Around the Nation

National

Painful History Buried At Shuttered Vermont Institution

6:31pm September 29, 2013

by Sarah Yahm

The Brandon Training School housed people with developmental disabilities from 1915 to 1993. A commemoration this month of former residents is emblematic of a larger national movement to honor and mark the graves of people who lived and died as wards of the state.

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Pirate Treasure May Lie In Waters Off Cape Cod

11:16am September 28, 2013

Explorer Barry Clifford has spent decades exploring the wreck of the pirate ship Whydah off the coast of Cape Cod. This summer, he and his team learned there may be far more treasure waiting. Clifford joins host Scott Simon to describe what they found.

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States Face Language Barriers To Health Exchange Sign Up

5:17pm September 27, 2013

by Cheryl Corley

Polling shows that many Americans aren't quite sure how the Affordable Care Act will affect them, and it may be even more confusing for immigrants and people who don't speak English as their first language. Illinois has a large immigrant population, and the state has been working to resolve language barriers as it gets ready to launch its insurance marketplace.

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National

Dear Lawyers: Order In The &*%# Court!

1:33pm September 27, 2013

by Tanya Ballard Brown

Some attorneys have gotten nasty and others want it to stop. In New York, a group has decided to tackle the decrease in civility through song.

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North Texas See Mass Migration Of Spiders

7:42am September 27, 2013

Long silky strands were seen falling across the skies of North Texas this week. It turns out, these were web strands as long as 20 feet and floating for miles. The webs were produced by a large cluster of baby spiders that had just hatched. They use the long silk line to migrate.

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Sports

Bream's Slide Decades Ago Dashed Pittsburgh's Playoff Hopes

6:25am September 27, 2013

David Greene speaks to Sid Bream, the former Atlanta Braves player whose dramatic slide into home plate ended the Pittsburgh Pirates last playoff run in 1992. A Pennsylvania native and former Pirate, Bream is now cheering for the Pirates as they return to the post season for the first time in 21 years.

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College Board 'Concerned' About Low SAT Scores

7:19pm September 26, 2013

by Claudio Sanchez

Roughly 6 in 10 college-bound high school students who took the SAT in 2013 performed poorly. The sponsor of the test wants to work with schools to help students do better, but some say the group is really concerned with trying to keep the test relevant.

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National

Putting Good Deeds In Headlines May Not Be So Good

7:19pm September 26, 2013

by Tovia Smith

Good Samaritans are celebrated in the press for doing the right thing all the time, but does all that attention lower expectations for everyday behavior?

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A former encampment. Fresno officials have dismantled three shantytowns.

Fresno Officials Dismantle Homeless Encampments

7:19pm September 26, 2013

by Kirk Siegler

City officials are planning to remove a large homeless encampment on the outskirts of downtown. The California city, where 1 in 4 people live below the poverty line, has taken down three other large encampments in recent weeks. The moves have been controversial and displaced hundreds of people.

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Jonah Engle has written for Foreign Policy, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The New York City Independent.

Big Pharma And Meth Cooks Agree: Keep Cold Meds Over The Counter

5:11pm September 26, 2013

In 2006, Oregon successfully made pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient of meth, a prescription drug. Since then, Mother Jones' Jonah Engle reports, 24 states have tried to follow suit — and 23 have failed. Engle attributes those failures to pharmaceutical companies' massive lobbying efforts.

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