Morning Edition

Weekdays from 5am to 9am

Waking up is hard to do, but it's easier with NPR's Morning Edition. Hosts Renée Montagne and Steve Inskeep bring the day's stories and news to radio listeners on the go. Steve and Renee interview newsmakers from politicians, to academics, to filmmakers, Morning Edition provides news in context, airs thoughtful ideas and commentary, and reviews important new music, books, and events in the arts. All with voices and sounds that invite you to experience the stories. Morning Edition is a world of ideas tailored to fit into your busy life.

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Business
3:12 am
Thu December 6, 2012

The Last Word In Business

Originally published on Mon December 10, 2012 3:41 pm

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And our last word in business today is Trump versus Forbes. The Forbes we're talking about is a Scotsman named Michael Forbes. He has the misfortune of living right next to Donald Trump's new golf course in Scotland. Forbes has refused to sell his property to Trump; and what has ensued is the war of words that you probably would expect between the property magnet, and anyone who gets in his way.

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Around the Nation
3:12 am
Thu December 6, 2012

Satellite Colleges Setting Up Shop In Phoenix Suburbs

Originally published on Thu December 6, 2012 3:41 am

Phoenix suburbs are becoming a magnet for small universities. Five schools — Benedictine, Albright, Wilkes, Upper Iowa and Westminster — have announced plans for satellite campuses in downtown Mesa. And at least three more are coming to Peoria.

Middle East
1:33 am
Thu December 6, 2012

'It's A Disaster': Life Inside A Syrian Refugee Camp

Credit Odd Andersen / AFP/Getty Images
Mothers and their children sit among their washing in a refugee camp on the border between Syria and Turkey near the northern city of Azaz on Wednesday. The internally displaced faced further misery as heavy rain was followed by a drop in temperatures.

Originally published on Thu December 6, 2012 8:20 pm

It's early afternoon when the sun is bright, and it's finally warm enough to come outside. This tent camp on a hill overlooking the Turkish border, near the Syrian town of Atma, houses more than 14,000 displaced Syrians.

The water here is trucked in, and it's the only source. Women line up with plastic jugs to haul the daily delivery back to the tents. What is striking are the children — in dirty clothes and summer shoes, faces red and raw from the cold.

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Shots - Health News
1:32 am
Thu December 6, 2012

Why It's Easier To Scam The Elderly

Credit Allen Breed / AP
Fraud victims are more likely to have opened official-looking sweepstakes notices and other mailings. A new study says the elderly are more susceptible than the young to being swindled.

Originally published on Thu December 6, 2012 2:23 pm

Lots of scams come by phone or by mail, but when the scam artist is right in front of you, researchers say the clues are in the face.

"A smile that is in the mouth but doesn't go up to the eyes, an averted gaze, a backward lean" are some of the ways deception may present itself, says Shelley Taylor, a psychologist at UCLA.

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Africa
1:31 am
Thu December 6, 2012

Why No One's Going To Timbuktu These Days

Originally published on Thu December 6, 2012 8:41 am

Tourism, the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people in the West African country of Mali, has ground to a halt. Since the coup in March and the subsequent occupation of the north by militants linked to al-Qaida, Mali has virtually become a no-go zone for visitors. The impact on the economy and people's lives is profound.

In the historic city of Segou, about 150 miles north of the capital, Bamako, the effects are obvious.

On a recent day, the engine of the brightly painted pinasse, a wooden boat handcrafted with a swooping wicker canopy, slowly starts up.

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Food
5:21 am
Wed December 5, 2012

British Burger Is Hot, Red Hot

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 7:09 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

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Around the Nation
5:14 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Famous Rudolph, Ohio, Postmark Will Shine On

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 7:09 am

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

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NPR Story
2:42 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Reality TV Moves In A Different Direction

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 12:54 pm

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

From the story of a literary star to one of a reality TV star, Mike Rowe, host of the television show "Dirty Jobs," quietly announced last month that his show has been cancelled by the Discovery Channel. TV critic Eric Deggans says the trend in reality TV is moving away from the kind of programming Rowe brought to the screen.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: For eight seasons, Mike Rowe was the guy who dared poke things, go places and do jobs no typically blow-dried TV host would touch.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "DIRTY JOBS")

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NPR Story
2:42 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Cooper Union Students Protest Threat To Free Tuition

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 7:09 am

A student occupation at Cooper Union is entering its third day. The New York school of art, architecture and engineering is famous for not charging tuition to undergraduates. Administrators say the school is facing a financial crisis and needs to find new revenue sources.

