State and National News

Singer, songwriter and fiddler Amanda Shires makes her first appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live in Charleston, W.V. Shires got her start in Texas, where as a teenager she performed with the Texas Playboys, the backing band for the legendary Bob Wills.

Two brothers have been charged in connection with one of the nation's largest drug heists, along with 20 other people in an organized crime ring that stretched from Florida to New Jersey and Connecticut.

It's the culmination of a three-year FBI investigation in which undercover agents managed to prevent any of the stolen drugs from entering the marketplace, the Associated Press reported yesterday.

Update at 2:30 p.m. ET: The news that Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys has died has now been confirmed by the group's public relations firm.

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With Washington abuzz over the political ramifications of the president's trip to Afghanistan, this week's podcast focuses on stuff outside the Beltway: Sen. Dick Lugar's tough Republican primary contest in Indiana next Tuesday and, on the same day, Wisconsin Democrats' selection of a candidate to take on GOP Gov. Scott Walker in the June recall election.

NPR's Ron Elving and Ken Rudin break down the latest political news on this week's roundup.

Talk about a heavy hand: State police say they clocked Nikkolaus McCarthy, 25, flying across the New York Thruway at 170 mph.

That's not a typo. Police said when they finally caught up with him 50 miles later and told McCarthy how fast he was going, he allegedly bragged saying his bike could break the 190 mph barrier.

The Albany Times Union reports:

Neil Sedaka is synonymous with popular music. For more than 50 years, he's written, performed and produced the soundtrack for America's collective psyche. Sedaka had a string of early-1960s pop hits, and his songs have been recorded by Frank Sinatra, Connie Francis, Elvis Presley and The Monkees, among others.

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney just may be the same person. Think about it. Have you ever seen the two of them in the same limo?

All right. Of course, the pair of politicians who will in all likelihood be the major party nominees for the 2012 presidential election have their differences. Republican Romney, for instance, has been a governor and chairman of the Olympics; Democrat Obama has not. Obama, on the other hand, has been a senator and a president. Romney has not.

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

One of the newer buzzwords coming out - buzz phrase, actually, has to do with the working in the cloud. Do you work in the cloud? Do you ever hear about it? You store your files, your movies, your music, maybe your office documents, even your word processor can be up there in the Cloud. What's this all about? Do you want to get involved? Are you wondering whether you should do that? That's what we're going to be talking about for the rest of the hour with two folks who write about technology and think about how it works.

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. Stroke, kidney failure, seizures are some of the devastating effects of a cocaine overdose that kill thousands of people each year. But new research has created hope that a cocaine overdose antidote may soon be available for doctors who administer in emergency situations.

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. What if there was a nuclear reactor that was meltdown safe, generated power inexpensively, created no weapons-grade byproducts and burnt up existing nuclear waste stockpiled? Sound too good to be true?