National

Pages

Shots - Health Blog
2:52 am
Thu May 24, 2012

Medical Marijuana 101: You Can't Smoke That On Campus

Credit Jeff Barnard / AP
Even if students have a prescription for pot, marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Colleges that let students self-medicate on campus could jeopardize their federal funding.

Originally published on Thu May 24, 2012 10:02 am

Medical marijuana is legal in 16 states, and that number is expected to grow. But these state laws put colleges in a bind. That's because under federal law, marijuana is still illegal. So colleges that let students make use of their pot prescription on campus risk losing their federal funding.

Read more
Around the Nation
2:50 am
Thu May 24, 2012

Teaching Teens To Build Hammers Home A Message

Originally published on Thu May 24, 2012 6:17 am

Teenagers in Washington, D.C., face tough odds getting a job. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly half of those looking for work can't find it — the highest rate in the country.

Sasha Bruce Youthwork, an organization that works with troubled teens in the district, is trying to address that problem by training young people in the construction trades.

The group has enlisted an army of volunteers and a handful of trainees for what it calls a "blitz build" — an effort to rebuild a gutted house in a single day.

Read more
Planet Money
2:47 am
Thu May 24, 2012

Bankrupt In Paradise

Credit Koichi Kamoshida / Getty Images
A rainbow over the sea in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands.

Originally published on Fri May 25, 2012 9:05 am

The Northern Mariana Islands are about 4,000 miles west of Hawaii. They look like the kind of tropical islands you see in the movies with bright blue water and white sand beaches.

The people who live on the islands are American. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is a U.S. territory. And just like a lot of U.S. states, the commonwealth has a pension plan for its government employees.

Sixto Igisomar used to run it.

Read more
Education
2:44 am
Thu May 24, 2012

National Geography Bee: Test Your World Knowledge

Originally published on Thu May 24, 2012 12:40 pm

The final round of the 2012 National Geographic Bee takes place Thursday, with students between the fourth and eighth grades testing their knowledge of countries, canals and lava lakes. Of the 54 contestants who came to the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., for the bee, only 10 remain.

Read more
Shots - Health Blog
5:27 pm
Wed May 23, 2012

By Putting Patients First, Hospital Tries To Make Care More Personal

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 7:22 pm

No one likes to go to the hospital.

But some hospitals around the nation are trying to make their patients' stays a little less unpleasant.

They're members of an organization called Planetree, which was founded by a patient named Angelica Thieriot, who had a not-so-good hospital experience back in the 1970s.

Read more
Law
5:02 pm
Wed May 23, 2012

Ousted Secret Service Agents May Ask For Jobs Back

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 7:22 pm

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

The director of the Secret Service assured a Senate committee, today, that a prostitution scandal involving his agents never compromised security. Mark Sullivan also apologized for behavior he said was reckless. It was Sullivan's first public testimony since news broke last month of Secret Service employees picking up prostitutes before a presidential visit to Colombia. He insisted this was an isolated incident.

But NPR's Tamara Keith reports, some on the committee weren't buying it.

Read more
Law
4:54 pm
Wed May 23, 2012

U.S. Attorney Who Tried Blagojevich Stepping Down

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 7:22 pm

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

One of the most successful federal prosecutors in the country is stepping down. Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, says he will leave office at the end of June. Over the last several years, Fitzgerald won the convictions of two Illinois governors on corruption charges and of former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, in the CIA leak case.

From Chicago, NPR's David Schaper reports on the legacy of Chicago's longest-serving U.S. attorney.

Read more
Law
4:54 pm
Wed May 23, 2012

Defendant: Florida A&M Student Wanted To Be Hazed

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 7:22 pm

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Hundreds of pages of evidence were released today in the hazing death of a Florida A&M band major. Last November, Robert Champion was beaten to death on a bus after a football game. Thirteen people have been charged in the case.

NPR's Kathy Lohr reports the documents released today provide an unsettling look at the hazing ritual that took place that night.

Read more
Shots - Health Blog
3:33 pm
Wed May 23, 2012

Will Men And Their Doctors Change Course On PSA Tests?

Credit Chris Hamilton / American Cancer Society
Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, predicts that doctors and patients will continue to be "unscientific" when deciding on testing for prostate cancer.

Originally published on Thu May 24, 2012 3:52 pm

The dust is nowhere near settled over advice that men of all ages should forgo a routine blood test to detect prostate cancer.

The harms, such as false alarms and unnecessary surgeries that leave some men impotent and incontinent, outweigh the benefits of the PSA test, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

So the influential group this week made an official recommendation against a regular PSA.

Read more

Pages