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Michele Norris and Robert Siegel read from listeners' letters and emails. Among the stories: a staircase at the World Trade Center site; a series on legal immigration; Medicare's drug program; and an effort to ban Hot Cheetos.

In this week's politics update, NPR's Political Junkie, Ken Rudin, talks about the primaries in Ohio, North Carolina and Indiana, a surprising defeat in Nebraska, and a not-so-surprising victory in New Jersey.

The Senate is expected to vote Thursday on a bill providing tax cuts worth $70 billion over five years, following approval of the package in the House on Wednesday. The bill extends current capital-gains tax rates for two years and provides relief for millions of taxpayers from facing the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

Faster than the blink of an eye, or a speeding bullet... it's the sting of a jellyfish. NPR science correspondent Joe Palca reports on new research that reveals how fast jellyfish stingers move on their targets.

Even 25 years after Bob Marley's death, the reggae legend's music is unmistakable — and his influence remains strong. Marley experts and fans explore the evolution of a classic song, "One Love," and the lasting legacy of reggae's first international star.

President Yushchenko's party did poorly in Ukraine's weekend elections, apparently coming in third. The pro-Russia party led by Viktor Yanukovych appears to have won the largest number of votes, spurring talk of a coalition of other parties to keep the pro-Russia types out of government.

Singer/songwriter Neko Case possesses one of the most distinctive voices in modern music. Some writers are already predicting that her latest, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood, will end up one of the year's best. In a recent interview, Neko Case sang, played her guitar and spoke about her music with music journalist Ashley Kahn.

Just in time for the Persian New Year, there's a new English translation of the Shahnameh — the epic "Persian Book of Kings" written over the course of 35 years in the 11th century AD by the poet Abolqasem Ferdowsi.

Fifty years ago, most American households had sewing machines. But sewing machine sales began to decline as more and more women left to work outside the home. In recent years, however, sewing machine companies have tried to reverse the decline by reaching out to a new market.

Tammy Duckworth, a former Army helicopter pilot who lost both legs in a 2004 attack in Iraq, is running for the Illinois House seat occupied by retiring GOP Rep. Henry Hyde. Duckworth comes from a long line of veterans with serious war injuries who wind up in politics.

The government possesses powerful data-mining technology to find patterns that could help catch suspected terrorists. But it must use it in a way that doesn't hurt ordinary Americans, the head of a government advisory panel says.

Facing tough questioning on Capitol Hill, Gen. Michael Hayden argues that domestic wiretapping is a vital national policy that does not violate American's civil rights. Siobhan Gorman, intelligence correspondent for The Baltimore Sun, provides an update on Hayden's Senate Intelligence Committee hearings.

Daniel Schorr, a senior news analyst at NPR, says that the current debate about immigration challenges Americans to decide what mix of legitimizing and criminalizing immigrants they are willing to accept.

President Bush calls Joshua Bolten, his new chief of staff, a "creative policy thinker." In more informal circles, he's known as a budget cruncher who cruises around on a motorcycle.

Every morning, a group meets inside the U.S. State Department to come up with ways to respond to media around the world. The people in this room are just one part of an effort to repair a major problem: the declining image of the United States overseas.

President Bush flies to Yuma, Ariz., to talk about his plans for slowing illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. Tighter border enforcement elsewhere has increased illegal crossings in this area not previously known as a hotbed of smuggling.

Mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., burst into applause as the Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives safely to Mars. Only about two-thirds of NASA's Mars missions have survived. The spacecraft is supposed to gather more information about Mars than all previous missions combined.

A Cadillac salesman and an oil-rig engineer are working to put the nation's first offshore wind farm in the Gulf of Mexico.

A long-simmering conflict is escalating in southeastern Turkey between government forces and Kurdish rebels known as the PKK. According to a local human-rights organization, the conflict left about 500 people dead last year, including government soldiers and police officers.

Even as it loses its chief executive, the CIA's recently retired third-ranking official is under investigation for possible improper relations with a defense contractor, says Newsweek magazine correspondent Michael Isikoff. Federal investigators are investigating CIA Executive Director Kyle "Dusty" Foggo.

North Carolina Central University has long stood in the shadow of Duke University. The school's chancellor, James Ammons, talks about the North Carolina Central student who has made allegations of rape against members of the Duke lacrosse team, and the racial and class tensions in the city of Durham.

The Senate Intelligence Committee could begin hearings on President Bush's choice of Gen. Mike Hayden to run the CIA as soon as next week. But the debate on the Hill has already begun, with some members of Congress asking whether a career military officer should be running that agency right now.

The Carthusian monks are one of the most rigorous religious orders in the world, living silently solitary lives, almost unchanged since the eleventh century. Author Nancy Klein Maguire talks about her new book that takes us inside the monastic life.

The crisis in Darfur points to the need for a new way to prevent genocide and other human-rights abuses says commentator Joe Loconte. Two years ago, the United Nations reported on the reign of terror in Darfur, but it's taken until now for peace accords to be signed. Loconte says that a new policy, based on the Christian "just war" tradition, should be developed to use force to prevent genocide.

When a Hummer drives up to NoHo Scooters in North Hollywood, Calif., owner Mike Frankovich is no longer surprised. With big jumps in gasoline prices, sales are skyrocketing at scooter shops around the nation.