Mark Memmott

Credit Doby Photography / NPR

Mark Memmott is one of the hosts of NPR's "The Two-Way" news blog.

"The Two-Way," which Memmott helped to launched when he came to NPR in 2009, focuses on breaking news, analysis, and the most compelling stories being reported by NPR News and other news media.

Before joining NPR, Memmott worked for nearly 25 years as a reporter and editor at USA Today. He focused on a range of coverage from politics, foreign affairs, economics, and the media. He's reported from places across the Unites States and the world, including half a dozen trips to Afghanistan in 2002-2003.

During his time at USA Today, Memmott, helped launch and lead three USAToday.com news blogs: "On Deadline;" "The Oval;" and "On Politics," the site's 2008 presidential campaign blog.

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8:50am

Mon April 29, 2013
The Two-Way

Tim Tebow Cut By NFL's Jets

Originally published on Mon April 29, 2013 9:54 am

Credit John Angelillo / UPI /Landov

In 2011, he was the hottest name in football, for his "Tebowing" and for leading the Denver Broncos into the playoffs.

Before the 2012 season, he was traded to the New York Jets — putting him smack dab in the center of the brightest of the media's spotlights.

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8:00am

Mon April 29, 2013
The Two-Way

I Would Have Stopped Him, 'Misha' Says Of Bombing Suspect

Originally published on Mon April 29, 2013 6:32 pm

Credit FBI.gov

The man known as Misha who relatives of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects have alleged may have turned the elder Tsarnaev brother toward a radical form of Islam says he did no such thing and would have tried to stop the attack if he had known about it.

"I wasn't his teacher," Mikhail Allakhverdov (Misha) said Sunday of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. "If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this."

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7:12am

Mon April 29, 2013
The Two-Way

Dozens Injured By Blast In Prague; Gas Leak Suspected

Originally published on Mon April 29, 2013 8:34 am

Credit Martin Mraz / EPA /LANDOV

An explosion at an office building in the the Czech capital on Monday injured at least several dozen people and may have left some victims trapped in rubble.

The early thinking was that a natural gas leak led to the disaster in the center of Prague, police spokesman Tomas Hulan said, according to The Associated Press.

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6:46am

Mon April 29, 2013
The Two-Way

Sen. Manchin Says Background Checks Bill Will Pass Next Time

Originally published on Mon April 29, 2013 9:09 am

Credit Andrew Harnik / The Washington Times /Landov

Sen. Joe Manchin says he's going to reintroduce his bill that expands background checks for gun purchases to sales made at gun shows and online, and he predicts that the second time around, it will get enough votes to move out of the Senate.

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12:16pm

Fri April 26, 2013
The Two-Way

House OKs Bill To End Air Traffic Controllers' Furloughs

The furloughs of air traffic controllers that have slowed air travel in the past week and frustrated thousands of fliers should soon come to an end.

By a vote of 361-41, the House of Representatives just passed legislation that would allow the secretary of transportation to shift up to $253 million in funds so that controllers no longer have to be furloughed to meet the requirements of sequestration (the mandated, across-the-board spending cuts that began taking hold March 1).

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10:45am

Fri April 26, 2013
The Two-Way

Country Star George Jones Dies

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 4:47 pm

Credit Hulton Archive / Getty Images

Country superstar George Jones, known for "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and a long string of other hits, has died.

He was 81.

According to Webster & Associates, the Nashville public relations firm that represented Jones, he died Friday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He was hospitalized there on April 18 for treatment of a fever and irregular blood pressure, the p.r. firm adds.

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9:24am

Fri April 26, 2013
The Two-Way

Big Night For Big Men In Round 1 Of NFL Draft

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 4:47 pm

Credit Rich Kane / UPI /Landov

One year after glamour quarterbacks were the big story, NFL teams mostly opted for big, beefy, bruisers during Round One of the 2013 NFL draft Thursday night.

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8:36am

Fri April 26, 2013
The Two-Way

Economy Picked Up In First Quarter: Grew At 2.5 Percent Pace

Originally published on Sat April 27, 2013 1:20 pm

Credit Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images

The U.S. economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2013, the Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated Friday morning.

That's modest growth, and was below the 3.2 percent pace economists had expected to hear about. But growth was up substantially from fourth-quarter 2012, when the economy expanded at a scant 0.4 percent annual rate.

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7:53am

Fri April 26, 2013
The Two-Way

Dozens Dead After Fire In Russian Psychiatric Hospital

Credit Jiang Kehong / Xinhua /Landov

An estimated 38 people died early Friday at a psychiatric hospital north of Moscow when a fire swept through the facility.

The state news agency RIA Novosti says it has been told by a "police source" that most of the victims "died in their sleep [from] inhaling the fumes as they were likely sedated by prescribed medicine."

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7:00am

Fri April 26, 2013
The Two-Way

Boston Bombing Suspect Moved To Prison Medical Center

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 11:52 am

Credit FBI.gov

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings and the crimes that followed, has been moved out of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center "and is now confined at the Bureau of Prisons facility FMC Devens at Ft. Devens, Mass.," U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Drew Wade said in a statement emailed to reporters Friday morning.

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1:58pm

Thu April 25, 2013
The Two-Way

Body Is ID'd As Missing Student Falsely Linked To Bombings

Credit Facebook.com

A body pulled out of the water earlier this week in Providence, R.I., has now been identified as that of 22-year-old Sunil Tripathi, a Brown University student who had been missing since March 15.

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12:28pm

Thu April 25, 2013
The Two-Way

At Bush Library Dedication, Bipartisan Praise

Originally published on Thu April 25, 2013 1:00 pm

Four presidents praised another member of their exclusive club Thursday at the dedication of the George W. Presidential Library and Museum on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

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9:48am

Thu April 25, 2013
The Two-Way

'We've Had Enough Bushies,' Says Former First Lady Barbara

Originally published on Thu April 25, 2013 10:48 am

Credit Tom Pennington / Getty Images

Thanks, mom.

On the day her son George's presidential library is being dedicated in Dallas, former first lady Barbara Bush has told NBC's Today show that "we've had enough Bushes" when it comes to seeing the presidency.

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9:23am

Thu April 25, 2013
The Two-Way

Jobless Claims Dip To Near Five-Year Low

Originally published on Thu April 25, 2013 10:07 am

Credit Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

There were 339,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, down 16,000 from the week before, the Employment and Training Administration says.

The drop brought claims down to around their lowest level since early 2008, when the latest recession was just getting started and before the downturn got its grip on the economy.

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8:40am

Thu April 25, 2013
The Two-Way

5 Presidents Set To Help Dedicate George W. Bush's Library

Originally published on Thu April 25, 2013 11:14 am

Credit Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images
  • From 'Morning Edition': Former first lady Laura Bush talks with NPR's David Greene

We're due for one of those rare moments Thursday morning when the current president and all of his living predecessors will be together.

The occasion: The dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are due to be there along with, of course, George W. Bush.

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