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Marj Halperin reports on the new "Children's Room" for kids who visit Chicago's family court. The children are anxiously awaiting the outcome of their custody, abuse, and foster care hearings, and while they wait they are often calmed by hands-on-art activities, live performances, and special phones where they can role-play about their fears with privacy.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports on the intense political crisis gripping Zaire, one of Africa's largest nations. A rebellion which began several weeks ago in the east of the country is steadily spreading, and Zaire's underpaid and poorly disciplined army is putting up very little resistance. To compound the problem, President Mobutu Sese Seko (mo-BOO-too SAY-SAY SAY-koh) has been out of the country for months, as he recuperates from cancer surgery on the French Riviera.

Noah reads from listeners' comments. To contact All Things Considered, write to All Things Considered Letters, 635 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington D-C, 20001. To contact us via the Internet, the address is ATC@ NPR.ORG.

A major environmental lobbying group has broken ranks, issuing a report that calls the Endangered Species Act a failure. The Environmental Defense Fund says the law hasn't protected species on private land and that the law needs to be overhauled to extend its reach to these areas. But other groups don't want Congress to tinker with one of environmentalism's monumental achievements. And as NPR's John Nielsen reports, ranchers and farmers are also opposed to any changes.

NPR's Martha Raddatz reports that President Clinton today announced his choices for a new national security team, nominating Republican Senator William Cohen of Maine as defense secretary and U.N. ambassador Madeleine Albright as the nation's first female secretary of state. He also named his national security advisor, Anthony Lake, to head the CIA and has asked Lake's deputy, Samuel "Sandy" Berger, to fill Lake's job. They were the first of several announced cabinet changes expected for the second Clinton administration.

Robert talks with Charles Dick, researcher at the Conflict Studies Research Centre in England, about the state of the Russian Army. Dick's report is titled "A Bear Without Claws: The Russian Army in the Nineties." Dick says that while the Soviet Army was a relatively effective force, the Russian Army is corrupt and ill-prepared for crisis. Dick says severe hazing is endemic in the Russian Army, and an estimated three to four thousand servicemen die annually from non-combat causes. The article is published in a journal called "Geopolitique."

NPR's Ted Clark reports that the United States and other nations are rethinking the scope and mandate of a proposed multinational military force for Zaire. The sudden return of about half-a-million Rwandan refugees over the weekend dramatically altered the humanitarian situation along the Rwanda/Zaire border. Rwanda says there is no longer a need for a force, but the US and others point out that there are still an estimated half-million refugees stranded elsewhere in Zaire, cut off from food and water by fighting between Zairean rebels and exiled Rwandan militias.

Noah Adams speaks with Madeleine Peyroux (pe-ROO), a twenty-two-year-old singer, who's just released her first CD, "Dreamland." Her career began on the streets of Paris when she was just 15 years old. She specializes in material from the 1920's, '30's and '40's including songs originally made famous by Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. While her style pays homage to the originators, Madeleine Peyroux adds her own unique imprint to the material.

For the first time in Russian history, voters used a referendum election to decide their future. NPR's Andy Bowers reports that they used the referendum ballot to stop plans for a Cerhnobyl-style nuclear power plant. The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry had wanted to finish a plant in Kostroma, 250 miles northeast of Moscow. Residents turned it down by a nine-to-one margin.

NPR's Martha Raddatz reports that a number of former military officials are waging a high-profile campaign to pressure the United States to seek the elimination of all nuclear weapons. Retired Air Force General George Lee Butler today called for such a policy and said that nuclear weapons are costly, dangerous and indefensible. He had been the commander of the U.S. nuclear arsenal before retiring. Sixty generals and admirals from around the world are expected to release a statement tomorrow also calling for the reduction of nuclear arms.

Noah talks with Pepper Schwartz, a sociology professor at the University of Washington. She was a lead witness for the plaintiffs in the same-sex marriage discrimination suit in Hawaii that was decided yesterday. They talk about the demographics of same-sex unions, and she tells stories about the motivations for marriage, impediments to marriage, and rituals being used in same-sex marriage ceremonies.

Veta Christy reports on a decision by the Connecticut Yankee Nuclear Power plant to close permanently. The nation's second oldest reactor was shut down in July due to safety concerns, but was scheduled to run for another 10 years. Analysts say the shutdown could signal big changes for the nation's utilities.

Federal officials are warning people in California and other states that have legalized medicinal marijuana-smoking that the federal ban is still in effect. NPR's Chitra Ragavan reports that state proponents of decriminalizing marijuana say they hope the feds will decide not to enforce it. They say that's what happened in the days when states were repealing their liquor prohibition laws, but the federal ban had not, and the practical effect was to decriminalize alcohol.

NPR's John Ydstie reports on a volatile day of trading on Wall Street, but the selloff that started in Asia and spread to Europe did not have much effect in New York today. Markets around the world saw stock values plunge on remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan that hinted at Federal Reserve concern about "irrationally exuberant" markets.

Of all the news stories of 1996, the standoff between the FBI and the Montana Freemen may rank as one of the most bizarre. On March 25th, a small group of anti-government protestors set up barricades and posted armed guards at an 850-acre ranch they called the "Justus Township" outside Jordan, Montana. Wanted for threatening public officials and writing bogus checks, the Freemen refused to give up. After 81 days, the group finally surrendered. But even behind bars, the Freemen remain defiant as ever. NPR's Mark Roberts reports.

Plaintiffs bringing a wrongful death suit against O.J. Simpson rested their case today after a half-hour of questioning. NPR's Ina Jaffe reports on today's developments, which include the dismissal of a juror and adjournment of the trial until next Tuesday.

California voters approved an end to state-sponsored racial preferences this month. NPR's Richard Gonzales reports that supporters of affirmative action have now sued to overturn what's known as Proposition 209. In the meantime, three California cities are devising ways to keep affirmative action alive within the strictures of the new law.

CIA official Harold Nicholson pleaded not guilty to a spying charge today. Nicholson is accused of providing Russia with U.S. classified documents and revealing the identities of agents during the last two years. NPR's Paul Miller reports.

Noah talks to Dr. William Fair, chief of urology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Center in New York City, about the basics of prostate cancer: who it affects, when it strikes, and its diagnosis and prognosis.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that among the roughly half million refugees returning to Rwanda are some of those who carried out the 1994 genocide there. Survivors of the massacres against Tutsis and moderate Hutus are now faced with the dilemma of how to deal with returned neighbors who killed their relatives. We meet one woman who searches for her family's killers, and finds the murderers' mother and brother.