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Voters in the United States are presented with a number of so-called "purchase decisions" in the course of the presidential election process. Look at how campaigns mold and package their candidates for their White House bid.

U.S. presidential candidates market to the public their personal integrity and their policy positions, much the same as selling a consumer product such as pizza or a car. It's political marketing.

On February 10, 2007, Senator Barack Obama announces his bid to be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee this way: "This campaign has to be about the reclaiming of the meaning of citizenship."

The event in Springfield, Illinois has been turned into a campaign video. Everything seen in that video -- smiling faces of many colors, cheering crowds, the Senator speaking stirring words -- is deliberately put there to build enthusiasm and support for his candidacy.

One Obama supporter says, "I will walk to [the state of] Iowa, if I have to, to help this man [Obama]." Another supporter says, "We need this guy. Our nation needs this guy."

The process of persuading voters is outlined by analyst Brian Darling at the independent research group The Heritage Foundation in Washington.

"One [level] is making the candidate likeable -- making the candidate someone the voters would want to vote for because they like the candidate. But also, it is very important that these candidates voice principles that are very interesting and acceptable to the voters," Darling said.

And package those positions in straightforward ways voters can easily remember, says Democratic media strategist Peter Fenn. "It should be clear, it should be concise, it should connect with voters, it should contrast with your opponent -- your strengths over your opponent's weaknesses. It should be continual. It should be repeated and repeated and repeated." he said.

In order to generate excitement for a candidate, strategists fashion slogans that are catchy and convey the candidate's positions -- and can fit on a car bumper sticker.

Brian Darling cites examples from present and past elections, "You look at President Bill Clinton, [and the phrase was] 'It's the economy, stupid.' You look at President George [H.W.] Bush the first, and it was 'Read my lips - no new taxes.' So, you have all these catchy phrases. And, Barack Obama is using a phrase now -- 'Change," he said.

Political marketing has to create and carefully manage that wave of excitement to crest at the moment when voters make their purchase decision. "Timing is everything in politics. It is true with the giving of speeches. It is true of the rallies [for the candidate]. It is true of your 'get out the vote' operation. It's like a graph. You just want to build, build, build, build, build, and then hit your peak on Election Day," Fenn said.

But to win the White House, both the Democratic and Republican parties have to do more than march their own motivated members to the polls. The parties must also reach out to people who are independent and vote for whomever they see as the best candidate. Ultimately, it is the people in the middle, not the left or the right, who will determine the next president.

The convention could not agree on a plan. So it created a special committee to develop a compromise. The convention suspended its meetings for the July Fourth Independence Day holiday. But the special committee continued its work. When the convention re-opened, the delegates heard the committee's report. This was its proposal:

The national legislature would have two houses. Representation in one house would be decided by population. Each state would have one representative for every forty thousand people in that state. Representation in the second house would be equal. Each state would have the same number of representatives as the other states.

It was called "The Great Compromise." Delegates knew that the success or failure of the convention depended on this agreement.

The debate between large states and small states lasted for weeks.

The small states truly believed they would lose power to the large states in a national government. Several times, they threatened to leave the convention in protest.

William Paterson of New Jersey, a small state, spoke. "Some of the assembled gentlemen have made it known that if the small states do not agree to a plan, the large states will form a union among themselves. Well, let them unite if they please! They cannot force others to unite."

Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, old and in poor health, sat writing quietly during the debate. Now he asked that his words be heard. Franklin asked James Wilson, also of Pennsylvania, to read his statement.

"Why," he asked, "do the small states think they will be swallowed if the big states have more representatives in the national legislature? There is no reason for this fear. The big states will gain nothing if they swallow up the small states. They know this. And so, I believe, they will not try."

For a long time, the delegates could not agree on representation in the legislature. So they debated other parts of the proposal.

One involved the names of the two houses of the legislature. The delegates used several names. Most, however, spoke of them simply as the First Branch and the Second Branch. We will speak of them by the names used today: the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Next came the questions: Who could be elected to the House and Senate? Who would elect them?

Delegates did not take long to decide the first question. Members of the House, they agreed, must be at least twenty-five years old. They must be a citizen of the United States for seven years. And, at the time of election, they must live in the state in which they are chosen.

Members of the Senate must be at least thirty years old. They must be a citizen of the United States for nine years. And, at the time of election, they must live in the state in which they are chosen.

How long would lawmakers serve? Roger Sherman of Connecticut thought representatives to the House should be elected every year. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts agreed. He thought a longer term would lead to a dictatorship.

James Madison of Virginia protested. "It will take almost one year," he said, "just for lawmakers to travel to and from the seat of government!" Madison proposed a three-year term. But the delegates finally agreed on two years.

There were many ideas about the term for senators. A few delegates thought they should be elected for life. In the end, the convention agreed on a Senate term of six years.

Next came a debate about the lawmakers' pay. How much should they get? Or should they be paid at all?

Some delegates thought the states should pay their representatives to the national legislature. Others said the national legislature should decide its own pay and take it from the national treasury.

That idea, James Madison argued, was shameful. He thought the amount should be set by the Constitution. Again, Madison lost the argument. The Constitution says that lawmakers will be paid for their services and that the money will come from the national treasury.

The question of who should elect the lawmakers raised an interesting issue. It concerned democracy. In seventeen eighty-seven, the word "democracy" meant something very different from what it means today. To many of the men meeting in Philadelphia, it meant mob rule. To give power to the people was an invitation to anarchy.

"The people," Roger Sherman declared, "should have as little to do as possible with the government." Elbridge Gerry said, "The evils we have seen around us flow from too much democracy."

From such statements, one can see why the delegates sharply debated any proposal calling for the people to elect the national lawmakers.

Sherman, Gerry, and others wanted the state legislatures to choose national lawmakers.

George Mason of Virginia argued for popular elections. "The people will be represented," Mason said, "so they should choose their representatives." James Wilson agreed. "I wish to see the power of the government flow immediately from the lawful source of that power. . .the people."

James Madison stated firmly that the people must elect at least one branch of the national legislature. That, he said, was a basic condition for free government. The majority of the convention agreed with Mason, Wilson, and Madison. The delegates agreed that members of the House of Representatives should be elected directly by the people.

The convention now considered the method of choosing senators. Four ideas were proposed. Senators could be elected by the House, by the president, by the state legislatures, or by the people. Arguments for and against were similar to those for choosing representatives for the House.

In the end, a majority of the delegates agreed that the state legislatures would choose the senators. And that is what the Constitution says. It remained that way for more than one hundred years. In nineteen thirteen, the states approved the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment permits the people to vote directly to elect the senators.

Finally, the time came for the convention to face the issue of representation in the House and Senate. The large states wanted representation based on population. The small states wanted equal representation.

The delegates had voted on the issue several times since the convention began. But both sides stood firm. Yet they knew they could not continue to vote forever, day after day.

On July fifth, the Grand Committee presented a two-part compromise based on Roger Sherman's ideas. The compromise provided something for large states and something for small states. It called for representation based on population in the House and equal representation in the Senate.

The committee said both parts of the compromise must be accepted or both rejected. On July sixteenth, the convention voted on the issue for the last time. It accepted the Great Compromise.

Children who forget easily and never seem to finish tasks or pay attention might be found to have A.D.D. If, in addition, they seem overly active and unable to control their behavior, a doctor might say it is A.D.H.D.

Experts say the cause involves a chemical imbalance in the brain. It can affect not only school, but also personal relationships and the ability to keep a job later in life. Many of those affected also have learning disabilities or suffer from depression.

Medicines can produce calmer, clearer thinking for periods of time. But the drugs can also have side effects like weight loss and sleep problems. And there is debate about the morality of medicating children.

Susan Smalley is a psychiatry professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. She just led a study of A.D.H.D. in northern Finland.

The study found that rates and signs of A.D.H.D. are about the same in children there as in the United States. The Finnish children are rarely treated with medicine, while medication is widely used in the United States. Yet the study found that the two populations have few differences with A.D.H.D. among older children and teenagers.

Professor Smalley says medication is very effective in the short term. But she says the study raises important questions about the long-term effectiveness of current treatments.

The study also found that only about half the Finnish children diagnosed with A.D.H.D. had deficits in short-term memory and self-control. These cognitive deficits are generally considered part of the definition of A.D.H.D.

The study also found more evidence that A.D.H.D. symptoms change with age. Hyperactivity and lack of self-control decrease. But about two-thirds of children continue to show high levels of inattention as teenagers.

The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry published the study.

Even if drugs are used, experts say children with A.D.H.D. also need other help. For example, they need to learn organizational skills, and they need supportive adults.

Many stories have been told about the old American West. Some are true. Many more are just interesting stories. Today we will try to tell the true story of one of the most famous and dangerous American gun fighters. His name was John Henry Holliday. He was better known as “Doc”.

The little city of Glenwood Springs is deep in the Rocky Mountains in the western state of Colorado. The mountains here rise sharply out of the ground and surround Glenwood Springs.

A small burial area in Glenwood Springs is called the Pioneer Cemetery. You have to walk up a steep hill on an old dirt road to reach it. The walk takes about twenty minutes. Visitors can stop at several places along this walk to look at the city far blow.

In the cemetery, large stones mark most of the burial places. Some of the stones look new. Many are more than one hundred years old.

A dirt path leads to the back of the cemetery and one, lone, burial place. This one is the reason most people come to the Pioneer Cemetery. The stone over the burial place is colored red, and larger than most of the others. A small black metal fence surrounds the grave.

The name on the stone says “Doc Holliday… He died in bed.” This man’s real name was John Henry Holliday. He was called “Doc” because he was a doctor of dental surgery, a dentist. But he was best known as a gunfighter and gambler, a person who plays games of chance for money. Many people who knew him considered him the most dangerous man in the Old West.

It is extremely difficult to separate truth from the false stories that were spread about some of the more famous people in the Old West. Many of these famous stories are very interesting and exciting. But they are not true. Many of these made-up stories tell about the man who was Doc Holliday.

History experts say he was a very dangerous man because he was already dying when he came to the West. He knew he had the lung disease tuberculosis that causes a slow death. Many experts said he was not afraid of a gunfight. He thought a quick death from a bullet might be better than waiting to die a very slow, painful death from the disease.

Another interesting fact about Doc Holliday is that many history experts now believe he may have spread several of the stories that were told about him. He may have done this because it caused people to fear him. If they feared him, they would not cause him trouble. It was not difficult to find trouble in many towns in the American West. And disputes about who had won a game of chance were always a possibility for a professional gambler like Doc Holliday.

John Henry Holliday was born in the southern state of Georgia in eighteen fifty-one. He was born into a family that included several medical doctors and dentists. Like most young men of the American South at that time, John Henry Holliday learned to ride a horse well. He learned to shoot several kinds of weapons.

He also was well educated. He learned math and science. He learned to read, write and speak Greek, Latin and French.

A young black women who worked for his family taught him to play card games. John Holliday became a very good card player. He could easily remember which cards had been played in a game. This was very difficult to do. It helped him much later in life when he became a professional gambler.

In eighteen seventy, John became a student at the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia. He graduated in eighteen seventy-two.
John Holliday was a tall man. He was thin and always dressed well. He was a quiet, friendly man who always smiled. People liked him. Doctor Holliday began working as a dentist in the southern city of Atlanta, Georgia. He soon began to show the signs of tuberculosis, the same disease that had killed his mother. His doctor said he would live longer if he went to a warm, very dry place -- perhaps the American West.

In eighteen seventy-three, John Holliday said goodbye to his family and left Georgia on a train. He began his new life in the western city of Dallas, Texas.

Doctor Holliday tried to work as a dentist for about four years. He was not very successful. Many people did not want to be treated by a dentist they knew had tuberculosis. He spent a great deal of time drinking alcohol in a saloon. It was here that be became known as “Doc” Holliday.

Holliday traveled in Texas and Colorado for the next several years. He became a professional gambler. In eighteen seventy-seven, he was living in the small town of Fort Griffin, Texas. Here he met a man who was to become one of his best friends. That man was a former law officer, gunfighter and gambler. His name was Wyatt Earp. Soon after meeting Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday killed a man during a card game.

The man had reached for a gun. Doc Holliday was much quicker using a long knife. He had to leave Fort Griffin and Texas very quickly.

The friendship continued between Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. In Dodge City, Kansas, Holliday saved Earp’s life late one night. A man drew his gun behind Wyatt Earp. Doc Holliday yelled a warning, drew his gun and shot the man.

Wyatt Earp had several brothers. They were a close family. Many experts believe that the Earp brothers were a replacement for the family Doc Holliday had left in Georgia. Wyatt and his brothers Morgan and Virgil remained close friends with Doc Holliday for the rest of their lives.

Doc Holliday had become well known in the West. He became even more famous after he followed the Earp brothers to the town of Tombstone, Arizona. In Tombstone he took part in the most famous shooting incident in western history.

That shooting incident in Tombstone is known as “The Gunfight at the OK Corral.” It took place on October twenty-sixth, eighteen eighty-one. It involved Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday. Virgil Earp was an officer of the law. He was on his way to arrest several men. Wyatt and Morgan went with him to help.

Doc Holliday joined them as they walked down the street. The men they were going to arrest were also brothers -- Ike and Billy Clanton and Frank and Tom McLaury.

As the two groups came together, Virgil Earp demanded that the Clantons and McLaurys raise their hands and surrender. They refused. No one knows who fired the first shot. All the men began shooting at once.

When it was over, Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury were dead. Ike Clanton had run away. Morgan and Virgil Earp were wounded, but they survived. Neither Doc Holliday nor Wyatt Earp was hurt.

Political enemies of the Earp Brothers wanted a trial. The Earp Brothers and Doc Holliday were arrested and tried. The jury found them innocent. It said they were trying to disarm a group of men who wanted a fight.

A few months later, an unknown gunman killed Morgan Earp. Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday began to hunt the killers. They killed several men known to have been involved in the murder of Morgan Earp.

No one really knows how many gunfights Doc Holliday took part in. No one knows just how many people died as a result. Some books say he was responsible for the deaths of as many as thirty men. But most experts say the number is closer to eight.

History books will tell you Doc Holliday was arrested several times. Most of the time he was arrested for playing illegal games of chance. He was also arrested after several shootings. Often the charges were dismissed because he was only defending himself. The few times he faced a criminal trial he was found to be innocent.

In the last years of Doc Holliday’s life, the West had changed a great deal. The people there no longer wanted gunfighters or gamblers.

Doc Holliday may have won in games of chance and in several gunfights. However, he could not use his guns against tuberculosis. He died in his bed, in the little city of Glenwood Springs, Colorado on November eighth, eighteen eighty-seven. He was thirty-six years old.

A study says most people live a U-shaped life -- happiest when they are young and old, but middle age is emotionally low.

A new study shows that unhappiness in middle age, also known as midlife crisis, is a universal experience.

Two economists did the study: Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England and David Blanchflower at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. They used information collected earlier on two million people from eighty nations.

They found that people around the world seem to share an emotional design in life. That design, they say, is shaped like the letter U. Levels of happiness are highest when people are young and when they are old. In the middle, however, most people's happiness and life satisfaction levels drop.

Professor Oswald says some people suffer from midlife depression more than others. But, he says, it happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor and to those with and without children.

Generally speaking, people reach their lowest levels between the ages of about forty and fifty-five. But then, as they continue into old age, their happiness starts to climb back up.

What the research does not show is why all this happens. Professor Oswald says one possibility is that people recognize their limitations in middle age and give up on some long-held dreams.

Or perhaps people who are happier live longer, and this is responsible for a growing percentage of happy older people. Or, he says, maybe people have seen others their age die and they value more their own remaining years.

The report is to be published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.

Last December, government researchers reported a big increase in suicides among middle-aged people in the United States. They looked at injury-related death rates by age group from nineteen ninety-nine to two thousand four. They found that suicide increased almost twenty percent among people ages forty-five to fifty-four. No one is sure why.

By comparison, rates generally fell for those sixty-five and older. And for people twenty to twenty-nine the suicide rate was nearly unchanged.

The report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that the findings are subject to some limitations. For example, accidental drug poisonings might sometimes be mistaken for suicides.

Over all, suicides in the United States increased four percent from nineteen ninety-nine to two thousand four. That year thirty-two thousand four hundred people took their own lives.

Have you had a headache recently? If your answer is yes, you are like many millions of people worldwide who experience pain in the head. The pain can be temporary, mild and cured by a simple painkiller like aspirin. Or, it can be severe.

The National Headache Foundation says more than forty five million people in the United States suffer chronic headaches. Such headaches cause severe pain that goes away but returns later.

Some headaches may prove difficult and require time to treat. But many experts today are working toward cures or major help for chronic headaches.

The US Headache Consortium is a group with seven member organizations. They are attempting to improve treatment of one kind of headache -- the migraine. Some people experience this kind of pain as often as two weeks every month. The National Headache Foundation says about seventy percent of migraine sufferers are women.

Some people describe the pain as similar to a repeated beat. Others compare it to someone driving a sharp object into the head. Migraine headaches cause Americans to miss more than one hundred fifty million workdays each year. A migraine can be mild. But it also can be so severe that a person cannot live a normal life.
One migraine sufferer lives in Ellicott City, Maryland. Video producer Curtis Croley had head pain as a child. He does not know what kind of headaches they were. But when he suffered severe headaches as an adult, doctors identified the problem as migraine.

Today, Mister Croley says months can pass without a headache. But then he will have three migraines within a month. If he takes the medicine his doctor ordered early in his headache, it controls the pain. If not, the pain in his head becomes extremely bad. Sometimes he has had to be treated with a combination of drugs in a hospital.

Some people take medicine every day to prevent or ease migraine headaches. Others use medicine to control pain already developed. Doctors treating migraine sufferers often order medicines from a group of drugs known as triptans.

Most migraines react at least partly to existing medicine. And most people can use existing medicine without experiencing bad effects. Doctors sometimes use caffeine to treat migraine headaches. Interestingly, caffeine also can cause some migraines.

Medical experts have long recognized the work of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The Mayo Clinic says several foods are suspected of causing migraines. Cheese and alcoholic drinks are among them. Food additives like nitrates and monosodium glutamate also are suspected causes.

The Mayo Clinic tells patients to avoid strong smells that have seemingly started migraines in the past. Some people react badly to products like perfume, even if they have a pleasant smell.

The Clinic's experts say aerobic exercise can help migraine sufferers. Aerobic exercise increases a person's heart rate. It can include walking, swimming or riding a bicycle. But a sudden start to hard exercise can cause headaches.

The experts advise that people should plan to exercise, eat and sleep at the same times each day.

The Mayo Clinic has advice about estrogen for women who suffer from migraines. The female body makes estrogen. Drugs like birth control pills contain a version of this chemical.

Such medicines may produce headaches or cause them to worsen, the Clinic says. The same is true for estrogen replacement drugs for women. Doctors sometimes order estrogen replacement for women who no longer able to have children.

The Clinic also says hypnotherapy might help suppress headaches. It says the method could reduce the number and severity of a patient’s headaches. In hypnotherapy, willing people are placed in a condition that lets them receive suggestions. They look like they are sleeping. The suggestions they receive may be able to direct their whole mental energy against pain.

The Mayo Clinic says the hypnotizer can never control the person under hypnosis. It also says the hypnotized person will remember what happened during the treatment.

More people suffer tension headaches than migraines. But most tension headaches are not as powerful.

Events that start tension headaches may include emotional pressure and the deeper than normal sadness called depression. Other tension headaches can start from something as simple as tiredness. Common changes in atmospheric conditions also can be responsible.

The Mayo Clinic says you may feel a tension headache as tightness in the skin around your eyes. Or, you may feel pressure around your head. Episodic tension headaches strike from time to time. Chronic tension headaches happen more often. A tension headache can last from a half hour to a whole week.

The Mayo Clinic says the pain may come very early in the day. Other signs can include pain in the neck or the lower part of the head. Scientists are not sure what causes tension headaches. For years, researchers blamed muscle tension from tightening in the face, neck and the skin on top of the head. They believed emotional tension caused these movements.

But that belief has been disputed. A test called an electromyogram shows that muscle tension does not increase in people with a tension headache. The test records electrical currents caused by muscle activity. Such research has caused the International Headache Society to re-name the tension headache. The group now calls it a tension-type headache.

Some scientists now believe that tension headaches may result from changes among brain chemicals such as serotonin. The changes may start sending pain messages to the brain. These changes may interfere with brain activity that suppresses pain.

Medicines for tension headache can be as simple as aspirin or other painkillers. But if your pain is too severe, you will need a doctor's advice.

A web site called Family Doctor dot org provides information from the American Academy of Family Physicians. The group suggests steps to ease or end a tension headache.

For example, it says putting heat or ice on your head or neck can help. So can standing under hot water while you are getting washed. The group also advises exercising often. Another idea is taking a holiday from work. But you had better ask your employer first.

Ask anyone with a cluster headache, and they will tell you that the pain is terrible. The Cleveland Clinic Headache Center in Ohio says the cluster headache can be many times more intense than a migraine.

Cluster headaches usually strike young people. Smokers and persons who drink alcohol often get these headaches. Men are about six times more likely than women to have them. The Cleveland Clinic says this is especially true of younger men. Doctors say cluster headaches often strike during changes of season.

