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People of Northwest Public Radio

Sueann Ramella
Sueann Ramella
Morning Edition Host & Producer
Thom Kokenge
Thom Kokenge
All Things Considered Host & Producer
Robin Rilette
Robin Rilette
Music Director & Classical Music Host
Kerry Swanson
Kerry Swanson
Station Manager
Gillian Coldsnow
Gillian Coldsnow
Assistant Manager of Programming and Operations
John Paxson
John Paxson
News Director
Steve Reeder
Steve Reeder
Classical Music Host

All Things Considered on NPR News

Weekdays from 3-6pm (with Marketplace at 3:30)
Hosted by: Melissa Block, Michele Norris, Robert Siegel &
Thom Kokenge

NPR's afternoon radio newsmagazine brings you breaking news and compelling analysis, insightful commentaries, interviews, and special - sometimes quirky - features. Thom Kokenge also updates you on regional news, and weather forecasts on your drive home.

Below, you will find articles, transcripts, and clips of many of the stories heard on All Things Considered.

Visit All Things Considered on NPR.org

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Politics
1:59 pm
Wed May 23, 2012

Remember The Debt Ceiling Debate? It's Back

Credit Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, speaks at the 2012 Fiscal Summit held by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation on May 15 in Washington, D.C.
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Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 4:22 pm

A storm is brewing in Washington that could darken political debate for months to come. It's about the debt, the deficit, taxes and spending — all hot topics lawmakers have been fighting about for years now.

This time, though, there's a deadline, and the consequences of inaction would be immediate. That has many in Washington saying: Here we go again.

In the past week, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner have begun a new round of sparring over the U.S. debt ceiling.

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Music Reviews
1:30 pm
Wed May 23, 2012

By This 'Beak And Claw,' A Trio Shall Synthesize

Credit Illustration by John Ciambriello
Left to right: Son Lux, Serengeti and Sufjan Stevens collaborate on a sometimes humorous but mostly beautiful EP.
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Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 7:55 pm

Sufjan Stevens is a classically trained singer-songwriter whose recent work has leaned symphonic. Son Lux is a classically trained beatmaker whose solo albums do indeed evoke luxury. Serengeti is a self-trained rapper who creates voices for a panoply of full-fledged characters who range from scufflers to yuppies. Billed as s / s / s, this ad hoc trio has just released an EP called Beak and Claw that somehow synthesizes their specialties.

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Planet Money
11:24 am
Wed May 23, 2012

Where Dollars Are Born

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Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
Rewinder operator John Danylieko moves a finished roll of currency paper from the paper machine. The roll will be cut into three narrower rolls before being cut into sheets.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
Crane & Co. Vice President Doug Crane stands near a spool of paper used for $20 bills, as it spins at the company's Wahconah Mill.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
A "size press" coats the currency paper so that it's compatible with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's intaglio printing process.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
The rotary digester, about 15 feet across, uses steam and chemicals to cook away the contaminants in cotton and linen fibers.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
Several tons of linen fibers drain and cool down after having been cooked in the rotary digester, a giant steel ball.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
Marites Wilbur performs a final inspection on a ream of 32-note currency paper sheets.
Credit Robert Benincasa / NPR
A currency template is used to check that security features, such as a watermark of Andrew Jackson's image, are in the right place.
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Originally published on Fri May 25, 2012 6:05 am

DALTON, Mass. – If you were driving through this small town along the Housatonic River in the Berkshires, here's something you might not think about: All the bills in your wallet are visiting their birthplace.

The paper for U.S. currency, the substrate of everyday commerce, has been made here since 1879 by the Crane family.

Crane & Co. vice president Doug Crane represents the eighth generation descended from Stephen Crane, who was making paper before the American Revolution.

He gave NPR reporters a behind-the-scenes tour and talked about his company.

