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With just over a week until the Iowa caucuses, organizers for various candidates are trying to make sure their troops will show up in force for one of the most important early contests for the presidential nomination. NPR's Laura Ziegler reports that for many people in Iowa, the up-close-and-personal nature of the caucus process offers them a chance to meet the candidates and for many, it is the closest encounter they have with representative democracy.

Satirist Harry Shearer gives us a look into the future, when the sale of NFL teams between cities become so numerous that one network, Fox, creates a new program where fans can call in their votes and pledges to get a team or keep a team.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports that the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement has resurfaced, with political candidates making claims and counter-claims about the trade agreement's effect on jobs in the U.S. Pat Buchanan insists that NAFTA has cost the U.S. 300,000 jobs, but most economists say he has no hard evidence to support such claim.

Alan Cheuse reviews "The Cardinals," a novel by the well-known South African writer Bessie Head. Cheuse says the book, which tells of the transformation of a journalist during the oppressive days of apartheid, is raw and powerful.

Noah talks with Joe Queenan who made a movie using his own money and neighbors for actors. He wanted to demonstrate how easy it is to make a bad movie. He also managed to publish a book about his effort. (for stations: book is The Unkindest Cut: How a Hatchetman Critic Made His Own $7000 Movie and Put It All On His Credit Card published by Hyperion)

Minnesota Public Radio's John Biewen has a profile of a working poor family. Many political leaders now say curing poverty is beyond the ability of government; poor people simply have to go to work. But millions of the poor already work. One in six Americans is poor, or near poor, despite having one or more family members in the workforce. The proportion of workers earning poverty-level wages has grown by 50-percent in the past 13 years.

Commentator and marine biologist Kathy Turco visits the shores of Southern Cook Inlet - an area under consideration for oil exploration. Later this spring the Interior Dept. will get a recommendation on opening the waterway to drilling. The water is rich in salmon - food for the bears that draw tourists to the region. Tourism is Alaska's second biggest industry after fishing. There is concern the oil industry's work will hurt the salmon.

Jacki speaks with Postmaster General Marvin Runyon about the Postal Services financial state these days. The Service is facing stiff competition from e-mail and faxes.

NPR's legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports on oral arguments before the Supreme Court today in a case testing the confidentiality of a clinical social worker's notes. The case involves counseling given a police officer after she fatally shot a suspect. Congress has left it to courts to use reason and experience in determining whether conversations between psychotherapists and their patients are protected from disclosure in federal court.

Jacki talks with Ben Frizzell, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. Officials there say over 150-thousand acres of land have been burned because of brush fires. Most of Oklahoma and Texas are experiencing a severe drought. That and high winds and low humidity are creating dangerous fire conditions.

NPR's Jon Greenberg reports Republicans say new notes released by the White House are a sign it tried to control damage regarding Whitewater. The notes, written by former White House aide Mark Gearan in early 1994, describe a meeting where administration officials wanted to contact Beverly Bassett Schaeffer, a key witness in the Whitewater affair. Republicans say that suggests an effort to influence Schaeffer's testimony. The Senate Whitewater committee also delved into who handled the billing records found recently at the White House.

The transplantation of a baboon's bone marrow into an AIDS patient apparently has not succeeded in bolstering the man's devastated immune system. Researchers have been unable to find any evidence that the baboon's bone marrow took root and began functioning inside Jeffrey Getty, the patient received the highly controversial, highly experimental procedure in San Francisco. Critics had been concerned that the transplant, and others like it, could transmit new diseases from animals to humans. But Getty's doctors say they've found no evidence of that either. Getty's prognosis remains uncertain. David Wright reports from member station KQED.

NPR's Michael Skoler visits Kikwit, Zaire almost a year after the ebola (ee-BOH-lah) epidemic broke out there. The virus appeared in May last year and is usually fatal. The epidemic was stopped but left 244 people dead. Scientists from the U-S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are testing samples of tens of thousands of insects and animals taken from the forest where the virus originated but still have not found the source. Hospital workers in Kikwit are still reluctant to treat patients, and while many people have overcome their fear of the disease, there remain superstitions and misinformation among the population.

Robert speaks with reporter Tina Daunt, who covered the trial of rap music star Snoop Doggy Dogg for the Los Angeles Times. His acquittal on murder charges and mistrial on manslaughter charges have raised questions whether prosecutors can win a conviction against a celebrity defendant.

Ten years ago this week, a bloodless revolt toppled the authoritarian government of Ferdinand Marcos. Jon Miller offers a retrospective on the fall of the dictator, and reports on the continuing challenge of making democracy work in the Philippines.

NPR's Brooke Gladstone reports on how dramatically the

Jacki talks to Shane Paul O'Daugherty, a former member of the IRA who was convicted and sent to prison for bombing offenses and served 15 years of a multiple life sentence. O'Daugherty during his time in prison became committed to peace and opposed to the methods employed by the IRA. He now works with young people doing video and film projects and tries to make them understand that violence is not an appropriate response to the political situation in Northern Ireland. O'Daugherty has written a book about his experiences, 'The Volunteer', which is published by HarperCollins.

Linda Wertheimer speaks with NPR'S Don Gonyea about the assisted suicide trial of retired pathologist Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Today the judge issued new instructions to the jury, which legal experts say could make it easier to convict Dr. Kevorkian.

Noah travels to the tiny town of Marshall, on Tomales Bay in northern California, to learn about the Hog Island Oyster Company. John Finger and his colleagues lease ten acres of waterland in the bay and grow oysters, mostly for the restaurant trade in San Francisco, to the south, where the Hog Island brand is well-known. Hog Island plants oyster spat in mesh bags that are washed by the tides, and after two years it's harvest time. Every day the workers ride out to check their crops, only their riding in a wooden dory, instead of a pick-up truck. IN STEREO.

Linda talks with Michael Betzold, a reporter on strike from the Detroit Free Press, about Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Betzold says Kevorkian wishes that society will one day accept assisted suicide for those who are emotionally ill as well as for the terminally sick. Betzold also talks about Kevorkian's desire to control death. Betzold has written about Kevorkian since 1991 and wrote a book about him called, "Appointment with Dr. Death."