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Six years ago, at Six Flags in Arlington, Texas, Wonder Woman had Batman's sidekick Robin in her sights.

"I just noticed him from across the room and remember thinking he was super-cute," says Hayley Welling, who performed as Wonder Woman at the theme park.

Soon, the romance between Wonder Woman and Robin — also known as Damian Marks — developed under the watchful eye of many fellow character actors.

"When you work in a place like that everybody knows what's going on with everybody at all hours of the day, so there's really not a whole lot of room for privacy," Welling says.

Their first get-togethers were over lunch breaks. Their first kiss was in the employee parking lot. When it came time to propose, Marks did so — where else? — on stage at Six Flags.

They married three years ago. But not all their co-workers' relationships were happy.

"At Six Flags there is a history of interoffice mingling and it always leading to bad juju around the place," Marks says.

The interoffice romances sometimes led to some backstage ugliness.

"It was kind of a promiscuous time. [It's] just a lot of rumors and a lot of backstabbing and a lot of cheating seemed to be the way that those romances ended up," Marks says.

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Dating In The 'Office' Can Be A Collision Course

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Mischief Under The Mistletoe: Office Partygoers Behaving Badly

Allegations of favoritism and the impact on the working environment are the main reasons employers sometimes try to regulate office romance. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, fewer than half of employers have workplace romance policies, but the percentage is increasing. Of those that do, nearly all ban supervisors dating subordinates.

Not to say that doesn't happen.

Demetrius Figueroa blogs about dating, and several years ago he had a romance with a woman he nominally supervised.

"I was definitely worried about my own supervisor finding out. It was my first office romance so I had no clue . ... Maybe it wasn't against rules, but it's sort of frowned upon?" Figueroa says.

He says his relationship ended without much fanfare. But several of his friends got involved with higher-ups at work, then eventually left their jobs because everyone was talking.

"It always comes down to, 'What do people say about me when I'm not here?' " Figueroa says

Phyllis Hartman is a human resources consultant in Pittsburgh. Her friends survived what you might call a nightmare workplace relationship scenario.

"They met at work, and they got married. And were married for a number of years, and then they had a divorce that was not pretty. And they had to continue to work with each other, in fact their desks were next to each other," Hartman says and laughs. "And they worked together for another 15 years."

She says some companies draw up what are called "love contracts," where workers agree to a certain set of rules when they start dating. Other firms, she says, go even further.

"Some companies have tried to have policies saying nobody can date at work," Hartman says.

That doesn't mean those policies are effective.

"In my experience, it means everybody goes underground. You know, they just hide the relationship," Hartman says.

At the end of the day, she says, you cannot legislate relationships.

office romance

workplace

A Haitian man was lynched at a public plaza in the Dominican Republic this week. Authorities there say it was the result of a personal dispute, but activists claim it's part of rising racial animus and anti-Haitian attitudes in the Caribbean nation.

The lynching came during an already tense time for Dominicans of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic. Feb. 1 marked the deadline for tens of thousands of them to report to the country's civil registry to prove that their ancestors came to the nation legally. Those who didn't — or couldn't — comply with the deadline could be deported. For many of those affected, that could mean being deported to Haiti, a place where they've never lived, where they may not have any remaining family, and may not know the language.

This is all the result of a 2013 ruling by the Dominican Republic's constitutional court which retroactively stripped citizenship of people whose ancestors migrated to the country and who can't prove that the migration was legal. The change applies to anyone born after 1929, potentially affecting an estimated 240,000 Dominicans. The vast majority are people whose family migrated from Haiti.

i

Demonstrators from a 2013 protest against the Dominican Republic's constitutional amendment restricting citizenship hold signs saying "I am Dominican just like you." Ezequiel Abiu Lopez/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Ezequiel Abiu Lopez/AP

Demonstrators from a 2013 protest against the Dominican Republic's constitutional amendment restricting citizenship hold signs saying "I am Dominican just like you."

Ezequiel Abiu Lopez/AP

The February registration deadline actually represents a concession by the Dominican authorities. Originally, the 2013 ruling allowed for immediate deportation without any chance of appeal. But after international protests, a court ruling created a process for obtaining a residence permit.

Under the current rules, anyone without proof of their birth or the birth of their parents in the Dominican Republic is required to register as a foreigner — even if they were born in the country. Amnesty International estimates that less than 5 percent of those people eligible to register actually did, leaving tens of thousands now stateless.

In recent years, the Dominican government began cracking down on migrants arriving from neighboring Haiti, especially following the earthquake in 2010 when the Dominican Republic briefly opened its border to Haitian refugees.

The Dominican Republic has a long, contentious history with Haiti, which together make up the island of Hispaniola. Many critics accuse the Dominican government of purposely reinterpreting the citizenship policy to discriminate against Dominicans with Haitian ancestry.

"When you have individual actors in the form of government coming together to create major bureaucratic hoops, it's clear that there is some discriminating intention," says Angela Fernandez, executive director of the North Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights. "The underclass has already been created by Dominican society and the government. What this does it compound the issue more for Dominicans of Haitian descent."

Chiara Liguori, Caribbean researcher for Amnesty International, says the Dominican government also executed the registration process poorly. "They put some ads on TV and radio, but not in communities where these people live, the most marginalized areas of the country," she says.

She argues that local governments purposely created obstacles for the most vulnerable "Haitian-Dominicans" affected by the law. "They instituted fees that are a burden for those who need it. Most can't afford it," she says. "And [local governments] were requesting documents that they didn't need to present."

"We are extremely worried because the authorities continue to deny the existence of statelessness, but it's our reality."

- Juan Alberto Antuan Vill

Juan Alberto Antuan Vill, — who is Dominican-born and of Haitian ancestry— says he was denied identity documents, despite being listed in the Dominican civil registry since birth. He told Amnesty International, "We don't trust the whole process because of the people leading it. Discrimination exists in this country. I can't work and I can't access vital services."

Organizations such as the International Campaign to End Apartheid in the Dominican Republic, have called for a boycott of Dominican tourism, products and services. And activists from We Are All Dominican, an advocacy group providing support for denationalized Dominicans, staged a vigil outside the office of a Dominican-American councilman in New York City. Their members say the recent lynching "symbolizes an act of racial terror against Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent" and that the attempt to denationalize Haitian-Dominicans is a violation of human rights.

"The message the Dominican government has sent to the international community is that it does not care about its human rights obligations," says Javiela Evangelista, a member of We Are All Dominican. "Moreover, the Dominican Republic's actions send a dangerous precedent for other governments."

In a statement to NPR, the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Washington, D.C., rejected claims of limited accessibility and arbitrary fees, noting that the government has set up 24 service centers throughout the country for people to register and has dedicated more than $25 million to "ensure that applications represent no cost burden for those applying."

"The number of people born in the Dominican Republic not registered locally is unverified but it is estimated that it reaches only several thousands," the statement reads. "Following the deadline for submissions on February 1st, 2015, after an additional 90-day extension, applications reached around 8,800 cases of those eligible."

During a 2013 interview with NPR's Michel Martin, Leonel Mateo — then political counselor for the embassy — defended the citizenship policy and denied any racial motivations. "I think it's unfair to say that this ruling was based on any racism. If you go to the Dominican Republic, you can see that Haitians and Dominicans interact on a daily basis."

Mateo also denied any government plans of expelling Dominican-born Haitians. "There won't be any mass deportations. And the president of the Dominican Republic gave his word publicly about this." In their statement, the Dominican embassy also stressed that "no deportations will or have taken place while the national regularization plan is in process."

i

Opponents of the Dominican Republic's citizenship policy have called on the international community to boycott the country's tourism industry to send the message that discrimination is unacceptable. Dieu Nalio Chery/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Dieu Nalio Chery/AP

Opponents of the Dominican Republic's citizenship policy have called on the international community to boycott the country's tourism industry to send the message that discrimination is unacceptable.

Dieu Nalio Chery/AP

Evangelista says that is not the case. She points out reports of mass deportations that have already occurred and says activists have faced threats of deportation from the government. Additionally, several Dominican journalists have reported receiving death threats for covering the country's denationalization efforts.

"Such actions inspire fear and distrust in a population that is already extremely vulnerable, and do not indicate at all that the government is acting in good faith," Evangelista says.

Deportation is not the only problem undocumented residents face. "Being stateless in your own homeland, you have no access to documentation. You have no identity," Liguori says. "It prohibits finding a job, getting married. You need a birth certificate or identity card and the Dominican Republic stripping these people of legal recognition prevents them from obtaining these documents."

Fernandez says the Dominican government's attempt to allow individuals to gain back their own nationality is futile. To her, the Dominican Republic already sent a clear message to its own people.

