Classical
5:00 am
Wed June 19, 2013

Off-Season: Kansas City Symphony's Miles Maner

There are some artists, like musicians and dancers, whose contracts are for roughly 40 weeks a year. So, how do they spend the rest of their time?

We asked Kansas City Symphony musicians, on contract for a 42-week season, to share stories about their plans for the off-season.

Miles Maner, associate principal, bassoonist and contrabassoonist

On learning to love the bassoon

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Middle East
4:27 am
Wed June 19, 2013

U.S. To Test The Waters With Iran's New President Rohani

Originally published on Wed June 19, 2013 5:08 am

Iran's newly elected president is signaling he might take a more pragmatic, moderate approach to nuclear negotiations with major world powers. But there's a lot of debate in Washington policy circles about what Hassan Rohani's election might mean for the U.S.

Commentary
4:27 am
Wed June 19, 2013

TV, Movie Streaming Services Want To Grow With Kids

Originally published on Wed June 19, 2013 5:03 am

Twenty percent of Netflix's streaming is made up of content for kids. Amazon just ordered a bunch of pilots of kids' shows. TV critic Eric Deggans says subscription streaming services are going to lean on parents' desire for control of what their kids watch as they build their audiences.

Business
4:27 am
Wed June 19, 2013

Disney World Raises Entrance Price For Magic Kingdom

Originally published on Wed June 19, 2013 5:07 am

Disney is trying something new. It's charging a higher admission price for the Magic Kingdom than its other theme parks in Orlando. A one-day pass to the Magic Kingdom now costs $95 — compared to $90 for Epcot, Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios.

NPR Story
4:09 am
Wed June 19, 2013

The Last Word In Business

Originally published on Wed June 19, 2013 4:14 am

Steve Inskeep and David Greene have the Last Word in business.

NPR Story
4:09 am
Wed June 19, 2013

Business News

Originally published on Wed June 19, 2013 4:27 am

David Greene has business news

NPR Story
4:09 am
Wed June 19, 2013

Bay Area Residents Forced To Wait For Bridge Repairs

Originally published on Wed June 19, 2013 4:27 am

One of the largest public works project in California history is struggling to re-gain public confidence amid construction delays and questions about whether the new bridge will be safe. A scheduled opening for Labor Day is in doubt as officials race to fix a series of bad bolts that were meant to keep the bridge secure in a catastrophic earthquake.

Animals
2:55 am
Wed June 19, 2013

Animal CSI: Inside The Smithsonian's Feather Forensics Lab

Originally published on Wed June 19, 2013 4:27 am

Carla Dove smiles as she tears open a small, flat cardboard box. She is sitting at a lab bench in her office at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

"It's kind of like Christmas for me because I never know what's going to be in the packages," she says.

Inside the box are a bunch of sealed sandwich-size bags. Dove counts the bags.

"Eight samples today," she notes. Each sample consists of grayish pieces of feathers, and sometimes bones, all from inside the stomachs and intestines of Burmese pythons.

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Sweetness And Light
2:23 am
Wed June 19, 2013

Tick Tock: Make The Serve, Pitch, Putt Or Shot

Credit Tom Lynn / Getty Images
Two fans catch a nap during a game between the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals last month in Milwaukee.

Originally published on Wed June 19, 2013 4:27 am

In Milwaukee, cartoon characters dressed up like various sausages race at each Brewers' game; in Washington, five of our beloved presidents do their own bratwurst ramble. But the character I want to appear at every baseball game –– and at a couple of other sports, too, is ...

tick-tock,tick-tock

... the crocodile from Peter Pan who swallowed a clock and shadows a terrified Capt. Hook.

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Business
2:21 am
Wed June 19, 2013

U.S. Automakers Are On A Roll, But Hiring Is Slow And Steady

Credit Geoff Robins / AFP/Getty Images
A worker installs parts on a Chrysler SUV engine at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit. Plants in the U.S. are now operating above 90 percent capacity, but automakers are wary of adding large numbers of new workers.

There is one basic question that keeps being asked about the U.S. auto industry: Is it on the rebound?

"People ask a lot, is the auto industry back?" says Kristin Dziczek, a director at the Center for Automotive Research. "And it depends on what scale you want to look at."

So if we're looking at scales, let's start with productivity. In this case, how many work hours it takes to build a car. Productivity in U.S. plants is 39 percent higher than it was in 2000. "Productivity has never been this high," Dziczek says.

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