It's often assumed that even in tough times, lawyers can find good jobs. But that proposition is being overturned by a tight legal market, and by a glut of graduates.
The nation's law schools are facing growing pressure to be more upfront about their graduates' job prospects. Many students say they were lured in by juicy job numbers, but when they got out, all they ended up with is massive debt.
Reaching Behind Bars:Prison Show host and former inmate David Babb takes to the air every Friday night at 9 p.m. to deliver news about the Texas penal system and to take calls from listeners, who often have messages for their incarcerated loved ones.
Credit Eric Kayne / for NPR
John Chris Hernandez listens to The Prison Show from his cell at the Eastham Unit penitentiary in East Texas. Hernandez is currently serving a life sentence for murder.
Credit Eric Kayne / For NPR
Janice Oeffner places a ring on the finger of Dawn Williams during an on-air proxy wedding between Williams and a Texas inmate. On-air proxy weddings have become so common that The Prison Show has a wedding coordinator to help guide couples through the paperwork.
Every Friday at 9 p.m., thousands of prisoners across East Texas settle into their bunks, pull out their hand-held radios and tune in to The Prison Show, the only radio show in the country that caters to prisoners and the families they've left behind.
These days, memoirs are often the target of contempt. A scathing slam in New York Times Book Review this year inveighed against "oversharing"; and in the New Yorker, the memoirist was likened to "a drunken guest at a wedding... motivated by an overpowering need to be the center of attention." If the narrative deals with socially unacceptable matters like abuse, addiction, family dysfunction, or even poverty, the scorn gets even thicker.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is considering a bill that would eliminate the state's 6 percent tax on cosmetic medical procedures like Botox by July 2013.
If you watch much TV, you probably know that the Real Housewives of New Jersey are no strangers to the surgeon's knife. And if the state's plastic surgeons get their way, those housewives may be able to save a few dollars on their next procedure.
New Jersey's legislature has voted to phase out the so-called "Botax" — a 6 percent tax on cosmetic surgery and elective procedures like Botox — and the bill is currently on Gov. Chris Christie's desk for approval.
The search for survivors of the Costa Concordia disaster continues Thursday in Giglio Porto, Italy. At least 11 people were killed after the vessel ran aground last week. More than 20 people are still missing.
Credit DigitalGlobe / AP
This satellite image taken Tuesday shows the hulk of the luxury ship.
Credit Laura Lezza / Getty Images
Workers prepare to recover fuel from the damaged ship on Wednesday. The ship was carrying about a half-million gallons of fuel. So far, there is no sign that it has leaked.
Credit Giacomo Aprili / AP
Coast Guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco (center) arrives Tuesday at the Grosseto court in Italy for a hearing. In a dramatic phone conversation, De Falco was heard ordering Francesco Schettino, the captain of the stricken cruise liner, to get back onboard and oversee the evacuation.
Credit Giacomo Aprili / AP
Capt. Francesco Schettino (right) is taken into custody by police in Porto Santo Stefano, Italy, on Jan. 14. Schettino was released Tuesday and is under house arrest in southern Italy. He is being investigated on possible manslaughter charges and abandoning his ship.
Credit Guardia di Finanza / AP
This photo, released by the Italian border police, shows the Costa Concordia last week, after it ran aground.
Credit Gregorio Borgia / AP
Survivors were transported by ferry to Porto Santo Stefano, Italy. At least two of the missing passengers are American.
Credit Gregorio Borgia / AP
Passengers disembark at a ferry in Porto Santo Stefano, Italy, on Saturday.
Credit Italian Coast Guard / AP
A scuba diver makes his way through floating pieces of furniture while searching for people inside the cruise ship.
Credit Gregorio Borgia / AP
A rope, a life vest, a helmet and other recovered items are displayed on an altar during Mass in Giglio on Sunday.
Credit Gregorio Borgia / AP
Rescuers exploded four holes in the hull of the ship to gain easier access to areas that had not yet been searched. Here, a scuba diver recovers a body Tuesday.
Credit Filippo Monteforte / AFP/Getty Images
The Costa Concordia lies stranded in the Giglio harbor on Sunday.
Credit AP
The Costa Concordia sails from Limassol, Cyprus, in April 2009. The ship ran aground off the coast of Giglio Island, Italy, on Saturday, forcing the 4,200 passengers onboard to evacuate.
When Joshua Bell was 21, he recorded an iconic piece of chamber music for piano and violin — the Sonata in A major by Cesar Franck. Today, Bell is 44 and he's recorded it again. It's on his new album, French Impressions, with pianist Jeremy Denk.
All Things Considered host Robert Siegel invited Bell to listen to his old recording for a little session of compare-and-contrast.
"Do you hear the same violinist?" Siegel asks, after playing for Bell the opening bars of his 1989 recording.
Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, pictured here speaking to students in October, announced Monday at an event in Myrtle Beach, S.C., that he was dropping out of the race.
Jon Huntsman billed himself as the Harley-riding, mild-mannered candidate of civility. But his moderate positions never registered with Republican primary voters and left him languishing in the polls.
Huntsman, 51, ended his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Monday after struggling to keep pace in a largely conservative field. He also failed to distinguish himself as the Mitt Romney alternative, unable to escape the shadow of the other millionaire former governor and Mormon in the race.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has been so late to events that he's forced other speakers to stall. Rival Rick Santorum was at the same event on Friday, and he gladly used the time to work the crowd.
The captain of the cruise ship that capsized off Tuscany made an unauthorized, unapproved deviation from the ship's programmed course, a "human error" that led to the grounding of the vessel, the chief executive of ship's Italian owner said Monday. At least six people died in the incident.
Those visiting the new memorial in Washington, D.C. will find a quote that reads: "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness." But that's not exactly what the civil rights leader said. The Interior Department has decided to have the quote fixed.