"Imagine what someone who was born there goes through when their nationality is stripped from them. When you feel alienated from your own society, how do you justify participating in it? The damage has been done."

According to the Dominican embassy's statement, a deadline extension means that Dominicans without proof of their birth or the birth of their parents in the country now have until June 15 to register with the government's National Regularization Plan.

Haiti

Remember all that new voting equipment purchased after the 2000 presidential election, when those discredited punch card machines were tossed out? Now, the newer machines are starting to wear out.

Election officials are trying to figure out what to do before there's another big voting disaster and vendors have lined up to help.

During their annual meeting in Washington, D.C., this week, state election officials previewed the latest voting equipment from one of the industry's big vendors, Election Systems and Software.

"It's all still very much manual labor with people crossing off lists with pencils. And so ... the public is expecting more."

- Denise Merrill, Connecticut secretary of state

ES&S expects a huge surge in buying very soon. It hopes its new ExpressVote machine will appeal to those who want convenient voting as well as the security of a paper ballot that's counted separately.

"We're seeing a buying cycle that's starting now, and will probably go for the next maybe four or five years," said Kathy Rogers, a senior vice president at ES&S who used to run elections for the state of Georgia.

Rogers says companies have to be more flexible than they were 10 or so years ago. Both the technology and how people vote is changing rapidly.

"Some are moving to all vote by mail; some are increasingly becoming early vote sites," she said. "We have some that have moved as far away from direct record electronics as they possibly can, and then we have others who love that technology."

It's All Politics

Fixing Long Lines At The Polls May Be Harder Than You Think

That technology is those touchscreen voting machines that many states bought after 2000. Some states including Maryland are scrapping them in favor of paper-backed equipment, because of security concerns. But in a sign of the times, Maryland is leasing its new equipment from ES&S, instead of buying — just in case something better comes along in a few years.

"I don't have to tell you all, the technology is old and it's ancient by technology standards," said Matt Masterson in an address to the election officials. He helped run Ohio's elections and is a newly appointed commissioner on the federal Election Assistance Commission.

Masterson says most current voting equipment was purchased three years before the iPhone was introduced. Officials now have a lot of catching up to do.

"The public's out ahead of us on this one," Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill said. "I mean, they are amazed that we don't have them being checked in with laptops at the polling places, for example; it's all still very much manual labor with people crossing off lists with pencils. And so ... the public is expecting more."

Like the convenience they see today when they shop or bank. The big problem is figuring out who's going to pay for all these new machines. After the 2000 elections, Congress gave states $3 billion, but no one expects that to happen again. Merrill says state and local governments will have to figure out what to do, and soon.

"Because it could become a national embarrassment if we continue to have the problems we've had," she said. In her state, those problems include computer card failures.

Vendors say they're well aware that there's a tough sell ahead — that people are searching for something that's easy to use and accurate, but also cheap. This is why George Munro of Democracy Live says his company is pushing off-the-shelf technology that can be adapted for voting.

"So a voter can come in, use any Windows 8 tablet, it's not connected to the Internet or anything, but they can mark their ballot right on the screen and then print their ballot off," Munro says. He says it costs a lot less than regular voting equipment. And when it no longer serves its purpose, he says the tablets could be donated to schools or other government departments.

It's an idea that's gaining some attention, but not necessarily customers, yet. Election officials — at this conference, at least — are still just looking.

voting

Elections

People in West Africa often touch and wash the dead in their community. That's a problem when it comes to handling Ebola victims. Their bodies are known to be contagious. And so Red Cross body collectors receive careful training and protective gear before they embark, but it's tough to alter this tradition.

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Now researchers have confirmed how long those bodies can be contagious. The Ebola virus can survive for up to a week in a dead primate.

"As long as the virus is viable then there shouldn't be any difference between a live body and a dead body," head researcher Vincent Munster, a virus ecologist at the National Institute of Health, tells Goats and Soda. His findings will be published in May in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Ebola isn't the only virus that can linger after death.

"Just because a body dies, it doesn't mean that all cells die simultaneously," says Alan Schmaljohn, a microbiology and immunology professor at the University of Maryland, who is unaffiliated with the study. Viruses continue to reproduce, although the total number of viral cells decreases exponentially as the body decays.

Of all the viruses that stick around, the most persistent is smallpox. "It can last for an exceedingly long time," Schmaljohn says, describing how the virus remains viable in scabs. "That's part of what makes the smallpox vaccine such a good vaccine," he says. Because the virus is so tough to kill, doctors could easily move the vaccine from place to place without refrigeration.

But it'd be tough for a smallpox scab to harm another person. Schmaljohn says that a person would have to grind up the scab and apply it to broken skin before the virus would pose a risk. So exhuming a corpse from a 1910 victim "would not be hazardous," says Schmaljohn.

A respiratory illness like influenza also isn't such a concern, because the dead aren't likely to sneeze on you. Still, a living person who touches influenza-infected mucus, even from a dead person, might get sick.

As for Ebola, it can spread through many different channels. So it's really easy to catch from people living and dead. "When somebody succumbs to the Ebola virus, the virus is everywhere [on that person's body]," says Munster. "Anywhere you would take a swab you will find the virus." The decaying body emits fluids — blood, saliva, pus, feces — and all of them could carry the Ebola virus. So if any of those fluids come into contact with an orifice or an open cut on a living person, there's a decent chance that person will get infected. And that's the case for at least one other disease that seems far less exotic: norovirus or stomach flu.

ebola

The latest crop of 300 new North Korean slogans to mark North Korea's 70th anniversary has just been released. Stand back as they "cascade down and their sweet aroma [fills] the air":

— Thoroughly get rid of abuse of authority and bureaucratism!

— Let us raise a strong wind of studying the great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism!

— Fire an opening salvo of an ideological campaign and make our fire concentrated, regular and accurate!

You get the idea.

Agence France-Presse describes the "exclamation-mark peppered list" of slogans published Thursday in translation by the the official KCNA news agency, as running the gambut from praise for dutiful wives to an exhortation to "make mushroom cultivation scientific!"

Even allowing that they probably come off more melodious in their original Korean, some of the commandments are so awkward that it's hard to imagine them sounding right in any language.

To wit: "Let us turn the whole country into a socialist fairyland by the joint operation of the army and people!" or "Let this socialist country resound with Song of Big Fish Haul and be permeated with the fragrant smell of fish and other seafoods!" Then there's the simple "Grow vegetables extensively in greenhouses!"

Some of them are entirely lost in translation. Take the edict to "Play sports games in an offensive way!"

Reuters reports: "The slogans, which ran to more than 7,000 words in translation and spanned two pages of the party's broadsheet newspaper, called for a wide range of improvements including 'more stylish school uniforms' and 'organic farming on an extensive scale.'"

The BBC says: "Propaganda in the form of slogans, posters, stamps and books has played an important role in the country since the state was founded in 1948 so the appearance of a new batch of exhortations is not surprising."

James Grayson, an emeritus professor of modern Korean studies at Sheffield University tells the BBC that the new slogans are "typical of most totalitarian states."

He says they are reminiscent of China's Cultural Revolution and after the establishment of the Communist regime. "[If] you think of the Nazis and Italian fascism it's not an unusual thing... It's the strength and the quantity of the North Korean ones that is unusual," he tells the news agency.

Grayson, however, notes a theme that marks most of the slogans: "A lot of this has to do with very practical things to do with the economy, especially food."

The "enemy" United States, was not spared, of course: "Should the enemy dare to invade our country, annihilate them to the last man!"

AFP quotes defector Lee Min-Bok, who fled North Korea 14 years ago and now lives in the South as saying "We were permanently buried by an avalanche of slogans.

"We had to memorize a lot of them to show our loyalty, but they slowly lost any meaning for anyone, especially after the famine in the 90s," said Lee, 57.

"That greenhouse one has been around for decades. The problem is nobody had any plastic sheets of glass to build them, or fuel to heat them," he added.

North Korea

Movie musicals used to be box-office poison, but lately they've found ways to sing to a wider crowd. The onscreen Les Miz did away with lip-synching, Annie went multi-cultural, Into the Woods belted out revisionist fairy-tales — and combined, those three movies have taken in almost three-quarters of a billion dollars.

Now — just in time for Valentine's Day — comes The Last Five Years, a virtually sung-through musical romance with another central gimmick and twists, tricks, and quirks enough to make me want to sing its praises despite a flaw or two.

The plot is entirely concerned with a supremely adorable NY couple — Cathy (Anna Kendrick) and Jamie (Jeremy Jordan) — who appear both cute and made for each other. He's a budding novelist, she's an aspiring actress. They fall in love, they marry, they fall apart, all in five years ... and yes, I know that sounds like a spoiler.

