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4:37 am

Mon August 6, 2012

Business News

By editor

Originally published on Mon August 6, 2012 1:02 pm

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(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with an airline refund.

Refunds are starting to arrive in the bank accounts of Southwest Airlines' customers who were billed multiple times for promotional fares booked on Friday. Some customers paid for their discounted air travel as many as 20 times, according to the Associated Press. The company blamed the problem on a computer glitch.

First And Main

4:07 am

Mon August 6, 2012

Even In Florida Swing County, Minds Seem Made Up

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Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Michael Bailey, 2, was the last baby baptized in St. Paul's AME church in downtown Tampa. Rev. Jesse Jackson preached here and Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall and President Clinton all spoke here, but the dwindling congregation forced the church to close.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Faces of Florida's First and Main: Susan MacManus lives in her family's home on a secluded plot of land near Lutz, Fla. MacManus, shown at the old train depot across from the public library, is a political scientist and local historian. Her family was among the first to develop land around here a century ago.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Jayla Mills, 18, lives in the Metro 510 apartment complex that was funded with stimulus money in downtown Tampa. She entered the foster care system at 15 and recently aged out but is fighting for custody of her special needs daughter, Promise. "Do I need the president in this courtroom? Who do I need next to me? Because right now, I have nobody." Mills is undecided about who to vote for this fall.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Gregory Brown, 52, used to be a glazier installing plate-glass windows. He now lives off of unemployment checks, plus the disability checks of a woman who lives with him in Lutz, Fla. Brown is selling his motorcycle to help pay the bills. He is eager to vote President Obama out this fall, and says he plans to register to vote before the election.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

My Bui just had a model home built in Brandon, Fla., which he and his wife moved into in June. Brandon is a Tampa suburb that has been hit hard by foreclosures, but Bui says the plots in their development are selling, and houses are going up fast.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Robert "Pete" Edwards is a registered Republican who argues that Obama has not done enough for the black community. Edwards' grandson, Michael Bailey, 2, was the last baby baptized in the historic St. Paul's church, before the building was sold and turned into a community center.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Claude Walker has been a pastor for 40 years and started working at the First Baptist Church in Plant City, Fla., three years ago. He supports Mitt Romney because of his family values.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Sofia Martinez, 40, is the daughter of migrant farm workers. She jokes that she was made in Mexico but born in the USA. She is a registered nurse who passionately supports the Dream Act and plans to vote for Mitt Romney in the fall.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Roland Lamb and his wife live behind an automated gate across the street from a trailer park. The Lambs are malpractice lawyers. "The truth is," says Lamb, "I'm not much of a good neighbor. You can tell by my gargoyles, I'm not welcoming." He voted for President Obama in 2008 and, despite some frustrations, will vote for him again this year.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Parkesdale Farm Market is run by Jim Meeks, 70, and his extended family, including his daughter-in-law Xiomara Meeks, 36. Business is booming and the stand has been a mainstay on presidential campaign stops since the days of George H.W. Bush. The key to winning, says Meeks, is drinking a strawberry milkshake. He is voting for Romney and his daughter-in-law is voting for Obama.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

New Tampa is a suburb that suffered from multiple foreclosures several years ago, but is now on the rebound. Wanda Kos has lived in the community for eight years. Kos is undecided, but voted for Obama in 2008 and feels positively about his presidency. She is concerned for the future of her daughter Sofia, 6, and her two older children.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Hot Rods BBQ is a family owned restaurant in Lutz, Fla. "Hot Rod" Gaudin, his wife, Helen, and their extended family all pitch in telling jokes, sharing food and manning the wood-burning grill. Rod Gaudin supports Mitt Romney but his wife is undecided.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Katrina Bordwell's home was flooded recently after nearby development stopped up a drainage pipe. Bordwell, 24, lives in the community with her children, from left, Leo, 3, her boyfriend's son Kyle Cose, 3, and Zoey, 5.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

The intersection of First and Main in Lutz, Fla., is located on a privately owned road in a trailer park community.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

The home of Ed Faucher on the corner of First and Main in Lutz, Fla.

