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The Salt
3:39 am
Wed September 12, 2012

Five Ways To Spot A Fake Online Review, Restaurant Or Otherwise

Credit Bill Oxford / iStockphoto.com
One sign that a restaurant review is a fake is if it gives a very high or very low rating without many specifics.

Originally published on Tue September 18, 2012 2:47 pm

Thinking of going to a nice restaurant? Before you decide, you probably go online and read reviews of the place from other customers (or you listen to these actors read them to you). Online reviews of restaurants, travel deals, apps and just about anything you want to buy have become a powerful driver of consumer behavior. Unsurprisingly, they have also created a powerful incentive to cheat.

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Law
3:38 am
Wed September 12, 2012

U.S. Grows An Industrial Complex Along The Border

Originally published on Wed September 12, 2012 9:28 pm

The United States' southern border bristles with technology and manpower designed to catch illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. Since 1986, the government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on fences, aircraft, detention centers and agents.

But even as federal budgets shrink and illegal immigration ebbs, experts say that there's no end in sight for the growth of the border-industrial complex.

A Growing Investment On The Border

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All Tech Considered
7:17 pm
Tue September 11, 2012

11 Takeaways From Mark Zuckerberg's First Post-Facebook IPO Interview

Credit Eric Risberg / AP
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized his company's mobile-centered future Tuesday, in his first public comments since Facebook's troubled IPO.

Originally published on Tue September 11, 2012 8:08 pm

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave his first public interview after his tech company's rocky IPO and the disappointing stock performance that followed. Facebook's share price is now worth about $19 — half as much as it was priced back in May when its stock first went on the market.

Zuckerberg took questions from Michael Arrington at TechCrunch Disrupt, a San Francisco conference for startups. We watched and listened in to the talk in case you missed it:

Building a mission and business go hand-in-hand

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The Salt
7:12 pm
Tue September 11, 2012

Yelp Reviewers Slice And Dice The Politics Of Pizza

Credit Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
President Obama is lifted off the ground by Scott Van Duzer, owner of Big Apple Pizza and Pasta Italian Restaurant, during an unannounced stop Sunday in Fort Pierce, Fla.

Originally published on Wed September 19, 2012 4:07 pm

When Scott Van Duzer welcomed President Obama to his pizza shop Sunday with a massive bearhug, it was the beginning of the end of his anonymity.

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NPR Cities: Urban Life In The 21st Century
5:56 pm
Tue September 11, 2012

Racial, Regional Divide Still Haunt Detroit's Progress

Originally published on Tue September 11, 2012 10:20 pm

For many years — perhaps even decades — Detroit has been the poster child for economic malaise. Adjusting for inflation, per capita income in metro Detroit dropped more than 20 percent between 1999 and 2010.

Some analysts say regional cooperation might have helped keep Detroit above water when the car industry sank, but that entrenched divisions that pit the city against its suburbs, and blacks against whites, have hindered that.

A Deeply Entrenched Regional Divide

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It's All Politics
4:57 pm
Tue September 11, 2012

Chicago Teachers' Strike Forces Obama To Steer Carefully Between Two Allies

Credit Robert Ray / AP
Striking Chicago public school teachers have a message for Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday.

Originally published on Tue September 11, 2012 6:19 pm

Getting caught in a fight between two important allies is not where a president locked in a tight re-election race would willingly choose to be.

But that's where President Obama is today as he attempts for now to stay above the fray pitting the striking Chicago teachers against Mayor Rahm Emanuel who, in an earlier incarnation, was Obama's White House chief of staff.

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NPR Cities: Urban Life In The 21st Century
4:56 pm
Tue September 11, 2012

City Life Snapshot: Music In Austin, Texas

Originally published on Tue September 11, 2012 10:46 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

A different take on city as melting pot now, in this City Life Snapshot from Austin, Texas.

BALDOMERO FRANK ALVAREZ CUELLAR: I'm Baldomero Frank Alvarez Cuellar, and that's a mouthful. And I am one-half of the owners of Rancho Alegre Radio.

BLOCK: Back in the '70s and '80s, Conjunto music was everywhere in Austin, and Alvarez is trying to bring it back.

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Around the Nation
4:53 pm
Tue September 11, 2012

Construction Still Slow At World Trade Center Site

Originally published on Tue September 11, 2012 9:57 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

Thousands gathered today at the World Trade Center site in New York. They marked the 11th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks. Family members of the victims took turns reading the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Janice Marie Ashley.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Thomas J. Ashton.

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Education
4:52 pm
Tue September 11, 2012

Chicago Orgs Scramble To Watch Kids During Strike

Originally published on Tue September 11, 2012 9:57 pm

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

I'm Melissa Block. And we begin this hour with day two of the Chicago teachers' strike. Some 350,000 students are affected by the walkout in the nation's third-largest school district. We'll have a report on how the strike is playing out in the presidential race.

CORNISH: But, first, NPR's Sonari Glinton reports on how parents, churches and local charities are scrambling to figure out what to do with so many kids with nowhere to go.

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Environment
4:52 pm
Tue September 11, 2012

Officials Combat Big Stink In Southern California

Originally published on Tue September 11, 2012 9:57 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Here are some descriptions of a foul smell that has stunk its way across a huge stretch of Southern California.

PAT STEVENS: Rotting fish, sewage, you know.

JOYCE THATCHER: It smells exactly like somebody's septic system overflowed.

SEAN NEALON: Like an old banana under the seat for, like, a week, and it just turns all black and gooey and, like, something's rotting.

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