Search results for

Linda talks to Ehren Fried Libach, President of The Quantum Group in Tustin, California about the uses for recycled tires. Of the 270 million tires scrapped each year in the United States, about 114 million are mixed with coal and used as fuel. Rubber playground mats are also made from recycled tires.

The government of Tartarstan -- part of the Russian Federation -- has decided to switch from using the Cyrillic alphabet to the Roman alphabet. The switch is timed to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of self-rule in Tartarstan. Robert talks with Martha Brill Olcott, a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Brill co-authored Getting It Wrong: Regional Cooperation in the Commonwealth of the Independent States. (4:30) Brill's book is published by Carnegie Press, 0ctober 1999.

President Clinton today vetoed a bill to repeal the federal estate tax. The veto sets up a confrontation with Congress as early as next week. It also continues the election-year debate over what to do with the federal budget surplus. Pam Fessler reports.

Linda and Robert read letters from All Things Considered listeners. (3:15) To contact All Things Considered, write to All Things Considered Letters, 635 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20001. The e-mail address is atc@npr.org.

Janet Heimlich reports Texas authorities are taking a "softly, softly" approach to a stand-off with a family at the center of a custody dispute. The family has barricaded itself into a homestead on 47 acres in a remote area of eastern Texas. The family is drawing support from militia groups.

Sarah Chayes reports the French government has offered a package of tax reductions to the fishing industry to offset the high price of fuel. Fishers enraged by prices that have increased 140-percent in a year have been blockading ports around France for the past week. Following the government's concessions, fishing unions have urged an end to the protests. But not all the fishermen have complied, and taxi drivers, truckers and farmers say the tax reductions for fishers do nothing to alleviate their high fuel prices.

Host Renee Montagne talks with actor and author John Lithgow about his new children's story, The Remarkable Farkle McBride. Lithgow intended to produce a musical program that would draw children to the symphony. Soon after he started, he realized he had the makings of a children's book as well. In the book, Farkle McBride is a musical prodigy that learns to play something from the 4 instrument groups that compose a symphony orchestra. Farkle eventually gives them all up in fits of frustration before he discovers his passion is for conducting. (7:00) John Lithgow's The Remarkable Farkle McBride is published by Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 0689833407.

Orlando de Guzman reports U-S diplomats and law enforcement officials are in the Philippines, trying to obtain the release of a 24-year-old American taken hostage by a brutal group of Muslim separatists. Jeffrey Schilling of Oakland, California, is the latest of dozens of foreigners to be kidnapped by rebels. He was abducted from a shopping center in Zamboanga City, by the group known as Abu Sayaf. The same group beheaded two school teachers earlier this year when demands for their release were not met. Nonetheless, the U-S State Department says the US will not pay ransom, change policies, release prisoners or make any concessions that reward hostage-taking.

The cottontail rabbit used to be a common sight among the oak forests and mountain trails of New England. No more. NPR News correspondent John Nielsen reports on a request by conservationists to put what once was thought to be the most procreatively successful American animal on the endangered species list.

NPR's Michael Sullivan reports that the trial of former Indonesian President Suharto opened today in Jakarta, but Suharto failed to appear. A team of 24 doctors attending the former president told the judge they had examined Suharto earlier in the day and that he was too ill to go to court. The trial now has been postponed for two weeks to allow the court to rule on a prosecution request for an independent medical examination of Suharto. He is charged with illegally siphoning off some 500-million dollars from charities during his three decades in power.