Segments From This Episode

• Original Mouseketeer Annette Funicello dead at 70

  by Kai Ryssdal

  Annette Funicello was America's beach blanket sweetheart, and before that a Disney Mousketeer.

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• Cass Sunstein on making government simpler, not smaller

  by Kai Ryssdal

  As head of the White House office that deals with government regulation under President Obama, Cass Sunstein pushed for fewer rules and lower costs. His new book lays out a path for simpler, if not smaller, government going forward.

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• Bird flu scare in China: Bad news for KFC

  by Rob Schmitz

  As cases of a new strain of bird flu spread across the Shanghai region, fast food chains like KFC are taking a hit to their bottom line.

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• Taking the sting out of tuition

  by Gigi Douban

  High-priced private colleges are offering students tuition breaks even when they don't need them.

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• U.S. ambassadors tapped for their connections, cash-raising

  by Shannon Mullen

  Forty percent of politically appointed envoys are big campaign donors. And unlike career diplomats, they get posts in desirable destinations, like Europe and the Caribbean. Caroline Kennedy's potential appointment in Japan would have more challenges.

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• Margaret Thatcher’s legacy: Three things that changed for the U.K.

  There’s no question Margaret Thatcher wanted to remake the U.K. economy during her tenure, but did she succeed?

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• Do merging airlines actually mean better customer service?

  by David Gura

  A new report says airlines scored their second best performance rankings in 23 years. Find out how that happened when airline mergers were supposed to make customer service worse.

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• Technology takes a toll on toll collectors

  by Marketplace Contributor

  In this latest installment of our series on disappearing jobs: the miracle of electronic toll collection comes at a human cost.

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• Mike Ullman named CEO of JC Penney after Ron Johnson ousted

  by Kai Ryssdal

  Mike Ullman has been named CEO of JC Penney after Ron Johnson was ousted.

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• Margaret Thatcher’s foes turned anger into big business, and a soundtrack for the ’80s

  by Stacey Vanek Smith

  

  From punk rock to TV satires such as Spitting Image, many of those who set out to pillory Margaret Thatcher for her policies made a nice living doing so. Listen to the soundtrack that hate created.

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