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Shots - Health News
3:08 pm
Fri April 12, 2013

Wait For Obamacare Price Tags Could Last Months

Credit iStockphoto.com
If buying health insurance were only this easy.

Vermont became the first state to provide a glimpse, although an imperfect one, of how much individual health insurance might cost under the Affordable Care Act.

Rates made public there last week, while of limited relevance to the rest of the country because of the state's unusual insurance market, showed little change from current prices. The prices reassured health law supporters fearing headlines about sticker shock.

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All Tech Considered
2:35 pm
Fri April 12, 2013

Immigration Isn't The First Cause Zuckerberg Has Liked

Credit Jeff Chiu / AP
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced the launch of FWD.us, an organization promoting immigration and eduction reform. But it's not the first issue he's taken up. In the past, he's donated money to superPACS, politicians and education.

Mark Zuckerberg and other tech leaders in Silicon Valley are banding together to push for comprehensive immigration reform, the Facebook co-founder announced this week. But Zuckerberg has dabbled in politically charged matters in the past.

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The Salt
2:31 pm
Fri April 12, 2013

Bands Aren't The Only Things That Incubate At Music Festivals

Originally published on Mon April 15, 2013 8:04 pm

Coachella, the massive outdoor music festival that kicks off this weekend in Indio, Calif., has become an "incubator" not just for new bands, but for rising food entrepreneurs, according to a story in the San Jose Mercury News earlier this week.

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The Two-Way
2:23 pm
Fri April 12, 2013

In 2012, Obamas Made $662,076, Paid $112,214 In Taxes

Credit Alex Wong / Getty Images
U.S. President Barack Obama.

Originally published on Fri April 12, 2013 4:19 pm

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama report that they had an adjusted gross income of $608,611 in 2012. The couple gave $150,034 to charity and ended up paying $112,214 in taxes.

That's an effective tax rate of about 18 percent.

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The Two-Way
1:48 pm
Fri April 12, 2013

Funny Man Jonathan Winters Dies

Credit CBS /Landov
Jonathan Winters on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1969.

Originally published on Fri April 12, 2013 5:20 pm

Jonathan Winters, known to one generation for his 1960s comedy albums, frequent Tonight Show with Johnny Carson appearances and comic movie characters, and to another generation as Robin Williams' baby on Mork & Mindy, has died. The news is coming from The Associated Press, TMZ, the NPR Arts Desk and other news outlets.

Winters was 87. TMZ says he died Thursday night "of natural causes in Montecito, Calif. ... surrounded by friends and family.

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Shots - Health News
1:44 pm
Fri April 12, 2013

As New Flu Cases Rise In China, U.S. Steps Up Its Response

Originally published on Fri April 12, 2013 2:23 pm

The toll from a new flu strain is mounting in China.

Forty-three people have been sickened and 11 have died from the virus, the World Health Organization said Friday.

The pace of infections has quickened over the past few days, with three to five cases reported daily.

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The Two-Way
12:35 pm
Fri April 12, 2013

Toy Or Trouble? 'Mexico Barbie' Has Passport, Chihuahua

Credit BarbieCollector.com
Mexico Barbie.

Mattel says its "Dolls of the World" line of Barbies come with passports, stamps and, with many of the toys, an "animal friend."

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The Two-Way
12:23 pm
Fri April 12, 2013

Russia's Putin Announces $50 Billion In New Space Spending

Credit Pool / AFP/Getty Images
A Soyuz capsule touches down in Kazakhstan in September, but by 2020, Russian cosmonauts might be splashing down instead.

Originally published on Fri April 12, 2013 12:52 pm

Moscow will spend $52 billion on its space program through 2020, including money for completion of a new launch facility on Russian soil.

The announcement came from President Vladimir Putin as he spoke to orbiting astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Cosmonaut's Day, the 52nd anniversary of the first manned space flight by Russian spacefarer Yuri Gagarin.

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Music Interviews
11:48 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Dale Watson: A Honky-Tonk Man With An Outlaw Spirit

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Dale Watson (second from left) and His Lonestars. Their new album is titled El Rancho Azul.

Originally published on Sat April 20, 2013 11:34 pm

Honky-tonk veteran Dale Watson has an impressive white pompadour and arms that tell his story: flag tattoos of Alabama, where he was born, and Texas, where he lives. Musical notes circle his biceps. And he has an inked portrait of his first musical inspiration — his late father, a truck driver and sometime country singer who passed on to Dale his love of traditional country, from Hank Williams to Lefty Frizzell.

