Planet Money
3:43 am
Fri June 15, 2012

Can Lincoln Be Cool Again?

Credit courtesy Lincoln
An ad for the 1965 Lincoln Continental.

Originally published on Fri June 15, 2012 9:56 am

In the car business, Lincoln once stood as the pinnacle of luxury. Frank Sinatra drove a Lincoln. So did the Shah of Iran. In the U.S., the presidential limo was a Lincoln.

The brand peaked with the 1961 Lincoln Continental, a beautiful, innovative car that stood for style, individuality and sophistication.

But after the '60s, Lincoln started on a long, slow decline that mirrored the slide of the American auto industry.

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Christopher Joyce is a correspondent on the science desk at NPR. His stories can be heard on all of NPR's news programs, including NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.

Joyce seeks out stories in some of the world's most inaccessible places. He has reported from remote villages in the Amazon and Central American rainforests, Tibetan outposts in the mountains of western China, and the bottom of an abandoned copper mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Over the course of his career, Joyce has written stories about volcanoes, hurricanes, human evolution, tagging giant blue-fin tuna, climate change, wars in Kosovo and Iraq and the artificial insemination of an African elephant.

For several years, Joyce was an editor and correspondent for NPR's Radio Expeditions, a documentary program on natural history and disappearing cultures produced in collaboration with the National Geographic Society that was heard frequently on Morning Edition.

Joyce came to NPR in 1993 as a part-time editor while finishing a book about tropical rainforests and, as he says, "I just fell in love with radio." For two years, Joyce worked on NPR's national desk and was responsible for NPR's Western coverage. But his interest in science and technology soon launched him into parallel work on NPR's science desk.

In addition, Joyce has written two non-fiction books on scientific topics for the popular market: Witnesses from the Grave: The Stories Bones Tell (with co-author Eric Stover); and Earthly Goods: Medicine-Hunting in the Rainforest.

Before coming to NPR, Joyce worked for ten years as the U.S. correspondent and editor for the British weekly magazine New Scientist.

Joyce's stories on forensic investigations into the massacres in Kosovo and Bosnia were part of NPR's war coverage that won a 1999 Overseas Press Club award. He was part of the Radio Expeditions reporting and editing team that won the 2001 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University journalism award and the 2001 Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists. Joyce won the 2001 American Association for the Advancement of Science excellence in journalism award.

Humans
3:07 am
Fri June 15, 2012

Famous Cave Paintings Might Not Be From Humans

Originally published on Fri June 15, 2012 9:38 pm

The famous paintings on the walls of caves in Europe mark the beginning of figurative art and a great leap forward for human culture.

But now a novel method of determining the age of some of those cave paintings questions their provenance. Not that they're fakes — only that it might not have been modern humans who made them.

The first European cave paintings are thought to have been made over 30,000 years ago. Most depict animals and hunters. Some of the eeriest are stencils of human hands, apparently made by blowing a spray of pigment over a hand held up to a wall.

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Law
2:57 am
Fri June 15, 2012

Legal Help For The Poor In 'State Of Crisis'

Credit Carrie Johnson / NPR
At Maryland's Legal Aid Bureau in Baltimore, the doors are open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It serves as a kind of legal emergency room for people who need help but can't afford a lawyer.

Originally published on Fri June 15, 2012 9:56 am

Nearly 50 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that people accused of a crime deserve the right to a defense lawyer, no matter whether they can afford to pay for one. But there's no such guarantee when it comes to civil disputes — like evictions and child custody cases — even though they have a huge impact on people's lives.

For decades, federal and state governments have pitched in to help. But money pressures mean the system for funding legal aid programs for the poor is headed toward a crisis.

A Legal ER

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Interviews
2:42 am
Fri June 15, 2012

A Single Dad And His Unlikely College Roommate

Credit StoryCorps
Wil Smith visited StoryCorps with his daughter, Olivia, in Sheffield, Mass.

Originally published on Fri June 15, 2012 12:33 pm

Deceptive Cadence
1:03 am
Fri June 15, 2012

Tracing The Trail Of Musical Fathers

Credit Matthew Scherf / iStockphoto.com
Fathers have played an important role in shaping musical history.

Originally published on Fri June 15, 2012 9:56 am

The Two-Way
6:21 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Jurors In Sandusky Trial Hear From Three More Alleged Victims

Originally published on Thu June 14, 2012 8:27 pm

Jurors in the trial against former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky heard from three more alleged victims during the fourth day of testimony today. Amid more graphic testimony, they told similar stories about how they say Sandusky made them feel special.

The AP reports:

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The Two-Way
6:12 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Michigan State Rep Barred From Speaking After 'Vagina' Comments

Credit Lisa Brown
Michigan State Rep. Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield).

Originally published on Sun June 17, 2012 10:17 am

It's All Politics
5:18 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

Obama, Romney Duel On Economy In Ohio Where It Could All Be Decided

Originally published on Thu June 14, 2012 6:21 pm

Ohio could very well be the state where what's expected to be a very close presidential race gets decided.

And every indication is that the economy will be the issue that drives the majority of voters to either President Obama or Mitt Romney.

Which explains why on Thursday both the Democratic president and the all-but-official Republican nominee were, again, in Ohio to argue why he and not his opponent should be president starting January 20, 2013.

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The Two-Way
5:12 pm
Thu June 14, 2012

From Our Readers: Germany's Forest Boy, A Second Act?

"Joseph Erhardt" writes that the appearance and enigmatic identity of Germany's "Forest Boy" reminds him of the tale of Kaspar Hauser, who appeared in Nuremberg in the spring of 1828 with a very odd story as to his origins.

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