National

National

Tough Arizona Sheriff Gets Judicial Reprimand

1:19pm May 25, 2013

In Arizona, a federal judge ruled against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department, saying it used racial profiling to enforce the state's tough immigration laws. Host Scott Simon talks with NPR's Ted Robbins about the ruling.

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Chasing Okla. Storms: 'Technology Can Only Go So Far'

1:19pm May 25, 2013

Host Scott Simon speaks with Val Castor, the senior "StormTracker" for News 9 in Oklahoma City, about what it's like to do the job in one of the most climatically volatile regions of the country.

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Obama: Sexual Assault Has No Place In The Military

6:03pm May 24, 2013

by Scott Horsley

President Obama delivered the commencement address at Annapolis on Friday, challenging the U.S. Naval Academy graduates to help redefine national defense in the 21st century.

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Many school safe rooms, like this one inside Jeffries Elementary in Springfield, Mo., also serve as gymnasiums. Constructed with a $1.6 million grant from FEMA, which covered 75 percent of the cost, the shelter can hold more than 500 people — enough to

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Tornado Safe Rooms In Schools A Popular, But Costly Idea

6:03pm May 24, 2013

by Scott Harvey

In the aftermath of the destruction in Moore, Okla., residents throughout Tornado Alley want storm shelters installed in schools. Some schools in the region already have them, but funding to build new ones is hard to come by.

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Tracking Killer Tornadoes

2:58pm May 24, 2013

A series of tornadoes struck the central United States this week, including a powerful storm in Oklahoma that killed at least 24 people. Marshall Shepherd, the president of the American Meteorological Society, describes the ingredients of major tornadoes, and how they are predicted.

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Nearly 30 years ago, Congress gave terminally ill inmates and prisoners with extraordinary family circumstances an early way out, known as compassionate release.

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Sick Inmates Dying Behind Bars Despite Release Program

12:54pm May 24, 2013

by Carrie Johnson

Federal prisoners can request compassionate release if they are terminally ill, but a recent investigation found that many die while their requests drift through the system. Now, prison leaders say they will simplify the approval process and start tracking requests electronically.

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The origin of itch has confounded scientists for decades.

Why You Have To Scratch That Itch

11:20am May 24, 2013

by Rhitu Chatterjee

Itch can be a useful warning sign, or a maddening symptom with no cure. But the origins of itch have long been a mystery. Scientists think they've come closer to understanding the origins of itch in a molecule that makes mice scratch like mad.

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Sally Edwards (left), 80, and Lue Hutchinson, 71, visited StoryCorps in Cincinnati. Their sons, Jack Edwards and Tom Butts, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

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Military Moms: A Bond Born From Shared Loss

8:22am May 24, 2013

by NPR Staff

Two mothers whose sons were killed during the first Gulf War talk about how they became friends after their sons died. The past 22 years would have been tough without the friendship, because, as one tells the other, "what's in our hearts we share."

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Obama Tweaks U.S. Vision For Fight Against Terrorism

8:01am May 24, 2013

by Dina Temple-Raston

President Obama discussed America's counter-terrorism strategy — including the use of drones and the prison at Guantanamo Bay — during an address at the National Defense University on Thursday. He rejected the idea that the country can fight an open-ended "global war on terror."

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Cary Smith had picked up his son Jordan, 13, and daughter Tia, 5, from school on Monday, right before the tornado came through Moore. He and the family live close to Plaza Elementary, and he ran to the school to help pull a teacher and three kids from the

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After The Storm: Students Gather For One More School Day

6:08am May 24, 2013

by David Schaper

There were hugs and tears, smiles and laughter on Thursday, as students and teachers from Plaza Towers Elementary School, destroyed in Monday's tornado in Moore, Okla., reunited. The school district reopened all of its schools just for the day on what would have been the final day of classes before summer vacation.

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