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STEVE INSKEEP, Host: Now, here are some facts on that Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It was created after the 1973 oil embargo. Arab countries stopped petroleum exports to protest U.S. support for Israel. And the reserve was designed to respond to serious supply disruptions like that one. It has about 700 million barrels of oil in storage, which is a lot but not limitless. If it was the only source of oil in the entire world, it would be used up in a few days.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, Host: The oil is stored in salt caverns on the Texas and Louisiana coast. And many of those underground caverns are so big you could shove Chicago's Sears Tower inside with room to spare.

In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed legislation creating the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It's capable of holding up to one billion barrels of oil as an insurance policy against future supply disruptions. The reserve was created after the 1973 oil embargo, when Arab countries stopped oil exports to protest U.S. support for Israel.

STEVE INSKEEP, host: Regulators are curious about the social network. That's the top of NPR's business news.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at a recent deal between Facebook and Goldman Sachs. That's according to today's Wall Street Journal. Despite some talk of going public, Facebook is still a private company. And because it has fewer than 500 shareholders, it is not required to disclose certain financial information.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: But in the deal reported earlier this week, Goldman Sachs is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Facebook. The investment bank also plans to create a separate investment vehicle that will allow its top clients to buy stakes in Facebook.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Regulators are looking at whether this circumvents financial disclosure rules.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into a recent deal between Facebook and Goldman Sachs, according to The Wall Street Journal. Despite some talk of going public, Facebook is still a private company. And because it has fewer than 500 shareholders, it's not required to disclose certain financial information.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. People in London celebrated the anniversary of the time much of their city burned. They re-enacted the Great Fire of London. For the 350th anniversary, they torched a wooden replica of historic buildings. We do not know if some people saw the newly burning London as a comment on Brexit. We can say that people recovered from the fire in 1666. They rebuilt St. Paul's Cathedral on the ruins, as it still stands today. It's MORNING EDITION.

For the 350th anniversary of the fire, participants torched a wooden replica of historic buildings. People recovered from the Great Fire — rebuilding St. Paul's Cathedral as it stands today.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: And just in case taxpayers do not have enough to worry about, the Justice Department is suing a major tax preparation service for fraud.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Officials say Jackson Hewitt stores in four states cheated on tens of thousands of tax returns. As NPR's Scott Horsley reports, the case has led to calls for more oversight of the tax preparation industry.</s>SCOTT HORSLEY: The lawsuits say operators of more than 125 Jackson Hewitt storefronts in Chicago, Atlanta, Detroit and Raleigh-Durham fostered an environment where tax fraud was encouraged. Assistant Attorney General Eileen O'Connor says preparers turned a blind eye to phony W2s, imaginary dependents and trumped up expenses, including 25,000 gallons of gasoline that a barber claimed for business use.</s>SCOTT HORSLEY: Assistant Attorney General EILEEN O'CONNOR (U.S. Department of Justice): Some of the tax return preparers who were hired by these franchise operations were hired because they would not know any better.</s>SCOTT HORSLEY: And that's part of the problem, says Roger Harris of the National Association of Enrolled Agents. Harris complains anyone can hang out a shingle and call himself a tax preparer.</s>Mr. ROGER HARRIS (Government Relations Chair, National Association of Enrolled Agents): If you go to get your haircut, you know that person has a license. Why should not be true of the person who prepares your taxes?</s>SCOTT HORSLEY: Lawmakers have thought about adopting a licensing requirement for all tax preparers. But IRS Commissioner Mark Everson says any regulation won't stop fraud.</s>Mr. MARK EVERSON (Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service): The vast majority of returns are prepared correctly by diligent professionals. That is a cornerstone of our system.</s>SCOTT HORSLEY: The operators targeted by the Justice Department represent only about two percent of all Jackson Hewitt franchises. Jackson Hewitt says it does not expect a material effect on profits.</s>SCOTT HORSLEY: Scott Horsley, NPR News.

The Justice Department has filed civil lawsuits in four states against operators of the tax preparation chain Jackson Hewitt. Investigators say the company encouraged customers to claim fake deductions and seek refunds based on phony earnings statements.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: Good morning. I'm Rachel Martin. If you're talking with a British person and they say to you, with the greatest respect, you'd probably think, hey, this person is really hearing me out. Nope. In British sarcasm, it actually means, I think you are an idiot. According to a new poll in the U.K., most Americans just don't get the British art of passive aggression. Other examples, that's a very brave proposal actually means you are insane. And if your British buddy says, I'll bear it in mind, he has forgotten it already. It's MORNING EDITION.

If a British person says, "with the greatest respect." In British sarcasm it means, "I think you are an idiot." A U.K. poll says most Americans don't get the British art of passive aggression.

ANDREA SEABROOK, host: Poor Kazakhstan just can't seem to catch a break. This week came news that the country's freshly printed currency contains a spelling error. The word written incorrectly on every bill is bank. This, of course, comes on the heels on the Borat debacle, a new film featuring the fictional Kazakh documentarian who is racist, sexist and anti-Semitic has raised the ire of Kazakhstan's government, which claims that the central Asian nation is being slandered. That reaction, though, has only served to draw even more attention to the movie and Borat's buffoon-like portrayal of his alleged countrymen. As for the Kazak money, members of Parliament are encouraging the government not to distribute the typographically challenged bills. But the Central Bank says it will go ahead and put them into circulation next month, then gradually withdraw them to correct the spelling. I wonder how many they'll get back?

Currency unveiled in Kazakhstan misspells the word "bank." It's bad timing for a country lampooned by the film Borat. Authorities will distribute the new money then slowly retire the bills that carry the mistake.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: NPR's business news starts gas prices dipping.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: For the first time this year, gasoline prices have come down a bit. The Lundberg Survey says the average price for a gasoline of regular fell almost six cents over the last couple of weeks - down to $3.74. Might not sound like much of an improvement, but the price had been increasing for the last two months, up more than 50 cents.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Part of the rise is because oil companies have idled production to prepare for the busy spring and summer driving seasons.

On Sunday, the Lundberg Survey reported gasoline prices fell more than 5.5 cents a gallon. That may not sound like a whole lot, but it's the first price drop all year.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: And today's last word in business is extreme buzz.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: If your regular coffee is not strong enough to jolt you awake in the morning, maybe you'll be interested in a cup of Death Wish, which is our last word in business.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Death Wish is the name of a coffee roaster in upstate New York. It claims to sell the strongest coffee in the world: 200 percent more caffeine than your typical coffee shop brew, according to the website, which also calls Starbuck's "sissy coffee."</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The owners say they found a highly caffeinated bean that they roast medium dark for a strong flavor. Death Wish coffee costs $20 a pound. And the company is so sure of the buzz that they say you'll get, that they have a 60-day, 110 percent money back guarantee if you feel insufficiently wired after drinking it.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Or perhaps I should say: andthat'sthebusinessnewsonMORNINGEDITIONfromNPRNews.I'mSteveInskeep.

Death Wish is the name of a coffee roaster in upstate New York. It claims to sell the strongest coffee in the world: 200 percent more caffeine than the typical coffee shop brew, according to the company's website.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: Good morning, I'm David Greene. Up for sale, one Fiat 500L, slightly used by the pope - yes, Francis is ditching the car he rode around in on his trip to the U.S. last fall. The modest vehicle is up for auction at the Philadelphia Auto Show Black Tie Tailgate next weekend. The proceeds will go to charity, as you might expect. The compact Fiat gets 33 miles to the gallon and retails for around $20,000. Auctioneers expect it to get a lot more than that. You're listening to MORNING EDITION.

Pope Francis is ditching the car he rode around in on his trip to the U.S. last fall. The modest vehicle is up for auction at the Philadelphia Auto Show Black Tie Tailgate next weekend.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host: One more Olympic note. A stunning upset today in tae kwon do. Defending world champion Juan Antonio Ramos of Spain lost to a relative unknown, 21-one-year-old Rohullah Nikpai of Afghanistan. With the win came a bronze medal. It's the first medal ever for Afghanistan. Nikpai has been practicing tae kwon do since he was 10, though he told the Associated Press this: My training situation is a lot like the situation in my country - it's not good. Then again, he may get a new gym in the new house that he's been offered courtesy of the Afghan government.

Afghanistan won its first Olympic medal ever today. Rohullah Nikpai won a bronze in the men's under 58-kilogram tae kwon do event in Beijing. Afghan President Hamid Karzai called Nikpai to congratulate him, a presidential spokesman said.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: NPR's business news starts with a win for Apple.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: Over the weekend, the Obama administration vetoed a ban on imports of older iPad and iPhone models. This kind of White House veto hasn't happened since 1987. The decision by the U.S. trade representative reverses a ruling by the International Trade Commission.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: In June, the ITC ordered a stop on certain imports of Apple products, saying the company infringed a patent of Samsung. The White House said it overturned the ITC ruling because of its effect on competitive conditions in U.S. economy.

Over the weekend, the Obama administration vetoed a ban on imports of older iPad and iPhone models. This kind of White House veto hasn't happened since 1987. The decision by the U.S. trade representative reverses a ruling by the International Trade Commission.

STEVE INSKEEP, host: NPR's business news starts with North American leaders meeting as free trade is under attack.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: President Bush meets today with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon and Canada's Prime Minister Steven Harper. And one item they are likely to mention is free trade. President Bush says he wants the partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement to talk about expanding trade in the rest of this hemisphere.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: But Mr. Bush is facing resistance in his own country. Over the weekend, the president voiced his frustration that a deal with Colombia is stuck in Congress.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: President GEORGE W. BUSH: The Speaker of the House has chosen to block the Colombia Free Trade Agreement instead of giving it an up or down vote that Congress committed to. Her action is unprecedented and extremely unfortunate. I hope that the speaker with change her mind. If she does not, the agreement will be dead, and this will be bad for American workers and bad for America's national security.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Now as the Mexican and Canadian leaders visit the United States, they may take note of the campaign to succeed President Bush. Republican John McCain proudly describes himself as a free trader. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have competed over who is more critical of free trade deals.

President Bush meets Monday with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and they're likely to discuss free trade. President Bush says he wants the partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement to talk about expanding trade in the rest of the hemisphere.

RENEE MONTAGNE, Host: NPR's business news starts with Toyota putting on the brakes.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, Host: Toyota says it's suspending plans to produce its Prius hybrid car in the U.S. A plant is now under construction in Tupelo, Mississippi. It was to be the first plant to make the popular gas-electric hybrid in this country. But as auto sales plunged, Toyota has been scaling back on production, and yesterday it said it will indefinitely delay production at the new Prius plant. Toyota will finish the building, but it won't install equipment. And the hundred or so people involved in the construction will keep their jobs.

Toyota says it's suspending plans to produce its Prius hybrid car in the U.S. A plant under construction near Tupelo, Miss., was to be the first to make the popular gas-electric hybrid in the U.S. But as auto sales plunged, Toyota has been scaling back production. Toyota will finish the building but won't install equipment.

NOEL KING, HOST: Good morning. I'm Noel King. Almost two years ago, a very tiny hippopotamus was born at the Cincinnati Zoo. Fiona was born six weeks prematurely and weighed only 29 pounds. That's less than half of what's considered normal. The zoo fought to keep her alive, even bringing in the Cincinnati Children's Hospital to care for her.</s>NOEL KING, HOST: Well, earlier this week, tiny Fiona hit a milestone. She now weighs a thousand pounds. That is holiday weight gain worth celebrating. It's MORNING EDITION.

Nearly two years ago, Fiona was born six weeks prematurely and weighed only 29 pounds — less than half of what's considered normal. This week, she hit a milestone. She now weighs a thousand pounds.

NOEL KING, HOST: Good morning. I'm Noel King. A few years ago, U.S. diplomats in Cuba complained of hearing a high-pitched tone and then getting headaches and nausea. The U.S. worried it was a sonic attack. Some diplomats recorded the sound and circulated it. Now two scientists who analyzed the recording say they know what it is. It's crickets. They add, it's not proof that the diplomats weren't targeted by something else, but that particular sound, they think - just bugs. It's MORNING EDITION.

In 2016, diplomats said there were persistent, high-pitched sounds which left them feeling sick. Officials worried of a "sonic attack." Analysis suggests the noise could be singing of a loud cricket.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: Good morning. I'm David Greene in Paris, where a man pulled up on a bicycle Saturday, towing a grand piano and began playing John Lennon's "Imagine." He was outside the Bataclan, the concert venue where gunmen killed dozens of people Friday.</s>DAVID GREENE, HOST: Yesterday, the British newspaper The Guardian identified him as Davide Martello. He said he'd been in a pub in Germany when he saw news of the attacks and immediately hit the road for Paris. I can't bring people back, he said, but I can inspire them with music. It's MORNING EDITION.

The Guardian reports Davide Martello arrived outside the concert area where dozens were killed in Paris. He was towing a grand piano. He was in Germany, heard about the attacks and headed to Paris.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep in praise of an honest man - honest, though, not safe. Police say Alejandro Barraza drove 131 miles per hour in Phoenix. Apparently that's over the limit, so he was tracked by plane and then by a motorcycle officer who stopped him. One-thirty-one is fast enough to get you jailed in Arizona. But as he was led away, police say Mr. Barraza said he felt lucky the police did not catch him when he was doing 160. You're listening to MORNING EDITION.

