Search results for

As the Clinton Administration prepares to leave Washington, NPR's Nina Totenberg examines the career of the nation's first female Attorney General, Janet Reno, and how she's survived eight turbulent years. Reno has held the post longer than anyone in the last 150 years. (12:30)Check out Nina's entire interview with Janet Reno.

In April of 1970, blues pianist Otis Spann flew to Boston to play a gig. With him were his wife, Lucille, and his band. The concert would be Otis' last. Before he flew to Boston, doctors had diagnosed Spann with terminal liver cancer -- he died three weeks after the concert. Peter Malick was one of Spann's guitarists. He recently found the recordings of the concert. Noah talks with him about the last days of the blues guitarist, and the meaning of that last gig. (6:15)Find out more at: http://www.otisspann.com.

NPR's Guy Raz reports from the village of Konculj that the three-mile wide buffer zone along the border between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia is far from secure. Under the agreement that ended the Kosovo war, the border strip is off limits to both the Yugoslav Army and the NATO-led peacekeeping force. But ethnic Albanian guerrillas are taking advantage of that void. The rebels are stockpiling weapons in the buffer zone, using it as a staging ground for attacks on Serbian targets within the Presevo Valley Valley of Serbia proper. The militants are fighting to end Serbian rule in majority ethnic Albanian towns in the valley, and to annex the territory to Kosovo. Some residents of villages in the border zone say rebel patrols make them feel more secure from attacks by Serbian forces.

New FM radio stations are getting started all over the country. The Federal Communications Commission recently decided to grant licenses for low power stations -- perhaps as many as a thousand of them around the United States. All Things Considered Host Noah Adams talks to people in five communities where new stations have received or are in the process of applying for the licenses. These stations can only broadcast within a range of five to ten miles, depending on the surrounding geography. But for these people, that's enough. Noah speaks to Joe Steinberger in Rockland, Maine; Danny Wilson of the Fellowship of Holy Hip Hop in Atlanta, Georgia; Chukou Thao who's starting a Hmong station in Fresno, California; Andrew Tooyak, an Inupiaq Eskimo in Point Hope, Alaska; and Rich Osborn on San Juan Island in the state of Washington.

Sometimes referred to as the "Pulitzer Prizes of children's books," the Newbery and Caldecott medals are the oldest, most prestigious awards in children's literature. Today, the medals were presented by the American Library Association to the best author and illustrator of children's books. NPR's Shirley Jahad reports.

Commentator Elissa Ely recalls embellishing facts as a child to create stories about her family and life.

Scott Jagow of member station WFAE reports on the murder trial of former NFL player Rae Carruth. Carruth is accused of hiring someone to kill his pregnant girlfriend and faces the death penalty if found guilty.

Alan Furst specializes in atmospheric spy thrillers set during the Nazi occupation of Europe. Paris in the spring of 1938 is the dateline of his latest book. Alan Cheuse has a review of Kingdom of Shadows. (2:00) Kingdom of Shadows, by Alan Furst is published by Random House.

Harsh winter weather this year means ski resorts have been busier than usual...even in the South. Melanie Peeples reports on skiing as far South as Georgia and Alabama.

NPR's Peter Overby reports Congress will have a busy week of confirmation hearings for President-elect Bush's cabinet nominees. Hearings for Mr. Bush's choices of John Ashcroft for Attorney General and Gale Norton for Interior Secretary are expected to be contentious. But other nominees, such as Tommy Thompson as Health and Human Services Secretary and Christie Whitman as EPA Administrator are likely to sail through with few snags.