Morning Edition from NPR

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

The head of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, has gotten an invitation to testify in front of the Senate Banking Committee about his bank's recent trading loss of at least $2 billion.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Dimon is very much the public face of his firm. In a Wall Street culture where banks are defined as much by the executives who run them is by the assets they hold. So, what kind of culture led to the multibillion dollar losses at JPMorgan Chase?

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And today's last word in business is: free flight - to somewhere less exotic than Nepal.

Would that big, bad JPMorgan Chase trade have violated the Volcker Rule?

It's too soon to say, despite the fact that the rule is part of a two-year-old law.

The Volcker Rule bans deposit-taking banks from making speculative bets. But it allows banks to make investments to hedge risks.

An Oklahoma teacher asked her fifth graders to each bring in a rock. One student brought in a stone that looked like a tooth. It turns out it was a tooth, according to the Muskogee Daily Phoenix. The tooth may up to 40 million years old.

The Baltimore legend is known for his pencil-thin mustache, and for movies like Hairspray. He's said in interviews he enjoys hitchhiking. Recently, the band Here We Go Magic tweeted photos of him in their van.

The Federal Trade Commission has announced that Skechers will pay more than $40 million to settle charges that the company made unfounded claims about its shape-up shoes. The FTC says the marketing was deceptive.

Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep talks to journalist Christopher de Bellaigue about his book Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh and a Tragic Anglo-American Coup.

David Greene talks to reporter Kim Masters about some of the new TV shows coming out of this year's upfront presentations. The upfronts are when the networks present their fall lineups to advertisers and media. Masters is covering the upfronts for The Hollywood Reporter.

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with some good news for the housing market.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GREENE: Home foreclosures in the United States are down for the third straight month, according to the foreclosure listing from RealtyTrack. Nationwide, a new RealtyTrack report finds foreclosure rates in April were down 14 percent over last year, hitting the lowest monthly level in nearly in five years. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.