's Joel Rose reports, the collection seems designed to exploit a recent change in European copyright law.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: The collection is a scrapbook of recordings from the first years of Bob Dylan's career - unreleased home tapes, live performances from Greenwich Village folk clubs, and out-takes from the sessions for "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MIXED UP CONFUSION")
ROSE: The packaging of this 50th anniversary collection is minimal: just four discs, a brown paper cover, and a cursory list of the 86 tracks. Dylan's record label declined requests to talk about the collection, or its unconventional release strategy. But the subtitle - "The Copyright Extension Collection, Volume 1" - speaks for itself.
JAMES BOYLE: Even record executives occasionally stray into honesty. This is, in fact, a copyright extension collection. That's what it is.
ROSE: James Boyle teaches law at Duke University. He says Dylan's label appears to be exploiting an obscure, but potentially lucrative, change in European copyright law. The European Union recently extended the term of copyright for sound recordings, from 50 years to 70. But, says Boyle, there's a catch.
BOYLE: You actually have to have, at some point, distributed these songs during that initial, 50-year period. And these were masters that were lying in the vaults. And none of them had ever seen the light of day. And so he had to get them out before that 50-year period expired, in order to get the extra 20 years.
ROSE: Since this material was recorded in 1962 and '63, the label basically has to use it or lose it - and watch it enter the public domain. In Britain, the EU copyright extension is known as Cliff's Law - after Sir Cliff Richard, the 1960s-era singer who pushed hard for its passage.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE YOUNG ONES")
ROSE: In an interview with the BBC, Richard said it's not fair that artists should lose the right to collect royalties from their records just because those records happen to be 50 years old.
: That's my creative juices. I created it, I helped to arrange it. I helped, sometimes, to produce it. And you make this record, and then someone takes it away before you're even dead.
ROSE: But critics say the copyright extension will mainly help record companies; and artists like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and The Who; whose recordings might otherwise begin entering the public domain in the next few years. The vast majority of musicians won't see a dime, says Duke's James Boyle.
BOYLE: The stated goal was a kind of well, it'll be a kind of pension for old rockers, which is certainly something I can get behind. But the evidence was that in fact, the benefits would go to very, very few people - the megastars. Mr. Dylan will probably do quite well out of it.
ROSE: Boyle says the EU law does include a few provisions that are supposed to help common musicians, too. After 50 years, for example, they can terminate their original contracts with their record labels, and get ownership of their recordings back. But Boyle says there's a catch here, too.
BOYLE: In order for them to be able to exercise this termination, it had to be that the record label hadn't put a new version out within a year of the directive passing. So we're probably going to see a large number of reissued songs; or aging rockers are going to be terminating their deals, and getting their rights back over their recordings.
ROSE: Whatever its intentions, Boyle thinks the copyright extension will ultimately wind up hurting the public, though Bob Dylan fans in Europe might beg to differ. They can buy MP3s of the "Copyright Extension Collection" from Dylan's website. And so would lucky European collectors who snatched up 100 physical copies of the discs. The rest of us can bid for one of those copies on eBay, where one recently sold for more than $1,000, or wait for a proper U.S. release.
Joel Rose, NPR News, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HONEY JUST ALLOW ME ONE MORE CHANCE")
SIMON: This is WEEKEND EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HONEY JUST ALLOW ME ONE MORE CHANCE")
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Fifty years ago today, Sam Cooke stepped onstage at a club in Miami.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: So, what do you say let's all get together and welcome him to the stand with a great big hand. How about it for Sam Cooke? All right. All right.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: More on that recording in a moment. But first, a little history. Sam Cooke started singing in a church choir on the South Side of Chicago. He joined the Soul Stirrers, one of the country's biggest gospel groups, but when he struck out on his own, Sam Cooke hit it big with a mainstream audience singing popular songs that struck gold.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WONDERFUL WORLD")
SAM COOKE: (Singing) Don't know much about history, don't know much of biology, don't know much about a science book, don't know much about the French I took...
SIMON: By 1962, his record label decided it was time for a live album and someone picked out a warm Miami date early in 1963, January 12th at the Harlem Square Club. Now, Harlem Square was small club in downtown Miami. That night it was packed with some of the singer's most devoted fans from his gospel days.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "(DON'T FIGHT IT) FEEL IT ")
COOKE: (Singing) Oh, make me want (unintelligible) when I got the feeling. Oh, don't fight it. No, don't fight it. Baby, just feel it. Yeah. Don't fight the feeling...
SIMON: The result was loud, raw, artful and raucous. But it wasn't the Sam Cooke the label was looking for try to sell to mainstream audiences. RCA decided to tuck The Harlem Square Club recording into their archives. Now, let's cut to 1985, when a record executive named Gregg Geller discovered those recordings, and quickly released "Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963." It is now considered one of the greatest live albums ever recorded. And Gregg Geller joins us from our studios in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
GREGG GELLER: It's a pleasure, Scott.
SIMON: Now, as we mentioned, this is considered one of the greatest live albums of all time. Why?
GELLER: Well, I think it, you know, it just captures the fervor of both Sam and his audience in a way that very few live recordings do. I mean, it almost accidentally picks up, even in its imperfections, the excitement of that night in that club at that time.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I LOVE YOU FOR SENTIMENTAL REASONS")
COOKE: (Singing) Everybody, come on, sing along with me. It's your party. I think of you every morning. I think of - everybody - every morning, and I dream of you every night. I dream...darling, I'm never lonely. Darling, I'm never, never...
SIMON: As a record executive, Gregg, why do you think the people who proceeded you didn't want this album released?
GELLER: I thought about that a lot. You know, Sam was what we've come to call a crossover artist. You know, he crossed over from gospel to pop, which was controversial enough in its day. But once he became a pop artist, he had a certain mainstream image to protect. And the fact is that, you know, when he was out on the road, he was playing to a predominantly, almost exclusively black audience. And he was doing a different kind of show. You know, a much more down home, down to earth, gut bucket kind of show than what he would do for his pop audience.
SIMON: Let's listen to another bit from that recording.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TWISTING THE NIGHT AWAY")
COOKE: You feel like you wanna twist a little while now. I said do you feel you wanna twist a little while? All right. Let's go. A-one, a-two, a put it anywhere. Oh yeah. That's it. (Singing) Let me tell you about a place, somewhere up in New York way, all where the people are so gay, twisting the night away. Oh man, they have a lot of fun, they putting trouble on the run. Oh man, you find the old and young twisting the night away. They're twisting...
SIMON: Just a year after this recording that we've been able to listen to today, this Harlem Square performance in Miami, Sam Cooke died of a gunshot wound in 1964. The circumstances are still in dispute. He was just 33 years old. It's hard not to hear this and ask how big he might have been.
GELLER: He was very much involved in his own record company - a company called SAR Records, for which he signed and produced young talent. Perhaps he would have pursued that further. He certainly would have continued as a recording artist and a songwriter. Would he have become like Marvin Gaye, let's say, making albums of more topical concerns? I mean, certainly toward the end of his life he recorded a song name "A Change is Gonna Come," which has gone on to become something of an anthem sort of in retrospect for the civil rights movement.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A CHANGE IS GONNA COME")
COOKE: (Singing) I was born by the river, in a little tent, oh, and just like the river, I've been running ever since. It's been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change gonna come...
GELLER: He was a multi-talented individual with very wide range of interests. And I think his talent could have taken him just about anywhere.
SIMON: We want to go out with some music. What would you like us to play?
GELLER: Oh, my God. From the Harlem Square Club album?
SIMON: Yes.
GELLER: Maybe "Nothing Can Change This Love."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NOTHING CAN CHANGE THIS LOVE")
COOKE: (Singing) If I go a million miles away, I'd write a letter, each and every day. 'Cause I know that nothing, nothing can ever change my love I have for you...
SIMON: Gregg Geller, record producer who helped reissue Sam Cooke's "Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963." It was recorded 50 years ago today. Gregg, thanks very much for being with us.
GELLER: My pleasure, Scott.
SIMON: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The earthquake in Haiti brought billions of dollars in humanitarian aid. It also prompted tons of well-meaning but essentially, unneeded donations - old clothes, blankets, even yoga mats. As NPR's Pam Fessler reports, people involved in disaster relief are looking for new ways to avoid an old and recurring problem.
PAM FESSLER, BYLINE: Soon after the earthquake hit Haiti, the lobby of the American Red Cross building in Washington, D.C., was filled with donated clothes and other items. Meghan O'Hara, who oversees in-kind donations for the Red Cross, says one package, in particular, sticks in her mind. It contained random things.
MEGHAN O'HARA: Frisbees and knitted hats, and a couple of those reindeer antlers that you would put on your dog's head at the holidays.
FESSLER: She says someone clearly wanted to help. They mailed the box from Germany, but all O'Hara could think was...
O'HARA: Wow. That 60 or $70 could have been sent to so many different organizations, to help out in so many different ways; and now, we have a box of Frisbees.
FESSLER: Disaster relief groups call this the second disaster - the flood of unwanted donations, despite repeated requests for cash. People are looking for new ways to bridge that gap between what donors give and victims need. And one of the more interesting ideas came recently from an unlikely source - three young friends who walked in off the street, to volunteer in New York after Superstorm Sandy.
JOHN HEGGESTUEN: Really, our goal was just to make some sandwiches, or something like that, and then go home. And that would kind of be it.
FESSLER: But 25-year-old John Heggestuen says he and his friends were quickly swept up in the relief efforts of Occupy Sandy, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street. They also soon realized that the operation could be improved. Donated clothes were pouring in, but victims needed diapers and cleaning supplies.
HEGGESTUEN: My friend Alex just said something along the lines of, you know, they need something like a wedding registry. And as soon as I heard that, it clicked with me. I knew that was a great idea.
FESSLER: So Heggestuen borrowed a laptop, and immediately set up a registry on Amazon.com. He listed items that Occupy Sandy needed, and that donors could quickly purchase. The response was overwhelming - more than a million dollars' worth of donated goods, including some pretty expensive ones, like generators.
HEGGESTUEN: All of these things were bought right away. It was just amazing.
FESSLER: Now, Occupy Sandy has another online site, where people can fund a particular cleanup project and keep tabs on how their money is spent. Bob Ottenhoff says this addresses what's often another big problem in disaster giving.
BOB OTTENHOFF: Individual donors don't know why they're giving, or have unrealistic expectations about their gift.
FESSLER: Which is one reason why a group of foundations and donors recently formed the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, which Ottenhoff now runs. Their goal is to figure out how best to help disaster victims over the long run.
OTTENHOFF: There's so much energy, so much generosity, so much passion that goes into disaster relief; we sometimes forget that once the disaster is over, the long, hard work of recovery and rebuilding still needs to get done.
FESSLER: And that could mean providing help with housing, or services like day care. The center has collected $600,000 for Sandy relief, so far; and it's now talking to those affected by the disaster, about what kind of aid they really need.
Pam Fessler, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION, from NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. President Hamid Karzai, of Afghanistan, has concluded a four-day visit to Washington, D.C. The president met with senior administration officials, including a private meeting in the Oval Office with President Obama. Their discussions reportedly centered on the U.S. role in Afghanistan after 2014. That's when most of the U.S. and NATO troops are due to withdraw from the country. NPR's Jackie Northam has this report.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: President Obama once called Afghanistan a war of necessity, but his meeting with President Karzai centered on how to start winding down U.S. involvement in that conflict. During a joint press conference, Mr. Obama said the war was moving to what he called a responsible end, in 2014; and that the two leaders agreed that U.S. and NATO troops would shift into a support role this spring, a few months ahead of schedule, putting Afghan security forces in the lead.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Starting this spring, our troops will have a different mission: training, advising, assisting Afghan forces. It will be a historic moment, and another step toward full Afghan sovereignty - something I know that President Karzai cares deeply about, as do the Afghan people.
NORTHAM: Mr. Obama indicated accelerating that transition to Afghan control could affect the pace of U.S. troop withdrawals. He said he would consult with military commanders on the ground to decide how many, and how quickly, Western troops should leave. President Obama said he was also getting recommendations about keeping forces in the country post-2014. Estimates vary from 3- to 9,000 troops. Mr. Obama said if any troops remain, they will have to have immunity.
OBAMA: I will say, then - I've said to President Karzai - that we have arrangements like this with countries all around the world. And nowhere do we have any kind of security agreement with a country, without immunity for our troops. You know, that's how I, as commander in chief, can make sure that our folks are protected in carrying out very difficult missions.
NORTHAM: Mr. Obama said he thinks President Karzai understands that but clearly, the issue of immunity has not been resolved. And White House officials said earlier this week, the U.S. was not committed to leaving any forces in Afghanistan after 2014. The immunity issue is part of ongoing negotiations between the two countries, to ensure each gets what it needs as the clock ticks down on U.S. operations in Afghanistan, says Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
MICHAEL O'HANLON: They each have to make their own decisions about how much they're going to really use this particular moment to push the other, and how much they're going to try to reinforce a relationship that, by the way, is nowhere near over. I mean, it may be true that the U.S. presence in Afghanistan is drawing down substantially, but Afghanistan still very much needs us for long-term help. And we still very much need to be in that part of the world, to deal with the terrorism threat.
NORTHAM: And so, O'Hanlon says, there will be some concessions from both sides, in the coming months. One of Karzai's long-held demands was satisfied during Friday's White House meeting.
PRESIDENT HAMID KARZAI: We agreed on the complete retain of detention centers and detainees to Afghan sovereignty, and that this will be implemented soon after my return to Afghanistan.
NORTHAM: The U.S. has been reluctant to hand full control of the detention centers back to the Afghans, over fear that Taliban fighters would be released and returned to the battlefield. The administration is also concerned about Karzai's commitment to maintaining improvements in human rights, education, and the political process in Afghanistan. During the press conference, Karzai reiterated his promise to step down after a new president is elected in 2014. That's just a few months before the U.S. and NATO combat mission ends.
Jackie Northam, NPR News, Washington.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
France has launched two military offensives in Africa, in the past 24 hours. French armed forces have been in operations in Mali, trying to stop the gains of al-Qaida-linked rebels there, who control the north of that West African country. Of course, France is the former colonial power in Mali. French forces have launched airstrikes against the Islamist militants who seized a northern desert zone the size of Texas, last year. The French Defense Ministry says that its troops destroyed a rebel command center overnight. A French helicopter pilot died in that operation. In a separate operation, French commandos also reportedly attacked an Islamist base in Somalia, to try to rescue a French hostage. But reportedly, the hostage died.
NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton is at her base in neighboring Senegal. Ofeibea, thanks very much for being with us.
OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE: Greetings.
SIMON: Help us understand the size and scale of French operations under way in Mali.
QUIST-ARCTON: The French Defense Ministry is saying that hundreds of its troops are now in Mali. And this is at the request of Mali's interim president because of the threat from al-Qaida-linked Islamists who, as you said, control the north and were pushing down towards the south, Scott; and especially towards a garrison town called Mopti. That's the gateway between the north and the south.
And let me just tell you, briefly, that these Islamists have taken control of the north; have imposed Islamic Sharia law, which includes penalties such as cutting off people's limbs. They're forcing women to wear scarves over their heads. They have banned music. They have also desecrated and destroyed Mali Muslim shrines in legendary cities, such as Timbuktu. So the threat has been there, but the fact that they have been pushing south is why, I think, the French have decided to come to Mali's aid.
SIMON: Is there any indication that the French will be joined - or hope to be joined - by other nations in Africa or European states?
QUIST-ARCTON: Well, the U.N. Security Council decided last month - rather reluctantly, Scott - that an African-led force would try to push back these militants. But that wasn't to happen until later in the year, in the fall - around September or so; that the Malian army needed training first; that the U.S., France, Europe would help with logistics. But the fact that the Islamists have decided to strike and seize the moment, and try to control more territory, is why, I think, the French - a former colonial power in Mali - decided that it must take action now. Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French Defense Ministry, said France was compelled to act quickly to stop the Islamist offensive, which he said - and I quote - "could allow a terrorist state on the doorstep of France and Europe."
SIMON: And what kind of local reaction has there been, on the African continent, to the French intervention?
QUIST-ARCTON: Mali's government has - Mali's president has thanked France for this military intervention. And I think there's relief in Mali, and elsewhere in Africa, because they felt that the militants were just allowed to sit, consolidating their power in the north - which the U.S., and many others, say has become a haven for traffickers and terrorists; and that action had to happen, and if the French have stepped in, bravo, that was needed.
SIMON: What can you tell us about the separate operation in which apparently, a French hostage was killed, and French commandos tried to rescue him?
QUIST-ARCTON: French commandos tried to rescue this spy agent, who was captured by al-Qaida-linked Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia. They failed. The French Defense Ministry is telling us that two of their commandos died, and they feel that the captors have probably killed the hostage. The Al-Shabaab militants say the hostage is still alive. So that was a failure, although in Mali, people are praising France for its military intervention.
SIMON: NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, joining us from Dakar. Thanks very much.
QUIST-ARCTON: Always a pleasure.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. President Obama has announced most of his Cabinet choices for his second term. There are no big surprises; all are pretty familiar faces in Washington, D.C. But Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry; former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, of Nebraska; and the White House chief of staff, Jack Lew, still must get through Senate confirmation. We're joined now by NPR's national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Mara, thanks for being with us.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Happy to be here.
SIMON: And let's start with domestic policy. Jack Lew, President Obama's current chief of staff and former budget director - if confirmed he would, of course, succeed Tim Geithner as Treasury secretary. What does this mean? What does Mr. Lew bring to the assignment?
LIASSON: Well, what it means is that the financial crisis is no longer the top priority. That's what consumed Tim Geithner's term as Treasury secretary. He came from the Federal Reserve Bank Board, in New York. He was tied to Wall Street. Lew is a budget expert, and that's what's going to be on the president's plate for the next term; making budget and tax deals with Republicans, trying to find that ever elusive, grand bargain on entitlements and the deficit. That's Lew's expertise, and that's what he'll be working on.
SIMON: Now, Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions suggested - I guess - that Mr. Lew, because he wrote the White House budget, might essentially lack the proper perspective. Is this going to harm him politically?
LIASSON: Well, Jeff Sessions is going to vote against him. But significantly, Sessions has not said whether he would put a hold on Lew's nomination, or lead a filibuster. And I think most betting in Washington is that Lew will be confirmed. He will not face significant opposition. It seems that Sessions' main problem with him is that he represents President Obama's budget policies - as he should, because he's working for the president.
SIMON: Yeah. Of course, there's been a lot more objections voiced over the selection of Chuck Hagel, President Obama's choice for Defense secretary; questions raised about his depth of his commitment to Israel, policies towards containing Iran. Let's get an understanding - your understanding, at the moment, of where the opposition for that rests.
LIASSON: Well, first, the opposition is, obviously, with Republicans. They consider him an apostate. They think Hagel was a turncoat. He once talked about how the Jewish lobby intimidates people in Washington. They feel he's been squishy on Iran sanctions. He's said the Pentagon budget was bloated. He also was a loner, when he was in the Senate, so he doesn't have a lot of deep friendships. He has been going on the offensive; giving a lot of interviews, trying to clarify his remarks, explaining how he is as strong on Israel and Iran as anybody else.
So there will be Republican opposition. The more immediate problem, however, is that Hagel hasn't nailed down Democratic support; and particularly, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the most prominent Jewish Democrat in the Senate - a real leader, carries a lot of sway on matters of Israel policy with his colleagues - and he has very pointedly not said whether he will support Hagel. Now, if he doesn't, I think it would really be a death blow. And I can't imagine how Hagel could be confirmed, if he got that kind of Democratic opposition. However, if Schumer meets with Hagel one-on-one, his concerns are allayed, then I think that his endorsement of Hagel would be a very, very important boost for him. So it's going to be a knock-down, drag-out fight. The president and Chuck Hagel have a lot of work to do.
SIMON: I gather that Sen. Kerry of Massachusetts is supposed to essentially sail - I don't want to say windsurf, given that history - but sail through his nomination to be secretary of State.
LIASSON: That's right. Even before he was nominated, several Republicans said that he was their choice, that he would have no problem being confirmed. There is a kind of senatorial courtesy. He's well-liked among his colleagues, and nobody expects that he'll have a hard time at all. What we're waiting to find out, as we said, is will there be a filibuster against former Sen. Hagel, and will enough Republicans break to confirm him?
SIMON: And how much consternation is there over the fact that this is not so far a Cabinet that looks like America, if you please, in what's being called the Brooks Brothers wall - all-male appointees?
LIASSON: Well, so far, there have been all-male appointees, especially the replacement for Hillary Clinton at secretary of State. There are a couple more openings the president has to fill, and I would predict that he fills them with women.
SIMON: OK. Thanks very much, Mara.
LIASSON: Thank you.
SIMON: NPR's national political correspondent, Mara Liasson.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Of course, this last week has been kind of a nightmare for Boeing and its new 787 Dreamliner. In three separate incidents in as many days, airline carriers reported problems with brakes, with fuel leaks and a battery fire. The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced a comprehensive review of the new plane. Joining us now to talk about Boeing's new 787 is Joe Nocera, op-ed columnist for The New York Times, and our man on finance and other matters. Joe, thanks very much for being with us.
JOE NOCERA: And thanks for having me, Scott.
SIMON: By all accounts, of course, this is one of the most technologically advanced planes ever built, and Boeing took their time designing and building it. So how do they get it into operation - and it starts springing a fuel leak?
NOCERA: Well, what Boeing would say is gosh, this stuff is complicated. And of course, it is. And it has six electrical systems; you know, hydraulic power's now been switched to electrical power; and it's got computers and batteries, and so on and so forth. So what Boeing would say is, we're still working out the little glitches. On the other hand, if you're flying one of these things and these glitches cause you not to fly, or to wait for four hours to fly - as happened, also, this week - you're not very happy about it.
SIMON: Yeah. I mean, if you look at your ticket and see it's Dreamliner, this past week, you would wonder, oh, am I ever going to take off? Or, when we get in the air - you know, are we going to be losing fuel?
NOCERA: Well, it is - you know, it is three years late. It was supposed to come to market in 2008. It came to market in 2011, and a large part of the reason for that delay was precisely because it was really complicated, and it was not unlike any other airplane that had ever come before. It has, you know, lightweight parts, and it has - it's fuel-efficient; and it's this, that and the other thing. And I should also point out, Scott, that these problems have had zero effect on Boeing's sales.
SIMON: Well, that's important. What's your estimation of that? Has the company just addressed it so powerfully?
NOCERA: No, that's not the reason at all. The reason is that we have an aging fleet worldwide, and so companies need airplanes. And Boeing and Airbus made very different bets on what the world was going to need. Airbus bet on - giant aircraft that hauls 6- or 700 people. And Boeing made a bet that the world wanted smaller planes that went point to point, that had 200 to 250 people. As a result, Airbus's backlog is about 250 airplanes. Boeing's backlog is about 850 airplanes. So if you cancel a Boeing order 'cause you're mad about these problems, or you want them sooner, you don't have any other place to go.
SIMON: And what is your estimation of how Boeing has handled the problem so far?
NOCERA: Well, they're in a tricky spot. On the one hand, in their heart of hearts, they believed that these problems are really small; that it's not putting anybody at risk; and it's just kind of a teething process, as they like to say, with a brand-new aircraft. But they can't say that out loud because then they sound callous and uncaring. And so when the Department of Transportation and the FAA say, well, we're going to investigate the electrical systems, you know, Boeing can't say, don't worry, we're going to fix all this. They have to say, we're on board. And so it's basically been a headache that they think is not quite justified, but they can't say that out loud.
SIMON: Now that - you've, of course - have covered these kind of cases before, where corporations have to handle questions from the public. And this is a hard line to finesse. On the one hand, you have to be concerned about the problem - but not so concerned you leave people to be alarmed about it.
NOCERA: Well, take another example, which doesn't have anything to do with Boeing. Take Toyota and its accelerator problem, which they just paid a billion dollars to settle lawsuits. You know, it basically turned out that the problem with the accelerator had nothing to do with the electrical components, or any other components, of Toyota. It had to do with - they put the mat in wrong, and sometimes people just, you know, put their foot in the wrong place. Nonetheless, to get this problem behind them, they had to pay a billion dollars. Now, Boeing's not going to have anything like that because they haven't had crashes; they probably won't have crashes - at least around these sets of problems. So it's just trying to kind of keep its head down, play the good citizen, and get through it.
SIMON: Joe Nocera of The New York Times; speaking to us from the studios of the Radio Foundation in New York. Thanks very much, Joe.
NOCERA: Thank you, Scott.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Brazil now rivals the United States in food production. Everything from beef and chicken to soybeans and corn. Environmentalists in Brazil worry that this agricultural boom has come at the expense of the country's forest, including the Amazon. But they're up against a tough farming advocate - a senator, landowner and head of the country's most powerful agricultural association. And as NPR's Juan Forero reports, she argues that Brazilian farmers can - and should - produce more, much more.
JUAN FORERO, BYLINE: In some ways, Katia Abreu is still an old-fashioned farmer.
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FORERO: One who rides her chestnut mare, Billie Jean, to tour her farm in Tocantins state in north central Brazil. She glides the horse along a gravel road, which soon turns to dirt and along fields of sorghum and corn. She has plans for more.
KATIA ABREU: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: Soon, we're going to produce fish, she says, and lamb. There will be soybeans and fields of tall grass for cattle, Abreu says, lots of cattle. This farm, one of three Abreu owns, has 12,000 acres. Sizeable, even by Brazilians' standards. And so is Katia Abreu's influence. She's president of Brazil's National Agriculture Confederation, which represents five million farmers and ranchers. And she heads the influential ruralist bloc of landowning senators and representatives in Congress. She's also built a relationship with one of the world's most powerful women.
ABREU: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: I work with Dilma, Abreu says, meaning Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. She and I work to improve conditions and strengthen agribusiness in Brazil. That's worrisome to environmentalists who acknowledge that in Abreu they face a determined and sophisticated voice for big agro. Environmentalists say farmers and ranchers want to loosen restrictions on land use and expand into the forest, including the world's biggest, the Amazon. Christian Poirier is an activist with the group Amazon Watch.
CHRISTIAN POIRIER: It's clear that the intention of the ruralist bloc and Katia Abreu's group is to expand the agricultural frontier to the detriment of forests by felling forests in an unprecedented way in the Amazon for the profits of large agricultural interest.
FORERO: Abreu recently led the ruralists in a bruising battle in congress, pushing hard for fewer restrictions on the use of land to vastly jack up production.
ABREU: (Foreign language spoken)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)
ABREU: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: That led to passage of a land use law that environmentalists say softened restrictions on farmers and ranchers. Silvio Costa heads the watchdog group Congress in Focus, and he says the land use law passed because of the overwhelming power big agro has in congress, where 40 percent of all lawmakers are big landowners or their allies.
SILVIO COSTA: Subjects related to agriculture, to land ownership are not discussed in Brazil or in the Brazilian congress in a democratic way, because there's a group with power to approve anything they want. They just approve.
FORERO: Katia Abreu says she knows what people think about landowners. Her group commissioned surveys showing that Brazilians see landholders as truculent, dangerous, powerful and violent. That's why her confederation recently hired Pele - yes, Pele, the biggest soccer star Brazil ever had, a national hero.
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FORERO: He touts Brazilian agriculture in this new TV ad and says Brazil is, like him, a champion. A champion in food production, food needed to help feed a hungry world. That, in fact, is Abreu's message, that as big as Brazil's food production already is, it can and should be bigger.
ABREU: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: She says that productivity can improve on the same amount of land with more efficient land use and technologies, like genetically modified crops. Environmentalists have doubts, but as she walks across her farm, Abreu stresses how ecologically minded she is.
(LAUGHTER)
FORERO: She stops at a clump of trees and pulls at low-hanging cashew nuts.
ABREU: (Foreign language spoken)
FORERO: And she says that she loves to plant, and that every year she plants trees like these. Juan Forero, NPR News.
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SIMON: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Consumer Electronics Show took place this past week, in Las Vegas. More than 156,000 salespeople, electronics buyers, electronics enthusiasts, and a number of reporters descended on the city to gawk at acres and acres - at the latest shiny gadgets. NPR's Steve Henn was there to gawk, too. Thanks for joining us, Steve.
STEVE HENN, BYLINE: Oh, my pleasure.
SIMON: Now, I understand - for the first time in a decade, Microsoft didn't have a booth. Now, Apple - famously - doesn't attend this show; neither do Amazon or Google. Can you really have a consumer electronics show without those companies, after all, who pioneered so many products?
HENN: Yeah, I think you can. Obviously, there was a lot of talk before the show, about the fact that they wouldn't be there. But I think for most people, when we got there, they weren't really missed, you know. And actually, hundreds of executives from those firms were in Las Vegas; checking out the technologies that other little companies were building, and thinking about how they could incorporate them into their next gadget. Here's Jason Mendleson. He's a venture capitalist, based in Boulder, who I ran into on the show floor.
JASON MENDLESON: I've absolutely been amazed at - couple things. One, startups are here, finally. Five years ago, there were none. Now, there are companies here that are the next big companies, that folks like me - venture capitalists - can come see, meet.
HENN: So the most interesting stuff at CES - at least, for me - is almost never a new product that's being released by some big giant. You know, sometimes when a big firm gives you a peek inside what they're working on, in a lab, that can be fascinating. But I've always really loved finding the quirky, little firms that are doing new, interesting stuff. And I think the folks who organize CES have finally realized that those innovative, little firms are actually one of the big reasons people come.
SIMON: You have a favorite?
HENN: One that I saw - right before I left - was pretty great. It was called Lapka. And lapka is, apparently, the Russian word for rabbit food. And traditionally, I guess, you'd carry a little bit of this around in your pocket, for protection. Their product is a set of beautifully crafted environmental sensors. They're actually made from wood and an ivory-colored plastic. And they kind of reminded me of a high-tech set of worry beads. But the string on the beads is a plug you can connect to your iPhone. So one of the sensors is a tiny probe you can poke into food - like an apple - and it will measure the nitrates, and tell you whether or not that apple is organic.
(LAUGHTER)
HENN: Another sensor measures electromagnetic fields. There's one for radiation; one for temperature and humidity. So if you have a baby, there's a setting to tell you the ideal temperature for your child to take a nap.
SIMON: Steve, I guarantee you, that's not what parents do.
HENN: I'm thinking that their market is for the overprotected first parent. Your second child, not so much.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Steve Henn, NPR's tech correspondent. Thanks so much.
HENN: Oh, my pleasure. Thank you, Scott.
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SIMON: This is NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Vice President Biden met with factions in the gun debate, this week, from the National Rifle Association to the families of the Virginia Tech shootings. On Tuesday, the vice president will present the recommendations of the task force on gun violence that he has been leading, to President Obama. We're joined now by NPR's Brian Naylor, who's been covering the gun debate in Washington, D.C. Brian, thanks for being with us.
BRIAN NAYLOR, BYLINE: Thank you, Scott.
SIMON: We've heard talk about universal background checks, including private gun sales; maybe something about high-capacity magazines. What do you think these recommendations might be, from what we've heard already?
NAYLOR: I think it's likely to be a mixture of some of the legislative things; like reinstituting the ban on the assault weapons, the military-style rifles, like the one used in the Newtown school shooting that relaunched this debate. There will be a proposal, probably, to ban the high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Vice President Biden also hinted on - a number of other steps he's likely to urge; including universal background checks on people buying guns, and figuring out a way how to strengthen those background checks. For instance, he noted that convicted felons are prohibited from buying weapons, but that states don't always report those felons on a timely basis, to the National Crime Database.
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SIMON: Brian, we've mentioned that the vice president met with a number of different groups. The National Rifle Association came out of that meeting saying that the White House has an agenda to attack the Second Amendment. So no perceptible change in their position, but what about some of the other parties?
NAYLOR: Yeah, the NRA doesn't seem to be giving any ground. But other groups are - especially those on the gun control side of things - are much more hopeful that this task force will lead to some changes. The Brady Campaign called on Congress to pass a law making gun trafficking a federal offense, which it isn't now; and to close that so-called gun show loophole, which allows about 40 percent of gun sales to take place without background checks - those sales that occur, you know, at gun shows or between private individuals.
SIMON: And of course, some of the most forceful voices we've heard, in this debate, have been outside of the chambers in Washington, D.C.
NAYLOR: That's right. And we heard some governors speak this week - in New York, where Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo delivered his State of the State message. He made a very impassioned plea for a ban on assault weapons.
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NAYLOR: And in Connecticut, where the Sandy Hook school shootings occurred last month, Gov. Dan Malloy called for a ban on large magazines. And even out West, you know, where guns have always been part of the mythology and culture, there have been calls for tightening some restrictions. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper this week called for universal background checks on gun sales.
SIMON: What's the effect of hearing these voices come from outside Washington, D.C. - politically?
NAYLOR: Well, I think it's interesting because the big bottleneck has been in Congress trying to get legislation passed. For many years, there's been no appetite whatsoever. So I think when you hear from these states that they're taking action, number one, it indicates that there is some sentiment to tighten controls in those states; and also, it at least lends the sense of momentum behind this effort to get legislation through Congress.
SIMON: Of course, this week also saw the second anniversary of another mass shooting; the one in Tucson that wounded Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, and left six people dead.
NAYLOR: That's right. And she and her husband, Mark Kelly, began a new group, a political action committee they announced this week, called Americans for Responsible Solutions. Mark Kelly explained the group this week, on ABC.
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NAYLOR: Scott, that group has already received reportedly seven-figure donations including from the widow of Steve Jobs. Still, they have a long ways to go to match the NRA, which last year gave some $20 million to political candidates.
SIMON: NPR's Brian Naylor; thanks very much.
NAYLOR: Thanks, Scott.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a number of cities have launched gun-buyback programs, to try to reduce the number of firearms in circulation. This weekend, the police department in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is offering a gun buyback called Operation Safe Streets. It will give people who turn in weapons a $150 gift card, for a handgun; $200 for assault weapons. Santa Fe's chief of police is Raymond Rael.
If somebody turns in a gun, do they have to say where they got it?
CHIEF OF POLICE RAYMOND RAEL: No, sir. They don't. We're not asking for identification at that point in time. As long as it's a functional weapon, we will pay the amounts that you indicated.
SIMON: Do they have to give you their name for a gift card?
RAEL: No, they don't. The gift cards have been processed and already prepackaged; cards have no tracking mechanism. It's simply give us a weapon, and we give you the gift card.
SIMON: What happens to any guns turned in?
RAEL: Well, each gun is then going to be run. If it's determined that the weapon is clean - it's not an item of evidence in another case, or it isn't a stolen weapon - then it'll be separated off into a pile, which we will then destroy later down the road. If, in fact, the weapon comes back as stolen or involved in a crime, it'll be put aside, submitted into evidence; and the appropriate agency will be notified that we have that weapon. And then they can start following up in whatever manner they are able to, at that point in time.
SIMON: Do you expect any real criminals to turn in their guns?
RAEL: Well, in reality, probably not. Anyone who is serious about stealing a weapon, and using it in a criminal act, isn't likely to turn it in. But we do anticipate that there will be some weapons turned in by members of the general public who have either inherited weapons, or are concerned about leaving weapons in their homes - loaded or unloaded - and just feel they no longer have any use for them.
SIMON: So I don't have to tell you, Chief, I'm sure, there are people who - even those that might think a gun-buyback program is a good idea - who wonder if they actually reduce any crime because as you just said, actual perpetrators of crimes are unlikely to bring their guns in.
RAEL: You know, that's an impossible thing to analyze. I mean, in reality, it may prevent someone from breaking into someone's home and stealing that weapon. And the other side of the equation is, if you look at - you know, even one tragedy prevented; even one suicide, or one child who accesses an unsecured weapon and has an accidental shooting; I think the program pays for itself, and it's well worth it.
SIMON: In the end, Chief, what does a gun-buyback program achieve, as far as you're concerned?
RAEL: Well, I think in the end, as we're all aware, I mean, there's millions of guns in the United States, at this point. Do I believe that we're going to make an impact in reducing the overall numbers? Not immediately, but as time proceeds and these programs continue, and the public becomes more and more aware, there's always the hope - and the possibility - that we can start getting some of these things under control.
SIMON: Sheriff Raymond Rael of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jon Vernick is the associate professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and co-director of the Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. He joins us from Baltimore. Thanks so much for being with us.
JON VERNICK: My pleasure. Thank you.
SIMON: What do you think the evidence on gun-buyback schemes is? Do they work?
VERNICK: Unfortunately, the evidence isn't very encouraging at all, if one's goal is to reduce rates of street crime.
SIMON: Well, what do they do?
VERNICK: What we've learned is that high-risk people don't tend to participate. The folks who are at highest risk for being either a victim or a perpetrator of gun violence are young males. But disproportionately, the people who participate in these buybacks tend to be older; they tend to be female.
On top of that, the guns that get turned in don't tend to be the high-risk guns. The high-risk guns for street crime tend to be newer; they tend to be high-caliber, semiautomatic pistols; they tend to be functional. The guns that disproportionately get turned in, in buybacks, tend to be older; they tend to be revolvers, lower caliber; and worst of all, often they're broken. So there isn't good reason to expect, unfortunately, that these gun-buyback programs are likely to reduce street crime.
SIMON: Professor, do you have any feeling for why cities - why they're important to cities?
VERNICK: I think the reason that cities and other localities engage in these programs, frankly, is because quite understandably people want to do something. They - there's a felt need to respond to the problem of gun violence to specific shootings. And unlike efforts to change policy or enact new laws, gun buybacks are relatively easy to do. You don't have to battle with the National Rifle Association. So the problem is - if that's all that localities and cities ultimately do, it's fine if a buyback is used as a way to heighten awareness. But it needs to be a first step towards change that's much more likely to actually affect rates of violence.
SIMON: Jon Vernick, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, speaking from Baltimore. Thanks so much for being with us.
VERNICK: It's my pleasure, thank you.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
You might've chuckled a bit this week, if you heard about the trillion-dollar platinum coin plan, to perhaps address Washington, D.C.'s debt ceiling stalemate. But it will certainly be no laughing matter if the U.S. Congress refuses to raise the borrowing limit, and the U.S. government defaults on its debt. Global financial markets would likely plummet.
NPR's John Ydstie reports on some of the options the president has if he and Congress cannot reach an agreement.
JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: President Obama says he won't negotiate. He says the Congress must raise the debt ceiling to pay for spending it's already OK'd. But Republicans say they'll use the threat of default to get more spending cuts from the White House. Of course, the best outcome would be for the two parties to agree on the package of spending cuts they postponed for two months, to avoid the fiscal cliff. That could clear the way for hike in the debt ceiling.
But if faced with default, the president could consider a few options, says Donald Marron, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office; now at the Tax Policy Center. First, Marron says, delay some payments.
DONALD MARRON: You might pay Medicare doctors a week later than usual. You might pay government contractors two weeks later than usual.
YDSTIE: But former Fed Vice Chairman Alan Blinder says that's not as easy as it sounds.
ALAN BLINDER: It's not even so clear the government's computer programs are capable of doing that right. They're sort of on autopilot, to spit out millions and millions of checks.
YDSTIE: Even if the computers cooperated, says Blinder, deciding how to cut one out of every $4 the government spends each day, would be difficult.
BLINDER: You know that they're going to keep the Social Security checks coming; they're going to pay the military; they're going to pay the interest on the debt. And pretty soon, you're down to a very small corner of the budget that's going to have to absorb all the cuts.
YDSTIE: Another option, says Blinder, is for the president to invoke the 14th Amendment, which essentially says the government must pay its debts. But a huge legal battle would likely ensue, and the White House has ruled that out.
Marron says that brings us to the platinum coin.
MARRON: In principle, the Treasury secretary could issue high-denomination platinum coins, and use them as a way to finance the government if the debt limit isn't increased.
YDSTIE: The law that allows this is really intended for use in minting collectible coins, and Marron says he fervently hopes the parties can reach a deal.
MARRON: But if we got to the state of the world where the Treasury secretary faces this decision of do we default on the debt, or do we invoke a loophole; I am very strongly in the camp that I would like to see him invoke a loophole, rather than default.
YDSTIE: The way it would work, says Marron, is that the Treasury would mint a coin - or coins - in, say, $25 billion denominations and deposit them at the Federal Reserve; then draw on the funds to pay the government's bills. He says a trillion-dollar coin makes no sense. If the administration didn't want to involve the Fed, it could mint smaller denominations - in the 50- to $100 million range - and sell them to big banks or institutions.
MARRON: It's not something you want to embrace; it's not the way we ought to run a normal business. It really does sound like a "Simpsons" episode, or an "Austin Powers" sequel.
YDSTIE: But so far, the Obama administration hasn't explicitly ruled it out.
John Ydstie, NPR News, Washington.
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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Three years ago today, a massive earthquake destroyed much of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. About 200,000 people were killed. More than a million were left homeless. Governments and aid agencies from around the world pledged billions of dollars to help Haiti recover - and rebuild - from the quake. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was just one of many leaders who vowed that the international community would stand by Haiti for the long process of reconstruction.
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SECRETARY HILLARY CLINTON: We will also be conveying - very directly and personally - to the Haitian people our long-term, unwavering support, solidarity and sympathies; to reinforce President Obama's message yesterday, that they are not facing this crisis alone.
SIMON: But three years later, many of the grand plans to build back better in Haiti have, apparently, fizzled. NPR's Jason Beaubien covered the quake in 2010. He's been back numerous times. He joins us from Port-au-Prince. Jason, thanks for being with us.
JASON BEAUBIEN, BYLINE: No, it's good to be with you.
SIMON: And help us understand what has happened over the last three years.
BEAUBIEN: What has happened is that basically, people have been kept alive. People moved into camps. Humanitarian aid agencies came in; they provided water, they provided tarps. There have been a lot of plans for new housing construction, for new apartment buildings - for all kinds of things, but most of those have not happened.
Only about 5,000 units of permanent, new housing have been built. There are still hundreds of thousands of people living in tents. Many of the temporary shelters that were built by aid agencies - made out of just plywood, with a roof - those, basically, have become permanent. So the lot of the grand plans just have not worked out.
SIMON: For all the effort, there must be some major accomplishments.
BEAUBIEN: You know, one of the big accomplishments is that most of the rubble has gotten removed; hence, you don't see huge piles of rubble around Port-au-Prince anymore. It's something that the humanitarian agencies talk about; just - also the fact that people were kept alive, is something that they tout as a major accomplishment.
But just last night, President Martelly was complaining that for the billions of dollars that were pledged, that came in here, that were spent by aid agencies, he's not seeing results. And he says he's not satisfied with the way this process has gone.
SIMON: Jason, how does Port-au-Prince look, three years afterwards?
BEAUBIEN: What's sort of interesting - having been here before the earthquake - is that in many ways, it looks very similar to before the quake. There are just people going about their daily lives; doing business out on the street, selling things along the roadways. The traffic is actually much worse now because a lot of people have moved further out, and so people are moving farther each day. So there's even more of a grind for the traffic, but it is bustling; still very poor. What strikes me the most, however, is that it looks very much like it did before the quake.
SIMON: NPR's Jason Beaubien, speaking with us from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Thanks so much, Jason.
BEAUBIEN: You're welcome.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
It's awards season again with the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild, the Oscars all coming up. There's also a brand-new prize this year, but don't look for Joan Rivers on the red carpet.
Our math guy, Keith Devlin, joins us now from studios of Stanford University, where he's also a professor. Keith, thanks very much for being back with us.
KEITH DEVLIN, BYLINE: Oh, nice to be with you again, Scott. And a Happy New Year to you.
SIMON: And Happy New Year to you, my friend. What's this new prize Stanford's giving out?
DEVLIN: It's the Symbol of the Year Award. It's awarded - for the first time, this year - by Stanford's Symbolic Systems program. And the winner is - da, da, da! The percentage sign.
SIMON: (SOUNDITE OF SIMON CLAPPING)
DEVLIN: (LAUGHTER)
SIMON: I'm standing, too, at the same time.
DEVLIN: I'm sure you are.
SIMON: But the percentage sign, not the @ sign that's in every email message?
DEVLIN: Here's what the rules said. It said, the symbol of the year need not be new to this year - that being 2012 - but should have achieved widespread cultural importance during the year. A symbol is both used and understood to represent a concept, object, location, event or linguistic unit.
So first of all, it doesn't have to be a written symbol. It could be something like a flag or a salute, or a person, or the NPR logo - anything that symbolizes anything else, would be a symbol. And the reason the percentage sign - which sort of seems boring, in a sense; it's an old sign - the reason that was voted number one, and here was the citation: For continued protest about the 99 percent and the 1 percent, to Mitt Romney's 47 percent remark, to the fiscal cliff debate; the percent sign appeared throughout 2012 on banners and in headlines. Its presence was a constant reminder that income, wealth distribution and tax brackets had become the main focus of U.S. politics. So there you are.
SIMON: Are there any runners-up for whom we should feel sorry?
DEVLIN: And of the 20 others that were submitted, the ones that came highest was that big stone thingy in Mexico; the Piedra del Sol that was discovered, I think, in the late 1800s.
SIMON: I'm sorry, did I just hear a Stanford professor say stone thingy?
(LAUGHTER)
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Keith Devlin, our math guy here on WEEKEND EDITION; a professor at Stanford University, speaking from their studios. Thanks so much for being with us, Keith.
DEVLIN: OK, my pleasure Scott, as always.
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SIMON: This is NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News, I'm Scott Simon. Hey, it's time for sports.
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SIMON: In the NFL playoffs this weekend, will the Falcons, Seahawks and Ravens soar? Will the Broncos buck, the 49ers strike gold, the Patriots run up the flag, the Texans remember, and the Packers pack up and go home? How many ridiculous phrases can I work into a sentence?
NPR's Tom Goldman joins us now to help us make sense of all of 'em. Tom, thanks for being with us.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Well, there's another ridiculous phrase, that I can make sense of it all.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Very quick, my friend. Excellent. Yeah.
GOLDMAN: Thank you very much. Actually, today Scott, I think I can because it is the playoffs, where some basic truths hold forth. The best experienced quarterbacks win, strong defense wins. I think you're going to see that with these games this weekend. So where do you want to start?
SIMON: Well, in no particular order. The Seattle Seahawks are a slight three point favorites over the Atlanta Falcons - and the Seahawks do seem to be soaring of late.
GOLDMAN: Yeah, another truth: hot teams win the Super Bowl, and none is hotter than Seattle. Rookie quarterback Russell Wilson picked 75th in the draft. He's making a mockery of the word rookie. He is so calm and efficient, combined with bruising runner Marshawn Lynch and a great defense. But, but, Scott...
SIMON: Yeah? Yeah?
GOLDMAN: Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan has emerged this season. He has tons of weapons on offense, a major chip on the shoulder because he's never won a playoff game. This game is at home and the Falcons play better in their dome. The suspect area is defense. Their best past rusher may be limited by a recent ankle injury, but if the defense steps up I actually like Atlanta here.
SIMON: Hmm. The Pack, slightly favored over the San Francisco.
GOLDMAN: Yes. Because of that quarterback-defense formula, largely. Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers is one of the elites. His accuracy, especially when he gets forced out of the pocket, is just fantastic. The Packers' defense is healthy. San Francisco has been dominant at times this year, but don't forget, the Packers just two years ago won the Super Bowl. This team knows what to do. I am going Packers' cheese over San Francisco white wine.
SIMON: Boy...
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: By the way, interesting sideline. Aaron Rodgers, of course, is from Chico, California, grew up a 49er fan, and Colin Kaepernick, the 49er quarterback was born in Milwaukee. And is a Packers fan.
GOLDMAN: Go figure.
SIMON: Yeah. Right. Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos versus the Baltimore Ravens. Peyton Manning is on the verge of leading one of the great comebacks since a New Yorker told somebody who wanted to get to Carnegie Hall, practice, practice.
(LAUGHTER)
GOLDMAN: Peyton, Peyton, what a comeback year. What a comeback year after sitting out due to multiple next surgeries, sitting out all last season. Even if the Broncs didn't have a great defense, I'd pick them. Winners of 11 straight, but they do have a great defense. So watch out this weekend and beyond.
SIMON: Mmm. Tom Brady and the New England Patriots versus the Houston Texans, who are hoping it won't be deja vu all over again.
GOLDMAN: It will. It probably won't be another 42 to 14 drubbing that New England layed on Houston in week 14 of the regular season. But you've got Tom Brady. You've got the best type in tandem maybe ever...
SIMON: Yeah.
GOLDMAN: ...in Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. You've got a bona fide running game with Stevan Ridley. A statistically poor but seasoned defense that will do enough to keep Houston from getting more points than the superduper New England offense. Pats win, Scott.
SIMON: Yeah. We have to note, while you and I and millions of people are getting all excited about the playoffs, just another dark shadow over football this week. A report released from a team at the National Institute of Health scientists, who found that Junior Seau, who committed suicide last year, former linebacker, did in fact suffer from brain disease likely caused by hits to the head. Where does this latest finding take the issue?
GOLDMAN: Well, not into a new realm. It fuels the conversation that's been going on for several years. The NFL has made rules, changes and tweaks to try to make the game safer; hard to do with an inherently unsafe game. It will be interesting to see if the changes come through the courts. Right now, a massive lawsuit involving more than 4,000 former players, who are suing the NFL and helmet manufacturers over the head injury issue. It's in the preliminary stages. If these complaints go to trial, most likely it won't happen until 2014. And one of the goals of the lawsuit is to affect some sort of change going forward so the risk from head injury is reduced for future retirees.
SIMON: And this week, Bernie Kosar, former quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, who suffered I guess at least a dozen concussions, has come out and said that he's found a treatment that's helped reverse some of the effects. And I gather you talked to neurologists who are skeptical.
GOLDMAN: Yeah. The doctor reportedly has been treating Kosar to improve blood flow in the brain. Treatments include intravenous therapies and dietary supplements. Dr. Robert Cantu, one of the country's most prominent concussion experts, is skeptical. He says these things have not been proven, there have been no double-blind studies to say that blood flow plays a role in symptoms. Dr. Cantu cautions against lots of people lining up for what he calls unproven therapies.
SIMON: NPR's Tom Goldman. Thanks so much.
GOLDMAN: You're welcome.
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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
They call it The Python Challenge.
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SIMON: Today and for the next month, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission is asking Floridians to tangle with the Burmese Python. They call it a harvest. Of course, that means that they want people to hunt pythons. How do you hunt pythons? Very carefully, I'm sure. They're huge, constrictor snakes that can grow to be more than 20 feet long.
Now, like many of us, the python is a tourist to Florida, not a native species. But the snake doesn't just go to Disney World and fly back home. It stays - and threatens the birds, reptiles, and mammals who live in the Everglades. The commission is offering a $1,500 grand prize to the person who bags the most pythons, and harvesters can keep the skin.
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SIMON: And you're listening to NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Baseball Hall of Fame is a tourist attraction, not a papal conclave. The people who cast votes for the Hall are sportswriters, not the College of Cardinals. But there was something momentous this week when the Baseball Writers Association elected no one to the Hall of Fame - not Roger Clemens, who won a record seven Cy Young Awards; not Barry Bonds, who hit a record 762 home runs; not Sammy Sosa, who hit 60 or more home runs a record three consecutive years. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: Sosa's record was accomplished over four seasons.] But those glorious stats were amassed under suspicion of what's now known as the steroid era in baseball - possibly, all sports. The New York Times headlined Thursday's sports section: And the Winner Is, then left three-quarters of the page blank.
No doubt there can seem something smug about sportswriters who often rhapsodized about those all-stars when they set records, now finding them unworthy. The Baseball Players Association pointed out that most of the players accused of using prohibited, performance-enhancing drugs have never been convicted in a court. Roger Clemens was found not guilty by a jury last year, of lying to a congressional committee when he denied using steroids.
And many of the players enshrined - and that's the ostentatious word that's often used - in the Hall of Fame have been drunkards, bigots and cons. As Bill Veeck, who owned the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, once wrote: Wake up the echoes of the Hall of Fame, and you'll find that baseball's immortals were a rowdy and raucous group of men who would climb down off their plaques and go rampaging.
Baseball historian John Thorne points out that before players were rich men with nonprofit foundations, they were not considered fit for polite company, he says. And now today, here they are; heroes and role models. But even if a lot of great players - Ruth, Mantle, Paige, Wade Boggs, and scores of other Hall of Famers - ran wild in their private lives, when they put on their uniforms they respected the game in simple ways that gave it integrity. They ran out pop flies; they played through injuries; they sacrificed their batting averages, to advance runners. They gave fans their best, not scams. Smart arguments could be made that baseball's drug policies may seem absurd, in a time when shoulder surgery can make pitchers stronger. The players shut out of the Hall of Fame this year will be on the ballot for another 14 years and in time, sportswriters and fans may feel forgiving or even just forgetful. But this week's Hall of Fame shutout might be a classic reminder that cheating sometimes brings quick riches, but it can't buy respect.
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SIMON: And you're listening to NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
General Stanley McChrystal says he's moved on with his life. The four-star general was forced to resign from the military after his aides were quoted in a Rolling Stone article making disparaging remarks about members of the Obama administration. McChrystal has written a memoire called "My Share of the Task." And in it, he describes a cultural gap between the military and civilian worlds; a lack of understanding that he says complicated the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan and bred distrust between the White House and the Pentagon.
When I spoke with General McChrystal, I asked him about a story in his book about one Christmas Eve. As the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, he was spending the night flying around the country visiting troops. At one outpost, McChrystal saw a name patch that caught his eye. He knew the name. This soldier's father had died under McChrystal's command a few years before in Iraq.
GENERAL STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL: So I'm looking at his son who's probably 19 or 20 years old and he's a private. And I'm thinking this guy doesn't want to be recognized, doesn't want to be made a big deal about, but he has taken the place in the ranks that his father had taken. And he's out in a tough place serving his nation, and I thought about the continuity and the tradition that that reflected.
And so, those kinds of experiences stay imprinted in your mind. And so, I tried in my book to paint the personal side of soldiers because they're not nameless faces. They are people with families and hopes and dreams.
MARTIN: Your dad was an Army general. You, yourself went to West Point. Was this career path clear to you from a really young age? Did you always know this is what you wanted to do?
MCCHRYSTAL: Rachel, I did from as early as I can remember. My grandfather was a soldier. My brother is. My four brothers all were soldiers. My sister married a soldier. So when I got the opportunity to the West Point, my goal was to be a combat infantry soldier like my father.
MARTIN: You spent the bulk of your military career as a special operator. These are very elite units in the military. We often say that they work in the shadows, they carry out very highly classified missions. You ultimately became the commander of Joint Special Operations, commandeering the war in Iraq. You and your teams had a very specific mission there. You were tasked with hunting down and killing insurgents.
Can you give us a sense of the pace of that work at the time? How many missions were your teams carrying out each week, each night, even?
MCCHRYSTAL: In the summer of 2004, I think we did 18 raids in a month across the country. And that seemed like a breakneck pace to us. But by two years later, by August of 2006, we were doing 300 raids a month which meant 10 a night. And we were operating at a pace none of us had ever thought possible. And because a lot of these special operators are anonymous to Americans - you see movies and you think of these guys as sort of bearded, cynical, mercenary-like figures - I wanted in my book to give a sense that's not the case at all.
Most of the special operators are in their 30's and 40's, they're not young. And at one point, in one of my units, half of the organization had purple hearts, which meant that they had been wounded in combat. And yet they were still in the fight.
And over about a two and half year period, we put together a network that connected across the country. We did this extraordinary explosion within our headquarters of focus on intelligence. And we've learned that we could operate on intelligence very quickly because we were getting so much better at it.
MARTIN: So you leave Iraq on the high; that was an important national security priority, but it was a very defined mission. You then went on to Afghanistan, assigned to be the top U.S. commander there. Describe how that mission was different for you. How did you have to become a different kind of general there?
MCCHRYSTAL: Sure. That was a war that had actually - an effort that had begun in the fall of 2001. But by 2013, it had been badly under-resourced. It was unclear to many people what we're trying to achieve. And so, what we had to was we had to change the psychology of all the players. We had to convince our coalition that we could do this successfully. We had to convince political leadership in 37 countries, particularly the United States, we could do it.
But most importantly, we had to convince the Afghan people that what we're doing was in their interest, we cared about them and that we could be effective.
MARTIN: You said a lot of people were unclear about what the mission was. Were you clear? Did you understand what you were supposed to do?
MCCHRYSTAL: I thought I did when we started. But as we did the strategic assessment, in that summer of 2013 and then went into a decision-making process that fall, it was clear to me that everybody didn't view the mission the same. And many people had different views, not only of what the mission was then but also the direction that we ought to go.
MARTIN: You described actually through one anecdote, a videoconference with the White House. You're in Afghanistan. You're hooked up with the Situation Room. And one White House official asked you when you're describing the mission, why are you using the word defeat. Why aren't you using a lesser word, like degrade the Taliban?
Did you feel the White House was moving the goalposts on you, when it came to your objectives?
MCCHRYSTAL: Well, in that particular case, I think it showed the cultural challenge because we had put on paper the word defeat and to a military person that's got a very precise meaning. It means we are going to prevent the enemy from accomplishing his mission. It doesn't mean you have to kill any of the enemy, you've just got to prevent them from doing what they're trying to do.
And yet, we found that there were people in the White House that were interpreting that as it eliminate the enemy - wipe them out. And so, they were saying, why do you think you've got to go all the way to defeat.
What it really showed was because different cultures - the military, civilian, and whatnot - all have their own lexicon, you can be having a conversation where you think you're communicating effectively - and it's all good people - but you're not. It's more obvious when you're dealing with an Afghan leader with a big beard who doesn't speak your language, because you know there's a cultural barrier. But when you're both speaking English, you don't remember sometimes that there may be a cultural barrier that's just less visible.
MARTIN: The way you write about the buildup to the surge and that debate, it appears that you didn't really think that your civilian leaders really got what it took to run a war; the resources, how they're allocated, how they're deployed. Is that fair to say?
MCCHRYSTAL: Well, I think it's fair to say that it is the job of the military to explain what it is we're trying to do militarily and what resources are required. I think it's natural that civilian leaders aren't going to automatically know the math that the military uses. And so, we've got to be able to explain it in very clear terms.
MARTIN: This was a different role for you, the job in Afghanistan. For much of your career, as you mentioned, you were in Special Operations Command - those aren't public jobs. You're not in front of TV cameras. You're not briefing Congress.
In Afghanistan, as the commander there, this is a public job. This is a political job. Do you think that was a good fit for you?
MCCHRYSTAL: Well, I think it was certainly a challenge for me.
(LAUGHTER)
MCCHRYSTAL: You're exactly right. I came out of the shadows. I'm in charge of a war that is failing. I have to interact with 46 nations to get people focused on the same strategy moving forward. And at the same time, essentially, I've got to educate people in 46 nations, their publics through the media about the war. And I've got to do the same with the mothers and fathers in America who are contributing their sons and daughters to the cause.
So there's this intense media spotlight. There's a need to be transparent. And, oh, by the way, I'm also tried to fight a war at the same time. It's a challenge. But it goes with the job. It's just a level of complexity that is sometimes not appreciated until you're actually in that position.
MARTIN: Do you think you are well prepared for that element of the job?
MCCHRYSTAL: I think I was very well prepared for the military part of the job. I enjoyed the interaction with the government of Afghanistan, key leaders, the Afghan people and the governments. I think that on the media side, I was certainly not comfortable with it. I chose to be as transparent as we could; more transparent than some people advised I be.
In retrospect, clearly, like with the Rolling Stone article, I wish it had not come out that way. But I wouldn't change the approach on transparency. I think, at the end of the day, you do better when you tend toward being transparent, even though there's some risk.
MARTIN: You did ultimately lose your job because of comments that you and your staff made about members of the Obama administration, in what you believe to be an off-the-record setting, to a reporter from the Rolling Stone. It was a bar. You were in Paris, in France. It happened to be your anniversary and your wife, Annie, was also on the trip. She was in that bar that night.
And you describe in the book your wife's impression of the evening. What did she tell you when it was over?
MCCHRYSTAL: Annie, at the end of the evening, as we went back - we're about to go to bed - she says I'm really glad the reporter was there because it was important that he see the camaraderie between your small team. I had a German officer, a French officer, an Afghan officer, several Americans, all of this team that had - most of them had been at war for many years and they were together and she thought it was important that he see and appreciate the level of commitment to each other and the level, really, of love they had between each other.
MARTIN: So she was glad the reporter was there, that he saw that. But that same reporter walked out of the same bar, the same situation and saw something very different. He wrote about it and it cost you your military career. You were all in one room and yet this conversation was perceived very differently by those in the military and those outside. How do you make sense of that? How could the perceptions be so different?
MCCHRYSTAL: I was very surprised by the tone of that article when it came out. I did not think it was a fair depiction of the team, but it created a controversy. I was in command, and I accepted responsibility.
MARTIN: You talk the gap sometimes between the military and its civilian leadership when it comes to having a specific culture, a different culture, a different lexicon. Does that particular incident illustrate further that cultural gap, a gap in understanding between military and civilian worlds?
MCCHRYSTAL: I'm not sure it's a gap in understanding in that particular case. It may be a little bit. I think it's more built-up trust. If you know somebody very, very well, if you've built up very strong ties personally, when you hear or read things about that person, you can put them into context. If you don't, then it's very hard and you get a report and you may take it at face value. But if they see wider context, they may be able to put things into better perspective.
MARTIN: But you're suggesting that the comments that lead to you dismissal, if they had been taken into context, perhaps would not have been perceived so egregiously. But you were forced to resign as a result of these. Did you think those comments that your staff made were insubordinate and disrespectful at the time or did you not think about it?
MCCHRYSTAL: Well, at the time, I didn't at all. I know that staff was neither disloyal or intentionally disrespectful. But, you know, when something becomes a media controversy, it is very difficult to fight that fight at the time. So it was appropriate for me to offer President Obama my resignation and I have no hesitation that taking responsibility is what a commander must do.
MARTIN: When you look back on those comments, though, in isolation, do you see that they're representative of some kind of insubordination?
MCCHRYSTAL: Rachel, I've moved on from that. I don't judge it either way. You know, I accepted responsibility, I ended my career over that and I've moved on with my life.
MARTIN: Being a soldier as obviously a huge part of your identity. It was what you did, being a McChrystal; your dad, your siblings. Give us a sense of what it has been like to try to move on.
MCCHRYSTAL: What I found from the moment that I offered my resignation, I had this network of friends and people who cared about me. And people came out of the woodwork to reinforce that. And, of course, when you go through some controversy and you see your face on the news in a negative way for 48 hours or something, you doubt yourself.
And your friends make the difference. They become a safety net that come in and say, that's not the case. And the relationships that you've built, some of which you don't even realize how strong they are, come to the fore. And the people that I had fought wars with, the people that I'd done other things with, he people that I love, particularly my wife and my son, are so strong and they make you stronger.
MARTIN: General Stanley McChrystal. His new memoir is called "My Share of the Task." You can read in excerpt at nprNPR.org. General McChrystal, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us.
MCCHRYSTAL: Thank you, Rachel.
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MARTIN: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Bill Streever's new book is called "Heat: Adventures in the World's Fiery Places," and it starts with a simple adventure: getting close to a lit candlestick.
BILL STREEVER: (Reading) Quickly this time, I move my palm down in the candle's flame. I hold a world of pain in the palm of my hand.
MARTIN: On the one to ten medical pain scale, Bill Streever rates this feeling as an 11.
STREEVER: (Reading) After two seconds, I am standing in a mild panic. By three seconds, I command my right hand to hold my left hand in place. At five seconds, I pull away from the candle. I plunge my hand into a bowl of snow. The pain drops from somewhere near 11 to something manageable - a nine, a seven, a three. I stare at the candle flame and I realize that today is the day I begin to understand heat.
MARTIN: Streever is a scientist and a writer. His last book, "Cold," concentrated on the bottom of the thermometer. "Heat" is a tour of the earth's hottest places, fuels, experiences and professions. From the dirty and dangerous work of coal mining to the making of the hydrogen bomb. One of his first stops explores the wildfires of California where firefighters battle intense flames that can turn on them at a moment's notice. He explains something called a fire shelter, a last chance for a trapped firefighter to come out alive.
STREEVER: It's a foil cross between a sleeping bag and a tent. And if you are fighting a fire and something happens and suddenly you were threatened with being overwhelmed by the flames, you have a chance of surviving if you can find a place where there's a small opening with maybe a little bit less fuel and you crawl into this tent and you can deploy these fire shelters in seconds and be inside of these fire shelters in seconds. And then if luck is with you, the fire would burn over you, burn over your position. And you would be absolutely terrified and probably at least somewhat burned, if not badly burned, but still alive inside the bag. And these fire shelters have saved the lives of many, many wild land firefighters over the years.
MARTIN: But you also tell the story in your book of some firefighters who tragically lost their lives in one of these big wildfires.
STREEVER: Well, that's exactly right - the Spanish Ranch Fire. And, you know, I guess I'm attracted to extremes and oftentimes extremes put people in really tough conditions. And several people did die in the Spanish Ranch Fire. They did not have fire shelters. And it was that fire that led to a rule, at least in California, that all wild land firefighters would always have a fire shelter strapped to their belt.
MARTIN: Fire walking is a theme that kind of threads its way throughout the book. This is, of course, this ancient art that has become something found at corporate retreats. What is the fascination with walking on fire do you think?
STREEVER: You know, I think the fascination, for me anyway, is that it just doesn't make sense that it's something you would do. I mean, and if you understand the physics of it, it's real simple. It, for the most part, it can be explained the same way we talk about holding a hot potato and we sort of toss it in the air so you don't have a lot of contact time. And you can tell yourself that, but stand in front of that fire pit and tell yourself that and feel like you're not about to do something completely crazy, that's a different story.
MARTIN: So, what was it like for you, besides hot?
STREEVER: Yeah, besides hot. Well, first of all, it wasn't that hot to actually walk on the coals. Where the heat comes in is when you're right up next to the fire. And the heat was really absolutely present. But then you step onto the coals, and really what my feet were feeling was more a sense of almost like walking on popcorn, kind of a crunchy sense. I did my five or six paces across the coals, and it was just incredibly exhilarating for me. And I walked across it once and I went right back around and got back in line. And I think I did it five times before the instructor said, hey, Bill, I think you've done it enough, so....
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: This, of course, follows another book that you have written called "Cold." So, clearly, you are interested in the extremes. Is this a helpful way for us to understand temperature by focusing on the opposite ends of the thermometer?
STREEVER: Well, it was helpful to me, and I had even more fun writing "Heat" than I had writing "Cold."
MARTIN: Why? What's fun about heat that's not about cold?
STREEVER: There are probably a lot of things. But one thing is that's such a larger range. So, with cold just sort of have from freezing down to absolute zero that you can play with. With heat, you have sort of room temperature all the way up to - in the book - up to seven trillion degrees Fahrenheit. So, big, big range to play with then lots of things to do along the way, like, well, obviously, talking about climate change but also fire walking and wandering around in deserts and things that happened to people in deserts and forest fires and house fires. And to anyone who likes to think about the world and is curious about the world, lots of really fun things to explore and to do along the way.
MARTIN: The book is called "Heat: Adventures in the World's Fiery Places." Bill Streever joined us from member station KUOW in Seattle. Bill, thanks so much for talking with us.
STREEVER: Thank you. That was great. Thanks.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
What is the best way for a writer to reflect life?
WILL SELF: "Umbrella." (Reading) His strong inclination is to touch the old woman. His touch, he thinks, might free her from this entrancement.
MARTIN: For most of us, it's probably the traditional novel that's most often sat on our nightstands; the sprawling, linear tale - birth to death. For Will Self, the most lifelike story is told inside-out; from the mind of the characters, without a narrator or a filter, or any explanations along the way...
SELF: (Reading) The upside-down face faces me down. The eyes slide back, in a way, again. But their focal point is either behind or in front of his face, never upon it. Can you tell me which your ward is?
MARTIN: This is Will Self, reading an excerpt from his new book. It's called "Umbrella." And he joins me now from London.
Welcome to the program, Will.
SELF: Thank you for having me.
MARTIN: This book is essentially, the life story of a woman named Audrey Death. Can you explain who this person is? What is her story?
SELF: We meet her first in some childhood scenes, in the mid-1890s. Then comes the First World War, by which time Audrey has become a feminist. And in the First World War, she becomes a munitions worker. At the end of the war, she contracts this illness - encephalitis lethargica, which is a real epidemic affecting about 5 million people. A third of them died. A third of them recovered completely. And a third of them appeared to recover but then a year or two, maybe three or four years later, fell into these Parkinsonian, catatonic states. And this is what happens to Audrey. She ends up in a mental asylum; where she remains until 1971, when an enterprising and maverick young psychiatrist, Dr. Zack Busner, awakens her.
MARTIN: I think it's probably fair to say that it is a challenging read, and it requires an investment on the part of the reader. It's not a traditional narrative. It's non-linear; there are layers of time periods and experiences and characters; internal monologues kind of fade in and out of one another's. You must have expected this, though, to be a tough read for some people.
SELF: Right, yeah. I think, like a lot of writers, there are kind of two parts of me - well, more than two parts. But...
(LAUGHTER)
SELF: ...two of the salient parts, for this discussion, are the part of me that writes the books; and the part of me that is - as it were - a man of the world, or a man of the cultural world. The part of me that writes the books, writes what he wants to write; and always has done. But the part of me that lives in the world, and understands the book trade and what people like to read, and so on and so forth; all the time that the writer was writing this book, I was standing at his shoulder, looking over his shoulder and thinking, my God, you've really blown it this time.
(LAUGHTER)
SELF: You know, this is going to be a disaster. Nobody is going to read this book. This is uncompromising; it's difficult.
MARTIN: But do you care, if no one reads the book?
SELF: Well, I've got to make a living. I don't have a private income. So at one level, of course, I care. I'm not going to try and plead some higher artistic calling. But yes, I very much thought it would have difficulty finding readers for itself. That hasn't proved to be the case, though.
MARTIN: I'd love if you could read a passage, just to give our readers a taste of how dense and intricate this book is.
SELF: (Reading) He wonders: Am I blurring? Ashwushushwa, she slurs. What's that? Ashusha-ashuwa. One of her bright eyes leers at the floor. He says: Is it my shoes, my Hush Puppies? Her eye films with disappointment, then clears and leers pointedly at the floor again.
MARTIN: So much of this feels like an organic stream of consciousness. Do you have a plan, when you sit down at the beginning of the day to write? Is there a structure?
SELF: Yeah, "Umbrella" overall has the structure of an umbrella. It's tightly furled, to begin with; it opens out; it shelters. And then in a - I think - rather harrowing scene, the umbrella, like Audrey, is blown backwards as she relapses into this encephalitic coma. So yes, it is structured. Of course, I'm working with several different timelines simultaneously - so yeah, I absolutely need to know what I'm doing, when I get up in the morning.
MARTIN: There are no chapters; there are few paragraph breaks - close to 400 pages of continuous prose. Why did you choose to write it this way? There is no place for the reader to kind of take a pause, and think about what they've just read or - obviously, that was intentional. You wanted people to just keep going.
SELF: Right. This is one of the paradoxes of modernism. There are two main techniques that I employ in "Umbrella," that people think of as distinctively modernist; and they're techniques that writers will be severely warned off, on their creative writing programs, where in fact they'll be largely taught to write terse, Hemingway-esque sentences. He got up and went to the door. She came in. They sat down - in the simple past, you know, with a third-personal narrator.
So in modernist fiction, we chuck out the third-personal narrator, and we chuck out the simple past. Instead, everything is in the continuous present. Now, the paradox of modernism is that writers make the decision to work with the continuous present, and to work with the thinking eye - or stream of consciousness, as it's called - for emotional reasons. And the main emotional reason is verisimilitude. I mean, this is what surprises people.
You know, life is not in the simple past. You, Rachel, are talking to me now. You weren't talking to me then. You're talking to me right now, and you're thinking about it right now - probably while I'm talking to you. You're probably thinking, I wish he'd shut up, or...
(LAUGHTER)
SELF: ...I wonder if I took the pot roast out of the oven. Or...
(LAUGHTER)
SELF: ...I hope my kid's all right.
MARTIN: All of the above.
SELF: Yeah, all of the above.
(LAUGHTER)
SELF: And those thoughts will be braided in with your comments, and with listening to what I'm saying. That is what life is like. It's all happening now. And in order to try and express that on the page, stream of consciousness and continuous present are - to my way of thinking - very, very powerful techniques.
MARTIN: How is it that we, though, naturally tend to crave a more linear storytelling? We need kind of communal points of reference. You know...
SELF: Right.
MARTIN: ... I was born. I got married. I suffered. I triumphed.
SELF: Hmm.
MARTIN: And this is how we have come to understand a story. But you're just saying that with the layers and making it more nuanced, and including internal dialogues in its circular form, that there is more truth in that.
SELF: There is more truth in it. There are two strands for that. One is, people tend to think of their lives as having a dramatic arc because they read too much fiction, and go to the movies too much. So in other words, they are partaking of a communal shape-creating process all the time. So, you know, the way in which they conceive of themselves is borrowed from those cultural forms, and then reflects back into those cultural forms. So it's a self-perpetuating idea.
But the reality of our life, our lived life, is very few people's lives have a linear structure; and almost nobody's life majorly turns on a coincidence, the way that most plots do. You know, it just doesn't happen that way. Lives don't divide up into chapters. People don't just talk while nothing's going on in their head, and then respond. You know, none of these things actually happen.
But it is enormously reassuring, and a good ordering principle, for the kind of ghastly incoherent and largely inchoate mess that human consciousness is. And I'm inclined to think that all we actually have is experience.
MARTIN: Will Self; his latest novel is called "Umbrella." He joined us from our studios in London. Mr. Self, thanks so much.
SELF: Thank you.
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MARTIN: This is WEEKEND EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
2012 was a good year for Naxos Records in Nashville, Tennessee. In fact, it's been a great quarter century, but Naxos isn't trolling Nashville's open mic nights looking for the next Taylor Swift. They've spent decades building a brand as the world's largest classical music label. Mike Osborne of member station WMOT has the story.
MIKE OSBORNE, BYLINE: On a recent Saturday night, the Nashville Symphony tuned up to play Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique." Life's been pretty good for the orchestra. Subscriptions are up, the reviews are good and the symphony's won seven Grammy Awards in the past five years.
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OSBORNE: Of course, it doesn't hurt that classical music's most prolific label has its offices just down the road. Alan Valentine is the Nashville Symphony's president.
ALAN VALENTINE: I think the relationship with Naxos has really helped cement our place in the musical landscape of the world.
OSBORNE: The Nashville Symphony has recorded 19 CDs for Naxos with another five in the works. The label's seemingly insatiable appetite for music has put a lot of less well-known ensembles on the musical map.
JIM SVEJDA: To this day, they still record hungry young orchestras that don't have much in the way of recording profile.
OSBORNE: Jim Svedjda is the author of "The Insider's Guide to Classical Music" and host of a nationally syndicated radio show. He says that right from the beginning Naxos distinguished itself by having those hungry orchestras record music that wasn't part of the standard classical repertoire.
SVEJDA: Twenty years ago, it was the same old dinosaur record companies that every once in a while, every four or five years, they would launch a new Beethoven symphony cycle with, you know, the newest hot young conductor with predictable results. I mean, people just kind of lost interest.
OSBORNE: If 1,000-plus orders shipped daily from the Naxos Tennessee warehouse are any indication, people are paying attention now. Naxos boasts a catalog of more than 7,000 recordings and it's adding about 200 new titles every year. No one is more surprised than Klaus Heymann, the company's 76-year-old founder. The German-born entrepreneur doesn't play an instrument, can't read music and never worked for a record label. He's convinced those are the perfect qualifications for the job.
KLAUS HEYMANN: I had run other very successful businesses before I started the record companies. So I looked at that with the cold eye of a businessman and said, this is all crazy how they run this business. Why don't we do it differently?
OSBORNE: For example, Naxos CD covers are notoriously bland because Heymann refuses to pay for photos or artwork. On the other hand, he's happy to spend lavishly on projects he thinks might pay some kind of return on the investment. A good example is the Naxos American Classics series.
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OSBORNE: Begun in 1998, American Classics now includes more than 400 titles. Heymann launched it to help break into the notoriously hard-to-crack American market.
HEYMANN: It hasn't made any money. Actually, it's lost a lot of money, but it's been wonderful for our prestige. We've won so many Grammys with our American Classics.
OSBORNE: Heymann says that, even if the series isn't making money, his U.S. office is now the most profitable division of the Singapore-based label.
HEYMANN: Thank you very much.
OSBORNE: He was recently in Franklin, just south of Nashville, to celebrate with his American staff.
HEYMANN: Enjoy the what looks like very unhealthy food.
OSBORNE: Naxos began as a budget label selling CDs at well below market prices. Washington Post classical music critic Anne Midgette says the early industry buzz on Naxos was that Heymann was taking advantage of artists desperate to record.
ANNE MIDGETTE: They didn't pay the kinds of expenses or royalties or deals that were then customary in the business. In fact, Naxos was about 10 years ahead of its time in that.
OSBORNE: Midgette says that, with hindsight, it's clear Heymann's tactics were evolutionary and she considers his ability to adapt to a changing market the key to his success.
VALENTINE: See, here you are, featured editions.
OSBORNE: Back at the Nashville Symphony, Alan Valentine demonstrates one of those innovations for me. The Naxos music library is an online subscription tool that gives music schools, libraries and music professionals worldwide instant access to the entire Naxos catalog.
VALENTINE: You can search for anything. Let's say you want to search for Nashville Symphony and there they are, and one of my favorite works on this disc.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
OSBORNE: Naxos founder Klaus Heymann decided to embrace online streaming a good five years before Apple launched iTunes. It was a move he now considers his proudest achievement. His staff thought he was crazy, but it's a library that Heymann is determined to keep expanding.
HEYMANN: You can not imagine how much more music is out there, so we will not run out of things to record.
OSBORNE: And you can bet Heymann will continue to scour the market with an entrepreneurial eye. Naxos recently released an iPhone app that introduces children to classical music. For NPR News, I'm Mike Osborne.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Like the classical music industry, pop and rock have also seen tremendous turmoil over the past decade. The number of major labels is down to three. And a lot of musicians who were signed to labels are now working as independents; booking their own tours, coming up with money to record, tweeting with fans, promoting their albums online.
The problems for a band like Big Harp, which still has a label deal, are compounded by the fact that the two musicians at the center of the group are married, and tour with their toddlers. Iowa Public Radio's Clay Masters caught up with them on the road.
(SOUNDBITE OF CONVERSATION IN AUTO)
CHRIS SENSENY: I don't know - left or right?
STEFANIE DROOTIN-SENSENY: Oh - let's go left.
SENSENY: All right.
CLAY MASTERS, BYLINE: Big Harp guitarist and lead singer Chris Senseny pulls his minivan into a gas station off Interstate 80, near the small town of Walnut, Iowa. His wife and the band's bassist, Stefanie Drootin-Senseny, jostles through children's books and toys scattered on the floor. Their kids do what kids do on long car trips.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHILDREN LAUGHING, TALKING SING-SONG)
MASTERS: This is a quick pit stop between shows in Minneapolis and Omaha.
SENSENY: Do I have some cash?
DROOTIN-SENSENY: Yes.
HANK: I don't want you to get me out, though.
DROOTIN-SENSENY: You have to pee, honey.
MASTERS: As Chris fills up the family Truckster that doubles as a tour bus, he says this wasn't how he pictured his music career.
SENSENY: Because I didn't really start touring, playing music, until I was probably 25; and Hank was born when I was 26. So I only had like, a year of kind of doing it the other way. And it was really fun, but this way feels a lot healthier. I mean, we wake up early in the morning, don't stay out that late.
MASTERS: Stefanie and Chris are from pretty different backgrounds. She grew up in the sprawling Los Angeles valley, playing bass in punk bands; and went on to play backup for the likes of Bright Eyes and The Good Life.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE GOOD LIFE SONG, "HEARTBROKE")
MASTERS: Her husband, Chris, learned guitar and piano from his father in the tiny cow-town of Valentine, tucked in the sand hills of central Nebraska. He went on to play in a couple of indie bands in Omaha. They met in 2007. And in a whirlwind of three years, they had their son, Hank; got married; and had their daughter, Twila. And music took a back seat.
SENSENY: At that point, it'd been - two years?
DROOTIN-SENSENY: Mm-hmm.
SENSENY: Two years that we'd hardly done any music. And I think it just seemed like, we have to do this now if we're going to do it.
DROOTIN-SENSENY: We thought, time's a-ticking.
MASTERS: So they got down to recording Big Harp's debut album, "White Hat."
(SOUNDBITE OF BIG HARP SONG, "WHITE HAT")
MASTERS: To date, the album's only sold less than 2,000 copies. Properly promoting the record becomes difficult with a family.
DROOTIN-SENSENY: We can't really do what we used to do; like, we can't do super-low-budget tours, where we just drive out, because we can't stay on people's floors with the kids, you know. So it's kind of hard. We would tour all the time, if we could, but...
MASTERS: The album was released by Saddle Creek Records, an indie label heavy-hitter that's home to bands like Cursive, The Faint and Bright Eyes; groups that in the early 2000s, turned the heads of many music critics who dubbed Omaha the new Seattle. Owner Robb Nansel says Big Harp's low numbers don't concern him.
ROBB NANSEL: We are a business, and so we have to make money to continue to exist. But our primary driver is really just promoting art that we feel is important, and supporting those friendships.
MASTERS: Nansel said Saddle Creek can afford to put out records from bands like Big Harp because a lot of the label's back catalog still sells well and it's just a matter of planning for each record.
NANSEL: Gone are the days of pressing 10,000 CDs and spending a ton of money on print advertisements, you know, so you go into it with more realistic expectations and lower budgets and you just try to do more with less.
MASTERS: This month, the label puts out Big Harp's sophomore album, "Chain Letters."
(SOUNDBITE OF BIG HARP SONG, "CHAIN LETTERS")
MASTERS: They started recording the album in a proper studio in Omaha, but wound up re-recording a lot of it in their Los Angeles garage. They wanted to get it right because this new record? It's a bit of a test. If it doesn't launch them to bigger sales, it might be difficult for Saddle Creek to stick with them. And with the kids starting kindergarten in a few years, that makes it even more difficult to hit the road. That urgency may have influenced the sound of "Chain Letters." It's a much heavier album.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIG HARP SONG)
MASTERS: Or maybe they're just getting out the aggression that comes from touring with toddlers.
DROOTIN-SENSENY: The music is slightly more complicated, maybe; and a little bit more aggressive; but not over the top - I don't think.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHILD CRYING)
MASTERS: For NPR News, I'm Clay Masters.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIG HARP SONG)
MARTIN: And this is WEEKEND EDITION. I'm Rachel Martin.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Beside gun control, another issue that may heat up in the Senate: President Obama's cabinet picks. The president has tapped Senator John Kerry as his next secretary of State; counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to be CIA director; his chief of staff, Jack Lew, to be the next Treasury Secretary; and likely the most controversial choice, former Senator Chuck Hagel for secretary of Defense.
Each nomination has to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. And they all could be stopped by a Senate filibuster - that is, the refusal by any one of 100 senators to let a matter come to a final vote.
Now, we should tell you that NPR's David Welna is fighting laryngitis. Nevertheless, our congressional correspondent tells us that these nominations arrive just as Senate Democrats are pushing to make filibusters harder to pull off.
DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: Senate Democrats put their GOP colleagues on notice after the November election that when the new Congress convened this month, they'd be cracking down on the filibuster. Republicans, they said, had abused Senate rules by mounting hundreds of filibusters over the last few years. They said they could change those rules not with the 67 votes normally required, but by a simple 51-vote majority - as long as the Senate officially remained in its first legislative day.
It's what's known as The Nuclear Option, and the Democrats' threat to use it infuriated minority leader Mitch McConnell.
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: Are we going to break the rules to change the rules, employ The Nuclear Option; fundamentally change the body, not have a negotiation between the two leaders about what adjustments might be appropriate to make the Senate work better. Oh, no. We're going to do it on our own.
WELNA: That was in November. But McConnell now appears willing to cut a deal on filibusters with majority leader Harry Reid. The top Democrat has kept the Senate in its first legislative day enabling a rule change with just 51 votes. But Reid also declared on the Senate's opening day, earlier this month, that he was ready to work with McConnell to find common ground on changing the filibuster rules.
SENATOR HARRY REID: I am confident that the Republican leader and I can come to an agreement that allow Senate to work more efficiently. We talked again today. We just haven't had time with the other things that we've been dealing with to spend enough time together to do this, but we definitely want to move forward to try to make this place work better.
WELNA: And the first step in doing that, said Rules Committee Chairman Charles Schumer, would be requiring those mounting a filibuster to actually hold the Senate floor by speaking.
SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER: If you have to talk, if you have to be on the floor and actually filibuster, as opposed to just invoking the rules, you're going to use it sparingly.
WELNA: Should that happen, the Senate would be going back to an old tradition, as seen in the 1939 movie classic "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," which has actor Jimmy Stewart mounting a talking filibuster on the Senate floor.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON")
JIMMY STEWART: (as Mr. Smith) All right, sir. I guess I'll just have to speak to the people in my state from right here. And I'll tell you one thing, that wild horses aren't going to drag me off this floor until those people have heard everything I've got to say, even if it takes the whole winter.
WELNA: There's also a push to make it harder to filibuster presidential nominations. Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley says the founding fathers never intended the Senate to be a nominations graveyard.
SENATOR JEFF MERKLEY: Show me a Federalist Paper, in the discussions over how the Constitution was put together, where any of our framers argued that advice and consent is designed so that Congress can basically damage the executive branch, judicial branch, by refusing to consider nominations.
WELNA: New Mexico Democrat Tom Udall is confident the rules on the filibuster will be tightened.
SENATOR TOM UDALL: The newer members coming in, the ones that - the senators who've been here are very impatient with the way the place is operating. And you put those two things together, and I think it gives us some real momentum.
WELNA: Still, most Senate Republicans, and some Democrats as well, are wary of eroding the power of the Senate's minority. Arizona Republican John McCain warns that those pushing for change could one day regret it.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Most of them, in all due candor and honesty, have never been in the minority. Those who have been in both majority and minority are the most reluctant to see this.
WELNA: If a deal is reached, it would likely require a 60-vote supermajority - the same number needed to end a filibuster.
David Welna, NPR News.
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MARTIN: You're listening to NPR News.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. Have someone else flip those pancakes and grab a pencil because it is time for the puzzle.
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MARTIN: Joining me now is WEEKEND EDITION's puzzle-master Will Shortz. Good morning, Will.
WILL SHORTZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Rachel.
MARTIN: So, help refresh our memories, Will. What was last week's challenge by Sam Loyd?
SHORTZ: Yeah, the challenge was to draw a square that's four boxes by four boxes a side, containing altogether 16 small boxes and that results in 18 lines across, down and diagonally. And the object was to place markers in 10 of the boxes so that as many of these lines as possible have either two or four markers each. And the question was: what is the maximum number of lines that can have either two or four markers? Well, the answer is 16 lines. There is one way of doing it, not counting rotations and reflections. You can read all about this, including the rotations and reflections on our website, npr.org/puzzle.
MARTIN: Well, about 80 out of just 160 of our listeners sent in correct answers. This was a tough one. And our randomly selected winner this week is Rob Hardy of Columbus, Mississippi. He joins us on the phone. Congratulations, Rob.
ROB HARDY: Thanks.
MARTIN: Well done. So, how'd you figure this out?
HARDY: Well, I got my checkerboard and I put pieces in and counted. I stopped fooling with it after 20 minutes with the best count I got.
MARTIN: Well, congratulations. Are you a big puzzle fan?
HARDY: I am not.
MARTIN: What?
HARDY: I don't do crosswords. I don't do sudoku. I don't play Scrabble. Right now, Will is thinking he has some deficient person on the other end of the line.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: Yeah.
HARDY: But, no. I do the NPR puzzle every week. That's the one puzzle I do. I figure I'll get the best one of the lot.
MARTIN: Oh, that's great. And you've been playing a long time?
HARDY: I have. It's been since way back in the postcard days.
MARTIN: I can't believe this is the first time we've called you as a winner.
HARDY: Lucky me.
MARTIN: Well, what do you do in Columbus, Mississippi?
HARDY: I'm a psychiatrist. I work in community counseling clinics in different counties here.
MARTIN: Well, without further ado, Rob, are you ready to play the puzzle?
HARDY: Ready or not.
MARTIN: OK. Let's do it. Will, take it away.
SHORTZ: All right, Rob. It does sound like you're a puzzle person if you've been doing this thing for years. So, I'm going to give you three three-letter words. You give me a three-letter word that can follow each of mine to complete a familiar six-letter word. And none of the words in the set will be related in meaning. For example, if I said dam D-A-M, man M-A-N and sew S-E-W, you would say age, which would complete damage, manager and sewage.
MARTIN: Tricky. OK. Rob, did you get that?
HARDY: Got it.
MARTIN: OK. Let's do it.
SHORTZ: Number one is par P-A-R, poi P-O-I and sea S-E-A.
HARDY: P-O-I?
SHORTZ: Yeah. There's not many things that can go after P-O-I. And the poi word is something that you don't want to drink.
HARDY: Poison, parson and season.
MARTIN: Yeah.
SHORTZ: That's it. Son, making parson, poison and season. Good. Here's your next one: bud B-U-D, for F-O-R and tar T-A-R.
HARDY: For, target, budget...
SHORTZ: There you go.
HARDY: ...forget and target.
SHORTZ: Nice job. Arc A-R-C, fat F-A-T and was W-A-S.
HARDY: Archer, father and washer.
MARTIN: There you go.
SHORTZ: Nice.
MARTIN: Great.
SHORTZ: Deb D-E-B, don D-O-N and rot R-O-T.
HARDY: Debate, donate and rotate - ate.
SHORTZ: Oh, you're getting good.
MARTIN: Good.
SHORTZ: Pal P-A-L, pan P-A-N and win W-I-N.
HARDY: Palace...
SHORTZ: Yeah, unfortunately, it's not ace.
HARDY: No.
SHORTZ: I'll tell you the first two letters of the three-letter word are consonants.
HARDY: Paltry.
MARTIN: Ah, yes.
HARDY: Paltry, pantry and wintry.
SHORTZ: Nice job.
MARTIN: Very good.
SHORTZ: Your next one is fin F-I-N.
HARDY: F-I-N?
SHORTZ: Fin, as what's on a fish - imp I-M-P and tam T-A-M, like what a Scot would wear on his head.
HARDY: Finish, impish. Nope.
MARTIN: Hmm.
SHORTZ: I'll give you a hint. The three-letter word is an alcoholic beverage.
HARDY: Gin.
SHORTZ: And it's not gin.
MARTIN: Oh, shoot.
(LAUGHTER)
HARDY: Ale
SHORTZ: There you go.
HARDY: ...impale, and tamale.
MARTIN: Yes.
SHORTZ: There you go, all pronounced differently. And here's your last one.
HARDY: Oh, boy.
SHORTZ: Ear.
(LAUGHTER)
SHORTZ: Ear, E-A-R; for, F-R-O; and too, T-O-O.
HARDY: Too, tune.
SHORTZ: Oh, you're close. Yeah. Just need a suffix on that.
HARDY: Toothy?
SHORTZ: There you go.
HARDY: Frothy and earthy.
MARTIN: Ah.
SHORTZ: Nice job.
MARTIN: Woo-hoo, that was tough. Great job, Rob. Very well done.
For playing our puzzle today, you'll get a WEEKEND EDITION lapel pin, of course, and puzzle books and games. You can read all about it at npr.org/puzzle.
And before we let you go, give us a shout-out to your local Public Radio station. Where do you listen to us?
HARDY: I listen to Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Of course, I'm a member.
MARTIN: Yay, Rob Hardy, of Columbus, Mississippi. Thanks so much for playing the puzzle this week, Rob.
HARDY: Thanks, Will. Thanks, Rachel. What a treat.
(LAUGHTER)
SHORTZ: Thank you.
HARDY: Thank you.
MARTIN: OK, Will, what's up for next week?
SHORTZ: Yes, think of two familiar unhyphenated eight-letter words that each contain the letters A, B, C, D, E and F, plus two others, in any order. What words are these?
So again two familiar, unhyphenated, eight-letter words that each containing the letters A through F, plus two others in any order. What words are these?
MARTIN: OK, when you have the answer, go to our website, npr.org/puzzle and click on the Submit Your Answer link - just one entry per person, please. And our deadline for entries is Thursday, January 17th at 3 P.M. Eastern. Please include a phone number where we can reach you at about that time. And if you're the winner, we will give you a call, 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.
Thanks so much, Will.
SHORTZ: Thanks Rachel.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. The mighty Mississippi is one of the longest rivers in the country and at certain points it reaches more than 100 feet down. But there is one point on the river that is now so shallow it's virtually impossible for any vessel to get through. The Army Corps of Engineers is working very day this month to get this shipping channel between St. Louis and Cairo, Illinois open. But the only real way to get the Mississippi's water level back up is to take water from the Missouri River. As Jacob McCleland of member station KRCU reports, that won't be an easy thing to do.
JACOB MCCLELAND, BYLINE: General John Peabody zooms across the Mississippi River on a survey boat near the tiny southern Illinois town of Thebes on a cold January afternoon. It's the rockiest, most shallow stretch of the river, and it's now the pinch point in the Army Corps of Engineers' fight to keep navigation open on the river.
GENERAL JOHN PEABODY: And what we're looking at here is pretty amazing to me. It is solid rock outcrops. It almost looks like lava flows that stopped as they were flowing toward the shoreline, and it's a very narrow section of the river here.
MCCLELAND: About 30 yards away, a backhoe perched on top of a stationary barge swoops its bucket downward to break apart underwater rocks on the river's bed. Next to the backhoe are piles of rock - some small, some as big as a car - that have been scooped out of the water. It's a weird sight here on the river, but it's one that General Peabody finds encouraging. They're removing these rocks, in some cases by blasting them to bits, in a desperate attempt to give this section of the river two additional feet of depth, just enough to keep navigation possible.
PEABODY: We think through the month of January we're probably going to be in pretty good shape between the combination of the weather and the rock removal.
MCCLELAND: There's good news and bad news here. The good news is, there's been some rain in the Midwest and historical trends say river levels typically bottom out in January before rising in February. But the bad news is if that doesn't happen this year, the Corps is running out of options. The Corps is already releasing water from Carlyle Lake in southern Illinois, but that's the last reservoir left for the Corps to tap. The biggest kahuna is the Missouri River, the longest river in the country - it runs through or touches seven states and is the Mississippi's biggest tributary, but it's off limits.
JOHN THORSON: The Corps is sort of caught in the crosshairs here of a lot of competing interests in the Missouri.
MCCLELAND: That's John Thorson, a water law attorney who has long studied the Missouri River. The Corps cannot legally release water from the Missouri to benefit navigation on the Mississippi. Under a 1940s-era flood control law, the Missouri is only managed for a handful of uses like recreation, water supplies, hydropower and Missouri River navigation. Putting that Missouri River water on the Mississippi puts those uses at risk. The drought scorched both the Mississippi and Missouri River basins. About 20 percent of the Missouri River's storage capacity for a 12-year flood has already been used up.
THORSON: It's going to be a dry year, and there might even be reductions in some of the authorized purposes on the Missouri, such as navigation. So, even within the basin itself, there's going to be impacts.
MCCLELAND: John Thorson says the president might be able to use emergency powers to release Missouri River water or Congress could pass some new legislation, but those moves would be extremely unpopular with Missouri River states. Back at Thebes, Army Corps of Engineers Commanding General Thomas Bostick says President Obama is aware of the Mississippi River situation and all options are on the table, including the Missouri River water. But he says the Corps is already releasing more Missouri River water from its reservoirs than it normally would, just to meet water demands on that river.
COMMANDING GENERAL THOMAS BOSTICK: There's a lot of second, third order effects; there's a lot of interests, whether it's hydropower, ecosystems, the environment, water supply, navigation. All of those purposes are important for us to look at and the impact of one over the other.
MCCLELAND: What everybody needs here is more rain. With regular rainfall, everything will go back to normal. If the drought persists, though, we'll be talking about river problems - and water fights - for a long, long time. For NPR News, I'm Jacob McCleland in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. Afghan President Hamid Karzai wrapped up a trip to Washington last week with a news conference with President Obama. The leaders announced an agreement to scale back the role of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Starting this spring, Afghan forces will take the lead in combat operations. This morning, we bring you a few different views of the war and the drawdown in Afghanistan, from the Afghan street to the perspective of two American officials who each oversaw a chapter of this war - an ambassador and a general. We begin though with NPR's Sean Carberry in Kabul.
SEAN CARBERRY, BYLINE: As is usually the case in Kabul, there as many opinions as there are people you talk to. Even though most people in the city seem more focused on shoveling out from the latest snow storm, some are watching the news.
SAMIULLAH: (foreign language spoken)
CARBERRY: Samiullah is a shopkeeper. What he heard from the joint press conference has him feeling optimistic about the future. He feels that both presidents are working to bring peace and stability to Afghanistan and he hopes their efforts will be successful.
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CARBERRY: Habib Hamidi is also a shopkeeper and a local journalist. He says that if the two countries take steps to follow through with their promises, it will be good for the people of Afghanistan. It's a circular logic we heard from a number of people on the street. They basically said that if it brings positive results for Afghanistan, then they support what Presidents Obama and Karzai agreed to.
HABIB HAMIDI: (foreign language spoken)
CARBERRY: Discussion on local TV stations have been more nuanced. Afghan pundits and callers alike express concern that the U.S. won't provide the support Afghan forces need to confront the Taliban or deter hostile neighbors.
SHUKRIA BARAKZAI: It was very disappointing for me.
CARBERRY: Shukria Barakzai is a parliamentarian on the defense committee.
BARAKZAI: I had relative hope for that conference, which is that meeting will assure a more civil Afghanistan, rather than early withdrawal and handover.
CARBERRY: The defense committee held a meeting on Saturday to draft a statement criticizing the accelerated transition. Barzai says Afghanistan needs continued security assistance and will need more troops after 2014. She also wanted to hear more committee to women's rights, democracy and development in Afghanistan.
DAVOOD MORADIAN: It was a nil-nil.
CARBERRY: Davood Moradian is a political analyst in Kabul.
MORADIAN: It was not a breakthrough visit for our joint mission. And also it was not a disaster.
CARBERRY: Like Barzai, Moradian expressed disappointment over the visit but he's not concerned with how many troops remain in Afghanistan or how much money is pledged.
MORADIAN: So, what is important is psychological engagement and a political commitment with Afghanistan. The numbers are second reasons.
CARBERRY: Moradian says he wasn't convinced by President Obama's remarks that the U.S. will have Afghanistan's back after 2014. Sean Carberry, NPR News, Kabul.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Zalmay Khalilzad served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2003 until 2005. He worked closely with President Hamid Karzai and he's continued to follow developments in Afghanistan as a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Ambassador Khalilzad came to our studio this week to talk about President Karzai and what he gained from the talks.
ZALMAY KHALILZAD: I think he got most of what he wanted. He wanted to have an acceleration, speeding up, of the transition to Afghan lead in terms of security. And he got that. He probably would have wanted an earlier termination of a combat mission for the United States. I think he didn't get that because the U.S. will remain until the end of 2014 in a combat role but more and more in support of the Afghan forces. But most importantly, both leaders committed to conclude as soon as possible a longer term bilateral security agreement that will shape the post-2014 U.S. presence in Afghanistan. We've got the numbers, mission, immunity for the forces and so on.
MARTIN: It's not a secret that the relationship between President Karzai and Washington has been rocky. Is it a problem of trust?
KHALILZAD: Well, it has been a complicated relationship. At certain levels, the relationship has been very strong and very close. But publicly at times, the relationship has seemed reflecting a degree of mutual distrust.
MARTIN: He has been painted in the Western press as being a wild card who takes from the U.S. with one hand and kind of throws the occasional punch with the other. Do you think that's a fair characterization?
KHALILZAD: Well, President Karzai has been for the most part a good friend. He has had a difficult job. He has done some things well.
MARTIN: What has he done well?
KHALILZAD: Well, I think the constitution that grants broad rights to the Afghans, unprecedented in Afghanistan, an enlightened constitution. People don't go to jail because they have a view that is different than his. He has encouraged education. Health care has improved. But where he has had difficulties has been in building strong institutions and also dealing with corruption, which is one of the consequences of weak institutions and accountability. And I think when he gets criticized, he has at times blamed the United States and the West for the corruption, rather than taking decisive steps to deal with those problems himself.
MARTIN: He has served almost 10 years in an incredibly unstable environment. His brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, was assassinated; Hamid Karzai himself has survived at least one assassination attempt. He has his supporters but an awful lot of critics as well. How has he lasted so long?
KHALILZAD: Well, he's lasted for a long time because in part people in Afghanistan generally - even some of the critics - worry about what would happen without him if he was, God forbid, assassinated; that it could lead the country to chaos and disintegration; that he has managed to hold together at least very difficult elements that are part of the non-Taliban Afghan society and political system.
MARTIN: What has been, though, when you think about this man, what has been his most profound impact?
KHALILZAD: I think he was a transitional leader at the time that Afghanistan was transitioning towards a new order that was more democratic, more humane, more inclusive. And I think there has been progress in 2001, 2002. One will have expected a lot more progress than one has seen but the work of building a country as shattered as Afghanistan, it is a work that's not finished. But more and more the responsibility for completing the project will depend on the Afghans themselves.
MARTIN: Former U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
For at least the next few years, Afghans will have help from the U.S. military, even as American troops are reducing their presence. Gen. Stanley McChrystal led U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan. He's retired now, but speaking out about his experience. Back in 2009, Gen. McChrystal told the White House that there were two major threats to Afghanistan: the Taliban, and the Afghan government itself - riddled with corruption. and unable to meet the basic needs of the people there. I asked him if that's still the case.
GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL: Rachel, I think that there are still great shortcomings in Afghan governance, at the national level all the way down to the local level. There are issues of corruption; there are also the issues of just lack of capacity. In some cases, it's not corrupt; it's just not there. All of those things play into a lack of legitimacy of the government. The people have not learned to depend on local- or national-level governance. So, it's still a significant challenge.
But if you think about it, there are an awful lot of females in school, that wouldn't be. There's an awful lot of people achieving a level of literacy, that weren't before. And I think one of the reasons Afghans are so frightened now about 2014, is they have something to lose. If they thought that life was so bad that a Taliban return would be an improvement, then they wouldn't be frightened. They'd be happy; they'd be waiting for this national liberation. But it's the exact opposite. They are terrified that it will come, and it will push back the progress that has been made.
MARTIN: In your opinion, what is the end game in Afghanistan? What would be a definition of a successful mission?
MCCHRYSTAL: If you take it down to an Afghan farmer, for example, for them, success in the mission would be the ability to do - to live their lives without being harassed by an insurgency, without being the object of predatory warlords; to have some level of economic opportunity - not tremendous; and to have some tie to a government, not that has the kind of role in their lives that we might expect in a Western country, but to be able to rely on the government for the basics of security, access to rule of law, and things like that. I think for an Afghan, that would be success. If we try to define it differently, I think we make a big mistake. Afghanistan is Afghanistan, and I think that they need to define success so that they can work toward it.
If they think they're working towards our goals, then I think it's very difficult. And I think one of the challenges we faced over the last decade, was to a great degree, we went to Afghanistan to get rid of al-Qaida. And many Afghans felt like that remained our only focus, and that they were simply in the way, and they were not what we really cared about. And so I think we tried to change their perception; that in reality, by 2009, it was about protecting the Afghan people; about winning their support; and about empowering them to shape and make Afghanistan because that's what has to happen. Nobody from the outside will ever do that.
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MARTIN: Gen. Stanley McChrystal. He's the former commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and the author of a new memoir, called "My Share of the Task." We'll talk with him about his book, in another part of the program.
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MARTIN: And you're listening to NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The uprising in Syria is hardly the peaceful protest movement it was when it first started nearly two years ago. But still, Syrian activists bent on building a Democratic society are doing their part to keep that dream alive, even though many of them are now in exile. NPR's Kelly McEvers visited a house that's a way station for such exiles, and she brings us this story.
KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: It's called Beit Qamishlo or the House of Qamishli. It's named after a city in northeastern Syria. But the house isn't in Syria. It's in Turkey, not far from the Syrian border. The house is pretty humble; concrete blocks, tile floors, Arabic slogans taped on the walls, read here by an interpreter.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: (Reading) Beit Qamishlo is a house for everyone. It's a window to Syria's future. Under one roof we plant life together and freedom. We write on its wall together.
MCEVERS: More than just ideas, Beit Qamishlo is a hostel; a place for Syrians who've escaped their country to crash until they find more permanent digs. It's an education center where young Syrian refugees take English and art classes on the weekends. And it's a performance space, where readings, speeches, and debates fill the night.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: On this night, it's "Tales of a Prisoner," a recurring series featuring men and women from the previous generation of Syrians who opposed their government. Young Syrians from around the country huddle to listen on couches and plastic chairs, in a spare and smoky room warmed by an electric heater.
MALIK DAGESTANI: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: The speaker is Malik Dagestani, a self-described communist who opposed the regime of Hafez al-Assad, the father of Syria's current president, Bashar al-Assad. Dagestani was detained for his political activity in 1987 and held for nine years.
DAGESTANI: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: Dagestani says he was beaten and tortured so badly in the first days of his detention that he couldn't walk or even stand for weeks. He eventually was transferred to a prison he calls a storage place for thousands of others like him. A year later, he was able to pay someone to smuggle in letters. That's when he first saw a picture of his second daughter, who was born while he was away.
DAGESTANI: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: To pass the time in prison, Dagestani and his colleagues studied English, fashioned musical instruments out of wood scraps, made candles from marmalade jars and put on plays. By the time he got out, he didn't know what a fax machine was, was flabbergasted by the Windows operating system. The day of his release, Dagestani called his house, but only his youngest daughter was at home.
DAGESTANI: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: This is your father. Who? Your father. Who? He called his oldest daughter. I am your father, he said, I was just released. But she just handed the phone to someone else. She didn't know what to do. Like so many Syrians, the founder of Beit Qamishlo did time in prison, too. He's a jolly man with an infectious grin who goes by the name Abu Raman. Abu Raman's latest detention was just as Syria's uprising began back in March 2011. There, he met activists and political organizers from around the country.
ABU RAMAN: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: Abu Raman says he founded Beit Qamishlo to repeat what he learned in prison; that nationalism isn't something that comes from the state but rather something you learn from each other. He started the prison series so the older generation could finally speak out about what happened to them. He hopes young activists who crash at Beit Qamishlo can learn from people like Malik Dagestani.
DAGESTANI: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: After Dagestani's speech, an activist asks him if he thinks it was worth it to suffer for what he believed in, especially now the new generation has risen up with no intention of turning back.
DAGESTANI: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: If we knew how many people would die, he says, we might have told them not to start this uprising. Now, the men with guns are the heroes. How will we go back from that? it's people like Dagestani and places like Beit Qamishlo that Western countries say they hope to support. So far, Abu Raman says he relies on donations from friends.
RAMAN: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: He says the house costs about $400 a month in rent and about the same again for heat and electricity. But he says the money is about to run out. The U.S. State Department says it aims to provide, quote, "nonlethal assistance to unarmed civilians and grassroots organizations aimed at building a nationwide network of diverse activists." So, Abu Raman says, what about us? Kelly McEvers, NPR News.
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MARTIN: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It was a jailbreak right out of central casting. In mid-December, two convicted bank robbers shimmied through a tiny window and descended 15 stories - from their high-rise jail, smack in the middle of Chicago. Their rope was made of bedsheets. Once on the ground, they just hailed a cab and took off. Joseph Banks was caught a few days later, but the other escaped inmate, Kenneth Conley, wasn't apprehended until last week. Joining us from member station WBEZ, to talk about this caper, is Steve Bogira. He's a senior writer for the Chicago Reader. Welcome to the program, Steve.
STEVE BOGIRA: Nice to be with you, Rachel.
MARTIN: So I guess my first question is kind of the obvious one, but how did two guys dangle from a building in downtown Chicago more than a hundred feet off the ground - and nobody notices?
BOGIRA: Well, a lot of us are busy watching - or looking at our smartphones. But that, of course, is a key question. They escaped sometime between 10 at night, when they were present for a bedcheck; and 2:40 the next morning, when they hopped into a cab a few blocks away. A surveillance video later showed that. So one thing was, it was dark out.
MARTIN: They apparently, as we mentioned, just connected a bunch of bedsheets together and shimmied down the building. I mean, how did they get the sheets - they just collected them?
BOGIRA: It's been almost four weeks now, and jail officials are still not commenting about this. They're saying that they're still investigating. They would have taken a number of sheets. How did they get them? Where did they keep them? Why didn't anyone notice?
MARTIN: So, you say jail officials are investigating. Have they said anything publicly about this escape? I imagine this is a big deal for them; this is - kind of a problem.
BOGIRA: Yeah. They say they're investigating. You know, another key question is, is the jail short-staffed, and did that play a role in the escape? That's what some sources are telling us. There are security cameras, of course, that show the building exterior; but according to the sources, one of the guards who's supposed to watch the video monitors is often called away, to help do prisoner counts. So, it's possible no one was watching the monitors when the inmates were rappelling down the wall.
MARTIN: This was at the Federal Metropolitan Correctional Center. What do we know about the escapees, in this case? Neither of them left the Chicago area after they escaped; you'd think they'd hightail it out of there.
BOGIRA: Joseph Banks is 37, fashion designer before he switched to bank robbery. He was known as the secondhand bandit because he wore thrift store clothes when he did his robberies. The other guy, Conley, who's 38, was a strip club worker, who dressed more formally for the bank heists he pulled. He wore a black suit and a white tie. The jailbreak had to take weeks of meticulous planning, but they were actually better at actually getting out than figuring out how to stay out.
MARTIN: Journalist Steve Bogira, in Chicago, is the author of "Courtroom 302," about the criminal courts. Steve, thanks for talking with us.
BOGIRA: Happy to be with you, Rachel.
MARTIN: This is NPR News.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Open the book review section of your newspaper, if you can still find it, and flip through the pages. Maybe you're looking for your next read. But what's more interesting is that nasty little gem of a bad review; a piece of writing so scathing, so contemptuous it sizzles with anger.
RON CHARLES: And this was a lazy, whiny snobby novel.
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MARTIN: That's Washington Post book critic Ron Charles. His review of Martin Amis' 2012 book, "Lionel Asbo," is on the shortlist for the Hatchet Job of the Year Award. This is an award launched by the literary website The Omnivore. And it's given to the angriest, funniest, most trenchant book review of the past 12 months.
CHARLES: I was very surprised to be nominated for this, yes. This is an auspicious honor of being the meanest critic in the world.
MARTIN: It is not an honor he was expecting.
CHARLES: I'm the Will Rogers of book critics. You know, I'm out to find books that I like. You know, to recommend to readers because I know that's what want, is that they want to know what they should read next. So, when you get into a book - and usually you discover it, you know, too late to stop. And you get to 60, 70, 100 pages into and you realize, oh, my gosh, this is just dreadful.
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MARTIN: And beyond the practical, there's another virtue to the well-executed pan: the critic gets to flex his comedic muscle.
CHARLES: And Michael Derdis once said when he'd reviewed a book that he not only felt sorry for the paper, but for the ink. I mean lines like that are just funny. You know, they stick in your mind. And writers that can pull it off, you know are very entertaining critics to read.
MARTIN: Despite the pleasures of a caustic critic, Ron Charles says its authors who do the real work.
CHARLES: These people are artists, so they have spent years working on these books. They are important. Book critics are just leeches on them. I don't get confused about who's more important or who's more worthy.
MARTIN: Still, watch out for angry writers, say, Woody Allen, out for revenge.
WOODY ALLEN: I once almost ran over a book critic with my car, but it swerved at the last second.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
The Newtown, Connecticut shooting has America talking and debating gun control. Here are just some of the voices we heard this past week.
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy.
GOVERNOR DANNEL MALLOY: As a state and as a community, we will continue to do whatever we can for the families of Newtown. But we must also ask ourselves: what is our responsibility to those we've lost, to one another, to the children and to future generations
MARTIN: Mark Kelly, alongside his wife former congresswoman Gabby Giffords.
MARK KELLY: Gabby and I are both gun owners. We are strong supporters of the Second Amendment, but we've got to do something to keep the guns from getting into the wrong hands.
MARTIN: And Roxanna Green.
ROXANNA GREEN: My 9-year-old daughter was murdered in the Tucson shooting. I have one question for our political leaders: when will you find the courage to stand up to the gun lobby? Whose child has to die next?
MARTIN: Vice President Joe Biden is leading a White House commission developing proposals to reduce gun violence. Last week, Biden met with a wide range of stakeholders in the debate over gun policy: victims, advocates, gun retailers, even members of the entertainment industry.
My colleague, Melissa Block, of ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, spoke with the president of the NRA, David Keene. His group also met with the vice president and they are rejecting calls to ban assault weapons, high-capacity magazines and other new gun laws.
Here is some of what he had to say.
DAVID KEENE: The fact of the matter is that unless you're talking about the confiscation and elimination of firearms, none of these things are going to make much difference. They haven't made much of a difference elsewhere, and they aren't going to make much difference here.
So when you combine the fact that the Second Amendment guarantees the right of people who are not breaking any laws to own and enjoy firearms in this country - for self-protection, to collect them, to use them in sport shooting, for hunting and the like - when you combine all those things, there is no effective reason for doing what these folks suggest.
Most of these are what I called feel-good laws. I mean, if you're a member of Congress, you could go back and say, you know, I banned assault weapons. I banned magazines. I made them register this or register that. But in the final analysis, the question then is, and is that going to prevent the kind of violence we're trying to prevent? And the answer to that, demonstrably, historically and empirically is no, it doesn't.
MARTIN: Vice-President Biden is expected to hand his recommendations to President Obama on Tuesday. But any new gun control proposals face an uncertain future in Congress.
I spoke recently with Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey. He's a Democrat. And in the past, he has explicitly opposed any new gun control laws. Casey has changed his mind. And he says he'll now support two new measures that may come before the Senate.
SENATOR BOB CASEY: First, a ban on these military-style weapons. And then secondly, a separate voter, or a related vote, on the high-capacity magazines. So I think those are two measures that will come before the Senate.
And I have a different view, I think mostly because of what happened in Connecticut. Two things hit me as hard as you can be hit. And this, as you know, doesn't happen too often in the life of a public official, where you're moved in such a human or emotional way.
First, I was horrified by, and haunted really by, the reality of what those children went through, where you have hundreds and hundreds of children who could've been killed - that's the horror of what might have happened. And then, of course, horrified by the reality of what happened that day; children being shot at point-blank range with a very high-powered weapon - very powerful ammunition - over and over and over again.
I, as a father and as a citizen, and then as a public official coming to that realization that it's time to take action and not just fall into our usual lanes in Washington.
MARTIN: There've obviously been other mass shootings around the country in recent years; Virginia Tech, Aurora, Colorado, others. But this did resonate with you differently. This has spurred a change for you.
CASEY: It has. And I said in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, when I consider the other families and how they suffered in Aurora or all the other places that we associate with kind of gun violence, those families and those communities could be justifiably angry or critical of someone like me who says, well, I've made a change of view. People would say, well, you're late to this realization. And I don't have a very good answer for that, other than to say that I was profoundly impacted by this tragedy.
MARTIN: It can often seem like the United States is deeply polarized on this issue. Remembering back to the 2008 campaign, when then-candidate Obama talking about rural Pennsylvanian voters clinging to their, quote, "guns and religion."
CASEY: I remember.
MARTIN: Do you have confidence that Republicans and Democrats - American citizens on both sides of this issue - will be able to find common ground? And where is that? Where does that lie?
CASEY: Well, you think there is a broad consensus in the middle. Look, on the one hand, people who say that there should be no restrictions of any kind on guns, I don't think there's broad support for that. In the 1930s, we outlawed the use of machine guns because that was a military weapon that we thought didn't makes sense.
But then the other extreme, where people say that no guns should be available and that we should start confiscating lots of guns, that doesn't make sense either. Because most people that own guns are law-abiding and use them for either hunting or protection, or both. But I think in the middle is a broad kind of the common sense consensus. And I think if we maintain that and foster that, we can get some changes made not only to gun laws that are appropriate, but also to the others - whether it's law enforcement or mental health.
MARTIN: Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey. He's a Democrat. He recently decided to change his position and support gun control legislation. He was on the line with us from WVIA in Pittston, Pennsylvania.
Senator Casey, thanks very much for taking the time. We appreciate it.
CASEY: Thank you.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
There was sadness and shock among many in the tech community yesterday, after news spread of the suicide of a computer prodigy. Twenty-six-year-old Aaron Swartz became a tech celebrity at the age of 14. Friends and family say he battled depression, and was recently anxious because he was about to go on trial in federal court. NPR's Laura Sydell reports.
LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE: If you use Google Reader or MyYahoo, you should thank Aaron Swartz. When he was 14 years old, he helped develop the protocol they use, called RSS. Real Simple Syndication lets people create personal news feeds from blogs and news sites. By the time he was 20, he helped build the foundation of Reddit, a popular site that lets its users share news and entertainment. And he was always active in any cause to help make information more available on the Internet. Among his friends is a star of the fight for an open Internet, Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig.
LAWRENCE LESSIG: He did more than most all of us do in our whole life. Every single year of his 26 short years - since he was a quasi-adult - has been focused on trying to do good.
SYDELL: Lessig praises Swartz as the original architect of a more open form of copyright protection, called a creative commons license. Swartz also instigated the most successful grass-roots, online campaign ever seen. Congress was about to pass legislation that would have blocked access to websites with illegal films and music. It was called the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA. Here's Swartz at a conference, after SOPA was blocked.
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AARON SWARTZ: The people rose up, and they caused a sea change in Washington. Not the press, which refused to cover the story; not the politicians, who are pretty much unanimously in favor of it; and not the companies, who had all but given up trying to stop it and decided it was inevitable. It was really stopped by the people.
SYDELL: Swartz's advocacy would get him in trouble with the law. He hacked into MIT's computer networks, and copied scholarly articles kept behind a pay wall. He wanted to make them publicly available. Swartz faced 13 felony counts, and decades in prison. The company he broke into, JSTOR, didn't want to prosecute. Today, the company website expressed heartfelt condolences to Swartz's family and friends.
Harvard professor Lessig thinks the prosecutors were being overzealous.
LESSIG: Even if what he did was wrong, it was wildly disproportionate. And the reality of defending yourself in a federal trial is that it's extraordinarily expensive.
SYDELL: Lessig says he, and many of Swartz's friends, fear he felt backed against a wall. A statement from Swartz's family also linked his death to what they called prosecutorial overreach. Swartz did have a history of depression. Members of his family say he hung himself in his Brooklyn apartment, and was found by a friend. Laura Sydell, NPR News.
MARTIN: This is NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin, and it's time for sports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: Last week, the folks who decide who gets into the Baseball Hall of Fame decided to elect no one, or at least no one still living. The fact that no living player got enough votes to make it into Cooperstown was viewed as a statement by the baseball writers who cast their ballots. After an era of alleged steroid use in the sport, sportswriter and many fans, for that matter, are pretty darn mad. NPR's Mike Pesca spent last week combing through what those writers' columns said.
He is with us now to talk about it. Hey, Mike.
MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: Hello. Yes. I was combing. And if you listen to the music, I hired a new trombonist. I think he's working out.
MARTIN: He is pretty good. Let's keep him around. So what did you find? What have these folks been writing? I imagine they're defending themselves?
PESCA: Yeah. Well, they're writers, you know, so at least you get a new column out of it, right? I like it. I like it in the same way that I like really parsing anyone's decision-making. Even years after a Supreme Court justice retires or dies, sometimes they publish how he came to those decisions. So we get it in the case of the baseball writers with something, you know, just as important as Supreme Court decisions.
And if you go and look, there are 569 votes. Not everyone who votes writes a column about why they vote. But the ones that did often provided some insight. So there's one school of thought that just said, I'm not here to arbitrate morality, even though there is a character clause you're supposed to consider when voting for the Hall of Fame, but I think that's all right.
A guy like Marcos Breton who writes the Bee papers, Modesto and Sacramento in California, just said I want to be logically consistent. I want to note that Bagwell, Bonds, Clemens, Piazza, these guys were the best players in the game and I'm voting for them. And Ty Cobb was a racist and a bunch of horrible people are in the Hall of Fame and it's not for me to decide based on who I think is a good person or who isn't.
Now, that's kind of - once you take that stand and explain it logically, it's a little bit easier to defend. There's a clear line there. Then you have the people who were the parsers, a guy like Tom Verducci who writes for Sports Illustrated. A lot of people were thinking as he was. And he wrote a column called "Why I'll Never Vote for a Known Steroids User for the Hall of Fame."
MARTIN: It's clear.
PESCA: Guess what he explained, now, yes, (unintelligible). But still, you have to say, well, this guy is a suspected user, but not a known user and it becomes a little harder, but it can understand - and Verducci lays out how he made his decisions on individual players. So these two represent the very well thought out reasoning, but then you had a lot of voters, there's a guy named Phil Hersh, who doesn't even cover baseball anymore - he covered the Olympics - and a couple weeks ago, he tweeted about the joy he was going to have in snubbing the drugees.
And then there's Murray Chass, who's, again, a retired writer, who, in writing about one of these players, Jeff Bagwell - never been proved - this is what he wrote: When Bagwell was eligible initially a couple years ago, I voted for him. Since then, I was told he was a steroids guy. Trusting in the information, I haven't voted for him since.
The other side of that coin is Boston Globe writer Peter Abraham, who wrote: Excluding players like Bagwell and Piazza because you kind of sort of think they probably did steroids is McCarthy-ism.
MARTIN: Wow.
PESCA: Big range of information.
MARTIN: I mean, but it's hard for these guys, right? And women. But they're kind of flying solo when it comes to navigating the ethics of this because it's subjective, no?
PESCA: Do you know, you would think - and they are. Most of their columns were about how hard it is, but there was a vote, and Rick Telander, the writer, three or four years ago, said let's have a committee. Let's discuss how we're going to do this. Let's maybe consult with a steroids expert or an ethicist and other members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America voted that proposal down. So perhaps they maybe could have helped themselves a little more a few years ago.
MARTIN: Embrace any chance that Clemens and Boswell may get in in the future?
PESCA: There is and there's a great chance that Piazza and Bagwell will because they got over 50 percent of the vote. You need 75 to get in. And everyone who's ever gotten 50 percent on their first ballot gets in, but also with Bonds and Clemens, values change, mores change, information comes to light. We used to not be able to vote for someone for president or confirm someone to the Supreme Court who smoked marijuana. That's changed.
And it's not just that society's become permissive across the board. Look how attitudes towards racism have changed. So things change and values change.
MARTIN: You got a curve ball this week?
PESCA: I do, in fact. Last night, the Broncos lost in overtime to the Ravens, and a lot of their decisions will be picked over, such as not covering a receiver on a 70-yard touchdown pass at the end of regulation. But one of the things they did, was Peyton Manning, their quarterback, took a knee, didn't attempt to come back with 30 seconds left from his own 20.
I went - I looked at the last 10 years - every time quarterback was in a similar situation - and I found that no one with that kind of time was told to take a knee. I found that in 2009, Peyton Manning, with 24 seconds left on his own 19, went for it, tried something. It didn't work. I found that Brett Favre, in 2004, with 45 seconds left, drove his team into field goal range.
So that decision, not to let Peyton Manning try to matriculate the ball down the field, that should be called into question, too, I believe.
MARTIN: NPR's Mike Pesca doing the work, so we don't have to. Thank you, Mike.
PESCA: You're welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And now let's continue Your Health with a report on a deadly infection which up to four million Americans have, although most don't know. It's a virus called Hepatitis C. It is a leading cause of liver failure and liver cancer, but there is hope.
NPR's Richard Knox tells us about new treatments that can cure the majority of those infected.
RICHARD KNOX, BYLINE: More than three years ago, Nancy Turner went to the doctor with some unspecific symptoms.
NANCY TURNER: Nothing really spectacular. I was feeling a little bit more tired. Just like kind of upset tummy type thing and just chalked it up to stress from work and being busy.
KNOX: But tests revealed sky-high levels of the Hepatitis C virus in her blood.
TURNER: I was devastated.
KNOX: What was going through your mind when you found out?
TURNER: Oh, I - trying to figure out where I possibly could have gotten it.
KNOX: Turner is 58 - born in 1954. Two out of three Americans with hep-C are baby boomers. Many of them got it by experimenting with illicit drugs - either by injecting or by snorting. Either way, the virus can get directly into the bloodstream, the only way hepatitis C is transmitted.
You can't catch it by coughing, kissing or sharing a coffee cup. Some baby boomers got the virus from having a blood transfusion before 1992 when all donor blood began to be tested for hep-C.
David Thomas of Johns Hopkins Medical School says today infections are often discovered when somebody gives blood.
DR. DAVID THOMAS: You go back and talk to them, more than half of them will say, well, yeah, I mean, of course, when I was in high school I, you know, messed around a little bit, but I'm not a drug user. And so that's the kind of thing that really drove hepatitis C and expanded hepatitis C in our population back in the '60s and '70s.
KNOX: Nancy Turner says she smoked a little marijuana back then, but never experimented with other drugs. But she is a nurse, and health care workers are at higher risk of catching hep-C from being stuck with contaminated needles or having any break in the skin.
Turner doesn't recall any such incident. And like 30 percent of hep-C patients, she may never know the source of her infection. She went on the standard treatment. Soon her life was disrupted by the side effects - severe fatigue, depression and other problems.
TURNER: It was a long, tough road.
KNOX: But she was determined to beat the virus. And at first the treatment seemed to work.
TURNER: I did a year treatment and at that time there was no more hep-C virus that was evident. I went back for my three-month blood work, it had come back full force. Most discouraging day of my life.
KNOX: But last year, two new drugs got approved for hep-C, so she tried one of those, along with the older drugs. The new regimen was even tougher. Turner suffered severe rashes and other side effects, including a total loss of appetite. She lost 60 pounds.
Kathleen Coleman helped her get through it. She's a nurse practitioner at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
KATHLEEN COLEMAN: We can get them through therapy. We do manage the nausea, we do manage the anemia, we do manage the rash - in a way that's at least enough to help the patient get through.
KNOX: And once again, the treatment seemed to work. Tests indicated the virus was rapidly cleared from Turner's blood, as it is for most patients these days.
COLEMAN: We're going from 35, 40 percent, you know, clearance rates to 70, 80, 90 percent clearance rates. That is a tremendous change.
KNOX: And that's why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging everybody born between 1945 and 1965 to get tested for hep-C because most of them can now be cured.
It's been three months since Turner completed her latest round of treatment. I caught up with her during a checkup with Coleman.
TURNER: Hello.
COLEMAN: How are you?
TURNER: I actually have been wonderful since the treatment stopped.
KNOX: Coleman runs through the list of symptoms.
COLEMAN: So completely recovered? Like no more shortness of breath, no rash?
TURNER: Absolutely nothing.
COLEMAN: No itching, no nothing?
TURNER: Nope.
KNOX: It's all good. But Turner brings up the most important thing.
TURNER: My appetite is back, which is like, oh.
(LAUGHTER)
TURNER: I mean, food tastes wonderful again. I think that's my favorite part of this whole thing.
COLEMAN: Yeah.
KNOX: But the real test is whether the virus doesn't show up in her blood months after treatment stops.
TURNER: Either it's going to be cured or it's not. So, I'm kind of, you know, walking a little bit on eggshells waiting for that last blood test.
KNOX: Recently, she got the results. The virus has roared back. So she's among the 20 percent or so who aren't cured by the latest drugs. But that's not the end of the story. There are a couple of dozen new drugs in the pipeline. Nancy Turner might still be cured by one of those - and maybe with a lot fewer side effects.
Richard Knox, NPR News, Boston.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
If you haven't had your breakfast yet this may get you in the mood. If have had your breakfast, this may get you in the mood for seconds.
Our colleague David Greene recently had a visitor and a cooking lesson.
(SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING)
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Hello. Maricel?
MARICEL PRESILLA: Yes.
GREENE: Hi, I'm David Greene.
PRESILLA: Hi, David. How are you?
GREENE: Very nice to meet you, welcome to my home.
PRESILLA: I have a tamarillo, book...
(LAUGHTER)
GREENE: You have a restaurant in a suitcase.
PRESILLA: More or less.
(LAUGHTER)
GREENE: My guest, Maricel Presilla, she's a petite woman with one huge personality. And she dragged this roll-aboard suitcase down to Washington, D.C. from Hoboken, New Jersey, where she owns two restaurants. Now, she doesn't like the word chef. She says it sounds too French. But she's written a lot of cookbooks and her newest is a guidebook to Latin cooking, it's called "Gran Cocina Latina."
PRESILLA: Here, I brought yuca.
GREENE: So that's what a yuca looks like. It's brown. It's shaped sort of like a big cucumber, I would say.
PRESILLA: A big cucumber, are you kidding? Have you seen a cucumber of that size?
GREENE: No.
PRESILLA: Not even the biggest cucumber...
GREENE: A really big cucumber.
(LAUGHTER)
GREENE: Presilla, who's a native of Cuba has cooked in kitchens all over Latin America. And she brought one of her recipes to my kitchen.
PRESILLA: Yuca fries is a large with cilantro sauce a la Brasilia. I need a big knife.
(SOUNDBITE OF BANGING)
PRESILLA: So we cut this yuca into four-, five-inch lengths, cutting through two layers of skin. So you see there's a thin, brown bark-like...
GREENE: It's almost like the bark of a tree.
PRESILLA: Exactly.
GREENE: You're peeling off the bark.
PRESILLA: Exactly. Now, let's get a pot of water.
(SOUNDBITE OF BANGING AND A POT)
PRESILLA: And then let's start cooking.
GREENE: OK. So tell me about the name of the book.
PRESILLA: "Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America."
GREENE: And it is a massive book. Its how many years of work went into it?
PRESILLA: My whole life. My whole life. There are recipes there of my childhood, things that I remember my family, my aunts doing. But also things that I learned as I started through travel Latin America. For example, I went to Mexico and I remember being in Oaxaca and I befriended a woman who's a very good cook. And she made tamales with black mole from Oaxaca. And I just loved those tamales. And I loved the sauce. And I took down the recipe very carefully.
GREENE: Now, those yucas have been boiling for a long time.
PRESILLA: Yeah.
GREENE: They've got to go for a while?
PRESILLA: Yeah, they're done. You see they start to open. There's a section here, like a spindle, that you have to get rid off before you cut this into fry-length pieces. All right, so we're going to make the cilantro mayonnaise. And, you know, there is a story about this.
GREENE: What's the story?
PRESILLA: The yuca fries in cilantro sauce are now in every Cuban restaurant. But it's my recipe. And I did that because I was so in love with yuca, with experimenting with yuca, and I said yuca needs a sauce. So I said, OK, I want to do something similar to cilantro chutney; something that I learned in India. So when I went back to my house in New Jersey, I just experimented with it. And I created this creamy aioli, almost a mayonnaise with garlic and cilantro.
And so, everybody who tries that thinks it is an authentic traditional Cuban recipe. When, in reality, Cubans don't like cilantro that much.
GREENE: So we're bringing a marriage of India and Latin America here, right?
PRESILLA: So when I started doing this, of course, I used to make my own mayonnaise. But...
GREENE: I don't need to make my own mayonnaise to be able to make your recipe here.
PRESILLA: Oh, no, no, no. You need help with...
(LAUGHTER)
PRESILLA: ...here it is. And just about two cups. You need about two cups.
GREENE: Into the blender.
PRESILLA: Into the blender. I'm chopping cilantro now.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHOPPING)
PRESILLA: Did you get the hot peppers?
GREENE: We have hot peppers. We're both those standing here, but you talk about the value sitting when you're doing cooking - Latin America cooking.
PRESILLA: It's a chore, absolutely. I call it the Zen of the Latin kitchen.
GREENE: Ooh, the Zen.
PRESILLA: The Zen.
GREENE: So we're not Zenning-out here because we're...
PRESILLA: No, we're not. We're not because we're doing something with a knife. But in Latin America, there are many chores like preparing the dough for tamales, wrapping tamales, or grating coconut to make coconut milk, that do not require standing up. So you can sit.
GREENE: So you would rather sit.
PRESILLA: You can even lie down in a hammock. All right, so it's about one teaspoon of cumin.
GREENE: OK.
PRESILLA: I love cumin. It's an elusive spice. I also use like half a teaspoon of oregano and about a quarter teaspoon of the allspice. So you have to easy because allspice is powerful. All right, so we're going to puree it.
(SOUNDBITE OF A BLENDER)
GREENE: What does this tell us about a Latin America dish and how it can kind of evolve with a new spin in the United States?
PRESILLA: What's happening in the U.S. is that the U.S. is another Latin American country, because all Latin cultures are coming together. So it's really unavoidable that sooner or later you're going to start learning from your neighbor. Maybe in your own country you guarded your pot. But when you're here, so in the same boat.
GREENE: The rivalries just melt away.
PRESILLA: So they melt away. I was shocked by how much we share when I started traveling in Latin America. And sometimes it would be very subtle. I would be, for example, in Cartagena and I would get a taxi. I begin to bond with this man and we started singing and we know the same songs, and they're not Colombian songs. We're singing Mexican songs.
GREENE: Can you give me a line or two of one of the songs you sang in the...
PRESILLA: (Singing in foreign language)
GREENE: Pretty.
PRESILLA: (Singing) Pa-da-da-da-da-da.
GREENE: So what did you sing? What are the...
PRESILLA: I'm saying, you know, if I...
(LAUGHTER)
PRESILLA: My Dear Mexico, if I die, you know, outside of Mexico, please bring me back. So we both get teary eyed when we started singing this song.
GREENE: So you're Cuban. You're with a Colombian.
PRESILLA: Yeah, I'm Cuban with a Colombian. We're singing Mexican songs.
GREENE: Mexican songs.
PRESILLA: I think that we should check the yuca and see how we're doing.
GREENE: Let's check the yuca.
PRESILLA: OK, you're going to cut this.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHOPPING)
GREENE: Looks like thick French fries. We're ready to fry?
PRESILLA: We're ready to fry.
GREENE: Now, give us the set-up here. We've got vegetable oil.
PRESILLA: Yeah, so we want to create a beautiful, pleasurable cross. You know?
(SOUNDBITE OF SIZZLING)
GREENE: We have our yuca in the oil.
PRESILLA: Looks like a Jacuzzi.
GREENE: It does look like a Jacuzzi, yes.
(LAUGHTER)
GREENE: It's bubbling oil.
PRESILLA: Yeah. Try to get it golden like this.
GREENE: And you just put it on a plate with a paper towel under it.
PRESILLA: Yeah.
GREENE: So it's tasting time?
PRESILLA: So, it's tasting time.
GREENE: I'm going in. Oh, yeah. That is really tasty. Mmm.
PRESILLA: The result that is really this dish that it's very simple but very appetizing, it's something you can do when you have guests. And you have your mojitos in the kitchen or your capellania, and it's about conviviality. People are there watching you fry this and they eat the yuca fries with the sauce, as you fish it out...
GREENE: As they're coming out of the fryer.
PRESILLA: ...of the fryer. And so it's just perfect.
GREENE: Well, we're going to dig in here. But first, Maricel Presilla, thank you for coming into my kitchen. This has been so much fun.
Oh, for me, it's been fantastic, muchas gracias.
PRESILLA: Muchas gracias.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SONG)
INSKEEP: And that was our colleague David Greene with Maricel Presilla. You can find recipes from her book, "Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America," at our food blog, The Salt at npr.org.
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SONG)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's autobiography arrives this week. It's entitled "My Beloved World," and it reveals far more about Sotomayor than was disclosed during her confirmation hearings. It chronicles her life from the tenements of New York to the halls of Princeton and Yale, to the New York district attorney's office, and eventually to the Supreme Court.
To talk about all that and more, Sotomayor sat down with NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.
NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: The first Hispanic justice knows she's a role model to many. Still, her searingly candid book exposes not just the joys, but the warts of her life, too. Her father's alcoholism, her conflicts with her mother and the disease that often dominated and disciplined her childhood, diabetes. So why did she write a book that exposes so many of her own personal vulnerabilities?
JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR: I think to move people beyond just dreaming into doing, they have to be able to see that you're just like them and you still made it. I realized I had to tell them the truth, and so this book is about that truth.
TOTENBERG: That truth is often painful. Her book opens with her parents fighting over who will give her a diabetes shot. At age seven, Sonia says she will do it herself and she learns to boil the water, sterilize the needles and to inject herself, a skill she performs today with such ease that few notice when she does it in the middle of a fancy dinner party. Her childhood, however, was fraught with conflict as her father's alcoholism grew more and more pronounced.
SOTOMAYOR: I describe, in the book, the moments of just carefully watching as he got drunker and drunker, and just waiting for the moment where he could hardly walk so we had to leave wherever we were.
TOTENBERG: This was the father she adored, though. A wonderful cook, a man with a 6th grade education, but so gifted with numbers that one of his jobs was as a bookkeeper. A man so creative that, as she would later learn, when he worked at a mannequin factory, he modeled one of the mannequin faces after her mother.
SOTOMAYOR: And she said it was such a strange sensation to visit the factory and to see hundreds of her faces coming out of the factory.
TOTENBERG: Her mother, in contrast, was chilly, remote, disciplined, working nights and weekends instead of days to escape the chaos of her husband's drinking.
SOTOMAYOR: She spent a lot of time out of the house and I actually did feel abandoned by her.
TOTENBERG: The source of Sotomayor's warmth and protection was her grandmother, her father's mother, Abuelita. Sonia would spend weekends at her grandmother's tiny apartment and always, in those early years, there was a party in the evening.
SOTOMAYOR: People would be playing dominoes. There would be dancing. They'd be singing. At some point in the evening, the music would stop and I would know that the poetry would start. I would go under the table at times, just to watch my father and my grandmother recite poetry. People were mesmerized. Those were, perhaps, some of the happiest memories of my childhood.
TOTENBERG: But the alcoholism finally took its toll and Sotomayor's father died. She was nine. She had already seen him slipping away and was not surprised at all. But after years of watching her parents fight, she was not prepared for her mother's grief.
SOTOMAYOR: I don't think I remember a warm moment between them. And so it seemed really strange to me that she couldn't stop crying after he died. And she became morose. We'd come home from school. She'd cook us dinner and then she'd lock herself in the bedroom and the pattern repeated itself, day after day, week after week, month after month.
TOTENBERG: And then, Sonia Sotomayor broke.
SOTOMAYOR: I banged on her bedroom door, and she came to the door and I said, are you going to die, too? Please stop this. What's going to happen to Junior and me? Stop. And I ran back into my bedroom, threw myself into my bed and cried.
TOTENBERG: The next day, her mother emerged from the darkness.
SOTOMAYOR: And I got back from school and the radio was playing in the house, and that was the first sounds that I heard in the apartment since my dad had died. And my mother came out, and I still remember it, in a black with white polka-dot dress, her hair made up. And I knew, at that moment, that she had come out of whatever she was in. My mother became a different woman, and I often talk of before daddy and after daddy, because my life was dramatically different thereafter.
She began to really start nurturing us as a mother.
TOTENBERG: It was the beginning of a long path to understanding and forgiveness between the two that would take many decade, culminating in interviews that Sotomayor did with her mother for this book. She thought, initially, for instance, that her mother was so grief-stricken because she felt guilt over her husband's death.
SOTOMAYOR: But I learned, in writing the book, that it was just genuine grief about losing a marriage to a man that she had truly loved and who, yes, she couldn't save, but it was really the end of a life that she had had.
TOTENBERG: Her mother, Celina, it turns out, was ill prepared for marriage or motherhood. Born in Puerto Rico, she grew up in a shack with no running water, nothing to eat, foraging for fruits and nuts and taking care of her ailing mother. At nine, she was an orphan taken in by a much older sister and sent to school.
SOTOMAYOR: She had no role models growing up. She really transformed herself from a child with, you know, a basic education, with no understanding, as she said, of how to dress, of how to act, of how to even have friends.
TOTENBERG: At 17, Celina lied about her age, enlisted in the WACs during World War II, went to basic training in Georgia and was assigned to New York City, where she met Juli, her future husband, at a party. After Juli's death, she would go on to support two children on her salary as a practical nurse and then go back to school to become a registered nurse. She would always teach her children the value of discipline and education.
But mother and daughter only came to a true understanding of each other over time.
SOTOMAYOR: It has taken us, my mother and I, a lifetime to deal with the effects of my father's alcoholism on both of us. It's often a mutual ignorance that causes, I think, people to be angry at each other and not forgive. And one of the greatest lessons of my life with my mother is both her capacity to forgive and the gift of her teaching me how to as well.
TOTENBERG: More from our interview tonight on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED and tomorrow, on MORNING EDITION. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News on a Monday morning. Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.
Today in Your Health, new treatments for Hepatitis C are curing many patients. First, let's get a dose of caffeine. Visit a college campus and you're likely to find that nearby coffee shops are empty in the morning - who's awake then - and packed at night. New survey data show that coffee drinking at the nation's colleges is way up over the past decade.
Now, I'm going to step out for a moment and get a cup of coffee. But while I'm gone, listen to NPR's Allison Aubrey, who reports on what that coffee drinking means for students.
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: Researchers at the market research firm NPD Group track trends in what Americans of all ages eat and drink, including caffeinated beverages. Harry Balzer, who oversees the research, says one striking change he's documented is that college-aged kids have cut way back on caffeinated soda.
HARRY BALZER: But what really was the trend was they traded their caffeine from cola to their caffeine from coffee.
AUBREY: Balzer says consider the change over the last 10 years.
BALZER: In 2002, about 25 percent of 18-to-24-year-olds had coffee sometime in a two-week period.
AUBREY: But by 2012 the percentage of young adults drinking coffee hit 39 percent.
BALZER: Not quite a doubling, but it's up. It's an explosive growth in the consumption of coffee.
AUBREY: For evidence of this trend, I hit a coffee shop on the campus of George Washington University, where in mid-afternoon the place was packed.
ARTURO LICHAUCHO: This is nothing for 2:00 in the afternoon. The library is right there. It's next door, so...
AUBREY: Senior Arturo Lichaucho. He says people hang out here before hitting the books. Busiest time, he says, is early evening. When I asked him and his friends if they were surprised to hear of a significant jump in coffee consumption among their age group, they laughed.
LICHAUCHO: No.
(LAUGHTER)
KALEY INDECH: Why?
AUBREY: Student Kaley Indech says for lots of college students overstimulation is a way of life.
INDECH: Especially with like always being on our computers and stuff, and it causes, like, you to feel the need to re-energize with caffeine.
AUBREY: Her friend Richelle Gamlam, a senior, says the intense demands on their time is at play too. She's got an internship this semester.
RICHELLE GAMLAM: I'm working over 20 hours a week, five classes, involved on campus. So just the timing, like, a lot of times, you know, if you're getting less sleep, you really - I need that coffee to make it through class or get through work.
AUBREY: And why not drink more coffee? Recent studies have linked it to a host of good health effects, including a decreased risk of dementia and a lower risk of depression - at least among women.
But experts say there is one downside that's often overlooked. A 12-ounce cup of coffee from Starbucks can contain four to five times the amount of caffeine found in a Diet Coke of the same size. And this means coffee can get in the way of good night's sleep.
Richelle says it's happened to her.
GAMLAM: Yeah, you're really tired. And then you get in bed and you're, like, oh wait, I can't fall asleep now.
(LAUGHTER)
GAMLAM: But it doesn't happen very often.
AUBREY: Professor Amy Wolfson, of College of the Holy Cross, studies the effects of caffeine on sleep among adolescents.
AMY WOLFSON: Yes, absolutely. There are absolutely negative implications.
AUBREY: For instance, studies link high caffeine use to decreased REM sleep.
WOLFSON: We know that REM sleep is needed and has positive implications for memory consolidation and learning. And so if you think of the average college student having less sleep or poorer quality sleep, is likely to have negative implications for academic performance.
AUBREY: So what's the smartest way to consume coffee to get that boost without busting good sleep? Bruce Goldberger, a toxicologist at the University of Florida, says it's about timing. Consider this: The typical half life of caffeine is about four to five hours. This means it stays in the body about 10 hours.
BRUCE GOLDBERGER: If someone has a cup of coffee at 7:00 p.m., that caffeine that they've ingested, is still in the body affecting the central nervous system when they're going to bed.
AUBREY: There's a lot of variation from person to person. And due to genetic differences, some of us metabolize caffeine a lot more quickly than others. But as a rule of thumb, if you want to go to sleep by midnight and stay asleep, it's probably best not to drink coffee after 2:00 p.m.
Allison Aubrey, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
The other day, we posed a deceptively simple question to NPR's Carrie Johnson. The question is how gun laws affect gun violence. Turns out it's hard to say. It seems many factors affect violence, not just the law but how it's applied. And on a deeper level, we really do not know what works. Even in this data-driven age there is not so much research about how weapons affect society.
Public health research on guns dried up more than a decade ago, and you'll hear why when Carrie Johnson tells the story of one researcher.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Art Kellermann grew up in eastern Tennessee, where his daddy taught him how to shoot a gun when he was 10 years old. Kellermann grew up to become an ER doctor and a target for gun rights groups, when he started asking questions like these.
DR. ART KELLERMANN: To find out if a gun kept in the home was used, who did it shoot and what were the consequences?
JOHNSON: Kellermann found people turned those guns on themselves and others in the house, far more often than on intruders.
KELLERMANN: In other words, a gun kept in the home was 43 times more likely to be involved in the death of a member of the household, than to be used in self-defense.
JOHNSON: Kellermann says the National Rifle Association and other Second Amendment advocates leaned on his then-employer, Emory University, to stop the research. That didn't work. So...
KELLERMANN: They turned to a softer target, which was the CDC, the organization that was funding much of this work. And although gun injury prevention research was never more than a tiny percentage of the CDC's research budget, it was enough to bring them under the fire of the NRA.
JOHNSON: Lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, held back some money from the Centers for Disease Control and made clear no federal funds should be used to promote gun control. Many researchers interpreted that message to mean this: No public health studies about injuries from weapons.
Then, a few years later, Congress weighed in again, in a slightly different way. In 2003, Todd Tiahrt, a Republican congressman from Kansas, added language to the Justice Department's annual spending bill. It says the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives can't release information used to trace guns involved in crime to researchers and members of the public. And it requires the FBI to destroy records on people approved to buy guns within 24 hours.
Tiahrt left Congress in 2011 but he still thinks the idea is a good one.
TODD TIAHRT: It was an issue of privacy. It's an issue of protecting undercover officers, prison guards. The BATFE was also very concerned because if that information was released to the public, it could affect their efforts to try get illegal guns and illegal gun sales in jail or off the street.
JOHNSON: Tiahrt says some of his fears about invasion of privacy were borne out last month, when a New York newspaper got local gun permit data and published the names of gun owners.
Mark Glaze directs a group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
MARK GLAZE: I think it was a bad idea that the newspaper did this.
JOHNSON: But Glaze says the right response to that case is not to shut down the flow of information.
GLAZE: You can't make good policy unless you have good data.
JOHNSON: Glaze is pressing Congress to get rid of the Tiahrt amendments. He's urging the Justice Department to look for patterns involving crooked gun dealers who put weapons into the hands of criminals. And he wants more money for research about how to make safer guns.
Rosa DeLauro is a member of Congress from Connecticut. She's the top Democrat on the House committee that deals with the health budget.
REPRESENTATIVE ROSA DELAURO: We conduct evidence-based research into car crashes, smoking, cancer, all sorts of accidents and injuries. So why? Why shouldn't we be doing the same kind of research into how to prevent firearm injuries and how to save lives?
JOHNSON: DeLauro says she'll fight to make sure funding limits on research stay out of the appropriations bills. But her onetime colleague, former Congressman Tiahrt from Kansas, says that's not the core of the problem.
TIAHRT: We have to get to the cause of it. Mental illness, the violence in our culture, those are the things that I think Vice President Biden ought to be focusing on.
JOHNSON: Public health experts like Art Kellermann say they're willing to have that kind of broad conversation but it needs to be supported with a lot more research.
Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
As deeply religious as this country may be, many Americans are not religious at all. One-fifth of Americans in fact do not identify with any religion. This week we're asking who they are and what they do believe. Our colleague David Greene is with us for a series we call Losing Our Religion. Hi, David.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: Let's define who we're talking about here. One-fifth of Americans - are they atheists or is there another term for them?
GREENE: Well, not necessarily. Demographers actually have an interesting name for them. They call them nones - that's N-O-N-E-S - because when asked to identify their religion they say none. But not necessarily atheists. Many of these people believe in God, many describe themselves as spiritual. And we're going to hear voices from this group as we go on this week.
INSKEEP: I'm reminded of the difference between faith and religion. They may believe in God but they don't believe anybody's particular creed.
GREENE: That's exactly right. They feel spiritual but don't necessarily belong to an organized religion. And so we're getting started today with two experts in the field. Robert Putnam is a professor at Harvard and he writes a lot about religion in public life. And we're also going to hear from Greg Smith. He's a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center. And Steve, they're the ones who did this study and found that one-fifth of Americans identify themselves as nones. One more thing really interesting. These people who don't belong to an organized religion, they're of all ages, but they're much more likely to be under the age of 30. And I wanted to understand why that is.
GREG SMITH: People raise the question: hasn't it always the case that young people are less religious than their elders and then they become more religious as they get older? And there is something to that on some measures. But religious affiliation is not one of them. Young people are not only more religiously unaffiliated than their elders, they are also more religiously unaffiliated than previous generations of young people ever have been, as far back as we can tell. So this is really something new.
GREENE: OK. Then let's explore the reason why young people are less religiously affiliated today than young people a few decades ago.
SMITH: Well, I guess one kind of broad explanation that we could point to is that this growth of the nones is consistent with what you might expect to find if some secularization were occurring. You know, we've seen over the last decade a slight uptick in the number of people who say they seldom or never attend religious services.
GREENE: So Professor Putnam, let me turn to you. Why are we seeing this happen?
ROBERT PUTNAM: I agree that there is this creeping secularization that Greg talked about, but I don't honestly think that that's the main reason for the rise in nones. I think there are factors that are really more important.
GREENE: OK. Give them to us.
PUTNAM: One of those is the distancing of this younger generation from community institutions and from institutions in general, actually. That's the same pattern, actually, that we find in politics. These are the very same people who increasingly describe themselves as independents rather than Republicans or Democrats. And those are the same people also who are not joining the Elks Club or the Rotary Club or whatever. I don't mean to be casting that as a critique of them, but this same younger generation is much less involved in many of the main institutions of our society than previous younger generations were.
GREENE: There's another point to make in looking at the research you both have done when it comes to politics. A lot of issues that are both important religiously and important in politics have become so polarized: same-sex marriage, abortion. And you both have written about that that might be turning some people off and making them less comfortable with religion in general.
SMITH: Well, in our polling we definitely find that the religiously unaffiliated do express the view that they think religious organizations are too involved in politics. They think religious organizations are too concerned with rules. They think they're too concerned with things like money and power. So I think that there is something to that. We also find that one defining characteristic of the religiously unaffiliated is their social liberalism. Three-quarters of this group say they favor allowing same-sex couples to marry legally. Three-quarters say they favor legal abortion.
PUTNAM: And I think, if I can add, that helps to explain why the trend suddenly begins to jump up around 1990. These were the kids who were coming of age in the America of the culture wars, in the America in which religion publicly seemed to become associated with a particular brand of politics. And so I think the single most important reason for the rise of the nones is that combination of the younger people moving to the left on social issues and the most visible religious leaders moving to the right on that same issue.
GREENE: Are all religions in the United States taking a hit here when it comes to numbers, Greg Smith, or is this affecting some religious sects more than others?
SMITH: It is affecting some religious groups' share of the population more than others. As we've seen the religiously unaffiliated's share of the population grow, the group that's really seen its share of the population decline is Protestants. In fact, in our most recent analysis, we found 48 percent of American adults identifying as Protestant. And that's the first time in our polling that we've seen the Protestant share of the population dip significantly below 50 percent.
GREENE: The first time you've ever seen less than half the country identify themselves as Protestant.
SMITH: That's right. And when you think about the United States historically, you think of it as a Protestant country. But it's also important to point out that the growth of the nones is really something that we're seeing across a variety of groups. We're seeing it among both men and women. We're seeing it among college graduates as well as among people with less education. We're seeing it occur in all regions of the country. Race and ethnicity though is one exception to that pattern. The growth of the nones really does seem to be restricted to whites. We haven't seen much growth in terms of African-Americans or Hispanics who say they're religiously unaffiliated.
GREENE: One interesting thing that I read in your research is that if you look at other countries that are highly developed, industrialized, big economies, wealthy, that has meant less religion over the years, that in some ways the United States has almost bucked that trend.
SMITH: I think that's an important point, you know, and that's correct. It's important to keep in mind that most people in the United States are still religiously affiliated. Most people in the United States are quite religious and that's especially true if you compare the United States to many European countries, for example. The United States, even with the rise of the nones, remains a highly religious country.
PUTNAM: I think probably both of us would agree even with these recent changes, the American religious commitments are incredibly stronger than in most other advanced countries in the world. The average American is slightly more religious than the average Iranian. So we're a very religious country, even today.
GREENE: So Steve, we were listening to Harvard Professor Robert Putnam, and he studies religion and culture. And the other voice was Greg Smith from the Pew Research Center.
INSKEEP: Those are the voices that begin this series, Losing Our Religion. So you're giving us an idea here, David Greene, that there are lots of different explanations for this move away from religion. So who are we going to hear from next?
GREENE: Well, a lot of explanations but a lot of these people are younger adults. And that's who we're going to hear from tomorrow to get their views. One of these younger adults is named Kyle Simpson. He found Christianity as a teenager, but over time he's come to question that religion, including the idea of hell.
KYLE SIMPSON: People who haven't accepted Christ are going to burn for all eternity and suffer for all eternity? It's so cruel. And it goes against everything that drew me to Christianity in the first place.
GREENE: So tomorrow more from Kyle and a handful of other people in their 20s and 30s.
INSKEEP: Thanks, David.
GREENE: Thanks, Steve.
INSKEEP: NPR's David Greene. This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We are one week away from President Obama's second inauguration. It's not as big as the last inauguration. Power is not changing from one president to another, and this will not be the first time that a black president takes the oath.
It is nevertheless a big civic deal, like any inauguration, and it will be marked by many celebrations - expensive celebrations.
The president's first inauguration had strict fundraising rules. But this year they have been loosened, leaving critics to wonder what happened to the president's old pledge to change the way Washington works.
NPR's Peter Overby has today's business bottom line.
PETER OVERBY, BYLINE: Here's how candidate Barack Obama put it during a 2008 debate.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE)
OVERBY: And for the Inaugural Committee in 2009, there were strict fundraising limits: $50,000 per individual, no corporate money allowed. Four years later, those restrictions are gone. The maximum contribution is a million dollars and corporations are being solicited. Some of the corporate donors have federal contracts or regulatory issues pending in Washington.
This year's official disclosure so far is just a list of names, minus the amounts given or any identifying information. Committee officials point out their fundraising guidelines are still tougher than the law. They declined an interview request.
To Robert Weissman, president of the liberal advocacy group Public Citizen, the inaugural money chase is just one more disappointment. He says that when it comes to political money...
ROBERT WEISSMAN: There is precious little to show from the Obama White House.
OVERBY: And the repeated letdowns are all the worse.
WEISSMAN: Because you have a president and cabinet-level officials who express support for campaign reform measures, they just don't do anything.
OVERBY: Things such as overhauling the dysfunctional Federal Election Commission, which is charged with enforcing the law, or exploring ways to deal with the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling and other court decisions that opened the door for secret and corporate money in politics.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said, in a written statement, that President Obama has done more to limit the influence of special interests than previous administrations. He especially pointed to the new ethics rules that limit movement between government and lobbying. And reform advocates do give the administration credit for that.
Meredith McGehee, of the Campaign Legal Center, is a long-time lobbyist on these issues. She says she would give the president a solid B on the ethics standards, but probably an F for political money.
MEREDITH MCGEHEE: To me, the Inauguration Committee decision was Exhibit A of that pragmatism. Hey, a few of the people on the outside will criticize us for it - but in the end, it makes our job so much easier, and the American people don't really care - so let's just do it.
OVERBY: She said the administration has repeatedly erred by pushing health care, immigration and other issues ahead of the campaign finance agenda.
MCGEHEE: You can't change the power structure in Washington without spending political capital. And the power structure in Washington, at its fundamental base, is about the money that is being brought to bear through lobbying and through campaign contributions.
OVERBY: The history of President Obama's ambivalence on political money goes back to 2008 when he was the first major party candidate to reject public financing for the general election. He spent three-quarters of a billion dollars in that campaign, more than a billion dollars in this one.
Historian Kurt Hohenstein is the author of "Coining Corruption." It's a history of the campaign finance laws. He says big budgets pay for micro-targeting, instead of campaigns that address big issues.
