Morning Edition

The Senate has passed a defense policy bill that includes controversial provisions requiring terrorism suspects be held in military rather than civilian custody. President Obama has threatened a veto.

If you think the presidential campaigns are heating up, visit Hollywood — where campaigns of a different sort are kicking into overdrive. It's Oscar season, and studios are orchestrating a blitz of interviews, ads and billboards in an attempt to influence academy voters.

If this season has a commander in chief, it's producer Harvey Weinstein. He is credited with inventing the modern Oscar campaign — famously beating out Saving Private Ryan for best picture with Shakespeare in Love.

A man was duck hunting in Box Elder County, Utah, when he climbed out of a boat to move decoys. He left his shotgun and his dog behind. The dog ended up stepping on the shotgun, and the hunter received 27 pellets of birdshot in the rear.

Many of us have left something in a jacket at the dry cleaner so it's easy to relate to the man who took a suit to Goodwill and gave it away. Only after he left did he realize what a donation he'd made. The suit had $13,000 inside.

Steve Inskeep talks to Gene Sperling, head of the president's National Economic Council, about extending the payroll tax cut. The Obama administration is pushing Congress to extend the cut before it expires at the end of the year.

Penn State students attended a forum on campus Wednesday night to discuss the child sex abuse scandal. Former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky is charged with abusing eight boys over a 15-year period. A new accuser, who is not part of the criminal case, has filed a lawsuit alleging Sandusky abused him more than 100 times and threatened his family to keep him quiet.

Medicare has announced that it will pay for primary care providers to counsel obese patients on losing weight and maintaining the weight loss. Medicare will pay doctors, nurses and physicians' assistants to help plan weight loss programs.

The West Drainage Ditch is the name of the creek that runs through Kalona, Iowa. Not the most appealing name, but a local newspaper editor is exploring plans to change the name. The city council has embraced the idea of putting the naming rights up for auction on eBay.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.

Federal agents in San Diego have discovered a sophisticated drug smuggling tunnel running under the U.S. Mexico border. The tunnel runs between two warehouses, one in Tijuana, the other in an industrial area of San Diego. It's so elaborate it even has an elevator at its entrance in Tijuana.