Police in Phoenix say Alejandro Barraza was driving 131 miles per hour — fast enough to go to jail. As he was led away, police say Barraza said he felt lucky that he wasn't caught at 160.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host: You can count commentator Paul Ford among the legions of technically inclined music fans. But for all of his computer skills and his love of music, he could not stay in control of all of the music in his collection.</s>PAUL FORD: My heavy, shiny external hard drive, which held all of my music, is now a useless broken lump. It used to have this beautiful relationship with my computer, a relationship consummated over a translucent USB cable, but now my computer won't talk to the hard drive anymore and I am 10,000 songs the poorer for it. Of course, I didn't have any backups, so I tried to fix the drive for an hour and then I just gave up. It's gone. But I was a little surprised at how indifferent I was to my hard drive's fate. My reaction was more of an, `Ah, well' than any great sadness. Honestly, it was almost a relief.</s>PAUL FORD: Hard drives, MP3 players, those lists of songs, they tell you a lot about a person: the sort of things they listen to, the choices they make. The same tiny iPod might reveal its owner as a glutton for music or a minimalist. Or, in the case of a friend of mine, it might represent something different because his girlfriend bought him an iPod and put 300 of his favorite songs on it, and then they broke up. Now he can't add music to the thing or import any new songs because of the way the software works with the built-in licensing controls. He can only listen to the final playlist through his headphones, unable to add or remove music until the day comes when he's willing to erase all that's on there and start again.</s>PAUL FORD: I know I live a spoiled life when it's a relief to lose all of my music. All of that digital stuff was weighing me down, even if it is almost weightless.</s>ROBERT SIEGEL, host: Paul Ford is an editor at Harper's magazine, and he's the author of the novel "Gary Benchley, Rock Star."</s>ROBERT SIEGEL, host: This is NPR, National Public Radio.

For all of his computer skills and love of music, commentator Paul Ford couldn't stay in control of all the music in his collection. When his hard drive crashed recently, he lost 10,000 songs. Paul Ford is an editor at Harper's magazine and the author of the novel, Gary Benchley, Rock Star.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Let's take a poetry break now with a few more of your Twitter poems. It's a beautiful day here in Washington, D.C., so a good time to hear a few reflections on springtime and nature, like this one from Mark Holoweiko in Michigan.</s>MARK HOLOWEIKO: Pointing to the sun, sandhill cranes and weathervanes, winter on the run.</s>MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Thanks, Mark. We hope you get to enjoy some sunshine this weekend. Winter on the run is something our next Twitter poet doesn't have to deal with. This is from Zach Street in Hilo, Hawaii.</s>ZACH STREET: Bead me, waters of the sky. Like a tender leaf, my skin is thirsty for rain.</s>MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Thank you, Zach. Let's do one more today. This one is by Anna King in Richland, Washington state. It's titled "Walla Walla Road." (Reading) Onion peel butterflies unfurl their wings, flit past my panes as blacktop slips west.</s>MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Anna tweeted that poem with a beautiful watercolor painting of a country road.</s>MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: You can check out our hashtag #nprpoetry on Twitter to see all of the submissions we've gotten so far. And remember, you can submit your poems to us all month long. You might just hear your work on the air.

Listeners have sent in more poems as part of our month-long poetry series, #NPRpoetry. Today's poems reflect on nature and springtime, from sandhill cranes in Michigan to rainstorms in Hawaii.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: All right, we have an update now on a major battle in the publishing industry. It has pitted Amazon against the publishing company Hachette, and it has some authors so angry they're taking their fight to Amazon's board of directors. Here's NPR's Neda Ulaby.</s>NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: At issue is this, Amazon wants Hachette to charge less for e-books, and Hachette is not giving in. So for the past three months, Amazon's retaliated by making it harder to order books by Hachette writers online.</s>DOUGLAS PRESTON: They're being absolutely crushed by this.</s>NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: Bestselling thriller writer, Douglas Preston, is just one of the many Hachette writers who say their sales have dropped 60 to 90 percent since this fight began, and the stakes are rising. Fall is when book publishing really heats up, and Preston almost laughed when I wondered whether Hachette authors are worried.</s>DOUGLAS PRESTON: The word worried is an understatement. I mean, there are 2,500 authors whose books are being sanctioned, and they are in a panic.</s>NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: Amazon is declining preorders for some Hachette books and slowing delivery of others. Preston drafted a letter to be signed by more than a thousand writers supporting Hachette authors which will be sent to Amazon's powerful board of directors. But James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research, doubts it'll do much good.</s>JAMES MCQUIVEY: I don't think the board was unaware that this would cause trouble for some of the authors, and so it almost makes the authors seem a bit naive in their response.</s>NEDA ULABY, BYLINE: For its part, Amazon declined to comment for the story. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

The authors want Amazon's board to intercede in the dispute between the publisher and the online retailer over the price of e-books. Amazon continues to impede sales of Hachette books.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: Good morning, I'm David Greene with the second-biggest winner from the Super Bowl, left shark. Remember Katy Perry's shark backup dancers at halftime? Well, the shark on the left caught the eye of viewers for not being a particularly good dancer - so much so that to left shark has become a verb meaning to flail about or phone it in. The co-owner of a Denver nightclub paid the ultimate tribute to left shark. Yesterday, he posted an Instagram pic of what appears to be a freshly inked left shark tattoo. It's MORNING EDITION.

The left shark caught the eye of viewers because it wasn't a particularly good dancer. So much so, that left shark has become a verb — meaning to fail about or phone it in.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: The severe drought here in the West has brought warnings of another long and expensive summer fighting wildfires. Federal officials say the most vulnerable states include California and Alaska, where two large wildfires are already burning. NPR's Kirk Siegler reports.</s>KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: Federal land managers gave their annual wildfire briefing at a wildlife refuge outside Denver, a bright, green island in the otherwise bone-dry West. That wasn't lost on U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell.</s>TOM TIDWELL: You know, we've been fortunate that we've had some very favorable weather here in this part of the country. It's great to be able to see how green it is. It's great to be able to see a little bit of snow still up on the top of the mountains.</s>KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: But Tidwell says it won't take long for all that green in the Rockies to dry out. And the situation further west is much worse. The Forest Service is warning states from California to Washington to brace for an above average wildfire season. Last year, the Carlton complex was the largest wildfire in Washington's history, blackening some 400 square miles and destroying hundreds of homes. Federal land managers are renewing pressure on Congress to create a separate fund under FEMA to pay for fighting catastrophic blazes like that. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says that would leave more money for prevention programs.</s>TOM VILSACK: It's not like you're increasing the budget. You're just simply using a fund that's set aside for natural disasters, and that's precisely what these are.</s>KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: This idea has been proposed in one bill or another since back in the George W. Bush administration, but it's never been implemented. Kirk Siegler, NPR News.

Federal officials are warning of another long and costly wildfire season in the parched West. They're also renewing calls on Congress to change how the federal government pays for fighting fires.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host: Some of our listeners collect sounds when they travel. Our sound clip today is from one of them.</s>Mr. SCOTT VENDETEN: My name is Scott Vendeten. I live in Oceanside, California. And I work in TV and film music, primarily as a composer. And I was in Japan two Christmases ago in a small town called Nada, which is just outside of Kyoto, the old spiritual capital of Japan. And there in Nada, they have a massive wooden temple housing an equally massive bronze cast of Buddha, twenty-plus feet high.</s>Mr. SCOTT VENDETEN: And when I was there, a group of about 30 men and women stood in front of the Buddha and they began to chant.</s>Mr. SCOTT VENDETEN: So I think this is cool for a couple reasons. One thing is the tone that they used in their voices. You'll hear the tone go up and down at certain points marking the sections of this chant that they're doing, and it keeps everybody together and it also makes it easier to remember.</s>Mr. SCOTT VENDETEN: What you're able to do is have a huge group of people say the same thing at the same time and create this kind of quasi-hypnotic effect, bringing all those people into one entity, and then getting into this quasi-hypnotic state through the chant, so that's why thought it was really cool.</s>ROBERT SIEGEL, host: A sound clip from Scott Vendeten of Oceanside, California. You can find out more about this series at NPR.org, search for SoundClips.

Some of our listeners collect sounds when they travel. One of them is Scott Van Dutton from Oceanside, Calif. He shares a soundclip of the sounds of Buddhist chanting in Nara, just outside Kyoto, Japan.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: Good morning. I'm David Greene. In England, police are hunting for stolen art worth millions. I'm talking about a fully functional gold toilet that was on display at the palace where Winston Churchill was born. Visitors could book private appointments to sit with this artwork. And on Saturday, police say, some thieves took it. So far, one arrest, but no sign of the toilet. The artist who made this toilet, Maurizio Cattelan, called the thieves great performers and asked them how it feels to use it.

The toilet was on display at the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Visitors could book private appointments to sit with this artwork. On Saturday, police say thieves took it.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Our business news starts with the cause of a fatal accident in the workplace.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: A federal safety board says cost-cutting and faulty equipment contributed to an accident at a BP refinery in Texas last year that killed 15 people.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: NPR's Frank Langfitt reports.</s>FRANK LANGFITT: BP's Texas City refinery was starting up a unit last year when a tower erupted like a geyser, raining down a highly flammable liquid. The subsequent explosion not only killed 15 workers, but injured 180 others. It was the nation's worst industrial accident in more than a decade.</s>FRANK LANGFITT: The U.S. Chemical Safety Board says the tower overflowed after a measuring device failed to show the liquid was building up to dangerous levels. Don Holmstrom, the board's lead investigator, says the company knew about the problem beforehand.</s>Mr. DON HOLMSTROM (Lead Investigator, Chemical Safety Board): They identified that this particular piece of equipment was troublesome, it needed repair, and they intended to repair it after the startup.</s>FRANK LANGFITT: But the explosion occurred before the company fixed it, according to the safety board. BP acknowledges that the accident could have been prevented, but Ronnie Chappell, a company spokesman, insists the equipment was not a factor.</s>Mr. RONNIE CHAPPELL (Spokesman, BP): And with our own investigation report, we indicated that the equipment that was in place was operating correctly, that it was in good shape.</s>FRANK LANGFITT: In its report, the safety board said staff reductions at the refinery also contributed to the accident.</s>FRANK LANGFITT: Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Washington.

Faulty equipment and staff reductions contributed to an accident at BP's Texas City refinery last year, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board finds in a preliminary report. Fifteen people were killed, and another 100 injured, making it the nation's worst industrial accident in over a decade.

ROBERT SIEGEL: As NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports, witness after witness failed to connect Mubarak or his interior minister to the fatal shootings of protestors earlier this year.</s>SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: What prosecutors expect to hear from these high-ranking officials is unclear. But the summonses have renewed hope in lawyers representing Egyptians who want to see Mubarak and his former interior minister Habib al-Adly convicted. They say the judge's action proves that despite the flimsiness of the prosecution's case, the court is taking the charges seriously.</s>HODA NASRALLAH: (Foreign language spoken)</s>SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: That officer, a police captain, and others who have testified say they received no orders from on high to shoot to kill or to use live ammunition against the protestors. But the captain contradicted an earlier affidavit when he testified that he only learned that live ammunition had been used from TV reports.</s>HODA NASRALLAH: (Foreign language spoken)</s>SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Outside the court compound, the father of one 10-year-old boy who was fatally shot was also unhappy.</s>MOHAMED ABDEL FATTAH: (Foreign language spoken)</s>SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON: Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Cairo

The trial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak continued in Cairo Wednesday. Witnesses for the prosecution failed to connect Mubarak or his interior minister to the fatal shootings during protests that led to Mubarak's ouster.

RENEE MONTAGNE, Host: NPR's business news starts with a jump-start for Tesla Motors.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, Host: The electric carmaker has gotten a $30 million investment from Panasonic, which makes the lithium ion batteries that power Tesla's electric Roadsters. Panasonic wants a foothold in a market that's expected to grow by more than 40 times its current size within the next five years. This isn't the first Japanese investment in Tesla. Toyota also has a $50 million stake in the firm.

Tesla Motors has gotten a $30 million investment from Panasonic, which makes the lithium ion batteries that power Tesla's electric roadsters. Panasonic wants a foothold in a market that's expected to grow to more than 40 times its current size in the next five years. It isn't the first Japanese investment in Tesla; Toyota also has a $50 million stake in it.

STEVE YDSTIE, Host: NPR's Allison Keyes was there.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Not on our watch! Not-on-our-watch!</s>ALLISON KEYES: The list of speakers for the rally included actor George Clooney, civil rights activist Al Sharpton, and Presidential Letter recipient Paul Rusesabagina, who saved more than 1,200 people from the genocide in Rwanda, twelve years ago.</s>PAUL RUSESABAGINA: Today, it is our mission not to remain bystanders, but to stand up and fight and try to help all of those people in need.</s>ALLISON KEYES: Looking out over the multiracial crowd, Rabbi Marc Schneier told them this movement is a rejuvenation of the historic black-Jewish alliance from the 1960s.</s>MARC SCHNEIER: The spirit of interracial, inter- faith, inter-ethnic cooperation, provides the model for our actions against the atrocities in Darfur.</s>ALLISON KEYES: President Bush said Friday he supported the rallies after meeting with Darfur advocates at the white house. He wants to see the United Nations and NATO supplement the African Union troops already in place in Sudan.</s>GEORGE W: We have got AU troops on the ground. Those troops need to be augmented and increased through strong United Nations action.</s>ALLISON KEYES: But it isn't clear how to accomplish that. The Sudanese government is against a U.N. mission there. The charge d'affair at the Sudan mission to the U.N., Yasser Abda Salam(ph), says the Bush administration and the international community should butt out.</s>YASSER ABDA SALAM: I appeal to the American administration to just wait for peace in Darfur, instead of instigating apartheid and waging war.</s>ALLISON KEYES: Allison Keyes, NPR News, Washington.

