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Around the Nation
8:30 am
Thu July 19, 2012

Hasselhoff Photos Stolen From Store's Ad Campaign

Cumberland Farms put giant photo cutouts of David Hasselhoff in front of their stores across New England and Florida. The 60-year-old star of Baywatch and Knight Rider is shown smiling, wearing a tank top and promoting iced coffee. Of 570 photos, roughly 550 have been stolen.

Around the Nation
8:01 am
Thu July 19, 2012

Drought Hits Farmers And Residential Landscapers

The drought is beginning to really sink its teeth into the Midwest. More than three-quarters of the nation's corn acres are in a drought zone. In Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, corn crops are burning up and its causing commodity prices to shoot up. Suburban residents are paying to water their lawns, but it isn't doing much good.

Around the Nation
6:45 am
Thu July 19, 2012

Civil Rights Group Struggles To Rebrand Itself

Originally published on Thu July 19, 2012 8:00 am

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

The civil rights organization co-founded by Martin Luther King Junior meets in Sanford, Florida today for its annual convention. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference has struggled in recent years with leadership battles and declining membership. Now members want to rebrand the SCLC. Here's NPR's Kathy Lohr.

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Health Care
4:41 am
Thu July 19, 2012

NPR Poll Results

Originally published on Thu July 19, 2012 9:49 am

Even though the Supreme Court declared the Affordable Care Act constitutional, voters in battleground states remain polarized about the law. But a new NPR survey finds there are signs that the gap between opponents and supporters has become a little smaller.

Law
4:41 am
Thu July 19, 2012

Families Sue Over U.S. Deaths In Yemen Drone Strikes

Originally published on Thu July 19, 2012 8:00 am

Civil rights groups and the families of three Americans killed in drone strikes in Yemen filed a lawsuit against top Obama administration officials Wednesday. The suit claims U.S. authorities executed their sons without charge or trial — outside the law and the Constitution.

Business
4:41 am
Thu July 19, 2012

Capital One Settles Over Vendors' Missteps

Originally published on Thu July 19, 2012 8:01 am

Capital One Bank will pay $210 million to settle federal charges that it tricked credit card customers into buying costly add-on services like payment protection and credit monitoring. The case is the first enforcement action from the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Human Tissue Donation
3:33 am
Thu July 19, 2012

The Seamy Side Of The Human Tissue Business

Credit Jesse Ward / AP
Michael Mastromarino (center) appeared in a New York City courtroom for sentencing on charges of corruption, body stealing and reckless endangerment, as the mastermind behind a scheme to loot hundreds of corpses and sell bone and tissue for transplants.

Originally published on Thu July 19, 2012 8:01 am

Part 4 in a four-part series

The human tissue industry has created medical advances for millions of Americans. Tissue taken from cadavers is turned into medical products for the living. A tendon can be used to repair a torn ACL. Veins are used in heart bypass operations. Bone can be turned into plates and screws. They look like something you'd find in a hardware store, but these get used to mend a broken leg. It's a $1 billion-a-year industry that attracts the altruistic, but sometimes the greedy.

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Law
3:04 am
Thu July 19, 2012

Controversial Ariz. Sheriff's Tactics Go On Trial

Credit Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images
A trial begins Thursday in Phoenix accusing Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, seen in this May 3, 2010, file photo, of violating the civil rights of Latino citizens and legal U.S. residents.

Originally published on Thu July 19, 2012 10:04 am

The self-proclaimed "Toughest Sheriff in America" is facing one of his toughest tests. A trial begins Thursday morning in Phoenix accusing Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio of violating the civil rights of Latino citizens and legal U.S. residents. The class-action civil suit says the sheriff went over the line in his efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.

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Dead Stop
3:03 am
Thu July 19, 2012

A Muslim Cemetery Helps To Ease Funerals' Strain

Credit Sami Yenigun / NPR
At the Garden of Peace cemetery in Flint, Mich., Muslims are buried in accordance with traditional Islamic burial rites.

Originally published on Tue July 24, 2012 2:52 pm

The Garden of Peace cemetery opened when the Islamic community in Flint, Mich., needed a place to bury their dead in accordance with their religion. After operating for only a couple of years, the cemetery has already welcomed a diverse group of American Muslims.

Tucked in the left corner of an open field, on a breezy, buggy, warm summer morning in Flint, lie parallel rows of identical headstones. There are roughly 30 of them, all facing the same direction.

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Shots - Health Blog
6:03 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Prostate Cancer Surgery Shows No Benefit For Many Men

Credit iStockphoto.com
Surgery for prostate cancer shouldn't be an automatic choice, a new study says.

Finally, the results from a decades-long study that compared surgery for prostate cancer to careful monitoring have been published.

Overall, the researchers found no difference in rates of death from any cause, including prostate cancer, among men who had their prostates surgically removed compared to those who didn't.

Preliminary results were released more than a year ago.

The newly published conclusion:

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Around the Nation
5:29 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

In Fairplay, Colo., Burro Racing Packs 'Em In

Originally published on Thu July 19, 2012 9:08 am

Around the Nation
5:29 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Drought Spreads Misery Through Arkansas River Basin

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 8:19 pm

Drought has set in early and hard across the Midwest, parching the Arkansas River basin. The river trickling out of the mountains is dry before it reaches some of the major agricultural uses downstream. And the drought is torching crops, sapping tourism and threatening supplies of drinking water.

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Shots - Health Blog
5:02 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

HIV Cure Is Closer As Patient's Full Recovery Inspires New Research

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 7:30 pm

Ask AIDS researchers why they think a cure to the disease is possible and the first response is "the Berlin patient."

That patient is a wiry, 46-year-old American from Seattle named Timothy Ray Brown. He got a bone marrow transplant five years ago when he was living in Berlin.

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Around the Nation
4:31 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

Ore. Wildfires Leave Ranchers Without Grazing Land

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 7:30 pm

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Two giant wildfires in eastern Oregon have killed hundreds of cattle and jeopardized ranchers' livelihoods. The fires have burned more than 1,000 square miles of sagebrush and juniper and that leaves ranchers with nowhere to graze the cattle they managed to save.

That's a problem in a town called Burns, as we hear from Amelia Templeton of Oregon Public Broadcasting.

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NPR Cities: Urban Life In The 21st Century
4:27 pm
Wed July 18, 2012

City Life Snapshot: A.J. Auto Accessories

Originally published on Wed July 18, 2012 7:30 pm

Transcript

DAVID ORTIZ: This is A.J. Auto Accessories. You people are welcome any time you want.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

A different take on car culture now in this City Life Snapshot.

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