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WRKF's News Team

Ashley Westerman

Ashley Westerman

Host and Reporter

Elizabeth Eads

Host and Operations Director

Kelly Connelly

Government & Politics Reporter

Amy Jeffries

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NPR News

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Latin America

3:07 pm

Wed February 13, 2013

Hungry For Energy, Brazil Builds Monster Dams In The Amazon

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Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images

Construction continues at the Belo Monte dam complex in the Amazon basin in June 2012 near Altamira, Brazil. Belo Monte will be the world's third-largest hydroelectric project, and will displace up to 20,000 people living near the Xingu River.

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images

A boat navigates the Xingu River last June, near the Belo Monte dam site. The controversial $16 billion project is one of around 60 hydroelectric projects Brazil has planned in the Amazon to generate electricity for its rapidly expanding economy.

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images

A resident stands in the low-lying Invasao dos Padres neighborhood, which stands to be flooded by the Belo Monte dam. Houses are constructed on stilts to protect against seasonal flooding. The government says residents forced to relocate because of the dam will be compensated, and that most will benefit from relocation.

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images

While environmentalists and indigenous groups oppose the Belo Monte dam, many Brazilians support the project.

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images

Protesters demonstrate against the Forest Code and Belo Monte dam project at the Rio+20 countersummit last June, in Rio de Janeiro. The summit aimed to overcome years of deadlock over environmental concerns.

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images

Residents affected by the Belo Monte dam and their supporters stand atop a temporary earthen dam spelling out the words "Pare Belo Monte," meaning "Stop Belo Monte," at the dam construction site last June. Demonstrators also removed a strip of earth to restore the flow of the Xingu River as a protest against the construction.

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images

A man flips into a stream leading to the Xingu River. The area is challenged by deforestation; agriculture; mining; a governmental dam building spree; illegal land speculation, including the occupation of forest reserves and indigenous land; and other issues.

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images

Construction continued at the Belo Monte dam complex in the Amazon basin near Altamira, Brazil, in June 2012. Belo Monte will be the world's third-largest hydroelectric project, and will displace up to 20,000 people living near the Xingu River.

By editor

Originally published on Wed February 13, 2013 8:44 pm

Listen

Already Latin America's biggest economy, Brazil envisions a future requiring massive amounts of electrical power for its expanding industries and growing cities.

The response has been a construction boom that will install dozens of hydroelectric dams in the Amazon — and that's generating plenty of controversy, particularly from environmentalists.

It's All Politics

3:02 pm

Wed February 13, 2013

How Rubio Spins The Bottle Could Matter Most. Just Ask Bill Clinton

Credit AP

In this frame grab from video, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio takes a sip of water during his Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday.

By Liz Halloran

Originally published on Wed February 13, 2013 3:46 pm

The Two-Way

3:01 pm

Wed February 13, 2013

VIDEO: Pope Benedict XVI Receives Standing Ovation

Credit Franco Origlia / Getty Images

Pope Benedict XVI leads the Ash Wednesday service at St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday.

By Eyder Peralta

The Two-Way

2:38 pm

Wed February 13, 2013

Ohio School Will Go To Court Over A Portrait Of Jesus

Credit 10TV

The Jesus portrait that hangs inside an Ohio middle school.

By Eyder Peralta

Originally published on Wed February 13, 2013 4:37 pm

A constitutional fight is now in play in Jackson, Ohio: The city's school district decided, Tuesday night, that it would fight the American Civil Liberties Union in court over a 66-year-old portrait of Jesus that hangs in the hallway of a middle school.

The Columbus Dispatch reports:

Economy

1:52 pm

Wed February 13, 2013

Obama's Call For Higher Minimum Wage Could Have Ripple Effect

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Credit Mike Groll / AP

Wendy Brown of Schenectady, N.Y., holds a sign before an Occupy Albany rally pushing for a raise in New York's minimum wage on May 29, 2012.

Credit U.S. Department of Labor

By Marilyn Geewax

So maybe the Great Recession really is over.

