April 15, 1998 All Things Considered (entire program) Requires the RealAudio Player

An index of the day's stories:

Tax Day -- All Things Considered host Linda Wertheimer talks about tax day and some protests related to it. (1:00)

1997 Tax Changes -- All Things Considered host Robert Siegel talks to Robert Peare, president of Peare and Heller, a certified public accountants firm, about changes in tax filing for 1997. This year, the IRS is encouraging more people to file on-line, and there are changes in the tax code concerning capital gains.

Audits -- NPR's Larry Abramson reports there are patterns among tax returns that make some more likely to be audited by the IRS. Certain returns draw the agency's attention, like being self-employed in a mostly cash business. The IRS plans to audit only one and a quarter percent of all returns. But critics accuse the IRS of auditing too many people for the wrong reasons. For example, they say low income people are audited disproportionately. (4:00)

Latvia-Russia Tensions -- NPR's Andy Bowers reports from the Latvian capital, Riga, on an apparent breakthrough in a long-running dispute between Latvia and Russia. Responding to pressure from Russia and the West, the Latvian government has decided to ease restrictions on citizenship. (2:30)

Iranian Protests -- Robert talks with Gary Sick about the significance of student demonstrations in Iran and the release of Teheran's mayor. Sick is an adjunct professor of Middle East politics at Columbia University. (4:45)

Iran Thaw -- NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr says the easing of tensions between Iran and the United States is bound to be slow. The Clinton Administration would like to see the resolution of internal political conflicts in Iran before committing to new acts of diplomacy. (3:00)

Crackdown on Hamas -- NPR's Linda Gradstein reports that police under Yasser Arafat's authority have been conducting a major crackdown on the radical Islamist group, Hamas. Dozens of Hamas leaders and supporters have been rounded up. Human rights officials and members of Hamas have been protesting the recent crackdown. (4:00)

East-West Syndrome -- NPR's Edward Lifson reports on a new psychiatric clinic outside Berlin that treats eastern Germans suffering mental illness brought on by their inability to adapt to life in the new unified German state. Since unification, rates of depression, alcoholism and spousal abuse have risen sharply. (6:00)

Yankee Stadium -- The Yankees played at the Mets' Shea Stadium today, as Yankee Stadium is still closed. Inspectors are going over the ballpark inch by inch, looking for structural defects, after a 500-pound steel joint fell through the upper deck on Monday. There's no word yet on how long the stadium will be closed. The accident has heightened speculation that owner George Steinbrenner will finally move his team out of the Bronx. (2:30)

Yale Younger Poets -- Linda talks to George Bradley, editor of The Yale Younger Poets Anthology. Bradley, who won the Yale Younger Poetry Prize in 1986, talks about the first anthology of America's longest running poetry competition. There are selections from young prize winners who later became famous as well as poems from lesser known writers. (7:30)

False-Positive Mammogram Results -- NPR's Wendy Schmelzer reports on a study of breast cancer screening in this week's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The authors estimate that over a 10-year period, half of the women getting annual mammograms will be told that a test result is abnormal, when in fact nothing is wrong. Because such results mean more testing, false positives on mammograms and on clinical breast exams add thirty-three dollars to every hundred spent on breast cancer screening in the United States. (3:45)

General Motors Rebate -- NPR's Don Gonyea reports from Detroit that General Motors is offering millions of customers up to a thousand dollar rebate for trading in their old GM car for a new one. The massive rebate offer is aimed at keeping GM's share of the U-S marketplace above 30 percent. GM officials were shocked earlier this year when the automakers' market share fell to 28 percent. (3:30)

FCC and Minorities -- NPR's Brooke Gladstone reports on the possible impact of yesterday's court ruling striking down a Federal Communications Commission minority hiring rule for broadcasters. (4:00)

Botha Trial -- NPR's Charlayne Hunter-Gault reports from George, South Africa, that former President P.W. Botha went on trail today on contempt charges for refusing to appear before the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Commission members said earlier in the week that a deal had been made to avoid the trail in exchange for Botha agreeing to testify before the panel. But at this morning's court hearing the hard-line apartheid-era president defiantly said he would not submit to the Commission's subpoenas. (5:00)

Russia's Prime Minister -- Reporter Phil Ittner reports from Moscow on the battle for confirmation of Sergei Kiriyenko as Russian prime minister. Tuesday, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, the Duma, broke ranks with fellow communists and said he would endorse Mr. Kiriyenko -- who failed to win approval last week. Today, the speaker backed off from his prediction that the nominee would be approved. Communist hardliners insist Yeltsin cannot legally re-submit the nomination to the Duma. And they are determined to take the matter to Russia's constitutional court. (2:30)

Earned Income Tax Credit -- NPR's Ina Jaffe reports the Earned Income Tax Credit is an increasingly popular way for the federal government to give cash payments to poor people. Economists say the EITC puts the working poor over the poverty line, but that even with the increased use of the EITC, millions of Americans who would qualify haven't applied. (5:00)

Declaration on No Dependents -- Commentator Kevin Bleyer itemized his tax return for the first time this year, and it made him feel like he had truly reached adulthood. (4:00)

Abortion Protest -- Linda talks to NPR's Cheryl Corley about today's closing arguments at the Chicago trial that pits the National Organization for Women against anti-abortion groups, Operation Rescue and the Pro-Life Action League. The class action lawsuit used a federal racketeering law to charge anti-abortion groups with using extortion and violence to close down abortion clinics. (3:30)

Red Cross Kidnapping -- The BBC's Cathy Jenkins reports on the kidnapping today of 10 relief workers employed by the International Committee for the Red Cross. Unidentified Somali gunmen took the ICRC workers under a spray of gunfire at the airport in Mogadishu. (1:30)

Indian Gaming in California -- Scott Horsley of member station KPBS in San Diego reports on a controversy over video slot machines in California Indian casinos. Governor Pete Wilson wants to strictly limit their use. The tribes are fighting the governor and putting the question to the voters in a ballot initiative. (5:30)