Theater
10:01 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

'Carrie' Creators Resurrect A Legendary Flop

Originally published on Thu March 1, 2012 10:18 am

Broadway history is littered with flop musicals — but if some shows are bombs, then Carrie, based on Stephen King's best-selling 1974 novel, was kind of a nuclear bomb.

The story of a teenager with telekinetic powers who wreaks bloody havoc on her small Maine town had already been successfully adapted as a film starring Sissy Spacek in 1976. But as a musical?

Frank Rich was theater critic for The New York Times when the show opened in April 1988. He called it a musical wreck that "expires with fireworks like the Hindenburg."

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It's All Politics
4:08 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

Evangelicals Still Cool On Romney, Exit Poll Analysis Shows

Credit Charles Krupa / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney pauses during a visit to St. Paul's Lutheran Church while campaigning in Berlin, N.H. Dec. 22, 2011.

A next-day analysis of the Republican presidential primaries in Michigan and Arizona won by Mitt Romney underscores one of his weaknesses with his party's base, especially with the ascent of his now-chief rival Rick Santorum: he fares more poorly with born-again and evangelical voters than with non-evangelicals.

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It's All Politics
4:08 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

Romney Says He Opposes Contraceptive Bill, But His Campaign Says Otherwise

Originally published on Thu March 1, 2012 6:21 am

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a reporter Wednesday that he opposes a measure being considered by the Senate that would allow employers to decline to provide contraception coverage to women.

"I'm not for the bill," Romney said during an interview with Ohio News Network reporter Jim Heath. "But, look, the idea of presidential candidates getting into questions about contraception within a relationship between a man and a woman, husband and wife, I'm not going there."

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All Tech Considered
3:57 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

New Ways To Think About Online Privacy

Credit Nina Gregory / NPR
Wired's Chris Anderson: "Privacy is complicated."

Originally published on Wed February 29, 2012 4:01 pm

As an editor who helps put Morning Edition on the air, I work overnight. There is something called sleep hygiene that some of us who work while you sleep have studied closely. Sleep hygiene is a set of practices that aim to help you sleep better — like not reading in bed, not watching TV there or playing Angry Birds or reading the news.

In light of the news of Google's new privacy policy, I got to thinking about privacy practices, something you might call privacy hygiene.

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Crisis In The Housing Market
3:40 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

Fannie, Freddie Won't Write Down Mortgage Principal

Credit Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Many experts say reducing mortgage principal can help troubled homeowners stay in their homes. But two of the nation's largest mortgage holders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have not signed on to the idea.

Despite some green shoots in the economy, the housing sector remains weak. With 11 million Americans still underwater on their mortgages, some housing experts believe it's time for more dramatic solutions.

The idea of reducing the principal on the loans of underwater homeowners used to be a fringe concept, embraced by a few outliers. Today, many policymakers believe principal reduction is necessary to keep some troubled homeowners afloat.

But so far, the nation's biggest mortgage holders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, haven't embraced the idea.

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The Two-Way
3:35 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

Priest Was Wrong To Deny Communion To Lesbian, Archdiocese Says

Credit Saeed Khan / AFP/Getty Images

There's been lots of talk on the Web and the news channels today about The Washington Post's front page account of what happened when Barbara Johnson went to Communion on Saturday during the funeral mass for her mother in Gaithersburg, Md.

The priest, Rev. Marcel Guarnizo said he would not give her the sacrament because she is a sinner.

Johnson is a lesbian.

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Rick Santorum
3:34 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

Is Rick Santorum Missing JFK's Point On Religion?

When GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum was growing up, he says, John F. Kennedy was a hero in his Catholic home.

In a speech last year, he said he had always heard glowing reports of Kennedy's speech about religion to Protestant ministers in 1960.

"And then very late in my political career, I had the opportunity to read the speech and I almost threw up," Santorum told a group of college students last year. "You should read the speech. In my opinion, it was the beginning of the secular movement of politicians to separate their faith from the public square."

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Movies
3:31 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

Hollywood, Pentagon Have Complicated Relationship

Originally published on Wed February 29, 2012 5:02 pm

On its opening weekend, the Navy SEAL's movie Act of Valor grossed over $20 million at the box office. The military movie is believed to be the first to feature active duty military personnel as actors in the film.

Shots - Health Blog
3:30 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

Federal Judge Rules Graphic Cigarette Labels Violate Constitution

Credit FDA
One of the cigarette labels a federal judge says goes too far.

Originally published on Wed February 29, 2012 3:36 pm

Scary labels the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would require on cigarette packages later this year were nixed today.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon in Washington ruled the requirement that cigarette makers put the labels — some quite gruesome and all quite large — on their products would "violate the First Amendment by unconstitutionally compelling speech."

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The Conservation Beat
3:23 pm
Wed February 29, 2012

PNM Profits Incite Activists

Credit credit: Nic McPhee

New Mexico’s largest electric utility released numbers today showing a 25 percent increase in earnings from 2010 to 2011.  Environmentalists say those profits are just one more reflection of PNM’s misplaced priorities.

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