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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. An African-American governor appoints an African-American senator; immigration moves to the front burner, and Bobby Jindal scolds the GOP. It's Wednesday and time for a...

GOVERNOR BOBBY JINDAL: The stupid party...

CONAN: Edition of the Political Junkie.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDINGS)

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: There you go again.

VICE PRESIDENT WALTER MONDALE: When I hear your new ideas, I'm reminded of that ad: Where's the beef?

The dispute between Japan and China over small islands in the East China Sea is escalating. The two nations first dispatched unarmed vessels to stake their claims, then patrol boats, and then, unarmed aircraft.

Most recently, both countries sent fighter jets to the islands — known as the Senkaku in Japan, and the Diaoyu in China. The islands are uninhabited, but sit in a strategic location between Japan and Taiwan.

Thirty years ago, when Elyn Saks was diagnosed with schizophrenia, her doctors told her she would never be able to hold a job.

"The idea was that I should lower my expectations," she tells NPR's Neal Conan. "I was advised to be a cashier for a year or two and then think about another job or possibly going back to school."

She didn't listen.

Despite hospitalization, years of psychoanalysis and continued delusions, Saks discovered that work was essential to managing her psychosis. She is now a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.

"The intense storm system that brought severe weather to the Mississippi Valley on Tuesday will move eastward on Wednesday, bringing a risk of severe weather from the upper Ohio Valley southward to the central Gulf Coast and eastward to the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast coast," the National Weather Service warns this hours. "The main threat will be damaging wind along with the possibility of tornadoes, especially across eastern Ala. into western Ga."

In Georgia, a tornado has already touched down. WSB-TV has dramatic video of the funnel cloud raking through Adairsville, Ga.:

Anyone else noticing the love New York Senator Charles Schumer is showing for Marco Rubio? He's been calling Rubio courageous for pushing an immigration overhaul that many in his party's base despise. Wednesday morning he likened Rubio's appearance on conservative talk shows to "Daniel in the lion's den."

A Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday denied a motion by former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky for a new trial.

Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse of minors back in October. He was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in jail.

Michael Sisak of the The Citizens' Voice in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., reports on Twitter:

It's no secret that Research In Motion is in trouble. The tablet device it released in 2011 did so poorly the company took a $485 million hit. Android phones and Apple's iPhone have left the company in the technology graveyard.

BP has agreed to a $4 billion settlement of a criminal case filed by the Justice Department over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A pending civil case could cost tens of billions of dollars more in penalties.

You'd be forgiven for thinking chicken Kiev got its start in the Ukrainian capital. After all, a hearty dish of chicken filled with butter, wrapped in bread crumbs, and deep fried is the perfect meal to withstand subzero temperatures and cold winds blowing across the Dniepr River.

Ukrainian chefs say they have the only authentic recipe for the dish, but they concede that chicken Kiev, despite its name, has a far more sophisticated provenance: It's French.

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CELESTE HEADLEE, HOST:

I'm Celeste Headlee and this is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. Michel Martin is away. Now, we want to tell you about a performer who may have been a big part of your life when you were still in short pants, if I can use that expression.

Before there were OzoKidz and Raffi filling packed houses, there was Ella Jenkins. For more than 50 years, she's been using the power of song to educate children and teach them lessons about life and the importance of staying active.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STOP AND GO")