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The Supreme Court is looking to make the final stretch of the 2012 term a dramatic one: While the justices knocked out five opinions today, none of them were the major ones we've been looking forward to. As we've told you before, we're waiting for:

— Fisher v. University of Texas, a key test of affirmative action in higher education.

Self-described NSA leaker Edward Snowden has made some stunning allegations during a live chat with The Guardian today.

Does cast-iron skillet cornbread, hot and crispy from the oven, transport you back to your grandma's kitchen? Do you cook with certain ingredients as a link to your roots in the South? If so, "A Spoken Dish" wants to hear your story.

The Southern Foodways Alliance is teaming up with Whole Foods Market and Georgia Organics in this video storytelling project as a way to celebrate and document food memories and rituals of the American South.

The Supreme Court is weighing a decision on Abigail Fisher's affirmative action case against the University of Texas. Host Michel Martin speaks with ProPublica writer Nikole Hannah-Jones about Fisher's motivation and what's behind the landmark case.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. You've probably heard that the Supreme Court is set to rule sometime soon on an important case about affirmative action in higher education. We decided we wanted to find out more about the young woman whose name is on the case, Abigail Fisher. That's coming up later in the program.

If economists were cheerleaders, their favorite shout-out might be: "What do we want? Growth! When do we want it? Now!"

They won't actually shout those words, but they may be thinking them as global leaders meet this week for a G-8 summit. Economists are hoping that at the gathering in Northern Ireland, leaders of eight major economies will discuss expanding global trade and investment to spur job creation.

With a 114-104 victory against the Miami Heat last night in San Antonio, the Spurs are just one win away from their fifth NBA title.

NPR's Tom Goldman filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"Manu Ginobili's NBA Finals slump is over and at the best possible time for his team. The Spurs' All-Star shooting guard scored a season-high 24 points and had 10 assists to help lead San Antonio to the brink of another championship.

The Edward Snowden saga continues: Last night, citing classified documents leaked by the former Booz Allen Hamilton employee, The Guardian newspaper reported that the United States and the United Kingdom spied on their allies during the 2009 G-20 global summit meetings in England.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm David Greene. Mayoral races across Mexico are turning into a zoo. In Xalapa, a cat named Morris is running with the campaign slogan: Tired of voting for rats? Vote for a cat. Candidates in other cities include Chon the Donkey and Tina the Chicken. Now, Morris the cat is in the lead - at least on social media.

He has 115,000 likes on Facebook, more than any of the five human candidates. And to think if he loses, that cat has eight more chances. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

When New England Patriots' owner Robert Kraft met with then-Russian President Vladmir Putin in 2005, he showed off his Super Bowl ring. Kraft told a crowd last week Putin put the ring on, and said, "I can kill someone with this ring." He then put it in his pocket, and walked away. The Kremlin says the ring was a gift.

Chen Guangcheng says New York University is ending his fellowship after it received "unrelenting pressure" from "Chinese communists."

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Now let's hunt for a hidden treasure - although it's not worth all that much - except to history buffs. Archaeologists are on Lake Michigan today looking for the oldest shipwreck in the Great Lakes. They're searching for the Griffin, which was being sailed by the French explorer Robert de La Salle when it sank in 1679. The archaeologists might be on the right track. They uncovered a wooden beam that looks like the mast of a ship. Peter Payette of Interlochen Public Radio reports.

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More than 40,000 scientists in Spain have signed a petition calling on the government to end cuts to their budget. They're blaming austerity for an exodus of the country's best and brightest researchers.

Lauren Frayer has more from Madrid.

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Spanish spoken)

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Hundreds of lab-coated scientists delivered their petition to Spain's Economy Ministry. They marched there last week because the Science Ministry, itself, was closed in budget cuts.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

OK, Scott just made clear economic issues have some competition for top billing at the G 8 Summit in Northern Ireland. We do, though, want to drill down into one economic question this morning, and that's why interest rates here at home are going up. The bond market has pushed them to the highest levels in 15 months, and that includes mortgage rates.

Let's turn, as we often do, to David Wessel. He's economics editor of The Wall Street Journal. David, good morning.

DAVID WESSEL: Good morning.

Jordan is hosting major military exercises known as Eager Lion 2013. More than 15,000 soldiers from 18 countries, including the U.S., will be participating. The war games kicked off as Syria's civil war rages next door.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

This is Morning Edition from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene. After weeks of protest, security forces in Turkey carried out a violent crackdown yesterday, arresting hundreds of people in Istanbul and other cities around the country. Riot police tear gassed protesters who were trying to return to Istanbul's Taksim Square Sunday.

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And let's stay in this part of the world. Over the weekend, Iran overwhelmingly elected a new president, a man seen by many as a reformer. More than half the voters in that country opted for this change.

The relatively moderate cleric, Hassan Rouhani, replaces Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who's been in power since 2005. Rouhani campaigned on a message of ending Iran's international isolation.

For reaction from Tehran, we're joined by The New York Times bureau chief there, Thomas Erdbrink.

Thomas, good morning.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with an acquisition for Lowe's.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GREENE: The home-improvement retailer, Lowe's, has reportedly agreed to buy Orchard Supply Hardware Stores. The sale price is expected to top $200 million. Now Orchard is a California-based hardware-and-garden chain. It was once owned by Sears, and is now about $230 million in debt.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Now, as we've been reporting elsewhere in the program, President Obama is in Europe this week for the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland. On Tuesday, he heads to Germany to meet with German chancellor Angela Merkel. Germany is the EU's powerhouse. Its economic success has given the country political power, in part, because it's the region's biggest lender.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Let's look now at another change in health care, and this one has to do with paperwork. Hospitals and clinics are slowly replacing paper files with sophisticated electronic health records. But with a variety of systems in use, they often can't easily share medical information with each other, and this can be a pretty serious problem in the case of an emergency.

As Elizabeth Stawicki reports, smartphones might be one way to bridge this electronic gap.

President Obama is in Northern Ireland Monday — the first stop on a three-day European visit that includes a G-8 summit meeting and a side trip to Berlin.

The president begins his tour with a speech in Belfast, celebrating Northern Ireland's peace process and urging young people in the country to keep it moving forward.

Later, Obama joins leaders of other industrial countries at a remote golf resort in County Fermanagh for talks on Syria, trade and the global economy.

Call it the Affordable Care Act, call it Obamacare, call it whatever you want — it's coming. And soon. In less than four months people without health insurance will be able to start signing up for coverage that begins Jan. 1.

A lot has been said about the law, most of it not that understandable. So starting now, and continuing occasionally through the summer and fall, we're going to try to fix that.