Morning Edition

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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?

Valerie Trierweiler is a journalist and a twice-divorced mother of three teenage boys. She never thought she'd also end up as the first lady of France.

Americans will get their first close-up look at the woman who now calls France's Elysee Palace home when she and her partner, President Francois Hollande, visit the White House this afternoon.

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.

This Saturday, 200 buglers will assemble at Arlington National Cemetery to begin playing "Taps," a call written 150 years ago this year.

Retired Air Force Master Sgt. Jari Villanueva, a bugle player, says he started out as a Boy Scout bugler at about age 12. He went on to study trumpet at the Peabody Conservatory before being accepted into the United States Air Force Band — where one of his duties over the next 23 years was to sound that call at Arlington National Cemetery.

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.

John Peet, Europe editor of The Economist in London, talks to David Greene about European reaction to heightened speculation that Greece may leave the eurozone. Next month, voters are likely to back parties that want to tear up the IMF-EU bailout deal.

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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.