NPR News

This is not from The Onion:

"The number of happy faces on Lego toy mini-figures is decreasing and the number of angry faces is increasing, a University of Canterbury robot expert says."

During Tuesday's debate on the Senate's immigration bill, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) took to the floor and launched into an almost 13-minute speech in support of the bill crafted by the bipartisan "Gang of Eight."

That's not the news. The fact that Kaine delivered it in Spanish is, because it's the first time a senator has delivered a full speech on the floor of the Senate in a language other than English.

A federal appeals court slapped down a quixotic legal campaign against Monsanto's biotech patents this week.

Organic farmers had gone to court to declare those patents invalid. The farmers, according to their lawyers, were "forced to sue preemptively to protect themselves from being accused of patent infringement" if their field became contaminated by Monsanto's genetically modified seed.

As NPR's Debbie Elliott has reported for Morning Edition and on the Code Switch blog, "for Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of slain NAACP leader Medgar Evers, the memories of 1963 are still raw."

As Iran prepares to hold a presidential election Friday, many women say that their limited gains have been rolled back by the outgoing president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Since all of the presidential candidates have been officially approved by Iran's clerical leaders, women say most are conservative and would be likely to continue adopting policies that target the social and educational advances by women.

First, let's spoil this tale right away by telling you the 19-year-old man in Virginia who downed a quart of soy sauce on a dare survived.

It's a happy ending of sorts. But the guy had a close call. And you definitely don't want to try it.

While there's been quite a debate lately about whether the salt in the modern American diet is risky, there's no question that a massive amount of salt ingested quickly can lead to death.

(We retopped this post at 8:27 p.m. ET)

Sarah Murnaghan, the 10-year-old girl in need of a lung transplant, is out of surgery, her family said in a statement.

"We are thrilled to share that Sarah is out of surgery," the statement said. "Her doctors are very pleased with both her progress during the procedure and her prognosis for recovery."

The statement said the procedure lasted about six hours, and surgeons had no challenges resizing and transplanting the donor lungs.

Our original post:

Lionel Messi, the Argentine superstar who is generally thought of as the best soccer player in the world these days, has been accused of tax fraud by Spanish authorities.

Yes, the NBA finals are well underway, and yes it's mid-June, but tonight marks Game 1 of the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup championship. A strike-shortened season pushed the finals later into the spring than usual.

For the first time since 2005, when George W. Bush was in the Oval Office, the public's opinion of the former president is "more positive than negative," the pollsters at Gallup say.

Gallup says its latest polling shows:

-- 49 percent of those surveyed have a favorable opinion of the former president.

-- 46 percent have an unfavorable opinion of Bush.

"I'm neither traitor nor hero. I'm an American."

That's what Edward Snowden tells the South China Morning Post in his first published interview since The Guardian and The Washington Post revealed he was the source who leaked top secret information about government programs that sweep up data on phone calls and Internet activity.

On Tuesday, Vermont moved to decriminalize the possession of marijuana for quantities up to an ounce, replacing potential prison time for arrests with fines.

If you've felt smug and safe using built-in, voice-controlled technology for text messages, email and phone calls while driving, forget it. There are some sobering findings about the risk of distraction from the American Automobile Association and the University of Utah.

The proliferation of hands-free technology "is a looming public safety crisis," AAA CEO Robert Darbelnet says. "It's time to consider limiting new and potentially dangerous mental distractions built into cars."

Whitey Bulger is finally getting his day in court.

Facing 329 charges, including two counts of aggravated murder, 139 counts of rape and 177 counts of kidnapping, Ariel Castro entered a not-guilty plea this morning in a Cleveland courthouse.

Gov. Rick Perry's outsized Texas swagger is coming to the heart of blue state America.

In an audience with The Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious, Pope Francis is said to have revealed the existence of a gay lobby.

The organization of priests and nuns posted notes of their private meeting with the pope on its website.

More than 900 prisoners were evacuated from a state prison near Colorado Springs, Colo., early Wednesday as one of four wildfires across the Front Range moved toward the facility, The Associated Press writes.

About 2,500 homes and businesses in northeast El Paso County have also been evacuated, according to The Denver Post.

The Spurs were red hot Tuesday night, not the Heat.

San Antonio blew out Miami in Game 3 of the NBA finals, winning 113-77 and taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Led by Danny Green and Gary Neal, the Spurs went on a tear — hitting a Finals record 16 shots from beyond the three-point arc. As NPR's Tom Goldman said on Morning Edition, "Miami melted into the hardwood like the wicked witch of the west" as San Antonio hit shot after shot.

When a former IT contractor at the National Security Agency gave The Guardian U.S. government surveillance information, he told the paper that his only motivation was to spark a public debate about government surveillance.

"This is something that's not our place to decide," Edward Snowden said. "The public needs to decide whether these programs and policies are right or wrong."

Edward Snowden's claim that as systems administrator for a defense contractor in Hawaii he had the authority "to wiretap anyone, from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president," just isn't plausible, says a former national security lawyer at the Justice Department and Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. A flight from Las Vegas to Phoenix this week was delayed and delayed, passengers stuck on the tarmac for four hours without air conditioning or water in 108-degree heat. A YouTube post said some passengers got sick, but, quote, to "avoid a mutiny," others joined together in song: R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly."

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) I believe I can fly.

(LAUGHTER)

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Good morning, I'm Linda Wertheimer.

Marcine and Nita Lou Webb marked 65 years of marriage with a trip to Augusta, Maine, completing a mission to visit all 50 state capitals. Asked how Maine's capitol building compared to the others, Marcine gave it a medium, but high marks for friendly atmosphere. When they went to the gallery to see a debate, the House speaker recognized them and the legislators gave them a standing O.

It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

You might notice a bit of history peppered throughout your Twitter feed over the next few months.

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Buying a light bulb it's not as simple as it used to be. You're not just choosing between 100 watts and 75 watts, between three-way and one-way. Now you can choose light bulbs that will save you quite a bit of money and use less power. There are now bulbs that don't get hot, and you can pick a bulb that might last longer than you do.

Technology columnist Rich Jaroslovsky, at Bloomberg News, has been trying out the new bulbs and will enlighten us. Good morning, Rich.

RICH JAROSLOVSKY: Good morning.

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And I'm Renee Montagne. The U.S. Senate has opened debate on a sweeping immigration bill. And President Obama says it's the best chance in years to fix what he calls a broken immigration system. The measure took a step forward yesterday when a big, bipartisan majority of senators voted to take up the bill. But it still faces serious obstacles, as NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And Google has announced it is buying Waze, a community-based traffic and navigation app, for a reported price of just over a billion dollars.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports it may change the way we travel.

WENDY KAUFMAN, BYLINE: Google hopes its latest acquisition will make your morning commute easier, faster and more social.

While other traffic apps are somewhat passive, Waze tracks mobile devices as they travel, and uses that information to help analyze traffic speeds and flow.

If you've experienced sticker shock shopping for ground beef or steak recently, be prepared for an entire summer of high beef prices.

Multi-year droughts in states that produce most of the country's beef cattle have driven up costs to historic highs. Last year, ranchers culled deep into their herds — some even liquidated all their cattle — which pushed the U.S. cattle herd to its lowest point since the 1950s.