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2:06 pm
Tue August 21, 2012

Vets' Job Hunt May Be Thwarted By Disability Bias

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 2:12 pm

When Army veteran Justin Claus, 26, of Racine, Wis., goes to job interviews, he brings along his DD214, a document that serves as proof of military service. Claus is proud of his service and hopes being a veteran will give him an edge.

But the document, which basically sums up a military career, includes the reason it ended. In Claus' case, it reads "disability, permanent." And that little line Claus says, "comes back to get ya."

He says when employers ask why he was discharged, he recounts a parachute accident in 2007 that left him with chronic back and knee pain.

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NPR Story
2:06 pm
Tue August 21, 2012

Ethiopia Faces Uncertain Future After Leader's Death

Originally published on Tue August 21, 2012 5:36 pm

Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zenawi, has died. He was 57 years old. Meles was reportedly being treated at a hospital in Belgium. He came to power after leading rebels and overthrowing the country's dictator in 1991. He was a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism, but was also increasingly authoritarian.

The Two-Way
2:05 pm
Tue August 21, 2012

Jet Lagged: NASA Engineer And His Family Are Living On Mars Time

Credit David Oh
David Oh, wife Bryn and his children Braden, 13, Ashlyn, 10, and Devyn, 8, picnic in Santa Monica beach at about 1 a.m.

Originally published on Tue August 21, 2012 5:36 pm

Even the tiniest change — from daylight saving time to standard time — can throw your body off.

Imagine jumping into the time zone of an entirely different planet. That's what the family of David Oh, a NASA engineer, has been doing for weeks.

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Participation Nation
2:03 pm
Tue August 21, 2012

Skaters Give Back In Los Angeles, Calif.

Credit Courtesy of LADD
Rebecca Ninburg, aka Demolicious, with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Originally published on Thu September 20, 2012 9:54 am

For one day the whir of wheels on a wooden track is suspended as the Los Angeles Derby Dolls open their warehouse venue for the summertime Free Community Health & Job Fair, serving the surrounding Historical Filipinotown community.

The event provides free mammograms, glucose testing, self-defense classes and more courtesy of St. Vincent's Hospital — as well as job recruitment from police and fire departments.

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Music Reviews
1:44 pm
Tue August 21, 2012

Janka Nabay: The King Of Bubu Music

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Forced into exile from Sierra Leone, Janka Nabay (left of center) now makes his mysterious, mesmerizing music in Brooklyn.

Originally published on Tue August 21, 2012 5:36 pm

The Two-Way
1:07 pm
Tue August 21, 2012

Indian Parliament Adjourned After Row Over 'Coal-Gate'

India's parliament was adjourned briefly today as the opposition called for the resignation of the prime minister, saying he was complicit in what has become known as "coal-gate."

The uproar stems from an official audit issued last week accusing the government of selling coal mining rights for too low a price.

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World Cafe
12:40 pm
Tue August 21, 2012

Sara Watkins On World Cafe

Credit Aaron Redfield
Sara Watkins.

Former Nickel Creek fiddler Sara Watkins is a musical protege, both as a vocalist and as a multi-instrumentalist who plays the guitar, mandolin and ukulele. Watkins enjoyed widespread success in Nickel Creek, which included her older brother Sean and childhood friend Chris Thile.

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Author Interviews
12:10 pm
Tue August 21, 2012

Student 'Subversives' And The FBI's 'Dirty Tricks'

Originally published on Wed August 22, 2012 11:21 am

In 1964, students at the University of California, Berkeley, formed a protest movement to repeal a campus rule banning students from engaging in political activities.

Then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover suspected the free speech movement to be evidence of a Communist plot to disrupt U.S. campuses. He "had long been concerned about alleged subversion within the education field," journalist Seth Rosenfeld tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

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Remembrances
12:10 pm
Tue August 21, 2012

Fresh Air Remembers Comedian Phyllis Diller

Credit Central Press/Getty Images
Phyllis Diller plays peekaboo with the cameraman before the start of her television show Bonkers in 1979.

Originally published on Tue August 21, 2012 12:35 pm

Phyllis Diller, one of the first and one of the few female comic headliners of her generation, died Monday at the age of 95.

Diller performed in the persona of a crazed housewife. She usually dressed in outlandish, bad-fitting clothes with her hair teased into a disheveled mop. Then she'd fire off long strings of self-deprecating gags. She was so unattractive, she used to tell her audiences, that Peeping Toms asked her to pull her window shades down. Onstage, she called her husband Fang. Diller told Fang jokes like her male counterparts told wife jokes.

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Asia
11:58 am
Tue August 21, 2012

China's Increased Investment Upsets Some Pakistanis

Originally published on Thu August 23, 2012 3:08 pm

With all its current troubles, Pakistan has not been attracting much foreign investment recently. In fact, China seems to be the only country that's prepared to pour money into Pakistan in a big way.

But a boost in Chinese investment has sparked resentment in southern Pakistan, where activists accuse China of trying to be a new colonial power. A bomb blast recently hit near the Chinese Consulate in Karachi — an ominous sign of the rising tensions.

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