Heidi Accola works a stand at the farmers market in Baraboo, Wis. She runs a 1-acre organic farm with her husband, but she says they don't talk politics at home because it gets too heated.
Credit Melissa Block / NPR
A bumper sticker on the car of Bob Greenwood of Baraboo, Wis. "Recall Santa" reflects the bitterly divisive recall election this year, which Republican Gov. Scott Walker survived easily.
Wisconsin is a prime battleground state in this year's presidential election.
Republicans hope the pick of native son Paul Ryan as their vice presidential nominee will bolster their chances to turn the state red in November. Wisconsin hasn't voted for a Republican for president since 1984. Barack Obama won the state by a blowout 14 points in 2008. And a run of Wisconsin polls this week shows him widening his lead over Mitt Romney.
So what do Wisconsin voters have to say about their choices — and their mood?
The Space Shuttle Endeavour passes the Hollywood Sign and the Griffith Observatory as seen from Dodger Stadium Friday.
Credit Sandy Huffaker / Getty Images
The space shuttle Endeavour flies atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft or SCA over the Griffith Park Obervatory in Los Angeles.
Credit Jae C. Hong / AP
Spectators take pictures with varied levels of excitement, as the Space Shuttle Endeavour, mounted on NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, flies near Santa Monica.
Credit Ringo H.W. Chiu / AP
Spectators Mario Vasquez of Redondo Beach and his son Mario Jr., 2, watch as Endeavour prepares to land at Los Angeles International Airport Friday. In a few weeks, the shuttle will travel through the city's streets to its new home at the California Science Center.
Credit Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images
Space shuttle Endeavour and its Shuttle Carrier Aircraft land at Los Angeles International Airport.
Credit John Rose / NPR
The space shuttle Endeavor flies by Griffith Observatory on its final voyage to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, Calif., Friday.
Credit Ringo H.W. Chiu / AP
Spectators Mario Vasquez, 40, of Redondo Beach and his son Mario Jr., 2, watch as space shuttle Endeavour, atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, prepares to land at Los Angeles International Airport Friday.
Credit Mark J. Terrill / AP
The Space Shuttle Endeavour atop a modified 747 passes the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Observatory as seen from Dodger Stadium Friday.
Originally published on Mon September 24, 2012 5:44 am
The Space Shuttle Endeavour has landed safely in Los Angeles, after giving admirers around the city a chance to take historic photos of its last flight.
"Amazing, amazing, amazing," Derek Johns, 41, told The Los Angeles Times. Johns took photos from a pier.
"I got chills," El Segundo councilman Dave Atkinson told the paper. "This is America at its finest."
Jerome Horwitz, the developer of the antiretroviral drug AZT, died earlier this month. Audie Cornish speaks with Paul Volberding, Director of the Center for AIDS Research at the University of San Francisco about how AZT revolutionized AIDS research.
Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 4:59 pm
Separate appearances Friday by President Obama and Rep. Paul Ryan before an AARP meeting in New Orleans proved that the third rail of American politics, Medicare and Social Security collectively, is still very much electrified.
Speaking to a supremely friendly audience via live video feed from Virginia, where he was campaigning, Obama drew repeated applause and cheers with promises to defend Medicare and Social Security from Republican proposals that he said threaten the entitlement programs' ability to deliver the kind of benefits seniors have become accustomed to.
Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 5:47 pm
One hundred ten chimpanzees will retire from biomedical research, the National Institutes of Health announced today. The move comes as some groups are pushing for a ban on all medical chimp research.
The NIH has been reviewing its chimp research since December. That's when a report from the Institute of Medicine said that there was almost no scientific need for doing biomedical research on chimps.
Francesa Anello with the Los Angeles County Mental Health Department heads up mental health services for prisoners at the county jail. She's responsible for reintegrating released prisoners with mental illness back into the community.
Under California's criminal justice realignment program, counties are taking over responsibility from the state for low-level felons. And that has affected how inmates with histories of mental illness move through the system even after they're released.
Republican Rep. Todd Akin and incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill debate Friday in Columbia, Mo. McCaskill had once been considered among the most vulnerable Senate Democrats until Akin made comments about "legitimate rape." The candidates were asked about Akin's controversial statement at the start of Friday's debate.
Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 6:58 pm
Republican dreams of taking control of the U.S. Senate in November have been declared all but dead over the past several days by prognosticators pointing to trouble facing the party in unexpected places.
Missouri and Indiana come to mind.
But don't count Senate race analyst Jennifer Duffy among them.
"I'm not ready to call this done and over," Duffy said of the GOP's push to pick up four seats, which would definitely tip the Senate balance of power. "We seem to be in some period of transition. Whether it's permanent or not, we'll know in a couple weeks."