KURT HOHENSTEIN: The money makes that happen. You can pinpoint and target and completely overwhelm an opponent, or overwhelm the voters.
OVERBY: Hohenstein says voters increasingly don't like it. But it's the people in Washington who have the power to change it, or not.
Peter Overby, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
When students at the University of Vermont's Burlington campus resume classes today, one thing will be missing: bottled water.
Vermont Public Radio's Kirk Carapezza reports that UVM is just the latest school to ban the sale of bottled water for environmental reasons.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOTTLES RATTLING)
KIRK CARAPEZZA, BYLINE: At one of UVM's recently retrofitted refill stations, students fill up their reusable bottles with tap water. For many of the 14,000 students and staff on this campus, topping off their Nalgenes is an old habit.
MIKAYLA MCDONALD: It's much more convenient to fill up your water bottle at a water fountain than to buy bottled water.
CARAPEZZA: That's Mikayla McDonald. She's a recent graduate, who a few years ago helped to launch the campaign that led to UVM's ban. McDonald hopes it will reduce waste. But, for her, it's not just about changing behavior on campus.
MCDONALD: Bottled water is a symbol of our culture's obsession with commodifying things that should be public trust resources.
CARAPEZZA: In that spirit, a few other American colleges have restricted or banned the sale of bottled water to promote sustainability. But the University of Vermont is the largest public institution to do so - and that development disappoints beverage companies.
ANDREW MACLEAN: I think they're concerned because it's such a radical step.
CARAPEZZA: Lobbyist Andrew MacLean represents local water and soft drink distributors in Vermont. He agrees with the students' environmental goals, but he thinks an outright ban restricts free choice and will ultimately fail.
MACLEAN: The factors that will result in more materials getting out of landfills and that sort of thing, is going to be a cooperative effort promoting strong recycling.
CARAPEZZA: But at least one New England town says recycling isn't enough to keep plastic bottles out of its waste stream. Concord, Massachusetts - perhaps best known for its role in the American Revolution - joined the student movement this month and outlawed the sale of single-serve plastic water bottles in its stores.
For NPR News, I'm Kirk Carapezza in Vermont.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.
Syria's Bashar al-Assad remains in power in the capital city, Damascus. Move outside the capital and his power ranges from precarious to non-existent. But the very biggest victories have eluded the rebels fighting Assad. That's what we're going to hear as we visit the largest city in all of Syria.
About six months ago, anti-government rebels started an offensive to take the city of Aleppo. Many analysts now call that offensive a failure.
NPR's Kelly McEvers just returned from Aleppo and reports on what the rebels are doing now.
KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: In many ways, Aleppo is a tale of two cities. Imagine a circular blob with a line down the middle - 60 percent for the rebels in the East, 40 percent for the government in the West.
That line is supposedly the front line in Aleppo's war. But lately the front has gone cold, as people here say in Arabic.
We're peeping through this tiny little hole in the rocks, in the stone wall. And you can hear the shots. But just looking into the government controlled part of town, the government buildings and stuff - although this is kind of a no man's land. Right here in the border between the two there's a lot of trash, abandoned buildings. That mosque looks like it's been abandoned. The shots are from a government sniper, posted on top of one of those abandoned buildings. Although there's not much fighting here anymore, government soldiers sometimes try to pick off rebel fighters stationed here or civilians who cross from one side to another.
MARWA: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: Marwa just crossed the front line. She and her sister sometimes make this perilous crossing twice a day. Her sister was almost killed by a sniper.
MARWA: (Through translator) The bullet came like in front of her almost. She needed to go back.
MCEVERS: Marwa works on the government side but lives on the rebel side. She says life is almost normal on the government side. There's more electricity and bread.
MARWA: (Through translator) I asked if she feels like she has a dual personality now, and she says, yeah, this is the reality.
MCEVERS: A rebel fighter stationed here says the two sides are so close they talk to each other at night.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: Ah. They yell at each other.
They even know each other's names.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROSSTALK)
MCEVERS: Right now this cold front line is lot like the fight for Syria, in a nutshell - both sides think they can win, but neither side is winning, so neither side is going to back down.
In recent months, rebels have realized that fighting for inches along these front lines is no way to win a war. So while a small number of fighters hold the front, the rest have turned their attention to government air bases that ring the city.
Rebels believe if they can cut off the government's ability to re-supply its troops, Aleppo will fall.
So we're walking through an olive grove. Coming up just on the edge of the Mennagh airport on the outskirts of Aleppo. This is one of the three remaining key airbases surrounding the city.
Inside a ruined house we can see how rebels have surrounded the airport.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: See? You can see the tower.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Tower?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: And the airplanes.
MCEVERS: Oh yeah, there's a helicopter there, yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: This rebel fighter says rebels have been getting closer and closer to the base in recent weeks. But still, there are problems. He says his unit actually had to buy anti-aircraft weapons from another rebel unit. And he says he has no idea if rebels who recently captured another major airbase near here will come and help or just keep the weapons they seized to themselves and fight elsewhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: This guy was a government soldier at the Mennagh airbase until just a few days ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: We interviewed him in a car. He says the government army fed him only once a day, that the first chance he got he waved a white flag at the rebels and made his escape.
Deserting soldiers is one reason the government is losing control in Aleppo and the rest of northern Syria - that plus the fact that better trained and better equipped Islamist fighters - some of them from outside Syria - are now leading the battles at these government bases.
Of course many questions remain, like if rebels do take Aleppo, then what? They say they'll join other rebels who are already are fighting to take Syria's capital, Damascus. But they face a tough battle there. And still, taking Aleppo could be a long way off.
As one Syrian civilian leader in the city told us, if we use logic, it could happen in three months. If we don't, well, we're talking years.
Kelly McEvers, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We would also like to forecast the future of China, but just now it's hard to see where that country is heading. In fact, in Beijing, it's hard to see very far at all. NPR's Louisa Lim reports on catastrophic air pollution.
LOUISA LIM, BYLINE: Here in Beijing, they're calling it the airpocalypse. These past few days, the entire city has been blanketed in thick gray smog. It smells of coal, it makes your eyes sting and your throat feel scratchy. And at the very worst, sometimes you can hardly see to the other side of the road. If my voice sounds muffled, it's because I'm wearing a Darth Vader-style facemask to filter the air - an extreme measure because this is an extreme public health emergency.
ZHOU RONG: In the last three days, the air pollution is beyond index. It's the worst since we've had readings, starting from last year.
LIM: That's Zhou Rong from the environmental group Greenpeace. At its worst, Beijing's recent pollution has been 25 times higher than the level considered safe in the U.S. She explains why it's so bad.
ZHOU: In the winter we have to burn more coal to get heating. And another reason is it's because the weather pattern make the whole atmosphere very, very stable and all air pollution are going down and accumulate down to the ground. So we are getting higher and higher air pollution.
(SOUNDBITE OF NEWS BROADCAST)
LIM: For once, domestic bulletins are headlining the smog. And since the beginning of this year, hourly pollution readings are being released for more than 70 cities. One factor driving this is the U.S. embassy's own pollution monitor here, which in the past showed discrepancies between Chinese and U.S. pollution figures. That's led to more transparency, a significant development according to Alex Wang, an expert on Chinese environmental law at UC-Berkeley.
ALEX WANG: In theory with the greater transparency that's harder to do, sort of the falsification or cheating the data. What'll be really interesting to see going forward is now that they've become more transparent - they're releasing hourly data and so forth - does it actually force the regulators to actually sort of take regulatory action?
LIM: Beijing is taking emergency action, shutting some building sites and factories and taking almost a third of official cars off the road. It's also vowing to cut air pollution by 15 percent over the next three years. But the surrounding provinces are actually stepping up coal consumption, dooming such pledges, according to Greenpeace's Zhou.
ZHOU: It's not going to work if only Beijing City do the mitigation work alone. If the surrounding area don't do the same work, Beijing will never get better air quality.
LIM: I'm now in Beijing's main children's hospital and it's packed to overflowing. Here the emergency room is lined with children hooked up to drips, and upstairs the corridors are filled with patients waiting to see doctors. In the last few days this hospital has seen 9,000 patients per day - almost a third of them with respiratory diseases. The parents here are sure the pollution is to blame.
LOUISE HUANG: (Foreign language spoken)
LIM: Of course it's connected to the pollution, says Louise Huang. She's here with her 18-month-old son. He started getting sick the first day of the smog, even though she hasn't dared open the windows or go outside. This must get better, she tells me. I can't imagine how we'd live if it got worse.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
LIM: And there are fears for the future. As this song puts it, I live in this smog. I don't want to die in this smog. China's quite literally choking on its own development. But this environmental crisis could drag down economic growth. And given growing public dissatisfaction, it could yet become a political problem for China's new leaders. Louisa Lim, NPR News, Beijing.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Eugene Patterson was a man of the South. He grew up in a time of racial segregation. He became a newspaper columnist. And the story we're about to hear is the story of how he chose to use that platform during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
Eugene Patterson has died after cancer treatments at the age of 89 and NPR's David Folkenflik reports on his life.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Eugene Patterson will be forever be known in Atlanta as a fearless champion of racial equality.
CYNTHIA TUCKER: Gene Patterson was a voice of decency and courage who spoke out for the progress of the South.
FOLKENFLIK: That's the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Cynthia Tucker, the first African-American to lead the editorial pages of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She said Patterson's columns, which won their own Pulitzer Prize, inspired a backlash.
TUCKER: Let me just say that Patterson didn't just get angry letters to the editor; he got death threats. He was ignored and ostracized by his fellow newspaper editors.
FOLKENFLIK: As a young man he had little to lose. Gene Patterson was born in rural Georgia to a schoolteacher and a bank cashier, a white couple struggling amid the Great Depression. He attended North Georgia College and then the University of Georgia - after which the U.S. Army beckoned. It was World War II.
As his longtime friend Roy Peter Clark observed, a formative period.
ROY PETER CLARK: For a young Southern boy to go off to Europe and to see first-hand the consequences of racial hatred, in the form of the Nazi genocide, changed him forever.
FOLKENFLIK: Patterson was decorated for his service and commanded a tank division under General George Patton during the Battle of the Bulge. Clark said Patterson aspired to become a general, but...
CLARK: Without a war to fight, he needed something more compelling. And he walked from the Army base to a small newspaper in Temple, Texas and began falling in love with the craft of reporting and writing.
FOLKENFLIK: Patterson wrote for the United Press, then become editor in Atlanta, following his mentor Ralph McGill into the dangerous waters of racial strife. Patterson wrote an anguished column after the 1963 firebombing of a Birmingham church killed four black girls.
Walter Cronkite asked him to read it in full on the "CBS Evening News."
HANK KLIBANOFF: It's a love letter for a South whose behavior he hated.
FOLKENFLIK: Hank Klibanoff co-wrote a history of the press during the Civil Rights Movement.
KLIBANOFF: He was a clear voice of sanity at a time when the South had all but gone insane over its determination to hold onto the status quo and to not allow change.
FOLKENFLIK: After Patterson left Atlanta, he became managing editor of the Washington Post. Then, a new chapter: Patterson became editor of the St Petersburg Times in Florida and helped it gain a reputation for tough watchdog reporting, the quality of its writing, and its ethical precepts. He once ordered front page coverage of his own arrest for driving while intoxicated.
Patterson subsequently helped to create and lead a school to train journalists, founded by the paper's owner, Nelson Poynter.
Roy Peter Clark is now a vice president at the Poynter Institute.
CLARK: I think of Gene Patterson as one of the titans of journalism of the 20th century, as somebody who believes in journalism not as a thing unto itself but as a goal towards social justice.
FOLKENFLIK: As his paper, now called the Tampa Bay Times, observed yesterday, Patterson lived up to his own edict: Don't just make a living, make a mark.
David Folkenflik, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's business news begins with an artful dodge.
Goldman Sachs is reportedly planning to hold back paying bonuses to its employees in the U.K. That's according to the Financial Times, which reports the bank is looking at waiting until the top British tax rate falls by 5 percent in April before paying out the bonuses that would otherwise pay now.
This move is not unlike what the investment bank just did in the United States. In December, Goldman paid $65 million in bonuses to its top American-based executives immediately before the tax rate rose for high income earners, as part of Washington's fiscal cliff deal.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The NFL playoffs are down to four teams. The 49ers, Patriots, Falcons and Ravens remain alive. Four other teams are gone, including the Denver Broncos, who seemed to have a great shot at a championship until this past weekend when Baltimore scored a last-minute touchdown to tie the game and then won in overtime.
These playoffs, of course, lead up to the Super Bowl, the biggest game in football and surely among the biggest commercial events in all of sports.
John Ourand, a media reporter for the Sports Business Journal is on the line once again. Welcome back to the program.
JOHN OURAND: Thanks, Steve.
INSKEEP: Unbelievable games over the weekend, especially that Baltimore game. I couldn't believe it.
OURAND: Well, 35 million of us tuned in for that Baltimore game, which was the most that ever saw in an NFL playoff game on a Saturday. So a lot of people agree with you.
INSKEEP: OK. So that's the first question to ask here. We hear a lot about the Super Bowl, and we'll talk about that as a commercial event in a moment. But the playoffs leading up to them, there are several rounds of playoffs; they must also be big money winners.
OURAND: Well, it just shows the strength of the NFL. The NFL is the most popular sport in America. It's probably the most popular entertainment in America right now. So we had about 35 million people tune in on CBS, which is more by 10 million than watched the championship game for the BCS with Notre Dame, which is a really big school and has a national following. So the NFL is doing really, really well. And what's really impressive to me about the NFL is that it's not market-based. So you had yesterday, Seattle playing Atlanta. We don't have the TV numbers back for that yet, but it was a close game and I'm sure that it got over 30 million, which is again, more than the BCS game. Can you imagine if you had a World Series with the Mariners against the Braves...
INSKEEP: Hmm.
OURAND: ...the two teams that are with those - represent those two cities? I'm sure it would be the least watched World Series of all time, so....
INSKEEP: In other words, people are not just watching because it's the home team, they're watching because it's the NFL.
OURAND: Because it's football and there's just a love affair with football that's been going on for the past couple of decades.
INSKEEP: Now how has that going on even as some other sports have declined and some other TV deals have declined? I mean, the NFL just keeps going on no matter how the industry changes.
OURAND: Exactly. The NFL goes from strength to strength. And, you know, for example, you know, the Super Bowl ads, every single year for the past four years we've been talking about record-setting numbers that they're getting for ads. And if you take a look at TV in general, entertainment TV in prime time, advertising rates are going down, viewership is going down and it's the exact opposite for the NFL.
INSKEEP: What's it going to cost this year to get 30 seconds of time at the Super Bowl?
OURAND: Well, the average is getting close to $4 million per 30 seconds, which is yet another record. And the records go up by about 10 percent each year, it seems. And advertisers still view - even with that big price point - the Super Bowl as being just the best place to shop their wares.
INSKEEP: Isn't it still true though - especially since the price keeps going up - that on a strict dollar-for-dollar basis it's not worth it, you don't get enough people to justify $4 million for an ad in the Super Bowl?
OURAND: Well, that's what GM decided back in the spring. And they decided that they wanted to pull out because the price was getting too high. And GM has been a big advertiser in the Super Bowl for the past couple of years. Well, this year you have Audi, Cars.com, Chrysler, Mercedes, Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, VW. There're plenty of car advertisers that are deciding that the Super Bowl really is one of the two, maybe three TV shows that aggregates such a huge audience that they really want to launch a product by or shop their wares on.
INSKEEP: John, thanks very much.
OURAND: Thank you very much, Steve.
INSKEEP: John Ourand is the media reporter at the Sports Business Journal.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now today's last word in business is more of a scream - ice cream.
High school seniors anxious about the high cost of college might consider an alternative. Gelato University in Bologna, Italy, teaches students the art of making gelato, Italy's creamier version of ice cream, of course. The week-long course costs about $1,200 but it comes with a $1,200 coupon toward the purchase of a gelato maker. The university, so called, has more than 6,000 students a year. And more than 15 percent of them do end up buying equipment. If there's anything that can survive a tough economy, it's ice cream.
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
You heard the reference there to Vice President Biden, who's supposed come out with gun recommendations this week. Let's talk about that and more with Cokie Roberts, who joins us most Mondays.
Cokie, good morning.
COKIE ROBERTS, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: Any chance of real change here?
ROBERTS: It's going to be very, very tough. Vice President Biden meets today with House members. And what we're hearing over the weekend, lots of people just digging in and very, very familiar arguments. The pro-gun groups have gotten some support from reports of people buying guns and signing up with the National Rifle Association in large numbers since the Newtown tragedy, so they're pretty confident that there will be no assault weapons ban passed by this Congress.
Maybe a national background check, maybe a ban on those magazines that deliver huge numbers of bullets, but even those things seem very difficult to get to. You heard former Congressman Tiahrt just talking about a big package taking on the media, mental health questions. If that really happened, if there really were a move to do something about the mental health treatment situation in this country, that would be huge, but I'm not holding my breath.
INSKEEP: Well, then there's the question whether Congress will even have time for this. The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, has been warning that every issue other than the national debt is going to be secondary in this Congress. We have a battle over the debt ceiling looming again and at least one of the supposed ideas to get rid of that problem is off the table.
ROBERTS: Well, this is the craziest idea for a trillion dollar coin and the fact that it even gained some, excuse me, currency was really just...
INSKEEP: She's here all week, go on.
ROBERTS: ...shows you how we are off on this. The Treasury, over the weekend, did say that they were not going to mint such a coin. Some Democrats are calling on the president to invoke the 14th Amendment saying, you know, the United States will pay its debts. Look, the whole point about not going into default is to convince people that the United States stands by its credit and all of these ideas don't exactly inspire confidence in the people.
So the president is saying, yes, Congress has to do this. You can't do something sketchy. There are new reports that we will hit the debt ceiling by mid-February. Republicans in the house are now talking about a shutdown of government or a default against those spending cuts.
INSKEEP: Okay. Well, how did this threat to not pay the bills become so prominent? Because the debt ceiling has been around for decades, it's been complained about for decades, but until 2011, it was just raised.
ROBERTS: No, that's not true. That's not true.
INSKEEP: All right, yes, raised after much, much complaint. Go on.
ROBERTS: Much complaint. I mean, in the last year of Carter's presidency, all 154 Republicans voted no and then the next year with Ronald Reagan as president they voted 150 to 36 in favor of an increase and the Democrats have played exactly the same game. In 2004, with George W. Bush as president, House Democrats voted unanimously against raising the debt ceiling. In 2006, so did Mr. Obama and all the other Senate Democrats.
Now the president says that that was a political vote. No kidding. That is, in fact, the vote that others are taking now and, of course, he's railing under it. But this has been a tough one, always. The only difference now is everything is more partisan and everything is more polarized so it just makes everything harder.
INSKEEP: Well, this is my question, Cokie Roberts, there were these games, as you called them, but in the end it seemed it was accepted that it would be raised. Has it ceased to be a game? Are they not playing a game now?
ROBERTS: Well, the president says he's not going to negotiate, so he says he's not going to play the game. Republicans are saying, you know, then they are going to absolutely demand the spending cuts so they are saying they're not going to play a game. But, I mean, you can call it what you want to call it. It's going to have to happen that the debt ceiling goes up, otherwise the United States can't pay its bills.
INSKEEP: Cokie, thanks very much. That's Cokie Roberts who joins us most Monday mornings with analysis.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Paris yesterday to protest government efforts to legalize same-sex marriage. The demonstration was considered one of the largest in years. The government of President Francois Hollande says it will go ahead anyway. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: They came from every corner of France, by car, bus and specially reserved high speed train. They wound their way through the French capital from three different starting points, filling the boulevards until they converged under the Eiffel Tower for a giant rally. There were old people, young people and lots of families with children.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in French)
BEARDSLEY: In fact, children were the main point of the demonstration. Rather than homophobic placards, protestors carried banners with smiling babies on them that read, Made In Momma, Plus Papa. Marie Gabrielle(ph) says it's not right for a child to have two mothers or two fathers.
MARIE GABRIELLE: The marriage is done for people who want to have children and for the moment, two guys cannot have babies. That's all. That's just the nature.
BEARDSLEY: Thirty-six-year-old Ludavic Lamay(ph) fears opening the way for same-sex adoption and conception will shake the very foundation of society.
LUDAVIC LAMAY: The thing that they say, it's more the question of the sentimentality, the society today, do we want this type of wedding and this type of family for children.
BEARDSLEY: France does have civil unions for same-sex couples, but the law has no provisions for adoption or assisted reproduction, issues that have become a lightening rod in the current debate. When Hollande promised to legalize same-sex marriage on the campaign trail, most observers thought the measure would pass easily in France, which lags behind its Europeans neighbors on marriage and adoption rights for gays.
But instead, it has churned up French society, bringing deep traditional currents to the surface. The issue has also highlighted the divide between urban and more conservative rural France. Many marchers carried regional flags with emblems dating back to the middle ages. While polls show a majority of French are for same-sex marriage, support for the bill has fallen since August as the Catholic Church has managed to mobilize a hybrid coalition of church-going families, political conservatives, Muslims, Evangelicals and even gays to oppose it.
And Hollande's clumsy handling of other campaign promises has the opposition salivating that he'll botch this one, too. Jean Francois Cope(ph), a conservative from former President Nicolas Sarkozy's party, said France had other priorities like fighting Islamist radicals in Mali. He urged Hollande to hold a referendum and let the people decide.
JEAN FRANCOIS COPE: (Through translator) Perhaps now is the time for Francois Hollande to listen to the clamor of the French people who are deeply divided over this issue.
BEARDSLEY: As the demo breaks up well after dark, I strike up a conversation with 72-year-old Guino Vanelle(ph) who is heading home. I asked him if the march will send a message to Francois Hollande.
GUINO VANELLE: Well, of course. What is good is that you had Roman Catholics. You had Jews. You had Muslims. You had people coming from the provinces.
BEARDSLEY: But speaking on television last night, government Minister Michel Sapin seemed unimpressed.
MICHEL SAPIN: (Speaking foreign language)
BEARDSLEY: It's good they're expressing their opinion, said Sapin, but in six months, will we remember this march? I don't think so. And by then, the law will be passed and no one will go back on it. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. Let's talk now about the life and death of Aaron Swartz. He was a 26-year-old computer prodigy and social activist. He created new technologies. He led campaigns that touched millions of lives. And last Friday, Mr. Swartz hanged himself in his Brooklyn apartment. He was facing a criminal investigation at the time. NPR's Steve Henn is covering this story. Good morning, Steve.
STEVE HENN, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: For listeners who might not have heard of Aaron Swartz, even if he did touch their lives, would you talk a little bit about his life?
HENN: Sure. Most recently, Mr. Swartz helped lead the fight against SOPA, the Stop Online Privacy Act. The bill would've given the U.S. law enforcement greater authority to block payments or to shut down websites with pirated material. Critics like Swartz argued that it was far too broad and would give the government the ability to take down big chunks of the web, entire domains, for alleged violations.
So he helped organize an enormous online protest and a partial web blackout that basically resulted in killing that bill.
INSKEEP: And he was somebody who had the prominence to do that, even though he was only 26, because he had been influential for years.
HENN: That's right. He was one of the people who helped create the RSS feed. For non-techies, that stands for Real Simple Syndication and it's what makes it possible to have stories by a given author about a certain subject delivered to your inbox automatically. He also founded a web start-up which merged with Reddit, which is now a hugely popular social news website.
He was really both a technologist and an online activist who believed that as much information should be free and as widely distributed online as possible. Ultimately, it was his decision to act on those convictions that got him in trouble with federal prosecutors.
INSKEEP: When did that happen?
HENN: Well, problems began in 2009. He downloaded and published approximately 20 percent of a database of federal court documents. At that point, he was investigated by the FBI, but not indicted and not prosecuted. However, in early 2011, he was arrested for downloading 4.8 million articles from JSTOR, an academic archive, which requires a subscription and has a pay wall. He allegedly walked into a computer closet at a library at MIT and attached a laptop to the library systems and downloaded these articles en masse.
Federal prosecutors argued that tapping into MIT's network that way was basically theft and they prosecuted him aggressively. The archive, however, JSTOR, never took legal action against him and asked prosecutors to drop the case. MIT did not.
INSKEEP: Well, I guess we should be clear here. He wasn't taking private information. He was, however, taking articles that he should have paid for and did not. Ended up committing suicide here - so how are people responding?
HENN: Well, shortly after the news of Aaron Swartz's suicide became public, his family released a statement that was harshly critical of both federal prosecutors who brought the case against him and MIT. It said, quote, "Aaron's death is not simply a personal tragedy. It's the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach."
The family said that decisions at the U.S. attorney's office in Massachusetts and MIT, quote, contributed to his death. But it bears mentioning that Aaron Swartz had battled depression for years, had written about it publicly. However, his family argued that Swartz felt backed into a corner by the federal case against him and the prosecutors were asking for up to 35 years in prison and $1 million fine.
His family also criticized MIT by saying it refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community's most cherished principles.
INSKEEP: Steve Henn, let me just ask this. Was it likely that he actually could have faced 35 years in prison? Because sometimes, of course, prosecutors make demands because they're negotiating.
HENN: It's difficult to say. Similar charges in a different federal court circuit recently failed to stand up to appellate review. Now, that federal case isn't binding in Massachusetts, but it was clear that the prosecutors were trying to be very aggressive here. I don't know whether it was a negotiating position or not. But in the past few days, countless academics have been tweeting free links to their articles as a tribute to what Swartz said he was trying to accomplish.
Yesterday, the president of MIT launched an internal investigation into the university's role in all of this.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Steve Henn. Steve, thanks very much.
HENN: You're welcome.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.
Winning isn't everything but at least you don't have to dance. The mayors of Denver and Baltimore made a friendly wager when their teams met in the NFL playoffs. When Baltimore won in overtime, it was disaster for Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, who must now dance like Ray Lewis. The soon-to-retire Baltimore star does an awkward but enthusiastic sideline dance before games. And we're going to find out soon how well Mayor Hancock moves.
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep, with regrets to Kelly Hildebrandt. She became famous in 2009 for marrying a man with the identical name, Kelly Hildebrandt. Perfect. No anxiety about changing names, and if they chose to hyphenate the kids, it would Hildebrandt-Hildebrandt. But now the Hildebrandts have separated and filed for divorce. Miami's WTVJ quotes Mr. Hildebrandt saying, She's a Florida girl, I'm a Texas guy. They're from different worlds. It's MORNING EDITION.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
I'm David Greene. We'll begin NPR's business news with a warning from President Obama.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
GREENE: That is President Obama just moments ago at the final news conference of his first term. He repeated his call on Congress to raise the U.S. Treasury's borrowing limit. And we've brought in NPR's Brian Naylor to help us understand this. And, Brian, President Obama said it would be irresponsible and absurd for Congress to not raise the debt ceiling. It would be a self-inflicted wound on the economy. Why these dire warnings?
BRIAN NAYLOR, BYLINE: Well, David, the president feels that unless the debt ceiling is raised by Congress, terrible things can happen to the economy. We could be back into a recession, the investors abroad will see the U.S. as no longer a safe bet. And also, more sort of day-to-day worries about whether Social Security checks will go out, whether the Armed Forces service members will be paid. All kinds of bad things can happen, the president is saying.
I think what he is trying to do is to frame this argument. He's been saying for some time now he's not going to negotiate on this issue. He said today that Congress will not collect a ransom in order to have the ability to raise the debt ceiling. So he's trying to paint a picture of what might happen unless this does occur.
GREENE: And we should say that the Republicans want to tie any increase in the debt ceiling to new cuts, more cuts in spending, right?
NAYLOR: That's right.
GREENE: NPR's Brian Naylor. Thanks so much for joining us.
NAYLOR: All right, David. Thank you.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Thousands of Minnesota National Guard deployed in the Middle East woke up to a surprise last spring. Just weeks before the end of their tour, a group of corporate recruiters showed up on base. The first-of-its kind visit was part of a new strategy to help returning service members find civilian jobs - even before they get back on U.S. soil.
Jess Mador of Minnesota Public Radio reports.
JESS MADOR, BYLINE: Studies show unemployment for returning soldiers can play a role in a host of problems - like drug and alcohol abuse, family conflict, even suicide. And finding work after a tour of duty is especially tough for Guard and Reserve troops, who split their time between overseas deployments and civilian lives. It's often difficult to translate military experience to civilian skills. And employers, who don't know how long veterans will be around, may hesitate to hire them.
Minnesota National Guard Capt. Ron Jarvi says that affects troops at all levels.
CAPTAIN RON JARVI: Anywhere from the young soldier who just graduated from high school and came back from basic training and deployed right away to the more seasoned soldier that has had civilian work experience.
MADOR: So, Minnesota National Guard leaders decided to do something unusual - prepare troops for civilian jobs while they're still in Kuwait, helping with the U.S. drawdown from Iraq.
More than a quarter of these 2,700 troops had no civilian jobs waiting for them at home. To help them, the Guard flew a specialized team from government, education and business to their military base for a week of intensive work - things like resume writing, career planning and even mock interviews.
Best Buy recruiter Bruce Kiefner went on the trip. He says hiring more veterans is a priority for Best Buy. He went to Kuwait to help them improve their chances of being hired.
BRUCE KIEFNER: They have that get-the-job-done attitude, and that's what has, you know, really attracts us to them; that they are, you know, serious yet they have a personal side and that is where we like to kind of, you know, bridge that gap. We want the serious leader but we also want someone that can, you know, take a breath and have fun with the team. And those are typically our best leaders.
MADOR: The effort to help them intensified when troops got home. Experts worked one-on-one with every soldier. The guard says the effort has paid off. Of the more than 500 service members who needed jobs, officials say only about 35 are still looking for work.
The guard's Jarvi says the program was successful because it helped troops before they got overwhelmed with coming home.
JARVI: The reality is is that you're trying to reintegrate with your spouse or with your kids or with getting your paperwork filed with the state and reinstating your license and then doing all of the different things that you have to do to reintegrate.
MADOR: Captain Jeff Pratt knows how overwhelming homecoming can be. The 46-year old served two tours of duty in Iraq in the last 10 years. Despite his decades of civilian work experience, even he had difficulties landing the job he wanted. After getting help from the jobs initiative, he finally found the right position. He started last week as a risk-management analyst with Minnesota-based United Health Group.
CAPTAIN JEFF PRATT: When you don't have a job or you're looking for a job, hundreds of websites you can go on. But if you don't know what you're looking for, you're spraying and praying, it never works out very well. What this program is, it's designed to channel you into one spot and work that one spot and by doing that your propensity of finding what you're looking for dramatically goes up, and it just, it works.
MADOR: Yet, as in many states, unemployment for military veterans remains a persistent problem. Minnesota National Guard officials are now expanding their jobs effort statewide. And they're helping other units across the country set up their own programs to help veterans get civilian jobs after they hang up their uniforms.
For NPR News, I'm Jess Mador.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
I'm Renée Montagne. And Steve, let's face it, when you're a child, sometimes adults can be a real drag. The new "Captain Underpants" book puts it this way: Did you ever notice how grown-ups hate it when kids are having fun? David Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" - you know, I think you're familiar with that book, right?
INSKEEP: Oh, yes.
MONTAGNE: The graphic novels...
INSKEEP: You'll see a few of them around the house.
MONTAGNE: ...are full of potty humor, wacky illustrations, and names like Tippy Tinkletrousers. NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports there's a new "Captain Underpants" Coming out today.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: If you want to impress some boys, just pull out the new "Captain Underpants."
REX EXNICIOS: Ooh.
AIDAN CALIVA: Awesome.
BLAIR: Who wants to read the title?
REX EXNICIOS AND AIDAN CALIVA: Me. Me. "Captain Underpants and the Revenge of the... "
BLAIR: "The Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers." Rex Exnicios, Sundiata Haley and Aidan Caliva, second graders from Lusher Charter School in New Orleans, are huge fans because, they say, Captain Underpants is silly, has great pictures, fliporamas(ph). And with titles like...
CALIVA: "Captain Underpants and the Big Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy."
BLAIR: And characters with names like...
EXNICIOS: Professor Poopy Pants.
BLAIR: What's not to love? Here's an excerpt from the new "Captain Underpants," read by Sundiata Haley.
SUNDIATA HALEY: If you're like most kids you're probably reading this very book because some adult wanted you to stop playing video games or watching TV.
DAV PILKEY: When I write for kids it's really an us and them type of situation. It's like me and the kids versus the grownups.
BLAIR: Author Dav Pilkey says he remembers what it was like to be a kid who got in trouble for his pranks. He also remembers what it was like to be a struggling reader.
PILKEY: I remember every kid in the class would have to stand up and read a chapter from our history book, or something. And whenever it was my turn, everyone would just kind of groan, like, oh, Pilkey's reading again. And it just took me so long to get through it. I had all these really negative associations with reading. I just hated it.
BLAIR: So he wanted to make a children's book that even kids like him would find irresistible. But some grown-ups, true to form, think it's inappropriate for the heroes of a children's book to be such troublemakers. The two main characters - George and Harold - are big-time pranksters.
They draw a comic strip in which they turn their mean principal into the superhero Captain Underpants who wears nothing but a red cape and underwear.
PAT SCALES: The number one complaint is - this is kind of funny - nudity, I guess, because the superhero has on Jockey shorts.
BLAIR: Pat scales is chair of the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee. She says "Captain Underpants" has made it to the ALA's hit list three times. That's their annual list of the top ten most-complained about books.
SCALES: Vulgar language. They feel that kids are being taught not to obey authority.
BLAIR: In the books the principal hates George and Harold's comic strip. Some parents have problems with it too, not for the content but for all the misspellings. Laugh is spelled L-A-F-F. Trouble is spelled T-R-U-B-B-E-L. Seven year old Rex Exnicios from New Orleans says that really bugs his mom.
EXNICIOS: She gets really mad because lots of stuff is misspelled in them.
BLAIR: So what does she say?
EXNICIOS: She just says that's misspelled. How you actually spell it is (makes noise). And then she just, like, spells it.
BLAIR: Pat Scales of the American Library Association says Rex Exnicios' mom is on the right track. Scales - who's a big fan of Captain Underpants - wants grown-ups to take it a step further and use George and Harold's mistakes as an opportunity to teach kids about literature.
SCALES: What I would ask kids: How does this represent the character of the two boys? What kind of students do you think they are? And then you can take it a step further if you're a teacher or even a parent, and have the kids write it out properly. How does this change tone of the book? And how does this change the humor of the book?
BLAIR: Eventually, says Scales, kids figure out how to spell the words correctly. That's what happened to Titus Adkins from Brooklyn. He's a senior in high school, but he says when he was little, "Captain Underpants" were the only books he liked. And, he says, they were the jumping off point to more books.
TITUS ADKINS: I started reading "Chronicles of Narnia" when I was in second grade, because of Captain Underpants.
BLAIR: Just because it was a book or because it was "Chronicles of Narnia"?
ADKINS: It was because it was a book that my mom told me to read. And she said it was sort of like "Captain Underpants." She kind of lied to me to get me to read it.
BLAIR: A trick that could've come straight out of "Captain Underpants." Titus Adkins says he got hooked on the "Narnia" books too.
Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now, let's ask why many Americans are saying they follow no organized religion. Close to one-fifth of Americans now say that; young Americans are even less religious. We heard those numbers in our series "Losing Our Religion." And now, David Greene has been listening to some of the voices behind the numbers.
DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: They're the voices of six young Americans - three young women, three young men - all struggling with the role of faith and religion in their lives. We gathered together at the 6th and I Synagogue in Washington, D.C.; in many ways, a fitting spot. It's a holy and secular place - they have everything from religious services to rock concerts. So we were sitting in a circle at the front of the sanctuary.
MIRIAM NISSLY: My name is Miriam Nissly. I'm 29. I grew up in the Chicago area. I was raised Jewish. I consider myself Jewish with a - I don't know, agnostic-leaning bent.
GREENE: Meaning, Miriam's not sure she believes in God. Still, she loves going to synagogue.
NISSLY: I mean, I realized that maybe there's a disconnect; that, you know, why are you doing it, if you don't necessarily have a belief in God? But I think there's a cultural aspect. There's - I think there's a spiritual aspect, I suppose. You know, I find the practice of sitting and sort of being quiet, and being alone with your thoughts, to be helpful. But I don't think I need to answer that question in order to participate in the traditions that I was brought up with.
GREENE: Miriam still feels a connection to those traditions. Not so for Yusuf Ahmad, just to my left in our circle. He's 33, and was raised Muslim. Now, Yusuf calls himself an atheist. His doubts really set in as a child. There were stories that he just didn't believe. Here's how he remembers one.
YUSUF AHMAD: Like the story of Abraham; like, his - God tells him to sacrifice his son. And he takes his son to sacrifice him, and he turns into a goat. Like - even like, I remember growing up, when I was - you know - fifth, sixth grade, I'd hear these stories and I'd be like, that's crazy; why would this guy do this? You know, just because he heard a voice in his head, he went to like, sacrifice his son, and it turned into a goat? There's no way that this happened.
GREENE: You weren't believing that.
AHMAD: Yeah. Like, I wasn't buying it. And today, if some guy told you that, "I need to sacrifice my son because God told me to do it," he would be locked up in - like, a crazy institution.
GREENE: So this conversation at the synagogue goes on for two hours or so; everyone getting to know details about one another. Kyle Simpson, a 27-year-old from Iowa, has this tattoo on the inside of his left wrist.
KYLE SIMPSON: It says "a cruce salus" and - Latin for salvation from the cross; which is a little troublesome now, when people ask me. And they're like - I tell them, and they go, oh, so you're a Christian. And it's kind of like, well, I don't know...
GREENE: Like, maybe.
SIMPSON: Yeah. So I try to skirt the issue now. And then they're like, oh, what's that mean? And it's like, oh, it's Latin for, I made a mistake when I was 18 - just to kind of avoid the topic.
GREENE: Do you regret it? I mean, would you get rid of the tattoo if...
SIMPSON: No. The irony is when I first got the tattoo, I remember thinking, oh, this will be great because when I'm having troubles in my faith, I will be able to look at it, and I can't run away from it. And that is exactly what is happening.
GREENE: Do you believe in God?
SIMPSON: I don't, really, but I really want to. That's the problem with questions like these; is you don't have anything that clearly states yes, this is fact. So I'm constantly struggling. But looking - like, looking right at the facts; like, looking at evolution and science; you're saying no, there is none. But what about love? What about the ideas of forgiveness? Things like that - I'd like to believe that they're true, and they're meaningful.
GREENE: I'm so interested to hear more about this because you said you don't believe in God, but you really want to.
SIMPSON: Yeah.
GREENE: Why is that?
SIMPSON: (Sighs) I think having a God would create a meaning for our lives; like, we are working towards a purpose, and it's all worthwhile because at the end of the day, we will maybe move on to another life, where everything is beautiful. Like, I love that idea.
GREENE: And yet Kyle's uncomfortable with some of the religious doctrine. He doesn't believe in hell. He also doesn't believe homosexuality is a sin. And that is also a problem for Melissa Adelman. She's 30, and was raised Catholic.
MELISSA ADELMAN: I mean, starting in middle school, we got the lessons about why premarital sex was not OK; why active homosexuality was not OK. And so we had some of those conversations in school, with our theology teachers. The thing for me, was that part of the reason that I moved away from - well, a large part of the reason I moved away from Catholicism was because without accepting a lot of these core beliefs, I just didn't think that I could still be part of that community.
GREENE: So you were a teenager, and actually having some of these conversations...
ADELMAN: Yeah.
GREENE: ...with the nuns about homosexuality...
ADELMAN: (Laughter) Yes, yes.
GREENE: ...about premarital sex and...
ADELMAN: I remember a theology test in eighth grade, where there was a question about homosexuality. And the right answer was that if you are homosexual, then that is not a sin because that's how God made you. But acting upon it would be a sin. And I very clearly remember the...
GREENE: Did you mark that, I mean, as the answer?
ADELMAN: Yeah, that's what I put down as the answer. But I vividly remember thinking to myself that that was not the right answer.
GREENE: Rigoberto, tell me about your religion, growing up, and what role religion played for you.
RIGOBERTO PEREZ: It was a fairly important part of our life. It was something that we did every Saturday morning.
GREENE: This is Seventh-day Adventist, right?
PEREZ: It is.
GREENE: Which is a Protestant...
PEREZ: Protestant church, in which we celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday. But it was pretty hard, growing up, a lot of ways. We didn't have a lot of money; the household wasn't very stable, a lot of times. When something bad would happen - say a prayer, go to church, you know. When my mom got cancer the first time, it was something that - it was, you know, useful at that time for me, as a coping mechanism.
GREENE: So you were - one thing you were coping with was your mom - sounds like multiple battles with cancer.
PEREZ: Yes. She had cancer twice while I was a child, once as an adult. And she passed in - December 29 of the previous year...
GREENE: I'm sorry.
PEREZ: ...of cancer, also.
GREENE: And not the only struggle - I mean, it sounds like there were other things in your life that really required coping, for you.
PEREZ: Yeah. I mean, while I was younger, my father drank a lot. There was abuse in the home. My brother committed suicide in 2001. So at some point, you start to say, why does all this stuff happen to people? And if I pray and nothing good happens, is that supposed to be, I'm being tried? I find that almost - kind of cruel, in some ways. It's like burning ants with a magnifying glass. You know, eventually, that gets just too hard to believe anymore.
GREENE: That last voice is 30-year-old Rigoberto Perez. And he shares something with 23-year-old Lizz Reeves. Both of them have views on religion that were shaped by tragedy.
LIZZ REEVES: I had a brother pass away to cancer. And I wanted so badly to believe in God and in heaven, and that's where he was going, and all these things. And I wanted to have some sort of purpose and meaning associated with his passing. And ultimately, the more time I spent kind of thinking about it, I kind of realized that the purpose and meaning of his life had nothing to do with heaven; but it had to do with kind of - how I could make choices and pursue things in my life that give his life meaning.
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GREENE: Six young Americans talking to us for our series "Losing Our Religion. "And we'll hear more from this group later in the week. Tomorrow, a story from one of our correspondents, Barbara Bradley Hagerty. She'll dig deeper into this link between faith and tragedy.
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INSKEEP: That's NPR's David Greene, right here on MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
This year's flu season is a bad one, what with 47 states experiencing widespread outbreaks. The city of Boston, and the state of New York, have both declared states of emergencies in their public health systems. That makes it easier for more people to get access to the flu vaccine.
Still, emergency rooms have their hands full. Jenny Gold reports on how hospitals are coping.
JENNY GOLD, BYLINE: Maria McCoy had been feeling sick for over a week.
MARIA MCCOY: Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea; can't hold water, juice - anything - on my stomach. So it's really miserable.
GOLD: She'd had the flu shot, so she couldn't imagine it could be the flu. But she just kept getting worse.
MCCOY: I called 911. They brought me straight here.
GOLD: Now, she lies on a hospital bed in the emergency room of Medstar Washington Hospital Center, diagnosed with the flu. And she's got plenty of company. Hospitals across the country are filled with thousands of flu patients. Tom Skinner is with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
TOM SKINNER: This flu season got off to an earlier-than-normal start. We started to see a lot of activity in the South, and in the Southeast, in the middle of November and toward the end of November, which was about a month earlier than what we normally see. And since that time, activity really has picked up across the country; to where most states are seeing either moderate to severe activity.
GOLD: More than 112 million Americans have gotten the flu shot this year. And the vaccine is about 60 percent effective - which is pretty good, for a flu shot. But that means some people who get it, still get sick. Dr. Bill Frohna runs the emergency department at Washington Hospital Center, where Maria McCoy is being treated.
DR. BILL FROHNA: Right now, our waiting room is fairly busy for this time of morning. We've got patients wearing masks. We've got providers wearing masks, to protect themselves and each other from the flu. It is rampant here in Washington, D.C.
GOLD: Frohna says they've already had 179 patients test positive for the flu, compared to only 20 last year. ER wait times are significantly longer, and more patients are being admitted because their symptoms are so serious.
FROHNA: Usually, it's - there's a week or two ramp-up, a peak, and then a week or two downturn. And so far, we've been basically on a ramp-up for about five weeks, and we've - I don't - I'm not sure if we've seen the peak yet.
GOLD: How do you plan for something like this?
FROHNA: Well, you basically treat it like a Monday, seven days a week. Mondays are traditionally the busiest days of the week. And so now, instead of having a Monday peak, Tuesday a little bit less, Wednesday a little bit less, Thursday - it's now seven days a week, of a Monday.
GOLD: He's increased staffing of doctors and nurses, opened a half-dozen extra hospital beds, and made sure patients with flu-like symptoms are isolated as quickly as possible. He's also had to order extra supplies, like IV poles. Dr. Andrew Sama says this is exactly the sort of situation that ERs train for. Sama is president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, a trade group for ER doctors.
DR. ANDREW SAMA: Now, the flu is one of many types of challenges we could face, in emergency medicine, that would result in a surge of patients for - period of time. We plan for this. There are, you know, emergency incident command systems that are in place, and emergency preparedness plans that occur in every hospital.
GOLD: Real-life events also help them get ready, like the SARS and H1N1 outbreaks of years past. But a flu season like this one can still stress an ER.
SAMA: Even with all the excellent planning, you become constrained because of space and technology and personnel.
GOLD: In Allentown, Pennsylvania, one hospital had to put up a tent outside the ER, to manage all the patients. Dr. Frohna is crossing his fingers that things start getting better soon in Washington.
FROHNA: With inauguration coming, I'd just be, you know, tickled pink if the flu was on the downswing as a million visitors come to town. It's causing me to lose sleep already.
GOLD: And he implores people across the country to get their flu shot. The flu season might already be bad, but it's not too late.
For NPR News, I'm Jenny Gold.
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MONTAGNE: Jenny Gold is a reporter with our partner Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit news service.
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MONTAGNE: This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
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Once they get just a little bit older, kids dream of having a car and generations of kids have dreamed that that car would be a Corvette. General Motors, which produces the Corvette, is now updating this beloved brand. And that's the subject of today's Business Bottom-line.
NPR's Sonari Glinton is at the Detroit Auto Show.
SONARI GLINTON, BYLINE: Let's play a game of name that tune.
(Singing) I guess I should have known by the way you parked your car sideways that it wouldn't last.
No guesses? Well, you're in excellent company. Tadge Juechter is chief engineer at Corvette.
TADGE JUECHTER: I don't know what the heck you're talking about.
(LAUGHTER)
JUECHTER: Is that a lyric?
GLINTON: Come on, man. Really?
JUECHTER: Really.
(LAUGHTER)
GLINTON: It's the one lyric that the head designer of Corvette should know.
JUECHTER: Oh, Prince?
GLINTON: Yeah
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GLINTON: Tadge Juechter is a car guy, not a music guy. He's spent 20 years on Corvette and almost 40 at GM. The Corvette is iconic not just in the car industry but the culture. And Juechter says the hardest part about that is to bring the car into 21st century and make it look like a Corvette.
JUECHTER: We don't want to do retro. You know, we don't want to go back and do like some manufacturers - go relive the glory days. Hey, lets go - I hear it from customers actually - Oh, just do the '63 over again, that thing was awesome. Bring that back
GLINTON: What's new about this car and almost every car at the Detroit Auto Show is the push to make it more fuel efficient. It uses aluminum and carbon fiber to keep it lighter and, well, fast. Juechter describes the car, which was designed just after the worst of GM bankruptcy
JUECHTER: It has a low roof and big wheels, and a low hood, and it's certainly pointy in the front. It's really chopped in the back like a race car is. They tend to be really flat and chopped and shortened in the back. Well, it's really fast.
GLINTON: It's very, very different, but you'll still recognize it as a Corvette. Meanwhile, the current Corvette is in the basement sales-wise; Chevy barely sold 12,000 last year.
Brian Moody with AutoTrader.com, and he says Corvette's importance go far beyond sales number.
BRIAN MOODY: Well, the Corvette is, by its nature, somewhat impractical. It's a super high-performance car. It's not super inexpensive but it's almost like a rolling billboard for the company, for the attitude of the company, the spirit of the company.
GLINTON: Moody says, if you're GM, you don't necessarily build a high-performance sports car, just to sell high-performance sports cars.
MOODY: Well, the point of the Corvette is that probably more people will end up buying Impalas and Malibus as a result of the Corvette, than will actually buy a Corvette.
ERIC GUTAFSON: My name is Eric Gutafson. I'm editor of Corvette magazine.
GLINTON: So you mean to tell me there's a whole magazine devoted to Corvette.
GUTAFSON: Believe it or not, that's true.
GLINTON: Gustafson loves Corvettes as much as anyone. But he says he part of a devoted but aging and dwindling crowd.
GUTAFSON: So the big challenge is to find new customers. And not only new customers now, but new customers that are going to buy the car in 10 years. So, people in their - teenagers that are going to see this car and that will be their dream car in the future. Right now, the Corvette is not a dream car for young kids.
GLINTON: Gustafson says he likes the new car so far, but nobody's singing about it yet.
Sonari Glinton, NPR News, Detroit.
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INSKEEP: (Singing) 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. Good morning.
In a looming battle over the federal debt ceiling, Republicans in Congress insist they hold the cards. They do have the power to stop federal borrowing, withhold payment of federal debts and cause unknown damage to the world economy. Some want to use that power to force President Obama to reduce federal spending in the way they want.
MONTAGNE: In a news conference yesterday, the president worked to turn Republicans' power against them. He said Congress alone as the power and responsibility to pay the bills Congress itself voted to run up.
INSKEEP: And the president insisted he will not pay what he called ransom for Congress to do its job.
NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: The White House billed yesterday's event as the last news conference of the president's first term. But it was really the opening shot of his second. The battle lines haven't shifted much. Mr. Obama is still locked in a struggle with Congressional Republicans over spending and taxes, with the next big showdown just a few weeks away.
Sometime between mid-February and early March, the federal government will hit its borrowing limit. And unless lawmakers raise the debt ceiling, the president says Washington won't be able to pay the bills it's already racked up.
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HORSLEY: If all this sounds familiar, that's because Washington went through this same debate a year-and-a-half ago. Back then, the debt ceiling was raised at the last minute, but only after a protracted fight that send the stock market and consumer confidence plunging.
Mr. Obama has tried to avoid that this time by saying he simply won't negotiate over the debt ceiling. He's also ruled out legalistic maneuvers to get around Congress, such as invoking the 14th Amendment or minting a trillion-dollar coin. The president says that leaves Congressional Republicans with just two options.
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HORSLEY: So far, GOP leaders have not blinked.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says the debt ceiling debate is the perfect time to get serious about spending cuts. And House Speaker John Boehner argues that's what the American people want.
Republicans have called for one dollar in spending cuts for every dollar in additional borrowing capacity. But Mr. Obama says even Republicans can't agree on spending cuts of that magnitude, without making big changes to programs like Medicare that would be deeply unpopular.
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HORSLEY: Still, the president may be in a weaker bargaining position now than he was last month during the fiscal cliff talks. Then, he could get most of what he wanted automatically, even if Congress failed to act. Now he needs an affirmative vote from Republicans, and the cost of failure is much higher.
Mr. Obama says he is still willing to negotiate what he calls a balanced deficit-reduction plan, like the one that Speaker Boehner walked away from last month. But he says any talks over tax hikes or spending cuts should be separate from what he calls a must-pass increase in the debt ceiling.
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HORSLEY: Figurative political guns weren't the only ones on the president's mind yesterday. He also got recommendations from Vice President Biden about how to address gun violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting. Those recommendations include universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
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HORSLEY: Mr. Obama plans to say more about his gun violence initiative later this week. But Republican leaders say that effort may have to wait for some resolution of the long-running fiscal fight.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
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The increased frequency of severe storms has many utility companies rethinking their strategies. In New York, Superstorm Sandy devastated the mostly-below ground electric grid that runs through the nation's financial capital.
From member station WNYC, Ilya Marritz reports the city's main utility, Con Edison, is looking for ways to protect its aging infrastructure.
ILYA MARRITZ, BYLINE: After Sandy hit, the stock exchange closed for the first time since 9/11. Many people missed a week or more of work. And millions discovered how difficult life is without electricity.
JOHN MCAVOY: The reason we invited you specifically here, and we appreciate your coming, is because we'll show you some of the equipment...
MARRITZ: The day after the flood, Con Edison invited a pack of journalists to tour its East 14 Street substation. This is the place where an explosion had lit up the night sky. John McAvoy, a Con Ed executive, pointed to a line of grime at about hip level.
MCAVOY: And you can see the marks on the wall in fact. That's where the river was up to...
MARRITZ: He said that the river breached water barriers, triggering fuse boxes to automatically shut down. That cut the electricity supply for much of Lower Manhattan. Water also disabled the underground system that brings power into many buildings. At the time, McAvoy and other officials emphasized the unprecedented nature of the storm. Fourteen foot tides? Who had ever seen anything like that?
But what if Sandy isn't so different? What if it's part of a pattern? This is the disturbing fact that now faces John Miksad, Con Edison's senior vice president for Electric Operations.
JOHN MIKSAD: Four of the five worst storms that affected our customers occurred over the last two and a half years.
MARRITZ: It started with a 2010 nor'easter, then Hurricane Irene, then a freak snowstorm right before Halloween, and then Sandy.
What does that tell you?
MIKSAD: Something seems to be changing with the weather that is making it much more difficult for utilities.
MARRITZ: Miksad is a Con Ed lifer. he started as an intern more than 30 years ago. As he contemplates climate change, he sees only a few ways to adapt the system.
MIKSAD: We could raise walls, we could make equipment submersible, or we could raise the equipment itself. Those are the three possibilities.
MARRITZ: And, in fact, the utility has already begun doing some of these things. Over the past six years, Con Ed has spent millions installing waterproof switches and making underground transformers submersible. Planners and environmentalists say those are good steps. But more needs to be done. And it's not just up to the utilities.
Anne Siders has worked with the U.S. Navy on climate change planning. She's now with Columbia University. Siders notes that Con Edison's regulator, the Public Service Commission, requires all utilities to have storm plans.
ANNE SIDERS: But these storm plans are really the short-term approach about, you know, we're going to sandbag these buildings to protect them, or we're going to turn off power in these areas to try and protect that infrastructure. And they're not the longer-term questions about how we build our infrastructure in the first place, or how we decide where to locate things.
MARRITZ: For its part, the regulator says it does take climate change seriously. Any real fixes will cost lots of money, and customers will probably foot the bill. The early estimate is that $800 million will be needed just to protect the 10 electric substations that flooded during the storm.
It's a lot of money. But then again, New York City lost an estimated $5.7 billion in economic activity due to Sandy. Buying some expensive protection now could save money when the next storm hits.
For NPR News, I'm Ilya Marritz in New York.
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MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Federal regulators have ordered JPMorgan Chase to beef up its risk management and auditing procedures. That order comes in response to losses suffered by a group of London-based traders at the bank - losses totaling $6 billion.
NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: Last May, JPMorgan Chase acknowledged that it had lost billions of dollars in a hedging strategy gone awry - and that senior executives had been unaware of what was happening. JPMorgan Chase is one of the biggest and most respected banks on Wall Street and the revelation underscored the systemic threat posed by such losses to the economy as a whole.
Yesterday, the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ordered the bank to improve its risk controls. They also said the bank had to correct deficiencies in the way it combats money laundering. But the bank received no fines or other penalties.
Michael Greenberger is a professor at the University of Maryland Law School.
MICHAEL GREENBERGER: It's a step in the right direction. But overall I think there are many - and I include myself - who watch these markets, who believe these banks are getting away with what amounts to traffic tickets to the rest of us.
ZARROLI: The bank agreed to comply with the orders but admitted no wrongdoing. A committee set up by JPMorgan Chase's board is supposed to present a report today on how last year's losses occurred but the board hasn't decided whether it will be released to the public. It is also deciding whether to reduce the bonuses of CEO Jamie Dimon and other top executives.
Jim Zarroli, NPR, New York.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
People used to talk about the big three automakers in Detroit. Maybe we should be talking instead about the big two automakers on the globe. Toyota was the number automaker in 2010. In 2011, General Motors regained the top spot. In 2012, back to Toyota again.
Here's Michigan Radio's Tracy Samilton.
TRACY SAMILTON, BYLINE: After careening from back to back crises - first, the recalls, then the tsunami, Toyota is number one in worldwide sales again. The company says it sold at least 9.7 million vehicles - it's still counting - passing GM, which sold 9.3 million.
But Toyota executives like Wade Hoyt insist the title isn't important.
WADE HOYT: Nobody's breaking out the sake. We want to be number one in the hearts and minds of our customers and if that makes us number one overall, that's just a bonus.
SAMILTON: General Motors executives also say it doesn't matter. These days, the Detroit automaker is focused on growing its profitability, its vehicle quality and its customer loyalty.
Analyst Larry Dominique of TrueCar.com says GM appears to be doing all the right things, but the company has a long way to go before it can beat Toyota at the loyalty game.
LARRY DOMINIQUE: It's not just the 60-year-old who owned five Toyotas. It's their kids, and their kids' kids. And this loyalty has grown to such a proportion that it makes up such an important part of their sales every year.
SAMILTON: There is one company that does openly admit to wanting to be number one. That's Volkswagen. The company sold only 200,000 fewer vehicles last year than GM, and thinks it can pass both GM and Toyota in the next few years.
Dominique says as long as Volkswagen does it the right way - boosting quality, not incentives - that's OK. But he says things are so competitive in the auto industry now, the crown could bounce from Toyota to GM to Volkswagen and back again for years.
For NPR News, I'm Tracy Samilton in Detroit.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And in other news, the creators of "South Park" and "The Book of Mormon" have announced they are forming their own production studio. NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: Having success in TV, movies and Broadway, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are now branching out with their own, $300 million production company. They've named it Important Studios, and it's poised to approve TV movie and theater projects. It will give the moguls creative and financial control over what they do.
In a news release, the partners quipped that having worked with several different studios, quote, "we came to realize our favorite people in the world are ourselves."
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DEL BARCO: The duo created the racy, satirical, animated TV show and movie "South Park," which is now in its 16th season on Comedy Central. Stone and Parker have already cut a sweetheart deal with the cable network, that gave them half of all revenue not related to television; giving digital rights to "South Park" movies, soundtracks and merchandise, even video games.
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DEL BARCO: "South Park" was one of the first TV shows to be streamed online, and its huge revenues from millions of fans will reportedly help finance Important Studios. So will backers from the Hollywood investment bank The Raine Group; also, profits from the hit Broadway musical Parker and Stone created in 2011, about wide-eyed Mormon missionaries sent to a remote village in Uganda.
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DEL BARCO: "The Book of Mormon" has grossed more than $200 million. It won nine Tony awards in 2011, and productions are still on tour. The movie version is expected to be one of the first projects for Important Studios.
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(APPLAUSE)
DEL BARCO: Mandalit del Barco, NPR News.
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(Reading) Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.
That's the start of a poem that tells a story almost every American kid learns in some form. In 1775, a Boston silversmith rode to warn Americans colonists that British troops were on the way. Barely trained American militiamen shot the elite British force to pieces.
So, let's think about this for a moment. The British were the world's policeman - smart and technologically advanced - while the Americans were the insurgents.
The historian Max boot cannot help but notice the irony.
MAX BOOT: Today, we're used to having Americans soldiers be the forces of the government. And, of course, in our revolution, we were the insurgents and the British were the role of the counterinsurgency. And, in fact, many of the strategies which the American rebels used against the British are similar in many ways to the strategies now being used against us around the world.
INSKEEP: Now, the American revolutionaries eventually did form a regular army. But guerrilla tactics played a huge role in securing their independence. Max Boot sees modern lessons in that story, as told in "Invisible Armies," his new history of guerrilla warfare.
What were the strategies that the American rebels used when they were rebels?
BOOT: Well, it first of all, comes down to not coming out into the open where you could be annihilated by the superior firepower of the enemy. The British got a taste of how the Americans would fight on the very first day of the Revolution, with the shot heard around the world, the Battle of Lexington and Concorde, where the British regulars marched through the Massachusetts countryside.
And the Americans did not mass in front of them but instead chose to slither on their bellies - these Yankees scoundrels, as the British called them - and fired from behind trees and stone walls. And not come out until the kind of open gentleman's fight that the British expected, and instead, took a devastating toll on the British regiment.
INSKEEP: Well, you tell us that the British in the Revolutionary War realized that they had this problem. And that they weren't fools, they tried to be creative, to pick out elite forces, to conduct certain types of raids. Why did it not work for them in the end?
BOOT: They were facing a much more sophisticated guerrilla foe than they had been used to facing. They had experienced fighting the Indians, for example, in North America. What the British are really not ready for in the American Revolution was the marriage between these hit and run tactics, and a very potent political strategy designed to undermine the will of the British people to continue the battle.
Documents like Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" and the Declaration of Independence were aimed not just at winning support in the colonies for the Revolution, they were also very quickly exported to Great Britain, to make the case to the British people as to why they should not be fighting their American brothers. And that had a very potent impact in the long run, in undermining the support in Britain for continuing this long and costly war.
INSKEEP: Something that feels very familiar is your description of the British trying to fight a civil conflict against a civilian population, and understanding that they need to treat people gently - if they can.
BOOT: Well, there is a division in the British ranks, as there often is. Many of the leading British generals thought that they should try to win over the hearts and minds of the Americans - a famous phrase which was first used by General Sir Henry Clinton, who is one of the British commanders in North America. But his desire to win over the hearts and minds of the Americans was undermined by many of his harsher subordinates.
So the British did not have a consistent policy of conciliation, nor did they have a consistent policy of harshness. Instead, they were confused and there was this strategic muddle that, as much as anything, led to their defeat.
INSKEEP: So I'm thinking of lessons here that any general should know, that guerrilla armies can be very effective; that they're hard to fight; that public opinion is very important; that winning over hearts and minds can be fraught with peril. There are certain lessons and carry on.
BOOT: To my mind, the American Revolution is in many ways a turning point in the history of guerrilla warfare. Because prior to that, before the advent of any kind of democracy, unelected emperors and kings could pursue counterinsurgency campaigns almost indefinitely. I mean, just imagine what would've happened if the American colonists had been rebelling against the British Empire, but against the Roman Empire.
No matter what setbacks the Roman Empire would've suffered on the battlefield, they would've come back and they would've crucified George Washington and the Founders, quite literally. But the British are not able to do that because Great Britain, in the 1770s and 1780s, was no longer this absolute monarchy. It now had to respect the power of public opinion as expressed in parliament. And when parliament turned against the war in 1782, and they voted to discontinue offensive operations, that was it.
INSKEEP: Did the modern day United States military establishment forget those lessons in recent years?
BOOT: Well, this is a recurring problem, that armies do not like fighting guerrilla wars. They regarded as being beneath them, because they don't regard guerrillas as being worthy enemies. Unfortunately, they keep getting forced into these guerrilla wars. And what normally happens is they do learn how to fight after a period of trial and error, and after suffering costly defeats. But then as soon as they leave that war behind, they tend to forget what they've learned.
INSKEEP: Let me ask you as someone who, if I'm not mistaken, supported the Iraq War at the beginning. Did civilian leaders and experts also overlook the costs, or the potential costs, of plunging into a foreign country and risking this kind of extended conflict, with all the disadvantages that you lay out in your history?
BOOT: I think there was a lot of wishful thinking at the start of the Iraq War, by a lot of people in the military and in the civilian world, including me. You know, a lot of people did not anticipate how prolonged the war would be war, or how much resistance there would be, or how clumsy the U.S. would be in trying to deal with that in ways that actually exacerbated the conflict, rather than solving the problems.
INSKEEP: You know, Max Boot, as I'm sure you know very well, armies often think they have a technological fix to this guerrilla problem. And there does seem to have been a radical change in warfare in recent years, because of the prevalence of drones.
Has warfare changed because of that technological change?
BOOT: I would be very skeptical of the idea that there are technological fixes to such deep-rooted problems. You always hope that you can push some button, blow somebody up and end a war. History doesn't usually cooperate in that kind of arrangement. Sure, you can kill a few leaders by remote control. But then they tend to get replaced. And you don't really have a good fix on who your enemy is, unless you have a lot of human intelligence; unless you have a very good understanding of the local culture - the area of where you fight. And all of that is very, very hard to develop - almost impossible to develop from long range.
So drones can be an effective tactic in a very limited way. But they are not the end-all and be-all. They are certainly not going to be a substitute for the kind of counterinsurgency expertise, for the kind of language and cultural expertise that you need to deal, effectively, with deep-rooted insurgencies.
INSKEEP: Max Boot's book is called "Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare From Ancient Times to the Present."
Thanks very much.
BOOT: Thanks for having me on.
INSKEEP: You hear him on MORNING EDITION from NPR news. I'm Steve Inskeep.
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How does a Puerto Rican girl from the tenements of the Bronx end up a Supreme Court justice? Sonia Sotomayor tells that story in her autobiography out this week, "My Beloved World." Yesterday, in her interview with NPR legal affairs correspondent, Nina Totenberg, she talked about her childhood and her school life. Today she talks about her career.
NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: After Princeton and Yale Law School, Sotomayor moved on not to a private law firm but to the Manhattan district attorney's office as a baby prosecutor, or as these newbies were known in the DA's office, ducklings. She'd been drawn to the law initially by a defense lawyer, a fictional one at that: Perry Mason.
(SOUNDBITE OF "PERRY MASON" THEME MUSIC)
TOTENBERG: But she liked Mason's foil too, prosecutor Hamilton Burger, because of his interest in justice, not just winning.
And at her confirmation hearing, she even sited this Burger moment.
(SOUNDBITE FROM TV SHOW, "PERRY MASON")
TOTENBERG: As an assistant DA, Sotomayor quickly moved up to prosecuting felonies, but she lost her first two felony jury trials, prompting a visit to her boss for advice.
JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR: My bureau chief looked at me and said, Sonia, you, in your presentation of a case, not only have to believe that the defendant is guilty, but that it's moral and just to convict them. And that bit of advice was life-altering in my skills as a lawyer. After that, I didn't lose another trial.
TOTENBERG: Sotomayor went on to put in jail some of the most vicious criminals in the city, but after four and a half years she was ready to leave.
SOTOMAYOR: When you are working in criminal law, you are in touch with and a part of the worst parts of humanity. You are seeing people commit some of the most atrocious acts imaginable. And I was seeing myself lose my optimism in humanity. I really wanted to hold on then as I do in this job now to the Sonia that plays to the good in people and so I knew I had to leave criminal law.
TOTENBERG: She went to a small firm, Pavia and Harcourt, that specialized in intellectual property, and she soon became a partner. It was during a visit in Venice for a wedding that she would learn a new life lesson. She'd mastered dealing with her diabetes, a disease that once was fatal or debilitating for young adults, but now was so treatable that she could hide it from most people.
When she failed to show up for one of the planned events in Venice, a friend went to her hotel, and when she didn't answer talked the manager into opening the door. Sotomayor was passed out on the floor. She was rushed to the hospital and quickly recovered.
SOTOMAYOR: But the fact that my friend didn't know what to do when he found me was a wakeup call that I had to be more open about my disease, that I couldn't shut out the people in my life from knowing how to help me if something was wrong.
TOTENBERG: During those years in New York, Sotomayor would dive into personal projects with the same zeal she had when she tackled learning to write English in college. She felt she was a klutz so she took salsa lessons and learned how to dance. She was afraid of the water so she enrolled in a swimming class and became a regular in the pool. She even committed herself to a five-day residential program to stop smoking, and she did something about her clothes, a facet of life she'd always deliberately ignored, believing that she couldn't compete with her stylish mother.
Now, however, she recruited friends to take her shopping and got a sense of her own style. She did it Sonia's way.
SOTOMAYOR: I don't swim well. I'm not the best dancer in the world, but you can manage. And when you can't, you have to find a way around. You can't let a door stop you, and that's what I've spent my life doing, finding a way around it.
TOTENBERG: Meanwhile, at the law firm, it was her mentor who all but ordered her to apply for a federal district judgeship in 1991. She'd always been interested in becoming a judge, but she initially balked, telling him he was crazy.
SOTOMAYOR: I was 37 years old. I couldn't imagine anybody being appointed to the federal bench at 37. And, in fact, the day I walked in, I was the youngest judge on the bench and not by a little, but by a lot. And so I'm thinking just what I said, he's crazy. This is nuts. No one's going to appoint the 37-year-old whose only experience in life has been a former prosecutor and a partner at a law firm.
Thank God I was wrong.
TOTENBERG: Not that being a judge was easy. The first year, she says, there was so much to learn that she sometime had not a headache but a brain ache. It was the steepest learning curve of her life, she says, steeper even than her first year on the Supreme Court.
SOTOMAYOR: That first year on the district court, I wasn't sure my nose was above the water.
TOTENBERG: She would spend 17 years on the trial bench and the court of appeals and then in 2009, President Obama appointed her to the U.S. Supreme Court, the first Hispanic ever to hold the post. Walking into the East Room on the day of the announcement, she couldn't keep pace with the long-legged president and vice president.
SOTOMAYOR: And I whispered, please, and they turned around and looked at me and I said, I can't walk that fast. And they smiled. The moment they smiled, I tell people I had an outer-body experience. It was as if my emotions were so big that if I continued to let them exist in my body, I would stop functioning.
TOTENBERG: So she banished her emotions, as she puts it, to someplace above her head, as she stood next to the president.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I have decided to nominate an inspiring woman who I believe will make a great justice - Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the great state of New York.
SOTOMAYOR: That's the way that I survived probably for a year and a half - the nomination, the confirmation process, the inductions, throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium. All of these were moments I'll treasure forever, but at those moments I couldn't let the emotion overcome me.
TOTENBERG: Oh, and by the way, throwing out that baseball at Yankee Stadium, she learned to do that in the usual Sotomayor way. She'd never thrown a baseball in her life, so...
SOTOMAYOR: I went out on a mound outside the courthouse for 20 minutes every afternoon. I would look up at the windows that looked out at the courtyard and there would be people staring at me and I could see the laughter.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Throwing out today's ceremonial first pitch, Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
SOTOMAYOR: At the end, I couldn't throw from the mound, but I did end up throwing the pitch down the middle, a little to the right, but still in the strike zone.
TOTENBERG: Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
MONTAGNE: We've been sitting here in out studios looking at some fascinating family photos of Sonia Sotomayor, like the one of the future Supreme Court justice around the age of seven. The photos are at NPR.org. This is NPR News.
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Let's get a deeper sense of what it feels like to live in a city at war. A few days ago, we heard from NPR's Deborah Amos, recently out of Syria, where she met children so scarred by conflict that when they painted pictures of people, they showed them bleeding. Deborah also mentioned commerce going on, a sense that life continues which is what NPR's Kelly McEvers discovered when she visited the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo.
Kelly McEvers is on the line. Welcome to back to the program, Kelly.
KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: So what does it feel like, what is it seem like when you go into a city like Aleppo?
MCEVERS: Yeah, we were driving in the other day and our Syrian colleague handed us this bag of bananas and a box of chocolate bars. And he said, Here, you know, take these - you're going to need it. Aleppo is starving.
And then we drive into the city and we are just shocked to see a place that was full of life. There were people in the streets and there was food everywhere. There's food in the marketplace; as there was freshly butchered meat, oranges, apples, potatoes, radishes, parsnips.
One morning, we went out to get breakfast. And, you know, the typical breakfast is foul. It's a fava bean dish you eat with fresh tomatoes. And our colleague, producer Rima Marrouch, said to a guy, you know, we're going here to get - he said, no, don't go there to get the foul. You need to go to this place to get the foul - its better over there.
And she said, This is a war zone, you know, how can you choose which place you eat breakfast? And he said, This is all right. You know, we realized Aleppo is one of the oldest cities in the world. This is a city of merchants that's not only survived for centuries and centuries, but has thrived. And we just got the sense that you really just can't keep the place down.
I do have to say, I don't want to be too flip here. I mean we were the lucky ones. This food that we saw was to have two and a half to three times more expensive than it was before the conflict started. So, you know, there was a lot of people in that city who can look at that food but who couldn't afford to buy it.
INSKEEP: Well, you've been describing in recent days on NPR a city that is partly held by the government, partly held by rebels, with battle lines in between.
MCEVERS: Right, it's a city divided in half. And so what we seen, as we reported yesterday, is a lot of the fighting has left the center of the city it is now the outskirts of some of these government bases. And even though there's not as much fighting, you can still see just other utter destruction in some of the neighborhoods in Aleppo.
I mean, just entire buildings reduced to rubble. Abandoned buildings being used as the bases for rebels, and looted and trashed. Water mains broken, garbage everywhere. People are cutting down trees and burning school furniture to make fires. And still, every once in a while, there are these horrific, indiscriminate attacks by the government in civilian areas. You've got airstrikes from warplanes, you know, mortars, rockets, sometimes missiles. It's basically collective punishment on the civilians for housing the rebels.
We went to one neighborhood where an attack came at night and here's what we found.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
MCEVERS: An entire building just liquidated. And for about a block either way, the fronts of the buildings have just been blown off. And there is rubble everywhere; scraps of a curtain hanging from the balcony, electrical wires dangling.
You know, this is why we're seeing such a high death toll every day in Syria; these indiscriminate attacks from the government. And then you also have, you know, the big clashes between government forces and rebel troops, you know, mainly at these key bases. You know, we're seeing 100, 200 people dying still every day in Syria. But in many areas of Aleppo, still, life is trying to get back to a kind of normal.
INSKEEP: Trying to get back to a kind of normal, but that's got to be difficult with a war going on - in some cases, a few blocks away.
MCEVERS: Yeah, definitely. I mean, there are, you know, some major services that have not come back. For nearly two years, Syrians have been going to the streets every Friday to protest against the government. They say, you know: The people want the fall of the regime. Well, this is what we heard this past Friday.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING PROTESTERS)
MCEVERS: They're saying the people want electricity and flour, flour to make bread. Bread is the mainstay of the diet in Syria. People have been without power for almost a month now in Aleppo. And it is cold, let me tell you.
(LAUGHTER)
MCEVERS: Then, of course, there's the bread issue that to some degree has been alleviated by guess who? These hard-line Islamist groups, mainly Jabhat al-Nusra, an organization the United States considers a terrorist group.
They've realize that the people do need services and that the way to win the hearts and minds of the people is to provide them with bread. And so they're doing that on the ground. We'll be reporting on this a lot in the coming days.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Kelly McEvers just returned from Aleppo, Syria. Kelly, thanks very much.
MCEVERS: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: And today, we have a reminder of the kinds of indiscriminate attacks that Kelly mentioned because Syrian activists today, say that dozens of people were killed or hurt in two bombings at the government-controlled Aleppo University.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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NPR's business news starts with a Wal-Mart plan to hire veterans.
OK, we've heard elsewhere in the program about corporate recruiters seeking out veterans. Today, Wal-Mart announces it will hire every veteran who wants a job. It's part of a new program beginning on Memorial Day. The only requirements here are that the veteran left the military in the previous year and that the veteran was not dishonorably discharged.
This Wal-Mart plan is expected to lead to jobs for more than 100,000 people over the next five years.
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And today's last word in business comes to us courtesy of Marilyn Monroe in the film "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND")
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With that in mind, Swiss watchmaker Swatch required one of the most famous brands in the diamond business - the high-end jeweler, Harry Winston. The deal is valued at close to a billion dollars.
INSKEEP: Harry Winston, of course, is a symbol of luxury, which regularly loans out diamond studded creations to stars for their walk down the red carpet. And now Swatch, best known for its colorful plastic watches, is hoping some of that style will rub off.
MONTAGNE: Swatch's chairman said diamonds are still a girl's best friend.
And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND")
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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
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France's military intervention in Mali now has the approval of the United Nations. And today French airstrikes continue in the West African nation.
MONTAGNE: The goal is to restore order in a country where groups linked with al-Qaida have taken much of the northern desert region. In many areas they've imposed strict Islamic law.
INSKEEP: Our coverage begins with NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton.
OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE: French military intervention, at the request of Mali's president, has been dramatic, with surgical air strikes by fighter jets and attack helicopters, targeting heavily-armed Islamist convoys and command centers.
Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to the U.N., says they wanted to halt the rebel advance on government-held South.
AMBASSADOR GERARD ARAUD: What was at stake was the existence of Mali and beyond Mali was the stability of all West Africa. So it's with determination, but also with reluctance, that we have decided to launch this military intervention. And we'll conduct it as long as necessary.
QUIST-ARCTON: So far the French have pummeled rebel positions from the air, backing up Mali's beleaguered army on the ground. But the al-Qaida affiliated Islamist insurgents are mobile, versatile and determined, and they know the desert terrain they control, which has become a refuge for terrorists and traffickers.
The rebel fighters have managed to seize more territory under the noses of the Malian and French militaries. But the battle continues to try to dislodge the Islamists. African troops are under pressure to deploy swiftly, to lead the operation as mandated by the U.N., while parallel diplomatic and political solutions are pursued.
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Dakar.
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Now a look at who's fighting in Mali and why that far away conflict might affect the United States. Yesterday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta offered the most basic take on America's interests in Mali - al-Qaida is there.
SECRETARY LEON PANETTA DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: The fact is, we have made a commitment that al-Qaida is not going to find any place to hide.
MONTAGNE: And that includes Mali.
NPR's counter-terrorism correspondent Dina Temple-Raston joins us now to talk more about this. Welcome.
DINA TEMPLE-RASTON, BYLINE: Thank you.
MONTAGNE: Now, break down for us, please, the different groups that are fighting in Mali.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, first on one side there's Mali's military. And then on the other side a local independence group called the Tuareg, and a coalition of Islamist militants, including groups with ties to al-Qaida.
If we go over a brief history of the last few years in Mali, basically what's been gone is this. Mali's military has been fighting that Tuareg independence movement in the northern part of the country. And there have been periodic shuffles with the Tuaregs since like 1916. What's different this time is that some of the Tuaregs who are fighting now have more experience.
Tuaregs have been fighting as mercenaries for Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi. And when he fell, they came home to Mali and they brought with them Libyan weapons and fighting experience. And they started winning against Mali's military and taking territory in the North.
MONTAGNE: And at that point joined forces with the Islamists.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Exactly, Islamists including al-Qaida. The Tuaregs figured that once they won independence they would ask the Islamists to leave. But they've miscalculated. The Islamists pushed many of the Tuaregs who are more secular out of northern Mali. So now the fight is largely between Mali's government and the al-Qaida-linked groups, like Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
And the Mali military hasn't been very effective. Over the past year they've lost territory the size of Texas .
MONTAGNE: And the government of Mali, it's a new interim government. The government of Mali as been asking for help. And one place that appears to be very happy to get help was from France, which is the former colonial power in Mali - and it has intervened.
TEMPLE-RASTON: Exactly, and the U.S. policy had been to help prop up the civilian government and get a pan-African force to fight the Islamists and al-Qaida in Mali. The U.S. in particular didn't want to feed the perception that this would be just another battle of the West against Islam. And France apparently didn't want to wait for that slow and steady approach.
So the president of France, arguing that thousands of French citizens in Mali were in danger, sent in about 750 troops and French fighter jets. And some U.S. officials say that by going in France may actually have made the problem worse.
MONTAGNE: Now, how would that be? Why worse?
TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, because they will have put a Western face on this conflict - exactly what the U.S. was trying to avoid. You know, over the past year, Mali has become a kind of go-to destination for violent jihadis. The sense is that with France stepping in, this will just make Mali that much more attractive to them. So the idea is that this is a local conflict, even with an al-Qaida presence there, and it could now become a global terrorism problem.
Here's just one example of what could happen. Just last month, two Americans from Alabama were arrested on terrorism charges and the FBI alleges that these two men were boarding flights to go join the fight in Mali.
And now Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, he said yesterday that the U.S. will provided some sort of logistical support to France. But what the U.S. really wants this to be is an African-led initiative. And we're hearing that they're probably going to see a movement back in that direction in the coming weeks. In fact, just overnight the French president said that he wants to hand this problem over to the Africans as quickly as possible.
MONTAGNE: Dina, thanks very much.
TEMPLE-RASTON: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Dina Temple-Raston.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now let's report on the man who sent the French military into action in Mali. The decision transformed the image of France's new president, as NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports from Paris.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: On the campaign trail last spring, Francois Hollande's mild manner was appreciated after years of President Nicolas Sarkozy's abrasive and hyperactive style. But since he's been elected, it's gotten him nowhere. He's been called indecisive and soft, and not quite up to being president. His style has earned him the nickname Flanby, after a wobbly Jello dessert.
PRESIDENT FRANCOIS HOLLANDE: (Speaking French)
BEARDSLEY: But that began to change last Friday, when President Hollande transformed himself into commander-in-chief, announcing on national television that he was sending French troops to Mali to fight the terrorists.
HOLLANDE: (Speaking French)
BEARDSLEY: The decision to go into Mali was sudden, but there has been an immediate effect, says Francois Heisebourg with the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research.
FRANCOIS HEISEBOURG: Francois Hollande's image has changed because the president in France is the commander-in-chief, and therefore if he uses force in a decisive manner, that has immediate resonance.
BEARDSLEY: Finally President screamed one headline; Leading the War yelled another. Of course it hasn't been enough to completely undo his old image. In a popular, satirical marionette show on television called "Les Guignols," Hollande is still subservient to his partner, Valerie Twierweiler. In this skit from last night, she gives the military briefing while he looks on meekly. Don't interrupt me, she tells him.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "LES GUIGNOLS")
BEARDSLEY: Hollande has been less impressive with regards to a war being fought on the domestic front over same-sex marriage. Massive protests this weekend highlighted the fact that Hollande didn't sufficiently prepare the ground for his campaign promise to legalize same-sex marriage. Before that, another campaign pledge that went awry was Hollande's 75 percent tax on the super-wealthy.
But Hollande's behind-the-scenes, incremental style has produced some unexpected results in other areas. After years of strikes and clashes between French unions and employers, the president persuaded them to sit down and work out a deal. Hollande's approval rating has shot up virtually overnight, from around 40 to 63 percent. Shoppers in this Paris grocery store are certainly impressed.
STEPHANE CRENDAL: (Speaking French)
BEARDSLEY: He really seems to be leading the action now and not in the background, says Stephane Crendal. The Mali intervention reaffirmed him as head of state. It's a lot more popular than his gay marriage bill. Analyst Francois Heisebourg says Mali, for Hollande, is a bit like the bin Laden raid was for President Obama.
HEISEBOURG: A president who until now had been seen as being hesitant, sort of academic in his approach, is able to decide a high-risk, quite substantial military commitment.
BEARDSLEY: Hollande said today he plans to increase the number of French troops on the ground in Mali threefold in the coming weeks. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.
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OK. So this is the day that a White House taskforce, headed by Vice President Joe Biden releases recommendations on gun control. But the White House is not the only voice in this debate. In Maryland a guns rights group is waiting for a federal appeals court ruling in a case that could make it easier to carry a concealed weapon. As NPR's Allison Keyes reports, what's decided in Maryland could lead to changes in the nation's gun laws.
ALLISON KEYES, BYLINE: Maryland resident Raymond Wollard was granted a license to carry a concealed handgun soon after a 2002 break-in at his home. It was renewed once. But when his second renewal was denied, Wollard filed a federal lawsuit challenging the state's requirement that people show a good and substantial reason to carry a weapon.
Lawyer Alan Gura for the non-profit Second Amendment Foundation which brought the case with Wollard explains the argument.
ALAN GURA: The state can't force people to prove their good and substantial reason for exercising something that is, in fact, a right.
KEYES: A federal district judge struck down the good and substantial reason requirement in March, ruling it unconstitutional. But the state appealed. Assistant Maryland Attorney General Matthew Fader told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th circuit in October that without the requirement people could carry loaded handguns...
MATTHEW FADER: In crowded spaces like shopping malls, open-air markets, crowded city streets and transportation hubs.
KEYES: Fader added that the plaintiffs aren't seeking the right to carry in self-defense. He says Wollard and the gun rights group want...
FADER: The right to carry outside the home either for no reason at all or in case...
KEYES: Some other situation develops where one might need a gun. Two U.S. Supreme court decisions - one in an Illinois case and one in a District of Columbia case - struck down laws effectively barring individuals from owning handguns. So far, the court hasn't directly addressed the right to bear arms for self-defense outside of the home.
But Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation are hoping that's about to change.
GURA: At some point the Supreme Court will have to clarify because some courts believe it's not all that clear.
KEYES: Gura cites two ongoing cases that might end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. One from Illinois - where a federal appeals court struck down the state's sweeping law restricting the public carrying of firearms, and one from New York where a federal appeals court upheld the state's requirement that people have proper cause before being granted a carry permit.
Firearm policy expert Daniel Webster has a clear opinion on the nation's gun laws.
DANIEL WEBSTER: They're not strong enough.
KEYES: The director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research was among those meeting with the White House Gun Violence Taskforce this past week. Webster says the most important part of the national conversation in the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School is...
WEBSTER: We have an incomplete background check system, in that private sales in many states are completely unregulated.
KEYES: Webster adds that in many states people with criminal histories can legally possess guns. The state of Maryland in the Wollard case, cited the concern that potentially violent people who haven't been convicted of a crime might be able to obtain permits to carry outside the home if the ruling vacating the good and substantial reason requirement is tossed out. But, Webster adds...
WEBSTER: If the courts do make a decision to overturn Maryland's law that's an opportunity for Maryland to begin to, sort of, reexamine what kind of standards do you want to put in place.
KEYES: The federal appeals court ruling in the Maryland case is expected soon. Allison Keyes, NPR News, Washington.
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Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep with a word from Clarence Thomas - we're just not exactly sure what it is. The Supreme Court justice had gone seven years without saying a word in oral arguments. Then yesterday, Justice Thomas spoke.
Several justices were talking at once, leaving his exact remark unclear. But a detailed contextual analysis by The New York Times suggests he told a joke, saying a law degree from Yale or Harvard might be proof of incompetence. He's a Yale grad.
It's MORNING EDITION.
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Good morning. I'm Renée Montagne. Among the different theories as to why stock markets rise and fall, here's evidence that it's entirely unpredictable. Meet Orlando, the stock market cat.
Britain's Observer newspaper ran an investment challenge in 2012, pitting stock brokers against Orlando. The calculating kitty chose stocks by batting a toy mouse onto a grid of options - and his portfolio came out ahead. How's that for a Wall Street fat cat?
It's MORNING EDITION.
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When a tragedy happens, there are many who turn to God. And then there are people who don't believe in God, or whose faith has been destroyed by a tragic event. The number of Americans turning away from religion is growing - a trend we're exploring all this week in a series, "Losing Our Religion." This morning, NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty shares the story of two women who lost those closest to them.
(SOUNDBITE OF AIRPLANE)
BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY, BYLINE: It's a perfect day for flying, Carol Fiore says - clear, breezy, a gorgeous view of the Rocky Mountains.
CAROL FIORE: We're standing in front of Mile High Gliding, where I flew gliders quite a few years ago. Part of why I enjoyed flying so much is because I did it with Eric.
HAGERTY: Eric was her husband for 20 years. After they married, he flew F-15s in the Air Force. And then he became a test pilot in Wichita, for the airplane manufacturer Bombardier. On October 10, 2000, the plane Eric was co-piloting crashed on takeoff. When Carol arrived at Via Christi Hospital, she learned that her husband had burns over 50 percent of his body.
C. FIORE: Then I found out that he had been given him his last rites.
HAGERTY: Not a surprise, since Via Christi is a Catholic hospital. But even after Carol announced that Eric would not want anyone praying for him, a priest hovered and prayed, day after day. Finally, she kicked the priest out.
C. FIORE: I think that was a turning point in the whole religion thing, for me.
HAGERTY: She told everyone that she and Eric were atheists. And still, as he lingered near death for 36 days, people offered religious consolation. "God has a plan," they told her, and "Eric is going to a better place."
C. FIORE: And when he was in the hospital and they said that, he was laying in a bed with tubes coming out of him, with 50 percent burns and no face. Is that a better place? And then after he died and people said to me, well, Eric's in a better place - I'm an atheist. Eric is in the ground, rotting. I know that sounds horrible to say that, but that is where he is. How is that a better place?
HAGERTY: After Eric's funeral - which was held in an airplane hangar, not a church - Carol was flailing. She was hardly able to take care of herself, much less her two young daughters. All the grief groups were attached to a church, so she tried the self-help section of Barnes & Noble.
C. FIORE: Everything I found had to do with God - putting your faith in God, believing that God had some sort of plan. I found nothing to help me.
HAGERTY: Carol realized she had to go it alone. She moved the family from Wichita to Loveland, Colorado. And as a coping mechanism, she began to write - a book about her husband and now, a grief workbook for atheists. But mainly, it's her daughters who give Eric's tragic death some measure of meaning.
C. FIORE: I don't believe in an afterlife, and I don't think I'll see him anymore. But I just have to look in Tia's eyes, and hear her laugh; and hear Robin talk about history the same way that Eric did; and know that he is still there.
C. FIORE: Hey, honey!
ROBIN FIORE: Hi!
C. FIORE: Hi. I brought you some stuff.
R. FIORE: Oh, oh, thanks, my...
C. FIORE: And here's your zoo...
R. FIORE: ...zoo shirt. Yeah.
HAGERTY: Her daughter, Robin, is a student at the University of Colorado, at Boulder. She says she sees her dad's genetic influence in her and her sister.
R. FIORE: And as an ecologist and as a scientist, we believe that, you know, when you die, your energy becomes part of a system again. So in that way, I guess, people can never really be gone.
HAGERTY: And yet Carol Fiore believes it's harder for her to grieve because she's an atheist.
C. FIORE: I often envy religious people, who have that devout faith. And they know that they're going to see their loved ones again when they die. But I don't believe that. I - sometimes, I wish I did.
HAGERTY: This is a sentiment that Joanne Cacciatore hears often. Cacciatore is a professor at Arizona State University. After her baby died in 1994, she started the MISS Foundation, a grief group for parents that is now nationwide. She also began focusing her research on how people grieve after a child dies.
JOANNE CACCIATORE: What we tend to see is that people who have some type of spiritual base, tend to cope - I don't want to say easier. But they tend to take comfort or solace in the fact that they'll be reunited with their child, at some point.
HAGERTY: Cacciatore says she's seen nonbelievers embrace spirituality, and religious people wash their hands of God. She says tragedy almost always shakes a person's faith, but they usually circle back to it. Mari Bailey doesn't think she will.
MARI BAILEY: So it's this end unit over here.
HAGERTY: Bailey and I are parked across from a brown, stucco house in Phoenix. This isn't her home, but she knows it well.
BAILEY: When you walk in, there's a kitchen, a very small kitchen. And that's where Michael was shot.
HAGERTY: Her son, Michael, was killed here eight years ago. He was 21 - fresh out of the Navy, and enrolled in culinary school. That day, Michael went to a friend's house. An acquaintance dropped by. He started yelling, and waving a gun around. He shot Michael close up, square in the chest.
BAILEY: And that was when my world just shattered.
HAGERTY: Soon, her faith would follow.
BAILEY: So this is St. Francis Church. And this is where my sisters and brother and I were baptized and...
HAGERTY: This is where Bailey sought solace after her only son died. What she found was a priest who told her, "We all have our crosses to bear," and "It was time for God to call Michael home." She thought a priest could not possibly understand the pain of losing a child.
BAILEY: I just remember thinking, that's it; I'm done with the Catholic religion. I think it got more personal with God when I tried just praying on my own. Then I became more angry. And I questioned, why do I need to be praying at all? Why is my son dead? And what kind of God lets a child be shot? And I think that was more me not only just leaving the Catholic religion, but that was me leaving God, too.
HAGERTY: Later, she says it was hard to break from her religion. She thought...
BAILEY: Uh-oh, what am I going to use to save me now? And I really came to the realization that yeah, I think I'm alone in this, and I need to save myself.
HAGERTY: She saved herself by learning everything she could about traumatic grief. And the research suggests that one of the best ways to heal, is to help others.
BAILEY: Good evening, everybody. My name is Mari Bailey. I am truly sorry for the circumstances that have brought us together tonight.
HAGERTY: Bailey opens the monthly meeting of Parents of Murdered Children. The mothers here tell of children whose ends were too soon, too violent.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: My son Chris was shot in the face.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: I lost my daughter Litha(ph) to a domestic violence situation.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: My son Michael was shot in the head by my own nephew.
HAGERTY: It's here, in the pain, that Mari Bailey feels a little more whole. And yet she can't quite abandon the hope of seeing her son again.
BAILEY: For the sake of Michael, I just need to believe that there is more to life, beyond death. Because if it's not, then that means that my son's life is over completely.
HAGERTY: Bailey says wishes she could believe in God again. But, she says, "I just can't."
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
When you start your own company, it becomes an extension of yourself, an expression of your habits, your beliefs, your quirks. When John Mackey started a health food grocery store decades ago, he hoped to make it an extension of his values. Now that John Mackey's Whole Foods market is a nationwide chain with countless customers, stockholders and suppliers to please, that is hard work. Yet Mackey still tries to do it.
And in a new book, he defends the virtues of capitalism, even if capitalism's vices have been exposed in recent years.
JOHN MACKEY: Even if its goal is to maximize profits, it's not as if business can just do whatever the hell it wants to do, because people exchange with it voluntarily, and that acts to discipline some of the selfishness and greed that a corporation might have.
INSKEEP: John Mackey is co-author of a new book called "Conscious Capitalism." It's sort of a new-age capitalist credo about how companies can become enlightened, and along the way improve the public's image of big corporations.
How did large corporations fall into such public disfavor?
MACKEY: The biggest reason is people have a tendency to distrust what is large and powerful. But then I think mostly, it's the philosophy of why business exists in the first place. That philosophy of maximizing profits and shareholder value means that many people see corporations as primarily selfish and greedy, that they're out there just to make as much money as possible, and they don't apparently care about anybody else.
I think that's a caricature. I don't think it's completely accurate. But business has not done enough to disavow that. It has not been able to embrace a more comprehensive, positive philosophy, which is what our book tries to do.
INSKEEP: Aren't there a lot of corporations that do focus primarily on maximizing shareholder value and, in fact, they think that the whole legal framework of the United States requires them to be that way?
MACKEY: Many corporations do think that way. But because business is inherently connected through stakeholders and to interdependent systems, you can't maximize profits unless you are creating value for your customers. The art of good conscious business leadership is to look for the win-win-win-win strategies so that all the stakeholders can simultaneously be winning.
INSKEEP: You said another thing there: conscious business. What do you mean by a conscious business?
MACKEY: A conscious business is one who understands, one, that it has a higher purpose besides just making money, and number two, it understands how these stakeholders are connected together in a larger business system.
INSKEEP: Can you think of a moment in the last couple of decades where you felt that you faced a decision point, a choice - you know, I could make more money this way, but I would become the evil company I don't ever want to be?
MACKEY: I think you face those choices on a regular basis. Seldom in the decisions that you make in business is it clearly black-and-white, good-versus-evil. Mostly, it's kind of on the fringe, on the periphery. But our company made a decision to get rid of what we call unsustainable seafood, red-rated seafood species that Monterey Bay Aquarium and Blue Ocean Institute - two organizations we work with - had labeled these species as unsustainable.
INSKEEP: They're being overfished.
MACKEY: They're being overfished. Exactly. So we labeled it unsustainable, and we made a decision that we would phase them out. I think it was over a three-year period.
INSKEEP: What were some of the fish that I would have found at a Whole Foods seafood counter that were labeled this way?
MACKEY: Octopus, cod, Atlantic cod, which used to be the most abundant fish in the Western Hemisphere. In pre-Columbian times, it was the basis of the whole New England fishing industry, and 95 percent of the stocks are down from what they were a couple hundred years ago. So those are a couple of examples. And we actually are very proud of the fact that we discontinued selling those species.
Some people were very happy about that, but then again you take a risk when you do that, because some of your customers are going to go shop - who don't care about sustainability - they're going to go shop at your competitor's store who has the fish. So you lose some business that way.
INSKEEP: Every phase of that decision must have been complicated. You said that you decided to phase it out, which meant that for a while, you were labeling these products and selling them, anyway.
MACKEY: And being criticized for doing so.
INSKEEP: For being a gradualist, basically.
MACKEY: Well, the advantage of doing it that way is it's a compromise. You have your internal argument, your internal discussion, where the seafood people might be saying we can't afford to lose those sales, and the other people saying we can't afford to continue to sell fish that's not sustainable. So the compromise is, is OK, we're going to get rid of it, but we'll give you three years to find a sustainable alternative to it - a substitute, so to speak.
And, in fact, in the case of cod, for example, we found the Marine Stewardship Council, which is a sustainability certifying agency, international, that Whole Foods has worked with for years, actually was able to certify one fishery of cod as sustainable. So we were able to still sell cod from this sustainable fishery. That was a good example of by giving it a little bit of time, our buyers were able to find an alternative.
INSKEEP: Because, in the end, you're in a marketplace, and you need to make a profit, whatever your values might be.
MACKEY: No. You've, once again, gone back to the tradeoff thinking, that there must be conflict. There must be a tradeoff that has to happen here, whereas I've just given you the opposite. I've given you an example where we were able to do the win-win, where we were able to maintain sustainability at the same time that we were able to meet our customers' desire to have this seafood.
INSKEEP: Well, it was a compromise, as you said, to use your word.
MACKEY: It was a compromise internally while we sought the win-win. Sometimes there are tradeoffs, but that's just a failure of creativity, a failure of imagination. In this example, there was no failure. We were able to find the win-win.
INSKEEP: And I'm just thinking in terms of trying to do business while keeping a higher purpose in mind. Everybody knows about the effect that activist stockholders have had on corporations that do have to look over their shoulders and think about shareholder value and make difficult decisions with that in mind. Since you've been public for a couple of decades, I'm curious how, if at all, you've been able to dodge the occasional investor who says: Look, you're wasting a lot of money on these idealistic schemes. I want a better dividend.
MACKEY: We haven't necessarily dodged it. The investors, of course, do want us to make more money, and they do want higher dividends and they want the stock price to go up. But I will say on balance that the investor-stakeholder is the easiest stakeholder to get along with. The stakeholder that complains the most, of course, are our customers. We have a lot more customers than we have investors in our company, and they have lots of alternatives in the marketplace they can shop at. So they're not shy to tell us what they don't like when we're doing things.
INSKEEP: Why aren't you selling this product? Why are you charging that price?
MACKEY: Yes. Or why are you selling that product? Like, even in this conversation today, when I said, well, we're going phase out the red-rated species over a three-year period, customers want lower prices and higher quality. Employees want higher wages and better benefits and better working conditions. Suppliers want to give fewer discounts and want you to pick up more of their products. Communities want more donations. Governments want higher taxes. Investors want higher dividends and higher stock price. Every one of the stakeholders wants more. They always want more.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: John Mackey is co-CEO of Whole Foods Market. As we've heard, he speaks his mind, and a few years ago, Mackey famously warned against President Obama's healthcare plan, writing an article that included the word socialism. When we spoke with Mackey, he'd moved on to another word for the health law: fascism.
MACKEY: In fascism, the government doesn't own the means of production, but they do control it. And that's what's happening with these reforms.
INSKEEP: And we'll hear that argument from John Mackey tomorrow, as we continue our conversation right here on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The National Football League is making news on and off the field. On the field, Atlanta, San Francisco, Baltimore, and New England are preparing for conference championships, one step away from the Super Bowl. Off the field, researchers came to a conclusion in the case of NFL linebacker Junior Seau. They say he suffered from a disease likely caused by multiple hits to the head. He committed suicide last May.
That is one reason that commentator Frank Deford calls football our indecent joy.
FRANK DEFORD: This may sound far-fetched, but football reminds me of Venice. Both are so tremendously popular, but it's the very things that made them so which could sow the seeds of their ruin. Venice, of course, is so special because of its unique island geography, which, as the world's eco-system changes, is precisely what now puts it at risk.
And as it is the violent nature of football which makes it so attractive, the understanding of how that brutality can damage those who play the game is what may threaten it, and even as now the sport climbs to ever new heights of popularity.
Boxing, another latently cruel sport, has lost most of its standing, so it is often cited as the example of how football too must eventually be doomed in our more refined and civilized society. However, the comparisons between boxing and football don't fly because there is a huge difference between individual and team sports.
Football teams represent cities and colleges and schools. The people have built great stadiums and the game is culturally intertwined with our calendar. We don't go back to college for the college. We go back for a football game. And yes, we even call that homecoming. It would take some unimagined cataclysmic event to take football from us. Concussions for young men are the price of our love for football, as broken hearts are what we pay for young love.
Indeed, part of boxing's decline may well be because football has exceeded its display for blood lust. When George Bellows was painting those graphically gruesome boxing paintings a century ago, he noted that the atmosphere around the ring was more immoral than the brutality within it. The thrill of watching football is not that players perform with such incredible precision, but that they do so even as they dance in the shadow of collision. Enthusiasm for sport can be a convenient cover to excuse the worst in us.
Of course the difference between the Venice of Italy and the football here is that everybody loves Venice, but only Americans care about our gridiron. Football is, and always has been, sport on the edge of that immorality that George Bellows saw when he painted men cheering pain, but then, football is also - and always has been - the presumed proof of American manliness, the sport that was the beau ideal of what was called Muscular Christianity.
Way back in 1896, after the president of Harvard wanted to ban a sport that he called more brutal than cock-fighting or bull-fighting, Henry Cabot Lodge, senator from Massachusetts, responded by declaring that the injuries incurred on the playing field are the price which the English-speaking race has paid for being world conquerors.
No, have no fear. Football is still our own indecent joy. The fighter jets will long fly over the Super Bowl.
INSKEEP: Commentator Frank Deford joins us each Wednesday from WSHU in Fairfield, Connecticut.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne. News of an event in Syria yesterday filtered out hour by hour. Opposition groups reported an explosion in Aleppo, Syria's largest city.
INSKEEP: Later, video circulated on the Internet. The blasts took place on a university campus.
MONTAGNE: And now, it appears the explosion's killed more than 80 people. One dormitory that was hit contained people who'd fled fighting elsewhere.
INSKEEP: It turns out that about 2 million people are displaced in Syria - refugees within their own country. And today, we're going to hear some of their stories.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Kelly McEvers spent a night at a school full of refugees.
KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: As soon as you walk into the classroom, the stories come at you, all at once.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROSSTALK)
MCEVERS: Eventually, we figure out how everybody got here. Here goes:
Seven months ago, an older woman and her three sons and their wives were living in a house. That house was shelled. The old woman's sister was a cleaning lady here at the school. She has the keys. So everybody moved in. Now, another one of the old woman's children has just moved in, too. Her name is Amal. Her story comes first.
(SOUNDBITE OF BABY CRYING)
AMAL: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: The shelling at Amal's house was so bad, she took her five kids and went to sleep in the street. She was afraid the building would fall on her.
RIMA MARROUCH: Her husband was an old - like, an elder man. When the shelling started, he told her, go to your parents' house; and he left to his village.
MCEVERS: Back to the village, to his other wife.
MARROUCH: She had seven kids, two of whom died - twins. And her husband decided to go back to the village; and she said, I'm not going to any village. Like, so he left her and - took off.
MCEVERS: Now, two of Amal's kids have lice, and her blankets and pillows have been stolen.
The next story is from Ahmed, Amal's brother. Ahmed is really thin, with a scraggly beard and filthy pants. His hands are black.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROSSTALK)
MCEVERS: Tell them what you do, they say. Ahmed is a trash picker, and not ashamed to say it.
MARROUCH: They gather plastic bags, and one kilo is 10 liras.
MCEVERS: Ten liras is 14 cents. Ahmed makes 150 liras a day. That's about $2.
AHMED: (Foreign language spoken)
MARROUCH: He lost a daughter, a little daughter. She was sick. They didn't have money to pay the doctor. He buried her and came back. Before - he's saying that before the uprising, it was better. You know, I would make 150 a day; now, I make 150 - I just buy bread with it, nothing else.
MCEVERS: Ahmed says he has a new plan - to go and join anti-government rebels north of here, near the Turkish border.
AHMED: (Foreign language spoken)
MARROUCH: He used to be the driver of a ...
MCEVERS: ...tank. In the army.
MARROUCH: In the army.
MCEVERS: He's going to go tomorrow?
MARROUCH: (Foreign language spoken)
AHMED: (Foreign language spoken)
MARROUCH: Ten o'clock.
MCEVERS: His brother, who's visiting, has already joined the rebels. He says he makes about a $150 a month. He says his commander gets the cash from Turkey.
As we're talking, we start to notice some arguing going on.The Syrian activist who brought us to this school also brought food, and some money for heating fuel.
(SOUNDBITE OF AGITATED VOICES)
MCEVERS: We realize there's a mini-war going on over how to divide it all.
(SOUNDBITE OF AGITATED VOICES)
MCEVERS: I was the one who brought him here. No, I was the one who brought him here. It should only go to the families who already live here. No, it should go to everyone. All we know is, it ends with Amal in tears. Her brothers and aunt, who've lived in the school for months, have taken everything. Because she's a newcomer, she got nothing.
MCEVERS: Eventually her sisters-in-law give her some apples, pasta, and cooking oil. One of her little boys goes over to his brothers and sisters. Wake up, he says. We have food. He gives them each an apple.
(SOUNDBITE OF BABY VOCALIZING)
MCEVERS: Each family has their own classroom. We bed down in the room of Ahmed, the trash picker, and his wife and two kids. Another brother's wife comes to say goodnight. Her name is Em Ali. Her story comes last.
EM ALI: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: Turns out, Em Ali has lost a baby, too. All the women here have lost babies - either at birth, or soon after. She says her husband has beat her as many times as she has hairs on her head. She says before the war, he worked in a factory making steel wool pads for cleaning dishes.
ALI: (Foreign language spoken)
MCEVERS: We were poor before this, Em Ali she says. We blame the war for our misery. But we never had anything.
Em Ali laughs, even when she's telling sad stories. But before she says good night, her voice gets quiet.
ALI: (Through translator) I'm just thinking from time to time that I hope I will be killed with my kids just to stop this, all of it.
MCEVERS: In the middle of the night, the power goes out. It's below freezing outside. We hear shelling, shooting, and war planes in the distance.
It's morning.
The next morning, the power's back on. Blankets are folded and put into plastic bags, floors are swept, coffee is made on a portable gas stove. We are served first. Arab hospitality prevails, even in the worst of times. Ahmed gets ready to leave with his brother, to go join the rebels. His wife says it's better than starving. He says he's just going to see how it is.
MARROUCH: Just to see if he likes it or not.
MCEVERS: Everybody nods. The wives talk about what detergent works best on clothes. The grandmother talks about her blood pressure. This is just one school. Around Syria, there are thousands of schools like this; thousands of schools, hundreds of thousands of people.
Kelly McEvers, NPR News.
MONTAGNE: And the other voice you heard in this story was NPR producer and interpreter Rima Marrouch.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let's report next on an American company accused of being a fake. The company is valued at billions of dollars. It's been around for decades and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And yet, none of that has persuaded a man who claims the entire enterprise is a Ponzi scheme. He's betting a billion dollars that he's right.
Jacob Goldstein from our Planet Money Team reports.
JACOB GOLDSTEIN, BYLINE: The company is called Herbalife. It sells weight loss shakes, herbal tea, vitamins - that kind of thing. The man betting against it is a hedge fund manager named Bill Ackman.
Sometimes, when investors bet against companies, they do it secretly. Ackman did not. He stood up at an investor conference last month and gave a three-hour long speech laying out his case. He used more than 300 PowerPoint slides. But you can boil it down to five words.
BILL ACKMAN: Herbalife is a pyramid scheme.
GOLDSTEIN: Herbalife doesn't sell its products in stores. It sells them through an army of ordinary people who have signed up to sell the products on their own. The way the business is structured, these people can make more money by signing up other people to be Herbalife distributors.
Ackman says the company is all about recruiting new distributors - and not about selling weight loss shakes and vitamins to real customers.
ACKMAN: No one's going to buy a white powder in a canister with a brand no one's ever heard of from a stranger.
GOLDSTEIN: Not surprisingly, Herbalife disagrees. Here's Michael Johnson, the company's CEO, on CNBC.
MICHAEL JOHNSON: We're not a pyramid scheme. That's a bogus accusation. We have millions of customers around the world.
GOLDSTEIN: Bill Ackman is shorting Herbalife stock. He's betting that the company's stock will go down in value.
Lots of people don't like the idea of somebody betting against a stock; and as CEO's often do when their company is under attack by shortsellers, Herbalife's CEO accused Ackman of manipulating the stock for his own benefit.
JOHNSON: This is blatant market manipulation. Mr. Ackman's proposition that Herb - the United States would be better when Herbalife is gone? The United States would be better when Bill Ackman's gone.
GOLDSTEIN: So, who's right here? How hard can it be to tell whether a giant company is a pyramid scheme? The answer - in this case - is really hard. For a company like Herbalife, the difference between being a legitimate business and being a pyramid scheme comes down to what happens on the ground with all those people who signed up to sell products.
It comes down to what happens with Wilfredo Davila.
WILFREDO DAVILA: Let's see.
(SOUNDBITE OF TYPING)
DAVILA: My post on Craigslist says herbal, aloe, hand and body wash - and so much more. Yeah. Exclamation points and nine dollars.
GOLDSTEIN: Wilfredo is 28. He left a job as a forklift operator a few months ago, and he and his wife went online to look for a business they could do from home. Before they knew it, they got a call from a woman named Maryanne.
DAVILA: She just started talking about Herbalife right away. She let us know that, you know, she was also an independent distributor.
GOLDSTEIN: If Herbalife is a legitimate business, the Wilfredos and Maryannes of the world are mostly selling shakes to people who actually drink them. And the company says, that's exactly what's going on.
Des Walsh, the company's president, points to a recent survey commissioned by the company. It found that 90 percent of the people who buy Herbalife products are not distributors - they're people who just want to drink the shakes or whatever.
And, Walsh said, the company has been doing steady business for years in Iceland and other small countries where a pyramid scheme wouldn't be able to endure.
DES WALSH: When you think of a pyramid scheme, what people think of is some sort of scam. I mean, that's reality. And yet, when you look at our business in these smaller countries where we've bee in business for, you know, 10 and 15 and 20 years, if it really was the case that we were not operating a legitimate business, everybody would know about us.
GOLDSTEIN: Ackman says it's not so simple. He says the company is constantly going into new markets, exploiting people and moving on.
ACKMAN: What Herbalife is doing is just actively taking money from poor people and promising - telling them that you can make it. It's just a question of how hard you work, selling them on hopes and dreams. And unfortunately, they're sold a bill of goods.
GOLDSTEIN: Herbalife got a boost last week when another big hedge fund manager named Dan Loeb announced that his fund believes in the company. His fund recently bought a stake worth well over $300 million.
Loeb says the company is profitable and it's growing. And he points out that the federal government has cracked down on pyramid schemes in the past, but hasn't had a problem with Herbalife.
Jacob Goldstein, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Facebook has launched a new search feature. It's designed to let its hundreds of millions of users find stuff - like the restaurants and TV shows that friends like or to see every picture they've taken at the Grand Canyon, for example. Facebook itself is unveiling this search engine as it goes on its own kind of search - a search for more revenue, after last year's disappointing public stock offering.
NPR's Laura Sydell reports.
LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE: Facebook's now got more than a billion users around the world and it has all sorts of information about them - what they watch on TV, where they went to high school.
NATE ELLIOT: Facebook today has one of the worst search site experiences that you're going to find anywhere online.
SYDELL: Nate Elliot, analyst at Forrester Research. His reaction to the announcement of Facebook's new search feature is - well, it's about time.
ELLIOT: It's a little bit embarrassing for them that they haven't fixed it before now.
SYDELL: The company's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, demonstrated the new search yesterday at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters. He's a "Game of Thrones" fan.
MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO, FACEBOOK: And I wanted to invite some people over who wanted to watch it. But, I didn't know which of my friends who lived around me liked "Game of Thrones." So, I just put a query into graph search - friends - near Palo Alto like "Game of Thrones."
SYDELL: And up popped his friends who like the show. The new search also figures out who your best pals are.
FACEBOOK: At the top, that's my sister and that's her husband. And then a lot of the rest of the folks are sorted by how many mutual friends you have with the person or other signals that are in the Facebook system for how much you care about these different folks.
SYDELL: The new search will also sort through photos based on who took them, when, and where. No doubt many Facebook users will enjoy the new feature.
But, analyst Nate Elliot says Facebook had to do this because it's not growing as fast as it once did.
ELLIOT: So what Facebook has to think about now is, how do we keep those billion users very engaged?
SYDELL: Because if they aren't engaged, they might go somewhere else.
If you look back into the history of social networks, says Elliot, it takes more than getting people to sign up to be successful. Take Friendster - remember them?
ELLIOT: People came and set up their social networks and there was really nothing else happening. It got boring and they went away.
SYDELL: During the introduction of the new feature Zuckerberg and his staff constantly referenced user privacy - as if they were making a pre-emptive strike. Facebook been dogged by criticisms of its shifting privacy policies. The Federal Trade Commission has ordered the company to have a privacy audit every two years.
At yesterday's demo privacy was a big topic. The new search lets you see photos of yourself tagged by others. Facebook software engineer Tom Stocky searched and found embarrassing photos of himself dressed as a monster, but put up by someone else. With the new feature...
TOM STOCKY: It's untags me from those photos. And then the second thing is that it sends that person a message and says hey, would you please take these down?
SYDELL: The new feature will also let you search all publicly available information about anyone on Facebook. If it's public that you like "Game of Thrones" - strangers will find you more easily.
eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson says this might make people more aware of how Facebook can compromise their privacy.
DEBRA AHO WILLIAMSON: Because up until now, there really hasn't been the ability to search for photos that your friends posted five years ago and now there is. That's going to open a lot of people's eyes.
SYDELL: Though Facebook is adding search, most analysts don't see it as a major threat to Google at this point.
The new search feature is going to be rolled out slowly over the next few months. CEO Zuckerberg says it's still in beta, and for now, it isn't available on mobile devices.
Laura Sydell, NPR News, San Francisco.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We are also following a story in Japan that strikes a blow at one of the world's great aircraft makers. Japan has grounded its entire fleet of 787 Dreamliners. This move came after an electrical problem forced an All Nippon Airlines 787 to make an emergency landing. Here's NPR's Wendy Kaufman.
WENDY KAUFMAN, BYLINE: In the past week, the electrical system on Boeing's new flagship jet has come under intense scrutiny, prompted first by a battery fire onboard a Japan Airline 787 shortly after that plane arrived at the gate in Boston. But the latest incident is far more troubling, having occurred at 30,000 feet. Shortly after takeoff on a domestic flight in Japan, the cockpit instrument showed a problem with the battery and warned of smoke in the forward electronics compartment. There was a strange smell in the cockpit and in the cabin. The pilot made a safe emergency landing. At a news conference in Tokyo, ANA vice president Osamu Shinobe expressed apologies to the passengers and their families.
OSAMU SHINOBE: (Japanese spoken)
KAUFMAN: There are currently 50 787s operating worldwide. It's the world's most innovative aircraft, with new materials and extensive and complex electronics. And as with any new airplane program, you would expect to see some growing pains. But the latest incident has prompted the grounding of nearly half the global fleet. Japan's two major airlines own that many. It's a huge blow to Boeing.
GUY NORRIS: I think it's ratcheted up what was already building up to be a fairly serious situation.
KAUFMAN: Guy Norris is a senior editor at Aviation Week, who's written books about airplane programs, including the 787.
NORRIS: I think that Boeing must be at the stage looking more seriously at what it has to do to either guarantee the safety of the battery system or in fact look at alternatives to that design.
KAUFMAN: The battery in question is a lithium ion battery, a type that's been linked to fires in the past. The Federal Aviation Administration imposed what's known as a special condition in approving the battery for the 787. And Boeing took special care to mitigate any potential hazard. So far, Boeing has said very little about the latest incident and the grounding of its airplanes. The company has long touted the 787 as a game-changing aircraft that uses much less fuel and is more comfortable for passengers. But right now the plane Boeing calls the Dreamliner is anything but that. Wendy Kaufman, NPR News.
INSKEEP: And we'll continue to follow that spreading and developing story right here on MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
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Today, President Obama is expected to talk about ways to cut back on gun violence. Yesterday was New York's turn. At the urging of Governor Andrew Cuomo, the legislature voted to approve a variety of gun control measures. In the wake of the shooting in Connecticut last month, New York banned the sale of assault rifles, as well as clips that carry more than seven rounds of ammunition.
Here's North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Tuesday afternoon, while New York State Assembly was still debating the gun control measure, Stetsen Hundgen was working downtown in Tarrytown in the Hudson River Valley, where he manages rental properties. He wasn't sure exactly what the new law restricts or what it allows, but he said he was skeptical.
STETSEN HUNDGEN: I think it's more symbolic than anything. I'm not really convinced that anything will change.
MANN: I heard this a lot through the day. People I talked to said the mass shootings in Newtown and other places around the country were disturbing. But some were also concerned that this law was pushed through fast, with little time for public review.
When I told Casey Weeks, an 18-year-old student from Greenville, New York, that the law was a done deal, he shook his head and said it would put restrictions on all the wrong people.
CASEY WEEKS: I think it's a little ridiculous. I mean honestly these criminals that get a hold of these guns get a hold of them illegally anyway. So it doesn't really matter if they, you know, pass laws like that.
MANN: Weeks and Hundgen both said they think the new rules violate New Yorker's right to bear arms, and weaken the Second Amendment. This law doesn't ban all guns, but it makes it illegal to buy or sell assault rifles and big military-style clips. It requires mental health professionals in New York to notify authorities if there's risk that a patient might use a firearm in a crime. The penalties for gun crimes will also increase and gun owners are now required to notify authorities if their pistols or rifles are stolen.
Tom Green from Latham, New York, was thrilled by those changes. He said he doesn't think they step on anyone's civil liberties.
TOM GREEN: The availability of automatic weapons and large capacity magazines, I find to be unnecessary for any useful sport shooting or self-protection. And it seems to me that they're just tools for destruction.
MANN: I met Green at a rest stop on the New York Thruway, about the time that Governor Cuomo was signing the new law.
A few minutes later, Elizabeth Sooter, a former college professor from Long Island came over. She said there was a report on the TV inside about another shooting.
ELIZABETH SOOTER: I don't know if you just heard but I just saw - and I think that there's another shooting at a college in St. Louis. I mean it's dangerous to be a teacher. You risk your life. Do we need that many guns?
MANN: News stories like that one and the shooting in Newtown have clearly reshaped the debate here in New York. Some people yesterday said efforts to curb gun violence were long overdue.
Jamie Johns lives in Brownsville, a high crime neighborhood in New York City that's been plagued by shootings for years.
JAMIE JOHNS: Out here in East New York, babies are getting shot every other week, every day, and nothing had took place, nothing happened. Nobody came to the rescue. It's bad that it took that shooting in order for the government to even think about doing something.
MANN: Johns was eating at the East Market Diner. George Papadopoulos runs the place. He said yesterday that he agrees gun violence has to be reduced somehow.
GEORGE PAPADOPOLOUS: It's just ridiculous. This is New York City on 2013, not the Wild West 1879. You know what I mean?
MANN: It's unclear whether other states will follow New York's lead. New gun control measures area being debated from Connecticut to California.
For NPR News, I'm Brian Mann.
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And as President Obama prepares to start his second term next week, MORNING EDITION has asked NPR's foreign correspondents to gauge worldwide expectations for the president's next four years. Today, we begin in Mexico.
As NPR's Carrie Kahn reports, Mexicans hope to change the conversation between the two countries, from drugs and violence to economics and prosperity.
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: In public, Mexico's new President Enrique Pena Nieto doesn't talk much about the devastating drug war hitting his country. More than 50,000 people have died in just the past six years. Instead, Pena focuses on what he says are the good times to come.
ENRIQUE PENA NIETO: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: Without a doubt, this is a great time for Mexico. Our economic expectations are encouraging, Pena told a packed Mexico City ballroom full of national business leaders last week.
Since taking office in December, Pena has become Mexico's chief cheerleader, giving similar speeches like this one all over the country. And Pena, who is young like Obama and at the start of a new term is hoping his enthusiasm will help change his country's image, especially in the United States.
Businessman Vicente Ruiz Pina, who was in the audience, loved Pena's speech. And he's happy President Obama got re-elected too. Ruiz heads the Chamber of Commerce in La Paz, Baja California.
VICENTE RUIZ PINA: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: Ruiz says 95 percent of La Paz's economy depends on tourists from California. All the negative press about Mexico scares away tourists and business. He adds, not all of Mexico is wrought with violence.
DUNCAN WOOD: It's extraordinary how negative that image has become over the last four to six years.
KAHN: Duncan Wood heads the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C.
WOOD: Something definitely needs to be done about that because it impacts upon so many other elements in the relationship.
KAHN: Wood says in the short-term, he doesn't see any changes in the security agreements between the two countries. But he does think President Obama will also shift the conversation to more positive aspects, like business, trade and investments.
Arturo Valdes Perez sure hopes so. He's from the northern Border State of Coahuila and exports cattle feed to ranchers in South Texas. He says his state is one of Mexico's most violent, caught in the middle of a turf war between two violent drug cartels. He's anxious to hear President Obama's gun control plans.
ARTURO VALDES PEREZ: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: Our main problem is arms trafficking from the United States, says Valdes. As much as 70 percent of the weapons confiscated from Mexico's drug cartels come from the U.S.
Mexico's new ambassador to the U.S. also called on President Obama to control gun sales. And on Monday, peace activists delivered a petition with 54,000 signatures to the U.S. Embassy demanding a crackdown.
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KAHN: But not everyone is concerned with weapons and bright economic prospects. Javier Angel, a local writer, maneuvers his bike around a trash truck through Mexico City traffic. He says he hopes President Obama makes good on his promises to pass comprehensive immigration reform. He has two sisters in the U.S. and they both voted for Obama.
JAVIER ANGEL: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: He says his sisters hope President Obama can fix the problem. That is why they voted for him.
Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Mexico City.
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NPR's business news starts with slower global growth.
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MONTAGNE: The World Bank has revised its predictions for global economic growth, globally, downward. The new figure predicts the world economy will grow by only 2.4 percent this year - lower than the three percent the World Bank predicted last June. Among the reasons it cited for the new forecast - the continued economic weakness of developed countries. It also singles out political brinkmanship in United States. The bank warns that uncertainty over U.S. policy quote, "has already dampened growth."
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The lockout is over and the much delayed National Hockey League's season is now set to begin on Saturday. The regular season will run 48 games instead of the usual 82.
So what's the economic effect of missing almost half the season? NPR's Mike Pesca finds, not as bad as you might think.
MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: We've all seen the reports during the lockout, the empty bar near the arena should be brimming with Bruins backers or a Washington Avalanche acolytes. Or maybe it's not a bar. Maybe it's pizza in Pittsburgh.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: On the other side of the arena, Pizza Milano's was a lot quieter tonight that it would be with the Penguins in town.
PESCA: It figures the local news to feature the shots of the unturned turnstiles. And mayors in Boston, Philadelphia and other places estimated that their teams generated $1 million of economic activity every game.
But economists dispute those figures - or rather they say they're true as far as they go. But they don't take into account the barely perceptible uptick in thousands of businesses where hockey fans wind up spending the discretionary income they would've spent on hockey.
Even the broadcast partners of the teams weren't left hurting that much, says John Ourand, of the Sports Business Journal.
JOHN OURAND: The way it works is cable operators just don't pay the regional networks as much. Basically what happened was they lost the first couple of games of the season that people generally don't watch as heavily as they do toward the end.
PESCA: Ourand points to the ticket takers, the ushers, the workers on game day as real victims of the lockout. Players, owners and municipalities will be relatively unscathed.
Mike Pesca, NPR News.
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And today's last word in business is swag. The presidential inauguration is days away, and that means a lot of commemorative merchandise is about to flood the market.
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The online retailer Cafe Press is happy to sell you an inaugural mouse pad, or a shot glass, or a mug with the president's mug. And the merchandise is bipartisan. That includes a sweatshirt with the message: I was Anti-Obama Before It Was Cool.
INSKEEP: Cafe Press keeps track of which items sell better. Since the election, 55 percent of the merchandise sold has been pro-Obama. That 55 percent is right around the president's approval rating lately, but it's also down sharply from 85 percent pro-Obama merchandise sold four years ago.
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
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From his first days in office, President Obama has made a point of reading the mail. Aides sort letters to the White House and make sure that a few reach the president.
MONTAGNE: Today, some of those letter-writers will be at the White House. The president speaks about guns, while surrounded by children who wrote him with their concerns about shootings.
INSKEEP: Behind the emotional power of that White House scene lies a practical problem. Even after last month's shootings in Connecticut, it's hard to find gun control plans that can pass Congress.
NPR's Ari Shapiro reports.
ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: President Obama has called the Newtown shooting the most difficult day of his presidency. When it happened, he set a one-month deadline for coming up with proposals. And now four weeks have passed. In that time, Vice President Biden met with dozens of interest groups to get their suggestions on how to stop gun violence.
Biden pulled together his recommendations, and now President Obama will present them in detail. He's already given some previews. At a news conference Monday, Mr. Obama said he wants Congress to renew an assault weapons ban that expired almost a decade ago, difficult as that may be.
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SHAPIRO: The assault weapons ban seems to have no chance in the Republican-controlled House. And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that's enough to keep him from bringing it up in the Senate.
But White House spokesman Jay Carney said yesterday he does not believe it's dead on arrival.
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SHAPIRO: The assault weapons ban is just one of many steps the president will call on Congress to take. He'll push them to act fast. But the White House wants lawmakers to decide specifically what they vote on, when.
Congressman Mike Thompson of California is a Democrat leading the House task force on gun violence. He says, in theory, this idea of putting policy over politics sounds great.
REPRESENTATIVE MIKE THOMPSON: But at the same time, we have to be realistic. And we don't want to put together the best policy package only to see it failed.
SHAPIRO: Thompson intends to prioritize, focusing first on what's easy to do. The House Democrat says that category covers plenty of ground, from expanding background checks to banning high-capacity ammunition magazines.
THOMPSON: So probably the two issues that would make the biggest difference in making our community safer. And that's something that we can surely get good support from all corners on.
SHAPIRO: It's true that those measures have broad support. According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, 85 percent of Americans support universal background checks, and that's true of both parties. But even on something as generally popular as this, there is resistance.
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SHAPIRO: NRA President David Keene spoke with NPR's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED earlier this week. He said tracking every time a gun changes hands creates all kinds of problems.
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SHAPIRO: So even measures with broad public support may be tough to get through Congress. But there are plenty of steps that don't involve Congress.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel talked about some of them at a forum sponsored by the Center for American Progress.
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SHAPIRO: And there are lots of other steps, from improving research on gun violence to strengthening the mental health safety net.
Some members of Congress are afraid that the president's executive orders will undermine the Second Amendment. Republican Steve Stockman of Texas threatened to file articles of impeachment over this.
White House spokesman Jay Carney urged a little perspective.
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SHAPIRO: Today, he'll try to strike a balance between protecting those rights, while still keeping weapons out of the hands of people who would misuse them.
Ari Shapiro, NPR News, the White House.
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As we all know by now, this year's flu season struck early and hard. And that's creating a particular problem for businesses. If they tell too many sick employees to stay home, work doesn't get done. But then, if people with flu come to work, other workers could get sick.
NPR's Ailsa Chang has today's Business Bottom Line.
AILSA CHANG, BYLINE: They call him Patient Zero. Meet Chaim Gross. He works at Zeno Radio, a media technology company in Manhattan. Gross was the first one in his office to get sick about three months ago, but he kept coming to work.
CHAIM GROSS: And then, as I started feeling better, David started getting sick. And then he was stuck at home for, like, three days, throwing up and everything. And then...
CHANG: And then half of the 20 workers here started dropping like flies.
GROSS: And then Keith went home sick. Jack was actually out before. Sorry, I missed one. Jack was out...
CHANG: Yeah, Jack was out. And now, thanks to the domino effect Gross says he might have set in motion, Deanna Mitchell from sales and marketing gets the flu. But she shows up to work today, too.
DEANNA MITCHELL: I really wanted to come in, because today was important meetings.
CHANG: Every worker at Zeno Radio receives six sick days a year, but it doesn't matter. Gross says he's only taken one day off in the last eight months, even after becoming the walking plague. Why? Because he says his small company needs him, and he loves hanging out with his colleagues.
Even if you're getting your colleagues sick.
GROSS: Yeah. Yeah.
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TEVI TROY: This puts employers in a bit of a bind, because on the one hand, they need to get work done, and they will fall behind if the work is not done.
CHANG: That's Tevi Troy, a former deputy secretary for Health and Human Services.
TROY: But if you encourage people to come into the office, or people feel pressured to go into the office, they might spread the flu and make the situation worse.
CHANG: So here's the advice businesses are now getting: Reduce your meetings, maybe even set up three-foot buffer zones around sick workers, or just tell your flu-stricken employees to work from home. But for some businesses, working from home just isn't an option. Take SmartSitting. It's a nanny and baby-sitting agency based in Brooklyn. Lauren Kay runs the business, and says almost 20 percent of her sitters have called in sick the last three weeks.
LAUREN KAY: Generally, it's a baby, and a sitter goes and gets the flu from the baby. And then the sitter then has to cancel a number of future appointments because they're sick. It's really like all of New York City has sort of been tied together by a network of sitters, and everyone's just trying to stay healthy and...
CHANG: Kay's agency has been stuck finding replacements at the last minute. But for the nannies who missed work, it's up to parents to decide whether to pay them sick days. Kay says many parents do, but a lot of sitters don't feel empowered to ask for those days.
KAY: It's hard to inconvenience a family and say, hey, I can't come in for work tomorrow. And also, can you pay me?
CHANG: The workers who do get paid when they're out sick are the lucky ones. John Challenger says about 40 percent of workers today actually don't get sick days, and that's why so many work while under the weather. Challenger runs an outplacement firm.
JOHN CHALLENGER: The economy is still on shaky ground, and many workers continue to be worried about losing their jobs, and so they're reluctant to call in sick or even use their vacation days.
CHANG: And the combination of those sick employees infecting others at work and the sick workers staying at home for days means businesses pay a high price during these sneezy months. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the flu costs employers about 10-and-a-half billion dollars every year in health care expenses and lost productivity.
But some employers are fortunate, like Morris Berger, the boss at Zeno Radio. He says productivity actually didn't slow down much this winter.
MORRIS BERGER: No, I think it's getting better, actually. So maybe we don't need all these employees.
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CHANG: What happened to save the company was a nice stroke of luck. Chaim Gross says the flu only toppled one person at a time.
GROSS: It's like a round-robin. Rockin' Robin, rock, rock. I just like the microphone. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
CHANG: At this point, I could feel Gross' breath on my face, and I started wondering: Maybe I've been sitting in this office a little too long. I didn't shake his hand on my way out. Ailsa Chang, NPR News, New York.
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The Middle East is in the midst of its harshest winter in at least a decade. That is adding to the misery of the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled the civil war in Syria and are now shivering in camps in neighboring countries. Sheera Frenkel visited one camp along Jordan's border with Syria, where riots broke out and aide workers were attacked with sticks and stones by refugees angered by the lack of supplies and services.
SHEERA FRENKEL, BYLINE: Shallow pools and mud are everywhere you look in the Zaatari camp. It was built on a flat expanse of land, large enough to house the more then 40,000 refugees that governmental agencies estimate live here now. The problem is that when it rains, there is nowhere for the water to go.
So last week's snow and rain storms left the camp flooded. Umm Muhammed fled Syria five months ago, with her four young children. The single tent they share was nearly destroyed by the weather, she says.
UMM MUHAMMED: (Through Translator) Everything was floating, floating.
FRENKEL: When the rain and snow came, all she could do was hug her children for warmth. She says she has been waiting for a heater for nearly five weeks. Still, she says, she is one of the lucky ones. The Walid family was among the first to arrive at the camp six months ago when it was erected. They are envied by many because they have a prefab shelter with two rooms, rather then a tent.
They welcomed the newest member of their family, a baby named Muhammed, who was born just days after the family arrived in Jordan from their hometown of Daraa in southern Syria. Waheeba is the family matriarch. She says that from the beginning Muhammed had respiratory problems.
They thought that being in Zaatari would be good for him. Despite the bitter cold last week, she recalls Muhammed was happy and laughing as he went to sleep the night of January 11th.
WAHEEBA WALID: (Through Translator) He was doing OK. In the morning when we woke up his mom was really sitting here next to us in the caravan. When I touched him, he was like, you know, an ice bar. As an ice bar.
FRENKEL: The family rushed him to a hospital near the camp, but the four-month-old was pronounced dead. Waheeba doesn't say it was the cold that killed him, but it certainly didn't help. After the baby's death, she says the family split apart. Her son and his wife couldn't bear to stay in Zaatari, so they took their two other children and moved to Jordan's capital, Amman.
They are staying with friends for now, says Waheeba, but they have no money and no work. They hope that somehow, being in the capital will save them if the cold comes again. Waheeba says her family never thought they would be refugees for this long. Despite the horrors they faced in Daraa, she says they are desperate to return.
WALID: (Through Translator) We were just asking, we thought we might only stay here for one month. We ask God. Of course you want to go back, you love to go back to your country.
FRENKEL: Marin Kajdomcaj, an official with the U.N. refugee agency is one of the camp managers at Zaatari. He says he knows many of the refugees are frustrated and angry, but that the U.N. is doing its best to provide services in the camp.
MARIN KAJDOMCAJ: Here in Zaatari we had, in one week, we almost had 10,000 people coming. So, there was discontent with people. There was a situation where it was difficult to provide distribution. And it was difficult to provide services for them. But, we and our partners, we were here 24 hours.
FRENKEL: He says they hope to repair the infrastructure in Zaatari to avert any more flooding, but refugees continue to arrive at the camp daily, adding to the burden as the fighting across the border in Syria rages on. For NPR News, I'm Sheera Frenkel.
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And I'm Steve Inskeep. Austin, Texas is singularly attached to Lance Armstrong. His bike shop, his foundation, and even a bike path bearing his name are all there. Now that the fallen cycling superstar has reportedly confessed to Oprah Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs and lied about it for more than a decade, many in Austin are wondering what happens next. NPR's John Burnett reports.
JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE: The $14,000 carbon-fiber Italian bicycle hanging from the ceiling tells you that Mellow Johnny's is no ordinary bike shop. This is Lance Armstrong's chic bicycle shop-cafe-and training center in downtown Austin. Store manager Craig Staley claims they sell more T-shirts and cycling jerseys than any other bike shop in the world. But he wonders how that merchandise will do with the Armstrong brand fading fast.
CRAIG STALEY: We're floating on our own. You know, we're rolling under our own power at this point. The Lance effect has been taken away in some ways.
BURNETT: Orders for items emblazoned with "Mellow Johnny's" dropped off in October when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency released a thick report describing Armstrong as the mastermind of, quote, "the most sophisticated, professionalized and successful doping program the sport has ever seen." Again, store manager Staley.
STALEY: Lance going on Oprah is going to change it all up again. We'll see what happens.
BURNETT: Oprah Winfrey interviewed Armstrong for more than two hours in an Austin hotel on Monday. She confirmed to "CBS This Morning" that Armstrong confessed his doping to her on-camera. The interview will be broadcast on her OWN network Thursday and Friday nights.
Armstrong has already been stripped of his seven consecutive Tour de France titles and barred from Olympic sports. In October, he stepped down as chairman of Livestrong - his cancer-victim-support charity - so that he could focus on his problems and not taint the nonprofit.
On Monday, just before the Oprah interview, Armstrong visited Livestrong's stylish headquarters in East Austin and made an emotional apology to the staff. Later, Livestrong board member Mark McKinnon went on CNN and told host John Berman he felt betrayed by his friend, Lance.
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BURNETT: Livestrong released a statement late last night that says, in part: We expect Lance to be completely truthful and forthcoming in the interview and with all of us in the cancer community. We are charting a strong, independent course forward.
The controversy has taken its toll on Livestrong, which assists people through the hardships of cancer diagnosis and recovery. The once-ubiquitous yellow wristbands are not as popular anymore. With big sponsors like Trek and RadioShack withdrawing or reducing their support, the charity has had to reduce its budget by 11 percent. But other supporters remain steadfast.
PATTY FALO: My name is Patty Falo. I' m 41. I had Stage 1 breast cancer.
BURNETT: Sitting in a South Austin coffee shop, she says after getting a lumpectomy and undergoing radiation treatment beginning last March, she decided to contact Livestrong. Falo joined its exercise program at the Y two nights a week for three months.
FALO: You get together with other cancer survivors, and it was just like the perfect experience for me. Because, you know, I was kind of welcomed into a group where everybody else understood what I was going through. I could kind of let my guard down a little bit.
BURNETT: Falo, who's a CPA, does not condone Lance Armstrong's cheating. It's just that, as a cancer survivor, she continues to regard him in an entirely different light. Armstrong started the foundation after surviving testicular cancer.
FALO: Yeah, I think that people who haven't gone through cancer are a lot harder on Lance Armstrong than me and maybe other people who have been through cancer treatments.
BURNETT: Patty Falo has donated about $700 to Livestrong. And regardless what Lance Armstrong says in his interview with Oprah Winfrey tomorrow night, she says she'll keep giving to the organization. John Burnett, NPR News, Austin.
MONTAGNE: Lance Armstrong could take others down with him. A senior Olympic official says that if Armstrong implicates staff of the International Cycling Union, the sport of cycling might be pulled from future Olympic Games.
INSKEEP: That comment comes from International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound.
MONTAGNE: He used to be head of the world's anti-doping agency. The question here is whether the Cycling Union covered up for Armstrong and his teammates even as he made large financial donations to the organization.
INSKEEP: And Dick Pound told the Reuters news agency the Olympics could give the Cycling Union four or eight years to sort it out, in his words, before allowing the sport back in.
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Victims of Hurricane Sandy are one step closer to getting a major infusion of federal disaster aid after a long delay. Last night, the House approved a $50 billion assistance package.
NPR congressional correspondent Tamara Keith reports.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Funding disaster relief is supposed to be one of the easier things Congress does. Not this time around. Late last year, the Senate approved a Sandy relief package, only to see it die in the House with the start of the new Congress. The criticism, especially from New York and New Jersey Republicans was fast and fierce. House speaker John Boehner quickly promised to revive the measure and he followed through yesterday.
New Jersey Republican Frank LoBiondo still seemed raw when he spoke in favor of the bill on the House floor.
REPRESENTATIVE FRANK LOBIONDO: I've asked my colleagues, because we seem to be very mixed and divided on some of this, think of a human face. My constituents, the constituents of the Northeast, they're not just whining. They're not just uncomfortable. They are devastated.
KEITH: New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney says it was never this hard with past disasters.
REPRESENTATIVE CAROLYN MALONEY: We were there with the aid. We didn't delay. We didn't put roadblocks. We didn't put forward all types of requirements to be met. We've voice-voted. We moved swiftly.
KEITH: But the Hurricane Sandy aid package happened to arrive at the House at a time of increased agitation over the deficit, at a time when spending has become a dirty word.
REPRESENTATIVE JEFF DUNCAN: We're $16 trillion in debt, America.
KEITH: South Carolina Republican Jeff Duncan reflects the way a whole lot of House Republicans felt about the $50 billion bill.
DUNCAN: We cannot keep spending money that we don't have on things that we can't afford; and all the while, sending our children and our grandchildren the bill. What part of $16 trillion in debt do ya'll not understand?
KEITH: Duncan was co-author of an amendment that would have required across the board spending cuts to offset the disaster aid funds. That amendment failed, but the majority of Republicans supported it.
And so, when it came to the final vote on the full bill
ERICA ELLIOTT: Total votes: 241 yay.
KEITH: This is Erica Elliott, an aide to the majority whip, reading the tally to reporters.
ELLIOTT: Forty-nine Republican yays, 179 nays.
KEITH: It passed because a whole lot of Democrats joined those few Republicans in voting aye. The governors of New York and New Jersey praised the House for pulling together a unified bipartisan coalition. But that's not normally how things happened in John Boehner's House.
Until very recently - just before the vote on the fiscal cliff deal - Boehner held to the idea that any bill coming up for a vote needed to have the support of the majority of his conference. The fiscal cliff bill didn't and neither did this one.
John Fleming, a Republican from Louisiana says the speaker had to bring it up for a vote - there was too much political pressure. And that informal rule about a majority of the majority, it may no longer be relevant, he says.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN FLEMING: Since this is a Democrat president and a Democrat Senate, I don't think that really holds. I don't think that really matters. I think we should vote our conscious, vote the way we think we should, and try to influence the outcome as best we can. But we are, two-to-one, in the minority.
KEITH: So what does this mean for the next big fights, the debt ceiling and keeping the government funded? It's not clear yet. Boehner will find out what his caucus really thinks at a retreat in Virginia at the end of this week.
Tamara Keith, NPR News.
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In Southern California fans gathered yesterday to say goodbye to a regional icon, Huell Howser. He was a host of popular travel shows on PBS, focusing on the charms of his adopted state, California and gaining a huge following with a camcorder and an aw-shucks Southern drawl.
HUELL HOWSER: Well, hello everybody. I'm Huell Howser. And you know over the years, we have done literally thousands of stories about all kinds of subjects all over this state.
MONTAGNE: Howser died earlier this month of cancer.
NPR's Shereen Marisol Meraji was at yesterday's memorial and has this story.
SHEREEN MARISOL MERAJI, BYLINE: Hundreds braved L.A. traffic and unseasonably cold weather to say goodbye to a man who took them to places they never knew they wanted to go, and introduced them to people they never knew they wanted to meet.
CHARLES PHOENIX: His name was Huell Burnley Howser. Don't we love the name Burnley? We never knew. He never said, Hi, I'm Huell Burnley Howser.
(LAUGHTER)
MERAJI: That's L.A. pop culture historian Charles Phoenix, talking about the Tennessee native who thought every thing about California was...
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Amazing.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Would you look at that?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: That's amazing.
(LAUGHTER)
MERAJI: Impressions like those were rampant at yesterday's tribute. Because Huell Howser was known for finding the amazing in the ordinary, and he did it for over 30 years.
Meat market in east L.A.
HOWSER: Oh, boy.
MERAJI: Random state park in California nobody visits.
HOWSER: Oh, my gosh.
MERAJI: An Italian Grocery store with a massive soda pop selection.
HOWSER: Amazing.
MATT GROENING: Well, at first, you know, you think, oh this guy - he's an idiot. You know...
(LAUGHTER)
GROENING: ...he's so naive, he's amazed at everything. And then you realize, he's a genius
MERAJI: Matt Groening created "The Simpsons" and is a self-proclaimed...
GROENING: Friend of Huell Howser.
MERAJI: Groening said what was genius about Huell was his authenticity and he wrote him into the show.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SERIES, "THE SIMPSONS")
GROENING: In this world of cynicism and pseudo-sophistication, a guy who's willing to be genuine is really refreshing. And everybody on "The Simpsons" writing staff - and I got to tell you, those are a bunch of cynical people...
(LAUGHTER)
GROENING: ...genuinely loved him.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SONG, "CALIFORNIA HERE I COME")
MERAJI: The hundreds of fans who genuinely loved Huell Howser finished yesterday's tribute singing along to his version of "California, Here I Come."
In California, a giant state with every language, culture, and sub-culture you can think of Howser was one of the few common denominators. And you could see that in yesterday's turn-out.
Maybe it's because he never complained about the traffic or the smog. He just reminded us every single day why this place is so awesome. Or as he would say: Amazing.
Shereen Marisol Meraji, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF A MUSIC, "CALIFORNIA HERE I COME")
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Wow. It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
(SOUNDBITE OF A MUSIC, "CALIFORNIA HERE I COME")
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne with a message: Wayne Dobson does not have your cell phone. Many cell phones allow you to track them using GPS if they go missing. But the Las Vegas Review Journal reports that technical glitch has, for two years, directed some Sprint customers, who've lost their phones in Vegas, to the home of Wayne Dobson. Sprint says it's researching the problem. Meanwhile, Dobson has come up with his own low-tech solution, a sign on his door reading: No lost cell phones.
It's MORNING EDITION.
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Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Years ago, I had a drink at a bar called The Raven. Great name for a bar, invoking a poem by Edgar Allen Poe. A Massachusetts man would agree. He owns the Raven's Nest and the Mad Raven. The trouble is, he's in New England, and pro football's New England Patriots are prepping for a playoff game against the Baltimore Ravens. The bar owner did what he had to do. He temporarily renamed his bars the Patriot's Nest and the Mad Patriot. It's MORNING EDITION.
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Anyway, all this week on MORNING EDITION we've been looking at the growing number of Americans who do not identify with any religion. The series is called Losing Our Religion and it's time now to meet a couple for whom this subject is extremely personal. One partner has faith and the other does not. Deena Prichep reports.
DEENA PRICHEP, BYLINE: Maria Peyer and Mike Bixby are one of those couples who just seem made for each other. They hold hands when they sit and talk. They're happy to spend the morning cooking brunch with their kids and step kids in their southern Washington home.
Mike and Maria have actually known each other since they were young, but only got married a few years ago.
MARIA PEYER: And it just hadn't been the right time until it was.
(LAUGHTER)
PEYER: God bless Facebook.
MIKE BIXBY: She Facebooked me and asked if I remembered her. And then it just went from there.
PRICHEP: But there's one big issue where they do not see eye-to-eye. Maria is Lutheran. Her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all pastors. She's an assisting minister. And Mike is an atheist.
BIXBY: I do not believe that there is any sort of a higher power. I've made several attempts to go back and have faith, and it just doesn't work. It's not an open question for me any more.
PEYER: I would really like it if he could feel God's love the way I do. And it's one of those very few places where I feel like I can say I hear you, I understand what you're saying, I love you, and I think that there may be more to it.
PRICHEP: They do find ways to come together. Mike even goes along to church, every now and then.
BIXBY: I hear it a lot from Maria, You're very spiritual in this way and you're very spiritual in that way. And a couple days ago, I kind of joked with her that that's a very secular humanist attitude. That shows a lot...
(LAUGHTER)
BIXBY: ...of growth, a lot of not faith or whatever.
PRICHEP: Mike and Maria may disagree about faith but they share common values. Even in their vocations - she's an oncology nurse, and he teaches fourth grade.
PEYER: Mike works with kids that come from really hard places. And I work with people that are dying of cancer and living with cancer. And for me to do that as a Christian person, for Mike to do that as an atheist, wouldn't look a whole lot different if either one of us were the other.
BIXBY: Maria's faith plays a role in making her the person that I love, and I'm good with that. I think we're both the people we are because of her faith, because of my lack of faith. And I don't want to change that.
PRICHEP: In the past, couples like these often would make a change. Whichever person had the stronger conviction would set the terms. But these days, people are redrawing the lines.
ERIKA SEAMON: These families are doing something different and they're making their own choices.
PRICHEP: That's Erika Seamon. She teaches religion at Georgetown University and studies interfaith relationships. And she sees couples find common ground on love, ethics, even spirituality while maintaining very different religious identities.
SEAMON: What it's doing is it's mixing up, confusing, and blurring these ideas of religion and community, and affiliation, and ritual and faith.
PRICHEP: Seamon says that couples who do it successfully use the tools you might expect.
SEAMON: They listen, and they talk, and they try and understand one another. A number of them mentioned humor. You could probably take that list of advice that they would give and use it for any situation, whether it's religion, or just raising children, or getting along in the world.
PRICHEP: Because Mike and Maria got together just a few years ago, they didn't have to hammer out a compromise on the kids. Hers are being raised Lutheran, his don't go to church. But these tools - communication, humor, and compassion - help them work through their differences on other aspects of faith. And its work they're grateful for.
PEYER: I mean it's not a what should we have for dinner kind of question. You know, it's a: This matters - dinner matters too.
(LAUGHTER)
PEYER: Often a lot, but we don't fight about dinner. And we don't fight about this. It has very much helped me clarify what's true for me.
BIXBY: If I was a different type of nonbeliever and Maria was a different type of believer, then that would be a very different question.
PEYER: I can love you and think you're wrong. And you can love me and think I'm wrong. So I appreciate this opportunity to grapple with it. And I appreciate you for being the one I get to grapple with it.
PRICHEP: And grappling together, for Mike Bixby and Maria Peyer, looks a lot like love.
For NPR News, I'm Deena Prichep.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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There are certain classic American plays that are revived on Broadway every decade or so, to let a new generation of audiences and actors discover them. Tennessee Williams' 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," is one of those. Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson headlines a new revival, which opens tonight.
Jeff Lunden has more.
JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: The last time Scarlett Johansson played on Broadway, which was also her first time, she won a Tony Award as the young niece, Catherine, who unwittingly sets a tragedy in motion in Arthur Miller's "A View from the Bridge." The 28-year-old star, who's fresh off last summer's blockbuster movie, "The Avengers," wanted to return to the stage and read through a lot of plays. Then she came to "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
SCARLETT JOHANSSON: When I read it, I was just terrified of it. And I think that's why I chose to do it.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHANSSON: I didn't know how to do to it but I knew I could do it. So that interested me.
LUNDEN: Johansson's stepping into a role, and a silky slip, that many actresses have made famous: Barbara Bel Geddes in the original production, Elizabeth Taylor in the film, Kathleen Turner and Elizabeth Ashley, among others, in Broadway revivals. But Johansson sees Maggie the Cat a little differently.
JOHANSSON: She's not a slinky, sort of, sex kitten. She's earthy and she's ugly at times. And, you know, she's the ugly truth at times, for better or worse. And, you know, that's how I see her in my mind.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF")
LUNDEN: Director Rob Ashford, who's well-known in New York for his work in musicals, has directed revivals of classic American plays in London. He gathered a cast that includes rising star Benjamin Walker as Brick and Irish actor Ciarán Hinds as Big Daddy. Ashford says he wanted to direct this drama of family secrets and dysfunction with new eyes.
ROB ASHFORD: You know, when we started rehearsal, one of the first things I said to them was, like, if could take these characters off these pedestals where they've been placed and just, kind of, put them back in the play; let's make that our goal. Like, not someone giving their Big Daddy, or someone giving their Maggie or someone giving their Brick, but just like these characters in a play.
LUNDEN: Benjamin Walker says Ashford's fresh perspective helped him tackle the role of Brick, the alcoholic ex-jock, who's lost his best friend Skipper.
: A lot of people always, you know, Oh, it's the play where the guy doesn't know he's gay. And it's just more complicated than that, sexuality is much more complicated than that. And what we learn about these people is much more complicated than that. And I think what Rob has done is to embrace those complexities that are already in the play. And I think that'll surprise people.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF")
LUNDEN: The unhappy, childless marriage between Brick and Maggie, is brought into focus in the play by a 65th birthday celebration for Brick's cantankerous father, Big Daddy, who owns a huge cotton plantation and is dying of cancer - though the other characters keep that fact hidden from him.
One of Tennessee Williams' biggest themes in this play is mendacity.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF")
LUNDEN: Belfast-born actor Ciarán Hinds plays Big Daddy.
: All the way through, they talk about lying and liars. And they're spoken of with such disgust and disdain, and yet we all live our live by lies and small lies, white lies - either for our own nefarious reasons or to prevent people from getting hurt by the truth. And that's what seems to me is the big heart of this play, and who can face up to the lies and liars.
And the character that I play, Big Daddy, is the one who is the first one to stand up and say all my life I've been hampered and held back by liars and the hypocrisy of it. But when it comes to facing his own truth, which is delivered to him very simply and very devastatingly by his son, he's got nothing more to say.
LUNDEN: Director Rob Ashford says all the painful truths are wrapped in uncommonly beautiful language by Tennessee Williams.
ASHFORD: There's so much poetry with the pain. Do you know what I mean? It's all like, kind of, if life is going to be brutal, then let's have a little beauty with the brutality.
LUNDEN: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" opens at the Richard Rodgers Theatre tonight and runs through March 30th.
For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
We are picking up this morning with the conversation we began earlier this week. Our colleague David Greene sat down in the sanctuary of a synagogue with a group of young Americans for our series Losing Our Religion. And David, remind us who they are.
DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: Well, Renee, we got interested in all of this when we saw a study from the Pew Research Center. It said that a third of young adults in this country say that they don't identify with any organized religion. And so for this conversation, we met with some young men and women in their 20s and 30s and they have all been struggling with the role of faith and religion in their lives. Now, this is Melissa Adelman. She was raised Catholic but doesn't call herself that anymore.
MELISSA ADELMAN: Moving away from Catholicism for me was a loss, a negative thing, and sort of, you know, a rejection of a set of beliefs. But at the same time, it's not like you move away from religion and then have nothing or have sort of this emptiness where you feel like, oh geez, I wish that I believed in something because now, you know, I have this negative space in my life. I think you can fill it with lots of really good things.
MONTAGNE: So she doesn't feel an emptiness without religion. Is that a sense that you got from everyone at the table?
GREENE: I would say it really is. I mean none of these young people felt a feeling of emptiness but they do feel conflicted, and they seem to recognize that religion fills certain needs. And let's listen to more here. We're going to hear again from Melissa Adelman. But first Kyle Simpson. He found Christianity when he was a teenager. He's drifted away from religion, but he's had these moments of doubt.
KYLE SIMPSON: Last year, when I turned 26, I had my mini-existential crisis when I realized, oh my gosh, what's going to happen when I die? Am I just going to end up in the ground and like everything I've worked for, all my memories, are for naught? I still have that feeling every once in a while in the stereotypical moments when you're like sitting alone in the dark and you can't go to bed and you start thinking about that. But I don't know if that's emptiness. That's more just a fear that I hope others have.
GREENE: Are you jealous in a way of people who are part of an organized religious community and have that answer and kind of feel like they know what will happen when they die and don't have to ask that question?
SIMPSON: I'm definitely jealous of that comfort. I don't know if, like, jealous is the word because I don't know if I want what that is because I want to believe it right now.
ADELMAN: For me it's not about the beliefs that I wish I had. 'Cause I don't envy other people their beliefs, I guess. I'm comfortable with the place that I've come to. I do seek that sense of community, I think is probably the biggest thing for me, that tradition and community and support network. That's what I would look for.
RIGOBERTO PEREZ: But you don't have to have a sense of community from religion. I don't get my sense of community from religion. My community: I'm a veteran, I ride sport bikes. I'm a fan of a football team. You know, people can get that sense of community from everywhere.
GREENE: That third voice there is a young Iraq War veteran named Rigoberto Perez. He was raised in a strict Christian home. And now sitting just to his right in our circle, a young woman named Lizz Reeves. She has felt unwelcome when she's gone to church because of her spiritual doubts and also her views on social issues. But Lizz is also looking for that sense of belonging that religion can provide.
LIZZ REEVES: I still feel like I would benefit from that community, and I still, I think, struggle, feeling like I cannot be a member of it. And so I think if I found a religious community that made me feel accepted for who I am, that I would be much - I'd be very open to pursuing that. And I actually have some friends who are members of a particular church who've been really trying to get me to go with them to this church, 'cause they keep telling me, oh, don't worry, it's OK, everybody, you know, that's what's this church is all about. And so I'm certainly open to the idea and I would like my children way down the road to also have exposure to religion and ask these questions of themselves. And I think that's really important.
GREENE: Do you pray?
REEVES: So growing up I used to do something really silly. It's going to sound very silly when it comes out. But every day at 11:11 - the time - I'd make some sort of wish, which looking back on it, it was prayer is what it was. I didn't really...
GREENE: Doesn't sound silly.
REEVES: Well, you know, I mean my soccer number was always 11. I had this weird thing. Kind of some weird superstitions and things like that. I never would have admitted that I was praying at the time, I don't think, because I didn't feel comfortable with the idea that it was something religious at that time. But looking back on it, that's certainly what it was. And I occasionally will catch myself at 11:11 kind of doing that again.
GREENE: Still today...
REEVES: Yeah, from time to time, yeah. And it is some sort of prayer, but I think it's more of questioning myself or challenging myself to do something or to think about something than it is kind of prayer in the most traditional of ways.
PEREZ: I do something fairly similar, actually. You know, I grew up with prayer - speaking to yourself and not expecting a response. So you know, some people may call it prayer, but I do carry internal dialogues, very similar. Please let me work through this, give me more strength to deal with this, or trying to work through how I can effect a change in that particular circumstance. So I mean, like you said, some people may consider it prayer. I don't consider it that because I'm, you know, it's me, I'm finding something within myself; but others may.
GREENE: Melissa, do you pray?
ADELMAN: Not on a regular basis, but I do. I mean, I found that it's important to me to be thankful and to be more cognizant of the good things that happen in life. And so when really awesome things happen, I try to remember to take the time to feel the gratitude that I have for that. And so for me, I think that's my sense of prayer.
GREENE: And you kind of considered that replacing traditional prayer - your own kind of version of prayer.
ADELMAN: Yeah, yeah. I mean, and the traditional prayer that I did as a child growing up was, you know, every night to get down on my knees and ask God to take care of the people that I cared about, you know, and to make bad things go away and make good things happen. And I think this version of it for me is just much more in accord with my set of sort of moral values and so...
GREENE: Kyle?
SIMPSON: Yeah, I do and I don't know what to make of it, because I feel like a hypocrite. And - but I only do when I'm at my most scared or my most fearful, and...
GREENE: You pray when you're at your most fearful?
