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Texas Governor George W. Bush has always been a man who made friends easily and kept them for a long time. That ability has helped him make use of his opportunities in business and politics and to succeed where other sons of presidents have failed. With the election now just eleven days away, NPR's Steve Inskeep has this profile of the Republican nominee.

This week, presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush visited Wisconsin to rally swing voters as well as party loyalists. Although it only offers 11 electoral votes, the state is considered fertile ground for both parties. Host Lisa Simeone speaks with NPR National Political Correspondent Elizabeth Arnold.

Vice President Al Gore took some time off the campaign trail today to watch his son play a school football game, but not before he spoke to voters in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where health care is a big issue. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

NPR's John Nielsen reports on the long-awaited new rules from Environmental Protection Agency that will significantly reduce pollutants from diesel fuel. The EPA says the limits will save lives and millions of cases of respiratory disease. Oil refiners will have to modify the way they make diesel, and engine manufacturers will have to add pollution control devices--changes they say will cost the consumer.

NPR's Howard Berkes reports on a training exercise in which National Guard troops responded to a mock chemical weapons attack by terrorists. Units with this type of training will be detached to big public events such as the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.

Medical journalist Dr. Stephen Cohen argues that the threat of bio-terrorism has grown as dissident groups have both motive and ability to use agents like anthrax and smallpox against the U.S. and we're unprepared. 90% of people aren't immunized. There's a shortage of smallpox vaccine and isolation beds. We should be treating it as a public health threat and involve the medical community more than it is now.

Jazz composer and bandleader Maria Schneider went hang gliding in Rio a couple of years ago. The experience was so vivid for her that she turned it into a composition. Schneider describes her trip to Rio, the hang gliding, and how she made them into music. She says that at certain points in the composition, the orchestra is the wind and the soloist is the hang glider, riding on the wind. "Hang Gliding" is on the CD "Allegresse," http://www.enjarecords.com

NPR's Don Gonyea reports on President-elect George W. Bush, who today resigned from the only political office he has ever held -- governor of Texas. The emotional speech by Bush ended 6 years at the helm in Austin and comes less than a month before he is to move to his new home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Meanwhile, jockeying continues to go on behind the scenes for filling the remaining Cabinet slots.

Eighty-percent of the world's poinsettias are grown at one ranch in Encinitas, California. Noah talks with Paul Ecke III -- CEO of Paul Ecke Ranch -- about the history and breeding of the popular holiday flower. The Ecke family has grown the tropical American shrub for ninety years.

Ann McBride Norton sends us an audio postcard from China. It's from the Yunnan province, where she encounters the last of the Dongbas, priests for the ancient animist religion of the Naxi people, an ethnic minority living in the Yunnan. There are only two men left. Both are in their 80s and know the pictographic language of the Naxi culture. They spend their days translating the language, and are looking to train students so as to preserve the language after they die.

Former Democratic Representative Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois is one of 59 people President Clinton has decided to pardon. The former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee pleaded guilty to mail fraud. David Schaper of WBEZ in Chicago reports.

Commentator Desiree Cooper has the story of Nathaniel Abraham. When he was 11 year old, he shot dead an 18-year-old. Abraham was tried as an adult but sentenced as a juvenile. At a recent hearing, Abraham apologized the family of his victim.

NPR's Barbara Bradley reports on reaction to the appointment of former Missouri Senator John Ashcroft to be Attorney General. Conservatives say Ashcroft is the perfect nominee for the job. At least one liberal group, People for the American Way, say having Ashcroft as Attorney General is a setback for civil rights.

Robert talks with Tim Worth-- president of the United Nation Foundation about Ted Turner's $34 million donation to the United Nations. Turner made the offer to make up for the deficit to the UN budget caused by the United States cut in payments.

Disinformation about the election has spread from many sources, including the White House. That's why major TV networks are preparing to deal with what could be a very confusing Election Night.

Obstetrical emergency departments are a new aspect of some hospitals that can inflate medical bills for even the easiest, healthiest births. Just ask baby Gus' parents about their $2,755 ER charge.

NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr, having read a new report from the CIA, wonders if the foreign policies of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice will be applicable to the world they might face.

In Florida today twenty-five electoral votes were cast by twenty-five people pledged to George W. Bush. Florida's electors met at the state Senate chamber in Tallahassee... with the president-elect's brother presiding:

North Carolina's 14 electors gathered in Raleigh at noon to dutifully cast their ballots for George W. Bush. They were subject to some eleventh hour arm-twisting by Al Gore supporters, but to no avail. Bush won 56 percent of the state vote, and state law bars electors from voting for someone other than the person to whom they are pledged. That law was passed after the 1968 election, in which an elector pledged to Richard Nixon voted for George Wallace. Congress will officially count the 538 votes from around the nation on January 5.

Commentator Steven Waldman says that this is a season of remarkable religious unity in the U.S. In the next few weeks Americans will celebrate: Hanukkah, Christmas, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice and Rohatsu, an important Buddhist holiday. Religious variety has flourished without it being seen as a horrible threat to any particular religion. Americans have gotten pretty good at figuring out how to be different without being divisive.