From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And I'm Melissa Block. In what the government is calling the biggest health care fraud settlement in history, drug maker Glaxo SmithKline has agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor criminal charges and pay $3 billion. As NPR's Carrie Johnson reports, the Justice Department says Glaxo used illegal tactics to promote two popular depression drugs and failed to report safety data on a third drug for diabetes.
The satellite TV provider Dish Network is offering subscribers a new feature that automatically skips over ads, but broadcast networks hate that idea, and they're suing. CBS, NBC and Fox say the feature, called Auto Hop, violates copyright laws and puts the whole TV industry's foundation in danger. Joe Flint has been covering this for the Los Angeles Times, and he joins me now. At, Joe, let's talk about Auto Hop. It's a feature on Dish's new digital video recorders, or DVRs. How does it work?
Whenever a car or truck turns off busy Channahon Road onto the long drive to the Caterpillar plant in Joliet, Ill., a handful of union workers on a picket line scream, "Scab! Scab!!"
As strikers try shaming the few workers and managers who cross the line, even a clearly marked sandwich delivery car gets shouted down.
Approximately 800 workers at this plant, which makes hydraulic systems for Caterpillar's heavy construction and mining equipment, are about to enter their third month on strike.
Regular contributor Stuart Kauffman is joined this week by Richard Melmon, a managing partner at Bullpen Capital.
What is an economy? The word derives from the ancient Greek for household stewardship. The economy is the steward of our material lives. But who is this steward? And how does it decide the makeup of the pantry?
Irwin M. Stelzer is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard, director of economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute, and a columnist for the Sunday Times.
In the world of smartphones, Apple and Samsung have been going head to head. And the competition could get rougher. Samsung has launched the Galaxy S3 in the U.S., and it could be a serious threat to the iPhone. Linda Wertheimer talks to Bloomberg technology columnist Rich Jaroslovsky about the latest in the smartphone battle between Samsung and Apple.
It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
WERTHEIMER: Now that the Supreme Court has upheld most of the health care law, the Affordable Care Act, the action turns to the states.
Each state has two big tasks: first is deciding whether to take federal money to expand Medicaid.
MONTAGNE: States are supposed to provide Medicaid to a larger base: people making incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty level, just under $15,000 a year.
The chairman of the big British bank Barclays stepped down this morning. This comes just days after the bank agreed to pay British and U.S. regulators a total of $450 million, a fine to settle charges that Barclays' traders and executives had manipulated a key interest rate for profit.
More than 70 years ago, Samsung started as a company which sold dried fish and fruit. Now Samsung sells everything from life insurance, to hotels and chemicals. It's one of South Korea's biggest companies. And, it's still run by the same family: the Lees.
In Texas, one in four people are uninsured, and the state's leadership has been vociferous in its opposition to the health-care law. Carrie Feibel, of member station KUHF in Houston, reports that despite the Supreme Court's ruling, political opposition to the Affordable Care Act remains strong. And that leaves many public-health advocates nervous about how the Lone Star State will implement the law.
Some industries stand to benefit now that the health care law has been upheld by the Supreme Court. For makers of medical devices, the ruling means frustration because a sales tax on their equipment stays in place.
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.
Deacon Mark Coudrain, bottom left, Rev. Charles Benoit, top left, Abbot Justin Brown, top right, and attorney Evans Schmidt carry a casket built by Benedictine monks down the steps of the U.S. federal district courthouse on Aug. 12, 2010.
Credit Patrick Semansky / AP
Benedictine Brother Brian Harrington (left) and novice Dustin Bernard pull a casket handle from a press in a workshop at St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, La.
Monks set up St. Joseph Abbey in Louisiana more than 100 years ago. They've been there so long, they have 1,100 acres and their own town, St. Benedict.
For all those years, when one of the brothers died, the monks would painstakingly craft a flawless pine casket in their woodwork shop.
Over the years, many clergy members and high-ranking church officials would request the the beautiful caskets. Soon, members of the public wanted see if they might be able to buy one.
From the maple sugar moose heads of New England to the chile brittle of the Southwest, from the Almond Roca of the Pacific Northwest to the key lime coconut patties of Florida, America loves its candy.
Michelle Holshue racked up $140,000 in student loan debt while training to become a public health nurse. She's living her dream of helping others, she says, but never expected it "to be so hard."
Credit Emily Bogle / NPR
Holshue religiously clips coupons to keep her expenses down. Even so, she often has to put groceries on her credit card.
Growing up near Philadelphia, Michelle Holshue's dream was to serve those in need. Applying to nursing school at the University of Pennsylvania seemed like a smart move — in 2007.
Nursing jobs were plentiful. The students' running joke was that hospital executives would soon be stopping them in the street, begging them to come to work.
Then the economy tanked. For a time, Holshue was an Ivy League grad on unemployment and food stamps.
