State and National News

The TV show House is airing its final episode Monday night on FOX, Desperate Housewives on ABC ended last week and NBC has announced that 30 Rock will have its final episodes this fall. TV and media critic Eric Deggans of the Tampa Bay Times explains why choosing to end a show, rather than getting canceled, presents a creative opportunity for the producers.

Astronomy buffs in the western U.S. were treated to an eclipse known as the Ring of Fire over the weekend. Technically, it's an annular solar eclipse, during which time the moon passes between the earth and sun. The moon blocks out much of the sun's light and casts a giant shadow on the earth.

Troubled Internet giant, Yahoo has announced it would sell back nearly half of its 40 percent stake in Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce company. And, the Wanda Group has agreed to purchase AMC Entertainment for more than $2.5 billion.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A giant of American business goes on trial in New York today. Rajat Gupta is accused of insider trading. He's the one-time chief executive of the consulting firm McKinsey and Company and a former board member of Goldman Sachs.

Prosecutors allege he passed on information about Goldman to billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, who's already in prison for insider trading.

NPR's Jim Zarroli is covering this story from New York. Hi, Jim.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.

The chairman of Nasdaq issued a public apology after a glitch delayed the start of Facebook trading Friday. And over the weekend, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg married his longtime girlfriend.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

There's a lot of overlap between the members of the NATO military alliance and the members of the G-8, the world's biggest economies. And those members got a two-for-one deal out of the trip to the United States, attending a G-8 meeting at Camp David, the presidential retreat. Many of those world leaders disagree on how to fix the world economy, and their disagreement mirrors the political debate here in the United States.

Joining us, as she does most Mondays, is Cokie Roberts. Cokie, good morning.

NATO commanders say the mantra of the Afghan alliance has been "in together, out together." That means keeping combat forces in the country through 2014 — even though some member countries like France plan to bring their troops home sooner.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

With world leaders gathered for a NATO summit in Chicago, high on their agenda is the future of Afghanistan once Western troops withdraw. Among the leaders there is the president of Pakistan. Pakistan has been keeping NATO from using critical military supply routes running through that country to Afghanistan, something that's irritated NATO countries, whose troops are fighting in Afghanistan.

Members of Congress are often criticized for what they do — or rather, what they don't do.

But what about what they say and, more specifically, how they say it? It turns out that the sophistication of congressional speech-making is on the decline, according to the open government group the Sunlight Foundation. Since 2005, the average grade level at which members of Congress speak has fallen by almost a full grade.