All Things Considered

Along the mighty Mississippi River, rising waters carry musical echoes of the river's long history of floods. Many of those sonic tributaries reach back to perhaps the worst one in U.S. history: The Great Flood of 1927. That catastrophe shaped how future generations of farmers, families and even governments would cope with future floods.

The Colorado Department of Agriculture is putting in place new transportation requirements for horses traveling to the state. It’s a move that comes on the heels of three confirmed cases of a fatal horse virus.

The US Forest Service is launching a slate of public meetings around the region on Colorado’s proposed Roadless Rule. It’s a sweeping plan that would ban most development on over four million acres of remote National Forest lands in the state.  It's sparked controversy from industry groups, as well as conservationists who want a national management rule.  But Rocky Mountain Regional Forester Rick Cables tells KUNC’s Kirk Siegler that much has changed since the original 2001 national Roadless Rule came about.

Unlike the friendly but fictional food faces of Betty Crocker, Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, Chef Boyardee — that jovial, mustachioed Italian chef — is real. Ettore "Hector" Boiardi (that's how the family really spells it) founded the company with his brothers in 1928, after the family immigrated to America from Italy.

One of the challenges among scientists is describing the work they do in language the rest of us can understand. That's the idea behind a new program at the University of Tennessee that uses music to bridge that communication gap.