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It's All Politics
3:19 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

Ten Things We Learned From the IRS-Inspector General Report

Credit Al Behrman / AP
The John Weld Peck Federal Building in Cincinnati, where many of the missteps by IRS workers who targeted conservative groups occurred.

Originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 4:29 pm

Scintillating isn't how you'd describe the report issued by the Treasury inspector general's report on the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups.

It was written, after all, by government bureaucrats for government bureaucrats. Enough said.

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The Two-Way
2:41 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

Richard Swanson Didn't Reach Brazil, But He Found An Audience

Credit YouTube
Richard Swanson, who died in Oregon Tuesday, has inspired an outpouring of condolences as his story of walking to Brazil for charity has inspired those who learn about it.

Hundreds of condolences are appearing online for Richard Swanson, the Seattle man whose plan to dribble a soccer ball all the way to Brazil to raise money for charity ended Tuesday after he was struck and killed by a pickup truck in Oregon. Many see his story as an inspiration, and say they'll continue his charity work.

"It is with a heavy heart to notify you that Richard Swanson passed on this morning," reads an update announcing Swanson's death on the Facebook page for his project, Breakaway Brazil, yesterday.

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Politics
2:37 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

Maryland Suburb Says 16 Is Old Enough To Vote

Originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 7:30 am

If you're old enough to drive, are you old enough to vote?

You soon will be if you live in Takoma Park, Md. The famously progressive suburb of Washington, D.C., has just extended voting rights in municipal elections to 16- and 17-year-olds.

Takoma Park was the first city in the country to take such a step, but its action is part of a larger trend toward letting people vote earlier.

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Parallels
2:20 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

Heavy Metal In Kabul? It's The Music, Not The Munitions

Originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 7:35 am

When 23-year-old Solomon "Sully" Omar felt the music scene in his native Denver wasn't giving him what he was looking for, he made a radical move. He headed for Kabul, capital of the war-torn country his parents had fled decades ago.

"I came here to continue my education and at the same time see what's in the music scene here and bring some of the skills and abilities that I have to the music scene," says Omar.

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Around the Nation
2:06 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

Fund To Help Boston Bombing Victims Raises $30 Million

Originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 5:39 pm

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

It's been one month since a pair of bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding more than 260. NPR's Joel Rose returned to the scene today and found Bostonians observing the somber occasion with little fanfare.

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World Cafe
2:02 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

RNDM On World Cafe

Credit Courtesy of the artist
RNDM.

RNDM is a new band featuring Joseph Arthur, Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament and drummer Richard Stuverud. Ament and Arthur met when the latter opened for Pearl Jam on tour.

Ament tells World Cafe host David Dye that he was mesmerized by Arthur's ability to create band sounds by looping his guitar and vocals. He also describes how RNDM formed and explains the process behind creating its debut album, Acts.

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News
1:59 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

When The Missing Return, Recovery Is Long, Too

Credit Chris Langer / Barcroft Media/Landov
A missing poster is left on a tree outside Amanda Berry's home in Cleveland last week.

They call themselves "Rooters," and they convene in a private online place they call the "RooterHood."

There, they can talk freely and frankly about what it was like to be kidnapped, to be stripped of identity, often sexually abused by their captors, separated from family, friends.

And also about the struggle to recover their uprooted lives, to trust and hope again.

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Music Interviews
1:41 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

Laura Mvula's Velvet 'Moon' Is A Revelation

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Laura Mvula's debut is ambitiously confident, as if she and her band had perfected their sound years ago.

Originally published on Fri May 17, 2013 7:33 am

Code Switch
1:40 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

Immigrants To Be Largest Driver Of U.S. Population Growth

Credit LM Otero / AP
Immigrants take the U.S. oath of citizenship during a naturalization ceremony in Irving, Texas.

Originally published on Thu May 16, 2013 7:56 am

New immigrants will be the main driver of population growth in the U.S. by as early as 2027, according to new Census Bureau projections.

This would be the first time in almost two centuries that new births will not be the largest source of U.S. population growth.

The Census Bureau says its projections show a combination of declining fertility rates, aging baby boomers and ongoing immigration to the United States.

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Shots - Health News
1:16 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

How Researchers Cloned Human Embryos

Credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/ohsunews/8726915230/in/photostream/ / Courtesy of OHSU Photos
Human embryos grow in a petri dish two days after scientists in Oregon cloned them from a donor's skin cell.

Originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 2:49 pm

Scientists in Oregon have achieved something that many thought might be impossible.

They said Wednesday that they have cloned human embryos and then harvested the embryo's stem cells.

The discovery, if it holds up, means scientists would be able to make personalized stem cells, with their genetic code almost perfectly matched to that of a patient.

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The Two-Way
1:00 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

Publisher Threatens Librarian With $1 Billion Lawsuit

A scholarly publisher has issued a warning to Jeffrey Beall, a librarian who writes about what he calls "predatory" practices in the scholarly publishing industry, threatening him with a $1 billion lawsuit for his blog posts criticizing the company.

Beall is an academic librarian at the University of Colorado; he writes about the journal industry on his personal blog, Scholarly Open Access.

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Parallels
12:11 pm
Wed May 15, 2013

After Two Years In Hiding, A Bahraini Blogger Escapes

Credit Mazen Mahdi / EPA/Landov
Online activist Ali Abdulemam (right) is greeted in Manama, Bahrain, on Feb. 23, 2011, shortly after anti-government protests began. Wanted by the government, he went into hiding the following month. He escaped from Bahrain after two years underground and made his first public appearance Wednesday in Oslo, Norway.

Originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 12:44 pm

The Arab world was aflame in March 2011. Longtime rulers in Tunisia and Egypt had been toppled. NATO was poised to attack Libyan government forces. The Syrian uprising was just beginning. And on the small island nation of Bahrain, the government was cracking down on pro-democracy protesters.

Across Bahrain, protest leaders were rounded up and some were quickly tried, convicted and sentenced to prison. The writing was on the wall for the leaders of the movement, including Ali Abdulemam.

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