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Millions of Americans are still unemployed or facing home foreclosures. For them, the Great Recession drags on into its fifth year. But for others, the U.S. economy is looking up.

On Public Radio 89.5-1 & World Radio 89.5-3: Saturday 3/10 at 5:00 am
On World Radio 89.5-3: Monday 3/12 & 3/19 at 5:30 & 10:30 pm; Tuesday 3/13 & 3/20 at 6:50 & 11:50 am

It's nearly a year (11 March 2011) since Japan was struck by a huge earthquake and tsunami.Clouds of radioactive fallout from damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi powerstation spread across heavily-populated areas many kilometres from the plant.

Listen Saturdays and Sundays from 4-5 pm on Public Radio 89.5-1

Round eight of All Thing Considered weekend’s Three Minute Fiction begins this weekend. Author, poet, and essayist Luis Alberto Urrea will be the judge. Listeners are invited to unleash their inner author and compose an original work of fiction that can be read in three minutes or less (600 word limit). Round Eight’s judge will be Luis Alberto Urrea, celebrated writer and the author of Across the Wire, The Fever of Being, Nobody’s Son, and The Devil’s Highway.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, a lawyer, a blonde, a nun and a trombone player walk into a bar for a special joke-a-thon compilation show. Along with the slurry of jokes, VocalEssence sings the "The Ying Tong Song" from the BBC's "Goon Show," we'll pay tribute to the Marx Brothers and Tom Keith's utterly perfect chicken sounds take center stage for "The Sound of Chickens." Plus, Andy Stein's "Knock Knock" song, a visit from Sven and Ole, and a rather unfortunate school lunch was served at Lake Wobegon Elementary School.

Classical 88.7's exclusive weekly feature, the EURO-CLASSIC, presents a recently recorded, live performance from a European orchestra — a recording from the European Broadcasting Union — every week overnight Wednesday into Thursday.

March 1, 2012

• Shchedrin: Concerto Parlando
• Ilya Gringolts, violin; David Guerrier, trumpet
• Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra/Gábor Takács-Nagy
• Concert Date: 7/17/2010
• Venue: Combins Hall, Verbier

March 3, 2012