National News

"Canada will never become a safe haven for zombies, ever," the nation's minister of foreign affairs declared this week. It was a tongue-in-cheek moment in Parliament. Or is tongue-in-cheek the wrong analogy in this case?

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The German economy shrank 0.6 percent during the last quarter of 2012, dragging the eurozone deeper into recession. There are some positive signs, however.

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A few weeks ago, New York State passed a new gun law, restricting what kind of guns New Yorkers can own. That upset a lot of people, including gun manufacturers, and a few of them have taken the matter into their own hands.

“It just didn’t make sense to us,” Brian Schuetz says. He co-owns Olympic Arms, a company that specializes in AR-15s -- a firearm that is now illegal in New York State.

“If a citizen, you know, can’t own it, I don’t understand the reasoning why the law enforcement community should have it.”

From now on, they won’t be able to have any Olympic Arms guns. Schuetz says the manufacturer won’t do business with the State of New York. 

LaRue Tactical made the same decision. So did a company called EFI, which makes long-range precision rifles. 

According to its president, Melinda Meador, there shouldn’t be exceptions for a police officer or a sheriff.

“If I can’t sell it to a member of the public, I’m not selling it to him,” she says.

EFI added New York to a list that already includes Washington, D.C., Chicago, and California -- places that also have strict gun laws. 

Meador estimates government sales account for about ten percent of her business. 

“To tell you the truth, Dave, we’re not worried about it,” John Grebert says. He is the executive director of the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police, a group that supported the new gun law in New York State.

But, he adds, “I think it’s pretty unfortunate that any business thinks they can bully us.”

Because people in law enforcement deal with criminals every days, Grebert thinks they have, “a greater right” to weapons, "to deal with potentially violent situations.” And Grebert says he’s confident police will still have access to the equipment they need “to get the job done right.”

Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly identified one of the magazine titles published by Meredith. It’s ‘Parents’ magazine. The text has been corrected.

The big talk in the publishing world today involves two names. The first you probably know: Time Warner. The second may be less familiar: Meredith.

If the publishing world is high school, you might think of Time as starting quarterback and debate team captain, with prestige titles like Fortune and Sports Illustrated. Meredith is more like president of the home economics club. Its mainstays are women's lifestyle titles like Better Homes & Gardens and Family Circle.

Soon, the two might start going steady. Time has decided it wants to offload many of its titles with the help of Meredith.

Meredith is based in Des Moines, Iowa, and calls itself a media and marketing company, catering to women. Ladies Home Journal, Parents and Midwest Living round out its catalog. Amy Colton is a marketing expert at Current Marketing. She says Meredith's tone is more about useful advice than high fashion.

"The practical side of things has done really well, especially in this economy," Colton says.

Plus, she says, moms love magazines. Colton's surveys show the majority of mothers read one to three magazines regularly, in old-fashioned, printed form.

"They like to kick back on the couch, soak in the bathtub. It's just their way of escaping, and holding a magazine and enjoying it," she says.

Rick Edmonds follows media business at the Poynter Institute, and says Meredith is profitable. It's not a hot stock or anything, but considering the state of the publishing sector overall, it's done well.

"Certainly any newspaper would be clicking its heels if it had done that well," he says.

Time and Meredith could create a new publishing company to appeal mostly to women. By spinning off titles, Time will end its reign as biggest magazine publisher in the U.S. But it will reportedly hold on to a few of its big name titles: Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated. Those happen to have mostly male readers.

The rock known as 2012 DA14 will fly past around 2:24 p.m. ET. It will be closer than many satellites and the size of an office building. And it will be nearer to the planet than anything else of its size that we know of.

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The proposed marriage of American Airlines and US Airways is likely the last in a series of industry mega-mergers. But history suggests combining two big carriers isn't easy. Meshing cultures and dealing with pilot seniority add to the complexity of combining airlines, analysts say.

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After years of being burned by Roundup, weeds like palmer amaranth, marestail and giant ragweed have evolved resistance to the herbicide. To fight them, scientists are now looking to a concept that seems straight out of sci-fi.