Just a few months ago, most observers believed Republicans had a pretty decent chance to take control of the U.S. Senate. Now, that doesn't seem as likely.
Robert Siegel talks to regular political commentators, E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution, and David Brooks of The New York Times. They discuss Mitt Romney's "47 percent," new polls on the presidential race, and close Senate races.
Denver Broncos Coach John Fox yells at field judge Jimmy Buchanan during the Broncos' game against Atlanta Monday. Referring to the game, the NFL insisted that players and coaches give replacement referees, and the game, more respect.
Originally published on Mon September 24, 2012 5:44 am
Despite complaints from NFL coaches and players, the league and its locked-out officials are no closer to reaching a deal than they were last week, according to reports. The two sides are separated by "significant and serious economic gaps," an anonymous source tells the AP.
A representative of the NFL Referees Association confirmed that talks had taken place, but he would not go into detail, the AP reports.
Arefa with her host family, sisters Jami Valentine (left) and Staci Freeman. Doctors in the U.S. have been treating Arefa's third-degree burns, and also performed skin-graft surgery for the top of her head. Each morning still requires a fresh dressing.
Credit Courtesy of Solace for the Children
Valentine and Freeman greet Arefa after she arrived at LAX in June.
There is limited medical infrastructure in war-torn Afghanistan, so severely wounded children are sometimes brought to the U.S. for medical care. Doctors in America say that for one little girl, her struggle to stay alive for three years until finding her way from central Afghanistan to a hospital in Los Angeles is nothing short of a miracle.
Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 3:58 pm
Niles Paul had a problem. The second-year tight end for the Washington Redskins couldn't stop his teammates from stealing his Capri Sun. You know, Capri Sun — those sugary-sweet packets of juice that come in triangular foil containers with their own straws attached.
Outtake from a Devo show? Nope, It's an orgone accumulator. The device was touted as treatment for anemia, epilepsy and high blood pressure. In 1954, the FDA halted distribution of the devices.
Credit Science Museum of Minnesota
The Psychograph. It looks like something you'd find in your grandmother's hair salon, but this machine supposedly read the bumps on a person's head to measure personality traits.
Credit Food and Drug Administration
The Magnetron. Osteopath Peter D. Pauls claimed that by placing one foot on a red pad and one hand on a metal tube, patients could be treated for conditions ranging from rheumatoid arthritis to diabetes.
Credit Science Museum of Minnesota
The Kellogg Vibratory Chair. Though it looks like an instrument of capital punishment, this electric-powered chair was reputed to cure constipation and improve respiration. The chair shook and rattled so violently that patients had to hold firmly onto side handles.
Credit Food and Drug Administration
The Relaxacizor. Popularized by advertisements featuring unauthorized celebrity endorsements, the Relaxacizor claimed to help women drop dress sizes while reading, eating dinner, or sleeping. The machine used electrical pulses, which the FDA found to be harmful some people.
Credit Science Museum of Minnesota
The McGregor Rejuvenator. M.E. Montrude, Jr., the maker of this 1932 device, claimed that by using magnetism, radio waves and ultraviolet rays, the rejuvenator could reverse the aging process.
The third season of the television showDownton Abbey premiered in the U.K. last weekend, and if you're a dedicated follower like me, you'll know that medical tragedy is no stranger to the Crowley household.
Many people erupted in outrage when secretly taped remarks by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney were released earlier this week. But people from both sides of the political aisle suggest that maybe Romney has a point. Host Michel Martin speaks with David Sirota who wrote about this on Salon.com, and Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute.
Anti-American protests continued throughout the Muslim world today, sparked by a video that insults the Prophet Mohammad. Host Michel Martin looks at the heated debate about freedom of speech, Islam and American values with Dalia Mogahed of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and Dr. Zuhdi Jasser of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.
After an investigation that lasted two years, the House Ethics Committee has cleared Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of charges that she tried to influence regulators when a bank that her husband owns stock in went looking for a federal bailout in 2008.
Virginia Republican Bob Goodlatte, acting chairman of the ethics panel, announced the decision this morning.
Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 10:36 am
Before we go slow, let's go fast, so fast you can't go any faster. That would be light in a vacuum, traveling at 670 million miles per hour ...
Light, of course, can slow down. When light passes through water, it loses speed. A diamond is an even better speed bump. It can slow a beam of light by 40 percent.
But moving on, you and I are going pretty fast right now, though we don't notice. The planet we're on is zipping around the sun at 66,000-plus miles per hour ...
Originally published on Mon September 24, 2012 10:25 am
September can't end soon enough for Mitt Romney, as a leaked video — and some disappointing poll numbers in swing states — add to his woes. Republicans, trying to win a Senate majority, get some surprise encouragement in Connecticut.
