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NPR's Eric Weiner reports that the issue of drugs continues to overshadow the Summer Olympic games. Today, sixteen-year old Romanian Andreea Raducan was stripped of her all-round gold medal after she took a banned stimulant contained in two cold medicine pills that was given to her by the team doctor.

Reviewer Alan Cheuse comments on The Accidental Indies, a book by Robert Finley, about the epochal voyage by Christopher Columbus in 1492. (2:00) The Accidental Indies is published by McGill-Queen's University Press.

NPR's Anthony Brooks reports from St. Petersburg on Democratic Presidential candidate Al Gore's efforts to win voter support in Florida for his Medicare reform plan. Florida is considered a critical state. Both Gore and his Republican opponent, George W. Bush, are offering proposals to add prescription drug coverage to the Medicare program.

Owen Bennett-Jones reports Floods in Vietnam over the past few weeks have killed more than one hundred people and caused millions of dollars in damage to property and farmland.

Commentator David Weinberger realizes the current vogue in business to "multitask," but argues that few do it, and no one does it well. Slicing your attention, he says, is like slicing a plum -- you lose some of the juice.

In two of the most anticipated races of the Olympics, Michael Johnson and Cathy Freeman triumphed in the men's and women's 400 meters, fulfilling historic expectations. Freeman, the Australian who lit the Olympic cauldron, became the first Aboriginal athlete to win an individual medal. Johnson succeeded in defending his 400 meter title, the first male sprinter to do so. The win places him among the top runners in Olympic history. NPR's Howard Berkes reports.

The latest ad being run by the Republican National Committee accuses the current administration, including Democratic nominee Al Gore, of failing the nation by allowing school test scores to fall dangerously behind. The ad says American school children's math and science scores are now the lowest in the world. NPR's Steve Inskeep takes a look at the information behind the ad.

NPR's Michele Kelemen reports that although Russian forces continue to lose men in Chechnya nearly every day, the war rarely grabs headlines any more. Soldiers who have fought there complain the war is bogging down, but few Russians are demanding publicly that their government revise its strategy, seek a political settlement, or pull out of Chechnya.

Second generation flight attendant Rene Foss has had enough of crabby travelers, so she's written a musical comedy starring clueless passengers, and the beleaguered men and women who serve them. Around the World in a Bad Mood is based on Foss' 15 years as a flight attendant - a job she still holds. In fact, her airline supports this "extra-aviational" activity. The musical is on stage in New York on weekends. NPR's Margot Adler reports.

Host Mike Shuster talks to Stephen Quinn of CBC Radio News in Vancouver about the trial of former NHL player Marty McSorley. He is charged with assaulting Donald Brashear, another Hockey player during a nationally televised game in February. The attack left Brashear bleeding and unconscious on the ice with a severe concussion.