But it's not, because Cathy's first bleary-eyed lyrics tell us their union's come to naught:

Jamie is over and Jamie is gone
Jamie's decided it's time to move on
Jamie has new dreams he's building upon
And I'm still hurting.

Only after she's sung about the breakup, much as Fanny Brice does at the ouset of Funny Girl, does the movie flash back to beginnings: the two of them tearing their clothes off, leaping into bed, as Jamie sings ecstatically about breaking his Jewish mother's heart by falling for this blonde "Shiksa Goddess."

Young love, right? So now the plot can go forward. Except that The Last Five Years has an ingenious trick up its structural sleeve. While his songs tell the story conventionally, starting at the beginning, his songs are alternating with her songs, which tell the story in reverse. He goes start to finish, she goes finish to start, and their only duet is right in the middle, on the day she accepts his proposal.

Sounds confusing, but it's all pretty effortless in Richard LaGravenese's clean, clear adaptation of a stage two-hander by composer-lyricist Jason Robert Brown. The dovetailed songs, in fact, end up revealing quite a lot about, not just their relationship, but relationships in general. You feel the ache of endings in the joy of beginnings, and know which forks in the road will lead straight off cliffs.

Which is not to suggest there aren't surprises along the way — Cathy's resilience is impressive, for instance, as her partner's career takes off while her dreams of Broadway stardom lead only to summer stock in Ohio.

Kendrick qualifies as the movie's secret weapon — actually not so secret now that she's charmed audiences in both Into the Woods and Pitch Perfect. She's so appealing here, in fact, that audience sympathies are likely to be less-than-evenly split between the two leads. Jeremy Jordan's Jamie is plenty energetic, but in terms of appeal, he's sort of the Omar Sharif to her Barbra Streisand.

LaGravanese tries to balance that where he can, by making Jamie one of the world's most physically active writers, hardly ever sitting still with an idea when he can instead be rushing from pillar to post in cars, on the run, biking, and even on the Staten Island Ferry. That allows the director to do a nice job of opening up a show that on stage is generally done with two performers and very little else.

The movie sketches in a whole world around Cathy and Jamie, though the story still comes down to just them, and their haunting, bittersweet recounting of The Last Five Years.

Put it in the category of things we know for sure that just ain't so.

No sooner did the Democratic National Committee announce it had chosen Philadelphia, Pa., as its 2016 convention site than a lot of us political analyst types popped out the conventional wisdom about "appealing to a swing state in the general election."

It sounds good and it makes sense, as far as it goes. It just doesn't go very far.

Sure, it ought to help the Democrats to have their convention in a state that they absolutely have to win in November. It also ought to help the GOP to have its convention in Cleveland; no Republican has ever won the White House without carrying Ohio.

But let's face it. If the Democrats do win Pennsylvania, it won't be because they had their convention in Philadelphia, which is already a motherlode of Democratic votes. And if the Republicans wind up winning Ohio, it won't be because they won over a lot of precincts in Cleveland, which is a similarly rich trove of Democratic support in elections at all levels.

The idea that conventions are located with an eye toward winning the host city's state is popular to the point of being irresistible. But it doesn't fare well against the facts.

Convention State Wins & Losses

2012

Republicans in Florida (November loss)

Democrats in North Carolina (November loss)

2008

Republicans in Minnesota (loss)

Democrats in Colorado (win)

2004

Republicans in New York (loss)

Democrats in Massachusetts (win)

2000

Republicans in Pennsylvania (loss)

Democrats in California (win)

1996

Republicans in California (loss)

Democrats in Illinois (win)

1992

Republicans in Texas (win)

Democrats in New York (win)

1988

Republicans in Louisiana (win)

Democrats in Georgia (loss)

1984

Republicans in Texas (win)

Democrats in California (loss

1980

Republicans in Michigan (win)

Democrats in New York (loss)

1976

Republicans in Missouri (loss)

Democrats in New York (win)

1972

Republicans in Florida (win)

Democrats in Florida (loss)

1968

Republicans in Florida (win)

Democrats in Illinois (loss)

1964

Republicans in California (loss)

Democrats in New Jersey (win)

1960

Republicans in Illinois (loss)

Democrats in California (loss)

1956

Republicans in California (win)

Democrats in Illinois (loss)

True, both parties took their conventions to swing states in 2012. But both parties wound up losing those swing states. The Republicans headed for Tampa in pivotal Florida but their nominee, Mitt Romney, lost the state in November. The Democrats went to Charlotte, N.C., in part to celebrate winning there in 2008 (for the first time in 32 years). But four years later, after holding their convention in the Tar Heel state, they saw it go GOP.

In a sense, both parties thought they were wooing swing states in 2008, too. The Democrats saw Colorado as winnable, even though they had only won it three times since the 1930s. The Republicans went after Minnesota, which had the longest streak of voting blue for president in the whole country. The Democrats managed to make their swipe, the GOP didn't even come close.

But to the two Obama elections, the parties' choice of their convention sites seems to have had only occasional connection to the voting patterns of the states. From 1988 to 2004, the parties sited 10 conventions and chose a swing state only once (the GOP went to Philadelphia in 2000). The rest of the time they were in states as reliably red as Texas and Louisiana or as true blue as Massachusetts and California.

In fact, through those five cycles, the Republicans twice went to states (California and New York) that they would lose by double digits in the fall voting for president. The Democrats, for their part, took a similar drubbing in Georgia after convening in Atlanta in 1988. It is hard to imagine that party professionals in either case really thought things would be different because of the convention.

In the cycles where the two parties did manage to win their convention-site states, they held those gatherings in states they could scarcely have lost – such as Texas for the GOP and Massachusetts for the Democrats.

The truth is, political parties locate their conventions much the way large trade associations and professional groups do. They look for geographical balance (which is why the first generations of conventions were usually held in Baltimore and later generations in Chicago). They look for fun stuff to do (see New Orleans, for example, or San Diego). But in the end, it comes down to state-of-the-art facilities, an adequate supply of quality hotel rooms and a financial aid package from the city and private donors.

Those criteria make a lot more sense than a hopeful lunge after an iffy package of electoral votes, especially given the poor return on past attempts.

Going back to the 1950s, and the last 30 choices of convention sites, the party has lost the state where it held its convention 16 times and won it 14.

The pattern holds perfectly within each party, too. Republicans have won the state that hosted their convention seven times but lost it eight times. For the Democrats the numbers are exactly the same: seven wins, eight losses. One bright note for the Dems, though, prior to the 2012 loss in North Carolina, their nominee had won the convention site state five times in a row (after losing five of six).

Two days before a cease-fire is set to take effect in eastern Ukraine, forces on both sides are fighting over strategic territory they hope to control after the peace begins. A truce between the government and Russian-backed separatists is set to begin Sunday.

Despite Thursday's apparent breakthrough, "The enemy shelled positions of the 'anti-terrorist operation' forces with the same intensity as before," a Ukrainian military official said Friday, according to Reuters.

The news agency reports that fighting continued at separatist strongholds such as Donetsk, and at other sites such as a railway junction. The clashes followed reports that more Russian equipment had been sent across the border to separatist-controlled areas shortly after the temporary peace was announced.

There are also concerns about the terms of the cease-fire. From Brussels, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports for our Newscast unit:

"Some feel the deal, reached after 16 hours of negotiations among the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine, may give too much to Russia and the pro-Russian rebels.

"Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko says they did what they had to, in order to stop the fighting.

"'We managed to get the sides to commit to the ceasefire,' he says, 'and this wasn't easy task, because other side was not inclined to stop the aggression.'"

Both U.S. and European leaders say that they're waiting to see actions that match the the cease-fire's peaceful intentions.

European Council President Donald Tusk says the EU will go ahead with sanctions "against 19 Russian and Ukrainian individuals and nine entities next week," France 24 reports.

Secretary of State John Kerry says the U.S. "is prepared to consider rolling back sanctions on Russia when the Minsk agreements of September 2014, and now this agreement, are fully implemented."

"The parties have a long road ahead," Kerry said, explaining later that the conditions for sanctions to be eased include "a full ceasefire, the withdrawal of all foreign troops and equipment from Ukraine, the full restoration of Ukrainian control of the international border, and the release of all hostages."

Ukraine

Russia

Universal Pictures put a woman in charge when it hired Sam Taylor-Johnson to direct Fifty Shades of Grey. It also got an art world star nominated for such prestigious awards as Britain's Turner Prize. Truth be told, Taylor-Johnson sounds slightly relieved to discuss her photography and videos instead of the movie she's in the thick of promoting.

"It feels so far away from me right now," she says, in her plummy London accent. "And it's so nice to talk about again — gives me a bit of a breather."

