The Two-Way
3:19 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Fox Calls U.S. Surveillance Of Its Reporter 'Downright Chilling'

Fox News said that it was "outraged," after learning that the Justice Department obtained the personal emails of one of its reporters during the course of a 2009 leak investigation.

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Parallels
3:02 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Iran's 'Zahra' Tells Alternate Tale Of Presidential Campaign

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 12:17 am

Iranians choose a new president next month, and one thing Iran's leaders are intent on avoiding is a repeat of the massive street protests that followed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election in 2009.

The sponsors of those protests, known as the Green Movement, have been effectively silenced inside Iran, but not online. The heroine of a graphic novel about the violent suppression of dissent in 2009 is now launching a virtual campaign of her own.

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The Two-Way
2:46 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

British Aircraft Carrier HMS Ark Royal Heads For Scrap Yard

Credit Kyle Heller / AP
The HMS Ark Royal steams into Portsmouth, England, for the last time on Dec. 3, 2010, in preparation for decommissioning.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 4:22 pm

The people of Portsmouth, England, on Monday turned out to bid farewell to the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, destined for a Turkish scrap yard after its decommissioning two years ago.

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The Salt
2:27 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Washington State Butcher Spikes Pig Feed With Weed

Credit Courtesy of BB Ranch
William von Schneidau, who owns the BB Ranch butcher shop at Pike Place Market in Seattle, has made prosciutto from pigs fed marijuana.

Originally published on Wed May 22, 2013 9:25 am

William von Schneidau, an intrepid butcher in Seattle, is giving a whole new meaning to "potbelly pig." Lately, he's been feeding marijuana refuse to the pigs he turns into prosciutto for BB Ranch, his butcher shop in the city's famous Pike Place Marke

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The Salt
2:01 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Sandwich Monday: The Saltwich

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 2:48 pm

For years, one of the pieces of advice we've been ignoring is that we should really cut back on our salt intake. Now, a panel of experts convened by the Institute of Medicine says limiting salt below a certain amount may not really do us any good. Around here, we take this to mean: Eat as much salt as you can or you'll die.

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The Two-Way
2:00 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Beijing Angry Over North Korea's Seizure Of Chinese Fishermen

Credit Jung Yeon-je / AFP/Getty Images
North Korea's missile test over the weekend, along with the capture of Chinese fishermen, has soured Beijing-Pyongyang relations.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 2:06 pm

Beijing has long been about the closest thing to an ally that Pyongyang enjoys, but the seizure of a Chinese fishing boat by unidentified North Koreans has threatened to put an already tenuous relationship on even shakier ground.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei was quoted by The New York Times as making it fairly clear that his government was not happy about the development.

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Mountain Stage
1:56 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Loudon Wainwright III On Mountain Stage

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 8:16 pm

Loudon Wainwright III makes his 14th appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, W.Va. Wainwright first played Mountain Stage in 1988 — at that time, he was already regarded as one of America's finest singer-songwriters. Since that time, Wainwright's sardonic, poignant wit has helped him win armloads of awards and countless more fans.

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The Two-Way
1:44 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

WATCH: A Train Wreck Of A 'Star-Spangled Banner' Performance

Credit YouTube
Alexis Normand sings the anthem.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:27 pm

The Two-Way
1:35 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Turnabout Is Fair Play: Senators Have Many Questions For IRS

Credit Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images
Outgoing acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Steven Miller.

The Internal Revenue Service is under fire for improperly singling out some conservative groups for extra scrutiny — putting them through months (or longer) of questions that delayed or derailed the organizations' requests for tax-exempt status.

Well, now the chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee have some questions and requests — actually dozens of them — for the IRS.

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Anastasia Tsioulcas is an Associate Producer for NPR Music. In this role she is responsible for producing, blogging and occasional reporting on classical and world music.

Tsioulcas is co-host of NPR's classical music blog, Deceptive Cadence, and also produces live concert webcasts, ranging from Member Station co-productions to other live concerts and special events, including Field Recordings and Tiny Desk Concerts, that she's helped curate and produce.

While here at NPR, Tsioulcas has produced, coordinated and reported on a variety of topics and initiatives including rallying a few hundred singers to Times Square for a "flash choir" to sing the world premiere of a new Philip Glass piece, commissioned by NPR Music. Tsioulcas also had the opportunity to speak with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steve Reich about his piece WTC 9/11 and she produced and co-hosted a live concert at (Le) Poisson Rouge with legendary conductor Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, comprised of players from Israel and across the Arab world.

Prior to joining NPR in April 2011, she was widely published as a writer on both classical and world music, and was the former North America editor for Gramophone Magazine and the classical music columnist for Billboard. She has also been an on-air contributor to many public radio programs, including WNYC's Soundcheck, Minnesota Public Radio's The Savvy Traveler, Public Radio International's Weekend America, and the BBC's The World. As a world music journalist, she has reported from across north and western Africa, South Asia and Europe on the music and culture of those regions.

Born in Boston, Tsioulcas was trained from an early age as a Western classical violinist and violist. She holds a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University in comparative religion.

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