Morning Edition

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Daytime TV kicks off a new season this week. In the lineup are some new talk shows featuring big names, including Katie Couric, Ricki Lake and comedian and radio host Steve Harvey. TV critic Eric Deggans says they are all chasing after the elusive holy grail of daytime television - the audience that Oprah Winfrey left behind.

ERIC DEGGANS: Remember when Katie Couric sat behind the anchor desk at the CBS Evening News?

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "CBS EVENING NEWS")

KATIE COURIC: Recession fear caused the Dow to plunge...

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now that the Democratic convention is over, polls show President Obama pulling ahead of Mitt Romney, not by so much, but the change did show up in several surveys. Let's talk about that and more with Cokie Roberts, who joins us most Mondays.

Cokie, good morning.

COKIE ROBERTS, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: Any surprise in the polls over the weekend?

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And I'm Renee Montagne.

The largest U.S. prison in Afghanistan, containing over 3,000 inmates, was handed over to Afghan control this morning. But the transfer was not without controversy. Several dozen prisoners - including some foreign terrorist suspects - were kept in American custody.

The owners of the Star Princess cruise ship say that they have new video evidence that proves they are not responsible for ignoring a stranded fishing vessel 100 miles off the coast of South America in March.

In the southwestern Indiana town of Evansville, people are a bit baffled after hearing that the town's Museum of Arts, History and Science has had a rare Pablo Picasso piece in storage for almost half a century. Curator Mary Bower says the work went unnoticed because of a clerical error.

"All the documentation associated with the gift indicated that this was by an artist named Gemmaux," she says, "which really happens to be the plural of the artistic technique."

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP. HOST: And I'm Steve Inskeep. Hours after President Obama delivered his speech at the Democratic Convention, the latest unemployment report provided a reminder of what's at stake. The unemployment rate dropped in August, which sounds good, but the number of jobs created was below expectations for August.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne with a story of a stellar MacGyvering. The International Space Station was faced with a malfunctioning electrical unit and couldn't screw down a new one because the exterior bolts were covered in debris. After two astronauts were stuck outside for hours, they hit on an idea - scrub the bolts clean with a toothbrush. It was a thrifty fix for the $100 billion space station and luckily the toothbrush was a spare. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A new line of tablet readers is at the top of NPR's business news.

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INSKEEP: They come from Amazon, which is rolling out its latest Kindle e-readers. They are faster, we're told, as well as cheaper. And as NPR's Steve Henn reports, they're aimed squarely at the youngest members of the family.