NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 Wed, 24 Oct 2018 21:45:33 +0000 http://www.tpr.org Joy Diaz Texas has a thing about being number one. But when it comes to the state of Texans’ health, it ranks below the middle of the pack, and it’s falling. The United Health Foundation ranked Texas 34th in the country in its 2017 annual report. But there’s something that could help: this year’s Healthier Texas Summit kicks off in Austin on Oct. 25; it’s a conference about how everyday people can achieve healthier outcomes in their own community. Dr. David Lakey is vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Texas System, and is also an organizer of the event. Lakey says while the overall focus of the summit is how to improve health within our communities, there’s also a focus on health policy in the upcoming legislative session. http://www.tpr.org/post/healthier-texas-summit-takes-community-based-approach-tackling-big-health-issues 112510 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 21:16:52 +0000 Healthier Texas Summit Takes A Community-Based Approach To Tackling Big Health Issues Michael Marks http://www.tpr.org/post/cotton-seeds-could-be-food-future 112507 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 21:16:41 +0000 Cotton Seeds Could Be A Food Of The Future Diana Nguyen From Marfa Public Radio: Senate candidates from Texas, Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke, have spent a lot of time discussing their stances on immigration, health care and the economy while on the campaign trail. But the environment is a topic that is seldom discussed. That’s why Jon Gergen, a retired listener from Plano, asked Texas Decides: “Specifically what policies Mr. Cruz and Mr. O’Rourke are for, or against, to deal with what I perceive most of the scientific community believes is a severe climate problem.” http://www.tpr.org/post/what-do-ted-cruz-and-beto-orourke-say-about-climate-change-campaign-trail 112505 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 21:16:34 +0000 What Do Ted Cruz And Beto O’Rourke Say About Climate Change On The Campaign Trail? Anastasia Tsioulcas The Cleveland Orchestra announced on Wednesday that it has fired two of its prominent musicians on the basis of sexual misconduct: concertmaster William Preucil and principal trombonist Massimo La Rosa. The symphony hired the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton to carry out an independent investigation of Preucil; during the course of that work, the team began investigating La Rosa as well. In its announcement, the orchestra said that the investigators had interviewed more than 70 people, and that they had found that both Preucil and La Rosa had “engaged in sexual misconduct and sexually harassing behavior with multiple female students and colleagues over a period of years while employed by the orchestra.” In addition, the investigators stressed that the power dynamics between the men and their alleged victims was an important factor. “The abusive conduct by both performers was made possible,” the orchestra said, “by their positions of power within the orchestra and in the broader world of http://www.tpr.org/post/cleveland-orchestra-fires-two-leading-musicians-after-sexual-misconduct-investigation 112503 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 21:13:52 +0000 Cleveland Orchestra Fires Two Leading Musicians After Sexual Misconduct Investigation Joanna Kakissis Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. http://www.tpr.org/post/witch-hasnt-paid-taxes-she-threatened-hex-collectors 112509 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 20:47:00 +0000 This Witch Hasn’t Paid Taxes Since She Threatened To Hex The Collectors Joel Rose Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. http://www.tpr.org/post/how-immigration-debate-playing-out-tennessees-senate-race 112508 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 20:47:00 +0000 How The Immigration Debate Is Playing Out In Tennessee’s Senate Race editor Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. http://www.tpr.org/post/theres-good-news-be-found-just-look-grain-salt 112504 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 20:47:00 +0000 There’s Good News To Be Found — Just Look At A Grain Of Salt Colin Dwyer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP79-fJSY-c A massive typhoon slammed into a U.S. territory in the west Pacific, lashing the Northern Mariana Islands with gusts of Category 5 intensity Wednesday night local time. Super Typhoon Yutu brought to bear maximum sustained winds of about 180 mph — much more powerful, in other words, than the historically powerful storm that hit Florida several weeks ago. The islands of Saipan, Tinian and Rota remain under typhoon warnings from the National Weather Service , while Guam and several smaller islands have been placed under a tropical storm warning. And the NWS expects typhoon conditions to continue through late Thursday morning local time. “The strongest winds have already occurred and will continue to slowly diminish through the day,” the service said. The tone of the latest update was significantly more subdued than the one sent as Yutu prepared to make landfall. “Catastrophic winds for Tinian and Saipan are imminent!” officials said . “Super http://www.tpr.org/post/super-typhoon-yutu-strongest-storm-2018-slams-us-pacific-territory 112506 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 20:25:00 +0000 Super Typhoon Yutu, ‘Strongest Storm Of 2018,’ Slams U.S. Pacific Territory With the nation reeling from an epidemic of drug overdose deaths, President Trump signed legislation Wednesday that is aimed at helping people overcome addiction and preventing addictions before they start. “Together we are going to end the scourge of drug addiction in America,” Trump said at a White House event celebrating the signing. “We are going to end it or we are going to at least make an extremely big dent in this terrible, terrible problem.” The opioid legislation was a rarity for this Congress, getting overwhelming bipartisan support in both chambers. The expansive package focuses on improving access to treatment