Accent aside, Taylor-Johnson is hardly from a posh British background. Her father was a biker. Her mother was a hippy who meditated in orange robes before abandoning the family when Taylor-Johnson was only 15. She went on to attend Goldsmiths College, a school that forged a movement known as the Young British Artists.

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"They were just a most raucous, rebellious group of artists in revolt," says Margo Crutchfield. Now curator-at-large for Virginia Tech's Center of the Arts, she organized Sam Taylor-Johnson's first major US solo show back in 2008. Crutchfield says the YBAs, as they were known, were exuberant post punk troublemakers.

"Probably some of the most provocative work made in recent times," she says.

Exhibit A: Damien Hirst, who suspended sharks and sheep in formaldehyde. Exhibit B: Tracey Emin, best known for displaying an unmade bed surrounded by underwear, empty liquor bottles and condom wrappers as something of a sarcastic monument to an ex-lover. Comparatively, the artist then known as Sam Taylor-Wood was understated. Still, themes of sex and sensation surfaced in such work as her recreation of the Last Supper that imagined Jesus as a topless woman.

"There was a lot of experimentation in the early days," Taylor-Johnson dryly concedes.

Throughout her career, Taylor-Johnson's work has explored vulnerability, passion, performance, celebrity and control. Take her series of portraits of leading Hollywood men such as Paul Newman, Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman. All of them, crying.

"I didn't want to do something where it's just a projection of ego and a big smile and, you know, 'Here I am, at the top of my game,'" she explains.

Taylor Johnson's video portrait of soccer star David Beckham, commissioned by Britain's National Portrait Gallery, shows one of the world's most famously active bodies sleeping — for an hour and seven minutes. At the time, says Crutchfield, she was married to another art world celebrity.

"Probably the most powerful art dealer in Europe if not the world at the time," Crutchfield notes. But Taylor-Johnson left him soon after directing her first feature film, 2009's Nowhere Boy. It's about the Beatles' early years in Liverpool, before they became famous, and Taylor-Johnson married the actor who played John Lennon. He was 19. She was 42. She'd already had two children and had two more with him — even after surviving cancer twice. Not long ago she directed her husband, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who she describes as a muse, in a music video for R.E.M. He's dancing down a city street in a faded yellow T-shirt.

"I can't wait for us to work together again because he's so talented," she says. "And that R.E.M video is, I think, one of the best things I've done. It was so much fun."

It was admittedly less fun, she says, to film Fifty Shades of Grey.

"I mean, the thing is ..." she pauses. "I'm an artist and I had lots of sort of wild ideas about how to do this. And wildly off-the-wall ones."

For example, a sequence she fought for showing jellyfish as a sensual metaphor for the heroine's state of mind ended up on the cutting room floor. The movie Fifty Shades of Grey ended up as a straightforward, respectful adaptation of the book, but critics still mostly praise it as more sophisticated than its source material, from the Helmut Newton-inspired cinematography to the female-dominated soundtrack, with powerful singers such as Beyonc, Sia and Anne Lennox. It's a woman's journey, says Taylor-Johnson, that ends with the male lead vulnerable and emotionally exposed.

And the movie Fifty Shades of Grey teases the fundamental idea of who holds power — from the woman who tells the story, to the women readers who enjoy it, and the woman director who put it on the screen.

Scientists are warning that construction of a $50-billion interoceanic shipping canal through Nicaragua could spell an environmental disaster, threatening nearly two-dozen endangered species and jeopardizing Central America's largest source of drinking water.

An article published in the latest issue of Scientific American reports that the Hong Kong-backed Nicaraguan Grand Canal project, which would be deeper and wider than the existing shipping canals through Panama, could destroy millions of acres of rainforest and contaminate Lake Nicaragua. The project has already raised concern over the displacement of communities in its path and, as NPR's Jasmine Garsd reported last week, the company building it has also unearthed tens of thousands of pre-Columbian relics.

Even before the project's official start, protests broke out from those who would be displaced by it. Managua insists that the canal could help lift the country out of poverty.

In December, President Daniel Ortega announced that construction on the project had already begun, although a consultancy hired by the backers Hong Kong Nicaragua Canal Development (HKND), has denied that.

Scientific American reports that consultants doing the environmental impact assessment, British-based ERM, noted "the potential for fuel spills to affect freshwater fish in the area, interrupt agricultural activity and impact cultural heritage on native reserves as a result of work that disturbs the soil. The report also stated 'the acquisition and compensation for the land deal...do not meet international standards.'"

The magazine also notes that scientists around the world, including those belonging to the Humboldt Center of Nicaragua, have warned that the habitat for 22 species would be placed in jeopardy and that by 2039, climate change will result in a 3 to 4 percent deficit in the water needed to run the canal.

Many have also questioned the economic viability of the project.

In 2013, The Economist wrote: "The economic case is not easy to make. And if the engineering challenges are too severe, even some supporters of the project say it may be impossible to raise the billions of dollars necessary to go any further. HKND argues that large volumes of globally traded goods are being carried on ships already too big for the Panama Canal, even after its current expansion. Nicaragua's canal, with twice the draught of Panama's, would aim to accommodate such giants. But world trade is sluggish; and meanwhile, new routes may develop through the Arctic."

Last year, National Geographic said:

"[Many] economists, scientists, and sociologists say that the time for a Nicaraguan canal has long since lapsed, that the waterway—if it's ever completed—will end up being the world's costliest boondoggle.

"The Panama Canal, they say, which has gigantic new locks scheduled to be operational next year, is more than capable of meeting future demand. They also cite projections for global warming that suggest ships could traverse an ice-free Arctic by the middle of the century, further reducing demand for passage through Central America."

And, there are also doubts about the financing of the project too. As The Washington Post wrote last month:

"Ground was broken only after a deal hatched last year between Nicaragua's Sandinista government and a consortium led by Chinese telecoms billionaire Wang Jing. Critics wonder how the little-known Wang came to win the bid, which gives his Hong Kong-listed company, HKND, a 100-year-long concession over the canal's operation. There was next to no transparency in the process. Wang is exempt from local taxes and commercial regulations, and has been granted hiring and land-expropriating powers, according to The Guardian.

"There are already doubts about Wang's ability to finance the project, and some speculate that it will never actually be completed, leaving perhaps at best some ports and container facilities but no canal in between."

Nicaragua

shipping

Panama

China

Anyone who has pulled up to a gas station this winter knows oil prices have fallen — down roughly 50 percent since June.

But it's not just oil. Prices for many commodities — grains, metals and other bulk products — have been plunging too.

Here are a few of the changes since many prices peaked in recent years:

- Copper is $2.59 a pound, down from $4.50 in 2011.

- Corn costs $3.85 a bushel, compared with about $8 at its 2012 peak.

- Iron ore pellets go for about $104 a metric ton, down from nearly $220 four years ago.

The list could go on and on. Soybeans, tin, sugar, wheat, cotton — all are much cheaper than a few years ago. The changes have been putting a squeeze on farmers and miners, but so far at least, most of these commodity plunges haven't done much to help U.S. shoppers.

With the exception of gasoline, "the price changes are not being immediately passed through to consumers," said Sean Snaith, an economic forecasting professor at the University of Central Florida.

Snaith said U.S. companies know global commodity prices can be very volatile, so they are afraid to cut consumer prices — at least not until they are sure that cheaper raw material prices are here to stay.

"There's an old saying: Prices go up like an arrow and come down like a feather," he said.

Economy

Oil Price Dip, Global Slowdown Create Crosscurrents For U.S.

The Salt

Cheap Crops Mean Tight Times For Midwest's Fledgling Farmers

The Salt

No 'Misteak': High Beef Prices A Boon For Drought-Weary Ranchers

But eventually, even a feather does float down. So some economists believe that later this year, retail prices for groceries and goods may start to decline.

Let's look at what's been happening with crops, like corn and wheat, and consider where we might be going this year:

Over the past decade, many people around the world, especially in China, kept getting richer and buying more food. That encouraged farmers everywhere to plant more seeds.

Global food output rose, but so did prices as demand continued to shoot up. By 2011, many people around the world were experiencing food shortages and steep price increases.

But the market adjusted and production improved. A recent report by the USDA said world wheat and soybean production are at record highs. The huge harvests are helping push down prices.

And it's not just grains. In Florida, the mild hurricane season helped send orange juice futures down to about $1.35 a pound, compared with their 2012 high of more than $2.

Looking ahead to this year's growing season, harvests may again be huge. That's because cheap energy is making it easier to plant more. Farmers who are paying a dollar-a-gallon less since a year ago for diesel fuel can run their tractors longer.

