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2:21 am

Fri December 21, 2012

Not Your Grandma's B&B: Traditional Inns Transform For Young Travelers

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Credit Jumping Rocks

Innkeepers are combating old stereotypes about bed and breakfasts. The Abbott Room at the Round Barn Farm in Waitsfield, Vt., was renovated in 2009 to reflect more modern tastes.

Credit Jumping Rocks

The Abbott Room at the Round Barn Farm got a makeover in 2009.

Credit Jumping Rocks

Innkeepers are combating old stereotypes about bed and breakfasts. The Richardson Room at the Round Barn Farm in Waitsfield, Vt., was renovated this year to reflect more more modern tastes.

By Steve Zind

Originally published on Fri December 21, 2012 10:16 am

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There is a war going on. The enemy is an innocuous little piece of ornamental fabric.

When the Professional Association of Innkeepers launched the Death to Doilies Campaign this year, the approach was tongue-in-cheek, but the message of change was serious: The doily has had the run of bed and breakfasts for too long.

Politics

9:18 pm

Thu December 20, 2012

House Pulls 'Plan B' Tax Measure From The Floor

By Melissa Block

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Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block.

It's All Politics

5:05 pm

Thu December 20, 2012

Financial Ties Bind NRA, Gun Industry

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Credit Joe Raedle / Getty Images

In this photo illustration, a Rock River Arms AR-15 rifle is seen with ammunition.

Credit Scott Olson / Getty Images

AR-15-style rifles are offered for sale at a sporting goods store in Tinley Park, Ill.

By Peter Overby

Originally published on Fri December 21, 2012 9:51 am

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Leaders of the National Rifle Association plan to break their weeklong silence Friday and make their first public comments on the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

They say they will be speaking for the NRA's 4 million members. But they will also be speaking for the gun industry, which has close financial ties to the association.

The NRA and the gun industry are reeling after last week's massacre. The primary weapon used — an AR-15-style rifle — is one of the most popular guns in America.

U.S.

4:53 pm

Thu December 20, 2012

Immigration Reform Before Border Control, Experts Say

Credit Ted Robbins / NPR

A hilltop view of the 18-foot fence along the U.S.-Mexico border west of Nogales, Ariz.

By Ted Robbins

Originally published on Wed December 26, 2012 7:10 pm

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Since the mid-1980s, the U.S. Border Patrol has quintupled in size — growing from about 4,000 to more than 20,000 agents.

The government has constructed some 700 miles of fencing and vehicle barriers. It has placed thousands of ground sensors, lights, radar towers and cameras along the border. And Customs and Border Protection is now flying drones and helicopters to locate smuggles and rescue stranded immigrants.

So here's the question: Is the Southwest border secure?

The Picture Show

4:28 pm

Thu December 20, 2012

'Miss Subways': A Trip Back In Time To New York's Melting Pot

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Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Selsey was Miss Subways January-March 1964

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Enid Berkowitz Schwarzbaum at home with her artwork in Valley Stream, N.Y., 2008.

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Enid Berkowitz, now in her 80s, was Miss Subways in July 1946.

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Berkowitz suns on the roof where she lived in 1944.

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Kilpatrick was a model in the mid-1970s.

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Today, Marcia Kilpatrick has a jazz radio program on public radio in Portland, Ore.

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Peggy Byrne at Church of Our Saviour, New York, N.Y., where she continues to work into her 80s as director of operations.

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Byrne in an undated vacation snapshot.

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Byrne was Miss Subways March-April 1952.

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Selsey was Miss Subways January-March 1964.

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

A headshot from Selsey's modeling portfolio in the mid 1960s.

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Sanora Selsey with her granddaughter at her home in Brooklyn.

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Thelma Porter

Credit Photo by Ed Clarity/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images / Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

Miss Subways Dorothy Calaghan poses in a new subway car at Willis Point.

Credit Courtesy of Fiona Gardner

In 1948, Thelma Porter became the first African-American Miss Subways.

By editor

Originally published on Thu May 2, 2013 6:13 pm

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For more than 35 years, riders on the New York City subways and buses during their daily commute were graced with posters of beaming young women. While the women featured in each poster — all New Yorkers — were billed as "average girls," they were also beauty queens in the nation's first integrated beauty contest: Miss Subways, selected each month starting in 1941 by the public and professionally photographed by the country's leading modeling agency.

It's All Politics

4:27 pm

Thu December 20, 2012

House Republicans Face Threat Of Primary Challenges In 'Plan B' Vote

Credit John Hanna / AP

Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., shown in 2010, has said he would deserve a primary challenge if he voted for House Speaker John Boehner's "fiscal cliff" proposal, which would extend the Bush-era tax cuts only on income of less than $1 million.

By Tamara Keith

Originally published on Thu December 20, 2012 9:18 pm

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House Republicans are under a lot of pressure.

House Speaker John Boehner and his leadership team are urging them to support his "Plan B" to avoid the automatic tax hikes of the "fiscal cliff." But they're also facing pressure from outside groups that could mount primary challenges against them if they do.

