Presidential Race
7:58 am
Sat June 23, 2012

Presidential Campaign Takes On A Spanish Accent

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 11:07 am

Transcript

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. The presidential campaign shifted focus a bit this week as President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney both reached out to the fast-growing population of Latino voters. The two men spoke to a national gathering of Hispanic politicians in Florida. Immigration, of course, is an urgent issue after Mr. Obama's decision last week to try to stop deporting some illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

Read more
Around the Nation
7:58 am
Sat June 23, 2012

The Art Of Moose Calling Alive And Well In Maine

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 11:07 am

Maine is hosting its first World Invitational Moose Calling Contest as part of the state's annual 2012 Moose Lottery. Contestants will be judged on their moose-calling finesse in four categories: their bull call, cow call, attraction techniques and showmanship. To learn more about the art of moose calling, host Scott Simon talks with competition organizer Roger Lambert.

Sports
7:58 am
Sat June 23, 2012

In Sports Opportunities, Women Still Lag

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 11:07 am

Transcript

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Though Title IX encompasses many aspects of education, most people associate the law with athletics. Title IX's been credited with opening competitive sports to millions of American girls and women. For more now, we're joined by Nancy Hogshead-Makar. She's a three-time Olympic gold medal swimmer, former president of Women's Sports Foundation, and she's now a professor teaching federal gender-equity law at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville. She joins us on the line from Kenilworth, Illinois. Thanks so much for being with us.

Read more
Around the Nation
7:34 am
Sat June 23, 2012

Sandusky Verdict Answers 'Who Would Believe A Kid?'

Credit Mark Wilson / Getty Images
Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky leaves court in handcuffs Friday after being convicted in his child sex abuse trial at the Centre County Courthouse in Pennsylvania.

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 11:15 pm

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky spent what could be the first of many nights behind bars Friday after a jury found him guilty of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period.

In Bellefonte, Pa., Friday night, a crowd outside the county courthouse cheered when the guilty verdicts were announced.

The cheers continued as Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly praised the investigators and prosecutors at her side.

Read more
All Tech Considered
7:33 am
Sat June 23, 2012

Baby Robot Takes First Steps Toward Learning Language Formation

Credit Tom Bullock / NPR
Human baby Charlotte, the 13-month-old daughter of NPR producer Tom Bullock, tried the same tests that DeeChee, the robot, does for language-learning experiments. Dr. Caroline Lyons says human babies have an advantage: They spend every waking hour of the day in a speaking world.

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 1:51 pm

U.S.
6:23 am
Sat June 23, 2012

What Title IX Didn't Change: Stigma About Shop Class

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 1:05 pm

Forty years ago, President Richard Nixon signed Title IX, which said no person shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from any education program or activity. Vocational education courses that barred girls — such as auto mechanics, carpentry and plumbing — became available for everyone. But it's still hard to find girls in classes once viewed as "for boys only."

Zoe Shipley, 15, has a passion for cars and tinkering with engines.

"It's just kind of cool to learn how to fix a car or learn about it," she says.

Read more
Science
6:22 am
Sat June 23, 2012

Rio+20 Doesn't Get Further Than Vague Declaration

Credit Andre Penner / AP
U.N. General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's Secretary of the Conference Luis Figueiredo Machado and Rio+20 Secretary General Sha Zukang attend the closing ceremony of the Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 11:15 pm

The Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development was the biggest United Nations conference ever, but it may be one of the biggest duds. It produced no major agreements — just a vaguely worded declaration that has been widely derided.

More than 45,000 people registered for the event in Rio de Janeiro, but diplomats couldn't even agree about the meeting's objective until 2:45 a.m. on Tuesday, just before heads of state and other high-level delegates started arriving in Rio.

Read more
Around the Nation
6:03 am
Sat June 23, 2012

On This Stage, Jesus Is A Robber; The Devil's A Rapist

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 11:07 am

There are more than 5,300 inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Nearly 4,000 of them are serving life without parole. Last month, the Angola Prison Drama Club staged a play unlike any other in the prison's experience.

The Life of Jesus Christ featured 70 inmates, men and women acting together for the first time — in costume, with a real camel, performing for the general public. For the untrained actors, this production held special meaning as they saw pieces of their own lives revealed in the characters they played.

Read more
The Two-Way
6:37 pm
Fri June 22, 2012

Paraguay's Congress Votes To Oust President

Credit Jose Cabezas / AFP/Getty Images
Paraguay's congress impeached President Fernando Lugo on Friday over his handling of a deadly land dispute.

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 10:11 am

Paraguay's congress voted to remove President Fernando Lugo. The impeachment proceeding was a lightening process in which with both chambers approved his destitution in a little more than 24 hours.

Paraguay's La Nacíon reports that Vice President Federico Franco will assume the presidency after Lugo was found guilty of "performing his duties badly."

Read more

Sandhya Dirks arrived in Iowa in January of 2012 as a general assignment reporter. Since coming to Des Moines she has covered the Statehouse and traveled across Iowa to bring back stories for IPR. Sandhya was previously a reporter at KALW in San Francisco, covering education and criminal justice issues. Her work was awarded a SPJ Sigma Delta Chi and a regional Edward R. Murrow award.

Most recently, Sandhya earned her Master of Science from Columbia Journalism School in New York. Her masterââ

Pages