The ‘Remain In Mexico’ Trap; Student-Debt Catastrophe; Preserving Apollo 11 Artifacts

Plus, how the plan to turn trash into energy accidentally launched recycling.

Stories And Podcasts You May Have Missed Claire Harbage/NPR Stuck in Juarez. Tania's mother was shot and run over by MS-13 members while they lived in Honduras. Her sister-in-law was killed after she and Tania agreed to testify; her sister-in-law's child was left to die in the trash. Tania, her husband and their three kids fled Honduras to seek asylum in the U.S., where they have family, but they are trapped south of the U.S. border as part of President Trump’s “remain in Mexico” plan. Now everything is uncertain, even caring for their 3-year-old daughter, who’s had heart problems. A program created more than a decade ago to encourage public service in needy areas in exchange for debt relief proved so popular that more than a million people signed up. But now the bills are coming due, and a teachers union’s class-action lawsuit says the program is turning into a disaster, with an approval rate of just 1 percent. That has left tens of thousands of nurses, firefighters, teachers and police officers with deep debt. Meet the Mosquito, an “acoustic deterrent device.” Philadelphia has installed speakers that play the high-pitched tone — typically only audible to those 25 and younger — all night long at dozens of parks and recreation centers, hoping to ward off rowdy youths. It makes us feel like animals, one teen says. It makes this 39-year-old feel like he’s at the dentist. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts had another befuddling term, voting consistently with the right wing of the court — except, once again, in one of the biggest cases of the year. What, exactly, is Roberts’ motivation? Doctors in Israel are successfully treating a man who has “tree man” syndrome, a rare condition in which rough, barklike lesions grow on his skin. Mahmoud Taluli’s severe form of the condition has only been documented a few times, and addressing it meant removing thousands of deeply rooted lesions in four operations. They continue to grow back, but Taluli says he can finally play with his children. Nora Keegan, a 9-year-old Canadian, hated getting her eardrums blasted every time she used a bathroom hand dryer. So she decided to do something about it. The data she gathered proved the noise levels were dangerous — and louder than what manufacturers were claiming. The murder of the Rev. James Reeb, investigated in the NPR podcast White Lies, went unsolved for decades. It didn’t need to. Alabama officials tell NPR that if the FBI had shared its case file with them, they could have investigated years earlier — before a man who told NPR he participated in the attack had died. Podcasts Of The Week Illustration by Alvaro Tapia Hidalgo for NPR | Photograph by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have a long, long history of disliking each other, NPR’s Embedded found, stretching back at least to the 1990 return of a campaign contribution to the then-foundering real estate mogul. It came complete with a mocking note: “It appears you may need the money more than I do right now." A made man with a talking Jaguar. A gargantuan barge piloted by Captain Duffy St. Pierre. Six million pounds of garbage drifting for five months and 6,000 miles, up and down the U.S. coastline, looking for a landfill to call home. Planet Money welcomes you to the epic tale of the birth of recycling. NPR Music's ongoing series, American Anthem, lands on Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” a working girl’s rallying cry. "It is simultaneously a song of angry complaint and immense good cheer. And there is something about that combination that makes it kind of addictive and fun," says writer Rebecca Traister. Startup culture embraces failure, viewing flameouts as steps on the path to success. But “fail fast” is a tough mantra to embrace in countries a fall is viewed as deeply shameful. Young entrepreneurs around the world are trying to change that, and create more space for experimentation and growth. Videos Of The Week NPR Few artifacts in the care of the Smithsonian Institute are more precious than those provided by the space program. As we near the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, NPR asked conservators how they preserve these relics, including the spacesuit in which Neil Armstrong took mankind’s first tenuous steps on the moon. A scam that wasn’t quite a scam, funded by insurance fraud that wasn’t really fraud. Planet Money tells the story of how a Romanian economist won the lottery 14 times — and why his foolproof method stopped working. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: bestofnpr@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Daily News, Politics, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to our Best of NPR emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002