If the weather is good this summer, corn silos will be bulging by fall. That means ranchers and farmers will have cheaper corn to feed livestock, helping restrain meat and poultry prices.

At the same time, the global economy is running at a sluggish pace, so demand for food is not growing the way it had been a decade ago.

Also, the value of the dollar is now at a 10-year high. That means Americans will be able to purchase foreign foods, like cheeses and fruit, for less. Also, foreign customers won't be able to buy as much from U.S. farmers, allowing more U.S.-grown food to remain at home with U.S. consumers.

So put all of these factors together: the potential for huge harvests; cheaper food imports; and reduced foreign competition for food and cheaper energy costs for farmers. That sounds like a great formula for bargains at the grocery store later this year.

And a price downdraft may hit manufactured goods too. That's because raw materials — tin, nickel, lead and so on — keep getting cheaper too. U.S. coal prices have tumbled back nearly to the lows set in early 2009 during the worst of the Great Recession.

Economists say these across-the-board price drops in industrial commodities largely reflect the dramatic economic slowdown in China, Europe and other regions. When they are growing more slowly, then they don't need as many raw materials.

"The risk of deflationary pressure is much higher than the inflationary pressure or stable price scenarios for the global economy in the near term," Wells Fargo Securities' economic team wrote in a special report on deflation.

But any American who has been out shopping lately may be thinking: huh? What price breaks? New cars cost more. Meat prices have remained stubbornly high. Eggs are expensive. When exactly will these lower commodity prices translate into relief for U.S. consumers?

"It depends," Snaith said. "If these factors persist through 2015, we would expect to see these price declines make their way to consumers. But it's a waiting game."

food prices

Anyone who has pulled up to a gas station this winter knows oil prices have fallen — down roughly 50 percent since June.

But it's not just oil. Prices for many commodities — grains, metals and other bulk products — have been plunging too.

Here are a few of the changes since many prices peaked in recent years:

- Copper is $2.59 a pound, down from $4.50 in 2011.

- Corn costs $3.85 a bushel, compared with about $8 at its 2012 peak.

- Iron ore pellets go for about $104 a metric ton, down from nearly $220 four years ago.

The list could go on and on. Soybeans, tin, sugar, wheat, cotton — all are much cheaper than a few years ago. The changes have been putting a squeeze on farmers and miners, but so far at least, most of these commodity plunges haven't done much to help U.S. shoppers.

With the exception of gasoline, "the price changes are not being immediately passed through to consumers," said Sean Snaith, an economic forecasting professor at the University of Central Florida.

Snaith said U.S. companies know global commodity prices can be very volatile, so they are afraid to cut consumer prices — at least not until they are sure that cheaper raw material prices are here to stay.

"There's an old saying: Prices go up like an arrow and come down like a feather," he said.

Economy

Oil Price Dip, Global Slowdown Create Crosscurrents For U.S.

The Salt

Cheap Crops Mean Tight Times For Midwest's Fledgling Farmers

The Salt

No 'Misteak': High Beef Prices A Boon For Drought-Weary Ranchers

But eventually, even a feather does float down. So some economists believe that later this year, retail prices for groceries and goods may start to decline.

Let's look at what's been happening with crops, like corn and wheat, and consider where we might be going this year:

Over the past decade, many people around the world, especially in China, kept getting richer and buying more food. That encouraged farmers everywhere to plant more seeds.

Global food output rose, but so did prices as demand continued to shoot up. By 2011, many people around the world were experiencing food shortages and steep price increases.

But the market adjusted and production improved. A recent report by the USDA said world wheat and soybean production are at record highs. The huge harvests are helping push down prices.

And it's not just grains. In Florida, the mild hurricane season helped send orange juice futures down to about $1.35 a pound, compared with their 2012 high of more than $2.

Looking ahead to this year's growing season, harvests may again be huge. That's because cheap energy is making it easier to plant more. Farmers who are paying a dollar-a-gallon less since a year ago for diesel fuel can run their tractors longer.

If the weather is good this summer, corn silos will be bulging by fall. That means ranchers and farmers will have cheaper corn to feed livestock, helping restrain meat and poultry prices.

At the same time, the global economy is running at a sluggish pace, so demand for food is not growing the way it had been a decade ago.

Also, the value of the dollar is now at a 10-year high. That means Americans will be able to purchase foreign foods, like cheeses and fruit, for less. Also, foreign customers won't be able to buy as much from U.S. farmers, allowing more U.S.-grown food to remain at home with U.S. consumers.

So put all of these factors together: the potential for huge harvests; cheaper food imports; and reduced foreign competition for food and cheaper energy costs for farmers. That sounds like a great formula for bargains at the grocery store later this year.

And a price downdraft may hit manufactured goods too. That's because raw materials — tin, nickel, lead and so on — keep getting cheaper too. U.S. coal prices have tumbled back nearly to the lows set in early 2009 during the worst of the Great Recession.

Economists say these across-the-board price drops in industrial commodities largely reflect the dramatic economic slowdown in China, Europe and other regions. When they are growing more slowly, then they don't need as many raw materials.

"The risk of deflationary pressure is much higher than the inflationary pressure or stable price scenarios for the global economy in the near term," Wells Fargo Securities' economic team wrote in a special report on deflation.

But any American who has been out shopping lately may be thinking: huh? What price breaks? New cars cost more. Meat prices have remained stubbornly high. Eggs are expensive. When exactly will these lower commodity prices translate into relief for U.S. consumers?

"It depends," Snaith said. "If these factors persist through 2015, we would expect to see these price declines make their way to consumers. But it's a waiting game."

food prices

Days after some 300 would-be migrants from North African drowned in the Mediterranean as they were trying to reach Italy, the United Nations is calling on the European Union to establish a broader search-and-rescue effort to avoid future tragedies.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres reiterated a call on for the EU to expand its current operation, known as Triton, to locate and rescue would-be illegal migrants from Africa.

"There can be no doubt left after this week's events that Europe's Operation Triton is a woefully inadequate replacement for Italy's Mare Nostrum," Guterres said in a statement. Unless something is done, Guterres said, "it is inevitable that many more people will die trying to reach safety in Europe."

The Associated Press notes: "The Italian operation was abandoned after criticism that its aggressive search-and-rescue patrols encouraged migrants. Triton is more focused on protecting borders."

UNHCR says in a statement: "Crossings of the Mediterranean by migrants are age old, but 2014 saw a dramatic rise in the numbers of refugees undertaking this dangerous journey – spurred by conflicts in Syria, the Horn of Africa and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In all at least 218,000 people crossed the Mediterranean, and 3500 lives were lost. "

Italy's operation, launched following a similar tragedy in Oct. 2013 in which 366 people drowned, was credited with rescuing more than 150,000 people fleeing the African coast, but was terminated a year later when Triton was established.

Libya

United Nations

Syria

Italy

Africa

Hundreds of U.S. troops, sent to help fight Ebola in West Africa, are now coming home. That's the news from the White House today.

Did they make a difference?

Goats and Soda

Can The U.S. Military Turn The Tide In The Ebola Outbreak?

Not in the way you'd think. The grand plans to build 17 new field hospitals in Liberia and train thousands of health care workers, announced in September, didn't quite come off. Several of the hospitals weren't needed and were never built. Others opened after the epidemic had peaked and were practically empty. Only a fraction of the promised health workers were trained.

But even though the hospital-building strategy wasn't the most productive, the U.S. did have a significant impact.

Tom Kirsch, who runs the Center for Refugee and Disaster Response at John's Hopkins University, says the deployment of U.S. troops sent a strong message internationally — and it was about more than just building or not building new Ebola hospitals.

At the time the U.S. went in, he explains, "most of the ports along West African coast were blocking transport in to Liberia, the airlines had begun to pull out. And only one or two carriers were still left. So the logistical capacities that the U.S. military brought I think were probably the most important part of their response."

In other words, the military got things where they needed to go. The U.S. Air Force, for example, set up an air supply line from Senegal to ferry supplies in.

That's not all the U.S. accomplished. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention helped create systems to track cases. The U.S sent in mobile laboratories to test blood sample of suspected Ebola patients. This cut the time it took to diagnose — or rule out — an Ebola infection from days to just a few hours.

Over the last year the U.S. spent nearly a billion dollars fighting Ebola in West Africa. And only about a third of that went to the military part of the response. The $939 million the U.S. has spent on the outbreak is far more than the other leading donors — the U.K., Germany, the World Bank and the European Commission — combined.

Just because most of the troops are coming home doesn't mean the battle is over. President Obama says there is still a lot to be done to completely stop the spread of the deadly virus — and it's not charity work.