Thousands rallied Sunday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to demand international intervention in the Darfur region of Sudan. The deadly conflict there is fueled by religious friction and has created millions of refugees.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: On to intellectual property and a scrap over the board game Scrabble. An online version called Scrabulous has gained a following on the social networking site Facebook. But it's not run by Scrabble's owner, Hasbro. Now Hasbro is M-A-D.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN: Scrabulous was created by two 20-something brothers in India. They launched their own game site in 2006. Last year, they put Scrabulous on Facebook as a free download. Today, it's played by more than 2 million people, like Los Angeles resident Kate Henningson(ph).</s>Ms. KATE HENNINGSON (Scrabulous Player): I can play with a friend in Boston. I play with a friend in Montreal. I think it's unfortunate that Hasbro would try to shut it down because it is - I personally think it's building a much bigger fan base for the game.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN: She means the game of Scrabble. Perhaps it's true, but Hasbro says Scrabulous infringes on its intellectual property.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN: Law professor Peter Menell of the University of California, Berkeley says Hasbro might convince a court that its trademark had been infringed upon and that Scrabulous had to amend its site.</s>Professor PETER MENELL (University of California, Berkeley): They might have to avoid some of the advertising that seems to suggest that they are related to Scrabble.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN: But shutting the game down completely won't be easy. Menell suggests that the law isn't entirely on Hasbro's side. Hasbro has already contacted Facebook, and the lawyers are said to be looking into it. The maker of Scrabble says it would like to resolve the matter amicably. But Hasbro says if it can't do so quickly, it will try to close down the online game.</s>WENDY KAUFMAN: Wendy Kaufman, NPR News.

Scrabble is one of the most popular board games, with more than 100 million sets sold worldwide. An online version of the game, called Scrabulous, is getting a lot of attention. But Hasbro, the maker of Scrabble, isn't happy. That's because it isn't the maker of Scrabulous.

STEVE INSKEEP, host: NPR's business news starts with another big drug company merger.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Pharmaceutical companies have been nervous as they watch their patents expire and drug prices fall. So they've been trying to secure their futures by swallowing up rivals or buying up smaller biotech companies. Earlier this week we heard about a planned $41 billion deal between Merck and Schering-Plough and today we have news of another major drug merger, the third of the year. The Swiss company Roche and San Francisco biotech giant Genentech call it a friendly agreement, though they've been battling since last summer. Roche already owned a part of the U.S. biotech company but it wanted full control and full revenues. Genentech's board gave the okay only after Roche raised its offer to 95 bucks a share, which makes the deal worth about $47 billion.

In what's being described as the largest takeover in Swiss corporate history, Roche says it has agreed to buy the remaining shares of Genentech for $46.8 billion. Genentech's board gave its approval only after Roche raised its offer to $95 a share.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: Good morning, I'm David Greene. Ever on the fence about whether you need that cup of coffee? Well, you could just leave it to a drone. IBM has filed a patent for a drone that would deliver coffee. But according to the filing, the drone might first take into account your blood pressure, gauge your facial expressions, note when you woke up and then decide if you really need more caffeine. If IBM would like to patent a drone that can host a radio program, Noel and I will gladly start this weekend early.

The patent paperwork suggests the drone could also measure your blood pressure, gauge your facial expressions, note when you woke up and decide if you really need more caffeine.

MADELEINE BRAND, host: From the studios of NPR West, this is DAY TO DAY. I'm Madeleine Brand.</s>ALEX COHEN, host: And I'm Alex Cohen.</s>ALEX COHEN, host: Coming up on the program this Memorial Day, Iraq war veterans tell us about the people they are choosing to remember today. Also, we'll hear about memorial Web sites that honor those who serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: In one year, since we last celebrated Memorial Day, 980 more U.S. troops have died.</s>ALEX COHEN, host: Memorial Day began more than 100 years ago. One Memorial Day tradition was inspired by Civil War General John Logan. In 1868, Logan said to honor our fallen troops flowers should be strewn about the graves of those whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: Today, upholding that tradition at Arlington National Cemetery, President Bush laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.</s>MADELEINE BRAND, host: President GEORGE W. BUSH: Now this hallowed ground receives a new generation of heroes - men and women who gave their lives in places such as Kabul and Kandahar, Baghdad and Ramadi. Like those who came before them, they did not want war, but they answered the call when it came. They believed in something larger than themselves. They fought for our country, and our country unites to mourn them as one.</s>ALEX COHEN, host: President Bush speaking at Arlington National Cemetery today.

A quick history lesson about Memorial Day, which began more than 100 years ago — the brainchild of former Civil War general John Logan. And at Arlington National Cemetery, President Bush lays a wreath of at the Tomb of the Unknowns and speaks of "new hallowed ground."

LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: NPR's business news starts with a foreclosure investigation.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: Forty-nine states have banded together to investigate the foreclosure practices at banks. Some of the nation's biggest mortgage lenders, including Bank of America, GMAC and JPMorgan Chase have already halted foreclosures. They've acknowledged that employees signed off on thousands of foreclosures without properly reviewing the paperwork.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: Lawyers representing homeowners also allege that some lenders have actually falsified documents in order to force people from their homes. The states want lenders to revamp their foreclosure practices and offer more help to homeowners.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Corn prices hit a two-year high on Tuesday. A bushel of corn for delivery in December now costs $5.79. The price has surged 17 percent since last Friday, when the government reported that this year's harvest will be smaller than expected. That's due to heavy rains in June and dry weather in August. A drought and wildfires in Russia this past summer have also cut into global corn supplies.

Up to 40 states plan to band together to investigate foreclosure practices at banks. Some of the nation's biggest mortgage lenders have halted foreclosures, acknowledging that employees signed off on thousands of foreclosures without properly reviewing the paperwork. On Tuesday, corn prices hit a two-year high. Prices surged 17 percent since Friday, when the government reported this year's harvest will be smaller than expected.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: The Internal Revenue Service said yesterday it's giving companies who use a certain kind of tax shelter the chance to come clean or pay stiff penalties. These tax shelters have names that sound like something out of a children's book, though U.S. officials say the LILO and SILO transactions have cost the treasury billions of dollars. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.</s>JIM ZARROLI: The names are short for lease-in/lease-out and sale-in/lease-out. And here's how the two shelters worked. A company would arrange to buy an asset that pays no taxes, like a water treatment plant in Germany. Then it would lease the plant right back to the original owner. In the process, the tax payer got to take a big deduction on the future depreciation of the plant.</s>JIM ZARROLI: Doug Shulman is the commissioner of the IRS.</s>Commissioner DOUG SHULMAN (Internal Revenue Service): They really are no more than a set of complicated leasing transactions that are form over substance, that don't have a purpose other than to avoid paying taxes.</s>JIM ZARROLI: The IRS has recently won three court cases against banks that had used the shelters, but it has some 45 other companies in its sights. They've used these shelters a total of 1,000 times, costing the treasury billions of dollars. The IRS won't give their names, but officials say the companies include some of the biggest in the country.</s>JIM ZARROLI: Yesterday, the IRS said it had sent letters to these companies offering to settle with them, which would reduce the number of cases that go to trial. The companies will get to keep 20 percent of their tax savings if they agree to get out of the shelters by no later than 2010.</s>JIM ZARROLI: Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.

The IRS has been targeting companies that engage in transactions that have no purpose other than to reduce or eliminate tax liabilities. The IRS on Wednesday said it is offering to settle tax shelter abuse cases against about 45 companies, but they have to stop using the shelters by 2010.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST: So I was working a day shift in Helsinki when I got a call about a guy trying to sell a pepperoni pie for just a fiver. Police in Finland are asking people to call the cops if they find somebody trying to sell pizza for under six euros, or about $6.81 U.S. currency. What do you tell the police? Officers, come quick. I've just seen a man ring up a mozzarella and garlic for just $5.50. ULA, Finland's national broadcast network, quotes police officials as saying there's no way a legitimate establishment can offer pizza for less than six euros. Police are concerned that any pizza vendor who offers a bargain rate pizza might somehow be evading Finnish taxes, which a Finnish government website says are 14 percent for, quote, "foodstuffs, restaurant and catering services and animal feed," meaning, I suppose, that not even cows in Finland can get a pizza for under six euro.

Finnish police are on the lookout for a new batch of criminals. Their offense? Low pizza prices. Police are concerned that any pizza vendor who offers a bargain-rate pizza might be evading taxes.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: In the 1939 film "The Wizard Of Oz," the Wicked Witch of the West is on a mission to get the magical ruby slippers back.</s>MARGARET HAMILTON: (As the Wicked Witch of the West) They're gone. The ruby slippers, what have you done with them? Give them back to me or I'll...</s>BILLIE BURKE: (As Glinda) It's too late. There they are, and there they'll stay.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: And stay they have but not on Dorothy. The ruby slippers have been on display for over 30 years at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.</s>DAWN WALLACE: They are almost 80 years old, and I don't know how many people have shoes that last that long.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: That's Dawn Wallace, conservator for the museum. She's speaking in a video as part of the museum's attempt to raise funds on Kickstarter.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The slippers need some shoe repair. The museum's Richard Barden explains.</s>RICHARD BARDEN: We believe light has had a strong effect on the ruby slippers. They're really discolored. They've darkened. They become opaque, and there's cracking.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: This is not the first time the museum has crowdfunded. Last year, they raised $700,000 to conserve Neil Armstrong and Alan Shepard's spacesuits.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: The Smithsonian does get federal funding to keep the museums running and pay salaries, but no funds go to the upkeep of its artifacts. For the slippers, the museum's goal is $300,000. That money will go to research preservation conditions and also how to construct a controlled display case so the slippers continue to sparkle in their home at the museum because, as Dorothy says in the film...</s>JUDY GARLAND: (As Dorothy) There's no place like home.

Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard Of Oz are 80 years old and have been on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History for more than 30 years.

STEVE INSKEEP, host: Now let's look at that unsolicited bid, which is a big deal because it's Murdoch, because it's a gigantic national newspaper, and because the offer is so high.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Late Tuesday, the current owners, the Bancroft family, said they would oppose this offer from News Corp., but that is not necessarily the final word. There were a number of immediate consequences on the offer, including speculators who apparently got the news ahead of time and tried to profit from it.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: NPR's Scott Horsley reports.</s>SCOTT HORSLEY: Trading in Dow Jones options is ordinarily a fairly sleepy business, with just a few hundred contracts bought and sold each day. But interest in the company's options soared last Wednesday, and again on Monday, when buyers snapped up at least seven times the average number for the month.</s>SCOTT HORSLEY: The people buying those options were essentially betting that Dow Jones' stock price would increase dramatically. Jon Najarian of optionmonster.com says that's just what happened when News Corp.'s bid became known.</s>Mr. JON NAJARIAN (Optionmonster.com): I don't believe that there are coincidences on Wall Street. Somebody along the food chain saw there was going to be a bid substantially above the market price for Dow Jones, so $100,000 investment became worth 5 or $8 million depending how you do the math.</s>SCOTT HORSLEY: The Securities and Exchange Commission typically monitors such activity for signs of insider trading. Dow Jones' controlling family has said they will reject the News Corp. offer. But Najarian guesses the speculators have already made their money.</s>SCOTT HORSLEY: Scott Horsley, NPR News.

Trading in Dow Jones & Co. options spiked on April 25 and again on Monday. Buyers were betting that Dow Jones' stock price would increase dramatically, and that's what happened when News Corp.'s bid became known.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: A unit of ConAgra Foods will pay out the largest-ever criminal fine in a food safety case. It's a resolution to the salmonella outbreak in peanut butter that sickened hundreds of people. The company has also agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports.</s>CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: The case dates to 2007. That's when the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced they had traced a salmonella outbreak to peanut butter - specifically, peanut butter produced and shipped from a ConAgra plant in Georgia. Government officials identified more than 700 cases linked to the outbreak and thousands more that probably went unreported. Stuart Delery is the acting associate attorney general at the Justice Department.</s>STUART DELERY: This case is proof that the department is dedicated to using all the tools that we have two ensure that food processors and manufacturers and handlers live up to their obligations to protect the public safety.</s>CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Delery oversaw the misdemeanor plea deal with ConAgra. Under the deal, the company has to pay $8 million in fines and forfeit $3 million more. Authorities say ConAgra has fixed problems in the Georgia plant that led to the contamination. And the company says its Peter Pan brand is safe, with no incidents for more than seven years. But the Justice Department has been active in policing other violations of food safety laws this year, prosecuting the CEO of the Peanut Corporation of America and employees at another company that sold tainted eggs - all part of a growing trend, Delery says.</s>STUART DELERY: Health and safety of the American public is a top priority for the department and of mine. And that includes the safety of the food that we eat and the medicine that we take.</s>CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Delery says there are more of those cases in the pipeline. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

A subsidiary of ConAgra Foods is poised to plead guilty to a criminal charge and pay the largest-ever criminal fine in a food safety case after an outbreak in its peanut butter sickened at least 625 people in 47 states.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Democratic Party delegate Donna Burdick says candidate Bernie Sanders is always by her side. At Washington state's Democratic convention this week, she proved it. She arrived carrying a life-sized puppet of the Vermont senator that she had crocheted. The yarn Bernie nailed it - the wild white hair, glasses and a little bird on his shoulder. Although since Burdick crocheted Bernie just from the waist up, she really should have crocheted him a podium. It's MORNING EDITION.

