The Story on WUNC

Host Dick Gordon of The Story speaks with David Cooper, the part-sleuth, part-mechanic who restored a rare 1937 Delage Aerosport Coupe.

There were only 12 ever built in the 1930’s in France.They were made by hand, and the interior was handpicked by the few customers.

Cooper says that finding the oversize chrome fenders and original chassis meant researching the story of Millicent Rogers, the American heiress who owned the car and outlined her specifications with her lipstick.

On April 16, 2007, Sue Gardner was following the news of the Virginia Tech shooting on every major web site she could find. The one where she learned the most was not a news site – it was the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. The content, she says, was more comprehensive.

In the weeks after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School this past December, President Obama began talking about tightening gun control – and firearm sales boomed. Larry Hyatt runs Hyatt Guns in Charlotte, N.C., and he says that he’s seeing a growing demand for "high capacity" guns and that he’s selling as much as he would over Christmas. He stocks 7,000 guns in his store, making it one of the biggest in the country. He tells host Dick Gordon about the one thing he’d like to see changed in Washington.

Andrew Chin, a.k.a. Brushy One-String, had a vision as a child where he was playing a guitar with just one string. Since then, he’s crafted a unique style playing on one string, blending in his percussive style and utterly original voice.

As the details about three rescued women in Cleveland, Ohio unfolds, we offer a story from contributor Scott Carrier. He lived in Salt Lake City when 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted and then lived basically in plain sight for months. He says that we can be blind to what is right in front of us.

Alan Smith spent 14 years teaching philosophy and literature to violent criminals in a prison in England until he realized he was changing, slowly "becoming more of the prison than I wanted to be," and had to walk away.

Bangladesh’s garment factory collapse at Rana Plaza has put pressure on U.S. companies to respond.

Charles Kernaghan has been working for years to push companies and governments to prioritize the rights of workers in Bangladesh and elsewhere.

On this edition of The Story, he talks with host Dick Gordon about the string of recent tragedies and the complex web of forces that make change so difficult.

Late this March, Daniela Pelaez, 19, traveled from her college in New Hampshire to Washington D.C. to sit down with senators and representatives and remind them of something she’s become known for: she’s in the country illegally, there are millions like her, and they want to ask for help.