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Anthony Brooks traces the career path that brought Al Gore Jr., the son of a U.S. Senator from Tenessee, to his presidential canidacy. After college and a tour in Vietnam in the Army, he didn't want to enter his father's field of politics. But after a stint as a journalist, he changed his mind.

Noah talks to Masha Lipman, Deputy Editor of Itoga Magazine who talks about the reaction of the families of the Russian sailors who died on the submarine Kursk after they learned of a note found on the body of one sailor. The note revealed that at least some of the sailors survived the explosion the explosion. It was found in the pocket of Lt. Dmitry Kolesnikov, commander of the Kursk's turbine section. The note describes how 23 members of the crew moved from one section to the other after the explosion, and suggested that two or three people might try to escape through the emergency escape hatch.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Rome on a new study by a panel of six historians on the role played by the Catholic Church during the Nazi Holocaust. The historians examined eleven volumes of documents and concluded that by the middle of 1942, the Vatican was well aware of "the accelerating mass murder of Jews." In their report, the historians asked for more information about the Church response to these crimes.

NPR's Phillip Davis reports that two Salvadoran generals face wrongful death charges in the case of four American churchwomen who were raped and murdered by National Guardsmen in El Salvador in 1980. The families of the victims are seeking damages -- and closure on the case.

A draft report by the United Nations sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that there is strong evidence that humans have contributed to global warming. The panel also predicted that the earth is likely to get hotter than previously predicted. NPR's David Kestenbaum reports.

The Presidential race shifts to the Pacific Northwest today, with both Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush campaigning in Portland, Oregon. With just a week to go in a tight race, both candidates are bearing down on a short list of states where Green Party candidate Ralph Nader's low-budget campaign could make a difference. NPR's Anthony Brooks reports from Portland.

NPR's Brian Naylor reports on the latest tussle between the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill. Late last night President Clinton vetoed another spending bill, this one that would finance the Treasury Department, White House and Congress itself. The veto apparently came in retaliation for the GOP's rejection of a compromise that would have financed schools and other social programs. Both sides came away from the squabble with inflamed rhetoric, with Republicans claiming that Mr. Clinton is deliberately trying to force a government shutdown, while the President saying that classrooms should be funded before the operation of Congress.

Both Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush say they support a patients' bill of rights, and both make the issue part of the daily stump speeches. But while Gore has been very specific about his support for a bill that is stalled in Congress, Bush has kept avoided talk of too many details. As NPR's Julie Rovner reports, Bush's generalities about the issues sometimes conflict with one another, but not so much as to roil voters.

Linda talks to E.J. Dionne, Political Columnist for the Washington Post, and David Brooks, Senior Editor at The Weekly Standard, about the hotly contested states in the presidential race, and what both candidates must do put together a majority of electoral college votes.

Methamphetamine, also known as speed, crank or crystal meth -- is highly addictive and can do serious harm to the nervous system. In the last few years, meth has become a major epidemic in the farm belt, where's its manufacturers are also users. NPR's Robert Siegel reports from Shawnee County, Kansas, where meth has replaced crack and heroin as the drug of choice.

NPR's Linda Gradstein in Jerusalem reports the Israeli parliament reconvened today for the first time since the outbreak of the new Palestinian uprising. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak opened the story session by warning the Palestinians there will be no peace talks as long as the violence continues.

The Democrats need only seven seats to recapture control of the House. But they have an uphill fight on their hands to retain the seat of Congressman Michael Forbes of New York. Forbes, who switched to the Democratic party last year, was upset in last month's Democratic primary by a 71-year old political unknown. Republicans, who had vowed revenge against Forbes for his party switch, appear poised to pick up the seat. Beth Fertig of member station WNYC reports from Long Island.

Veteran broadcaster Robert Trout recalls The Senator Was Indiscreet, a little remembered motion picture that cast a cynical look at the political process. The film talked about the balancing act between the press, public relations and politics. Actor William Powell played an inept senator with presidential ambitions. He had a secret diary that threatened to derail him. The story by George S. Kaufman never caught on with audiences. But Trout says there's a lot of cold-hearted wisdom in this movie comedy that we can still learn from today. It deals with patronage and pride in ways that were meant to be an exaggeration at the time. But after Spiro Agnew, Wayne Hayes, Watergate and the like, the film seems like a celluloid crystal ball.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden profiles Marwan Barghouti, one of the chief organizers of the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank. Barghouti says he believes the violence will eventually create better conditions for peace talks with Israel.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Rome that tomorrow, Pope John Paul the Second will proclaim Thomas More the patron saint of statesmen and politicians. Thomas More, the Renaissance humanist, jurist, diplomat and author of Utopia, is revered by Christians as a symbol of integrity and conscience. He was beheaded by King Henry the Eighth for refusing to recognize the monarch as England's supreme spiritual leader. The suggestion to make Thomas More the patron saint of politicians came first from former Italian president Francesco Cossiga.

With the U.S.S. Cole beginning its journey home from Yemen, NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr looks at America's inability to respond to terrorism.

NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from London that the worst storm in more than a decade struck Britain. The rain and gale-force winds brought the south of England to a virtual standstill. Fallen trees and floods closed roads and rail lines. At least four people were reported killed in storm-related accidents.

The first resident crew of the International Space Station is scheduled to lift off at 2:53 a.m. E.S.T. Tuesday in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. The first crew to live aboard the International Space Station includes U.S. Astronaut Bill Shepherd, who will serve as station commander, Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev. NPR's Joe Palca says the crew will spend four months on the station, checking out equipment, and helping to install new station parts that were delivered by the space shuttle.

Democrat Al Gore held a old-fashioned political rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin today. Won by Democrats in each of the last three presidential elections, the state is being hotly contested by Republican George Bush as Green Party nominee Ralph Nader siphons liberal votes away from the Democratic Party. NPR's Anthony Brooks is with the Gore campaign.

Those ticker tape parades are getting to be routine for the New York Yankees. Kerry Nolan of member station WNYC reports that thousands of New Yorkers lined Broadway's Canyon of Heroes to cheer on the Yankees, who have won four of the past five World Series. Yankee fans considered this year's triumph especially sweet, because it came over the cross-town rival Mets, and because the team had been playing poorly at the end of the season.