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'Super Mario' Challenges The Idea Of Who's An Italian

Credit Francisco Leong / AFP/Getty Images

Italian forward Mario Balotelli celebrates after scoring the second goal during Italy's Euro 2012 football championships semifinal match against Germany, June 28, at the National Stadium in Warsaw.

Credit Gabriel Bouys / AFP/Getty Images

Italian forward Mario Balotelli celebrates after scoring the second goal during Italy's semifinal matchup with Germany in the Euro 2012 soccer championships in Warsaw, June 28. Italy went on to lose in the finals to Spain, but Balotelli has been hailed as a national hero, spurring debate over what constitutes Italian-ness.

Credit Alberto Pizzoli / AFP/Getty Images

A demonstrator holds a placard reading "No to racism" in front of Santa Maria Novella church in Florence, Italy, during a Dec. 17, 2010, anti-racism march in memory of two Senegalese men who were killed four days earlier by a far-right Italian.

By Sylvia Poggioli

Originally published on Sat July 7, 2012 6:33 pm

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5:10 am

Sat July 7, 2012

Portraits: Texas Ranchers Remember An Epic Drought

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Credit Michael O'Brien

Eugene "Boob" Kelton, 80, is an Upton County rancher and brother of Western writer Elmer Kelton: "The cattle would weaken down, and they'd die from lack of food. And there was some wild hogs over there ... A cow'd get down and they'd just start eatin' her while she was alive."

Credit Michael O'Brien

Peggy Kelton, 76, wife of Boob Kelton: "San Angelo had always been a Democratic town. Well, President Eisenhower visited, it was in January 1957, made his speech and then left. It started raining after that. So they soon became Republicans and still are."

Credit Michael O'Brien

Siblings Charles and Nancy Hagood Nunns, who grew up in Junction during the '50s drought. Charles, 59, has been a banker and rancher in Junction since 1979: "I would visit with men that I'd always known as carpenters, painters, merchants. And then visiting with them in deeper detail I'd find out that they were ranchers until the drought. Just like my daddy. The drought drove us to town."

Credit Michael O'Brien

Stanley Mayfield is the owner of the Mayfield Ranch, outside of Sonora. When his son was born in 1956, he called him "Seco," (Spanish for "dry").

Credit Michael O'Brien

Bill Schneemann has been ranching in West Texas for 58 years.

Credit Michael O'Brien

Sandy Whittley, 74, has been executive secretary of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association since 1966. She lives in San Angelo: "The first year it was, 'Nah, not too bad.' And then a little drier the next year. By about the third year, it was beginning to get really interesting — and then it got really serious. And from then on, it was just tough."

Credit Michael O'Brien

Eugene "Boob" Kelton, 80, is an Upton County rancher and brother of writer Elmer Kelton.

By Claire O'Neill

"Between 1950 and 1960," according to NPR's John Burnett, Texas "lost nearly 100,000 farms and ranches," and rural residents who had made up more than a third of the population dwindled to just a quarter of the population.

5:09 am

Sat July 7, 2012

Gridlock: Storms, Blackouts Expose Power Problems

Credit Monte Draper / AP

A power pole is bent after severe storms hit the Bemidji, Minn., area on Tuesday, knocking down thousands of trees and causing extensive damage to utility lines. Thousands of customers were left without power.

By Corey Dade

Originally published on Sat July 7, 2012 2:19 pm

As hundreds of thousands swelter without power a week after a violent storm pummeled the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, energy experts say the future will look even worse if the nation's aging, congested electrical grid isn't upgraded.

5:08 am

Sat July 7, 2012

How One Drought Changed Texas Agriculture Forever

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Credit Michael O'Brien / Michael O'Brien

Siblings Charles Hagood and Nancy Hagood Nunns grew up in Junction, Texas, in the 1950s. Charles says the drought drove ranchers to find other types of work.

Credit Michael O'Brien / Michael O'Brien

When Mort Mertz, 88, returned from the Korean War in 1952, he started ranching in New Mexico and West Texas. He later moved with his new wife to the Mayer Ranch outside San Angelo to raise sheep, cattle and horses and to fight the drought.

Credit Michael O'Brien / Michael O'Brien

The long drought affected Sandy Whittley, 74, and her neighbors while she was residing in San Angelo.

By John Burnett

Originally published on Sat July 7, 2012 6:34 pm

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In Texas, there is still the drought against which all other droughts are measured: the seven-year dry spell in the 1950s. It was so devastating that agriculture losses exceeded those of the Dust Bowl years, and so momentous that it kicked off the modern era of water planning in Texas.

From 1950 to 1957, the sky dried up and the rain refused to fall. Every day, Texans scanned the pale-blue heavens for rainclouds, but year after year they never came.

3:02 am

Sat July 7, 2012

U.S. Gives Afghanistan New Ally Status As Part Of 2014 Transition

Credit Sean Carberry for NPR

In Kabul, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announces that Afghanistan is now a "major non-NATO ally" alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

By editor

Originally published on Sat July 7, 2012 7:11 am

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan this morning, and she brought along some news. The country has officially been designated a "major non-NATO ally" of the U.S., which will facilitate defense and security cooperation between the countries even after the U.S. withdraws combat troops in 2014.

In an emailed press release, the State Department says the status "qualifies a country for certain privileges supporting defense and security cooperation but does not entail any security commitment to that country."

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5:27 am

Sat July 7, 2012