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NPR's Richard Harris reports on the details of the capture yesterday of Columbian drug lord Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela. Columbia's defense minister says that Orejuela's capture is likely to fracture the Cali operation.

Daniel talks to Lee Grensci of Pennsylvania State University about lightning facts and fallacies. You really can be killed by lightning jumping through the telephone, he says, but the odds against it are high. If you are outside during a thunderstorm, the best thing to do is to go into a ravine or a valley or to get in a car.

NPR's Joanne Silburner reports on the strategies health care lobbyists are using on Capitol Hill to influence health care legislation. While last year's health care debate focused on totally revamping the system, this year's debate is revolving around cutting costs.

This week the Texas Legislature passed a law making it LEGAL to carry a concealed weapon. Daniel talks with Democratic Texas state legislator Ron Wilson who authored the bill. And officer Mike Robbins, a Chicago city policeman who opposes laws that legalize the carrying of concealed weapons and who has worked against the passage of similar legislation in Illinois.

Daniel talks with former New Hampshire Republican senator Warren Rudman. Rudman was co-sponsor of a budget balancing act which was passed in the 80's but which was largely ignored by Congress. He says that while the proposed budget is likely to change as it goes through the committee process, Congress is definitely on track to eliminate the budget deficit.

NPR'S Peter Kenyon reports that in Washington this week, both the House and Senate will be preparing to vote on budget resolutions that Republicans say will bring the huge federal deficit under control. They say these budget blueprints will balance the budget by the year 2002 Lawmakers are still months away from actually cutting any federal programs. But the debate between Republicans and Democrats is at hand, and it's going to be contentious.

Marcie Sillman of member station KUOW in Seattle about the rock group Pearl Jam and the end of its suit against "Ticketmaster." Pearl Jam last year announced a boycott of venues run by Ticketmaster. This past week the group said it was giving up its suit.

NPR's Edward Lifson visits the town of Matteson Illinois where local officials have launched a campaign to attract more white residents to their town. This effort at maintaining racial diveristy is a painful, but necessary remedy for many residents who don't want to appear racist but are also concerned about property values.

Last week we asked listeners to call in with words they or their family members have made up. And, are so wonderful, they should be added to the dictionary. Here are the highlights...

Daniel talks with the assistant city editor of the Chicago Tribune, Bill Rectenwald, about the heat wave in Chicago and the recent deaths there. Rectenwald says the temperatures are in the triple digits and police are mobilizing to insure the sick and elderly survive and to avoid the large number of deaths that occured earlier this month. Rectenwald says though such intense heat is not unusual in other states, Chicagoans are unaccustomed to such extreme temperatures.

Yesterday President Clinton issued an executive order that established the first uniform standards for U.S. agencies in granting security clearances to employees. Among the directives was an order to end the denial of security clearances because an applicant is gay. Daniel talks to Frank Kameny, who was denied government security clearances in the 1950s and 60s and was the first person to fight a discharge from a federal civil service job because of his homosexuality.

Michael speaks with NPR's Cheryl Devall, who's covering the annual meeting of the NAACP. It's the organization's first meeting under the leadership of its new president, Myrlie Evers-Williams.

The Pope was in New York today. We hear a bit of tape from his mass this morning in Central Park, and then Daniel talks with two students and a professor at Catholic University about their feelings concerning the significance and relevance of the Pope and his visit to America

Okay. OJ is over. And that got critic Bob Mondello musing about how Hollywood has treated with the subject of juries in film.

Daniel talks with Lonny Shavelson, author of "A Chosen Death," (Simon and Schuster) about the rights of the handicapped to chose assisted suicide. In his book, Shavelson tells the story of one very intelligent, life-affirming man who was completely incapacitated as the result of an accident as a young boy. And though this man enjoyed life in spite of his confinement to a wheel chair and his inability to speak, the physical and emotional limitations became too great a burden and he ultimately chose to fast to death.

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.

While on assignment in Los Angeles, Daniel attempts to drive around the city with the aid of a computer called a "Global Positioning System" or G-P-S. The computer is mounted on the dashboard and is programmed to guide you thru a city to a specific destination. Daniel also talks with an Automotive Technologies manager at Rockwell International, the company that sells the G-P-S to companies.

NPR's Peter Kenyon reports that the U.S. Civil Rights Commission met this week to examine race and sex discrimination in the nation's police forces.