Daniel Zwerdling

After Deadly Chemical Plant Disasters, There's Little Action

Daniel Zwerdling — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:11:00 +0000

You might think that everything would have changed for the chemicals industry on April 16, 1947. That was the day of the Texas City Disaster, the worst industrial accident in U.S. history. A ship loaded with ammonium nitrate — the same chemical that appears to have caused the disaster last month in West, Texas — exploded. The ship sparked a chain reaction of blasts at chemical facilities onshore, creating what a newsreel at the time called "a holocaust that baffles description."

Or you might think everything would have changed on Dec. 3, 1984.

From Family To Digital Footprints: A Portrait Of Tsarnaevs

Daniel Zwerdling — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 22:50:00 +0000

NPR's Daniel Zwerdling reports on what's known about the two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombing, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Agencies That Oversee Fertilizer Plants Have Spotty Records

Daniel Zwerdling — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:06:00 +0000

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

NPR's Daniel Zwerdling has been looking into the history of this fertilizer plant and explosions that have happened at other fertilizer plants. And Danny, what can you tell us about West Fertilizer and its history? Have there been safety problems before?

DANIEL ZWERDLING, BYLINE: There have been but let me first say, it seems kind of like a homespun operation, not huge. They have seven or eight employees. According to Dunn and Bradstreet, they had about a million dollars in sales last year.

Researchers Question Obama's Motives For Brain Initiative

Daniel Zwerdling — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 08:31:00 +0000

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm David Greene.

Earlier this week, President Obama announced his new Brain Initiative. He said he wants $100 million to explore America's next great frontier in science: Mapping the human brain, to understand how the brains neurons and circuits communicate.

New Mortgage Program Helps Cambodia's Poor Find Better Homes

Daniel Zwerdling — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:55:00 +0000

If you've applied for a mortgage recently, you know how hard it can be. The bank demands all kinds of obscure documents and wants proof of almost every asset you own. But an innovative mortgage program halfway around the world will evaluate your application without any extra documentation — and if you're approved, it will give you a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage. There's just one catch: The mortgages are only for low-income people in Cambodia.