Protecting Public Servants: Is it Impossible?
After news broke of the attempt on Congresswoman Giffords' life in Tucson, "60 Minutes Overtime" spoke with former Secret Service agent Clint Hill. "This situation in Arizona brings back memories of 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated," Hill said. "One individual can cause such mayhem and problems throughout the entire country."
Continue Reading »Staying One Step Ahead of Danger
Correspondent Byron Pitts has covered wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, natural disasters in Haiti and America, but the palpable feeling of danger he felt in Mexico was odd even for this seasoned reporter. In fact, according to "Reporters Without Borders," Mexico was the second most deadly place in the world for reporters in 2010 (second only to Pakistan and tied with Iraq) with seven journalists killed there.
Continue Reading »Playing the Odds
For the vast majority of adults, casino gambling is a perfectly safe and enjoyable hobby. But two to three percent of gamblers will develop a gambling problem. And, as Lesley Stahl reported this week on the "60 Minutes" broadcast, the increased speed of modern slot machines can make players more vulnerable to gambling addiction.
Continue Reading »High Times in the 1970s
This week "60 Minutes" correspondent Byron Pitts reports on Mexico's battle against violent drug cartels. It's well known that American demand for drugs helps fuel the violence in Mexico, and America's appetite for getting high is nothing new: just take a look at Morley Safer's 1975 report on the small Kentucky town of Madisonville.
Continue Reading »The Basement Tapes: Edward R. Murrow and Louis Armstrong
For this week's broadcast, the "60 Minutes" team of Morley Safer, David Browning, and Diane Beasley, followed jazz musician Wynton Marsalis to Havana, Cuba. As our producers tried to stay awake for the band's late-night jam sessions on the road, they talked of another reporter from another time: Edward R. Murrow. In 1955, Murrow followed jazz icon Louis Armstrong around the world, producing a remarkable record of Satchmo's stops in Europe and Africa.
Continue Reading »Fat City, Revisited
Long before losing weight became a TV reality show, the city of Durham, N.C. was the place to go for the seriously obese. Back in 2002, Morley Safer explored how this quiet southern town had traded tobacco scales for the bathroom scales, and was proud to be called "Fat City."
Continue Reading »Bluejay: Getting to Know the Mind of a Child Prodigy
A special post from Bill Owens:
Child prodigies have always been a favorite story target for "60 Minutes" but as a producer who covered "harder" stories, I wasn't looking for one. In fact, I had just about wrapped up my first "soft" story, a profile of opera star Placido Domingo, when I found out about a little twelve year old boy who was making a big splash up the street from our offices at The Julliard School, a world famous music conservancy in Manhattan.
Continue Reading »The Boss's Pick
For Overtime's special holiday show, we asked the boss at "60 Minutes" to choose a favorite piece from over the years and share it with our online viewers.
Continue Reading »Coldplay's "Christmas Lights" Unplugged
Two years ago this week, Coldplay's lead singer, Chris Martin, gave "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft a tour of the band's recording studio in London. In this video, Kroft revisits the scene with Ann Silvio, editor of "60 Minutes Overtime," recalling how Martin scribbled the name of a new song, called "Christmas Lights," on his piano.
Continue Reading »Marilu Henner's Super-Memory Summit
This week on "60 Minutes," Lesley Stahl reported on a very rare ability: to remember each day of your life as if it happened yesterday. It's called "superior autobiographical memory" and scientists have only identified a handful of people in the world who have it. One of them is actress Marilu Henner of "Taxi," oddly enough.
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