Funerals Begin In Tornado-Ravaged Moore, Okla.

Credit Katie Hayes Luke / Katie Hayes Luke for NPR
Players, coaches and parents collected donations Wednesday in Oklahoma city for the Angle Family, who lost their daughter Sydney, and their home, in the tornado. Sydney was No. 35 on a softball team called 'Bring It'.

Funerals began Thursday for the 24 people known to have been killed by the tornado that devastated Moore, Okla., on Monday.

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The Two-Way
1:21 am
Thu March 7, 2013

Alvin Lee Is Going Home: 'Ten Years After' Guitarist Dies

Originally published on Thu March 7, 2013 8:18 am

Guitarist Alvin Lee, whose incendiary performance with the British band Ten Years After was one of the highlights of the 1969 Woodstock festival, has died.

He was 68. Lee's website says he "passed away early this morning [Wednesday] after unforeseen complications following a routine surgical procedure." An assistant to his daughter also confirmed the news to NPR.

His band's biggest hit — "I'd Love to Change the World" — came a couple years after Woodstock. We'll embed a clip from that.

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The Two-Way
6:38 pm
Wed March 6, 2013

Law Targets Sexual Violence On College Campuses

Originally published on Fri March 15, 2013 10:30 am

When President Obama signs an updated version of the Violence Against Women Act on Thursday afternoon, the law will include new requirements for how colleges and universities handle allegations of sexual assault.

Laura Dunn, who's been invited by the White House to attend, plans to be there.

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Politics and Government
6:23 pm
Wed March 6, 2013

Fallin Accepts CNG Vehicles

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -_ Gov. Mary Fallin has accepted delivery of more than a dozen compressed natural gas-fueled pickup trucks that are being added to Oklahoma's fleet of vehicles.  Fallin said Wednesday that the CNG vehicles will cut the state's vehicle fuel costs and help reduce harmful exhaust emissions.  The trucks were delivered by John Vance Motors of Guthrie and Chrysler executives.

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Politics and Government
6:22 pm
Wed March 6, 2013

E-Cigarette Bill Passes Senate

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A bill that would prevent youth access to electronic cigarettes has been approved in the Senate.  The Senate voted 26-15 on Wednesday for the bill that also limits the taxes that can be levied on the so-called ``e-cigarettes.''  An alternative to traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution and create vapor that users inhale. Under current law, there is no age restriction on the purchase of these products.  The bill would prohibit anyone under 18 from purchasing any vapor or tobacco-derived products.  The measure

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State Capitol
6:21 pm
Wed March 6, 2013

Pinnell Won't Seek Third Term

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Matt Pinnell says he won't seek another term in office when his term expires next month.


Pinnell said Wednesday he would not run for a third term at the Oklahoma Republican Party Convention on April 20. First elected in 2010 when former Chairman Gary Jones ran for Oklahoma auditor and inspector, Pinnell was re-elected to a full two-year term in 2011.

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Education
6:15 pm
Wed March 6, 2013

Low-Performing Schools Bill Passes Senate

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Parents of children in low performing Oklahoma public schools could petition to have them converted to charters school and, in some cases, have a principal and other administrators fired, under a bill approved by the Senate. 

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The Two-Way
4:58 pm
Wed March 6, 2013

Fossils Suggest Giant Descendants Of Modern Camels Roamed The Canadian Arctic

Credit Julius Csotonyi
Illustration of the High Arctic camel on Ellesmere Island during the Pliocene warm period, aboutthree-and-a-half million years ago. The camels lived in a boreal-type forest. The habitat includeslarch trees and the depiction is based on records of plant fossils found at nearby fossil deposits.

Originally published on Thu March 7, 2013 10:49 am

Camels belong in the desert. That's what we've learned since grade school.

Today, NPR's Melissa Block talked to Natalia Rybczynski, a paleobiologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, who tells Melissa that fossils she has unearthed tell a different story.

The fossils, found on a frigid ridge in Canada's High Arctic, show that modern camels actually come from giant relatives that roamed the forests of Ellesmere Island 3.5 million years ago.

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Economy
4:58 pm
Wed March 6, 2013

Time For The Fed To Take Away The Punch Bowl?

Credit Carolyn Kaster / AP
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies before the Senate Banking Committee in Washington last month. Some analysts wonder if he and other policymakers have kept interest rates too low for too long.

Originally published on Thu March 7, 2013 10:49 am

The stock market's long climb from its recession bottom has some people concerned it may be a bubble about to burst — a bubble artificially pumped up by the Federal Reserve's easy-money policy. That's led to calls — even from within the Fed — for an end to the central bank's extraordinary efforts to keep interest rates low.

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The Two-Way
4:57 pm
Wed March 6, 2013

House Gives OK To $982 Billion Short-Term Spending Bill

The House has approved a bill to fund the federal government through the end of September. The $982 billion continuing resolution introduced by Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY), who heads the Appropriations Committee, would avoid a potential government shutdown on March 27.

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The Two-Way
4:53 pm
Wed March 6, 2013

U.S. Spent Too Much In Iraq, Got Little In Return, Watchdog Report Says

Credit Evan Vucci / AP
Ten years and $60 billion in taxpayer funds later, Iraq is still so unstable and broken that even its leaders question whether U.S. efforts to rebuild it were worth the cost. That's the finding of a report to Congress by Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Originally published on Wed March 6, 2013 5:13 pm

A decade and $60 billion later what does the U.S. have to show for the reconstruction efforts in Iraq? That's the question being answered by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction in his final report to Congress.

The report by Stuart Bowen was based upon audits and inspections, as well as interviews with Iraqi and U.S. officials and politicians. Here's the crux of what happened to that money, according to the report:

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