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New Reading Standards Aim To Prep Kids For College — But At What Cost?

Credit Chris Sadowski / iStockphoto

New education standards place more emphasis on nonfiction reading and writing over fiction works. Some say this could lead students away from a passionate engagement with literature.

By editor

Originally published on Sat January 19, 2013 9:17 pm

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Once upon a time, in the long ago world of high school reading, Holden Caulfield was perhaps the epitome of angst: a young man suddenly an outcast in the world he thought he knew. The antihero of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye was about to enter a perilous journey of self-discovery.

5:28 pm

Sat January 19, 2013

The Rev. Al Sharpton, In Six True-False Statements

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Credit Shiho Fukada for NPR

Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and president of National Action Network (NAN), prepares to leave its corporate office for the WWRL radio station in New York, January 11.

Credit Shiho Fukada for NPR

Rev. Al Sharpton smiles during his radio show "Keeping It Real with Reverend Al Sharpton" in New York.

Credit Shiho Fukada for NPR

Sharpton eats his lunch, which consists of a banana, salad, and lemon tea before his radio show "Keeping It Real with Reverend Al Sharpton" in New York.

Credit Charles Wenzelberg / AP

The Rev. Al Sharpton (center) holds a news conference with other advisers in the Tawana Brawley case in the Queens borough of New York in 1988.

Credit Joe Major / AP

A crowd of mourners gathers outside St. Anthony's Baptist Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Aug. 27, 1991 as the casket carrying the body of Gavin Cato passes by.

Credit Shiho Fukada for NPR

Sharpton hosts his show PoliticsNation, at the MSNBC studios in New York.

By Corey Dade

Originally published on Tue January 22, 2013 11:19 am

Editor's note: NPR's Corey Dade recently traveled to New York to interview the Rev. Al Sharpton about the unusual arc of his checkered career, from pugnacious street fighter for racial justice to savvy insider with ties to CEOs, a successful television show and the the ear of a soon-to-be second-term president.

5:02 pm

Sat January 19, 2013

How Did Tacoma, Wash. Get To Be America's 'Gayest City'?

Credit USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory

Tacoma, Wash., tops The Advocate magazine's list of "Gayest Cities in America." It was followed by Springfield, Mass., and Spokane, Wash. Advocate editor Matthew Breen says marriage equality gave the advantage to cities in Washington state this year.

By editor

Originally published on Sat January 19, 2013 7:25 pm

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Every year when The Advocate magazine publishes its list of the "Gayest Cities in America" it comes with a few surprises. This year was no different.

At the top of the list for 2013: Tacoma, Wash.

To Tacoma resident Ellen Cohen, the superlative was unexpected.

"In all of Tacoma coming out as No. 1 in anything would surprise me," she said.

9:45 am

Sat January 19, 2013

Hostages, Militants Reported Dead In Algerian Assault

Credit Leon Neal / AFP/Getty Images

British Defense Minister Philip Hammond (left) and U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta hold a joint press conference on the Algerian hostage crisis Saturday in London.

By editor

Originally published on Sat January 19, 2013 6:51 pm

The four-day standoff in the Algerian desert came to a bloody end Saturday morning when Algerian forces stormed the gas plant where Islamist militants were holding foreign hostages.

Seven hostages were killed in the assault, as were 11 militants, Algeria's state media reported. In total, 32 militants and 23 other people died in the conflict, the Algerian interior ministry said in a statement.

6:32 am

Sat January 19, 2013

Inching Closer To The Demise Of A Stubborn Parasitic Worm

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Credit Wes Pope / Chicago Tribune/MCT /Landov

A boy with multiple Guinea worms sits outside a containment center in northern Ghana, February 2007.

Credit Wes Pope / Chicago Tribune/MCT /Landov

A medical worker extracts a Guinea worm from a child's leg in northern Ghana, February 2007.

Credit Courtesy of The Carter Foundation

Seventeen countries have eliminated the Guinea worm parasite since 1986. Four countries remain: Mali, Chad, South Sudan and Ethiopia.

By editor

What's the big fuss about Guinea worm, a parasite that now infects just a few hundred people? Well, the public health community finally has the nasty bug's back against the wall.

There were only 542 cases of Guinea worm worldwide last year, the Carter Center said this week. That's 48 percent less than in 2011. And it's a mere blip compared to the 3.5 million cases back in 1986.

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5:40 pm

Sat January 19, 2013