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Some analysts say the 2002 congressional races are the most lavishly financed in U.S. history. But tough provisions of a new campaign finance reform law take effect at midnight Tuesday, making so-called "soft money" off-limits to party committees. NPR's Peter Overby reports.

Voters across the country elect a new Congress. All 435 House seats and 34 Senate posts are in play, as well as 36 state governors' races. Florida's much-maligned voting procedure is on display. Hear NPR's John Ydstie and Pam Fessler.

Commentator Ed Cullen muses about old-school auto mechanics.

John Ydstie and Andrew Kohut discuss the computer problems at the Voter News Service. VNS has has traditionally generated the exit polling data used by media organizations to project races.

NPR's Lawrence Sheets reports from Moscow that Russian police are rounding up and harassing hundreds of ethnic Chechens in the Russian capital in the wake of last month's attack on a Moscow theater by Chechen gunmen. There have also been acts of violence against Chechen residents of the city. Some one hundred twenty Russians died in the theater siege, most when Russian special forces pumped incapacitating gas into the building to disable the hostage takers.

The remake of Swept Away and the biopic Frida are the most recent examples of big studio pictures being used as vehicles for fashion designers. In the old days, a dress worn by, say, Joan Crawford could sell in the millions. But back then, the studios were the designers who would sell the rights to make knockoffs to Macy's or Sears. Today, the likes of Cartier and Versace are buying screen time because they get more bang for the buck than they do in the fashion mags. David D'Arcy reports.

Satirists Bruce Kluger and David Slavin report on their fictional senatorial candidates, businessman Bob Gunderson and incumbent Chuck Zeffirelli. On this election day, both Gunderson and Zeffirelli make surprise announcements.

Host Bob Edwards speaks with David Broder, reporter and columnist for The Washington Post, about whether exit polls will be put to better use in today's elections than in the election two years ago.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. has hired a consultant to review practices at one of its California hospitals. Two doctors are being investigated for possibly performing unnecessary heart procedures. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

A bumper grape crop in California means inexpensive wine for consumers. Production has jumped by more than 50 percent since 1995. But some growers are struggling to cope amid lower prices. NPR's John McChesney reports.