Now Playing

Loading streams...

Podcasts & RSS Feeds

News From NPRRSS
All ContentRSS
View all podcasts & RSS feeds

News From NPR

Pages

U.S.
9:48 am
Thu January 10, 2013

Mississippi Blues: When The River Doesn't Run

Next imagePrevious image
Credit Colby Buchanan/U.S. Coast Guard / AP
Barges last month crowded an area on the Mississippi River south of St. Louis where barges are stored, loaded and unloaded. Shippers worry that the drought-shrunken river could shut to barge traffic entirely this month.
Credit Alan Greenblatt / NPR
George Foster, president of JB Marine, says he hasn't had to lay off any of his 110 employees but wonders when he'll see enough barge traffic to keep all of his workers busy. Along the affected stretch of the Mississippi River, some 8,000 jobs are thought to be at risk.
Credit Alan Greenblatt / NPR
The offices of JB Marine, a barge cleaning and repair business that is located atop an empty barge just south of St. Louis, now lean at a 30-degree angle because the Mississippi River levels are so low.
Credit Alan Greenblatt / NPR
The river has fallen fast enough that barges have been beached along its banks outside St. Louis.
Credit Alan Greenblatt / NPR
"We're at the mercy of Mother Nature," says Larry Rowe, captain of a JB Marine boat. People along the Mississippi are hoping for significant snowmelt to raise the water levels.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Thu January 10, 2013 12:53 pm

The Mississippi River has provided George Foster with a living all his life. Now, with the river dropping to historically low levels, it's threatening to take his business down with it.

Foster's office sits atop an empty barge on the river, just south of St. Louis. His building tilts at a 30-degree angle because the water is so low. Visitors may want to stick out their fingertips for balance walking down his narrow hallway.

Read more
The Two-Way
8:33 am
Thu January 10, 2013

Coming Up: Oscar Nominations Announced

Credit David James / DreamWorks
Daniel Day-Lewis, in the lead role of Lincoln.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By

Originally published on Thu January 10, 2013 9:20 am

Update at 9:00 a.m. ET:

Lincoln, director Stephen Spielberg's acclaimed look at the 16th president's push for the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery, has been nominated for Oscar awards in 12 categories, it was announced this morning in Hollywood. That's the most for any single film.

Life of Pi is up for 11 awards. Les Miserables and Silver Linings Playbook are up for eight.

Read more
The Two-Way
8:16 am
Thu January 10, 2013

Crazy Or Canny? Talk Grows About $1 Trillion Platinum Coin

Credit Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
No, this isn't worth $1 trillion. It's a commemorative coin minted in the U.K. in 2008. But some have suggested the president's image should be on it if he orders up a $1 trillion coin.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 1:15 pm

We're pretty sure this won't happen.

But ...

You practically can't visit a news site these days without seeing a story about why President Obama should or should not order the Treasury Department to strike a platinum coin "worth" $1 trillion and deposit it with the Federal Reserve.

Read more
The Two-Way
7:17 am
Thu January 10, 2013

Three Kurdish Activists Found Dead In Paris; 'Without Doubt An Execution'

Credit AFP/Getty Images
An undated of Sakine Cansiz, one of three Kurdish activists found shot to death today in Paris.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By

Originally published on Thu January 10, 2013 12:10 pm

Three Kurdish women, one of them a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that seeks autonomy for Kurds in Turkey, were found shot to death today in Paris.

Read more
World
3:30 am
Thu January 10, 2013

What Do You Pack For A Seven-Year Trip?

Next imagePrevious image
Credit John Stanmeyer
Journalist Paul Salopek, shown here with his supplies in Ethiopia, is setting out on a seven-year walk that will take him to the tip of South America.
Credit Courtesy of National Geographic
Salopek plans to follow this route on his seven-year journey, but says he may have to make revisions when he reaches turbulent areas.
Credit Rebecca Hale / National Geographic
Salopek has reported for years from Africa, Asia and Latin America, and has won two Pulitzer Prizes.
Share
E-mail
Comments
By editor

Originally published on Thu January 10, 2013 3:04 pm

Paul Salopek is already a well-traveled journalist — a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who has spent most of the past two decades roaming across Africa, Asia, the Balkans and Latin America.

This, apparently, has not sated his wanderlust. So now he's in a dusty village in Ethiopia's Rift Valley, ready to launch a seven-year, 21,000-mile journey on foot that will take him from Africa, across the Middle East and through Asia, over to Alaska and down the Western edge of the Americas until he hits the southern tip of Chile.

Why?

Read more

Pages