Talk of the Nation on KSTX

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

Repeated American attempts to work with Russia on Syria have foundered on a fundamental difference. Vladimir Putin insists on a deal that includes Bashar al-Assad as part of Syria's future. So the civil war grinds on and the situation of civilians there grows ever more dire. So why? Arms exports? Access to the port of Tartus? Standing up for old allies?

The Italian Supreme Court ordered that Amanda Knox be retried for the 2007 murder of her British roommate Meredith Kercher. This decision overturned her acquittal from 2011. If she's found guilty this time around, she could face extradition.

Anthony Lewis, former reporter and columnist for The New York Times, died Monday at the age of 85. NPR's Neal Conan remembers the Pulitzer Prize winner, and listens back to a conversation with Lewis about his career and the stories he covered, just after his retirement in 2002.

A Washington Post analysis of statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds a correlation between gun deaths, and race and geographic location. African Americans are much more likely to be victims of gun-related homicide, whereas whites are more likely to commit suicide.

The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on California's ban on same-sex marriage, known as Proposition 8. David Savage, Supreme Court correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, provides analysis of extensive excerpts from the courtroom proceedings.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. More than 1 million people have fled to safety across Syria's borders. Many live in camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, which too often struggle to meet basic needs such as shelter, food and clean water. Some arrive wounded, and need medical care. Many suffer from the invisible wounds of trauma - everything from shelling or crossfire to the loss of a loved one, even torture. All of them have lost their homes.

More than a century before Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln offered an intimate portrait of the 16th president and his family, a memoir from the first lady's dressmaker offered a glimpse into the Lincoln White House.

Elizabeth Keckley, Mary Todd Lincoln's seamstress and maybe her closest friend, told her story of slavery and self-emancipation, and her relationship with the Lincolns in a tell-all memoir called Behind The Scenes.

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NEAL CONAN, HOST:

In his book Grand Central: How A Train Station Transformed America, New York Times urban affairs correspondent Sam Roberts writes of the scientific innovations pioneered at New York City's Grand Central Terminal, such as electric commuter trains and standardized time.

According to the Institute of Medicine as many as 250,000 of 700,000 veterans of the first Gulf War suffer from an array of unexplained medical ailments. Guests discuss the latest research on Gulf War illness and its treatment and why it's been hard to pinpoint a cause.