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You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.

Impassioned, theatrical, exhausting. Four hours of closing arguments today in the trial of John Edwards in a federal courtroom in Greensboro, North Carolina. The former presidential candidate and vice presidential nominee is accused of accepting about a million dollars of secret payments to cover up an affair with a campaign worker.

North Carolina Public Radio's Jeff Tiberii was in the courtroom. He joins us now.

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When the speaker of the New York City Council gets married it is generally not a big deal. But Christine Quinn happens to be the first openly gay council speaker in New York's history. And she is considered the frontrunner to be the city's next mayor.

So Quinn's wedding this weekend is attracting lots of attention, as we hear from NPR's Joel Rose.

The key witness in the perjury trial of baseball star Roger Clemens is on the stand this week testifying that he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs. Nina Totenberg talks to Melissa Block.

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A small group of Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans and their supporters gathered in Chicago today. They were there to denounce America's role in those wars and this weekend's upcoming NATO Summit.

GRAHAM CLUMPNER: We come to this city in non-violence to stand with our brothers and sisters around the world and say that we have had enough. We are done. These wars need to end yesterday.

SIEGEL: That's Afghanistan War veteran Graham Clumpner, one of may expected to return his service medals Sunday, during an anti-NATO.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And I'm Robert Siegel.

A new technology makes it possible for a quadriplegic to use only thought to move a robotic arm. According to a report out yesterday, a Massachusetts woman was one of two patients to use the arm. She picked up a bottle with coffee in it and drank it, using a straw. This is the first time in 15 years that she was able to feed herself.

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Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of Health and Human Services, will address students at Georgetown University tomorrow.

As NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty reports, that has created one of several controversies this season over commencement speakers.

BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY, BYLINE: Sebelius is Catholic. She's also liberal and pro-choice. And the fact that she's speaking to Georgetown's Public Policy Institute makes conservative Catholics, like Patrick Reilly, see red.