July 22, 1998 All Things Considered (entire program) Requires the RealAudio Player

An index of the day's stories:

Measuring Heat Records -- All Things Considered host Linda Wertheimer talks with Dr. John Overpeck, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Paleoclimatology program at the National Geophysical Data Center. They discuss Overpeck's research, which uses "proxy measurements" to show that the planet is the hottest it has been in 600 years. Some of the things that Overpeck and his colleagues used to reach this conclusion are tree rings, ice cores, lake sediments, and historical documents. (4:00)

Arbitration Day -- NPR's Don Gonyea reports that GM and the UAW began presenting their cases to an independent arbitrator today who will decide if the six-week long strike that has shut down the auto makers North American operation is legal. If arbitrator Thomas Roberts decides that the strike is illegal, he could order the strikers back to work and order the UAW to pay millions in damages to GM. (3:30)

Female Circumcision -- David Hecht reports from Senegal on a unique educational program which has been quite successful in getting whole villages to renounce the traditional practice of female circumcision. The approach is built around a series of two-month courses which focus on a range of topics, from hygiene to human rights. The program goes on for a full year before the subject of female circumcision is even raised. Facilitators do not say it is wrong, or that it inhibits sexual pleasure; they merely focus on the procedure's health risks. (7:45)

Yugoslav Economy -- NPR's Tom Gjelten reports on the condition of the Yugoslav economy and what this means for its government's ability to fight a war in Kosovo. Yugoslavia last week got an agreement from the London Club to restructure its commercial bank debt, but the terms were surprisingly bad, even worse than analysts thought they would be. The country's cash reserves are now very low: $200-300 million That's about what the country spends each month on imports. The Kosovo operation is costing about $2 million a day. (4:00)

Sarajevo Libraries -- All Things Considered host Noah Adams talks with Andras Riedlmayer, a bibliographer at Harvard University's Fine Arts Library, who's working to help Bosnian libraries rebuild their collections, which were largely destroyed by the war. Riedlmayer is coordinating an effort to provide new books and services -- and also to retrieve copies of unique library items that were destroyed as part of the ethnic cleansing campaigns during the war. (6:00)

Mideast Talks -- NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr says that the Middle East peace process has been in a state of crisis for a long time now, but for the most part things remain stable. He says that some sort of movement is an imperative -- and Prime Minister Netanyahu may be approaching a point of no return for his government if no progress is made. (3:00)

French Fashion -- NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that fashion designers are being forced to change with the times in order to survive. Women have become more practical in the way they dress, meaning the market for high-end feathers and frills has dwindled. The result is a blurring of the lines between couture and ready-to-wear clothing. The old-time designers don't like it, but younger members of the industry are learning to compromise. (5:30)

Pooh Underwear -- Commentator Scott Brunner remembers a day at the gym when he found himself in the men's locker room wearing the Winnie-the-Pooh underwear his daughter gave him. (3:00)

Cloning Mice -- NPR's Joe Palca reports that scientists in Hawaii have cloned an adult mouse. In a paper published in tomorrow's issue of Nature, researchers have confirmed for the first time that the techniques used to clone Dolly the sheep work in other species. The new development is expected to speed up the development of new applications of cloning in agriculture and drug development. (4:30)

MFN and China -- NPR's Brian Naylor reports from Capitol Hill on today's House debate over renewing favorable trade status for China. Opponents of extending the trade status to China are expected to focus on human rights issues and recent allegations that China has received U.S. missile technology. (3:30)

Air Force Nominee Rejected -- The Senate Armed Services Committee has rejected President Clinton's nominee for Secretary of the Air Force. Daryl Jones's critics have accused him of being a bad pilot while he with the Air Force Reserve and wrongly accepting $88 a month flight pay after he had stopped flying. President Clinton has stood by his nominee, and even the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Strom Thurmond, supported Jones. But the other committee Republicans and two Democratic members were opposed. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports. (4:00)

Shepard Obit -- The first American in space, Alan Shepard, died Tuesday night at the age of 74. Shepard was one of the original seven astronauts chosen for the Mercury space program, and was selected to be the first American man to fly in space. He later became one of only 12 men to ever walk on the moon. Linda talks with Allan Needell, the acting chair of Space History at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum about Shepard's career as a Navy test pilot, his work for the fledgling NASA projects, and his influence on the space program. (8:00)

NYC Sex Shops -- NPR's Melissa Block reports that a group of adult businesses in New York City appealed to the Supreme Court today, to stave off enforcement of the city's zoning law that could put hundreds of them out of business. An appellate court cleared the way for police and building inspectors to enforce zoning laws that are targeted at getting rid of shops that specialize in X-rated material. The new regulations ban sex shops, strip clubs, and adult book and video stores within 500 feet of residences, schools, churches and day care centers. Most importantly, the shops are also barred from setting up shop within 500 feet of each other, which proponents pushed as a way of preventing clusters of these kinds of stores from cropping up in outlying or industrial areas of New York. (4:00)

Free Speech on the Internet -- NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports on the case of a disgruntled consumer who posted nasty remarks about two companies on his personal Web site. The companies went to court to have the slurs removed from cyberspace, but the judge turned them down. (4:30)

Robert Young Obituary -- NPR's Andy Bowers reports on the death of actor Robert Young. He died today at his California home of natural causes at the age of 91. A self-described "B" movie actor in the 40's and 50's, Robert Young was transformed by television into an American icon. In "Father Knows Best" which ran for 9 years on CBS, Young created the perfect father. As "Marcus Welby, M.D.", an Emmy award-winning television staple for 7 seasons, he portrayed the perfect family physician. The power of those images -- ideal and unattainable -- still resonate in the national culture, years after both shows left the air. (4:00)

Bulls Buzz -- Linda talks with George Ofman, a sportscaster and news anchor for radio station WXRT in Chicago, about the announcement today that Iowa State University's basketball coach, Tim Floyd, has quit his job. The Chicago Bulls professional basketball team is expected to announce tomorrow that they intend to hire Floyd, despite Michael Jordan's statement that he would not play with Floyd as the coach of the team. (2:30)

Whale Radio -- Noah talks with Dr. John Ford, the head of the Vancouver Aquarium's Cetaceans Acoustic laboratory. This morning at 11:00 Vancouver time, a project called 'Orca-FM' was launched. It's a low-powered FM radio station broadcasting the sounds of underwater microphones set up in the Robson Bight Ecological Reserve, located off British Columbia's Johnstone Strait. Listeners within a roughly one-mile radius of the transmitter will be able to hear the sounds of orca whales, study their songs, and follow the paths of nearly 500 orcas that regularly pass by the hydrophones. The station is broadcasting at 88.5 FM. (5:15)