host scott simon

Under current law, candidates' campaigns are not allowed to coordinate with superPACs, although they clearly benefit from their messages.

As result, candidates have performed feats of verbal gymnastics in order to talk about them. Host Scott Simon speaks with NPR's Peter Overby about the role of superPACs in the presidential race.

The failure of the congressional supercommittee to reach a deal on reducing federal government deficits is being called another example of dysfunction and gridlock in Washington.

New attention is now focused back on the plan put forth last year by President Obama's bipartisan deficit reduction commission, a blueprint that a number of Democrats and Republicans endorsed.

Host Scott Simon talks with former Sen. Alan Simpson, former co-chair of that deficit reduction commission, about the failed negotiations of the supercommittee.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou survived a vote of confidence late Friday night after pledging he would step aside to form a broad coalition government.

Yet, as NPR's Sylvia Poggioli tells host Scott Simon, it's still not clear whether Greece can create a new government.

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Iowa's 2012 presidential Caucuses are now just 11 weeks away. We may not be in the home stretch just yet, but you can feel it coming as the candidates chase after voters with increasing urgency.

Host Scott Simon talks with NPR National Political Correspondent Don Gonyea, who's been in Iowa this past week, about the view of the 2012 race from the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out this week puts a new name at the top of the race for the Republican presidential nomination: Herman Cain.

The poll shows the former head of Godfather's Pizza is at 27 percent, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney just 4 points behind.

Cain spoke with Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon about his surge to front-runner status.

A joint CIA and U.S. military operation targeted and killed the cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in an air strike this week.

Awlaki had been linked to terrorist attacks against the United States and was a key target for several years.

NPR's Rachel Martin shares the latest with host Scott Simon.

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The Obama administration is considering several new ideas to help shore up the struggling housing market.

As first reported by The New York Times this week, one proposal would allow homeowners with government-backed mortgages to refinance them at the current, lower interest rates.

Host Scott Simon talks with Columbia University's Christopher Mayer, who helped introduce the mortgage refinancing proposal in 2008.

In the Pacific Northwest, there's a 197-mile, 30-hour relay race called the "Hood to Coast." Host Scott Simon talks with Christoph Baaden, director of the eponymous documentary, which details four teams' experience running the race.

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Elaine Paige is known as the "First Lady of Musical Theater" and recently celebrated 40 years on the stage. For more than six years, she has also been hosting a radio show on BBC Radio 2, on which she interviews people from the theater world.

Host Scott Simon speaks with Paige about her radio show and her favorite musical roles.

Distrust between Pakistan and the U.S. keeps rising. On Friday more than 80 people were killed in a suicide attack on a paramilitary training center; the Pakistani Taliban called it revenge for Osama bin Laden's death.

Host Scott Simon talks to Moeed Yusuf of the United States Institute of Peace about U.S.-Pakistan relations and the political situation in that country following the killing of bin Laden.