Search results for

NPR's Chris Arnold reports on some entrepreneurs who expect major innovations in the way electricity is generated. One venture capital firm, Nth Power, is investing in new technologies that may produce more efficient, cleaner energy. Founders Maurice Gunderson and Nancy Floyd believe that deregulation of electrical utilities has great potential for everything from hydrogen fuel cells, to natural gas refrigerators that can cool food and heat houses at the same time.

David D'Arcy reports on the dispute over ownership of a painting that the Nazis took from a Jewish art dealer in 1938 Vienna. Portrait of Wally, by Egon Schiele has been on loan to the Museum of Modern Art for the last two-and-a-half years. A federal judge ruled that the painting cannot be considered "stolen" because the American military returned it to the Austrian government in 1945. The Justice Department is asking the judge to reverse his ruling. The case has implications for the families of Holocaust victims, who are trying to recover art and other property that was looted by the Nazis.

NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports that officials at the Hanford Nuclear Reservoir want to re-activate one of the site's decommissioned reactors despite public outrage.

NPR Patricia Neighmond reports on a matchbook size electrical device which can be implanted under the skin of people who suffer from extreme pain. Electrical stimulation from the device can help block the transmission of pain from the nervous system to the brain. It offers relief to people who have reflex sympathetic dystrophy, the syndrome known as RSD.

NPR's Anthony Brooks reports from Seattle on the campaign trail, where protests and counterprotests by supporters of Democrat Al Gore and Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader are overshadowing Gore's efforts to emphasize his health care policy.

Host Renee Montagne talks with Marshall Wittmann of the Heritage Foundation about the political implications of House Speaker Dennis Hastert's offer to President Clinton: increase the minimum wage in exchange for a cut in business taxes.

In our latest installment of our monthly series One Hundred Years of Stories, Neenah Ellis talks with college professor Abraham Goldsteen who's 101 years old. Goldsteen has taught law for 70 years. He currently teaches at Baruch College in New York City. He began working as a child, 1913 to be exact, when he served as a telegram delivery boy. Goldsteen says he never married because he was afraid the expense of a family would make it hard for him to help care for his brothers and sisters.

When Al Gore and George W. Bush talk about health care, they sound a lot alike. But as Julie Rovner reports, the presidential candidates' plans for health care in the U.S. are starkly different. Gore wants to expand existing government programs to bring health coverage to more people. Bush believes he can achieve the same thing through private-sector initiatives.

Ina Jaffe reports that new Census information indicates that ethnic minorities will now constitute an majority of California residents.

Michele Kelemen reports from southern Siberia, where computer programmers are hoping to create their own Silicon Valley. Akademgorodok was built as a model town for Soviet scientists. With its highly-educated workforce, it's home to software companies that do programming work -- cheaply -- for Western customers.

Minnesota Public Radio's Elizabeth Stawicki reports on an effort by some airlines to fly their jets at lower altitudes to avoid congestion in the sky and ease flight delays. The move has some risks and drawbacks but it is helping cut the number of costly delays.

Robert talks to Larry Jackson, a project engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board, who helped reconstruct TWA Flight 800 from pieces found in the ocean after the crash. The reconstructed plane is now in a hangar in Calverton, New York, waiting to be moved to an academy where it will be used to train crash investigators.