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3:55 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

Republican Grab For Senate Seats May Not Come Easy

Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 4:49 pm

Melissa Block talks with senior Washington editor Ron Elving about the Senate races to watch on Tuesday.

The Two-Way
3:50 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

Shh! 400-Foot-Long Trailer Carrying Radioactive Material Is On Secret Mission

Credit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1TBWJw4q50&feature=plcp
A screen image from a Mack Trucks video about one of the earlier hauls.
The Salt
3:48 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

Cookies, Wax And The Vote: Kids Choose The Next President

Originally published on Wed November 7, 2012 3:14 pm

Election Day is Tuesday, and it's easy to forget about those who don't have a vote — children. But it can be a fun experience if parents take the time to include the kids, and maybe bribe them with a little sugar.

Over the weekend, the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum in Washington D.C, did just that. Kids got to make patriotic sugar cookies, personally meet all the American presidents' wax figures and vote for the next president of the United States.

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Movies
3:43 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

Lincoln's Screen Legacy, Decidedly Larger Than Life

Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 4:49 pm

He's a statue in many a monument, a profile on the penny, a face on the $5 bill, and an animatronic robot at Disneyland. He's even carved into a mountain in South Dakota. So, of course, Abe Lincoln has been a character in the movies — more than 300 of them, in fact.

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Shots - Health News
3:40 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

For Simple Care, Retail Clinics Are A Popular Choice

Credit Marvin Fong / The Plain Dealer/Landov
Nurse practitioner Leah Martin examines 13-month-old Mia Beavers at a CVS clinic in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, in early 2009. Mia's mother, Brittany, looks on.

Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 4:01 pm

If you've got the sniffles or need a shot, do you go to the doctor or stop in at a clinic in a nearby drugstore?

Lots of people are opting for the clinics, which are springing up inside grocery stores, big-box retailers and chain drugstores across the country. There are already 1,388 clinics like these in the U.S., according to data from Merchant Medicine, a consulting firm.

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Middle East
3:40 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

In Syria's Biggest City, A Deadly Stalemate

Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 7:16 pm

Before the Syrian uprising, Aleppo was many things: Syria's largest city, its economic hub and cultural capital, one of the oldest, continuously occupied cities in the world.

Now, Aleppo has a more ominous distinction: a city that's seen some of the worst destruction, not only in Syria, but of any battleground in many years.

It's been more than three months since rebels in Syria launched an offensive to take Aleppo. In the early days of the offensive, the rebels were able to take about half the city.

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It's All Politics
2:09 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

What Else Could $6 Billion Buy?

Credit Adek Berry / AFP/Getty Images
The Italian-built Lamborghini Aventador costs nearly $400,000. The money spent on election 2012 — for TV ads and other things — could theoretically get you more than 15,000 of these V12 cars. But that's a lot more than have been built.

Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 2:39 pm

The cost of the 2012 election will top a record $6 billion, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. If you find it difficult to visualize that figure, here are a few other ways to think about what $6 billion could buy:

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Author Interviews
1:52 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

An 'Oddly Normal' Outcome For A Singular Child

Originally published on Thu November 8, 2012 11:59 am

John Schwartz and Jeanne Mixon first suspected that their son, Joe, was gay when he was 3 years old — and they wanted to be as supportive and helpful as they could.

"As parents you love kids," Schwartz tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "As parents, you want your kid to be happy."

Schwartz and Mixon drew on the experiences they had raising their other two children and by asking their gay friends about the best way to talk to Joe about his sexuality.

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Book Reviews
1:52 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

Caring For Mom, Dreaming Of 'Elsewhere'

Credit Elena Seibert / Courtesy of Knopf
Richard Russo was awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for Empire Falls. His other novels include Mohawk and The Risk Pool.

Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 2:11 pm

Something must have been in the tap water in Gloversville, N.Y., during the 1950s when Richard Russo was growing up there — something, that is, besides the formaldehyde, chlorine, lime, lead, sulfuric acid and other toxic byproducts that the town's tanneries leaked out daily.

But one day, a droplet of mead must have fallen into the local reservoir and Russo gulped it down, because, boy, does he have the poet's gift. In a paragraph or even a phrase, Russo can summon up a whole world, and the world he writes most poignantly about is that of the industrial white working class.

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Middle East
1:32 pm
Mon November 5, 2012

U.S. Presses Fractured Syrian Opposition To Unite

Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 2:27 pm

Could a united Syrian opposition be the game changer that finally topples President Bashar Assad, after almost 20 months of revolt and more than 30,000 dead?

"You need a game changer, either military or political, and hope it will break the stalemate," says Amr Azm, a Syrian-born professor at Shawnee State University in Ohio.

The Obama administration appears to embrace this view, and last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the surprise announcement that the U.S. backed a plan to overhaul the Syrian opposition.

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