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In the fourth and final part of a series of essays about his life in France, Commentator David Sedaris talks about his April in Paris based on his own experiences in the City of Light, collected in Me Talk Pretty One Day.

Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush have been all but bumper-to-bumper on the campaign trail this week as they concentrate on Midwestern swing states. Yesterday, Bush addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Milwaukee, Wisconsin before heading to Illinois. Today, Gore spoke to the same VFW meeting before making his way to Chicago. Bush told the veterans that the Clinton-Gore administration had allowed U-S military readiness to deteriorate. Gore today enlisted the help of former Defense Secretary William Perry to rebut those charges. NPR's Melissa Block reports from Milwaukee.

Robert talks about the state of the U-S Military with Gideon Rose, Olin Sr. Fellow for National Security Studies at the Council for Foreign Relations, and Senior Editor for Foreign Affairs magazine. Also joining the conversation is Andrew Bacevich (BAY-suh-vihch), Professor of International Relations at Boston University.

President Clinton's legal defense fund released its semi-annual report today showing the same friends of the White House contributing as in past years. The fund was established when the president began accumulating big legal bills to deal with investigations by Congress and a series of independent counsels. NPR's Peter Overby reports.

Robert Siegel and Jacob Weisberg, Chief Political Correspondent for the online magazine Slate, talk about the latest round of presidential campaign ads. 1969 is the title of Al Gore's latest. The George W. Bush campaign has released a new one called Education Agenda, and re-released an earlier ad called Hard Things. (7:00) Slate's address is http://slate.msn.com

NPR's Richard Knox reports the National Institutes of Health has announced new guidelines allowing federally funded researchers to perform experiments with cells taken from human embryos. Research with embryonic cells is controversial. Scientists say cells taken from human embryos may be helpful in treating many serious diseases, including Parkinson's and diabetes. But some people have moral objections to the research because it involves destroying a human embryo. The NIH guidelines attempt to strike a balance by insisting that federally funded scientists can only use cells taken from embryos that are left over from fertility treatments -- embryos that would otherwise be thrown away.

Ron McKay, a scientist at National Institutes of Health, joins Robert Siegel in NPR's Washington studios to talk about new guidelines for stem cell research.

Barbara Bradley reports on today's announcement that Attorney General Janet Reno will not appoint a special counsel to investigate Vice President Gore's 1996 campaign fundraising. Reno says further investigation would not result in a prosecutable case, so a special counsel is not warranted. Gore's campaign spokesman says the vice president is pleased with the announcement. His opponent, Texas Governor George W. Bush, says he understands the American people are tired of investigations, but also says Gore engaged in questionable fundraising activities.

NPR's Michele Kelemen reports from Moscow that President Vladimir Putin said today he feels guilty and responsible for the sinking of submarine Kursk in the Barents Sea. He said Russia's defense minister, navy chief and commander of the Northern Fleet had all offered to resign, but he did not accept their resignations. Putin said there would be no rush to assign guilt until the facts of the accident are known. Yesterday, family members of the 118 sailors who died on the Kursk grilled Putin for hours about his handling of the crisis. Little of the meeting was shown on television. Lawyers for the Kursk families are threatening legal action against the government over the Kursk disaster.

NPR's Mike Shuster reports that Secretary General Kofi Annan has asked world governments to implement changes in U-N peacekeeping operations, as recommended by a report put together by an independent panel. The Secretary General established the panel last March after publication of two reports on the U-N's failure to prevent genocide in Rwanda and to protect residents of Srebrenica (sreh-breh-NEET-sah). The report calls for more efforts to prevent conflict and says peacekeepers must be allowed to defend themselves and their mandate. The report also calls for better peacemaking strategies.