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An airstrike in Afghanistan's Kunar province that reportedly killed 10 civilians and four Taliban militants has reignited one of the most toxic political issues in Afghanistan: civilian casualties as a result of U.S. or ISAF strikes. But early investigations suggest that the reality on the ground in Kunar is more complex than initially reported.

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This Valentine's Day, people in more than 200 countries are participating in One Billion Rising, a call to rise up and dance to bring awareness to violence against women worldwide. Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues and founder of the V-Day antiviolence campaign, talks about her work to fund crisis centers and shelters for victims around the globe.

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The announcement of a merger between American Airlines and US Airways on Thursday represents the culmination of a decades-long shake-up in the commercial airline industry. What does the merger mean for employees, consumers and a changing industry?

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The critically acclaimed film Zero Dark Thirty has reinvigorated the debate around the interrogation techniques used during the Bush administration's war on terror. Host Neal Conan discusses the film's depiction of interrogations and what U.S. and international law says about the techniques used during the Bush era.

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A rose is a rose is a rose. But the rose business? It's neither rosy nor romantic.

“The industry overall is very competitive,” says Ben Powell, chief operating officer of Mayesh Wholesale Florist. We used to buy most of our roses from California, but foreign competition has made things thorny for American flower farmers.

"The U.S. growers of cut flowers really haven't been a major factor in roses for probably 20 years," Powell says.

Any roses you may have been lucky enough to receive, or kind enough to give, today probably came from South America. Colombia and Ecuador grow the vast majority of roses sold in the U.S. Lower costs in those countries are one of the reasons rose prices here have remained the same for the past couple decades.

In Los Angeles or New York, florists sell long-stem roses for about $70 a dozen. At the grocery store, a bouquet is just $10.

Christine Boldt, excecutive vice president of the Association of Floral Importers of Florida, says the shorter-stemmed roses now widely available at major retailers are also holding prices down.

"If you're buying it from a supermarket or a Costco, BJs or Wal-Mart, you're not paying for it to be put into a vase by a designer and put together, and having a bigger presentation," she says.

But despite the stable prices over the years, there's one time each year that roses succumb to hyperinflation, winning the love of the flower industry. On Valentine's Day, rose romantics can expect to pay much more­ -- even double.

The relationship began when Nixon sent Clinton a letter of admiration shortly after he became president. The letter gives more detail into an unlikely relationship.

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The Carnival cruise ship Triumph will dock in Mobile, Ala., late Thursday night, as the job of towing the stricken 100,000-ton ship across the Gulf of Mexico has taken longer than expected. The ship's 3,143 passengers have coped with sewage problems and a lack of ventilation, but a passenger says they've had plenty of food.

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Hadiya Pendleton, 15, became a symbol of urban gun violence when she was shot and killed in daylight on Chicago's South Side. Her death came just days after she performed in the celebration surrounding President Obama's inauguration. Host Michel Martin speaks with Hadiya's mother, Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton.

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Host Michel Martin continues the conversation with Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton. Her 15-year-old daughter was shot to death in Chicago last month, and President Obama highlighted the tragedy in his State of the Union address. Cowley-Pendleton talks about what she would like national leaders to think about when debating gun control policy.

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President Obama visits Chicago Friday to talk about gun violence. But some of the people most affected say their voices aren't being heard. Host Michel Martin speaks with Aisha Truss-Miller and Chris Buford of the Black Youth Project, the group whose petition led to presidential visit.

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A study finds those who used emergency contraception were about evenly divided between in their reasons. About half said it was because another contraceptive method had failed and half cited unprotected sex.

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Chocolate entrepreneurs say their obsession with controlling every step of production, from the farm to the finished bar, makes for better tasting chocolate, and a more ethical, open relationship with farmers.

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Chocolate entrepreneurs say their obsession with controlling every step of production, from the farm to the finished bar, makes for better tasting chocolate, and a more ethical, open relationship with farmers.

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