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3:24 am
Tue May 21, 2013

CEO Cook To Defend Apple Before Senate Committee Hearing

Credit Eric Risberg / AP
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during an introduction of the iPhone 5 in San Francisco on Sept. 12. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations says Apple is paying billions of dollars less than it should in taxes each year, taking advantage of technicalities in U.S. and Irish tax laws.

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 10:13 am

Giant technology firm Apple is paying billions of dollars less than it should in U.S. taxes each year, according to a report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In a hearing Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Apple CEO Tim Cook will defend the company.

The subcommittee's report says Apple avoids the tax payments mainly by shifting profits to three subsidiary companies in Ireland. The investigation found Apple is taking advantage of technicalities in U.S. and Irish tax laws to avoid paying any tax on a huge portion of its profits.

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Business
3:22 am
Tue May 21, 2013

JPMorgan Shareholders Consider Splitting CEO, Chairman Jobs

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 10:13 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

JPMorgan Chase holds its annual shareholder meeting today in Tampa, Florida, and the shareholders will vote on a key measure: a proposal to strip the CEO, Jamie Dimon, of his other title, chairman of the board. A growing number of companies have split the CEO and chairman roles.

Shareholder activists and corporate governance experts say having a balance of power at the top helps to reduce risk. The bank and its supporters disagree. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports.

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The Record
2:15 am
Tue May 21, 2013

The Doors' Keyboard Counterpoint Goes Silent: Remembering Ray Manzarek

Credit Express / Getty Images
Ray Manzarek (far right) stands with fellow members of The Doors Jim Morrison (from right), Robby Krieger and John Densmore in 1968. Manzarek died Monday in Germany. He was 74.

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 12:43 pm

Author Interviews
2:09 am
Tue May 21, 2013

After Crashing In Canadian 'Abyss,' Four Men Fight To Survive

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 10:13 am

On the night of Oct. 19, 1984, Erik Vogel was uneasy about flying. It was snowing; his plane's de-icer and autopilot weren't working; and his co-pilot had been bumped to fit one more passenger on his 10-seater. But the young pilot was behind schedule and he felt like his job was on the line, so he took off, as he did most days, shuttling between the remote communities that dot the Canadian wilderness.

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Author Interviews
2:08 am
Tue May 21, 2013

Courtside Chemistry: How NBA's Phil Jackson Won 'Eleven Rings'

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 10:13 am

Phil Jackson is famous not only for coaching stars — Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen with the Chicago Bulls, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal with the L.A. Lakers — but also for his distinctive "zen" approach to basketball. He introduced his teams to yoga and meditation, and regularly assigned his players books to read.

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Shots - Health News
2:01 am
Tue May 21, 2013

Texas Medicaid Debate Complicated By Politics And Poverty

Originally published on Wed May 22, 2013 7:08 am

When the sun rises over the Rio Grande Valley, the cries of the urracas — blackbirds — perched on the tops of palm trees swell to a noisy, unavoidable cacophony. That is also the strategy, it could be said, that local officials, health care providers and frustrated valley residents are trying to use to persuade Gov. Rick Perry and state Republican lawmakers to set aside their opposition and expand Medicaid, a key provision of the federal health law.

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Parallels
1:59 am
Tue May 21, 2013

The Global Afterlife Of Your Donated Clothes

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 8:04 pm

On a bright and warm Saturday morning, there's a steady flow of people dropping off donations at Martha's Table, a charity in downtown Washington, D.C. A mountain of plastic and paper bags stuffed with used dresses, scarves, skirts and footwear expands in one corner of the room. Volunteers sort and put clothes on hangers. They'll go on sale next door, and the proceeds will help the needy in the area.

It's a scene played out across the U.S.: people donating their old clothes, whether through collection bins or through large charities, to help others.

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Around the Nation
7:14 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Business Owner Describes Major Destruction After Tornado

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 8:26 pm

Melissa Block talks to Casey Mongold, owner of Casey's Tire and Auto in Moore, Okla., where a tornado caused widespread destruction on Monday.

Environment
7:12 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Forecasters Had Chance To Warn Moore, Okla., Before Tornado

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 8:27 pm

Melissa Block talks to Jon Hamilton about the science of tornadoes.

The Two-Way
6:15 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

VIDEO: A Time-Lapse Of The Tornado In Oklahoma

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 3:57 am

NBC News has put together a time-lapse video of the EF-4 tornado that tore through the southern suburbs of Oklahoma City, Okla.

As we told you in the live blog, the National Weather Service says it was at least an EF-4 tornado with winds in excess of 166 mph. The tornado stayed on the ground for 40 minutes and traveled 20 miles.

