Search results for

Kathy Witkowsky reports that lung damage may be much greater than expected for residents of Libby, MT. Residents were exposed to asbestos from a local mine --and recent health reports indicate even people with no direct contact with the mining operations have sustained asbestos-related lung damage.

Congress recently repealed a set of rules governing repetitive motion in the workplace -- rules put in place during the final days of the Clinton administration. Congress did that by invoking a 1996 law that allows the review of federal regulations within the first months after they are imposed by the executive branch. Now some members of Congress want to use the same power to review some of President Bush's rules changes, specifically as they apply to abortion. NPR's David Welna reports.

Alan Cheuse reviews Gabriel's Story by David Anthony Durham. It's the story of runaway black youths in the great American West of the 1870s. The book is published by Doubleday.

NPR's Vicky O'Hara reports on President Bush's White House meeting with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Today, the president said he will not to try to "force peace," in the Middle East. Mr. Bush also said that America's role should be to facilitate talks and not dictate a timetable. For his part, Prime Minister Sharon said he wants an end to violence before he'll resume talks with the Palestinians.

NPR's Steve Inskeep profiles Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. The first-term Republican, who is considered a close friend of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and endorsed him during last year's presidential primaries, is pushing a campaign-finance reform measure that has become the vehicle for those opposed to the McCain-Feingold bill. Hagel's measure, which limits -- but does not eliminate -- soft money contributions, is tacitly backed by President Bush. McCain calls Hagel's bill a "poison pill" that would not change the system in any meaningful way.

After a five-day struggle to save it, a 40-story-high oil rig sank today off the coast of Brazil with 400,000 gallons of crude oil and diesel fuel on board. Last Thursday, 10 people died when gas explosions damaged the rig. Now officials are trying to prevent an environmental disaster. Noah Adams talks with reporter Tom Gibb.

Linda Wertheimer talks with Murray Weiss, criminal justice editor for the New York Post newspaper about Abraham Abdallah, a bus buy who is suspected of stealing millions of dollars from such famous people as Steven Spielberg and Michael Bloomberg.

American Lori Berenson begins her retrial on terrorism charges in connection with a leftist guerilla plot to seize Peru's Congress. Berenson was originally sentenced to life by a military tribunal five years ago. The retrial comes after the United States complained about a lack of due process in the first trial. Claire Marshall reports from Lima.

Noah Adams speaks with Kathleen Cambor, author of In Sunlight, In a Beautiful Garden. Her book is a novel based on the events surrounding the Johnstown flood in 1889. The flood claimed 2,200 lives after a dam burst on Memorial Day weekend. The book traces some of the complex social tensions between the residents of Johnstown and the wealthy Pittsburgh industrialists who'd built country homes nearby and on whose land the defective dam stood. The book is published by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux.

NPR's Peter Overby reports on the first amendment to the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform bill that has passed the Senate. By a 70-30 vote, lawmakers approved a proposal that would help level the playing field for candidates who run against rich opponents who finance their own campaigns.