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The United States has seen many fundraisers headlined by an Obama in recent years, but this week it won't be the president or the first lady — it will be his step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, who is raising funds to build a school and hospital in her hometown, Kogelo, Kenya.

Obama, who runs the Mama Sarah Obama Foundation and was honored with an Education Pioneer award at the United Nations on Wednesday as part of its Women's Entrepreneurship Day, has spent much of her life helping young people — and particularly young women — in her region get an education.

President Obama's last surviving grandparent, whom he referred to as Granny in his memoir Dreams from My Father, never went to school herself, she tells NPR's Scott Simon through an interpreter.

"It was very hard for women to get an education," when she was growing up, the 94-year-old Obama says. "Only young boys or men were allowed to go to school."

But things are different in Kenya now, she says. United Nations data actually shows a higher percentage of Kenyan girls going to school than Kenyan boys.

"I encourage them — even the ones who have had families at a young age — I encourage them to go to school so that the cycle of poverty can end," Obama says. She sometimes uses her grandson as an example of the doors an education can open.

Often, Obama says, she and her foundation provide much more than encouragement.

"I help the orphans and widows, especially the young girls who have been orphaned by their parents dying of HIV," she says. "I am their sole parent right now, so I help them pay school fees and also get them the things that they need, like sanitary towels, books, necessities like a pencil, school uniforms. That's what I do."

It's an investment that Sarah Obama says she gets an unbeatable return on.

"There's so many kids that I've helped educate, some of them at Nairobi University, Moi University and also Bondo University," she says. "These are orphans who I've helped pay for their school fares, and now it's my joy to see them in the universities about to graduate. There's a lot of success stories, and it just makes me happy and it keeps me going."

Kenya

President Obama

An outbreak of the plague has sickened at least 119 people and killed 40 in Madagascar, the World Health Organization reports Friday.

The outbreak started back in August in a rural village, WHO said. Then it spread to seven of Madagascar's 22 regions. Two cases have occurred in the country's capital of Antananarivo.

"There is now a risk of a rapid spread of the disease due to the city's high population density and the weakness of the health care system," the WHO writes.

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The plague is not new to Madagascar. The disease re-emerged in the country in the 1990s. And now Madagascar reports more cases than any other country — about 300 to 600 each year.

People catch the plague bacteria — Yersinia pestis — from fleas that live on rodents. So the disease thrives in cities with poor sanitation.

After a coup d'etat in 2009, Antananarivo's health and sanitation systems collapsed, Aaron Ross wrote on the Pulitzer Center's website in January. "Trash can go weeks, even months, without being collected and rats have become a common sight along the narrow alleyways that coil around the city's steep hillsides," Ross wrote.

The plague's signature symptom is large, swollen lymph nodes. This form of the disease is called bubonic plague. And it's not very contagious.

When the infection moves to the lungs, it's called pneumonic plague, a form that's more dangerous. It kills quickly, and it spreads from person to person through coughs.

In the current outbreak, so far, only 2 percent of the cases are pneumonic, WHO says.

Both forms of the plague are easily cured with antibiotics when the disease is caught early.

Madagascar

bubonic plague

Infectious Disease

Global Health

Even before the details of the president's executive action on immigration came down, William Gheen was hitting the phones, organizing demonstrations outside the Las Vegas high school Obama visited Friday.

"I don't know what's going to be effective, I don't think anybody ever expected that the president of the United States would side with an illegal immigrant invasion over American citizens' interest, but that's what's happened here," Gheen says.

Gheen is president of one of the country's largest anti-illegal immigration PACs, Americans for Legal Immigration. Activists like him are angry about the president's unilateral action to extend deportation relief to parents of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents and thousands more young people. But make no mistake, their opposition is about a lot more than just procedure.

The Two-Way

A Closer Look At Obama's Immigration Plan: What's In It, Who's Affected

It's All Politics

'I Will Not Sit Idly By' And Other Congressional Tweets On Immigration

Starting early Friday morning, protesters began gathering outside Del Sol High School, where Obama spoke, standing along a sundrenched sidewalk and waving signs that read "Amnesty Hell No" and "Impeach Obama."

"The American people spoke loud and clear at the last election," says Patrice Lynes, who drove there from Riverside, Calif. "They wanted no amnesty, and they overwhelmingly elected Republicans."

Lynes was also in Murrieta, Calif., this past summer when buses carrying unaccompanied minors were turned away from a Border Patrol processing center. She supports the House Republicans who blocked a bipartisan immigration bill that passed the U.S. Senate in 2013.

Frustrated Farmers

Illegal immigration long has been a lightning rod issue in the Southwest. But it's one that also tends to cut right across traditional party lines. Conservative-leaning farm groups are also among those disappointed by the president's action, but for far different reasons.

"That does not get us any closer to resolving a very difficult national problem," says Tom Nassif, CEO of Western Growers.

Business

Obama's Immigration Moves Do Little To Help Businesses, Groups Say

Farmers did not get any special attention in the president's plan. They long have lobbied Congress for a guest worker program that would provide deportation relief to immigrants willing to work on farms for at least five years. The industry says it's facing a long-term labor crisis, especially in California and Arizona. The workforce is getting older, and tighter border security lately is deterring more migrant workers from coming north.

"We all agree, I think, that the best solution is for the U.S. Congress to reassert its constitutional authority and pass immigration bills that both parties can vote for and can become law," Nassif says.

Nassif doesn't think the president's unilateral action necessarily will change the dynamics in Congress, though. He's optimistic that an overhaul bill still will gain traction come January.

To DREAMers, A Plan Too Narrow

But it's safe to say that optimism isn't as pervasive in cities like Los Angeles. In the immigrant-heavy neighborhoods around the markets and pop-up shops of Alvarado Street, life probably will go on unchanged for thousands of people living here without papers.

i i

Angel Fernandez, left, and Jose Patino interrupt U.S. President Barack Obama's speech on U.S. immigration policy Friday at Del Sol High School on in Las Vegas. The two, who were brought to the United States as children and are protected from deportation by the president's policies, were upset that their parents still could be forced to leave. Ethan Miller/Getty Images hide caption

itoggle caption Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Angel Fernandez, left, and Jose Patino interrupt U.S. President Barack Obama's speech on U.S. immigration policy Friday at Del Sol High School on in Las Vegas. The two, who were brought to the United States as children and are protected from deportation by the president's policies, were upset that their parents still could be forced to leave.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Justino Mora, a political science student at UCLA, is pleased the president acted, but he says the plan isn't expansive enough.

"It's going to keep out a lot of people who could contribute so much to our country," he says.

Mora's mixed feelings stem from the fact that he got deportation relief the last time the president issued an executive action on immigration, in 2012, and was hoping his mother might be eligible this year. She brought him to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 11, he says, fleeing extreme poverty and domestic violence.

Because Mora is not a citizen, though, his mother won't be eligible for relief under the president's plan. "Which is, you know, something that is frustrating," he says, "knowing that she was basically the person that saved my life, saved my siblings' life, and has sacrificed so much to give us a better opportunity."

But Mora says the president's decision to act alone does send a clear message to Congress. The big question now is what lawmakers' next move will be.

The new film The Homesman is set in the pioneer days of the American West. It was directed by Tommy Lee Jones, who called on his regular composers, Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders, for the music. But instead of writing a traditional score for symphony orchestra, they became inventors and instrument builders to capture the story's desperate mood. Jones has a simple way of describing his approach to scoring a film: "The process is to derive music from what the lens is looking at," he says.

Jones met with the composers more than a year ago to start thinking about a score that would help tell the story of three pioneer women who lose their minds in the bleak and unforgiving Nebraska territory.

"We certainly didn't want 'crazy' music, the kind of music you hear when the giant ants appear after the flying saucer crashes," Jones says. "We didn't want effects music. We wanted to do something original, and that was reflective of the country and the way the country sounds. We both knew what the movie sounded like. We just had to find it."

Jones usually gives direction in broad strokes, saying something like, "I want it to be folksy, but surrounded by madness."

"You know, when you get a comment like that, you can really run with it," Buck Sanders says. "And he'll let you know very quickly if it's not what he's thinking. And so it was really a dream gig — just to be able to work with a director like that, who would give you artistic freedom."

Sanders and Marco Beltrami first took inspiration from the music of the nature so prevalent in the film's setting.

"You know, wind was a factor for a lot of these women, and just everybody in general there," Beltrami says. "The wind would even make people go crazy, besides the disease and all the hardships. And so we were thinking, 'How can we channel that?' And one of Buck's first instincts was to begin examining Aeolian harps, which — you know, they're basically just strings attached to some surface, wooden surface often, and they resonate with the wind, and you can tune them. And Tommy came up here — actually on a very windy day — and was blown away by how... I think he said basically we just suck the music right out of the air. [Laughs.] Which is sort of true."

Beltrami's Malibu studio sits up high in the Santa Monica Mountains overlooking the Pacific Ocean. There, he and Sanders have dreamed up the music for World War Z, 3:10 To Yuma and two other films directed by Jones. Sanders was largely responsible for building the wind harp, which looks like power lines growing out of the back of a weathered old piano.

"So this is the Aeolian wind piano," Sanders says. "It's an old upright that our piano tuner found, like in a basement, that he was willing to donate. We put it on top of a 10-foot-tall metal storage unit. He just put it, like, in a tractor scoop and dumped it up here. And then they strapped it down, and then we have eight piano wires coming perpendicularly out of the piano soundboard, and running 175 feet up the hill to two large metal water-storage tanks to catch the winds."

