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The spying charges against former FBI agent Robert Hanssen are among the most serious in American history. FBI Director Louis Freeh has called the acts of espionage on behalf of Russia "exceptionally grave." NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.

NPR's Nina Totenberg reports on today's Supreme Court decision that states cannot be sued by their employees for money damages under the Americans With Disabilities Act. The justices' 5-4 ruling follows a pattern of recent decisions that reduce the power of the federal government over the states.

FBI agent Robert Hannsen is accused of 15 years of spying for Russia. NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says Hannsen may have held America in contempt, but his main motive for spying appears to be plain greed.

Engineers can calculate how buildings and other structures will respond to stresses such as wind, or earth tremors. Give them a dinosaur skull, and as NPR's Chris Joyce reports, they can use the same tools to predict how the beast used its head and jaws to catch and dismember prey.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden in Jerusalem reports Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon is mulling over options for dealing with the escalating violence in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel's Labor Party today chose the man who is to be defense minister in Sharon's unity government -- 65-year-old Binyamin Ben-Eliezer. Ben-Eliezer said he would try to persuade Palestinians to return to the negotiating table. At the same time, he said Israel would not "sit quiet" in the face of continued Palestinian attacks. Sharon has vowed to improve security for Israelis, though has not detailed how.

In January, a federal circuit court in Washington, D.C., ruled that a Federal Communications Commission order requiring broadcasters to conduct broad community outreach before making hiring decisions was unconsitutional race discrimination. Today the FCC decided to rehear the case, and commentator David Cole says this is a good thing.

The Marine's V22 Osprey has come under increasing scrutiny after a series of deadly crashes and a highly critical GAO report. The aircraft may face a funding cutoff after a review of Defense Department programs ordered by President Bush. Russell Lewis reports from member station KPBS.

Seventy-five years ago this week, William Faulkner's first novel was published, called Soldier's Pay. It was inspired by his World War I service in the Royal Canadian Air Force. But it was another war that brought commentator Fred Woodress to Oxford, Miss., and an afternoon with Faulkner. Having learned about Faulkner in the Army's college program at Ole Miss, he asked a waitress about him in a local restaurant. She was Faulkner's wife, and told Woodress to go see him. He describes the afternoon smoking and rocking on the the Faulkners' front porch, and another visit several years later.

NPR's John Ydstie reports that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told lawmakers today that inflation is still well-contained and that recent increases in wholesale and consumer prices are mere blips on the screen. Greenspan was asked whether the Fed had waited too long before moving to cut interest rates in late January. Greenspan defended the central bank's actions and said the answer to the question is "No."

NPR's Guy Raz in Ankara reports on the financial crisis that has gripped Turkey ever since a public spat between the president and the prime minister sparked fears of a government collapse. Underlying the crisis is Turkey's endemic corruption.

Alix Spiegel reports on a phenomenon happening in the backyards of teenage boys around the country -- wrestling. They are re-enacting the wrestling they see on TV, that strange mix of violence and theatre and sport. Spiegel visits Littleferry, N.J., where a group of high school students have put together a backyard stage with rope and plywood and mattresses. They videotape the event, where they kick, slam and bruise each other; occasionally they draw blood. The boys say most matches are choreographed so no one gets seriously hurt, but they say the pain they inflict actually bonds them to one another.

Robert Siegel speaks with Imam Kamad Ahmad Chebly. Chebly is an American Muslim cleric who is now in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, preparing for the Islamic pilgrimage, the Hajj. The Hajj officially begins tomorrow.

Robert Siegel talks with NPR's Chris Arnold, who's in the courtroom in San Francisco where a judge is hearing arguments on whether the online music service Napster should be shut down. A lawyer for Napster said today that the company will voluntarily introduce a screening system this weekend, which could block Napster users from trading nearly a million titles of pirated music. The company says instead of being forced to shut down, it should be allowed to police its system -- and it offered the screening method today as a way in which it will do that.

NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from London that new cases of foot-and-mouth disease have been reported throughout Britain. Ireland is throwing up its defense against the spread, deploying troops along the border with Northern Ireland, where cases have turned up.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has granted asylum to a severely disabled boy from Pakistan on grounds he would face persecution because of his autism if he returned home. NPR's Mary Ann Akers reports that some say this Chicago case will not ease asylum claims for other disabled people.

NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports the Bush administration's plan to do away with the estate tax is worrying many in the philanthropic community. They are concerned that charitable giving will fall dramatically without the estate tax. Others argue that getting rid of the tax could prompt more philanthropy, not less.

Linda Wertheimer speaks with Stefan Fatsis of the Wall Street Journal about the financial juggling that takes place every year in the National Football League. NFL payrolls are subject to mandated salary caps, resulting -- this year -- in a purge of veteran football stars. They also discuss how pro-baseball player salaries have become the story at this year's spring training.

Brooke Gladstone, co-host of the NPR program On the Media, reports on the national fascination with DVD players -- the DVD has penetrated the market twice as fast as the CD and almost three times faster than the VCR. The high-quality image and sound of the DVD allow home viewers to enjoy an experience much closer to the filmmaker's original vision -- special features include parts of the original film that were left out, background comments from the director or editor -- and all this is changing the average movie-goer.

NPR's Eric Weiner reports that women in Japan gradually are taking jobs as sushi chefs, something that used to be exclusively the province of men. But most of Japan's more than 30,000 sushi restaurants still refuse to hire women, and many men refuse to eat sushi that a woman has prepared. Men often believe that women have a higher body temperature and other physiological differences that make them unsuitable to prepare something as delicate as sushi.

The centerpiece of Copeland's latest album is a song born from the wreckage of the Clotilda — the last known slave ship to smuggle African captives to the United States.

Colorado's Proposition 115 could shut down one of the few clinics nationwide that specializes in later abortion.

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Howard Bryant of ESPN about the sports of the week.

"We were doing an awful job in an awful time," veteran Garett Reppenhagen said in a StoryCorps conversation. "If I shed any joy to anybody on that base that day, then I think it was all worth it."

NPR's Scott Simon speaks to Australian comedian Christian Hull about his popular TikTok videos in which he watches paint get tinted and guesses what color it will become.

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden make their closing arguments in what's been an unusual campaign season to say the least.