Washington State Strikes Down Death Penalty, Citing Racial Bias
The Washington Supreme Court has struck down the state's death penalty, saying that it is imposed arbitrarily and with racial bias. "We are confident that the association between race and the death penalty is not attributed to random chance," the justices wrote in a majority opinion. Gov. Jay Inslee issued a moratorium on the death penalty in Washington in 2014, and on Thursday he called the opinion a "hugely important moment in our pursuit for equal and fair application of justice." Thursday...
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Human Retinas Grown In A Dish Reveal Origin Of Color Vision
In order to see the red of a sunset or the green of spring leaves, developing human eyes need to get the right hormone at the right time. That's the finding of a team of scientists who studied how color vision develops using hundreds of human retinas grown in the lab. The discovery, published Thursday in the journal Science , could help accelerate current efforts to cure colorblindness. It could also lead to new treatments for diseases including macular degeneration, the leading cause of...
Michael Weakens After Historic Slam Into Florida Panhandle
Updated at 5:30 a.m. ET Thursday Tropical Storm Michael is weakening as it churns across south-central Georgia. On Wednesday, Michael was the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the continental U.S. in more than a quarter-century, according to the National Hurricane Center . At least one person has died from complications related to the storm. Gadsden County, Fla., Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Anglie Hightower told NPR the man was killed after a tree fell through the roof of his home. In...
Easy DNA Identifications With Genealogy Databases Raise Privacy Concerns
Police in California made headlines this spring when they charged a former police officer with being the Golden State Killer, a man who allegedly committed a series of notorious rapes and murders in the 1970s and '80s. Authorities revealed they used DNA from a publicly available genealogy website to crack the case. Since then, police around the country have started doing the same sort of thing to solve other cold cases. That prompted Yaniv Erlich, the chief science officer at the Israeli...
A Woman's Rage: Songs About Being Fed Up
Some anniversaries are hard to celebrate. How should we greet the arrival of October, a year after the stories broke initiating the reckoning that soon became known as #MeToo? Since The New York Times and The New Yorker published their exposés — on Oct. 5 and Oct. 10 of last year, respectively — of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's long career as an alleged serial rapist, a new nationwide discussion has formed about sexual assault, abuse and harassment. Often, this ongoing reckoning feels...
FACT CHECK: Trump's False Claims On 'Medicare For All'
USA Today published an opinion column by President Trump Wednesday in which the president falsely accused Democrats of trying to "eviscerate" Medicare, while defending his own record of protecting health care coverage for seniors and others. The column — published just weeks ahead of the midterm elections — underscores the political power of health care to energize voters. But it makes a number of unsubstantiated claims. Here are 5 points to know 1. The political context: Health care has...
Chazelle's 'First Man' Chronicles Personal Losses Behind Armstrong's 'Giant Leap'
On July 20, 1969, an estimated 530 million people watched on live television as Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong became the first human to step upon the surface of the moon. Nearly 50 years later, Academy Award-winning director Damien Chazelle revisits Armstrong's "giant leap for mankind" — but with a more intimate lens. First Man , starring Ryan Gosling, focuses on the personal sacrifices behind Armstrong's monumental step. Chazelle, whose previous films include La La Land and Whiplash ,...
Father-Daughter Pilots Take To The Sky For Albuquerque's Hot Air Balloon Fiesta
One of the most iconic and colorful festivals of the Southwest is underway this week in New Mexico. Each year, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta draws hundreds of hot air balloons from around the world, and for some like pilots Troy and Savannah Bradley its a family affair. Here & Now s Peter ODowd speaks with the father-daughter duo about the event. Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
Democrats Enter Campaign's Final Stretch Flush With Cash
Not so long ago — the administration of President George W. Bush — $1 million could get you elected to Congress. Now, four weeks from Election Day, Democrats say 60 of their candidates raised that much or more , just in the last three months. Fueled by an energetic base of small donors, Democrats are going into the final stretch of the election with a substantial financial advantage, erasing Republicans' typical fundraising edge. The money is flowing to unlikely districts and is frequently...
Three Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historians Aim To Put American Politics In Context
It's hard to make time for history books when there is so much history crashing down on us every single day — and especially when that history is divisive, aggressive and seemingly never-ending. Case in point: This book review was due a week ago. Rather than finish this assignment, I spent the week in Senate hallways and hearing rooms, watching in real time as the most contentious Supreme Court confirmation in a generation turned into a national flashpoint on sexual assault and gender...
Light And Dark, Characters Shine In 'Blanca & Roja'
Sisters Blanca and Roja del Cisne have always known that one of them is doomed to become a swan. It's been this way for generations and generations of their family — there is always a "good" sister who will live out her human life, and the other, darker sister, who will fly away, never to see her family again. The strange and magical nature of their family keeps them apart from the rest of the town where they live, and it's so difficult for them to assimilate that their parents eventually...
Emotional Support Squirrel A No-Go On Frontier Flight
Jokes aside about flying squirrels, nuts served on planes and bushy-tailed passengers, squirrels and planes do not actually mix. At least not on Tuesday at Orlando International Airport, where an unidentified passenger hadn't gotten the memo. She boarded her Cleveland-bound Frontier Airlines flight toting a cage containing the furry occupant. She did her due diligence by noting on her reservation that she would be bringing an emotional support animal, Frontier said in a statement. She even...
'Florida,' 'Heartland' Among National Book Awards Finalists
The selections were winnowed down from 1,637 books. On Wednesday, the National Book Foundation announced the 25 books that remain in the running for the National Book Awards, now in its 69th year. The writers come from such places as Pittsburgh, Norway, Iran and Poland, and many of them have delved into some of the most pressing conversations of our time: racism, masculinity, addiction, the destruction of indigenous culture, class divides and corporations. And for the first time since the...
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