Morning Edition

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And I'm David Greene. Many families who lost artwork during the Holocaust have spent decades trying to reclaim their treasures. Now they could face a new obstacle: proposed legislation that would protect American museums from these families' claims. David Maxon of member station WNYC has more.

Bill Internicola, a 91-yar-old World War II veteran, was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., and now lives in Florida's Broward County. He recently received a letter from county elections officials asking him to show proof he was a U.S. citizen or be removed from the voting rolls.

Internicola says he was "flabbergasted."

"To me, it's like an insult," he says. "They sent me a form to fill out. And I filled out the form and I sent it back to them with a copy of my discharge paper and a copy of my tour of duty in the ETO, which is the European Theater of Operations."

U.S. and Afghan forces are fighting to gain control of a major crossroads in a part of Afghanistan that has seen so few NATO troops that one village elder mistook the Americans for Russians — from the long-ago Soviet war.

"It's an absolutely crucial area," says NPR photographer David Gilkey, who has been embedded with U.S. troops involved in the offensive in eastern Afghanistan's Ghazni province.

Friday is jobs day, when the federal government releases its monthly unemployment report. It's also just about five months before the presidential election.

When the two presidential contenders talk about unemployment, they're trying to balance their rhetoric between optimism, pessimism and reality.

New York's historic Algonquin Hotel has been famous for a lot of things: the roundtable where some of the greatest American wits, from George S. Kaufman to Dorothy Parker, held forth in the 1920s and '30s; generations of cats — named either Hamlet or Matilda — who haunt the lobby; and, since 1980, the Oak Room, one of New York's most loved cabaret spaces.

When Marriott purchased the hotel and closed it for renovations early this year, they announced that the Oak Room would not be reopening — instead, it will be a lounge for preferred customers.

Tina Brown, editor of The Daily Beast and Newsweek, tells us what she's been reading in a feature that Morning Edition likes to call "Word of Mouth." This month, Brown shares reading recommendations on Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family. The Diamond Jubilee takes place over the weekend, marking 60 years of the queen's reign in Britain.

A Queen At 25

Last fall, Kathy Partridge got a phone call from a local emergency room, telling her that her daughter, Jessie Glasscock, was there — and was OK.

Glasscock had gone missing overnight. She was away at college, and had a history of manic episodes. Police had found her in a Dumpster and brought her to the ER for her own safety. It was a huge relief for her mother. But she was completely surprised by what happened next.

"I went down to this emergency room and just found her by herself, basically locked in a closet," says Partridge.

The unemployment rate is 8.1 percent, but the underemployment rate — that's people who work part time but want full-time work — is much higher. For many people, making ends meet means cobbling together various part-time jobs. And there are some apps for that.

Shannon Mills has blanketed the floor in a spacious home in Corte Madera, Calif., with protective plastic. Now she's taping off the trim, getting ready to paint over the peach-colored living room walls with the more neutral "bisque" shade waiting in cans at her feet.

Brick by brick, Guenther Demnig is working to change how the Holocaust is publicly remembered in Germany.

On a recent afternoon, the 62-year-old Berlin-born artist is on his knees on a sidewalk in a prosperous section of Berlin's Charlottenburg district, working a hammer and small trowel. He is installing dozens of small, square brass bricks, each one inscribed with the name — and details about the death of — people who once lived in apartment houses on Pestalozzi Strasse.

In anticipation of California's ban on foie gras that begins July 1, foodies have been stockpiling duck liver. Animal-rights activists are protesting outside restaurants still serving it.

In Pocatello, Idaho, mail screeners at the federal courthouse were suspicious of a device they found in a magazine. The building was evacuated and the bomb squad came in. It wasn't a bomb. It was a magazine insert that played music.

A new cyber-spying program called Flame has been spreading across the Middle East. A Russian security company called Kaspersky Labs discovered the virus. Some experts believe Flame was developed by the makers of the virus Stuxnet.

Mitt Romney won the GOP presidential primary in Texas Tuesday night. By some counts, that gives him the last delegates he needed to formally secure the Republican nomination. He celebrated in Las Vegas with a campaign event and a fundraiser. But his victory was overshadowed by campaign surrogate Donald Trump who has a gift for finding the spotlight.

The U.S. and several governments worldwide have expelled Syrian diplomats in a coordinated protest against last weekend's massacre of more than 100 civilians in the village of Houla. The diplomatic fallout has spread to California, where Syrian Consul General Hazem Chehabi announced his resignation from the post. For more on his decision, Renee Montagne talks to Chehabi.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

The Stanley Cup finals start tonight, between the New Jersey Devils and the Los Angeles Kings. The Kings have only made it to the finals once before in their 45-year history. And so here in a town that lives for the Lakers and Dodgers, hockey fans are relishing their moment. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)