Mark Memmott

Credit Doby Photography / NPR

Mark Memmott is one of the hosts of NPR's "The Two-Way" news blog.

"The Two-Way," which Memmott helped to launched when he came to NPR in 2009, focuses on breaking news, analysis, and the most compelling stories being reported by NPR News and other news media.

Before joining NPR, Memmott worked for nearly 25 years as a reporter and editor at USA Today. He focused on a range of coverage from politics, foreign affairs, economics, and the media. He's reported from places across the Unites States and the world, including half a dozen trips to Afghanistan in 2002-2003.

During his time at USA Today, Memmott, helped launch and lead three USAToday.com news blogs: "On Deadline;" "The Oval;" and "On Politics," the site's 2008 presidential campaign blog.

One Of World's Oldest Cypress Trees, 'The Senator,' Burns In Florida

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Credit Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP

On Monday (Jan. 16, 2012) Seminole County firefighter Al Caballero applied water to the smoldering base of The Senator.

Credit Florida Forest Service

The Senator before the fire.

By Mark Memmott

Originally published on Tue January 17, 2012 1:03 pm

Investigators are now saying arson was not the likely cause of a fire that on Monday destroyed a cypress tree in Central Florida that was an estimated 3,500 years old — making it perhaps the oldest such tree in the nation and one of the oldest in the world.

Known as "The Senator," the tree that once stood 165 feet tall (before a hurricane lopped off about 45 feet in 1925) was more likely brought down by a fire that had been smoldering inside it — without being detected — since a lightning strike about a week ago, investigators say.

11:35 am

Tue January 17, 2012

Romney Says He's Taxed At 15 Percent Rate

Credit Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney at a campaign rally in Florence, S.C., earlier today (Jan. 17, 2012).

By Mark Memmott

He has probably paid an effective federal income tax rate of about 15 percent in recent years, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told reporters in South Carolina a short time ago.

10:15 am

Tue January 17, 2012

$45 Million Hospital Bill: It's Enough To Really Make You Sick

Credit Mark Wilson / Getty Images

With a bill that big, you'll need quite a stack of these.

By Mark Memmott

Morning Edition's staff noticed a story from over the long holiday weekend that's just too much of a "no-way!" not to pass along.

9:30 am

Tue January 17, 2012

'Get On Board!' Coast Guard Officer Rages At Italian Cruise Ship Captain

Credit Laura Lezza / Getty Images

The cruise ship Costa Concordia, earlier today (Jan. 17, 2012).

By Mark Memmott

Listen

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli, reporting on the dramatic phone call

Dramatic audio has emerged of an irate Italian Coast Guard officer ordering the captain of the cruise ship Costa Concordia to "get back on board!" as the stricken vessel lay crippled off the coast of Tuscany on Friday night.

As NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports, in the telephone call Coast Guard Capt. Gregorio De Falco shouts as he accuses Costa Concordia Capt. Francesco Schettino of abandoning his ship. Schettino was apparently sitting in a row boat at the time.

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1:00 pm

Tue January 17, 2012