At the state Democratic convention in Washington, delegate Donna Burdick arrived carrying a life-sized puppet of the Vermont senator that she had crocheted.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was hit last week with a stunningly high judgment in a lawsuit brought by a woman whose husband died from lung cancer. The judgment was more than $23.5 billion. But as NPR's Sam Sanders reports, the final payout isn't likely to actually be that big.</s>SAM SANDERS, BYLINE: Cynthia Robinson filed the suit. She says her husband, a chain smoker, started when he was just 13 years old. He was 36 when he died. Robinson told The Today Show even she was surprised by the verdict.</s>CYNTHIA ROBINSON: First, I heard millions. I didn't know it was B - with a B - billions. And I still can't believe it.</s>PATRICK REYNOLDS: This huge judgment is almost certainly going to be reduced during the appeals process.</s>SAM SANDERS, BYLINE: Patrick Reynolds runs the anti-smoking group, tobaccofree.org. He's actually the grandson of R.J. Reynolds. Patrick Reynolds says the average payout on lawsuits like these ends up at less than $20 million - with an M. But this verdict, and others, still matter.</s>PATRICK REYNOLDS: These cases against big tobacco are going to cause tobacco companies to raise the price of cigarettes. And as they do that, they're going to become more and more out of reach of our kids.</s>SAM SANDERS, BYLINE: R.J. Reynolds says it will fight the ruling. In a statement, the company said it is "beyond the realm of reasonableness and fairness." Sam Sanders, NPR News.

The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has been hit with a $23.6 billion ruling from a lawsuit brought by a chain smoker's widow.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The bad news for Patrick Farves is he asked out Miss America and got suspended. The good news is the same. Mr. Farves is a high school student in York, Pennsylvania. When Miss America visited the school, he asked her to the prom. She can't go and the school punished him for asking. But the York Dispatch says Miss America asked the school to reconsider the suspension. So Miss America will not be by his side but is on his side, which is almost as good.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: It's MORNING EDITION.

When Miss America visited Patrick Farves high school, he asked her to the prom. She can't go, and the school punished him for asking. But she reportedly asked the school to rethink the suspension.

STEVE INSKEEP, host: NPR's business news starts with the Citigroup bailout. Apparently, investors did not believe Citigroup's reassurances that its finances were sound. And by Friday night, Citigroup executives turned to the government. Now, after another weekend of activity, federal regulators apparently have concluded Citigroup is too big to fail. And last night the government announced it was stepping in. It's the latest of several bank rescues in recent months. Under the Citigroup plan, the government has agreed to absorb potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in Citigroup's losses, and it will also immediately pour another $20 billion into the bank. That's on top of $25 billion previously committed. The terms also include limits on executive compensation. Officials hope this move restores confidence in the bank and in the larger financial system.

The government announced Sunday night that it is stepping in to rescue Citigroup, which federal regulators say is too big to fail. Shares of the bank lost more than half its value last week and finished at less than $4 a share. Investors questioned the soundness of the bank, and by Friday night, Citigroup executives had turned to the government.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: And I'm Renee Montagne.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: British banking giant HSBC will pay 1.9 billion dollars to the U.S. to settle allegations of money laundering. In a statement released overnight, the bank said it accepts responsibility for past mistakes. U.S. officials will have further details of the settlement later today. NPR's Jim Zarroli has more.</s>JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: The settlement will be announced at a press conference in New York by the Justice Department and several other law enforcement agencies. HSBC is one of several foreign banks that have been under investigation for money laundering.</s>JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: In 2010, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency cited the bank for suspicious transactions and a criminal investigation was launched. Over the summer, a Senate subcommittee said Mexican drug cartels had done business through the bank. In addition, the subcommittee said HSBC had processed transactions on behalf of Iran, Sudan and other countries that are barred from doing business in the U.S.</s>JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: HSBC officials subsequently apologized for allowing the lapses to occur and hired financial experts to beef up their controls against money laundering. Now the bank has agreed to a sizable financial penalty as well.</s>JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: HSBC is not the only foreign bank to be accused of money laundering. Yesterday, the British bank Standard Chartered agreed to pay $327 million to settle charges that it helped Iran and other countries evade U.S. sanctions. U.S. officials and the Manhattan District Attorney's office have also filed similar charges against Credit Suisse, ING and Barclays.</s>JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.

The Justice Department is expected to announce Tuesday that it has settled a money laundering case against HSBC. The British bank announced early Tuesday it has agreed to pay $1.9 billion to settle allegations of money laundering.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: An effort to protect elephants, successful for a while, has proven hard to sustain. The Central African nation of Gabon has enjoyed some success in fending off elephant poachers. It set aside a forested reserve larger than the state of Delaware for them and hired hundreds of armed anti-poaching rangers. This effort earned praise from experts like Duke University's John Poulsen.</s>JOHN POULSEN: The Minkebe National Park in Gabon was seen as the unique sanctuary for forest elephants because it was so large and so remote.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: But Poulsen found trouble when he looked at the most recent statistics. He found that Gabon's conservation efforts may not be going as well as they once seemed.</s>JOHN POULSEN: We were really surprised by the magnitude of the poaching and the fact that 80 percent of the population had been killed.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Eighty percent - in hard numbers, that's 25,000 elephants killed over the course of a decade. Poulsen says most of the poachers came from neighboring Cameroon.</s>JOHN POULSEN: What I think our study has demonstrated is that poachers are willing to go anywhere, even into the most difficult environments to poach elephants as long as there is money to be made. What we really need to do is we need to stop the demand.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Now, most of the demand for ivory has been coming from China. Poulsen applauds Beijing's recent decision to shut down the legal trade of ivory by the end of this year.</s>JOHN POULSEN: But even when they stop the legal trade there, there's other countries like Vietnam that accounts for a large part of the ivory trade. And once we stop all the legal trade, we need to start working on the illegal trade.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: That's Duke University professor John Poulsen whose study on the huge decline of forest elephants in Gabon was published this week in the journal Current Biology.

Despite heralded conservation efforts over the past decade, a new study by a Duke University professor finds that 80 percent of forest elephants have been slaughtered in Gabon. Steve Inskeep reports.

STEVE INSKEEP, host: The business news starts with the trouble in airline pensions. Two major airlines told Congress yesterday they might go bankrupt if they cannot put off contributions to their pension plans. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: FRANK LANGFITT reporting:</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: When United Airlines went bankrupt, its pension plan was underfunded by nearly $10 billion. The government's pension insurer, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, or PBGC, took over the carrier's obligations. But more companies are underfunding their pensions and the PBGC is running $23 billion in the red.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Republican Senator Chuck Grassley chairs the Senate Finance Committee. At a hearing, he said Congress has to reform the funding rules. He said the current system allows companies to make their pension plans appear stronger than they really are.</s>Senator CHUCK GRASSLEY (Republican, Iowa): As the stock market plummeted in 2000, 2001, 2002, United used the techniques to make their pension plans look like the late '90s stock market boom had never ended. This meant that the plans were not only deteriorating rapidly, it also meant that United was not required to make additional contributions because on paper, everything looked OK.</s>LANGFITT: But airlines like Delta and Northwest want to pay less now and extend payments into the future.</s>LANGFITT: Competition in the airline industry is brutal. The carriers told Grassley's committee that forcing them to pay now could push them over the edge. Douglas Steenland is Northwest's president.</s>Mr. DOUGLAS STEENLAND (President, Northwest Airlines): Today Northwest and other airlines' defined benefit plans are in critical condition. As you know, both United and US Airways have already terminated their defined benefit plans in bankruptcy and transferred them to the PBGC. Absent immediate action by the Congress, the defined benefit plans at Northwest and at other carriers may very well suffer the same fate.</s>LANGFITT: The Bush administration is pressing to make companies pay more into their pension plans earlier. Congress is expected to take up the legislation soon.</s>LANGFITT: Frank Langfitt, NPR News.

Delta and Northwest airlines have told Congress that their pension-contribution obligations could drive them into bankruptcy. But some senators want to tighten funding rules that have allowed companies to avoid contributions and underfund their pensions by billions of dollars.

DANIEL SCHORR: There is a way in which great issues tend to be put on hold as the administration nears its end.</s>LIANE HANSEN, host: NPR's senior news analyst Daniel Schorr.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: In the year 2000, President Clinton came close in his last days to forging an agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but in the end it didn't work. President Bush has been striving for such an agreement to add some luster to his legacy, but the prospects for a solution to this longstanding dispute in the months leading up to January seem remote. And the announced resignation of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert adds another dimension of delay.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: Similarly with Iraq, President Bush would like to see permanent military bases established. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would like to see the troops leave on some definite timetable. The agreement on a general time horizon is simply verbiage to cover the kicking of the can down the road to the next administration.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: Senator Barack Obama on his recent barnstorming tour of the Middle East and Europe caught the interest of foreign leaders with his emphasis on change. Foreign leaders are fascinated to know what that will mean concretely. Russia has already put one of its cards on the table for the next president. It's a proposal for a global security organization that would overshadow NATO and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.</s>DANIEL SCHORR: The collapse of the negotiations for a world trade agreement, in progress for the past seven years, has sent a shudder of dismay, especially among developing countries. But there's talk now of resuming these negotiations, that is after the change in the White House. It is quite remarkable how much of the world seems to hold its breath every four or eight years hoping for a change in American policy on issues like the Kyoto treaty on global warming. This is Daniel Schorr.

NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr takes a look at how some issues seem to be put on hold as an administration comes to its end, when world leaders hold their breath waiting to see if and how U.S. policies may change.

ARI SHAPIRO, host: NPR's business news starts with a new offering from Google.</s>ARI SHAPIRO, host: Google already has a mobile phone operating system. But now it plans to sell its own mobile phones directly to consumers, not through a wireless carrier as most phones are now sold.</s>ARI SHAPIRO, host: The plans are seen as a direct challenge to Apple's iPhone. Google has also been developing an Internet-based call routing system and analysts say if the company starts offering cheap calling, it would challenge conventional mobile phone carriers as well.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: In overseas finance, Dubai just caught a lifeline from the neighboring emirate of Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi provided $10 billion in financing to help the company at the center of Dubai's financial woes. The debt troubles of that company -Dubai World - sent jitters throughout world markets because so many international banks and other investors have poured money into the company.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Dubai World will use the money for some bond repayments, though it still needs to renegotiate billions of dollars in other debts.

Citigroup says it will pay back $20 billion in bailout funds it received from the Treasury Department during the financial crisis. The bank is eager to pay back the loan so it can escape the restrictions, such as pay limits that are attached to the funds. And, Google plans to sell its own own mobile phone. It now sells mobile phone operating systems that run on other company's handsets. But early next year the Internet search giant will sell its own handset directly to consumers.

DAVID GREENE, host: NPR's business news starts with oil prices and Iran.</s>DAVID GREENE, host: Iran's political turmoil has raised some questions about the impact on global oil markets. Prices have been moving up in recent months. Iran is one of the world's top oil producers. But some analysts say even if the government were to be toppled, they don't expect Iran's oil production or exports to shut down and reduce the world's supply. Crude oil prices actually drifted a bit lower today to about $68 a barrel, mostly on fears of continued economic weakness in the United States.

Prices fell on concerns over a weak U.S. economy and the dollar's rise, which tends to pull investors away from commodities. Analysts say the protests over the disputed presidential elections in Iran have not affected prices so far.

SCOTT SIMON, host: Harmonica great Carey Bell Harrington died of heart failure in Chicago this week. He was 70 years old. Carey Bell, as he was known, could trace his blues pedigree back to Sonny Boy Williams, Little Walter and Big Walter Horton. He studied with them all. He could play funky up-tempo blues, melodic ballads and soulful renditions of all of the Chicago blues classics.</s>SCOTT SIMON, host: Born in Macon, Mississippi, young Carey Bell wanted to play the saxophone, but his family could only afford a harmonica. He was playing professionally by the age of 13. Like so many Mississippi blues men before him, Mr. Harrington went north to Chicago for a tour with Muddy Waters and became a member of Willie Dixon's Chicago Blues All-Stars.</s>SCOTT SIMON, host: When a harmonica gig started falling off, Carey Bell learned the electric bass. Eventually he became a bandleader. And in 1998 he won the Blues Foundation's Blues Musical award for traditional male artist of the year. Carey Bell recorded a number of albums with his son, guitarist Lurrie Bell, including this year's Getting Up Live.</s>SCOTT SIMON, host: He had 15 children with a number of different wives and girlfriends. I got the kid plays harmonica, one plays drums, oldest kid on bass, he told a reporter in 2004, got enough kids to make my own band, I guess.

