It's All Politics
4:48 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

Taxes, Jobs And Jabs: Obama And Romney Slug It Out In Swing States

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 4:57 pm

President Obama campaigned in Iowa on Tuesday, promoting his plan to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for those who make under $250,000 a year — but not for more wealthy Americans.

Republican Mitt Romney was in another swing state, Colorado, hitting a new Republican charge that some of Obama's policies have helped create jobs overseas at the expense of the domestic job market.

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The Two-Way
4:21 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

Reports: Google, FTC Will Settle Over Safari Privacy Breach

According to several news report, Google and the Federal Trade Commission are close to reaching an agreement over charges of a privacy breach.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the tentative deal would have Google pay $22.5 million over charges that it bypassed the privacy settings of users of Apple's Safari web browser.

The Journal reports:

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Europe
4:20 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

'Vultures' Swoop In For Deals In Debt-Ridden Spain

Credit Andrea Comas / Reuters/Landov
A "For Sale" sign hangs outside mostly empty apartment blocks in the Madrid satellite town of Sesena in February. Banks are trying to sell billions of euros worth of property left by bankrupt developers. This is attracting bargain-hunting investors from abroad.

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 7:34 pm

Back in the day, Madrid's Palace Hotel was Ernest Hemingway's old haunt, or at least the bar was. Now, rooms at the posh hotel just down from the famed Prado Museum go for up to $6,000 a night. And gathering in its lobby these days? An altogether different type of foreigner: the kind in expensive suits.

"Probably they are institutional investors, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds," says Federico Steinberg, an economist at Madrid's Elcano Institute.

There's a lot of cash around the world, he says, and a lot of people looking for bargains.

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Middle East
3:57 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

Syrian Rebels Carve Buffer Zone Near Turkish Border

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 7:34 pm

At this isolated part of the Turkish border, there's just one Turkish guard, a fence and, beyond an olive grove, Syria.

The Syrian side is just a short walk, perhaps 10 minutes. The area looks completely calm and there is no sign of the Syrian military.

Abu Amar, a rebel who has fought in Syria for five weeks, walked across this field from the Syrian village of Atma, which is now serving as a rebel headquarters. He says much of the northwestern province of Idlib is now controlled by the rebels, and it has become easy to move back and forth between Syria and Turkey here.

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Pam Fessler is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk, where she covers poverty and philanthropy.

In her reporting, Fessler covers homelessness, hunger, and the impact of the recession on the nation's less fortunate. She reports on non-profit groups, how they're trying to address poverty and other social issues, and how they've been affected by the economic downturn. Her poverty reporting was recognized by a 2011 First Place Headliner Award in the human interest category.

Previously, Fessler reported primarily on homeland security, including security at U.S. ports, airlines, and borders. She has also reported on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, the 9/11 Commission investigation, and such issues as Social Security and election reform. Fessler was also one of NPR's White House reporters during the Clinton and Bush administrations.

Before becoming a correspondent, Fessler was the acting senior editor on the Washington Desk and oversaw the network's coverage of the impeachment of President Clinton and the 1998 mid-term elections. She was NPR's chief election editor in 1996, and coordinated all network coverage of the presidential, congressional, and state elections. Prior to that role, Fessler was the deputy Washington editor and Midwest National Desk editor.

Before coming to NPR in 1993, she was a senior writer at Congressional Quarterly magazine. Fessler worked at CQ for 13 years as both a reporter and editor, covering tax, budget, and other news. She also worked as a budget specialist at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and was a reporter at The Record newspaper in Hackensack, NJ.

Fessler has a Masters of Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree from Douglass College in New Jersey.

Poverty In America
3:52 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

Poverty In The U.S. By The Numbers

Originally published on Mon September 10, 2012 2:54 pm


Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

The Salt
3:51 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

Cranberry Juice For Urinary Tract Infections? It Really Can Help

Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR
Cranberry Antioxidant Punch

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 3:58 pm

Native Americans and Pilgrims were onto something when they turned to cranberries as an infection fighter. American settlers believed the bitter food could stave off scurvy. But there's more than just Vitamin C in this indigenous berry.

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Law
3:43 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

Justice Delayed: After Three Decades, An Apology

Credit Carrie Johnson / NPR
Kirk Odom and his wife, Harriet, outside the H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse in Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, the Justice Department said there was "clear and convincing evidence" that Odom is innocent of a 1981 rape and robbery, for which he spent more than two decades behind bars.

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 7:34 pm

Nearly 31 years after he was convicted of rape and armed robbery, Kirk Odom on Tuesday all but won his fight to be declared an innocent man.

The Justice Department filed court papers saying, "There is clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Odom is innocent of the charges for which he was convicted," and apologized for the "terrible injustice."

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Poverty In America
3:42 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

Cycle Of Poverty Hard To Break In Poorest U.S. City

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 11:31 pm

In the middle of the night, most children are home in bed. But at the Second Street Learning Center in Reading, Pa., a half-dozen tiny bodies are curled up on green plastic floor mats, fast asleep.

Conversations are hushed. The lights are dim. At 1:30 a.m., day care worker Virginia Allen gently shakes two little sisters, snuggled under the same blanket, to tell them that their mother is there to pick them up.

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The Two-Way
3:38 pm
Tue July 10, 2012

The Heat, The Fires, The Flooding: Is Climate Change To Blame?

Credit Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images
People enjoy the view from a lifeguard structure as the sun sets at Seal Beach, south of Los Angeles, California on Monday. Much of the U.S. has been gripped by a relentless heatwave, sparking health warnings and sending people to makeshift cooling shelters.

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 5:12 pm

Every time there's been a bout of severe weather, like the heat wave in the northeast, the wild fires in the west and flooding across the U.K, the talk, naturally, turns to climate change.

The big question: How much does global warming have to do with severe weather?

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