Cluster headache patients describe the pain as burning. The pain is almost always felt on one side of the face. It can last for up to ninety minutes. Then it stops. But it often starts again later the same day. Eighty to ninety percent of cluster headache patients have pain over a number of days to a whole year. Pain-free periods separate these periods.

The Cleveland Clinic says the cause of cluster headaches is in a brain area known as a trigeminal-autonomic reflex pathway. When the nerve is made active, it starts pain linked to cluster headaches. The nerve starts a process that makes one eye watery and red.

Studies have shown that activation of the trigeminal nerve may come from a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. The Cleveland Clinic says injections of the drug sumatriptan can help. Many other drugs also could be used. For example, doctors say breathing oxygen also can help.

Thankfully, modern medicine has ways to treat almost all of our headaches.

Wheat supplies around the world are at their lowest level in thirty years. Wheat supplies in the United States are at their lowest in sixty years.

But the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome has some good news. It says a big increase in winter wheat plantings in northern countries is likely to result in much higher production this year. The F.A.O. points out, though, that these predictions are based on normal weather conditions.

Wheat production last year is now estimated at just over six hundred million tons. That was up one percent from two thousand six -- not as much as had been hoped. Almost all of the increase was among large producers in Asia.

Prices are up sharply for wheat but also for most other cereal crops. The F.A.O. says big production increases may be required for more than one season for prices to fall much below their recent highs.

The United States Department of Agriculture has come out with its own agricultural predictions, to the year two thousand seventeen. Wheat plantings in the United States are expected to rise sharply this year in reaction to high prices. But wheat hectarage is expected to fall back for the longer term as a result of competition from other crops.

The United States is the leading exporter of wheat. The government says that by summer, American farmers will export one-fifth more than earlier predicted. But demand is also up at home. More wheat is needed for animal feed to replace corn being grown to make fuel.

World wheat supplies are also down because in some countries, including the United States, bad weather has reduced production.

Something else that can reduce wheat production is the wheat curl mite. In nineteen ninety-five, it caused about thirty-five million dollars in damage in the American Midwest. It causes an infection called wheat streak mosaic virus.

Government experts say pesticides are not especially effective against the wheat curl mite. But this year, the Agricultural Research Service at the Department of Agriculture is making a new winter wheat available to resist the virus.

Robert Graybosch developed it with scientists from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and Kansas State University. The new wheat is called Mace. The scientists say in tests, two to three times more Mace was harvested from virus-infected fields than other kinds of wheat.

Snow sports are a big business. Ski areas help support local economies. One hundred sixty-five thousand people work in the mountain resort industry. It earns five billion dollars a year.

The president of the National Ski Areas Association provided these numbers to a Senate committee last May. Michael Berry wanted lawmakers in Congress to know that his members are concerned about an issue: global warming.

Snow sports, after all, are not just a business, but a business that depends on the weather.

The ski season in the United States generally extends from late November until the middle of April. But this season, areas in the West have experienced record amounts of snowfall. Some ski resorts are planning to stay open longer.

Last season, thirty-seven of the fifty states had operating ski areas. Nationally, close to five hundred ski areas were open for business. The five states with the most ski areas were New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, California and Pennsylvania.

The industry recorded more than fifty-five million visits. That was close to the average for the past ten seasons, but down six percent from the season before. The National Ski Areas Association says the main reason was the weather.

The ski season was shortened in most of the United States because of warm temperatures and below-average snowfall. This was true everywhere except the Rocky Mountains, in the West. Resorts there reported a record twenty million visits last season. The Rocky Mountains extend through several states including Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho.

The largest ski resort in the United States is Vail, Colorado. The town of Vail and the nearby Vail Mountain make up the resort. The mountain is more than three thousand five hundred meters high.

A ski trip does not have to cost thousands of dollars. Many people go for a day or two and rent skis instead of buying them. But people with enough money to stay at a nice resort might also have enough for some special things. Like riding to the top of the mountain in a helicopter instead of on a ski lift.

And ski areas do not have to be outdoors or open only in winter. The first indoor ski dome in the United States is expected to open late this year in New Jersey.

The United States has three hundred million people. The National Sporting Goods Association says more than six million of them participate in downhill skiing. Two million are cross-country skiers. And more than five million snowboard.

Snowboarding gained popularity in the nineteen sixties and seventies. By the early eighties, less than ten percent of ski areas in the United States permitted snowboarding. Many skiers considered it a danger. But today only a few places still ban snowboarding.

Snowboarders are generally younger than skiers.

Alex Lebonitte is twenty-four years old and a personal trainer in Virginia. He finds that snowboarding is not that much more fun than skiing. He feels the speed more on a snowboard than on two skis, and he likes that.

But what he especially likes is that snowboarding is more comfortable than skiing, he says. The boots are softer, not as much equipment is needed -- and, he says, everything stays attached when you fall.

When a mountain has a lot of snow, there may be danger of an avalanche. Snow slides are powerful, and they can be deadly, burying anything in their path. To reduce the risk of an avalanche, ski areas might use artillery and other explosives to produce controlled slides.

Ski areas need a lot of snow. But what happens when there is not enough? In that case, they make their own.

Snow making machines are the reason many ski resorts can stay open more than a few months a year. These machines also make it possible to create better ski conditions than nature may provide.

Ski operators point out that their snow is really no different from the snow that falls from the sky.

Snow crystals are ice particles that usually form around a piece of dust in the atmosphere. All snow crystals have six sides, but they form different shapes. The shape depends mainly on the temperature and water levels in the air. Snow crystals produce snowflakes when they stick together.

Making snow requires water, cold temperatures and some dust particles. A machine called a snow gun mixes cooled water and compressed air. A pipe carries water into the gun from a lake or pond.

A second pipe pushes in high-pressure air from a compressor. The compressed air causes the water to divide into many tiny particles. It also blows the drops into the air and helps cool them at the same time.

The drops freeze before they hit the ground, producing snow. Some ski areas place the snow guns on towers high above the ground, giving the particles more time to freeze.

But there is more to making snow than just the equipment. Weather conditions must be correct. These conditions involve air temperature and humidity, the amount of water in the air. The drier the air, the easier it is to make snow.

Today many ski areas use computers to measure the conditions and start the snow making when the conditions are best. And ski areas want snow making machines to produce different kinds of snow, just like nature.

Dry snow contains only a small amount of water. This light, powdery snow is excellent for skiing. Ski resorts want the top layer of snow on a mountain to be dry. Under the dry snow, they want wet snow, to build up the levels for skiers.

Environmental groups are concerned about the use of large amounts of energy and water to make snow at ski areas. Many ski operators in the United States are trying to improve the situation with machines that need less energy and water. The Killington ski resort in the northeastern state of Vermont recently invested more than five million dollars to improve its snowmaking system.

Other resorts have reduced the amount of compressed air their machines use; producing it takes energy. Some resorts are using snow guns that can make snow without the need for any compressed air.

Another ski area in the Northeast, the Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in Massachusetts, has built a wind turbine to produce energy. The turbine began operating in August of two thousand seven. Jiminy Peak says it is the only mountain resort in North America to produce its own power using wind energy.

Katie Fogel is the director of public relations. She says the wind turbine is producing fifty percent of the resort's energy needs, and thirty-five to forty percent of the energy needed to produce snow.

Snow making equipment is not the only technology found at ski areas. Skiers can use global positioning satellites to avoid getting lost. And, if there is wireless service, they can use their mobile phones to warn others of dangerous conditions, or to call for help.

Another modern safety device is the avalanche beacon. Avalanche beacons are devices that send out a signal to help in locating people buried under snow. There are also personal locator beacons which transmit an emergency signal to satellites.

Ski areas usually have programs to teach safety. Many have also increased their number of employees to supervise visitors. The National Ski Areas Association says accidents generally involve young men traveling at high speed.

An average of thirty-seven people a year have been killed skiing or snowboarding during the past ten years. The association reports that last season there were twenty-two deaths, most of them skiers. Forty other people were seriously injured; forty percent of them were snowboarders.

Amy Kemp is communications manager for Vail Resorts in Colorado. She says one of the most important technological improvements in skiing in the past ten years is the ski itself.

She says the changes in design and shape have made skiing easier, safer and more fun. For example, skis that turn up at both ends, instead of just the front, make it easier to do tricks.

And skiers do not have to work as hard as they used to, she says. Now they can change direction without any more effort than moving an ankle.

Starting a business is never easy. But an organization like TechnoServe can make it easier. A businessman in the American state of Connecticut, Ed Bullard, launched this nonprofit group forty years ago. The name comes from the idea of technology in the service of mankind.

TechnoServe looks for business solutions to rural poverty. Or, as it says on its Web site, "social change has a business plan." The group has helped create or improve more than two thousand businesses in about thirty countries.

Luba Vangelova works for TechnoServe in Washington, D.C. She tells us the group has an estimated budget this year of about forty-five million dollars. She says much of that will support business training and development programs in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

In parts of Central America, for example, TechnoServe is helping coffee producers become competitive in new and growing markets. In rural India the group is assisting farmers with crop production. And in Mozambique, TechnoServe is helping develop the travel and tourism industry.

One way it identifies promising entrepreneurs is through a business plan competition called Believe Begin Become. This is an intensive program that provides technical training and expert advice.

Winners receive money to bring their business plans to reality. TechnoServe has held nine national competitions in Central America since two thousand two. Five competitions have been held in Africa, including one in Tanzania last year.

SPEAKER: "B.B.B. has been a breakthrough for me. Finally I am going to own my own business. And I am going to employ people."

A TechnoServe channel on YouTube describes Believe Begin Become and some of the winning business plans. Luba Vangelova says TechnoServe also supports entrepreneurship programs for teenagers and young adults.

Charity Navigator, an independent group that rates American charities, has given TechnoServe its highest rating.

There are hundreds of stories about Annie Oakley. Many of the stories involve her adventures in the American Wild West. Others tell about her travels with Native American tribes. However, most of the stories are not true. She did not grow up in the Wild West, nor did she fight in any battles. Annie Oakley was a performer in a traveling Wild West show. She used her skill at shooting a gun to become one of the most famous sharp shooters in American history.

Annie Oakley was born in eighteen sixty in Darke County, Ohio. Her real name was Phoebe Ann Mosey. When she was six years old, her father died of pneumonia. Her family was very poor. She did not attend school. When she was nine years old, Annie went to live with another family on a farm. Then she became a servant for still another family. She later said that this new family abused her.

When Annie returned to live with her own family, she decided to help them earn money. She taught herself how to shoot her grandfather's gun and began hunting animals for food. She could shoot the animals without ruining the important parts of the meat.

She sold the animals to the people in her town. When she was fifteen years old, she had made enough money to pay for her family’s farm.

Soon her ability to shoot a gun became well known in her town. When she was sixteen years old, she was invited to a shooting contest with a famous marksman named Frank Butler. Frank Butler claimed that he could shoot better than anyone else. Annie surprised everyone when she won the competition. She shot all twenty-five targets, while Frank Butler was only able to shoot twenty-four of them. Perhaps their shooting abilities attracted them to one another, because Annie and Frank married in eighteen seventy-six.

Annie Oakley has been remembered in many ways. People have written movies, songs, plays, books and television shows about her. One of the most famous examples is the Broadway musical play called “Annie Get Your Gun.” Irving Berlin wrote it in nineteen forty-six. In one of the famous songs from the musical, Annie Oakley and Frank Butler sing "Anything You Can Do." The singers are Ethel Merman and Bruce Yarnell.

The musical is still being performed today to remember a woman with an unusual skill. She showed that women could be just as good, if not better, than men.

In eighteen eighty-two, Annie took the name Oakley. She and Frank Butler started putting on shows together, demonstrating their abilities to shoot a gun. Frank Butler was the star of the show and Annie Oakley was his assistant. However, sometimes she did her own shooting. Two years later, Annie Oakley met the famous Native American chief, Sitting Bull, at a performance. The chief liked her skill in shooting and also her personality. They became friends. He gave her the name “Little Sure Shot” because of her shooting ability and because she was only one and one-half meters tall.

In eighteen eighty-five, Annie Oakley and Frank Butler joined another traveling show. It was called “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.” William Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill, ran the show. For sixteen years, Annie Oakley was the star of the show while Frank Butler was her assistant. Posters for the show called her a “Champion Markswoman.”

The Wild West show became very famous all over the United States. All of the performers demonstrated their skills. Many of the performers had fought in real gun battles while settling the western part of the United States. They wanted to bring the excitement and mystery of the Wild West to a show that people would like to watch.

Annie Oakley did tricks that showed off how good she was at aiming and shooting a gun. She could shoot a small metal coin thrown in the air from twenty-seven meters away. She could shoot the thin edge of a playing card and then shoot it six more times as it fell to the ground. She could shoot the ashes off of a cigarette her husband Frank Butler held in his mouth.

In eighteen eighty-seven, Buffalo Bill took the whole Wild West show to Europe. They traveled to many countries and gave many performances. They performed in England for Queen Victoria. Annie Oakley received a lot of attention. The newspapers wrote stories about her and she took part in many shooting contests.

The Wild West show returned to Europe two years later. By this time, Annie Oakley had become even more famous. The Wild West show performed in Paris, France, for six months. Then the performers traveled to Germany, Italy and Spain. In Germany, the Crown Prince asked Oakley to shoot the ashes off of a cigarette that he held in his mouth, as she famously had done with her husband. She asked the Prince to hold the cigarette in his hand instead and did the trick easily.

When the Wild West show returned to the United States, Buffalo Bill decided to change it to include scenes from the life and culture of the Wild West. These scenes included train robberies, gunfights and conflicts with Native American Indians.

In nineteen-oh-one, Annie Oakley was in a train crash that badly injured her back. She had five operations. Annie and Frank wanted to stop traveling so much and have their own home. So they left the Wild West show. They built a home in Cambridge, Maryland. They liked this area because it had a nice community and there were many places they could go hunting. Annie Oakley and Frank Butler took part in community activities. Oakley gave shooting lessons and demonstrations at the local county fair.
Annie Oakley wrote a book about her life that was published in nineteen fourteen. It was called “Powders I Have Used.” She also wrote many stories about hunting and fishing. Some of these articles tried to get other women to begin hunting. She also tried to get women to learn how to shoot a gun so that they could defend themselves.

During World War One, Annie Oakley offered to help the military. She proposed to train a group of women volunteers who would become solders in the war. However, the United States did not accept this offer. She also offered to give the American troops shooting lessons. She traveled across the country and visited many training camps. She gave shooting demonstrations and raised money for medicine and supplies.

In nineteen twenty-five, Annie Oakley and Frank Butler moved back to Ohio to be near her family. They continued to give performances. But Annie Oakley was sick. She died on November third, nineteen twenty-six. Her husband Frank Butler died eighteen days later.

One of the world's longest serving leaders announced this week that he is leaving office after just short of fifty eventful years. Fidel Castro of Cuba is eighty-one years old and in poor health. He named his brother Raul as acting president in two thousand six.

In a letter published Tuesday, Fidel Castro said he was not saying goodbye to the Cuban people. His only wish, he said, is to "fight as a soldier in the battle of ideas."

On Sunday the Cuban National Assembly is expected to name seventy-six-year-old Raul Castro as president. The two brothers appear to share very similar ideas about governing the communist-ruled island. Fidel Castro will apparently remain a member of Parliament and is widely expected to still have strong influence.

He came to power as a socialist revolutionary in nineteen fifty-nine. He overthrew the pro-American Fulgencio Batista, who himself had seized power. Fidel Castro soon won the support of the Soviet Union at the height of its cold war tensions with the United States.

In nineteen sixty-one, a force of Cuban exiles trained by the American Central Intelligence Agency launched an invasion of the island. The Cuban government learned of the plan. Within days its troops defeated what became known as the Bay of Pigs invasion. The failure was a public relations disaster for the United States and its president, John F. Kennedy.

In February of nineteen sixty-two Kennedy used power approved by Congress to ban all trade with Cuba. The embargo of goods except food and medicine is still in effect.

In October of nineteen sixty-two, the United States found that the Soviets had missiles in Cuba. Cuba is one hundred forty-five kilometers from the Florida coast. President Kennedy warned of the risk of a nuclear strike on the United States. He ordered a naval blockade which soon forced the Soviets to remove the missiles.

But the Soviets remained Cuba’s top ally and trade partner for thirty years. The Cuban economy suffered after the Soviet Union collapsed in nineteen ninety-one. But in recent years the economy has improved. Venezuela, led by socialist President Hugo Chavez, has become an important ally.

Supporters of Fidel Castro praised a leader who provided free health care and education in Cuba. But others condemned a dictator with a repressive government that spread communist revolution in Latin America and Africa.

Cuba has one legal political party, the Communist Party. The media rights group Reporters Without Borders rates Cuba as the fifth worst nation for press freedoms. Human rights groups say Cuba's eleven million citizens are denied privacy, free speech and fair legal process.

The Bush administration says it has no plans to end economic restrictions against Cuba without changes like free elections. President Bush says he hopes the end of Fidel Castro’s rule can be the beginning of peaceful reform.

The eightieth Academy Awards ceremony takes place Sunday at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, California. Hundreds of millions of people in the United States and around the world will watch the show on television. It is the most exciting event of the year for people who make movies and for people who love to watch them.

On Sunday, actors, directors, writers, producers and others will gather in Hollywood, California, the center of the American film industry. They will receive Academy Awards for the best acting, directing, writing, editing, music and other work on movies released last year.

The winners will receive an award called an Oscar. This statue is shaped like a man. It is made of several metals covered with gold. The Oscar is only about thirty-four centimeters tall. It weighs less than four kilograms. But the award is extremely valuable for the people who receive it. People who win an Oscar become much more famous. They often get offers to work in the best movies. They can also earn much more money.

Five movies are competing for Best Picture of the year. Two tragic and violent movies

were nominated for eight Academy Awards. "No Country for Old Men" is about a man who finds two million dollars after several people are killed in an illegal drug deal. A killer chases him across Texas to get the money back. The movie is based on the book by Cormac McCarthy.

"There Will Be Blood" is about a man who becomes successful exploring for oil in the early nineteen hundreds. He is opposed by a young religious worker in a small town in California. The movie is based on the book "Oil!" by Upton Sinclair.

Two other movies earned seven nominations each, including Best Picture. "Atonement" is about what happens after a young girl accuses her sister's lover of a crime he did not commit. It takes place in England during World War Two. "Atonement" is based on the book by British writer Ian McEwan. "Michael Clayton" is about a lawyer dealing with personal and professional crises. His law firm is trying to settle a case against an agricultural chemical company.

The fifth Best Picture nominee is "Juno." It is about a smart and funny teenager who becomes pregnant and finds a husband and wife to adopt her baby.

WIFE: “Your parents are probably wondering where you are.”

JUNO: “Mmm, nah. I mean I’m already pregnant so what other kind of shenanigans could I get into?”

Ten actors and actresses were nominated for Academy Awards for their performances in leading roles.

Daniel Day-Lewis was nominated for Best Actor for playing the oilman in "There Will Be Blood." George Clooney for playing the lawyer in "Michael Clayton." Johnny Depp is the lead character in the musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Tommy Lee Jones plays a man searching for the truth about his son who returns from the war in Iraq in the movie "In the Valley of Elah." And Viggo Mortensen plays a Russian criminal in London in "Eastern Promises."

These five women were nominated for Best Actress: Twenty-year-old Ellen Page for playing the pregnant teenager named "Juno." Julie Christie for her role as a woman with Alzheimer's disease in "Away From Her." Laura Linney for her role as a woman dealing with her aging and sick father in “The Savages.” Marion Cotillard portrays the great French singer Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose." And Cate Blanchett for her role as the British queen in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age." Blanchett was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for playing a very different real person, Bob Dylan, in "I'm Not There."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the Oscars each year. Almost six thousand people who work in the movie industry belong to the Academy. They nominate candidates for Academy Awards from their own professions. For example, actors nominate actors. Directors nominate directors. Designers nominate designers. All Academy members vote to choose the final winners. More than twenty Academy Awards will be presented Sunday night.

The people who wrote the best screenplays and did the best film and sound editing will receive awards. So will the people who designed the best costumes, makeup and special effects. The composers who wrote the best song and music from a movie will also be honored.

Mario Ritter plays some of the music nominated for an Oscar.

That was “Falling Slowly,” a Best Song nominee from the movie “Once.” Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova wrote the song, perform it and star in the movie. “Once” is a musical about an Irish man and a Czech woman who meet and make music on the streets of Dublin.

The movie “Enchanted” makes gentle fun of fairy tales about princesses and true love. Amy Adams plays a cartoon princess, Giselle, who becomes a real princess in New York City. Her loving, joyful spirit incites the same feelings in the people she meets.

Three songs from "Enchanted" were nominated for Best Song. Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz wrote the songs.

Usually we think about material qualities when we think about the pleasure we will get from a product. When something costs a lot, we might think about all the fine work that went into it. But can price alone influence the pleasure we experience?

Researchers from the California Institute of Technology and the Stanford Graduate School of Business say yes.

Hilke Plassmann, John O'Doherty and Antonio Rangel at Caltech and Baba Shiv at Stanford did a study. They had twenty people taste different wines. Wine was chosen because it comes in many different qualities and prices, and because a lot of people enjoy tasting it.

