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India has lost one of its most important birds, and no one knows why. Since the early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of healthy-looking vultures have literally dropped dead there. Scientists say they've never seen anything like it. NPR's John Nielsen reports for All Things Considered.

The snow is melting, flocks of birds are returning to their summer homes, and folks are drinking green beer... Spring is in the air! That calls for another blast of annoying music, courtesy of Jim Nayder, exclusive consultant on music of mass destruction for NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday. Listen to four truly awful recordings, and hear more seasonally bad music.

The gun control debate continued to dominate the news this week with President Obama coming out strongly in support of reforming the current gun control laws alongside the Newtown families. Host Jacki Lyden speaks with James Fallows, national correspondent with The Atlantic, about that story along with the bird flu in China, North Korea and the Postal Service.

Pop quiz: what do you get when you combine a talking penguin, a man with a bird beak for a face and an interrupting dragon? The answer, surprisingly, is a writing guide: Jeff VanderMeer's Wonderbook. VanderMeer tells NPR intern Colin Dwyer about his collaboration with illustrators and his imaginative, character-driven approach to teaching writing.

NPR's Gerry Hadden reports a significant decline in the number of illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. from Mexico. According to the U.S. Border Patrol, the number of arrests at the busiest illegal border crossing, at Douglas, Ariz., is down 40-percent in the first six weeks of this year, compared to the same period last year.

NPR's John Ydstie reports the unemployment rate declined by two-tenths of a percent in April to its lowest rate in more than a year. The key labor market rate now stands at 5.4 percent. Analysts judged the monthly employment report weak though, because business payrolls expanded only slightly

Commentator Marianne Jennings says that in the wars of the competitive new global economy, U.S. employees have become the casualties. American workers have become the most expendable resource a business has. But Jenningsa this kind of "quick fix" is no real answer for declining profits, and she wonders what it does to the consumers trust in a company.

NPR's John Ydstie reports on another sell-off in the stock market. All three major indices were down substantially. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 141 points at one point, before recovering somewhat. The disappointing earnings of high-tech companies was again cited as the reason for the equity market's decline.

Dana Corp., one of the nation's largest auto-parts manufacturers, seeks protection from creditors in federal bankruptcy court. The company had declining revenue, a result of a market share loss at Ford and GM. Dana's shares plunged this week after the company failed to make bond payments worth $20.8 million.

About half of African-American women in the U.S. are obese, compared to 30 percent of white women. Black women not only carry more weight, but they start piling on extra pounds years before their white counterparts. Around age 8 or 9, girls become less active, and the decline is steepest for black girls.

University of Minnesota students who served in Iraq are setting up a veterans' assistance center at the school to help other vets make the transition from the military to academia. The school hopes the volunteer effort will help reverse a post-Sept. 11 decline in veteran-student retention. Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik reports.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports the nation's unemployment rate fell a tenth of a point in March to 5.2%. Analysts said today's report reinforced the picture of a strong economy that has all the necessary preconditions for inflation. The financial markets reacted negatively for the most part... as the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined for yet another day.

Conservative author David Horowitz sought to place ads in college newspapers across the country denouncing calls for reparations to African-Americans for slavery. Most papers declined to run the ads. Many of those that did sparked protests on their campuses. Av Harris reports from Providence -- Brown University was one of the schools whose paper ran the ad.

NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports the I.R.S. is auditing fewer and fewer tax returns these days and that has some observers concerned that some taxpayers will be tempted to cheat. I.R.S. Chairman Charles Rossotti blamed the decline on staff shortages, antiquated computers and I.R.S. reform legislation passed in 1998.

E. Digby Baltzell died Saturday night at age eighty. In the 1960s, E. Digby Baltzell - a sociologist - was writing about the decline of the Protestant Establishment, the class from which he himself had sprung, and he coined the term "white anglo saxon protestant" or W.A.S.P. to descibe its members.

In the 1990s, the militia movement attracted thousands of followers, spurred on by federal law enforcement blunders at Ruby Ridge and Waco. But after Timothy McVeigh -- who identified with the militia movement -- bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City, the movement began to decline. Robert Siegel travels to Montana to take the pulse of the militia movement after Sept. 11.

On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index experienced its largest single-day drop in almost two years. The decline comes on the heels of decreasing consumer spending and slowing job growth. Host Liane Hansen speaks to David Wyss, chief economist for Standard and Poor's, about the cooling off of the U.S. economy.

President Bush, battling declining polls numbers and criticism from Democrats, goes on NBC's Meet The Press for an hour-long interview. He defends his decision to go to war in Iraq and says CIA director George Tenet's job is safe despite complaints about pre-war intelligence. NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

Baghdad looters continue to comb through official buildings and empty a museum of priceless antiquities. U.S. forces decline to adopt much of a security role, but may begin to patrol with Iraqis who are demanding order be restored. In some neighborhoods, people take the law into their own hands. Hear NPR's John Ydstie and NPR's Anne Garrels.

In 1999, Tom DeBaggio was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. He was 57. Soon after the diagnosis, he began talking with NPR about his illness. He wanted to document his decline, to break through what he called the "shame and silence" of the disease. Now he can't talk, walk or feed himself.