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Noah Adams speaks with John Powers, who covers the Olympics for the Boston Globe. Powers has been following the series of arbitration cases by American athletes who say they should not have been passed over for the US Olympic team. Major cases include athletes in wrestling, cycling, and softball. Powers says a lot of the cases involve the way in which athletes are chosen for the teams.

The Elements - Satirist Tom Lehrer's recitation of all the names of the chemical elements to the tune of I am a Very Model of a Modern Major General. (1:00) The song The Elements is from the CD The Remains of Tom Lehrer, on Rhino Records, www.Rhino.com.

A woodchuck spent ten ecstatic days in Commentator David Budbill's garden before Budbill shot it, to preserve his vegetables. Budbill grieves for the woodchuck and for himself.

Heavy fighting between Indian and Pakistani forces in the disputed border area of Kashmir broke a cease-fire today. Zaphar Abash, of the BBC, reported from Islamabad that both sides are accusing the other of starting the clash.

One of several tax cuts passed by Congress this summer -- a repeal of the tax on estates -- was formally dispatched from Capitol Hill to the White House today -- but not by the usual means. The document made its way down Pennsylvania Avenue on board the tractor of Lynn Cornwell, a cattle rancher from Montana. President Clinton has said he will veto the repeal, and Congress is not expected to muster the votes to override him. But Congressional Republicans are determined to keep the issue in the public eye. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

A federal judge has ruled that Wen Ho Lee, the nuclear scientist accused of mishandling sensitive information at Los Alamos National Laboratory, can be released on bail. NPR's Barbara Bradley explains.

On the campaign trail yesterday, Presidential nominees George W. Bush and Al Gore criticized each other's tax cut proposals. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports on Bush's comments; NPR's Madeleine Brand reports on Gore's.

NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports that at least 50,000 of the striking Verizon Communications workers are back on the job today as the two-week strike against the largest local phone company winds down. The unions said they were happy with terms of the deal, which gives them better pay and better benefits; more important, from their perspective, the unions have increased their ability to organize the company's wireless and Internet divisions. Analysts say the settlement is being closely watched by telecommunications industry.

Joe Smitherman is running for his 10th consecutive term as mayor of Selma, Alabama. He has been mayor since 1965. Smitherman once referred to Martin Luther King in very unflattering terms and was an unabashed racist. He says he has reformed. NPR's Debbie Elliott has a profile of this southern leader from another era.

David Greenberger reviews the new CD from The Glands, a band from Athens, Georgia. You could classify them as indie-rock, but they like to avoid adhering to any stylistic direction, and are all over the map musically. Some songs sound like LA pop songs from the mid-60s, others are atmospheric psychedelia, and others still have a modern rock sound. (4:00) The Glands' new self-titled CD is on the Capricorn Records label.