NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. We're going to get the latest now on that horrifying scene that unfolded yesterday morning in Santa Monica, California. A gunman killed four people in a house, on the streets and at Santa Monica College before authorities shot him in the college's library.

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Now strike up the band. Time for sports.

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SIMON: From the red clay courts of Roland Garros to the hardwood courts of Miami and San Antonio. They're playing for championships this weekend. NPR's Tom Goldman joins us. Morning, Tom.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: How are you, Scott?

SIMON: I'm just fine thank you. And let's begin with tennis and Les French Open. Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are playing at the very moment, as we're speaking, at the women's singles finals.

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It's not often that you get to take a swimming lesson from a box office idol.

ESTHER WILLIAMS: See if you can lift your elbow until you stretch that arm out straight. Oh, you're going to improve your stroke so much just this afternoon. You'll see.

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This is WEEKEND EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. The news that the National Security Agency is collecting reams of telephone data and tracking Internet behavior has alarmed civil liberties groups. President Obama believes U.S. citizens have no need to worry.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: One of the things that we're going to have to discuss and debate is how are we striking this balance between the need to keep the American people safe and our concerns about privacy, because there are some tradeoffs involved.

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Latin America has some of the highest crime rates in the world. And that includes extortion, which doesn't just terrorize but also takes a huge economic toll on ordinary citizens. In many Latin American countries, it's costing billions of dollars and hindering development. As part of our series on violence in Latin America, NPR's Carrie Kahn takes us to Mexico, where some estimates say extortion costs more than $30 billion a year. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: Extortion costs an estimated $3.2 billion in Mexico annually.]

Fifty-five boys — all poor and almost all African-American — were a part of a bold educational experiment in the early 1960s. They were placed in an intensive summer school program. If they finished, the headmasters of 16 prep schools agreed to accept them. Tuition paid.

Planning for that experiment started in 1963 at the height of the civil rights movement, one year before President Lyndon B. Johnson declared his "War on Poverty." Today, what began with 55 students and 16 schools has become an institution celebrating its 50th anniversary. It's called "A Better Chance."

Alison Krauss recorded "Lay My Burden Down" a couple of years ago for her No. 1 country album Paper Airplane, but the song was written by Aoife O'Donovan. The singer, best known as the voice of the alt-bluegrass band Crooked Still, is releasing her first solo album this week.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday. There was a steady rain. Soldiers fired rifle volleys, a bugler played taps and mourners paid their final respects.

The New Jersey Democrat was 89 when he died this week — and his death marked a somber milestone.

For the first time since the end of World War II, there are no veterans of that war in the U.S. Senate. Lautenberg had been the only one remaining.

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Morton Downey Jr. was the loudest mouth on television. He treated guests like guys on the other side of the wrestling ring - bullying, hectoring and blowing smoke in their faces.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Why?

MORTON DOWNEY JR.: Why? What the hell do you mean why? Are you nuts? Get him out of here. Get this guy out...

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From politics to sports.

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SIMON: We've got conference championships going on in basketball and hockey. Can the Heat burn off the Pacers? Will this be the last rodeo for a great Spurs franchise or another gold ring? And four former champions are on ice in the NHL. Howard Bryant of ESPN The Magazine, the TV network and the website and the virgin cold-pressed olive oil joins us from the studios of New England Public Radio in Amherst. Howard, thank so much for being with us.

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Teenagers can seem sullen, moody and uncommunicative, unless you know how to listen to them. James Harbeck does. He's an editor and linguist in Canada who's analyzed sounds that can be distinctly annoying to adults. James Harbeck joins us from the studios of the CBC in Toronto. Thanks so much for being with us.

JAMES HARBECK: Hi. Nice to be here.

SIMON: First, what made you devote any scholarship to this?

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This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.

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Next week, President Obama will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at an estate in California. Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon speaks with Ken Lieberthal of the Brookings Institution about what issues the two world leaders are likely to discuss.