Joseph Capriglione

Energy independence has the potentitial to completely reshape American foreign policy and the U.S. economy, yet environmental concerns persist. We're joined by Clifford Krauss, oil an...

WQXR host Terrance McKnight joins us to discuss the premiere of a newly-discovered piece by the Austrian composer Mozart. The piece was discovered in a late 18th-century music book in...

March Madness is turning out to be not that mad. Not too many bracket busting upsets this year. In fact, all but two of the Sweet 16 teams are from power conferences. The NCAA championship has become a kind of "who's who" in big basketball schools.

No contender for the GOP nomination has been more successful raising campaign cash than Mitt Romney. Romney was just in New York City on a fundraising trip, taking checks from bankers and businessmen. But how might those big contributions harm the on-again/off-again Republican frontrunner, who's already struggling with an image problem generated by his immense wealth? And how might the Super PACs be turning the dynamics of this year's campaign on its head?

Sunday morning's shooting, which killed at least 16 Afghan villagers, including nine children and three women, raises many questions: how much does this imperil the US mission in Afghanistan? And is it time for an earlier troop withdrawal? Michael Semple, former deputy to the EU Special Representative for Afghanistan, and Nick Colgin, a medic stationed in Afghanistan from January 2007 to April 2008, join the show to explain the possible ramifications of Sunday's act of violence. 

A rogue US Army staff sergeant has been accused of killing 16 villagers in Kandahar, Afghanistan early Sunday morning. The soldier reportedly went from house to house shooting victims which include nine children and three women. The soldier, who acted alone, is in custody at a NATO base in Afghanistan. After weeks of violence due to American soldiers burning the Koran, many fear the repercussions this shooting will have with the position of the Taliban and US-Afghan relations.

At this weekend's conference of the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee, President Barack Obama reaffirmed the United States' commitment to Israel's security. During his remarks to the pro-Israel lobbying group, the President restated that, with regards to ensuring Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon, all options are on the table. The President also said sanctions and diplomacy should be given a chance before further action is taken. Later today, the President will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The meeting will be the latest installment in what has been an uneasy relationship between the two leaders.

Former New Orleans Saints assistant coach Gregg Williams is being called to New York to discuss an alleged bounty fund he employed with his players. The fund rewarded players for game-ending injuries inflicted on an opposing team’s players, and targeted superstars such as Brett Favre and Kurt Warner. The fund reached its height in 2009, the year the Saints won the Super Bowl. Williams is alleged to have maintained when he ran the Washington Redskins’ defense as well.

Recent reporting by our partner The New York Times raised fresh concerns over the safety and well-being of the workers that staff Apple's supplier factories in China. Apple now says that it has requested an independent labor group to audit the conditions at its suppliers' factories, with the first inspections under way starting yesterday.

This week marks the 136th Annual Westminster Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. It's the biggest and longest-running, continuously held canine show in the country. Sarah Montague is a senior producer and the Westminster Dog Show correspondent for our co-producer WNYC. She's been covering the event for the past 12 years and tells us about the culture of America's most beloved dog show.

It was another decisive victory for Mitt Romney as he easily took Nevada this weekend. Things appear to be looking up for the on-again, off-again Republican front-runner. This month's Primary schedule favor the former Massachusetts governor. But with a long road ahead to the Republican National Convention in September, it's still possible that Romney's key GOP antagonist Newt Gingrich could regain his momentum.

Current polling has Mitt Romney ahead in Nevada. The primary schedule for February (not to mention lack of debates) leaves Newt Gingrich at a severe disadvantage. Is there any time left for Newt to get his momentum back? Where does the campaign go from here and will Gingrich really stay in the race until the Republican National Convention as he's repeatedly promised?

If you've got a copy of the Dictionary of Regional English, you know that "hotdish" is a casserole-style meal popular throughout Minnesota. A "quahog" is common word for "clam" in New England. And "Euchre" is a card game beloved by Midwesterners of all stripes. Next month the final volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English, or DARE, will be released by the Harvard University Press.

On Wednesday, American Airlines declared that it would lay off 13,000 workers or 15 percent of its workforce. The company is attempting to emerge from bankruptcy, which it filed last November. Along with the layoffs, the company is seeking to cut employee pensions and some health benefits. AA CEO Tom Horton called the decisions "painful" but said in the end, the moves would preserve tens of thousands of jobs that would have otherwise been lost.

Back in February 1982, then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad unleashed his troops on the city of Hama in an attempt to wipe out the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters. The Massacre lasted for a month and tens of thousands of Syrians lost their lives. Now the Syrian people are rising against the current president Bashar al-Assad in hopes of ending a 40-year dictatorship of the Assad family.

Google recently announced a new privacy policy that has users and privacy advocates up in arms. Effective March 1, this new policy will consolidate information from users' various products — from Gmail to YouTube to the Android mobile phone operating system — in order to "better tailor its services" for customers. But the move could potentially violate a users' privacy simply to better target advertising. Estimates say between 50-75 percent of the world's internet users utilize at least one of Google's products.

The escalating tension between Israel and Iran over the latter's nuclear program has been at the center of many foreign policy debates and diplomatic talks over the past decade. Proponents of an Israeli strike say it's needed for to preserve Israel's national security while detractors say such an attack would precipitate World War III. 

Rick Perry is out, Rick Santorum actually won Iowa, and Newt Gingrich's second wife says he asked for an open marriage before he filed for divorce. The four remaining candidates debated in Charleston one last time before this weekend's South Carolina primary. We take a look back at what was arguably the wildest day of the 2012 Presidential campaign thus far.

George W. Bush made significant gains in attracting Hispanic voters, traditionally a strongly Democratic voting bloc, during his time in office. But those gains disappeared in 2008 when Barack Obama won more than two-thirds of the Latino vote. Despite the unpopularity of his administration's deportation strategy, Latin voters support Obama more than his Republican rivals. Realizing that they are missing a portion of the electorate that continues to grow, the GOP has initiated a Hispanic Outreach Effort for the 2010 election.

On Wednesday the Obama administration denied a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline project. TransCanada, the company behind the proposal, hopes to build a 1,700 mile pipeline that will carry oil from the tar sands of Canada to the refineries lining the Gulf Coast along Texas. Although it will cost $ 7 billion to build, TransCanada claims the project will create ten of thousands of jobs. Environmentalist are most concerned about the water supply in ecologically sensitive in Nebraska's Sand Hills region, which TransCanada claims it has addressed by creating a new proposal that circumvents the Sand Hills.