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Employees who retired thinking that they were covered by lifetime health care benefits are saying that companies, like Pabst Brewery, are not living up to their promises. The companies say they never offered guaranteed lifetime benefits. With companies cutting back to save money, Labor Secretary Robert Reich says the government is reviewing the benefit packages to determine if the contracts should be enforced or if employees were fully informed about what they were offered. Joanne Silberner reports.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service says it deported a record 67-thousand illegal aliens in the fiscal year that ended last month. But, critics say in another area the INS has been sloppy, allowing tens of thousands of aliens to become naturalized citizens despite their criminal records. NPR's Barbara Bradley reports.

Commentator Donald McCaig notes the value of clean water - more of a rarity than one might imagine.

on a school board race in that state that was decided by a toss of a coin. Two candidates for the Limestone County school board were tied.

Robert talks with Lillian Pfluke, who retired this year from the Army with the rank of Major. She has spent time at Aberdeen, the base in Maryland where several men have been charged with sexual harassment. She says that she is very impressed with the way the Army is handling these allegations and with the efforts being made toward combating sexual harassment at all Army bases.

Commentator Mickey Edwards looks at three years of education reform in Massachusetts. He notes that tests show student achievement declining since 1993... and concludes that pouring money into schools without making concrete changes in the curriculum is a prescription for failure.

Daniel Schorr says that although the issue of secret campaign contributions was thought to have been resolved during Watergate, the latest scandal with soft money illustrates that it was not.

Seven men were indicted yesterday for stealing thirteen million dollars worth of military equipment from an army base in western Wisconsin. Steve Busalacchi from Wisconsin Public Radio in Madison reports that the thieves sold the equipment to museums and collectors.

That's right...Mr. "Naked Lunch," Beat Generation survivor...is a painter and collagist. He's been doing this quietly for nearly half a century. Using cutup newspapers and magazines, paint and photography, his goal is to create a new, visual language with his art in the same way he tried to create a kind of random storytelling in the pages of his books. Burroughs also works in a medium that brought him a certain notoriety in the 1950's - guns - specifically, shotgun-blasted boards (they're painted too). The first-ever retrospective of Burroughs' visual art is now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. NPR's Ina Jaffe reports.

At today's luncheon at the National Press Club, Better Living advocate Martha Stewart confirmed that she enjoys vacuuming, and says she's looking for a modern sculpture she has heard about that is a marble rendering of an Electrolux vacuum cleaner. We hear the question and response and try to locate the piece she is referring to.

The Army has announced that three more noncommissioned officers are charged with sexual misconduct. NPR's Martha Raddatz tells Noah that the latest cases come out of Fort Leonard Wood, a major training facility in Missouri. The charges include consensual sex with trainees, and indecent assault. The Army says the cases did not come to light through the complaint hotline set up to find possible victims at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. At that facility, five trainers face charges ranging from rape to improperly sending love notes to trainees.

The White House and Congress settled on a bill authorizing numerous new parks yesterday. NPR's Richard Gonzales reports on the winners--San Francisco's Presidio Park, for example--and some of the losers, including Alaska's Tongass National Forest.

NPR's Steve Inskeep looks at new ads released by Republicans today to counter an aggressive ad campaign launched by the AFL-CIO in the districts of several dozen Republicans running for Congress. The union ads have made several GOP incumbents nervous and angry, and they've charged that their records are being distorted. The latest AFL-CIO round of advertising has come in the form of what the union describes as ``electronic voter guides.''

Commentator Mickey Edwards talks about the fine distinction between "good" pork...a needed project that brings jobs and services to a particular district...and "bad" pork...projects whose chief benefit seems politically motivated.

Bob Dole has placed on the issue of illegal immigration, while campaigning in California. Advocates for immigrants say it's possible Dole's strategy could backfire motivating naturalized citizens to vote Democratic.

, Junior of Illinois is giving to other Democratic candidates, in the final days of the campaign. Jackson has no opponent in his Chicago district and is devoting his time to campaigning around the country in hopes of winning a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.

Madeleine Brand of member station WBGO reports on a candidate for the U.S. Senate from New Jersey who is on the ballot state-wide but even his campaign workers can't vote for him...because they're all underage. The candidate is a history teacher at J.P. Stevens High School and his campaign is being run by his students.

campaigning in Florida.

at Emory University in Atlanta, about Republican gains in the Deep South. Southern states that were once dominated by Democrats are solidly Republican.

Noah talks to violinist Lara St. John about her new CD, "Bach Works for Violin Solo." The cover of the CD is a photograph of St. John in a seductive pose. Even though the music has been receiving a good deal of critical acclaim, she -- and her record company -- have been criticized for using a sexually provocative photo as a way to sell classical music.

Linda talks to Dr. Ronald Graham, a mathematician and director of Information Sciences Research at AT&T Laboratories, about his friend Paul Erdos, who died Friday at the age of 83 following a heart attack. Erdos is considered by many to be the greatest mathematician of his generation. The 83-year-old Hungarian-American died in Warsaw. Graham says Erdos considered himself the Johnny Appleseed of Math, spreading knowledge from place to place. Erdos had neither home nor job. He went from place to place, staying with colleagues, before moving on after a few days.

Commentator Jim Wallis says during election season, the poor do not exist---they don't have political clout or power---even though how we treat the poor is really the best test of how we define ourselves as a community. Wallis says both candidates ignore the poor and therefore ignore the growing economic divide between rich and poor in this nation...a divide that can only lead to other great societal ills.

NPR's David Molpus reports that one of the major issues facing this country, racial division, has rarely been addressed in this year's presidential election. Although the candidates touch upon the issue in oblique ways, through discussions of affirmative action, immigration and jobs, neither has talked directly about how to bring together the nation's diverse population.

It's been a bad year in California's wine country - bad weather has plagued grape growers, causing a small harvest. Prices for quality grapes are way up. Vintners are now importing medium-quality wine from South America and France to make up the difference. Ancel Martinez reports.

NPR's Richard Harris reports that the Defense Department says it is starting to refocus its investigation of illnesses among Gulf War veterans as a result of recent revelations that some troops may have been exposed to chemical weapons during clean-up efforts after the war. The Pentagon's top doctor, Steven Joseph, says the realization is "a watershed" in trying to understand the mysterious ailments. The Pentagon now presumes some soldiers have been exposed to chemical weapons, though no illnesses have been clearly linked to the chemicals.