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This coming Saturday, voters in Bosnia go to the polls as part of the effort to put their war-torn country back together. They'll be choosing men and women to represent them in a collective presidency, a house of representatives, assemblies for both the Muslim-Croat federation and Serb Republic, and councils for each canton. Linda talks about the upcoming election with NPR's Sylvia Poggioli in the northwest Bosnian city of Banja Luka ((BAHN-yuh LOO-kuh)). Banja Luka is home to the opposition parties who will contend for the vote with the nationalist party running the Serb Republic.

This campaign season we will be airing candidate stump speeches as they travel around the country seeking support. This is an excerpt of an address Bob Dole made last week, on Labor Day, at a rally in St. Louis. In the speech, Dole pledges to cut taxes and balance the budget at the same time. He says his economic plan is pretty simple---it's time to give a break to everyone who pays taxes in America. He says there are three good reasons to cut taxes: too many families have both spouses working just to pay taxes, tax cuts will lift the economy and finally, the American people have waited too long for a tax cut---so he promises a 15% tax cut, a $500 per child tax credit, to cut capital gains by 50%, and to repeal the current tax on social security benefits.

Adam Hochberg reports from Raleigh, North Carolina that people are still struggling with the aftermath of Hurricane Fran. Hundreds of thousands of people in the state are still without power, stores are facing huge losses and nerves are fraying.

Linda talks with Dale Ingram, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. They'll talk about why the nation's largest department store chain refuses to carry singer Sheryl Crow's newest album. The CD includes a song called "Love Is A Good Thing" that refers to Wal-Mart by name as a place where children purchase guns. Ingram claims that the lyrics are an unfair attack on the retail chain, saying that the company has strict policies that prohibit the sale of firearms to minors. In fact, Wal-Mart stopped selling handguns in its stores in 1994, making them available only through its catalogue.

Robert and Linda read from listeners' comments. To send a letter to All Things Considered, the address is All Things Considered Letters, 635 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington DC 20001. To reach us via e-mail, the address is ATC at NPR dot ORG.

While the overwhelming majority of black voters vote Democratic, some feel that the Democratic party takes them for granted and does not address all of their concerns. At the same time, the Republican presidential ticket -- Bob Dole and Jack Kemp -- says it will make a special effort this year to reach out to black voters, who have sometimes been written off by the Republican Party. NPR's Cheryl Corley reports.

which threatens to derail the Dayton peace process. The names of candidates for local office have been removed from ballots on the grounds that municipal elections are 'not feasible' at present. Under the Dayton accords, local elections were to take place at the same time as national elections. The elections begin today with the casting of absentee ballots by Bosnian refugees. Voting inside Bosnia is scheduled for September 14th.

Commentator Joan Steinau Lester, like many other gays and lesbians, is going to hold her nose and vote for Bill Clinton in November. She's unhappy about the waffling, and the mixed signals he's sent America's gays -- Clinton says he's for equal rights, but he's been cautious about showing it.

Robert talks with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a Professor of Communication and the Dean of the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. They discuss the impact of speeches made last night at the Democratic National Convention by Vice-President Al Gore and Connecticut senator Christopher Dodd.

NPR's Claudio Sanchez reports on the debate over how to train and certify the next generation of teachers. An estimated 2 million new teachers will enter the nation's schools in the next decade, and many educators favor national standards and other measures as a way of ensuring that the next generation of teachers is qualified. But others say a state and local approach is more appropriate, and some feel making we need to loosen up the rules for teacher certification as a way of encouraging people to get on the job training in the profession.

Commentator Marianne Jennings confesses that she has average kids...they don't hold concerts with Luciano Pavarotti, and they don't do flips on the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team. She sometimes feels lazy for not taking them from lesson to lesson, but she realizes that having average kids is a tribute to parents who don't have to live vicariously through their children...and have the inner strength to give a child a childhood.

The Japanese have worked hard for the last 50 years to build their economy into one of the most dominant in the world. But now that they have earned that status, they would like to have some fun with their money. NPR's Julie McCarthy reports that theme parks are a favorite destination for Japanese travellers. In Japan, the original park, Tokyo Disneyland, has been joined by a multitude of others... one run by video-game giant Sega, another featuring miniature models of famous world landmarks, and another with virtual reality rides.

A variety of Alaska residents tell what they plan to do with their 1,130 dollar checks they've just received. Anyone who has lived in Alaska for the last 18 months received one. The checks are called Permanent Fund Dividends. The Permanent Fund was set up by oil companies as a reserve. Half the earnings from an average year are given back to Alaskans as dividends. We hear from Alaskans living in Juneau, Fairbanks and Anchorage.

Linda talks with Ronald Boster (BOSS-ter) about the economic plan Dole announced yesterday. Dole said if he were elected president he would cut taxes by 15 percent across the board and also balance the budget by the year 2002. Boster says Dole's plan would not allow for government savings and investment. Boster is a vice president of the business-supported Committee for Economic Development and a former GOP aide to the House Budget committee.

NPR's Edward Lifson reports on the Congressional election in Illinois' fifth district. This year a Democratic state Representative is running against Michael Flanagan, the young Republican incumbent who ousted Dan Rostenkowski two years ago.

NPR's Vicky O'Hara reports on the man chosen to succeed the late Somali militia leader General Mohamed Farrah Aideed (eye-DEED). The new leader is a former reservist in the U-S Marines who actually served briefly during America's military intervention in Somalia. He also is Aideed's son...and friends describe him as more American than Somali.

Noah talks with Sally Friedman about her new memoir, detailing her training as a long-distance swimmer, planning to swim the English Channel, and the death of her husband Paul on the eve of her departure for England. Paul's death was six years ago and he remains young in her mind; she, however, feels much older, having more in common with the widows she knows in her New York neighborhood.

that would deny public education to children whose parents are in the country illegally. Such an immigration amendment is scheduled for consideration next month, when Congress returns from summer recess.

in California yesterday, enjoying the momentum from his debate performance on Wednesday.

in North Carolina between Jesse Helms and Harvey Gantt is not nearly as close as their first contest 6 years ago.

Linda talks to Ann Reilly Dowd, Washington correspondent for Money Magazine, about the record high credit card delinquency reported today by the American Bankers Association. During the April-June quarter of this year, credit card payments overdue 30 days or longer rose to 3.66 percent of the total accounts, higher than it has ever been since the association began collecting data in 1974. During that same period, banks suffered $3.8 billion in losses on credit card and consumer loans, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

NPR's Martha Raddatz reports that the State Department has issued a new warning to Iraq about its air defense systems within the Allied-patroled no-fly zones over Iraq, but military action seems increasingly unlikely despite the week's buildup of retaliatory forces around the Persian Gulf.

The Military Personnel subcommittee of the House National Security committee has released newly-declassified documents that show the Eisenhower administration suspected that North Korea still held hundreds of American prisoners after the war. One memo says Army Secretary Robert Stevens told President Eisenhower that the services had the names of more than 900 servicemen believed to have been in prison camps, who were unaccounted for. The subcommittee's chairman, Congressman Robert Dornan, speculates that Eisenhower did not pursue the issue for fear the dispute would lead to nuclear war. NPR's John Nielsen reports.

In the first criminal action taken against a government official in the Ruby Ridge case, a senior FBI agent was charged today with obstruction of justice. In 1992, FBI agents shot and killed the wife and child of a white separatist during a siege of his home in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. There are reports that the agent charged today may have agreed to co-operate with prosecutors in their investigation of government action during the siege. NPR's Chitra Ragavan reports.

of ' >Civilization' magazine about history's worst presidential candidates.