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With North Carolina Sen. John Edwards announcing his plans to run for president in 2004, speculation about the Democratic primary steps up a notch. NPR Senior News Analyst Dan Schorr says the only real question at hand is who can raise the most money by the end of the year.

John Dillon reports one in seven Vermont dairy farms are expected to go out of business within the year, victims of the lowest milk prices in 25 years. The situation in all the northeastern states is just at grim. Economists say the smaller New England farms just can't compete with bigger operations in the west.

A sailor who died in the suspected terrorist bombing of the U.S.S. Cole will be buried at Antietam National Cemetery -- a Civil War cemetery that has been closed since the Korean War. The National Park Service agreed to make an exception for Fireman Apprentice Patrick Roy, whose family lives near the site. Noah interviews John Howard, Superintendent of the Antietam National Battlefield, in Sharpsburg, Maryland.

Robert Siegel talks with John A. Kitzhaber, the Governor of Oregon, about his call for an energy summit. The Governor wants to meet with Energy Secretary Bill Richardson and the Governor of Washington State about the federal government order forcing northwest electric utilities to sell power to California. Kitzhaber opposes the order. He says it was made without consultation with the states, and will makes a bad situation worse.

NPR's Peter Kenyon profiles Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, the Democratic counterpart to John McCain on the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance reform bill. Like McCain, Feingold has a knack of irritating his own party. But he could turn out to be the Democrats' best hope of attracting independent voters to their side of the aisle.

NPR's John Ydstie reports that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told lawmakers today that inflation is still well-contained and that recent increases in wholesale and consumer prices are mere blips on the screen. Greenspan was asked whether the Fed had waited too long before moving to cut interest rates in late January. Greenspan defended the central bank's actions and said the answer to the question is "No."

Confirmation hearings will begin next week for John Ashcroft, the former senator from Missouri whom George W. Bush has nominated as his attorney general. Liberal groups who oppose Ashcroft have been vocal since his nomination was announced. But Ashcroft's supporters have been getting organized as well. NPR's David Welna reports on how the battle is taking shape.

NPR's Peter Overby reports Congress will have a busy week of confirmation hearings for President-elect Bush's cabinet nominees. Hearings for Mr. Bush's choices of John Ashcroft for Attorney General and Gale Norton for Interior Secretary are expected to be contentious. But other nominees, such as Tommy Thompson as Health and Human Services Secretary and Christie Whitman as EPA Administrator are likely to sail through with few snags.

NPR's Peter Kenyon reports on today's first day of hearings on former Senator John Ashcroft's nomination to be Attorney General. Senators promised a full and fair hearing. Several Democrats said they need reassurance that Ashcroft can put aside long and deeply held beliefs that conflict with the law. Republicans emphasized Ashcroft's extensive experience in law and public service, and the usual deference to a president in his cabinet choices.

Former Senator John Ashcroft received big campaign donations from some companies that will have big cases pending before the Justice Department in the months to come. But if that bothers some people, it probably won't be an issue in Ashcroft's confirmation hearings. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

Confirmation hearings begin Tuesday for John Ashcroft as George W. Bush's nominee for attorney general. Among the questions Ashcroft is expected to face are concerns over an interview he did with Southern Partisan magazine. NPR's Adam Hochberg profiles a magazine with a limited circulation, but a controversial reputation.

NPR's David Welna reports on his visit to West Houston this week with a Republican member of the House, Texas' John Culberson. Culberson represents a safe Republican district, one that first elected President Bush's father to Congress. But Culberson won the seat only five months ago, and he used the congressional recess -- and a town hall meeting -- to share views with his constituents.

Attorney General John Ashcroft went to Oklahoma City today to meet with survivors and relatives of victims of the 1995 Murrah Federal Building bombing. Ashcroft said he wanted to talk with the people about the calls from some of them for closed circuit television of the execution of bomber Timothy McVeigh. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

The Economist, the London-based publication on politics and world affairs, publishes a simplified version of exchange-rate theory with its Big Mac Index, using the price of a hamburger to compare purchasing power worldwide. Economist editor Pam Woodall tells All Things Considered host John Ydstie how the burger can predict economic trends from Argentina to the European Union.

India has lost one of its most important birds, and no one knows why. Since the early 1990s, hundreds of thousands of healthy-looking vultures have literally dropped dead there. Scientists say they've never seen anything like it. NPR's John Nielsen reports for All Things Considered.

Communities around the country pass resolutions criticizing the Patriot Act. Attorney General John Ashcroft has urged Congress to expand the anti-terror law to allow the government to hold more terrorism suspects indefinitely, but critics say the increased powers threaten civil rights. Hear NPR's Juan Williams.

John Roberts held forth on a range of topics Tuesday -- but refused to detail his views on cases that may appear before the Supreme Court. Robert Siegel talks with law professor Douglas Kmiec of at Pepperdine University and Jeffrey Rosen, legal affairs editor at The New Republic.

For the second time in a month, Senate Democrats block the confirmation of John Bolton to become U.N. ambassador and are urging President Bush to consider another candidate. The president left open the possibility that he'd bypass the Senate and appoint Bolton during the July Fourth congressional recess.

Sidney Bechet played soprano saxophone in the early decades of jazz, before John Coltrane popularized the instrument. A new anthology, Mosaic Select: Sidney Bechet, offers listeners a chance to hear Bechet's music, transferred and restored from rare recordings from 1923 to 1947.

Alan Furst has a new historical spy novel called The Foreign Correspondent. His first one, Night Soldiers, came out in 1988, and he's written eight more since then. Critic at large John Powers, who says he always snaps up a new one, explains Furst's appeal.