Mark Memmott

Credit Doby Photography / NPR

Mark Memmott is one of the hosts of NPR's "The Two-Way" news blog.

"The Two-Way," which Memmott helped to launched when he came to NPR in 2009, focuses on breaking news, analysis, and the most compelling stories being reported by NPR News and other news media.

Before joining NPR, Memmott worked for nearly 25 years as a reporter and editor at USA Today. He focused on a range of coverage from politics, foreign affairs, economics, and the media. He's reported from places across the Unites States and the world, including half a dozen trips to Afghanistan in 2002-2003.

During his time at USA Today, Memmott, helped launch and lead three USAToday.com news blogs: "On Deadline;" "The Oval;" and "On Politics," the site's 2008 presidential campaign blog.

Pages

11:09am

Wed May 15, 2013
The Two-Way

Pffff: Hong Kong's Six-Story Rubber Ducky's Been Deflated

Originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 1:52 pm

That giant rubber duck floating in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor, which we posted about on May 6, is down for maintenance.

And when we say down, we mean it. It's been deflated.

But fans shouldn't despair. Ducky's hosts say it just "needs to freshen up" and will return. It's set to be in Hong Kong until sometime next month.

Read more

10:57am

Wed May 15, 2013
The Two-Way

Boehner: Who's Going To Jail For What IRS Did?

Originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 9:34 pm

Credit Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA /LANDOV

He doesn't want to know who's going to resign, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Wednesday morning.

He wants to know: "Who's going to jail" for what IRS personnel did to some conservative groups?

Read more

9:29am

Wed May 15, 2013
The Two-Way

Military Recruiters, Sex Assault Responders To Be Retrained

Originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 2:59 pm

Credit Jason Reed/pool / Getty Images

All branches of the U.S. military have been ordered "to retrain, re-credential and rescreen all sexual assault prevention and response personnel and military recruiters," the Pentagon confirmed Wednesday morning.

Read more

9:06am

Wed May 15, 2013
The Two-Way

Cleveland Kidnaps Suspect Will Plead Not Guilty, Lawyer Says

Originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 2:09 pm

Credit / Getty Images

Saying that their client is not a "monster," attorneys for Ariel Castro have told Cleveland's WKYC-TV that the man accused of kidnapping three young women, holding them captive and repeatedly raping them over the course of about a decade will plead not guilty to all charges if he is indicted by a grand jury.

Read more

7:58am

Wed May 15, 2013
The Two-Way

Read The Report On IRS's 'Inappropriate' Scrutiny Of Groups

Originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 1:58 pm

The language is not dramatic, but the message is clear: A much-anticipated report from the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration is straightforward about how Internal Revenue Service personnel unfairly singled out some conservative groups for unnecessary scrutiny during the 2012 campaign cycle.

As the report's summary says:

Read more

7:04am

Wed May 15, 2013
The Two-Way

Holder Isn't Sure How Often Reporters' Records Are Seized

Originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 6:10 am

Credit Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

As his Justice Department faces bipartisan outrage for searching phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors, Attorney Gen. Eric Holder says he is not sure how many times such information has been seized by government investigators in the four years he's led Justice.

During an interview with NPR's Carrie Johnson on Tuesday, Holder was asked how often his department has obtained such records of journalists' work.

Read more

2:19pm

Tue May 14, 2013
The Two-Way

Justice Department To Open Probe Of IRS's Actions

Originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 8:17 am

Attorney Gen. Eric Holder has ordered the Justice Department to open an investigation into whether any laws were broken when the Internal Revenue Service singled out some conservative groups for extra scrutiny, he told reporters Tuesday.

Read more

2:09pm

Tue May 14, 2013
The Two-Way

It's True: 'Mistakes Were Made' Is The King Of Non-Apologies

Originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 3:01 pm

Make no mistake, the acting commissioner of the IRS put himself in historic company Tuesday by writing in USA Today that "mistakes were made" when his agency singled out for extra scrut

Read more

11:33am

Tue May 14, 2013
The Two-Way

Please Welcome The Parallels Blog: 'Many Stories, One World'

Originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 12:27 pm

We want to note the launch of a new NPR blog — Parallels, which condenses its mission into four words: "Many stories, one world."

