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Campaigning has posed a new challenge this week for Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush, who has seen his pre-eminent position in the polls slip for the first time since March. Bush has also struggled to keep his focus on the issues he believes will carry him to victory, including his tax cut plan. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

John Burnett reports on the debate over liberalizing US immigration policy along the Mexico border to allow guest worker visas.

NPR News Correspondent Richard Gonzales reports on a ruling by Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that persecution because of sexual preference must be considered a legitimate reason for the INS to grant an immigrant political asylum.

For more than thirty years photographer Mark PoKempner has been taking pictures of Chicago's legendary blues clubs. His new book Down at Theresa's: Chicago Blues is a visual artist's tribute to one city's musical legacy. Host Jacki Lyden tours some of Mark's favorite South Side clubs. (16:00) (Down at Theresa's - Chicago Blues: the Photographs of Mark PoKempner, by Wolfgang Schorlau; ISBN: 3791323008 (2000) For more information, check out our feature on "Down at Theresa".

Host Jacki Lyden talks to travel writer Chris Elliott about airlines' efforts to crack down on fliers who buy tickets for "hidden cities." Some travelers are finding it cheaper to buy tickets for longer flights, and then get off in a connecting city, or to pay a lower round-trip fare for a one-way flight. Airlines say that's costing them money.

Commentator David Weinberger says making predictions is a waste of time, especially when it comes to trying to guess the future of technology.

Four years ago, a new federal law was enacted to limit the use of pesticides in American food production. But that was just the beginning of the fight. Enforcing the new law has proven difficult, beginning with the writing of detailed regulations. And a coalition of farm organizations and pesticide manufacturers has been working to slow the process, as well. Now there's a new bill pending in Congress that would cloud the picture further. NPR's Peter Overby reports.

A team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed a new technique to recover information from magnetic tapes and disks. Noah talks with David Pappas, who heads that team, about the possibility that this technique could be applied to blank portions of the Nixon White House tapes, analyzed during the Watergate scandal. Recovering voices, he says, would be a long shot. But it might be possible to tell whether the tapes had been erased.

NPR's Michele Kelemen reports that Russian president Vladimir Putin finally flew to the Northern Fleet's base near Murmansk -- ten days after the submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea. With the rescue attempt called off, talk has now turned to bringing up the bodies of the 118 men on board.

NPR's Mary Ann Akers reports on the first day of a two-day meeting about the 1996 crash of TWA flight 800. Members of the National Transportation Safety Board are discussing what the staff has compiled on the crash. They're also preparing to approve the staff report on the probable cause. The board is expected to vote tomorrow, and release safety recommendations. The staff has concluded, as has long been accepted, that the center fuel tank exploded and destroyed the airplane, killing all 230 people on board.

A new reality show of sorts has come to the Internet. It's called Reality Run. The idea is to set someone loose on the streets of a major city wired with a microphone and very little money. It is then up to people listening to that live microphone over the 'net to pick up hints about where the person is. The first person who finds the man or woman with the mic wins $10,000. The first "Reality Run" was played in Berlin and will come to the United States soon. Noah talks with "Roger." He was on the run in Berlin until a young woman found him in a Berlin library yesterday. (5:00) The Internet address is http://realityrun.com/

A brief note on some of the other news on today's program.

Robert talks with Russ Buettner, a reporter at the New York Daily News about how a Long Island-based anti-abortion group raised over 2-million-dollars to support anti-abortion candidates. But only one-percent of the money has gone to political campaigns. The rest has been taken by the direct marketing firm making the fundraising calls.

NPR's Phillip Davis reports Florida is offering motorists a new license plate featuring the slogan "choose life." Money from the sales of the new tags go to promote adoption. But abortion-rights groups say the message is inherently religious, and therefore unconstitutional. They've lost a round in court, but are still fighting against the plates.

Commentator and psychiatrist Elissa Ely says a Bible study group among patients at the hospital where she works provides some interesting theological insights.

A team of four California rock climbers were taken hostage for six days this summer by Islamic rebels in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan before managing to escape. Noah talks to Beth Rodden, a 20-year-old world-class climber from Davis, California, who was a member of the team, about the harrowing adventure.

NPR's Michele Kelemen has a report from Podolsk on Russian sports hero Alexander Karelin. This giant of the Greco-Roman wrestling scene is going for his fourth Olympic gold in Sydney next month. But he's not just an athlete; he's also a member of the Russian Duma. President Putin's party recruited Karelin last year to boost its public image.

Nearly a third of the American workforce works a temporary or part-time job, or hires on as an independent contractor. For many workers, these arrangements provide the flexibility and freedom they never had in traditional jobs. But many "free agents" struggle to obtain benefits and professional stability. As David Molpus reports, a new study finds that organizations are emerging to help workers cope with the change, but there are still lots of bumps in the system.

A federal judge has ruled that Wen Ho Lee, the nuclear scientist accused of mishandling sensitive information at Los Alamos National Laboratory, can be released on bail. NPR's Barbara Bradley explains.

NPR's John Burnett reports from the Mexico border, where, over the last six years, the United States has substantially increased efforts to stop illegal aliens from entering. Burnett accompanies some Border Agents on their rounds, and talks to some of the Patrol's critics. Ranchers in Arizona and Texas are among those who say the thousands of new agents and new technology have done little to stem the flow of illegals.