National News

This final note today, in which we learn once again that timing truly is everything.

A German man -- Phllip Lupke, by name -- has won a 10,000 Euro gift card from Apple. Seems he's the guy who bought the 25 billionth song on iTunes. Twenty-five billion times 99 cents or so is a pretty good business model.

It's also created something of a problem for Apple. It's been sued by the hedge fund manager David Einhorn, who's upset with how long its taking the company to give some of the $45 billion in cash it's sitting on back to investors.

This week, we're asking folks in the tech world about a great shift, from an Internet of webpages toward an Internet of interconnected objects: the Internet of Things.

A D.C. area company called SmartThings sells kits that let you rig all sorts of stuff around the house up to smartphones and tablet computers -- sump pumps, jewelry drawers, you name it. SmartThing's CEO Alex Hawkinson says the inspiration came from a rustic mountain cabin, a deep freeze, and burst pipes.

"Everything thawed out and started rotting and we didn't discover it until quite a time later, and it drove us crazy that we didn't know that that had happened. So we started the company on the basis of, you know, how do we take the available bandwidth that's in the air -- your iPhone's connected, your Kindle's connected -- and make it possible for simple sensors to connect up so you could see an event like that from anywhere," says Hawkinson.

Hawkinson says the hook-up allows you to make everyday, "dumb" objects suddenly intelligent. And what happens when more and more objects get connected? Imagine a sprinkler that doesn't go off when it rains, a water pump that monitors its own leaks, a car that "talks" to the road.

"We think this is the third epoch of the web, we call it the 'physical graph'," says Hawkinson. "It crosses all the parts of our life. The implications range from security, to efficiency -- we think 30+ percent of the energy use in the world is wasted based on lack of intelligence."

To hear about other ways the Internet of connected things could change your everyday life, click on the audio player above.

iPad home videos -- what's worth recording, where, and how? Janell Burley Hofmann, a Cape Cod mother-of-five with strong opinions about how to behave with technology, says it's all about the small moments:

"I'm in my daughter's first grade classroom and they are doing a presentation on holidays around the world, and the teacher has pre-recorded them on video. A dad takes out his iPad and starts video-ing the video of his son. This memory that he's capturing here is of his child on a screen. So, I'm really thinking, what are we trying to capture here? I look back at my kid's videos when they were babies -- it's not those formal things that I like to look at, it's those one or two minutes of life, of them wrestling on the couch cushions or playing out in the yard with the dog. Those are the things that I think really capture life. I really feel like that's what we're missing," says Burley Hoffman.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in a comment below.

iPad home videos -- what's worth recording, where, and how? Janell Burley Hofmann, a Cape Cod mother-of-five with strong opinions about how to behave with technology, says it's all about the small moments:

"I'm in my daughter's first grade classroom and they are doing a presentation on holidays around the world, and the teacher has pre-recorded them on video. A dad takes out his iPad and starts video-ing the video of his son. This memory that he's capturing here is of his child on a screen. So, I'm really thinking, what are we trying to capture here? I look back at my kid's videos when they were babies -- it's not those formal things that I like to look at, it's those one or two minutes of life, of them wrestling on the couch cushions or playing out in the yard with the dog. Those are the things that I think really capture life. I really feel like that's what we're missing," says Burley Hoffman.

What do you think? Share your thoughts in a comment below.

Federal regulators may want Wi-Fi Internet connections to get more widespread and powerful, but the government is not giving the service away for free. A Washington Post article has sparked debate this week over what exactly the government is trying to do.

It's true the Federal Communications Commission wants some sections of the radio frequency spectrum to be left up for grabs -- free for companies to provide service, but not necessarily free to consumers. Wireless Internet was first developed on open spectrum just like this.

