4:53pm

Fri September 9, 2011
Shots - Health Blog

Babesia In The Blood? There Should Be A Test For That

Originally published on Mon November 12, 2012 2:37 pm

Credit Jim Gathany / CDC

4:50pm

Fri September 9, 2011
House & Senate Races

Republican Now Leads In Race To Replace Weiner

It's been more than two months since former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner resigned in disgrace after sending lewd messages on the internet and then lying about it. But now the race to fill his seat in Queens and Brooklyn is causing more headaches for Democrats.

With just days to go before a special election, a Siena College poll taken this week showed the Republican candidate with a six-point advantage in a heavily Democratic district.

Read more

4:28pm

Fri September 9, 2011
The Two-Way

The Day Before America Was Interrupted: Nine People Recall Sept. 10, 2001

When Americans are asked what Sept. 10, 2001, was like, many call that Monday "normal" or "ordinary."

"Just a normal summer day," one man said.

That all changed on Sept. 11.

Nine individuals told All Things Considered where they were on Sept. 10. They talked about some of their serendipitous experiences, near misses or devastating turn of events of that day — the day before America was interrupted.

Read more
Credit David Banks

Mike Pesca first reached the airwaves as a 10-year-old caller to a New York Jets-themed radio show and has since been able to parlay his interests in sports coverage as a National Desk correspondent  for NPR based in New York City.

Pesca enjoys training his microphone on anything that occurs at a track, arena, stadium, park, fronton, velodrome or air strip (i.e. the plane drag during the World's Strongest Man competition). He has reported from Los Angeles, Cleveland and Gary. He has also interviewed former Los Angeles Ram Cleveland Gary. Pesca is a panelist on the weekly Slate podcast “Hang up and Listen”.

In 1997, Pesca began his work in radio as a producer at WNYC. He worked on the NPR and WNYC program On The Media. Later he became the New York correspondent for NPR's midday newsmagazine Day to Day, a job that has brought him to the campaign trail, political conventions, hurricane zones and the Manolo Blahnik shoe sale. Pesca was the first NPR reporter to have his own podcast, a weekly look at gambling cleverly titled “On Gambling with Mike Pesca.”

Pesca, whose writing has appeared in Slate and The Washington Post, is the winner of two Edward R. Murrow awards for radio reporting and, in1993, was named Emory University Softball Official of the Year.

He lives in Manhattan with his wife Robin, sons Milo and Emmett and their dog Rumsfeld. A believer in full disclosure, Pesca rates his favorite teams as the Jets, Mets, St. Johns Red Storm and Knicks, teams he has covered fairly and without favor despite the fact that they have given him a combined one championship during his lifetime as a fully cognizant human.

3:38pm

Fri September 9, 2011
The Two-Way

Fresh Eurozone Worries Send Markets Tumbling

The situation in Europe has the markets worried today. At one point, the Dow Jones was down 353 points, while the Standard & Poor's shed 3 percent and the Nasdaq wasn't far behind with a 2.9 percent loss.

Read more

3:19pm

Fri September 9, 2011
Reflecting On Sept. 11, 2001

In Afghanistan, Assessing A Rebel Leader's Legacy

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 11:26 am

Ten years ago Friday, a team of al-Qaida agents carried out an assassination that was the first step in their plan leading to the Sept. 11 attacks. In the north of Afghanistan, suicide bombers posing as journalists killed Ahmad Shah Massoud, the most famous leader of Afghan resistance against Taliban rule.

Today, posters of Massoud still adorn shops around northern Afghanistan, and admirers held a huge commemoration of him Friday near his home.

But 10 years after his death, Massoud's legacy has been overshadowed by a grueling war that grinds on with no end in sight.

Read more

3:19pm

Fri September 9, 2011
Energy

Electric Grid Was Designed To Prevent Arizona Outage

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 11:26 am

If you thought that the nation's electrical grid was designed to prevent a single, localized malfunction from triggering a blackout for millions of people, you'd be right.

But that didn't prevent that exact event from happening Thursday in San Diego, parts of Arizona, and Mexico's Baja peninsula. Phoenix-based Arizona Public Service Co. said the blackout started when a piece of monitoring equipment was removed at a substation in Yuma, along the border with Mexico.

Read more

3:15pm

Fri September 9, 2011
The Two-Way

New Mexico Governor Reveals Her Grandparents Entered Country Illegally

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez has fought hard to repeal a law in her state that gives undocumented immigrants driver's licenses. But in an interview with KLUZ-TV, the Univision affiliate in Albuquerque, the Republican governor said her paternal grandparents came into the country illegally.

In the interview, she said her grandmother died when her father was about 1, but she knows they "arrived without documents."

Read more

3:04pm

Fri September 9, 2011
Economy

Economists Weigh Effectiveness Of Obama Job Plan

Economists have been looking over the $447 billion job-creation package President Obama proposed to Congress Thursday night. Predictably, the reaction was mixed, with most economists giving it a thumbs up, and many conservatives turning thumbs down.

Here are a few of the economists' opinions that were blogged, tweeted, reported or emailed around.

Read more

3:00pm

Fri September 9, 2011
Around the Nation

Susquehanna River Drenches Small Pa. Towns

Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River is spilling over its banks, leaving serious flooding in its wake. The city of Wilkes-Barre's levies have held up, sparing it from a worst-case scenario flood. But small towns throughout south-central Pennsylvania are covered in water.

Pages