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Around the Nation
12:01 am
Thu February 9, 2012

Arizona Lawmakers Target Public Workers' Unions

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Labor unions are scheduled to rally in front of the Arizona State Capitol Thursday afternoon to protest four bills quickly moving through the state legislature that could make last year's Wisconsin labor laws look modest by comparison.

Three of the four bills restrict the way unions collect dues and the way workers get paid for union activities. The fourth bans collective bargaining between governments and government workers: state and local. Unlike Wisconsin, it affects all government employees, including police and firefighters.

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Asia
12:01 am
Thu February 9, 2012

China Laces Up Its Chuck Taylors

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Credit Frank Langfitt / NPR
Chuck Taylor All Stars are common on the streets of Shanghai. Xuan Zhihui, 62, a retiree from a state-owned factory, wears her daughter's hand-me-down sneakers, which are 15 years old. She says they're really comfortable.
Credit Frank Langfitt / NPR
My Tee in Shanghai carries loads of limited edition Chuck Taylors from cities in Japan and New York. Owner Kenny Lee considers some of them museum pieces and has refused to sell them despite offers of up to $3,000.
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Stroll along a street in downtown Shanghai for very long, and you're likely to run into someone wearing Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars. One recent afternoon, Xu Jing was heading back from lunch to her job at an ad company in a pair of raspberry-colored Chuck Taylors.

"They have a young image, upbeat and outdoorsy, sporty," said Xu, 27, explaining the appeal. "Young people with an artistic sense prefer Converse."

Xu was accompanied by Chen Xiaolei, a co-worker who owns three pairs of Chuck Taylor high-tops.

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Shots - Health Blog
12:01 am
Thu February 9, 2012

Tai Chi May Help Parkinson's Patients Regain Balance

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In a study, patients with Parkinson's disease, a progressive nervous-system disorder, had fewer falls after taking up Tai Chi.
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Originally published on Thu February 9, 2012 8:35 pm

Tai chi, the Chinese martial art involving slow and rhythmic movement, has been shown to benefit older people by maintaining balance and strength. Now, researchers have found that tai chi also helps patients who suffer from Parkinson's disease.

Leona Maricle was diagnosed with Parkinson's two years ago. At the time, she was teaching math, and she says she had experienced the telltale tremors of Parkinson's for a number of years. She learned how to cope.

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The Record
12:01 am
Thu February 9, 2012

Get To Know The Song Of The Year Nominees: Mumford And Sons' 'The Cave'

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Mumford & Sons.
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Originally published on Thu November 8, 2012 4:32 pm

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The Two-Way
6:30 pm
Wed February 8, 2012

Fabio Capello Quits As Manager Of England's National Soccer Team

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England's Italian manager Fabio Capello attends a training session at London Colney, England in May of 2011.
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By Eyder Peralta

In a surprise twist for one of the world's premiere national soccer teams, Fabio Capello resigned as England coach, today.

The resignation followed an hour-long meeting with top Football Association officials. The association made the news official in a press release posted on its website. The statement read in part:

"The discussions focused on The FA Board's decision to remove the England team captaincy from John Terry, and Fabio Capello's response through an Italian broadcast interview.

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Shots - Health Blog
6:17 pm
Wed February 8, 2012

'Congress Will Act': Fight Over Birth Control Coverage Moves To The Hill

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House Speaker John Boehner says Congress will intervene if President Obama doesn't reconsider a decision to compel church-affiliated employers to cover birth control in their health care plans.
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You didn't have to look hard to see this one coming.

Catholics and GOP candidates have attacked the Obama administration's plans to require most employers — including religious hospitals and schools — to provide coverage of prescription contraceptives. Now the debate is moving to Capitol Hill.

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The Salt
6:12 pm
Wed February 8, 2012

Does Offering Smaller Portions At Restaurants Help People Eat Less?

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About one-third of diners who were offered a smaller portion of noodles or rice at a Chinese takeout restaurant chose it.
Credit Courtesy of New York City Department of Health
A New York City Department of Health campaign promoting portion control depicts an amputee. But is he really?
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By Kristofor Husted

A server offers you the option to downsize the fried rice side in your Chinese takeout order by half. She tells you that if you accept her offer, you'll save at least 200 calories.

Do you take it?

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It's All Politics
6:06 pm
Wed February 8, 2012

Buoyant Santorum Takes Campaign To Texas — And Corrals Some Perry People

Credit Rex C. Curry / Associated Press
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum speaks at the Bella Donna Chapel in McKinney, Texas, on Wednesday.
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Fresh off his hat trick in Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum campaigned in Texas on Wednesday, speaking to a group of pastors at Bella Donna Chapel in the town of McKinney.

Forty miles north of Dallas, where black prairie dirt meets the fresh poured concrete of suburbia, this is Rick Santorum country.

This used to be Texas Gov. Rick Perry country.

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National Security
5:38 pm
Wed February 8, 2012

A New Weapon Against Nukes: Social Media

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Credit DigtialGlobe / AP
This satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe, taken in 2010, shows the Yongbyon nuclear complex in North Korea. The Institute for Science and International Security monitors satellite images for updates to nuclear facilities.
Credit Brendan Smialowski / Getty Images
New START negotiator Rose Gottemoeller speaks to reporters in 2010 in Washington, D.C. The acting undersecretary of state for arms control is looking into ways social media tools can help regulate nuclear weapons.
Credit DigitalGlobe / AP
This satellite image of Sudan was made available by the Satellite Sentinel Project in 2011. It appears to be a mass grave, offering the first aerial photographs from a conflict zone that outside observers can't access.
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Here are two things you don't often hear mentioned in the same sentence: social media and nuclear weapons.

Rose Gottemoeller, acting undersecretary of state for arms control, quickly links those two unlikely partners in conversation. She's behind a campaign to discover how new communications tools can help rid the world of some of the dangers of nuclear weapons.

Crowdsourcing Nuclear Problems

Gottemoeller is an avid user of Twitter, and it made her wonder how Twitter and other methods of crowdsourcing a problem can help her in her work.

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Asia
5:05 pm
Wed February 8, 2012

Home Of Noted Beijing Architect Reduced To Rubble

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Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
Liang Sicheng, known as the father of modern Chinese architecture, lobbied Mao Zedong to preserve ancient buildings in Beijing. Despite efforts to have his former courtyard home in Beijing preserved as a cultural relic, it was recently demolished.
Credit Louisa Lim / NPR
Yan Lianke is one of China's most famous authors, known for his absurdist stories about sensitive subjects. He moved into a new house in 2008, and a year later was told it would be knocked down to make way for development.
Credit Anonymous / AP
Children play in a traditional residential district in Beijing that is undergoing demolition, in April 2011. Despite public protest, historic and new homes are being destroyed all over the city to make way for development.
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Originally published on Wed February 8, 2012 7:09 pm

Down a quiet Beijing alleyway on a recent day, as the winter wind whistles, two men stand guard over a pile of bricks hidden behind a corrugated iron fence.

The pile of rubble was once the home of the man known as the father of modern Chinese architecture, Liang Sicheng. The Orwellian reason for its demolition? "For maintenance," according to a Xinhua news agency report, citing the developer, Fuheng Real Estate company.

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