When you get your cholesterol or blood sugar checked, or say, have your Vitamin D measured, chances are your doctor ordered the tests. But as insurance companies pass along more of the cost of lab work onto the consumer, storefront lab owners are see...Read More
Mercedes, Hyundai and Honda have something in common — and it’s not under the hood. They’ve each set up shop in Alabama. The state has benefitted from their presence to the tune of roughly $5 billion a year in economic growth. But A...Read More
Dalia Abrams is jamming a fake baby’s head through what seems like a really narrow mock pelvis. A few of the girls in class cringe. After all, most of them will be going through this in a matter of months, if not weeks. These are teen moms at B...Read More
Fruit Ninja. Bejeweled. Plants vs. Zombies. These are all top-grossing apps through Apple’s app store. Plenty of folks dream about creating the next mobile application smash hit. But the latest group of tech entrepreneurs — some not even old en...Read More
Shoppers may not have to worry about bulging wallets stuffed with old, crumpled receipts much longer. Retailers have found a solution — e-receipts — though it may come at a price....Read More
Recently there’s been a little more interest than usual in the Civil War, owing to the 150th anniversary of the historic event. Even so, fewer people are donning Union and Confederate gear and participating in historical reenactments. And as th...Read More
Best estimates are, there are about 120,000 illegal immigrants living in Alabama right now. Most of them went for jobs in construction and agriculture. Come September, though, it’ll be a crime to rent them a place to live or to give them a ride...Read More
The Siege at Bridgeport, a strategic site in Alabama, took place in 1862 — and again this year. Civil War re-enactors spend time and money reliving battles that were decided 150 years ago. They’ll tell you that if you just give it one weekend, you’ll...Read More
With Spring Break in full force, thousands of tourists are making their way to the beaches of the once oil-soaked Gulf Coast. But cleanup workers of the BP oil spill on Alabama’s shoreline are being asked to blend in with the tourists a little ...Read More
Alabama artist Thornton Dial was making metal sculpture and yard art for decades before he was discovered by a prominent collector at age sixty. Today he’s 82 and the Indianapolis Museum of Art is exhibiting a survey of his art called, &...Read More
Dauphin Island--Since the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, marine scientists have come upon a surprising finding: more fish. Researchers at the Dauphin Island Sea report dramatic increases in some species. But as Gigi Douban reports, the seafood indu...Read More
Angry birds are migrating out of the digital realm. The wildly popular game Angry Birds, where players can channel loads of avian aggression into a harmless digital diversion, is about to become a board game. In May, Mattel plans to release An...Read More
Gigi Douban reports on All Things Considered tonight that tinnitus is the most common service-related disability among veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan....Read More
…If you watch that game — or any other college football bowl game — you probably won’t be thinking about how much the coaches are being paid. But in some cases College football coaches are pulling in multi-million dolla...Read More
As the retail world gets ready for the most wonderful — or at least most important — time of the year, companies are trying whatever they can to distinguish themselves from rivals. Discounts are pretty much expected by customers. S...Read More
For all that die-hard bibliophiles say they will never ever give up their actual printed books, they may be fighting a losing battle. E-book sales are up 118 percent this year over last. The number comes from to the Association of American Pub...Read More
Younger workers have been harder hit than most in this recession. Younger as in teenagers. The unemployment rate for 16-to-19 year olds is 29 percent. So college students on summer break have been taking jobs they might normally try to avoid — ...Read More
From Cape Cod to the wilds of Alaska, the National Park Service is responsible for preserving more than 80 million acres of scenic beauty. And as Gigi Douban reports from the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, the job of park ranger is highly sought...Read More
The next smash in social media, smash hit? Mobile applications that don’t ask about what you’re doing, but where you are. Users like these apps because they’re fun to use with friends. Businesses like them because they get to know t...Read More
When you hear the word “clunker”, chances are you don’t think of a police car. The reality though is more law enforcement agencies faced with shrinking budgets are having to keep their aging cruisers on the road. Reporter Gigi Douba...Read More
The retail industry seems to be a lot like housing the past couple of months. One day you get a report that says it’s in the dumps. The next you get some number that doesn’t seem so bad. But whatever the statistics do say, the retail mood...Read More
