Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Novelist illuminates a special time in Rome
  David Bezmozgis sets his new novel "The Free World" in the late 1970s, when many Soviet Jews fleeing communist Russia ended up in Rome. There they waited to learn where they would end up: the USA, Canada, Australia, or Israel.4:50 p.m.
• Dayton wants GOP to pick up the pace on state budget fix
  With 19 days left in the session, the governor said today that his optimism for a timely deal is waning. But GOP leaders insist they're ready to negotiate.5:15 p.m.
• Plan to replace Stillwater bridge inches forward
  A proposal to bypass federal environmental law to build the bridge was by far the most contentious bill a Congressional subcommittee considered today.5:45 p.m.
• Would casino help or hurt downtown Minneapolis?
  Supporters of a plan to build a state-run casino in downtown Minneapolis say it will create thousands of jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenues.5:48 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Post-Bin Laden, Same Old Congress
  The death of Osama bin Laden has given President Obama new national security cred with voters — but is it a game-changer on Capitol Hill? Or are Republicans right back to defunding health care, restricting abortion and refusing to raise the debt ceiling without huge spending cuts?
• After Bin Laden Raid, Pakistan Faces Criticism
  Pakistan is under intense criticism for either granting Osama bin Laden safe harbor or not knowing he was in the country — duplicity or incompetence.
• Hong Kong Graffiti Challenges Chinese Artist's Arrest
  The face of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been spray-painted across Hong Kong in the month since he was detained. Many residents like the graffiti's aesthetic and message, but the campaign could lead to jail time for the graffiti artist. That has raised fears about the erosion of Hong Kong's freedoms.
• Palestinian Factions Sign Agreement
  In Cairo Wednesday, the leaders of Fatah and Hamas signed an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation accord that both sides hope will end the deep divisions in the Palestinian leadership.
• Hamas-Fatah Accord: Two Bears In A Dance?
  "The late Yitzhak Rabin used to say that the only problem with dancing with a bear is that once you start, you can never let go," writes Aaron David Miller in an essay in Foreign Policy magazine. Rabin, the former Israeli Prime Minister, engaged in a good-faith dance in the early 1990s with then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The result was the Oslo Accords. But, of Wednesday's unity agreement, Miller is skeptical. "An instance," he writes, "of two bears dancing with one another." Miller is a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the author of The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search For Arab-Israeli Peace. He speaks to Michele Norris about the signing of a Palestinian Unity pact by Hamas and Fatah leaders in Egypt — and what it means for American foreign policy.
• Harsh Interrogation Tactics: Did They Work?
  The death of Osama bin Laden has reopened the debate about whether harsh tactics, such as simulated drowning, actually produce good intelligence. Former Bush administration officials say tough interrogation led the U.S. military to bin Laden's hideout. The Obama White House says it's not so simple.
• Bin Laden's Death Impacts Obama's Approval Rating
  Michele Norris talks with Pew Research Center's Andy Kohut about this week's polls in light of Osama bin Laden's death. Kohut also discusses Pew's report "Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology."
• A Former Crack Kingpin On The Economics Of Illegal Drugs
  Do economists' theories about drugs hold up in the real world? To find out, we asked "Freeway" Rick Ross, one of L.A.'s biggest crack dealers in the '80s and '90s.
• Tavis Smiley: If At First You Don't Succeed, 'Fail Up'
  If you want to learn about success, talk to a successful person. If you want to learn about failure, talk to a very successful person. In his new book Fail Up, TV and radio host Tavis Smiley offers 20 lessons in turning setbacks into success.
• Letters: All Things Considered Turns 40
  Melissa Block and Michele Norris read letters from listeners about Gen. Sir James Abbott and All Things Considered's 40th Anniversary.

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