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NPR's Scott Horsley reports Ford Motor Company and telecom giant Qualcomm will offer wireless communication systems to new cars. The venture, called Wingcast, will be installed in all new Fords by 2004, giving drivers access to e-mail and wireless Internet services. But some worry that these distractions will affect road safety.

Katherine Perkins of member station WOI reports on a summer camp for aspiring construction workers that Iowa contractors hope will grow the potential work force.

NPR's Linda Gradstein reports on the defeat of former Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Yesterday Israel's parliament selected Moshe Katsav to become the next president. The victory of Iranian-born Katsav of the opposition Likud Party puts a humiliating end to Peres' half-century political career.

There have been many political dynasties in the United States, but only two presidential sons have risen to be nominated for president in their own right. John Quincy Adams... and George W. Bush. The Bush clan never uses the word dynasty, of course, but it's hard to miss the importance of family in this political year. NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports on the importance of being a Bush.

Linda talks to Savita Deva, a resident of Bangalore, India, where the kidnapping of an Indian movie star has sparked riots. Schools and other buildings are shut down, and Savita says buses are burning.

Writer and editor William Maxwell has died at the age of 91. Maxwell was on staff at The New Yorker for forty years, where he worked with many famous authors -- including J.D. Salinger and John Updike.

The International Olympic Committee's medical commission today approved a combined blood and urine test to detect the banned performance-enhancing drug EPO. The decision must be approved by the IOC's executive board meeting later this month, but experts said it is very likely the new test will be used during the Sydney games in September. Finding a reliable test for EPO, which up to now has been virtually undetectable, has been a priority for the Olympic movement. EPO stimulates the production of oxygen-rich blood cells and is popular with endurance athletes. NPR's Tom Goldman reports.

All Things Considered Host Robert Siegel is at the Republican Convention in Philadelphia this week, where "diversity" is one of the watchwords. Minority orators, singers, even dancers are fixtures on the podium, applauded enthusiastically by the largely white audience. This hasn't always been the experience of African-American Republicans, who often feel isolated in their party and their communities. NPR's Wade Goodwyn went to Philadelphia's African-American Museum today, where he talked to many black women who are delegates to the convention.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu says traveling becomes harder in the summer, when the airports and hotels are full of tourists. His proposed alternative: stay home in a cool room and come down with a malady he calls spleen -- a malady that prevents you from doing or caring much about anything.

Veteran Broadcaster Robert Trout casts back to his early days as a reporter covering politics, to tell the story of the Republican Party's slide from a majority party to the minority in the 1930's and 1940's. For its first seventy years, the GOP was the dominant party. But from Hoover's loss to Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election until now, Republicans have been playing catch-up to the Democrats. This is the first of two reports.