Weekend Edition Saturday (Interviews)

The 137th running of the Preakness takes place Saturday afternoon in Baltimore. Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another is vying for the second jewel in horse racing's Triple Crown. The horse, his trainer and his owner all hail from Southern California, and NPR'S Carrie Kahn reports hopes are high that a big win will give a much-needed boost to horse racing in the Golden State.

Katie Beckett died Friday morning in the same hospital where she'd once made history. Beckett was 3 years old when her case changed health care law. She was 34 when she died. NPR's Joseph Shapiro explains why she was important to other children with disabilities.

Zimbabwe's 2008 elections were marred by extreme violence. In the aftermath, the country's two main political parties were forced to share power. Now, elections are once again on the horizon. As Anders Kelto reports, the violence is escalating while many are still trying to heal.

It may seem like a long shot, but that's exactly what Peter Thiel invests in. The Silicon Valley venture capitalist, who co-founded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook, has said his support for Ron Paul is the best chance for now to encourage a libertarian movement.

Facebook's culture and the nature of its business will inevitably change after it goes public. Its finances will be much more open to scrutiny. NPR's Steve Henn tells host Scott Simon that because founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg owns so much of Facebook's stock, he will continue to have significant autonomy from Wall Street's demands.

After years of bitter controversy, the Barnes Foundation will open the doors of its new location in downtown Philadelphia on Saturday. Since 1922, the collection has been housed in the Philadelphia suburbs, where critics say the collection's owner would have wanted it to stay.

The flame for the London Olympics, which was ignited by the rays of the sun in the 2,800-year-old Temple of Hera in Greece, arrives in the UK Saturday. It was carried from Olympia in a lantern that flew aboard a gold-painted plane. Vicki Barker has more on the flame's relay race to London.

A solar eclipse is in store for the western United States on Sunday. Host Scott Simon lays out how eclipse-watchers should prepare with Dee Friesen of the Albuquerque Astronomical Society.

To be a parent is to be constantly reminded that almost everything you thought you were doing right for your children will one day turn out to be wrong. The latest revised revelation may be: Training wheels don't help kids achieve a sense of balance.

The Group of Eight is meeting at Camp David this weekend. The setting is leisurely, but there's nothing relaxing about the timing of the summit. While leaders may agree about the need for growth in the debt-ridden European economy, addressing the crisis is easier said than done.

Desire can have a profound effect on young adults during their formative years. Novelist John Irving turns 70 this year, and his latest novel is a coming-of-age story about loss, identity and AIDS — told by a bisexual narrator named Billy Abbott.

Former attorney general Nicholas Katzenbach played a major role in the nation's battle over civil rights and other pivotal moments in the 1960s. As NPR's Debbie Elliott reports, he died this week in his New Jersey home at the age of 90.

Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles has the only Planned Parenthood-funded family planning clinic in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The program has its opponents, but the school's chief nurse says 90 percent of the time, abstinence just isn't working for them.

Wisconsin Republicans convene this weekend at their state convention and may or may not endorse one of the party's candidates for the U.S. Senate. Former Gov. Tommy Thompson is running for the nomination, but his opponents consider Thompson insufficiently conservative. Wisconsin Public Radio's Chuck Quirmbach reports.

Voters in France and Germany voted decisively against the EU austerity measures last week, electing a socialist in France and ending a four-decade-old two-party system in Greece. NPR reporters Eleanor Beardsley, Sylvia Poggioli and Eric Westervelt join host Scott Simon to talk about Europe's political and economic landscape one week later.