Enrico Frare isn't a well known name in Italian business. The 36-year-old runs E-group, a small clothing company in the commercial region around Treviso that makes winter sportswear.
But last month, Frare did something that attracted a lot of attention. He bought a full-page ad in Milan's main newspaper appearing in what might politely be called his birthday suit. The caption read: "Every day in Italy an entrepreneur risks losing his shirt."
Among the chilly aisles at Murray's Cheese Shop in Manhattan, the entire continent of Europe is represented. Something like 60 percent of the cheese in Murray's comes from the continent, according to Aaron Foster, a cheese buyer at the store.
For all the talk about how the European debt crisis is effecting the global economy, it can be hard to connect it with daily life here in the U.S. Here's one link: Aaron Foster's bonus depends on how cheaply he can buy cheese from Europe. And the price of that cheese is driven largely by the strength (or weakness) of the euro.
Chocolate milk has an interesting rap these days. Endurance athletes increasingly love it as a recovery drink.
And who's loathing it? Schools — advocates for school food reform, to be more specific. They argue it's got too much added sugar and too many calories.
When it's time to renew her son's prescriptions for medicine to treat his attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Roxanne Ryan prepares for another wild goose chase.
The Philadelphia mother says she typically has to call around to 10 to 15 different pharmacies to find where the prescriptions can be filled. And when 10-year-old Sergey doesn't get his medication, he's a bundle of uncontained energy.
The Golden Temple at Amritsar, India, doesn't look like an environmental pressure point. The gold-sheathed building gleams serenely as a jewel box in the midst of a broad reflecting pond. Music serenades pilgrims as they cross a causeway to reach the shrine.
A scientist in Boston has been driving around the city measuring leaks in the gas mains. He's found a lot, and he wants the public to know where they are.
Gas leaks aren't uncommon, and gas companies spend a lot of time tracking them down and repairing them. But the scientific team says they're surprised at how many they've found, and what those leaks are doing to the health of the city's trees.
It's been one month since Moammar Gadhafi's death. Libyans were celebrating within hours of his killing. A month later, the jubilance has waned and the violence continues. Weekends on All Things Considered guest host Laura Sullivan talks with New York Times correspondent Clifford Krauss from Tripoli.
A second uprising seems to be developing in Cairo. Protesters in Tahrir Square, angry with the military-led transitional government, increased in number recently as police clashes with them have become more violent. Weekends on All Things Considered guest host Laura Sullivan talks with reporter Merrit Kennedy about the situation in Egypt.
Credit Dr. Debra Furr-Holden / Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
In East Baltimore, not far from rows of abandoned homes and empty warehouses, there's a space-age high rise housing an unusual methadone clinic.
"People come here and participate in studies, and in return they get treatment," Dr. Kenzie Preston tells Laura Sullivan, host of weekends on All Things Considered.