Kateri Jochum

There have been over 100 bomb threats in the past few months at the University of Pittsburgh by a group calling themselves the "Threateners." The threats have turned university life upside down in the weeks leading up to graduation. Andrew Shull is the News Editor at The Pitt News, the independent student newspaper at the University of Pittsburgh. He joins us to discuss the threats and how student life has been affected on campus.

 

On May 25th, 1979, six-year-old Etan Patz waved goodbye to his mother at his front door in Soho to take the bus by himself to school for the very first time. Etan never made it to sch...

Sin City has a new claim to fame, with the highest per capita rate of single fathers than any other city in America. Franz Strasser, a reporter for our partner the BBC, spoke to some of those single dads in Las Vegas.

On Wednesday, University of Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt stepped down from her job, ending a 38-year career. The move came less than a year after she received a diag...

ABC and NBC are staging a rematch this morning of the memorable contest between Katie Couric and Sarah Palin in 2008. Couric's interview with Palin in 2008 stalled the meteoric moment...

Sharon Waxman, founder of the Hollywood and media analysis website TheWrap.com, joins us to discuss the latest in the media world, including the $200 million estimated loss for the Disney sci-fi epic John Carter, Apple's $100 billion cash reserve, the ongoing conversation around Kony2012, and the fact or fiction of playwright Mike Daisey's show on the working conditions at Apple supplier factories.

Now that the Alabama and Mississippi Republican primaries are over, the candidates are setting their sights on the next big state: Illinois. Except for the densely populated area around Chicago, Illinois tends to be a fairly conservative state. With 69 delegates up for grabs and a chance to criticize President Obama on his home turf, the candidates will likely continue to ramp up their rhetoric to sway Midwestern voters.

The national average for a gallon of regular gas is now $3.81 and climbing. As prices rise voters and politicians are more likely to blame the sitting president. But Obama, in his defense, says that this same cycle of blame has been going on for decades. And he's right, according to our Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich. For example, drilling in ANWAR is proposed every few years or more by republicans. Democrats, for their part, propose taxing large oil companies and opening the strategic petroleum reserve. Unfortunately, none of those proposals would do much for the global price of a gallon of gas.

The Eighth Amendment declares that "cruel and unusual punishment" may not be inflicted on prisoners. But does solitary confinement constitute cruel and unusual punishment? In a new report looking at the imprisonment of Bradley Manning, the soldier suspected of leaking confidential military documents to the whistleblowing website Wikileaks, the UN Special Rapporteuer on Torture, Juan Mendez, says that it does. Having just completed a 14-month investigation, Mendez concludes that keeping Manning locked up alone for 23 hours a day over an 11-month period might have constituted torture and has formally accused the U.S. government of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment towards Bradley Manning. 

The dialogue of the 2012 election has been defined in a large part through social media, and Super Tuesday was no different. Republican presidential candidates, journalists, and voters from across the country tweeted yesterday about their opinions of the GOP primary race.  

The Syrian National Council has formed a military body to serve the role of Defense Ministry and to coordinate rebel factions. But not all of the rebels are onboard yet, and the SNC is looking to the west for funding and weapons. In a speech Monday on the senate floor, John McCain called on the U.S. to lead an effort to help the rebels. The Obama administration is in a tight position. The president is expected to give a speech later today with a decision on how the U.S. should approach the SNC.

A small town in Minnesota is trying to make a big change. The people of Bemidji, Minnesota are building bridges between the white and the Native communities by making the signs in public buildings and many businesses both in Ojibwe and English. 

With the Michigan primary almost two weeks away, Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are waging war against each other through televised attacks ads. On Wednesday, Rick Santorum responded to a Super PAC funded Romney ad that claimed he was a "big spender" by depicting Romney as "Rombo." A Mitt Romney look-a-like, "Rombo," is seen shooting mud with a machine gun at cardboard pop-ups of Rick Santorum.

Sunday's Chrysler Super Bowl ad caused some political reaction, but maybe America needs a pep talk from America's outlaw and tough guy Clint Eastwood. Host John Hockenberry looks at the Eastwood speech in the context of his epic career and America's need for some tough love in these troubled times. Half time in America? Maybe, but we could sure use some encouragement from Clint.

While football may have supplanted baseball as the national pastime, it's not necessarily a universal language. Perhaps you carelessly yell "foul!" during the game, don't fully understand what the "end zone" is, or mistakenly throw up your arms when the opposing team gets a touchback. But fear not: The Takeaway will teach you how to sound smart on Super Bowl Sunday.

Political die-hards know how to truly gauge the mood of the country this primary season. You have to keep one eye on the television and one eye on Twitter. Sure you can read the story in the paper the next day, but the excitement develops in real time through a stream-of-conscious and subconscious that comes right into our laptops and iPhones. Takeaway co-host John Hockenberry takes a look at how the story of Florida's GOP primary unfolded on the ubiquitous social media tool.  

Lawyers representing more than  30 of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators arrested during protests on the Brooklyn Bridge and Union Square said the Manhattan District Attorney's office is offering a deal.

An elementary school in Park Slope, Brooklyn, is trying to give its students a proper physical education but it is failing to meet state standards. Listen to how teachers, parents, an...

A recent audit by the City Comptroller has revealed that elementary schools in the city are not complying with state requirements for physical education. The comptroller found that the Department of Education is not informing, mandating, or monitoring physical education in elementary schools. Even schools that are trying hard are finding it difficult to meet the requirements. Hear about how one city school trying to its students moving and share your own P.E. stories. Go to SchoolBook. 

Eggs and toast or yogurt and granola: that's all that's on the "Hurricane Menu" Saturday morning at restaurant and pub Fort Defiance in Red Hook, Brooklyn, one of many neighborhoods in the flood zone where residents have been issued a mandatory evacuation order ahead of Hurricane Irene.