National News

The movies Argo and Life of Pi and actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Jennifer Lawrence were among the winners at Sunday's Academy Awards. But no one movie swept the show.

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The political stakes are high for both Congress and the president, while some GOP governors are turning up the heat on House Speaker John Boehner.

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The sequester and its federal budget cuts are just four days away. If Congress and the White House do not act this week, $85 billion will be slashed from the federal budget on Friday. As the government gets closer to that deadline, the warnings about what the budget cuts would mean are getting louder.

"There is certainly some truth to the charge that the president is using this to raise public pressure on members [of Congress]," says Sarah Binder, a political science professor at George Washington University.

Last night the White House released a report that illustrates the effects of the cuts state by state. New York would lose $42 million of education funding. Pennsylvania programs that provide meals to senior citizens would get cut. And in Virginia, close to 90,000 defense department civilian employees would be furloughed.

At the federal level, about 400 national parks would see reduced hours or closures. Border stations would also have to cut back on resources creating longer lines at border crossings in Texas and California and at airports across the country.

Although Congress has avoided several fiscal deadlines in the eleventh-hour in the last few months, such as January's fiscal cliff and debt ceiling extension, many political analysts are not optimistic a deal will be struck this time.

To hear more about the sequester standoff and its effect on the economy, click on the audio player above.

Also: Trial to start on BP's responsibility for Gulf oil spill; South Korea's first female president takes office; Cuban leader Raul Castro says he'll retire in 2018; Argo wins Oscar for best picture.

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The federal government will seek to show BP was guilty of gross negligence. The company will make the case that the blame should be shared with other firms. It's possible a settlement will be reached.

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The sequester and its federal budget cuts are just four days away. If Congress and the White House don't act this week, $85 billion will be slashed from the federal budget on Friday. As the government gets closer to that deadline, the warnings about what the budget cuts would mean are getting louder.

Julia Coronado, chief economist with the investment bank BNP Paribas, joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to explain where the cuts will hit and their impact on the economy.

Also: Toni Morrison's digital signing; our picks for the best books out this week; and William S. Burroughs in a Nike ad.

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It's international quiz time on the Marketplace Morning Report. Stephan Richter, editor-in-chief of the online international affairs magazine, The Globalist, brings us the questions below. 

Which of the following emerging market economies is perceived to have the highest level of corruption in its public sector?

a. China
b. Russia
c. Brazil
d. India

Which of the following emerging market economies is perceived to have the lowest level of corruption in its public sector?

a. China
b. Russia
c. Brazil
d. India

Click on the audio player above to hear the answers and learn more about corruption around the world. Quiz answers are based on Transparency International's 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index.

The church's cardinals can start the process of choosing a new pope right after Benedict's resignation takes effect later this week — rather than wait the 15 days that rules had required. One cardinal, Keith O'Brien of Britain, has stepped down after being accused of inappropriate behavior.

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Today India launched seven satellites into space. It's the latest mission for India's space agency, which has its eyes on Mars at the moment.

The BBC's Shilpa Kennan in Delhi joins Marketplace Morning Report host Jeremy Hobson to discuss the breadth of India's space program and how it fits into the budget of the emerging economy.

Oakland, Calif., is issuing municipal ID cards to anyone who can prove residency. It doubles as a debit card. Supporters say it will help residents who are poor, without a bank or undocumented. Immigration control advocates say the city is abetting illegal immigration.

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This final note today, in which Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, says about lawmakers what a lot of people here have been thinking.

Johnson went before the London Assembly today -- the city's version of a legislature -- to talk about a budget cut that's coming. Assembly members apparently had no questions for him, which brought this response from the notoriously outspoken Johnson: "Are you saying they don't have the guts to put questions to me? Great supine protoplasmic invertebrate jellies."

Next member of Congress we get on the show, I'm totally calling them a great supine protoplasmic invertebrate jelly. Totally.

Martha Stewart is back in court next week. She will be testifying in a lawsuit between Macy’s and JC Penney. The retail chains are battling over who has the right to carry Stewart’s line of products.

