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4:55 am
Mon July 9, 2012

Stafford Loans Interest Rate To Remain Steady

Originally published on Mon July 9, 2012 6:23 pm

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And for one more year, college students can access a certain kind of loan for the low rate of 3.4 percent. It's known as a Stafford loan, and the interest rate was set to double, until lawmakers managed to reach an agreement to keep the rate low, which in turn will keep college more affordable for more people.

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NPR Story
4:47 am
Mon July 9, 2012

Federer Picks Up 7th Wimbledon Title

Originally published on Mon July 9, 2012 6:11 am

Roger Federer now shares the Wimbledon men's singles record with Pete Sampras and William Renshaw. Andy Murray had hoped to be the first Briton to win the Wimbledon title in 76 years. Linda Wertheimer talks to Doug Robson, who covered Wimbledon for USA Today, about the tournament.

NPR Story
4:47 am
Mon July 9, 2012

Kansas City Hospital Offers Healthy Food Choices

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 8:51 am

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

One of the places you'd expect to find healthy food is in hospitals - boring, but healthy. But in recent decades, fast food restaurants have worked their way into hospitals around the country. That's despite growing evidence linking fast food menus to high rates of obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases. Elana Gordon from member station KCUR in Kansas City takes us to one place that has been wrestling with that situation.

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Politics
4:09 am
Mon July 9, 2012

GOP To Make 31st Attempt To Repeal Obamacare Act

Originally published on Wed November 14, 2012 1:00 pm

The House Rules Committee takes up a bill Monday called the "Repeal of Obamacare Act." And just like it says, the bill would wipe away the president's Affordable Care Act. A vote of the full House is planned for Wednesday.

It's the first legislative response from House Republicans after the Supreme Court upheld the law. But it is far from the first time the GOP has voted for repeal.

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Governing
3:05 am
Mon July 9, 2012

Justice's New Watchdog Meets Fast And Furious

Credit
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is reviewing secret emails about the department's Fast and Furious operation.

Originally published on Mon July 9, 2012 5:28 am

The legal battle between Republican lawmakers and Attorney General Eric Holder over access to documents in a gun scandal could take months, if not years, to resolve.

But one man has already been sifting through secret emails about the operation known as Fast and Furious. He's Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department's new watchdog.

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AIDS: A Turning Point
3:04 am
Mon July 9, 2012

Botswana's 'Stunning Achievement' Against AIDS

Credit Jason Beaubien / NPR
Johane Setlhare began taking anti-AIDS drugs, provided by the government, in 2007. Two years later, he regained enough strength to build the house that's behind him.

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 8:50 am

The southern African nation of Botswana has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world. Nearly 25 percent of all adults in the country are infected with the virus. Only the nearby kingdom of Swaziland has a higher rate.

But Botswana is also remarkable for its response to the epidemic. It has one of the most comprehensive and effective HIV treatment programs in Africa. Transmission of HIV from infected mothers to their fetuses and newborn babies has been brought down to just 4 percent.

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Crime In The City
3:03 am
Mon July 9, 2012

Dark Doings Among The D.C. Monuments

Originally published on Mon July 9, 2012 10:47 am

In Washington, D.C., the glittering marble of public buildings and monuments can conceal the darkest of deeds. And in the crime novels of Mike Lawson, they do.

"When I started writing, the very first decision I made was, I wanted the book set in D.C.," says Lawson, who recently published his seventh Washington-based thriller, House Blood. "That was before I had a character, or anything else."

And he had a reason.

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The Salt
3:02 am
Mon July 9, 2012

Confusion At The Yogurt Aisle? Time for Probiotics 101

Credit M. Spencer Green / AP
Packages of Activa yogurt, which contain probiotics, on a grocery shelf in Chicago.

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 8:51 am

Researchers are studying the ability of beneficial micro-organisms - or probiotics - to treat a range of conditions from eczema to inflammatory bowel disease. And the idea that "good" bacteria are healthy for us is gaining traction.

But the science is tricky.

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Politics
3:00 am
Mon July 9, 2012

Campaigns Play The Numbers To Tip Election Favor

Originally published on Mon July 9, 2012 5:28 am

There are two big factors that will determine the outcome of the presidential election: the economy and demographics.

The economy is weak and doesn't look likely to improve by much, but the makeup of the electorate on the other hand is highly dynamic. It continues a trend underway for years: a rapid rise in the number of people who are not Anglos in both the population and at the polls.

That percentage actually doubled between 1992 and 2008, says Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University.

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The Two-Way
5:56 pm
Sun July 8, 2012

Oscar-Winner Ernest Borgnine Dies At 95

Originally published on Mon July 9, 2012 7:17 am

Ernest Borgnine, the larger-than-life actor with the affable, gap-toothed grin, known for often villainous roles, has died, according to spokesman Harry Flynn. He was 95.

Flynn told the Associated Press that Borgnine died of renal failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with his wife and children at his side.

Borgnine won the best-actor Oscar in 1955 for playing against type as a lovesick butcher in Marty.

The AP reports:

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Africa
5:19 pm
Sun July 8, 2012

Liberia Launches Military Campaign To Route Rebels

Liberia is launching its first large-scale military operation since the end of its brutal civil war. Liberia's army, which has been trained by the U.S. military over the last six years, is going after mercenaries and rebels who are using thick forest as cover from which to launch ambushes in neighboring Ivory Coast.

Your Money
5:03 pm
Sun July 8, 2012

Raising Minimum Wage: A Help Or Harm?

Credit Mike Groll / AP
Wendy Brown of Schenectady, N.Y., holds a sign before an Occupy Albany rally pushing for a raise in New York's minimum wage on May 29, 2012.

Originally published on Sun July 8, 2012 8:55 pm

Back in 1912, Massachusetts became the first place in America to introduce a minimum wage, but it would take another quarter century before a national minimum wage was set.

President Franklin Roosevelt made it law in 1938, that any hourly worker had to be paid at least 25 cents an hour. It was revolutionary, and very few countries had anything like it.

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Music
5:00 pm
Sun July 8, 2012

Who Is She? Just One Of The Most Popular Songs Ever

Originally published on Sun July 8, 2012 5:57 pm

Amy Winehouse. Ella Fitzgerald. Sammy Davis Jr. The Yale Whiffenpoofs. Mike Tyson.

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Middle East
5:00 pm
Sun July 8, 2012

Drones Suspected In Yemen Fighting

Originally published on Sun July 8, 2012 5:19 pm

Weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz speaks with NPR's Kelly McEvers about her reporting trip to towns in southern Yemen, which recently came under fire from what are believed to be unmanned drones.

National Security
5:00 pm
Sun July 8, 2012

Hacking Drones And The Dangers It Presents

Originally published on Sun July 8, 2012 5:19 pm

A professor at The University of Texas has figured out how to intercept drones while in flight. Todd Humphreys and his team taps into the GPS coordinates of a civilian drone and can alter the flight path, even land it. Weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz speaks with Humphreys about how he did it and the dangers that hacking can present.

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