Morning Edition

The Syrian army has moved in to restore security. Earlier this week, Syrian officials said 120 security personnel were killed there.

Having a career in the NBA would be a dream for many athletes and sports fans. For Marat Kogut, 31, his long-held dream came true when he became an NBA referee, in 2009. It was an outcome that may have seemed unlikely when Kogut's family emigrated from Ukraine in 1979.

Marat was just a newborn when his family came to the United States. They settled in Brooklyn, where his father, Leon, eventually opened his own barbershop. Speaking in New York recently, the two recalled how Marat decided on his future career at a very early age.

When one of this country's greatest composers died at age 39, novelist John O'Hara said, "George Gershwin died on July 11, 1937. But I don't have to believe it if I don't want to."

As is true for so many top musicians, Gershwin's works — his popular songs, his opera Porgy and Bess, his jazz-informed classical compositions — live on. Now, there's a new version of one of Gershwin's best-loved orchestral pieces, arranged for a brassy big band.

State wildlife commissioners have given unanimous approval to mitigation plans for a pair of proposals that would send more water from the Upper Colorado River basin over the mountains to the booming Front Range.

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office is joining a multi-state effort to help immigrants steer clear of scams targeted at them.