Search results for

The nation's unemployment rate fell to the lowest point in six years this June, while the number of workers on the payroll jumped much higher than expected. Moreover, hourly earnings posted the largest gain on record. As NPR's Jim Zarroli reports, it was enough for a campaigning President Clinton to quickly claim credit, while Wall Street reacted out of fears that inflation...and rising interest rates...are around the corner.

13 Steps Down is the latest of 60 murder and suspense novels written by Ruth Rendell (some using the pseudonym Barbara Vine). She's also Baroness of Babergh, a member of Britain's House of Lords. She tells Debbie Elliott about her writing.

More and more, companies such as Microsoft, Boeing and IBM are throwing out traditional job interview questions in favor of queries like "If you had to remove one state, which would it be?" NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports that the goal is to find out how a potential employee really thinks. See sample questions.

. Last week's outbreak of violence in the West Bank and Gaza has jeopardized the process and many are blaming Prime Minister Netanhayhu.

Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa becomes first Latino elected as Los Angeles mayor in over 100 years. His rise in Los Angeles politics marks a distinct shift in California's largest city.

NPR's Mike Shuster reports that the United States is alarmed at the escalating fighting in the West Bank and Gaza and is calling on all sides in the clashes not to take "unduly provocative action." US officials are surprised at the speed and level of the violence and are afraid it is endangering the Middle East peace process that they thought was slowly moving ahead.

A hospital in southeastern England is trying to identify a man the British press have dubbed the Piano Man. He was found on a Kent County beach wearing a soaking wet suit and tie. He could not or would not speak, but drew detailed pictures of a grand piano. When later shown to a piano, the man played for two hours. Melissa Block talks to his social worker, Michael Camp of Medway Maritime Hospital.

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has 78 open investigations into fraud and corruption in the Coalition Provisional Authority. This spring, two men pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud. Last winter, two Army officers were arrested on similar charges. Those cases appear to be only the beginning of reconstruction fraud cases.

In John Sandford's new thriller Broken Prey, middle-aged Minneapolis police officer Lucas Davenport takes time out from crime-solving to compile a list of the top 100 rock songs for a road trip.

A report by Save the Children singles out northern Uganda as a center of childhood conscription by the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group there. Eighteen years of civil war in the region have displaced approximately 2 million people. David McGuffin reports from Gulu in northern Uganda.

The Kansas Board of Education is arguably the most controversial in the country -- at least outside of Kansas. Its highly publicized stand on evolution in the science curriculum brought the state international attention and criticism. But the board members say they're representing their own strong convictions, and those of their constituents.

During the 1940s and '50s, Dameron focused his considerable compositional talents on the emerging jazz style called bebop. During a relatively brief period, Dameron composed a body of work that helped define and expand the parameters of this music.