Credit Becky Lettenberger / NPR

Roland Lamb and his wife live behind an automated gate across the street from the trailer park. The Lambs are malpractice lawyers. He voted for President Obama in 2008 and despite some frustrations will vote for him again.

By Steve Inskeep

Originally published on Mon August 6, 2012 10:04 pm

Let's take a picture of America in the latter months of an election year. We want to sense what's on this country's mind. So Morning Edition begins a series of reports from First and Main. Several times in the next few months, we'll travel to a battleground state, then to a vital county in each state. In that county we find a starting point for our visit — an iconic American corner — First and Main streets.

Shots - Health Blog

3:29 am

Mon August 6, 2012

An Anthropologist Walks Into A Bar And Asks, 'Why Is This Joke Funny?'

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Credit Melanie Burford for NPR

Amateur comedian Robert Lynch takes the mic at the Metropolitan Room in New York City on July 21. Lynch is also an evolutionary anthropologist who is studying what laughter reveals about us.

Credit Melanie Burford / NPR

Megan Lutz, left, and Justin Chun react to Lynch's standup routine. When we laugh at a joke, Lynch hypothesizes, we are often revealing our unconscious attitudes.

Credit Melanie Burford / NPR

Lynch performs to a full house at the Metropolitan Room in Manhattan, N.Y. He says people all over the world want their friends and romantic partners to share their sense of humor.

Credit Melanie Burford / NPR

Bruno Fava laughs at a joke at the Metropolitan Room. Lynch finds there's a connection between self-deception and laughter.

Credit Melanie Burford / NPR

Lynch has found people with higher levels of self-deception are less likely to laugh at jokes.

Credit Melanie Burford / NPR

Lynch, far right, sits with fellow comedians waiting to go on stage at the Metropolitan Room. He says his research helps him to be a better comic.

Credit Melanie Burford / NPR

Lynch, center, talks with friends after performing his stand-up routine. He plans to continue trying his hand at amateur comedy, while pursuing a career in anthropology.

Credit Melanie Burford for NPR

Megan Lutz, left, and Justin Chun react to amateur comedian Robert Lynch at the Metropolitan Room in Manhattan, N.Y. Lynch is an anthropologist researching what laughing reveals about us.

By Shankar Vedantam

Originally published on Thu August 9, 2012 4:26 pm

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It's Saturday night at the Metropolitan Room, a comedy club in New York City. Host Jimmy Failla is warming up the crowd.

"Where you guys from?" he asks one group in the audience. "Boston? Home of the Red Sox. Personally, we'd prefer you rooted for the Taliban!"

There are 50 or 60 people in the audience, sipping cocktails. Failla has a system. He asks people where they're from. Most are locals. He then hits them with something they can relate to.

Author Interviews

3:01 am

Mon August 6, 2012

'American Dream,' Betrayed By Bad Economic Policy

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Credit Nick Kelsh / PublicAffairs

Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele are the authors of America: What Went Wrong?

By editor

Originally published on Tue October 9, 2012 7:33 am

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A lot is at stake in the current election, but no matter who wins, the victor will stay committed to policies that cripple the middle class. That's according to Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Donald Barlett and James Steele, who've been covering the middle class for decades.

In their new book, The Betrayal of the American Dream, Barlett and Steele criticize a government obsessed with free trade and indifferent toward companies that outsource jobs.

Crime In The City

3:00 am

Mon August 6, 2012

Author Peter James And Sidekick Track Seaside Crime

Credit Gareth Ransome

After turning over a book to his publisher, Peter James wakes up the next day and starts on the next one.

By editor

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 10:39 am

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Any tour of Brighton, England, has to begin at the Royal Pavilion, according to crime writer Peter James. Built by a king for his mistress 200 years ago, its Taj Mahal-like spires are the city's best-known landmark.

James' latest novel, Not Dead Yet, features — spoiler alert! — a pivotal scene in the pavilion's dining room, with its one-and-a-half ton crystal chandelier. Without giving too much away — the book won't be released in the U.S. until November – let's just say it might have something to do with the aforementioned chandelier.

Dead Stop

2:59 am

Mon August 6, 2012

In Warhol's Memory, Soup Cans And Coke Bottles

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Credit Madelyn Roehrig

Fans leave all manner of mementos at Andy Warhol's grave site, near Pittsburgh. This spring, a local Warhol impersonator wrapped the grave stone in colorful paper for an entire month.

