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The Two-Way
10:18 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Security Company Says About 600,000 Macs Infected With Trojan Virus

Credit Dr. Web
A map released by Dr. Web shows where the anti-virus software company found infected Macs.

A Russian computer security firm says it has discovered that about 600,000 Apple computers have been infected with a "Flashback Trojan" virus.

Now, before we move on, you should know that the company making the announcement is Dr. Web, which sells anti-virus software that will protect a computer against that kind of virus. It's also important to note that many of the parties weighing in are part of a security community that makes money off selling anti-virus software.

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The Two-Way
10:04 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Two Years After W. Va. Mine Disaster: Grief, Anger And Questions Linger

Tonight, in Whitesville, W.Va., mourners will silently walk with candles on sidewalks lined with luminary lights to remember the 29 coal miners who died two years ago today in the nation's worst mine disaster in 40 years.

That memorial will follow a 3 p.m. ET event in Beckley,W. Va., where an honor guard will ring a bell 29 times to mark the moment the Upper Big Branch coal mine erupted in a massive explosion.

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Education
10:00 am
Thu April 5, 2012

NYC Chancellor On Turning Around City's Schools

Dennis Walcott oversees a school system with more than one million students. Graduation rates are below the national average, and studies suggest most of the city's high school graduates are not ready for college. But Chancellor Walcott tells host Michel Martin that, after one year on the job, New York City schools are on the mend.

Race
10:00 am
Thu April 5, 2012

In Trayvon Martin Case, Who's Considered White?

Race is central to the debate surrounding Trayvon Martin, the black Florida teen shot by neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman. Many media outlets first identified Zimmerman as "white," but his father describes him as a Spanish-speaking minority. Host Michel Martin explores the question, "who is white?" with sociologist Jean Halley.

The Salt
9:57 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Chocolate Bilbies, Not Bunnies, For An Australian Easter

In the turf war between rabbits and bilbies that plays out in burrows dug into Australia's arid grasslands, rabbits, those aggressive and fertile European immigrants, have largely won out.

But the chocolate bilby has staked its claim on the springtime candy shelf — an honor that could help the threatened species make a real comeback.

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Economy
9:24 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Debt Struggles As Old As America Itself

As of today, the national debt held by the public is more than $10 trillion. That's more than $30,000 for every man, woman and child living in the United States.

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Million Dollar Donors
9:11 am
Thu April 5, 2012

For Romney, Family Ties To Marriott Heirs Pay Off

It's All Politics
7:32 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Thursday Political Grab Bag: Poll Puts Romney Ahead In PA

Mitt Romney has taken the lead in voter support in Pennsylvania, according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling which shows the Republican frontrunner ahead of Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from the Keystone State, 42 percent to 37 percent. That lead was just on the 4.9 point margin of error, suggesting a tie. That's bad news for Santorum, however, as he dropped six percentage points while Romney gained 17 percent from a month ago.

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The Two-Way
6:40 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Jobless Claims Stay Around Four-Year Low

The number of people filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance stayed around a four-year low last week, the Employment and Training Administration just reported.

It says there were 357,000 such applications, down 6,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 363,000.

Claims have been running at the lowest rate since March and April 2008 for several weeks now.

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Shots - Health Blog
6:31 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Cancer Diagnosis Raises Risk Of Death From Heart Attack, Suicide

Credit Max Delson Martins Santos / iStockphoto.com
The danger of death by heart attack or suicide is greatest in the first week after a cancer diagnosis.

Finding out that you have cancer greatly increases the risk of death by heart attack or suicide, according to a new study. That risk is especially big in the first week after getting the bad news.

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The Two-Way
5:55 am
Thu April 5, 2012

The Masters Begins: Will Tiger Woods Win? Do You Want Him To?

Credit Streeter Lecka / Getty Images
Tiger Woods, teeing off during a practice round at Augusta National on Thursday.
  • On 'Morning Edition': Christine Brennan talks with Steve Inskeep

They're teeing off this morning in Augusta, Ga. It's the Masters, the first of the "major" tournaments for men each year.

