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Autism is a disease that often drives people apart. It separates children from parents, and can leave parents feeling abandoned by researchers who offer no cure and little hope. But the MIND Institute, founded by fathers of autistic sons, is trying to change that by making parents key players in the search for a cure. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports.

Government lawyers on the Enron Task Force are stepping up prosecution following the holidays. The so-called "superseding indictment" could bring additional charges against Enron's Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow. It could also name new defendants. NPR's Wade Goodwyn reports.

Smallpox vaccinations for half a million health and emergency workers are scheduled to begin later this month. There have been some concerns about the safety of the vaccine for the recipients and the people around them who might also become infected with the vaccine virus. For commentator Anne Burt, anxieties are closer to home. Recently, she caught her daughter singing a version of Ring Around the Rosie, and it seemed ominous. After all, it's a retelling of the story of the Bubonic plague. "All fall down" is the result -- death. But after some research she discovered that Ring Around the Rosie is really a Victorian game, and "all fall down" is a curtsey at the end. Anne Burt won the 2002 Editors' Prize in fiction from Meridian Literary Magazine.

Bruce Kluger and David Slavin poke a bit of musical fun at the six announced candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. TV's Friends has six fun folks -- could this be the start of something big?

NPR's Michele Norris talks with Whitney Dow and Marco Williams, producers/directors of the POV documentary Two Towns of Jasper airing on PBS stations next Wednesday. Dow and Williams talk about how they each directed a separate film crew in Jasper, Tex., during the trials of three white men for the murder of a black man, James Byrd, Jr. He was chained to the back of a pickup truck and dragged to death in 1998. Dow's crew of white filmmakers only interviewed white residents of the town. Williams' crew of black filmmakers only interviewed black residents of the town. The deliberate segregation of the film crews allowed residents to speak with a candor seldom seen on camera.

It's often hard to tell where Nicholson Baker ends, and the characters of his novels begin. NPR's Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr profiles the author, who has a reputation for finding magic in the everyday moments of ordinary lives. Listen to Baker read two excerpts from his latest novel, A Box of Matches.

The Food and Drug Administration suspends more than two dozen gene-therapy studies after a second child in a French genetic experiment is diagnosed with leukemia. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards and Richard Knox.

South Korea's defense minister says the country is preparing for a "worst-case scenario" in the conflict with North Korea. Tension persists along the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the two countries. NPR's Eric Weiner reports.

Michele Norris talks with NPR's Julie Rovner about today's arguments before the Supreme Court on the Family and Medical Leave Act. At issue is whether the law applies to state employees. States -- as they have in other cases in recent years -- argue the Constitution forbids the federal government from imposing certain worker protection measures on them.

The Supreme Court reviews a 1996 law that orders non-citizens convicted of some crimes to be held without bond while a court decides whether to deport them. Opponents say it violates due process. The government says it's needed for public safety. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports.

U.N. arms inspectors search two outbuildings of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's primary palace. Meanwhile, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency consults with Russian officials on Iraq. Hear NPR's Michele Norris, Rajiv Chandrasekaran of The Washington Post and NPR's Lawrence Sheets.

Today's transgenic (genetically modified) crops contain have been tinkered with in a relatively simple way. And there is no evidence that they pose any health risk. But scientists are now working on the much more complex modifications needed to enhance the nutritional value of food crop -- by increasing their vitamin content, for example. This could have unpredictable consequences. NPR's Eric Niiler reports.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu ponders the disappearing American mustache. He says only bad guys have them. He was born with a mustache but recently shaved it off. Now he wonders if he really is one of the bad guys.

NPR's Andy Bowers reports that naturalist John Muir is back. Or so it seems. A man who has played Muir on stage for decades has just become a California county supervisor representing the Yosemite Valley... where he plans to take up Muir's environmentalist causes against a slate of property rights advocates.

Quinn Klinefelter of WDET in Detroit reports the head of the National Highway Traffic Administration says automakers must improve the safety of sport utility vehicles or the government may force them to do so. But car companies counter that they are already offering improved safety devices on the popular vehicles.

In the new film About Schmidt, Kathy Bates plays Roberta Hertzel -- an aging hippie and free spirit. Jack Nicholson plays the repressed insurance salesman Warren Schmidt. In one scene Bates strips nude in front of Nicholson. It's the scene everyone is talking about. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Kathy Bates about the scene and about her career in film.

President Bush says the administration will file a brief supporting white students who sued the University of Michigan's law school. The Supreme Court is hearing the students' challenge to an affirmative action policy that gives minority students an advantage in applying for admission. Hear NPR's Michele Norris, NPR's Don Gonyea and NPR's Mara Liasson.

NPR's Don Gonyea reports that the Bush administration will weigh in on a critical affirmative action cases before the Supreme Court. The case involves a suit brought against the University of Michigan and its law school by white students who oppose the university's policy that gives minority students an advantage in applying for admission. The Bush administration is prepard to argue on behalf of the white plaintiffs.

NPR's Mara Liasson reports on the considerations being made by the Bush administration as it prepares to weigh in on the Supreme Court affirmative action case. The White House worked hard to limit fallout over the Trent Lott incident, and the decision to bring back the Judge Pickering nomination and join the white plaintiffs in the court case indicate that the administration feels the Lott controversy is behind them.

A juvenile court judge in Fairfax County, Va., rules suspected Washington-area sniper John Lee Malvo can be tried as an adult for the murder of an FBI analyst in a Home Depot parking lot. He and another suspect are implicated in 12 other fatal shootings. Wednesday's ruling makes Malvo, 17, eligible for the death penalty. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.