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Actor Kevin Spacey. He won an Academy Award for best actor in the film American Beauty. He's starring in the new film Pay it Forward with Helen Hunt. (REBROADCAST from 5

NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr examines the evolution of George W. Bush's policy on American involvement in the Balkans.

Vice President Al Gore began his kitchen table tour today, having breakfast with a small business owner and her 14-month-old son in Portland, Oregon. Gore is in the Pacific Northwest to stress his stand on the environment and consumer issues. He's hoping to head off defections to the Green Party campaign of Ralph Nader. Polls show both Oregon and Washington close enough for Nader's vote to make Republican nominee George W. Bush the winner. Linda Wertheimer talks to NPR's Andy Bowers.

Texas Governor George W. Bush has expanded his presidential campaign team to include a squad of his fellow Republican governors. The governors rallied with Bush in Kansas City today before fanning out across the country to campaign for the national GOP ticket. Bush told a cheering crowd that the Clinton-Gore administration has been an obstacle to reform at the state level, because it defended a dominant policy-making role for Washington. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

No issue has divided the two major party presidential candidates more sharply than Social Security. Vice President Al Gore campaigns on guaranteeing current benefits for retirees and those who will soon retire. Texas Governor George W. Bush stresses the need to provide for younger workers by investing some Social Security funds in the stock market. And each candidate accuses the other of pitting one generation against another. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

South Carolinians vote November 7th on whether to have a state lottery. The idea is touted by Democratic Governor Jim Hodges as a boost for education. Thirty-seven states have lotteries. But the idea gets a mixed response in the Bible Belt: Georgia and Florida have one. Alabama defeated a proposal last year. In South Carolina, lottery proponents face opposition from church groups and black leaders. NPR's Adam Hochberg has the story.

Commentator Joe Loconte warns that supporters of religious freedom and supporters of abortion right are on a collision course over laws that require contraception be included on health insurance policies for state or federal employees. These laws pit a belief opposing contraception and abortion against a requirement to provide means to both. Loconte argues that these new laws are a violation of basic civil liberties.

Noah is joined by best-selling novelist, Barbara Kingsolver, author of Prodigal Summer. They discuss how Kingsolver researches the settings and characters of her novels. This one is set in southern Appalachia - a place that the novelist knows well. Kingsolver says she must spend a considerable amount of time getting to know the character and rhythm of a location before writing about it. Kingsolver has also written The Poisonwood Bible, The Bean Trees, Animal Dreams, and Pigs in Heaven. (7:45) Prodigal Summer, by Barbara Kingsolver, is published by Harper Collins, October 2000, ISBN # 0-06-019965-2.

In the fourth part of Morning Edition's Leadership series Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg talks to basketball coach Roy Williams. Williams has consistently led the University of Kansas into the NCAA playoffs but it hasn't been easy.

NPR's Kenneth Walker in Abidjan reports an opposition candidate is claiming a surprise victory in Sunday's presidential election in Ivory Coast. Laurent Gbagbo says he has defeated Retired General Robert Guei who came to power in last year's military coup.