Search results for

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 Mike Shuster reports that since the execution last November of Nigerian activist Ken Saro-wiwa [seh-roh-WEE-wah], the US has been talking about what other measures it could take to put pressure on the Nigerian government. There is some support in Congress for more moves against Nigeria's military rulers, but President Clinton does not appear willing to push for the sanction that would hurt the most: an oil embargo.

Over a million teenage girls in the United States become pregnant each year. But there is no consensus over what should be done, or what to tell young people to keep them from becoming sexually active or getting pregnant at an early age. NPR's Vicky Que (KWAY) reports from North Carolina that each community in that state gets to decide whether to encourage teens to abstain or to give them as much information as possible about sex and contraceptives.

NPR's Mike Shuster reports on Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy...MinAtom... [min-AT-um] and its director Victor Mikhailov. This agency has responsibility for all the stockpiles of highly enriched uranium and plutonium in Russia. Mikhailov has made life very difficult for US officials who have been trying to help Russia safeguard the material. MinAtom will not admit the extent of the problem it has with security, and according to some officials has stood in the way of most attempts to improve the safeguards.

NPR's Eric Westervelt reports on the so-called empowerment zones that were unveiled...in this incarnation...by the Clinton Administration with big fanfare two years ago. They were touted as a way to use tax credits and social service block grants to revitalize blighted urban areas. Now, some are pointing to Philadelphia, which was one of six sites which qualified for "empowerment zone" money, as an example of how the program has succeeded. But critics say the concept may not be working.

NPR's Sunni Khalid reports from Beirut, Lebanon on the latest fighting between Israel and Lebanese-based Hizbollah movement. For the third day, the Israelis attacked Hizbollah positions, in retaliation for Hizbollah rocket attacks on settlements in Northern Israel. Today, Israeli ships blockaded the coast of Lebanon to prevent incoming boats from delivering supplies to Hizbollah. And an Israeli helicoptor destroyed an ambulance carrying refugees in South Lebanon. There were civilian casualties. Israel says the ambulance was transporting a Hizbollah fighter.

NPR's Joe Palca reports that scientists have for the first time deciphered the entire genetic code for an organism that has cells like humans. An international collaboration has sequenced the entire 16-chromosome genome of baker's yeast, which, like humans, have "eukaryotic cells." Researchers believe the achievement will help give scientists an extremely useful tool for learning more fundamental biological functions.

NPR'S Brooke Gladstone reports on an Austin Texas television station's effort to reduce the violence in its local newscasts. News executives at K-VUE have adopted experimental guidelines for determining whether certain violent pictures or stories should even air. Its local competitors accuse K-VUE of arrogantly filtering the news. Yet the station's newscasts are number one in its market.

the new labor initiative with a well-coordinated counterattack. They plan to label the campaign as an attempt by Washington union bosses to tell rank and file members what to do in an effort to enhance the union leadership's power. The GOP has filed complaints about union spending with the Federal Election Commission, but the law governing such independent expenditures is murky. Peter Overby reports.

NPR's Sue Simpson reports on the anxiety in South Africa's mixed-race, or "colored," community, in the new era of black majority rule. Under apartheid, coloreds were treated better than blacks--they could own businesses and got preferential treatment in housing and jobs. Now many fear that they will become second-class citizens in the new South Africa, as Nelson Mandela's government tries to improve the lot of the black community.