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Mitch Teich from member station KNAU in Flagstaff, Arizona, reports on how small communities in the desert are dealing with water issues. In Cedar Valley, Arizona residents don't have their own wells...they share a well. Each year, a different family takes over the maintenance and operation of the well, and an electronic sensor alerts them when the water level drops too low.

Alex Van Oss visits the nation's oldest lending library, the 250-year-old Redwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, Rhode Island. Still in its original neo-classical building, the Redwood is steeped in history and contains numerous antique books. Heirloom portraits and Greek sculptures adorn the hallways. Thomas Jefferson was an early visitor. Henry and William James were regular brousers, as were Edith Wharton, Emma Lazarus, and Julia Ward Howe.

NPR's Patricia Neighmond reports on a new study in this week's Journal of American Medicine on treating alcoholics. They study showed that giving patients a drug used to treat the side-effects of chemo-therapy may help them stay sober.

Campaigning has posed a new challenge this week for Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush, who has seen his pre-eminent position in the polls slip for the first time since March. Bush has also struggled to keep his focus on the issues he believes will carry him to victory, including his tax cut plan. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

Russia has released of a Hungarian World War Two prisoner after 53 years. Andras Tamas had been diagnosed as psychotic by his captors, and ended up in a Russian psychiatric hospital. Two weeks ago, the head of the Hungarian National Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology brought Tamas home to Hungary. Robert talks with Giles Whittell, the Moscow Bureau Chief for The Times of London, about his visit with Tamas in Budapest.

John Burnett reports on the debate over liberalizing US immigration policy along the Mexico border to allow guest worker visas.

Rapper and actor Ice-T...one of the original "gangsta" rappers. He's got a new CD,Greatest Hits: The Evidence (Atomic Pop). Greg Knot of The Chicago Tribune has written that "Ice-T is that rare gangster rapper who leads with his brain instead of his gun or his crotch." Ice-T's 1992 song Cop Killer landed him at the center of a controversy about gansta rap -- is it a legitimate form of expression or is it incendiary hate-mongering? In addition to his singing career, Ice-T is an actor. He will be Munch's partner on the new (2000) season of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. He has also starred in films New Jack City, Trespass, and Ricochet.

Film Director Arthur Penn. At the age of 77, he's just been hired as executive producer of the TV show Law and Order. The appointment is seen as a breakthrough for the elderly in Hollywood. Penn's films include Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man, The Miracle Worker, Alice's Restaurant and The Missouri Breaks. His film career lost steam in the 80s, and he went to Broadway. His shows included Two for the Seesaw and The Miracle Worker.

Still enjoying the lift provided by his speech at the Democratic national Convention, Vice President Al Gore campaigned through the Midwest this week in an open-collared shirt and an upbeat mood. NPR's Anthony Brooks reports that Gore is borrowing heavily from his father's populist campaign style and, for the moment at least, it seems to be working.

NPR News Correspondent Richard Gonzales reports on a ruling by Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that persecution because of sexual preference must be considered a legitimate reason for the INS to grant an immigrant political asylum.