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NPR's Allison Aubrey examines the danger that common food allergies pose to some Americans. Common allergens, such as peanuts and certain grains, are often unlisted as ingredients on food packaging, or contaminate other food prepared in the same factory. Such problems lead to product recalls every year and have prompted the Food and Drug Administration and food processors, to find ways to test for allergens.

Host John Ydstie visits with workers of Scranton, Pennsylvania, laid-off and left behind by a television-tube factory that's being moved to Mexico. For some, the lay-off is breaking up marriages and worrying their children. But others say they're glad--- that the closing means they're on to more fulfilling jobs.

NPR's Van Williamson reports on the declining blue crab population in the Chesapeake Bay. As this regional symbol grows scarce, Marylanders may have to change more than their eating habits. (6:52 -

Two Kinder products in the U.S. are being recalled due to an outbreak across Europe. The manufacturer has suspended operations at the Belgian plant where the outbreak is believed to have originated.

In the final installment of the favorite summers series, NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg talks with a kayaking couple, Jason Hale and Dixie-Marie Prickett, who are taking this summer to fulfill a dream -- paddling some of America's most challenging rivers.

Joe Gutierrez, a 41-year veteran of the steel mills, has some stories to tell. He's one of the writers in a new book of short stories and poems penned by steelworkers.

Many of the short stories in Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail, Bobbie Ann Mason's new collection, "are about people busting out of something," the author tells Bob Edwards on Morning Edition. "A lot of times they're coming home, coming full circle in kind of a zig-zaggy way."

It turns out that migrating birds like to fly in a V-formation because they get more miles per gallon that way. NPR's David Kestenbaum reports that scientists writing in this week's Nature studied the aerodynamics of tame pelicans. The birds liked to fly along behind the researchers' boat.

For years, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was an anomaly in lower Manhattan. The small church stood across the street from the twin towers of the World Trade Center, on some of the most valuable real estate in New York. But St. Nicholas church was destroyed by falling debris on September 11th. Now, rather than selling their land, the parishioners are pledging to rebuild the church as a monument to those who died. NPR's Melissa Block reports.

Paleontologists may have gotten dinosaur nostrils all wrong. Until now. As NPR's Richard Harris discovered, dinosaur artists up until now had simply guessed where the nostril would appear on a dinosaur's snout.

Health officials in Houston, Texas, have discovered mosquitoes carrying the virus that causes St. Louis encephalitis in seven areas of the city. NPR's Wade Goodwyn travels with one of the health department's "mosquito men" as he makes his way through Houston's extensive sewer system, trapping mosquitoes and sending them back to the lab for testing. (6:15) CORRECTION, aired on All Things Considered Sept. 6, 2001: Wade Goodwyn's report about a mosquito surveillance officer in Houston brought out the science police in the audience. Dr. Victor Sloan of Scotch Plains, N.J., writes this: "In Wade Goodwyn's excellent story on Houston's mosquito hunters, he said 'when the dry ice melts.' Melting is the act of a solid becoming liquid. Dry ice does not melt, it sublimes. That is, it goes directly from a solid to a gas, without ever becoming liquid. When I was about 10, my father tried to explain this to me. It took me years to believe him."

U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins is a professor of English at Lehman College of the City University of New York. Collins' latest work is called Sailing Alone Around the Room.

In the last installment of our series on Emerging Southern Artists, Melanie Peeples profiles 37-year-old writer Melanie Sumner. Ambivalent about growing up in the south, Sumner recently completed a comic novel, The School of Beauty and Charm. The book satirizes life in small towns, including organized religion, and lampoons many values that Sumner's parents instilled in her as she was growing up.

The caste system remains in India, even though "untouchability" is banned by the Indian constitution. The estimated 160 million dalits, or untouchables in India still face discrimination.

The annual Gilroy Garlic Festival draws garlic lovers to the Central California town of Gilroy to sample treats like garlic ice cream. But there may be dark days ahead for domestic garlic growers. NPR's Lisa Simeone reports for Weekend All Things Considered.

Women make up 90 percent of patients needing foot surgery -- and fashionable shoes may be the biggest cause. NPR's Lisa Simeone reports on two women who are working to close the gap between style and sensible shoes.

Stanley "Tookie" Williams, co-founder of the notorious L.A. street gang the Crips, is scheduled for execution December 13th. Commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson argues that by granting clemency, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could send a signal to other inmates that doing good works behind bars may be rewarded -- and a message of hope to young African-Americans.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry is investigating the case of 22 men dressed in Iraqi police commando uniforms and holding a Sunni prisoner who said they were going to execute him. The incident follows numerous reports of abductions throughout Iraq of Sunnis by men dressed in police uniforms.

Ed Gordon talks with CSI: New York actor Hill Harper about his new book Letters to a Young Brother: Manifest Your Destiny, a collection of essays meant to inspire young black men.

In their first day of questioning of Judge Samuel Alito, senators on the Judiciary Committee asked the Supreme Court nominee to take stands on several hot-button issues.

Lee Boyd Malvo testifies at the trial of sniper John Allen Muhammad. Malvo was previously convicted as Muhammad's accomplice in a series of 2002 Washington-area sniper killings. He tells the court how Muhammad trained him to commit the crime. Muhammad is on trial in Maryland on six murder charges. He has already been sentenced to death in Virginia.

Protests continue against the rule of the King Gyanendra of Nepal. The king's announcement last week that he's willing to turn over power to a prime minister has done little to quiet demands for democracy and a new constitution for the Himalayan kingdom.

A report from the non-profit organization, the International Crisis Group, warns that the Iraqi constitution as written will push Iraq toward full-scale civil war. Melissa Block talks with Robert Malley, director of the ICG's Middle East program.

Michele Norris visits again with Hurricane Katrina evacuee Sharon White. We have been checking in with her from time to time as she tries to get her life back to normal. She currently lives in Baton Rouge but is hoping to return to her home in New Orleans next month.

Another unpleasant task awaiting people returning to their homes in New Orleans is cleaning out refrigerators full of rotten food. We visit residents of one neighborhood as they hold their noses and open their refrigerator doors.