Live Coverage: State of the State Address
12:00 pm
Mon January 30, 2012

Special Coverage: State of the State Address

Credit Cheryl Senter, NHPR

Gov. Lynch will deliver his final state of the state address to the House and Senate on Tuesday, Jan 31.  He announced in September of 2011 that he would not seek a fifth term.

NHPR and NHPR.org will carry this speech live from the Statehouse at 11 a.m.

Word of Mouth - Segment
10:33 am
Mon January 30, 2012

Schwinners on Pursuit of Losers

When thieves stole Patrick Symmes’ commuter bicycle in broad daylight, it’s not a stretch to say that he snapped. Late at night, he’d watch the surveillance tape again and again… plotting sweet revenge against the two men who’d methodically and nonchalantly pilfered his blue Novara Metro hybrid. Seven bikes and three cities later, Patrick has finally gotten his revenge…sort of.

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NPR correspondent Chris Arnold is based in Boston. His reports are heard regularly on NPR's award-winning newsmagazines Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. He joined NPR in 1996, and was based in San Francisco before moving to Boston in 2001.

Arnold is spending the academic year of 2012 - 2013 as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He will join a small group of other journalists from the U.S. and around the world for this highly respected journalism fellowship. Arnold will be studying, among other things, the future of home ownership in America.

Since 2006, Arnold has spent much of his time reporting on the financial crisis and its aftermath. He has focused on the housing bubble and its collapse. And he's reported on problems within the nation's largest banks that have led to the banks improperly foreclosing on thousands of American homeowners. For this work, Arnold earned a 2011 Edward R. Murrow Award for the special series, "The Foreclosure Nightmare." He's also been honored with the Newspaper Guild's 2009 Heywood Broun Award for broadcast journalism. He was chosen by the Scripps Howard Foundation as a finalist for their National Journalism Award, and he won an Excellence in Financial Journalism Award from N.Y. State's society for CPA's.

Arnold has also recently focused on the now government owned mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In a series of stories in partnership with reporter Jesse Eisinger at ProPublica, Arnold exposed investments at Freddie Mac that raised serious concerns about a conflict of interest between Fannie and Freddie's massive investment portfolios, and their mission to make homeownership more affordable. The stories generated widespread attention, and led to calls for an investigation by members of Congress.

Arnold has covered a range of other subjects and stories for NPR – from Katrina recovery in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, to immigrant workers in the fishing industry, to a new kind of table saw that won't cut your fingers off. He traveled to Turin, Italy, for NPR's coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics. He has also followed the dramatic rise in the numbers of teenagers abusing the powerful and highly addictive painkiller Oxycontin – more than 1 out of 20 high school seniors report using the drug.

In the days and months following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Arnold reported from New York and contributed to the NPR coverage that won the Overseas Press Club and the George Foster Peabody Awards. He chronicled the recovery effort at Ground Zero, focusing on members of the Port Authority Police department, as they struggled with the deaths of 37 officers - the greatest loss of any police department in U.S. history. Arnold followed the lives of those who lived and worked around Ground Zero - from bond traders and Chinatown garment sewers to small business owners - as they sought to put their lives back together again.

Prior to his move to Boston, Arnold traveled the country for NPR doing feature stories on entrepreneurship. His pieces covered technologists, farmers, and family business owners. He also reported on efforts to kindle entrepreneurship in economically disadvantaged areas ranging from inner-city Los Angeles to the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota.

Arnold has worked in public radio since 1993. Before joining NPR, he was a freelance reporter working out of San Francisco's NPR Member station, KQED.

The Exchange
10:00 am
Mon January 30, 2012

New Hampshire's Commissioner for Health and Human Services Nick Toumpas

In recent years, New Hampshire's Health and Human Services department has seen deep budget cuts and layoffs,  and is now battling with the state’s hospitals and the U.S. Department of Justice over issues of taxation and patient care.  Leading the way, its commissioner, Nick Toumpas, who was just reappointed for another term last month.  We’ll hear Toumpas’ take on these issues, as well as how the state is handling aspects of the new federal health care law. 

Guest

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Word of Mouth - Segment
9:48 am
Mon January 30, 2012

America's Funeral Industry Sees New Life

With demand for cremation, secular services, and environmentally friendly burials rising, funeral directors are adapting what could be called new end-of-lifestyle choices. Max Rivlin-Nadler is editor of Full Stop magazine. He discovered an industry scrambling to meet new demands while attending the 130th  National Funeral Director's Conference, held this year in Chicago.

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Your Money
5:01 am
Mon January 30, 2012

Freddie Mac Betting Against Struggling Homeowners

Freddie Mac, a taxpayer-owned mortgage company, is supposed to make homeownership easier. One thing that makes owning a home more affordable is getting a cheaper mortgage.

But Freddie Mac has invested billions of dollars betting that U.S. homeowners won't be able to refinance their mortgages at today's lower rates, according to an investigation by NPR and ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom.

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Folk Show Playlist
7:00 pm
Sun January 29, 2012

Folk Show Playlist 1.29.12

Song/Artist/Album/Label

If These Walls Could Speak/Shawn Colvin/Cover Girl/Columbia

Truck Drivin' Woman/Si Kahn/New Wood/Philo

Aragon Mill/Rosalie Sorrels/Utah Phillips/Long Memory/ Red House

Sugarcoating/Martin Sexton/Sugarcoating/Kitchen Table

... Undertow/Suzanne Vega/Suzanne Vega/A&M Records
Finch's Complaint/Stan Rogers/Fogarty's Cove (Remastered)/Borealis

Make And Break Harbour/Stan Rogers/Fogarty's Cove (Remastered)/Borealis

Inside/ Bill Morrissey/Inside/Philo

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EarthTalk
12:00 am
Sun January 29, 2012

The Energy Waste of TV-Top Boxes

Credit iStock Photo/Thinkstock

EarthTalk®
E - The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that cable and other pay TV boxes that sit atop television sets consume massive amounts of energy, in part because they are always on, even when the TV is off? -- Sam Winston, Metarie, LA

 

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EarthTalk
12:00 am
Sun January 29, 2012

Carbon Emissions are Making Our Waters Acidic

Credit iStock Photo/Thinkstock

EarthTalk®
E - The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: I was horrified to read recently that our oceans are actually becoming acidic, that the continued burning of fossil fuels is changing the chemistry of our seas. What’s going on?  -- Kim Richardson, San Diego, CA

 

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North Country
3:07 pm
Sat January 28, 2012

How North Country Reps Voted on Bill Governor Said Would Allow 400 Percent Interest Per Year

Credit Flickr - Images of Money

North Country representatives were evenly split on a bill  Gov. Lynch said would allow lenders to charge an annual percentage rate of 400 percent interest. 

Senator John Gallus (Republican) of Berlin voted against the bill.

Four reps were excused from voting.

On Friday Gov. Lynch vetoed that bill, Senate Bill 160.

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