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4:54am

Mon July 2, 2012
Around the Nation

Fly Fishermen Benefit From Low Stream Levels

Originally published on Mon July 2, 2012 7:23 am

One of Colorado's recreational industries is experiencing an early season boon because of this year's low snowpack and ever-worsening drought. Fly fishing enthusiasts are loving the low stream levels, and fly shops are filled with customers. From Aspen Public Radio, Luke Runyon reports.

4:51am

Mon July 2, 2012
Business

The Last Word In Business

Originally published on Mon July 2, 2012 7:07 am

More than 70 years ago, Samsung started as a company which sold dried fish and fruit. Now Samsung sells everything from life insurance, to hotels and chemicals. It's one of South Korea's biggest companies. And, it's still run by the same family: the Lees.

4:51am

Mon July 2, 2012
Analysis

Politics In The News

Originally published on Mon July 2, 2012 7:23 am

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

And I'm Linda Wertheimer.

Members of Congress have left town for the Fourth of July recess, but Washington is still reacting to the Supreme Court decision upholding President Obama's health care law. Each party is looking for ways to use the decision to its advantage in the fall campaign. Going into the weekend, a Gallup poll showed voters evenly split; 46 percent said they approved of the ruling, 46 percent disapprove.

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4:51am

Mon July 2, 2012
Latin America

Mexico's Former Ruling Party Returns To Power

Originally published on Mon July 2, 2012 7:23 am

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

In Mexico, the party that ruled for more than 70 years is claiming victory in the presidential election. According to preliminary results, the PRI, or PRI candidate, Enrique Pena Nieto, won the most votes, but the apparent runner-up is refusing to concede. NPR's Carrie Kahn has more on this from Mexico City.

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3:35am

Mon July 2, 2012
Science

Is The Hunt For The 'God Particle' Finally Over?

Originally published on Mon July 2, 2012 9:17 am

Credit CERN
This image, from a sensor at the particle accelerator at CERN, is an example of the data signature a Higgs particle might generate.

Before we get to the fireworks on the Fourth of July, we might see some pyrotechnics from a giant physics experiment near Geneva, Switzerland.

Scientists there are planning to gather that morning to hear the latest about the decades-long search for a subatomic particle that could help explain why objects in our universe actually weigh anything.

The buzz is that they're closing in on the elusive Higgs particle. That would be a major milestone in the quest to understand the most basic nature of the universe.

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3:33am

Mon July 2, 2012
Crime In The City

Philly Author's 'Confession': I Lived These Stories

Originally published on Thu July 5, 2012 4:49 pm

Philadelphia may be called the City of Brotherly Love, but author Solomon Jones sees the sadder, more complex side of the city.

Jones' books feature Philly police detective Mike Coletti. When we meet him in The Last Confession, he's on the verge of retirement, but before he can head off into the sunset, he's got to confront some demons from his past and catch a serial killer calling himself the Angel of Death.

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3:31am

Mon July 2, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Organ Donation Has Consequences Some Donors Aren't Prepared For

Originally published on Mon July 2, 2012 11:44 am

Nearly a year and a half ago, Jeff Moyer donated a kidney. It's something he says changed his life forever. "Transplant surgery is a miracle," marvels Moyer. "I mean, to think that my kidney saved someone else's life — that's staggeringly wonderful."

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3:29am

Mon July 2, 2012
The Salt

Pie-Making 101: How I Overcame My Fear Of Crumbling Crust

Originally published on Mon July 2, 2012 11:27 am

If you listen to my story on Morning Edition, you'll understand the generational divide that has led to my fear of making a pie crust.

So when I decided to overcome my fear, I did it the right way. I hopped on a train to the Culinary Institute of America, the nation's premier cooking school, in Hyde Park, N.Y. There I learned the foolproof pie crust formula that chef George Higgins teaches his students. "It starts with 3, 2, 1," he explains.

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5:04pm

Sun July 1, 2012
Why Music Matters

Breaking Records To A Velvet Underground Beat

Originally published on Sun July 1, 2012 5:05 pm

Weekends on All Things Considered continues its "Why Music Matters" series with Olympic luger Christian Niccum. Niccum says music was the key to one of his first accomplishments in the sport.

"I was 15 years old, in Berchtesgaden in Germany," he says. "It's the oldest artificial luge track in the world, and it's also the most difficult."

Daunted by the course's many sharp turns, Niccum turned to something borrowed for inspiration.

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5:03pm

Sun July 1, 2012
Business

Funeral Industry Laws Face A Changing Marketplace

Originally published on Sun July 1, 2012 5:53 pm

Monks set up St. Joseph Abbey in Louisiana more than 100 years ago. They've been there so long, they have 1,100 acres and their own town, St. Benedict.

