Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Art Hounds
  Each week Minnesota Public Radio News asks three people from the Minnesota arts scene to be "Art Hounds." Their job is to step outside their own work and hunt down something exciting that's going on in local arts.4:45 p.m.
• Minn. AG sues 6 debt settlement companies
  The office alleges the companies signed up Minnesota consumers who were having trouble managing their debt, then charged exorbitant fees that often left them in worse financial shape than when they started.4:50 p.m.
• Spokesman: Pawlenty to veto GAMC extension
  Legislation that extends health care coverage for thousands of the state's poorest residents is on its way to Gov. Tim Pawlenty's desk, but a spokesman says the governor will veto the bill.5:20 p.m.
• GOP's Seifert chooses running mate
  Republican Marty Seifert has chosen Anoka County Commissioner Rhonda Sivarajah as his running mate in his campaign for Minnesota governor.5:25 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Republicans Under Fire At Conservative Conference
  Dozens of conservative luminaries are rallying their troops at the Conservative Political Action Conference, setting their agenda and dishing out criticism of the GOP. It's not that the two sides are splitting up. It's more like they're having an ugly spat.
• Wooing Recruits To Radical Islam Like 'Dating'
  NPR News Investigation: A former member of the radical Islamist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir explains the psychology and tactics of enticing new recruits. Although he never met Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas Day bombing suspect, Shiraz Maher recruited people like him.
• Cambodia's Fortunes Ebb And Flow Along The Mekong
  Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in Asia. But it hasn't always been that way, and the Mekong River has been key to its periods of prosperity. Recovering from 20th century atrocities, the country now faces a new danger: Development is putting the river and its fish at risk.
• Identical Twins Are Not Truly Identical
  Identical twins look alike and share the same DNA, but they aren't completely identical. Some of the differences can be caused by the environment. But a new study says the differences can also depend on which genes are switched on, and which aren't.
• Do You Waste Time Walking To The Printer?
  Are you one of those people who pour the cream into the mug before the coffee, so you won't have to stir it? Or maybe you alphabetize your spice rack so you can find the nutmeg easily. If so, there's a job you might be good at: efficiency expert.
• Vancouver Olympic Logo: A Smiling Marker Of Death?
  So, what's the deal with that smiling pile of rocks used as the logo for the Vancouver Games? It's a stylized version of an inukshuk, the stone cairns built by the Inuit people of the Canadian Arctic. But an expert says traditional inukshuks don't use the human form — unless you want to mark the spot where someone has been killed.
• For Love Of Do-Good Vampires: A Bloody Book List
  NPR correspondent Margot Adler has read 75 vampire books in the past nine months. It was a fascination with the classic vampire's immortality that got her started — but it was her discovery of the modern vampire's sense of morality that kept her going.
• Panel Co-Chair: All Options On Table To Cut Deficit
  Erskine Bowles, a co-chair of the White House's new National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, says President Obama has said everything is on the table to cut the federal deficit. His partner, former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), is urging the GOP to appoint people to the panel. Obama named the two men to to head the panel on Thursday.
• Letters: Heart, AC/DC
  Robert Siegel and Melissa Block read letters from our inbox. We hear listeners' reactions to Wednesday's heart transplant story and to the show's Olympic coverage.
• Diplomatic Row Deepens Over Hamas Leader's Killing
  The Irish and British governments summoned the Israeli ambassadors in Dublin and London to question them about the alleged use of fake British and Irish passports by the killers of a Hamas leader in Dubai last month. Israel says there is no proof its agents were involved in the killing.

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