Search results for

The NFL will not allow a Las Vegas tourism commercial to air during the Super Bowl. The league does not want imply any links to gambling. Commentator Frank Deford says the National Football League, and other professional sports in the United States, are too paranoid about gambling.

A new, $100-million plant in Tampa, Fla., converts seawater into fresh drinking water, making the city the first in the country to get a substantial portion of its drinking water from the sea. But some fear the salty concentrate left over from the filtering process will harm the region's rich marine life. NPR's Phillip Davis reports.

Rolando Arrieta profiles the French musical group Les Yeux Noirs, which performs Gypsy and Jewish music on acoustic and electric instruments. Singer and violinist Erik Slabiak and his brother, Olivier, grew up in Paris in the 1970s, the sons of Jewish immigrants from Poland.

As Secretary of State Colin Powell prepares to present to the U.N. Security Council the U.S. case against Iraq, President Bush will meet with Italy's prime minister and Saudi Arabia's foreign minister for the "final phase" of diplomatic consultations. Hear NPR's Tom Gjelten and Joseph Cirincione of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

In 1936, Edward, Prince of Wales, forfeited his role as King Edward VIII to marry the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson, who was originally from Baltimore. NPR's Lynn Neary talks with Cahal Milmo, a reporter with London's Independent newspaper, about secret documents recently released to the public that reveal that Simpson was having an affair while Edward was courting her, and that she continued to have affairs with other men after her marriage to Edward.

NPR's Lynn Neary and NPR's Michele Norris read from this week's listener letters. Among the topics, the National Geographic Magazine swimsuit edition, the glories of a summer peach in wintertime, and the "State of the Union Drinking Game."

The Senate Judiciary Committee votes along party lines to endorse Miguel Estrada for a federal circuit court post. He's the first judicial nominee sent to the full Senate under Republican management. Democrats say Estrada's record doesn't merit a lifetime appointment and hint at a filibuster to defeat him. NPR's David Welna reports.

Richard Reid, the al Qaeda follower who tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoes, is sentenced to life in prison. Reid gets the maximum sentence after declaring himself a soldier of war. NPR's Tovia Smith reports.

NPR's Emily Harris reports from Hamburg on today's proceedings in the trial of Mounir al-Montassadeq, who is charged in connection with the Sept. 11 plots. The families of American victims are co-plaintiffs in the case, and the court today heard their testimony. Prosecutors say the defendant played a key role in the Hamburg cell of al Qaeda -- run by 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta. Defense attorneys say their client cannot get a fair trial, because the U.S. and German governments are withholding key information.

In the second part of our series on debt in America we'll hear about the boom in cash-out mortgage financing and about the history of debt in our society. The book mentioned is Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America's Addiction to Credit, published by Basic Books; Dec., 2001.