What's new

Tales of Jesse James's exploits have grown to almost mythological proportions since the actual man and his gang galloped over the plains stealing horses, holding up trains, and robbing banks in the years after the Civil War. Shot All To Hell: Jesse James, The Northfield Raid, and the Wild West's Greatest Escape is a new book about the legendary man.

Most people know that Jesse James, and his brother Frank were outlaws, but not why. As author Mark Lee Gardner tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Don Gonyea, it was the violence and hatred of the Civil War that led Jesse and his gang to crime.

"It changed them permanently," he says. "Jesse was whipped by militia soldiers who were trying to get information on Frank's whereabouts. And then after that Jesse had to witness his step-father being strung up and tortured and suffocated, trying to get information from the family."

As Gardner noted, those experiences can certainly warp a person. Jesse started fighting in Missouri as a bushwhacker, or guerrilla warrior, at the age of 16. Other members in the gang, the Younger brothers, also had terrible experiences during the Civil war.

"Their father is murdered by federal militia." Gardner says. "He was a very prominent business man in Jackson County, Missouri. "

The Muslim Brotherhood, which has a presence in dozens of Muslim countries, has been banned, repressed or restricted for much of its more than eight-decade history in Egypt, the place where it was born.

After ruling Egypt for the past year, the group was effectively ousted when the military overthrew Mohammed Morsi as president on July 3. The security forces have cracked down on the Brotherhood and its supporters this past week, resulting in deadly clashes leaving hundreds dead.

Here is a brief history of the Islamist group:

Early Years

The Brotherhood was founded in 1928 in Egypt by Hassan al-Banna, an Islamic scholar and schoolteacher, and has been a political, religious and social movement. It has spread throughout the Islamic world and is often described as the single most influential Islamic movement.

The Brotherhood seeks rule by Islamic law, though it also says it accepts democracy. Time and again, the group survived attempts to weaken or crush it.

"The history of the Brotherhood is different phases where you have crackdowns and then a slow softening of the policy where the Brotherhood can operate, find some modus vivendi with the government, and operate through the crevices and the gaps that the regime allows them to operate under," says Vidino Lorenzo, senior researcher at the Center for Security Studies in Zurich, Switzerland, and author of The New Muslim Brotherhood in the West.

The Brotherhood briefly supported President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s before he cracked down, viewing the group as a threat. It was subject to severe repression in the 1950s and '60s. But in the 1970s, under President Anwar Sadat, there was a softening.

Enlarge image i

Egypt witnessed the bloodiest day in its modern history this week. More than 600 people were killed, most during a security crackdown on supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

And it isn't over. Dozens more have died since, some in citizen-on-citizen violence. A standoff is going on at a central Cairo mosque. And the nation is spiraling out of control. This, as much of Egypt has little sympathy for Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood or their supporters.

In a vibrant shopping district in central Cairo, people heap praise on Egypt's military. The military that overthrew Morsi after millions took to the streets to demand his ouster. The military that appointed this new government. And the cabinet that ordered a crackdown so brutal that there were too many bodies for the state to process in a timely manner.

All of it is for the good of Egypt. So says Mustapha Ali, a student who sells watches at this marketplace.

The Muslim Brotherhood are terrorizing innocent people, he says. He adds that he trusts the army. The military would would never hurt Egyptians, he says.

To many here the Muslim Brotherhood is just a bunch of terrorists. The group propelled Morsi to power through elections last year, and few outside of the pro-Morsi marchers have sympathy for them. It is a narrative that's been in part shaped by local TV channels.

On state television anchors read out the news. A constant tag in the corner is written in English: "EGYPT FIGHTING TERORRISM."

On a privately owned pro-military channel,333 a reporter interviewed detainees overnight. More than 1,000 people have been arrested by security forces. He shoves a microphone into a scared looking Pakistani man's face.

Why are you in Egypt? Did you go to the protests?

The man is bewildered. He answers in broken Arabic: I'm working, just for work.

It is an alarming indication of the broad social mandate for extreme use of force against the Brotherhood and its supporters. The overwhelming majority of those dead are pro-Morsi protesters. And the state blames the Brotherhood for concocting what it calls a terrorist conspiracy against the state.

Ziad Akl, is an analyst at an Egyptian think tank.

"What we're seeing is basically how the army very much shaped the public perceptions of Egyptians," Akl said. "On the other hand, of course, what we're seeing is the very normal, expected result of the Muslim Brotherhood's political attitude."

Morsi committed human rights violations during his rule, he tried to fill the state with his own supporters and exclude others.

And the bloodbaths today, no matter how horrific, are widely accepted, Akl said.

"We will not necessarily see a civil war, but what we're seeing right now is probably a state of social aggression that the Islamic movement has never known before in Egypt," he says.

As the death toll mounts, the nation is fracturing and the military is firmly in power. The Brotherhood refuses to leave the streets, seeing this as a fight for its survival. And the military and police show no signs of stopping the crackdown.

Tamarrod, the youth movement that started the signature campaign that led to the military coup, is fanning the flames.

The head of the group, Mohammed Badr, spoke to a local channel.

"The Muslim Brotherhood says they'll burn Egypt if they don't get what they want," Badr said. "But this country is bigger than them."

He calls on Egyptians to protect the streets and stand with the army. Armed vigilantes are roaming neighborhoods and clashing with Muslim Brotherhood supporters. Some among the pro-Brotherhood protesters are also armed.

Tamarrod also launched a signature campaign to reject U.S. aid and cancel the peace treaty with Israel. It was spurred by the U.S. condemnation of the bloodbath on Wednesday.

