Authorities in Los Angeles plan to say more later today about why they're reopening the investigation into actress Natalie Wood's drowning death over the weekend of Thanksgiving 1981.

Wood's husband at the time, actor Robert Wagner, says through a spokesman that he supports the new probe.

In these hard times, Britain's Royal Academy of Chemistry has come up with the cheapest meal of all: a toast sandwich. They found the recipe in the Victorian bestseller: Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management. It's a piece of toast between two buttered slices of bread and costs 12 cents to make.

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Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne. The Columbia University Marching Band is known for its sense of humor, but their joke fell flat at a recent football game against Cornell. In a parody of the school fight song, the band sang: We always lose, lose, lose by a lot; sometimes, by a little - which is accurate. Their loss to Cornell was their ninth straight this year.

The athletic department wasn't amused. They banned the marching band from the final game of the season. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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And it is always fun to be in the audience for Susan's cranberry relish sequels. Kenneth Turan says there's a sequel opening in theaters today that's not as much fun as the first. Five years ago "Happy Feet" won the Oscar for best animated feature. Now the penguins are back.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu appeared before a House oversight subcommittee Thursday to defend his agency's decision to lend $500 million in federal money to Solyndra, a company that made solar panels and is now bankrupt. The company is the subject of numerous federal investigations.

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NPR's business news starts with oil prices hovering around $99 a barrel. Oil has gone up sharply since last month, partly because of signs of improvement in the U.S. economy. Also because of tensions in some oil producing regions, which could affect supplies. Still, the debt crisis in Europe is holding prices below that psychologically important $100 a barrel mark. Benchmark crude was trading in Asia this morning at about $98.90. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

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The outcome in Italy is, of course, of huge importance to Germany. Germany is the strongest economy in the eurozone and has a deep historical interest in the euro's success. We asked the economist Nicolas Veron to remind us of Germany's role in this grand monetary experiment.

Football has long been beloved at Penn State, and the program is one of the most lucrative in the country. But as the biggest scandal in the school's history continues to roil the campus, some in State College, Pa., are beginning to question football's influence.

At his news conference this week, interim Penn State football coach Tom Bradley tried to focus on Saturday's game in Columbus.

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Italy's new prime minister has pledged far-reaching reforms. An economist himself, Mario Monti has managed to win a vote of confidence for his new national unity government by an overwhelming majority in Italy's senate. Still, Europe's debt crisis is gathering more steam and now pushing borrowing costs for Spain and France sharply higher. As NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports, pressure is mounting on the European Central Bank to act to stem the crisis.

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