Latest news with #AmericanPublicMedia
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tom Crann, MPR's longtime host of 'All Things Considered,' makes move to YourClassical MPR
Tom Crann said farewell to MPR News listeners on Friday, hosting his final episode of "All Things Considered" as he makes the move to YourClassical MPR. Crann has been a familiar voice for Minnesota Public Radio listeners since he arrived at the public station in 1995 – initially as part of of parent company American Public Media's nationally syndicated classical music service Classical 24. But he subsequently became known for his role on the news side, hosting current affairs show "All Things Considered" for the past 20 years, and also leading MPR News' election night coverage since 2012. He will now be heard on 99.5FM YourClassical MPR, taking over the 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. slot that was formerly hosted by Steve Staruch, who is moving to a part-time role, hosting the 6 a.m.–10 a.m. on Mondays, and then filling in as and when needed. Crann's first day at YourClassical MPR will be Monday, June 2. MPR News meanwhile is launching a national search for a new "All Things Considered" host, with various staff filling in until one is found. Working in public radio since 1987, Crann came to St. Paul in 1995 when he was among the first announcers hired for the launch of Classical 24, American Public Media's nationally syndicated music service. When he announced his pending move last month, Crann told MPR News: "That job was open, and it seemed to have my name on it. It's classical music for Minnesota in the afternoon, and I just thought it would be really nice thing to go back to."
USA Today
06-05-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Interest rates for loans, mortgages aren't falling yet. See when they might
Interest rates for loans, mortgages aren't falling yet. See when they might If you're wondering when interest rates on credit cards and car loans will start falling again, don't hold you breath this week when the Federal Reserve's policy committee meets. Interest-rate traders see little chance that the Fed will lower interest rates at the end of Wednesday's meeting or the following one. That means Americans won't see short-term interest rates – which are heavily influenced by the Fed's decisions – decline for at least another two months. As of Tuesday afternoon, there's only a 56% chance the Fed will cut its short-term interest rate at its late July meeting, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. The FedWatch tool tracks the likelihood that the Fed will change the fed funds rate based on futures prices. When interest rates could fall in coming months Unable to view our graphics? Click here to see them. Will interest rates go down in 2025? President Donald Trump's tariff proposals have put the Fed in a difficult position: Inflation stemming from the pandemic continues to moderate, but it's unclear how much tariffs will increase prices in the coming months. Lower interest rates could encourage us to borrow more to pay for items made more expensive by tariffs, which could spark inflation again. The Fed tries to let inflation rise about 2% each year while keeping as many Americans employed as possible. The April jobs report released last week showed unemployment remained steady, and the economy added a 177,000 jobs. With other data points also suggesting the economy on a solid footing, it appears Fed chief Jerome Powell and other voting Fed members aren't as likely restart their rate cuts. On American Public Media's radio show "Marketplace" in April, Raphael Bostic, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, compared the uncertainty surrounding tariffs to driving in fog. "When you're driving in the fog, you've just got to slow down," Bostic said. "When the fog gets thicker, you're going to pull over and wait. I think that's the wise thing to do. And I think for me, it's pretty clear, the fog has gotten quite a bit thicker in the last couple of weeks." Where interest rates stand on credit cards and car loans The Fed's three interest rate cuts in 2024 quickly translated into lower payments for short-term loans made on credit cards and for cars: Increases and decreases in credit card interest rates are closely linked to the prime rate, which is generally three percentage points higher than the fed funds rate. Auto loans also follow a similar pattern. All three remain well above where they were in early 2022 when Powell signaled the Fed planned to start raising interest rates to curb inflation. Higher mortgage interest rates add to housing troubles Mortgage rates are affected mostly by longer-term interest rates, but those rates can also be driven by short-term expectations about inflation or the direction of the economy. Mortgage rates are few percentage points higher than they were when the Fed starting cutting interest rates in late September. More importantly for home buyers, though, mortgage rates remain more than double what they were in 2021. In December 2021 with mortgage rates at 3.1%, a new homeowner would have paid $1,453 monthly in principal and interest for a $425,000 house with a 20% downpayment. At 6.8% last week, the same house with a new 30-year mortgage would cost $763 more per month.
