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Valley Public Radio Staff

Kristina Herrick
Kristina Herrick
Classical Music Host
George Mason
George Mason
On-air host, Clearly Classical
Rebecca Plevin
Rebecca Plevin
Reporter
Jason Scott
Jason Scott
Host, Clearly Classical and All Things Considered
Vince DiCiccio
Vince DiCiccio
Host, The Oasis; The Intersection
Ezra Romero
Ezra Romero
Reporter and Producer
Marv Allen
Marv Allen
Host, Morning Edition

NPR News

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Asia
3:11 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

King Sihanouk, An Artist And Architect Of Cambodia

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Credit Xinhua / Landov
Cambodia's beloved "King Father" Norodom Sihanouk led the country from French colonial rule to independence, through the Vietnam War and the terror of the Khmer Rouge. He died at age 89 of a heart attack Monday in Beijing.
Credit AFP/Getty Images
France installed Sihanouk (shown here in a photo believed to be from the 1950s) as Cambodia's king in 1941, thinking he would make a good puppet ruler. Instead, the country overthrew colonial rule under his watch.
Credit AFP/Getty Images
Sihanouk (second from right) poses with Khieu Samphan (third from left), a top Khmer Rouge leader, next to a milestone marking the distance to Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, in 1973.
Credit Nathan Dexter / AP
Sihanouk looks on as his wife, Queen Monineath, kisses his son and successor, King Norodom Sihamoni, at a coronation ceremony at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh on Oct. 29, 2004.
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Originally published on Fri November 2, 2012 2:37 pm

Cambodia's former King Norodom Sihanouk dominated his country's politics through more than a half century of foreign invasion, genocide and civil war.

The monarch of the small Southeast Asian country, who often felt himself better suited to art than to statecraft, died of a heart attack Monday in Beijing, where he was receiving medical treatment. He as 89.

"The King Father," as Sihanouk was known in Cambodia, spent many years in exile in the Chinese capital, beginning in 1970.

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The Two-Way
2:36 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

'My Way,' OK; But Singing 'Someone Like You' At A Funeral? Isn't That Wrong?

Credit Mario Anzuoni / Reuters /Landov
Adele singing Someone Like You at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles. That's one way to say goodbye.
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Originally published on Mon October 15, 2012 6:38 pm

Of course My Way — the Frank Sinatra version — is the most requested contemporary song at funerals in the U.K., according to Co-operative Funeralcare.

That makes sense.

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Shots - Health News
2:30 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Wiping Out Polio: How The U.S. Snuffed Out A Killer

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Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
On April 12, 1955, Dr. Jonas Salk and his research team at the University of Pittsburgh released the first successful vaccine for polio. In 1979, the U.S. reported its last case of the paralyzing virus.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital Archive.
Many people infected with polio don't show any symptoms. Some become temporarily paralyzed; for others, it's permanent. In 1952, the polio epidemic reached a peak in the U.S.: almost 58,000 reported cases and more than 3,000 deaths.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital Archive.
Before the polio vaccine was developed, doctors tried to treat patients with ultraviolet light, which was known to inactivate the virus in the lab.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
While receiving a polio vaccine, Cheryl Halpin watches Salk inoculate another child on television.
Credit AP
The vast majority of polio victims are children, but it can also strike adults. Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921 at age 39. Here, two men lift a little girl in a wheelchair so that Roosevelt can greet her from his vehicle during his first presidential campaign.
Credit AP
Many celebrities and actresses helped to promote the fight against polio. In this image from 1953, the British actress Margaret Lockwood speaks with a young polio survivor, 4-year-old Mary Burton, as they buy stamps to support polio research and treatment.
Credit AP
Patricia, 6, and Pamela, 5, were stricken with polio in 1948. They were poster children for the March of Dimes' campaign efforts to eradicate infantile paralysis. This poster first appeared in 1952.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
The global health community stepped up its fight against polio in the 1980s. Here, a poster from the Qatari Ministry of Health promotes polio vaccination by foreshadowing the young boy's fate if he doesn't receive the protective drops.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
A poster distributed by French public health officials promotes polio vaccination by representing the shot as a protective umbrella.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
A British postcard promotes the importance of vaccinating against polio.
Credit Courtesy of Images from the History of Medicine (NLM).
A poster from Ecuador shows the "vaccination diploma" children receive after they're inoculated against polio, pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, tuberculosis and measles. Polio was stamped out in the Western Hemisphere in 1991.
Credit Courtesy of the Boston Children's Hospital Archive.
A major roadblock for developing the polio vaccine: growing the virus in the laboratory. Scientist John Enders was the first to overcome this challenge in 1949 — a feat that earned him a Nobel Prize in 1954 and Time magazine's Man of the Year title in 1961. Salk used Enders' technique to create the polio vaccine.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital Archive.
Many polio victims couldn't breathe on their own because of paralysis in their chest muscles. The iron lung — a simple, air-tight chamber that regulates air pressure — kept patients breathing until the paralysis passed. At the peak of the epidemic, rows of iron lung ventilators filled hospital rooms.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital Archive
During the peak of the polio epidemic in the U.S., some hospital wards even had large, room-like iron lungs where multiple children lived.
Credit Courtesy of the Boston Children's Hospital Archive
Many people infected with polio don't show any symptoms. Some become temporarily paralyzed; for others, it's permanent. In 1952, the polio epidemic reached a peak in U.S.: almost 58,000 reported cases and more than 3,000 deaths.
Credit Courtesy of Boston Children's Hospital
Many polio victims couldn't breathe on their own because of paralysis in their chest muscles. The iron lung — a simple, air-tight chamber that regulates air pressure — kept patients breathing until the paralysis passed. At the peak of the epidemic, rows of iron lung ventilators filled hospital rooms.
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Originally published on Wed January 23, 2013 11:55 am

Sixty years ago, polio was one of the most feared diseases in the U.S.

