"As commander-in-chief, I am proud of the service members who recovered Sgt. Bergdahl and brought him safely out of harm's way. As usual, they performed with extraordinary courage and professionalism, and they have made their nation proud. Right now our top priority is making sure that Bowe gets the care and support that he needs and that he can be reunited with his family as soon as possible.”

 

His father, Bob Bergdahl, says his son’s return to freedom will be tough.

 

“I'd like to say to Bowe right now, who is having trouble speaking English, 'I'm your father, Bowe. People in Afghanistan, the same. The complicated nature of this recovery will really never be comprehended.”

 

In exchange for Bowe’s freedom, 5 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay will be transferred to Qatar. 

 

The State department has confirmed an US citizen helped carry out a suicide bombing in Syria this week. NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang reports that the American was 22-year-old man from Florida.

 

Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha is the first-knew US-born suicide bomber in Syria, since the conflict there broke out 3 years ago. Abu-Slha grew up in south Florida. In middle school, he played on a basketball team as a power forward with Time Fernel in Vero Beach, Florida.

 

“It’s really frustrating. Generally, he’s a very nice guy, very outgoing. He’s definitely more than free to speak his mind.”

 

Fernel remembers Abu-Salha is one of the few Muslim students in their middle school. Late last year Abu-Salha traveled to Syria where this week he took part in a suicide truck bombing against Syria government. Hansi Lo Wang. NPR news.

 

President Obama says new rules curbing greenhouse gases from power plants are essential to protect the health and wellbeing of Americans.

 

“This week, we’re unveiling … proposed guidelines [that] will cut down on the carbon pollution, smog, and soot that threaten the health of the most vulnerable Americans, including children and the elder.”

 

The President speaks in his weekly radio address this morning, but in the Republican response, Senator Mike Enzi says President’s energy policies are bad for the economy.

 

“The administration has set out kill coal and its 800,000 jobs. If it succeeds in death by regulation, we’ll all be paying a lot more money for electricity – if we can get it.”

 

President Obama says the environmental protection agency has been building on the efforts of many states and companies to reduce carbon pollution. The rules will be announced on Monday.

 

This is NPR news.

 

A 40-million-dollar settlement paying college football and basketball players for the use for their likeness and NCAA granted video games is now complete. The pay will go to more than 100,000 athletes, including some current players for using their likeness and games made by electronic arts featuring college teams. Games can range from $48 to $951 a year. But the deal does not include the NCAA, in case against that agency is set for trail early next year.

 

Thousands of people are collaborating this weekend on civic projects, more than 100 events across the country. NPR’s Julie Abelly reports software programmers and hacker are teaming up with local government agencies to develop technological solutions to local community problems.

 

The aim of the #HackforChange events are to make certain government data more accessible For example, one of this weekend’s events is taking complaints about financial products and services from a government database and making that data more accessible to consumers. One of the organizers Todd Khozein told NPR the hackers want to help to provide communities access to “inaccessible yet acceptable government data.”

 

“This is not controversial data. This is a sort of data that nobody would object you but they may be sitting in a corner is not being used well.”

 

The Hackathon had planned a coordination with White House office of science and technology policy. Julie Abelly, NPR news, Washington. 

 

A rare comic book collection included the first appearance of Superman and Batman is hitting the auction block. Among the offerings is a pristine issue of Flash Comics No. 1 from 1940 which is expected to get the highest price from the auction’s end next Tuesday.

 

This is NPR.