NPR.org international editor Greg Myre, who's hosting the blog, writes that:

Read more

11:18am

Tue May 14, 2013
The Two-Way

IRS Chief Says 'Mistakes Were Made' But Weren't Partisan

Originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 11:51 am

Credit Alex Wong / Getty Images

"Mistakes were made, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan motivation," the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service writes in USA Today's op-ed pages.

Read more

9:50am

Tue May 14, 2013
The Two-Way

Russian Security Service Claims To Have Uncovered CIA Agent

Originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 7:09 pm

Credit Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA /Landov

From Russia Today:

"Russia's counterintelligence agency has detained a CIA agent in Moscow trying to recruit an officer of the Russian secret service, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced. The agent was operating under guise of career diplomat."

According to Reuters, the Russian foreign ministry has summoned U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul for a discussion.

Read more

9:36am

Tue May 14, 2013
The Two-Way

She's No Diva: Unruly Flier Sings 'I Will Always Love You'

Originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 10:46 am

Credit YouTube.com

8:57am

Tue May 14, 2013

8:52am

Tue May 14, 2013
The Two-Way

Afghan Taxes Weigh Heavily On U.S. Contractors, Report Says

Since 2008, the Afghan government has assessed nearly $1 billion dollars in taxes — sometimes erroneously — on U.S. contractors working in the country, according to a new report from the Pentagon's Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, NPR's Tom Bowman tells our Newscast Desk.

John Sopko, the special inspector general, says the tax confusion has led to the arrest of contractors for nonpayment, increased costs to the U.S. government and interruptions to American military operations.

Read more

6:43am

Tue May 14, 2013
The Two-Way

Actress Angelina Jolie Shares Story Of Her Double Masectomy

Originally published on Tue May 14, 2013 8:47 am

Credit Alastair Grant / PA Photos /Landov

Saying she is "writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience," actress Angelina Jolie reveals on the op-ed pages of The New York Times that she had a double mastectomy earlier this year to substantially reduce the chances she will develop breast cancer.

Read more

1:13pm

Mon May 13, 2013
The Two-Way

Benghazi Talking Points Debate Is A 'Sideshow,' Obama Says

Republican questions about how and when changes were made to his administration's "talking points" about last September's attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, are a "sideshow," President Obama told reporters at the White House on Monday.

"There's no there, there," the president declared.

"What we have been clear about throughout," Obama insisted, is that "we were not clear who exactly had carried this out."

Read more

12:50pm

Mon May 13, 2013
The Two-Way

Holmes Enters Not Guilty By Insanity Plea In Colo. Shootings

Originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 1:11 pm

Credit / Bill Robles/Reuters /Landov

James Holmes on Monday formally changed his plea from not guilty to "not guilty by reason of insanity" for the July 20, 2012, movie theater shooting rampage in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 people dead and an additional 70 injured.

Holmes' lawyers had said last week that the young man would be doing this.

Read more

12:48pm

Mon May 13, 2013
The Two-Way

Obama On IRS Actions: 'Outrageous' If True

Originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 1:13 pm

Credit Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images

It's "outrageous and there's no place for it" if the Internal Revenue Service did, as it has admitted, single out some conservative groups for extra scrutiny in recent years, President Obama said Monday morning during a news conference at the White House.

Read more

10:50am

Mon May 13, 2013
The Two-Way

Supreme Court Rules For Monsanto In Case Against Farmer

Credit Dan Charles / NPR

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that an Indiana farmer infringed on Monsanto's patent when he planted soybeans that had been genetically modified by Monsanto without buying them from the agribusiness giant.

Read more

10:30am

Mon May 13, 2013
The Two-Way

Britain's Cameron Sees 'A Real Breakthrough' On Syria

Originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 12:17 pm

Credit Nikolsky Alexei / ITAR-TASS /Landov
  • On 'Morning Edition': British Prime Minister David Cameron talks with NPR's Steve Inskeep

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry "made a real breakthrough" last week in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they agreed there will be an American-Russian peace conference on Syria, British Prime Minister David Cameron told NPR on Monday.