A great name in music is dead. Blues harmonica player Carey Bell Harrington died this week at the age of 70.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Voters in the Netherlands go to the polls tomorrow. It's an election that's being watched across Europe and around the world, primarily because of one man. His name is Geert Wilders. He's made a name for himself by railing against immigrants from Muslim majority countries. And his party is challenging the governing coalition of the prime minister. That prime minister, Mark Rutte, is urging voters to reject Wilders. They were on a televised debate last night. And Wilders called Rutte prime minister of foreigners. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from Amsterdam.</s>FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Citing the United Kingdom's vote to leave European Union and the Trump victory, Rutte said Dutch voters should set an example for Europe ahead of crucial elections in France and Germany. Quote, "this is a chance for the Netherlands to stop the domino effect of populism," Rutte said at a press conference yesterday in Rotterdam. Deveny van Setten is a student who lives in the city of Gouda. Van Setten, who's 20, says the swing to populism last year in the U.S. initially helped Wilders.</s>DEVENY VAN SETTEN: The fact that America chose Trump may trigger a lot of Dutch people to think that choosing Wilders, for example, will be the thing that changes the Netherlands.</s>FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: But Wilder's policies, which include closing mosques and banning the Quran, repel many voters like van Setten.</s>DEVENY VAN SETTEN: So I actually really hope that the people of the Netherlands choose the safe option.</s>FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: What is the safe option?</s>DEVENY VAN SETTEN: Well, everything except Wilders actually (laughter).</s>FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Some Dutch analysts think Wilders may fizzle at the ballot box tomorrow. After leading in the polls, he's slipped behind Rutte's ruling Liberal Party. Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Amsterdam.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte asks voters to reject anti-immigrant, anti-Islam candidate Geerte Wilders in Wednesday's elections, and halt the spread of political populism.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: Current TV has a new owner. The news channel founded in 2004 by former Vice President Al Gore has been sold to Al Jazeera. This is part of an effort by Al Jazeera - which is based in Qatar - to reach more viewers in the United States.</s>DAVID GREENE, HOST: As NPR's Steve Henn reports, the deal is likely to net Gore millions, and it could bring Al Jazeera into more than 40 millions American homes.</s>STEVE HENN, BYLINE: In the past year, Al Jazeera has won some of the most prestigious awards in broadcast journalism. But Robert Wheelock, Al Jazeera's executive producer in the Americas, says the network has struggled to get its programs onto American television sets.</s>ROBERT WHEELOCK: I live in New York and Washington, and I can see it in both places. Otherwise, it's, you know, places like Burlington, Vermont.</s>STEVE HENN, BYLINE: And that's about it. Many cable networks were reluctant to carry the channel. But by buying Current TV from Al Gore and his partners, Al Jazeera will gain access to tens of millions of living rooms.</s>ROBERT WHEELOCK: They're in about 60 million homes, currently, across America. We anticipate that we'll be in about 40 million of those. But, you know, look, it's a quantum leap for us.</s>STEVE HENN, BYLINE: In a statement, Al Gore said we're proud and pleased that Al Jazeera has bought Current TV. He added: Al Jazeera, like Current, believes that facts and truth lead to a better understanding of the world around us.</s>STEVE HENN, BYLINE: Al Jazeera declined to say how much it paid for Current. A year ago, analysts valued the network at half-a-billion dollars. In 2008, when Current attempted and failed to go public, Al Gore owned 25 percent.</s>STEVE HENN, BYLINE: Steve Henn, NPR News.

The acquisition gives Al Jazeera, which is financed by the Qatari government, access to an American TV audience. The new channel, Al Jazeera America, will be based in New York. Current TV was founded in 2004 by former Vice President Al Gore.

STEVE INSKEEP, Host: NPR's business news starts with a legal challenge to Apple.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, Host: Yesterday, Nokia filed a complaint against Apple with the U.S. International Trade Commission, and this is part of a larger legal battle. Nokia has already sued Apple for patent infringement and Apple has denied the charges and countersued.

Nokia is broadening its legal battle against Apple Inc. On the heels of a dispute with Apple over the iPhone, it now says almost all of the company's other products also violate the Finnish phone maker's patents. Nokia has filed a complaint against Apple with the U.S. International Trade Commission. Earlier this year Nokia sued Apple for patent infringement. Apple denied the charged and countersued.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: Good morning. I'm David Greene. Well, the U.S. men's soccer team is gone from the World Cup. Not even Tim Howard could save them. The goalkeeper was a beast in a 2-1 defeat to Belgium. He swatted away a record 16 shots, and he quickly became a social media hero. There were Wikipedia edits. Someone appointed Howard the U.S. Secretary of Defense - also, a petition to rename Washington, D.C.'s airport after him. And on Twitter, several users joked that they tried to follow the goalkeeper but were blocked. It's MORNING EDITION.

The U.S. men's soccer team is gone from the World Cup — not even Tim Howard could save them. He swatted away a record 16 shots.

MICHELE NORRIS, host: Velodrome bicycle racing is a sport that once drew huge crowds in this country. It still has a devoted following, including this listener who offers this sound clip.</s>Mr. RICK DENMAN (Bicycle racer): My name is Rick Denman, and I am a bicycle racer specializing in Velodrome racing. This is not the Tour de France, where you see Lance Armstrong climbing over the highest mountains in Europe. This is riding on a steeply banked oval, something like if you took a cereal bowl and stretched it out a little bit.</s>Mr. RICK DENMAN (Bicycle racer): The ones I like are as steep as a cereal bowl, maybe 45 to 55 degrees, and they're made out of wood because you just can't make cement that steep.</s>Mr. RICK DENMAN (Bicycle racer): The sounds you're hearing are recorded at the Rochester Hills Velodrome at Bloomer Park, Rochester Hills, Michigan.</s>Mr. RICK DENMAN (Bicycle racer): What you're hearing is the slight movement that takes place between the actual surface that we're riding on, which is about a one inch thick plywood with a resin coating - it's actually flexing four foot by ten foot sheets of this plywood that the track is constructed of, and there's flex taking place between that and the steel undercarriage.</s>Mr. RICK DENMAN (Bicycle racer): The whole place becomes a big drum when you hear the cyclists go by. You'll never forget the sound once you've heard it.</s>MICHELE NORRIS, host: Bicyclist Rick Denman and the sounds of a wooden Velodrome. If you've got sounds that you'd like to share, please go to NPR.org and search for SoundClips.

Bicycle racer Rick Denman shares the sound of Velodrome racing with us. The wooden sloped track shudders under the weight of a pack of bikes swooshing around. He explains some of the fine points of a sport that once drew huge crowds in this country, and still does in Europe.

NOEL KING, HOST: An aquarium in Texas encouraged visitors to touch the sea creatures. One man went way too far. Surveillance video shows him reaching into a tank and pulling out a little horn shark. He wraps it in a blanket, puts it in a baby stroller then just strolls out. Cops tracked him down. The shark, named Miss Helen, was fine. The man reportedly just wanted to add to his own collection of marine life.

In the video, a man reaches into a tank, pulls out the shark, wraps it in a blanket and puts it in a baby stroller then leaves. Police in San Antonio, Texas, tracked the suspect down.

RENEE MONTAGNE, Host: But the reasons why aren't as simple as the numbers. Analysts have different takes on the stock market rally, as NPR's Jack Speer has been finding out.</s>JACK SPEER: Jeremy Siegel is professor at the Wharton School of Business. He has written several books on Wall Street. His view is the market was simply looking for an excuse to move higher and decided to latch onto some positive sales numbers from big box retailers Costco and Wal-Mart.</s>JEREMY SIEGEL: Retail sales have been a concern. The subprime market has been a concern. Everyone has been waiting for something else bad to happen. And I think what's happened is they've turn around and said, you know what? I don't see these other bad things happening.</s>JACK SPEER: But Alan Skrainka, chief economist at Edward Jones, had a different view.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, Host: A lot of folks will point to the retail numbers, but I don't see anything there to write home about. I think the stock market is sensing a big bounce-back and growth in the economy and primarily looking at the trade report.</s>JACK SPEER: Jack Speer, NPR News.

The Dow Jones Industrial average's rise of 283 points, to 13,861.33, has many on Wall Street speculating about its next feat: sweeping past the 14,000 mark sooner than expected. Standard & Poor's 500 Index, meanwhile, hit a new record of 1,547.70.

DAVID GREENE, host: NPR's business news starts with a bid from Best Buy for more online shoppers.</s>DAVID GREENE, host: The consumer electronics chain plans to allow other retailers to sell items on the Best Buy website. Best Buy hopes increasing its online offerings will attract more customers. Working with third-party merchants is a strategy that's long been used by Amazon and other retailers.</s>DAVID GREENE, host: Best Buy's new online marketplace comes at a time of sluggish sales. And according to one report, the chain has also been frustrated by consumers who come into its brick-and-mortar stores to browse, but then they buy online, thinking that's where they'll get a better deal.

Consumer electronics chain Best Buy plans to allow other retailers to sell items on its website. The company wants to attract more shoppers by offering more online. Working with third party merchants is a strategy that's long been used by Amazon and other retailers. Best Buy's new online marketplace comes at a time of sluggish sales.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: High school yearbook photos aren't exactly glamorous, so Draven Rodriguez, a high school senior in upstate New York, decided to spruce his up by posing with his cat Mr. Bigglesworth, complete with an '80s-style laser show in the background. His school principal rejected the photo, but after some haggling and a petition, it will appear in the yearbook after all - on the principal's page, promoting animal rescue and adoption. It's MORNING EDITION.

Draven Rodriguez posed with his cat. The school's principal rejected the photo. It will appear in the yearbook after all — on the principal's page promoting animal rescue and adoption.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: All along the Gulf Coast, the political climate is tightly connected to the coastal climate. Hurricane Katrina, of course, was a huge political event in Louisiana, and now the state of Florida is preparing for Tropical Storm Faye. It could become a hurricane. It's arriving in a state that may play a big role in this fall's election. And the storm forced both Barack Obama and John McCain to cancel appearances there.

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama are in a tight race in Florida, but tropical storm Fay forced both campaigns to cancel appearances Sunday as the storm approached the Sunshine State.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Never mind the wedding photographer. An American couple in Paris had an engagement photographer. Jon McAchran proposed to his girlfriend, Ashley, while skating on an ice rink beneath the Eiffel Tower. An Associated Press photographer was taking pictures of tourists and captured Jon giving her the ring and a kiss. The photographer was there totally by chance, though this is the moment for the groom-to-be to pretend he planned it all along. You're listening to MORNING EDITION.

Jon McAchran proposed to his girlfriend Ashley while skating on an ice rink beneath the Eiffel Tower. An AP photographer was taking pictures of tourists and captured Jon giving her the ring.

STEVE INSKEEP, host: Court documents give us an idea of how some reconstruction projects got out of control. Some of those papers describe the case of Robert Stein. He was a Defense Department employee for the Coalition Provisional Authority, and he pleaded guilty earlier this year to bribery, conspiracy and money laundering charges.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Stein admitted that he directed lucrative reconstruction contracts to companies owned by a man name Philip Bloom. In return, he received gifts from Bloom's companies. Here are some of the gifts he received.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Five motor vehicles, including a Porsche, Lexus and a Coach House RV.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Two properties in North Carolina.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: More than a dozen Breitling watches.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: A six-carat diamond, a diamond tennis bracelet, a pearl necklace, plus baubles of a different kind.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Four grenade launchers, 20 automatic submachine guns, 12 pistols, and assorted firearms.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: And an airplane - a 1965 Cessna T210F, to be precise.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Court papers say that in return for all these gifts, Robert Stein was prepared to be generous with reconstruction money. At one point, he sent an e-mail to the Defense contractor.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: The e-mail reads: “I got the contract at the police academy. I will give you 200K sometime tomorrow afternoon. I love to give you money. Bob.”

The payoffs at the heart of reconstruction fraud in Iraq apparently come in many forms. Documents in the case of Robert Stein, a former Defense Department employee for the Coalition Provisional Authority, show that payoffs can include watches, cars, planes and, of course, cash.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Panama's most famous dictator is suing the makers of "Call of Duty." In the video game "Black Ops 2," Manuel Noriega is a character who works with and turns against the CIA.</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As Manuel Noriega) (Spanish spoken).</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: Noriega accuses the makers of profiting from his likeness and harming his reputation - nevermind that he is currently serving a prison sentence for murder. Its MORNING EDITION.

Manuel Noriega accuses the makers of the game of profiting from his likeness and harming his reputation.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: President Bush plans a speech this week at the US Naval Academy in Maryland. His subject will be the war on terror, and the talk comes after members of his own party asked for more information about progress in Iraq.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: This month, the Senate voted to compel the administration to provide quarterly reports on policy and military operations in Iraq. And yesterday, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee made another suggestion. Senator John Warner of Virginia said the president could follow the example of another wartime leader. In the days before television was widespread, Franklin Delano Roosevelt used his famous Fireside Chats to explain the war as he saw it over the radio. Warner is a World War II veteran and speaking on NBC, he said President Bush could do something similar.</s>Senator JOHN WARNER (Republican, Virginia): I think it would be to Bush's advantage, it would bring him closer to the people, dispel some of this concern that, understandably, our people have about the loss of life and limb, the enormous cost of this war to the American public.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, host: Senator Warner is hoping the president can do more to persuade an increasingly skeptical public. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll this month found that 63 percent of Americans disapproved of the president's handling of the war. Just 35 percent approved.

As lawmakers ask for more information from the Bush administration on progress in Iraq, Sen. John Warner (R-VA) suggests that President Bush should follow the lead of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and hold "fireside chats" with Americans. Sen. John Warner (R-VA) speaks on NBC's Meet the Press, Nov. 27, 2005.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: NPR's business news begins with a big dive in Japan.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: Tokyo's Nikkei Index plunged more than six percent by the time Japan's markets closed today. That sent shockwaves through global stocks and currency markets.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: Just three weeks ago, Japanese stocks were at a multi-year high - raising hopes for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to revitalize the world's third-largest economy. Since then the market has dropped over 20 percent.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: Analysts say this is due in part to investor fears that both Japan and the U.S. will slow stimulus spending.

Just three weeks ago, Japanese stocks were at a multi-year high — raising hopes for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to revitalize the world's third-largest economy. Since then, the market has dropped more than 20 percent.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: NPR's Business News starts with more banking fines. The former Credit Suisse banker David Higgs has been handed $950,000 in fines and penalties by New York court. Higgs pled guilty to conspiracy for his part in hiding subprime mortgage bond losses, back in 2012, worth $100 million. Last year, his former boss was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in the same case. This is one of the few criminal prosecutions to come out of the 2008 financial crisis.

David Higgs has been handed $950,000 in fines and penalties by a New York court for his part in hiding sub-prime mortgage bond losses back in 2012.

