NPR News

Gean Brown Jr. was installing pipes in an attic in Spring Hill, Kan., and somehow he lost his wallet. He never expected to see it again. More than three decades later, Brown received a call last week. The current owner of that house had found the wallet.

If primaries and caucus victories are still all about media attention and momentum, then, yes, it's critical who wins Michigan's statewide vote Tuesday. All the more so if that winner is not Mitt Romney, who grew up there and whose dad was governor in the 1960s.

But as to collecting actual delegates for the actual GOP nomination? Tuesday's vote in Michigan probably will not matter much at all.

Israeli officials say they won't warn the U.S. if they decide to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, according to one U.S. intelligence official familiar with the discussions. The pronouncement, delivered in a series of private, top-level conversations, sets a tense tone ahead of meetings in the coming days at the White House and Capitol Hill.

The heightened tensions between Israel and Iran over its nuclear weapons program have some residents in the Jewish state nervous. Israel's leaders have been talking about a possible conflict.

Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep talks to David Wessel, of "The Wall Street Journal," and Zanny Minton Beddoes, of "The Economist," about how to read the latest economic signs, and whether there are any bright areas for growth.