SIMPSON: Yeah, and my most vulnerable. And like I said, I don't know what to do with that because it really does not align with anything that I've said all day today, yet I still find myself doing that.
GREENE: And, Renee, as you can hear, these young Americans are conflicted. I mean, we spoke for two hours and they talked about having this respect for religion but feeling like it's not something they can totally identify with right now. And if our listeners want to get to know them better - the people in our roundtable - there are photos of them and some more details about their lives at our website, NPR.org.
MONTAGNE: And we're going to be wrapping up our series tomorrow, the series Losing Our Religion. What will we hear?
GREENE: Well, we're going to turn to two religious leaders, including a Catholic priest. He says he wants to keep adaptable, to keep the door open to people who feel alienated from the Catholic Church, but he says there are limits.
MIKE SIRUFKA: I know there's some things I can't do. There's some things that are simply at this point not changeable. I personally am not able to ordain women, for example.
GREENE: So that's Father Mike Sirufka(ph), a Catholic priest in Chicago. We'll hear from him and also from a Methodist minister in Texas tomorrow.
MONTAGNE: MORNING EDITION's David Greene. Thanks very much.
GREENE: Thanks, Renee.
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On a Thursday, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
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And I'm Renée Montagne. It's too early to know if this flu season will break any records, although it feels like it about right now. It did start earlier than usual and this month it took off like a wildfire in most areas of the country. But not every respiratory illness out there is influenza. There's a nasty stomach bug too. NPR's Richard Knox reports on other viruses contributing to this winter's misery.
RICHARD KNOX, BYLINE: Things have eased off a bit in the emergency room at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, Massachusetts. The corridors are no longer jammed with coughing, shivering, feverish patients the way they were last week. So, Dr. Beth Zeeman could stop for a chat. She says she can spot a case of influenza from 20 paces. But not everybody who's getting sick right now has got it.
DR. BETH ZEEMAN: People think they've had the flu when they've had colds and they say they have the flu. People use the word flu for everything. But having influenza is really a different thing. It hits you like a ton of bricks.
KNOX: The other day she saw a strapping 20-year-old man who thought he was going to die.
ZEEMAN: People who are strong, healthy people are really knocked down by this flu.
KNOX: Although all respiratory infections are alike to some degree, infectious disease specialist Andrew Pavia says flu has certain hallmarks.
ANDREW PAVIA: Classic case of flu starts off suddenly, with high fever, maybe shaking chills, severe muscle and body aches. It's not uncommon for people to say their hair hurts, they hurt so badly.
KNOX: Pavia works at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He says influenza is part of a triple whammy of respiratory viruses hitting the country right now. Another one is called respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
PAVIA: There's a great deal of RSV circulating right now. And RSV causes pretty severe respiratory disease in children, particularly younger children under about two. It's pretty common for them to be hospitalized with wheezing and shortness of breath.
KNOX: And then there's para-influenza virus. Although it has influenza in its name, it's a different bug altogether.
PAVIA: It most commonly causes croup - that kind of barky cough that children get. But in adults it can cause laryngitis and a prolonged cough.
KNOX: But the regular old flu is the first among equals when it comes to respiratory miseries.
PAVIA: Flu reliably kills people every year. It kills healthy people as well as the very young, the very old and debilitated people. So I still treat flu with the greatest degree of respect.
KNOX: There's a fourth virus making some Americans sick right now - the nasty norovirus. Some people call it stomach flu, but it really doesn't have anything to do with the flu. Its specialty is intestinal - causing non-stop diarrhea and what doctors call projectile vomiting.
That can quickly lead to a dangerous level of dehydration. Norovirus is also notorious among medical people for being so easy to get - from eating foods or touching surfaces that are contaminated - and so hard to get rid of.
PAVIA: It requires cleaning, cleaning and then cleaning again, in order to remove norovirus from environmental surfaces.
KNOX: By comparison, the influenza virus is a pushover, environmentally speaking.
PAVIA: It doesn't survive very well in soft environments like tissues. But it can last up to 12 hours on hard surfaces like counters under ideal conditions.
KNOX: That means you probably can pick up flu viruses from touching doorknobs or sink faucets, or using a keyboard that somebody with contaminated fingers just typed on. But most likely, you're going to get the flu by shaking hands with somebody who's infected and may or may not be showing symptoms yet.
Or by being coughed or sneezed on. That's why public health people keep harping on coughing or sneezing into your sleeve to avoid spraying virus on people nearby. And washing you hands often - silently singing "happy birthday" to yourself twice to make sure you're doing a good job.
Those things do work. And if they don't, pay attention to the kind of symptoms you get when you get sick.
PAVIA: If you're having chills that are so bad that your teeth are chattering and the chair is shaking under you, you're pretty sick. And if it's not flu, it's probably a serious bacterial infection and it's a pretty good indication you should see a doctor.
KNOX: But in January of 2013, Pavia says if you've got those symptoms, there's an 80 percent chance you've got the flu. Richard Knox, NPR News.
INSKEEP: (singing) Happy Birthday...
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States are also developing plans on gun control and mental health. New York has passed the first law in response to the Newtown school shootings. It requires mental health professionals to report patients they deem likely to harm themselves or someone else.
Still, as NPR's Jon Hamilton reports, researchers who study violence among the mentally ill think requirements like New York's won't help much.
JON HAMILTON, BYLINE: Researchers say one issue with laws like New York's is that they compel mental health professionals to report thousands of people who aren't at all likely to shoot someone.
Barry Rosenfeld is a psychologist at Fordham University in the Bronx.
BARRY ROSENFELD: With these laws we're destined to cast a very, very large net, put a lot of people under it, probably restrict a lot of people's behaviors unnecessarily, and maybe we'll prevent an incident or two. I hope.
HAMILTON: Or maybe not. Rosenfeld says a big problem is that, despite the attention they get, mass shootings are very rare events.
ROSENFELD: When you're trying to predict a rare event, it's really, really hard. And the more rare the event, the harder it is to accurately predict it and the greater your error rate is going to be when you label people as potentially dangerous. You're just going to capture lots and lots of non-dangerous people.
HAMILTON: Rosenfeld says another problem is that most mental health professionals don't have MDs or PhDs and haven't received much training in assessing a patient's risk of violence.
ROSENFELD: Even most typical psychiatrists and psychologists have relatively limited training in it. It's not a particularly substantial part of how we train mental health professionals.
HAMILTON: Rosenfeld is one of a small number of experts who are trained to assess the risk that a person will act violently. He says the process often requires a lengthy interview, access to a person's criminal and mental health history, and even special testing.
ROSENFELD: So when I'm asked to predict or to assess someone's violent risk I have a tremendous amount of information at my disposal that the typical mental health professional on the fly simply doesn't have.
HAMILTON: Even highly trained professionals, with lots of information, aren't that accurate.
Alan Teo of the University of Michigan compared the ability of young psychiatrists and more experienced ones to assess the risk that patients at a large psychiatric hospital would become violent. Half of the patients assaulted staff during their stay, the other half didn't.
ALAN TEO: The less experienced psychiatry residents were actually not any better than flipping a coin. They were no better than chance in predicting a patients' risk for violence.
HAMILTON: Teo says the experienced doctors did better - but were still wrong about 30 percent of the time.
TEO: Three out of 10 cases being missed when we're talking about assaults on staff or assaults on other patients is clearly unacceptable.
HAMILTON: There are a couple of pretty reliable signs that a person with a mental illness is likely to act violently.
Steven Hoge, a forensic psychiatrist at Columbia University, says it's a red flag if a patient has committed acts of violence in the past or is currently threatening violence. But with other patients, Hoge says, risk assessment is mostly guesswork.
STEVEN HOGE: For anyone to make an accurate assessment in the absence of either a past offense or a current threat is virtually impossible.
HAMILTON: Hoge says patients who are violent or threatening violence are pretty uncommon, and that mental health professionals tend to report them even without a special law.
Hoge also says that most mental health practitioners support the intent of gun control laws, like the one in New York. They just think the emphasis on the mental illness is misguided.
HOGE: The biggest risk for gun violence is a gun - possession of a gun. And the mentally ill, there's no evidence that the mentally ill possess guns or commit gun violence with any greater rate than the normal population.
HAMILTON: Of course, on rare occasions a person with a mental illness does commit a horrific act of violence. But Hoge says the bottom line is you can't assume that a mental health professional could have seen it coming.
Jon Hamilton, NPR News.
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President Obama says he's done what he could on his own. Yesterday he signed 23 executive orders related to gun control. They will allow federal agencies to strengthen the existing background check system and improve the tracking of stolen guns. The big ticket items, like universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons and high capacity clips, will need congressional action.
As NPR's national political correspondent Mara Liasson reports, getting gun control legislation through Congress will be hard work.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Mr. Obama's proposals are the first major gun control initiatives since the 1994 crime bill. Vice President Joe Biden, who drove that bill through the Senate 19 years ago, said this year's effort will be no easier.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I have no illusions about what we're up against, what we're up against or how hard the task is in front of us. But I also have never seen the nation's conscience so shaken by what happened at Sandy Hook. The world has changed, and it's demanding action.
LIASSON: Sending legislation to the Hill and mounting a sustained fight to pass it are two very different things. But yesterday, in remarks that were both passionate and deliberate, President Obama said he intended to use whatever weight his office holds.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I will put everything I've got into this, and so will Joe. But I tell you, the only way we can change is if the American people demand it. And by the way, that doesn't just mean from certain parts of the country. We're going to need voices in those areas, in those congressional districts, where the tradition of gun ownership is strong to speak up and to say this is important.
LIASSON: The president never mentioned the National Rifle Association by name, but he called on gun owners - many of whom are NRA members - to help change minds in Congress.
OBAMA: Ask your member of Congress if they support universal background checks to keep guns out of the wrong hands. Ask them if they support renewing a ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. And if they say no, ask them why not. Ask them what's more important - doing whatever it takes to get an A grade from the gun lobby that funds their campaigns, or giving parents some peace of mind when they drop their child off for first grade?
(APPLAUSE)
LIASSON: In the end, the biggest obstacle to Mr. Obama's gun violence bills might be Republican opposition, but right now the biggest hurdle is a lack of enthusiasm on the part of his own Democrats. Asked for his reaction to the president's proposals, Republican House Speaker John Boehner said he would wait to see what the Senate - and its Democratic leader, Harry Reid, does first.
JOHN FEEHERY: The number one impediment to actual action on gun control has been Harry Reid.
LIASSON: John Feehery is a former House Republican leadership aide.
FEEHERY: He actually was able to win his election because he had the endorsement of the NRA. And Harry Reid also has a pretty good sense of how these things play politically, and my guess is he's going to be very cautious.
LIASSON: Reid has said he isn't inclined to schedule votes on proposals - like an assault weapons ban - that have little chance of passing the House. And that's one reason, says Feehery, House Republicans are not feeling much pressure to act.
FEEHERY: They do not want to walk the plank on something like this until they have to; if they don't have to, even better. I think that for Republicans in the House this is a very difficult issue. Many Republicans represent very rural areas where gun control is a disaster, and so I think that for those House Republicans, waiting for the Senate is exactly the right strategy.
LIASSON: The White House is promising a campaign-style effort to move the gun bills. They will have the clout and resources of some new allies, including Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York City.
And public opinion, at least for now, seems to have shifted in favor of more gun restrictions - including universal background checks and a ban on high capacity magazines.
But that's national opinion, not always the kind of sentiment that matters the most to House Republicans worried about a primary challenge, or red state Senate Democrats facing a tough reelection.
Mara Liasson, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
You heard the president acknowledge that in some parts of the country - and more specifically, some congressional districts - gun ownership is stronger than in other parts of the country. He would need allies in those places to overcome or persuade the gun industry and its lobbying groups. Industry officials are ready to fight.
As NPR's Jim Zarroli reports, some of the proposals, especially a ban on assault weapons, could take a bite out of gun-makers' revenue.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: Gun industry officials were nervously awaiting the president's announcement yesterday, anxious to see what they were up against. As it happened, the proposals were about what most people had expected, to the relief of a lot of investors, and shares of some of the biggest gun makers actually finished the day higher. Nima Samadi is the senior analyst at IBISWorld.
NIMA SAMADI: It lessens some of the ambiguity regarding a potential change in gun laws, and I think perhaps that, you know, might have improved some investor confidence among people who invest in gun manufacturers.
ZARROLI: That's not to say the gun industry doesn't have a lot at stake in this fight. Samadi says depending on how they're defined, assault weapons are a big source of revenue for gun makers.
SAMADI: For them right now, it's kind of a waiting game. They've got to wait and see what, you know, those proposed changes really involve. And it's possible that it could affect some of the more popular types of guns out there and that could ultimately hurt revenue.
ZARROLI: Samadi says some of the other proposals, like measures to tighten gun trafficking and limit ammunition, probably wouldn't have as direct an impact on gun makers. Whatever the effect, manufacturers had little to say about the proposals yesterday, just as they have had little to say publically since the Sandy Hook massacre. Several major manufacturers were contacted for comment about the proposals and none responded. One who did speak out was Mike Fifer, CEO of Sturm and Ruger. On an NRA website, Fifer said manufacturers need to begin speaking out against new state and federal gun control measures.
MIKE FIFER: Just do it. Just reach out to your consumers, let them know, let them tell their friends, let's make a groundswell. Let's get that silent majority to speak up for once.
ZARROLI: Fifer's company has developed software that makes it easy for gun owners to contact their state and federal politicians, and about 400,000 people had used it as of Friday. Fifer said that some of the proposals being talked about, like the assault weapons ban, would set the industry back.
FIFER: Everybody I've talked to in the industry is anxious to keep developing new products, get them out to consumers. And nobody wants to backtrack now and try to go adjust all their current products to fit these new, new regulations. Nobody wants to do that. That's not where they're focused. That's a big step backwards for all of us.
ZARROLI: Fifer was interviewed at a convention for the gun industry sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation in Las Vegas. A lot of those attending the show see the proposals as an attack on gun ownership. James Rebholz, who works for a company that exports reloading supplies, paused outside the convention center yesterday afternoon to say the proposals would have a minimal effect on gun violence. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: The following speaker was misidentified as James Rebholz. His name is Ken Gregg.]
KEN GREGG: I think they're going to take guns away from law-abiding citizens. And the only people that will have guns are the criminals.
ZARROLI: Not far away was Mike Cole, who works for a manufacturing company and was at the show to meet with vendors. Cole said he is sympathetic to some of the president's aims and restricting ammunition is a good idea. But he says it may be too late at this point to do anything about assault weapons.
MIKE COLE: Because there are so many assault weapons out there now that the assault weapon ban - what, it's been for almost 10 years, over 10 years, I think, that it hasn't been in effect, so it's - there's a lot of weapons out there already.
ZARROLI: Cole says the enormous size of the Las Vegas convention is a stark reminder of just how big the gun industry is. And it underscores just how big the challenges are for the White House as it tries to take the industry on. Jim Zarroli, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
In West Africa, the push to prevent militant Islamists from expanding beyond their base in northern Mali is shifting into a ground war. French and Malian troops are now directly engaging al-Qaida linked rebels in combat. They've surrounded a desert village that jihadists overran when they began pushing south toward Mali's capital. This escalates the battle that began last week, when France sent in fighter jets to attack the rebels.
To learn more, we're joined by Sudarsan Raghavan. He's a Washington Post correspondent covering the events from the capital, Bamako.
Good morning.
SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN: Good morning. Good to be with you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So tell us what is happening now.
RAGHAVAN: Well, what's happening now is that the battle has come down towards - into central Mali in the basic focus on the village of Diabaly, where the Islamists essentially have taken over the village. And what we're seeing now is this ground confrontation happening between the Islamists and French forces and Malian troops.
Even as we speak, this morning I spoke to a Malian colonel who told me that there are infantry units (unintelligible) being sent towards the village. So overall we're definitely in a new phase of the war which is ground operations.
MONTAGNE: And also, I gather, Nigerian troops are readying to move across the border into Mali. How does all of this change the fight - I mean from a military standpoint, but also a regional and international one?
RAGHAVAN: Well, a couple of months ago basically the U.N. Security Council approved a proposal by Mali's neighbors to send 3,000 troops to essentially liberate northern Mali. What we're seeing now with this surprise military assaults by the French is that everyone is trying to speed things up, to speed up the deployment. So Mali's neighbors are now pledging to send troops much sooner than expected. It was supposed to take nearly - several more months before these troops would actually arrive.
But Mali's neighbors are now trying to speed up their deployment, send troops in quickly in order to have this seen as an African operation rather than a French operation.
MONTAGNE: And this escalation seems to be having broader effects. There's a hostage situation going on now in Algeria, which reports the hostage takers are demanding an end to the French incursion in Mali. What do you know about this?
RAGHAVAN: Yes, that's correct. I mean this is the biggest fear for the United States and its allies, Western allies, is that a conflict in northern Mali could spill across borders and essentially spread across the vast lawless stretches of desert in several different countries.
And particularly, I mean I think the fear certainly amongst the U.S. officials is not that these militants can target the United States as the al-Qaida affiliates in Yemen have done, but rather they're going to target Western interests. Events like what happened yesterday in the Algeria, taking hostages of Americans or Europeans or French, and so on, that's sort of the big concern here.
And I think that's certainly one reason why you're seeing a bit of a reluctance, a hesitancy, for the U.S. and other European countries to engage, to fully support France in this, in their military campaigns because, you know, they fear backlash that could affect American and Western interests in this region and perhaps even beyond.
MONTAGNE: All right, well, thank you very much.
RAGHAVAN: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: Sudarsan Raghavan from The Washington Post, speaking to us from Bamako, the capital of Mali.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with another ominous sign from Europe.
We've told you, in recent days, how car sales in the United States have really surged as people finally had some money to spend or finally made a long delayed purchase.
So it's a bad sign that we now have to tell you that demand for new cars in the European Union dropped more than 16 percent in December - making last year's sales figures the worst in almost two decades. Greece, Portugal and Italy all had sales declines of between 20 and 40 percent last year, but even stronger economies like France and Germany experienced declines. Ford and GM both announced almost half a billion dollar in losses in Europe in the last quarter of 2012, and most analysts predict next year won't be any better.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some other news. Thirty-two people from New York and New Jersey are charged with using threats of violence to control garbage pickup routes.
Authorities say many have ties to the mob, as NPR's Joel Rose reports.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Organized crime has a long history of infiltrating the trash collection business in New York and New Jersey. It's also the official family business of America's most famous TV gangster, Tony Soprano.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE SOPRANOS")
ROSE: But federal prosecutors say there's still some truth to the cliche. Early Wednesday morning, the FBI arrested dozens of men with nicknames like Papa Smurf, Muzzy, Tony Lodi and Big Bill.
The indictment claims that a dozen of them are associated with the Genevieve, Gambino and Lucchese crime families. Some had been banned from the waste management business because of prior convictions. They're charged with using threats of violence and other strong arm tactics to control and extort trash hauling companies in the suburbs of New York City.
In one incident, prosecutors say two of the defendants didn't think they were getting paid fast enough, so they stole a garbage truck and kept it until they got their money.
Joel Rose, NPR News, New York.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The Federal Reserve, yesterday, released its latest snapshot of the state of the U.S. economy. Retail and auto sales were up slightly over the year before, as was activity in the all important housing sector. Real estate sales were seen as steady or improved across much of the country.
For more on housing prices and economic recovery, we turn this morning, as we often do, to David Wessel. He's economics editor of The Wall Street Journal. Good morning.
DAVID WESSEL: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So, the bursting of the housing price bubble helped trigger the recession and the global financial crisis. Is the housing bust finally over?
WESSEL: Pretty much. Housing prices are well below where they were in 2006 but in most communities they've stopped falling and in many they've begun rising - particularly in places that were hardest hit. In Phoenix, for instance, prices are up more than 20 percent above where they were a year ago. And this shift in the mood is pulling buyers into the market, more people buying houses - though mortgages remain hard to get for some people. But for those people who can get a mortgage, mortgage rates are extraordinarily low by historical standards. It's about 3.4 percent for a 30-year mortgage now.
MONTAGNE: So housing prices going up, good for the economy. What about the prices of all the other goods and services, what you might say - the overall rate of inflation?
WESSEL: Right. Well, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on that yesterday. Some prices are going up; that's always going on. For some reason the price sweet rolls, coffeecakes and doughnuts is up 5.4 percent over the past year. I don't know why that is.
MONTAGNE: Something - and something for us in the morning to think about.
WESSEL: Right. But, overall, prices are rising very slowly. The BLS said consumer prices didn't climb at all in December, overall, and they're only 1.7 percent above the year ago level.
Wages aren't going up very much either. They're barely keeping up with inflation. And financial markets and economic forecasters - for what they're worth - predict inflation will hover around two percent - which actually is what the Fed's target is for the next few years.
MONTAGNE: And David, as we've discussed before, the Fed has been printing money for years now - tens of billions of dollars every month. What happened to the notion that printing money inevitably ends up producing inflation?
WESSEL: Well, actually, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke was asked just that question earlier this week, when he spoke at the University of Michigan. And here's what he had to say about it.
BEN BERNANKE: We have, obviously, used very expansionary monetary policy. There are some people who think that's going to be inflationary. Personally, I don't see much evidence of that.
WESSEL: So what Mr. Bernanke is saying is that the Fed has the tools it needs to keep the money it's printed and all the reserves that banks hold from turning into inflation when the economy is stronger. And he and the people in the Fed who agree with him, point to the fact that with all the ups and downs of the economy in the past few years - consumer, business and financial markets - all expect inflation to remain pretty stable. They call it anchored, inflation expectations.
And they figure that as long as that holds, as long as businesses, consumers, workers and markets all anticipate inflation will remain calm, and factor that into decisions on wages and prices and interest rates and investments, then inflation will actually remain stable. And they're kind of counting on that holding.
MONTAGNE: So, what does that mean, the end of inflation?
WESSEL: Probably not. Absolutely not. The Fed is running a big experiment in monetary policy. There's a good chance that they'll make a mistake, misread the economy, wait too long to raise interest rates and inflation will go up. That's almost always happened before. But we'll be starting from a very low inflation rate.
But there some people inside and outside the Fed who are afraid that the Fed officials may lack the political courage - if you will - to raise interest rates or sell off some of their bonds and mortgages when the time comes, because they know that'll be so unpopular with politicians and everybody, because they'll be raising rates and they'll, like, be putting the brakes on the economy. Ben Bernanke says that's not the case, but by the time that decision is made he'll probably be gone from his job at the Fed.
MONTAGNE: David, nice to talk to you.
WESSEL: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: David Wessel, of The Wall Street Journal.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And today's last word in business is: outsourcing.
When an American-based company noticed that somebody had been logging onto their computer system from China, day after day, they worried it was hackers so they called in some telecom risk experts from Verizon.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And what they discovered was surprising. The activity from China was all being done with the logon of one of the firms' top software developers. Turns out the unnamed employee was outsourcing his job to several Chinese consulting companies.
(LAUGHTER)
MONTAGNE: He paid them about one-fifth of his salary to do all his work, which they apparently did pretty well.
INSKEEP: So you may be wondering what he did with all his spare time. Well, he is web browser history showed a typical day involves surfing Reddit, watching cat videos, visiting eBay and updating his Facebook page. Although, now he has lots of time, he's no longer employed by the company.
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm either Steve Inskeep or some guy in India.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne or some gal in China.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne. We're following reports this morning that Algeria has launched a military operation against Islamist militants holding dozens of Western hostages, including Americans. The militants seized the hostages yesterday, at an oil and gas facility in Algeria. They were apparently responding to the deployment of French troops, sent to fight an insurgency in neighboring Mali. The Algerian militants threatened to blow up the oil and gas complex unless the French withdrew from Mali.
NPR's Eleanor Beardsley is following this fast-changing story from Paris and joins us now, on the line. And Eleanor, what do we know - so far - today?
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Well, Renee, a lot is being reported, but it's still unconfirmed. The British Foreign Office has said that an operation is under way against this oil and gas facility, by the Algerian government. And we're hearing separate reports - from wires and from Islamist news sites - that a terrible battle has been engaged, and up to maybe 34 Western hostages have been killed. Of course, this is a very, very remote place in the southern desert of Algeria, so there's not a lot of witnesses there.
Some wires are quoting locals, but it's not like visitors - journalists can just go there because you have to have a visa to get into Algeria. So there are not journalists at the site, so we're unable to confirm much of it. But apparently, it's not a surprise because the Algerian government fought a 10-year battle in the 1990s with these Islamists. And up to 2,000 - 200,000 people, excuse me, mostly Algerian civilians were killed in this decade-long, very brutal war. And they had one principle, one doctrine, which was: We don't negotiate with terrorists. So it wouldn't be surprising at all that - if they have launched an attack against these Islamist militants.
MONTAGNE: Right. And so Eleanor, what do we know about these hostage-takers, these - what they would be calling terrorists?
BEARDSLEY: Right. Well, it's apparently a new group, called the Signatories of Blood. And we don't know much about them, but we know a lot about their leader. He's very well-known by the Algerian police, and also in France. His name is Mokhtar Belmokhtar. He's a notorious one-eyed, desert jihadist. He lost his eye training in Afghanistan, in the '90s. He's been operating in this area for the last 10 years, taking hostages and killing them.
About two years ago, in France, there was a young French aid worker who was going to marry a Mali - a girl from Mali; and his best friend came down for the wedding. And right before the wedding, they were kidnapped and killed; and all of France was in mourning. So he's done horrible things. He's, we could say, a bad guy. He's known as Mr. Quran in the day, and Mr. Marlboro at night - because of his illicit cigarette running.
You've got to understand, Renee, this is a huge swath of desert area that encompasses several countries with weak states - Libya, Chad, Niger, Mali; you know, porous borders. So you have these bands of Islamists who are, you know, smuggling, kidnapping, trafficking. They operate with impunity. They're terrorizing populations. And Algeria said it closed its border with Mali. Well, the border with Mali is 1,200 miles long, and it's desert. So you can't really close that. You know, these guys ride around in pickup trucks, and do what they want. So these are the kind of people that have apparently taken these hostages.
MONTAGNE: And Eleanor, we have just about 30 seconds here, but can you tell us briefly why they attacked this facility in Algeria?
BEARDSLEY: Well, the main reason is - they cited in a communique - the betrayal of the blood of Algerian martyrs slain by French colonists. I interviewed Gilles Kepel. He's a top scholar of the Arab world. Listen to what he says.
MONTAGNE: So Eleanor, it looks like we do not have that tape, but we will be...
BEARDSLEY: OK.
MONTAGNE: ...keeping track of this story as the morning goes on. Thanks very much. Eleanor Beardsley, speaking to us from Paris.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The Consumer Protection Financial Bureau is unveiling today the second half of its new mortgage rules. It will outline how the mortgage industry must manage loans that are delinquent or in the process of being foreclosed.
NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports that these rules, among other things, aim to make it easier for borrowers to communicate with the people handling their mortgages.
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: In the home loan industry, the messiest, most intractable problems often arise from what's known as mortgage servicing. Simply put, servicers are companies that collect your monthly mortgage payment on behalf of the lender. But when borrowers fall behind, servicers are supposed to reach out to the borrower to see whether they're eligible for a loan modification or a short sale. If not, the servicer handles the foreclosure.
But in recent years, the mortgage servicing industry has had plenty of problems. Richard Cordray is the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
RICHARD CORDRAY: Servicers have routinely failed to answer phone calls, mishandled accounts, failed to credit bills promptly, charged unexplained fees - things that cost borrowers money and dumped many of them into foreclosure.
NOGUCHI: Loan experts say many services are understaffed and undertrained. Most were not prepared for the high volume of foreclosures that hit during the crisis. Then, three years ago, services were caught robo-signing foreclosure documents, essentially cutting corners on paperwork to speed up the process. Cordray says in the second half of last year alone, his watchdog agency received 47,000 consumer complaints about mortgage servicers.
CORDRAY: Oftentimes, servicers had financial incentives to proceed with foreclosure rather than try to avoid it, and one of the things that our rule specifies is servicers can't put themselves first in this process.
NOGUCHI: Among other things, the new rules bar services from proceeding with foreclosure if a borrower has applied for a mortgage modification. The rules also give borrowers rights to clear communications from their servicer. Servicers must also provide notice of all the foreclosure alternatives available to homeowners who miss two months of payments.
To enforce these rules, Cordray says his agency can audit servicing operations to monitor their compliance.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: If they are violating the law and harming consumers, we can get restitution back to consumers.
NOGUCHI: These new rules are a cornerstone for Cordray's bureau, a year-old agency established in the aftermath of one of the worst financial crises since the Great Depression, one caused by the enormous problems in the mortgage market. Cordray notes the rules build on the settlement reached last year between five major banks and state attorneys general to settle the robo-signing case. Unlike that settlement, he says, the new rules will cover all servicers.
Scott Talbott, an executive with the Financial Services Roundtable, which represents many services, says his members' only real concern is that the final rules are consistent with other regulations.
SCOTT TALBOTT: We certainly don't want to create two different sets of rules from two different regulators around mortgage servicing rights.
NOGUCHI: Last week, the bureau issued separate rules barring lenders from underwriting loans without first verifying the borrower's income and ability to repay. Lenders and servicers will have a year to implement all of the bureau's new mortgage rules. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Still more trouble for Boeing's newest passenger jet, the 787, known as the Dreamliner. The FAA has grounded all U.S.-owned 787s because of safety concerns. This follows an earlier move by Japan doing the same. NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports for today's Business Bottom Line.
WENDY KAUFMAN, BYLINE: The grounding of the 787 marks the first time in more than three decades that the federal aviation administration has taken such a drastic step. The FAA says it's concerned about a potential battery fire safety risk. Twice in the past two weeks, 787s have experienced potentially serious problems with their lithium ion batteries. Boeing uses them because they pack an enormous amount of power in a small, efficient package.
But the batteries have a history of problems, says Guy Norris, a senior editor at Aviation Week.
GUY NORRIS: Batteries of this nature have been known to ignite if they're either overcharged or if they fall undercharge or if they overheat.
KAUFMAN: To deal with the potential risk, Boeing added safety enhancements to the battery and fire containment systems. But after the recent events, the FAA is concerned that the battery not be safe enough. The agency says it will work with Boeing and the airlines to develop a plan to resume 787 operations as quickly and safely as possible.
For its part, Boeing maintains that its planes - 50 of them have been delivered so far - are safe, and, the company says, it's working around the clock to address the problems. Wendy Kaufman, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Next, we'll probe some of the contradictions of John Mackey.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
He's a devoted free-market capitalist who says he believes in ideals higher than money.
MONTAGNE: He started with a single health food store and built a national chain, Whole Foods Market.
INSKEEP: He's managed to keep unions out of Whole Foods, where employees are called team members, yet Mackey says companies that have unions should not fight with them so much.
JOHN MACKEY: This type of continued conflict and adversarial relationship is bad. So I think you should try to cooperate with unions if you have unions already. If you don't have them, then if you treat your employees well enough and they're happy and flourishing in the workplace, they may not choose union representation.
INSKEEP: Mackey's views are complex, those as we heard yesterday on this program, he sees no conflicts in them. His new book, "Conscious Capitalism," argues for businesses to pursue a higher purpose than just money, including the care of employees and customers. He says companies will prosper by doing that. But there are some conflicts John Mackey cannot resist. In 2009, he denounced President Obama's proposed health care law, writing an article topped with a quote about socialism.
Do you regret that you weighed in a few years ago on the health care debate and expressed deep skepticism about what became the health care law?
MACKEY: Not at all. I still believe everything I wrote.
INSKEEP: How's it going to affect your business?
MACKEY: Well, it's already affected it some. It's driving up our costs. The thing that we'll find out in the next couple of years is what will be required that we cover. And they're going to add a lot of other things on that we don't necessarily cover right now under our plan that will drive the costs up. Somebody has to pay for it. There's no free lunch.
So if they raise the cost of our being able to insure our team members, then that money has to come from somewhere. It's going to undoubtedly come from the team members themselves. They'll have to go with more part time people or wages will be slowly reduced over time, or they won't grow as fast over time.
INSKEEP: You believe that you're going to end up paying your people a little bit less over time.
MACKEY: Yes. Inevitably, that's going to be the case. This idea that there's this big profit pool that you can somehow or another absorb the cost on is fundamentally inaccurate. It'll have to come out of the labor pool. There is no other pool for it to come out of.
INSKEEP: You expressed concern at one time about socialism. Do you think that this is socialism?
MACKEY: Well, it depends on our definitions, here. Technically speaking, it's more like fascism. Socialism is where that government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn't own the means of production, but they do control it. And that's what's happening with the health care program and with these reforms. So I'd say the system's becoming more fascist, or corporatism.
INSKEEP: Corporatism. Isn't, though, a little like a building code, though? The government sets standards, and companies that want to do business need to meet those standards. Where does that analogy fall short?
MACKEY: It falls short because if the government's going to tell Whole Foods Market exactly what our health care plan has to look like or it doesn't qualify, then we don't really - no longer have an opportunity to customize our plan for our team member's needs. We can no longer be flexible. We're basically just carrying out the government's orders.
INSKEEP: Suppose the president picked up the phone and called you up and said, look, I'm not going to repeal this health care law. It's passed the Supreme Court. I've won reelection. I'm not going to repeal it, but I'm willing to look at changes to it that will make it better. Is there one thing that you would suggest that the president do to take this law that you dislike and make it at least a little better?
MACKEY: Well, that's good question. I would say everything that rolls back the bureaucrats telling you exactly how it must be would be positive. The government shouldn't tell everybody how the insurance must be or how the doctors must treat people. Instead, if the government wants to provide a safety net for our poor people who can't afford insurance to buy insurance, then they should provide that safety net.
I don't object to that. That's fine. It's just these fascist directives that the government's handing down about how it will be and how corporations must do it that I object to. And I think it's going to raise costs, and it's not going to be a good thing on balance.
INSKEEP: What, if anything, dissatisfies you about Whole Foods Market right now? What are you focused on that you really want to change?
MACKEY: I've very concerned about the health decline in America. So the thing I'm most dissatisfied with is that we haven't been as successful in one of our most important missions as we need to be. We can heal America. People got to overcome their food addictions, and they've got to make changes in their diet. That's not easy for people to do.
INSKEEP: It sounds like although you strongly disagree with President Obama's health care prescriptions, you're very much in sympathy with Michelle Obama's health care prescriptions. She keeps talking about healthier eating.
MACKEY: Yes. We're actually working with Michelle Obama. Our Whole Kids Foundation, which we've got now 2,000 salad bars in schools and I think 1,000 garden grants to schools. So we're trying to improve the way children eat, when they don't yet have - their food addictions haven't necessarily set in yet. And we're working with Michelle Obama. I have great admiration for what she's doing there.
INSKEEP: What do you think is making this so hard a problem to solve?
MACKEY: We're dealing with serious food addictions. People in America are addicted to sugar. They're addicted to fat, and they're addicted to salt. And people don't feel satisfied with their food if they're not getting heavy doses of that. So the food addictions are what's holding us back, primarily, and ignorance. But part of that ignorance is deliberate. People don't want to know.
INSKEEP: People don't want to know.
MACKEY: They don't want to know, because it would mean they have to change the way they eat. And most people think that they'll lose all pleasure. Food is intensely pleasurable, and people are afraid that if they change the way they eat, they'll stop having pleasure. It's not true that whatever food that you learn to eat, you begin to enjoy it.
I have more pleasure eating today than I used to when I ate an unhealthy diet. I thought it was going to be involving sacrifice. It's not true, but that's what holds most people back from breaking out of their dietary addictions.
INSKEEP: What word describes your diet now? Are you a vegan?
MACKEY: I am vegan. Vegan, no oil, low salt, no refined foods like white flour, that type of thing.
INSKEEP: But you have no trouble enjoying great-tasting food, finding good restaurants when you want them and that sort of thing.
MACKEY: It's hard to get good food at restaurants because the salt, sugar, fat is everywhere you go. So it's harder when I travel. Fortunately, there are Whole Foods Markets in almost every city I travel in the United States. So I eat at Whole Foods.
(LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: There you go. Just buy something and munch it right there in the aisle. Well, John Mackey is co-CEO of Whole Foods Market and also co-author of a book, "Conscious Capitalism." Thanks very much.
MACKEY: Thanks. I enjoyed being on your show today.
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MONTAGNE: We heard John Mackey say that when travelling, he just eats at one Whole Foods or another. Executives of Krispy Kreme can do the same.
INSKEEP: The company famous for its glazed donuts and coffee makes an announcement today: Krispy Kreme plans to add 160 more storefronts in the United States over the next few years. That's on top of 240 that already exist.
MONTAGNE: Though it's better known for sugar, Krispy Kreme recently expanded its menu to include healthier items like fruit juice, smoothies and oatmeal. And it's aiming to expand its presence around the world, from 500 stores abroad to 900. It just announced this week the first Krispy Kreme franchise in India.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Manti Te'o, the star linebacker of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish is known for big plays on the field. He finished second in Heisman Trophy balloting as college football's most outstanding player. And he also had a story to tell. Last September he said both his grandmother and his girlfriend died within hours of each other.
The girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, succumbed to cancer, he said. The part about the grandmother is true, but the website Deadspin has reported that Lennay Kekua never died, never had cancer, never was Manti Te'o's girlfriend and, in fact, never existed. NPR's Mike Pesca is on the line to try to explain this. Mike, good morning.
MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: Hello.
INSKEEP: So how did Te'o end up talking on TV about a dead girlfriend who never existed?
PESCA: Well, the latest news that we have - and this is based on a statement that Manti Te'o released and a press conference that was given by the athletic director of Notre Dame - is he believed he had a girlfriend, although he never met her. It was an online relationship and he was scammed or hoaxed.
Now, there are a couple of complications to this story, such as in the beginning of reporting this story, Manti Te'o's father Brian was quoted in the South Bend Tribune as talking about details of their meeting, saying their eyes locked across the field when Manti Te'o was at Stanford where Lennay Kukua supposedly was an undergraduate, and they held hands and details that would indicate that they met in person. But it is possible that Manti Te'o's father heard this from Manti and told the story secondhand. Or perhaps it's also possible, that at some point Manti realized what was going on and there was a conflation of events.
Although the official story is that that Manti Te'o believed that he had a girlfriend who died during the season. He played for her. He sent roses to her for her funeral. And then just weeks ago, he got a call from her number and from someone claiming to be her. And he got very upset and he told Notre Dame officials about it and they investigated it.
It was only in the last few weeks that he realized what was going on.
INSKEEP: OK. All right. So just to be clear, you and I are pronouncing the girlfriend's name a little differently. There's really no one we can check on that with, because no such person exists.
PESCA: Yes.
INSKEEP: Weren't there pictures of her on Facebook?
PESCA: Yes. And this sort of points the finger at - well, Deadspin, who broke the story and we should credit them almost entirely with this, talked to a woman whose picture it was apparently. They didn't name her. She requested anonymity. She was appalled. She had no real connection - well, she actually does have a little bit of a connection to the person who supposedly was behind the story.
But they were using pictures of another person. But there were no pictures of Manti and the girlfriend ever pictured together, which was another interesting aspect of this and something that none of the media actually ever followed up on.
INSKEEP: Which is another thing - just a reminder of how much gets out there without being checked by people whose job it is to do that. But how does this affect Manti Te'o, that he's now connected to this bizarre hoax? He's made all these that, wittingly or not, were false.
PESCA: Yeah. This is somewhere between an extremely curious and possibly tragic story. Although, when you think about it, one aspect of the tragedy that she supposedly died, well, I guess if it's all a story that never happened. But, you know, how it affects him in terms of his draft status - and that's the bottom line - he's going to be in the NFL. He projected as going as a first round, maybe a mid-first round or early first round pick.
Some GMs have been quoted, sometimes anonymously, saying this could affect his status. We have to worry about him. But I think that might be overblown. If when they talk to Manti Te'o they get a decent explanation that he really was the victim and is perhaps gullible, compared to people who get drafted into the NFL - people who have assaulted their girlfriends and done terrible things - I don't think being gullible disqualifies you from being in the NFL.
If that, indeed, is the entirety of his story.
INSKEEP: Maybe better to have an imaginary girlfriend. Mike, thanks very much.
PESCA: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Mike Pesca right here on MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne. I have goldfish. They're small. On the other hand, my goldfish don't live in a lake, or at least one has gotten very, very big.
Fishing at Lake St. Claire, Michigan last weekend, Mark Martin reeled in a goldfish big enough to mount on his wall. Most likely dumped by a former owner, it weighed more than three pounds and is nearly 15 inches long. It might be a record catch, if Michigan kept records on goldfish.
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Walk a street in Beijing and you'll likely hear a whirring noise as an electric bicycle glides past. They're common in China. One auto maker wants to make them more common here. The makers of tiny Smart cars put an electric bike on display at the Detroit Auto Show. People at that show can also find bikes with pedals, like the Toyota Prius-branded bike.
We will know bikes are really catching on when some auto maker displays a bike SUV. It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
The national debate over gun violence has followed two themes. One involves gun control and the other involves mental health. Gun rights advocates have their reasons to talk about the mentally ill but they're not the only ones doing it here. President Obama yesterday spoke of addressing the nation's fragmented and poorest mental health system.
And reporter Sarah Varney found mental health advocates encouraged by the attention.
SARAH VARNEY, BYLINE: If the National Rifle Association's plan to curb violence was in part arming schools with guns, President Obama wants to arm them with something quite different: mental health training. The president's plan centered largely on training teachers and others who work with children to recognize mental illness as it's developing.
Dr. Paramjit Joshi is the incoming head of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
DR. PARAMJIT JOSHI: The fact remains that about 50 percent of lifetime mental illness starts before the age of 14.
VARNEY: Dr. Joshi says three out of four people with mental illness develop their affliction - including bi-polar disorder, depression, schizophrenia - by young adulthood, when the intricate structures of the brain are taking shape. But less than half receive treatment.
The president has called for a new initiative, which would need congressional approval that would provide mental health first aid training for teachers and set up a robust referral system for children with mental health and behavioral problems.
Mike Fitzpatrick, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, called the training critical.
MIKE FITZPATRICK: People say, oh, we saw the signs. But no one knows what the next steps are and that includes families and caregivers and teachers and resource officers. And so to go into the communities and offer training on what to look for, how to spot the signs of mental illness, and really, where do you go to get assistance - this in many ways would be a game changer.
VARNEY: President Obama's proposal also points out that a startling number of children have direct experience with gun violence: 22 percent of 14 to 17-year-olds in the U.S. have witnessed a shooting in their lifetime, and the plan calls on Congress to direct some $25 million to help traumatized students. A separate initiative would aim support at older teens and young adults in need of help, who can get lost in the tumble of college or a first job.
Dr. Joshi says all these efforts together recognize that children are developing in both body and mind.
JOSHI: I think this is really putting the focus on children's mental health as a child issue.
VARNEY: But mental health experts across the nation said in interviews that while it's critical to recognize the first signs of mental illness, it's just as important that children and their families have health insurance that guarantees them covered treatment. That problem was addressed, in part, five years ago when then-President George W. Bush signed a law requiring larger employers to offer mental health coverage that was on par with medical benefits.
But writing the regulations has proved difficult. There's been disagreement, for example, over a lifetime cap on the number of therapy visits for people with depression. In the meantime, those with mental illness have languished, their advocates say, under temporary rules that have barred patients from a full range of mental health services. That's set to change now.
One of the executive actions the president signed yesterday included a vow to issue final rules for the so-called Mental Health Parity Law in February.
CHUCK INGOGLIA: We're hoping that a final rule on parity will make it very clear about the scope of services that are offered.
VARNEY: Chuck Ingoglia, of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, says the rules will apply to nearly every type of insurance - from state Medicaid programs to employer coverage to individual health plans sold under the Affordable Care Act. Among the so-called essential benefits will be mental health care.
INGOGLIA: The whole intent of the parity law was that if you need mental health and addiction services, that it should be available to you.
VARNEY: Those rules won't require congressional approval, but much of the president's plan to improve mental health services - and his other proposals to require universal background checks for gun purchases, and to ban certain assault weapons and high-capacity magazines - will hinge on support from a Republican-led Congress that he has long had a contemptuous relationship with.
Still, the NRA and a number of Republicans have said they support addressing the nation's fractured mental health system, and advocates for the mentally ill say they anticipate far less political resistance. The total package of mental health proposals in the president's plan total some $155 million - million with an M, not billion - and the modest scale, those advocates say, might just be something everyone can agree on.
For NPR News, I'm Sarah Varney.
INSKEEP: She's a reporter with our partner Kaiser Health News, which is a non-profit news service.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
For decades, the cast of "Saturday Night Live" took aim at things many Americans knew about. Think Mr. Rogers, "Dirty Dancing," who shot J.R. It was a time when there were only four TV networks - no YouTube, no streaming, no Internet. NPR's Neda Ulaby has this look at what cultural references mean in a media world that's so fractured.
NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: This season, "Saturday Night Live" aired a skit making fun of the show "Louie," on FX.
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ULABY: If you don't get what's funny about that, don't worry. Louie attracts fewer than 2 million viewers. About 7 million watch "Saturday Night Live." That means at least two-thirds of the audience is missing the joke. Shrunken audience syndrome means we don't share the same set of references anymore. That's not to say some shows don't expertly make them.
(SOUNDBITE OF SINGING IN TV SHOW, "THE SIMPSONS")
ULABY: These Simpsons can reference "The Wizard of Oz" and then boom, "Citizen Kane."
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ULABY: NPR's pop culture blogger, Linda Holmes, also points to the sitcom "Community."
LINDA HOLMES, BYLINE: They've made episodes referencing "Law and Order." They've made episodes referencing "My Dinner with Andre."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "COMMUNITY")
HOLMES: And the thing about the "My Dinner with Andre" episode was, even if you didn't know what it was, you could pretty quickly learn what it was, and so you could get close enough.
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ULABY: There's something in television writing called the 2 percent rule. Holmes says the way it works is, TV writers understand that some of their jokes and references will only be understood by 2 percent of the audiences.
HOLMES: The good part about it is that the 2 percent of your audience feels really special, and feels bonded to you. The downside is nobody likes to feel like they're not cool. This show is trying to impress itself and its fans with how insidery it is.
ULABY: There's a way, though, to make outsiders want to be insiders. So many Americans have had that experience watching British TV, including comedian Julie Klausner.
JULIE KLAUSNER: I watched "The Young Ones" and "Absolutely Fabulous." And I didn't know who Felicity Kendal was, but she was a punchline in so many "Young Ones" episodes.
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KLAUSNER: And then later, when I found out who she was, it was immensely satisfying.
ULABY: Felicity Kendal is a British actress. There's no reason to know who she is unless you're British, or desperate to get in on the joke. This experience of not being in the club, of missing cultural references, is a lot like being an immigrant, says writer Junot Diaz. He talked to WHYY's FRESH AIR about trying to re-create that experience in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." It's a slurry of comic book references, science fiction references, and Dominican immigrant slang.
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JUNOT DIAZ: The experience that most of us have in the world, is that we tend to live in a world where a good portion of what we hear, see and experience is unintelligible to us. And that, to me, feels more real than if everything was transparent for every reader.
ULABY: You can have that experience of feeling culturally dislocated just by flipping channels in your living room, says Professor Susana Morris.
SUSANNA MORRIS: I frequently write about reality TV, and it seems like you need to have a degree in reality TV to really keep up with popular culture references. There is a show on TLC now, where it's just about people trying on bras.
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ULABY: Another reality show, "Love & Hip Hop Atlanta," was one of the most-discussed show last year on social media. And it's popular nationally even though, Morris says...
MORRIS: There's regional specificity that, if you're not into the Atlanta hip-hop scene, you would definitely not get. So there's this artist, Rashida. If you're outside of Atlanta, you may not understand why she's on the show, or what she has to do with anything.
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ULABY: Missing any of these music or TV references? How about video games?
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ULABY: Kirk Hamilton writes about gaming culture. And he has to work to keep up with references not just to games, but even the consoles they're played on - like the Dreamcast, a failed console released over 10 years ago.
KIRK HAMILTON: There are comics all about the Dreamcast and its cool controller. And there's so many references you can make about the Dreamcast, it's really a cultural touchstone.
ULABY: For a specific subgroup. Hamilton admits our cultural common language has split into dialects. These days, you can make a cultural reference without even having experienced what you're referring to. NPR's pop culture blogger, Linda Holmes, says cultural references can end up working as new, culturally created ideas.
HOLMES: That everyone agrees means the same thing. An example would be Jodie Foster getting up at the Golden Globes, and talking about privacy and saying...
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HOLMES: I doubt she watches "Honey Boo Boo." She wouldn't show up in the audience. And I doubt most of the people she's addressing watch "Honey Boo Boo."
ULABY: And for the majority of people who don't watch "Honey Boo Boo," that is the show about a rambunctious Southern family showing off their 7-year-old in child beauty pageants.
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HOLMES: There is a kind of cultural understanding that this is now what it means to see the decline of your civilization.
ULABY: All this presents a challenge to comedians like Julie Klausner, who's thoughtful about what references her audience will get.
KLAUSNER: I assume everybody's seen "Fargo." I assume everyone knows what I'm talking about when I mention - I don't know, Kerri Strug.
ULABY: She's a gymnast. I had to look that up. Klauser's philosophy, when it comes to cultural references in her comedy, is to be generally inclusive; to bring heart to her storytelling that will carry along even those who don't get every single reference she makes.
KLAUSNER: I want to use what I know and hopefully, take people along whether or not they know the original thing, or not.
ULABY: The wrong way to use references, she says, is just doing it to show off and establish your superiority.
KLAUSNER: And I am talking about the kind of Dennis Miller-y - like, machine-gun style reference, reference, reference.
ULABY: Do you hear that cultural reference - in a critique of cultural references? They've always worked as reminders of who belongs, and who's just visiting.
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ULABY: If you ever see a stage show by Tyler Perry, for example, you'll often see a moment, says Professor Susana Morris, when a cultural reference gathers in his mostly African-American audience.
MORRIS: They're singing a song - it might be gospel song, or it might be an R&B song - and then there's a spotlight on the audience. And this is a moment for the inside crowd.
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MORRIS: Like, this is a moment that not everybody gets.
ULABY: But it's a moment when a cultural reference does exactly what it's supposed to do - connect to something larger, whether you get it or not. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.
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GREENE: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
It's Friday, time again for StoryCorp, traveling the country recording your stories. As we head into this Martin Luther King Day weekend, a painful childhood memory from the civil rights era. It comes from Bernard Holyfield. He's the older brother of the former heavy weight boxing champ, Evander Holyfield. At StoryCorp, he told a story from the 1960s when they were growing up in Alabama. And just a warning, some listeners may find the graphic descriptions in this story upsetting.
BERNARD HOLYFIELD: Evander and I had a dog named Lassie. He was a collie and he looked just like the dog on TV. And we used to always keep Lassie tied up at the house with a chain, kind of like our protector. One day, when I was about five years old, Evander and I was outside playing and this white man, he was drunk, disheveled, just reeking with alcohol, he was passing by and he stopped and he motioned for Evander and I to come over.
Of course, our parents had always told us don't talk to strangers. We didn't go over and he began to enter the yard. Then Lassie began to growl and make his presence known, and the guy kind of reeled back. And then he began to taunt the dog. You know, he'd charge over into the yard and then pull back and start laughing.
Well, about the third time he did that, somehow Lassie broke the chain and chased him out of the yard. Evander and I went and got the dog back and tied him back up and was playing as usual. And then maybe about an hour later or so, the sheriff showed up. And the drunk came and said, yeah, this is the house where the dog attacked me.
And so my sister told Evander and I, said, you all come in the house. We came in the house and we got up on the windowsill and we're watching the sheriff. And he went and popped up his trunk, pulled out this long double-barreled shotgun. And the next we know, we heard two shots, pow, pow. Each one of the shots was so loud it seemed like it just rattled everything in the house, the windows, everything. I mean my ears were just ringing.
Now, for Evander and I, at five and four years old, we used to play cops and robbers. And he and I would, you know, just be at each other about, who's gonna be the cop? Who's gonna be, you know, the sheriff? And then the sheriff, who was kind of like our hero, had actually shot our dog. We was just kind of in shock. It was just unbelievable.
And that became a kind of a touchstone for me. At five years old, that taught me that skin color made a big difference.
GREENE: Bernard Holyfield speaking with his friend Charles Barlow. They recorded that conversation at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. And their interview will be archived at the Library of Congress You can get the StoryCorp Podcast at NPR.org.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
The House of Representatives this week approved $50 billion in aid to the states worst hit by Hurricane Sandy. That measure now goes to the Senate. Politicians and residents in the Northeast were outraged that it took so long to get this bill through the House.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
But NPR's Christopher Joyce reports that some also fear a rush to rebuild.
CHRISTOPHER JOYCE, BYLINE: If you want an example of a political pressure cooker popping its lid, you can't beat the debate in the House of Representatives over the Sandy aid package.
Weeks ago, House Speaker and Republican John Boehner postponed a vote on the aid package. He got slammed. Here's Congressman Peter King of New York.
REPRESENTATIVE PETER KING: Absolutely inexcusable, absolutely indefensible.
JOYCE: New York's Jerrold Nadler.
REPRESENTATIVE JERROLD NADLER: To ignore the plight of millions of American citizens? Unprecedented, disgusting, unworthy of the leadership of this House.
JOYCE: And this Rocky-style message from New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr.
REPRESENTATIVE BILL PASCRELL, JR.: This is time to stop debating and take the gloves off, Jersey style.
JOYCE: The tough talk paid off. The total aid package is now looking to run about $60 billion, compared to about 80 billion for Katrina. Most of the money is to help people whose homes or businesses have been lost or damaged, or for infrastructure - bridges, roads, that sort of thing. But several billion dollars are pegged for projects to reduce risk of future storms.
Some scientists are alarmed by that, like Rob Young, a geologist at Western Carolina University who studies what happens to stuff built along coastlines.
ROB YOUNG: What in the world are they going to spend that on?
JOYCE: It looks like a lot will go to things like trucking sand back onto beaches or rebuilding beachfront property the way it used to be. He says that's a ton of taxpayers' money for projects that may not make the coast more resilient.
YOUNG: You have this massive government subsidy for development in vulnerable coastal areas, particularly on the immediate coast, on the oceanfront, in resort communities.
JOYCE: Now, spending tax dollars to rebuild coastal communities isn't new. Young points to Dauphin Island along the Gulf Coast; it's been rebuilt numerous times after storms with tens of millions of tax dollars. Most insurance companies shy away from these places, so the taxpayer pays.
And as the climate warms, all the scientific models predict more storms, bigger storms, and more devastation. In fact, the insurance industry says giant disasters are more becoming more common.
YOUNG: So we're going to have to do these projects over and over again; we're going to have to do it more frequently in the future, and it's going to get more expensive.
JOYCE: Young is among many scientists and engineers who say slow down, find out if more sand really saves beaches. Maybe wetlands are better. Do floodgates work? And who should pay for all this?
New Yorkers like Andrew Darrell are thinking along the same lines.
ANDREW DARRELL: I live here in New York City. I'm raising kids here in New York City, so I also believe that, you know, if there's any place that can get this right, it is a place like New York.
JOYCE: Darrell is an energy analyst at the Environmental Defense Fund, and an advisor to New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He's focused on how the city's electricity grid gets rebuilt. He saw part of it go down from his apartment during Sandy, the 14th Street power station in Manhattan.
DARRELL: A wave crested the twelve foot wall that surrounds the substation and caused a huge electricity arc, and it lit up the sky. In the arc of that light you could - you could see quite all the buildings in lower Manhattan at night.
JOYCE: Darrell says rebuilding the grid means doing things differently. Take solar power, for example. After Sandy, a few buildings with solar panels had power when the sun came back out. But most did not, for a strange reason.
DARRELL: Those solar panels largely work by feeding into the electric grid. So when the grid goes down, those solar panels go down too.
JOYCE: Darrell says it costs building owners more money to get their solar panels to work independently of the grid. He says people should get paid to be independent from the grid so they can provide a safety net for the power company during disasters.
Experts like Darrell and Young say little changes like that could reduce the costs and the pain of the next big storm. And the money's on the table right now to do it.
Christopher Joyce, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
All this week, we've been hearing how more and more Americans, especially younger Americans, are moving away from organized religion. In a recent study from the Pew Research Center - found 20 percent of Americans say they have no religion. When it comes to young people, that number goes up to one in three. And one of the people we've heard from this week is Melissa Adelman. She grew up Catholic, and was taught by nuns in school.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Now, Melissa is 30 years old, and she no longer calls herself Catholic. She disagrees with the church on homosexuality, and she doesn't think the church gives women an equal role. We wondered what, if anything, would bring Melissa back.
MELISSA ADELMAN: To me, a church that would be welcoming would be one where there wasn't male-only hierarchy that made all the rules; and there weren't these rules about who's excluded and who's included, and what behavior is acceptable and what's not acceptable.
GREENE: She was speaking to us for our series "Losing Our Religion." Now, after hearing from Melissa and other young people, we reached out to two religious leaders. Reverend Mike Baughman is a United Methodist minister who runs a Christian coffee shop in Dallas. Father Mike Surufka is a Catholic priest in the Franciscan order, in Chicago. I asked Father Surufka what he could do to make someone like Melissa feel welcome again.
THE REV. MIKE SURUFKA: Well, I know there's some things I can't do. (LAUGHTER) There are some things that are simply, at this point, not changeable.
GREENE: Like what?
SURUFKA: I, personally, am not able to ordain women, for example. That's not within my realm. I think if Melissa were to come to me pastorally and want a conversation, I would begin by asking her what it is that she's seeking. We already know what her stumbling blocks are, but underneath that is a journey that keeps her moving. You can only stumble if you're moving. All of us are sort of like chipped pieces of porcelain, working our way through this. And if she can feel that I can accept her as she is, and I can invite her to accept me as I am, and our church as it is; if we can come to that point, then I think we have a different way of constructing the dialogue than simply saying, I have an objection to the church on this point. It's just not a helpful starting point.
GREENE: Let me ask you, Reverend Baughman - in speaking to a lot of these younger people, a lot of them spoke about just in general, feeling like politics and social issues have just made them not feel good about any organized religion today. I wonder if you have some of those conversations with people in your community, and what you tell them.
REV. MIKE BAUGHMAN: What I find is that the young folks I have conversations with, don't actually want the church not to take a stand on issues. They believe that the church has taken a stand on the wrong issues; that we've chosen the wrong priorities in figuring out what is our message, and how is it that we're trying to speak to the world around us. If the church was known more for our efforts to welcome the stranger than keep them out, I think the church would have greater credibility with rising generations.
For example, on immigration policies, we've taken the wrong stance on that. And they know. The thing is, they're smart enough. They - a lot of them have grown up in the church, and then rejected it. They've read the Scriptures that talk about the importance of welcoming the stranger. They've read the Scriptures about the importance of caring for the poor. And when they see that no longer on the lips of those who are in religious authority, they see that the God we present is bankrupt, and that we're theologically thin in our ability to even speak our own story.
GREENE: That the God that you present is bankrupt - I mean, it sounds like you have some real criticisms of how your religion has presented itself recently.
BAUGHMAN: Yeah, I think I do. See, I don't know where it is along the way, but I think we really abdicated some of our core responsibilities as a church; not only to speak on matters of justice but also, on simply being neighbors. I think we've shifted from caring for the well-being of the people around us, to caring for the spiritual well-being of the people who show up on any given Sunday.
SURUFKA: If what we're doing is creating a whole congregation of people who think just like us, then there's the danger we actually narrow our experience. I think one thing that makes Christian community Christian, is not so much everybody's all like each other but precisely when people are not an awful lot like each other, but find some sort of common story that unites them, that's beyond what makes them different.
GREENE: You know, hearing you say that - bring up the idea of creating a place where people all think alike - I mean, that's one of the criticisms about the Catholic church; that on many issues - abortion, gay marriage - you know, you can only think one way. You know, it's a place where I think differently, I can't be there. I can't be part of it.
SURUFKA: You know, there comes a point where you say, this is really fundamental to what we believe and other things are less fundamental, but this is what we're about. More than seeking people who are like them - I found it most successful when young people found people who were authentic, who were living, truly, what they were preaching. And if that's the starting point of a dialogue, then we can make an awful lot of progress.
GREENE: Did you ever get pressure from people who wanted to hear you talk about some very sensitive subjects - like homosexuality, like abortion - they wondered why they weren't hearing you talk about that on Sunday.
SURUFKA: Absolutely. Every now and then, people would say, well, how come you don't talk more about abortion? And probably the most important thing for me, pastorally, is I counseled and heard the confessions of women in that congregation who had had abortions and were really struggling with that. And I knew their pain, and I was not going to bring that to the pulpit.
GREENE: And what was your approach to - I mean, I don't want you to divulge, obviously, something that's too private - what was your approach to those conversations with those women?
SURUFKA: (Pauses) Um - the first step is always to listen, to see what is actually happening in the life of this person. That has more transformative power than just about anything - for somebody really to know that they were heard at a very deep level. That's all I want to say about that.
GREENE: I just wanted to ask you both - I mean, at this moment, do you feel worried; do you feel hopeful about the future of religious practice in this country?
BAUGHMAN: Yeah. I couldn't be more hopeful. I see springs of renewal coming up out of the ground. I see it in the critical conversations that young people are having about the church. I find hope, honestly, in the desperation of the old guard within the church.
GREENE: Father Surufka?
SURUFKA: Oh, I'm full of hope, indeed. There was a theologian from the mid-1900s, who kind of described hope as this - that it's an attitude toward the future that we cannot see, but we trust that somehow it's held by God, and that there are possibilities beyond what we can even imagine. And St. Paul said...
BAUGHMAN: I like that answer better.
SURUFKA: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
SURUFKA: St. Paul said, you know, we hope in precisely that which we cannot see. Because if we see it, it's not hope. It's already fulfilled. You know, Reverend Baughman and I, I think would agree on this; when we hear sort of the stress fractures of institutional religion, then we know we're making some progress. So I'm very filled with hope, indeed.
GREENE: That's Father Mike Surufka, in Chicago; and Reverend Mike Baughman, in Dallas. And you can learn more about our series "Losing Our Religion" at our website, npr.org. This is NPR News.
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As we just heard from Mara, immigration is on the president's agenda. And as we know, Latinos were a key to his victory in November, turning out in big numbers and supporting Mr. Obama by more than two-to-one over Mitt Romney. Now those voters want to make absolutely sure that he does something he did not do in his first term - really push for comprehensive immigration reforms.
The head of the inauguration, NPR national political correspondent Don Gonyea has been talking to Latino activists.
DON GONYEA, BYLINE: Let's start with a group of Latinos - young and old, some U.S. citizens, some undocumented - heading from Florida to Washington for the inauguration and for meetings with members of Congress. As caravans go, it's a small one - 13 people, two vans. I caught up with them in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The group is pushing President Obama to follow through on past promises to fix a broken immigration system. They also want him to suspend deportations, which have reached record levels in his first term. Thirty-year-old Daniel Barajas.
DANIEL BARAJAS: Politicians sit there and they preach and taunt and use about family values, and how a society to succeed it needs great family values. But they just sit there on the side, twiddling their thumbs, while families are being ripped apart daily.
GONYEA: Barajas says he sees the president as the lesser of two evils. He says Republicans are far worse with their calls for a high-tech border fence and talk of self-deportation. Another member of the caravan takes a more positive tone. Twenty-year-old Carlos Lopez has never been to Washington and has never seen the president, let alone an inauguration.
CARLOS LOPEZ: One of the reasons that I'm pretty excited about it is because I've never been to one. So it's going to be really interesting. There's going to be a lot of people. And I've never seen snow, because I've been stuck in Florida this whole time. So I'm pretty excited about that as well.
GONYEA: I don't think it's going to snow.
LOPEZ: Oh. OK. OK.
GONYEA: Lopez says he's happy to take part in the celebration of a new term for President Obama. There is, however, a but.
LOPEZ: I think the but is Obama promised immigration reform four years ago and didn't do anything. And now he's said it again. He's promised it, you know. And that's what I came here to push him and make sure he knows that we're there. And we're going to be pushing till it comes through, you know.
GONYEA: For Latinos, their lopsided vote in support of the president in the election, their strong turnout and their overall population growth make them a rising political force. Some key Republicans, including Speaker John Boehner, Senator Marco Rubio and others, now also see risk in taking a hard line and alienating these voters.
Yesterday in Washington another immigration reform group called the Campaign for Citizenship held an event featuring the so-called Dreamers - young people who were brought to the U.S. as children and remain undocumented. The DREAM Act, which failed to pass last year, would have provided for them a path to citizenship. Alejandra Gomez lives in New Mexico; she told the emotional story about her two brothers' deportation last year.
ALEJANDRA GOMEZ: So my prayers for 2013 is that President Obama and the Congress will act to finally fix our immigration system and create a path to citizenship for families like mine, so that families like mine can reunite. Thank you for listening to my story.
GONYEA: Gomez said she does support the president, and urged others to do so in the November election. But she also says now is the time for this issue to be settled. The president again begins a term of office by calling immigration a priority. Latinos hope that's for real this time. Don Gonyea, NPR News, Washington.
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And I'm David Greene. In the animal world, our closest relatives are chimpanzees, which is why they're often used in biomedical research. But that practice is under scrutiny. And in response, the National Institutes of Health may soon be sending more of its research chimps into retirement.
Here's NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce.
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: Retirees flock to Florida, and the Sunshine State even has a retirement home for chimps.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHIMPANZEES)
GREENFIELDBOYCE: About two dozen have gathered in a small building, to have lunch. They watch eagerly as workers hand out apples and tomatoes.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHIMPANZEES)
GREENFIELDBOYCE: After lunch, these chimps can go out and enjoy their own private island - three grassy acres with palm trees and a wooden climbing structure. It's all surrounded by a moat. And it's just one of a dozen manmade islands here, each with its own group of chimps. This is Save the Chimps, the world's biggest sanctuary for chimps who've been used for experiments, entertainment, or as pets. Two hundred and sixty-six chimps live here - from 6 years old to over 50.
JEN FEUERSTEIN: Hey, guys. This is Luke on the left, and Virgil on the right. And then the chimp walking up is Christopher.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Jen Feuerstein is the sanctuary's director. As she drives around in a golf cart, she recognizes every one.
FEUERSTEIN: Oh, somebody in a tree.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: She says the chimp sitting on a branch is Jaybee, who spent years living alone in a small lab cage.
FEUERSTEIN: Never went outside, never even saw the sun. So to see him outside in a tree, munching on leaves just like a wild chimp would, is pretty amazing.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: She's fond of these chimps but she keeps a certain distance. Feuerstein says the goal of a sanctuary like this is for chimps to live like wild chimps and bond with other chimps. So working here isn't what people might expect.
FEUERSTEIN: I think they imagine playing with them and being in with them, and having that kind of intimate interaction with them, that really doesn't happen. Our job really is we're housekeepers. We're maids, we're butlers, we're servants.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: It takes about fifty employees to do the endless; hosing down indoor rooms, preparing food, doing the laundry. The chimp's brightly colored blankets and teddy bears hang on clotheslines to dry. Every day, workers go out on the islands to scatter treats and toys.
(SOUNDBITE OF BANGING)
GREENFIELDBOYCE: And then there's the medical care.
FEUERSTEIN: So this is what we call the med room, but it's basically a full pharmacy.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: About half the chimps get daily meds, for everything from arthritis to heart disease; all this care costs around $15,000 per chimp per year. At the moment, Save the Chimps doesn't have any chimps that are supported by the government, but that could change. Next week, the National Institutes of Health will hear from a working group that's been considering how many of its chimps should be available for experiments, and how many should be retired.
JAMES ANDERSON: After the recommendations from our working group, we anticipate there will be a much diminished need for animals in research.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: James Anderson is an official with the NIH who has been working on the chimp issue. He says, the NIH owns or supports about 670 chimps. About a hundred are already officially retired and live at a wooded sanctuary in Louisiana, called Chimp Haven. If more chimps are going to be retired, it's not clear where they'll go.
ANDERSON: The single biggest issue will be the capacity of the sanctuary system. If we retire many more animals, there's no space.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says existing sanctuaries could expand. But right now, the NIH can't give them any money to do that. That's because, under a law passed in 2000, there's a cap on how much the agency can spend on chimp sanctuaries.
ANDERSON: Congress set a cap of $30 million on total spending for construction and care of the animals in-sanctuary. And we are already over $29 million; we'll hit that cap in July of this year.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: It will take Congress to fix this. In the meantime, because the spending cap only applies to sanctuaries, one option is for retired chimps to just stay in research facilities.
ANDERSON: And we could continue to use taxpayer dollars in that context to take care of them.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: That's one reason why, when officials recently had to find a new home for about a hundred lab chimps, they decided to make them ineligible for experiments, but only a small number would go to a sanctuary. The rest would get moved to a different lab that had space to house them. The decision caused a public outcry.
JENNIFER WHITAKER: We did step up and say we want them all.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Jennifer Whitaker is vice president of Chimp Haven in Louisiana.
WHITAKER: We wanted them permanently retired at our sanctuary.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: NIH officials quickly reversed course and agreed. But they could only do that because Chimp Haven and other non-profits said they'd raise about $5 million and construct new living spaces.
WHITAKER: We're in the process of raising those funds and we are feeling very encouraged, but we do still have a long ways to go.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Back at Save the Chimps in Florida, Jen Feuerstein says her sanctuary is at capacity. But if more government chimps are retired, they'd consider expanding, if there's funding. She says most lab chimps adapt well to sanctuary life. But some do have problems.
FEUERSTEIN: Hi, cheetah. Hey, buddy.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Cheetah is a research chimp who lived most of his life alone. He can't adjust to a group. He pokes a piece of orange hose through a metal fence and gently drags it across her arm - his way of grooming her.
FEUERSTEIN: I don't know if you can hear him clacking his teeth.
(SOUNDBITE OF CLACKING TEETH)
GREENFIELDBOYCE: She says this is a soothing sound chimps make, a way of saying, hey, I'm not going to hurt you. This sanctuary has other chimps with special needs, and it wants to improve their housing, but like everything else, that means first having to raise the money.
Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.
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You've very likely heard, by now, the strange story of Manti Te'o. He's the Notre Dame football star who overcame the death of both his grandmother and his girlfriend on the same day, but the girlfriend's very existence then turned out to be a hoax. The story has raised questions about what Notre Dame and Te'o knew and when they knew it. But as NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik reports, the episode casts an unwelcome light on the practices of the news media as well.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Manti Te'o's story proved irresistible for the press, a saga of tragic romance, religious faith and athletic prowess that inspired an entire team. CBS's Chip Reid filed his version earlier this month from Hawaii where he was covering a vacationing President Obama. Reid interviewed Te'o's neighbor and a high school coach there and used clips of Te'o from the CBS station in Chicago.
MANTI TE'O: Every letter, she said, remember, be humble, be gracious and always remember that I love you.
FOLKENFLIK: But Te'o's girlfriend Lennay Kekua was revealed by the website Deadspin never to have existed. She was a hoax. Notre Dame and Te'o say he was victim. Yesterday, Reid revisited his piece.
CHIP REID: Manti Te'o's inspirational story was featured all over, everywhere from ESPN to Sports Illustrated. I reported on the story, as well, for CBS "This Morning" on the day of the BCS championship game. But it turns out, we were all duped.
FOLKENFLIK: He's right. They were duped. But Reid talked as though he had been a bystander to an unfolding disaster. That's not how reporters typically think of themselves. They envision themselves as a hard-boiled lot that gives this warning to the intern. If your mother says she loves you, get a second source.
And yet, little of that happened here. Instead, reporters left their skepticism at the door. Gene Wojciechowski interviewed Te'o for ESPN. He spoke on the channel last night.
GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI: I sat across from him, and I was moved by his story. And it was heartbreaking and it was heartwarming, and as it turns out it was totally untrue. But short of asking to see a death certificate, I'm not sure what most people would do differently in that case.
FOLKENFLIK: Sports Illustrated's Pete Thamel pumped up the pathos in a cover story as he wrote of the fictitious girlfriend's presumably equally fictitious brother, Koa, sobbing as he called to break the news of her death. The South Bend Tribune weighed in with a particularly florid account of Te'o's meeting Lennay Kekua, said to be a Stanford student, after a game.
Te'o now says he only spoke to her online and by phone. The truth is, at a certain point, reporters are just like everyone else: They largely believe what they read in the papers and see on TV. So each successive journalist unconsciously relied on the last for confidence in what he or she was presenting to the public. CBS's Charlie Rose pressed Reid on the reporting process this morning.
CHARLIE ROSE: Chip, did we reach out to Notre Dame?
REID: Oh, we did repeatedly, Charlie. That weekend before the BCS game and before our story aired, we contacted them repeatedly, asking for interviews with coaches or Te'o himself, and they never returned our calls.
FOLKENFLIK: Great impulse, there, Charlie Rose. But why didn't some enterprising reporter call Stanford to verify Kekua's attendance and academic major? Even if you didn't doubt her existence, these are the small details, the color that help fill out and solidify a story. Why not check out local papers and records and hold off when you can't pin down any details?
Sports Illustrated's Thamel told radio host Dan Patrick that he spent four days on Notre Dame's campus.
PETE THAMEL: So by the time I got to Manti Te'o on Sunday, I mean, there wasn't a whole lot of, like, does she exist thinking in my head.
FOLKENFLIK: Both Thamel and ESPN's Wojciechowski said they tried and failed to find obituaries and other records for her. Wojciechowski said he was rebuffed by Te'o when seeking numbers to call the girlfriend's family.
WOJCIECHOWSKI: And so in that instance, and at that moment, you simply think that you have to respect those wishes. But in retrospect, you can see where some of those things simply weren't adding up to make sense.
FOLKENFLIK: So here's an instance of a reporter who tiptoed to the edge of the truth and didn't quite believe where his reporting took them. The story was too important to let the absence of verifying facts get in the way. Just like fans in the stands, the reporters wanted the story to be true. David Folkenflik, NPR News.
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And I'm David Greene, good morning. It was one of the most dramatic about-faces ever, by a public figure. Last night, in a televised interview with Oprah Winfrey, Lance Armstrong confessed to using banned performance-enhancing drugs throughout his bicycle racing career. That included seven straight Tour De France victories, though Armstrong was stripped of those titles late last year.
His admission follows more than a decade of often-angry denials. And while the interview with Winfrey was billed as no-holds-barred, that wasn't quite the case, as NPR's Tom Goldman reports.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: We knew what was coming on Monday. That's when Armstrong and Winfrey taped the two and a half-hour interview, and when leaks about a confession killed some of the buzz leading up to last night. But still, after all the angry no's, it was startling, finally to hear Lance Armstrong say "yes" so many times.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "OPRAH'S NEXT CHAPTER")
GOLDMAN: Armstrong described how he and teammates doped with the attitude that what they were doing was as essential as putting air in their bike tires, or filling their water bottles. They didn't think it was wrong, he said. They didn't think it was cheating. It was what was needed to win; an attitude Armstrong said he embraced in a new way, after his well-publicized and successful battle with testicular cancer.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "OPRAH'S NEXT CHAPTER")
GOLDMAN: One of those targeted by that ruthlessness was Betsy Andreu. She's the wife of former Armstrong teammate Frankie Andreu. Armstrong waged a public and bitter personal battle with Andreu after she and her husband testified under oath, in the mid-2000s, that they had heard Armstrong confess in a hospital room, while being treated for cancer in 1996, that he had used banned drugs. Last night, as Betsy Andreu watched the interview, her hopes initially were high.
BETSY ANDREU: He's stepping up to the plate. You know, this is huge. It's monumental. And then, it was oh, my gosh. I think he's lying here. I think he's lying there. I think he's skirting this issue. I think he's being disingenuous.
GOLDMAN: Armstrong declined to talk about the 1996 hospital room confession. He also disputed some of the findings in October's massive U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report that hastened his downfall - findings that named Armstrong as the leader of an extensive doping enterprise.In a statement, USADA said if Armstrong is sincere in his desire to correct his past mistakes, he will testify under oath about the full extent of his doping activities.
Watching from Cambridge, England, journalist David Walsh noted Armstrong's omissions and lack of detail. But something Armstrong did say was the highlight for Walsh, whose three books on Armstrong have driven the doping narrative for almost a decade. Walsh called it hugely important for cycling that Armstrong admitted in the interview that he had a positive drug test in 1999, that was covered up by a backdated prescription written after the test result.
DAVID WALSH: That backdated prescription was accepted by the authorities, who would've known it was backdated. In other words, there was a positive test that Armstrong admits was positive, in the '99 tour; and UCI covered up for him.
GOLDMAN: When reached by NPR this morning, a spokesman for the UCI - cycling's governing body - declined to comment.
While some sifted through Armstrong's comments, Turk Pipkin watched merely with a sense of curiosity. Pipkin is a filmmaker in Armstrong's hometown of Austin, Texas. He's married to a two-time cancer survivor. He says Armstrong's story has been a source of inspiration. I ask him if it's less of one now.
TURK PIPKIN: You know, I think the inspiration part of Lance - but the personal part's been slipping for a long time.
GOLDMAN: But Pipkin says Armstrong has done genuine good for the cancer community, and Pipkin hopes Armstrong talks about that in tonight's Part 2 with Oprah.
Tom Goldman, NPR News.
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This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm David Greene.
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And I'm Renee Montagne. We continue to follow the unfolding hostage crisis at a gas field in Algeria. President Obama is also following the situation and consulting with the Algerian government. The priority, the White House says, is the safety of the hostages, who include American citizens. Information has been difficult to come by since Algerian forces launched an operation against the Islamist militants who seized the gas field.
There are reports this morning that scores of foreigners held hostage, have been freed. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley is on the line, following this from Paris, and has the latest. Good morning.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Good morning, Renee. Or good afternoon, from here.
MONTAGNE: You're right. Eleanor, what do you know about - so far today?
BEARDSLEY: Well, there are a couple new elements. One is that the official Algerian news agency has said that 650 hostages have been freed; among them, 100 foreigners out of the apparently, 132 taken. But this is a little bit misleading because this site - this gas and oil site is like a city. So these 650 that have gotten out, they weren't all held by the Islamist jihadists. They were probably at other parts of the site; and when the Algerian army surrounded the whole thing when they started their assault, they were trapped inside. So - but it is probably true; the French news is reporting it, too - that 650 hostages have left the site.
Another new thing that French news is reporting is that there's a showdown going on between the Algerian army and a core group of about 10 to 12 Islamists, at the center - at the core of the facility, near the gas operation. So you can imagine it's extremely dangerous, as far as blowing up.
And the third new thing is that - this is being reported by French television as well as a Mauritanian newswire site that has been communicating with the jihadists regularly. And they're saying that the jihadists want to exchange two American hostages for two Islamists that are jailed in the U.S.; an Egyptian and a Pakistani, one of whom is - was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
MONTAGNE: Now, tell us one thing: Why is there so little information about this, since it's been going on for - you know, at least a couple of days and the Algerian government, at one point, said the operation had more or less ended yesterday?
BEARDSLEY: Right - that was about, almost 24 hours ago - because Algeria is basically, a military state. They're keeping a tight lid on information. That's one reason. They don't want it to get out. Secondly, this site is 1,000 miles from Algiers, the capital. There's no one there. There are no journalists there. Foreign journalists can't get - just come into Algeria so there's no witnesses, really, to speak of. And thirdly, the history of the country, they had one whole decade where they fought Islamists, and more than 100,000 Algerians lost their lives during that fight.
So, you know, this is - this - have these terrorists actually come back? They were supposedly beaten. So you can imagine the government is very anxious to finish with these guys. And they just - it's very difficult to get information because of those three reasons.
MONTAGNE: And the - of course, Americans - and the other countries who have their foreign nationals there, at that site - have been upset about the fact that Algerians sent troops in without informing them.
BEARDSLEY: Yeah. I mean, the international community is stunned. Japan recalled the Algerian ambassador - talked to him. David Cameron said he was just - he couldn't believe that Britain was uninformed. No one knew about the assault before it happened. Washington offered help. They were going to send drones and special forces. Algeria said no. It's a very proud country. This is on Algerian soil, and they want to handle their terrorist problem. They don't negotiate with terrorists. They've always said it. And they came in, and they moved quickly.
Another reason is - we're hearing reports that the jihadists were trying to move the terrorists - I mean, sorry. The jihadists were trying to move the hostages off the site, maybe take them to Libya; somewhere out of Algeria, which would have been a horrible situation. So they had to move fast.
MONTAGNE: We have just a few seconds here, Eleanor. What about France? This is...
BEARDSLEY: France...
MONTAGNE: Go ahead.
BEARDSLEY: France is being a little bit more cautious. France needs Algeria. In a huge change in diplomacy, Algeria opened up its air space to France for - to fly bombing raids, to fight the Islamists in Mali. It's a huge change but apparently, it's divided Algerian public opinion, who don't want to see French. France is a former colony of Algeria, so this is a very touchy subject. So France is being prudent, saying let's just - we don't have all the information yet. They're not being very critical.
MONTAGNE: Thanks very much. That's NPR's Eleanor Beardsley, in Paris.
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As President Obama prepares to start a second term, MORNING EDITION has asked NPR's foreign correspondents to gauge worldwide expectations for the next four years. We turn, this morning, to Kenya. Pride still runs deep there for the president, with roots in Kenya. But expectations of America's role have shifted from donor aid to partner in trade. NPR's Gregory Warner has the story.
GREGORY WARNER, BYLINE: Like the Obama Bar and Restaurant, the Obama cybercafe and the Obamart - spell that one out - the Obama Mini Shop, in the Kayole slum of Nairobi, was launched four years ago in a burst of hope and ambition.
CAROLINE OTIENO: (Foreign language spoken)
WARNER: The rise of Barack Obama inspired Caroline Otieno to sink the money she'd made stitching clothes, into stocking these shelves with sacks of sorghum and rolls of toilet paper. And when the president notched his second win, she started dreaming about what her convenience store could become.
OTIENO: I want this shop to be a wholesale arm or supermarket.
WARNER: The narrative of Barack Obama, this improbable rise of a man with African roots, still resonates deeply in this city. But if Obama - the symbol - still inspires hope, Obama - the president - does a little bit less. It still stings that Obama, as president, hasn't visited Kenya. He flew all the way to Ghana in 2009. Most of this continent, in fact, except for some military hot spots, has been low on the president's agenda.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Obama is coming.
WARNER: Obama is coming?
On the other side of Kayole slum is Obama restaurant, owned by a Mr. Obama.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: His phone is off.
WARNER: Obama's cellphone is off. This is terrible.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Right.
WARNER: The restaurant is a one-room cave of cinderblock and corrugated tin, held up by tree branches. The owner, Augustine Obama, is one Kenyan who does not claim a relation to the president. He named this restaurant after himself. He echoes a common refrain - that although America gave $660 million to Kenya last year, he does not see it. It was siphoned off, he says, by corrupt politicians.
Obama to Obama, what would your advice be?
AUGUSTINE OBAMA: Yes, Barack Obama can just press; put more pressure on Kenyan leaders so that we can expand because what we lack, in Kenya, is leadership.
WARNER: He says he never expected President Obama to usher in more aid for Kenya. He just hoped he would have interceded in how that money gets distributed.
GODFREY MWAMPEMWA: A lot was expected of him, but little was delivered.
WARNER: Godfrey Mwampemwa, who publishes under the name Gado, is an editorial cartoonist and Nairobi media entrepreneur. He spends much of his creative energy exposing corruption. He says there's a lot of dissatisfaction here, with the old Western foreign aid model.
MWAMPEMWA: Something has always been expected from the American president. I don't think that will change anytime soon. What will change is what, exactly, is expected. That is really - is shifting; not necessarily aid, but more trade with Africa.
WARNER: Gado's fifth-floor office overlooks Nairobi's bustling business district. It offers a good view of just how much has changed here. In the last four years, while America struggled through a financial crisis, Africa's economy grew by an average 5 to 6 percent a year. And China eclipsed the U.S. as Africa's biggest trading partner, constructing highways and big energy projects that Gado says are highly visible to the average Kenyan.
MWAMPEMWA: That, in itself, opened up what Africa can do with other superpowers.
WARNER: He does not care if President Obama decides to visit Kenya this time around. What he wants, he says, is for America to be more visible here, a more meaningful partner.
Gregory Warner, NPR News, Nairobi.
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We are also discovering, this week, that you can build a multi-billion dollar corporation, but you might not always choose your words so well. The CEO of Whole Foods Market was on MORNING EDITION this week talking about his new book, "Conscious Capitalism."
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
John Mackey also spoke about how government decisions affect business. When we asked him about the new health care law, he said this.
JOHN MACKEY: In fascism, the government doesn't own the means of production, but they do control it. And that's what's happening with the health care program with these reforms. So I'd say the system's becoming more fascist.
GREENE: The word fascism generated a lot of attention and Mackey recanted Thursday morning in an interview on CBS.
MACKEY: Well, I think that was a bad choice of words on my part. I regret that. Yes.
MONTAGNE: He said it again later in the day during an interview on the "Brian Lehrer Show" on member station WNYC.
MACKEY: I realize that that word has so much baggage associated with it, from World War II with Germany and Italy and Spain, that that's just such a very provocative word so I regret using it.
GREENE: Our listeners also responded. Daniel Sparler(ph) of Seattle called Mackey's views on conscious capitalism thoughtful and refreshingly holistic.
MONTAGNE: Though Sparler was not pleased at his use of the word fascism. He wrote that Mackey veered off, alarmingly, into a sort of corporate jihadism by twice dropping the F-bomb.
GREENE: Lois Riggins(ph) of Rocky Mountain, North Carolina was also - was more bothered by Mackey's comments on the need for Americans to eat healthier.
MONTAGNE: She wrote "The CEO of Whole Foods sounded a bit too self righteous considering that Whole Foods stores sell sugar, fat and salt in abundance."
GREENE: OK. And we will give the last word to John Mackey himself, writing on his company's blog yesterday. While saying he regretted his choice of words, Mackey stood by his criticism of President Obama's health care law.
MONTAGNE: In his words, creativity and progress are stifled when government regulations dictate the parameters of what health care plans can be offered.
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NPR's business news starts with Apple and Amazon.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: People who own iPhones, iPads and iPods will now be able to purchase music from Amazon, directly onto those devices. NPR's Laura Sydell reports on Amazon's latest attempt to compete with iTunes.
LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE: Selling digital equipment - music, films, TV shows and books - is a rapidly growing business. Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon are all in it. All of those companies also sell their own mobile devices and for the most part, their stores are only easy to use if you have their hardware. Google's Play store doesn't work so well on an iPad; iTunes doesn't work so well on a Google Nexus. But retail sales have always been at the heart of Amazon's business, says Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst at Forrester Research.
SARAH ROTMAN EPPS: Amazon is finding that - especially with music but really, with all of these media assets - the more places a consumer can access them, the more value they have. And what the company is really selling is access, even more than they're selling content.
SYDELL: Last December, Amazon unveiled an instant video app that lets users stream, or download, movies and TV from Amazon to Apple devices. The company says its customers were asking to buy music from Amazon's store, on Apple devices.
Still, Rotman Epps doesn't think that Amazon's latest move will cut into Apple's iTunes business. Some 70 percent of digital music sales are made through the iTunes store. Amazon has been throwing more money into its expanding business. Last fall, it posted its first quarterly loss in nearly a decade.
Laura Sydell, NPR News, San Francisco.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And our last word in business today: prime Washington real estate.
Prestige address, 16 bedrooms, 35 bathrooms, three kitchens, all nestled on 18 acres of manicured gardens.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Mm-hmm. You might guess that we're talking about the White House. It's not for sale. Don't worry. But the real estate website Zillow estimates that if the White House was for sale, it would list for close to $300 million. And if you're not ready to buy, well, Zillow puts the monthly rent at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue at 1.75 million a month.
MONTAGNE: And that is the business news from NPR News.
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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne. Car makers from around the world are in Detroit this week at one of the most important industry events of the year. The Detroit Auto Show is the main stage for the auto industry's latest cars and technologies. This year American automakers are making their mark, none more dramatically than Chrysler.
A few years ago the smallest and most chronically troubled of the big three was near death. The government bailed it out. Italian car maker Fiat took control, and it's been using its global reach to bolster this American brand to a remarkable turnaround. In 2011, Chrysler paid off its billions in government loans and in today's Bottom Line In Business we hear from the man who gets much of the credit for Chrysler's surging sales. He's Italian-born CEO of Chrysler Sergio Marchionne. Welcome to the program.
SERGIO MARCHIONNE: It's a pleasure to be on.
MONTAGNE: After nearly three years of increases in sales do you feel even a little bit relaxed?
MARCHIONNE: No. The worst thing that we feel right now is the impending sense of complacency that might develop in the house and I think we're becoming even slightly more paranoid than we've historically been, which I think is a healthy thing.
MONTAGNE: I gather that when the Dodge Ram won Truck of the Year this week at the Detroit Auto Show, you cut short the celebrating.
MARCHIONNE: No, no. I think I did all the hugging and the hand slapping and all that stuff that needs to be done. But I think it was over. I mean we won it and I think we need to reap the benefits in the marketplace. I think it's all visible in terms of market share and how many units we sell.
MONTAGNE: Well, let me ask you, what specific vehicle are you most proud of over these last three years? Difficult years, one would think.
MARCHIONNE: There's a not a single doubt in my mind that the car that changed the conversation about Chrysler was the Grand Cherokee of 2010.
MONTAGNE: And why?
MARCHIONNE: Because it was unexpected. It was of a quality that nobody thought that Chrysler could produce. The one that we launched this week, the remake of the Grand Cherokee, is one step forward in the refinement of that car. But it started a process of commitment to quality and to excellence. The real answer to your question, I mean, if I look back at the last three and a half years the thing that I'm probably most proud of is the quality of the leadership team we've got in place here.
These are 20 kids that are just of phenomenal caliber.
MONTAGNE: When you first came to Chrysler what did you find there in the way of leadership?
MARCHIONNE: I had to go look for them because they were buried underneath the structure. And it's been my experience, by the way, whenever you run businesses that are dysfunctional, that the real problem sits at the top. And so we changed all of the senior leadership of Chrysler within a matter of a couple of days.
MONTAGNE: Going back in terms of actually making the cars, did you bring over certain practices from Fiat that were clearly different from what you found in Detroit and at Chrysler?
MARCHIONNE: Yeah. The manufacturing processes here have been completely revamped. Back in 2005 I introduced a thing - which I don't mind saying this. I mean, we stole it, at least in its basic form, from Toyota. It's called World Class Manufacturing. I mean, it's this pretentious title for something which really involves the revisiting of the manufacturing processes of dedication to the removal of waste.
And that really changed the way in which the workforce interfaces with the product. I mean, we worry about ergonomics. We worry about the unnecessary expenditure of physical labor to make things. One of the things that unfortunately happens in organizations that become dysfunctional is that the very first thing to go is the amount of care and attention that you place on the workplace and the environment within which people work.
And so even though we were bust and we'd come out of bankruptcy we spent a lot of time and a lot of money redoing the workplace because we had to make the place livable. And that was the thing that I think Fiat was responsible for because it pushed it.
MONTAGNE: We're talking about the Italian connection. Much of Chrysler's new appeal, in particular your marketing of late, has been the slogan "Imported from Detroit."
MARCHIONNE: Yeah.
MONTAGNE: Bringing back the glory of Detroit. Chrysler's factories are humming again. American workers are making American cars. So let me ask you. Does it make sense, looking forward, for Chrysler to produce in other countries as it does in China for the Chinese market?
MARCHIONNE: There's not a single doubt in my mind that the whole of Chrysler organization views itself as an American car producer. We are still here today because somebody took a hell of a gamble on us. And we're never going to forget this. The house knows this. We have made the decision that we're going to take some key products, such as the Wrangler and the Grand Cherokee, and protect those as being true American icons. Produce them in the U.S. and make them available nowhere else.
MARCHIONNE: And so every Wrangler that you see in the world gets produced in Toledo, Ohio. The Grand Cherokee's produced in Jefferson in downtown Detroit and it will continue to be made there and will be distributed globally.
I'm not going to replicate that facility anywhere else. That doesn't mean that in order for me to get stronger and better at what I do, I will not seize opportunities in other jurisdictions where it is simply impossible to use an American asset base to produce and effectively distribute in that jurisdiction. It's impossible to do that in China.
It's impossible to do that in Russia in an effective way. And there's nothing wrong with that. It will make us stronger at home.
MONTAGNE: There is talk, now, of Chrysler going public, selling shares so that you might say any American can invest in Chrysler's success. Is that something you would look forward to?
MARCHIONNE: What I really would like to do is to give an opportunity to America investors to buy shares in the combined Fiat/Chrysler. How that happens, I don't know, so give me some time. I need to figure it out.
MONTAGNE: All right. We'll check back with you. Thank you very much for joining us.
MARCHIONNE: Thank you.
MONTAGNE: Sergio Marchionne is the CEO of Chrysler and the CEO of Fiat - speaking to us from the big auto show now underway in Detroit.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The woman behind the hugely popular advice column Dear Abby has died. Pauline Phillips passed away at the age of 94. NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates has this remembrance.
KAREN GRISBY BATES, BYLINE: As Abigail Van Buren, Pauline Phillips was a czarina of common-sense advice. She spent several decades handing out snappy one-liners in her widely read columns that at bottom, revealed a crisp, no-nonsense streak. To a young woman who wondered if her commitment-shy boyfriend was going out with her for what he could get, Abby replied, I don't know - what's he getting?
It was the kind of direct response that earned Dear Abby a place in American culture for several generations - and on its playlists. Seventies soul crooner George Jackson wanted Abby to advise the girlfriend who dumped him, to take him back.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
BATES: Even the Dead Kennedys needed to check in.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DEAR ABBY")
BATES: Phillips got into the business a few months after her identical twin, Eppie Lederer, began giving out pragmatic advice as Ann Landers. In 1991, Phillips told talk show host Larry King that she started out by telling the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle she'd be a great replacement for the paper's current advice columnist.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)
PAULINE PHILLIPS: So he said, well, what do you do? I said, I'm a Hillsborough housewife. I didn't have a Social Security number; I'd never worked a day of my life. I did volunteer work.
BATES: But her sample columns showed the housewife - from the very tony San Francisco suburb of Hillsborough - knew how to speak to people from all walks of life. She was hired, and her advice empire grew and grew. So did her sister's, and there was some well-documented rivalry there. For a few years, the women stopped speaking to each other. But they reconciled, eventually.
Before Dear Abby and Ann Landers, advice columns were tediously earnest or filled with sugar-coated sanctimony. Abby and Ann told it straight. Husbands sometimes cheated, friends sometimes gossiped. Babies sometimes got started before the walk down the aisle. The point was to get through the tough spots with integrity and grit.
An advice-seeker once asked if she thought about dying much. Abby's typically brusque reply: No, it's the last thing I want to do.
Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.
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The University of North Carolina is starting a new master's degree program that's sparking a lot of interest among veterans. The program at the university's school of medicine is designed specifically for former military medics. As Jessica Jones with North Carolina Public Radio reports, the idea is to help translate the veteran's unique skills to the civilian world.
JESSICA JONES, BYLINE: It's an early weekday morning and about a hundred medical students, residents and faculty members of the University of North Carolina are settling into an auditorium for a weekly lecture. But today, there's a special guest from Fort Bragg, where some of them also take courses. Army Sergeant Karl Holt is recounting a deadly helicopter crash in Afghanistan in 2009.
SERGEANT KARL HOLT: I was unable to walk, but crawled and had each patient brought to me, and I would triage them and basically made piles of casualties with various degrees of injury and who I would get to or try to get to first.
JONES: Holt, who's a Special Forces medic, quickly staunched wounds and splinted broken bones. As an instructor at Fort Bragg, he teaches everything from stitching perfect sutures to intubating patients. Yet Holt says despite all of that medical experience, he couldn't get hired outside the military today.
HOLT: It is amazing how the world is wide open to you in one sense, yet in another sense you come home, and you have no job. You can't even be, you know, just a normal paramedic.
JONES: A new program at the UNC School of Medicine aims to address this issue. In 2015, the school will open the country's first two-year master's degree program for Special Forces medics seeking to become Physician Assistants. Dr. Bruce Cairns is a surgeon at UNC who's helping to start the program. As a former Navy doctor, he understands their special skills.
DR. BRUCE CAIRNS: If you look at the numbers, it's harder to become a Special Forces medic than it is to be a high school football player who wants to play in the NFL, but that's what we need as we develop as an academic medical center.
JONES: Members of the military's Special Forces are chosen through a grueling process. The 12-person teams often work abroad in remote areas for months at a time. Usually two members of those teams are trained as medics, which Cairns says are sorely needed.
CAIRNS: We have a tremendous health care provider shortage in the country, now, particularly in rural underserved areas. And these people, that's their expertise, and they like to function in these austere, rural environments. They're just perfect for what we need.
JONES: Mike Haynie heads the Institute for Military Veterans and Their Families at Syracuse University. He acknowledges the UNC program is small and selective, with only 15 slots in its first entering class. But Haynie says the real benefit lies in the program's concept.
MIKE HAYNIE: For me, the real power beyond the veterans that will benefit from the program directly, is this idea of setting an example for other institutions of higher education to follow in their footsteps.
JONES: Haynie says one of the biggest obstacles veterans face is translating their skills and getting credentialed. But the admissions staff of UNC's physician assistant program will know how to interpret military resumes. This program would have helped Special Forces medic Karl Holt, who's already spent three years preparing to apply to medical school.
HOLT: Oh, I probably would have already been well ingrained in the program by now. It was a time issue.
JONES: Holt says his students and colleagues are bombarding him with questions about the program. A $1.2 million grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina will initially fund salaries and scholarships. For NPR News, I'm Jessica Jones in Durham, North Carolina.
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It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
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And I'm David Greene. Good morning. President Obama is set to take the oath of office for a second time. He has promised an ambitious agenda for the next four years. NPR's Mara Liasson tackles the question of whether it's ambitious enough.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: President Obama is in very good political shape. He won decisively in November; his approval ratings are the highest since his first months in office; and he's fresh off a year-end political victory on the fiscal cliff. So now what?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I hope, and intend, to be an even better president in the second term than I was in the first.
LIASSON: That will mean achieving his goals, which White House communications director Dan Pfieffer defines as completing the project Mr. Obama started when he first ran for president.
DAN PFEIFFER: At the end of his term, if America's more competitive in the world; if the middle-class worker has a chance to save for retirement, save for college, own a home; then that will be a tremendous success.
LIASSON: As the second term begins, the building blocks of that vision include comprehensive immigration reform, new gun laws, and a deficit and tax deal with the Republicans. There will be high-pitched conflict with Congress over all three. But unlike the first term, where the White House saw only two modes of existence in Washington - gridlock or genuine compromise - in the second term, says Brookings analyst Bill Galston, the White House envisions a new way.
BILL GALSTON: The administration has now adopted a third strategy, which rests on the proposition that the House Republican majority can be broken; and the unity of that majority can be destroyed and that legislation will move with a strong Democratic vote, plus a minority of the majority.
LIASSON: John Podesta, who was Bill Clinton's second-term chief of staff, says President Obama came to this conclusion the hard way.
JOHN PODESTA: President Obama's the guy who comes to the conversation thinking that we can all be rational, we can all find honorable compromise. But the lesson he learned is that his opposition is not likely to operate in what used to be the normal political mode of give and take; that you're going to have to show that you're willing to be as tough as they are.
LIASSON: The other part of the president's second-term approach is to engage the public. Senior adviser to the president Valerie Jarrett says that what the Obama team learned during the December fight over the fiscal cliff.
VALERIE JARRETT: At the end of the year, when finally, at the 11th hour, at the 12th hour, we were able to get Congress to approve averting the fiscal cliff, that happened because of people just saying, come on, we want you to work together. That's what the election was really about. And we will be doing that much more aggressively, in a second term.
LIASSON: That's certainly what the White House thinks helped them win the lame duck standoff over the fiscal cliff. But, says Bill Galston...
GALSTON: The question facing the White House is whether that model of how to get business done, is going to turn out to be viable on a broader front of issues. And if it is, they're going to do very well. And if it isn't, they're going to be butting their heads against a wall.
LIASSON: What worked for the fiscal cliff may or may not work as well on immigration; guns; or the upcoming fiscal crises of the debt ceiling, sequester and government shutdown. Immigration just might be the easiest to achieve, especially since the Republicans' landslide defeat with Hispanic voters has caused them to rethink their opposition to an eventual path to citizenship for undocumented workers.
And on guns, while the president has laid out a sweeping set of policies, he's also signaled that he'll settle for what he can get. That leaves the fiscal battles - the most difficult fights of the second term, and as John Podesta explains, the key to the president's legacy.
PODESTA: He's got to get more growth in the economy. And I think that he's laid out an economic program for the American people that emphasizes investments in infrastructure, in innovation, in education. That's what people are looking to him to do.
LIASSON: Resolving the fiscal crises is the president's only hope of getting the revenue he needs, to make the investments he wants. And here's where Bill Galston sees some shortcomings in President Obama's second-term plan.
GALSTON: If you look at the focus - particularly of year one of the second term - it doesn't correspond all that closely to what the country most needs to get done.
LIASSON: What the country needs, says Galston, is long-term economic growth; and a fiscally sustainable course that would come from a truly big deal on entitlements and taxes. Both are key to the president's holy grail - a prosperous, secure middle class.
GALSTON: He doesn't get that unless he can overcome the fiscal roadblock. And he's not going to be able to do that unless he goes bigger than the debate of the first year is likely to be.
LIASSON: So it's possible that President Obama's second-term agenda, as big and ambitious as it looks, might not be ambitious enough.
Mara Liasson, NPR News, Washington.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Good morning, I'm David Greene with news of a fast food chain that's coming up short. Earlier this week, a customer in Australia ordered a Subway Foot-Long sub only to find it measured a mere 11 inches. He posted a photo alongside a tape measure on the company's Facebook page, sparking outrage from customers and an investigation by the New York Post. They bought seven Subway Foot-Longs in New York City and four of them measured less than 12 inches. Subway is looking into this sizable matter.
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. An amateur prospector in Australia thought he'd stumbled on a car hood. It turned out to be a giant gold nugget shaped like a goldfish. The owner of the local gold shop told the Herald newspaper that if the anonymous prospector was silly enough to melt it down it would be worth nearly $300,000.
Unlikely, since its size and shape make it so rare. The gold will be worth far more to a museum or collector. It's MORNING EDITION.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Here's some music trivia for you: Who is the first Asian-American to release a solo rap album on a major label in the U.S. Can you use a hint?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LEARN CHINESE")
SIMON: His name is Jin. And he's not trivial. Jin has sold thousands of records, won awards, and appeared in TV shows and movies in Hong Kong. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports on how the Chinese-American rapper from Miami got a second chance at stardom on the other side of the world.
HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE: Jin grew up in Miami with a few different names.
: My name is Jin Auyueng - that's my full name. And my Chinese name is Auyueng Jing.
WANG: He was also known as...
: The Chinese kid that raps.
WANG: A reputation he developed as a high schooler after frequenting local talent shows and rapping competitions, where he says...
: There was the inevitable elephant in the room, so to speak, 'cause everybody's like hold up, hold up. That Chinese kid is going to go on stage and rap? (Singing) Yeah, I'm Chinese. Now you understand it. I'm the reason that his little sister's eyes are slanted. If you make one joke about race or karate, NYPD be in Chinatown searching for your body.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: All right. There it is.
WANG: That was Jin about ten years ago, just 19 years old, on the verge of his big break, live on BET, Black Entertainment Television. Jin competed in freestyle rap battles. And for seven consecutive weeks, he dominated, fending off his challengers' ethnic insults with rapid-fire retorts. His success led to his signing with the hip-hop label Ruff Ryders in 2002 as the first mainstream Asian-American rapper. And it set the entertainment world abuzz.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
: I thought I was heading to the moon. Everybody was writing about me. I'm appearing on ESPN. I was in movies, you know, "Entertainment Tonight." And I allowed myself to believe that I'm here.
WANG: In reality, here wasn't exactly what Jin had in mind. There was a two-year delay before his debut album "The Rest is History" was finally released. It peaked at just 54 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
: The reception and the album sales just did not live up to the hype.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
JEFF CHANG: Oftentimes, history isn't kind to the people who break down the doors.
WANG: Jeff Chang is a former music journalist who's followed Jin's career. He now runs Stanford University's Institute for Diversity in the Arts.
CHANG: Jin was trying basically to break the old mold of Asian-Americans, you know, being sort of kung-fu artists or being the folks who kind of stood in the background to play the supporting role. And so, you know, it might have simply been a case of Jin being there too early.
WANG: Chang says Jin may have also been too late. His career started at the tail end of hip-hop's dominance of pop music in America. As for Jin's own theory about what went wrong, he points to one main factor.
: And that was the music. The album lacked direction because at that time, I didn't have direction in my life.
WANG: It took a few years before Jin found a direction that would restart his career. And it happened unexpectedly - when he went back to the basics.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
WANG: This is the title track from Jin's first rap album in Cantonese. That's the Chinese dialect he grew up speaking with his immigrant parents. Jin named the album "ABC" - not after the alphabet. It's shorthand for American-born Chinese, like himself. The album's lyrics often touch on what it means to be an "ABC," an outsider both in mainstream American society and in the Chinese community. Jin had thought about recording a Cantonese album for a long time. But he always brushed off the idea, until 2007, when it seemed like his career had completely stalled.
: I was like, well, there's really nothing else left. I don't have anything else to do. So, I recorded it with the intentions of releasing it.
WANG: Just as a small independent project in the U.S. And soon, record executives in Hong Kong came calling. They saw an opportunity for Jin to tap into a growing local hip-hop scene.
: I went out there - three months turned into six months, six months turned into a year, a year turned into two, to three, and I've been there for four years now.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Hong Kong superstar.
WANG: Jin's become a household name in Hong Kong - and not just for his rapping skills, according to Ben Sin, a journalist who covers music there.
BEN SIN: I see him on TV shows and movies a lot. So, he's completely branched out like most Hong Kong celebrities into just a full-on entertainer. He's not just a rapper anymore.
WANG: Sin says Jin's relatively smooth entry into Hong Kong's entertainment world is partly because of the significant influence hip-hop still has on Asian pop music.
SIN: And I think the fact that he competed in rap competitions with black people was a big selling point at the time. They were just showing clips of it and then cut back to reactions of Hong Kong people going like, oh my God. Like, he was rapping with black people, you know. So, it was a bit playing into the stereotype at first.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WANG: Now, at age 30, recently married and a new father, Jin's come home - back to the U.S. - ready to tackle another stereotype, the has-been musician.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BRAND NEW ME")
WANG: Jin hopes his latest single, "Brand New Me," from his new English-language EP will reintroduce him to an American audience. Jin also recently put out a free album of faith-based music. It's yet another reinvention for the rapper, who's now eager to share his new identity as a born-again Christian.
: You know, I'm conveying and proclaiming, you know what? This is where I'm at. This is where my mindset is.
WANG: The mindset of the Chinese kid who raps and is all grown up. Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BRAND NEW ME")
SIMON: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Time now for StoryCorps and the Military Voices Initiative, a project collecting interviews from service members who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and their families too.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Today, a mother and father remember their son, Specialist Lance Pilgrim. He was among the first Army troops to enter Iraq in March 2003. Eventually, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. When they sat down for StoryCorps, Judy and Randy Pilgrim remember their son's struggle to leave the war behind.
RANDY PILGRIM: When I first realized that something may be not right, he got in the truck with me and there'd had been an animal run over - I suppose a dog. And as I went around it, Lance just broke down crying. I pulled on over. I said are you OK. And he was sobbing. He said we tried once to go around bodies in Iraq but we were ambushed. So, we were told from then on don't let anything slow you down. So, he said, I had to run over people. And he said I don't think I'll ever get that out of my mind.
JUDY PILGRIM: That summer on his base, he found out that he could deal with his panic attacks and nightmares by taking pain medication. And he became dependent on it. He came home during the middle of the week. We said how did you get to come home during the middle of the week? And he said, well, I just left.
PILGRIM: Yeah. And then they couldn't get him to stay on base. So, he was finally discharged with an other-than-honorable discharge. He was trying extremely hard to get back on track. But he went from a strong, independent young man to just he couldn't do anything on his own anymore. He was almost helpless.
PILGRIM: He had a number of tattoos. And he had added a new one. It was a spider web. And I said what does this mean? And he said, well, that's what I feel like I'm caught up in. The night that he died, he had panic attacks that day.
PILGRIM: I remember him driving up. And I know he had felt he had let me down. And I wish I had been more supportive at that moment. Now, if I could do it all over again, I'd give him a big hug and just say don't let this be a stumbling block for you. You know, I didn't do that and that was the last time I saw him alive.
PILGRIM: Lance had actually been prescribed hydrocodone by the VA hospital. He was not supposed to have it because he had had problems with it. And he died from an accidental overdose.
PILGRIM: We requested a military funeral and it was denied.
PILGRIM: He did everything his country asked him to do.
PILGRIM: The Army reviewed all the information to get his discharge turned around.
PILGRIM: And it was finally turned around. It was completely honorable and his medals came in the mail in an envelope, but it was two years after he died.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Judy and Randy Pilgrim remembering their son, Lance, who died from an accidental overdose in 2007. He was 26 years old. The Pilgrims filed a civil lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs claiming negligence in the treatment of their son. The case was settled in 2011. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, which represented the VA, said we have no additional comment on this case other than what's in the public record. The Pilgrims' conversation was recorded in Dangerfield, Texas, and like all StoryCorps interviews, it will be archived at the Library of Congress. You can hear Judy Pilgrim read a letter that her son wrote to the Veterans Affairs Hospital at npr.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Neil Jordan is best known as a filmmaker, including his 1992 film "The Crying Game." His other films include "Mona Lisa," "Michael Collins" and "Interview with a Vampire." Most recently, he's created the Showtime series, "The Borgias." But before he started making movies, Neil Jordan was a well-regarded novelist. Now, his first book, "The Past," written more than 30 years ago, has been reissued in the United States. He tells the story of a child's search for the truth about his parents' murky history. We asked Neil Jordan what it was like to pick up the novel that he'd written so long ago.
NEIL JORDAN: Well, it's the strangest thing because I don't think I've even glanced at this novel for 20 years, you know. So, it is the strangest thing trying to connect with the person that you were back then, you know.
SIMON: Well, who were you in 1980?
JORDAN: In 1980, I was a young writer and I was a - I'd written a book of short stories. I think I was unemployed, actually. Ireland in 1980 was very similar to Ireland, actually, at this minute. You know, it was going through a huge recession and there were no jobs and most people left. But creatively, it was a very, very vibrant time. And the basic drift behind the novel is of a narrator who's trying to find the reality of his upbringing, you know, of his parentage. But yet it's all done through a series. It's a whole host of visual images, you know. And the central, the kind of most enigmatic, character in this novel is a photographer. And so the whole book almost is - adamantly refuses to admit any kind of element into his narrative that is not heard or described or can be photographed. So, in a way, when I finished this book I felt, look, I'm so obsessed with visual imagery that I thought I would, you know, explore the possibility of making films.
SIMON: And you've made such well-known films too.
JORDAN: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah. Well, I mean, I kind of regard them as the same thing. And it's hard to explain that to people. They don't quite understand why, you know, how you can work in such a visual medium and how you can also work with words. But it's the way I've developed really. And I just don't see any real difference in the creative instinct, in the imagining or the dreaming up of the particular piece of work.
SIMON: So, how did you get into films and why?
JORDAN: Growing up as a writer in the late '60s, 1968, 1972, you felt you lived in a country that was haunted by words. You know, you felt, I mean, I was born in Sligo, where W.B. Yeats was born and lived. Between these two figures, Yeats and Joyce and probably Samuel Beckett, and, you know, you kind of felt every acre you walked on was kind of trodden. I was already covered by acres of print, you know. And it's, for me, starting with the first time I wrote a screenplay, I felt tremendous freedom actually, you know, because it just felt to me that this is an area that had not been explored by the Irish imagination in any creative way in Ireland. And I just got tremendously excited and all overtaken by it.
SIMON: Do you ever, now that you're a filmmaker, envy the special effects budget that a novelist can use?
JORDAN: The way that our imagination can go anywhere. If they dream of a dinosaur, the dinosaur appears in page without you having to realize it. And what people don't realize the kind of joy and thrill there is in actually building a perfect picture of something you have in your mind, even though it takes time and it's expensive. Yet, it still is very pleasurable and it still is part of the same process. You know, and the process is creating a piece of art or telling a story. I mean, I have to say being a novelist is the loneliest life in the world. You know, when you're making a film, you're surrounded by people and the flow of ideas kind of is always a communal thing, you know, so you don't feel alone. Writing a novel you can feel really alone.
SIMON: When they came to you and said they wanted to reprint this novel, may I ask, did you pick it up after more than 30 years and read it again all over?
JORDAN: I've begun to, yeah. I've begun to. It's just thought I could have had an entirely different career.
SIMON: Without getting specific, did you begin to reread your novel and ever come across a line and say to yourself, boy, I wish I had a chance to redo it?
JORDAN: No, not really. You know, what you do is part of how you were then. I don't think I would. I mean, I find some parts that are quite moving in a way. I'm just amazed that I had the energy to think up it all.
SIMON: Neil Jordan, perhaps better known these days as a filmmaker but also an accomplished novelist. His 1980 novel, "The Past," has just been published in the United States again. Mr. Jordan, thanks so much for being with us.
JORDAN: Thank you very much.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Terry Francona probably never has to buy his own drink in Boston. He's the manager who helped steer the Boston Red Sox to their first World Series since the Paleolithic era. That was in 2004. He did it again in 2007, turning the franchise from some kind of national sob story into a sleek, rich, successful sports enterprise. Terry Francona was ultimately let go by Boston. He's now written a memoir of his years there with Dan Shaughnessy, the eminent Boston Globe columnist. Their new book, "Francona: The Red Sox Years." And Terry Francona, who's about to begin his first year as manager of the Cleveland Indians, joins us from the studios of WCPN in Cleveland. Thanks very much for being with us.
TERRY FRANCONA: Well, Scott, thanks for having me.
SIMON: What's it like to finally bring Boston to a World Series, as you did in 2004, after all those years?
FRANCONA: When we landed after being in St. Louis, I think it was starting to dawn on me just how important it was to people - elderly people, young people. And then, you know, people would send pictures where they put something on their grandparent's gravestone. You know, I mean, it was just unbelievable, the outpouring of emotion over a baseball team.
SIMON: You talk pretty candidly in this book you've written with Dan Shaughnessy about what it's like to manage a collection of I'll just call them spirited and singular athletes - Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, when he had hair like Fabio, Josh Beckett and others. You have some philosophy about how you do that?
FRANCONA: Well, I think the main thing is, it starts on the first day of spring training, is we try as a team - and when I mean we try desperately to find an identity. You know, the '04 team was very loose and, like the names you just said, free-spirited - Johnny Damon and guys like that, Kevin Millar. But when they got on the field, they cared about each other. And when the game started, they played the game the right way. So, I thought it would have been wrong to instill my will on that group. Now, the '07 group that won was a lot quieter group. It was Mike Lowell. That group of guys was a different group. And to try to clone the '04 team would have been wrong. I don't care about the decibel level in the clubhouse. What I care about are guys playing the game the right way and caring about each other on the field. And both of those teams did it. They just did it in a very different way.
SIMON: You grew up in baseball. Your father played for half a dozen Major League clubs, including the one you now manage there in Cleveland. And I'm very touched in the book the way you talk about the folks who work in the clubhouse; in many ways, people with whom you grew up, the clubbies, as you call them. What do you learn from them?
FRANCONA: It's hard to be a clubhouse guy without being a great guy. I mean, the nature of the job is, you know, you're picking up dirty clothes and you're doing all the tasks that the players - that nobody else wants to do. A lot of times, when we're acquiring a player, if I know the clubhouse guy on that team, I'll call him. Because they know what kind of guy the guy really is. Everywhere I've been, I've always gotten real close to them and I don't think that'll change here in Cleveland. It's just the nature of the job. You know, you spend your whole life at the ballpark. You get really close to those guys.
SIMON: Do you mind telling us about, I think you call it, the open wallet hour?
FRANCONA: Not the hour. That's just the way it's been. You know, I've never in 31 years of professional baseball, I've never put my wallet in a safe or locked it up. It always sits on the edge of my desk. And anybody knows if they need money, go get it. Just put it back. We had a clubhouse kid named Pookie that used to go in there all the time if he needed money and he always put it back. And I never checked. I think the outside world can learn a lot about how to act by watching a Major League clubhouse. I don't think you want to do everything the same, but there's a lot of things I think people can learn from.
SIMON: Let's talk about something I'd like to learn from. I made a list, found myself making a list, reading the book of all the things you were contending with in 2011, in addition to baseball, and all of them arguably, in some cases, even more important. You had this persistent painful knee problem from your playing days where you required surgery and painkillers. You were going through a divorce, which is a shattering event for any family, and you had a son and son-in-law who were, I guess, both in the Marines and serving in Afghanistan.
FRANCONA: It was a difficult time in my personal life. I think I took offense to the fact that that affected the outcome of our team in 2011. My argument would have been on August 31st, we had the best record in baseball, and you didn't hear a peep from anybody. And then a mere two weeks later, you know, we're struggling from our baseball lives and all this comes out when the season's over. You know, none of this ever came out during the year, and I thought it was a little bit below the belt.
SIMON: How much did you learn about handling the press or the public from being Michael Jordan's manager when he was in the minor leagues in Birmingham?
FRANCONA: A ton.
SIMON: Can you tell me the story about - 'cause you would play pickup basketball games with Michael Jordan and others on the team - about the time you took the last shot?
FRANCONA: Yeah. We were out in the fall league in Arizona and started out being just a little bit of shooting around. One thing led to another and we started playing games and games got a little bit more competitive. And I was getting a little tired. So, I shot, made this long shot towards the end of the game and hit the rim real hard and bounced towards the middle of the court. And Curtis Pride was a player on the other team, went down and slammed it. The game was over. I was kind of glad 'cause I was tired. And as I was walking off the court, I heard the ball rattling off the window. And Michael had kicked it, and he was mad. And he walked up behind me, and he goes, hey, man. He goes, I always shoot last. And I didn't really quite grasp what he said. And he said it again. And I was like, well, you know, this isn't on TV. He goes I don't care. I always shoot last. And as he walked away, I said, well, now you know how I feel when I watch you try to hit a curveball. And he took about two steps and just hit the floor. He genuinely liked being treated like everybody else and he really liked being one of the guys.
SIMON: Is success all it's cracked up to be?
FRANCONA: For me, the fun part is the journey. After the World Series is over and everybody's jumping up and down, I know I'd retreat to my office. And it was like, OK, what's next? You know, like watching Dave Roberts steal second base in '04. I mean, it just felt like it was in slow-motion. So, I got to live through it, and for me that was enough.
SIMON: Terry Francona. His new book, written by Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, is "Francona: The Red Sox Years." Speaking with us from Cleveland. Terry Francona, thanks so much.
FRANCONA: I enjoyed it. Thanks, Scott.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: MI6, the British secret service, may be one of the world's valuable brand names. In a new book, Gordon Corera, a security correspondent for the BBC, tells about a young MI6 man on a mission who makes his way into some remote village in Africa where the chief of a tribe greets him with a wide smile and says: Hello, Mr. Bond. As a former head of MI6 tells Gordon Corera I doubt if he would have received such a warm welcome if he'd been from the Belgian secret service. MI6 is the subject of much legend, novels, movies and myths. Some of the world's best-known writers, notably Ian Fleming, Graham Greene and John le Carre have not only written about the British secret service but were intelligence officers. Gordon Corera tells the story of what may be the storied secret service, from its defining period in the Cold War through to these times of terrorism and cyber rivalry. His book is "The Art of Betrayal: Life and Death in the British Secret Service." And Gordon Corera joins us now from the BBC in London. Thanks very much for being with us.
GORDON CORERA: It's a pleasure.
SIMON: The way you described it, MI6 has always been balanced between 007, the glamorous spies of daring-do from Ian Fleming's pen and now the movies, and then George Smiley, John le Carre's more mundane, bureaucratic spy craft. How's that played out?
CORERA: Well, that's right. I think it's one of the most interesting ways of looking at the history of the MI6 in the last 50, 60 years; is on the one end of the spectrum, you've got James Bond, this slightly fantastical character, gung-ho above all - all the talk about the license to kill - who exists in a very simple world where you know the good guys and the bad guys. It's black and white in some ways.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE")
CORERA: And then on the other hand, you have George Smiley, John le Carre's creation, who's much more a character of grays, ambiguity and subtlety.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY")
CORERA: James Bond is all about doing things. George Smiley is all about understanding things. Now, in a successful secret service those two things work together and in a kind of created tension. But one of the things I think you can look at the British secret service in its history at MI6 - and you can see how at times one or the other is predominated - has had more influence, and sometimes with disastrous results. So, early on in the Cold War, it was pretty Bond-like and there were some pretty aggressive operations in places like Albania. But they went pretty disastrously wrong.
SIMON: Let me ask you, you know, intelligence officers often complain that we hear about the failures and, of course, rarely their successes. So, let me ask you about the recruitment of a KGB colonel, Oleg Penkovsky. This seems to have been a notable success.
CORERA: I wanted to try and, as far as possible, not just talk about the failures and the betrayals but also reflect some of the successes. And I think, I mean, there's two Russian intelligence officers who were turned and basically became agents for MI6 and, in one case, MI6 and the CIA. So, one of them was Oleg Penkovsky, who was a Russian military intelligence officer in the early Cold War, who MI6 and the CIA jointly run. And he provides vital intelligence. And it's very interesting because it's one of those cases where you can point to the way in which intelligence made a difference to policy. His intelligence made it right up to the Oval Office, to President Kennedy, helped shape some of his decision-makings and helped him stand firm against Khrushchev at various points because of what he was getting from Penkovsky.
Later in the Cold War, MI6 recruit another colonel, this time in the KGB, Oleg Gordievsky, who becomes enormously important and plays a key role really in the latter period of the Cold War in shaping policy for the Thatcher and the Reagan administrations.
SIMON: Given that your beat is a world that is supposed to be kept secret, how do you get people to talk to you, and moreover, how can you trust what they tell you?
CORERA: I've been covering this beat now for about a decade and it's been a very interesting period because it's been the post-9/11 period, in which I think intelligence agencies have been thrust into the public domain; sometimes for reasons they don't like; when their intelligence is used to justify the war in Iraq, for instance, and then turns out to be wrong. And suddenly with terrorism, intelligence is much more in the public eye than it used to be. It's not like the Cold War, where this stuff could all take place in the shadows and all be clouded in national security and secrecy. So, you know, I think there's been a shift in which they've been forced to engage much more. And it's a good question about how do you know what you're being told. And I think you have to be on your guard. I mean, but that's the same for any type of journalism.
SIMON: Is there something about the life of the spy that can create great novelists?
CORERA: I think it's interesting how many novelists - you know, you can go back to Somerset Maugham, who worked in MI6, Graham Greene, Fleming, le Carre, all of them had intelligence backgrounds. Now, you know, of course it's partly because they had access to great material, but it's also, I think, one of the things about human intelligence, is it's about what Graham Greene called the human factor. Spying is about people; it's about getting inside people's minds and motivations, understanding why they might betray their country or the people around them. And that is intrinsically interesting, I think, and applicable to novels, because novels are often, you know, the modern novel is very much about, you know, getting inside people's minds and understanding their motivations. So, I think there is kind of an overlap, you know, not just in the excitement of the subject matter but something about the human factor and the human motivations of spying which does lend itself to people being able to try and portray that in novels and make it interesting.
SIMON: Gordon Corera of the BBC. His new book, "The Art of Betrayal: Life and Death in the British Secret Service." Thanks so much for being with us.
CORERA: Thank you.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Cristina Pato is a jazz pianist from Spain.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: She also plays flute and sings.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CRISTINA PATO: (Singing) I see, just as I seen you, more than...
SIMON: But on her new album, "Migrations," there's a striking sound not often heard in jazz - the bagpipe.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Cristina Pato plays the traditional gaita. That's the bagpipe from her native region of Galicia in Northwestern Spain. But a world of jazz opened up to her when she came to the United States in 2004. Cristina Pato joins us from our studios in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
PATO: Thank you so much for having me as (unintelligible). I'm enamored.
SIMON: We're going to get the jazz stuff in a moment, but tell us about this instrument. Because I gather you began playing the bagpipes when you were four years old. Does that happen in every Galician family?
PATO: Well, kind of. Not when you're four years old. But the gaita, the bagpipe I play, is like the national instrument of Galicia. So, I think right now in Galicia there are more bagpipe players than soccer players, which is a very big statement to say. But, you know, like, bagpipes, they are all around the world and they are all related to the people where they are from. So, coming from a traditional family of musicians, it kind of made sense for me to start with it when I was four years old.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: I don't have to tell you, in this country, as a generalization, you say bagpipes, people think you're talking about Scotland.
(LAUGHTER)
PATO: Well, you cannot even imagine the amount of faces I get when somebody asks me, oh, what do you do? And I say, hey, I'm a musician. And then they ask what do you play? And I say bagpipes. And you also get this typical line of I have a bagpipers playing in my grandparent's funeral. That is the other typical bagpipe conversation. No, I mean, the bagpipe is one of these instruments that is in almost every culture because it's probably one of the oldest instruments in the history. It was a shepherd instrument so it's related to...
SIMON: A shepherd instrument. I was going to ask if that was the derivation.
PATO: Yeah. Like wherever there was a shepherd, there was a bagpipe. But, you know, it's like the typical image we have of the bagpipers is usually the Celtic tradition, the Celtic connections in Scotland and Ireland, and Galicia, which is related to that culture to, to the Celtic connections. But there are bagpipes everywhere.
SIMON: Let's listen to another track on this CD, because you have the audacity to do Miles Davis "Blue and Green."
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Wow. That's very nicely done.
PATO: Thank you.
SIMON: You know, this is a song that when you hear the Miles Davis original, there's something introspective about it, something about contemplative about it - late night, dark of the moon, all that stuff. The bagpipe has - we think of, is such a commanding song. You know, rousing people, getting them out. How do you make the bagpipe work in this situation?
PATO: Well, that is a constant challenge I have with my instrument with the guide down, because - and I think that is the reason I get so passionate about the instrument, because it has so many beautiful limitations that really make you work harder to get things done. So, this piece, this "Blue and Green," is related to another Miles Davis recording I did three years ago. And that recording was related to his album, "Sketches of Spain," in which apparently in his piece, "The Bagpiper," he was inspired by a Galician bagpiper. But that for me was the excuse to say, OK, now I can take him and play this tune. And if somebody asks me, I just will say that Miles Davis was listening to a gaita when he was writing "Sketches of Spain."
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
PATO: If you ask me right now where is home for me, I actually don't have an answer, because that is what happens when you move around and when you migrate and you try to find your place in the world. And then you feel connected to your roots, of course, but also disconnected because you don't live there anymore. And then you're here, and everybody in New York is from abroad. And it's such a strange and beautiful sensation that keeps me connected to this city. This is why the whole album is called "Migrations," because we are carrying our roots wherever we are going. I am from Galicia, I live in New York, and I brought my roots with me but my roots re-rooted again here. And from those re-roots, another thing was born. And this album was about that.
SIMON: Cristina Pato. Her new album, "Migrations." She joined us from our studios in New York. Thanks so much.
PATO: Thank you. A pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: And you can hear more of Cristina Pato on our website, nprmusic.org. 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. President Obama says that he wants to use whatever power his office holds to try to stop gun violence. But the legislative fate of many of his proposals must go through one man: the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee. Senator Patrick Leahy spoke this week about his plans for hearings on gun control, and NPR's Carrie Johnson was there.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: The 72-year-old Democrat from Vermont has been in the Senate more than half of his life. He's well-known in Washington for his cameo appearances in "Batman" movies. But new White House proposals to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines are shining a different kind of spotlight on Patrick Leahy. Leahy's a proud gun owner in Vermont, a state not known for tight gun controls. But at a talk this week at his alma mater, Georgetown University, Leahy brushed back any suggestion he'd drag his feet on the president's plans.
SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY: Well, I think it is an urgent situation. And that's why the first hearings held by anybody, House or Senate, is going to be by me and my committee.
JOHNSON: Leahy's Judiciary Committee will start hearing from experts on January 30th. He wants to look broadly at the issues, including, he says, mental health care, the exposure of children to violence and gun safety. That means a series of hearings that could extend for weeks, not the lightning-fast approach favored by some big-city mayors who want changes right away. Leahy has voted to allow guns in national parks and on Amtrak trains, but he also supported the 1994 assault weapons ban. Many of the measures on the table now, he says, are a matter of common sense.
LEAHY: About the only gun law we have in Vermont is during deer season. If you have a semiautomatic, you can't have more than six rounds in it. Are we really as a nation saying we're going to be more protective of the deer than we are of our children? I think not.
(APPLAUSE)
JOHNSON: Leahy's Republican counterpart, Senator Charles Grassley, has been in his home state of Iowa this week, where Grassley tells NPR there's a lot of unease about new gun regulations.
SENATOR CHARLES GRASSLEY: From the town meetings I've had, I can say that there's very much distrust of the Congress and the president on this issue and this fear of taking guns away from people that ought to, under the Constitution, legitimately have those guns.
JOHNSON: Grassley says he's open to having hearings and taking a close look at the issue, but any legislation will have to wait until fiscal deadlines are resolved sometime in March.
GRASSLEY: I think when it deals with the felonies and the mental health issues, I don't think that's a concern of my constituents. But when you talk about depriving people to buy guns that they might want to buy, then they consider that a slippery slope.
JOHNSON: Even Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat who supports gun rights, has raised big questions about whether an assault weapons ban can make it through Congress. To which Leahy says:
LEAHY: But the fact that we cannot do everything that could help should not paralyze us from doing anything that can help.
JOHNSON: Leahy told the audience in Georgetown he's come to appreciate the virtue of tenure in the Senate. He's now third in line to the presidency, for instance, and he says he expects to use that clout - and most of the Judiciary Committee's energy this spring - on another legislative priority for the president.
LEAHY: Our nation relies on immigrants. We have to find a way through the partisan gridlock to enact meaningful change to our immigration laws. And that should include a path to citizenship.
JOHNSON: An overhaul of the immigration system has been considered - and set aside - by Congress before, but many lawmakers say that could be an easier lift this year than the even more divisive issue of new gun regulations. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
You might want to look at the profiles of presidents - current, past and aspiring - attending President Obama's inauguration on Monday and imagine how they'd look one day on a coin. But a few voices are beginning to propose that in these times, when newspapers cost a dollar and more, and people pull out credit cards to buy a cup of coffee, small coins may soon be relics. A penny costs more than a cent to mint and circulate. The nickel costs more than 10 cents. This is not a good business plan for a nation that's kazillions of dollars in debt.
This week, D. Wayne Johnson, historian of the Medallic Art Company, proposed in The Wall Street Journal that the U.S. government get rid of the penny, nickel and quarter. You can't buy a pack of gum with a quarter these days. Pennies and nickels are often just cast into bowls, drawers and jars, useless and unspent. So, Mr. Johnson suggests we round off prices to the nearest 10, and start minting just 10 cent, 50 cent and $1 coins. The dollar coin would replace the bill, which gets worn, wrinkly, and then won't work in vending machines.
It's one of those ideas that sounds sensible every way but politically. And politics is what truly counts. That's not Larry, Curly and Moe on the penny, nickel and quarter; it's Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington - two founding fathers and the president who saved the Union. Can you imagine any Congress taking those profiles off of coins? But even if you put those old presidents on new dimes, half-dollars and dollars, you'd have to scrap Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Sacagawea. Half-dollars and dollars aren't used much right now, except by casinos and the Tooth Fairy. But imagine the outcry if Congress proposed removing from our money the president who won World War II, the president who personified youthful vigor, and a woman who helped open the West?
Can you see why when the European Union started minting money, they chose stylized architectural details instead of people? Reducing the number of coins in America would bring down the number of pedestals on which to put national heroes. But imagine the debates if Congress had to decide whom to put on just three small coins. Martin Luther King or Cesar Chavez? Einstein or Steve Jobs? Jackie Robinson or Jim Thorpe? Sacagawea, Susan B. Anthony or Sandra Day O' Connor? FDR, not Lincoln? Or vice versa? At least after this week, Lance Armstrong wouldn't be in the running. In a sense, it helps us appreciate that the United States has grown so rich in history, diversity and depth, no three, four, five or a hundred profiles can express it. What about Marx - Groucho, Chico and Harpo?
(SOUNDBITE OF THE MOVIE, "DUCK SOUP")
SIMON: Groucho - and you're listening to NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The British government wants schoolchildren to put their cell phones for a few minutes and read - deeply. In fact, to memorize a piece of poetry. It's even funding a nationwide poetry reciting contest called Poetry By Heart. We're joined now from London by the poet Jean Sprackland. Thanks very much for being with us.
JEAN SPRACKLAND: It's a pleasure.
SIMON: And why, in your judgment, should youngster memorize poetry, not just read poems?
SPRACKLAND: Well, I suppose there's a great difference between learning by heart and the old-fashioned, rather dusty phrase learning by rote. So, there's a thought that if you learn by heart, it means you take the poem right into yourself. It becomes part of you. So, it's something that lives with you forever.
SIMON: And do you have the impression that children might have an easier time remembering poetry than adults do?
SPRACKLAND: Absolutely. I think children often commit things to memory without knowing they're doing it. That's why I suppose nursery rhymes and playground rhymes get passed on from generation to generation without anybody making any great effort.
SIMON: What do you remember?
SPRACKLAND: Well, one of the first poems that I began to learn was Keat's poem "Ode to a Nightingale," which of course I know as an adult is one of the great English romantic poems and is full of all this stuff about the ephemeral nature of love and youth and life. But I think probably as a 10- or 11-year-old I just loved the sound of the words, and the way the words tasted and felt in my mouth when I spoke them.
SIMON: Could we hear a little?
SPRACKLAND: Sure. I won't give you the whole poem. It's rather long. Oh, for a draft of vintage that have been culled a long age in the deep delved earth. Tasting of flora and the country green, dense and Provencal song and sun burnt mirth. Oh, for a beaker full of the warm south, full of the true, the blushful hippocream(ph), with beaded bubbles winking at the brim and purple stained mouth, that I might drink and leave this world unseen. And with thee fade away in the forest dim.
SIMON: That's very nice indeed. I'm inclined to respond by saying, you know, she should have died hereafter. There would have been time for such a word. You know, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps at its petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools, they waited dust to your death. Out, out brief candle - sorry.
SPRACKLAND: That's pretty wonderful.
SIMON: Jean Sprackland is one of the poets who've selected verses for schoolchildren in the United Kingdom to recite for a new contest called Poetry By Heart. Thanks very much, Ms. Sprackland.
SPRACKLAND: Thank you.
SIMON: This is NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The U.S. State Department has confirmed that one American has been killed at the Algerian installation. U.S. officials have not yet confirmed the number of American workers still captive or missing. But Defense Secretary Panetta says the U.S. is working around the clock. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the crisis makes plain the threat posed by Islamic extremists in North Africa. And as NPR's Jackie Northam report, the U.S. sees Algeria as a critical ally in that fight.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: The U.S. has been nurturing relations with Algeria since the 1990s. That's when the North African nation went looking for new partners following the collapse of the Soviet Union, said retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, a strategic risk analyst.
COLONEL CEDRIC LEIGHTON: And they cautiously approached the United States. The United States has worked very carefully with them. It's a very tentative, very cautious relationship. There is a relationship based on professional respect, but it is also a weary relationship.
NORTHAM: Leighton says over the past few years, the U.S. has come to place more value on that relationship because of the increasing threat across North and West Africa from Islamist groups linked to al-Qaida. The largest is al-Qaida in the Islamic Magheb. Leighton says Algeria has its own solid intelligence network and connections with other intelligence services across North Africa. He says Algeria also provides important insights into local culture and key Islamic figures.
LEIGHTON: And while there're risks in pinning your hopes on one particular country or one particular organization within that country, it is absolutely true that the Algerians provide us with a valuable service, in terms of intelligence and in terms of a potential base for military operations. So, like it not, we are dependent on them because of their location and because of their knowledge of the situation for the foreseeable future.
NORTHAM: Algeria has provided logistical support to France and opened its airspace to French planes to shuttle military personnel into neighboring Mali in an effort to root out al-Qaida-backed militants there. But when it came to terrorists launching an attack on its own soil, that's when Algeria's cooperation ended. British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was disappointed Algeria did not give any advance warning that security forces would storm the natural gas facility where hostages were being held.
PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON: Mr. Speaker, we were not informed of this in advance. I was told by the Algerian prime minister while it was taking place.
NORTHAM: Cameron said he had urged Algeria's government to consult the U.K. and other countries before taking any action. Anouar Boukhars, a North Africa specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says Algeria has had years of experience battling its own terror threats, and feels it doesn't need any advice.
ANOUAR BOUKHARS: This is Algeria's style. Algeria is very jealous of its sovereignty. They believe that this is a national issue within Algerian territory, so it's only Algeria that will decide how to handle it. Algeria has a policy that they would never negotiate with violent extremists. And that's the only way they know how to deal with it, is the use of force.
NORTHAM: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says know better than Algeria how ruthless the terrorists are, and that the U.S. is staying in close touch with the Algerian government. Clinton would not say whether the U.S. was notified ahead of the military rescue mission. Instead, she appeared to take the longer view when it comes to Algeria.
SECRETARY HILLARY CLINTON: It is absolutely essential that we broaden and deepen our counterterrorism cooperation going forward with Algeria and all countries of the region. We stand ready to further enhance the counterterrorism support that we already provide. We have been discussing this with the Algerian leadership...
NORTHAM: And it may be more than just the terror threat when it comes to this delicate diplomacy. Algeria is a major oil and natural gas producer. The bulk of its oil goes to the United States. Jackie Northam, NPR News, Washington.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Let's turn now to Newtown, Connecticut, where a little over a month ago, a gunman killed 20 children and six educators at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. After the shooting, students and teachers at Sandy Hook were transferred to a building in a neighboring town. And now, as Craig LeMoult of member WSHU reports, residents of Newtown are grappling with the question of what to do with the building where the shooting took place, and whether to build a new school.
CRAIG LEMOULT, BYLINE: Newtown officials held a second public meeting last night, to hear what community members think should happen to the Sandy Hook school. Jackie Hornack has lived in Sandy Hook her whole life. She said it would be disrespectful to keep the school running, as if nothing happened; and she said the good and bad memories of Sandy Hook would not be lost, if the school building is replaced by a memorial.
JACKIE HORNACK: And it certainly does not mean that that troubled man is now taking our school, too. It means that those who did not make it out of that building will be remembered and honored.
LEMOULT: She and several other speakers said the town should build a new elementary school nearby. Police officer Todd Keeping lives in the Sandy Hook neighborhood; and requested to be assigned to the school the students now attend, in the neighboring town of Monroe. He said that - not the building where the shooting happened - is now Sandy Hook School.
TODD KEEPING: Today, I was thinking to myself, I'm walking down the hall, and it sounded like a school. They are smiling. They are happy.
LEMOULT: He said every day, it seems to get a little bit easier.
KEEPING: You want to keep these teachers? Then you cannot ask any one of them to ever, ever go back there.
LEMOULT: Daniel Krauss said his daughter, Rachel, is a second-grader at Sandy Hook.
DANIEL KRAUSS: She fondly remembers Principal Hochsprung during the book fair as she dressed up as the Book Fairy, with her light-up fairy dress.
LEMOULT: Principal Dawn Hochsprung was one of the six adults killed in the shooting. Krause said his daughter wants to go back to the old building.
KRAUSS: Sandy Hook is home, and a special place. Yet as I listen to everybody, I think I really go back to my feeling of - that we need to listen to what the teachers and the staff have to say.
LEMOULT: Newtown First Selectwoman Pat Llodra says figuring out what to do will be a long process. She says she's beginning to meet privately with teachers and staff, to see what they think. For NPR News, I'm Craig LeMoult in Connecticut.
(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. The kickoff event for the president's second inauguration is the National Day of Service. Hundreds of thousands of people, including President Obama and his family, are participating in volunteer activities around the country this weekend, doing everything from cleaning rivers and picking up garbage to assembling care packages for U.S. soldiers overseas.
Organizers hope the events will lead to a permanent boost in volunteerism, as NPR's Pam Fessler reports.
PAM FESSLER, BYLINE: Volunteers by their very nature are an upbeat crowd.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Good morning, are you guys excited?
(APPLAUSE)
FESSLER: Like this group of a dozen volunteers who came to Tyler Elementary School in Washington, D.C., yesterday to organize the school library.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: I know this is B's and C's...
FESSLER: Right now the library is kind of a mess, and the kids can't check out any books. There's no librarian here because of school budget cuts.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: ...nothing, and then we have a different pile started...
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: OK, so these need to get in the system then, right...
FESSLER: It's one of thousands of service projects being held to celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday and the inauguration. Lisa McBride came with colleagues from her conference planning company in Virginia. She says volunteering helps them work together better, but it also just feels good.
LISA MCBRIDE: Some of us are so privileged, and, you know, other people, such as this school run on volunteers like us and the willingness of the people to volunteer and give back.
FESSLER: And that's what motivates lots of people - teenagers, working parents, retirees. Tens of millions of Americans volunteer each year. Still, the nation's volunteer rate is less than 27 percent, about the same as it's been over the past decade. And volunteer groups are looking for ways to make that number grow.
JACKI COYLE: We can put some candy in there, yeah, that would be awesome.
FESSLER: Jacki Coyle and two of her colleagues from Shepherd's Table, a Maryland nonprofit, are setting up a booth in a huge tent on the National Mall. About 100 groups are participating there today in what the Presidential Inaugural Committee calls a service summit. The purpose is to help people learn about volunteering and then to sign them up. Coyle says sometimes people doubt they can have any impact.
COYLE: Or somebody might feel like I'm so overburdened. They have so many things in their life already. Can I take the time and go and do that? I would just say to people, if you give an hour once a month, that makes a difference.
FESSLER: Her organization, which serves the homeless, relies on over a thousand volunteers a year. Surprisingly, surveys show that those who volunteer the most are some of the busiest people around - working mothers. Nearby, Jennifer Burnside of the Junior League of Northern Virginia, is setting up a booth so volunteers can make cards to cheer up children who are ill or homeless.
JENNIFER BURNSIDE: Inside the card kit, you'll be able to use foam, stickers, glitter and glue, and write a special message for a child in need.
FESSLER: She says the key to attracting volunteers these days is flexibility.
BURNSIDE: The ability to volunteer in the evenings, the ability to volunteer on the weekends, the ability to take something home.
FESSLER: And maybe do it online, like helping a charity with recordkeeping. Michelle Nunn heads Points of Light, the nation's largest volunteer organization, which was inspired by another president, George H. W. Bush. She says non-profits have to be more creative as needs grow, but budgets tighten.
MICHELLE NUNN: There's now what we call sort of micro-volunteering, where if you actually have 15 minutes, there's little micro-assignments. You can help a nonprofit think about how they edit their funding letter or to come up with a great new slogan.
FESSLER: Or, she says, more retirees might be encouraged to volunteer with small stipends to help with transportation costs. Still, Nunn says the surest way to get people to help out has always been just to ask, which is what this weekend is all about. Pam Fessler, NPR News, Washington.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. House Republicans spent the last two days at a resort outside of colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. It was their annual retreat and it ended in what many consider to be at least a tactical political retreat. After insisting for weeks on a dollar in spending cuts for every dollar that they would agree to raise the debt ceiling, Republicans dropped that demand, at least for the next three months. NPR's David Welna was at that gathering and he reports that Republican lawmakers are now pinning their hopes for deficit reduction on other looming budget battles.
DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: There was tough talk from House Republicans as they left Washington earlier this week to plot strategy at a golf resort. Some said the Treasury did not have to technically default on the debt; it could just stop making some of its payments. Others said financial markets might actually respond positively to Republicans holding out for big deficit reductions. By the end of their retreat here, though, Republicans seemed to come around to share the view of their leaders, that risking a debt default could spell political disaster for the GOP brand. So, instead of provoking a showdown over a debt ceiling that had to be raised by mid-February, Republicans now plan to raise the nation's borrowing limit enough to keep the Treasury in good stead until Tax Day in mid-April. And attached to that short-term extension would be another condition: that senators' paychecks will be withheld until they pass an annual budget.
REPRESENTATIVE MICHAEL MCCAUL: The Senate needs to do its work and pass a budget for the first time in three years.
WELNA: That's Texas House Republican Michael McCaul. He says while Republicans are willing to give the federal government a three-month breather on the debt ceiling, it won't be for nothing.
MCCAUL: The debt ceiling, obviously, is going to be the toughest vote for all of us. But we need to get something in return for that. And I think that was pretty unanimous.
WELNA: But what was also unanimous, according to some attending the closed-door sessions of the GOP retreat, was a realization that Republicans could get burned badly if they brought the nation to the brink of default, just as they did in August of 2011 when the nation's debt rating was downgraded for the first time ever. John Fleming is a Tea Party-backed Republican from Louisiana.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN FLEMING: We have no interest in shutting government down or depriving anybody of their benefits, even though we need so desperately to cut spending.
WELNA: Fleming says while there was discussion here of prioritizing payments by the Treasury if its borrowing authority were to run out, such a scenario is highly unlikely.
FLEMING: What theoretically could happen is that checks wouldn't go out or they'd be delayed. But we're not even going to let that happen. I mean, the American people need to feel safe that come the first of the month, or whenever they get their Social Security check, their veteran's benefit - whatever government check that they normally get - that that check is going to be there for them. We're not going to let them down.
WELNA: And is that the case the leadership made to the members?
FLEMING: No. To be honest, I think it's just an intuitive thought that we all have. I mean, nobody is standing up saying, well, let's make sure the military doesn't get paid and that'll really win the battle for us. That just isn't happening, and for good reason.
WELNA: Raising the debt ceiling is not the only fiscal fight ahead. There's also a March 1st deadline looming when more than $100 billion in automatic across-the-board spending cuts, known as the sequester, will begin. And near the end of March, a stopgap resolution keeping the federal government operating runs out. South Carolina Republican Mick Mulvaney says the plan is to leave the fight over raising the debt ceiling over the long term for last.
REPRESENTATIVE MICK MULVANEY: Why wouldn't we deal with the smaller ones first, maybe build up a little momentum, build up a little credibility, not only with the credit markets but also with the folks back home, that we could actually deal with these things - take the small one first, take the medium one next and then take the debt ceiling last. I think it makes perfect sense. It's a rational, reasonable thing to do.
WELNA: For House Republicans, it may be. But Senate Democrats say they want the debt ceiling raised with no conditions attached. David Welna, NPR News, Williamsburg, Virginia.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
We're joined now by NPR's national political correspondent Mara Liasson. Mara, thanks for being with us.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Happy to be here.
SIMON: Can you tell us how the White House views this debate going on among House Republicans?
LIASSON: Well, other than schadenfreude, other than happy to see your opponents all twisted up and squirming, I think that they see this latest move, which is a concession by the Republicans, to drop the so-called Boehner Rule, which is we won't raise the debt ceiling other than by one dollar of debt ceiling for on dollar of spending cuts. Now, they're saying they're going to be a three-month debt extension, debt ceiling limit. Jay Carney issued a statement saying we're encouraged that there are signs that congressional Republicans may back off their insistence on holding our economy hostage to extract drastic cuts in Medicare. So, I think they're happy about this move. It's another small victory for the president. We've now established that the debt ceiling will be raised. The only question for Republicans, and for Congress, is for how long at a time do they plan to raise it?
SIMON: Well, there used to be a theory that went that only serious compromise could banish, abolish gridlock on Capitol Hill. And I wonder, is it changing now that a realization that maybe the strategy should be to figure out ways to evade gridlock?
LIASSON: Well, that's a really good question. And I do think the theory of the case of the first term of the Obama White House that serious compromise was the only alternative to gridlock. But now after that fiscal cliff battle at the end of the year, the White House sees a chance that maybe it can do something different, maybe it can divide its opposition, maybe it can win in a different way, if the Republicans in the House are willing to pass things with large numbers of Democrats. That happened on the fiscal cliff, but I think what you're seeing now is Republicans trying to regroup, trying to find a more defensible line in the sand, something that they can actually stick to, not setting up situations where they're going to have to cave in the end to the president.
Now, they've decided the debt ceiling is not going to be that line in the sand. They're focusing on the next two fiscal crises coming up: the sequester - the automatic across-the-board spending cuts - and the expiration of the bill that funds the government. In other words, a looming government shutdown sometime in March. So, this is going to be a big battle. I think the president feels he has a lot more clout than he did in his first term. And we'll see if that new theory that you can divide and conquer your opposition will work.
SIMON: When you look at President Obama's stated agenda, be it the proposals this week on guns, immigration, the so-called fiscal grand bargain, what to you looks practical?
LIASSON: Immigration looks the most achievable. The Republican Party has decided that in the wake of their landslide defeat among Hispanic voters that they are going to come off their opposition to an eventual path to citizenship for undocumented workers. So, I think that has the biggest chance of passing. On guns, depends on how you define success. I think something will pass - maybe universal background checks. The president won't get everything he asks for and the White House isn't saying that that's their bottom line anyway. The last biggest agenda item that you mentioned, the fiscal grand bargain - that's the key to the president's legacy. If he doesn't get that, he won't have the revenues to make investments in education and research and infrastructure that he wants. He won't have a path to making the middle-class more secure. He's got to get that big grand bargain. And that's what's been incredibly elusive. He couldn't get it done at the end of the year. I don't know if this new retreat on the debt ceiling opens up any more room for talks on big reform in taxes and entitlements in the budget. But that's the key for the president. I think it's going to be the hardest for him to accomplish.
SIMON: Mara, I'm getting messages - people want to know what you meant by schadenfreude.
LIASSON: Oh my goodness. That means you're happy when the other guy is suffering. You know, that means you take some pleasure in your opponent's suffering. And, you know, there is always that in Washington. The Democrats used to be twisted in knots and divided and weak. And now the shoe is on the other foot, at least for the moment.
SIMON: NPR's national political correspondent and Austrian philosopher, Mara Liasson. Thanks so much.
LIASSON: And I don't know about philosopher. Thank you.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Last month's shootings in Newtown seemed to be a kind of last straw, for many Americans. President Obama seemed to speak with urgency and resolve when he announced a plan to try to stem gun violence that would provide more resources for schools, law enforcement, mental health care and gun retailers.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If there's even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there's even one life that can be saved, then we've got an obligation to try.
SIMON: But violence continues in many inner cities across America, usually with far less attention than Newtown. Chicago, the president's hometown, had 506 homicides in 2012, a sharp increase from the year before. David M. Kennedy directs the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in New York City. Thanks very much for being with us, Professor Kennedy.
DAVID M. KENNEDY: Thank you.
SIMON: Who's responsible for most of the killing in these neighborhoods?
KENNEDY: The short answer is groups of extremely active street offenders. So you mentioned Chicago, and we've been doing work in the most dangerous neighborhood in Chicago - or at least, until recently was the most dangerous neighborhood - West Garfield Park. And it's a neighborhood of about 90,000 people. And my colleague Andrew Papachristos, at Yale, has identified a network of just a few thousand street offenders. It includes, if you go back five years, most of the homicides that have taken place in that neighborhood.
SIMON: Then, forgive me, why isn't it easier to just isolate them, pick them up on a gun charge, somehow prevent them from committing acts of violence?
KENNEDY: That doesn't work, in part because there is a street dynamic at work that will tend to produce more such groups and more such individuals. What we want to do is change their behavior. The basic framework that's being applied now all across the country is to sit down and speak with them. And that is done by community figures, by law enforcement, by social providers. And in various ways, that conversation goes: we know who you are, we know what you're doing, your community needs this to stop, we would like to help you if you will let us. And this is not a negotiation. We're not asking. And we're putting you on prior notice of the law enforcement consequences that will follow if your violence continues. And it turns out to be quite remarkably effective.
SIMON: Do you think any of President Obama's executive orders address this kind of daily gun violence?
KENNEDY: The elements of the packets that have the most to do with this kind of everyday street violence are expanding background checks and addressing firearms trafficking. The kind of street offenders that we've been talking about don't walk into sporting goods stores and buy their guns. They can't. Most of them already have extensive criminal records. So, people steal guns from houses and such and they end up on the street. And what we call the straw purchasers, in which people who are legally entitled to buy firearms do so and then sell them on the street. All of this has been enabled by the fact that there is what's called the secondary market in firearms, which allows private parties to sell guns without federal recordkeeping and background checks and by what turn out to be fantastically small penalties for firearms trafficking. You can sell a vial of crack on a street corner and get more jail time than by selling dozens of guns on that same street corner. And changing those things will help.
SIMON: But I have to ask: having done reporting in Englewood in Chicago, I certainly had the impression there's so many guns that if you're able to stop the trafficking tomorrow, there would still be millions of guns on the street.
KENNEDY: There are not as many guns on the street and it's not as easy for even seasoned bad guys to get them as people think. And it can be even more difficult for them to get ammunition. So, any economist will tell you that if you raise the price of something you will sell less of it. And we have not done very much to raise the price of illegal gun acquisition.
SIMON: What else do you think might help some?
KENNEDY: The more we have learned about how concentrated gun offending is - this is, for all practical purposes, entirely a problem of seasoned criminal offenders - gang activity and drug market activity and robbery, homicide, all that sort of thing - the more evident it's become that there are these very commonsense ways of intervening with them to quite dramatically sometimes reduce their violence. And the commonsense package on this has always been to work both sides. You do something about how to get guns and you do something about how they use guns.
SIMON: David M. Kennedy, who directs the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Thanks very much for speaking with us.
KENNEDY: Thank you.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
On Monday, President Obama will join a select group of presidents who have delivered a second inaugural address...
(APPLAUSE)
(SOUNDBITES OF INAUGURAL ADDRESSES)
SIMON: Those were Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Dwight Eisenhower. Is there any common theme in second inaugural speeches?
MARTIN MEDHURST: The only trend I see is the trend that started very early and continues, and that is that most of them are just not very good speeches.
SIMON: Martin Medhurst is a professor of rhetoric and communication at Baylor, who is considered an expert on presidential speeches. He says that at least George Washington's second inaugural speech didn't make anyone stand outside very long: It ran just 135 words. We don't have any audio of that. Richard Nixon's second inaugural address in 1973 contained a fervent hope.
(SOUNDBITE OF INAUGURAL ADDRESS)
SIMON: But they weren't for him. President Nixon resigned in 1974. Professor Medhurst says it's a challenge for presidents to lift and inspire the second time around.
MEDHURST: In a first inaugural, it's all new. There's a sense of rebirth. And after four years, you know, all of that has sort of worn off.
SIMON: There is, of course, the exception that may prove the rule.
MEDHURST: The greatest of all was Lincoln's second inaugural, which perhaps was the greatest speech of all, much less an inaugural address.
SIMON: And we do have Daniel Day-Lewis, portraying Lincoln in the current film - a saddened president, made wiser through the war, who is horrified by the huge suffering he has seen but now glimpses triumph and healing
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "LINCOLN")
SIMON: On Monday, President Obama's voice will roll across the mall to the Lincoln Memorial, where these words are carved in stone...
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "LINCOLN")
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has a new autobiography out about her life and her career in law. Earlier this week, we broadcast portions of her interview with NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg. Today, Nina talks to the justice about the role that books have played in her life.
NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: Sonia Sotomayor's life in the tenements of New York was marked by the isolation of her father's alcoholism and the tensions it caused in the family. But when Sotomayor was nine, and her father died, things got worse. Her mother, when home from work, retreated to her bedroom. The apartment was dark. Nine-year-old Sonia had lost the desire to play outside, and so she started to read.
JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR: Reading became my rocket ship out of the second-floor apartment in the projects. I traveled the world through books. And even to this day, if I'm feeling down about anything, I pick up a book and I just read.
TOTENBERG: The first books she read were comics.
SOTOMAYOR: At first I read Archie. I then graduated to the Marvel series. When Spiderman and Batman came out, I was in love, OK? And I gave up comic books shortly after I started reading serious - more serious - literature like Nancy Drew.
TOTENBERG: For Sotomayor, as for generations of American girls, including many of the correspondents on this network, Nancy Drew was a first female role model.
SOTOMAYOR: She had character, and she had courage.
TOTENBERG: And Nancy was of a world that Sonia Sotomayor knew nothing about.
SOTOMAYOR: A world of real wealth. Her blue roadster - my having a sports car became a life dream.
TOTENBERG: Sotomayor fulfilled the dream, sort of, when she joined the Manhattan D.A.'s office as a prosecutor and bought a red Toyota Celica.
SOTOMAYOR: I was the happiest camper when I saw that car. And when I got in it, I just imagined myself being Nancy Drew.
TOTENBERG: Other books would become, for Sotomayor, even bigger window-openers: the book of Greek mythology that her family doctor gave her; the book summaries that she read in the Reader's Digest magazines that her mother subscribed to; and then there was the day the man came to the door and persuaded her mother to buy a set of encyclopedias.
