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All Things Considered

Monday- Friday, 4-6pm
Weekends: Guy Raz

In-depth reporting that transforms the way listeners understand current events and view the world. Every weekday, hear two hours of breaking news mixed with compelling analysis, insightful commentaries, interviews, and special - sometimes quirky - features. 

Local Host(s): 
Melissa Block and Robert Siegel
Composer ID: 
5182a7ace1c86a2e61ba3d0c|5182a7a3e1c86a2e61ba3cd1

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Environment
1:15 pm
Thu November 15, 2012

Loophole Lets Toxic Oil Water Flow Over Indian Land

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Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
Dirty water from the oil wells flows through oil-caked pipes into a settling pit where trucks vacuum off the oil. A net covers the pit to keep out birds and other wildlife. Streams of this wastewater flow through the reservation and join natural creeks and rivers.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
More than 40 years ago, the EPA banned oil companies from releasing wastewater into the environment, but made an exception for the arid West. If livestock and wildlife can use the water, companies can release it. Cows like these grazing near a stream of waste on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming are supposedly the reason the EPA lets oil companies release their waste into the environment.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
The EPA requires that the wastewater streams show no obvious sheen and no solid deposits. But both were visible near oil fields on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
White crystal-like deposits line a streambed where this oil field water is flowing. Researchers for the tribes have also found black oozes, purple growths, dead ducklings and lifeless stretches of streams.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
In most oil fields, the water that companies pump up with the oil gets reinjected deep underground. But the federal government allows a dozen oil fields on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming to pump streams of this wastewater onto the land.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
Rancher Darwin Griebel says his cows need the oil field water, and his business depends on it.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
Wes Martel, vice chairman for the Eastern Shoshone Business Council, stands near a murky gray stream full of oil field wastewater. He's concerned about the effects the wastewater has on wildlife, water quality and, since cows drink it, he wonders: "What's in your steak?"
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
Internal EPA documents released to NPR show some EPA staffers have been trying to figure out what is in the wastewater released by oil companies. There are lots of chemicals. Some leave solid residues like these white and gray mounds. Danger signs near this outflow pipe warn that poisonous gas fumes from the water can cause respiratory irritation or suffocation.
Credit Elizabeth Shogren / NPR
Dirty water from the oil wells flows through oil-caked pipes into a settling pit where trucks vacuum off the oil. A net covers the pit to keep out birds and other wildlife. Streams of this wastewater flow through the reservation and join natural creeks and rivers.
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Originally published on Fri November 16, 2012 9:55 am

The air reeks so strongly of rotten eggs that tribal leader Wes Martel hesitates to get out of the car at an oil field on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. He already has a headache from the fumes he smelled at another oil field.

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Asia
11:47 am
Thu November 15, 2012

In Rural China, New Leaders Aren't Familiar Faces

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Credit Frank Langfitt / NPR
Wang Heying, 64, supports the new Communist leaders, even if she can barely name them. She says government policies have led street lamps, bigger houses and a TV in every home.
Credit Frank Langfitt / NPR
Villagers in Dongjiangai, in eastern China's Jiangsu province, watch the presentation of the Communist Party's new leadership on national TV Thursday. They say they support the new leaders because of the improvements government policies have brought to their village.
Credit Frank Langfitt / NPR
Dongjianggai, a farming village, lies about 200 miles northwest of Shanghai.
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Originally published on Fri November 16, 2012 9:55 am

An elderly couple is winnowing rice in the front yard of their home in the tiny village of Dongjianggai, about 200 miles northwest of Shanghai. They've just watched China's incoming leaders — including Xi Jinping, the new general secretary of the Communist Party — appear for the first time on national TV.

"We don't know them," the husband, Wu Beiling, says. "Xi Jinping was just unveiled. I'm not very familiar with the rest of the members."

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The Two-Way
8:13 am
Thu November 15, 2012

What Are They Smoking In Seattle? Check Out Police Dept.'s Guide To Pot Use

Credit Cliff DesPeaux / Reuters/Landov
A young cannabis plant at grows at The Joint Cooperative in Seattle, Washington Jan. 27.
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Originally published on Fri November 16, 2012 10:11 am

We love when police departments put some personality and pizzazz into their public statements.

