Mark Memmott

Credit Doby Photography / NPR

Mark Memmott is one of the hosts of NPR's "The Two-Way" news blog.

"The Two-Way," which Memmott helped to launched when he came to NPR in 2009, focuses on breaking news, analysis, and the most compelling stories being reported by NPR News and other news media.

Before joining NPR, Memmott worked for nearly 25 years as a reporter and editor at USA Today. He focused on a range of coverage from politics, foreign affairs, economics, and the media. He's reported from places across the Unites States and the world, including half a dozen trips to Afghanistan in 2002-2003.

During his time at USA Today, Memmott, helped launch and lead three USAToday.com news blogs: "On Deadline;" "The Oval;" and "On Politics," the site's 2008 presidential campaign blog.

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The Two-Way
7:47 am
Thu September 6, 2012

NFL Owner Art Modell Dies; He Was 'Vilified' In Cleveland, A Hero In Baltimore

Credit Jeff Haynes / AFP/Getty Images
Art Modell, then the owner of the Baltimore Ravens, with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after his team beat the New York Giants in the January 2001 Super Bowl.

The news that Art Modell died earlier today in Baltimore at the age of 87 has produced very different ledes from newspapers in the two cities where the former NFL owner was a major presence.

The Baltimore Sun writes that:

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It's All Politics
7:23 am
Thu September 6, 2012

Clinton And Other Dems Did Some Cherry-Picking, Fact Checkers Say

Credit Mladen Antonov / AFP/Getty Images
Former President Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday night.

Originally published on Thu September 6, 2012 12:28 pm

  • Mara Liasson on 'Morning Edition'

Good morning.

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The Two-Way
2:54 pm
Wed September 5, 2012

Asia's Richest Woman Slammed After Musing About Workers Paid $2 A Day

Credit Tony Ashby / AFP/Getty Images
Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart.

Originally published on Wed September 5, 2012 4:12 pm

The Two-Way
1:13 pm
Wed September 5, 2012

The Toothbrush: It's In The Space Station's Toolbox. How About Yours?

Credit NASA.gov
The toothbrush/space tool.

When we heard that astronauts aboard the International Space Station took a spare toothbrush along on a spacewalk today and used it to help clean debris from around some bolts they needed to secure in order to install a power unit, it got us thinking.

Just how versatile are old toothbrushs? We know we've used them to:

-- Clean bike gears.

-- Get grime out of our hubcaps.

-- Get at the crust around a car battery's terminals.

-- Polish jewelry.

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The Two-Way
11:23 am
Wed September 5, 2012

Earthquake Triggers Pacific Tsunami Warnings For Central & South America

Credit U.S. Geological Survey
The star marks the epicenter of today's earthquake in Costa Rica.

Originally published on Wed September 5, 2012 2:48 pm

The Pacific coasts of Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua are no longer the focus of tsunami warnings, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center announced just after 1 p.m ET.

As we've been reporting, there was a strong — 7.6 magnitude — earthquake in Costa Rica this morning. At first, there were concerns about possible tsunamis from Mexico south to Chile. As the day continued, however, authorities gradually reduced their warnings.

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The Two-Way
10:50 am
Wed September 5, 2012

Hundreds Of Afghan Soldiers Arrested Or Discharged

Credit Adek Berry / AFP/Getty Images
A U.S. Marine (right) and an Afghan National Army soldier on patrol this summer in Afghanistan's Helmand Province.
  • Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson on the NPR Newscast

Looking to stem the recent wave of "green on blue" attacks in which men wearing police or military uniforms have killed more than 30 U.S. or other international forces, Afghan officials said today that they have "arrested or discharged hundreds of their country's soldiers," NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Kabul.

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The Two-Way
9:39 am
Wed September 5, 2012

Nearly 18 Million U.S. Households Had Trouble Getting Food Last Year

Credit Spencer Platt / Getty Images
In Oswego, N.Y., this summer, a child waited at a food distribution site.

An estimated 14.9 percent of U.S. households — 17.9 million in total — "had difficulty" at some point last year getting food because they just didn't have enough money or other resources, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported this morning.

In 2010, 14.5 percent of households were similarly "food insecure" at some point, USDA says.

Even worse:

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The Two-Way
9:16 am
Wed September 5, 2012

Slaughtering Of Elephants Is Soaring Because Of China's Demand For Ivory

Credit Tony Karumba / AFP/Getty Images
Elephants in Kenya's Tsavo-east National Park earlier this year.
  • Jeffrey Gettleman talks with Steve Inskeep

"For the first time in history," hundreds of millions of people in China are now wealthy enough to buy jewelry, combs and trinkets made of ivory and that's led to a huge spike in the illegal slaughtering of elephants in Africa, The New York Times' Jeffrey Gettleman said earlier today on Morning Edition.

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The Two-Way
8:23 am
Wed September 5, 2012

Wow! NASA Video Shows 'Mind-Bogglingly Gorgeous' Solar Eruption

Credit nasa.gov
That's quite an eruption.

Before we run through the news of the day, let's pause for something spectactular: a new video from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. It shows a "massive filament" eruption on the sun that occurred last Friday. As Britain's The Register says, it is "mind-bogglingly gorgeous."

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It's All Politics
7:22 am
Wed September 5, 2012

Democrats Unleashed Some 'Dubious Or Misleading Claims,' Fact Checkers Say

Credit Mladen Antonov / AFP/Getty Images
The scene Tuesday night at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

Originally published on Wed September 5, 2012 10:57 am

  • From 'Morning Edition': Mara Liasson reports on Night One

Just as they did during the Republican National Convention, independent fact checkers spent the first day of the Democratic National Convention listening for claims that don't add up — and found them.

-- FactCheck.org says it heard "a number of dubious or misleading claims" from the Democrats who spoke on stage Tuesday in Charlotte, N.C. Among the problems it found:

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