But new polling in Virginia is problematic, and news out of Indiana and Wisconsin brings cheers to Democrats.
Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 9:51 am
It's a "now familiar global ritual," as The Associated Press says: Apple fans are lining up today at stores "from Sydney to Paris to pick up the tech juggernaut's latest iPhone."
In March, Stacey Kargman-Kaye (left) and her partner, Sharon Gorenstein, with sons Asher, 13, and Ezra, 8, gathered at the Maryland Statehouse in Annapolis to witness the signing of a law recognizing same-sex marriage. On Nov. 6, Maryland voters will decide whether to overturn the new law.
Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 12:22 pm
If you didn't get your fill of the debate about the best ways to evaluate and compensate teachers from the strike in Chicago, you can now tune in to hear similar arguments in Idaho.
Voters there are going to decide the fate of three different state laws that would phase out tenure, offer financial incentives to top-performing teachers and strip teachers of collective bargaining rights.
All of these laws are being challenged by what are known as popular referendums: when citizens challenge laws that have already been passed by the legislature and signed by the governor.
"A sculpture like this can take a master carver years to produce. Front and center are the popular Taoist gods Shou, Lu and Fu — symbols of long life, money, and luck. 'We hope — no, we insist — we can continue to protect these skills,' says Wang Shan, secretary-general of the China Arts and Crafts Association."
Credit Brent Stirton / National Geographic
"Some of the last big tuskers gather in Tsavo, Kenya. A single large tusk sold on the local black market can bring $6,000, enough to support an unskilled Kenyan worker for 10 years."
Credit Brent Stirton / National Geographic
"The largest ivory crucifix in the Philippines hangs in a museum in Manila. The body of Christ, 30 inches long, is carved from a single tusk. The piece dates to the early 1600s, when Spanish galleons began bringing Asian ivory craftsmanship to Spain and the New World."
Credit Brent Stirton / National Geographic
"Bodies are what remain in Cameroon's Bouba Ndjidah National Park after one of the largest mass elephant slaughters in decades. Armed with grenades and AK-47s, poachers killed more than 300."
Credit Brent Stirton / National Geographic
"A worker in China's largest ivory-carving factory finishes a piece symbolizing prosperity. China legally bought 73 tons of ivory from Africa in 2008; since then, poaching and smuggling have both soared."
Credit Brent Stirton / National Geographic
"Smugglers failed to get this contraband past Kenya's law enforcement, but the animals are still gone. Small tusks indicate that young elephants were poached."
Credit Brent Stirton / National Geographic
"A sculpture like this can take a master carver years to produce. Front and center are the popular Taoist gods Shou, Lu and Fu -- symbols of long life, money and luck. 'We hope -- no, we insist -- we can continue to protect these skills,' says Wang Shan, secretary-general of the China Arts and Crafts Association."
Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 9:21 pm
My immediate response to the intricate carvings in these photos is awe — maybe even admiration. I can't believe they are made by hand from one solid piece of material. With such detail and complexity, I can see why they would be coveted and sold at a high price.
Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 12:21 pm
Fundraising reports filed last night by the presidential campaigns show President Obama with a slight advantage in fundraising last month, while Republican Mitt Romney has the edge by some other measures.
Each candidate is raising money for his own campaign committee, plus his national party committee and a joint fundraising committee or two.
So what you see depends on what you look at.
In cash on hand, the overall Romney organization finished August with more than $168 million — that's $43 million more than the overall Obama organization.
And the space agency has put together a timetable for Endeavour's flybys that will give folks from San Francisco to Southern California a chance to see the shuttle aboard the jumbo jet that's carrying it to L.A.
January 2011: Boys in the Andar district of Afghanistan gathered to collect candy from passing U.S. Army soldiers. Now, there are reports from that area of locals rising up against the Taliban.
As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta notes that the last of the 33,000 so-called surge troops who were added to the U.S. force in Afghanistan last year have now left the country, there's this interesting news:
Originally published on Fri September 21, 2012 10:45 am
(Check below for updates.)
Tens of thousands of people are protesting in all of Pakistan's major cities today, NPR's Jackie Northam reports from Islamabad, as those who oppose U.S. policy in the region continue to use outrage over an anti-Islam video to whip up anti-American sentiment.
There are also reports of new protests in other Muslim nations, including Bangladesh and Malaysia.
Canadian performing artist Fan Yang set a Guinness record for number of people enclosed in a soap bubble. Yang burst the previous record by getting 181 people — arms at their sides — to resist the urge to poke the bubble as it slowly rose around them.
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has been busy after a tape emerged of him telling wealthy donors that nearly half of Americans see themselves as victims dependent on the federal government. Now he's trying to make those remarks part of a broader argument: What is the proper role of government and who should pay for it?
