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More ships are sunk by mines than in direct combat. U.S. technology has lagged behind in the mine-detection stakes but, as NPR’s Eric Niiler reports, the Navy is trying to get up to speed using everything from underwater drones to dolphins.

Book Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews “The Time of Our Singing” by Richard Powers.

One of the most intense battlegrounds between Republican moderates and extremists is in Idaho, where next month's primary is seen as a national test for how far to the right the GOP can be pulled.

Mark O'Connor has spent quality time as a Nashville fiddler, a rocker with The Dixie Dregs, and as a classical violinist. His new CD, In Full Swing, jumps into jazz with the help of trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and vocalist Jane Monheit. NPR's Liane Hansen talks with O'Connor about his varied career and the Hot Swing Trio.

NPR's David Molpus profiles short story writer George Singleton as part of Morning Edition's series on emerging Southern Artists. Singleton writes about the absurd and the grotesque...and finds plenty of inspiration in rural Dacusville, South Carolina, where he lives. His work includes a story about love at the local recycling center, a directive on how to collect fishing lures at the local flea market, and an examination of how a first marriage went sour because the husband went a little crazy caulking the house.

NPR's Christopher Joyce reports on one woman's quest to track the bluefin tuna. Her findings over the past five years may change the way the tuna is harvested and managed.

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird is in the news again. The city of Chicago has chosen the 1960 classic for The Chicago reading initiative "One Book, One Chicago." The same day Chicago announced the selection, Muskogee High School in Oklahoma removed the book from its required reading list for freshmen. Guest host Melissa Block talks with Mary Dempsey, commissioner for the Chicago Public Library, and Muriel Saunders, a member of the Muskogee School Board in Oklahoma, about the decisions made by both cities. We also hear excerpts from the audio version of the book as narrated by Sally Darling and produced by Recorded Books.

NPR's Tom Gjelten looks for hints at Cuba's future in a battle over one of Cuba's signature products: Cuban rum. The story involves the Bacardi family of Santiago, Cuba, which developed rum in the 19th century, but left after Castro imposed Communism.

Musician Jacob Slichter, drummer for the rock band Semisonic, leads us through a day in the life of a band on tour. As it turns out, it's not the roller coaster ride one would expect.

An oil painting by Marc Chagall was stolen from the Jewish Museum in New York two months ago. Now there's news that the painting is being held for ransom. The demand: peace in the Middle East in exchange for the painting's return.