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Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary apologized today for mismanaging her expensive overseas official travel. But she also defended the trips, in her testimony before the House Commerce investigations subcommittee. O'Leary said her missions abroad generated business for American firms and benefitted U-S foreign policy. NPR's John Nielsen reports.

Noah talks about some facts about fathers and the history of Father's Day.

- Jazz great Ella Fitzergald - America's "First Lady of Song" - died today. She was 78 years old. Fitzgerald had been in declining health for years. Howard Mandel (Howard MAN-duhl) reports.

Robert Siegel speaks with an Israeli who will vote for the Likud party in tomorrow's election. Ofer Mizrachi (OH-fair miz-RAH-hee), a Sephardic (seh-FAR-dik) Jew, lives with his family in a Tel Aviv suburb close to the border between Israel and the West Bank. He says he is afraid of the final deal that Shimon Peres will make with the Palestinians.

A divided Supreme Court struck down four redesigned Congressional districts today in Texas and North Carolina. The districts are all predominantly black or Hispanic. The decision continues a trend in the Court since 1993 to disallow electoral districts that were drawn to create racial majorities. In today's ruling, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor reiterated that districts cannot be drawn up with race as the primary criterion, but also said that it does NOT mean that states can never design predominantly minority districts. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.

FBI Director Louis Freeh released an internal report today that was strongly critical of both the White House and the FBI for releasing FBI background files on 408 people to members of the Clinton administration in 1993. The files contained information about employees of the Bush White House, and included a number of well-known Republicans as well as members of the White House travel office. The White House announced today that it will reform its procedure for requesting FBI data on individuals, and will require the permission of the subject as well as the White House counsel's office in most cases. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

An audio postcard from NPR's Melissa Block in New York, who stumbled upon a movie set in New York, without realizing it...

- NPR's Richard Harris reports that scientists have discovered that fire ants communicate by using sound. Robert Hickling at the University of Mississipi has been recording fire ants in several conditions and has distinguished many sounds that the fire ants make with their bodies.

- Danny talks with NPR's Anne Garrels who is in Moscow about the latest on Russia's presidential elections. He'll also be joined by Sarah Mendelson, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York in Albany who is currently in Moscow who will discuss implications for Russia's future.

NPR's Brooke Gladstone reports on the variety of opinions being expressed about Disney's impact on ABC's news and entertainment programming. Disney's take-over of Cap Cities/ABC is one of a number of huge media mergers raising concerns about the demise of network independence.

- Tom speaks with 74-year old Russell Bonasso who just graduated from West Virginia's Fairmont State College. Bonasso got his bachelor's degree 58 years after he graduated from high school. His educational goals were delayed so he could put his 12 children through college.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports that Boris Yeltsin and the rebel leader in Chechnya have agreed to a ceasefire beginning Saturday in the 17 month-old war. It was not clear whether the Russian military would observe the ceasefire, and the thorniest issue -- the question of Chechen independence -- was put on the back burner.

NPR's Vicky Que reports on residents from Evansville, Indiana, who are up in arms over the government's new weather-forecasting equipment which was recently installed there. They claim that the new, state-of-the-art Doppler Radar designed to help warn residents of dangerous storms has completely missed several which have swept through the town in recent months, and they'd like the old equipment back.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports on Russian President Boris Yeltsin's trip to Chechnya. The trip is seen as part of Yeltsin's campaign to be re-elected president next month. Yeltsin's declaration today that the war is over might be premature.

Robert Siegel probes the political views of the Margalit (MARR-gah-leet) family, which generally supports politicians who hold the leftist point of view. For them, peace is the over-riding issue upon which their decision is made, and they approve of the effort which has been made to deal with the Palestinians.

- Tom talks with MIT economist Lester Thurow about the consequences of a growing elderly population in America. Analysts predict the elderly will become a political majority by the year two-thousand twenty-five. Thurow argues that will change the face of American society, from government to business.

In his speech at Princeton University today, President Clinton proposed a tax credit of $1500 per year for college tuition for full time college students. Robert talks to John Hammang, Director of State and Campus Relations for the American Assocation of State Colleges and Universities about the effects of the proposed tax break on college tuitions and what makes college tuitions so high in the first place.

Noah talks to Prof. Thomas Emmel at the University of Florida in Gainesville, who on Monday will release 800 rare Schaus Swllowtails butterflies into the wild. Emmel started breeding the butterflies in his kitchen in 1992 when the population of the butterflies had been reduced to only 17.

NPR's Peter Overby reports that most political contributions come from very few people. One of the areas of the country that has among the highest concentration of big-time donors is Greenwich, Connecticut. Some say residents there get special attention in return from the political establishment, and campaign finance reformers would like to limit how much money candidates can get from people who do not live in the areas they represent.

Commentator Sam Fulwood says the fight in Prince George's County, Maryland over inviting Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas to speak to an eighth-grade class is a public spectacle of official cowardice, racial politics and divisive posturing. He claims it is a sad example of how race is discussed and used in this country.