State and National News

As both parties turn to the general election, and the potentially pivotal role of minority voters, battles over voter identification and other new state election laws are intensifying.

Fresh Air weekend

In summer music festivals, as with TMZ news scoops and the vintage car market, exclusivity is the name of the game. The thinking goes like this: Festival attendees are looking for a good time and a good deal.

Emeli Sandé's jazzy vocal delivery finds middle ground between classic soul and modern-day R&B, with appeal to fans of indie pop and Top 40 alike. Her debut album, Our Version of Events, comes out next week, and it finds the best-selling BRIT Award winner testing the waters in the U.S., where she'll shoot for the kind of across-the-board success currently enjoyed by Adele.

This weekend we bring you some of our favoirte 'Not My Job' interviews from the past year or so. Here actor Gary Oldman reveals something about himself we're not likely to forget any time soon:

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It was a huge surprise in Hollywood last week when actor Gary Oldman got an Academy Award nomination for his performance in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy — people weren't surprised that he was nominated, but they were shocked that this was the first time.

We've invited Oldman to answer three questions about Up With People — a horde of wholesome, smiley young people who performed four Super Bowl halftime shows back in the day.

Cal Ripken Jr. knows streaks. The Baseball Hall of Famer played 21 years with the Baltimore Orioles and holds the record for most consecutive games played.

We've invited Ripken to play a game called "You want to see a real streak? Here, hold my pants." Ripken is known for playing 2,632 consecutive games, but we don't think it counts as a streak because he was wearing clothes. We'll ask him three questions about sports' real streakers.

Our panelists tell stories of parents going the extra mile to toughen up their kids, only one of which is true.

Simon Pegg is living every nerd's dream: He grew up watching Star Wars, Star Trek and horror movies, then started making movies of his own. He played Scotty in the new version of Star Trek and is starring in Steven Spielberg's latest, Paul.

We've invited Pegg to play a game called: "And he makes a poke check while head-deking in the crease!" Three questions about an obscure little game called "ice hockey."