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Sports
5:37 am
Fri May 4, 2012

Horse Tips For Saturday's Kentucky Derby

Originally published on Fri May 4, 2012 8:57 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

If all goes according to plan, tomorrow is the day the sun shines bright, the people are gay, and the birds make music all the day, for it is the first Saturday in May, Kentucky Derby day. But long before the horses are off racing in the greatest two minutes in sports - that's a trademark phrase, by the way - there is one man all eyes will be on, and his name is Mike Battaglia. He sets the morning line at Churchill Downs and has joined us from a trailer next to the racetrack to tell us about handicapping horses.

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Business
5:37 am
Fri May 4, 2012

Business News

Originally published on Fri May 4, 2012 8:57 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

NPR's business news begins with Facebook frenzy.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GREENE: The world's largest social networking site is going public later this month. And yesterday it set a price range for its stock. It plans to sell share shares for between $28 and $35 each, using the ticker symbol FB. The share sale is expected to raise as much as $12 billion, making it one of the largest initial public offerings ever.

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Business
5:37 am
Fri May 4, 2012

Game Giant Forced To Play Catch UP

Originally published on Fri May 4, 2012 8:57 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

Video game fans hear this often. EA Sports, it's in the game. Well, now America's largest game publisher is trying to stay in the game. EA, Electronic Arts, built a gaming empire with a strategy straight out of Hollywood - big names and big budgets. But the market is changing. For one thing, more players now prefer games you can play online. And so the Silicon Valley company has been forced to change as well. KQED's Aarti Shahani reports.

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Economy
5:37 am
Fri May 4, 2012

The Politics Of Unemployment Data

Originally published on Fri May 4, 2012 11:30 am

The Labor Department announced unemployment figures for April on Friday. The jobless rate fell to 8.1 percent, from 8.2 percent in March. There have been conflicting signals about the strength of the economy, and the way voters interpret those signals could have a major impact on the presidential race.

NPR Story
5:19 am
Fri May 4, 2012

Primary To Decide Democratic Challenger To Wis. Gov. Walker

Originally published on Fri May 4, 2012 8:57 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

In one month, Wisconsin voters will decide whether Republican Governor Scott Walker will hang on to his job. Next week comes an important step, a primary election to select a Democrat to challenge Walker in the recall vote. Walker, who took office in January of 2011, angered labor unions with a new law that dramatically curtailed bargaining rights for public sector employees. Now the unions are leading the push to recall the governor.

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NPR Story
5:19 am
Fri May 4, 2012

Bakes Sales Run A Foul Of Obesity Right

Originally published on Fri May 4, 2012 11:59 am

As school budgets continue to get squeezed, administrators, parents and students are having to do more fundraising. And now the fight to raise funds has come head-to-head with the fight against childhood obesity. Stephanie Armour, of Bloomberg Businessweek, talks to David Greene about the move to ban bake sales.

NPR Story
5:19 am
Fri May 4, 2012

The Last Word In Business

Originally published on Fri May 4, 2012 8:57 am

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Well, for kids and parents listening to our show today, let's leave you with a little good food for thought. Our last word in business is: Hello Kitty. That's what some lucky travelers in Asia might be saying if they board an airplane decorated, inside and out, with the famous Japanese character.

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Planet Money
4:03 am
Fri May 4, 2012

23 Million Americans Are Unemployed Or Can't Find Full-Time Work

Credit Lam Thuy Vo / NPR

Originally published on Mon May 7, 2012 12:56 pm

More than 12 million Americans are unemployed, according to this morning's big jobs report.

But that doesn't include people who are working part-time because they can't find full-time work. Nor does it include people who want a job but haven't looked for one in the past month.

A less widely reported measure — sometimes called broader unemployment, or U-6 — includes both those groups. Some 22 million people fall into this category.

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Economy
3:13 am
Fri May 4, 2012

Spaniards Dismayed Interest Rates Aren't Lowered

Originally published on Fri May 4, 2012 8:57 am

After months of punishing austerity measures, some Spaniards want a break and maybe even some stimulus from Europe. But that didn't happen at Thursday's meeting of the governing board of the European Central Bank.

The location of the ECB summit in Barcelona was kept secret, which may indicate how well officials thought they'd be received in the Spanish port city. Thousands of demonstrators flooded the city's streets, as did police, some in plainclothes and masks, with helicopters overhead.

One in four Spaniards is jobless, and the rate is more than 50 percent for youth.

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Presidential Race
2:05 am
Fri May 4, 2012

Challenger's Challenge: Romney's Bid To Make News

Credit Jae C. Hong / AP
The same day President Obama made a surprise trip to Afghanistan, Mitt Romney picked up pizza for firefighters with former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Originally published on Fri May 4, 2012 8:57 am

Tuesday, President Obama scored a foreign policy success when he traveled to Afghanistan. Now he's being buffeted by the case of Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng. Meanwhile, Romney had been getting some attention for his critique that the president was politicizing the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death. That is, until Obama went to Afghanistan, signed an international agreement and addressed the troops and the nation.

At this point in the presidential race, Romney faces the difficult task of outdoing an incumbent president.

Finding A News Hook

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