An incredible 40 percent of American adults today are single. Many of them don’t want to be. Americans have always hoped for love’s lightening to strike. Now, many are not leaving that lightening strike to chance. They’re looking for love — for partnership, for a spouse — online, and in record [...]

About 5,000 Americans have been holding an election, but for a state, not a candidate. And the state they choose will be a laboratory for what they call the biggest experiment in democracy since the Revolutionary War. The libertarian members of the Free State Project have agreed to move to the state that [...]

News of more White House-linked Washington insiders leaked today. New Bridge Strategies is vying to cash in on the 20-billion dollars the Bush administration is requesting from Congress to rebuild Iraq.
Douglas Jehl, national security correspondent for the New York Times, describes the founding purpose of New Bridge Strategies.
Guests:

Staying on top of the news from Iraq has been no easy battle from the beginning. NPR correspondent Anne Garrels knows. Despite the danger and the exodus of many fellow journalists, she stayed behind in Baghdad when the first bombs fell last March.
On the eve of war and through what we now see as its [...]

British Prime Minister Tony Blair defended his decision to go to war with Iraq today, while offering an olive branch to his critics. Blair’s address to the annual conference of the Labor Party came in the wake of a new poll that finds 60 percent of Britons feel they were misled on the threat [...]

Saira Shah grew up in Britain with a romantic picture of her Afghan ancestral homeland created through her father’s stories. Years later as a journalist and documentary producer, she would bear witness to the country’s war-torn reality and its years of warlordism, civil war, and finally oppression under the Taliban.
In her new memoir, “The Storyteller’s [...]

The U.S.-led campaign to cut the financial umbilical cord of terrorism is being frustrated. Publicly, the U.S. Treasury Department says it has made great strides in freezing assets of suspected terrorist funds. Privately, treasury officials tell a story less encouraging. Josh Meyer, who covers terrorism for The Los Angeles Times, explains the discrepancy between [...]

After two days of talks with President Bush late last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to commit troops or money to the reconstruction effort in Iraq. Putin also did not agree to offer support to a new United Nations resolution that the U.S. hopes will encourage other nations to aid the effort there.
Today, [...]

Elia Kazan, one of the most influential and controversial directors of American stage and screen died yesterday at his home in New York City. He was 94.
Kazan’s ability to extract and capture emotional range from actors changed the course of 20th century film and theater. With critical successes like “On The Waterfront” and “East of [...]

You may not have noticed, but Congress has declared 2003 “The Year of the Blues.” As if the Blues need a boost. And maybe they do. It’s been a long time since Blues recordings were hot sellers.
But the power and influence of the Blues runs through American music, culture, and the national psyche in [...]

On Point news analyst Jack Beatty reviews the key news developments of this past week, which included the speeches by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. President Bush to the U.N. General Assembly and the announcement by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that Iraq is being given a 6 month deadline to write a [...]

50 million Americans were looking forward to peaceful family dinners starting next week. But with just days to go before its October 1st implementation, the federal government’s Do-Not-Call program, allowing citizens to shut out telemarketers, has been thrown for a loop.
There’s a telemarketing tug-of-war going on between the U.S. courts and Congress: a battle [...]

The man who led Poland’s struggle against Communism is joining the growing chorus of international leaders calling for a revamping and strengthening of the United Nations. This week, Lech Walesa said he would like to see the U.N. serve as a “global parliament.”
Walesa’s remarks came in the United States after Tuesday’s impassioned plea for [...]

If you’re the parent of a child between the ages of 12 and 15, decoding what makes your “tween” tick could be your biggest challenge and, at times, worst nightmare. That baby bundle of joy is now swathed in raging hormones, angst and palpitating fear that you will embarrass him in front of friends.
So, what’s [...]

Edward Said, America’s most prominent advocate for the Palestinian cause, died today in New York City. He was 67. A scholar and literary critic, he is best known for the 1978 book, “Orientalism,” a searing criticism of the West and its understanding of Arab culture. He also wrote passionately about the Palestinians, and [...]

When you look at the ballooning federal deficit, says President Bush’s chief economic advisor Gregory Mankiw, you’ve got to keep it “in proper perspective.” Economic growth will accelerate, he says. Fiscal discipline can staunch the red ink. And the Bush Administration is taking all the right steps to counter the repercussions of the [...]

Aquila Al-Hashimi, a member of Iraq’s U.S.-appointed governing council, died today from gunshot wounds. Her death comes at a moment of renewed guerilla violence in Iraq. Colin Soloway, Newsweek’s correspondent in Baghdad, describes the circumstances surrounding Al-Hashimi’s death.
Guests:

News of New York Stock Exchange chief executive Dick Grasso’s $140 million pay package led to his resignation last week. Many hoped his downfall would convince other boards to pare their CEO’s super-sized salaries and bonuses. But one Fortune 500 executive, who goes by the pen name Stanley Bing, says he is more jealous [...]

Speaking to the U.N. on Tuesday, U.S. President surprised many when he turned from Iraq and terrorism to the trafficking in humans. He called it a “humanitarian crisis.”
Modern day slavery is a dark and booming business. Over the past decade, trafficking in human beings has reached epidemic proportions. It is estimated that 27 million [...]

U.S. President Bush’s plea for international support for the policing and reconstruction of Iraq has largely fallen on deaf ears at the United Nations. Even one of his key allies in the War on Terror today gave the idea of sending troops only lukewarm support.
Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf took his turn addressing the [...]