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HPPR hosts & contributors

Marshal Allen Bailey

Western Swing & Other Things Host & Producer

Skip Mancini

Producer and host of High Plains History and Growing on the High Plains

Mike Fuller

Music Director and High Plains Morning Host

Cindee Talley

Regional Programming Director

Stephen Johnson

Open Range and High Plains Saturday Night Host

Debra Bolton

Silver Rails co-host

Lynn Boitano

Silver Rails co-host

Brother T-bone (Tony Hornberger)

Friday Night Blues host

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Sarah McCammon joined Iowa Public Radio in January 2010, where she is the local host for NPR’s Morning Edition and is a reporter covering a variety of topics. Sarah is an award-winning reporter and newscaster, as well as a frequent contributor to national public media programs including NPR and Marketplace. As a print reporter, her work also has been published in the Chicago Sun-Times and the Kansas City Star.

Sarah is a Kansas City native, and worked in public radio in Nebraska before coming to Iowa. She also previously worked as a print reporter in the Chicago area. Sarah also has worked in Washington, D.C., and spent a semester at Oxford University while completing her undergraduate degree in English/Communication.

Sarah's favorite public radio program is This American Life.

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4:10 pm

Thu May 3, 2012

Corn Farmers Hope, Cautiously, For A Bumper Crop

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Credit Scott Olson / Getty Images

This year, U.S. corn farmers have planted more acres of the crop than at any time since the Great Depression.

Credit Sarah McCammon

Bill Couser raises corn on his farm near Nevada, Iowa. Like many corn farmers, he is anticipating a banner crop this year.

By Sarah McCammon

Originally published on Wed May 9, 2012 9:43 am

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It's still too early to predict whether the 2012 corn harvest will set a record, but many corn farmers say the prognosis for a bumper crop is looking pretty good right now.

U.S. farmers are planting more acres of corn this year than they have in any year since the Great Depression. And with a mild spring across much of the nation's Corn Belt, many are hoping this autumn's yield will be one for the record books.

A Crop That 'Will Knock Your Socks Off'

4:06 pm

Thu May 3, 2012

Will French Election Mark A Reversal Of Austerity?

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Credit Guillaume Baptiste / AFP/Getty Images

Tens of thousands of people in Paris used the annual May Day workers' events this year to denounce the world of finance amid the Europe-wide debt crisis. If elected, France's Socialist presidential challenger, Francois Hollande, says he will pursue a growth-oriented strategy.

Credit AFP/Getty Images

Socialist Francois Hollande, (left) and France's incumbent president, Nicolas Sarkozy, pose for photos before facing off during a contentious debate Wednesday on national TV. Opinion polls favor Hollande heading into Sunday's election.

By Eleanor Beardsley

Originally published on Wed May 9, 2012 9:43 am

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The possibility that French President Nicolas Sarkozy may lose the presidential election Sunday is making waves across Europe. Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are the architects of Europe's new fiscal austerity pact.

But the man likely to replace Sarkozy has other ideas.

Socialist candidate Francois Hollande — who is favored in opinion polls by several percentage points — says Europe cannot emerge from the crisis based on austerity alone.

4:02 pm

Thu May 3, 2012

Why Do Bike-Share Riders Skip Helmets?

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Credit John Rose / NPR

Bartender Matt Carucci says he rarely feels safe biking in the city but often rides without a helmet anyway. "There are a lot of other ways to hurt yourself," he says.

Credit John Rose / NPR

Carl Cavaliere, a legal assistant, has been a bicycle commuter in Washington, D.C., for 12 years and always wears a helmet. "You realize how bad the drivers are here," he says.

Credit John Rose / NPR

Chicagoans Matthew Kutz and Molly Witges didn't bring helmets to D.C. but felt safe anyway on the slow, heavy Bikeshare bikes. "You're never going to get into a high-speed collision," Kutz says.

Credit John Rose / NPR

Jason Lee, a government analyst, says he wears his helmet nine times out of 10. "My wife gets very angry when I leave the house without a helmet," Lee says.

Credit John Rose / NPR

Alex Tremble works in leadership development and has commuted by bike for the past month. He says his reluctance to buy a helmet is psychological: "If you don't own [a helmet], maybe you don't really feel like a 'bike rider.' " Now that he uses a bike every day, he says, "I need to get one."

Credit John Rose / NPR

Tom Suppan, a "bicyclist by nature," rarely rides without a helmet. "I've fallen too often not to wear one," he says. "If I hadn't had the helmet on, I'd have been in bad shape."

Credit John Rose / NPR

Sisters Bia and Cia Rosenquist are from Finland and Belgium, where helmetless riding is common. "We bike very carefully," Bia says. "We were riding more slowly because we don't know the city."

Credit John Rose / NPR

Kay McLaughlin, an editorial coordinator, sports a Capital Bikeshare-branded helmet. "This is my D.C. helmet. I keep it on top of my desk," she says. She has a second helmet for riding at home.

Credit John Rose / NPR

Bartender Matt Carucci says he rarely feels safe biking in the city but often rides without a helmet anyway. "There are a lot of other ways to hurt yourself," he says.

