The Salt
8:22 am
Thu August 9, 2012

Here's Where Farms Are Sucking The Planet Dry

Credit Nature
Check out some of the world's most important - and threatened - aquifers. Click to see a high-resolution version of this map.

Originally published on Wed August 8, 2012 5:49 pm

This map is disturbing, once you understand it. It's a new attempt to visualize an old problem — the shrinking of underground water reserves, in most cases because farmers are pumping out water to irrigate their crops.

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Credit Maggie Starbard / NPR

Dan Charles is NPR's food and agriculture correspondent.

Primarily responsible for covering farming and the food industry, Charles focuses on the stories of culture, business, and the science behind what arrives on your dinner plate.

This is his second time working for NPR; from 1993 to 1999, Charles was a technology correspondent at NPR. He returned in 2011.

During his time away from NPR, Charles was an independent writer and radio producer and occasionally filled in at NPR on the Science and National desks, and at Weekend Edition. Over the course of his career Charles has reported on software engineers in India, fertilizer use in China, dengue fever in Peru, alternative medicine in Germany, and efforts to turn around a troubled school in Washington, DC.

In 2009-2010, he taught journalism in Ukraine through the Fulbright program. He has been guest researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and a Knight Science Journalism fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

From 1990 to 1993, Charles was a U.S. correspondent for New Scientist, a major British science magazine.

The author of two books, Charles wrote Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, The Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare (Ecco, 2005) and Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food (Perseus, 2001) about the making of genetically engineered crops.

Charles graduated magna cum laude from American University with a degree in economics and international affairs. After graduation Charles spent a year studying in Bonn, which was then part of West Germany, through the German Academic Exchange Service.

Business
8:20 am
Thu August 9, 2012

Natural Gas Giant Tries To Shift Gears

Credit Ralph Wilson / AP
Workers move a section of well casing into place at a Chesapeake Energy natural gas well site near Burlington, Pa., in 2010.

Originally published on Thu August 9, 2012 3:54 pm

A drop in natural gas prices is hurting balance sheets across the petroleum industry. The second-largest natural gas producer in the United States — Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy — has been hit especially hard.

After 23 consecutive years of touting its increasing natural gas production, Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon told investors during a conference call Tuesday that the company projects its gas output will drop about 7 percent in 2013.

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Jeff Brady is a NPR National Desk Correspondent based in Philadelphia. He covers the mid-Atlantic region and the energy industry.

In this role, Brady reports on the business of energy, from concerns over hydraulic fracturing in Western Pennsylvania to the oil boom in North Dakota and solar developments in the desert Southwest. With a focus on the consumer, Brady's reporting addresses how the energy industry intersects consumers' perspective at the gas pump and light switch.

Frequently traveling throughout the country for NPR, Brady has covered just about every major domestic news event in the past decade. Before moving to Philadelphia in July 2011, Brady was based in Denver and covered the west for NPR.

In 2005, Brady was among the NPR reporters who covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. His reporting on flooded cars left behind after the storm exposed efforts to stall the implementation of a national car titling system. Today, the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System is operational and the Department of Justice estimates it could save car buyers up to $11 billion a year.

Before coming to NPR in September 2003, Brady was a reporter at Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) in Portland. He has also worked in commercial television as an anchor and a reporter; and commercial radio as a talk-show host and reporter.

Brady graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Southern Oregon State College (now Southern Oregon University).

Environment
4:51 pm
Wed August 8, 2012

July Was the Hottest Month Ever Recorded in Continental U.S.

It's official: last month's heat wave (which cooked Louisville as well as most other states in the region) was the hottest ever on record in the continental U.S. According to an Associated Press story, this beats the record set during the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

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Education
4:12 pm
Wed August 8, 2012

Louisville Forum: School Board Races Need More Attention

A diverse pool of candidates has filed for Jefferson County’s three open school board seats.  The most recent is local radio host Tom Mitchell, who plans on running an anti-student assignment campaign, according to reports by the Courier-Journal.

As the deadline to file nears--Aug. 14--some are hoping interest in the races increases. That idea was included in  former Courier-Journal editor David Hawpe's opening speech at the Louisville Forum Wednesday afternoon.

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Politics
3:46 pm
Wed August 8, 2012

Howard Dean's PAC Gets Behind Yoder’s Uphill Battle

Democrat Shelli Yoder

A political action committee founded by former Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Governor Howard Dean is backing Shelli Yoder in Indiana’s Ninth Congressional District race.

Democracy for America unveiled six key races for Congress on Wednesday that the organization will focus on in the 2012 election. The PAC is aimed at building a dozen "progressive powerhouse" in the House and this is the first crop attempting to give Democratic challengers a booster in their general election bids.

Yoder is challenging Republican incumbent Todd Young, but has struggled to keep face with the GOP freshman's fundraising totals.

She says it is an honor to receive Dean’s support and she hopes it will give her campaign a boost.

"We are continuing to work hard and we’re doing everything we can to win back this seat. I think that the 9th District, folks weren’t really paying attention to the race. But in the last few weeks we’ve certainly have work as hard as we can making sure that voters feel like they will have a voice and an opportunity to gain back that voice come November 6," he says.

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Education
3:27 pm
Wed August 8, 2012

Former Indiana Chief Justice To Lead U.S. Legal Education Panel

Former Indiana Supreme Court Justice Randall Shepard will lead a task force looking into the state of legal education across America.

The panel was appointed by the American Bar Association.   Shepard says it will examine the way schools prepare their students to practice law, and the economic state of the profession.

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Politics
12:30 pm
Wed August 8, 2012

Rand Paul Says It's Unlikely He Would Serve in A Romney Administration

Credit U.S. Senate

Despite speculation of greater ambitions, U.S. Senator Rand Paul is likely to stay in his current position if Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is elected this fall. 

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Politics
11:40 am
Wed August 8, 2012

Fundraising Letter Underscores Mourdock Trouble With Moderate Voters

Republican Richard Mourdock

In the Indiana Senate race, polling has shown Republican Richard Mourdock is having trouble gaining traction with moderate voters in his battle with Democratic Congressman Joe Donnelly and a fundraising letter may indicate why.

It was Mourdock's ties to the Tea Party that helped him upset longtime Sen. Dick Lugar in the GOP primary, but days after his victory a message to voters continued to attack Lugar as a traitor to the conservative movement.

From Howey Politics Indiana:

"Conservatives scored a tremendous victory in Indiana just a few weeks ago," the Mourdock letter read. "Against all odds and with the establishment working day and night to defeat me, we retired a 36-year entrenched incumbent senator, who routinely betrayed conservative voters to push through some of the most radical aspects of President Obama's agenda."

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