Morning Edition

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And I'm David Greene. It has been an astonishing overnight and morning in and around the city of Boston. Some of you may be hearing this after following this story all morning. Some of you, especially in the western United States, might be just waking up.

For the latest on the Boston Marathon Bombing case, David Greene and Steve Inskeep talk to Fred Bever of member station WBUR and Chechen expert Thomas de Waal of the Carnegie Endowment for International peace

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

OK. Minute by minute throughout this morning we're tracking events out of Boston to understand where we are. Let's also review this week briefly to understand where we have been.

(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)

ED DAVIS: At 2:50 PM there were simultaneous explosions that occurred along the route of the Boston Marathon near the finish line.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And let's turn now, briefly, to West, Texas, the scene of this week's fertilizer plant explosion. Many questions remain unanswered there. In fact, it's still hard to estimate how many people were killed. We do know that regulators had a few concerns with this plant in the past, though it's not clear if anybody questioned the plant's location near homes and a school.

And amid all these questions, the people of West are picking up and taking stock. Here's NPR's Wade Goodwyn.

(SOUNDBITE OF HELICOPTER)

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

On a Friday morning it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. And, David, I guess we cannot say enough this morning that everything we're telling you about unfolding events in Boston is provisional. Anything could change. The information we're getting is changing all the time.

In 1987, Jack Richmond was driving a forklift at work when the vehicle overturned onto him, crushing his leg below the knee. His daughter, Reagan, was just 2 months old at the time.

"Initially when they told me I would lose my leg, I was in denial and disbelief and kind of like, 'What, why? Can't you fix it?' " Jack tells Reagan in a visit to StoryCorps in Knoxville, Tenn. "But it just couldn't be saved."

"And you had a brand new daughter — me," says Reagan, now 25. "What were you thinking?"

In state legislatures around the country, lawmakers are debating important subjects — education reform, election laws, gun control and abortion. But in Florida, one of the hottest issues to come before the Legislature this term involves cats.

There, lawmakers are considering a contentious bill that would offer legal protection to groups that trap, neuter and return feral cats to their colonies.

An Alternative To Shelters

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

We're learning more about last night's fire in the Texas town of West. The fire started in a fertilizer plant, and a father in a vehicle nearby was taking video of the flames when the plant exploded.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You OK?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yeah. I can't hear.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

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

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. We're listening to a memorial service in Boston for victims of the Boston Marathon.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BOSTON CHILDREN'S CHORUS: (Singing in foreign language)