Search results for

NPR's Jason Beaubien reports on the struggle between Massachusetts officials who are setting educational standards for the state, and local school district officials who have to enforce them. The mayor of one Massachusetts town feels the statewide testing requirements favor the abilities of affluent students.

From Minnesota Public Radio, Dan Gunderson reports on the community effort in Moorhead, Minnesota, to protect homes and buildings from flooding rivers. With memories of the 1997 floods fresh in their minds, residents are quickly erecting emergency levees in the hopes of avoiding the billions of dollars in damage they saw four years ago.

Geraldine Coughlan reports that a bill voted up in the Dutch Senate today has made euthanasia legal in the Netherlands -- the first country in the world to legalize this complex issue. A system of rules and regulations is being set up, and legal euthanizations will begin in the summer.

President Bush ruffled lots of feathers weeks ago by backing away from the Kyoto global warming treat and delaying rules limiting arsenic in drinking water. NPR's John Nielsen reports that Mr. Bush's 2001 federal budget contains a quieter but no less pointed attack on Clinton environmental policies.

An association of public safety officials wants to negotiate a settlement to its ongoing fight with cellular phone companies. Each side has blamed the other for delays in building a tracing capacity into their phones to aid emergency workers. The public safety officials want the FCC to reject delaying tactics by the phone companies. NPR's Emily Harris reports.

NPR's Kate Seelye reports from Bahrain, on the steps the emirate is taking towards democracy. Last month the country approved a new charter rearranging the government into a constitutional monarchy. While the empire has gained a great deal of popularity from the move, past attempts at democracy in this state have met with conflict.

NPR's John Nielsen reports that President Bush made a last-minute decision to keep carbon dioxide unregulated by the federal government. The president was expected to act on campaign promises to cut the level of CO2 coming from power plants, in an effort to limit global warming.

NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from London that as the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain spreads, more countries are banning animal products from the European Union. Amid growing criticism of the way it's handling the crisis, the British government is responding by slaughtering more animals. Farmers complain, however, carcasses are already piling up.

The captain of the Japanese fishing trawler that sank after a collision with a U.S. submarine took the stand today in the Navy's court of inquiry into the accident. What followed were the most moving and emotional hours yet in the dramatic proceeding. NPR's Andy Bowers reports from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

NPR's Guy Raz reports that fighting abated today around the northwest Macedonian city of Tetovo. The Macedonian army had deployed tanks and sent in infantry to put down ethnic Albanian rebels in the hills above the city. NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson warned the rebels that the international community will not allow the break-up of Macedonia by violent insurrection.