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　　LORA: Traditional Appalachia cooking was crafted from a confluence of Native American, African-American and European influences. The one thing I always try to stress to visitors is that the region is not monolithic. Even the quickest study of our food reveals that. And our foodways continue to evolve as new populations and immigrant communities make a home in the mountains. I think about that every time I survey my local grocery store's intimidatingly large wall of lard RCA audio video cable and see it accented with buckets labeled "manteca." A few shelves over, bags of masa sit side-by-side with cornmeal. TUNDE: The dinner held together more than a dozen denizens of coal country. All greeted me with grace, filling me generously with many different whiskeys and potent ideas on a wide range of subjects, from the flexibility of hemp as a cash crop to the complexities of coal markets. LORA: That night, our farmhouse table included banjo and fiddle players, straight and LGBTQ folks, college professors, restless children, farmers, illustrators, policy experts, poets, film archivists and mine-safety advocates. It was a mix of people whose families have been in the mountains for generations and those that have come on their own to find a life and home in Eastern Kentucky. TUNDE: We sang and danced to the banjo and fiddle, and of course, went four-wheeling drowned with warming spirits. I left the next day, content with my experience of Appalachia. I know I saw but a tiny sliver of a sliver — most of Appalachia is not Big Switch.
I know who I am, and where I stand. I am an undocumented, black African. I am a target in Trump's America, but I found new friends in so-called Trump country. LORA: When Tunde departed, he left tubs of spices from a small Louisville African grocery we'd stopped at on our way out of the city. They've found their way into our daily home cooking, our kitchen filling with the aroma of ground hot chili peppers and sprinkled dried crawfish flakes, these tastes no longer strangers at our table. This essay was crafted in response to a summit on racism and difference in food, staged at by and .

　　Dallas City Council Repeals Plastic Bag Fee Dallas rescinded its 5-cent fee on plastic bags five months after it went into effect. Plastic bag manufactures had sued the city. A dozen other towns in Texas still restrict plastic bags. DAVID GREENE, HOST: OK, now let's talk about what motivates you to bring reusable bags when you go to the grocery store. Maybe it's believing you're helping hzspring the environment. In some places, maybe it's saving money. Back in January, Dallas joined a number of cities that charge for plastic bags. But that experiment just got sacked. Here's NPR's Dianna Douglas. DIANNA DOUGLAS, BYLINE: When Dallas adopted a five-cent fee per plastic bag, the governor-elect Greg Abbott mourned that it was the end of the Texas free-market model. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) GOV GREG ABBOTT: Texas is being California-ized, and you may not even be noticing it. DOUGLAS: Plastic bag manufacturers noticed it. They sued the city of Dallas, saying Texas state law prohibits taxes on containers. Rather than fight, the city council quickly repealed the bag fee.
A dozen other towns in Texas still restrict plastic bags. But Dallas was always a tough sell. Less than half of residents supported the fee, according to a Dallas Morning News poll. But environmental groups said it had been making a difference. Zac Trahan is at the Texas Campaign for the Environment. ZAC TRAHAN: People in neighborhood organizations that actually go out and do litter cleanups saw a huge decrease, just in the number of plastic bags they would find. DOUGLAS: In the five months that the fee was in effect, Dallas raised over half a million dollars for environmental programs from the sale of more than 12 million plastic bags. Trahan estimates that retailers would've sold 90 million bags over the same period without the fee. Dianna Douglas, NPR News.

　Bruce Campbell, King Of The B Movie Bruce Campbell last March in New York. As Sam Axe on Audio & video cable channel USA's Burn Notice, Bruce Campbell plays the disreputable sidekick to the hero. In conversation with Neal Conan, he said he's enjoying being on a show "that has ratings." You may also remember Campbell as the star of numerous B movies — think Man With the Screaming Brain. He's now directed and produced his own B movie, My Name is Bruce. He built the Western town featured in the film on his own property out of dead timber, and calls it "a very Little Rascals affair." Of the film, which didn't hit most movie major theaters, he says "it wasn't released, it escaped."

