Morning Edition

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.

Today is your chance to own a little bit of Gandhi. The quirky, unpredictable and ultimately triumphant leader spent decades leading India to independence. Along the way, Mohandis Gandhi became known as Mahatma, or venerated one, and he had an appendectomy. Afterward, doctors took samples of his blood. Two microscope slides bearing that blood are being auctioned today in London with bids expected over $15,000.

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

There is word of another controversial leak investigation by the Department of Justice. The target is Fox News reporter James Rosen, who was monitored by the department after breaking a story about North Korea's nuclear weapons program in 2009.

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Yahoo's purchase of the blogging site Tumblr sent shockwaves through the Tumblrverse. Is that actually a word now?

WNYC's Ilya Marritz reports that the site's users want to keep Tumblr out of the mainstream.

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We are also following a subtler story of economic devastation, even with all the news about unemployment in Europe, this next number is hard to absorb. In Italy, among younger people, the jobless rate us close to 40 percent. The government is focused on the middle-aged and the elderly leaving little room it seems for their kids

Here's NPR's Sylvia Poggioli.

(SOUNDBITE OF SCREAMING AND SHOOTING)

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Let's turn to another story for now: The acting head of the IRS has resigned, but is still facing questions about the agency. Lawmakers continue their probe into the federal tax agency targeting Tea Party groups seeking tax exemption.

Giant technology firm Apple is paying billions of dollars less than it should in U.S. taxes each year, according to a report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In a hearing Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Apple CEO Tim Cook will defend the company.

The subcommittee's report says Apple avoids the tax payments mainly by shifting profits to three subsidiary companies in Ireland. The investigation found Apple is taking advantage of technicalities in U.S. and Irish tax laws to avoid paying any tax on a huge portion of its profits.

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JPMorgan Chase holds its annual shareholder meeting today in Tampa, Florida, and the shareholders will vote on a key measure: a proposal to strip the CEO, Jamie Dimon, of his other title, chairman of the board. A growing number of companies have split the CEO and chairman roles.

Shareholder activists and corporate governance experts say having a balance of power at the top helps to reduce risk. The bank and its supporters disagree. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports.

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Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep. Germany paid a price for asserting its financial power. Germans, more than others, had to finance bailouts for countries like Greece, and imposed austerity measures in return. Those who disapprove may have struck back. People across the continent and beyond watched the Eurovision song contest.

A California woman turned on the TV last week and saw she had the winning numbers in Wednesday's drawing. She thought she had won $360 million. It turns out she bought her ticket an hour after Wednesday's drawing.

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It's planting season, at least for those growing things like summer squash, beans and cherry tomatoes. And we're seeing a change. Rather than buy already developed seedlings, which are more expensive, many gardeners are buying seed packets. It's a sign they want to start their gardens from scratch. And seed companies say they've seen an increase in orders since the economic downturn.

Reporter Sasa Woodruff reports that it's easy to read the directions on these seed envelopes, the hard part is following them.

Yahoo is expected to announce Monday that it's acquiring the social media site Tumblr, in a deal The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets are reporting to be worth about $1.1 billion. Some analysts are calling the acquisition an effort by Yahoo to be "cool and relevant" again.

California is about to become the first state to require shore power at its ports. A new law mandates at least half of a shipping line's fleet to shut down their diesel engines and plug into shore-side electric power when they unload their cargo. It's part of a larger effort to cut pollution at the state's busiest ports, but costs have been a sticking point.