When they tethered the wires to those tanks, they stumbled onto one of the score's signature sounds.

"You could put your ear up to the water tank, and you can hear stuff's going on in there, and certain frequencies resonate really strongly," Sanders says. "I wasn't too sure what it would get. You know, it was just an experiment, and a fun day on the job. [Laughs.] But it ended up being a beautiful, crystalline-type sound."

It's a sound meant to evoke the characters' unsteady grasp on sanity.

The two composers did use more traditional instruments to capture the film's environment. They recorded a small string ensemble, but they recorded it outdoors.

"It's a very austere environment, this environment of the settlers coming to the plains in the mid-19th century," Beltrami says. "And we're so used to recording scores in warm rooms that have a lot of reverberation, and that are built beautifully and make everything sound great. But it wasn't really the environment of the setting."

In one scene, the woman who volunteers to transport the women back east, played by Hilary Swank, gets lost and ends up nearly losing her own mind.

"She's going around in circles," Beltrami says. "And we thought, this shouldn't have any of the warmth that you would normally have in a room recording the sound. If there's any way it can just dissipate into the air, it would be great."

This may seem like a lot of trouble to go through in an era when the click of a key can do so much to imitate or manipulate music.

"The wonderful thing about this score was just the amount of tactile experience we had, you know, building stuff and working outside," Sanders says. "Because film scoring has become very sort of computer-centric, and a lot of shows have to use samples to get the mockups done. But I think really having that, what really is a physical experience, of building instruments and recording outside — it creates a strong connection with the music that does inspire you, and you know it's yours.

"You have to keep the nature of fun in it," Beltrami says. "If it's just a question of punching keys into a computer, that gets old. This has to remain fun and inspiring in order to come up with new things. And I think we're just continuing along a time-honored tradition of exploration here."

Beltrami says one of the best things about working with Tommy Lee Jones is the leeway he allows the composers.

"Creative freedom, and the opportunity for originality, is about all we had to offer Marco," Jones says. "It's not something he gets every day, and that's really the basis of our working relationship."

YouTube

The turducken — a whole chicken stuffed inside a whole duck stuffed inside a whole turkey, all boneless — is a relatively recent culinary phenomenon. Though popularized in the past 20 years with the help of Louisiana's Chef Paul Prudhomme and John Madden, who brought one to a football game broadcast in 1997, the turducken actually builds on a long tradition of creative bird-into-bird stuffing.

Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de la Reynire, the world's first restaurant critic, in 1803 launched the Almanach des Gourmands, what the Paris-based dining historian Carolin Young calls the world's first serial food journal. He would edit and publish this best-selling guide to seasonal cooking and restaurants until 1812.

Like any good publisher, Grimod de la Reynire knew he needed to slide in some extra flair from time to time. And in 1807, he put out a recipe for rti sans pareil, the roast without equal.

The Salt

Frogs And Puffins! 1730s Menus Reveal Royals Were Extreme Foodies

The daredevil-ish recipe calls for a tiny warbler stuffed in a bunting, inserted in a lark, squeezed in a thrush, thrown in a quail, inserted in a lapwing, introduced to a plover, piled into a partridge, wormed into a woodcock, shoehorned into a teal, kicked into a guinea fowl, rammed inside a duck, shoved into a chicken, jammed up in a pheasant, wedged deep inside a goose, logged into a turkey. And just when you think a 16-bird roast is probably enough, it's not. This meat sphere is finally crammed up into a Great Bustard, an Old World turkey-turned-wrapping paper, for this most epic of poultry meals.

Holiday Recipes

The Veggieducken: A Meatless Dish With Gravitas

While there's no record of anyone actually making the rti sans pareil, Grimod de la Reynire seemingly achieved what is every publisher's goal: capturing (generations of) eyeballs. (If you want a visual of the concoction, check out the illustrations that Wired magazine and Vice came up with.)

It's clear that culinary stunts with meat started long before chefs were grilling steaks with molten lava. Take the cockentrice, a half-pig, half-turkey combo that rode the line between mythical beast and gastronomic masterpiece during the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century. It's been re-created by Richard Fitch, the project coordinator for the Historic Kitchens at Hampton Palace, who told Vice that while these dishes certainly weren't the norm, Henry VIII once served a cockentrice and a dolphin to the French King, Francis I. (As we've previously reported, royals of that era went to great lengths for a culinary thrill.)

While the roti may seem freakish or excessive today, we do have the bacon-wrapped alligator, a sort of modern-day meat mummy.

For those who heart turducken, the demand is high enough that big-box stores like Sam's Club and Costco now stock them. There's even a vegetarian version, if the stuffing concept floats your boat.

food history

Thanksgiving

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

If this year's National Book Awards saw a fiery speech from Ursula K. Le Guin, the evening also featured incendiary comments of quite another kind. Ceremony host Daniel Handler — whom most readers might know better by his pen name, Lemony Snicket — made several racially charged jokes that drew a strong reaction Thursday.

In the wake of Jacqueline Woodson's win for her memoir in verse, Brown Girl Dreaming, Handler brought up the topic of watermelon — which, to put it lightly, was a poor idea. His joke is reproduced here in full (and you can watch the video here):

"I told you! I told Jackie she was going to win. And I said that if she won, I would tell all of you something I learned this summer, which is that Jackie Woodson is allergic to watermelon. Just let that sink in your mind.

"And I said, 'You have to put that in a book.' And she said, 'You put that in a book.' And I said that I am only writing a book about a black girl who is allergic to watermelon if I get a blurb from you, Cornell West, Toni Morrison and Barack Obama saying, 'This guy's OK. This guy's fine.' "

The joke wasn't his first of the night to bear racial overtones. He also quipped that two black nominees together in the poetry category may be considered "probable cause."

The reaction was swift. Writers such as Roxane Gay, Kwame Alexander and Laila Lalami (as well as plenty of publications) were quick to condemn the remarks on Thursday. For his part, Handler's apology came nearly as quickly, and it arrived via Twitter.

My job at last night's National Book Awards #NBAwards was to shine a light on tremendous writers, including Jacqueline Woodson... -DH [1/2]

— Daniel Handler (@DanielHandler) November 20, 2014

...and not to overshadow their achievements with my own ill-conceived attempts at humor. I clearly failed, and I’m sorry. -DH [2/2]

— Daniel Handler (@DanielHandler) November 20, 2014

It's Not Ludwig Van: Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, composed a song in dedication to a woman named Barbara in 1951. After more than half a century lost, that song has been found, according to The Guardian. Discovered amid the late woman's possessions by her 100-year-old husband, the song will be performed by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation on Nov. 26.

It's A [Book]! Children's publishing imprint Ladybird has announced its plans to drop the gendered labels from its books, according to an announcement from the Let Books Be Books campaign. The campaign, a spin-off of the Let Toys Be Toys group, has for months pressured children's publishers to stop marking books "for boys" or "for girls," arguing that they confine children to presuppositions about gender.

"At Ladybird we certainly don't want to be seen to be limiting children in any way," reads Ladybird's announcement. "Out of literally hundreds of titles currently in print, we actually only have the six titles you cite with this kind of titling, so I do feel we offer a vast range for children and their parents. As Ladybird is part of the Penguin Random House Children's division, our commitment to avoiding gendered titles in the trade crosses all our imprints."

Fun, Fun, Fun: One of the founders of the Beach Boys plans to publish his memoir in 2016. Mike Love's book is tentatively titled Good Vibrations, naturally, but it may not be the first Beach Boy autobiography to hit bookstores in the coming years. Fellow founder — and frequent rival — Brian Wilson expects to release one of his own in 2015.

CIA Reviews Edward Snowden Books: Seriously, though — this is not satire. Hayden Peake puts together the "Intelligence Officer's Bookshelf" for the agency, and lately he has picked up three books on the Snowden intelligence leaks, including Glenn Greenwald's No Place to Hide. While Peake did offer a few words of praise, his conclusion isn't exactly a surprise.

"Greenwald's often bitter ad hominem rationale for [Snowden's actions] is unlikely to be the last word on the subject."

What's your temperature?

That's the question of the hour. The Ebola virus has made taking your temperature part of everyday conversation. People in West Africa are doing it. People returning from the region are doing it. And so are the overly paranoid in the United States.

For anyone who's been exposed to the virus, a body temperatures of 100.4 or higher has been deemed the point of concern. The goal, of course, is that magic number: 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Except 98.6 degrees isn't so magical after all. In fact, that might not be your normal temperature.

For insights into the range of temperatures we can experience, we consulted with Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior associate at the Center for Health Security at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and Dr. Benjamin Levine, a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center who knows a thing or two about fever (his specialty is exercise science).

For Ebola, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature for which medical attention is necessary.

When Ebola is not a factor, Levine defines 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit as a serious fever. (Although he notes that you could register a lower temperature and still be harboring an infection.)

These high temperatures can actually save your life. If you have an infection or virus, your body's response is to raise your internal temperature to kill it off. In other words, fever is your body's defense against whatever is making you feel sick. So before you take fever reducers like Tylenol or aspirin, you may want to consider letting your body do its job, says Levine.

"Lowering the temperature with Tylenol doesn't help you fight infection," he says. "It just masks it. But if the patient is shivering, shaking, sweating, you may want to lower [the temperature] for comfort reasons."

Baseline normal temperatures differ from person to person and from day to day. But if you're worried about what your thermometer is telling you, here are some points of interest, from the low to the very, very high.

