All Things Considered on KCCU-HD2

After The Fiscal Cliff, Businesses Say Some Uncertainty Remains

Credit Damian Dovarganes / AP

U.S. employers added 155,000 jobs in December, a steady gain that shows hiring held up during the tense negotiations to resolve the fiscal cliff. But the unemployment rate remained at 7.8 percent last month.

By John Ydstie

Originally published on Tue January 8, 2013 6:23 pm

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Businesses complained that the uncertainty surrounding the "fiscal cliff" froze their decisions about hiring and expanding, which hurt the economy. Washington has now managed half a deal, which settles tax issues, at least for the time being. But has that removed enough uncertainty to boost some business hiring and investment?

5:43 pm

Tue January 8, 2013

Deep In Canadian Lakes, Signs Of Tar Sands Pollution

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Credit The Washington Post/Getty Images

The Shell Oil Jackpine open pit mine uses trucks that are 3 stories tall, weigh 1 million pounds and cost $7 million each. There is explosive growth in the oil field areas around Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.

Credit Mark Ralston / AFP/Getty Images

An aerial view of the Suncor oil sands extraction facility on the banks of the Athabasca River in Alberta, Canada, in 2009. Scientists say contaminants found at the bottom of lakes in Alberta are from air pollutants from the facilities responsible for producing and processing tar sands oil.

Credit Jane Kirk / Environment Canada

Layers of lake sediment are removed at intervals from a core. In a laboratory, contaminants and biological remains are analyzed from select sediment layers to understand lake history and reconstruct environmental changes that often predate periods of direct monitoring.

By Elizabeth Shogren

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Canadian researchers have used the mud at the bottom of lakes like a time machine to show that tar sands oil production in Alberta, Canada, is polluting remote regional lakes as far as 50 miles from the operations.

An increasingly large share of U.S. oil comes from Canada's tar sands. There are environmental consequences of this development, but until recently, Canadian regional and federal governments left it to the industry to monitor these effects.

4:42 pm

Tue January 8, 2013

A Welcoming Way Station For Syrians Fleeing Home

Credit Kelly McEvers / NPR

Beit Qamishlo is a modest house in southern Turkey that caters to Syrian exiles seeking temporary refuge. It also hosts frequent discussions on Syria's future. Here, Malik Dagestani (center), a former political prisoner in Syria, talks about his detention in the 1980s and 1990s.

By Kelly McEvers

Originally published on Tue January 8, 2013 5:37 pm

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It's called Beit Qamishlo, or the House of Qamishlo. It's named after a city in northeastern Syria, though the house isn't even in Syria — it's just across the border in southern Turkey.

The house is humble, made of concrete blocks, with tile floors. Arabic slogans are taped on the walls: "Beit Qamishlo is a house for everyone," "It's a window to Syria's future," "Under one roof we plant life together and freedom."

4:09 pm

Tue January 8, 2013

Gun Control Advocates Say ATF's Hands Have Been Tied

Credit David McNew / Getty Images

Officers transfer confiscated weapons after a news conference to announce the arrests of scores of alleged gang members and associates on federal racketeering and drug-trafficking charges in Lakewood, Calif., in 2009.

By Brian Naylor

Originally published on Tue January 8, 2013 5:37 pm

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After the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., President Obama asked Vice President Biden to lead a group tasked with drafting policies to reduce gun violence. One of the issues sure to come up in the Biden group's discussions is the role of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

4:08 pm

Tue January 8, 2013

A Dash Of Olive Oil May Preserve Decaying British Cathedral

Credit Nigel Roddis / Reuters/Landov

The stones of York Minster in northern England are decaying. Olive oil may be just the dressing the cathedral needs to preserve its Gothic architecture.

By Philip Reeves

Originally published on Wed January 9, 2013 5:24 am

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The British have some stunning cathedrals, and York Minster, in the north of England, is one of the most magnificent of all.

Construction on it began 800 years ago, and a mere 2 1/2 centuries later, work was complete.

The result was one of Europe's largest Gothic cathedrals and one that's had a rough ride through history: It's been pillaged and looted, and damaged by devastating fires and lightning strikes.

Today, there's another threat: acid rain. As a result, the cathedral's stones are decaying.

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All Things Considered debuted on 90 public radio stations at 5:00pm on May 3, 1971.

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