Back in the marketplace in the central Cairo district of Attaba, a mile away from major clashes, Mustapha Ali is not a minority voice. Others echo the same sentiments of the student selling watches. The army is saving Egypt from terrorists.

We walk into a shop where Nasser Sh'aalaan sells women's clothes. God help us, he says, and drops his head. He is a minority voice on the street.

Nasser says Egypt's army shouldn't support some Egyptians against others.

He says we don't want Morsi or his Muslim Brotherhood and we don't want military rule; we want someone humane.

Another man in the shop yells out, God burn the Brotherhood leaders!

Nasser accuses the man of being a remnant of the old regime. It is an argument that echoes across the country as Egyptians watch the country burn on live television.

The United States Department of Agriculture has crunched the numbers and it concludes today that if you had a child in 2012, it'll cost you $241,080 to raise him or her for next 17 years.

If you adjust it for inflation, that number soars to $301,970.

This represents a 2.6 percent increase from 2011. The USDA reports:

"Expenses for child care, education, health care, and clothing saw the largest percentage increases related to child rearing from 2011. However, there were smaller increases in housing, food, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses during the same period. The 2.6 percent increase from 2011 to 2012 is also lower than the average annual increase of 4.4 percent since 1960."

Wal-Mart is blaming depressed demand amid a still-shaky economy and a rise in payroll taxes for disappointing earnings in the quarter ending July 31.

The world's largest retailer said Thursday that its net income rose to $4.07 billion, barely above the $4.02 billion it earned in the same quarter last year.

According to Reuters, sales at U.S. stores that have been open for at least one year fell 0.3 percent.

"The retail environment was challenging across all of our markets," Wal-Mart President and CEO Mike Duke said on a conference call.

Bloomberg reports:

"Wal-Mart's sales have been hampered this year by a 2 percentage point increase in Social Security taxes that has reduced spending among its shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck. Jerry Murray, a former vice president of finance and logistics at the retailer, said in a February e-mail obtained by Bloomberg News that the sales that month had been a 'total disaster.'

" 'The 2 percent payroll tax increase continues to impact our customer,' Bill Simon, Wal-Mart's U.S. president and CEO, said in today's statement. The company also expected sales to be helped by rising grocery prices, which didn't occur in a 'meaningful way,' he said."

After the bloodshed, comes the grief.

A man weeps as he surveys row upon row of corpses. Some are completely burned. "They are all my brothers," he cries.

Nearby, men methodically break apart blocks of ice in two caskets inside this Cairo mosque. They then place them under the bodies to stop them from decomposing.

But still the sickly sweet smell of death hangs in the air.

Volunteers burn incense and spray air freshener to mask it but it only adds to the stifling atmosphere.

Everywhere you look families cry out in sorrow. More than 200 bodies are being prepared for burial here, at the El-Iman mosque.

These corpses were brought to this place after the main camp for Morsi supporters was forcibly evacuated and set on fire by security forces Wednesday night. The blazes lit up the night sky and on Thursday, ashes still smolder.

Families preparing to bury the dead say they've been facing hurdles. They need a government issued certificate with the cause of death. They're claiming that the state is pressuring relatives to say the victims committed suicide or died of natural causes.

A woman rails against Egypt's head of police. "God burn him. God take vengeance on him," she cries.

Nearby a father and son have received the worst news. They sit huddled together in shock dealing with the loss of a son, a brother. His name was Omar.

"He was a hero," says Omar's brother, Mohamed Abdel Moneim. "He was shot saving others who were under fire, helping the wounded."

But if the brutal crackdown was supposed to put an end to the turmoil here, it seems to have had the opposite effect.

At the entrance of the mosque people chant defiantly: "Oh Martyrs sleep, and we will continue the struggle," they say. "Wait for us at heaven's gate."

Hundreds are gathered in support of Morsi and against the military.

Amr Mohammed wanders in to the area. The bespectacled consultant works nearby. He and a protester begin to argue over Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who became Egypt's first democratically elected president, but was ousted by the military last month.

The protester yells, "You want me to forgo the ballot box, and let them throw my vote in the trash?"

Mohammed responds, "The votes that were cast are gone now, we don't want strife.

"This isn't strife," says the protester, "this is an uprising for rights."

A man nearby shushes them. This isn't the time or the place he says. Behind them more bodies are being carried in and out of the mosque.

Mohammed blames the Brotherhood for bringing Egypt to this point. The protesters were warned to disperse and they refused, he says. Later, I ask him why he came to this pro-Morsi protest: "People I believe should talk to each other. Other than this it's a disaster. We are divided, and we will continue to be more and more divided. It cannot continue like this."

It's a lone voice of reason in a country that seems to be hurtling into an abyss.

And the violence is continuing although much less widespread than Wednesday. A mob stormed a government building in Giza and set it on fire. And in Sinai at least seven soldiers were shot dead by unknown assailants. Forty-three members of the security services were killed Wednesday.

The rhetoric from the government has hardened. The Cabinet issued an ominous statement saying it was determined to counter "terrorist acts" and will use force in the face of any attacks on citizens or the state.

Civilians are being referred to military trials. Yet another sign of the army taking control of the state.

At a press briefing at the foreign ministry, officials showed video of dead policeman and Morsi supporters firing weapons during Wednesday's clashes. Deputy Foreign Minister Hatem Seif el Nasr defended the decision to impose a state of emergency: "If you don't impose a state of emergency in a situation like this when are you going to impose it?"

