Nov 20th, 2008 · Thrift shops have seen a business boom in this tanking economy. These stores offer high fashion at a fraction of the cost of designer stores. Donna Speigle, owner of The Snooty Fox, says sales are up 17 percent at her eight stores in the Cincinnati area.
Nov 10th, 2008 · We receive several hundred CDs a week at All Songs Considered and do our best to listen to a bit of everything. But there's only enough time and space on the show to cover a tiny fraction of them. That means a lot of great albums get missed. Fortunately, as we compile our ballot for the year's best CDs, NPR listeners have been helping us find some of those buried and overlooked musical gems. On this edition of All Songs Considered we share some of those picks: the best of the CDs we missed this year, including music from Flobots, Department of Eagles, Human Highway, and more.
Sep 29th, 2008 · A key element of John McCain's health plan would funnel people who have pre-existing conditions into special health plans. More than 30 states already have such high-risk pools. However, most of them haven't worked very well — covering only a fraction of the uninsured and uninsurable.
Aug 27th, 2008 · The small triangular room with low ceilings and remarkable acoustics has staged plenty of essential jazz recordings. But it's only a small fraction of what has transpired at the world's oldest continuously operated jazz club.
Aug 18th, 2008 · Open water swimming, a new sport to the Olympics, brings a new set of challenges to traditional swimmers. Practically a full-contact sport, swimmers compete in a 6-mile course and finish just fractions of seconds apart.
Aug 16th, 2008 · Michael Phelps won his record-tying seventh gold medal by a fraction of a fingernail, just 0.01 second. Even when you study the photos and the video, it's tough to tell who came in first. Christophe Berthaud, the director of Olympic timekeeping for Omega, the official timekeeper at the games, explains the system used to time swimmers.
Jul 19th, 2008 · In Zimbabwe, banknotes issued a few months ago are worth only a fraction of a percentage of what they were originally. The Zimbabwean $50 billion bill is worth 33 U.S. cents; and it takes 1.2 quadrillion Zimbabwean dollars to make up about $4,000 U.S.
Apr 2nd, 2008 · Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign has had trouble paying its bills lately while paying for major media buys and running a multistate campaign. But presidential campaigns have often been problem clients for vendors, who sometimes wind up settling for a fraction of what they are owed.