"We're making a mass migration as a country away from using spectrum for broadcast TV to using it for wireless data because we're all using smartphones," says Susan Crawford, a Roosevelt Institute fellow and author of Captive Audience, a book about telecom policy. "The FCC is going to carry out for spectrum and there will be spaces left between the TV stations that get left behind and some data uses for those frequencies. Those spaces are called "white spaces" and they can be used opportunistically for Wi-Fi, and that's what the FCC is hoping for."

A company called FreedomPop already offers free wireless connections through cell phone and some Wi-Fi technology. Free, that is, until you use more than half a gigabyte of data a month.

The sweeping fire sale is a requirement for multibillion-euro bailouts. And the Chinese, Russian and Arab companies lining up to take advantage of the steep discounts are making Greeks and other Europeans nervous.

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The sweeping fire sale is a requirement for multibillion-euro bailouts. And the Chinese, Russian and Arab companies lining up to take advantage of the steep discounts are making Greeks and other Europeans nervous.

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Regulations to restrict the amount of silica dust that workers can inhale was set decades ago, and workplace safety experts say that limit needs to be cut in half. A proposal for new rules was sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget for a 90-day review, but almost two years later, it's still under review.

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Puerto Rico's per capita murder rate is six times that of the U.S. as a whole. And with violence escalating, many residents are fleeing to the mainland. Still others hope to turn their home around.

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The decision to grant lawmakers access to the classified information comes a day before the president's pick to head the CIA has his confirmation hearing. The classified information details the rationale for targeted strikes against U.S. citizens believed to have links to al-Qaida.

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As Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan has been associated with some controversial policies, including the use of armed drones. It's unlikely his appointment as CIA director is in trouble, but he's likely to face questions on drones as well as the agency's interrogation policies.

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As Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan has been associated with some controversial policies, including the use of armed drones. It's unlikely his appointment as CIA director is in trouble, but he's likely to face questions on drones as well as the agency's interrogation policies.

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A 48-acre area in California that housed more than 200 species of birds was stripped bare by the Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the land. The Corps says the clearing was necessary to improve flood control and discourage homeless camps and drug dealing, but some are questioning whether the agency violated rules that protect wetlands and waterfowl.

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Rubio is part of a bipartisan group of senators working on immigration reform legislation. He'll deliver his speech in English and Spanish.

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One hundred days after Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast, many residents still don’t have permanent homes to return to. They are staying wherever they can find a bed, whether it’s hotels, rentals or crashing with friends and family.

Instant relocation is hard enough. Imagine doing it with four kids and number five on the way. That’s the situation Jennifer Dady and her family face. Their home in Broad Channel, a Queens area on the water, was heavily damaged and is under repair. After a carousel of temporary living arrangements, they finally found a suitable rental in the Rockaways, not far from their neighborhood.

“It’s helpful that I’m close. The kids can stay in their school, so that’s good,” she says as her children, aged 2 to 10, hover loudly. “I can keep an eye on my house. It’s easier. It’s definitely easier.”

She’s moving into a newly renovated building. Its developer Ron Moelis, principal at L+M Development Partners, has been working with the city to provide priority access to displaced people. Now that work is gradually finishing on the roughly 300 units in the Queens building, interest is strong from Sandy victims. That was not the case for apartments he offered through the Sandy housing program in the Bronx and northern Manhattan.

“I don’t think we had any takers outside the affected areas, which was a little bit of a surprise,” Moelis says.

Sandy’s victims wanted to stay close to home, where their family, friends and schools are. Federal Emergency Management Agency official Mike Byrne leads Sandy relief here. A former New York firefighter raised in New York public housing, he understands those ties.

“These neighborhoods are the center of their family lives, their cultural lives,” Byrne stresses. “In many cases, it’s where people speak their language. We have 25 different languages we have to translate our material into.”

Not to mention that New York’s a dense urban area where many lack cars. You can move just a mile and be a world away. The housing challenge is quite different than the tornado-stricken small towns FEMA regularly responds to. All this underscores why some residents forced out of their homes by storm damage have more waiting ahead.

