Middlebury College junior Tik Root was studying abroad in Syria when he happened upon a protest in the Old City of Damascus. When he pulled out his BlackBerry to take a photograph, he says he was grabbed by plainclothes police. He was taken to a jail, interrogated and detained for more than two weeks. He didn’t know what was happening. Neither did his parents. Root credits Sen. Patrick Leahy and both the Syrian and American ambassadors with helping secure his release.
We talk to Root about his experience, and to Professor Joshua Landis, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and author of the blog "Syria Comment," about Syrian politics and history.
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Also on the program, the Entergy Corporation, which owns the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, is suing Vermont to contest the role the state says it has in
determining plant’s future. The lawsuit Entergy filed yesterday had been hinted at for
months. VPR’s John Dillon reports on Vermont Yankee’s
regulatory standing and he joins us to explain the legal issues at stake, and
the practical implications for Vermont Yankee while the case works its way
through court.
And pipes made for smoking tobacco come in all shapes and sizes. When it comes to sand-blasted pipes made from briarwood, one of the world’s foremost creators plies his trade in Burlington’s New North End. We visit the dusty workshop of Jim Cooke, maker of JT Cooke Pipes, to learn how it’s done.