NOEL KING, HOST: A federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to reconsider the asylum requests of nearly 90 Iranians individually. The government had issued a blanket denial to all of them. They have been stuck in Vienna, Austria, for more than a year, but they have family in the United States. And NPR's Deborah Amos reports, that's giving them some hope.</s>DEBORAH AMOS, BYLINE: They've waited in Vienna after closing down their lives in Iran, selling houses, quitting jobs, leaving everything behind. Some are elderly, children, single moms. Their American relatives applied under a unique refugee program set up by Congress - it's known as the Lautenberg Amendment - aimed to provide refuge for Iran's persecuted religious minorities. They were cleared to travel to Vienna by the U.S. government. Without an embassy in Tehran, Austria is the place to complete the processing. But in February, the U.S. sent all of them the same notice - application denied, quote, "as a matter of discretion."</s>DEBORAH AMOS, BYLINE: The California judge ruled that the Trump administration has the authority, the discretion, to decide on refugee applications but cannot violate the law. The law was set out by Congress. Each refugee must have an individual ruling, which the judge wants in 14 days. The mass denials are unprecedented, says Mariko Hirose, who argued the case. She's with the International Refugee Assistance program in New York. More than 30,000 Iranians have been resettled since 2004.</s>MARIKO HIROSE: That program historically has had nearly a hundred percent acceptance rate, and people would stay in Vienna for a few months and then move forward and reunite with their family members in the United States.</s>DEBORAH AMOS, BYLINE: The government could still appeal the decision, but for now, she says, the ruling gives the stranded refugees a path to appeal a denial, a path that could lead them to reunite with their families. Deborah Amos, NPR News.

Scores of Iranians have been stuck in Austria as they request asylum to come to the U.S. A California court has ruled that the U.S. government has to address their cases.

NOEL KING, HOST: A massive archive of photos from Ebony and Jet magazines sold yesterday in Chicago, 70 years of pictures that capture iconic moments in black history and culture. The new owners say the public will be able to see more than a million images for the first time ever. From member station WBEZ in Chicago, Carrie Shepherd tells us who the new owners are.</s>CARRIE SHEPHERD, BYLINE: The archive was sold for $30 million to pay off Johnson Publishing's bankruptcy debt. It's the parent company of the magazines. Linda Johnson Rice is the daughter of the company's founder, and she says he'd be pleased with the outcome.</s>LINDA JOHNSON RICE: That he would be able to see all of the work that the wonderful photographers - the work that they put in is now going to be available and accessible to the world.</s>DARREN WALKER: If you're African American, this is the greatest archive of the last half of the 20th century.</s>CARRIE SHEPHERD, BYLINE: Darren Walker is president of the Ford Foundation, one of the purchasers of the collection.</s>DARREN WALKER: The public access issue is the issue.</s>CARRIE SHEPHERD, BYLINE: The plan is to transfer much of the archive to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. In a written statement, Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch says Ebony and Jet allowed Americans of all colors to see the full panorama of the African American experience.</s>CARRIE SHEPHERD, BYLINE: The J. Paul Getty Trust was another buyer and will send some of the archive to the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Mary Miller is with the Getty. She says it's too early to know the details but hopes to publish some of the collection.</s>MARY MILLER: We already see a series of publications that will come out by having this work.</s>CARRIE SHEPHERD, BYLINE: The other buyers of the Ebony and Jet archive are the MacArthur and the Mellon foundations. For NPR News, I'm Carrie Shepherd in Chicago.

Photos of African-American life from "Ebony" and "Jet" magazines were sold and will be given to the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture and to the Getty Research Institute.

ED GORDON, host: Lyric soprano Helen Phillips has died. Phillips broke the color barrier at New York's Metropolitan Opera 58 years ago. While the Met had no official policy banning blacks, in 1947, Phillips became the first African American in the opera's chorus when she was chosen to fill in at the last moment. Her performance would proceed opera singer Marian Anderson's debut by seven years. Phillips went on to perform with orchestras in Madrid and St. Louis. In 1954, she performed the part of Queenie in "Show Boat" at New York City Center. Phillips died of heart failure July 27th. She was 86 years old. She will be buried tomorrow in her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.

Ed Gordon remembers Helen Phillips, who preceded Marian Anderson as the first African-American soprano on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. She died last month at age 86.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: Three-and-a-half years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, there was Earl Lloyd. Lloyd was the first African-American to play in the NBA. He died yesterday at 86. NPR's Nathan Rott has this remembrance.</s>NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE: A tall, lean forward for the Washington Capitals, Earl Lloyd made his NBA debut and history when he stepped on the court in Rochester, N.Y. on October 31, 1950. He later described the night to the National Visionary Leadership Project, saying he wasn't nervous. There may have been people in the stands and on the court who didn't want him there, but it didn't matter.</s>EARL LLOYD: When you get right down to it, once you make that team, you a basketball player.</s>NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE: His teammates treated him as such, so did his coaches, but that's not to say it was easy. Growing up in Alexandria, Va., Lloyd said he was treated like a fourth-class citizen. As he grew in stature and in skill on the court, people started treating him different, but...</s>EARL LLOYD: When they're finished reassuring you about your worth and you get on the city bus and see a sign that says for colored, that kind of tatters those edges of them telling you about self-worth.</s>NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE: He credited his family, particularly his mom, for giving him the strength of character to combat those doubts. Lloyd went on to play in the NBA for nine seasons, earning a reputation as a defensive specialist and eventually winning a championship for the Syracuse Nationals in 1955. He later became the first African-American assistant coach in the league and coached the Detroit Pistons for a year. He was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 2003. NBA players and sportscasters took to Twitter to praise Lloyd after the new of his death. Magic Johnson wrote, every African-American that's ever played in the NBA owes a debt of gratitude to Earl Lloyd for opening the door for us all. Nathan Rott, NPR News.

Earl Lloyd, the NBA's first black player, has died. He was 86. He first played for the Washington Capitals and helped the Syracuse Nationals win the title in 1955.

MELISSA BLOCK, Host: NPR's Jason Beaubien sent this postcard from along the route.</s>JASON BEAUBIEN: On the highway between Cuernavaca and Mexico City, I'm Jason Beaubien for NPR News.

In Mexico, nearly 35,000 people have died in the war against drug cartels — and the violence seems to be getting worse. In March, one 24-year-old victim was found dead, wrapped in masking tape, in a vehicle near the resort town of Cuernavaca. That young man was also the son of Mexican poet Javier Sicilia. Since his son's death, Sicilia has abandoned poetry to fight the drug violence. He is now leading a silent, three-day protest march from Cuernavaca to Mexico City.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: This is WEEKEND EDITION, from NPR News, I'm Linda Wertheimer. In Connecticut, state police have released the final report into last year's Newtown School shooting. It doesn't do much to explain what motivated gunman Adam Lanza but as Jeff Cohen, from member station WNPR, explains, parts of the report offer some insight into Lanza's mental health.</s>JEFF COHEN, BYLINE: The release includes thousands of documents, many of which are heavily redacted. The state prosecutor in charge of the case has said Lanza had significant mental health issues, but he couldn't say how much they contributed to his decision to kill 27 people and himself last December.</s>JEFF COHEN, BYLINE: Hank Schwartz is a psychiatrist who serves on the governor's Sandy Hook advisory commission. He says the new report likely won't answer the why question, but it may paint a fuller picture of a young man in need of care.</s>HANK SCHWARTZ: If the commission is going to address the issue of the relationship of mental health issues to what happened in Newtown, I think we have to have as much information as we possibly can have about Adam Lanza's mental state.</s>JEFF COHEN, BYLINE: One police report summarizes a psychological evaluation from 2006. It describes Lanza's symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder, but it also reflects the concern of a doctor about the boy's, quote, "increasingly constricted social and educational world." Another account sheds light on the role of Lanza's mother. In it, a registered nurse who also treated Lanza in 2006 said Nancy Lanza refused recommendations for her son's mental health care.</s>JEFF COHEN, BYLINE: For NPR News, I'm Jeff Cohen in Hartford, Conn.

Connecticut State Police have released the final report on the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown. Though the investigation doesn't do much to explain what motivated gunman Adam Lanza, some hope it will give insight into the shooter's mental health.

AILSA CHANG, HOST: Good morning. I'm Ailsa Chang with a story that could only have played out in Canada. So someone stole a wheelbarrow in Nova Scotia, and the poor wheelbarrow owner stuck a big hand-painted sign at the end of his driveway, pleading, bring back my wheelbarrow. Well, the thief returned it. The next day, the owner of the wheelbarrow stuck a new sign outside his house which said, thank you for bringing back my wheelbarrow. Only in Canada, where you thank a thief for returning your own stuff. It's MORNING EDITION.

Someone stole a wheelbarrow in Nova Scotia. The owner put a sign at the end of his driveway asking for it back, and it was returned. A new sign read: Thank You For Bringing Back My Wheelbarrow.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: NPR's business news starts with the Christmas shopping rush.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, host: It was the final weekend before Christmas, and stores in many parts of the country were crowded. But shoppers also flocked to store Web sites because much of the East Coast was buried in snow. Many shopping malls were closed, or shoppers simply didn't want to get out on the roads. Some big retailers like J.C. Penney and Macy's cashed in on the holiday cyber shopping by offering free express shipping. All that, plus big online discounts and greater acceptance of Web shopping added up to a big boost for e-commerce. Sales at traditional brick-and-mortar stores are flat compared to last year. Online shopping is expected to take a bigger share of overall retail sales, by one estimate, about 7 percent.

It was the final weekend before Christmas, and stores in many parts of the country were crowded. But shoppers also flocked to store Web sites, because much the East Coast was buried in snow. Many shopping malls were closed or shoppers simply didn't want to go out on the roads.

STEVE INSKEEP, Host: NPR's Ina Jaffe was also at the National Mall yesterday. She arrived on one of four buses that came in a caravan from Louisville, Kentucky.</s>INA JAFFE: At 9.30 in the morning yesterday, the National Mall was already jammed. Yet despite the festival atmosphere, Kim White(ph) never lost sight of the reason she was there.</s>KIM WHITE: When I was 11 or 12 at a little small movie theater in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and as an African-American I had to go to the balcony. And I actually remember seeing fountains black and white - I remember that.</s>INA JAFFE: Like everyone else on the Mall, Kim White stopped talking when Barack Obama took the oath.</s>JOHN ROBERTS: So help you God.</s>OBAMA: So help me God.</s>INA JAFFE: And with that Anne Reynolds(ph) knew that Obama had already created change in her.</s>ANNE REYNOLDS: I hadn't worn red, white, and blue for over 20, 30 years, and I didn't say the pledge of allegiance with the liberty and justice for all. So, maybe I'll stand up and say it now.</s>INA JAFFE: The Mall had filled up gradually and then emptied all at once. The wind picked up, the sun went behind the clouds, and the walk back to the buses was bone-chilling and slow. So what? Nate Jones(ph) was relaxing and waiting for the 14-hour ride home to Louisville.</s>NATE JONES: Even though I wasn't in the front row, but it don't matter.</s>NATE JONES: I was here.</s>NATE JONES: That's the main thing that matters. Just electricity. While everybody was there it was warm. When it was over with it got cold. It was, yeah.</s>INA JAFFE: Though Jones seemed pretty warm again, reliving the memories of the day. Ina Jaffe, NPR News, Washington, D.C.

A caravan of four buses from Louisville, Ky., arrived in Washington, D.C., in time for Tuesday's inauguration ceremonies. From the National Mall, the passengers witnessed the swearing in of Barack Obama, the nation's first black president. One man said he wouldn't trade the trip for anything.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Canadians tuning into the nightly news in Toronto recently saw something new.</s>GINELLA MASSA: Good evening. Most of us dream our entire lives of making history. Well, one young politician did just that tonight.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: That's Ginella Massa, a reporter for Toronto's City News who made history herself, in a way. She is believed to be the first person to wear the hijab - the traditional head covering worn by some Muslim women - while anchoring a major nightly newscast in Canada.</s>GINELLA MASSA: It's really exciting to be recognized as the first. It's also pretty sad that it's taken this long, especially in a city as diverse as Toronto and a country as multicultural as Canada. And it's not reflected in our newsroom, on our newscast. You wouldn't think that we are as diverse as we are if you were to look at our nightly newscast.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: She was born in Panama and grew up in Toronto. Her family converted to Islam when she was a child.</s>GINELLA MASSA: It was a risk to put me on TV because it hadn't been done before. You know, I had a colleague tell me, you know, I don't think a woman in hijab will ever be hired on air because it's just too distracting.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Now, since her anchoring debut, Massa says she has received some negative comments but contends the response has been, quote, "overwhelmingly positive."</s>GINELLA MASSA: It's more important than ever for Muslim women, especially, who are often the symbol for Islam because we're so visible with our hijabs, to be seen as important and contributing members of our society.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: That's Ginella Massa, a reporter for Toronto's City News.