SOTOMAYOR: I got lost in that encyclopedia. And the wonder of it was that it was in my home, not in a library. I set a task, which was to read the book for an hour a day. I think I did that for almost a year. It was a universe opener.
TOTENBERG: Also on her list of window openers is "Lord of the Flies."
SOTOMAYOR: The first book I read that didn't talk about human nature but portrayed it, and portrayed it in a way that captivated my understanding that although you could aspire to believing in the good of people, it is something you have to nurture. That book showed that left to their own devices, kids who had been taught how to order themselves, how to treat each other well, fell apart.
TOTENBERG: The Sotomayor buried in books in the projects was a kid who loved the idea of other worlds. After she read her first Isaac Asimov science-fiction novel, she became what she calls a sci-fi garbage can.
SOTOMAYOR: I read "The Hobbit." I read "Dune." I read everything I could get my hands on because I thought it was just fascinating to think about alternative worlds and wondering about whether they existed, and if they didn't, what they could teach us.
TOTENBERG: The ultimate may have been George Orwell's "1984."
SOTOMAYOR: My God, what an impact it had on me. The idea of Big Brother was, and I may still, influence my thinking about democracy; the idea that we would have a government that was all-knowing and all-doing for human beings was frightening.
TOTENBERG: She says that while the book may not influence her jurisprudence, it is sometimes in her mind when she thinks about a constitutional problem involving when to allow government searches.
SOTOMAYOR: That was a seminal piece in my waking up to the role of government in individual lives.
TOTENBERG: Some of the books Sotomayor read in school seemed removed from real life, like Shakespeare plays, until she went with a cousin to a free performance of "Romeo and Juliet" in Central Park.
SOTOMAYOR: And I actually saw how plays came alive in a way that print couldn't convey.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "ROMEO AND JULIET")
TOTENBERG: It was the perfect play for a kid, she says.
SOTOMAYOR: Because it's understandable. The human drama is understandable.
TOTENBERG: And when "West Side Story" came out, this Bronx native and daughter of Puerto Ricans, got it.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL, "WEST SIDE STORY")
SOTOMAYOR: Having read "Romeo and Juliet," I understood where "West Side Story" had come from. And so, that was almost a learning connection that you can take old themes and update them and apply them to current situations. It also taught me how Shakespeare was really drawing on emotional understandings.
TOTENBERG: After learning this lesson from "Romeo and Juliet," she went back to Shakespeare and before going off to college read all the plays, not that all her literature loves are so highfalutin.
SOTOMAYOR: I am still a lifelong lover of mysteries. I mean, it fed into my lawyer-policeman desires as a child and my Nancy Drew love of solving mysteries, OK.
TOTENBERG: And mysteries, she points out, can educate. They can transport you to different places and cultures. One of the first to do that for her was Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express." After that, she became a particular fan of mysteries set in foreign countries.
SOTOMAYOR: Because I would learn about those cultures. So I read mysteries about South Africa, and I really understood apartheid not from the history books I was reading in college but learning about the impact of it on people from the descriptors in these series of books.
TOTENBERG: No single book is her favorite, says Sonia Sotomayor, noting that even a dry manual on writing, like Strunk and White's "Elements of Style," became one her most valued volumes as she taught herself to write in college.
SOTOMAYOR: It's not one individual book, but a key that's opened a door for my imagination, for my knowledge base, and those windows have enriched my life.
TOTENBERG: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Her autobiography, out this week, is entitled "My Beloved World." Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
There's been much coverage this week of the unusual case of Manti Te'o, the Notre Dame football player who told reporters that he mourned for his girlfriend, who died of leukemia this season - the same day his grandmother died. Sportswriters and fans admired his character and pluck in playing through his sadness. But it turns out, the girlfriend did not exist except online. Whether she was a hoax on Manti Te'o, or his hoax on fans, is being investigated.
Our friend A.J. Jacobs joins us from New York now, to tell us she wouldn't even be the first famous fake person in history. A.J., thanks for being with us.
A.J. JACOBS, BYLINE: Thank you for having me.
SIMON: There was a Pope Joan?
JACOBS: Yes, Pope Joan was my favorite pope who never existed. And she was in the 13th century; and she disguised herself as a man, so she was sort of the Catholic version of Yentl. And she rose to become pope and apparently, gave birth while riding horseback - and that's when people were tipped off that maybe she wasn't a man. But she was - she was started as a rumor, probably by the enemies of the papacy.
SIMON: What can you tell us about Silence Dogood?
JACOBS: She was a middle-aged widow who wrote a series of letters to the New England Courant. She complained about hoop skirts, which she called a topsy-turvy monstrosity; and Harvard College, which she said was filled with rich, spoiled kids. And she got a lot of fans, and she even got some marriage proposals. The only thing was, she wasn't real. She was the creation of a 16-year-old apprentice named Benjamin Franklin.
SIMON: Benjamin Franklin was real, right?
JACOBS: (LAUGHTER) As far as I know, he was real.
SIMON: But I check everything these days. But there are several stories out of sports. I mean, some of us remember Sidd Finch.
JACOBS: Yes, the greatest fake baseball player of all time. In 1985, Sports Illustrated ran a profile of a pitching prodigy named Sidd Finch, who was training with the Mets. And he grew up in an orphanage; he studied yoga in India; he wore one shoe; and he could throw a fastball at 168 miles per hour, without steroids.
But it turns out, he was a hoax by writer George Plimpton, one of my heroes. Tons of people believed it. Other teams were worried they'd get hurt by his fastball. And weirdly, you know, this year the Mets had a pitcher who seemed like he was fake, this R.A. Dickey, who was a middle-aged guy who started throwing these knuckleballs.
SIMON: Hockey hoax players. There's a player from Tokyo.
JACOBS: Right, the Buffalo Sabres made an 11th-round draft pick named Taro Tsujimoto. And he was the creation of the Sabres' general manager, who was annoyed that the draft was dragging on so long. So he submitted this fake name. And for years afterwards, Buffalo fans would chant: We want Taro, we want Taro.
(LAUGHTER)
JACOBS: So it became kind of a mascot, a legend.
SIMON: Well, as Pope Joan would say, many blessings to you, A.J.
JACOBS: Thank you, and to you.
SIMON: Esquire Magazine's editor-at-large A.J. Jacobs. This is NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. I wait all week to say time for sports.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: But this is one of those weeks where the games almost come last. Lance Armstrong tells all, or not quite? The case of the girlfriend who never was. And, oh, wait, we've got some championship football games, too. Howard Bryant of ESPN The Magazine, epsn.com and ESPN the post-holiday cleanse joins us in our studios this week. Howard, wonderful to be with you.
HOWARD BRYANT: Hey Scott, face to face, finally.
SIMON: Hey, it's wonderful. Now as far as I'm concerned, you are the definitive voice in sports journalism on the issue of juicing, performance-enhancing drugs. Lance Armstrong's interview with Oprah Winfrey aired Thursday and Friday nights. What did you notice?
BRYANT: Well, I noticed that it was a major disappointment, I think, to any of his supporters. I mean, I think the big problem that I had with listening to Lance over the last couple of days was how controlled - how much he was trying to control this confession. And I'm listening to this, and I'm thinking, he's not sorry at all about this. And I always concentrate on the lives that he destroyed. I am really interested in thinking about the type of personality who would actively sue somebody when he knew they were telling the truth. That is very, very disturbing to me.
SIMON: This was a long-term criminal enterprise. This wasn't a matter of just one guy juicing. This was a long-term, sustained, multi-million-dollar criminal enterprise.
BRYANT: Exactly, and I feel like the major problem, too, is why is he doing this? I don't - this doesn't strike me as a man whose conscience has finally gotten the better of him, and therefore he needs to come clean and talk. Because that's not really what he's doing. What he's doing is still trying to shape some sort of narrative because he wants something out of this, and that something is to one day compete again.
Or maybe this whole enterprise is an example of him competing right now, but it's very disappointing, and I look at this, and I say we just live in an incredibly cynical time.
SIMON: Perhaps the strangest, best sports story of all time, Deadspin reported this week that the girlfriend of Manti Te'o, the great Notre Dame linebacker, who almost won the Heisman Trophy, didn't die before the big game. In fact, she never existed.
Now, he says he was the victim of a hoax. What do you think?
BRYANT: I don't believe it for a minute because we do live in a cynical time, and it just doesn't add up. It doesn't add up in so many different ways. And if he is the victim of a hoax, then there's - I think that the University of Notre Dame should lower its admission standards because this doesn't make sense.
I don't understand why you would date someone that you never met over a couple of years. I don't see why once - obviously he was embarrassed, he knew about this before the championship game yet continued to talk about her memory. So there's clearly some sort of attention grab taking place here.
I think that it is just another example of this celebrity culture that we live in and the lowering standards of journalism because I feel that one of the biggest areas that is actually important - most of this really is kind of silly - but the important part of it is that there was a major journalistic fail taking place here. This should have been ferreted out a long time ago.
SIMON: Before Deadspin got an email to follow-up on this.
BRYANT: Exactly.
SIMON: We have a minute-fifteen to talk about two big games, San Francisco 49ers versus the Atlanta Falcons for the NFC championships, the Niners favored by a couple of points. Atlanta has a better record, though. What do you think?
BRYANT: I love it. I love this matchup. Obviously, if I had to be biased because I'm an objective journalist, naturally - so those two go hand in hand, right - I think San Francisco-New England is the matchup people want. But I love Atlanta-San Francisco because both teams have so much to prove.
Atlanta all season has been determined to prove that they are a good football team, that they are a great football team, even though they had two near misses in the last couple of years. They're home. This is their stage. They feel like it's their time.
On the other hand, you had San Francisco, which had the championship game last year in San Francisco, and they lost to the New York Giants. So they want to prove, naturally, that they belong. It's a terrific, terrific matchup, and I feel like never underestimate anyone that's got something to prove, and both teams have a lot to prove. So it should be a good game.
SIMON: AFC game, can that fabulous Baltimore defense throttle the Patriot office and Tom Brady the way they did Payton Manning and the Broncos when it counted?
BRYANT: Well once again, another team that's got something to prove because Baltimore had a change to go to the Super Bowl last year, didn't get it done, and now the Patriots want to finally get that fourth Super Bowl. So this is going to be a great game, as well.
SIMON: Howard Bryant of ESPN. Thanks so much for being - good to have you here.
BRYANT: Oh, yes. My pleasure.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News, I'm Scott Simon. The hostage-taking ordeal at an Algerian gas and oil plant in the Saharan Desert maybe over. The Algerian state news agency report that the army launched a final assault on the facility earlier and they report that seven hostages and 11 kidnappers have been killed. The Algerian government has not yet issued an official statement.
U.S. secretary of Defense Leon Panetta spoke about the incident at a news conference in London.
SECRETARY LEON PANETTA: There were Americans there and we do know that they were held hostage. As to what has happened, that's something, frankly, we just need to get better information on.
SIMON: NPR's Eleanor Beardsley joins us from Paris. Eleanor, thanks for being with us.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: Bring us up to date on what we know so far about today's events.
BEARDSLEY: Well, I think it is over. It looks like, and I'm watching the news here, and it looks like the last entrenched, apparently the hard-core 11 jihadis - they killed their last seven hostages before being blown away themselves by the Algerian army. This happened today at the site. Apparently, 16 hostages got away today.
So, the official tally so far is that 19 foreign hostages died out of approximately 41 taken. But some fear that that number is likely to be a lot higher. This is one of the bloodiest international hostage dramas in years, and it's been shrouded the whole time in secrecy and confusion.
What are we hearing from the hostages who were able to get out?
Well, I've been listening to their reports. You know, it's very, very chilling. You know, one Algerian engineer described how they came in, you know, cut all the power, plunged the site into darkness at 5 A.M., then just, you know, busted into all the dorm rooms where people sleep and took the foreigners away.
Another Irish hostage said they had to wear explosive necklaces. And when the jihadis tried to get them out, because they wanted to take them to maybe Mali or Libya so that they could negotiate ransom - the Algerian army - that's when they came in and set siege to the plant. They just bombed the trucks full of foreign hostages. So, apparently, a lot of them died like that.
And I heard just now, a witness report, an Algerian at the airport; he'd gotten out and he said, the Islamist said, we don't want any problem with you, you're Muslim. We want to exterminate these godless Americans and show them what Islam is. And he was kind of shaking when he talked about it.
So, those are some of the things the hostages are saying.
SIMON: Eleanor, can you give us any insight as to why the Algerian army apparently refused any assistance from let's say the U.S., which has Special Forces, or other countries, that not only had some experience in incidents along these lines, but also hostages inside?
BEARDSLEY: Right, Scott. Well, there's one doctrine that the Algerians state happened, it's that they never negotiate with terrorists. Why? Because in the 1990s the country fought a brutal and bloody civil war that latest an entire decade with Islamist insurgents, basically these same people. Some estimates say as many as 200,000 Algerians may have lost their lives; innocent civilians.
So, they think they know terrorism. They know how to deal with it. It doesn't (unintelligible), you know, thing of national pride. They don't need outside advice on how to deal with something they've already dealt with. It's a huge blow because this is a very - this is an energy facility. Never even in the worst years was an energy facility taken hostage like this. So, they wanted to get in there and deal with it.
SIMON: And President Hollande of France apparently spoke out in support of the way the Algerian government handled the crisis. Help us read why that's seen as being significant.
BEARDSLEY: Yes. He actually called the Algerian approach appropriate because there was no negotiation possible with such determined and heavily armed terrorists. And everyone's here already asking is France being too indulgent towards Algeria? But France has to be very careful because it's the former colonizer of Algeria, and, you know, astonishing change in diplomacy, Algeria let France use its airspace to carry out its war against Islamists in Mali. So, that was a big thing, and France doesn't want to rock the boat.
SIMON: NPR's Eleanor Beardsley in Paris. Thanks so much.
BEARDSLEY: Thank you, Scott.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
There are, of course, a lot responsibilities and privileges that come with being a monarch and president as well. The commander in chief leads the world's most powerful military, drives domestic policy and even how Americans talk.
That's what Paul Dickson, a linguist and a writer, says in his new book. It's called "Words from the White House." And it's a look back through history at the words and phrases that American presidents set in motion, including the ones they don't even get credit for anymore.
Paul Dickson joined us in our Washington studios to talk language, ahead of the upcoming inauguration. He began with Teddy Roosevelt and why he left such an imprint on our lexicon.
PAUL DICKSON: I think he loved language. I think if he saw that, you would create a word like mollycoddle for sort of as somebody who was you would say, you know, timid. And bully pulpit. You know, the bully pulpit mean the presidency itself. And language was just important to him. And I think a lot of them. I think one of the reasons they become president is they have to be eloquent. They have to be able to get up there and, you know, convince people.
MARTIN: Which presidents was the best at this?
DICKSON: Thomas Jefferson was absolutely the best. And to this day, in the Oxford English Dictionary, there are 114 terms which are laid at his feet; like ottoman - not the empire - but the footstool is Jefferson's. And pedicure, some of them which is, you know, having your...
MARTIN: Yeah, your toes done. Sure.
DICKSON: The lengthily is his. So...
MARTIN: And this was something that was a preoccupation of American leaders at the time, to create a specific language?
DICKSON: Right, and Jefferson himself creates the word neologize. This is one of his great creations, neologize meaning to create new words. I mean this literally. And he writes a letter to John Adams and he says: Our obligation as Americans to neologize, to create a new language, which is the American language. And in Jefferson's concept, it was composed of Americanisms which are those very words and phrases, like OK and slam-dunk, which a British speaker would say, well, that's an Americanism. That's not part of the King's English.
MARTIN: In a dismissive way, they would...
DICKSON: Yes or, depending on who they are, some British people are very admiring of that 'cause it's a more direct way of speaking. So you say mob instead of a large group of angry people, you know, that's Americanism.
MARTIN: Who else was really good at this? You talk about Teddy Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson, but what modern presidents was really good at coining phrases or just the one-offs?
DICKSON: I think Harry Truman was wonderful. He brought back old folk terms like snollygoster. And he had wonderful slogans like, you know, the buck stops here. One of the most interesting terms that Truman brought back was a Word trocard, T-R-O-C-A-R. A trocar was an instrument in rural Missouri, where he's from, which was an instrument that when a bull or a cow had eaten too much clover, and amassed a huge amount of gas inside of them, that they would use his instrument to allow the gas come out through the proper orifice.
(LAUGHTER)
DICKSON: And apparently there were some illusions in the old days when bulls and cows were trocared that there'd be a whistling across the plain. Well, Truman actually in a letter to one of his aides said that he felt that the Congress deserves somebody should take a trocar to Congress...
(LAUGHTER)
DICKSON: ...to use it to deflate the ego. Truman, I like Truman stuff because he's very plain-speaking man. He used the sort of rural things that were probably a great puzzlement to more urban people.
MARTIN: So, speaking of plainspoken, George W. Bush makes a few appearances in your book.
DICKSON: Yup. Yup.
MARTIN: And he is known not only for the very contrived, intentional phrase, something like axis of evil which appeared in the 2002 State of the Union address, but also he's well-known for creativity in language.
DICKSON: Right. Right, so embetter is one of his which is...
MARTIN: This is very interesting. I did not know embetter was word.
DICKSON: What I did was I gave him the benefit of the doubt because everybody was howling and yelling and screaming and...
MARTIN: We should say he got a lot of guff for apparently sometimes making up words.
DICKSON: Right. Right. Right. Embetter was first sighted in the Oxford English dictionary with the same exact meaning that George Bush gave it in 1583. Now, and it dwindled off into the obscurity.
MARTIN: What does embetter mean?
DICKSON: It just means to make better. I'll, you know...
MARTIN: Embolden?
DICKSON: Yeah, emboldened and better. By giving you some cash, I will embetter your chances of having a good lunch. Or and then, resignate was his sort of a cumbersome way - or it seemed to be - of saying resonate, resonate. And again, that goes back to 1531, according to the Oxford English dictionary.
One of the ones they really tried to nail was with strategery...
MARTIN: Strategery.
DICKSON: Strategery which, of course, was not Bush himself but was "Saturday Night Live."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")
MARTIN: So he didn't actually say strategery. This was Will Ferrell's treatment.
DICKSON: Right, but misunderestimate, which is one of the real howlers that a lot of people cited, is actually fairly useful. I mean there is a point in life - and usually dealing with somebody who's doing some work on your house - when you underestimate...
MARTIN: You get a misunderestimate.
(LAUGHTER)
DICKSON: So again, these things that to one generation are sort of funny and outlandish, to the next generation start to work.
MARTIN: What about our current president, President Obama? You've got him in the book being responsible for the phrase: shovel-ready. This is something that...
DICKSON: Yet it came with a TARP. Yeah, you came up with that. And he had that very strange business of what wee-weed up. Remember the first summer in office, he said in Washington and as the summer goes on everybody gets all wee-weed up, which was...
MARTIN: Oh, yeah.
DICKSON: ...in the context it meant sort of he was in a...
MARTIN: Someone up in a tizzy or something.
DICKSON: Tizzy or grouchy or something. But it was, in its context, it's sort of, huh, that people do get wee-weed up around here.
MARTIN: Do you need to be spontaneous to be a president who does this well?
DICKSON: Yeah. And you also have to understand the language. For example, when Roosevelt first gave his Fireside Chats to coach the country out of the Depression, Roosevelt made a very conscious decision to use the language of baseball as opposed to the language of politics. So he said: My box score with Congress is not as good as I'd like to be. We are trying to get to first base with this legislation. Those who oppose me on this are out in left field.
So the president, in order to be a really good communicator, has to realize that he can't talk to the people with the same metaphor they would talk to the, you know, somebody in his party hierarchy; that if he really wants to get to people, you've got to give them something they can latch onto...
MARTIN: You're talking to the people in language that will resonate with them.
DICKSON: Right. Right. Yeah, resignate.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: That will resignate with them, exactly. Paul Dickson's book is called "Words from the White House." He joined us in our studio in Washington. Mr. Dickson, thanks for coming in.
DICKSON: Thank you so much.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News .I'm Rachel Martin. Everyone has relationship problems, and I mean everyone.
SIMON RICH: (Reading) On the first day, God created the heavens and the earth. Let there be light, he said, and there was light. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening - the first night. On the second day, God separated the oceans from the sky. Let there be a horizon, he said. And, lo, a horizon appeared and God saw that it was good. And there was evening - the second night. On the third day, God's girlfriend came over and said he'd been acting distant lately. I'm sorry, God said, things have been crazy this week at work. He smiled at her but she did not smile back. And God saw that it was not good. I never see you, she said. That's not true, God said. We went to the movies just last week. And she said, lo, that was last month. And there was evening - a tense night.
MARTIN: Now, when you're in conversation with people when you're really serious, do you just say, lo?
RICH: I love lo. I think lo is underused. I don't know how that fell by the wayside.
MARTIN: I know. I'm glad you're bringing it back. Simon Rich's latest book is called "The Last Girlfriend on Earth." He joins us from member station KQED in San Francisco. Simon, welcome to the program.
RICH: Hey, thanks for having me.
MARTIN: So, the book is divided into three parts. Boy Meets Girl is the first part; Boy Gets Girl; Boy Loses Girl. Are you trying to tell us something about your personal life, Simon?
RICH: It is a pretty honest and personal book, which is a strange thing to say about a book that's filled with so much time travel and rocket ships and talking trolls and magical goats. But it is actually a pretty honest book.
MARTIN: Is that a safe place for you to find comedic fodder, in romantic relationships, in personal relationships? All joking aside, those can be serious, often painful places to explore in your own psyche.
RICH: I always try to write about the highest stakes. I'm in my late 20s. I think most people in their 20s, dating is about as high stakes as it gets. And trying to write about these experiences that we've all had, these experiences of falling in love and then losing someone and wanting someone and getting dumped or having to dump someone, it only felt natural to write about them in these extreme, bizarre high-stakes arenas, like science fiction and horror and crime. Because when you're living through it, it does feel that is as extreme as things can get.
MARTIN: You come from a family of writers. How old were you when you decided to start writing?
RICH: I've wanted to write as long as I can remember. You know, when I was five, all I wanted to do was write like Roald Dahl. I read his stories obsessively and I just wanted to copy him and rip him off as much as possible. And that's still all I do. Sit in a room trying to rip off Roald Dahl as much as humanly possible.
MARTIN: What specifically inspired you about his writing and what have you kind of latched onto personally that you try to replicate?
RICH: I've always been attracted to premise writers - people who hook you really fast and don't let you go - guys like Roald Dahl and T.C. Boyle and Stephen King. Not necessarily even comedy writers, just people who snare you with a story you can't put down. That's really always been my goal as a writer is more than anything is just to write something that people will want to finish voluntarily.
MARTIN: There is one story in here that we'd love if you could just read a little bit of. This piece is called "Magical Mr. Goat." The main character of the story is a young girl named Olivia. Can you tell us about her?
RICH: This is sort of my Victorian story. There's a young imaginative girl trapped in the country estate with her governess and forced to eat Marmite and learn songs. And she wishes something exciting would happen. And lo and behold, a magical talking goat pops through her mirror and they have adventures together and become close friends, then it takes a turn.
(Reading) Zurkity, zurch, Mr. Goat cried. What a wonderful, sunderful day. He got on all fours and Olivia hopped on his back. Giddy-up, she cried. At your service, milady. She laughed as he barreled down the staircase and out the door, galloping willy-nilly across the grass. After a time, they collapsed in the meadow at the edge of the estate. They lay on the soft earth laughing uproariously amid the wildflowers. Oh, Mr. Goat, Olivia cried, the last few days have been ever so much fun. Mr. Goat leaned in and kissed her. Whoa, Olivia said. What was that? Mr. Goat flushed with embarrassment. I'm sorry, he stammered. I thought. Well, you thought wrong, Olivia said. We're just friends, OK?
MARTIN: Poor Mr. Goat.
RICH: This is a story based on an experience that I think a lot of young men have had and young women, where you're in what you think is a very good, fun, stable, platonic friendship and then ultimately it turns out that one of the people in that friendship have ulterior motives.
MARTIN: You were one of the youngest writers to ever write for "Saturday Night Live," which is a really big deal. What was that like? I mean, just walking around the halls and, like, you're collaborating with Bill Hader and Andy Samberg and all these amazing people. That had to have been a complete trip.
RICH: It was really fun. I, you know, I grew up watching "Saturday Night Live" and it was really surreal to actually physically be there. It did feel on some nights like you'd walked into a TV screen, you know, like you were living in this alternate reality. And it was really high-pressure. But I like the rhythm of it, throwing out 50, 100 sketches a year and seeing what'll stick. That's how I write books too. You know, for "The Last Girlfriend on Earth," there's 30 pieces in the book. I can't even imagine how many I must have written that didn't make the cut - at least 100 beyond that.
MARTIN: Would you mind reading us out on page 178?
RICH: Yeah. This is a personal ad.
(Reading) You - you are an intelligent woman with a sweet and caring soul. You're mature and sophisticated but you know how to let loose and have a good time. Your first name is Chloe. Me - I am a thoughtful, intelligent guy with a sense of humor. I like to stay up late talking about the big questions. I have a large and irremovable tattoo of the word Chloe on my chest from a previous relationship.
MARTIN: Simon Rich joined us from KQED in San Francisco. His latest book is called "The Last Girlfriend on Earth and Other Love Stories." And the book is out this week. Simon, thanks so much for talking with us.
RICH: Hey. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Red Baraat is wild.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: OK. Are you still sitting down? 'Cause I kind of doubt it. Red Baraat identifies itself as a Brooklyn-based dhol-and-brass band, which means it somehow blends Indian bhangra with New Orleans horns. Think Bollywood meets Treme. The nine-member group has played everywhere from The White House to Bonnaroo and their marathon live shows have become a sweaty sensation. Their new CD, out this month, is called "Shruggy Ji." And we're joined now from our New York studios by Red Baraat's founder and leader Sunny Jain. Sunny, welcome to the program.
SUNNY JAIN: Thanks for having me, Rachel.
MARTIN: OK. So, how'd you come up with this idea - bhangra, New Orleans brass - not necessarily something that naturally goes together.
JAIN: Yeah. I guess, you know, it's been a slow journey that's eventually developed to Red Baraat. You know, I was born and raised here in the States but raised with very traditional Indian values. So, my musical expression has always been kind of trying to, you know, mix these two cultures that at one point felt very diverse. So, about four years ago, the idea was to put together a really big, boisterous brass band. Kind of actually looking back, when I was five years old, I remember going to India and my uncle was getting married. And over there in North India, there's a procession called the baraat, which it includes, like, marching bands and dhol drummers and horses. And it's a big fanfare. You know, people are dancing and singing through the streets. And I remember at five years old just being mesmerized by what was going on. You know, a brass band showed up and started playing and then five minutes later two dhol players showed up and started banging away, not even with the band.
MARTIN: The dhol is a type of Indian drum, right?
JAIN: Yeah. That's the drum I play. That's the Punjabi instrument, dhol. Kind of fast forwarding this whole progression of growing up with Western, you know, classic rock, like Zeppelin, Rush or Genesis and then the Indian influence and then jazz. And it's kind of finally come out in Red Baraat.
MARTIN: I love the Genesis reference. Again, Phil Collins not necessarily something I associate with bhangra.
(LAUGHTER)
JAIN: Exactly.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: You talked about bhangra as being an Indian marching music, but that directly references the marching music that we know happens in New Orleans. Right? That's also part of that tradition.
JAIN: It is. I mean, it's like a cousin-brother. I mean, honestly, when I started the group, you know, I was familiar with New Orleans music just as a jazz player, but it's not something I delve into necessarily. My heart really laid into bebop and, like, you know, '60s Miles Group, Wayne Shorter and things like that. And then, of course, improvisation being a key element from my jazz upbringing and just wanting that expression of spontaneity on stage with everyone in the band and just with the audience as well. And then, you know, funk, Latin music, I mean, it all kind of comes in because we're just open-ended and we just assume anything that works for us.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: So, you reference this before - you're of Indian descent. You grew up in upstate New York, though. What was that like?
JAIN: Yeah, I was born and raised in Rochester, New York.
MARTIN: A lot of music in your upbringing?
JAIN: You know, there was at home. I grew up with a religious background called Jainism. And so my mom at home played a lot of bhajans, which are devotional songs. And my dad was playing, like, old Bollywood sides from the '50s and '60s, typically Raj Kapoor movies on his reel-to-reel player.
MARTIN: I want to talk about the title cut. It's called "Shruggy Ji." And I read that it was in some way inspired by go-go music, which is a D.C. kind of music tradition. Is that right?
JAIN: Yeah, it is. Go-go music, it was a groove that just made so much sense, that just really linked up with bhangra music and jazz music. I mean, it's got that swing and that buoyancy. So, a lot of the rhythms that we're playing, I mean, essentially the drum-set pattern, they're all borrowing from that language. And then the whole Minyul thing is instead of having, like, timbale in there, throwing in the dhol for a little child feeling.
MARTIN: OK. Well, let's take a little listen to this 'Shruggy."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SHRUGGY JI")
MARTIN: I mean, I almost dare someone to hear that and not move. It's kind of impossible to not at least tap your foot. I mean, I don't want to imply that it's not a full sound. It's a very full sound. But it is just percussion and horns. Do you ever kind of sit back and say, ah, if we only had a really great guitar solo right here?
JAIN: You know, I've really been loving just the acoustic sound of the band. I mean, the wonderful thing is while it is just, you know, drums and horns, like you're saying, it's like whatever reason we're crazy loud and, like, our energy is, like, that of a rock band. So, it never feels like you're missing anything.
MARTIN: And we heard from spoken word stuff in that last track, "Shruggy Ji." That was in English, but you also sing in Indian Punjabi?
JAIN: Yeah. We've got some songs in Hindi, we've got some in Punjabi, and then there's various kind of Punjabi yell-outs, an enthusiastic kind of cheer-ons that you hear.
MARTIN: I like it. What's an example of a Punjabi yell-out?
JAIN: (makes sound)
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: Awesome. What happens when that call is evoked? Is that used for a specific purpose or just to kind of, you know, say, hey, I'm here?
JAIN: I'm oftentimes just yelling and grunting throughout our performance, because I'm yelling things to the other guys like come in with the backgrounds and just kind of turning around here and there. And just the physicality of playing the dhol, you can't help but just have this animal kind of instinct come out.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: In another chapter of your musical career, you worked as a jazz drummer, you're kind of behind the scenes. In Red Baraat, obviously, you have a much different role. You're front and center. You're the band's leader and singer. I wonder was that a tough transition to make or was that pretty natural for you?
JAIN: It was definitely different and a challenge for me in terms of, OK, now I'm up front. I have to actually say something and do something up here besides just bang on the drum. But everyone is really kind of coming into the spotlight.
MARTIN: I'd love to go out with another track from the album. This one's called "Tenu Leke." And this is yet another song that, I mean, you can't hear it and not move your body. Tell me about this particular track.
JAIN: Yeah. This song kind of looks back again at that baraat kind of idea, that procession that happens during wedding time. This song is actually from a Bollywood movie called "Salaam-e-Ishq." And "Tenu Leke" was a wedding song that they played in the movie. Tenu leke means actually taking you but the full lyrics, (Foreign language spoken), is I will not leave from here until I take you. It's kind of like this groom coming to take his bride away.
MARTIN: It's very Bollywood.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TENU LEKE")
: (Playing)
MARTIN: I could see it now. All the movie characters bust in song and choreographed dance. Bollywood in all the right ways. Sunny, thanks so much for talking with us. It's been a pleasure.
JAIN: Oh, thank you, Rachel.
MARTIN: Sunny Jain of the band Red Baraat. He spoke with us from our studios in New York. The new CD is called "Shruggy Ji."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TENU LEKE")
: (Playing)
MARTIN: Are you moving yet? You can hear more tracks from "Shruggy Ji" at nprmusic.org. Before we leave you this week, we'd like to say farewell to a couple of colleagues. Editor Sara Gilbert and producer Hanzi Lo Wang, they are each moving on to new adventures. Sara and Hanzi, you made the show better every single week. Good luck. We're going to miss you. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We're listening to the band Seguro que Si. No, you haven't seen their latest single on Spotify. Seguro Que Si is a high school band from Kissimmee, Florida, a really good high school band. And they're getting ready for what could likely be the performance of a lifetime, playing in the Inaugural Day Parade.
NPR's Greg Allen has their story.
(SOUNDBITE OF AN ORCHESTRAL WARM-UP)
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: It's a nine-member band from central Florida's Osceola County School for the Arts. But teachers and administrators say the salsa band, and the notion to play in the inaugural parade, didn't come from them.
DONNA HART: This was totally the students' idea. It was Max Frost's idea.
ALLEN: Donna Hart is a counselor at the school.
HART: He's 15 and he's a sophomore here at School for the Arts. And he came to me after he did it and said, hey, I've applied and we might get this.
MAXWELL FROST: One, two, three, four. Seguro Que Si...
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ALLEN: Onstage, Maxwell Frost, as he likes to be called, is animated and irrepressible as a timbale player and band leader. The band and the song are both "Seguro Que Si," "Of Course" in English. Frost says it all started as a jazz jam that took on a Latin flavor. As he added musicians, a salsa band was born.
FROST: So here we have timbales which is, you know, very traditional; congas, traditional; and bongos, which is also traditional.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ALLEN: Along with music, Frost says he also loves President Obama. He worked as a volunteer in the president's re-election campaign and was determined to attend the inauguration.
FROST: I went online. There was a link for, you know, requests to participate. And I said you know what? Maybe my band could represent the Latino community since, you know, the demographics this year with Latinos and the voting, a lot of the reason he got elected was because of the Latinos. So I said it would be cool if they can be represented in the parade.
ALLEN: On his own, the 15 -year-old applied and got letters of recommendation from the school district and from Florida Senator Bill Nelson. When the Inaugural Committee called back, Frost says he was in class.
FROST: And my pocket started vibrating and it was my phone. And I was, you know, I kind of snuck it out. I looked at the number, 202, Washington area code. So I said, Sir, I got to use the rest room.
(LAUGHTER)
ALLEN: He checked his voicemail and learned that Seguro Que Si was in the Inaugural Parade. One of the first people he told was bass player Daniel Chico.
DANIEL CHICO: Once he told me, I couldn't keep my mouth shut. He told me not to tell anyone. But I told the whole band anyway. I was so excited.
(SOUNDBITE OF A SONG)
ALLEN: In the school auditorium last week, Frost, Chico, singer Annette Rodriquez, trumpeter Sean Fernandez and the other band members gathered to rehearse?
Kissimmee has become a center for Puerto Rican culture in recent years. Seguro Que Si represents that important influence. But Maxwell Frost says not all salsa comes from Puerto Rico.
FROST: But then you have the salsa that, you know, Cuban salsa which is more like shouting and having a good time...
(SOUNDBITE OF SHOUTING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
ALLEN: ...things like that. That's kind of Cuban salsa. You know what I mean?
Which kind do you play, Sean, when you play with the band, Puerto Rican or Cuban salsa?
SEAN FERNANDEZ: Puerto Rican for the win.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Puerto Rican.
ALLEN: These warm-weather Florida teenagers aren't looking forward to playing outside in Washington temperatures, now forecast to be in the '30s or '40s. But Frost says who knows? There could be a big L.A. music producer at the parade, ready to give a hot young salsa band from Kissimmee, Florida their big break.
Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ALLEN: And this is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. And if you feel like you need to enhance your performance, do it naturally. Grab some coffee because it is time for the puzzle.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: Joining me now is WEEKEND EDITION's puzzle-master Will Shortz. Good morning, Will.
WILL SHORTZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Rachel.
MARTIN: So, before we recap last week's challenge, we have a couple of anniversaries to celebrate. Happy 26th anniversary to you on WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY.
SHORTZ: Yeah. I did a puzzle for the very first show. It was Susan Stamberg's idea to have a puzzle on this program. And I think 26 isn't usually a year you celebrate, but, you know, it's one year for each letter in the English alphabet. So, I think that's appropriate.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: Good enough. We'll celebrate. Thank you for 26 years of amazing puzzling. And, yes, of course, it's also WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY's 26th anniversary. So, you know, why not celebrate 26 years. Now, without further ado, remind us what was our challenge last week.
SHORTZ: Yes. The challenge was to think of two familiar unhyphenated eight-letter words that contain the letters A, B, C, D, E and F, plus two others in any order. And the answer was feedback and boldface.
MARTIN: Well, about 650 of our listeners sent in correct answers. And our randomly selected winner this week is Brian Jacokes of San Francisco. He joins us on the phone. Hey, congratulations, Brian.
BRIAN JACOKES: Hi. Good morning, Rachel. Good morning, Will.
SHORTZ: Morning.
MARTIN: So, how'd you do this? You pored through a dictionary to figure this one out?
JACOKES: No. I figured that the F was the hardest letter to place, so I tried to think of long syllables that had an F in them and most of the letters from A through F. And face and feed came to me pretty quickly.
MARTIN: Well, what do you in San Francisco? Do you work with words in any way?
JACOKES: No, not quite. I'm a software engineer at a small tech company here.
MARTIN: Ah, OK. So, do you work on any puzzling apps perchance?
JACOKES: No, I don't, but I've been doing crossword puzzles for about 10 years now.
MARTIN: So, you've had a little practice. Now's the moment of truth, Brian, where you get to put those skills to the test. Are you ready to do this?
JACOKES: I hope so.
MARTIN: OK. Will, take it away.
SHORTZ: OK, Brian and Rachel. I'm going to give you the first names of two famous people - past or present. The first person's last name when you drop the initial letter becomes the second person's last name. For example, if I said Harold and Kingsley, you would say Ramos and Amos, as in actor Harold Ramos and writer Kingsley Amos.
MARTIN: I think I have it. Brian, do you have this?
JACOKES: It sounds tough, but yeah.
MARTIN: OK. Let's try. Let's do it.
SHORTZ: Number one: William Jennings and Paul.
JACOKES: OK. So, that would be Bryan and Ryan.
SHORTZ: That's right. William Jennings Bryan and Paul Ryan. Vincent, Anne A-N-N-E.
JACOKES: I can't think of any good Vincents.
SHORTZ: OK. Vincent's an actor in classic horror films.
MARTIN: Yeah.
JACOKES: Vincent Price.
MARTIN: Yes, Price, good.
SHORTZ: Vincent Price and...
JACOKES: And Anne Rice.
SHORTZ: ...the author Anne Rice. Good. William, Veronica.
JACOKES: William and Veronica.
SHORTZ: William is a writer. Veronica's an old actress.
JACOKES: These are the ones that always stump me on the crossword puzzles; they are the people's names.
SHORTZ: The names, the names.
MARTIN: Oh, lucky you, Brian. Lucky you.
JACOKES: William Blake.
SHORTZ: That's it. William Blake...
MARTIN: Good.
SHORTZ: ...and Veronica Lake. Where did that come from? Here's your next one: Russell and Ayn - and this one's A-Y-N.
JACOKES: Russell Brand, Ayn Rand.
SHORTZ: That's right. Ayn Rand - OK. Been mispronouncing it. F. Lee and Alvin.
JACOKES: F. Lee...
SHORTZ: F. Lee is a lawyer.
JACOKES: Still not ringing a bell.
SHORTZ: And Alvin is known for dance.
MARTIN: Alvin Ailey, right?
SHORTZ: There you go.
JACOKES: Alvin Ailey. F. Lee Bailey?
SHORTZ: F. Lee Bailey is it. Good. Tammy and Leann, and that's L-E-A-N-N.
JACOKES: Leann Rimes.
SHORTZ: Yes. And Tammy?
JACOKES: And Tammy...would it be Grimes?
SHORTZ: Grimes is it, good. Try this: first one is fictional - Ned, and the second name is Ann A-N-N. A fictional Ned from TV.
JACOKES: From TV, in what era?
SHORTZ: Oh, let's be more specific: "The Simpsons."
JACOKES: Oh, Ned Flanders and Ann Landers.
SHORTZ: There you go, Ned Flanders and Ann Landers.
MARTIN: Oh, Ned Flanders, good.
JACOKES: It's so hard to zero in on it.
SHORTZ: There you go. And here's your last one: Margaret and Teri T-E-R-I.
JACOKES: Thatcher and Hatcher.
SHORTZ: That was fast. Good job.
MARTIN: That was fast. Ooh, that was hard. Good job, Brian.
JACOKES: Yeah, I was hoping for some sort of anagram question.
MARTIN: Yeah, I know. The misplaced hopes sometimes get dashed in the puzzle.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: Great job, Brian. For playing the puzzle today, you'll get a WEEKEND EDITION lapel pin, as well as puzzle books and games. You can read all about it at npr.org/puzzle.
And before we let you go, what's your public radio station?
JACOKES: It's KQED here in San Francisco.
MARTIN: Brian Jacokes of San Francisco. Thanks so much for playing the puzzle, Brian.
JACOKES: Thanks, Rachel. Thanks, Will.
SHORTZ: Thanks.
MARTIN: OK. Will, what's the challenge for next week?
SHORTZ: Yeah, we've had a couple of hard challenges lately. So here's one that's easier. Take the last name of a famous world leader of the past. Rearrange its letters to name a type of world leader, like czar or prime minister, someone who's the head of a country. What world leader is it?
So again, famous world leader of the past, last name, rearrange the letters to name to name a type of world leader. What world leader is it?
MARTIN: When you have the answer, go to our Website, npr.org/puzzle and click on the Submit Your Answer link - just one entry per person, please. And our deadline for entries is Thursday, January 24th at 3 P.M. Eastern Time. Please include a phone number where we can reach you at about that time. And if you're the winner we'll give you a call, 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.
Thanks so much, Will.
SHORTZ: Thanks, Rachel.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
They're coming on planes, trains and automobiles. This weekend, thousands of people are converging on the nation's capitol, ahead of the presidential inauguration festivities. One of the larger groups is coming from the president's hometown. Hundred of Chicagoans rode in chartered train cars for 18 long hours.
NPR's Sonari Glinton was along for the ride.
(SOUNDBITE OF A CROWD)
SONARI GLINTON, BYLINE: In what they call the Great Hall of Chicago's Union station at the height of rush hour, a few hundred men and women slowly made their way to two folding chairs where Tiama Romero was holding court.
TIAMA ROMERO: Norda, can you get on that train. It connects with after a (unintelligible). If you don't mind waiting over here, that would be great.
NORDA: OK, but I already have my ticket though.
ROMERO: OK, Can you wait over here for me, please?
NORDA: Sure.
GLINTON: Romero has been working in the office of Congressman Danny Davis for more than 14 years. During the first inaugural, Romero's staff organized a trip for over 700 people in 10 buses. One of those buses broke down. This time Romero said she not having any of that.
ROMERO: To be honest with you, I didn't want to deal with the nightmare of bus having issues like it did last time. Someone emailed me and said, Can you - let's take a plane this time, Tiama. So I thought the train was the compromise.
GLINTON: This time, there only about half as many travelers to organize. Congressman Davis' office chartered cars on the Amtrak train. This group was mostly African-American, mostly over-60, and mostly from Chicago's West and South Sides.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: All right, welcome. We're glad to have you.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: All right, woo is right. All right, straight ahead, (unintelligible) group. Have fun.
(LAUGHTER)
GLINTON: There were coaches, sleeping cars, an observation lounge. But the fun was to be had late night in the cafe car. There was a little bit of liquor, a few card games and a lot of trash talking.
JONATHAN: This is Jonathan.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: You cheat.
JONATHAN: This is Jonathan. We just got a nice butt whooping in spades. I'm teaching right now. I told you...
GLINTON: Almost every conversation eventually turned to the inauguration and the future. Jeanette Parks volunteered during the president's first campaign. And this time she knocked on more than a thousand doors for him. This inauguration, Parks says, is more special than the last.
JEANETTE PARKS: Because he don't have to run any more, he can stand up and say, I am the man this time.
JONATHAN: Right. Next?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: That's what he's doing.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #4: Right, and what a man, girl.
PARKS: Right, that's right. I am the man.
(LAUGHTER)
GLINTON: While there was a lot of revelry there was a lot of talk about what the second inaugural means for the people on the train.
REPRESENTATIVE DANNY DAVIS: Part of it is pride. Just plain old natural pride.
GLINTON: Congressman Danny Davis organized this trip. And he says this inauguration is especially meaningful for Chicagoans who've supported the president for years.
DAVIS: There's a recognition that your town has made a serious contribution to what the country has become and is becoming.
GLINTON: Davis says he's seen many politicians arise and fall. But he says, for many this president and this inaugural is more personal.
DAVIS: The feeling that a father gets when his son is the leading actor in the school play, you know, hey, that's my boy.
(LAUGHTER)
DAVIS: Hey, Barack's from the South Side of Chicago. That our guy.
GLINTON: This train was full of supporters. Janice Trice says she has a lot of expectations for the next term. And she says she wants the president to know...
JANICE TRICE: We pray for you every day that God will put his love and arms around him and protect us.
GLINTON: Trice says the president needs it and so does the country.
Sonari Glinton, NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. President Obama was officially sworn in today in a private ceremony at the White House. Tomorrow, he does it again publicly. By the time he's through, he and President Franklin Roosevelt will be the only two presidents to have taken the presidential oath four times each - Roosevelt because he was elected four times, and Obama because he ended up having to take the oath twice the first time and twice the second. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg explains.
NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: Mr. Obama took the oath of office twice last time because he and the chief justice messed it up a bit the first time and did it a second in private to quell any question about his being president. He's taking the oath twice this time because technically, Inauguration Day is today, Sunday, and the modern tradition has been that when that happens, the president takes a private oath on Sunday and does it again in public for the big ceremonial event on Monday.
It wasn't always like that. The first two presidents whose inauguration days fell on a Sunday waited until Monday to take the oath. The legal authority for doing that was none other than the great Chief Justice and founding father John Marshall. In 1821, then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams wrote to Marshall noting that the inauguration of President James Monroe that year would fall on a Sunday, a day of religious sensibilities. So, what they should do? The answer was wait until Monday, according to Yale law professor Akhil Amar.
AKHIL AMAR: Marshall politely writes back and he says, well, usually we've waited until noon to do the inauguration, even though power transferred at midnight. If we can wait 12 hours, why not 36 hours?
TOTENBERG: So, President Monroe was sworn in on a Monday, and so too was Zachary Taylor in 1849. Rutherford Hayes was the first president to be sworn in privately, before the public event. But he did it on a Saturday. The rumor is that he did it to forestall any chance that his election opponent would challenge the disputed outcome of the balloting. The next time a president was sworn in privately was Woodrow Wilson, on a Sunday. He allegedly feared leaving the country without a sitting president for a whole day at a time when the nation was on the brink of entering World War I.
After that, tradition seemed to take hold when Inauguration Day fell on a Sunday. Dwight Eisenhower was sworn in privately for his second term and then on Monday again at the formal inauguration. Ronald Reagan did the same thing; and even though the Sunday oath was called a private ceremony, it was broadcast. President Obama's will be too. The presidential oath is the only one spelled out in the Constitution and it's shortest of any official oath. Interestingly, not included in the Constitution are the words used by perhaps all presidents: So help me God. I say perhaps because George Washington may not have used those words. He set the standard for future presidents in many matters. Even though he was a general, he wore civilian clothes. He took the oath on a Bible, and for a long time it was believed he said so help me God. That, however, is not so clear any more, as Professor Amar observes.
AMAR: In my last book in 2005, I actually suggested that he did. I now think that I goofed.
TOTENBERG: That's because the source for all the stories about Washington saying so help me God was a biographer who claimed to have attended the inauguration at age six and heard Washington say those words. But none of the very detailed contemporaneous accounts of the inauguration mentioned the first president adding so help me God to the oath, and the writer who popularized the notion decades later, Washington Irving, was a famous fabulist. He was famous for making things up.
President Obama's first oath-taking ran into a snafu over pauses. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote out the oath as he planned to administer it, marking the places where he planned to pause for Obama to repeat the words. He had the card emailed to the designated congressional staffer handling these matters. But as Jeffrey Toobin reports in his book, "The Oath," the card never made it to Obama's people. And at the ceremony, things quickly went awry, with Obama interrupting where he thought the first pause would be, and the chief justice, who had memorized the oath and not brought a copy with him, becoming flustered, and saying the words in the wrong order. The ensuing blogosphere furor suggesting that Obama was not president provoked the White House counsel, Gregory Craig, to call Roberts two days later and ask him to administer the oath a second time in private. And so Chief Justice Roberts, on his way home from work, stopped at the White House to do just that. Gregory Craig:
GREGORY CRAIG: It was re-administered and it was done flawlessly. And there's a videotape of it somewhere.
TOTENBERG: As it turns out, says author Toobin, it was hardly the first time that the oath had been botched. In 1929, when Chief Justice William Howard Taft swore in Herbert Hoover, he substituted a word so that the president promised to preserve, maintain and defend the Constitution, instead of preserve, protect and defend it.
JEFFREY TOOBIN: When that mistake was pointed out to him, he said, oh, before radio, we messed it up even more than that.
TOTENBERG: Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The frigid temperatures in Alaska this time of year are not enough to scare off cyclists in that state. More and more of them are heading to recreational trails and to the office on something called fat bikes. They look like mountain bikes on steroids, with tires wider than most people's arms. From member station KUAC in Fairbanks, Emily Schwing the story.
EMILY SCHWING, BYLINE: Kevin Breitenbach is giving me a lesson in fat biking. He runs the bike shop at Beaver Sports in Alaska's second largest city. We make our way down a trail that winds through a forest as wet, quarter-sized snowflakes drop from the sky.
KEVIN BREITENBACH: Do we agree on eight, eight degrees?
SCHWING: About that.
BREITENBACH: About that, and really gray.
SCHWING: Visibility is low and the snow hides the roughest spots on the trail.
BREITENBACH: Yeah, yeah, you're feeling the trail. A lot of it's like hearing the trail and feeling it and knowing if you're in the middle.
SCHWING: This bike is Breitenbach's primary form of transportation. When he's not commuting to work, he's racing in ultra-distance events.
BREITENBACH: Now, if we were out here on regular mountain bikes, you'd just be all over the place. The bikes are set up to be stable, and so you can go much slower and still maintain your balance.
SCHWING: In the late 1980s, cyclists in Alaska were looking for a good way to tackle snowy trails, so they welded three mountain bike rims together. That allowed for fatter tires that almost float on top of the snow. Today, fat biking isn't quite so do it yourself.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR OPENING)
SCHWING: The market for a bike like this is still small, but it's the fastest growing segment of the cycling industry. At Goldstream Sports, just north of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, owner Joel Buth specializes in cross country skis and road bikes. But four years ago, he added fat bikes to his winter inventory.
JOEL BUTH: The bikes are typically a three thousand dollar sale versus a ski package which is much less. So, there's more customers in the ski, but the bike market is growing rapidly.
SCHWING: Three thousand dollars isn't just for the bike. It includes all the other gear as well - things like extra tire tubes, shoes and lots of winter clothing. It's the fat bike clientele that surprises Buth most.
BUTH: Mostly what I see is the backcountry enthusiast and older couples too that want to get out and get exercise in the winter and don't want to mess around with skis and they just like to bike.
(SOUNDBITE OF SNOW CRUNCHING)
SCHWING: Yeah, that's a little tricky. Back on the trail with Kevin Breitenbach, I'm still trying to feel my way through the falling snow. This is fun.
BREITENBACH: Hell yeah, it's fun. It's more fun than skiing.
SCHWING: And for Breitenbach, fat biking is even fun when temperatures hit fifty degrees below zero. For NPR News, I'm Emily Schwing in Fairbanks.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: This is NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. President Obama is pushing ahead with sweeping changes to the nation's gun laws. He wants to ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, improve background checks for people who buy guns and tighten up school security. The president unveiled his proposals six weeks after the fatal shootings in Newtown, Connecticut.
But it wasn't fast enough for some. Earlier this month, local municipal leaders in Connecticut proposed their own tougher gun control laws. And last week, before the president's announcement, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the toughest gun control laws in the nation. That includes a major expansion of the state's assault weapons ban. It also outlawed a type of assault rifle made just over an hour's drive from Albany, the state capital. Ryan Delaney of member station WRVO visited that town and he found that many people there feel betrayed.
RYAN DELANEY, BYLINE: It's not hard to be across the street, or at least around the corner, from the Remington Arms factory in Ilion. This town of 8,000 people along the Erie Canal was built around the complex of brick buildings, which began turning out rifles almost 200 years ago. The factory even has its own museum, which draws charter busses full of visitors.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: There's some napkins and ketchup on the table. Do we need anything else here at the moment, folks?
DELANEY: A block away, it's lunchtime at Sorrento's Pizzeria. A few of the 1,200 Remington workers trickle in and out. Owner Ignazio Magro used to keep that clock. When he came to upstate New York from Italy in 1973, not being able to speak English, he got a job at the plant. He was laid off a decade later, but used his saved wages to open the restaurant.
IGNAZIO MAGRO: Everybody around this area, if it wasn't for Remington Arms, would be in trouble. You know, I mean, everybody, lunch time, 12 o'clock, they're coming over here to get a slice of pizza, whatever they needed.
DELANEY: Now, those workers are worried about their jobs. Remington makes several types of rifles, including the style used in the Newtown shooting. In response, New York on Tuesday banned the gun, the Bushmaster AR-15, from being sold in the state. The laws were pushed through the legislature quickly and there's a feeling here no one bothered to ask Remington or this town their opinion. Frank "Rusty" Brown, and a few dozen other Remington workers, traveled to the Capitol Monday to try and make their voices heard.
FRANK BROWN: I'm one of three generations of my family that worked there. My parents worked there. I work there. My daughter works there. We've been doing this for many years. We have good-paying union jobs at Remington. That company treats us well.
DELANEY: And in the past, New York has treated Remington's owner well. Since 2009, its economic development agency has given the gun maker over five million dollars to move jobs to Ilion from factories in other states. John Scarano, the director of the county's chamber of commerce, is worried the state won't step up if Remington threatens to leave.
JOHN SCARANO: Probably right now, nobody wants to touch it.
DELANEY: He says Remington has always been good to the community.
SCARANO: We're not only hurt by the possibility of the loss of jobs, but we're hurt because our friend could be hurt. Our friend being Remington Arms.
DELANEY: The company sponsors little league.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHATTER)
DELANEY: And children in Ilion go to Remington Elementary School. That's where David Palmer was picking up his grandkids. He recognizes how important the gun industry is for this part of the state.
DAVID PALMER: This whole valley is run by arms. Most of your stores and everybody here, restaurants, everything is contingent on that plant.
DELANEY: But with young grandkids, he also wants to see some of Remington's products off the shelves.
PALMER: I don't believe in assault rifles. There's no need for it. No need for it in our department stores. I can see - I used to be a hunter, when I was younger. I can see having regular hunting rifles for people that like to hunt. But there's no need for assault rifles here.
DELANEY: Palmer worries there will be layoffs, but Rusty Brown, the Remington employee, says they haven't heard anything from Remington's owner. The company didn't return requests for an interview with NPR. Village deputy mayor Beth Neale has been fielding calls - and knocks on her door - from residents concerned about the future. She says Ilion is a community that bands together in tough times, like when a bus maker left last summer. But Remington leaving could be one blow it can't recover from.
MAYOR BETH NEALE: We're always fired up, we're always ready, you know, anyone needs help. We always do that here and that's how you survive. That's how we've survived some of the losses we've had. I don't know if losing Remington would be something that would be that easily remedied. I really don't.
DELANEY: Neale says Ilion and Remington have a long tradition of tradition. And she hopes Remington will always be a part of that. For NPR News, I'm Ryan Delaney.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
As President Barack Obama takes the oath of office today - privately - and tomorrow in public, he inherits plenty of issues on all fronts, domestic and foreign. Joining us now to look at the agenda for the next term, NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley. Hey, Scott.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Good to be with you.
MARTIN: Ari Shapiro also covers the White House. He's here in the studio. Hi, Ari.
ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: Hi, Rachel.
MARTIN: And we're also joined by State Department correspondent Michele Kelemen, who's also here. Hey, Michele.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Hello.
MARTIN: Ari, let's start with you. President Obama no longer has to worry about re-election. He's free to pursue whatever agenda he pleases. Are we seeing that already?
SHAPIRO: Well, he has said that he is going to put all the weight of his office behind guns. Part of that may be freedom to pursue the agenda he pleases. Part of it may be that the political moment is very different post-Newtown than pre-Newtown. We've seen in all kinds of polls that the American people support gun control measures now in far greater numbers than they did before. One of the most interesting develops on how he will pursue this is that OFA, which used to be Organizing for America, his campaign infrastructure, has reemerged as Organization for Action, this outside group that can raise money and pursue activistic goals presumably to advance President Obama's agenda. It's going to be led by Jim Messina, who ran his campaign. And so, already, just right out of the gate on the issue of gun control, we're seeing a lot of activity to try to energize those grassroots supporters to get them to help advance the gun control agenda as they advanced his campaign goals.
MARTIN: What about immigration reform? I mean, in his first term, this is something that President Obama tried and failed. Is this still something that he is committed to?
SHAPIRO: Yes. And the big change on immigration reform seems to be that Republicans are coming around to it. We saw Marco Rubio recently endorse what looks very similar to President Obama's plan. And Paul Ryan, a prominent House Republican, who was a vice presidential nominee, endorsed the Rubio plan. I think many people believe this is something that actually could get done in the second term in a bipartisan way, even though it was so, so difficult to accomplish in the first term.
MARTIN: I want to turn now to Scott Horsley. Scott, obviously, the economy is front and center in the president's agenda this next term. Congressional Republicans are saying before he does anything else, before he tackles any of the problems and challenges Ari just outlined, he has to deal with the budget deficit. Is that a problem for the president?
HORSLEY: We don't - dealing with the deficit isn't necessarily a problem for the president, but his goal is to do so in a way that doesn't fundamentally change the social safety net and doesn't drain too much money out of the economy in the short run. We've already seen a bit of a hit with the end of the payroll tax cut. But ideally, he'd like to maybe see some additional money in the short run spent on things like public works projects. And the good news - if you can call it that - is that we've begun to hear from congressional Republicans that they're not going to insist on a knockdown drag-out fight over the debt ceiling - at least a temporary extension of the debt ceiling. The problem for the president is if he has to keep going back to the debt ceiling every three months or so, it's going to make it that much harder to turn to gun control or immigration or anything else.
MARTIN: But the president has said that dealing with the deficit, Scott, is not as big a problem as some have made it out to be. Has there been progress?
HORSLEY: Yeah, there has been progress. You know, between the spending cuts that were enacted in 2011, the tax increases that took effect at the beginning of this year. The president says we're now within one and a half trillion dollars of bringing the deficit into a manageable range. Now, that's still a lot of money. But back in December, when the president was negotiating over a big deal with House Speaker John Boehner, he was putting $800 billion in spending cuts on the table. If you could marry that up with tax revenue, at least you can actually see how you could get to that one and a half trillion dollar figure. That still doesn't resolve the long-term problem with the deficit, which is really driven by rising health care costs. Ultimately, we're going to have to find a way to get control over those.
MARTIN: Let's turn to foreign policy. Michele Kelemen, we often see second-term presidents focusing on foreign policy to secure parts of their legacy. Obviously, Syria is something that is in the headlines right now. Any signs that this administration is going to take a stronger position?
KELEMEN: I mean, you see 60,000 people dead, humanitarian crisis, very little hope of a diplomatic breakthrough. And the real concern in Washington is that if or when Bashar al-Assad's government falls, you have a failed state in the Middle East. There's clearly a lot of discussion about what else the U.S. can do. So far, the U.S. has helped with humanitarian aid. It's helped with non-lethal aid to the opposition, but there's a lot of pressure building for this administration to do more to support opposition, perhaps with arms. Because, as one former State Department official put it, Syria's future is going to be determined by guys with guns.
MARTIN: There's clearly a lot of pressure on President Obama to also do something about Iran. Is this the year that something actually changes in the relationship between the U.S. and Iran?
KELEMEN: Well, the administration's worked hard with countries around the world to tighten sanctions, to pressure Iran to get back to negotiations on its suspect nuclear program. President Obama has cautioned against the loose talk of war and says there's time for diplomacy. But, you know, there's a lot of pressure building as Iran continues to build up its stockpile of enriched uranium. So, a lot of people say this is the year that the U.S. has to take some action. The talks have focused on these really incremental steps, confidence-building steps that have really gone nowhere. So, a lot of people are saying this is a time for a much bolder diplomatic initiative with Iran.
MARTIN: We'll see if that happens. NPR's Michele Kelemen, Scott Horsley and Ari Shapiro. Thanks to all of you.
SHAPIRO: You're welcome.
HORSLEY: Thanks, Rachel.
KELEMEN: Thank you.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
After the Newtown shootings, some suggested that schools look to local volunteers to beef up security. One national organization has been doing that for years. It's called Watch D.O.G.S., and it organizes fathers to volunteer in their children's schools. After Sandy Hook, the group's strategy didn't changed. Some Watchdogs say they've just become even more vigilant. NPR's Sam Sanders has this report.
SAM SANDERS, BYLINE: Like school principals all over the country, Michelle Wise sprung into action after Sandy Hook.
MICHELLE WISE: We did an immediate staff meeting the following Monday to review lockdown procedures and talk about changes and mandate that all our doors are locked. Every classroom.
SANDERS: Wise also asked police to increase patrols on her campus. But Wise's school, Mayflower Elementary in Monrovia, California, has another force on the beat - dads, like Steven Cheng.
STEVEN CHENG: Hello, how we doing? Good morning.
SANDERS: On a chilly Southern California morning, Cheng is watching the parking lot, greeting cars as parents drop off their kids.
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SANDERS: Steven Cheng is a member of Watch D.O.G.S. The dogs stands for Dads of Great Students. Watch D.O.G.S. organizes fathers and father figures to help out in their kid's schools. During his shifts, Cheng is there, observing everything - mingling with the staff in the front office, walking the perimeter of campus, even standing watch over the morning school assembly.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Ready, begin.
ASSEMBLY: I'm a member of the Mayflower community. I will be (unintelligible) and cooperative...
SANDERS: And the singing of the Mayflower school song.
ASSEMBLY: (Singing) We are the Mariners, we think we're awesome, we think we're mighty fine. We're gonna really shine. We get our schoolwork done, learning is...
CHENG: You know, most times, nothing happens, and that's the way we like it. Anything unusual, you know, that's what we're looking for.
SANDERS: This is Cheng's first year as a Watch D.O.G. His daughter Maya just started kindergarten at the school. And after Sandy Hook, he stepped up his involvement.
CHENG: For example, I'm here usually two hours a day on Wednesdays. I was here, let's say, nine, ten, six hours for four days.
SANDERS: Watch D.O.G.S. was founded after another school shooting, one in Jonesboro, Arkansas, that killed five in 1998. Now, more than 2,500 schools are active in the program in 42 states. And for a long time, they went quietly about their work - until Sandy Hook. After the shooting, the NRA mentioned the group during a press conference advocating armed guards in all schools. Then the phones started ringing, with people asking if Watch D.O.G.S. themselves might one day carry guns.
ERIC SNOW: When I'm asked the question on whether or not we would want our Watch D.O.G. volunteers to be armed guards, the answer is absolutely not.
SANDERS: Eric Snow is the executive director of Watch D.O.G.S. He says their job is just to be there. In fact, he can't point to any instance where Watch D.O.G.S.'s volunteers have been involved in an actual physical altercation. And that's the way it should be, according to Ann Harkins. She's CEO of the National Crime Prevention Council, the folks behind McGruff the Crime Dog. She says most of what parents can do to protect schools isn't like the movies. It involves planning, not shootouts or epic takedowns of bad guys.
ANN HARKINS: It's not about romance or drama. It's about protecting our kids.
SANDERS: And at Mayflower Elementary, the Watch D.O.G.S. are doing just that, even if the work is a bit mundane. Their big project right now? Raising money to make the school's fence more secure. Whatever he's asked to do, Steven Cheng says he'll be there. And he thinks that will be enough.
CHENG: You know, if I was a guy with bad intentions, if I just saw one father at the school that I was planning to visit and maybe do bad things, I would think twice.
SANDERS: Sam Sanders, NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Remember that story about the missing governor of South Carolina? After being gone for several days, Governor Sanford tried to explain his absence.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Saying he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail. But one news report claims Sanford's state vehicle, which was also reported missing, was tracked down to Columbia Metro Airport. Seen inside: running and camping gear.
MARTIN: It turns out the governor had not been hiking at all. As he admitted in a press conference, he had actually flown to South America.
MARK SANFORD: So the bottom line is this: I've been unfaithful to my wife. I developed a relationship with a - what started as a dear, dear friend from Argentina.
MARTIN: Well, that friendship turned into much more. In fact, Sanford is now divorced from his wife and engaged to the woman he had an affair with. Mark Sanford finished out his term as governor in disgrace. But now, after a few years out of the public eye, he has returned to political life and he's running for Congress. And then there's Lance Armstrong. Last week, he finally admitted to using banned substances in his professional cycling career and repeatedly lying about it for years.
LANCE ARMSTRONG: Some people are gone forever, but I'll spend the rest of my life trying to earn back trust and apologize to people for the rest of my life.
MARTIN: That was Lance Armstrong in an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
JUDY SMITH: You have to say that you're sorry and you have to mean it.
MARTIN: That is Judy Smith. She's the CEO of crisis management firm Smith and Company. When reputations is on the brink of ruin, she is the one who gets the phone call. Smith's career also inspired the ABC drama appropriately named "Scandal." We talked with her about the art and science of remaking a public persona. I started off by asking her how Mark Sanford knew that the time was right for a comeback.
SMITH: Well, I think you honestly don't know until you get out there and test the water. And I think what's been refreshing about him thus far is he's come out and addressed the situation head-on. He talked about he made a mistake, that he hopes that people can really look past that. I also think that the crisis that he was involved in is one that the American public is used to seeing at this point, just in terms of elected officials and, you know, extramarital affairs.
MARTIN: We, obviously, have to talk about the other major scandal of the week.
SMITH: Oh my gosh, yes.
MARTIN: Which has had a much broader impact really. This is, of course, Lance Armstrong, his late admission of drug use. So, Judy, is it too late for him to reframe his image?
SMITH: Well, I think it's going to depend on what he ultimately wants to do. Certainly, I think, you know, his objective coming out was to, you know, apologize for his behavior. And the feedback, I think, that's coming across that most people feel that the apology was not authentic.
MARTIN: And that's important.
SMITH: Yeah. And it's particularly troubling, I think, in light of the fact that he defended himself in that area just so persistently and consistently.
MARTIN: I know he's not paying you, but what advice would you give him at this point?
SMITH: Well, I think what he needs not to be doing is focusing on his sports career. You know, there have been some reports that he thinks that he's going to, you know, come back and that when the ban is off try to lift the ban. So, I wouldn't be focusing on that. I would certainly be focusing on trying to work on myself personally. You know, the American public is very forgiving. You have to say that you're sorry and you have to mean it.
MARTIN: You said that Americans are by nature forgiving people. Do you think it's actually to a public person's advantage in some way to be a flawed person who goes through some kind of process and is contrite and asks for forgiveness and is redeemed? Do people root that narrative, for that story?
SMITH: They do. But, you know, it has to be genuine. Absolutely they do. Because I think you and I know, and all of your listeners, we are all flawed people. We all have made mistakes and wish there were things that we would have done differently. So, no one is immune from that. The issue is whether or not people believe that Lance is in that place where he is truly sorry for what he's done.
MARTIN: Judy Smith is the president and CEO of Smith and Company, and she's the author of the book "Good Self, Bad Self." Thanks so much, Judy.
SMITH: Thank you so much, Rachel, for having me. Have a great weekend.
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MARTIN: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
For decades, people in need of advice, comfort and better manners wrote letters addressed to Dear Abby. What they received was always pithy, sympathetic and often laugh out loud funny. For example: Dear Abby, I know boys will be boys, but my boy is 73 and he's still chasing women. Any suggestions? Annie. The reply: Dear Annie, Don't worry. My dog has been chasing cars for years, but if he ever caught one, he wouldn't know what to do with it. The woman who held that sharp pen was known as Abigail Van Buren, but her real name was Pauline Phillips. She died this past week at the age of 94. Amy Dickinson writes the advice column Ask Amy and is one of many columnists who have followed in the years since Dear Abby began dishing out advice. Amy Dickinson joins me now. Thanks for being here.
AMY DICKINSON: Thank you.
MARTIN: So, what was it, Amy, about Dear Abby that spoke to people, do you think?
DICKINSON: Well, you know, I love the phrase dishing out advice because there's a little bit of dish to it. Dear Abby was a real original. You know, she started writing her column in the 1950s when, you know, at least the popular notion of what America was like was that people maintained a facade that all was well. And one of the things I think Dear Abby and Ann Landers both did was to open us up to the idea that everybody has problems.
MARTIN: She was a sympathetic ear for many people but she also did have this tone of authority. She was giving you advice and it came from a place of knowing. What gave her that authority?
DICKINSON: She's part of a genre honestly of advice columnists - and I'm one of those. We are untrained amateurs really. She studied psychology in college but she wasn't a psychologist. But she was like the smartest gal you knew and someone who you know will tell you the truth. I always say friends tell each other the truth. And Dear Abby really embodied that.
MARTIN: You saw her as a competitor I imagine, but I imagine you also looked to her as someone who paved the way. What did you learn from her?
DICKINSON: Well, she really created this amazingly, I think, American juggernaut, honestly, of confessional columns. And I admired how she got people to open up. And I, you know, frankly I love her writing style, I love her wit. And so Dear Abby was the grandmother of all of that. And it's going very, very strong still.
MARTIN: That's Amy Dickinson. She writes the Ask Amy column for the Chicago Tribune and syndicated papers all around the country. Amy, thanks so much for talking with us.
DICKINSON: Thank you, Rachel.
MARTIN: This is NPR News.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
After 60 years locked in a darkened vault, a controversial portrait of a young Queen Elizabeth finally saw the light of day last week. John Napper painted the queen in 1952 and gave her a really long neck. Apparently, the portrait was supposed to be hung really high up so Elizabeth's neck would appear normal when viewed from below. But the painting was displayed too low; the Queen looked too long-necked, so it was quickly whisked away from view.
Napper himself, who died in 2001, said of his work, it is, quote "a beautiful painting of a queen, but not this queen."
The unveiling comes on the heels of another royal portrait kerfuffle, a widely panned new rendering of the Duchess of Cambridge. The Guardian's art critic, Adrian Searle, said this, quote, "The portrait is as soundless and smooth as an undertaker's makeover."
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Israelis are going to the polls this week in national elections. And yes, the big issues that are always part of Israeli politics are still there: the conflict with the Palestinians, the threat from Iran. But it's not just security that's on the minds of voters in Israel, especially young people. Last week in Tel Aviv, a bunch of 20-something Israelis gathered in a warehouse on the city's waterfront to talk politics.
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UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Grazie, red wine here.
MARTIN: For 20 shekels, less than six bucks, they got wine in plastic cups and two hours of debate between candidates in Tuesday's parliamentary elections. Those elections will decide whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will win another term in office.
NPR's Larry Abramson was there and he joins us now from Jerusalem. Hi, Larry.
LARRY ABRAMSON, BYLINE: Hey, Rachel.
MARTIN: So, what did you hear from these young voters? What is the main motivating issue for them in this election?
ABRAMSON: Well, of course, you can't ignore the issue of the peace talks with the Palestinians that are not going on right now. But the first issue is really money. It's very expensive here. You're facing U.S. prices with much lower incomes. Now, this crowd at this event was made up of a lot of new arrivals, like Rudo Rubin, who's a new citizen. He just came from France.
RUDO RUBIN: The cost of living is very high and if you don't have a good job, it's very expensive to have a good living here.
MARTIN: If these voters are concerned about the economy, who gets their vote?
ABRAMSON: It's not entirely clear. You know, it could push you to the left, for more social spending on housing, for example. Or it could push you to the right for more free market policies like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has represented.
Rudo Rubin says he'd like to vote left but there are a whole bunch of different center and left parties he could choose from. Here's some more of what he had to say.
RUBIN: It's a bit difficult, I don't see the differences between each of the leaders. On the left, they are very divided and so I don't know what my vote would be the best.
ABRAMSON: Now you see the problem? Is that left wing parties have not been able to present a united front against the prime minister, and so the votes against him could be scattered all over a bunch of different parties.
MARTIN: And it must be complicate. I mean aren't there something like 12 parties expected to win seats in the Israeli parliament?
ABRAMSON: Exactly. Yeah, there are a lot of new parties and some of them are old parties with new leaders, and nobody really knows what their voting record is. They don't really have platform on the Web that you can look up. That's why there are a bunch of people like 24-year-old Nikki Avershol.
NIKKI AVERSHOL: I'm really undecided, which is why these events are really important, to hear not only from not only the heads of the parties, but a lot of different people within certain slates.
ABRAMSON: You know, there may be as many as one out of six people who are undecided. And their choices could really make a big difference in the election.
MARTIN: But, Larry, Benjamin Netanyahu is still poised to win this election, right?
ABRAMSON: Most likely, yes. And one big reason is that if security is your top concern, it's clear what you do: you vote on the right for Netanyahu, who many Israelis still trust when it comes to security. Or you can even go further right for Naftali Bennett. He has said that he does not support a state for the Palestinians.
I spoke with another young person about this issue that I met at another election event, this one in Jerusalem. His name is Ari Abromowitz.
ARI ABROMOWITZ: I think it's just a very simple Jewish pride, something that transcends the differences between us, whether you're orthodox or secular, whatever your background or identification is. If you're just proud to be a Jew, and you believe the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, then the Bayit Yehudi is your home.
ABRAMSON: That's the name of the right wing party that Naftali Bennett represents. And so, that's one way to look at things here; that those who vote based on the security issue have a clear choice, they vote for the right. And those who cite economic issues as the most important thing for them, they're just not sure what they should do.
MARTIN: Thanks so much, Larry. NPR's Larry Abramson in Jerusalem.
ABRAMSON: Thank you.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The way that Israelis vote and the policies that motivate those decisions will be watched closely from this country as well.
For more on what this election and events in the Middle East mean for the United States, I'm joined by Aaron David Miller. He's a vice president and distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. He's also a former Middle East negotiator. He joins us now.
Mr. Miller, thanks so much for being with us.
AARON DAVID MILLER: A pleasure, Rachel.
MARTIN: Can you tell us in very simple terms why do these elections matter from an American perspective?
MILLER: Well, they matter because the State of Israel is a very close ally of the United States. What it does it does not do on issues that range from the Arab Spring in winter to the question of Iran's determination to acquire a nuclear weapons capacity, to the Israeli-Palestinian issue matters greatly. So how an Israeli prime minister comports himself - or herself - what he does, what he doesn't do, what kind of a relationship he has with an American president or not. And in this case, Obama and Netanyahu have a very dysfunctional relationship with one another; matters a lot.
MARTIN: What is the root of that dysfunction?
MILLER: I think its many things. In fact, curiously it's the most dysfunctional relationship between an American president and an Israeli prime minister, I think, that we've ever had. Begin and Carter cooperated even though they disagreed on many issues. Shamir and Bush 41 disagreed on many things but they had to find a way to move forward together.
This prime minister and the president have not yet found that. And I think part of it is perception. I think that the prime minister sees the president as someone who is not understanding enough of what it's like to be a tiny country with a dark past, living in a dangerous neighborhood on the knife's edge. I think President Obama sees an Israeli prime minister who is not interested in a reciprocal rule of relationship; who pursues his own ideological interest without much respect for the interest of the United States.
So I think this sort of lack of chemistry, an inability to find a level of confidence and trust, coincides with policy differences.
MARTIN: Jeffrey Goldberg, whose the Middle East expert and it a journalist with The Atlantic, wrote a piece this past week. And he quoted President Obama as having said privately that Israel doesn't know what its own best interests are. That essentially Netanyahu is making choices like expanding settlements that are just further isolating Israel. And that in turn is jeopardizing its survival. That's Goldberg's characterization of the presence remarks when you make of that notion, that Israel is, in fact, digging itself into a hole?
MILLER: Well, look. Israel has legitimate security interests. And I would argue that there are times and on certain issues that the Israelis are simply not being smart. When you're a small country - even if you are a nuclear power, and even if you have strong allies like the United States - you have to be much more aware of how your actions influence and shape the attitudes not only of the neighborhood in which you live, but your key ally.
And I think there is a sense, which is right, that Israeli actions take American policy and interests for granted. And that sense of disrespect is I think what the president has identified. And I think it's going to continue to be a problem until these two guys figure out how to find a way to forge a common policy that works and that benefits both of them. That will, in part, mitigate an arc of a relationship that, frankly, is headed south.
MARTIN: Aaron David Miller, he is a vice president and distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.
Thanks so much for talking with us.
MILLER: It's a pleasure, Rachel.
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MILLER: You're listening to NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
There are a lot of different sentiments evoked during a presidential inauguration: love of country, a sense of national unity hope and possibility. There is also a religious element in the inauguration of an American president, from the swearing in to the closing prayer.
Stephen Prothero is a professor of American Religion at Boston University. He's also the author of the book "The American Bible." He joins us to talk more about how the role of religion in this important ceremony has changed over the years.
Stephen, thanks so much for speaking with us.
STEPHEN PROTHERO: Thanks for having me.
MARTIN: So traditionally there are two prayers that are part of the inauguration ceremony, the opening prayer and the benediction. A benediction is really specific. As I understand it, it's really the closing part to a church service. What is its place in this particular ceremony?
PROTHERO: It's used in a number of ways. One is to give something of the power of God or something of the aura of religion to this president, who's typically, you know, prayed over. But there's also a kind of worship of the nation going on, and so typically God is asked to bless the nation, to remember that Americans are God's chosen people or this is one nation under God. This also sometimes a signing-off in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost - to give a nod to the Christian Trinity.
MARTIN: There have been a couple of controversies in 2009, the inauguration - the first inauguration of President Obama. The benediction was offered by Reverend Joseph Lowery who made pretty bold statements at the end of this message about race.
PROTHERO: That was a moment that was a little political, right? When he had this poetic, almost hip-hopish reference to people who are brown and yellow and red and white, in the hopes that in the future the white men will embrace what is right. There's been controversies as well about Rick Warren, that same year who had said that homosexuality was a sin.
That came up again this year with the Reverend Louie Giglio of Atlanta, who was invited and then decided not to come when it came out that he, too, had spoken about homosexuality as a sin. So there are political controversies that come up, for sure.
MARTIN: The United States is obviously becoming a more religiously diverse place. Has that been reflected in the inaugural ceremonies at all?
PROTHERO: It has been. As I was thinking about what we might talk about today, I went back and looked at inaugural benedictions in the vocations back to FDR. And there used to be in some ways more religious diversity. Really starting in the '40s and '50s, there was an effort to kind of cover the basis at least with Protestants, Catholics and Jews. So there was a sense of the plurality of Judeo-Christian America, and sometimes the Greek Orthodox being included in the case of John F. Kennedy.
It seems in recent years the effort is to get a kind of diversity that has more to do with ethnicity and with race, rather than with religion, to, you know, have African-Americans. And to have, in the case of Lewis Leon, bring in Hispanics. And this year, as well, Mrs. Myrlie Evers Williams is going to be the first woman, the wife of the slain civil rights leader, Medgar Evers, who is going to give a prayer. So...
MARTIN: She's also the first, as I understand it, she's also the first person who's not a member of the clergy to give a prayer.
PROTHERO: Yes, her title as Mrs. rather than reverend or reverend doctor something like that. So I think there's been a shift. But noticeably, we're not talking about Hindus or Buddhists or Sikhs or Confucians giving prayers. We're really still in the Judeo-Christian umbrella, for the most part.
MARTIN: And, of course, the president of the United States is still sworn in with the Bible. This year, the president will use three Bibles during the inauguration ceremonies. The First Lady Michele Obama's family Bible will be used during a private ceremony. And two historic Bibles will be used during the public ceremony that takes place Monday. What more do we know about these Bibles?
PROTHERO: Well, it's interesting, this sort of stuffing of symbolism into this already highly symbolic event. So now, one Bible isn't enough. You've got to have these multiple Bibles that I guess say different things. In the public ceremony, President Obama will be swearing in on the traveling Bible of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Then he'll also be using the Bible that President Lincoln used for his first inaugural swearing in and 1861.
So he's trying to lay claim, I think, to this, you know, first black president, civil rights legacy. But I think there's also an effort to position himself inside a broader and, I think, in some ways equally interesting tradition that goes back to the Puritans of, yes, seeing God has involved in the American experiment. And yet being reluctant to say, you know, God is on our side in this particular moment.
And seeing in a way religion as a producer more of questions than of answers. I think of a classic line here is Abraham Lincoln at his second inaugural, when he's looking across the country and seeing this horrible Civil War in 1865, and saying, you know, both sides are reading the same Bible and praying to the same God. And yet, the prayers of both couldn't be answered. And he sort of says what's going on?
(LAUGHTER)
PROTHERO: And he says I don't really know. The Almighty as his own purposes. And I think that's President Obama's theological home ground, as well.
MARTIN: Stephen Prothero is a professor of American Religion at Boston University. His latest book is called "The American Bible."
Stephen, thanks so much for talking with us.
PROTHERO: Thanks for having me.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Major League Baseball lost a pair of Hall of Famers this past week. Former Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver and St. Louis Cardinal star Stan Musial.
NPR's Mike Pesca is here to remember the two greats. Hey, Mike.
MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: Hello.
MARTIN: Let's start with Stan "The Man". I mean, he was named this for a reason apparently.
PESCA: He was...
(LAUGHTER)
PESCA: He was, in fact, male.
(LAUGHTER)
PESCA: He was great. He was - if you see a list of the greatest baseball players of all time and Musial isn't in the top 10, throw away the list. Because I don't want to just lay a bunch of statistics on you but, God, his statistics are so good. He...
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: Give me a couple.
PESCA: Yeah. He's fourth all time in hits. He made 24 All Star games, he won three World Series. And such a long career. In 1942, as a 21-year-old, he hit .315. In 1962, as a 41-year-old, he hit .330. He clipped his eyebrows so he could see the ball better. His three MVP awards included four second-place finishes. And he finished to guys like Hank Aaron and Roy Campanella and Jackie Robinson. And there was one year - I think his best year was 1943 - if he had just hit one more - I'm sorry, 1948 - if he had just hit one more home run, he would have led the league in doubles, triples, homers, RBIs and batting average. Amazing, amazing player.
MARTIN: I mean, clearly, he had skills. He was also though kind of a real gentleman. I mean, as I understand that Willie Mays once in a statement from the Hall of Fame: I never heard anybody say a bad word about him ever.
PESCA: Well, you know, Willie Mays didn't try to write a biography of him, but George Vecsey did. In fact, that whole - George Vecsey, the New York Times sportswriter, said there's no biography of Stan Musial. That was his motivation. So, he went to write a biography of him, and he found one instance of him being churlish to anyone, and that came from a Cubs fan. So, you have to wonder about that, saying about a member of the St. Louis Cardinals. You know, we tend to elevate the guys and call them gentlemanly guys, like Joe DiMaggio, and if you do a deep read into their lives it doesn't quite match the legend. But with Musial it does. And you say, you know, the thing is, and the central paradox of Musial, is that everyone says he's one of the five all-time great hitters, and then everyone in their next breath will say and he was underrated. And I think that speaks to the cultural dominance of the coasts. In fact, the name Stan "The Man" came from not the St. Louis Cardinal fans but from the Brooklyn Dodger fans. And a Cardinal writer overheard one of them saying, oh, here comes that man or here comes the man, and Stan "The Man" was born. But because he played in St. Louis and was unassuming, he didn't get maybe the acclaim of Ted Williams or Joe DiMaggio. But he deserves it.
MARTIN: We also have to talk about Earl Weaver. Arguably, maybe a testier guy.
(LAUGHTER)
PESCA: Arguably. Listen to you hiding behind these weasel words. You know, this was another interesting example of personality. Because when people think of Earl Weaver, they think of this five-foot-seven - maybe - dude, you know, kicking dirt on the umpire and going crazy and tearing up a rule book in front of the umpire. But he was something of a baseball savant. And there's been this whole revolution in baseball that you get to summarize or boil down to money ball. But the things that money ball says, things like don't spend your outs on stealing or bunting, hit home runs, pitching, defense - this was all stuff that Earl Weaver internalized. He just kind of felt it. You could say that in the last 50 years, you could make the case that Earl Weaver was one of the best or the best manager who's managed in the last 50 years.
MARTIN: OK. You have a curveball this week?
PESCA: I do, because we've been talking about Weaver's personality and Musial's personality. You know, the personalities of athletes and what they mean and how we build them up has been in the news with Lance Armstrong and Manti Te'o. And we've been following the story of the Notre Dame linebacker who apparently was hoaxed into believing he had a girlfriend who lived on the Internet and then she died. He took inspiration. But what do we take away from this, rather than reveling in a crazy story of the Internet and catfishing, and finding out there's this new verb called catfishing. Let me read this quote. It's from Tommy Crags - he's the editor of Deadspin, which broke the story. And he said, "I understand why a lot of people just repeated the story that Manti Te'o had a girlfriend." He says, "I have less sympathy for the folks who crafted those painstaking love story and cleat feature stories about Manti and his dead girlfriend. They were dumb infantilizing stories to begin with. And they were executed poorly and sloppily." And if there's any lesson to be drawn from this it's that this kind of simpering - I'll use the word dreck - simpering dreck should be eliminated from the sports pages entirely. And I think that we should do not only to check our facts, but check, as sportswriters, check the myths, check the myths we're creating and check them against the reality of these human beings who embody these myths.
MARTIN: Words to live by. NPR's Mike Pesca. Thanks so much.
PESCA: You're welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: And you're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Chloe's suitor might find use for a new app from OKCupid. The dating site has played matchmaker in the past by helping singles connect with romantic possibilities who live in their neighborhood and by organizing events where members can get together. Now, OKCupid has launched something called Crazy Blind Date, and it skips all the predate online banter and gets right to meet-up. After creating a simple profile, users indicate what nights they might be free. The app then searches for other singles also available at that time and matches them up. Bada-bing, bada-boom, you're on a date. OKCupid's Sam Yagan told the New York Times, quote, "People want instant gratification. It's the trajectory of the industry. But make sure you've got your friend on standby for that emergency phone call - in case you need to end the date - just as quickly as it started."
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
A four-day hostage crisis at an Algerian oil and gas facility in the Sahara desert came to a violent end yesterday. Algerian security forces stormed the complex, killing scores of Islamist militants. At least 23 hostages died during the siege; many of them foreigners, and officials say the toll is likely to rise.
NPR's Eleanor Beardsley has our report.
(SOUNDBITE OF A NEWS CLIP AND GUNFIRE)
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: French television news played footage of the final siege at the plant, taken from an Algerian hostage's cell phone. Throughout the crisis, the Algerian army moved rapidly and forcefully. It kept a tight lid on information, not even informing nations whose citizens were being held hostage that an assault was underway. Harrowing accounts of the drama were told by hostages as they made their way out. Foreigners were bound and forced to wear explosive necklaces. Algerians were let go, says this worker, speaking to French television.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: They told us, we haven't come for you. You're a Muslim brother, he says. We've come to exterminate the others and to teach America what Islam really is.
MOHKTAR BELMOKHTAR: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: Mohktar Belmokhtar, speaking in this video, is the leader of the militants who attacked the facility. The desert jihadist, who lost an eye training in Afghanistan before he was even 20, has already been sentenced to death in absentia by Algeria for attacks against the government dating back to the '90s. Known as Mr. Marlboro for his illicit cigarette trading, Belmokhtar is typical of the jihadis who move freely in the huge swath of desert between many African countries with porous borders and little state control.
Arab world specialist Gilles Kepel says the Islamists there live as their ancestors did, but with a foot in the modern world.
GILLES KEPEL ARAB WORLD SPECIALIST: They're also on the Internet. They communicate with the cell phones. And they're able to blend the tradition and the post-modernity, if you want. Plus, they spend their time watching videos of al-Qaida and the Syrian jihad, the Libyan jihad on YouTube. And this is this is what molds their imagination.
BEARDSLEY: France has just gone to war against such jihadis who have taken over the north of Mali. French President Francois Hollande said the Algerian hostage drama reinforces the urgency of the Mali intervention. While Britain, the U.S., and Japan expressed concern over the brutality and secrecy of Algeria's handling of the crisis, Hollande gave his full support.
PRESIDENT FRANCOIS HOLLAND: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: Considering there were so many hostages and such coldly determined terrorists, the Algerians handled it in the best way, said Hollande. There could have been no negotiations.
The world's attention is now focused on the threat posed by Islamist militants in the Sahel, a vast desert region that spans the continent. British Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking earlier today.
PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON: This is a stark reminder once again of the threat we face from terrorism the world over. We have had successes in recent years in reducing the threat from some parts of the world, but the threat has grown particularly in North Africa.
BEARDSLEY: Naoufel Brahimi-Elmili is an expert on terrorism with Sciences Po University in Paris.
NAOUFEL BRAHIMI-ELMILI SCIENCE PO UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: When you look at the jihad tour for the last 20 or 30 years, they start in Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Syria.
BEARDSLEY: Now he says another front has opened in the Sahel region of Africa.
For NPR news, I'm Eleanor Beardsley, Paris.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The first Obama Inauguration was memorable for a number of reasons. It was a history-making moment with the swearing in of the first African-American president. The weather was also memorable. Temperatures were several degrees below freezing that day. And then there was Aretha Franklin's astonishing hat: gray felt with a giant rhinestone-studded bow, saucily tilted to the right.
As NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates reports, that hat launched the career of its creator, Luke Song, on the international stage.
KAREN GRIGSBY BATES, BYLINE: In 2009, before Barack Hussein Obama took the oath of office to become the nation's 44th president, Aretha Franklin sailed to the microphone. The rhinestones in the huge bow on her hat sent rainbow sparks into the frigid air as she sang.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY COUNTRY 'TIS OF THEE")
ARETHA FRANKLIN: (Singing) My country ' tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
BATES: Her hat became a sensation, making its creator, 40-year-old Luke Song, instantly famous. The soft-spoken designer was born in Seoul, and is a second-generation hat-maker. He said he thought the hat might give his family's Detroit business some attention.
LUKE SONG: I expected a slight spike in our sales, maybe a couple of interviews. I did not account for the Internet. It was the most craziest time ever.
BATES: Crazy in a good way. Ms. Franklin's hat was so popular, it had its own Facebook page. People created memes putting themselves under the famous oversized bow. Celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres wore their own copies as a fond spoof.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "ELLEN DEGENERES SHOW")
ELLEN DEGENERES: I mean, the next thing you know, we're in US Weekly, Ellen, Aretha: who wore it better? And...
BATES: The hat is actually a specially modified version of something that Luke Song was already selling, and it was made as a backup. Originally, Ms. Franklin had planned to wear fur as a buffer against the icy air. But Song warned her that fur was hard to light and might cast shadows on her face. So they planned an extra hat. In 2009, Ms. Franklin told NPR's Michel Martin about the changes she ordered.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED INTERVIEW)
FRANKLIN: There was too many rhinestones on the bow for the early morning hour. I said, take all of the rhinestones off, but leave just a touch of the stones. Just outline the bow with the stones.
BATES: The hat was instantly in demand. Song's company sold thousands in the Detroit area alone, but orders poured in from around the world. Ms. Franklin's gray felt hat was one-of-a-kind, valued at about $500. But the off-the-rack version in several fabrics sold for under $200, and remains a bestseller to this day. Luke Song says he got scores of orders from women late last year who wanted bow hats for a special occasion.
SONG: A lot of them tell me in the notes that they want to wear it to the Inauguration itself in Washington, D.C.
BATES: Song hopes to see a few of his hats on the Mall today. He'll be watching the live broadcast from Paris, where he's on a business trip, and where they appreciate a fine hat. Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A NATURAL WOMAN")
FRANKLIN: (Singing) 'Cause you make me feel, you make me feel, you make me feel like a natural woman.
MONTAGNE: Aretha Franklin. The headliners for today's swearing-in ceremony should pack a punch, too. Beyonce is performing the national anthem. James Taylor will also be there, singing "America the Beautiful." And taking a crack at "My Country 'Tis of Thee" is the first American Idol: Kelly Clarkson. That's on top of the dozens of pop stars and musicians who will be performing at tonight's Inaugural balls.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
President Obama took the oath for a second term yesterday, on January 20th, as the Constitution requires. The public ceremony takes place today at the Capitol, and we'll have live coverage all day long.
MONTAGNE: We're learning more about the siege at a natural gas plant in the Sahara Desert. Militants in Algeria took many hostages - hundreds. Algerian forces quickly retook the plant. But the latest report say that at least 80 people were killed, including many hostages.
NPR's Philip Reeves reports.
PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE: Algerian bomb disposal teams have been searching through the giant gas complex. They're looking for explosives left by up to 40 Islamist militants who stormed into the plant. They keep finding bodies.
Reports say the Algerian military recovered at least 20 corpses yesterday - some so badly disfigured they couldn't immediately be identified. The siege ended with an assault by Algerian Special Forces on Saturday. Algeria is being criticized by some over its use of force. It says the death toll could have been a lot worse and that its forces went in because the militants threatened to blow up the plant, killing all their captives.
According to Norway's foreign minister, the militants actually tried to detonate the plant, but they only managed to start a small fire. He says that's when they started to execute hostages - causing the Algerian military to intervene.
ABDEL RAHMAN AL-NIGERI: (Foreign language spoken)
REEVES: State-run Algerian TV is running audio purportedly of the militants' leader - Abdel Rahman al-Nigeri - speaking by phone during the stand-off with an Algerian army officer.
AL-NIGERI: (Foreign language spoken)
REEVES: Nigeri demands the release of prisoners whom he says have been held by Algeria for 15 years.
AL-NIGERI: (Foreign language spoken)
REEVES: How many, asks the army officer? One hundred, replies Nigeri, adding that he and his fellow militants are prepared to die if their demands are not met.
Images emerging from the scene provide a glimpse of what happened. There's a grainy picture of a group of workers on their knees, hands raised. TV pictures show mangled bullet-punctured vehicles.
Many hundreds of Algerians were caught up in this horror show. So were well over 100 ex-patriot workers. Those unaccounted for include Japanese, Norwegians, Britons, and Malaysians.
Survivors returning home are beginning to tell their stories. Alan Wright, a BP worker from Scotland, says after a day hiding, his Algerian colleagues decided to escape. They disguised him in a hat - so that he looked less like a foreigner - and cut their way through the perimeter wire.
The group then ran into desert into the arms of the Algerian military. For a terrifying period, though, they weren't sure if these were soldiers or militants.
Short-term, the nations involved in this crisis are focusing on recovering victims, figuring out exactly what happened, and exploring better security measures.
Long-term, there's the big picture, the complex task of tackling the rise in North Africa of Islamist militants who share the ideology of al-Qaida.
PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON: This is a global threat and it will require a global response.
REEVES: British Prime Minister David Cameron says that response calls for patience and iron resolve.
CAMERON: It will require a response that is about years, even decades, rather than months.
GRAHAM HAND: I don't think the West really assessed the scale of the threats in this region properly, and we now see that it is considerable.
REEVES: Graham Hand used to be British ambassador to Algeria. Hand says Cameron's correct to say it'll take time for the West to tackle the threat, and it won't be easy.
HAND: It's a question of finding them, rooting them out, but it's in an area which is absolutely vast.
REEVES: Philip Reeves, NPR News, London.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
President Obama is the third president in a row to face the challenges of a second term, on the heels of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The last time there were three in a row, their names were Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. In the modern era, second terms have become notorious for getting derailed.
To find out what history may teach President Obama about navigating the next four years, we reached presidential historian Michael Beschloss. Welcome.
MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: Thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So let's start with the president's address. What would serve him best to say in this speech?
BESCHLOSS: This is probably the biggest audience he will ever have for the rest of his life, so he's got this unbelievable opportunity, this huge audience, to essentially have at Americans give them a sense of what he wants to do, won't have the opportunity again. So if he does that well, this can be a big boost.
MONTAGNE: What do you think is ahead in the next four years?
BESCHLOSS: I think what's ahead for him is someone who is pretty sure of his powers - doesn't overestimate them, doesn't underestimate. And a big problem that face second term presidents more than anything else is fear. And the odd thing is that the people who are most afraid were pre-presidents in modern times elected by the biggest majorities: Franklin Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, also Lyndon Johnson.
Roosevelt was afraid that although he had this enormous majority, his bills were going to get overruled, his acts by the Supreme Court. So, he had this ridiculous theme to pack the Supreme Court with his own justices. It failed, reduced his power. Lyndon Johnson was afraid that the Senate and House, if they knew how costly the Vietnam War were really going to be, they wouldn't be in favor of it. So, he was very deceitful about what those costs would be.
And Richard Nixon, perhaps most forgotten, before the Watergate scandal accelerated, he came into that second term two house of Congress very much against him. And so he thought he would stop what they wanted to do with something called impoundment. He said I'm going to start refusing to spend funds that you have voted for me to carry out certain programs that you want and I don't. Even without Watergate, there's some chance that Nixon could have been impeached.
MONTAGNE: Well, how does President Obama fit into that lineup? What does he have potentially to fear?
BESCHLOSS: Most presidents defer their most controversial programs, the things they want from Congress, until their second term. They say, you know, first, let me get reelected and then I'll do the controversial stuff perhaps in my fifth year. Obama did the opposite. He did health care in that first and second year, mainly on the thought that he might not have a Democratic Congress like that ever again, which may have turned out to be right.
MONTAGNE: Well, there's another thing. There's always talk of how much freedom that presidents have when they're in their second terms. They don't have to run again and, theoretically, don't have anything to lose. But how much time does a president actually have until he becomes such a lame duck that it begins to hurt his ability to get anything done?
BESCHLOSS: He's got about six months. And...
MONTAGNE: Six months?
BESCHLOSS: Six months, and there's a historical precedent for that. Lyndon Johnson in January of 1965 had been reelected by the largest landslide in presidential history, had more Democrats in Congress than there ever were during the 20th century, except for Roosevelt. Yet he knew enough about the House and Senate to tell his aides, you may think I can get anything I want but I really have got only six months, because I will be asking a lot of members of Congress to compromise and make sacrifices that will hurt them in their states and districts.
After about six months, they're going to get tired of it and they're going to start thinking about the election next year. So, everything we really want to get done that's controversial, let's get it done in these next six months, first half of 1965, turned out to be right. Because if you think about the great society, most of the things we think about - voting rights, Medicare, education - really took place during that six-month window.
MONTAGNE: Johnson wasn't unique. I mean, those who waited too long lost?
BESCHLOSS: They lost, because especially in these times, you know, politics look so much forward. By the fall of this year, people are going to begin to think about the midterm election, who's going to run for president in 2016. So, any president in modern times who does not try to get what he wants in the second term done fast, making a big mistake.
MONTAGNE: Part of President Obama's strategy for seeing his agenda through a second term has been keeping part of his campaign apparatus intact and to use that to build popular support for his priorities. Is that something original for him or has it been done in the past?
BESCHLOSS: We have never seen anything quite like this before. Franklin Roosevelt in 1938, halfway through his second term, tried to go into the states and campaign against conservative Democrats he wanted voted out of office using his campaign apparatus. Failed miserably. The people he wanted to defeat all succeeded.
Barack Obama in two elections has used social media, very precise organization in the states to help him win two elections. It's going to be fascinating to see if that same apparatus can help him get things through Congress and get other things he wants to do.
MONTAGNE: Presidential historian Michael Beschloss, thank you very much.
BESCHLOSS: Thanks, Renee.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
A second term for Barack Obama, of course, always means four more years in the spotlight for his wife Michelle. The first lady's time in the White House has involved work focused on children and military families, as well as plenty of focus on her fashion, which was evidenced over the last few days with the reaction to her new hairdo, which included bangs.
For more on the first lady, we're joined by Jodi Kantor, a New York Times correspondent and author of "The Obamas," which examined the first couple's life in the White House. Welcome to the program.
JODI KANTOR: Thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Michelle Obama was very active on the campaign trail last year, this past election. She seemed comfortable in that role, but many of us remember that things were not so comfortable for her the first time around in 2008. You know, and as popular as she's become, remind us where she started in terms of her image.
KANTOR: You know, what I always tell people is that Michelle Obama is the student who got the A-plus in the class that she hated. She never wanted to be in public life. And when she started to campaign for her husband, she was the Chicago hospital executive with very little national campaign experience, and she was in essence going up against Bill Clinton, because he was Hillary Clinton's spouse. Now, she had a lot of charisma, was a real hit, especially in small settings. But she was not yet a disciplined campaigner. She didn't have a speechwriter staff, she didn't have a lot of support from the guys back in Chicago, which was a source of tension internally, and she kind of freestyled.
She said what she wanted and she sometimes got in trouble for that. Like when she said she was proud of her country for the first time. And that was endlessly replayed on cable TV. And then within a couple of months of becoming famous, people start to call her an angry black woman, you know, they say that she's a radical, et cetera, et cetera. And for Michelle Obama to watch her image spin out of control like that was really painful. She really worried that she was hurting her husband's cause.
MONTAGNE: She made a great effort to soften her image, even during that first campaign in 2008. What has she done over the past four years to maintain a safer image? Certainly a glamorous one as well, but it's many things, but it's certainly safe.
KANTOR: A really safe image. When old friends of Michelle Obama's from Chicago look at her now, they say, look, she's not being inauthentic. The maternal warmth you see from her, the charisma, that is all really her. What they say is that so much has been edited out. The forceful advocate, the Harvard-trained lawyer, the person who has a really deep critique of politics - that is somebody we do not see at all.
Instead, she does issues like how to pack a healthy lunch or some of the military family initiatives she's worked on. She sees her job as to support her husband. And part of supporting her husband is not creating any controversy whatsoever.
MONTAGNE: But you do tell stories in your book, "The Obamas," of Michelle Obama pushing her husband on some policy. I mean, where are her fingerprints on the president's agenda?
KANTOR: The first is health care reform. Remember, it was very controversial within the administration. Lots of advisers, from the vice president to then-Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, did not want the president to go forward with his overhaul. They wanted him to be more cautious.
The way to understand Michelle Obama's point of view on this administration is that she doesn't want her husband to be a regular politician. She doesn't want him to succumb to what the Obamas call the Washington noise. She wants him to be an inspirational leader, a bold leader, a leader who is going to be true to the reasons he was elected. She backed him when a lot of political advisors were telling him no; she said yes.
MONTAGNE: In a context where he would have possibly turned his attention more fully to, say, the economy.
KANTOR: Absolutely. Rahm Emanuel wanted the president to kind of slim down his health care plans and instead focus on things that were more popular and easier to pass.
MONTAGNE: Another very visible way in which the first lady has influence is in her fashions, and in fact rather an overwhelming amount of attention is paid to what she wears. Does she seem at all bothered by that?
KANTOR: She did early on. It was really disconcerting for her in the first year or two to have everything she did and everything she wore picked apart. And she's not alone in that, by the way. You know, I've talked to Hillary Clinton's aides, Laura Bush's aides, and they all kind of agree that the first year of being first lady is kind of a shock.
MONTAGNE: The criticisms of her clothes may have been a shock to her at the time. But it seems to me that between J. Crew and these American hip fashion designers - many of them young, many of them she seems to have discovered - she seems to get a lot of great press on simply how sort of gorgeous she looks.
KANTOR: She does get a lot of great press, and not only that but she can actually move markets when it comes to clothing. There was a study done showing that what she wears has a more powerful effect on people in terms of the clothes they want to buy than a lot of advertising. When she discovers a designer and makes them famous, that designer can benefit tremendously.
MONTAGNE: Looking ahead to a second term, do you think that Michelle Obama will have, or do you think she even desires, a weightier policy voice in the next term? I mean, even about her own agenda? Will she, in your opinion, take bolder action, something that might even offend?
KANTOR: That is absolutely the right question to ask. And the reason I think it's the right question is that Michelle Obama is somebody who believes in spending capital. I do suspect that she wants to take and use her popularity for some good. It may be just supporting her husband's agenda in various ways. But part of what's interesting here is that the work she's already done could be taken in a more ambitious direction.
I'll give you one example, which is she's done a lot of work on military families. Most of it so far has been saying things like we really need better job training for military families. We really need people in their home communities to support military families. There's nothing the least bit controversial about any of that.
Privately, however, I know that one issue she cares about a lot are mental health issues for military families. And as you and listeners know, the suicide rate among returning veterans is a matter of great concern. So, one of the questions that I have going forward is that, would she address something as delicate as mental health, as suicide? It's not that it's controversial per se, but it's dark, it's difficult, it's tricky, it's hard to change.
MONTAGNE: Jodi Kantor is a correspondent of the New York Times and the author of the book, "The Obamas." Thank you very much for joining us.
KANTOR: My pleasure. Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The president of the United States, as his title suggests, is the leader of this country, but in many ways is also the leader of the world. And so we're looking at how other countries see the next four years on this Inauguration Day. India enjoyed strong relations with the Obama administration in its first term, but in a second term, NPR's Julie McCarthy reports, the South Asian giant is concerned about the uncertainty seen in American policy toward China and Afghanistan.
JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE: With the Iraq War and the Afghan War entering the endgame, the Obama administration has begun the pivot to Asia.
PRAMIT PAL CHAUDHURI: That's where the bulk of the trade is happening. That's where the bulk of the economic action is happening.
MCCARTHY: Hindustan Times foreign editor, Pramit Pal Chaudhuri.
CHAUDHURI: That's where the bulk of any serious strategic threats or alliances that the U.S. will be looking, like, in the future, are all happening.
MCCARTHY: China's emerging power is at the heart of the U.S. pivot. To promote a stable geopolitical order in the region, the U.S. is facilitating the ascent of friendly Asian powers, such as India. Bharat Karnad with the Center for Policy Research says New Delhi and Washington are driven by the same logic regarding Beijing.
BHARAT KARNAD: Which is that China is just too big to contain, singly. The U.S. can't do it by itself. India, on the other hand, knows it cannot do it by itself. So the idea is to have, actually, allies, or - as the new phrase goes - strategic partners as you can have in order to hedge in China.
MCCARTHY: India has begun shoring up alliances to Japan and Vietnam, the latter allowing India to assert itself into the South China Sea, should its oil exploration interests be threatened. Karnad says the view of many in Asia is that a war-weary United States will have a nuanced approach to Beijing that emphasizes accommodation over confrontation.
KARNAD: You can't expect the U.S. to be the Atlas keeping the entire globe on it shoulders. They are suffering from fatigue. They're going to drop out, They're going to, in a sense, begin vacating that role for the Chinese or whoever else wants to assume it. So the question then is: How reliable is the United States?
MCCARTHY: Unanswered questions about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan are also of great concern to India. As analyst C. Raja Mohan says, it's not clear what the consequences of the pull-out will be.
C. RAJA MOHAN: Whether the Taliban will come back, whether Pakistan will be given any kind of a role in redefining Afghanistan's future.
MCCARTHY: India is also eager to know how many troops the U.S. will leave behind, whether it will continue to support Afghan President Hamid Karzai and - Pramit Pal Chaudhuri says - what of a gambit to invite so-called good Taliban into Kabul?
CHAUDHURI: The Indian side is very skeptical. They believe any Taliban will put Karzai's head on a stick the moment they get a chance. So, again, what do you want to do? And again, the U.S. tacks back and forth quite dramatically.
MCCARTHY: But Washington and New Delhi have developed what Chaudhuri calls intensely close intelligence-sharing to combat a common threat.
CHAUDHURI: All the same terrorist groups that attack us basically attack the United States, or have come to learn to attack the United States. We agreed fundamentally about Pakistan, about the nature of the problem. We disagree on how it should be solved.
MCCARTHY: India jealously guards its strategic autonomy, as the debate to punish Iran over its nuclear program demonstrates. The U.S. pressured countries that buy oil from Tehran - including India - to reduce purchases or face sanctions. India won a reprieve last month for considerably cutting its imports, but also says Iranian oil will continue to be part of India's trade. Julie McCarthy, NPR News, New Delhi.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News on a special Monday, Inauguration Day. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
The crowds descending on Washington today are not expected to be quite as huge as they were four years ago. Author Jabari Asim notes the mood in the country is also not what it was.
JABARI ASIM: It's not a fever pitch of excitement as it was before, and I think that fever pitch of course, was fueled in part by the difficulty in grasping the reality of a black president; that this has actually happened.
INSKEEP: Four years ago Jabari Asim wrote a book called "What Obama Means." We talked with him on the eve of the president's ascension to the presidency to discuss the symbolic importance of that moment. And in recent days, we invited Jabari Asim back to discuss how that symbolism has held up against the reality of four years in office.
So let me come back to this discussion that we had four years ago, because you said that the president at that moment was like the type of film character that is sometimes described as a Magic Negro, which is a pretty provocative term but is often used in cultural criticism. This character, who's not entirely real but is there some how to save the white characters in a film. That's the kind of character you compared Barack Obama to just before he took office in 2009.
ASIM: Yes.
INSKEEP: He's been the president for a while. He's been in some bruising battles. What is he now?
ASIM: I think he's much more of a regular politician. But I think that's a good thing actually. I think the magic aura, I didn't entirely discount it. Part of the way it manifested itself, I think, in the first election - and people talk about this - was that some white voters voted for Obama because it would help them feel good about themselves, about the direction of the country, and people tended to dismiss this.
And I thought that was, you know, a real factor but I thought it was a laudable factor. I didn't think that it's a terrible reason to vote for someone, because they're helping you to feel better about being an American and about the direction of the country, and your participation in changing the direction of the country.
But I think this time the magic aura was far less manifest. And you can also see that in popular culture with the willingness of entertainers and comedians to make fun of Obama, in a way that they were hesitant to do early in the first term. And I think a lot of the same voters were motivated by a much more practical concerns the second time around, even if the first time there was that aura of magic that helped to impel him to vote in his direction.
INSKEEP: So are you're saying it's actually progress that he gets to be a regular character in the film, rather than this kind of magical character coming off from the side?
ASIM: Very much so. And I hope that influence or that change will also spread into American culture in a way that African-Americans, in general, are perceived. As to paraphrase Hillary Clinton: As regular, hard-working Americans as opposed to exceptional African-Americans.
INSKEEP: You know, it's been a really interesting four years because clearly this is a president for whom the gloves were off - he could be attacked in any way, which is a sign of equality in a way. But some people looked at some of the attacks, like the questioning of his birth certificate and so forth, and saw racial motives are or cynical political motives to try to make the president look like somebody other than an American. I'm wondering how you see the racial aspect of the last four years with this president.
ASIM: Well, I think we have to be careful not to misrepresent the fringe or the mainstream. And I think a lot of what we've seen has made for sexy soundbites. And I know people who have had conversations with people who were opposed to Obama and who did not vote for Obama, and who are not African-American. But I would not characterize their criticism as race based.
INSKEEP: You're basically saying that most people, in your experience, who are opposed to the president, were opposed to the president because they're opposed to his policies. They don't like something about him other than his race.
ASIM: Yeah. And also I think it's also partisan. I mean, these are some of the same people who opposed Clinton's policies or opposed whatever Democratic candidate who was espousing those policies at the time. And I think a lot of that criticism is drowned out or overwhelmed by the birthers and people like that, whom you've cited.
I think, you know, W.E.B Du Bois said the hushing of the criticism of honest opponents is a dangerous thing. And I do think there is a tradition of honest opposition that continues to thrive and express itself.
INSKEEP: Jabari Asim, pleasure to talk with you.
ASIM: Thank you very much.
INSKEEP: Jabari Asim is author of "What Obama Means."
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And the widow of a murdered Mississippi civil rights leader will help open the inaugural ceremony today. President Obama selected activist Myrlie Evers-Williams to deliver the invocation. She's the first woman and the first layperson to have the honor.
NPR's Debbie Elliott has this profile.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Evers-Williams' prominent role in President Obama's second inauguration comes in the 50th year since NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers was shot to death outside his family's home in Jackson, Mississippi.
On June 12, 1963, Myrlie Evers was inside watching TV with her three young children.
MYRLIE EVERS-WILLIAMS: And I recall that they said: There's daddy, there's daddy, they knew the sound of the car. And they were getting up off the floor - they were in the process of getting off from the floor to go to the front door to greet him and the sound of the bullet.
ELLIOTT: Evers found her husband at the bottom of the front stairs, keys still in his hand. He'd been shot in the back, targeted because of his work to register black voters and desegregate public institutions.
EVERS-WILLIAMS: Medgar became number one on the Mississippi to kill list.
ELLIOTT: It would be more than 30 years later before Myrlie Evers would see her husband's assassin brought to justice. She was in the courtroom when white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted by a Mississippi jury and spoke to reporters after the verdict.
EVERS-WILLIAMS: I'm almost speechless with emotion. All I want to do is say, yeah, Medgar, yeah, yeah, yeah.
ELLIOTT: Evers-Williams met Medgar Evers just moments after she set foot as a freshman on the campus of Alcorn State University - the historically black Mississippi College where she is now a distinguished scholar in residence. She also serves on the advisory board of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, and has created the Medgar Evers Institute.
Former Mississippi Governor William Winter, a one-time segregationist, says she has served her home state well.
WILLIAM WINTER: Myrlie Evers had every reason to leave Mississippi, never to return. She has the right to be the bitterest person in America. It would be understandable if she hated all white folks. That was not what she chose to do.
ELLIOTT: Evers-Williams says she's trying to make sure young students understand the legacy of Medgar Evers and other civil rights martyrs. She fears history is not being passed on as it should be.
EVERS-WILLIAMS: My generation worked very hard to help America get to where it is in terms of race relations. I believe we became battle fatigued after giving and doing and dying and just all of that to move this country forward, then we said we'd done it.
ELLIOTT: Myrlie Evers worked alongside her husband as his secretary and top aide during his nearly 10-year tenure as the NAACP's lead organizer in Mississippi. After his murder, she left to raise her family in California and pursue a corporate career. But in 1995, she returned to the NAACP during a low point in the civil rights organizations' history, as it struggled financially and politically. She won a pivotal election as NAACP chairman by a single vote.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Myrlie won by one vote. Myrlie won - Evers.
ELLIOTT: After the vote, Evers-Williams promised a time of healing.
EVERS-WILLIAMS: Let us say to those who have laughed because we have been divided, try and get through to us now.
ELLIOTT: Civil rights leader Julian Bond succeeded Evers-Williams as NAACP chair. Bond says being the first woman and layperson to give the opening prayer at a presidential inauguration is a crowning first for Evers-Williams, and a crowning achievement for all civil rights activists, on a day that also honors Martin Luther King, Jr.
JULIAN BOND: For everybody in the movement, seeing Myrlie Evers up there on that stage with Barack Obama will be just the culmination of some of the work we did and the knowledge for all of us that it was not at all in vain.
ELLIOTT: Evers-Williams calls it an exhilarating experience to represent the civil rights era by offering the invocation at President Obama's inauguration.
Debbie Elliott, NPR News.
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MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
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NPR's business news starts with a mega-return.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: OK, last year, the United States government shut down the file-sharing website Megaupload over charges of copyright infringement. That was a popular place for users to share pirated films and music. Over the weekend, the founder of Megaupload, the New Zealand tycoon Kim Dotcom, launched a successor to the site. It's called simply Mega.
The U.S. Justice Department has not commented yet, though the film industry has raised concerns here. The new site already claims to have over one million users.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And we're in the midst of year-end earnings announcements. This week, companies including Apple, Lockheed-Martin, Microsoft and Starbucks will announce their final 2012 results. NPR's Yuki Noguchi has a preview of the corporate earnings season.
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and General Electric all announced fourth-quarter profits last week that pleased their investors. Citigroup and Bank of America, meanwhile, fell short. Nigel Gault is chief U.S. economist for IHS Global Insight. He says he believes corporate profits will, on the whole, meet or exceed expectations, but won't grow at the rate some investors have become accustomed to.
NIGEL GAULT: We've had many years in which margins have been expanding quite rapidly. Corporate profits are at a very high level. So we've got to a point where it's actually quite difficult from now on to generate rapid profit growth, unless you see the economy really accelerating.
NOGUCHI: And that is not what the economy is doing. Gault says he expects economic growth during the fourth quarter of last year to come in around three-tenths of a percent - in other words, almost no growth at all. He says if the government resolves lingering fiscal uncertainty by cutting spending and raising the debt ceiling, the economy could pick up.
GAULT: I think the underlying fundamentals of the economy are getting better, particularly on the housing market, which we're seeing in a series of recent reports. So the economy should be able to accelerate, and we should see stronger profits growth at the same time.
NOGUCHI: Google, Delta Airlines, Johnson and Johnson and Verizon announce their results tomorrow. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK, the first lady always generates attention for her fashion choices. As we mentioned elsewhere in our broadcast, she made news last week by getting bangs. People do not necessarily pay as much attention to that guy that the first lady may bring around to various events, but presidential fashions can make history. Think of Ronald Reagan's brown suits or Jimmy Carter's cardigans. NPR's Rachel Ward takes a look at this president's sartorial statements.
RACHEL WARD, BYLINE: If there's any brand associated with the presidency, it's Brooks Brothers. And the company will not let you forget it.
KELLY NICKEL: We've clothed 39 out of 44 presidents, and we can lay claim to clothing at least five that we know of on Inauguration Day.
WARD: That's Kelly Nickel, Brooks Brothers company historian. She says the company is so closely linked to the presidency, that their sales people use this anecdote to push their navy and grey suits.
NICKEL: Well, sir, the reason we don't sell black suits is because Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in one.
WARD: Good reason, except it's not true. The real reason, according to Nickel, is that for a long time, black suits were just too formal for everyday work. So the company didn't make them. The company does make a few items in President Obama's wardrobe. For his first Inauguration, he pulled on a Brooks Brothers coat, gloves and scarf.
But that sort of appearance is mostly about pride for a company like Brooks Brothers, not reaping big profits.
NICKEL: There are certain pieces that you can see that someone might wear that might move the market, but certainly not to the extent that maybe a Michelle Obama could.
WARD: If there is an item in the president's kit that's made a splash with consumers, it's his suit, the off-the-rack, worsted-weight, single-breasted, two-button comes from a sentimental favorite: Chicago-based clothier Hart Schaffner Marx. In 2008, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that people were actually calling the retailer up, asking for the Obama suit.
That suit is from the Gold Trumpeter collection, retails for about $1,500, and it's the backbone of his overall approach to style: solid, understated.
RICHARD DORMENT: A fairly traditional cut, a fairly traditional approach to things like colors and accessories. I mean, he's almost wearing black shoes. He's almost always wearing a blue or red tie.
NICKEL: He really veers towards things that cannot be argued with
MICHAEL HAINEY: It's not dramatic. It's not flashy. It's a guy who dresses to go to the office.
WARD: That's Esquire senior editor Richard Dorment, Brooks Brother's Kelly Nickel, and GQ deputy editor Michael Hainey. As Richard Dorment explains...
DORMENT: He takes a very traditional, straightforward approach to getting dressed in the morning, which, you know, given the amount of things on his plate, you can certainly forgive him for.
WARD: Such a straightforward approach, in fact, that in 2012, the president told Vanity Fair that he only wears grey and blue suits, to pare down the number of decisions he has to make in any given day. There is a little room for improvement, though, according to Dorment.
DORMENT: He wears his cell phone on his belt.
WARD: And that's not exactly a fashion faux pas, but...
DORMENT: It's certainly not something you see a lot of men with a keen sense of style doing.
WARD: And he could be more adventurous, says Michael Hainey of GQ.
HAINEY: I'd love to see him in a grey, pinstripe suit. You know, I think he could sort of branch out a little bit. You know, it's winter. He could look great in flannel.
WARD: But above all else, says Esquire's Richard Dorment...
DORMENT: The best advice that I can offer the president is to make sure that nobody's talking about he's wearing, because the last thing we need in the current political rhetoric are armchair fashionistas commenting on what he's wearing on any given day.
WARD: And if he's in the market for socks, Kelly Nickel reminds us, he could always go back to Brooks Brothers.
NICKEL: This is an over the cap, so while he's walking, this is not going to bunch up near his ankles. It's going to be comfortable. And these are $24.50. But if he buys three, we can make him a deal.
WARD: Yup. It still comes down to the economy. Rachel Ward, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And we're sticking with the Inauguration for our last word in business. That word is transportainment. It comes from a pedicab driver who talked to WTOP radio here in Washington, D.C.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Pedicabs, if you've never seen them, are those rickshaw-type vehicles. They're kind of, you know, half-bicycle, half-taxi. You kick back, while somebody pedals you around. With huge crowds expected, dozens of pedicab drivers have come to Washington to take advantage of the president's swearing-in.
MONTAGNE: Mike Kowalczyk is from Newport, Rhode Island, and he told the radio station he's a little worried about directions. He said he got lost his first night in the nation's capital. I think I got behind him, actually.
(LAUGHTER)
MONTAGNE: You have to swerve around these guys now. He spent a half-hour trying to find U Street, and never found it.
INSKEEP: There's an alphabet. The streets are alphabetical in Washington. Go above T. But Kowalczyk says getting lost and meeting new people is what makes the experience special, an adventure. That's transportainment.
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:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Conventional wisdom holds that most inaugural addresses are dull. Few presidents manage that John F. Kennedy sort of eloquence.
MONTAGNE: A new president is often careful not to show too many cards. But if you start reading second inaugurals from history, many are meaningful. When a president starts a second term, he's been through many struggles; and the nation knows him well.
INSKEEP: Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural, with its call to have malice toward none and charity for all, came after four years of Civil War.
MONTAGNE: Franklin Delano Roosevelt took a second oath in 1937, after battling the Depression. He argued that heedless self-interest was a failure, and that economic morality pays.
INSKEEP: In 1985, Ronald Reagan called for tax reform, which he later achieved.
MONTAGNE: And in 1997, Bill Clinton predicted that the nation's racial, religious and political diversity will be a godsend in the 21st century.
INSKEEP: Today, we hear what the first black president will say in his second inaugural, though as NPR's Ari Shapiro reports, some of the business is already done.
ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: The Constitution requires that a president take the oath of office before noon on January 20th. So at 11:55, President Obama and members of his extended family gathered in the Blue Room of the White House. It's an oval-shaped, ceremonial meeting room on the first floor. The first lady held a family Bible, with their two daughters standing by. Chief Justice John Roberts stood in his long, black robes.
The president placed his hand on the book and repeated these iconic words.
(SOUNDBITE OF SWEARING-IN CEREMONY)
CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear...
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear...
ROBERTS: ...that I will faithfully execute...
OBAMA: ...that I will faithfully execute...
ROBERTS: ...the office of president of the United States...
OBAMA: ...the office of president of the United States...
ROBERTS: ...and will, to the best of my ability...
OBAMA: ...and will, to the best of my ability...
ROBERTS: ...preserve, protect and defend...
OBAMA: ...preserve, protect and defend...
ROBERTS: ...the Constitution of the United States.
OBAMA: ...the Constitution of the United States.
ROBERTS: ...so help you, God.
OBAMA: ...so help me, God.
ROBERTS: Congratulations, Mr. President.
OBAMA: Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice. Thank you so much.
SHAPIRO: The president hugged his wife and daughters and said, I did it. The entire event lasted two minutes.
This event was a quirk of the calendar and of history. Inauguration Day first fell on a Sunday almost 200 years ago, in 1821. James Monroe was about to begin his second term, and he decided to hold inaugural events on Monday, when courts and other public offices would be open. That's been tradition ever since, most recently at the start of Ronald Reagan's second term in 1985.
Yesterday, Vice President Biden took his oath, too, early in the day.
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JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR: Put your hand on the Bible and raise your right hand, and repeat after me. I, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., do solemnly swear...
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I, Joseph R. Biden, Jr., do solemnly swear...
SHAPIRO: As the sun rose over the vice president's mansion a couple of miles from the White House, Justice Sonia Sotomayor administered the oath. President Obama appointed her to the Supreme Court during his first year in office. The vice president's office says Biden specifically asked for Sotomayor to officiate, making her the first Hispanic and the fourth woman to swear in a president or vice president.
(SOUNDBITE OF SWEARING-IN CEREMONY)
SOTOMAYOR: ...so help me, God.
BIDEN: ...so help me, God.
SOTOMAYOR: Congratulations.
BIDEN: Thank you.
SHAPIRO: Biden kissed the justice on the cheek. Then he explained that they had to do this first thing in the morning, because Sotomayor was expected in New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF SWEARING-IN CEREMONY)
BIDEN: Her car's waiting so she can catch a train I hope I haven't caused her to miss. And I am leaving with the - going and going to meet the president to do the traditional laying the wreath at the tomb.
SHAPIRO: The motorcade rolled to Arlington National Cemetery, where the president and vice president laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, to the sound of drum rolls, followed by taps.
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SHAPIRO: Then the first family went to church. Reverend Ronald Braxton delivered a sermon centered on the Obama campaign theme of forward. He talked about the Israelites' exodus from Egypt, and the need to move forward quote, "When forward is the only option."
Today will be the fourth and final time Obama is sworn in as president. On Inauguration Day in 2009, Chief Justice Roberts stumbled during the oath. So they repeated it in private the next day, as a precautionary measure. This puts Mr. Obama in rare company. The only other president to take the oath four times was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who served four terms as president.
Ari Shapiro, NPR News, the White House.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Joining us now, as she does most Mondays, is Cokie Roberts. And on this Inauguration Day, we're both face to face - which is really nice.
COKIE ROBERTS, BYLINE: It's very nice.
MONTAGNE: We're in the studio. It's like a little party.
ROBERTS: (LAUGHTER)
MONTAGNE: Although the second Obama inauguration - and much has been made of this - is not, of course, the same scope as the first, possibly; certainly does not have the historical sweep as the first. But what do you expect to see in here today?
ROBERTS: Well, you know, the first, according to the Joint Committee on the Inaugural, was the most attended event in the history of Washington - not just inauguration, but event ever. So we're not going to see that today; and we don't have that symbolic change of power, which is so goose bump-provoking - you know, when the former president leaves in the helicopter, and the new president takes over. But still, it is, as President George W. Bush called it, democracy's big day.
You know, after the campaign - that's so vicious these days - and before we get into the horrible fights in Congress - which we will soon - you have a day of everybody coming together and feeling that this country is one. And people bring their children to witness history. I have a picture of me in 1949 on somebody's shoulders, at the Truman inaugural. And it is just - it is a day when already outside, at this hour, there are people lining up, getting ready; and they have smiles on their faces.
MONTAGNE: Well, there is something also extra special about today; and that - of course - is, it's Martin Luther King Day, and special significance for this president.
ROBERTS: Certainly, very significant. And he will take the oath on both the Abraham Lincoln Bible, which he used four years ago, and Martin Luther King's Bible. So highly symbolic; and it comes at a time of great symbolism, in terms of race in America. We are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which was of course, promulgated by President Lincoln. And it is going to be - later this year - the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, which finally, really did begin to change attitudes about race and the laws about race because almost - we're almost 50 years to the day of George Wallace saying, segregation now, segregation forever. And that, of course, was the situation 50 years ago. So it took activism on the part of Dr. King and others, to change that.
You know, another little footnote, Renee - a hundred years ago, with Woodrow Wilson's first inaugural, he was - the oath was administered by the chief justice, Edward White, who had fought in the Confederate Army. So, you know, we really have not come - we've come a long, long way. But it's taken a lot of effort.
MONTAGNE: Well, in the midst of these anniversaries of great hopeful moments, or moments of coming together, we - this inauguration is coming at a deeply divisive time in our history; a divided nation. Can the president really do anything to change that?
ROBERTS: It's going to be very tough. But I think that's what he will try to do today because we are not just divided by race but by ethnicity, by age, by region and by party. In the most recent ABC poll on presidential approval, there was a 73-point gap between Democratic approval of the president, and Republican approval of the president.
So he's got a lot to overcome - and a lot of big issues that are already out there, dividing the Congress. Of course, first and foremost, the fight over the deficit and debt reduction, and then immigration reform; guns now on the table - and very divisive issue; and climate change may be coming up; and then all the foreign policy. The horrible events in Algeria remind us that foreign policy can overshadow everything, if there's a crisis. And so the president has a lot on his plate. But today is the day to put that aside, and to just say congratulations, America.
MONTAGNE: Cokie Roberts, good to see you on this Inauguration Day.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The dead are still being counted from last week's attack and hostage drama at a natural gas plant in the remote desert of Algeria. Among those killed are dozens of foreign workers from Britain, Japan and elsewhere, with at least one from America. To get a better understanding of what is unfolding in the region and America's role in it, we're joined by Vickie Huddleston.
She was the U.S. ambassador to Mali from 2002 to 2005, and also has served as a deputy assistant secretary for African affairs in both the State and Defense departments. Good morning.
VICKIE HUDDLESTON: Good morning, Renee. Great to be with you.
MONTAGNE: The al-Qaida-linked attackers who attacked that natural gas plant in Algeria, they said this was in response to France's military intervention against Islamist forces in neighboring Mali. But is that the sum of what you think is happening here?
HUDDLESTON: Oh, not at all. Belmokhtar, the terrorist behind this, was an Algerian who came down after the civil war and intermarried into Malian families in the west - northwestern part of Mali. He got into the cigarette trade, and then he got into kidnapping Westerners. And from that, he and his group earned a great deal of money, about $90 million. So he knows Algeria.
He was planning this attack for months, and that just shows how bad the situation is. He can go up into Algeria or send his troops up there, carry out this atrocious attack on Algerians, on Westerners and on others who are up there, and then his forces can move back down into Mali and take safe haven.
MONTAGNE: In that region, which is the Sahara desert and also the Sahel, how dangerous is it? How many players are there now roaming around there and operating there?
HUDDLESTON: Well, this is the tragedy. At first, you know, it was 200, perhaps, troops coming out of Algeria who had been defeated in the civil war. Now, it's in the thousands. They have been joined by extremists from around the continent and from off the continent as they have developed links with Ansar al-Sharia and Libya and links with the bloody Boko Haram insurgency in northern Nigeria. So they are really all over this area. That's an area as large as Alaska.
MONTAGNE: The Obama administration until now has taken something of a go-slow, careful diplomatic approach to what was happening in Mali. Now that's connected up to Algeria. Was that a mistake?
HUDDLESTON: Yes, I think it was a mistake, because I think that you cannot ignore extremists. You have to confront and you have to defeat them. And that was the original idea of the United States Trans-Sahelian Counterterrorism Initiative, but it eventually changed to just containing.
MONTAGNE: In an op-ed in the New York Times recently, you proposed that the best way to go at this would be to get the Algerians to fight in Mali, but they don't look like they're looking to do that.
HUDDLESTON: Well, the reason I say that is that first of all, the Algerian army has a lot of capacity. We just saw that in the hostage-taking. The Algerians know this region backwards and forwards, because southern Algerian is part of that region. The Algerians, too, have a moral responsibility. The leaders of these al-Qaida groups have basically come from Algeria, and that means that Algeria must be involved in this.
MONTAGNE: Ambassador Huddleston, thank you very much for talking with us.
HUDDLESTON: Renee, it's been great. Thank you so much.
MONTAGNE: Vickie Huddleston served as U.S. ambassador to Mali from 2002 to 2005.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Nearly four years ago, President Barack Obama was a new face with new promise and a middle name Hussein that resonated throughout the Muslim world. In a speech at Cairo University, he promised a new beginning for relations between the U.S. and the Muslim world. But as Obama begins his second term, the hope that so many in Egypt had for a new direction under Obama is largely gone. NPR's Leila Fadel reports from Cairo.
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: In the summer of 2009, Obama spoke to a packed auditorium of students, journalist, intellectuals and regime officials from the government of former President Hosni Mubarak.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I'm grateful for your hospitality and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. And I'm also proud to carry with me the goodwill of theAmerican people and a greeting of peace for Muslim communities in my country. Assalamu alaikum.
FADEL: He went to talk about a fresh start at a time of great tension between the Islamic world and the United States. He promised to be a fair broker in a peace process between Israel and Palestine. He spoke of freedom and democracy and a peaceful relationship after years of a with-us-or-against-us attitude towards the Muslim world, viewed through the prism of terrorism.
Hend Hesham a young engineering student said she sat in the audience inspired by his words.
HEND HESHAM: I used, actually, to believe that the first African-American president would - he had a different political stance, especially towards Middle Eastern. But just a few years later, my view point has been totally changed, especially, you know, after the revolution.
FADEL: Hesham says in this new Egypt, after a revolt that ousted a dictator, she feels let down. She heard Obama promise to work towards peace between Israel and Palestine, but during a punishing offensive against the Gaza Strip in November, she watched Obama repeat that Israel has the right to defend itself, but never condemned the excessive force against Palestinians.
She heard Obama tell her and others that the future was in their hands. But when Egypt's revolution began in the cold days of January 2011, it took the administration too long, she says, to side with demonstrators calling for freedom.
HESHAM: Now I understand that the foreign policy of the United States doesn't actually depend on one president, you know. It's affected by the interest groups and the lobbies in the country itself.
FADEL: Hend Hesham is not alone. A Gallup poll conducted in April of 2012 showed that Egyptians' approval ratings for the U.S. leadership has dropped by nearly half since Obama gave his speech. And as Egypt lurches toward what they hope will be a democracy, many view the U.S. leadership with suspicion, some blaming the U.S. president for being too soft on Islamists now in power, others accusing Washington of trying to undermine the new religiously inspired leadership.
But in general, many Egyptians say they had too much to deal with at home. The economy is faltering. New parliamentary elections are expected in the spring, and the nation remains polarized between Islamists and the self-described liberals and secularists on this path to a new and still-undefined Egypt.
HUSSEIN HANAFY: (Foreign language spoken)
FADEL: Hussein Hanafy, a government employee, puts it like this: I'm not paying attention to Obama's inauguration, but Obama and the United States shouldn't get involved in Egypt's internal affairs. Leila Fadel, NPR News, Cairo.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne. It's Inauguration Day here in Washington, D.C., and soon hundreds of thousands of people will be gathered on the National Mall to watch the first African-American president take the ceremonial oath for a second term.
As we've mentioned, Barack Obama was formally sworn in yesterday. Sworn in to keep it all official. Today are the public services, and of course the inaugural parade. NPR's Don Gonyea is a veteran White House correspondent and he's getting ready to head out to the Mall as crowds gather and events get underway.
And he's sitting with me here in the studio. Hi, Don.
DON GONYEA, BYLINE: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: But let's go first to MORNING EDITION's David Greene, who is at the Martin Luther King Memorial on the Mall and joins us for a few seconds here. Describe the scene for us.
DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: Yeah, Renee. It's quite a scene. The sky is just starting to brighten here and Martin Luther King, the statue of him, you know, looking very serious, staring across the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. And so, you know, quite historically powerful. And people are looking at the wreaths that were laid here to honor Dr. King.
Reverend Al Sharpton yesterday laid a wreath and said that there's an intersection of history we're seeing this weekend - the nation's first black president being sworn in again and also honoring Martin Luther King. So that's sort of the backdrop to what should be quite a day here in the nation's capital. But everyone bundled up. It's still very cold.
MONTAGNE: So a beautiful scene as the day breaks. Don, let's turn to you now. Obviously this is not likely to be as big an event as we saw four years ago. Record-setting crowds at that time. We definitely don't have that this time. There - tonight are only two official inaugural balls instead of the 10 from last year. More subdued. But it's also not the same man being sworn in.
GONYEA: It's not. And in some ways it's too bad we don't have the big crowds because it is a lot warmer today than that brutal day that we all suffered through out there four years ago. But look, four years ago there were so many questions about what kind of a president Barack Obama would be.
He's only been elected to the U.S. Senate four years earlier and he'd spent half of the time in the Senate preparing for and then running for president. Now we see a man who is comfortable in the office, who obviously everybody does see him as someone who is president, who has been president for four years.
You can see it in his hair. It's a bit grayer. You can see it in his face. More lines. But this is a man who has been through many, many battles, both domestic battles and foreign policy battles. And that's who will be up there.
MONTAGNE: Well, what lessons then do you think he'll take with him into his second term?
GONYEA: That's an interesting thing. I think what he has learned probably more than anything else is how hard it is to get things done in Washington. And we've already...
MONTAGNE: And this from a man who was going to change...
GONYEA: Exactly.
MONTAGNE: ...the way things were done in Washington.
GONYEA: Exactly. And we hear, at least privately, that he's kind of tempered those kind of feelings of what one can accomplish in his own mind a bit as well. We have seen, at least since the election and some of these budget battles that have taken place, a willingness on his part to take more of a hard line, to be more combative. I think we can expect a lot more of that in the coming couple of years.
MONTAGNE: He's also an author and he's hands-on with his speeches - hand writes them, I gather. We're hearing from the White House that he's devoted a lot of time to this speech. Tell us what to expect.
GONYEA: You know, I think what I'll be looking for is something memorable. You go back to that first speech four years ago and it was very much about the crisis at hand, the economic crisis that the country was facing. But there isn't a line that leaps out and you go, oh, that's the ask not what your country can do for you line. I'll be looking for some of that kind of language today, see if he's got that in mind.
MONTAGNE: And Don, we'll be looking to hear from you again from the Mall. You've got to go out there in the cold, although it's not so cold as last year. NPR's Don Gonyea. Thanks very much.
GONYEA: Thank you.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In his first term, the president sometimes had prickly relations with Israel. Tomorrow, Israelis vote in a new government. That election comes amid the revolutions of Israel's Arab neighbors and soon after an armed conflict with Palestinians in Gaza. And when David Remnick recently visited Israel, he found, in his words, the vivid and growing strength of the radical right.
In the New Yorker magazine Remnick writes of a rising political party that depends heavily on settlers of Palestinian areas - which the new party does not consider Palestinian at all. David Remnick is on the line to talk about this. Welcome back to the program, sir.
DAVID REMNICK: Thanks for having me.
INSKEEP: So you focus on this party that is essentially arguing that when it comes to the Palestinians, let's not bother with negotiations. Don't talk of a two state solution. We own Palestinian lands. That's the end of it.
REMNICK: Pretty much. This is the story of the elections and the move to the right in general and specifically a newcomer named Naftali Bennett, who is a 40-year-old, somewhat religious, very hard right leader but very different from the old settler model, which was obstreperous and vocally radical, and alienating to everybody to the left of them. This is somebody that's much more seductive, much more appealing, and he is gaining on Benjamin Netanyahu in this election campaign.
INSKEEP: I wonder if what's happening on the Israeli right is this, that this is what you're telling me, that in the past, the far right party, this very conservative parties might make a religious argument that Israel owns the land. They might even make a national security argument that Israel needs the land. But it's been broadened out now by conservative parties and they're making a practical argument, and essentially saying, look, we have no choice but to absorb the Palestinian territory. Is that what you're telling me?
REMNICK: What I'm saying is that the settlers are trying to, in political terms, occupy all of Israel; ideologically, politically. That their ideology, in the way that the kibbutz ideology of 50 years ago, 60 years ago, was so dominant, now the settlers, the far right feel that they are the vanguard party.
And also, it has to do with what they see as a sacredness of the land. When land is sacred, when it is imbued with religious significance then negotiation and political settlements become all the more possible.
INSKEEP: Any chance that the more conservative party, here, can win?
REMNICK: I don't think so. I think Netanyahu will be prime minister again. But I think you'll see that the government he has to put together will have to take into account the gains made by the far right. Remember, this is a very different electoral system than ours. They have - constantly have coalition governments one way or another. So this has real meaning, it's not an all or nothing game.
INSKEEP: It's not at all nothing game, meaning that the whole country is being pushed to the right.
REMNICK: Yes. And remember the context of what's going on here. You have Arab revolutions going on all over the region. You have a horrible mass murder going on in Syria. You have the Muslim Brotherhood in power in Egypt. You have potential instability in Jordan, et cetera, et cetera.
This makes the right all the more confident. This makes them all the more ready to say, look, we cannot afford to make a settlement with the Palestinians when, in fact, the Palestinians leadership itself is so divided, and the Hamas leadership talks openly about wanting all of historical Palestine.
Why should we make a settlement that puts the Palestinians completely in charge in the West Bank and creates yet another security difficulty for us, when we see that radical Islam is on the rise throughout the region? That is the rationale of the right, and increasingly, it is the reason that people in the center - who want, very much who want a settlement - don't trust the Palestinians to make a settlement.
INSKEEP: You know, I'm thinking about just a few years ago, not very many years ago, you had an Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, who had impeccable credentials as being tough; who withdrew Israeli troops from Gaza; who was seen as leading a more pragmatic movement; and who was seen, in doing so, representing where it seems like most of his countrymen wanted to be.
How can things have shifted so much in a few years?
REMNICK: Because the disengagement from Gaza is seen as a failure all around. On the right, it's seen as a failure because you gave up settlements in Gaza and all we got, and I'm quoting their voice, all we got as missiles. And on the left and in the Palestinian camp, disengagement was seen as a high-handed, non-negotiating negotiated move, and therefore did not gain any political goodwill.
INSKEEP: You spent a lot of time with Naftali Bennett...
REMNICK: I did.
INSKEEP: ...the leader of this new party. Did you sense that he had thought deeply about the implications of the policies that he's advocating?
REMNICK: That's a very good question and I think the answer to that is no. His answer and his policy is a kind of foot stamping insistence: This is ours, that's the end of the story. It's a policy, if you want to call it that, born of religiosity, of frustration, insistence, and the knowledge that it has a lot of support.
INSKEEP: David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker magazine, thanks very much.
REMNICK: Thanks for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The match up for Super Bowl is set. In two weeks, the San Francisco 49ers, winners of the NFC championship, will play the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens were big underdogs in their game, yesterday, against the defending AFC champions, the New England Patriots. Same teams as last season, but this time a different result. The Ravens beat the home team 28 to 13.
NPR's Mike Pesca was at the game in Foxborough, Massachusetts and filed this report.
MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: The adjectives affixed to the Baltimore Ravens this year weren't superlatives, they were respectful words, like solid and effective. But in the second half of the conference championship game, the Ravens soared. They scored in the red zone. They forced three Patriot turnovers, while committing none of their own. They came back against the Patriots in New England. The Pats haven't lost a home game while leading at halftime in 12 years.
After the game Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs paid his respect to the Patriot dynasty.
TERRELL SUGGS: People don't like them because they win. They're a great team and they have every right to be who they are.
PESCA: What you just heard was Suggs walking back his comments from right after the game, when he called the Patriots arrogant. The reason the blitzing linebacker was emboldened to call out the Patriots had a lot to do with his quarterback, Joe Flacco, who New England defensive back Steve Gregory dubbed one of the game's best.
STEVE GREGORY: You know, he's one of the elite quarterbacks. I know he gets a lot of flack for, you know, maybe possibly not being that type of guy, but, you know, he is.
PESCA: Flacco threw for three touchdowns and came up with bigger plays than his celebrated counterpart, Tom Brady. After the game, Patriot Coach Bill Belichick was his usual taciturn self.
BILL BELICHICK: Nothing was good enough. Everything - a lot of things were OK. It was competitive, but it wasn't just - it wasn't as good as the Ravens tonight.
PESCA: But what more needs to be said. Well, in the Baltimore locker room..
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Hey. My man, Bernard (unintelligible).
PESCA: As Bernard Pollard answered reporter's questions, his exuberant teammates wanted it to be known that Pollard...
(SOUNDBITE OF LOCKER ROOM CHATTER)
PESCA: Played for free, meaning, his hit jarring the ball loose from Patriot running back Steven Ridley was so vicious, that his teammates expected Pollard to be fined a game check. But the hit was legal, even if Ridley left, not to return. It was a game changer for a team that was fired up by the stage, the situation, and their teammate Ray Lewis, who has announced he will be retiring after the season.
Lewis, known for motivating the Ravens, talked, after the game, about what drove him.
RAY LEWIS: To hear men tell you they love you and to hear men tell you they respect the life that you live, it's the ultimate.
PESCA: As if this team needed any more incentive, each game this post season has been a chance to rally around the player that one Ravens fan described this way.
MICHAEL PHELPS: He literally is the most inspirational person I've ever met in my entire life.
PESCA: That fan was 22 time Olympic medal winner Michael Phelps. Unlike Phelps, the Ravens have been underdogs, nearly double digit underdogs in both their playoff wins. And they will be the underdogs again in the Super Bowl, which may be bad news for the San Francisco 49ers.
Mike Pesca, NPR News, Foxborough, Massachusetts.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
One of greatest hitters in the history of baseball, Stan Musial, has died. He was born 92 years ago in Donora, Pennsylvania and raised there. But for his fans, Stan the Man, as he was known, will forever be linked to the St. Louis and the Cardinals.
Greg Echlin has this remembrance.
GREG ECHLIN, BYLINE: Wearing a bright red blazer while riding in the back of a shiny car, before the 2009 All-Star game in St. Louis, Stan Musial had one more chance to bask in the adoration of his fans.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: A Hall of Famer and the heart and soul of Cardinal baseball, Stan The Man Musial.
(APPLAUSE)
ECHLIN: Musial was selected to the All-Star team 24 times, second only to Hank Aaron who edged him out by one game. Players of Musial's type were referred to as gamers, the ones who would come through when something was on the line. One of those moments on the big stage took place in the 1955 All-Star game.
The game dragged on until the 12th inning when Musial stepped to the plate.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Nobody on base and nobody out on Sullivan's first pitch to Stan. A swing out and a drive to the back of right field. A long one. The ballgame is over.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)
ECHLIN: Three years later, Musial was guaranteed baseball immortality when he reached the 3,000 hit mark.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: Stan waits. Now the stretch from the belt. Here's the pitch. Line drive. There it is. Into left field. Hit number 3,000. A run has scored. Musial around first, on his way to second with a double.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)
ECHLIN: Aware that no one had reached that milestone since 1942, Musial knew there was a lot of hype.
STAN MUSIAL: Yes, there was. You know, I wanted to get it over with then, because if it didn't happen, you might be getting in a car wreck.
(LAUGHTER)
MUSIAL: So I wanted to get it over with. And I had a great start that year and I got it very quickly.
ECHLIN: Musial played his last season with the Cardinals in 1963. Here's broadcaster Harry Caray covering a game in late September of that season.
HARRAY CARAY: Take a good look, fans. Take a good look. This might be the last time at bat in the major leagues.
(APPLAUSE)
CARAY: Remember the stance and the swing. Not likely to see his likes again. The pitch to Musial. A hot shot on the ground into right field, a base hit.
ECHLIN: The only players with more career hits than Musial are Pete Rose, Ty Cobb and Hank Aaron. Stan Musial entered the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969. It was his first year of eligibility, and there was very little debate. During his induction ceremony, Musial thought about his first Hall of Fame visit to Cooperstown, New York, as a player in 1942.
MUSIAL: And I really didn't dream, honestly, that I'd ever be back at that time, probably to be inducted in baseball's Hall of Fame. Even if you're confident, and I always felt I could play the game, it's presumptuous until you put together many, many good seasons, to consider that one day you might have this fine day.
ECHLIN: His induction came one year after a statue in his likeness in his famous left handed batting stance was unveiled outside Busch Stadium. And it's still admired today outside the new Busch Stadium at the '09 All-Star game.
It even meant something to Albert Pujols, the modern face of the Cardinals before he moved on to play for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He greeted Musial on the field that night and later humbly acknowledged the overpowering stature of Stan Musial.
ALBERT PUJOLS: And I mean, Stan the Man. He's the man here in St. Louis.
ECHLIN: The Man received the Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor, from President Barack Obama, who praised Stan Musial as an icon, untarnished, a beloved pillar of the community, a gentleman you would want your kids to emulate.
For NPR News, I'm Greg Echlin.
MONTAGNE: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
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. We are glad you are listening on this Monday morning, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Inauguration Day. We have a team spreading out, getting a feel for how things are going in different parts of Washington, D.C. as hundreds of thousands of people descend on the capital to be part of President Obama's second Inauguration. Standing by over at the Martin Luther King Memorial is our own David Greene, MORNING EDITION's David Greene. Hi.
DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: Hey, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So it's just about dawn, getting a little light over there, I think. You're headed out, and you got out there very early. First of all, did you have any difficulty moving around the city, and even getting there?
GREENE: Not a lot, but probably that was because we came out so early, before the sky even began to brighten. The streets were mostly empty, although you could see, you know, at different corners, there were people already setting up their booths to sell t-shirts and buttons.
And the first person we ran into as we approached the Martin Luther King Memorial was a woman who would not give her name. She just said I'm Button Lady. And I said, you know, well, can I have your name? I'd love to interview you. She said, yeah. It's Button Lady. I'm a lawyer in Virginia, but on Inauguration Day, I am Button Lady. And she tried to push some buttons on us. But as the sky started to brighten and the morning is calm, we're told it's going to start getting warmer, and people have been starting to stream to the King Memorial.
We just spoke to a busload of people from Lynchburg, Virginia. They drove all night to get up here, and they said their first stop without a doubt was to come visit MLK just to start this day for them.
MONTAGNE: And that's MORNING EDITION's David Greene, and we'll be talking to you throughout the program, David. But let's turn to NPR's Jeff Brady. He's standing by on the National Mall. Good morning, Jeff.
JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: So a lot of streets around the Mall have been shut down since yesterday. Did that impact you this morning? What are people saying? How - you know, how do they say they're getting there?
BRADY: Well, you know, it certainly did affect us. NPR is not that far from where we are. We just got here on the Mall, and it would have been a nice, short walk. But the parade route is in between the Mall and NPR, so we had to walk around the parade route, about a two-mile walk this morning. It was bracing, to say the least, and we encountered a lot of barricades along the way. You see a lot of police cars with their lights flashing, military vehicles blocking the streets.
Pretty much all the streets in any direction for blocks around the National Mall are closed off. And at first, there were just a few people kind of walking in, and then as we got closer, the crowds got bigger. Now, we just got down here on the Mall, and you can see the area's starting to fill up as the sun comes up.
MONTAGNE: Well, you know, you hear that people are going to take bicycles. They're going to - you know, people are aware of the traffic. What are people telling you about how they got there, and how far did they come?
BRADY: Oh, you know, it's clear that this is definitely a national event. I'm from Philadelphia. I came here to help cover this for NPR. I've talked with people back in Pennsylvania who were - who have been practicing for months to perform at events here during the Inauguration. People are coming in to help with security. And you can just tell the buzz around town. It's very exciting. It was not a great place to get a good night's sleep last night, because there was a lot of activity outside of the hotel.
But this is a place that's just abuzz. Everybody's saying this was probably going to be a smaller Inauguration than four years ago, maybe not as many people showing up. But there's still a lot of excitement, and it's clearly a national event for people that are coming in from all over.
MONTAGNE: Yeah. And are they talking about what's happening later? Because there are so many things to do between the parade and the actual Inauguration, but then after that, there are all kinds of events.
BRADY: Oh yeah. There are balls all over the city. There are going to be parties in different places. This is an event that a lot of people are celebrating. You know, when we first started out at about 6:00 o'clock this morning, walking towards the Mall, a little subdued. Everybody's sort of sipping on their coffee. But once you get here and the music's already pumping and there are videos showing pictures of the election, and people are very excited.
I haven't heard a lot of whooping and hollering yet, but I think maybe as the sun comes up, it gets a little bit warmer, people are going to start moving a little bit.
MONTAGNE: That's Jeff Brady, NPR's Jeff Brady at the National Mall. And then I'm going to turn back to David Greene, who's over at the Martin Luther King Memorial. And David, just some last thoughts. We've got about 30 seconds now, before we go to another story.
GREENE: Yeah, you know, Renee, one question I think a lot of people are going to be asking when they come out here is: How does this compare to four years ago? And I was speaking to one woman from Virginia, 71 years old. She watched the first Inauguration on television. She's here for this one. She said, to her, this one is more important, because President Obama has been tested.
And, you know, that, to her, is her thought today, that she wants to see him in a moment of difficulty, in a moment of testing for his presidency, and that's why she's out here today.
MONTAGNE: David, thanks, and again we'll be talking to you, David Greene, and all our NPR reports, journalists, later in the day, throughout the day. Bye-bye.
GREENE: Bye-bye, Renee.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.
Vice President Joe Biden first ran for president in the 1980s, an up-and-coming, young pol who was knocked out of the race. He tried again in 2008, before becoming President Obama's running mate.
Now, he starts another term still number two. But at a weekend inaugural event, he declared, I'm proud to be president of the United States. His son corrected him, though one persistent question is whether the vice president may try one more run, in 2016.
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. The inaugural parade will have floats and marching bands, and for science geeks a special treat - life-size replicas of the NASA Mars rover, Curiosity, and the Orion space capsule. The biggest attraction may be marching alongside the replicas: Bobak Ferdowsi, the go-to guy for last year's Mars landing, who came to be known as Mohawk Guy. He told Wired magazine he'll reveal a special new hairstyle just for today's parade. It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne. One of the liveliest parts of today's events dates back to the very first Inauguration, and that would be the inaugural parade. After George Washington took his oath of office, he was joined by a procession made up of local militias as he made his way from Mount Vernon to New York City. Today, the parade is a colorful blend of marching bands, floats and different organizations led by ceremonial military regiments.
NPR's Neda Ulaby has just made her way to the parade staging ground. Good morning.
NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: Good morning
MONTAGNE: So, we've been talking to some of our other colleagues this morning, and I gather just getting in place has been difficult for everybody, what, with road closures and security. What about you?
ULABY: You know, it's actually been fairly smooth. I'm very, very happy to report people are in a good mood out here in the Pentagon parking lot. It's a beautiful morning. The sun's coming up. We're gazing out over a vast expanse of asphalt and a flotilla of white buses, where we are watching people loading up and heading towards the Mall.
MONTAGNE: Yeah, so you are starting there at the Pentagon, but, of course, soon enough, it'll be right here in Washington, D.C. There must be - these guys must have got a really early start.
ULABY: You know, the excitement here is not palpable. I think that that is an accurate description. People here are very tired. They are a bunch of people here from places as - well, you know, Hawaii, from Illinois, from Kansas, and, you know, it's a little sluggish. I think people are conserving their energy, because it is going to be a huge parade out there on the Mall.
MONTAGNE: Oh, yeah.
ULABY: Eight official floats, 60 groups, marching bands, mounted units. There are going to be almost 9,000 people marching in this parade, and almost 200 animals.
MONTAGNE: And they'll get their energy back for sure, but who is in the first wave? I mean, what will we first be seeing as it sort of approaches?
ULABY: Well, we're starting off with a bunch of military folks, as you can imagine. There's the presidential escort, U.S. Army staff, U.S. Army field band. And then the National Guard is going to be marching. We've got a bunch of representation from Hawaii, as you can imagine, the Hawaii home state float, the Illinois home state float. There's a - one of my favorites is a vintage World War II ambulance project from Connecticut.
We've got people from Kansas, the KU trumpet ensemble. Then some people from other parts of the country: we've got the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor group commission from South Carolina, the Miami University marching band. And we've got a drill-and-drum corps from Iowa. And maybe that's a thank-you for the primaries. I don't know.
MONTAGNE: And remind us of when the parade starts and what its route is, because I think that's a bit interesting.
ULABY: Oh, yeah. Well, it starts at 2:30, and it's going to wind its way up, you know, pretty much through the Mall, the parade. You know, one of the funny things that's different from this Inauguration and the last is right now, everyone has apps. And we've got several different military people showing us, you know, the very complicated Air Force-designed app where you can see there's access points for pedestrians, and all of this information.
And everyone's got their apps, you know, so completely fired up and ready to go. And I think it's actually going to make the Inauguration parade much smoother than it has been in the past.
MONTAGNE: Neda, thanks. We'll be talking to you later. NPR's Neda Ulaby at the Inauguration parade staging ground.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne. President Obama will be sworn in today for his second term. And as you can hear, coming at us right now, we have NPR folks all over the capital today - from the Martin Luther King Memorial to the National Mall. The inauguration will be covered live, later this morning. Now, let's join MORNING EDITION's Steve Inskeep and our team, who are at the Capitol. Morning, Steve.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Hi there, Renee. It's one of those mornings where it's a beautiful day - the sun is out - but we're stuck in position in the shade. So you're waiting for the sun, to get your way. But not too cold today. I want to mention that very early this morning, as people were coming to this spot - the west front of the Capitol, where thousands have already gathered this morning - we passed a cluster of older women, many of them African-American. And they were dressed warmly, as you would expect, for people who will be spending hours and hours in the cold. But they were also dressed, we noticed, formally - floor-length fur coats, wonderful hats.
And you realize that although this is not the first inauguration of Barack Obama - it's a second inaugural; it's not a change of power - it is still a profoundly significant day, for many people. We're going to be talking about that live throughout the morning. And we'll be joined by NPR's Audie Cornish, the new co-host...
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: ...of ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Hi, Audie.
CORNISH: Good morning.
INSKEEP: So four years ago, Audie, I believe you were several miles that way, although...
CORNISH: I was, I was. In fact, I brought binoculars this time around, so I could see where I was. I was standing just outside the Lincoln Memorial. And this morning, there are little specks - I can see - there are lots of people sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. And I know people are talking about the history of today falling on Martin Luther King Day holiday, and the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. But it had that same kind of historic feeling four years ago. Then, of course, lots of people - who didn't even bother coming up here, to the crowds; they stayed down at the Lincoln Memorial.
