Business

Saying No To The Sales, Some Skip Shopping On Black Friday

4:32pm November 27, 2015

This Black Friday, some people are choosing not to shop. NPR talks to a state park manager in Minnesota and people on a walking tour in Los Angeles about why they're opting out.

Sports

Fantasy Sports As Day Job: Meet One Of The Industry's Top Winners

4:32pm November 27, 2015

by Curt Nickisch

Is daily fantasy sports a game of skill or one of chance? Just ask one of the industry's top winners, a Bostonian who treats daily fantasy sports as his day job.

Oranges ripen in a grove in Plant City, Fla. Citrus greening, a disease spread by a tiny insect that ruins oranges and eventually kills the trees, has put the future of the state's $10 billion citrus industry in doubt.

How Long Can Florida's Citrus Industry Survive?

4:32pm November 27, 2015

by Greg Allen

The USDA recently stunned growers when it projected the smallest orange harvest for Florida in more than 50 years. The culprit: A tiny insect that's killing off the state's trees — and industry.

Economy

Live Long And Prosper: Reviving An Idea For Income In Old Age

4:32pm November 27, 2015

by Uri Berliner

Some financial experts want to bring back tontines, a retirement planning tool. People pool their cash to buy a bond that makes regular payments. The catch: You have to be alive to collect the payout.

Love It Or Hate It, Black Friday Is Here

6:25am November 27, 2015

by Sonari Glinton

As Black Friday 2015 gets underway across the United States, Morning Edition heads to a big box store in Los Angeles. Are shoppers finding bargains, and are they spending money?

Holiday Toys Offer Clues To New 'Star Wars' Movie

6:23am November 27, 2015

by Mandalit del Barco

We discover some of this season's hottest toys: light sabers, drones and Millennium Falcons — all for sale in anticipation of next month's release of the new Star Wars film: The Force Awakens.

Economy

Food Banks' Pickle: Getting Food To The Right Place At The Right Time

6:13am November 27, 2015

by Jacob Goldstein

On any day, a food bank could end up with heaps of pasta sauce, but no pasta. To solve the problem, a network of food banks created a currency of fake money and embraced trade.

Nancy Bruns, CEO of J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works, gathers finished salt from an evaporation table in Malden, W.Va.

National

Fine Brine From Appalachia: The Fancy Mountain Salt That Chefs Prize

9:33am November 26, 2015

by Noah Adams

An artisanal salt producer is processing brine from ancient ocean deposits below West Virginia's mountains. The company, J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works, ships to top chefs who value the salt's minerality.

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Rick and Letha Heitman, of Centennial, Colo., bought their health plan in 2015 through Colorado HealthOP, an insurance cooperative that will close at the end of the year. HealthOp's CEO says the co-op was "blindsided" when some promised federal subsidies

Many Health Co-Ops Fold, Others Survive Startup Struggles

8:54am November 26, 2015

Establishing a member-owned, nonprofit health co-op from scratch is tough; 12 of 23 that tried under Obamacare have closed after just one year. Sick patients poured in, and promised subsidies didn't.

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It actually costs more than a penny to make a penny.

Critics Wonder Whether Pennies Make Sense Anymore

8:04am November 26, 2015

by Chris Arnold

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew says the government is reviewing a proposal to stop making the penny. It actually costs nearly 2 cents to make a penny, so the government loses money.

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