It's the day Dodger fans have been waiting for. The Los Angeles team has new owners, provided a bankruptcy judge approves. Current owner Frank McCourt has agreed to sell for a record $2 billion. As NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates reports, Los Angeles couldn't be happier with the new management team and one man in particular.
Lawyer Li Zhuang spent more than a year in prison on charges of fabricating evidence and inciting witnesses, after trying to defend an alleged gangster. Li's case became a national cause celebre.
Credit Ng Han Guan / AP
Bo Xilai was thought to be on his way to the highest levels of Chinese politics before he was sacked abruptly earlier this month. His dismissal has led to scrutiny of one of this signature initiatives, a crackdown on organized crime in Chongqing, where he served as party chief.
The swift downfall of ambitious Chinese politician Bo Xilai exposed a bitter power struggle in the highest echelons of government. Now his victims are telling their stories, exposing a darker side to Bo's signature clampdown on organized crime.
Charismatic and outspoken, Bo seemed headed for the country's top leadership body, the Politburo Standing Committee, before he was removed abruptly from his post — as party secretary of the major southern city of Chongqing — earlier this month.
Rapper Baloji was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo but raised in Belgium. He's built a reputation for incorporating Congolese music into his mix, though he mostly raps in French, his deep voice full of cocky brashness. You can catch his vibe without translation, but it's worth reading the liner notes to get his messages, as well. Baloji raps with brazen ease about the indignities of life as an African in Belgium, but also the tragic, bloody history of his homeland on his second album, Kinshasa Succursale.
On Saturday in New York City, Nelson Dellis was trying to defend his title as 2011 Winner of the USA Memory Championship. In the last event, he and two other finalists had been given five minutes to memorize two shuffled decks of playing cards. That is, to remember the random sequence of 104 cards, as the moderator revealed them to the audience in the order they had just memorized.
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Robert Siegel.
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And I'm Melissa Block.
He's been a congressman, a governor, the head of a bank, and now he wants to be president. Buddy Roemer of Louisiana was running as a Republican. He dropped out of that race and is now seeking the nomination of the Reform Party and of Americans Elect, a new online platform for third-party candidates. Buddy Roemer says he won't take contributions of more than $100 and he won't take PAC money.
A new study finds that people who eat chocolate several times a week are actually leaner than people who don't eat chocolate regularly.
Really, we asked? Last time we checked chocolate was loaded with fat and sugar. But this new research, along with some prior studies, suggests chocolate may favorably influence metabolism.
The Supreme Court has received more than 100 amicus briefs in the health care cases. Melissa Block and Robert Siegel explain what they are, what's involved and what impact they have.
The Exxon Valdez appears headed for a scrap heap. In the 23 years since it spewed oil across Alaska's Prince William Sound, the tanker has changed names, owners and purpose. Melissa Block and Robert Siegel look back at what the infamous ship has been up to since the 1989 environmental disaster.
