All Things Considered

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

We turn now to Robert McFadden, who is the senior vice president of The Soufan Group. He's a 30-year veteran of U.S. federal law enforcement, with a special focus on counterterrorism. Thanks for joining us in the program today. Walk us through what happens now. Let's say that the FBI is deluged with thousands of phone calls from people who think, rightly or wrongly, that they have seen one or both of these men before. What does the FBI do?

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block.

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Organizers gave that service in Boston a title: Healing Our City. Thousands of people took part both inside the cathedral and outside.

NPR's Jeff Brady spoke with Bostonians about this moment of collective remembrance.

JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: A theme emerged during the service, expressed here by Rev. Nancy Taylor.

THE REV. NANCY TAYLOR: We are shaken, but we are not forsaken. Another's hate will not make of us haters.

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We stand with you. That was President Obama's promise to Boston today. He delivered a message of strength and resilience at an inter-faith service in Boston's towering Cathedral of the Holy Cross. NPR's Ari Shapiro was there.

ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: One of the first to speak at today's service was Boston Mayor Tom Menino. Still recovering from leg surgery, he struggled out of his wheelchair to stand and speak, a living symbol of this city's refusal to give up in the face of pain.

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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And I'm Robert Siegel.

We begin this hour with a major break in the investigation into Monday's bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Earlier today, President Obama led the city of Boston at an interfaith service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston.

It was an emotional tribute in which the President Obama vowed that Boston would finish the race.

The service was punctuated by a performance from Yo-Yo Ma, who chose the sarabande Bach's Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor. It was haunting and beautiful, a piece that Ma also played following Sept. 11.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block.

The failure of gun control measures to get through Congress yesterday stands in sharp contrast to sweeping moves approved by some state legislatures after the Newtown shootings. Colorado, New York, Maryland, and Connecticut all passed broad expansions of gun control laws.

Astronomers have found three planets orbiting far-off stars that are close to Earth-sized and in the "habitable zone": a distance from their suns that makes the planets' surfaces neither too hot nor too cold, but just right.

One of the three planets orbits a star with the prosaic name Kepler-69.

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From Boston now to the White House, where President Obama reacted angrily tonight to the failure of an effort in the Senate to expand background checks for gun purchases. The amendment, proposed by Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Pat Toomey, got only 54 votes - six short of the necessary 60. President Obama spoke in the White House Rose Garden. He called this a pretty shameful day for Washington.

While an immigration overhaul has drawn support from church groups, business, labor and even former opponents, there's still deep opposition — mostly centered in the Republican Party.

The last time a president tried to pass a comprehensive immigration overhaul was in 2007, and George W. Bush's fellow Republicans in Congress killed his bill. Republican strategist Kevin Madden says a lot has changed since then — including the way the Republican Party is dealing with its own internal divisions.

Margaret Thatcher was laid to rest in a funeral attended by dignitaries from around the globe as well as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on Wednesday. It's the first funeral of a British politician attended by the Queen since Sir Winston Churchill's in 1965.

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And Tovia mentioned a different kind of attack, one that's the subject of a widening investigation here in Washington, D.C. A second letter thought to contain the poison ricin has been sent for further testing. That one was addressed to the White House. We heard yesterday about one addressed to Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker. Also today two Senate office buildings were locked down as the Capitol police investigated suspicious packages.

The legislative process on Capitol Hill is often slow and grinding. There are committee hearings, filibuster threats and hours of floor debate. But sometimes, when Congress really wants to get something done, it can move blindingly fast.

That's what happened when Congress moved to undo large parts of a popular law known as the STOCK Act last week.

One argument that some gun rights groups make against expanding background checks is that the federal government isn't doing a good enough job now of enforcing the law already on the books.

They point out that only a tiny fraction of people caught trying to buy a gun illegally are ever prosecuted.

But gun control supporters say that argument totally misses the point of background checks.

Listening to her ethereal sound, you might not guess that Rachel Zeffira was classically trained as an opera singer. But on her solo debut, The Deserters, she's not just singing: She also plays piano, synthesizers, vibraphone, cathedral organ, violin, viola, oboe and English horn.

Zeffira makes her home in London now, but she grew up in a small town in rural British Columbia and began playing music at a young age.

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Well, joining us now - for real, this time - Bryan Cunningham, a former CIA officer, who was also a deputy legal adviser to the National Security Council. And I want you to put us in the shoes of the investigators at this moment. What would be their top priorities? What would they be looking for?

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This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.

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And I'm Robert Siegel.

More than 100 people injured, and police now say at least three people killed by the explosions today at the Boston Marathon. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick says the FBI is now leading multiply agencies in an investigation, and security has been tightened across Boston.

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Investigators are gathering evidence related to the blasts. Law enforcement officials have been cautious about providing any details. NPR's counterterrorism correspondent Dina Temple-Raston is here with the latest. And, Dina, do investigators have any leads?

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And NPR's Tovia Smith joins us now from Boston. And, Tovia, let's recap the chronology just a little bit. Two explosions about 10 seconds apart, very close by at the finish line, correct?

President Obama addressed the nation after explosions at the Boston Marathon left multiple people injured on Monday.

Robert Siegel and Melissa Block have the latest on the explosions at the Boston Marathon near the race's fourth hour.

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And now, a firsthand account of the emergency response to the attacks. We're going to hear from a Boston doctor who spoke with our co-host Audie Cornish.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Joining us now is Dr. Michael Gibson. He's a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He's been seeing the victims of today's explosions in Boston in the emergency room at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Gibson, to begin, what kind of injuries are you seeing? What's coming into the emergency room there?

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block. We begin this hour with the horrific story unfolding today out of Boston. Just over four hours into the Boston Marathon, two explosions ripped into a crowd of onlookers and runners not far from the finish line. Boston Police have confirmed at least two people dead, and 23 injured. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick spoke just moments ago, along with the city's police commissioner, Ed Davis.

Imagine for a second what it would be like if you could talk to your radio, and your radio would actually listen. To get an idea of what this might be like, I downloaded an app called Talk to Esquire, from the magazine of the same name.

When I opened it, the app asked me a question: What's your favorite type of liquor? That's a little forward, but it's Esquire so I played along and told the app that I'm more of a beer drinker.