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Noah talks with LAPD detective Gil Escontrias about the rash of spandex robberies. Detective Escontrias says armed gangs have been stealing the yarn and bolts of the synthetic fabric from textile mills. Last year, over $2 million dollars worth was stolen in Los Angeles. He says the yarn is worth 6 times that of other fibers, so it's easy to find buyers who don't care where it came from. He notes that underpaid textile employees are targeted by thieves looking for access to the material.

State attorneys general have been meeting in Washington today to discuss how to prevent church arson. President Clinton marked the occasion by designating 6 million dollars for 12 southern states, to help local police increase patrols at churches. NPR's John Nielsen reports. (2:30 11. X-33 DESIGN -- Robert talks with John Pike, the director of Space Policy Programs at the Federation of American Scientists, about NASA's X-33 project to design a new spaceship. Vice President Gore announced the winning design today, chosen from entries by three American aerospace companies.

In the 1950s Dickie Goodman took bits of pop songs, cut them up like a collage with voices telling wacky stories of flying saucers and gave birth to a new form of novelty records. Goodman continued making these records until the late 1980s and they became small time capsules of culture. Jon Goodman has an appreciation of the "King of Novelty." (6:15) Jon Goodman's book is called The King of Novelty. Jon Goodman's CD of novelty tunes is called 25 All-time Novelty Hits and includes some of Dickie Goodman's work. See http://www.varesesarabande.com.

In April of 1970, blues pianist Otis Spann flew to Boston to play a gig. With him were his wife, Lucille, and his band. The concert would be Otis' last. Before he flew to Boston, doctors had diagnosed Spann with terminal liver cancer -- he died three weeks after the concert. Peter Malick was one of Spann's guitarists. He recently found the recordings of the concert. Noah talks with him about the last days of the blues guitarist, and the meaning of that last gig. (6:15)Find out more at: http://www.otisspann.com.

Today General Motors and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative agreement that could end the seventeen-day strike against two parts plants. The strike has idled most of GM's North American plants and furloughed more than one hundred seventy five thousand workers. Linda Wertheimer speaks with NPR's Don Gonyea about what will happen after the union votes on the agreement. (3:30) 6. IMMIGRATION -- The House is due to vote today on a bill overhauling immigration laws. One of its provisions would allow states to deny public schooling to children of illegal immigrants. In addition, the House may follow the Senate's lead by splitting the measure into two parts, separating rules dealing with legal immigrants. The separation could kill attempts to sharply limit the number of legal immigrants. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports. Updates are expected. Please be prepared to do new BBS if you use any of these details.

Linda talks to Peter Bodo, senior writer for Tennis Magazine, about the surprise upset today of American favorite Pete Sampras by Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov (ka-FELL-nik-ov) at the French Open. Bodo says that Sampras's proven inability to play well on clay, along with the stress he has recently felt as the top seed in men's tennis, contributed to his loss. Kafelnikov will advance to the final on Sunday against Michael Stich of Germany. Bodo believes that Kafelnikov's "time has come" and picks him to win Sunday's final match. In women's tennis, Bodo believes that Steffi Graf is in top condition and is likely to win her match against Arantxa Sanchez (ah-RAHN-tcha SANN-chezz) of Spain in Saturday's final.

NPR's Ina Jaffe reports on a plague that is threatening the sunny image of Beverly Hills. Something is causing some of the city's signature palm trees to lose their heads. The tops, or crowns, of a number of trees have simply broken off and crashed to the ground. But with $1.5 million in its "urban forestry" budget, the city is working hard to root out the cause and keep it from spreading. After all, just imagine what a palm crown weighing a ton and a half could do if it fell on someone's Ferrari!

President Elect George W. Bush named two of his top campaign aides to new jobs today, completing the transfer of his "Texas Iron Triangle" from Austin to Washington. Senior strategist Karl Rove will become senior adviser to Bush in the White House, where he will handle public liaison and strategy as well as politics. Joe Allbaugh, who has been Bush's campaign manager, will become the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Don Gonyea reports from Austin.

Apart from its better-known roles in bluegrass and Dixieland, the banjo was once a sought-after status symbol in late 19th-century America. Young ladies learned to play parlor music on the banjo; there were banjo societies and banjo virtuosi; and manufacturers fought wars over who could make the fanciest banjos. On top of that, this was primarily a northern phenomenon. It's chronicled in a new book, America's Instrument: The Banjo in the 19th Century, by Philip Gura and James Bollman. Paul Brown reports. (7:45) (America's Instrument: The Banjo in the 19th Century is published by University of North Carolina P

Jackie Kennedy Onnasis' estate has been drawing top dollars all week long at Sotheby's auction house. Noah Adams talks with Michael Marsden, dean of the College of Arts and Science at Northern Michigan University in Marquette who has written about popular culture, about this estate sale. Marsden says he's not surprised by the amount of money people have paid for Jackie O's belongings being auctioned. Rather, Marsden says, people attach a kind of profound value to memorabilia that can be very high. He says this dates back to the Middle Ages when people begin to collect the relics of saints.