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The Two-Way
6:11 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Key Charge Against Ex-BP Official In Spill Case Dismissed

Credit Matthew Hinton / AP
David Rainey, a former BP vice president during the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, leaves federal court after being arraigned on obstruction of a federal investigation in New Orleans on Nov. 28, 2012. A federal judge Monday dismissed the charge that Rainey obstructed a congressional investigation into the 2010 spill.

It's another bad day for the Justice Department.

A federal judge in Louisiana has thrown out the central criminal charge against a former BP executive because prosecutors failed to prove he knew about a pending congressional investigation into oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico three years ago. U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt also ruled that a Democratic House member who inquired about the oil flow rate was acting as head of a subcommittee, not a full congressional committee, as required under the federal Obstruction of Justice statute.

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The Two-Way
6:06 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

A brief History Of Oklahoma Tornadoes

Credit Jerry Laizure / AP
Destruction at Midwest City, Okla., one of the towns hit by the May 5, 1999, tornadoes.

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 3:58 am

Although Oklahoma is a state where tornadoes are a fact of life, few days stand out like May 3, 1999.

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The Two-Way
5:24 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Massive Tornado Rips Through Oklahoma City Suburbs

Credit Sue Ogrocki / AP
A woman carries her child through a field near the collapsed Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla., on Monday A tornado as much as a mile wide with winds up to 200 mph roared through the Oklahoma City suburbs flattening entire neighborhoods, setting buildings on fire and landing a direct blow on an elementary school.

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 3:54 am

(This post was last updated at 11:45 p.m. ET.)

A massive tornado ripped through the southern suburbs of Oklahoma City, Monday afternoon, killing at least 51 people, according to the state medical examiner's office.

The death toll was expected to rise.

Helicopter images showed large tracts of Moore, Okla., completely leveled by what the National Weather Service says was at least an EF-4 tornado with winds in excess of 166 mph. The tornado stayed on the ground for 40 minutes and traveled 20 miles.

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The Two-Way
5:22 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Ray Manzarek, Founding Member Of The Doors, Dies

Credit Express / Getty Images
Ray Manzarek (far right) stands with fellow members of The Doors Jim Morrison (from right), Robby Krieger and John Densmore in 1968. Manzarek died Monday in Germany. He was 74.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:30 pm

Ray Manzarek, the keyboardist and a founding member of The Doors, died Monday in Germany. He was 74.

A statement from publicist Heidi Ellen Robinson-Fitzgerald said Manzarek died in Rosenheim, Germany, after a long battle with bile duct cancer.

Manzarek and Jim Morrison founded the iconic band after meeting in California. The Doors went on to become one of the most successful rock 'n' roll acts of the 1960s — and continues to have an impact decades after Morrison's death in 1971.

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All Tech Considered
4:57 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Yahoo's Other Billion-Dollar Bets: Where Are They Now?

Credit Mark J. Terrill / AP
GeoCities employees pose for a picture in 1999 after the Yahoo acquisition was announced. Yahoo quietly shut down GeoCities a decade later.

Yahoo's $1.1 billion purchase of Tumblr could be considered a bargain compared with its other big-dollar bets. The company's history is dotted with pricey purchases of once-hot Web properties that had more promise than eventual purpose. A look back:

GeoCities, 1999: $3.7 Billion

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NPR Story
4:28 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Tornado Ravages Oklahoma City Suburb

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 8:29 pm

Melissa Block talks to Joe Wertz of the public radio initiative State Impact about the tornado that hit the Oklahoma City area on Monday.

Performing Arts
4:28 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

At L.A.'s UnCabaret, 25 Years Of Letting It All Hang Out

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 8:07 pm

A lot of the stand-up comedy that gets done in Los Angeles is really just comics auditioning for parts in TV or movies.

Not at UnCabaret: For 25 years, it's been a place to hear unvarnished, rough-edged ideas being tried out — mostly for the first and possibly only time.

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Parallels
4:19 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

An Ancient Religious Pilgrimage That Now Draws The Secular

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 8:00 pm

A 1,200-year old European pilgrimage route is experiencing a revival. Last year alone, some 200,000 followed in the footsteps of their medieval forebears on the Way of St. James, making their way some 750 miles from Paris across France to the Spanish coastal city of Santiago de Compostela, and the relics of the eponymous apostle.

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Around the Nation
4:11 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

The Low-Tech Way Guns Get Traced

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 8:06 pm

Opponents of expanding background checks for gun sales often raise the fear that it would allow the government to create a national gun registry — a database of gun transactions. In fact, federal law already bans the creation of such a registry. And the reality of how gun sales records are accessed turns out to be surprisingly low-tech.

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Shots - Health News
4:09 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Latest Health Hurdle: Buying Insurance Without A Bank Account

Credit Mary Altaffer / AP
Millions of people who rely on check-cashing stores, like this one in New York City, could run into trouble buying health insurance.

