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Linda speaks with Larry Lozier, the owner of the Hyde Park, NY house, who found Mastodon bones in his back yard. The bones were discovered after he decided to dredge and deepened the pond in his yard. What appeared to be a log turned out to be a big bone. He called local colleges, but no one believed him, until he called Dr. Christopher Lindner at Bard College. Now he has a team of scientists excavating his pond.

Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush proposed today that low-income seniors receive prescription drugs for free. Bush also said that all seniors ought to have a choice of plans that would pay up at one fourth of their drug costs, either by government program or through private insurance. Steve Inskeep, traveling with the Bush campaign, filed this report for NPR News.

NPR's Pam Fessler reports on the Democrats' push to get their agenda acted on during these final weeks of the 106th Congress. Led by President Clinton, Senate Leader Tom Daschle and House Leader Richard Gephardt, the Democrats once again urged passage of an increase in the minimum wage and a patients' bill of rights. But both parties know that much of what is going on maybe less about legislation and more about gaining the electoral advantage as November 7 approaches.

Noah speaks with Craig Dremann, co-owner of the Redwood City Seed Company, about the Indian Military's claim that the world's hottest chili pepper is grown in Assam. He says it's the hottest domesticated pepper, but the hottest is a wild pepper called the Pepper Tepin, which grows in the dry desert mountains of Northern Mexico. His company sells old fashioned vegetable and herb seeds from all over the world, including Assam. For the chili seeds, he's had to developed his own testing system, which is similar to the scoville scale at the turn of the century.

Supreme Court nominations are rarely debated as part of a presidential campaign. But the next president may fill several vacancies on the nine-member high court in his first term, changing the makeup of the court for a generation. That may indeed prove to be the next president's most lasting legacy, yet the candidates are less than eager to talk about whom they might choose. Nina Totenberg filed this report for NPR News.

NPR's Michele Kelemen reports that environmentalists in Russia are going to court over Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's restructuring of the country's environmental protection system. Activists fear that the new system is really a cover for a plan to open up long protected nature reserves to commercial usage, to bring in badly needed cash to the central overnment. Kelemen visited a reserve in southern Siberia where rangers are worried about their future and the protection of the reserve.

Jon Miller reports from Lima that the government of Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has engaged in talks with the political opposition on democratic reforms. The two sides are considering ways to restructure institutions throughout the government, from the military and intelligence services to the judiciary. Fujimori agreed to the talks under intense international criticism of the country's last election, which returned him to office for a third term. His immediate obstacle is convincing opponents that with his record, he can become a champion of democracy.

Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr wonders why George W. Bush is hesitant to engage Al Gore in presidential debates.

Impressions of Peru by 9-year-old (in October) Miriam Newman-Marshall. She was born in Callao, Peru, but adopted and arrived to the United States when she was just four months old. Miriam went back to Peru recently and sent us an audio report on how she spent her summer vacation.

NPR's Linda Gradstein in Jerusalem reports on new criticism of the Palestinian Authority by Amnesty International. In a report issued today, Amnesty says Yasser Arafat's government has arrested dozens of human rights activists, journalists and intellectuals simply for criticizing Arafat or his policies.

Commentator Bob Mondello looks ahead to the Fall movie season -- a season that he says is full of remakes, sequels and revivals. Among the few original films: a vampire movie for little kids (Little Vampires); a comedy in which Richard Gere plays a flattering gynecologist (Dr. T. and the Women); and a drama in which Cuba Gooding Junior stars as the Navy's first black deep-sea diver (Men of Honor).

With polls showing that the presidential race extremely close, Republican candidate George W. Bush sharpened his attack on Democrat Al Gore today. As NPR's Steve Inskeep reports, Bush questioned Gore's truthfulness as he started a swing through several key states.

Linda talks with E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post and David Brooks of the Weekly Standard about the presidential campaigns of Al Gore and George W. Bush. Political wisdom holds that the candidate who leads on Labor Day wins the race -- but this year the race is too close to call.

NPR's Patty Neighmond reports on the trend by the nation's largest corporations and the government to contract directly with physicians -- leaving the insurance companies out. It's a move to stem double-digit inflation in health care costs.

There were violent scenes in the South African town of Sasolburg today, when a white businessman was arraigned in court on murder charges. He is accused of dragging one of his black employees to death behind a pickup truck. The incident has caused outrage among South Africans, and led to accusations that not enough is being done to halt racist violence, six years after the end of apartheid. Jim Fish of the BBC has a report.

Chicago Public Radio's Edie Rubinowitz reports on Aaron Patterson, a Illinois Death Row inmate who claims he was tortured by police into confessing to a murder years ago. The Illinois Supreme Court recently agreed to allow an evidentiary hearing in the case and he could be the latest on Death Row in that state to be granted a new trial.

Banning Eyre reviews the CD Bambay Gueej by Chiekh Lo. Lo is from Senegal, and marries the West African traditional music with Cuban and other Latin sounds. He is just beginning to reach an international audience, with this, his 2nd international release. The CD is Bambay Gueej by Chiekh Lo. It's on Nonesuch Records, catalog number PRCD 300008.

NPR's Allison Richards reports that medical ethicists are awaiting the outcome of a case in Britain in which judges will rule whether doctors may surgically separate Siamese twins in hopes of saving one of them. Doctors have said both babies will die in three-to-six months unless they are separated, but the operation means certain death for one of the infants. The case is important ethically because it involves the power of doctors and courts to sacrifice one life to save another.

Anne Garrels talks with All Things Considered's Noah Adams about the U.N. Millennium Summit, which is being called the largest gathering of world leaders in history. President Clinton addressed the summit today, delivering an impassioned appeal for peace in the Middle East. The president was holding separate meetings later with Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, hoping to revive prospects for a final peace agreement.

A Pentagon security barrier accidentally lifted the German Defense Minister's car yesterday, injuring the minister who was arriving for talks with Defense Secretary William Cohen. A similar incident occurred in 1998 to the Japanese defense minister's car. Noah talks with Jim Mannion, Pentagon Correspondent for the Agence France-Press, about the Pentagon's security malfunctions.