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Guest host John Ydstie talks with Jeffrey Lehman, dean of the University of Michigan Law School, and Cornell's president-elect, about the affirmative action policies of the law school at Michigan.

John Dankosky of member station WNPR reports the little city of Willimantic, Conn,, is dealing with a big heroin problem. After a newspaper dubbed Willimantic "heroin town," officials are scrambling to clean up the community's drug problem as well as its tattered image. But they're at odds over whether recovery clinics will help locals kick their addictions or draw even more addicts to town.

Guest host John Ydstie talks with Alberto Almeida, who has devised an index to measure fear among residents of nine major cities in Brazil. Almeida is the head of opinion research at Brazil's leading business school, the Fundacao Getulio Vargas, in Rio de Janeiro.

Enormous deficits loom over the federal budget this year and next. The White House is pressing Senate Republicans to trim nearly $10 billion from spending bills approved last year when Democrats ran the Senate. Democrats respond that the president's proposed tax cuts need trimming -- not federal spending. NPR's David Welna reports.

Over the past decade the states have added safeguarding the environment to their to-do lists. Now, states struggle with the worst fiscal crisis in 50 years, and they're being forced to make tough choices and review priorities. Environmental protection moves pretty far down the list. NPR's Greg Allen reports.

It turns out many office thermostats are just for show, but the placebo effect seems to work on fussy cubicle-dwellers.

Some Minnesota towns put old schoolhouses up for sale. The price is right, but prospective buyers also need to do their homework on a site development plan.

Autism is a disease that often drives people apart. It separates children from parents, and can leave parents feeling abandoned by researchers who offer no cure and little hope. But the MIND Institute, founded by fathers of autistic sons, is trying to change that by making parents key players in the search for a cure. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports.

U.N. weapons inspectors discover empty chemical warheads in southern Iraq, and for the first time visit homes of two Iraqi nuclear scientists in Baghdad, removing documents from one. Meanwhile at the United Nations, there's disagreement over the timetable for weapons inspections to conclude. Hear NPR's Kate Seelye and NPR's Vicky O'Hara.

The United States lost nearly one million manufacturing jobs in 2002, but the foreign-car industry continues to grow. The boom of foreign automakers in the South has brought prosperity to the region and introduced a new workplace culture. NPR's Adam Hochberg reports.

Host Bob Edwards describes a recent International Trade Court ruling over whether the X-Men -- a group of mutant superheroes -- are human.

U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton arrives in South Korea for talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Bolton says the United States will aim to get the United Nations involved in the issue. NPR's Eric Weiner reports.

As the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade approaches, debate over abortion continues. Abortion rights opponents stress abstinence-only education and point to Uganda, where emphasis on abstinence has lowered a 30-percent HIV rate to 5 percent in a decade. NPR's Brenda Wilson reports.

NPR's David Molpus reports on the job of figuring the financial cost of a U.S. strike on Iraq. Estimates run from a billion a week -- even without any fighting -- to $25 billion a year for a post-war occupation of Iraq. The Congressional Budget Office's estimate ranges from $40 billion to $200 billion. Some say the U.S. needs the war to lower oil prices and revive the stock market. Others say the consideration should be how effective a strike would be on the war on terrorism.

As U.S. armed forces rapidly gear up for a possible war with Iraq, problems with homeland security emerge. Some worry about the shortage of qualified first responders, as many local firefighters, EMTs, and police officers are also military reservists who could be called to active duty. NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

NPR's Robert Siegel takes note of some of the celebrations around the country today commemorating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

France accuses the United States of impatience in its push for war against Iraq and says it is not prepared to support any U.N. Security Council resolution that would authorize military action. Russia and China, which like France have veto power, support the French position. Hear NPR's Nick Spicer.

Last week, the White House asked the Supreme Court to declare the University of Michigan's affirmative action admissions policies unconstitutional. Host Bob Edwards talks with Jacques Steinberg, New York Times education reporter, about the administration's decision and how it will affect schools that are trying to ensure racial diversity through admission.

Martin Luther King, Jr. famously hoped for a day when his children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. It's been nearly 40 years since then, and commentator Aaron Freeman hopes for even more for his daughters. He wants to raise them as if "African-American" is not their primary identity, but one of many things they are, along with athletes, Chicagoans and scholars. The problem is that it's working. They have a different outlook than he does, and he's afraid they are a different race than he is. The struggle against racism has defined much of his life, and he fears that they don't even take racism personally.

In New Orleans, opening arguments begin in a class-action lawsuit aimed at making the tobacco industry help smokers quit. About 3 million smokers -- some of whom are not ill -- are seeking funding for medical monitoring, but the industry says it should not be held responsible for those who ignore warning labels. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports.

Commentator Herbert "Crazylegs" Seward played trumpet in Alabama State's marching band, and he says the music and moves portrayed in the film Drumline are no match for the performances of the real bands of historically Black Colleges and Universities. One band's routines are so precise they form the score of the game at halftime; another has a style called "The Rattler" that resembles the slither of a snake.

Host Bob Edwards talks with cartoonist, writer and playwright Jules Feiffer about the late Al Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld was famous for his "Nina" caricatures of celebrities and Broadway shows. He died in his sleep yesterday at age 99.

In Kuwait, at least one gunman opens fire on a vehicle carrying two American civilians, killing one and wounding the other. The U.S. embassy in Kuwait condemns the attack as a terrorist act. NPR's Anne Garrels reports.

New census figures show the number of Hispanics as very close to the number of blacks in the United States. Depending on how the figures are tallied, the number of Hispanics may be seen as having surpassed the number of blacks. Host Robert Siegel talks with John R. Logan about the numbers and the implications of the changing proportion of minority groups in America. Logan is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of the Mumford Center, State University of New York, Albany.

NPR's Guy Raz reports from London that Britain's Conservative Party is having trouble challenging Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair. Since Blair moved into #10 Downing Street, the Tories have been stuck in the opposition. Political analysts credit Blair with co-opting Conservative issues and moving Labour toward the center.