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Around the Nation
5:11 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Personal Brick Offer Backfires On Baseball's Marlins

Fans had a chance to be immortalized in the stadium by buying personalized bricks. The animal rights group PETA bought one. The group's brick contained a hidden message that spells out an anti-fishing website.

The Two-Way
5:05 am
Thu April 5, 2012

In Greece, Retiree's Suicide Sparks Protests And Clashes With Police

Credit Aris Messinis / AFP/Getty Images
Demonstrators clashed with riot police in Athens overnight.

The human toll from the financial crisis in Greece now has a human face.

After 77-year-old retired pharmacist Dimitris Christoulas killed himself Wednesday outside the parliament building in Athens, a suicide note he left was reported to say that he felt he must take a "dignified end to my life" because austerity measures and "annihilated all traces for my survival," particularly his pension.

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Around the Nation
5:02 am
Thu April 5, 2012

No Really, The Dog Ate My Masters Tickets

A Seattle man came home to discover that his dog had eaten his tickets to the Masters in Augusta, Ga. After the dog threw up, he managed to re-assemble the tickets. After all that effort, the Masters says they'll re-print his tickets anyway.

Election 2012
2:00 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Romney's Rhetoric Shifts Toward November Election

Mitt Romney is closer to winning the GOP presidential nomination after primary victories this week in Wisconsin, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Halfway through the GOP nominating season, Romney's attacks on President Obama are intensifying.

Business
2:00 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Bond Auction Indicates Europe's Troubles Persist

A Spanish bond auction went poorly Wednesday, suggesting that Spain may be becoming the next Greece. It was the first auction without a lot of help from the European central bank.

Business
2:00 am
Thu April 5, 2012

The Last Word In Business

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And our last word in business today is cardboard to classy.

Today, Domino's Pizza is hoping to complete its rebranding as a place that does not sell lousy pizza. The effort started a couple of years ago when the company actually criticized itself in ads like this one.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOMINOES PIZZA AD)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Dominoes Pizza crust, to me, is like cardboard.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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Around the Nation
2:00 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Fla. Task Force Examines Stand-Your-Ground Law

Originally published on Thu April 5, 2012 4:21 am

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

Martin Luther King was assassinated 44 years ago this week. When people in Miami held a rally to mark that anniversary, local activist Billy Hardemon brought up the killing of another Martin.

BILLY HARDEMON: Two Martins that died too young, Trayvon and Martin Luther King.

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Sports
2:00 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Competition For Green Jacket Begins In Augusta

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Master's begins today in Augusta, Georgia. It's the first of the four majors that punctuate the golf season, and the only one of the majors that is always played at the same course: the perfectly manicured Augusta National. Behind the gorgeous imagery, the private golf club is dealing with an awkward issue, and USA Today sports columnist Christine Brennan is here to talk about it.

Christine, good morning once again.

CHRISTINE BRENNAN: Good morning, Steve.

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Media
1:49 am
Thu April 5, 2012

The Roots Of An Empire: Rupert Murdoch's Australia

First of four parts

Ultimately, all roads lead home for Rupert Murdoch.

"The story of our company is the stuff of legend: from a small newspaper in Adelaide to a global corporation based in New York, with a market capitalization of about $44 billion," he said last October, when he addressed a News Corp. shareholders meeting in Los Angeles.

Australians view the company's history differently.

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Environment
1:35 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Shake It Off: Earth's Wobble May Have Ended Ice Age

Credit Veronique Durruty / Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
A wobbling of the Earth on its axis about 20,000 years ago may have kicked off a beginning to the end of the last ice age. Glaciers in the Arctic and Greenland began to melt, which resulted in a warming of the Earth, a new study says. Above, Greenland's Russell Glacier, seen in 1990.

The last big ice age ended about 11,000 years ago, and not a moment too soon — it made a lot more of the world livable, at least for humans.

But exactly what caused the big thaw isn't clear, and new research suggests that a wobble in the Earth kicked off a complicated process that changed the whole planet.

Ice tells the history of the Earth's climate: Air bubbles in ice reveal what the atmosphere was like and what the temperature was. And scientists can read this ice, even if it's been buried for thousands of years.

