Search results for

Commentator Jack Beatty says the presidential campaign is already incredibly nasty and he thinks that is in part because there is so little difference between Senator Dole and President Clinton on the issues. He says they have to beat each other up in negative ads because it fills the ideological void.

Film critic Bob Mondello reviews "Cold Comfort Farm" by director John Schlesinger -- a tale of a snippy London observer of rural weirdness.

for disciplining their children and endorses curfews to help reduce juvenile crime.

has called on the government to relax the restrictions it imposes on Cryptography, the science of scrambling electronic data. The panel said the government should promote such efforts to protect phone conversation and computer data.

In the first of two reports on Mexican immigrants, NPR's David Welna visits a poor town in the Mexican heartland which for the past fifty years has had a steady stream of its young men leave for the United States. Some of those who left Cotija (coh-TEE-ha) are undocumented workers; others have legal status. Most of those who leave return home in the winter months, when work is harder to find. By working the US, they have incomes many times greater than what they could make back home. The migration to the U-S has created a shortage of men in Cotija, but the money they send back is crucial to the town's survival.

Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary apologized today for mismanaging her expensive overseas official travel. But she also defended the trips, in her testimony before the House Commerce investigations subcommittee. O'Leary said her missions abroad generated business for American firms and benefitted U-S foreign policy. NPR's John Nielsen reports.

FBI Director Louis Freeh released an internal report today that was strongly critical of both the White House and the FBI for releasing FBI background files on 408 people to members of the Clinton administration in 1993. The files contained information about employees of the Bush White House, and included a number of well-known Republicans as well as members of the White House travel office. The White House announced today that it will reform its procedure for requesting FBI data on individuals, and will require the permission of the subject as well as the White House counsel's office in most cases. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

An audio postcard from NPR's Melissa Block in New York, who stumbled upon a movie set in New York, without realizing it...

- Tom talks with MIT economist Lester Thurow about the consequences of a growing elderly population in America. Analysts predict the elderly will become a political majority by the year two-thousand twenty-five. Thurow argues that will change the face of American society, from government to business.

- NPR's Richard Harris reports that scientists have discovered that fire ants communicate by using sound. Robert Hickling at the University of Mississipi has been recording fire ants in several conditions and has distinguished many sounds that the fire ants make with their bodies.

A divided Supreme Court struck down four redesigned Congressional districts today in Texas and North Carolina. The districts are all predominantly black or Hispanic. The decision continues a trend in the Court since 1993 to disallow electoral districts that were drawn to create racial majorities. In today's ruling, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor reiterated that districts cannot be drawn up with race as the primary criterion, but also said that it does NOT mean that states can never design predominantly minority districts. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.

Noah talks about some facts about fathers and the history of Father's Day.

- Tom speaks with 74-year old Russell Bonasso who just graduated from West Virginia's Fairmont State College. Bonasso got his bachelor's degree 58 years after he graduated from high school. His educational goals were delayed so he could put his 12 children through college.

- Danny talks with NPR's Anne Garrels who is in Moscow about the latest on Russia's presidential elections. He'll also be joined by Sarah Mendelson, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York in Albany who is currently in Moscow who will discuss implications for Russia's future.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports that Boris Yeltsin and the rebel leader in Chechnya have agreed to a ceasefire beginning Saturday in the 17 month-old war. It was not clear whether the Russian military would observe the ceasefire, and the thorniest issue -- the question of Chechen independence -- was put on the back burner.

Robert and Noah talk about today's Supreme Court decision which struck down congressional redistricting laws in Texas and North Carolina. We'll also hear tape from a representative of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and her reaction to the court decision.

NPR's Brian Naylor reports that Bob Dole's position on the Republican platform's abortion plank has set the stage for a renewed fight this summer at the party's national convention in San Diego. Conservative state party activists are trying to ensure that delegates to the convention are committed to keeping the plank as it is, calling for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. Dole supports that position, but would like to include language recognizing that there are differences within the party on this issue.

NPR's Vicky Que reports on residents from Evansville, Indiana, who are up in arms over the government's new weather-forecasting equipment which was recently installed there. They claim that the new, state-of-the-art Doppler Radar designed to help warn residents of dangerous storms has completely missed several which have swept through the town in recent months, and they'd like the old equipment back.

NPR's Brooke Gladstone reports on the variety of opinions being expressed about Disney's impact on ABC's news and entertainment programming. Disney's take-over of Cap Cities/ABC is one of a number of huge media mergers raising concerns about the demise of network independence.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports on Russian President Boris Yeltsin's trip to Chechnya. The trip is seen as part of Yeltsin's campaign to be re-elected president next month. Yeltsin's declaration today that the war is over might be premature.

- Jazz great Ella Fitzergald - America's "First Lady of Song" - died today. She was 78 years old. Fitzgerald had been in declining health for years. Howard Mandel (Howard MAN-duhl) reports.

Commentator Mickey Edwards says politicians in Washington will do anything for a vote. And both Democrats and Republicans in Washington are guilty of it. Republicans used to say no way to healthcare and minimum wage, now with the November elections in mind, they seem to have changed their minds. The White House is just as guilty of these campaign politics.

Robert remarks on some "non-news" from Eastern Europe which is becoming less and less Eastern. In Poland, a new anti-smoking law took effect last month.

Commentator Jonetta Rose Barris believes that when well-meaning legislators seek to ban advertising on cigarettes and alcohol, they take away the critical element of choice. Efforts to ban such advertising in poor, inner city neighborhoods is paternalistic, she says. Children need to learn to exercise their judgement and practice making choices. The ability to choose wisely isn't dropped in our laps when we turn 21, she says. We need to teach them to beware the products, not the ads.

Commentator Jerry Landay teaches "issues in television" at the University of Illinois. He examines the use of paid political commercials. Paying for these spots is prohibitively expensive and means that some candidates, like those for state offices, spend all their time fundraising instead of pressing the flesh and talking about issues. The networks handing free time to presidential candidates is a step in the right direction, but that does nothing to help the little guy out there running for the state legislature.