The people were told they were tasting five different Cabernet Sauvignons. The wines were identified only by price: five, ten, thirty-five, forty-five and ninety dollars.

But in truth there were only three different wines, and two of them were presented twice, at a high price and a low price. For example, the wine that in fact cost ninety dollars a bottle was presented half the time as a ten dollar wine.

There were two important results from the study.

First, the individuals, on average, reported greater pleasure from drinking wine that they were told was higher in price. Brain images taken while the people tasted the wine supported this finding.

Activity, represented by blood-oxygen levels, increased in an area of the brain thought to process "experienced pleasantness." Experiments have shown that the medial orbitofrontal cortex processes the experience of enjoyment from smells, taste and music. The new findings will add to the limited knowledge of how marketing affects brain activity.

The second result has meaning for economists and marketers. The experiment appears to confirm that raising the price can increase how much a product is enjoyed. In other words, when it comes to expectations, it seems you really do get what you pay for.

The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Finally, we want to update our recent story on the fight over next-generation DVD technology for high definition televisions. This week, the Toshiba company in Japan announced the end of its HD DVD business, crushed by Sony's Blu-ray format.

A British study has shown a possible link between the length of a person's fingers and the joint disorder osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common kind of arthritis. It affects more than twenty million people in the United States. The disorder is caused by a break down of cartilage, the rubbery tissue that protects bones and joints. Before age forty-five years, osteoarthritis is more common among men than women. After age fifty-five, it is more common among women.

Recently, researchers at the University of Nottingham studied finger lengths for clues about genetic qualities or physical conditions. The researchers compared the difference in lengths of the second and fourth fingers. The fourth finger is also known as the ring finger. The second finger is often called the index finger.

The study included more than two thousand men and women. Each person had osteoarthritis of the hip or knees. Doctors had urged all the patients to consider a possible joint replacement. The patients were then compared to more than one thousand people with no history or signs of osteoarthritis.

The study found that people whose index finger was shorter than their ring finger are two times as likely to suffer from osteoarthritis. The strongest evidence was among women who had osteoarthritis of the knee and whose ring fingers were longer than their index fingers.

The findings were reported in the publication Arthritis and Rheumatism.

Research on finger lengths is not new. Earlier studies have suggested their relation to several qualities, including musical and athletic ability. But the difference between the index finger and ring finger length is most widely known for differences between men and women. Men usually have shorter index fingers than ring fingers. In women, the two fingers are often the same length.

Scientists have found this index-ring finger ratio is also linked to hormone levels in unborn babies. It is believed that the longer the ring finger is to the index finger, the higher the level of the hormone testosterone in unborn babies.

The leader of the new study, Michael Doherty, says osteoarthritis is more common among men. He and his research group believe that increased physical activity and sports could be a partly to blame for the problem. The theory fits with the findings that the finger length ratio believed to be more common in men and athletes would be related to higher risk for osteoarthritis.

The findings do not confirm that people with these finger length differences will suffer from osteoarthritis. But it does provide clues about the human body.

Skin lightening has become a common activity across Africa, Asia and other areas. In such places, light skin often is more socially accepted than dark skin. It also is considered a mark of beauty, intelligence and success.

More and more people with dark skin are using skin-lightening products, even if it means they may face greater health risks. They believe that having whiter skin will improve their lives. Many people think they will have a better chance of getting a job or marrying into a better family. Or they want to look like what their society considers beautiful.

Some beauty care products and soaps contain chemicals that make skin lighter. This process is also called bleaching. However, some of the chemicals are extremely dangerous. One of the most dangerous is hydroquinone. Hydroquinone has been banned in several countries. The chemical has been linked to some kinds of cancer and kidney damage. It also causes low birth weight in babies when mothers use it during pregnancy.

At first, bleaching products make the skin color lighter. But after long-term use they can cause problems. They could even make some skin darker.

The chemicals in the products block and break down the natural process that gives skin color. The skin loses its natural barrier to protect against sunlight. Then the skin can become thick and discolored. Usually the person will use more of the product in an effort to correct the problem but this makes it worse.

Fatimata Ly treats skin conditions in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. Doctor Ly says skin bleaching has become a problem throughout Senegal. She says the chemicals are now more dangerous because they are stronger. And, she says, some cases have resulted in infections, permanent skin damage and blackened fingernails.

Some people suffer emotional problems because of the changes. They feel regret and sadness. They say instead of taking such health risks they should have learned to love and accept their skin color.

Last month, the American space agency returned to a planet it had not visited since nineteen seventy-five. A space vehicle called Messenger reached the planet Mercury on January fourteenth. Messenger passed only two hundred kilometers above the surface of Mercury. It was the first trip to the planet closest to the sun since the Mariner Ten spacecraft visited Mercury more than thirty years ago.

Mercury is named for the Roman god who served as a messenger to the gods. The name fits Mercury well because it orbits the sun faster than any planet, in only about eighty-eight days. Yet Mercury is also one of the least explored planets.

Mercury is a world of extremes. During the day, temperatures on the surface can reach four hundred fifty degrees Celsius. The sun on Mercury is eleven times brighter than it is on Earth. At night, temperatures can drop to one hundred eighty degrees below zero.

To survive these extremes, the Messenger spacecraft has been designed with a heat shield to protect its instruments from high temperatures. The spacecraft also has heaters for use when temperatures drop. Messenger is designed to keep its science instruments and its computer brain at nearly room temperature.

Messenger is taking a complex trip through the solar system. The spacecraft was launched in March two thousand four. It passed the Earth once and Venus two times, most recently in June of last year. Its recent visit to Mercury is one of three visits it will make to the planet this year and next. Then Messenger will enter orbit around Mercury in March of two thousand eleven. Its scientific work is expected to last more than seven years.

The space agency says it hopes to answer several questions about Mercury with Messenger. One question deals with the central part of the planet. Mercury's center is rich in iron. This metal center represents sixty percent of the planet's mass. That is two times as great as on Earth. Messenger is expected to provide information that will help scientists find why the planet is so dense.

Messenger will also help scientists learn more about Mercury's geologic history. Currently, scientists have only seen about forty-five percent of the planet. That is how much of the planet was seen by Mariner Ten. Making a map of the whole planet will increase knowledge of what forces shaped this rocky world.
The biggest mystery surrounding Mercury is found at its north and south poles. Radar images have shown bright areas in holes at the poles. Scientists think that the bright areas might be ice forever hidden from the heat of the sun.

Messenger stands for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging. The spacecraft has seven instruments to measure the chemical qualities of Mercury and its magnetic field. Scientists are especially interested to learn more about the magnetic field. Among the solid planets, only Earth and Mercury have strong magnetic fields. Venus and Mars do not.

Messenger will return to Mercury in October. Scientists will have until then to examine information provided by the first pass of the planet. Then Messenger will gather more information about this little known world.

Back in the year two thousand, big producers of poplar trees in the American Pacific Northwest needed help. Their hybrid poplars, nearly ten years old, were under threat. Young insects were getting into the heartwood, weakening a tree and making it likely to break and fall. Small, newly planted trees were being killed.

Two professors from Washington State University discovered that the threat was not from traditional poplar pests but from a new one.

Doug Walsh and John Brown found ninety-five western poplar clearwing moths in traps in a four-week period in two thousand one. Then, during a four-week period in two thousand two, they found more than eighteen thousand moths in traps placed in the same locations.

Unlike most moths, this one is active during the day. As a defense, it can make itself look like a yellow jacket.

It was a threat to fourteen thousand hectares of poplar planted in eastern Washington state and Oregon. The producers used twenty thousand kilograms of a pesticide, Lorsban, in two thousand two to try to control the outbreak. But that and other poisons failed to stop the moths.

So the professors asked for help from an expert at the University of California, Riverside. Years earlier, Jocelyn Millar had copied the sex pheromone of the clearwing moth.

Pheromones produce chemical signals that animals and insects use to identify friends and enemies. Pheromones also attract the opposite sex. The Washington State team had used Jocelyn Millar's version of the pheromone in the traps.

The researchers began treating poplars with the synthetic pheromone in two thousand three. The idea was to confuse male moths. They would sense the presence of females and not be able to find them, and that would interfere with reproduction.

After the success of tests, and improvements to the treatment, it won full approval from the United States Environmental Protection Agency. That was in two thousand six.

Professor Brown says the synthetic pheromone is safe so workers can re-enter a forest after a few hours. And only small amounts are needed -- as little as one gram per two and a half hectares. Professor Walsh says the treatment reduces clearwing moth populations quickly. Today, the population is under control, but preventive treatments continue.

For thousands of years, people have been debating the meaning of happiness and how to find it.

From the ancient Greeks and Romans to current day writers and professors, the debate about happiness continues. What makes someone happy? In what parts of the world are people the happiest? Why even study happiness? Today, we explore these questions and learn about several new books on happiness studies.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle said that a person’s highest happiness comes from the use of his or her intelligence. Religious books such as the Koran and Bible discuss faith as a form of happiness. The British scientist Charles Darwin believed that all species were formed in a way so as to enjoy happiness. And, the United States Declaration of Independence guarantees “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as a basic human right. People throughout history may have had different ideas about happiness. But today, many people are still searching for its meaning.

But how do you study something like happiness? You could start with the World Database of Happiness at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This set of information includes how to define and measure happiness. It also includes happiness averages in countries around the world and compares that information through time.

Some findings are not surprising. For example, the database suggests that married people are happier than single people. People who like to be with other people are happier than unsocial people. And people who have sex a lot are happier than people who do not. But other findings are less expected: People with children are equally happy as couples without children. And wealthier people are only a little happier than poorer people. The database suggests that people who live in strongly democratic and wealthy countries are happier than those who do not.

This database also shows that studying happiness no longer involves just theories and ideas. Economists, psychiatrists, doctors and social scientists are finding ways of understanding happiness by examining real sets of information.

Positive psychology is the new term for a method of scientific study that tries to examine the things that make life worth living instead of life’s problems. Traditional psychology generally studies negative situations like mental suffering and sickness. But positive psychology aims to study the strengths that allow people and communities to do well. Martin Seligman is the director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He says positive psychology has three main concerns: positive emotions, positive individual qualities and positive organizations and communities.

There is also an increasing amount of medical research on the physical qualities of happiness. Doctors can now look at happiness at work in a person’s brain using a method called magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. For example, an MRI can show how one area of a person’s brain activates when he or she is shown happy pictures. A different area of the brain becomes active when the person sees pictures of terrible subjects.

Doctors are studying brain activity to better understand the physical activity behind human emotions. This research may lead to better understanding of depression and other mental problems.

Happiness is an extremely popular subject for books. If you search for "happiness" on the Web site of the online bookseller, Amazon.com, you will find more than two hundred thousand results. Experts from several areas of study recently published books on the subject.

The historian Darrin McMahon examines the development of happiness in “Happiness: A History.” Mister McMahon looks at two thousand years of politics and culture in western countries. He says it is only in recent history that people think of happiness as a natural human right.

Darrin McMahon explains how the ancient Greeks thought happiness was linked to luck. He says it was not until the Enlightenment period in eighteenth century Europe that people began to think they had the power to find happiness themselves. He notes that in demanding happiness, people may think something is wrong with them or others if they are not happy. Mister McMahon sees the pressure to be happy as actually creating unhappiness.

Darrin McMahon says his book will not make readers happier. But he says that by comparing your situation with people throughout history, you can have a better understanding of the idea of happiness.

The journalist Eric Weiner recently wrote a book called “The Geography of Bliss." Mister Weiner traveled to countries such as Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar and Thailand to investigate happiness in different parts of the world. He met with experts and talked with local people to try to understand what makes people in different societies happy.

For example, Eric Weiner learned that in Bhutan, the government measures “Gross Domestic Happiness” as a way to tell whether its citizens are happy. Mister Weiner also traveled to Moldova, a country he says is one of the least happy countries in the world. And he traveled to Iceland because studies show that it is one of the happiest nations in the world.

Mister Weiner at first could not understand why a country with so little sunlight in the winter and so many alcohol drinkers could be so happy. But, he decided that happiness in Iceland is linked to its close community, striking natural beauty and high levels of creativity. Denmark, another cold country, also has been listed as one of the happiest countries. Mister Weiner says the United States is the twenty-third happiest country in the world.

Dan Gilbert teaches psychology at Harvard University in Massachusetts. He recently published “Stumbling on Happiness.” Mister Gilbert looks at the way the human mind is different from other animals because we can think about the future and use our imaginations. He also explains how our minds can trick us in a way that creates difficulties in making happy choices for the future.

For example, a person might think that buying a new car would make him or her happy even though the last car the person bought did not. So, events that we believe will bring us happiness bring us less than we think. And, events we fear will make us unhappy make us less unhappy than we believe. The book provides valuable information on the surprising ways in which our minds work. Here is a recording of Mister Gilbert talking about this “impact bias.” It was taken from the Big Think Web site.

"Most of the time when people are wrong about how they’ll feel about the future, they’re wrong in the direction of thinking that things will matter to them more than they really do. We are remarkable at our ability to adjust and adapt to almost any situation; but we seem not to know this about ourselves. And so we mistakenly predict that good things will make us happy . . . really happy for a really long time . Bad things, why they’ll just slay us. It turns out neither of these things is by and large true."

Why is studying happiness important? There are many answers to this question. One has to do with understanding happiness in order to create better public policies. Richard Layard is a British economist and lawmaker who studies this subject. His research is influenced by the eighteenth century thinker Jeremy Bentham. Mister Bentham believed that the goal of public policy was to create the “greatest happiness for the greatest number.”

Richard Layard has looked at the relation between happiness and a country’s wealth. He questions why people in western countries are no happier than they were fifty years ago although they now earn more money.

Mister Layard believes that part of the problem is that economics and public policy tend to measure a country’s success by the amount of money it makes. He notes that happiness depends on more than the purchasing power of a person or a nation.

Mister Layard says that public policy should also help people improve the things that lead to happiness such as job security and health. To help improve public health policies in Britain, Mister Layard has pressed the British government to spend more money on mental health treatment centers. He argues that by helping people recover from mental illness, the government can make a big step in the effort to increase happiness.

The World Health Organization is urging countries to follow six policies to prevent millions of tobacco-related deaths. The six policies are known as MPOWER, spelled M-P-O-W-E-R.

The M is for monitoring tobacco use and prevention policies. The P is for protecting people by establishing smoke-free areas.

O stands for offering services to help people stop smoking. W is for warning people about the dangers of tobacco.

E is for enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and other forms of marketing. And R is for raising taxes on tobacco.

The W.H.O. says in a major new report that raising taxes is the single most effective way to reduce tobacco use. A study found that governments now collect an average of five hundred times more money in tobacco taxes each year than they spend on control efforts.

The W.H.O. says tobacco now causes more than five million deaths a year. It predicts this number will rise to more than eight million by the year two thousand thirty. By the end of the century, it says, tobacco could kill one billion people -- ten times as many as in the twentieth century.

The large majority of these deaths will take place in developing countries. More than twenty-five percent of all smokers in the world are Chinese. India, Indonesia, Russia and the United States, in that order, follow China in tobacco use.

The W.H.O. found that only five percent of all people live in countries with protections like national legislation on smoke-free areas or bans on tobacco advertising. Forty percent of countries still permit smoking in hospitals and schools.

An international treaty on tobacco control came into force in two thousand five.

Tobacco companies face increasingly restrictive marketplaces in many wealthier countries. The industry is now aiming at the developing world, especially young women. The report says large numbers of people do not yet know the dangers of smoking.

W.H.O. Director General Margaret Chan points out that tobacco hurts economies in two ways. One is through reduced productivity among workers who get lung cancer or other tobacco-related diseases. The other way is through high health care costs for treating those diseases.

The W.H.O. study was announced in New York City. New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has worked hard to restrict smoking in America's largest city. And his charitable group, Bloomberg Philanthropies, helped pay for the study.

So far in our series on learning disabilities we have talked about problems with reading, writing and movement. Today we talk about a problem that affects the brain's ability to process and understand the meaning of numbers. The name for this is dyscalculia.

Children with dyscalculia have trouble reading numbers and picturing them in their mind. For example, they might mistake a three for an eight because the numbers look similar. They also have trouble counting objects and organizing them by size.

Memory is another issue. Children with dyscalculia may not remember the correct order of operations to follow in solving math problems.

Difficulties like these can lead to a lifelong fear of mathematics.

Of course, just because people have trouble with math does not necessarily mean they have dyscalculia. But experts say parents and teachers may begin to suspect a problem if a child is good at speaking, reading and writing but slow to develop math skills.

Does a child remember printed words but not numbers? Does the child have trouble making sense of time or understanding the order of events, like yesterday, today and tomorrow?

People with dyscalculia might also have a poor sense of direction. They might have difficulty keeping score during games, and limited ability to plan moves during games like chess.

Children suspected of being dyscalculic should be examined by a professional trained to recognize this condition. Experts say the disorder never goes away. But Sheldon Horowitz at the National Center for Learning Disabilities says carefully designed practice can improve math skills.

For example, a teacher might use a number line to help a child understand the difference between larger and smaller numbers. The child could be asked to point to different numbers and to describe their relationship to other numbers on the line.

Or objects could be grouped to represent numbers. Something else that can help children understand number relationships is to have a math problem described in the form of a story.

Experts say students with dyscalculia need extra time to complete their work. Sheldon Horowitz also advises letting them work with a calculator in school.

In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. They planned to make changes in the Articles of Confederation, which created a weak union of the thirteen states. But instead of changes, the convention produced a new document.

The convention reached agreement on a national judiciary. Delegates approved a Supreme Court. And they agreed that the national legislature should establish a system of lower national courts.

The national executive -- or president -- would appoint the judges. These courts would hear cases involving national laws, the rights of American citizens, and wrongdoing by foreign citizens in the United States.

The existing system of state courts would continue to hear cases involving state laws.

We also told how the convention heard different proposals for a national government. Virginia and New Jersey offered their plans. Alexander Hamilton of New York presented a third proposal. It would give the national government almost unlimited powers.

Hamilton's ideas were not popular. After Hamiliton's five-hour speech, one delegate said, "Hamilton is praised by everybody. He is supported by no one."

Delegates voted to reject the New Jersey Plan. They did not even vote on Hamilton's plan. From that time, all their discussions were about the plan presented by Virginia.

Detail from 'The United States Senate in Session'; the artist is unidentified
The delegates began to discuss creation of a national legislature. This would be the most hotly debated issue of the convention. It forced out into the open the question of equal representation. Would small states and large states have an equal voice in the central government?

One delegate described the situation this way. "Let us see the truth," he said. "This is a fight for power, not for liberty. Small states may lose power to big states in a national legislature. But men living in small states will have just as much freedom as men living in big states."

The issue brought the deepest emotions to the surface. One day, Gunning Bedford of Delaware looked straight at the delegates from the largest states.

"Gentlemen!" he shouted. "I do not trust you. If you try to crush the small states, you will destroy the confederation. And if you do, the small states will find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith who will take them by the hand and give them justice."
The debate on legislative representation -- big states against small states -- lasted for weeks that summer in Philadelphia. Delegates voted on proposals, then discussed other proposals, then voted again.

By the beginning of July, they were no closer to agreement than they had been in May. As one delegate said: "It seems we are at the point where we cannot move one way or another."

So the delegates did what large groups often do when they cannot reach agreement. They voted to create a committee. The purpose of the committee was to develop a compromise on representation in the national legislature. The so-called "Grand Committee" would work by itself for the next several days. The rest of the delegates would rest and enjoy themselves during the July Fourth holiday.

July Fourth -- Independence Day. It was a national holiday in the United States. It marked the eleventh anniversary of America's Declaration of Independence from British rule. It was a day for parades, fireworks, and patriotic speeches.

The celebration was especially important in Philadelphia. It was the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Now it was the city where a new nation was being created.

Convention president George Washington led a group of delegates to a ceremony at a Philadelphia church. They heard a speech written especially for them.

"Your country looks to you with both worry and hope," the speaker said. "Your country depends on your decisions. Your country believes that men such as you -- who led us in our war for independence -- will know how to plan a government that will be good for all Americans.

"Surely," the speaker continued, "we have among us men who understand the science of government and who can find the answers to all our problems. Surely we have the ability to design a government that will protect the liberties we have won."

The delegates needed to hear such words. Just a few days before, Benjamin Franklin had expressed his thoughts about the convention. He was not hopeful.

Franklin said: "We seem to feel our own lack of political wisdom, since we have been running around in search of it. We went back to ancient history for examples of government. We examined different forms of republics which no longer exist. We also examined modern states all around Europe. But none of these constitutions, we found, work in our situation."

Franklin urged the convention to ask for God's help. He said each meeting should begin with a prayer.

Hugh Williamson of North Carolina quickly ended any discussion of Franklin's idea. His words were simple. The convention, he said, had no money to pay a minister to lead the delegates in prayer.

The convention returned to its work on July fifth. Delegates heard the report of the Grand Committee about representation in the national legislature. The report had two proposals. The Grand Committee said both must be accepted or both rejected.

The report described a national legislature with two houses. The first proposal said representation in one house would be based on population. Each state would have one representative for every forty thousand people in that state.

The second proposal said representation in the second house would be equal. Each state would have the same number of votes as the other states.