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Author Interviews
2:50 pm
Tue May 22, 2012

I Vs. We: The 'Heart' Of Our Political Differences

Credit Paul Morigi / Courtesy of Bloombury USA
E.J. Dionne Jr. writes a weekly column for The Washington Post on national policy and politics. He lives in Bethesda, Md., with his wife, Mary, and their three children.
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Originally published on Tue May 22, 2012 3:45 pm

For years now, the Tea Party has held individualism up as the great American value. But Washington Post columnist and Georgetown University professor E.J. Dionne Jr. says that while Americans have always prized individualism, they've prized community just as much.

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Author Interviews
1:30 pm
Tue May 22, 2012

'It Worked For Me': Life Lessons From Colin Powell

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Credit David Ake / AFP/Getty Images
Colin Powell, then chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff under George H. W. Bush, makes a point about the entrenched Iraqi troops in Kuwait during a briefing at the Pentagon in January 1991.
Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the U.N. Security Council in New York on Feb. 5, 2003. He presented evidence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction — that turned out not to exist.
Credit Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images
Powell endorsed Barack Obama for president in 2008. "I'm proud of the vote I cast for him in 2008, I think he was absolutely the right choice," Powell says. When it comes to the 2012 election, Powell says he's "not prepared" to say who he'll be voting for.
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Originally published on Tue May 22, 2012 2:50 pm

If you're looking for advice on leadership, it's good to start with a four-star general. Colin Powell's new memoir, It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership, is a collection of lessons learned and anecdotes drawn from his childhood in the Bronx, his military training and career, and his work under four presidential administrations. The memoir also includes Powell's candid reflections on the most controversial time in his career: the lead-up to the war in Iraq in 2003.

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Shots - Health Blog
5:31 pm
Mon May 21, 2012

All Routine PSA Tests For Prostate Cancer Should End, Task Force Says

Credit Jose Luis Magana / AP
Terry Dyroff, at home in Silver Spring, Md., got a PSA blood test that led to a prostate biopsy. The biopsy found no cancer, but it gave him a life-threatening infection.
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Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 11:33 am

There they go again — those 17 federally appointed experts at the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are telling American doctors and patients to stop routinely doing lifesaving tests.

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Medical Treatments
3:46 pm
Mon May 21, 2012

Task Force: Men Don't Need Regular Prostate Tests

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Originally published on Mon May 21, 2012 4:00 pm

A federal task force has concluded that men over 50 don't need a regular blood test for prostate cancer. Millions of men get the test every year. The task force says too many unnecessary treatments are being performed because of the test.

Poetry
1:18 pm
Mon May 21, 2012

NewsPoet: Carmen G. Smith Writes The Day In Verse

Credit Claire O'Neill / NPR
Carmen Gimenez Smith visits NPR headquarters in Washington on Monday.
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Originally published on Wed July 25, 2012 8:30 am

Today at All Things Considered, we continue a project we're calling NewsPoet. Each month, we bring in a poet to spend time in the newsroom — and at the end of the day, to compose a poem reflecting on the day's stories.

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Three-Minute Fiction
2:57 pm
Sun May 20, 2012

Three-Minute Fiction: The Round 8 Winner Is...

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Credit King Milne
Carrie MacKillop of Charlotte, Vt., wrote our Round 8 winning story, Rainy Wedding.
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Originally published on Thu February 7, 2013 9:51 am

The end of Round 8 of our Three-Minute Fiction contest has finally arrived. With help from our readers at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, New York University, the University of Oregon and the University of Texas, at Austin, we've read through more than 6,000 stories.

Submissions had to be original works of short fiction — no more than 600 words. They also had to begin with this sentence: "She closed the book, placed it on the table, and finally, decided to walk through the door."

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NPR Story
2:14 pm
Sun May 20, 2012

Examining NATO's Past, Present And Future

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Originally published on Sun May 20, 2012 2:17 pm

Transcript

GUY RAZ, HOST:

It's WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Guy Raz.

Twelve countries joined to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, 63 years ago. The purpose: to keep Soviet expansion in check. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first supreme commander.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVAL BROADCAST)

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