The Two-Way
3:17 pm
Tue July 3, 2012

Fewer Fireworks This July 4th; Wildfires, Drought And Derecho To Blame

Credit Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images
Fireworks over the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on July 4, 2008. Photo taken from hear the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va.
Credit Steve Barrett

Richard Gonzales is NPR's National Desk Correspondent based in San Francisco. Along with covering the daily news of region, Gonzales' reporting has included medical marijuana, gay marriage, drive-by shootings, Jerry Brown, Willie Brown, the U.S. Ninth Circuit, the California State Supreme Court and any other legal, political, or social development occurring in Northern California relevant to the rest of the country.

Gonzales joined NPR in May 1986. He covered the U.S. State Department during the Iran-Contra Affair and the fall of apartheid in South Africa. Four years later, he assumed the post of White House Correspondent and reported on the prelude to the Gulf War and President George W. Bush's unsuccessful re-election bid. Gonzales covered the U.S. Congress for NPR from 1993-94, focusing on NAFTA and immigration and welfare reform.

In September 1995, Gonzales moved to his current position after spending a year as a John S. Knight Fellow Journalism at Stanford University.

In 2009, Gonzales won the Broadcast Journalism Award from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. He also received the PASS Award in 2004 and 2005 from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency for reports on California's juvenile and adult criminal justice systems.

Prior to NPR, Gonzales was a freelance producer at public television station KQED in San Francisco. From 1979 to 1985, he held positions as a reporter, producer, and later, public affairs director at KPFA, a radio station in Berkeley, CA.

Gonzales graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in psychology and social relations. He is a co-founder of Familias Unidas, a bi-lingual social services program in his hometown of Richmond, California.

Shots - Health Blog
3:09 pm
Tue July 3, 2012

Glaxo Settlement Pull Back Curtain On Drug Marketing

Credit Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP
This week, GlaxoSmithKline agreed to the largest single health fraud settlement in U.S. history. Details from the case paint a rich picture of alleged abuses.

Originally published on Wed July 4, 2012 4:30 am

As part of a landmark $3 billion settlement of health fraud charges by GlaxoSmithKline, the government released a slew of documents that serve as a one-stop guide to alleged sales practices that ran rampant for years.

Read more
The Two-Way
3:05 pm
Tue July 3, 2012

IMF Dims U.S. Outlook, Warns Against Dramatic Spending Cuts

Credit Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde speaks during a news conference on Tuesday in Washington.

Like the Federal Reserve before them, the International Monetary Fund lowered its growth projections for the U.S. economy. The Los Angles Times says that in its annual report, the IMF calls the U.S. recovery "tepid" and warns U.S. lawmakers that hitting the brakes too hard on spending and tax cuts could threaten the weak recovery both at home and abroad.

The Times reports:

Read more
U.S.
3:00 pm
Tue July 3, 2012

Illinois Services Threatened As Pension Hole Grows

Originally published on Thu July 5, 2012 2:16 pm

Fallout from the recession continues to hobble state finances, particularly in states crippled by pensions they can't afford to pay.

Chief among them is Illinois, which has racked up the largest unfunded liability in the nation. Politicians there pledge to fix it.

Read more
NPR Cities: Urban Life In The 21st Century
2:55 pm
Tue July 3, 2012

Oakland Turns A Corner As Calif. Faces Budget Woes

Originally published on Thu July 5, 2012 2:17 pm

The city of Oakland, Calif. has long been associated with crime, poverty, urban decay and, more recently, violent protests tied to the Occupy movement.

So it may have been a surprise to New York Times readers when the newspaper listed Oakland as No. 5 among its top "places to go" in 2012.

Read more
Shots - Health Blog
2:32 pm
Tue July 3, 2012

True Or False? Elected Officials Interpret The Health Law

Credit Michael Conroy / AP
Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal wants the administration's health care law repealed.

How well do you remember what's actually in the Affordable Care Act?

Last week's Supreme Court decision upholding President Obama's signature domestic achievement has thrust the measure back into the spotlight, where it's likely to remain through the presidential election.

Read more
Planet Money
2:16 pm
Tue July 3, 2012

Storm Stimulus Unlikely As Communities Recover

Credit Alex Wong / Getty Images
A fallen tree crushes a truck in Falls Church, Va., outside Washington. Storms across the Midwest and East downed trees and power lines and left millions without power.

Originally published on Tue July 3, 2012 4:40 pm

Once major storms pass, hard-hit communities sometimes discover an unexpected silver lining: a miniature economic boom, as insurance checks pay for homeowners to rebuild and businesses to restock.

Read more

Robert Krulwich works on radio, podcasts, video, the blogosphere. He has been called "the most inventive network reporter in television" by TV Guide.

Krulwich is a Science Correspondent for NPR. His NPR blog, "Krulwich Wonders" features drawings, cartoons and videos that illustrate hard-to-see concepts in science.

He is the co-host of Radiolab, a nationally distributed radio/podcast series that explores new developments in science for people who are curious but not usually drawn to science shows. "There's nothing like it on the radio," says Ira Glass of This American Life, "It's a act of crazy genius." Radiolab won a Peabody Award in 2011.

His specialty is explaining complex subjects, science, technology, economics, in a style that is clear, compelling and entertaining. On television he has explored the structure of DNA using a banana; on radio he created an Italian opera, "Ratto Interesso" to explain how the Federal Reserve regulates interest rates; he has pioneered the use of new animation on ABC's Nightline and World News Tonight.

For 22 years, Krulwich was a science, economics, general assignment and foreign correspondent at ABC and CBS News.

He won Emmy awards for a cultural history of the Barbie doll, for a Frontline investigation of computers and privacy, a George Polk and Emmy for a look at the Savings & Loan bailout online advertising and the 2010 Essay Prize from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Krulwich earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Oberlin College and a law degree from Columbia University.

Krulwich Wonders...
1:36 pm
Tue July 3, 2012

Showing Vultures A Little Love

Originally published on Wed August 1, 2012 12:32 pm

Think of a giraffe lying on the Serengeti plain. He has just died, maybe of disease, maybe he was killed by a pride of lions, but now he's a 19-foot-long, 4,000-pound mound of meat, which very soon is going to stink and rot and muck up the neighborhood.

Read more

Pages