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Around the Nation
1:33 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Ohio Tears Through Blighted Housing Problem

Cleveland resident Cedric Cowan was asleep on an overcast spring morning when the roaring sounds of splintering wood and falling rubble jolted him awake.

Cowan lives in a neighborhood hit hard by foreclosures. He initially thought someone was moving into the house on the other side of Fairport Avenue.

Instead, he woke that morning to find a crew tearing down the two-family house.

Over the course of three hours, an excavator smashed, crushed and ripped apart the abandoned house while a worker sprayed the rubble with a hose to keep the dust down.

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Election 2012
1:32 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Longtime GOP Sen. Lugar Faces Stiff Tea Party Fight

Six-term Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana is facing his first primary challenge since winning the job in the 1970s. The race is attracting big money from outside groups and superPACs, and is seen as a test of the strength of the Tea Party movement versus the power of incumbency.

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Governing
1:31 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Boycotts Hitting Group Behind 'Stand-Your-Ground'

Credit Julie Fletcher / AP
Selina Gray of Sanford, Fla., shows her sign at a rally protesting the death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teen shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer. Authorities have cited the state's "stand your ground" law as a reason charges have not been filed in Martin's death.

Two of America's best-known companies, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, have dropped their memberships in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a low-profile conservative organization behind the national proliferation of "stand your ground" gun laws.

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Television
1:30 am
Thu April 5, 2012

With 'Scandal,' ABC Targets Black Female Viewers

On Thursday night, ABC's Scandal will step out as a rarity on TV: a show developed by one of the most powerful black women in TV, Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rimes, depicting a powerful black woman in Washington, D.C.: Olivia Pope, a top-flight crisis manager.

She's a "fixer" so impressive, she can negotiate down payments with the Ukrainian mob in a burst of rapid-fire dialogue. She is played by Kerry Washington, whom you might recognize from wife and girlfriend roles in films like The Fantastic Four and Ray.

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Religion
1:29 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Vatican, Israel Spar Over Disputed Last Supper Site

Credit Richard T. Nowitz / Corbis
This room, known as the Cenacle on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, is venerated as the site of Jesus' Last Supper. Jews and Muslims also consider the building to be a holy site, and it has been a source of contention for years. Israel and the Vatican may be nearing an agreement.

If there's one building in Jerusalem that represents the city's tangle of religions, this is it. The ground floor is a Jewish holy site said to house the tomb of the biblical King David. The second floor is the Cenacle, a Christian holy site, the room believed to be the site of Jesus' Last Supper. On the roof, there's an old minaret from when this place was marked a Muslim holy site.

One building, three religions, decades of property disputes. And the fight isn't over.

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Europe
1:28 am
Thu April 5, 2012

Two Decades After Siege, Sarajevo Still A City Divided

April 6 marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the Bosnian war and the siege of Sarajevo. It was the longest siege of a capital city in modern history, and produced the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II.

Over three-and-a-half years of war, 100,000 people were killed, and half of Bosnia's population of 4.4 million — made up of a plurality of Muslims — fled their homes.

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Starting Up: Silicon Valley's Origins
1:20 am
Thu April 5, 2012

America's Magnet For Innovation, And Investments

Part 2 of our Silicon Valley history series

Think of the most technologically innovative companies of the past 50 years, such as Intel, Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter. Each company has a Silicon Valley address — and each one got backing from venture capitalists. Over the past decade, more than 35 percent of the nation's venture capital has gone to Silicon Valley startups.

High-tech and venture capital go hand and hand in the valley where technology and venture capital grew up together.

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The Two-Way
4:50 pm
Wed April 4, 2012

Coroner Says White Powder, Spoon Found In Whitney Houston's Hotel Room

Credit Getty Images / Getty Images
Pop diva Whitney Houston was found dead in her Beverly Hills hotel room on the eve of the 54th Grammy Awards.

A final report from Los Angeles coroner is shedding some light on Whitney Houston's last hours.

According to the report, the pop super star complained of a sore throat and an assistant suggested she take a bath. By the time the assistant got back to the room after running an errand, she found Houston lying face down on in the tub "in approximately 13-inches of water," People Magazine reports.

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