Tonight:

The undecided prove decisive. I'll speak with a rabbi who moved from the U.S. to Israel -- and has now won a seat in the Knesset, after voters turn out in force for a new centrist party.

A somewhat less sober second thought. County Kerry, Ireland changes its laws to allow people to drive after a drink or two -- although the County's mayor sees a tipple threat.

The lonely death of Kinew James. After reports than an inmate in Saskatoon died of a heart attack despite calling repeatedly for help, her mother wants answers.

The evolution of scientific research. The U.S. National Institute of Health says it's time to re-evaluate whether chimpanzees should be subjected to experiments.

In one cents, it's genius -- a lot of one cents. A Chicago couple covers the entire floor of their bedroom in copper coins -- and interior designers everywhere experience pennies envy.

And...in the end, it's hard to tell who got whose goat. After an Australian man's pet is charged for eating part of a public garden, he tries to let Gary -- that's his pet goat -- defend himself in court.

As It Happens, the Wednesday edition. Radio that brings you a story that's black and white -- with shades of graze.

There's a new kid in town.

The votes are still being counted in Israel after yesterday's national election, but one thing is clear: while Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party are still Number One, the man and party who came in at Number Two are more than a bit of a surprise.

Former Israeli journalist Yair Lapid, and his new centrist party Yesh Atid, are basking in electoral glory today. All nineteen members of Yesh Atid elected to the Israeli Knesset are new to the Knesset. They are also a very diverse group.

Dov Lipman is one of them. We reached him in Beit Shemesh.

Yesterday on "As It Happens", Carol spoke with a woman named Penny Letourneau. She and her partner, Mike Dent, were caretakers of a Winnipeg apartment building -- until they were fired and asked to leave by the building's owners for refusing to turn down the heat -- in January.

After that story went to air, we received this email from Elizabeth Mitchell:

"I live in the building in question, in the suite above Penny and Mike. In fact, I think it was me Penny was referring to when she mentioned a university professor who'd been in the building ten years. She was slightly mistaken: I have in fact lived here for four years, and I'm just a law student, not a professor. But I did tell Penny last night, when she told me what had happened, that she and Mike are the best caretakers we've had in my time here.

"Penny and Mike live in this building, and as such have an interest in maintaining livable conditions. For World Wide Management, however, the heat in this building is little more than a dollar amount on a bill. In my experience, the company has no interest in what is comfortable or in the best interest of tenants; they will do the least possible in every instance to eke by.

"Have I mentioned that it's really, really cold here in Winnipeg? Instructing a caretaker to turn off the heat for any period is unconscionable in present circumstances.

"Having caretakers like Penny and Mike, who ensure that acceptable living conditions are maintained, even in the face of inhumane direction from their employer, becomes an invaluable asset for those who might not otherwise have a voice. It's a real shame to lose them."

That e-mail came to us from Elizabeth Mitchell, in Winnipeg.

We called Ms. Letourneau again today to get an update on what's happening in the building. After our conversation with her yesterday, by-law enforcement officers from the city of Winnipeg visited their apartment building. They found that the thermostat had been set to ten degrees Celsius, well below the legal standard. The officers have made World Wide Management turn up the thermostat setting to eighteen degrees -- and the company has been ordered to provide a space heater for Ms. Letourneau and Mr. Dent.

Once again we contacted World Wide Management for an interview. And once again nobody from the company responded to our request.

There are new allegations of abuse and neglect against Canada's Correctional Services today, after an inmate at a federal psychiatric prison in Saskatoon died on the weekend.

Thirty-five-year-old Kinew James was serving a fifteen-year-sentence for manslaughter, assault, and a series of other offences, when she died of a heart attack. But there are reports -- allegedly from other inmates -- that Ms. James was in physical pain, and asking for help hours before her death -- and that her pleas went unanswered by prison workers.

The story is all-too-reminiscent of the death of Ashley Smith, who choked to death at a Kingston, Ontario facility while guards watched.

Kinew James's mother Grace Campbell has questions about what happened to her daughter. We've reached her at home in Winnipeg.

In the search for attractive, alternative building materials one Chicago couple has invested every last penny.

Well, maybe "invested" isn't the right word. In fact, they've glued every last penny. To the floor.

Emily Belden and Ryan Lange's bedroom floor is now adorned with nearly sixty-thousand pennies. We reached them in Chicago to find out why.

All over Ireland tonight, pubs are abuzz.

In a surprising turn of events on Monday, councillors passed a motion to allow drivers to get behind the wheel after they've been drinking in one rural county -- county Kerry.

Terry O'Brien is the Mayor of County Kerry. He voted against that motion. We reached him at home in Tralee, Ireland.

Chimpanzees have been working for the U.S. government for decades. That is, if you consider living in a cage and being the subject of experiments "work".

But for most research chimpanzees in the US, that may all be over.

A working group within the US National Institutes of Health, or NIH, has recommended sweeping changes in how chimpanzees are used in research...including whether they need to be used at all.

Laura Bonar is Program Director with Animal Protection of New Mexico, a state that has been at the centre of chimp research and breeding for decades. We reached her in Washington, D.C. where the recommendations were presented.

When the authorities slapped Jim Dezarnaul with a fine of about four-hundred-and-fifty dollars for vandalism, they very likely had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

In what may well be a landmark case for the Australian legal system, it wasn't Mr. Dezarnaul who showed up for his day in court. It was his pet goat, Gary.