At nightfall, Muslim Brotherhood leaders called for protest marches in Cairo and elsewhere in defiance of the government-ordered curfew.

Austenland

Director: Jerusha Hess

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Running Time: 97 minutes

Rated PG-13 for for some suggestive content and innuendo

With: Jane Seymour, Keri Russell, Jennifer Coolidge, Bret McKenzie, Georgia King, James Callis, Ricky Whittle, JJ Feild

Visitors to a zoo in China got a rude surprise when the lion started barking.

Turns out it was no lion, but just a Tibetan mastiff, a large, hairy breed of dog — which, for what it's worth, more closely resembles the king of the jungle than does perhaps any other domestic canine.

Apparently, officials in Louhe city zoo in central Henan province hoped no one would notice when they decided to make the switch and send the enclosure's regular resident, an African lion, away to a breeding center.

"One family surnamed Liu took their six-year-old son to the zoo in People's Park," reported the local Dahe Daily newspaper.

"On the way, Mrs. Liu was teaching her son all the sounds that the different animals make. But when they arrived, her son said the lion was barking like a dog."

Criticism was sharp, swift and almost universal in the wake of the Egyptian military's deadly crackdown on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi and the declaration of a state of emergency. Many experts questioned whether Egypt would be able to return to anything resembling democracy in the near future.

"I don't think it's right for us to even talk about a democratic transition in Egypt," Shadi Hamid, director of research for the Brookings Doha Center, told NPR's Tell Me More. "The transition is over. And again, what we might be seeing is something worse than what happened under [former President Hosni] Mubarak."

Those sentiments were echoed by Steven A. Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. In a piece headlined "Mubarak Still Rules," Cook argued in Foreign Policy magazine that "the 'revolution' that really never was, is over."

"Just as Egypt's political system before the January 25 [2011] uprising was rigged in favor of Mubarak and his constituents, the Brothers sought to stack the new order in their favor, and today's winners will build a political system that reflects their interests. ... Although virtually all political actors have leveraged the language of political reform and espoused liberal ideas, they have nevertheless sought to wield power through exclusion. This has created an environment in which the losers do not process their grievances through elections, parliamentary debate, consensus-building, and compromise — but through military intervention and street protests. This plays into the hands of those powerful groups embedded within the state who have worked to restore the old order almost from the time that Hosni Mubarak stepped down into ignominy two and a half years ago."

Before Syria's civil war, Al Houleh was a small, quiet farming region to the north of Homs. But a massacre last year, blamed on government loyalists, left several dozen villagers dead.

Since then, the Al Houleh region has become rebel-held territory, and government troops are choking it. Trapped in the siege are several hundred civilians, all of them related to the rebels.

As I spoke inside a home with some women and children from the village of Taldo, a fighter jet pierced the sky. The reaction was a contrast to what you'd see in Damascus where hardly anyone looks up when they hear a sonic boom.

But in Taldo, within an instant everyone went from gregarious to panic-stricken. I was no exception.

"Sshhh," said Um Ahmad when I asked if we should perhaps move to the basement for shelter.

"We have to listen closely," she said. "If the plane starts to get louder like it's descending, then it means he's about to bomb us."

Frequent Airstrikes

The bombs can fall anywhere at anytime, and kill anyone. And they do.

In the past couple of weeks, there was the 18-year-old who was washing up at home as he planned to head over to the mosque for Friday prayer. A shell fell on his home and killed him instantly.

There was the middle-aged father of six who was smuggling bags of wheat flour across Houleh Lake.

"He's still in the lake," Um Ahmad said. His body has not yet been found.

Enlarge image i

There were 320,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance filed last week, the Employment and Training Administration reports.

Not only is that 15,000 fewer than had been filed the week before, it's also the lowest number for any single week since before the U.S. economy officially slipped into its most recent recession in December 2007.

According to historical data kept by the agency, the last time claims for jobless benefits were lower in any single week was in October 2007. The last time claims for a single week were within a couple thousand of last week's level was in January 2008, just after the recession began, when they totaled 322,000 one week and 321,000 the next.

During the recession, which officially ended in June 2009, claims reached a peak of 670,000 one week in March 2009. For most of the past two years, they stayed in a range of 350,000 to 400,000 per week.

Bloomberg News says the decline last week signals that "the U.S. job market continues to mend."

Reuters writes that the data are "hinting at a pick-up in job growth in early August." It also notes that:

"The four-week moving average for new claims, which irons out week-to-week volatility, fell 4,000 to 332,000, the lowest level since November 2007."

The aid group Doctors Without Borders said Wednesday that it's closing all operations in Somalia after 22 years because of the increase in violent attacks and abuse against its staff.

"This is the most difficult announcement that I've had to make as MSF president," Dr. Unni Karunakara said at a press conference from Kenya. "Respect for humanitarian principles no longer exists in Somalia today."

Over the past 22 years, the nonprofit has provided basic and emergency health care to millions in the country through chronic wars and famines.

"Armed groups and civilians are increasingly supporting, tolerating and condoning the killing, assaulting and abuse of humanitarian aid workers," Karunakara said. "We have reached our limits."

Sixteen people working for the group have been killed in the last 22 years. Dozens have been attacked.

Shots - Health News

Polio Eradication Suffers A Setback As Somali Outbreak Worsens

The deadly explosion aboard an Indian submarine with 18 sailors on board is the worst loss for the country's navy since its 1971 war with Pakistan, and is seen as a setback to India's modernization of its defense capabilities.

"I am saddened by those naval personnel who lost their lives in the service of the country," Defense Minister A.K. Antony said. "It is a great tragedy for the navy."

