NPR's Morning Edition

This weekend at Asheville's BeBe Theatre, it's the Men's Dance Festival. March 24th through March 26th this festival keeps the toes tappin' with a wide variety of dancers, lots of styles and plenty of humor. It is rare for a dance festival to feature male dancers only. But this festival seems to feel right at home in Asheville according to Giles Collard, the festival's founder. Tickets and details can be found at www.ACDT.org.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.

In the southern French city of Toulouse, police are in a stand-off with a man suspected of carrying out a series of shootings. The suspect is described as a 24-year-old French citizen, of North African heritage. He is said to be an al-Qaida sympathizer.

The Polk County campus of Isothermal Community College is offering a new program in Therapeutic Massage this spring.  Therapeutic massage has become an important tool in the arsenal of healthcare practitioners and can be an important of any patient's health and welfare. Betsy Cuthbertson, Nurse Aide and Allied Health Programs Coordinator, and Melinda Kirby, Massage Therapist and Coordinator of the new program will discuss this new program and the economic advantages it offers for those who may be interested in massage therapy as a career.

Where do soap opera fans go when all of their favorite daytime soaps have been or will be canceled? To the Internet, of course! Asheville resident Marcello LanFranchi has written and produced an internet soap called "Tomorrow Waits For No One" and it has all of the things you would expect to find in a soap opera. Set in the fictional Silicon Valley town of Santa Lorena, this locally produced video drama will be coming to the Ethernet soon. Check it out at www.SantaLorena.com.

It's not easy being one of the last soaps standing, as Neda Ulaby reports on today's Morning Edition. For fans, the shuttering of iconic shows like All My Children and Guiding Light has upended routines that, for some, date back to childhood. When I was in high school, my soap of choice was Days Of Our Lives, which Neda says has changed a lot since that era — well, it's changed and it hasn't.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Candidate Rick Santorum, for his part, was far outside Chicago yesterday, barnstorming through some of Illinois' smaller cities. Santorum is hoping that rural and more conservative voters will somehow push his campaign over the top, in a state where he trails in the polls and has again been vastly outspent by Mitt Romney.

NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And I'm David Greene.

When it comes to politics in this election cycle, Illinois is a place for grand themes.

INSKEEP: It's the home state of Abraham Lincoln, where several Republican candidates now seek to be the leader of the party of Lincoln.

GREENE: Illinois is also the home state of President Obama, the man Republicans desperately want to replace.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It was two outs, bottom of the ninth for the New York Mets. Facing a civil trial in federal court this week, they managed to pull off a clutch out of court settlement with a price tag of $162 million, the value of a long-term contract for a star player. The team's owners reached that deal with the trustee recovering money for victims of imprisoned financier Bernie Madoff.

But as WNYC's Janet Babin reports, any relief is tempered by the team's long-term financial struggles.