Charles Edwards is the Assistant News Director for 90.1 FM WABE. As a reporter, he covers a variety of topics and issues. However, he specializes in politics and closely covers Atlanta City Hall and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. Charles received a B.A. is Mass Media Arts from Clark Atlanta University in 2002. However, his reporting experience dates back to 2000. His resume includes covering the state legislature, live election night coverage, and award winning health care reporting. In 2005, Charles was the recipient of a 2005 National Public Radio reporting fellowship. As a reporter on NPRâ

Strange News
4:16 pm
Fri April 6, 2012

Small Town's Police Blotter Is A Riot

Credit Alexandra Gutierrez / KUCB
Unalaska's Sgt. Jennifer Schockley has earned fans worldwide for her local police blotter.

Originally published on Sat April 7, 2012 12:16 pm

In one Alaskan fishing village, crime is a laughing matter. It's not the crimes that have residents chuckling so much as how they're written about. The Unalaska crime report is full of eagle aggression and intimate encounters gone awry in the Aleutian Islands.

When Sgt. Jennifer Shockley heads out on patrol each day, she's got the police blotter on her mind. Her goal is to paint a detailed picture of the town's often ridiculous crimes.

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The Salt
4:12 pm
Fri April 6, 2012

Indian Engineers Build A Stronger Society With School Lunch Program

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 10:54 am

At a government-run public middle school in Bangalore, the blackboard's cracking, the textbooks are tattered and most of the students are barefoot.

But with all those challenges, the biggest obstacle that teachers face in keeping kids in school is hunger. Many students show up at school having had nothing to eat for breakfast.

On mornings one student comes to school hungry, the thought of school makes her break down, she says.

"When I had to get on the bus, I would start crying," says K. Suchitra, 13.

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The Two-Way
3:24 pm
Fri April 6, 2012

With Some Profanities Edited, 'Bully' Receives PG-13 Rating

Credit Lee Hirsch / The Weinstein Company
Alex, one of the kids who struggles with bullies in Lee Hirsch's documentary Bully.

The Motion Picture Association of America and The Weinstein Co. have finally come to an agreement: After editing some profanities, the MPAA walked back its R-rating and Bully, a documentary about school bullying, will be released on April 13 with a PG-13 rating.

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Europe
3:20 pm
Fri April 6, 2012

Homelessness Becomes A Crime In Hungary

Originally published on Fri April 6, 2012 10:25 pm

Hungary's new anti-vagrancy laws — the toughest in Europe — now mean that homeless people sleeping on the street can face police fines or even the possibility of jail time.

Advocacy and human-rights groups are alarmed by the new efforts to crack down on and effectively criminalize homelessness, where the ranks of the needy have increased during the country's dire financial crisis.

Debt, joblessness and poverty are on the rise. The country's bonds have been downgraded to "junk" status, and the nation's currency, the forint, has dropped sharply against the euro.

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Remembrances
3:00 pm
Fri April 6, 2012

Doctor Blazed Trails For Women In Medicine

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.

Dr. Leila Denmark led an exceptional life. She fought hard to become a doctor when women were largely shut out of the profession and helped research and test the whooping cough vaccine. She then opened her own practice and spent the next 71 years caring for child patients and their parents. Dr. Denmark died this week at the age of 114. That's right, 114.

Charles Edwards of member station WABE in Atlanta has this remembrance.

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The Salt
2:44 pm
Fri April 6, 2012

Guerrilla Grafters Bring Forbidden Fruit Back To City Trees

Credit Lonny Shavelson for NPR
Guerrilla grafter Tara Hui grafts a fruiting pear branch onto an ornamental fruit tree in the San Francisco Bay Area. She doesn't want the location known because the grafting is illegal.

Originally published on Sat April 7, 2012 7:00 am

Spring means cherry, pear and apple blossoms. But in many metropolitan areas, urban foresters ensure those flowering fruit trees don't bear fruit to keep fallen fruit from being trampled into slippery sidewalk jelly.

But a group of fruit fans in the San Francisco Bay Area is secretly grafting fruit-bearing tree limbs onto those fruitless trees.

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World Cafe
2:22 pm
Fri April 6, 2012

New Multitudes On World Cafe

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker Needle, and Yim Yames make up New Multitudes.

Often, an artist can be defined by his or her influences. Woody Guthrie's legacy demands instead that he be remembered for the legendary writers he influenced. Guthrie's music inspired musicians from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen, and his career as a Dust Bowl troubadour became representative of more than just American folk music.

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Rachel Syme is a frequent contributor to NPR Books. She is the former culture editor of The Daily Beast, and has written and edited for Elle, Radar, Page Six Magazine, Jane, theNew York Observer, The Millions, and GQ.

Book Reviews
2:03 pm
Fri April 6, 2012

100 Years Later, The Titanic Lives On In Letters

Credit Topical Press Agency / Getty Images
The ill-fated Titanic rests at Harland and Wolff's shipyard, Belfast, in February 1912.

When I hear the word "Titanic," I picture a tuxedoed Leonardo DiCaprio, waiting at the bottom of a gilded staircase while the voice of Celine Dion swells in my mind. It's all Edwardian glitz and glamour, decadence and passionate love, the kind best enjoyed in a dark theater with plenty of popcorn. And then I quickly remember that the ship sinks, and that Titanic is more than just an epic film from my youth. On April 15, a century will have passed since the ship plummeted into the icy Atlantic, and it is the tragedy we should remember, not just the mythology surrounding it.

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