Business

Economy

Why Weak Productivity Growth Matters To The Economy

8:42am July 03, 2017

Steve Inskeep talks to David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center at the Brookings Institution, about productivity. Productivity growth is a reason living standards go up. Lately, it's been weak.

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New Jersey Starts Holiday Weekend With A Government Shutdown

8:42am July 03, 2017

by Joe Hernandez

Eleven states failed to pass a new fiscal year budget by last Friday's deadline. In New Jersey, that led to a government shutdown. The legislature will meet on Monday to try to work out a compromise.

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Why Does The Electric Guitar Need A Hero?

6:59pm July 02, 2017

by Denise Guerra

Gibson and Fender, two of the biggest companies making guitars are in debt. One reason is declining sales in electric guitars and the waning popularity of guitar heroes in popular culture.

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Los Angeles Moves Closer To Legalizing Sidewalk Food Vendors

8:08am July 02, 2017

by Parker Yesko

A campaign to legalize street vending is gaining strength from local resistance to President Trump's immigration policies — and fears that infractions could lead to deportation.

Travel Ban Puts Travel Industry On Edge

8:08am July 02, 2017

To better understand how the Trump administration's travel ban is affecting the American tourism industry, NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks to Claudia Menezes, a tour operator based in Orlando, Fla.

Organizer Of Failed Bahamas Musical Festival Arrested, Charged With Fraud

4:55pm July 01, 2017

by Scott Neuman

Billy McFarland has been accused of bilking at least two people who invested $1.2 million in the festival.

Peaches ready for packing and shipping at Lane Packing, a peach farm in Fort Valley, Ga.

National

Unseasonable Winter Weather Takes A Bite Out Of Georgia's Peach Crop

1:53pm July 01, 2017

by Grant Blankenship

It may be hard to enjoy a Georgia peach, if you don't live in the state. A warm winter, followed by a March freeze wiped out most of this year's crop, and what's left may not leave the state.

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A display case at NIOSH shows a normal lung and a diseased black lung, caused by inhaling coal dust and other harmful particles while coal mining.

NPR Continues To Find Hundreds Of Cases Of Advanced Black Lung

1:25pm July 01, 2017

by Howard Berkes

Black lung results from exposure to coal dust. Progressive massive fibrosis is an especially aggressive form, blamed on inhalation of silica dust from the cutting of quartz rock and coal together.

Storm Lake Times Editor Art Cullen stands outside his newspaper he started with his brother in 1990. The newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize this year for its editorial writing

National

How Small Town Papers Have Kept Community Trust

7:52am July 01, 2017

by Clay Masters

Distrust in the media has become a oft-cited trope in the cable news cycle. But one staple of American journalism seems to have avoided the "fake news" characterization — small-town newspapers.

Is Seattle's Minimum Wage Hike Doing More Harm Than Good?

7:52am July 01, 2017

A study suggests the most recent minimum wage hike in Seattle may be doing harm. NPR's Scott Simon talks with Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., about the impact of Seattle's push for $15/hour.