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9:10am

Mon May 20, 2013
Games + Leisure

Not My Job: Three Headless Chicken Questions For Alice Cooper

Originally published on Sat May 18, 2013 2:41 pm

Credit Courtesy Alice Cooper

When you think about heavy metal — the costumes, the makeup, the outfits, the huge stage shows filled with effects and pyrotechnics — pretty much all of that was invented, or at least perfected, by Alice Cooper. If it weren't for him, bands like Slayer and Megadeth would be playing love songs in identical suits and bowl haircuts.

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9:08am

Mon May 20, 2013
Literature

Dan Brown: 'Inferno' Is 'The Book That I Would Want To Read'

Originally published on Sat May 18, 2013 7:23 am

Robert Langdon is back. The Harvard art professor in custom tweeds — and an ever-present Mickey Mouse watch — wakes up in a hospital after getting grazed in the head by a bullet, wondering how he ended up in Florence. He's got a sinister artifact sewn into his coat and just a few hours to keep the world from a grim biological catastrophe.

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9:06am

Mon May 20, 2013
The Two-Way

Pledging Not To 'Screw It Up,' Yahoo Seals Deal For Tumblr

Credit Fred Dufour / AFP/Getty Images
They're coming together: Yahoo will pay $1.1 billion to acquire Tumblr.

The news that broke Sunday is now official.

Yahoo confirmed early Monday morning that it is buying Tumblr in a deal worth about $1.1 billion. "Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business," Yahoo added.

In its statement announcing the deal, Yahoo says that:

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9:01am

Mon May 20, 2013

8:08am

Mon May 20, 2013
The Two-Way

FBI Agents Killed In Training Accident Worked In Elite Unit

Credit FBI.gov
Members of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team during a training exercise in Quantico, Va. Two FBI agents who were part of the unit died Friday during a training exercise offshore near Virginia Beach, Va.

8:02am

Mon May 20, 2013
Law

Court Case Winds Down In New York's Stop-And-Frisk Challenge

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 10:11 am

Credit Seth Wenig / AP
Protesters participate in a rally near the federal courthouse March 18 in New York. Lawyers for four men who say they were illegally stopped said many of the 5 million people stopped, questioned and sometimes frisked by police in the past decade were wrongly targeted because of their race.

Closing arguments are set to take place Monday in the federal class action trial involving New York City's stop-and-frisk policy. The trial has been going on for two months in Manhattan.

Plaintiffs in Floyd v. City of New York claim the New York Police Department, its supervisors and its union pressured police officers to stop, question and frisk hundreds of thousands of people each year, even establishing quotas. They argue that 88 percent of the stops involved blacks and Hispanics, mostly men, and were in fact a form of racial profiling.

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7:22am

Mon May 20, 2013
The Two-Way

Book News: J.K. Rowling Tells 'Harry Potter' Backstories

Credit Ben Pruchnie / Getty Images
J.K. Rowling.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

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7:00am

Mon May 20, 2013
Europe

Germany May Have Paid A Price For Its Financial Power

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Germany paid a price for asserting its financial power. Germans, more than others, had to finance bailouts for countries like Greece, and imposed austerity measures in return. Those who disapprove may have struck back. People across the continent and beyond watched the Eurovision song contest.

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6:55am

Mon May 20, 2013
Around the Nation

Right Lottery Numbers, Wrong Date

A California woman turned on the TV last week and saw she had the winning numbers in Wednesday's drawing. She thought she had won $360 million. It turns out she bought her ticket an hour after Wednesday's drawing.

6:52am

Mon May 20, 2013
The Two-Way

Nation's Midsection Braces For More Severe Storms

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 11:14 am

There's no relief today for folks in the nation's midsection.

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5:15am

Mon May 20, 2013
Around the Nation

Growing Vegetables From Seeds Take Root For Many Gardeners

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:20 pm

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's planting season, at least for those growing things like summer squash, beans and cherry tomatoes. And we're seeing a change. Rather than buy already developed seedlings, which are more expensive, many gardeners are buying seed packets. It's a sign they want to start their gardens from scratch. And seed companies say they've seen an increase in orders since the economic downturn.

Reporter Sasa Woodruff reports that it's easy to read the directions on these seed envelopes, the hard part is following them.

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5:06am

Mon May 20, 2013
Politics

Why Congress Has Reasons Not To Be Bipartsan

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:19 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now let's look little more deeply at this narrative of scandal. NPR's Scott Horsley has more.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: When President Obama gets frustrated with the gridlock in Washington, he sometimes looks back wistfully to the decades after World War II. Back then, he suggests Republicans and Democrats managed to work together, despite their differences, building highways, protecting consumers, and educating generations of workers.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

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5:06am

Mon May 20, 2013
Energy

Calif. Law To Require Ships To Cut Pollution

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:28 am

California is about to become the first state to require shore power at its ports. A new law mandates at least half of a shipping line's fleet to shut down their diesel engines and plug into shore-side electric power when they unload their cargo. It's part of a larger effort to cut pollution at the state's busiest ports, but costs have been a sticking point.

5:06am

Mon May 20, 2013
Business

Yahoo To Buy Tumblr In An Attempt To Revitalize Itself

Yahoo is expected to announce Monday that it's acquiring the social media site Tumblr, in a deal The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets are reporting to be worth about $1.1 billion. Some analysts are calling the acquisition an effort by Yahoo to be "cool and relevant" again.

3:07am

Mon May 20, 2013
News

Advocates Struggle To Reach Growing Ranks Of Suburban Poor

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 2:30 pm

Poverty has grown everywhere in the U.S. in recent years, but mostly in the suburbs. During the 2000s, it grew twice as fast in suburban areas as in cities, with more than 16 million poor people now living in the nation's suburbs — more than in urban or rural areas.

Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution, says this shift in poverty can be seen in Montgomery County, Md., right outside the nation's capital.

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3:07am

Mon May 20, 2013
It's All Politics

Is There Really A Second-Term Curse?

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 11:15 am

The phrase "second term curse" is so familiar that it's become a cliche of American politics. Whether it's President Richard Nixon's resignation or President Bill Clinton's impeachment, presidents tend to have a tough time during the back half of an eight-year presidency.

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3:06am

Mon May 20, 2013
Arts & Life

Nostalgia For Sale As Captain Kangaroo's Pals Are Auctioned Off

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 10:38 am

The classic children's show Captain Kangaroo aired on TV for nearly 30 years, starting in 1955. After its creator and star, Bob Keeshan, died in 2004, his estate donated a few of his beloved hand puppets to the Smithsonian.

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3:05am

Mon May 20, 2013
News

Children Of China's Wealthy Learn Expensive Lessons

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 7:07 am

In China, having too much money is a relatively new problem. But the rapidly growing country is second only to the U.S. in its number of billionaires, according to Forbes magazine. And now an enterprising company has set up a course for kids born into wealthy families, who are learning how to deal with the excesses of extraordinary wealth.

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3:04am

Mon May 20, 2013
Shots - Health News

If Your Shrink Is A Bot, How Do You Respond?

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:19 pm

3:03am

Mon May 20, 2013
Health

Bans Of Same-Sex Marriage Can Take A Psychological Toll

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 9:25 am

Credit Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images
Opponents of same-sex marriage participate in the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C., on March 26, as the Supreme Court hears arguments on California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage.

As the country awaits two important Supreme Court decisions involving state laws on same-sex marriage, a small but consistent body of research suggests that laws that ban gay marriage — or approve it — can affect the mental health of gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans.

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