The convention already had voted for a national legislature of two houses. It had not agreed, however, on the number of representatives each state would have in each house. Nor had it agreed on how those representatives would be elected.

The proposals made by the Grand Committee on July fifth were the same as those made by Roger Sherman of Connecticut a month earlier. In the future, they would be known as the "Great Compromise.”

Delegates debated the compromise for many days. They knew if they did not reach agreement, the convention would fail. Those were dark days in Philadelphia.

Later, Luther Martin of Maryland noted that the newspapers reported how much the delegates agreed. But that was not the truth. "We were on the edge of breaking up," Martin said. "We were held together only by the strength of a hair."

Delegates Robert Yates and John Lansing of New York had left the convention in protest. But George Mason of Virginia declared he would bury his bones in Philadelphia before he would leave without an agreement.

Even George Washington was depressed. He wrote to Alexander Hamilton, who had returned to New York temporarily.

"I am sorry you went away," Washington said. "Our discussions are now, if possible, worse than ever. There is little agreement on which a good government can be formed. I have lost almost all hope of seeing a successful end to the convention. And so I regret that I agreed to take part."

During the summer of seventeen eighty-seven, the delegates argued long and hard about how much power to give a central government. But that question was not the most serious issue facing the convention.

Many years later, James Madison explained. He said the most serious issue was deciding how the states would be represented and would vote in a national government. That question, he said, was the one which most threatened the writing of the Constitution.

In the United States, the third Monday in February is a federal holiday. Federal law calls it Washington's Birthday, honoring the nation's first president. But Americans now commonly know it as Presidents Day.

George Washington supervised the building of the White House. Yet he and his wife, Martha, never had the chance to live there. It was completed after he left office in seventeen ninety-seven.

Since then, America has had forty-two other presidents. All of them have lived at sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, in Washington, D.C. George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, have lived there since two thousand one.

This November, Americans will elect a new president. The new first family will meet with White House employees after the election to plan for the move. Then the family will move in on January twentieth, two thousand nine -- Inauguration Day.
The White House has an East Wing and a West Wing. The Oval Office, the large round room where the president works, is in the West Wing. The first family lives in the East Wing. The official home of the vice president is on the grounds of the Naval Observatory in Washington.

The White House has more than one hundred thirty rooms. It also has collections of more than forty thousand objects. Presidential families often find things in storage that they like when they move in. For example, Jimmy Carter's children found a chair that Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, had bought.

First ladies have all added to the White House in some way. Jacqueline Kennedy, for example, created a colorful garden that is named in her honor.
George Washington entered office in seventeen eighty-nine. He had great hopes for the house he started. In seventeen ninety, he signed an act of Congress to create an area for the federal government in the District of Columbia, along the Potomac River. President Washington and the French city planner Pierre L'Enfant chose the land for the new presidential home.
A competition took place to find a designer. An architect named James Hoban entered a design similar to where the Irish Parliament meets, Leinster House in Dublin. Hoban was from Ireland. He won five hundred dollars and a piece of land for his winning design.

Grayish white sandstone was chosen for the walls. Work started in seventeen ninety-two, while George Washington lived in Philadelphia.

America's second president was John Adams. He and his wife, Abigail, were the first to live in the new home. They moved in on November first, eighteen hundred. The house was not yet finished.

John and Abigail Adams lived in six rooms and used others to entertain guests. But they lived there for only four months.

John Adams lost re-election to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson tried to finish work on the home. So did the next president, James Madison.

But in eighteen fourteen, British forces invaded Washington. They burned the White House. President Madison's wife, Dolly, tried to save valuable objects from the fire as she fled.

She rescued a painting of George Washington. This famous portrait by Gilbert Stuart hangs in the White House to this day.
After the fire, James Hoban helped rebuild the house he had designed. During this time, it was painted white. Over the years, the White House has been enlarged and almost totally rebuilt.

One of the most recent projects was completed in July of two thousand seven. Workers made about eight million dollars in improvements to the press briefing room. The work included a better look for television, new electrical system, better air conditioning and more comfortable seats. Some of the old ones were broken.

News organizations paid for part of the cost of the work. Reporters moved to temporary offices across the street from the White House while the press room was closed for almost a year.

The room is named in honor of former White House press secretary James Brady. He and President Ronald Reagan were shot and wounded by a man with mental problems outside a Washington hotel in nineteen eighty-one.

The press briefing room is built over Franklin Roosevelt's old swimming pool. Polio disabled his legs, but President Roosevelt still swam. The pool was built in nineteen thirty-three.

Roosevelt was president from nineteen thirty-three to nineteen forty-five. The thirty-second president led the nation through the end of the great economic depression and most of World War Two.

He was elected four times, more than any other president. He died in office. Today, the Twenty-second Amendment to the Constitution limits a person to being elected president twice.

In nineteen sixty-one, Congress decided that furniture of historic and artistic value would always be White House property. In effect, Congress made the White House a museum.

As visitors enter the White House, they see pictures of past presidents on the walls.

In another hall on the same floor are paintings of first ladies. A room off this hallway contains a collection of fine dishes. Each presidency has added to this collection.
Wide marble steps lead to the next floor. It is called the State Floor. Presidents use rooms here for official duties and to entertain guests.

The largest room on the State Floor is the East Room. News conferences and music performances take place here. But this room has had other uses over the years.

Abigail Adams hung her family’s clothes to dry from the wash. Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the thirty-fifth president, John F. Kennedy, rode her tricycle in the East Room.

Other rooms on the State Floor are named for their colors: the Blue Room, the Green Room and the Red Room. The president meets with diplomats and other guests in these rooms. They are also used for special events.

The twenty-second president, Grover Cleveland, married Frances Folsom in the Blue Room in eighteen eighty-six. The Green Room held the body of President Abraham Lincoln’s son Willie, who died in eighteen sixty-two.

And the nineteenth president, Rutherford Hayes, took his oath of office in the Red Room in eighteen seventy-seven following a disputed election.

Nearby is the State Dining Room, where big events take place, like official dinners for visiting leaders. The Treaty Room on the second floor is used for meetings. Important documents have been signed there. At different times, this was the cabinet room or the president's office.

The next floor of the White House contains bedrooms for guests. One of these is the Lincoln Bedroom, named for the sixteenth president. But Abraham Lincoln never slept there.

Lincoln used the room as an office while he led the country through the Civil War in the eighteen sixties. President Lincoln was murdered days after the war ended with the surrender of Robert E. Lee, the Southern general. John Wilkes Booth, a stage actor and supporter of the South, shot Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, not far from the White House.

Over the years, presidents and other people have reported seeing Lincoln's ghost or feeling his presence in the White House.

Long gone are the days when people could simply walk into the White House. In fact, the White House was closed to visitors temporarily after the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two thousand-one.

Information about public tours can be found at whitehouse.gov. Tours are available for groups of ten or more people. Requests for these self-guided tours must be made through a member of Congress. A limited number of tours are available. People can also see inside the White House through virtual tours at whitehouse.gov.

Cole Porter went to live in France in nineteen sixteen before he became famous. He was a wealthy young man who was smart and funny and knew how to enjoy life. He and his wife, Linda, became well known for their costly and exciting parties.

Yet Cole Porter never let other pleasures interfere with what he loved most – writing songs. He worked hard on his songs. Both the words and music had to be perfect.

Porter gained fame as a musical theater writer by the early nineteen thirties. His musical plays were produced in Broadway theaters in New York City. He had a new musical every year or so during the years of America’s great economic depression. His words and music gave people a few hours of pleasurable escape during difficult times.

Some critics still consider one of Porter’s early musical plays, “Anything Goes,” to be his best. “Anything Goes” opened on Broadway in nineteen thirty-four. It starred one of Porter’s favorite singers, Ethel Merman. She sang a song that became famous immediately. It is called “I Get a Kick Out of You.” That expression means "I enjoy being with you".
For years, Porter was Broadway’s “King Cole.” His musical plays were very successful. Later, he went to Los Angeles, California and wrote music for Hollywood movies. They were very popular, too.

Cole and Linda Porter traveled all over the world. They were happily married most of the time. But Cole Porter was homosexual. He had sex with men. Homosexuality was both accepted and forbidden in high society at that time. Love affairs between men were not exactly secret. Yet they could never be admitted publicly.

All his life, Cole Porter wrote songs about love, desire and passion. He included the names of foreign countries, famous people and comments on current events. And he filled his songs with little jokes and hidden meanings.

Porter’s words stretched the limits of what was socially acceptable. They spoke directly and indirectly about sex. They admitted that love is not always pure. It is often selfish. And it rarely lasts forever. Porter was not even sure what love really is. He wonders about it in this song, “What Is This Thing Called Love?” It is sung by Lemar.

Cole Porter also wrote some of the most beautiful love songs ever, full of true, deep feeling. Critics consider “Every Time We Say Goodbye” to be one of his finest songs. Natalie Cole sings the song.

In nineteen thirty-seven, Cole Porter was injured while riding a horse. The horse slid on a muddy hill and fell on top of him. His legs were crushed. Cole Porter spent the rest of his life, twenty-seven years, disabled and in severe pain. Yet he continued writing wonderful songs, musical plays and movies.

In nineteen forty-eight, he wrote what some consider his greatest work. It was a musical play called “Kiss Me, Kate.” It was based on William Shakespeare’s play, “The Taming of the Shrew.” But it takes place in modern times, among a group of actors. The play was produced again on Broadway in nineteen ninety-nine.

One of the most famous songs in the musical is called “Too Darn Hot.” It is a funny song about how hard it is to be interested in love in really hot weather. Stanley Wayne Mathis sings it in “Kiss Me, Kate.”
Cole Porter had another hit show in nineteen fifty-three, called “Cancan.” It was his final play. That same year, Porter’s wife, Linda, died. Porter was very sad, and increasingly disabled by his old injury. He died at the age of seventy-three in nineteen sixty-four.

In nineteen ninety-one, America celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of Cole Porter’s birth. Special concerts celebrated his music. New recordings were issued. Jazz singers and symphony orchestras recorded his songs.

So did several rock-and-roll artists. They made a recording and special music video to honor him. All the money earned from the recording and video was given to research on AIDS, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is a disease that was first discovered among homosexual men.

Today, Cole Porter’s songs are still valued for their beauty, humor and intelligence. And for their unexpected jokes and word play. They shine like jewels, one critic wrote. They are shot through with love that sometimes feels like pain.

There seems little doubt that Cole Porter’s songs will continue to be sung. They will make us laugh. They will make us cry. And they will touch the deepest truths of our emotions.

This famous curved steel structure next to the Mississippi River rises one hundred ninety-two meters in the air. This is the same distance between the arch’s two legs. The Gateway Arch is the tallest freestanding federal monument in the United States.

Plans for the arch developed in the nineteen thirties. During this time, the city of Saint Louis decided to build a federal monument to honor the westward expansion of the United States during the nineteenth century. In eighteen oh three, President Thomas Jefferson had bought more than two million square kilometers of land from France, including what would become the state of Missouri.

The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States at the time. This famous land deal made it possible for the young American nation to expand and grow. The next year, President Jefferson hired Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore this large new area of land. The Lewis and Clark Expedition started just west of Saint Louis. So Saint Louis became known as the Gateway to the West.

The Jefferson National Expansion Park was established in nineteen thirty-five. The federal government and city of Saint Louis agreed to share the building costs. During the nineteen forties, city officials created a national competition among building designers to decide what form the new monument would take.

The Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen won the competition in nineteen forty-eight. Building the arch finally began in nineteen sixty-three was completed two years later. The arch is an example of excellent structural engineering. The shape of the structure is called an inverted catenary curve. This is the form a free-hanging heavy rope or metal chain takes when it is hung between two supports.

Each year, about one million visitors ride special vehicles to the top of the Gateway Arch to enjoy its history and expansive views of Saint Louis.

November eleventh is Veterans Day in the United States. It is the day Americans remember those who have fought in the nation's wars. This year is a special one at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. That memorial honors American men and women who served in the Vietnam War.

2007 is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the part of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial known as the Wall. The Wall is two large,shiny, black stones built into the ground, forming the letter V. The names of more than fifty-eight thousand Americans are cut into the stone.

These are the names of those who died or who are missing as a result of their service in Vietnam. As part of the anniversary observance, the names of all those listed on the Wall are being read aloud this week.

The Wall has the power to create strong feelings. The shiny black stone acts like a mirror. It seems to draw in visitors so that they too are part of the Wall. This is especially emotional for those visitors who served in Vietnam and for the family members of those killed there.

Vietnam Veteran Jan Scruggs thought of the idea for the memorial as a way to honor those killed in one of America's most divisive wars. He formed an organization to build the memorial. In nineteen eighty, a competition was held to choose the design. Judges considered more than one thousand designs. They chose the design of a twenty-one-year-old Yale University student, Maya Lin.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was officially opened on November thirteenth, nineteen eighty-two. The design of the memorial caused great debate. Supporters thought it was simple and powerful. But some people said it was not personal enough and did not show the heroic efforts of those who fought in the war.

As a result, other structures were added to the memorial. They are the Three Servicemen Statue and the Vietnam Women's Memorial statue. A special plaque honors those who died later as a result of injuries from the war.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is the most visited memorial in the nation's capital. More than four million people visit each year. Some visitors make a copy of one of the names on the Wall. Others leave a special object of love and remembrance. Visitors have left tens of thousands of such objects at the Wall. These include flowers, letters, poems, toys, photographs, baseballs and military medals. These objects are links between those who were killed and those who will always remember them.

“Into the Wild” is a new movie that tells the true story of a young man named Christopher McCandless. In the nineteen nineties, he dropped out of society after college to test himself in the American wilderness. Actor Sean Penn wrote and directed the movie, which is based on a book by Jon Krakauer.

Penn asked his friend, the singer Eddie Vedder, to write the music for this powerful film. The songs help express the inner voice and personal discovery of this brave young man.

Vedder is the lead singer for the rock band Pearl Jam. This is the first album in which he performs on his own. Vedder says that when he read the book “Into the Wild” and started to write songs for the movie, the story of Christopher McCandless took control of him.

For two years, this young man traveled through deserts, down rivers, and up mountains in the western United States. He traveled all the way to the northern state of Alaska. On the road, he met many people and influenced them with his intense and intelligent personality. Here is the song “Hard Sun.”

Christopher McCandless did not survive his adventure. Some people have noted that he really was not prepared to survive in the wild. He died of starvation at the age of twenty-four, all alone in the Alaskan wilderness. But the story of his independence and desire to live in the simple beauty of nature lives on.

We leave you with the song “Society.” In it, Eddie Vedder imagines the thoughts of Chris McCandless as he says goodbye to the rules and demands of society in order to lively freely on his own.

Internet technology was also at the heart of the television and movie writers strike, which ended this week. Writers voted in Los Angeles and New York to return to work after one hundred days on strike. A proposed new contract would pay them for the first time for creative material that appears online and in other new media.

Members of the Writers Guild of America are expected to approve the three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Now the producers need to negotiate a new agreement with the Screen Actors Guild or risk another strike. The current contract with the actors union ends June thirtieth.

The competition between Microsoft and Google took a new turn on February first. Microsoft made a public offer to buy the Internet company Yahoo. Microsoft says the combined companies would be in a better position to compete against Google in the online services market.

This week, Yahoo rejected the offer. Its board of directors said the price undervalued the company. The offer was worth almost forty-five billion dollars in cash and stock, or thirty-one dollars per Yahoo share. Yahoo is said to want forty dollars a share.

Microsoft says it offered a full and fair price. It says moving forward quickly with the deal would be in the best interest of shareholders. Yet since February first, the value of Microsoft's offer has fallen to twenty-nine dollars a share because of a drop in its stock.

Microsoft thinks it could better compete against Google with Yahoo's expert knowledge. Microsoft could attempt a hostile takeover. But that is not the way it normally does business, and there is risk of angering Yahoo's employees.

In the last two weeks, Yahoo has discussed possible combinations with other companies, including the News Corporation, AOL and Google. But Yahoo may not be able to avoid a buyout by Microsoft. The latest reports are that some big Yahoo shareholders would support a deal if Microsoft raised its offer.

The purchase would be the largest ever by the world's leading software maker. Yet Microsoft has made little progress in its Internet search abilities and in the growing business of online advertising. Google, the leading Internet search company, is the strongest competitor for those advertising dollars.

Microsoft is based in Redmond, Washington. Yahoo and Google are in California's Silicon Valley.

Dyspraxia is a movement disorder. The World Health Organization says about six percent of children show some sign of it. The majority are male.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities says people with dyspraxia have trouble planning and completing fine motor tasks. The brain has trouble sending messages to the body to do what the person wants. Something as simple as waving goodbye may be difficult.

There are different levels of severity, and the effects can change over time. Babies may not try to crawl or roll over. They may have difficulty moving just their eyes instead of their heads.

As they get older, children may have trouble walking or holding a cup, riding a bicycle or throwing a ball. Trouble with letter formation or slow writing can interfere with school work.

People with dyspraxia may even have trouble speaking. So imagine the difficulty in learning a sport. Adults can have problems driving a car, cleaning the house, or washing and dressing themselves. Social skills are another issue. People with dyspraxia can have trouble making friends.

Like other learning disabilities, it cannot be cured. Children might be laughed at by other children. Teachers might think they are slow. The problem is not with intelligence but with motor skill development. Yet experts say the result of these reactions can be depression and other emotional problems.

This is one reason why early intervention is important. Children might feel a lot better about themselves if they understand why it takes longer for them to learn to do things.

Experts say it is important for parents to provide help and support to dyspraxic children from an early age. Helping them learn easy physical activities that develop coordination can build their trust in themselves. And simple activities can progress toward more complex tasks. Working with occupational, speech and physical therapists can lead to further improvements.

A person with dyspraxia might also have other learning disabilities such as dyslexia or dysgraphia, which affect reading and writing. You can learn about these disorders at voaspecialenglish.com. We have transcripts and MP3s of our series on learning disabilities. Next week the subject is dyscalculia, a disorder involving mathematical abilities.

Devendra Banhart is a musician who creates imaginative folk songs that take you back to the sounds of the nineteen sixties. The twenty-six-year-old singer and songwriter recently released his fifth album, called “Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon.” Critics say this album is his strongest yet.

The song “Sea Horse” is a good example of Devendra Banhart’s emotional voice and dreamy songs. It is not often clear what his songs are about, but they are always interesting. Rolling Stone magazine listed this record as one of the top albums of two thousand seven.

Devendra was born in Houston, Texas and grew up in Venezuela. He started playing music at the age of twelve. He began his studies at the San Francisco Art Institute in California, but dropped out of the program and moved to Paris, France. During this time Banhart made recordings of his music by borrowing recording devices from his friends. After returning to the United States, Devendra Banhart was discovered by the owner of Young God Records.

Devendra Banhart is also a skilled artist. He currently has a show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Thirteen of his drawings are shown along with the works of the famous artist Paul Klee. The show explores the relationship between art that you look at and art that you listen to.

Experts say that January is the top month for getting a new job. Many Americans make a promise that they will find a new or better job in the new year. And many businesses decide to fill empty positions this time of year.

There are many ways to find a job. It can be as easy as walking into a neighborhood store to look at its announcement board. Local stores often have areas where people can put small signs telling what kind of service they need or can provide. Such services include caring for children or cleaning houses.

Or, job searchers can look in the newspaper. Local newspapers have employment announcements placed by companies seeking workers.

Another popular tool for finding jobs is the Internet. For example, people in four hundred and fifty cities around the world can use the Craigslist Web site to buy objects, meet people or find a job. Craigslist says that it receives two million new job listings each month.

Another useful way to find a job is through a college or university. For example, students at the University of Texas in Austin can go to the Career Exploration Center to get help in finding a job. People who graduate from universities can also use alumni groups and resources. This means that new graduates can get advice about jobs from older graduates. Each American state also has an employment services office that can help people train and look for jobs.

Of course, looking for a job requires knowing what kind of work you want to do. For example, there is a book called ?What Color is Your Parachute?? by Richard Bolles. This book has been helping people choose a career since it was first published in nineteen seventy.

Some experts also help people find jobs. Susan W. Miller owns a company called California Career Services in Los Angeles. She says her company helps people find jobs by first helping them understand their strengths, goals and interests. Then she provides them with methods and resources to help them find the right job.

Where can you go to listen to a cook, a senator or a scientist talk about important subjects? BigThink.com is a new Web site created to provide discussions between world experts and Internet users. Subjects discussed on BigThink include the environment, music and questions about happiness and personal identity. The Web site has been called a YouTube for thinkers.

Victoria Brown and Peter Hopkins created BigThink.com. They see the Web site as a social project that permits Internet users around the world to share a discussion space with experts. Miz Brown says that people need an international stage on which to exchange, discuss, and debate the important ideas of our time.

If you visit the BigThink Web site, you will find a series of subjects listed on the left side of the page. There are “meta” subjects that deal with general ideas like faith, love, life, death and justice. And there are “physical” subjects like art, culture, technology, history and politics. When you click on a subject, you find a video of a person talking about his or her ideas. For example, you can listen to United States Senator Ted Kennedy talking about education and civil rights.

SENATOR TED KENNEDY: “We want to try and free ourselves from the forms of discrimination and bigotry which exist in our nation.”

