NPR News

Pages

The Two-Way
4:47 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Tornado Emergency Declared In Oklahoma City

Credit Brett Deering / Getty Images
Volunteers help clean out Jean McAdams' mobile home after it was overturned by a tornado today near Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:23 pm

(This post was last updated at 5:12 p.m. ET.)

A massive tornado ripped through the southern suburbs of Oklahoma City, Monday afternoon.

Helicopter images showed large tracts of Moore, Okla., completely leveled by what KFOR-TV reports was a more than mile-wide tornado.

Earlier today, the National Weather Service issued a tornado emergency for the Oklahoma City metro area.

Read more
All Tech Considered
4:29 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Yahoo's Other Billion Dollar Bets: Where Are They Now?

Credit Mark J. Terrill / AP
GeoCities employees pose for a picture in 1999 after the Yahoo acquisition was announced. Yahoo quietly shut down GeoCities a decade later.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:23 pm

Yahoo's $1.1 billion purchase of Tumblr could be considered a bargain compared to its other big-dollar bets. The company's history is dotted with pricey purchases of once-hot Web properties that had more promise than eventual purpose. A look back:

GeoCities, 1999: $3.7 Billion

Read more
Shots - Health News
4:28 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Latest Health Hurdle: Buying Insurance Without A Bank Account

Credit Mary Altaffer / AP
Millions of people who rely on check-cashing stores, like this one in New York City, could run into trouble buying health insurance.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:09 pm

When movie stars become unbankable, they're no longer a slam dunk at the box office. When investments become unbankable, they're relegated to the Wall Street's junk pile. For ordinary Americans deemed unbankablethose who don't have a traditional checking or savings account — it can be hard to simply pay bills.

And that absence of a bank account is about to become a big problem for those who also lack health coverage — and for the health insurance companies trying to sell them coverage. After all, how do you sell a product to a customer who has no easy way to pay you?

Read more
The Two-Way
4:19 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Fox Calls U.S. Surveillance Of Its Reporter 'Downright Chilling'

Fox News said that it was "outraged," after learning that the Justice Department obtained the personal emails of one of its reporters during the course of a 2009 leak investigation.

Read more
Parallels
4:02 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Iran's 'Zahra' Tells Alternate Tale Of Presidential Campaign

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:15 pm

Iranians choose a new president next month, and one thing Iran's leaders are intent on avoiding is a repeat of the massive street protests that followed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election in 2009.

The sponsors of those protests, known as the Green Movement, have been effectively silenced inside Iran, but not online. The heroine of a graphic novel about the violent suppression of dissent in 2009 is now launching a virtual campaign of her own.

Read more
The Two-Way
3:46 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

British Aircraft Carrier HMS Ark Royal Heads For Scrap Yard

Credit Kyle Heller / AP
The HMS Ark Royal steams into Portsmouth, England, for the last time on Dec. 3, 2010, in preparation for decommissioning.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:22 pm

The people of Portsmouth, England, on Monday turned out to bid farewell to the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, destined for a Turkish scrap yard after its decommissioning two years ago.

Read more
The Salt
3:27 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Washington State Butcher Spikes Pig Feed With Weed

Credit Courtesy of BB Ranch
William von Schneidau, who owns the BB Ranch butcher shop at Pike Place Market in Seattle, has made prosciutto from pigs fed marijuana.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:16 pm

William von Schneidau, an intrepid butcher in Seattle, is giving a whole new meaning to "potbelly pig." Lately, he's been feeding marijuana refuse to the pigs he turns into prosciutto for BB Ranch, his butcher shop in the city's famous Pike Place Marke

Read more
The Salt
3:01 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Sandwich Monday: The Saltwich

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 3:48 pm

For years, one of the pieces of advice we've been ignoring is that we should really cut back on our salt intake. Now, a panel of experts convened by the Institute of Medicine says limiting salt below a certain amount may not really do us any good. Around here, we take this to mean: Eat as much salt as you can or you'll die.

Read more
The Two-Way
2:44 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

WATCH: A Train Wreck Of A 'Star-Spangled Banner' Performance

Credit YouTube
Alexis Normand sings the anthem.
The Two-Way
2:35 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Turnabout Is Fair Play: Senators Have Many Questions For IRS

Credit Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images
Outgoing acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Steven Miller.

The Internal Revenue Service is under fire for improperly singling out some conservative groups for extra scrutiny — putting them through months (or longer) of questions that delayed or derailed the organizations' requests for tax-exempt status.

Well, now the chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee have some questions and requests — actually dozens of them — for the IRS.

Read more

Pages