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Television
4:17 am
Mon September 10, 2012

New Hosts Jockey To Be The New Oprah

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By Eric Deggans

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Daytime TV kicks off a new season this week. In the lineup are some new talk shows featuring big names, including Katie Couric, Ricki Lake and comedian and radio host Steve Harvey. TV critic Eric Deggans says they are all chasing after the elusive holy grail of daytime television - the audience that Oprah Winfrey left behind.

ERIC DEGGANS: Remember when Katie Couric sat behind the anchor desk at the CBS Evening News?

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "CBS EVENING NEWS")

KATIE COURIC: Recession fear caused the Dow to plunge...

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Author Interviews
2:30 am
Mon September 10, 2012

'End Of Men' Heralds New Era Of Female Dominance

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Credit Nina Subin / Riverhead Books
Hanna Rosin is the co-founder of Slate's Double X blog. She is also a senior editor at The Atlantic.
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By editor

Originally published on Mon September 10, 2012 1:47 pm

Women have fought tirelessly to establish equal footing for themselves in relationships, politics and the workplace, and according to writer Hanna Rosin, they've finally arrived.

In her new book, The End of Men: And The Rise of Women, Rosin argues that the U.S. has entered an era of female dominance.

Interview Highlights

On how the rise of women is largely an economic story

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Fine Art
2:30 am
Mon September 10, 2012

For Museum, Long-Lost Picasso Is Too Costly To Keep

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By editor

Originally published on Mon September 10, 2012 4:17 am

In the southwestern Indiana town of Evansville, people are a bit baffled after hearing that the town's Museum of Arts, History and Science has had a rare Pablo Picasso piece in storage for almost half a century. Curator Mary Bower says the work went unnoticed because of a clerical error.

"All the documentation associated with the gift indicated that this was by an artist named Gemmaux," she says, "which really happens to be the plural of the artistic technique."

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News
2:30 am
Mon September 10, 2012

Princess Cruises Says Video Disproves Guilt

Credit Dan Peled / AP
Princess Cruise Lines, which operates the mammoth cruise ship Star Princess (above), is being sued after allegedly ignoring a Panamanian fishing boat in distress. Two men died when the boat sank; one man survived.
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Originally published on Mon September 10, 2012 4:17 am

The owners of the Star Princess cruise ship say that they have new video evidence that proves they are not responsible for ignoring a stranded fishing vessel 100 miles off the coast of South America in March.

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The Salt
2:29 am
Mon September 10, 2012

Low And Slow May Be The Way To Go When It Comes To Dieting

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Eating low-glycemic foods, or foods that take longer to digest, may help you feel fuller for a longer period of time.
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Originally published on Wed September 19, 2012 3:09 pm

If you're dieting, you know you've got to count calories, carbs and fats. But if you really want to take off the weight and keep it off, you might want to pay more attention to the glycemic index, which is essentially a measure of how quickly foods are digested.

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Author Interviews
2:28 am
Mon September 10, 2012

Why Knockoffs Are Good For The Fashion Industry

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Credit Dario Cantatore / Getty Images
The Real Thing: A model poses on Friday at the Kate Spade show during New York Fashion Week. In The Knockoff Economy, Kal Raustiala and Christopher Sprigman argue that copying major designers is good both for the industry and for consumers.
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By NPR Staff

Originally published on Mon September 10, 2012 1:48 pm

During New York Fashion Week, designers will present looks that you might find in a department store next spring ... or, as knockoffs at Forever 21. That's because copying fashion designs is perfectly legal — and that's a good thing, if you ask Kal Raustiala.

Raustiala is the co-author of a new book called The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation. He talks with NPR's Renee Montagne about who copies fashion designs, why it's legal and how copying ultimately benefits the consumer and the industry.

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Around the Nation
2:28 am
Mon September 10, 2012

