All Things Considered

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Last night, Newt Gingrich placed second in both the Alabama and Mississippi primaries. He remains in a distant third when it comes to delegates, but he too is turning his attention to Illinois. He's there campaigning today. Last night, Gingrich laid out for his supporters what's next for the campaign.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

The Federal Reserve has released the results of its much-anticipated stress test of the nation's biggest banks. The Fed says most of the nation's 19 biggest financial institutions passed the tests, although four did not. To find out what this means, we turn to NPR's Jim Zarroli. Jim, first, why is the Fed running stress tests? What are they supposed to show about the banks?

The documentary Bully follows several middle- and high-school students who are different, awkward or for some other reason the targets of bullying. One of the kids at the center of the film is Alex, from Sioux City, Iowa.

In the film, Alex, a small boy, says people think he's not normal, and most kids don't want to be around him. And some kids at his school, or on the school bus especially, make his life miserable.

Director Lee Hirsch says Alex immediately struck him as someone who was having a hard time — and no one seemed to notice or really care.

As part of a new campaign, dozens of citizen groups around the country are searching voter registration lists, looking for problems.

They're also training poll watchers to monitor this fall's elections.

Leaders of the effort — spawned by the Tea Party movement — say they want to make sure that elections are free from voter fraud. But critics say it's part of a campaign to suppress the votes of minorities, students and others who tend to vote Democratic.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

A new trade dispute is brewing over China's export of rare earth minerals. They're vital to the manufacture of everything from missiles to smartphones. And today, the United States, Japan and the European Union filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization. They accused China of slapping unfair export restrictions on the materials. The Chinese government warned that the complaint could strain ties with Washington.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.