All Things Considered

Monday - Friday, 3:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. on KUOW
Melissa Block and Robert Siegel

Hear KUOW and NPR award-winning hosts and reporters from around the globe present some of the nation's best reporting  of the day's events, interviews, analysis and reviews on All Things Considered.

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World
1:30 pm
Fri September 28, 2012

Pakistani Minister Stands By Bounty For Filmmaker

Credit Aamir Qureshi / AFP/Getty Images
Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, Pakistan's railways minister, has offered $100,000 for the death of a filmmaker who produced an anti-Islam movie. He says it's the "only way" to stop insults to the Prophet Muhammad.

Originally published on Fri September 28, 2012 4:24 pm

Despite international condemnation, Pakistan's railways minister says he isn't backing down from his $100,000 bounty offer to anyone who kills the maker of the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims.

Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, the slight, silver-haired minister, says he was angry when he saw the video and that he's a man of great faith, passionately devoted to the Prophet Muhammad.

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It's All Politics
1:24 pm
Fri September 28, 2012

In Blue-Leaning Connecticut, Tight Senate Race Has Democrat On Offense

Originally published on Fri September 28, 2012 4:24 pm

It might seem counterintuitive, but the man running against Republican Linda McMahon in her second attempt at becoming Connecticut's first female senator wants this race to be all about women.

Democratic Rep. Chris Murphy released an ad this week, hammering McMahon's stance on women's health and reminding voters of McMahon's former role as CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment.

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Deceptive Cadence
1:08 pm
Fri September 28, 2012

Gustavo Dudamel On The Magic Of Stravinsky's 'Crazy Music'

Credit Courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Originally published on Tue October 16, 2012 12:46 pm

This Sunday, a landmark composition of the 20th century will be webcast by NPR, and led by the quintessential 21st century conductor: 31-year-old Gustavo Dudamel, who will conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring). Dudamel spoke about his experience of this earthshaking piece with All Things Considered host Robert Siegel.

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Planet Money
12:02 pm
Fri September 28, 2012

The Weird Story Of Why Helium Prices Are Going Through The Roof

Originally published on Mon October 1, 2012 6:51 am

For More: Pork, Helium, Maple Syrup: Our Favorite Strategic Reserves

Back in the 1920s, the U.S. government thought blimps might be the next big thing in warfare. So the government started producing helium. And they created the Federal Helium Reserve, a vast store of helium that sits underground in the Texas panhandle.

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Law
10:50 am
Fri September 28, 2012

'Innocence Of Muslims' Filmmaker Arrested

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the man responsible for an anti-Islamic video that sparked unrest in the Middle East, has been arrested. He was taken into custody for violating probation related to a previous check fraud conviction. Robert Siegel talks with Carrie Kahn about his court hearing.

Education
10:31 am
Fri September 28, 2012

New Wave Of School Integration In Birmingham, Ala.

Originally published on Sat September 29, 2012 4:05 pm

When Laura Kate Whitney enrolled her 4-year-old, Grey, at Avondale Elementary, a public school in Birmingham, Ala., she and her husband were bucking a trend. Whitney and her husband are white, middle-class professionals. Public schools in Birmingham are 95 percent black, and 90 percent of the students are on free or reduced lunch.

Whitney's is one of about two-dozen similar families who are not buying into the conventional tradeoff that if you live within city limits and have means, you send your kids to private schools.

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Sports
2:50 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

'One Last Strike' The Tale Of A Storied Baseball Career

Credit YES Network / Courtesy of William Morrow
La Russa managed the St. Louis Cardinals from 1996 to 2011. He won the World Series titles with them in 2006 and 2011.

Originally published on Fri September 28, 2012 9:13 am

One Last Strike is Tony La Russa's memoir of the 2011 major league baseball season and, in passing, a memoir of his very successful career as a big league manager. Last season, La Russa led the St. Louis Cardinals out of nowhere to win the National League wildcard slot, and then, improbably, advanced to the League Championship Series and the World Series. The Cards won the title in what was one of the great World Series of all time.

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NPR Cities: Urban Life In The 21st Century
2:29 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

Aurora, Colo., Tries To Capitalize On Its Ethnic Riches

Originally published on Fri September 28, 2012 10:00 am

Aurora, Colo., became a familiar name this summer, in the wake of a mass shooting at a local movie theater.

But there's much more to this Denver suburb than the recent tragedy. Just ask Ethiopian immigrant Fekade Balcha. Balcha's apartment, on Aurora's north side, sits in a dense neighborhood of squat brick apartment buildings and tiny homes.

"You see, in our apartment, there are Russians, Mexicans, Africans," Balcha says. "From Ethiopia, Somalia, Nigeria, and something like that."

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Around the Nation
2:29 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

Despite Record Drought, Farmers Expect Banner Year

Originally published on Fri September 28, 2012 9:39 am

After one of the driest summers on record, recent rains have helped in some parts of the country. But overall, the drought has still intensified. The latest tracking classifies more than a fifth of the contiguous United States in "extreme or exceptional" drought, the worst ratings.

In some parts of the Lower Midwest, water-starved crops have collapsed, but the farmers have not. Farmers across the country are surviving, and many are even thriving. This year, despite the dismal season, farmers stand to make exceptionally good money, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Africa
1:54 pm
Thu September 27, 2012

Questions Still Linger After U.S. Consulate Attack

Originally published on Thu September 27, 2012 2:50 pm

Two weeks after the attacks that killed the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, there is still confusion about what exactly happened and whether the United States might have prevented the tragedy. Critics of the Obama administration accuse the White House of dissembling about the attack. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston talks to Melissa Block.

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