Around the Nation

A Tragic Year For Wildland Firefighters Ends In Reflection

8:22am December 30, 2013

by Kirk Siegler

Thirty-four firefighters died in the line of duty this year. The unusually high number is sparking a larger conversation about the dangers firefighters face as more homes are built in and around drought-stricken forests.

Queue Listen Now

TV Prank Reveals News Media Shortcoming

7:42am December 30, 2013

by Eric Deggans

ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's fake twerking video not only made thousand of people believe a woman accidentally set herself on fire by twerking upside down, it fooled loads of news outlets into playing the fraudulent clip as if it were real. In one swoop, Kimmel uncovered how reliant many news programs are on found material they cannot or do not verify.

Queue Listen Now

How Do You Get A Cow Out Of Your Swimming Pool?

7:42am December 30, 2013

This is not the set up for a bad joke, it's a real conundrum faced by an Oregon man last week. The solution, it turns out, involves draining the pool. Along with a series of straps and ropes, a ramp, a bucket of oats and 10 firefighters to haul the cow out.

Queue Listen Now

Crushed Strawberry Won't Ruin Harrisburg's New Year

7:42am December 30, 2013

For the past 14 years, people in the Pennsylvania capital have been lowering a giant strawberry to mark the new year. During a test drop, the 65 pound fiberglass strawberry dropped three stories and shattered. Organizers say they'll have a new one ready for New Year's Eve.

Queue Listen Now

National

Task Force Recommends Changes At Maryland's Prisons

11:12am December 29, 2013

by Allison Keyes

The panel has approved 18 recommendations it hopes will make things safer at the state's prisons. The proposals come on the heels of recent indictments of corrections officers and inmates at a Baltimore jail that involved drug smuggling and sexual impropriety.

Queue Listen Now

National

Still In Recovery, Okla. Builds Defenses Against Future Storms

6:54pm December 28, 2013

In May, a massive mile-wide EF5 tornado devastated the city of Moore, Okla., killing 24 people. Now, seven months later, residents are rebuilding neighborhoods with improved storm shelters. NPR's Arun Rath checks in with the city's Mayor Glenn Lewis.

Queue Listen Now

National

Property Battle Leaves LA Homeless Vets With Few Options

6:54pm December 28, 2013

This year saw a major development in a story that NPR's Ina Jaffe has been following since 2011. NPR's Arun Ruth checks in her about a group of homeless, disabled veterans who filed a lawsuit seeking housing on the sprawling campus of the VA health care facility in West Los Angeles.

Queue Listen Now

Up Next For Joe Biden, A Busy Year — And A Choice

4:24pm December 28, 2013

by Brian Naylor

As the vice president enters his sixth year as President Obama's second-in-command, there comes the natural question: What's next? A long-time senator, Biden has run for president before, and is making some moves that suggest he may do so one last time.

Queue Listen Now

A Scientist's New Job: Keeping The Polar Bears' Plight Public

3:43pm December 28, 2013

by Elizabeth Shogren

Global warming is pushing species like the polar bear to the brink of extinction. It's not a typical conservation problem, so one government biologist discovered the best way he could help save the great white bears was to quit his job.

Queue Listen Now

After Major Comeback, Is The Gray Wolf Still Endangered?

7:15pm December 27, 2013

by Elizabeth Shogren

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to take the gray wolf off the endangered species list. The wolf had been extirpated from the West and had dwindled most other places in the U.S. The great canine has rebounded since it was reintroduced to the northern Rockies in the 1990s and is continuing to spread into the Pacific Northwest. But biologists warn that if these wolves loses federal protection, they will not be able to return to some places, such as Colorado, where the ecosystem sorely needs them.

Queue Listen Now