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Jason Beaubien reports on tensions between teachers unions and school districts in Boston and Philadelphia - tensions that could lead to teachers' strikes in those cities. One issue is that teachers' hard-won rights regarding seniority are clashing with attempts to make poor-performing schools better.

Robert talks to ABC News reporter Robert Krulwich, about his 3-part series airing next week on Nightline, called "Hip Hop." Before beginning his research, Krulwich professed to be no expert on the subject of hip-hip culture, but wanted to understand why it was so compelling to kids, like his son, and millions of other teens and 20-somethings. In the first segment he profiles Russell Simmons, a hip-hop executive and record producer -- a household name to many hip-hop lovers, but previously unknown to Krulwich. Krulwich comes to understand that hip-hop is music, clothing, image, attitude -- a collage of ghetto and street, and the aspirations and signs of wealth and success. And he also discovers that the business of hip-hop is unlike any model he'd seen before, where music and fashion executives hold no distinctions between race, gender, or sex. He found it refreshing.

Ina Jaffe reports a massive new residential development planned for northern Los Angeles County has been halted by court order. The judge ruled that the developer couldn't prove there was enough water for the anticipated 70 thousand residents. Experts predict more such cases as the population of California grows and water gets harder to come by.

Commentator Lenore Skenazy has some thoughts on the history of wine and beer inspired by a museum visit.

Alison Richards of NPR News has the third part in her series on Osteoporosis. Patients with osteoporosis now can be diagnosed with a bone density scan, and there are more drugs and therapies to treat it. But that wasn't always the case. Because osteoporosis -- meaning porous bones -- develops in silence, doctors needed a way to detect the disease. They were helped by research done in the 1950's by the old Atomic Energy Commission. The commission was looking at ways to prevent atomic fallout from getting into bone. That early work on bone biology was dusted off to help 21st century sufferers of osteoporosis.

A federal appeals court today decided to keep former Los Alamos nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee in jail, in response to a Justice Department request. A lower court federal judge had ruled last week that Lee should be allowed to return home, but will remain under house arrest until his trial on charges of breaching national security. The Justice Department asked for more time to prove that Lee's release would be a threat to national security. Critics of the investigation and Lee's defense team allege that Lee was targeted as an espionage suspect by federal agents because of his race. NPR's Barbara Bradley reports.

Minnesota Republican Rod Grams is considered one of the most vulnerable US Senators facing re-election this fall. He's a staunch conservative in a state with a long history of progressive politics, but he's also a maverick in a state known for its independence. Anemic poll numbers and a modest legislative record brought lots of challengers into this month's Democratic primary, but the big field may prove to be Grams best defense. Minnesota Public Radio's Michael Khoo reports.

Robert talks with Barry Eisenstein M.D., Vice President of Science and Technology for Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, about his hospital's participation in creating an international tissue bank. They will be asking patients for permission to sell tissue left over from surgery. The tissue will be used by scientists worldwide for genetic research.

Robert talks to Larry Jackson, a project engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board, who helped reconstruct TWA Flight 800 from pieces found in the ocean after the crash. The reconstructed plane is now in a hangar in Calverton, New York, waiting to be moved to an academy where it will be used to train crash investigators.

Russia's three days of voting for its parliament and city governments begin Friday. This political season has seen unusual tactics to keep Putin's opposition from running and off the ballot entirely.

NPR's Martin Kaste provides a follow-up on President Bill Clinton's trip to Colombia.

NPR's Richard Knox reports that scientists have decoded the genome for the bacterium pseudomonas aeruginosa. The bacterium can be resistant to all antibiotics, and is often fatal for burn victims and people with cystic fibrosis.

NPR Patricia Neighmond reports on a matchbook size electrical device which can be implanted under the skin of people who suffer from extreme pain. Electrical stimulation from the device can help block the transmission of pain from the nervous system to the brain. It offers relief to people who have reflex sympathetic dystrophy, the syndrome known as RSD.

NPR's Anthony Brooks reports from Seattle on the campaign trail, where protests and counterprotests by supporters of Democrat Al Gore and Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader are overshadowing Gore's efforts to emphasize his health care policy.

Host Renee Montagne talks with Marshall Wittmann of the Heritage Foundation about the political implications of House Speaker Dennis Hastert's offer to President Clinton: increase the minimum wage in exchange for a cut in business taxes.

NPR's Chris Arnold reports on some entrepreneurs who expect major innovations in the way electricity is generated. One venture capital firm, Nth Power, is investing in new technologies that may produce more efficient, cleaner energy. Founders Maurice Gunderson and Nancy Floyd believe that deregulation of electrical utilities has great potential for everything from hydrogen fuel cells, to natural gas refrigerators that can cool food and heat houses at the same time.

NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports that officials at the Hanford Nuclear Reservoir want to re-activate one of the site's decommissioned reactors despite public outrage.

In our latest installment of our monthly series One Hundred Years of Stories, Neenah Ellis talks with college professor Abraham Goldsteen who's 101 years old. Goldsteen has taught law for 70 years. He currently teaches at Baruch College in New York City. He began working as a child, 1913 to be exact, when he served as a telegram delivery boy. Goldsteen says he never married because he was afraid the expense of a family would make it hard for him to help care for his brothers and sisters.

Host Renee Montagne talks with NPR's Michael Sullivan about the trial of former Indonesian President Suharto in Jakarta. The accused was not present because his doctors say he's too frail to stand trial.

NPR's John Nielsen reports on the man believed to be the mastermind behind one of the world's largest animal smuggling rings: Anson Wong. Wong was indicted in 1996 after he supplied undercover agents with hundreds of black market reptiles, including Komodo Dragons. He was arrested two years ago in Mexico, and now is in U.S. custody.

David D'Arcy reports on the dispute over ownership of a painting that the Nazis took from a Jewish art dealer in 1938 Vienna. Portrait of Wally, by Egon Schiele has been on loan to the Museum of Modern Art for the last two-and-a-half years. A federal judge ruled that the painting cannot be considered "stolen" because the American military returned it to the Austrian government in 1945. The Justice Department is asking the judge to reverse his ruling. The case has implications for the families of Holocaust victims, who are trying to recover art and other property that was looted by the Nazis.

Michele Kelemen reports from southern Siberia, where computer programmers are hoping to create their own Silicon Valley. Akademgorodok was built as a model town for Soviet scientists. With its highly-educated workforce, it's home to software companies that do programming work -- cheaply -- for Western customers.

Minnesota Public Radio's Elizabeth Stawicki reports on an effort by some airlines to fly their jets at lower altitudes to avoid congestion in the sky and ease flight delays. The move has some risks and drawbacks but it is helping cut the number of costly delays.

Robert and Linda note two news items today -- related to church attendance in this 21st century. And Storyteller Kevin Kling relives a Sunday morning from his childhood, when the family would pile into the car and head to church. The kids would fight in the car, and Kevin's dad would assert himself to restore order... until he fell asleep in the service.

Commentator David Weinberger recently returned from four days in Beijing, China. He says as a Westerner it was a truly foreign experience, but there's one place he felt completely at home: on the Internet.