Or you could listen to the musician Moby talk about his work and ideas for young artists.

MOBY: “My advice to other musicians first and foremost would be to make music that they love.”

Among other "big thinkers" are the former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, and French cook Jacques Pepin. Under their videos, you can read the comments and questions written by other visitors to the Web site. More than one hundred experts express their ideas on the Web site.

BigThink also has an important list of financial supporters. These include Peter Thiel who helped create the PayPal company; Larry Summers, a former United States secretary of the treasury, and David Frankel, a businessman from South Africa.

BigThink’s creators started the Web site by first getting famous people to agree to be videotaped. They began by interviewing several well-known professors from Harvard University, which they had attended. Then they used the names of these professors to gain the trust of others and get them to take part in the project.

The Web site says BigThink belongs to everyone. Its motto is: “We are what you think." So, go online and start thinking big.

People often say that money talks. They mean that a person with a lot of money can say how he or she wants things done. But it is not easy to earn enough money to gain this kind of power.

Ask anyone in a business. They will tell you that it is a jungle out there. The expression probably began because the jungle is filled with wild animals and unknown dangers that threaten people. Sometimes people in business feel competing businesses are as dangerous as wild animals. And they feel that unknown dangers in the business world threaten the survival of their business.

People in business have to be careful if they are to survive the jungle out there. They must not be led into making bogus investments. Bogus means something that is not real.

Nobody is sure how the word got started. But it began to appear in American newspapers in the eighteen hundreds. A newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, said the word came from a criminal whose name was Borghese. The newspaper said Borghese wrote checks to people although he did not have enough money in the bank. After he wrote the checks, he would flee from town. So, people who were paid with his checks received nothing. The newspaper said Americans shortened and changed the criminal's name Borghese, to bogus.

People trying to earn money also must be aware of being ripped off. A person who is ripped off has had something stolen, or at least has been treated very unfairly.

A writer for the magazine "American Speech" said he first saw the expression used in nineteen seventy-one. It was on a sign that a student carried during a protest demonstration at a university. The message on the sign was that the student felt ripped off, or cheated.

Perhaps the best way to prevent getting ripped off in business is to not try to get rich quickly. To be successful, a person in business works hard and tries to get down to brass tacks.

This expression means to get to the bottom or most important part of something. For example, a salesman may talk and talk about his product without saying the price. You get down to brass tacks when you say, "it sounds good, but how much does it cost."

Word expert Charles Funk thinks the expression comes from sailors on ships. They clean the bottom of a boat. When they have removed all the dirt, they are down to the brass tacks, the copper pieces that hold the boat together.

So, if we get down to brass tacks, we can prevent ripoffs and bogus ways of earning money in that jungle out there. And, some good luck will help, too.

Our story begins in seventeen sixty-eight in Madrid, Spain. The king of Spain, Charles the Third, had recently received reports that worried him. The reports said Russian explorers were in the northern part of the territory called California. Spain had claimed most of that area more than two hundred years earlier. But Spain had no settlements in California. King Charles knew if the Russians began to settle the area, Spain might lose control of California forever.

King Charles decided the best way to keep the Spanish claim to California was to build settlements there. California had good harbors for Spanish ships, good weather and good farmland.

King Charles decided to order the creation of a series of small farming communities along the Pacific Ocean coast of California. The settlements would provide trade and grow into larger cities. Spanish citizens might want to settle there. Then the Spanish claim to California would be safe.

But there was no one on the coast of California to begin the work. King Charles and his advisors decided that the farming settlements would begin with churches called missions. Missions were places where Roman Catholic religious leaders converted people to the Christian religion. They taught the religion to people who wanted to become members of the church.

King Charles decided Roman Catholic priests would build the missions and settlements with the help of Native American Indians. The priests would teach the native people the Christian religion, the Spanish language and how to farm.

A religious group within the Catholic Church called the Franciscans would build the settlements. The Franciscans chose a young priest named Junipero Serra to begin the work.

Many history experts say the Spanish government and the Catholic Church could not have chosen a better person for the task than Junipero Serra.

Junipero Serra was born in seventeen thirteen on the island of Mallorca, Spain. After he became a Franciscan priest, he taught at a university in Mallorca.

Father Serra had always wanted to be a missionary. In seventeen forty-nine he sailed to Mexico to begin his life as a missionary. He spent several years studying the languages and customs of native people in Mexico.

In seventeen sixty-eight he was given the job of building the first of the California missions near the present day city of San Diego.

Mission San Diego de Alcala began on July sixteenth, seventeen sixty-nine. But before the mission was completed, Father Serra decided to move it. He did not like the way Spanish soldiers mistreated the Native Americans. He wanted to keep them separate. He moved the mission to an area that is still called Mission Valley.

The design of Mission San Diego de Alcala was similar to each of the missions that were built later. There was a large church building. A long wall formed a large square to the side and behind the church. Large rooms inside and along the wall served as bedrooms, cooking areas, workshops, and classrooms. Usually, the center of the large square was left open. A garden with flowers was planted there.

Junipero Serra’s plan for the missions along the California coast was simple. Each would be about the same distance from each other. Members of the Franciscan religious group did not ride horses or travel in wagons. They walked. The missions were built about one day’s long walk from each other. This made it easier to travel, trade goods and share information.

The missions begin with San Diego de Alcala in the south. They end with San Francisco Solano about one thousand fifty kilometers to the north. In time, the road from mission San Diego de Alcala to mission San Francisco Solano was given a name.

The Spanish name is still used today. It is “El Camino Real.” It means the “The Royal Highway” or “The King’s Highway.” Most of that old road is now part of the California highway system. Millions of people use the road every day as they drive from San Diego to San Francisco.

Many people have criticized the mission system of settlement because it changed the way of life for the Native Americans in California. Critics say many Native Americans were forced to work at the missions. They say many were forced to become members of the Christian religion. And many were treated badly by Spanish soldiers and died because of mistreatment or disease.

However, other experts say that Junipero Serra demanded that the priests and soldiers treat the Native Americans with respect. Many of the Native Americans accepted the Christian religion, learned to farm and helped the missions become valuable settlements.

Many other Native Americans did not. Some did not want to change the way they lived so they moved away from the missions. Many Native Americans believed they would be forced into a new way of life. In seventeen seventy-six, a group of Indians attacked the San Diego mission and burned it. Eight months later, the mission was rebuilt where it still stands today.

King Charles’s plan was a success. Settlements grew from the missions along the California coast. Some of those along El Camino Real became major cities -- San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Jose, and San Francisco, to name only a few.

Junipero Serra was responsible for building nine of the missions. One of these was Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo in the present city of Carmel. It became his headquarters and the headquarters for all of the California missions. In seventeen eighty-four, Junipero Serra died of tuberculosis at mission San Carlos. He was buried in the floor of the Mission San Carlos Church.

The missions of California faced difficult times during the eighteen hundreds. In eighteen twenty-two, California became part of Mexico, which had just won its independence from Spain. But the Mexican government could not pay the cost of keeping the missions.

In eighteen thirty-four, the Mexican government sold much of the mission land and some of the buildings. Several missions remained part of the communities they helped to build. But many became little more than ruins. Some of the land and the missions were returned to the Catholic Church.

In the eighteen forties, Mexico had trouble controlling the American settlers in California. In eighteen forty-six, the settlers declared California a republic. Less than two years later, the United States gained control of California during the Mexican War.

During this period, the Catholic Church tried to keep control of the missions. They were only partly successful. However, in eighteen sixty-three President Abraham Lincoln signed a law that said all twenty-one missions in California would be returned to the Catholic Church. They have remained so ever since.

Today, the people of California consider the missions a treasure. Eighteen of the twenty-one are still active Catholic churches.

All of the missions are museums that teach the early history of California. Many visitors come to the missions to see the beautiful buildings. Several of the missions have become famous. One example is the Mission San Juan Capistrano. It was planned and built by Junipero Serra.

Each year, on the same day, at almost the same hour, thousands of birds called swallows return to the mission. They return from their winter homes thousands of kilometers to the south. The swallows arrive on March nineteenth. They build nests and raise their young in the old mission. They leave on October twenty-third. One story says the birds have been late only once because of a storm at sea. Everyone agrees that Junipero Serra would have loved the beautiful swallows of Capistrano.

Every year, malaria sickens about five hundred million people. More than one million of them die, mostly young children and pregnant women in Africa.

For several years in sub-Saharan Africa, the Global Fund and other groups have been paying for bed nets treated with long-lasting insect poison. Malaria is spread by mosquito bites. The groups have also invested in antimalaria drugs for A.C.T., artemisinin-based combination therapy.

Recently, a team from the World Health Organization visited Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia. These countries were the first to distribute the bed nets and medicine. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria requested a study to see if the interventions were helping.

The researchers found that the answer is yes. They looked at records of children under five. They found that malaria deaths fell by sixty-six percent in Rwanda between two thousand five and two thousand seven. Deaths fell by fifty-one percent in Ethiopia, thirty-four percent in Ghana and thirty-three percent in Zambia.

The team reported that limited supplies of bed nets could help explain the more limited effects in Zambia and Ghana. But the findings in Ghana were more difficult to explain, because deaths from causes other than malaria fell more sharply. The report says this was in keeping with general improvements in health services.

The full report can be found at who.int, on the page for the global malaria program.

In another new study, researchers reported that vitamin A and zinc treatments might also help protect young children from malaria. Scientists in Burkina Faso found that malaria reinfection rates fell by thirty-four percent in a group of children treated with vitamin A and zinc.

The findings appear in Nutrition Journal, an open access publication that can be read free of charge at nutritionj.com.

Now, we turn from a disease that kills a million people a year to a behavior that kills more than five times that many: smoking.

A new report from the World Health Organization estimates that tobacco killed one hundred million people in the twentieth century. And it says the number this century could reach one billion.

In May of seventeen eighty-seven, a group of America's early leaders met in Philadelphia. Over a period of four months, they worked on a document that would establish a system of government and guarantee the rights of citizens. Continue the story of the Constitution.

Delegates spent several weeks debating details of the position and powers.

The delegates decided the executive would be chosen by electors named by state legislatures. They decided he could veto laws. And they decided he could be removed from office if found guilty of serious crimes.

The delegates did not call the executive 'president'. That name for America's leader would be used later.

Another major issue debated by the convention was a national judiciary: a federal system of courts and judges.

The delegates knew a lot about the issue. Thirty-four of them were lawyers. Eight were judges in their home states. One question hung heavy in the air. The states had their own system of courts and judges. Did the national government need them, too?

Several delegates said no. Roger Sherman of Connecticut said existing state courts were enough. In addition, he said, a system of national courts would be too costly.

John Rutledge of South Carolina opposed a national system of lower courts. But he argued for a national Supreme Court.

The convention voted for both. There would be one Supreme Court and a system of lower courts. These national courts would hear cases involving national laws, the rights of American citizens, and wrong-doing by foreign citizens in the United States.

The system of state courts would continue to hear cases involving state laws.

The next question concerned the appointment of national judges. Some delegates believed judges should be appointed by the national legislature. Others believed they should be appointed by the president.

James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued in support of having one person name judges. He said experience showed that large bodies could not make appointments fairly or openly.

John Rutledge disagreed strongly. By no means, he said, should the president appoint judges. He said that method looked too much like monarchy.

Benjamin Franklin then told a funny little story. In Scotland, Franklin said, he understood that judges were appointed by lawyers. They always chose the very best lawyer to be a judge. Then they divided his business among themselves.

The delegates voted on the issue. They agreed only to create a Supreme Court. Details of the system were left to the national legislature and the president.

The legislature could decide how many judges would sit on the Supreme Court. The president would appoint the judges. The legislature could establish lower courts from time to time. The president would appoint those judges, too.

Throughout the summer of seventeen eighty-seven, the Philadelphia convention based its debates on a plan of government offered by delegates from Virginia. But the Virginia Plan was not the only one offered. Another plan came from New Jersey.

New Jersey delegate William Paterson presented the plan about a month after the convention began. The other delegates saw immediately that it was directly opposed to the Virginia Plan.

The Virginia Plan talked of a national government. Under it, a national legislature, executive and judiciary would have supreme power over the states. The New Jersey Plan talked about a federal government. Under it, each state would keep its own independent powers over the union of states.

The New Jersey Plan proposed some changes in the existing Articles of Confederation. It did not propose a completely new system of government.

Under the New Jersey Plan, the federal government would have a legislature with just one house. Each state would have one vote in the legislature. Big states and little states would be equal.

The federal government would have an executive of more than one person. It would not have a system of lower federal courts. And its powers would come from the states...not the people.

Supporters of the New Jersey Plan then talked about the true purpose of the Philadelphia convention. They said the states had sent delegates to discuss changes in the Articles of Confederation. The delegates, they said, did not have the right to throw the Articles away.

If the Union under the Articles is radically wrong, one said, let us return to our states. Let our states give us more powers to negotiate. Let us not take these powers upon ourselves.

Then James Wilson of Pennsylvania spoke. He explained his own idea about the purpose of the convention. Its instructions, he said, were to reach final agreement on nothing. But it could propose and discuss anything.

Wilson also questioned the delegates' right to speak for the people. Is it not true, he said, that the opinions of one's friends are commonly mistaken for the opinions of the general population?

He noted that some delegates firmly believed the people would never accept a national government. They would never give up their state's rights.

Wilson was not so sure. "Why should a national government be unpopular?" he asked. "Has it less honor? Will each citizen enjoy under it less liberty or protection? Will a citizen of one state be respected less by becoming a citizen of the United States?"

Edmund Randolph of Virginia spoke next. He said the convention had no choice but to establish a national government. It would be an act of treason not to do what was necessary to save the republic. And, he said, only a new, national government would work.

"The present moment is the last moment for establishing a national government," Randolph said. "After this experiment, the people will lose all hope."

Debate on the New Jersey Plan took place on Saturday, June sixteenth. The following Monday, they heard yet another plan of government. It was offered by the delegate from New York, Alexander Hamilton.

Hamilton had said little at the convention. On this day, he spoke for five hours.

Hamilton said he did not offer his ideas as an official proposal. But he said they could be considered amendments to the Virginia Plan. Then he read the details.

I would like to see in America, Hamilton said, one executive. He would be chosen by electors. He could veto any law, and his veto could not be over-turned. He would serve for life.

Next, he said, the national legislature would have two houses. The upper house would be called the senate. The lower house would be called the assembly. Like the chief executive, senators would be chosen by electors for life. Members of the assembly would be elected directly by the people for a term of three years.

Then Hamilton spoke about the states. Under his plan, the states would lose many of their existing rights and powers. State governors would be appointed by the national government. And states no longer could have their own military forces.

Hamilton was sure America's existing form of government would not work when the country got bigger. He believed America should follow the British form of government. He called it the best in the world.

No one stopped Hamilton during his long speech to argue or ask questions. Historians say this is surprising. Hamilton's ideas were extreme. His public support for the British government was unpopular. His statements were unacceptable to everyone at the convention.

But the weather had been hot. The speech had been long. The delegates agreed to end their business for another day.

With many state primary elections and caucuses already held, the U.S. presidential race is focusing on the delegates to each party's nominating convention later this year. This segment explains the complicated process that ultimately produces a November candidate "ticket."

The road to the White House winds through the states and their primary and caucus contests. But, to arrive at the Oval Office, candidates first have to win their party's presidential nomination. And, that decision is made by party delegates.

Primary election ballots have the names of presidential candidates. But when voters make their choice, they are actually voting for convention delegates who are bound to that candidate. The White House contender who has the most delegates at the convention wins the nomination.

When the Democratic National Convention convenes in Denver, Colorado on August 25th, a total of 4,049 delegates are expected. It will take 2,025 delegates -- exactly half, plus one -- to nominate the party's presidential contender for the November election.

The Republican Party expects 2,381 delegates at its national convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. A candidate needs 1,191 delegate votes to become the Republicans' presidential nominee.

For both major parties, each state's delegation is made up of certain components. California's Democratic Party contingent is explained by Democratic National Committee official Stacie Paxton, "For example, in California there are 441 delegates at stake. And, 370 of those are pledged delegates, so they are committed to one candidate or the other. There is [are] another 71 delegates that are DNC [Democratic National Committee] members, [others in that group of 71] are Members of Congress. And, [while] they are not committed to a candidate [because of the primary and caucus process], they vote in the convention as well.

California Republicans will send 173 delegates to their convention, 159 are committed delegates, while the other 14 are California party and elected officials. These 14 additional delegates are not committed by voters to particular candidates.

The two parties have different ways of assigning committed delegates to their presidential candidates. The Democrats work on a proportional system -- candidates, if they reach a certain threshold, get that percentage of a state's delegates that they received in votes. Republicans, however, have some states that assign delegates proportionally, and in others, a winner-take-all system.

At the conventions, names of candidates are put to a floor vote.

Chairman, Maine Delegation, 1964 GOP Convention: "Mr. Chairman, the state of Maine casts 14 votes for Senator Margaret Chase Smith."

For both the Democratic and Republican parties, committed delegates are bound to their candidates for the first vote. If no candidate gets the 50 percent-plus-one delegate needed to win the nomination, more rounds of floor voting are held. Eventually, delegates can vote for candidates other than the ones they were bound to by the voters. But neither major party has gone past the first round of voting in decades.

All the attention is on the candidates. But the real work of putting them on the November ballot is in the hands of others. That is an important part of How America Elects.

Key primary elections are in play Tuesday for U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton and her rival for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, Senator Barack Obama.

Voters are going to the polls in the eastern states of Maryland, Virginia, and in Washington, D.C. The three neighboring jurisdictions hold about 12 percent of the total delegates needed to reach the nomination.

Clinton goes into Tuesday's primaries with a slim lead over Obama in the number of delegates needed to win the nomination at the Democratic National Convention later this year (1,136 to Obama's 1,108).

Meanwhile, the Republican frontrunner, Arizona Senator John McCain, has picked up the endorsement of President Bush's brother, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. The former governor called McCain a patriot and devoted conservative leader who has made tremendous sacrifices for the country.

The focus of the U.S. presidential race shifts to the mid-Atlantic region of the country Tuesday, with nominating primaries in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

In the battle for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois will be looking to build on his momentum after winning four contests on Saturday and Sunday.

Obama won a primary in Louisiana and caucuses in Nebraska, Washington state and Maine.

"I am here to say that my bet has paid off," he said. "My faith in the American people has been vindicated, because, everywhere I go, people say they want a new direction for the country."

Public opinion polls show Obama has a lead over Senator Hillary Clinton in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Following his sweep of the weekend contests, Clinton replaced campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle with longtime aide Maggie Williams.

Despite the latest losses, Senator Clinton remains upbeat, and is quick to point out a recent surge in fundraising.

"So many people responded - they went to my Web site, Hillary Clinton.com - that we have raised since Tuesday $10 million," she said.

The latest delegate count estimate by The Associated Press shows both Clinton and Obama with about 1,000 delegates apiece. It takes 2,025 to secure the Democratic Party nomination.

Clinton campaign officials are already looking past the Tuesday primaries to the March 4 contests in Texas and Ohio, where polls show her in the lead.

On the Republican side, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is hoping for a good showing in Tuesday's primary in Virginia.

Huckabee is looking to build momentum after he defeated frontrunner John McCain in contests in Kansas and Louisiana, while McCain pulled out a narrow victory in Washington state.

Huckabee told NBC's Today program he will remain in the race, despite McCain's huge lead in the delegate count.

"The Republican Party is not a party that likes to be told what to do," he said. "A lot of the establishment wants to just say it is over, and why do we not just have a coronation? But we are supposed to have an election, and that means people get to choose."

Huckabee's victories in Kansas and Louisiana suggest McCain has more work to do to win over conservative Republicans, who have long questioned his commitment to tax cuts and stopping illegal immigration.

But McCain is getting some high-profile help from President Bush. Mr. Bush told Fox News Sunday that he believes McCain is a true conservative, but that he needs to continue to reach out to conservatives within the Republican Party.

"You cannot please all of the people all of the time," he said. "But part of a campaign is for the nominee of a party to rally the party, and to rally the folks who are going to end up being the base from which he operates."

The president did not formally endorse McCain, but did say he was willing to campaign on behalf of the eventual Republican nominee.

McCain already has about half of the delegates he needs to win the party nomination.

Now that the race for the Republican presidential nomination has narrowed to two main candidates, Republican voters are questioning whether the frontrunner embraces enough of the party's conservative standards. Arizona Senator John McCain has angered conservatives in the past with his congressional votes.

Political experts say these people are the core of the American Republican Party: conservatives.

They embrace low taxes, traditional values, a strong military, untethered campaign spending and strong immigration laws. Every year, about 6,000 of them attend the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Enter Senator John McCain, the Republican frontrunner. Conservatives agree: he is Republican and that he is the frontrunner. But many say he is not a true conservative. Thus, the McCain conservative dilemma.

"He cannot go into the general election without conservatives not really caring whether he wins or loses," says political analyst Stuart Rothenberg.

McCain entered politics in 1981, during the Reagan years. Conservatives view President Ronald Reagan as their standard-bearer -- the ideal conservative politician.

"I am proud, very proud, to have come to public office as a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution," McCain said to the conference.

But some conservative radio talk show hosts, such as Laura Ingraham, question that claim. She says, "I do not think it is enough to say that you were a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution. I think the question is, 'What have you been doing for conservatism lately?"

