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Researching family history, short-story writer Desiree Cooper turns to classified ads from the 1700s which describe runaway slaves. She wonders if the man who fled wearing a blue suit and carrying a fiddle might be a distant relative.

Janet Babin of member station WCPN reports that scientists at a small company in Ohio have come up with what they see as a solution to a growing problem in many U.S. lakes. Eurasian water milfoil is a weed that grows so large and fast that it clogs the water and makes boating difficult. The company is using a tiny beetle which feeds on the weed to control it.

Linda talks with Congressional Statistician Bruce Oppenheimer about Al Gore's Congressional voting record. Dr. Oppenheimer is a professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. His latest book is called Sizing Up the Senate; University of Chicago Press, October 1999.

Alan Cheuse reviews Alice Lichtenstein's first novel called, Genius of the World, about an American family in turmoil. The publisher is Zoland.

NASA has decided to take advantage of the next landing opportunity on Mars and put two robotic rovers on the planet's surface. NPR's Christopher Joyce reports on what will be the the first-ever "twin-rover" expedition to explore the surface, and the first touchdown since last December's crash landing of the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander mission.

Linda and Noah read from the All Things Considered listener mailbag, including reactions to commentator Carol Wasserman's Aug. 8 essay on the realities of aging.

NPR'S Jack Speer reports the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a new rule today that should give individual investors better access to timely information. The SEC's new rule will require companies to publicly disclose important information at the same time it is shared with the analysts and brokerage firms on Wall Street. Brokerage firms remain opposed. They say the new rule will have a "chilling" effect on communication.

In the 1980s, Dungeons and Dragons inspired millions of kids to spend their spare time pretending to be wizards and dwarves. A new version of the D&D rule book comes out tonight, and the designers are betting it will lure today's kids away from video and computer games.

NPR's David Welna reports as Chicago works to improve its public housing some suburban mayors fear the city's just transferring the problems and people into their struggling neighborhoods. Chicago is tearing down its high-rise public housing and the residents are reconcentrating in predominantly black suburbs. Not so fast, say the suburbs.

The famous North Beach bookstore founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti is about to be named a historic landmark in San Francisco. From member station KQED, Cy Musiker reports.