　　Buford: Come for the Coffee, Stay ... To Keep The Tiny Town Open The Buford Trading Post is the only brick and mortar retailer in the U.S. for Vietnamese PhinDeli Coffee. Along a snowy highway in the Rockies lies Buford, Wyo., elevation: 8,000 feet, population: one. This tiny town is in danger of losing its last — and only — resident, as the town's longest running business may have to close. But this is really a story about three people. The first is Jason Hirsch, Buford's town manager. He mans the Buford Trading Post, which is also the gas station, the store and well, town hall basically. Jason Hirsch, the town manager, inside the Buford Trading Post. Buford was named after General John Buford, a Civil War general. "The politics are pretty easy around here," Hirsch says. "Sometimes you know, you have arguments with yourself." Now despite his role as town manager, Hirsch is not the town's one resident. "I live about three miles south of here, so I like to say I live in the suburbs of Buford," Hirsch says. Outside in the biting wind, Hoover gives the full tour of the sprawling metropolis. Brandon Hoover, the one human resident of Buford, gets ready to feed Sugar, the unofficial town mascot. "Alright, we got the highway right next to us about 30 feet that way," he says. There's the office back here." For Hoover, it was a no-brainer to quit his job at the Candlewood Suites in Cheyenne, 30 miles down the mountain from here. "I was looking for just a way to get out of the rigamarole, get out of the rat race and just be able to regain my whole sense of perspective and sense of what this land will give you," Hoover says. But for now, his mind is on his chores. "Let's see if we can find Sug," he says. Hoover calls out, 'Sug, where you at?' " Buford's population is technically two. The town comes with a horse, Sugar — and it's his dinner time.

　　Burglar Nabbed By Greasy Fingerprints If only a Virginia man had followed the advice of many mothers, and made sure to wash his hands. The man was found guilty of breaking into a series of homes. He stole jewelry, appliances and tools. He also raided refrigerators. That's where he got in trouble. Police said he left his greasy fingerprints on an orange juice bottle. Once authorities reached the burglar's home, they discovered stolen goods, including 78 bags of popcorn. STEVE INSKEEP, host: Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep. If only a Virginia man had followed the advice of many mothers and made sure to wash his hands. The man was found guilty of breaking into a series of homes. He stole jewelry, appliances, and tools, and he also raided refrigerators, which is where he got in trouble. Police say he left his greasy fingerprints on an orange juice bottle. Once they reached the burglar's home, they discovered stolen goods, including 78 bags of popcorn. It's Morning Edition.

　Britain And Spain In Deadlock Over Gibraltar In a breach of international law, a U.K. diplomatic bag was opened by Spanish border guards as the pouch was being taken from the British protectorate of Gibraltar into Spain. Host Scott Simon speaks with Dominique Searle, editor of the Gibraltar Chronicle, about the long-running standoff between the U.K. protectorate and Spain. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Spain's time zone might be changing, but something that isn't is the continuing standoff between the Spanish government and the British Protectorate of Gibraltar. In a breach of international law, a UK diplomatic bag was opened by Spanish border guard, as the pouch was being taken from Gibraltar into Spain. This is just the latest in a number of incidents in recent months. Dominique Searle is editor of the Gibraltar Chronicle and he joins us. Thanks very much for being with us. DOMINIQUE SEARLE: Thank you. SIMON: So help us understand this pitched struggle between the two. SEARLE: Well, it's a 300-plus year old dispute between Spain and the UK over Gibraltar, but until about 10 years ago, the issue was becoming a little bit calmer. The government changed in Spain a year and a half ago and this government obviously is facing a lot of economic and other difficulties, has put the focus back on Gibraltar and people in Gibraltar feel that it's going back to the days of General Franco who was the dictator in Spain who used to pick up on Gibraltar as a distraction from a lot of the issues, domestic issues affecting Spain. SIMON: In shorthand, the Spanish government believes its our rock, it's attacked to us, it ought to be ours. The British government rg6 coaxial cable believes, wait one bloody minute here, we've got a treaty and covenants and agreements. SEARLE: That's it, and of course in the middle of all that is a community that's evolved over a long period of time, and we are all British citizens and this is our town and this is where we feel belong. And Spain has never been nice to us, so there's no reason why we're going to want to be with Spain. SIMON: It's a little hard to imagine the outrage of opening a diplomatic bag.