56.7 degrees: Anna Bagenholm, a Swedish medical student, spent 80 minutes under ice after a skiing accident in Norway in 1999. When she was rescued, her body temperature was 56.7 degrees Fahrenheit. Although she was clinically dead, resuscitation efforts were successful and she now has only minor nerve damage. (Do not try this at home).

95 degrees: Initial signs of hypothermia set in, such as shivering, dizziness, confusion and increased heart rate, says Adalja.

98.6 degrees: This is the generally accepted "normal" temperature, though different people can have different "normals" and even the same person's temperature can vary throughout the day and still be considered normal. Temperature is lower in the morning, since you're less active, and women tend to have slightly (less than half a degree) higher baseline temperatures than men. A 1992 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association measured the temperature of 148 adults four times a day for three consecutive days. The mean was 98.2 degrees.

97-99 degrees: This is what most doctors would describe as the normal temperature range, according to Levine.

100.4 degrees: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified 100.4 as the benchmark for concern about Ebola. Depending on an individual's normal baseline and Ebola-related symptoms, a triple-digit temperature in the context of Ebola is cause for concern.

101.5 degrees: Anything at or above this level is classified as a serious fever, says Levine: "Lower doesn't mean you don't have an infection, but that's when you've crossed a threshold of concern."

107 degrees: Multiple organ failure can occur, and the high temperature itself might bring on seizures. But Adalja says hospitals in the U.S. wouldn't let it get to this point: you'd be treated with fever reducers and cooling blankets.

115 degrees: On July 10, 1980, 52-year-old Willie Jones of Atlanta was admitted to the hospital with heatstroke and a temperature of 115 degrees Fahrenheit. He spent 24 days in the hospital and survived. Jones holds the Guinness Book of World Records honor for highest recorded body temperature.

fever

temperature

medicine

Global Health

The United States has transferred five detainees being held at its prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Georgia and Slovakia.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, four of the men are Yemeni, and that is important because they are the first Yemeni prisoners to be transferred since 2010. The newspaper explains:

"The U.S. banned transfers of Yemeni detainees to Yemen after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab , a Nigerian man, attempted to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day 2009 with an underwear bomb made by a Yemen-based terror group.

"Yemeni detainees are the largest group in Guantanamo, and transferring those detainees from the prison remains an obstacle to closing it, according to human rights advocates.

"There now are 143 men held at Guantanamo, including 84 Yemen nationals, according to the Pentagon. Of the Yemenis held at the prison, 54 are eligible to be transferred from Guantanamo and have been cleared for release, the Pentagon said."

If you remember, President Obama has repeatedly vowed to close the Guantanamo prison, but congressional Republicans have opposed those attempts.

Despite that, as The Associated Press explains, Congress eased restrictions on transferring detainees to countries willing to keep an eye on them.

The AP adds:

"A number of resettlements are expected in the coming weeks. U.S. State Department envoy Clifford Sloan has been trying to persuade countries to accept prisoners, and he praised Georgia and Slovakia.

" 'We are very grateful to our partners for these generous humanitarian gestures,' Sloan said. 'We appreciate the strong support we are receiving from our friends and allies around the globe.'

"Georgia took three prisoners from Guantanamo in 2010. Slovakia has taken a total of eight men from Guantanamo."

Yemen

Guantanamo Bay

Martial law in Thailand will remain in place "indefinitely," the country's justice minister told Reuters in an interview nearly six months after the military overthrew the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

"Martial law is necessary and we cannot lift it because the government and junta need it as the army's tool," Justice Minister Gen. Paiboon Koomchaya told the news agency. "We are not saying that martial law will stay in place for 50 years, no this is not it, we just ask that it remain in place for now, indefinitely."

Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha had originally promised to restore democracy by next year, but as we reported last month, he said the date could be pushed back.

The justice minister's comments come just ahead of tourist season, which accounts for nearly 10 percent of Thailand's gross domestic product. Tourism took a hit following the May 22 putsch that brought Prayuth to power. But as NPR reported last month, the head of the Tourism Authority of Thailand said martial law is good for tourism because it ensures the safety of foreign tourists.

Thailand

The United States has seen many fundraisers headlined by an Obama in recent years, but this week it won't be the president or the first lady — it will be his step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, who is raising funds to build a school and hospital in her hometown, Kogelo, Kenya.

Obama, who runs the Mama Sarah Obama Foundation and was honored with an Education Pioneer award at the United Nations on Wednesday as part of its Women's Entrepreneurship Day, has spent much of her life helping young people — and particularly young women — in her region get an education.

President Obama's last surviving grandparent, whom he referred to as Granny in his memoir Dreams of My Father, never went to school herself, she tells NPR's Scott Simon through an interpreter.

"It was very hard for women to get an education," when she was growing up, the 94-year-old Obama says. "Only young boys or men were allowed to go to school."

But things are different in Kenya now, she says. United Nations data actually shows a higher percentage of Kenyan girls going to school than Kenyan boys.

"I encourage them — even the ones who have had families at a young age — I encourage them to go to school so that the cycle of poverty can end," Obama says. She sometimes uses her grandson as an example of the doors an education can open.

Often, Obama says, she and her foundation provide much more than encouragement.

"I help the orphans and widows, especially the young girls who have been orphaned by their parents dying of HIV," she says. "I am their sole parent right now, so I help them pay school fees and also get them the things that they need, like sanitary towels, books, necessities like a pencil, school uniforms. That's what I do."

It's an investment that Sarah Obama says she gets an unbeatable return on.

"There's so many kids that I've helped educate, some of them at Nairobi University, Moi University and also Bondo University," she says. "These are orphans who I've helped pay for their school fares, and now it's my joy to see them in the universities about to graduate. There's a lot of success stories, and it just makes me happy and it keeps me going."

Kenya

President Obama

The turducken — a whole chicken stuffed inside a whole duck stuffed inside a whole turkey, all boneless — is a relatively recent culinary phenomenon. Though popularized in the past 20 years with the help of Louisiana's Chef Paul Prudhomme and John Madden, who brought one to a football game broadcast in 1997, the turducken actually builds on a long tradition of creative bird-into-bird stuffing.

Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de la Reynire, the world's first restaurant critic, in 1803 launched the Almanach des Gourmands, what the Paris-based dining historian Carolin Young calls the world's first serial food journal. He would edit and publish this best-selling guide to seasonal cooking and restaurants until 1812.

Like any good publisher, Grimod de la Reynire knew he needed to slide in some extra flair from time to time. And in 1807, he put out a recipe for rti sans pareil, the roast without equal.

The Salt

Frogs And Puffins! 1730s Menus Reveal Royals Were Extreme Foodies

The daredevil-ish recipe calls for a tiny warbler stuffed in a bunting, inserted in a lark, squeezed in a thrush, thrown in a quail, inserted in a lapwing, introduced to a plover, piled into a partridge, wormed into a woodcock, shoehorned into a teal, kicked into a guinea fowl, rammed inside a duck, shoved into a chicken, jammed up in a pheasant, wedged deep inside a goose, logged into a turkey. And just when you think a 16-bird roast is probably enough, it's not. This meat sphere is finally crammed up into a Great Bustard, an Old World turkey-turned-wrapping paper, for this most epic of poultry meals.

Holiday Recipes

The Veggieducken: A Meatless Dish With Gravitas

While there's no record of anyone actually making the rti sans pareil, Grimod de la Reynire seemingly achieved what is every publisher's goal: capturing (generations of) eyeballs. (If you want a visual of the concoction, check out the illustrations that Wired magazine and Vice came up with.)

It's clear that culinary stunts with meat started long before chefs were grilling steaks with molten lava. Take the cockentrice, a half-pig, half-turkey combo that rode the line between mythical beast and gastronomic masterpiece during the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century. It's been re-created by Richard Fitch, the project coordinator for the Historic Kitchens at Hampton Palace, who told Vice that while these dishes certainly weren't the norm, Henry VIII once served a cockentrice and a dolphin to the French King, Francis I. (As we've previously reported, royals of that era went to great lengths for a culinary thrill.)

While the roti may seem freakish or excessive today, we do have the bacon-wrapped alligator, a sort of modern-day meat mummy.

For those who heart turducken, the demand is high enough that big-box stores like Sam's Club and Costco now stock them. There's even a vegetarian version, if the stuffing concept floats your boat.

food history

Thanksgiving

The Imitation Game is the story of Alan Turing: British mathematician, World War II code breaker and seminal theoretician of computer science. "It's a war thriller, it's a love story and a tragic testament to a genius wronged," the star of the film, Benedict Cumberbatch, tells NPR's Robert Siegel.

Turing, who was openly gay at a time when homosexuality was a crime in Britain, talked his way into a job helping the British crack the German code called Enigma. Cumberbatch says the film's script has a "beautifully complex unraveling through time ... the unraveling of both the problem and the man, himself, trying to solve the problem."

Interview Highlights

On the audience's introduction to Turing, who was known to be awkward and eccentric

I think what's extraordinary about Graham Moore's first feature script is how you, layer by layer, sort of uncover this man at the same parallel time as the team he eventually does play a part of. ... And I think, to be fair to Alan, what's beautiful about Graham's script in his introduction to him ... it's utterly uncompromising. There's no vanity, you're not asked to like the character. You're introduced to him, warts and all. And he is ... difficult; he's very stubborn and arrogant.

