Search results for

NPR's David Baron reports that the Department of Health and Human Services completes three days of hearings on the way that donated livers are distributed for transplants. There are deep disagreements among health care professionals and the people who need transplants about the way these organs are allocated, and some critics allege that the centers that perform liver transplant procedures are making profit their number-one priority, rather than life-saving.

Jon Miller reports from Lima on today's talks between the government negotiator and the second-in-command of the leftist rebels holding 72 hostages at the Japanese ambassador's residence. The discussions were expected to focus mostly on setting an agenda for future negotiations, but the fact that they occurred at all was noteworthy. This is only the second face-to-face meeting between the two sides since the crisis began eight weeks ago today, and the first such encounter in six weeks.

Turkey's Islamic Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan will send a high-ranking ministerial envoy to Washington to reassure the Clinton administration that Turkey's recent economic and political rapprochement with Iran is nothing the US, as Turkey's long-time ally, should "be afraid of." The decision was made in the wake of a state visit to Turkey by Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani. Ted Clark reports.

Mike Shuster reports on the geopolitics of the recently independent states of a region that once hosted the caravan trade routes of the Silk Road. Iran, the U.S. and the Central Asian countries themselves are the new players in a rivalry vying for political and commercial dominance over the oil-rich region.

Joshua Levs of member station W-A-B-E reports on the case of James Earl Ray, who was convicted of the assination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray pled guilty to the charge of murder at the time, but he has long held that he is innocent and was coerced into the guilty plea by his lawyers. Now Ray is dying of liver cancer and wants to have a trial.

Silicon Graphics, one of the nation's premier computer makers, is admitting that it may have been duped into selling supercomputers to a Russian laboratory that designs nuclear weapons. Edward McCracken, the chairman of Silicon Graphics, says his company "made some serious judgemental errors" when it shipped two small supercomputer systems to Russia. The U.S. Attorney's office in San Jose, CA. has opened an investigation. NPR's John McChesney reports.

Robert Siegel talks to Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz about the tv coverage of the plane crash. Kurtz says there were few if any high points. As of this week there are now TWO all news cable channels - with the birth of MSNBC. The risk of these all news channels - Kurtz points out- is that you have experts and "self-appointed" experts talking and talking with little or no information being imparted - and lots of wild speculation.

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether President Clinton can be sued while in office for alleged sexual harassment. The justices' action means, for all practical purposes, the case will be on hold until after the presidential election in November. The court will hear Mr. Clinton's argument that presidents have "unique responsibilities" and should not have to deal with private civil suits while in office. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.

The California state legislature is trying to blunt the effect of a recent state supreme court ruling that gave judges more discretion in handing down mandatory tough sentences to third-time felons. NPR's Renee Montagne reports on efforts by the law's supporters to prove that it's working to reduce crime, and on contrary studies that suggest the law has little to do with what may just be a nationwide downward trend in crime.

The city of Baltimore received a $300 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to replace some of its most rundown and dangerous public housing developments. Many of the families who lived in one of these projects, Lexington Terrace, say that even though the buildings were a haven for drug dealers and posed serious hazards to their children, they'll still miss the place they called home. Amy Bernstein reports from Baltimore.