Officials said there has been no contact with any of the sailors since the explosion.

Wednesday's blast aboard the submarine, INS Sindhurakshak, which was berthed at a Mumbai dockyard, comes a day ahead of Independence Day celebrations in the country.

The explosion lit up the sky, and the blaze could be seen in different parts of the city. Defense officials ruled out terrorism as a possible cause. Recovery efforts are under way.

The explosion comes days after two breakthroughs for India's navy: On Sunday, the country powered up the reactor on its first locally made nuclear submarine. A day later, it unveiled its first homemade aircraft carrier.

The Russian-made submarine was delivered to India in 1997. It was one of 10 Kilo-class submarines – known in India as Sindhughosh class — that India bought from Russia between 1986 and 2000.

A previous fire aboard the INS Sindhurakshak's battery compartment in February 2010 killed one sailor. The sub was sent to Russia later that year for a refit. The refurbishing of the sub, now outfitted with cruise missile systems, was completed in June 2012, adding at least a decade to its life.

NPR's Julie McCarthy, reporting on the blast on Morning Edition, said the explosion was reminiscent of the blast aboard Russia's Kursk submarine, which sank in 2000 following an explosion that killed all 118 sailors on board.

The Associated Press notes that Wednesday's accident comes as India faces a shortage of submarines because of obsolescence:

"The government has authorized the navy to have up to 24 conventional submarines, but it has just 14, including eight Russian Kilo-class and four German Type HDW209 boats. [Rahul] Bedi [an analyst for the independent Jane's Information Group] said five of those will be retired by 2014-15.

"Last year, India acquired a Russian Nerpa nuclear submarine on a 10-year lease at a cost of nearly $1 billion. India also has designed and built its own nuclear submarine. The navy activated the atomic reactor on that vessel on Saturday and could deploy it in the next two years.

"India has steadily built up its naval capabilities in recent years, spurred by its rivalry with neighboring China. But the country's military has encountered scandal as it attempts to bulk up."

These headlines this morning make it sound like Europe's economy is up and running again:

— "Euro Area Exits Longest Recession on Record." (Bloomberg News)

— "Euro Zone Emerges from Recession." (The Wall Street Journal)

— "Euro Zone Economy Grew 0.3% in 2nd Quarter, Ending Recession." (The New York Times)

They're all based on the news that Eurostat, the keeper of economic statistics for the European Union, says GDP grew 0.3 percent within the EU's borders from the end of March through June.

The stories may turn out to be right. But, unfortunately, reports of the European recession's death are (to borrow from Mark Twain) greatly exaggerated.

As Olli Rhen, Eurostat's vice president, writes on his blog: "I hope there will be no premature, self-congratulatory statements suggesting 'the crisis is over.' " He calls the GDP report only another sign of "a potential turning point in the EU economy."

The quick conclusion by some economists and some in the news media that a slight rise in one quarter's GDP means a recession is over ignores how experts figure out when an economy is either in a significant downturn (a recession) or enjoying steady growth (an expansion).

In Europe, just as in the U.S., the official arbiter is a committee of economic researchers who look at much more than just quarterly GDP data. As the European Centre for Economic Policy Research says of its business cycle dating committee's work:

"First, we do not identify economic activity solely with real GDP, but use a range of indicators, notably employment. Second, we consider the depth of the decline in economic activity. Recall that our definition includes the phrase, 'a significant decline in activity.' "

What's the busiest U.S. Consulate in the world? If you guessed in Mexico or China, you'd be wrong.

It's actually in Brazil, Sao Paulo to be exact. The consulate there is giving a record number of visas to Brazilians who want to visit the U.S. And that is giving a boost to the economies of cities like Miami.

On a recent day, Tiago Dalcien and his girlfriend stand outside the U.S. Consulate in Sao Paulo clutching their passports and other documents. He is a 30-year-old banker; his girlfriend is a doctor.

Like most of the 3,000 people a day who come to apply for a U.S. visa, it's their first time heading to the States, and they'll be hitting New York, and Orlando and Miami, Fla. They're going to go shopping, Dalcien says.

"It's so much cheaper than here. Brazil is incredibly expensive," he says.

Prices are so high because of taxes and import duties and protectionism. For instance, a seahorse glow toy that costs about $15 on Amazon in the U.S. costs $75 in Brazil. Futons start at $1,500. People have even been smuggling electronics from the U.S. to sell here.

Even considering the cost of the ticket — roughly $800 to $1,000 round-trip — Dalcien says, it's worth it to fly to shop in the U.S.

And more and more people are.

Enlarge image i

What's the busiest U.S. Consulate in the world? If you guessed in Mexico or China, you'd be wrong.

It's actually in Brazil, Sao Paulo to be exact. The consulate there is giving a record number of visas to Brazilians who want to visit the U.S. And that is giving a boost to the economies of cities like Miami.

On a recent day, Tiago Dalcien and his girlfriend stand outside the U.S. Consulate in Sao Paulo clutching their passports and other documents. He is a 30-year-old banker; his girlfriend is a doctor.

Like most of the 3,000 people a day who come to apply for a U.S. visa, it's their first time heading to the States, and they'll be hitting New York, and Orlando and Miami, Fla. They're going to go shopping, Dalcien says.

"It's so much cheaper than here. Brazil is incredibly expensive," he says.

Prices are so high because of taxes and import duties and protectionism. For instance, a seahorse glow toy that costs about $15 on Amazon in the U.S. costs $75 in Brazil. Futons start at $1,500. People have even been smuggling electronics from the U.S. to sell here.