“ But there's a sort of naive guilelessness about the whole thing. He doesn't come in with an abrasive attitude. He just doesn't have the formal respect for authority. ... And he is utterly brilliant and he knows it and he's been told that and he doesn't mind talking about it. But it's not to show off; for him, it's a statement of fact.

- Benedict Cumberbatch, on playing Alan Turing

But there's a sort of naive guilelessness about the whole thing. He doesn't come in with an abrasive attitude. He just doesn't have the formal respect for authority. ... And he is utterly brilliant and he knows it and he's been told that and he doesn't mind talking about it. But it's not to show off; for him, it's a statement of fact.

On the way the state punished Turing for being gay

It's disgusting to think that within less than 100 years [that] this was going on hundreds — thousands in fact — of men were prosecuted and given the chance to choose simply between two years' imprisonment or two years' state-sanctioned chemical castration through weekly estrogen injections. Alan chose the latter in order to continue his work. But the man was a marathon runner as well as a sexually active homosexual man, and not only did the drug ravage his body and affect his physicality but it also started slowly to impinge on his faculty, on his mind, on his ability to do that work. So he was denied the one door he still had left open to him for love, for freedom, for expressing who he was.

On bringing Turing's story to a wider audience

In comparison to his achievements and his greatness — both as a scientific mind [and] philosopher ... somebody who ... basically was the father of computer science, somebody who was part of an effort that saved, some estimate, 14 million lives by breaking a code that brought about a two-years-early end to World War II. That that man wasn't better-known — I mean, why isn't he on bank notes with Darwin and Newton? Why isn't he on the cover of history books as well as science books? That really was a driving motivation for me to tell this story and bring his legacy to a wider audience.

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On the Turing machine

It's more than a machine. I mean, that machine takes on such a personality. .... A replica is still at Bletchley Park, which I advise any of your listeners who are lucky enough to be in that part of the world to go and see it. It's the most extraordinary, chilling, amazing exhibit of all the work. ... You can ask someone to give you a very patient explanation of it because it's quite complex. But basically, it was the machine that Alan adapted from a Polish machine to break the other machine, the Enigma machine — which was capable of ... 159 million, million, million possible variations every single day that would change at midnight. It was beyond the human ability to crack.

On the way these machines are seen in 2014

"Where's the screen?" as one friend's child said. ... Broke my heart when I heard that. But the same kid then went home and Googled — using probably an algorithm very similar in the search engines that were used by Turing, invented by Turing to break the code in the second world war — used a Google search engine in order to look up and research more about Enigma. This is an 8-year-old. I mean, it's fantastic.

On his decision to go by Benedict Cumberbatch (his father, also an actor, is named Timothy Carlton, and Cumberbatch's full name is Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch)

I started as Benedict Carlton. I think Carlton's a great name; it was my grandfather's first name and I never got to meet him, so that alone was a good reason. And I wasn't getting anywhere with my first agent and with that name and when I went to meet someone else at a new agency about six months after I graduated, she said, "Why on earth don't you use your family name? It's the most fantastically, extraordinary, unforgettable name." ...

“ Even I can't say it early on a Monday morning. It sounds like a fart in a bath. There's a whole lot of bubbles.

- Benedict Cumberbatch, on the sound of his own name

She rightfully said, "Look, it's pretty unforgettable once you get your head around it." And I said, "Yeah, but even I can't say it early on a Monday morning." It sounds like a fart in a bath. There's a whole lot of bubbles. But, you know, it seems to have worked out all right, doesn't it, Robert?

On whether being famous is fun

It's fun. It's got to be fun. There are moments when, like all of us, you get a bit self-conscious and you'd rather not be living any of your day in public. Those are the awkward times, but you've got to have fun with it.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

If this year's National Book Awards saw a fiery speech from Ursula K. Le Guin, the evening also featured incendiary comments of quite another kind. Ceremony host Daniel Handler — whom most readers might know better by his pen name, Lemony Snicket — made several racially charged jokes that drew a strong reaction Thursday.

In the wake of Jacqueline Woodson's win for her memoir in verse, Brown Girl Dreaming, Handler brought up the topic of watermelon — which, to put it lightly, was a poor idea. His joke is reproduced here in full (and you can watch the video here):

"I told you! I told Jackie she was going to win. And I said that if she won, I would tell all of you something I learned this summer, which is that Jackie Woodson is allergic to watermelon. Just let that sink in your mind.

"And I said, 'You have to put that in a book.' And she said, 'You put that in a book.' And I said that I am only writing a book about a black girl who is allergic to watermelon if I get a blurb from you, Cornell West, Toni Morrison and Barack Obama saying, 'This guy's OK. This guy's fine.' "

The joke wasn't his first of the night to bear racial overtones. He also quipped that two black nominees together in the poetry category may be considered "probable cause."

The reaction was swift. Writers such as Roxane Gay, Kwame Alexander and Laila Lalami (as well as plenty of publications) were quick to condemn the remarks on Thursday. For his part, Handler's apology came nearly as quickly, and it arrived via Twitter.

My job at last night's National Book Awards #NBAwards was to shine a light on tremendous writers, including Jacqueline Woodson... -DH [1/2]

— Daniel Handler (@DanielHandler) November 20, 2014

...and not to overshadow their achievements with my own ill-conceived attempts at humor. I clearly failed, and I’m sorry. -DH [2/2]

— Daniel Handler (@DanielHandler) November 20, 2014

It's Not Ludwig Van: Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, composed a song in dedication to a woman named Barbara in 1951. After more than half a century lost, that song has been found, according to The Guardian. Discovered amid the late woman's possessions by her 100-year-old husband, the song will be performed by the International Anthony Burgess Foundation on Nov. 26.

It's A [Book]! Children's publishing imprint Ladybird has announced its plans to drop the gendered labels from its books, according to an announcement from the Let Books Be Books campaign. The campaign, a spin-off of the Let Toys Be Toys group, has for months pressured children's publishers to stop marking books "for boys" or "for girls," arguing that they confine children to presuppositions about gender.

"At Ladybird we certainly don't want to be seen to be limiting children in any way," reads Ladybird's announcement. "Out of literally hundreds of titles currently in print, we actually only have the six titles you cite with this kind of titling, so I do feel we offer a vast range for children and their parents. As Ladybird is part of the Penguin Random House Children's division, our commitment to avoiding gendered titles in the trade crosses all our imprints."

Fun, Fun, Fun: One of the founders of the Beach Boys plans to publish his memoir in 2016. Mike Love's book is tentatively titled Good Vibrations, naturally, but it may not be the first Beach Boy autobiography to hit bookstores in the coming years. Fellow founder — and frequent rival — Brian Wilson expects to release one of his own in 2015.

CIA Reviews Edward Snowden Books: Seriously, though — this is not satire. Hayden Peake puts together the "Intelligence Officer's Bookshelf" for the agency, and lately he has picked up three books on the Snowden intelligence leaks, including Glenn Greenwald's No Place to Hide. While Peake did offer a few words of praise, his conclusion isn't exactly a surprise.

"Greenwald's often bitter ad hominem rationale for [Snowden's actions] is unlikely to be the last word on the subject."

When Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) first entered politics in the 1960s, he started out as moderate — pro-abortion rights, pro-union, in support of the civil rights movement. With time, McConnell shifted to the right as the Republican Party shifted.

"I was just really startled by this when I started looking into it," Alec MacGillis tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "I knew that he had started out as somewhat more moderate — but I didn't realize just how moderate he really was."

The Cynic

The Political Education of Mitch Mcconnell

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MacGillis's new book The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell traces how McConnell became one of the most powerful politicians in the country — and it examines McConnell's evolution as a politician.

In the 1960s, McConnell was "firmly pro-abortion rights," says MacGillis.

"In his first elected office in Louisville, Ky., as county executive in Louisville, he repeatedly snuffed out anti-abortion bills that were coming through his office — didn't even let them come up for a vote or a hearing," he says.

But in 1984, McConnell barely won his seat in the Senate — by fewer than 5,000 votes.

"There was no question what had happened — that McConnell had won basically on the coattails of Ronald Reagan," MacGillis says. "And McConnell looked at that very, very close result and basically thought to himself, 'You know what? I don't want it to ever be this close again. I see where the Republican Party is heading; I see where my state is heading; I see where the South is heading politically — and I need to get on that train.' "

McConnell, who has been the Senate minority leader since 2007, will become the majority leader when the new term starts in January.

And according to MacGillis, "This is what he's dreamed about since he was a very, very young man ... and now he's about to achieve that dream."

Interview Highlights

On McConnell's political positions when he first entered politics in the 1960s

There was a big battle back in the Republican Party in the '60s between the conservative wing and a still quite strong moderate wing. This is, of course, during the time of Barry Goldwater's 1964 nomination to the party coming from the conservative wing. But there was still a very, very strong moderate contingent of the party and Mitch McConnell was completely on that side of the line.

He was very firmly pro-union. In his first election back in 1977 in Louisville, he got the endorsement of the AFL-CIO because he backed collective bargaining for public employees, which is something even a lot of Democrats today don't support. He sought out the head of the AFL-CIO at the bowling alley in Louisville and sweet-talked him and got his support.

He was very firmly in support of the civil rights movement, which back in Kentucky was not necessarily the obvious thing to do. He, as a student, would show up at civil rights rallies and was very much in favor of the legislation in Washington in the '60s.

On how McConnell embodies the changes in the Republican Party over the past 30 years

McConnell, to me, embodies two things in politics today: One is the transformation of the Republican Party from a party that used to have quite a few moderate and liberal members and Northern liberal Republicans — Midwestern moderate Republicans — into a party that is now much more monolithically conservative and really Southern-dominated.

