Tune in Friday between 2 and 3pm as Joe Kendrick plays tunes selected by -- and maybe even performed by -- our guest Martin Sexton.  He's in the area for shows in Asheville & Charlotte. 

There's a man in Phoenix with a political playbook that has become valuable. So valuable, the Obama campaign believes it could help clinch the president's re-election.

Phoenix City Council Member Daniel Valenzuela is a fourth-generation Mexican-American. Last year, he won a seat on the Phoenix City Council in a traditionally Republican district, and he did it by increasing Latino voter turnout by 488 percent.

WNCW is a Media Sponsor of MerleFest.  Get details here.

John and I thank all of our listeners for their overwhelming show of support, keeping 'This Old Porch' alive and well. We're in this together:)

Today, on Sunday's show we'll explore the contributions of Andy Cohen in Western North Carolina, listen to the music of Blind Boy Paxton, the new Carolina Chocolate Drops CD and other new releases from the 'in box' and continue to discover newly added music in the WNCW library from the "Music Shed."

United Nations envoy Kofi Annan continues talks with the Syrian leadership, hoping to find a way to end the violence of the past year. NPR's Peter Kenyon has the latest.

Achim Aretz holds the Guinness World Record for running the half marathon, backward. But now, the 27-year-old German athlete says he's tired of doing something almost no one else does and wants to head in a new direction. Reporter Caitlan Carroll caught up with him in Hannover, Germany.

The people of Japan have been remembering the dreadful events of March 11, 2012 when at 2:46 p.m., a massive earthquake struck. Soon afterwards a tsunami crashed into the north east coast. The village of Minamisanriku, once a beautiful fishing community and tourist destination, was one of the towns worst affected. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports.

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer.

American officials say that a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan walked off a base in the predawn hours this morning and began shooting at civilian homes in the southern province of Kandahar. Initial reports say 15 civilians are dead, including women and children. Relations between the United States and Afghanistan had been slowly returning to normal after last month's accidental burning of the Quran at an American military base. But this morning's news may erase that progress.

Ahead of the primary voting in Mississippi and Alabama, guest host Linda Wertheimer talks with William Martin Wiseman, director of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government and Professor of Political Science at Mississippi State University, about the religious politics of the South.