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NPR's Ned Wharton captures reactions to the shuttle Columbia disaster from visitors at the National Air & Space Museum. (This is a repeat from earlier in the show.)

Host Steve Inskeep is joined by Jim Pawelczik, who flew on the space shuttle Columbia in 1998 and knew several of the astronauts lost on Saturday.

Host Steve Inskeep reviews what is known so far about the shuttle Columbia disaster.

President Bush sends Congress a 2004 budget totaling $2.23 trillion, with the largest increases going to defense and homeland security. The budget assumes a new round of tax cuts, but doesn't account for a possible Iraq war. The proposal also includes the largest deficit in America's history -- more than $300 billion. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.

Critics have expressed growing concern over NASA's extensive use of outside contractors in its shuttle program. NPR's Howard Berkes talks to host Michele Norris about the program, and about whether the use of contractors may be considered a possible factor in Columbia's failure.

Jazz percussionist Mongo Santamaria dies on Feb. 1 at 85. Santamaria scored a Top-10 hit with his version of Herbie Hancock's jazz-funk classic "Watermelon Man" in 1963. He also wrote the song "Afro Blue," later performed and made famous by John Coltrane. NPR's Elizabeth Blair has a remembrance.

Dan Keplinger was born with severe cerebral palsy. But at 30, he's already a successful artist, the subject of an Oscar-winning film, and he's finishing his second college degree. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports on the Baltimore, Md., artist's inspirational story. View a video clip from the documentary, and view examples of his art.

Host Robert Siegel talks with NPR's Richard Harris about today's news conferences on the space shuttle Columbia recovery and investigation.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu is in New York City and walks in on a meeting of young radicals toasting Old Communists. He notes the fact that old commies never say "die." They just die. He listens to them, believing some of the conversations may have started in the 19th century.

Robert talks with Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, about NASA's decision to use the NTSB model to figure out why the Columbia broke up on re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

Initial clues in the investigation of the break-up of the space shuttle Columbia suggest there may have been a problem with the tiles that protect the spacecraft against the heat of re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. Meanwhile, searchers are scouring a wide area of East Texas and Louisiana for shuttle wreckage. NPR's Richard Harris and Wade Goodwyn report.

Thousands of doctors walked off the job in New Jersey today. Nancy Solomon reports the doctors are protesting the escalating cost of malpractice insurance. The doctors and the insurance industry are calling for a cap on damages paid to patients who sue over shoddy treatment.

A 32-year-old Chicago man is in custody, accused of running a child prostitution ring in five Midwestern states. Authorities say he lured girls -- many of them runaways -- with offers of free jewelry, then held them hostage and made them perform sex acts. Shirley Jahad of Chicago Public Radio reports.

Fidel Castro, now 76, is the subject of Ann Louise Bardach's new book Cuba Confidential: Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana. She believes rapprochement is near for Cubans and the stridently anti-Castro Cuban-American community in South Florida. Bardach speaks with NPR's Steve Inskeep and NPR's Tom Gjelten.

NPR's Steve Inskeep has a brief rundown of other stories in the news this weekend.

For many states, after school programs have proven to be a successful way to help poor and minority kids stay out of trouble, and learn. But cuts in state budgets mean cuts in education, and these programs are first in line for reduction. NPR's Nancy Solomon reports from Newark.

Two dozen new state governors start their jobs this month. Robert Ehrlich will be Maryland's first Republican governor in 36 years. Like many of his fellow newcomers to state office, the former congressman is contemplating budget shortfalls and tough spending choices. NPR's Steve Inkseep reports.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth seems to be trying to update the royal image by adopting a common touch. She's taken a ride on the London Underground, had a pint in a pub... and now she's wearing pants in public. After her recent knee surgery, photographers captured the queen walking out of the hospital in a gray pantsuit. She had never done that before -- apart from wearing traditional riding gear. The Times of London has devoted team coverage to resulting uproar. NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Times lifestyle columnist Damian Barr.

The case of the family found dead on a hiking trail in August had perplexed investigators and the public. On Thursday, Sheriff-Coroner Jeremy Briese confirmed the cause of death.

Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the U.N. nuclear agency, and chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix arrive in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials. They are expected to warn Iraq that it must cooperate more intensely with arms inspectors. Hear NPR's Kate Seelye and Walter Russell Mead of the Council on Foreign Relations.