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6:56pm

Wed March 21, 2012
Law

Supreme Court: Property Owners Can Challenge EPA

Credit Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP
Mike and Chantell Sackett of Priest Lake, Idaho, pose for a photo in front of the Supreme Court in Washington on Oct. 14, 2011. The court ruled unanimously Wednesday that property owners have a right to prompt review by a judge of an important tool used by the Environmental Protection Agency to address water pollution.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled unanimously in favor of an Idaho couple who were prevented from building their dream home after the Environmental Protection Agency barred them from building on their land. The agency claimed the property was protected wetlands under the federal Clean Water Act.

The ruling gives property owners the right to challenge an EPA compliance order from the time it is issued, rather than waiting for the agency to begin enforcement actions.

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6:50pm

Wed March 21, 2012
All Tech Considered

A Job At What Cost? When Employers Log In To Dig In

Credit Leon Neal / AFP/Getty Images
Employers have been asking for prospective employees' Facebook username and passwords to do some extra research on whom they may be hiring.

How would it feel if you were in a job interview and the prospective employer asked for your username and password to see your Facebook profile? Robert Collins says he felt "violated."

"I felt disrespected. I felt that my privacy was invaded," he tells All Things Considered host Robert Siegel, "but not only my privacy, the privacy of my friends and that of my family that didn't ask for that."

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6:37pm

Wed March 21, 2012
The Two-Way

Pew: More Americans See 'Too Much' Religious Talk In Politics

Originally published on Thu March 22, 2012 1:59 pm

According to a new survey, 38 percent of Americans say there is too much "expression of religious faith and prayer from political leaders."

Thirty percent say there is too little and 25 percent say there's just the right amount.

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6:01pm

Wed March 21, 2012
Election 2012

Lots Of GOP Money Flowing From The Texas Two

Originally published on Thu March 22, 2012 10:50 am

The latest reports from the Federal Election Commission shed new light on the political largesse of two Texas businessmen who have become common names in the world of Republican fundraising.

With a $1 million check in February to the superPAC backing Rick Santorum, Dallas nuclear waste dump owner Harold Simmons and his wife, Annette, have now contributed to groups supporting all three of the top GOP candidates.

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5:53pm

Wed March 21, 2012
It's All Politics

Republicans Charge High Gas Prices Part Of A Plan To Decrease Consumption

Credit Paul Sakuma / AP
A driver pumps gas into his Toyota Prius hybrid at a gas station in Sunnyvale, Calif., in 2007.

As gasoline prices rise, some Republicans are making a provocative claim about President Obama. They say higher energy prices are actually part of the administration's agenda and they point to some comments made by the president before he took office.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney was the latest Republican to make the charge about President Obama, and he did so on Fox News Sunday this past weekend, saying, "There's no question that when he ran for office he said he wanted to see gasoline prices go up."

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5:34pm

Wed March 21, 2012
The Two-Way

'Million Hoodie March' Planned In New York To Protest Killing Of Trayvon Martin

Originally published on Thu March 22, 2012 7:43 am

Credit RM Lopez / via Facebook
One of the many pictures posted to the Million Hoodie March Facebook page.

At 6 p.m. ET., a "Million Hoodie March" is set to begin winding through the streets of New York City, from Union Square to the United Nations.

One of the organizers, Daniel Maree, told News One that the march was intended to protest "the absurdity of Trayvon [Martin's] murder."

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5:09pm

Wed March 21, 2012
Space

Messenger Probe Sends Back New Data From Mercury

Originally published on Wed December 12, 2012 6:40 pm

Credit NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
The Messenger spacecraft is depicted over the Calvino Crater on Mercury in this enhanced-color image of the planet's surface.

There's a small spacecraft called Messenger that's been orbiting the planet Mercury for a year. Today, at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, astronomers revealed what they've learned about the innermost planet in our solar system, and some of the new knowledge is puzzling.

Maria Zuber, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studied a large crater 900 miles across called Caloris.

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5:02pm

Wed March 21, 2012
Law

High Court Throws Out Conviction In 'Bad Lawyer' Case

Credit Evan Vucci / AP
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, shown on Capitol Hill in April 2011, wrote the court's ruling Wednesday that for the most part, plea bargaining determines "who goes to jail and for how long. It is not some adjunct to the criminal justice system. It is the criminal justice system."

For the first time, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that defendants have a constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel in plea bargains. In a 5-4 decision Wednesday, the court went further, declaring that when a lawyer acts unethically or gives clearly wrong advice, the defendant may be entitled to a second chance at accepting a plea offer.

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5:00pm

Wed March 21, 2012
Middle East

As Illegal Immigrants Increase, Israel Plans To Act

Originally published on Sun March 25, 2012 9:08 am

The place is Tel Aviv, but it doesn't look at all like Israel: Dozens of African men are sitting on broken stools and plastic at a makeshift restaurant.

Sudanese fare is on the menu. The men scoop up the stews and salads that remind them of home.

