Around the Nation

Older Farmers Seem To Be In No Hurry To Call It Quits

5:54am August 20, 2013

Farmers are getting older. In the last census taken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 25 percent of farm operators were more than 65 years old. Neighbors and younger farmers would like to have their land. But for a variety of reasons, it's hard to convince an older farmer to give it up.

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The San Francisco Public Library has been digitizing its historical document collections for years, including the scrapbooks of famed homicide detective Theodore Kytka. The SFPL is among scores of libraries and archives adding their digital collections to

Education

Combining The Nation's Digitized Libraries, All In One Place

6:58pm August 19, 2013

by Laura Sydell

Libraries have been digitizing their collections for years, but the materials can be hard to find. Enter the Digital Public Library of America. Worried that Google has an outsized hand in digitizing books, the DPLA is combining, on one site, the digital collections of libraries nationwide — free.

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Cars In America: Is The Love Story Over?

5:29pm August 19, 2013

by NPR Staff

America once had a love affair with the automobile. But a new study shows just how much air has been let out of those tires, and the millennial generation seems to be ambivalent toward owning cars or even acquiring driver's licenses.

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The Tyson Library in Ludlow, Vt., is required to support itself independently; public libraries in Vermont receive no state funding.

Books
Arts

For You To Borrow, Some Libraries Have To Go Begging

4:14pm August 19, 2013

by Neda Ulaby

Most Americans say public libraries are important to the community — but eight states don't actually support them. Texas has cut budgets drastically; in Vermont, local librarians must go hand in hand to town meetings every year. Neda Ulaby reports on the landscape of library funding across the U.S.

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Redheads Flock To Portland For World Record Attempt

2:27pm August 19, 2013

More than 1,300 people with red hair gathered in Portland, Oregon, over the weekend, which the city hopes is a new world record. To qualify, participants had to produce pictures of their younger selves and their naturally red hair.

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From left, Garrett Berntsen, Jennifer Majer and William Shields compare notes at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. Twenty-somethings have new choices under Obamacare.

Health & Safety

You Ask, We Answer: More Of Your Questions About The Affordable Care Act

11:06am August 19, 2013

by Julie Rovner

Think buying health insurance through the Affordable Care Act will be confusing? You're not alone. NPR listeners asked questions that have been bugging them about student status options and penalties. Julie Rovner, NPR's health policy correspondent, explains how it's going to work.

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Katrina Boydon and her mustang Spirit. She adopted the horse as an orphaned foal with a rattlesnake bite on his hoof.

National

Wild Horses Run Free As Adoption Centers Fill Up

6:52am August 19, 2013

by Will Stone

Across the West, the Bureau of Land Management grapples with dwindling holding space for wild horses it has rounded up. But advocates say the bureau's housing of mustangs is not only ineffective but unsustainable. The cost of keeping the horses has tripled since 2000.

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World News

U.S. Family Of Ill Prisoner Wants North Korea To Release Him

6:52am August 19, 2013

by Liz Jones

American citizen Kenneth Bae has spent nearly 10 months imprisoned in North Korea. That's longer than any other American held there in recent years. Bae was recently moved to a hospital for ailments related to diabetes, an enlarged heart and liver problems. Bae's family says the situation is more urgent than ever.

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What Do You Do When Your Cable TV Goes Out?

6:52am August 19, 2013

Here's one thing not to do: call 911. Police in Fairfield, Conn., had to remind residents Sunday night that a cable drop-out is not "an emergency or a police-related concern." They added that misusing the 911 system can result in arrest.

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John Willis, also known as "White Devil John" in Cantonese, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for money laundering and drug charges.

Chinatown's 'White Devil John' Sentenced To 20 Years

3:29pm August 18, 2013

by Hansi Lo Wang

In Massachusetts Thursday, John Willis was sentenced in federal court to 20 years in prison for money laundering and drug charges. Willis formed unlikely ties with one of Boston's Asian gangs after joining a Chinese family and learning to speak Cantonese as a teenager.

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