President Obama, with Vice President Biden at his side on Wednesday, at a news conference about gun violence that became dominated by questions of the fiscal cliff.
Originally published on Wed December 19, 2012 3:34 pm
Anyone hoping that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre might change dynamics in the nation's capital when it comes to the issue of guns met some level of Washington reality on Wednesday.
President Obama held a news conference to announce his response to the Connecticut killings of 26 grade-schoolers and educators, including his naming of Vice President Joe Biden to head a team that will recommend in a month actions that might help prevent future Sandy Hooks.
Originally published on Thu December 20, 2012 3:44 am
When the students of Sandy Hook Elementary return to class after the holiday break, they'll be attending a different school. They'll also have an interim principal who will be a familiar face to some: Donna Page, who retired from Sandy Hook two years ago.
As NPR's Zoe Chace reports, the news was announced by a voicemail sent to the parents of Sandy Hook's students, in which Page (pronounced Pa-jhay), told them, "It is with a heavy heart full of love that I connect with you today. You may not know me, but I know you. I was principal of Sandy Hook School for 14 years."
Originally published on Thu December 20, 2012 6:04 am
Want to eat sustainably? Then eat bugs.
That's the word from the Dutch, who are doing their best to make a scientific case for the environmental benefits of insect proteins. Reduce greenhouse gases? Check. Produce more edible protein while using less land than more traditional livestock? Check.
People gather for a prayer vigil at St. Rose Church in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14. In the aftermath of such tragedies, many people ask how a benevolent God and suffering can coexist.
When a human tragedy occurs on the scale of the Newtown shootings, clergy are invariably asked an ancient question: If God is all-knowing, all-powerful and benevolent, why does he allow such misfortunes?
There's even a word for reconciling this paradox: theodicy, or attempting to justify God's goodness despite the existence of evil and suffering.
A child peers through firefighters standing as the procession heads to the cemetery outside the funeral for school shooting victim Daniel Barden at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Newtown, Conn.,
Credit John Moore / Getty Images
A mourner displays a program for the funeral of slain teacher Victoria Soto, 27, in Stratford, Conn.
Mourners attended funerals for three children and a first-grade teacher in Newtown, Conn., Wednesday, the third day of services for the victims of a mass shooting that has reignited debate over gun control in the U.S.
Victoria Leigh Soto, 27, is the first Sandy Hook Elementary School teacher to be laid to rest.
Robert Bork, nominated by President Reagan to the Supreme Court, is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary Committee at his confirmation hearing, Sept. 15, 1987.
Credit John Duricka / AP
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joe Biden, D-Del., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., on Sept. 17, 1987, during Robert Bork's confirmation hearings. Both Biden and Kennedy ultimately voted against confirming Bork to the Supreme Court.
Robert Bork, whose failed Supreme Court nomination provoked a lasting partisan divide over judicial nominations, died Wednesday at age 85.
A former federal judge and conservative legal theorist, he subsequently became a hero to modern-day conservatives. And as solicitor general in the Nixon administration, he played a small but crucial role in the Watergate crisis. In what came to be known as the Saturday Night Massacre, he fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox after the attorney general and deputy attorney general refused President Nixon's firing order and quit.
Originally published on Wed December 19, 2012 4:35 pm
Advocates of stricter gun control legislation are hoping that history will not repeat itself.
Last Friday's shootings at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., have shaken the country, but it's unclear whether the intense feelings of the moment will translate into legislative action. Many times in the past, outrage over gun violence has dissipated before Congress has chosen to act.
Credit Cartoon by Frank Mack for the U.S. Army. / Courtesy of the Images from the History of Medicine.
The U.S. Army distributed a monthly pinup calendar to GIs, which encouraged them to protect themselves from malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
Credit Cartoon by Frank Mack for the U.S. Army / Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine
One mosquito bite could ruin a GI's chance of returning to the pleasures back home. The artist Frank Mack designed these malaria pinup calendars given to troops in the Pacific during World War II.
Credit U.S. Government Printing Office / Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine
More than half of the soldiers in the Pacific caught malaria. This poster from 1944 helped remind troops to avoid mosquitoes that transmit the parasite.
Credit Office for Emergency Management / Archives.gov
Back on the homefront, public health workers were busy stopping malaria around military bases. This poster, printed by the U.S. Public Health Services between 1941 and 1945, reminded folks to keep malaria-carrying mosquitoes out of the house.
Credit Office for Emergency Management / Archives.gov
Mosquitoes transmit the malaria parasite, but when people aren't treated, they help the disease to spread. This public health poster, which was also printed by the U.S. Public Health Services during World War II, was aimed at stopping malaria on the homefront.
Credit Cartoon by Frank Mack for the U.S. Army / Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine
While the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas focused on stopping malaria in the U.S. during War World II, the U.S. Army launched an aggressive campaign to combat the parasite among troops. In 1945, it distributed a monthly pinup calendar to soldiers in the Pacific, encouraging them to use bug repellent, sleep under bed nets and cover up.
Credit Government Printing Office / Image from the History of Medicine
A cartoon of "Annie Awful," a dangerous female mosquito that reminds U.S. soldiers to protect themselves from malaria.
An investigative report found that less than a third of Pakistani lawmakers filed tax returns for 2011. The report said Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, photographed in Paris in December, did not file a return, though his spokesman says he did.
Tax evasion is a chronic problem in Pakistan — only about 2 percent of the population is registered in the tax system, and the government collects just 9 percent of the country's wealth in taxes, one of the lowest rates in the world.
But now a new investigative report is making headlines. It says that just a third of the country's 446 federal lawmakers bothered to file income tax returns last year.
There are 760 million Christian children in the world, according to the Pew Research Center. Suppose Santa delivers one gift to each child. What kind of delivery workforce would Santa need?
We couldn't get an interview with Santa. But we did get Paul Tronsor from FedEx and Mike Mangeot from UPS. They helped us go through the numbers.
Here are just a few of the positions Santa would need to fill to pull off Christmas. (Note: For the complete list, see the graphic at the bottom.)