INSKEEP: And I should explain - we're on a set of bleachers here, effectively overlooking the spot where the president will deliver the Inaugural Address a little later today, and take a symbolic oath. The formal oath was taken yesterday. We are looking out over the Mall, to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.
Also with us is NPR's Ari Shapiro, who covered the presidential campaign; has covered the Obama White House. People have noted how this is a different moment because it's a second inaugural. How is the man different, do you think, than four years ago?
ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: You know, he is so much older, in so many ways - beyond the four years. You think about the man who came here who was sworn in, in 2009; who was a Washington outsider, and took pride in being a Washington outsider; who wanted to change the way Washington worked; who talked about dramatic improvements that he hoped to make in society, some of which he was able to accomplish. But in so many ways, the last four years have been a lesson for him in how difficult it is to accomplish so many things. He comes here not talking about - you know, the country may be unified, yes. But the message of bipartisan unity that he tried to bring four years ago has been, in a way, undermined by reality of his first term.
INSKEEP: Can I just mention that we are looking down at the lectern where the president will speak. Behind him are many semicircles of folding chairs, where dignitaries will sit - members of the House and Senate, other leading politicians from around the country. And many of them are people with whom the president has had harsh, harsh battles and rhetoric over the past four years. There is a lot of - a lot of past between the people...
SHAPIRO: And many of these battles have been more acute, and more visible, than in the past. I think about, for example, during the State of the Union, congressman Joe Wilson shouting, "you lie"; or Supreme Court justices shaking their heads, saying no, that's not true; really vivid, partisan fights.
CORNISH: At the same time, you know, we were looking at some of the early remarks that Sen. Lamar Alexander is supposed to make today. He's on the committee - help planning the inauguration. And he talks about unity; he talks about the passing of power from one president to another - that, happening peacefully. So they're still using that kind of language.
SHAPIRO: That's the difficult balance he has to strike. This is a day of unity; it is a moment of unity. But it comes at a time when the country knows how much dissent there is.
INSKEEP: OK. It is a national moment, coming after a partisan campaign. It is a tradition. It is a time, often, when power changes. In this case, you pass from one term to another. Officially, the moment took place yesterday, midday; in a private ceremony at the White House. This is the public ceremony, and symbolism will be important. We will continue to follow this throughout the day. NPR News will have special coverage, live coverage; beginning at 10 o'clock Eastern, and 7 o'clock Pacific time, on many NPR stations. Renee.
MONTAGNE: Steve, thanks very much.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Steve, thanks very much. Now let's go just beyond the capital building, into the National Mall. That's where NPR's Ailsa Chang is. And she's between the Capitol, as I understand it, Ailsa, and the Washington Monument, right there in the thick of things.
AILSA CHANG, BYLINE: That's right. Well, not so thick. People are beginning to arrive. But the crowd is nowhere near as large as it was in 2009. There are swaths of empty grass that you can still see. What's most evident to me now is just the way people are dressed. In 2009 Obama outfits were all over the place. Hats, scarves, gloves, people were wearing huge, you know, were carrying big signs. Here, I see the occasional skull cap with Obama. But really all I've seen maybe are buttons that people are wearing. You just don't see the same sort of wardrobe this time around. Also just walking to the mall early this morning. The vendors, the T-shirt vendors, they look so lonely. There are just crowds of people passing them by. No long lines to buy any of that merchandise. In fact, around 6:30 this morning we were passing a T-shirt salesman who was already calling out: 50 percent, 50 percent off. Buy the T-shirts half off.
(LAUGHTER)
MONTAGNE: Well, of course the last time four years ago they were all, not just T-shirts. They were, you know, Obama dolls. There were Obama hand puppets. There were, you know, all kinds of the tchotchkes, let's say. No much this time right, right?
CHANG: That's right. There was - all I've seen really are T-shirts, some magnets and buttons. But it's really nowhere near the scale that we saw last year in the merchandising.
MONTAGNE: You know, one thing that, one thing about there being fewer people is they each might have a better shot at actually seeing the President be sworn in. Or getting a glimpse of him at a very, you know, distance. But are there monitors all around this time?
CHANG: There are. There are. And there's only, actually that's an interesting point. There are five Jumbotrons this year. In 2009, there were 10 Jumbotrons. So that already gives you a scale as to the expectations of what they think the size of the crowds are going to be. Last time in 2009, here were 15,000 parade participants. The President Inaugural Committee tells me this year they're expecting about 9,000 parade participants. I mean, you can keep on going with the numbers. In 2009, 10 inaugural balls, this year two inaugural balls.
MONTAGNE: Well, you know, second term too is, you know, it's been widely pointed out that any second term - and, you know, this one - the first one would have been hard. The first inauguration is very hard to live up to. Any second term has got - it sort of pales beside first inaugurations rather. But have you been able to talk to people there?
CHANG: Yeah. I have, and what is interesting is that the narrative of Barack Obama still enchants and captures the imagination of so many people. I talked to a woman, Patrice Walker from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. And she is here, she wasn't here in 2009, but she came here this time around because she feels that President Obama is an inspiration to her six-year-old son. She's African-American, she says this man proves that you can do anything you set out to believe. And she said, you know, I feel like I can relate to him. Here's a guy who plays basketball with his buddies. He's the guy who is a real family man. And I look like his wife. You don't know how important that is to me. I mean, she knows what it's like to have a really bad hair day, like I do, was what she told me.
And other people who have - actually met a lot of people who were here both in 2009 and this year. And of course, and we would expect, you know, the really fervent Obama supporters to be out here this time. And for them the narrative is still as magical as it was in 2009. This is our first African-American President, he was re-elected. That is a big deal. The four years seen gridlock and rancor didn't seem to deplete that enthusiasm, at least among the crowds that I talked to.
MONTAGNE: Ailsa, thanks very much.
CHANG: You're welcome.
MONTAGNE: That's NPR's Ailsa Chang. She is on the National Mall between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument. And she's among a lot of NPR folks who are out there today, bringing us news stories, what people are saying on this second inauguration of Barack Obama. And we will be following events throughout the morning. Of course, later this morning, the Inauguration itself and later today the parade - lots of special coverage. Steve Inskeep is out there now. Like (unintelligible) down, keeping warm I think. And therefore, you should all stay right with us.
You're listening to Morning Edition on NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News, with Steve Inskeep. I'm Renee Montagne, good morning. We've been talking a lot this morning about how President Obama's second inauguration is not drawing the record crowds that we saw four years ago. Still, there are thousands and thousands of people who've arrived here in the capital for today's ceremony - that all wanted to be here, just like the last time around. NPR's Sonari Glinton has traveled with one woman who made the journey for that reason. Sonari rode a train with her and 18 other - and others, rather, for 18 hours, from Chicago to here in Washington, and let's join him now on the National Mall. Good morning.
SONARI GLINTON, BYLINE: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: Tell us about the women that you spent time with and why this trip has been so special for them.
GLINTON: Well, I took an 18-hour train ride with a group from Congressman Danny Davis's congressional district, and the last inauguration he had one of the largest delegations and this year it was about half the size. And one particular woman I talked to, Janice Trate(ph), her husband died on Election Day and she wanted to come back - she volunteered and she knocked on more than a thousand doors. She traveled to Iowa for this inauguration, in part to keep busy, but also because she wanted to honor her husband, and along with the many groups who've known the president since long before he was a national figure, wanted to come back because they say, you know, it's the second time that it's actually really amazing for them.
MONTAGNE: Right. And the home town crowd, that is always special. What about the feeling out there where you are? The sun has come up now, it's shining, hopefully getting a little warmer.
GLINTON: Yeah. It's not too warm. But Chicagoans are used to the cold. I'm watching groups of people stream in and volunteers are greeting them like conquering heroes. As they walk through the crowd you can hear them cheering as people fill in the Mall near the National Gallery, which is where I'm at.
MONTAGNE: Well, great, thanks, Sonari. We'll be talking to you later. That's NPR's Sonari Glinton on the National Mall. And we're going to turn now to NPR's Don Gonyea. He's at the Lincoln Memorial. Good morning, Don.
DON GONYEA, BYLINE: Hi. We're right next to the Reflecting Pool here. It's cold but sunny.
MONTAGNE: It's cold but sunny. And what is happening there? Because of course the Lincoln Memorial has had a special place in the heart of this president. And also many of the people that came to the first inauguration.
GONYEA: It's not crowded here, I can tell you that. But people seem to be coming here on their way to the Mall. It's almost like they stop here to pay their respects. And people who do come here, they go up the steps, they go to that spot where it's etched into the marble, marking the place where Dr. King delivered his I Have A Dream Speech in 1963. And then they move on. They also obviously take special meaning from the fact that this inauguration is happening on Martin Luther King Day.
I talked to a group of young women from Saginaw Valley State University from back in Michigan. They'd come here. I asked them about that and one of them just said it's like it was meant to be. And she, she even started to get a little choked up as she said that. So it's - it's lightly attended on this far end of the Mall, but it's a very nice scene.
MONTAGNE: In that scene, I mean are people where you are going to be able to see much? I know there's giant screens.
GONYEA: They will not see much from here. But I suspect there will be SmartPhones and iPads streaming it. So anybody who wants to see it from here will be able to see it. But you have to go as far as the Washington Monument, which is, you know, a good bit to the east of here, to actually see the - the official giant screens that are set up.
MONTAGNE: Okay. Well, we'll be talking to you later this morning. And enjoy yourself out there in the crowds.
GONYEA: We shall. Thank you.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Don Gonyea, and he's speaking to us from the Lincoln Memorial.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep, at the west front of the United States Capitol, here in Washington; where we're about three hours away from President Obama's symbolic swearing-in for a second term.
Thousands of people are here. As we look out across the Mall, though, there are some differences. Four years ago, there were people climbing on a Civil War Memorial - which I can see from here - climbing up over the statues. This time around, that monument is fenced off. The crowds are a little bit less intense, but it is still a symbolically important day. And we're going to talk about that with some of my colleagues here. First, NPR's White House correspondent Ari Shapiro. Ari, good morning.
ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: You're noting that it's Martin Luther King Day, and that the person delivering the invocation today, at the inauguration, is Myrlie Evers-Williams.
SHAPIRO: Right, Myrlie Evers-Williams - not a religious leader, not an elected leader, but the widow of Medgar Evers, who was slain 50 years ago this year. Myrlie is now 80 years old. She was 30 then. She was standing in her driveway in Mississippi when her husband, the Mississippi chapter head of the NAACP, was shot in front of her and her children.
She became a civil rights leader in her own right; became a leader in business, women's rights, racial equality. And so now, for her to be delivering the invocation at this second inauguration of Barack Obama, is a really significant moment on Martin Luther King Day.
INSKEEP: A reminder that whether you agreed with his policies or disagreed with his policies, it's a momentous event to have a black president in this country.
SHAPIRO: Absolutely.
INSKEEP: And NPR's Audie Cornish is also with us. She's going to be co-anchoring our live coverage, beginning a little bit less than an hour from now. And Audie, you were noticing the person who has already delivered an oath of office once to Vice President Joe Biden - formally yesterday, officially yesterday - will do it again today, on stage in front of the crowd.
AUDIE CORNISH, BYLINE: Yeah, on the schedule today is Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor. And you know, it's interesting seeing her on stage because just a few minutes ago, a VIP went by - one Joaquin Castro, a Latino lawmaker from Texas; considered - kind of one of these rising stars. And it's interesting, seeing more - kind of Latino voices on stage in this inauguration; and not just the associate justice but also Richard Blanco, the poet, I believe is from Cuba.
INSKEEP: Well, let's talk about Richard Blanco because - Renee Montagne, you interviewed him as he prepared to deliver the Inaugural poem. What's he like?
MONTAGNE: Well, first of all, he was very excited about doing this, a couple of weeks ago; just beginning to write the poem that you will hear today. He is the first Latino poet to read at an inauguration; also, the first openly gay. He's an immigrant; the child of Cuban exiles. And although he hadn't - did - barely started his poem, one clue was that he said he was inspired by Walt Whitman and his great theme, the theme that America contains multitudes.
INSKEEP: And so we'll have to wait and see exactly what that poem is going to focus on. We'll also wait and see what the presidential inaugural speech will consist of. But as we go through this symbolism, of course, we're also thinking about substance because it is the beginning of a second term, and a difficult - a challenging time for the country.
And let's bring in another voice to talk about that. NPR's national political correspondent Mara Liasson is in our studios. Mara, good morning.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Good morning. I'm nice and warm in here.
MONTAGNE: Yeah...
(LAUGHTER)
MONTAGNE: We're having a - we're not wearing coats here.
INSKEEP: Yeah, well, the sun has reached the spot where we are. So we're happy. We're happy now. But go ahead. Go ahead.
MONTAGNE: Well, Mara, we've talked a lot about the differences in numbers for this inauguration. That is, the crowds are lower, the number of balls fewer. But what about the political and economic environment that begins President Obama's second term?
LIASSON: Well, the political and economic environment is very different than his first term, although I would say the stakes are just as high for him. Obviously, he's not presiding - he's not coming into office at a time of economic crisis and financial system collapse. But - and he's winding down two wars instead of being in the midst of fighting them.
However, he does have a big, ambitious agenda. Politics in Washington seems as broken as ever, and as gridlocked. And now, the challenge for the president is to see if he can get his gun policies passed; comprehensive immigration reform; and somehow find a way to make the grand bargain with the Republicans, to deal with the country's long-term fiscal problems - which really is the key to unlocking the kind of investment in education and infrastructure and research that he believes will help mitigate income inequality and help provide more security for the middle class.
MONTAGNE: Which would seem to be the first big test of his second term. But talk to us about foreign policy. It was a big part of President Obama's first inaugural speech. What about this speech - what do you expect?
LIASSON: On foreign policy, I think the president will point out that we are in a time of winding down the war in Afghanistan. He's finished the war in Iraq. I think that he's taking a very cautious approach to other conflicts around the world, and American involvement. But this term, he will have a lot of trouble spots to deal with - Iran, North Korea; al-Qaida is still active in all of its similar groups in the Middle East; you just had a terrorist situation in Algeria. The Arab Spring is very complicated and, of course, the Middle Eastern peace process is - people are as pessimistic as ever, about what the United States can do there. So the president will have a lot on his plate, in terms of foreign policy, but he has appointed some people who feel, as he does, very cautious about American intervention and involvement overseas.
RENEE MONTAGE, HOST:
Mara, thanks very much. NPR's political correspondent Mara Liasson.
RENEE MONTAGE, HOST:
And let's rejoin Steve, now, over at the Capitol.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Yeah. And let's bring one more voice into the conversation, here. Michele Flournoy is a former undersecretary of defense for policy in the Obama administration, was mentioned at one time as a possible secretary of defense in a second term. Ms. Flournoy, where are you this morning?
MICHELE FLOURNOY: We are on our way from Bethesda, downtown.
INSKEEP: OK. Well, good luck with the traffic. There are a couple of people who got here ahead of you. Let me just ask, because Mara Liasson was mentioning different crises, different trouble spots. Just in the last few days, of course, many people around the world have followed the hostage crisis in Algeria, its possible or apparent link to insurgency in Mali. How grave a situation is that going to be for the president in his second term, West Africa?
FLOURNOY: Well, I do think there's great concern about the potential for a safe haven to exist in Mali, for an al-Qaida-affiliated group. And that will certainly be on the radar screen for the second term, along with, you know, so many of the other problems that were just mentioned. I think the president will want to focus very much at home. Getting our economic house in order is job one, and it's very important for shoring up our - not only our economy, but our standing around the world. But a lot of, you know, the world doesn't always cooperate, and I think the president's going to have a number of crises on his plate going ahead, going forward.
INSKEEP: Well, let's talk about that, because we are in a situation where the situation in West Africa is developing. There are Arab revolutions that continue. There's an Israeli election tomorrow. It's been said that this president would like to shift American attention more toward East Asia, where it seems the future lies, and the economic future lies. Do you think he's going to be able to pull that off in the end, given the crises we just mentioned?
FLOURNOY: Well, I think a lot of this is about where you proactively send your diplomatic attention, where you invest economically and with your time. And I do think that Asia is the region of greatest opportunity for the United States in the future, and I think the president will continue that rebalancing effort. But obviously, the U.S. has to stay engaged with the rest of the world to protect our interests and promote our values. I think...
INSKEEP: We've got about...
FLOURNOY: Go ahead.
INSKEEP: ...we've got a couple of seconds left. I'm just curious if there's on sentence or one thought you're hoping to hear out of the president in his speech today?
FLOURNOY: You know, I think I hope to hear him say that we are going to stay engaged as a unique leader in the world, but we are going to do that in a smart and selective way that protects our power and focuses our effort on what we need to do at home.
INSKEEP: OK. Ms. Flournoy, thanks very much, and good luck braving the crowds.
FLOURNOY: Thank you.
INSKEEP: Michele Flournoy is a former undersecretary of defense for policy in the Obama administration. We are about three hours away from the president's inaugural speech. We'll have live coverage right here on NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep at the West Front of the Capitol where we're awaiting President Obama's symbolic inauguration for a second term, saw a procession of wheelchairs a few minutes ago, scores of people being wheeled to a privileged position here not too far from the lectern where the president will speak. And we're hearing voices in the background, at least we've been hearing them anyway. Let's talk about that a little bit.
Audie Cornish, who will be co-anchoring our live coverage starting in a few minutes, who are we just hearing?
AUDIE CORNISH, BYLINE: I think we are hearing PS22, which is a student chorus group of fifth graders and they're actually located - they're from Staten Island, just a few miles inland from many coastal neighborhoods that were damaged by Hurricane Sandy. And these kids are actually quite popular. They're a little bit of YouTube sensations, 50 million hits over the last eight years, if you can believe that.
INSKEEP: OK. Let's bring up some of their voices for just a few seconds.
(SOUNDBITE FROM MUSICAL PERFORMANCE)
PS22: (Singing) (Unintelligible) my life. Here I have to start again searching for the light. I thank my lucky stars to be living here today with the lights of (unintelligible) of freedom and they can't take that away. And I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free...
INSKEEP: PS22, some of the voices that we will be hearing throughout this morning's inauguration. There are thousands of people gathered on the National Mall, maybe not a 2009 crowd, but a crowd. And NPR's Jeff Brady is out in it. Jeff, where are you?
JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: I am about halfway between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. And this area, all morning long, we've been watching people walk past us, trying to get up as close as possible to the West Front of the Capitol. But now we're seeing those areas up near the front, filling up and folks are starting to hang back here and pretty far away from the Capitol Building, so they're probably not going to see the president, but we do have big monitors here, loudspeakers. You may hear him in the background. So folks are going to see and hear something, they just may not see and hear it in person.
INSKEEP: They definitely got the Jumbotron view. What are people telling you? I guess they must be excited or at least determined to come out here. It's a beautiful day but not the warmest of days.
BRADY: Right. You know, we were talking about snow yesterday. So at least the sun is out, but it is really cold, a lot of people bundled up, but really, very excited. I talked to one woman and she actually had a fur coat, but she was not wearing it because she wanted to show off this jersey she was wearing. It has the presidential seal on one side and the number 44. Of course, he's the 44th president and she said it was all blinged up with red, white and blue. And she was very excited to be here. She said she could barely contain herself from screaming, even at 7 o'clock in the morning when I talked to her.
INSKEEP: OK. Earlier today, Ailsa Chang was saying that some of the vendors are a little lonely, but apparently not all the vendors. This woman was certainly doing a little bit of business. Jeff Brady, thanks very much. That's NPR's Jeff Brady out in the field. Let's listen to a little bit more of the singing here before we go away.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSICAL PERFORMANCE)
PS22: (Singing) America, America God's shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.
INSKEEP: PS22 this morning. And, Audie Cornish, we're reminded that although this is at the end of a partisan campaign, there are partisan battles to come very quickly over the debt ceiling and many other things...
CORNISH: Yeah, I think in just a few weeks, right?
INSKEEP: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe minutes, maybe minutes. This is a national moment. This is a civic moment for people of all parties or all political beliefs.
CORNISH: It is, it is. It's interesting looking over the crowd now, the U.S. Marine Band is just starting to fill in, sousaphones up, is a good time, right? We're getting close to the time. But I'm also struck at seeing the families that were coming in, in a way. I mean, it's pretty early to be bringing your kids out, but there are still people who do that because they think that this is a valuable event.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
CORNISH: And a legacy that they want to pass on.
INSKEEP: OK. That's NPR's Audie Cornish. She's the new co-host of ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Welcome, by the way, to that job. We're looking forward to hearing more and more...
CORNISH: Oh, thank you. It's a bit of a hazing, I think.
INSKEEP: Hazing? Yeah, exactly. Hours and hours in the cold, that's what you get to do. We'll have live coverage beginning in just a few minutes. Renee, let's go back to you in the studio.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Well, from the studio, I'm going to go out again to talk to NPR's Linda Wertheimer. She is at a place that has a very good view of the activities there on the Mall. That happens to be the Canadian embassy. And just one thing: the West Front of the Capitol is decorated in red, white and blue. That is the backdrop for President Obama's second Inauguration. And Linda has seen every Inauguration since the second time President Richard Nixon was sworn into office, his second inaugural. Good morning.
LINDA WERTHEIMER, BYLINE: Good morning, Renee. We should say that the first Nixon inaugural, NPR did not yet exist.
MONTAGNE: Oh, that would be right.
(LAUGHTER)
WERTHEIMER: I was unable to go to it.
MONTAGNE: I was being born right about that time. Tell us what was important, I gather, at that particular Inauguration. It happens to be a location change.
WERTHEIMER: It was - that location, the East Front of the Capitol, that was where President Lincoln, for example, addressed in his second inaugural, it came from the East Front. And it was turned around after the - Jimmy Carter was, I guess, the last on the East Front. Then they turned it around to the West Front with President Reagan.
What I remember - of course, and what all reporters always remember is what happened to us at the inaugural. In this case, we'd had a heavy snowfall the night before the Nixon speech, and our little perch, which was way up high, was swaying, and the Secret Service didn't want to let us go up stairs. So we had a small fight and a tussle, and we finally got up there.
But there was some concern that it would fall down during the course of the Inauguration. Thank God it did not.
MONTAGNE: Well, these Inaugurations are also fraught with all kinds of logistical issues, and the security measures we're all familiar with now, they're very extensive. But I gather you have seen some moments that have felt risky, and I'm thinking here of Jimmy Carter getting out and walking around.
WERTHEIMER: Well, that's true. Jimmy Carter got out of the car - the first time anyone had ever seen that - and walked around with his wife, Rosalynn Carter, for the last part of the inaugural parade, leading the parade on foot, in fact. And - but the thing is, Renee, you've got to remember that that was before 9/11.
Before 9/11, things were different. Things didn't feel quite the same. I think we've all felt a little tremor of fear every time since then that a president has gotten out of the car. And there was a lot of concern that President Obama would do it in his last Inauguration, and he did. And we assume that he will do it again.
MONTAGNE: And what about memorable - let's say quotations - the beautiful things people have said?
WERTHEIMER: Well, of course, ask not - you know, that was the Kennedy, ask not what you can do - what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Those - I think there are only a very few lines that are really, really memorable from inaugural addresses. And I've seen so many, and I have to say that I'm sorry that I cannot remember very many of the speeches at all.
One of the things, of course, that might be a sort of little, tiny bit of advice from President Lincoln's second inaugural was the way he began it. He said: at the second appearing to take the oath of office of the president, there is less occasion, said President Lincoln, for an extended address than there was at the first. Now, that's good advice for every president who has a second inaugural.
But in my experience, the last two didn't take it.
MONTAGNE: Well just, you know, briefly, Linda, we just have about 30 seconds here: How is the second inaugural different from last time? And not just because it's not as cold as four years ago?
(LAUGHTER)
WERTHEIMER: That was - well, it was not the coldest inaugural in history. That was when President Reagan's second inaugural, which was canceled because it was too cold to be outside. President Obama's inaugural was very uncomfortable and very cold. But I think that this is - this is the feeling, I think, that we're getting from the president is that he has things left to do, and not as many concerns about - of course, no concerns about being reelected.
MONTAGNE: Right.
WERTHEIMER: And that gives him, that gives the whole thing a kind of a different and perhaps a little more urgent flavor.
MONTAGNE: NPR's Linda Wertheimer at the Canadian Embassy. You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
All right, recommendations for reading. How about recommendations for new music? It is hard to keep track of all the great new songs being played every day. But our team at NPR Music has a project that highlights some of the best new tunes out there, suggestions coming from experts in our public radio family.
Each month, NPR Music reaches out to hosts and program directors at five member stations around the country and asks them to share a favorite new song. They're calling the series Heavy Rotation. And the entire list is at NPR.org. Each month we'll feature one of those tracks here on MORNING EDITION. And this pick comes to us from the great Pacific Northwest.
MATT FLEEGER: My name is Matt Fleeger. I'm the program director at KMHD Jazz Radio in Portland Oregon.
GREENE: Fleeger has been working in jazz radio for more than a decade. The 36-year-old currently hosts a show called "New Jazz for Lunch."
FLEEGER: We try and play cutting edge music on the show, that is maybe outside the box a little bit for jazz and also looking for new sounds that are out there happening today.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROJECT TRIO SONG, "SWEAT PEA")
FLEEGER: The name of the song I picked for Heavy Rotation is "Sweat Pea" by the Project Trio.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROJECT TRIO SONG, "SWEAT PEA")
FLEEGER: I picked this song because it has got a hook to it. It was one of these songs we came across in the summer and immediately we started to hear the phones ring when we played it on the air from people asking it what it was. And it's a pretty simple song. But it's got kind of an interesting groove to it.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROJECT TRIO SONG, "SWEAT PEA")
FLEEGER: The Project Trio, technically what they are doing is playing chamber music. It's cello, upright bass and flute. Those are the only instruments in the band, but they make a pretty big sound with those three simple acoustic instruments. And most of that is probably due to Greg Patillo and his beat-boxing technique on the flute.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROJECT TRIO SONG, "SWEET PEA")
FLEEGER: Typically, what we hear from listeners when we play this song is, what was that?
(LAUGHTER)
FLEEGER: It's hard to put your finger on what is the genre of music is here. Is it chamber music, is it Americana? Is it jazz? That's the great part about this song.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROJECT TRIO SONG, "SWEET PEA")
GREENE: That's Matt Fleeger of KMHD Jazz Radio in Portland with his pick for the series Heavy Rotation. The song is "Sweet Pea" by Project Trio.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROJECT TRIO SONG, "SWEET PEA")
GREENE: You're Listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Tina Brown is with us once again. She brings us reading recommendations. We call the feature Word of Mouth. Tina Brown is, of course, the editor of The Daily Beast and Newsweek, in addition to being a regular guest here.
Tina, welcome back to the program, Happy New Year.
TINA BROWN: Happy New Year to you, Steve.
INSKEEP: And you have sent us three recommended readings, each of them revealing a hidden life story. And the first is a book called "Bend Not Break." Who's the author?
BROWN: The author is a really fascinating woman named Ping Fu. You know, she's the founder of technology company, Geomagic in North Carolina that develops software that takes the data from 3D scanners, and prints it out with 3D printers. But the interesting part of her story obviously is that she was raised in the Cultural Revolution in China. And her telling what she went through as a young girl whose life was utterly blown apart by the Cultural Revolution and how she winds up getting here, and becoming this enormously successful tech entrepreneur is absolutely compelling.
INSKEEP: She was born in China in a time of great turmoil in that country.
BROWN: Great turmoil, Mao decides that he's going to start the Cultural Revolution and send anyone who is an academic or a, you know, a person of middle-class values, or any kind of aspiration into the rural lands of China. And poor Ping Fu is a young girl. And when she's eight, the door bursts open. The Red Guards arrive and they take this child, the wrench her out, stick her on a train to Nanking. They get there and she's taken to this, you know, community of Red Guard (unintelligible) really, like a, sort of, house arrest really, where she's put with her four-year-old sister.
For the next 10 years, she raises her little sister in this kind of cell-room, constantly humiliated. They make her do things like eat, they call, bitter meals, which is made out of dung and dirt, to tell you that your person of absolute nothing; that you're a person who, you know, must forfeit any kind of sense of self-respect.
And for the next 10 years, she's un-parented, she's unschooled. And this is the woman who eventually, however, manages to, at the end of the Cultural Revolution, she goes to university. She writes an incredibly brave thesis about infanticide in China. And as a result, she's told that she has to leave. She's deported to America, arrives here with, you know, a few dollars in her pocket. Attends a university in New Mexico and winds up becoming this tech entrepreneur out of her own brilliant, you know, intellectual skills which had been completely unschooled.
I mean this is a woman who's really a remarkable figure.
INSKEEP: Unbelievable story just that reminds you of human resilience, you take away everything from somebody and still they rise. They come back.
BROWN: And still they rise. And, you know, she has - what's wonderful about the book is really her sort of philosophical thoughts about that very fact. And it's very, very moving, indeed. You know, when she talks about how we have to bend but not break. She says: We put ourselves back together and we find that we're no longer perfectly straight, but rather bent and cracked. Yet it is through these cracks that our authenticity shines.
INSKEEP: You've also sent us a hidden life story from Vanity Fair, a magazine you used to edit. The headline is "The Ghost in the Gulfstream." Who was that ghost?
BROWN: Well, this is a very entertaining piece by a writer called Rich Cohen, who describes what it's like to be hired as the ghost of a billionaire.
INSKEEP: The ghostwriter, right.
BROWN: Yeah, the ghostwriter was Rich Cohen who writes for Vanity Fair. But Ted Forstmann, who is the subject of his piece, was a pioneer of private equity and a legend in the buyout trade; one of America's richest men. I knew him actually very well, so this piece is particularly amusing to me because he gets him so completely right.
And he talks about how Ted Forstmann wanted someone to tell his story exactly as he, Ted Forstmann, saw it. So he was looking for a writer who could present himself as the voice that's in Ted Forstmann's head. And this piece is about the relationship between the ghost and the billionaire, traveling around on Ted Forstmann's private plane, as Ted Forstmann gives his version of Ted Forstmann's life; and the writer developing a greater and greater sense of how he really sees Ted Forstmann.
He sees him as a generous and swashbuckling guy. But, at the same time, as he sort of separates from Ted to actually write the piece, Ted becomes more and more angry because Ted really wants to control this ghostwriter. He wants to feel that he's there as his, kind of, psychic other and won't let him go. So that the writer has to kind of break away and say, I have to write this book. And when he does that, Ted sees this as a great betrayal.
And the writer feels that this has been a kind of ongoing part in Forstmann's life, where he feels when people seek their own separate identity, really, Ted sort of rejects them and feels that he cannot - that this person is no longer this creature.
INSKEEP: You have also sent us a newspaper obituary. It's from The New York Times where some of the best newspaper writing takes place in the obituary section. The woman's name is Jean Vertefueille. She died at age 80. I'd never heard of her. What she?
BROWN: She has a fascinator. When I read this piece I was so intrigued by it and thought what a, you know, wonderful movie it would make, actually. It's the story of, you know, she joined the CIA in 1954. And she was considered a kind of a quiet foot soldier, you know, in the CIA.
At that time in the CIA women were not particularly regarded. She was absolutely brilliant in tracking and finding people's stories. And it was she that broke the case on the spy Aldrich Ames, who sold out America to the Soviets for $4.2 million.
INSKEEP: Wow.
BROWN: And he was a mole inside the CIA and it was Vertefeuille who began to figure out that it was this man in their own agency who was selling out their spies. And she came to the age of retirement and she was still upset that she did not manage to nail the spy. And she asked if she could spend her last few months on the job tracking him. And she had a breakthrough where she found that the payments hitting Ames's account actually coincided with these meetings with Soviet. And at that point she understood, put the two things together, and they arrested Aldrich Ames, who unbelievably served her up and said, you know, I'm not the spy, you know, she's the spy in the agency which, of course, you know, was absurd, and he was arrested and he's in prison now.
But it's a wonderful story of how a woman - a quiet, diligent, smart, conscientious woman trapped one of America's great traitors. And I think particularly an interesting story at a time where we're seeing a lot about female spies at the moment, you know, the hit TV show "Homeland."
INSKEEP: Yeah.
BROWN: The new movie "Zero Dark Thirty" about the tracking of Osama bin Laden. Now many of the CIA targeters, the people who track and put together and neatly build stories are, in fact, women because they seem to have these really great stories of conscientious detail work. And Jeanne Vertefeuille was absolutely one of the great, great analyst, spies and trackers that we have seen.
INSKEEP: Well, Tina Brown, thanks for making observations and drawing the connections between these articles and this book that you've sent us. Thanks very much.
BROWN: Thank you.
INSKEEP: The feature is "Word of Mouth." Tina Brown is editor of "The Daily Beast" and "Newsweek."
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It is the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. By now, most people think this marked the beginning of the long national battle over abortion, but as NPR's Julie Rovner reports, like just about everything else in the abortion debate, there's disagreement about that.
JULIE ROVNER, BYLINE: Here's how legendary ABC news anchor Howard K. Smith announced the news of the court's ruling 40 years ago.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NEWS BROADCAST)
ROVNER: And the conventional wisdom remained that the decision so polarized the nation that it has poisoned the landscape ever since.
MICHAEL TAYLOR: I'm not sure you could have such black and white in politics as you do today if the court had not taken this very aggressive position.
ROVNER: Michael Taylor is a long time anti-abortion activist and heads the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment.
TAYLOR: As another scholar said, the court has made legislators and citizens mute on this issue.
ROVNER: But the idea that it was the court's decision alone that touched off the debate is leading people to incorrect conclusions about other sensitive social issues, says Linda Greenhouse of Yale Law School
LINDA GREENHOUSE: When you look at the use that many people are now making of the backlash narrative, which is to look at the same-sex marriage issue and say, watch out, if you win in the courts, you're just going to have a big backlash like Roe. I don't believe it's true there.
ROVNER: So what did happen in the abortion debate? Greenhouse, who covered the Supreme Court for the New York Times for three decades, along with a Yale colleague recently wrote a book and a law review article based on new research about the debate leading up to Roe V. Wade. One thing they found is that what the court did in 1973 really started in the1960s.
She says one thing most people don't remember is that the move to relax state abortion laws came at first not from women's rights groups at all, rather it mostly came from the medical profession and a from prominent apolitical group of judges and lawyers called the American Law Institute. It said it was time to rewrite laws that made almost every abortion a crime in every state.
GREENHOUSE: These were heavily, heavily male-dominated professional organizations that looked at the regime of criminal abortion laws that were driving women to back alleys and were putting doctors in legal jeopardy if they acted in what they considered to be the best interests of their patients, and that's where the impetus for change really began.
ROVNER: Even those on the other side of the abortion debate don't dispute that. David O'Steen is executive director of the National Right to Life Committee. He noted that the American Law Institute's model law called for allowing abortions in cases of rape, incest, physical health of the pregnant woman and fetal abnormality.
DAVID O'STEEN: And that law was passed in a number of states. And between 1967 and 1970, a total of 19 states had legalized abortion for reasons other than to save the life of the mother.
ROVNER: It's the next part of Greenhouse's argument that's more controversial. She says one of the things that really politicized the abortion issue was the efforts of those working to re-elect then President Richard Nixon in 1972. They wanted to lure Northern Catholic voters, who had traditionally voted Democratic, over to the Republican Party.
GREENHOUSE: He was strongly advised by his strategists to make a play for a Northern urban Catholic Democratic vote, a kind of Northern strategy that mirrored the Southern strategy, which, of course, was aimed at peeling the white Democratic voters away from their traditional home in the Democratic Party. And we know how successful that was.
ROVNER: In fact, up until then, Republicans tended to be more in favor of abortion rights than Democrats, including, for much of his first term, Nixon himself.
GREENHOUSE: It's upside-down. It's a totally - it's like going through the looking glass into another world.
ROVNER: So, taking his aides' advice, Nixon switched sides on abortion, even reversing an earlier relaxation of an abortion ban in U.S. military facilities. Meanwhile, his staff painted his 1972 Democratic opponent, George McGovern, as a radical, using abortion as part of the rhetoric. Says David O'Steen of National Right To Life...
O'STEEN: You know, '72 was when the furthest-left element of the Democratic Party really gained control, and if you remember those who opposed McGovern used a slogan: Abortion, Amnesty and Acid.
ROVNER: Amnesty, of course, referring to those who dodged the draft for the Vietnam War. And the campaign did work. Nixon went on to trounce McGovern that November.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED TAPE)
ROVNER: But it wasn't just the doctors and lawyers or the politicians who got the debate before the Supreme Court did. It was also the Catholic Church. Jon O'Brien is president of the abortion-rights group, Catholics for Choice.
JON O'BRIEN: During Vatican II, in the mid '60s, the Pope instructed the U.S. bishops to make abortion a priority. And they did.
ROVNER: Keeping abortion illegal, that is. But, O'Brien says, the church didn't necessarily want to be seen as the leader of that movement. Why not? Because, he says, most of their flock didn't agree with them.
O'BRIEN: A majority of Catholics, even back in the 1960s, believes that the abortion decision should be between a woman and her doctor.
ROVNER: So, he says, the church created groups that were not overtly church sponsored.
O'BRIEN: And what they wanted to do was give the appearance of having a grassroots movement, when really this was the Catholic hierarchy at work to make abortion illegal in the United States of America and to keep it so.
ROVNER: Now, remember Michael Taylor, the head of the Committee for a Human Life Amendment? He's actually a living example of that. As a graduate student then working for the Conference of Catholic Bishops, he was asked by the church to run the original National Right to Life Committee, which the church originally set up.
TAYLOR: I was asked, would I temporarily shepherd this thing until it could get on its feet independently. And I did that. I started that in '69; I went full time in '70.
ROVNER: The Right to Life Committee was spun off into an independent organization in 1973. And both current Executive Director O'Steen, who is not Catholic, and Taylor insist that the anti-abortion movement is both nonsectarian and very grassroots.
TAYLOR: Nobody runs a grassroots movement. I think the pro-life movement is one of the strongest grassroots movements in the history of this country.
ROVNER: But the fact remains that the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade is anything but the 40th anniversary of the nation's abortion debate. And despite all the years of strife, it seems that not that many minds have been changed. A poll by the Pew Research Center out last week, found that over the past two decades, opinion on whether or not Roe should be overturned has barely changed.
Sixty-three percent of respondents want it left in place now, compared to 60 percent in 1992. Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENE: This is NPR News.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Now if you own an electric car, like say the Nissan Leaf, and you use an electric vehicle charger, well, here's something you might not know. That charger may have been made by the same company that makes drones - the unmanned aircraft used by our military. The company is called AeroVironment. It's based outside Los Angeles.
It is a firm with a strange combination of specialties. And NPR's Amy Walters says that has a lot to do with its creator.
AMY WALTERS, BYLINE: Paul MacCready loved things that fly.
PAUL MACCREADY: As a youngster, I was very interested in model airplanes, ornithopters, autogyros, helicopters, gliders, power planes...
WALTERS: MacCready passed away in 2007. That was from a speech he made at a TED conference in 2003. But as obsessed as he was with flying things, MacCready never wanted to break the sound barrier like Chuck Yaeger or buzz the control tower like Maverick in "Top Gun".
He loved nature, and MacCready's dream was to create - birds - or recreate them. He founded AeroVironment in 1971. His designs were very light and flew incredibly slow with just enough power to stay aloft. But passion and interest don't always make money. And MacCready found himself in debt, to the tune of $100,000.
MACCREADY: And I noticed that the Kremer prize for human-powered flight was 50,000 pounds, which at the exchange rate was just about $100,000, so suddenly I was interested in human-powered flight.
WALTERS: The result was the Gossamer Condor.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: The only obstacle left is the 10-foot finish poll.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERS)
WALTERS: A pilot peddled MacCready's ultra light plane - through the air.
(SOUNDBITE OF CROWD CHATTER AND CHEERS)
WALTERS: Paul MacCready won the prize. That first human-powered plane led to solar-powered planes; the planes led to cars. But, the evolution was far from linear.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Ready.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: Launching.
WALTERS: Enter the Raven, an AeroVironment drone.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOTOR REVVING)
WALTERS: That's what you're hearing right now. You'll notice the company's fondness for ornithological nomenclature. Sergeant Michael Sustad trained on the Raven in Afghanistan. It's so small you can launch it with your bare hand.
SERGEANT MICHAEL SUSTAD: It has cameras, GPS, so that when it comes back, we can brief our commanders what's going on at that location.
ROGER KHOUREY: You might want to stand back because I'm about to plug the charge cable in.
WALTERS: Rodger Khourey is a senior electronics engineer with AeroVironment in California.
KHOUREY: the sound it will make will be a high pitch, whining - it sound like somebody's whistling to a dog.
WALTERS: Khourey is testing AeroVironment's other specialty - electric vehicle charging stations made to line U.S. highways. The difference between his company's products doesn't escape him.
KHOUREY: One flies the other doesn't.
WALTERS: The core technologies are the same though, and that means engineering staff can move from one side of the company to the other. And Department of Defense contracts pick of the tab for all kinds of new research and development, including the Switchblade, the first hand held drone that spies, and shoots.
When production began, Tim Conver, the company's current president - says he had to sit the staff down for a little talk.
TIM CONVER: And I think a lot of individuals that initially taken aback - what are we doing making weapons systems? - either got comfortable with it or, in some cases said, you know, I'm not really, I don't want to work on that program. I'm fine with us doing it, but I don't want to work on it myself. No problem.
WALTERS: When I asked Conver if the company had drifted from its beginnings, he said no.
CONVER: I understand that it's conventional wisdom that you have defense and you've got environment here, but as you can see, I don't see any inherent conflict.
WALTERS: Drones make up over three quarters of AeroVironment's revenue and the industry is moving at a quick pace with over four percent growth projected over the next 10 years.
The future of AeroVironment's Electrical vehicle charger business is less predictable. That will depend on U.S. demand for electric cars.
Amy Walters, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We are also following news from overseas, including Greece, where the news is in the air. Austerity has changed the look and the smell of the atmosphere in Athens. Wood smoke pours from tens of thousands of fireplaces and wood-burning stoves. They're used by people who can no longer afford heating oil. And their shortage of cash is today's business bottom line. Some desperate Greeks are even raiding protected forests to find fuel, raising fears of mass deforestation on a scale not seen in Greece since the Second World War. Joanna Kakissis reports.
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: Sotiris Sotiriou and his two young daughters are wearing thick sweaters and adding wood from olive-tree saplings into the flames of their living-room fireplace.
SOTIRIS SOTIRIOU: (Greek spoken)
KAKISSIS: Last year, the fireplace was just decorative, he says. This year it's how we heat our home.
Like many Greeks, Sotiriou and his wife, Haroula Lappa, cannot afford to buy heating oil. Sotiriou has no business at the home-improvement store he owns since the construction industry has all but halted. And nearly all of Haroula's salary as a court clerk goes to their monthly mortgage payment of about $900.
HAROULA LAPPA: (Greek spoken)
KAKISSIS: At least the wood from the olive trees is free, Haroula says. The trees are on a family plot outside Athens. On a walk in her quiet blue-collar suburb, we smell wood smoke from other fireplaces. Two weeks ago, she smelled something else.
LAPPA: (Through translator) It smelled like burning paint. Someone must have been a burning door with the windows still set in. When the girls and I were walking home, it was hard to breathe. We used our coats as masks.
KAKISSIS: Stephanos Sambatakakis of the Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention is worried that the poorest Greeks are actually burning old furniture to stay warm. He says those noxious fumes could soon give people some nasty ailments.
STEPHANOS SAMBATAKAKIS: Inflammation on their eyes, difficulty during respiration, headaches and nausea.
KAKISSIS: Scientists are now studying the particles in the fumes, which Sambatakakis says could also cause lung inflammation.
SAMBATAKAKIS: And in extreme cases, lung cancer.
KAKISSIS: Environmentalist Grigoris Gourdomichalis is on a Jeep patrol in a protected forest on a hill west of Athens. Illegal logging is rampant here. He says it's not just the poor chopping saplings to use as fuel to stay warm. Poachers also sell the wood for profit.
GRIGORIS GOURDOMICHALIS: (Through translator) Before World War II, this forest had so many trees. But the Germans and Italians took the heating oil and coal during the war and the Greeks were forced to chop down all the trees for firewood so they could cook and keep themselves warm. The forest has since recovered so we can't let it be destroyed again.
KAKISSIS: Gourdomichalis says the patrols have stopped some of the deforestation.
GOURDOMICHALIS: (Greek spoken)
KAKISSIS: But then he and a colleague spot another threat to the forest. Someone has destroyed a giant water tank used to fight summer forest fires. Gourdomichalis says the tank's steel frame was cut to be sold as scrap metal.
GOURDOMICHALIS: (Greek spoken)
KAKISSIS: People are destroying everything in a desperate effort to survive, or they're using the crisis to make a profit, he says.
GOURDOMICHALIS: (Greek spoken)
KAKISSIS: He peers out the Jeep's window. It's getting dark and he sees a smoky fog starting to hang over his city. For NPR News, I'm Joanna Kakissis in Athens.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This year marks the 20th anniversary of a remarkable year in music.
(SOUNDBITE OF A MEDLEY OF RAP SONGS)
INSKEEP: Over the 12 months of 1993, Queen Latifah, De La Soul, Salt n Pepa, Clan, Snoop Dogg, A Tribe Called Quest, the Wu-Tang Clan, and more than a dozen other rappers released albums that helped to change the sound of America. Some of this music grew out of the cultural and social upheaval after the Los Angeles riots.
NPR's Frannie Kelley kicks off a series about rap's greatest year, with a story on the album that started it all, drawing directly on the riots: Dr. Dre's "The Chronic."
FRANNIE KELLY, BYLINE: On this day in 1993, there were still burned-out buildings in South Central Los Angeles. It hadn't been a year since the acquittal of four police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. Anger at the verdict had not cooled and you could hear it in the music on the radio.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LET ME RIDE")
KELLY: Dr. Dre's "The Chronic" was in part a response to the riots, but its incendiary sound began long before the first match was lit. Five years earlier, his first group, NWA, put out this song. Dre made the beat and Ice Cube took the first verse.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE CHRONIC")
KELLY: NWA's tales of police brutality were not only prescient, they were also common knowledge, according to Matthew McDaniel, who was an intern at KDAY, a Los Angeles AM station devoted to hip-hop. He was also a filmmaker who interviewed just about everybody in the L.A. rap scene.
MICHAEL MCDANIEL: This is what was happening. This was the relationship with the cops and young black people, young Mexicans, and nobody seemed to care to even talk about it. So when they stepped out with that one, it was like, oh my god.
KELLY: The song was still huge when the Rodney King verdict came down on April 29, 1992. The city erupted.
MCDANIEL: We're out here, First AME Church, the day of the verdict of the Rodney King trial...
KELLY: That's Matthew McDaniel in the documentary he later made about the six days of chaos that followed the verdict. His camera captured furious Angelinos and one man in particular.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: If you ain't down for the ones that suffer in South Africa in apartheid, damn it, you need to step your punk ass to the side, and let us brothers and us Africans step in, and start putting some foot in that (bleep).
KELLY: McDaniel never got that man's name, but he says he listened to the clip over and over again.
MCDANIEL: I think he represented a million people that day.
KELLY: And there was another man. While he's speaking, he lifts a toddler onto his shoulders.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #5: I'ma tell you right now. If I have to die today for this little African right here to have a future, I'm a dead mother (bleep).
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: Right.
(APPLAUSE)
KELLY: McDaniel says he knew he had powerful tape. A month after the riots, he heard Dr. Dre was working on a new album.
MCDANIEL: At that point in time, you could just call Dr. Dre up on the phone.
(LAUGHTER)
MCDANIEL: You know, not so easy for people now. You know, but you could just get Dre's number, call him, he'll pick up the phone hello.
KELLY: No, it's not so easy now. Dr. Dre wasn't interested in speaking to NPR, but in 1997, he did give an interview to the makers of a documentary called "Rhythm and Rhyme."
: The music talks about crime, violence and drugs because it exist. I mean, for me, it's nothing political to it. Some people involve it in politics and what have you. But for me, I love doing it. And it also makes money. It's going to better my life and my family's life.
KELLY: Dre wanted to make an album that people would like enough to buy. He wound up using pieces of McDaniel's footage from the riots in not one but two songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIL GHETTO BOY")
KELLY: That one, and "Lil Ghetto Boy" and (bleep)...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, " THE DAY THE NIGGAZ TOOK OVER")
KELLY: The hard-edged album made millions for Dre, his label and the record stores that sold it. It was arguably the first rap album to reach well beyond the rap audience. But filmmaker Matthew McDaniel, whose clips Dr. Dre sampled, says back in 1993, not everybody was happy about rap's growing popularity.
MCDANIEL: People's parents, like, don't listen to that. You know, for one reason or another - racial reasons, cultural, the differences in generations. My family, I was the youngest out of six. And nobody - nobody appreciated it. They thought it was a complete waste of time.
KELLY: But McDaniel says "The Chronic" is still worth listening to, even 20 years later.
MCDANIEL: It's a document, it's an audio document with a lot of creativity and art and entertainment going along with it. Some people might think that that's wrong but it's art, it's poetry. And it's supposed to have pain in it. You can gather that from listening to "The Chronic" - about the L.A. riots - you can feel it, you can kind of understand. And a lot of people agree that they captured it incredibly well.
KELLY: McDaniel says the album doesn't have all the answers and it didn't solve the problems of its time. Its low-riding party music, intended to provide an escape and a voice for the anger and frustrations, born from burned out buildings, grinding poverty and a feeling that nobody cares.
Frannie Kelley, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LET ME RIDE")
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LET ME RIDE")
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And I'm David Greene.
Four years ago, President Obama delivered an inaugural speech that many viewed as somber. He took office facing two wars and a global economic crisis.
INSKEEP: Yesterday, the president declared a decade of war is now ending. And he took a position in the economic battles that remain.
GREENE: He defended the role of government. And in a time of fierce partisanship, he told his supporters that he would need more than their votes - also their voices.
INSKEEP: We're hearing parts of the speech and responses to it throughout today's program. Here's NPR's Mara Liasson.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Yesterday's inaugural ceremonies were smaller and a little more subdued than President Obama's first historic, euphoric celebration four years ago. Instead of 10 balls, there were just two last night, with performances from Katie Perry, Smokie Robinson, Stevie Wonder and Alicia Keys.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
LIASSON: Earlier in the day, in the cold sunshine on the west front of the Capitol building, Mr. Obama took the oath of office.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear...
CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS: That I will faithfully execute...
OBAMA: ...that I will faithfully execute...
ROBERTS: .the office of president of the United States...
OBAMA: ...the office of president of the United States...
ROBERTS: ...and will, to the best of my ability...
OBAMA: ...and will, to the best of my ability...
ROBERTS: ...preserve, protect and defend...
OBAMA: ...preserve, protect and defend...
ROBERTS: ...the Constitution of the United States.
OBAMA: ...the Constitution of the United States.
ROBERTS: So help you God.
OBAMA: So help me God.
ROBERTS: Congratulations, Mr. President.
(APPLAUSE)
LIASSON: The coincidence of the King holiday, in the year that marks the 150th anniversary of emancipation, made civil rights a theme through the day's events.
The president took the oath on King's Bible and the invocation was given by Myrlie Evers, the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
MYRLIE EVERS: We come at this time to ask blessings upon our leaders, the president, vice president, members of Congress, all elected and appointed officials of the United States of America.
LIASSON: President Obama's inaugural address was short - just 18 minutes - and it was a ringing endorsement of the belief that government can help reduce economic and social inequality and make sure that America's prosperity rests, as he put it, on the broad shoulders of a rising middle class.
The president gave only a nod to reducing the deficit, saying we must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care. But he made a ringing defense of entitlement programs, saying that any one of us at any time may face a sudden illness.
OBAMA: The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us.
They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.
LIASSON: That was a jab at Mitt Romney, who last year said the president bought off half the electorate with government goodies.
Unlike his first inaugural address, where the president talked in lofty terms about transcending partisanship, this speech was more openly liberal. He invoked Selma, Seneca Falls, but also Stonewall, a historic first.
OBAMA: Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.
LIASSON: The speech was a preview of the more programmatic State of the Union address Mr. Obama will deliver three weeks from today. He grounded his agenda in American values. We will respond to the threat of climate change, he said, because failure to do so would betray future generations. And he cast immigration reform as a way to live up to America's founding principles.
OBAMA: Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity, until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.
LIASSON: Mr. Obama expressed a sense of urgency - a desire to get done what he could in the small amount of time he has left to do it.
OBAMA: Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time.
LIASSON: We can't afford delay, he said, and he cautioned his supporters that, quote, "our work will be imperfect, our victories only partial." And he asked the public to stay engaged, particularly those supporters who propelled him to victory in the fall.
It was a festive non-partisan day, when politics took a backseat. There was a bipartisan lunch at the Capitol and a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, and a memorable rendition of the national anthem by someone who's almost as big a celebrity as President Obama, Beyonce Knowles.
(SOUNDBITE OF NATIONAL ANTHEM)
LIASSON: Mara Liasson, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK. It is not clear if Congress and the White House will figure out how to work together but they at least figured out how to eat a buffalo.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
After the inauguration, members of Congress welcomed the president to a lunch of bison tenderloin. Afterwards, some told reporters what they thought of the speech. Here's NPR's David Welna.
DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: Some members of Congress played it safe when asked about the president's inaugural. Buck McKeon is the California Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee.
REPRESENTATIVE BUCK MCKEON: He's one of the best speechmakers I've heard. You know, I'm not going to critique his speech.
WELNA: McKeon has reason to hold back. He's at odds with his own party because he thinks Republicans should not be using the automatic military and domestic spending cuts, known as the sequester, as leverage to push for entitlement reforms. But other Republicans faulted the president, for their view, showing no sense of urgency about such reforms. Rob Portman is a senator from Ohio.
SENATOR ROB PORTER: If I were to listen to that speech not knowing the condition of our country, I would think that we didn't have a record deficit and debt and that we were able to keep our current programs in place on the entitlement side. Because he talked about that - the importance of those programs - and I think he missed an opportunity.
WELNA: Democrats, on the other hand, felt reassured by the president's defense of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. California Congresswoman Maxine Waters said Mr. Obama needed to show he won't be giving away the store to make peace with the Republicans.
REPRESENTATIVE MAXINE WATERS: And to make sure that whatever the negotiations are, we don't have deep cuts in areas that provide a safety net for the people. So I think he's all right, he's onboard on that.
WELNA: The president's vow to respond to the threat of climate change prompted some of the sharpest reactions from his political adversaries. Senator Chuck Grassley is an Iowa Republican.
SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY: His own EPA director a couple of years ago testified before the House that the United States by itself is not going to accomplish the global warming problem. It's going to have to be done on a worldwide basis. And so we ought to be working on an international treaty as opposed to individual legislation for the United States.
WELNA: Other Republicans insisted the jury is still out on whether humans are responsible for climate change. Roger Wicker is a senator from Mississippi.
SENATOR ROGER WICKER: Regardless of what the science shows, can we by enacting policies change what is happening? That's another question that I think we need to have a debate about.
SENATOR MARK BEGICH: I think people who think that you can only be one side or the other live in the past.
WELNA: That's Senator Mark Begich, a Democrat from Alaska. He says the debate should be about how both developing energy and curbing climate change can move forward.
BEGICH: I live in a state that understands oil and gas. I'm a big supporter of it, will continue to be a big supporter of oil and gas, because that is going to be part of our energy picture for years to come. But you can do things around climate change and look at the economic elements of it.
WELNA: One thing Democrats and Republicans could agree on was that it was a day to take a break from all the rancor and let the president have his say. Congressman John Lewis is a Democrat from Georgia, who's a veteran civil rights activist.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN LEWIS: He was saying, yes, we're black and white, Latino, Asian-American, Native American, but we're also, we're gay, we're straight, we're one people, we're one nation. It was a beautiful day.
WELNA: One that Lewis said Dr. Martin Luther King would have been proud of. David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
In his inaugural address yesterday, President Obama pressed Americans to put aside mindless partisanship. He said we cannot treat name-calling as reasoned debate. At the same time, he strongly defended his political views, voicing support for gay rights and the role of government.
The crowd of supporters out on the National Mall liked it. Republicans watching in Texas had a different view. Here's NPR's Wade Goodwyn.
JASON'S GRANDMOTHER: You want to do it?
WADE GOODWYN, BYLINE: Almost 9, Jason Burke is in the kitchen making strawberry cupcakes with his little brother and grandmother, as a warm Monday afternoon fades away.
JASON'S GRANDMOTHER: We're going to put a couple of cupcakes in and...
JASON BURKE: What kind of eggs are they?
JASON'S GRANDMOTHER: Regular.
GOODWYN: But Jason's grandfather, 79-year-old George Burke, is sitting flabbergasted in the living room after watching President Obama's inaugural address.
GEORGE BURKE: That was an absolutely - they're complaining about the Republicans being to the right, and they want to go more to the left? Get serious. I mean, American people are not stupid.
GOODWYN: Burke said he wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but he was not expecting a vigorous defense of liberal ideals.
BURKE: I thought he would go ahead and have a little more of, let's go ahead and work together as a team, and get America back on the right track. However, he doesn't appear to have that kind of agenda. It appears to be, let's go ahead and see if we can go ahead and whip everything our way, and make it a socialist state.
GOODWYN: Down the street, Republican precinct chair Ann Teague is still not sure Obama is constitutionally qualified to take the oath of office.
ANN TEAGUE: We never saw a birth certificate. We never met any of the professors who went to school with our president.
GOODWYN: It is almost impossible for rank-and-file Republicans to think about Obama's second inauguration, and not have it turned into a conversation about how the GOP does better next time. Debora Georgatos is a conservative activist who is trying to attract women back to the Republican Party. She's written a book to that end, entitled "Ladies, Can We Talk?"
DEBORA GEORGATOS: In this election cycle, my sense was that it was the president's - in my view, it's pandering. But through their HHS mandate that free birth control had to be provided to women, I thought it was like a lure to become dependent on government. To me, that was a complete U-turn from what feminists used to always stand for.
GOODWYN: The theory that President Obama won the election by promising federal goodies, is widespread through the GOP; as Obama acknowledged, in his speech. So beginning on day one after the inauguration, the task for Republicans like Georgatos becomes weaning enough voters off the mind-altering federal largess so they can again see the world clearly enough to vote Republican.
GEORGATOS: Recipients of government assistance need to be looked at as victims who've been entrapped by policies the Democrats have created over the last 40 or 50 years, and it has robbed them of the opportunity to be participants in this fabulous American dream.
GOODWYN: For freshman Republican politicians heading to Washington, this is a challenging time. Newly elected Florida congressman Trey Radel believes that impeachment of the president, because of his stand on gun control, should be an option, and he decries unfair, partisan attacks by Capitol Hill Democrats.
REP. TREY RADEL: Every time that the Republicans try and talk about something like immigration reform, Republicans are called racist. If we use a budget to say that we really, truly need to tackle our problems when it comes to saving Medicare and Social Security, the Republicans have been labeled as nothing but people who hate your grandparents.
GOODWYN: It is frustrating to be an out-of-power Republican; and the prospect of four more years of it, is maddening.
Wade Goodwyn, NPR News, Dallas.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Alright, an inauguration is never complete without a night of inaugural balls. Both official events were held at the Washington Convention Center.
NPR's Allison Aubrey went to check out the scene and meet the guests who were there. Turns out, when you get a ticket to a ball with the president of the United States, you just get to Washington. Who needs a hotel?
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: When Danielle Cantor and her friends snagged tickets to the inaugural ball, a few weeks back, they immediately started planning. One would fly in from Chicago, another from Idaho, and they'd all crash on a mattress at her place here in D.C. After months of working long hours as campaign staffers, they were excited to slip on gowns, pop open some bubbly and celebrate.
(SOUNDBITE OF CORK POPPING)
AUBREY: By 6 P.M. last night, they found themselves in a long line that wrapped around Washington's Convention Center, just waiting and waiting to get in.
DANIELLE CANTOR: Yeah, I'm obviously cold. I'm freezing.
AUBREY: Once inside, the crowd warmed up quickly when performer Alicia Keys started to sing a version of "Girl on Fire." It became Obama is on fire.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OBAMA IS ON FIRE")
AUBREY: By this point the house was packed, it was shoulder-to-shoulder, and the crowd at the bar paid nine bucks for a glass of bubbly. A beer was $6.
On stage, country music star Brad Paisley talked to the crowd in between songs.
BRAD PAISLEY: Our democracy is the envy of the world and tonight we celebrate my getting drunk in a huge convention center.
(LAUGHTER)
AUBREY: By 9 P.M., the Obamas had not yet arrived. But it was, of course, the moment everyone was waiting for. So what did it feel like? Well, there were no waiters in gloves passing canapés. There were just some munchies scattered about. And this certainly was not 1789, when President George Washington was said to have danced the minuet at two cotillions.
In fact, it was hard to spot any dancing at all. In the crowd though, we did spot celebrity performer Will.I.am, who'd been taking it all in.
WILL.I.AM: Yeah, it's a different age. This age, we live in a hyper social experience...
AUBREY: Lots of the ball-goers were busy snapping photos of themselves and their friends to post on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.
WILL.I.AM: Capturing moments so we can share that moment. You know, so this after all is over here.
AUBREY: The band Fun did its part to amp up the celebratory spirit.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WE ARE YOUNG")
AUBREY: When the president and first lady did arrive, their first stop was at the Commander-In-Chiefs Ball, held for men and women in uniform. Even troops in Afghanistan were connected to the ball via video link. And the president addressed all of them.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Thank you for volunteering. Thank you for stepping up. Thank you for keeping us strong. Thank you for always making us proud.
AUBREY: The Obamas then made their way across the convention center to the other official inaugural ball. When they hit the dance floor - the president in his tux and the first lady in a bold, ruby red gown - they danced as Jennifer Hudson performed.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LET'S STAY TOGETHER")
AUBREY: And Danielle Cantor was thrilled.
CANTOR: Because I've been working really hard for a long time, it's just amazing to be here in person and see it, and just like feel the moment. And...
AUBREY: But the moment never lasts long, the Obamas departed and their motorcade arrived back at the South Lawn of the White House just a little after 10 P.M.
Allison Aubrey, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LET'S STAY TOGETHER")
GREENE: This is NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR business news starts with global unemployment figures.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: We usually focus on American unemployment, which has been going down. But world unemployment may hit record levels this year, according to an annual report by the International Labor Organization, which is forecasting that up to 202 million people who won't work will be out of work around this world this year.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Those numbers beat out 2009, which have been the worst year for an employment so far. The report notes that while the jobless crisis started in the developed world, three quarters of the newly unemployed are coming from developing nations, mainly in East Asia, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
INSKEEP: Let's move now to Japan, where that country's central bank has announced a new and ambitious monetary policy. It has set a goal of inflation. It wants inflation, two percent inflation, following years of ongoing deflation.
GREENE: The Bank of Japan will follow a plan similar to the U.S. Federal Reserve, increasing its purchases of government bonds and other financial assets to help stimulate inflation and economic growth.
INSKEEP: Economic growth, that's the important part there. But critics note that Japan already has a one percent inflation goal that it is not meeting, and has rising debts valued at more than twice its gross domestic product.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And today's last word in business is: Who do you trust with your money?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MONEY")
INSKEEP: Any excuse to play Pink Floyd. A new ranking suggests which industries consumers trust. And for the third year in a row, the industry consumers trust the least is the industry that you pretty much have to trust with your money.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
The public relations firm Edelman finds that consumers have very little trust in banks or financial services. For the banking industry the only good news is that their image problem used to be worse.
INSKEEP: trust in banks has grown in the past two years, though it is still below 50 percent and well below where it was before the financial crisis.
GREENE: Banking is a good deal less trusted than technology. Despite our concerns about privacy and complaints about how to use new gadgets, tech remains the most trusted industry, worldwide, at 81 percent.
And that is the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MONEY")
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Many inaugural addresses play on themes that President Obama touched on yesterday.
GREENE: He cited the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, our tradition of self-government and earlier inaugural addresses.
INSKEEP: That's all pretty normal. What is different about each inauguration address is how the president molds those themes into the moment.
GREENE: In this case, the moment is one of severe partisan divisions. And the president ended the speech with a call for Americans to do more than vote.
INSKEEP: He asked for their voices in his battles with Congress to come.
NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: In some ways, President Obama's second inauguration was a mirror image of his first. Four years ago, the record-smashing crowd was ecstatic, while the new president was somewhat subdued. He knew better than most the depth of the recession ahead.
This time around, the crowd's enthusiasm was tempered by the last four years. But Obama himself sounded upbeat, saying a decade of war is ending and the economy is finally taking off again.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment and we will seize it, so long as we seize it together.
(APPLAUSE)
HORSLEY: Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who'd once vowed to make Obama a one-term president, called yesterday's swearing-in a fresh start. McConnell says Republicans are eager to work with the president to reduce federal spending.
Obama agreed that the government needs to trim the deficit and health-care spending but not, he says, at the cost of education or the basic social safety net.
OBAMA: We reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.
(APPLAUSE)
HORSLEY: The president touched on areas he hopes to tackle in the next four years, including tax reform, an immigration overhaul and climate change. But detailed policy prescriptions will have to wait until next month's State of the Union Address. Yesterday's speech was aimed at rooting the president's policies in a long tradition of American politics.
CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS: So help you, God?
OBAMA: So help me, God.
ROBERTS: Congratulations, Mr. President
(APPLAUSE)
HORSLEY: As Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath, trouble-free this time, Obama rested his hand on two Bibles; one that belonged to Abraham Lincoln, the other to Martin Luther King. Obama could look past hundreds of thousands of spectators to the Lincoln Memorial, where 50 years ago, King challenged America to live up to the true meaning of its creed, that all men are created equal.
That truth may be self-evident, Obama says. But it's never been self-executing. Bringing the words to life, he called a never-ending journey.
OBAMA: We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else because she is an American. She is free. And she is equal not just in the eyes of God, but also in our own.
HORSLEY: Obama reminded his audience that even before Lincoln's time, the government invested in collective measures to boost the middle-class. And he spoke in the one breath of Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall, tying together the campaigns for equality for women, African-Americans and gays.
OBAMA: For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law.
(APPLAUSE)
HORSLEY: Obama was speaking just steps away from Supreme Court members, who are set to rule this year on two big cases involving same-sex marriage. He was also surrounded by members of Congress who could determine the fate of much of his agenda.
Republicans seem more likely to compromise on immigration reform, after losing big among Latinos in November, than they are on, say, guns. Obama says some differences are to be expected, but lawmakers shouldn't mistake absolutism for principle.
OBAMA: Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time. But it does require us to act in our time.
HORSLEY: Obama thinks one way to compel lawmakers to act is through public pressure. He's telling supporters even though the election is, over they need to stay engaged in the political process.
OBAMA: You and I as citizens have the obligation to shape the debates of our time not only with the votes we cast, but the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.
HORSLEY: By invoking those ancient values, Obama hopes to gain traction in the present day policy debates that may occupy much of the next four years.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK, if you stood near where the president stood yesterday at the west front of the Capitol, looking down from there, you see down the long strip of grass that is the National Mall, past the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
And that is about where I spent most of the day, Steve, in the farther reaches of the crowd. People were watching the speech on jumbotrons and when they asked everyone to rise for the presidential oath, people out there laughed. They yelled, oh, we're standing, because there were no seats that far out. I'll tell you yesterday, Steve, you could buy almost anything.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Obama earrings only $5. Obama earrings, here you go.
GREENE: One popular item they were selling was a winter hat that said Obama Back To Back across the front. Now, Steve, I was out there because I wanted to get a sense for what brought people to Washington, what they were taking from this day and what they're looking for in Obama's second term. Of course, this was both an inauguration day and also Martin Luther King Day, and I spent some time at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. And here's one person I met there.
REVEREND PATRICK KENNEDY: My name is Patrick Kennedy and I'm a priest in the Christian community.
GREENE: Rev. Kennedy had brought a Christian youth group along with him, teenagers from different parts of the east coast. And for him, visiting the King Memorial and also the Lincoln Memorial was more important than the inaugural festivities.
KENNEDY: It's kind of a party, Kelly Clarkston singing and Beyonce and stuff like that, but...
GREENE: But this is more important for what reason, would you say?
KENNEDY: Oh, well, nobody gets more free just because Barack Obama says I'm for the United States. He has a chance to do his work, which is great, but the things that Lincoln did and that Martin Luther King did, those are real actions that changed the world for the better.
GREENE: But for hundreds of thousands of people, this was all about the swearing in of Barack Obama, and that includes Tyeast Blanding. She's 45. She owns her own hair braiding business in Lynchburg, Virginia and she got on a bus at 2:00 A.M. to make it to Washington. Who did you bring here? Who are we (unintelligible)?
TYEAST BLANDING: This is my mom. I brought three generations with me actually, my mom, my niece is here and my sisters are all here.
GREENE: So Tyeast was all bundled up, face warmer across the face. She was taking bites of Twizzlers to fight the hunger and she was holding two American flags in her right hand. She waved them whenever something up on the big screen excited her. Bill Clinton comes out.
BLANDING: I loved him. He was actually our first black president.
(LAUGHTER)
GREENE: Which made me want to ask Tyeast about the nation's actual first black president. And as we stand here today on Martin Luther King Day, the inauguration, would you want to hear him talk about civil rights, race, being the first black president of this country? I mean, what would you like to hear in terms of that?
BLANDING: No. I don't think he should talk that because really, a lot of times it is said that we talk about that too much as far as the blame factor. We've accomplished a lot by him even getting this far. A lot of us never thought we'd see this in our lifetime and this is a big accomplishment and it doesn't even need to be talked about.
GREENE: One thing she did want the president to talk about was the economy. Like so many other small business owners in the country, Tyeast has struggled recently. She said she was willing to give President Obama four years to clean up what she said was a mess that he inherited, but now, she said, it is his economy to fix.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Let us answer the call of history.
GREENE: I stood beside Tyeast Blandon as she listened to the speech.
OBAMA: Thank you. God bless you. And may He forever bless these United States of America.
GREENE: So what did you think?
BLANDING: Great. Just great.
GREENE: And what message do you leave here with, when you leave Washington?
BLANDING: Hope that something's going to change in 2013.
GREENE: We were talking before about whether you think that, you know, a day like this can actually bring the country together politically. I mean, do you have hope of that?
BLANDING: I do now after listening to him.
GREENE: Why is that?
BLANDING: I don't know. He puts a positive spin on everything. Anything is possible.
GREENE: And, Steve, with that, Tyeast Blanding made her way back through the crowds to her bus and she got ready for one long ride home.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A new report coming out this week accuses police in Washington, D.C., of failing to properly investigate many rape cases. Human Rights Watch is calling for more oversight of the police force, and more help for people who experience sexual assault. The city's police chief is fighting back, saying the group's research is flawed. We should warn you that this report, which lasts a little more than three minutes, will be disturbing to some listeners. Here's NPR's Carrie Johnson.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: The forthcoming report, by Human Rights Watch, says between 2008 and 2011, police in Washington, D.C., failed to document or investigate about 200 cases of sexual assault and rape. Sara Darehshori spent nearly two years looking over law enforcement files and interviewing witnesses.
SARA DAREHSHORI: Over 40 percent of cases that we found victims who went to the hospital and reported a rape to the police in the District of Columbia, were effectively closed without investigation.
JOHNSON: Darehshori, a senior counsel at the human rights group, says she heard from rape survivors who said police downplayed their attacks, and questioned their credibility.
DAREHSHORI: Because sexual assault is already the most under-reported violent crime, because people fear that they'll be mistreated by the police - to hear that that fear had come true, for a number of people, was very concerning.
JOHNSON: One of those people is Eleanor, now 24 years old. NPR is not using her full name because it has a policy of not naming victims of assault. Two years ago, on Memorial Day weekend, Eleanor says she was walking home at 2:30 in the morning. A man approached her. He had a boxcutter, and he demanded her purse. Eleanor turned over the bag, but she says the man wasn't done. She says he led her into an alley, the boxcutter at her throat.
ELEANOR: And he tried to turn me, to face him. In doing so, he took the boxcutter away from my neck. And I grabbed his arm and managed to disarm him. And I screamed "rape" and "help me, I'm bleeding." And a man came running out into the alley; and this woman called down, and said she was calling 911.
JOHNSON: The police came and took her to the hospital. She was treated for stab wounds to both hands and her chest. But when Eleanor finally saw the police report, it made no mention of attempted rape or sexual assault.
ELEANOR: You know, shouldn't there be a record that I'm saying, like, he was trying to rape me? The man who came into the alley said he came into the alley because he heard a girl scream rape. That was not - none of that was in the report.
JOHNSON: One police officer asked her why she didn't just give up her purse, even though she had. Another told her she was brave for walking alone at night - something he said he wouldn't do. Eleanor says she let it go, at the time, but she wrote a letter to the D.C. police chief months later. Then she got a call from a police staffer that only made her more angry.
ELEANOR: He said, I can tell you're getting emotional on the phone. And I said you're - I was stabbed three times, and someone was trying to rape me; and you're calling it an "incident."
JOHNSON: A spokeswoman for D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier declined to talk on tape about the Human Rights Watch report. But she directed NPR to letters the chief had written about it. Chief Lanier says the group used flawed methods. She also argues the researchers don't have enough evidence to back up their claims.
She says the department has made lots of positive changes. But, Lanier says, she'll start evaluating officers on how well they respond to victims; and do more to follow up. Both sides have asked the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the police's sexual assault unit. The DOJ has uncovered similar problems in police forces in Arizona, New Orleans and Puerto Rico, over the past few years.
Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. President Obama's inaugural address signaled that while the election is over, the argument is not.
GREENE: The president continued defending the role of government. He promoted programs for the poor and elderly and turned a popular conservative catchphrase against those who use it.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our nation. They strengthen us.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: They do not make us a nation of takers. They free us to take the risks that make this country great.
GREENE: Later the president pushed Americans not to try to settle debates over government for all time but to act in our time.
INSKEEP: Let's get a Republican perspective on all this. Oklahoma Republican Congressman Tom Cole is on the line with us now. Congressman, welcome back to the program.
REPRESENTATIVE TOM COLE: Steve, thanks very much.
INSKEEP: Let's start with that notion that the president laid out there, his notion of setting aside the big ideological debates and agreeing on what we can now. Are House Republicans in a similar mood?
COLE: Well, actually, I think the president did anything but set aside the big ideological debates yesterday. I think he engaged in them. He laid them out very aggressively. Frankly, I think the big disappointment for me in the speech was that he really didn't talk to Americans who hadn't voted for him, and that's 48 percent of the public.
And he really didn't talk about what I think are the two big challenges we have, and that's an underperforming economy and a looming debt crisis that's linked very closely to the very programs that he and I both want to preserve. But they're not going to be able to be preserved without some serious changes.
INSKEEP: There was only a brief mention of reducing the deficit. I want to ask about that, though, because that's at the heart of the fiscal debates that are coming up in the coming weeks and months. The president does talk about deficit reduction that would include spending cuts.
Your side talks about spending cuts. Is there enough common ground to reach a deal?
COLE: Well, I hope so. I mean, the president - we worked with the president on the fiscal cliff issue, where he got a lot of revenue. Not just through income tax increases, which were already set to happen in law, and we compromised on which ones, but also through the payroll tax. So he's just gotten a big chunk of new revenue.
Now it's time - and there were no spending cuts, by the way, tied to any of that - now it's time, I think, during the debate over the across-the-board cuts, the so-called sequester, during the debates over the continuing resolution - that's government spending authority that runs out the end of March - and ultimately the debt ceiling itself - to address the other side of the equation. And that is spending restraint and long-term entitlement reform.
INSKEEP: Help us understand how you intend to get through all these deadlines that are coming up. We do know that House Republicans have signaled that they want to extend this debt ceiling to give the government authority to borrow money for a few more months - into May, perhaps - in order to allow time for a broader budget framework to be negotiated. Why take that approach?
COLE: Well, first of all, I think it does buy time. And I think we need a little bit. We have other crises to deal with and that's, again, the sequester and the CR, so to speak. And in addition to that, you know, we'd like the Democrats in the Senate to get serious. You know, the condition - the only condition we really attached to extending the debt limit is, hey(ph), Senate for the first time in four years has to actually write a budget, which it's statutorily required to do.
It's hard to have a debate when the other side won't lay out a position or even do what is mandated to do by law. So if we see the Democrats seriously write a budget, then we're going to have some common ground to start from and identify where our disagreements are. And hopefully, you know, find some compromise solutions.
INSKEEP: And we should remind people, I suppose, the budget is normally a 10 year projection. So it's a blueprint for spending. Could be a blueprint for deficit reduction.
COLE: It certainly could be. And I would actually hope that both sides acknowledge that has to occur. I mean, look, we can't continue to run trillion dollar deficits indefinitely. There's not an economist on the planet that thinks that's a fiscally sustainable course. So - again, these are things that have to get done. The president didn't deal with them in the first term.
There's an argument to be made he plenty else on his plate with a recovering economy, but we didn't deal with that. Now it's time to move on. And that could be an area of either cooperation or conflict. Probably will end up being both.
INSKEEP: Congressman, you mention that the president did push his positions pretty hard in the inaugural address. One of them is on climate change. He said, and this is a quote: "We will respond to the threat of climate change." This is an area of big partisan disagreement. Do significant numbers of your caucus, House Republicans, still deny that climate change is a problem?
COLE: Oh, there's a variety of opinions, but I think the real question is what are the solutions? And, look, I'm a kind of an all-of-the-above energy guy, but one of the places where I think the president missed the boat - one of the areas that is both good for the economy, leads to American energy independence and deals, at least partially, with climate change is natural gas.
The natural gas revolution is underway that been largely driven by private companies, but has made us increasingly energy secure. That's something we ought to be doing. It emits less than half the green gases of coal or oils So, you know, why shouldn't we celebrate a private-sector solution that actually produces jobs, wealth and tax revenue, as opposed to only government-oriented solutions?
INSKEEP: In a couple of seconds, can you support renewable energy in spite of skepticism and scandals?
COLE: Sure, I've supported wind power in the past and will continue to do so - I think there's a number of areas. But I'm skeptical, you know, too much government subsidy and not enough in the way of private activity and individual initiative.
INSKEEP: OK. Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole, it's always a pleasure. Thanks very much.
COLE: Thank you, Steve.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
During every inauguration, there's some degree of hometown pride on display, and President Obama's swearing-in yesterday was no different. Thousands of inauguration-goers made their way from the president's adopted hometown of Chicago. And it wasn't just seasoned politicians. Many were young people.
NPR's Sonari Glinton reports.
SONARI GLINTON, BYLINE: Among the many who made they're way from Chicago were about a dozen high school students. It was there first inauguration. For many, it was there first time to the nation's capital. But they're not necessarily political novices.
JANAKI THAKKER: Now that he was re-inaugurated, he doesn't have to be shy or scared about other people or what they think about him anymore.
GLINTON: Janaki Thakker is 16-year-old junior and she goes to West Chicago High School.
THAKKER: So he can literally say whatever he wants and how he feels about everything. And I think, like, this is the first time he bluntly said every single thing he believed in outright to the public. And I thought that was phenomenal.
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: I agree with everything she said.
(LAUGHTER)
GLINTON: Now, these weren't necessarily your normal, everyday teens. I mean they were but they're also a part of a program called Mikva Challenge, started by former congressman, judge, and Obama mentor Abner Mikva, to encourage young people to get involved in politics. They'd all volunteered for the campaign. They were all excited to be at inauguration. And almost all said they have more than hope. They have expectations.
Here's Elizeth Arguelles.
ELIZETH ARGUELLES, STUDENT, WEST CHICAGO HIGH SCHOOL: I really when Obama mentioned about the immigrants. But I want to believe him but I want to see, like, actions. I want to see him doing. I'm not, like, oh, he's going to do it. I really want him to make, like, his words into actions.
GLINTON: Finis Barrow is a 17-year-old senior at Gage Park High on Chicago's Southwest Side. He said the president's speech was personal.
FINIS BARROW: When Barack Obama talked about what he would want to do for gay rights and how he wanted them to be all equal, it touched me a little bit. You know, I screamed the loudest when he said gay rights. You know, I support them. Even though I'm not gay myself, I still support them. And I believe, like, they should be treated equally, just as I should.
GLINTON: All the kids said they were moved and the moment was historic. I asked Hannah Schlacter what that meant.
HANNAH SCHLACTER: It means that history was made. And I saw the movie "Lincoln" last night, and from there - 200 years ago - to now, my mind is blown. So I'm so proud to live in this country and that we have this equality and we have freedom. Seeing Barack Obama up there, I saw that he's an example of that. So does that answer your question?
GLINTON: Meanwhile, on the other side of the Mall and the age spectrum, was Minnie Rose. She politely refused to give her age. Rose says, like the young Hannah Schlacter, she came to bear witness.
MINNIE ROSE: To see history made. We won't see it no more. We're a little too old to see the next black president. Be gone with the Lord.
GLINTON: Sonari Glinton, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GREENE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.
When a labor dispute shutdown Hostess, the maker of Twinkies, many people rushed out to buy a box or two. Nancy Peppin bought 12 boxes. Not to eat, but as art supplies. The Reno, Nevada woman makes art out of Twinkies. She is confident that another company will eventually bring Twinkies back. But in the meantime, she wants to be ready to keep making sculptures like her depiction of "The Last Supper," which also includes Ding Dongs and Ho Hos.
It's MORNING EDITION.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Good morning. I'm David Greene. A business owner is asking for some advice. It's Karl Baxter. He does wholesale retail in Britain and he bought three huge shipments of DVDs titled "The Science of Lance Armstrong." As you might know, the cyclist has admitted to doping and Baxter is not convinced his 10,000 DVDs will sell. He's considered building a DVD tower or making a dominoes track for his kids, but he's looking for other ideas. Which sounds like a good idea in itself. It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Mel Brooks is a comedian who makes the unthinkable very, very funny - like a musical about Nazis.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE PRODUCERS")
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Singing) Springtime for Hitler and Germany...
MONTAGNE: He also gave us cinema's most famous campfire scene, composed almost entirely of cowboys sitting around farting.
(SOUNDBITE OF FLATULENCE)
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "BLAZING SADDLES")
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (as character) How 'bout some more beans, Mr. Taggart?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (as Mr. Taggart) I'd say you've had enough.
MONTAGNE: And he brought us "The History of the World, Part I."
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART I")
MEL BROOKS: (as character) (Singing) The Inquisition, let's begin, the Inquisition, look at sin, we have our mission to convert to the Jew.
MONTAGNE: Along the way, Mel Brooks made a lot of people laugh and cringe at the same time.
BROOKS: I'm just vulgar really. I'm very proud of having bad taste.
MONTAGNE: And now the actor, director, writer and all-around funny guy is putting his taste on display in a new boxed set titled "The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection of Unhinged Comedy."
BROOKS: It's just a mixture of some very good and very bad things that I've done.
MONTAGNE: Well, the one nice thing about this collection is it's not entirely chronological but it does have some things...
BROOKS: You said the right words. Renee.
MONTAGNE: Yes.
BROOKS: You said the right words, because it's anarchy.
MONTAGNE: It is something of a scrapbook of his work in all its demented glory - commercials, TV shows, interviews, songs. The thing is, Mel Brooks never intended to become a comedian. He was born Melvin Kaminsky in Brooklyn in 1926. He studied psychology in college and served in the Army during World War II, deactivating land mines. After the war, he returned to Brooklyn to start a career in business. That's when he took a speech class and made this recording.
(SOUNDBITE OF RECORDING)
BROOKS: My name is Melvin Kaminsky. Today is February 24, 1947. Of course, I really don't know what I'm doing and...
MONTAGNE: He's trying to improve his diction by reading some poetry and Bible verses.
(SOUNDBITE OF RECORDING)
BROOKS: Surely there is a vein for silver and a place for gold where they find it. Iron is taken...
MONTAGNE: Young Melvin thought it would help him come across as more business-like.
BROOKS: I was working for the Abilene Blouse and Dress Company, and my dream was to one day become a salesman. Everybody in my building, 365 South Third Street aimed at some position: salesman, maybe a cutter, maybe a pattern maker - something in the garment center. I mean we all aimed for Seventh Avenue.
MONTAGNE: Never to Broadway.
BROOKS: Broadway. But my Uncle Joe changed all that. If a cab came down the street without a driver, that was Uncle Joe, because he was very short. And no matter how many telephone books he sat on, you still couldn't see him. And Joe was a good-natured cab driver, and all the Brooklyn doormen on Broadway he would collect at 1:00 in the morning or so and take them back to wherever they lived. And the quid pro quo was in return they would give Joe tickets to Broadway shows that they were the doormen of. And Cole Porter had just opened his show - I think it was 1931 - and it was called "Anything Goes," which is just currently playing. So Joe got two tickets, and I sat up in the last balcony, and there was Ethel Merman, just really bawling it out, and she was incredible. But those songs - all through the night, you're the top - can you imagine seeing - hearing them for the first time? All my dreams about being a salesman, I just replaced them with new dreams.
MONTAGNE: Those dreams took Mel Brooks, as he was soon known, to the resort hotels in New York's Catskill Mountains to try his hand at standup comedy on the Borscht Belt circuit.
BROOKS: The Jews used to flee, you know, go to the mountains, in the summer because the city was simply too hot. They'd take up residence in these hotels, show up in the windows and say breathe, breathe, it's $15 a day, breathe. They would yell at their families. And I was...
MONTAGNE: So everyone was a comedian.
BROOKS: Everyone was a comedian.
MONTAGNE: Give us an example of a typical Borscht Belt summer in Catskills joke.
BROOKS: Good evening, ladies and Jews. I met a girl yesterday, I met a girl. She was beautiful but she was thin. This was a skinny girl, I got to tell you. She was so skinny, so thin, I took her a restaurant, the waiter said check your umbrella. That's how skinny she was. But I want to tell you - and I would just do that terrible - and I realized, gee, I could write better and more real material. And so I began writing my own material. And when I met Sid Caesar, I was ready to become a real comedy writer.
MONTAGNE: Sid Caesar was a comedic genius and a household name as host of a wildly popular variety show on TV.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS")
SID CAESAR: You show of shows, an hour and a half of top-notch entertainment.
MONTAGNE: In 1950, Mel Brooks joined Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows"'s writing staff, which would over time include Carl Reiner, Neil Simon and Woody Allen. After a few years, Brooks headed to Hollywood and eventually became known as the master of spoof.
(SOUNDBITE OF "GET SMART" THEME MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: He created the TV show "Get Smart," about a bumbling James Bond-like secret agent.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "GET SMART")
DON ADAMS: (as Maxwell Smart) Just a minute, Chief. Isn't this top security?
EDWARD PLATT: (as Chief) Yeah.
ADAMS: (as Maxwell Smart) Well, shouldn't we activate the cone of silence?
PLATT: (as Chief) All right, Max. Hodgkins?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: (as Hodgkins) Yes, sir.
PLATT: (as Chief) Activate the cone of silence.
MONTAGNE: Mel Brooks took aim at Westerns in "Blazing Saddles." He put the laugh in horror with "Young Frankenstein." "Spaceballs" struck back at the Force.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "SPACEBALLS")
BROOKS: (as character) May the Schwartz be with you.
MONTAGNE: No matter the subject, you could always count on Mel Brooks for lots of jokes about Hitler, Jews, flatulence, and curvaceous women. Is there anything you really, I mean, think you went too far?
BROOKS: Honestly, on a few things I think I was in bad taste. Maybe in "Blazing Saddles." But I don't mind it.
MONTAGNE: You mean the whole movie or just one moment?
BROOKS: No, no, the whole movie. The whole movie's in bad taste. But I like bad taste.
MONTAGNE: And it has won him an armful of awards - Emmys, Grammys, Tonys and an Oscar. His career spans seven decades, 11 hours of which can be found on the new DVD set. Is there any one thing, you know, that you think, okay, if you just grab one moment off of it, it's just really the most, the best or craziest or most precious moment?
BROOKS: I do a song with Ronny Graham called "Retreat" - that may be the best moment - about a cowardly general during the Napoleonic wars - (Singing) retreat, retreat, drop your sword and run. The foe is near, our chance is clear. Get out of here, hooray for fear, we're done. Run away. Run away. If you run away you'll live to run away another day - (Speaking) and that song goes on. It's really - I'm very proud of that. There's a lot of stuff. I mean it's just full of stuff. I mean, if you're a tasteless fool, you will adore this box set. Also, if I were you, I would bargain. It's a little too expensive now. I'd go to a store, like a Barnes & Noble - I would go to the store and say can you do a little better? Just a little better? Can you give it to me? I mean it's 89, can you give it to me for 79? I mean, it won't hurt you; it'll do me a lot of good. I mean, that's the way you bargain, you know.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: That's Mel Brooks, and that box set is called "The Incredible Mel Brooks: An Irresistible Collection of Unhinged Comedy."
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: And this is NPR.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
It's been snowy in Vermont this winter, which is great for ski resorts, and tough on the state's emergency services. In the past month, Vermont state police have had to help find 50 lost skiers. Vermont Public Radio's Nina Keck reports on the strain this is causing.
UNIDENTIFIED SNOWBOARDER: This is awesome.
NINA KECK, BYLINE: Snowboarders at Killington check out an expert run near the summit. These folks are not the troublemakers. No, this story is about other skiers and riders - the ones who go looking for fun in all the wrong places.
Bob Giolito is a former Killington ski patroller who's now on the state police.
BOB GIOLITO: It's almost moguled up. You see all the ski tracks - there's high volume of people coming through here.
KECK: Giolito is pointing to an unmarked trail into the woods that eventually, leads to a clearing. But it's not like you can stumble onto this. There's a bright-orange rope you have to duck under, and several big signs that say "Out of Bonds, No Skiing Beyond This Point." Despite all that, Giolito says an alarming number of ill-equipped skiers keep going.
GIOLITO: Now, if I'm looking out there, I'm like, wow, that looks like some powder; I'm going to ski that. So they're going to head downhill. And as they go down, the trees get closer, and tighter and tighter, and then, they're in a problem.
KECK: Because this part of the ridgeline drops off fast, and leads far away from any lifts. Within a few hours, these back-country wannabes are exhausted, cold, and in the dark.
Giolito and Vermont State Police Capt. Donald Patch believe more skier education is needed. But how best to provide that, remains unclear. In the meantime, Patch says the cost to taxpayers, for so many search and rescues, is troubling.
CAPT. DONALD PATCH: When the trooper is tied up on a lost skier case, that's time that they're not following up on their other investigations.
KECK: Vermont is one of a handful of states that allows billing for some rescues. But for a state that depends on skiing and tourism, it's controversial and for safety reasons, rarely used.
Neil Van Dyke heads Stowe Mountain Rescue, and is a past president of the Mountain Rescue Association.
NEIL VAN DYKE: As search and rescuers, we feel very strongly that there should never be any disincentive for somebody to call for help, when they need it.
KECK: He says there've been documented cases in Colorado where people in trouble have put off calling for help because they were afraid of getting billed. But not everyone agrees with that.
KEVIN JORDAN: When people get in trouble, they don't hesitate to call. They call immediately because they are in trouble.
KECK: Kevin Jordan helps run New Hampshire's search and rescue program, which frequently handles rescues in the White Mountains - notorious for severe weather. They've been less squeamish about billing when they believe those rescued are being reckless or negligent.While Jordan says the policy has stirred up debate, he doesn't think it's deterred anyone from seeking help.
JORDAN: What I did notice, is when we conduct the mission, as we're getting this person down, a conversation now is generated - am I going to get a bill? And that's the only difference I've seen. I've seen no effect to tourism.
KECK: But many people simply can't pay. He says they've collected only about two-thirds of the $83,000 they've billed in the last five years. And that's just a fraction of the roughly $1.5 million New Hampshire spent on all rescues during that time.
JORDAN: It's a very hot debate in this state because people are very strong feelings about it. But the problem is that on Monday, the bills have to be paid. And when we're not buying equipment, and we don't have a training budget, and we're sending up our guys above the tree line in January, in 60-below weather, we have a responsibility to ensure their safety. And so we're walking a dangerous tightrope.
KECK: It's an issue many states are struggling with. In Wyoming, a state lawmaker pointed out that demand for search and rescue there hasn't necessarily increased. But he says more funding is needed because those who seek help are taking bigger chances, and in more dangerous situations.
For NPR News, I'm Nina Keck in Chittenden, Vermont.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
One of President Obama's first acts in office was signing an order closing the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Four years later, the prison remains open. NPR's Jackie Northam looked into the reasons why.
JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: On January 22nd, 2009 a newly inaugurated President Obama made good on a campaign promise.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We will close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and determine how to deal with those who have been held there.
NORTHAM: President Obama and his administration believed Guantanamo was a symbol of contentious counterterrorism policies by his predecessor, George W. Bush; ones which included harsh interrogation tactics, rendition and indefinite detention.
John Bellinger, a senior legal official in the Bush administration, says the new administration miscalculated how difficult it would be to close Guantanamo.
JOHN BELLINGER: I think part of it was that a number of officials in the administration had really come to believe that a lot of innocent people were being held and that they could be released. And that the remaining could be tried in federal court, and that this really all this could be done easily in a year.
NORTHAM: But Bellinger says the Obama administration quickly learned that it wasn't so easy to transfer some of the roughly 240 prisoners still held at that time, back to their home countries or to third nations. A review by the Obama administration found that probably only two dozen of the detainees could be successfully prosecuted in a federal court, because of weak or little available evidence. And that about 50 prisoners were deemed too dangerous to ever release.
Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, says that around the same time, Congress began pushing back on plans to move some of the detainees to prisons on the U.S. mainland.
BENJAMIN WITTES: When actually confronted with the question of do you want to close Guantanamo, if that means bringing a lot of detainees to the United States, the keep Guantanamo constituency was actually much more politically powerful than the administration had anticipated.
NORTHAM: Six months into the new administration, a democratically controlled Congress passed legislation that prevented the president from moving any Guantanamo detainee into the U.S. or to other countries. That continues today. Wittes says with other competing priorities on the boil, such as a stimulus plan and health care, President Obama had to decide if closing Guantanamo was a priority.
WITTES: So, within a few months, the question became how much political energy and capital was the president willing to invest in getting it done.
NORTHAM: And how much was he willing to invest?
WITTES: None, as it turned out.
NORTHAM: Andrea Prasow, a counter-terrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, says President Obama's unwillingness or inability to fight hard to close Guantanamo has been incredibly disappointing.
ANDREA PRASOW: I, like many people in the human rights community, took the president at his word when he said he would close Guantanamo. But the fact that not only is it open but there's no pathway towards its closure, and towards ending indefinite detention, I think is really one of the great tragedies of Obama's first term.
NORTHAM: Still, sentiment about closing the remote prison camp or bringing detainees to the U.S. is as strong now as it was back then. A recent report by the Government Accountability Office says that the detainees could be transferred to U.S. prisons safely.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina disagreed.
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Simply stated, the American people don't want to close Guantanamo Bay, which is an isolated military-controlled facility, to bring these crazy bastards that want to kill us all to the United States.
NORTHAM: Roughly 165 detainees still remain at Guantanamo. Military trials for five men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks are due to resume early February.
Jackie Northam, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Over the next few minutes, we're taking a look at an emotional debate over the most widely prescribed drugs: painkillers. Among them: Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin. Millions of people depend on these drugs to help them cope with terrible pain. There are also millions who are addicted to these narcotics, and thousands die from overdoses.
As NPR's Rob Stein reports, officials are struggling to fight prescription painkiller abuse without harming those who need them. And a word of warning: These tragic stories may be difficult to hear.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: A few years ago, a doctor started prescribing Michael Israel pills for really bad cramps in his gut. His father, Ari, says Michael had been struggling with Crohn's disease, a chronic digestive disorder, since he was a teenager. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: Michael Israel's father was incorrectly identified. He is Avi Israel.]
AVI ISRAEL: So he was prescribed, you know, Lortab or Vicodin, or whatever. They would flip-flop it, you know, from one to another.
STEIN: Then one day, Michael confessed that something was wrong, really wrong.
ISRAEL: And what happened, Michael came over to my bedroom one night and said, Pops, I have a - problems with the pills.
STEIN: Michael admitted that he was taking way more pills than he was supposed to. He was even crushing and snorting them. He was addicted. That started a long, hard fight to break his addiction, but nothing worked. He started losing hope. And then one day, something terrible happened.
ISRAEL: Michael walked into my bedroom; and he had a shotgun that he used to use for target practice 'cause that was one of his favorite things; locked the door; and I kept calling him - Mike, Mike.
STEIN: Ari Israel ran to the door, and heard his son cock the gun. And then, the blast.
ISRAEL: I kicked the door open. (Crying) There was my boy, laying on the floor.
STEIN: Michael was just 20 years old. Ari Israel, who lives in Buffalo, is now on a mission, a mission to prevent more people from dying from their addiction to prescription painkillers. And he's far from alone. These drugs have been a godsend for millions of people in pain, but millions of people are also addicted. Joseph Rannazzisi, of the Drug Enforcement Agency, says that's because they're opioids. They can make people high, and easily get people hooked.
JOSEPH RANNAZZISI: What we're seeing, increasingly over the last few years, has been widespread abuse. And the abuse just keeps increasing. It's a huge problem.
STEIN: Overdoses have been rising rapidly. More than 15,000 are now dying every year.
RANNAZZISI: It's not a white or black or Hispanic issue. It's not a male or female issue. It's everyone. We see kids as young as 12 years old; elderly patients.
STEIN: So the DEA wants something done about the most commonly used group of these drugs: those containing an opioid called hydrocodone. The most well-known is probably Vicodin. Right now, these drugs are not as tightly controlled as similar medications. Rannazzisi says the DEA wants to change that; to put drugs like Vicodin in the same legal category as drugs like Oxycontin and Percocet.
RANNAZZISI: There's this idea that a drug like hydrocodone, it's not as dangerous; it's not as addictive. And that's just a fallacy.
STEIN: The change would stop doctors from writing prescriptions for more than one month's supply at a time, and calling in new prescriptions without seeing their patients. But some doctors want even more restrictions. Addiction specialist Andrew Kolodny says all of these drugs should only be used for patients who really need them, like cancer patients; not handed out casually.
DR. ANDREW KOLODNY: This epidemic has been fueled by overprescribing of opioids, particularly for chronic, non-cancer pain - whether it's low back pain, headaches. I think that's really created a public health crisis.
STEIN: So Kolodny's group wants the FDA to rewrite the rules for how doctors should use these drugs; to say they should write prescriptions only for severe pain, at much lower doses, and for no more than three months.
KOLODNY: The way to begin to turn the epidemic around, is by getting doctors to prescribe more cautiously.
STEIN: But all this is terrifying many pain patients and their doctors. Lynn Webster, of the American Academy of Pain Medicine, worries these changes may make it impossible for many patients to get the drugs they need.
DR. LYNN WEBSTER: We have millions of people who are totally disabled because of their pain. Many people who do not have access to aggressive pain management may - simply - not be able to survive.
STEIN: Patients like Carolyn Tuft. She's been suffering constant pain since one terrible day in 2007, the day she went shopping with her 15-year-old daughter, Kirsten, near their home in Salt Lake City.
CAROLYN TUFT: I took my youngest daughter to the mall, to buy valentines. And there was a shooter that came into the mall and shot both of us; shot me three times, shot her twice.
STEIN: Carolyn's daughter was one of five people killed that day. Carolyn was one of four victims who survived. But she's been in unrelenting pain ever since.
TUFT: I have a really hard time just getting up in the morning because the pain is so, so severe that it takes me at least three hours just to put clothes on, and make myself stand up and get moving for the day.
STEIN: Even after she manages to get moving, the pain never eases; not for a moment, ever.
TUFT: In my arm, it's like having a severe sunburn but also, like it's frozen - the kind of pain when you have your hand in ice for too long. My shoulder just hurts all the time; it hurts to move it. And the pain in my back is just a constant, sharp, deep pain. It goes down my legs.
STEIN: The only thing keeping her going are her pain medications.
TUFT: I have so little fight left in me, just surviving every day. I don't think I would survive if I couldn't get them. I don't know that I would survive life at all.
STEIN: Carolyn Tuft is far from alone. The fear is that elderly arthritis patients; workers in rural places, with severe back pain; may not be able to get to a doctor for new prescriptions. Many doctors, worried about getting into trouble, may just stop prescribing them altogether; and insurance companies may stop paying for them. Carolyn's doctor, Lynn Webster, wonders: Who knows what desperate patients might do?
WEBSTER: They'll look for alternative medications, which may be less effective. They may be more risky. We can't anticipate the consequences by this proposed change.
STEIN: Advocates for tightening the rules say none of the changes would prevent doctors from getting the drugs to patients who really need them. For their part, officials at the FDA - like Douglas Throckmorton - say they're trying to figure out how to help without causing harm; to prevent more patients like Michael Israel from dying, while protecting pain patients like Carolyn Tuft.
DOUGLAS THROCKMORTON: It is as complex an issue as I've worked on; just for the variety of social, medical, scientific, legal things that are influencing the choices people are making.
STEIN: The FDA recently took steps to get drug companies to make the drugs in new ways, ways that would make them harder to abuse. And the agency is holding two hearings - one this week, and another next month - to try to figure out how to walk that fine line: preventing abuse without causing more suffering for people in terrible pain.
Rob Stein, NPR News.
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Last week on this program, we looked at the challenge the National Institutes of Health would face if it received a recommendation to end the use of chimpanzees for biomedical research. Well, now a working group of experts, put together by NIH, has made exactly that recommendation; which means that several hundred chimpanzees at the institute will no longer be used for laboratory experiments.
Animal rights groups are applauding the move. Though where the chimps will go to retire is still unclear, as NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports.
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE: Chimpanzees are the animals most closely related to humans, and that's why their use in research has been getting special scrutiny. About a year ago, an independent report, commissioned by the National Institutes of Health, said that most biomedical research being done on chimps is not scientifically necessary. So the NIH put together a working group to give advice on what to do.
Kent Lloyd served as co-chair. He's a researcher at the University of California, Davis.
KENT LLOYD: I mean, clearly, there is going to be a reduction in the use of chimpanzees in research. I don't believe that that will be at the cost of research advances, because there are other things that are going on that are improving our ability to use other animal model systems.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: The NIH currently owns about 360 chimpanzees that aren't yet retired and that are living at research facilities. The new report from the working group says the majority should be retired and sent to a sanctuary, a non-laboratory setting where chimps can live more natural lives. Only a small population of about 50 chimps should be retained for any future research needs.
What's more, the report lays out a detailed description of the kind of living conditions that research chimps should be given. And Lloyd says defining those conditions was a challenging task.
LLOYD: I wouldn't characterize it as contentious. But I would characterize it as intense and thoughtful.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: The group concluded that chimps need to live in social groups of at least seven. And each chimp should have at least 1,000 square feet of living space, plus year-round access to the outdoors. Chimps should be able to do things like forage for food and build nests. But if the NIH accepts these recommendations, putting them into effect won't be easy.
James Anderson is an official with the NIH. He says the existing chimp sanctuary system is already full.
JAMES ANDERSON: Currently there's no space there. There's no capacity.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: NIH doesn't have the money to pay for building new living quarters at sanctuaries. And even if it did, the NIH faces a restriction on its spending. When Congress created the chimp sanctuary system, back in 2000, it put a spending cap in place, limiting funding to a total of $30 million. Anderson says NIH will hit that cap this summer.
ANDERSON: It is a concern for us and it's something that we'd have to have addressed at the Congressional level.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: The NIH will take public comments on the new report and a decision is expected in March.
Groups that have been working to end chimp research say they're encouraged by what's been happening.
KATHLEEN CONLEE: We are very pleased with the report. You know, of course we'd want to see every single chimpanzee recommended to go to sanctuary, but this is a huge step in the right direction.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Kathleen Conlee is with The Humane Society of the United States.
CONLEE: So now, it's time to roll our sleeves up and figure out how we are going to get all these animals to sanctuary, and give them the lifetime of retirement that they so deserve.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: At the same time, her group is also lobbying for federal legislation to limit chimp research. She says that's because whatever the NIH does will not apply to the 200-or-so lab chimps that are privately owned.
Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.
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From the trials of Korean basketball broadcasters, we turn now to commentator Frank Deford, who asks you to also consider the plight of the modern sportswriter.
FRANK DEFORD, BYLINE: Sports fans are jealous of sportswriters, because it's a dream job where you get paid to watch games - which is, above all, what sports fans want. Once upon a time this was true. The sportswriters watched games, keeping score, meticulously, and then wrote it all up, so that the poor devils who had real jobs could read about the games.
Well, that's the way it was. But today there are no news cycles. News is like the Earth going around the sun, cycling constantly. As a consequence, sportswriters are required to update and blog and react to everything.
Press box visitors are astonished to see that sportswriters, of all people, do not have time to watch the game because they have to forever file something or other for the endless cycle. So, now it is the sports fans at home with their gargantuan HD TVs who are the privileged ones watching the games, while sportswriters are the ones not able to.
Now, that's a fine how-do-you-do, isn't it?
To save themselves from extinction, ace sportswriters have become specialized. It used to be that the star newspaper columnists were generalists, churning out homely anecdotes about humble heroes. But now sportswriters are experts in specific sports.
The champion model is Peter King of Sports Illustrated, who was just voted Sportswriter of the Year. He is amazing. Every NFL week, he writes an Internet column, Monday Morning Quarterback, that runs for, literally, thousands of words. You can't stop him. Imagine Scheherazade, with statistics.
Peter King not only critiques all the stars of all the games, but also arcane things like offensive linemen and special teams' coaches - with authority. It would as if each and every Paul Krugman economics column also included deep inside skinny on the Department of Agriculture or the National Institutes of Health.
So, in the mold of the celebrity Mr. King, do other specialist sportswriters analyze. But you see, this is the most trying time of the year because there is no game this week. So we have this interminable countdown to the Super Bowl, and each day is worse for sportswriters because there is nothing new to analyze.
And this year everything besides the Super Bowl is also so depressing. A smarmy Lance Armstrong comes out of the woodwork. The magnificent Stan "The Man" and the gentle man, Stan Musial dies. And that gloriously original genius, Earl Weaver. So too Gorgeous Gussie Moran, who, at a time when we still could be shocked in sports, wore the most famous athletic underpants ever. Plus, there is going to be a movie about Joe Paterno, starring Al Pacino. Please, if there is one thing we don't need: a Joe Paterno movie.
So fans, be kind. I've dubbed this Be Sympathetic to Sportswriters Week, the black hole on our sports calendar.
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INSKEEP: Sportswriter Frank Deford joins us each Wednesday.
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Some other news. Dairy farmers in the Southeast have won a big settlement from the nation's largest diary cooperative. But the terms of the settlement mean they will not be getting answers about why milk prices went into a free fall after they joined the cooperative.
Peggy Lowe of member station KCUR in Kansas City has more.
PEGGY LOWE, BYLINE: Farmer Sam Galphin says this lawsuit should inspire a John Grisham novel. More than 7,000 dairy farmers in southeastern states say they were betrayed by their own representative, called the Dairy Farmers of America, Incorporated, the largest milk marketer in the U.S. They allege the cooperative created a cartel, cutting out competition, and forcing farmers to take lower prices from the only available milk processor.
Galphin says while cooperative executives were living the high life, he watched while farmers went out of business.
SAM GALPHIN. BYLINE: When I started in North Carolina, there were 1,200 dairies. Today there are less than 300. In South Carolina, there were 800 dairies. Today there are less than 100. That's not just consolidation.
Farmers had hoped that a trial would expose all the cooperatives dealings. But yesterday, a day before that trial was to start in Tennessee, Dairy Farmers of America CEO Rick Smith announced that his group would pay nearly $159 million to settle the case, so long as it could maintain it did nothing wrong.
RICK SMITH: Where inherently there's risk when you go to trial, the member's interest would be better served by making a business decision to put it behind us.
LOWE: Dairy Farmers of America faces a similar suit from Northeastern dairy farmers who say for years they, too, have been victims of a monopoly that manipulated milk prices.
For NPR News, I'm Peggy Lowe.
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There are a dozen NBA teams that broadcast in Spanish, but now the Los Angeles Lakers have become the first to broadcast every game in Korean. The goal is to draw new fans from the estimated 300,000 Koreans who live in greater-L.A., the area's largest minority group behind Hispanics.
Ben Bergman of member station KPCC met with the Lakers' new broadcasters.
BEN BERGMAN, BYLINE: When Paul Lee was named the Lakers first Korean-language color commentator this season, his friends all wanted to know one thing.
PAUL LEE: When people hear about, like, you know, I get to the do the broadcast, you know, the Lakers broadcasts, they get all excited. Oh, can you take me with you?
BERGMAN: The answer was no. Lee couldn't take his friends to Lakers games because he doesn't go to the games. Lee and his play-by-play man Young Don Lee call the action watching a TV smaller than many of us have at home.
LEE: (Foreign language spoken)
YOUNG DON LEE: (Foreign language spoken)
BERGMAN: They're deep inside the spacious headquarters for the Lakers' new 24-hour English and Spanish cable channels, Time Warner SportsNet and Deportes. The cable company made a huge bet on the Lakers last year, forking over an estimated $3 billion to win TV rights for the next two decades. Inside the channels' gleaming new home, there are facilities befitting such an investment - state-of-the-art control rooms and studios.
But the Korean broadcasters call the action from a storage closet, where lights and cameras are kept. It's a long ways from courtside.
LEE: (Foreign language spoken)
BERGMAN: Storeroom or not, Lee is thrilled to be here. He was born and raised in Seoul until his family moved to L.A. when he was 13. Lee fell in love with American sports, and he especially enjoyed the play-by-play, which was nothing like the more subdued style he was used to hearing in Korea.
LEE: I'm a big fan of American broadcasting, like, you know, storytelling of Vin Scully and the excitement of John Madden, and things like that. I'm excited about the opportunity to, you know, convey that to the Korean audience.
BERGMAN: Lee is the rare color commentator who never played the game. He says he learned the ins and outs of the NBA as a diehard fantasy player. He's also been a sportswriter for 17 years at The Korea Times of L.A., the country's largest Korean-language paper.
Given the area's growing Korean population, Time Warner SportsNet general manager Mark Shuken says the Lakers had long wanted to do a Korean broadcast.
MARK SHUKEN: We had the Korean community really speak up about the Lakers. Simultaneously, we had conversations with the Lakers, and they were actually thrilled by it.
BERGMAN: It became much easier technically to broadcast in Korean this season. That's because the audio channel that had been used for Spanish opened up after Time Warner launched Deportes, the country's first 24-hour Spanish-language regional sports network. Shuken says Korean Laker fans could one day get a network of their own, too, via digital distribution.
SHUKEN: Once we can figure out the economics and the protection of the rights holder and the content provider, you could hypothetically see a Laker game that has 10 different languages supporting it all available through a digital stream.
BERGMAN: For now, Shuken says he is focused on trying to avoid the mistake he's seen other media companies make. That's only changing the language, without being sensitive to cultural differences.
SHUKEN: We always have to ask the fans in the community what they want and then deliver it, as opposed to telling them why they like that which we bring.
BERGMAN: So far, the biggest complaint from the Korean community has been how the announcers say the players' names. For example, should Paul Lee use the English or the Korean pronunciation for star forward Metta World Peace?
LEE: You know, am I supposed to say (Foreign language spoken), or, you know, Metta World Peace? And they're going to say - some people might say, that guy is showing off. You know, then I use chopped-off Korean-English, and then they'll say, oh, gee. He speaks, like, broken English. You know? Can't they get somebody who speaks English better, you know, kind of thing? So what do I do? Where do I find the balance here, you know?
(LAUGHTER)
BERGMAN: For the time being, Lee is saying it both ways. You can't please everyone, but at least he'll be moving out of the storage closet soon. He still won't be in the press box at the games, but Time Warner is building the Korean broadcasters a proper sound booth.
For NPR News, I'm Ben Bergman, in Los Angeles.
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Today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes questions before Congress about last year's attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
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Investigators have sharply criticized security at the consulate. Republicans made the attack an intense partisan issue in last year's election.
INSKEEP: The election is over, but the concern about extremism in Africa has widened. Islamist rebels now control half of Mali.
MONTAGNE: And last week, three Americans were killed in a related hostage drama in neighboring Algeria. NPR's Michele Kelemen surveys a region under stress.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: When Libyan rebels, with the help of NATO air cover, toppled the longtime dictator Muammar Gadhafi in 2011, they opened a new chapter in their history. But there was a downside to this revolution. J. Peter Pham of the Atlantic Council said Gadhafi had kept a lid on extremists, and now the lid was off in a vast region with porous borders.
J. PETER PHAM: Borders, really, in this area of the world are quite meaningless. The Maghreb and the Sahel are continuous spaces that run from the Atlantic to the Red Sea.
KELEMEN: When Gadhafi was toppled and killed, he says, the Libyan leaders mercenaries took their guns and moved, many to northern Mali, which then fell to extremists.
PHAM: The Libyan crisis didn't cause the rebellion in northern Mali. That spark was already lit by the political and economic marginalization of the Tuaregs in northern Mali. But out of Libya came ethnic Tuaregs who had served as mercenaries for Gadhafi who were more than happy to join their kin in a struggle.
KELEMEN: Islamist groups also had more room to maneuver and profit off of hostage-takings and smuggling in what Pham calls a perfect storm. Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb now has a safe haven in northern Mali, and Obama administration officials believe that group played a role in the hostage-takings in Algeria. State department spokesperson Victoria Nuland says the U.S. is worried about these trend lines.
VICTORIA NULAND: We have been concerned for a long time about the growing danger of radical extremism in this part of the world, about the connections across, which is why we have counterterrorism training for some 10 governments across that region, to try to strengthen their capacity to try to improve border control, to help them to work together regionally.
KELEMEN: Secretary Clinton admits it's been difficult for the U.S. to gather intelligence in what she calls one of the most remote areas on the planet. So far, no one has been brought to justice for carrying out the deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi last September. An independent panel faulted the State Department for grossly inadequate security and said there were gaps in the intelligence community's understanding about the extremist militias in the area.
This is the dark side of the Arab uprising, says Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group.
ROBERT MALLEY: You now have more jihadists who are free to roam around. Many have been released or have escaped, broken out of prison, with more access to lethal weapons because weapons have been abundant - in Libya in particular, but elsewhere as well - as these uprisings have taken place, fewer more disorganized and less loyal security forces, and governments that are more distracted because they have to deal with their internal affairs.
KELEMEN: Malley says all this means that the U.S. has to rethink its security posture in the region and play catch-up, learning more about the new political realities and security challenges across North Africa. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.
INSKEEP: Some of the issues Secretary Clinton may discuss before Congress today. It's NPR News.
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You can learn a lot about the world by following the story of a humble tomato - from the vine to your hamburger or salad. Tomatoes are a staple part of the American diet. More than half of all the tomatoes consumed in the United States come from Mexico. Mexican tomato imports have risen dramatically in recent years. Growers in Florida are not happy about that and that is today's business bottom line.
Here's NPR's Ted Robbins.
TED ROBBINS, BYLINE: One misstep at J-C Distributing and you're likely to get knocked over by a pallet-full of produce. Forklifts crisscross each other, carrying peppers, squash, and especially tomatoes from trucks backed into the warehouse loading dock.
JAIME CHAMBERLAIN: Yes, this is a Mexican truck being unloaded. He's just waiting for his paperwork to get out and get back. We have U.S. trucks here, U.S. trucks here...
ROBBINS: Jaime Chamberlain heads JC Produce in Nogales, Arizona. It's one of a number of produce distributors just north of the Mexican border. Chamberlain says his company alone handles more than 87 million pounds of tomatoes each year - tomatoes sold in stores all over the country.
CHAMBERLAIN: This is a box of grape tomatoes and this is from a grower of ours in Jalisco.
ROBBINS: For 16-years, the Mexican growers have agreed not to sell tomatoes below what's called a reference price. That was supposed to protect Florida tomato growers from cheap Mexican tomatoes.
But, Florida sales have dropped in half, anyway, to as little as $250 million a year while Mexican sales have tripled to more than $1.8 billion.
Reggie Brown heads the Florida Tomato Exchange. He says Mexican growers have been dumping tomatoes - selling them for less than it cost to produce them.
REGGIE BROWN: The Mexican industry has, for significant periods, dumped product into the U.S. market during the 16 years of the agreement.
ROBBINS: So Florida growers are pushing the Obama Administration to end the price agreement.
BROWN: What would happen if the suspension agreement went away, is free trade would truly exist between Mexico and the U.S. in the tomato industry.
ROBBINS: Lance Jungmeyer says Mexico is not dumping tomatoes. Jungmeyer heads the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, which represents the Mexican tomato industry.
LANCE JUNGMEYER: It would be impossible to sustain hundreds, perhaps thousands of Mexican tomato companies, for years on end, selling below their cost. They wouldn't be able to do that.
ROBBINS: If the tomato agreement goes away, though, Florida would be free to file an anti-dumping case against Mexico. If that happens, the Commerce Department can impose punitive tariffs on Mexican tomatoes - making them much more expensive and giving Florida an edge.
Mexico could then put heavy tariffs on billions of dollars in products the U.S. sells there -pork, beef, corn. It would be a trade war.
Lance Jungmeyer says what's really going on is that consumers just plain prefer Mexican tomatoes - tomatoes ripened on the vine instead of ripened with ethylene gas, as Florida growers use.
JUNGMEYER: If your choice is a tomato that doesn't really taste like a tomato or a tomato that tastes like a tomato, you want the tomato that tastes like a tomato.
ROBBINS: Gary Hufbauer agrees. Hufbauer is a senior fellow with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a D.C. think tank which supports international free-trade. He says the Mexican tomato industry has innovated and Florida growers are hanging on. But Florida votes are important and no Administration wants to be seen as responsible for losing jobs there. Even if, as Gary Hufbauer says, Florida's future isn't in tomatoes, it is a symbolic industry.
GARY HUFBAUER: The mental image of the little house on the prairie has most of us captivated. In the case of Florida, the little house on the prairie is a tomato grower, a sugar grower or an orange grove - a small part of the economy, but a big part of the popular imagination.
ROBBINS: Ending the tomato agreement would cost jobs in Mexico and the U.S. Distributor Jaime Chamberlain.
CHAMBERLAIN: Your packaging, your marketing, your advertising, your transportation is tremendous. I don't know what would happen to all these trucks on the American roads if you were to eliminate a specific commodity out of the Mexican agricultural deal.
ROBBINS: Negotiations are continuing, but last fall, the Commerce Department indicated it was siding with Florida. A number of big produce buyers, including Wal-Mart, are siding with Mexico. The trade agreement is set to expire at the end of this month.
What's at stake are higher prices and fewer tomato choices. Of course, you could grow your own.
Ted Robbins, NPR News.
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Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has not been seen or heard from in public since he underwent cancer surgery in Cuba last month. This has raised concerns about the stability of his country, both in Venezuela and also in South Florida, which is home to tens of thousands of Venezuelan expatriates.
Here's Phil Latzman of our member station WLRN in Miami.
PHIL LATZMAN, BYLINE: Welcome to Doral, nicknamed Doralzuela. This newly-incorporated city just west of the Miami airport is home to the largest concentration of Venezuelan-Americans in the U.S. Venezuelan expatriates in South Florida number in the low six figures. Many came here to escape the Chavez regime, and El Arepazo Dos restaurant on NW 79th Avenue is their unofficial headquarters.
In the background, on big screens, is Venezuelan television beaming the latest news from Caracas.
JOSE HERNANDEZ: We have a lot of information but no good information.
LATZMAN: That's Jose Hernandez, editorial chief for El Venezolono, a Miami-based newspaper catering to the country's Diaspora. Their Web site gets two million hits per month.
HERNANDEZ: We have no notion of the reality.
LATZMAN: That's because President Hugo Chavez hasn't been able to return from Cuba, after complications from a fourth cancer surgery more than a month ago. What is known is that Chavez could not make it to his scheduled swearing-in earlier this month. But the country's Supreme Court ruled he could return to take the oath of office for another term when he is able.
Juan Carlos Suarez says that violates the Venezuelan constitution.
JUAN CARLOS SAUREZ: We have to continue, you know, with the constitutional process in Venezuela. That's the main thing. Because so far, we Venezuelans have been peaceful, we have tried to respect the constitution, even though they have changed it so many times to their own values.
LATZMAN: The fact that Chavez has been allowed to delay his inauguration has infuriated many here, and has Carma Gimenez fearing the worst
CARMA GIMENEZ: Sir, let me tell you something. I can see, easily see, a civil war coming in. I think that Venezuela, today, is lost.
LATZMAN: Meanwhile, Venezuelans throughout South Florida have been trying to function without their Miami consulate, after the Chavez government shut it down more than a year ago. Of the 20,000 or so here with dual-citizenship, more than a third traveled to the nearest consulate in New Orleans last October to vote in the country's presidential election.
Although unsuccessful in unseating him, Beatrice Olavarria says the experience brought the community together.
BEATRICE OLAVARRIA: With an effort of 8,500 people that weekend, you could see it. It's obvious that everybody that's out of their country feels great attachment to their country. It's in your heart, in your blood, it's in your veins whether you've been here for 25, two or three months.
LATZMAN: Olavarria says many here would return if Chavez and his supporters were gone. But Sam Feldman, a member of the Venezuelan-American Democratic Club, says if Chavez dies, there should be no rejoicing
SAM FELDMAN: Personally, I think it's disgusting if anybody's celebrating the death of Chavez. I don't think anybody should be happy that he's dying. We might disagree with policy, but it's not an occasion of, you know, dancing in the streets and for joy and music. You know? Venezuela has been undergoing a crisis.
LATZMAN: A crisis that many expats here think won't be solved anytime soon, even if Chavez never returns alive to Venezuela.
For NPR News, I'm Phil Latzman in Miami.
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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
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And I'm Renee Montagne.
Soon after Monday's inauguration, temperatures plunged in Washington. That may be appropriate, since a major passage in the president's speech received a chilly reception.
INSKEEP: The president said he will address climate change. His supporters at the Capitol applauded. Many Republicans members of Congress sitting behind the president did not.
MONTAGNE: The president can take some steps on his own, but for bigger moves he would need a change in the political climate.
NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: President Obama tackled a number of controversial issues in his inaugural address: gay rights, immigration, income inequality. But the passage that caught a lot of listeners by surprise was this one.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.
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HORSLEY: White House spokesman Jay Carney was peppered with questions about just what kind of response the president has in mind. Carney didn't offer a lot of detail, except to say Obama wants to build on the accomplishments of his first term.
Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists says one of the president's biggest accomplishments in controlling greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change was a 2011 deal with automakers to double fuel efficiency by 2025.
ALDEN MEYER: It will be the equivalent of taking about 70 million cars off the road in terms of global warming impact. So it's a big deal. There's more progress in that sector, I think, to be had. But he does get a lot of credit for leadership on that in the first term.
HORSLEY: The administration also issued new rules that limit the carbon pollution from new power plants. In the president's second term, he could extend that rule to existing power plants - the biggest single source of greenhouse gases. But that would surely face strong opposition.
Lisa Camooso Miller is with the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.
LISA CAMOOSO MILLER: Any regulatory or legislative action taken has to consider the important role of coal and clean-coal technology. We also believe that clean coal technology is an important path forward for our country's energy future.
HORSLEY: Coal is still the largest source of electricity in the U.S., though the boom in cheap natural gas has been chipping away at that lead. Renewable sources such as wind and solar have been growing, but they still account for only about five percent of the nation's electricity.
The Obama administration has invested heavily in those alternative sources. But when Carney and his colleagues promote that effort, they tend to talk less about climate change than jobs.
JAY CARNEY: Clean energy technology is going to be a huge part of the 21st century global economy. We can make choices now that ensure that we create the jobs associated with those industries here in America. Or we can substitute our dependence on foreign oil for a dependence on imports of clean energy technologies.
HORSLEY: Last month the White House won a temporary extension of a tax credit designed to promote wind energy. But Carney acknowledges major legislation aimed at putting a price on carbon pollution looks doubtful for the time being.
Obama tried and failed to pass such legislation early in his first term. His speech on Monday suggests he's not giving up on the issue.
OBAMA: Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science. But none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms.
HORSLEY: But even though 2012 was the by far the hottest year on record in the U.S., with severe drought and violent storms, barely half the people surveyed for CNN last week believe man-made climate change is occurring. That number is down from 2007. Other polls have shown somewhat greater concern with climate change.
But in terms of shifting the debate on a difficult issue, it appears Superstorm Sandy was no Sandy Hook. The Union of Concerned Scientists' Meyer says the president's best strategy may be to do what he can through executive action, while trying to change the political climate in favor of a long-term fix.
MEYER: I think the more thoughtful members of the Republican Party are starting to realize that just like immigration, gay rights, and some other issues, that being anti-climate reality is being on the wrong side of history.
HORSLEY: Now that he's won re-election, Obama can afford to focus more on history and legacy and less on his own political future. Meyer suggests 50 or 100 years from now, the response to climate change is how this generation will be judged.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.
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Now, the House votes today on a bill that would temporarily suspend the federal government's debt limit. Instead of crashing the world financial system in a few weeks, the government would be able to continue normal business until May 18.
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Until very recently, House Republicans had said they would not raise the debt limit without spending cuts - cuts that they wanted. President Obama had told them he would not negotiate what he called a ransom.
INSKEEP: And now the House takes a different approach. Here's NPR congressional correspondent Tamara Keith.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: The bill temporarily suspends the debt limit, putting off that high-stakes fight for three months without demanding any new spending cuts in return. But that's not what House Speaker John Boehner wants to focus on.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER: Hard-working taxpayers understand that they've got to balance their budgets, whether it's every week or every month. They also believe that it's time for Washington to balance its budget.
KEITH: There was a new blue backdrop when Boehner held a press conference last night, highlighting the official title of the bill: the No Budget No Pay Act. In addition to raising the debt limit, the bill also says that if either the House or the Senate fails to pass a budget by the legal deadline of April 15, members of that house will have their pay withheld.
BOEHNER: It's been nearly four years since the Senate has done a budget. Most Americans believe you don't do your job, you shouldn't get paid. That's the basis for No Budget No Pay. It's time for the Senate to act.
KEITH: It really, really bugs House Republicans that the Democratic Senate hasn't passed a budget. Federal budgets are more political documents than anything else. They set broad goals but don't appropriate actual money. Still, House Republicans want Democrats on the record. And the other thing: Every day Boehner's party isn't accused of holding the nation's economy hostage by way of a debt ceiling fight is a good day. Polls found that the last debt ceiling fight in 2011 was awful for the Republican brand. And it wasn't good for the economy either, says MIT economist Simon Johnson.
SIMON JOHNSON: Take the debt ceiling off the table.
KEITH: That was Johnson's impassioned plea to a House committee yesterday. As for the three-month extension being considered today, he told the committee short-term extensions only extend the uncertainty.
JOHNSON: You will continue to undermine the private sector. You will continue to delay investment and to reduce employment relative to what it would be otherwise.
KEITH: Many House Democrats are similarly skeptical of this temporary debt limit reprieve. Jim McGovern is from Massachusetts.
REPRESENTATIVE JIM MCGOVERN: I do not believe that we should be politicizing the debt ceiling. I guess I should be happy that we're not going to default immediately because we're going to kick the can down the road for three months. But I'm tired of governing by gimmicks.
KEITH: When asked about the end game, whether this just means a new debt ceiling fight in May, a number of House Republicans said they weren't sure how it turns out. Even if the Senate were to pass this bill and the president signed it, there would still be three fiscal deadlines - they'd just come in a different order - first, the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester; then a possible government shutdown; and finally the debt ceiling again. Louisiana Republican John Fleming says he thinks saving the debt ceiling for later gives Republicans a strategic advantage.
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN FLEMING: We get that off the table temporarily, the sequestration automatically goes into law and the cuts are the kind of cuts we want. They're just not in the places that we want, but they're also not in the place that the Democrats want. So hopefully they'll be forced to come to the table and work with us.
KEITH: As to whether that would actually happen, he says both sides can agree they don't like the current form of those automatic spending cuts.
FLEMING: We may be singing Kumbaya before it's all over with. Who knows? But don't hold your breath.
KEITH: Senate leaders haven't said what they plan to do with this bill once it comes over. The White House says even in this form the president would sign it. Tamara Keith, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with pipeline plans.
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MONTAGNE: Nebraska's governor has approved a new plan for where the controversial Keystone XL pipeline will pass through his state. In 2011, the governor opposed the pipeline for its potential environmental impact. Yesterday, he wrote a letter to President Obama saying the new route avoids the more environmentally fragile parts of Nebraska.
It now falls to the Obama administration to approve the project.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And today's last word in business is: extraterrestrial gold rush.
A company called Deep Space Industries - which sounds like it's a company from a Mel Brooks movie; anyway, it's planning to start mining asteroids - mining asteroids by the year 2015. The idea is to first send small spacecraft to explore asteroids for minerals like platinum and gold.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The founders of Google are backing a separate asteroid mining venture. But there are skeptics who point out that NASA's own mission to extract just 2 grams of material from a passing asteroid is expected to cost a billion dollars.
And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
Some European leaders have been sounding downright upbeat in recent days about the state of their economy, which makes this morning's speech by Britain's prime minister all the more dramatic.
INSKEEP: David Cameron proposed renegotiating Britain's relationship to the European Union. He wants to move toward more of a trade union, rather than a European government. Then he wants to give Britons a vote on whether they would leave the European Union or stay in.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
PRIME MINISTER DAVID CAMERON: More of the same will not see the European Union keeping pace with the new powerhouse economies. More of the same would just produce more of the same: less competitiveness, less growth, fewer jobs.
INSKEEP: Now, the British prime minister says he doesn't want to - as he put it - pull up the drawbridge. He stressed his ultimate goal here is reform, returning the European Union's focus to free trade, while cutting down the size and amount of bureaucracy governing European members.
MONTAGNE: The British prime minister's speech comes as the World Economic Forum gets underway in Davos, Switzerland. That annual meeting is where the world's rich and powerful people talk about global economic issues. And this year, Europe and its debt problems is at the top of the agenda. Unlike Britain's prime minister, European leaders are optimistic about the future of Europe. Some have even declared the debt crisis over.
We reached Zanny Minton Beddoes of The Economist magazine in Davos. Welcome to the program.
ZANNY MINTON BEDDOES: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: What exactly do they mean, European leaders, those who have said this? What do they mean by the crisis is over?
(LAUGHTER)
BEDDOES: Well, I think there's a little bit of wishful thinking to think that the whole thing is over. But there is definitely a much greater sense of optimism about Europe this year, compared to last year. For much of 2012, there was a very real fear that the single currency was imminently going to fracture, that its collapse was a real possibility. And that fear has basically gone.
Financial markets have improved dramatically. Bond yield in the peripheral economies have come down very dramatically. There's been a very big turnaround as this sort of sense of catastrophe has lifted. European politicians, however, tend to go too far, and then, as you say, some of them have since declared crisis over.
I think a fairer assessment is that the acute phase of the crisis is over. The eurozone is out of the emergency room, if you will, but I think there's still a long way to go before it's a healthy patient again.
MONTAGNE: Well, of course, we over here in the U.S., we continue to hear terrible stories about Greece. We did a story the other day about people having switched to burning precious forest because they can't afford heating oil. They cut down the wood, things like that - unemployment unimaginably high in Spain. What is actually happening in what you might call a real economy?
BEDDOES: Well, it's you're absolutely right, Renee. It's pretty grim. In those peripheral economies - Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy - the economies are in deep recession. Some even in what I think you should call a depression. And the gap between the optimism and improvement in financial markets and the still very grim reality in the real economy I think is both enormously wide and ultimately unsustainable.
It's true that financial markets are feeling more confident. The fear of immediate collapse has gone. But in the real economy, things are still very, very grim. And that's not going to be sustainable, because firstly, for regular people, they face more austerity that's going to hit the economy. And the improvement in financial conditions hasn't really translated into making it easier for firms to get access to credit.
So it's not clear where growth is going to come from in these peripheral economies. And if they remain stagnant - and stagnant, as you say, with unimaginably high unemployment levels - I think it's a political time bomb. So the notion that Europe has licked this crisis is enormously premature. Until Europe figures out how to get its economies growing again, there's still going to be a shadow hanging over it.
MONTAGNE: Given all that, what is the prognosis for the EU and for Europe?
BEDDOES: Well, my short-term prognosis is that I think there isn't going to be a financial crisis fear of the sort that we had last year, in the short-term, for two reasons. Firstly, I think European politicians did show, during 2012, that they were determined to prevent the breakup of the single currency. And certainly, until the German election - which is in the fall of this year - the most important country in Europe is determined to have quiet, and not to have a sort of return of the fear of catastrophe that we had last year.
And secondly, the European Central Bank, led by Mario Draghi, has basically said it will act as a sort of lender of last resort. It would, if necessary, buy the bonds of these countries if they had to. And that's provided the sort of tools for a kind of jerry-rigged backstop to the single currency.
So I think in the short term, that means fracture, collapse is off the table. But because we don't yet have the institutional basis for the euro going forward, or, indeed, any clarity about how these countries are going to grow again, I'm still, you know, much less optimistic about the medium term. So I think for the next few months, it's going to be okay.
It's going to be stagnate and grim and tough, but there isn't going to be a sort of fear of collapse again. But over the sort of two, three, four, five-year horizon, it really depends on whether this recipe of austerity and structural reforms works, and I suspect there has to be a lot more loosening of austerity for it to do so.
MONTAGNE: Zanny Minton Beddoes is economics editor of The Economist magazine, speaking to us from Davos, Switzerland. Thanks very much.
BEDDOES: My pleasure, Renee.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK, the Pentagon says the U.S. commander in Afghanistan is cleared. Gen. John Allen was caught in a scandal last fall. You may recall, he'd been corresponding by email with a Florida socialite; and the question for the Pentagon was whether Gen. Allen's emails were inappropriate. NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman followed the story back then. He's with us now. Tom, good morning.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: I feel like we need a little review here, for people who haven't memorized the national security section of TMZ. So could you just remind us - Gen. David Petraeus, who - a former general, the head of the CIA, resigned because he'd had an affair; and then Gen. Allen got drawn into this. How did that happen?
BOWMAN: It's very complicated. First of all, the emails were between Gen. Allen and a woman in Florida who was connected to the Petraeus case. And just to remind everyone, her name is Jill Kelley.
INSKEEP: Right.
BOWMAN: She's a socialite; sort of a social ambassador to the military at MacDill Air Force Base. That's where Gen. Allen and Gen. Petraeus served, in recent years. Now, Kelley's the woman who complained about receiving threatening emails, and that prompted an FBI investigation. And that, of course, led to the discovery that CIA director David Petraeus had been having an affair with a woman named Paula Broadwell. Now, initial reports from the Pentagon said there were about 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails...
INSKEEP: Oh, yeah.
BOWMAN: ...between Gen. Allen and Jill Kelley, over several years; but that seemed, you know, pretty high. The numbers seem to be much smaller - in the hundreds. And Gen. Allen denied any wrongdoing, right from the start. He denied any kind of affair with this woman.
INSKEEP: OK. So the Pentagon's inspector general looked into this. The question was, what? Did he violate any military regulations - that was the question?
BOWMAN: That's right. Improper conduct and allegations of, quote, "inappropriate communications" were not substantiated, in the end. And right now, there's not much more detail we have, than that.
INSKEEP: So this means he's cleared of all wrongdoing. He's in the clear - is that right?
BOWMAN: That's right.
INSKEEP: OK. So he had been the president's choice to lead NATO. Is that still going to happen? Because even if he's been cleared, his name has been out there in an uncomfortable way.
BOWMAN: Well, we don't know yet. The White House says his nomination to be head of NATO is still on hold. But the good news, for him, is Defense Secretary Leon Panetta put out a statement last night, saying he has complete confidence in Gen. Allen. So we'll just have to wait and see.
INSKEEP: Is it clear to you, Tom, what was in these - perhaps hundreds of communications? Do the - does the investigation say any more about that?
BOWMAN: You know, it doesn't. And they were looking at - I was told - about half-dozen emails they thought were sort of untoward. But someone I spoke with said there really wasn't anything, in the end. There was kind of - little smoke, but not really any fire here.
INSKEEP: And if he had been found to be having an affair, would that have been a violation of military regulations?
BOWMAN: Right. It's against UCMJ, Uniform Code of Military Justice, to have an affair. And there may have been other charges tacked on as well. But yeah, it's against military law.
INSKEEP: OK. Let's broaden out our picture of this man - John Allen. A lot of people had probably not heard his name until the scandal, but he's well-known in military circles, isn't he?
BOWMAN: That's right. He's a very brainy guy; kind of quiet. He would sometimes call women "sweetie" or "darling" - his aides said - in a sort of courtly, Southern way; also, not - Steve - your really, kind of hell-raising Marine. But the important thing is, he was a key figure during the Iraq War. He was an architect of what was called the Sunni Awakening, back in 2006 and 2007. And that was an effort to get Sunni leaders and their fighters to work with the Americans and the Iraqi government.
INSKEEP: Right.
BOWMAN: And that really helped tamp down the violence in Iraq, and it really turned the war around. And I don't think he ever got enough credit for that. But he, again, was a key figure. And of course, the last couple of years, he's been in Afghanistan, managing the drawdown of U.S. troops.
INSKEEP: Tom, thanks very much.
BOWMAN: You're welcome, Steve.
INSKEEP: That's NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman.
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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. In Israel last night a surprisingly close election. Voters appear to have reelected Prime Minister Netanyahu for another term. That was expected. But Netanyahu's right wing alliance suffered serious losses. Centrist and left wing parties defied opinion polls and won half the seats in parliament. As NPR's Larry Abramson reports from Jerusalem, the prime minister will now have to turn these fractured results into a government.
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LARRY ABRAMSON, BYLINE: The gathering at Likud Party headquarters in Tel Aviv was supposed to be a victory celebration, a re-coronation of Benjamin Netanyahu to his third term as prime minister. In an effort secure a clean victory, Netanyahu merged Likud's slate with another right wing party, Yisrael Beiteinu, led by Avigdor Lieberman.
That was supposed to help Netanyahu pass a budget. But well before the elections, the slate began to lose ground in the polls. The latest results show Likud-Beiteinu dropping from 42 seats down to just 31. That still makes the Likud-Beiteinu alliance the biggest force in parliament. But the results were still a big setback.
When Netanyahu spoke to supporters, he talked not about victory, but about the need to build a coalition.
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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: (Foreign language spoken)
ABRAMSON: Netanyahu thanked the crowd for electing him to a third term, and said, quote, "In order to lead us forward together into the future, I would like to start and try to form the widest possible coalition. I have started on this task already today."
That won't be easy. Netanyahu's slate lost votes to upstarts on the right and on the left. The attack by the right wing dominated the headlines. Naftali Bennett led his Jewish Home party to 11 seats. He outflanked Netanyahu and Avidgor Liebermann with an energetic campaign that emphasized no negotiations with the Palestinians.
Professor Reuven Hazan of Hebrew University says, Bennett took advantage of discontent within Netanyahu's traditional base of support.
REUVEN HAZAN: So this was an attack on Netanyahu and Lieberman because they merged. And the right wing, the hawks in Israel, really didn't like that.
ABRAMSON: Meanwhile, Netanyahu was outflanked on the center and left by a number of forces. The big surprise was the showing by centrist party Yesh Atid, or there is a future. It's led by Yair Lapid, a former TV news personality who remade an existing party into his own.
His message was simple and spare. He emphasized domestic issues, such as controlling the cost of living. He appealed to many young people with a message of, basically, hope and change, and he said he wanted to draft ultra-orthodox religious students into the army. Last night, Lapid said that message helped his party capture 19 seats in the 120 seat parliament.
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YAIR LAPID: (Foreign language spoken)
ABRAMSON: Lapid said: The citizens of Israel said no to the politics of fear and hate, no to the division into sector groups and interest groups, they said no to extremism and they said no to anti democracy.
Lapid has now vaulted from outsider to leader of the second biggest bloc of voters in the Israeli parliament. If Lapid is included in an eventual coalition, that will make it very difficult for Netanyahu to hold onto his traditional allies in the religious parties.
It could also cause problems on the Palestinian question. One member of Lapid's slate said last night the party would only want to join a coalition that supports resuming peace talks. Reuven Hazan of Hebrew University says Israel has had evenly split governments like this before. The lessons of history, he says, is that they tend to avoid the touchiest issues.
HAZAN: So what we could see here is a very wide government that focused on domestic politics where something can be done and very little on foreign policy and security.
ABRAMSON: With the parliament apparently split 60-60, late arriving ballots from soldiers and other absentee voters could have an impact on the shape of the final coalition. Meanwhile, Netanyahu will be have to work the phones and try to form a government that won't lead to another surprise, by falling apart prematurely. Larry Abramson, NPR News, Jerusalem.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.
Young Ethan Sattler started his own news organization last fall, a first step in being a real journalist. Then he put in a request to cover the inauguration from the White House Briefing Room, which was granted.
There were no briefings on Inauguration Day, but the 13-year-old did catch some of the action. He so impressed everyone, he landed a spot in the press viewing area; and caught a glimpse of the president leaving the White House.
It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. A Scottish sports reporter recorded a soccer team press conference using his phone. Great idea, but inevitably the reporter's phone rang. The soccer team manager picked it up.
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UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Hello?
INSKEEP: It was the reporter's wife, who hung up in confusion, but then called again. And the manager answered again.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Sharon? Sharon. Sharon. You've got to stop interrupting my press conference, please.
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Fred Kaplan was the first to publicly link Paula Broadwell to the Petraeus scandal last fall, but that's not the topic of his new book. In fact, it's barely an addendum. Instead, this national security reporter focuses in depth on counterinsurgency, a cornerstone of General Petraeus' legacy. Fred Kaplan is Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of "The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War."
The title is a play on words. The insurgents in this case are Americans: colonels and generals educated at West Point.
FRED KAPLAN: Right. I'm talking about a small band of intellectual officers within the Army, who rose within, determined to mount a revolution from inside the Army. You know, Before Petraeus went to Iraq in 2006, for a couple of decades, the Army's definition of war was large, set-pieces with tanks, you know, battles against major foes.
Conflicts against insurgents, terrorists, that sort of thing, it was officially called, in capital letters, Military Operations Other Than War. It wasn't even war, and yet, at the same time, people like David Petraeus and other junior officers who were coming up in the '80s and early '90s, they were going to El Salvador, to Somalia, to Bosnia, these places that sure felt like war to these people. But it wasn't recognized.
And so as these people came up through the ranks and they discussed the situation with their fellow officers, they realized that the Army had to change, and it wasn't going to change by itself. And so they had to change it from within, and therefore they were the insurgents within the United States Army.
MONTAGNE: And they weren't able to do much with this new thinking until the Iraq war.
KAPLAN: Right. I mean, large organizations sometimes change when there's a catastrophe, and there was a catastrophe in Iraq. You know, we invaded with kind of a blitzkrieg dash up the desert, and then found ourselves being an occupying power and then facing an insurgency.
The Secretary of Defense, and not just Donald Rumsfeld, but the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff, they were against even calling it an insurgency, because that would mean you might have to develop counterinsurgency strategies, which would require a lot of troops staying on the ground for a long time, and they were not interested in that at all.
It was in this context that this plot to change the American military from within really got underway, because it became a matter of urgency.
MONTAGNE: When you say plot, how do you mean that?
KAPLAN: I mean it was a plot. The people involved in it, they called themselves the cabal or the West Point mafia. It all started with a conference that was held at Basin Harbor, Vermont, by a defense intellectual named Eliot Cohen. He went to Iraq. He saw that it was a disaster, so he basically called up everybody who had written an interesting article about counterinsurgency in a military journal.
There's about 30 people. And the pivotal thing about this meeting was that a lot of these people didn't know each other, they'd thought that they were out in the wilderness, writing this stuff by themselves, and they saw that, in fact, they formed a community. Now, at about the same time, by coincidence, David Petraeus was coming back from Iraq. He was going to head up the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas.
He realized that the Combined Arms Center was potentially the intellectual center of the Army. They wrote doctrine. And Petraeus knew some of these people who were in the Basin Harbor group, and these people became the co-conspirators, if you will, in writing a new field manual on counterinsurgency. And by the time Petraeus went back to Iraq, in early 2007, all the pins were in place for him to apply the strategy that he'd been trying to work into the mainstream of the Army for 25 years.
MONTAGNE: Give us, in a nutshell, the strategy.
KAPLAN: The strategy stemmed from an insight that insurgencies grow out of some kind of conditions on the ground. To the extent that they're successful, they gain popular favor, and it's not always entirely through fear. It's because the government that isn't doing a good job. So the point of a counterinsurgency campaign is not just to kill and capture the enemy. It's also to infiltrate the community, to say, we are here to provide you security, and also to reform the government.
I mean, and in some places, it works. When you can set up a relationship with the local powers, and you have common interests, then it can work.
MONTAGNE: That would be the surge in Iraq.
KAPLAN: Right. But here's where things went wrong. Petraeus said, right up front, he said, look, what we're doing here is we're creating some breathing space, a zone of security so that the factions in Iraq can get their act together without worrying about getting blown up every five minutes.
The problem was, as we now see, Prime Minister Maliki had no interest in getting his act together. So in the long run, the surge and all that worked tactically, but in terms of achieving strategic objectives, it didn't work, because what overrode the strategy was the interests of the ruling elites on the ground.
MONTAGNE: And that problem was writ large when the counter insurgency, the theories that partly worked or worked at least temporarily in Iraq, were transferred over to Afghanistan.
KAPLAN: Right. You know, after Iraq, Petraeus was viewed as a miracle worker. And he was a very brilliant strategist and an angler, but he wasn't a miracle worker. A myth had built up around him, and he had helped cultivate this myth quite deliberately, as a way of gaining loyalty and favor. A lot of generals do this.
He was sent to Afghanistan with the idea that, well, he worked miracles in Iraq, maybe he can work them in Afghanistan. By his own admission, he knew nothing about Afghanistan. You know, David Petraeus was heavily influenced by this book by a French colonial officer name David Galula, called "Counterinsurgency Warfare." There is a chapter - and Petraeus read this book and reread it many times - a chapter called "Conditions Favorable to an Insurgency." And it listed several things where an insurgency would be very effective: a corrupt central government, a largely rural, illiterate population, a neighboring country that can serve as a sanctuary for an insurgency.
You add up all these conditions, it's a dead ringer for Afghanistan. This thing was just never going to be susceptible to classic counterinsurgency techniques. Petraeus convinced a lot of people that we should give it a try. President Obama gave it a try, for about 18 months, and it didn't work, and so he cut back on the strategy, which is what we're seeing now.
MONTAGNE: So in a weird way, the very generals - and this included many others besides General Petraeus - these generals who would've always said they weren't fighting the last war, at least in this instance, were fighting the last war.
KAPLAN: Yeah, that's the irony. They also said things like, counterinsurgencies are local wars, you have to adapt to each local condition, but they just tried to apply the same very abstract principles, and it didn't work. You know, one thing - history teaches us, over and over, that sometimes, when you get intellectuals in positions of power, and especially once they have a triumph or two, the fall, when the fall comes, can be particularly brutal.
MONTAGNE: Fred Kaplan writes the column "War Stories" in Slate and his new book is "The Insurgence: David Petraeus in the Plot to Change the American Way of War." Thanks very much.
KAPLAN: Thank you.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Today is Aaron Neville's birthday, and at 72 you could say he's reverted back to his childhood. He's recorded a new album called "My True Story," and it's a collection of songs he used to sing growing up in the projects of New Orleans, back in the 1950s and '60s, when doo-wop was king.
AARON NEVILLE: I've been into every doo-wop there is. And I think I went to the University of Doo-Wopology.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
MONTAGNE: Aaron Neville got his education from groups like the Drifters, the Clovers and the Flamingos. They had such an influence on him that their sound has kept popping up throughout his more than 50 years in music, from his family group, the Neville Brothers, to his long solo career.
NEVILLE: Everything I've done, if you're listening, you hear some kind of doo-wop in it. I'm doing one of those things on the end of it, you know.
MONTAGNE: What do you mean? One of those things on the end of it?
NEVILLE: (Humming) You know.
MONTAGNE: That's doo-wop.
NEVILLE: Yeah.
MONTAGNE: For a long time, of course, you would have been listening to this music as a kid.
NEVILLE: My brother Art was a doo-wopper; he had of a group that sat out on a park bench in New Orleans and sang harmonies at night. And they'd go around and win all the talent shows and get all the girls, you know. So I would run up and try to sing and they'd run me away - get away from me, kid, you know. Until they figured I could hold a note and they let me sing with them.
MONTAGNE: So for a kid, a nine, 10-year-old, you would have had to have a voice at that age.
NEVILLE: They wouldn't have let me sing if they didn't think I had a voice. I used to always sing my way into the movies and the basketball games or whatever. I'd sing for whoever was on the door and they'd let me in.
MONTAGNE: The people at the door would say - they knew you at that point?
NEVILLE: Yeah. I used to think I was Nat King Cole back in the days. You know, so I'd sing something like - (Singing) Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, men have named you - (Speaking) and they'd let me in.
MONTAGNE: In this album, you can hit the high notes in this way that was really supreme in the world of doo-wop.
NEVILLE: Yeah. That was the thing. The doo-wop was like - had a bass singer, had the guy doing the harmonies, the lead, and somebody doing the high notes.
MONTAGNE: Let's play an example of those notes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
MONTAGNE: Your brother used to work in a record store there in New Orleans.
NEVILLE: Right. It's called Tickles Record Shop.
MONTAGNE: Tickles?
NEVILLE: Yeah.
MONTAGNE: And so he had access probably more than most young people to everything.
NEVILLE: He would bring stuff home by Clyde McFadden, Domino's and Senator and the Orioles, and the Clovers, and just all kind of groups. And it was like, oh wow, I couldn't wait to get that and put it on a turntable and start playing it, you know?
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: Let's make a comparison here. Let's hear a Little Anthony's original of the song "Tears on My Pillow" and make a comparison to what you're doing...
NEVILLE: Okay.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TEARS ON MY PILLOW")
MONTAGNE: And now we'll hear what - we'll hear your version.
NEVILLE: Cool.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TEARS ON MY PILLOW")
MONTAGNE: You're faithful, very faithful to the song. Did you listen a lot to the originals again in order to do this album?
NEVILLE: They were already in my head. They've been in my head since I can remember. So I didn't really, you know, record and I didn't really need the words.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THIS MAGIC MOMENT")
MONTAGNE: You say you grew up in the projects, but it was homey there in New Orleans when you were a kid.
NEVILLE: The project was great. If we were poor, we didn't know it. 'Cause I guess you don't miss what you never had, so you know, we made do with whatever - we used to make our own toys and we used to play with spinning tops and marbles. A pocket full of marbles, you were rich. You didn't worry about no money.
MONTAGNE: Well, you did get into some trouble though as a slightly older teenager.
NEVILLE: Yes, I did.
MONTAGNE: Caught and went to prison for car theft.
NEVILLE: Right. Joy riding.
MONTAGNE: Joy riding.
NEVILLE: Yeah.
MONTAGNE: That's what they called it.
NEVILLE: That's what they called it.
MONTAGNE: And it sort of was that though, right?
NEVILLE: Yeah, it was, until you got caught. Then the joy was over.
MONTAGNE: You had ups and downs after that.
NEVILLE: Yep. I got married at an early age. I was 17 when I got married.
MONTAGNE: And Joelle was her name?
NEVILLE: Joelle, yeah. And she raised me, really. You know, like, we stayed together 48 years.
MONTAGNE: She just passed on a few years...
NEVILLE: In '07, right. But I think if I wouldn't have been married, I don't know where I would be.
MONTAGNE: If there was a tune on here that would speak to that moment in your life - young, married, still potentially could be in a little bit in trouble, but you have your gift, your voice - what one would that be here?
NEVILLE: Maybe "Goodnight My Love."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GOODNIGHT MY LOVE")
MONTAGNE: Aaron Neville, thank you very much for joining us.
NEVILLE: It's been a pleasure. Brought me down memory lane.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: Aaron Neville has a new album of the songs he grew up with, and it's produced by two other musicians who grew up on doo-wop - Keith Richards and Don Was. You can hear that CD, "My True Story," at NPR.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "UNDER THE BOARDWALK")
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Here is a problem facing us in this digital age. All the data we're stockpiling - digital images, tax records, unfinished novels - where are we going to store them? Some scientists say they may have a solution. It's not digital, it's biological.
NPR's Adam Cole reports scientists have successfully tested out using DNA as an archive by recording all of Shakespeare's sonnets on a double helix.
ADAM COLE, BYLINE: It all started in a pub a few months ago. Nick Goldman and Ewan Birney, two scientists from the European Bioinformatics Institute, were drinking beer and discussing a problem.
Their institute manages a huge database of genetic information - thousands and thousands of genes from humans and corn and pufferfish. And Goldman says all that data - and all the hard drives and the electricity used to power and keep them cool - is getting pretty expensive.
NICK GOLDMAN: The data we are being asked to be guardians of is growing exponentially. But our budgets are not growing exponentially.
COLE: That's a problem faced by many large companies with expanding archives - and the solution was right in front of the researchers. They worked with it every day.
GOLDMAN: We realized that that DNA itself is a really efficient way of storing information.
COLE: That's right. DNA, the genetic material that makes us us - is a natural hard drive. Here's why. It's a long chain that repeats four basic chemical units.
GOLDMAN: Four different bases - that's different forms of molecules - A, C, G and T.
COLE: Those are the four letters in DNA's alphabet.
COMPUTER VOICE: A, C, G. T.
COLE: When these letters are arranged in different ways, they spell out different instructions for our cells.
: A, G, A, C...
COLE: Three billion of those letters make up the entire instruction manual for our existence. And it's all stuffed into each cell in your body. DNA is millions of times more compact than the hard drive on your computer.
GOLDMAN: If only we could persuade it to take the form we wanted, encoding the information we defined.
COLE: Like a text file instead of genetic information. Over a second beer, Goldman and his colleague started to sketch out the details. They started with a text file of one of Shakespeare's sonnets.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
COLE: This text file was written in a computer's most basic language.
GOLDMAN: Zeroes and ones.
COLE: Bits stored on a magnetic hard drive.
GOLDMAN: And some of these...
: Zero, zero, zero, one, zero, zero...
COLE: With a simple cipher, Goldman and his colleagues translated these zeroes and ones into the letters of DNA.
: C, G, C, A, G, A...
COLE: And then they did the same for the rest of Shakespeare's sonnets, and an audio clip of Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, and a picture of their office. They sent that code - those strings of A's C's G's and T's - off to a company that built the physical strands of synthetic DNA and sent them back to Goldman.
GOLDMAN: My first reaction was that they hadn't done it properly because they sent me these little tiny test tubes that were quite clearly empty.
COLE: But the DNA was there - tiny specks at the bottom of the tubes. They sequenced the DNA, read the code, ran their cipher backwards...
: (Unintelligible)
COLE: And they ended up with a 100 percent accurate Shakespearean sonnet.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
COLE: All from the tiniest speck of DNA. They published their results in the journal "Nature," joining other groups who have experimented with DNA storage.
Goldman says the process would be easy to scale up. If you took everything human beings have ever written - an estimated 50 billion megabytes of text - and stored it in DNA, that DNA would still weigh less than a granola bar.
GOLDMAN: There's no problem with holding a lot information in DNA. The problem is paying for doing that.
COLE: The process would cost more than $10,000 per megabyte.
GOLDMAN: It's an unthinkably large amount of money at the moment.
COLE: At the moment.
Goldman and other scientists who are dabbling in DNA storage know that DNA synthesis costs are dropping rapidly. In a decade or so, a DNA archive might be cheaper than a room full of hard drives.
Adam Cole, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Millions of Americans who live close to water have occasion to think about flood insurance. In the United States, if you want to buy flood insurance, the odds are you're going to be buying it from the United States government. The National Flood Insurance Program was intended to pay for itself, set the premiums at a rate that they finance the payments.
But the program is currently a money loser, which only got worse after Hurricane Sandy. David Kestenbaum of NPR's Planet Money team has this story about how the government got into the flood insurance business.
DAVID KESTENBAUM, BYLINE: There's a quick, one-word explanation for why the government started selling flood insurance. That word: Betsy.
WINDELL CURALL: Hurricane Betsy hit in 1965, September 9th.
KESTENBAUM: Windell Curall runs a local levee district in Louisiana but he remembers that exact date for a different reason.
CURALL: It hit on my 14th birthday.
KESTENBAUM: Wow.
CURALL: The uninvited guest.
KESTENBAUM: Windell's family lived south of New Orleans, a place he describes as half land, half water. His family had lived there for generations. And on that day, in 1965, something like 30 relatives came over to take refuge.
CURALL: Uncles, aunts and first cousins. And they came up to, I say, the high country. They left land that was about three feet above sea level to come to our house, which about five feet about sea level.
KESTENBAUM: He remembers the storm hitting with terrifying winds. Then the eye of the storm. Then the winds, from the opposite direction.