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Author Interviews
11:48 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Lemony Snicket Dons A Trenchcoat

Originally published on Fri April 12, 2013 1:17 pm

This interview was originally broadcast on Dec. 10, 2012.

It has been more than six years since Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, concluded his enormously popular 13-volume young adult series, A Series of Unfortunate Events. Handler recently revived the Snicket narrator, however, in his YA novel Who Could That Be at This Hour?

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Movie Reviews
11:48 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Terrence Malick And Every Man's Journey 'To The Wonder'

Credit Mary Cybulski / Courtesy Magnolia Pictures
Olga Kurylenko and Ben Affleck play two lovers in Terence Malick's latest film, To The Wonder.

Originally published on Fri April 12, 2013 1:17 pm

The voiceovers from Terrence Malick's To the Wonder, which has a lot of them, are intoned on the soundtrack while the characters stare into sunrises or sunsets — whenever the light is right, what cinematographers call, "the magic hour." This film and Malick's last, The Tree of Life, suggest that he's evolved into a blend of director and Christian minister: These are psalms writ on film.

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Faith Matters
11:30 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Pastor Jim Wallis Back To Being Political

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. Coming up, March Madness 2013 is now a memory, but there's still one champion yet to be announced. Yes, we are going to announce the winner of our TELL ME MORE March Madness Challenge. That's just ahead.

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Barbershop
11:30 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Barbershop Guys Weigh In On 'Accidental Racist'

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Now it's time for our weekly visit to the Barbershop, where the guys talk about what's in the news and what's on their minds.

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NPR Story
11:30 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Venezuela Oil Diplomacy: From Caracas To Cuba

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. Coming up, we'll speak with the Reverend Jim Wallis. He's a well-known evangelical leader. He's known for stepping into the political fray on issues he cares about. So we'll ask him why he chose to step out of the spotlight during last year's presidential campaign. That's later in the program.

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NPR Story
11:04 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Red Meat's Heart Risk Goes Beyond The Fat

Originally published on Fri April 12, 2013 1:03 pm

Transcript

FLORA LICHTMAN, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY, I'm Flora Lichtman, filling in for Ira today. You know the phrase you are what you eat? Well, new research suggests a slight modification: Your gut bacteria are what you eat. And if you eat more red meat, for example, you'll nurture populations of microbes that like to eat red meat, too, which might not seem like a bad thing except that researchers have pinpointed a compound in red meat called L-carnitine that when broken down by gut bacteria might contribute to heart disease.

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NPR Story
11:04 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Looking To Nature For Antibiotic Inspirations

Originally published on Fri April 12, 2013 1:03 pm

Transcript

FLORA LICHTMAN, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Flora Lichtman. Later in the hour, a teenage science activist and the plight of the monarch butterfly. But first, researchers have developed a new way to fight antibiotic-resistant microbes by borrowing a trick from a longtime foe of the bacteria, the bacteria phage.

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NPR Story
11:04 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Monitoring the Monarchs

Originally published on Fri April 12, 2013 1:03 pm

Transcript

FLORA LICHTMAN, HOST:

Next up, a case of life imitating art. A few months ago, we talked to writer Barbara Kingsolver about her latest book, "Flight Behavior." The book is a fictional account of an ecological disaster in the making, and the fate of millions of monarch butterflies is at the center of the plot. Would the species survive? That's the art part.

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NPR Story
11:04 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Poring Over the Science of Coffee

Originally published on Mon April 22, 2013 6:55 am

Transcript

FLORA LICHTMAN, BYLINE: Up next, another mover and shaker in the alimentary canal - coffee. Whether you're a home brewer or a latte devotee, whether you take it light and sweet or on ice, your coffee is guaranteed to be chock full of chemistry. It starts in the bean, which is actually not a bean at all.

It's a seed, according Harold McGee, author of "On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen" along with other books on science and food. And we caught up with Harold, to hear more about how coffee gets its signature taste.

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The Two-Way
11:03 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Second Rape Case To Draw Social Media Buzz Will Be Reviewed

A few days after Rehtaeh Parsons' mother turned off the hospital life support systems and allowed her daughter to die, computer activists claiming to be affiliated with the hacker group Anonymous are threatening to reveal the identities of Parsons' alleged rapists.

