The Two-Way
7:45 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Sandy Wallops Lower Manhattan, Leaving It Dark And Flooded

Credit Alana Newhouse and David Samuels / via Twitter
Lower Mahanttan in the dark.

Originally published on Mon October 29, 2012 8:00 pm

New York City has been experiencing the brunt of Sandy. The New York Times reports that one death has been reported when a tree fell on a man's house in Queens. NPR's Margot Adler reports that the New York State Homeland Security and Emergency Services estimates four others are dead. The situation in Lower Manhattan sounds dire: Flooding is now widespread and a good part of the city is in the dark.

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It's All Politics
7:36 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

NPR Poll Finds Presidential Race Too Close To Call

Credit Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
A new NPR poll shows the outcome of the Nov. 6 election is too close to call. Mitt Romney leads President Obama nationwide; Obama leads Romney in key battleground states. Both leads are within the poll'€™s margin of error.

Originally published on Tue October 30, 2012 10:20 am

The latest and last NPR Battleground Poll for 2012 shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holding the narrowest of leads in the national sample, but trailing President Obama in the dozen states that will decide the election.

The poll adds evidence that the Oct. 3 debate between the two men redefined the race. But the movement toward Romney that emerged after that night in Denver also seems to have stalled after the race drew even — leaving the outcome difficult to call.

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Robert Siegel is senior host of NPR's award-winning evening newsmagazine All Things Considered. With 40 years of experience working in radio news, Siegel is still at it hosting the country's most-listened-to, afternoon-drive-time news radio program and reporting on stories and happenings all over the globe. As a host, Siegel has reported from a variety of locations across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia.

In 2010, Siegel was recognized by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism with the John Chancellor Award. Siegel has been honored with three Silver Batons from Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University, first in 1984 for All Things Considered's coverage of peace movements in East and West Germany. He shared in NPR's 1996 Silver Baton Award for "The Changing of the Guard: The Republican Revolution," for coverage of the first 100 days of the 104th Congress. He was part of the NPR team that won a Silver Baton for the network's coverage of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province, China.

Other awards Siegel has earned include a 1997 American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award for the two-part documentary, "Murder, Punishment, and Parole in Alabama" and the National Mental Health Association's 1991 Mental Health Award for his interviews conducted on the streets of New York in an All Things Considered story, "The Mentally Ill Homeless."

Siegel joined NPR in December 1976 as a newscaster and became an editor the following year. In 1979, Siegel became NPR's first staffer based overseas when he was chosen to open NPR's London bureau, where he worked as senior editor until 1983. After London, Siegel served for four years as director of the News and Information Department, overseeing production of NPR's newsmagazines All Things Considered and Morning Edition, as well as special events and other news programming. During his tenure, NPR launched its popular Saturday and Sunday newsmagazine Weekend Edition.

Before coming to NPR, Siegel worked for WRVR Radio in New York City as a reporter, host and news director. He was part of the WRVR team honored with an Armstrong Award for the series, "Rockefeller's Drug Law." Prior to WRVR, he was morning news reporter and telephone talk show host for WGLI Radio in Babylon, New York.

A graduate of New York's Stuyvesant High School and Columbia University, Siegel began his career in radio at Columbia's radio station, WKCR-FM. As a student he anchored coverage of the 1968 Columbia demonstrations and contributed to the work that earned the station an award from the Writers Guild of America East.

Siegel is the editor of The NPR Interviews 1994, The NPR Interviews 1995 and The NPR Interviews 1996, compilations of NPR's most popular radio conversations from each year.

Around the Nation
6:39 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Parts Of Manhattan Go Dark As Sandy Rolls Through

New York City has seen some of the worst damage from Sandy. Large parts of Manhattan were without power on Monday night, a building crane was knocked loose, and there were reports of flooding in the city's subway system.

Around the Nation
5:35 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Sandy Makes Landfall Near Atlantic City

Robert Siegel talks with Associated Press correspondent Katie Zezima, who was in Atlantic City, N.J., close to where Sandy made landfall.

The Two-Way
5:11 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Sandy Makes Landfall In New Jersey With Punishing Winds, Driving Rain

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images
A flooded street is seen at nightfall during rains from Hurricane Sandy in Atlantic City, N.J. on Monday. Sandy made landfall over Southern New Jersey today.

Originally published on Tue October 30, 2012 3:00 am

Sandy made landfall along the New Jersey coast, earlier this evening. The storm has already wreaked havoc across the Mid-Atlantic and northeast and its expected to affect millions more Americans as it moves northwest, dumping rain and kicking up winds of up to 80 mph.

We'll update this post with the latest news about the storm, which forecasters warn is historic in size and intensity.

Update at 5 a.m. ET Tuesday. Dozens Of Homes Destroyed In Fire

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Around the Nation
4:55 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Millions Without Power As Sandy Makes Landfall

Sandy hit the East Coast on Monday and knocked out power for millions of people. Utility companies face major challenges to get power back online after the massive storm.

The Two-Way
3:36 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Hurricane Sandy: The Scene From Kitty Hawk, N.C.

Credit Doug Smith
The water in Kitty Hawk, N.C. rose quickly.

Originally published on Mon October 29, 2012 4:27 pm

Doug Smith and his girlfriend Trenor Bender thought the worst of Hurricane Sandy had passed them by when they looked out the windows in the wee hours today. At their rental home, three rows back from the beach in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, there was no water in the yard at all at 3:30 this morning. But that didn't last.

"When I woke up, I couldn't believe it," says Smith of the view just a few hours later, "I saw this sheet of water on the ground."

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All Tech Considered
3:14 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Why Is This Supercomputer So Superfast?

Originally published on Wed October 31, 2012 1:46 pm

The world's fastest supercomputers have come back to the U.S. In June, the title was claimed by a machine named Sequoia at Lawrence Livermore Labs. Monday, at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, what could be an even faster computer comes online. It's called Titan and it would not have been possible were it not for the massive market for video games.

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The Two-Way
2:48 pm
Mon October 29, 2012

Penguin, Random House Announce Merger

Credit Timur Emek / dapd
Bertelsmann and Pearson announced Monday that they were merging their book publishing arms, Random House and Penguin. The new firm will be called Penguin Random House.

Originally published on Tue October 30, 2012 8:32 am

There's big news in the world of publishing: The two conglomerates that own Random House and Penguin announced Monday that they were merging their book businesses to form a new company.

German media company Bertelsmann, the owner of Random House, will own 53 percent of the new firm, Penguin Random House; Pearson, which owns Penguin, will control the rest. The merger, subject to regulatory approval, is scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2013.

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