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11:56 am
Fri October 12, 2012

Casinos Not An Easy Bet For Local Governments

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Credit Spencer Platt / Getty Images
The MGM Grand Detroit is one of three resort casinos that have opened in the city since 1999.
Credit Marvin Fong / The Plain Dealer/Landov
Gamblers play slots during the grand opening of the Hollywood Casino in Toledo, Ohio, in May. It was the second casino to open in the state.
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More states and cities are turning to casinos to generate revenue and plug budget holes.

The latest to try its luck is Maryland, where groups are waging an expensive campaign over a ballot question that will be put to voters next month. Proponents promise jackpots of jobs and funding for public schools, but analysts say the gamble doesn't always pay off at the levels promised for public coffers.

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The Two-Way
11:50 am
Fri October 12, 2012

Consumer Confidence Jumps To Pre-Recession Level, Survey Shows

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"Black Friday" 2011 in Manhattan: Retailers hope to see shoppers out again in force this holiday season. If confidence stays high, they may get their wish.
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Originally published on Fri October 12, 2012 12:11 pm

"U.S. consumer sentiment unexpectedly rose to its highest in five years in October as consumers became more optimistic about the economy in a possible boost to President Obama's reelection hopes," Reuters reports.

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Krulwich Wonders...
11:45 am
Fri October 12, 2012

Sun Goes Down. Up Comes A Mystery

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Credit James Steidl / iStockphoto
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Originally published on Fri October 12, 2012 11:53 am

Here's a question you probably didn't know was a question: Why is the sky dark at night?

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Author Interviews
10:45 am
Fri October 12, 2012

The Man Who Tracks Viruses Before They Spread

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Credit C. Goldsmith and D. Rollin / CDC Public Health Image Library

H1N1 virus virons appear in a tissue sample.

Credit Courtesy Nathan Wolfe
Nathan Wolfe is founder and CEO of Metabiota Inc, and founder of the non profit company Global Viral.
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By editor

Originally published on Fri October 12, 2012 12:53 pm

This interview was originally broadcast on Oct. 11, 2011. The Viral Storm will be published in paperback on Oct. 16.

The New Yorker once called virologist Nathan Wolfe "the world's most prominent virus hunter." Wolfe, the director of the Global Viral Forecasting Initiative, spends his days tracking emerging infectious diseases before they turn into deadly pandemics.

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The Two-Way
10:24 am
Fri October 12, 2012

Panetta: 'Foreign Cyber-Actors Are Probing America's Critical Infrastructure'

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U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
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By editor

Originally published on Fri October 12, 2012 1:14 pm

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta delivered a policy speech that he said was a "clarion call" for Americans to take cyber security seriously. Attacks that can cripple a country, he said, are no longer theoretical.

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The Picture Show
10:11 am
Fri October 12, 2012

'Vintage Black Glamour' Exposes Little-Known Cultural History

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Credit Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
That's Bananas: "Whether [Josephine Baker's] getting a pedicure or she's walking down the street or she's relaxing in a yard somewhere, I just love the variety of pictures of her," Gainer says. "The banana skirt is a part of who she was, it's the most famous thing, but it just annoys me when that's just the only thing. ... There was a lot more to her than that."
Credit Robert Scurlock / The Smithsonian Institution
Actress Fredi Washington circa 1940s. Washington played Peola in the 1934 Academy Award-nominated Imitation of Life.
Credit The Schomburg Center
Langston Hughes, Charles S. Johnson, E. Franklin Frazier, Rudolph Fisher and Hubert Delany (brother of the Delany Sisters) overlooking St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem in the 1920s.
Credit William Gottlieb / Library of Congress
Duke Ellington, amid "his 20 suits, 15 shirts, suede shoes and his ever present piano" in his dressing room at the Paramount Theater in New York in September 1946.
Credit Robert Scurlock / The Smithsonian Institution
Argentine dancer instructing a group of young women behind her in a dance at Howard University in February 1963.
Credit Scurlock Studios / The Smithsonian Institution
Camille Nickerson was noted for her research on the music and culture of Louisiana Creoles. She earned a B.A. and an M.A. from Oberlin College and also studied at Juilliard and Columbia University. Nickerson collected, arranged and published Creole folk songs and, during the 1930s to 1950s, lectured and performed as "The Louisiana Lady."
Credit William Lovelace / Getty Images
Lena Horne, the sultry American singer who appeared in several musicals in the '40s and was a regular of the Cotton Club, trying on a dress May 4, 1956.
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Originally published on Fri October 12, 2012 5:03 pm

I was scrolling through my Tumblr feed a year or so ago, when I saw a photo of Joyce Bryant. The caption said she was once dubbed the "black Marilyn Monroe" and was mentioned many times in Walter Winchell's gossip column.

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Deceptive Cadence
9:47 am
Fri October 12, 2012

Masur And Levine On Parkinson's, Animating Wild Things And Shattering A Stereotype

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Conductor Kurt Masur and his wife Tomoko in 2010.
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Originally published on Wed October 17, 2012 4:53 pm

  • New York Philharmonic Music Director Emeritus Kurt Masur, 85, has announced that he has been living with Parkinson's disease for several years: "I have had the fortune of receiving great medical care since the diagnosis, enabling me to continue my conducting activities. These recent events have served as a good opportunity to make a return to the podium with a greater sense of purpose and awareness."

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The Two-Way
9:36 am
Fri October 12, 2012

You Thought The VP Debate Was Feisty? Things Got Physical In California

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Democratic Reps. Howard L. Berman and Brad Sherman face off in a debate.
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By Eyder Peralta

Originally published on Fri October 12, 2012 10:25 am

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Hardcover Fiction Bestsellers
9:03 am
Fri October 12, 2012

NPR Bestsellers: Hardcover Fiction, Week Of October 11, 2012

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In Jo Nesbo's Phantom, Harry Hole investigates Oslo's most virulent street drug. It debuts at No. 6.

The Salt
8:48 am
Fri October 12, 2012

The Secret To Genius? It Might Be More Chocolate

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A Swiss cardiologist plots a cheeky graph that shows a country's chocolate consumption may predict its chances of winning a Nobel.
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Originally published on Fri October 12, 2012 5:13 pm

Nerds, rejoice! It's Nobel season — the Oscars for lab rats, peacemakers and cognoscenti alike. Every fall, big thinkers around the world wait for a middle-of-the-night phone call from Sweden, dreaming of what they might do with the $1.2 million prize.

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