Morning Edition

A planned runoff in the 100 meters between Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh was canceled at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore., Monday. Tarmoh decided not to race. The two had tied for third place in the women's 100.

As more people take shift work in the still struggling economy, the need for after hours child care has increased. Throughout the country, many daycare centers have begun offering evening hours or 24-hour care. Parents say their kids should be sleeping at home at night, but they have no choice but to work when jobs are available.

In France, a law just took effect that requires all drivers, including tourists, to buy a breathalyzer test to keep in their cars. Drunk driving is huge problem in France — causing more accidents per year than speeding. It was recently discovered that the head of the group that lobbied for the law also works for a company that makes the kits.

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with another bye-bye at Barclays.

Whether economic sanctions can force a government to change course is far from clear, but Iran should be a good test case.

A European Union embargo on Iranian oil took full effect this week, complementing U.S. measures that have grown much more severe in recent weeks. Other Western sanctions now in place target Iranian banks, foreign companies that provide shipping insurance for Iranian oil tankers, and foreign firms that invest in the Iranian oil industry.

If it hasn't happened to you, count yourself as lucky. For many people, eating ice cream or drinking an icy drink too fast can produce a really painful headache. It usually hits in the front of the brain, behind the forehead.

The technical name for this phenomenon is cold-stimulus headache, but people also refer to it as "ice cream headache" or "brain freeze."

The good news is that brain freeze is easy to prevent — just eat more slowly. The other bit of good news is these headaches don't last very long — a minute at the outside.

The Morning Edition mailboxes are always overflowing with books sent by publishers. And recently, a fair number have fallen into a category you might call "dog memoirs" — books about how dogs transform their owners' lives.

The plan in Afghanistan was ambitious. Americans would set up a base in one of the most remote parts of one of the world's most isolated countries. The project would last many years and cost large sums of money. And in the end, Afghanistan, or at least one small part of it, would be a new, modern country.

When Americans think of large-scale U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, most would point to the Sept. 11 attacks that prompted the American invasion of the country in 2001.

There are few opposition leaders who are welcomed abroad with the same pomp and ceremony as heads of state. But that's the sort of star treatment lavished on Aung San Suu Kyi, opposition leader of Myanmar, also known as Burma, on her three-week tour of Europe.

But pressure is increasing on her to address simmering political crises at home, and to move her country's democratic changes forward.

In Geneva, Oslo, Dublin, London and Paris, Suu Kyi issued eloquent pleas for ethical foreign investment in Myanmar and foreign support for her country's ongoing reforms.

It's a pretty bad first day at work when hundreds of thousands of people march through the streets calling for your resignation. That's what happened Sunday to Hong Kong's new leader, Leung Chun-ying, who was appointed by Beijing. The huge turnout presents new problems for China amid its own difficult power transition.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Linda Wertheimer. Hot Wheels and their twisty plastic tracks have long been a source of small scale thrills. But on Saturday, daredevils Tanner Foust and Greg Tracy went behind the miniature. They raced two rally cars around a 66-foot tall version of a Hot Wheels loop-de-loop racetrack. Seven times gravity was the hardest part. The only thing broken was a world record. Don't try this at home. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

And I'm Linda Wertheimer.

Members of Congress have left town for the Fourth of July recess, but Washington is still reacting to the Supreme Court decision upholding President Obama's health care law. Each party is looking for ways to use the decision to its advantage in the fall campaign. Going into the weekend, a Gallup poll showed voters evenly split; 46 percent said they approved of the ruling, 46 percent disapprove.

Transcript

PAULINE BARTOLONE, BYLINE: I'm Pauline Bartolone in Sacramento.

California, unlike Mississippi, is already on the road to Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. And after the law passed in 2010, it was the first state to get going to build an exchange.

Peter Lee is in charge of it. He never let uncertainty about the Supreme Court decision come in the way of building the new marketplace.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Another mystery that has long eluded many is the case of the missing aviatrix. Amelia Earhart disappeared on this day 75 years ago. She was attempting to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe in an airplane when she vanished somewhere in the South Pacific. Her disappearance has stoked speculation ever since.