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More than 75 years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt caused an uproar with his plan to "pack" the Supreme Court with friendly justices. It was an audacious effort to protect his New Deal initiatives.

Now, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has floated the reverse — legislation that would cut three seats from the important D.C. Circuit appeals court, just as President Obama prepares to announce his nominees for those jobs.

The Court-Packing Plan

Members of Congress are back in their home states this week for a Memorial Day recess. It's a chance to talk with constituents about what could become the year's biggest legislative story: the push on Capitol Hill to fix what Democrats and Republicans alike agree is a broken immigration system.

A bill proposed by the Gang of Eight, a bipartisan group of senators, to revamp the nation's immigration rules passed out of committee last week and will soon be brought before the Democratic-led Senate. Less clear, though, is where the issue is headed in the GOP-controlled House.

House flipping is back.

A popular phenomenon during the housing boom, flipping is when a house is bought and sold within a six-month period. Flippers are real estate investors who buy houses, fix them up quickly and then resell them, making money off the renovation. In parts of California, it's happening at some of the fastest rates in a decade.

At a recent open house in Glassell Park, a neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles, curious buyers and neighbors streamed into a green stucco house that had just come onto the market.

Frank Deford puts aside his gripes this week to pay tribute to the poem by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, first published in the San Francisco Examiner 125 years ago June 3.

The Outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day:
The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm David Greene. After much anticipation, New York City has kicked off its bike share program. Riders can pick up a bike, take a ride and return it to a different spot. So far it's been a bumpy ride. About a hundred keys that members use to unlock bikes were lost in the mail. And, as workers were loading the $825 bikes in for the first day of service this week, someone snagged one and rode off.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.

We all know pancakes are best when slathered with maple syrup. But cash? The Bank of Canada is denying it's given its new plastic $100 bills a syrup scent. The rumor is that the new bills contain a scratch-and-sniff section. The Canadian press obtained a bunch of emails to the bank about the fabled edition of the maple syrup. One complained the notes stick together. Another lamented that some had lost their smell.

It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Now for people who enjoy using technology, it might feel like there's an app for everything. Some are mindless. I mean I'm a little embarrassed to tell you how much time I spend baking fake pizza on my mobile device. Then there are apps that are meant to actually be productive. And let's hear about one of those now.

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Let's move now to another group of young tech savvy folks - the Girl Scouts. The organization now offers merit badges for things like website design and digital movie making.

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Still, they do place value on the great outdoors - like always - offering camping and hiking badges. And that brings us to today's last word in business: unhappy campers.

MONTAGNE: As we head into summer, many young Brownie and Junior Scouts are signing up for the Girl Scout camp.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Now, the story of a fallen hero. Chris Kyle was known as one of the best snipers in the history of the American military. In February, the former Navy SEAL was shot and killed, but his death did not come on the battlefield. It happened at home in Texas, at the hands of another veteran, a former Marine named Eddie Ray Routh. In the latest issue of the New Yorker magazine, Nicholas Schmidle traces the intersecting paths of these two men.

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After last week's deadly tornado in Moore, Okla,, hundreds of homes were damaged. Maurice Smith is optimistic about the future in Moore. So much so, he is planning to build a new home and sell the old one without an agent. And he expects it will be snapped up quickly. The reason? Displaced residents are looking for homes, and his has a storm shelter.

Senate Republicans have continued blocking a number of President Obama's appointees to run his executive agencies. Majority Leader Harry Reid again has threatened a rules change to permit appointment confirmations with a simple majority vote.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And I'm David Greene, good morning

Let's say you're at work and you find a document that shows your company has been giving out misleading information. Or, let's say you see a co-worker act in an abusive or unethical manner. Would you speak up? Well, social scientists have been asking why whistle-blowers become whistle-blowers.

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NPR's business news starts with corporate sell-offs.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GREENE: Bausch + Lomb has been sold. The drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals is buying the 160-year-old eye care company for $8.7 billion.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Valeant - which is a Canadian company - has been on a buying spree recently, as it moves to become a bigger player in the global pharmaceutical market.

President Obama often tells audiences that he has waged his last campaign. But that's not exactly true.

The White House is gearing up for a massive campaign this summer that will cover all 50 states, plus Washington, D.C. And the president's legacy may hinge on whether it succeeds or fails.

Look in any vending machine, and you can find plenty of snacks with dubious nutritional profiles. Take the ones in the state Capitol in Salem, Ore.

"We've got a lot of Cheetos and Pop-Tarts and candy bars and cookies and things like that," says state Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer.

Alimony dates back centuries. The original idea was that once married, a man is responsible for a woman till death. But that notion has shifted in recent decades, as more women have jobs and their own money. Now, a number of states are considering laws to end lifetime alimony.

During his two-decade marriage, Tom Leustek's wife earned a Ph.D. and landed a job that paid as much as his. He's a college professor in New Jersey.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning, I'm David Greene.

Richard Overton is staying at home on this Memorial Day, and he deserves it. At 107 years of age, he's thought to be the nation's oldest living veteran. Overton served in the South Pacific in World War II. He says he's lived this long thanks to aspirin, a stress-free life and by keeping busy in his yard. He also says a little whiskey in his coffee helps to, as he put it, keep his muscles tender.

On this Memorial Day, I'm raising my mug to you, Mr. Overton.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm David Greene. Eighty-seven-year-old Clarence Turner took quite a leap for his great-grandson. Turner's a veteran. He was Army airborne, parachuting into war zones in the Pacific theater during World War Two. According to WLWT News, over the weekend Turner donned his parachute once more, hoping to raise money for his great-grandson's medical bills. The child recently had a lung transplant.

When World War I broke out in 1914, it unleashed unimaginable carnage and upheaval. By the time the war ended four years later, nearly 40 million lives had been lost, dynasties had collapsed and the global political order was shaken to its core. But what about the year prior to the war? David Greene talks to Charles Emmerson, author of 1913: In Search Of The World Before The Great War.

President Obama toured the wreckage Sunday, promising federal help for the people of Moore during what's sure to be a long rebuilding process. The president's message was not overtly political. He did, however, take the opportunity to highlight the important role the government can play — and not just when disaster strikes.

Every Memorial Day weekend, a ceremony takes place just outside Paris to honor a group of Americans who fought in France. They're not D-Day veterans, but a little known group of pilots who fought for France in World War I, before the U.S. entered the war.

This year's ceremony in the tiny town of Marnes-la-Coquette began with a flyover by two French air force Mirage fighter jets from the Escadrille Lafayette, or Lafayette Squadron, paying tribute to the men who founded the group nearly 100 years ago.

As New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has repeatedly promised, most of the beaches and boardwalks are open for tourists. But that's not to say that all is back to normal. Many towns and homeowners are still in the throws of rebuilding, and some are just beginning the demolition phase.

Moore, Okla., has gotten the lion's share of resources and attention following last week's tornado. A tornado hit Carney, Okla., last week too. No one died in Carney, but three dozen homes were damaged or destroyed — a big blow to a tiny town.

Electrical engineer Fred Hatfield bought an Apple-1 computer in 1976, one of Apple's first computers. At an auction in Germany over the weekend, it sold for $671,400. This sale topped the winning bid for an Apple-1 sold last November in Germany.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm David Greene. Steve Inskeep is on assignment in Syria.

Violence has erupted over the past week in and around the Swedish capital of Stockholm. Tensions have emerged over joblessness, a growing gap between wealthy and poor and influxes of immigrants. David Greene talks to Alistair Scrutton, Stockholm bureau chief for the Reuters News Agency, for the latest on the chaos.