February 2, 1998 All Things Considered (entire program) Requires the RealAudio Player

An index of the day's stories:

ALBRIGHT IN THE MIDDLE EAST -- NPR's Ted Clark reports that the mission of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and UN Ambassador Bill Richardson to drum up world support for a possible military strike on Iraq has found some unexpected support. (3:00)

POLICY ANALYSIS -- NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr says that differing nuances of expression from the state department and the defense department about the Iraq crisis is undermining the United States' position. He says that it may be time for U.S. military and diplomacy leaders to exercise strategic silence. (3:00)

TEXAS SET TO EXECUTE WOMAN -- NPR's John Burnett reports from Austin, Texas, where the state Board of Pardons and Paroles today refused to recommend clemency for convicted murderer Karla Faye Tucker. Tucker is scheduled to be executed Tuesday, but has an appeal pending before the United States Supreme Court. (2:30)

THE FEDERAL BUDGET -- All Things Considered hosts Noah Adams and Linda Wertheimer discuss excerpts from the President's announcement of his proposed budget for fiscal year 1999. We'll also hear part of the Republican response from Senator Phil Gramm. (3:00)

HISPANIC EDUCATION -- Linda talks with Joe Sandoval, the principal of North High School in Denver, Colorado, about President Clinton's proposed plan to reduce the dropout rate of Hispanic students. The plan specifically targets Hispanic education, with 500 million dollars earmarked for programs to keep Hispanic students in school. (5:00)

MORE TROUBLE FOR MICROSOFT -- The investigation into Microsoft's alleged anti-competitive practices widened today as 11 states placed company documents under subpoena. Meanwhile, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates released a letter addressed to all Microsoft employees and shareholders defending the company's actions. NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports. (2:30)

GROWING TOBACCO -- NPR's Frank Browning has the third part of a series of reports that he produced on the challenges of raising tobacco as a cash crop. Browning decided to plant tobacco on part of his land to help make ends meet, after struggling with concerns about the role of tobacco in public health problems. (10:00)

NIGHT TRAIN -- Our reviewer Alan Cheuse talks about "Night Train," the latest novel from British author Martin Amisis. Cheuse finds that the book is a bit of a letdown, from the inauthentic language to a lackluster plot. (2:00)

WOMEN'S HOCKEY -- An old sport will have a new wrinkle at the Olympics in Nagano, Japan later this month. Women's ice hockey makes its debut as an Olympic sport and the U.S. team is one of the favorites. (5:15)

SPENDING THE SURPLUS: CLINTON -- President Clinton's budget proposal for fiscal year 1999 calls for 1.73 trillion dollars in spending and the first budget surplus since 1969. The President today reiterated his plea for Congress to apply any surplus to the Social Security program, in anticipation of baby-boomer retirements. NPR's Mara Liasson reports. (3:30)

SPENDING THE SURPLUS: CONGRESS -- Republicans in Congress attacked the Clinton budget today for its social spending, and said the President was unnecessarily creating new government programs. NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports. (5:00)

TAX CUTS -- NPR's John Biewen interviews folks in Salt Lake City, Utah to see what they'd like the federal government to do with the projected budget surplus for fiscal year 1999. (3:00)

THE ECONOMISTS -- All Things Considered host Linda Wertheimer talks with Susan Tanaka of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Max Sawicky, and economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-backed center for policy studies in Washington, DC. They discuss the projected 1999 federal budget surplus, its possible uses, and what its very existence tells us about the state of the American economy and federal social programs. (8:00)

THE FIRST LADY IN DAVOS -- NPR's Mike Shuster reports from Davos, Switzerland that President Clinton's crisis in Washington served as the subtext of conversations among world political and business leaders who gathered this week at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps. Guests there included not only Hillary Clinton but Senator Orrin Hatch, whose aides told all who would listen than their boss would preside over any impeachment process if the situation requires such an action. (4:00)

PROTECTING CHILDREN -- Emily Hanford of member station WBEZ in Chicago reports on a new program to escort students to school near the city's biggest public housing complex. Special parent escorts, trained and paid by the Chicago school system, are meant to protect the children from growing gang violence at the Robert Taylor Homes complex. (4:30)

RENO CLEANUP -- All Things Considered host Noah Adams speaks with Frank Mullen Jr., a reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal. He talks about a program launched by the county sheriff's department this weekend to remove camps of homeless people along the Truckee River, the main artery running through Reno, Nevada. The program is ostensibly designed for cleaning up debris, but the sheriff has vowed to return week after week until all the homeless have left. (4:00)

STARR INVESTIGATION -- NPR's Chitra Ragavan reports that independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr is continuing to collect evidence in his investigation into allegations that President Clinton lied under oath about an affair with a White House intern and may have tried to get the intern to lie about it as well. With immunity talks between the intern's attorney and Starr's office at a standstill, the proceedings have taken on a more deliberative, low-key tone. (3:00)