As the weather warmed up each year, panic over polio intensified. Late summer was dubbed "polio season." Public swimming pools were shut down. Movie theaters urged patrons not to sit too close together to avoid spreading the disease. Insurance companies started selling polio insurance for newborns.

The fear was well grounded. By the 1950s, polio had become one of the most serious communicable diseases among children in the United States.

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It's All Politics
2:07 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Romney's Business Skills Evident In His Strong Debating Style

Credit Charlie Neibergall / AP
Mitt Romney at the first presidential debate at the University of Denver on Oct. 3.
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If there was any surprise in the first 90-minute presidential debate, it was President Obama's apathetic performance, not Mitt Romney's energetic and assertive pounding of the commander in chief.

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The Two-Way
1:51 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Bosnia Begins Work On First Census Since Its Bloody Civil War

Credit Marko Drobnjakovic / AP
July 11, 2012: A woman cried next to the coffin of her relative at the Potocari memorial complex near Srebrenica. More than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were executed there in July 1995. It was the worst massacre in Europe since World War II.
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By editor

Population censuses aren't normally something to get excited over. But for Bosnia, a nation that hasn't counted its own people in over two decades and has its eye on becoming part of the European Union, even a pilot census is of great importance. No formal national count has taken place since before the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the subsequent ethnic conflict that shocked the world.

Today, Bosnia began a two-week test census, targeting around 15,000 people, in order to gauge how prepared it is for an official, nation-wide census in the spring of 2013.

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Solve This
1:17 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Candidates' Views On Poverty Get Little Attention

Credit Mario Tama / Getty Images
People eat a free community meal at The Center in Lima, Ohio, earlier this year. Although more than 46 million Americans are poor, the issue has gotten little attention in the presidential race.
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Originally published on Mon October 15, 2012 3:46 pm

The nation's poverty rate is as high as it's been in almost two decades. Last year, 1 in 6 Americans was poor — more than 46 million people, including 16 million children.

But on the campaign trail, the issue of poverty has received surprisingly little attention.

When he first ran for president, Barack Obama went to a low-income neighborhood in Washington, D.C., and spoke passionately about hunger and poverty. He repeated Bobby Kennedy's question in 1967: "How can a country like this allow it?"

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The Two-Way
1:08 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Debate Preview: Romney Aide On How GOP Nominee Would Confront Iran

Credit Jason Reed / Reuters /Landov
Dan Senor, a senior adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
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Originally published on Tue October 16, 2012 7:45 am

  • Romney adviser Dan Senor talking with NPR's Steve Inskeep

A President Mitt Romney would make the "military option" a credible threat in the effort to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons by repeatedly saying that it "remains on the table, that it is real" and by making sure that senior officials don't imply otherwise, a top foreign policy adviser to the 2012 Republican presidential nominee tells Morning Edition.

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Shots - Health Blog
12:49 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Girls Vaccinated For HPV Not More Likely To Be Sexually Active

Credit John Amis / AP
An 18-year-old girl winces as she has her third and final shot of the HPV vaccine.
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By editor

Originally published on Mon March 25, 2013 11:49 am

Giving the human papillomavirus vaccine to teenage girls doesn't increase the likelihood that they will be sexually active, according to a new study.

That may help put parents at ease; the notion of vaccinating 11- and 12-year-old girls for a sexually transmitted virus has made some uncomfortable, and is one reason why only a little more than half of teenage girls have had the vaccine.

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The Salt
12:33 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Jerusalem: A Love Letter To Food And Memories Of Home

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Credit Jonathan Lovekin / Ten Speed Press
A boy chooses fruit from a stall as Jerusalem market vendors swirl around him.
Credit Jonathan Lovekin / Ten Speed Press
A fresh fruit and vegetable stall in Jerusalem.
Credit Jonathan Lovekind / Ten Speed Press
Bagels on display in a Jerusalem market.
Credit Jonathan Lovekind / Ten Speed Press
In Jerusalem, many worlds come together, yet remain apart, at the marketplace.
Credit Jonathan Lovekind / Ten Speed Press
A shopper chooses a melon from a market stall in Jerusalem.
Credit Jonathan Lovekin / Ten Speed Press
A boy chooses fruit from a stall as Jerusalem market vendors swirl around him.
Credit Richard Learoyd / Ten Speed Press
Sami Tamimi is a partner and the head chef at Ottolenghi, a restaurant with four London locations.
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By editor

Originally published on Mon October 15, 2012 3:46 pm

Jerusalem is known for its bitter politics, a divided city where decades of religious and political strife have torn away shared spaces. But as British-Israeli chef Yotam Ottolenghi tells NPR's Melissa Block, if there's one place in which Jerusalemites of all stripes still stand united, it's in their love of food.

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The Two-Way
12:19 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

Citizen Scientists Discover A Strange Planet In Four-Star System

Credit Haven Giguere / Yale
An artist's illustration of PH1, a planet discovered by volunteers from the Planet Hunters citizen science project. PH1, shown in the foreground, is a circumbinary planet and orbits two suns.
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By Eyder Peralta

The universe continues to surprise us. Two citizen scientists have discovered a very rare world: A planet that orbits two stars and has a second pair of stars revolving around it.

Wired explains just how odd this is:

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