“ It's not so much what you do when you're in power in Washington; it's what you do to position yourself for the next time around. ... That mindset has become very prevalent. It's bipartisan and it also suffuses the media — but McConnell embodies it really more than anybody else.

- Alec MacGillis, The New Republic

McConnell really embodies that shift because he himself has evolved with that transformation just to a tee. But at the same time ... he embodies for me the mindset that has become more and more dominant in Washington today ... which is the permanent campaign mindset.

It's the mindset that all that really matters is the next election, the next cycle. It's not so much what you do when you're in power in Washington; it's what you do to position yourself for the next time around, your next re-election, your party's next election cycle. That mindset has become very prevalent. It's bipartisan and it also suffuses the media — but McConnell embodies it really more than anybody else.

On McConnell figuring out how to use the rules of the Senate to benefit his party

He is a master of Senate procedure. That's one of his real strengths. ... He just has studied it very, very closely. [He's] studied how it works ... and figured out how you could use ... [the rules] within this sort of very vague culture-based and nebulous realm of the Senate where these rules are not necessarily written down anywhere — some of them are, but others are just things that have carried over in tradition and culture of the institution. He's figured out how you can use these procedures — and also the customs that have built up over time to really slow things down and gum up the works in ways that hadn't been done before.

On how McConnell lined up support for leadership posts in the Senate

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It's something he campaigned for more aggressively than just about anyone before him. His colleagues in the Senate were struck to see just how determined and eager he was to climb the ladder. And what he would do is he would start quite early, several years before the elections for these various leadership posts, he would start strategizing in how to win those elections. He had a wingman, his colleague [former Sen.] Bob Bennett from Utah ... [who] would go out a year or two in advance and start trying to count up votes and feel people out on whether they would support Mitch or someone else. ...

Again, McConnell was not the most naturally popular or beloved person within his caucus, so he really needed help from someone else to kind of go out and line up those votes for him. They would badmouth the opposition and various rivals for various jobs ... really, in a junior high school kind of way — trying to line up support so that when the time came for the elections for the various leadership posts high up the ladder, it suddenly would become clear that McConnell had, in fact, lined up just enough support to get the job.

[At the top of this post, you'll find a discussion from me and my Pop Culture Happy Hour colleague Stephen Thompson about Mike Nichols and his work. Stephen tells a great family story about the impact of Nichols' comedy — give it a listen.]

Separated by 21 years and joined by the direction of Mike Nichols, The Graduate and Working Girl at first seem to take up diametrically opposed attitudes toward the idea of joining the world of business. In the former, the whisper of "plastics" stands in for the inauthenticity of what Benjamin Braddock is being offered and the alienation he feels at the very idea of making that his "passion," if you can even call it that. In the latter, Tess McGill wants that office, wants that secretary, wants that rat-race commute and those meetings in high-backed leather chairs, wants the boyfriend who also knows all about mergers and acquisitions.

But what they have in common is displayed ambivalence toward wish fulfillment. Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) eventually decides that what he really wants is Elaine, so he stops her wedding and they leave together. Tess (Melanie Griffith) knows that what she really wants is to move up, and she finally arrives in her own office with her own secretary, having finally been credited for her ideas and seen her tormentor Katharine (Sigourney Weaver) thrown out. Her new beau (Harrison Ford) even packed her lunch.

In both films, though, there's palpable uncertainty. Particularly in The Graduate, once Benjamin and Elaine are on the bus together, Nichols holds on them as their expressions change from euphoria to terror, maybe back and forth one more time, and then — maybe most ominously — Elaine looks over at Benjamin, but he, who has struggled with alienation from the world for almost two hours of screen time, does not look back at her.

The ending of Working Girl is more '80s feisty and less '60s moody, scored to Carly Simon's soaring "Let The River Run" rather than Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound Of Silence." It's lighter in tone and gives us a glimpse of Tess' gentler personality. It reminds us that she hasn't become a monster and will be kind to her own secretary (beautifully played for just a moment by the wonderful character actress Amy Aquino), and it gives her the joy of a call with her best friend Cynthia (Joan Cusack) and the secretarial pool to share the news that she has made it.

But as those who read the film closely have sometimes noted, Tess' is a small, spare, unadorned office. The walls are bare; the colors are stubbornly neutral, including those of her suit. She is not in a beautiful place. We leave her by peering in her window, and then pulling back to be reminded that she is one of countless people in countless identical offices, as she effectively vanishes into the city. She has had a victory, and she is in love, and she is happy, and she has gotten justice, but she has fulfilled a very particular fantasy very much of its moment, only a year after Wall Street. It is too much to believe that a guy like Nichols was looking uncritically at the glass slipper at issue here.

These are both stories that end with ellipses. While they're really different, they don't necessarily try to put a period at the ends of these stories; there is more to come in both cases. The words "ever after," as they usually appear at the ends of fairy tales, are nonsensical — who has ever been happy ever after? "They rode off together" and "They rode off together..." are very different ways to close your book.

Before he directed movies, Nichols directed plays, including the original productions of both Barefoot In The Park and The Odd Couple. But in addition to that, Mike Nichols came out of doing straight-up sketch comedy, as you know if you've seen the early performing he did with Elaine May, which sometimes had its own undercurrent of weird darkness. Here's a sketch in which Nichols plays a man trying to arrange a cheap funeral with a customer service representative who introduces herself as "your Grief Lady."

YouTube

He had a really good feel as a director for bringing out that uncertain, unsettled energy that suffuses the last shots of both The Graduate and Working Girl. It's a kind of narrative ambiguity that's also abundant in the unnerving film adaptation of Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, which he also directed, which is all about initially pleasant conversation upended by agony, particularly on the part of Martha (Elizabeth Taylor). Even Barefoot In The Park, written by Neil Simon (which Nichols did not direct on film but only in the theater), is one of those comedies about young love that always seems balanced on the edge of becoming blisteringly sad and ending up a bust.

Nichols had a great feel for this tension between the foreground and the background, between the story that's being told and the often foreboding context in which it's happening, which is almost always more easily perceived than explained. That's certainly not the whole of his long career (which also included directing Catch-22 and Carnal Knowledge, The Birdcage and Silkwood, as well as the TV adaptation of Angels In America), but it may account for some of the sheer variability of it. There are loose themes of alienation and semi-alienation that recur, but they're mixed with this mischievous and delightful appreciation of absurdity that leads to that sniffling performance as the grieving funeral customer in a piece that gives most of the good lines to May.

One of the best things you can say about a long career is that there's no one through-line that can explain both that Grief Lady sketch and directing Silkwood. But stepping back from the long arc of Nichols' work does create the sense that people who instinctively understand comedy and working in teams may be better-suited than most to tackle even projects not calling directly on those skills.

Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who was found guilty of conspiracy to hack personal voice mails, was released today after serving less than five months of his 18-month sentence.

British news reports say that as a condition of early release, Coulson, 46, will have to wear an electronic tag for the remainder of his sentence.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice quoted by The Guardian said: "Public protection is our first priority. Only prisoners who pass a strict risk assessment can be released on HDC. Offenders on HDC are subject to strict licence conditions and can be recalled to prison if they breach them."

HDC refers to home detention curfew.

As we've previously told you, the phone hacking scandal broke in 2010, revealing that the now-defunct News of the World tabloid had hacked the voice mails of more than 1,000 people, including members of the British royal family.

The revelations forced Coulson to resign as Prime Minister David Cameron's communications director. At the subsequent trial, Coulson was found guilty while his former boss, Rebekah Brooks, was cleared.

Andy Coulson

Rebekah Brooks

U.K. hacking scandal

Business groups have long been active players in the nation's immigration debate. They represent employers who need to recruit workers, after all — employers who are sometimes investigated, even prosecuted, for hiring workers who are not approved to work in the U.S. legally.

Many big employers have been pushing for reforms that would allow them to keep more science and technology workers and skilled laborers in the country. But the executive action President Obama announced Thursday leaves out much of what the business lobby has been advocating for.

Obama's announcement will allow more undocumented immigrants with U.S.-born children to apply for work permits, among other things. But the policies will not help businesses with their key immigration concerns, says Matt Sonnesyn, a senior director at the Business Roundtable, which represents large businesses.

"Last night's actions do help for those [workers] who are already here — to have some security that they're going to remain and continue working," he says. "But they don't really address how we're going to attract and retain those workers from around the world."

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He notes the president did extend a program giving high-skilled students the ability to work while applying for a visa. And there is some added flexibility for those who already have work visas to move between jobs.

But Sonnesyn says the action does not increase the total number of visas available — either to high- or low-skilled temporary workers. That is a big blow to business groups, especially as the U.S. economy recovers. Many big employers want to recruit more science and technology workers, as well as skilled laborers in fields like manufacturing and construction.

But that's also not a surprise, Sonnesyn says. The president could only act on enforcement — things like border control and deportation of criminals — not on legislation.

"The president just didn't have the authority to go to the core of what we see as important for growing the economy over time," Sonnesyn says.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was an economist in the George W. Bush administration and is now president of the policy analysis group American Action Forum, says he thinks "the business groups are going to be, by and large, disappointed. There wasn't really much in there for them."

Many business groups, including the National Federation of Independent Business and National Association of Manufacturers, support a national system that allows employers to check whether someone is permitted to work legally.

That system, known as E-Verify, would reduce an employers' legal liability if they hire someone with falsified documents. E-Verify received no mention in Obama's address.