Ginella Massa is the first person to wear a hijab, the traditional head covering worn by Muslim women, and anchor a major nightly newscast in Canada. She did it last week on Toronto's CityNews.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: For years, reformers have been complaining that the justice system is out of whack, but now they're hearing that sentiment echoed from the White House. This week, President Obama agreed to shorten the prison sentences of 46 people locked up for nonviolent drug crimes, and he says there's more to come. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports.</s>CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: The president says the power to shorten prison sentences is one of the most profound authorities he has. He's exercised that influence to reduce the prison terms of nearly 90 inmates during his presidency, half of them in one day this week.</s>BARACK OBAMA: These men and women were not hardened criminals, but the overwhelming majority had been sentenced to at least 20 years. Fourteen of them had been sentenced to life for nonviolent drug offenses. So their punishments didn't fit the crime.</s>CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: The inmates who won a reprieve this week will be sent to halfway houses and eventually released back into their communities. President Obama wrote each of them, urging the prisoners to make the most of this opportunity.</s>BARACK OBAMA: I believe that, at its heart, America is a nation of second chances. And I believe these folks deserve their second chance.</s>CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: But sentencing reform advocates say the number of pending clemency applications numbers in the tens of thousands, far more than this White House can approve without rolling out some kind of mass commutation program. Julie Stewart leads the group Families Against Mandatory Minimums.</s>JULIE STEWART: But until we change the laws that put people in prison for 20, 30 years, life, we're going to have to continue to do more commutation, and that is the most inefficient way to address our over-incarceration problem. It would be much more effective if Congress would change the laws.</s>CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: President Obama will highlight that issue today in a speech to the NAACP. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

All of those whose sentences were commuted would have gotten lighter prison terms under new sentencing guidelines. The White House says the they aren't hardened criminals and deserve a second chance.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep, passing on this appeal for snow. A family outside New York built a snowman 14 feet tall. They want him to last until spring, even if the local snow cover does not. When rain struck, they wrapped the snowman in plastic and put an umbrella on his head. Now they want to make him last through warmer weather, which is why they're asking people to send snow. They did this last year, by the way, and the snowman lasted until April 20. It's MORNING EDITION.

When rain struck Monday, they wrapped the large snowman in plastic and put an umbrella on his head. They want to make him last through warmer weather, and are asking for people to send snow.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: A new window into Cuba and its creative life comes from the writer Wendy Guerra. It is her novel "Everyone Leaves," which has just been translated into English. The story is part fiction, part autobiography. Here's our reviewer Alan Cheuse.</s>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: This novel takes the form of a diary kept from childhood on through early adulthood by a Cuban girl named Nieve - or Snow. That's a chilly name for Havana, but it seems fitting. Nieve, in her pages, demonstrates an uncanny ability to keep enough distance to write in a bracing, clarifying way about her life with her difficult parents, her alcoholic father and unbalanced mother and about the effects of growing up in the dire economic straits of Castro's Cuba.</s>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: After surviving her difficult childhood, she takes up a brush and studies to become a painter. She wins prizes, but she sees that her own work is really mediocre. The diary shows her truly excelling at working with language and making the world of Cuba known to the reader. Havana, for example, smelling of liquid gas and fresh fish from the salty air on the Malecon or witnessing buildings in old Havana crumbling in an instant or in a classic encounter, losing her virginity to a wheeling, dealing young Havana artist named Oswaldo(ph), an encounter that she describes with a freshness and intensity I haven't read before in any novel, European, North American or Cuban.</s>ALAN CHEUSE, BYLINE: Fortunately for us, after they make love, Oswaldo falls asleep and she writes and writes and writes about what just happened in this diary. Her classic story about coming of age in a broken down revolutionary culture in the tropics, the book that she calls her luxury, my medicine, what keeps me standing, a book that delivers real news from Cuba in a lyrical way.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: That was Alan Cheuse reviewing Wendy Guerra's novel "Everyone Leaves," which has just been translated into English.

Cuban writer Wendy Guerra has just had her autobiographical novel translated into English. Critic Alan Cheuse has a review of Everyone Leaves.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: Rick Santorum popped the cork on another presidential campaign yesterday. Back in 2012, the former senator gave Mitt Romney an unexpected challenge for the GOP nomination. Here's NPR's Don Gonyea.</s>DON GONYEA, BYLINE: Santorum hopes to improve on his last White House run when he narrowly won the Iowa caucuses and captured 10 other states. He's a social conservative with a message of economic populism. This is from his announcement in southwest Pennsylvania, his home state.</s>RICK SANTORUM: Working families don't need another president tide to big government or big money. And today is the day. Today is the day we are going to begin to fight back.</s>DON GONYEA, BYLINE: Santorum has already been campaigning for months. In a GOP field of 15 or more, he'll have to work just to hang on to those who backed him in 2012. In Iowa four years ago, he got Sherry Kooiker's vote, but she told NPR at an event for former Texas governor, Rick Perry, that she's considering lots of the options this year.</s>SHERRY KOOIKER: I listened to Bobby Jindal yesterday. I liked him. And I like Ben Carson. I met him at - in, oh, Des Moines. So that's the problem. It's just very difficult. I want to stay open to the best person.</s>DON GONYEA, BYLINE: Polls put Santorum's support in single digits. The top 10 in an average of major national polls will be eligible to join the first debate in August. Don Gonyea, NPR News.

Former Pa. Sen. Rick Santorum joined the list of 2016 Republican presidential contenders on Wednesday. Santorum, the surprise winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucuses, may have a tough task ahead of him.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: Good morning. I'm David Greene with a possible sequel to "Cool Runnings." That was the Disney movie that tells the story of the first-ever Jamaican Olympic bobsled team. Well, now the Caribbean nation has its sights set on hockey. The Winter Olympics are a long way off, but players recently gathered in Toronto for the Jamaica Olympic Ice Hockey Federation trials. Now, sadly this story is not quite Hollywood-ready yet. The Toronto Sun is accusing Jamaica of poaching Canadians of Jamaican decent. It's MORNING EDITION.

Payers recently gathered in Toronto for the Jamaica Olympic Ice Hockey Federation trials. The Toronto Sun is accusing Jamaica of "poaching" Canadians of Jamaican descent.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne. With the rise of drones comes the rise of nuisance and dangerous drones interfering with air traffic control and firefighting. Now Dutch police are seeing if they can take down illegally operated drones with eagles, yes, those regal predators with sharp talons. The police said using trained eagles is a real possibility after releasing a dramatic video of an eagle swooping into the air and snatching an unsuspecting drone right out of the sky. It's MORNING EDITION.

Dutch authorities are going after illegally operated drones. They released a dramatic video of an eagle swooping into the air and snatching an unsuspecting drone right out of the sky.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Our business news starts with a victory for Wal-Mart.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Wal-Mart has, for the moment, turned back an effort to make it spend more on employee health insurance. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: FRANK LANGFITT reporting:</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Last year, the Maryland state legislature passed a law that would have forced Wal-Mart to spent at least eight percent of its payroll on healthcare.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Proponents argued that the company didn't provide enough coverage for workers, leaving the state to pay the difference. But a federal judge in Baltimore has struck down the one-of-a-kind legislation. He said the measure violates a federal law that protects companies from having to create a patchwork of healthcare plans from state to state.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Steven Cannon managed the case on Wal-Mart's behalf.</s>Mr. STEVE CANNON (Attorney): What the judge did today was say an employer who may have employees in many, many states only has to worry about one healthcare plan.</s>LANGFITT: The Maryland Attorney General's Office says it will appeal the ruling.</s>LANGFITT: Frank Langfitt, NPR News.

A federal judge has overturned a Maryland law that would have required Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health care. The state law would have required non-governmental employers with 10,000 or more workers to spend at least 8 percent of payroll on health care or pay the difference in taxes.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Blue Bell Creameries recalled all its products last month after a listeria outbreak, but you can still buy those products. Tubs of Cookies and Cream and Dutch chocolate have appeared on eBay. The site has scrubbed them, but they're still up on Craigslist. For the pathological ice cream lover, there are half-eaten gallons of Blue Bell for sale for up to $10,000. One listing boasts, I ate the first half, and I'm still here. It's MORNING EDITION.

Blue Bell Creameries recalled all of its products last month after a listeria outbreak. A few weeks ago, tubs of Cookies and Cream and Dutch Chocolate appeared on eBay. They're still up on Craiglist.

ROBERT SIEGEL, Host: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.</s>MICHELE NORRIS, Host: I'm Michele Norris. And it's time now for All Tech Considered.</s>MICHELE NORRIS, Host: As NPR's Tom Gjelten reports, we could soon see almost any word at the end of a Web address.</s>TOM GJELTEN: The Internet, since its creation, has been largely ungoverned. But for practical purposes, the online world does have to agree on a Web addressing system. One global body with real power is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN for short. And at a meeting in Singapore today, the ICANN board of directors changed website naming rules.</s>MICHELE NORRIS, Host: Today, we made history.</s>TOM GJELTEN: ICANN President Rod Beckstrom.</s>MICHELE NORRIS, Host: The Internet's addressing system has just been opened up to the limitless possibilities of human imagination and creativity.</s>TOM GJELTEN: Again, what Beckstrom is talking about is the last half of a website address, the words that follow the dot.</s>MICHELE NORRIS, Host: So when you think dot-com, dot-net, now think dot-open to new things, to new ideas.</s>TOM GJELTEN: Alexa Raad is chairman of Architelos, a consulting firm that advises companies on Internet naming. She sees advantages for a company moving from its old dot-com address to having a top-level domain all its own.</s>MICHELE NORRIS, Host: It is sort of like having an apartment in an apartment community versus owning the apartment community itself, which gives you greater control over the policies that you can enforce, over the security measures that you can enforce.</s>TOM GJELTEN: Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.

The world's main Internet governing body Monday approved what may be the biggest change in the online world for many years. Soon, we may see website addresses that end with almost any word. It won't be just dot-com or dot-org or dot-net. We could have dot-NewYork or dot-Toyota. Companies, cities, even individuals, could have Web addresses all to themselves.

GUY RAZ, Host: Phil, first of all, what happened?</s>PHILIP REEVES: Another crowd gathered not far away from there, a little to the east, in a border town in Syria that abuts the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Reports say that that crowd comprised Palestinian refugees. And the Israeli military says that the crowd were trying to infiltrate Israeli-controlled territory. Israeli forces opened fire there too. And again, there were several more fatalities.</s>GUY RAZ, Host: These demonstrations, Phil, are held annually. What explains the level of violence this year?</s>PHILIP REEVES: However, it is true that the Palestinians are in a buoyant mood right now. They feel that their cause has gained new traction because of the reconciliation after a long and messy feud between their two main factions, Hamas and Fatah.</s>GUY RAZ, Host: Now, Israel is accusing both Syria and Iran of organizing these demonstrations; the Israelis say to divert attention away from recent protests in Syria. Is there any evidence of that?</s>PHILIP REEVES: Plus, remember, that President Obama is about to make a big speech on the Middle East. So there is a lot at stake right now.</s>GUY RAZ, Host: That's NPR's Philip Reeves in Jerusalem.

Thousands of Palestinians and their supporters demonstrated Sunday at Israel's borders with Syria and Lebanon, and in the West Bank and Gaza, in commemoration of what has been dubbed the "nakba," or catastrophe. The day recalls Israel's creation in 1948 and the subsequent displacement of Palestinians. The annual protest turned violent this year, with at least 16 people killed in clashes with Israeli forces.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: Good morning. I'm David Greene. It's just so easy to make fun of the Cleveland Browns - but not this time. It's been a horrible season, and if the Browns went 0-16, fans wanted to hold a perfect-season parade to begin at the Factory of Sadness, local comedian Mike Polk's nickname for the stadium. But the Browns won a game, so the parade's canceled. The $10,000 raised to organize it will be donated to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, and the Browns are matching that with another 10,000 bucks. You're listening to MORNING EDITION.

It has been a horrible season for the Cleveland Browns. If the team went 0-16, fans wanted to hold a perfect season parade. But the parade was canceled after the team won a game.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: On Fridays, our business report focuses on money. Today what you can buy in one Florida county. Property values are soaring in the Sunshine State and that has developers racing to build more homes. NPR's Scott Horsley reports on what the Census Bureau called the nation's fastest-growing county.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: SCOTT HORSLEY reporting:</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: The first thing you see when you visit the Flagler County, Florida, Web site is a guide to avoiding shark attacks. That's followed by a news release on the arrival of a mosquito-borne illness. But neither sharks nor bloodsucking insects have stopped families from flocking to the coastal county, between Daytona Beach and St. Augustine. From mid-2003 to 2004, Flagler County added homes at a 14 percent clip, nearly 10 times the pace of the rest of the country. County spokesman Carl Laundrie says there have been some growing pains in the area, which was originally planned as a retirement community.</s>Mr. CARL LAUNDRIE (Flagler County Spokesman): What happened was Grandma and Grandpa came here and then pretty soon the sons and daughters came with their family and schools are faced with building pretty much a school a year for the next 10 years to keep up with the growth.</s>HORSLEY: Laundrie says there is enough land for the new arrivals. The trick is providing water and not outrunning residents' tolerance for growth.</s>Mr. CARL LAUNDRIE (Flagler County Spokesman): They always say that the Florida environmentalist is the guy who bought his condominium last year. Once people are here, they like to keep the area as pristine as it was when they got here. And that's been the challenge.</s>HORSLEY: According to the Census Bureau, Florida as a whole added some 200,000 housing units during the year, more than any other state.</s>HORSLEY: Scott Horsley, NPR News.

The Census Bureau calls Flagler County, Fla., the nation's fastest-growing county. From mid-2003 to 2004, Flagler County added homes at a 14-percent clip. That's nearly 10 times the pace of the rest of the country.

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: The New York Police Department has agreed to settle a pair of lawsuits that allege it illegally targeted Muslims in terrorism investigations. While the NYPD doesn't concede it did anything wrong, it has agreed to allow an independent monitor to scrutinize the department's counterterrorism efforts and to codify its investigation processes. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston has this report from New York.</s>DINA TEMPLE-RASTON, BYLINE: To hear Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union tell it, today's settlement, if approved by a judge, will protect New Yorkers from police surveillance based on their religion, ethnicity or political activity.</s>DONNA LIEBERMAN: It will be a win-win for New Yorkers because it will ensure and promote targeted, suspicion-based policing rather than discriminatory policing.</s>DINA TEMPLE-RASTON, BYLINE: The settlement will, among other things, end a long-standing set of class-action suits which establish how the NYPD can conduct investigations. The lawsuits cite instances in which they allege Muslims became suspects simply because of their religion. And indeed, the NYPD did keep files on ethnic neighborhoods, conducted surveillance on Muslims for years without filing charges and dispatched plainclothes units to their neighborhoods for terrorism investigations. The intelligence unit responsible for that has since been disbanded. The NYPD's Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence John Miller says today's settlement codifies what's already been done.</s>JOHN MILLER: It actually doesn't change what we're doing now in any way. What it does, if anything, is it better memorializes the standards and best practices that we've been using.</s>DINA TEMPLE-RASTON, BYLINE: Those standards and best practices now mirror FBI guidelines and they include things like using undercover officers only when other options are impractical or capping the length of investigations. To make sure those changes endure, the agreement will also restore outside oversight. The mayor will appoint an independent monitor. A judge is expected to approve the settlement in the coming weeks. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News, New York.

