Dec 16th, 2008 · Toyota says it's suspending plans to produce its Prius hybrid car in the U.S. A plant is under construction in Tupelo, Miss., was to be the first to make the popular gas-electric hybrid in this country. But as auto sales plunged, Toyota has been scaling back production. Toyota will finish the building but won't install equipment.
Dec 4th, 2008 · The tradition of putting up a giant Christmas tree at New York's Rockefeller Center began during the Great Depression. Thousands looked on Wednesday as this year's 72-foot Norway spruce was illuminated with 30,000 energy-efficient LED lights. One Mississippi family looked on with special interest: They lost their home to Hurricane Katrina. But now they have a new home — built by Habitat for Humanity with lumber from last year's tree.
Oct 29th, 2008 · In Missouri, polls show presidential hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama are neck in neck. Two voters — a deckhand on a small passenger ferry and a fuel truck driver who takes the ferry — have vastly different takes on the election.
Oct 27th, 2008 · In Hannibal, Mo., along the Mississippi, history entwines with the present for residents of the boyhood home of Mark Twain as they try to decide whom to vote for in the presidential election. The latest polls for Missouri show Barack Obama and John McCain in a dead heat.
Oct 21st, 2008 · Senator John McCain's ancestors owned a Mississippi plantation and about 120 slaves who worked the grounds. Farai Chideya talks with Douglas Blackmon of the Wall Street Journal and Lillie McCain, a descendant of the McCain plantation workers, about how the black McCains see this election.
Sep 26th, 2008 · John McCain says he will participate in Friday night's presidential debate in Oxford, Miss., setting up a timely face-off with Barack Obama. The debates could play a key role in determining the winner in November.
Sep 10th, 2008 · A federal appeals court Tuesday overturned the kidnapping conviction of James Ford Seale in connection with the deaths of two black teenagers in Mississippi in 1964. The Justice Department brought an indictment against Seale based on evidence uncovered by a Mississippi newspaper and a documentary film team. He was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to three life terms.
Sep 7th, 2008 · Some 600 illegal immigrants were arrested in a major federal raid at a Mississippi manufacturing plant recently. The Bush Administration charged only eight of the immigrants criminally and sent the rest for civil deportation proceedings. Host Liane Hansen speaks to NPR's Jennifer Ludden to find out if this signals a shift in administration policy.