Holtz-Eakin says what might be surprising, given the partisan rhetoric around immigration, is how little daylight there is between the president's policy position and that of most Republicans and the business community. "There's much less division than people realize," Holtz-Eakin says.

The president supports the immigration bill that passed the Senate more than a year ago. The business community also supports that legislation, but the Republican leadership in the House has not brought it up for a vote.

"There's no disagreement on the policy. The issue is 100 percent politics," Holtz-Eakin says. "And the sad reality is, the president pushed the politics in the wrong direction last night."

That's certainly the position of some Republicans in leadership, who are angry the president acted unilaterally.

Robert Litan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, says the president "could've done all this quietly, without making any announcement whatsoever."

But he didn't. Instead, Litan says, Obama chose a high-stakes political gamble that could pay off, if Republicans in Congress take up the president's challenge and pass immigration legislation.

In any event, Litan says, it's hard to know what the ultimate business implications of Thursday night's actions are.

"The bottom line is, the business community, like everybody else, is waiting to see what the next move is going to be in Congress — whether there's going to be a legal challenge and so forth," Litan says.

"And at the end of the day," he adds, "whatever the president can do can only last for two years. The next president could decide to undo the whole thing."

Immigration

Business groups have long been active players in the nation's immigration debate. They represent employers who need to recruit workers, after all — employers who are sometimes investigated, even prosecuted, for hiring workers who are not approved to work in the U.S. legally.

Many big employers have been pushing for reforms that would allow them to keep more science and technology workers and skilled laborers in the country. But the executive action President Obama announced Thursday leaves out much of what the business lobby has been advocating for.

Obama's announcement will allow more undocumented immigrants with U.S.-born children to apply for work permits, among other things. But the policies will not help businesses with their key immigration concerns, says Matt Sonnesyn, a senior director at the Business Roundtable, which represents large businesses.

"Last night's actions do help for those [workers] who are already here — to have some security that they're going to remain and continue working," he says. "But they don't really address how we're going to attract and retain those workers from around the world."

Related NPR Stories

The Two-Way

A Closer Look At Obama's Immigration Plan: What's In It, Who's Affected

The Two-Way

7 Questions About The President's Immigration Plan Answered

Farmers Hoped For Guest Worker Program In Obama's Immigration Order

He notes the president did extend a program giving high-skilled students the ability to work while applying for a visa. And there is some added flexibility for those who already have work visas to move between jobs.

But Sonnesyn says the action does not increase the total number of visas available — either to high- or low-skilled temporary workers. That is a big blow to business groups, especially as the U.S. economy recovers. Many big employers want to recruit more science and technology workers, as well as skilled laborers in fields like manufacturing and construction.

But that's also not a surprise, Sonnesyn says. The president could only act on enforcement — things like border control and deportation of criminals — not on legislation.

"The president just didn't have the authority to go to the core of what we see as important for growing the economy over time," Sonnesyn says.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was an economist in the George W. Bush administration and is now president of the policy analysis group American Action Forum, says he thinks "the business groups are going to be, by and large, disappointed. There wasn't really much in there for them."

Many business groups, including the National Federation of Independent Business and National Association of Manufacturers, support a national system that allows employers to check whether someone is permitted to work legally.

That system, known as E-Verify, would reduce an employers' legal liability if they hire someone with falsified documents. E-Verify received no mention in Obama's address.

Holtz-Eakin says what might be surprising, given the partisan rhetoric around immigration, is how little daylight there is between the president's policy position and that of most Republicans and the business community. "There's much less division than people realize," Holtz-Eakin says.

The president supports the immigration bill that passed the Senate more than a year ago. The business community also supports that legislation, but the Republican leadership in the House has not brought it up for a vote.

"There's no disagreement on the policy. The issue is 100 percent politics," Holtz-Eakin says. "And the sad reality is, the president pushed the politics in the wrong direction last night."

That's certainly the position of some Republicans in leadership, who are angry the president acted unilaterally.

Robert Litan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, says the president "could've done all this quietly, without making any announcement whatsoever."

But he didn't. Instead, Litan says, Obama chose a high-stakes political gamble that could pay off, if Republicans in Congress take up the president's challenge and pass immigration legislation.

In any event, Litan says, it's hard to know what the ultimate business implications of Thursday night's actions are.

"The bottom line is, the business community, like everybody else, is waiting to see what the next move is going to be in Congress — whether there's going to be a legal challenge and so forth," Litan says.

"And at the end of the day," he adds, "whatever the president can do can only last for two years. The next president could decide to undo the whole thing."

Immigration

For Joel Bowman, decades of bike commuting started feeling like hard work. So the 66-year-old Atlanta resident recently switched to an electric bicycle and now when he rides Bowman feels like the wind is at his back.

An e-bike looks a lot like a regular bike, but with an integrated electric motor, and it doesn't burn gasoline like an old-fashioned moped. As you pedal, an e-bike gives you a powered boost when you need it.

They are getting more popular in Europe, but in the United States, e-bikes still have to overcome the stigma of being just a toy for old people.

Bike commuting is still rare in America's cities, but those who do it have a special bond. At least in Atlanta, Bowman says.

"I wanna say, the biking community here, I love it," Bowman says. "There's a lot of waving and a lot of high-fiving going on among bikers. I like being part of that."

He's getting ready to ride the six miles to his job at Emory University. He's been doing this ride for decades, but as he got older the ride got harder. So he switched to an e-bike.

"The real contrast is the old bike, somethings I got a little, 'Arghh, I gotta bike home, I'm tired,' " he says. "This, I just look forward to being on because it is pure fun."

E-bike riding feels like a back wind pushing you up a hill as you pedal. On a straight road you can reach up to 20 miles an hour, depending on how hard your legs are moving. The bike is adjustable, so you always have the option of a no-sweat ride.

Ed Benjamin, chairman of the Light Electric Vehicle Association, says U.S. e-bike sales doubled between 2012 and 2013. Still, sales of 200,000 e-bikes are a fraction of the 16 million bicycles sold last year.

E-bikes can cost anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars. Typically, that's two to three times the price of a similar bike without the electronics.

Most U.S. e-bike customers are older. Benjamin wants to change that.

"And when somebody says to me, 'I'm young, and I'm strong and I'm fit and I don't need no stinkin' motor,' I kind of chuckle because I have clear memories of having exactly the same attitude," Benjamin says.

He's confident that attitude will shift as more regular cyclists who are puffing up a hill get passed by a smiling e-biker.

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3 Charts (And A Few Words) On The Rise Of Electric Bikes

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That's kind of what happened in Europe. Take Holland, where the elderly have been riding e-bikes for a decade. Then younger people started buying them a couple of years ago, and now e-bike commuters are forcing discussions of widening bike lanes.

"I can imagine for an American this sounds a bit strange that we have such crowded cycle paths, but that's the fact here," says Jack Oortwijn, editor-in-chief of the industry publication, Bike Europe.

"E-bikes contributed to that," he adds. "It's a trend that started with elderly people and not like the usual new trends that start with young people."

E-bikes make up a growing 20 percent market share in Holland and plenty of sportier models for younger commuters are being offered. More and more families in Europe are trading in their second car for an e-bike.

America's cities still have a long way to go in their bike friendliness, and Bowman is content to just be an accepted rarity on his e-bike.

"And it's great," he says. "I know I can now basically stay with this biking community for a long time with this bike."

e-bikes

electric bicycles

After loosing about 40 patients when the facility first opened in mid-September, the staff at the facility realized they needed a new strategy for dealing with the dreadful disease.

"We said, 'No, this cannot continue. We need to do something,' " says Dr. Santigie Sesay, who coordinates treatment at the center.

At a brainstorming session, staff zeroed in on a key problem: dehydration. People with Ebola are wrecked with diarrhea. They vomit. They may bleed.

"So we said, 'If we can replace the fluids that are being lost, we can definitely help these people,' " Sesay says.

But the usual way to replace fluids is an intravenous drip. And it can be dangerous to insert a needle into an Ebola patient. All it takes is one prick to infect a health worker. Plus, running IVs takes careful monitoring.

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Isatu Koroma baths the patients at the Hastings Ebola Treatment Center and helps to clean the facility. She wears full protective gear during her rounds. David P Gilkey/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption David P Gilkey/NPR

Isatu Koroma baths the patients at the Hastings Ebola Treatment Center and helps to clean the facility. She wears full protective gear during her rounds.

David P Gilkey/NPR

So Sesay was advised against IVs. "During our training, we were told that we are not supposed to to go into the vein," he says.

Still, the staff at Hastings resolved to give IVs a try — with their most experienced nurses inserting them.

To date none of the workers have gotten infected. And the effect on patients has been dramatic, Sesay says.

It's difficult to pinpoint survival statistics for any one center when the overall number of patients is small, and the outbreak is still unfolding. But based on the data so far, Sesay says, Hastings' death rate is way down.

"Out of every 10 patients, four will die and six will come out," he says.

Sesay has also noticed another effect. The medical staff at the center realize the patients have a fighting chance.

"Everybody has become very, very enthusiastic," he says. The staff started interacting with the patients more, even helping the weakest ones eat.

"We started talking to the patients," Sesay says. "We even started bed-bathing our patients ... we became so motivated, and things changed drastically."

Isatu Koroma, who cleans the inside of the ward, says she's been pulling for an older patient — a woman who reminds her of an aunt, who died recently died of Ebola.

"I fell in love with her," Koroma says. "I love her like my Aunt."

