March 24, 2001

Weekly Edition
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An index of this week's stories:

Dems and Reps (14.4 | 28.8) - NPR's Mara Liasson reports that despite vows to quell bipartisan rancor, President Bush's brand of compassionate conservatism is still drawing lines of division between Democrats and Republicans. - 7:00

DVDS (14.4 | 28.8) - Brooke Gladstone, co-host of the NPR program On the Media, reports on the national fascination with DVD players---the DVD has penetrated the market twide as fast as the CD and almost three times faster than the VCR. The high-quality image and sound of the DVD allow home viewers to enjoy an experience much closer to the film-maker's original vision -- special features include parts of the origininal film that were left out, background comments from the director or editor -- and all this is changing the average movie-goer. - 8:00

All Songs Considered (14.4 | 28.8) - An interview with All Things Considered Director, Bob Boilen and Host of a New Online Music Show, All Songs Considred. - 4:10

West Nile II (14.4 | 28.8) - The West Nile virus was identified for the first time in Uganda in the 1930s. It was infecting people in the West Nile region of Africa. The virus spreads when mosquitoes bite infected animals, and then bite humans. It showed up for the first time in the United States two summers ago. In 1999, thousands of crows around New York City, infected with the virus, began dropping dead out of the sky and dozens of people ended up in hospitals. Now a federal study, which has not been published, suggests that since it arrived in the U.S., the West Nile virus has made roughly fourteen hundred people sick. It has spread from New York and now is known to infect animals along the East Coast, up to the Canadian border and down to North Carolina. It is expected to eventually spread across the entire United States. NPR's Daniel Zwerdling reports the case of West Nile symbolizes a dilemma: as the global economy knits countries closer together, it's also making the United States more vulnerable to exotic diseases. The story of West Nile is a production of NPR and American Radio Works. It was produced by Marisa Penaloza. - 8:00

Dengue Virus (14.4 | 28.8) - An ancient infectious disease has returned to El Salvador. For NPR and AMERICAN RADIOWORKS, correspondent Daniel Zwerdling reports on the outbreak of Dengue Fever in the Central American nation. It was produced by Marisa Penaloza. - 14:00

Naming Decades (14.4 | 28.8) - NPR's Andy Bowers reports about the problem of naming the present decade. No one really knows quite what to call it. Is it the zips or zeros? - 5:30

Some stories do not link to audio files because of Internet rights issues.

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