Lately, Senator McCain has been trying to shed his reputation as a political maverick, a politician who has been willing to break with conservative Republican orthodoxy on certain issues.

In 2002, Congress passed a bill co-sponsored by McCain that limited campaign spending. The law still angers conservatives who claim it empowers lobbyists to contribute millions to political campaigns.

Greg Walcher says his vote for president is tied to that belief. "Clearly that has not worked. It has made it easier for rich people to hide their money in campaigns through these other organizations. He ought to be able to say, this is what we tried to do. It did not work. It is time to fix it."

Ann Scott wants to hear McCain back-off from his position on a different issue. "I'm going to secure the border and then we are going to deal with the illegal immigrants who are here," she wants him to say.

But just the mention of immigration got this response from the conservatives. McCain started to make his point, "On the issue of illegal immigration, a position which...." [interrupted by boos]

Earlier this year McCain supported a bill that would eventually allow citizenship for many of the country's 12 million illegal immigrants. But before the convention of conservatives, he seemed to backtrack. He said, "I and other Republican supporters of the bill were genuine in our intention to restore control of our borders. We failed. I accept that. And I have pledged that it would be among my highest priorities to secure our borders first."

Younger voters seem to appreciate McCain's ability to reach out to the opposition.

Voter Jake Wilson from Dayton, Ohio says, "At least John McCain is willing to work across the aisle and make compromise."

But that premise again infuriates conservative radio talk show hosts, like Rush Limbaugh. "When did the measure of conservatism become: reaching out to Democrats?" Limbaugh asked.

"We do want, and I think deserve, a candidate who is proud to be a conservative and who embodies conservative ideals. Is that too much to ask?" asked Ingraham.

McCain said to the conference, "I am proud to be a conservative."

No one knows if McCain will change any minds. Then again, he has some time to do that. It is only February -- and there are nine more months until the general election.

Democrats in Washington, DC and the adjacent states of Virginia and Maryland will go to the polls Tuesday to choose between the two remaining candidates seeking the party's presidential nomination. The contest is being called the Potomac Primary, named after the famous river that flows past the nation's capital and bisects the two states.

Just across the Potomac River from the nation's capital, the state of Virginia is now a primary election battleground. Democrats will send 103 delegates to the political party's national convention.

Senator Hillary Clinton, hoping to further her chances for the nomination, launched another frenetic week of primary election campaigning here. She wants be the first woman elected to the White House, and is battling for every vote with Senator Barack Obama, who could be the first black president.

Obama has been boosted by heavy support among African Americans in other southern states. But there are fewer blacks in Virginia.

The Latino vote has been largely with Clinton in many recent contests. This Hispanic Virginian is one example. "Many people, many people -- my friends and my family -- thinking Hillary is perfect for president," Gladys Ramirez told us. But Hispanics make up a tiny percent of the vote.

The upscale communities in the Virginia suburbs close to Washington, with money to spend and chock full of Democrats, offer a big opportunity to the campaigns. It is here where Clinton supporters lined up Thursday for a chance to see her.

Among those watching the former first lady: women who glow with the pride they say they have in the opportunity Clinton represents for women and their daughters.

Not far away, women come to a breakfast the next day in a wealthy suburban enclave. But these women, many of them middle aged or older, are not for Clinton.

"I wanted to feel really good about a woman running for the presidency of the United States," says Robin Latham. She complains Clinton's rise was fueled by her husband, former President Bill Clinton. "To me, Hillary Clinton isn't advancing feminism or women’s' rights,” she adds. “She's kind of, like, setting it back."

Obama backers here are trying to persuade undecided voters like Sandy Treanor, who says she is torn by the choice she and others must make Tuesday. "Having a woman is important to me but then I think that Obama can make America liked in the world again -- bring us more together," says Treanor.

It is a hard decision for many Democratic voters in these neighborhoods, like Linda Hardy, home this day with her three-year-old daughter. But she has decided. "We like the fact that he's bringing people together. He's very enthusiastic about getting both parties to work together.

Many supporters of Obama and Clinton say, after a nominee is decided in the primaries, they will back whoever wins the Democratic nomination.

Democratic Senator Barack Obama has swept rival Senator Hillary Clinton in three of their party's presidential nominating contests held Saturday.

Obama won by margins of roughly two-to-one in the midwestern state of Nebraska, the southern state of Louisiana, and Washington state on the U.S. west coast).

Obama and Clinton are in a very tight race for the Democratic Party nomination, with more contests today in Maine, and Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland and the U.S capital, Washington, D.C.

In a speech late Saturday in Virginia's capital, Richmond, Obama said he has shown that he can win in various parts of the country.

In Republican Party contests Saturday, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee won the midwestern state of Kansas with 60 percent of the vote, ahead of Arizona Senator John McCain, who had 24 percent.

Nationwide, Huckabee is trailing far behind McCain, who has won more state races and has more of the delegates needed to secure the nomination.

The Republican race in Washington state is too close to call, with McCain, Huckabee and Texas Representative Ron Paul very close in early results.

Incomplete results in the Louisiana primary show Huckabee with a slight lead.

President Bush is seeking to ease conservative fears about Arizona Senator John McCain - the frontrunner for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.

Senator McCain is way ahead in the race for delegates to the Republican Party's nominating convention. But former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, his only major challenger, is not giving up.

While he has been careful not to choose sides, President Bush is clearly aware that some of the party's staunchest conservatives do not want to see McCain get the nomination. They consider him a maverick and out of step with their views on issues such as immigration, tax policy, and campaign reform.

The president preached party unity at a conservative gathering on Friday. And in a follow-up interview on national television, he stressed this wing of the party has nothing to fear from John McCain.

"I know him well," said President Bush. "I know his convictions. I know the principles that drive him. There is no doubt in my mind that he is a true conservative."

Mr. Bush told the Fox News Sunday program both McCain and Huckabee have conservative records. But he acknowledged that McCain will have to work hard to bring the various factions of the Republican Party together.

"I think if John is the nominee, he has got some convincing to do to convince people that he is a solid conservative," said Mr. Bush. "And I will be glad to help him if he is the nominee."

McCain's strong showing in the 22-state Republican contests held last Tuesday earned him the frontrunner status. One of his challengers, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney suspended his campaign last Friday, leaving Huckabee as McCain's only major challenger.

Huckabee won victories Saturday in Louisiana and Kansas. He told NBC's Meet the Press that he intends to stay in the race, saying there is still a chance that McCain will lack the necessary delegates to wrap up the nomination before the convention.

"People say is not it a rather complicated and convoluted path to victory? You bet it is! But it is a real easy path to defeat," said Mike Huckabee. "All I have to do is walk off the field and the game is over."

Huckabee said his supporters remain energized going into the next round of contests Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. He said not one has asked him to follow the lead of Mitt Romney and leave the race.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama swept up more delegates Saturday in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, winning the day's two caucuses and one primary. On the Republican side, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee won two victories.

Barack Obama won handily in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state, with a comfortable lead in all three contests over New York Senator Hillary Clinton. The biggest prize was Washington state, which has 97 delegates, but Senator Clinton will also get a share of those delegates since the Democrats divide them proportionally.

Obama, who is black, won in Louisiana, which has a large African-American vote, but he also won in the midwestern state of Nebraska, which is mostly white, and in the diverse state of Washington, thereby enhancing his image as a candidate who can appeal across racial lines. Exit polls also indicate that he continued to do well among better educated and more affluent voters of all races.

Speaking to supporters in Richmond, Virginia, Obama celebrated his victories, saying "Today voters from the west coast to the Gulf coast to the heart of America stood up to say, 'Yes, we can.' We won in Louisiana, we won in Nebraska, we won in Washington state, we won north, we won south, we won in between."

These wins should help Obama as he moves to the next set of important contests, in Maryland and the District of Columbia, where he is heavily favored, and Virginia, which is hotly contested. Senator Clinton is spending time and money in Virginia in hopes of impeding Obama's momentum ahead of the contests on March fourth, when two populous and delegate-rich states, Texas and Ohio, are in play.

Analysts have speculated that Clinton could have an advantage among Hispanic voters here in Texas, but Obama has established a large organizational base in the lone star state and he has more money to spend on television advertising than Clinton, something that could prove crucial in a large state where personal appearances do not count as much as they did in some of the smaller states.

On the Republican side Saturday, Mike Huckabee chalked up victories in Kansas and Louisiana. Both states border Arkansas, where he served as governor and in both states there are substantial numbers of evangelical Christians and conservatives, many of whom are opposed to Republican frontrunner John McCain. On Wednesday, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney suspended his campaign after McCain took most of the states holding contests on Super Tuesday.

Although McCain, who earned a win in Washington State Saturday, is widely viewed as the probable Republican nominee, he faces rifts within his party over positions he has taken on such issues as tax cuts and immigration reform. Most analysts do not believe Huckabee can overtake McCain, but the former Baptist minister says he is in the race to win and that his victories on Saturday will help him carry his campaign forward.

Republican Senator John McCain is campaigning in Virginia today, after receiving a big boost Thursday when his main rival for the presidential nomination, former Governor Mitt Romney suspended his campaign. On the Democratic side, the race remains extremely close between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Both are campaigning hard ahead of several nominating contests Saturday and Sunday.

Arizona Senator John McCain congratulated Former Massachusetts Governor Romney for running a good campaign, and reached out to Romney's supporters.

"You did a fine job, and you are welcome to join my campaign," he said.

Romney's departure appears to have all but sealed the nomination for McCain, who must now try to win over conservative critics within his own party. But former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is still in the race. He told reporters not to count him out yet.

"I still believe this thing is a long way from being settled, so now the field is down to two my chances have substantially improved," he said.

Huckabee, a former Baptist pastor, is campaigning in Kansas today, ahead of Republican caucuses there on Saturday.

McCain has already won 707 of the more than 1,000 delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination. Huckabee has 195 and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who is also still in the race, has 14.

Huckabee said he realizes it is virtually impossible for him to catch up, but he says he is "looking forward to doing the impossible."

Senators Clinton and Obama are locked in a fierce state-by-state battle for delegates, after Super Tuesday's primaries and caucuses left them virtually even. Both candidates are holding rallies in the western state of Washington today, ahead of contests there and in Louisiana, Nebraska and the Virgin Islands Saturday, and in Maine on Sunday.

Both Democrats say they are the best candidate to take on Senator McCain in the general election in November. Clinton spoke to supporters in Virginia Thursday.

"Who would be our best candidate to stand on the stage with Senator McCain to talk about national security, the economy and all the other important issues? I am offering a lifetime of experience, but more than that, I am offering my heart," she said.

Clinton and Obama are also looking ahead to contests next Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's decision to abandon his presidential campaign makes it a virtual certainty that Arizona Senator John McCain will be the Republican Party's presidential nominee this year.

McCain's challenge played out before an annual conference of conservative activists in Washington.

Conservatives have long clashed with McCain over his initial opposition to President Bush's tax cut program and his support for measures that would establish a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

With those past differences in mind, conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham raised doubts about McCain in a speech to the Conservative Political Action conference.

"I do not think it is enough to say that you were a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution," said Ingraham. "I think the question is, what have you been doing for conservatism lately?"

Later McCain was greeted by the same group with a mixture of jeers and cheers. He expressed the hope that the Republican Party will unite behind him as the presidential nominee in time for the November election.

"Many of you have disagreed strongly with some positions I have taken in recent years. I understand that," he said. "All I ask of any American conservative, moderate, independent or enlightened Democrat is to judge my record as a whole and accept that I am not in the habit of making promises to my country that I do not intend to keep."

President Bush also addressed the conservative conference. Although Mr. Bush did not endorse McCain, he did urge conservatives to unite behind the eventual Republican nominee.

"This is an important election," he said. "Prosperity and peace are in the balance. Let us go forward, fight for victory and keep the White House in 2008. God bless you, and God bless America."

Even as McCain moves closer to securing the Republican nomination, many experts believe that the voices of discontent on the right are unlikely to quiet down anytime soon.

Political expert Stuart Rothenberg says that makes for a strange dynamic between the apparent nominee in waiting and an important constituency within the Republican Party.

"When you watch this a long time, you think that the [Republican] base really dictates who the nominee is going to be. But here we have this strange situation where Republicans, conservatives, supporters of George W. Bush, are not enthusiastic about John McCain," he said.

Rothenberg was a guest on VOA's Talk to America web chat, as was political science Professor Bruce Miroff of the State University of New York at Albany.

"Conservatives expect their politicians to be in touch with orthodoxy, and McCain is just too much of a heretic for many conservatives on some key issues," said Miroff.

Miroff says many conservatives will never forgive McCain for initially voting against the Bush tax cuts and for his moderate stance on immigration.

McCain also has a history of clashes with religious conservatives, though he has tried resolve those differences in recent years.

McCain argues that his record should appeal to both social and economic conservatives because of his long-standing opposition to abortion and his focus on cutting wasteful government spending.

Analyst Rothenberg says many conservatives see a stark contrast between President Bush and Senator McCain.

"The groups that he leaves out are the strong conservatives, the religious conservatives, really the Bush supporters. So, in a sense, McCain continues to be what he was eight years ago. He was the alternative to George W. Bush," he said.

McCain lost out to Mr. Bush in a bitter presidential primary race in the year 2000. The two men later reconciled and McCain has become one of the president's most loyal supporters in pushing for a military victory in Iraq.

Many conservatives also dislike McCain because he has a reputation as a maverick Republican who has been willing to work with liberal Democrats on issues such as climate change and campaign finance reform.

Expert Bruce Miroff says McCain's challenge in the coming weeks is to mend fences with his conservative critics without alienating his base of support with moderate and independent voters who have admired his maverick tendencies in the past.

"His problem is that to conciliate the conservatives who now view him with mistrust, he has to sound more conservative, and that clashes with the moderate and independent image, which is his strongest calling card with voters beyond the Republican base," said Miroff.

Recent polls suggest a presidential race between Republican McCain and either of the two Democratic contenders would be competitive. Surveys show McCain either tied or slightly ahead of Hillary Clinton, but trailing Barack Obama by a few points.

Politicians could be making the economic slowdown in the U.S. worse than it really is by constantly reminding voters that the economy needs fixing. This is the view of some analysts who say that because consumer spending is the primary engine that drives U.S. economic growth, negative messages during this election year cycle can have a dampening effect on the world's largest economy.

Rising unemployment, the housing downturn and stock market plunges have made the state of the economy the number one issue for voters -- replacing the Iraq war.

This has led presidential hopefuls from both the Democratic and Republican parties to work hard at convincing Americans that they have the knowledge, experience and wisdom to heal the ailing economy

Republican candidate John McCain said recently, "It's obviously important to stop the spending. As president I know how to do it."

Democratic candidate Barack Obama said, "We will once again lead the world, not just militarily but diplomatically, economically."

Hilary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate, said, "We've got to do something about this. And there's a big difference between talking and acting."

But some economists say all the talk about the economy -- especially the emphasis on the negative -- only serves to make matters worse.

Dan North is the chief economist at Euler Hermes, one of the largest credit insuring firms in the world. Hermes says, "When you get this relentless drum beat, which I've seen before in election years, it tends to make people pull their horns in a little bit because they do start worrying more about the economy."

And when people are worried, North says they tend to spend less. "Most of our economy is based on people spending - that is buying milk, buying cars, and suits and TVs, and that sort of thing. That's what drives our economy. Two thirds of our economy is driven by consumers. So if consumers stop spending because the economy is slowing, it's gonna be yet another drag on the economy itself."

Even financial markets are not immune. Tom Hertz, an economics professor at American University, says investors react in similar fashion to stock market psychology. He says what happens in U.S. markets often has a chilling effect on markets around the world. "Well, suppose you're a Japanese investor and you discover that there's something going wrong in the American market and you think it may or may not affect the Japanese market, well, just to be sure, you sell, right? So -- self-fulfilling prophecy - it does affect the Japanese market."

Any recovery of the slumping U.S. housing market may be similarly affected. Economists say fears that the U.S. economy may already be in a recession is causing some buyers to think twice before making any big purchases.

Senator Barack Obama has raised more than $7 million for his presidential campaign in the hours since the Super Tuesday voting contests this week. This new wave of fundraising comes as Obama's Democratic opponent, Senator Hillary Clinton, said she loaned her campaign $5 million of her own money late last month.

Senators Clinton and Obama were both fundraising giants in 2007, far outpacing all other Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, with each raising $100 million. But Obama raised $32 million in January, to Clinton's $13 million, causing concern among her supporters, many of whom have already given the maximum amount permitted by law.

More of Obama's supporters are small Internet contributors who can give more as the campaign continues. Some of Clinton's senior campaign staff members are working without a paycheck right now.

The campaigns are looking ahead to contests this Saturday in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state, and February 12 primaries in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Polls show Obama is favored in most of those states, though Clinton says she is competitive in Virginia, where she will hold a rally later today.

Obama sounded his primary theme of bringing change to America during a campaign rally at Tulane University in New Orleans ahead of Saturday's Louisiana primary.

"What we see in New Orleans is one of the central premises of my campaign and that is change in America does not happen from the top down, it happens from the bottom up," he said.

Obama said for many, New Orleans has become a symbol of failed government since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"We can talk about what happened for a few days in 2005 and we should," he added. "We can talk about levees that could not hold... about a president who only saw the people from the window of an airplane instead of down here on the ground, trying to provide comfort and aid."

Obama promised he would strengthen the levees so that they can withstand strong hurricanes if he is elected president.

In the all-important race for delegates, Democrats are still counting from Tuesday's 22 contests, under the complex, proportional system of awarding delegates, but Clinton and Obama are nearly even.

Republicans use a winner-take-all system in awarding delegates in most states. Arizona Senator John McCain emerged from Super Tuesday as his party's clear frontrunner, with 707 of the nearly 1,200 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

McCain asked right-wing talks show hosts and pundits who have criticized him to see if there are areas they can all agree on.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney dropped his bid for the Republican nomination in Washington Thursday, two days after winning some states in Super Tuesday voting, but not enough to gain on rival John McCain.

Romney had totaled 294 delegates up to this point, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has 195 and Texas Congressman Ron Paul has 14. Huckabee and Paul are still in the race.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has suspended his presidential campaign, making it all but certain that his rival, Republican frontrunner Senator John McCain, will be their party's nominee for the White House in November.

Speaking to an admiring audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C., former Governor Romney admitted that it was not easy for him to quit the race after campaigning hard across the country for a full year.

"This is not an easy decision," he said. "I hate to lose. My family, my friends, you, my supporters across the country. You have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot to becoming president. If this were only about me, I would go on. But it has never been only about me."

The former governor and successful businessman has fought a tough and at times contentious battle for the nomination against Senator McCain. Romney has said he is the true conservative in the race, seeking to encourage mistrust of McCain, considered by some Republicans an unreliable maverick because of his positions on immigration and campaign finance reform.

Romney did not formally endorse McCain. But he did say that although he and McCain disagree on many issues, they agree on doing whatever it takes to win in Iraq and in the war on terror. He said their Democratic opponents, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to "retreat" from Iraq and the war on terror.

"Now if I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention," he said. "I want you to know, I have given this a lot of thought. I would forestall the launch of a national campaign. And frankly I would be making it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win. Frankly in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

Republicans use a winner-take-all system in awarding delegates for the nomination in most states. Arizona Senator John McCain emerged from Super Tuesday as his party's clear frontrunner, with 707 of the more than 1,000 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

Romney has 294 delegates, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has 195 and Texas Congressman Ron Paul has 14. Huckabee and Paul are still in the race.

On the Democratic side, Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama are virtually even in the race for delegates. But Senator Obama has raised more than $7 million for his presidential campaign in the hours since Super Tuesday, while Senator Clinton says she loaned her campaign $5 million of her own money late last month.

The campaigns are looking ahead to contests this Saturday in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state, and February 12 primaries in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

President Bush has urged his conservative base to unite in an effort to get a Republican president elected and keep party control of the White House.

Mr. Bush addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday in Washington, and highlighted his tax cuts and U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The president said the tax cuts he pushed during his first term have helped produce strong economic growth, and he called for them to be made permanent.

He said the United States has gone on the offensive against terrorists under his administration, but acknowledged tough days ahead for Iraq and a long recovery for Afghanistan.

He called on Congress to make permanent the government's controversial wiretapping program and to grant immunity to companies that help the government carry out the warrantless eavesdropping.

On the November general election, Mr. Bush said it is important for a conservative to remain in the White House because, in his words, "prosperity and peace are in the balance."

Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are locked in a tight battle for their party's presidential nomination, a struggle that could go on for weeks or even months. Republican John McCain, meanwhile, is the clear frontrunner for his party's nomination. The process for choosing the party presidential nominees is lengthy, complicated and confusing.

The objective is the same in both parties - win enough delegates to become the party nominee for president at the national conventions later this year.

To do that, candidates compete state by state for delegates who will support them at the national conventions, where the parties make the final decision on who will be their presidential candidates.

To win delegates, the candidates compete in state primaries and caucuses where voters express their preferences. Candidates who win the primaries and caucuses are awarded delegates, though how that is done varies between the two major political parties.

It is the individual states and political parties that decide what kind of delegate selection process they want in a given state.