NPR Story
2:42 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Senate Fails To Ratify U.N. Treaty On Disabilities

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 7:09 am

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And amid that budget debate, a wall of Republican opposition to a new United Nations treaty kept it from being ratified in the Senate. The treaty is aimed at promoting and protecting the rights of disabled people. And even though it was inspired by the Americans with Disabilities Act, Republicans argue that it would harm U.S. sovereignty and even interfere with home schooling. Here's NPR's David Welna.

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The Salt
12:36 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Milk Producers Peer Over The Dairy Cliff

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 7:09 am

There's more than one cliff drawing controversy this month. The federal farm bill is one of many items caught in congressional gridlock. The bill resets U.S. agriculture policy every four years, and most farmers are still covered by crop insurance and other programs until next planting season. But there's one exception: dairy.

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It's All Politics
12:35 am
Wed December 5, 2012

Is A Recess Appointment Valid If The Senate Says It's Not Really Gone?

Credit Win McNamee / Getty Images
The Senate side of the U.S. Capitol.

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 7:09 am

In a tug of war between President Obama and Congress, a federal appeals court panel in Washington, D.C., will hear arguments Wednesday on the legality of Obama's controversial recess appointments.

The White House says it was forced to install three new members of the National Labor Relations Board in January because of inaction by Senate Republicans. But those lawmakers argue the Senate wasn't really in a recess at the time.

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Education
12:35 am
Wed December 5, 2012

When The Art Of The Deal Includes Improv Training

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 7:09 am

Some top-tier business schools are offering more than just finance and marketing these days: Duke, UCLA, MIT and Stanford are all teaching improv. Professors say these techniques help students increase collaboration, creativity and risk taking.

In an improvisational leadership class at MIT's Sloan School of Management, instructor Daena Giardella coaches a scene where a hospital administrator is firing surgeons after a horribly botched operation.

Giardella, who does professional improv, boils it down to a rule known as "yes, and."

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Sweetness And Light
8:03 pm
Tue December 4, 2012

Navel-Gazing: Why Golf Should Embrace Belly Putters

Credit Hunter Martin / Getty Images
Carl Pettersson of Sweden putts for birdie on the eighth hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, S.C., in April. The long putter he uses is in danger of being banned.

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 12:20 pm

When did "issues" become such an all-purpose, often euphemistic word for anything disagreeable? We have issues now where we used to have problems, and concerns, and troubles, and hornet's nests. Like for example: The American and British big wheels who run golf have "issues" with putting.

Now understand, modern golfers have kryptonite drivers with club heads as large as prize pumpkins, and steroid balls that would not pass the drug test, even if the hapless International Cycling Union were doing the random sampling.

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The Two-Way
9:07 am
Tue December 4, 2012

Hay Thefts Soar As Drought Deepens

Credit Erik S. Lesser / EPA /Landov
That's a valuable commodity: A hay bale at a farm in Eatonton, Ga., earlier this year.

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 7:09 am

  • Sheriff Bobby Whittington talks with NPR's Renee Montagne

Your crime fodder ... sorry, make that blotter ... news of the day.

From St. Louis:

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It's All Politics
6:58 am
Tue December 4, 2012

Obama Changes Tack With Congressional Republicans

Credit Charles Dharapak / AP
President Obama speaks at the National Defense University in Washington on Monday. Since his re-election four weeks ago, Obama is showing signs of a new, more aggressive leadership style.

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 10:37 am

Throughout his first term, some of President Obama's critics said he wasn't a tough enough negotiator. They felt he caved to Republicans too early, too often. Since his re-election, Obama has subtly changed his approach. He's bringing a more aggressive style — but some critics say it's not the best way to find common ground.

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Animals
6:42 am
Tue December 4, 2012

Puppies May Help Students Ace Finals

It's finals week for many college students. And to help keep students' blood pressure down, one Canadian university opened a puppy room for students. It's full of borrowed therapy dogs to cuddle.

Europe
6:35 am
Tue December 4, 2012

French Mayor Introduces Rules On Politeness

In the small town near Paris, anyone who fails to say hello or thank you to staff at the town hall will be asked to leave. A recent poll did find that 60 percent of French people list bad manners as their No. 1 cause of stress.

Education
6:31 am
Tue December 4, 2012

Online Courses Force Changes To Higher Education

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 6:32 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

There is a lot of speculation now about what issues - big and small - the Obama administration should tackle in its second term. Education is one thing on many of those lists, and in Washington yesterday, the talk was about one of the hottest trends in the field - something called MOOCS. MOOCS is short for Massive Open Online Courses; college courses, to be exact.

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Business
4:55 am
Tue December 4, 2012

Pandora To Issue Earnings Report

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 11:14 am

Internet radio service Pandora is being closely watched by investors. The company is set to announce its latest quarterly earnings Tuesday. Last week, the head of Pandora was in Washington to push for lower music royalties.

