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The winter storm disrupted work and life in the Washington, D.C., area. John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management, says closing the federal government on Monday has an opportunity cost of $100 million. Greg Teneick, spokesman for Safeway grocery stores, says his stores were busy on Thursday and Friday, but the challenge was getting them open once the snow hit.

Linda talks to Tom Fielder, the political editor and a columnist at the Miami Herald, about the how the presidential race is shaping up in the electoral vote-rich state of Florida. Bill Clinton is campaigning in that state today. He's hoping to reach two key voting blocks in Florida...the elderly and Cuban Americans. The elderly, according to Fiedler, seem to be leaning toward support of President Clinton, who has a stronger voice for protecting medicare. With the Cubans, the President seems to be making headway...even though these voters are usually solid Republicans.

NPR's Melissa Block has a profile of Bob Sheppard, who for 46 years has been the public address announcer at Yankee Stadium. It might not seem like much - announcing the starting lineup, the batters as they come to the plate, calming down obstreperous fans... but Sheppard, a long-time speech teacher, has what has been called the most distinctive voice in baseball: elegant, patrician, measured, and never "pumped up" like many of the newer announcers.

Beth Fertig of member station WNYC in New York reports on a decision there that will greatly centralize decision-making authority in the city schools. The decision, made in Albany this week, will roll back nearly 3 decades of local control over key hiring and firing decisions. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani says the shift will enable the school chancellor, Rudy Crew, to eliminate patronage and corruption in the local school boards, but many parents fear they will lose an important voice in the children's education.

Wanda Jackson has always been one of the boys. Back in the 1950s, when country music started to rock, Jackson made waves with a bold voice and sultry stage moves. She dated Elvis and toured constantly, but slowly slipped from the spotlight. Now she's back and is the subject of a new PBS documentary. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports for All Things Considered. (7:30) See http://www.pbs.org/itvs/welcometotheclub/.

Even before the Bush administration embarked on the current war in Iraq, many musicians were speaking out in opposition. Veterans of the antiwar movement from a generation ago say that society and the media have changed significantly since the end of the Vietnam War -- and that's changed musical protest. Now those Vietnam-era musicians are raising their voices again. Listen to some live tracks recorded at a recent New York City concert against the war in Iraq.

Grand Rapids Area Library Children's Librarian Tracy Kampa has been giving us her book recommendations throughout the fall and she's been counting the days until the Newbery and Caldecott book awards, which were just announced on Monday. Tracy joins our staff librarian and What We're Reading producer Tammy Bobrowsky to go over the results.

Chapin Carpenter - Daniel talks with Country Music Singer-Songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter in our performance studio. Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards and numerous other awards for her music. Carpenter, who is from the Washington D.C. area, will sing a few songs from her latest C-D called "Stones In The Road." It's on the Columbia label.

The BBC's Martin Dawes reports from Bukavu, Zaire, on recent fighting that threatens to touch off another humanitarian crisis in central Africa. More than two hundred thousand Hutu refugees have fled their camps in eastern Zaire as the Zairean army battles Zairean Tutsi rebels. The United Nations has evacuated aid workers from the area, and is appealing for an end to the clashes.

NPR's Debbie Elliot reports that if you survey the wake drawn this week by Hurricane Opal, you'd find that the barrier islands off the northwest coast of Florida were especially hard hit. Residents who'd fled the area returned today for a temporary visit...that's all the authorities would allow them... to see what the storm had done to their homes and businesses.

NPR's Andy Bowers reports from Bosnia on the peace process in Mostar and Sarajevo. In Mostar, the city once split between Croats and Muslims, the reunification of the central district has been marred by fist-fights between Croat and Muslim youths. In the Serb suburbs of Sarajevo the exodus of Bosnian Serbs continues. Leaders have ordered an evacuation from areas that are to be handed over to the Bosnian government.

The Democratic National Convention has attracted only a smattering of protests and most of these have been held in small ``official'' protest areas, for which groups had to apply for a city permit. It's a far cry from the thousands of angry protesters, whose confrontations with police in Chicago twenty-eight years ago marked the last Democratic convention in the city. NPR's Scott Simon reports.

NPR's David Baron reports that scientists are trying to find better ways to study ecological questions on a global scale. For example, there have been persistent concerns that certain species of song birds and frogs may be on the decline. But most of the evidence has come from studying populations of animals in relatively small areas. Those declines may be local fluctations, or they may be signs of a global trend.

Over the next few months, the city of New York plans to extend the citywide ban on smoking in public areas and places of employment to its jails. Linda talks with Tom Antenen, the deputy commissioner of the New York City Corrections Department, about the effect this will have on inmates at New York's Riker's Island facility, which houses some eighty percent of the city's prison population.

- Host Brooke Gladstone speaks with Richard Haas about the Iraqi army's attack on a Kurdish-held city in Northern Iraq. The north of the country has been controlled by Kurdish forces since the end of the Gulf War. An unconfirmed report says Iranian forces have also moved into northern Iraq. President Clinton has placed U-S forces in the area on high alert.

As the U.S. Supreme Court held its civil hearing on the election arguments, NPR's Madeleine Brand was outside the Court, where the scene was more chaotic. The area was filled with noisy protests on behalf of both George W. Bush and Al Gore. The differing of opinions among the protestors may reflect a similar split among Court members themselves, as well as among the American people.

Palestinian human rights groups are calling for an international boycott of Burger King. They're angry that the company has maintained a franchise in a West Bank Jewish settlement -- one Burger King officials promised last year they would close. Protesters charge by maintaining the restaurant in an area populated by Israeli Jews, the company is tacitly endorsing Israeli claims to the land. NPR's Linda Gradstein reports.

NPR's Debbie Elliott reports that oyster harvesting along parts of the Gulf of Mexico, from South Florida to Texas, is in danger because of a large algal bloom, usually called "red tide." The algae can be toxic to fish and other sea creatures...and that toxin cannot be destroyed by cooking, so the area's entire seafood harvest could be destroyed along parts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.

Noah talks with NPR's Melissa Block about a published report that investigators have found the first evidence that an explosive device was detonated on Trans World Airlines Flight 800. The report, published in Friday's editions of the New York Times, says the FBI has found traces of a chemical used in plastic explosives on a piece of wreckage retrieved from the area that investigators believe was the epicenter of the blast.

NPR's Dan Charles reports that a patent used in DNA fingerprinting and throughout the biotech industry is being called into question. A court has ruled that the company that applied for the patent withheld crucial information from the U.S. Patent Office. The ruling could have widespread implications for the biotech industry by allowing competition into an area that has been dominated by the Swiss pharmaceutical firm Hoffmann-LaRoche.