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Asia
12:25 am
Fri December 14, 2012

What North Korea's Rocket Launch Tells Us About Iran's Role

Credit AP
This monitor screen image shows a graphic of the orbit of the satellite carried by the Unha-3 rocket, which North Korea launched this week. The image is from the Korean Central News Agency, distributed in Tokyo by the Korea News Service.

Originally published on Fri December 14, 2012 6:03 am

U.S. officials say the satellite put into orbit by North Korea's rocket launch this week is wobbling, but that doesn't necessarily mean the launch itself was unsuccessful.

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Shots - Health News
12:24 am
Fri December 14, 2012

Making The Rich Pay More For Medicare

Credit Joshua Roberts / Reuters /Landov
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., speaks Tuesday at a news conference calling for no reduction in the Medicare and Medicaid budgets, as part of the year-end budget talks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Waxman said he does not support means testing for Medicare.

Originally published on Fri December 14, 2012 2:33 am

When it comes to reducing Medicare spending, asking wealthier seniors to pay more is one of the few areas where Democrats have shown a willingness to even consider the subject.

"I do believe there should be means testing. And those of us with higher income in retirement should pay more," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on last Sunday's Meet the Press. "That could be part of the solution."

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Planet Money
12:24 am
Fri December 14, 2012

How A Middle-School Principal Convinced Students To Come To School

Credit David Kestenbaum / NPR

Originally published on Fri December 14, 2012 11:43 am

Shawn Rux took over as principal of MS 53, a New York City middle school, last year. At the time, 50 or 60 kids were absent every day. You could understand why they stayed away: The school was chaos.

Twenty-two teachers had quit, the entire office staff had quit, and hundreds of kids had been suspended. The school was given a grade of F from the city's department of education.

"It was in a bad place," Rux says.

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Research News
12:19 am
Fri December 14, 2012

Counting Bugs In Panama? Get Out Your Tree Raft

Originally published on Mon January 7, 2013 12:22 pm

There are more species of insects than pretty much anything else in the world. And scientists know there are millions they haven't even identified yet. Now, in a tropical rainforest in Panama, a multinational team of scientists has just completed the first ever insect census.

Scott Miller, an entomologist at the Smithsonian who worked on the Panama, shows off one of the species from the survey that's at the National Museum of Natural History's insect zoo in Washington, D.C.

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World
12:18 am
Fri December 14, 2012

Families Of Spain's 'Stolen Babies' Seek Answers — And Reunions

Credit Sylvia Poggioli / NPR
Antonio Iniesta demonstrates in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square last month. He's searching for a younger brother he believes is one of Spain's bebes robados, or stolen babies.

Originally published on Fri December 14, 2012 7:20 am

Allegations of the existence of a secret network of doctors and nuns who stole newborn babies and sold them for adoption are reviving a dark chapter in Spain's recent history.

More than 1,000 people have gone to court hoping to track down sons and daughters or brothers and sisters they were told died in childbirth.

In Madrid's Puerta del Sol square last month, Antonio Iniesta stood next to a poster with the words bebes robados (stolen babies). His demonstration is intended to publicize his search for a brother he's convinced is alive.

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Business
12:17 am
Fri December 14, 2012

Farewell, Bosses: A Wave Of Young Entrepreneurs

Credit Mustafa Pie Co.
To save money, 30-year-old Alisha Mustafa runs her small pie-making business out of the kitchen of another restaurant.

Originally published on Fri December 14, 2012 2:33 am

Thirty-year-old Alisha Mustafa spent years working at low-paying restaurant jobs. The unemployment rate hovers around 10 percent in her hometown of Bloomington, Ind.

"I've worked it all in this town," she says. "I've worked for so many restaurants, and last year was my year from hell in the industry."

So, she quit and started her own business. Now, she spends most days baking treats like gluten-free strawberry mango pie for her business, Mustafa Pie Co.

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Education
12:15 am
Fri December 14, 2012

In California, Parents Trigger Change At Failing School

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 12:18 pm

Parents in one small California community have used a "parent-trigger" law for the first time to shut down and take over an elementary school. It's a revolt led by parents who say the school has failed their children, but others say it's not the school's fault.

The school is in tiny Adelanto, Calif., home to several prisons connected by desolate stretches of highway on the fringes of the Mojave Desert.

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StoryCorps
7:03 pm
Thu December 13, 2012

For Man With Amnesia, Love Repeats Itself

Originally published on Mon December 17, 2012 6:25 am

Forty-six-year-old Jeff Ingram has a rare type of amnesia called dissociative fugue. When he has an attack, his memory is wiped clean and he doesn't remember who he is or where he's from.

To chronicle their memories in case he forgets again, Jeff and his wife, Penny, came to StoryCorps in Olympia, Wash.

"You and I were talking on the phone," Penny recalls. "You said, 'Well, I have a medical condition that I probably should share with you.' "

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Superstorm Sandy: Before, During And Beyond
3:20 pm
Thu December 13, 2012

Lady Liberty's Sea-Washed Gates Closed Indefinitely

Originally published on Thu December 13, 2012 5:01 pm

The Statue of Liberty still lifts her lamp beside the golden door, but the island that's home to the iconic statue was severely tempest-tost by Superstorm Sandy. Flood damage inflicted by the storm has closed Liberty Island and nearby Ellis Island indefinitely.

On Thursday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made his first visit to the Statue of Liberty since the storm. David Luchsinger, superintendent of the Statue of Liberty National Monument, led the secretary on a walking tour.

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The Picture Show
2:29 pm
Thu December 13, 2012

One Photo, 126 Frames, 2 Billion Leaves, 247 Feet

Originally published on Thu December 13, 2012 10:01 am

Those numbers represent this giant sequoia. Oh, also: The tree is more than three millennia old, and contains about "54,000 cubic feet of wood and bark," according to National Geographic magazine.

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