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Since losing his bid to become the Republican party candidate for president last year, Arizona Senator John McCain has pushed ahead with his cry for campaign finance reform. McCain and Democrat Russell Feingold have been promised a March Senate debate on their campaign finance reform bill by Majority Leader Trent Lott. Lott has also promised to discourage filibusters of the bill. Filibusters killed the bill in the last two congressional sessions. Robert talks with the Arizona Senator about what it will take to win the battle this time.

The Republican-controlled Florida legislature today held a special session to name its own set of electors to the Electoral College, a move that Democrats have decried as intended to ensure George W. Bush wins the state's 25 electoral votes, and thus the national election. The Florida Supreme Court's ruling today sets up the possibility that there will be competing sets of electors, if a final vote tally turns in favor of Al Gore. We hear about today's action in the Florida legislature, and what is expected to happen Monday, when the two houses reconvene, as Robert talks to Ginny Brown-Waite, President Pro-Tempore of the Florida state senate.

NPR's Brian Naylor reports from Tallahassee, where a committee of the Florida state legislature voted to authorize a special session that would consider the appointment of presidential electors. The race between Al Gore and George W. Bush remains deadlocked over the results in Florida, with the stalemate threatening to go beyond the December 12th deadline to certify electors. Republicans, who control the Florida legislature, want lawmakers to be in position to name the electors if a presidential winner is still unnamed. But the electors would certainly be Republican electors, and furious Democrats insist that any involvement by the legislature at this stage would be premature.

The nation's 108th Congress convenes Tuesday with a considerable hangover of unfinished business from its last session. Before adjourning, lawmakers failed to strike agreement on extending unemployment insurance for 750,000 jobless people. Hill-watchers also expect heavy lobbying from the White House for quick action on the administration's new economic stimulus package. NPR's David Welna reports.

NPR's David Welna traveled home with Kentucky Congressman Ken Lucas, the state's only Democratic representative in Washington, D.C. and reports on Lucas' meetings with his constituents. The visits came just days before President Bush was to address a joint session of Congress on his new budget proposals. Lucas, whose district voted for Bush, is one of the most conservative members of his own party, and is one of the Democrats whom the president is hoping to win over. The two-term House member says that he and his district are in sync on most of issues.

Classes were canceled at Bethel Park High School when this week's snowstorm hit. Instead of a weightlifting session, the coach told players to help the community by shoveling driveways — for free.

Former weapons-inspection chief David Kay briefs the Senate Armed Services Committee on what he called the fruitless efforts to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. In that session, Kay agreed with Sen. John McCain that an inquiry should be held into intelligence on Iraqi weapons. Kay says the search for weapons should continue, but it might not succeed. NPR's David Welna reports.

Kaing Guek Eav, the former Khmer Rouge interrogator known as Duch, was brought to court in Cambodia for a pretrial hearing. It is the first public session of the U.N.-backed tribunal probing the regime's reign of terror in the 1970s. Duch, 66, is charged with crimes against humanity.

President Bush is in Germany for three days of meetings at this year's G-8 summit. Formal sessions begin Thursday morning at a resort town on the Baltic. The U.S. and Europe are at odds over climate change, and tensions are rising between the U.S. and Russia over a missile-defense system.

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with moderate Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska about areas where Republicans and Democrats might work together in the next Congress.