The Salt
4:34 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

This 9-Year-Old Girl Told McDonald's CEO: Stop Tricking Kids

Credit Jamie Robertson / Courtesy Jamie Robertson
Hannah Robertson, 9, and her mom, blogger Kia Robertson — with the makings for kale chips, of course.

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 4:47 pm

It's not every day that a 9-year-old girl chastises the CEO of one of the world's biggest fast-food chains.

Yet that's exactly what young Hannah Robertson did Thursday morning at McDonald's annual shareholders meeting in Chicago. When the meeting opened up to questions, Hannah was first up at the mic with a pointed criticism.

"It would be nice if you stopped trying to trick kids into wanting to eat your food all the time," she told McDonald's CEO Don Thompson.

Ouch.

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NPR's Backseat Book Club
4:33 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

'Lunch Lady' Author Helps Students Draw Their Own Heroes

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 8:23 pm

Author and illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka is just 35 years old, but he's already published 20 books, including the popular Lunch Lady graphic novel series, NPR's Backseat Book Club pick for May.

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The Two-Way
4:10 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

NOAA Predicts Above-Average Hurricane Season

Credit NOAA
Satellite image of Hurricane Sandy in October of last year.

With memories of last year's Superstorm Sandy still fresh, NOAA is warning East Coasters and those farther inland to brace for another active Atlantic season, predicting that as many as six major storms will develop between the beginning of June and the end of November.

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Movie Interviews
4:03 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Julianne Moore, Relishing Complicated Characters

In the film What Maisie Knew, Julianne Moore plays a troubled rock star whose young daughter witnesses her parents' volatile behavior as they argue over custody during their rocky separation.

On the surface, Moore's character, Susanna, might seem to be an entirely terrible one — a self-involved person and inappropriate mother who's not paying attention to her child. But Moore makes her more complicated than that.

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Shots - Health News
3:52 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Researchers Find Bird Flu Is Contagious Among Ferrets

Credit iStockphoto.com
Of ferrets, men and bird flu.

Scientists have completed the first assessments of how readily the H7N9 flu virus in China can pass among ferrets and pigs. The mammals provide the best inkling of how dangerous these bugs may become for humans.

The news is both bad and good. They've found the new bird virus is easily passed between ferrets sharing the same cage.

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Music Interviews
3:51 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Pitbull Gets 'Epic': 'You Constantly Have To Defend Your Success'

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 1:30 am

Television
3:36 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Douglas, Damon Illuminate HBO's 'Candelabra'

Credit Claudette Barius / HBO
Michael Douglas stars as the flamboyant pianist and entertainer Liberace in Steven Soderbergh's new HBO biopic, Behind the Candelabra.

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 6:43 pm

Before you see any of Behind the Candelabra -- when you just consider the concept of the TV movie and its casting — this new HBO Films production raises all sorts of questions: How much will be based on verifiable fact, and how much will be fictionalized? On an anything-goes premium-cable network such as HBO, how graphic will the sex scenes be?

And the most important questions involve the drama's two leading men, playing an ultra-flamboyant piano player and the wide-eyed young man who becomes his behind-the-scenes companion for five years. Michael Douglas? Matt Damon?

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Shots - Health News
2:43 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Hardly A Haven: Home Can Be Deadly In Natural Disasters

Credit Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images
Floodwaters from Superstorm Sandy destroyed the first floor of this house in Staten Island, New York. Most of the people who drowned during the storm died in their homes in low-lying areas of New York and New Jersey.

Home can be a refuge. But when natural disaster strikes, hunkering down at home can be a deadly mistake.

All told, 32 of the 53 New Yorkers who died in last fall's Superstorm Sandy drowned, and most of them died at home, according to a report published today in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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The Two-Way
2:22 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

In Oklahoma, Praying To A 'God Of Rebuilding'

All that's left standing at Kiaya Roper's house in Moore, Okla., is the bathroom. When a tornado struck the town on Monday, Roper was at work at Central Elementary School, her children were at school and her husband managed to ride out the storm by hunkering down in that bathroom.

"God put his hand down on his head for me," Roper says.

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The Two-Way
2:20 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Moore Finds Comfort In Animals Who Survived The Storm

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 9:58 am

There's no room at the inn for the Degmans. Not the Days Inn, anyway.

Jim and Marilyn Degman didn't suffer significant damage to their home in Monday's storm, but they lost power and decided to seek shelter elsewhere. They tried two other places before they found a La Quinta Inn & Suites that would admit Angel Baby, their toy poodle.

"I think she's a little more traumatized than we are, because of her routine," Jim says. "She can't go to her home."

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