Mark Memmott

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- I Would Have Stopped Him, 'Misha' Says Of Bombing Suspect.

-- Sen. Manchin Says Background Checks Bill Will Pass Next Time.

In 2011, he was the hottest name in football, for his "Tebowing" and for leading the Denver Broncos into the playoffs.

Before the 2012 season, he was traded to the New York Jets — putting him smack dab in the center of the brightest of the media's spotlights.

The man known as Misha who relatives of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects have alleged may have turned the elder Tsarnaev brother toward a radical form of Islam says he did no such thing and would have tried to stop the attack if he had known about it.

"I wasn't his teacher," Mikhail Allakhverdov (Misha) said Sunday of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. "If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this."

An explosion at an office building in the the Czech capital on Monday injured at least several dozen people and may have left some victims trapped in rubble.

The early thinking was that a natural gas leak led to the disaster in the center of Prague, police spokesman Tomas Hulan said, according to The Associated Press.

Sen. Joe Manchin says he's going to reintroduce his bill that expands background checks for gun purchases to sales made at gun shows and online, and he predicts that the second time around, it will get enough votes to move out of the Senate.

The furloughs of air traffic controllers that have slowed air travel in the past week and frustrated thousands of fliers should soon come to an end.

By a vote of 361-41, the House of Representatives just passed legislation that would allow the secretary of transportation to shift up to $253 million in funds so that controllers no longer have to be furloughed to meet the requirements of sequestration (the mandated, across-the-board spending cuts that began taking hold March 1).

Here's something you didn't hear on Morning Edition when comedian Jerry Seinfeld called to talk about coffee:

NPR's Steve Inskeep: "Do you have a limit to the number of words you are willing to use while ordering your coffee because it could be a double-shot, non-fat latte with caramel and vanilla? It could be a lot of things."

Country superstar George Jones, known for "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and a long string of other hits, has died.

He was 81.

According to Webster & Associates, the Nashville public relations firm that represented Jones, he died Friday at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He was hospitalized there on April 18 for treatment of a fever and irregular blood pressure, the p.r. firm adds.

One year after glamour quarterbacks were the big story, NFL teams mostly opted for big, beefy, bruisers during Round One of the 2013 NFL draft Thursday night.

The U.S. economy grew at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter of 2013, the Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated Friday morning.

That's modest growth, and was below the 3.2 percent pace economists had expected to hear about. But growth was up substantially from fourth-quarter 2012, when the economy expanded at a scant 0.4 percent annual rate.

An estimated 38 people died early Friday at a psychiatric hospital north of Moscow when a fire swept through the facility.

The state news agency RIA Novosti says it has been told by a "police source" that most of the victims "died in their sleep [from] inhaling the fumes as they were likely sedated by prescribed medicine."

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings and the crimes that followed, has been moved out of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center "and is now confined at the Bureau of Prisons facility FMC Devens at Ft. Devens, Mass.," U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Drew Wade said in a statement emailed to reporters Friday morning.

A body pulled out of the water earlier this week in Providence, R.I., has now been identified as that of 22-year-old Sunil Tripathi, a Brown University student who had been missing since March 15.

Thanks, mom.

On the day her son George's presidential library is being dedicated in Dallas, former first lady Barbara Bush has told NBC's Today show that "we've had enough Bushes" when it comes to seeing the presidency.

We're due for one of those rare moments Thursday morning when the current president and all of his living predecessors will be together.

The occasion: The dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are due to be there along with, of course, George W. Bush.

The latest developments in the investigation into the April 15 bombings at the Boston Marathon and related news include:

Update at 2 p.m. ET. FBI Says Suspects Planned Explosions In Times Square, New York Mayor Bloomberg Says:

This may not surprise fans of HBO's The Wire:

A suspect is in custody after five people were reportedly shot to death in Manchester, Ill., a town of 300 or so residents about 90 miles north of St. Louis, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

"The @AP Twitter account, which was suspended after being hacked, has been secured and is back up. Thank you for your patience."

That's the word Wednesday morning from The Associated Press.

"Clashes broke out between protesters and riot police near France's lower house of parliament late on Tuesday just hours after the country legalized gay marriage, with opponents of the law hurling projectiles at police, who responded with tear gas," France 24 reports.

The latest developments in the investigation into the bombings at the Boston Marathon and related news include:

Update at 7:36 p.m. ET. Suspect Unarmed When Arrested:

When police cornered Dzhokhar Tsarnev in a boat in Watertown, they said they traded fire with the Boston bombing suspect.

Though they told him he wouldn't be hurt, the man who was allegedly forced by the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings to hand over his SUV and go with them says he was convinced the gunmen would "kill me later."

A Twitter account from The Associated Press was hacked Tuesday afternoon and the erroneous message — to be perfectly clear, it WAS NOT TRUE — sent stocks down sharply for a few moments.

The false message claimed there had been two explosions at the White House and that President Obama had been injured. Again, none of that happened.

France is poised to become the latest nation to legalize same-sex marriage after its Parliament passed a bill that also legalizes adoptions by same-sex couples.

President Francois Hollande is expected to sign the bill quickly.

Authorities are bracing for the reaction from opponents. Correspondent Eleanor Beardsley tells our Newscast Desk that "supporters are planning a celebratory rally and opponents will stage protests across the country. Opposition in France to gay marriage has radicalized over the past month as far-right extremists have joined the protests."

While sales of existing homes dipped in March because of a tighter inventory, sales of newly built homes rose 1.5 percent from February and were up a whopping 18.5 percent from March 2012, the Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development say.

The Boston Marathon bombings "riveted most Americans" and seemed to "confirm the public's long-held belief that occasional terrorist acts are to be expected," the Pew Research Center says.

In a report released Tuesday morning, it adds that:

(Most recent update: 8:39 p.m. ET.)

Reaching the victims of Saturday's strong earthquake in China's Sichuan province remains difficult because of aftershocks and landslides.

According to Voice of America: