Search results for

Leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Commitee are proposing that the Federal Emergency Management Agency be eliminated. After investigating the response to Hurricane Katrina, the committee releases a draft report recommending the creation of a new National Preparedness and Response Authority to replace FEMA.

A new National Academy of Sciences report finds that transportation accidents involving nuclear waste pose minimal risks. The academy recommends further study of scenarios involving long-duration fires or terrorist attack, and it points out another issue the government needs to address: public fear.

Michele Norris says she's had enough of chatty dolls, singing globes and anything else with a talking microchip. All those annoying playthings make her wonder: Why are toys so loud?

Beck, the idiosyncratic singer and musician, has returned with his eighth release, Guero. On it, the troubadour's songwriting continues to mature, even as he regains his light touch.

As a child, Jane Hamill thought Barbie was the ultimate in cool. Now a fashion designer in Chicago, Hamill realizes her belief in a doll was a belief in her own skills, creativity and ability to succeed.

Here's a way to travel, without suffering the high prices of fuel these days: Read one of Alan Cheuse's summer reading book picks. One of them is bound to move you someplace beyond your beach chair.

Experts confirm that a cluster of trees found by a scientist hiking near Pine Mountain, Ga., are in fact American chestnut trees. But researchers say they have no idea how the trees escaped a blight in the early 1900s, which experts thought had wiped out the entire U.S. population of the trees.

The life of Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilei has inspired a musical work. "The Starry Messenger," composed by Glenn McClure, debuts Saturday night in upstate New York. The project was inspired by Dava Sobel's book Galileo's Daughter.

In Florida, Hazel Haley has been teaching English at Lakeland High School since 1939. She's been teaching in the same classroom since 1952! She's retiring this year and the community is grateful for her long service. In some cases, she's taught three generations of the same family. Robin Sussingham of member station WUSF reports.

A choir in Oakland, Calif., which specializes in the freedom songs of apartheid-era South Africa celebrated an important anniversary this weekend. Lonny Shavelson visited the choir of the First Congregation Church, and reports on its history and its current mission.