Search results for

Andre Le Notre helped turn an old hunting lodge into the Versailles we know today, taking his profession way beyond a trade. Experts say Le Notre's work was so groundbreaking, it continues to influence contemporary urban architecture. This year marks the 400th anniversary of Le Notre's birth.

The former Price Is Right host is backing Republican David Jolly in a special election next month for a St. Petersburg-area congressional seat. The 90-year-old tells voters, "When you get to be as young as I am, you call it like you see it."

This week we're looking back at the year in music through the lens of NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums of 2013. It's the annual list assembled by our in-house experts, including NPR music editor Frannie Kelley and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, producer and founding member of the rap group A Tribe Called Quest. The pair host NPR's Microphone Check.

The tornado that devastated parts of Washington, Ill., has brought about a sort of serendipitous phenomenon: It picked up family photos and dropped them 90 to 110 miles away, in the Chicago suburbs. Now there's an effort to reunite the photos with families who lost everything else.

The Chinese Exclusion Act, designed to prevent Chinese laborers from entering the country, prompted tens of thousands of people to use forged papers to enter the U.S. The law was repealed 70 years ago, but many Chinese-Americans are still piecing together their ancestors' true identities.

Before the end of the year, the federal government will select six states where drone makers can test how to safely integrate the technology into commercial airspace. Nevada is vying for one of the spots. The FAA stamp of approval could lure big industry to high-end test sites. But smaller drone developers, who're focused on non-military applications, also see enormous opportunities.

"Who am I to judge?" With those five words, Pope Francis "stepped away from the disapproving tone, the explicit moralizing typical of popes and bishops," writes columnist James Carroll.

The legal wrangling over who should be allowed to buy the Plan B One-Step morning-after pill without a prescription came to an end this year. A federal judge ruled that the emergency contraceptive couldn't be withheld from girls 16 and younger. Despite the legal ruling, many Americans support age minimums and parental consent.

Redford says filming All Is Lost was a "pure cinematic experience — the way films used to be." He talks with Fresh Air's Terry Gross about how it's been "sort of weird" being known for his good looks, and about how he nearly wasn't cast in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The Obama administration reiterated its long-held position that Robert Levinson was not "a U.S. government employee when he went missing in Iran" in 2007. The assertion comes a day after The Associated Press reported that Levinson was on a rogue mission for the CIA.