NPR Story
4:25 am
Tue December 4, 2012

Baby On The Way For Britain's Royals

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 5:38 am

Renee Montagne talks to Ingrid Seward of Majesty magazine about the announcement there will be a new person in line for the British throne. It was announced Monday that Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is pregnant.

Around the Nation
2:11 am
Tue December 4, 2012

Manhattan Project Sites Part Of Proposed Park

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 4:55 am

Congress is considering whether to turn three top-secret sites involved with creating the atomic bomb into one of the country's most unusual national parks.

The Manhattan Project — the U.S. program to design and build the first atomic bomb during World War II — largely took place at three sites: Los Alamos, N.M.; Oak Ridge, Tenn.; and Hanford, Wash. On July 16, 1945, the first test of an atomic bomb took place at a site in the southern New Mexico desert. Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, Japan, were bombed less than a month after the test.

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Your Money
2:07 am
Tue December 4, 2012

What's Next For The Daily Deal Business Model?

Credit NPR
Despite their recent woes, "daily deal" companies Groupon and Living Social can be profitable, says analyst Arvind Bhatia.

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 6:22 am

Are the days of "daily deal" coupons about to expire? Shares of email coupon company Groupon are down nearly 80 percent since going public last year. And its smaller rival, Living Social, plans to lay off as many as 400 employees, after reporting a net loss of more than $560 million in the third quarter.

Those struggles have raised questions about the future of the daily deal strategy, and whether a company like Groupon can stay in business.

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Shots - Health News
1:50 am
Tue December 4, 2012

The (Huge And Rarely Discussed) Health Insurance Tax Break

Credit iStockphoto.com
The largest tax break in the federal code doesn't appear on the forms the average person fills out each year.

Originally published on Wed December 5, 2012 7:56 am

What's the largest tax break in the federal tax code?

If you said the mortgage interest deduction, you'd be wrong. The break for charitable giving? Nope. How about capital gains, or state and local taxes? No, and no.

Believe it or not, dollar for dollar, the most tax revenue the federal government forgoes every year is from not taxing the value of health insurance that employers provide their workers.

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Europe
1:39 am
Tue December 4, 2012

Cat Fight In Rome: Beloved Shelter Faces Closure

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 8:23 am

Anyone who has visited Rome and its antique monuments has also seen their four-legged residents: the many stray cats that bask in the sun amid the ruins.

One site in central Rome is known as "cat forum," thanks to its adjacent cat shelter. But Italian archaeology officials have issued the Torre Argentina Cat Shelter Association an eviction notice, and feline lovers from around the world are bracing for a cat fight.

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Middle East
1:33 am
Tue December 4, 2012

A Rebel Fighter Sees Islamic Law In Syria's Future

Credit AP
A Syrian rebel walks past the stairs of a bombed building in the Saif Al Duli district in Aleppo, Syria, on Sept. 10. The vast majority of those fighting against President Bashar Assad's regime are ordinary Syrians and soldiers who have defected, but Islamist rebels are also present among the fighters.

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 6:18 pm

It's about 9 o'clock in the morning, and already it's been a long day for Abu Anas. He has lost two men to a sniper serving the Syrian regime. Four more have been injured.

But Abu Anas walks with a striking calm through the bombed-out, ruined streets of Aleppo, a city that has been at war for months. He wears a black headband bearing Islam's holy creed: "There is no God but God. And Muhammad is his messenger."

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The Record
1:27 am
Tue December 4, 2012

A $100 Guitar Makes A 30,000-Mile Odyssey

Credit Courtesy of The $100 Guitar Project
The $100 guitar proves once again that it's not just the instrument, it's what you do with it.

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 6:20 pm

Music News
12:03 am
Tue December 4, 2012

3 Strings And A Snakeskin: Okinawa's Native Instrument

Credit Collection of Museo Azzarini, Universidad Nacional de La Plata / Wikimedia Commons
In subtropical Japan, the sanshin is a ubiquitous part of life.

Originally published on Thu December 6, 2012 7:37 am

Monkey See
2:07 pm
Mon December 3, 2012

PBS Remixes 'Reading Rainbow,' Delights Map And Book Nerds Everywhere

Credit AP
LeVar Burton and 7 year old Shane Ammon exploring the all Reading Rainbow adventure app at the "Reading Rainbow Relaunch" event in June.

Originally published on Tue December 4, 2012 2:48 pm

Animals
5:31 am
Mon December 3, 2012

Russian School Kids Entertain Lion Cub

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. An elementary school pet is typically an animal that can be kept in a terrarium or a small cage, like say a hamster. For a few hours, some Russian village kids cared for a far wilder creature - a lion cub they found in a field after it escaped from the trunk of a car. Waiting for police to come and take it to a local zoo, the kids played with it in the gym. The cub reportedly swiped the air but did not bite. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

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