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Seventy years ago, 70 percent of U.S.-made cars came with a stick shift. The number is less than 9 percent today.

But at least one man is on a quest to reverse that slide.

Eddie Alterman loves automobiles. He's a gear head. He's the top editor at Car and Driver magazine. His whole career, he has watched the sales of cars with stick shifts decline. And when Ferrari failed to offer a manual option for the new 458 Italia, he said, enough's enough. Basta.

Transcript

JACKI LYDEN, HOST:

I'm Jacki Lyden and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Michele Martin is away this week. Coming up, spring hails all sorts of lovely flowers and in Washington it brings cherry blossoms on the trees that ring the city's tidal basin. We'll share the story behind the famed cherry blossoms in a few minutes. But first, the Supreme Court opens a three-day hearing today about the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act.

As the Supreme Court begins hearing arguments on the Affordable Care Act, Tell Me More continues the conversation about state reactions to the law. Guest host Jacki Lyden speaks with Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos, about opposition to the Affordable Care Act in his state.

"Suspicious test scores in roughly 200 school districts resemble those that entangled Atlanta in the biggest cheating scandal in American history," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported over the weekend.

It examined data from 50 states and the District of Columbia, covering 69,000 schools in 14,743 districts and found that:

Condoms aren't just for men.

A second generation of female condoms, which was approved in 2009, is cheaper than the first version. Still, the condoms for women are a lot more expensive than those for males. And female condoms remain pretty unfamiliar to most people.

The fourth season of the AMC drama Mad Men ended in a dramatically big way.

Protagonist Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm, seemed happy. So happy, in fact, that he surprised his secretary, Megan, with an engagement ring on a Disneyland vacation with his children. The last shot of the episode showed Megan happily asleep in bed with Don, as he remained awake, staring up at the ceiling, before turning his head and staring out the window.

What did it mean?

The U.S. Supreme Court begin hearing oral arguments on the health care law Monday. Outside the court, protesters and counter-protesters gathered with signs and chants. Also, people hoping to get in to witness the proceedings started lining up Friday morning.

This week, New York Times correspondent Jeffrey Gettleman will receive a George Polk Award for being the first to report that the militant Islamist group al-Shabab had prevented starving people from leaving Somalia.

Three days of historic Supreme Court arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act started Monday in a case that could decide the fate of the controversial health-care law. A new CBS News/New York Times poll found that 47 percent of respondents opposed the law while 36 percent approved it.

Now we know the Final Four teams in the 2012 NCAA Division I men's basketball championship:

-- Kansas.

-- Kentucky.

-- Louisville.

-- Ohio State.

So it's time to ask:

The women's Division I tournament, by the way, is down to its Elite Eight.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Tens Of Thousands Expected Today At Florida Rally For Trayvon Martin .

-- The Arguments Begin: Supreme Court Takes Up Health Care Starting Today.

A rally in Sanford, Fla., today "to demand justice in the Trayvon Martin shooting death," is expected to draw "tens of thousands of people," Orlando's WFTV says.

The rally — one month after the black teen's death — is due to begin at 4 p.m. ET and end with those thousands gathered outside the city's civic center as the Sanford City Commission meets to hear from the 17-year-old Martin's parents.

Throughout the month of October, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of World Cafe and revisited some of the best and most memorable interviews of the past 20 years.

On today's World Cafe, we look to Nigeria, Benin and Cuba and highlight some of our favorite conversations with world-music innovators.

NPR's Ken Rudin is a fan of using history as a guide to what might happen next when it comes to politics, and this morning he focuses on the 2012 race for the Republican presidential nomination and what lessons we might learn from an earlier battle between GOP contenders.

"A house fire believed to be the worst in Charleston's history claimed its ninth victim Sunday," West Virginia's Sunday Gazette-Mail reports.

According to the newspaper, 7-year-old Bryan Timothy Camp was taken off life support Sunday morning. The fire at the home he lived in with his mother, her boyfriend, an aunt and six other children began around 3:25 a.m. ET on Saturday. Only the aunt survived. The Gazette-Mail says the rental home had no working smoke detectors.

Kazakhstan's Maria Dmitrienko took gold at the Arab Shooting Championships last week in Kuwait. As she stood to hear her national anthem, out blared the parody anthem from the movie Borat. Organizers apologized. They got Serbia's anthem wrong, too.

Britain's Big Ben is technically the giant bell inside St. Stephen's Tower at Parliament. Some members of Parliament want it renamed the Elizabeth tower, in honor of the queen. Jokingly, some suggested the name: Big Beth.

Here's how we'll be following the Supreme Court's three days of oral arguments about the President Obama's health care overhaul law, which as we've previously noted begin today.

As we always try to do when major stories are developing, we'll watch for key moments and pass along the news as soon as possible.

Saying that her husband "loves children, he's like a big kid himself," the wife of the U.S. Army soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians on March 11 has told NBC News that the accusations against Staff Sgt. Robert Bales are "unbelievable to me."

"I have no idea what happened, but he would not ... he loves children, and he would not do that," said Karilyn Bales.