March 16, 1998 All Things Considered (entire program) Requires the RealAudio Player

An index of the day's stories:

SEX & POLITICS -- NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr says that talking about sex and adultery is likely to be a prominent feature of the political process for a long time to come. He says that this diminishes the presidency and tarnishes all players in the political arena...from the politicians to the media covering them. (3:00)

SOCIAL SECURITY REFORM -- NPR's Tovia Smith reports on Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's proposal to revamp Social Security, in part, by allowing workers to divert some of their payroll taxes into personal savings accounts. Moynihan, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, was a member of the bipartisan commission to create a plan to keep Social Security from going bankrupt. (4:30)

WHAT SPOCK CHANGED -- Dr. Benjamin Spock, a world-renowned pediatrician and the author of the landmark book "Baby and Child Care," died yesterday at the age of 94. Robert talks with Steven Parker, a pediatrician at Boston Medical Center and the Director of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics. He is the co-author of the seventh edition of "Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care." They discuss the guidance of M.S. Holt, the most popular and well-known pediatrician before Dr. Spock introduced his child care guide in the late 1940's. Holt had advised against playing with or showing affection toward children. (4:30)

THE OWNER'S MANUAL -- Commentator Amy Dickinson looks at Dr. Benjamin Spock's famous book "Baby and Child Care" as a kind of Bible for parenting. Though the book was first published in 1946, it has continued to maintain an almost cult-like following amongst parents even today. (3:30)

AFTER SCHOOL CARE -- Part of President Clinton's nearly 22 billion dollar child care proposal would be used to help communities create or expand after-school programs for children of working parents. Currently, only about a third of schools in low-income rural and urban communities offer child care. And, experts say, because of back-to-work provisions in welfare reform, more children will be staying at home alone in the future. NPR's Vicky Que visited two school systems -- in rural Sussex County, New Jersey, and in Philadelphia-- which fit the national profile; they have after care in a few schools within the district and the programs are in great demand. (12:30)

VATICAN & THE HOLOCAUST -- NPR's Lynn Neary reports on the Vatican's release today of a promised document that addresses the actions of the church during the Holocaust. The document conceeds "errors and failures" on the part of "many Christians" as Nazi Germany tried to exterminate the Jews during World War Two. But it defends the wartime Pope, Pius the Twelfth. The document does NOT apologize for what critics say was his silence as the Holocaust unfolded. Some Jewish leaders have reacted with disappointment, saying the document falls far short of earlier ones issued by Roman Catholic church leaders in France and Germany. (4:00)

SPAT OVER SETTLEMENT VISIT -- NPR's Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem on a last-minute compromise between British and Israeli officials, designed to ease the controversy over the British Foreign Secretary's insistence on visiting the site of a controversial new Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem. In a show of concern for the planned construction of the new settlement at a place Israelis call Har Homa, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook had planned to visit the site in the company of Faisal Husseini, the Palestinian Authorities representative in Jerusalem. Israel insisted instead that Cook be accompanied by Israeli officials, not Palestinian ones. (3:30)

MCKINNEY HEARING -- Robert talks with NPR's Barbara Bradley at the court martial of Sergeant Major Gene McKinney. The jury has voted to reprimand McKinney and reduce him in rank to Master Sergeant. The panel had convicted McKinney on Friday of one count of obstruction of justice, while acquitting him of 18 charges based on claims of sexual harassment. At the sentencing proceeding, the prosecutor asked the jury to sentence McKinney to jail. McKinney took the stand and asked the jury to consider his previously-spotless record as a soldier and not sentence him to jail. McKinney has asked to retire. (4:00)

MCKINNEY REACTION -- NPR's John Burnett visits Fort Hood, Texas, to gauge reaction to Friday's verdict in the McKinney sexual harassment trial. He found that most people support the women who filed the charges against McKinney. (4:30)

SEX HARASSMENT TRAINING -- Defense Secretary William Cohen announced today that he will follow some recommendations made in former Senator Nancy Kassebaum-Baker's report on reducing sexual harassment in the military, including keeping the sleeping quarters of male and female trainees as separate as possible. But he said that for the time being, he would not implement Kassebaum's most controversial recommendation: that male and female recruits be separated during basic training. Cohen also instructed the armed services to expand the number of female recruiters and trainers. NPR's Martha Raddatz reports. (3:30)

CROP DAMAGE -- NPR's Adam Hochberg reports on the latest damage assessment for Southern farmers. Bitter cold last week damaged crops - especially peaches. Georgia farmers may have lost as much as half their crop. (2:30)

HYDROLOGY & FLOODING -- NPR's John Nielsen reports on how government hydrologists predict flooding. The clues aren't exactly what one might expect. Lots of rain doesn't necessarily means flooding, for example--it depends on soil saturation and the shape of floodplains. Lots of snowpack may mean floods, but that depends on what kind of snow it is. This year's El Nino phenomenon has made the flood equation even trickier than usual. (4:45)

NATO & KOSOVO -- NPR'S Tom Gjelten reports from Washington that NATO is considering what measures to take to contain the unrest in the Serbian province of Kosovo. The alliance is discussing deployment of a peacekeeping force along the border with Albania, and may also take over the U-N mission in neighboring Macedonia. (4:30)

KOSOVO STUDENTS -- NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Pristina that since the Serb authorities stripped Kosovo of its autonomous status in 1989, the ethnic Albanian population has developed parallel educational and health care systems. Students, including medical students, do their coursework without text books or labs. Ethnic Albanian doctors, meanwhile, are operating in poorly equipped hospitals. The Albanians are willing to sacrifice the better facilities available in government-sanctioned institutions to underscore their defiance of Serb authorities. (7:00)

YUSSUF ISLAM -- The BBC's Simon Pitts reports that the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens is promoting a new album. He's now known as Yussuf Islam. Part of the profits from the new album will go to victims of the Bosnian war. (1:30)

CLOUDSPLITTER -- Reviewer Alan Cheuse says the latest novel from Russell Banks is a sweeping piece of historical fiction. It's the story of abolitionist John Brown, as told from the viewpoint of one of his sons. It's a look at family loyalty and individual destiny, which Cheuse says is work of strength and beauty. (STATIONS: "Cloudsplitter" by Russell Banks is published by HarperCollins.) (2:30)

BIC RUNGA -- Noah talks with Chris Douridas, who hosts "Morning Becomes Eclectic" on member station KCRW-FM in Santa Monica, California. Douridas gets an average of 50 new CDs a day coming across his desk, and he features his favorite picks on his program. Today, he tells Noah about a young singer/songwriter from New Zealand whom he heard on a recent trip there. Her name is Bic Runga. She has been at the top of the pop charts in New Zealand, and is due to release her debut album in the States this summer. She also will be part of this summer's Lilith Fair tour. Douridas was expecting Runga's music to have indigenous elements woven throughout, but finds her sound more akin to the group of female singers who toured America on last year's Lilith Fair tour. (5:00)