Minnesota Public Radio Stories

• Where tiny loans make a big difference
  A Minneapolis couple recently headed to Uganda to get hands-on experience working to fight poverty using microfinancing.7:20 a.m.
• Photographer puts the present in the past
  A Minneapolis artist is giving new life to objects which have sat tucked away on the shelves of a local museum for years.7:24 a.m.

National Public Radio Stories

• Des Moines Voters Discuss Campaign Issues
  Voters in Des Moines, Iowa, gather at a high school to discuss campaign issues, including health care, the role of the government, and the candidates. They will return to the same school a month from now for the January caucus.
• Senator Probes Megachurches' Finances
  Ministries raise millions of dollars with little oversight. One Senate lawmaker wonders whether the lavish lifestyles of the ministers violate the churches' tax-exempt status. Six megachurches have been asked to respond by Dec. 6 to questions about their spending.
• Aaron Sorkin Gives 'Farnsworth Invention' Its Due
  Writer Aaron Sorkin (of TV's The West Wing) returns to where he got his first big break: Broadway. Appropriately enough, the story he's telling this time is about television, and how it got its start.
• Jerry Springer Opera to Open at Carnegie Hall
  Jerry Springer: The Opera is a singing and dancing version of his daytime TV talk show. Actors play the show's guests and audience. There are cameos by men in diapers and tap-dancing members of the Ku Klux Klan. A hit in London for four years, it is set to open next month at Carnegie Hall.
• Bush Defends Policies Toward Iran
  President Bush defends his administration's policies toward Iran even as a new intelligence report shows Iran halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago. Still, the president says, Iran remains a danger. He spoke at a White House news conference.
• N. Dakota Teen Finds Dinosaur Skin and Bones
  At last, a dinosaur with skin and bones. It was discovered several years ago by a teen on his family ranch in North Dakota. The 67 million-year-old Hadrosaur has actual fossilized skin with scales and a suggestion of stripes. A British paleontologist says it's "King Tut meets T. Rex."
• Eel Lights Christmas Tree
  The tree is up and the lights are on – powered by an electric eel. An aquarium in central Japan has found a creative way to attract tourists. It has rigged a copper wire in a tank filled with tropical fish and one large eel. When it touches the copper wire, it illuminates the "eel Christmas tree."
• Pakistan's Taliban Militants Make New Inroads
  Taliban extremists are making aggressive inroads from tribal areas along the Afghanistan border to towns and villages further inside Pakistan. Though the army says it has the militants on the run, there are doubts about whether Pakistan's armed forces can keep them at bay.
• The Writers Strike and New Media
  Wired Magazine senior editor Nancy Miller discusses the new media environment, which is the sticking point in the ongoing strike of movie and television writers. Hollywood writers want compensation for work that appears online.
• Gift Card Purchases Due to Surge
  Gift cards are the great fallback when you can't figure out what to get the kids, or Aunt Susie for the holidays. American consumers are expected to buy $35 billion worth of gift cards this year, up 25 percent from last year.
• Treasury to Air Plan to Help Homeowners
  Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is due to announce a plan this week to stem the rising number of foreclosures, one that includes both lenders and investors. With adjustable-rate mortgages set to jump from 7 percent up to 12 percent, economists estimate upward of 1 million foreclosures.
• Hanukkah Is in the Holiday Season, Too
  A writer describes her childhood in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York where no one she knew celebrated Christmas, and her young adult years in Israel, where Hanukkah is a national holiday. Today she throws huge Hanukkah parties.
• New Tests May Make HIV Reports More Precise
  Federal officials have put the number of new HIV infections in the U.S. at 40,000 a year. Now there are indications the number may be higher. Researchers have developed a test that diagnoses HIV and separates the recently infected from those who have been infected for a longer time.
• Iran, U.S. Allies Respond to Intel on Nuclear Program
  Iran's foreign minister tells reporters, "Iran's peaceful nuclear activities (are) becoming clear to the world." Britain is saying its conclusions justify actions by the international community to get to the bottom of Iran's nuclear program. Russia is likely to weigh in as well.
• Florida Locales Divest Fund Tied to Bad Mortgages
  In Florida, dozens of cities, counties, and school boards have yanked $13 billion of investments from a state-run fund that invested some of its money in securities backed by subprime mortgages that had defaulted.

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