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President Bush says the administration will file a brief supporting white students who sued the University of Michigan's law school. The Supreme Court is hearing the students' challenge to an affirmative action policy that gives minority students an advantage in applying for admission. Hear NPR's Michele Norris, NPR's Don Gonyea and NPR's Mara Liasson.

NPR's Ivan Watson reports al Qaeda and Taliban fighters have stepped up infiltrations into Afghanistan from Pakistani border provinces. U.S. commanders say they will exercise their right of pursuit if the fighters cross back into Pakistan.

NPR's Andy Bowers reports that naturalist John Muir is back. Or so it seems. A man who has played Muir on stage for decades has just become a California county supervisor representing the Yosemite Valley... where he plans to take up Muir's environmentalist causes against a slate of property rights advocates.

A Tampa pediatrician will make a presentation to the Food and Drug Administration’s advisory committee when it meets on Tuesday to recommend whether to approve a COVID-19 vaccine for young children.

NPR's Mara Liasson reports on the considerations being made by the Bush administration as it prepares to weigh in on the Supreme Court affirmative action case. The White House worked hard to limit fallout over the Trent Lott incident, and the decision to bring back the Judge Pickering nomination and join the white plaintiffs in the court case indicate that the administration feels the Lott controversy is behind them.

It's often hard to tell where Nicholson Baker ends, and the characters of his novels begin. NPR's Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr profiles the author, who has a reputation for finding magic in the everyday moments of ordinary lives. Listen to Baker read two excerpts from his latest novel, A Box of Matches.

The Council on American Islamic Relations is calling for a complete and independent investigation of the killing in Caldwell County, about 40 miles from Austin.

President Bush has been defending his tax cut proposal by accusing his critics of engaging in "class warfare." NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr says that when the president invokes the phrase "class warfare" he does so in defense of the wealthy.

The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld a 1998 law that extends copyright for 20 years. Internet publisher Eric Eldred maintains a website where he posts out-of-print literature that's in the public domain for free. He and his lawyers had argued that the founding fathers intended creative works to eventually revert to the public domain for the benefit of all. The Supreme Court ruled that Congress was within its Constitutional powers to extend the length of copyright. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports.

Satirist Harry Shearer reflected on the apparently deteriorating standards of television networks (witness tonight's reality show, Man versus Beast) and movie studios (the upcoming Dumb and Dumberer, for example), and decided there's still a way to go in the "race to the bottom."

In space, one cannot hear sounds. But a new musical work -- commissioned by NASA -- is based on radio waves gathered from the far reaches of the solar system. For Morning Edition, Gayane Torosyan reports on Sun Rings, composed by Terry Riley and performed by the Kronos Quartet. The work includes sounds collected over 40 years by University of Iowa physicist Don Gurnett.

Gregory Crouch reports from the Netherlands that Dutch voters go to the polls for the second time in eight months today. The party of slain right-wing Dutch politician Pym Fortuyn is plummeting in popularity after months of negative news reports about its members. Fortuyn, best known for his anti-immigrant stance, was assassinated a few days before last year's elections.

The New Jersey Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether the state can discourage women on welfare from having another child. The lawsuit argues that a federal welfare law that allows states to deny additional payments for children born into families already on welfare is unfair. NPR's Nancy Solomon reports.

In Miami, opening arguments begin in the trial of 11 veteran police officers charged with federal corruption. The officers are accused of planting guns at the scenes of four controversial police shootings and then conspiring to cover up their actions. NPR's Phillip Davis reports.

NPR's Libby Lewis reports on a case being argued before the Supreme Court today on a Maine law that's aimed at lowering prescription drug prices.

Theresa Schiavone reports on the public television documentary, Two Towns of Jasper, which examines the racial divide in the Texas city where the 1998 racially motivated murder of James Byrd Jr. occurred. Two New York filmmakers, one black and one white, made the movie as a way to reconcile their differing views about race relations. During the Byrd murder trials in 1999, Marco Williams, who is black, interviewed black residents of Jasper; Whitney Dow, who is white, interviewed white residents.

On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court declared that the constitutional right to privacy "is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." On the 30th anniversary of the case that came to be called Roe v. Wade, an NPR News series examines the state of abortion rights in America. For Morning Edition, NPR health policy correspondent Julie Rovner chronicles the recent incremental successes by abortion rights opponents.

NPR National Political Correspondent Mara Liasson reports Democratic presidential hopefuls blasted the Bush administration on its abortion rights record at an event in Washington, D.C., last night. Abortion may be a crucial campaign issue in 2004, because President Bush may have the chance to appoint Supreme Court justices who could overturn Roe v. Wade.

A new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association supports the "gateway drug theory," which states that early marijuana use increases the likelihood of using other drugs or becoming dependent on drugs or alcohol. NPR's Vicky Que reports.

The U.S. Census Bureau releases new figures that show Latinos make up 13 percent of the population. But many did not check off a racial origin category on the 2000 census form, making it more difficult to create Latino voting districts or implement federal programs. NPR's Madeleine Brand talks to Ilan Stavans of Amherst University.

Recep Tayipp Erdogan is one of the most powerful politicians in Turkey. But he doesn't hold a political office. In fact, he can't: Erdogan has been banned from running for the country's parliament because some believe he's a religious extremist. But now, a government committee is deciding whether to remove the ban and allow Erdogan to run for office. NPR's Guy Raz reports.

Commentator Frederica Mathews-Green describes the evolution of her position on abortion. Thirty years ago, she was fighting for a "better world" through abortion rights for women, but today she views the historic Roe v. Wade decision as a tragedy. (On Jan. 23, 3003: A commentary with a different perspective on abortion.)

The space shuttle Columbia shatters minutes before a planned landing in Florida Saturday morning. President Bush tells the nation: "Columbia is lost. There are no survivors." Listen to NPR News.

Space shuttle Columbia breaks into pieces over Texas, killing all seven crew members aboard. President Bush tells the nation the work of the space program will go on. NASA engineers begin the grim task of determining what went wrong. NPR News reports.

NPR News coverage of the space shuttle Columbia disaster continues.