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The right-to-work legislation that was passed, and signed into law, in Michigan this week has been called a staggering blow to organized labor. Such laws allow workers to refuse to join a union and pay union dues, even if they're employed in a unionized workplace. Twenty-four states now have similar laws but Michigan, as the home of the U.S. auto industry, is considered one of the foundries of the American labor movement.

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This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Of course, the news this morning is dominated by yesterday's events in Newtown, Connecticut. And while we're covering the shootings throughout the program, there is other news, even sports, which is sometimes called the great diversion. And maybe this is a good moment for that diversion. NPR's Tom Goldman joins us now.

Tom, thanks for being with us.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: My pleasure, Scott.

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Japan's tsunami and earthquake last year essentially erased the village of Rikuzentakata. Also lost, their famous coastal pine forest, all 70,000 trees, except for one. NPR News's Chris Benderev has the story of the miracle pine tree.

CHRIS BENDEREV, BYLINE: Yoshihisa Suzuki is standing on the beach, flipping through old photos, looking for one in particular. Then he finds it.

YOSHIHISA SUZUKI: (Foreign language spoken)

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And this morning, of course, we are reporting the story from Newtown, Connecticut; where yesterday, a young man named Adam Lanza shot and killed some 26 people at an elementary school - 20 of them, small children. Connecticut state police have briefed residents of Newtown, and reporters, on the latest from the crime scene at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, and at second crime scene.

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NPR justice correspondent Carrie Johnson joins us in the studio for more on the investigation. Carrie, thanks for being with us.

CARRIE JOHNSON, BYLINE: Thank you, Scott.

SIMON: What do we know about the shooter, and is anything developing on what I noticed Lieutenant Vance carefully called - he didn't use the word motive, he said the how and the why of the shooting?

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The Sandy Hook Elementary School joins a sad and lengthening list of names in recent U.S. history. Since 12 students and a teacher were killed at Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999, there have been scores of other school shootings - so many it may be hard to recall all the names: Red Lake, Nickel Mines, Virginia Tech and Chardon High School are just a few of the names that have become branded by tragedy. Ben Markus of Colorado Public Radio spoke with Frank DeAngelis, the principal of Columbine High School.

In the gymnasium of a South London technical school, site of this year's World Memory Championships, Norwegian Ola Kaere Risa checks his stopwatch.

Risa is Norway's only contestant this year.

"I hope to defend the glory of my country," he says, laughing.

The 21st World Memory Championships are under way in London this weekend. About 75 competitors from some two dozen countries are vying to see who can memorize the most numbers, faces, playing cards or random words in a set amount of time.