Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Ethanol spill update
  Officials from The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad met earlier today to decide the best way to handle a 30,000 ethanol spill near New Ulm. Clean up workers have been working since Wednesday night, when eight D,M&E tanker cars were involved in a train derailment. Much of the spill has soaked into a dry creek bed about a quarter of a mile away from the Minnesota River. Sam Brungardt, an information officer with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, updated us on the spill.5:19 p.m.
• Karl Unnasch's strange animals
  Dead snakes, desiccated cats and goats are just a few of the creatures southeastern Minnesota artist Karl Unnasch uses to think about life.5:23 p.m.
• Metro churches link up to lift families out of poverty
  Families Moving Forward helps families find jobs, housing and education.5:49 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• A Very Early Start to 'Black Friday' Shopping
  It's "Black Friday," when retail stores are said to move into profit for the year. This year, retailers are trying new gimmicks like opening even earlier to try to get consumers to part with their money.
• 'Singin' in the Rain' Co-Writer Betty Comden Dies
  One of musical theater's most famous lyricists and writers has died. Betty Comden, with her writing partner Adolph Green, wrote "Singin' in the Rain," "On the Town," "Peter Pan" and "Will Roger's Follies," to name just a few. Her career spanned six decades. Michele Norris has a remembrance.
• New U.S. Passport Rules Loom
  Americans are about to face tougher requirements for reentering the United States from some Western Hemisphere countries, and those rules may get even more strict.
• Russian Public Hears Little of Ex-Spy's Poisoning
  Michele Norris talks with Fred Weir, a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, who is based in Moscow, about the Russian public's reaction to news of Alexander Litvinenko's death. Weir says most of the Russian public actually doesn't even know about the case, because the big Russian media outlets are not carrying the story. Weir also points out that although Litvinenko publicly blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning, Litvinenko lived in a shady world, and there were plenty of others who might have wanted him dead.
• Extended Warranties Boost Retail Profits
  Michele Norris talks with Kim Klemen, deputy editorial director at Consumer Reports, about a study that found that extended warranties rarely benefit the consumer -- and are a major cash cow for retailers.
• Conservationists Split on How to Curb Poaching
  Elephants and other exotic animals are often targeted by poachers. But conservationists do not agree on how to keep the animals alive. Some say big well-funded anti-poaching teams are the only answer. Others say those patrols are waste of time and money. A study in Science magazine may help settle that argument.
• Baghdad Curfew Extended Amid Heavy Violence
  The Iraqi capital remains under a complete curfew into this weekend after sectarian violence left more than 200 people -- mostly Iraqi Shiites -- dead on Thursday. Shiite gunman took revenge on Sunni mosques Friday, killing at dozens.
• Ex-Russian Spy Blamed Putin for his Death
  In a statement dictated from his deathbed, a former Russian spy, who became a fierce Kremlin critic, blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death. Alexander Litvinenko died Thursday after falling ill earlier this month in London. He says he was poisoned, and officials say traces of a radioactive element had been found in Litvinenko's urine. While deploring Litvinenko's death, Putin called the statement "political provocation." Rob Gifford reports.
• Cell Phone Towers Escape Afghan Violence
  This is the bloodiest year yet for the Taliban insurgency, with militants torching hundreds of schools, assassinating government officials and launching more then 600 attacks a month. But one target is off-limits to the Taliban's campaign of violence -- the hundreds of cell phone towers that have sprung up throughout the conflict zone. Representatives of Afghanistan's four thriving cellular phone companies say telecommunications are the one thing that everyone in this war torn country can agree on.
• A Ping-Pong Comeback
  The North American Table Tennis Championships are this weekend in Baltimore. More than 200 teams competing, including nine from China. Andrea Hsu caught up with one of the Chinese teams, and a star player from the 1970s, who's come back to compete.
• StoryCorps Holocaust Story Prompts Family Reunion
  Michele Norris talks with Debbie Fisher and Maya Lee. In January 2005, Fisher participated in the StoryCorps oral-history project. She remembered her late father, a Holocaust survivor, and described the tattoo on her arm: a remembrance of another survivor of Auschwitz whose story moved her when she visited the Holocaust museum in Washington. That woman's daughter, Maya Lee, saw the story on the NPR Web site, and contacted her: they've been in close touch since June and Lee will be in New York to meet Fisher for the first time.
• Retreating Youth Become Japan's 'Lost Generation'
  Many young people in Japan have become hermits -- retreating into worlds that consist of little more than their rooms. And that's difficult for families. Michele Norris talks with Michael Zielenziger, author of Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation.
• Elizabeth Edwards: 'Saving Graces'
  When political analysts talk about one potential presidential candidate for 2008, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, they often mention his wife — and her down-to-earth appeal. Elizabeth Edwards talks about the death of her teenage son, living a life of politics, and surviving cancer.
• Taylor Fights, Then Follows, Parents' Musical Path
  Musician Ben Taylor's voice and name are probably quite familiar to many music lovers: He is the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon. Taylor talks about the fears he had about following in his parents' musical footsteps — and how he found his own way.
• Revenge of Japan's Nerds
  Once the targets of playground insults, obsessive fans of comic books, costume play and video games have become a powerful economic force in Japan. But the geek-chic wave has troubling social implications.

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