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The Two-Way
4:47 pm
Mon February 18, 2013

Chinese Students Wore Uniforms With Cancer-Causing Dyes

Originally published on Mon February 18, 2013 7:45 pm

Students in 21 schools in the Chinese city of Shanghai have been ordered to stop wearing uniforms that were found to contain a dye that causes cancer.

NPR's Frank Langfitt is reporting on the story for our Newscast unit. Here's his report:

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Movie Interviews
4:46 pm
Mon February 18, 2013

Quvenzhane Wallis: 'If I Have To Be Fierce, I'll Be Fierce'

Originally published on Tue February 19, 2013 5:38 pm

Quvenzhane Wallis was just 5 years old when she auditioned for a role in the Oscar-nominated film Beasts of the Southern Wild, and 6 when she shot the movie. Now, at age 9, she is the youngest ever to receive a best actress Oscar nomination.

In the film, Quvenzhane plays a wild child named Hushpuppy, who lives with her sick father in a ramshackle, isolated community called the Bathtub, on the fringes of the Louisiana coast.

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U.S.
4:39 pm
Mon February 18, 2013

What Happens When Someone Else Gets Your Tax Refund

Credit Courtesy of Todd Macy
Todd Macy, a banker from Marin County, Calif., was the victim of identity theft. Nearly a year after filing his return, he's still waiting for his federal tax refund.

Originally published on Mon February 18, 2013 6:27 pm

If you usually wait until April to file your taxes, you might want to hurry up — before identity thieves beat you to it. Using stolen names and Social Security numbers, these criminals file fake tax returns with false wage and withholding information. This generates big — and fraudulent — refunds, before the real taxpayer gets around to filing.

The Internal Revenue Service says it's busy working to combat what prosecutors call a fraud epidemic.

Most taxpayers don't have any idea something is wrong until they hit the send button on their taxes and get an error message.

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Around the Nation
4:39 pm
Mon February 18, 2013

Maker's Mark Reverses Course On Lower Alcohol Content

Originally published on Mon February 18, 2013 5:55 pm

The iconic brand Maker's Mark had planned to cut its alcohol content from 90 proof down to just 84, due to dwindling supply. Now, after a serious backlash from fans, the company has reversed its decision and will stick to the original alcohol content. Melissa Block hears from one liquor store owner in Louisville, Ky., about his customers' reactions to the decision.

Remembrances
4:39 pm
Mon February 18, 2013

Longtime Lakers Owner Jerry Buss Dies At 80

Originally published on Mon February 18, 2013 6:02 pm

The man who brought Showtime to Los Angeles has died. Under Lakers owner Jerry Buss, the team won 10 NBA championships. His players loved him, and his business smarts helped market the team in ways the league had never seen before. Buss had been hospitalized recently and was undergoing treatment for cancer. He was 80 years old.

It's All Politics
4:39 pm
Mon February 18, 2013

How New Jersey's High-Flying Sen. Menendez Ran Into Turbulence

Credit Mike Coppola / Getty Images
Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, shown in June, has come under scrutiny before, but has never been charged.

Originally published on Mon February 18, 2013 5:12 pm

These should be good times for Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez.

New Jersey voters re-elected him last fall in a landslide, and he became chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee a few weeks ago. But along the way, Menendez has come under scrutiny by the Senate Ethics Committee and perhaps other government investigators — and certainly the media — for his connections to a longtime friend and generous campaign donor.

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The Two-Way
4:19 pm
Mon February 18, 2013

Sen. Mike Johanns Says He Won't Seek Re-Election

Originally published on Mon February 18, 2013 7:39 pm

Mike Johanns, the Republican senator from Nebraska, announced Monday that he won't seek another term in the Senate.

Here's more from the Omaha World-Herald:

"Johanns said it was time to 'close this chapter' in his life. He noted that he and his wife, Stephanie, have spent 32 years in public life and that they want to spend more time with family.

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Europe
2:58 pm
Mon February 18, 2013

Greece's Economic Crisis Reveals Fault Lines In The Media

Credit Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP/Getty Images
People read newspaper headlines in Athens. In 2009, there were 39 national dailies, 23 national Sunday papers, 14 national weekly papers and dozens of TV and radio stations for a population of 11 million.

Originally published on Mon February 18, 2013 7:05 pm

Three years of spiraling economic crisis in Greece have devastated every sector of the economy. The Greek media are among the hardest hit. Many newspapers and TV outlets have closed or are on the verge, and some 4,000 journalists have lost their jobs.

Many people believe the country's news media have failed to cover the crisis — and lost credibility along the way. And many Greek journalists acknowledge that a massive conflict of interest sooner or later had to explode.

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Superstorm Sandy: Before, During And Beyond
2:50 pm
Mon February 18, 2013

Disabled Residents Displaced By Superstorm Sandy Back At Home

Originally published on Mon February 18, 2013 5:01 pm

When Superstorm Sandy crashed ashore in October, thousands of residents of nursing homes, assisted living centers and adult homes evacuated to various facilities, many of them overcrowded and ill-prepared for the influx.

The evacuees have slowly trickled back to those homes that can be repaired.

One group recently returned to an adult home for the mentally ill and physically disabled in Queens, but many residents weren't happy with what awaited them.

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Book Reviews
1:20 pm
Mon February 18, 2013

Under Ogawa's Macabre, Metafictional Spell

Originally published on Mon February 25, 2013 7:23 pm

It used to be a truism among critics of British poetry that Keats and most of his fellow Romantic poets worked in the shadow of John Milton. I'm not making a perfect analogy when I suggest that most contemporary Japanese writers seem to be working under the shadow of Haruki Murakami, but I hope it highlights the spirit of the situation.

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