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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with wiring from Wal-Mart.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MONTAGNE: The giant retailer is taking another step into banking. The company says it's launching a money transfer service next week. It'll go head-to-head with Western Union and MoneyGram in a market worth about $900 billion. But Wal-Mart says it will offer lower fees. Western Union and MoneyGram's stock both dropped on the news. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

The Oswego City School District needs to close a $1.7 million budget gap and is looking at a variety of areas to cut. One thing on the potential chopping block is the Buccaneer Junior/Senior High School. The alternative school was started just two years ago, but already has great support from its students and faculty.
 

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Good morning. I'm Kelly McEvers with the story of not one, but two, good Samaritans in Boonville, Indiana. A Chrysler belonging to Derk West was stolen last week. The thief then sold the car to a 72-year-old man for 300 bucks. That buyer started feeling like the deal was too good to be true.

So he looked up the car's rightful owner, Mr. West, gave him a call. Derk West decided the older man needed the car more than he did so he let him keep it. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Good morning, I'm David Greene.

Well, the tabloids have been reporting it for years but now it is official: Chelsea Clinton is actually pregnant this time. New York magazine proclaimed that America's version of a royal baby is on the way. Chelsea's parents, Bill and Hillary, sent out tweets confirming the news. The former president wrote that he is excited to add a new line to his Twitter bio: grandfather-to-be. And, of course, now speculation on the 2064 presidential race can begin.

The Port of Oswego is expecting its shipping season to be delayed until next week, because of ice floes slowing down boats coming through the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Executive Director Zelko Kirincich says the shipping season was scheduled to begin April 11, but a large amount of thick ice along the seaway forced the Canadian Coast Guard to send out ice breakers to reopen shipping lanes earlier this week.

Local Democrats failed to meet a filing deadline to run a candidate in this year’s race to represent the 22nd Congressional District, which covers an area from Binghamton to Utica and west to Pulaski. Republican incumbent Richard Hanna will only have to get past two Republican challengers in this June’s primary.

Jim Testani is the chairman for the Broome County Democrats. He says the fact there isn’t a Democratic challenger isn’t from a lack of effort. Testani says he met with several potential candidates but says the rising cost of campaigning scared them all away.

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KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Kelly McEvers.

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America has learned a lot about fighting wars over the past decade. And you can see how they apply the lessons learned at the Fort Irwin National Training Center in Southern California. The military still holds old-style war games there, with tanks and planes. But the war scenarios also reflect the recent challenges faced in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

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If you think about the country of Columbia, you might think about turmoil - drug trafficking and violence - but a native son countered those notions with dream-like, whimsical storytelling. Nobel Prize-winning author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez died yesterday at the age of 87. Juan Forero visited his hometown.

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This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.

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And I'm Kelly McEvers. It's a name that conjures up grim images. Abu Ghraib prison. Once the site of prisoner abuse and torture, first under Saddam Hussein then under U.S. occupation, the prison temporarily closed this week. The decision comes as a Sunni-led insurgency in Western Iraq, near Abu Ghraib, is targeting Iraq's Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

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And our last word in business today is: Wonderful Wife.

It's the name of a women's magazine in Japan. It used to be a top seller back when more women stayed home and took care of their kids.

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But times have changed. As more women work even after having kids, Wonderful Wife has plunged in circulation. So the publisher says it's taking Wonderful Wife off the racks and replacing it with a new magazine aimed at working mothers.

The American workforce might want to pay attention to all those brown trucks full of cardboard boxes. UPS is using technology in ways that may soon be common throughout the economy.

On the surface, UPS trucks look the same as they did more than 20 years ago, when Bill Earle started driving for the company in rural Pennsylvania.

But underneath the surface, Earle says, the job has changed a lot. The thing you sign your name on when the UPS guy gives you a package used to be a piece of paper. Now it's a computer that tells Earle everything he needs to know.

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Good morning. I'm Kelly McEvers. A salon in London recently used an image of North Korea's leader to promote a discount. Bad hair day? - said the sign with a picture of Kim Jong-un - 15 percent off all gent cuts through the month of April.

The pup was discovered 100 miles from the ocean. It mostly likely swam up the San Joaquin River, hopped out and couldn't find its way back.

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The United States is the world’s largest nuclear power producer, and more than a quarter of New York’s electricity is supplied by atomic energy. As older nuclear plants in the state, and across the U.S., reach the end of their operational life, managing the nuclear waste left behind has become an ongoing national issue.

