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3:35 pm

Sun September 23, 2012

Rare Specimens: An Unusual Match-Up In Entomology

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Entomologists Alma Solis and Jason Hall specialize in moths and butterflies, respectively.

Credit Marty Ittner / Friends of Sligo Creek

In the couple's suburban Maryland home is this artwork, a wedding present, of a moth courting a butterfly.

Credit Marty Ittner / Friends of Sligo Creek

By Jacki Lyden

Originally published on Sun September 23, 2012 5:16 pm

Alma Solis, a researcher at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Systematic Entomology Lab, and her husband, Jason Hall, a researcher with the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, are, at first blush, a natural match.

Both are entomologists, a career that requires long hours, field work and travel for months at time — all without huge pay. But the couple soon learned that though they shared a passion, they did not share a specialty.

Hers: moths.

His: butterflies.

Around the Nation

3:33 pm

Sun September 23, 2012

'New Deal' Town Turns 75, Utopian Ideals Long Gone

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A visiting rabbi teaches children. The majority of Jersey Homesteads came from the Bronx's Jewish community.

Credit Russell Lee / Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Barry Leving worked as a tailor in the cooperative garment factory in Jersey Homesteads. This town was one of 99 towns set up by the National Industrial Recovery Act in the midst of the economic crisis in the 1930s, and was later renamed Roosevelt, after the president who set up these 'New Deal' towns. The photographs in this slideshow were taken in the early days of the town.

Credit Russell Lee / Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Some 80 garment workers at work in the town's cooperative factory. This was one of a handful of cooperative ventures that were built to be at the center of this new, utopian town. Most failed.

Credit Russell Lee / Courtesy of the Library of Congress

<p>Women at work in the millinery department of the cooperative garment factory.</p><p></p>

Credit Russell Lee / Courtesy of the Library of Congress

A tailor measures a woman for a coat, which was produced by the town's garment factory.

Credit Russell Lee / Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Residents shopped at local cooperative stores in town. This was one of the first, the more permanent home of the shop Nathan Dubin ran out of a garage.

Credit Russell Lee / Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Abe Lipsky, the farm foreman, moves into his home after living in temporary quarters for more than a year. One argument for why the cooperative businesses failed is that they were expected to be productive before the town was fully settled.

Credit Russell Lee / Courtesy of the Library of Congress

A temporary consumer's cooperative in a garage run by Nathan Dubin. The homesteaders had their own kosher meat shop and grocery.

Credit Russell Lee / Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Outside one of the new cooperative houses. They were designed in part by now-renowned architect Louis Kahn. At the time, Kahn was a young assistant.

Credit Arthur Rothstein / Courtesy of the Library of Congress

The directors of the town's consumers club.

Credit Russell Lee / Courtesy of the Library of Congress

The cooperative garment factory in Roosevelt, N.J.

Credit Russell Lee / Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Part of the promise of Roosevelt: Every resident is guaranteed a place in the town's cemetery.

Credit Janet Babin / WNYC

A section of Ben and Bernarda Shahn's mural in Roosevelt, N.J.'s elementary school depicts the plight of laborers.

Credit Janet Babin / WNYC

By editor

Originally published on Tue September 25, 2012 12:29 pm

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The town of Roosevelt, N.J., was born out of an era not much different from today. It was 1937, the economy was in the toilet, and the country bitterly divided.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt had won a second term in office — an election as acrimonious as today's — and with his re-election, a host of New Deal programs moved forward. One of these projects built 99 towns outside of industrial centers across the country. The town of Roosevelt, 50 miles south of New York City, was one of them.

Around the Nation

3:18 pm

Sun September 23, 2012

Vt. Town Hires Livestock To Save Money, Go Green

Charlotte, Vt., has a new, old-school strategy to keep cemetery grass cut: Let animals do the work.

Credit Kirk Carapezza / Vermont Public Radio

By Kirk Carapezza

Originally published on Sun September 23, 2012 4:51 pm

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Cities and towns facing tight budgets have often neglected their cemeteries, an oversight that has left many of them in disrepair with broken fencing, crumbling gravestones, overgrown grass and persistent weeds.

But this summer, the Vermont town of Charlotte implemented a new strategy to both save money and keep grass in the town's graveyards under control, and it's a decidedly traditional way of doing it: Let goats and sheep do the work.