Stuart Rothenberg publishes a political newsletter in Washington and was a guest on VOA's Talk To America webchat.

"The parties are running these systems, or trying to run these nominating systems as they so choose," he noted. "This is not the United States government adopting a system and imposing it on the parties. And so again, it tends to be chaotic."

That is why New Hampshire and other states favor the use of a party primary, where voters go to their local polling places and vote, while other states like Iowa prefer party caucuses. Caucuses require voters to attend local meetings and express their preferences for president.

Historically, the idea of voters choosing the party presidential nominees is relatively new, beginning in the late 1960s. Before that, state and local elected officials and party bosses around the country effectively controlled the presidential nomination process and chose the party nominees.

The classic description is that for many years, the presidential candidates were chosen in smoke-filled rooms by party bosses and political insiders.

That all began to change in the Democratic Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s when reformers demanded a greater role in the presidential nominating process.

"Beginning in the 1960s, the Democratic Party went through a process of reform, and those reforms moved away from a process that was dominated by insiders and dominated by inside politics to the emergence of a process where voters determined the outcome," said Tad Devine, a longtime Democratic political strategist.

In addition to switching to a system of choosing party nominees by primaries and caucuses, the Democrats also instituted the requirement that delegates would be allocated on a proportional basis.

That means both the winner and loser in close races would get a portion of the delegates at stake.

"To see that there would not only be more open elections, primaries or caucuses, in which the rank and file would have a real voice, but also that the results would not be hinging simply on narrow victories," said Bruce Miroff, who teaches politics at the State University of New York at Albany. "And so proportional representation in the Democratic Party really starts in the 1972 convention rules."

Republicans also select their presidential nominees through a series of primaries and caucuses. But most of the Republican contests are winner-take-all votes in which the winner of a given primary or caucus is awarded all the delegates at stake.

About 20 percent of the Democratic delegates are referred to as superdelegates, convention delegates who are not elected through the primaries and caucuses.

Superdelegates are made up of elected officials like governors, senators, members of Congress or local elected officials, as well as high-ranking party officials.

"Those are positions held open for party leaders and elected officials of that party," explained Stephen Wayne, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Washington. "Unlike the regular delegates who are elected by the people and pledged to support a certain candidate, the superdelegates are unpledged."

Some superdelegates do commit to a candidate in advance. Some do it privately, others announce it publicly.

Republicans have a similar group of what they call unpledged delegates who are not required to indicate a candidate preference before the party convention.

In this year's extremely close Democratic race, the superdelegates could wind up playing a very important role.

Professor Miroff says that was the intention of party leaders when they created the concept of superdelegates in the 1970s.

"For the first time since the system was created, superdelegates play the role they were supposed to play as party leaders who worry about the success of the party, rather than individuals committed to particular ideology or a particular candidate," he said.

Clinton and Obama are very close in the delegate count. Most news organizations estimate each candidate has between 800 and 900 delegates. A total of 2,025 delegates are necessary to secure the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Estimates can vary because of the complicated formula of allocating Democratic delegates that considers the candidate's statewide performance in a given primary or caucus, as well as the candidate's performance in each of that state's individual congressional districts. Reporting complete vote totals from numerous districts can take time.

On the Republican side, it takes 1,191 delegates to win the nomination. Based on frontrunner John McCain's strong showing in the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses, most news organizations project McCain is at least halfway toward his goal of winning the nomination.

Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are preparing for a long, state-by-state battle for delegates after splitting victories in the Super Tuesday contests for the Democratic presidential nomination. On the Republican Party side, Senator John McCain is asking his party to unite behind him after scoring crucial election victories.

Senator Hillary Clinton won the two biggest prizes Tuesday in terms of delegates, New York and California, but the race for the Democratic nomination is far from over.

Senator Barack Obama scored wins in 13 states, giving him fresh momentum for upcoming state primaries. At a news conference in Chicago Wednesday, Obama was happy with his performance.

"We won more delegates and we won more states in every region of this country," said Barack Obama. "We won big states and small states, we won red states and blue states and we won swing states [states that sometime vote Republican or Democratic in general election]."

Senator Clinton's campaign, however, says she is still leading in the all-important delegate count, and different news media outlets are posting different delegate count totals, depending on the way they are calculated under a complex system. Everyone agrees however, that Clinton and Obama are virtually tied right now.

The campaigns are looking ahead to contests this Saturday in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state, and February 12 primaries in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Obama is planning a major rally in New Orleans on Thurday.

For the Republicans, Senator John McCain scored major victories in California, New York and other states, leaving him with more than half the delegates needed for the nomination, and far ahead of his rivals. At his own news conference in Phoenix today, McCain asked conservative critics within his own party to "calm down a little bit", and said it is time for his party to unite behind him.

"Our message will be that we all share common conservative principles and we should coalesce around those isssues in which we are in agreement," said John McCain.

Some conservative Republicans consider McCain a maverick because of his positions on issues such as immigration and campaign finance reform.

Former Governor Mike Huckabee surprised many by sweeping much of the South - a region where McCain did not do as well, and he said he is staying in the race until someone has the 1,191 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination.

Former Governor Mitt Romney won his home state of Massachusetts and several smaller western states, but he and Huckabee trail McCain by a substantial margin.

In the U.S. presidential race, Democrats are preparing for a long battle to select their party nominee for the White House. In the Republican race, Senator John McCain has claimed the mantle of frontrunner one day after the busiest day of voting so far in the presidential election cycle.

The day after the so-called Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses, the Democratic race was a virtual tie between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Obama won more states than Clinton, but Clinton won larger states like California, New York and New Jersey.

Both candidates say they are now prepared for a lengthy nomination battle.

Obama spoke at a news conference in Chicago.

"She has got a familiar and well-appreciated name. She has got a political machine honed over two decades, and so from my perspective, this makes her the frontrunner in every single contest," he said. "But we have found is that there is a real thirst for change in this country."

Clinton told supporters in New York that she is the candidate with the experience to deal with a weakening U.S. economy.

"It is not about who is up and who is down. It is about your lives, your families and your futures," she said.

Democrats allocate their nominating delegates based on a system of proportional representation. That means that even though a candidate may lose a primary or caucus vote in a given state, he or she will still win a share of the delegates who make the final choice for the party nominee.

"When you look at the math, you see plenty of things for each side to brag about," said Larry Sabato, who directs the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "But you do not see an enormous advantage for one side or the other. So obviously, the campaign moves forward and we have a whole series of primaries and caucuses to come and every one of them is going to count."

The Democratic race moves to Louisiana and Washington state on Saturday, then to Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia next Tuesday.

If the Clinton-Obama race remains close after those contests, a frontrunner may not emerge until March or April when some other large delegate rich states vote - including Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The last time the Democrats had a truly contested national nominating convention was in 1952.

Veteran broadcaster Bruce Morton has covered U.S. politics for decades and says this year's Democratic race might not be decided until the party convention in Denver, Colorado, in late August.

"I think it is great fun, in the first place. I have been going to political conventions since 1960 and we have never had a contest at a convention, and we may this year," he noted. "We do not know yet, there are some big states that still have to vote. But the Democrats, particularly because they use proportional representation, the winner does not win it all. You know, you have won California, but we are splitting up the delegates. You have won Ohio, but we are splitting up the delegates. This really could be a two-ballot convention."

Unlike the Democratic race, a clear frontrunner has emerged on the Republican side, where the rules are different and the winner of each state contest generally wins all of the delegates.

Senator John McCain of Arizona won several large states Tuesday including California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois and has amassed a sizable lead in the race for Republican delegates.

McCain told a news conference in Phoenix he will continue to shore up support among conservative Republicans who have frequently accused him of taking liberal positions on issues such as taxes and immigration.

"We will unite the party behind our conservative principles and move forward and win the general election in November," he said.

McCain still faces a challenge from former governors Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas.

Huckabee had a surprisingly good showing in some of the southern primaries on Tuesday, while Romney registered wins in his home state and in some of the smaller states out West.

Huckabee and Romney have vowed to continue in the race, hoping to tap into conservative discontent with McCain.

Republican pollster John McLaughlin says McCain has surged into a lead in the Republican field, because voters like his record on national security issues.

"Sooner or later, they are going to come down to the job description that makes the president different than any other elected position, his being commander in chief," he explained. "That is why John McCain has the lead right now among the Republicans. And that is why the Democrats are going to have a serious discussion about who is the best to challenge McCain in that regard."

Many political analysts now believe McCain may be able to secure the Republican presidential nomination before the national nominating convention is held in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, in early September.

Senator Hillary Clinton, as many expected, won her chosen home state of New York's Democratic presidential primary Tuesday. But she was tested by Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. Media reports say exit polls show Obama did well among black voters in New York and in neighboring New Jersey and among white voters next door in Connecticut.

Among the Republicans, with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani out of the race, Senator John McCain of Arizona won in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut -- beating former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

New Yorkers are overwhelmingly Democrats, especially in the historically black neighborhood of Harlem. Like her husband, former President Bill Clinton, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York is a favorite here. Many black women voters in particular support her.

One voter we spoke with says she will be voting for Clinton. "I'm going to go for Hillary, all the way. [Reporter: Why Hillary all the way?] Because I know what she has accomplished, and I trust her. If Mr. Obama was not a black man, this would be a clearcut [decision] for many people. So I want to pass that, I don't want to look at race. It's Hillary all the way."

But a surge of support for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois made the contest for New York's delegates to the nominating convention more competitive.

"I'm going definitely for Obama, he sounds like a good guy. He sounds like he's going to make a change in this world. And I'm going to definitely go for Obama, because he's a very good man," said another voter.

Another Obama proponent said, "This election year, I only see one person running, and his name is Barack Obama. And Harlem's for Obama, Latinos for Obama, Latinos for Obama, Chinese for Obama -- everybody's for Obama."

In another part of New York, a mostly white, working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, you could find supporters of both genders for Hillary Clinton.

"I think she has the best combination of experience, the pragmatic approach to politics, and supporting my policies," says a voter. "I liked Obama, but I think she's better."

"I like [Clinton] because she's a woman," a man says, "I like the woman," he adds, "because I think she has a lot of experience. Obama is nice guy, I like, but he's too young."

An almost equal number of voters here supported Barack Obama.

A younger voter says, "My vote went to Barack Obama. And I feel good about that choice. It's such a historic vote. I'm so happy that we have both a woman and an African-American candidate, that in the end I'll ultimately -- the truth is, whoever gets the nomination -- I'll be happy to support."

Brooklyn is also heavily Democratic. Only one voter emerging from the polls said she might vote for the Republican candidate, if it's John McCain -- but only if Hillary Clinton does not get the Democratic nomination.

"Quite frankly, in the general election I don't know who I'll vote for," she explained. "I might even vote for John McCain. I don't really believe in the Republican ideals, the party ideals, but I just like the man. So, we'll see what happens in November."

With former first lady and New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama still waging strong, rival campaigns for the Democratic Party's nomination to be President, experts say there is a good chance American voters will elect the first female or first African American president this November. Political scientists believe a real change is occurring in voters' attitudes toward historic racial and gender barriers in American politics, and the 2008 competition is shaping up to be a presidential campaign like none before it.

"This year we are now guaranteed that at least on the Democratic (Party) side, there is going to be an unconventional candidate, somebody (who) comes from an unusual background.," says Darrell West, Professor of Public Policy at Brown University and director of the school's Public Opinion Laboratory.

West points out that in the 1950s, only 37 percent of Americans said they would vote for an African American for president. By the 1990s the percentage of American voters who said they were ready to vote for a black person, a woman, a Catholic or a Jew for president rose above 90 percent.

West acknowledges that these views don't necessarily mean there is no prejudice against minority candidates. He says that voters may say they are willing to vote for a woman or for an African American, but in the privacy of the voting booth, they will do otherwise. But West's analysis of voting patterns during the early primaries persuades him there has been a change in voters' attitudes.

West points out that "about 80 to 90 percent of the Democrats voted either for a woman or for an African American," before John Edwards pulled out of the race on January 30. "If they just wanted to go with the white male, then John Edwards would have been the nominee. But he pulled no more than 10 or 15 percent in most of the previous states, so I think that this really reflects a change not just in attitude but a change in voting behavior on the part of many Americans."

Professor West thinks that voting patterns are still powerfully affected by gender and race. He notes that Hillary Clinton has been very popular with women voters in the current primary campaign; Barack Obama has been drawing very strong support from African-Americans. But West says there are women who have voted for Barack Obama and there are African Americans who have cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton.

He also detects a huge generation gap in voting: while voters under 35 years of age have favored Obama and supported him in large numbers, Clinton has done very well among voters over 50 years of age.

Professor West believes much of the change in U.S. voting patterns is due to what he terms Bush fatigue, widespread voter unhappiness after seven years of the George W. Bush presidency. "I think Bush laid the groundwork for broadening the pool of current candidates because there is so much dissatisfaction with the job that he did, that people were willing to consider alternatives that previously would not ever have had that good of an opportunity." West adds, "It is not like white males have done such a great job running Washington D.C! And so voters now are more open to a female president or an African American president."

But some analysts remain cautious about the political road ahead. Professor Paula McClain, co-director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender at Duke University, acknowledges there's been change in American voter attitudes. But she recalls how hopes of electing an African-American president have been raised and dashed repeatedly in recent decades — most famously, perhaps, with civil rights activist Jesse Jackson's unsuccessful 1984 run for the White House.

McClain says she is "cautiously optimistic that the U.S might be at a point where it will be willing to elect a black president." But her sense is that although there have been a lot of changes in the U.S. in terms of race, those changes do not necessarily translate into "a sizeable portion of white Americans being willing to vote for a black candidate."

McClain predicts that issues of race — which were prominent before the multi-state Super Tuesday primaries — will continue to influence the rival campaigns all the way through the party convention in late summer. Professor McClain predicts that if Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination, issues of race are likely to be a part in the general election against the Republican candidate. If Hillary Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee, McClain believes her gender will almost certainly become an issue

Whoever ends up winning the Democratic nomination and facing a more traditional white male rival on the Republican side, the 2008 presidential election is already one for the history books.

Cormac McCarthy has been writing intense stories about love, life and death for over forty years.

Many of Thomas McGuane’s intelligent and often funny novels take place in the western state of Montana.

Cormac McCarthy is considered one of the most important American writers alive today. Critics often compare his writing to the works of the American writers William Faulkner and Herman Melville. Mister McCarthy writes dark and intense stories that are often set in the southwestern states of Arizona and New Mexico. Some stories takes place in Mexico, or in his home state of Tennessee. Mister McCarthy’s language is very simple and direct. But each carefully chosen word is powerful and sometimes even heartbreaking in its effect on the reader.

Mister McCarthy is also known for being a very private person who does not talk to the media very often. He has said that a writer should spend his or her time writing books rather than talking about them.

Charles McCarthy, Junior was born in nineteen thirty-three in the state of Rhode Island. His Irish aunts gave him his nickname, Cormac, which is “Charles” in Gaelic. Cormac studied at the University of Tennessee before joining the United States Air Force. While he was stationed in the state of Alaska he discovered literature and began reading seriously. Later, he began working on his first novel, “The Orchard Keeper,” in Chicago, Illinois while working part-time in a car repair shop. The book was published in nineteen sixty-five.

Cormac McCarthy traveled through Europe with grant money from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Rockefeller Foundation. In nineteen sixty-seven he returned to the United States. The next year, he published “Outer Dark,” followed by “Child of God” five years later.

One of Cormac McCarthy’s most popular novels, “All the Pretty Horses,” was published in nineteen ninety-two. It is a story about John Grady Cole, a young cowboy who travels with his friends from Texas to Mexico. The story is set in the late nineteen forties. Yet Mister McCarthy’s descriptions of the landscapes of Texas and Mexico give the story a timeless quality.

It is an unforgettable story about loyalty, bravery and love. This novel received a National Book Award as well as a National Book Critics Circle Award. It was later made into a movie.

“All the Pretty Horses” was the first story in a three-part series called “The Border Trilogy.” The two other books in the series are “The Crossing” and “Cities of the Plain.” Another Cormac McCarthy book, “No Country For Old Men,” was published in two thousand five. It was made into a popular movie last year.

Cormac McCarthy won a Pulitzer Prize last year for his most recent novel, “The Road.” It is about a father and a son who struggle to survive in a destroyed America. They travel under grey skies and burnt landscapes in an attempt to find safety. The story describes a horrible world as it might be after a nuclear war. But the most emotional part of the story is the father’s fierce and deep love for his son.

Mister McCarthy says the idea for the book came to him several years ago when his son was four years old. Mister McCarthy and his son were in the town of El Paso, Texas staying at a hotel. Late at night while his son was sleeping, the writer looked out his window and imagined what the town might look like in a hundred years.

He thought about his son and imagined the town with fires in the distance and everything destroyed. He wrote down these thoughts. Then, several years later he realized there was a novel to be written from this idea.

When Cormac McCarthy is not writing, he likes to spend time at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico. This organization gathers researchers and scientists from around the world to work on important issues such as economics, technology and the environment. Cormac McCarthy says he has always been interested in the way things work. And, he says talking with researchers at the Institute helps him to think.

Before they reached the edge of the stream the sun was upon them. There was no bank as such, just the end of the wild roses and an uplifted ridge of thorn trees where magpies squawked at the intrusion. But they could hear the stream, which emanated not far away from a series of blue spring holes at a water temperature that stayed constant, winter and summer. Frank loved to arrive at a stream he knew as well as this one. You could strike it at any point and know where you were, like opening a favorite book at a random page.”

That was Thomas McGuane reading from his book “Nothing But Blue Skies” published in nineteen ninety-two. The story tells about Frank Copenhaver, a man whose life starts to fall apart after his wife leaves him. In the passage you just heard, Frank is out fishing with his daughter in the beautiful countryside of Montana where they live. In the book, Frank has many unusual adventures and gets into some trouble as he works on understanding what he wants from life.

Thomas McGuane lives in Montana. Many of his characters and stories take place in this state, which is known for its expansive skies and beautiful environment.

Mister McGuane says he likes to explore the conflicts between his main characters and the world in which they live. Critics praise his books for their rich language, technical skill and often very funny situations.

Thomas McGuane was born in nineteen thirty-nine. He attended Michigan State University then later continued his studies at Yale University in Connecticut. He has written nine novels including “Panama”, “Ninety-Two in the Shade” and “The Cadence of Grass.” He has also written two non-fiction books on subjects that are important to him. These include “The Longest Silence” which is a collection of essays on fishing. In “Some Horses” he explores the relationship between people and horses. Mister McGuane has also written screenplays for several movies.

Thomas McGuane was asked what influenced him to become a writer:

“I wish I knew. I think maybe it was that my parents were readers. My father read a lot of adventurous, natural history books. And I think I associated writing with a sort of an adventurous life. That went away eventually. But I know for a boy that was a great attraction. And I come from an Irish family. My parents and my grandparents are all Irish and my great grandparents are all Irish immigrants. And that’s sort of a linguistic tradition, especially comical linguistic tradition, but it’s a very verbal household culture. And all of those things kind of turned me toward writing.”

Mister McGuane’s latest book is a collection of ten short stories called “Gallatin Canyon.” The stories are all about the good, and sometimes bad, behavior of people going about their daily lives. Mister McGuane skillfully describes interesting details about human behavior and the natural world.

For example, in the short story “Ice”, a young boy observes the behavior of a popular classmate in order to learn about bravery. Later, he decides to go ice-skating on a large lake. When night falls he gets very lost. But, he faces his fears and finds a way to get home. And, on the way back to safety, he makes a surprising discovery.

In the short story “Cowboy” Mister McGuane captures the local language and expressions of a man who works with cows and horses. As the cowboy spends years working for a ranching family, you understand his love of nature and hard work. And, you understand the difficult situation of being a cowboy who spends his life working on land he can never own.

Thomas McGuane recently spoke at a literature event held by the Pen Faulkner organization in Washington, D.C. He praised the group for inviting writers to speak from all areas of the United States. Then he read two short stories. He also talked about what it was like to make movies. He talked about working with the actors Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson for a movie he wrote called “Missouri Breaks.” He said that when he worked on movies in the nineteen seventies, the industry was very different from what it is today.

Thomas McGuane is currently working on a new novel about a doctor who works in a hospital emergency room. And, it might not surprise you that the story takes place in Montana.

After Super Tuesday, Republicans have their likely nominee for president in the November election, John McCain. But for Democrats, there was nothing super about the biggest day of voting in the nation's presidential nominating history.

Almost half the states voted on delegates for the conventions this summer where the parties will nominate their candidates. California and other states that normally held their votes later in the year moved them up to have more influence. Yet the Democrats are no closer to a clear front-runner than they were before Tuesday.

Senator McCain of Arizona is now the clear Republican front-runner. He won nine states. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won seven. And former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee won the remaining five states where Republicans voted Tuesday, all in the South.

But on Thursday Mitt Romney left the race. He said taking his fight to the convention would delay the launch of a national campaign, and make it easier for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama to win.

For Democrats, the fight continues between Senator Clinton of New York and Senator Obama of Illinois. He won more states, but she won delegate-heavy states like New York and, the biggest of all, California.

They ended up with close delegate counts as a result of the complex process that the Democrats use for dividing delegates.