Last year Martha Stewart renewed an agreement giving Macy's exclusive rights to sell her line of cookware, home décor and textiles. Under that agreement the only other place Stewart could sell those products is in her own stores.

Stewart’s lawyers argue that she is simply doing what her contract allows -- selling her products in her own store. At issue is the location of the store.

“If it was located next to JC Penney that would be fine. This just so happened that it’s located within JC Penney,” says Dave Reibstein who researches product line strategy at the Wharton School.

JC Penney is calling the Martha Stewart store within a store a boutique.

Kevin Keller, a professor of marketing at Dartmouth College, says the struggling retailer has a lot at stake in this case.

“They’ve invested in this. This is something they see as part of their strategy going forward and clearly want this to happen," says Keller.

Stewart told Macy’s about her plans to partner with JC Penney the night before the deal was announced. Reading from a script, she said that it would be good for both companies, “even though you might not agree.”

Barring any last minute settlement, BP will be back in court today. This time it’ll be fighting tens of billions of dollars in civil claims related to the 2010 Gulf oil spill. And just like the oil spill clean up, the civil trial is expected to be long and complicated.

Edward Sherman, a law professor at Tulane University Law School, says, assuming neither side blinks, “the first phase alone will probably take three months.” And that’s just to figure out which companies get how much blame.

It could be a year (or years) before we all know how much BP is going to have to pay up and before all the plantiffs -- the feds, the states, private businesses and individuals -- get their money.

So why fight it out?

“From a fianancial standpoint, that might benefit BP if they fight this to a bitter end and reduce the settlement,” says Morningstar analyst Stephen Simko, “but at the same time that would obviously keep them in the news and the oil spill in the news for a long time to come.”   

And with a potential settlement, BP’s calcuation isn’t the only one. You’ve got a whole lot of people fighting over a whole lot of money.

It’s messy. Just like the oil spill.

One under-reported tech story of last week was NASA losing direct contact with the International Space Station for nearly three hours. The reason for the communication outage? One of those pesky software updates, just like the ones you get on your home computer. The onboard communication system malfunctioned while the software was loading.

NASA’s experience lead to the question: When it comes to software patches, how up to date are you?

Chester Wisniewski, a computer security expert at Sophos, says software updates are much more serious than just a chance to add a shiny new feature.

"It's a pretty high priority issue when you have those things pop up," says Wisniewski. "There were some emergency Java updates available from Oracle and criminals were already using flaws in the software before the update was available."

According to Wisniewski, security vulnerabilities are almost always at the root of updates, and he says companies are trying to make it easier for users to get the latest fixes. For its part, Microsoft releases all of its updates in a bundle on the second Tuesday of every month, a day known as “Patch Tuesday.”

To learn more about software security, click on the audio player above.

Silicon Valley companies sure know how to use silicon for profit. They are also very accomplished at reducing their tax bills. An investigative reporter in Northern California did some digging and calculated how much some big technology companies have saved in U.S. taxes by stashing a chunk of their profits overseas.

Matt Drange with the Center for Investigative Reporting joined Marketplace Tech host David Brancaccio to discuss which companies -- Apple, Google, and Cisco to name a few -- may be taking advantage of these tax structures.

The new guidelines for treating childhood ear infections are intended to reduce unnecessary antibiotics use. They say doctors should look at the eardrum to make sure a kid really has an ear infection, instead of relying on symptoms. And if the child doesn't have severe symptoms, see if the ear gets better on its own.

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In the weeks following the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School, more than a quarter-million cards, letters and gifts have arrived in Newtown, Conn. The town is trying to decide what to do with a collection that quickly outgrew its storage at the municipal building and now fills a warehouse.

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A new poll explores how crucial everyday decisions are made in American households about food and exercise. Many parents say that their families don't always have time to eat the healthiest meal or exercise.

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A new poll explores how crucial everyday decisions are made in American households about food and exercise. Many parents say that their families don't always have time to eat the healthiest meal or exercise.

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