With Good Reason

Just shy of their 100th birthday, the Girl Scouts are working to shed their cookie and campfire image with new badges that focus on skills such robotics, chemistry and engineering. And they’re reaching out o recruit urban and minority Girl Scouts.  Elliot Majerczyk  reports .[Audio clip: view full post to listen] 

In the early years of the Cold War, a number of Hollywood directors and writers were blacklisted from the motion picture industry. One Virginia author says these so-called dissidents found other ways to express their views. Kelley Libby reports. [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The nation is losing 850 World War II veterans a day. One Virginia general is seeing that their sacrifice is remembered. Kelley Libby reports. [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

By the beginning of the twentieth century there were more than 100 circuses traveling around the country, performing for as many as 12,000 spectators at each show.   Elliot Majerczyk speaks with a man who teaches a college course on the history of the circus.    

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War this year, some of the nation’s top Civil War scholars recently gathered in Virginia.  Sarah McConnell was there and has this report. [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The U.S. gives more money in foreign aid than any other country in the world.  Researchers in Virginia have just launched a web database that allows people to see where those dollars are being spent. Kelley Libby reports. [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The house where John Wilkes Booth sought refuge after assassinating President Abraham Lincoln will be auctioned next month. Over the last 150 years, the story of Lincon’s assassination has been told and retold in books, plays, and films, but a Booth biographer in Virginia says murder wasn’t actually the original plan.  Thomas Pierce reports. [Audio [...]

A George Mason University economist has good news for stressed out parents and over-scheduled kids: Have more children, don’t worry about your parenting style and spend less time on activities that you don’t enjoy. Elliot Majerczyk reports.[Audio clip: view full post to listen]  

A Virginia author says Southern veterans of the Civil War faced the same shattered family lives and economic hardships as U.S. war veterans face today. Kelley Libby reports. [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

A Virginia professor is involved in a multiyear study that follows shy children into adulthood. As producer Kelley Libby reports, 15 to 20 percent of us grow up to be shy. [Audio clip: view full post to listen]