It's All Politics
7:15 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Voting Rights Groups Get High Court Win As Bigger Case Looms

Credit Jonathan Gibby / Getty Images
Election Day volunteer Vicki Groff places a sign to direct voters to a polling station at Kenilworth School in Phoenix in 2012.

Advocates of tougher voter registration standards have racked up wins in recent years — voter ID laws have taken hold across the nation, for example.

But those who believe that government should make voting as easy as possible just gained a significant victory with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision slapping down an Arizona law that required potential voters to prove their citizenship.

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The Two-Way
6:46 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Sentenced To Death At 16, Indiana Woman Is Now Free

Credit Lake County PD / AP
Paula Cooper was freed from prison Monday, nearly three decades after being sentenced to death for murder. She's seen here in a 1985 police photo.

Paula Cooper, 43, left prison Monday morning, decades after she became America's youngest resident of death row at age 16. She had confessed to the 1985 murder of Bible studies teacher Ruth Pelke, 78, in Gary, Ind. Cooper's death sentence was commuted in 1989, after widespread appeals for mercy.

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The Salt
6:40 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Dirty Spuds? Alleged Potato Cartel Accused Of Price Fixing

Credit iStockphoto.com
Clearly, he's as surprised by the allegations as the rest of us.

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 4:09 pm

Editor's Note: Many of you noted that the price for a 10-pound bag of potatoes cited in the lawsuit seems ridiculously high. So we look into the matter further — you can read what we found in this follow-up post.

High-tech spying with satellites. Intimidation. Price fixing.

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Shots - Health News
5:37 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

The Human Voice May Not Spark Pleasure In Children With Autism

Credit Rich Pedroncelli / AP
Instructional assistant Jessica Reeder touches her nose to get Jacob Day, 3, who has autism, to focus his attention on her during a therapy session in April 2007.

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 11:31 am

The human voice appears to trigger pleasure circuits in the brains of typical kids, but not children with autism, a Stanford University team reports. The finding could explain why many children with autism seem indifferent to spoken words.

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Code Switch
5:12 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

How Do You Teach The Civil Rights Movement?

Credit Jim Bourdier / AP
A protestor is carried away from a demonstration in Jacksonville 50 years ago.

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 9:37 pm

Note: As part of NPR's series on the summer of 1963, reporter Cory Turner headed to Jackson, Miss. to take a look at how folks are teaching the Civil Rights movement to kids who weren't a part of it — and making the lessons stick.

Much has changed in the past 50 years, since the height of the Civil Rights movement. But how do you teach the Civil Rights to kids who haven't ever experienced it? In Jackson, Miss., Fannie Lou Hamer Institute's Summer Youth Workshop tackles that question.

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Shots - Health News
4:40 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

After Long Search, Komen Foundation Replaces Brinker As CEO

Credit Getty Images
Nancy Brinker, founder of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, seen at a dinner honoring the recipients of the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors in December.

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 9:45 am

The Komen Foundation for the Cure has a new chief executive.

Dr. Judith Salerno, 61, a geriatrician, is replacing Nancy Brinker, the philanthropy's founder and longtime CEO, the group said Monday.

"Judy's years of proven leadership in public policy and research make her the right choice to lead all aspects of Komen's mission," said Linda Custard, chair of the Komen board, in a statement.

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The Two-Way
3:59 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

FTC Can Sue Firms In 'Pay For Delay' Drug Deals, Court Rules

Credit Reed Saxon / AP
The Supreme Court has ruled that the FTC can challenge arrangements between makers of generic drugs and makers of brand-name products such as AndroGel, seen here on a computer monitor screen.

When the maker of a brand-name drug pays a maker of generic drugs to not produce a lower-priced version of their product, the Federal Trade Commission can challenge the arrangement on antitrust grounds, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. The ruling may end the era of what regulators call "pay-for-delay" deals.

The justices voted 5-3 to allow a case to go forward in which the FTC is challenging one of many such deals. Several companies are involved in the case, including Solvay Pharmaceuticals, maker of AndroGel, and generic-drug maker Actavis.

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Parallels
3:20 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

The Elusive Quest For An Iranian Moderate

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 4:36 pm

Ever since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, the U.S. has been in search of moderate Iranian leaders who could steer the country away from its hostile standoff with America.

To cite one famous example, President Ronald Reagan's administration secretly sold weapons to Iran in the mid-1980s in the belief it could work with the country's "moderate" elements even as Iran remained under the control of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

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Shots - Health News
2:31 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

When Sibling Fights Go Beyond Harmless Kid Stuff

Credit iStockphoto.com
Beheading Barbie is the kind of aggression that can cause sibling distress.

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 9:45 am

I'll never forget the time my big brother sank his fork in the back of my hand after I snitched food off his plate.

But all siblings fight, right? So I was more than a little skeptical of a study saying that sibling aggression can cause serious mental health problems like depression and anxiety.

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The Two-Way
2:16 pm
Mon June 17, 2013

Pew: Americans Agree U.S. Should Stay Out Of Syrian Conflict

Credit Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP/Getty Images
A Syrian boy holds an AK-47 assault rifle in the majority-Kurdish Sheikh Maqsud district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in April.

Americans are polarized about many things, it seems, but according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & Press, they agree that the United States should stay out of the Syrian conflict.

Seventy percent of those polled said they oppose the U.S. and its allies sending arms to anti-government groups in Syria. Just 20 percent favor it.

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