Search results for

Sarah Chayes reports the French government has offered a package of tax reductions to the fishing industry to offset the high price of fuel. Fishers enraged by prices that have increased 140-percent in a year have been blockading ports around France for the past week. Following the government's concessions, fishing unions have urged an end to the protests. But not all the fishermen have complied, and taxi drivers, truckers and farmers say the tax reductions for fishers do nothing to alleviate their high fuel prices.

Linda talks with Hod Lipson, a research scientist at Brandeis University about a robot he and computer scientist Jordan Pollack designed, which constructs other robots. He says this is a new step towards the autonomy of artificial life.

The cottontail rabbit used to be a common sight among the oak forests and mountain trails of New England. No more. NPR News correspondent John Nielsen reports on a request by conservationists to put what once was thought to be the most procreatively successful American animal on the endangered species list.

Minority enrollment is up at Florida's state universities and Governor Jeb Bush is attributing the increase to his "One Florida" program. The governor's plan abolished affirmative action in state college and university admissions. It substituted a program where the top 20% of students in each high school class is guaranteed admission to a state institution. But critics say the governor is off base, because other outreach and recruiting efforts are really behind the increase. Susan Gage of Florida Public Radio reports.

Film director Carl Reiner. He was a writer and appeared in Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows. He's best-known to baby boomers as the creator and writer of The Dick Van Dyke Show. His film direction credits include The Jerk and Bert Rigby, You're a Fool.

Jason Beaubien reports on tensions between teachers unions and school districts in Boston and Philadelphia - tensions that could lead to teachers' strikes in those cities. One issue is that teachers' hard-won rights regarding seniority are clashing with attempts to make poor-performing schools better.

Linda talks with sportswriter Stefan Fatsis about this year's close race in baseball for the pennant. All in all, it's been an exciting season for baseball fans -- so many teams have a chance at winning their division. And in other good news for baseball fans -- players and owners have struck a deal that means no strike next season.

NPR's Gerry Hadden reports traditional Indian medicine men in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico, are trying to stop transnational companies from what they call bio-piracy -- making off with medicinal plants from the region and then taking out patents for any pharmaceutical potential. The Mayans say that such drug prospecting does not benefit Indian communities. The companies and some scientists say they stand to lose billions of dollars and perhaps the chance to cure deadly diseases.

Novelist James Welch has a new novel called The Heartsong of Charging Elk, based on an Oglala Sioux Indian who was part of the cast of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. From this historical incident novelist James Welch has made his new work -- (1:30) The Heartsong of Charging Elk is published by Doubleday.

Robert talks to ABC News reporter Robert Krulwich, about his 3-part series airing next week on Nightline, called "Hip Hop." Before beginning his research, Krulwich professed to be no expert on the subject of hip-hip culture, but wanted to understand why it was so compelling to kids, like his son, and millions of other teens and 20-somethings. In the first segment he profiles Russell Simmons, a hip-hop executive and record producer -- a household name to many hip-hop lovers, but previously unknown to Krulwich. Krulwich comes to understand that hip-hop is music, clothing, image, attitude -- a collage of ghetto and street, and the aspirations and signs of wealth and success. And he also discovers that the business of hip-hop is unlike any model he'd seen before, where music and fashion executives hold no distinctions between race, gender, or sex. He found it refreshing.