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NPR's Jim Zarroli reports that the blue chip Dow Jones industrial average has not declined at the same rapid clip as the battered Nasdaq during the recent stock downturn. But today the Dow fell very sharply and slipped below the 10,000 mark for the first time in five months, fresh evidence that pessimism about stocks is increasingly broad and deep.

Linda Wertheimer talks with Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Climate Global Change, about President Bush's reversal on tightening carbon dioxide emissions from power plants to prevent global warming. The president sent a letter yesterday to four Republican senators stating that he had decided not to seek reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. This is a reversal of a previous campaign pledge. The decision is a blow to environmentalists and a win for coal and oil industries. Claussen's organizations membership includes 33 major companies.

TUCKER reviews –Catchall— the new release by the band Swag.

Karen Schaeffer of member station WCPN reports that the Ford Motor Company has shut down a Cleveland-area engine plant while officials try to pinpoint the source of an outbreak of Legionnaires' Disease that has sickened at least three workers.

Noah Adams speaks with Randy Rosetta, a sports writer for the Avalanche-Journal in Lubbock, Texas about the controversy over Lubbock's Texas Tech University's decision to make Bobby Knight the school's basketball coach. Coach Knight was forced out of Indiana University after many years of success because his angry outbursts and less than civil behavior had made him a liability for that university. Mr. Rosetta says the prospect of coach Knight's coming to Texas Tech is welcome by many people, particularly those under 35. But a Texas Tech professor has started a petition drive among the school's faculty recommending that the administration not hire coach Knight

Brenda Tremblay of member station WXXI reports that many people in the city of Rochester, New York, are reading the same book. People in supermarkets and malls wear pins that say they're reading, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. Its the story of a young black man wrongly sentenced to death. Rochester's mayor says its allowing residents to talk about race relations in a way they'd usually avoid.

Commentator Judy Muller says she winces when she hears words such as 'efforting,' and she wonders how so many nouns are being turned into verbs.

NPR's Jason Beaubien reports that a plaque was erected in the New Hampshire State House to honor the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The 12-member group fought in the Spanish civil war to support the Loyalist government. But some say the plaque is memorializing Communists and Communist sympathizers.

Commentator John Ridley is a self-proclaimed 'tactionist.' He's on a mission to touch interesting people and things, and gather fascinating stories in the process. Next on his 'touch-list:' a nuclear warhead. Unfortunately, the officials at Los Alamos are unimpressed by his unique hobby.

Host Melissa Block talks with Houston singer/songwriter Eric Taylor, whose country-folk songs have been called "little movies." He's got a new album out, Scuffletown, and he says he enjoys writing songs like stories -- as long as he doesn't give too much away to the listener.