New York Times
29-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
5 Podcasts Where Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction
There's an overwhelming amount of news to keep up with right now, and it can sometimes feel impossible to look away or take a break. Getting absorbed in a truly compelling story can be a great antidote to doom-scrolling, and if focusing on fiction isn't working, you can try a crazy-yet-true audio narrative. These five shows all center on stories so shocking, unbelievable and full of twists that it's hard to believe they're nonfiction. 'Noble' 'It takes 28 gallons of fuel, and a spark, to burn a human body.' So begins the attention-grabbing opening to 'Noble,' which describes the process of cremation in grueling detail to set up the story about to unfold. In February of 2002, investigators acting on an anonymous tip discovered a pile of more than 300 corpses abandoned in a wooded area of Noble, Ga., a tiny rural town in the Appalachian foothills. This horror movie scene was found on the grounds of the Tri-State Crematory; it turned out that the owner had been improperly disposing of bodies for years, while assuring grieving families that their loved ones had been cremated. In a sensitive eight-part series, Shaun Raviv, an Atlanta-based journalist who has written for Wired and The Washington Post, unravels the emotional and legal details of this disturbing saga through interviews with investigators, experts and family members. Noble also uses this singular story as a jumping-off point to explore deeper questions about what the living owe the departed, and our ambivalent relationship to death. Starter episode: 'The Gas Man' 'Sold a Story' For decades, a staggering number of top-rated primary schools across the country have failed to effectively teach children how to read. That sounds like it can't possibly be true, and yet over 13 detailed episodes, this American Public Media podcast lays out how a deeply flawed teaching method took hold despite having been widely debunked by cognitive scientists. This approach (known as the 'whole language' method) encourages children to decode words by understanding the overall meaning of a text rather than learning words by sounding them out (known as phonics), and the conflict between the two sides is so fraught that it's been called 'The Reading Wars,' and demands for reform have mounted nationwide. In 'Sold a Story,' Emily Hanford speaks with educators, linguistics experts and parents to weave together an exposé of this systemic failure and its ramifications for children. Starter episode: 'The Problem' 'Kill List' In 2020, Carl Miller, a technology writer, received a tip about a murder-for-hire service operating via the dark web, where customers could anonymously order hits and pay using bitcoin. The first six episodes of this gripping series from Wondery outline the investigation that followed, as Miller and his small London-based team try to track down who is behind the kill list and find out if it's a real crime syndicate or an elaborate scam. The show then shifts focus into more episodic storytelling, with each of the 12 additional installments spotlighting one of the people whose names ended up on the list. (There were more than 100 names.) Alongside its obvious themes of cybercrime and the internet's capacity to erode our empathy, 'Kill List' is about toxic masculinity — a large majority of these kill orders are traced back to abusive or spurned male partners. It's also a deeply humanistic podcast, anchored by Miller and his colleagues' reflecting on the human toll of responsibly reporting these kinds of stories. Starter episode: 'The Hack' 'Inconceivable Truth' The growth of affordable DNA testing over the past couple of decades has allowed people to unlock the secrets of their ancestry, but the process sometimes comes with an unexpected twist ending. Finding out that your presumed father is, in fact, not a biological relative is common enough that there's a genealogical term for it: a non-paternity event, or N.P.E. Matt Katz, an investigative reporter, grew up with an unreliable, often absent father whom he found both fascinating and frustrating, until he dropped out of the picture altogether. After spending years unsuccessfully trying to track down his father, he took a DNA test which revealed the truth. In this unguarded, compassionate series, Katz's very personal story intersects with a broader one about the widespread impact of New York's largely unregulated artificial insemination industry during the 1970s. Starter episode: 'Warren' 'The Superhero Complex' During the early 2010s, dozens of people in downtown Seattle experienced a scene right out of a movie. Just as they were on the verge of witnessing or becoming victims of a crime, a masked man swooped in to intervene. This mysterious figure wore a hooded rubber mask and a skintight black-and-gold suit, went by the moniker Phoenix Jones and seemed to be motivated by a desire to make the streets safer. But after Jones became a local celebrity, and started a local citizen patrol group called the Rain City Superhero Movement, things became a lot more complicated. David Weinberg, the host of 'The Superhero Complex' leaves no bizarre stone unturned in his chronicle of the rise and fall of Seattle's self-styled vigilante. Starter episode: 'Out of the Shadows'