Vice Premier Qian Qichen is in Washington. He is the highest ranking Chinese official to visit since the Bush administration took office. Qian will meet with the president tomorrow at the White House. China's top concern right now is a decision Mr. Bush must soon make on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. Taiwan wants to buy advanced anti-missile technology (Aegis destroyers) but China is adamantly opposed to such a sale. If the sale goes through, some analysts say China will drop the more moderate stance it has recently adopted toward Taiwan. Other analysts say China's views should not be a factor in any U.S. decision to sell weapons to Taiwan.

NPR'S Martha Raddatz reports on yesterday's terrorist truck bombing at a military complex near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia which killed 19 Americans and injured hundreds more. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. U.S. President Clinton today vowed to punish those responsible for the 'murderous act', and said he would make the terrorism issue his top priority at this week's G-7 summit. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, travelling in the Middle East, has changed his itinerary and flown to Saudi Arabia to vist wounded servicemen. It is the worst terrorist attack against U.S. interests in the region since the bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.

NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from Davos, Switzerland, that the annual World Economic Forum got under way today amid concern over a downturn in the U.S. economy. This year's event did not draw as many top leaders to Davos as last year's 30th anniversary meeting. The Bush administration -- in the midst of confirmation hearings -- sent no senior official to Davos. Swiss police have mounted a huge security operation to prevent the kind of "anti-globalization" protests that have surrounded recent meetings of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organization.

A beautiful, ethereal soprano voice backed by two acoustic guitars, accordion, and synthesizer has captured huge audiences in Europe playing music that is the antithesis of the electro-dance bands that usually top the charts there. The band, Madredeus (mah-dre-DAY-oos), is also REALLY big in Japan, despite the fact that all of the songs are in Portuguese. The band has just released its first album in this country, has just started its first U.S. tour, and can be heard in Wim Wenders' latest film, "Lisbon Story." From Spain, Emilio San Pedro reports. (8:00) (IN S

Thirty years ago, Pink Floyd's recording The Dark Side of the Moon became the number one album on Billboard magazine's pop music chart. So began the longest streak in music chart history: 741 weeks on the Top 200. No other recording comes close. The album has touched one generation after the next, which is odd because it's such a quirky album of electronic music, sound effects, saxophones, and a famous but unidentified female singer performing scat. Reporter Jad Abumrad of member station WNYC went around New York City to ask likely listeners why Dark Side has lasted.

Richard Clarke, who served as the top White House counter-terrorism official under three presidents, says George W. Bush's administration did not consider terrorist threats to be urgent in its first seven months, despite Clarke's urgings. Speaking on Capitol Hill to a national commission investigating U.S. policies before Sept. 11, 2001, Clark said terrorism was given extraordinarily high priority in the Clinton administration. Also Wednesday, CIA Director George Tenet told the panel that terrorist intelligence was not properly integrated among different agencies. NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

Fresh Air's resident rock historian remembers soul singer Lorraine Ellison, who recorded a handful of albums and dozens of singles in the '60s and '70s; though she charted a few R&B hits, she never quite broke through to stardom. Her biggest success was with the string-saturated ballad "Stay With Me," which topped out at No. 11 on the R&B charts and has since been covered by everyone from Bette Midler to teenybopper idol Rex Smith.

F, Monday, Orange, February, Venus, Lunatic, 1 or 13, the improbably named, full-length debut from rock band Colourmusic, has a mouthful of a title, and it's not the only thing that's over-the-top about the Oklahoma group. Not only does the band dress in matching all-white outfits for live performances, but they've also gone so far as to grow matching bushy mustaches and beards. So it's not surprising that the personal quirks of the band spill over into the music.

Second Harvest North Central Food Bank is hosting events around northern Minnesota as part of their "It Takes Us All" campaign. The organization's Executive Director, Sue Estee, recently stopped by the KAXE studio to inform Scott Hall and John Latimer about these events and explain why bringing together communities to end hunger today is so important now more than ever. Click the "Listen" player at the top of the page to hear the full conversation. Or click here to visit the "It Takes Us All" page on the Second Harvest North Central website.

The biggest thing on broadcast TV this fall is the NFL. It's beating the shiny new network shows and, get this, 13 of the top 15 broadcasts this fall were NFL games — the other two were Two and a Half Men. The NFL is killing on cable, too. AMC's The Walking Dead shattered records for a cable drama this year, with had an audience of more than 7 million viewers for its premiere. But another cable series that nearly doubles that number week in and week out is ESPN's Monday Night Football, averaging nearly 14 million viewers per game. It's not news that the NFL rocks the other sports in TV ratings, but for the past few years its ratings dominance has spread to all of TV. So why the rise? Are more women watching? Is it because it looks good in HD? Maybe it's because sports are made to be watched live?