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A Coming Food Crisis?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

National Public Radio - By Daniel Costello - Nov. 23 (News Analysis) - After decades of decline, the number of undernourished people around the world has risen 20% since the middle of the last decade and the trend is expected to continue for many years even with a new global intervention.

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Republicans Hope For Just One Defection

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

National Public Radio - Nov. 21 (News Analysis) - No Republicans will vote Saturday night to advance the Senate's health care bill to open debate, Republican Whip Sen. John Kyl says. That leaves the fate of the vote in the hands of a few moderate Democrats, all of whom are needed to reach the 60 votes needed to push the bill forward. Host Scott Simon speaks with Kyl on his party's chances of defeating the bill.

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Good Riddance To Mainstream Media?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

National Public Radio - By John Donvan - Nov. 12 (Opinion) - As newspapers go under, the network newscasts lose viewers and the mainstream media in general see more and more of their audience shift online, are we as a society better or worse off? Some argue that the diversity of voices available on the Internet to provide information and analysis makes for a better system. Others say a decline in traditional journalism means lower standards and fewer resources to investigate crucial stories. A panel of experts took on this topic Oct. 27 in an Intelligence Squared U.S. debate: John Hockenberry, Michael Wolff, Phil Bronstein, David Carr, Katrina vanden Heuvel. Three panelists argued for the motion "Good Riddance to Mainstream Media" and three against in an Oxford-style debate. Before the debate, the audience at New York University's Skirball Center for the Performing Arts voted 25 percent in favor of the motion and 50 percent against. Twenty-five percent was undecided. After the debate, 24 percent supported the motion "Good Riddance to Mainstream Media," while 68 percent opposed it and 8 percent remained undecided.

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New Baboon

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

RadioLab - By John Horgan - Nov. 12 (Special Report) - John Horgan examines how Americans seem to have a completely different attitude toward war than we did thirty years ago. He takes us on a stroll through Hoboken, asking strangers one of the great unanswerable questions: "Will humans ever stop fighting wars?" Strangely, everyone seems to know the answer. Robert Sapolsky brings us farther afield - to eastern Africa, where a population of baboons defies his expectations of violent behavior. Robert is surprised to feel hopeful for a gentler future, but then primatologist Richard Wrangham asserts that their aggressive nature is innate, unchanging, and hanging over them like a guillotine.

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Karzai's Challenger Drops Out Of Afghan Runoff

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0700

All Things Considered - By Jacki Lyden, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson - Nov. 01 (News) - The challenger to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in the upcoming runoff in Afghanistan has announced he will not take part in the race. That leaves next Saturday's election in jeopardy, as well as a vacuum in Afghan leadership that President Obama can ill afford as he decides whether to send more troops to the war-torn country. Guest host Jacki Lyden speaks with NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson about Dr. Abdullah Abdullah's withdrawal.

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On The Hunt For Roadside Bombs In Afghanistan

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

All Things Considered - By Tom Bowman - Oct. 28 (News Report) - The Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment — known as "America's Battalion" — have been fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province since July. They have set up numerous outposts along the dusty roads and cornfields. And now they are moving farther south, looking to extend their area of operation and avoid the deadliest of threats just outside the wire: roadside bombs.

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Scientists: Biofuel Laws May Harm Environment

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

wbur.org - By Richard Harris - Oct. 23 (News Report) - One key part of the climate bill has to do with fuels made from green plants. These can reduce the use of fossil fuels, and they also are a big draw for farm-state votes. But scientists writing in the current issue of Science magazine point out a huge error in existing biofuel laws that could actually make climate change worse. They say these rules inadvertently encourage deforestation, which in turn contributes to global warming.

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Top Official: 'The EPA Is Back On The Job'

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

All Things Considered - Oct. 18 (News Report) - Lisa Jackson says the Environmental Protection Agency under President Bush concluded greenhouse gases were dangerous, but the White House refused to regulate them. Now that President Obama is in office, she says, the agency is going to take action.

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Pakistan's Refugees Swell As U.S. Policy Criticized

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - Oct. 18 (News Report) - As Pakistan mounts a major ground offensive against al-Qaida and Taliban militants, hundreds of thousands of Pakistani refugees remain in dire need of emergency relief. That's the take-away from a report, expected later this month, from the humanitarian advocacy group Refugees International. The group's findings are described as being highly critical of U.S. policy in Pakistan. Host Liane Hansen speaks with Patrick Duplat of Refugees International on the group's recent trip to Pakistan.

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Health Care Bill Gets Support From GOP Off The Hill

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

All Things Considered - By Andrea Seabrook - Oct. 11 (News) - As various health care bills wind their way toward the House and Senate floors, the White House is soliciting support from some unlikely allies: Republicans. Recently such high-profile Republicans as California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tommy Thompson, health and human services secretary in the Bush administration, have come out in support of an overhaul. The administration hopes this will help win over moderates in Congress. The former majority leader of the Senate, Republican Bill Frist, said last week that if he were in Congress, he'd take the heat and vote for an overhaul. "I'm coming out very strongly in support of what's going on in the Senate Finance Committee," he said on CNN. "It's bipartisan; I hope that it ends up being bipartisan. If not, I think it's going to be a destructive bill. But it's bipartisan, people working together, so we're on the way there." Then there's Mark McClellan, who ran Medicare under President George W. Bush. "Congress needs to act. The health care issues facing this country are both major and urgent," he said. "We have a real opportunity now to make some progress — not just on improving coverage, but also on improving health care. My hope is that we'll take advantage of those opportunities."