For all those years, when one of the brothers died, the monks would painstakingly craft a flawless pine casket in their woodwork shop.

Over the years, many clergy members and high-ranking church officials would request the the beautiful caskets. Soon, members of the public wanted see if they might be able to buy one.

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4:30pm

Sun July 1, 2012
Music Interviews

Bobby Womack: 'God Must Still Have A Purpose For Me'

Originally published on Sun July 1, 2012 5:05 pm

Credit Jamie-James Medina / Courtesy of the artist
Bobby Womack's latest album, The Bravest Man in the Universe, came out June 12.

"We had two shows that night," says Bobby Womack, recounting a recent concert in Houston. "It was a small theater, about 5- or 6,000 people. The second show, I was just out of it; they had to take me to the hospital."

It was a serious scare for the 68-year-old singer-songwriter — who has also lived through drug addiction and the deaths of two sons — and it didn't end that night.

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4:03pm

Sun July 1, 2012
Author Interviews

The Complex 'Tapestry' of Michelle Obama's Ancestry

Originally published on Mon July 2, 2012 10:17 am

When Michelle Obama's great-great-great grandmother was 8 years old, her life underwent a dramatic change.

Melvinia Shields was a slave who grew up at a South Carolina estate with a relatively large community of slaves she knew well. But then she was moved to a small farm in northern Georgia where she was one of only three slaves; most white people in the area didn't own any.

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3:23pm

Sun July 1, 2012
The Two-Way

From Our Readers: Alien Vs. Internet Memes

On a week monopolized by important political news, many of you still took time out to comment on our National Geographic inspired poll, which asked "Which president, would-be president or movie president would do the best job if extraterrestrials come to visit?"

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2:08pm

Sun July 1, 2012
Pop Culture

It's Not Tatooine, But Luke Can Call It Home Again

Originally published on Mon July 2, 2012 11:28 am

Mark Dermul is a serious Star Wars fan. He was just 7 years old in 1977 when the original movie hit the theaters. As soon as the huge Star Destroyer flew across the opening scene, he was hooked.

"It hasn't left me," he says. At 42, Dermul now guides tours throughout North Africa, visiting sites that were featured in the blockbuster films.

On one 2010 trip back to planet Tatooine — OK, Tunisia — he and his tour group noticed that Luke Skywalker's boyhood home was decaying. They jumped into hyperspace — OK, the Internet — to save it.

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12:47pm

Sun July 1, 2012
Movies I've Seen A Million Times

The Movie Elizabeth Banks Has 'Seen A Million Times'

Originally published on Sun July 1, 2012 5:05 pm

7:55am

Sun July 1, 2012
Latin America

Mexicans Vote With Drug War As Backdrop

Mexico is electing a new president Sunday, and voters appear ready to reject the ruling party led by outgoing President Felipe Calderon because many Mexicans believe his anti-drug campaign has done more harm than good. Guest host David Greene speaks with NPR's Carrie Kahn about the politics.

7:55am

Sun July 1, 2012
Latin America

Election Gives Little Hope To Embattled Juarez

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

As Carrie said, the war on drugs is not the primary campaign issue in Mexico. But it has been at the heart of outgoing President Felipe Calderon's agenda. The bloodiest battlefield in that war has been Ciudad Juarez, which is right across the border from El Paso, Texas. And the presidential election has not put residents there in a hopeful mood.

As Monica Ortiz Uribe, of member station KJZZ reports, many in Juarez have little faith that a new president can bring peace.

(SOUNDBITE OF VEHICLES)

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7:55am

Sun July 1, 2012
Around the Nation

Colorado Fire Victims Switch To Recovery Mode

Everyone who lost a home to the Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado seems to have a story about stuff: the stuff they grabbed as they fled, the treasures they forgot to pack. Colorado Public Radio's Megan Verlee reports on what it means to start over.

7:55am

Sun July 1, 2012
Around the Nation

Fast Food Hoax In Alaska Leads To A Feast

Recently, people in the small western town of Bethel, Alaska, got very excited when they saw flyers announcing the opening of a Taco Bell. But then, residents got the sad news: the flyers were a hoax. But the people of Bethel will not go taco-less.

7:55am

Sun July 1, 2012
Politics

Obamacare, Romneycare And The Politics In Between

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene. Since the Supreme Court's ruling that upheld President Obama's signature health care law, it has been hard to separate substance from rhetoric. This has been one important theme coming from the White House.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I know there will be a lot of discussion today about the politics about all of this, about who won and who lost. That's how these things tend to be viewed here in Washington. But that discussion completely misses the point.

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