GO TO STORY They graduated, they came, they conquered. That was the typical path of the so-called “Millennials”, or Generation Y. But those 20-something-year-olds are also mockingly referred to as the “Entitlement Generation,”...Read More
This just in: Next month, President Obama will appear in a back-to-school special with American Idol Kelly Clarkson and basketball star LeBron James. The 30-minute documentary will air on Viacom stations like MTV and BET. It’s part of an educat...Read More
The recession has been on tough on business. But there’s at least one sector that’s booming: car repossession. Last year, nearly two million cars were repossessed — that’s a jump of almost 12 percent. But the industry has also...Read More
The release of the new “Transformers” movie this week is just the latest offering of Hasbro products up on the big screen. We’re also in line for movies based on some of company’s most popular board games, too. Monopoly and Ca...Read More
Pilgrim’s Pride announced today it’s going to shut down three chicken-processing plants in the southeastern part of the United States. That’ll be another 3,000 people out of work and there’ll no doubt be stiff competition for ...Read More
The standard protocol in hospitals is for doctors and nurses to wash their hands on the way in to see a patient, and on the way out. But that doesn’t always happen — they get busy; they forget....Read More
If you think your dry cleaning bills are high now, hang on. Wire hangers are getting more expensive due to import tariffs on cheaper hangers from China. So dry cleaning operators are asking customers to return their hangers to help keep costs down....Read More
Air Pollution at Schools The US Environmental Protection Agency is wrapping up a 60-day initiative looking at toxic air pollution around schools. They’re looking to gauge the health effects linked to pollution exposure. Many of the schools were...Read More
Growing a City in a Greener Way For many small town mayors, growth is all good. After all, more houses means more tax revenue, more retail, more jobs. One Alabama mayor agrees, but he also recognizes green space is an amenity worth keeping. And for t...Read More
It’s a phrase many kids use almost daily: ‘That’s so gay’. Experts say that the use of homophobic slurs in schools is on the rise. Two 11-year-olds recently committed suicide after being bullied with anti-gay taunts. And thoug...Read More
Listen to the story Birmingham–Want to know if times are tough? Look at the number of kids eating school lunch. Birmingham area schools report that since the economic crunch, fewer children are brown bagging it. School nutritionists say for the...Read More
Winner 2009 Public Radio News Directors Incorporated award for Best Series Listen to the story Birmingham–It’s 28 degrees, and one wonders what it is that can possibly lure 20 teenagers out of their warm beds and into school well before c...Read More
Interview with Kirk Withrow Kirk Withrow didn’t pick up his first musical instrument until he was 22. He heard a short music hook in the movie Bonnie and Clyde that piqued his interest. The song was “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” by Ear...Read More
Birmingham – It starts out like this. A car drives up to the oil change place. One of the guys on the emissions testing crew rushes out to the driver and, delivers the spiel....Read More
Listen to the story Birmingham–When the bidding at an auction gets furious, and you think you can’t bid any higher, what do you do? You might look away or focus on the floor, anything to make it clear that you’re out of the game. Pl...Read More
Listen to the story Birmingham–This story begins last spring at Birmingham’s McElwain Elementary School. Devlin Fritz was wrapping up his sixth-grade year at McElwain’s temporary magnet program. He was looking forward to the next fe...Read More
Winner 2007 Alabama AP award for Best Public Affairs or Documentary ** Green Eyeshade Award Winner Listen to the story Birmingham–It’s 45 degrees on a late November morning. A group of high school-aged boys is assembled in rows on ...Read More
Listen to the Story Enrollment in the Birmingham school system has sharply declined over the last few decades, resulting in millions of dollars lost in state funding each year. The school system is again on the brink of a financial crisis, leaving so...Read More
Listen to the story Tuscaloosa–Most students taking Geology 101 have set their post-graduation sights elsewhere–restaurant management, political science and healthcare, for example. But officials at the University of Alabama hope their ne...Read More
Listen to the Story This time of year, thousands of hummingbirds are making their annual trek from southern Alaska and Nova Scotia all the way to Central America where they’ll spend the winter. Large numbers will unfailingly make a pit stop at ...Read More
Listen to the story Birmingham– At the Princeton Towers retirement home, there’s little that is home-like. The graying concrete and brick buildings house about 270 residents, mostly low-income women and minorities. The towers sit on the u...Read More
