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The Two-Way
4:07 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

On Two First-Class Seats, Olympic Torch Arrives In England

Flanked — literally and figuratively — by British royalty, the Olympic torch was flown from Greece to England, where it will begin a final 70-day journey before the 2012 London Olympics.

The Telegraph reports that after a rainy ceremony in Greece, the torch was taken aboard British Airways Flight 2012. The paper adds:

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Around the Nation
3:36 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

Will Population Shifts Alter Immigration Debate?

Credit Spencer Platt / Getty Images
Hispanic residents walk by a law office in Union City, N.J., specializing in immigration in March. Union City is one of the state's largest cities, and has a Hispanic population of more than 80 percent.

The U.S. Supreme Court's expected ruling in June on Arizona's immigration law will set the blueprint for states where many officials say they face a crisis in trying to crack down on rising numbers of illegal residents.

Yet population changes and various research indicate that the great flow primarily of Latino illegal immigrants, which lasted at least two decades, ended several years ago.

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Energy
3:35 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

Pipeline Flip Turns U.S. Oil World 'Upside Down'

Originally published on Fri May 18, 2012 6:34 pm

For years, Cushing, Okla., has been on the receiving end of a 500-mile pipeline funneling oil from the Gulf of Mexico to the American heartland.

Starting this weekend, that pipeline will start moving crude in the other direction. That flow reversal could soon have implications at gas pumps around the country.

"For 40 years, crude oil flowed north," says Philip Verleger, a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. "Today, oil flows south. It's as if we turned the world upside down."

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Movie Reviews
3:23 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

Coming Soon — To A Theater Nowhere Near You

Originally published on Fri May 18, 2012 6:34 pm

The movie Battleship, based on the popular board game, opens today in the U.S. In most respects, it's a typical popcorn picture — the kind of effects-laden action movie that audiences often turn into a summer blockbuster.

And while it may not be any good, it is undeniably ours — American from the water up: a Universal Studios picture about an alien invasion, crammed with special effects from Industrial Light and Magic and set largely on American warships.

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The Two-Way
3:08 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

What Facebook May Mean For Your Portfolio, Even If You Didn't Buy It

Credit Richard Drew / AP
Facebook shares began trading on Nasdaq shortly after 11:30 a.m. on Friday.

Originally published on Fri May 18, 2012 6:25 pm

Don't worry if you missed out on Facebook's initial public offering. Chances are, if you own shares in a broad-based index fund, you'll be holding onto some Facebook soon enough.

Facebook is such a huge offering -– with an initial market capitalization of more than $100 billion, it instantly becomes one of the 25 largest "cap" stocks — that it could have a distorting effect on some funds, at least in the short term.

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Middle East
2:52 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

Egypt's New President Could Come From Old Guard

Originally published on Fri May 18, 2012 6:34 pm

In Egypt's historic presidential race, opinion polls place the oldest candidate with the most political experience far ahead of his 11 rivals.

Many opponents try to portray Amr Moussa as a holdover from the hated regime of Hosni Mubarak. Moussa was Egypt's foreign minister under Mubarak and later the secretary-general of the Arab League.

Yet many voters believe he is the only candidate who can end the country's growing insecurity and economic problems.

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Shots - Health Blog
2:41 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

CDC Tells Baby Boomers To Get Tested For Hepatitis C

When it comes to hepatitis C, things that happened to baby boomers back in the day can make all the difference.

One in 30 baby boomers is infected with virus, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And most of them don't know it. So, the CDC is moving ahead with a proposal that all baby boomers (born between 1945 and 1965) get a blood test to check for the virus.

The current guidelines call for testing when someone has known risk factors.

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The Two-Way
2:31 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

Insurers Paid $479 Million In Claims For Dog Bites Last Year

Credit Damian Dovarganes / AP
Matthew Weins of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Los Angeles, works with Daisy on a demonstration aimed at showing that even small dogs can jump high to bite.

With National Dog Bite Prevention Week set to start Saturday, the Insurance Information Institute wants Americans to know that:

-- Insurers paid $479 million in home owner insurance claims involving dog bites last year, up 16.1 percent from the year before.

-- The number of such claims rose 3.3 percent, to 16,292.

-- The average cost per claim grew by 12.3 percent from the year before, to $29,296.

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The Two-Way
2:26 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

President Of Malawi Vows To Overturn Gay Ban

Credit Thoko Chikondi / AP
President of Malawi Joyce Banda attends a protest against abuse of women in January 2012.

The president of Malawi vowed to overturn her country's ban on homosexual acts.

The BBC reports that President Joyce Banda made the vow in her first address to Parliament.