What was going on there? SEARLE: Well, I think it's basically symbolic. This year's been difficult for us because they've started to increase pressure at the border and if you imagine as soon as you put on queues - which in the summer reached seven hours - to cross a border that normally takes anything between 10 and 20 minutes to cross, you can imagine the sense of frustration that that creates. And I think the diplomatic bag, if you like, is notching it up because it's hitting not the local population, it hits British diplomacy, which obviously has a global standing and which, you know, is not going go be taken very well here. SIMON: I guess it's tempting for us sitting across the Atlantic to view this as a little bit like that old Peter Sellers' film, "The Mouse that Roared," but this has real implications for people, doesn't it? SEARLE: Well, I think, yes, it has implications for people and I think our biggest worry is that initially you get a lot of strong support from the British government, you get a lot of support from British newspapers, but after a while what isn't normal can become normal, you know. It's the first time, certainly in the last 30 years, that I've experienced the level of discrimination building up, personal attitudes. I mean, people in Gibraltar are now worried because if they park the car somewhere in Spain, invariably someone vandalizes it. We're feeling very much like a minority being pressured by groups of people. I mean, obviously most Spaniards are quite fine with us, but you know, when the government is being aggressive towards a people, you'll always get a lot of groups who go out there feeling that they're empowered to do this sort of thing. SIMON: Dominique Searle is editor of the Gibraltar Chronicle. Thanks so much for being with us, sir. SEARLE: Thank you.

　　British Bishops Launch Carbon Fast With the season of Lent upon us, bishops in London and Liverpool have come up with a new kind of 40-day fast. Along with the aid agency Tearfund, the bishops have launched a carbon fast. Instead of giving up chocolate, how about giving up on plastic bags or incandescent light bulbs? RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne. With the holy season of Lent upon us, the bishops of London and Liverpool have come up with a new kind of 40-day fast. Instead of giving up your favorite chocolate or chardonnay, how about cutting down on carbon? Along with the aid agency Tearfund, the British bishops have launched a carbon fast. This Lent, one could give up plastic bags or incandescent bulbs or any other carbon indulgence you could think of. This is MORNING EDITION.

And he gives me several hundred pages and says this lays out the decisions we made, why we made them. Read them and then call me up. That's what I would call an institutional leak, somebody representing an institution disclosing information to further the interest of the institution and believing they are doing the right thing in telling the truth. Personal leaks are much rarer - I would say very small percentage - where somebody actually has a personal antagonism towards someone else, where somebody is angry or wants to tear down some part of the government. And the only time I really saw a lot of those was early in the Iraq War and in the run up to the Iraq War. First, the intelligence community was very upset by the way the Bush administration was disregarding any intelligence that went against its view that we should go to war with Iraq. And then later, as the Iraq War gets underway, a lot of senior officers were very upset with the way Donald Rumsfeld clumsily handled the war in their view and kind of almost walked away from it and said that's not my problem and didn't pay it much attention. And I get phone calls from generals who were just venting about Rumsfeld and were, you know, really seriously unhappy with him. GROSS: Well, there are things that Donald Trump has said and tweeted that have antagonized the CIA and the FBI. He just fired the head of the FBI. So do you think - do you suspect that there's a lot of leaking now from within those organizations because they're - because they don't trust the president or because they want to, you know, get even with him for things that he said about them, for ways that he's denigrated them? RICKS: I think - basically the Trump administration exists in a state of permanent crisis. So where the leaks are kind of both personal and institutional - this big leak that The Washington Post wrote about recently where Trump, talking to the Russians, disclosed very sensitive intelligence information LED Filament Bulb and, perhaps, according to some people, may have burned a very important source in the war against ISIS, the terrorist organization. That struck me as both personal and institutional. One of the big rules in the intelligence organizations is you don't disclose sources of information. And, by the way, you especially don't disclose it to Russians in the Oval Office who have cameras rolling. And I'm sure that phone calls have gone out the next day from Russian intelligence organizations saying here's what Trump said yesterday in the Oval Office. So I think there was a personal feeling but also a feeling institutionally. That's a very bright line you just crossed, Mr. President. You don't do that. And we need to send him a signal, and they did. GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Tom Ricks. He covered the Pentagon for many years at The Washington Post. He's written five books about the military and the wars that we've fought. One of those books is about the war in Iraq, published in 2006. It was called "Fiasco." It was a best-seller. Now he writes a column called The Best Defense for Foreign Policy magazine, and he has a new book called "Churchill And Orwell: The Fight For Freedom." Let's take a short break, and then we'll be right back. This is FRESH AIR. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) GROSS: This is FRESH AIR, and if you're just joining us, my guest is Tom Ricks. He has a new book called "Churchill And Orwell: The Fight For Freedom." He covered the Pentagon for many years for The Washington Post, covered the war in Iraq, wrote a book about that war called "Fiasco," which was a best-seller. And now he writes a column called The Best Defense for Foreign Policy magazine. I'm just wondering did you ever get a leak that you thought like - which - somebody gave you like a hundred pages of documents, and you thought, like, wow.