"In the 21st century, we cannot build moats around our countries," Obeama said today. "There are no draw bridges to be pulled up. We shouldn't try. "

And he vowed that the U.S. civilian response to the Ebola outbreak will continue until there are "zero" cases in West Africa.

ebola

Liberia

Not-quite-yet presidential candidate Jeb Bush posted the first chapter of an e-book about his two terms as Florida governor online Monday, along with six massive files containing a quarter-million of his emails.

This was something Bush said he would do back when he announced he was "actively exploring the possibility" of running for president. (He's since explained the phrase is legalese he is using for now; the lack of an actual candidacy allows him to raise unlimited donations for a super PAC supporting him — something that will be impossible once he is a candidate.)

In his introduction, Bush explains that he made a point of making sure average Floridians had access to him via email, and he estimates he spent an average of 30 hours per week reading and responding to it. At least some Floridians had trouble believing he was actually doing this.

One woman wrote to complain about tractor trailers on Interstate 75, but then added: "By the way, are you really Jeb or a staff member? Just curious."

Bush responded: "I am jeb." And then referred her to the Department of Transportation.

Here are five things we learned from the chapter — and the emailing habits of the man who refers to himself as Florida's "eGovernor:"

1) Bush loved his job.

The two-term GOP governor starts out his ebook saying so:

"I loved being the governor of Florida," he wrote. "It was my dream job, and that feeling never changed, not in eight years. Not through the hurricanes, budget debates, or even hanging chads."

Read even a few pages of his correspondence, and the time and attention he paid to any number of issues, big and small, quickly become clear. A Jan. 15, 1999, email at 8:36 pm to chief of staff Sally Bradshaw, for instance, sets out an agenda for a coming staff meeting:

Pharmacy formulary

Tobacco endowment rollout

Dev. Disability rollout

Mentor initiative"

In layman's terms: Medicaid prescription drug purchasing; the creation of an endowment fund with money collected from the state's successful lawsuit against the tobacco industry; a revamping of state services for children with developmental disabilities a new program to mentor at-risk children.

All but the last were highly technical in nature, and Bush was right at home down in the policy weeds.

2) No, it's not his White House agenda.

Those hoping for an outline of what he might do were he elected president will be disappointed. Bush's e-book is less a narrative than a series of brief explanations of a topic followed by emails about that topic. The chapter released Tuesday covers his first month in office. The rest of the book will be released by the end of this year.

3) Some transparency about Bush's transparency

Although Bush cites the "spirit of transparency" as the reason to release all these emails, there is also the fact that he had no choice. Florida has one of the most comprehensive public records laws in the country, and emails by a public official pertaining to public business are (with some specific exceptions, such as the privacy of children) open to public inspection.

The emails Bush posted today were public from the instant they were sent or received. Many reporters requested and received them (with varying degrees of bureaucratic and cost hurdles) in real time, and several news organizations, including NPR, requested and received the entire set from the Florida State Archives. In other words, Bush's use of them for his own book can be seen as taking a potential liability and turning it into an asset – making political lemonade from the lemons Florida law saddled him with.

4) A limited level of candor

Those looking for complete candor about the functioning of Bush's governor's office will also be disappointed. Within a month of officially taking office, Bush and his staff were keenly aware their correspondence was serving as news coverage fodder. When his staff began debating later that year whether the amount of vacation time they were getting was appropriate, Bush advised they take their discussion offline. "I suggest that you guys have a verbal conversation about it rather than create a public document." He did, however, finish the thought with a smiley face.

5) The governor's competitive streak

Despite knowing that everything he was typing would someday become public, Bush sometimes hit the send button even when perhaps he shouldn't have. In a May 2002 email, he reveals both the competitive streak and flash of temper that were well known inside the Capitol building. A Democratic voter sent him an email with the subject line "Shame, shame, shame..." to criticize his education plan and vowed to boot him from office come November. Bush responded by defending his record and then finished: "Give it your best shot," and "Have a wonderful day."

Bush won his re-election easily.

2016 Republican presidential nomination

Jeb Bush

David Axelrod recalls the first time he met Barack Obama in 1992 when they had lunch: "I was really impressed by him," he says.

The veteran political consultant was struck that the president, who had been the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review and was highly sought after by big law firms, instead decided to put together a voter registration drive and practice civil rights law at a little firm in Chicago.

The world of candidates, Axelrod tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies, divides into two candidates: "People who run for office because they want to be something, which is the more numerous category, and people who run for office because they want to do something," he says. "That is the smaller and more admirable group that I love to work with and for. It was clear he was going to be that kind of a person."

i

Chief campaign strategist David Axelrod (left) and communications director Robert Gibbs talk to members of the traveling press corps during a flight leading up to the Pennsylvania primary in 2008. Scout Tufankjian/Polaris hide caption

itoggle caption Scout Tufankjian/Polaris

Chief campaign strategist David Axelrod (left) and communications director Robert Gibbs talk to members of the traveling press corps during a flight leading up to the Pennsylvania primary in 2008.

Scout Tufankjian/Polaris

Axelrod ended up crafting the media strategy for Obama's two presidential campaigns and spent two years in the White House as a senior adviser to the president. He gives stories and insights about his years with Obama in his new memoir Believer: My Forty Years in Politics offers plenty of stories and insights from his years with Obama.

Specifically, Axelrod recalls the moment in the 2008 campaign when he interrupted Obama and running-mate Joe Biden on a flight to tell them Sarah Palin was the Republican vice presidential nominee, which prompted Biden to say, "Who's Sarah Palin?"

Axelrod's book also recounts his early years as a political reporter and his work with other candidates, including presidential contender John Edwards (not a good experience) and plenty of rogues and colorful characters from his home base in Chicago, among them Harold Washington, the city's first black mayor, and Rod Blagojevich, who eventually became governor and went to jail in part for trying to sell Obama's former U.S. Senate seat.

Axelrod is now director of the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, which he says he founded to inspire young Americans to consider participating in American politics.

Believer

My Forty Years in Politics

by David Axelrod

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Interview Highlights

On the transition from being a journalist to a political adviser

The first time I was at a rally with [Paul] Simon after I made the switch and realized that I could applaud, it was kind of a shock to my system because I was so used to maintaining at least the veneer of objectivity. I think every reporter has views, but you try to be as objective as you can.

On whether he believed in every candidate he represented

I always went through a process of trying to sell myself before I tried to sell anybody else, and I would get emotionally wrapped up in my campaigns and sometimes on behalf of candidates who weren't worthy of that.

On President Obama's first debate with Mitt Romney in 2012 for his re-election

We were always worried about the first debate because it historically is a killing field for presidents. Presidents aren't used to debating. Their opponents have generally been debating in primaries; presidents aren't used to being challenged by someone standing four feet away from them, being treated as a peer.

So presidents generally do badly in the first debate and we tried mightily to avoid that. But the prep sessions didn't go very well. There were a lot of testy exchanges with John Kerry who was playing Mitt Romney. We actually cautioned the president against engaging too much, which may have been a mistake, because we were worried about the testiness of those exchanges.

It drives my wife crazy. She hates the caricature of the rumpled, sloppy, food-stained political warrior — but that's the cartoon and I've come to live with it. Maybe I've come to represent it, I don't know.

- David Axelrod

We had a last prep session before the first debate in Denver, which we all thought was pretty appalling. ... I had the dubious honor of going in and talking to him for the group after the session and he said, "Well, I think that went pretty well." And I said, "Well, actually there are some things we need to work on yet." He didn't receive that news well and used a word that he has never used before or since and that I won't use here, but made clear how he felt about me at that moment, and he bolted out of the room and I didn't see him until the next morning.

I was kind of stunned by it because we'd known each other for so long, but I also knew that he really wasn't directing it at me so much as at his own frustration, because he knew we weren't where we needed to be. I think every single one of us, including the president, knew we weren't headed into Denver in good shape — and that, of course, turned out to be true.

On following the many different media platforms

Yes, you follow Twitter and you're aware that any little event somewhere could hijack a day's news, sometimes a week's news, or several weeks' news. It makes [for] a really, really difficult environment. It also means that if you're president — we used to talk about the "bully pulpit" — but you have to assemble your bully pulpit each time you want to communicate something because Americans aren't watching the same thing or aren't getting their news from the same place as they once did. So you have to speak through many different platforms.

i

As Obama steps up his campaigning during his first presidential bid, his chief campaign strategist David Axelrod talks with a reporter in Malvern, Pa. Scout Tufankjian/Polaris hide caption

itoggle caption Scout Tufankjian/Polaris

As Obama steps up his campaigning during his first presidential bid, his chief campaign strategist David Axelrod talks with a reporter in Malvern, Pa.

