Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Updraft: Storms pack hail, high winds
  A cluster of thunderstorms moving through the southern third of Minnesota is packing locally heavy downpours, hail and high winds today.3:48 p.m.
• Teens, traffic officials talk about distracted driving
  The deaths of 10 young people in car crashes in Minnesota this spring may help spur nationwide changes in traffic laws. Traffic officials and high school students discussed the recent rash of fatal accidents -- many blamed on distracted driving -- at a conference Tuesday in Oakdale.4:44 p.m.
• Abuse survivors reunite 9 months after kidney transplant
  Phil Saviano and Susan Pavlak have become good friends since Pavlak reached out to the fellow survivor of clergy abuse and gave him one of her kidneys.4:50 p.m.
• Horner/Mulder ticket looks to fill political outsider niche in gov race
  The Independence Party's endorsed candidate for governor Tom Horner today named Jim Mulder as his running mate.5:20 p.m.
• Hearing lays groundwork for case challenging Intoxilyzer
  A large crowd of attorneys and people charged with drunk driving met in Minneapolis Tuesday morning to prepare for a statewide court case that could potentially impact hundreds of DWI cases in Minnesota.5:26 p.m.
• Plymouth-based ev3 sold for $2.6B
  Ireland-based Covidien is buying a Twin Cities medical device maker, ev3, for $2.6 billion.5:50 p.m.
• Changes to state's GAMC program for poor adults start today
  About 30,000 low-income Minnesotans who rely on General Assistance Medical Care were able to stay in the program as part of budget negotiations at the State Capitol last month.6:20 p.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Afghans Skeptical Peace Talks Will Bring Stability
  President Hamid Karzai's much delayed peace jirga, or assembly, gets under way in Kabul on Wednesday. Delegates will discuss ways to persuade insurgents to lay down their weapons. But many war-weary Afghans aren't optimistic the conference will produce meaningful results.
• Flotilla Activist Shares Her Account Of Deadly Raid
  Details are still emerging about what happened Monday when a flotilla carrying aid to the Gaza Strip was raided by Israeli forces. Huwaida Arraf, an activist who was on one of those ships, talks to Robert Siegel. Arraf is with the Free Gaza Movement, which organized the flotilla.
• Israeli Spokesman On Commando Raid
  Robert Siegel talks to Mark Regev, the spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, about Monday's Israeli commando raid on ships delivering aid to the Gaza Strip. Nine activists were killed.
• Obama Vows Thorough Oil Spill Probe
  President Obama met Tuesday with the co-chairs of the BP oil spill commission, and said that an independent commission will thoroughly examine all aspects of the disaster. Meanwhile, he's dispatched Attorney General Eric Holder to the Gulf Coast. Holder said Tuesday that federal authorities have opened criminal and civil investigations into the spill.
• Exploring The 'Upside Of Irrationality'
  Robert Siegel talks to behavioral economist Dan Ariely about his new book, The Upside of Irrationality. The book is a follow-up to his New York Times best-seller, Predictably Irrational, in which Ariely examined a number of biases that lead all of us to make unwise decisions. This time, Ariely explores the flipside to irrationality and how it helps us achieve great things.
• Eliminating Al-Qaida's No. 3, Again And Again
  Al-Qaida announced Tuesday that its third in command, Mustafa al-Yazid, was killed in a drone attack last month. While U.S. officials are calling his death a big blow to the terrorist group, it might not be such a seminal event. Al-Qaida has lost six so-called No. 3 officials since 2001.
• Is 'Compulsory Voting' The Answer?
  Brookings scholar William Galston argues that the answer to polarization in U.S. politics is the reluctance of those in the ideological middle to come out and vote.
• Book Review: Lichtenstein's 'Lost'
  Alan Cheuse reviews a new novel from Alice Lichtenstein, Lost. The book tells the story of a scientist living in New England whose husband is slipping deeper and deeper into Alzheimer's disease. One winter day, he disappears.
• Artist Tattoos Indelible Iraq Memorial Into His Skin
  Iraqi-born visual artist Wafaa Bilal has turned his own back into a casualty map of the Iraq war. He has the names of cities in Iraq etched into his skin in Arabic script. Around each city, dots represent casualties: red ink for the American soldiers, ultraviolet ink for the Iraqi civilians -- invisible unless seen under black light.
• Activist's Account Of Raid Differs From Israeli Version
  One of the passengers on the Marmara, raided Monday by Israeli naval commandos in international waters off the coast of the Gaza Strip, gives her account of the battle on board the Turkish ship that left nine dead and dozens wounded. It differs sharply from Israeli accounts. The pro-Palestinian activists who organized the flotilla to deliver aid to Gaza say they have succeeded in putting the Israeli blockade of the coastal territory back in the headlines.

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