"Some laws which were duly passed by the August house... will be repealed as a matter of urgency... these include the provisions regarding indecent practices and unnatural acts," Banda said according to the BBC.

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The Two-Way
2:13 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer Again A Crime Victim

Credit Steve Helber / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Breyer in 2011

Originally published on Fri May 18, 2012 3:08 pm

It was just this February when Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's West Indies vacation home was broken into by a machete-wielding robber who stole $1,000. No one was hurt.

Now, the Washington Post reports that his D.C home was robbed of housewares:

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It's All Politics
1:56 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

Romney Phones His Campaign Message Into Swing States

Following the release of what his campaign called his first ad of the general election, Romney participated in a "tele-town hall" with supporters in the swing states where the ad is running: Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, and Iowa.

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Planet Money
1:25 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

California's Facebook Windfall

Originally published on Sun May 20, 2012 11:21 am

Mark Zuckerberg is, among many other things, the highest-profile taxpayer on the planet today.

After today's Facebook IPO, Zuckerberg will owe nearly $200 million in California state taxes alone. That's "among the largest tax liabilities that a single individual has ever paid at a given point in time," says Jason Sisney of the California State Budget Legislative Analyst's Office.

Zuckerberg's profits will be taxed at a 10% rate in California. That's a much higher rate than in many other states.

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It's All Politics
12:57 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

Negative Coattails: Could Obama Cost Arkansas Democrats The Legislature?

Credit Danny Johnston / AP
Arkansas Senate President Paul Bookout, a Democrat, speaks in the Senate chamber at the Capitol in Little Rock on April 5. In November, Arkansans will vote for every seat in the state Legislature.

Originally published on Tue May 22, 2012 3:53 pm

President Obama's performance in Tuesday's Arkansas primary won't be as embarrassing as what happened in West Virginia two weeks ago, when he gave up 41 percent of the vote to someone who happened to be sitting in a federal prison in Texas for embezzlement.

But it may well do more lasting damage to his party.

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It's All Politics
12:49 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

'President Romney's' First Day In Office: All About Reversing Obama

Credit Romney "Day One" ad

Originally published on Fri May 18, 2012 1:23 pm

The Two-Way
12:36 pm
Fri May 18, 2012

House Approves Continuation Of Indefinite Detention For Terror Suspects

A unlikely coalition failed to derail the government's practice of holding terror suspects for indefinite periods of time.

Some Democrats and Tea Party Republicans put the issue to a vote through an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have ended the practice but it ultimately failed, today, in the GOP-controlled house by a vote of 238 to 182.

The AP reports:

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Law
11:57 am
Fri May 18, 2012

Trayvon Martin Case Evidence Raises More Questions

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Coming up, leaders of the G8 - that's the group of eight highly industrialized nations - are meeting at Camp David this weekend, but they're also joined by the leaders of some emerging African countries who will discuss the issue of food security on the continent. We'll talk more about that in a few minutes.

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World
11:57 am
Fri May 18, 2012

Why Does Hunger Still Exist In Africa?

Some of the world's fastest growing economies are in Africa. But hunger is still a widespread reality there, and will be a major topic at this weekend's G8 summit. Host Michel Martin discusses efforts to fight hunger on the continent with USAIDs Tjada McKenna and Mwiza Munthali of the advocacy group TransAfrica.

Politics
11:57 am
Fri May 18, 2012

Romney Says No To Super PAC Smear Campaign

Mitt Romney releases his first general election campaign ad. Plus wealthy GOP investors say their super PAC won't run a smear campaign connecting controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright with President Obama. Host Michel Martin discusses the latest political developments with Lenny McAllister of Politic365.com and author Michael Fauntroy.

Business
10:50 am
Fri May 18, 2012

JPMorgan's Troubles And The Price Of Eggs

Credit Joern Pollex / Getty Images
Do complex Wall Street transactions ever do anything to help average people? To answer that question, we consider the case of an imaginary company, Chickens LLC, that's looking to grow.

Originally published on Fri May 18, 2012 4:20 pm

Journalists have spent many days and millions of words hashing over the news that banking giant JPMorgan Chase lost billions of dollars trading "synthetic" derivatives.

I am one of those journalists who, more or less, can understand what the bank says it was trying to do, i.e., hedge against loan losses. But here's what I have a hard time explaining:

What does this kind of complex trading have to do with the price of eggs?

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The Two-Way
10:35 am
Fri May 18, 2012

Is It Fair That A Quarterback Set The Record For Paper Airplane Tossing?

Credit ThePaperAirplaneGuy
Joe Ayoob (in red shirt) winding up for the record-breaking throw. Plane designer John Collins is behind him.

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