Even considering the cost of the ticket — roughly $800 to $1,000 round-trip — Dalcien says, it's worth it to fly to shop in the U.S.

And more and more people are.

Enlarge image i

Two years after cantaloupe were linked to one of the worst foodborne outbreaks in U.S. history, lawyers have filed a fresh round of lawsuits. Meanwhile, farmers are trying to win back customers after their signature crop was tarred by a broad brush.

Only one Colorado farm supplied cantaloupes contaminated with the listeria bacteria that killed 33 people and sickened at least 147 more in 28 states in 2011.

But that farmer sold his fruit as coming from Rocky Ford, Colo., and the longtime family farmers there, and the whole town, took a huge hit.

"The whole community is very proud of the cantaloupe. The Rocky Ford high school mascot is the 'Meloneer,'" says Mike Hirakata, a fourth generation melon grower here, "very proud to be Meloneers."

The tainted fruit came from a farm 90 miles away, but Rocky Ford farmers had never trademarked their local name and couldn't keep others from using it. That had never been a problem until 2011. The area's farmers have now legally protected their name, and they're taking other measures to convince the public that the cantaloupe they've built a 100-year reputation on are safe.

"If we wanted to keep going, we figured we needed to make changes that were for the better for our industry and for the customers," Hirakata says on a tour of his packing shed, newly refurbished with hundreds of thousands of dollars in new equipment.

He shows off the melon washing station that sprays his cantaloupes with clean water and sanitizer before the fruit are sent to an enormous cooling room. There, the melons are rapidly chilled to further inhibit the growth of any bacteria that might have survived the bath.

Farmers and the state of Colorado also invested in research that found that consumers play an important role in preventing cantaloupe-related outbreaks.

Their survey found that "more than half of consumers weren't washing cantaloupe at all before consuming them," says Marisa Bunning, a food safety researcher at Colorado State University.

"It already looked clean, and they weren't going to be eating the rind. It didn't occur to them to wash it," she says.

But researchers now believe that the deadly bacteria that caused the outbreak didn't penetrate the fruit until consumers cut into it, pushing listeria from the outer rind into the flesh they would eat with each pass of a knife.

"The knife needs to be washed between cuts," Bunning says, "just to be assured you're not causing any cross-contamination from the rind to the flesh."

Rocky Ford cantaloupe growers hired a public relations firm to help get that word out, and to tell people about the new safety measures they're taking to make sure that what happened at the one bad farm in 2011 will never happen at their facilities.

Farmer Hirakata says he never wants to go through something like that again, and not just because of the financial losses his family suffered. For over a week after the outbreak was first identified, he wasn't sure whether melons from his farm were making people sick.

"It was just kind of a sick-to-your-stomach feeling for that whole time, a lot of sleepless nights," he recalls.

Consumers appear to be forgiving, so far. Last year, Rocky Ford growers sold every cantaloupe they harvested, but they only planted 20 percent of a normal crop. This year they're planting more, but still not enough to send any out of state.

At an urban farmers market recently, several native Coloradans echoed shopper Bob Purvine's sentiment about the outbreak.

"It had us all a little paranoid," he said, but "probably wouldn't prevent me from buying the cantaloupe when it comes time again."

Why? Rocky Ford melons, he says, are the "best cantaloupe ever."

What's the busiest U.S. Consulate in the world? If you guessed in Mexico or China, you'd be wrong.

It's actually in Brazil, Sao Paulo to be exact. The consulate there is giving a record number of visas to Brazilians who want to visit the U.S. And that is giving a boost to the economies of cities like Miami.

On a recent day, Tiago Dalcien and his girlfriend stand outside the U.S. Consulate in Sao Paulo clutching their passports and other documents. He is a 30-year-old banker; his girlfriend is a doctor.

Like most of the 3,000 people a day who come to apply for a U.S. visa, it's their first time heading to the States, and they'll be hitting New York, and Orlando and Miami, Fla. They're going to go shopping, Dalcien says.

"It's so much cheaper than here. Brazil is incredibly expensive," he says.

Prices are so high because of taxes and import duties and protectionism. For instance, a seahorse glow toy that costs about $15 on Amazon in the U.S. costs $75 in Brazil. Futons start at $1,500. People have even been smuggling electronics from the U.S. to sell here.

Even considering the cost of the ticket — roughly $800 to $1,000 round-trip — Dalcien says, it's worth it to fly to shop in the U.S.

And more and more people are.

Enlarge image i

The Detroit River is the mile-wide boundary that separates the United States and Canada. And the city park on the Windsor, Ontario, side of the river offers a better view of the Detroit skyline than anywhere else.

In a quirk of geography, Detroit actually sits north of its Canadian neighbor. Natives like Stephen Santarossa, who's from Windsor, love this bit of trivia and relish the puzzled look on visitors' faces as they try to draw that mental map.

"Do you realize that you are now looking north?" he says.

But these two cities share more than just a border. There are international love affairs and families that span both sides of the river. And you can venture across the border for a day trip that feels just a little exotic.

Victor Savic and Anne Marie Champagne sit on a park bench in Windsor, gazing at the Detroit skyline.

"We're two countries," Savic says, "but it's one community. It's the best view." Champagne adds, "And from here it doesn't look like they're having problems."

But Savic's been watching Detroit's financial catastrophe unfold, and he says it's painful — like seeing a family member fall on hard times. Savic, like some others in Windsor, is convinced Detroit will rebound from this crisis.

"It's sad they came to this state," he says. "There's so much potential there. It's too bad."

