NPR's Morning Edition

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And I'm Renee Montagne.

It was the biggest day yet in the Republican presidential race. Mitt Romney hoped that Super Tuesday would reinforce his frontrunner status. And to some degree it did. He won six of the 10 states, including the most populous and hotly contested state, Ohio.

Wind power is all the rage in Oklahoma and could be a boon in a state that has been hit hard by unemployment. The problem is finding qualified people to work in the industry.

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum won three Super Tuesday contests: Oklahoma, North Dakota and Tennessee. He just missed in Ohio. Mitt Romney went on to win there.

Another year of growth was enough to edge Brazil past the stagnant United Kingdom in global economic rankings. Agriculture and food processing were the big areas of growth for Brazil.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Perhaps it's fitting that the state that kept everyone up late last night, waiting for results, was Ohio. It's a swing state, and it seems every four years, in the fall, Ohio becomes the center of attention in a presidential election.

This year, as NPR's Tamara Keith reports, it just happened a little earlier.

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Talk to Ohio voters - Republicans and Democrats alike - and there's one issue that rises above all the others.

MARVIN HAYWOOD: Number one: our economy.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Let's devote the next few minutes to the subject that President Obama began his press conference on, the U.S. housing market. The president pointed out that in many ways the U.S. economy is looking up. But...

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: There are still millions of Americans who can't find a job. There are millions more who are having a tough time making the rent or the mortgage, paying for gas or groceries. So our job in Washington isn't to sit back and do nothing. And it's certainly not to stand in the way of the recovery.

Tina Brown, editor of The Daily Beast and Newsweek, tells us what she's been reading in a feature that Morning Edition likes to call "Word of Mouth." This month, Brown selects two pieces of writing profiling individuals at the center of political change in their respective countries.

A Penetrating New Profile Of Russia's Putin

When the state of California added the compound 4-methylimidazole, also known as 4-MI or 4-MEI, to its list of known carcinogens in 2011, it created a problem for the soda industry.

The caramel color they used to give colas that distinctive, brown hue contained levels of 4-MI that would have warranted a cancer warning label on every can sold in the state.

Nearly four years ago, the bank collapsed in the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history — a record $639 billion. That set off a chain reaction and sent the economy spiraling. Lehman Bros. says now, it will continue to liquidate its holdings, and will start paying back creditors next month.

Rebekah Speight spotted the familiar profile on a McNugget left on her child's plate. After stashing it in the freezer for three years, she auctioned it off on eBay. Her church's summer camp will benefit from the winning $8,000 bid.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus says he wants personnel to adapt to the 21 century. He announced the Navy will give sailors breathalyzer tests and drug tests before they report to duty on a ship. The Marines will adapt a similar program next month.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with more positive signs for the economy.

The U.S. economy is improving faster than previously predicted. This, according to two dozen economists surveyed by the Associated Press. The economists foresee stronger growth and more hiring than they did two months ago, and predict an unemployment rate at around eight percent by Election Day.

NPR's Dan Charles has been looking into the problem of weeds that America's most widely used weed-killer won't kill anymore. It's a sneak preview of a story that will air later this week.

First responders never know what they'll find when they get called to an accident site. Sometimes crews have to rescue dairy cows from collapsed barns, evacuate horses during wildfires or move pigs off the highway after an accident. These first responders often don't have the proper training to handle large animals.