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Anne Sutton from member station KTOO reports on a tax revolt of sorts in Alaska. The state has the lightest tax burden in the nation. But property owners say they still suffer under the weight of excessive property taxes...They've successfully placed an initiative to cap property taxes on next month's ballot. (4:53).

NPR's Margot Adler talks with J-K Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books. Rowling is still surprised by the success of her series. Millions of Harry Potter books have been sold in more than 25 countries and her characters have been used to name everything from city streets to winter storms. Book five is on the way.

NPR's David Molpus reports on the concept of "human capital." In the information revolution, companies are learning to value how well their workers work, not just on how much they produce. Turning intangibles such as work-group harmony and employee retention into published assets.

NPR's Robert Siegel reports from Madison, Wisconsin on efforts by Al Gore and Ralph Nader to woo the same left-wing voters. Wisconsin has been solidly Democratic in the last three presidential races. But there, as in a handful of other states, the three-to-five-percent of the vote that polls show Nader may win could be enough to give George Bush a victory. Siegel talks to people in both the Gore and Nader camps, as well as Democratic voters who turned out to hear Al Gore yesterday and Nader supporters who turned out to protest Gore's appearance.

Companies are recalling foods containing genetically modified corn that has not been approved for human consumption. But as NPR's John Nielsen reports, government officials are still struggling to determine whether the corn presents a health hazard.

A federal court judge in Portland, Maine has issued a temporary injunction, preventing the state of Maine from carrying a new law intended to lower prescription drug prices. The drug industry sought the injunction, claiming that the law was unconstitutional because it attempts to force companies to negotiate discounts on drugs. The state has not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling. Charlotte Renner of Maine Public Radio reports.

Noah talks to sportswriter Stefan Fatsis about the latest pro-basketball news, in advance of the National Basketball Association's new season, which starts next week. The Minnesota Timberwolves have been fined three-point-five million dollars and stripped of their next five first-round draft picks. The league says the Timberwolves violated the salary cap by making an under-the-table deal with player Joe Smith.

Half of New York City woke up happy today, and the other half depressed. NPR's Margot Adler reports on the aftermath of the "Subway Series."

NPR's Larry Abramson reports on a cyber-break-in at Microsoft's headquarters this week. Microsoft says hackers accessed blueprints for software -- but didn't see codes for the most popular products such as Windows ME, Windows 2000 or Microsoft Office. The company said the programs that were involved were still under development and had not been corrupted or tampered with.

Commentator Lenore Skenazy says Halloween has taken on the commercial importance of Christmas, much to her chagrin. It used to be a relatively unadorned festival. Now it's full of lawn ornaments, lights and plastic tchotchke.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden in Jerusalem reports Israel's symphony orchestra played the music of Richard Wagner in concert Friday, the first time the orchestra has ever presented works by Hitler's favorite composer.

NPR's Adam Hochberg reports on a coal mine pond that gave way in eastern Kentucky, releasing 250-million gallons of thick black sludge that polluted streams, killed fish and cut off drinking water supplies. Cleanup is under way.

NPR's Gerry Hadden reports that a traditional game of deliberately submitting to electric shocks is still being played in Mexico as well as Central and South America. Practitioners approach people, often in bars, and for a small fee, attach them to a device that applies an electric shock, which intensifies until the client can no longer take it. People who play call it say it's a fun game of endurance. But some American doctors question the safety of the practice, especially for people who have undiscovered heart problems.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports from Mitrovica that nearly a year and a half after NATO forces entered Kosovo, this city remains a hotbed of ethnic tensions. Albanians and Serbs are locked in a stand-off over apartments, and jobs in the region's rusting heavy industry. But the United Nations administrator of the city, Bill Nash, is beginning to get the two sides to cooperate. Nash says the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade should make it easier for moderate Serbs to deal with the ethnic Albanian community.

Commentator Edward Wheatley says 600 years after Chaucer's death, the father of English poetry is still having an effect on the lives of people who don't even know his name. Words that he was the first to use are still part of the language.

NPR's Kenneth Walker in Abidjan reports calm has returned to Ivory Coast after the new president and his main rival appealed for an end to the violence that has wracked the country for the past three days.

Texas Governor George W. Bush has always been a man who made friends easily and kept them for a long time. That ability has helped him make use of his opportunities in business and politics and to succeed where other sons of presidents have failed. With the election now just eleven days away, NPR's Steve Inskeep has this profile of the Republican nominee.

NPR's Richard Knox looks at how doctors in Maine have turned against their long-time allies, the pharmaceutical companies. At issue are high drug prices that the companies now charge. Doctors say prices have reached a level where many patients can't afford to take the drugs they need, severely affecting not only the patients, but also their ability to practice good medicine. Three major pharmaceutical companies stopped shipping their drugs to Maine in reaction to the state's drug price-control law, which most doctors support. The pullout has only escalated tensions between the once-friendly groups.

Linda talks to Dennis Boroczk, who is overseeing a project to retrofit a Boeing 747 airplane with an infrared telescope and doors that can open to allow the telescope to be used during flight at an altitude of 41-thousand feet. Boroczk is Program Manager at the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy at Raytheon Labs. The high-flying telescope will allow scientists to make infrared measurements of a variety of heavenly objects, such as stars, galaxies, and quasars. The effort is a joint project of between NASA and the German Aerospace Center, with Raytheon making the modifications.

Host Lisa Simeone visits three cities in the state of Kentucky, one of several swing states in this years election to talks to voters about the Presidential election. She talks with voters in Louisville, Lexington and Campbellsville, Kentucky.

Vice President Al Gore took some time off the campaign trail today to watch his son play a school football game, but not before he spoke to voters in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where health care is a big issue. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

Storyteller Rosalyn Kirkel talks about the first time she celebrated Chanukah, 54 years ago, in Germany after the Holocaust.

The Clinton Administration released it's much anticipated pacific salmon recovery plan today. But an Oregon Indian tribe says not only is the plan on the wrong track they believe they have the answer to saving the regions salmon and the tribe is asking the federal government to learn from their success. From member station KPLU in Seattle, Keith Seinfeld reports.

Normally, writer Carol Wasserman doesn't do much cooking now that her husband is dead. One thing she likes to cook is rutabaga. The problem -- it knocks out the power. She realizes that she is among the very fewer generations of woman who could have survived alone in a dark house.

NPR's John Nielsen reports on the long-awaited new rules from Environmental Protection Agency that will significantly reduce pollutants from diesel fuel. The EPA says the limits will save lives and millions of cases of respiratory disease. Oil refiners will have to modify the way they make diesel, and engine manufacturers will have to add pollution control devices--changes they say will cost the consumer.