Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Roger's Christmas story
  This is a Christmas story about a boy named Roger. Roger was put into foster care when he was 11 years old, and spent several years bouncing around various homes. He wanted to be adopted, and never gave up hope that he would find a family.4:50 p.m.
• Pawnshops doing a brisk business
  Thanks to the subprime mortgage market blow up and a slumping economy, consumers are looking for bargains this holiday shopping season. They are scouring the Internet and rummaging through the discount retail chains. But a growing number of bargain hunters are turning to an industry with a tough reputation: Pawn shops.5:19 p.m.
• Consumers' holiday spending no gift to retailers
  Most U.S. retailers were not expecting a joyous holiday shopping season. For example, Minneapolis-based Target announced Monday its sales for the month of December will fall short of the company's goals. It appears that nothing will change the tide at the last-minute, like a flood of high-spending shoppers.5:24 p.m.
• Making happy holidays for seniors
  "Shut ins" is the old expression for people who do not have a lot of contact with the outside world. There are thousands of people in Minnesota -- no one knows for sure how many -- who are older and who have no one looking after them. A Twin Cities area Gifts for Seniors program reaches nearly 3,000 isolated older people. For some, it is the only human contact they have during the Holidays.5:49 p.m.
• Remembering writer Carol Bly
  Carol Bly was a fiction writer, essayist and creative writing teacher. She died Friday of ovarian cancer at the age of 77. Bly is remembered as an exemplary writer and an excellent mother. In a converstion with MPR's Dan Olson in 1999, Bly talked about her childhood and writing in Minnesota.5:54 p.m.
• A family tradition of carol writing
  Nat King Cole was just one of many artists to record "Caroling, Caroling," one of the carols by Alfred Burt.6:21 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Iraqi Family Settles Into New Life in Atlanta
  Bothinaa Mohammed is one of 4 million Iraqis who have fled their homes since 2003. She and her children arrived in the U.S. in August from Jordan, and she recently found work as a hotel housekeeper. What did she buy with her first paycheck? A Christmas tree.
• The Ones That Got Away: Books Not to Miss
  NPR's Lynn Neary talks with book writers — Laura Miller of Salon.com, and blogger Mark Sarvas of The Elegant Variation — about worthy books that got overlooked by the mainstream book-review sections in 2007. Here's a rundown of their recommendations.
• Debating the Merits of the Underdog Movie Formula
  Denzel Washington's Great Debaters offers a lot of history and a good dose of fiction, shaping events so that they fit in the Hollywood mold ... not that that's entirely a bad thing.
• More Visitors, Fewer Christians in Bethlehem
  With the revival, albeit tentative, of the Mideast peace process, Christmas in Bethlehem this year is more festive. Tourism is expected to double. At the same time, Christians continue to emigrate from the West Bank. The owner of a Christian radio station predicts that in 15 years, there won't be one Christian left in Bethlehem.
• Cities Eye Model that Cut Homicides in L.A., N.Y.
  Homicide rates in New York City and Los Angeles have gone down during the past year, while they have gone up in other cities. Historian Fred Siegel says Police Chief William Bratton is the common denominator in New York and Los Angeles, and that other cities that have tried to emulate his success have failed.
• Greenland Glacier Studied for Insight into Warming
  Scientists are studying the Greenland glacier to see how quickly it might melt in a warming world. A team camping near a lake on the surface of the glacier cobbled together an impromptu instrument to try to measure how quickly water was rushing out of the lake to the ocean.
• Bus Travel Makes a Comeback in the U.S.
  Buses are back. A new study shows a significant increase in intercity and interstate bus travel for the first time in nearly 50 years. Nicer coaches, on-board movies and internet service are helping reshape the nasty image many travelers had of Greyhound and its competitors.
• Toys that Withstand the Test of Time
  Every year, we hear all about the hot toy to give — but how many of those hot items actually become a child's favorite toy? To find out, we asked a number of our NPR colleagues to tell us about their favorite childhood plaything. No Cabbage Patch Kids, no Tickle Me Elmos, and no Xboxes are mentioned.
• Candidates Clear Out of Iowa
  With one day to go before Christmas, the population of Iowa has shrunk. The presidential candidates have left the state — all except for Democrat Chris Dodd, the senator from Connecticut who moved his family into Iowa for the caucuses. NPR's Ina Jaffe reports on Dodd's efforts, as well as those of fellow Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who campaigned in the Hawkeye State on Sunday.
• Health Scare Comes at Bad Time for Giuliani
  Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has been fielding questions about his health after a headache landed him in a Missouri hospital last week. The incident comes at a bad time for Giuliani, who has begun to slip from national front-runner status into the middle of the pack in many early voting states.

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