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Mexicans go to the polls Sunday to elect a new president. The vote will determine whether Mexico joins the region's leftward trend, or deepens free-market reforms and its already close alliance with the United States. Polls have shown the race will be close between leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and conservative Felipe Calderon.

In politics it's usually conservatives who attack liberals for being soft on crime. Those roles seemed at least partially reversed today at the Supreme Court, where justices heard an important case examining whether police need a search warrant to get cell phone site location information from wireless carriers.

Commentator Joe Loconte says President Bush has sparked a national conversation about religion in America. Mr. Bush's proposals to make government more friendly to religion has shocked the political system. Conseratives and liberals are both being challenged to examine how their beliefs match their actions. With bipartisan support for expanding the role of religion, Loconte says it would be foolhardy not to try Bush's route.

Fallout continues from the indefinite postponement of a hearing on House Speaker Newt Gingrich's violations of ethics standards. A Democratic member of the ethics panel has called the announcement a "Thursday Night Massacre," and the casualties are bipartisan consensus and ethics process. Meanwhile, Republicans are calling for a criminal investigation into tape recordings of a cellular phone conversation in which Gingrich is heard discussing plans to manage the public disclosure of the charges against him, an apparent violation of a promise to the committee. NPR's Brian Naylor has a report.

NPR's Liane Hansen chats with singer and songwriter Vienna Teng, who performs songs from her second CD, Warm Strangers. Since their first conversation in 2002 about her debut CD, Teng has toured the country, enjoying a bit of fame and recognition for her talent. She has no regrets about leaving her computer engineering job to pursue music.

For many of his fans, Bob James is to jazz what James Brown is to R&B — the music and the musician go hand in hand. Now, with literally dozens of jazz albums under his belt, James is back with a classic piano-bass-drums trio. Hear full-length cuts from his latest CD, plus an extended version of his conversation with NPR's Tavis Smiley.

Marin Alsop says she can't remember the first time she met composer Jennifer Higdon, and both simply believe they've always known each other. Oddly, the two women have never had a conversation about gender in the classical-music world — that is, until now. Higdon's Violin Concerto is set to be performed by Hilary Hahn next month.

Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., is a key conservative in the Senate immigration debate. He is among a group of lawmakers who want to see changes to the nation's legal, family-based immigration rules and the diversity visa lottery program. NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Perdue about his priorities as the immigration debate continues this week.

Political observers divided America into red and blue states for the 2004 election. But a new study fine-tunes political groups into more specific categories, including "pro-government conservatives," "disadvantaged Democrats" and "bystanders." Robert Siegel talks to Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press about the center's latest political typography.

A letter leaked by a veteran Vatican analyst known to be critical of the Francis papacy, has thrown the synod on the family into turmoil and confusion. Allegedly signed by 13 conservative cardinals, the letter complained to the pope that the assembly has been stacked against them. Within hours of the letter's publication Monday, four of the cardinals said they never signed the letter.

A new paper in the journal Science reports that families tend to grow and prosper when they're led by big old females who can hear trouble coming when it's still miles away. We're talking about elephants, of course. NPR's John Nielsen has more on a study with important conservation implications.

NPR's Debbie Elliot reports that conservatives are upset over the courtmartial and discharge of Army medic Michael New for refusing to wear a UN patch or blue cap while on a UN peacekeeping mission in Macedonia. New has become a hero to those opposed to the UN because they fear the United States is ceding national sovereignty to a one-world body.

Daniel talks about Pope John Paul the Second's trip to Central America with the BBC's David Willey. Willey traveled with the Pope when the Pontiff last visited Latin American in 1983, and he says the Roman Catholic Church in the region has become much more conservative over the years, eschewing reform and supporting incumbant governments.

Conservative author David Horowitz sought to place ads in college newspapers across the country denouncing calls for reparations to African-Americans for slavery. Most papers declined to run the ads. Many of those that did sparked protests on their campuses. Av Harris reports from Providence -- Brown University was one of the schools whose paper ran the ad.

NPR's Vicki O'Hara reports that the historic Chemical Weapons Treaty has been pulled from consideration by the United States Senate. The treaty needs ratification from only two more countries to take effect. This historic treaty...initiated by President Reagan and supported by President's Bush and Clinton...is opposed by conservative Republicans.

President Bush visits an estuary in Wells, Maine, to mark Earth Day, an event observed since 1970 to highlight environmental-conservation efforts. The president said his administration is tough on polluters but friendly to industry as well. Democratic challenger John Kerry took a far dimmer view of Bush's environmental record. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.

German Catholics are facing a stark choice: Pay a church tax or forget about receiving the sacraments, including baptisms, weddings and funerals. Germany taxes registered Catholics, Protestants and Jews. In 2011, the tax raised $6.5 billion for the Catholic Church alone. Many progressives and conservatives are up in arms over the German bishops' decree.

Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan is bankrolling the development of Ave Maria, a new town in southwest Florida being built around a Catholic law school of the same name. Monaghan wants the town to espouse conservative Catholic values — which means no access to contraceptives or abortion procedures. Amy Tardif of member station WGCU reports.

update on the news around the Line 3 replacement project from Enbridge Energy

update on the news around the Line 3 replacement project from Enbridge Energy