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California Governor Pete Wilson is releasing his proposal for the state's budget for the next fiscal year. Wilson says a healthy economy has yielded a two billion dollar surplus, much of which he wants to devote to education. Wilson's effort may be designed as much to help the state's ailing education system as to improve the political climate in a crucial state for fellow Republican Bob Dole. Wilson also wants to introduce a fifteen percent across-the-board tax cut. NPR's Virginia Bigar [BIG-ur] reports.

Noah talks to former Senator George McGovern about his new book "Terry". The book is about his daughter's struggle with alcoholism. "Terry" died about a year-and-a-half-ago at the age of 45. McGovern says he regrets the "tough love" approach he and his wife took with their daughter the last few months of her life. And, he says, he didn't realize until it was too late that his daughter really had no control over her disease.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports from the presidential campaign trail in Russia. Polls indicate Russian President Yeltsin is ahead, but no one trusts those polls, least of all the Yeltsin campaign.

Linda talks with the author, A. S. Byatt, about her latest book, "Babel Tower" (BAY-bl). This is the third novel in an ongoing series, and Byatt says she had intended to write a novel about family life and group behavior, but the novel also became a portrait of swinging London in the 1960s. There are myriad literary and popular culture references, and there are other narratives and fictional works embedded in the novel -- including another novel called Babble Tower, trial transcripts, poems and fairy tales.

NPR's Don Gonyea reports that the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has gone to court to force Chrysler to recall 91,000 cars. Federal officials say that rear seat belts in the cars are unsafe, but Chrysler has resisted the recall, saying there's no problem. This is the first time an automaker has resisted federal requests for a voluntary recall.

Noah talks to Matt Wald, aviation correspondent for the New York Times, about developments in the investigation of the causes of the crash of Valujet Flight 592. Investigators are now looking at the possibility that oxygen generators were mislabeled or mishandled and caused the fire on board the aircraft.

Linda talks with Tom Boatner (BOHT-nur), a firejumper from the Bureau of Land Management based in Fairbanks, Alaska. Right now he's in Houston (HYOO-stun), Alaska. As many as 100 homes and an estimated 7,000 acres have burned in this fire which is believed to have started on Sunday. More than 300 firefighters, supported by firefighting aircraft, are now working to contain the blaze which is being fueled by forty mile-per-hour winds.

Robert talks to 2 former students of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas; Elizabeth Eckford and Kendall Rhinehart. Eckford, a Black woman, was one of the Little Rock Nine who integrated the school in 1957. Rhinehart is a white man who was among the few who treated her as an equal in the classroom. They recall the harassment that they both withstood, and reflect on the ways their friends and families reacted at the time. The two have been reunited as part of a student history project.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports from Moscow on why President Boris Yeltsin gets only grudging support from Russians. With only a few days left before the election on Sunday, June 16th, voters appear to be favoring Yeltsin over his communist rival Gennady Zyuganov (gehn-NAH-dee zyoo-GAH-noff). Yeltsin supporters back him because they think he is the lesser of two evils. They worry he has garnered too much power, that he hasn't done enough to protect Russians from the hardships caused by the fall of the Soviet Union, and that he might embarrass the nation through some personality flaw.

Commentator Mike Thoele (TAY-lee) waits for the call in the night from his daughter or son, telling him they are off to fight yet another Western fire. Both are members of elite groups of firefighters -- the daughter is a smokejumper and the son is on a "hot shot" crew. Each summer they join 50,000 other seasonal firefighters in what Thoele calls "a summer rite of passage."

NPR's Marc Roberts reports that four people have voluntarily left the ranch where the anti-government group known as the Freemen have been engaged in a standoff with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The four, all members of the Ward family, are the first to emerge from the Freemen compound since April.

A study released today suggests that the risk of becoming infected with the AIDS virus through oral sex may be higher than previously realized. The study, being published in the journal Science, found that monkeys exposed orally to the monkey equivalent of the AIDS virus became infected surprisingly easily. Experts say that while transmission of the AIDS virus through oral sex is probably relatively rare, the findings underscore the need to practice safe sex. NPR's Joe Neel reports.

In the first of two reports, NPR's Michael Skoler reports on the escalating ethnic violence in the central African nation of Burundi. The United Nations is worried that fighting between the minority Tutsis and majority Hutus could erupt into the sort of mass killing that gripped neighboring Rwanda two years ago. A weak coalition government has been unable to stop the violence, as the Tutsi-dominated army battles Hutu rebels. Many average Burundians are losing hope that their political leaders can find a way out of the conflict.

Commentator Andrei Condrescu is upset about the service he gets on airplanes these days. In the last few years he has been delayed, starved, squeezed, and subjected to bad jokes during air travel.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports from Moscow on the presidential campaign in Russia, where opinion polls indicate that the leader of the Communists...Gennady Zyuganov ((Gen-NAH-dee zyoo-GAHN-off))...is trailing President Boris Yeltsin. Zyuganov, who has positioned himself as the candidate for the "forgotten voters," is wooing voters who are disenchanted with the economic reforms and other social changes that have taken place under Yeltsin's government. Zyuganov's followers say they don't believe the polling data which gives Yeltsin the lead in the race. Over the weekend, Zyuganov and his supporters staged one last big rally before the election scheduled for next Sunday.

Commentator Lydia Nayo (NI-o) recalls when during her childhood, her father would barter an old mantle clock for food at the local grocery. And he always came home with cornflakes. She has come to associate cornflakes with the mental and spiritual weight of poverty, and even though she is much more prosperous now, she still can't eat them. Nayo has come to believe that as long as she keeps them out of her cupboard, she will keep the wolf from the door.

A new study by researchers at Duke University and the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs Medical Center found that television medical programs such as "ER" and "Chicago Hope" give viewers an overly optimistic impression of the effectiveness of certain medical procedures...particularly cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The percentage of people who survive cardiac arrest after receiving CPR is far lower than represented on television programs. Linda talks with one of the authors of the study, Dr. James Tulsky, about how the portrayal of miraculous recoveries on television may ultimately undermine trust in doctors and scientific data.

Auto talks between the United Auto Workers union and Ford, Chrysler and General Motors began this week as they prepare to negotiate a new U.A.W. contract. NPR's Don Gonyea reports that the talks will be difficult, particularly concerning the issue of outsourcing. The union wants auto companies to hire new workers and to increase job security.

- NPR's Adam Hochberg reports that later this month, the oldest textile mill in the south will be closing. It's the Rocky Mount mill in North Carolina. The mill opened in 1818, and its closing mirrors the fate of other mills in the U.S.

- Storyteller Carmen Deedee brings us back to her childhood in Cuba, and recalls how she almost wasn't able to bring out her doll when her family left Cuba for the United States in the early sixties.