2011 December | Here & Now

About a week before he was killed in Iraq, Pfc. John Hart called his parents and said he was concerned because soldiers didn’t have enough protection. His parents’ efforts to help came too late for John, but have saved the lives of others.

The Republican-led house voted Tuesday to block passage of the Senate payroll tax cut extension.

From Rosemary Kuhlmann to Gian Carlo Menotti.

Robin’s former choir director, Ron Cohen, recently came to our studio, Santa hat and mix tape in tow, to take us through some of his favorite, less well-known, choir music.

As part of our series of conversations about the end of the war in Iraq, we hear from an Army veteran and longtime critic of the Iraq War, whose son was killed in the war.

Jeffrey Sachs says economists have been pushing free market principals to the country’s peril- he’s calling for higher taxes and a more active government to restore the country.

North Koreans are mourning the death of Kim Jong Il, but journalist Barbara Demick says “It’s hard to tell if people are crying because they feel sad about the death of this man or they’re crying because they’re worried about what happens next.”

House Speaker John Boehner says the House won’t go along with a Senate bill that would extend a payroll tax cut, extend jobless benefits and avoid cuts in Medicare payments to doctors through February. Boehner says House Republicans want a longer-term bill, lasting at least a year.

From Bonobo to Avishai Cohen.

Music, drinking and debate combine in “Three Pianos,” about a long party on a dark winter’s night, set to a Franz Schubert song cycle.

Denver Bronco’s quarterback Tim Tebow is known for his miraculous, come-from-behind, fourth quarter rallies. But would he be gaining so much attention, if it weren’t for his ardent religious beliefs?

Does it feel like food trucks are taking over our city streets? They’re on corners, parks and parking lots, hawking everything from kebabs and lobster rolls to cupcakes.

Phoenix private investigator Paul McLaughlin alleges that he was sexually abused by a Penn State professor in the 1970s and 80s, and that PSU administrators did nothing about it.

In a dramatic shift from their bitter exchanges earlier in the week, Congressional leaders made nice yesterday to reach an 11th hour deal to avert a government shutdown.

From Gyan Riley to Morcheeba.

In the 1960′s, composer Terry Riley ushered in the minimalist music movement with his revolutionary classic “In C.” Now he’s expanding his repertoire to the Indonesian gamelan.

The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti says it intends to sue the United Nations, because UN peacekeepers are responsible for the cholera epidemic that has killed thousands there.

If Amazon wasn’t already at war with brick and mortar stores, it may now be.

A Bloomberg News investigation found children working in slave-like conditions growing and picking the cotton used in Victoria’s Secret clothing labeled “Fair Trade.”

As the Iraq War ends, The New York Times probes one of the darkest days of the war, the massacre by U.S. Marines of two dozen Iraqis in Haditha in 2005.