Morning Edition

Whether economic sanctions can force a government to change course is far from clear, but Iran should be a good test case.

A European Union embargo on Iranian oil took full effect this week, complementing U.S. measures that have grown much more severe in recent weeks. Other Western sanctions now in place target Iranian banks, foreign companies that provide shipping insurance for Iranian oil tankers, and foreign firms that invest in the Iranian oil industry.

A new nonprofit organization that's supposed to take charge of expanding scientific research on the International Space Station has had a rocky first year but now is starting to show what it can do.

The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space just signed one agreement with a company not traditionally linked to research in space: the sporting goods company Cobra Puma Golf.

The Morning Edition mailboxes are always overflowing with books sent by publishers. And recently, a fair number have fallen into a category you might call "dog memoirs" — books about how dogs transform their owners' lives.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

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LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Linda Wertheimer. Hot Wheels and their twisty plastic tracks have long been a source of small scale thrills. But on Saturday, daredevils Tanner Foust and Greg Tracy went behind the miniature. They raced two rally cars around a 66-foot tall version of a Hot Wheels loop-de-loop racetrack. Seven times gravity was the hardest part. The only thing broken was a world record. Don't try this at home. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

And I'm Linda Wertheimer.

Members of Congress have left town for the Fourth of July recess, but Washington is still reacting to the Supreme Court decision upholding President Obama's health care law. Each party is looking for ways to use the decision to its advantage in the fall campaign. Going into the weekend, a Gallup poll showed voters evenly split; 46 percent said they approved of the ruling, 46 percent disapprove.

A runoff race on Monday between Jeneba Tarmoh and Allyson Felix will determine who will be the third member of the U.S. Women's track team to compete in the 100 meters at the Olympic Games in London later this month.

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In Texas, one in four people are uninsured, and the state's leadership has been vociferous in its opposition to the health-care law. Carrie Feibel, of member station KUHF in Houston, reports that despite the Supreme Court's ruling, political opposition to the Affordable Care Act remains strong. And that leaves many public-health advocates nervous about how the Lone Star State will implement the law.

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PAULINE BARTOLONE, BYLINE: I'm Pauline Bartolone in Sacramento.

California, unlike Mississippi, is already on the road to Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. And after the law passed in 2010, it was the first state to get going to build an exchange.

Peter Lee is in charge of it. He never let uncertainty about the Supreme Court decision come in the way of building the new marketplace.