In a nondescript apartment room in Turkey, just across the border from Syria, clouds of cigarette smoke drift toward the ceiling as Syrian opposition activists ponder how to keep people and supplies moving across the border.

Abu Jafaar is the alias of a Syrian smuggler who has been dodging Syrian army patrols for the past several months.

Almost 25 years since the first organic farm took root in Hong Kong, the appeal of organic food is finally catching on. But restaurateurs, chefs, suppliers and organic experts say scant supply is leaving consumers hungry for more, and what is available still costs too much.

During his first news conference of the year, President Obama defended his decision not to intervene militarily in Iran and Syria.

"Sometimes [force] is necessary but we don't do it casually," he said. "There is a cost and we don't play politics with it."

Obama described the situation in Syria as "more complicated" than the situation in Libya and said deploying the military is not the only way to solve problems.

In 1862, the USS Monitor — a Civil War-era ironclad warship — fought one of the world's first iron-armored battles against the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia. Less than a year later, a violent storm sank the Union ship off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. The wreck was discovered more than a century later, and subsequent searches have turned up more than just a crumbling ship — they also found the skeletons of two of the Monitor's sailors in the ship's gun turret.

While the controversy continues to swirl around radio talkmeister Rush Limbaugh and his admittedly inappropriate comments about Georgetown Law Student Sandra Fluke, an analysis from the left-leaning Brookings Institution adds an economic twist to the debate over coverage of contraception.

The FBI is offering a $1 million reward for information leading directly to the safe return of one of its retired agents.

Robert Levinson disappeared five years ago this week on Kish Island, Iran. He worked at the FBI for 22 years before he retired, taking as a private detective. It was that job that sent him to Iran in March 2007, where he went missing.

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., which in 2008 filed for the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history and whose collapse roiled world markets, says it has exited bankruptcy and will make its first payment to creditors on April 17.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

A record number of lobbyists were hired in 2011 by labor unions, business, and other interests. Union groups like the California Teachers Association are among those who have spent the most...

Nearly four years ago, the bank collapsed in the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history — a record $639 billion. That set off a chain reaction and sent the economy spiraling. Lehman Bros. says now, it will continue to liquidate its holdings, and will start paying back creditors next month.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. We are going to spend some time today talking about two issues in the news that are on a lot of people's minds, and they both touch on violence. Later in our parenting segment, we are going to talk about what we really know about why young people turn to deadly violence. We're thinking about this, of course, after that school shooting in Ohio that left three students dead.