Read more

9:36am

Mon May 13, 2013
The Two-Way

IRS Targeted Additional Conservative Groups, Probe Shows

Originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 12:14 pm

Credit Dennis Brack / Landov

"The Internal Revenue Service's scrutiny of conservative groups went beyond those with 'tea party' or 'patriot' in their names — as the agency admitted Friday — to also include ones worried about government spending, debt or taxes, and even ones that lobbied to 'make America a better place to live,' " The Wall Street Journal reports.

Read more

8:09am

Mon May 13, 2013
The Two-Way

'I Hope He Rots,' Says Brother Of Cleveland Kidnaps Suspect

Originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 10:24 am

Credit CNN

Calling his brother a hateful monster, Onil Castro has told CNN he hopes Ariel Castro "rots in that jail."

"I want him to suffer," he said of Ariel, the 52-year-old man accused of holding three young women captive in his Cleveland home for about a decade — years in which Ariel Castro allegedly raped them repeatedly and subjected them to other physical and mental torment.

Read more

6:52am

Mon May 13, 2013
The Two-Way

In Pakistan, Sharif Turns To Unstable Nation's Dire Problems

Originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 10:19 am

Credit T. Mughal / EPA /LANDOV

With a commanding lead for his party in the vote count following Saturday's parliamentary elections, former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is returning to power with a clear mandate to focus on the grave problems facing his nation, as NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from Lahore for Morning Edition.

Read more

11:43am

Sat May 11, 2013
The Two-Way

In Cleveland, 30 Minutes Of Bravery Ended 10-Year Nightmare

Credit David Maxwell / EPA /LANDOV

Until today, there's been a rush of news related to the kidnapping of three young women in Cleveland, their rescue after a decade in captivity and the chilling details that have emerged about what they went through. Now, the news has slowed. We suspect there will be less to report in coming days, but we'll watch for important developments.

There is a story to recommend, though:

Read more

10:49am

Sat May 11, 2013
The Two-Way

Emotions Run High After Boston Bombing Suspect's Burial

Originally published on Sat May 11, 2013 1:04 pm

Credit Yuri Gripas / Reuters /Landov

The news that Boston Marathon bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been buried in a rural cemetery just north of Richmond, Va., is causing controversy there.

Read more

9:47am

Sat May 11, 2013
The Two-Way

Pakistanis 'Defy Violence' To Vote In Landmark Election

Originally published on Sat May 11, 2013 11:17 pm

Credit T. Mughal / EPA /LANDOV

Despite attacks in the days and weeks leading up to Saturday's voting — and deadly bombings and other attacks on the very day they're going to the polls — Pakistanis are showing they're willing to "defy the violence," NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from Lahore.

Read more

9:22am

Sat May 11, 2013
The Two-Way

Schools? How About A Science Laureate At The Super Bowl?

Originally published on Sat May 11, 2013 10:11 am

Credit Michael DeMocker / The Times-Picayune /Landov

The same scientist who famously "killed Pluto" (as a planet, that is) says it's "brilliant" that there's an effort underway in Congress to name a science laureate.

Read more

8:34am

Sat May 11, 2013
The Two-Way

LIVE: Webcast Of Astronauts' Spacewalk

Originally published on Sat May 11, 2013 5:11 pm

Two astronauts went on a last-minute spacewalk Saturday to replace a pump suspected of being the source of a serious ammonia leak.

It was unclear what caused the ammonia leak, NASA spokesman Rob Navias said, "but the installation of this spare pump package — at least at the moment — seems to have done the trick."

NASA officials called the spacewalk a success, but said it would take time to see if the leak was indeed stopped. Engineers will review photos the astronauts took at the site.

Read more

7:48am

Sat May 11, 2013
The Two-Way

Officials Aren't Linking Man's Arrest To Texas Explosion

Credit Jerry Larson/pool / EPA /LANDOV

Saturday's reports about the arrest of a former emergency services volunteer in the town of West, Texas, indicate the story has not moved much from where we left things on Friday:

Read more

7:17am

Sat May 11, 2013
The Two-Way

Genocide Conviction In Guatemala Is 'Huge Breakthrough'

Originally published on Sat May 11, 2013 2:04 pm

Credit Jorge Dan Lopez / Reuters /Landov

Former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt was convicted of genocide by a court in his country Friday for the part he played in massacres and other crimes committed against Mayans while he ruled in 1982 and 1983.

Read more

Pages