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4:50 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Mozambique Farmland Is Prize In Land Grab Fever

Originally published on Fri June 15, 2012 3:37 pm

First of a two-part series. Read part 2.

In these days of financial uncertainty, the hot new investment tip is farmland.

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U.S.
4:50 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Two Brothers, One Olympic Trampolinist

Originally published on Thu June 14, 2012 8:23 pm

Steven and Jeffrey Gluckstein are in a tough spot. They're brothers. They're world-class athletes. They train together six times a week, side by side, at the same gym. And only one of them can make the U.S. Olympic team as a trampolinist.

Steven, 21, is precise on the bounce mat. He rockets up to the ceiling, twists his body into a jackknife, flips around a couple times and hits the trampoline for less than a second before he shoots back up. Every time he comes down, his feet stab the red X in the center.

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Poetry
4:04 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

NewsPoet: Robert Pinsky Writes The Day In Verse

Credit Ebony Bailey / NPR
Robert Pinsky visits NPR headquarters in Washington D.C., on Thursday.

Originally published on Wed July 25, 2012 11:18 am

Today at All Things Considered, we continue a project we're calling NewsPoet. Each month, we bring in a poet to spend time in the newsroom — and at the end of the day, to compose a poem reflecting on the day's stories.

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Recipes
4:03 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Walnut Meringue Cookies Sealed With A 'Kiss'

Credit Courtesy of Jamie Lynn Stevenson
Listener Jamie Lynn Stevenson's "lost" recipe for walnut meringue cookies was passed down from her great-grandmother Rosina Richardt.

Originally published on Fri June 15, 2012 5:35 pm

Jamie Lynn Stevenson can still remember the smell of walnut meringue cookies wafting from her great-grandmother's kitchen. The "little piles of heaven," also known in her family as bussels, or "kisses" in German, were dense but chewy, with hints of caramelized nut flavor inside.

"I was just salivating waiting for them," Stevenson recalls. "And the great thing about these cookies is that they didn't take very long to bake!"

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Election 2012
4:01 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Romney Backers Brace For Paul 'Circus' In Iowa

Credit Ben Margot / AP
The crowd reacts as Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, speaks at the University of California, Berkeley, on April 5.

Originally published on Thu June 14, 2012 5:39 pm

While Mitt Romney has a virtual lock on the Republican presidential nomination, fans of Rep. Ron Paul of Texas aren't quite giving up.

While they know he won't be president, they're still working to promote Paul's ideas. And they've started with state conventions, like the one in Iowa this weekend, where political observers are anticipating some fireworks.

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The Two-Way
3:38 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Can You ID Germany's 'Forest Boy?'

Credit Berlin police
"Forest boy," who says his name is Ray.

Originally published on Fri June 15, 2012 6:59 am

7 a.m. June 15. IMPORTANT UPDATE: 'Forest Boy' Is A Hoax, Police Say.

Our original post:

Take a look at the face.

If you've got any clue as to who this young man is, police in Berlin want to know.

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All Tech Considered
2:48 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

ICANN's Call For New Domain Names Brings Criticism, And $357 Million

Credit Tim Hales / AP
ICANN President and CEO Rod Beckstrom unveiled nearly 2,000 proposed new "top-level" domain names during a press conference in London Wednesday.

Originally published on Thu June 14, 2012 6:01 pm

ICANN, the corporation that rules the Internet's address book, plans to increase the number of "top level" domains from the current 22 to 1,000 domains starting in early 2013. But not everyone is happy with that plan — and many say it's an open call to price-gougers and con artists.

Others complain that with 1,930 applications, ICANN — a non-profit corporation — raised just over $357 million. The U.S.-created entity was also in the news last spring, when it approved the .xxx domain.

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It's All Politics
2:45 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Scholars Ding News Media For Uncritically Repeating 'Job Killer' Charge

Credit J. Scott Applewhite / AP
Speaker John Boehner and other House Republican leaders at a May 31, 2012 news conference at which they described a proposal by Rep. Nancy Pelosi to raise taxes as a "job killer."

Originally published on Thu June 14, 2012 3:11 pm

"Job killer."

You don't have to listen very long to what passes in American politics for debate about the economy before you hear that phrase. Usually it's wielded by Republicans against their Democratic opponents although Democrats occasionally resort to it, too.

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The Two-Way
2:41 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

110-Year Prison Sentence For Ponzi-Scheming Tycoon R. Allen Stanford

Credit Dave Einsel / Getty Images
R. Allen Stanford before a 2009 court appearance in Houston.

R. Allen Stanford, the billionaire financier and cricket fanatic who was convicted earlier this year of "bilking investors out of more than $7 billion over 20 years in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history," has been sentenced to 110 years in prison, The Associated Press reports.

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The Two-Way
1:57 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

This Past May Was Second Warmest On Record

Credit NOAA
A map showing above and below average temperatures around the world in May.