The woman was in bad shape when she arrived.

"She was so sick, so weak," Koroma says. "I encouraged her: 'Please you have to for you family. You have your daughter.' "

Now that woman is among about sixty patients who have been moved to the recovery area, just across the yard.

At the area, a worker is calling out the names of people who will be released soon from the treatment center.

The moment is bittersweet. These people have survived Ebola, but a lot of them have lost close relatives.

One women in the area lifts up a baby high into the air. He's tiny.

"This baby has no have mother or a father," the woman says.

Both of the baby's parents have died of Ebola. The woman has been caring for him even though she doesn't know the little boy's name. "I call him Mohammed," she says.

The woman has two children of her own, waiting on the outside of Hasting's treatment center. Her kids, at least, will be getting their mom back soon.

Sierra Leone

ebola

Infectious Disease

Global Health

When Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) first entered politics in the 1960s, he started out as moderate — pro-abortion rights, pro-union, in support of the civil rights movement. With time, McConnell shifted to the right as the Republican Party shifted.

"I was just really startled by this when I started looking into it," Alec MacGillis tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "I knew that he had started out as somewhat more moderate — but I didn't realize just how moderate he really was."

The Cynic

The Political Education of Mitch Mcconnell

by Alec Macgillis

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MacGillis's new book The Cynic: The Political Education of Mitch McConnell traces how McConnell became one of the most powerful politicians in the country — and it examines McConnell's evolution as a politician.

In the 1960s, McConnell was "firmly pro-abortion rights," says MacGillis.

"In his first elected office in Louisville, Ky., as county executive in Louisville, he repeatedly snuffed out anti-abortion bills that were coming through his office — didn't even let them come up for a vote or a hearing," he says.

But in 1984, McConnell barely won his seat in the Senate — by fewer than 5,000 votes.

"There was no question what had happened — that McConnell had won basically on the coattails of Ronald Reagan," MacGillis says. "And McConnell looked at that very, very close result and basically thought to himself, 'You know what? I don't want it to ever be this close again. I see where the Republican Party is heading; I see where my state is heading; I see where the South is heading politically — and I need to get on that train.' "

McConnell, who has been the Senate minority leader since 2007, will become the majority leader when the new term starts in January.

And according to MacGillis, "This is what he's dreamed about since he was a very, very young man ... and now he's about to achieve that dream."

Interview Highlights

On McConnell's political positions when he first entered politics in the 1960s

There was a big battle back in the Republican Party in the '60s between the conservative wing and a still quite strong moderate wing. This is, of course, during the time of Barry Goldwater's 1964 nomination to the party coming from the conservative wing. But there was still a very, very strong moderate contingent of the party and Mitch McConnell was completely on that side of the line.

He was very firmly pro-union. In his first election back in 1977 in Louisville, he got the endorsement of the AFL-CIO because he backed collective bargaining for public employees, which is something even a lot of Democrats today don't support. He sought out the head of the AFL-CIO at the bowling alley in Louisville and sweet-talked him and got his support.

He was very firmly in support of the civil rights movement, which back in Kentucky was not necessarily the obvious thing to do. He, as a student, would show up at civil rights rallies and was very much in favor of the legislation in Washington in the '60s.

On how McConnell embodies the changes in the Republican Party over the past 30 years

McConnell, to me, embodies two things in politics today: One is the transformation of the Republican Party from a party that used to have quite a few moderate and liberal members and Northern liberal Republicans — Midwestern moderate Republicans — into a party that is now much more monolithically conservative and really Southern-dominated.

“ It's not so much what you do when you're in power in Washington; it's what you do to position yourself for the next time around. ... That mindset has become very prevalent. It's bipartisan and it also suffuses the media — but McConnell embodies it really more than anybody else.

- Alec MacGillis, The New Republic

McConnell really embodies that shift because he himself has evolved with that transformation just to a tee. But at the same time ... he embodies for me the mindset that has become more and more dominant in Washington today ... which is the permanent campaign mindset.

It's the mindset that all that really matters is the next election, the next cycle. It's not so much what you do when you're in power in Washington; it's what you do to position yourself for the next time around, your next re-election, your party's next election cycle. That mindset has become very prevalent. It's bipartisan and it also suffuses the media — but McConnell embodies it really more than anybody else.

On McConnell figuring out how to use the rules of the Senate to benefit his party

He is a master of Senate procedure. That's one of his real strengths. ... He just has studied it very, very closely. [He's] studied how it works ... and figured out how you could use ... [the rules] within this sort of very vague culture-based and nebulous realm of the Senate where these rules are not necessarily written down anywhere — some of them are, but others are just things that have carried over in tradition and culture of the institution. He's figured out how you can use these procedures — and also the customs that have built up over time to really slow things down and gum up the works in ways that hadn't been done before.

On how McConnell lined up support for leadership posts in the Senate

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It's something he campaigned for more aggressively than just about anyone before him. His colleagues in the Senate were struck to see just how determined and eager he was to climb the ladder. And what he would do is he would start quite early, several years before the elections for these various leadership posts, he would start strategizing in how to win those elections. He had a wingman, his colleague [former Sen.] Bob Bennett from Utah ... [who] would go out a year or two in advance and start trying to count up votes and feel people out on whether they would support Mitch or someone else. ...

Again, McConnell was not the most naturally popular or beloved person within his caucus, so he really needed help from someone else to kind of go out and line up those votes for him. They would badmouth the opposition and various rivals for various jobs ... really, in a junior high school kind of way — trying to line up support so that when the time came for the elections for the various leadership posts high up the ladder, it suddenly would become clear that McConnell had, in fact, lined up just enough support to get the job.

Martial law in Thailand will remain in place "indefinitely," the country's justice minister told Reuters in an interview nearly six months after the military overthrew the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

"Martial law is necessary and we cannot lift it because the government and junta need it as the army's tool," Justice Minister Gen. Paiboon Koomchaya told the news agency. "We are not saying that martial law will stay in place for 50 years, no this is not it, we just ask that it remain in place for now, indefinitely."

Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha had originally promised to restore democracy by next year, but as we reported last month, he said the date could be pushed back.

The justice minister's comments come just ahead of tourist season, which accounts for nearly 10 percent of Thailand's gross domestic product. Tourism took a hit following the May 22 putsch that brought Prayuth to power. But as NPR reported last month, the head of the Tourism Authority of Thailand said martial law is good for tourism because it ensures the safety of foreign tourists.

Thailand

i i

You need keen eyesight to spot yartsa gunbu when it sprouts in spring. Kids are very good harvesters. Michael S. Yamashita/National Geographic Society/Corbis hide caption

itoggle caption Michael S. Yamashita/National Geographic Society/Corbis

You need keen eyesight to spot yartsa gunbu when it sprouts in spring. Kids are very good harvesters.

Michael S. Yamashita/National Geographic Society/Corbis

People live for — and die because of — the "Viagra of the Himalayas."

That's the nickname for one of the weirdest fungi around.

It starts with the larva of the ghost moth — a caterpillar that lives underground. A fungus invades the larva, kills it and consumes the body. Just the outer skeleton remains.

Eventually, a small brown stalk erupts from the dead caterpillar's head. In the spring, the pinkie-sized stalk pokes an inch or two from the earth. That's when people across the Tibetan Plateau head to the high-alpine meadows to harvest the crazy-looking creature.

It's not just for the fun of it. For centuries, people have believed that the fungus known as "yartsa gunbu," literally "summer grass, winter worm," is an aphrodisiac. According to ancient Tibetan texts, men who eat it are promised "the delights of thousands of beautiful women." That's why top quality yartsa sells for around $2,000 an ounce – more than the price of gold. In China, yartsa is a status symbol.

And in Tibet, people fight over it. They sometimes even kill each other. In 2014, a dispute between the local community and a park management committee about the right to collect fees for access to yartsa gunbu led to two deaths.

Related NPR Stories

Caterpillar Fungus: The Viagra Of The Himalayas Oct. 9, 2011

Plus there's a risk that the demand will deplete the grasslands and alpine regions of the Tibetan Plateau. "Any resource of such immense value and key relevance to rural livelihoods as the main cash source runs the risk of being overexploited," says Daniel Winkler, an expert on Himalayan caterpillar fungus.

New research by Washington University associate professor Geoff Childs and graduate student Namgyal Choedup, published in the journal Himalaya, shows how two villages have found a way to sustainably (and peacefully) harvest the precious resource.

In Nubri, village leaders set a date for the start of the harvest. In the weeks prior, residents must check in at the community meeting house four times daily.

"The roll call is designed to thwart attempts by any individual to begin collecting earlier than others," the authors say. Since the trek to the nearest gathering ground is several hours away, it's nearly impossible to sneak off and dig for yartsa gunbu. There's also a heavy fine for those who don't check in.

While all residents in Nubri have a right to collect yartsa gunbu, each household is required to register any collectors and pay a corresponding tax — $1 for the first member and $53 for each additional members. That's not just pocket change in a part of the world where the yearly income can range from $24 to $3,500. The tax money funds repairs and services, from fixing the hydroelectric system to hiring a lama to perform an empowerment ritual.

Local rituals and certain Buddhist beliefs have helped keep the harvest under control. Religious decrees prohibit harvesting on certain sacred mountain slopes. This creates a natural sanctuary, ensuring that part of the landscape will remain undisturbed and allowing fungal spores to spread for the next season.

