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An index of the day's stories: RJR DOCUMENTS -- Robert talks with NPR's Joe Neel about documents obtained by NPR that indicate the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company was marketing cigarettes specifically to teenagers in the 1970s. (5:00) ALCOHOL -- NPR's Brenda Wilson reports on a new government study suggesting that teen drinkers are at a much higher risk of having alcohol problems when they reach adulthood. (2:30) CHILDCARE -- NPR's David Molpus reports that working women who have young children are more likely to rely on relatives for daycare than on any other arrangement. The Census Bureau released a report today that says there has been an increase in the use of institutional daycare centers, but that far more children are cared for by close relatives. (3:30) OTHER STORIES -- In other stories we're following today: Iraqi refusal to allow UN weapons inspections. (1:00) GOP LITMUS -- NPR's Elizabeth Arnold talks to Robert about a fight within the Republican Party over late-term abortions. Some abortion opponents are calling for a vote at this week's meeting of the Republican National Committee on whether to withold party funds from Republicans who are not opposed to the practice. But that would mean cutting off RNC campaign funds to such popular moderates as New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman. (5:00) ISRAEL -- Today, Israel made it clear that it was going to hold onto a large area of the West Bank despite calls from Washington for a significant and credible pullback. Israel's cabinet today produced a list of what it called 'vital interests' it says it will retain on the West Bank. Palestinians immediately denounced the decision, calling it a trick and yet another attempt to delay the promised Israeli pullout. The move comes less than a week before Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu is to meet President Clinton in Washington. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will also meet with the President. NPR's Linda Gradstein reports. (3:00) ASIAN MARKETS -- NPR's John Ydstie reports that financial markets across Asia were calm today on news of progress in talks between Indonesian and IMF officials. (3:30) BUDGET SURPLUS? -- NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports economists are divided about what should be done with the nation's first budget surplus in decades. Some would like to increase spending on education and training programs; others say the nation ought to pay down the debt accumulated over the last 15 years. (5:30) TAX REFORM -- Commentator Jacob Weisberg says that if the Democrats want to counter the GOP flat tax proposal, they should try suggesting tax reform. Weisberg says that getting rid of the loopholes and making the law neutral between different kinds of income would promote economic efficiency. But, he says, President Clinton seems to have no interest in sweeping tax reform. (3:30) ERDEMOVIC -- Gillian Sharpe reports from the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague that a Bosnian Croat has pleaded guilty for a second time...but to a lesser charge. Drazen Erdemovic was part of an execution squad that killed up to 1,200 Muslim men and boys in one day. Judges ruled that he hadn't been informed of his rights, so he re-entered his guilty plea as part of a plea-bargain. In exchange, he promised to co-operate with the court to provide information that may help the Tribunal bring men who ordered the mass executions to justice. (2:30) RADIO TARIFA -- Charles de Ledesma reviews a new CD from the band Radio Tarifa. They are from Madrid, and their music is a fusion of Arabic percussion, Moorish melodies, and traditional flamenco. (The CD is "Temporal" by Radio Tarifa... it's on World Circuit Records out of London (171-383-4907), and on Nonesuch Records in the United States.) (5:00) IRAQ -- For the second straight day, Iraqis kept an American-led U.N. inspection team from doing its work. Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz accused the inspection teams of being unbalanced, repeated earlier Iraq accusations that team leader Scott Ritter is a spy, and accused the U.S. and Britain of fronting an "Anglo-Saxon conspiracy" that's prolonging the inspection process in order to keep sanctions in place. Aziz also denied reports that Iraq has tested its biological weapons on human subjects. NPR's Eric Weiner reports from Baghdad. (3:30) TESTING, ETC. -- The United States can not confirm that Iraq tested biological weapons on human subjects, but said reports to that effect are just one more reason why inspections should continue without Iraqi interference. Meanwhile, the UN Security Council approved a "Presidential Statement" deploring Iraq's actions, calling them unacceptable. But the statement did not threaten the use of military force except in the most oblique way...by referring to an earlier Security Council statement. US officials hint, however, that they are running out of patience with Iraq, and say that the US has authority to act unilaterally IF that becomes neccessary. NPR's Ted Clark reports. (4:00) INSPECTORS -- Jacki talks with David Kay, who was the chief nuclear weapons inspector for UNSCOM in Iraq during 1991 and 1992. He now heads the Center for Counter-Terrorism Technology and Analysis at the Science Application International Corporation. They discuss why U.N. chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter is uniquely qualified for heading up the inspection that is in dispute, and why video and satellite technology is not yet refined enough to substitute for his presence. Kay is familiar with the prison facility that inspectors wants to examine. (4:30) SECRETARY OF STATE -- Robert talks with the United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. They discuss her latest efforts to get the weapons inspections in Iraq back on track, and other international issues. (8:00) MICROSOFT -- NPR's Dan Charles talks with Jacki about a hearing held today in the Microsoft contempt-of-court case. A U.S. District Court judge in Washington, DC is considering whether Microsoft has violated his order to remove its Internet Explorer software from Windows 95. The company says that would disable the core program needed to run most personal computers -- but the judge maintains that it will do no harm. The case also revolves around Justice Department claims that Microsoft's inclusion of the browser with Windows 95 violates a 1995 decree settling antitrust charges. At the close of the hearing today, January 22nd for closing arguments in the case. (4:30) TWA 800 -- The Federal Aviation Administration has released the tapes of air traffic control conversations from the 1996 TWA flight 800 explosion. The tapes feature the voices of pilots of other planes reporting that they saw an explosion and an air traffic controller repeatedly calling for TWA 800 to answer him. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports. (3:00) GMHC & HIV -- A major AIDS organization has shifted its policy on keeping the names of people with AIDS and HIV infection confidential. Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York now says a system should be developed that would allow earlier identification of people who have HIV so that they can receive treatment sooner. The move brings the organization closer to the position favored by public health authorities -- they want names to be reported to public health departments so that sexual contacts can be notified. WNYC's Beth Fertig reports. (4:00) OTHER STORIES -- In other stories we're following today: RJR Documents. (1:00) 19TH CENTURY GAY LITERATURE -- Jacki talks with David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell, the editors of a new book called "Pages Passed from Hand to Hand: The Hidden Tradition of Homosexual Literature in English from 1748 to 1914." They talk about the challenges of finding and preserving a tradition in literature that was largely hidden and not part of the mainstream press. Many of the works that they have found were in fact in the form of pages passed from friend to friend, rather than in conventionally-bound form. The editors say that the material is still very difficult to find, with collectors secreting away many important works in private collections. (8:00) |
