Texas A&M
4:45 pm
Thu March 28, 2013

$91 Million Vaccine Manufacturing Facility Coming To Texas A&M

Credit rickperry.org
Gov. Perry hosted the announcement at Texas A&M, his alma mater

Texas is the next expansion state for the development of flu vaccines, thanks to a $91 million federally-funded program.

GlaxoSmithKline will use the facility at Texas A&M to work on the next generation of flu vaccines, based on a trademarked proprietary cell-culture line instead of using fertilized chicken eggs.

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Business
4:33 pm
Thu March 28, 2013

Farm Bill's Sugar Subsidy More Taxing Than Sweet, Critics Say

Credit Toby Talbot / AP
While many people enjoy sweet treats — like these chocolate bunnies — the price of a key ingredient has some people bitter. A government subsidy program is criticized for keeping sugar prices too high. But as prices fall, the government may buy sugar to help processors.

Originally published on Thu March 28, 2013 10:55 pm

While you indulge in some Easter Peeps and chocolates this weekend, you might want to think about all that sugar. No, this isn't a calorie warning. In the U.S., raw sugar can cost twice the world average.

Critics say U.S. sugar policy artificially inflates sugar prices to benefit an exclusive group of processors — even though it leads to higher food prices. But this year, prices fell anyway. Now, the government could be poised to use taxpayer dollars to buy up the excess sugar.

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Technology
4:33 pm
Thu March 28, 2013

Cyberattack Against Spam-Fighting Organization One Of The Largest Ever

Originally published on Thu March 28, 2013 5:38 pm

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Police in Europe are investigating a large-scale cyberattack. Some are even calling it the largest of its kind. As NPR's Martin Kaste reports, the attack's target is an organization called Spamhaus, but the effects have spilled out into the broader Internet.

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Animals
4:33 pm
Thu March 28, 2013

What's Behind The 'Fairy Circles' That Dot West Africa?

Originally published on Thu March 28, 2013 6:19 pm

There's a mystery in West Africa that's puzzled scientists for years. Strange circles of bare soil appear in grassland; they're commonly called "fairy circles." These naturally occurring shapes last for decades, until the grass eventually takes over and the circles fade.

Now German scientists think they have an explanation — a horde of insects seems to be bioengineering thousands of miles of desert.

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Shots - Health News
4:12 pm
Thu March 28, 2013

Sand From Fracking Could Pose Lung Disease Risk To Workers

Originally published on Mon April 1, 2013 12:50 pm

When workplace safety expert Eric Esswein got a chance to see fracking in action not too long ago, what he noticed was all the dust.

It was coming off big machines used to haul around huge loads of sand. The sand is a critical part of the hydraulic fracturing method of oil and gas extraction. After workers drill down into rock, they create fractures in that rock by pumping in a mixture of water, chemicals and sand. The sand keeps the cracks propped open so that oil and gas are released.

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Ashley Lopez is a reporter for WGCU News. A native of Miami, she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a journalism degree. 

Previously, Lopez was a reporter for

WLRN-Miami Herald News and The Florida Independent. She also interned for Talking Points Memo in New York City and WUNC in Durham, North Carolina.

She also freelances as a reporter/blogger for the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.

Send news pitches to wgcunews at wgcu.org

The Two-Way
3:23 pm
Thu March 28, 2013

1,569: S&P 500 Closes At All Time High, Rising Above Oct. 2007 Mark

Credit Richard Drew / AP
A trader on floor of the New York Stock Exchange on March 25, 2013. U

Originally published on Thu March 28, 2013 3:31 pm

The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index broke new ground today, closing at 1,569, an all-time high that erased the record set on Oct. 9, 2007.

The S&P joins the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which broke its 2007 record earlier this month.

Both indices have now recovered all the losses they suffered during the Great Recession.

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Silver Solutions
3:22 pm
Thu March 28, 2013

TPR Presents Third Annual Silver Solutions

Texas Public Radio presents Silver Solutions, a free community event for seniors and their caregivers on Saturday, April 13 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the UT Medicine Medical Arts and Research Center (MARC) located at 8300 Floyd Curl.

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Animals
3:15 pm
Thu March 28, 2013

Algae Bloom Kills Record Number Of Florida Manatees

Originally published on Thu March 28, 2013 5:38 pm

More than 200 manatees have died in Florida's waterways since January from an algae bloom called red tide, just as wildlife officials try to remove the marine mammal from the endangered species list.

It used to be boat propellers that were the biggest killer of manatees, but red tide has been especially bad this year.

Florida Fish and Wildlife officer Steve Rice routinely scours the Caloosahatchee River in southwest Florida for dead manatees. He has found more than 20 in the past few weeks.

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Latin America
2:59 pm
Thu March 28, 2013

From The Stone Age To The Digital Age In One Big Leap

Originally published on Thu March 28, 2013 5:38 pm

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