We reached Mr. Dezarnaul -- or Jimbo Bazoobi, as he prefers to be known -- in Sydney, Australia.

It's a dangerous world run by gangs and filled with hardened criminals.

Mexican prisons are known for their violence and overcrowding. But lately, they have also earned a reputation for their music.

Every year, bands from the country's prisons hold a competition. And the winner this year, from a jail in Mexico City, is a group of prisoners who call themselves Fuera de Control.

Our sound of the day is their song, "La Nave Del Olvido," which means "Oblivion's Vessel."

She was never in the spotlight, but she didn't need fame to do her work.

Northern Ireland has lost lost one of its most accomplished social rights activists. Inez McCormack -- who died of cancer on Monday, at the age of sixty-nine.

Since the late 1960s, Ms. McCormack -- a trade unionist -- worked tirelessly for the disadvantaged in Belfast, and Northern Ireland at large. She was a Protestant who refused to sit by as her Catholic counterparts faced work-place and cultural discrimation.

A major milestone came in 1998 when Ms. McCormack helped to pass the Good Friday Agreement, legislation that -- broadly speaking -- ensured cooperation between Northern Ireland, England, and the Republic of Ireland, but, more specifically, addressed many issues concerning civil and cultural rights. It was her behind-the-scenes involvement in the Good Friday Agreement that caught the attention of then American First Lady, Hilary Clinton.

In 2009, actress Meryl Streep played Inez McCormack on Broadway, in a play called "Seven." When interviewed about her new life as a stage character, though, Ms. McCormack tolerated no gushing, instead deflecting attention to the many women for whom she fought -- the cleaners and care workers.

In May of last year, Inez McCormack continued working to defend -- or, in many cases, establish -- the rights of underprivileged residents, as plans were discussed and debated for a plan to turn Girdwood, an old military base, into a mixed-income housing development.

In this clip from an interview last July, distributed by the non-profit Bureau for International Reporting, Ms. McCormack explains why development projects like Girdwood still need attention in Northern Ireland.

When it comes to renewable energy, it's about as grand a gesture as you could imagine.

The Belgian government has announced plans to build a small island off the country's North Sea coast -- an island that will be used to store energy generated by wind power.

Mr. Johan Vande Lanotte is Belgium's North Sea Minister. We reached him in Kortrijk, Belgium.

Questions about what actually happened in Benghazi on September eleventh last year -- and who bears responsibility for the attack on the American consulate that left Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other staff dead -- have gone unanswered.

Today, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And she faced questions about whether her administration recognised the incident as a planned terrorist attack. For the record, here is part of her exchange with Republican Senator Ron Johnson.

He was known as the voice of the movement. And when the movement was killed, he too was murdered.

In the hours and days after the September eleventh, 1973, military coup d'etat in Chile, thousands were taken into detention, tortured and killed. Among them was the popular singer-songwriter Victor Jara -- who was tortured and then shot dead on September sixteenth, 1973.

Late last month, a judge in Chile indicted eight former military officers in Mr. Jara's death. And now Chile's Supreme Court has filed an extradition request against a former Chilean army officer who lives in Florida. He is believed to have pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Victor Jara.

For almost forty years, Joan Turner de Jara has been seeking the truth in the death of her late husband. We reached Joan Turner de Jara in Santiago, Chile.

Now, here's one of the songs that made Mr. Jara so popular. From 1969, this is "Te Recuerdo Amanda" -- "I Remember You, Amanda".

Dateline: Tysfjord, Norway.A lot of people who've had near-death experiences report seeing a "light at the end of the tunnel", to which they are strangely drawn. And now, a real-life incident has provided a clue as to why that tunnel light might be so attractive -- that also serves as a warning not to follow that light.

Because it might be an inferno of goat cheese.

The Brattli Tunnel in Arctic Norway was recently closed for days after an enormous, difficult-to-extinguish cheese fire erupted inside it. Twenty-seven tonnes of brown goat cheese called "Brunost" somehow burst into flame, and then burned for five days, emitting noxious fumes that slowed firefighters down. The cheese's high concentration of fat and sugar added fuel to the fire -- police say that it burned like gasoline.

A truck was carrying the Brunost through the tunnel when the fire started. After noticing the flames, the truck driver abandoned his vehicle about three hundred metres from the tunnel entrance.

The cheese fire damage is so extensive that parts of the tunnel ceiling have caved in -- which could mean the tunnel will be closed for more than three weeks.

So be like that driver, and turn away from the light at the end of the tunnel. You will survive -- but it will be a close chèvre.

Canadians have a special talent for complaining about the weather. Even greater is our talent for complaining about people who complain about the weather.

The fact is, this is January. And we're in Canada. So yeah, the weather is going to be a little cold and a touch messy. Tonight in Winnipeg, it'll get down to minus thirty-one degrees. And that's without the windchill. And it's supposed to snow. In Yellowknife, it'll be minus twenty-eight. And it's supposed to snow. And in St. John's, Newfoundland, the temperature will drop to minus twelve. And it will snow. And that's what winter is all about, Charlie Brown.

But you might recall that St. John's was also hit by a blizzard less than two weeks ago. Fifty-two centimetres of snow fell on the city. And yesterday, they got another dumping of snow. And between the snow and the wind they've had some power outages.

So CBC Radio's morning show in St. John's decided to help their listeners weather the storm by giving away a few crank radios. And in order to win, you had to call in and nominate a cranky person.

Here are some of the nominees called into the St. John's Morning Show host, Anthony Germain.