KVNF Mountain Grown Community Radio

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The musician Paul Tanner has died. If you're not a close reader of liner notes, you may never have heard his name but generations of Americans know his music.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, "IN THE MOOD")

GREENE: This song, "In the Mood," by the Glen Miller Orchestra was a hit back in 1940. And young musician named Paul Tanner was playing trombone.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right. And our last word in business today is snakebite.

Over the next couple of weeks skies in many parts of Asia will be lit up with fireworks to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The Year of the Dragon is ending and Sunday marks the start of, yes, the Year of the Snake.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. The upside of the approaching storm in the Northeast is that many people have a long weekend. Schools and businesses are adjusting to forecasts of major snowfall. New York City, we're told, could get at least a foot of snow. Two feet are expected in Boston, where the list of school closings is already quite long, and where P.J. Mensel has been getting ready.

An asteroid the size of an office building will zoom close by Earth next week, but it's not on a collision course, NASA says.

Still, some people think this near-miss should serve as a wake-up call.

"It's a warning shot across our bow that we are flying around the solar system in a shooting gallery," says Ed Lu, a former astronaut and head of the B612 Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting humanity from asteroids.

The asteroid known as 2012 DA14 was first spotted last year by astronomers in Spain. It's thought to be about 150 feet across and made of rock.

Congress likes to say it no longer does earmarks, the provisions that direct federal dollars to serve local interests or campaign supporters. And though that may be true, it's also a fact that targeted provisions are still useful in moving legislation — even critical legislation like the bill that pulled Washington back from the fiscal cliff last month.

More than 200 houses of worship damaged in Superstorm Sandy have applied for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But given the separation of church and state, it's unclear whether federal funds are available to them.

The sanctuary of Temple Israel of Long Beach, N.Y., was flooded with more than 10 feet of saltwater in some places, says Rabbi David Bauman.

"Roughly 5 to 7 feet [of water] in most, and there were surges — particularly in our mechanical room — that went upwards of 12 to 14 feet," he says.

Fifty years ago this Saturday, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy went for a walk — a 50-mile walk, to be exact — trudging through snow and slush from just outside Washington, D.C., all the way to Harper's Ferry, W.Va.

He had no preparation, and no training. And in spite of temperatures well below freezing, he wore Oxford loafers on his feet.

In recent years, Canada, France and Britain have added measures of citizen happiness to their official national statistics. The U.S. government is now considering adopting a happiness index as well.

This makes a certain amount of sense. Everything a government does — hiring soldiers, building bridges, providing pensions — is supposed to make citizens happy.