September 3, 1998 All Things Considered (entire program) Requires the RealAudio Player

An index of the day's stories:

SWISS-AIR CRASH -- NPR's Neal Conan reports that the search is underway off the coast of Nova Scotia for the flight recorders of a Swissair jumbo jet that crashed last night. 215 passengers and 14 crew members died when an MD-11 plane came down in the sea. 137 of those on board were American. The plane was on a flight from New York to Geneva when the pilot reported smoke in the cockpit. The plane crashed in about 150 feet of water. Authorities in the US and Canada say they have no reason to believe terrorism was involved in the crash. (5:00)

AT THE SCENE -- Robert talks with NPR's Anthony Brooks, who is on the site of search and recovery efforts near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. They discuss the latest information on the causes of the Swissair flight 111 crash and talk about the challenges in recovering the aircraft and flight recorder information. (3:30)

EARL DAMAGE -- NPR's Debbie Elliott reports from Panama City, Florida that Hurricane Earl came shore last night over the Florida panhandle, but appeared to have left behind little damage. The storm toppled trees, washed out part of Highway 98, and knocked out power to more than 20 thousand people. No deaths have been reported, but two fisherman are still missing after their boat capsized in the Gulf of Mexico. Earl has moved inland into south Georgia, where it's bringing more rain and wind, but it has been downgraded to a tropical storm. (3:30)

RENO'S OPTIONS -- NPR'S Peter Overby reports that the Justice Department is conducting a 30-day inquiry, the first step in the independent counsel process on the legality of the 1996 Clinton-Gore issue ad campaign. This was the Democrats' TV blitz that was financed with corporate and union money. The Justice inquiry could cause problems for President Clinton, but also for Bob Dole, who did much the same thing, and for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which just launched a new issue-ad campaign. (4:00)

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CLINTON IN ARMAGH -- We'll hear tape from President Clinton's address in Armagh, Northern Ireland today. (1:30)

N. IRELAND -- Noah talks with William Graham, a political corresondent with the Irish News morning newspaper in Belfast. They discuss developments in the peace process in Northern Ireland: the announcement that Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness will act as the party's liaison to the commission on decommissioning; a planned face-to-face meeting between the head of the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, Gerry Adams, and the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, David Trimble; and Adams' statement that the time for violence in Northern Ireland is past. (4:30)

BURIALS -- Noah talks with Tim Pat Coogan, the author of IRA: A History. They talk about the statement made by the Irish Republican Army admitting that the organization had executed and buried some of its own members in disciplinary actions. The IRA has promised to disclose the burial places at a later date. Coogan says that in the past these disclosures are only made in times of peace. (3:00)

RUSSIAN SMALL BUSINESS -- NPR's Michele Kelemen reports from Moscow that the slide of the ruble and the liquidity crisis afflicting Russian banks are hitting small businesses hard -- particularly those dependent on imports. Businessmen say that when they try to pay their suppliers, their banks do not transfer the funds. A Moscow restaurant is offering discounts to diners who pay cash, fearing it will never be reimbursed for credit card purchases. (4:00)

IMMIGRANT RIGHTS -- NPR's Richard Gonzales reports on a recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that has implications on immigrant rights. The court ruled Congress acted unconstitutionally when it denied legal immigrants all judicial review of deportation orders for convictions of certain crimes, including minor drug offenses. The ruling could also affect illegal immigrants. (4:00)

EL NINO -- Satire from commentator Guillermo Gomez-Pena blames all America's problems on the weather phenomenon El Nino and all other immigrants from south of the border. (3:00)

CRASH CHRONOLOGY -- NPR's Melissa Block reports from New York, where the American Red Cross and clergy are counseling those who lost loved ones in the crash of Swissair flight 111. The plane went down late last night off the coast of Nova Scotia. All passengers and crew aboard were killed. The Canadian Coast Guard is leading the search and recovery effort. There are still no indications as to what caused the jumbo jet to crash into the sea. (4:30)

SEARCHING -- Noah talks with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Kelly Ryan, who is in Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. They discuss the search and recovery efforts and the reaction by this small seafaring community to the disaster. (4:00)

PLANE HISTORY -- NPR's Andy Bowers looks at the safety history of the MD-11, the McDonnell-Douglas aircraft that crashed late last night off the coast of Nova Scotia. (3:15)

MANN OBIT -- Among the victims of the Swissair plane crash were several public health leaders, including Dr. Jonathan Mann, the former head of the United Nations' AIDS program. As NPR's Brenda Wilson reports, Mann was on his way to a conference in Geneva with his wife, Mary Lou Clements-Mann, a leading AIDS vaccine researcher. Mann led the UN AIDS program during the early years of the global AIDS pandemic, resigning in protest in 1990 over the UN leadership's reluctance to fund AIDS prevention programs. Mann was 51. At the time of his death, he was dean of Philadelphia's Allegheny University School of Public Health. (3:30)

PEGGY'S COVE -- Noah talks with Karen Garrison, a resident of Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia. She talks about how daily life in the small town has been turned upside-down since the crash of Swissair flight 111. Cables are everywhere, having been brought in to accommodate the media's needs for telephone and fax lines; fishermen cannot go out to sea to do their jobs; children cannot play in the school playground, because it is the only area where emergency helicopters can land; and all the town's businesses are closed for the day. Garrison says that the residents feel as if they're under siege. (3:30)

MORE GOP SEATS IN NOVEMBER? -- Robert talks with Charles Cook, political analyst for the National Journal. They discuss the optimism that is growing among Republicans that the party could gain more seats in the fall elections as a result of economic worries and political fallout over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. (5:00)

ILLINOIS SENATE RACE -- NPR's Peter Kenyon reports that the Democratic senator from Illinois, Carol Moseley-Braun, is one of the most imperiled incumbents in this year's elections. She has been dogged by ethics-related problems and her opponent, Republican State Senator Peter Fitzgerald, is running close to her, and even ahead, in some polls. Fitzgerald, a millionaire, also has the advantage of being able to finance much of his own campaign. (7:30)

BUSINESS CONFERENCES IN CUBA -- NPR's Tom Gjelten reports that the Clinton administration today refused to give permission to a group of American businessmen to hold a conference this month in Cuba. US officials said the planned conference would undermine American policy towards Fidel Castro. The move was something of a surprise, because the US had allowed a similar meeting to go ahead earlier this year. (4:15)

END OF THE BURRITO TRAIL -- Burrito lover Peter Fox has spent much of the summer looking for the origins of the burrito. In this audio postcard from the state of Sonora Mexico, he thinks he has found it. (3:00)