CURALL: I remember attic door getting blown off from the wind pressure, and they actually out and nailed it shut.
KESTENBAUM: The storm became known as Billion Dollar Betsy. Homes were ruined. Water up to the roofs. People paddling around streets in boats. All that stuff. Massive damage.
And this would be the time when you'd expect people to be pulling out their flood insurance policies. But - they couldn't. Flood insurance was really hard to come by. You could get fire insurance, theft insurance, health insurance, car insurance, life insurance. But not flood insurance.
Eric Smith works in the insurance industry. He is president and CEO of Swiss Re in the Americas.
ERIC SMITH: There was a lack of data. One of the principles, the bedrock principles of insurance is its got to be something that's somewhat measurable. You have to be able to calculate its frequency and its severity and, you know, how often is this going to occur and how much damage will it do
KESTENBAUM: A few years after hurricane Betsy, in 1968, the government decided it would take it on the job of selling flood insurance. Some people hated this idea. If private insurance companies wouldn't sell policies to people who wanted to live in flood zones, why should the government.
That argument did not win the day. The government created flood maps, gathered data, and set up the National Flood Insurance Program.
MARK BROWNE: I think it generally worked out OK, overall, until Katrina.
KESTENBAUM: Mark Browne is a professor of Risk Management and Insurance at University of Wisconsin Madison.
BROWNE: Katrina came. And Katrina was a major loss for the National Flood Insurance Program. Now, blew through its money and went into deficit.
KESTENBAUM: This, frankly, is the other reason why flood insurance is a tricky business. You could have a quiet three decades - 30 years - and then, bam, a huge hurricane plows into a major city. Suddenly you got to pay out all this money.
And on the heels of Katrina there was - you may remember - Rita and Wilma. The National Flood Insurance Program had to borrow money from the government. A lot of money, $17 billion dollars.
BROWNE: That's a lot of money to borrow.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWNE: That's exactly right.
KESTENBAUM: The debt got worse after Sandy. So were the critics right? Is the government running a bad business. Mark Browne says maybe that's the wrong way to look at it. After a big national disaster, the government is on the hook anyway. It might as well collect some money by selling insurance.
And all that money the program had to borrow, David Miller, who oversees the National Flood Insurance Program, says the plan is to pay it back.
DAVID MILLER: If I look at the rates now, and where I am and what's expected and when I can project. We can repay the debt. It would be over a long time.
KESTENBAUM: He says it could take 20 or 30 years.
David Kestenbaum NPR News
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: Think of this Public Radio station as your insurance that you get MORNING EDITION every day. But you can continue to follow us throughout the day on social media. We're on Facebook. We're also on Twitter. Among other handles we are @morningedition and @nprinskeep.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
You may think you know all there is to know about the risks of smoking, but we have some news out this week. It's new information released in the New England Journal of Medicine, information that shows the risk of death from smoking is much higher in women than previously thought. There's also surprising new data on the benefits of quitting. NPR's Richard Knox has the story.
RICHARD KNOX, BYLINE: First, the under-appreciated risk of smoking for women. Dr. Prabhat Jha, an author of one study, says before now, not enough women had been smoking long enough to gauge their true risk.
DR. PRABHAT JHA: The group of women that started smoking seriously in and around 1960s, can be followed up only now - fully five decades later - to understand what are the full consequences of smoking among women.
KNOX: In the 1980s, it looked like women who smoked were about 13 times more likely to die from lung cancer than women who never did. But the new analysis finds that female smokers are more than 26 times more likely to die of lung cancer than nonsmoking women - and their risk of death from any cause is 50 percent higher than previously thought.
Jha, from St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, says the new data also quantify the terrible costs of smoking for all smokers more precisely than ever.
JHA: What we found in studying over 220,000 adult Americans, is that smoking leads to the loss of about a decade of life.
KNOX: And long-term smoking reduces a smoker's chances of living to the age of 80 by half. But Jha says there are also bigger benefits from quitting than most people have thought. A long-term smoker who quits before age 40 actually turns back the clock on his risk of dying - gaining back nine out of the 10 years of life he'd have lost if he hadn't stopped.
JHA: It's a very encouraging message, you know. And if you think about the average, let's say, 45-year-old smoker in the United States, they probably started when they were age 15. They might be smoking for a quarter of a century. And they might think, oh, it's too late. There's no point for me to quit, because the damage is done. But that's not true.
KNOX: And there is substantial benefit from quitting at older ages too. Quitting by age 50 means about six years of life gained back, and quitting by age 60 buys you back four years of the 10 you'd lose if you didn't quit. Dr. Michael Eriksen of Georgia State University says looking at it this way might motivate more people to quit, because they can relate it to their own lives.
DR. MICHAEL ERIKSEN: They're not stupid. They want a full life. They want to enjoy their grandchildren, their retirement. And realizing that their life will be shortened by a full decade, puts the risk in clear and stark terms.
KNOX: Dr. Nancy Rigotti, who runs smoking cessation programs at Massachusetts General Hospital, agrees that it might be more effective to emphasize what people have to gain if they stop smoking.
DR. NANCY RIGOTTI: The positive is a much better, more much more powerful message, much more persuasive.
KNOX: But she worries that some may interpret the message as saying it's OK to smoke until their 30s or even age 40, because if they quit then, they can reverse all or most of the damage.
RIGOTTI: A lot of young women think, I can smoke until I get pregnant. And people say, I can smoke until I'm 40. But it's certainly easier to quit earlier than later.
KNOX: The longer they smoke, the harder it is to quit. Rigotti says she'll start using the new findings right away in her everyday practice.
RIGOTTI: I'm going to tell my patients that quitting early is really important. They should be thinking about it now, but also that it's never too late to quit.
KNOX: And she also says the new information will come in handy as new Obamacare provisions require all health insurers to start covering smoking-cessation programs. Richard Knox, NPR News.
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INSKEEP: This is NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now, across Mali's border, in the interior of Algeria, rebel groups seized attention last week when they took hostages at an oil and gas facility. They claimed that they were fighting in support of Mali's Islamist rebels. And regardless of their motives, the attack raises a wider concern. North Africa is an important source of energy resources. If oil and gas installations are no longer secure there, the price and supply of energy could be affected worldwide.
That is the subject of today's business bottom line. NPR's Tom Gjelten has been speaking with risk analysts about the Algeria attack.
TOM GJELTEN, BYLINE: The early signs suggest the Algeria attack has not had a huge impact in the energy world. The price of oil, a good indicator of anxiety in the energy market, went up modestly right after the attack, but then it stabilized. No energy company has suspended operations in North Africa, nor has any country announced it will hold off on future investments. But it may just be that governments and energy companies are still trying to figure out exactly what happened at the gas field.
David Goldwyn, a former State Department envoy for international energy affairs, notes that the complex had not been attacked during decades of civil war in Algeria, and was surrounded - in his words - by a ring of steel.
DAVID GOLDWYN: You had a tremendous amount of desert. You had a perimeter, which was far from the actual operations; and you had interior, additional perimeters as you got closer to the operating facilities. So frankly, it remains a mystery to me still, how it was that this group of terrorists - were able to penetrate this.
GJELTEN: It's possible the Algerian government, which is responsible for security at its oil and gas installations, simply grew complacent. Not knowing how it happened, it's hard to know whether it could happen again. Goldwyn, now a private energy consultant, says if it was an inside job or some individual letting down his guard, the attack is less likely to be repeated elsewhere.
GOLDWYN: If the answer is a third alternative - which is that the force capability of these terrorists is greater than the security precautions in place can prevent - then that's going to dictate a hardening of the security perimeter, and an increase in the lethality of the folks on the inside, in order to deter those sorts of attacks.
GJELTEN: Higher fences, more guards and more guns. Not surprisingly, as the most catastrophic terrorist attack ever on a gas or oil facility in North Africa, the seizure of the Algerian gas complex has grabbed the attention of energy companies in the region.
GEOFF PORTER: It's clearly a wake-up call.
GJELTEN: Geoff Porter is a risk analyst specializing in North Africa.
PORTER: I think what oil companies are now trying to determine is whether this was an isolated incident; or whether this is the beginning of a new security paradigm in North Africa, and we're likely to see repeat attacks in the months and years to come.
GJELTEN: Militant Islamists are on the rise across North Africa, and may now be targeting energy facilities. Though the Algeria attack was the most dramatic, it was not the first. Terrorists took hostages at uranium mines in northern Niger, in 2010. If security becomes an even bigger problem for energy companies in North Africa, they'll have to consider the higher costs they would face. So would the governments, who bear most of the security responsibilities. But it may be worth it. Scott Stewart, a counterterrorism analyst at Stratfor, a private intelligence firm, points out that after the government in Niger tightened security at its uranium mines, they were not hit again.
SCOTT STEWART: I think we'll see a similar thing happening in Algeria, and probably other countries in the region, because these - incomes they receive from these extractive industries are so critical to the national economies. They really need to protect them, and they will put a lot of resources toward safeguarding them.
GJELTEN: In the case of Algeria, it's clear the government is eager for foreign energy companies to continue investing in the country. Just this week, the Algerian parliament approved a new law lowering taxes on foreign firms in the country, something foreign investors there have long been pushing for.
Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The University of Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o is at the center of a national media drama. For months, national media outlets like ESPN and Sports Illustrated told the story of his girlfriend's death and his triumph on the field after that loss.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
As we've been reporting, the whole story was a hoax. The 21-year-old linebacker has maintained that he was duped. But today on ABC, he will admit to becoming part of the lie.
Here's a clip from Katy Couric's syndicated talk show.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "KATIE")
MONTAGNE: That's just one of many questions surrounding Manti Te'o's story. But Dan Slater, who's written a book on the history of online dating, says falling in love with an Internet profile is actually fairly common.
DAN SLATER: The story that he tells is similar to the story that I got from a lot of the online dating users that I interviewed for my book. They got lured in, in a way they never imagined that they would have. But I just think that loneliness is a powerful affliction. I think that relationships can be very powerful, and certainly even a relationship that occurs only online can be very meaningful.
MONTAGNE: Dan's latest book is out today. We reached him yesterday to talk about "Love in the Time of Algorithms."
Good morning.
SLATER: Hi. Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Now, most of us think of online dating as something rather new. But you write in the very beginning of the book that the first computer-based program for dating started back in the 1950s.
SLATER: That is right. Actually my mother and father met through the second ever computer dating system, invented in '65. And back then, the questionnaire was written, it wasn't something you filled out online because there was no Internet yet. But you would get a questionnaire slid under the door of your dorm room that looked like an SAT sheet. It had the bubbles next to the questions.
You filled out the questions and then you returned the questionnaire to the person who ran the company with a three or four dollar subscription fee. And they took the answers to the questionnaire. They put it on a punch card, and then they ran it through these enormous room-sized computers. And the machine would spit out a sheet with six matches and you would receive that in the mail. And then it was up to you to initiate contact or wait for one of those six people to contact you.
MONTAGNE: So it was a way of doing something that's in its way quite old-fashioned, ancient even, which is matchmaking. But what about online dating? Why is it so successful?
SLATER: I think the reason online dating is so successful is because it expands the pool so much. And certainly when the Internet arrived in the early '90s, and then when Match, you know, arrived in around 1995, all of a sudden you went from perceiving your mating pool as relatively limited, to this enormous online population of people available to you.
And I also think that accounted for the stigma, you know, to some extent, just because it was scary, and it felt like it of the Wild West of dating. And I think it still does for a lot of people.
MONTAGNE: Right, but for a lot of people there have been enough success stories that it also feels kind of comfy.
SLATER: Yeah, I know. I think that the reason that the stigma is now eroding is because it works.
MONTAGNE: What about these algorithms? Have you found any evidence of some that found - what would you call it - the special way of putting people together that works?
SLATER: Well, it's sort of a complex answer, between what psychological science says is possible and what the dating sites say that they can do. So what a lot of dating sites say they can do is they can take a couple of strangers who've never met, and they can match them up for lifetime compatibility. What the academics say is that is not possible.
I think what is happening at the moment is that dating sites are getting better at predicting whether two people who never met can hit it off on a first date. And I think the more data that dating sites accumulate, the better they'll become at matching people up.
MONTAGNE: Dan Slater's new book is "Love in the Time of Algorithms." Dan Slater, thanks very much for joining us.
SLATER: Thank you so much for having me.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK, we're getting into late January. Time to check in on your New Years' resolutions. Resolutions, what resolutions?
(LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: You forget them by now. But if your resolution was fitness or weight-loss related, then today we're offering a little motivation - an encore presentation of a visit we made last summer to Richard Simmons' aerobics studio in Beverly Hills.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Before Simmons became a fitness celebrity, he was a struggling waiter. He saved up a year and a half of tips, to open his studio. Thirty-nine years later, after selling millions of fitness books and "Sweating to the Oldies" videos, he's still here.
INSKEEP: Still teaching, still sweating with anybody who will show up for his $12 sessions. NPR producer Sam Sanders showed up for a workout and sent us this sweaty postcard.
RICHARD SIMMONS: Stomach in, four and five, push it back, six and seven and eight.
And side. Oh yeah, baby.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC AND CLAPS)
SIMMONS: Side and back, come on. Here we go. Come on. Here we go.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RADIO KILLED THE RADIO STAR")
SIMMONS: My friend, Gerry, who's been coming here for many years, and she's just celebrated her 90th birthday.
(APPLAUSE)
GERRY SINCLAIR: My name is Gerry Sinclair. I'm 90 and I celebrated right here at Richard Simmons. Didn't I?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Yes, you did.
SINCLAIR: It was such fun.
JOHN RANDALLS: My name's John, John Randalls, first time.
SAM SANDERS, BYLINE: Why'd you come?
RANDALLS: 'Cause Richard Simmons is a living legend. And...
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Because it's here.
RANDALLS: ...'cause it's here, yeah. And if I had an opportunity to spend $12 and spend my morning with Richard Simmons, I was going to do it.
SIMMONS: You know, it's a Broadway show. It is not an easy workout. You know, these people did close to, most probably, five or 600 leg lifts today. But most of all, it did something for their self-esteem. And the more I bark at them and become different characters and drive them crazy, the harder they work.
SANDERS: And I really, I get a little thrill. I'm driving them crazy, just a little bit. And then they'll go home and go, do you know what he said to me.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: He said I was a hairy, hairy man, and he that offered to wax my legs for me.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: So that was quite an experience.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: He said I was cute, like a dessert. And it was amazing. He thought I was 16. He thought I looked too young to be in a class like this, I guess. I don't know. I'm 31.
(LAUGHTER)
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SIMMONS: Even though my work is whimsical, I have a very serious job. I cry more than I laugh. When I go to bed at night, I ask God to give me another day - very night that I go to bed. I ask him to keep me strong and make me a good teacher and to keep spreading this right word. And, you know, I have to do it till the day I die.
INSKEEP: That is Richard Simmons. NPR's Sam Sanders spent a day at his aerobics studio in Beverly Hills.
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renée Montagne. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is back on Capitol Hill this morning, to introduce the man nominated to succeed her - Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Kerry's confirmation hearing comes just a day after Clinton gave emotional and sometimes angry testimony about the attack on an American consulate in Libya that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. As NPR's Michele Kelemen reports, in yesterday's hearing, Clinton seemed to be warning her successor that North Africa will be a region to watch.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: As she prepares to pass the baton to Kerry, Secretary Clinton shared with Congress a bit of parting advice. She says the U.S. has to continue to lead.
SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON: We've come a long way in the past four years. And we cannot afford to retreat now. When America is absent, especially from unstable environments, there are consequences. Extremism takes root, our interests suffer, our security at home is threatened.
KELEMEN: She says the U.S. is now investigating reports that some of the attackers in Benghazi were also involved in the recent hostage taking in Algeria, where three Americans were killed. There's no doubt, Clinton says, that Libyan weapons were used in Algeria, as well as in Northern Mali, where al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb has found safe haven.
And the U.S., she says, needs a strategy to deal with what she calls a spreading jihadist threat in a new political landscape.
CLINTON: The Arab revolutions have scrambled power dynamics and shattered security forces across the region. Instability in Mali has created an expanding safe haven for terrorists who look to extend their influence and plot further attacks of the kind we saw just last week in Algeria.
KELEMEN: The ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker of Tennessee, says the attack in Benghazi, Libya symbolizes how woefully unprepared the U.S. was.
REPRESENTATIVE BOB CORKER: To look at the faces of those on the ground in Libya, in a state of shock. People that we sent there, doing expeditionary diplomacy, who felt like they were on a tether and candidly did not have the support from Washington that they needed to do the things they needed to do.
KELEMEN: Corker says he hopes the incoming secretary will learn from what happened. Secretary Clinton says he'll be dealing with a situation no one predicted - dramatic changes in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
CLINTON: When I was here four years ago, testifying for my confirmation, I don't think anyone would have thought that Mubarak would be gone, Qaddafi would be gone, Ben Ali would be gone; that we would have such revolutionary change in this region.
KELEMEN: She calls it a great opportunity and a serious threat. Though many members of Congress praised Clinton for her tenure at state, Benghazi casts a shadow over her legacy. A Republican congressman from South Carolina, Jeff Duncan, says Clinton should have read the cables requesting more security.
REPRESENTATIVE JEFF DUNCAN: Madame Secretary, you let the consulate become a death trap. And that's national security malpractice.
KELEMEN: Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky suggested she should have been fired. Clinton lost her temper only at one point, when Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson pressed her on why the administration initially said the attack in Benghazi grew out of a protest over an anti-Islam video.
REPRESENTATIVE RON JOHNSON: Johnson: We were misled that there were supposedly protests and then something sprang out of that, an assault sprang out of that. And that was --
CLINTON: But not...
JOHNSON: ...Al Qaeda. That was not the facts.
CLINTON: But, but, you know...
JOHNSON: And the American people could have known that within days.
CLINTON: And...
JOHNSON: And they didn't know that.
CLINTON: With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans.
JOHNSON: I understand.
CLINTON: Was it because a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans. What difference, at this point, does it make?
KELEMEN: It's more important, she says, to find the perpetrators. so far no one has been brought to justice for carrying out the attack. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
We're going to listen this morning to the sounds near the frontlines of Mali's civil war. A rebellion in that country has captured global attention. Rebels who've taken over half the country have been imposing harsh version of Islamic law.
After months of retreat, the Malian government has finally made an advance. In the last week, French airstrikes and ground troops have helped government forces retake the strategic town of Diabaly village. It's the first major victory in the fight to reclaim the North. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton traveled to that town.
OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE: This is the entrance to Diabaly village and I am surrounded by five burned-out, bombed-out pick-up trucks that belonged to the Islamist rebels. Now, they were hit by French air strikes, French bombs.
So all around me, littering the sandy ground, are bullet cases, and there's a mortar shell there and a rocket propelled grenade. On the pick-up behind, some huge, heavy weaponry mounted behind the van.
(SOUNDBITE OF VOICE MIMICKING GUNFIRE)
QUIST-ARCTON: Mimicking the sound of gunfire, Kadiatou Sissoko describes the jihadist occupation of Diabaly and the heavy fighting that followed last week. Troops from Mali and France battled to dislodge them and cut off the rebel advance south - towards the capital, Bamako.
KADIATOU SISSOKO: (Foreign language spoken)
QUIST-ARCTON: Madame Sissoko says she fled from her mud-brick house, taking refuge out of the range of the rebels until they were chased out of town. Like many other residents, Madame Sissoko says the insurgents have nothing in common with the people of Diabaly.
SISSOKO: (Through translator) Who are they? We don't know them or the religion they're trying to impose on us here. They are not Muslims. We know true Islam and what the rebels are pedaling is not genuine Islam. We don't know anything about cutting off people's arms, legs and ears as punishment. That's not in our culture.
QUIST-ARCTON: Al-Qaida-linked fighters seized the vast northern desert region of Mali last April, after hijacking a rebellion by separatist Tuareg nomads. The rebels have imposed harsh Islamic law in areas under their control - amputating limbs, forcing women to wear veils, and banning music, smoking and watching television. The jihadis are reported to allow terrorism and trafficking to flourish in a notoriously lawless zone.
(SOUNDBITE OF SINGING)
QUIST-ARCTON: A worshipper at Diabaly's handsome, sun-baked earth mosque tells us that instead of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer, the rebels would fire twice in the air to signal prayer time.
The chief imam is Ibrahim Maiga.
IBRAHIM MAIGA: (Through translator) I'm angry at them. I studied Islam. I know everything they know. Not one of the rebels came to my home or to the mosque to see me. If they were true Muslims, they should have looked for me, because I am the religious leader here.
(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)
QUIST-ARCTON: A loud bang as French forces destroy ordinance they say well-armed Islamist fighters purloined. It took considerable firepower by the French, and fighting by Malian troops, to be able to wrest back control of Diabaly from the jihadis.
French Captain Antoine says the Malian and French armies working in tandem are formidable opponents.
CAPTAIN ANTOINE: If I were a jihadist, I wouldn't try. They are trained. They are mobile. We are also trained. We are mobile, so we are ready. We are ready. We are trained. We know the environment, and I'm quite confident in our troops. I'm confident in Malian counterparts.
QUIST-ARCTON: That confidence could be shaken by allegations of summary executions and retaliatory killings of supposed Islamist collaborators by Malian soldiers this month.
France-based International Federation for Human Rights says Mali's army is behind more than 30 killings. Human Rights Watch, based in New York, has also reported rights' abuses by Malian soldiers. The French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, says it's a matter of honor to ensure there are no such violations.
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Diabaly.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
It took a very long time for this...
(SOUNDBITE OF WOLF HOWLING)
MONTAGNE: ...to evolve into this:
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)
MONTAGNE: But the gray wolf is the ancestor of all domesticated dogs, including that Jack Russell terrier we just heard. Just how wolves came to live with people isn't really known. But as NPR's Veronique LaCapra reports, a new study suggests that food may have played a role.
VERONIQUE LACAPRA, BYLINE: Most dogs will eat just about anything.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG EATING)
LACAPRA: That's my dog, Sophie, chowing down on some kibble. But what she really loves are pizza crusts.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOG EATING)
LACAPRA: My old dog loved french fries. And my dad's dogs prefer bits of flour tortilla. But dogs didn't always have such eclectic palates. They evolved from wolves, and wolves pretty much only eat meat. Somewhere along the line, Sophie's ancestors acquired a taste for starchy food.
Now, dog food wasn't on Erik Axelsson's mind when he started looking for genetic differences between dogs and wolves. He's an evolutionary biologist at Uppsala University, in Sweden. Axelsson found changes in genes related to the nervous system, but he also noticed something else.
ERIK AXELSSON: Three key genes involved in the digestion of starch also look differently in dogs and wolves.
LACAPRA: He says he expected to find differences in nervous system genes since dogs behave very differently from wolves. But the ability to digest starch?
AXELSSON: That was surprising. I mean, no one's really been hypothesizing about any such changes. On the other hand, it makes sense.
LACAPRA: It makes sense because some researchers, including Axelsson, speculate that wolves first became domesticated when people settled down and started farming. The hungry wolves would have been attracted by their garbage dumps full of food scraps. But Axelsson says to take advantage of this convenient, new food supply, the wolves would have had to adapt not just to being near people, but also to eating their food, which now included starchy grains and vegetables.
AXELSSON: It was also very important to actually be able to have the digestive system that could allow you to make efficient use of the food that was available.
LACAPRA: So any wolves who could digest starch would have had an advantage. Axelsson thinks today's domesticated dogs are probably descended from them. His comparison of the wolf and dog starch genes is published this week, in the journal "Nature."
ROBERT WAYNE: That's a fascinating result.
LACAPRA: Robert Wayne is an evolutionary biologist at UCLA. He has very different ideas about how and when dogs became domesticated. But he says starch digestion is an important new piece of the story. Wayne believes dogs and people got together more than 30,000 years ago - when we were still hunting, not farming. He says it could have been the leftover animal carcasses that drew wolves to humans. Then, when farming started, it wasn't just dogs that had to deal with a more starchy diet.
WAYNE: Humans might have likewise adapted to such carbohydrate-rich diets, after they transitioned from more of a meat-eating diet.
LACAPRA: In other words, dogs and humans would have undergone similar genetic changes at around the same time. Erik Axelsson says this is a really striking example of parallel evolution.
AXELSSON: Both dogs and humans have adapted to a similar environment, and that environment was probably created by the development of agriculture.
LACAPRA: Axelsson says because dog and human history is so closely tied together, there may be other examples of our adapting in similar ways. This makes him think that studying dog genetics could provide insights into human physiology and disease.
Veronique LaCapra, NPR News.
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This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
An attack on a young woman in India so stunned that nation that the government appointed a panel to broadly investigate the treatment of women. So intense was the interest in that panel that when it made recommendations, its press conference was carried on national TV. And so it was that Indians heard a brutal assessment of themselves. The report says India systemically discriminates against women and does little to respond to violence against them.
For more on this, NPR's Julie McCarthy joins us from New Delhi. Hi, Julie.
JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: So what is the significance of this report?
MCCARTHY: Well, it's a broad significance. It's also a huge report - it's 631 pages long. It's this treatise on the state of violence against women in India. And it looks at not just rape but trafficking and honor killings and suggests changes in the laws on marital rape, saying that consent can't be presumed and thereby it's expanding the definition of rape.
The commission did ignore popular demands for the death penalty for rapists, but recommended criminalizing other forms of harassment. It says acid attacks should be treated more harshly. Stalking should be an offense. It calls for punishing officials who tolerate bad implementation of the laws. It is a scathing, actually, indictment of hostility women face when they report a sex crime to police, who are often very hostile.
Basically it calls for the overhaul of, quote, a culture of masculinity, a cult of aggression.
INSKEEP: And it's interesting, you mentioned at the beginning, Julie, some changes in the law that are proposed. But you also said the police themselves are considered hostile, and other law enforcement authorities not very helpful, even in enforcing the laws that exist.
MCCARTHY: That's right. The panel really makes no bones about identifying a mentality and it calls it a patriarchal mentality in India, as a culprit in suppressing women, suppressing their claims, suppressing their attempts to report crimes. They examined and condemned the attitudes of the so-called khap panchayat. Now, these are groups of elders who set the social and moral tones in many ways of the various castes and communities.
And what strikes you in the findings as you read them, Steve, is the complexity of this country. You know, it's poised between this outward looking modernity and yet pulled back by these deeply conservative strains and male dominance. So these panchayats say no genes for girls, no cell phones, no love marriages. They blame the women for sex crimes, saying no upstanding woman would tolerate this.
INSKEEP: No love marriages, they said, meaning there should only be arranged marriages. That was their opinion. Now, the panelists who criticized all of this, who are they talking to?
MCCARTHY: Well, there's a broad range of people. You know, this case drew international attention, as you know. And they sought worldwide experts on this. Eighty thousand Indians responded to calls for recommendations that they put out. They wanted to hear from the public. And this panel pored over U.S. Supreme Court cases on the questions of the death penalty in cases of rape. They were interested in seeking lots of opinions on that, because this is about the mistreatment of women as a global problem in many ways.
This moment just telescopes India's mistreatment.
INSKEEP: Doesn't this report also take aim at officials who have a law enforcement record involving sex crimes?
MCCARTHY: Yes, and it's extremely controversial. And it raises the question of whether the political class is willing to act on this key recommendation, which is to disqualify from office elected officials charged with sexual offenses. The report says over 2,400 elected members are now facing charges, which they also say inhibits any laws to strengthen punishment for crimes against women.
INSKEEP: Julie McCarthy, as I'm sure you know very well, if we started stacking up the important reports of blue ribbon commissions in the United States, whose recommendations were never followed, we could probably reach the moon. Is there any likelihood that the recommendations of this panel will be followed in India?
MCCARTHY: Well, that's the $64 million question. The report now goes to parliament. It's under intense pressure to act and create these new offenses under the law, such as unsolicited sexual contact. What's far less clear, Steve, is how these sweeping changes in society's attitudes are going to actually evolve. We had a glimpse at how difficult this was.
Police say that in a two-week period, after this vicious rape of this young woman - whose alleged attackers appear again in court today - and created this huge national outpouring, after that, two weeks after that there were 40 more cases of rape registered in New Delhi. So it gives you a scale of the problem. And it gives you an indication of how long this struggle will be here in this country.
INSKEEP: NPR's Julie McCarthy is in New Delhi. Julie, thanks very much.
MCCARTHY: Thank you.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's business news begins with a bite out of Apple.
It's still the largest tech company in the world - let's make no mistake about that. But Apple reported yesterday that its profits were flat - despite brisk sales of iPhones and iPads. In after-hours trading, Apple's stock plunged, reflecting fears that interest in Apple products may start waning as consumers seek more affordable options.
Here's NPR's Laura Sydell.
LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE: It's not that consumers didn't buy a lot of iPhones - 11 million more than last year. It also sold tons of iPads. But analysts were expecting more after such exceptional growth in recent years. Apple now faces competition from lower-cost products that comes in different shapes and sizes.
Speaking during a conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook defended the size of the iPhone 5, which is smaller than some popular models from the competition.
TIM COOK CEO, APPLE: It also provides a larger screen size for iPhone customers without sacrificing the one-handed ease of use that our customers love. So we put a lot of thinking into screen size and believe we picked the right one.
SYDELL: Apple also saw a drop in Mac sales. Still, some analysts were not writing Apple off.
MIKE MCGUIRE: I don't know that I'm ready to call the end of the empire at this point.
SYDELL: Mike McGuire, an analyst at Gartner, says Apple also released a lot of product upgrades before the holiday.
MCGUIRE: They're growing, having to invest in that growth.
SYDELL: During yesterday's conference call, Apple's CEO, Cook, also made it clear that the company has new products in the pipeline, adding fire to rumors of an Apple TV set, or a cheaper iPhone. And that could be just what Wall Street needs to see.
Laura Sydell, NPR News, San Francisco.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Staying in the tech world now, later today Microsoft releases its earnings for the final quarter of 2012. And no matter what the computer software giant announces, it won't mask the fact that last year was a brutal one for the personal computer industry.
Dell - one of the largest computer makers on the planet - is in talks to be taken over by a private equity firm. PC sales are declining globally.
And as NPR's Steve Henn reports, some see a technological shift in the works that could undermine the empire built by Microsoft.
STEVE HENN, BYLINE: Mobile devices like tablets and smartphones are now clearly stealing sales from the traditional personal computer industry.
Scott Weiss is a venture capitalist at Andreessen Horowitz.
SCOTT WEISS: And the only problem is, is that there's no, you know, Microsoft tablet.
HENN: Actually there is. There are lots of them. They're just not popular.
WEISS: You know, all the tablets are being shipped as either Apple or Android.
HENN: Personal computer companies that haven't moved aggressively into mobile - companies like Dell - are suffering.
WEISS: And so it puts kind of the whole WinTel thing in a pickle.
HENN: That's the technology empire Microsoft Windows and Intel created together - and now that empire is falling apart.
JEREMY REIMER: It's actually a fascinating story because it starts in - way back in 1975.
HENN: Jeremy Reimer is a writer and programmer who's studied technology life-cycles. He says personal computers took down main frames a generation ago - by being cheaper and getting just good enough to do some real work. Today he says mobile devices are doing the same thing.
REIMER: A lot of people are finding they can get by with just...
HENN: A smartphone or a tablet.
REIMER: Particularly in the developing world, a lot of people are skipping PCs entirely and just going straight to a smartphone.
HENN: The smartphone is their computer, and according to Bob O'Donnell, an analyst at IDC, these devices are now taking a bite out of traditional computer sales.
BOB O'DONNELL: In 2012, PC sales declined by a few percentage points and it's the first time we've seen negative growth.
HENN: Outside of once during a recession. And today, big American PC manufacturers - like Dell or HP - are getting crushed. IDC says Dell shipped 21 percent fewer personal computers last quarter than it did just a year ago. And even though Dell has almost $11 billion in cash and generates billions in profits each year, its stock price has collapsed. Investors just don't see a bright future - and all that's made it an attractive target for a private equity takeover, according to Weiss at Andreessen Horowitz.
WEISS: I don't think it's necessarily a capitulation.
HENN: But turning Dell around probably won't be pretty.
WEISS: I think going private, it's almost like you pull a curtain up because there are some messy things that are going to have to go on.
HENN: Think restructuring, layoffs.
WEISS: And doing that all in the, you know, under the public glare, is not easy.
HENN: Weiss's firm, Andreessen Horowitz, has done deals with Silverlake. That's the private equity firm in talks to buy Dell. Together the two firms explored buying Yahoo, and a couple years before that Andreessen Horowitz and Silverlake bought Skype; then later they sold it to Microsoft.
WEISS: You know, listen, the folks that are contemplating taking Dell private are incredibly smart.
HENN: Weiss says Silverlake and other private investors clearly believe they can continue to sell PCs profitably for years, even if their business isn't growing.
WEISS: When a platform shift happens - like it did to Blockbuster Video - and, you know, kind of the writing's on the wall, it still is amazing just how long it takes for a product line of for a company to go out of business.
HENN: Weiss says there still could be an upside for Dell. It does more than just sell PCs and...
WEISS: Microsoft has seen the success that both Apple and Google have had in making their own tablet kind of a, you know, just controlling the user experience from beginning to end.
HENN: So Weiss wasn't surprised that Microsoft is reportedly interested in buying a piece of Dell. Helping Dell survive can't hurt and perhaps Microsoft and Dell together could actually build a mobile product people want to buy.
Steve Henn, NPR News, Silicon Valley.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK. Let's turn to a rivalry between siblings. Today's Last Word In Business is Harbowl - or Harbaugh Bowl. An Indiana man tried to trademark those two phrases last year, according to ESPN.com.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Roy Fox figured the Harbaugh brothers - both NFL coaches - might someday meet in the Super Bowl. This year, it is happening. Jim Harbaugh's San Francisco 49ers face John Harbaugh's Baltimore Ravens, a week from Sunday.
INSKEEP: But Roy Fox will not be selling any T-shirts. According to ESPN, the NFL pressured him to abandon the trademark. The league claims Harbowl and Harbaugh Bowl could be confused for the NFL trademark's Super Bowl, and so the NFL threatened to sue.
MONTAGNE: Fox gave up the trademark and asked for a consolation prize - Indianapolis Colts season tickets, and an autographed picture of league commissioner Roger Goodell.
(LAUGHTER)
MONTAGNE: But his Hail Mary pass fell incomplete. The NFL said no again.
INSKEEP: Darn.
MONTAGNE: And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: I'm Steve Inskeep.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
On a momentous Thursday, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
We're expecting Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to make an announcement today. From now on, women will formally be allowed to serve in ground combat.
INSKEEP: To sense just how dramatic this change is, consider how many other milestones the military passed before reaching this one. The move for women comes 65 years after the Armed Forces ended racial segregation.
MONTAGNE: And it comes gays have already been put on equal footing, before women.
Let's begin our coverage with NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman. Tom's in the studio with us now. Welcome.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Let's clarify exactly what the change is. Women have come under fire in the past. So, in one sense, what's new?
BOWMAN: Well Renee, what's new is Secretary Panetta has lifted what's called a Combat Exclusion Policy. It basically scraps this two-decade-old policy that bars women from serving directly in ground combat. Now, women have been attached to units in the past...
INSKEEP: You've seen them there, in Afghanistan.
BOWMAN: Oh, I've seen them in Afghanistan. And the Marines, for example, have what's called a Female Engagement Team. They would go out in Afghanistan, meet with women and villagers. But they would not be part - officially part of, let's say, a company going on day-to-day patrols, fighting the Taliban. So that's what's new here. They could be part of those ground combat units, going out day-to-day.
And if this all goes into effect, it could open as many as a quarter million jobs to women in, mostly, the Army and the Marine Corps.
INSKEEP: OK, let's keep talking about this, but we'll come back to you in a moment. Let's turn to Fort Campbell on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, which is where we sent reporter Blake farmer of our member station WPLN.
BLAKE FARMER, BYLINE: In a barbershop, right across an entrance to Fort Campbell, soldiers line up for buzz cuts.
As news trickled out about women being able to officially serve on the front lines, opinions were mixed. Private First Class Dalton Trimble is part of an infantry unit which currently has no women. He was a bit reluctant to comment but he worries about females fitting in.
PRIVATE FIRST CLASS DALTON TRIMBLE: Like, we're going to have to have a good talking to. Like, hey, there's going to be women around here, have to - what we say now. Like, there's going to be a whole lot of changes.
FARMER: There is a certain kind of chauvinism that is pretty easy to find in units like the 101st Airborne Division, says Staff Sergeant Kanesha Slater.
STAFF SERGEANT KANESHA SLATER: I will tell you, working with infantrymen, male soldiers, they are - a lot of them have that female should be barefooted and pregnant in the kitchen. A lot of them do.
FARMER: Slater says he's not surprised to hear the blanket ban on women in combat roles is being lifted, but she sees logistical problems ahead.
SLATER: They have to look at the whole big picture, because you're going to go into females having the female issues on front lines. And are they going to have the available necessities?
(SOUNDBITE OF A BABY CRYING)
MEGAN DIETRICHS: Here, do you want to hold daddy's dog tags? Buckle your seatbelt.
FARMER: Outside an Army supply store, Megan Dietrichs fastens her son into a car seat. While she's a classic stay-at-home Army wife, this mother of three says it's about time women were allowed to do any jobs, so long as they could pass the stringent qualification tests.
DIETRICHS: I think women can do anything men can do. So it's a frame of mind, not a sex thing.
SERGEANT ALEXANDER CONYNGHAM: I've seen and I've known women who take their physical fitness very seriously, and can hold their own just as much as most men can, so...
FARMER: Sergeant Alexander Conyngham is a cavalry scout. He says his unit does have a few women, but only in support roles. He's married to a military mechanic.
CONYNGHAM: My wife is also part of the 101st Airborne Division, so I feel that I have confidence that she can hold the same role I could. So I don't see it as a problem.
FARMER: She's not making you say that, is she?
CONYNGHAM: No. No. Not at all.
FARMER: Cunningham says you could see the gender announcement coming. Starting a few years ago, women began taking more combat jobs. Recently in Afghanistan, small teams began going out with infantry units so they could engage the female population there. Here at Fort Campbell, women soldiers have been testing body armor that is, for the first time, tailored for the female figure.
Lieutenant Colonel Juanita Chang is one of the highest-ranking women in the 101st Airborne.
LIEUTENANT COLONEL JUANITA CHANG: Considering this interview was talking about women in combat, please make sure you focus in on my combat action badge, which is this right here.
FARMER: Chang has been a military police woman, chemical weapons specialist and a public affairs officer. Never, she says, has gender been a barrier for her.
CHANG: Now, I've never wanted to go to Ranger school. That would've been an option that would've not have been opened to me before. And I don't know, based on this and it hasn't been determined yet, if things like that will be off-limits.
FARMER: But Chang says, in a war that has no clear front lines, women are already doing dangerous work every day.
CHANG: They're earning valor awards besides their male counterparts. We have female recipients of Silver Stars. So they're doing the same tough jobs. They're getting wounded just the same and they bleed just the same.
(SOUNDBITE OF BAGPIPE MUSIC)
FARMER: As the sun set on Fort Campbell yesterday, bagpipes wailed out "Amazing Grace." It was a memorial service honoring Specialist Patricia Horn, the 20-year-old from Mississippi died in Afghanistan over the summer. She's one of more than 140 military women to die in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade. For NPR News, I'm Blake Farmer at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
INSKEEP: And NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman is still with us. And Tom, I'm going to remember for quite awhile, Lieutenant Colonel Chang's words there, please focus on my combat action badge. So women have already been under fire, but we're trying to figure out exactly what the change is here. Does this mean if we visited, I don't know, the 101st Airborne or some other frontline unit soon, we would actually find women in positions pulling triggers, leading combat platoons?
BOWMAN: Not just right yet, Steve. Services have to figure out how to make this happen so they could come up with specific physical qualifications, like you have to lift 50 pounds over your head if you want to make it into the infantry, so that might mean a lot of women who want to serve in combat positions still can't.
INSKEEP: Meaning that there might be new qualifications that are for women, that are different than men, but considered good enough.
BOWMAN: Exactly. The other thing is, Panetta is giving the military until January 2016 to identify what he calls special exceptions. That could mean, like, for example, the Green Berets and Navy SEALs might still bar women because of the very, very tough physical standards.
MONTAGNE: Tell us, though, some of the arguments against this course. It has taken so long, because there were some powerful arguments, whether they were powerful emotionally, or actually, practically. Tell us what they are.
BOWMAN: Well, the biggest argument is women just don't have the upper body strength that's needed to carry the weight, to pull themselves over walls in Afghanistan or Iraq, to carry a comrade if that person gets wounded. Those are the big ones. The...
MONTAGNE: But what about esprit de corps? I mean, there's a lot of talk about men - that - finding it uncomfortable, women not having what they need...
BOWMAN: That's another argument you hear, that if there's a women in the unit, the men are automatically going to say, we have to protect Priscilla first or Becky before we protect Tom or Richard, that they're going to be overly protective of that female soldier. That's one of the other arguments. And there's the talk of unit cohesion, for example, band of brothers, if you have a woman in there, it's just not going to be the same.
Those are some of the arguments that critics have against this policy.
MONTAGNE: Of course. That's a new policy...
BOWMAN: But, again, women are already out there. I've seen them myself in Afghanistan, out in the field as personal security details for officers.
INSKEEP: Is that, in the end, the winning argument, women have already done it, so why not recognize that?
BOWMAN: I think that's going to be a big part of the winning argument, that the lines have been blurred, particularly in these counterinsurgencies. There's no well-defined front line anymore.
MONTAGNE: Well, one other thing. I mean, this opens up lots and lots of jobs, but it also opens up lots of opportunity to get to the top. Because you have to be in combat to get to the top.
BOWMAN: Absolutely. That's right. And that's what a lot of the women have been saying, that my career's been stunted because I can't lead men and women in combat. I can't get the combat infantrymen's badge that shows that you've been in combat, you've been fired upon by the enemy. There was an old World War II general, Vinegar Joe Stillwell, who said, my most prized possession is my combat infantrymen's badge.
INSKEEP: Something there I have - something that he received as a younger soldier in the early years of his career. Tom, thanks very much.
BOWMAN: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman reporting this morning as we await the announcement from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that women who have been under fire before, will formally be allowed to serve in direct combat positions. We'll continue covering that story throughout the day on this program and on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED - right here on NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.
Frank Gore of the San Francisco 49ers had a terrible NFC championship game. Sure, he ran for two touchdowns. And yes, his team came back to win and made it to the Super Bowl. But pro football officials noticed his socks were sagging. It was his second dress code violation of the season and they fined him $10,500. Imagine what your bank account would like if your mom could do that to you.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
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Good morning. I'm Renée Montagne with a new invention for the lonely diner - a ramen bowl with a built-in iPhone dock. Eating the popular noodle dish normally requires two hands - one for chopsticks, the other for a spoon. Designers at a Taiwanese company noticed a guy trying to do that while juggling his cell phone. So they came up with a way to slurp it up while watching videos or reading emails hands free.
One flaw - no splash guard for the brothy dish. It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Republicans and Democrats alike are now talking of changes to the immigration system. Yet there is one part of the rules considered unlikely to change, even though something about it makes some immigration officials uneasy. It's called the EB-5 Visa. This visa grants a Green Card to a person in return for a half million dollar investment in an American business that creates at least 10 jobs.
Jennifer Wing, of member station KPLU, reports on a program that lets global elites go to the front of the line.
JENNIFER WING, BYLINE: Svetlana Anikeeva grew up in Vladivostok on the eastern edge of Russia. When she was 15 years old in the early '90s, she came to America as an exchange student.
SVETLANA ANIKEEVA: And it was a completely different place in every imaginable aspect.
WING: She studied in Savannah, Georgia. The experience changed her life.
ANIKEEVA: The people were different. The culture was different. The weather, the food, the school, everything was fascinating. I knew that I wanted to come here.
WING: Today, Anikeeva is in the U.S. on a temporary visa and runs a successful luxury car exporting business with her husband. She's within spitting distance of getting a permanent U.S. Green Card for herself and her entire family through the EB-5 Visa program. Anikeeva was one of about 1,000 people who applied back in 2009.
ANIKEEVA: It's a pretty rigorous selection process.
WING: And instead of settling down in sunny Savannah, Georgia, Anikeeva is in Seattle. The building we're talking in has a lot to do with why she's here. It's a hotel in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood that was built by American Life Incorporated with EB-5 money. American Life is pooling Anikeeva's half million with other investments to develop this area, which will generate the new jobs the visa demands.
Henry Liebman, a former immigration lawyer, is American Life's president. He says EB-5 money is a source of funding more and more real estate development companies are relying on.
HENRY LIEBMAN: And Since in 2008, the bust, it's even a more important source of capital. At least in real estate. There's some lending, but not near what it was. So this is more important than it used to be.
WING: EB-5 is credited with creating more than 50,000 jobs since it began in 1990 and has poured more than $6 billion into the U.S. economy. But it doesn't have the best reputation within U.S. Customs and Immigration Services. This was something Jim Ziglar noticed when he headed up Immigration under George W. Bush.
JIM ZIGLAR: There's a general aversion to the idea that people can buy their way into legal status in the United States, particularly when INS is dealing with so many people that have other reasons for being here - family and refugees and asylum seekers.
WING: Fraud has also been a problem with EB-5. Companies promise to create the jobs but instead they run off with the money.
Back at the hotel, Svetlana Anikeeva says she hopes to find out within the next six months if her permanent visa is approved. For now, she's enjoying watching her 13-year-old daughter, Nina, soak up life in the U.S.
ANIKEEVA: She's a sports person. She's in synchronized swimming.
WING: Nina is about the same age as her mother was when she came here to study all those years ago.
ANIKEEVA: She's actually just been accepted to the gifted student program for summer in Princeton University, which would be unbelievable for me at the age of 13.
(LAUGHTER)
ANIKEEVA: I'm very proud of her.
WING: For Anikeeva and other globally well-to-do from China to India, an American education alone is worth the half million dollar price-tag.
For NPR News, I'm Jennifer Wing in Seattle.
INSKEEP: And this is NPR News.
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Fridays, we hear from StoryCorps, recording conversations about the important moments in our lives. Today, how a family that fell apart came back together. Bryan Wilmoth is the oldest of eight siblings. They grew up in a strict, religious household, and all of the siblings have become estranged from their parents over the years. Bryan, who is gay, was the first to get kicked out. At StoryCorps, he told his younger brother Michael what happened.
BRYAN WILMOTH: Dad found a love letter from a guy, in my box of things. And he read this letter - and lost it. He took me for a ride and dropped me off in the middle of the night with $5 bill. That's sort of all I remember; sleeping outside, in the country, that night.
And I really missed my brothers and sisters, when I left home. I remember hearing that if you guys talked to me if I'd call the house, that you'd get a beating because Dad didn't want you to catch gay. And you guys believed that.
MICHAEL WILMOTH: Granted, it was a fear-based belief.
B. WILMOTH: Of course, but, you know, it was still something I had to try to fix. And so as each of you guys moved out, or got kicked out of the house...
M. WILMOTH: ...or ran away.
B. WILMOTH: ...or ran away, in your case, I would make an effort to try to contact you guys and be a big brother again. At first, you were really resistant. You didn't know anything about gay people.
M. WILMOTH: Didn't want to.
B. WILMOTH: Didn't want to, and it took a long time for our relationship to build. But after you started to accept it, every time you met another gay person, you would say, oh, you've got to meet my brother - and hook me up with every guy that you thought was gay. You know, I always thought that was really sweet.
And that's when we started coming back together, you know, as brothers and sisters - Bryan, Pam, Chris, Mike, Jude, Amy, Josh and Luke-Henry. Now, Luke-Henry, I didn't even know because he wasn't born till I was like, 19 or 20. And I hadn't seen him in - ever. And I got a call, and the voice on the other end said: Bryan? This is your little brother Luke.
By this time, you know, he was estranged from Mom and Dad, and he wanted to go to University of Dallas. So I took my savings, which wasn't a lot; and I bought one, one-way ticket and one, round-trip ticket to Dallas. Now, mind you, this is a Catholic school; and I'm the big, gay brother. I'm running around getting him set up for his dorm room. And we go through this whole weekend and at the end, I gave Luke a hug and a kiss, and told him how much I loved him. And he started walking away. I was just watching after him like, wow, I really finally got to be a big brother.
And at that moment, he turned around and mouthed: I love you. It was the most beautiful moment I had ever experienced. And I called you from the hotel, sobbing. Do you remember this?
M. WILMOTH: Yeah. You brought eight siblings that were so far apart, to be as close as we all became.
B. WILMOTH: I just want you to know how much you mean to me, that you've loved me like this. And for that, I will be forever grateful. It is what I built the foundation of the rest of my life on.
M. WILMOTH: And let me say that 40 minutes is not enough. I could do this for four hours, four days, four months. You're a good man.
B. WILMOTH: Well, thank you, Mike.
MONTAGNE: Bryan Wilmoth with his brother Michael, at StoryCorps in Los Angeles. Their ful, 40-minute interview will be archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Get the podcast at npr.org.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
We are going to spend the next few minutes with first ladies - not presidents' wives but pastors' wives. In many churches, it's a widely respected position, which has now become the unlikely focus of a new reality show on The Learning Channel, or TLC. The show is called "The Sisterhood," and it does what all reality shows do - it follows the sometimes tumultuous, dare we say dramatic lives of wives, in this case five pastors' wives. Our colleague, David Greene, checked out the new program.
DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: "The Sisterhood" is an Atlanta-based reality show that's been likened to the Real Housewives series, and has stirred up a bit of controversy for scenes like this.
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GREENE: Now, critics say this show has taken reality TV one step too far, exposing personal, intimate and sometimes unflattering details about pastors' wives. I got a chance to speak with three members of the cast of "The Sisterhood." Christina Murray is the first lady of Oasis Family Life Church in Atlanta. Ivy Couch is first lady at Emmanuel Tabernacle Church, and Domonique Scott is the former first lady of The Good Life Ministry Church. She says "The Sisterhood" was somewhat of a calling for her.
DOMONIQUE SCOTT: One thing we all - you hear us all say that we definitely believe that God told us to do it - individually and together as a group. For me, trying to wrap my mind and get the grasp of what this project was about just led me to really believe that this was a project that my higher power or my faith had for me.
GREENE: Christina Murray, if this was an assignment from God, what exactly was the assignment here to do this show?
CHRISTINA MURRAY: I think for us the assignment was to step out. We knew it would probably be a little controversial, but we don't do anything just for people to understand and give us our approval; we do everything for what God is trying to lead us to do. So it fell out of the sky, the opportunity. It was something that I think all of us took some time to really decide what to do. I don't think anybody just jumped on it and said let's go for it. Because it's a little scary too, doing things that basically you're putting your life out there with the control of somebody else.
GREENE: Well, speaking of your family being out there, I want to play a clip from a scene. Christina, it's you and your husband, Pastor Anthony, talking to your two daughters about safe sex, even though you don't believe in sex out of marriage.
MURRAY: Correct.
GREENE: You know, your husband wanted your daughters to be ready for it. And all I'll say about this scene is it involved your husband bringing out a banana.
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GREENE: Christina, do you worry that this is maybe too much - TMI a little bit?
MURRAY: Not at all. And the people who know us or know my husband and go to our church and have met him, understand him. He's very radical. He's very open. Before we even started the ministry, we didn't want to go in having to fake it, or having to put on this uniform, this hat that says this is how we're supposed to act as pastors. God knew we were crazy from the day he made us. So, that's how we look at it. Like, hey, if He knew what we were all about, there's no need to sugarcoat it.
GREENE: Well, not all of you are African-American, but your show has particularly stirred some controversy within the black church. Some critics has said that this isn't the way a pastor or a pastor's wife should be portrayed, that God's image has been demeaned. And I really wanted to hear all of you respond to that. And let me just play a comment from one our listeners. Her name is Theresa Dalvest(ph). She's 40 years old and lives in Atlanta, like all of you.
THERESA DALVEST: This show just feels a little bit like I'm seeing too much. It just feels so gossipy and base. And I just don't want to believe that the person who is responsible for bringing the word to his or her congregation is behaving in such a way.
GREENE: Ivy Couch, does the program ever get gossipy and base?
IVY COUCH: Well, first of all, I think, you know, the Christian community is the most judgmental. People in the church don't let pastors nor first ladies have struggles. It's kind of like, so you being saved from grace doesn't apply to me? We're works in progress. If you look in the Bible, God always uses somebody that has issues. You can't have a testimony without a test.
SCOTT: But then also - if I could jump in - it's like I am not perfect; I'm striving for perfection. If someone's looking on me - OK, let me break it in - for me, 25 years ago it was crack cocaine. If I've got to put my life on display so that you can know that God can heal you from those prescription drugs, or God can heal you from the strip club, or God can heal you from pornography, then so be it. Let's just get the job done. Don't worry about cleaning the fish. It can't show up on the table clean. We'll clean it when it gets on the table. And we're not willing to get on the table because no one wants to be revealed.
COUCH: That's good.
GREENE: And Domonique, you have revealed a lot. You have a pretty amazing story and you've opened about your past on the show - the drugs and your teenage years. Can you remind us just some of those struggles when you were a teenager?
SCOTT: My life started early encountering some form of molestation. And believe it or not, it was always Uncle Tyrone or mama got a new boyfriend this weekend. I was actually placed in a foster home, I think, about nine or 10 years old and I was literally getting passed around for a case of beer and $20. You know, I just ended up on the streets and one thing led to another thing. Next thing I know that, you know, hey, I'm out here selling, you know, walking the streets and I'm living this really hard life. And then to deal with the pain, we're in the middle '80s, guys. Let's roll the time back. Crack cocaine is at an epidemic, and so I spent about maybe seven years living that life, just trying to survive and not die on the streets.
GREENE: I'm struck by your personal story, which sounds really difficult. And I want to ask your two friends with you, I mean is that what this show is really about, to put that on display?
MURRAY: I think so, and I'm going to just give you my opinion. Because you just heard probably one of the most powerful stories that any woman can share. This is not so much about the black church or, you know, this is African-American community being exposed. No, these are lives being exposed. And I think the show is supposed to show the process that we go through, and a bit of the journey. We are ordinary women. We have a title that we hold, and yes, we try to do the best job that we can. And a lot of this that they say is gossiping and stuff, yeah, some of it can look like that, and it is. And again, that's what we got to work on. You throw a bunch of women together in any room...
SCOTT: There's going to be some gossip.
MURRAY: There's going to be some chatter. That's the human nature of women.
SCOTT: Did you see that dress she had on? She's...
MURRAY: So the truth is this. We don't try to be malicious. None of us came on here saying who are we going to, you know, let's go attack these people and let's just act crazy. We're not going to do that. But unfortunately we have to fight against the things that make us want to just pull each other's hair out, cuss and everything else, just like every other woman in America has to do.
GREENE: I feel like I've been speaking to three honest women here.
SCOTT: We don't know no other way to be, baby.
GREENE: Ivy Couch, thank you so much for joining us.
COUCH: Thank you. This has been a pleasure. Thank you.
GREENE: Christina Murray, thank you.
MURRAY: Thank you as well. Thank you so much.
GREENE: And Domonique Scott, it's been a pleasure. They're the cast of "Sisterhood," the first ladies.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NBA superstar LeBron James is arguably the best player in basketball and he's paid like it. His team, the Miami Heat, pays him around $17.5 million per year. But there's an argument to be made that LeBron is actually underpaid by a lot. Let's hear that argument from Taylor Tepper of NPR's Planet Money team.
TAYLOR TEPPER, BYLINE: To make the case that LeBron is underpaid, you first have figure out what his actual economic value is. One way to do that is to go back a few years to the moment when LeBron decided to leave his old team in Cleveland.
LEBRON JAMES: This fall I'm going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat.
TEPPER: This decision caused the value of James's old team to fall by millions and millions of dollars. And it raised the value of his new team by almost the same amount. When you crunch all the numbers about how much value LeBron adds to the team he's on, economists say Lebron should be making closer to $40 million a year. Economist Kevin Grier from the University of Oklahoma puts it bluntly
KEVIN GRIER: You're getting hosed.
TEPPER: The rough mathematical amount by which he's getting hosed: about $20 million a year. The question then, why don't teams simply go to LeBron and say we'll pay you your full value - 40 mill. Grier says the reason is that they're just not allowed to do that.
GRIER: There are rules about how much any one player can be paid.
TEPPER: And these rules have been hosing LeBron James since the day he came into the league. Superstar salaries are capped, and so is the money promising rookies can make. In the NBA, potential job applicants - that's the best young basketball players in the world - are drafted. They put their names into this big pool, and then there's a lottery.
The worst teams in the league draw numbers, and whichever team draws the winning number gets to pick first. And this is the weird part - whatever player that team picks, that player can't say no. And not only that, his players union has negotiated an upper limit to how much he can get paid. A that's the way it works, even if you're LeBron James.
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TEPPER: Imagine if other fields were set up this way. You're the best young software engineer at MIT, and instead of getting hired for an insane starting salary by Google, you just put your name in a pool with other engineers. The worst companies in America draw random numbers and you get a letter one day saying you've been hired to work in the IT department at Best Buy.
Now, all these rules are all laid out in the collective bargaining agreement between the owners and the players. Why would the players want this system? Economist Kevin Grier says it's precisely because most players are not LeBron James.
GRIER: The union votes on contracts by majority rule. All right? So we would think if it's like majority rule that it would be the guy in the middle who would be the crucial voter. If you pick a thing like salary cap and line everybody up for who wants it the most versus who wants it the least, it would be the guy right in the middle of that distribution of players whose opinion would be decisive. So you want to say what are the interests of the median player.
TEPPER: The answer is, the average players don't want all the money to go to LeBron. They want some it for themselves. But there's another reason LeBron James's teammates vote to hose him. They want the league to be competitive. If there's a limit on how much teams can pay, rich teams can't hire talent away from poor teams. Economist Victor Matheson at the College of Holy Cross says that makes games closer and more fun to watch.
VICTOR MATHESON: If the average sports fan, nationwide, is kind of like me, saying we want every team to have a chance at least every once in a while to be a contender, then that's going to generate more for the league as a whole. And so the players want that pie to be as big as possible so when they get their slice it's as much as they can get.
TEPPER: And this, says economist Kevin Grier, is why LeBron James has a reason to support this system. Having a more competitive league helps him make more money in other ways.
GRIER: I mean, if he was the world's - the three-time Olympic decathlon champ, alright, he would in no way be making nearly the amount of endorsement money that he's making.
TEPPER: To earn those tens of millions of endorsement dollars, LeBron needs passionate fans of professional basketball. For that to happen, LeBron needs good teams to play against, even if it is costs him $20 million a year. For NPR News, I'm Taylor Tepper.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The Sundance Film Festival has always been as much about the business of making and distributing movies as the art of movies. This year at Sundance, the business buzz is Kickstarter. In the three years it's been around, the crowd funding website has become a critical tool for film projects.
NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: Kickstarter is used by artists in every discipline but film is its biggest category. And, as one Kickstarter employee put it, filmmakers are natural hustlers. Just check out the videos they make to get you to give them money. There's the you-get-stuff pitch.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: We have all kinds of cool rewards, like a special limited edition to trophy, a poster made just for us by the...
BLAIR: There's the humorous, feel-sorry-for-us pitch.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Matthew and Nathan did all this while living in Harlem, by the way. They survived two shootings.
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BLAIR: There's the pitch from people who you'd think already have the money, like Whoopi Goldberg.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: And I know it seems odd that I would be asking for help on this, but as it turns out, it's a bigger thing than I thought it was.
BLAIR: And those campaigns are successful. Goldberg raised over $73,000 for a documentary about the comedian Moms Mabley. The documentary "Detropia" was recently short-listed for an Oscar.
According to Kickstarter, over $100 million have been pledged to films on the site.
Keri Putnam is executive director of the Sundance Institute.
KERI PUTNAM: We quickly began to realize that this was something really capturing people's attention, and excitement and allowing people to feel connected to creative endeavors in a way that was really sort of transformational.
BLAIR: When Sundance supports a film, it's highlighted on a special page on Kickstarter.
PUTNAM: They can make more money from Kickstarter as they can through a Sundance grant.
BLAIR: Sometimes a lot more, especially if it's an artist with a track record, like Charlie Kaufman who wrote the movies "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation." He and the animation company Starburn Industries ran a Kickstarter campaign.
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BLAIR: They raised over $400,000.
Yancey Strickler, co-founder of Kickstarter, says Kaufman and the animators are the kind of artists who use the site because Hollywood isn't working for them.
YANCEY STRICKLER: They're always butting up against a system that has different ideas about how art should work. But yet, they have huge fan bases and here they're able to go directly to those audiences and make something, you know, the way they wanted to.
BLAIR: And cultivating that fan base is turning out to be another major benefit for film-makers who run successful Kickstarter campaigns. Not only do they raise cash, they also raise awareness that could result in a bigger audience for their films once they're released. The people who pledge are called backers.
Filmmaker Audrey Ewell is premiering a documentary at this year's Sundance Festival. She says Kickstarter calls the effort a campaign for a reason.
AUDREY EWELL: These are the people who are becoming the community that's going to support you so it's important to involve them and to send out frequent updates and to write back to people who write back to you, and to send everybody a thank you note and to encourage everybody to reach out for you on your behalf.
BLAIR: She raised more than $23,000 from hundreds of backers.
Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.
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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
Senate Democrats began their push yesterday for a new ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines. Gun control advocates acknowledged getting a new law on Capitol Hill will face big obstacles, which is why supporters are depending on the public outcry over the shooting deaths of 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut to provide crucial momentum for a new bill.
NPR's Carrie Johnson reports.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: The bill's author, California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, started her remarks with a roster of tragedy.
SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN: Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora, Tucson, Oak Creek - the common thread in these shootings is each gunman used a semi-automatic assault weapon or large capacity ammunition magazine.
JOHNSON: Senator Feinstein's new proposal tries to do something about both. First, the bill would ban the sale or import of about 150 types of assault weapons, including the ones shooters used in Newtown, Connecticut and Aurora, Colorado. Second, the bill would prohibit ammunition feeding devices that hold more than 10 rounds. The proposal includes a carve-out for thousands of rifles used by hunters and sportsmen.
New York Democrat Charles Schumer tried to play down fears those weapons would be confiscated.
SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER: None of us want to take away the hunting rifle that Uncle Tommy gave you when you were 14 years old. We don't want to do that. Nor do we want to take away a sidearm that a small business owner feels he or she needs in a dangerous neighborhood.
JOHNSON: Two Democratic Senators from Connecticut, where 20 first graders were killed last month, took a more personal approach. Richard Blumenthal struggled to maintain his composure when he talked about what he saw at the Sandy Hook firehouse that day.
SENATOR RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: I came there as a public official but what I saw was through the eyes of a parent. And I will never forget the sights and sounds of that day, as parents emerged from that firehouse learning that their five and six-year-old children would not be coming home.
JOHNSON: Senator Chris Murphy says people in Newtown are struggling. Murphy says kids in the area now have special words to use when they get into conversations about the shooting and they want to stop talking about it.
SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY: It's not just the families who grieve. It's the trauma that just washes over these communities like waves in the weeks and months afterwards.
JOHNSON: It's going to take a while, just like the investigation into what motivated the shooter, Adam Lanza. In Connecticut this week, Lieutenant Paul Vance told me state police are preparing a huge report, hundreds of pages on what happened and why. That report won't be released before June.
The FBI lab in Quantico is still trying to rebuild and recover information from a hard drive Lanza smashed. And the medical examiner is doing some more work, perhaps toxicology tests and studies of Lanza's last meal to see if they offer clues about his whereabouts in the day before the attack.
Supporters of new gun control say lives could have been saved in Newtown if Adam Lanza had not had magazines that held 20 or 30 rounds.
Vice President Joe Biden in a Google chat.
VICE PRESIDENT JOSEPH BIDEN: I'm much less concerned, quite frankly, about what you call an assault weapon than I am about magazines, and the number of rounds that can be held in a magazine.
JOHNSON: Banning magazines that carry lots of rounds can force shooters to reload more often and give law enforcement time to disrupt an attack, Biden says.
But the National Rifle Association signaled it would give no ground on new gun laws. The NRA says gun bans don't work and it's confident Congress will reject that approach. Senator Feinstein, the bill's main sponsor, says she's not sure what will happen next.
FEINSTEIN: This is really an uphill road. If anyone asks today can you win this, the answer is we don't know, it's so uphill.
JOHNSON: Feinstein says the American people need to speak up and lean on Congress. That's why gun control advocates are planning to bring families from Newtown to Washington next month, to lobby on the same day as the president's State of the Union Address.
Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In recent years, regional cable TV sports networks have been a financial windfall for pro sports and college teams. And now it seems to be the turn of the Los Angeles Dodgers to make a record haul here.
There are reports the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable are close to announcing a deal for a Dodgers channel that would pay the team around $7 billion over at least 20 years.
But NPR's Tom Goldman reports it may be one windfall too many in a crowded Los Angeles market.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: There were gasps and some snickering last year, when a new ownership group, including Magic Johnson, paid $2.15 billion for the Dodgers - a team whose once storied image had been pummeled by mismanagement. Now, the reported $7 to $8 billion agreement with Time Warner Cable, not only would silence critics of last year's sale...
MARC GANIS: It would rank as the largest deal for local broadcast rights in baseball.
GOLDMAN: Marc Ganis runs the sports business consultant company, Sportscorp Limited. He says Major League Baseball has to sign off before the whopper deal is a reality.
As good as this seems for a Dodgers team that filed for bankruptcy in 2011, Ganis says there are danger signs. A Time Warner Cable Dodgers Channel would be the sixth regional sports network in Los Angeles.
Despite the public's voracious appetite for sports programming, says Ganis, six RSN's aren't sustainable in the long-term...
GANIS: There is a finite number there - and really it's, the issue isn't as much those people who want to watch the games, the issue is more that other half of the population who doesn't want to watch the games and doesn't want to pay for them.
GOLDMAN: The L.A. Times reports it'll cost around $5 a month to subscribe to the new Dodgers Channel. It's a pretty steep ask, says the times. But Time Warner Cable is banking on Angelinos answering because of their love of Dodger blue.
Tom Goldman, NPR News.
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This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Of all the prosecutors' jobs in America, the one with the highest profile may well be the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York - that federal prosecutor overseas investigations of everything from the mafia to terrorism to financial crimes. During an especially busy time in the 1990s, that U.S. Attorney became Mary Jo White.
MONTAGNE: Today she's back in the headlines. President Obama named the former prosecutor to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission. The president says he wants to keep, quote, going after what he calls irresponsible behavior in the financial industry.
NPR's Scott Horsley reports.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: At just five feet tall, Mary Jo White needed a step-stool to see over the White House lectern in the state dining room yesterday. But the former prosecutor casts a long shadow in the world of law enforcement.
President Obama notes that in nearly a decade as head of the U.S. Attorney's office in New York City, White earned a reputation for prosecuting the terrorists behind the World Trade Center bombing, mobster John Gotti, and numerous white-collar crooks.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: You don't want to mess with Mary Jo. As one former SEC chairman said, Mary Jo does not intimidate easily. And that's important because she has a big job ahead of her.
HORSLEY: As a girl, White was a fan of the Hardy Boys books. And Obama says her adult career is one the fictional detectives could only dream of. The president is looking to cast his nominee as the heroine of a new adventure: The Secret of the Reckless Bankers. He's hoping White can re-write the story's ending.
OBAMA: There's much more work to be done to complete the task of reforming Wall Street and making sure that American investors are better informed and better protected going forward.
HORSLEY: Unlike the U.S. Attorney's office, the SEC handles only civil cases, not criminal ones. And many of those end in settlements, often with no admission of wrongdoing.
James Cox, who teaches securities law at Duke University, thinks White might try to change that if she's confirmed.
JAMES COX: Since she was such a tough prosecutor, and had an unwaving interest of extracting pretty good sanctions against individuals, it would be part of her DNA to expect that she would want to see more individuals prosecuted. So I think this would be a step in that direction. Whether it's going to be successful remains on the political climate of the SEC and the ability to change an agency culture.
HORSLEY: Cox thinks the SEC is often too focused on what he calls a body count process, racking up a large number of cases, rather than a few marquee enforcement actions that might serve as a bigger deterrent.
If she's confirmed, White would not only be charged with enforcing financial rules of the road, as a regulator she'd also have a big hand in writing them.
Even though it's been two-and-a-half years since Congress passed the financial overhaul, Scott Talbott of the industry trade group the Financial Services Roundtable says a lot of the details still have to be filled in.
SCOTT TALBOTT: When the president signed the financial reform law, that was half-time. The legislators left the field and now it's time for the regulators to take over. And we're about halfway through the third quarter of implementation of a 2,000-page law.
HORSLEY: Financial firms have challenged the so-called Volcker Rule, which is designed to limit banks' ability to trade on their own behalf, as well as separate regulations intended to safeguard money market accounts.
TALBOTT: There is a tendency following a crisis to over-regulate. The pendulum rarely stops at the bottom. And so we want to make sure we don't over-regulate here.
HORSLEY: Industry groups praised White for her knowledge of financial markets, even if they privately worry about the symbolism of putting a former prosecutor atop the SEC.
Since leaving the U.S. Attorney's Office in 2002, White has served as a director of the NASDAQ stock exchange. She's also defended clients accused of financial fraud.
The president also re-nominated Richard Cordray yesterday to head the nation's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Obama urged the Senate to confirm both nominees quickly.
OBAMA: These are people with proven track records. They are going to look out for the American people, for American consumers, and make sure that our marketplace works better - more transparently, more efficiently, more effectively.
HORSLEY: Cordray is already serving as head of the consumer watchdog agency. Obama used a legally suspect recess appointment to install him in that post last year, despite Republican opposition. That controversial recess appointment is set to expire at the end of this year.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
When and if the U.S. Senate is ready to confirm Mary Jo White to head the SEC, she may find her path somewhat smoother - thanks to a rule change the Senate agreed to last night. The new Senate rule makes it just a little bit harder to block nominations, and a little easier to reach resolution than it was for President Obama's nominees in his first term. It's part of a subtle revision of the most potent weapon of the minority party: the filibuster. Here's NPR's David Welna.
DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: The Senate may have no more passionate advocate for restraining the Republican minority's increasing use of the filibuster than Oregon Democrat Jeff Merkley. Last night on the Senate floor, moments before that chamber cast a bipartisan 78-16 vote to alter some filibuster rules, Merkley said it was about time.
SENATOR JEFF MERKLEY: We had a particular growing element of paralysis that we had a responsibility to address. And tonight the Senate is going to be speaking in a bipartisan faction and saying that this cannot continue in the same way.
WELNA: Though Merkley was among those voting in favor of tweaking the filibuster rules, he confessed he was disappointed.
MERKLEY: I had hoped we'd go a little further in addressing the silent filibuster that has been haunting us in these halls.
WELNA: A filibuster, in theory at least, is the demand by a senator to keep debating a bill or a nomination indefinitely to keep it from coming to a vote. There was a time when such a senator would have to sustain a filibuster by holding the floor and talking nonstop for hours on end, just as Jimmy Stewart did in the movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
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JIMMY STEWART: (as Jefferson Smith) I had some pretty good coaching last night and I find that if I yield only for a question or a point of order or a personal privilege that I can hold this floor almost until doomsday.
WELNA: But efforts by Merkley and others to require that kind of actual talking filibuster, as opposed to the silent kind that now rules, ran into opposition. Even some Democrats said no. In any event, any major changes in the filibuster would have required Democrats to change the rules with a simple majority rather than the usual two-thirds. Dick Durbin, the Senate's number two Democrat, says Majority Leader Harry Reid had not ruled that out.
SENATOR DICK DURBIN: He was prepared to do it, and frankly the only way you can reach this compromise in negotiation is if the other side believes you're serious. And Harry Reid had the votes.
WELNA: Michigan Democrat Carl Levin says trying to change the rules on the filibuster with just 51 votes, a move opponents call the nuclear option, would have made the Senate even more dysfunctional.
SENATOR CARL LEVIN: We avoided using a nuclear option, which I guarantee you would have led to a meltdown in the Senate. It would have made the gridlock that we've seen so far look like a Sunday school picnic.
WELNA: One change both Democrats and Republicans did agree to allows bills and nominations to get at least initial consideration before facing any filibusters. It also gives the minority party the right to offer at least two amendments. Arizona Republican John McCain called that a fair tradeoff.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: Instead of blocking everything moving forward and blocking amendments, perhaps we could create a new environment here in the Senate where will let the minority have their amendments but also the minority party will also let the process move forward.
WELNA: Under another provision, votes for district court judges and for sub-Cabinet nominees such as Mary Jo White can occur much more quickly once supporters have 60 votes. If opponents want to keep talking after that, they'll have to go the floor and do it for real. Once again, Senator Durbin.
DURBIN: If you want to stop the Senate, if you want a filibuster, you better show up and sit on the floor, because they'll reach a point where if you are not there, it'll move to a vote. And in current law, under current rules, people can basically object and go out to dinner, object and go home. You won't be able to do that under these changes.
WELNA: As a newcomer to the Senate, Massachusetts freshman Democrat Elizabeth Warren hoped for more changes, but she'll settle for these.
SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN: It is some movement in a Senate that has been deeply committed to no movement at all.
WELNA: The rules changes are temporary. They expire in two years. That may be enough time to tell whether they've made a difference. David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's taken a quarter of a century, but Los Angeles residents are learning more about the man who was the face of their city's Catholic Church. The Los Angeles Times released the personnel files of Catholic priests accused of child sex abuse. It is no longer surprising to learn of Catholic priests accused of targeting children, but these documents show more. They show church officials acting to keep the cases private. And many of the documents are addressed to, or written by, Cardinal Roger Mahoney.
Victoria Kim is one of the reporters of this story, for the Los Angeles Times. They were working from documents that emerged in a court proceeding. Welcome to the program.
VICTORIA KIM: Thanks for having me.
INSKEEP: Would you explain to people who are not from Los Angeles, who Cardinal Mahoney was, up to the time that he retired in 2011. How big a figure was he, in Los Angeles?
KIM: He was a significant leader, both in the religious realm and also in civic Los Angeles life. He was very much involved in local politics, and also in Sacramento. He was someone who was a big spiritual leader, and whose name was also mention in connection to the papacy.
INSKEEP: Meaning that he was a potential candidate for the papacy, after the death of Pope John Paul.
KIM: Yes.
INSKEEP: As the scandal over child sex abuse spread through the Catholic Church in recent years, did it touch him before recently?
KIM: It did. He has personally apologized, repeatedly, for mishandling claims of abuse; and that it came from a different time, that they didn't have an understanding of how much victims would be impacted; and also, back at the time, the church was not a mandated reporter.
INSKEEP: So they were not required to report. So here we are in this gray area. This brings us right to the documents - which shows Cardinal Mahoney, an adviser on sex abuse and other church officials, discussing priests who in many cases, have confessed to child sex abuse. What do you read, when you see those documents?
KIM: What we saw, in these documents, is that these reports of suspected claims of abuse went pretty much directly from the local church down the street, to the top levels of the archdiocese. And it appears Cardinal Mahoney wrote to these priests; met with them; told them they were in his prayers. What we saw, in reading these memos, was that there was a clear understanding among these church leaders there was criminal wrongdoing, and prosecutions could result from these priests' actions, and a desire - and willingness - to keep authorities in the dark.
INSKEEP: So what did the Catholic Church do, then, to hide these crimes?
KIM: One of the things we saw was a memo that Cardinal Roger Mahoney wrote to a director of a therapy center in New Mexico, where many of these priests were housed; saying a certain priest should not be allowed to return to California because his return could result in legal action, in criminal and civil court.
INSKEEP: What were some of the other techniques that were used to keep the cases quiet?
KIM: One of the things that the church leaders talked about was the mandatory reporting requirements that California therapists have, when it comes to suspect child abuse. So they would talk about not sending priests to certain therapists, who would have the legal requirement to report to police.
INSKEEP: So is the cover-up itself criminal here?
KIM: Well, this information is new to us. They do date from the 1980s, and everyone we've put this question to say it's highly unlikely; that there really aren't laws with statute of limitations that go back far enough to cover acts that are that old.
INSKEEP: What do the victims think of all this?
KIM: This was something that the victims have been waiting for, a long time. There are another 75 of these files that are eventually to be made public, and that was agreed to as a part of a 2007 settlement the church had with the victims. And the victims had pushed for these files to be made public, on top of the monetary settlement. They never got their day in court. They never saw the church, or the church leaders, on trial. So this public accounting is something that appears to have been incredibly important to victims.
INSKEEP: Victoria Kim of the Los Angeles Times, thanks very much.
KIM: Thank you.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with Microsoft's earnings.
Yesterday we told you about Apple earnings. Despite heavy sales of iPhones and iPads, its profits were flat last quarter. That's still better than Microsoft, which reported a four percent earnings decline. Those disappointing figures are blamed on sagging sales of personal computers, which have created a shrinking market for Microsoft's newest PC operating system, Windows 8.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In today's last word in business is: censored, not stirred.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The new Bond film "Skyfall" is now playing in the world's second-largest movie market - that would be China - and some 007 fans are furious about the nips and tucks Chinese censors have made to the movie.
INSKEEP: The Wall Street Journal reports that censors edited some scenes - scenes involving prostitutes, as well as politics, and a scene where Chinese character is shot by a hit man. All this has led to a conspiracy theory spreading on the Internet. The theory is that Chinese officials may have changed the movie to make it less interesting and therefore less of a box office threat to domestic movies.
MONTAGNE: Well, if there is a conspiracy, it doesn't look like it's working. On Chinese social media sites, many commented that they just buy pirated versions of the original, uncensored movie and watch it at home.
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Let's get a closer look this morning at some of the extremists groups operating in North Africa.
MONTAGNE: It's hard to gauge their strength and reach but they have seized the world's attention with a series of deadly events - a rebellion in Mali, a hostage crisis in Algeria, and before that an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
INSKEEP: If Western intelligence agencies are right, somebody wants to strike again in Benghazi. British, German and Dutch citizens are being warned to leave for their safety. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson starts our coverage.
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON, BYLINE: How many citizens from each of the three countries are in Benghazi is unclear, although the number is likely low. The coastal city that is home to about a million people is a business hub where foreigners work. It's the birthplace of Libya's revolution that led to the ouster of the late Moammar Qadhafi.
His supporters, as well as religious extremists, are blamed for the deteriorating security in Benghazi since then. Attacks in recent months have driven many foreigners away. In September, militants killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in the city.
Earlier this month, Italy suspended its consular activities in Benghazi after one of its diplomat's cars was fired on. Last week's al-Qaida siege of an Algerian gas plant at which hundreds of foreigners worked is heightening fears that similar attacks could happen in neighboring Libya.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry in a statement warned that staying in Benghazi was, quote, "not to be advised," while the Germans and British on their foreign ministry websites, urged their citizens to leave immediately. David Lidington is a British Foreign Office minister and member of parliament who spoke with the BBC.
DAVID LIDINGTON: Although Benghazi has been a risky city for some time and we advise British people not to go there, we now have credible, serious and specific reports about a possible terrorist threat. That's why we are advising British citizens who are in Benghazi to leave.
NELSON: A Libyan official told the BBC that the European warnings to its citizens were overblown. And the U.S. State Department, while advising against travel to Benghazi, said it had no information about any specific, imminent threats against Americans there. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Berlin.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Now, let's look further inland in the North African desert. That's where militants seized a natural gas plant before Algeria's security forces stormed it, leaving militants and hostages dead. The suspected mastermind was Mokhtar Belmokhtar. He's a founder of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which is also fighting the government of Mali.
One person tracking the group is Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Intelligence Project. Good morning.
BRUCE RIEDEL: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: So this group known as AQIM, give us a thumbnail history.
RIEDEL: Al-Qaida and the Islamic Maghreb, like all of al-Qaida, has its roots back in the Afghanistan war in the 1980s against the Soviet Union. Algeria went through a long civil war in the 1990s as the military government tried to repress Islamist movements.
At the end of that, a new very dangerous terrorist group emerged and was accepted into al-Qaida as al-Qaida's representative in North Africa, or as Muslims refer to it, in the Maghreb, in the Islamic Maghreb. Today, what we're seeing, actually, though, is the third generation of al-Qaida that has emerged since the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011.
What I call al-Qaida 3.0. It has its origins in these earlier al-Qaida movements, but it's taken advantage of the chaos that came in the wake of the Arab revolutions of 2011 and 2012 to create sanctuaries and safe havens. And the largest one is in northern Mali, an area larger than the size of Texas, where al-Qaida and the Islamic Maghreb has been able to set up shop, training terrorists who are literally arriving from across the world; from Pakistan, from Nigeria, and even North America.
MONTAGNE: How closely is it now linked to the central al-Qaida organization?
RIEDEL: Well, the central al-Qaida organization, with its new emir - Ayman al-Zawahiri, who replaced bin Laden - provides overall strategic direction to al-Qaida around the world. Ayman al-Zawahiri puts out audio messages every few weeks in which he urges terrorists and jihadists to go to places like Syria or to Mali. He gives them the broad direction but he doesn't make judgments about which target to attack, which hostage to kill. Those decisions are all devolved to the local Islamic al-Qaida franchise.
MONTAGNE: Which is funded how? Because I gather they have plenty of money to work with.
RIEDEL: Well, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, before it took over this sanctuary in Northern Mali, was best known for kidnapping. And over the course of the last five years, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb was able to accumulate a war chest of over $200 million in the ransoms paid for the return of kidnapped foreigners.
MONTAGNE: And who obviously quietly pay ransoms 'cause we don't hardly hear about that, but what of smuggling?
RIEDEL: They also engage in a lot of smuggling. Mokhtar Belmokhtar is known by one nickname, Mr. Marlboro, because he's smuggled so many cigarettes across the Sahara into North Africa and then into Europe. But he also smuggled a lot of other things like blood diamonds, narcotics, you name it. He was involved in smuggling things because he knows the territory. He is a resident of this part of the Sahara and he knows it like the back of his hand and so do many of his confederates.
MONTAGNE: Well, you know, you mentioned the Arab Spring and this being, in some sense, an unintended consequence of those revolutions - in particular, Libya.
RIEDEL: Absolutely. Gadhafi had accumulated enormous quantities of weapons. And one of the things al-Qaida did as the revolution took place in Libya was sweep in and grab as many of those weapons as you can have. So al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb is not only one of the best financed al-Qaida franchises in the world, it's probably the best armed al-Qaida franchise in the world.
MONTAGNE: Are these groups looking to attack the West or are they looking to control their world?
RIEDEL: Well, they're looking to do both. The al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb feels a particular animus towards France because France was the former colonial power in most of North Africa. And it has always said that its ultimate target will be to attack in France.
MONTAGNE: And, of course, France now has added to that by putting troops into Mali.
RIEDEL: All of these groups have different capabilities and we shouldn't consider them all an equal threat. But at the same time, they all share the same common desire to be part of the global jihad. And being part of the global jihad means striking at what they call the crusaders and the Zionists, and that's above all, America.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for joining us.
RIEDEL: My pleasure. Thank you.
MONTAGNE: Bruce Riegel is director of the Brookings Intelligence Project. His latest book is "Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, American and the Future of the Global Jihad."
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Dealing with al-Qaida franchises will be a challenge for President Obama's new foreign policy team. Senator John Kerry is the nominee for Secretary of State and so wants to part of that team and yesterday he faced a confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which, in recent years, he has lead.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Kerry spoke of a very real threat posed by the growing strength of al-Qaida in North and West Africa. His testimony served as a reminder, though, that it's just one of many concerns from climate change to the war in Syria to Iran.
SENATOR JOHN KERRY: The president has made it definitive. We will do what we must do to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and I repeat here today, our policy is not containment. It is prevention.
INSKEEP: Kerry also defended the president's choice for another position. He told the committee that former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel would be a strong Secretary of Defense.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Federal safety investigators remain perplexed by what caused a battery on a Boeing 787 to burst into flames earlier this month in Boston. The 787, as a class of airplanes, is now grounded worldwide. And at a briefing yesterday, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board warned it could be a long time before the plane is cleared to fly. NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports.
WENDY KAUFMAN, BYLINE: Thus far, investigators from the NTSB have looked at the charred remains of the battery and the electrical system with CT scans. They've taken component pieces apart and used sophisticated technology to examine and test them. They've pored over documents, but they still don't know all that much about the sequence of events that produced a battery fire so intense that it took firefighters more than an hour and a half to extinguish it.
Still, the chairman of the safety board, Deborah Hersman left no doubt that her agency intended to find the root cause.
DEBORAH HERSMAN: We do not expect to see fire events onboard aircrafts. This is a very serious air safety concern and we are all responding to try to address what happened, why it happened and to make sure that the aircraft that fly are safe.
KAUFMAN: The battery involved was a 63-pound lithium ion battery. Lithium ion batteries are known to catch fire and the FAA imposed special conditions on Boeing's use of the battery. Extra safety measures were required. Nevertheless, there was what investigators describe as a thermal runaway inside the battery. That's an uncontrolled chemical reaction between the electrolytes and the electrodes.
Also inside the battery, investigators found evidence of high current damage from a short circuit. Aviation safety expert Hans Weber offers some possible explanations.
HANS WEBER: It could have been started within the battery due to, for example, a manufacturing defect. It could have been the circuitry that protects the battery against overcharging or excessive discharging and things of that nature. It could have been something else in the electronics control circuitry.
KAUFMAN: The NTSB will be probing other areas, too. One big one: how did the Federal Aviation Administration go about approving or certifying this new and highly innovative airplane? Here's what the Safety Board's Hersman wants to know.
HERSMAN: Were those safety certification standards adhered to and then the question of were they appropriate. We will be working very closely with a number of groups, including the FAA and Boeing as we collect that information and evaluate the analysis and the risk assessments that were done.
KAUFMAN: The NTSB says it will also be exploring safety concerns raised by more than one whistleblower. In addition, investigators are working with a team in Japan probing the cause of a severe battery failure on another 787. With no clear answers or even great clues, the Safety Board's investigation into the Boston fire will likely take some time. And once the cause is known, Boeing will have to come up with a fix and the FAA will have to test and approve it.
Aviation analyst Scott Hamilton warns that Boeing's 787s could remain grounded indefinitely.
SCOTT HAMILTON: Indefinite is indefinite. Whether that's two months, three months, six months, we don't know, but it's not going to be back in the air any time soon.
KAUFMAN: Last night, Boeing said it's continuing to work tirelessly on the problem and is assisting investigations in the U.S. and in Japan. The airplane-maker added that it deeply regrets the impact this is having on its airline customers and their passengers. What Boeing didn't say was that it deeply regrets what all this has done to its reputation and that of its flagship airplane. Wendy Kaufman, NPR News, Seattle.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
For the second year in a row, the United Nations says it has evidence of widespread torture committed by a U.S. ally. The ally is Afghanistan, and the abuses took place in Afghan detention facilities. Last year, the Afghan government ordered reforms, yet the report claims that at some detention centers torture increased. NPR's Sean Carberry reports from Kabul.
SEAN CARBERRY, BYLINE: The findings are not pretty. Between October 2011 and 2012, the U.N. interviewed more than 600 detainees in facilities run by the Afghan police and intelligence service. Half provided what the U.N. considered credible evidence of torture or other abuse. In most cases, the detainees were tortured to obtain confessions.
They said they were hung by their wrists, beaten with pipes or hoses, punched, kicked, or threatened with execution. The initial response to the U.N. report from the Afghan government was defiant.
SEDIQ SEDIQI: We do not agree with the accusations as systematic torture in the detention centers of the Afghan National Police.
CARBERRY: Sediq Sediqi is spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, which oversees the Afghan police.
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CARBERRY: At a hastily organized press conference he and other officials argued the report exaggerates the claims of abuse. They said it does not give enough credit to the government for training police and security officials in human rights practices and for creating a human rights office within the Afghan National Police.
But the rates of torture found in this year's U.N. report are similar to the previous year's findings.
GEORGETTE GAGNON: Training, inspections only go so far.
CARBERRY: Georgette Gagnon is director of human rights for the U.N. Mission in Afghanistan. She does give the Afghan government credit for taking steps to reduce the amount of detainee abuse.
GAGNON: But without accountability or actual prosecution of perpetrators of torture, very little has actually changed.
MOHAMMED MUSA MAHMODI: That's unfortunately a result of a longtime issue of weakness of rule of law in the country, and also continuation of a culture of impunity.
CARBERRY: Mohammed Musa Mahmodi is the executive director of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission. He says his office has made recommendations similar to those of the U.N.: creation of an independent monitoring board, more human rights training and giving inspectors open access to detention facilities. But, he says there are a number of barriers to changing the practices.
MAHMODI: The perpetrators of torture in some of these areas are very powerful people.
CARBERRY: Mahmodi says that in Afghanistan torture has been a standard approach for generations. Gagnon says that many Afghans don't even consider the abuses listed in the report as torture.
GAGNON: The other element of this is that courts here accept confessions gained through torture even though they are not supposed to.
CARBERRY: Gagnon says that if the Afghan government doesn't take more aggressive action to curb torture, the international community will have to. For example, NATO has suspended detainee transfers to a number of Afghan facilities identified in the report.
GAGNON: The international donors have a huge role to play because they can condition funding and support on certain efforts being taken.
CARBERRY: Despite his criticism of the U.N. report, spokesman Sediq Sediqi says the government does take the issue seriously.
SEDIQI: We are ready to work together if there are evidence and documents that can show a torture in one of the detention centers.
CARBERRY: President Karzai has now assigned a task force to fully investigate the claims of torture in the report. It will have two weeks to research and verify what the U.N. found in its yearlong investigation. Sean Carberry, NPR News, Kabul.
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INSKEEP: 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 I'm Renee Montagne. Ever since they lost so badly in November, Republican leaders have done some soul searching. Now they're gathered in Charlotte, North Carolina to map out a comeback. The Republican National Committee has said it will not abandon core conservative principles but party officials are looking for ways to attract Latinos and other minority voters and young people, or else risk long-term trouble in future elections. NPR national political correspondent Don Gonyea reports from Charlotte.
DON GONYEA, BYLINE: The frustration is visible here at the RNC winter meeting. When the 2012 campaign began, there was an expectation by the party that they'd win the White House and retake control of the U.S. Senate. They fell far short in each case. So a committee set up by RNC chairman Reince Priebus is studying what went wrong and how to fix it.
Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary to President George W. Bush is one of five co-chairs on the panel. He said the GOP has a demographic problem, certainly, as the nation becomes more diverse and the party core remains white voters. But he says, there is also a serious image problem.
ARI FLEISCHER: The fact that people look at the Republican Party and say I don't think that this party wants me - that's a real problem.
GONYEA: That's particularly true of young voters who tend to be more liberal on social issues such as same-sex marriage, which the Republican Party opposes. Fleischer and the others on what has been named the Growth and Opportunity Project, held a closed-door meeting with RNC members yesterday. Afterward they held a news conference. Co-chair Sally Bradshaw is a Florida Republican strategist.
SALLY BRADSHAW: Losing is not fun. We want to win. And every person in that room gets it.
GONYEA: Their work is in its early stages, but she said one thing that will change is that Republicans will aggressively court the votes of minorities and others that in recent years, they simply assumed wouldn't listen to a pitch from the GOP.
BRADSHAW: We are going to go into areas that we do not typically go into and seek votes that we do not typically seek. We have lost our way on personal contact and, you know, I don't want to bias the report before it is written, but I think one consistent thing we hear is we have to do a much better job going into communities to make a much better case about why we want you in our party.
GONYEA: The committee won't be making policy recommendations. But it will talk about changing the tone of GOP campaigns and about messaging. There will also be a focus on social media and technology to improve a grassroots operation that lags well behind Democrats. The dinner speaker last night was a governor seen as a potential future standard bearer for the party - Louisiana's Bobby Jindal.
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GONYEA: Jindal said the party's conservative values will be a mainstay.
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GONYEA: Jindal, who is himself a minority - his parents came here from India - rejected the notion that demographic changes in the U.S. automatically spell trouble for the GOP.
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GONYEA: And he promised tough talk in his speech.
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GONYEA: That prompted some muted laughter.
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GONYEA: Jindal was referring there to comments about rape made by GOP candidates for Senate last year. Some RNC members here said the party is not in crisis mode. Though they welcome an assessment of what went wrong in 2012, they predict they'll bounce back. Don Gonyea, NPR News, Charlotte.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Snow, superstars, and cinema. That combination can mean only one thing at this time of year: The Sundance Film Festival. Our movie reviewer, Kenneth Turan, is on the scene in Park City, Utah, as he is every year, to tell us about some of the movies at Sundance. Good morning.
KENNETH TURAN, BYLINE: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Let's start with dramas. What really stands out for you, Ken?
TURAN: Well, the standout film this year is a film called "Fruitvale." It's a small film. It's based on a real story on what happened on the last night of 2008 when in Oakland, California, a young man named Oscar Grant was killed by a transit policeman, unarmed. It was a real awful thing that happened. It galvanized a lot of community opposition and it's been turned into a very, very moving film by a young first-time filmmaker named Ryan Coogler.
It stars a man named Michael B. Jordan who's familiar from "The Wire" and "Friday Night Lights." It's the last day in this young man's life and he doesn't know it, but we know it. And it's terribly moving and it has a happy ending in terms of the movie side of things. It's been a big hit here in Sundance.
It's the film people mention most, and it's been picked up for distribution by the Weinstein Company so it will be coming to theaters near everyone.
MONTAGNE: Well, that sounds like a classic Sundance Film Festival story, like last year's "Beasts of the Southern Wild," where a debut director makes a big name for himself there.
TURAN: Yeah. I mean, it has some of that and it also has a wonderful back story in the sense that this young man, Ryan Coogler, was a student at USC, kind of finagled a meeting with Forest Whittaker who has a production company. He'd made some short films. He ran through a couple of feature ideas he wanted. When he mentioned Oscar Grant, Forest Whittaker just said immediately, let's do it, got up, and left the room.
Ryan said, you know, I just wanted to write the screenplay quick before he changed his mind. It's a wonderful story, all around, from a really tragic story, but it's just really nice to see these kinds of film connections being made.
MONTAGNE: And in terms of documentaries, I gather there's one that you've seen that actually plays like a drama - a thriller.
TURAN: Yes. There's one that really - I mean, it's a cliché, it had me at the edge of my seat. I said oh, my god. It's called "The Summit." It's the story of a terrible day in 2008 when 11 people died on a climb of K2, the second highest mountain in the world, but probably the most dangerous.
And there's a controversy about what happened. There's a controversy about why these people died. And part of the problem is, is that a lot of this happened in what they call the dead zone, which is so high up that your brain cells start dying while you're in there. So everyone's memories of what went on up there are different. And it's just really a fascinating story.
MONTAGNE: You often do say that documentaries are strong at Sundance. Tell us about a few more of them.
TURAN: You know, it's kind of like the traffic in Los Angeles. It's always bad. We always say, oh, boy, it's really bad. But some days it's really dreadful. And it's the opposite with Sundance documentaries. They're always good, and this year they are really, really good. For some reason they're just spectacular.
And they cover a really wide range of subject matter. They start from something like "Lynnsanity" which is a story of former New York Nicks star Jeremy Lynn who became a sensation off the bench in the NBA. There's "We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks," which is the story of how all this stolen material was posted by Julian Assange, who was the man who founded Wikileaks and how it was posted by this soldier, Bradley Manning.
And it's really a joint portrait of both of these men. You get to really have a good sense of what they're like as individuals. And then there's this really wonderful film called "Twenty Feet from Stardom" about the great rock n' roll backup singers Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer. They're just wonderful singers.
They tell great stories. Kind of an irresistible subject that, for some reason, had never been done before. But it's done now.
MONTAGNE: All right. That's Kenneth Turan talking to us from the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. He reviews movies for MORNING EDITION and the Los Angeles Times. Thanks much.
TURAN: Thank you, Renée.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Americans are talking about gun control in a way they have not in years. Which is awkward for the entertainment industry. Here's TV critic Eric Deggans.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: Want to see a TV executive squirm? Ask if real-life violence can be inspired by the fake shootouts packing some popular television shows.
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DEGGANS: Cool-looking TV gunfights don't influence anyone to pick up an assault rifle, these executives would say. But those same executives earn billions of dollars a year pushing you to buy things with messages like this.
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DEGGANS: The whole TV industry is based on the idea that commercials can convince you to buy stuff. But many executives insist the same thing doesn't happen when a hero shoots a villain on "CSI" or "Law and Order". As the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary spark a nationwide effort to grapple with violence, the questions have only gotten tougher for the entertainment industry.
Which makes this a really awkward time to debut a TV drama which luxuriates in violence. It just happens to center on a serial killer who inspires others to become murderers, in the same way commercials can convince you to buy a box of Tide.
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DEGGANS: Kevin Bacon's "The Following" plays a bit like "Silence of the Lambs" for television, featuring a stalwart FBI agent caught in a cat-and-mouse game with a brilliant killer.
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DEGGANS: The series debuts days after President Obama released a series of sweeping proposals to curb gun violence in America, including a call to study any possible links between media images, violent video games and shootings. But there's one other problem here we don't often discuss: Sometimes, watching violence can be really entertaining. I'll admit enjoying this stuff.
I'm a fan of Clint Eastwood and Quentin Tarantino. Consider the words of Tarantino himself on WHYY's Fresh Air. He's explaining the different kinds of violence in his latest hit, the Western saga "Django Unchained."
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DEGGANS: Tarantino is the ultimate showman, making his argument with an honesty few others in Hollywood can manage. Yes, some violence in media is fun to watch, he says, and there's no harm in admitting that. But with conflicting information from academics and advocates, we don't really know if he's right - no matter how much we want to believe it.
Perhaps the more honest answer, is that we are still so enthralled by entertaining violence, we're not willing to give it up, regardless of the cost. At least, not yet.
INSKEEP: Eric Deggans, TV and media critic for the Tampa Bay Times.
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And from NPR News, this is MORNING EDITION.
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Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recently had to make one of the toughest decisions of her political career: Who to root for in the Super Bowl, the Baltimore Ravens or the San Francisco 49ers. Pelosi was born in Baltimore. Her late father was the mayor there. But she represents San Franciscans in Congress and her kids grew up with the 49ers. So Pelosi says she's rooting for San Francisco but not against Baltimore.
It's MORNING EDITION.
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Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Not long ago on this program, we reported that food expiration dates are often meaningless. Let's take that concept into space. Researchers from the University of Hawaii and Cornell University are asking you to send them long-lasting recipes. They want to help NASA determine an extremely durable menu to keep astronauts fed, should the agency send people on a four-month journey to Mars. I got just one word for you, NASA: Cheetos. It's MORNING EDITION.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. I wouldn't want to call "Insane City" a typical Dave Barry novel. What kind of thing is that to say about a book? The story begins with a bachelor dinner that goes off the rails, then brings in Russian mobsters, the fourth place finisher of Miss Hot Amateur Bod, a good-hearted escort and her sales representative, a half-dozen scheming businessmen, a Haitian refugee fleeing desperation with her two children, tough guys buying diapers, a car chase, a tropical moon, a boat chase, and an orangutan named Trevor, who winds up with the wedding ring. Come to think of it, what else can you call a book like that except "Insane City"? It's Dave Barry's first novel in more than 10 years, though he has been writing other best-sellers during that time, including "Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far)." He won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary with the Miami Herald in 1988. They can't take it back, so Dave Barry even joins us from the studios at the Miami Herald today. Thanks so much for being with us.
DAVE BARRY: It's my pleasure. Thanks.
SIMON: I'm struck in this novel by an utterly serious subplot you have that revolves around Loretta - Haitian woman and her two children - struggling to make new lives in the United States, washing in from the sea. What made you put that in there?
BARRY: I attended a wedding on Key Biscayne at the Ritz-Carlton, which is a beautiful hotel over there. And you sit facing the water, the ocean. And thinking what would happen if like right now a raft came up - because it does happen. Key Biscayne is where they land a lot. That's really what got me started. And I thought, well, it would be Cuban. No, it should be Haitians because for the most part Haitians get sent back and Cubans don't. And then I started thinking about that story.
SIMON: Well, help us understand the place a bit.
BARRY: Well, the main thing is it's this stew of ingredients that really never quite come together right. We have people from all over the world who come here to visit and to party and it's a lot of them just to live or to get away from something. Then we have the fact that it's basically a swamp. I mean, I live in a swamp. Right now, we have an infestations of Burmese pythons, gigantic snakes, roaming around the Everglades, and it just never, ever calms down. down here.
SIMON: You make it sound like it's a city that's been only nominally reclaimed from the wilds of swampland.
BARRY: It hasn't been reclaimed. When I first moved here, the first day of my life as a homeowner in South Florida, I walked out onto my lawn to get the newspaper, and on my lawn were crabs. Like, not just a few but hundreds and hundreds of crabs, and they were not happy about me being there because it turns out it was crab mating season. And they were, like, waving their pinchers at me, like, angrily, like, I wanted to mate with their women. I didn't want their women. Their women are crabs, you know. But they didn't know that - or maybe they were bitter about that. I don't know. But I remember sprinting back into my house barefoot, afraid to go out and get the paper. I thought where I have I moved? I lived in Pennsylvania. We had crabgrass. But here we have crabs.
SIMON: You really love Miami, don't you? You're from Pennsylvania, but you really love Miami.
BARRY: I do. I moved here in 1986 from the United States and I have come to really love it here. And it's a great place to be a humor writer. Carl Hiaasen is probably the best there is down here.
SIMON: The crime novelist, yeah.
BARRY: His quote is: "You really don't' need an imagination to write fiction about South Florida. You just need a subscription to the Miami Herald."
SIMON: What is blogging and all kind of things, personal commentary that we're reading on the Web, done to the institution of the great city columnist. I think of you when you were with the Miami Herald full-time. You know, but you inevitably think of Mike Royko, Jimmy Breslin. What's happened?
BARRY: Well, we've been tweeted out of existence. The time that people used to spend crafting one thoughtful 800-word piece, they're more likely to spend now dashing off 53 one-liners, because that's going to get them a lot broader audience. I covered both conventions last summer. And I don't really mean this as criticism of political journalism - I don't know if it's bad or good - I just noticed how much of what journalism has become is now tweeting. You know, like, I remember my first campaign where I went to Iowa and New Hampshire, and I remember seeing, like, David Broder and all those guys at the bar. And you would hear them talk about what's going on. And then a couple of days later you would read their pieces. And now it all happens in seconds and minutes and it happens while the speech is going on; it's being analyzed and that sort of thing. Just different - very, very different.
SIMON: And if I can draw you out on this a bit. What's happened to great local, regional newspapers?
BARRY: Newspapers are being destroyed, utterly destroyed. Their business model they operated under for decades and decades, where, you know, Sears bought a gigantic ad for a whole lot of money because we were the only vehicle for that. And so we made tons and tons of money. And we thought in journalism we got all that money because we had, you know, a bureau in London and bureau in Rome and we had bureaus all over the place. 'Cause we were the Miami Herald and we had bureaus everywhere and we were making all this money, and it must be because we were doing great journalism.
And then comes along the Internet, and all of the sudden we aren't necessary for any advertiser the way we used to be to reach an audience quickly. And it turns out that the public wasn't demanding that we provide them with this level of journalism that we thought was so important to them. And we're left with the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, to some extent the Washington Post, the L.A. Times. But I don't think even they are what they were. And I don't have an answer to that. I don't know if anybody does.
SIMON: Does that somehow reduce the identity of a city sometimes if they're not able to read about themselves, or...
BARRY: Yeah. I think a big local newspaper, you know, was kind of like the big local sports team. There's always been hostility toward the big, local paper but I think there was a certain amount of pride in it. And this is our paper. We are a big-time city. I think the Herald spoke more for the community and reflected the community better than any other institution down here could. And now there is no institution to replace that, unless, you know, you talk about sports team or something like that. And I think that's true of many, many cities now.
SIMON: We talk so much about newspapers. Is journalism going to survive? Has that become DIY? Is this an opportunity for novelists to step in?
BARRY: You know, novelists have been trying to step in for hundreds of years. And I think the same forces that are sort of working against newspapers probably are also working, to some extent, against books. I just, I don't know. It just feels like everything happens so fast now and everybody, you know, goes on to the next subject so quickly now. Books seem a little archaic, except as entertainment and, you know, as an escape from policy and that sort of thing.
SIMON: Dave Barry. His new novel, "Insane City." Speaking with us, of course, from Miami. Dave, thanks so much for being with us.
BARRY: It's always a pleasure, Scott. Thank you.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Jimmy Van Heusen was one of America's greatest popular composers. He wrote "Darn That Dream," "Swinging on a Star," "All the Way," "High Hopes," "Here's That Rainy Day," "Come Fly With Me" and more. He was the guy Frank Sinatra wanted to be: cool kind of ladies' man who flew his own plane. He was born Edward Chester Babcock on January 26, 1913. On this 100th anniversary of his birth, Jeff Lunden has an appreciation of the man who became Jimmy Van Heusen.
JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: You've never heard of Jimmy Van Heusen? Well, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers has. And you certainly know many of his songs, says Brook Babcock, Van Heusen's grandnephew and president of his publishing company.
BROOK BABCOCK: There's 330,000 songwriters listed with ASCAP. Van Heusen, as far as his catalogue, is probably within the top 20. So that's a pretty good number.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG MEDLEY)
LUNDEN: He was born in Syracuse, New York - a terrible student, but a born entertainer, as he told an interviewer on Armed Forces Radio in the 1960s.
JIMMY VAN HEUSEN: I don't think there's a school in Syracuse that I didn't attend. And I was usually unceremoniously expelled.
LUNDEN: Including once for singing at a high school assembly.
HEUSEN: And I chose for my song, "My Canary Has Circles Under His Eyes." The lyrics are - actually it was written by Yip Harburg and I just copied it off the air. But it went: Since making whoopee became all the rage, it's gotten round to the old bird cage, and my canary's got circles under his eyes. You never heard 2,000 kids laugh so hard.
LUNDEN: Babcock took the name Van Heusen from the shirts. He made his way to New York, where Harold Arlen gave him a shot to write for The Cotton Club Revue.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
LUNDEN: Cab Calloway was the first to record a Van Heusen song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HARLEM HOSPITALITY")
LUNDEN: A few years later, Van Heusen wrote a big hit for Benny Goodman, "Darn That Dream."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DARN THAT DREAM")
BENNY GOODMAN: (Playing)
LUNDEN: Singer Bing Crosby heard it and brought Van Heusen to California, where the composer began a successful collaboration with lyricist Johnny Burke.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MOONLIGHT BECOMES YOU")
LUNDEN: In Hollywood, Van Heusen became known as a man about town. Even though he wasn't conventionally handsome, he always had a beautiful woman on his arm. And he threw great parties, says his grandnephew, Brook Babcock.
BABCOCK: And the well-known fact among his friends that his house was always open, his bar was always open, even when he was not home.
LUNDEN: But Babcock says Van Heusen had another side. During World War II, while writing songs for Hollywood movies, he was also doing dangerous work as a fighter test pilot.
BABCOCK: He would work from 5 A.M. to 1 P.M., five days a week, going over to the Lockheed plant, flying these airplanes. And he was using his real name, Edward Chester Babcock while he was doing this. And then, from 2 o'clock, onwards, he was writing songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SWINGING ON A STAR")
LUNDEN: That's Jimmy Van Heusen playing piano with singer Tommy Haynes in a 1944 radio broadcast. Singer Michael Feinstein says Van Heusen was a man of contradictions in his life and in his music.
MICHAEL FEINSTEIN: He was a real partier and yet the romance in his songs is something that came from another part of him because he didn't get married until the age of 56. But then here he is writing all these songs like "Darn that Dream" and "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" and "All the Way." And I don't think that he actually believed in those songs. But he knew how to express what people wanted to believe in.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "POLKADOTS AND MOONBEAMS")
LUNDEN: One of Van Heusen's partying pals was Frank Sinatra, and when the partnership with Johnny Burke came to an end, Sinatra helped pair the composer with lyricist Sammy Cahn. Together, they wrote a remarkable 76 songs for the crooner.
FEINSTEIN: And the thing I find fascinating about them is that Sinatra is famous for changing lyrics and switching around things in songs to make them his own, but he never changed anything in the Van Heusen-Cahn songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COME FLY WITH ME")
LUNDEN: Sinatra and Van Heusen were such good friends that, at times, they roomed together. Chuck Granata, who's produced several Sinatra reissues, says Van Heusen was Sinatra's confidant when the singer was breaking up with Ava Gardner.
CHUCK GRANATA: When you think about the underlying subtext of songs like "Only the Lonely" and "No One Cares," which were Van Heusen melodies, I think Van Heusen was able to distill the raw emotion that he saw in Frank and really bring it out in those songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ONLY THE LONELY")
LUNDEN: When Jimmy Van Heusen died, he was buried in the Sinatra family plot.
GRANATA: There were two people who were non-family members who Sinatra wanted near him through eternity - his long-time friend, bodyguard and very close companion, Jilly Rizzo, and the second was Jimmy Van Heusen. And I think that's the ultimate tribute, really.
LUNDEN: Jimmy Van Heusen was 77 when he died. His headstone reads: Swinging on a Star. For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY KIND OF TOWN" )
SIMON: You can find photos of Jimmy Van Heusen and more of his music at our website, npr.org. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Hey, I'm from Chicago too. I'm Scott Simon.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Petra Haden had a problem when she was a child.
PETRA HADEN: I remember watching Looney Tunes cartoons and having the music stuck in my head, like (humming).
SIMON: And the problem kept getting worse. Soon, it wasn't just TV songs but movie scores too. Now, Petra Haden is the daughter of a famous jazz musician, Charlie Haden. She's also an accomplished musician - former violinist and vocalist in the rock group That Dog. And she's sung with Beck, Foo Fighters, Mike Watt and Bill Frisell. But for her new album, she went back to that old affliction. Cue "A Fistful of Dollars" and "The Man with No Name."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
SIMON: For "Petra Goes to the Movies," she decided to mostly ditch the instruments, though her dad and Bill Frisell do join her at times. This album and its 16 movie scores, from "Psycho" to "Goldfinger," is largely a cappella.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
HADEN: The bass line is the anchor for me. And I started with a bass and either doubled that and then added the harmonies, sometimes out of my own harmonies that I've always wanted to sing on the song. And then it just went on from there, singing violin parts and trumpet parts and just trying to emulate the sounds of the instruments.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Petra Haden makes recording an a cappella version of songs written for orchestras sound easy, but she admits there are some odd pitfalls.
HADEN: You know, after a while, hearing some of these songs, I think I sound like a chicken or something. Like (Humming). You know. But I think not really.
SIMON: You know, that I can see that in an ad. She sounds like a chicken, Rolling Stone.
HADEN: I can't believe that I just said that. I sound like a chicken. Great. Buy my record, everyone.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Another cut we want to ask about. The superhero that defines them all.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: John Williams' theme from "Superman." It struck me as fitting. It almost sounds like a chorus of kids' kazoos, not the London Philharmonic.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: And the more I heard it, the more I thought, you know, somewhere in this world today there are probably is a chorus of kids going (Humming), you know, probably doing it that way.
HADEN: Oh yeah. That's - it's my favorite movie, it always has been.
SIMON: Which version are you talking about? The one that came out, the original Christopher Reeve?
HADEN: Yes. I've had a huge crush on him since I was little. I have had Superman posters. I had two vinyl records of the soundtrack. People knew how much I loved the music. And anyone that I watch it with, I'll recite all the lines. I know every single line in that movie. It's pretty funny.
SIMON: Isn't there the moment when Lois says to Superman on the balcony, how big are you?
HADEN: I mean, how tall are you? And she goes and how much do you weigh? And he says, oh, about 225. And she says, 225? But by the way, just how fast do you fly? I don't know really. Never bothered to time myself. Well, say, why don't we find out?
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "SUPERMAN")
HADEN: I know the whole scene.
SIMON: Oh, mercy. I'm very impressed, very impressed.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Petra Haden, the musician of a thousand instruments - mostly her voice. Her new album, "Petra Goes to the Movies." Thanks so much for being with us.
HADEN: Thank you.
SIMON: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The war in Afghanistan is slowly winding down, and over the next two years, thousands of U.S. troops are set to leave the field of battle and return home. Veterans and advocates say there should be more support for their reintegration into civilian life. Job training is just one part of that process. Annmarie Fertoli of member station WNYC spoke with veterans who say the focus must also stay on their physical and their mental health.
ANNMARIE FERTOLI, BYLINE: The latest jobs report and the first of the new year shows a dismal picture for the nation's newest veterans. Unemployment among those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan stands at 10.8 percent - far higher than the national rate of 7.8 percent. It's a number that has veterans and their advocates concerned. Anthony Pike is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who works for the nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Like many advocates, he believes part of the problem is translating military skills to the civilian workforce.
ANTHONY PIKE: Why can't the guy who's driving trucks in Iraq come home and drive a truck at home? Why can't the medic who's, you know, patching people up in Iraq and Afghanistan, why can't he drive an ambulance and be an EMT? Those are certifications that are easy fixes.
FERTOLI: In addition to jobs and training, another area of concern is the mental health challenges facing service men and women, particularly the high rate of suicides. The latest figures from the Pentagon show 349 suicides among active-duty members of the military in 2012. According to the Department of Defense, the army - which sustained the heaviest toll - lost more soldiers to suicide than to combat in Afghanistan last year. IAVA founder Paul Reickhoff says it'll take a strong national effort to begin to address the root causes of suicide.
PAUL REICKHOFF: Suicide itself is not the only problem. It's a culminating event that often results from the failure to address a spectrum of transitional challenges. So, it's mental health, it's financial, it's family, it's sometimes the VA. So, folks shouldn't have to wait months to see a doctor or to navigate bureaucracy to get care.
FERTOLI: Hundreds of thousands of veterans are still experiencing excessive delays in getting their claims processed. Army Veteran Michael Faulkner says it's a major stumbling block.
MICHAEL FAULKNER: The number one problem right now is the fatal funnel that is created at VA with the backlog of claims in all areas; in GI bill, especially in medical. Everywhere that there's a delay, we're hurting a veteran.
FERTOLI: But the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledges the problem and is asking veterans to be patient. It's implementing new processes and technologies aimed at eliminating the backlog by 2015, a year after the last U.S. combat troops are expected to return from Afghanistan. For NPR News, I'm Annmarie Fertoli.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: This is NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The proudest moment of Hans Massaquoi's boyhood was when his babysitter sewed a swastika on his sweater. He was a seven-year-old boy in Hamburg in 1933 who wanted to be part of the excitement he saw. But when his mother got home, she snipped off the swastika. He also wanted to join the Hitler Youth. They had cool uniforms, Hans wrote years later, and they did exciting things - camping, parades, playing drums. His teacher told him that he couldn't join without quite saying why. So, when Adolph Hitler came to Hamburg the next year, Hans got his mother to bring him out into the throng that acclaimed Der Fuehrer. There I was, a kinky-haired, brown-skinned eight-year-old boy amid a sea of blond and blue-eyed kids, he wrote, filled with childlike patriotism. I cheered the man whose every waking hour was dedicated to the destruction of inferior non-Aryan people - like myself.
Hans Massaquoi's mother was a German nurse. His father was the son of Liberia's consul general in Hamburg left Germany during the rise of the Nazi regime. Hans Massaquoi and his mother stayed, hoping Germany would change. He once told Britain's Independent newspaper: Unlike the Jews, blacks were so few in numbers that we were relegated to low-priority status in the Nazis' lineup for extermination.
He loved music and became a Swing Kid, one of the small group of German teens who defiantly wore long hair, British tweeds and danced to jazz and swing music after it was banned as degenerate culture. When the war ended, Hans played saxophone in the Hamburg cellar-clubs for Allied soldiers, and came to the United States as a student in 1951, and served in the U.S. Army. He covered the U.S. civil rights movement for Ebony magazine, then became its managing editor. Hans Massaquoi had seen the work of bigotry in the land of his birth, and brought his sharp eye and rare experience to cover it in the country that became his home.
He wrote an acclaimed memoir, "Destined to Witness," in 1999, and it became a hit, especially in Germany. He had quite a journey in life, his son, Hans Massaquoi Jr., a Detroit attorney, said this week, after his father died at the age of 87. He also remembered him as good, kind, loving and fun-loving. Hans Massaquoi lived to become not just a footnote in history, but a figure of note.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: Fats Waller. You're listening to NPR News.
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Europe's economic problems have forced a lot of people to think creatively about money. The hardship is especially acute in Spain. Some municipalities have had to cut back on basic services. In one small town, the government even cut the local school bus. But neighborhood mothers came up with a kind of racy idea to raise some money and get that school bus back. Lauren Frayer reports from a suburb of Valencia, where soccer moms have become calendar girls.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Nestled in orange groves, the village of Montserrat lies about 20 miles inland from the Mediterranean down a busy highway from the regional capitol, Valencia. This same highway is where Eva Sancho's children had to walk almost three miles to and from elementary school each day after the town's school bus service was cut to save money.
EVO SANCHO: (Through Translator) There are no sidewalks, there are a lot of trucks going fast. It's one of the main roads. Truth is, it's pretty dangerous for kids to be walking there.
FRAYER: Sancho and other unemployed moms came up with a plan to pose nearly nude to raise money for a school bus.
SANCHO: (Through Translator) It started as a joke but then we realized it just might be the most effective way to raise money for our kids' transportation.
FRAYER: So they made a calendar. Sancho, a 41-year-old mother of three, is Miss June.
SANCHO: (Through Translator) One of my photos was taken outside the bus stop near my house in November. It was so cold and I was naked in the streets with my neighbors gawking.
FRAYER: But it worked. From selling calendars, the pinup moms have raised $12,000, enough to rehire the school bus through spring. They even sold copies to regional politicians who decided to cut their school bus service in the first place. Jose Maria Mas i Garcia is the socialist mayor of Montserrat.
JOSE MARIA MAS I GARCIA: (Through Translator) It's like a noose around our necks, these budget cuts. We're forced to pay interest on debt rather than help our citizens.
FRAYER: Valencia had Spain's biggest real estate bubble and is now the country's most indebted province. Montserrat's bars are packed with laid-off construction workers. Out of about 7000 residents, a certain 12 women are the talk of the town.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)
FRAYER: What do we pay taxes for, one man yells. Our women shouldn't have to do this.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)
FRAYER: I think it's a great idea, his friend says. Where can I buy one? It's the least we can do to support them, of course.
For NPR News, I'm Lauren Frayer in Valencia, Spain.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: This is NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Obama administration is currently campaigning for a full package of measures designed to try to reduce gun violence, and the White House is taking its pitch for that legislation outside of Washington, D.C. Vice President Joe Biden held a roundtable discussion yesterday in Richmond, Virginia, and he spoke with people who worked on gun safety after the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings. NPR's Tamara Keith reports.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Biden became the administration's point person on guns following the Sandy Hook School shooting. He and the president released recommendations last week, which include renewing the assault weapons ban, limiting the size of ammunition magazines and universal background checks - among many others. But in Richmond, Biden said, the effort doesn't stop there.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: We're going to continue to go around the country and try to get the best minds to give us further insight into what the president is trying to do.
KEITH: Biden was joined in Richmond by Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who was governor of Virginia at the time of the Virginia Tech Shooting.
SENATOR TIM KAINE: There are things you can do that work. We don't have to despair about being able to reduce gun violence. There are things you can do that work to reduce gun violence. You can do them by working together.
KEITH: He pointed to an improved background records check put into place in Virginia after the shooting. Biden said in light of the Sandy Hook shooting, now is the time to act.
BIDEN: What happened up in Newtown - beautiful little babies, six and seven years old, riddled, riddled with bullet holes, 20 of them dead. I've met with most of their parents. It is a nation tragedy.
KEITH: He's not the only one making impassioned pleas. But if history is any guide, Congress will be more of an obstacle than an ally. On Thursday, California Senator Diane Feinstein, a Democrat, introduced a new assault weapons ban. But she was clear-eyed about its chances.
SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN: This is really an uphill road. If anyone asks today, can you win this, the answer is we don't know. It's so uphill.
KEITH: The NRA promptly released a statement saying the senator has been trying to ban guns from law-abiding citizens for decades and that, quote, "The American people know gun bans do not work and we are confident Congress will reject Senator Feinstein's wrong-headed approach." Charles Ramsey, the Philadelphia police commissioner, spoke at Feinstein's press conference and said this is what always happens after a mass shooting.
CHARLES RAMSEY: And then it's business as usual, as lobbyists being to kind of quietly go about trying to influence the outcome of any legislation that's passed.
KEITH: He wondered aloud if maybe this time would be different.
RAMSEY: If the slaughter of 20 babies does not capture and hold your attention, then I give up because I don't know what else will. We have to pass legislation. We can't allow the legislation to get so watered down and filled with loopholes that it is meaningless and won't do anything.
KEITH: But Feinstein said, if her bill and others were to have any chance at all, the push would have to come from outside of Washington.
FEINSTEIN: If America rises up, if people care enough to call every member of the House and every member of the Senate, and say we have had enough.
KEITH: And that's exactly what President Obama's political team is asking for too, in emails blasted out to supporters yesterday. They've even set up a website for reporting how the conversations go. We might get an early sense of the mood of Congress on Wednesday. The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing with Wayne LaPierre of the NRA and Mark Kelly, the husband of Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman who was shot in another mass shooting. Tamara Keith, NPR News, Washington.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.
President Obama took the oath of office this week and formally began his second term. And both parties are trying to get used to some new political realities. Republican leaders from around the country followed the inauguration this week with a meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, It was the first party gathering since Election Day. They re-elected their chairman and they vowed to try to change their tone and approach, but not Republican principles or policies.
NPR's national political correspondent Don Gonyea was at the meeting, and has our story.
DON GONYEA, BYLINE: The GOP is promising a great deal of change in advance of the next election, but one area where there will be no change for the party is in its leadership. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has been elected to another two-year term. In his acceptance speech, he cited a simple reason why Republicans failed to win the White House and lost seats in the House and Senate this past November.
REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I'm no math whiz. I'm an attorney. But I don't need a calculator to know that we need to win more votes. We have to find more supporters. We have to go places we haven't been and we have to invite new people to join us.
GONYEA: Priebus has set up a special panel to make recommendations toward that goal. Party leaders insist their conservative philosophy will not change. That's not the problem, they say. Rather, it's that they lag behind Democrats in technology and organizing, and that the GOP has not treated certain categories of voters well, using a tone during campaigns that is off-putting.
Again, Chairman Priebus.
(APPLAUSE)
COMMITTEE: We have to build better relationships in minority communities, urban centers, college towns. We need a permanent, growing presence.
GONYEA: Also re-elected was Priebus' co-chair, Sharon Day, who was made the same point in a lighter way.
SHARON DAY: I will talk to a head of lettuce if I can get them to vote Republican.
(LAUGHTER)
DAY: We have to reach out, as the chairman said, with our programs to make sure that we reach every single voter.
GONYEA: It remains to be seen exactly how the GOP will reach some of the voters they've had the hardest time attracting. Most analysts say it wasn't the party's tone but its immigration policy that led more than 7-in-10 Latino and Asian-American voters to support President Obama in November.
The party has also shown a tendency in recent years to seek redemption in process, in rules changes, such as voter ID laws and other challenges at the ballot box. Just this week in Virginia, Republican state legislators have been pushing a change in the way the state allocates its vote in the Electoral College.
Instead of giving all the electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote statewide, as Virginia and 47 other states do now, this plan would give one electoral vote to each congressional district. It would also give the state's two other electoral votes to whichever presidential candidate won the most congressional districts.
By this system, Obama would have received just three out of 13 electoral votes in Virginia, even though he won the state with an outright majority.
Priebus was asked about the Virginia plan at his news conference yesterday.
COMMITTEE: I think it's something that a lot of states are looking at. And I think, in some cases, they should look at it. But I think it's a state issue. But personally I'm pretty intrigued by it.
GONYEA: No surprise the issue also caught the attention of one of Virginia's three Democratic congressmen, Gerald Connolly.
REPRESENTATIVE GERALD CONNOLLY: What they're doing here is actually challenging the will of the people, by hook or by crook, because they can't win an election outright. So they have to cheat. That's disgusting.
GONYEA: RNC Chair Priebus said such a plan would still be fair because candidates would still have to compete; they'd just have to do so one district at a time instead of statewide. Meanwhile, in Richmond, Governor Bob McDonnell's office told reporters he thought the state's existing electoral system, quote, "works just fine."
Don Gonyea, NPR News, Charlotte.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
From one insane city to the City of Light. This next story is about life in Paris from NPR correspondent Eleanor Beardsley. But please be warned: it's not all glamour in the French capital.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: This is a radio story born out of personal exasperation - exasperation over a bizarre and foul part of life in an otherwise beautiful world-class city. For those of you who thought Paris was the capital of fashion and culture, you must know that it's also the world capital of dog poo. And it's starting to drive me mad. It's everywhere. Walking the streets here sometimes feels like negotiating a minefield. As one friend put it, strolling a Paris boulevard is like walking down on the farm. But bizarrely, Parisians don't seem bothered by it. When I talk to locals or even expats who have been here forever, they all say the same thing: Oh, it used to be so much worse.
MARINA LEE: Why aren't we going over there?
BEARDSLEY: But for tourists and newcomers, like my friend Marina Lee who just moved here with her husband and kids, it's a shock. She describes walking to school in the morning.
LEE: And if we're running late then we'll go the short way, but it has a lot of poop on it. And so that's not our preferred way to go. It didn't occur to me that I'd have to deal with so much poop on the streets, especially on the rainy days.
BEARDSLEY: I began to work myself into a frenzy over this about a year ago. Who were these selfish dog owners who didn't bother to pick up? And why could I never catch the squeaky little chien who regularly left his telltale droppings on my street? I began glaring at every dog owner with suspicion. Perhaps I could shame them into picking up. So, I made a cardboard cutout stencil that read: Let's be proud of Paris, and began spray painting it next to the piles. When that didn't work, I got so angry I just started circling the piles with red spray paint and writing, shame next to them.
I had to get to the bottom of this. And that's how I met Hamidou Traore. He's head of the Incivility Brigade for the city of Paris. As it turns out, it's been illegal to leave dog poo on the streets here since 1982. But it's hard to change habits, says Traore.
HAMIDOU TRAORE: (Through Translator) There are people who think because they pay their taxes, the street cleaners should clean up behind their dogs. It's a shame this mentality still exists. But we're here to change that.
BEARDSLEY: Around here, dog poo goes by its technical term, canine ejection or ejection canine. And there's a $50 fine for leaving it on the pavement. But of course, you have to catch the offending dog owners.
FRANK CALVET: (Foreign language spoken)
ERIC ROBICHON: Let's go.
BEARDSLEY: Meet Frank Calvet and Eric Robichon, whose job is just that. They're two of the hundred or so of plainclothes inspectors with the Incivility Brigade. And today I am thrilled to accompany them on the job.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOORS CLOSING)
BEARDSLEY: We arrive in Paris's chic 16th Arrondissement to begin our day. To be fair, Frank and Eric aren't just out looking for canine ejectors. Their task is to find and punish litterers of all kinds. But today, to indulge me, we quickly get down to business, so to speak, and begin following dog walkers. (Foreign language spoken) Just like in the movies, the guys lag casually behind and sometimes duck into doorways so as not to be spotted. We follow several dogs with their owners for over an hour, but none of the dogs has to go. Then all of a sudden we turn a corner and - oh my god, there's a dog pooping right in the middle of the sidewalk. We're going to see if the woman picks it up. She's picking it up. I have to go over and congratulate her. Bonjour, madam.
CLAUDETTE BOCARA: Oui.
BEARDSLEY: Claudette Bocara says you shouldn't own a dog if you don't pick up. (Foreign language spoken) So, I ask her what is in the minds of her fellow citizens who do leave it in the middle of the sidewalk.
BOCARA: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: They're just selfish individualists who don't care about anyone else, she says.
CALVET: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: The job of an undercover street inspector is a coveted one, and both Eric and Frank have risen through the ranks to get here. Their current job has turned them into street psychologists. They know which breeds do it most.
FRANK CALVET: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: You can follow a poodle forever, says Frank, and nothing happens. But a Labrador gets right down to business. They've got the negligent owners profiled too, but today must be an exception. Oh my god. (Foreign language spoken) We've been following this guy for about 10 minutes who threw down a lit cigarette. So, we thought he was the type that certainly wouldn't pick up his dog poo. But he did it, he just picked it up. Ah, I finally see Frank and Eric in action, giving a citation, though it's not to a canine ejector.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)
BEARDSLEY: The man has emptied the trash from his car onto the street. He complains bitterly, saying the street sweepers would have cleaned it up. In the end, he recognizes it was a rather uncivil thing to do. Eric and Frank make a great team. They're insistent yet calm, and always pleasant. (Foreign language spoken) Though they try to console me, I can't help feeling disappointed that in my two forays with them we've never nabbed a canine ejector. I'm starting to believe what they tell me, that most Parisians actually do pick up. But then, as if to add insult to injury, as we're heading back, we nearly step in a steaming pile. And I'm outraged once again. I just cannot believe this. They've just left the pile in the middle of the sidewalk and we didn't even have the pleasure, the satisfaction of catching the person. Looks like if I want any satisfaction at all, I'll have to go back to my spray paint cans. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Economies are struggling right now in many parts of the world, and central banks have responded by printing reams of money. So far, that action has been met with mixed results. This week, the Bank of Japan announced its own measures to try to stimulate that country's weak economy. Those actions are designed to try to flood the country with money and encourage businesses and consumers to spend. But the moves taken by Japan's central bank have also raised fear of a currency war. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: The Federal Reserve and other central banks have been pouring money into their financial systems for several years now in an effort to stimulate their economies. These measures haven't managed to bring back boom times, but Jacob Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute for International Economics says things would have been a lot worse without them.
JACOB KIRKEGAARD: Together with many of the other emergency measures, they've been instrumental in avoiding that the Great Recession turn into another Great Depression. So, they basically helped us avoid the 1930s, in my opinion.
ZARROLI: The policies pursued by central banks have been controversial. A common complaint is that they are inflationary. That is, so much money is sloshing around that prices will soar once the global economy improves. Kirkegaard says that fear simply hasn't been borne out.
KIRKEGAARD: I just don't think that that is a credible argument when we still have the levels of unemployment and low-capacity utilization in general that we see in pretty much all of the industrialized world.
ZARROLI: But the controversies don't stop there. The policies being pursued by the Bank of Japan have exposed a level of friction among the world's major economies and generated talk of what economists call competitive devaluation. Here was famed investor George Soros on CNBC this week.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FIRST ON CNBC")
ZARROLI: And German Chancellor Angela Merkel went even further, saying she was concerned about the Japanese policies. Japan has been mired in an economic slump for two decades, and new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made clear he thinks the way to stimulate growth is by exporting more. Sung Won Sohn is an economist at California State University.
SUN WON SOHN: They feel that the only way they can grow their economy is by increasing exports, and one of the ways of increasing exports is by depreciating its own currency.
ZARROLI: In other words, Japan has decided that its currency, the yen, is too strong, and weakening it will make its exports cheaper and allow the country to sell more goods overseas. It's the kind of strategy that countries sometimes practice but rarely acknowledge publicly because it's so controversial. A country that weakens its currency may export more, but the move undercuts competing countries, whose goods become relatively more expensive. And Sohn says sooner or later, they tend to retaliate by weakening their own currency.
SOHN: If you can devalue your currency and not have other countries respond, then obviously you gain your market share. But historically, that's not what's going to happen. Other countries will respond.
ZARROLI: There are already signs the weakening yen is hurting exporters in South Korea, for instance, whose cars and electronic goods compete with Japan's. And Korean officials have warned they're considering how to respond. But Sara Johnson of IHS Global Insight says it's unlikely countries will wage a full-fledged currency war. For one thing, countries pay a price when their currencies falls. They may export more, but the things they import, like oil, also become more expensive.
SARA JOHNSON: I think the idea of competitive devaluation has been overhyped. Certainly, central banks do not want to generate inflation by making imports more expensive.
ZARROLI: Moreover, trying to lower the value of a country's currency can be more complicated than it sounds. The Fed has been flooding the U.S. economy with money for several years, but the U.S. dollar is still almost as strong as it was just two years ago. Jim Zarroli, NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. We begin this morning with news of a milestone for the American military. This past week, the Pentagon announced it will formally lift the restrictions on women serving in combat positions, ending a nearly 20-year ban. But women are already on the frontlines. Mary Jennings Hegar is one of those women who served bravely in dangerous places. She's a major in the Air National Guard, but in 2009, she was an Air Force helicopter pilot on her third tour in Afghanistan.
MAJOR MARY JENNINGS HEGAR: One detail that my crew from that day, we kind of tease each other about, is that I was the actually the only person who returned fire that day. The fact is I was engaging the enemy in ground combat. One of the myths is that the combat exclusion policy keeps women out of combat. So, for some reason, the dialogue in the country became: should women be allowed in combat? Women are in combat, in much bigger combat than the situation I just described, which was only 20 minutes. There's women patrolling, there's women in vehicles that hit IEDs, they're, you know, trading fire with the enemy everyday.
SIMON: Were you subsequently blocked from doing something in the armed forces because of your gender?
HEGAR: Yes. So, given the fact that I had been able to, you know, prove myself under harsh circumstances, prove my judgment, my composure, my, you know, warrior spirit, if you will, despite all this and despite the medals that came and the valor devices and everything - you know, there's a position called a combat controller. And the officer version of that is a special tactics officer. It would have been right up my alley. Despite everything that I had just proven, I was barred from even applying for that job.
SIMON: Major Hegar, I got to ask you a couple of questions. I want it understood they in no way question your valor, your physical, mental or emotional capabilities. But, you know, the U.S. Marine Corps, for example, has a 12-week course for officers that's a prerequisite for leaving infantry units. And the first two women who tried to make it through that course last year didn't.
HEGAR: Right.
SIMON: Do you think standards should in any way be changed so that you get more equal numbers of men and women?
HEGAR: Not at all. Because the problem isn't that there aren't in combat - they are in combat. What we're trying to do is create the opportunity to apply, not fill the positions on the graduation end. When I heard that they had washed out, I was encouraged because the washout rate for men is pretty high too. I would be very discouraged if I saw someone graduate a course like that who was not capable. You know, not to take anything away from these two women, because nothing damages us women in combat in the field worse than a woman who isn't capable being allowed.
SIMON: I've been embedded with U.S. troops. And, as I don't have to tell you, you know, it's close quarters out there - in all ways - and soldiers are exposed to each other in all kinds of intimate ways. Does mixing genders just add an extra complication that combat can do without?
HEGAR: You know, I was forward deployed with Delta Force. I slept in some pretty crappy places, for lack of a better term. Is it a little bit of extra effort? Sure. You know, I'm not going to say that it's not. But when you look at the benefit, when you look at what you're losing, OK, the qualified, talented, amazing, remarkable women who walk into a recruiter's office and want to serve their country and are told you can serve your country but you have to pick from one of these jobs. It's just that you're a woman. But you know what? Every step of progress along the way in the history of our country, there have been people who have tried to make it more difficult, you know, integrated, racially or in any other, you know, situation that we've had to take a step forward in progress. There have been people that have made it more difficult. But the benefit just far outweighs.
SIMON: Major Mary Jennings Hegar. Thanks so much.
HEGAR: Thank you so much.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The letters A-A-P-L no longer stand for the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world. The price for a share of Apple, Inc. declined throughout the week, until Exxon reclaimed the top spot on the NASDAQ. Now, this news comes after Apple posted revenues that were lower than expected. And meanwhile, that other tech giant, Samsung, has been growing even larger. Samsung had a record-breaking report of its quarterly profits this week. Joe Nocera joins us - an op-ed columnist for the New York Times and financial expert. He joins us from Sag Harbor, New York. Joe, thanks for being with us.
JOE NOCERA: Thanks for having me, Scott. And how the mighty have fallen.
SIMON: Well, all right. First, let's take a measure of that. Exactly how huge was Apple last year?
(LAUGHTER)
NOCERA: Apple was by far the most valuable company in the world, far exceeding Exxon and everybody else. Its stock has tumbled not quite in half but it's basically gone from the low-700s to the mid-400s, and in the blink of an eyelash. It's really been very, very quick - the last maybe three months this has taken place.
SIMON: Now, all of this, you know, being said, the reported profits this week are on the scale that a lot of companies would envy.
(LAUGHTER)
NOCERA: That's right.
SIMON: So, why did investors react the way they did?
NOCERA: Well, investors are always thinking about what's coming in the future. They are not that concerned with what's happening in the present. And so, Apple had a terrific quarter. They pretty much met expectations. But the markets have become so used to Apple vastly exceeding expectations and the market's become so used to Apple's sort of coming out every six months or a year with some innovative new product that everybody has to have - and that's not happening. And so the market is basically looking for somebody else to fall in love with. And there is Samsung.
SIMON: And so are they doing what Apple, at least this quarter didn't do, or is Samsung rolling our new technology, new got-to-have products?
NOCERA: Well, the Galaxy series, which is, you know, smartphones, you know, pads, so on and so forth, has been a huge, huge hit. I read somewhere that they went from having sold 30 million Galaxy smart - the new Galaxy smartphones to 40 million in a space of two months. People really like the phones, they have a good advertising campaign and they're less expensive than Apple. And we're at the point in the smartphone market where that matters.
SIMON: Yeah. And how much is the patent dispute that's been playing out for the past few years have to do with this? Anything?
NOCERA: Well, sure, it has something to do with it. Most - these smartphone patent wars are really kind of absurd. What really usually happens and what ought to happen is that you get in a patent fight and you very quickly use the patent fight to cross-license the patents that the other guy has that you need. But Apple has been asking for something really quite extraordinary in these smartphone wars. They've been asking for an injunction to pull some Samsung products off the market. And that tells you how seriously Apple takes Samsung as a competitor. I should also add that I virtually do not believe that there is a judge in the United States that will allow that injunction.
SIMON: It also, of course, is irresistible to note that these figures come when Apple now has a pretty much brand new CEO, Tim Cook.
NOCERA: Yeah.
SIMON: Following the death of Steve Jobs.
NOCERA: You can't avoid that. And certainly there are a lot of people who believe that if Steve Jobs was still alive, Apple would still be the market's golden boy and it would be still coming out with innovative products. I'm not convinced that that is true. Every company has its moment in the sun, especially a company like Apple. New products are two, three years, you know, to get to market. And so, you know, it's impossible to know whether Steve Jobs' death has factored in here.
SIMON: New York Times op-ed columnist Joe Nocera, who joins us from Sag Harbor, New York. Joe, thanks very much for being with us.
NOCERA: Thanks for having me, Scott.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
In the criminal justice system of ancient Athens, the people will be represented by two separate, but equally important former prosecutors. This is their story.
(SOUNDBITE OF "LAW AND ORDER" THEME SONG)
SIMON: Next Thursday, Chicago's National Hellenic Museum will try to give Socrates a more fair trial than the one he got in 399 BC. He was sentenced to death for impiety. Some of the Chicago's - and the country's - most stellar legal names are involved in next week's mock trial. Richard Posner, the famed jurist, will be judge. Daniel K. Webb, who once prosecuted Chicago judges on the take and Iran-Contra defendants, will defend Socrates. The man who will put the philosopher in the dock is Patrick Fitzgerald. Mr. Fitzgerald is the former U.S. attorney for Northern Illinois who won convictions against two Illinois governors, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, and the Gambino crime family.
Errr. Patrick Fitzgerald joins us from his office in Chicago. Thanks for being with us.
PATRICK FITZGERALD: Happy to be here. And I would also say that I'll be joined next week in trying Mr. Socrates by Patrick Collins.
SIMON: So, to your mind, Mr. Fitzgerald, what's this case all about? What's at stake here?
FITZGERALD: I think what's at stake, obviously, I think is giving the Athenians a fair shake in history, and that I think people have jumped to the conclusion that the city of Athens sort of wrongfully convicted Socrates. And part of what Mr. Collins and I will do next week is to take on the uphill battle of explaining the context of the trial and conviction.
SIMON: So, this will be under current Chicago laws rather than ancient Athens?
FITZGERALD: Well, I think the rules frankly are a bit loose, so I think we're going to try to do it as the law was in effect at the time in Athens - with a little poetic license.
SIMON: It sounds like you have a real feel for the position of ancient Athens in this.
FITZGERALD: No, I don't, but I'm going to have to fake it.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: All right. So, what if Dan Webb, the defense attorney, says this is clearly double jeopardy. Socrates swallowed Hemlock?
FITZGERALD: Well, I don't think Dan would have thought of that, unless he listens to your show.
SIMON: What do you mean unless he listens to our show?
FITZGERALD: When he listens to the show, yes. But we will now prepare for that argument. But I think that double jeopardy is probably not their strongest claim. I think in the prior trials of Socrates, the prosecution has not fared well in modern times. So, I think Patrick Collins and I are looking at the under-over. We're hoping to get maybe seven votes out of 500. And in Chicago tradition, we're going to invite some relatives there to vote.
SIMON: Have you had any feelers for a plea bargain from Socrates?
FITZGERALD: We were open to that discussion. And so, if Mr. Webb and Mr. Bob Clifford are listening, we're hoping to cut a deal. And it would disappoint the audience, who paid for a show, but I think we'd be willing to talk about perhaps a deferred prosecution agreement.
SIMON: In our time, I think the key to Socrates wisdom is taken to be that Socrates said he was not the wisest man in Athens, and of course that just confirmed that he was because he was the only man who was aware of his limitations in ignorance. How do lawyers react to that?
FITZGERALD: Oh, I think there's a lot to be said for that, in that Socrates asked a lot of questions and gave fewer answers. But I think a lot of what happened in the trial of Socrates was interesting history. For example, the people talk about the death penalty, and I think what they miss at the time was that Athenian law required a jury to pick between the two options. So, if the government asked for death and the defendant asked for something different, they couldn't come up with a third option. And so since Socrates put before the jury his request that he be given free meals for life, they really had little choice. Either pay a man convicted of a crime free meals for life or put him death. And so I think part of what will take place next week is to try to put people back in the perspective of the Athenians, where Socrates gave them little choice and had to vote when it came to the penalty phase.
SIMON: He was 70 years old. I mean, how much could he eat?
FITZGERALD: I wouldn't know.
SIMON: Lawyerly answer. You are known, obviously, for your meticulous preparation. Can you give us some insight into how you've been preparing for this trial?
FITZGERALD: I'll give you some insight into how we will be preparing for this trial. We've been going back and reading Plato and reading the historical text in English. There is a rumor that Judge Posner may have been reading in the ancient Greek. And I can tell you that none of the four lawyers have learned ancient Greek in the last week. So we may be at a deficit when Judge Posner asks questions. But otherwise, we've been reading the prior proceedings and we've agreed on what the trial record will be. And we have a sort of gentleman's agreement that they'll be some liberties taken, so that people can feel free to make arguments so we can make this as engaging as possible.
SIMON: Mr. Fitzgerald, I have to ask. Do you have any concern that after prosecuting Socrates, you won't be able to get a plate of taramosolata in Chicago ever again?
FITZGERALD: That is a concern, but hopefully if I dress very casually with a baseball cap and sunglasses, I can still go in and get my saganaki when I need it.
SIMON: Patrick Fitzgerald, former U.S. attorney for Northern Illinois, and next week he will prosecute Socrates, together with an all-star legal cast at the National Hellenic Museum in Chicago. Mr. Fitzgerald, thanks so much for being with us.
FITZGERALD: You're welcome.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
We're joined now by Mark McKinnon. He's a Republican strategist, former advisor to President George W. Bush and 2008 Republican candidate John McCain. Mr. McKinnon is also a co-founder of the group No Labels. He joins us from Colorado.
Mr. McKinnon, thanks for being with us.
MARK MCKINNON: Hey, good morning. How are you?
SIMON: Fine. Thanks, sir. I think this phrase that Governor Jindal uttered the other day is getting quoted a lot, where he said Republicans have to, quote, "stop being the stupid party." But every Republican member of Congress and those Republican Senate candidates that made verbal gaffes won a primary to get there. So in the end, is a complaint about Republican leaders or voters?
MCKINNON: Well, it's an overall problem. But when you spend enough time in the desert, you start to figure out how to find water. And, you know, I remember this was the same case in 2004 and Democrats - everybody was talking about how Republican ascendancy would be going on for the next couple of generations.
So, but the problem for Republicans is that it's, you know, a lot has happened around us and the party hasn't evolved and seems stuck in time. And that time seems to be like the '50s. And we can't be just about obstruction and blocking ideas. We need to be about construction and proposing ideas.
SIMON: Like?
MCKINNON: Well, for starters, we need to get to the table on immigration. That's just what I call table stakes. You know, I remember George W. Bush in the mid-'90s talking about education reform and immigration reform and compassionate conservatism. And those are the kind of ideas and vision that attracted independents and conservative Democrats like me to the Republican Party.
So it can't just be about process and trying to fix electoral districts and that sort of thing. And it's not just about technology. It's got to be about an agenda and ideas, and a vision and a bigger plan.
SIMON: Let me follow up on immigration, Mr. McKinnon 'cause there's a story in The Washington Post this morning that a bipartisan group of senators - three Democrats, three Republicans - are close to some kind of an agreement. What might you say to Latino voters who might say to the Republican Party: You only started caring about this when you saw you needed our votes to win elections?
MCKINNON: Well, I'd say you go back to Ronald Reagan who created, you know, the first immigration plan which created citizenship for three million immigrants. And then you look at George W. Bush and his compassionate conservatism, and he was the first one to really embrace immigration reform in a really proactive way. So this is an extension really of what Republicans started 20 years ago.
And with a, you know, a brief period where I think it was very problematic, where we had some nominees who are saying the wrong things, and the party was going in the wrong direction. But I think with, you know, with Marco Rubio and others, it's headed back on the right track.
SIMON: Can a Republican running for office these days support same-sex marriage without getting lambasted?
MCKINNON: Oh, absolutely. I mean I think that, you know, to be philosophically consistent, Republicans, if they're going to talk about keeping government, you know, out of our lives, they have to keep it out of the bedrooms too. So I think that immigration - that gay rights is absolutely philosophically consistent with Republican values and ought to be. And, you know, I think that the bend of history is headed that direction and Republicans need to get on board. I think 20 years from now, we'll look back on this as we did, like, you know, women's voting rights and slavery. I mean, it's absolutely something we need to do.
SIMON: Twenty-five seconds left, this is your business. Give us a bumper sticker phrase for the Republican Party you'd like to see.
MCKINNON: I think we want to see a party that embraces entrepreneurship among immigrants who are, you know, the core of our society that helped build this country; that we need to embrace civil rights for everybody, and a pro-growth agenda that creates a bottom-up system where people can succeed on their own right and without government help.
SIMON: We're running out of space. Mark McKinnon, Republican strategist, founder of the group No Label, thanks so much.
MCKINNON: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Earlier this week, hundreds of thousands of people came to the National Mall for the inauguration. Many had been walking since dawn and were in place along the west front of the Capitol where flags snapped in the sun.
JOSEPH MCCOGGLE: It's a feeling we just want to be here, you know. Definitely want to be in the hype, you know, and to see people of all races, and races from all over the world.
SIMON: Joseph McCoggle was there. He's 66 years old and retired from the U.S. Postal Service. He made the long trip from Atlanta where he grew up, and as he waited in the cheerful crowd he remembered what daily life had been like for African-Americans who grew up in the South when segregation was the law.
MCCOGGLE: I mean, white ladies, they walk down the street, you stepped off the street. Certain benches you couldn't sit on. When we got on the trolleys you had to always go to the back. It was a normal thing to go to the back, you know.
SIMON: They had a bright memory, too. When he was a boy in the 1950s, Mr. McCoggle shined shoes at a barber shop near the famous Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the young Martin Luther King Junior joined his father as pastor. Says he remembers Dr. King stopping by.
MCCOGGLE: He just was another person. We knew he was Dr. King in the movement; he walked up and down the street every day, I rarely spoke to him, and his respect was powerful. But I didn't realize until I got older who he was, you know. I knew who he was but I didn't know who he was. Can you understand what I'm saying?
SIMON: Of course this was before the freedom rides and the march on Washington. No one knew that Dr. King would become a hero, a martyr, or have his name on a national holiday. Joseph McCoggle just knew that Dr. King would come in for a shoe shine.
MCCOGGLE: And he knew my name. All right, Joseph, I need one. I need a shine, you know. And he was a good tipper. Always - I charged him 35 cents. He always gave me a dollar. Always gave me a dollar.
SIMON: As Joseph McCoggle waited in the bright cold on the National Mall, he said he was thinking about his childhood.
MCCOGGLE: I'm here for my mother and my grandmother, so they wouldn't have believed. They wouldn't even have believed it. I thought it was going to be a black president, but I didn't think it would be in my time. I thought it might be in my grandkids' time, but not my time, you know. And I thank the Lord for me being here to see it.
SIMON: Mr. McCoggle of Atlanta stood on the National Mall and saw the scene his mother and grandmother wouldn't have believed for the second time. President Obama placed his hand on a Bible that had been carried by the man whose shoes a young Joseph McCoggle says he once shined.
(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. The Egyptian military's been deployed to the streets of Port Said today. Riots erupted in that city last night just northeast of Cairo after a controversial court verdict. At least 25 people have been reported dead. The violence comes amid mass street protests in Egypt against the ruling Muslim Brotherhood.
It is a challenging time for the Egyptian government. The country's grappling with serious budget deficit in order to secure a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. This will likely mean both spending cuts and tax hikes on food, water and electricity, and many Egyptians are feeling the pinch of economic turmoil and rising prices. Merrit Kennedy reports from Cairo.
MERRIT KENNEDY, BYLINE: Food security was a key demand of the Egyptian revolution, but two years on many say it's getting more difficult to feed their families. At a crowded open-air market in the poor neighborhood of Imbeba, vendor Mona el-Sayed is selling bread, wheat and pasta displayed on the top of a wooden crate. She says that she and her five children can barely get by.
MONA EL-SAYED: (Foreign language spoken)
KENNEDY: May God protect the people. A sack of flour now costs 30 pounds more. There's an increase in everything. We can't even live.
In downtown Cairo, Sobhy Ibrahim owns a small shop selling milk and cream. He's been working here for 15 years and he says these are the worst times he's ever seen. He says the price of a gallon of milk has almost doubled since the revolution and the cost of electricity and his rent have also risen.
SOBHY IBRAHIM: (Through Translator) So with all of these increases, increases, what have you left for me to eat? How can I live? I will raise prices for the customers and then the customers won't buy anything.
KENNEDY: Ibrahim's shop is inside a covered 100 year old market just two blocks from Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the revolution. Cycles of violence in the streets nearby have deterred customers and dairy prices are set to go up an additional 15 percent because the value of the Egyptian pound has slipped, according to the state media.
Ali Abdel Fattah, from the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, says the increases were initiated by privately owned companies. Economist Ibrahim al-Essawy, from the Institute of National Planning, says that these price increases are a result of disequilibrium in the economy. Like many of Egypt's economic issues, this predates the revolution.
IBRAHIM AL-ESSAWY, ECONOMIST: The Egyptian economy is in a very difficult situation right now. The problems are not new. They are inherited from the past regime but they were worsened in the last two years.
KENNEDY: The government is trying to put together an economic plan in coordination with the IMF to address Egypt's large fiscal and balance of payment deficits. Last month, amid mass protests against the government, the prime minister announced a sweeping set of tax increases on an array of goods and services, along with new income taxes.
But later that same night, the president's office revoked the tax hikes after widespread criticism. The details of the latest plan haven't been announced yet. Austerity measures and tax increases will be difficult politically for President Mohamed Morsi at a time when many Egyptians, like housewife Samia Mohammed, are losing trust in the government.
SAMIA MOHAMMED: (Through Translator) They keep telling us that life is good, life is rosy, we have money. Every time the president comes out to say this to us, he turned out to be a liar.
KENNEDY: Economic Ibrahim al-Essawy thinks the government will delay any new austerity measures, fearing political backlash.
ECONOMIST: ...like dealing with the subsidy problem, which might cause some prices to rise, while at the same time the government is not able to compensate the low-income people for such increases in prices. So it is a dilemma, really, for the government.
KENNEDY: He says the most important question is whether the government can accomplish the delicate balancing act of getting the budget under control without making life even more difficult for Egypt's poor. For NPR News, I'm Merrit Kennedy in Cairo.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Next door in Israel, this week's surprising election results are being analyzed. Tuesday's vote brought in a parliament that is almost evenly split between right and left. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds onto power, but his governing coalition will change. And a party led by a charismatic newcomer has jumped into the spotlight. We're joined now by NPR's Larry Abramson in Jerusalem. Larry, thanks so much for being with us.
LARRY ABRAMSON, BYLINE: Hi there, Scott.
SIMON: So please tell us about Yair Lapid, a former broadcast journalist, new to politics. He now controls the second biggest party in the Knesset. Any clues if he's going to be included in the new coalition?
ABRAMSON: It's pretty clear he is going to be included, and the question is just what is his role is going to be and how powerful that role will be. There's been kind of a media feeding frenzy in the last few days wondering with cabinet position Lapid will get. Will he take a high-profile position like the foreign ministry or will he take something domestic because he emphasized domestic issues during the campaign, like bringing down the cost of living.
And Lapid told his followers on Facebook to slow down. He wants to preserve his outsider status and doesn't want to just look for the most powerful position that he can get. And he said, you know, this could take a month to figure all this out. He doesn't want to follow the typical process that most of these government's go through because he's still trying to be an outsider, but of course he's on his way to the inside.
And a really big question is whether Lapid's party will serve together in a coalition with religious parties who have been traditionally part of Benyir Nevenya's(ph) coalition. Lapid campaigned heavily on the need to draft religious students into the army and into the workforce.
SIMON: And how have the religious parties reacted?
ABRAMSON: They are cautious. Lapid has brought a number of religious figures into his party to show that he is not attacking religious elements in society. He just wants them to bear their fair share of the burden of paying taxes and doing military service. But many religious leaders have said there is no way that they're going to allow a draft of all religious students. This is something that has been around in Israeli society since the founding of the country.
Lapid actually says he wants to this slowly and phase in these policies, but religious elements are concerned that they will be pushed into something they don't want. And one figure urged Lapid today to tread carefully to avoid what he called civil war over the issue.
SIMON: You know, Larry, let me follow up on something. You mentioned that most of Mr. Lapid's platform was devoted to domestic issues. And of course in this country the one question we usually bring up first is: Does a new government seem to be more or less likely to enter into talks with Palestinians? What can you tell us about that?
ABRAMSON: Well, you know, resuming talks with the Palestinians, which have been stalled for many years as you know, is a plank in Yair Lapid's party platform, and many of his legislators have said, since the election, they only want to be in a coalition if it's going to pursue peace talks. But we don't know how far they're going to push this. Yair Lapid has said that he does now want to see Jerusalem partitioned again the way it was for so many years between east and west. And that could simply be a deal breaker for getting talks started again with the Palestinian Authority.
SIMON: Any reaction that you've gotten among Palestinians in Israel and in the region?
ABRAMSON: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said today that he's ready to work with any government that recognizes his people's right to have their own state. Many Palestinians that I talked to are still skeptical about any Israeli government because they feel like people from the left and the right have abused them in the past. And Netanyahu is still the prime minister and there's not a lot of trust between Netanyahu and the Palestinians.
The Palestinians are also continuing to push on some hot buttons that annoy the Israelis, like calling themselves a state, following last years United Nations vote, and they're threatening to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court. So there's a long way to go before peace talks can start again.
SIMON: NPR's Larry Abramson in Jerusalem. Thanks so much.
ABRAMSON: Thank you.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This week, the French government, which charges the Academie Francaise with keeping French free from corruptions by what they call the language of Shakespeare - that's us - announced a new phrase to replace the English hashtag with mot-diese. Mot means word in French and diese is the typesetting symbol that used to be used to indicate the number or a musical sharp before it was so widely dubbed hashtag, and used to group messages on social media.
The French are not laissez-faire about French. They don't talk about enriching their language with the world's diversity. In fact, the group called The Future of the French Language has declared the drift of English into everyday language in France, words like blog, email, or hamburger are more serious threat to French identity than the Nazi occupation of World War II.
Isn't that a line from "Casablanca"? I'm shocked, shocked to hear English spoken in here. By the way, put this under hashtag mot-diese.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
For years, most of the Europeans undocumented immigrants have entered through Greece. Many have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan seeking work and refuge. They intend to settle in richer countries like Germany or Sweden, but strict border controls and a broken asylum system often mean these immigrants end up stuck in Greece. And there they face an unemployment rate of nearly 27 percent and a growing trend of racist crime.
As Joanna Kakissis reports, many are now turning to a new program funded by the EU that will pay their way home.
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: Mohammad Azaal slipped into Greece 11 years ago when he was 24. He was soon making enough money as a house painter to support his family in the northeastern Pakistani city of Gujrat.
MOHAMMAD AZAAL: (Through Translator) Each month I sent 200 or 300 euros back home to my wife, parents and my brothers and sisters. I supported seven people.
KAKISSIS: He learned Greek and eventually got a temporary work permit, but three years ago, work dried up and his permit expired.
