Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• County may seek new site for Twins ballpark
  A stall in negotiations over the site of a proposed Twins ballpark has Hennepin County officials saying they're prepared to look elsewhere. The county and landowners can't agree on a price for the eight-acre parcel in downtown Minneapolis.5:15 p.m.
• St. Paul is where "The Grapes of Wrath" are scored
  After more than a decade of planning, capped by a month of intensive rehearsing, the creators of the new opera "The Grapes of Wrath" are optimistic. They hope they feel the same way after the Minnesota Opera's premiere on Saturday night.5:50 p.m.
• Frenzy for flu shots
  A day after the Minnesota Health Department announced the deaths of two more children from influenza, there's been a scramble to schedule flu shots. Calls from parents poured into local health departments, hospitals and clinics across the state.6:10 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Talking with Iran in the 21st Century
  Robert Siegel talks with George Perkovich, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has studied Iran for the past 15 years; this week he moderated an off-the-record discussion with Ambassador Zarif.
• Facility Allows U.S. to Detain Immigrant Families
  A change in immigration policy now allows families who are in the U.S. illegally to be detained. Last summer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement began holding entire families, including small children, at a converted prison outside of Austin, Texas.
• Senators Discuss Skewed Pre-Invasion Iraq Report
  A top-level Defense Department official skewed intelligence reports about Iraq in 2001 and 2002 in an attempting to justify an invasion, according to an inspector general's report from the Pentagon. The Senate Armed Services Committee discussed the report today.
• Iranian Ambassador Criticizes U.S. Strategy
  U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says that there is "pretty good evidence" that Iran is involved with attacks on American troops in Iraq. Robert Siegel talks with the Iranian Ambassador to the U.N., Javad Zarif. Zarif wrote an op-ed in Thursday's New York Times criticizing the American strategy toward Iran.
• Why People Probably Don't Understand Probability
  Robert Siegel talks with Columbia statistics professor Andrew Gelman. Gelman is the co-author of the book Teaching Statistics: A Bag of Tricks, which includes an age-old statistics experiment that demonstrates how people misunderstand probability when it comes to the coin toss.
• A Check-Point on the Iran-Baghdad Highway
  The Iraqi city of Al Kut sits in a bend of the Tigris River about 200 miles south of Baghdad. It's approximately 40 miles from the Iranian border, and the highway from the border to Baghdad passes through Al Kut. American forces from Camp Delta just outside Al Kut work with the Iraqi police, who man check points on this key highway.
• Filming the Effects of Art on an Inhuman Regime
  This year's European Film Award for best movie was won by an unknown Austrian, who beat out established directors like Pedro Almodovar and Ken Loach. The Lives of Others is set in the former East Germany. It's about a Stasi agent who has a change of heart about his country's repressive regime — in part because of a beautiful piece of music.
• A Post-Katrina Reunion: Finding Helen Carey
  Last September, the government center set up to reunite families separated by Hurricane Katrina closed down. Some 99 percent of the missing had been found. Now, 17 months after the storm, one elderly woman is only now being reunited with her family.
• L.A. Police Lists the City's Top Gangs
  In Los Angeles, a new strategy of listing the city's worst gangs has created a stir among some of the gang-bangers who've been identified. But it remains to be seen whether the list will make a difference as Los Angeles authorities launch a major crackdown on gang violence.
• Avoiding Pigeonholes in Matters of Race
  Commentator Mary Curtis is tired of people telling her she doesn't seem like a black person — as if there was only one way to be African-American in the United States. Recent debate over whether Sen. Barack Obama is "black enough" to garner the African-American vote made her think about the issue again.
• Your Life, Preserved in a Chip in Your Heel
  Commentator Andrei Codrescu says that today's Achilles' heel for all of us is the chip in the laptop. We store so much of ourselves there that it's terrifying. He suggests that in the future, computer chips with all our data and writing be implanted in our heels to remind us how vulnerable we are.
• The Politics of Announcing a Presidential Bid
  Sen. Barack Obama will officially launch his presidential campaign Saturday with an announcement in front of the old Statehouse in Springfield, Ill. Michele Norris talks with Jules Witcover, a long-time journalist at The Baltimore Sun, whose column is now syndicated by The Chicago Tribune. Witcover will discuss the significance and history of where presidential candidates announce their candidacies.
• The Perils, and Fears, of an Engagement Policy
  Gen. David Petraeus is taking over command of the coalition forces in Iraq this weekend. Commentator Ken Harbaugh, who is a former Navy pilot, says if he was a soldier on the ground right now with orders to "engage with the locals," he would be terrified.
• How Wikipedia Breaks News, and Adjusts to It
  Robert Siegel talks to Jimmy Wales, founder and chairman emeritus of Wikipedia. Wales will discuss the process of "breaking news" on Wikipedia.
• Seattle Coffeeshop Relies on the Honor System
  A new coffeehouse in suburban Seattle is banking on the honesty of its patrons. There are no cashiers, no set prices, not even suggested prices. You pay what you want. The money goes into a slot of a cash box; no one knows what you pay or if you pay at all. It isn't charity, the owner says, just a different way of doing business.

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