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There are about a dozen reasons I really wanted to love Alpha House, an original comedy series about four U.S. senators sharing a home on Capitol Hill. It premieres on Amazon — yes, Amazon — on Friday.

The biggest reason: often-underrated star John Goodman, playing a politician up for re-election who knows exactly what voters value in a legislator:

"Two undefeated seasons, 11 conference titles, two national championships," says Goodman's Gil John Biggs, who's coasted from a star basketball-coaching career right into a plum Senate seat. Biggs works hard to avoid hard work; there's no perk he's beneath taking, no contributor he won't schmooze, and he's breezed past token opponents in every election.

Until now.

"Guess who just announced he's running now?" Biggs' wife and adviser screeches in a later scene. "(Duke basketball coach) Digger Mancusi....You're in a real race now, darlin'."

As Biggs slams his phone against a nearby wall in frustration, it's obvious he's suddenly living his worst nightmare: An opponent with a better coaching record.

Biggs faces this horror while living in a house with three other Republican senators: a philandering Latino legislator from Florida, an ethically challenged African-American from Pennsylvania and a possibly closeted gay man from Nevada. The setup is inspired by an actual house owned by Democratic U.S. Rep. George Miller.

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China announced Friday that it was loosening its decades-old one-child policy and abolish its system of "re-education through labor" camps.

In order to have a second child, one parent would have to be an only child under the new rules. Previously, both of the parents had to be only children in order to have a second child.

The new birth policy is intended to promote "long-term balanced development of the population in China," according to the Communist Party announcement, which was reported by China's official Xinhua news agency.

China, the world's most populous country, introduced the one-child policy in the 1970s to combat a rise in population. But the policy has resulted in gender imbalance, with more men than women.

NPR's Frank Langfitt tells Morning Edition that the change means "another 10 million people would be able to have a second child."

But, he adds, "half would maybe do that — because, you know, raising a child in China is now very expensive. So not everybody really wants a second child, particularly in urban areas."

Frank notes that the policy has been unpopular for years, but there may be a more practical reason for the easing of rules: demographics.

"China's labor is peaking and state demographers have actually been talking to the central government for years begging them to change the policy and they say, 'We're going to head into a real labor shortage coming up because of the policy,' " Frank says.

Re-Education Camps

The Communist Party also said it would abolish "re-education through labor" camps in an effort to protect human rights.

Frank notes that this policy was first announced in January. He says the camps, which go back to the 1950s, are hated.

"They allow cops literally to just take people and put them away for 18 months in a labor camp with no charges, no lawyer, no judge, and the public has been really turning against this," he tells NPR's Steve Inskeep.

The party also said it would reduce the number of crimes subject to the death penalty "step by step."

China has already significantly reduced the number of people executed each year. As we told you on Weekend Edition Sunday, an estimated 3,000 people were put to death in China last year. That number is down from an average of 15,000 a year in the 1990s.

"The decision, approved by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee on Tuesday, was seen as a detailed reform roadmap for China in the coming decades," Xinhua reported.

The party's document said China will also work to ban the extraction of confessions through torture and physical abuse.

After admitting to smoking crack, to buying illegal drugs and to more than once being in a drunken stupor, it would seem like Toronto Mayor Rob Ford couldn't say anything else that would really shock anyone.

Well ...

Responding to a new Toronto Globe And Mail report about lewd comments he allegedly made to a woman and other alleged misdeeds of his, Ford denied he'd said those things. Then he went on — using a crude 5-letter word for a woman's genitalia — to say he can get "more than enough ... at home."

Now, we know that some commenters will take us to task for not reprinting the mayor's exact words. If you wish to read them and watch him say them, click this link to the Toronto Star.

And yes, we realize it's somewhat odd to write about such comments without repeating them. Given that Ford is the mayor of Canada's largest city, they're newsworthy. So we wanted to note what happened. But we also wanted to do so while giving everyone a choice about whether they really want to read them or not.

Click here if you want to see NPR's position on "offensive language."

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."

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