Credit Courtesy of Madelyn Roehrig

Bagpipe player Dave Olson makes visiting the grave part of his regular routine.

By editor

Originally published on Mon August 6, 2012 1:02 pm

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Andy Warhol is often remembered as larger than life, but it's all too easy to miss where he's buried.

The pop artist's grave is in the modest St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cemetery, on a hill overlooking a highway about 20 minutes outside of downtown Pittsburgh.

Eric Shiner, director of the Andy Warhol Museum, says it's a pretty typical cemetery for Pennsylvanians with Eastern European roots.

The Two-Way

12:02 am

Mon August 6, 2012

LIVE NOW: Mars Rover's High-Wire Landing

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Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech

An artist's rendering shows a rocket-powered descent stage lowering the one-ton Curiosity rover to the Mars surface.

Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech

Curiosity's shadow on the surface of Mars, just minutes after the rover landed on the surface of the planet.

Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech

An artist's rendering shows a rocket-powered descent stage lowering the one-ton Curiosity rover to the Mars surface.

By Mark Stencel

Originally published on Mon August 6, 2012 6:26 am

The best place to stand in the entire solar system at 1:14 a.m. ET Monday was about 150 million miles away, at the bottom of Gale Crater near the equator of the Red Planet.

Looking west around mid-afternoon local time, a Martian bystander would have seen a rocket-powered alien spacecraft approach and then hover about 60 feet over the rock-strewn plain between the crater walls and the towering slopes of nearby Mount Sharp.

The Record

10:12 pm

Sun August 5, 2012

Chavela Vargas, Legendary Ranchera Singer, Dies

Credit STR/AFP/Getty Images

Chavela Vargas performing in Buenos Aires in 2004.

By editor

Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 7:23 pm

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A legend of Latin American song has died. Chavela Vargas was a cultural icon across the Spanish-speaking world, with a voice that redefined notions of beauty and an attitude that brashly bent gender roles. Vargas died Sunday; she was 93.

She was born Isabel Vargas Lizano in Costa Rica, but audiences knew her as Chavela, a hard-partying, rabble-rousing, fiery singer who adopted Mexico as her homeland and began singing on the streets in her early teens.

Newport Jazz Festival

7:08 pm

Sun August 5, 2012

Berklee Global Jazz Ambassadors, Live In Concert: Newport Jazz Festival 2012

Credit Erik Jacobs for NPR

Saxophonists Lihi Haruvi (left) and Matthew Halpin (center) and violinist Alex Hargreaves (right) of The Berklee Global Jazz Ambassadors perform at the 2012 Newport Jazz Festival.

By editor

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Berklee Global Jazz Ambassadors Live From Newport

Boston's esteemed Berklee College of Music, just up the road from Newport, has produced top jazz musicians for decades. Driven by the leadership of Panamanian pianist Danilo Pérez, the school has expanded its jazz vision internationally, developing an initiative to recruit from and bring on tour around the world. Berklee's current Global Jazz Ambassadors are joined here by professional musician Adam Cruz, whose shimmering 2011 debut album Milestone showed off his talent both in front of the band and behind the drum kit.

Personnel

Newport Jazz Festival

6:09 pm

Sun August 5, 2012

Miguel Zenón's Rayuela Quartet, Live In Concert: Newport Jazz 2012

Credit Erik Jacobs for NPR

Saxophonist Miguel Zenón performs with pianist Laurent Coq at the 2012 Newport Jazz Festival.

By Patrick Jarenwattananon

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Miguel Zenon Rayuela Quartet Live From Newport

It may be billed as a gig for the alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, who is making his third Newport appearance in four years, but he would refuse complete credit. He teamed up with the French pianist Laurent Coq to co-write an album's worth of music inspired on the high-modernist Julio Cortázar novel Hopscotch — Rayuela, in the original Spanish. It calls for a cello and a trombone — Dana Leong plays both — and a drummer who can play tablas, so an obvious choice was Dan Weiss. Together, the quartet's literary and musical imagination runs wild.

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