Business

National

Black Friday Gun Sales Soar, Straining Background Checks

12:44pm November 30, 2014

Gun buyers are taking advantage of killer deals, with sales doubling this weekend. The FBI's Kimberly Del Greco tells NPR's Rachel Martin that means processing three background checks per second.

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Podcasts Rise In Popularity, Funded By Advertisers And Listeners

12:44pm November 30, 2014

by Jon Kalish

Millions are downloading and listening to podcasts. It's the source of original material and growing ad revenue. Apple's iTunes has 1 billion subscribers, and advertisers are seeing dollar signs.

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An employee demonstrates how a mother is checked for sound quality before it is duplicated during production at the Rainbo Records factory in Canoga Park, Calif. The vinyl record industry has seen an uptick in sales in recent years, keeping manufacturers

Music & Culture

Vinyl, Once Thought Dead, Makes A Comeback In The Digital Age

2:27am November 30, 2014

by Denise Guerra

In the last six years, vinyl sales have tripled. Manufacturers are now having a hard time keeping up with demand.

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World News

A Closer Look At EU Parliament's Vote To Break Up Google

6:22pm November 28, 2014

by Ari Shapiro

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with GigaOM senior writer, David Meyer, about the European Union's complicated relationship with Google and efforts to break it up.

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Police are on guard as shoppers line up for a Black Friday sale at a Tesco store in Cardiff, Britain.

America's Black Friday Craziness Has Crossed The Pond

11:56am November 28, 2014

by Scott Neuman

The wild discount shopping that once was only a U.S. phenomenon has caught on in the U.K. and elsewhere, thanks largely to online retail giant Amazon.

Arts
Economy

Mega-Rich Invest In Works By Living Artists

7:16am November 28, 2014

Renee Montagne talks to art sociologist and writer Sarah Thornton about how the habits of the 1 percent reverberate across the art world. She is the author of 33 Artists in 3 Acts.

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Shoppers Expected Out In Force On Black Friday

7:16am November 28, 2014

by Sonari Glinton

It's the day hard-core shoppers have been waiting for: Black Friday. Some even got a head start at the mall, shopping on Thanksgiving Day.

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Economy

AFL-CIO Supports Black Friday Strikes Against Walmart

4:00am November 28, 2014

by Doreen McCallister

Since 2012, Our Walmart, an employee labor group, has been staging strikes on the day after Thanksgiving. The group wants workers to get more full-time jobs and make a living wage of $15 an hour.

World News

OPEC Declines Action As World Oil Prices Hit Record Lows

7:12pm November 27, 2014

by Peter Kenyon

OPEC oil producers met Thursday to discuss falling world oil prices — something big producer Saudi Arabia seeks to preserve in order to compete with U.S. oil production. But other OPEC countries want to get prices back up because their governments need the money.

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WTO Members Approve Historic Trade Deal

3:51pm November 27, 2014

by Scott Neuman

The World Trade Organization's 160 members unanimously approved a first-ever multilateral trade deal which the group believes will boost global commerce by $1 trillion annually.