Why GM Workers Are On Strike; A $12,460 Bachelor Party Hangover; Cash Rewards For Crime Tips

Plus, remembering Cokie Roberts.

Stories You May Have Missed Courtesy of Cameron Fischer Here’s the story of a real bachelor party hangover: a $12,460 ER bill. Cameron and Katlynn Fischer celebrated their April wedding in Colorado. But the day before, Cameron was in such bad shape from a bachelor party hangover that he headed to an emergency room to be rehydrated. That's when their financial headaches began. With abortion restrictions on the rise, some women are learning to induce their own. Activists are spreading information about self-induced abortion online and in person. The World Health Organization says a single drug, misoprostol, can be used to safely induce abortion. Yes, people are looking at your our LinkedIn profile. They might be Chinese spies. Do cash rewards for crime tips really work? Offering rewards to catch criminals may, in rare instances, motivate people to come forward with a tip. However, few people actually claim rewards and there's little evidence that they actually work. Stories And Rememberances Hyoung Chang/Denver Post via Getty Images Pioneering journalist Cokie Roberts died last week from complications of breast cancer. She was 75. Roberts was one of NPR's most recognizable voices and was considered one of a handful of female journalists who helped shape the public broadcaster's sound and culture at a time when few women held prominent roles in journalism. Fellow "founding mother" Nina Totenberg remembers her friend as an "always polite political reporter, willing to ask the impolitic question if necessary." How prices changed at a Walmart in one year. In August 2018, NPR began tracking how tariffs from the U.S.-China trade war might trickle down to shoppers at the world's largest retail chain — Walmart. Since then, every few months we've checked the prices of about 80 products at one store in Liberty County, Ga.  Journey’s “Don't Stop Believin’ ” goes on and on, because we need it to. Whatever your relationship with Journey's 1981 hit, a perseverance anthem that has itself persevered, there is no escaping the longing it evokes for youth, love and a chance at greatness. Once a “rocket ship,” the National Security Council is now a no-no for government pros. The NSC is traditionally one of the most desirable places for ambitious and talented people to work in the U.S. government, because it affords such close proximity to power. But in the Trump administration, some of the government's brightest minds are turning down high-powered NSC assignments, and others are avoiding the place altogether. Career foreign policy professionals tell NPR they increasingly fear that joining the NSC will taint them as political operatives.  Photo Essays Of The Week Tommy Trenchard A vanilla boom is making people in Madagascar crazy rich. About 80% of the world's vanilla is grown in the hilly forests of Madagascar, the east African nation that is among the 10 poorest countries in the world. The price of vanilla is now 10 times higher than it was a few years ago, hovering between $400 and $600 a kilo on the international market. The price hike has brought unimagined wealth to local villages — and problems as well. Photographer Tommy Trenchard visited the heart of vanilla country to find out what effect the boom was having. Because of the vanilla boom, some farmers in one of the poorest countries in the world are now hiding millions in euros under their mattresses.  Why are GM workers striking? Nearly 50,000 General Motors employees with the United Auto Workers went on strike Sunday as the collective bargaining agreement from 2015 expired. The January 2020 closing of the Detroit-Hamtramck plant is part of a larger negotiating strategy for the United Auto Workers union, which also wants GM to recognize everything members have sacrificed to make a "healthy, profitable" auto industry. Many of the workers in this series of portraits explain why they took to the picket lines. The number of manned fire lookouts in the U.S. is dwindling, as technology is increasingly used to spot and monitor wildfires. For more than 100 years, the U.S. Forest Service has been posting men and women atop mountains and trees, and in other hard-to-reach places, to wait and watch for smoke. But can technology replace a human watch? Podcasts Of The Week Scott MacBride/Getty Images How fear of death drives our behavior. We try not to think much about death, but researchers say these thoughts are with us more than we realize. In this episode of Hidden Brain, psychologist Sheldon Solomon explains how we cope with the fear of death by embracing our cultural safe havens: our religions, our communities, our values. The mysterious death of the hacker who turned in Chelsea Manning. Adrian Lamo was a hero in the hacker community for years. "He was like the Tony Robbins of the hacking world," said Lorraine Murphy, an old friend of his. "It is one thing to be gifted at hacking and another to be able to tell the world about it." Everything changed when he began exchanging Internet chat messages with U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.  — By Jill Hudson, NPR Newsletters Editor 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 Best of NPR emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy