From New York to California and places in between, Occupy protesters are in the streets today. That's because it was exactly two months ago that the movement began in a New York City park. Police in riot gear were deployed in lower Manhattan this morning, as hundreds of demonstrators marched with the aim of shutting down Wall Street. NPR correspondent Margot Adler has been following the events, and she joins us now live. Good morning, Margot.
Now that Silvio Berlusconi has resigned as Italy's prime minister, he'll have more time for his music. Berlusconi's newest album is called True Love. It will be releases this month.
College graduates face one of the bleakest job markets on record. Reporter Sayre Quevedo of TurnstyleNews.com met an aspiring accountant who emailed resumes for six months and then tried on something more daring.
The Environmental Protection Agency says the Asarco copper smelter in Hayden, Arizona, has been continuously emitting illegal amounts of lead, arsenic and eight other dangerous toxins, for the last six years. The agency's finding means Asarco could face millions of dollars in fines and could be forced to install expensive pollution controls. The EPA disclosed the action last week to NPR and the Center for Public Integrity, which were jointly investigating toxic air pollution in the town.
Campaigning in the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken a stormy turn. Veteran opposition politician and presidential candidate Etienne Tshisekedi proclaimed himself president, and ordered his supporters to stage jailbreaks to free their detained colleagues.
Stephen Greenblatt's "The Swerve," a dramatic account of the Renaissance-era rediscovery of the Latin poet Lucretius, won for nonfiction. "Salvage the Bones," set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, by Jesmyn Ward, won for fiction.
The Labor Department has proposed changes that would outlaw farm kids under the age of 16 from driving tractors, branding cattle and handling pesticides. Family farmers are angry about the proposal and accuse the government of encroaching on a sacred part of country life. But statics show kids who work on farms are six times more likely to be killed than children working in other industries. Peggy Lowe of Harvest Public Media reports.
Renee Montagne talks to Rwandan refugee Clemantine Wamariya about her recent appointment to the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Wamariya survived the Rwandan genocide and is now a student at Yale.
President Obama has one less thing to worry about, thanks to an Australian insurance company. On his visit down under, he's insured against a crocodile attack. When he gets to the town of Darwin, he'll be presented with a $51,000 policy.
