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NPR's John McChesney reports on the one-dollar-per-head fee cattle producers must pay when they sell cattle. The money goes in large part to finance commercials that promote beef consumption. But some ranchers say forcing them to pay for the campaign violates their constitutional rights.

NPR's Robert Siegel and NPR's Michele Norris read from some of this week's listener letters.

Insects known as "walking sticks" have gained and lost wings several times over the last 10 million years. At least that's what a study in this week's issue of Nature magazine contends. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Michael F. Whiting, professor of evolutionary biology at Brigham Young University and lead author of Loss and Recovery of Wings in Stick Insects.

Guest host John Ydstie talks with Jeffrey Lehman, dean of the University of Michigan Law School, and Cornell's president-elect, about the affirmative action policies of the law school at Michigan.

Today's transgenic (genetically modified) crops contain have been tinkered with in a relatively simple way. And there is no evidence that they pose any health risk. But scientists are now working on the much more complex modifications needed to enhance the nutritional value of food crop -- by increasing their vitamin content, for example. This could have unpredictable consequences. NPR's Eric Niiler reports.

NPR's Andy Bowers reports that naturalist John Muir is back. Or so it seems. A man who has played Muir on stage for decades has just become a California county supervisor representing the Yosemite Valley... where he plans to take up Muir's environmentalist causes against a slate of property rights advocates.

NPR's Don Gonyea reports the Bush administration is going to court in support of three white university students who say their school uses racial quotas. The White House is accusing the University of Michigan of using quotas in deciding who is admitted. The university says its policy is constitutional, and that race is one of many factors it considers in its selection process. Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress say after the racial remarks made by Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), now is not the time for the administration to challenge the factor of race in admissions.

Guest host John Ydstie talks with Alberto Almeida, who has devised an index to measure fear among residents of nine major cities in Brazil. Almeida is the head of opinion research at Brazil's leading business school, the Fundacao Getulio Vargas, in Rio de Janeiro.

David D'Arcy reports on this year's Sundance Film Festival, widely regarded as the most prestigious showcase for independent films and documentaries, which opens tonight. One film features a handful of the 40,000 Cubans who left their island on rafts in the 1990s.

DuPont and other multinational corporations announce the launch of the Chicago Climate Exchange. The effort is the first major attempt at establishing a market for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. NPR's Robert Siegel talks to Andrew Aulisi, a policy analyst with Environmental Defense.