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For One Senior, Medicaid Provides Model Care

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

All Things Considered - By Jeff Brady - Oct. 06 (Special Report) - When Gracie Scarrow, 94, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure she didn't have the money to pay for the care she needed. She turned to Medicaid ? which covers the long-term care in a nursing home ? and she couldn't be happier.

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More Power To The Federal Reserve?

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - By John Ydstie - Sep. 14 (News Analysis) - A year ago this week, the global financial system teetered on the edge of collapse. Large financial institutions were sinking, swamped by losses linked to subprime mortgages. In the early stages of the financial crisis, it was the Federal Reserve that did the heavy lifting.

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Obama's Plea: 'Deliver On Health Care'

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - By Liz Halloran - Sep. 10 (News Report) - President Obama used the power of his bully pulpit Wednesday night to take on critics of his beleaguered health care plan, decrying scare tactics used by opponents and pushing again for a non-profit public insurance option.

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Why 'GQ' Doesn't Want Russians To Read Its Story

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - By David Folkenflik - Sep. 05 (News Analysis) - Scott Anderson's piece in the September issue of GQ challenges the official line on a series of bombings that killed hundreds of people in 1999 in Russia. Although no issues have been raised to date about the article's accuracy, GQ management is trying to prevent Russians from reading it.

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Fraud Complaints Cloud Afghan Election

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - By Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson - Sep. 01 (News Report) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai is ahead in the slow tally of ballots cast in the Aug. 20 elections. But the question looming for many Afghan voters isn't who will win, but whether the balloting was credible.

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The Gulf Coast's Recovery: Uneven And Uneasy

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - By Debbie Elliot - Aug. 27 (Special Report) - Four years after Hurricane Katrina, housing is still elusive for some storm victims. In the small fishing villages along the Alabama Gulf Coast, the storm made a hardscrabble life even harder. Even in towns where federal money lures residents to move to higher ground, not everyone wants to go.

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Early Results Show Afghan Poll Deadlock

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - Aug. 26 (News Report) - Preliminary results form last week's Afghan presidential elections show incumbent Hamid Karzai and his main challenger with roughly 40 percent each of the votes counted so far. There will be a runoff if neither candidate gets 50 percent of the vote.

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Afghan Elections: Bad And Ugly

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Foreign Policy - By Ian Bremmer - Aug. 26 (Opinion) - While the fact that the elections were held is a positive development, the end result is likely to lack legitimacy. President Hamid Karzai probably gained more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round of the elections, which means that a second round is not needed, but there is a perception that he overcompensated for his declining popularity by engaging in wide-scale rigging and manipulation.

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Marines Find Afghan Mission Is A Matter Of Trust

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

All Things Considered - Aug. 25 (News Report) - In Afghanistan's Helmand province, the backbone of the Taliban insurgency, U.S. Marines are finding that simply being stronger than the militants isn't enough to dislodge them. In addition to fighting battles in towns like Dahaneh, the troops are befriending the locals there in an effort to build trust.

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Looking Overseas For 'Healing Of America'

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Fresh Air - By Terry Gross, T.R. Reid - Aug. 24 (Interview) - Journalist and author T.R. Reid set out on a global tour of hospitals and doctors' offices, all in the hopes of understanding how other industrialized nations provide affordable, effective universal health care. The result: his book The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care. Reid is a foreign correspondent for The Washington Post — in whose pages he recently addressed five major myths about other countries' health-care systems — and the former chief of the paper's London and Tokyo bureaus. Reid was the lead correspondent for the 2008 Frontline documentary Sick Around the World, which examined five other capitalist democracies, looking for lessons on health-care delivery. His books include Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West and The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy.

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Afghanistan Chooses Its Next Leader: A Primer

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - By Corey Flintoff, Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson - Aug. 20 (Special Report) - Afghanistan's second presidential election takes place Thursday amid threats of violence and voter intimidation by the Taliban. Voters will choose from incumbent Hamid Karzai and 36 other candidates, including two women.

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U.S. Ambassador Tours Area Outside Kabul

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Morning Edition - By Renee Montagne - Aug. 17 (Interview) - Afghanistan holds presidential elections on Thursday, and the Taliban already has launched a violent campaign of intimidation. There are areas that are safer than others. U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry travels to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif — a place that offers a vision of a peaceful and prosperous future.

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In Afghanistan, Trucking Can Be A Deadly Business

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Morning Edition - By Renee Montagne - Aug. 14 (Special Report) - Shafi Noorz runs a sprawling truck transport business, with 70 trucks of his own and more than 200 employees. It's a dangerous, but lucrative, operation.

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Progressive Religious Groups Line Up Behind Obama On Health Care

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - By Liz Halloran - Aug. 11 (News Report) - Just hours after the Obama administration launched a website today to battle what it has called "wild rumors" about its health care initiative, a coalition of progressive religious leaders entered the increasingly bitter national argument over the overhaul being debated in Washington.

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Mass Medical Clinic's Sobering Message

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

National Public Radio - By Howard Berkes - Aug. 10 (Opinion) - For two-and-a-half days, about 800 doctors, nurses, dentists and optometrists treated 2,700 uninsured and underinsured people, most from Appalachia. No one was asked for an insurance card. There were no co-pays. And there were no bills.

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