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Once a thriving river port, the southern Iraqi city of Basra fell on hard times during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war and years of U.N. sanctions. Three years after the U.S. invasion, the city is still mired in poverty, and daily life in this once cosmopolitian city is being transformed by the growing power of conservative Islamist parties.

Linda talks to Dula James - the country representative for Catholic Relief Services. She is in Monrovia describing the experience from her apartment-- which she hasn't been able to leave for five days. She can hear the rebels outside her apartment. As Linda speaks to her the sound of gunfire can be heard and she eventually has to end the conversation because she is crouching in her apartment in fear.

Linda interviews New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, who moderated a panel discussion on race today .... at a meeting Senator Bradley called the "Unconvention," sponsored by the Human Relations Foundation of Chicago. In their conversation, Senator Bradley called for a new kind of engagement on questions of race; he said that confronting race as an issue in America must involve millions of individual acts. He was critical of politicians for not offering real leadership and real change.

We hear some of the conversation about Tuesday's election from around the country. First, we hear talk among the patrons of a diner in Portland, Maine. Then, from San Francisco, California, NPR's Richard Gonzales has a report on what people are saying at a local coffee house. And, from Rochester, New York, we'll hear some of what's being said at a beauty shop there.

When a 22-year-old University of Michigan student sat down for coffee with a friend and started discussing Iraq's troubles, they decided what the country needed was a good English-language newspaper featuring Western-style journalism. Dave Enders and his friend took that conversation beyond their restaurant meeting and went to Baghdad. And they're now publishing the Baghdad Bulletin. Michele Norris talks with Enders about the project.

Fresh Air remembers the life of Vic Chesnutt, a singer-songwriter discovered by R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe in the '90s. Chesnutt recently collaborated with Guy Picciotto of the band Fugazi on his latest album, At the Cut. Chesnutt died Dec. 25; we hear excerpts from his Dec. 1 conversation with Terry Gross, and reflect on his life with Stipe, Picciotto and filmmaker Jem Cohen.

Sugar on the Roof is playing the Festival Rialto in Grand Rapids on June 4th at Rapids Brewery, and will be playing alongside Wild Horses, Mike Munson, Superior Siren, and LaPlant Road. Sugar is made up of Megan, Jefferson, and Clancy, who stopped by to talk with Brett Carter on KAXE/KBXE's Minnesota music show, Center Stage Minnesota. Click the player above if you'd like to hear the whole conversation.

Homelessness continues to be a problem around the country, state, and here in northern Minnesota. Vicky Kinney, along with the non-profit organization My Neighbor To Love Coalition, is dedicated to lifting up people experiencing homelessness with a three-pronged, community-first approach. Vicky joined Heidi and Kari on the KAXE/KBXE Morning Show to talk about the progress being made in Brainerd. Click the "Listen" player above for the whole conversation.

Commentator Joe Loconte (le-CON-tee) talks about a program that is peacefully dealing with the explosiuve issue of prayer in schools. It's a seminar that brings together school adminstrators, teachers and parents in a discussion about teaching religion without PREACHING about religion. He says evangelicals and other religious conservatives have an important role to play in supporting this kind of dialogue.

NPR's David Welna reports on the tensions in Nicaragua growing out of a dispute over the results of last month's presidential election. Even though Nicaragua's electoral council today finally confirmed the victory of the conservative former mayor of Managua, Sandinista candidate Daniel Ortega refuses to concede, saying there was fraud. The conflict is making the business community and foreign investors increasingly nervous.

NPR's Richard Knox reports on a new plan issued by Harvard University to bring AIDS treatments to the developing world. It spells out ways to rapidly expand the distribution of AIDS drugs, after new discounts offered by drug companies. But activists say the plan is too conservative and falls short of what's needed to save the lives of tens of millions of people with HIV in the developing world.

Noah talks to Bruce Hamilton, Conservation Director at the Sierra Club, about a cup used by former Sierra Club Executive Director David Brower, who has died at age 88. Brower served in that role from 1952 to 1969. He always carried a Sierra Club cup on his camping trips, which was a sort of cultural icon for hikers in the sixties and seventies.

Greece's socialist leader George Papandreou acknowledges defeat Sunday as the conservative New Democracy party captures enough seats in the country's parliamentary elections to end 10 years of socialist rule. The country's new prime minister will be Costas Karamanlis, who faces the task of continuing Greece's preparations to host the Summer Olympics in five months. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.

The remaining Democratic presidential hopefuls debate in Los Angeles, ahead of contests in California and nine other states March 2. Sen. John Edwards seeks to distinguish himself from frontrunner Sen. John Kerry, pointing out their differences on free trade and capital punishment, and arguing he is more likely to win over conservative voters. Hear NPR's Scott Horsley.

The Supreme Court dismisses on a technicality a lawsuit seeking to drop the phrase "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, sidestepping the issue of whether the phrase violates the separation of church and state. The ruling relieved both conservatives and civil liberties groups. Both sides of the debate feared that a win would have triggered a divisive fight to amend the Constitution. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.

An apparent coup attempt in the tiny West African nation of Equatorial Guinea has drawn in a rich cast of characters, including a handful of rich and prominent Britons. Chief among them are Mark Thatcher, the son of Britain's former prime minister, and former conservative political and novelist Jeffrey Archer. The British media have jumped on the story. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports.

Store shelves these days are packed with products claiming to be "eco-friendly." But it's hard to know exactly what that means. An exhibition in New York tackles that question with the help of 10 top designers. The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum — together with the Nature Conservancy — asked the designers to create surprising products out of renewable materials from 10 different areas in the world.

In American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, author Joan Biskupic examines the justice's life as the son of Italian immigrants. She also explores his conservative views from interviews with him, his critics — and his writing. "His core essence comes out not so much in the majority opinion, but in his dissents," she says.

The second part of NPR's series on maritime Britain begins on a small ferry en route to the storm-lashed island of Lundy. Pirates once awaited their prey on the three-mile-long island. Today, there are 28 permanent residents, all employed by a conservation group, though some 2,000 bell ringers have made the pilgrimage to the island's old Gothic church.