Mark Thomas is using a pay phone, but he isn't paying. And physically, he's not even that close to the phone.
He's sitting on a bench on the street in Astoria, Queens, checking email on his netbook. It's grabbing an Internet signal from a military-grade antenna on top of a pay phone down the block.
"It's not the speediest but you can't complain about free, right?" Thomas says.
As thousands gather in Washington, D.C., for the International AIDS Conference, the city is battling disturbing levels of HIV/AIDS, particularly in the black community.
According to the D.C. Department of Health, 4.3 percent of the black population in the city is living with the disease, and some advocates argue that black churches should be doing more to fight it.
African migrants fired from Italian factories in the north have joined the swelling ranks of people searching for agriculture work in the south. Originally from Burkina Faso, Karim Suruku (right) is a migrant worker in Calabria in southern Italy. At left is Amidou Denamidou.
Credit Sylvia Poggioli / NPR
Men on cots wait for farm work near Calabria. Poor living conditions for migrant workers, sometimes without running water or toilet facilities, has led the Italian government to set up tents for them.
Credit Sylvia Poggioli / NPR
With its vast citrus groves, Calabria is a major stop for migratory workers in the country.
Italy recently approved a decree that would grant work and residence permits to migrants who blow the whistle on bosses who exploit them in the economy illegally.
But in places like the southern region of Calabria, the law has little chance of being applied at a time when the economic crisis increasingly fosters an illegal, underground economy.
The main activity in Calabria is agriculture. Thanks to vast citrus fields, it's one of the major stops for migratory workers, mostly Africans without legal documents.
A sign for Interstate 81 sits under an overpass in Syracuse, N.Y. City officials and residents are debating what to do about an aging stretch of the highway that cuts through the city.
Credit Zack Seward for NPR
Hazel Miller's home is located about 100 feet from I-81. She moved into the Pioneer Homes, a low-rise public housing project, 40 years ago, when houses were still being ripped down to make room for the highway.
Credit Zack Seward for NPR
Bill Egloff, I-81 project manager for the New York State Department of Transportation, and Meghan Vitale of the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council stand underneath the I-81 viaduct in Syracuse, N.Y.
Interstate 81 runs through the heart of Syracuse, N.Y., where a 1.4-mile-long elevated stretch of the highway is known locally as "the viaduct." Like many road projects built in the middle of the last century, I-81 is bumping up against the end of its life span. While officials say it's still safe to drive on, the highway is crumbling in parts.
Two American women cyclists from Idaho will race at this summer's Olympics. And their events couldn't be more different: Kristin Armstrong races the clock, wearing an aerodynamic teardrop helmet in the time trial.
Meanwhile, mountain biker Georgia Gould combines speed with technical prowess to navigate rocky descents and dirt trails.