NPR News

President Obama will be advised to veto a multi-year farm bill slated to be discussed in the House this week, the White House says. The administration issued a statement on the legislation Monday afternoon, criticizing it for cutting food programs for the poor.

At more than 575 pages, the bipartisan bill introduced by Reps. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and Collin Peterson, D-Minn., the chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Agriculture, was .

Advocates of tougher voter registration standards have racked up wins in recent years — voter ID laws have taken hold across the nation, for example.

But those who believe that government should make voting as easy as possible just gained a significant victory with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision slapping down an Arizona law that required potential voters to prove their citizenship.

High-tech spying with satellites. Intimidation. Price fixing.

Sound like the makings of a Hollywood thriller? These are actually among the allegations being thrown about in a federal court case against America's alleged "Potato Cartel." It's enough to make Mr. Potato Head blush.

Paula Cooper, 43, left prison Monday morning, decades after she became America's youngest resident of death row at age 16. She had confessed to the 1985 murder of Bible studies teacher Ruth Pelke, 78, in Gary, Ind. Cooper's death sentence was commuted in 1989, after widespread appeals for mercy.

The human voice appears to trigger pleasure circuits in the brains of typical kids, but not children with autism, a Stanford University team reports. The finding could explain why many children with autism seem indifferent to spoken words.

You may know Matthew Morrison as the teacher and choir director Will Schuester, aka. "Mr. Schue," from the Fox television show Glee. Given his singing and dancing on the program, however, it's probably no surprise that his heart lies with Broadway. Morrison has a new album out called Where It All Began, his second of classic Broadway standards. He stopped by NPR West to talk with All Things Considered weekend Host Jacki Lyden about singing experiences over the years.

Once upon a time, it was MySpace. (Huh. Turns out you can still link to it.) Then Facebook happened. And Twitter. And beyond those two dominant social-media platforms, there are a host of other, newer options for staying in touch and letting the digital universe get a look at your life. And for certain kinds of sharing, some of those other options make more sense to tech-savvy teens than the Big Two do.

Note: As part of NPR's series on the summer of 1963, reporter Cory Turner headed to Jackson, Miss. to take a look at how folks are teaching the Civil Rights movement to kids who weren't a part of it — and making the lessons stick.

Much has changed in the past 50 years, since the height of the Civil Rights movement. But how do you teach the Civil Rights to kids who haven't ever experienced it? In Jackson, Miss., Fannie Lou Hamer Institute's Summer Youth Workshop tackles that question.

Google's "Project Loon" just launched in New Zealand — it uses balloons floating in the stratosphere to bring high-speed Internet access to remote areas.

The Komen Foundation for the Cure has a new chief executive.

Dr. Judith Salerno, 61, a geriatrician, is replacing Nancy Brinker, the philanthropy's founder and longtime CEO, the group said Monday.

"Judy's years of proven leadership in public policy and research make her the right choice to lead all aspects of Komen's mission," said Linda Custard, chair of the Komen board, in a statement.

Summer is almost here — and in California that means it's the season to worry about rolling blackouts. There's even more cause for concern this year. The San Onofre nuclear power plant is shutting down for good. It's been off-line for more than a year after a pipe was found leaking radioactive steam. When fully operational, San Onofre produced power for more than a million homes.

The Supreme Court sided with government regulators in an important case involving the pharmaceutical industry and patent law. At issue were contracts between "brand-name" pharmaceutical companies and "generic" producers in which the brand-name company paid the generic not to compete. The court said the Federal Trade Commission could challenge such contracts.

Old shoes can tell a story. A mother in New Jersey is hoping her exhibit of old shoes will help young people avoid violence. She's trying to collect a pair of shoes connected to every young person killed by gun violence in the U.S. in 1998 — the year her son was shot to death.

Every time you think you got a handle on this year's NBA Finals, you realize, you have no idea what's going to happen next. Case in point: Before last night's game five against the Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili was slumping and supposedly washed up. Instead he put on a vintage performance and led the Spurs to a ten-point victory over the defending champs.

The Black Forest Fire near Colorado Springs, Colo., has pushed about 4,500 evacuees out of their homes. Police are escorting some of them back in to pick up critical medications or rescue pets.

The man who leaked secret National Security Agency documents, Edward Snowden, defended his decision to reveal details of U.S. surveillance programs in a web chat on Monday. Snowden said he's still in Hong Kong and claims he wouldn't get a fair trial in the U.S. He also said he has not been in contact with the Chinese government and that there are more disclosures to come.

Netflix and Dreamworks Animation have announced an exclusive deal to develop animated kids' shows based on Dreamworks Animation's characters.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down a state-mandated requirement that prospective voters in Arizona provide proof of citizenship to be able to register to vote in national elections. But some experts are concerned that the court may have inserted a few "poison pills" in its opinion that would damage voting-rights protections someday down the road.

Most of the death and mayhem that occurs every day in Pakistan goes unreported in the West. You have to be here, to get a sense of exactly how turbulent and unstable this country is. Nawaz Sharif has just assumed power on a promise to restore calm and order.