Every month, NOAA puts out a report wrapping up big climate trends. Today, it reports that this past May was the second warmest on record.

"May 2012 also marks the 36th consecutive May and 327thconsecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports.

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The Two-Way
1:32 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Romney, Obama Squaring Off On Economy

Originally published on Fri June 15, 2012 12:18 pm

President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney delivered speeches that framed their visions for the United States moving forward.

While the appearences — both delivered in Ohio; Obama in Cleaveland, Romney in Cincinatti — were billed as dueling speeches scheduled for roughly the same time slot, the campaigns moved things around and the president delivered a much longer address right after Romney finished speaking.

In his address, Romney took shots at Obama for not delivering a recovery. He painted the president as being the "enemy" of business.

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The Two-Way
12:55 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Libya's High Court Strikes Down Law Banning Glorification Of Gadhafi

Credit Mahmud Turkia / AFP/Getty Images
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi attends the opening session of the Africa-EU summit in November 2010, before the current conflict. Now that the U.S. military has intervened in Libya, many wonder what the endgame is.

Libya's Supreme Court decided on Thursday that its citizens should have the right to glorify Moammar Gadhafi, who ruled the country for more than three decades until his ouster last year.

Law 37, which called for prison sentences for those who spoke well of Gadhafi and for those who published bad news about the February 17 revolution, was challenged by a lawyer who argued the law violated the freedom of speech.

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Around the Nation
12:22 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Radio's Bryan Fischer Tries Pushing Romney Right

Credit Troy Maben / AP
Before hosting Focal Point, Bryan Fischer was the chaplain of the Idaho State Senate and the head of the Idaho chapter of the American Family Association.

Originally published on Thu June 14, 2012 2:56 pm

In April, Mitt Romney hired Richard Grenell, an openly gay man, to serve as his campaign's national security spokesman. Within hours, Grenell was being attacked by a Christian radio talk show host named Bryan Fischer, whose Focal Point call-in show reaches more than 1 million listeners a day.

Nine days after Fischer began his on-air attack, Grenell resigned. He had been the only openly gay member of Romney's campaign staff.

The Christian right and Fischer saw Grenell's resignation as a "tremendous victory," says New Yorker staff writer Jane Mayer.

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The Salt
12:17 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Report Urges Food Stamp Program To Clarify Purchases, Corporate Profits

Credit iStockphoto.com
The public really doesn't know much about what food stamp recipients are buying, and how much companies are profiting.

Originally published on Thu June 14, 2012 2:30 pm

Anthony Smukall's shopping list might look similar to that of many American's: Milk, eggs, whole grain bread, apples, assorted berries. But Smukall buys these products with his monthly SNAP allotment – money he receives from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps).

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Shots - Health Blog
12:14 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

U.S. Olympic Team Sprints Ahead With Electronic Health Records

Credit Andrew Villegas / KHN/iStockphoto.com
Transporting reams of athletes' medical information has become a major burden for the U.S. Olympic Committee, and is one reason it's switching to electronic medical records.

Originally published on Mon December 17, 2012 2:13 am

Team USA is used to racing with digital clocks. Now, it's time for digital health records.

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The Two-Way
12:12 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

20,000 Pages Of Boy Scouts' 'Perversion Files' Ordered Opened In Oregon

The state of Oregon's Supreme Court ruled today that "20,000 pages of so-called perversion files compiled by the Boy Scouts on suspected child abusers over a period of 20 years" must be opened to the public, The Associated Press reports.

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The Two-Way
12:10 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Spain's Borrowing Costs Skyrocket After Second Downgrade

Credit Paul White / AP
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is seen on a screen as a broker arrives at the stock exchange in Madrid on Thursday.

After Moody's became the second ratings agency to downgrade Spain's sovereign debt, the country's borrowing costs skyrocketed to record highs.

"The interest rate — or yield — on the country's benchmark 10-year bonds rose to a record 6.96 percent in early trading Thursday, its highest level since Spain joined the euro in 1999 and close to the level which many analysts believe is unsustainable in the long term," the AP reports.

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The Two-Way
11:34 am
Thu June 14, 2012

Your Shoes May Say A Lot About You

Originally published on Thu June 14, 2012 10:43 pm

Shoes can supposedly tell us more about a person than just whether they're sensible or stylish.

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Politics
10:58 am
Thu June 14, 2012

Miami Mayor Bucks Party Line On Voting

Miami's Republican Mayor Tomas Regalado moves against his party and his governor. He tells host Michel Martin that Florida's controversial voter eligibility program, that is intended to purge non-citizens from its rosters, isn't necessary.

Education
10:58 am
Thu June 14, 2012

Teachers Open Up On Why Kids Really Drop Out

It's the end of the school year, and teachers and students are enjoying some downtime. But some kids won't be going back to school next fall because about a million students drop out every year. Host Michel Martin discusses the dropout crisis with teachers from three cities with high dropout rates: Las Vegas, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.

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