Morning Edition

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

There is at least one group of musicians out there who don't seem to have any money problems. Our last word in business is: Kiss. They know what their fans want.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROCK N' ROLL ALL NIGHT" )

KISS: (Singing) I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day. I, wanna rock and roll...

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

You know you're moving your head as if you're playing a guitar onstage right now.

Those who have made up their minds, both Democrats and Republicans, take advantage of early voting. Paul Gronke, a Political Science professor at Reed College, talks to David Greene about who votes early, and how early voting has changed the way people go to the polls. Gronke is Director of the Early Voting Information Center.

Oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee has written an article in Newsweek about what he calls America's current failure to treat and prevent cancer — and a failure to make funding cancer research a priority. Dr. Mukherjee tells David Greene there is a lag in designing cancer drugs as well as funding cancer research in the U.S.

Transcript

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And I'm David Greene. Renee Montagne is talking with voters in Colorado this morning for our series First and Main.

It is hard to believe but we are finally nearing the end of a presidential campaign that in many ways started back in January 2009.

INSKEEP: Iowa begins early voting today. Other states begin soon, and the presidential candidates are preparing for a final expensive and possibly brutal final act.

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's swing through Ohio took him from the suburbs of Columbus through parched cornfields and pumpkin patches to industrial corridors near Cleveland and Toledo. Romney says his policies will make things better for struggling Americans.

Kareem Serageldin is accused of hiding mortgage security losses during the financial crisis. He faces extradition to the U.S. A former senior trader for Credit Suisse, Serageldin is the highest level Wall Street executive to be charged in a case related to the 2008 financial meltdown.

A small solar power company hopes to become a winner in a market littered with losers.

San Jose, Calif.-based SoloPower is opening a $60 million manufacturing facility in Portland, Ore., Thursday as it works toward receiving a major government loan — like the one given to now-bankrupt Solyndra. SoloPower thinks it has a strategy to succeed where Solyndra failed.

On April 11 of this year, an extraordinary cluster of earthquakes struck off Sumatra. The largest shock, magnitude 8.7, produced stronger ground-shaking than any earthquake ever recorded. And it surprised seismologists by triggering more than a dozen moderate earthquakes around the world.

The quakes are also a sign of big changes to come in the Earth's crust.