Scout Tufankjian/Polaris

I mean, who would've thought that the president of the United States would be on a show called Between Two Ferns to promote his health care plan? But the fact is he hit 10 million people with that appearance — many of whom were the target for younger people who we needed to sign up for that health care plan. So it's a far more complex and challenging environment than past presidents and past generations have faced.

On how Axelrod restrained himself while on Meet the Press and other shows

It was hard, but you know, when you're speaking for the president of the United States, you know that one misstatement can send armies marching and markets tumbling — and that is a very sobering realization.

So yes, I felt constrained when I was on those programs to color within the lines and not to be too venturesome because I knew some off-handed remark could have real consequences. ... It was a discipline that was hard for me because I'm a congenital smart aleck and I love tossing off good lines — and this was decidedly not the place to do it.

On what he's been called in the media, including Axelfraud, Streetfighter, Message Maven, Political Protector, Marxist Mentor and Lefty Lumberjack

The "Axelfraud" thing sticks in my mind because those guys were shouting it at me when I was on the steps of the capitol in Massachusetts. I hadn't heard Lefty Lumberjack, it seems like an oxymoron to me. But I'm surprised though that on your list there aren't [other descriptive words]. "Rumpled" almost always comes up and "stained" is another one because generally you can find remnants of my last meal somewhere on me. The president loves that. He's always inspecting me so he can ask me what it was that I had that he's looking at. So those are the ones that are most prominent in my mind. It drives my wife crazy. She hates the caricature of the rumpled, sloppy, food-stained political warrior — but that's the cartoon and I've come to live with it. Maybe I've come to represent it, I don't know.

On leaving politics to direct the Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago

I really am happy to be where I am today and I think my family is happy that I am where I am today. I asked them to make so many sacrifices — and I want to spend the rest of my life trying to inspire these kids and spend time with my family.

If people call me and ask me for advice, of course I'll give it to them, but I'm not going to get on that carousel again. I had such a singularly great experience with Obama. I had a relationship with him that I'll never have with anyone else, and I'd rather go out on top and move on.

The Los Angeles City Council is currently considering whether to raise the minimum wage to $15.25 an hour by 2019. It would follow Seattle and San Francisco, two cities that approved $15 minimum wages in the past year.

The spread of a higher minimum wage is a huge victory for the labor unions backing these measures — but it is unlikely most of the people getting raises will ever be part of organized labor.

The idea of a $15 minimum wage first came to the public's attention in a series of fast-food strikes starting in 2012. Those fry cooks and cashiers didn't just walk off the job by themselves — they were part of a multimillion-dollar effort orchestrated by unions.

But none of those restaurants have unionized, and they probably never will, says David Rolf, a vice president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

"Since at least the early 1980s, winning unions for the first time in the private sector has been a herculean task," Rolf says. "The political process provides an alternative vehicle."

Rusty Hicks is the new head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which represents over 300 unions. While some union leaders say organizing is dead, he says unions must focus on it. Ben Bergman/Southern California Public Radio/ KPCC hide caption

itoggle caption Ben Bergman/Southern California Public Radio/ KPCC

It was voters who approved San Francisco's $15 minimum wage in November and in SeaTac, Wash., a year earlier, after a campaign led by Rolf.

"We can't be the movement that's just about us," Rolf says. "The labor movement that workers flocked to by the tens of millions in the 1930s wasn't known for negotiating 500-page contracts. They were known for fighting for the eight-hour day, fighting to end child labor."

Rolf is controversial among labor leaders because he's not shy about saying collective bargaining as we know it is dead.

"Any model that shrinks for 50 years in a row in all 50 states is probably not part of the future," he says.

In the mid-20th century, about 1 in 3 American workers belonged to a union. Last year, only about 1 in 10 did, which is the lowest number in nearly a century.

Even so, Rusty Hicks, the new head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, says unions should focus on organizing.

"There is a big debate going on within the broader labor movement about, how do you adapt to a global economy of the 21st century?" Hicks says. "I believe that collective bargaining is not dead."

And Hicks says that while unions may be on their way out in the rest of the country, they're not in LA, where 16 percent of the area's workers are unionized. That number has held steady for more than a decade, which counts as a victory these days.

"LA is on the cutting edge of organizing in this country, from the port drivers, to hotel workers and everything in between," Hicks says.

But it might not be in unions' best interest to be leading the $15 fight, says Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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Planet Money

A Mall With Two Minimum Wages

"In effect, what you have now is the SEIU — its hospital membership ... or its membership working for the department of motor vehicles — [saying that] their dues money is helping to raise the wages of fast food workers, and not their own wages," he says.

This is because most unionized workers earn far more than the minimum wage. According to a report by UCLA's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, union workers in LA earn an average of more than $27 an hour.

Still, Lichtenstein says, having a higher floor could be beneficial in future contract negotiations.

"If you can raise the wages in those sectors which have been pulling down the general wage level — i.e. fast food or retail, for that matter — then it makes it easier for unions to create a higher standard and [to] then go on and try to get more stuff," he says.

It's also rare now for workers to stay in the same job for their whole career, so people are likely to drift in and out of unions.

For this reason, Robert Matsuda, a studio violinist represented by the American Federation of Musicians, is all for a $15 per hour wage.

"I might have to take a minimum-wage job in the near future, so it might directly affect me," he says.

Even though Matsuda works for well above the minimum wage now, he worries that may not last. He's getting fewer gigs as more film and TV scoring work gets outsourced overseas.

Wages

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Los Angeles

minimum wage

Taking advantage of new rules issued by the Obama administration, Netflix says it has expanded its service to Cuba.

In a press release, the company said any Cuban with an Internet connection and access to international payment methods would have access to a "curated" selection of movies and TV shows for $7.99 a month.

"We are delighted to finally be able to offer Netflix to the people of Cuba, connecting them with stories they will love from all over the world," Netflix co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings said in a statement. "Cuba has great filmmakers and a robust arts culture and one day we hope to be able to bring their work to our global audience of over 57 million members."

Of course, there are huge hurdles: According to Freedom House, a nonprofit that advocates for the expansion of freedom, only 15 percent of Cubans had access to the Internet in 2012. Not only that, but a Google study found that the Internet in Cuba is the slowest in the Western Hemisphere.

Then there's the price. As Bloomberg notes, "Cubans earn a monthly salary that averages about $20."

Netflix spokeswoman Victoria Ferreira said Cubans who sign up for the service will have access to content that has been made available to other parts of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.

She said that the Netflix content in Cuba will depend on the company's licensing deals.

"We are not working with the Cuban government on content," she said, adding that "any questions on censorship are speculative and we can't answer them."

All of this comes as the two countries announced plans for a rapprochement. Netflix has become the first major American company to expand its operations to the island since the U.S. loosened some of its restrictions.

Cuba

Netflix

Continued job growth has boosted prospects for the U.S. economy, but it continues to face some tricky crosswinds. The big drop in oil prices and a stronger dollar both help the economy and hurt it. Add to that the recent slowdown in global growth.

Lots of economists have suggested the big drop in oil prices is a gift to consumers that will propel the economy. David Kotok of Cumberland Advisors is one of them. He argues cheaper oil will ultimately be a positive.

"The U.S. comes out a big winner on a falling energy price but it takes time to filter through and into the full economy," Kotok says.

And it starts out as a negative shock to the oil sector. Kotok says cuts in production and energy company payrolls will cost the U.S. economy up to $150 billion. That's made investors nervous. As oil prices fell sharply in January they sent stock markets gyrating.

But as lower energy prices filter through the economy, Kotok says, the positive effects, worth $400 billion, will overwhelm the negative.

Economist Liz Ann Sonders, the chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, agrees.

"The U.S. economy is 68 percent consumer spending, so right there you know that falling oil prices is a benefit," she says.

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That puts money in consumers' pockets. And low energy prices also benefit many businesses, whose hiring will more than offset the losses in the energy sector. But, Sonders says, the oil and gas layoffs are making headlines.

"The crash in oil prices happened fast and furiously and now we're getting those series of layoffs and rig counts are dropping," Sonders says. "And now people are concerned: Is this going to carry further into the economy, how much of this is a function of weak global growth?"

And, there's good reason to be concerned, says Jeffrey Snider, head of global investment research at Alhambra Partners.

"Whenever you see oil prices collapse, especially by something like 60 percent, something else is going on. And so therefore any benefit that might come to consumers in the form of lower energy prices is being overwhelmed by whatever it is that's causing oil to fall in the first place," Snider says.

And falling oil prices are a clear sign of a dangerously weak global economy, he says.

"You have economies from Europe, Japan, China that are either in or very close to recession or some form of growth that is significantly degraded," Snider says.

And, he says, recent data suggest U.S. consumers are saving most of their windfall from lower energy prices, not spending it to fuel growth.

