Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Circus of the young
  This summer, St. Paul will have its own Cirque du Soleil-style production. For more than a decade, Circus Juventas has trained hundreds of young people of all ages each year to do sophisticated acrobatics and choreography.5:24 p.m.
• 'Hamlet' with a northwoods twist
  Lin Enger's new novel, "Undiscovered Country," explores the effect of a northern Minnesota man's apparent suicide on his family. The story is a reworking of the themes in "Hamlet."5:50 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Cost Of Popcorn Spikes
  The cost of popcorn is up. A movie theater owner in Ohio says he pays 50 percent more for a bag of popcorn than he did in early 2008. Farmers say fertilizer costs are up. And a popcorn maker in Indiana is looking to cut costs.
• The Roots: 'Rising Down' May Be Their Best Yet
  The new album from the Philadelphia hip-hop band The Roots contains verses from the perspective of a child soldier in Sierra Leone, a campus shooter in America, and those in the grip of addictions. Rising Down may be the group's best album.
• Wall Street Responds To Government Housing Fix
  Shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac closed down more than 5 percent on Monday in response to the government's proposals to help rescue the companies. The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve offered lifelines to the two quasi-governmental companies.
• Fannie, Freddie Critics Say Warnings Were Ignored
  Critics of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac say the mortgage giants are too big and far too willing to take risks. They also say the companies have too close a relationship with Washington lawmakers, and that the entities shielded themselves from tighter regulation.
• China To Shut Factories To Curb Pollution
  Concerned that Beijing's often polluted air will adversely affect the Olympics, Chinese officials are shutting down factories in the region. The closures will peak between July 20 and Sept. 20 to accommodate athletes in both the Olympics and Paralympics.
• 'New Yorker' Editor Defends Obama Cover
  This week's New Yorker magazine shows a cartoon of Sen. Barack Obama dressed like Osama bin Laden, and his wife, Michelle, donning military gear. They are sharing a fist-bump in the Oval Office. Editor David Remnick says the illustration was meant to poke fun at the "politics of fear."
• Administration Has Unlikely Record On Intervention
  In the past six months, the federal government made moves to rescue and support several financial institutions. Washington Post financial reporter Jeffrey Birnbaum says that since the spring, every major reversal has been met with a government answer.
• Nervous IndyMac Customers Seek To Pull Funds
  Customers are lining up to withdraw their money from IndyMac, the failed bank taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation late Friday. It reopened Monday as IndyMac Federal Bank. The FDIC says depositors have nothing to worry about.
• Sudan's President Charged With Genocide In Darfur
  The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor has filed charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. The prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for Bashir.
• Italy Plans To Fingerprint Roma
  Italy is moving ahead with plans to fingerprint the country's Roma, or gypsy, people. The government says the fingerprinting is necessary to fight crime, identify illegal immigrants and protect Roma children from exploitation. The plan has critics.
• Turkish Cleric Tops List Of Intellectuals
  When the votes came in for Prospect magazine's list of the top 100 public intellectuals, at No. 1 was Turkish Sufi cleric Fethullah Gulen. Prospect Magazine editor Tom Nuttall says Gulen's global network of supporters propelled him to the top spot.
• Some Spend Thousands To Save Pets
  In her recent Boston Globe article, "How Far Should We Go to Save Our Pets?" Vicki Constantine Croke has explored what goes into the decisions people make when their pets are sick or injured in an age of cutting-edge, but expensive animal medical care.
• Budweiser Sale Leaves A Thirst For Bygone Days
  Budweiser is perhaps the best-known American beer. Now that Belgian brewer InBev has snatched up the iconic brand's St. Louis-based maker, Anheuser-Busch, some people in the company's hometown are wondering what's next.
• Isolated N.C. County Gets Wired
  Living in a rural community is a larger impediment to Internet use than either race or class. The isolated rural community of Greene County, N.C., turned itself upside down to get its citizens online in five short years.
• The Case Of The Missing Chimp
  A 42-year-old pet chimpanzee named Moe has been missing from an exotic pet sanctuary in San Bernadino County, east of Los Angeles. The chimp lived for 30 years with a couple in suburban Los Angeles but was removed after he attacked two people.

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