AZAAL: (Through Translator) Now, I only work one or two days a month. I barely have enough money for my food and cigarettes. I live with five other Pakistanis and I owe them money.
KAKISSIS: Money isn't his only problem. As he waited for the bus on a recent winter day, eight men on motorcycles cornered him.
AZAAL: (Through Translator) They asked me, where are you from? When I said, Pakistan, they started to hit me. I could feel the bones breaking in my nose.
KAKISSIS: He wants to go home but not deported like a criminal, so he's signing up for a voluntary repatriation program run by the International Organization for Migration and the Greek state. It's subsidized by the European Commission. The program pays for his plane ticket to Pakistan and gives him a one time payment of $400. At least 4,000 people have gone home through this program since 2010.
Another 10,000, many from Pakistan and Bangladesh, are on a waiting list, says Daniel Esdras, director of the IOM office in Greece.
DANIEL ESDRAS: Let's face it. We're in a humanitarian crisis in Greece. And this is the only humanitarian program that we can offer to these people.
KAKISSIS: Those who sign up for repatriation must be cleared by their embassies before travel documents are issued. Esdras says he urges those who are eligible for asylum, such as Afghans, to apply for it. But there's a huge backlog of asylum applications. A reply often takes years, so refugees are forced to ask themselves tough questions.
ESDRAS: I will have a work permit? Can I get a job in this environment, and I'm a stranger, foreigner, alien whatever? No. Do I get any allowance? No. Do I have a shelter to go? No. So what's the reason why to get the refugee status?
KAKISSIS: European leaders have often criticized Greece for mismanaging its asylum system and border policing, but the country is overwhelmed and needs EU support on migration, says Sjur Larsen, the Norwegian ambassador to Greece.
AMBASSADOR SJUR LARSEN: This is truly a big challenge for Greece, and I sometimes say that once Greece hopefully comes out of the present economic difficulties, migration will be maybe the biggest challenge for this country.
KAKISSIS: Sayed Mohammed Jamil has lived in Greece since 1970 and runs the Pakistan Hellenic Society. He's spreading the word about the repatriation program to the roughly 80,000 Pakistanis here.
SAYED MOHAMMED JAMIL: More than 11,000 only Pakistani they have registered us for repatriation.
KAKISSIS: And that's just the last two months. Sayed says the program will help the most desperate in his community, but it doesn't address the growing distrust between Greeks and immigrants that's causing a rise in hate crimes. In a march against fascism last weekend, thousands of Greeks and immigrants mourned Shehzad Luqman, a young Pakistani produce vendor who was recently stabbed to death.
WASIM JAVED: (Foreign language spoken)
KAKISSIS: In the crowd was mini market owner Wasim Javed, who moved to Athens from Islamabad 20 years ago. He marched with his two young sons.
JAVED: (Foreign language spoken)
KAKISSIS: When I see people getting killed like this, even I want to leave, he says. But it's hard when you've been here for years. For many of us, he says, Greece has become a kind of home. For NPR News, I'm Joanna Kakissis in Athens.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: 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)
SIMON: Hockey is back; so are the crowds. And is Tiger Woods, too? And the science of siblings, in the face of the ultimate brotherly face-off. NPR's sports correspondent Tom Goldman joins us now. Morning, Tom.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Hiya, Scott.
SIMON: I'm fine, thanks. Let's start with the NHL. We're a week into a season that you and I had opined might never happen. We both expressed, in fact, some skepticism about public enthusiasm. But the public's back - seem to be, don't they?
GOLDMAN: In a big way. National Hockey League figures reportedly show the average attendance, league-wide, went up more than a thousand fans per game through the first 49 games, compared to the first 49 games last season. There are big, big TV viewership numbers in the first week, including the first prime-time broadcast of Hockey Night In Canada. With rivals Montreal and Toronto playing, more than a quarter of the country's population watched at least a minute of the game. Most watched a lot more than that.
So Scott, all the venom by fans during the lockout; all the vows of boycotts and protests; certainly ring hollow. And you know, it appears that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who's been blasted for three lockouts during his tenure including an entire season being canceled eight years ago...
SIMON: Right. I think I heard him blasted on this program, but go ahead.
GOLDMAN: Exactly. By you, not me.
SIMON: (LAUGHTER)
GOLDMAN: And it appears he knows what he's doing. He knows his audience will come back again and again and again and again.
SIMON: Yeah. I get - well, if you shrink the season to, you know, two weeks, you know, a lot of people will rush to give the people what they want. They come in droves. Another comeback this week - Tiger Woods yesterday took the lead in the Farmer's Insurance Open. That's a PGA event. How close to the top ranks is Tiger these days?
GOLDMAN: Very. He's No. 2 in the world. He seems to be climbing out of that pit he was in after his personal life fell apart. The question is, can he climb out completely? And Scott, the next two days will offer a clue. He is leading - as you say - by himself; by two strokes going into today's third round, on one of his favorite courses, Torrey Pines in San Diego. Now, ESPN is trotting out the big numbers. The last 30 times he's had the solo lead at the halfway point in an official PGA tour event, he has won 25 times.
But of course, we're dealing with a more human Tiger Woods over the past couple of years; a guy who can't always turn a lead into victory. And that happened twice last year, in major tournaments. So let's see how he finishes tomorrow and then, you know, we'll get a sense of where he's at.
SIMON: Friday, Tom, the U.S. Department of Education issued - interesting letter, basically saying that schools at all levels must make, and I'll quote now, "reasonable modifications to try to integrate students with disabilities onto sport teams." What possible impact could this have?
GOLDMAN: Well, you know, it's being cheered in some quarters as an equal opportunity landmark, similar to Title IX. The letter from the Department of Education offers guidance to schools and districts, and it's making sure they're complying with an existing law, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. A government report from 2010 found schools and districts weren't complying. Students with disabilities were not being given reasonable opportunities, according to this report, heightening their sense of exclusion from the mainstream.
SIMON: What about the implications of some of the costs - I mean, the concern that some people would have, that you - to accommodate that, you might risk getting rid of sports - like volleyball or certain track and field events - that have a smaller fan base.
GOLDMAN: Well - and you know, in considering how strapped schools are for funding now, you know, where would the money come from if schools and districts have to create special sports programs for students with disabilities? The Education Department says what it calls separate and different programs would be the exception, and that there are many ways to get to compliance before that. An example: accommodating a deaf runner with visual cues during a race, instead of audible ones. The Department of Education - an official told me, this is not Title IX in the sense of setting up a parallel system to male sports, which it did for females.
SIMON: Tom, did you hear - finally - there are a couple of brothers, I guess, who are coaching against each other in the Super Bowl. Had you heard that?
(LAUGHTER)
GOLDMAN: Jim and John Harbaugh, first-ever meeting of brothers as head coaches in the championship game. And Scott, brace yourself for endless "Har-rible" stories. And here's one...
SIMON: Oh, oh, yeah.
GOLDMAN: Here's one. Harbaughs' parents were on a national conference call with reporters this week when a caller ID'd himself as John from Baltimore, and asked: Is it true that both of you like Jim better than John? And it was John Harbaugh. It gave everyone a good laugh. And it offered hope that the lead-up to the game could be fun. I'm thinking Smothers Brothers do the Super Bowl. And of course, I'm looking forward to the traditional head coaches' handshake at midfield, right after the game. Will they hug? Will they give each other nougies? Will they wrestle? Can't wait.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: Tom Goldman, thanks so much.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And of course, the Harbaughs have tried to downplay that - saying hey, pay attention to the players, not us. Fat chance.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
JOHN HARBAUGH: This team that we're going to play is a great football team. They're extremely well-coached, I'd have to say.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: So we thought we'd take a thoughtful, NPR approach by asking NPR science correspondent Shankar Vedantam to talk about the science of sibling rivalries. Shankar, thanks for being with us.
SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: Happy to be here, Scott.
SIMON: So what does science have to say about this brotherly rivalry?
VEDANTAM: You know, Scott, most of the time, when a close friend or a spouse or a sibling succeeds at something, we just feel proud. And it's not just that you feel happy for someone you love. It's because if your brother is the president, some of his glory rubs off on you as well, right?
HARBAUGH: Yeah.
VEDANTAM: Now, I spoke with a social psychologist. His name is Abraham Tesser; he's now a professor emeritus at the University of Georgia. He's been studying for decades what happens when people who are close to you succeed at something that you want to succeed at. And he told me this started many years ago, when a woman came up to him and said, "A close friend of mine did much better at an exam that I wanted to do really well at. And instead of feeling happy for my friend, what I felt for jealousy."
And so Tesser conducted a series of experiments. And he found that seeing your friend, or your sibling, in the spotlight has two different effects on you. If they're doing something that you don't care about, you can just enjoy their success; you bask in their reflected glory. But when they succeed at something that you care about, you see them in the spotlight and you ask, why isn't the spotlight on me?
SIMON: So the Manning brother who is a stockbroker in New York, can be happy for both of his brothers.
VEDANTAM: You're exactly right.
SIMON: But Eli and Peyton might have a problem.
VEDANTAM: You summarized the research in a nutshell.
SIMON: I understand this is not just siblings, right?
VEDANTAM: That's right. Tesser's work has really looked at close relationships, in general. He's looked at husbands and wives - he's looked at all kinds of close relationships; and he finds that siblings are one dimension of this, but hardly the only dimension.
SIMON: So they need to be close and even fond of each other, but reaching for the same spotlight.
VEDANTAM: That's exactly right. I mean, and this might be magnified with siblings, who - of course - are often competing for their parents' praise and attention. So, I mean, think about someone who's a writer; and their brother isn't just another writer, but a famous writer. So, you know, your brother gets to invite Mom and Dad to go to the Pulitzer Prize ceremony, and you sit at home. And you know, you feel like - not so good.
SIMON: But let me tell you what I've heard the Manning brothers say; what I have heard the Harbaugh brothers say; which is, look, we've grown up competing with each other and loving each other, and we know how to do this. This is not new ground for us.
VEDANTAM: Yeah. And I think that's right. Because I think what the research can tell us is about the human condition, in general. It can't tell us about this individual pair of brothers. It's possible, for example, the Harbaugh brothers are especially evolved human beings, and they don't experience the kind of petty feelings that the rest of us experience.
SIMON: This is the first time I've heard evolved human beings and football coach in the same sentence. But go ahead.
(LAUGHTER)
VEDANTAM: You know, there's another interesting dimension to this, which Tesser has found. He's found that it's not only the case that competitiveness influences close relationships. He finds that the reverse is true as well; that close relationships effect competitiveness. So in other words, if two brothers find themselves competing for the same spotlight, one of the things that often happens is that they will start to define what they do slightly differently so that it doesn't seems as if they're in competition with their brother.
SIMON: One's a defensive specialist; one's an offensive specialist?
VEDANTAM: That's right. So you say - you know, if you're a writer, you say, you know, my brother's a novelist; I'm a poet. There's really no conflict whatsoever. I can just celebrate my brother, and be happy.
So when it comes to the Harbaugh brothers, the question is really not what we think; but the question is, what do they think? Have they come up with psychologically healthy ways of managing the competition?
SIMON: Do you have a pick - scientifically speaking?
VEDANTAM: Scientifically speaking, I'd like the 49ers.
SIMON: OK. I'll agree with you. I'm going to say the 49ers by 7.
VEDANTAM: OK.
SIMON: Shankar Vedantam, who covers social science research for NPR. You can follow him on Twitter: @HiddenBrain. Hidden brain?
VEDANTAM: That's the name of my 2010 book, "The Hidden Brain."
SIMON: Why would you hide a brain? But in any event, and while you're at it, you can follow this program: NPRScottSimon - all one word - and NPRWeekend. Thanks very much.
VEDANTAM: Thanks, Scott.
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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. One the face of it, fracking is a relatively simple term. It's short for hydraulic fracturing. And it's a controversial technology that breaks up rock deep underground to release oil and natural gas. But there's another technology that is also behind the recent surge in oil and gas production in the U.S. It's called horizontal drilling. It doesn't have the catchy and slightly edgy sound of the word fracking. And as NPR's Jeff Brady reports, it doesn't fit so neatly in a sign or a slogan.
JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: Here's why horizontal drilling is just as important as fracking. Much of the oil and natural gas that drillers are after these days is sandwiched deep underground in layers of rock. Terry Engelder is a geologist at Pennsylvania State University. In his region, that layer of natural-gas-rich rock is called the Marcellus Shale.
TERRY ENGELDER: A vertical well going through a hundred-foot-thick gas shale, like the Marcellus, contacts that formation for a hundred feet.
BRADY: That means a driller would be able to extract oil or gas from only that 100-foot section. But with horizontal drilling, the drill bit makes a turn and extends the well out horizontally, through that layer of petroleum-rich shale. Instead of extracting gas from only a hundred-foot section, now a driller can extract it from a section that extends a mile or more. Combine that increased access with the pulverizing power of fracking and Professor Engelder says that's what's boosting oil and gas production.
ENGELDER: The reason that gas has been such a spectacular success is because of the combination of these two different techniques together.
BRADY: Fracking and horizontal drilling have turned once-sleepy communities into industrial zones. The environmental consequences spawned a new protest movement. It's showing up in your movie theater - that recent film "Promised Land" - and on the TV show "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON")
BRADY: As Yoko Ono held a globe labeled Mother Earth, her son sang about the dangers of fracking. But they never mention horizontal drilling.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON")
BRADY: While you won't hear the term horizontal drilling in a song or on a bumper sticker, it's just as responsible as fracking for changing rural landscapes. Chris Tucker with the petroleum industry group Energy in Depth has thought about why all the focus on fracking.
CHRIS TUCKER: The word fracking, it's sort of percussive-sounding. It, you know, starts with F ends in C-K. I mean, it sort of has this naughty connotation to it. I imagine part of the fascination with the word is frankly the construction of the term.
BRADY: And, Tucker points out, opponents of his industry have run with term. At rallies, protesters hold signs that creatively employ the word fracking.
TUCKER: It's been sort of reduced, right? It's been distilled down to this almost curse-word. And that's important for press releases and bumper stickers and everything else. Horizontal drilling hasn't been distilled that way.
BRADY: This focus on fracking and not horizontal drilling has surprised even some of the petroleum industry's loudest critics. Bruce Baizel heads the Oil and Gas Accountability Project. He's based in Durango, Colorado.
BRUCE BAIZEL: In our organization, we talked about the catchall term for this set of issues and impacts.
BRADY: The term fracking has evolved to mean more than just hydraulic fracturing. Baizel says people now use it to refer to just about anything to do with producing oil and gas.
BAIZEL: It means either drilling or it means, actually, hydraulic fracturing or it means the truck that ran off the road and spilled whatever the waste was it was hauling away from the well site.
BRADY: Groups like Baizel's, that regularly go up against huge oil companies, have embraced this expanded definition of fracking. Oil and gas drilling employs complicated technology that can be difficult to explain to the general public. But with one common word - especially one like fracking that just sounds bad - it's easier to rally opposition. Jeff Brady, NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Obama versus Rambo may sound like a satiric Onion headline for the gun control debate, but it's actually a must-see matchup on Turkey's Aegean Coast. The competitors? Two male camels. Yep, it's camel wrestling season in Turkey. And reporter Nathan Rott sent us this postcard from the season's biggest event.
ISMAIL EGILMEZ: (Foreign language spoken)
(SOUNDBITE OF KISSING SOUND)
NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE: Cilgin - or Crazy - Hasan, as he's known in the arena, is a one-ton behemoth; a Tulu camel dressed in bright embroidered cloths, neon-green pompoms and a traditional wooden saddle with the untraditional word Bulldozer printed on the harness. Ismail Egilmez is his owner and right now, he's giving him some last minute pointers.
(SOUNDBITE OF HISSING)
ROTT: That doesn't sound like Turkish though, so I ask my translator, Emre Danisan, what he's saying.
EMRE DANISAN: I don't know. He's speaking cameleon. Camelish. I don't know. Really, I don't understand.
ROTT: Well, whatever it is, it seems to work. Cilgin is literally frothing at the mouth.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELLS)
ROTT: There are over a hundred bell-wearing camels here today and they're all bound for the same place: a natural amphitheater, tucked a few short miles away from the town of Selcuk and the ancient ruins of Ephesus. This is a place riddled with history, and camel wrestling is no different. But it's a sport in decline. For modern Turks, the idea of watching two humped ungulates tangle just doesn't hold the same appeal as, say, YouTube. But you wouldn't know that here.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Foreign language spoken)
ROTT: Vendors hawk commemorative shawls and a Turkish liquor called Rocky. The air is thick with the smoke of sizzling camel sausage. And after a few hours of waiting in the crowd, we get our cue.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Foreign language spoken)
ROTT: Ismail gives a confident nod as he leads Cilgin into the ring. His opponent is similarly sized and wearing bright pink. It used to be a female camel would be in the ring with them - nature's way of instigating a fight. Today though, the owners just pull the camels into each other. It works. Cilgin leans in from the right. His opponent nips at his legs. They get in an awkward side-by-side headlock. And the announcer gives a play by play.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Foreign language spoken)
ROTT: To win, one camel must knock the other down or send it running in a 10-minute time limit. But that seldom happens. People compare this to bullfighting, but it's more like sumo wrestling with lots and lots and lots of spit. And truth be told, the actual wrestling is, well, kind of boring.
(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE)
ROTT: The match ends in a draw. No surprise - most do - but it is a little disappointing. But the crowd doesn't miss a beat. Between the beer, the music and the seared camel, they're busy. For NPR News, I'm Nathan Rott.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: This is NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In 2010, a young Belgian-born blues-rock singer burst onto the scene in producer Daniel Lanois' project called "Black Dub." At the time, Trixie Whitley was literally flipping burgers at a restaurant in New York. But Lanois had known her dad, the late blues singer-songwriter Chris Whitley. So, when Trixie and her mother showed up backstage at a music festival, Trixie handed Lanois a demo. And after listening to it, Lanois invited her to Boston to record as lead singer of "Black Dub." This Tuesday, Trixie Whitley releases her debut solo album. It's called "Fourth Corner."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
TRIXIE WHITLEY: (Singing) Like a feather, I can blow away in the (unintelligible) 'cause I never get enough of my crown. Keep on calling me, hold my crown, boy...
MARTIN: Trixie Whitley joins us from our bureau in New York. Welcome to the program.
WHITLEY: Thank you so much.
MARTIN: So, the songs on this album, as we just heard, have this really soulful quality to them. Dark and intense are the words that are kind of conjured up by this music. How do they all fit under the title "Fourth Corner." What does that mean?
WHITLEY: It's obviously, it's a metaphor for just kind of this journey for where I come from, and that the reality is that, like, I'm not from one place.
MARTIN: Well, let's talk a little bit about that. I mean, you do have an interesting background. Your mom is from Europe. You were raised for most of your childhood in Belgium, right?
WHITLEY: I lived there for 10 years. So, actually, it's kind of funny. I've spent more time in New York than I did in Europe. But, yeah, I lived there for 10 years. And my mom comes from this, like, gypsy family. A lot of, like, flamenco guitarists and dancers. So, my family on my mom's side are total nomads, too, and all artists and kind of these, like, you know, whack-job musicians and artists. It's definitely been, like, scattered at times in my upbringing, but I'm also quite proud of it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
MARTIN: I read that you started actually DJ'ing when you were only 11 years old. What kind of music were you drawn to? What does an 11-year-old, you know, throw on the turntable?
WHITLEY: It sounds so crazy. It was kind of a crazy thing too. What happened, basically, it was this - the Museum of Modern Art in Brussels at the time, they were just opening this, like, new division. And I was part of this theater and dance and music collective. So, I started touring at a very young age. This is, like, when I first kind of went back to Europe.
MARTIN: So, this is like your mom's crazy, artistic side of the family.
WHITLEY: This is more like her world, yes. I got kind of, you know, swamped into that world. I guess to them it was kind of like the curator must have had this, like, crazy idea of, like, this will be really entertaining to have an 11-year-old DJ at our opening reception. And I was standing on a bunch of beer crates 'cause I couldn't reach the turntables. It was this big success, 'cause I really was very determined to get people to dance. That was...
MARTIN: What were you playing?
WHITLEY: Yeah. I was playing all kinds of weird stuff, from, like, you know, from really weird, like, African kind of obscure voodoo rhythms to, like, Sly Stone to, like, a lot of, like North African stuff too, like, Malian blues. But I also grew up listening to a lot of hip-hop.
MARTIN: It's a pretty cosmopolitan musical sense for an 11-year-old.
WHITLEY: It was fun. I mean, and it's crazy how at that time - 'cause I was serious about it, you know, like, I really wanted to create interesting sets with, like, weird stuff and not scratch and stuff. But I also really wanted to get people to dance.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
MARTIN: A lot of us would assume that you had been playing the guitar for a long time. There's really interesting instrumentation and production on this album. You play acoustic and electric guitar. But I actually read that you avoided learning to play guitar until just a few years ago, so that people wouldn't necessarily compare you to your dad.
WHITLEY: Yeah, partially. I mean, it is. It's funny. Actually, guitar is the last instrument I picked up only about four years ago. My first instrument was drums, you know. And I didn't want to play the same thing as my dad, you know. Like, I wanted to have my own. And I think that is a lot of children don't necessarily want to do exactly what their - I mean, it's kind of like a sense of rebelling but also not. You know, obviously, I couldn't avoid the music. But I did. I did avoid the guitar for a long time just 'cause I didn't want to play the same thing as my dad. But then finally, I came to this point where, you know, I couldn't escape it anymore. And when I started writing on guitar too, you know, it's weird - it really didn't come from this, like, need to become this, like, shredder guitar player, whatever. It was more just like a tool that, like, these songs just kind of poured out right away.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)
MARTIN: Did you ever have any doubts that this was the career path that was destined for you - music?
WHITLEY: No. I mean, I've never doubted music. Between the ages of, like, 11 and 16, I was basically on tour with these theater and dance companies but music was always there too. Really, the choice is just expression and creativity. That's at its core, you know, and I feel like all of those worlds come together.
MARTIN: Trixie Whitley. Her debut solo album is called "Fourth Corner." She joined us from our New York bureau. Trixie, thanks so much for talking with us.
WHITLEY: Thank you. Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: And you can hear a few tracks from "Fourth Corner" at nprmusic.org. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO. NO. NO.")
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
That sultry groove is brought to us by our friends at Alt.Latino, Felix Contreras and Jasmine Garsd. We check in with them regularly to see what's happening in the world of Latin alternative music. And they join me in the studio.
Hey, guys.
FELIX CONTRERAS, BYLINE: Good morning.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: Hey.
MARTIN: This is the first time we've talked in 2013. I understand you are both swimming in all kinds of new releases, new music, right?
CONTRERAS: It's amazing. I mean, we're so excited. Every week, we're having to, like, put a limit to how much music we could put in there, because it's just a flood of stuff. It's a lot of fun right now.
MARTIN: A wealth of riches. OK, Felix, what are we listening to right now?
CONTRERAS: This is a song called "No. No. No." It's a cover of an old reggae hit by an artist by the name of Dawn Penn. This is a group called Candelaria, and they're sort of a roots, like electronica roots-Cumbia group. They're very independent. I found this song because they sent to me on email.
MARTIN: Really?
CONTRERAS: Yeah, through our website. And they said, Hey, check us out. And it's just an example for us about how there is so much great music at every level. Whether you have a record label, whether you're doing it on your own like this; whether you have a very true indie spirit like this band, there's so much great music I just fell in love with this track.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NO. NO. NO.")
MARTIN: You guys, be careful. All of a sudden, people are going to be emailing you. Your in-boxes are going to be full.
GARSD: But we really do have a symbiotic relationship with our listeners. I mean, they teach us as much as we explore with them.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OH FEBRUARY")
MARTIN: Jasmine, I understand next up, you brought a song from a band called Y La Bamba? The singer is originally from Mexico, right?
GARSD: Yes, Luz Elena Mendoza, she's originally from Mexico. And earlier, they had an album called "Court the Storm," which I played that CD so much it was full of scratches - I couldn't hear it any more. And now, they're coming up with an EP called "Oh February." She's always had a great voice but now it's legendary.
MARTIN: Let's take a listen.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OH FEBRUARY")
MARTIN: That's lovely. Also love the percussion right there.
GARSD: It's wonderful.
CONTRERAS: They're a great, tight band. I saw them at South by Southwest last year and they've played so much together, they're reading each other's minds. The rhythm arrangements - I'm a drummer so I'm always fascinated by what they do - the rhythm arrangements even live are pretty complex and a lot of fun.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "OH FEBRUARY")
MARTIN: OK, Jasmine, you brought another track. This time, a musician named Manu Chao? Am I saying it right?
GARSD: Yes, Manu Chao is an icon all across Latin America and Spain. And here, he's getting his classic song, "Welcome to Tijuana," is getting remixed by Dominican DJ Freaky Philip.
MARTIN: OK, let's take a listen to that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WELCOME TO TIJUANA")
MARTIN: Sounds sufficiently freaky.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: So for those out there who aren't familiar with Manu Chao, what's different about this? What's super surprising about this remix?
GARSD: Well, Manu Chao has a very rock, ska, Latin rock. He's really like one of the pioneers of Latin rock but this is so more much like a club - it's remixed in a style known as trap-music, which is Southern hip-hop. It incorporates elements of house and crunk and dubstep. So it's much more dance floor than Manu Chao's stuff usually is.
MARTIN: OK. And I understand, Felix, you're going to wrap us up. What do you have to finish us off today?
CONTRERAS: You know, Jasmine and I, we listen to a whole bunch of music. And, of course, we do Latin Alternative for the show. But we're always talking about the different types of Latin music that we hear. And I brought in - I'm a big fan of Latin jazz. And I brought in a new album from a musician named Pete Escovedo. And he's sort of like an icon...
MARTIN: Yeah.
CONTRERAS: ...of Latin jazz and Latin rock out in the '70s, out on the West Coast. He's got a new album out called "Live in Stern Grove." And I'm going to play a track called...
MARTIN: Stern Grove, I love Stern Grove.
(LAUGHTER)
CONTRERAS: Isn't it the best place?
MARTIN: It's the greatest place to see music, yeah.
CONTRERAS: In the redwoods, in the Bay Area in San Francisco.
MARTIN: Yeah, it's beautiful.
CONTRERAS: It's a very popular concert venue. And this is a song called "Solo Tu," which he recorded years ago with his daughter, Sheila Escovedo, and she's featured on this cut as well.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, "SOLO TU")
GARSD: Sheila Escovedo, also known as Sheila E. from Prince.
CONTRERAS: Correct.
MARTIN: Nah-ah.
CONTRERAS: Yeah, that's his daughter.
GARSD: Yeah.
MARTIN: I didn't know that.
(LAUGHTER)
CONTRERAS: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
MARTIN: That is so cool.
GARSD: We've been trying to get her on as a guest DJ for a while.
CONTRERAS: We're getting close.
MARTIN: I had no idea.
CONTRERAS: Yeah, you know, she's been playing with her dad's band since she was about 15 years old. She's an amazing hand drummer - congas, timbales, drum set. She's an amazing musician and she started out playing with her dad's band, Azteca, back in the '70s. I saw her, god, it must have been '75 or so - out in Davis years ago with the band. And then she did a lot of studio work. She became well known on her own, just doing percussion drum set with jazz, jazz fusion. And then, later on, she became Sheila E., as she really hooked up with Prince and started playing music and just doing the whole funk thing.
MARTIN: Yeah.
CONTRERAS: And she still does the Sheila E. music. But also, does more of a contemporary jazz sound, as well. And then, still plays with her dad, who I have mad respect for.
MARTIN: Let's get both of them on.
CONTRERAS: Ah.
MARTIN: Can we bring both of them on?
GARSD: Oh, yeah. We've been trying.
CONTRERAS: Let's do it.
MARTIN: Sheila E., if you're out there, we want to talk to you - with your dad.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: That was Felix Contreras and Jasmine Garsd from NPR's Alt.Latino. It's an online show about Latin alternative music. And you can hear more about the songs they played today and more at npr.org/altlatino.
Thanks so much for coming in, guys.
GARSD: Always a pleasure.
CONTRERAS: (Foreign language spoken), thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, "SOLO TU")
MARTIN: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. Get your game face on, people, because it is time for the puzzle.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: Joining me now is WEEKEND EDITION's puzzle-master, Will Shortz. Good morning, Will.
WILL SHORTZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Rachel.
MARTIN: OK. Tell us again what was last week's challenge?
SHORTZ: Yes. Last week's challenge was to take the last name of a famous world leader of the past, rearrange his letters to name a type of world leader, like a czar or prime minister - someone who's the head of the country. What world leader is it? Well, the leader was Golda Meir M-E-I-R. She was the prime minister of Israel from 1969 to '74. And if you switch the first two letters, you get emir E-M-I-R.
MARTIN: Very clever. OK. So, more than 450 of our listeners sent in correct answers. And our randomly selected winner this week is Daniel Fisher of Westport, Connecticut. He joins us on the phone. Congratulations, Dan.
DANIEL FISHER: Thank you very much.
MARTIN: So, did this come quickly or did this take a while to simmer?
FISHER: This one came pretty quickly. A lot of times it takes plenty of thinking and I still don't get it, but this one just came right away.
MARTIN: Have you been a puzzler for a long time?
FISHER: I've been working on the puzzle for about the last five years.
MARTIN: And do you do other puzzles in your life? Are you a big crossworder?
FISHER: I love crosswords. I think emir came in because it's commonly in the crossword. But I've been doing that for years.
MARTIN: Did you play puzzles as a family when you were growing up?
FISHER: Yeah. You know, I got started with crossword puzzles back in high school. My parents would do them, and they still do in their 80s.
MARTIN: Wow.
FISHER: Yeah. My job was to pick up the newspaper at the high school. For some reason, that's where our subscription would get picked up. So, I had the first crack at the New York Times puzzle.
MARTIN: So, you got to try it before anybody else did.
FISHER: I actually did it in class, and sometimes got in a little trouble for it. So, I got first crack at it but started a long time ago.
MARTIN: Rogue puzzler. I like it. Well, let's see if you can put those skills to the test. Are you ready to play today?
FISHER: Sure.
MARTIN: Let's do it, Will.
SHORTZ: All right, Daniel. By the way, I'm going to be in Westport, Connecticut next Saturday for a crossword contest at their public library. Maybe I'll see you there.
FISHER: I know. I've been. It's right around the corner. It's a great competition.
SHORTZ: There you go.
MARTIN: You should stop by, Dan. Say hi to Will.
FISHER: OK. Will do.
SHORTZ: Yeah. Meanwhile, I'm going to read you some sentences. Each sentence has two blanks. With the word that goes in the first blank, add the letters E-Y to the end to get a new word that goes in the second blank to complete the sentence. For example, if I said to raise the piano to the second floor of the house, workers will have to blank hard on the blank. You'd say they'd have to pull hard on the pulley.
MARTIN: OK. I think I've got it. Dan?
FISHER: OK.
MARTIN: All right. Let's do it, Will.
SHORTZ: Number one: newly arrived from Istanbul, the blank didn't know that Americans eat blank for Thanksgiving.
FISHER: Turk and turkey.
SHORTZ: That's it. Number two: a closet romantic might come out of his blank by reading some Percy Bysshe blank.
FISHER: I don't know. Rachel?
MARTIN: Yeah. I think maybe come out of his shell.
FISHER: Oh, Shelley. OK.
MARTIN: Shelley.
SHORTZ: Read some Shelley. Here's your next one: an all-around blank with bulging muscles would be unlikely to make a good thoroughbred blank.
FISHER: Jock and jockey.
SHORTZ: That's it - jock and jockey. Hugh Grant once got so angry that he would blank insults at his girlfriend Elizabeth blank.
FISHER: Hurl and Hurley.
SHORTZ: That's it. The aging skater had fallen on such hard times that he had to blank his prized blank stick.
FISHER: Hock and hockey.
SHORTZ: That's it. Since underage drinking is illegal, authorities decided to blank the kids away from the blank distillery.
FISHER: Whisk and whiskey.
MARTIN: Nice.
SHORTZ: That's it. Students from blank State sometimes like to shop at the nearby JC blank.
FISHER: Penn and Penney.
SHORTZ: That's it. Sarge refused to provide blank money for the jailed Beetle blank.
FISHER: Bail and Bailey.
SHORTZ: That's it.
MARTIN: Good.
SHORTZ: Throughout my mother's life, a favorite writer of blank was John blank.
FISHER: We got another author here. Rachel.
MARTIN: Oh, man.
FISHER: Hers and Hersey.
MARTIN: Yeah.
SHORTZ: Yeah. A favorite writer of hers was John Hersey. You're so good. Here's your last one: In a religious order, a blank cannot blank around too much.
FISHER: A monk and monkey.
SHORTZ: That's it. Nice job.
MARTIN: I love that one. That was great, Daniel. Good job.
FISHER: Thank you.
MARTIN: And for playing the puzzle today, you will get a WEEKEND EDITION lapel pin, of course, and puzzle books and games. You can read all about it at npr.org/puzzle.
And before we let you and, Daniel, what's your public radio station?
FISHER: FUV.
MARTIN: WFUV out of Fordham University in New York. Daniel Fisher, of Westport, Connecticut, thanks so much for playing the puzzle, Dan.
FISHER: Thank you. It was great fun.
MARTIN: OK, Will, what's the challenged for next week?
SHORTZ: Yes, it comes from listener and one-time puzzle player on the air, Jed Martinez of Margate, Florida. Name a personal mode of transportation. Remove its first and sixth letters. What remains - in sequence, without rearranging any letters - will spell the names of two parts of the human body. What are they?
So again, a personal mode of transportation, remove the first and sixth letters. What remains - in order - spells the names of two parts of the human body. What are they?
MARTIN: OK, when you have the answer, you know what to do. Go to our website, npr.org/puzzle and click on the Submit Your Answer link - just one entry per person, please. And our deadline for entries is Thursday, January 31st at 3 P.M. Eastern.
Please include a phone number where we can reach you at about that time. And if you're the winner we'll give you a call, and you will get to play on the air with the puzzle editor of The New York Times and WEEKEND EDITION's puzzle-master, Will Shortz.
Thanks so much, Will.
SHORTZ: Thanks, Rachel.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Larry Selman relished a good challenge. He devoted more than half of his life to collecting for charity - multiple charities, actually. But he wasn't a professional fundraiser. Selman prowled the streets of New York City approaching total strangers nearly every day for almost 40 years asking them for money to help others. He did it despite the fact that he was developmentally disabled. He was such a fixture in Greenwich Village that he became the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary called "The Collector of Bedford Street." Larry Selman died last Sunday at the age of 70. Jon Kalish got to know Selman and has this remembrance.
JON KALISH, BYLINE: Larry Selman was a relentless force on the streets of Greenwich Village.
LARRY SELMAN: Hello, sir. Could I see you one minute? Could I see you one minute? Hello, ladies. Could I see you one minute? Could I see you, young fella?
KALISH: In the 2002 documentary "The Collector of Bedford Street," Selman explains why he spent so much time collecting for others.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "THE COLLECTOR OF BEDFORD STREET")
SALLY DILL: He more or less is soliciting money all the time. That's his mission in life.
KALISH: Sally Dill was one of Selman's Bedford Street neighbors. At his 70th birthday party in April, she described a well-oiled, if basic, collecting machine.
DILL: The home attendants are very good about counting the money and putting it in the manila envelope so then I can record it. When Larry decides he's finished collecting for that charity then I can mail it in.
KALISH: Nearly 100 of Larry Selman's neighbors pitched in to help in one way or another - that's how much they cared about the short, pudgy man with thick prescription glasses who was told he'd never graduate from high school. When the uncle who looked after him died, they set up a trust fund to take care of Selman. Alice Elliott made a documentary to tell the world about the collector of Bedford Street and the world took notice, including a couple of New York politicians.
ALICE ELLIOTT: You know, there's this famous story of Larry sitting out at the gay rights parade and along comes Schumer and Koch, and they see Larry and they come over and shake his hand.
(LAUGHTER)
KALISH: The day after Selman died, neighbors gathered in Alice Elliot's home on Bedford Street to mourn. Steve Gould knew Selman for close to 40 years. He watched as the first of two contingents from the local firehouse stopped by to pay their respects.
STEVE GOULD: Guys from the FDNY are coming in here because after 9/11 he collected thousands of dollars for them and, you know, that's what he did.
KALISH: In 2009, Larry Selman received the Caring Award for what he did. The other honoree that night was Colin Powell. Even before they received their honors, Selman did not hesitate to ask Powell for a donation.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHATTER)
KALISH: Standing in front of several photographs of the collector of Bedford Street in her home, filmmaker Alice Elliot recalled how Selman used to love to dress up as Santa Claus at Christmastime. She says she'll miss the messages he used to leave on her answering machine. But even more than that nasal, unmistakably New York voice, Elliot says she'll miss seeing him on the streets.
ELLIOTT: I will never turn the corner of my street without looking for him. He's so much a part of my life here. We feel that Larry actually created this community and that we are all beneficiaries of that and I hope we can pass it forward.
KALISH: Larry Selman left behind his dog Penny. The last money he collected is going to a group that provides pets for senior citizens. For NPR News, I'm Jon Kalish in New York.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
We're going to turn our attention south of border now, to the violent drug war in Mexico that has claimed more than 50,000 lives in the past six years. Coming up, a look at one way that the U.S. is trying to help the Mexican government fight the drug war. But first, we'll hear about a Mexican town that is fighting back against rampant crime.
Residents in the southern state of Guerrero say they are sick of being terrorized by drug traffickers and organized crime gangs. Armed with old shotguns and machetes, they have formed self-defense brigades, all in an effort to run the criminals out of town.
NPR's Carrie Kahn has the story.
(SOUNDBITE OF TUNING IN RADIO STATIONS)
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: On the main road into the town of Ayutla, about 75 miles southeast of Acapulco, about a dozen men, cradling shotguns and rusted machetes stand guard on a street corner. Their faces are covered in black ski masks.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: They go over patrol shift schedules, handwritten on wrinkled papers and communicate with other check points in town via walkie-talkies. One man, who wouldn't give his name, but identified himself as a lower commander, said the townspeople had no choice but to take up arms.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: The 66-year old cattle farmer and great grandfather, says it started at the beginning of the year. His cattlemen association was told each member had to pay 500 pesos, about forty dollars, to a local gang. Or else.
Everyone did as they were told. Everyone paid it. But he says people started talking about fighting back. That's when the kidnappings started. He says the gangs snatched several community leaders in the middle of the night. The townspeople grabbed their rifles and freed the victims. Then they started stopping cars coming in and out of town, checking IDs against lists of names of so-called bad guys.
This man, who calls himself Commandante G-1, says residents had no choice.
COMMANDANTE G-1: (Through Translator) We were being threatened, kidnapped and extorted. Anyone who had a small business or started building something had to pay the gangs. The authorities did nothing to stop it.
KAHN: Authorities are sympathetic. Guerrero State Assistant Interior Secretary Rossana Mora Patino says it's understandable and even legitimate, that the people of Ayutla have taken matters into their own hands.
ROSSANA MORA PATINO: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: But she says their actions are illegal and must stop.
Just how to stop the self defense brigades has become a sticky situation. Several more have sprouted up in nearby towns. And authorities are cautious about how to proceed, not wanting to add fuel to the fire.
Guerrero State has a long history of rebellion dating back to the War of Independence. Ayutla was host to a significant uprising against the Spanish. And in present times, the state was home to some of Mexico's most stubborn guerrilla movements.
A few days ago, the army and state police were sent in to restore the peace. They've set up checkpoints and have allowed the brigades to continue their own stop and searches for now.
Caught in the middle of the current standoff is the mayor of Ayutla, Severo Castro Godinez.
MAYOR SEVERO CASTRO GODINEZ AYUTLA: (Through Translator) Look, the brigades have helped us greatly. They brought the situation here in Ayutla under control. They have controlled the criminals. Now it's time for the authorities to do their job. We demand they do their job.
KAHN: Castro knows well about crime in Ayutla. His 16-year-old daughter was kidnapped from this restaurant three years ago. She was held for 10 days before the kidnappers released her. Many townspeople you talk to have also been crime victims.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: Acapulco.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: (Foreign language spoken)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #5: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: At this taxi stand, drivers shout out the names of nearby towns to passersby. Taxi driver Leopoldo Castillo says most businesses make regular payments to the gangs.
LEOPOLDO CASTILLO: (Foreign language spoken)
KAHN: We are sick and tired of it - the pressure, the harassment by the crime gangs. He says he's glad the army has arrived but he hopes the self-defense brigades stay on too.
Carrie Kahn, NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Calling all seafood lovers. OK - not all seafood lovers - just those of you who love a nice, briny oyster on the half shell. There was once a time, way back in colonial times, when wild oysters were plentiful. Captain John Smith said they lay thick as stones. But as the wild oyster harvest has shrunk, the market for farm-raised oysters is booming. Here's WEEKEND EDITION food commentator Bonny Wolf.
BONNY WOLF, BYLINE: The local food movement is expanding from fertile fields to brackish waters. Along the rivers and bays of the East Coast, where wild oysters have been decimated by man and nature, harvests of farm-raised oysters are increasing by double digits every year. At the same time, raw oyster bars are all the rage. Shore Gregory of Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, Mass. says when his oysters first went to market in 2001, just five Boston restaurants served oysters. Island Creek now works with 70 local restaurants and 300 chefs around the country. His company began with harvests of 50,000 oysters. Today, it's closer to five million. When Travis Croxton and his cousin Ryan started Rappahannock River Oysters in Virginia 10 years ago, there were only a couple of farms in Virginia and Maryland. Now, he says, close to 300. Tim Devine had been a successful photographer in New York for 11 years when he returned home to Maryland's Eastern Shore last spring to start Barren Island Oysters. Like the Croxtons, he learned the business from the Internet. Even with the Internet, they learning curve can be steep. So, some of the new oystermen hire veteran watermen to teach them. Many of these old salts remember better days in the oyster fields.
When wild oysters were plentiful and cheap, they were a poor man's food. Modern farm-raised oysters are for upscale eaters. They have catchy names and clever marketing. Consumers discuss the merroir of different oysters - the water conditions that determine an oyster's flavor. Like wine connoisseurs, oyster enthusiasts talk about an oyster's mild finish, hints of copper, pleasant melon flavor. What happened to briny? Oyster entrepreneurs are confident that they're tapping into demand that's been unmet since oysters' glory days, when reefs were actually a danger to ships and oysters were a staple food. They also know they are helping the environment since oysters are one of nature's best water filters. They wish each other well. A rising tide lifts all oyster boats.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY OYSTER IN THE STEW")
MARTIN: Bonny Wolf is managing editor of American Food Roots.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY OYSTER IN THE STEW")
MARTIN: This is NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It is a musical, sure. But "Phantom of the Opera" is really more of a phenomenon. Last night, the longest running Broadway musical ever, celebrated yet another milestone, its 25th anniversary.
Broadway's glitterati hit the red carpet for a special performance and reporter Jeff Lunden was there.
JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: On January 26, 1988, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, a gallon of gas cost about 90 cents and a ticket to "The Phantom of the Opera" was a whopping $50. And it was the hottest ticket in town.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC "OVERTURE, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA")
LUNDEN: Times have changed. Prices have changed. But that disfigured, tortured genius who haunts the Paris Opera House, creating havoc and causing the chandelier to fall, has endured. An invited only-audience, in black tie and gowns, packed the Majestic Theatre last night to celebrate the first show in Broadway history to run for a quarter-century.
Hal Prince, who's won 21 Tony Awards, including one for directing "Phantom," has his theories about the show's unprecedented success.
HAL PRINCE: I think the enduring appeal is because it's so romantic and because audiences escape into it. It has a world of its own.
LUNDEN: And it has those soaring Andrew Lloyd Webber melodies.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MUSIC OF THE NIGHT")
LUNDEN: The composer couldn't make it to the festivities - he's recovering from back surgery - but he provided a video message.
ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER: I'd just like to say, I'm missing this. I really wouldn't have missed this for the world. But somebody will bore you with the statistics of the show and how long it's run and all of these sort of things. But it's not going to be me because I've forgotten them.
LUNDEN: OK, let me try. "The Phantom of the Opera" may be the most successful entertainment franchise of all-time. It has grossed $5.6 billion worldwide - more than "Avatar," more than "Titanic," more than all the "Star Wars" films combined. A staggering 130 million people have seen the show in 28 countries and 148 cities in 13 languages. And did I mention the soaring Andrew Lloyd Webber melodies?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALL I ASK OF YOU")
LUNDEN: Soprano Sarah Brightman was married to Lloyd Webber when he was writing "Phantom," and she says he tailored the ingenue role of Christine just for her.
: And I'd sort of lead him through various things I knew. And together we - well, really, he created everything. But I think I was definitely a muse at that time.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALL I ASK OF YOU")
LUNDEN: Brightman, wearing a silver tiara, was one of the guests of honor. After the performance, director Hal Prince and producer Cameron Mackintosh emceed a little ceremony, which invited the cast, orchestra and crew of "Phantom," as well as dozens of former cast members to take a bow. Four actors, who've played the Phantom in New York, London, Stockholm and Toronto, took the stage to sing a couple of songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MUSIC OF THE NIGHT")
LUNDEN: Then the guests went to the New York Public Library for a big anniversary party. But come Monday night, "Phantom" goes back to the business of breaking the longest-running Broadway musical record with every performance.
For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. The French-led military intervention in Mali is picking up momentum in the campaign to help the Malian government recapture Islamist-occupied strongholds in the north. And while French airpower has tipped the scales in the Malian government's favor, the question now is whether Mali's beleaguered army is up to the fight. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports from Bamako, Mali's capital city in the south.
OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE: Here's recent history in a nutshell. When the latest rebellion erupted in Mali a year ago, led by separatist fighters from the nomadic Tuareg ethnic group, aggrieved government soldiers complained that they lacked the military wherewithal to combat the insurgency in the north. Then, junior officers in the faraway capital, Bamako, staged a coup last March, toppling the president. In the ensuing confusion, rebels consolidated their control over a Sahara desert region the size of Texas. Then jihadi fighters, some with al-Qaida links, fighting alongside the turbaned Tuaregs, pushed out their erstwhile allies and seized control, imposing harsh Islamic law - chopping off limbs for perceived crimes and destroying World Heritage sites and tombs in Timbuktu that they deemed un-Islamic. Mali's demoralized army was incapable of fighting back.
CAPTAIN IBRAHIM SAMASSA: I am ready to fight and die for my country. (Foreign language spoken). Thank you.
QUIST-ARCTON: That's Captain Ibrahim Samassa. Now, his English may be a bit hesitant but he says his commitment to his country is not and, that he and the military are prepared to protect and defend Mali until their last drop of blood. I met the captain in Djabaly this past week after Malian troops, along with the French, reclaimed territory from the rebels who'd occupied the strategic central Malian town. It was the first real taste of victory for Mali's army. A French military colleague, Captain Antoine, jumps to their defense.
CAPTAIN ANTOINE: I am confident in my Malian counterparts.
QUIST-ARCTON: Although it's been said that the Malian army is demoralized, is not properly armed, is not properly trained and, without the French, that there's no way that they could have stopped the attack by the jihadis.
ANTOINE: They could have been demoralized, but I can tell you now that their morale is quite high and they are quite combative and they are willing to go further and further and very fast.
QUIST-ARCTON: And civilians are coming round. There's been grudging praise for their own soldiers, as I heard from Madame Djenebou Traore. Her leafy, mud-brick compound, shaded by mango trees, with chickens running around, was occupied by the Islamists last week.
DJENEBOU TRAORE: (French spoken)
QUIST-ARCTON: Madame Traore offers thanks and blessings to the French and Malian armies for coming to their rescue in her neighborhood, Djabaly-Berlin. On Wednesday, the Malian military came under the spotlight for alleged human rights abuses, including summary executions, rapes and kidnappings earlier this month, in reports by both New York-based Human Rights Watch and the International Federation for Human Rights in Paris.
FLORENT GEEL: We have allegations for 30 cases of illegal execution.
QUIST-ARCTON: Florent Geel heads the Federation's Africa bureau, which has been documenting what he says is growing evidence of rights violations by Mali's army.
GEEL: Some elements is out of control, definitely, especially because some executions have been done inside of the military camp. That demonstrates that there is a problem.
QUIST-ARCTON: Geel says there's a feeling of humiliation among the Malian military from the defeats inflicted by the rebels in the north last year. He warns that this could lead to vengeance and retaliation by soldiers. Geel says Mali's authorities and international partners must step in to stop the rot. General Carter Ham is head of the US Africa Command.
GENERAL CARTER HAM: We have had a U.S. training effort with the Malian armed forces for some number of years.
QUIST-ARCTON: General Ham says perhaps there was too much emphasis on tactical know-how at the expense of other critical training.
HAM: We didn't spend probably the requisite time focusing on values, ethics and a military ethos that says when you put on the uniform of your nation, then you accept the responsibility to conduct yourselves according to the rule of law. So, we've learned from that.
QUIST-ARCTON: The question is will Mali's army learn, will Malian soldiers be disciplined and able to resist revenge attacks against the Islamists and those they consider to be the jihadis' accomplices and sympathizers? Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Bamako.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
For some historical context on the fighting in Mali, we spoke with Gregory Mann. He's an associate professor of history at Columbia University and he's an expert on North Africa, including the area in northern Mali now controlled by insurgents.
GREGORY MANN: It is a vast territory and it is a territory that is rather sparsely populated. It is a territory that is very difficult to control both because of the harsh terrain, because part of it is mountainous, part of it has significant caves, and it is a territory that would take enormous military and economic investment to actually kind of surveil and control.
MARTIN: Northern Mali is also home to the Tuaregs, an ethnic minority and one of the original combatant groups in this conflict.
MANN: Well, the Tuareg are a historically nomadic people. They for a long time ran the trans-Saharan desert caravans, the camel caravans, and they would like to have greater autonomy from the Malian nation-state.
MARTIN: The Tuaregs have been fighting for autonomy for decades, but this latest round can be traced back to the fall of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
MANN: Well, there are two important connections with Libya. I mean, they're related. There's the deeper, longer historical connection of the fact that many Tuareg young men went in the 1970s and '80s to fight with Moammar Gadhafi. They were trained by Gadhafi. They were sent to fight in different places. In fact, different places around the Muslim world - in Chad, Lebanon, etc. And a core and important part of Moammar Gadhafi's security forces was in fact Tuareg. At the time of Gadhafi's fall, many of those people left Libya and they returned to Mali. Some of them returned with their arms and munitions and weapons, and various factors that have created a very combustible mix.
MARTIN: So, one of those factors has been the infiltration of Islamist militias into northern Mali. Are they aligned with the Tuareg or do they have a separate agenda?
MANN: Well, there's an important split. There are Tuareg separatist nationalists, who now are largely marginalized and don't control very much territory at all in the desert. But it's they who launched the original struggle about a year ago. Then the larger category, the more important category at the moment, is those who are Islamist fighters or jihadi Salafist fighters, some of whom are aligned with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, some of whom are part of other organizations. Many of them are foreigners. That is, they're from Algeria, the Western Sahara, Mauritania, etc. But some of them are Malians as well.
MARTIN: You mention that these Islamist groups, some of them are affiliated with al-Qaida and they come from abroad. What was attractive about northern Mali? Just that it was unstable or that it had this preexisting conflict that they could kind of coopt and leverage to their own ends?
MANN: Well, part of what brought them to northern Mali is that in the core of it, in its DNA, the al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb organization is an Algerian insurgency, but they were pushed out of Algeria over the last several years. And in Mali, in northern Mali, the great expansion of the Saharan Desert there, they found a space that was very poorly governed, very poorly controlled. And they had a loose kind of modus vivendi with the former government in Bamako, apparently, by all accounts, which let them operate there with near impunity.
MARTIN: Are we talking about religion or resources to some degree in terms of what's motivating these insurgencies, or both?
MANN: Well, we're talking about both, and it's a very paradoxical combination. On the one hand, we're talking about important cocaine-smuggling routes and other drug-smuggling routes - there's smuggling routes even for cigarettes and whatnot. We're talking about the competition for the resources produced through that kind of criminality - hostage taking and drug smuggling. And also, it has to be said, a very peculiar and non-representative version of Salafist Islam which wants to see an imposition of this strict sharia rule in the desert.
MARTIN: So, how does the civilian population in northern Mali view these militias? I imagine they're the victims of what can be a very extreme brand of Islam sharia law.
MANN: Yes. And the primary victims of this are, of course, Muslims themselves. Many of them have fled to neighboring countries - to Niger, to Burkina Faso, or they've taken refuge with family members in southern Mali.
MARTIN: And then this drugs component - has northern Mali been an important drug route for a long time?
MANN: Well, smuggling and trafficking have long been parts of the economy of northern Mali. The drugs are new and the drugs came in over the last few years - something like the last five or six years, as far as we can tell. And this is mostly Latin American cocaine that comes in through West African ports and is smuggled through the Sahara Desert up into Algeria, or formerly into Libya and then into Europe. So, Europe is the market in which these drugs would be sold, and the Sahara is simply a place through which the drugs transit. All of it, of course, is produced in Latin America.
MARTIN: So, where does this go? Can you foresee this insurgency expanding and spreading throughout the region so it becomes more of a regional dilemma, a regional problem?
MANN: Well, it's certainly a combustible situation. In fact, it's in flames already, so we can recognize that it's combustible. There are other states that are weak that are in the region - notably Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania. They all feel a threat from what's going on in Mali. They all share borders with Mali. They all share some of the kind of social and political conditions that make Mali a particularly difficult place to govern. Algeria also sees a threat from what is going on in northern Mali. So, all of Mali's neighbors, but also the European Union, France in particular, and increasingly, the United States recognized that the situation in Mali is a dangerous one, not only for Malians and the Malian Muslims, who as I say are the first victims of the Salafists, but for also Muslims across West Africa, other West Africans and then people abroad.
MARTIN: Gregory Mann is an associate professor of history at Columbia University. He joined us from our New York bureau. Professor Mann, thanks so much for talking with us.
MANN: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: You're listening to NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Fracking may be a dirty word in the U.S., but in Italy, even so-called clean energy - wind and solar power - isn't so clean these days.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: The Washington Post reported this week that the Italian Mafia controls a sizeable portion of Italy's thriving renewable energy industry. Probably because it's one of the country's fastest growing businesses. Another reason - the billions of euros in subsidies that the Italian government shells out for wind farms and solar power plants.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: Guess which part of Italy gets the most sun and wind? Sicily, which also happens to be home to some of Italy's most powerful crime families.
Last month, the Italian government launched a series of sting operations, seizing as many as one third of Sicily's wind farms, along with a number of its solar power plants. They've also arrested more than 10 alleged crime bosses.
The investigation is ongoing. Still, you have to marvel at Italy's Mafia dons for their ability to adapt and innovate. As one Mafia member who was caught in a government wiretap is reported to have said, quote, "For the love of our sons, renewable energy is important. It's a business we can live on."
But Sicily's energy minister says, what's been good for the mob hasn't been good for Italy. Criminal organizations were allowed to do business, he said. We lost a vital opportunity for development and the region lost a chance to profit from it.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This week, German lawmakers will decide whether to extend their country's military mission in Afghanistan for another year. The vote is expected to pass without much opposition, which is significant, because for the past half-century Germany has been reluctant to deploy troops abroad because of its aggressive military history and because doing so has triggered public protests. German's long involvement in Afghanistan has been a turning point for the country's military. Even so, German politicians are still reluctant to appear hawkish. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson has more from Berlin.
(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON, BYLINE: This story on the ZDF network shows German soldiers in a firefight with militants in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz. The German defense ministry says 34 of its troops deployed to Afghanistan have been killed in combat as of 2011, the most current figures available. Here in Germany - like in the United States - people question the mission in Afghanistan. But the debate in Germany is no longer weighed down by its militarist history. These days, German politicians argue about the cost and benefits of intervention just like their American counterparts, not whether Germany has the moral right to send troops beyond its borders. Thomas de Maiziere is Germany's defense minister.
THOMAS DE MAIZIERE: (Foreign language spoken)
NELSON: He says there are lessons the German government has learned in Afghanistan. One is to set realistic goals for military missions. Another is to make sure there's a reliable, local partner on the ground, especially in countries that are radically different than his own.
DE MAIZIERE: (Foreign language spoken)
NELSON: Equally important, the minister says, is to have a sound, political strategy accompanying the military one.
DE MAIZIERE: (Through Translator) We all think such operations in other countries are necessary, but they need to be thought through because military missions are lengthy, expensive and alone won't necessarily lead to success.
NELSON: Two weeks ago, a survey by the German military's Institute of Social Sciences found that only 38 percent of Germans back the Afghanistan mission, compared to 63 percent in 2008. Reached by phone, Edelgard Bulmahn is a Bundestag member with the SPD, Germany's main opposition party.
EDELGARD BULMAHN: It hasn't brought success if you think of, you know, establishing a democracy. Of course, it has brought some success in making sure that Afghanistan no longer is the haven for terrorists. So, there is only partly a success.
NELSON: Bulmahn add she will vote to keep German troops in Afghanistan and honor her country's commitment to its international allies. She and others are far more skittish about what role Germany should play in Mali. While some European and African leaders are calling for active military involvement, the German government wants to limit its role to logistical support. Many German officials who spoke publicly sounded as if they weren't willing to help at all, which angered many European and African officials. It's frustrating to German Defense Minister de Maiziere, as well. He's repeatedly called for a nationwide discussion of the German military's evolving role.
DE MAIZIERE: (Through Translator) There's a shyness about even using the word power. We'd rather speak of influence or negotiations. But our missions in Afghanistan, the Balkans and elsewhere have changed us. It's taking a little bit longer for us to get there because of our history.
NELSON: But the dialogue the minister wants is unlikely to happen this year. National elections are expected this fall and German analysts say most candidates - whether for or against greater a German military role abroad - believe they won't get any political benefit from talking about it. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Berlin.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
As we just heard, Germans are still figuring out how to live with their military history. We're going to take you back now to the 1960s, when one French singer helped Europeans forgive, if not forget, the horrors of the Second World War. And she did it with this song:
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG "GOTTINGEN")
MARTIN: Fifty years ago this week, Germany and France signed a historic friendship treaty. But the rift between the countries was still deep. In stepped the singer, who called herself by one name - Barbara. In 1964, just one year after that treaty, she reluctantly accepted an invitation to perform in the German town of Gottingen. Her reluctance was understandable. As a young girl and a Jew, she had been forced into hiding during the Nazi occupation of France. But once she arrived in Gottingen, she was overwhelmed by the audience's enthusiasm. She decided to extend her stay from one night to one week. And then she composed a love song to the city.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG "GOTTINGEN")
MARTIN: It includes these words: May the time of blood and hatred never come back, because there are people I love in Gottingen, in Gottingen. The residents of Gottingen were so moved by Barbara's song that they gave her the Medal of Honor and they named a street after her. Barbara recorded her song in both German and French, and it became a hit in both countries. Dieter Dettke is a political scientist at Georgetown University. He was born in Germany during World War II. As a college student in the 1960s, he chose to study in Strasbourg, France.
DIETER DETTKE: It was difficult still, I have to say that. People, in their hearts, I guess on both sides, had hard feelings in many ways. The Germans wanted to be recognized and accepted and the French had suspicions about the Germans.
MARTIN: Dettke says Barbara bridged that divide better than almost anyone could.
DETTKE: It was great to listen to her words and to reflect about this in the context of her own history. She was persecuted by the Nazis, and she was able to overcome this and to recognize, yeah, there is a younger generation in Germany that has different values and that she could open up to and could accept.
MARTIN: I can just imagine some people hearing this thinking: could a song really make that much difference to people? But it did.
DETTKE: Yes. You see, the process of reconciliation between France and Germany and later between Poland and Germany and Russia - let's not forget Russia - and what the Germans had done during the war was so incomprehensible and almost impossible to think this can ever be overcome. And yet, you know, something started. People began to work for this process of reconciliation. And that, I think, is supported by her, in spite of her past, looking to the future and opening something up. You know, we can talk. We don't have to remain silent because of our history. We can open up our hearts and our minds and, you know, do something that we used to do. It was not only war that characterizes Franco-German relationships, it's also a common European culture that ties us together. And this is a perfect expression of this.
MARTIN: Dieter Dettke is a political scientist at Georgetown University.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG "GOTTINGEN")
MARTIN: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.
It was an announcement that made history.
SECRETARY LEON PANETTA: If they can do the job, if they can meet the standards...
MARTIN: Something that will change the U.S. military in a fundamental way.
PANETTA: If they can meet, you know, the qualifications that are involved here, there is no reason why they shouldn't have a chance.
MARTIN: Women can now officially serve in combat. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made the announcement last week.
PANETTA: That's just a fundamental belief of mine and I think it's a fundamental belief of the American people.
MARTIN: Military and civilian leaders have been thinking about this for a long time. And it wasn't an easy decision. A couple years ago, a Pentagon commission took a hard look at the combat exclusion policy. There was a lot of heated debate. Here's an exchange between retired Marine Lieutenant General Frank Peterson and Tammy Duckworth, who lost both her legs flying a Black Hawk helicopter in Iraq.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL FRANK PETERSON: 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?
LIEUTENANT COLONEL 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: In the end, the commission recommended that the Pentagon do away with the combat ban on women. But this wasn't as much a revolution as it was an evolution; a thinking about whether women belong in combat. After all, women have been fighting and dying in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; wars with no front lines in which female troops find themselves in combat situations no matter what the policy said.
Again, Secretary Panetta.
PANETTA: The steps we are announcing today are significant. And in many ways they are an affirmation of where we have been having, as a department for more than 10 years.
MARTIN: And the change is welcome news for some.
MAJOR GENERAL HEIDI BROWN: My name is Major General Heidi Brown. I'm based out of Huntsville, Alabama, Redstone Arsenal, and I am serving with the Missile Defense Agency.
MARTIN: During the war in Iraq, General Heidi Brown commanded the combat arms brigade. I first interviewed General Brown a couple of years ago, about how the Combat Exclusion Policy made it hard for women to move up the ranks. I spoke with her again just after the announcement.
BROWN: I didn't know that that announcement was going to come out with it did. And when it did come, I thought this is wonderful. It really is.
MARTIN: That you are seeing that change happening even before this announcement was made, you're seeing the groundwork.
BROWN: Yeah. Quite honestly, I think I have - not I think - I have seen a lot of changes over the last couple of years. And of course now, with the lift of the ban, anything is possible.
MARTIN: We'll hear more from General Brown about why she thinks the military is on its way to becoming gender-neutral.
But first, someone who has already served alongside women in combat; his name is Greg Jackson and he was a medic with the Army Special Forces. Jackson served in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2011. His unit was one of the first to work with special teams of female soldiers who were trained specifically to reach out to Afghan women.
GREG JACKSON: I think you have to understand the culture of Special Forces. I mean, even a fully-tabbed Green Beret that shows up, as a brand-new guy at a team, is not going to have the best time for the first couple months. You know, you have to prove yourself and show your mettle. And so, I think that there is a very analogous situation when the female engagement team showed up.
There's always a kind of dog sniffing around each other until you find out what the other one is made of. And once that threshold is reached it's like dealing with anybody else on the team. I don't think the idea that there were women was as much of an issue, as much as the idea of if they can go out and hack it, then I'm totally fine with them being there.
MARTIN: So what do you think than about the Pentagon's decision to roll back the combat exclusion policy?
JACKSON: On a personal level, I think it's the military coming down on the right side of history. I think the arguments that I tend to hear the most just don't carry a whole lot weight. I hear a lot about women affecting unit cohesion. And I have a history degree, so I think I heard a lot of those same types of concerns when they were talking about integrating African-Americans into combat units.
One of the other things I hear is the idea of if the woman is wounded, men will expose themselves unnecessarily because of some type of heightened emotional bond you may have with seeing a woman hurt. And I'm not sure what unit they came from but it couldn't have been a combat unit. Because every unit that I know there's not a whole lot you wouldn't do for the guys next to you.
I know there certainly wasn't anybody on my team that I wasn't prepared to die for and I know that they would die for me. And it's not something that you think or it's not your opinion - it's something you know.
MARTIN: What about the suggestion that having women in these units, there's very little privacy? Also, you put men and women together and there can be sexual, romantic distractions that will jeopardize the mission.
JACKSON: What I think about that is that it's minimizes the professionalism and intelligence that the individual soldier is capable of displaying. And you have 19-year-olds making life-and-death decisions regular. I think you can depend on a 19-year-old to decide whether or not it's appropriate to engage in that type of behavior and/or focus on the mission instead. And I think most times, when you get to these combat units, people are focused on the mission. You know, I've been shot at a number of times. And I can to tell you how many times I was actually thinking about hanky-panky and that would be zero.
MARTIN: Greg Jackson, he's a former medic and staff sergeant with the Army Special Forces. He served in Southern Afghanistan.
Mr. Jackson, thanks so much for talking with us.
JACKSON: Thanks for having me.
MARTIN: There is support among troops for the decision to lift the ban, at least publicly. But when I first talked with General Heidi Brown, she wasn't so sure.
When we spoke a couple of years ago - while you said that there had been limitations, that the ban had affected you personally - you said, though, that you didn't necessarily think all the combat arms positions should be open to women. Let's take a listen to this clip.
BROWN: I'm not necessarily an advocate for opening up infantry and armor, which are really the two branches that exclude women because of the direct combat role that they have.
MARTIN: So that's what you told me a couple of years ago. Has your thinking changed since then?
BROWN: Well, with...
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: With the news, for me, it's there are so many possibilities now. And so, I guess, the short answer to your question is I think I have changed my view on that.
MARTIN: What were some of your hesitations, though, in advocating for opening up all the combat arms?
BROWN: Back then, I just thought those were the two branches we'd never open. I guess I just felt that and believed that we just wouldn't. I think that those particular branches, I guess, there's a sense of physical toughness. I mean, you look at one of the pictures that just sticks in my mind, there's a soldier in Afghanistan who was carrying this huge pack - all his equipment, weighted down - and I think about myself.
I mean I can't even imagine doing that with a pack that probably outweighs me and to be able to have the physical stamina. Now, I would tell you I am confident that there are men and women alike who can do that. And I am also confident that there are men and women alike who cannot do that.
So I think that, you know, when I look back two years ago, I just never thought that those two specialties - I never thought the announcement would say every specialty across the service - never in my wildest imagination.
MARTIN: What about the issue of standards? You say that if a woman can carry the weight and do the work, then she should be allowed to have whatever job she wants in the military. Critics of the decision have said that's fine, as long as the standards don't change, as long as you don't lower the bar.
But at the press conference last week, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey suggested that those standards could change. Let's take a listen to what he said.
GENERAL MARTIN DEMPSEY: If we do decide that a particular standard is so high that a woman couldn't make it, the burden is now on the service to come back and explain to the secretary why is it that high? Does it really have to be that high? With the direct combat exclusion provision in place, we never had to have that conversation.
MARTIN: So what do you think about this? Should the standards change to allow women in to some of these more elite units we're talking about?
BROWN: Well, I think he also talked about gender-neutral standards. So - but you've got to ask yourself: Why is the standard so high? Is it based on historical data? Is it looking ahead in a different combat environment? It's going to make the services look at the standards that they have and ask themselves the questions that perhaps we just haven't had to ask for many, many years.
So, do I think standards are going to change? Yes. Do I think they're going to be lower standards? No, I think they're just going to be different, really, across the board different.
MARTIN: Do you foresee that being controversial in any way, that people might point to that and say, we knew this was a slippery slope; you're changing the standards. That means this has become some form of affirmative action, to get a certain number of women into these combat arms positions.
BROWN: I don't think it's - I certainly don't agree with the affirmative action comment that anyone would make. What I would say is I'm just kind of smiling because in 1976, when women were afforded the opportunity to enter the military academies for the first time, there was so much speculation that, oh, the academies are going to go downhill. The quality of the officers, it's going to suffer. And I think...
MARTIN: We should point out, you were one of the first classes to graduate from West Point that included women?
BROWN: Right, I was in the second class.
You know, there are going to be the naysayers and the critics that say we've changed the professionalism or the standards in military. And I would just say, you know what? We've had men and women fighting alongside one another for years and years. Have we taken a hard look at five years ago? Was there a degradation? I don't think so. You know, I would just tell folks: Shut up and color.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: Shut up and color?
BROWN: Yeah, it's Army-talk. 'Cause that's - you just want somebody to just, you know, get on with it. Just move ahead.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: That was Army Major General Heidi Brown. The Pentagon has directed all branches of military service to access the new policy change and submit a plan to implement it by May 15th.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: You're listening to NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Here in the U.S., the Pentagon is expanding a program to train Mexican security forces fighting drug cartels. The program incorporates some of the same strategies that the U.S. military has used against al-Qaida.
I'm joined now by Kimberly Dozier of the Associated Press first reported this story. I spoke with her recently.
How is this training going to take shape? What do we know about it?
KIMBERLY DOZIER: Well, I have to be clear that this training has been going on. There are a couple dozen people who are in Special Operations; officers, experts, and they have been working with the Mexican government over the past five, six years, teaching them how to be more like American Special Operations. What this is, is an outgrowth of that.
U.S. Special Operations Commander Admiral McGraven is looking at 10,000 people in the war zone who are going to be coming out of there. And here is a mission that many in his command, many in the States think has been under resourced.
MARTIN: What are the similarities between al-Qaida terrorist affiliates and Mexican drug cartels?
DOZIER: Al-Qaida's networks throughout the world are often funded by criminal activities. You can see al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb right now that was behind the attack on the gas plant in Algeria. It is funded by kidnapping, hostage-taking, smuggling. The same sorts of things drive the cartels in Mexico and throughout Latin America.
There's a separate thing going on that the new Mexican administration has talked about, doing away with a lot of their corrupt sections of the police force and trying to set up...
MARTIN: Problem, right? Corruption.
DOZIER: Corruption in the federal police force is reportedly rampant. That's why the previous administration often used the army which created such high casualties. So the new administration does want to set up a paramilitary force that has the skills of both without the corruption. This is where U.S. special operators see that they've got some expertise to offer.
MARTIN: So the Mexican government clearly has been working to address this. You say this training, this cooperation between the U.S. and the Mexican security forces has been ongoing for years. What you're reporting on is a change in pace or change in scope?
DOZIER: This is kind of like: If we build it they will come. They started this long before they knew what the results of the Mexican election would be; long before the U.S. knew that there'd be a change in Mexican administration. So now the question is: Will the new guys want the same training at the same pace, and building on it.
MARTIN: Why wouldn't he? Is there a downside to cooperating with the U.S. and getting this kind of training from U.S. special operators?
DOZIER: The problem is the new administration in Mexico has made very clear that it doesn't want U.S. forces in there. So they are very sensitive at any hint that the U.S. is planning any sort of mission, even a training mission south of the border. What U.S. officials have been careful to stress to their Mexican counterparts - no, no, no, this is not about U.S. armed trainers inside that country.
This is about taking the top members of Mexican security and law enforcement and teaching them: here is how the U.S. Special Operations mission built the machine that hunts al-Qaida.
MARTIN: Can you put this into perspective for us? Because the U.S. trains foreign forces all over the world, right, not just close allies like Mexico?
DOZIER: Yeah, they do. One of the major parts of this Special Operations mission is to teach local forces how to be better at fighting whoever the local adversary is. The problem is it's a skill that cuts both ways. I mean U.S. special operators did go down to Mexico years ago and train some members of the army, that then became the backbone of the Sinaloa drug cartel, which has made them so hard to fight. You can see in Mali, the captain who led the coup was trained in U.S. academies.
MARTIN: Clearly they think that the benefits outweigh those potential risks.
DOZIER: The counter-argument is, Look, this gets us in there to try to influence people, to show them here's how we carry out these operations, but follow U.S. law, follow human rights. They say it's better than not knowing anyone and not passing on any of those skills. As one U.S. official put it to me: If they're better at doing their job south of the border, we don't have to worry as much up here.
MARTIN: Kim Dozier, she's a reporter with the Associated Press. Thanks so much for coming in, Kim.
DOZIER: Great to be here.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
And now it's time for sports.
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MARTIN: OK. This week, we are going classic, like classical. Like, really old school, you know, Rome, Cicero, Latin. We're talking Latin this week. Specifically we want to talk about interregna or interregnum, if you please, which is a fancy way of saying a gap. Because the NFL is in the middle of a big old interregnum at the moment.
And for more, we are joined by, who else, but our own Marcus Aurelius, NPR's Mike Pesca. Hey, Mike.
Hello. Wow. I like it - Marcus Aurelius.
Yeah. I thought you would. Interregna - what do you think?
MIKE PESCA, BYLINE: Well, yes. This is the week that the football fields lie fallow between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. Of course, there is the Pro Bowl, where players, based on their ability to play, press coverage and blitz and block kicks are selected to be in a game where you're not allowed to play press coverage, blitz or block kicks. I could run down the Pro Bowl forever. But there's really no football this week. It's not exactly a bye week but there are two weeks between the championship game and the Super Bowl. A time for reflection.
MARTIN: But I highly doubt they carve this time out so, you know, the players can sit at home and do some meditation. I mean, why do they do it this way?
PESCA: That's right. They've done it since Super Bowl I, although in Super Bowl IV was one of the rare exceptions. It is to increase the hype but to get the TV people in place and to make the Super Bowl a bigger, better spectacle. Just there is - it's not just such a multimedia and multibillion-dollar extravaganza that the people other than football people feel like they need the time to do it. And lately, you know, there's been a reflection in the ratings that it's working. As much as people complain can we just get to the damn game, by the time that game comes, most people are watching.
MARTIN: So, what do coaches and players prefer?
PESCA: Well, if you look at the - so, the statistics are - there have been 47 Super Bowls and 40 of them have been played with two weeks of. Of the seven where there was only one week off, five were scheduled to be that and then there was a players' strike in the '82 season, and after 9/11 they kind of compressed the schedule. So, what happened was we saw seven games where there was only one week off. And four of those seven games were really close. There was the time that the Bills just scarcely lost to the Giants - Scott Norwood wide left. And there was a Patriots comeback. So, actually, I think that was one week you sometimes get better games. Players say they like two weeks off - little bit time to rest. Coaches say they like two weeks off - little bit more time to strategize. But just 'cause they say that and just 'cause they're in a comfort zone with more time to strategize, it's not always logical. Like, I mentioned a couple of games where the Patriots pulled a big upset in the first time they were in the Super Bowl under Bill Belichick, and another game I talked about was when the Giants beat the Bills. Turns out Bill Belichick was the defensive coordinator of the Giants. And in both those games with one week off, I think a big factor in those upset wins was that one coach out-strategized the other. And I think sometimes if you give it two weeks, you don't have that time to sneak up on a team. And Bill Belichick was that coach, by the way. But if you ask Belichick now - 'cause he's been in so many Super Bowls - he does say he likes it two weeks off. Not always logical.
MARTIN: Oh man. I need an interregna to process all of that. Do you have a curveball this week?
PESCA: Yeah, sure. So, I'll take you to last night's Northern Illinois-Eastern Michigan game. Northern Illinois pulls out to the early 2-0 lead, and then they go cold - very cold - 29 straight misses. Northern Illinois shot 1 for 31 from the floor in the first half. They scored four first-half points. Earlier this year, they had scored five first-half points. So, it's not good. It's not a good effort. So, you know who I feel bad for, other than, you know, the guy who has to maintain the rims after the balls clank on them, is the guy who has to write this up for the Northern Illinois website. He has to emphasize the positive, and he starts off with this sentence: Northern Illinois posted its best defensive effort in seven seasons, allowing just 42 points - kind of glossing over the fact that, to quote Coach Mark Montgomery, "I wouldn't say we were taking bad shots. We had makeable open shots. They just wouldn't go in."
MARTIN: You got to look for the silver lining.
PESCA: That's right.
MARTIN: NPR's Mike Pesca. Thanks, Mike.
PESCA: You're welcome.
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MARTIN: You're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin. Fisher Stevens is a name you may not know but you've probably seen his face. He was in the 1986 film "Short Circuit" with Steve Guttenberg. Fisher also had a role in the 1995 movie "Hackers."
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MARTIN: Stevens kept getting roles, but after years as a character actor, he decided that his real passion was behind the camera. He has since directed several films, including "The Cove," which won him an Oscar for Best Documentary in 2010. Fisher's newest film is called "Stand Up Guys," and it's about three aging con men. One of them just got out of prison after 28 years. Here's a clip.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "STAND UP GUYS")
MARTIN: You may recognize the voices in that clip. They are two of the most well-known Hollywood stars - Al Pacino and Alan Arkin. Along with Christopher Walken, they fill up the screen in more ways than one. I spoke with Fisher Stevens recently about "Stand Up Guys" and I asked him what it was like to direct these Hollywood icons.
: They all of the sudden didn't really like the lines that were written. It was kind of a nightmare. I kept saying, oh, that was good. And they're like, Fisher, it's not working. Fisher, this is terrible. It's not working. I know it can't, you know. And...
MARTIN: And what do you say? It's like all these big guys telling you it's not working for me.
: Exactly. And Al is like, Fisher, get over here right now, get over here. So, I said, guys, it was working well in rehearsal. And they go, well, it's not rehearsal, Fisher. We're in the car now. So, that was a moment of terror. And I have these three guys - and literally, I remember that moment where they're all three just looking at me like I have the answer. And I had to have an answer. And I said, OK, guys, so, what are we going to do about it? And they said, well, what if I try this. And then Chris is like, yeah, Alan, I like that. That's good. And I looked to them. I said you guys have been doing this longer than me. Come on, we can do it. And we did it.
MARTIN: So, you had to know in that moment, actually, I'm going to put it back on them. I'm going to ask them to solve this problem, and they were OK with that.
: Yeah, and I was going to help. But they had the answers. They know what they're doing. That was the only time I wish - well, one of the only times - I wish I wasn't directing them. But mostly it was amazing.
MARTIN: Had you worked with any of them before?
: I acted in a film 20 years ago with Alan Arkin called "Four Days in September." I was his assistant. He was the ambassador that gets kidnapped in 1969, based on that story. Pacino and I have been friends and I'd almost worked with him a lot as an actor. I never actually got cast in anything but I worked on a lot of stuff with him. Chris Walken and I have known each other on the periphery for years. And it was the first time that Chris Walken and Al Pacino have ever worked together. And it was like magic, though, because they're not really good friends but they've known each other peripherally. And the first read-through I'll never forget. It was like magic listening to them read together because they were like old friends. They were these guys. They have been warriors in the trenches together, just different trenches than Val and Doc, the characters they play.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "STAND UP GUYS")
MARTIN: So, let's talk a little bit about the kind of gist of the film. "Stand Up Guys" is the name of the film. It really centers around Pacino and Walken's characters. And they're in this dilemma. Can you describe what they're facing?
: Christopher Walken and Al Pacino and Alan Arkin were kind of a crew, it's called. They were like hoods. They knocked off banks. They stole art. They weren't hit men but they were like a crew and they worked for a guy named Claphands. It's played by Mark Margolis, who's on "Breaking Bad." He's fabulous. And they get a job. And Claphands says you bring my son. I want him to learn the trade. And the kid goes with them. And the kid ends up screwing up the job and Pacino, by mistake, kills the kid. And Pacino ends up taking a hit, going to jail. And Claphands has put a hit on Pacino and Walken has to deal with that. So, it's the day that Pacino's getting out of jail and Walken's picking him up. And it's really a story about friendship. It's kind of a love story of friends.
MARTIN: So, besides learning how to talk like Arkin, Walken and Pacino, what did you learn about directing? Did you learn anything about your own craft?
: Yeah, I learned a lot. I mean, I've studied acting for 25 years. And watching the effort that they put in was one thing, but the other amazing quality that all three of them have is they know how to listen. And part of acting is listening. And I've never realized how crucial that is to being a great artist, great actor. And watching Chris and Al, like, especially that diner scene where they have that - it's an eight-page scene. And I like to shoot the scenes in their entirety first, like a play, since I had theater actors. And they're in the moment more than almost any actor I've ever seen or worked with. Meaning, they aren't ahead of themselves, they're not thinking about their next line. They're watching each other. They're listening to each other. That was inspirational to me. And that's why they're so real and authentic.
MARTIN: So, for you, what is the big directing mountain to climb. What is that directing challenge out there that's a little intimidating but something that you really feel like you need to do?
: Well, I'm trying to do it right now. The next film I want to make is a mountain to climb, but it's a book that's an American classic. Philip Roth wrote a book called "American Pastoral," and there's a beautiful adaptation. So, that's the mountain I'm trying to climb next.
MARTIN: Fisher Stevens. His latest film is called "Stand Up Guys." He joined us from NPR West. Fisher, thanks so much.
: Thank you. Bye-bye.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
A new ad campaign for Coca-Cola directly addresses a downside of consuming too many soft drinks.
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MONTAGNE: Coke says that it's working to address that problem. It's selling more diet drinks and taking its most sugary beverages out of schools.
(SOUNDBITE OF AD)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now, people noticed this message because of the source. Studies identify soda as a leading cause of obesity. In fact, some studies show you can lose substantial amounts of weight just by cutting out soft drinks and making no other change in your life. Now, Coke is one of a growing number of companies that seek to reposition themselves as merchants of better health.
MONTAGNE: And if there's a single person who best represents the tensions of this move, it's Derek Yach. He's a hero of global public health who went to work for Pepsi. NPR's Dan Charles has this profile.
DAN CHARLES, BYLINE: A decade ago, Derek Yach was a thorn in the side of the global food industry, a soft-spoken doctor from South Africa working at the World Health Organization in Switzerland. The WHO was moving in a new direction, taking on health problems that come from smoking or from unhealthful diets.
DR. DEREK YACH: Tobacco is a big killer. Obesity was starting to be seen to be rising worldwide. Salt was seen as an important critical factor. Cholesterol. All of these issues was seen as really important yet neglected, and the time has come to start addressing that.
CHARLES: Within the WHO, Derek Yach lived this new campaign. He brought leading critics of the food industry to Geneva for strategy sessions. Among them was Marion Nestle from New York University.
MARION NESTLE: He was putting enormous pressure on food companies to stop marketing junk foods to kids. And I saw him as someone who saw the food industry as an enormously destructive force in public health.
CHARLES: But Marion Nestle may have misunderstood Derek Yach. Yach himself says food companies were never the enemy. It was very different from the situation with tobacco, he says. When it came to tobacco, the strategy was very simple.
YACH: Demonize the industry. Tax it through the roof. Ban all forms of marketing.
CHARLES: But you can't get the same results with, say, sugary soft drinks, he says. If you tax them heavily enough, sure, you'll drive consumers away from that product.
YACH: But that doesn't mean you're solve the obesity problem. It all depends on what they choose as the alternative.
CHARLES: With food there's always an alternative - another sugary product on the shelf. Now, food companies create this universe of options, so Yach says he felt he had to talk to those companies, draw them in, persuade them to offer consumers better alternatives. But he says he never ever thought he'd actually go to work for one of those companies until one day in 2006. He'd left the WHO by then. He was working at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. And he got a call from the new CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi.
YACH: Well, she had the most powerful vision of how she wanted to transform the company.
CHARLES: PepsiCo sells Pepsi, of course. Also Mountain Dew, Frito-Lay chips, Doritos, Cheetos, and Cap'n Crunch. But Pepsi had also picked up Tropicana orange juice and Quaker Oats. In fact, Nooyi wanted to transform Pepsi's entire product line.
YACH: Her vision was very clear, that there was an opportunity to turn this into the healthiest food and beverage company in the world.
CHARLES: And she wanted Derek Yach inside the company pushing everybody toward that goal. He took the job. He says he felt like he had to. Marion Nestle - and a lot of other people - were shocked.
NESTLE: I couldn't believe it. I mean I was really astounded. I mean it's not as if he went to work for a company that's selling carrots. He went to work for a company that's selling sugar water.
CHARLES: With that choice, Derek Yach became the symbol of a very controversial idea: that companies like Pepsi can be part of the effort to get people to eat better. Yach stayed at Pepsi for almost six years. He left a few months ago. While he was there, he says, he pushed for changes in some of the company's products to make them healthier, like potato chips with less salt and fat, a lineup of beverages with little or no sugar in them. He got very different reactions in different parts of the company. Some took it almost as a personal attack.
YACH: People very much loved and believed in their brands. They couldn't believe that there could be anything wrong or that they should be reducing the way that they market or sell these delightful, tasty brands.
CHARLES: So you did go to parts of the company and say, you know, your product is really not good for people and we shouldn't be marketing it so much?
YACH: I don't think I would have said that, but I certainly said we've got to change our marketing strategies. We've certainly got to lower salt, sugar and fat - repeatedly, over and over and over.
CHARLES: The food technologists, though, became Yach's allies. R&D people are all about innovation. They liked the challenge of making a low-sodium snack that still tastes salty or a soda that's sweet without the calories.
YACH: There are pockets of people who are spending their entire lives trying to reformulate as fast as possible.
CHARLES: PepsiCo has adopted some ambitious long-term goals for cutting salt, sugar and fat from its products. But when it came to making changes right now - launching new products, putting marketing muscle behind them, changing recipes - that's where Yach's goals ran into the limits of what the company was prepared to do. Executives often got cold feet, because all of those things cost money. And there was never a chance that the company would pull standard Pepsi off the shelves.
YACH: You can't just withdraw from markets; otherwise you'll simply be giving up market share to a competitor. That simply wouldn't be permitted by a shareholder.
CHARLES: Despite all that, and despite leaving the company, Yach remains convinced that companies like Pepsi will, in fact, help people change their diets for the better. He points out Pepsi is cutting salt from its products. It's selling a lot more reduced-calorie beverages. It's now in the hummus and yogurt business. The change is not happening as fast as I'd like, Yach says, but it is happening, because it's a long-term business bet. People's expectations are changing. The arc of history, as he puts it, is pointing food companies toward more concern for health. Marion Nestle, though, thinks Derek Yach is well-meaning but naive. The company has not changed that much, she says. Pepsi's sugary soft drinks are still adding to obesity worldwide. Nestle thinks Derek Yach actually hurt the cause of public health by giving the company more credibility.
NESTLE: He was a much greater asset to Pepsi-Cola than Pepsi-Cola was to either him or to public health.
CHARLES: Derek Yach has moved on now to a company called the Vitality Group - not a food company. It's part of a health insurance company in South Africa. The Vitality Group finds ways to pay people to do healthy things like eat more fruit and vegetables and exercise. And it gets that money back, and more, because has to pay fewer medical bills. This industry, apparently, really can make money promoting better health. Dan Charles, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Competition has heated up in the U.S. car market. Not only are the big companies like General Motors and Toyota slugging it out, but small niche players are making the push into the mainstream as well. One of those small companies is Subaru. Subaru vehicles are already popular in several regions of the U.S. - Colorado, the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast. Now it's got its sights set on the South, as NPR's Sonari Glinton reports.
SONARI GLINTON, BYLINE: Here's one of my favorite TV bits. It's from the relatively new, very silly show "Portlandia." Two characters met at an intersection in Portland, Oregon; both are driving Subarus.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "PORTLANDIA")
GLINTON: The show makes fun of all things Portland and the fact that they're driving Subarus, that's a part of the joke. Here's the thing. That's not some idle stereotype. Since most Subarus are all wheel drive, they're particularly popular in places where the weather can be dicey, like the Pacific Northwest or the Northeast.
MICHAEL MCHALE: If you're number four in Portland and you're number 20 in Texas, probably the opportunity is in Texas.
GLINTON: Michael McHale is with Subaru. He says the company had to be more ambitious and rethink the U.S. market.
MCHALE: So sometimes we look at the differences around the country. We think that Portlandias are different from Tennesseans are different from Floridians. So we see that difference, but underlying all of that, there are still basic human truths. So there are people in Tennessee, I think, like to go fishing. I think there are people in Tennessee that like to go hiking,
GLINTON: Not only did the company think differently about the country, they started to sell in a different way as well - beefing up distribution and dealerships.
Jessica Caldwell is with Edmunds.com. She says the company had a strange problem: Their cars were almost too good and their customers too loyal.
JESSICA CALDWELL: I think they have a core loyal following and you would never want to get rid of that. Again, you know, people that will trade in their car and buy a new one. But at the same time, they keep their cars for a long time and you can't have people keeping their cars for, you know, a decade or more when you want to sell new cars.
GLINTON: Caldwell says the company tried to sell to the middle of the country by making their cars wider, rounder, less boxy, more conventional looking and more fuel efficient. And it worked.
During the economic downturn, when other companies' sales were declining, Subaru sales increased by a third, and it began building more of them in the U.S. It's one of the fastest growing car companies in America, with its biggest growth markets Houston, Dallas and Florida
Jake Fisher is with Consumer Reports. He says Subaru can serve as an example for other car companies looking to grow.
JAKE FISHER: So really they've kind of, you know, taken this kind of slow, systematic approach and just really concentrated on what they needed to do to be competitive in the market.
GLINTON: Fisher says Subaru has solidified its place in the American market, but he says they'll probably never be as big as Toyota or Ford.
FISHER: I don't think they have to be a Toyota. They don't have to be everyone else. They don't have to be everything to everyone; they have to be something to someone.
GLINTON: Again, Subaru's Michael McHale.
MCHALE: If you're buying a big truck in Texas, keep buying the big truck - we're not the brand for you. But if you're looking for an all-wheel-drive vehicle that you can throw the dog in the back, the skis on the roof, and go in the mountains for the weekend, I think they have some nice hills in Tennessee too.
McHale says Subaru has conquered Portland, Oregon and Portland, Maine. Now it's on to Portland, Texas, Portland, Michigan and Portland, Tennessee as well.
Sonari Glinton, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And it's such a busy time in Egypt. That's just one of the stories that Leila's bringing to us. This is one of several sources of turmoil in Egypt. Another one is religious conservatives. We're going to talk about them with Leila, all this week; and Leila, who have you been focusing on?
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: Well, I been focusing on ultra-conservative Muslims known as Salafis who have really flourished since the so-called Arab Spring began more than two years ago now. And we've been focusing on how they've been entering into society and much of the polarization that has happened as they become part of society. And we'll start with the most prominent Salafi political party here in Egypt, the Nour Party.
NADER BAKKAR: It is the pure Islam in which we take our religion from its pure origins.
FADEL: Nader Bakkar, a young engineer and spokesman for the Nour Party, explains what kind of a society he'd like to see in Egypt. He insists that Salafi ideology is not backward looking.
BAKKAR: It is not a thing that is in conflict with civilization, with modern societies. Not at all.
FADEL: Bakkar and other Salafis want to implement the strictest form of Islamic law.
BAKKAR: We are calling for pure ideology, pure ethics, regarding the day-to-day lifestyle. It is not something that is strange or different from the modern point of view, except regarding ethics and ideology.
FADEL: Prior to Egypt's revolt in 2011, Salafis were repressed. Pious men with unkempt beards were targeted by the secular and autocratic regime of President Hosni Mubarak. The movement went largely underground. But today, Salafis are out in the open and flourishing.
The Nour Party is the most successful of the Salafi political groups. In the first post-revolutionary elections last year, its candidates won around 25 percent of the seats in parliament, second only to the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood.
But with politics comes compromise and competition. The Nour party once was basically the only show in town for Salafis. But now it is coming under fire from more rigid conservatives, who say Nour made too many concessions in the debate over Egypt's new constitution, limiting the role of Islamic law.
As a result, new Salafi parties are springing up, one of them was founded by a neighborhood leader in Cairo. His name is Sheikh Gamal Saber and he says his party gives Salafi voters another alternative.
SHEIKH GAMAL SABER: (Foreign language spoken)
FADEL: People pop in to Sheikh Gamal's office in the impoverished Shubra district, looking for help - food, blankets and medicine.
SABER: (Foreign language spoken)
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Foreign language spoken)
SABER: (Foreign language spoken)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)
SABER: (Foreign language spoken)
FADEL: On this day, a few young women greet Sheikh Gamal from the doorway of his office. They are cold. He pulls blankets from the endless piles that are stacked to the ceiling in a storage room. He has provided charity like this for years and now he's hoping it will translate into votes.
SABER: (Foreign language spoken)
FADEL: He and other Salafis are banding together behind a hard-line agenda that ultimately would ban alcohol, segregate the sexes and require women to wear the veil. How far would a Salafi-run Egypt go toward enforcing those ideals? Sheikh Gamal says let's get Islamic law first, and then we'll deal with its application.
SABER: (Foreign language spoken)
FADEL: Critics say that Salafis are among the most polarizing element of Egyptian society, transforming every political debate into a referendum on religiosity.
A popular TV satirist, Bassem Youssef, has made it his mission to battle the Salafi influence. In one program last month, this liberal Muslim who's known for his humor, found nothing to joke about as he discussed the Salafi political agenda.
BASSEM YOUSSEF: (Through Translator) They don't look at us as Muslims and Christians, no. But as unbelievers, hypocrites, enemies of religion and enemies of the Lord. So we deserve to be humiliated and cursed.
FADEL: Salafis, Youssef says, are bullies who threaten those who don't share their rigid views.
Egypt expert Shadi Hamid, of the Brookings Doha Center, says the Salafi are a vocal minority nudging policy to favor the religious right.
SHADI HAMID: Salafis are fundamentally illiberal. And they are not willing to live and practice politics within the confines of liberal democracy. So, when Egyptian or Tunisian liberals say that certain fundamental rights should be non-negotiable, they should be guaranteed, Salafis don't want to hear that. For them that's a non-starter.
FADEL: The call for Islamic law has resonance in this deeply religious society, Hamid says. And the Salafis know how to reach the masses with populist language that appeals to the poor and disenfranchised. But many here worry that if the Salafis succeed they will change the nature of Egypt's society.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Leila Fadel here on MORNING EDITION. She's going to be talking about religious ultra conservatives in the Arab world all week long. And Leila, who do we hear from tomorrow?
FADEL: Tomorrow, I take you to Tunisia where it's a really different dynamic and Salafis have rejected the democratic process as a whole. And this puts the new moderate Islamist government in a difficult position.
INSKEEP: OK, we'll be listening for that. NPR's Leila Fadel, thanks very much.
FADEL: Thank you.
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INSKEEP: It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Next, let's get some movie and TV recommendations for our series Watch This. In his book for children, writer Neil Gaiman creates magical, often haunting worlds. His Newbery award-winning "The Graveyard Book," is about a boy raised by ghosts.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
"Coraline" is about a girl who discovers a mysterious door. And in his latest, "Chu's Day," is about a panda whose sneezes cause bad things to happen. Neil Gaiman's picks start with an episode of "The Muppet Show" guest starring John Cleese.
NEIL GAIMAN: The 1970s "Muppet Show" was one of the comedic glories of the human race. Being English, I always loved the three minutes of "Muppet Show" that we got that you never got, because in English television hour was two and a half, three minutes longer. And one of the things that they would do was these Muppet musical numbers. And one of the things I loved best about that John Cleese episode is Miss Piggy singing the old English musical song about being abandoned at the church.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SERIES, "THE MUPPET SHOW")
GAIMAN: And she has a pillow stuffed up her dress to make it appear that she is pregnant.
INSKEEP: Like nine months or whatever it is for a pig. Yeah, like right at the end.
GAIMAN: Definitely ready to drop, although she does make it clear at the end, in batting eyes with Kermit, that this is definitely just a pillow.
INSKEEP: So this is pregnancy out of wedlock here, kind of racy for "The Muppet Show."
GAIMAN: And that was what I thought. And it's one of those glorious moments where I think they just thought, we can probably get away with this on English television. We couldn't get away with this on American television but we will never show it on American television. And it's marvelous.
INSKEEP: So you've included this Muppet episode that features John Cleese, of Monty Python, of course. And you have also sent us one of the many movies of Monty Python's Terry Gilliam, a very talented director in addition to everything else that he's done. This movie is "Time Bandits." What's it about?
GAIMAN: "Time Bandits" is basically a film about a small boy who discovers that his bedroom is a hole leading to the rest of the universe, and as he is invaded by a number of dwarfs, escaping God with a map to everything.
INSKEEP: Could happen to anybody.
GAIMAN: As it could happen. It's a glorious feat of imagination. And I won't tell you what it's a quest for - it would give too much away.
INSKEEP: There's more than Terry Gilliam film that pushes these kinds of themes. You've put a kid at the center of it. The kid is in jeopardy, in one or another, but going into a fantastic and amazing world.
GAIMAN: I think Gilliam is always about pushing the bounds of imagination. Going into the imagination is almost like being a hunter - you can come back with magical, wonderful things that make your world better.
INSKEEP: This is an "Alice in Wonderland" kind of story, which brings to mind that you have also sent us a Czech film, from 1988, that is called "Alice." And now, what is it?
GAIMAN: Jan Svankmajer is a remarkable filmmaker. "Alice" was his interpretation of Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland." And what I find fascinating about "Alice" is that on the one hand, it's profoundly nightmarish. As Jan Svankmajer animates, you have a live-action girl - mostly live-action - wandering through this story, but he's animating skulls. He's animating pieces of meat with nails in them. At one point, there's something that shouldn't be nightmarish but is. He starts animating socks filled with sawdust. They come out to like weird sort of snakes or worms and they're absolutely terrifying.
But the film also, for whatever it says about my family, I brought it home on video the moment it came out. And my then three-year-old daughter, it became her favorite film.
INSKEEP: Oh.
GAIMAN: And she would just watch "Alice" over and over again - and strangely enough, has not grown up to murder anybody.
INSKEEP: We're getting close to some insight about adults and children in children's stories, because there is something beyond creepy, horrifying about it.
GAIMAN: It is the stuff of pure nightmare.
INSKEEP: But you're telling me, you put a kid in front of that and the kid's like, yeah, I'm comfortable with this.
GAIMAN: I think, particularly in my daughter Holly's case, I forgot to mention to her that it was meant to be scary, and she just saw it as a wonderful animation of Lewis Carroll's "Alice."
INSKEEP: How do you deal with that when you're writing for kids, that sense of horror?
GAIMAN: I trust them.
INSKEEP: You trust the kids?
GAIMAN: I trust the kids, because kids are so much braver than adults, sometimes, and so much less easily disturbed, which it sounds ridiculous. Anybody who's had to calm a kid screaming at night, down, would laugh at me. But then you start talking to kids about what they're crying about. And you say what was so upsetting. And they say, well, that commercial for the vacuum cleaner on TV, that can clean a king to life and it was after us.
And you go, actually, kids will make their nightmares up out of anything. The important thing, I think, in fiction: if you're giving them nightmares, is to demonstrate that nightmares are beatable.
INSKEEP: Let me ask about one more thing. While we're talking about nightmares here, I'm delighted that you have included an episode of "The Twilight Zone."
GAIMAN: The episode is "The After Hours" and it's just a classic "Twilight Zone." And the ones that work just sit there in the back of your head, creeping you out and making the world a slightly more interesting place. And in the case of "After Hours," Ann Francis is a runaway shop window dummy.
INSKEEP: She starts out. She's a young woman. She's very pretty. She's very symmetrical. She's walking through the department store and there's a ninth floor of the department store that no one seems to know about.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SERIES, "THE TWILIGHT ZONE")
GAIMAN: One of the things that I love most about this episode is that creeping feeling that the world is not the world that you think you're living in.
INSKEEP: It becomes apparent that she is a department store mannequin, who, according to some strange and unexplained arrangement, is allowed, sometimes, to become a real person, but then must return.
GAIMAN: And, of course, as a kid - and possibly even as an adult - I would eye department store mannequins and wonder if sometimes, when I took my eyes off them, they might have moved, just a little.
INSKEEP: Neil Gaiman, it's been a pleasure speaking with you.
GAIMAN: It has very much so.
(SOUNDBITE OF THEME MUSIC, "THE TWILIGHT ZONE")
INSKEEP: Neil Gaiman's new children's book is called "Chu's Day." He's part of our series Watch This on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Children's book illustrators may not have gotten a lot of sleep last night because they know that one of the grand prizes of children's literature, the Caldecott Award, will be announced this morning at the annual meeting of the American Library Association. NPR's Lynn Neary reports this year is the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal, which is given to the most distinguished children's picture book of the year.
LYNN NEARY: Picture books are a brilliant way to connect with children, even before they're able to speak. They continue to feed the imagination as a child grows older. And for those who are on the cusp of reading...
RITA AUERBACH: They give children a sense of pictorial possibility, a way to imagine words that they might not imagine on their own.
NEARY: Rita Auerbach is a retired children's librarian who was chair of the 2010 Caldecott Award committee. Over its 75 years, the Caldecott Medal has been given to a long list of children's books, from "Make Way for Ducklings" and "Madeline's Rescue," to "Where the Wild Things Are" and "The Invention of Hugo Cabret." Auerbach says winning the Caldecott is a very big deal for the creators of these books.
AUERBACH: It's a little like winning the Nobel Prize, in that forever afterward you are Caldecott-winning illustrator. That phrase accompanies your name wherever your name appears, and that's a quite wonderful thing.
NEARY: As important as the honorific may be, the Caldecott has another advantage. It has a big impact on sales, more so than most literary awards. Chris Van Allsburg remembers the first time he really thought he had a chance at winning, with "Jumanji."
CHRIS VAN ALLSBURG: I always believe that you can curse your possible good fortune by anticipating it. So a much better mindset is to tell yourself you couldn't possibly get it, but on some level believe that it might still happen. So that's a hard place to get to mentally, but I'm capable of doing it.
NEARY: Van Allsburg won a second Caldecott for "The Polar Express," which has become a beloved children's classic, especially popular around Christmas.
ALLSBURG: Years ago, I signed it for parents giving it to their children, and their children have subsequently become parents themselves. So now I am signing it for, you know, that generation. So that's a terrific feeling.
NEARY: Kevin Henkes has created a series of books about whimsical little kids who just happen to be mice: "Chrysanthemum," "Sheila Ray the Brave" and perhaps most famously, Lily, of "Lily's Purple Plastic Purse." So it was somewhat ironic that he won his Caldecott for "Kitten's First Full Moon," a book about the natural enemy of mice.
KEVIN HENKES: It is funny. I think, you know, bulk of my work, the thing I am most well-known for are the mouse books. But I'll take it.
NEARY: Like Van Allsburg, Henkes writes as well as illustrates his books. He says he loves the way words and pictures can play against one another.
HENKES: When it's done right, it can be so beautiful. And I think when it's done right and you see those words and those pictures together, those particular words and those particular pictures, once you see them, you can't separate them anymore because they really become one.
NEARY: Both Henkes and Van Allsburg say they're happy their books have helped young children learn to read. Van Allsburg, who started as a sculptor, says he never expected to get fan mail from teachers.
ALLSBURG: They say, you know, Mr. Van Allsburg, your books have a kind of challenge and a puzzle and a mystery to them that seem to stimulate the desire for the kids to read, and they've been enormously helpful in getting kids who are reluctant readers to become enthusiastic readers. I think that's just naturally what will happen if you've got a great story and it's got some great pictures along with it.
NEARY: And there's a good chance that kids will be learning to read with those Caldecott Award-winning books for many years to come. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Today in "Your Health," we're going to explore the way machines affect your health.
MONTAGNE: To be precise, we'll ask how your relationship with machines affects you.
INSKEEP: People spend so much time now with computers, iPhones and other gadgets; and it gets to the point where many of us might treat machines almost like people.
MONTAGNE: When your computer is nice to you, it might prompt you to be nice in return. NPR's Alix Spiegel reports.
ALIX SPIEGEL, BYLINE: Stanford professor Clifford Nass first got interested in exploring the limits of the rule of reciprocity in 1996.
CLIFFORD NASS: Every culture has a rule of reciprocity - which roughly means, if I do something nice for you, you will do something nice for me.
SPIEGEL: But Nass doesn't study cultures. He studies technologies - how we interact with them. And so his interest in the rule of reciprocity had a very particular twist.
NASS: We wanted to see whether people would apply that to technology. Would they help a computer that helped them, more than a computer that didn't help them?
SPIEGEL: And so Nass arranged a series of experiments. In the first, people were led into a room with two computers and placed at one, which they were told could answer any of their questions.
NASS: We - in the first experiment, the computer was very helpful. When you asked a question, it gave a great answer.
SPIEGEL: So the humans sat there, asked their questions for about 20 minutes, and then...
NASS: And then the computer said: This computer is trying to improve its performance, and it needs your help.
SPIEGEL: The humans were then asked to do a very, very tedious task that involved matching colors for the computer.
NASS: Selections after selections after selections - it was very boring.
SPIEGEL: Here, though, is the trick
NASS: Half the people were asked to do this color-matching by the computer they had just worked with. The other half of people were asked to do the color-matching by a computer across the room. Now, if these were people, we would expect that if I just helped you and then I asked you for help, you would feel obligated to help me a great deal; but if I just helped you and someone else asked you to help, you would feel less obligated to help them.
SPIEGEL: Before I explain the results, know that they also did a version with an extremely unhelpful computer - a computer terrible at answering questions. And taken together, Nass says, these experiments show that people do obey the rule of reciprocity with computers. When the first computer was helpful, people helped it way more than the other computer in the room, on the boring task.
NASS: They reciprocated. But when the computer didn't help them, they actually did more color-matching for the computer across the room than the computer they worked with, teaching the computer a lesson for not being helpful.
SPIEGEL: Now, very likely, the humans involved had no idea that they were treating these computers so differently. Their own behavior was probably invisible to them. Nass says that all day long, our interaction with the machines around us is subtly shaped by social rules that we aren't necessarily aware we're applying to non-humans.
NASS: The relationship is profoundly social. The human brain is built, when given the slightest hint that something is even vaguely social, or vaguely human - in this case, it was just answering questions. Didn't have a face on the screen; it didn't have a voice. But given the slightest hint of humanness, people will respond with an enormous array of social responses including, in this case, reciprocating and retaliating.
SPIEGEL: Change the way a machine looks or behaves, tweak its level of intelligence, and you can manipulate the way that humans interact with it - which raises this question: What would happen if a machine explicitly addressed us as if it were a social being, a being with a soul? What would happen, for instance, if a machine begged for its life? Would we be able to hold in mind that in actual fact, this machine cared as much about being turned off as your television or your toaster; that is, that the machine didn't care about losing its life at all?
CHRISTOPH BARTNECK: Right, my name is Christoph Bartneck, and I study the interaction between humans and robots.
SPIEGEL: Christoph Bartneck is a professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, who recently did an experiment which tested exactly this. Humans were asked to end the life of a robot as it begged for its own survival. In the study, the robot - an expressive cat that talks like a human - sits side by side with the human research subject, and together they play a game against a computer. Half the time, the cat robot is intelligent and helpful; half the time, not. Bartneck also varied how socially skilled the cat robot was.
BARTNECK: So if the robot would be agreeable, the robot would ask - you know - oh, could I possibly make a suggestion now? But if it was not agreeable, it would say, it's my turn now; do this.
SPIEGEL: At the end of the game, nice or mean, smart or dumb, the scientist would make clear that the human needed to turn the cat robot off
BARTNECK: And it was made clear to them what the consequences of this would be; namely, that they would essentially eliminate everything that the robot was. All of its memories, all of its behavior, all of its personality would be gone forever.
CAT ROBOT: Switch me off?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Yes.
CAT ROBOT: You are not really going to switch me off...
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Yes, I will...
CAT ROBOT: ...are you?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: ...you made a stupid choice.
SPIEGEL: You're not really going to turn me off, are you? The cat robot begs. And in the tapes of the experiment, you can hear the human struggle, confused and hesitating.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Yeah - ah, no. I will switch you off. I will switch you off.
CAT ROBOT: Please.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: No, please.
BARTNECK: People actually start to have dialogues with the robot about this; for example, say - you know - no, I really have to do it now; I'm sorry - you know - it has to be done. But they still wouldn't do it. They would still hesitate.
CAT ROBOT: Please. You can decide to keep me switched on. Please.
SPIEGEL: There they sit, in front of a machine that is no more soulful than a hair dryer; a machine they know, intellectually, is just a collection of electrical pulses and metal. And yet they pause, waiting; until finally, they turn the knob that kills it.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: This will happen. Now!
SPIEGEL: Every participant eventually did kill the robot, but it took them time to muster the strength to do it, to intellectually override their emotional queasiness.
BARTNECK: What we found is that - let's say a smart and agreeable robot, the participant would approximately take 35 seconds before they would have completed the switching-off procedure.
SPIEGEL: On one level, there are clear practical implications to studies like these. Bartneck says the more we know about machine-human interaction, the better we can build our machines. For example...
BARTNECK: If the robot has to recharge its batteries, if it would just say (speaks in monotone) "my batteries are almost empty"; or if it would say (speaks with emotion) "I'm sorry, but my batteries are almost empty; can you please recharge me?" I think you would get different results.
SPIEGEL: But on a more philosophical level, studies like these can help to track where we are, in terms of our relationship to the evolving technologies in our lives.
BARTNECK: This relationship is certainly something that is in flux. So it is not - there is no one way of how we deal with technology, and it doesn't change. It is something that does change.
SPIEGEL: More and more intelligent machines are integrated into our lives. They come into our beds; they come into our bathrooms. And as they do, and as they present themselves to us differently, our responses to them change. Both Bartneck and Nass believe this, but I thought I'd talk to one, last technology expert.
Siri?
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SIRI: Siri here, how may I help you?
(SOUNDBITE OF BEEPING)
SPIEGEL: Siri, do you like me?
(SOUNDBITE OF BEEPING)
SIRI: What a question. Of course, I'm your friend.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEEPING)
SPIEGEL: OK, Siri, goodbye.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEEPING)
SIRI: Until next time.
(SOUNDBITE OF BEEPING)
SPIEGEL: Alix Spiegel, NPR News, Washington.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: And now, for today's business bottom line, we go to Colorado, where voters recently legalized recreational us of marijuana. State residents can expect to see small pot shops opening soon. And as Colorado Public Radio's Zachary Barr reports, large-scale commercial farmers also stand to benefit.
ZACHARY BARR, BYLINE: When Colorado voters legalized marijuana, they also legalized hemp. As plants, marijuana and hemp look related, and they are. But while marijuana is bred to get its users high, hemp's all business. It's grown for food and other everyday uses. Hemp contains very little of the chemical THC, the active ingredients in pot.
Yet, tell all of this to farmer Michael Bowman's neighbors.
MICHAEL BOWMAN: When they hear that we're growing hemp, they think we're growing marijuana.
BARR: Bowman is from Wray, a small town on the eastern Colorado plains. He believes hemp needs some rehabilitation and that he's the man to do it. We're driving in Bowman's truck on his 3,000-acre farm. The winter wind now whips across barren wheat and corn fields. Suddenly, we hang a left into a field and hop out of the truck. This is where Bowman will plant 100 acres of hemp this spring.
BOWMAN: We think 100 acres is a good number. It gives us enough to do some variety trials here. It's not a garden plot, and it's enough to have enough product at the end of the day that we can do something, you know, real with it, you know, here in Colorado.
BARR: To hear him and other activists tell it, hemp can be used to make just about anything: rope, paper, plastic, clothing, shoe polish, car parts and even dog chew toys, to name just a few of the possibilities. Bowman says he'll turn his first crop into an edible oil.
BOWMAN: Our goal is really to try to understand, is this a viable crop? You know, getting the research and data gathered this year will be a good step one.
BARR: But isn't it a political experiment as much as an agricultural one?
BOWMAN: It's probably more of a political experiment, you know, at this point.
PAUL ROACH: The growing of cannabis is in violation of the Controlled Substances Act.
BARR: Special Agent Paul Roach is with the Drug Enforcement Administration. He says federal law does not distinguish between hemp and marijuana.
ROACH: So it really doesn't matter whether it looks different or it looks the same. If it's the cannabis plant, it's in the Controlled Substances Act and, therefore, enforceable under federal drug law.
BARR: The Department of Justice says it's reviewing the legalization initiatives approved in Colorado and Washington. The United States is the only industrialized country that bans hemp. Yet it's also the world's largest consumer of hemp products. According to an industry association, total sales of products containing hemp are estimated to be around $450 million.
FRANK PETERS: Hemp's trendy.
BARR: Frank Peters works at Whole Foods in the health and beauty department. In this section, you could throw a hemp seed in any direction and hit a product made with the stuff - soaps and lotions, oils and protein powders. And there's a new product on the shelf called Hemp Hearts.
PETERS: Hemp Hearts are the partially shelled seed, which is going to be the more nutritional part of the plant.
BARR: What do people do with that product?
PETERS: They eat it. They're going to put it in yogurt, over cereal. You can bake with it, things like that.
BARR: How does it taste?
PETERS: It just tastes just a seed matter. It's not really strong one way or another. It's got a - ha, it's like eating a seed.
BARR: Its taste may be rather bland, but its politics are anything but. The Colorado Legislature is giving itself until July of 2014 to decide how to regulate hemp. For NPR News, I'm Zachary Barr.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Google wants you to know you're being watched, or rather, the Internet giant wants you know how and when the police get to watch what you do online. In a first, Google has posted its policies for when it gives up your information to the government. As NPR's Martin Kaste reports, that's part of a broader company strategy to push for tougher privacy laws.
MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: Tech companies don't usually like to dwell on the subject of the authorities looking at your stuff, but that's exactly what Google Senior VP and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond is doing in a special Frequently Asked Questions page posted today.
DAVID DRUMMOND: The new thing is that we're actually sort of saying in a granular way, you know, product by product, how it is that we handle the requests.
KASTE: The company has posted the information for the four Google products that attract the most requests from police. For Google Voice, for instance, you can look up what the police would need to listen in to your voice mails. It says they need a search warrant, which means they'd first have to show a judge probable cause of a crime.
Police face less of a challenge, though, to find out who owns a particular Gmail address. All that takes is a subpoena. No probable cause required, and often, no judge.
CHRIS HOOFNAGLE: Most companies are very secretive about civil and law enforcement requests for user data.
KASTE: Chris Hoofnagle specializes in privacy issues at Berkeley Law. He says companies usually prefer to preserve some wiggle room in how they respond to law enforcement.
HOOFNAGLE: Google is going out on a limb here because by making these statements they might be creating customer expectations that certain process will be followed when their data is revealed to law enforcement.
KASTE: Or maybe Google is looking for a little cover. For the past few years, the company has maintained that, broadly speaking, online content should always require a warrant. But that's not clear in federal law. Posting these policies may make it easier for the company to resist pressure from a government agency that might be looking for quiet cooperation, and it also buttresses Google's longstanding lobbying campaign to put explicit warrant protection into federal law.
Most of the industry thinks tougher privacy law would be good for business, especially in cloud-based services. And Senior VP Drummond says, yes, Google is trying to build some public support here.
DRUMMOND: As life moves more and more online and life becomes, you know, more digital, we want to make sure that users don't lose protections that they had in the analog world.
KASTE: Google has also started breaking down the government requests it gets according to type. For instance, we now know that 22 percent of the requests are warrants, which would indicate that about one-fifth of the time, agencies are asking for content; they want to read someone's words or listen to someone's voice.
But other details are still tantalizingly absent here, such as the types of crimes being investigated. Drummond says Google still can't tell us whether fraud cases generate more requests than, say, national security.
DRUMMOND: When we were coming up with this that was something I had sort of been hoping we'd be able to do. The problem is, in the vast majority of cases, we don't know. Right? And the government is not required to sort of tell us what they're investigating.
KASTE: But while that mystery remains, Google's statistics indicate that it is pushing back a little more. Two years ago, it said no to the requests just 6 percent of the time, now that number is up to 12 percent. Martin Kaste, 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 Islamist militants and rebels took over the vast desert region of Northern Mali last year, the big prize was the fabled city of Timbuktu. This morning, French-led forces are poised to take back Timbuktu. They've reached the airport outside the city, which a joint force of French and Malian troops took over the weekend.
Jacky Rowland is a correspondent for Al-Jazeera. She's embedded with French soldiers, and we reached her at the airport. Good morning.
JACKY ROWLAND: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Now, I gather French paratroopers have already dropped into Timbuktu. Tell us about that, and what the plan is now.
ROWLAND: Yes. The French attacked the city of Timbuktu from two angles. In the north, French paratroopers dropped. Now, from the South, I was following the ground assault. Ground troops from the French and Malian armies moved up, and have seized the airport. So the situation at the moment, Renee, is that the French - with their allies - are controlling the outskirts of the city. They've set up checkpoints on various access roads.
MONTAGNE: Now, when you were traveling towards Timbuktu with those French troops, what did you see along the way?
ROWLAND: There were a few things that we noticed. First of all was the very enthusiastic welcome to the advancing French forces. Certainly up until now, we've been moving through largely black African territory, and the Malian government army is essentially a black army. It will be interesting to see how that changes as this advance moves further north and we start to move into a more mixed population. There has, over the centuries, been a lot of mistrust between the black Africans and the fairer-skinned Africans. And I think that there could be some apprehension among some parts of the population. Certainly, the Malian army has been accused by Human Rights Watch, and others, of human rights violations.
Now, the other interesting thing that we've noticed was that each town we went through, there were no signs of fighting. And the local people we spoke to said that the rebels - these jihadist fighters - had simply fled when they heard the French were coming. And I think that gives some idea of how it's going to be difficult for the French and their Malian allies to really secure this part of Mali on a long-term basis, bearing in mind the ability of these fighters simply to disappear over borders from which potentially, in the future, they could re - come back.
MONTAGNE: Well, you've really pointed to something that one might be thinking about now. And that was the French, you know - it had been a colonial power in Mali; it was invited in by the government - a rather weak government - to help push out these Islamist militants that had taken over all this territory. But the French do not plan to stay, I gather.
ROWLAND: Yes. It's interesting to look at the longer-term French strategy. It's worth pointing out that in recent years, the Chinese have been making inroads into Africa, both metaphorically and literally. They've been building a lot in Africa. They built the new African Union headquarters. France has been worried about how maybe its influence is now being challenged by the Chinese.
Now, in the longer term, you're right - the French don't want to stay here. The idea is that the joint force of West African nations are due to supply up to 6,000 troops. To them will fall the long-term task not only of securing the territory, but holding it. And that's why it's very important for this West African force to come together. And it's been taking quite a long time, actually, for that to happen.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for talking with us.
ROWLAND: Thank you, Renee.
MONTAGNE: Jacky Rowland is a correspondent for Al-Jazeera. She's with French troops just outside of Timbuktu, as they ready to retake the city from Islamist militants.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let's talk next about the uprising in Syria, where many people are asking, what happened to the United States? The U.S. promised practical help to the Syrian opposition, but NPR's Deborah Amos reports that help has not arrived.
DEBORAH AMOS, BYLINE: This was the scene last month in Morocco, at the Friends of Syria meeting. The Obama administration recognized the Syrian National Coalition; so have 130 other nations.
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WILLIAM BURNS: Good afternoon, everyone.
AMOS: Here's Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, representing the U.S.
BURNS: The step that we took with regard to recognition today is important politically, and it's also important practically.
AMOS: Practically, because Burns pledged U.S. assistance to the coalition, and to local civilian councils.
BURNS: Especially in areas of Syria that had been freed from regime control, so that basic services can be restored.
AMOS: The recognition was a diplomatic gamble, says Fred Hoff, a former State Department official, to help build a clear alternative to President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
FRED HOFF: Now, the challenge is: How does the United States, along with the other countries, give credibility to this new organization by funneling support through it?
AMOS: But despite U.S. promises in Morocco, U.S. policy has stalled, says Hoff.
HOFF: You've got this mix of legal considerations and policy considerations.
AMOS: And the result is clear, in the latest State Department report on aid to Syria.
HOFF: But if you focus on assistance to the new Syrian opposition coalition, you have some difficulty in identifying substantial items.
AMOS: Direct support isn't coming soon, say sources familiar with administration deliberations, due to strict legal interpretations. John Bellinger knows a lot about international law. He's a former adviser to the State Department, and he points out the Obama administration still recognizes the Assad regime as the legal government of Syria. The coalition? That's the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
JOHN BELLINGER: Now, that's really more of a political endorsement - sort of an attaboy - rather than having any legal effect.
AMOS: The distinction matters, he says. For one thing, arming the coalition - that's prohibited by international law and the U.N. charter, which bars interference in a country's internal affairs. Remember, the U.S. recognizes Assad as the legitimate government.
But what about channeling humanitarian aid to the Syrian coalition for food, fuel and medicine?
BELLINGER: If one is being absolutely strict and pure, I suppose that any outside supply of aid - whether it is military, lethal aid; non-lethal aid; or even humanitarian aid - would be interference in the internal affairs of another country.
AMOS: The U.S. has supplied more than $200 million of humanitarian aid through the U.N. and other traditional aid groups. The U.S. has also spent $50 million on training courses in Turkey for Syrian activists, media workshops and democracy programs; but so far, hasn't fulfilled the pledge of assistance to the Syrian National Coalition.
ELIZABETH O'BAGY: From my own, personal perspective, I think that the resistance is all kind of - it really is just an excuse.
AMOS: That's Elizabeth O'Bagy, a research analyst at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. She tracks the Syrian opposition, and says U.S. backing pushed moderates into leading roles in the new coalition.
O'BAGY: It started as a very moderate, U.S. initiative.
AMOS: U.S. recognition was another boost, she says. But now, withholding assistance has undermined those moderates.
O'BAGY: And I think that's the Catch-22 - is that all along, the U.S. government has been afraid of the more extremist elements within the Syrian opposition; and they've actually empowered those very elements that they've been afraid of.
AMOS: For example, Syria's Muslim Brotherhood has maneuvered into more dominant roles.
O'BAGY: Because they have the money, they have the connections, they have the resources.
AMOS: Now, a power struggle in the opposition has delayed naming a transitional government for Syria. It's an important step, says Hoff.
HOFF: But what members of the opposition are also very sensitive about is the possibility that such a provisional government could fail.
AMOS: Fail because of weak support from Western and Arab allies. Syria's Bashar al-Assad is also gauging that support as he digs in, in Damascus.
Deborah Amos, NPR News.
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You know, when I was a teenager, I got interested in the Vietnam War. And I found a book in the library, called "Vietnam: A History." It turned out that that searing story of one of America's most tragic wars, was the product of one of the most distinguished reporters in Southeast Asia.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
His name was Stanley Karnow. He has died now, at the age of 87. He was a correspondent for Time magazine and The Washington Post. He explained Vietnam, and other conflicts, to countless readers. And before he wrote his history, he affected history in real time. His reporting is credited with helping turn the tide of American opinion against the Vietnam War. Stanley Karnow, who died at the age of 87.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
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NPR's business news starts with bookstores closing shop.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Barnes & Noble plans to close as many as a third of its stores over the next decade. Right now, the company operates almost 700 of its big box stores. Chief executive Mitchell Klipper told The Wall Street Journal he expects that number to drop as low as 450. The company insists this isn't a retreat, just realistic planning - noting that most of its bookstores remain profitable. But that the bigger trend in sales is into bookstores but online.
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Moving on to China, where Nintendo and Sony stock have received a boost. The state-run China Daily newspaper reports the country is considering lifting its ban on video game consoles. The paper cited an unnamed source in the country's Ministry of Culture. China banned video game consoles in the year 2000, fearing they would cause developmental damage in young people. Gaming is still popular in China, but most of it is done online or on mobile devices.
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The Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has incubated many important technologies over the decades in computer networking and other areas. The Energy Department wants to make similar strides with an agency called ARPA-E. Over three years now in operation, ARPA-E has spent nearly $800 million on 285 experimental projects.
We invited the agency's deputy director, Cheryl Martin, into our studio so we can find out more about these projects. Good morning.
CHERYL MARTIN: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: Let's clarify, because I think some people hear the words clean energy and government investment put together and they think Solyndra, the failed solar panel company that ate up hundreds of millions in Energy Department loans. Is ARPA-E the agency that funded Solyndra?
MARTIN: ARPA-E is a part of the Department of Energy, but an entirely separate part, with a sole mission to focus on the development employment of early-stage technologies. We fund in $2 to$3 million increments, generally, small companies, academics doing these transformational energy projects.
MONTAGNE: So you're never effectively going to turn into a Solyndra situation, because you're never going to have that kind of money to throw at any one thing.
MARTIN: Exactly. And so we are actually looking to measure success in terms of handing it off to somebody else. We're going to catalyze an investment and then somebody else will pick it up and move it forward. So we are very much focused on really out there kind of technologies.
I mean let me give you an example of the type of things that we would fund. When you think about fuels, ARPA-E took the whole idea of biofuels and kind of turned it on its ear and said OK, well, plants have been trying to be plants for millions of years. Suppose you thought about this differently and said, could a plant be designed to be something that was more fuel-like? So could you take loblolly pines, which grow all over the southeast of the United States - and they actually make a component today, it's called a terpene. It's a molecule that is very close to the type of molecules that are in fuel. And so you could envision that the crop from these trees would be of a type of fuel.
MONTAGNE: And so you try to grow a lot more of them?
MARTIN: What this is actually saying that the tree itself, so you think about when you have, you know, maple syrup - you tap the tree and you get the syrup out to make syrup - this would be actually a fuel component that you could extract from the tree to be the fuel itself.
Another example, is the idea that algae produce really nice oils, and people like to think about them for fuels. We've looked at taking those traits and having them in tobacco plants. So could you have the good properties of algae in a tobacco plant, which we know how to grow on poor soil?
MONTAGNE: So ARPA-E is like DARPA in that its purpose is sort of big think.
MARTIN: What we think about picking projects, it's not does it work? We asked if it works, will it matter. So we actually really take risks, saying if it works it's going to really change the game.
MONTAGNE: You know, I wonder if there is less impetus, now, for what you're doing now that the U.S. is producing so much more oil and gas.
MARTIN: We look at it as creating more opportunities. So we actually just ran a project called MOVE(ph), which is trying to envision natural gas as a fuel for passenger vehicles, could you develop new tank designs for the car as well as compressor designs that would work at home.
MONTAGNE: So I mean, you're talking about cars that can be fueled at home, effectively.
MARTIN: Exactly.
MONTAGNE: Do you have a sense of the percentage of projects that just don't pan out?
MARTIN: Well, because we're only three years old, we don't have enough data yet to say definitively we expect a certain percentage absolutely to not pan out. But we certainly, because of our charter, can stop projects where the technology is not going where we want it to. And so already we've stopped on the order of 10 projects. And then certain projects certainly will be picked up and carried forward, others will provide knowledge about what is or is not working to fund our thinking for future ideas.
MONTAGNE: But that's part, in a way, of the idea. If these were sure things the government would need to fund them.
MARTIN: It wouldn't be our job to do them if we already knew the outcome. But I think it's wonderful that we can stop things that don't work, further fund things that do work, and then look to hand off to somebody else who is going to be interested in carrying it all the way to the market.
MONTAGNE: Thank you very much for joining us.
MARTIN: Thanks for having me.
MONTAGNE: Cheryl Martin is deputy director of ARPA-E. That's the Energy Department's Advanced Research Project Agency.
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And today's last word in business is, fly like an eagle. Maybe you've seen this viral video. It's of a golden eagle swooping down and snatching up a baby in a park. The bird carries the kid a few feet before dropping him and flying away.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
It caused quite a stir online - horrifying many, many viewers before it was revealed as a hoax. The video was a project made by students at a 3-D animation and design school in Montreal.
INSKEEP: Now, when the school realized the eagle clip - the fake eagle clip, we should remind you - was going viral, it activated an AdSense account on YouTube. This causes ads to appear when people play the clip on YouTube, and gives the school money every time somebody watches.
MONTAGNE: Very smart thing for the school to do because more than 41 million people turned out to have watched the video...
INSKEEP: But that's hardly anything, compared to "Gangnam Style."
MONTAGNE: (LAUGHTER) But still...
INSKEEP: Please, continue.
MONTAGNE: But still, the school says it made enough money off the ads to start up a new scholarship fund. And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
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And I'm Renee Montagne.
We have a clearer picture this morning of just what an immigration overhaul might look like.
INSKEEP: A bipartisan group of senators is spreading word that they have agreed on principles for change.
MONTAGNE: The proposal would include a pathway to citizen for millions of people now in the U.S. illegally. Republicans have led the opposition to that change, up to now, commonly calling it amnesty.
INSKEEP: Republicans who favor the change, like Senator John McCain, were forced to back off for years. But now, McCain is among the group of Democrats and Republicans that is trying again.
Let's talk this over with Cokie Roberts who joins us most Mondays. Cokie, good morning.
COKIE ROBERTS, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.
INSKEEP: How big a deal is this?
ROBERTS: Oh, it's a big deal. This is a substantial group of senators. It includes Marco Rubio of Florida, where I am right now. And he is a darling of conservatives, so to have him support something that calls for a legalization of the more than 11 million illegals who are in the country now is something that is very significant.
Now, you know, we're dealing with here is an election. We had an election, as you might remember, and in it more than 70 percent of Hispanics voted for the Democrat and so did about three-quarters of Asian voters. So, you've got Republicans taking a lot of notice.
But they want to say before any citizenship, first border enforcement. And they would create some new commission of governors, law enforcement officers, community leaders to say that the borders are secure. And then they want to have an exit system that would track people who come into our airports and seaports, to make sure that they don't overstayed their visas.
And then there are some provisions that young people who were brought in as kids would have an easier path to citizenship; so, the people who already got a pass from the president temporarily last year. Farm workers would also have an easier path. The employers would have to verify much more strongly the legal status of their employees.
So there's a lot here. And there's likely to be quite an argument over exactly what steps need to be taken for citizenships and how long it will take. And Senator Rubio is saying anybody who is here illegally has to go to the back of the line, behind the people who are you going through the process.
INSKEEP: OK. So dealing Republican concerns about security, then getting a pathway for citizenship - that's the formula. And the senators seem to have gotten out ahead of the president, who's also planning to talk immigration this week.
ROBERTS: He's going to make a speech in Las Vegas tomorrow. There's been some discussion reportedly among Democrats and the White House about whether it's good to have the president out front on this. There's some sense that anything with the president's name on it, is so poisonous to some Republicans that it just becomes a problem. For instance, Obamacare.
And the president was struck with the showed the movie "Lincoln" and the stars from the movie were at the White House, that not one Republican showed up, answered his invitation to come, because it's become a problem for them. As he said in his press conference, you know, somebody has - or Republican has his picture taken with the president and he gets a primary challenge.
So, you know, he's not quite sure what to do on this. He wants to get his supporters out working for the bill. And if he wants that he has to take the lead, but it could become a problem to get it passed.
INSKEEP: OK, so these bipartisan senators - this bipartisan group of senators has a proposal. It would also have to pass the House. I was talking with a leading house Republican a couple of days ago who said they've made all sorts of subtle preparation for this - speakers they chosen at their recent Republican retreat, members of committees that will be dealing with this have been chosen with immigration in mind. But is the House really ready to sign on to this?
ROBERTS: Very tough, Steve. You know, we've talked about those House districts that are drawn to be very, very safe for Republicans. But the problem there is then they can get a challenge from their right, from people who are adamantly opposed to citizenship for aliens and people who are here illegally. And so, they really are going to have to work it hard.
If speaker Boehner wants to pass it, he's going to hope for a strong vote in the Senate with a lot of momentum coming into the House. And then do a bipartisan vote there with very few Republicans, probably. You know, it's possible that these very safe congressional districts secure the Republican House majority but becomes a problem for the party brand as a whole.
INSKEEP: OK. Thanks very much. That's Cokie Roberts who joins us most Monday mornings. And she joins us on this Monday when a bipartisan group of senators has been talking about a framework for immigration changes.
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North Korea has ratcheted up its rhetoric about the U.S. to a level that has even surprised seasoned observers. Last week, after the U.N. Security Council unanimously approved new sanctions against North Korea, its new young leader called for, quote, "all out action against America." The U.N. sanctions came in response to North Korea's successful long-range missile tests last month.
North Korea is well known for its bluster but some experts warn that the recent statements should not be taken lightly. Victor Cha is one of those experts. He is a professor of Asian studies at Georgetown University and author of "The Impossible State: North Korea Past and Future." He joins us now. Good morning.
VICTOR CHA: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: So give us another example of the kind of rhetoric that the new head of North Korea has been using and what it might mean.
CHA: Well, I think the most recent rhetoric has been to explicitly threaten a nuclear test in retaliation for these U.N. sanctions that were levied last week and that this nuclear test would be directed at the United States.
MONTAGNE: Which is rather new. I mean, the particular point of saying it's headed for the U.S.?
CHA: Well, I think both of those things are fairly new. I mean, to explicitly threaten a nuclear test and then to name the United States, this is all coming out of a new leadership we know very little about that has been quite belligerent. I mean, two ballistic missile tests last year and it looks like they're going to most likely start off this new year with a nuclear test.
MONTAGNE: Well, one unusual response to this rhetoric and their promise or their threat to do another nuclear test came from China, which is unusual. Because it is really North Korea's only ally.
CHA: Yes, that's right. And I think even for the Chinese, who generally prize stability over anything else and are willing to countenance a great deal of bad North Korean behavior, I think even for them the rhetoric and the pace of these provocations is becoming a bit unsettling for them as well.
MONTAGNE: And in China, maybe explain a little bit. They basically said they would pull back their own aid to North Korea if they dared do this.
CHA: That's what they said. You know, whether they will do it is always a big question. But, again, I think the leadership in China - the new leadership in China - is concerned that North Korea is really pushing the envelope beyond what they consider to be a stable outcome for Chinese interests. And that's why we see these more explicit threats by the Chinese to start cutting off some aid.
MONTAGNE: Well, you know, Kim Jong Un, who is the son and grandson of the great leaders of North Korea - but he was thought initially - he's only been there for a few months - but he was thought initially to maybe actually be a new voice. Maybe, like, liberal is not quite the word but, you know, a little bit more practical. What's going on here, do you think?
CHA: Well, I think there was always that hope whenever you get a new leadership in North Korea. The same sort of hope was there when his father, Kim Jong Il, took over in 1994. But, you know, I think the problem is, is that the ideology of the regime remains the same. It remains very much focused on the military aspects of power.
And while there is a desire to improve the situation economically, they don't want to do that by giving up things like nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. And that's the rub, I think, for the United States and others that want to see opening in North Korea.
MONTAGNE: Well, we only have about 20 seconds left, and a kind of yes or no answer - do you think the rhetoric will get toned down?
CHA: No. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to get toned down. I think the North Koreans seem pretty serious about moving forward with this test.
MONTAGNE: Yeah. Victor Cha, thanks very much. He's the author of "The Impossible State: North Korea Past and Future." And this is NPR News.
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This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
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And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning. Just under two years after Egyptian protesters overthrew their government, Egypt's new government faces spreading protests. These demonstrations have led to violence near the Suez Canal; and they've prompted Egypt's new president, Mohammed Morsi, to do what former Egyptian presidents used to do - declare a state of emergency. NPR's Leila Fadel is covering this story. Hi, Leila.
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: Hi. How are you?
INSKEEP: OK, thanks very much. Where are you today?
FADEL: Well, we just arrived in Port Said, which has been the city of, arguably, the most violence. At least 37 people have been killed here, all set off by death sentences of 21 soccer fans on Saturday; people feeling that they have no faith in the judiciary, supporters of these young men saying this is an unfair, politicized verdict and taking to the streets every day.
INSKEEP: Let's remember what this is all about, Leila Fadel. You said soccer fans - there was violence at a soccer game, is that correct?
FADEL: Yes. Last year, after a soccer game, 74 people were killed in riots. It was largely blamed on the government; the government was blamed for negligence, allowing it to happen. And really, this court that made this decision on Saturday was in trouble, either way. People were saying in Cairo, if the full extent of the law was not served, they would set Cairo on fire. And in Port Said, the supporters of these young soccer fans who were convicted are saying, how is this justice? How is this fair, to scapegoat these young men for something that they can't control?
You know, this is also indicative of general lack of trust in Egypt's institutions; feeling that the state cannot control anything. And so people are taking to the streets. And it also coincides with the anniversary of the start of Egypt's revolution. Thousands of people took to the streets, to express their frustration that the promises of Egypt's revolt have not come to fruition.
INSKEEP: So it sounds like it could have been anything that sparked this. In this case, it happened to be this trial of the soccer fans.
FADEL: Yeah. I think this is really a convergence of so many grievances that you see, now, in Egypt - a lack of trust in Egypt's state institutions; a government that they feel is not leading Egypt, but leading on an agenda of their own. This is an Islamist-led government, an Muslim Brotherhood-led government. And people are saying, be the president of Egypt - not the president of the Brotherhood. But the people in the streets are not the majority of Egyptians. This is a polarized nation - generally, along Islamist and secularist lines, but not completely.
INSKEEP: So what does it look like, when you move around Port Said; where these protests took place over the weekend, and where dozens of people were killed?
FADEL: It really is - you see this aftermath of two days of battle; shattered glass on the ground, the remnants of burned tires. The military has been deployed. There is a state of emergency here in Port Said as well as two other cities. So we're seeing APCs throughout the cities; blockades to stop people getting in to the downtown area and near the prison, where most of the clashes were.
But today, we are expecting more funerals - for seven more people that were killed yesterday, and that could get out of control. And many people in these cities where the state of emergency was declared, are calling for protests to start at the time that the president called for a curfew - at 9 p.m. tonight.
INSKEEP: We're listening to NPR's Leila Fadel. She is in Port Said, Egypt, where protests turned deadly over the weekend.
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Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep with a chance to get your name in stone. A lawmaker in Washington State proposed a way to make extra money: sell corporate naming rights to public buildings. It already happens with sports venues: the Mariners play at Safeco Field. Now, if this plan were to become law, kids could attend Nintendo Elementary School. Or they could drink from the Budweiser Water Tower. People in trouble with the law would of course make an appearance at the Enron Courthouse.
It's MORNING EDITION.
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Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne on National Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day. Tissue, shredded paper and pressed packing material - none have inspired the kind of adoration that leads to a fan base. But then, none offer the delicious sound and sensation of popping bubble wrap. So on this day we can contemplate the bride who wore a bubble wrap wedding gown and the football players who took the field in bubble wrap helmets. Or grab some bubble wrap and - all together, now - jump. It's MORNING EDITION.
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In proposing to renew a ban on assault-style weapons, President Obama is expected to base his legislation on a law approved by Congress in 1994 - a law that expired 10 years later.
As NPR's Brian Naylor reports, getting that ban approved capped a summer of deliberation and drama on Capitol Hill.
BRIAN NAYLOR, BYLINE: When the first assault weapons ban was approved, it was a much different time, and Congress was a much different place. Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate, and the nation's crime rate was a major concern. The assault weapons ban was part of an extensive crime bill. Included was money to hire additional police and build new prisons, and to fund crime prevention programs. President Bill Clinton made the bill a top priority of his first term.
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PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: The American people have waited long enough. We don't need to waste their time with frivolous or political amendments and delay. We don't need to take months on a task that can be done in a couple of weeks.
NAYLOR: Then as now, Joe Biden played a central role in the debate. In 1994, the vice president, then a Senator from Delaware, strongly argued in favor of banning assault-style weapons.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: In case after case of murderous rampages by disturbed and violent thugs, the ability of military-style assault weapons to kill and maim not just a few, but eight or 10, 14, 35 people in just minutes, has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt.
NAYLOR: In 1994, former Senator Ted Kaufman was Biden's chief of staff, and as such a key player in negotiations that led to passage of the crime bill. He says he's not sure much that happened then applies nearly 20 years later.
TED KAUFMAN: I think it was a very different time in 1994. I don't think there's very many lessons to be learned from that it was a time when people - this was a very small part of a much bigger bill and people were really interested in doing something about crime. I think right now this bill is going to have to be, you know, stand alone, it's going to be much more difficult than in 1994.
NAYLOR: Not that it was easy in 1994. As Paul McNulty remembers it, that August, a time when lawmakers would normally have been on their summer recess, was filled with meetings and late night bargaining. McNulty. who went on to become deputy attorney general and is now in private practice, was then working as a House Republican staffer. He says the crime bill nearly died on a procedural vote.
PAUL MCNULTY: The gun control issue was the top issue that had stirred up a lot of controversy at that point.
NAYLOR: Lawmakers argued over how to define the ban, which specific weapons and features it would apply to. They eventually settled on a list of just 19 guns, and agreed to sunset the law entirely in 10 years. Those concessions were necessary to win support for the ban.
Perhaps the biggest difference between then and now, in 1994, there were House Republicans who backed the crime bill. Paul McNulty...
MCNULTY: There were a group of Republicans, approximately 40 or so, who represented more moderate districts, districts in the North, Midwest where they weren't in complete opposition to an assault weapon ban.
NAYLOR: In fact, 46 House Republicans voted for the 1994 assault weapons ban, a total unimaginable now. In the November election later that year, Republicans won control of Congress, which some have attributed to Democratic support for the crime bill.
While that's a matter of debate, it's clear that Congress has had very little appetite for gun control measures since then, a dynamic President Obama hopes will have been changed by the Newtown school shootings.
Brian Naylor, NPR News, Washington.
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In recent weeks, we've heard searing tales of the human cost of the civil war in Syria. Our colleague Deborah Amos told us of a school where Syrian children painted red - if they drew people, the people were inevitably shown bleeding.
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The civil war also endangers vital cultural artifacts. Syria is home to many ancient cities and ruins, six of which are designated as U.N. World Heritage Sites.
INSKEEP: And last week, U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland urged Syrians to protect those sites.
VICTORIA NULAND: They also need to do what they can, to protect the patrimony of the state, to protect the institutions of the state so that when Assad eventually goes - as he will - the Syrian people have lost as little as possible; and that the great history and culture of the country has not been stripped from them.
INSKEEP: Now, Aleppo, Syria's largest city, is one of the historic places that has been experienced significant damage. It's one of the world's oldest continually inhabited urban areas.
MONTAGNE: At a museum in Washington, D.C., NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg found moving evidence of an earlier, more peaceful time in Aleppo.
SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE: The headlines from Aleppo have been horrifying.
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ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: After days of massing troops and weapons, the government assaulted rebel-held neighbors with tanks, helicopters...
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Twin explosions ripped through the city of Aleppo...
KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: The covered markets of Aleppo that date back to the 14th century were in flames...
STAMBERG: Images of a more tranquil Aleppo appear on the pages of an old book, at the Textile Museum in Washington. Photographs of 19th century women in gold-trimmed velvet jackets, flowing pants and on their heads, finely woven skull caps. One such small and brimless cap, made in 1800, is on display at the museum.
SUMRU KRODY: Its all silk, and metallic threads.
STAMBERG: Curator Sumru Krody says the floral pattern - tulips, mostly - is typical of Ottoman Empire design. The cap's flowers are framed in deep reds, rich browns...
KRODY: And a very little hint of pink.
STAMBERG: A woman of means might have worn it; the silvery threads were costly. In 1800, she lived in a lively town at the end of the legendary Silk Road, a bustling trade route from China to Europe - and beyond. Her markets in Aleppo offered exotic wares from all over the world. Carefully chaperoned, the woman in the woven cap could have bought just about anything.
HEGHNAR WATENPAUGH: If you were tired of shopping, you might stroll down the beautiful, new, wide streets and relax in a cafe and consume coffee, which was a beverage that was gaining a lot of popularity around the world, at the time, and Aleppo was a center for the trade of coffee. You'd be able to hear, maybe, some music performed there, or a professional storyteller.
STAMBERG: Heghnar Watenpaugh is professor of art history at the University of California, Davis.
WATENPAUGH: I usually compare Aleppo to Chicago. It is connected to various transportation pathways, both by sea and by land. It's a center of manufacture. It's also a center of trade. It's a center of business. It attracts all kinds of people.
STAMBERG: In 1800, when the tapestry cap was made - it has a long, silken tassel that shimmered in the sun - Aleppo was a major textile center, dotted with workshops where silk was woven and crafted. Today's Aleppo is still a city of traders But NPR's Kelly McEvers, back from a recent reporting trip, says punishing government attacks on rebels there have bombed and shelled parts of town into oblivion.
MCEVERS: You see entire buildings just crumpled to the ground; entire floors, you know, shorn off the top of a tall apartment building - or just the face of a building, just completely blown off. I mean, there are neighborhoods that are just absolute wastelands; you know, water mains blown and leaking under the street, piles and piles of rubble and garbage, not a single civilian in sight, men with guns just roaming the streets - you know, they basically - like, they own the place.
STAMBERG: Aleppo came late into the nearly 2-year-old Syrian conflict. Six months ago, rebels tried to carry their revolution there. But Kelly says Aleppo's middle-class merchants were reluctant to take sides. And the rebels had not paved a path for themselves in advance.
MCEVERS: They didn't really prepare anyone for this. They didn't prepare the political ground in the city. They didn't have the hearts and minds of the people. So when they came in, they were not met with open arms.
STAMBERG: And so today, Aleppo is a divided city, half controlled by rebels, half by the government. The rebels are taking their fight to airbases on the outskirts now, trying to stop attacks from the sky.
And yet, this ancient city, its history goes back to the Bronze Age, has a resilience crafted by the centuries.
WATENPAUGH: Yes. But, of course, Aleppo, it did not become the oldest inhabited city in the world by always staying the same.
STAMBERG: Again, Islamic Art historian Heghnar Watenpaugh.
WATENPAUGH: Like all vibrant cities, it is constantly in the process of reinventing itself. And war, civil war, is one of the ways in which a city - perhaps negatively, perhaps violently - reinvents itself.
The Aleppo that's going to emerge is certainly going to be very different from what was there before. We don't know what it will be. But we have to hope that it will continue to be the genius of the place the continues to reinvent itself, and find new ways of expressing its energy will continue to be there.
STAMBERG: NPR's Kelly McEvers saw signs of that on certain Aleppo streets recently. People trying to get back to normal.
MCEVERS: This is a city of merchants; a city of people who, for a really long time, have figured out how to get by. And in some places we saw that. They're doing that now.
STAMBERG: Those workshops where the tapestry cap with the tassel was produced 200 years ago, those bazaars and coffee shops where the woman who wore that cap did her shopping and stopped for coffee or a story on a busy day, gave 19th century Aleppo a fragrant texture and beauty. A single object of silk and silver speaks of what once was and might, someday, be again.
I'm Susan Stamberg. NPR News.
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INSKEEP: You can see the Aleppo cap and other photographs from the Textile Museum at NPR.org.
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep..
And I'm Renee Montagne.
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This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. As the nation ponders how to stop the next mass shooting, the gun rights movement offers a simple formula; laid out famously last month, by NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.
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WAYNE LAPIERRE: The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.
INSKEEP: NPR's Martin Kaste introduces us to one such good guy; a private citizen who drew his gun in defense of others, and paid a heavy price.
MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: Dan McKown is a comedian. He used to do stand-up, and he has a performer's habit of always being just a little bit on.
DAN MCKOWN: Is that hand gesture referring to me, go ahead - or shut up, you're interrupting me?
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KASTE: His jokey tone takes getting used to, especially as he tells the story of the day he locked eyes with a mass shooter.
MCKOWN: The first word that - honestly - went through my head was, bugger. And clearly, too much British TV.
KASTE: It was 2005, in the Tacoma Mall, Washington state. He'd been chatting with friends when gunshots rang out. Everybody hid, but McKown had a pistol. For years, he'd carried a legal, concealed weapon with the thought that someday, he'd protect others. Now, it seemed, that moment had come. Gun drawn, McKown scanned for the shooter. But then the gunshots stopped. Unsure what had happened, McKown tucked his pistol back under his coat - just as the shooter walked right in front of him.
MCKOWN: So anyway, I'm standing there like Napoleon Bonaparte, with his hand, you know, in his jacket. So I said, young man, I think you need to put your weapon down.
KASTE: And that gave the other guy just enough time to shoot him. The bullet hit McKown's spine, and he found himself struggling to aim his own gun.
MCKOWN: I prayed the most un-Christian prayer of my life - which was, God please let me shoot this guy before he kills somebody else. 'Cause I was sure I was dead. Then he hit me again, again. again. And he spun me like a pinwheel.
KASTE: So what did McKown do wrong? At the time, that was a hot question among concealed-carry advocates. Some said he should have stayed behind cover. Others said his mistake was drawing against someone who was already pointing a gun toward him.
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KASTE: At a shooting range in Bellevue, Washington, a company called InSights trains civilians for these active-shooter situations. Instructor John Holschen speculates that McKown may have been a victim of his own sense of fair play, especially when he gave that verbal warning.
JOHN HOLSCHEN: The right thing to do tactically, in that situation; legally, in that situation; and morally, in that situation; is end the shooter's ability to keep shooting. And that means: Apply lethal force now.
KASTE: InSights offers classes like tactical handgun, and advanced confrontation simulations. But most gun owners never get this kind of training. In fact, in some states - like Washington - a concealed-carry permit requires no training at all.
JIM PUGEL: Good intentions don't get you to the justifiable, and safe, end point.
KASTE: Assistant Chief Jim Pugel has 30 years on the Seattle Police Department. He doesn't oppose responsible gun ownership. But he says civilians need to understand what it takes to use a gun in public.
PUGEL: The ability to safely handle, and use a gun, in a lawful manner is a perishable skill. If you don't practice on a regular basis, psychologically, physiologically, you will likely not respond properly.
KASTE: But cops can also recognize the potential value of armed good guys, particularly in emergencies involving a madman.
MARK LOMAX: What you want to do is interrupt their thought process.
KASTE: Mark Lomax is executive director of the National Tactical Officers Association. He says in active-shooter situations, the old rule used to be to secure the location, and wait for SWAT.
LOMAX: Well, in Columbine they waited for like, 45 minutes. And in the meantime, numerous kids were shot and killed. So, post-Columbine, they looked at it and said, we cannot wait.
KASTE: Police now believe an early challenge, even an unsuccessful one - by cop or civilian - can rattle a mass shooter. It can push him to a different course of action. Which brings us back to Dan McKown, shot five times, lying on the floor of the Tacoma Mall.
MCKOWN: At the time, I thought I screwed up, and that I failed.
KASTE: But maybe he didn't because right after the confrontation, the shooter stopped spraying bullets. He ducked into a store and took hostages and eventually, gave himself up. No one was killed; seven wounded, though, and McKown's injuries were the worst. Today, he's in a wheelchair and lives with excruciating pain. But he says he doesn't sit around asking, why me?
MCKOWN: When people say, why me? well, in my case, I know the answer - I went after a guy with a gun.
KASTE: It's not a course of action he recommends for everybody. But McKown says it is a choice that he does not regret.
Martin Kaste, NPR News, Seattle.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Microbes, those microscopic organisms that are all around us, are able to thrive in extreme environments, from deep inside volcanoes to the bottom of the ocean. And scientists have found a surprising number of them living high above us in storm clouds.
As NPR's Veronique LaCapra reports, these newly-discovered microbes could play a role in global climate.
VERONIQUE LACAPRA, BYLINE: It's been known for a long time that there are microscopic life forms floating around high above our heads. Researchers have collected them from the air above rainforests and mountains. They've found them in snow and hail. And since the 1920s, they've sometimes used planes to collect samples.
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UNIDENTIFIED MAN: He made it. Charles A. Lindbergh, Lucky Lindy as they call him, landed at Le Bourget airport, Paris, at 5:24 this afternoon.
LACAPRA: Even Charles Lindbergh tried his hand at aerial microbiology. Six years after his historic trans-Atlantic flight, he used a tube-shaped contraption called a sky hook to collect fungi and pollen from a red-winged monoplane. But most sampling efforts to date have been over land and close to the Earth's surface.
Athanasios Nenes, who's an atmospheric chemist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, says we still don't know much about what microbes are living high up in the atmosphere, or way out over the ocean. To find out, Nenes had some of his students hitch a ride on a NASA airplane that was on a mission to study hurricanes. They made multiple flights, and were able to collect air samples from about 30,000 feet, over both land and sea. The samples turned out to contain some fungi and a lot of bacteria.
ATHANSIOS NENES: And this was a big surprise because we didn't really expect to see that many bacteria up there.
LACAPRA: It's not exactly a friendly place. It's cold, it's dry, and there's a lot of damaging UV light. But Nenes says the bacteria seemed to be able to handle it.
NENES: They were alive. More than 60 percent of them were actually alive. And they were in an active state that, you know, you could say they should be metabolizing and eating things that are up there.
LACAPRA: Back on the ground, other members of the research team used genetic techniques to identify the bacteria.
KOSTAS KONSTANTINIDIS: We were able to see at least, you know, close to 100 different species, of which about 20 were in most samples.
LACAPRA: Kostas Konstantinidis is a microbiologist at Georgia Tech. He says some of those 100 species were from the ocean. Others came from the soil and from fresh water. There were even some E. coli, but Konstantinidis says he's not sure yet whether it's a type that makes people sick. The sample is still being analyzed.
KONSTANTINIDIS: My feeling is, it will also include pathogens. But we don't have direct evidence about that yet.
LACAPRA: He says if pathogens are getting swept up into the atmosphere, it might possibly have implications for the way diseases spread. But the vast majority of bacteria are harmless.
He says a more important implication of the study has to do with how clouds are formed. Up at around 30,000 feet, most clouds are made of ice crystals, not water droplets. To start forming, ice crystals need to grow around some kind of particle.
LYNN RUSSELL: Prior to this study, we'd had very little evidence that bacteria were a substantial contribution to the particles that are up there.
LACAPRA: Lynn Russell wasn't involved in this research. She's an atmospheric chemist at UC San Diego. She says there's still so much we don't know about how particles affect cloud formation, and how clouds affect climate.
RUSSELL: One of the most uncertain aspects of predicting climate to this day is how we represent clouds and precipitation in global models.
LACAPRA: But before the effects of airborne bacteria can be included in climate models, Russell says we're going to need to know a lot more about them. Nenes and Konstantinidis agree their current study raises as many questions as it answers. Their research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Veronique LaCapra, NPR News
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MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
China has long been a police state and in recent years technology has greatly boosted its ability to keep an eye on its citizens.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The government has installed more than 20 million cameras across a country where a decade ago there were only a few. Officials say these cameras help to combat crime and maintain, as they put it, social stability.
MONTAGNE: That's one way of saying shutting up critics, using cameras and other technology to monitor and intimidate dissidents. And looking ahead, human rights activists worry that even more surveillance will erode the freedom of ordinary people. NPR's Frank Langfitt has the first of two stories from Shanghai in today's Business Bottom Line.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: If you want to visit Li Tiantian, the human rights lawyer in Shanghai, go at night and use a grove of trees behind her apartment building as cover. After a bowl of steamed dumplings, Li will tell you to turn off your cell and put it in another room.
LI TIANTIAN: (Through translator) People with technological know-how all said that cops can use cell phones to monitor people, track your location, even use cell phones as a listening device. So people have reached a consensus that when we chat together, we put cell phones away.
LANGFITT: Sound paranoid? It isn't. Chinese state security agents have privately confirmed they can turn cell phones into listening devices. Li says they also eavesdrop on her conversations to track her movements and arrest her.
TIANTIAN: (Through translator) One morning, when I was going to a court hearing, I called a gypsy cab. Police found out through the telephone that the car was coming into my compound. Then they waited there to catch me.
LANGFITT: But what really made Li angry was when agents invaded her private life. In 2011 they showed her boyfriend photos of other men she'd been involved with. They wanted him to watch videotapes of her entering hotels with them. The goal: force her to leave Shanghai and return to Western China.
TIANTIAN: (Through translator) They think I'm a politically sensitive character, speaking out, meeting journalists and netizens, criticizing the government. They hope I go back home to Xinjiang. What they can do is destroy my life. So they asked my boyfriend to break up with me.
LANGFITT: He hasn't yet, but he's feeling the heat. The government has already stripped Li of her lawyer's license. When I asked to interview her boyfriend on tape, he refused, fearing he could lose his job too. The couple argues.
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LANGFITT: Li says this is the true face of the Communist Party - a regime that uses surveillance to crush its critics.
TIANTIAN: (Through translator) Many people have been deceived by the government. They think this government is OK and it wouldn't do such dirty, disgusting and shameless things. I feel they are all like poisonous snakes. I fear them and hate them.
LANGFITT: In 2005, China began building a massive surveillance system called Skynet. The government put cameras along streets, on public buses and outside the homes of dissidents. After uprisings in the western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, officials also put cameras in mosques and temples.
In recent years the city of Chongqing set a goal of installing half a million cameras. Police there boasted that during Chinese New Year 2010 their surveillance apparatus identified 4,000 undesirables who'd entered town. According to the Chinese magazine SWeekly, the police department confronted most of them within six hours and forced them to leave.
NICHOLAS BEQUELIN: I'm Nicholas Bequelin. I'm a researcher in Beijing, Hong Kong for Human Rights Watch.
LANGFITT: Bequelin says the implications are ominous.
BEQUELIN: The greatest fear is that the state uses its surveillance and monitoring technology to curtail the modest freedoms that Chinese citizens enjoy today.
LANGFITT: He says the Communist Party's ultimate goal is highly accurate facial-recognition technology.
BEQUELIN: And that would be a complete game changer.
LANGFITT: Because the government could visually track critics in real time.
BEQUELIN: And of course prevent the emergence of any challenge to the party in the short and long term.
LANGFITT: China already uses facial recognition in places like immigration checkpoints. Bo Zhang, who follows China's surveillance camera market for IMS Research, says facial recognition is much less effective on the street.