"And that's an indication of very cautious behavior," he says.

That caution suggests underlying problems in the U.S. economy, including slow wage growth, he says.

Snider says another crosswind is chilling profits for American exporters and multinationals — the strong dollar.

Sonders agrees that earnings at multinationals are being hit, but she argues a strong dollar signals confidence in the U.S. economy that is historically associated with strong growth.

"We're not an export-oriented economy. Most other countries that want to try to lower the value of their currency [do it] because a bigger part of their economy is export-oriented, so they want that weaker currency to boost exports."

In the U.S., exports account for just 13 percent of economic activity.

Sonders says the U.S. is likely to weather the crosswinds in the global economy and experience solid growth in 2015. Kotok goes even further. He says the U.S. will show gradual improvement for the rest of the decade.

"We're gonna do it with a stronger currency, little inflation and low interest rates. It's a pretty picture for the United States." Kotok says.

The strong jobs figures reported on Friday — with more than a million jobs created in the past three months — bolster that optimistic view.

oil prices

The documents were downloaded by a former computer security expert at the giant bank HSBC. And they were released over the weekend by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

The documents contain records of some 30,000 accounts kept at HSBC's Swiss subsidiary between 2005 and 2007. The accounts contained almost $120 billion and were tied to politicians, royalty, designers and sports figures in every part of the world. They were also tied to corrupt businessmen, dictators, arms industry officials and high-end criminals.

The records show bank employees actively helping customers conceal the accounts from authorities. The bank also provided bundles of cash in various currencies to customers so they couldn't be traced.

The cache of data was illegally downloaded by bank employee Herve Falciani, who later fled to France. Falciani told CBS's 60 Minutes Sunday night that he had help taking the data from other people at the bank.

"Friends, let's say, partners, gave me these data," Falciani says. "I'm not the only person in banking system that wants to raise alarm."

The documents release comes at a time when the secretive Swiss banking industry has been under investigation by the United States and other countries for helping its wealthy clients conceal their assets.

HSBC, which is one of the biggest banks in the world, was fined $1.9 billion by the U.S. government for money laundering in late 2012.

HSBC acknowledged after the documents were made public that its Swiss subsidiary committed wrongdoing. But the bank says it has since reformed its operations and now complies with international banking standards.

A riot outside of a major soccer match broke out in Egypt Sunday night. Authorities said the stampede and fighting between fans and police killed at least 25 people.

The riot comes just three years after similar violence left more than 70 people dead in 2012.

The stampede occurred before a match between Egyptian Premier League clubs Zamalek and ENPPI at Air Defense Stadium east of Cairo.

The Associated Press reports that Egypt's public prosecutor ordered an investigation, but that the initial cause wasn't immediately clear.

Security officials said Zamalek fans tried to force their way into the match without tickets, sparking clashes. Fans have only recently been allowed back at matches and the Interior Ministry planned to let only 10,000 fans into the stadium, which has a capacity of about 30,000, the officials said.

Zamalek fans, known as "White Knights," posted on their group's official Facebook page that the violence began because authorities only opened one narrow, barbed-wire door to let them in. They said that sparked pushing and shoving that later saw police officers fire tear gas and birdshot.

A fan who tried to attend the game told the AP that the stampede was caused by police who fired tear gas at the packed crowd.

The violence comes during a time of continuing unrest in Egypt amid bombings and attacks by Islamic militants. The police have also been under heavy scrutiny following the shooting death of a female protester in Cairo and the arrest of protesters under a law restricting demonstrations.

Egypt

Beyonce, Sam Smith, and Pharrell Williams top the 57th Grammy Awards with six nominations each. But the telecast spends very little airtime on the awards, showcasing only a handful of the 83 categories. The ceremony is typically jam-packed with performances, and this year is no different. A number of artists are scheduled to perform, including Rihanna with Paul McCartney and Kanye West, Sam Smith with Mary J. Blige, and Tony Bennett with Lady Gaga.

It's become an annual tradition here at Monkey See for our own Linda Holmes and NPR Music's Stephen Thompson to live blog the ceremony. They'll be here at 7:45pm EST, warming up for the 8pm show.

We'll update this page periodically highlighting the some of night's big winners. You can find a complete list of nominees here.

Future beauty pageant contestants might want to be careful with all that loose talk about "world peace," unless they're willing to put up: after Miss Universe Paulina Vega expressed a desire to help end her native Colombia's 50-year civil war, she received an invitation from FARC rebels to join truce talks.

Vega, 22, a business student and model from Colombia's coastal city of Barranquilla, was crowned last month. Since then, she's said in interviews that she would be willing to travel to the negotiations in Havana, according to Reuters.

On Friday, the peace delegation of the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia posted this online:

"We have read with interest about your desire to contribute with your good offices to peace and reconciliation of the Colombian people," FARC's delegation to the talks wrote.

"We welcome your willingness to travel to Havana and we invite you," the statement said. "Be assured that we are willing to address your concerns and consider your views a valuable contribution to peace; we are waiting for your confirmation and your contribution."

The invitation didn't say how Vega might be expected to advance the peace efforts. She did not immediately responded to the offer.

Reuters adds: "Representatives at the talks have so far reached agreement on three of five agenda points, including land reform, an end to the illegal drugs trade and political participation for ex-guerrillas."

Miss Universe

FARC

Colombia

Egypt says that it will retry two journalists working for Al-Jazeera English who have been jailed for more than a year on charges of "giving a platform" to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The announcement of the new trial, set to begin on Feb. 12, comes days after the journalists' colleague, Australian Peter Greste, was suddenly released and deported.

Following Greste's release on Feb. 1, Mohamed Fahmy, a dual citizen of Canada and Egypt, and Baher Mohamed remained in detention. The trio were arrested in December 2013 and convicted in June.

The three had been charged with "spreading false news," and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood of former Prime Minister Mohammed Morsi. Greste and Fahmy were sentenced to seven years and Mohamed was given an additional three years on weapons charges.

Outside of Egypt, the convictions were widely viewed as a sham.

The Associated Press reports that:

"Canada's now-former Foreign Minister John Baird said earlier this month, just prior to his recent resignation, that ... Fahmy could be imminently released after renouncing his Egyptian nationality."

"It was not immediately clear how the retrial would affect that process."

Peter Greste

Al-Jazeera English

Egypt

Hoping to salvage something of a widely ignored truce in eastern Ukraine that was forged just months ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders are set for another summit in Minsk this week.

If all goes to plan, Merkel will join Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and French President Francois Hollande in the capital of Belarus on Wednesday.

In a flurry of activity in recent days that has surrounded a security conference held in Munich, Merkel and Hollande have led an effort to resuscitate the peace deal and forestall a possible U.S. move to provide arms to Kiev to fight Russian-backed separatists.

The Associated Press says: "The plan for a meeting Wednesday in the Belarusian capital emerged from a phone call between ... [Merkel, Hollande, Putin and Poroshenko]. Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, described the call as 'intensive.'"

Seibert said the four parties had discussed "a package of measures" aimed at reaching "a comprehensive settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine," the BBC says.

The AP adds: "The aim is to draw up a package of measures that breathes new life into a much-violated September peace plan. Seibert and the French government said preparations for the summit will take place Monday in Berlin, without elaborating."

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by Reuters as saying "important decisions" would be taken at the summit. Poroshenko said in a statement that the meeting will lead to a "swift and unconditional cease-fire," according to Reuters.

Lavrov's professed optimism, however, was dampened by Agence-France Presse reports that Putin might be hedging. AFP quotes the Russian leader as saying the summit would only take place if the leaders agreed on a "number of points" before Wednesday.

"We will be aiming for Wednesday, if by that time we manage to agree on a number of points which we've been intensely discussing lately," Putin told Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, according to the French news agency.

Despite reports to the contrary, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry denied that there was a rift developing between the U.S. and Europe on how to settle the Ukraine conflict. Washington is said to be considering arms shipments to Kiev, something Merkel, in particular, has strongly opposed.

"There is no division, there is no split," Kerry said, according to the AP. "I keep hearing people trying to create one. We are united, we are working closely together."

Meanwhile, Britain, which has remained largely on the sidelines in the peace negotiations, accused Putin of acting like a "tyrant" over Ukraine.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond also rejected the suggestion that the U.K. had become irrelevant to the talks. Speaking with Sky News, referring to Moscow's backing of the rebels, he acknowledged that "Ukrainians can't beat the Russian army."

"This man (Putin) has sent troops across an international border and occupied another country's territory in the 21st century acting like some mid-20th century tyrant. Civilized nations do not behave like that," Hammond told Sky, according to Reuters.

crisis in Ukraine

Secretary of State John Kerry

Germany

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