Europe

3:17 pm

Sun September 23, 2012

Poverty, Segregation Fuel Marseille Crime Wave

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Police climb the stairs in a building on the north side of Marseille, southern France, as part of an operation in January against drug dealing and gun proliferation.

Credit Gerard Julien / AFP/Getty Images

Police officers in Marseille carry out checks on passing cars Sept. 8, two days after the French government announced an increased police presence and the creation of a security zone in the city.

Credit Anne-Christine Poujoulat / AFP/Getty Images

By Eleanor Beardsley

Originally published on Sun September 23, 2012 4:51 pm

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Drug and gang violence in Marseille, France's second largest city, has gotten so out of control that one local politician has called for the army to be sent in to restore order.

The proposal shocked the French and President Francois Hollande. Now, the French government is making the city a top priority.

Author Interviews

3:16 pm

Sun September 23, 2012

The Life And Times Of Movie Star 'Laura Lamont'

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Credit iStockphoto.com

Emma Straub is a staff writer for <em>Rookie</em> magazine. She is also the author of the short story collection <em>Other People We Married</em>.

Credit Sarah Shatz / Riverhead Hardcover

By Jacki Lyden

Originally published on Mon September 24, 2012 1:05 pm

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It's a small town girl's dream: One day, you're strutting the floorboards of a summer stage; the next, the silver screen. Thus is the arc of Elsa Emerson, a Door County, Wis., girl whose life at the Cheery County playhouse never quite goes away when she becomes the Oscar-winning Laura Lamont.

Shots - Health Blog

3:15 pm

Sun September 23, 2012

The Next Frontier For Elite Med Schools: Primary Care

Mount Sinai Medical student Demetri Blanas wants to specialize in family medicine. It is a new specialty offered by his medical school.

Credit Jenny Gold / Kaiser Health News

By editor

Originally published on Sun September 23, 2012 4:51 pm

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Johns Hopkins, Yale, Harvard, Columbia and Cornell. What do these medical schools have in common?

Beyond their first-rate reputations, they're also on the short list of top U.S. med schools that don't have departments of family medicine. Elite schools have long focused on training specialists and researchers, but with the federal health law's emphasis on primary care, some schools are looking harder at family medicine.

The Two-Way

11:23 am

Sun September 23, 2012

Giant Panda Cub Found Dead At National Zoo

By Melisa Goh

Originally published on Sun September 23, 2012 2:11 pm

The giant panda cub born to much excitement at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., last weekend was found dead this morning.

The Associated Press reports panda-keepers were alerted by sounds of distress from the cub's mother, Mei Xiang, but it was too late. The cause of death is not yet known, but zoo officials are planning a press conference at 1 p.m. ET.

Why Music Matters

11:03 am

Sun September 23, 2012

Scrolling Spaceways With Steely Dan And Shonen Knife

Mission specialist Stan Love's playlist for space includes David Bowie's "Space Oddity," XTC's "Another Satellite" and Shonen Knife's "Riding on the Rocket."

Credit Wikimedia Commons

By editor

Originally published on Tue January 29, 2013 10:36 am

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Weekends on All Things Considered continues its "Why Music Matters" series with music from the heavens, as chosen by astronaut Stan Love.

"In space, every day is an important day of work," Love says. But when he was sent up to the space station to drop off and pick up crew members, the returning station crew member asked, "Dudes, where are the tunes?"

The Two-Way

10:20 am

Sun September 23, 2012

Decades-Old Nuclear Standoff Finally Ends ... With New Zealand

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is given a traditional Maori welcome onto the grounds of the Government House on Friday in Auckland, New Zealand.

Credit Phil Walter / Getty Images

By editor

A little-known, but longtime nuclear standoff ended this week when U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted a 26-year-old ban that kept New Zealand naval ships from docking at U.S. bases.

It's All Politics

8:37 am

Sun September 23, 2012

Women Head For The Hill In Record Numbers

U.S. Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York waves as she takes the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., earlier this month.

Credit Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

By Ken Rudin

Originally published on Sun September 23, 2012 11:43 am

More women are running for Congress this year than ever before. The 18 women running for the Senate break the previous record of 14, set two years ago. Also, there are 163 female candidates for House seats, more than the 141 who ran in 2004.

That gives this election season a Year-of-the-Woman ring to it, says The Center for American Women and Politics. The center's director, Debbie Walsh, offered some reasons in a press release:

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