Some highlights from today’s show.
1:06pm Because of his long career in politics, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he’s ready for the scrutiny that comes with being at the top in the polls. The GOP candidates head into another debate tonight where Gingrich is expected to come under attack because of his newfound frontrunner status. Mitt Romney unveils his first TV ad in New Hampshire, where President Obama pushes for an extension of his payroll tax cut.
1:11pm Newt Gingrich is the 6th candidate to rise to the top of the polls, as the GOP continues to search for an alternative to Mitt Romney, who’s still considered by analysts the most likely to win the nomination. Mark Meckler, co-founder of one of the largest Tea Party groups, Tea Party Patriots, told the LA Times that if Romney becomes the GOP nominee, “it would cause a drop-off of enthusiasm.” So how likely are Tea Party activists to turn to a 3rd party candidate in the general election? And what does the Tea Party want to hear in tonight’s debate?
1:20pm Forty-eight years ago today, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. We revisit a conversation Robin Young had with her neighbor, Priscilla McMillan. A community activist and scholar, McMillan was a speech writer for Kennedy in the 1950s. Then in 1959 as a reporter in Moscow, she spoke to a young defector, Lee Harvey Oswald. After Kennedy’s assassination, McMillan’s desire to find out more about why he was killed led her to befriend Oswald’s widow Marina, and write the book “Marina and Lee.”
1:34pm As part of the month-long series, “Hard Times: A Journey Across America,” NPR’s 
Debbie Elliott covered John Timmons and the closing of Ear X-Tacy. We’ll hear the feature.
WFPL News coverage of Ear X-Tacy
1:40pm 50 Years From Now, What Will Be ‘The Classics’? We remember the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, I Love Lucy, the Wonder Years and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger from decades past. What – if anything – will go down in history from our era?
