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between Congress and the White House. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says Republicans would raise the debt ceiling before a potential default on March 1st if the White House agreed to add deficit reduction measures and a small tax cut to the package.

NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports that Texas Sen. Phil Gramm announced today that he would end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination after placing fifth in Monday's Iowa caucuses. Gramm's bid for the presidency was marked by an impressive fundraising and organizational effort, but his fiscally and socially conservative message never struck a chord with many voters. The question now is where his supporters will go -- to Pat Buchanan, who is expected to attract many of the social conservatives who backed Gramm, or to Bob Dole, who has a similar committment to balancing the federal budget.

Commentator John Rosenthal is a photographer and at a wedding he was working at he befriended a little girl in a white dress and patent leather shoes who wanted to pose for a picture. She also wants to know why he is taking so many pictures if he doesn't know anyone at the wedding.

We're asking our listeners to phone our call-in line to tell us for Valentine's Day...what they remember of their first real kiss.

David Culhane reports from Paris on a shakeup in the French defense industry. The government offered the biggest overhaul and the most comprehensive review of French military strategy since World War II. President Chirac announced in an address to the nation today that over the next 6 years military conscription will be replaced by a professional army.

of AFL/CIO leaders from around the country, where Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan has been a big topic this week. They are trying to persuade rank-and-file members that Buchanan does not represent labor interests, despite his appeals to blue collar workers.

Robert and Linda read from another batch of listeners' comments.

NPR's Lynn Neary reports on the Christian mens' movement and its first conference for men of the cloth. About 40,000 ministers from all over the world filled a sports stadium in Atlanta recently to sing, pray and listen to other preachers call for a national revival for Jesus.

Alan Cheuse reviews Criminals by Scottish writer Margot Livesey. (LIV-see). It's a dark comedy about moral ambiguity in the life of a English business man. (Publisher:Knopf)

Danny talks with Stephen Ansolabehere, author of "Going Negative, How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate" (The Free Press, Simon and Schuster). Ansolabehere says that contrary to popular belief, negative ads don't cause voters to change their minds. In fact, according to one study Ansolabehere and his colleagues completed, negative ads reenforce voters pre-existing political views, with one glaring exception, independents. In this case, Ansolabehere says, negative ads tend to make independents stay home and not vote at all and since independents tend to be the moderating force in elections, the fact that they are discouraged from voting by negative ads may be leading to the polarization of American politics.

of the first American to die in Bosnia, the implementation of the ceasefire and the de-mobilization of the various factions.

Noah speaks with NPR's David Welna in Port au Prince about the peaceful transfer of power today in Haiti as President Jean Bertrand Aristide steps down and Rene Preval (ren-NAY PRAY-VAL) takes office. Preval will have to deal with Haiti's economic woes, as well as a potentially unstable security situation when U.N. peacekeeping forces leave the island, possibly as early as the end of this month. Welna says Preval also will have to contend with Aristide, whom many Haitians regard as the once and future president.

police force in a now-deserted suburb of Sarajevo. Most of the Serb inhabitants had fled over the past couple of days.

Robert talks to two actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company, who are here in Washington performing "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Kennedy Center. They are Desmond Barrit, who plays Bottom, and Lindsay Duncan, who plays Titantia. Barrit was an accountant until he was 35 years old and then became on actor on a bet.

Minnesota Public Radio's John Biewen has a profile of a working poor family. Many political leaders now say curing poverty is beyond the ability of government; poor people simply have to go to work. But millions of the poor already work. One in six Americans is poor, or near poor, despite having one or more family members in the workforce. The proportion of workers earning poverty-level wages has grown by 50-percent in the past 13 years.

Linda Gradstein reports from Tel Aviv on the bombing at a busy intersection that left at least a dozen people dead and more than 100 wounded. This is the fourth suicide bombing in 8 days. Splinters groups of the Islamist extremist organization Hamas claimed responsibility for the first two attacks and reportedly for the third.

Tomorrow's primaries, called Junior Tuesday, include New England states and Georgia. One western state is also being contested, Colorado. NPR's Mark Roberts reports that the property rights and land use issues that dominated conservative campaigns in the past are no longer an issue. Instead, the candidates are offering the same one-size-fits-all message that everyone else gets. Many Coloradans find it hard to find an issue that moves them.

about campaigning among Republican candidates for tomorrow's Arizona Primary. The winner will get all 39 delegates to the national convention.

NPR's legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports on oral arguments before the Supreme Court today in a case testing the confidentiality of a clinical social worker's notes. The case involves counseling given a police officer after she fatally shot a suspect. Congress has left it to courts to use reason and experience in determining whether conversations between psychotherapists and their patients are protected from disclosure in federal court.

where today voters are going to the polls.

Jacki talks with Ben Frizzell, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. Officials there say over 150-thousand acres of land have been burned because of brush fires. Most of Oklahoma and Texas are experiencing a severe drought. That and high winds and low humidity are creating dangerous fire conditions.

Commentator Stuart Cheifet says computer sales people often don't know what they are talking out when they try to sell things to customers... and he finds it frustrating, upsetting and annoying to see people buy things they don't need.

Daniel talks about Pope John Paul the Second's trip to Central America with the BBC's David Willey. Willey traveled with the Pope when the Pontiff last visited Latin American in 1983, and he says the Roman Catholic Church in the region has become much more conservative over the years, eschewing reform and supporting incumbant governments.

Illinois is the 10th US state to pass a law allowing courts to take guns away from people convicted of abusing a spouse. NPR's Edward Lifson reports that the law has found its most vocal opponents among the state's police officers, who now face the prospect of losing their service revolver if they are convicted of spousal abuse.

Robert talks with Sherri Rottersman, a young classical