It's been eight months since a Saudi Arabian doctor described a previously unknown virus related to SARS. And for most of that time only germ geeks paid much attention.
But in the past few days the new virus — which some would like to call MERS-CoV, for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus — has been making up for lost time.
Vice President Spiro Agnew (right) and former President Lyndon Johnson view the liftoff of Apollo 11 from the stands at the Kennedy Space Center on July 16, 1969.
Credit Michael Lionstar / Random House
Robert Caro published the first of his multivolume biography on Lyndon Johnson in 1982. In undertaking the project, Caro has said that what he wanted to write about was the idea of power.
For the past 37 years, Robert Caro has devoted his life to writing the definitive biography of Lyndon Johnson. So far, The Years of Lyndon Johnson has four acclaimed volumes and has shown readers just how complex the 36th president was, as both a politician and a man.
Two men have been arrested in connection with the murder of Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of civil rights-era leader Malcolm X who died Thursday in Mexico City. The suspects, who work at a bar Shabazz visited, could face charges of homicide and robbery, the BBC reports.
Bing Crosby was the biggest thing in pop singing in the 1930s, a star on radio and in the movies. He remained a top star in the '40s, when Frank Sinatra began giving him competition.
James Holmes on Monday formally changed his plea from not guilty to "not guilty by reason of insanity" for the July 20, 2012, movie theater shooting rampage in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 people dead and an additional 70 injured.
Holmes' lawyers had said last week that the young man would be doing this.
It's "outrageous and there's no place for it" if the Internal Revenue Service did, as it has admitted, single out some conservative groups for extra scrutiny in recent years, President Obama said Monday morning during a news conference at the White House.
According to a new report, historically black colleges and universities are attracting more Asian and Latino students than ever before. Host Michel Martin discusses that and other findings with the report's author, Marybeth Gasman, and Morgan State University President, David Wilson.
New Orleans might be famous for its culinary legacy, but the Big Easy also has neighborhoods without access to fresh, healthy food. Now actor Wendell Pierce is bringing grocery stores to some neglected parts of his home town. Host Michel Martin speaks with Pierce about his new grocery chain, Sterling Farms.
Millions of Americans rely on food stamps to keep from going hungry. They can also use them to buy sugary drinks. Some groups, including the National Center for Public Policy Research, say that's not right. Host Michel Martin discusses this with the Center's Justin Danhof, and University of Illinois Professor Craig Gundersen.
House Republicans just passed a bill they say will help people juggle work and family. Supporters say the bill gives workers more flexibility by letting them trade for time off. But critics, including Senate Democrats, say it's just a ploy to pay workers less money. Host Michel Martin learns more from NPR's Senior Business Editor, Marilyn Geewax.
Experts say the housing market is recovering, but the percentage of Americans who own homes is lower than it was a decade ago. Host Michel Martin speaks to Time's Rana Foroohar who looks at this and other paradoxes in the housing market, and asks if the recovery is really just a mirage.
Silvio Berlusconi spoke Saturday at a rally in Brescia, Italy. The former prime minister could face a jail term of six years and a lifetime ban from holding political office in a sex-for-hire case.
The prosecutor in former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's trial on charges that he had sex with an underage prostitute is seeking a term of six years behind bars and a lifetime ban on the former premier from holding public office.
Both you and your boss may agree it would be best for you to work a sixth day when a big project is due in March, and then take off for a long weekend in June. No big deal.
But under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, private employers must pay time and a half to workers who put in more than 40 hours on the job in any one week.
A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that an Indiana farmer infringed on Monsanto's patent when he planted soybeans that had been genetically modified by Monsanto without buying them from the agribusiness giant.
Dylan Young, then 18, posed for a photo as a vehicle cruised by North Arlington, N.J., in June 2012. Young was in a fender-bender accident caused by being distracted while texting and driving.
Almost half of teenagers cop to texting while driving. And those texting teens are more likely to make other risky moves while in the car, too.
That includes not wearing seat belts, drinking and driving, and riding with a driver who's been drinking, a study just published in the journal Pediatrics finds.
British Prime Minister David Cameron (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin viewed the Sochi Olympic Park along the Black Sea coast by helicopter Friday.
On 'Morning Edition': British Prime Minister David Cameron talks with NPR's Steve Inskeep
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry "made a real breakthrough" last week in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they agreed there will be an American-Russian peace conference on Syria, British Prime Minister David Cameron told NPR on Monday.
"The Internal Revenue Service's scrutiny of conservative groups went beyond those with 'tea party' or 'patriot' in their names — as the agency admitted Friday — to also include ones worried about government spending, debt or taxes, and even ones that lobbied to 'make America a better place to live,' " The Wall Street Journal reports.
Etta May Lopez needed help. She wanted to quit smoking. She decided she needed to go someplace where she could not go buy cigarettes. And the place that came to mind was jail. Ms. Lopez says this is the reason she went to a jail, walked up to a Sacramento sheriff's deputy and slapped him in the face. The deputy took her inside the jail where she slapped him again. After pleading no contest to a misdemeanor, she faces 63 smoke-free days.
Good morning. I'm David Greene. What the mayor of Dorset, Minnesota lacks in experience he makes up for with youthful enthusiasm. Mayor Bobby Tufts is four years old. He won his seat by having his name picked out of a hat. That's an annual tradition for the small town of 22. Mayor Tufts is celebrated in town as a singer, a dancer, and fisherman.
British Prime Minister David Cameron meets at the White House with President Obama on Monday. Steve Inskeep talks to Cameron about the options for dealing with the Syrian conflict.
If you said the "s" word in the ninth century, you probably wouldn't have shocked or offended anyone. Back then, the "s" word was just the everyday word that was used to refer to excrement. That's one of many surprising, foul-mouthed facts Melissa Mohr reveals in her new book, Holy S- - -: A Brief History of Swearing.
David Greene speaks with Jessica Buchanan and her husband Erik Landemalm about their book Impossible Odds. It's the story of Jessica's abduction, along with a fellow aid worker, by Somali pirates in 2011. In the first of the two-part interview, we hear how Jessica was abducted, and how she refused to fall into despair while in captivity.
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm David Greene.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
And I'm Steve Inskeep.
Again and again, President Obama's administration tries to pivot attention toward East Asia. Administration officials believe China and its neighbors are where the economic future lies.
GREENE: And yet it's the Middle East that keeps demanding the president's attention. It brings to mind that line from F. Scott Fitzgerald's: So we beat on boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
