National and World News from NPR

It's not unusual for poets to try their hands at pop music-making. Patti Smith was a poet before she was a rock star. In recent years, print-poets such as David Berman and Wyn Cooper have put out more-than-credible song collections. But Mary Karr, known more for prize-winning memoirs such as The Liars Club and Lit than for her excellent poetry, has taken a high-profile risk that's paid off.

Author Ray Bradbury has died, his daughter tells The Associated Press. The wire service says Bradbury passed away Tuesday night.

"Our team is currently looking into reports of stolen passwords," the business networking website LinkedIn confirms, after word of a Russian hacker's claim to have stolen nearly 6.5 million users' passwords.

The Associated Press takes a traditional view of the news that American workers' productivity fell more than first thought in the first quarter.

Boring, Ore., took not-so-bold action Tuesday night.

The town in Clackamas County is now in an "unofficially official pairing" with tiny Dull, Scotland.

Yes, Dull and Boring have joined forces. As they were destined to.

According to The Oregonian, there was a unanimous vote — of the 38 residents who attended a Boring planning board meeting — to form this "Pair for the Ages," as T-shirts on sale in Boring declare.

Midway through a Wall Street Journal story today about whether the Federal Reserve will do something in coming weeks to give the economy a boost is this eye-catching line:

"There is little worry at the Fed of a new recession."

For weeks now, we in the news business have been telling you how much the Scott Walker recall election in Wisconsin matters to the country as a whole.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Eight thousand people will carry the Olympic torch before it reaches London to open the summer games, though one would-be torch barer isn't even human. He's a small red fuzzy monster.

KEVIN CLASH: (As Elmo) Elmo's ready to start training to be a monster torch-bearer. Yay. Oh, oh, Cramp, cramp.