Boehner argues his plan — which would allow the Bush-era tax cuts to stay in place for income under $1 million a year — isn't a tax increase. But a number of conservative groups have come to a very different conclusion.

Energy

4:03 pm

Thu December 20, 2012

Next In Line For A Fracking Boom, California Looks At The Rules

Credit Craig Miller / KQED

Most hydraulic fracturing in California is done to extract to oil in areas like this field in Kern County. The state is drafting fracking regulations for the first time.

By editor

Originally published on Thu December 20, 2012 9:18 pm

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The controversial drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing has created an oil and gas boom around the country. In states like Texas, Pennsylvania and Colorado, there's been heated debate about rules that protect groundwater and public health.

California is now wading into that arena with the release of the state's first fracking regulations. The state's earthquake-prone geology, however, could bring particular concerns.

Fracking itself isn't new. The technology behind it, though, has changed.

Latin America

3:36 pm

Thu December 20, 2012

'Lost Jews' Of Colombia Say They've Found Their Roots

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Credit Paul Smith for NPR

Baruj Cano, 4, watches as his father and other men from Bello's Jewish community read from the Torah.

Credit Paul Smith for NPR

Many members of the Jewish community in Bello, Colombia, were raised as Christians. They believe their ancestors were Jews who fled the Spanish Inquisition, and so they are now Orthodox Jews. Here, a boy reaches out to the 120-year-old Torah that was written in Amsterdam and acquired by the community five years ago.

Credit Paul Smith for NPR

A man worships at the synagogue in Bello using a prayer book, the Siddur Birkat Shelomo, in which Spanish, Hebrew and phonetic versions are offered.

Credit Paul Smith for NPR

The congregation prays at the synagogue in Bello.

Credit Paul Smith for NPR

A metallic yad, or hand in Hebrew, is used while worshippers read from the Torah in Bello's synagogue.

Credit Paul Smith for NPR

Worshippers leave the synagogue after morning prayers.

Credit Paul Smith for NPR

Tombstones, many of European Jewish immigrants, at the secluded Jewish cemetery in the north of Medellin.

Credit Paul Smith for NPR

Yehudit Zapata recites prayers at the synagogue in Bello.

Credit Paul Smith for NPR

The congregation gathers around the Torah.

Credit Paul Smith for NPR

A boy collects books after prayers.

Credit Paul Smith for NPR

A man reads from a prayer book while a mother cares for her daughter during prayers at Bello's synagogue.

Credit Paul Smith for NPR

A man worships at the synagogue in Bello using a prayer book, the Siddur Birkat Shelomo, in which Spanish, Hebrew and phonetic versions are offered.

Credit Paul Smith for NPR

Galit Zapata, a member of the Jewish community in Bello, prepares bread in the family's kosher bakery.

By editor

Originally published on Sun December 23, 2012 11:38 am

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They are called "crypto-Jews" or "lost Jews," and in recent years they have emerged in remote places as scattered as India, Brazil, the American Southwest and here in Colombia.

They were raised as Christians but believe they have discovered hidden Jewish roots, prompting many to return to Judaism. Many say their ancestors were Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain more than 500 years ago, as the Spanish crown embarked on a systematic persecution of Jews.

Space

3:34 pm

Thu December 20, 2012

In Calif. Gold Country, A Rush That's Out Of This World

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Credit UC Davis

A section of the Sutter's Mill meteorite, dubbed "Darth Vader," is studied at a lab at the University of California, Davis. The meteorite is made of carbonaceous chondrite, which contains materials that formed the planets of the solar system.

Credit Rich Pedroncelli / AP

Robert Ward found a piece of the meteorite at a park in Lotus, Calif., on April 25. The 100,000-pound meteorite was blown apart into small pieces as it met the Earth's atmosphere.

By Richard Harris

Originally published on Thu December 20, 2012 9:18 pm

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On the crisp, clear morning of April 22, a 50-ton asteroid slammed into the Earth's atmosphere and shattered into countless pieces. Remarkably, they rained down onto Sutter's Mill, Calif., the exact spot where gold was discovered back in 1848, triggering the gold rush. And so follows a story of serendipity and scientific discovery.

"I was out on my hillside burning some branches and so forth, and I heard this sonic boom," says Gold Country resident Ed Allen. "It wasn't just one boom. It was a series of booms, literally right over my head."

The Salt

3:02 pm

Thu December 20, 2012

Big Food And The Big, Silent Salt Experiment

Credit Mel Evans / AP

Food companies have begun quietly reducing salt in regular foods because low-salt items like these don't sell as well.

By Dan Charles

Originally published on Thu December 20, 2012 9:18 pm

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Have you noticed, perhaps, that some of your store-bought salad dressings or spaghetti sauces taste a little less salty lately?

Probably not. The companies that make those products are doing their best to keep you from noticing. Yet many of them are, in fact, carrying out a giant salt-reduction experiment, either because they want to improve their customers' health or because they're worried that if they don't, the government might impose regulations that would compel more onerous salt reductions.

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