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Linda talks with Congressional Statistician Bruce Oppenheimer about Al Gore's Congressional voting record. Dr. Oppenheimer is a professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. His latest book is called Sizing Up the Senate; University of Chicago Press, October 1999.

NPR's Tovia Smith reports on the unique challenges that Joseph Lieberman's strict religious beliefs may present as his campaign for Vice-President kicks into gear.

Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews the new documentary, The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Televangelist Tammy Faye Baker is the subject of the film.

Turns out the most popular TV star in China is actually Canadian: Mark Rowswell's character, Dashan is adored by millions of Chinese fans, and NPR's Rob Gifford reports he's the first foreigner to be accepted in an elite group practicing the art of Chinese comedic language.

Leonard and Phil Chess were two Polish immigrants who started a record company and gave us the sounds of post war urban America - from Muddy Waters' blues, to Chuck Berry's rock & roll, to the jazz sounds of Gene Ammons and Ramsey Lewis. Biographer Nadine Cohodas tells Liane the story of Chess Records. Her book is called Spinning Blues into Gold (St. Martins Press) (17:00).

Host Jacki Lyden speaks with fire fighter Tim Duck about the fires in the West. Duck has been fighting the fires in the Salmon Challis National Forest in Idaho where U.S. Marines have recently joined the battle.

Jacki talks with George Hudler, professor of Plant Pathology at Cornell University, about a giant fungus. The fungus, which looks like a giant mushroom, is spreading across a forest in Eastern Oregon. It is thought to be the largest living organism in the world.

Studies show few U-S students are proficient at basic geography and it doesn't get much better when they grow up: nearly half of Americans don't know the population of the U.S.; three in ten can't use a map to calculate distance or directions. A group of educators want to change how geography is taught ... making instruction both more relevant and more rigorous. Jodi Becker of Chicago Public Radio reports.

In the first of a three-part series on the Mafia, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports that a courageous new generation of magistrates and politicians has dealt serious blows to the Sicilian mob, also known as the Cosa Nostra. But anti-Mafia crusaders worry that the Cosa Nostra is quietly re-emerging under new guises.

Denis Johnson is a writer best known for his quirky stories about the drug life in the collection titled, Jesus' Son, which opened as a movie this summer. Now he's published a new novel called, The Name of the World. Alan Cheuse reviews it. (1:45) Please Note: Jesus' Son, and The Name of the World, both by Denis Johnson, are published by Harper Collins.