Bank of America said today that it's taking more than $20 billion in charges connected to its mortgage business.

That's huge. For context, the bank reported a net loss of $2 billion last year, and a net profit of $6 billion in 2009.

Two days after the murder trial against Glenn Doneghy was scheduled to end, attorneys rested their cases. Most of Tuesday's testimony came from former state police trooper Sonny Cease, who was hired by the defense to investigate the crash that killed Lexington police officer Bryan Durman last year. Doneghy, 34, is accused of murder in Durman's death. He is on trial in Fayette Circuit Court. Cease is a former state police trooper best known for being the lead investigator of the 1988 Carrollton bus crash in which 27 people died.

Friends and family of Amanda Ross expressed relief Tuesday that in pleading guilty to Ross's murder, former lawmaker Steve Nunn had taken responsibility for his actions and spared everyone a long and painful trial. "I hope this will bring some peace to Amanda's mother and family," said Terry McBrayer, a Frankfort lobbyist and a friend of the Ross family. "At best, the trial would have been long and sordid. This might be the first day to start healing."

Kentucky's racetracks starting Friday can apply for permission to allow bets on historical races. But despite a needed boost in business, some tracks are leery of adding "Instant Racing" immediately. The regulations that allow Instant Racing become effective July 1 and the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission will accept applications from the racetracks. Many tracks hope it can boost declining revenues and make them competitive with tracks in surrounding states, but a legal challenge by the Family Foundation has made them take pause.

When he steps down from his post Thursday, University of Kentucky President Lee T. Todd Jr. will join UK's engineering faculty as a tenured professor with a salary of about $162,000 a year. But first, Todd will take a yearlong unpaid leave of absence. Instead of a salary, he will receive the retention bonus guaranteed in his contract for staying 10 years. It's worth $511,000, his base salary during his last year of work.

The Herald-Leader's "Kentucky Bucket List" of 50 experiences every Kentuckian should do, see or have while living in our commonwealth, received tremendous response from readers after it was published June 17. Inspired by Parade magazine's recent cover story on "America's Bucket List," The Herald-Leader's list — which was far from exhaustive — spurred readers to suggest ideas that we didn't include. So today, The Herald-Leader shares 20 readers' suggestions of experiences to have in Kentucky before you die.

Activists in a small flotilla of vessels are set to again challenge Israel's maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip, just a year after a similar attempt led to a deadly confrontation in the Mediterranean.

Eight ships and 300 activists — many of them from the U.S. — plan to set sail this week from Greece. They say they're trying to deliver humanitarian aid to the coastal territory and highlight the plight of the 1.5 million Palestinians who live there.

European leaders and international financial markets breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday when the Greek Parliament voted in favor of a highly unpopular package of austerity measures.

Passage of the measures had been a condition set by the European Union and IMF for release of the next installment of the $155 billion bailout agreed to last year.

But outside Parliament, the streets of Athens were turned into a war zone as protesters and anti-riot police engaged in running battles.

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration has cited six Kentucky mines for safety violations. Those mines were among the 19 nationwide that the agency inspected in May as part of their special impact inspections, which target mines with a history of compliance problems.

Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.

The sound of a crying baby on a long flight is the definition of no escape. One airline has taken a bold stance on the issue, at least for passengers it wants to baby. Malaysia Airlines doesn't have bassinettes in first class. And that means babies are banned. The airline is now adding the extra roomy super jumbo Airbus to its fleet, but says in first class, there's still no room for babies onboard.

And it is MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.