Amazon’s HQ2 Decision; California’s Devastation Continues; 'The White Album' At 50

Plus, remembering Marvel’s Stan Lee. [NPR] by Korva Coleman and Jill Hudson First Up [Chris and Nancy Brown embrace while searching through the remains of their home, leveled by the Camp Fire in Paradise, Calif.]( Noah Berger/AP Here’s what we’re following today. The California wildfires have gotten worse: The death toll from two blazes has risen to 44. [More than 5,000 personnel are fighting the blaze]( which has destroyed more than 6,500 homes and 260 commercial buildings. Democrat Kyrsten Sinema has defeated Republican Martha McSally to win the Senate race in Arizona. Sinema’s victory flips the open seat of retiring GOP Sen. Jeff Flake. She is [the first Democrat that Arizona has elected to the Senate]( since 1988, and the first openly bisexual senator in U.S. history. Amazon's second headquarters will be in NYC and the D.C. suburbs. After a yearlong search, Amazon announced Tuesday that it will divide [its second headquarters]( between Long Island City in Queens and Arlington in Northern Virginia. The Olympics-style process brought in 238 bids from cities around the country. The company is expected to hire up to 25,000 workers in New York and another 25,000 in Crystal City, just outside of Washington, D.C. Amazon is also promising salaries of more than $100,000 annually over the next 10 to 15 years. The company also announced that Nashville, Tenn., will become a new center for its operations business and will create more than 5,000 jobs. --------------------------------------------------------------- The Daily Good How the Beatles made ‘The White Album.’ [The Beatles at St. Pancras Old Church in London on July 28, 1968.]( Apple Corps Ltd. Fifty years ago, just before the holidays in 1968, The Beatles put out not just a new album, but a double album, something relatively unheard of at the time. The album art was a stark, white, glossy cover with raised, slanted lettering. That self-titled album, with its 30 songs that span genres from American country music to avant-garde tape collage, has come to be known as "The White Album." Producer Giles Martin, who produced [the new 100-plus song celebration]( shares the remarkable stories, early demos, outtakes and stunning new mixes from the just-released deluxe version of the album. A true believer remembers Stan Lee. [Stan Lee, American comic book writer, editor, publisher and former President of Marvel Comics, attends the premiere of Doctor Strange in 2016. Lee died Monday at the age of 95.]( Frazer Harrison/NPR NPR's Glen Weldon offers a remembrance of the man born Stanley Martin Lieber, who [co-created many beloved Marvel Comics characters and more than six decades' worth of superheroes]( we could identify with: characters such as Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk, who reacted to superpowered crises in believably flawed, human ways. Lee also became the company's tireless, beloved figurehead, and our current generation’s beloved cameo king in the recent films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. --------------------------------------------------------------- Digging Deeper Why did Bill Gates give a talk with a jar of human poop by his side? [Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, gestures to a jar of human feces as he speaks at the Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing on November 6.]( Mark Schiefelbein/AP Bill Gates has a question. [Is there a toilet that doesn't need a sewer system to work?]( Gates recently spoke at the Reinvented Toilet Expo, an event in China showcasing the latest in high-tech sanitation and attended by entrepreneurs and government agencies, and told of visiting communities where "children were playing in lanes filled with human waste." The Gates Foundation (which is among NPR's financial supporters) is seeking new ways to dispose of human waste for 4.5 billion people who lack access to safe sanitation. Improving the technology behind toilets is one of Gates' self-confessed obsessions. "It's been done this way for centuries. What's been the latest advance in toilets, double-ply toilet paper?" he joked onstage. --------------------------------------------------------------- Today's Listen Michelle Obama recalls the struggle to find her place in the world in Becoming. NPR's Audie Cornish spoke to the former first lady in Chicago about her new book, which makes its long-awaited debut today. The duo talked about Obama’s reluctance to get into politics, her surprise at being married to a U.S. president and her embrace of the role of mentor and advocate for young people. (Listening time, 14:58) [▶ LISTEN]( --------------------------------------------------------------- The Picture Show Becoming Miss Navajo Nation. [Miss White Mountain Apache Queen 2018-2019, Zipporah Lupe, greets Miss Navajo contestants as they stage for the parade at the 77th Navajo Nation Fair in Window Rock, Ariz., in September.]( Caitlin O'Hara for NPR The [Miss Navajo Nation pageant]( has been held every year in Window Rock, Ariz., since 1952. Contestants meet for a weeklong celebration of the traditions of female Navajo Nation life, where they demonstrate skills ranging from sheep butchering to arranging traditional hairstyles. Photographer Caitlin O’Hara visited with this year’s contestants who practice hózhó (or beauty) of living in harmony and balance with the earth, spirits and each other. --------------------------------------------------------------- Before You Go - [Alexander Hamilton's heirlooms]( have been loaned to a Philadelphia museum by his great-great-great-great-great-grandson. The items will be on display through March 2019. - A Wisconsin school district is investigating [a photo of male high school students]( giving what looks like the Nazi Sieg Heil salute. - Jemel Roberson, a black security guard who had subdued an alleged shooter, [was himself shot and killed]( by police in a suburban Chicago bar. - Want to buy a private jet? Mexico's president-elect is [putting the presidential airplane up for sale]( since he plans to fly commercial. --------------------------------------------------------------- ✏️ What do you think of today's email? 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