BO ZHANG: Frankly, the technology is not as good as described in the movies. It's not that easy to find the people in crowds because the facial recognition technology highly relies on the backgrounds and the, you know, the light.
LANGFITT: And, Zhang says, the government still has to knit together the country's disparate surveillance networks into one all-seeing eye.
ZHANG: They want to see everywhere, definitely. But so far it's still taking time to do.
LANGFITT: As elsewhere, surveillance has many positive uses in China. Shanghai police say video cameras helped them catch more than 6,000 suspects in 2010, but they refuse to discuss those successes with NPR.
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UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Speaking foreign language)
LANGFITT: This news report shows how police in Chongqing used a series of surveillance cameras to identify a serial killer, analyze his habits, track his movements, and ultimately kill him. The volume of surveillance cameras on a Shanghai street can be overwhelming at times. Right now I'm on Nanjing Road. It's a big shopping street in Shanghai about half a block from the NPR office, and I'm going to count the cameras.
Looking at a bank right here and there's one, two, three cameras here. Next to it is a driveway with one, two, three, four cameras. Another driveway across the street has a couple of cameras, and then I can see another two cameras on top of lampposts. Despite the density, many ordinary Chinese are unfazed by all the surveillance.
Liao Guosheng sells shoes and hats from a three-wheel bicycle. He says the cameras deter shoplifters.
LIAO GUOSHENG: (Speaking foreign language)
LANGFITT: Before, when I parked my tricycle in neighborhoods, thieves always stole things, he said. Now they rarely steal. I feel a sense of safety. Others, though, feel a sense of dread. Last year, Beijing's China University of Politics and Law installed cameras in classrooms. Officials said it was to prevent cheating. Professors didn't believe them.
Liu Xin teaches administrative law. She thinks the school plans to target teachers who might criticize China's current system in front of students.
LIU XIN: (Through translator) Because things are recorded, once they suspect certain teachers are problematic or their words and behavior are inappropriate, they can find the recordings and that means they've found evidence.
LANGFITT: She says cameras will intimidate professors and undermine learning.
XIN: (Through translator) Who dares to speak freely and who dares to speak their minds? Then people would think their classes don't need to have outside ideas in them. They can just read off textbooks. I think teachers will lose interest and students will lose interest as well.
LANGFITT: The Ministry of Education refused NPR's request for an interview and insisted the cameras are just to deter cheating. Bo Zhang, the analyst, estimates there are now about 30 million cameras operating in China, one for every 43 citizens. He expects camera sales to grow 20 percent annually over the next five years. Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Shanghai.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Next, we'll recall a poet of the modern era who didn't seem modern at all.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Even when he was writing in the first half of the 20th century, the poetry of Robert Frost seemed a little old-fashioned. He rhymed in an age of free verse.
MONTAGNE: And in a time of mass urbanization and spreading technology, he set his poems in the New England countryside. Yet long after his death, which came 50 years ago today, the words of Robert Frost still resonate.
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ROBERT FROST: (Reading) Whose woods these are, I think I know. His house is in the village, though.
MONTAGNE: We're listening to the Frost poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
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FROST: (Reading) You will not see me stopping here to watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer to stop without a farmhouse near between the woods and frozen lake, the darkest evening of the year.
INSKEEP: The poem goes on: The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.
MONTAGNE: Robert Frost was 88 when he passed away in Boston in 1963, after a lifetime of writing that earned him four Pulitzer Prizes for poetry. This week, a collection of his letters, photos and recordings is being made public for the first time. They're at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
INSKEEP: This collection comes from Jonathan Reichert, a retired professor who, as a young man, met Robert Frost.
JONATHAN REICHERT: I wasn't afraid to talk to him. And he, I think, was very willing to engage with me, and I was very lucky in that way.
MONTAGNE: Robert Frost was a friend of the Reichert family, and sometimes shared his thoughts with the much-younger man.
REICHERT: He was always wrestling with big ideas. And what was interesting is, later on, you discovered that that talk appeared in poems. Conversations in our schoolhouse in Vermont, long evenings of conversation, and then later a new poem would be published, and there would be lines you'd swear you'd heard before.
INSKEEP: One of the big ideas that preoccupied Frost was religion, but scholars have puzzled for decades over Robert Frost's own religious beliefs. Jonathan Reichert's father was a rabbi, and among the documents in Reichert's collection is a sermon that Frost delivered at a synagogue.
MONTAGNE: We asked Reichert to read a short passage from that sermon.
REICHERT: (Reading) Now, religion always seems to me to come around to something beyond wisdom. It is the straining of the spirit forward to a wisdom beyond wisdom.
MONTAGNE: Those are Frost's words, though ultimately, this sermon says little about the poet's own faith. But Reichert says that's the way Frost would have wanted it.
REICHERT: Frost liked to play with you. He liked to leave mysteries. He did not like to spell - I mean, that's what a poet is. A poet doesn't lay out. A poet gives you a metaphor and lets you wrestle with it.
INSKEEP: Miles to go before I sleep. Jonathan Reichert on his friendship with the poet Robert Frost, who died 50 years ago today.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renée Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Let's continue, this week's look at an ultraconservative religious movement that is jostling for power in the Arab world. When an uprising swept aside the long-time ruler of Tunisia, a religious political party soon took power. Women, for example, might have veils snatched off their heads in the past. That has changed. But the moderate Islamist government faces pressure from the ultraconservatives who want more. They're known as Salafis, people who claim to follow the practices of the earliest Muslims, 1400 years ago. Salafis are considered a minority in Tunisia, but what makes them hard to manage is that they have rejected the democratic process.
NPR's Leila Fadel continues our series.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (chanting in foreign language)
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: At a recent protest outside the justice ministry in Tunis, hundreds of Salafis condemned the Islamist-led government as oppressors.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (chanting in foreign language)
FADEL: The rally was called to demand the release of some 900 Salafis arrested for various acts of violence. Two of those detainees have since died in their cells after long hunger strikes. Unlike their counterparts in Egypt, the Salafis in Tunis reject democracy and insist that only their rigid interpretation of Islamic law can govern Muslims.
Almost all Salafis boycotted the first post-revolutionary elections after Tunisia's dictator was ousted. This has put Tunisia's moderate Islamist leaders in a difficult position. To the secular elite, the government is too soft on the Salafis, while the Salafis accuse the government of selling out the purest form of Islam.
SAID FERJANI: They are entitled to their rights. As long as they respect the law of the land and they behave as citizens. They don't have the right to impose their lifestyle upon anybody by force.
FADEL: That's Said Ferjani, a senior member of the Islamist Ennahda Party that leads the government. The problem with the Salafis, he says, is that they don't recognize the state.
FERJANI: We want to push them, to drag them into the sphere of politics. Because they are citizens.
FADEL: But the few who turn to violence must be prosecuted, Ferjani says.
FERJANI: They are a danger. They are a real danger.
FADEL: The most radical of Salafis, carrying sticks and swords, have attacked cultural events and shrines they consider un-Islamic. They ransacked stores selling alcohol and clashed with the police. Salafi militants are also accused of leading last year's fiery attacks on the U.S. embassy and the American school in Tunis. Secularists like Yassin Brahim accuse the Ennahda-led government of not doing enough to stop the violence because of its sympathies with the Salafis
SECRETARY GENERAL YASSIN BRAHIM: These people are out of the law. If they are arguing for jihad, for violence it is a big problem. And Ennahda has a lot of hesitations about how to manage this problem.
FADEL: Brahim is the secretary general of al Joumhouria, an umbrella party of secularist groups. He says his party's goal is to preserve the image of Tunisian society as moderate and cosmopolitan. Critics of the Salafis say they are a threat to the revolutionary ideals of economic prosperity, civil liberties and gender equality. Tunisia's highest religious figure, the state-appointed Mufti Othman Batikh, goes even further, calling Salafis uncompromising extremists.
MUFTI OTHMAN BATIKH: (Through translator) They accuse people of being infidels. They don't accept dialogue. Such stiffness is what made people reject them. This is all a result of their ignorance of the reality and the history of Islam.
FADEL: Egypt's most successful Salafi political party, Nour, has sent emissaries to Tunisia and Libya to try to coax Salafis into politics. A spokesman for the Egyptian party said that is the only way the Salafis will achieve their ultimate goal of implementing Islamic law.
But Iskander Boughanmi, a young Salafi cleric, says in Tunisia the Salafis are different. They don't believe democracy is the path to god's law.
ISKANDER BOUGHANMI: (speaking in foreign language)
FADEL: Boughanmi accuses the Tunisian government and the media of demonizing Salafis, painting them all as violent militants. Their only crime, he says, is preaching Salafi doctrine. But when we try to spread our message about God's law, he says, they are stopped and they are persecuted. Leila Fadel, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The United States Postal Service has cut staff, proposed eliminating Saturday delivery and has just announced higher postage rates, all in an effort to offset record losses. Now, while the rate increases are in most cases really small, they could have a big effect on small business.
NPR's Sami Yenigun reports the increases are already affecting independent record labels and distributors.
SAMI YENIGUN, BYLINE: A postage hike is a familiar bump in the road for small labels. Brian Lowit, who has been working at Dischord Records in Washington, D.C. for 10 years. He says this time it's different.
BRIAN LOWIT: We've gone through a lot of increases in the postal rates before, but I've never seen one this drastic.
YENIGUN: Dischord is home of the hardcore pioneers Fugazi.
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FUGAZI: (Instrumental)
YENIGUN: Dischord Records' Brian Lowit says about a quarter of his mail orders come from overseas, so to ship that Fugazi P to London...
LOWIT: It's about $5.50 more than it was on Saturday.
YENIGUN: Lowit says on Saturday, it cost him 13.17 to send a record via U.S. Postal Service to the U.K. Today, it costs him $18.60. For an independent label that ships several hundred records overseas every week, that's a lot of money.
JEREMY BIBLE: The domestic is real minimal. I am concerned about the international.
YENIGUN: That's Jeremy Bible, who runs Experimedia, a label retailer and distributor of CD's and LP's.
And the domestic increases are minimal. First class letters and postcards rose a penny. First class packages rose around 3 percent. And Express mail rose about 6 percent.
But Bible says think about everything that goes into the final LP before it gets shipped, from the paper sleeve, to what gets glued to the center of the vinyl.
BIBLE: The labels for when they're manufacturing and supplies, probably even up to the manufacturers, such as the pressing plants who have to have stuff shipped to them.
YENIGUN: The biggest, says Bible, will be on small record companies that rely on direct orders from their fans.
BIBLE: In some of these cases, the shipping is starting to become more expensive than what the people are actually buying.
YENIGUN: In other words, that Fugazi record that cost almost $20 to send to London only cost about 11 bucks to buy from Dischord.
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YENIGUN: The Postal Service says it has to raise rates, and 46 cents to send a letter is cheaper than just about anywhere else in the world. Earlier this month, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said USPS is losing average of $25 million a day.
In an email, a spokesperson said that the postal service is waiting for Congress to enact what she called, comprehensive long-term legislation that creates a more flexible business model for the agency. For now, the best way for small record labels to ship overseas might just be to avoid the postal service altogether.
Ron Morelli runs the label L.I.E.S. that sends a majority of its music abroad.
RON MORELLI: My distributor pays for all the shipping costs. They get a lot better rates from shipping in bulk with a freight shipping than they would having to ship everything through the USPS.
YENIGUN: Experimedia's Jeremy Bible is already shipping in bulk himself.
BIBLE: Like for the U.K., I have a friend over there, when we put out new releases I send him a large box. So then they'd hold onto the stock and then when we need to fulfill an order for that country or a wholesale order to the store, then they would handle the fulfillment of that.
YENIGUN: But, he says, rising shipping costs don't bode well for the future.
BIBLE: We're probably in the last great era of the physical music media.
YENIGUN: Of course, some would say that era has already passed.
Sami Yenigun, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And Internet giant Yahoo has reported its fourth-quarter earnings. The company beat Wall Street expectations, and its new CEO Marissa Mayer is getting praise. But it's unclear which part of Yahoo's business, if any, will be the key to turning around the once-flailing company.
From member station KQED in San Francisco, Aarti Shahani reports.
AARTI SHAHANI, BYLINE: Yahoo ended 2012 with $1.35 billion in revenue, up 2 percent from the prior year. On the earnings conference call, Marissa Mayer described her first months at the company.
MARISSA MAYER: There's basically been a new major initiative every other week.
SHAHANI: Mayer wants to turn Yahoo Mail, the homepage and the photo app Flickr into daily digital habits.
Yahoo is making more money from users clicking ads while searching, but less money on display ads - the ones that show up while you're web surfing.
Competitors Google, Facebook and Microsoft outspend Yahoo on innovation. But Mayer alluded to an old civil rights saying to explain why the new talent she's hired can win.
MAYER: Don't think that a small number of people can't change the world. In truth, no one else ever has.
KEN SENA: Yahoo! is one of the largest U.S. Internet companies ever.
SHAHANI: Ken Sena, managing director at Evercore Partners, says right now, Yahoo's products, however innovative, aren't as important as its investments.
SENA: Its ownership interests in Asia, plus its cash, that makes up most of the value within Yahoo.
SHAHANI: The company ended 2012 with $6 billion in cash, more than double the previous year. That's because Yahoo sold part of its stake in Alibaba, the e-commerce giant in China.
For NPR News, I'm Aarti Shahani in San Francisco.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Not long ago, the publisher Chris Hughes made an intriguing remark to a room full of people. He said that some of the future of journalism involves a lot of people lying in bed, reading long articles on the small screens of their phones. Some people in the room shook their heads in disbelief. Other people nodded, because they were already doing it.
Hughes is a cofounder of Facebook and one-time social media advisor to President Obama's 2008 campaign. Now he's publisher of the New Republic, a century-old magazine he's made over for the digital age. The latest issue features a lengthy interview with the president. Hughes questions the conventional view that Internet distractions and short attention spans demand that journalism must get shorter and shorter.
CHRIS HUGHES: What we're seeing is that that just isn't true. I mean, the New Republic is known for doing long-form journalism. But we already see over 20 percent of our traffic coming from mobile. So we've redesigned our website so that it's optimized for not only a mobile reading experience, but for the tablet, as well. We've added in all kinds of features like cross-device thinking, so that if you start a piece at your desk and you get halfway through it, when you come back to the same article on your phone, it picks you up right where it left off.
INSKEEP: Oh, meaning that I could read a little bit of this in the office and read a little bit of it more on the bus or the train home, if I commute that way, and read a little bit more while I'm stopped at a stoplight while driving, or whatever else happens.
HUGHES: Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think that increasingly, that's the way we read.
INSKEEP: Am I right in thinking that where in decades past people might sit around and read the paper in the morning, that these days, the basic human condition is lying in bed with a phone, thumbing through an article?
HUGHES: I think that may be the case more often than not. The first thing that people tend to do is roll over in the bed, pick up their phone, check their email briefly and check the headlines. For us, we're not necessarily trying to compete with the New York Times or the Huffington Posts of the world to that first dash to the headlines in the morning. Where you're much more likely to read the New Republic is at lunch, in the evenings, on the weekends - the moments when you want to try to go a little bit deeper and get some context and analysis on the journalism of the day.
INSKEEP: Now that you've been the publisher for a little while of the New Republic, how obsessed have you been getting with which articles move online?
HUGHES: I'm not going to lie. We use something called Chartbeat, which shows you how quickly pieces are moving across the social media universe. And that's open in my browser throughout the day. However, it's really important to not be completely guided by the social environment. While, you know, it's very important that our pieces move and that people want to share them, I think that it might naturally lead towards content that's a little bit more partisan at times. It's more about wit or a quick hit rather than substance. So, it's a balance. We want to create...
INSKEEP: I want to sharpen what you just said. You're telling me that if you have a really strong partisan opinion, that moves online, because people who feel the same way will re-tweet that. They'll pass it on in whatever form.
HUGHES: Yeah. I think that the way that the social environments work, they tend to reward more extreme opinions. I think they tend to reward images and content that's packaged well. And all of that's important, but it doesn't necessarily lead to the best journalism.
INSKEEP: So, you can move stuff online if you package it the right way. You can move longer journalism online - you believe. Can you make money this way?
HUGHES: We think so. I mean, our model isn't altogether different from the models that magazines used previously. What is different is that it used to be you give us $35, and we give you 20 issues of print a year. That just isn't going to cut it in 2013. So, now our model: If you give us $35 a year, we give you 20 issues of print. We also give you unlimited access on the Web. We give you audio versions. We give you comments. So the business model is much broader. But I also think in time, it can be a profitable one. I mean, it may not be the same level as media companies that made money in the late 20th century. But I think as long as we're focused on a high quality of journalism, then we can get to a point where it's sustainable, if not profitable. It'll take some, time but I think we can get there.
INSKEEP: Have you considered going all digital, as, for example, Newsweek recently did?
HUGHES: We've looked at it, but, you know, we make money off of print. And in addition to that, I personally love print. I mean, I tend to read on my phone and my iPad, but on the weekends in particular, I love sitting down with a print magazine and going page by page. So it makes business sense for us, and it also is something that I love. So we're committed to print for the foreseeable future.
INSKEEP: Chris Hughes is the publisher of the New Republic. Thanks very much.
HUGHES: Thanks for having me.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
If the French military has its way, its role in helping to force Islamist militants out of Mali will be a short one. It hopes to hand over to a combined West African force. At the moment, it's hard to see exactly how it will all end, how Mali will be stabilized, as the crisis is a complicated one. That's how Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague described it when sat down with him at the British Embassy here in Washington.
WILLIAM HAGUE: What we're seeing in North and West Africa isn't the result of any single factor. We do have the Arab Spring. We do have what's happened in Libya. But we also have the aftermath of Algeria's long and bloody conflict with insurgents through the 1990s.
MONTAGNE: Very brutal...
HAGUE: We have the long...
MONTAGNE: ...on the government's part.
HAGUE: Well and the...
MONTAGNE: And the insurgents.
HAGUE: ...and there was on the insurgents' side. We have the long-running position of the Tuareg people and deep economic and humanitarian problems across the Sahel, tensions between Muslim and Christian communities across the region. So it's very important for us not to think that a single event caused these problems.
MONTAGNE: You know, now that France is backing Mali and Mali's government and leading Malian troops to drive both the Tuareg rebels and also the Islamist militants out of northern Mali, it has said it is a prime target of these Islamists that are not all that far from France. What about Britain and the rest of Europe?
HAGUE: I think it's important to support an ally when they've taken necessary emergency action, which France has done. It's very important, though, that we keep in mind that the prime way of dealing with this in a military and security sense is through African forces. It's African forces on the ground, not the medium-to-long-term presence of Western forces on the ground, that it's important for Africans to own the solution. Now, that is of critical importance - and that there's a political process, as well. So we don't see this just a military operation. France has stepped in necessarily, but it's Africans who really have to take the lead.
MONTAGNE: I mean, but do you think the African forces are up to the job?
HAGUE: Well, they need help. Of course, they will need help.
MONTAGNE: I mean, excuse me, but the Malian army has been trained - partly trained - by the United States, and they failed utterly to drive out these Islamists. They couldn't take them on.
HAGUE: Now, that doesn't mean that African forces with the necessary preparation and equipment can't succeed. An example to look at here over at the other side of Africa is Somalia. Look at East Africa, also with terrible problems, with Somalia being a failed state, really, for 20 years. We've made a lot of progress there in the last year. And the military part of that progress has been African forces from Kenya, Ethiopia and other African countries. A lot of their funding has come from the European Union. The political and legal permission for them doing what they're doing comes from the U.N. Security Council. We've given them very strong diplomatic and other support.
But it is the Africans who are doing it themselves. And that makes it much more politically acceptable in those countries. And it means that the countries of the region are taking responsibility for their own affairs. We have to think in a similar way about northwest Africa as we do in East Africa.
MONTAGNE: You have actually said that Somalia is - or could be - a model for how a failed state writes itself, minus the 20 years of being a failed state. How do you - specifically, how do you see that?
HAGUE: Well, look at the combination of what we're doing in Somalia. And, by the way, I'm in no way complacent about Somalia. I'm just saying we've made progress there in the last year. And the elements that have brought about progress are a legitimate government that has a democratic legitimacy. That's an important step forward in any country, in the population of any country being able to rally around their government.
Secondly, African forces doing the work on the ground - with a lot of financial and other support - and then the rest of the world giving its diplomatic and humanitarian assistance. That really characterizes what we're doing in Somalia that is yielding results. And I think that will be a better approach in most situations than putting Western armies onto African soil. As I say, it's important, the French have done what they've done, and they're right to do so. But for the medium-to-long term, Africans shouldering their own responsibilities on their own continent - which is what they want to do - is the crucial ingredient.
MONTAGNE: Mr. Hague, thank you very much.
HAGUE: Thank you very much.
MONTAGNE: British Foreign Secretary William Hague, speaking with us at the British embassy yesterday. Today, his government announced it's prepared to deploy 40 soldiers to Mali as trainers, not combatants. Britain will also send 200 more to train troops in neighboring countries.
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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
This week, talk of new immigration laws serves as a reminder that timing is everything. Wait until after a momentous election and it becomes possible to discuss an issue that previously seemed impossible.
INSKEEP: In this quiet week between the government's ongoing fiscal storms, President Obama today unveils an immigration plan.
MONTAGNE: A bipartisan group of senators has already made a proposal.
Here's NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: It's a rare event in Washington - D.C. bipartisan political compromise. Eight senators, four Democrats and four Republicans laid out a plan to fix the country's legal immigration system, improve border security and provide what they called a tough but fair path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented workers currently in the U.S.
Here's Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer.
SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER: The key to our compromise is to recognize that Americans overwhelmingly oppose illegal immigration and support legal immigration.
LIASSON: Schumer said the reason his bipartisan group was finally able to reach consensus was simple.
SCHUMER: The politics on this issue have been turned upside down. For the first time ever, there's more political risk in opposing immigration reform than in supporting it.
LIASSON: Republican Senator John McCain, who's worked on this issue for years, spoke to those in his own party who consider any legalization to be amnesty when he said we already have de facto amnesty and that's unacceptable.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: We have been too content for too long to allow individuals to mow our lawn, serve our food, clean our homes, and even watch our children while not affording them any of the benefits that make our country so great. Let's create a system to bring them forward, allow them to settle their debt to society. This is consistent with our country's tradition of being a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants.
LIASSON: The plan would make a path to legalization contingent on border security and it's not clear exactly how that would be certified or how long it would take. But agricultural workers and young people brought here illegally as children would be put on a speedier timetable. Immigration advocates welcomed the proposal.
Hector Figueroa with the Service Employees Union said there will be a grass roots organizing effort to get the plan passed.
HECTOR FIGUEROA: We are going to be mobilizing. We are going to do what democracy does best. And then eventually at the end of that process we want to see families united, people who have been here for years with the path to citizenship that they can attain. And we trust that we can be able to do it.
LIASSON: On April 10, Figueroa said, supporters will hold a big rally at the Capitol - a not so subtle reminder of the growing political clout of Hispanics. President Obama won the Hispanic vote by 3-1 this fall and the share of Hispanic voters will only be larger in the next election. Today the president unveils his own proposal, which will closely mirror the Senate plan. Mr. Obama spoke about immigration in his inaugural address.
PRESIDENT: Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity, until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.
LIASSON: Immigration reform has foundered before, most recently when President George W. Bush tried and failed to pass a bill. Former Clinton White House aide Bill Galston is amazed at the sea change.
BILL GALSTON: Who would've thought five years ago that immigration reform, comprehensive immigration reform, would turn out to be the least contested issue in the first year of a Democratic president's second term.
LIASSON: Least contested but not uncontested. There's bipartisan support in Senate, but there will be strong resistance to immigration reform in the House, where Republicans operate under a different political calculus. While national GOP leaders have decided that their party has to change its position on immigration in order to win elections, in nearly three-quarters of Republican House districts, Hispanics make up less than 10 percent of the voting age population.
Still, House Speaker John Boehner has said it's time to deal with immigration.
Mara Liasson, NPR News, the White House.
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It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.
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And I'm Steve Inskeep.
The city of Timbuktu is free...
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Mali, Mali, Mali, Mali...
INSKEEP: ...and residents cheered as French and Malian forces entered the city. Those forces swept aside Islamist rebels who'd controlled the place for months. The Islamists rule included amputations and the destroyed ancient tombs. It ended with the burning of a library housing priceless manuscripts.
NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton has been talking with the mayor of Timbuktu.
(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE RINGING)
MAYOR HALLE OUSMANE CISSE: (Foreign language spoken)
OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE: The mayor of Timbuktu, Halle Ousmane Cisse, is busy fielding calls of concern and congratulations from all over the world. He tells me that the liberation of Timbuktu - a U.N. World Heritage site - is bittersweet.
CISSE: (Foreign language spoken)
QUIST-ARCTON: Sweet, because he can go home to Timbuktu, but tinged with sadness because of reports that al-Qaida-linked Islamist militants set fire to the Ahmad Baba Institute and other buildings, home to ancient texts dating back as far as the 13th century. The mayor says his colleague called over the weekend with the bad news.
CISSE: (Foreign language spoken)
QUIST-ARCTON: The mayor tells me, sorrowfully: These priceless manuscripts are my identity. They're my history. They're documents about Islam, history, geography, botany, poetry. They're close to my heart, and they belong to the whole world.
CISSE: (Foreign language spoken)
QUIST-ARCTON: Halle Ousmane Cisse spent almost the entire eight to nine months of rebel occupation in Timbuktu. It was rough, he says. The Islamists treated people badly. He tells me a young man was shot dead in the street over the weekend, simply for saying Vive La France, for France's military intervention in Mali. The mayor says the jihadis - these criminals, as he calls them - put us through hell.
CISSE: (Foreign language spoken)
QUIST-ARCTON: No music, no dancing, no watching television or listening to the news, no freedom. That's no life, he says, adding that the Islamists were trying to impose their warped will on the people of Timbuktu.
French and Malian troops met no resistance as they reclaimed control of the city, entering Timbuktu proper yesterday to the delight of residents. It appears many jihadis have melted away in the vast expanse of Sahara Desert sands and dunes. Hunting them down in hostile terrain will fall to Malian, African and likely French forces.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Aisha. Aisha.
QUIST-ARCTON: The thousands of people who were forced to flee their historic city on the banks of the River Niger are looking forward to going home. The Hamalek family, from the nomadic Tuareg ethnic group, left Timbuktu in a hurry many months ago.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHILD'S VOICE)
QUIST-ARCTON: Cradling her four-year-old granddaughter, one of 28 displaced family members, Attina Welat Ahmed yelps with delight when she talks about the liberation of Timbuktu.
ATTINA WELAT AHMED: (Foreign language spoken)
QUIST-ARCTON: She says: We had forgotten how to smile, how to dance, how to sing. Women were frightened. They had to wear veils. Long live the Malian army. Long live France, she says.
CISSE: (Foreign language spoken)
QUIST-ARCTON: The mayor agrees. He tells me: When I get to the airport in Timbuktu, I'm going to dance with joy. I'm going to dance the forbidden dance the Islamists banned. I'm going to dance all the way from the airport into town, says Halle Ousmane Cisse. The mayor of Timbuktu says there's nothing as important as freedom.
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Bamako.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with good news for Boeing's battery maker.
When all Boeing 787 Dreamliners were grounded for electrical issues, it sent the stock of the company that makes the plane's batteries into a tailspin. Now that company, GS Yuasa, is seeing its stock bounce back. Yesterday, the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau cleared the firm of all responsibility for Boeing's electrical issues. Boeing will announce its fourth-quarter earnings - by the way - later today.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And today's last word in business is: Million dollar nickel.
The U.S. Treasury quietly shot down a movement to mint a trillion dollar coin to avert another debt ceiling fight this year.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
That idea may now seem less outlandish, given this: a nickel that is expected to sell for well over $2 million at auction this spring. Why so much? Turns out it was never supposed to be minted.
MONTAGNE: The nickel - with Lady Liberty on one side and the Roman numeral for V on the other, bears the date 1913. The only problem, the liberty head was replaced by the buffalo head in 1912, making this nickel a bootleg - one of five allegedly cast at the Philadelphia Mint by a crooked employee out to make some quick coins.
INSKEEP: If only he'd been able to hold on to it for a century. But this fraud was no fool. He did wait until the statue of limitations expired in 1920 to sell the set and he did get a pretty penny at that time, which is about to happen again.
That's the business news on MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now, one of the senators involved in crafting the immigration plan is Arizona Republican Jeff Flake. Senator, good morning.
SENATOR JEFF FLAKE: Hey, thanks for having me on.
INSKEEP: Glad you're with us. Now, Mara Liasson just noted in that report that a lot of House Republicans do not think they need to worry about the Hispanic vote in their district. There just aren't a lot of Hispanic voters in the districts as they've been drawn.
What would you say to those House Republicans?
FLAKE: Well, I would say that this doesn't just affect the Hispanic vote. I think we lose a lot of votes from others who realize that we haven't had a rational, humane policy here. So I would say that it doesn't just affect the Hispanic vote.
INSKEEP: So you are arguing that this is more - this is more broadly a problem for the Republican Party.
FLAKE: It is, it is. I think we've got to have a rational approach. And I think people understand, should understand that, you know, with 11 million people here, it's unlikely that they're going to be deported. It's even less likely that they'll self-deport.
INSKEEP: Now, you're talking here about a path to citizenship. And we should clarify that the principles that you and the other senators laid out include a lot of steps before anybody who is here illegally becomes a citizen. But there's a path to citizenship there. As you know very well, Senator, that in past years has been called amnesty by its opponents.
INSKEEP: It's been shouted down, using that word amnesty. It's a very strong word, but it is also a word that President Reagan used when he approved what he called amnesty. Are you willing on some level just to embrace that label, to say call it what you want, it's necessary to do?
FLAKE: No. I don't think you need to. If you look back in '86, it was amnesty because if you could prove that you'd been here five years you got a shortcut to a green card. You cut in line ahead of those who had been going through the legal orderly process. That won't be the case here. If you're going to get on a path to citizenship here, you have to get in line behind those who have gone through the process.
And it's a long and arduous process as well, with fines and back taxes and requirements to learn English, not just for citizenship but for permanent residency. And so there are a lot of things that are different here, as well as a certification or sign-off that border security has been achieved before the first person here illegally now gets on any path.
INSKEEP: At the same time, even though it would take you a while to become a citizen, people could become legal residents of the United States fairly quickly, couldn't they?
FLAKE: Well, they could have a legal status here, but as far as achieving a legal permanent residency, that will still take a while. Again, that requires some certification of border security as well as those who are going through the process now have to get through it.
INSKEEP: There's such a variety of proposals out there involving visas, visa requirements, border security and so forth. The path to citizenship, though, is the most controversial thing. Can you imagine any effort to pass a bill that includes the other items but somehow does not include a path to citizenship?
FLAKE: I suppose it's possible, but I think a lot of people think, you know, if somebody's going to be here as a legal permanent resident, if they're here permanently, then they ought to have skin in the game, if you will. There ought to be that possibility of citizenship. Now, I should point out that under the '86 law, I think only about half or less than half of those who were able to get citizenship actually pursued it.
So a lot of people don't want that goal, but some do, and I think for those who are going to be here 15, 20 years or for the rest of their lives, then why wouldn't we want them to become a citizen and have all the responsibilities and rights that come along with that?
INSKEEP: Senator Flake, we've only got a few seconds, but I'd like to ask: Republicans have spoken of immigration changes in practical terms - have to do it, the country is changing. Is there a moral argument for this course?
FLAKE: Well, particularly when you look at children who are brought here through no fault of their own. I think there is a moral obligation there. So there are certain aspects that I think we owe people who are really born without a country. And that will be taken care of in this legislation as well.
INSKEEP: Senator, thanks very much.
FLAKE: Thank you.
INSKEEP: Jeff Flake is a Republican Senator from Arizona, newly elected, former member of the House of Representatives here on MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
A lot of popular TV shows feature unlikely heroes, these days. "Dexter" is a serial killer. They're murdering bikers in "Sons of Anarchy," and a meth cook in "Breaking Bad." Now, a series coming to FX digs into the Cold War past, with a married couple as its antiheroes. Here's TV critic Eric Deggans.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: Back in the days when schools still had atomic bombing drills and the best suburban homes included a bomb shelter, the most reliable villain in TV and movies was the secret Russian agent.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE")
ANGELA LANSBURY: (as Mrs. Iselin) Chunjin will give you a two-piece Soviet army sniper's rifle that fits nicely into a special bag. It's been decided that you will be dressed as a priest, to help you get away in the pandemonium afterwards.
DEGGANS: From "The Manchurian Candidate" to "The Falcon and the Snowman," films about Americans covertly working for Communist Russia have reflected our fears of secret weakness, as a nation. So what does it mean when a TV network presents a series where the secret Russian spies are the heroes?
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE AMERICANS")
KERRI RUSSELL: (as Elizabeth Jennings) I was 17 when I joined the KGB. Never had a boyfriend - they put me with you. We didn't know each other. When we got here, I was - I was 22 years old; living in a strange house in a strange country, with a strange man.
DEGGANS: "Felicity" star Keri Russell is Elizabeth Jennings in FX's "The Americans." It's a new series about two Russian spies who have lived secretly as an American couple, for more than a decade. They have children, co-workers and neighbors who have no idea who they really are, slipping out into the night to recapture defectors or collect intelligence.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW "THE AMERICANS)
MAXIMILIANO HERNANDEZ: (As FBI Agent Chris Amador) Super secret spies living next door. They look like us. They speak better English than we do. They're not allowed to say a single word in Russian once they get here.
DEGGANS: Jennings may seem American as apple pie on the surface. But she is also a fierce loyalist to Mother Russia, working for the KGB in America just as Ronald Reagan's 1980 election sets the Soviet Union on edge.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING IN TV SHOW, "THE AMERICANS")
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: The greatest threat the United States now faces is the Soviet Union.
DEGGANS: In those days, an American war with the Soviet Union was an apocalyptic nightmare, which sometimes seemed just around the corner. President Carter declared the U.S. would use force to keep the Soviets from dominating the Persian Gulf, and President Reagan built up the U.S. military to match their massive force. It seemed any incident could turn this Cold War hot.
So it may seem astounding now that a U.S. TV network has tried so hard to make heroes out of characters that have been villains in American life, and entertainment, for at least half a century. In FX's "The Americans," we watch the double agents agonize over a blackmail plot. And we rarely hear about the anti-American political beliefs, which might lead them to live a lie for more than 10 years. It all sounds a bit preposterous - until you consider that it kind of happened in real life, back in 2010.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED BROADCASTER: But a case unfolding on the East Coast sounds like a chapter out of the Cold War. Ten Russian intelligence officers have been arrested, allegedly for spying on the U.S.
DEGGANS: People mostly laughed off this story. It's a measure of how far we've come from our Cold War fears. After all, al-Qaida has drawn serious blood in America, killing nearly 3,000 people on 9/11. Which means this might be the perfect time to sympathize with the antihero Soviet spies of FX's "The Americans." In the end, they were bogeymen whose dangers lurked mostly in our heads.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: Eric Deggans - he reviews media for the Tampa Bay Times.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And as we've been reporting this morning, the Islamist forces in Mali, linked to al Qaida, have just been driven out of the desert city of Timbuktu by French and Malian forces.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
For months, the fundamentalists have systematically destroyed ancient religious sites, targeting, especially, the tombs mystic Sufi saints, and they continued their destruction, even as they were leaving the city.
MONTAGNE: Word from Timbuktu is that as they retreated, they torched a library holding tens of thousands of historic documents, written as far back as the 13th century.
Though it's not yet known how many of the ancient texts have been lost, that library, the Ahmed Baba Institute, was built by the South African government as part of the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project, a preservation program led by Shamil Jeppie. He teaches at the University of Cape Town where we reached him.
Welcome to the program.
SHAMIL JEPPIE: Thank you so much.
MONTAGNE: These documents, what exactly are they? They're not all religious, right?
JEPPIE: No. No. Well, I mean, the most beautifully illustrated and illuminated are the old Qurans and many of them are liturgical Sufi documents text. You know, prayers and grammar, and text that would've been used in the educational system in the informal classes held at the feet of teachers and so on.
But they talk of legal issues, social history of the region; you have basic mathematics texts and some fairly advanced scientific text.
MONTAGNE: I have read that some of these documents also contain poetry. And I mean they're cultural treasures and every respect. But they would not have had figures in them or be representing humans, which is a thing we've all come to think that very fundamentalist Islamist don't like. So why are they destroying what is their own precious cultural heritage?
JEPPIE: That's what we don't understand. So there must have been destruction of the building out of spite. You know, we're getting out of here, let's do maximum damage to whatever we can in the city. That's one explanation. The other is just the kind of vandalism that goes with uneducated barbarians that I have seen these people to be.
MONTAGNE: How have these fragile, you know, documents - how have they managed to survive so far; some of them, centuries?
JEPPIE: This is not the first time that you have a crisis in Timbuktu. There was an insurgency in the '90s and then in the early '60s, and then, of course, throughout much of the 18th and 19th century there was (unintelligible) much chaos and the region.
I'm particularly interested in this Northwest African tradition of archiving and constituting collections; how is it that families came to keep libraries in treasuries, items. What are the intellectual and mental processes and so on? And we have been told stories of them burying manuscript collections for decades, in fact, until they felt safe and secure enough to take them out.
And this is what happened in the late '60s and '70s when the Ahmed Baba library first was established. And then there was a project to collect them from families, and families would trade a couple of items for a goat or a camel or a cow. And so, there was a bartering process, a moment where it all went to the state project.
And then some of the families said, now let us do our own thing and they came to constitute their own collections and their own libraries. And these libraries are not centralized, so they are in families' homes and so on. And the collections are spread out over the town and the region.
MONTAGNE: It must be so sad to think about this.
JEPPIE: That's why I don't want to entertain the thought that there is destruction and fire, and what have you. Maybe I'm just - I just don't want to entertain the thought of this destruction.
MONTAGNE: Shamil Jippie is senior researcher at the University of Cape Town's Institutes for Humanities in Africa. Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us.
JEPPIE: Thank you, indeed.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
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Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.
Two is a coincidence. Three is a trend. That's why an Oklahoma City house has been dubbed The Twin House, after a third consecutive couple living there had twins - a boy and a girl each. Current tenants, Brady and Chelsea Smith, said they didn't believe in the twin mojo when they moved in. Then an ultrasound showed she was expecting twins. New father Brady Smith told the Oklahoman, now his friends won't even drive down the block.
It's MORNING EDITION.
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Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Never mind gay marriage - Virginia is wrestling with the notion of two people living together. It's illegal to be an unmarried couple in the same home. Since the 1870s the state has banned lewd and lascivious cohabitation - a phrase that itself sounds lewd if you say it slowly enough. Now a state senate committee has approved a measure to repeal the old law. Supporters say it's been a long time since anybody enforced the ban on living in sin. It's MORNING EDITION.
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Millions of Americans love to head to the beach for weekends or for vacations. And many of the beaches we like exist because of a U.S. government program.
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As coastlines shift and erosion washes sand away, the Army Corps of Engineers builds beaches back up. It's called beach nourishment. They've been doing this for more than 50 years. The debate over whether that's an effective use of taxpayer money is an old one.
MONTAGNE: But it has new urgency since Hurricane Sandy. Federal aid for Sandy relief could provide billions more for beach nourishment. NPR's Jennifer Ludden went to get a closer look at what this means.
JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: On a blustery day at Virginia Beach, a bulldozer smoothes out pyramids of sand.
(SOUNDBITE OF BULLDOZER ENGINE)
LUDDEN: Jennifer Armstrong manages this project for the Army Corps of Engineers. Another pile of sand is about to appear. She points offshore to a long, black vessel.
JENNIFER ARMSTRONG: That's the hopper dredge. And it dredges up, and then it stores it all underneath.
LUDDEN: The dredge has sucked up sand like a giant vacuum cleaner from five to 10 miles offshore.
ARMSTRONG: And it pumps the sand onto the shore.
LUDDEN: Through a large, metal pipe to a boxy, yellow filter where the mud-grain mix sprays out.
(SOUNDBITE OF SAND SPRAYING)
LUDDEN: By late spring, Virginia Beach will be hundreds of feet wider. The cost to federal taxpayers: $9 million. But - and this is where beach nourishment gets controversial - this is the 49th - yes, 49th - time this strip has been built up since 1951, most of that with federal money. And Armstrong says with its current long-term project, the Army Corps will do it again and again and again, as needed.
ARMSTRONG: The thing that I try to stress to people is we're only about 11 years into this project, and already, we've prevented $443 million in damages. It has already paid for itself, and all planned re-nourishment cycles over the next four to three years.
LUDDEN: How's that? It's the estimated storm damage not done to the strip of high-rise chain hotels that line this shore, the heart of Virginia Beach's tourism economy.
PHIL ROEHRS: These are the Ash Wednesday Storm photos.
LUDDEN: Over its city offices, Phil Roehrs shows me framed photos of this same hotel strip after a devastating storm in 1962. He's the city's water resources engineer, and he never wants to see this again.
ROEHRS: Large segments of the seawall completely blown out and exposing the hotels to direct wave attack.
LUDDEN: That storm kicked off the Army Corps' replenishment program in earnest all along the East Coast. Roehrs says think of it like this: Beaches are just like roads or bridges - public infrastructure that needs routine repair. And that maintenance, he says, has helped prevent untold damage. Just look at New Jersey after Sandy.
ROEHRS: Township A had a protection plan in place. And Township B, right next door, didn't, and Township B suffered tragically. It's better to pay for a little protection than a whole lot of clean-up.
ELI LEHRER: This is a particularly silly form of disaster relief.
LUDDEN: Eli Lehrer is with the libertarian R Street Institute and co-founder of SmarterSafer, a Washington coalition of environmental groups and budget watchdogs.
LEHRER: Beach re-nourishment creates a false sense of security that tends to induce development in the very areas where it's most likely to be destroyed by nature's worst.
LUDDEN: In other words, create a wide swath of sand and people will build there, even if it would otherwise be deemed folly. Lehrer says replenishing remote barrier islands is the most egregious waste of taxpayer money. For a tourism-dependent place like Virginia Beach, sure, he concedes, it makes economic sense for that town.
LEHRER: If it's going to be paid for with public dollars at all, those public dollars ought to be collected very much at the local level.
LUDDEN: Right now, the federal government pays 65 percent of beach nourishment projects, local communities the rest. President Clinton and the second President Bush tried and failed to reduce the federal share. President Obama has tightened regulations for which projects qualify. But Congress approves the funding, and it's a pretty popular program. Howard Marlowe lobbies for more than a dozen beach communities.
HOWARD MARLOWE: We have clients in North Carolina where - these are cottages. They're for rent. We have so many congressional staff going there, it always amazes me.
LUDDEN: They go to vacation.
MARLOWE: Yes.
LUDDEN: In fact, Marlowe has a ready answer to the obvious question: Why should the taxpayers in Iowa or Nebraska be subsidizing this?
MARLOWE: Because the taxpayer in Iowa and Nebraska are actually going to those beaches.
LUDDEN: Communities must offer some public access to get federal funding for beach replenishment, though the program has been slammed as welfare for the rich, since it pumps up the value of plenty of private, beachfront homes. Is that fair? Lobbyist Marlowe says, yes, it is.
MARLOWE: We budget $2 billion dollars a year in this country to fight wildfires, and that's not disaster. That is every year. And we don't fight wildfires for any reason other than to protect the homes that are anywhere nearby.
LUDDEN: It's true: beach nourishment is chump change compared to that. But since Superstorm Sandy, another critique has gained attention, one that makes this task of rebuilding constantly eroding beaches seem even more Sisyphean and costly.
ORRIN PILKEY: Everything we do should be done with the assumption that the sea level's rising, and another Sandy will come by in some number of years.
LUDDEN: Orrin Pilkey is professor emeritus at Duke University. He's criticized federal beach nourishment for decades. And now he says studies show a warming planet is causing sea levels to rise even faster, especially in the mid-Atlantic. There's no avoiding it, he says. We're going to have to retreat.
PILKEY: If I was king of New Jersey, for example, buildings that were within two blocks of the beach, I wouldn't replace them if they'd been destroyed. And I would try to move other buildings back from the beach.
LUDDEN: Pilkey senses more support for this since Sandy. But for public officials like Phil Roehrs in Virginia Beach, it's easier said than done.
ROEHRS: The population wants to live at the coast. It's been that way since recorded history.
LUDDEN: Roehrs says the Army Corps of Engineers does consider sea level rise when it builds up beaches, and that's good. But he cautions against planning too far ahead.
ROEHRS: If you forecast out 150 years and believe that the sea's going to rise six feet, you can easily strangle any attempt to do anything about it, because it's just too large.
LUDDEN: More sensible, he says, take it 20 years at a time, then gauge where you are. Certainly at Virginia Beach's tourist strip, no one seems to be thinking of retreat.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINERY)
LUDDEN: Just like the beach, the line of hotels here is in a state of ongoing renovation. Roehrs says about a third are new or refurbished. As bulldozers smooth out sand, there's confidence that these high-rises will be safe and profitable for a good while to come. Jennifer Ludden, NPR News.
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This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
In his inaugural address last week, President Obama spoke of a country where, quote, "a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else."
MONTAGNE: That's the aspiration. Now let's talk about the reality.
INSKEEP: If you measure a family's financial well-being, it's common to ask about their income - how much they're earning right now.
MONTAGNE: But there's another vital question about savings, total net worth, wealth, or lack of it.
INSKEEP: A new report out today defines a huge obstacle for many Americans. They do not have savings or assets to get ahead.
NPR's Pam Fessler reports.
PAM FESSLER, BYLINE: It seems that many American families aren't prepared to weather a financial storm. If they lose their income, almost half don't have enough savings or other liquid assets to stay out of poverty for more than three months. Almost a third have no savings accounts at all. That's according to the nonprofit Corporation for Enterprise Development, which in its words tries to help low and moderate-income families achieve the American dream.
President Andrea Levere says that's not easy when all your energy goes into paying the rent and buying food.
ANDREA LEVERE: It's only when you have those basic needs satisfied that you then can think: How do I make sure I have the best education for my children, how do I make sure I have the skills I need to be more competitive in the workplace?
FESSLER: Which is why her group and others are pushing new efforts to encourage more people to save, and to be smart about how they handle money. People like Michelle Jones, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, who says she lost everything when she got involved in drugs a decade ago, and is now trying to rebuild her life at age 52.
MICHELLE JONES: It's hard because right now I have a job that does not have benefits and it's part-time. And I'm making like $11 an hour.
FESSLER: But even so, through a program called Maryland CASH, Jones has been having $200 a month withheld from her paycheck and automatically put into savings. And it's a good thing too, because in November she was in a car accident.
JONES: I couldn't work and, you know, my job doesn't pay me when I'm off. And I had to use that money to pay my rent.
FESSLER: Just the kind of emergency that can send someone without a financial cushion tumbling into tough times.
ROBIN MCKINNEY: I noticed very early on that money is something that goes to the root of whatever issue is going on - whether it's a health issue, a criminal justice issue.
FESSLER: Robin McKinney is a former social worker who now runs Maryland CASH. She says low wages are clearly a problem, but so too are some government rules. For example, the state of Maryland used to prohibit public assistance for those with more than $2,000 in assets. But many low-income families qualify for big lump-sum payments through the federal Earned Income Tax Credit Program.
MCKINNEY: Our average refund is about $2,200. So that's already over that $2,000 asset limit. So if they didn't spend that money down immediately, they were at risk of losing their benefits. This is a huge disincentive to savings.
FESSLER: So in Maryland, the asset limit has been abolished and there are similar efforts in other states.
Indeed, there's a lot of bipartisan agreement that getting people to save more is a good thing. Stuart Butler, with the conservative Heritage Foundation, says while problems can be found at all income levels, those at the lower end of the economic ladder are especially vulnerable to financial setbacks.
STUART BUTLER: It's almost a double whammy. They don't have a lot of assets and then when they try to get credit in some ways, it's very expensive. And it sucks them into a much worse economic situation over time. And that's really what we've got to try to break out of.
FESSLER: Both he and McKinney say they're encouraged by a number of initiatives, especially something called Prize-Linked Savings. These are offered by credit unions in Michigan and pretty soon in a few other states. The accounts reward savers with a chance to win a big monthly or yearly prize, just like the lottery.
BUTLER: What it does is to convert the gambling instinct into a savings instinct.
FESSLER: An instinct he says needs to become much more widespread if there's a chance of achieving the president's inaugural dream.
Pam Fessler, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Okay. Yesterday on this program we heard how the Communist Party in China is using tens of millions of surveillance cameras to monitor the country and spy on some citizens. Today we hear about how some Chinese are spying on each other. We meet a man who got a unique view of China after spending a year sweeping homes and offices for secret listening devices and cameras. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports.
FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Qi Hong is a former journalist from East China's Shandong province. He began doing counter-surveillance work on the side a couple of years ago. It started with a friend, a local official whose wife suspected he was having an affair. Qi's buddy couldn't figure out how his wife knew details of his private conversations.
QI HONG: (Through translator) His wife knew things that he said in his car and his office, including conversations over the telephone. Sometimes, when they quarreled, his wife would bring up some of these things.
LANGFITT: So Qi asked another friend, who owned bug-detecting equipment, to help.
QI: (Through translator) This friend discovered a listening device under the official's car seat. In his office he discovered a tiny hidden camera on the bookshelf. We were both shocked. It dawned on us, in recent years this sort of thing was happening a lot in China.
LANGFITT: Qi bought some bug-detecting equipment himself. And over the next year, he says, he helped more than a hundred friends find more than 300 surveillance devices. Bugs are illegal in China, but easy to buy. You can find bugs hidden in pens, buttons, eyeglasses, USB drives and power strips. Qi found surveillance cameras planted in some pretty personal places.
QI: (Through translator) They generally aim at people's beds and where they shower. They want to know your secrets, your private life.
LANGFITT: Adultery is rampant in urban China. Qi says many people were bugged by suspicious wives or mistresses. In other cases, though, he said government officials spied on each other. Qi said when officials realized they were under surveillance, they panicked, fearing colleagues had captured them taking payoffs.
QI: (Through translator) People had heart attacks. They were extremely scared, frightened, sweating all over with panicky looks on their faces. They were speechless.
LANGFITT: Lu Su, an official in Qi's home province of Shandong, may have had the same reaction this month. A hidden camera video surfaced on China's Internet showing Lu at his desk. He appears to take a gift card, a common form for bribes here, from a visitor.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
LU SU: (Speaking foreign language)
LANGFITT: No problem. No problem. I will certainly provide good service, Lu says. Lu has since been suspended from his job. And spying isn't just a threat to low level officials. Last year the New York Times reported that one reason former Politburo member Bo Xilai was taken into custody was because he wiretapped Hu Jintao, chairman of the Communist Party.
Qi Hong says Chinese officials spy on each another because there is so little trust and so much to be gained politically and financially. He says sometimes they spy because they want a piece of the action.
QI: (Through translator) You may get some illegal benefits. I want them too. But you don't want to share with me. When I find out your vulnerability, I will subtly suggest problems you have and you will panic. A very good option is for you to share some of the benefits and we become the same.
LANGFITT: Qi says distrust is so deep, he's seen officials hug each other when greeting.
QI: (Through translator) This is not Chinese etiquette, but why did Chinese officials import it? The reality is they use the legitimate hugging and intimacy to pat down each other to check if the other person is carrying a listening device.
LANGFITT: Qi and I met in the back room of a restaurant. He's a big guy, well over six feet, with a lazy eye. Qi showed me some of his equipment. He unwrapped a machine about the size of an iPad, but much thicker. Okay, so he's taking out a really cool device out of a plastic case and it's called a wireless camera hunter. It has a video monitor and three antennae to detect wireless signals. It costs nearly $1,600.
QI: (Through translator) If this room were installed with bugs and they were working, then images they took would appear on this screen and we would see them clearly. This is scanning various frequencies.
LANGFITT: After talking to Mr. Qi, I came down to this electronics market in Shanghai and I picked up a detector that should be able to find hidden bugs as well as hidden cameras. It cost just about 35 bucks, and now I'm going to try it out. Okay. So I'm in the office of some people I know who are concerned about cameras and they are concerned about listening devices.
And I'm going to go hunting. I turned off office equipment and turn on the device, which buzzes when it picks up wireless signals emitted by bugs.
(SOUNDBITE OF BUZZING)
LANGFITT: Fax machine. That's telephone. Let's go over here. No, that fax machine is clean. Another telephone in another office is clearly - you can hear it yourself. It's clearly bugged.
Distrust is a growth market in China, and it's made Wei Wenjun a busy man. Wei's worked as a detective in Shanghai for two decades. I met him at a tea house. He wore a black cap, black leather jacket, and spoke through nicotine-stained teeth. Of his some 2,000 cases, Wei says 80 percent focused on infidelity. His nickname?
WEI WENJUN: (Speaking foreign language)
LANGFITT: The mistress.
WEI: (Speaking foreign language)
LANGFITT: Recently the government's been cracking down on detectives, enforcing a new law against illegally obtaining personal information. Scores of detectives have been arrested. Officials say they are trying to protect citizens' privacy. Wei says they are also trying to protect themselves.
WEI: (Through translator) Our profession is seen as a serious concern by China's high-level officials. Mistresses are what corrupt officials are most afraid of. That's the weakest link in their defense system.
LANGFITT: Wei says the volume of surveillance, infidelity and distrust are a sign of the times. He sees it as a natural result of the country's rush into capitalism, with no moral framework to guide its people.
WEI: (Through translator) The Chinese lost their belief system. The Chinese completely lost their souls.
LANGFITT: Qi Hong, the bug detector, feels much the same way. After a year helping people find surveillance devices, Qi quit. He found the process and its implications depressing. I felt very stressed and in pain, he said. I'd seen so many strange phenomena and illegal things. Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Shanghai.
RENEE MONTAGE, HOST:
You wouldn't need a secret camera to notice how bad the pollution is in many parts of China. In major cities like Beijing, visibility can be so bad, residents can see only a couple of hundred yards ahead. That smog has sent a record number of people to hospitals. It's forced airlines to cancel flights and highways to close.
INSKEEP: And China's government has warned people to stay inside, even as it has downplayed the problem, insisting it's just fog. Now a high-level official admits something needs to be done. The premier, Wen Jiabao, is calling for certain and effective steps to cut pollution, which suggests that pollution is now seen as not just a public health issue but a political problem as well.
MONTAGE: Yesterday, a prominent anti-pollution activist conducted a poll on one of China's popular social media sites. Within hours, tens of thousands had weighed in in support of a national air quality law. One blogger chimed in that anyone who doesn't want an air quality law is either a major polluter or a creature that doesn't breathe.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Of all the plots and subplots that enrich this Sunday's Super Bowl, the tale of Ray Lewis may be the sharpest. The great Baltimore linebacker is retiring and has a chance to go out as a Super Bowl champion, if his Ravens beat San Francisco.
Commentator Frank Deford says it's a wonderful story, just not the whole story.
FRANK DEFORD, BYLINE: When Secretariat won what was certified to be his last race, I went down onto the track at Woodbine, and gauging where he had crossed the finished line, I snatched up the last grass that perhaps the greatest thoroughbred had ever laid hooves to in his career.
Pretty sappy, I'll admit. But then it's quite a memento if only because it really is rare in sport, for someone to declare that this will be the finale, the last dance and then, indeed, go out a winner.
Most famously, perhaps, was that Ted Williams, who hit a home run in his final at bat. But as dramatic as that was, it was a meaningless game before a sparse crowd. Perhaps the most impressive declared last game was performed by one of the least sentimental athletes, the acerbic Dutchman, Norm Van Brocklin who quarterbacked the Philadelphia Eagles to their last NFL championship in 1960.
This is, of course, what Ray Lewis, the Ravens' superb linebacker, is seeking to do with the Super Bowl. Lewis' valedictory has received exceptional attention because, like Van Brocklin, he is a controversial, even notorious character. At least Lewis suffers the media better. When, late in his life, Van Brocklin endured brain surgery, he revealed to the press: I got a new brain but I demanded a sportswriter's brain, because I wanted one that had never been used before.
But sending Ray Lewis off into the sunset with violins playing requires a bit of soft-soaping. He is not, shall we say, quite the exemplary family man, having sired six children with a variety of women. He was indicted for murder in the year 2000, turned state's evidence and pled guilty to obstruction of justice. And, of course, he can be a brutal player.
But then, Lewis is demonstrably extraordinary at what he does, playing tackle football. He's also an inspirational leader. He's created a delightful so-called squirrel dance. And, above all, he is active in charities, claiming salvation from his wayward past. However, if only most everybody loves Ray, absolutely everybody loves redemption. It's odds-on that CBS will cut to him as he sings along with the "Star-Spangled Banner," before the game.
And, oh my, should the Ravens win, CBS will make sure that no less than a phalanx of angels lift Ray Lewis up from his farewell squirrel dance. To Disneyland? No. In Super Bowl hype, only heaven awaits.
In contrast, my favorite pre-ordained departure from sport was so wonderfully subdued. After Rulon Gardner, the wrestling champion, won the Bronze Medal match at the 2004 Olympics, he leaned down, untied his shoes and left them there on the mat as he walked away, forever, from his sport, victorious.
Ave atque vale. Hail and farewell.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: Sports commentator and Latin linguist Frank Deford, who joins us each Wednesday.
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
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And I'm Renee Montagne.
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We are also following news of interest to people who are trying to eat right and stay healthy. Turns out, it's not just what you eat; it's when you eat it.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
There's an old saying: It's best to eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper - eat early. NPR's Allison Aubrey reports on a new study that adds some evidence to that idea.
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: The study's lead author is Marta Garaulet of the University of Murcia in Spain. And she recently made one change in the way she goes about eating. She has not scaled back on what she's eating. Instead, she's begun eating her main meal of the day a little earlier.
MARTA GARAULET: So, I have not been doing diet, but I realize that I am better now since I eat a little bit earlier.
AUBREY: And this fits with what her study showed. Garaulet says in Spain, it's quite common to skip breakfast and eat a big lunch, sometime in the early to mid-afternoon. Dinner is often very light. As a researcher, she was interested in knowing how the timing of these meals influenced weight loss. To evaluate this, she tracked about 400 overweight people living in her town, which is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. All of them had volunteered to be part of a five-month weight loss trial, which required them to limit their calories. And at the end of the study, Garaulet found that the people who had eaten their main meal of the day early - before 3 p.m. - lost about five pounds more than those who ate later in the day, even though they were all eating about the same number of calories. Garaulet says it convinced her that the timing of a meal could make a big difference.
GARAULET: Of course, you know, when I got the result, it was the day that I change my schedule.
AUBREY: You started eating earlier.
GARAULET: Yes.
AUBREY: Researchers in the U.S., including Frank Scheer of Harvard Medical School, collaborated on the study. Scheer says they wanted to rule out other factors that might have explained the differences in weight loss between the early and late eaters. So they looked at things such as physical activity, hunger hormones, as well as sleep.
FRANK SCHEER: And none of these factors were significantly different between the two groups.
AUBREY: So what's at play here? Well, Scheer, who studies chronobiology, or how time influences biology, says recent animal studies have shown that the timing of eating can have a powerful influence on metabolism and weight regulation. This new study, he says, is among the first to suggest that this may also be true in people.
SCHEER: Only in recent years are we starting to try to tease apart what the underlying mechanisms might be.
AUBREY: In the study, the people who ate late and didn't lose as much weight also tended to skip breakfast, or eat just a little in the morning. And Scheer says that since eating seems to send a signal to our body clocks, it could be that when people delay eating until late in the day, things get out of whack. The master clock in the brain is no longer in sync with the mini-clocks in the cells of the body that regulate metabolism.
SCHEER: When the timing of meals doesn't match with the sleep-wake cycle well, there is a disconnect between the different clocks that we have in basically all the cells in our body.
AUBREY: And with this disconnect, the complex systems that regulate weight don't work as well. Now, not everyone is convinced by the findings of the study. Madelyn Fernstrom of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center says she's skeptical that the timing of meals alone can influence weight so significantly.
MADELYN FERNSTROM: Clearly, there is something biological about this whole cascade. But I think there's a lot of other unanswered questions.
AUBREY: For instance, could it be that the amount of food at breakfast rather than the timing of lunch or dinner makes a difference? It's not clear. She says the more we learn about the many factors that may influence weight, it's important for dieters not to lose sight of the big picture.
FERNSTROM: The greater importance is what you are eating. You need to eat fewer calories and move more.
AUBREY: Which is, of course, something that you likely already know. Allison Aubrey, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INSKEEP: Your companion for a hearty breakfast. It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Finding out what the public thinks is the core business of the Gallup organization. After decades of surveying everything from presidential elections to religious preferences, Gallup has become synonymous with public opinion polls. Lately, though, the name Gallup has been tarnished by a whistleblower lawsuit and a suspension from winning new federal contracts.
NPR's Carrie Johnson reports in our Business Bottom-Line.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Gallup's roots stretch all the way back to 1922, when its founder, George Gallup, was a college junior. He got a summer job interviewing people in St. Louis, as Gallup recalled for a program on the giants of advertising."
GEORGE GALLUP: And my assignment was to find out, by going house to house, what newspapers people were taking and what they read in those newspapers, what they liked.
JOHNSON: Gallup thought there was a better way of asking those questions. His innovations became pillars of the polling industry. Cliff Zukin is a political science professor at Rutgers University.
CLIFF ZUKIN: He was a pioneer and he was ethical. You know, he did it right. And he made money, but he also contributed to the methodology.
JOHNSON: George Gallup and his family owned the company for most of its history, serving as its public face at events such as the People's Choice Awards, where comedian Ray Romano gave Gallup's son, George Jr., this shout-out.
RAY ROMANO: I got to tell you, though, folks, if you ever get a chance, catch George live. 'Cause, oh, it's an event. The smoke and the groupies. Poll me. Poll me. Oh.
JOHNSON: The Gallup family sold the business about 25 years ago. Today, Zukin says, Gallup is a market research company that happens to conduct some public polls.
ZUKIN: Most people don't know that Gallup - that the public opinion research side of Gallup is the tail rather than the dog, and I think most of them don't know that the tail's not wagging as well as it used to wag.
JOHNSON: For the last two presidential election cycles, some of Gallup's polls have skewed overly Republican, a little farther from the mainstream. Lots of new rivals have appeared on the scene to claim some of Gallup's glory too. Then came a whistle-blower lawsuit. It was filed by a former employee and joined by the U.S. Justice Department. David Marshall, a lawyer for that employee, talked NPR last November.
DAVID MARSHALL: The law that this lawsuit is brought under by the government and by Michael Lindley, my client, is the False Claims Act. It's a 150-year-old law that prohibits defrauding the U.S. government in connection with contracts.
JOHNSON: The lawsuit accuses Gallup of overcharging the U.S. Mint and the State Department for research about public demand for new coins and American passports. The Justice Department says Gallup gave the government inflated estimates for work. David Marshall.
MARSHALL: This is a company that has branded itself and has caused the American people to believe that it is the most trusted name in polling. But as this lawsuit shows, the company was involved in fraud against the U.S. government, against the taxpayers.
JOHNSON: Both sides met this week to discuss a possible settlement of the case. Gallup's lawyer, William Kruse, declined to talk with NPR on tape, but in the past he's called the whistleblower a disgruntled employee. Meanwhile, Gallup's fighting on another front too. For the time being, the company's been suspended from winning any new federal contracts. The Federal Emergency Management Agency says it has evidence, quote, "indicating a lack of business honesty or integrity."
Earlier this month, a former FEMA official who was set to go work for Gallup pleaded guilty to a criminal conflict-of-interest charge for steering work to the company before he left government. Kruse, Gallup's lawyer, says the temporary suspension is standard operating procedure when any allegations arise. He says Gallup is meeting with authorities to resolve the situation and he's hopeful the suspension will be lifted soon. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
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It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
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And I'm Renee Montagne. One thing Hillary Clinton will be remembered for is the record number of countries she visited as secretary of state.
INSKEEP: That globetrotting will officially end this Friday when Clinton hands over her duties to her successor, John Kerry. Now, as secretary, Clinton is credited with restoring international alliances that were frayed during the Bush years.
MONTAGNE: She also faced fast-breaking revolutions in the Arab world and the instability that followed, including one violent night in Benghazi, Libya, that left a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead. That's where NPR's diplomatic correspondent, Michele Kelemen, picks up in her interview with the departing secretary.
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Secretary Clinton describes the September attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya as one of her lasting regrets, and says the U.S. needs to get a better handle on security threats there and across North Africa.
SECRETARY HILLARY CLINTON: I think that it's going to take some time to sort out what these governments are able to do to secure their own borders and protect their own people. The Arab revolutions and the new efforts to build democracies are not well established yet. So we have a multitude of challenges that we're meeting simultaneously.
KELEMEN: I'd like to turn to Syria, because your critics describe Syria as this administration's Rwanda. And I wonder how it weighs on you and what more the U.S. could have done to prevent the deaths of, now, 60,000 people.
CLINTON: Well, it's not a historically accurate analogy. Rwanda was particularly dreadful because it was largely unarmed people being slaughtered in huge numbers in a very short period of time, despite the presence of a U.N. mission in Rwanda. Syria is much more complex. You have a well-equipped military going after what started out to be largely unarmed, peaceful protestors, now pockets of armed resistance all over the country.
No one is in any way satisfied with what the United States or the entire world community has done, which is why we keep pressing for U.N. action and keep being disappointed and blocked by the Russians.
KELEMEN: You spent a lot of your time trying to reset that relationship with Russia. There were some early successes, but now we're at the point where the Russians won't even let American families adopt Russian children. What do you say to John Kerry, your successor, about how to deal with this Russian government and how to deal with this anti-American mood in Moscow?
CLINTON: Well, I think we just have to wait and see what the real objectives of the new Russian leadership are. We thought it was self-defeating for them to take the actions they did, throwing out USAID. That really hurts the Russian people. I thought it was tragic that they stopped adoptions, especially those that were already in train.
So there are issues we will keep working on, but we'll also draw lines where we disagree and speak out when we must.
KELEMEN: Now, you say you're not retiring. You say you need to catch up on 20 years of sleep deprivation...
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: That's true.
KELEMEN: ...before you make any decisions on your future. But I wonder, what questions do you need to answer for yourself as you decide whether or not to run again for president?
CLINTON: I'm not even posing those questions. I am really looking forward to stepping off the fast track that I've been on. You know, I've been out of politics as secretary of state. I don't see myself getting back into politics. I want to be involved in philanthropy, advocacy, working on issues like women and girls that I care deeply about.
I want to write and speak. I want to work with my husband and my daughter on our mutual foundation interests. So I'm going to have my hands full. And I have no other plans besides that.
KELEMEN: And you look great. How's your health?
CLINTON: It's terrific. I mean, I'm getting better, and I'm recovering. It was quite a surprise to me. I've been so healthy my entire life. But, you know, falling on your head is not something that I hope ever happens to any of your listeners.
KELEMEN: Well, thank you so much for your time.
CLINTON: Thank you. Good to talk with you, Michele.
MONTAGNE: And that's NPR diplomatic correspondent Michele Kelemen speaking to departing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
It's that rare week in politics when Republicans and Democrats have been advocating roughly the same thing.
INSKEEP: Some - though by no means all - GOP leaders insist it's time to back changes in immigration laws. Republican Senator Jeff Flake argued on this program yesterday, for example, that reform was morally right and also politically necessary for his party.
MONTAGNE: In Nevada, President Obama argued that now is the time for Congress to approve a change.
As NPR's Scott Horsley reports, the action comes after Latinos turned out in large numbers to help re-elect the president.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING)
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: When Latino activists chanted in Spanish yes, we can during the president's speech, you got the sense they meant it. Immigration reform has gone from wishful thinking to a genuine prospect, as President Obama described a growing consensus that it's time to fix the system.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: A call for action can now be heard coming from all across America. I'm here today because the time has come for common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform. The time has come.
HORSLEY: That was a top priority for the largely Latino Service Workers Union, which campaigned aggressively for the president's re-election. Union leader Eliseo Medina says this is a moment he's been waiting years for.
ELISEO MEDINA: The fact that the Republican senators have indicated that they want to work together to get immigration reform done, I think this is a good moment for immigrants. I think this is a good moment for America.
DAVID DAMORE: That's what elections can do. They can send a pretty strong message to one party when you're losing the fastest-growing demographic in a number of really important key swing states.
HORSLEY: Political scientist David Damore of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas says the drubbing that Republicans took from Latino voters last fall has convinced some in the party they'll never be nationally competitive until they change their tune on immigration.
This week, four Republican senators teamed up with Democrats to release their own plan for an overhaul. The president's plan presented yesterday is broadly similar. It includes strict border control, stronger workplace enforcement and steps to make it easier for high-skilled immigrants to get visas.
The most contentious part of both plans is a path to citizenship for millions of immigrants who are already in the country illegally.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
OBAMA: Now, we all agree that these men and women should have to earn their way to citizenship. But for comprehensive immigration reform to work, it must be clear from the outset that there is a pathway to citizenship.
HORSLEY: Obama says he welcomes the Senate effort, but warns if lawmakers don't move forward in a timely manner, he'll draft his own immigration bill. He also cautioned the upcoming debate is likely to be emotional.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
OBAMA: It's easy sometimes for the discussion to take on a feeling of us-versus-them. And when that happens, a lot of folks forget that most of us used to be them.
HORSLEY: The president spoke warmly about generations of immigrants who often braved hardship to help build this country - in his words - brick-by-brick.
In a parking lot of a Home Depot store down the street from the high school where the president spoke, Jose Hoya(ph) is looking for work and eager to do his part in building the country. Hoya came to the U.S. from El Salvador more than 20 years ago.
JOSE HOYA: (Foreign language spoken)
HORSLEY: Legalizing people without papers would be good for the whole country, Hoya says. He's not eligible to vote. But immigration activist Angelica Salas says many who did vote last fall felt alienated by what they saw as harsh rhetoric towards illegal immigrants from the GOP.
ANGELICA SALAS: But I also wanted to send a message to the Republican Party: Don't think that all these voters cannot one day cast a vote for you. And I think that if they support immigration reform, many of these young people will then feel like there's more of an opportunity to choose either party.
HORSLEY: Any overhaul still faces big challenges in the House, where many Republican lawmakers represent districts that are still overwhelmingly white. They may not feel the same demographic urgency that their Senate colleagues do. Union leader Medina says no one is claiming victory yet.
MEDINA: Republicans and Democrats have a choice to make: Are they going to do the right thing, or are they going to stand in the way of what the American people want? And depending on how they act, we will act accordingly in the election of 2014.
HORSLEY: Medina says immigration activists will be visiting lawmakers this spring to keep the pressure on. He hopes to see a bill passed within six months.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, Las Vegas.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts has just named his former chief of staff to be the state's new U.S. senator. William "Mo" Cowan will fill the seat of John Kerry, who's been confirmed as secretary of state. Cowan will serve until a special election in June.
He'll be the second African-American senator from Massachusetts, but in one respect his appointment is a historical first: there will now be two African-Americans serving in the Senate. The other, a Republican.
As he accepted his appointment, Cowan gave a shout-out to his mother.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
SENATOR WILLIAM 'MO' COWAN: She's a child of the segregated South, a single mother to my sisters and me after my father died when I was a teenager, a woman who did not have the opportunity to attend college. But my mother told me days like today were possible.
MONTAGNE: Mo Cowan said he won't compete for the seat in the June election. NPR's Tovia Smith reports on who might.
TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: For decades, with Senators John Kerry and the late Ted Kennedy secure in their seats, competitive Senate races were rare in Massachusetts. But now voters are suddenly overdosing on them.
JEFF BERRY: This is Massachusetts, where the sun never sets on Senate races.
SMITH: Tufts University political science Professor Jeff Berry says no one would feel that more than Scott Brown, who after winning the special election in 2010, ran and lost the regular election in 2012 and could now end up doing a whole second set, conceivably grinding out four state-wide elections in just over four years.
BERRY: Scott Brown faces a very difficult decision. I think he's tortured right now.
SMITH: Berry says the political stakes are as high as the personal for Brown. The former senator might be better off taking a short break and running for governor in 2014. Or there's always the chance he'll go for a more lucrative job in the private sector, which all leaves some Republicans wringing their hands, waiting for the Brown shoe to drop.
TODD DOMKE: It's like "Waiting for Godot" with Scott Brown.
SMITH: That's Republican strategist Todd Domke.
DOMKE: If he really wanted to run, I assume he would have sent out some signals by now. But instead, he's been in hiding, and a lot of Republicans are distraught.
SMITH: On the other hand, Brown may be fully intending to run and just biding his time and staying out of the line of fire while he can. He has little reason to rush in. He'd likely have a clear path to the nomination and full backing of national Republican leaders who are hoping to win a Senate majority in 2014.
While others - like former Governor Bill Weld - have been mentioned as possible contenders, Domke says Brown is by far the GOP's best hope.
DOMKE: On the Republican side, if Brown doesn't run, we're in trouble. The Republican Party doesn't have a deep bench. It's more like a folding chair.
SMITH: Democrats, on the other hand, may have the opposite dilemma, with multiple candidates forcing what could be a bruising and costly primary battle. Congressman Stephen Lynch - a social conservative who voted against Obamacare - is expected to announce tomorrow whether he'll challenge Congressman Ed Markey, the dean of the Massachusetts delegation who's backed by party big wigs.
Markey, who announced his run a month ago, is already stumping on what he says will be his key issues of jobs, protecting Social Security and the environment, as well as promoting gun control as he did at the State House a few days ago
REPRESENTATIVE ED MARKEY: The tragedy in Newtown has changed everything in Washington. I think we're going to pass legislation this year.
SMITH: While Markey waits to find out who he'll be running against, he has already called for anyone jumping in to agree to ban political TV ads by outside groups. A similar so-called people's pledge signed by Brown and Democrat Elizabeth Warren, for the most part, did keep third-party ads off the air. But it didn't stop the race from becoming one of the most expensive in the nation.
Tovia Smith, NPR News, Boston.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
New York's tough new gun control law, which was passed earlier this month, bans most sales of assault rifles. It also includes other restrictions that will be phased in over the next couple of years. And as New York officials move to implement the law, they're meeting with gun owners and sportsmen's groups.
North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann attended one of those sessions yesterday and heard a lot of confusion, anger, and defiance from gun owners.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: In a packed meeting room in Lake Placid, New York, the idea of gun control and the reality are meeting face to face.
COLONEL TOM FAZIO: Good afternoon everybody, my name is Tom Fazio. I'm a...
MANN: State police Colonel Tom Fazio clicks through a PowerPoint presentation, laying out New York's brand new gun law. His audience is made up mostly of guys in camouflage coats and hunting caps.
FAZIO: Assault weapons, the owners of assault weapons have until April 2014...
MANN: It's a nuts and bolts kind of talk. Fazio says he doesn't want to talk about the politics of the new rules. Instead, he spends a quarter-hour describing deadlines for registering rifles and giving details of how to modify a high-capacity clip to make it legal.
But when it's time for questions, a lot of people in the crowd, like Steve Bozell from Saranac Lake, New York, don't seem all that interested in how the new law is supposed to work. Instead, he wants to know how to work around it.
STEVE BOZELL: It says sale of assault weapons banned in New York. So what if I go to Vermont and buy one and bring it into New York?
FAZIO: You couldn't possess it in New York.
BOZELL: So it's sale or possession, so I'm dead in the water. I can never have an assault weapon.
MANN: In the national gun control debate, this is one of the big questions. What happens if you ban or restrict a type of rifle or a magazine that has been legal - a weapon that a lot of people already own? Will gun owners agree to turn in or register newly regulated firearms?
Darrell Savage from Tupper Lake, New York, says his answer is simple.
DARRELL SAVAGE: They're just stomping on our rights for no reason and it's not going to save a single life. You know, and it's turning me into a criminal.
MANN: Do you plan to comply?
SAVAGE: No. Definitely not.
MANN: State officials here are clearly trying to avoid the spectacle of arresting gun owners who violate the new rules. There's a lengthy grace period for most of the law's provisions and registration of guns and new background checks for ammunition purchases will be cost-free.
But a lot of gun owners, like Barry Mattoon from Tupper Lake, New York, don't trust those efforts and they worry that police will start seizing guns and magazines.
BARRY MATTOON: Will it be confiscated? Or taken?
KEVIN BRUEN: If you're asking me, will the state police enter your home and take magazines...
MANN: The guy answering that question is Kevin Bruen, an attorney for the state police. He says police will be handing out a lot of warnings, at least at first. But people who hold on to banned guns or magazines or fail to register them after the law's deadlines will be committing a crime.
That idea is pretty unpopular in this room and Bruen works hard to keep the meeting from spinning out of control.
BRUEN: No. Wait a second...
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: So you don't know...
BRUEN: You asked a question, now I'm going to try to answer the question.
MANN: This meeting is being held in a rural part of northern New York, where opposition to the law is strongest. A poll by the Siena Research Institute earlier this month found that 73 percent of New Yorkers, statewide, actually support the assault rifle ban.
A few of the gun owners here say they agree that some new regulations were needed.
Jeff Bartel from Lake Placid - whose gun collection includes rifles covered by the new law - says he thinks clamping down on weapon sales at gun shows was a good idea.
JEFF BARTEL: I'd gladly give up all my weapons if somebody could look me in the eye and tell me that would stop all the violence.
MANN: But Bartel shares the view of the vast majority of these gun owners, who doubt New York's laws will make people safer - or keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of criminals.
For NPR News, I'm Brian Mann in Lake Placid, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: You're listening to MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with steady profits from Boeing.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MONTAGNE: Despite having to ground its 787 Dreamliners because of battery trouble, Boeing plans to deliver dozens more Dreamliners this year. And the aerospace company says it assumes the Dreamliner woes will have little impact on its 2013 finances. The big cyberspace retailer Amazon.com reported a drop in profits yesterday. But investors sent the stock surging after seeing strength in some of Amazon's core businesses.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Ford Motor Company also announced its earnings yesterday, saying it had a pre-tax profit of $8 billion for 2012. And that gives union employees a reason to celebrate. They will each get a profit sharing check of $8,300 - a record high amount.
There's also some good news coming for General Motors workers, as Michigan Radio's Tracy Samilton reports.
TRACY SAMILTON, BYLINE: GM hasn't announced earnings yet, but the company was roughly as profitable as Ford in the first nine months last year. So unless GM's fourth quarter tanked - which no one expects - its union workers will get big checks, too.
Kristin Dziczek of the Center for Automotive Research says it's a welcome source of income, even though profit-sharing has permanently replaced what many workers like even better - a raise.
KRISTIN DZICZEK: We have to, you know, balance this $8,300 check against eight years of no annual wage increase. Costs have gone up in eight years.
SAMILTON: The check makes the biggest difference for entry-level workers, representing nearly 25 percent of their regular earnings. As to what workers tend to do with the checks - it runs the gamut, from paying bills to a down payment for a car made in their own factory.
Mike McKenzie is with Royal Oak Ford.
MIKE MCKENZIE: A lot of times people have been waiting for that profit-sharing check. Hopefully that means more car sales for us.
SAMILTON: And more car sales means more profits for the automakers.
Chrysler workers can expect profit-sharing checks, too, but they won't be as sizable. That's because the smallest of the Detroit three is also generating the smallest profits.
For NPR News, I'm Tracy Samilton in Ann Arbor.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And there was a time only a few years ago when the BlackBerry was the undisputed champion of the smartphone market - a title now held by Apple's iPhone or the Samsung Galaxy. After years of falling sales and strategic blunders, the company that many have already written off, is unveiling a new device today. It's called the BlackBerry Z10.
And to talk about whether it can save the company, we called Rich Jaroslovsky. He's technology commentator for Bloomberg News.
Glad to have you on the show again.
RICH JAROSLOVSKY: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: Good morning. BlackBerry now is really pulling out all the stops with this new smartphone. I mean we know that, partly because they're even airing an ad during the Super Bowl. Is this a kind of confidence or desperation?
JAROSLOVSKY: A little bit of both and probably in the opposite order. They are desperate. This one has to be a hit. They have to have done it right because the company otherwise is basically toast. But they also, I think, are pretty confident about this. They've been working on this for quite a while. They're unveiling a new operating system to go with it that they feel very good about. So I think it's a little bit of both.
MONTAGNE: All right. Well, tell us what you know about this new device.
JAROSLOVSKY: Well, the new phone that's being unveiled today is a touch screen. From what we've seen of it, it looks like an iPhone 5, but it's somewhat different. Among other things, you've got a user replaceable battery. The new operating system works more on gestures, finger swipes, than it does on taps. And it's got a lot of neat features that neither iPhone or Android phones have, like improved multitasking, the ability to look or do two things at one time. And there's something called the BlackBerry Hub, which is sort of a universal inbox for everything from email to tweets.
MONTAGNE: And one of BlackBerry's problems has been with apps. It has fewer than Apple, or other Android phones. Is that something that this new BlackBerry Z10 will overcome?
JAROSLOVSKY: Well, it's going to be difficult for them for to compete on that score. There are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Android apps and iPhone apps. There's less than 100,000 for BlackBerry. But on the other hand, you know, their hope is how many apps do you really need? If the phone does everything else that you need, if it appeals to your company IT department as well as to your personal side, they're kind of hoping that, you know, you'll find the main apps that you need and maybe give a little bit of a pass on the app front.
MONTAGNE: You know, given their problems and their loss of market, what market are they targeting with this new phone?
JAROSLOVSKY: Well, it's interesting. You know, BlackBerry traditionally has appealed to the corporate user. And there are features in this phone, for example, an ability to set up two separate identities, one of which you control and one of which your company controls and keeping all the information on the two separate that really are designed to appeal to corporate users. But at the same token, I think BlackBerry knows that if they don't come up with something that's really appealing to individual consumers, there's no way that they're going to make it. They've got to have something that covers both bases.
MONTAGNE: Which gets us to the really big question for BlackBerry, do you think this new device has a shot at preserving its share of the market?
JAROSLOVSKY: From what I've seen of it, I think it's got a shot. They once were the kings of the hill. They clearly are no longer. And they've really tried to do something here that's not just a me-too phone, but something that has some unique distinctive characteristics. And particularly the appeal to business users, I think, is something that they were very keen on preserving.
MONTAGNE: Rich Jaroslovsky is technology commentator for Bloomberg News. Thanks for joining us.
JAROSLOVSKY: Thanks so much for having me.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And today's last word in business is: trademarks inside of trademarks.
Apple is understandably wary of other businesses trying to steal its vibe. Fake Apple stores have popped up in China that seem so authentic that even the employees thought they were real.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
So Apple has trademarked its interior store design. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office recently granted Apple's request to protect pretty much every single thing you see in its stores. This includes quote, "a clear glass storefront surrounded by a paneled facade" and quote, "an oblong table with stools set below video screens flush mounted on the back wall."
(LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: I'm sorry, Renee. You mean, set below video screens flush mounted on the back wall, and then a little tiny TM at the end of that. You forgot the TM.
MONTAGNE: Don't try it.
INSKEEP: Exactly. That means that just about the only thing that is not trademarked in your local Apple store is the air you breathe. At least for now.
And that's the trademark business news on trademark MORNING EDITION from NPR News, trademark. I'm Steve Inskeep.
MONTAGNE: And I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: Trademark.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Photographs out of Syria show a river in the city of Aleppo. The river flows through a concrete channel, rather like the Los Angeles River in California. And along those concrete banks in Aleppo, the photos show a long row of bodies.
NPR's Kelly McEvers is monitoring this story from Beirut. She's on the line. Kelly, what happened in Aleppo as best you can tell?
KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: What we know is these bodies were found in a neighborhood called Bustan al-Qasr. It's actually a neighborhood we were in a couple of weeks ago in Aleppo. It's one of these neighborhoods along the front line. You know, there's a dividing line basically down the middle of the city. One side of the city is held by rebels. The other side is held by government. This river forms sort of a part of that dividing line.
We know that activists and human rights workers, and actually some Western journalists who were there yesterday, counted about 70 bodies. They were mostly men varying in age. They were dressed as civilians. Many of them had their hands tied. Several of them looked like they had been shot in the head. Not to be too graphic here, but rigor mortis had set in, which led people to think that they had not been there for very long.
There were relatives at the scene coming to pick up the bodies. Some of them said to Western journalists that their relatives had been in the government-controlled part of the city and had been trying to come home at some point, suggesting that it was government forces who did this.
Then, of course, you check the government, state-controlled media and they blame terrorists. This is the line that you usually get from Syrian state media. They say terrorist organization called Jabhat al-Nusra actually executed these people, dumped their bodies, and then made it into a propaganda campaign to smear the government.
So, at this point, it's hard to tell, as usual, which side is responsible.
INSKEEP: Is it normal in Aleppo, in your experience, not just to have killings in combat, but to have this kind of mysterious assassination?
MCEVERS: No, we haven't seen this so far since the fighting came to Aleppo this summer. We have seen it in many other places in Syria, however, places where you've got sects living side-by-side - Sunnis and Alawites - where we've seen a lot of these sort of revenge killings, especially in the city of Homs. We've seen it in places in Damascus, where you've got a really heavy rebel presence and it looks like the government has come in and tried to punish people for harboring rebels.
But we haven't actually seen it in areas of heavy combat, like Aleppo. So that's why this is even more of a mystery.
INSKEEP: We're talking with NPR's Kelly McEvers, trying to understand a series of killings in the city of Aleppo.
And at the same time this is happening, Kelly, the United Nations is gathering donors in Kuwait, as you know, seeking $1.5 billion in aid for the Syrians. Will the U.N. get that money?
MCEVERS: They're looking for $1 billion, Steve, just for the Syrians who have been forced out of the country. So this $1 billion would go to the neighboring countries. I mean imagine in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, where I am here, you've got entire cities of Syrians now living in tents, if they're lucky; on the muddy ground under a tarp, if they're not so lucky; maybe staying with relatives, if they can.
So this is a really urgent need. It's winter. It's cold. It's wet. And the numbers of people fleeing Syria are increasing rapidly.
Then there's another half-a-billion dollars they're seeking for people inside Syria. And if you can imagine, they have it even worse. We're talking millions of people who've been displaced from their homes now living in schools, mosques, in parks chopping down trees, burning wood to stay warm. The situation is extremely dire.
And here's the problem. It's not just that the U.N. hasn't gotten enough aid. It's that, when they do get the aid, where do they channel it? By and large, the U.N. still channels aid through the International Red Crescent, which is controlled by the Syrian government. So what you have is a lot of these displaced people are actually in rebel-controlled areas. But because the government will not get the aid to them, they're not getting any of it. So we're seeing a lot of people who still can't even get this aid if the aid is pledged.
INSKEEP: Is Syria breaking apart?
MCEVERS: It's looking bad, Steve. Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. Arab League envoy, was speaking to the Security Council yesterday, and he said just that. He said if the world doesn't step up and act - meaning the Security Council - things are going to fall apart. You're going to see, you know, government-controlled areas remain firm in Damascus and possibly on the coast and then, rebel-controlled areas sort of become entities of themselves and the fighting between the two sides continue.
It's basically a stalemate. Both sides have said they're going to fight to the death. But that means the death of Syria.
INSKEEP: NPR's Kelly McEvers, thanks very much.
MCEVERS: You're welcome.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The secretary of state made several visits to North Africa, where the Arab uprisings began in 2011. Those uprisings widened the political space for religious conservatives.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And in the country we'll visit next, people have been arguing over a powerful symbol of ultra-conservative Islam: the face veil.
INSKEEP: Tunisia is not a country where women are compelled to cover their faces or their hair. In fact, an aggressively secular government once discouraged the veil.
MONTAGNE: Now that government is gone, and ultra-conservatives known as Salafis say they want the freedom to practice their faith as they choose.
INSKEEP: At Tunisia's Manouba University, Salafis are protesting a rule that bars the face veil in the classroom.
NPR's Leila Fadel continues her series on the Salafis of North Africa.
BAHRI MARIAM: Oh, I hate them.
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: You hate them?
MARIAM: Yes.
FADEL: Why?
Twenty-three-year-old Bahri Mariam sits on the steps of the Linguistics Department at Manouba University. Her face scrunches with disgust when I ask her about the Salafi students on campus. The men are easily spotted by their long, scraggly beards and shin-length pants.
MARIAM: I hate the way that they think. You know? I don't think that they're Islam.
FADEL: Mariam is unveiled and she smokes a cigarette as she speaks. That makes her a sinner in the minds of the Salafis. But she says they don't represent Tunisians. And she solidly backs the dean's insistence on banning the niqab, a face-covering garment favored by Salafi women.
The debate echoes through the hallways of this academic institution where secular students coexist with the moderately religious and with the Salafis.
It's been a battle that ebbs and flows. Some call it the frontline of a war for identity. The dean, who hails from a leftist political party, feels he has a duty to uphold the rule banning the niqab. But he also is acting as a Tunisian, he says, to stem the growth of what he sees as a backwards ideology that calls for people to live as the Muslim prophet did 1400 years ago.
Salafi students say they still feel ostracized and oppressed two years after Tunisians overthrew an autocratic and secular president. Islamists were persecuted under the former president, women's scarves were snatched off their heads, and men with beards were targeted by security forces.
MOHAMMED RAFIQ: (Foreign language spoken)
FADEL: Speaking for the Salafi students, Mohammed Rafiq says they're just asking for basic rights.
RAFIQ: (Foreign language spoken)
FADEL: During months of campus protests last year, Rafiq says the Salafis offered concessions on the niqab ban, saying women who cover their faces could be searched by female security guards. But the dean rejected the proposal. He also refused to give the Salafis a special place for prayer. Rafiq says the dean is afraid that if they have a place to pray, the Salafi community will grow.
The dean, Habib Kazdaghli, is unapologetic for his stand.
HABIB KAZDAGHLI: (Foreign language spoken)
FADEL: In order to teach, professors must see their students' faces, he says. He jokes about the new lock on his office door, installed after Salafi students stormed the building last year. One of those students, a woman wearing a niqab, accused him of assault, an accusation he denies. His trial is under way.
Despite his travails, Kazdaghli is jovial. He shows us newspaper clippings about the protests and his trial.
(SOUNDBITE OF RUSTLING PAPER)
KAZDAGHLI: (Foreign language spoken)
FADEL: He is fighting a battle for Tunisia, he says. Like many in the secular elite, he talks about Salafism as if it were a disease that will drag Tunisia backward.
KAZDAGHLI: (Through translator) They would like to erase the past 50 years of Tunisia's history, as if independent Tunisia never existed. As if state establishments never existed. There have been successes and progress in Tunisia even though there was a dictatorship.
FADEL: I tell him Salafi students say they feel like a persecuted minority on campus.
KAZDAGHLI: (Through translator) In Tunisia, everyone is a Muslim. At this university, our reference is not religion. Religion is in the mosque. Politics is in the party. Here, the priority is education. My priority is to provide education.
FADEL: Hend, a young student who helped me report this story was disturbed by the dean's comments. She studies at Manouba University. And though she has much in common with the dean, she doesn't agree with him about the Salafis.
HEND: The rights of the minority should be protected too. You know? This is not dictatorship of the majority.
FADEL: Leila Fadel, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
The Los Angeles Lakers beat the New Orleans Hornets last night, 111-to-106. It was a normally forgettable late January game. But every victory means something to a Lakers team suffering through a dreadful first half of the season. Last night's win was the Lakers' third in a row. It means there are signs of life for a team that was expected to dominate this year. And the big reason for that: L.A.'s best player has taken on a new role.
NPR's Tom Goldman reports.
TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: The video plays before every Lakers' game at staples center in L.A. reminding all in attendance of the pedigree, the tradition.
CHICK HEARN: Hello, everybody. This is Chick Hearn, voice of the Los Angeles Lakers. And you're about to hear some very exciting basketball.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
GOLDMAN: A cavalcade of stars follows on the big screen, from bespectacled big man George Mikan to Kareem to Magic to Kobe. The words 16 NBA titles flash, so incongruous, considering the words used to describe this year's team - every possible negative adjective as the Lakers have flailed and feuded, and not come close the championship expectation that accompanied the arrival of two all-stars: center Dwight Howard and point guard Steve Nash.
But then, recently, a heartbeat. A win over Utah. A win over the NBA's best team, Oklahoma City. And last night, a 12-point halftime lead over a not-so-good New Orleans Hornet team, had Michael Keeler and his friends - all longtime Lakers fans - maybe getting a little bit ahead of themselves.
MICHAEL KEELER: I'm not worried. We'll make the playoffs.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You haven't drank the two beers yet.
KEELER: That's right.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: We're just holding them.
GOLDMAN: Chances are they were spilling them as the game wound down, and the Lakers coughed up their big advantage and led by only one, with under two minutes to play. But then this...
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)
GOLDMAN: Lakers forward Earl Clark scored the first two of nine final points that salted away the game. Significantly, Clark scored after getting a pass from Kobe Bryant. For Bryant, the NBA's fifth all-time leading scorer, it was his 11th assist, following 14 assists in each of the two previous wins. Mid-season, shooting guard Kobe Bryant has redefined his role - from scorer to facilitator.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHEERING)
GOLDMAN: And it thrills the player the Lakers hired this season to do that, one of the greatest facilitators ever, point guard Steve Nash.
STEVE NASH: It's been exciting to see him, you know, to take on that role. And I think he's made his teammates better and I think it's picked up our defense, because everyone felt like they're part of it.
GOLDMAN: Bryant says he's enjoying getting his teammates more involved. The Lakers had six players in double figures last night. And he says he enjoys proving to doubters that he can be just as effective passing the ball, as he can firing up shot after shot
KOBE BRYANT: When I focus in on something I become obsessed about it. And want to be perfect at it. And that's just my personality. So if I was going to be a point guard, I'd just obsess over it and wouldn't stop till I got it absolutely right.
GOLDMAN: That's what you're obsessed about now?
BRYANT: Can you tell?
(LAUGHTER)
GOLDMAN: The Lakers' record is 20 and 25. Hardly world-beating or playoff contending. Tonight they begin a seven-game road trip that Bryant says is hugely important. And it'll probably determine whether head coach Mike D'Antoni was right last night, when he lamented at how long it's taken the Lakers to get it. But he said: Better late than never.
Tom Goldman, NPR News, Los Angeles.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
OK. In the next few days, cable companies announce how they did financially in 2012. Most industry watchers expect some negative trends to continue. More people are canceling their cable subscriptions. They are called cord cutters, because they are getting TV from the Internet and over the air, not their cable cords. But they're not the only problem the cable industry needs to worry about. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports.
NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: Meet Comcast's worst nightmare.
JOE GOULD: Hi. My name is Joe Gould and we're in my apartment in Washington D.C.
ULABY: A few weeks ago, Gould rigged up a high-definition antenna to his flat-screen television and one of those boxes that lets him legally stream shows from Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, even live coverage from CNN.
(SOUNDBITE OF CNN BROADCAST)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: ...Somalian forces. Obviously, people...
ULABY: Then Gould did what so people many have fantasized about. He called his cable company and said take a hike. Sure, Gould and his wife will miss watching all those hot, buzzy new cable shows. But they will not miss watching their cable bill creep up and up and up to nearly 200 dollars a month.
GOULD: We're thinking, OK, we could put a payment on a car for that much.
ULABY: The Joe Goulds of this world have cable companies so concerned, some are even using their precious commercial time to try to get people back.
(SOUNDBITE OF AD)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: There's a lot of things to take advantage of with Time Warner Cable.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: You can have a better TV experience too. Come back to Time Warner Cable and get up to...
ULABY: It's a little hard to track who's an actual cord cutter, like Joe Gould, and who just canceled her cable subscription because she lost her job a few years ago and had to move back in with her parents. This is what we know. About 97 percent of Americans get cable and satellite TV. Three years ago, it was 99 percent. So we're talking a one percent drop per year.
BRAHM EILEY: That's not really a big number at the end of the day.
ULABY: Brahm Eiley tracks these kinds of trends for his company, the Convergence Consulting Group. He says for the industry, this is sort of a big deal.
EILEY: People get very, very excited about these numbers but the truth of the matter is, it's still very small. And everybody's kind of been waiting with bated breath for the television to go through some form of revolution.
ULABY: Like the revolution we thought might come when the world's most powerful technology companies came stomping into the television arena: Apple TV. Google TV. Tech writer Peter Kafka is still waiting.
PETER KAFKA: None of them have gone ahead and done it so far.
ULABY: Partly because not even the mighty Google or Apple has managed to buy the rights that would let them stream sports events live online.
KAFKA: That shows you that the existing, sort of, TV industrial complex is very strong, very healthy, very hard to break down.
ULABY: So far, TV's resisted crumbling in the face of piracy. Which is, of course, a factor for lots of people cutting the cord. There's even a rising generation called nevercords. They're the young people who grew up watching TV online and hate the idea of shelling out for cable.
Peter Kafka says it's not hard to figure out how to be a cord cutter. But it's intimidating. It's almost like being a vegan in terms of who's doing it.
KAFKA: You'll notice a lot more of it I think if you're in New York or the Bay area, maybe Los Angeles, definitely college towns. You'll notice lots of people who are either eating vegan food or not paying for cable, but to assume that the rest of the country is behaving the same way is wrong.
ULABY: After all, McDonalds and the cable companies are doing just fine with miniscule drops in sales and subscriptions. Real consumer change could take decades. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.
The Caravan of Peace is an annual march at the Vatican. As Pope Benedict looked on, two doves, symbolizing peace, were released into St. Peter's Square. It was beautiful until a seagull assaulted one of the doves. Time magazine got one of the finest headlines ever seen outside The Onion: Pope's Dove of Peace Attacked by Seagull of Irony. But the symbolism grew deeper when the surprisingly tough Dove of Peace fought off the much larger seagull.
It's MORNING EDITION.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne with gnomes in the news. This time, about 2,300 tiny paintings of gnomes have appeared on utility poles all over Oakland, California. Since the little guys showed up last year, full-sized residents got into the spirit - blogging and tweeting new sightings. Pacific Gas and Electric was going to evict the bearded figures, but when the anonymous artist appealed, PG&E backed off. Yesterday it declared the poles gnome-man's-land. It's MORNING EDITION.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep, with Renee Montagne. Good morning.
Let's try again, shall we, to explain what it means when we hear that the U.S. economy shrank in the fourth quarter of 2012. As we've discussed elsewhere in the program, the decline was slight - just one-tenth of a percentage point - but it is the first contraction of the economy since the Great Recession officially ended in 2009. NPR's Jim Zarroli is with us once again in New York. Jim, good morning.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: We had technical difficulties, many people did not hear some of our discussion earlier. So let's go back to the basics, here. A decline in GDP, gross domestic product. What does that mean, and why did it happen?
ZARROLI: Well, it's a big surprise. I mean, the economy grew by 3.1 percent in the 3rd quarter of 2012, and then it just fell off a cliff, so to speak. You know, I think a lot of economists were expecting a slowdown, but nothing like this. And when you look at the reasons, first, there was a drop in federal - there was a drop in government spending overall, an especially big drop in federal government spending, and especially - particularly in defense.
There is also a drop in exports. We know a lot of companies, a lot of American companies that export, in particular to Europe, have seen a big slowdown.
So these are factors - these are the kinds of factors that take a bite out of growth. So, it's not a recession, technically, but it is a slowdown.
INSKEEP: OK. So a setback, of sorts. But let me ask about a couple of those things. You said a drop in federal government spending, particularly defense spending. The law didn't change a lot from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. So I'm trying to understand why defense spending would suddenly drop off.
ZARROLI: Well, it's probably several factors. I mean, for one thing, as I said, we saw a drop in government spending overall, but especially in federal government. Much of it was related to defense, and, you know, I think that the most important thing is we were approaching the fiscal cliff. There was a lot of concern being expressed about what would happen to government spending, what would happen to taxes at the beginning of the year. That is the kind of thing that has an impact on how much individual government agencies spend.
INSKEEP: I just want to make sure, Jim, that we - individual government agencies spend. Are you saying that some have actually held back on their spending to be prepared for the possibility of some kind of fiscal chaos in the new year?
ZARROLI: You know, it's not really clear. I don't think that we know the answer that yet. But it's - the fiscal cliff definitely seemed to be a factor in general. I mean, it also seemed to a factor in companies stopping - companies weren't adding to their inventories. They were sort of holding back on production because of concern about these issues.
So, I think, basically, you're seeing the problems in Washington - this inability to reach consensus on taxes and spending - sort of having a very concrete effect on the economy.
INSKEEP: OK. Well, that raises an interesting question, Jim Zarroli, because here we are now in a new quarter - we're in the first quarter of 2013, of course - and the fiscal issues are not resolved. Many of them have been pushed into the near future, even though there was a deal to avert the worse of the fiscal cliff at the start of the year.
ZARROLI: That's right. And one of the interesting things is the - this didn't seem to have as much of an impact on consumer spending. We actually saw an increase in that. So you could make the case that things - you know, even with all this, the stuff about the fiscal cliff, that things weren't as bad as they seemed, and that growth is, you know, going to resume, that this slight contraction we saw in growth was just temporary. And I think a lot of economists this morning are saying that. They're saying, you know, don't panic, that these numbers also could be revised. They very often are.
On the other hand, we've seen, you know, some increases in taxes at the start of the year, the expiration of the payroll tax holiday. And that could have an impact on consumer spending.
INSKEEP: If you're, say, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, do you look at numbers like this and think about whether you want to change your policies at all?
ZARROLI: Oh, definitely. I mean, you know, the Fed has been doing quantitative easing, which is buying up long-term assets as a way of getting money into the economy. It's very controversial. There's been a big debate within the Fed about: How long do you think we should keep this going before there's inflation? And I think these numbers just really strengthen the hands of those people at the Fed who say, we're not yet there yet. The economy's weak. You know, we have to do everything we can to keep the economy going. And the Fed is meeting today, and that's certain to come up.
INSKEEP: Jim, thanks very much.
ZARROLI: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Jim Zarroli. He's in New York. He's helping us to understand a little about the news that the economy, according to the government, declined by one-tenth of a percent in the last quarter of last year.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Let's take a few moments to remember one of the most famous voices of what many Americans view as "the good war."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RUM AND COCA-COLA")
MONTAGNE: The Andrew Sisters, singing one of their biggest hits from the World War II-era. The longest-surviving member of that trio, Patty Andrews, has died at her home in Southern California. She was 94. Over the trio's long career, the Andrews Sisters sold 90 million records and had dozens of top-10 hits.
NPR's Amy Blaszyk has this remembrance.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BIER MIR BIST DU SCHOEN")
AMY BLASZYK, BYLINE: Patty Andrews was just 19, the youngest of the Andrews Sisters, when the trio became an overnight sensation crooning this old Yiddish folk tune. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: The following song is not a Yiddish folk tune. It was written for the Yiddish theater.]
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BIER MIR BIST DU SCHOEN")
BLASZYK: Patty not only sang lead, she was clearly the star of the group.
JOEL WHITBURN: Patty was an outstanding presence. She was the leader; she was the one that your eyes were focused on.
BLASZYK: That's Joel Whitburn. He founded Record Research, a company that's tracked Billboard's popular music charts for almost 40 years. As the authoritative historian on charted music, he's heard a lot of singers.
WHITBURN: She just seemed to effuse that warmth and personality and charm and smile - and vigor, more so than the other two sisters.
BLASZYK: At the onset of World War II, their popularity pushed them to the top of the charts. As the troops headed overseas, the Andrews Sisters were in their own way drafted into service. Only Bob Hope did more USO tours than the trio. And they recorded Victory Discs for distribution to allied troops.
PATTY ANDREWS: Hello, all you fellas all over the world. Greetings from the Andrews Sisters. I'm Patty.
MAXENE ANDREWS: I'm Maxene.
LAVERNE ANDREWS: And I'm Laverne.
BLASZYK: The trio became synonymous with the war effort. They were getting ready to perform outside of Naples, Italy, for troops headed to the Pacific when Patty was handed a piece of paper to read. Maxene Andrews told the story to NPR, in 1993.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING
M. ANDREWS: She opened up this piece of paper, and she looked at it, and then she started to cry. And she said, boys, the note reads here that the war with Japan is over.
BLASZYK: As the war ended, the Andrews Sisters became the stars of their own radio show, transporting listeners weekly to the "Eight-to-the-Bar Ranch." In a guest appearance on his radio show, Bing Crosby teased the girls about their new property.
(SOUNDBITE OF "THE BING CROSBY SHOW")
(LAUGHTER)
BLASZYK: Patty led the Andrews Sisters through more than a dozen movies, like "Hollywood Canteen."
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "HOLLYWOOD CANTEEN")
BLASZYK: The Andrews Sisters typically appeared as themselves in films.
Marcella Puppini has always been a fan. She's one-third of the Puppini Sisters, a group that pays homage to the Andrews Sisters' work. She says movies were another stage on which Patty took the lead.
MARCELLA PUPPINI: She seemed to be the one that had the romantic parts as well. There was always a little bit of romantic interest for - for Patty.
BLASZYK: Patty had a strong desire to stand out. She didn't like that her career identity seemed permanently entrenched with the Andrews Sisters. In 1950, she made the first of several attempts to launch a solo career, with this song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I WANT TO BE LOVED")
BLASZYK: But the song, with Patty's sisters singing backup, was still released as an Andrews Sisters recording. And Patty wanted more. Her solo aspirations caused the trio to break up in 1953, though they reunited a few short years later. After Laverne died of cancer in the late 1960s, the remaining sisters continued as a duo. Maxene died in 1995.
The Andrews Sisters' catalog - some 1,800 songs - has been thoroughly mined by other artists over the years - most notably, Bette Midler in 1972.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOOGIE WOOGIE BUGLE BOY")
BLASZYK: Followed by the Puppini Sisters...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOOGIE WOOGIE BUGLE BOY")
BLASZYK: And most recently, Christina Aguilera, with her twist on the famous tune.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CANDYMAN")
BLASZYK: But it's possible that Patty Andrews' most fulfilling partnership was with her husband, Wally Weschler, to whom she was married for more than 60 years.
For NPR News, I'm Amy Blaszyk.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BOOGIE WOOGIE BUGLE BOY")
: (Singing) He's the boogie woogie bugle boy of Company B. He's...
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The musician Ben Harper says he grew up on this sound.
BEN HARPER: My family has a music store called the Claremont Folk Music Center that's been open for going on 60 years now.
INSKEEP: And it was around that shop, east of Los Angeles, that Ben Harper discovered the harmonica playing of Charlie Musselwhite.
HARPER: We had Charlie's records stacked high at my family's store and at my house.
INSKEEP: Now you could put one more album on the stack. At age 43, Ben Harper has a dedicated following and two Grammy Awards. And he has recorded an album with Charlie Musselwhite.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'M IN AND I'M OUT AND I'M GONE)
INSKEEP: Musselwhite, who's 69 today, sat down with Ben Harper to talk with us about his harmonica playing...
HARPER: Charlie has - it's a cross between a church organ and Ray Orbison's voice.
INSKEEP: ...and about their album called "Get Up."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I'M IN AND I'M OUT AND I'M GONE)
INSKEEP: Fans of Chicago blues may recognize this sound, even though it's a new song. It sounds almost like it could be a song by Muddy Waters, who dominated Chicago blues after World War II.
HARPER: You want a piece of Mud in everything you do, really
INSKEEP: And Ben Harper got a piece of Mud, because Charlie Musselwhite played alongside Muddy Waters half a century ago.
Muddy Waters was part of the great migration of African-Americans from the South to Northern cities. Years later, a teenaged Charlie Musselwhite became part of a great migration of white Southerners who were following the same path.
: The first job I got was a driver for an exterminator. So I drove all over Chicago and I would see signs in the windows of bars, saying: Elmore James, Tuesday Night; Muddy Waters, Saturday Night; Howling Wolf - all these names I just discovered. All my heroes were there and I just couldn't get enough.
INSKEEP: If I may ask, you were already a musician at this point. Weren't you?
: Well, I wasn't thinking of myself as a musician. I loved the music and I had learned to play, you know, just for myself, really. I was looking for a job in a factory.
(LAUGHTER)
INSKEEP: So, I mean it's kind of amazing to think - I mean if you did not think a lot of your own talent - if you didn't understand really your own talent and where it could take you - it must have taken quite a leap not just to go to a blues club and to watch, but to somehow get yourself up on stage.
: Well, I didn't think about doing it myself because this was, like, adult music. There was nobody my age playing it that I knew about. Until, one night, this waitress that I had gotten to know told Muddy, you ought to hear Charlie play harmonica. And soon as Muddy heard that I played, he insisted I sit in, which wasn't unusual, 'cause people sat in at Pepper's Lounge all the time.
It was just unusual for this kid, this white kid, with all these grown-ups. When people heard me playing, I started getting offers for gigs. And this really got my attention.
(LAUGHTER)
: I thought this is my ticket out of the factory.
INSKEEP: You fell in love with this kind of music, I guess.
: Oh, I had been in love with this kind of music since I was just a kid. And I liked all kinds of music, but blues just seemed to make sense to me. It sounded like how I felt.
INSKEEP: And that same feeling carries over to Musselwhite's new recording with Ben Harper.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GET UP")
INSKEEP: Don't tell me I can't break the law because the law has broken me. That is a classic kind of blues line where the words turn back on themselves.
HARPER: Thank you.
INSKEEP: How did that song get built? Did the words come first? Did the bass line come first? Something else?
HARPER: The bass line came first.
INSKEEP: The bass line came first.
HARPER: And it's a rare song. You got to have a James Brown bass line to be able to write a song around it.
INSKEEP: And what is Charlie's harp at there?
HARPER: You don't have a song without - it doesn't elevate. It wouldn't take on its highest calling.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GET UP")
HARPER: And also, you need - you take the lyrics, you know - I have the right to get up when I please - it's Occupy, its freedom. Everybody is talking about freedom but they're trapped in their house behind their own bars, behind their own paranoia. You know? It's just all in there. It's today. It's now.
INSKEEP: When you said occupy, are you referring to the Occupy Movement?
HARPER: Sure. Why not?
INSKEEP: I have also seen a video of you at a protest against a proposed Walmart in Los Angeles, if I'm not mistaken.
HARPER: Oh, yeah.
INSKEEP: And you play a song from this album.
HARPER: That's right. That's right, "We Can't End This Way."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WE CAN'T END THIS WAY")
INSKEEP: And how did that song come together?
HARPER: I was living downtown and downtown L.A. At night is one of the greatest skate parks in the world. There's banks, ledges, the streets are empty, red curbs everywhere. Red curbs are a skater's paradise. They've been painted over for years and they create this smooth surface on the curb that you can grind on and board slide. And there was an award event - Oscars, Grammys - something was going on downtown.
And I was skating around on a skateboard. And I'm kicking around. And there was a cat on the corner. You know, he was a hustler. His hustle was, he'd just stand there and go, help, like, cry for help.
(LAUGHTER)
HARPER: And I was like, man...
INSKEEP: Straight forward.
HARPER: Yeah, just like crying for help on the corner. And I'd see people walk past him. And I was like, man, they were just filing past him in their $5,000 outfits. Just moving past him as if he is, you know, disposable. And I was just like wow, this is something else. And that's when it hit me. It's like, man, we can't go out like this. There's got to be a better alternative than going out like this.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WE CAN'T END THIS WAY")
INSKEEP: Well, Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite, thanks very much. I've enjoyed this.
: It's been a pleasure.
HARPER: Steve, thank you.
INSKEEP: Their new album is called "Get Up!" It's out this week.
It's 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:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Chuck Hagel spent more than a decade in the United States Senate, asking witnesses questions at hearings. Today, he's the one answering questions. Hagel is testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, as it considers his nomination to be secretary of defense. He follows Senator John Kerry, who was confirmed this week to be secretary of state.
Now, outsiders are looking at President Obama's national security team and asking what it says about the administration's approach to war.
Here's NPR's Ari Shapiro.
ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: John Kerry and Chuck Hagel have a prominent biographical detail in common: service in Vietnam.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
SHAPIRO: That was Kerry at the start of his confirmation hearing to be secretary of state.
This was President Obama introducing Hagel to be defense secretary.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
SHAPIRO: The White House emphasizes that both Kerry and Hagel understand the full cost of war, in money and in lives. President Obama believes that makes them the right men for this moment after a decade of big, expensive, bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tommy Vietor is a White House spokesman.
TOMMY VIETOR: I don't think we can necessarily say without a doubt that there will never be a large war again. However, certainly, we've moved conceptually towards a more targeted, surgical approach that focuses on al-Qaida. So you don't have this 100,000-troop footprint in Iraq to deal with a far smaller group of individuals that are actually targeting the United States.
SHAPIRO: The targeted, surgical approach that Vietor describes relies less on the military and more on the CIA, which brings up Obama's third major national security nomination: CIA director-in-waiting John Brennan, who's been a longtime advisor to President Obama.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
SHAPIRO: This was from a speech Brennan gave two years ago here in Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)
SHAPIRO: There's that phrase again: targeted, surgical. I asked Vietor at the White House: Is targeted, surgical approach a euphemism for drones and a kill list?
VIETOR: The way we think about this for a president is, he doesn't have a choice about whether to do counterterrorism operations or not. There are threats to the United States, and his obligation is to protect the American people. He has a choice about how he conducts these counterterrorism operations.
SHAPIRO: So these three nominations - Kerry, Hagel and Brennan - represent a shift in the way the U.S. wages war. It's a shift from big to small, from the Pentagon to the CIA. And legal experts say it's also a shift from clear public rules to murky, secret ones.
The rules for invading a country are well-established. They've been developed over hundreds of years. But when the U.S. decides to go after a small group of suspected terrorists, spread out in lots of different countries, Ben Wittes of the Brookings Institution says it's a whole new ballgame.
BEN WITTES: That is a much, much more complicated and much less-charted area of international law, of U.S. domestic law, in some ways. It's an area that is really important to the future as represented by these nominations, I think.
SHAPIRO: It's controversial, too, and President Obama has had some pushback - though more overseas than at home. Regardless, it's now part of his legacy, says Karen Greenberg. She runs the National Security Program at Fordham Law School.
KAREN GREENBERG: Remember, President Obama accepted the Nobel Peace Prize by saying war is necessary. He's somebody who understands, to his mind, what he sees as the need of war to create peace.
SHAPIRO: Ambassador Bob Blackwill, who held national security positions in the Bush administration, thinks this is a step that any president would have taken.
BOB BLACKWILL: We've been at war for the longest period in American history. We're, as a country, exhausted by these long wars we've been fighting. And I think that's the broad view of the American people now.
SHAPIRO: He says any president is a politician, answerable to the will of the American people. And right now, the American people want restraint.
Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Of the many ideas for new gun laws, one proposal captures the interest of economists: liability insurance.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Most states require car owners to have liability insurance to cover damage their vehicles caused others.
INSKEEP: And some economists think gun owners should have to do the same.
Here's Caitlin Kenney from NPR's Planet Money team.
CAITLIN KENNEY, BYLINE: When you want to purchase car insurance, you have to answer questions like this...
JACOB BAUM: Is this the first time you're getting a car? How many years have you been driving? In the past five years, how many accidents or violations?
KENNEY: Jacob Baum sells auto insurance at Choice Insurance Agency in Brooklyn, New York. He asks these questions to help insurers figure out how likely it is your car will be involved in an accident - not just you as the driver, your car.
BAUM: Besides yourself, who lives with you, regardless of their age?
KENNEY: Now, imagine we ask gun owners these same questions.
JUSTIN WOLFERS: How old are you? What's your gender? What type of gun is this? Are there teenagers in the house?
KENNEY: Justin Wolfers is a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, and this is what he wants. He wants people like Jacob Baum to be asking these same questions of gun owners, to be selling them liability insurance based on their answers.
WOLFERS: We know that cars kill people. And so we have strong liability insurance requirements for cars. We also know guns kill - in the United States - literally tens of thousands of people a year. It seems like it's creating enormous social harm, and we're asking you to pay for it.
KENNEY: Wolfers say requiring insurance wouldn't just provide compensation for families of gun violence victims. It would help keep guns out of the hands of people we don't want to have them. Insurance agents would be able to identify risky gun owners just like they identify risky drivers. And those people could be denied insurance or have to pay really high rates for it. Not only that, responsible gun owners would get a discount for taking extra precautions with their guns, just like drivers who have good driving records can get cheaper insurance rates.
WOLFERS: Insurance companies would look at someone who is a responsible hunter, who used a gun lock, kept their guns stored separately from where they had their ammunition, had it locked away. They'd probably charge them much, much lower premiums than they would, for instance, a young hot-head who stored their gun near their bed.
KENNEY: In theory, Wolfers says, a law like this could keep guns out of the hands of bad people, while motivating good people to be extra safe.
RUSS ROBERTS: And that's true in theory, but in practice, it doesn't work that way, because people don't necessarily comply with the law.
KENNEY: Russ Roberts is an economist and a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institute. He says the major flaw with this idea: criminals. If you're already a lawbreaker, why would you follow this law?
ROBERTS: They're not going to register it. They're not going to license it, and they're not going to buy that insurance. They're going to buy the gun on the black market. So the money won't be there to compensate the victims, as nice as that would be, but more importantly, there's no discouragement or deterrence for those folks from the existence of that policy.
KENNEY: Even with cars, this is a problem. The Insurance Research Council says one in seven drivers is not insured. And liability insurance for cars is pretty strictly enforced. It would be a lot harder to ensure that gun owners have insurance. You know if someone's driving a car. You don't know if they're carrying a gun. And sending law enforcement to people's homes to check for guns and gun insurance would almost certainly face legal challenges. Caitlin Kenney, NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Boeing is scrambling to figure out why two batteries malfunctioned on its 787 Dreamliner, prompting officials to ground the entire fleet. And at just this moment, when Boeing most needs its skilled engineers, they are weighing a possible strike. Today, union leaders will consider the company's final contract offer.
From KPLU in Seattle, Ashley Gross reports.
ASHLEY GROSS, BYLINE: The standoff between Boeing and about 23,000 engineers and technicians - mostly in the Seattle region - has been brewing for months. Dozens of them recently packed a union hall south of Seattle for training in how to run a picket line.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: We're doing another picket captain training next week, I believe in Tukwila.
GROSS: These are white-collar folks - some with PhDs - who design Boeing's airplanes. Not the type you normally associate with picket lines. They embrace their geeky image with their slogan No Nerds, No Birds. They've had only one major strike, back in 2000. But contract negotiations this time have left many of them upset.
Tom McCarty is a lifelong Boeing engineer and president of the union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA.
TOM MCCARTY: It is hard for me to understand why the company insists that we have to make concessions in our contract at this point. The company is doing very well and we're a big factor in making that success.
GROSS: Despite the Dreamliner crisis, Boeing has been doing well - it had record sales last year. The urgency of the 787 investigation brought the union and company closer to an agreement. But they're still at loggerheads. Boeing wants to offer new employees a so-called defined contribution plan, like a 401(k), instead of a defined benefit plan like a traditional pension. Boeing is just following lots of other companies, like GE, Lockheed Martin and the automakers.
OLIVIA MITCHELL: Most corporations are trying to de-risk.
GROSS: Olivia Mitchell specializes in pensions at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School.
MITCHELL: What that means is they're trying to get out of the mold where they're having their contribution amounts jackknifed - by the economy, by interest rates, by the stock market - and move to a more predictable funding flow.
GROSS: Boeing's pension obligation totals $75 billion - more than the company's entire stock market value. Boeing's been putting money into it, but it's still only three-quarters funded. Company executives declined an interview, but Mike Delaney, vice president of engineering, spoke with reporters about the contract talks earlier this month, before the FAA grounded the Dreamliner. At the time, he said, keeping costs down is key.
MIKE DELANEY: We don't want just any deal. We want a deal that works for the company, both short-term and long-term.
GROSS: The union says new hires will be shortchanged. Company officials concede new workers will get less than current employees. But they say the offer is still generous. So that's a pickle: Do current employees strike on behalf of future employees? Union leaders say this is important. Giving in would split employees into factions and start a downward slide in compensation.
SCOTT HAMILTON: This is a headache they do not need at this point in time.
GROSS: Scott Hamilton is an aviation analyst. He says Boeing can't afford an engineer walkout right now. Its top priority has to be fixing the 787 Dreamliner.
HAMILTON: They're not even able to test fly the airplanes at this point. So the longer the airplane's on the ground, the more costly it's going to be to Boeing.
GROSS: Union leaders will decide today whether to have engineers and technicians vote on strike authorization. If that happens, membership will have till mid-February to decide whether to approve a walkout.
For NPR News, I'm Ashley Gross in Seattle.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
This is the time when we begin to find if the emotional power of the Newtown school shooting will translate into political change. People affected by mass shootings are now talking with state and federal lawmakers.
Susan Aaron's daughter escaped the shooting in Newtown after seeing her teacher and friends killed.
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INSKEEP: Aaron's told her story to Connecticut lawmakers, and so did Newtown resident Bill Stevens, who opposes tighter gun laws.
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MONTAGNE: That was some of the testimony in Connecticut on the same day as a hearing in Washington, D.C. Lawmakers have spoken of changes, ranging from a ban on assault weapons, to better background checks.
NPR's Carrie Johnson reports emotions ran high, starting with the opening witness.
CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: For former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, every step is a struggle. Giffords' right arm is paralyzed. She's also partially blind, the result of a point blank shooting two years ago at a Tucson shopping plaza where she met with constituents.
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JOHNSON: Giffords read her statement from a piece of lined notebook paper, the kind that's so familiar in schools all over the country.
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JOHNSON: The next four hours demonstrated exactly how hard it may be for the divided Senate to move ahead on new gun regulations.
Republicans raised doubts about a ban on assault weapons, an idea even many Democrats say won't fly in Congress. Several GOP senators also said they'd have a hard time supporting limits on high capacity magazines that carry dozens of rounds of ammunition.
Senator John Cornyn from Texas.
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JOHNSON: Then there's the background check system. Under current law, only gun sales through federally licensed dealers get background checks, even though many sales now take place at gun shows, on the Internet, or through friends and family.
James Johnson - the police chief in Baltimore County, Maryland - told senators as many as four in 10 people never go through that system.
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JOHNSON: Speaking for a law enforcement coalition, Johnson asked senators to impose universal background checks that would cover private sales.
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JOHNSON: Wayne LaPierre is the chief executive of the National Rifle Association.
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JOHNSON: Days after the Newtown school shooting, LaPierre famously said the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he repeated his call for armed guards in schools.
Lindsey Graham's a Republican from South Carolina.
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JOHNSON: Mark Kelly, a retired astronaut who's married to Gabrielle Giffords, told lawmakers that could be dangerous. In Tucson two years ago, Kelly says, a Good Samaritan with a gun came within a split second of shooting someone other than the killer. Kelly says the issue's complex. But...
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JOHNSON: Kelly shook hands with NRA executives as the hearing finally came to a close.
When it comes to action in the Senate, it's still not clear who has the upper hand.
Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
In the past two days on this program, we've looked into how the Chinese government uses modern technology to monitor its population, to a point where it could be called a surveillance state. Now there's some evidence that surveillance extends well beyond China's borders. The New York Times says that for the past four months, its computer system has been systematically hacked, and it is accusing the Chinese government of being behind it. The New York Times says the hacking was tied into the paper's investigation into how the family of Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao accumulated billions of dollars in business deals. Nicole Perlroth reports on cyber-security for the New York Times, including on this particular story, and she joined on the line. Good morning.
NICOLE PERLROTH: Good morning.
MONTAGNE: So when did the Times and how did the Times realize it was being hacked?
PERLROTH: Sure. So, leading up to the publication of that story, our security team actually asked AT&T - which monitors our network - to look out for some unusual activity. And on October 25th, the same day we published, we heard back from them that they had seen behavior on our network consistent with other attacks they had seen perpetrated by the Chinese military.
MONTAGNE: Well, what was the hacker's goal?
PERLROTH: It was very clear from the start that they were after David Barbosa's email correspondence. David was the Shanghai bureau chief who wrote the investigation into Mr. Wen's relatives. And his sources for the story, ironically enough, were actually publically available documents. There wasn't anyone that actually came and dumped a bunch of documents on his lawn or anything that the Chinese government would have found in his email account that would have been helpful. But it was very clear from the beginning that they were after David's email correspondence.
MONTAGNE: So, in a sense, you might say they didn't get much, because there wasn't much for them to get.
PERLROTH: That's correct.
MONTAGNE: Now, aside from the fact that you're saying those who were targeted were your China journalists, what is the evidence that these attackers come from China, have anything to do with China itself or are connected to the Chinese government?
PERLROTH: Sure. So, the malware that they had used was previously seen in hundreds of other attacks. And the command and control centers they used were known to have been used by the Chinese military in previous attacks.
MONTAGNE: What has China said about these accusations?
PERLROTH: They've denied them. They said, you know, we have laws in place that prevent this from happening, and to accuse the Chinese military is - I think the quote was, quote-unquote, "unprofessional."
MONTAGNE: Nicole Perlroth, you report on cyber-security for the New York Times, and you knew that this hacking was going on.
PERLROTH: Yes. It's an interesting spot to be in, to be covering this, and I'll tell you why. You know, since I started covering cyber-security, there are a number of companies that have come out in the last year that I've been on this beat that have accused China of breaking into their systems. So Lockheed Martin says it's regularly targeted. Northrop Grumman says it's attacked on a daily basis. And, of course, no company wants to come forward and voluntarily say, hey, we were hacked by China. Here's how it happened. Here's how it took. Because they're probably scared what it will do for their stock price or their reputations. And in this case, you know, what was interesting that it was my own employer that had been hacked. And we felt that it was very important to come out with this and say this was how easy it is for them to break into any U.S. company, and here's how they're doing it.
MONTAGNE: Nicole Perlroth reports in cyber-security for the New York Times. She was speaking to us from San Francisco. Thanks very much.
PERLROTH: Thanks, Renee.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And now let's talk about some people who do their jobs not in private, but very much in public. NBC's critically acclaimed sitcom "30 Rock" ends tonight. In its seven seasons, it has consistently dominated industry award shows like the Emmys. And TV critic Eric Deggans says it has also pioneered a new kind of program: the high-quality, low-viewer comedy.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: Once upon a time in network television land, there were two TV shows starting on the same network, with the same idea: Explore the hijinks behind making a live television comedy show. One of them had an Oscar-winning creator and a former "Friend" in the cast. But Aaron Sorkin and Matthew Perry's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" died a messy, public death.
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DEGGANS: The other one was a new creation from former "Saturday Night Live" head writer Tina Fey, called "30 Rock," and TV history was made.
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DEGGANS: "30 Rock" is a smart, pop culture-savvy comedy about hapless TV producer Liz Lemon and the gaggle of oddballs who create her show, "TGS with Tracy Jordan." But the secret weapon was movie star Alec Baldwin as the hilariously self-centered corporate executive who serves as Lemon's reluctant mentor, Jack Donaghy.
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DEGGANS: The Liz and Jack relationship stands at the heart of the show's jittery, one-hour finale. "TGS" is canceled; Lemon is struggling as a stay-at-home mom; and Donaghy seemingly has the job of his dreams as the CEO of a Comcast-like company called Kabletown.
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DEGGANS: But "30 Rock" has another, less-impressive distinction: It helped bury NBC's once-powerful Thursday TV franchise. Back in the day, some of TV's smartest comedies were also its most successful. And many of them - from "Seinfeld" to "Friends" and "Frazier" - aired on NBC's Thursday nights, nicknamed Must-See TV.
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DEGGANS: But "30 Rock," along with "The Office," filled out a Thursday night of smart comedy drawing fewer eyeballs. Last season, "30 Rock's" finale drew less than 3 million people. In its heyday, the show's audience was nearly three times larger. Like fellow NBC comedies "Community," "Parks and Recreation" and "Up All Night," "30 Rock" offered a whip-smart, occasionally absurd style of comedy that challenged audiences. But those kinds of shows rarely draw big crowds. Instead, broader comedies - that's a nice, TV critic word for less-smart - tend to win the night. Think crude sex jokes on "Two and a Half Men," or the nerd humor of "Big Bang Theory." In fact, when Fey win a Screen Actors Guild award on Sunday, she used the acceptance speech to plead for viewers.
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DEGGANS: Thanks for all the great comedy, Tina. It's not your fault that in the end, "30 Rock" may just have become a little too smart for the room.
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INSKEEP: Eric Deggans, TV and media critic for the Tampa Bay Times. And you can also hear him right here, on MORNING EDITION from NPR News.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with advertisers liking Facebook.
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MONTAGNE: Facebook says its mobile advertising business nearly doubled from the third to fourth quarter of 2012. As a whole, the company's ad business grew at its fastest rate since it went public last May.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Some analysts felt the social network had initially been too slow to get into the mobile market. More and more of Facebook's customers login with smartphones and tablet. The company counted 680 million mobile users last month, which it says is that almost 60 percent from the year before.
MONTAGNE: CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the company is not looking to maximize profits in the coming year. He says Facebook's focus is investment in new services, such as its online gift store.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
One of the world's biggest personal computer makers said its profits for the most recent quarter rose 34 percent. Lenovo is a Chinese technology company, which contends with HP, now, for the title of the world's number one PC seller. Here is the strange thing about that company, it is doubling down on personal computer sales - you know, desktops, laptops - at a time when the PC market is declining. Tablets and phones are taking over. The trend has crushed sales at another PC maker, Dell.
To find out more about how Lenovo hopes to stay on top, we called Vijay Vaitheeswaran of The Economist.
VIJAY VAITHEESWARAN: The company's chairman has a very contrarian philosophy. It's almost considered orthodoxy, now, among analysts and a lot of the other computer companies, that the rise of the tablet computer and the shift to smartphones means that the personal computer is on its way out. But in fact, the company says no, we don't believe that. We think there is a lot of room left for personal computers. Part of their answer is going to emerging markets where the penetration of PCs was never as strong. Also, they think that, particularly in the enterprise market - that is the business market - people will continue to buy quality think pads, whether they're desktop stations or the kind that are laptops you can take with you when you go out.
INSKEEP: Just by the numbers at the moment, their strategy seems to be paying off.
VAITHEESWARAN: If you look at volume, absolutely. If you look at profit margins, the margins are very small and this is an increasingly commoditized business, so they do have a problem when it comes to judging them on financial metrics.
INSKEEP: How did this company get started?
VAITHEESWARAN: It started when about a dozen engineers and scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, that's sort of like our National Academy of Sciences, an official government body, they got together in the early '80s and said, let's create a computer company. Now you have to bear in mind, this is early days of Chinese capitalism and these are pretty visionary guys. They had $25,000 in seed money given to them by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and they met in a guard shack on the grounds of this academy in Beijing. So literally, they huddled together in a little tiny policeman's shack, and they plotted what would ultimately become the world's biggest computer company.
INSKEEP: And how did they expand?
VAITHEESWARAN: Initially, they actually started to make Chinese versions for foreign computers - including, for example, adapting Western computers so that they could more easily take Chinese character inputs. So they started humbly with partnerships and low-level innovation, but over time, they got much more ambitious. The real breakthrough came when they bid for IBM's ThinkPad business. And that was an extraordinary bid because IBM's company was twice the size. And they succeeded. They got IBM's laptop business.
INSKEEP: So it was a buyout but Lenovo was smaller than the company they were buying here, at least the assets they were buying.
VAITHEESWARAN: That's right. And it was huge for a Chinese company to do a, in effect, a reverse takeover of a much bigger company. But they had had a relationship with IBM for years and IBM trusted them, the management knew them. And there's something else that explains this, the people who are at the top of what was called Legend Holdings back then - Legend was the name of the company - that ultimately spawned Lenovo, they were quite visionary. They were very much private-sector oriented. They wanted to create a company on par with IBM and the great Western companies that they had read about and idolized. They wanted Western management practices. They studied Harvard Business Review articles. You know, they really wanted to modernize Chinese business, and that was part of their aspiration with creating Lenovo and creating a partnership, and ultimately, acquisition of IBM's personal computer business.
INSKEEP: All of that points to another challenge because they wanted to be a Western sell company, but it's a Chinese company that has to operate in the presence of the Chinese government. How has it managed that part of it?
VAITHEESWARAN: You're right to put the finger on the big 800 pound gorilla in the room. It is very difficult to operate in the private sector in China. They had, early on, been able to secure some permissions that were unusual. They were given permission to make their own hire and fire decisions. And they also had the right to expand and raise capital, which is also not something that the government gives away freely. So they took advantage of the little bit of room that was given to them because they were not a state owned enterprise, not like China Mobile or the big oil companies that are explicitly controlled by the state. This was an oddball offshoot of the Academy of Sciences and there was a small opening and they took it and they made it into a big opening.
INSKEEP: Vijay Vaitheeswaran of The Economist, thanks very much.
VAITHEESWARAN: Great to be with you.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
At our last word this morning is: BlackBerry bling.
As we reported yesterday, BlackBerry has unveiled a new smartphone it hopes will woo back the many customers it lost in the past few years. Among its strategies, the company appointed singer Alicia Keys as its global creative director. That's a fancy term for a really hip spokesperson.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
But there's one glitch. In the last few days, Alicia Keys was found to be tweeting from an iPhone, one of BlackBerry's biggest rivals. Ms. Keys explained herself to BlackBerry's CEO at yesterday's launch party.
ALICIA KEYS: I was in a long-term relationship with BlackBerry and then I started to notice some new kind of hotter, attractive, sexier phones at the gym. And I kind of broke up with you for something that had a little more bling. But I always missed the way you organized my life. And now we're exclusively dating again and I'm very happy.
THORSTEN HEINS: Oh, so are we.
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MONTAGNE: The question now is whether the phone buying public will also make BlackBerry happy when the its new product hits the U.S. market in March.
And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
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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 is normally the time when we would tell you why the latest news is important.
MONTAGNE: Today, experts are telling us a news event is less important than it seems.
INSKEEP: The U.S. economy shrank in the fourth quarter, declining one-tenth of one percent. That is not great news but the question is why it happened.
MONTAGNE: And in this case economists are pointing to a lot of one-time factors. A look at those factors helps us understand how the economy is evolving.
INSKEEP: NPR's Jim Zarroli has been asking what happened.
JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: On the face of it, the Commerce Department report looked like pretty bad news and no one seemed to see it coming. The U.S. economy shrank for the first time since 2009, falling by a tenth of a percentage point. The drop could be attributed to several factors. First, the U.S. sold fewer goods to other countries, especially in Europe.
Joseph Gagnon is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
JOSEPH GAGNON: Our imports fell a bit too but exports fell even more. And the rest of the world is just weak and not buying U.S. exports. And that is probably going to continue for a while longer.
ZARROLI: In addition, U.S. companies cut back on the amount of inventories they held and produced less. That appears to be tied in part at least to anxiety about the package of tax cuts and spending reductions known as the fiscal cliff. It left a lot of companies worried that demand for their products would fall.
At the same time, there was a 15 percent drop-off in federal government spending. Military spending fell even more. Former Federal Reserve Board member Alan Blinder says this is part of an ongoing trend.
ALAN BLINDER: Government spending, contrary to myth, has been on a downward trend for years now. It, of course, went way up in the stimulus. But ever since that it's been coming down.
ZARROLI: But Blinder also says the huge drop in government spending last quarter may be an accounting aberration. Government spending had soared in the third quarter so by contrast fourth quarter numbers looked unusually bad. Blinder says the drop in government spending and the decline in inventories took a toll on growth. But he says things aren't as bad as they seem.
BLINDER: If you take away those two things and sort of smooth through the two quarters together, it looks a lot like the limping along but moving slowly uphill scenario that we've been seeing for several years now.
ZARROLI: Other economists agreed, downplaying the drop in growth and predicting that the economy would continue to grow modestly in the months ahead.
Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial, notes that yesterday's report contained some nuggets of good news that offset the drop in growth. For one thing, even as growth was slowing, consumers continued to spend.
STUART HOFFMAN: Business investment, consumer spending, housing, you know, showed much better gains than that. And I think that's probably the sign of what's to come.
ZARROLI: The report came out just as Federal Reserve officials were finishing up a two-day meeting, where they once again voted to keep interest rates at historically low levels. In a statement, Fed officials said economic growth had paused in recent months. They also said they would maintain their program of bond purchases called quantitative easing. The program, which is aimed at stimulating growth by driving down interest rates, is controversial. Critics complain that it will eventually lead to higher inflation.
But Joseph Gagnon says yesterday's Commerce Department report doesn't bear that out.
GAGNON: One of the interesting thing is that inflation continues to be below their target. And if anything this data show even more weakness in inflation.
ZARROLI: With inflation so low, the Fed has plenty of room to maneuver and is under less pressure to stop its bond purchases. If anything, yesterday's surprise decline in growth underscores just how weak the economy remains. And Fed officials made clear they're ready to keep doing what they can until that turns around.
Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
That sharp drop in government spending that put the squeeze on the economy last quarter, as we just heard, is likely to be repeated. This spring, the government is set to make additional cuts to spending, including defense, unless lawmakers agree on a different plan. So far there's little agreement in Washington about the optimum size or shape of government spending.
NPR's Scott Horsley joins us now to talk about this in our Business Bottom Line. Good morning, Scott.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Good morning, Renee.
MONTAGNE: So we sometimes speak about government spending as if it's independent of the broader economy, but really not the case.
HORSLEY: No, it's not. Government spending is a big part of the economy, nearly 25 percent last year. Now, most of that is passed through transfer payments that don't show up in the GDP numbers. For example, when the government sends my mom a Social Security check and she uses some of that money to go out to a restaurant, that shows up as my mom spending the money, not the government spending the money.
But what is counted as government spending in the GDP numbers is what the government itself spends on goods and services for research or road building or, significantly, defense contracts. In fact, the lion's share of the government spending in GDP is for defense, and so when that contracts, as it did in the fourth quarter, people take notice.
Had defense spending merely stayed level in the last three months of the last year, we would have seen modest economic growth.
MONTAGNE: And as we just said, there could be more defense cuts on the horizon, right?
HORSLEY: Right. When Congress passed the fiscal cliff deal at the end of last year, it didn't do away with those automatic spending cuts that have been looming, it just pushed them back for a couple of months. So we're still looking at tens of billions of dollars in spending cuts due to kick in in March, with half of that due to come from defense spending unless lawmakers are able to cut a deal before then.
If those cuts do kick in and are maintained for the whole year, forecasters say that could shave another seven-tenths of a percentage point or so off of economic growth in 2013.
MONTAGNE: Which sounds, a little bit(ph), can really put a drag on the economy, right. What are the odds of a deal to avoid that?
HORSLEY: Well, they're not looking all that good right now. Remember, when the automatic spending cuts were first agreed to back in 2011, they were meant to be a cudgel so onerous that they would force lawmakers into making a different kind of deal. Democrats thought that the defense cuts in particular would be so toxic to Republicans that they would insist on replacing them with something else, maybe even higher taxes.
But it hasn't necessarily worked out that way. Certainly Republicans are not thrilled with the prospect of deep defense cuts, for that matter neither is President Obama. He is, after all, commander-in-chief. But there hasn't been a whole lot of movement with just a month to go. And in fact it could have been anticipation of those kinds of cuts that contributed to the Pentagon scaling back its defense spending in the fourth quarter.
Although we should say that defense spending in the third quarter spiked as it often does at the end of the government's fiscal year, so some of that fourth quarter decline was maybe just payback for that.
MONTAGNE: Well, still, though, with this news that the overall economy shrank in the fourth quarter, is there some sense that government spending has been cut too much?
HORSLEY: Well, here we see a big partisan divide. Now, as Ellen Blinder noted in Jim Zarroli's story, government spending's been cutting back for a couple of years now and White House economic advisor Alan Krueger called yesterday's GDP report a reminder that Congress should avoid what he called self-inflicted wounds to the economy. But you know, one man's self-inflicted wound is another's therapeutic bloodletting.
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell stood up on the Senate floor yesterday within hours of the GDP report and argued that what the government needs now is more spending cuts in order to avoid what he called a European-style catastrophe. Now, never mind that austerity measures in Europe have not exactly produced robust economic growth.
It is true that government spending as a share of the overall economy is larger than it's been historically. That is one factor in our federal deficit. What's also true, though, is that government tax receipts are smaller as a share of the overall economy than they've been historically, less than 16 percent in the last four years, and well below the level that produced balanced budgets back in the 1990s.
MONTAGNE: Scott, thanks very much.
HORSLEY: My pleasure.
MONTAGNE: That's NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
A man charged with protecting the public in Wisconsin says people should instead protect themselves. In a new public service announcement, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke tells residents that due to budget cuts, calling 911 for help is not always the best option. He says it's better to own a gun. NPR's David Schaper reports.
DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE: David Clarke doesn't even need dramatic music. Instead, it's the Milwaukee Country Sheriff's own deep baritone that sets an ominous tone.
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SCHAPER: Clarke goes on to say, I need you in the game. And then...
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SCHAPER: At a time of intense debate over efforts to strengthen gun controls, this is striking a raw nerve. Critics say Clarke is just mouthing the gun lobby's talking points. Clarke was not available for an interview with NPR, but he has said with fewer resources for his department, he needed to get creative. And on CNN this week he defended his taxpayer funded ad, arguing there are some situations in which 911 is of no use.
: Once the wolf is at the door, once the intruder is inside your home, once you're on the street and someone sticks a gun in your face to take your car or your wallet, you don't have the option of calling 911.
SCHAPER: Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett takes exception to Clarke's message.
MAYOR TOM BARRETT: That ad implies that the sheriff and the sheriff's forces are going to come to residences when they call 911, that simply isn't true.
SCHAPER: Barrett says it's his city's and nearby suburban police departments that respond to 911 calls, not the county sheriffs. He says response times are fast and Barrett told CNN that calling 911 is still the best option.
BARRETT: To have a sheriff basically imply that it's not going to help you to call 911 I think is irresponsible.
SCHAPER: And the police chiefs agree. Just outside of Milwaukee, the Greenfield Police Department is reminding residents through social media that it has not laid off or furloughed officers, that its response times to calls of violent crime is under two minutes.
JERI BONAVIA: I think he did a great disservice to the people of this community.
SCHAPER: That's Jeri Bonavia with the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort. She says telling Milwaukee County residents that they cannot rely on 911 service sends a dangerous message that could encourage vigilantism. Bonavia and others cite statistics showing that firearms in the home are much more likely to be used in suicides or domestic violence than for self-help. And some residents of Milwaukee's highest crime neighborhoods agree, that having more people arm themselves will not make Milwaukee safer.
DAVID PRICE: I think that's probably one of the problems in Milwaukee is that they got too many guns floating around.
SCHAPER: Forty-seven year old David Price works part time here at the Center Street Market on Milwaukee's North Side.
PRICE: I think people are too irrational. I think they are - tempers fly off the handle too quickly. People are imperfect creatures.
SCHAPER: Some other employees and patrons agree, but not all.
ANTHONY DAVIS: Of course, if you feel threatened in your home, you should be able to bear arms, you know? Especially if you're not a felon and you can own a gun, why not take a class and protect your home?
SCHAPER: Anthony Davis says it's too risky to only rely on the police to respond, especially in higher crime neighborhoods like this one. But across the country, many police officials and organizations actively discourage residents from arming themselves, especially without substantial firearm training, though some acknowledge that Sheriff Clarke might have a point.
DAVE KENIK: It's counter to the culture, but unfortunately he does speak the truth.
SCHAPER: Dave Kenik heads the American Police and Sheriffs Association and he says 911 is still the best first response, but he notes that even when response times are fast, they're not immediate.
KENIK: There's an old saying that when seconds count, the police are minutes away, and, you know, it's very true.
SCHAPER: But it's Milwaukee County's top law enforcement officials' efforts to promote guns for self defense that strikes the wrong chord for many at a time the nation struggles to establish limits aimed at reducing deadly gun violence. David Schaper, NPR News, Milwaukee.
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Police in Chicago say it's likely a gang turf battle left a 15-year-old girl dead just a week after she performed at President Obama's inauguration. Hadiya Pendleton was shot while she talked with friends in a park. Her death has now become part of the bloodiest January in more than a decade in the president's own home town. NPR's Cheryl Corley reports.
CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: She was an honor roll student, a volleyball player, and a sophomore, a majorette with the King College Prep Marching Band. It was final exam day for Hadiya Pendleton. After classes ended, she and her friends, including members of her volleyball team, gathered in a park about a mile from the president's Chicago home. They were standing under a canopy to escape the rain when a man opened fire on the group.
NATHANIEL PENDLETON: They took the light of my life. This guy, the gunman, man, you took the light of my life.
CORLEY: Hadiya's father, Nathaniel Pendleton, stood with his arms around his 10-year-old son at a press conference yesterday afternoon. He said his daughter, who was shot once in the back, was destined for great things. Two other students were wounded, one treated and released, and the other hospitalized. Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said there was no indication that anyone in the group was affiliated with a gang or was a target.
GARRY MCCARTHY: But what we believed happened is that this is some sort of territory that some gang might call their own.
CORLEY: And McCarthy says they may have mistakenly thought the school kids were a rival gang.
MCCARTHY: And fired into the crowd, killing Hadiya.
CORLEY: The neighborhood where the shooting occurred is quiet and close-knit. Residents walked the streets singing Christmas carols during the holidays. Outside the school, senior Selena Spencer(ph) says Pendleton's death was devastating.
SELENA SPENCER: I would see her every day in my - getting prepared for gym class in the locker room, and she was just such a sweet girl. She always was saying something either funny or nice or - you know, she was sweet.
CORLEY: Over the past year, gun violence in Chicago has been in the national spotlight. There were 506 murders last year, most involving gunplay. With Pendleton's death, homicides in Chicago climbed to 42 in January, the highest it's been for the month in a decade.
MICHAEL PFLEGER: This is Sandy Hook, this is Connecticut, this is Newtown right here. And we have to be just as outraged.
CORLEY: And outraged, said Chicago activist and Catholic priest Michael Pfleger, as the nation became in the aftermath of last month's shooting rampage in Connecticut. President Obama and other Democrats have asked Congress to pass a large package of gun restrictions as a result of recent shootings. As the Congressional hearing on gun violence got underway, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois also talked about the death of the Chicago teenager and gun violence in the city.
SENATOR DICK DURBIN: We are awash in guns. The confiscation of guns per capita in Chicago is six times the number of New York City. We have guns everywhere, and some believe the solution to this is more guns. I disagree.
CORLEY: The Chicago police superintendent has vowed around-the-clock patrols at the park where Hadiya Pendleton was shot to let gangs know they don't own it. Cheryl Corley, NPR News, Chicago.
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Let's sort through what we know and do not know about Israel's reported airstrike on Syria. Syrian officials, the government of Bashar al-Assad, have affirmed that Israeli warplanes struck, although we have conflicting reports about what the target was. We're going to work through the information with NPR's Jerusalem correspondent, Larry Abramson. Hi, Larry.
LARRY ABRAMSON, BYLINE: Hi there, Steve.
INSKEEP: What do you know, and how do you know it?
ABRAMSON: Well, some of this we know from confirmation by U.S. officials, who have acknowledged that there was some sort of military strike by Israel in Syria. What they struck and exactly where they struck, we don't really know. Syria says it was some sort of research facility. Other media reports say that it may have been a military convoy, possibly transporting weapons; but we're really not clear on that.
Russia has condemned this attack. Hezbollah, the militant group in southern Lebanon, also condemned the attack. And Israel has been completely silent on exactly what happened. They won't affirm or deny that anything happened at all.
INSKEEP: Let's just remind ourselves of the basics here. Why would Israel attack Syria in the first place? What's their concern about Syria?
ABRAMSON: Well, there have been concerns as the civil war in Syria continues - and there are, you know, more and more reports that the Assad regime may collapse - that his supply of weapons could get loose; that militant groups such as Hezbollah, which holds control of much of southern Lebanon, or al-Qaida-linked groups that have been fighting in Syria, could get hold of those weapons. One of the media reports indicated that the strike may have targeted a convoy transporting an anti-aircraft missile that Syria is known to have. So if this missile were to get in the hands of Hezbollah, that would allow them to target Israeli aircraft in southern Lebanon.
You know, if you think about it, Steve, Syria has been the last major military threat to Israel, now that they have a peace treaty with Jordan and with Egypt. And now that Syria may collapse, Hezbollah could become the biggest military threat in this region. They're much more powerful. They have tens of thousands of rockets, much more powerful than Hamas in the Gaza Strip. So Israel is very worried that the power may shift to Hezbollah, as it slips out of Bashar al-Assad's hands.
INSKEEP: So granting that the details of this strike remain uncertain, and that Israel itself has not commented on the strike, we do have a sense of a broad Israeli concern about what happens to Syrian weapons as that country becomes more chaotic. Now, what has the response been in Israel, to news of this strike?
ABRAMSON: There has been some attention, but I won't say there's been hysteria or panic, or anything like that. There are reports of increased demand for gas masks in the north of Israel. We also know that the Israeli military has moved its Iron Dome anti-missile battery up to the north. This is a missile system that was very effective against Hamas rockets from Gaza. The Israeli army says, however, that that was a routine redeployment, and wasn't targeted at the concern about Syria.
INSKEEP: Now, why would Israel not simply affirm that they conducted this airstrike?
ABRAMSON: Well, this is sort of a game that Israel has played for a long time - of not acknowledging attacks that have gone on there before. We don't know that they're doing this now. But much of the Arab world is allied against the Assad regime. If Israel were to get involved and take an active role in trying to secure the chemical weapons that they're worried about, it would make it much more uncomfortable for those Arab countries to maintain their unity with the United States, in trying to bring about the end of the Assad regime. So that's one good reason.
INSKEEP: NPR's Jerusalem correspondent, Larry Abramson, is tracking news of an Israeli airstrike on targets in Syria. Larry, thanks very much.
ABRAMSON: Thank you.
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On a Thursday it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
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And I'm Renee Montagne. The first phase of the French-led military intervention in Mali appears to be over. Radical Islamist fighters have been driven from the last major town they seized control of last year.
INSKEEP: France would like to step back now and play a supporting role for Malian troops and allied African forces. But as NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports from Mali's capital, the biggest challenges really begin now.
OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE: Retaking control of the major cities in northern Mali was dramatic and swift. The jihadis had imposed strict Islamic law in the vast territory they controlled. They have likely retreated into the vast sandy expanses of the Sahara Desert. To hunt them down, the coalition forces will have to take the fight into the dunes and mountains of the desert. Yet the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, is already talking about pulling out.
LAURENT FABIUS: French troops can help, but it belongs to African troops to ensure the bulk of the task and to ensure long-lasting security for Mali.
QUIST-ARCTON: A U.N.-approved African force already has boots on the ground, with troops coming from all over West Africa and from Chad. The force commander, Nigerian Major-General Shehu Usman Abdel Kader, says thousands of pan-African soldiers will be ready for combat duty very soon.
GENERAL SHEHU USMAN ABDEL KADER: We're hoping by the second week in February we'll be fully deployed.
QUIST-ARCTON: But experts warn that most of the African force is not combat-ready for the desert and is nowhere near prepared to take over from the French. Mali's own army, which staged a coup last March precipitating the takeover of the North, is demoralized, after humiliating defeats at the hands of well-armed Islamists.
ALEX VINES: I believe the French will have to remain in Mali for a significant period of time.
QUIST-ARCTON: Alex Vines is an Africa specialist and the regional and security studies' research director at Britain's Chatham House.
VINES: They will be the hard military guarantee in a way that we've seen elsewhere in the world, even with U.N. operations.
QUIST-ARCTON: Roland Marchal, senior research fellow at the Paris-based National Centre for Scientific Research, is also a specialist on sub-Saharan African conflicts.
ROLAND MARCHAL: There is a lot of optimism about the military situation, but I think there will be a waking call soon. And therefore the victory will appear as much fragile as it looks today. The challenges are many.
QUIST-ARCTON: Marchal says Mali and its partners must not forget political and social concerns. These include addressing regional grievances regarding the marginalization of the North and the lack of economic opportunities, including among separatist nomadic Tuaregs, who took up arms against the authorities. And both Vines and Marchal argue that Mali must soon hold credible elections and rebuild discredited institutions and the army.
MARCHAL: The question is whether the international community is able to provide an economic alternative for the population that basically has been able to survive because of those traffickings. If there is an economic alternative, then this population won't keep supporting jihadists.
QUIST-ARCTON: Concern is growing that the arid Sahel-Sahara regions of Africa have become a recruiting ground for Islamists and a haven for terrorism and drug and people trafficking. Mali argues that the threat is not just a Malian or African problem but a global concern that requires an international resolution. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Bamako.
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All this week we've been listening to some of the more strident voices to emerge from the Arab uprisings. When secular rulers lost their jobs, religious groups pressed for both freedom and power. And that includes ultra-conservative Muslims known as Salifis who contend they follow the practices of the earliest Muslims from centuries ago. Today an Egyptian musician explains why he joined the Salafi movement and why he walked away. He met NPR's Leila Fadel in Cairo.
LEILA FADEL, BYLINE: Omar Kamal looks like any other young musician. At this practice session he's wearing a T-shirt and jeans. The only thing that gives away his strict religious background is his neatly trimmed beard, worn by many conservative Muslims. At 26, Omar is part of Egypt's revolutionary music scene. And his personal journey reflects the wider story of a country trying to find a path between its religious identity and its modern reality.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FADEL: Omar's gear is minimal - a laptop, speakers and a crudely made microphone. His lyrics steer clear of the things many young men obsess about - girls or money. He raps about weightier issues: the stereotyping of Islamists, his decision to leave Salafism, and the sometimes frightening polarization of Egypt in the new political landscape.
OMAR KAMAL: Yeah, I'm just a normal guy who was born a Muslim and I'm trying to be a good Muslim. That's it.
FADEL: Omar's history is unusual for someone in the music scene. He calls himself a former Salafi.
KAMAL: I used to be one of them two years ago. So I've been there, I've seen everything they've done. I've seen everything that's said to the youth and the young guys. And I've heard a lot of lectures and attended a lot of lessons, the religious lessons, for the sheikhs who are Salafis.
FADEL: Before he joined the Salafis, Omar said he was hurtling down the wrong path; smoking, drinking, doing drugs while playing drums in a rock band with his friends. He says he was searching for a happiness that he couldn't find.
KAMAL: I stood up for myself and said yeah, well, try searching somewhere else. Yeah, why not try searching in another place - in this case Islam and, you know, religion.
FADEL: He began to pray regularly and eventually some Salafi friends took him to a mosque. There, he met a Salafi sheikh who told him music was forbidden. So he gave it up. Women too, so he stopped mixing with the opposite sex.
Initially, Omar says, he found solace in this very strict form of his religion. But then the Egyptian Revolution began. And the sheikhs he'd listened to for years told him and other youths not to join the protests against former President Hosni Mubarak. Omar says he was shocked at their stance, especially because Salafis and other Islamists suffered intense repression during Mubarak's rule.
KAMAL: In Islam, there is a teaching that you should defend the weak; you should defend anybody who is being beaten or being subjected to injustice, you know. But when the revolution happened most of the Salafi sheikhs were against the revolution because they said it's not good. It's bad.
FADEL: And so Omar began to question what the Salafis had told him. And he returned to music.
KAMAL: There was this song that I wrote about the internal conflict that happened inside my mind, during the revolution.
FADEL: At his home in a suburb of Cairo, he plays us one of his new songs.
KAMAL: (Rapping in foreign language)
FADEL: He wrote lyrics about his conversation with that Salafi sheikh who told him not to join the protests in Tahrir Square.
KAMAL: (Rapping in foreign language)
FADEL: I was confused, he raps. So I called the sheikh. I asked him are you afraid. You were pretending to be a lion but now you do nothing.
Egypt's revolution changed Omar. He is proud to be a devout Muslim and believes that the most just society is a society ruled by Islamic law or sharia. But he says it can't be forced onto people the way some Salafi sheikhs preach.
KAMAL: I personally believe that what we try to do is to deliver the message of Islam to people - Muslims and non-Muslims - and until they - they are the ones who ask for sharia. If we aren't successful in convincing people that sharia is the best, then we have - there is a lot of work that still needs to done.
FADEL: Omar says he was excited when Salafi politicians first entered parliament. But he quickly grew disenchanted. They did nothing to fight corruption or injustice, he says, adding that he won't vote for them again.
KAMAL: You don't do the same mistake twice, unless you're stupid. Right?
(LAUGHTER)
FADEL: And that stupidity, he says is why Salafis are failing in the new Egypt. The people aren't stupid, he says, and they won't believe you just because you claim that God is on your side.
Leila Fadel, NPR News, Cairo.
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Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.
Sunday's Super Bowl - a contest between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers - is also a battle of craft breweries. Maryland's Flying Dog Brewery made a bet with Anchor Brewing of San Francisco. The loser must pour the winner's beer in its taproom for a week. And the loser's brewery tour guides will have to wear the winner's Super Bowl championship gear. Could be tough, but if they need a beer after all that, they're all set.
You're listening to MORNING EDITION.
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Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. When the huge golden cookie that stood for 100 years outside the headquarters of a big German cookie maker went missing, the company put up a reward. Then the kidnapper sent a ransom note. I have the biscuit, it said with text cut from magazines. It demanded the company donate cookies to children in a local hospital, and the reward to an animal shelter. Signed: Cookie Monster. Cute. But so far the bakery has not bitten. It's MORNING EDITION.