Search results for

A new National Academy of Sciences report finds that transportation accidents involving nuclear waste pose minimal risks. The academy recommends further study of scenarios involving long-duration fires or terrorist attack, and it points out another issue the government needs to address: public fear.

Leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Commitee are proposing that the Federal Emergency Management Agency be eliminated. After investigating the response to Hurricane Katrina, the committee releases a draft report recommending the creation of a new National Preparedness and Response Authority to replace FEMA.

Melissa Block and Michele Norris read from listeners' letters and e-mails. Among this week's topics: our series on legal immigration, David Schaper's story on the good side of urban sprawl, and Michele Norris's piece about the 25th anniversary of the death of Bob Marley.

Experts confirm that a cluster of trees found by a scientist hiking near Pine Mountain, Ga., are in fact American chestnut trees. But researchers say they have no idea how the trees escaped a blight in the early 1900s, which experts thought had wiped out the entire U.S. population of the trees.

The life of Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilei has inspired a musical work. "The Starry Messenger," composed by Glenn McClure, debuts Saturday night in upstate New York. The project was inspired by Dava Sobel's book Galileo's Daughter.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee decides not to recommend approval of a new drug for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The committee was considering modafinil, a drug used to treat narcolepsy. This comes against a backdrop of increased safety concerns about drugs already used to treat ADHD.

Michele Norris says she's had enough of chatty dolls, singing globes and anything else with a talking microchip. All those annoying playthings make her wonder: Why are toys so loud?

Federal agents in Milford Township, Mich., a western Detroit suburb, are digging up a horse farm searching for any sign of the remains of former union leader Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa disappeared in 1975. The farm is known as a place where organized-crime figures used to hang out.

Here's a way to travel, without suffering the high prices of fuel these days: Read one of Alan Cheuse's summer reading book picks. One of them is bound to move you someplace beyond your beach chair.

In Florida, Hazel Haley has been teaching English at Lakeland High School since 1939. She's been teaching in the same classroom since 1952! She's retiring this year and the community is grateful for her long service. In some cases, she's taught three generations of the same family. Robin Sussingham of member station WUSF reports.