Search results for

Commentator Marion Winik wonders if her drinking is getting out of hand. The tell tale signs: reading about her alcohol related adventures in a local sports column, and finding solace in a book about alcoholic writers. However, she is comforted by the fact that she is the picture of sobriety compared to her idol, Dorothy Parker.

NPR'S Brooke Gladstone reports on an Austin Texas television station's effort to reduce the violence in its local newscasts. News executives at K-VUE have adopted experimental guidelines for determining whether certain violent pictures or stories should even air. Its local competitors accuse K-VUE of arrogantly filtering the news. Yet the station's newscasts are number one in its market.

Robert remarks on some "non-news" from Eastern Europe which is becoming less and less Eastern. In Poland, a new anti-smoking law took effect last month.

NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports..Majority Leader Bob Dole acknowleges that he trails President Clinton by a wide margin among female voters. But Dole says the gender gap is merely a perception problem and his plan to address it is to emphasize his legislative record.

President Clinton has been testifying on videotape before the Whitewater jury in Little Rock, Arkansas. He is a defense witness, called by his former real estate business partners James and Susan McDougal. The McDougals and Arkansas governor Jim Guy Tucker face fraud charges in connection with federally-backed loans. The president has not been charged. NPR's Jon Greenberg reports on Mr Clinton's testimony.

The search for clues in the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 continued in the Florida Everglades today. On Sunday, investigators began using ground-mapping radar to help locate objects in the murky swamp where the plane crashed. Noah speaks with Tom Fenner, geologist and sales director with Geophysical Survey Systems, the company that sent the radar, about the difficulties search crews are experiencing at the crash site.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports on plans by CompuServe Inc., the second largest on-line service, to join the wave of private on-line service providers that are exchanging their private, proprietary software for the open language of the World Wide Web. The move leaves the nation's number-one access provider, America Online, as the sole remaining service to require subscribers to use special software and access points to reach the Internet.

President Clinton's spokesman said today the president would sign a bill that discourages same-sex marriages. The legislation would give each state the right to NOT recognize same-sex marriages performed in another state. Gay and lesbian advocates say that would deprive them of their rights as American citizens. NPR's Chitra Ragavan looks at the status of the pending bill.

NPR's Wade Goodwyn reports that since April 27th, the Olympic Torch has been making its way across the country and is scheduled to arrive in Atlanta for the start of the Games in July. By the time the torch completes its journey, it will have traveled more than fifteen thousand miles through forty-two states, and be carried by more than ten thousand people. Wherever it passes, small town or big city, the Torch seems to capture the spirit of the Olympics for those who watch and those who participate.

Commentator Mickey Edwards says politicians in Washington will do anything for a vote. And both Democrats and Republicans in Washington are guilty of it. Republicans used to say no way to healthcare and minimum wage, now with the November elections in mind, they seem to have changed their minds. The White House is just as guilty of these campaign politics.

Congressional budget committees took up the Republicans' new proposal for the fiscal year 1997 budget today. The plan, intended to lead to a balanced federal budget in six years, includes a smaller tax cut and fewer cuts in domestic spending than previous proposals. Congressional Democrats criticized the budget plan, but President Clinton called it "movement in the right direction". NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

NPR's Diedre Berger reports from Hamburg, Germany, on the trial in which an American is accused of distributing neo-nazi propaganda...an illegal act in Germany. Gary Lauck of Lincoln, Nebraska, was arrested in Denmark last year and extradicted to Germany for the trial.

Commentator Frederica Matthews-Green reflects on the phenomenon of everyday people who demonstrate deep faith. She tells the story of Michael, a local plumber and fellow member of a small Eastern Orthodox congregation, who recently went off to become a monk. As the congregation tearfully sent him off, Matthews-Green noted the extraordinary number of people like Michael who live lives of faithful devotion. Negative images of religious people in the media are unfair stereotype, she says, because most deeply religious people are just like the rest of us, and Michael.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports from Abidjan on the saga of an overloaded freighter carrying nearly four thousand people who fled the recent fighting in Liberia. The leaky vessel set out from Liberia nine days ago, but has been sailing up and down the west African coast, as Ivory Coast and Ghana have refused to accept the refugees. Today Ghana allowed the ship to dock, but many of whom are suffering from dysentery. The reluctance of west African nations to accept more refugees follows warnings from diplomats that the international community may abandon Liberia if its warring factions fail to make peace. (3:00) CUTAWAY 1A 0:59 1B 4. JURY REFORM - In Los Angeles, Virginia Biggar reports on a soon-to-be-released report on how to reform the California jury system. Reform has been on the legal agenda for years, but the OJ Simpson trial highlighted many flaws in the system, say critics. Recommendations for change vary from paying jurors more to punishing potential jurors for avoiding jury duty.

Storyteller Kevin Kling has a hitchhiking tale to tell. He gets picked up by Otto a man with bad knees and a few other problems.

Robert Siegel talks with Alan Sokal, a professor of physics at New York University, about his parody of practitioners of "science studies." He tells how he deliberately wrote an article questioning the validity of measuring physical "reality" using nonsensical phrases, and submitted it to a well-respected academic journal. The editors published it as a serious treatise, not realizing it was written as a joke. (Sokal's article, "A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies," appeared in the May/June 1996 issue of Lingua Franca.

the new labor initiative with a well-coordinated counterattack. They plan to label the campaign as an attempt by Washington union bosses to tell rank and file members what to do in an effort to enhance the union leadership's power. The GOP has filed complaints about union spending with the Federal Election Commission, but the law governing such independent expenditures is murky. Peter Overby reports.

NPR's Cheryl Corley reports on the end of "Social Promotions" in the Chicago school system. Under this policy, students were graduated to high school even if they did not meet eighth grade graduation standards. Now students will only be able to graduate to high school if they meet academic requirements.

Muslims all over the world are celebrating the Feast of Sacrifice today, marking the end of the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. There are several rituals performed during the pilgrimage and to better understand them we asked three Americans who practice Islam to reflect on their experiences.

Bobby Hill reviews Casandra Wilson's current cd New Moon Daughter. It is a collection of songs by contemporary songwriters done with a hushed dirgeful voice. (6:30) THE CD IS CALLED NEW MOON DAUGHTER BY CASANDRA WILSON ON BLUENOTE RECORDS. (IN S