After more than five years of recession and painfully slow recovery, President Obama has sent a powerful signal that he thinks the U.S. economy is now in much better shape — good enough, at least, to provide workers with raises.

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, Obama called upon Congress to boost the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2015, up from the current $7.25. The wage would rise in steps, and after hitting the maximum in two years, would thereafter be indexed to inflation.

The Salt

1:50 pm

Wed February 13, 2013

Fear Of Cantaloupes and Crumpets? A 'Phobia' Rises From The Web

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Credit Daniel M. N. Turner / NPR

Seeds of fear? To most of us, cantaloupe and horn melon look like a healthy breakfast or snack. But the clusters of seeds can evoke anxiety, nervousness and even nausea for some trypophobes.

Credit Daniel M.N. Turner / NPR

Seeds of fear? To most of us, this cantaloupe and horn melon look like a healthy breakfast or snack.

Credit Daniel M.N. Turner / NPR

One person on Reddit posted a picture of a sliced bell pepper with the comment, "I love bell peppers, but man this gets me every time."

Credit Chris_Samuel/Flickr

Bubbles rising up as dough cooks can also gross out trypophobes. But seriously, don't these homemade crumpets look yummy?

Credit Daniel M.N. Turner / NPR

But for some trypophobes, the clusters of seeds in a melon can evoke anxiety, nervousness and even nausea.

Credit Daniel M. N. Turner / NPR

Trypophobia is the irrational fear of holes, pods and cracks. For some trypophobes, cantaloupe seeds trigger the heebie-jeebies.

By editor

Originally published on Sat February 16, 2013 12:40 pm

Four years ago, my husband revealed one of his more peculiar qualities: He's freaked out by the sight of sliced cantaloupe.

The melon seeds, all clustered together, make his skin itch and his stomach churn. Then he gets obsessed and can't stop talking about it.

A bit concerned by his behavior, I started researching it on the Web. Boy, was I in for a treat. My husband was not alone.

The Two-Way

1:21 pm

Wed February 13, 2013

Deputy And Teacher Praised For Talking Down Alabama Gunman At School

Credit WBRC-TV

WBRC-TV reporting from the scene at Chelsea (Ala.) Middle School, where a gunman briefly held some students.

By Mark Memmott

Originally published on Wed February 13, 2013 2:12 pm

As the nation watched anxiously to see how the manhunt in California for accused cop-killer Christopher Jordan Dorner would turn out, a harrowing situation at an Alabama middle school thankfully ended peacefully.

AL.com reports that a man entered the school in Chelsea, Ala., Tuesday afternoon and "held several students at gunpoint."

Shots - Health News

12:54 pm

Wed February 13, 2013

SARS-Like Virus Spreads From One Person To Another

Credit Elizabeth R. Fischer / Rocky Mountain Labs/NIAID/NIH

Virologists discovered the new coronavirus after it killed a Saudi Arabian man last summer.

By editor

Originally published on Thu February 14, 2013 4:19 pm

A mysterious illness with a striking resemblance to the one caused by the SARS virus emerged in the Middle East last year.

But the new virus behind the latest cases didn't seem to be contagious – until now.

Around the Nation

12:44 pm

Wed February 13, 2013

Search For Ex-L.A. Cop May Be Over

By editor

Originally published on Wed February 13, 2013 1:04 pm

Listen

Transcript

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Bloodhounds, high-tech helicopters, a million-dollar reward and a thousand telephone tips, one of the largest searches in history to track down one man: Christopher Dorner. What's believed to be the body of the fugitive ex-L.A. police officer has been found amid the ruins of a cabin in Big Bear, California, where police finally chased him down.

The Two-Way

12:41 pm

Wed February 13, 2013

Center for Public Integrity: EPA Unaware Of Industry Ties On Cancer Review Panel

By Howard Berkes

Originally published on Wed February 13, 2013 4:44 pm

Our investigative reporting colleagues at the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) continue their look at the Environmental Protection Agency's regulation of toxic pollution with a new report scrutinizing the agency's delay in announcing that "even a small amount of a chemical compound commonly found in tap water may cause cancer."

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