Eddie Francis has been the mayor of Windsor for the last 10 years, and it has not been an easy decade. Just like on the other side of the border, housing values here have plummeted. Windsor's unemployment rate has been among the highest in Canada.

"So financially, I'm certainly keenly aware of the challenges the City of Detroit faces," Francis says. "But I also know the bankruptcy is going to allow them to reset and come out stronger. And we've seen that with the automotive industry."

And it's through the auto industry that the economies of the two cities are most tightly intertwined.

On any given day, Francis says, thousands of semi-trucks cross the border carrying car parts five or seven times before making it to the final product.

"That's integration," he says.

U.S.

Reinvigorating A Detroit Neighborhood, Block By Block

Tensions over fishing rights and border checks are driving officials in Spain and Britain to consider legal options in their newly escalated dispute over the status of Gibraltar.

In recent weeks, Spain has insisted on performing comprehensive border checks that slow traffic to Gibraltar, a rocky outcropping of land at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, in a move seen as an answer to Gibraltar's creation of a concrete reef in disputed waters.

The British government is considering legal action against Spain that a Downing Street spokesman calls an "unprecedented step." Spanish officials said Monday that their border controls are a legitimate attempt to stop smuggling.

The spat has continued despite talks on the issue last week between British Prime Minister David Cameron and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

From Madrid, Lauren Frayer filed this report for NPR's Newscast unit:

"Many who drive back and forth into the 2 1/2-square-mile peninsula of Gibraltar are now facing five-hour lines at the border. Spain has beefed up security in retaliation for Gibraltar's construction of an offshore reef — which Spanish fishermen say blocks their boats.

"Madrid doesn't recognize any Gibraltarian right to nearby waters — and may take its case to the U.N. London says it's weighing legal action as well. This, after the prime ministers of the two countries pledged last week to defuse tensions.

"But British navy vessels are en route to Gibraltar this week. The peninsula at Spain's southern tip has been British soil for 300 years — a claim many Spaniards have never recognized."

The government's decision Tuesday to oppose the merger of US Airways and American Airlines stunned airline analysts, but many predicted the deal eventually will win go through.

"Given that other airline mergers were approved, this was a surprise," University of Richmond transportation economist George Hoffer said. Other major carriers already have been allowed to combine forces, so "it's illogical to oppose this merger. This move comes a day late and a dollar short," he said.

The Justice Department lawsuit generally is being seen as a negotiating tactic rather than an effort to kill the $11 billion deal.

"The DOJ challenge could be a power play designed to force the airlines to give up routes, gates, and slots" to allow for more competition within the industry, George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, said in a written assessment.

The airlines suggest the suit will cause only a delay, not a derailment. In a letter to employees, American Chief Executive Tom Horton promised to vigorously defend the merger in a court process that "will likely take a few months."

The deal to create the country's largest airline was announced in February and appeared to be on track for a quick completion.

That's because in recent years, antitrust regulators have signed off on similar transactions. For example, the Obama administration approved the mega-mergers of United and Continental in 2010 and Southwest and AirTran Airways in 2011. The Bush administration approved Delta's merger with Northwest in 2008.

Given that US Airways already has made two round trips to bankruptcy court, and American has yet to emerge from bankruptcy, analysts assumed their combination would quickly win approval.

The Two-Way

Justice Sues To Block US Airways-American Airlines Merger

The Salt

Antibiotic-Free Meat Business Is Booming, Thanks To Chipotle

Meet Pamela Maria Wright — the "contemporary Latina consumer." She has two kids — Nico and Rita — whom she hopes will be bilingual, as she is. She's a tech-savvy working professional with a master's degree, but she's also very traditional and family-oriented. (While I was visiting her home, her father showed up for a surprise visit. "How much more Latino can you get?" Wright asked.)

Wright not only consumes her media in English and Spanish, she also buys groceries biculturally. She'll hit up Whole Foods for organic milk, Greek yogurt and kale, and the Mexican family-owned grocery chain Northgate Gonzlez for stuff like queso quesadilla and queso fresco — items, as she puts it, "that you can't find in an American store."

Latinas are the primary decision-makers on spending in their households, according to a new report from the market research firm Nielsen. As the report notes, this makes them "pivotal to the Hispanic market's $1.2 trillion in annual buying power." But companies hoping to market to the Contemporary Latina Consumer face a real challenge.

Mnica Gil, the author of Nielsen's report, says that if brands want to stay relevant, they need to get to know "ambicultural®" shoppers such as Pamela Wright.

"Latinas are definitely relating to two identities," Gil said. "I see it as they have two sets of instruments to pick from. ... When Latinas choose to be more Latina or more American, and under what circumstances, what influences her and her purchasing behaviors?"

Latina consumers compose a younger, growing demographic. Eighty-six percent of the Latinas Nielsen surveyed said they were taking the lead on money matters including big purchases like cars and homes.

So how are marketers wooing this valuable shopper?

I posed that question to Verena Sisa, chief strategy officer for Conill Advertising. Conill has specialized in marketing to Hispanic consumers since the late '60s. But Sisa says it's a challenge to advertise to modern Latina shoppers, which she describes as "the most fragmented consumer out there." They navigate among different media platforms and between two languages. They're traditional in some ways, cutting-edge in others. Plus, marketers have to consider cultural differences based on region. Are they seeking Mexican customers? Salvadoran? Puerto Rican?

Sisa says it's important to find commonalities when marketing to fragmented Latina consumers. Motherhood is a great place to start, she says. One of the ways the Latina influence is most visible is when it comes to raising kids. Passing down the Spanish language and cultural traditions becomes a priority.

