On this week's Open Air, Alan Farley talks with composer and performer Meredith Monk.  Monk has a prominent role in the San Francisco Symphony's American Mavericks Festival.  He also visits with Michael Gene Sulllivan, who is directing "Julius Caesar" for the African American Shakespeare Company.   Here the broadcast anytime this week via KALW's Local Music Player.

We have two pieces of economic news this morning:

-- First the Labor Department announced that while American workers were more productive at the end of last year, the gains in productivity slowed. The AP reports that could "signal that companies are ready to hire more workers."

The AP adds:

As has been the case with all of Apple's product unveilings, there is a shroud of secrecy surrounding today's impending announcement.

Today, Apple has invited media to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco for a 1 p.m. ET. event. The only clue provided by Apple was a typically cryptic invitation with a picture of an iPad and a few words: "We have something you really have to see. And touch."

Our friends at It's All Politics have started to digest the results of Super Tuesday. In a nutshell, it pretty much left us where we were before the 10 big contests: All four candidates are still in the race and the campaign will go on and on.

There were two non-presidential pieces of news from last night, too:

The first batch of Oreo cookies was made at the original Nabisco bakery in New York in 1912. The company is releasing limited edition "Birthday Cake" Oreos.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

As they counted up the votes on Super Tuesday, you could almost hear Celine Dion singing that theme song from Titanic — the one about how her heart and the whole tragic tale would go on.

And on.

So it is with this year's Republican presidential contest.

Usually by this time in the picture, the GOP has given its heart to its hero and it's lights out for the rest of the cast. But once again this week, the GOP of 2012 refused to read the usual script.

Dunkin Donuts is aiming to nearly double its outlets in China. To help meet its goal, the donut chain has come up with pork donuts. The company even recruited NBA star LeBron James to pitch the new treats to Chinese consumers.

In Houston Tuesday, a federal jury convicted Texas financier R. Allen Stanford of running a massive Ponzi scheme. Jurors agreed with prosecutors, who claimed he ran a global scheme that lasted more than 20 years and involved more than $7 billion in investments.