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 4:43 pm

When movie stars become unbankable, they're no longer a slam dunk at the box office. When investments become unbankable, they're relegated to the Wall Street's junk pile. For ordinary Americans deemed unbankablethose who don't have a traditional checking or savings account — it can be hard to simply pay bills.

And that absence of a bank account is about to become a big problem for those who also lack health coverage — and for the health insurance companies trying to sell them coverage. After all, how do you sell a product to a customer who has no easy way to pay you?

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All Tech Considered
3:49 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

With New Xbox, Microsoft Makes A Bigger Play For Living Room

Credit Ric Francis / AP
An Xbox 360 video presentation at the E3 Media and Business Summit in Los Angeles in 2008. Microsoft is scheduled to introduce its newest Xbox on Tuesday.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 8:00 pm

Microsoft hasn't exactly had a great couple of years.

Its new Windows 8 operating system was held responsible for the drop in PC sales last quarter. Sales of its Windows Phones lag far behind both the iPhone and Google's Android phones.

The light in the darkness for Microsoft has been the Xbox 360, which has been the top-selling game console for over two years — beating out both the Nintendo Wii and Sony's PlayStation. On Tuesday, Microsoft is expected to announce a new version of the Xbox.

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The Two-Way
3:19 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Fox Calls U.S. Surveillance Of Its Reporter 'Downright Chilling'

Fox News said that it was "outraged," after learning that the Justice Department obtained the personal emails of one of its reporters during the course of a 2009 leak investigation.

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Parallels
3:02 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Iran's 'Zahra' Tells Alternate Tale Of Presidential Campaign

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 12:17 am

Iranians choose a new president next month, and one thing Iran's leaders are intent on avoiding is a repeat of the massive street protests that followed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election in 2009.

The sponsors of those protests, known as the Green Movement, have been effectively silenced inside Iran, but not online. The heroine of a graphic novel about the violent suppression of dissent in 2009 is now launching a virtual campaign of her own.

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The Two-Way
2:46 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

British Aircraft Carrier HMS Ark Royal Heads For Scrap Yard

Credit Kyle Heller / AP
The HMS Ark Royal steams into Portsmouth, England, for the last time on Dec. 3, 2010, in preparation for decommissioning.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 4:22 pm

The people of Portsmouth, England, on Monday turned out to bid farewell to the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, destined for a Turkish scrap yard after its decommissioning two years ago.

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The Salt
2:27 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Washington State Butcher Spikes Pig Feed With Weed

Credit Courtesy of BB Ranch
William von Schneidau, who owns the BB Ranch butcher shop at Pike Place Market in Seattle, has made prosciutto from pigs fed marijuana.

Originally published on Wed May 22, 2013 9:25 am

William von Schneidau, an intrepid butcher in Seattle, is giving a whole new meaning to "potbelly pig." Lately, he's been feeding marijuana refuse to the pigs he turns into prosciutto for BB Ranch, his butcher shop in the city's famous Pike Place Marke

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The Two-Way
2:06 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Beijing Angry Over North Korea's Seizure Of Chinese Fishermen

Credit Jung Yeon-je / AFP/Getty Images
North Korea's missile test over the weekend, along with the capture of Chinese fishermen, has soured Beijing-Pyongyang relations.

Beijing has long been about the closest thing to an ally that Pyongyang enjoys, but the seizure of a Chinese fishing boat by unidentified North Koreans has threatened to put an already tenuous relationship on even shakier ground.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei was quoted by The New York Times as making it fairly clear that his government was not happy about the development.

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The Salt
2:01 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Sandwich Monday: The Saltwich

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 2:48 pm

For years, one of the pieces of advice we've been ignoring is that we should really cut back on our salt intake. Now, a panel of experts convened by the Institute of Medicine says limiting salt below a certain amount may not really do us any good. Around here, we take this to mean: Eat as much salt as you can or you'll die.

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The Two-Way
1:44 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

WATCH: A Train Wreck Of A 'Star-Spangled Banner' Performance

Credit YouTube
Alexis Normand sings the anthem.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:27 pm

The Two-Way
1:35 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Turnabout Is Fair Play: Senators Have Many Questions For IRS

Credit Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images
Outgoing acting Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Steven Miller.

The Internal Revenue Service is under fire for improperly singling out some conservative groups for extra scrutiny — putting them through months (or longer) of questions that delayed or derailed the organizations' requests for tax-exempt status.

Well, now the chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee have some questions and requests — actually dozens of them — for the IRS.

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Parallels
1:05 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Pope Francis Puts The Poor Front And Center

Credit Andreas Solaro / AFP/Getty Images
Pope Francis blesses a child Sunday after the Holy Mass at St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 8:06 pm

Over the past week, Pope Francis has launched a crescendo of attacks on the global financial system and what he calls a "cult of money" that does not help the poor.

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