The New York Police Department has agreed to settle a pair of lawsuits that allege it illegally targeted Muslims in terrorism investigations. The settlement, if approved by a judge, will codify rules for terrorism investigations and provide more oversight.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: At the White House today, President Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed a range of issues including climate change. Modi agreed that India would ratify a major international deal as soon as possible. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.</s>BRIAN NAYLOR, BYLINE: India and the U.S. each signed on to the climate change agreement reached in Paris last December, but neither country has formally ratified the deal which is aimed at slowing the rise in global temperatures. It takes effect once 55 nations responsible for 55 percent of global greenhouse gases have joined it. India is the third-largest emitter of carbon after the U.S. and China. President Obama said the U.S. and India's joining forces helped make the deal possible.</s>BARACK OBAMA: The agreements and memoranda that we reached I think reflect the seriousness with which both of us take the climate change issue.</s>BRIAN NAYLOR, BYLINE: Obama and Modi have what's been described as a warm relationship. They met this morning at the Oval Office and shared a working lunch. There are developing economic ties between the two countries. India says it intends to buy six nuclear reactors from Westinghouse which the U.S. says would produce thousands of jobs in India and the U.S.</s>BRIAN NAYLOR, BYLINE: India has yet to finalize the deal, but a joint statement released today says contractual arrangements should be complete by next June. The two leaders also discussed other issues - cyber security and antiterrorism efforts. President Obama said national security was also on the table.</s>BARACK OBAMA: India and the United States have a shared vision of peace, of democracy, of countries resolving conflicts diplomatically rather than through war.</s>BRIAN NAYLOR, BYLINE: The two nations also made progress on a defense logistics accord. The U.S. will share military technology with India and information about the movement of U.S. aircraft carriers in the region. Modi will address a joint meeting of Congress tomorrow. Brian Naylor, NPR News, the White House.

President Obama welcomes Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House on Tuesday.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: At the Supreme Court today, the justices weighed how to compensate victims of child pornography and who should be liable when thousands of people may have possessed the images. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports.</s>CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: The case revolves around a woman named Amy. She was raped by her uncle when she was eight years old. Images and videos from that abuse have turned up more than 3,000 times since the late '90s, sending her into therapy and making it hard for her to work. Amy's uncle was sentenced to prison and ordered to turn over about $6,000 in restitution. The question for the court today is how much money other child porn defendants should be forced to pay. In other words, is possessing a few pictures enough to put someone on the hook for millions?</s>CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: The defendant here, Doyle Randall Paroline, pleaded guilty to downloading hundreds of images, including two photos of Amy. Overall, Amy estimates she's owed more than $3 million. But Justice Antonin Scalia said to sock Paroline for all those costs just because he downloaded two pictures of Amy didn't sound right. The justices struggled with how to assign a dollar figure to the harm, especially when thousands of people might download child porn but only two or three might be caught and prosecuted. The lawyer for Doyle Paroline says prosecutors need to prove a link between Amy's losses and his conduct.</s>CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: The Justice Department argued for a middle ground - that Amy deserves some money from Paroline, but not $3 million. Where to draw that line is something the justices must decide before the end of the term this June. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case that would allow a victim of child pornography to seek damages not only from the pornographers, but also from their online clients.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: NPR's business news starts with more budget cuts in Greece.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: Greece's leaders are expected to sign off, today, on more painful austerity measures – the price that country must pay for a new bailout.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: The multi-billion dollar loans and a separate debt-reduction deal are needed to avoid a formal default, not to mention Greece's exit from the eurozone. They could lose the euro as their currency if they don't follow through on this.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Joanna Kakissis has the latest from Athens.</s>JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: The leaders of the three parties in a coalition government have been putting off this decision for days. The delay is threatening a separate bond-swap deal with private creditors to cut Greek debt by at least 50 percent. But politicians have two difficult choices: Accept the deal, which means angry voters at spring elections, or reject the deal and send Greece into a chaotic default when bond repayments come due next month.</s>JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: The new bailout deal would give Greece close to $171 billion. But in exchange for that, the government must cut spending, recapitalize Greek banks and reduce the minimum wage by at least 20 percent.</s>JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: Greeks strongly oppose the cuts. The minimum wage reduction prompted a general strike by unions today. Unions also oppose another measure, cutting 15,000 state jobs. Until the debt crisis, it was nearly impossible to lose a public sector job here, since the constitution protects state workers. Eurozone leaders are proposing more control over new bailout loans. Greek politicians, meanwhile, are hoping they won't lose control of an angry public.</s>JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: For NPR News, I'm Joanna Kakissis in Athens.

Greek leaders are supposed to meet again Tuesday to finally sign off on more painful austerity measures in exchange for a new bailout. Greece needs more loans — and a separate debt-reduction deal — to avoid a messy default, which could lead to an exit from the eurozone.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: NPR's business news starts with hacking the Chamber.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: The computer system of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce - the nation's largest business lobbying group - was breached by hackers in China. The Wall Street Journal reports the attacks targeted employees who focus on Asia policy. Emails, information about trade policy and trips as well as other details about the Chamber's 3 million members were accessed.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: The FBI discovered the breach in 2010 and alerted the Chamber, which has since worked to overhaul its cybersecurity system. Chinese officials say the allegation lacks proof; that China forbids hacking.

The computer system of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was breached by hackers in China. The Wall Street Journal reports the attacks targeted employees who focus on Asia policy. The FBI discovered the breach in 2010 and alerted the Chamber, which has since worked to overhaul its cyber-security system.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: OK. Lorre's hit show "Two and a Half Men" may have moved on from Charlie Sheen. Now it's being attacked by another of its stars.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Angus Jones is the half a man referred to in the show's title. He debuted on the sitcom as a nine-year-old. Still on it today at age 19, but says he wishes he wasn't.</s>ANGUS JONES: If you watch "Two and a Half Men," please stop watching "Two and a Half Men." I'm on "Two and a Half Men," and I don't want to be on it. Please stop watching it. Please stop filling your head with filth.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: That's from a video Jones made about his new Christian faith. In it, he goes on to say that you, quote, "cannot be a true, God-fearing person and be on a raunchy sitcom like 'Two and a Half Men.'"</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Mr. Jones says he's stuck with a contract to appear on the show for another year, earning about $350,000 per episode.

Renee Montagne and Steve Inskeep report on a plea from Angus Jones, the young actor on the hit TV show Two and a Half Men. In a video, he implores people to quit watching the show, saying it's at odds with his Christian faith.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: Good morning. I'm Rachel Martin with some very far-out technology news. Vodafone Germany has announced it's going to work with Nokia to develop a cellphone network on the moon. The point is to allow high-definition streaming from the lunar landscape back to Earth as part of the first privately funded moon mission. It will be a 4G network instead of the state-of-the-art 5G because the 5G is still in testing and they're not sure it would allow for a stable connection on the moon because it's the moon. Can you hear me now? It's MORNING EDITION.

The point is to allow high definition streaming from the lunar landscape back to Earth as part of the first privately funded moon mission. It will be a 4G network because the 5G is still in testing.

DAVID GREENE, Host: NPR's business news starts with a drop in late payments.</s>DAVID GREENE, Host: Turns out American credit card users are managing their bills better. The credit reporting agency TransUnion says the rate of delinquent payments - 90 days late or more - has dropped to its lowest level in 17 years. Quarterly bank numbers also shows that Americans are carrying less debt on their cards.</s>DAVID GREENE, Host: An official at TransUnion says people are becoming more responsible about using credit, and they're cutting back on the number of cards in their wallets. Still, the drop in delinquent payments also comes as banks have made it harder to get a credit card.

The credit reporting agency TransUnion says the rate of delinquent payments — 90 days late or more — has dropped to its lowest level in 17 years. Quarterly bank data also show that Americans are carrying less debt on their cards.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep with condolences to a college student named Dean. Pennsylvania police say the student and some friends ordered fake IDs from China. One of the students was named Dean, and that caused a problem when the package was mistakenly delivered to a college dean with the same last name. Police are not saying the name of the college, but The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the dean figured out which Dean really ordered the cards and contacted the student's parents. It's MORNING EDITION.

Police say a student named Dean and some friends ordered fake ID's from China. When the package was mistakenly delivered to a college dean with the same last name, the students' parents were called.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: And today's last word in business is a kind of hyper inflation. A 10-dollar bill that is worth half a million dollars.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: Billy Baeder is a currency collector whose first word of advice about a new bill is don't fold it. His second word, check the serial number. If there's something special about it like all the same digits or if a particular bill contains a printing mistake, it could be worth a lot.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Mr. Baeder would know because he owns the most valuable piece of currency printed since 1929 when American bills were shrunk to their current size. He has a 10-dollar bill known as 1933 silver certificate, one of a small batch of bills the government released and then tried to removed from circulation.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: His bill contains a unique serial number, the letter A, then seven zeros followed by one A. That means it was the first off the printer, making it even more rare and worth $500,000.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, one, A. But Mr. Baeder is not willing to part with his Hamilton for any number of Benjamin Franklins. He says the bill was bought by his late father, the man who taught him all about the currency trade. It apparently has sentimental value worth more than half a million dollars to him.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: And that's the business news on Morning Edition from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: And I'm Renee Montagne.

Currency collector Billy Baeder owns what might be the most valuable piece of currency printed since 1929. His $10 bill — a 1933 silver certificate — is one of a small batch the government released, then tried to remove from circulation. His bill also has a rare serial number, making it worth an estimated $500,000.

ROBERT SIEGEL, Host: From NPR News, it's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.</s>MICHELE NORRIS, Host: NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.</s>MICHELE KELEMEN: A day after he was wined and dined at the White House, Felipe Calderon got a warm welcome in Congress, at least when he was talking tough about battling Mexico's drug cartels.</s>FELIPE CALDERON: One of the main changes taking place in Mexico is our commitment to firmly establish the rule of law. That is why we are deploying the full force of the state to confront organized crime with determination and courage.</s>MICHELE KELEMEN: The room split along party lines, though, when he started talking about some of the help he needs from Congress. Calderon says he's worried about the flow of guns from the U.S. to Mexico. And he told lawmakers that the violence started to increase in his country soon after an assault rifle ban expired in the U.S. in 2004.</s>FELIPE CALDERON: I will ask Congress to help us with respect, and to understand how important it is for us that you enforce current laws to stamp the supply of these weapons to criminals and consider reinstating the assault weapons ban.</s>MICHELE KELEMEN: Only the Democrats and the large Mexican contingent stood up to applaud that line. The speech was not particularly well attended by members of Congress. Staffers in navy suits filled up all the empty seats, including several rows in the Republican section. And Calderon managed to split the crowd again on the need to fix what he called a broken immigration system.</s>FELIPE CALDERON: I am convinced that a comprehensive immigration reform is also crucial to securing our common border. However, I strongly disagree with the recently adopted law in Arizona.</s>MICHELE KELEMEN: Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon addressed a joint session of Congress on Thursday, and urged U.S. lawmakers to overhaul the immigration system and consider reinstating a ban on assault rifles.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne. As the Yankees fight to keep their season alive, one fan fought to keep his future alive. After dropping to his knee for a very special marriage proposal at Yankee Stadium, he dropped the ring. But after an embarrassing scramble on camera, he got the ring and got a yes. A different couple in New York's Central Park got lucky on their wedding day. Tom Hanks happened to jog by, stopped for a selfie and ended up in their wedding photos. It's MORNING EDITION.

A man proposing to his girlfriend at a Yankees game, dropped the ring. He eventually found it, and she said yes. A jogger in Central Park stopped to be in wedding photos. The jogger was Tom Hanks.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: A new report is calling into question how the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse investigation was handled. Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant football coach, was convicted of sexually assaulting 10 boys. Now, Pennsylvania's attorney general says Sandusky could have been brought to justice sooner. NPR's Jeff Brady has this story.</s>JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: Reports that Jerry Sandusky was abusing children at circulated for years. So when he was arrested in 2011, Kathleen Kane had this question.</s>KATHLEEN KANE: What took so long? Why did this take so long?</s>JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: Kane is a Democrat and during her 2012 campaign for attorney general, she suggested Republican Governor Tom Corbett - when he was AG - slowed the investigation for political reasons. The Sandusky scandal made headlines after Corbett was elected governor in 2010. Now, with her review complete, Kane's assessment changed.</s>KATHLEEN KANE: This report found no direct evidence - no e-mail, no confession, no statement from anybody indicating that they were told to slow this down because of politics.</s>JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: Still, Kane says she would've prosecuted Sandusky more quickly. In a written statement, Corbett responds he wanted to conduct a careful investigation of a complex case that would lead to Sandusky's conviction. Sandusky was found guilty and is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. Jeff Brady, NPR News.

Sandusky, a retired Penn State assistant football coach, was convicted in 2012 of molesting 10 boys. Pennsylvania's attorney general says Sandusky could have been brought to justice sooner.