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Shots - Health News
3:57 pm
Wed November 14, 2012

Congressmen Clash With FDA Over Meningitis Outbreak

Credit Susan Walsh / AP
New England Compounding Center co-owner Barry Cadden went to Capitol Hill for a congressional hearing Wednesday on the fungal meningitis outbreak. Choosing to take the Fifth Amendment, Cadden did not testify.
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Originally published on Wed November 14, 2012 5:17 pm

Members of a House subcommittee clashed repeatedly Wednesday with U.S. Food and Drug Commissioner Margaret Hamburg over the outbreak of meningitis caused by contaminated steroid injections.

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Shots - Health News
3:55 pm
Wed November 14, 2012

Health Care Cuts Are Coming. Here's Where Liberals Say You Can Slice

Credit iStockphoto.com
Two new studies and a proposed class-action lawsuit settlement all have the potential to change dollar signs as lawmakers address the impending fiscal cliff.
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Originally published on Wed November 14, 2012 7:12 pm

A liberal think-tank closely allied with the Obama administration is proposing a health care spending plan it says could save hundreds of billions of dollars in entitlement spending without hurting middle- and low-income patients.

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Health Care
3:29 pm
Wed November 14, 2012

Liberal Group Proposes Reduced Medicare Spending

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Originally published on Wed November 14, 2012 4:46 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

As the White House and Congress debate taxes and entitlement reform, an influential liberal think-tank is offering what appears to be an olive branch. It comes at a time when many Democrats are trying to protect entitlements, such as Medicare. At the same time, Republicans say those entitlements are too expensive in their present form.

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Superstorm Sandy: Before, During And Beyond
3:29 pm
Wed November 14, 2012

For Some Sandy Survivors, Medicine's The Big Worry

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Credit Reema Khrais / NPR
Pharmacy and medical services stores closed in Coney Island.
Credit Reema Khrais / NPR
Michael Liburd was waiting for essential medical supplies to arrive when Hurricane Sandy hit. Now, the delivery company can't find them. He says he's afraid he'll have to go to the hospital if he doesn't get them soon.
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By editor

Originally published on Wed November 14, 2012 4:15 pm

In Coney Island, on the southern end of Brooklyn, long lines of EMS trucks and buses of National Guardsmen rolled down the roads this week — trekking from residential building to building.

Since Friday, dozens of troops and officials from the City Health Department have been dropping in at the hardest hit areas of New York, making sure all residents are equipped with the essentials: Do they have food? Water? Do they need medical attention?

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It's All Politics
3:29 pm
Wed November 14, 2012

As FEMA's Sandy Cleanup Continues, Questions Arise About Long Term Help

Credit John Minchillo / AP
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo meets Nov. 10 with residents of the Far Rockaways section of Queens, which was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. Cuomo is seeking $30 billion in federal assistance to help rebuild his state at a time when Congress is already consumed with reducing the deficit.
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Originally published on Wed November 14, 2012 4:15 pm

Political leaders from the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast have not been shy about their intent to seek as much federal funding as possible for their storm-struck states. Damages and lost economic activity as a result of Hurricane Sandy have been estimated as high as $50 billion.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., wants $30 billion in federal assistance to help rebuild his state. This request, and others, come at a time when Congress is already consumed with reducing the deficit.

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Music Interviews
3:01 pm
Wed November 14, 2012

Charlie Watts On What Makes 'Satisfaction' So Satisfying

Credit Pierre Verdy / AFP/Getty Images
Charlie Watts says "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," The Rolling Stones' 1965 hit, "sums up the whole period" in the band's development.
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By NPR Staff

Originally published on Wed November 14, 2012 4:15 pm

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World
2:57 pm
Wed November 14, 2012

Obama Defends U.N. Envoy Amid Republican Attack

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is considered a leading candidate to become the next secretary of state. Leading Senate Republicans say they would seek to block her if she's nominated.
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Originally published on Wed November 14, 2012 6:16 pm

President Obama sounds like he's in for a fight over the woman who could be the next secretary of state. Republicans have been blasting U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice for the way she characterized the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11.

But the president came to her defense in his news conference Wednesday afternoon.

"When they go after the U.N. ambassador, apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me," he told reporters.

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