Most Recent Posts

Laura Lane met Paquita Williams, a New York City subway conductor, when their train was stopped underground for two hours. Generally, Paquita says, most passengers are nice, but "there's times if the train breaks down, people think that's my fault."

With the power out, Paquita walked the length of the train, comforting nervous passengers. That made a real impression on Laura. "You really made everybody on that train connect," Laura says. "We all started talking with each other like human beings. And we left the train and somebody was like, 'Let's do this again tomorrow morning.' "

Putting people at ease is important to Paquita, a single foster mom who's worked for the New York transit system for 15 years. On a dental visit years ago, she recalls, she was afraid and asked the dentist to hold her hand for comfort. He refused, and the memory has always stuck with her. "That's why I do what I do with my passengers," she says. "I want you to know that if you need me to hold your hand, I'm there."

Audio produced for Morning Edition by Jasmyn Belcher

For the last week or so, France has been deep in debate, wondering if there's a resurgence of an old, colonial racism, or if people have just become more tolerant of bigots.

The questions stem from a series of race-based taunts against Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, who is black. Many of the statements seem to stem from Taubira's championing of the country's gay marriage legalization, which was signed into law in May.

But things took a nasty turn about a month ago: A politician from the far right National Front party posted a photo of Taubira next to a monkey on a Facebook page.

Then a group gathered to protest the gay marriage law was caught yelling, "Monkey, go eat your banana!" The video circulated widely on YouTube.

"The issue is not about the small minority of people who are deeply racist in France," says Louis Georges Tin, head of an umbrella group of French black associations. "The issue is about the majority. Is the majority indifferent to this situation? Or is the majority against racism?"

Some blame the racist outbreak on a resurgence of the far right. Others say years of hostile, anti-immigrant talk from former President Nicolas Sarkozy has made people numb to it all.

A recent survey showed the number of French who consider themselves not at all racist (44 percent) is lower than ever. Many say it's the government's fault for not defending Taubira more forcefully.

"When you see kids waving bananas and such racist acts multiplying, it's unbelievable," says Harlem Desir, general secretary of the ruling Socialist party, speaking in French. "I haven't seen anything like this in 30 years. This is not France. We have to stand up to racism like this."

Enlarge image i

At a few U.S. airports, travelers have a new option besides paying for long-term parking or finding a ride. A service named FlightCar allows them to leave their car in the company's lot — and rent it out while they're away.

In exchange, the travelers get a ride to their terminal and, after their return, a check for the use of their vehicle. FlightCar just opened its third location, at Los Angeles International Airport, Wednesday.

The company was founded by two teenagers, Kevin Petrovic, 19, and Rujul Zaparde, 18, who tell member station KPCC that they're delaying college to give their new business a chance.

"At any moment there's something like 360,000 cars in long-term parking lots in the top 30 U.S. airports," Zaparde tells KPCC's Ben Bergman. "That's very inefficient."

The pair say they got the idea of letting other people use those cars from Airbnb, which allows private individuals to rent rooms or entire homes over the Internet.

"Among the investors are Airbnb's founders, along with Ryan Seacrest and Ashton Kutcher," as Ben reports.

FlightCar says it pays an average of $30 for a five-day rental. But that rate can go higher. A luxury car that's only a few years old can earn 20 cents a mile for its owner. Mileage is limited to 75 miles a day. If it's not rented, the car's owner has still avoided paying for parking.

After dropping off a vehicle, travelers are taken to their terminal in a black town car. As for insurance, the vehicles are covered under a policy that will pay up to $1 million in liabilities or damages.

Before an owner returns, their car is washed and vacuumed. As Ben notes in his report, some negative online reviews have emerged in which people complain of finding food in their car, or having trouble being reimbursed for damages. Petrovic and Zaparde say they're trying to make sure those incidents aren't repeated.

Ben spoke to two customers who say they're happy with the service.

"To me, the great value of this is that before I learned about FlightCar, I was paying to park at the airport $15-$18 a day," Walt French, 65, says.

After returning from a recent trip to China, French said, "I got a check a couple hours ago for $111" for the use of his Acura.

FlightCar opened its first location in San Francisco in February. Boston followed soon after.

San Francisco officials have filed a lawsuit against the company, saying it breaks the rules for car-rental companies at the city's airport. Among other things, those rules call for the airport to be paid a transaction fee and a cut of the profits. The founders maintain that FlightCar is a peer-to-peer car-sharing service.

"I think anytime you do something really innovative in a market you are going to run up against opposition," Petrovic said.

You can find more stories about the emerging "sharing economy" at NPR's All Tech Considered blog, as well as on the sharing economy series page. To respond to any of these stories, just email, leave a comment, or tweet.

As the young U.S. senator takes the oath to become president, he sets out to fix an economy struggling with rising unemployment, slumping profits and depressed stock prices.

He knows the deep recession could prevent him from advancing his broader domestic and diplomatic agenda. Yes — all true for President Obama.

But that's what John F. Kennedy faced as well. On his frosty Inauguration Day in January 1961, Kennedy had to start fulfilling his campaign pledge to "get America moving again." Like Obama, he would need to win over a deeply skeptical business community.

The similarities mostly end right there.

Since taking office, Obama has struggled with the aftermath of a global financial crisis and a home foreclosure meltdown. Even after nearly five years in office, he presides over an economy stuck with a 7.3 percent unemployment rate and a disappointing growth rate well below 3 percent.

In contrast, Kennedy enjoyed a nearly miraculous economic turnaround. At the time of his death in November 1963, an employment boom was beginning. Stocks were soaring, swept up in the emerging "go-go" era on Wall Street — a time when investors were falling in love with mutual funds and conglomerates.

So, what exactly did Kennedy do? And as the nation marks the half-century anniversary of his assassination, do the experts credit him with having a lasting economic legacy?

Most historians say Kennedy's long-term economic impact was profound but complicated. Virtually all agree that in the short run, his policies did contribute to that golden era of the mid-1960s when the United States was enjoying one of the most robust economic expansions in history.

By 1966 — the year that might have been the fifth of his presidency had he lived — Kennedy would have been presiding over an economy growing at a rate of 6.6 percent and an unemployment rate falling to just 3.8 percent.

Related NPR Stories

Politics

'It Takes A Crisis': How '73 Embargo Fueled Change In U.S.