Los Angeles VA Has Made Millions On Rental Deals

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Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
The 388-acre campus of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Los Angeles was donated to the federal government more than 100 years ago for use as a home for disabled veterans, but is no longer used for that purpose. In 2007, Building 209, pictured here, was designated as a place to house disabled homeless vets. It is currently abandoned.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
An empty room is seen inside Building 209. Although the building is supposed to house disabled vets, it is currently vacant and uninhabitable.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
Building 205, pictured here, sits vacant. It was designated as future housing for disabled homeless veterans in 2007.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
The campus has more than a dozen long-term rental deals with various enterprises, most of which don't serve veterans. There's a private baseball stadium, storage for film sets and a laundry for Marriott Hotels. Meanwhile, other buildings sit abandoned.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
Building 208 (left) and Building 209 are seen on the VA campus. In 2010, the VA budgeted $20 million to renovate 209, but work hasn't started.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
The chapel on campus is abandoned and deteriorating. The 1900s-era building is a rare early-American, multidenominational site. It holds one chapel for Protestants and another for Catholics. The J. Paul Getty Museum provided a $75,000 grant in 2000 to support conservation planning, but no work has yet been done on the building.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
R.W. Williams, 63, a Vietnam veteran, has been seeking medical treatment for a host of ailments, including PTSD, at the VA health center in Los Angeles. He is seen here on the campus near a mural honoring soldiers.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
Conly Mims, 59, a Marine Corps veteran, is seen in the old trolley building. Mims participates in the Salvation Army Haven Program, which caters to veterans struggling with a variety of complex problems such as a shortage of housing and chronic medical issues.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
The Old Soldiers Home in Los Angeles is seen in this photo from 1892. The land was donated to the VA by landholder Arcadia Bandini de Baker in 1887, who specified that it should be used to house wounded veterans.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
Arcadia Bandini de Baker donated the West Los Angeles property more than 100 years ago to the federal government.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
"Barracks Buildings and Park" are seen in this vintage postcard from the Old Soldiers Home.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
The chapel, seen circa 1900, was used for religious services, weddings, substance abuse counseling and funeral rites by both veterans and members of the local community until a 1971 earthquake made the building unsafe for use. It is currently deteriorating, although the VA hopes to save it.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
The Band Stand and Memorial Hall, circa 1900.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
Markham Hall, circa 1900.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
The dining hall, circa 1900.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
Barracks Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 6.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
Campus headquarters, 1935.
Credit Courtesy of Carolina Barrie
An image of attendants, circa 1949.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
The campus of the VA Medical Center in West Los Angeles was donated to the federal government more than 100 years ago for use as a home for wounded veterans. Building 209, pictured here, was designated as a place to house disabled homeless vets in 2007, but the VA has yet to start renovations.
Credit Nancy Pastor for NPR
Carolina Winston Barrie is the great-great niece of Arcadia Bandini de Baker, who donated the land for the Los Angeles VA campus in 1887. Winston Barrie spent years trying to get the VA to maintain the intent of the gift. Instead, parts of the property have been leased to various commercial enterprises.
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Originally published on Mon September 10, 2012 6:59 pm

Most Los Angeles residents only know the Veterans Affairs medical center in West Los Angeles as something they glimpse from their cars when they're on traffic-choked Wilshire Boulevard. From the road it looks like a park, but within the grounds is the largest medical facility in the VA's health care system.

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Shots - Health Blog
2:27 am
Mon September 10, 2012

Doctors Take Aim At Epidemic Kidney Stones With Lasers

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Credit Richard Knox / NPR
Henry Owens, a 69-year-old retired lawyer from Cape Cod, suffered a kidney stone attack last month. His doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital used a laser to break up the stone.
Credit Richard Knox / NPR
Dr. Dianne Sacco of Massachusetts General Hospital uses a laser ureteroscope to pulverize a kidney stone in Henry Owens. The screen shows a magnified image of the stone, an irregular yellow shape.
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Originally published on Mon September 10, 2012 4:17 am

The nation is in the midst of a kidney stone epidemic.

New research shows 1 in 10 American men and 1 in 14 women has had one. And prevalence of kidney stones has shot up in recent years.

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Middle East
2:25 am
Mon September 10, 2012

Middle East A Pile Of Issues For Next President

Credit Manu Brabo / AP
A rebel fighter fled after attacking a tank with a rocket-propelled grenade last week in Aleppo, Syria. The escalating Syrian conflict is among several issues in the Middle East that the next U.S. president must confront.
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Originally published on Sun September 16, 2012 7:25 am

Foreign policy has not been a major focus of this election campaign, but whoever wins in November will have a messy inbox when it comes to the delicate tangle of issues in the Middle East.

For decades, the U.S. relied on authoritarian regimes to provide stability in the region. Now, it must deal with a new government in Egypt, an intensifying conflict in Syria, nervous allies in the Persian Gulf — and a major decision about Iran.

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Politics
4:08 pm
Sun September 9, 2012

Who Benefits In Money Game: Democracy Or Donors?

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By editor

Originally published on Sun September 9, 2012 5:07 pm

There's a new stimulus plan underway in America: $5.8 billion is being injected into the U.S. economy, particularly in states like Ohio, Virginia, Colorado and Florida.

We're talking of course about campaign spending, and this year's elections will be the most expensive in history. In fact, by the time we all head to the voting booth on Election Day, nearly $6 billion will have been spent on campaigns — big and small — all across America.

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