Abdullah Mohammad Mustafa started this restaurant with a couple of other African men who arrived in Israel five years ago from Sudan's troubled Darfur region. They are among some 40,000 Africans who have come to Israel illegally, and many have congregated in neighborhoods in Tel Aviv.

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4:30pm

Wed March 21, 2012
The Salt

Into The Wild Science Of Sourdough Bread-making

Originally published on Wed March 21, 2012 4:50 pm

Credit Chris Eichler for NPR
Margaret Palca in her bakery in Brooklyn, N.Y.

My sister is no science writer, and I'm no baker, but recently our worlds melded in a surprising way.

Here's what happened: Last October, I attended a workshop on artisanal bread and cheese-making at Salt Water Farms in Lincolnville, Maine. Farm manager Ladleah Dunn introduced us to the concept of making sourdough bread with levain, or starter, instead of packaged yeast.

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4:29pm

Wed March 21, 2012

4:07pm

Wed March 21, 2012
The Two-Way

Dutch Catholic Church Is Accused Of Castrating Boys

Dutch lawmakers are calling for a parliamentary hearing, today, after new allegations of abuse by the Catholic Church surfaced over the weekend. This time, an investigation by the newspaper NRC Handelsblad found that Catholic-run institutions had surgically castrated young boys.

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4:00pm

Wed March 21, 2012
The Record

Reggae In The U.K.: A Steady Force

Credit Echoes/Redfern / Getty Images
Music For 'Disenfranchised Working-Class Youth': The British reggae band Steel Pulse formed in Birmingham in 1975. Mykaell Riley is third from the left.

3:35pm

Wed March 21, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Aspirin Might Reduce Cancer Risk, But It Has Risks, Too

Originally published on Wed March 21, 2012 5:57 pm

Credit iStockphoto.com
Aspirin helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, but the jury's still out on cancer.

Regular aspirin use might reduce the risk of cancer by as much as 38 percent, according to a big new review of research on the issue. But "might" is the key word here, other scientists say. And even if it works, that benefit comes with costs, including an increased risk of ulcers and internal bleeding.

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3:05pm

Wed March 21, 2012
The Two-Way

Wisconsin City Wonders: What Keeps Going Boom?

It's "the big story" in east central Wisconsin, as Green Bay's NBC26-TV reports:

Something keeps going boom in the city of Clintonville, and no one there has figured out for sure why it's happening.

For three days now, folks in Clintonville (population 4,600) have been rattled and rolled by noises that residents say sound like explosions and feel like little earthquakes.

City officials have mobilized work crews to get out to see if the noises are coming from gas lines or other pipes. No evidence was found.

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3:00pm

Wed March 21, 2012
NPR Story

Obama Touts Energy Policy In Western Swing States

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Robert Siegel.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

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2:54pm

Wed March 21, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

How Obama Lost The Messaging War Over Health Care Law

Originally published on Wed March 21, 2012 8:44 pm

Credit Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images
Protesters show their opposition to President Obama's health care overhaul on March 16, 2010, days before it became law.

The sweeping health overhaul law turns 2 years old this Friday. And as it heads toward a constitutional showdown at the Supreme Court next week, the debate over the measure remains almost as heated as the day President Obama signed it into law.

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2:38pm

Wed March 21, 2012
The Two-Way

Sifting Through What We Know About The French Shootings Suspect

Credit Bob Edme / AP
Police officers stand near the apartment building where a suspect in the shooting at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school is barricaded in Toulouse, southern France on Wednesday.

The standoff between a murder suspect and French police in Toulouse, France, has stirred up a swirl of speculation about the man's background and motives, but so far there are relatively few confirmed facts.

French officials say the suspect is a 23- or 24-year-old Frenchman of Algerian decent by the name of Mohammed Merah, who had a long record as a juvenile delinquent.

He's suspected in the killings this month of three French paratroopers of North African descent, as well as a rabbi and three Jewish schoolchildren.

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1:45pm

Wed March 21, 2012
The Two-Way

Gingrich: Some 'Brand New Players' Might Emerge At GOP Convention

Originally published on Fri March 23, 2012 7:03 am

Credit Win McNamee / Getty Images
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Saying that Mitt Romney may not be able to "grind his way toward the nomination" despite a huge fundraising advantage, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told NPR today that he sees no reason to exit the Republican presidential race and that there's a chance of a new contender emerging at the party's convention in August.

"I'm not so sure you wouldn't get a series of brand new players" stepping forward during a brokered convention, he told Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep.

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1:20pm

Wed March 21, 2012
World Cafe

Zola Jesus On World Cafe

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Zola Jesus.

Nika Roza Danilova, known on stage as Zola Jesus, has crafted an experimental, genre-straddling sound which incorporates Gothic rock, lo-fi acoustic music, orchestral instrumentals, ambient electronic sounds and strong, diva-esque vocals. She's released three full-length studio albums in the span of three years, and each has sounded more purposeful and powerful than the last.

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