To the Point
Getting to Know the Neighbors
Have Americans come to prefer TV, iPods, texting and Facebook to flesh and blood friendships? Also, Japan's nuclear breach, and organized labor and Solidarity Saturday.
By Warren Olney • • 51m ListenHave Americans come to prefer TV, iPods, texting and Facebook to flesh and blood friendships? Do they know their neighbors? Can they overcome increased isolation and re-engage in the business of civic life? Also, a suspected breach in the reactor at a Japanese nuclear plant. On Reporter's Notebook, today is the 100th anniversary of New York's Triangle Fire, which killed garment workers and led to regulations against unsafe conditions for workers. Tomorrow, organized labor will rally around the country on behalf of collective bargaining.
Banner image of the community of Highland, east of San Bernardino, California: David McNew/Getty Images
In this episode
3 storiesBreach in Reactor Suspected at Japanese Nuclear Plant
Officials in Japan have increased the radius of evacuation from around the Fukushima nuclear power plant after workers' feet were burned by water with 10,000 times more radioactive contamination than normal. That could mean a breach in the containment vessel of Reactor Number 3 and a release of plutonium as well as uranium.
Read the story8 minAmerica's Loss of Community
When an entire family tragically vanished from a house down the street, Peter Lovenheim realized he hadn't known them or his remaining neighbors either. To the distress of his teen-age daughter — and his own surprise — many of them accepted when he asked to sleep over so they could get better acquainted.
Read the story36 min100 Years after the Triangle Fire, Labor Laws under Attack
This is the hundredth anniversary of the Triangle Fire in New York's Greenwich Village. When a fire broke out at a garment factory, 146 people either burned alive or jumped to their deaths from the ninth floor of a building with exits locked from the outside.
Read the story8 min
