From Boom To Bust: The Year In Unemployment

It may be hard to remember, but 2011 began with a bang on the jobs front. The White House seemed ready to break out the champagne when February’s job growth report came out showing unemployment at the lowest in nearly two years. But that celebratory mood didn’t last long. From start to finish in 2011, [...]

A Brutal Chapter In North Carolina’s Eugenics Past

North Carolina is trying to make amends for an ugly chapter in its history during which more than 7,000 people were sterilized, many against their will. At least half of states had eugenics laws, but only a handful kept their forced sterilization programs active after World War II. Within North Carolina, one county sterilized three [...]

Complaining About Rivals’ Attack Ads, Gingrich Fires Back Off The Air

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich Wednesday renewed his pledge not to run any negative ads in the closing days of the campaign for the Iowa caucuses. But campaigning in Mason City, Gingrich said that won’t stop him from personally attacking the record of his opponents. Gingrich spoke at a mall in Mason City and afterward [...]

Lonely And Cold, Iowa ‘Occupiers’ Seem Ill-Equipped To Takeover Caucus

Will the Iowa Republican caucuses next Tuesday be flooded with the state’s version of Occupy Wall Street activists? The rumor has been out there for weeks, and the state’s voting laws suggest it could be possible: though only registered Republicans may participate, anyone can register for the party on caucus night and vote. But, as [...]

Israelis Clash Over Strict Religious Codes

According to Israel’s President Shimon Peres, a fight is under way, for “the soul of the nation and the essence of the state.” But the threat isn’t coming from outside Israel. It’s over differing interpretations of Judaism. Recently, a bespectacled 8-year-old girl was filmed by a local TV station being harassed by ultra-Orthodox Jews for [...]

Could Obesity Change The Brain?

The standard advice for losing weight often comes up short for people who are obese. If they switch to a healthful diet and exercise more, they might lose a bit. But the pounds have a way of creeping back on. Now some provocative research suggests that a part of the problem might be that obesity [...]

For Some Iowa Voters, Immigration Is Decisive

GOP presidential candidates are touring Iowa ahead of next week’s caucuses. The main issue for many voters there is the economy, but another hot topic is emerging: overhauling immigration policies. Iowa’s Hispanic population is surging, and Republican candidates are struggling with how best to deal with voter concerns. [Copyright 2011 National Public Radio]

A Violent Abolitionist’s ‘Midnight Rising’

On an October night in 1859, 21 men staged a takeover of a national armory in tiny Harpers Ferry, Va. Though unsuccessful, the raid drew the nation’s attention to its electrifying leader, a man named John Brown — and set the nation on the path to war. Brown went on to become perhaps one of [...]

2011 In Film: Five Breakthrough Documentaries

The Atacama Desert in Chile is the driest place in the world, a 600-mile strip of land where the absence of humidity allows astronomers to peer at the heavens through crystalline skies, archaeologists to unearth discoveries preserved in the salt and sand — and relatives of those gone “missing” during the Pinochet regime to search [...]

2011 In Film: Two Pictures That Hit The Right Notes

“You’re using someone else’s poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.” Rob Gordon, the protagonist of 1999′s High Fidelity, was giving a lesson on the fine art of making a mixtape when he spoke those words, but the concept is also applicable to a pair of the most transfixing scenes in [...]