Morning Edition

Mitt Romney is disavowing a plan by some wealthy Republicans to attack President Obama for ties to his controversial former pastor. Even the people behind that proposal said they are abandoning it after their idea was plastered on the front page of The New York Times.

The proposal centered on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who was a mentor to Obama before the two parted ways during the last presidential campaign.

Republicans unaffiliated with Romney were considering spending $10 million on a racially tinged advertising campaign tying Wright to the president.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Let's get a sneak preview, now, of a coming attraction.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BELOVED OTTER-COLORED HORSE")

INSKEEP: Mongolia is the land of Genghis Khan and nomadic herders.

(SOUNDBITE OF SHEEP)

INSKEEP: And it's also now riding a mining boom.

(SOUNDBITE OF INDUSTRIAL CRASH AND HORNS)

INSKEEP: All next week, NPR's Frank Langfitt takes us to Mongolia where the rush to extract mineral resources is transforming a nomadic culture.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with layoffs at HP.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

INSKEEP: Technology giant Hewlett-Packard is poised to eliminate as many as 30,000 jobs worldwide. These cuts, though, will reportedly spare China - the company's largest source of growth, as well as its research and development divisions.

NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports.

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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?

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

Americans now have a little more information on which to base their debate about Trayvon Martin. The teenager's killing in Florida - where he was shot by a man named George Zimmerman - prompted an intense and politically charged national discussion about violence, about gun laws and about race.