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NPR's Vicky Que reports on the rise of drug use, particularly marijuana, among teenagers and how researchers are still deciding on the best method for curtailing it. One problem may be that baby boomer parents haven't been as concerned about marijuana use by teenagers as experts think they should be. Marijuana is also much cheaper and more readily available today, which makes it difficult for law enforcement to control.

Linda talks with Andy Kohut, the director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. They discuss the findings of the Center's latest poll, focusing on "voter typology." He says that in all his years as a pollster, he has never seen a general election where the numbers have stayed so static for so long. He also says his polls show that likely Perot voters have such a distaste for Bob Dole and Bill Clinton that he can't imagine they would switch their vote to Dole-- even if Perot dropped out of the race. He says that a more likely scenario is that they'd stay home altogether.

The Republican Party spent the last four days talking about their vision for America and their view of the Clinton administration. Tonight, NPR's Brian Naylor sorts the fact from the fiction in their rhetoric.

NPR's Richard Gonzales reports on the rush to learn English among California's legal immigrants. Those who are receiving government assistance - especially the elderly - are trying to become citizens, before California cuts off welfare payments to all legal immigrants.

- N-P-R's Jennifer Ludden reports on the delayed efforts of Zaire to hold democratic elections. In 1990, President Mobutu Sese Seko (moh-boo-TOO say-SEE say-KOH) mandated that Zaire hold democratic elections in 1995. Elections were never held and, one year later, reform groups are calling on Mobutu to follow his 1990 mandate. In calling for elections, reformers are identifying Mobutu and his corrupt government as the primary reason for the delay in Zaire's transition to democracy. But Zaire's troubles are not limited to governmental corruption; logistical and organizational problems abound.

- NPR's Tom Gjelten reports on the very slow pace in which the Dayton Peace accord is being implemented in Bosnia. Even simple decisions such as where newly elected officials will meet...can take days of negotiations involving high level diplomats.

NPR's Ted Clark reports that the Clinton Administration is sending Secretary of State Warren Christopher to the Mideast this weekend to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on the eve of new peace negotiations at Erez on the Gaza border. Christopher's Mideast visit, only days after the two-day Israeli-Palestinian summit at the White House, underscores the importance the US is placing on reviving the Middle East peace process.

NPR's Paul Miller reports on what's being described as one of the government's largest computer errors. The Social Security Administration has shortchanged some 700,000 Americans out of more than $850 million in retirement benefits since 1972. The government already is making back payments worth about $1,500 per person due to its error in calculating post-retirement income, but no interest is being paid on the debt...and tens of thousands of those owed money already have died.

NPR'S Eric Westervelt reports on today's court hearing during which a judge ordered Major League umpires back to work. The umpires had threatened a protest strike over the delayed punishment meted out to Orioles player Roberto Alomar, who spit in the face of an umpire when he got into a heated argument over a call.

NPR's John Ydstie reports the unemployment rate edged slightly higher in September...and now stands at 5.2%. Labor Department figures released this morning show an economy that's cooled considerably since June. Wall Street was surprised by a decline in business payrolls, which declined by 40,000 in September.

The Taliban militia is fighting to hold onto its recent military gains in Afghanistan. It has lost two towns north of Kabul, and its opponents are forging new political alliances. The BBC's Phil Goodman reports from Afghanistan.

Commentator David Brooks says that Bill Clinton's small fibs and ingratiating style with political audiences speak volumes about his character...and that character is the only real predictor of how a president will perform under pressure.

Daniel talks with Film Director Spike Lee. Lee's new movie opened this week nationwide and it's about a group of Black men who travel by Bus to the Million Man March, which was held last year in Washington D.C. The characters in the film represent, what Lee says, are all aspects of the Black community. He says it's not what you would usually see in a Hollywood film. Also, the film was financed by donations from 15 Black men. Lee turned down money offers from big studios and when the film was done, he sold the film to Columbia for a profit.

- Reporter Eileen LeBlanc of member station WHQR in Wilmington, North Carolina, says the cleanup in the aftermath of Hurricane Fran has begun. Estimates of damage from the storm run as high as $1 billion. LeBlanc says that in addition to causing severe damage along the Carolina coast, the hurricane swept inland, causing serious flooding in the Appalachian mountains.

With the Iraqi-supported Kurdish Democratic Party militias of Mahmoud Barzani routing his Iran-backed rivals of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, NPR's Michael Shuster talks with Robert about the view of the conflict from Baghdad. The bottom line is that acting through its Kurdish surrogates, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein appears to have regained control of his northern Kurdish provinces after five years of having been prevented from doing so by the United States and its UN allies.

A national alliance of church organizations is redefining what compassion means in terms of its service to communities. Julia McEvoy reports that one church in suburban Chicago has decided that being a good Christian means tackling community issues that have been damaging the local economy.

Commentator Michael Shuman says that President Clinton has not made good on his promise to slash the military budget; Bob Dole won't touch the issue either, because both candidates are using the military's budget as the porkbarrel of last resort.

Senior news analyst Daniel Schorr says that the potential approval of RU 486 will definitively change the face of the abortion debate.

NPR's Vicky Que examines the question of whether cigarettes are, in fact, a 'gateway' to illegal drug use. The Clinton administration says one of the reasons it wants to reduce smoking by young people is to reduce subsequent use of marijuana and other illegal drugs.

Several of Mexico's most-acclaimed musicians are living in Texas and playing in Tex-Mex burrito joints and at rodeos. But they don't seem to mind...because they're making a LOT more money doing that than they would have if they'd stayed in Mexico. NPR's John Burnett reports.