services by lifting certain restrictions on Medicaid and Medicare coverage, as well as backing the creation of comprehensive opioid recovery centers. It attempts to address over prescription of opioids and authorizes government research into non-addictive drugs that could be used for pain management. There are also measures that seek to curtail foreign shipments of http://www.tpr.org/post/signing-opioid-law-trump-pledges-end-scourge-drug-addiction 112502 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 20:11:00 +0000 Signing Opioid Law, Trump Pledges To End ‘Scourge’ Of Drug Addiction editor With  Meghna Chakrabarti President Trump threatens to withdraw from a key nuclear missile treaty with Russia, and hints at another arms race with Russia and China. We go past the hot headlines to see what this really means. Guests Anton Troianovski , Moscow bureau chief for The Washington Post . ( @antontroian ) Joe Cirincione , president of Ploughshares Fund, a foundation focused on nuclear weapons policy and conflict resolution. Former director for non-proliferation at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ( @Cirincione ) Evelyn Farkas , fellow at the Atlantic Council Future Europe Initiative, Eurasia Center and Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. She served from 2012 to 2015 in the Obama administration as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia. Former senior adviser to NATO’s supreme allied commander for Europe.( @EvelynNFarkas ) From The Reading List Washington Post : National security adviser John Bolton rebuffs Russian appeals to http://www.tpr.org/post/us-plan-withdraw-nuclear-treaty-sparks-talk-arms-race 112501 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 18:46:00 +0000 U.S. Plan To Withdraw From Nuclear Treaty Sparks Talk Of Arms Race Kevin Whitehead Copyright 2018 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air . TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. In the 1980s, music producer Hal Willner masterminded four tribute anthologies in which various jazz and pop bands played music by Thelonious Monk or Kurt Weill or songs from Walt Disney musicals. The first and least-known of those tribute albums, featuring music Nino Rota composed for Federico Fellini movies, has now been reissued. Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead says it set the template. (SOUNDBITE OF SHARON FREEMAN AND DEBORAH HARRY’S “LA DOLCE VITA SUITE”) KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Francis Haynes on steel drums and Sharon Freeman on French horns on Freeman’s arrangement of music from “La Dolce Vita.” It’s on the just-reissued “Amarcord Nino Rota” from 1981, where diverse musicians play Rota music from Fellini films. One highlight is bandleader Carla Bley’s long suite from “8 1/2.” Rota’s melodies feed her own taste for circus-y (ph) excess, shifting instrumental colors, sideways harmonies and http://www.tpr.org/post/amarcord-nino-rota-returns-and-its-well-worth-wait 112499 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 17:38:00 +0000 ‘Amarcord Nino Rota’ Returns — And It’s Well Worth The Wait Terry Gross http://www.tpr.org/post/paul-dano-wildlife-and-different-anxieties-acting-and-directing 112500 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 17:36:00 +0000 Paul Dano On ‘Wildlife,’ And The Different Anxieties Of Acting And Directing Bill Chappell Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was “a heinous crime” committed by people who must be brought to justice. The prince, who has fallen under suspicion for possibly ordering the killing, discussed the case Wednesday at the “Davos in the Desert” investment forum. The crown prince was asked about Khashoggi at the start of a session of the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh — meetings that some business and political leaders chose to avoid as the international community rejected Saudi Arabia’s shifting explanations for how Khashoggi died at its consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. Turkish officials say Khashoggi, a noted critic of the ruling regime, was murdered. “First of all, the crime was really painful to all Saudis, and I believe it is painful to every human in the world,” Crown Prince Mohammed said. “It is a heinous crime that cannot be justified.” The crown prince said Saudi Arabia is cooperating with Turkey to http://www.tpr.org/post/saudi-crown-prince-calls-khashoggi-killing-heinous-crime 112498 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 17:11:00 +0000 Saudi Crown Prince Calls Khashoggi Killing ‘A Heinous Crime’ Anastasia Tsioulcas http://www.tpr.org/post/gibson-guitars-names-new-leadership-and-exit-bankruptcy 112497 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 16:13:00 +0000 Gibson Guitars Names New Leadership And Exit From Bankruptcy Colin Dwyer The United Nations’ humanitarian chief warned a month ago that war-torn Yemen was on the brink of a “massive loss of life” — a famine-fueled catastrophe that may spell the complete collapse of an already failing country. Since then, he says the dire situation has only gotten worse. “The toll is unbearably high,” Mark Lowcock told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. “The immune systems of millions of people on survival support for years on end are now are literally collapsing, making them — especially children and the elderly — more likely to succumb to malnutrition, cholera and other diseases.” Last month, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 8 million people were desperately dependent on aid and some 3.5 million more risked joining them. But Lowcock said Tuesday that even as stark as those numbers were, they did not do justice to the crisis in Yemen. Based on new surveys and analysis, his office said as many as 14 million people — or about half the whole http://www.tpr.org/post/yemen-clear-and-present-danger-massive-famine-after-years-violence 112496 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 16:12:00 +0000 Yemen In ‘Clear And Present Danger’ Of Massive Famine After Years Of Violence Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit DAVID GREENE, HOST: We are following