The Oswego County Jail's inmate population has grown over the past four years, and has forced Oswego County to send inmates elsewhere to be housed. County officials sat at least some of the blame lies with the state.

In this year's budget, Oswego County Sheriff Reuel Todd says he allotted $100,000 to cover the costs of housing inmates at outside facilities. But two months into the new year, Todd had already used $130,000 and is now requesting more funding.

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It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Kelly McEvers.

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And I'm David Greene. Good morning.

This spring will mark 60 years since Brown versus Board of Education. That's the Supreme Court ruling that was intended to end segregation in America's public schools. But a year-long study by the investigative journalism group ProPublica finds that we've never gotten to that goal. In fact, America in recent decades has been moving backward.

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One of the keys to success for a company or even a country is the ability to innovate, to create new ideas and products that change how people work, live and behave. And there's now new research suggesting that innovation could depend on the age of the people in charge. Of course innovation is just one measure of success. NPR's social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam has returned to join us. Shankar, good morning to you.

SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: Hi, David.

GREENE: So what's this new research about?

A new idea is making the rounds in education circles. Under the plan, states would allow students to go to college for free then they would pay back a percentage of their salaries after they graduate.

The Syracuse public school system has a plan in place for the future of Fowler High School, one of three it's overhauling this year. The school board has approved turning the school into one focused on public service and law enforcement.

Starting in the fall, incoming students will not attend Fowler High School, but the Public Service Leadership Academy.

The new budget for Syracuse public schools includes more state aid than the district asked for, but the school district still has to dip into the fund balance to level its finances.

The Syracuse City School District asked for $7 million from the state in order to balance its budget. Legislators came up with an extra $1.9 million, part of an overall state spending increase on education.

The extra cash will allow them to restore some previous cuts, Suzanne Slack, the district’s chief financial officer, said.

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Good morning. I'm David Greene. Police near London received a troubling emergency call. All the dispatcher could hear was heavy breathing. Cops rushed out to investigate, and found the caller running through a yard. It was a dog with a wireless phone in its mouth.

The Belgian Malinois named Layton must have tooth-dialed 999 - Britain's version of 911 - after snatching the phone from its owner. The owner told the Daily Mirror: He's downright naughty, but I would never swap him.

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KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Kelly McEvers, with news of a sad panda in China. Si Jia got depressed after her only companion moved to another zoo. She's now a happy panda. The zoo where she lives built her a mini-amusement park. And now the staff at the Yunnan Safari Park in Southwest China has given her a plasma TV, where she can watch other pandas at play. Si Jia was one of three giant pandas rescued after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

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

Almost 200 years ago, Utica was home to a passionate abolitionist community determined to rid the young nation of slavery. Now a local group is trying to remind the public of the significance of the city’s role in the anti-slavery movement.

Nearly sixty people came out recently on a typically chilly winter morning to walk downtown Utica streets, each of which had a story to tell from the days of the Underground Railroad.

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Tensions remain very high this morning in Eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russia demonstrators stormed the city hall in the city of Donetsk. And there are now reports this morning of several Ukrainian armored personnel carriers on the move in some cities flying Russian flags. To try and sort out what's going on, we have NPR's Ari Shapiro on the line. He is in the Eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. Ari, good morning.

ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: Hi, David.

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It is time for sports now. March Madness is over. The Masters Golf Tournament is over. But there's absolutely no time at all for sports fans to catch their collective breath, not with the National Hockey League playoffs starting tonight and the NBA playoffs starting this weekend.

NPR's Tom Goldman is here to set the proverbial table for us. Tom, good morning.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Good morning, David.

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And I'm Kelly McEvers. Last night the New York Police Department confirmed that its controversial Demographics Unit has been disbanded. The special unit was created after September 11. It was devoted to tracking everyday activities in the city's Muslim neighborhoods.

People in the newly annexed territory of Crimea are trying to figure out how to deal with their new status as part of Russia, rather than Ukraine. Tatars were vocal in their opposition to the Russian takeover of Crimea. That's because they remember their history of maltreatment under the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

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And our last word in business today is: Tax Confusion.

Yesterday, of course, was the deadline for filing. And today, you're maybe feeling some uncertainty over whether you got everything right.

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A lot of people complain that the tax code is just too complex, but usually not directly to the IRS. After all, you could be asking for an audit if you file that complaint. This does not seem to be the concern of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

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The Washington Post is celebrating a pair of Pulitzer Prizes this week. One is for a series on Americans who rely on food stamps. The other, a Public Service medal for stories based on the documents from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

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