NPR News

Pages

Business

3:41 pm

Tue May 21, 2013

Apple CEO Defends Tax Practices At Senate Hearing

By John Ydstie

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 4:43 pm

Listen

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block.

The top executives of Apple faced tough questions today on Capitol Hill. They came at a hearing about Apple's alleged avoidance of billions of dollars in U.S. income taxes. Yesterday, Senate investigators released a study describing how the maker of the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers used subsidiaries based in Ireland to avoid income taxes on a big chunk of its global profits.

Reporter's Notebook

3:41 pm

Tue May 21, 2013

Discovering A Family Member's Lost Time In Amsterdam

Next image Previous image

Credit Margot Adler / NPR

Suzanne Hoogendijk, shown here in 2009, hid for two years with her mother in Amsterdam to escape the Nazis.

Credit Margot Adler / NPR

Suzanne Hoogendijk (from right) with Margot Adler and, Hoogendijk's daughter, Fleur, in 2012. Adler was surprised to learn that, like Anne Frank, her cousin had hidden from Nazis during WWII.

By Margot Adler

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 4:43 pm

Listen

When I found out that one of my cousins — now 88 — had hidden from the Nazis in Amsterdam, just like Anne Frank, it was a revelation. It made me want to know more about my cousin's life and story.

"I like to analyze what happens and to put it in writing; that gives you neatness in your head, and that is what I'm after," says my cousin, retired Judge Suzanne Hoogendijk. She was 87 at the time, and was talking about why she loved being a judge. But delving into her personal past was another matter.

The Salt

3:40 pm

Tue May 21, 2013

African Cities Test The Limits Of Living With Livestock

Credit Gianluigi Guercia / AFP/Getty Images

Sheep graze in the street last year in Cairo.

By Eliza Barclay

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 4:18 pm

Raising chickens has become so fashionable among some urban Americans that there's now a market for chicken diapers, as we reported this month.

Shots - Health News

3:38 pm

Tue May 21, 2013

A Catch For Insurers That Cut Deductibles For Healthy People

Credit iStockphoto.com

How much is my deductible?

By Michelle Andrews

Health insurance deductibles typically only go one direction: up.

It's not unusual for people these days to be responsible for paying thousands of dollars in medical claims before most plan benefits kick in.

The Two-Way

3:32 pm

Tue May 21, 2013

Microsoft Reveals New Xbox One Game System

Credit Ted S. Warren / AP

The new Xbox One entertainment and gaming system was unveiled Tuesday by Microsoft. The console includes live TV and advanced voice commands.

By Bill Chappell

Microsoft unveiled its new Xbox One Tuesday, displaying a device that takes new steps in game consoles' journey to becoming all-purpose entertainment and communication devices. The new console replaces the Xbox 360, which has been on the market for nearly eight years.

Mountain Stage

3:23 pm

Tue May 21, 2013

Paula Cole On Mountain Stage

Next image Previous image

Credit Brian Blauser / Mountain Stage

Paula Cole.

Credit Brian Blauser / Mountain Stage

Paula Cole makes her second appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, W.Va.

Credit Brian Blauser / Mountain Stage

Paula Cole makes her second appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, W.Va.

Credit Brian Blauser / Mountain Stage

Paula Cole makes her second appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, W.Va.

Credit Brian Blauser / Mountain Stage

Paula Cole makes her second appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, W.Va.

Credit Brian Blauser / Mountain Stage

Paula Cole makes her second appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, W.Va.

By editor

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 8:13 pm

Paula Cole makes her second appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston, W.Va. When Cole first appeared on Mountain Stage in the fall of 1996, she was still a relative unknown to the public at large, despite earning high praise from peers for her work as a backing vocalist for Peter Gabriel, as well as her debut album Harbinger.

The Two-Way

3:12 pm

Tue May 21, 2013

Gandhi Artifacts Could Fetch Steep Prices At Auction

Credit AFP/Getty Images

A picture of Gandhi taken on July 24, 1931 in New Delhi.

By Scott Neuman

Artifacts that once belonged to Mohandas K. Gandhi, the Indian independence leader who took a vow of poverty, could fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction.

The Salt

3:01 pm

Tue May 21, 2013

Vertical 'Pinkhouses:' The Future Of Urban Farming?

Next image Previous image

Credit Courtesy of Caliber Therapeutics

This "pinkhouse" at Caliber Biotherapeutics in Bryan, Texas, grows 2.2 million plants under the glow of blue and red LEDs.

Credit Courtesy of Plantagon

An artist's rendering of what a planned vertical farm in Linkoping, Sweden, will look like.

Credit Courtesy of Purdue Agricultural Communication photo/Tom Campbell

Cary Mitchell and Celina Gomez, of Purdue University, harvest tomatoes grown next to a tower of blue and red LEDs.

Credit Courtesy of Caliber Biotherapeutics

Plants at Caliber Biotherapeutics grow under blue and red LEDs, with wavelengths of light that match those that get absorbed by the photosynthetic machinery.

By Michaeleen Doucleff

The idea of vertical farming is all the rage right now. Architects and engineers have come up with spectacular concepts for lofty buildings that could function as urban food centers of the future.

The Record

2:23 pm

Tue May 21, 2013

Kanye West Stands Alone

Credit Dana Edelson / NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

Kanye West performing "Black Skinhead" on Saturday Night Live last weekend.

By Frannie Kelley

What happened over the weekend? At 8:34 on Friday night, Kanye West tweeted. He said he'd be premiering a song in a half hour and we'd have to do what he said to hear it – we'd have to go to a particular address and stand outside with other people and watch a video projected onto the side of a building. Of course, the first video of the video was up within minutes, so most people didn't have to do any such thing.

The Two-Way

1:57 pm

Tue May 21, 2013

Oklahoma's GOP Senators Find Themselves In Tornado Aid Bind

Next image Previous image

Credit Tony Gutierrez / AP

An aerial view shows an entire neighborhood destroyed by Monday's tornado in Moore, Okla.

Credit Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Sens. Tom Coburn (above) and, to a lesser extent, James Inhofe (below) have become the faces of pushback on federal emergency spending even though Oklahoma is one of the biggest recipients of U.S. disaster aid.

Credit Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

By Liz Halloran

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 4:07 pm

Even as President Obama was declaring that tornado-devastated Oklahoma would get "everything it needs right away," the state's most vociferous critic of federal emergency aid vowed that he, too, would push for assistance "without delay."

Pages