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Linda and Robert read letters from All Things Considered listeners. (2:45) Send e-mail to: atc@npr.org or traditional mail to: Letters, All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 635 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20001.

NPR's Don Gonyea reports from the road with the AFL-CIO. The labor federation has its leaders on a nation-wide bus tour this fall to help elect pro-union candidates. The trip started in West Virginia with stump speeches at union halls and cook-outs to get out the vote.

NPR's Ted Clark reports on the United States' reaction to the crumbling situation in the Middle East in the face of recent terrorist acts in Yemen against the U.S. and Britain and increasing violence in Israel.

In the past ten years, one third of the executions in the United States have been carried out in the state of Texas. Since 1924, executions in Texas have taken place in the Walls Unit in Huntsville. The Warden of that prison, Jim Willett, narrates a documentary titled Witness to an Execution. It includes first hand accounts from the men and women who participate in and witness executions as part of their jobs. Guards, chaplains and reporters talk about their work -- detailing what occurs in the minutes before, during and after the execution. The prison employees say they do the job because the vast majority of citizens want it done. Most are affected by the work. Some reach the breaking point and find they can no longer work in the system.

Los Angeles film critic Kenneth Turan reviews the new movie Meet the Parents. It stars Ben Stiller as a prospective son-in-law who needs to win over his girlfriend's over-protective father before he can propose. Turan says both Stiller and Robert De Niro, who plays the father, turn in solidly comic performances in a film that has wide appeal.

NPR's Jack Speer reports on the current state of the Stock Market. Yesterday, the Dow hit its fifth worst single-day decline ever. Turmoil in the Mideast and a major spike in oil prices are two culprits in the market's dive.

(Update) NPR's Anthony Brooks reports from St. Louis, the site of tonight's third and final Presidential debate. Despite the informal "town hall" style, the stakes are again high, with Vice President Al Gore and Governor George Bush still in a statistical dead heat with only three weeks left until the election.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports that two of the nation's largest oil companies are merging. Chevron is acquiring Texaco in a stock swap valued at more than 35-billion dollars. The deal announced today is seen as an answer to other recent mergers in the oil industry, including the mergers of Exxon and Mobil and British Petroleum with Amoco. The new company will be called Chevron Texaco and will be headquartered in San Francisco.

Thousands of people responded to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan's call to the Million Family March today on the National Mall in Washington. The gathering marks the fifth anniversary of the Million Man March. Unlike the previous event, organizers invited women, as well as people of all races and religions. The audience listened to speakers address the glories of family life and the dangers to families, including drug abuse and racism.

In the Port of Aden, Yemen, divers are searching water-filled areas of the U.S.S. Cole for bodies of the crew members caught in last week's explosion. They're using metal cutters to clear their way through the wreckage. The Defense Department says a small boat armed with explosives rammed the side of the Navy Destroyer in a terrorist attack, killing 17 sailors. Noah talks to John Burns of The New York Times, who is stationed in Yemen, about the ongoing search for victims, the investigation into the attack, and the cooperation of the Yemeni government.