Ongoing Coverage:
NPR Story
4:08 pm
Fri January 13, 2012

A Look At Romney's Olympic Legacy

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 10:07 am

Ten years after the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, there's still some debate about Mitt Romney's claim that he helped "save" the games — and about whether he used the Olympics to relaunch a fledgling political career.

In 1999, Romney accepted the job as CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC), five years after he failed to oust Sen. Ted Kennedy from his Massachusetts Senate seat.

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Election 2012
3:58 pm
Fri January 13, 2012

The Ron Paul Paradox: GOP Questions His Impact

Credit Stephan Savoia / Associated Press
Ron Paul greets supporters in Meredith, N.H., on Sunday, two days before he placed second in the state's Republican primary.

Originally published on Fri January 13, 2012 9:08 pm

Four years ago, Texas Rep. Ron Paul finished fifth in the New Hampshire presidential primary with just under 8 percent of the vote.

On Tuesday, he got nearly 23 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, finishing second to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Republican contest. That came a week after Paul's third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.

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Shots - Health Blog
3:48 pm
Fri January 13, 2012

India Marks A Year Free Of Polio

Credit Narinder Nanu / AFP/Getty Images
An Indian boy receives a polio vaccination from an Indian health worker in Amritsar last year.

A year ago today, India saw its last recorded case of polio in an 18-month-old girl in West Bengal named Rukhsar Khatoon. She recovered without lasting paralysis.

One year without another case is an impressive milestone in the decades-long effort to wipe the poliovirus from the face of the planet. Only a few years ago, India reported more polio cases than anywhere else — as many as 100,000 cases a year.

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World Cafe
3:46 pm
Fri January 13, 2012

Tori Amos On World Cafe

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Tori Amos.

Originally published on Wed March 28, 2012 1:30 pm

For more than 20 years, Tori Amos has been one of the most inventive and distinctive singer-songwriters in contemporary music. With eight Grammy nominations and millions of albums sold worldwide, Amos has become a living legend. Her solo career has evolved unpredictably, from acoustic piano to electronica and orchestral styles.

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The Salt
3:37 pm
Fri January 13, 2012

Waste Whey? Some Say No Way.

Credit GAETAN BALLY / KEYSTONE /Landov
Swiss cheese-maker Ernst Waser lets the whey drain off from the skimmed cheese curd through the cheesecloth.

When you open a tub of yogurt, do you pour off that cloudy layer of liquid that collects on the top? If so, you're not just wasting nutritious protein and lactose – you're tossing out what some scientists see as a valuable raw material.

Strange though it might seem, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering in Germany announced this week that they're turning whey into plastic-like films.

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Marin Alsop on Music
3:34 pm
Fri January 13, 2012

Alsop Sprach Zarathustra: Decoding Strauss' Tone Poem

I can't imagine a more stimulating conversation opener than "God is dead." Indeed, this quote by Friedrich Nietzsche sparked heated debate in his time, as it still does today. But how many of us know the writings of this 19th-century philosopher?

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It's All Politics
3:30 pm
Fri January 13, 2012

A GOP 'Station Of The Cross,' Bob Jones Is Not On Romney's Itinerary

Credit BRIAN SNYDER / Reuters /Landov
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney greets supporters during a campaign stop at Cherokee Trikes and More in Greer, S.C. on Thursday.

Originally published on Fri January 13, 2012 3:48 pm

Bob Jones University used to be a "station of the cross for aspiring presidential candidates," NPR's Ari Shapiro reports on Friday's All Things Considered. Candidates like Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and Pat Buchanan all spoke at the school, a "bastion of the most conservative brand of evangelical Christianity," Shapiro says.

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Music News
3:25 pm
Fri January 13, 2012

Red Heart The Ticker: Raising The Dead Via Folk Music

Family heirlooms take all shapes: a pocket watch, a painting. For Robin MacArthur and her husband Tyler Gibbons, who form the folk duo Red Heart the Ticker, the family inheritance consists of an old house and lots of songs — both gifts from MacArthur's late grandmother, Margaret.

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Music Interviews
3:14 pm
Fri January 13, 2012

Winter Songs: R.E.M.'s Dark And Brooding 'Sweetness'

Originally published on Tue February 14, 2012 2:23 pm

All this winter, All Things Considered has been asking for winter songs — and the stories they evoke.

One tough winter in Rhode Island, NPR listener and novelist Thomas Mullen experienced financial ruin with his family. The song that got him through it was R.E.M.'s "Sweetness Follows."

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The Two-Way
2:57 pm
Fri January 13, 2012

Sen. Rand Paul Says He's Returning $500K In Unused Operating Costs

Making a point about government spending, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky presented taxpayers from his state with a symbolic $500,000 "oversized check." Paul, who is the son of presidential candidate Ron Paul, said his office had saved more than 16 percent of its allotted operating budget last year, so he was giving it back to the Treasury.

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