Kids aren't usually eager to wake up and get to school in the morning. They might be, though, if their favorite musician or professional athlete called to coax them out of bed — or if a shiny new bike were on the line.

At least, that's what adults in Seattle think. So the city has a new plan to improve school attendance.

Isaac Bennett, 16, lives a few houses down from his high school in north Seattle. Yet the junior didn't make it there very often last year.

"I had like 167 absences for sophomore year, which wasn't good," he says with a laugh.

Thu. 11/10 8a: What should the top priorities be for the next generation of farmers and ranchers?  What are these young people doing to manage land and water resources?  

We'll hear from presenters at the Quivira Coalition's annual conference and from local youth leaders on the KUNM Call-In Show this week.  

Guests:

• Boe Lopez: Young Cattlemen's Leadership Committee, NM Cattlegrower's Association                                        
• Bryce Andrews: Clark Fork Coalition, Missoula, Montana                                                                                           
• Sarahlee Lawrence: Rainshadow Organics, Terrebonne, Oregon

Following the exit of producer Brett Ratner from the upcoming Oscars telecast yesterday, Eddie Murphy — whose new film Tower Heist is also Ratner's latest directorial effort — has stepped aside as host of the 2012 show, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today.

The fact that former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's 2001 biography was called Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story, is generating some pretty pointed commentary on Amazon.com this week.

Whichever direction that fight goes, some are seeing the writing on the wall. For decades the Navajo and Hopi Tribes have relied on the coal industry as their economic base. As Laural Morales reports from the Fronteras Changing America Desk, tribal leaders from the Four Corners region joined with academics and political leaders in Flagstaff last week to come up with alternative economic resources.

It was Greece, now it's Italy. Worries about the country's debt have sent world markets lower, today. Here's the Los Angeles Times with a roundup:

The yield on Italian bonds rose to a recent record this morning, signaling the distrust that investors have in Italy's ability to repay its debts.

A new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency presents more evidence than ever before that many aspects of Iran's nuclear program are geared toward military purposes. Yet some analysts argue that overall, Iran represents less of a threat today than it did a year ago.

The IAEA report issued Tuesday largely focuses on historical matters, and some observers say Iran is still having a great deal of difficulty in many areas of weapons technology. And it's clear that Iran has experienced several other setbacks in recent months.