News

The olinguito (right) was discovered while a researcher was sifting through specimens at The Field Museum in Chicago. On the left is a North American raccoon.

Science

Meet The Olinguito, The Newest Member Of The Raccoon Family

5:44pm August 19, 2013

by Rhitu Chatterjee

This cousin of the raccoon is the first new carnivore discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years. Native to the Andes Mountains of Colombia and Ecuador where it's still living, the olinguito was actually first identified in a Field Museum specimen storage room in Chicago.

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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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This NASA diagram shows the two Voyager spacecraft inside the magnetic bubble around the sun. But Marc Swisdak believes it's already crossed the heliopause into interstellar space.

Has Voyager 1 Left The Solar System?

2:52pm August 19, 2013

by Geoff Brumfiel

For the past decade or so, scientists have been waiting for the Voyager 1 spacecraft to cross into deep space. New research suggests it already has — over a year ago.

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Carnegie Mellon's autonomous car, developed with General Motors, is by all appearances a normal Cadillac SRX crossover — except for the big red button in the middle of the dashboard. In an emergency, the button allows the car to be switched immediately

Hitting The Road Without A Driver

2:19pm August 19, 2013

by Brian Naylor

Engineers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing the ultimate in automotive sophistication: the driverless car. When NPR's Brian Naylor went there to check it out, he thought he'd be going for a spin on a test track. Instead, the car drove itself through suburbia.

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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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Amid Struggle For 'Soul' Of GOP, Libertarians Take Limelight

8:16am August 19, 2013

by NPR Staff

Tensions between the traditional wings of the Republican Party and its libertarians have been brewing for years. Leaks of government surveillance information have helped exacerbate the conflict, pushing forward libertarians' stance on civil liberties.

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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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Immigration Reform Activists March To Calif. Farm Country

7:35am August 18, 2013

by Kirk Siegler

Bakersfield is conservative, with a large immigrant and farm labor population. Protesters are pushing the city's Republican congressman to adopt the Senate-passed immigration reform bill — and they've got the support of local Republican leaders.

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Standing on the center console of the Martin Jetpack, a pilot straps in and uses the joysticks to control flight.

Out Of The Comics, Into Reality: Jet Pack Moves Closer To Market

6:45pm August 17, 2013

by Priska Neely

A New Zealand-based aviation company has been granted permission to conduct piloted tests of the one-person flying machine. It plans to have the jet pack on the market in 2014.

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