October 15, 2013 - 2:02am
The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly. Novelist Oscar Hijuelos, whose book The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love made him the first Latino author to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, died on Saturday at age 62. NPR's David Greene interviewed Hijuelos' friend Gustavo...
October 14, 2013 - 11:00pm
The U.S. Supreme Court takes up the issue of affirmative action again Tuesday, but this time the question is not whether race may be considered as a factor in college admissions. Instead, this case tests whether voters can ban affirmative-action programs through a referendum. In 2003, the high court upheld...
October 14, 2013 - 11:00pm
For many online and other small businesses, getting a loan or a big cash advance is tough. Banks and other traditional lenders are often leery of those without years of financial statements and solid credit scores. But some lenders and other financial services companies are beginning to assess credit risk...
October 14, 2013 - 11:00pm
JPMorgan Chase says it will cover Social Security and Welfare payments for its customers if the government goes into default or the shutdown continues. If nothing else, it's good public relations for a company which hasn't had much lately. The bank spent nearly 40 percent of the company's revenue over...
October 14, 2013 - 1:18pm
Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen, and Robert Shiller were awarded the Nobel Prize in economics today for their efforts to answer to a key question: How do the prices of assets like stocks and real estate behave over time? They came to rather different answers to that question. The markets...
October 14, 2013 - 12:45pm
The budget negotiations in Washington are not front-page news on Mars. There, millions of miles away, NASA's rovers continue to operate, taking photographs and collecting data as they prepare for the coming Martian winter. NPR's Joe Palca has this report for our Newscast unit: "NASA's newest rover, called Curiosity, is...
October 14, 2013 - 12:31pm
Monday marks the last day of newsstand sales of the International Herald Tribune , the newspaper that was once instrumental in keeping American expatriates up to date on their homeland. On Tuesday, the paper will bear a new name: The International New York Times . "The paper has changed names...
October 14, 2013 - 11:34am
A literary critic once remarked, "The greatest story Jack London ever wrote was the story he lived." In his brief life, London sought adventure in the far corners of the world, from the frozen Yukon to the South Pacific, writing gripping tales of survival based on his experiences — including...
October 14, 2013 - 10:29am
Abu Anas al-Libi, a suspected leader of al-Qaida who was seized by U.S. special forces during a raid in Libya earlier this month, is now on American soil and will face trial in New York on charges related to 1998 bombing attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa, a U.S...
October 14, 2013 - 10:00am
50 years ago today — October 14, 1963 — President Kennedy hosted a ceremony in the Rose Garden, and I was there. 14-year-old me, with my family. This was a fluke. The President had cracked a politically uncool Mafia joke a few days before. Not wanting to offend Italian-American voters,...
