Morning Edition

The most dramatic moment of the week's hearing at Guantanamo Bay's military commissions was when a one-legged man stood up and began to berate the judge.

The one-legged man, Walid bin Attash, is one of the defendants in the high-profile Sept. 11 case, and his complaint was a throwback to a time when the tribunal first opened.

He was upset because guards had taken the opportunity while he was in court to ransack his cell and take letters from his attorney. It had happened to three of the other Sept. 11 defendants as well.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne, with a tale about a very early love. Way back in 1931, Norma and Norman Burmah were perhaps destined to complete each other. They married shortly after meeting at a Louis Armstrong concert. They went on to run a catering business and raise a family in New Orleans, and this year became the longest-known married couple in the U.S. Norma is 99, Norman 102, and living happily ever after in their home in Louisiana. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Good morning, I'm Linda Wertheimer.

Clean your plate. You heard that from your mom. Now a restaurant in Sapporo, Japan says that to its customers. If you order their signature dish, it's all you can eat - a bowl of rice topped with salmon roe - you must eat it all or pay a fine, which goes to hardworking fishermen. But one server says that hardly ever happens because most diners clean their plates.

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

It looks like the across the board spending cuts that were never supposed to happen are going to — at least for a while. It's another sign of Washington's dysfunction.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

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

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

And I'm Linda Wertheimer.

As we've been hearing, clock is ticking on the sequester. That is the Washington term for the across-the-board cuts that will take effect March 1, unless Congress acts to put them off.

The impact the $85 billion reduction in government programs could have became a bit clearer yesterday, as NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

The lives of the 26 people murdered by Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School last December were eulogized and celebrated after the tragedy. But many discussions about Lanza's first victim, his mother, Nancy, were marked by both sympathy and suspicion, particularly as the news emerged that she had taken her son to shooting ranges.