Morning Edition

Kansas's Republican Gov. Sam Brownback is locked in an unexpectedly tough re-election battle for doing exactly what he said he would do — cut taxes.

Citing mounting evidence that those tax cuts are creating a budget crisis – not stimulating the Kansas economy as promised — some in the state's moderate Republican establishment recently did the unthinkable: endorse a Democrat for governor.

That's not only endangering Brownback's re-election hopes, it's also tarnishing his plans to turn one of the reddest of red states into a national model.

At least three times a day, Imad Abudayyah, 49, fires up his laptop at the West Bank hotel where he's currently living with his 11-year-old son, Ghassan, to reach out to relatives in the Gaza Strip. Abudayyah says Skype is the only way they can see the family members they have left behind.

Senior U.S. intelligence officials say they have proof that a surface-to-air missile was launched when the airliner went down and have ID'd people in a recorded conversation implicating the culprits.

Steve Inskeep talks to Amy Walter of Cook Political Report about the social media response to his two-part interview with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News explains a federal appeals court ruling Tuesday that overturns subsidies provided to low- and middle-income people in states that use the federal health exchanges.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. A sheriff in Michigan is concerned that the popular series "Orange Is The New Black" has turned orange prison jumpsuits into a fashion statement, like it's cool to be in jail. So concerned, he's requiring inmates to wear old-fashioned black-and-white-striped jumpsuits in place of the orange ones. Sheriff Will Federspiel told The Saginaw News that a lot of inmates don't like the new jumpsuits. His response - too bad, don't come to jail. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep with congratulations to Catherine Conti. Cat Conti will be the first woman to officiate a football game in the Big 12 Conference. She'll be part of the crew when Kansas plays Southeast Missouri State. The officiating supervisor says she got that job because she's, quote, "darned good." Kansas coach Charlie Weis says because of Ms. Conti, he will try not to swear as much.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Actually, Coach Weis, equality means curse away.

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This summer, we're also focusing on the high rate of youth unemployment and hearing what some out-of-work younger adults are doing to make ends meet. Christina Gastlelum is 32. She recently moved to Maine from New York City. She tried to keep doing her job as vice president of a nonprofit remotely which did not work out.

Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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The death toll continues to climb as Israel presses on with its ground operation in Gaza.

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Robertson County has the smallest population of any county in the state of Kentucky, and it's the only one, word has it, without a stoplight.

So it's an unlikely place to find a campaign to keep the food system more genetically diverse. But that is exactly what's happening on a small farm owned by Travis Hood, called Hood's Heritage Hogs.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. People waking up with a hellacious hangover often say they'd pretty much give anything to make it go away. And a new company promising to do just that is thriving in New York. For up to $300 a visit, it will send a nurse to your home armed with medicine and - this is key - an IV for instant rehydration. Given the treatment cost more than the night out at the bar, though, you might want to stick with the hair of the dog. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

The famous hog call chanted by fans of the sports teams of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks is now a registered trademark owned by the school.

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Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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For the first time since the first century, there are basically no Christians left in the historic Iraqi city of Mosul.

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Secretary of State John Kerry spent a lot of time on TV yesterday, laying out what he says is extraordinary circumstantial evidence that rebels in Eastern Ukraine shot down the Malaysia Airlines jetliner. Kerry said on NBC's "Meet The Press" they did it with Russian help.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MEET THE PRESS")

SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY: It is clear that Russia supports the separatists, supplies the separatists, encourages the separatists, trains the separatists and Russia needs to step up and make a difference here.