breaking news from New York and also from Washington, D.C., this morning about the discovery of a number of suspicious packages. Two of them were intercepted on their way to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and to former President Barack Obama. And the New York City Police Department is now saying it’s investigating a suspicious package that was sent to the building in Manhattan that houses CNN’s broadcast center there. Let’s turn now to NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas who is following this. And, Ryan, what is the latest here? RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Well, the latest is actually out of New York City. And that’s where the New York Police Department says it’s investigating a suspicious package at 10 Columbus Circle. That is the building that houses CNN’s office. The police department’s special operations unit that includes an explosive ordinance disposal unit, they are responding. CNN boss Jeff Zucker http://www.tpr.org/post/suspicious-packages-sent-clinton-obama-time-warner-center 112494 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 15:27:00 +0000 Suspicious Packages Sent To Clinton, Obama, Time Warner Center Anastasia Tsioulcas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdm6eyqUEdc Last week, an extraordinary musician died — by many accounts, an artist who may have been the best Indian classical artist of the 20th century. But this superlative talent chose to erase herself from public life more than 60 years ago. As a surbahar (bass sitar) player, Annapurna Devi was hailed in the 1940s and 1950s as a virtuoso, in possession of a nearly singular musical sensitivity. But if outsiders knew her at all, it was most likely only as an accessory to the men in her life: as the first wife of a worldwide sitar celebrity, the late Ravi Shankar , or as the daughter of Allauddin Khan, a venerated master of the lute-like sarod whose students helped Indian classical music reach a much wider world. Annapurna Devi died at age 92 on Oct. 13 at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai; a spokesperson from her foundation told the Hindustan Times that she had been suffering from age-related health issues for several years prior to her death. In a http://www.tpr.org/post/she-was-poised-be-star-instead-she-spent-60-years-her-apartment 112491 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 14:24:34 +0000 She Was Poised To Be A Star — Instead, She Spent 60 Years In Her Apartment Joel Rose The White House says it’s seen a “record-shattering surge” of migrant families at the Southwest border in the past year — and wasted no time trying to blame those rising numbers on what it calls “loopholes” in U.S immigration law. More than 161,000 migrant family members were apprehended or found inadmissible at the Southwest border in FY 2018, which ended last month. That’s according to figures released today by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The number of family units apprehended by immigration agents has been rising steadily since the summer, to a record total of more than 20,000 in September. That’s despite the Trump administration’s policy, which it’s since abandoned, of separating migrant families at the border to deter illegal immigration. Overall, the number of undocumented immigrants — including family units and those crossing alone — apprehended at the border last year held steady at about 521,000. That’s a slight decline from the fiscal year 2017 total, and far below http://www.tpr.org/post/us-apprehended-record-number-migrant-families-southwest-border 112490 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 14:24:21 +0000 U.S. Apprehended Record Number of Migrant Families At Southwest Border Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Someone sent some suspicious packages to former President Obama and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The source of that news is the Secret Service. And that news comes after a bomb was apparently sent to the home of the financier George Soros. We should emphasize at this moment we don’t know much about the seriousness of this story, but we do know that it’s happening. And we’re going to bring you up to date on what we do know with NPR justice reporter Ryan Lucas. Ryan, good morning. RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Good morning. INSKEEP: How much is the Secret Service saying? LUCAS: Well, they aren’t saying a whole lot right now. And this is something that really is just breaking news. They have sent out a statement at this point. And what they are saying is that the Secret Service intercepted two suspicious packages. One was addressed to Hillary Clinton at her home in Westchester County, N.Y. That one was discovered http://www.tpr.org/post/suspicious-packages-sent-obama-hillary-clinton 112493 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 14:21:00 +0000 Suspicious Packages Sent To Obama, Hillary Clinton Maanvi Singh In the U.S., girls and boys are both big smartphone users. That’s not necessarily the case in the developing world, says a new report released this month by the nonprofit organization Girl Effect. The “Real Girls, Real Lives, Connected” report surveyed more than 3,000 teenage girls and boys in 25 countries, with a focus on developing nations, including Nigeria, Bangladesh, India and Rwanda, through online questionnaires and in-person interviews. The report found that for every 15 boys who own a phone, only 10 girls do; the difference is 18 vs. 10 for smartphone ownership. In many parts of the world, parental restrictions and social norms, rather than cost or access, may be responsible for the disparity. In Bangladesh, a 15-year-old girl told researchers: “People say that the girl who touches the phone is a bad girl.” In Malawi, another teen girl noted: “If her parents find her with a mobile they would think she is a prostitute.” The research was funded by the Vodafone Foundation, the http://www.tpr.org/post/why-teen-girls-and-boys-dont-have-equal-access-mobile-phones 112492 as http://www.tpr.org Wed, 24 Oct 2018 13:52:00 +0000 Why Teen Girls And Boys Don’t Have Equal Access To Mobile Phones