By editor

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 9:50 am

If you've ever shaken your head over urban bicyclists' apparent unanimous decision to forgo helmets, you're not far off the mark.

Among users of bike-sharing programs, like Capital Bikeshare in Washington, D.C., the problem is obvious.

3:48 pm

Thu May 3, 2012

Greenland's Ice Melting Slower Than Expected

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Credit Ian Joughin / UW, Sarah Das/WHOI and Richard Harris/NPR

Researchers studying Greenland's ice say it is melting more slowly than previously thought. Here, ice travels down a relatively small outlet glacier into the sea.

Credit Richard Harris / UW, Sarah Das/WHOI and Richard Harris/NPR

Ian Joughin, a polar scientist, says the "worst-case scenario" of 6 feet of sea level rise is unlikely. "My guess is probably 3 feet or less," he says.

Credit Richard Harris / UW, Sarah Das/WHOI and Richard Harris/NPR

At the peak of the summer, meltwater runoff forms streams and lakes on the ice surface in this 2007 photo.

Credit Richard Harris / UW, Sarah Das/WHOI and Richard Harris/NPR

Rushing water at the end of a lake has cut a deep channel into the ice. Greenland's ice contains enough water to raise sea levels by 20 feet.

Credit Richard Harris / UW, Sarah Das/WHOI and Richard Harris/NPR

Rivers drop into deep holes called moulins. Once the water reaches the bedrock, it lubricates the underside of ice sheets, so they move faster.

Credit Sarah Das / UW, Sarah Das/WHOI and Richard Harris/NPR

Researchers say the rate of glacier movement is still increasing. Over the past decade, glaciers have sped up an average of 30 percent.

Credit Ian Joughin / UW, Sarah Das/WHOI and Richard Harris/NPR

As glacial ice moves down toward the coast, it gets funneled through outlet glaciers, and large and small icebergs break off into the sea.

Credit Ian Joughin / Science/AAAS

Researchers studying Greenland's ice say it is melting more slowlyl than previously thought. Here, ice travels down a relatively small outlet glacier into the sea.

Credit Ian Joughin / Science/AAAS

Massive sections of ice (center front) have broken away from the Jakobshavn glacier into the sea. There's enough water stored in Greenland's glaciers to raise the sea level by 20 feet.

By Richard Harris

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 9:50 am

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A new study has some reassuring news about how fast Greenland's glaciers are melting away.

Greenland's glaciers hold enough water to raise sea level by 20 feet, and they are melting as the planet warms, so there's a lot at stake.

A few years ago, the Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland really caught people's attention. In short order, this slow-moving stream of ice suddenly doubled its speed. It started dumping a whole lot more ice into the Atlantic. Other glaciers also sped up.

3:08 pm

Thu May 3, 2012

Student Forgotten In Holding Cell: 'Changes Have To Be Made'

Credit K. C. Alfred / UT San Diego

Daniel Chong appears at a news conference on Tuesday in San Diego.

By editor

Originally published on Wed May 9, 2012 9:43 am

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Daniel Chong, a California college senior, was forgotten in a federal holding cell without food or water for five days.

Today, he told All Things Considered's Audie Cornish that the five days tested his sanity and his resolve to live.

"I didn't stay sane," Chong said. "Eventually, by the second or third night ... I went completely insane and was just trying to get a grip on reality, on what's happening to me."

Chong said at one point he thought about using his glasses to cut into his arm and kill himself.

2:19 pm

Thu May 3, 2012

Reports: Facebook Will Set IPO Pricing After Markets Close

By editor

Originally published on Thu May 3, 2012 3:45 pm

Update at 4:39 p.m. ET. $28 To $35:

The AP reports that Facebook has set a price range for its initial public offering between $28 and $35.

The AP adds:

"At the high end, this could raise as much as $11.8 billion. That's much higher than any other Internet IPO in the past, even Google Inc. in 2004."

1:39 pm

Thu May 3, 2012

Democrats Keep Getting Dinged For Hitting GOP On Women's Health, Loans

Credit MoveOn.org

By Frank James

Originally published on Thu May 3, 2012 2:00 pm

Democrats keep getting dinged by media fact checkers for attacking Republicans for allegedly wanting to strip money from preventive health programs to pay for to keep the interest rates on some student loans from doubling this summer.

But that hasn't stopped progressives from continuing to make the claim. The latest comes in a new full-page MoveOn.org ad in Politico. The ad reads in part:

1:21 pm

Thu May 3, 2012

VIDEO: Lioness Tries To 'Eat' Baby Dressed In Zebra Hoodie

Credit YouTube

A lioness tries to "eat" a baby.

By Eyder Peralta

1:20 pm

Thu May 3, 2012

Finish This Sentence: 'Before I Die, I Want To ...'

Credit Candy Chang

From the Before I Die wall in New Orleans.

By Mark Memmott

Originally published on Thu May 3, 2012 1:47 pm

Artist Candy Chang turned the wall of an abandoned house in New Orleans into "a giant chalkboard where residents can write on the wall and remember what is important to them."

And since putting up that public art project in February 2011, "Before I Die" walls have spread to at least 19 cities around the world. Friday, a wall goes up in Denver.

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