Losing Weight: A Battle Against Fat And Biology

Part of an ongoing series on obesity in America If you’re among the two-thirds of Americans who are overweight, chances are you’ve had people tell you to just ease up on the eating and use a little self-control. It does, of course, boil down to “calories in, calories out.” But there’s a lot more to [...]

Countries Grow Populations, And Face New Problems

NPR’s Frank Langfitt has spent the past year reporting in two countries where the populations and the problems could not be more different: South Sudan and China. The best way to travel in South Sudan is by plane. That’s because, in a nation nearly the size of Texas, there are hardly any paved roads. Earlier [...]

Visualizing How A Population Grows To 7 Billion

The U.N. estimates that the world’s population will pass the 7 billion mark on Monday. Much of that growth has happened in Asia — in India and China. Those two countries have been among the world’s most populous for centuries. But a demographic shift is taking place as the countries have modernized and lowered their [...]

Students Born To Illegal Immigrants Sue Over Tuition

A class-action lawsuit has been filed in Miami by Florida residents being charged out-of-state tuition rates to attend state colleges and universities. The students are American citizens — children who were born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants — and they say Florida’s regulations violate their constitutional rights. Wendy Ruiz, a 19-year-old sophomore at Miami [...]

Thousands Of Trucking Jobs, But Few Take The Wheel

Tough as it is to find work these days, tens of thousands of jobs paying middle-class wages are going unfilled. Open truck-driving jobs require little more than a high school diploma and a month or so of training. But not everybody wants to be a long-haul truck driver, and many who do find they just [...]

Trust In America: Recovering What’s Lost

Whom do you trust? A recent New York Times/CBS News poll showed barely 10 percent of the public trusts the government. But it doesn’t stop there: Trust in public institutions like corporations, banks, courts, the media and universities is at an all-time low; the military is one of the few exceptions. “I trust that people [...]

Syria’s Assad Warns Against Foreign Intervention

Syrian President Bashar Assad warned of an earthquake if international forces intervene in his country where anti-government protesters are calling for protection amid a crackdown that has killed thousands. In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Assad said calls by the protest movement for a Libya-style no-fly zone over his country — or any [...]

From Mafia Soldier To Cocaine Cowboy

Jon Roberts was born into the Mafia. His father, Nat Riccobono, and his uncles came to New York City from Sicily and made money by running shady businesses throughout New York in the late 1940s. After his father was deported and his mother died, Roberts moved from home to home until he was 16 and [...]

Invasion Of The Mind-Controlling Zombie Parasites

A few months back, something terrible happened to millions of flies around Washington, D.C. “We were getting literally hundreds of reports of these crazy dead flies everywhere — on vegetation, on sign posts,” says Mike Raupp, an entomologist at the University of Maryland. He says the flies were attacked by a mind-controlling fungus. “It basically [...]

Aussie Court Ends Qantas Strike, Fleet Grounding

Qantas planes could be flying again within hours after Australia’s labor relations tribunal ruled n favor of the carrier over the labor dispute that’s seen the company ground its entire fleet. Fair Work Australia ordered the three unions in contract negotiations with Qantas to terminate all of their rolling work stoppages and other industrial action [...]