As for Queens mother Jennifer Dady, she wants her family back in their home before her next child is born. Her due date is July. She’s not optimistic.

Kai Ryssdal: Today makes it 100 days since Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Northeast. And a lot of New Yorkers and New Jerseyites still don't have permanent homes to return to. So they're staying wherever they can find a bed -- hotels, rentals or crashing with friends and family.

Marketplace's Mark Garrison reports on the enduring housing challenge.

Mark Garrison: Instant relocation is hard enough. Try doing it with four kids and number five on the way.

Jennifer Dady: It’s hard for them. It’s just, it’s a lot of work.

That’s the situation Jennifer Dady and her family are in. Their Queens home is heavily damaged and under repair. They’ve bounced around staying with family and friends. They finally found a rental in the Rockaways, near their house.

Dady: It’s helpful that I’m close. The kids can stay in their school, so that’s good. You know, I can keep an eye on my house. It’s easier. It’s definitely easier.

She’s moving into a newly renovated building. Ron Moelis is the developer. He has a deal with the City to provide priority access to displaced people. Interest is strong, unlike apartments he offered elsewhere, like the Bronx.

Ron Moelis: I don’t think we had any takers outside the affected areas, which was a little bit of a surprise.

Sandy’s victims wanted to stay close to home, where their family, friends and schools are. FEMA’s Mike Byrne leads Sandy relief here. A native New Yorker, he understands those ties.

Mike Byrne: These neighborhoods are the center of their family lives, their cultural lives. In many cases, it’s where people speak their language. We have 25 different languages we have to translate our material into.

Not to mention that New York’s a dense urban area where many lack cars. You can move just a mile and be a world away. As for Jennifer Dady in Queens, she wants her family back in their home before her next child is born. Her due date is July. She’s not optimistic. In New York, I'm Mark Garrison, for Marketplace.

The Obama administration wanted to keep the existence of the base secret. It has been used to target al-Qaida members in Yemen.

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Minnesota has a Democratic governor, two Democratic senators, and Democrats control both houses of its Legislature. President Obama went there to rally support for his proposals to reduce gun violence. But even in Minnesota, there's considerable resistance to placing further restrictions on guns.

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The long-suffering, and all-but-bankrupt United States Postal Service, said today that starting in August, it will stop stuffing home mailboxes on Saturdays. The USPS figures to save $2 billion a year.

The postal service is losing $25 million a day delivering our mail, but what’s in our mail these days? If you look in your mailbox, you might see a magazine or two, some bank statements and, of course, junk. But mostly, it's what is called first-class mail. Postal industry analyst John Callan says the category is made mostly of business mail -- billing statements and checks.

“If they’re still paying checks in the mail," he says.

Callan says deliveries of first-class envelopes have been declining and with that, so too has the postal service’s revenue. Junk mail, or what the industry calls standard or advertising mail, now makes up half of the mail’s volume but brings in much less money. And even that is declining. You can expect 3 percent less junk mail in your mailbox this year.

But don’t think this is a foreshadowing of the beginning of the end of your mail. Rick Geddes, who teaches in the department of policy analysis and management at Cornell, says your mail deliveries for the foreseeable future, are safe. And he’s not basing that statement on raw optimism.

“But on the experience in other countries that have made their postal services more commercial, more like real companies, more entrepreneurial and more innovative,” he says.

Like UPS and FedEx, those private sector models of speed and efficiency. But even these companies rely on the postal service for some of their deliveries.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said he would seek to expand the state's Medicaid program under the terms of the Affordable Care Act a day after Ohio Gov. John Kasich effectively said the same thing when he unveiled his proposed budget.

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The NRA's public list of corporations and individuals it says have "lent monetary, grassroots or some other type of direct support to anti-gun organizations" has some groups you'd expect, like the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. But at more than 500 names deep, it includes others that may come as a surprise.

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