Business & Education

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And that brings us to the last word in Business which is no sweat. You too can own a piece of the old American frontier.

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An entire town nestled in the flat prairie lands of South Dakota is up for sale for $400,000. You can own Swett - S, W, E, T, T - Swett, South Dakota.

People are worried about being able to pay for health insurance. So the insurance industry and a group of Democratic senators have proposed offering cheaper, skimpier "copper plans" on the health law's marketplaces that could draw in people who were unhappy with the cost of available plans.

But consumer advocates and others who study the insurance market suggest that there may not be a big demand for these plans and that they could expose people to unacceptably high out-of-pocket costs if they got sick.

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This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

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And I'm Renee Montagne. The U.S Supreme Court has wrapped up its latest term, issuing two important decisions. One is a setback for the Affordable Care Act and a victory for some for-profit companies.

GREENE: The other decision is a major defeat for public employee unions. We'll hear reaction to both decisions in a few minutes. We begin our coverage with NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.

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The U.S. Supreme court ruled yesterday that the owners of closely held for-profit corporations, like Hobby Lobby, the chain of stores that brought the case, do not have to cover FDA-approved contraceptives in their employee health insurance.

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In this decision, the words closely held stood out. What does closely held actually mean? While the IRS offers a long technical definition, we wanted a simpler one.

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We reported recently on the Drake's Bay Oyster Company. It's an oyster farm that operates out of the Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California.

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For decades, the family-run farm leased offshore seabeds from the federal government, but their 40 year lease expired in 2012.

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And let's turn now to NPR's Cheryl Corley in Chicago. She's been listening to a reaction to the Supreme Court ruling that non-union home healthcare workers no longer have to pay union fees.

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Now we get your reaction to both the Supreme Court decisions - first, to the ruling that some businesses can cite religion to opt out of covering contraceptives under the new health care law. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports.

JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: In Chicago, a few dozen abortion rights opponents gathered to celebrate the decision as a victory for religious liberty. Emily Zender is with Illinois Rights Alive.

When the Supreme Court ruled Monday that "closely held" corporations don't have to pay for workers' contraception, you may have assumed the decision applied only to family-owned businesses.

Wrong. An estimated 9 out of 10 businesses are "closely held."

However, some benefits experts question just how many of those companies would want to assert religious views.

Representatives for the French bank BNP Paribas pleaded guilty on Monday and agreed to pay $8.83 billion over allegations that it violated U.S. sanctions laws by facilitating transactions involving Sudan, Cuba and Iran.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

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Banking giant BNP Paribas has agreed to pay American regulators nearly $9 billion dollars to settle charges of economic sanctions violations. It's the largest such fine ever imposed by the U.S. The bank will plead guilty to two criminal charges. It was accused of helping clients in Sudan, Cuba and Iran conduct business in the United States. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.

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

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