"One of the core elements of culture is music, and can be passed on as far as we know, when babies are still in the womb," Sisa says.

She describes a concert thrown by her client Pampers last year for expectant Latinas and their kids in Miami. Latin pop star Thalia hosted the event, stressing the importance of passing down Latino culture to the next generation. The concert was promoted on the Pampers Latino Facebook page as part of its Mi Msica, Mi Herencia (My Music, My Heritage) ad campaign. An orchestra played Latin-American children's songs to a crowd of babies, toddlers and pregnant moms.

Over the top? Sure. But Verena Sisa says this kind of marketing works.

Slapping a mariachi band or chips and salsa in an ad, she says, doesn't.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

An anonymous donor has given 100,000 (about $155,000) to Jane Austen's House Museum in its effort to buy back the author's gold and turquoise ring from American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, who got it at auction for 152,450 (about $235,700) last year. After Clarkson purchased the ring, British culture minister Ed Vaizey issued a temporary export ban in the hopes that a British buyer would be found and the artifact would stay in the country. Austen had given the ring to her sister Cassandra, and it stayed in the family until it was sold at auction. The museum has until December to match what Clarkson paid. Museum fundraiser Louise West told The Associated Press that "it is very good for Jane Austen PR that a young, famous American pop star expresses a love for her."

Salman Rushdie describes the famously reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon while speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival: "Thomas Pynchon looks exactly like Thomas Pynchon should look. He is tall, he wears lumberjack shirts, and blue jeans. He has Albert Einstein white hair and Bugs Bunny front teeth."

The novelist Jane Vandenburgh has written an open letter to New York Review of Books editor Robert Silvers about the magazine's most recent issue, which features a stunning lack of female reviewers and authors. She writes: "Really? the only female 'author' the NYRB exhibits any interest in this time is the unfortunate Amanda Knox, where the theme of the review seems to be which lines are this poor girl's and which belong to her work-for-hire ghostwriter?"

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York has a book deal for an as-yet untitled book coming out in the fall of next year, Ballantine books announced Monday. In a statement, the senator said, "I am incredibly excited about this opportunity to expand on the work I have been doing through my Off the Sidelines initiative, encouraging all women — whether they're in the halls of government, executive boardrooms and corner offices or attending local government meetings, PTA meetings and even neighborhood gatherings — to make their voices heard." Political memoirs can be gateways to presidential runs, but Gillibrand has said she supports Hillary Clinton for president in 2016.

In Granta's travel issue, Jamal Mahjoub describes being stuck in Djenn, Mali:
"The car sat in the square. It looked as though it might have been left there by an alien race visiting from another planet. I watched the dust blow little eddies around the bald tyres as evening, once more, began to fall. I thought about the lizards that awaited me back at the hotel."

The Detroit River is the mile-wide boundary that separates the United States and Canada. And the city park on the Windsor, Ontario, side of the river offers a better view of the Detroit skyline than anywhere else.

Yes, in a quirk of geography, Detroit actually sits north of its Canadian neighbor. Natives like Stephen Santarossa, who's from Windsor, love this bit of trivia, and relish the puzzled look on visitors' faces as they try to draw that mental map.

"Do you realize that you are now looking north?" he says.

But these two cities share more than just a border. There are international love affairs, and families that span both sides of the river. And you can venture across the border for a day trip that feels just a little exotic.

Victor Savic and Anne Marie Champagne sit on a park bench in Windsor, gazing at the Detroit skyline.

"We're two countries," Savic says, "but it's one community. It's the best view." Champagne adds, "And from here it doesn't look like they're having problems."

But Savic's been watching Detroit's financial catastrophe unfold, and he says it's painful — like seeing a family member fall on hard times. Savic, like some others in Windsor, is convinced Detroit will rebound from this crisis.

"It's sad they came to this state," he says. "There's so much potential there. It's too bad."

Eddie Francis has been the mayor of Windsor for the last 10 years, and it has not been an easy decade. Just like on the other side of the border, housing values here have plummeted. Windsor's unemployment rate has been among the highest in Canada.

"So financially, I'm certainly keenly aware of the challenges the City of Detroit faces," Francis says. "But I also know the bankruptcy is going to allow them to reset and come out stronger. And we've seen that with the automotive industry."

And it's through the auto industry that the economies of the two cities are most tightly intertwined.

On any given day, Francis says thousands of semi-trucks cross the border carrying car parts five or seven times before making it to the final product.

"That's integration," he says.

U.S.

Reinvigorating A Detroit Neighborhood, Block By Block

The measure signed by Gov. Pat McCrory on Monday overhauls North Carolina's election laws. It requires government-issued photo IDs at the polls, reduces the early voting period by one week and ends same day registration.

McCrory called it "common sense reforms," and said it will help ensure the "integrity" of the voting process.

His office announced the signing in a statement, and then he appeared in a 95-second video on Youtube.

In the video McCrory said, "photo ID has become a part of our everyday life," and reminded residents they can get a free photo ID at local Department of Motor Vehicle offices throughout the state.

To make sure everyone has enough time, McCrory added, "Photo ID won't be required until the 2016 elections."

Democrats and minority groups say the new law will suppress voting and it make it harder for minorities, the elderly and youth to cast ballots.

The American Civil Liberties union and other Civil Rights groups vow to fight the measure.

NPR's Kathy Lohr reports McCory signed the bill just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a section of the Voting Rights Act that required North Carolina and other states to get approval from the federal government to change its election laws.

"The Justice Department is fighting a similar law in Texas and may file suit against this one," Kathy added in her reporting for NPR's Newscast Unit.