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NPR Story
10:55 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Consumers Cut Back, Sales Reports Show

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with less shopping.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

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Shots - Health News
10:44 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Annals Of The Obvious: Women Way More Tired Than Men

Originally published on Mon April 15, 2013 9:00 am

Feeling run down? Dog-tired?

Who isn't, right?

But who's more exhausted: men or women?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has the answer, though it's one that you probably could have arrived at without a second's thought.

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The Two-Way
10:15 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Thatcher Critics Make 'Ding Dong' No 1; Should BBC Play It?

Credit PA Photos /Landov
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1996.

Originally published on Fri April 12, 2013 2:31 pm

Update at 11:50 a.m. ET. Radio 1 Will Play A Snippet:

There's word from NPR's Philip Reeves in London that BBC's Radio 1 now says its weekend Official Chart show will play "a clip in a journalistic environment" of "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead," which critics of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher pushed up the British charts this week after the Iron Lady's death.

The BBC has more:

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The Two-Way
10:01 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Judge Rejects $20-Million Severance For American Airlines CEO

Credit Sean Gallup / Getty Images
American Airlines CEO Tom Horton stands next to a control tower at Berlin Brandenburg Airport in March 2012.

Originally published on Fri April 12, 2013 12:56 pm

A severance package of $20 million might have seemed reasonable to American Airlines CEO Tom Horton, but a U.S. bankruptcy judge says it's too much.

The proposed payout, part of a deal that would merge American parent AMR and US Airways Group, first caught the attention of U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis, a Department of Justice official monitoring AMR's Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

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The Two-Way
9:11 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Explosives Said To Be In Package Addressed To Sheriff Arpaio

Credit Laura Segall / Reuters /Landov
Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Authorities in Arizona say a package addressed to controversial Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was safely destroyed Thursday after a test for explosive residue confirmed it "contained black powder," The Arizona Republic writes.

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The Two-Way
8:50 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Wholesale Prices Plunge, But So Do Retail Sales

A steep drop in gasoline costs fueled a 0.6 percent decline in wholesale prices from February to March, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.

Excluding the volatile food and energy sectors, the so-called core rate of inflation was also in check: those prices rose a modest 0.2 percent.

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Middle East
8:07 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Police In Dubai Adds Lamborghini To The Force

Originally published on Mon April 15, 2013 9:07 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm David Greene. Conspicuous consumption is the art of buying lots of expensive stuff to show off. It is part of daily life in the Emirate city of Dubai, even for the police. They just added a slick green and white Lamborghini with a $400,000 price tag to their force. It goes more than 200 miles per hour, which is useful in the fast moving kingdom.

Police say about 15 percent of the speeding tickets go to motorists going more than 130 miles per hour. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

The Two-Way
8:05 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Dodgers' $147 Million Ace Greinke Breaks Collarbone In Brawl

Credit Denis Poroy / Getty Images
Ouch! Carlos Quentin (left) of the San Diego Padres charged the mound Thursday after Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke (right) hit him with a pitch. In the brawl, Greinke broke his left collarbone.

Talk about an expensive bust:

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Asia
7:25 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Japanese Blogger Obsesses Over Vending Machine

Originally published on Fri April 12, 2013 10:55 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning, I'm David Greene.

For most of us, the office vending machine is good for a mid-day pick-me-up; that's pretty much it. But for one Japanese man it is much more. He hosts a blog called "I Take a Picture of the Vending Machine Every Day or So, I'm Very Sorry." Since 2005 he's taken nearly daily pictures of the same vending machine. Over the years the sodas move, the ads change, and there was that true moment of drama - the machine started taking digital payments.

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The Two-Way
7:13 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Book News: DC Comics Introduces First Transgender Character

Credit DC Comics
An image of Batgirl from the cover of "Batgirl 19," in which it is revealed that Batgirl's roommate is transgender.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

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The Two-Way
7:12 am
Fri April 12, 2013

Kerry Warns North Korea, But Holds Out Hope For Diplomacy

Credit Jacky Chen / Reuters /Landov
A North Korean soldier on the bank of the Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, along the Chinese border.

Originally published on Sat April 13, 2013 1:00 pm

Walking a line meant to show both resolve and willingness to trust in diplomacy, Secretary of State John Kerry warned North Korea on Friday not to engage in more warmongering — but also said the U.S. is willing to talk with that communist state if it's serious about discussing denuclearization.

"No one is going to talk for the sake of talking," Kerry said, but the U.S. does want to see a peaceful resolution of the latest crisis on the Korean peninsula.

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