The Record
5:23 am
Sat June 23, 2012

A Summer With Fun.

Credit Mito Habe-Evans / NPR
Nate Ruess before fun.'s show at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on Friday.

Originally published on Sat August 18, 2012 11:26 am

Fun. is in the middle of quite a run. For six weeks this spring, the band had the No. 1 song in the country with "We Are Young," an anthemic pledge of drunken solidarity that has appeared in countless commercials and TV shows, and dominated radio playlists and sales charts since March (it's still in the top five).

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Science
5:22 am
Sat June 23, 2012

Rio+20 Doesn't Get Further Than Vague Declaration

Credit Andre Penner / AP
U.N. General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's Secretary of the Conference Luis Figueiredo Machado and Rio+20 Secretary General Sha Zukang attend the closing ceremony of the Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 10:15 pm

The Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development was the biggest United Nations conference ever, but it may be one of the biggest duds. It produced no major agreements — just a vaguely worded declaration that has been widely derided.

More than 45,000 people registered for the event in Rio de Janeiro, but diplomats couldn't even agree about the meeting's objective until 2:45 a.m. on Tuesday, just before heads of state and other high-level delegates started arriving in Rio.

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Around the Nation
5:03 am
Sat June 23, 2012

On This Stage, Jesus Is A Robber; The Devil's A Rapist

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 10:07 am

There are more than 5,300 inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Nearly 4,000 of them are serving life without parole. Last month, the Angola Prison Drama Club staged a play unlike any other in the prison's experience.

The Life of Jesus Christ featured 70 inmates, men and women acting together for the first time — in costume, with a real camel, performing for the general public. For the untrained actors, this production held special meaning as they saw pieces of their own lives revealed in the characters they played.

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Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!
12:56 am
Sat June 23, 2012

Director Rob Reiner Plays Not My Job

Credit Nathan Strange / AP

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 1:08 pm

Rob Reiner is an accomplished writer, director and actor. He's directed more than 20 movies, including some undeniable classics: A Few Good Men, When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride and of course, the movie that many will quote until they're old and gray, This Is Spinal Tap.

Reiner has said Stand by Me is his proudest accomplishment. To celebrate that film, we're going to ask him three questions about people he definitely doesn't want to stand by.

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The Two-Way
5:28 pm
Fri June 22, 2012

Paraguay's Congress Votes To Oust President

Credit Jose Cabezas / AFP/Getty Images
Paraguay's congress impeached President Fernando Lugo on Friday over his handling of a deadly land dispute.

Originally published on Sat June 23, 2012 9:11 am

Paraguay's congress voted to remove President Fernando Lugo. The impeachment proceeding was a lightening process in which with both chambers approved his destitution in a little more than 24 hours.

Paraguay's La Nacíon reports that Vice President Federico Franco will assume the presidency after Lugo was found guilty of "performing his duties badly."

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Sandhya Dirks arrived in Iowa in January of 2012 as a general assignment reporter. Since coming to Des Moines she has covered the Statehouse and traveled across Iowa to bring back stories for IPR. Sandhya was previously a reporter at KALW in San Francisco, covering education and criminal justice issues. Her work was awarded a SPJ Sigma Delta Chi and a regional Edward R. Murrow award.

Most recently, Sandhya earned her Master of Science from Columbia Journalism School in New York. Her masterââ

Around the Nation
5:00 pm
Fri June 22, 2012

A Century-Old Grotto That Might Out-Glitter Vegas

Originally published on Fri June 22, 2012 5:11 pm

The Midwest is known for its roadside attractions — world's largest ear of corn, heaviest ball of twine, biggest truck stop.

But it's also home to one of the largest collections of grottoes in the world. Most of these man-made caves were created by immigrant priests at the beginning of the 20th century. And the mother of them all — encrusted in $6 million worth of semiprecious stones — is in West Bend, Iowa.

This weekend, the Grotto of the Redemption turns 100.

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Sports
4:47 pm
Fri June 22, 2012

40 Years On, Title IX Still Shapes Female Athletes

Originally published on Fri June 22, 2012 5:30 pm

Title IX, which turns 40 on Saturday, has helped reverse years of bias, banning sex discrimination in federally funded schools and colleges.

Its guarantee of equal access to sports was a small part of the original legislation. But it's become the most recognizable part of Title IX. That guarantee has not always played out, and the law has its critics. For four decades, however, it's played a huge part in shaping lives.

'I Can Handle This World'

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It's All Politics
4:12 pm
Fri June 22, 2012

Obama Basks In Latino Politicians' Love After His DREAM Moves

Credit Brendan Smialowski / AFP
President Obama returned a young fan's salute at the conference of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials in Orlando, Fla.

Originally published on Fri June 29, 2012 2:55 pm

Coming a week after President Obama announced that he would defer deportation proceedings for many young illegal immigrants, it was safe to predict that he'd get an appreciative response from an audience of Latino leaders. They didn't disappoint.

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Movie Interviews
4:00 pm
Fri June 22, 2012

Digital Domain Pins Hopes On Things With Feathers

Originally published on Mon June 25, 2012 4:42 pm

You may not have heard of the special-effects studio Digital Domain, but you've probably seen their work. They sank the Titanic for James Cameron; they aged Brad Pitt backward in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Most recently, their virtual likeness of the late Tupac Shakur performed in concert.

Having worked those wonders, they're tackling thornier challenges: fur and feathers.

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