Two news items reminded us of the collapse in April of a building outside the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, that housed garment factories.

— In the first, a worker injured in the collapse of the Rana Plaza died last week after spending 108 days in hospital in a coma.

— And in the second, Bangladesh's garment exports in July grew more than 26 percent as compared to July 2012.

Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, is about the size of Iowa, but it is home to more than 150 million people – approximately half the U.S. population.

In recent years, the country has become a garment-exporting power. It is second only to China in clothing exports and is a favored destination for Western brands attracted, as NPR's Jim Zarroli reported, by its low wages and light regulation.

The collapse of the Rana Plaza on April 24 cast the spotlight on the country, its massive garment industry and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the powerful trade association. As The New York Times reported:

"Members control the engine of the national economy — garment exports to the United States and Europe. Many serve in Parliament or own television stations and newspapers.

"For two decades, as Bangladesh became a garment power, now trailing only China in global clothing exports, the trade group has often seemed more like a government ministry. Known as B.G.M.E.A., the organization helps regulate and administer exports and its leaders sit on high-level government committees on labor and security issues. Industry trade groups in the United States could only imagine such a role."

Two big restaurant delivery websites — Grubhub and Seamless — have announced a merger. Together, they'll allow diners in 500 cities the convenience of ordering from thousands of restaurants with just a few clicks on their computer. For restaurants, the costs of being on these websites can be hard to swallow.

If you're a takeout or delivery customer, websites like Seamless and Grubhub are a marvel. No more shouting into the telephone receiver, hoping to make yourself understood to someone in a noisy kitchen.

Just type and click your order. It's a big improvement.

But if you're a restaurant, this shift to the web may not sit so well with you.

"The more business we bring Seamless, the more commission they charge us," says Pedro Munoz, who owns Luz, a Latin-American restaurant in Brooklyn.

Two years ago, Munoz signed up with Seamless. The commission seemed high — they'd take $1 out of every $10 order — but he was willing to give it a try. And at first, Munoz really liked the results.

"Almost [instantly] the business started picking up," he says. "We had to hire another delivery guy."

But then little things started bugging Munoz. There was a $150 a month "marketing fee" that he couldn't understand, and Seamless only paid him every 30 days, which left him chronically short of cash.

When his monthly orders increased to over $10,000, Seamless raised its take from 10 percent to 14 percent. Munoz couldn't believe this. When he orders more from his vegetable supplier, the price goes down. With Seamless, the opposite was happening.

"I asked them, 'I'm bringing in three times as much money to Seamless as before. Can we negotiate the fees?'" he says. "They said they could drop me any day, and they don't negotiate fees."

Matt Maloney, CEO of the newly merged Grubhub-Seamless, says the relationship isn't adversarial, it's supportive. He says that they don't make money unless the restaurant makes money, but Seamless provides a valuable service that restaurants can't easily match.

"If a restaurant's not on Grubhub-Seamless, then their best option is to distribute paper menus around their neighborhood," Maloney says.

A lot of restaurant owners agree that is ineffective. Tom DeSimone owns the tiny RBBTS Caf in Manhattan. He says the food delivery website connects his restaurant to law firms and banks. Big companies that use vouchers for websites like Seamless to reward their employees.

"It got us to the 100th floor of some building that you would never slip your menu underneath, and I just feel it opened us up to more of an online community," DeSimone says.

The commission might be high, he says, but that even if Seamless increased its cut, he would still stick with them.

"And I thought, 'Oh, if I could get these little people, I could make something like that. And if I made something really creepy, I could get a rise out of my husband,' " she says.

Her husband liked it so much, he put a photo of it on Reddit. Within a week, Goldman says the photo got 6 million hits. Next came requests from friends and strangers. The dioramas became a hobby.

Now, Las Vegas gallery owner Marty Walsh represents Goldman's work. The 4-inch cubes sell for $100. Larger dioramas cost more. And there's always a waiting list, Walsh says.

Brooklyn, N.Y., restaurant owner Chance Johnston walked into the gallery while visiting Las Vegas. Now he has three of Goldman's works in his loft. He doesn't consider himself a morbid person — he just finds the dioramas fascinating, and says he loves watching his friends' reactions to them.

"They really do make me happy," he says. "And everybody that sees them, it is a sort of a love 'em or hate 'em reaction."

Goldman gets request for commissions. But she usually declines. She likes to do what she wants.

"I can't make someone's mother-in-law, despite the request," she says. "I can't recreate some, like, miserable scene from your high school days that you wanted to go a different way."

Goldman admits her dioramas can be seen as comments on society's fetish for violence. But she says most people react to the tiny fake blood and body parts with laughter. Even if it's nervous laughter.

Tiptree was both a feminist and a pessimist, unsure whether our deepest problems have solutions, yet still certain society had to change. In Houston, Houston, Do You Read?, male astronauts discover that an all-female future has no use for them; in the brisk, terrifying "The Screwfly Solution," a cult, or a chemical weapon, turns men's sex drive to murderous "blood lust" (it doesn't take much). In "Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death," two spider-like aliens fall in love and try to resist the instinct that will make one devour the other after mating, as their species always does.

Such work made Tiptree a pioneer in writing about gender and sexuality. But Sheldon, as Tiptree, thought just as hard about escape, and about why we — as children or adults, men or women or both or neither — must use our imaginations, why we stay unsatisfied. "We're built to dream outwards," a space station worker explains — we want the new, the exotic, the perfect love, the best trip, even if it kills us, and whether or not it's real.

Enlarge image i