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Minnesota holds its Republican caucuses on Tuesday. But in the race for the White House, these caucuses are just a nonbinding straw poll.

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Our periodic look at state finances takes us next to New Mexico. The situation there looks a lot less awful than it did.

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After three years of painful cuts, the state has a projected surplus. The question now is what to do with the money. Here's NPR's Ted Robbins.

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The New York Giants came back with a last-minute score to beat the New England Patriots 21-17 Sunday night for New York's fourth Super Bowl title. It was a rematch of the 2008 NFL championship, when Eli Manning led New York past New England to ruin the Patriots' bid for a perfect season.

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This is MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

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And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning. Here's the latest on the crisis in Syria. The U.S. State Department says it has closed the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, and evacuated its diplomats. The U.S. also issued a warning for all American citizens to leave the country immediately. A State Department spokewoman says the embassy was shut because of concerns that it's not sufficiently protected from armed attack.

Across the corn belt, more farmers are putting up their own grain bins. In the past year alone, farmers nationwide have added some 300 million bushels of on-farm storage. By storing their own grain, farmers can choose when and at what price they want to sell, and that can translate into thousands of dollars in profit. And this has grain buyers — like grain elevators and ethanol plants --working to keep their edge in the market. Kathleen Masterson of Harvest Public Media reports.