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Deceptive Cadence
4:23 pm
Fri April 27, 2012

Around The Classical Internet: April 27, 2012

Credit Sean Gallup / Getty Images
Conductor Kurt Masur in a 2007 file photo from Berlin.

Originally published on Sat April 28, 2012 10:15 am

  • After falling off the podium last night in the middle of a performance with the Orchestre National de France, 84-year-old Kurt Masur has been hospitalized in Paris. A spokesperson for the orchestra says that he is expected to be released "very soon," adding that "he fell upside down onto his back because his left foot was too near the edge of the podium. It's not linked to health problems.
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Economy
4:20 pm
Fri April 27, 2012

Mixed Signals: Weaker Growth, Higher Profits

Credit Don Ryan / AP
Consumers spent more than expected in the first quarter of 2012, partly because they dipped into their savings, but businesses spent less.

Originally published on Fri April 27, 2012 5:05 pm

The U.S. economy lost some steam during the first three months of the year. The Commerce Department said Friday that growth slowed to just 2.2 percent, down from 3 percent at the end of last year.

The good news was that the economy continued to grow during the first quarter of the year. But anyone who was waiting for growth to kick into a higher gear was disappointed once again. One reason for that was a slowdown in business investment — companies spent less on new equipment and software even though profits were surprisingly strong.

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The Two-Way
3:57 pm
Fri April 27, 2012

LIVE: Can You Dig It? Introducing NPR's Official AntCam

Credit Mark Memmott / NPR
Behind the scenes.

Originally published on Sat August 4, 2012 7:44 pm

We've written about the Decorah Eagle Cam and about the Jewel bear cam.

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Around the Nation
3:57 pm
Fri April 27, 2012

Thieves' Cover-Ups Raise Concerns Among Muslims

Originally published on Fri April 27, 2012 5:05 pm

The surveillance tape shows what looks like a Muslim woman, her face and body hidden by her traditional clothing, robbing a Philadelphia bank. But the robber in the abaya and khimar is actually a man. He's part of a recent crime spree involving perpetrators in Muslim garb.

The worst of the incidents happened in Upper Darby when, Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood says, someone who appeared to be a Muslim woman went into a barbershop.

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Politics
3:19 pm
Fri April 27, 2012

Holder: 'More Work To Do' Before Term Is Over

Originally published on Fri April 27, 2012 5:05 pm

Attorney General Eric Holder — the first African-American to hold the nation's top law enforcement job — is in the homestretch of his first, and probably last, full term in the post.

And after more than three years on the job, Holder is in an unusually reflective mood. He's thinking about the country's ongoing struggle over civil rights and what he wants to accomplish in his last months of government service.

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Middle East
2:58 pm
Fri April 27, 2012

In A Change, Turkey Tightens Its Border With Syria

Credit Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images
Turkish army personnel patrol near the border with Syria in Kilis earlier this month. Activists and smugglers say it's getting harder to get medical and communications equipment into Syria across the Turkish border.

Originally published on Fri April 27, 2012 5:05 pm

The spring sun is warming the fields and orchards along the Turkey-Syria border, and new refugee camps are sprouting as well.

Smugglers who have long worked these mountain border trails are now busy moving civilians out of Syria to the safety of Turkish camps. They're also moving medical and communications equipment and people into opposition-held neighborhoods in Syria. But recently, some say that's getting harder.

A smuggler known as Abu Ayham says Turkish guards, who used to permit nonlethal aid to pass freely, have suddenly grown much tougher on the smugglers.

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NPR Story
2:57 pm
Fri April 27, 2012

Reivew: 'That Deadman Dance'

Originally published on Fri April 27, 2012 5:05 pm

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Our book reviewer, Alan Cheuse, has been visiting the early days of British settlements in Australia. His means of transport is an award-winning novel called "That Dead Man Dance." It's by Australian writer Kim Scott.

ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: Cygnet River, the coast of southwestern Australia, early in the 19th century, first contact between the aboriginal Noongar people and the crew of settlers from England led by a well-meaning medical man named Dr. Cross. The Noongars are represented by young Bobby Wabalanginy.

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Shots - Health Blog
2:52 pm
Fri April 27, 2012

Nonprofit Hospitals Faulted For Stinginess With Charity Care

Credit Jenny Gold / Kaiser Health News
Lori Duff with her baby, Henry, and other son, Logan, at home in Columbus, Ohio.

Originally published on Fri April 27, 2012 5:05 pm

Even before the hospital bills started coming, Lori Duff and her family were living paycheck to paycheck. So when the debt collector called the Columbus, Ohio, mother and demanded $1,800 for the prenatal visits she'd had while pregnant with her third son, she panicked.

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It's All Politics
2:19 pm
Fri April 27, 2012

FCC Requires Top Market TV Stations To Post Political Ad Data Online

The Federal Communications Commission on Friday approved a rule requiring TV stations to post details online about the amount of advertising time political candidates and campaigns buy, as well as how much the stations charge for those ads.

TV stations already are required to keep such public records. But in most cases, the information has been accessible only to those who visit a TV station and physically look through paper files, NPR's Brian Naylor reported.

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The Two-Way
2:03 pm
Fri April 27, 2012

Lehman Was Set To Pay 50 Execs $700 Million Just A Year Before Collapse

Credit Cate Gillon / Getty Images
Sept. 15, 2008, in London: The news of Lehman's bankruptcy hits.

Lehman Bros., the Wall Street giant, collapsed in September 2008 in the nation's largest bankruptcy and arguably kicked off a financial meltdown that helped drag the economy into the Great Recession.

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