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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Next Tuesday, a very unusual election will put conservative Republican Tea Party politics to a test. Wisconsin's Republican governor, Scott Walker, faces a recall vote. His opponent is the Democrat he defeated in 2010, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Wisconsin Democrats petitioned for Walker's recall after his aggressive stance against public employee collective bargaining rights. As we've reported here, money is flowing into the race. Nearly $60 million has been spent, about three quarters of that sum by the Republicans.

A federal appeals court in Boston ruled unanimously Thursday that a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. Ultimately, however, the court said that it will be up to the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether the federal government can deny economic entitlements to legally married same-sex couples.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Now, from the high flying Spurs to a 2,400 foot skydive with nothing but a wing suit and a pile of cardboard boxes to break the fall. That's exactly what Gary Connery did. He had a parachute, but he didn't use it and - spoiler alert - he survived the jump and joins us now to talk about it.

Welcome to the program.

GARY CONNERY: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

SIEGEL: I've just said that you jumped with a wing suit as if I know what that means. I want you to describe what the wing suit was.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

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

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And I'm Robert Siegel.

The mayor of the nation's largest city is proposing a new approach to a national problem, obesity. In restaurants, movie theaters and some other establishments, Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to stop the sales of super-sized soft drinks. Put simply, the proposal is to ban big cups.

And as NPR's Joel Rose reports, that is prompting objections from the beverage industry and from other New Yorkers.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Well, now, Melissa, we've been calling it soda here, which may have some of you in other places yelling at us, it's not soda. It's pop. Or if you're from the South, you may call it Coke. You may use that to describe any carbonated beverage.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

well, Robert, you know that I am from New York like you are, and it tastes like soda to me.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Three presidents were reunited at the White House today. The occasion was the unveiling of two new portraits of George and Laura Bush. The paintings by Austin, Texas native John Howard Sanden will hang near those of George Bush's parents, who were also on hand for the ceremony. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

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They were called the "giggle gang" — four alternate jurors in the John Edwards trial who wore the same-colored shirt to court on several days.

During nine days of deliberations, much attention was given to the merry band of alternates in the high-profile campaign finance case.

On Thursday, attention swung back to the jury itself, which found Edwards not guilty on one count. The judge declared a mistrial on the other five charges.

What a week it was to have been for Mitt Romney.

But what a week it wasn't.

Poised to triumphantly clinch the Republican nomination for president, Romney instead was upstaged Tuesday by supporter Donald Trump's new birther-on-steroids shtick that stole the headlines and the candidate's big moment.

Then on Thursday, ready to embarrass President Obama by holding a "surprise" press event in front of Solyndra, the Obama-touted California solar energy company that failed after getting a $535 million government loan guarantee, Romney was upstaged yet again.

Spain's borrowing costs hit record highs this week and European stock markets have slumped over fears Madrid can't afford the price tag required to prop up its ailing banks. It's looking ever more likely the country will need some kind of bailout.

After watching Greece from afar for years, many Spaniards now believe Spain's number is up.

A tourist in Madrid might wonder where the crisis is. Traffic is heavy and the tapas bars are packed.

But listen in on some of the conversations, and it's clear that Spaniards are scared.

The school year's winding down, meaning teenagers around the country will soon be trying to pull in some extra cash scooping ice cream or manning those kiosks at the mall.

But with the job market still weak, teens are facing stiff competition landing summer jobs. And while the downturn has hit young job seekers particularly hard, it's not just the lingering effects of the Great Recession working against them: the drop-off in teen summer hiring actually began long before 2007.

If nothing else, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has apparently done President Obama a favor.

His Honor's proposed ban on the sale of supersized sugary fountain drinks in his city made the mayor, at least for some, the epitome of Big Government excess, a place many critics, particularly conservatives, typically reserve for the Obama.

Old Faithful geyser, erupting just about every 90 minutes: for many years, this geological icon, and the camera-toting tourists who watch its super-heated water spew skyward, constituted my mental imagery of Yellowstone National Park. Sure, I knew bears and bison wandered this pretty wilderness area, too. All very nice, but I was in no rush to visit.

Sometimes I can get things wrong. Really, really wrong.

Six years ago, I finally went to Yellowstone. I've returned twice and the region's beauty lingers in my dreams.

Update at 4:24 p.m. ET. Not Guilty: