School Diversity Plan Under Fire In North Carolina

The school board in Wake County, North Carolina meets today and is expected to scrap a school diversity program that was a model for many school systems. The county assigned students to school by their socio-economic status; not their race. But many suburban parents opposed this system, saying their children were bused to schools too far from home. We speak with Dave DeWitt, education reporter for North Carolina Public Radio.

Fired Teachers in Rhode Island, and Beyond

President Obama says that he supports a decision by officials in the Central Falls, Rhode Island school district to fire all of its teachers in an attempt to improve schools. We’ll speak with Fran Gallo, superintendent of the school system, and with Kenneth Wong, chair of the education department at Brown University.
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Under Pressure, Greece Plans Austerity Package

Taxi drivers in Athens batter the cab of a colleague who broke a 2-day nationwide union strike that began today (AP)

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Greece is devising a new round of measures aimed at cutting a huge budget deficit that’s four times what the European Union allows. The E.U. says it won’t help with a bailout unless and until Greece adopts effective measures. But one of the country’s biggest unions is already girding for a strike to protest a new austerity package. We talk with Malcolm Brabant, correspondent for the BBC in Greece.

“Hello? Sorry… No, You Go Ahead”

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Have your cell phone calls gotten more awkward lately? You start speaking and the person on the other end interrupts you, you both stop, then you both try to start again, only to interrupt each other once more. The maddening delay has a name… it is called cell phone latency, and there’s a technological reason for it. Mike Elgan, who writes about technology and culture for ComputerWorld, argues for new cell phone etiquette rules to help people deal with new problems posed by cell phone technology.

Forty Years Of Rounder Records

This month local PBS stations will air Rounder Records' 40th anniversary concert, taped at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville last October (Rounder Records)

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The Massachusetts-based independent label Rounder Records celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, with a CD release. Rounder helped launch Alison Krauss, George Thorogood and the Destroyers and Madeleine Peyroux. It also preserved a wealth of folk culture including the work of musicologist Alan Lomax. We speak with Ken Irwin and Marian Leighton Levy, who along with Bill Nowlin, founded Rounder Records.

Music For The Show

• Jim Infantino, “Under the Stone Sky”
• Stereo, “We Don’t Go”
• Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
• The Walkmen, “We’ve Been Had”
• George Pegram, “Johnson’s Old Gray Mule”
• Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, “Rich Woman”
• Steve Martin, “Saga of the Old West”
• Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, “Please Read the Letter”
• George Thorogood and the Destroyers, “You Got To Lose”
• Charles Brown, “Bad Bad Whiskey”
• Mary Chapin Carpenter, “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her”
• Alison Krauss, “My Foolish Heart”
• Madeleine Peyroux, “Don’t Wait Too Long”
• Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas, “Think About the Good Times”