The village of Tsum prohibits outsiders from gathering yartsa gunbu. Locals are using the profits from yartsa gunbu sales to build lodges that cater to foreign tourists and also to purchase gold as a way to hold onto their yartsa wealth.

The money has been invaluable. In some cases, it makes up 80 percent of a household's income. "Tibetans are using the cash to improve their standard of living, and in some cases are reducing dependency on agro-pastoral activities by becoming entrepreneurs," Childs and Choedup write. Profits pay for everything from school supplies and DVDs to solar panels and gold jewelry.

But then there's all that tension to deal with. One man from the Nubri Valley told Childs and Choedup that "Earlier, we only had village meetings once or twice a year. Nowadays there are frequent meetings with more arguments between people, more squabbles. People are becoming selfish."

If Tibetans follow the example of the two forward-thinking villages, then maybe fungus gatherers can learn to get along with each other — and with Mother Nature.

yartsa gunbu

viagra

A TV comedy Bill Cosby had been developing for NBC has been canceled, after new allegations of rape have been made against the comedian. Netflix made a similar move late Tuesday, shelving a comedy special that had been slated to premiere the week of Thanksgiving.

NBC on prospective Bill Cosby show: "“We can confirm that the Cosby project is no longer in development. No comment from the network. “

— Eric Deggans at NPR (@Deggans) November 19, 2014

Cosby, 77, has not publicly addressed the claims against him, which have now been made publicly by at least six women. In an NPR interview that aired over the weekend, Cosby refused to discuss the allegations.

Update at 7:10 p.m. ET: TV Land To Cease Airing 'Cosby Show'

Reruns of The Cosby Show will no longer air on TV Land, with the AP saying the show is off the air "indefinitely." The TV Land website's page for the show is now returning no content.

NPR's Eric Deggans has confirmed the news.

We'll remind you that TV Land is owned by Viacom, while NBC is majority-owned by Comcast. Viacom has been airing Cosby Show episodes for much of the past 12 years.

Listen to the Story

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Our original post continues:

Marty Singer, Cosby's attorney, has said the comedian did nothing wrong. Responding to former model Janice Dickinson's claim that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her, Singer called the story an "outrageous defamatory lie." In a letter to website The Wrap, Singer said the version of events Dickinson relayed this week doesn't match what she wrote about the encounter in a memoir.

Dickinson spoke to Entertainment Weekly several days after former actress Barbara Bowman wrote in last Friday's Washington Post, "Cosby had drugged and raped me, too."

As NPR's Eric Deggans wrote this week, "several recent events, including the 30th anniversary of The Cosby Show and the publication of the biography, have pushed media to reconsider Cosby's legacy."

Discussing the comedian's "huge, complicated" legacy, NPR's Gene Demby wrote in September:

"Cosby's renown has become less neat in the years since the show went off the air, his squeaky-clean family image tarnished by confessions of infidelity and allegations of sexual assault. His politics have become polarizing, and his name is invoked as a shorthand for a specific strain of black conservatism."

Bill Cosby

The request was forwarded to me from a distant (fifth floor — I'm on four) division of NPR.

It came from Justin Lucas, the head of NPR's Audience and Community Relations team. He's the go-to person here for requests from listeners, for information or permissions.

He'd gotten a letter from Beth Hansen, owner of Soup and Salad, a small sandwich shop in Easton, Md., a charming old town on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay.

Justin read me an excerpt of the request: "I'd love to make and sell Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Chutney. A portion of the proceeds..."

"Wait, she says chutney?" I ask.

"Yes, she says chutney."

Susan Stamberg's Cranberry Relish Tradition

Mrs. Stamberg's Relish Goes To Washington

"It's a relish," I correct.

"Fair point," says Lucas. Anyway, "a portion of the proceeds will go to either NPR or our local NPR station. Please let me know the terms under which you would allow this. Thank you very much."

Well, this is too much!

Beth Hansen is writing about a recipe, which I have read on NPR for the past 127 years: a venerable Thanksgiving recipe from my late mother-in-law for a tart relish with cranberries, sour cream, sugar, onion and horseradish — a recipe which sounds terrible, but tastes terrific (even though it does end up the color of Pepto Bismol).

Anyway, Justin says, I'm the one to give permission. So I call her.

Hansen tells me there are lots of NPR listeners in Delmarva (where Delaware, Maryland and Virginia make a pretty peninsula) who are curious about the recipe, but don't want to actually make it. She figures if she makes it, they'll want to try it.

"So can we do it?" she asks.

"Well," I say, "I'm kinda picky about that recipe. I mean, Americans can make it when I do it on the radio, but ... you're not very far from where I am in Washington, D.C. I think I'd need to come and inspect your sandwich shop and see the kind of operation you've got."

Beth Hansen's sign for Susan Stamberg when she visited the Amish Farmers Market. Jackie Judd/NPR hide caption

itoggle caption Jackie Judd/NPR

"That would be fabulous!" says Beth.

She explains how to get to her food stand in the Amish Farmer's Market.

"You were asking what our terms might be," I say. "You know we have no terms, to tell you the truth, Miss Hansen. But this inspection will be very important — just to make sure it's the proper venue."

It turned out it was the weekend of the Waterfowl Festival in Easton, a lively celebration of hunting season in Delmarva. But the only geese we see in town are carved in plastic, and bleep from a boombox, hidden behind some bales of hay.

Now, like you, I have attitudes about hunting. And guns. I like big dogs and decoys and not great paintings of ducks and geese and sunny streets full of families and food stalls.

But I need to go out of town a bit, to find the would-be cranberry lady.

I was expecting some outside tents and little tables set up under it, but that's not what I found.

The Amish Country Farmers Market is supermarket-size and immaculate, with vendors in straw hats, long beards, the women in simple dresses and tidy white caps, selling everything from chicken breasts and salad dressing to knitted mittens and handmade furniture.

There are lots of eating areas all around with tables and chairs. At 9 a.m., there's quite a line at the all-you-can-eat $7 breakfast buffet.

Delmarva native Mark Weaver is fixing himself a plate. "I started with the potatoes. You gotta have your starch. And then my scrapple. Then, after that, we're gonna get a little bit of bacon," he says. "I'll grab a biscuit and I'll make a little biscuits and gravy."

At this point I am in need of Beth Hansen's Soup and Salad. Where is she? I stroll the aisles, searching.

I spot a sign: "Welcome Susan Stamberg of NPR, the relish is back here."

And there's the food stand. Beth is tall and smiling, gray hair, and friendly, if a bit nervous.

"We want to know if we're worthy to serve the cranberry relish," she says.

Susan Stamberg's Cranberry Relish Tradition

Susan Stamberg's Other Favorite Holiday Cranberry Dish

Her soup looks good: "We have potato leek, vegetable beef, crab and chicken noodle." It smells great and the salad fixings are so fresh they sparkle.

"You know, I didn't bring my white gloves for the inspection tour to see if you would be worthy to sell this time-honored recipe," I say.

But the stand is really nice and nestled carefully in a bed of ice, what's on display but containers of cranberry relish.

Pink cranberry relish. My cranberry relish.

Beth opens a container. "OK, this is the big moment," she says, "Are we worthy?"

"It's a little pale," I say. "It's supposed to be more of a Pepto Bismol color."

She hands me a spoon. Slowly and carefully I take a taste.

"This is perfect," I say. She gasps.

"Perfect! We got perfect?!"

It could use a little more horseradish, but who am I to quibble. Another bite, a grin, and Beth Hansen gets the Stamberg Family Seal of Approval.

A tangy way to say Happy Thanksgiving, to her and you.

cranberry relish

Thanksgiving

More than two dozen members of the Republican Governors Association gathered this week in Boca Raton, Fla., to talk about policy issues and bask in their success after the recent midterm election.

Under New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's chairmanship, the RGA spent $130 million and achieved remarkable success at the polls: All but two Republican governors running for re-election won. And the GOP even won governors' races in deep blue states like Illinois, Massachusetts and Maryland.

Their message? Republican governors are putting conservative principles into practice in their states, and they won't allow their party to be defined by what they call "the dysfunction in Washington."

Yet even before the governors held their first news conference, they found themselves once again responding to news from Washington.

In this case, it was President Obama's executive action on immigration. At news conferences, and at a Wednesday afternoon panel moderated by NBC's Chuck Todd, governors were pressed for their views on Obama's action, on immigration, and on how they would handle the millions of undocumented immigrants currently here.

Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin's Scott Walker bristled at Todd's repeated questions on immigration. "Scott's tried. I've tried," Jindal said. "I'd like to talk about energy. I'd like to talk about education."

Walker maintains that while immigration may be important, it was not an issue that came up in his campaign or in many other states. Walker said of immigration, "If you went out on the campaign trail with us, none of us heard this issue in our races. And I dare say it probably wasn't one of the top issues in most United States Senate or House races out there."

If immigration didn't rank as a top issue in most governors' races, it does with a group that's growing in importance in the U.S. — Hispanics. A recent Gallup poll shows immigration ranks as the second most important issue among Hispanics after the economy.

At the conference in Boca Raton this week, Ohio Gov. John Kasich said, "It's a cool time to be a Republican. I think young people are back looking at us again. We lost them for a while, but I think they're back. In my state, we're seeing minorities now voting Republican."

But how Republicans respond to Obama's moves on immigration may affect how Hispanics feel about the GOP.

In Texas, California, Florida and other states where Hispanics are an important voting bloc, it's likely to continue as an important issue going into 2016 — when Jindal, Walker, Kasich and other governors are considering running for president.

republican governors

Immigration

Republicans