The primary season will continue through June. Voters in eight states make their choices in the next week.

John McCain has well over half the delegates needed to win the Republican nomination. Some Republicans think he is not conservative enough; he is asking his party to unite behind him.

A new Time magazine poll suggests that John McCain would lose to Barack Obama, forty-eight to forty-one percent. But if the election were between John McCain and Hillary Clinton, the study shows that each would get forty-six percent.

As the Democratic race intensifies, so does the race for money. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama each raised about one hundred million dollars last year. But his campaign reported raising thirty-two million dollars in January, compared to thirteen million for her campaign.

Unlike many Obama supporters, many Clinton supporters have already given the limit permitted by law. Hillary Clinton said this week that she loaned five million dollars of her own money to her campaign last month.

On Super Tuesday, voters who said they cared most about the economy were more likely to vote for Hillary Clinton or John McCain. Democrats who said the Iraq war was the most important issue were more likely to choose Barack Obama. On the Republican side, Mitt Romney captured the majority of voters who said immigration was the most important issue.

Autoimmune diseases affect the immune system – the body’s natural defenses for fighting disease.

The immune system normally protects the body against foreign materials, such as viruses and bacteria. Autoimmune diseases result from a failure of the body’s own defenses against disease. The immune system loses its ability to tell the difference between foreign materials and its own cells. So the body starts attacking its own organs and tissues.

There are three kinds of lupus. Discoid lupus affects only the skin and can be identified by red marks on the face or neck. These marks on the skin can also be a sign of another form of lupus called systemic lupus. Systemic lupus can affect almost any organ or organ system in the body. When people talk about lupus, they usually mean the systemic form of the disease.

Some kinds of medicines can cause what is called drug-induced lupus. This form of lupus usually goes away when the patient stops using the medicines.

High body temperature and pain in the elbows or knees are common signs of lupus. Other signs are red marks on the skin, feelings of extreme tiredness and lack of iron in the body.

At different times, the effects of lupus can be either mild or serious. The signs of the disease can come and go. This makes identifying the disease difficult. There is no single laboratory test to tell if someone has lupus. Many people with lupus also suffer from depression.

Lupus can also lead to other health problems. Women with lupus are at greater risk of developing heart disease. And between thirty and fifty percent of lupus patients will develop lupus-related kidney disease.

Lupus affects an estimated one million five hundred thousand people in the United States. Experts are not sure what causes lupus. However, the disease has been known to attack members of the same family. Recently, scientists identified genes they believe are linked to lupus. They hope studying these genes more closely could help in development of new treatments for the disease, and possibly a cure. Recent studies also support a theory that a combination of genes is linked to the development of lupus.

Other suspected causes include antibiotic drugs, mental or physical tension, infections and hormones. In fact, hormones might explain why lupus affects women far more often then men. The Lupus Foundation of America says more than ninety percent of the people with lupus are women. Scientists do not know why women are more at risk than men. They think it might involve female hormones, like estrogen. Another idea is that it could involve the foreign cells left in a woman’s body after a pregnancy.

There is currently no cure for lupus. Yet doctors have developed ways of treating the disease. Treatments are based on the condition and needs of each patient. No two individuals have the exact same problems. A treatment could include a combination of stress-reduction methods and drugs such as painkillers and steroids. Anti-malaria drugs also have been effective. Recent research also suggests that supervised exercise training can improve the quality of life for lupus patients.

It has been about forty years since the United States Food and Drug Administration approved a drug especially for treating lupus. Several companies are working to make drugs that can help lupus patients. Groups like the Lupus Foundation of America are working to increase public understanding of the disease.

Lupus can be life threatening if left untreated. Yet, many patients can lead a normal and healthy life if they follow their doctor’s advice. Patients must take their medicines and keep looking for side effects or new signs of the disease.

Lupus is not the only autoimmune disease. Doctors and scientists have identified at least eighty other diseases in which the body attacks its own organs and cells. Some of the diseases attack just one area of the body, like the skin, eyes or muscles. Others affect an organ system or even the whole body.

Some of the diseases are well known, such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and type-one diabetes. Others are more difficult to identify and not as well known.

For example, celiac disease is difficult to identify because the signs of the disease are so common. Patients may have low iron levels and experience stomach pain. The uncontrolled release of bodily wastes is also a problem.

Doctors might treat those problems and not know they are caused by celiac disease. Some people develop celiac disease after eating gluten, a protein found in all wheat products. It is not always clear that eating something as harmless as wheat can be bad for a person’s health. For some patients, it can be years before the problem is correctly identified.

The United States National Institutes of Health says autoimmune diseases affect an estimated five to eight percent of the country’s population. Other groups disagree. For example, the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association says autoimmune diseases affect about fifty million Americans. That represents about one-sixth of the population.

The physical, emotional and financial cost of autoimmune diseases is huge. Most of those affected are women. While people of all ages are affected, women who are old enough to have children are especially at risk.

Some autoimmune diseases like lupus and scleroderma are more common in African Americans. Diseases such as multiple sclerosis and type-one diabetes are more common among whites. Doctors do not yet know why this is true.

New drugs are being tested to help treat autoimmune diseases. Some drugs can be a problem because they suppress the immune system. This means the body is less able to defend itself against infections. As a result, the side effects of the drugs can be as dangerous as the disease itself.

Newer drugs attempt to suppress only one small part of the immune system, not all of it. For example, drugs like Enbrel and Remicade block tumor necrosis factor. This is a protein that causes inflammation, a physical reaction to infection, injury or other causes. These drugs have been useful in treating autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn’s disease. However, the drugs are very costly. They have also been found to increase the risk of cancer.

Scientists continue searching for other methods of treatment. For example, some scientists hope to use stem cells to replace tissues damaged by disease. Stem cells have the ability to grow other cells, such as heart, nerve or brain cells.

Medical experts also are working together to improve the way autoimmune diseases are identified and treated. Less than ten years ago, the Johns Hopkins Autoimmune Disease Research Center was formed in the state of Maryland. The aim of the center is to bring together experts to improve the study of autoimmune diseases.

Private groups like the center show how important it is for scientists to share information about such diseases. Because each disease often affects different organs, many experts might be needed to treat the disorder. Experts need to know about the most recent research and technology. By sharing information about their patients, doctors also can learn from other cases.

Government agencies are also working to increase knowledge about autoimmune diseases. In the United States, the National Institutes of Health created an autoimmune disease research plan in two thousand two. The plan urges agencies from different areas to work together.

Both private and government organizations are working to increase public understanding of such diseases. This can help individuals better understand what to do should they develop a health problem. At the same time, researchers continue working to help patients have a better quality of life.

Farmers in the United States sometimes plant switchgrass as a border crop. But could this tall grass lower the nation's dependence on foreign oil?

The Department of Energy plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to help produce fuels from materials that are not part of the food supply. Growing corn, or maize, for fuel has raised concerns about the supply and cost of corn available for food and animal feed.

Fuel made from switchgrass or forestry waste like sawdust is known as cellulosic ethanol. Department officials say it contains more energy and produces fewer greenhouse gases than ethanol made from corn. Switchgrass is also easier to grow.

Last month, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a study of switchgrass grown on low-quality land. Government scientist Ken Vogel was the lead author. The study says the switchgrass produced five times more energy than was needed to grow it. Also, it says switchgrass, over its lifetime from crop to fuel, produces much less carbon compared to gasoline.

Fossil fuels like oil take carbon from the ground and release it as waste gas when the fuel is burned. Biofuels like corn and cellulosic ethanol also produce greenhouse gases, through growing crops and making the fuel. The difference is that biofuels remove carbon from the atmosphere through the growth of the feedstock, the material for the fuel.

Science magazine just published two studies of biofuels and the heat-trapping gases that scientists link to climate change. One of the reports notes that most studies have found that substituting biofuels for gasoline will reduce greenhouse gases.

But it says the earlier studies failed to count the carbon released into the atmosphere as farmers worldwide react to higher prices. They are clearing forests and grasslands to make way for new cropland to replace the grain used for biofuels. Doing so can release much of the carbon stored in the plants and soil, and sacrifice future storage.

The study found that corn-based ethanol could increase greenhouse gases for years from land use change. And it found that biofuels from switchgrass, if grown on American corn land, could also increase emissions, though by less.

The study team, led by Timothy Searchinger at Princeton University, says the result shows the value of using waste products for fuel. The other report says carbon savings depend on how biofuels are produced.

"Begin the Beguine" was played by Artie Shaw's orchestra in nineteen thirty-eight.

It is one of almost one thousand songs Cole Porter wrote. In his seventy-three years, more than five hundred of those songs were published. Porter wrote most of his songs in the nineteen twenties, thirties and forties. Yet they remain as fresh as when he wrote them.

Cole Porter’s songs are still being sung and played today. They are performed at musical theaters, jazz clubs, even rock-and-roll concerts. A movie about his life, called “De-Lovely,” was released in two thousand four. Kevin Kline stars in the movie as Cole Porter. Ashley Judd plays his wife, Linda Porter. Popular young performers of today sing his songs in the movie.

Cole Porter was born June ninth, eighteen ninety-one, in the middle western state of Indiana. His family was wealthy and educated. His mother, Kate, guided him to music at an early age. He wrote his first song at the age of ten.

As a young man, he was sent east to study at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. In his extra time, he continued to write songs. Two were for the university: the "Yale Bulldog" song and "Bingo Eli Yale." They are still sung there today.

After finishing his studies at Yale, Cole Porter went to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts to study law. That plan lasted only a year. At a party one night, he played some of his songs for the students and professors. The head of the law school spoke to him. "Why are you studying law?” he asked. "You are no good at it. Why don't you go to Harvard's Music School and then write for the musical theater?" Later, Porter said: "That idea had never entered my head before. "

At the time, musical theater was extremely popular in America. This is because there were few music records. And radio programs were still being developed. So, songwriters had to work in the musical theater to be successful. Cole Porter wrote his first musical show in nineteen sixteen. He was still a student at Harvard. The show was called "See America First." It was produced in the Broadway theater area of New York City.

The show was a complete failure. Porter wanted to leave town until people forgot it. So, he went to Europe. He stayed there for most of the next thirteen years.

During this time, Cole Porter became famous for his parties. His guests were wealthy, pleasure-loving people from all over Europe. They liked him because he was smart and funny and knew how to enjoy life. And they loved his songs, which he played at his parties. Cole Porter sings his song, “You’re the Top.”

In France, Cole Porter met the woman who became his wife. She was a beautiful and rich American named Linda Lee Thomas. They were married in nineteen nineteen. The Porters gave parties that lasted for days. They had so much money they could do anything they wanted. And they did. Their life together was a search for excitement, adventure and pleasure.

Still, Cole Porter remained a serious, hard-working songwriter. He wrote both the words and the music for his songs. The words and music always fit together perfectly. His songs were funny, sexy and intelligent. They were playful -- full of little jokes and hidden meanings.

One of his earliest big hits is called "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)." It was written in nineteen twenty-eight for a show called "Paris.” Alanis Morrissette sings the song in the movie about Cole Porter called “De-Lovely.”

Some of Porter's friends thought he might not be a success. One friend, Elsa Maxwell, told him: "You are too good. The humor and poetry of your words are far beyond the people. One day, however," she added, "you will bring the public up to your own level. Then the world will be yours."

Most of Cole Porter's songs are about love and desire. When they were written, they stretched the limits of what was socially acceptable. The words were often unexpected, sometimes even shocking. They spoke both directly and indirectly about sex, about drug use. Some songs he sang only for his friends.

Critics consider "Love for Sale" to be one of Porter's finest songs. He wrote it in nineteen thirty for a Broadway musical called "The New Yorkers." For years, the song was banned on American radio.

Many of Porter's songs were written in a minor musical key. This gives them a feeling of sadness and longing. Yet they also can have a feeling of great excitement. American songwriter Alan J. Lerner said only Cole Porter could really "write" passion. One example is "Night and Day." It is considered perhaps the finest song Cole Porter ever wrote. It is about the kind of romantic love that is almost a form of insanity.

Porter got the idea for the song while traveling in Morocco. He heard drums and a man singing a prayer. The song has a sound that beats endlessly, over and over. It is like a lover who thinks of nothing but his love, over and over, night and day.

The song "Night and Day" was introduced in a nineteen thirty-two Broadway musical comedy called "The Gay Divorcee." The great dancer and singer Fred Astaire played the leading male character and sang the song.

"Night and Day" became famous around the world. And Cole Porter was becoming one of the greatest songwriters America had ever produced. Today there are many recordings of the song by different singers and musicians. Here is “Night and Day” from the movie about Cole Porter called “De-Lovely.” John Barrowman and Kevin Kline sing it.

Disputes over the answer to this question have to do with whether tall tower structures can be included as buildings. Is a communications tower a building? Do the metal antenna devices on top of some buildings count as additional height? What about structures that are partly under water? Or, communication towers that are supported by metal wires? No matter the answer, a building in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will be the tallest above-ground structure in the world when it is completed next year.

The Burj Dubai is expected to measure six hundred ninety-three meters tall, not counting a spire at the very top. The current height of the Burj Dubai is about six hundred meters. Its more than one hundred sixty levels will contain homes, offices, shops, and a hotel.

To make sure this building in Dubai will really be the tallest in the world, we checked with the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. This organization is based in Chicago, Illinois. It includes building designers, engineers and planning experts. The group’s aim is to provide useful information on planning and building tall buildings around the world.

The council says a building’s height is measured from the sidewalk level of the main entry to the structural top of the building. But the council says it looks at other ways to measure height as well. These include from the sidewalk to the highest floor of a building, to the top of the building’s roof covering, or to the top of the antenna or spire on the top of the building. Designers of the Burj Dubai have made sure that it is the tallest in all four ways of measuring.

Before the Burj Dubai, the tallest free-standing building in the world was the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada. That tower measures five hundred fifty-three meters. And, the tallest structure in the world is currently a television transmission antenna in the American state of North Dakota. It extends six hundred twenty-eight meters into the sky. But it will not be the tallest structure for long.

I was at the bar with my drinking team
And it was me, Jack Daniels and my homie Jim Beam
We were kinda blizzed and we were tryin to behave, yo
When in walked a soldier, he was from the Fuzzy Navel
We were fallin, stumblin, crawlin
In came the police, Captain Tom Collins
And the vato said, "Freeze!" (Freeze!)
He said, "Hands in the air and hand over your keys"
Now we did, and that was kinda simple
Now here came Margarita and her friend Shirley Temple
I asked my friend 'bout Margarita
He said that Shirley was a virgin and I wouldn't wanna meet her
So I talked to Margarita, cause, yo, she was flyer
I took her to the couch, cause I wanted to srew-drive her
Now I'm not one for a speech
But there was plenty of Tequila and Sex on the Beach
Y'all
Tequila

[ *horn section plays the 'Tequila' theme* ]

T-T-T-Tequila

Yeah

Alright

Come on

[ crowd ]
TEQUILA!

[ VERSE 2 ]
Here we go again and I'm not fussin
See, I'm a French Mexican but I kick it with White Russians
At the bar with the drink in my hand
In walked Jos?uevo, it was Margarita's man
I talked to the Wise Man, cause yo, he's distinguished
His name is St. Ides and he spoke in Olde English
He said, "You better think fast
Cause Jos?s kinda crazy and I heard he shot blast"
He gave me some advice and it went like this, yo
"Catch the Nighttrain and head up to 'Cisco"
I didn't wanna stick around
I caught the 1(51 to New York, the Greyhound
Now I'm at the Red Zone, everybody stylin
Showbiz was sippin Ice Teas on Long Island
I blacked out, the party came to a halt
Cause I was drinkin the Tequila with the lemon and salt
Y'all
Tequila

[ *horn section plays the 'Tequila' theme* ]

T-T-T-Tequila

Yeah

Alright

[ crowd ]
TEQUILA!

[ VERSE 3 ]
I woke up in the morning and felt like a zombie
The Tequila Gold Label had bombed me
You see, I woke up late, I wasn't feelin so great
And Mike said, "There's a Bacardi party startin at 8"
Yo, we walked in the party and started playin our games
We played tops, ??? and quarters with Bartles & Jaymes
Here came Shirley Temple and they told me to chill
Because the Mickey Brothers took her up to Strawberry Hill
They took her $1000 mink and she could barely think
Cause the Tequila that she drank had her tickled pink
Now the music came on and I rocked the instrumental
There's a groupie named Mai Tai, a fly oriental
A groupie is a girl that jocks
She wore a def Black Velvet and drank Scotch on the rocks
We had a Fake Marriage, now here's the Honeymoon
Yo, it's on, Vagabond at the Blue Lagoon
Now everybody take a couple of words from the wise
A girlie and a bottle - Tequila Sunrise
Tequila

[ *horn section plays the 'Tequila' theme* ]

Yeah

Alright

Come on

[ crowd ]
TEQUILA!

That was the Champs performing their hit song ?Tequila.? In nineteen fifty-nine the band was honored for that song at the first ever Grammy Awards ceremony. This Sunday night, music makers will gather for the fiftieth yearly Grammy Awards.

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences presents Grammy Awards for the best recordings of the year. The ceremony will be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The event will be broadcast live on television as it has been since nineteen seventy-one.

Some of the nominees will perform at the show, like the Foo Fighters. They are nominated for five awards including Record of the Year for this song, ?The Pretender.?

Rolling Stone magazine made a list of which nominees it thought would win Grammys and which nominees it thought should win. The magazine predicts that Christina Aguilera will win Best Female Vocal Performance for the song ?Candyman.? But it says the singer Feist deserves the award for her performance of ?1234.?

Ella Fitzgerald won that top prize at the first Grammy Awards. It was for her album ?Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Song Book.? Here is ?Puttin? On the Ritz,? from that album.

Have you seen the well-to-do
Up and down park avenue
On that famous thoroughfare
With their noses in the air

High hats and narrow collars
White spats and lots of dollars
Spending every dime
For a wonderful time

Now, if youre blue
And you dont know where to go to
Why dont you go where fashion sits
Puttin on the ritz
Different types who wear a daycoat
Pants with stripes and cutaway coat
Perfect fits
Puttin on the ritz

Dressed up like a million dollar trooper
Trying hard to look like gary cooper
Super-duper

Come, lets mix where rockefellers
Walk with sticks or umberellas
In their mitts
Puttin on the ritz

------ short instrumental break ------

Tips his hat just like an english chappie
To a lady with a wealthy pappy
Very snappy

Youll declare its simply topping
To be there and hear them swapping
Smart tidbits
Puttin on the ritz

This year Amy Winehouse was nominated for six top Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Her album “Back to Black" was nominated for Album of the Year. It includes this song, “Wake Up Alone.”

At the first Grammy show, Perry Como won Best Male Vocal Performance for “Catch a Falling Star.”

This year, Seal is among the nominees in that category for the song “Amazing.”

There are five nominees for the two thousand eight Grammy for Album of the Year. They are a mixed group, including country, rock and roll and hip-hop. However, the jazz album from Herbie Hancock captured interest. “River: The Joni Letters” is a collection of songs made famous by Joni Mitchell. Herbie Hancock performs “River.”

One of the most popular activities enjoyed by Americans is spending time in forests and walking along paths through the country. This activity, called hiking, has led to the creation of paths throughout the United States. Some of these paths, or trails, are short. Some are only a few kilometers. Others are many hundreds of kilometers.

One of the longest is the Appalachian National Scenic Trail. The trail is the first completed part of the National Trails System. The trails system was established by Congress and the President in nineteen sixty-eight.

The Appalachian Trail is more than three thousand four hundred kilometers long. It starts in the northeastern state of Maine and ends in the southeastern state of Georgia. The trail goes through fourteen states.

They are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia.

The path takes walkers through the Appalachian Mountains. They extend from the Canadian Province of Quebec to the southern American state of Alabama.

The Appalachian Mountains are among the oldest on Earth. They first began forming about one thousand million years ago. During the millions of years since then, the mountains were changed and reformed by the forces of water and wind. Ice also changed the mountains, making many of them smaller and digging valleys and lakes among them. Many different kinds of trees grow along the trail. And many different kinds of animals live in the forests along the trail.

Land along the trail is protected by the federal government and by state governments. Some parts are not protected by the government directly. Instead, they are protected by legal agreements with private owners willing to permit people to walk across their property.

Walkers on the Appalachian Trail pass through some of the great valley systems of the mountains. They can look down into these beautiful valleys and see farms and forests stretching across the land for many kilometers. Farmland in the valleys is rich and productive. And some of the great events in American history took place in the valleys. For example, one of the great battles of the American Civil War was fought in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.

The Appalachian Trail was the idea of Benton MacKaye. Mister MacKaye first proposed creating the trail in nineteen twenty-one. Although there were many separate trails in different parts of the eastern United States, most of them were not connected. In nineteen twenty-five, representatives of several private organizations met in Washington, D.C. and formed the Appalachian Trail Conference.

Their idea was to create a trail connecting the two highest mountains in the eastern United States -- Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and Mount Mitchell in Georgia. It was another five years before development of the trail began, under the direction of Myron Avery. Seven years after Mister Avery took control of the project, the Appalachian Trail was completed. This happened on August fourteenth, nineteen thirty-seven.

Creating the trail was a difficult job that involved the work of many thousands of people. But there were no public celebrations or events to observe its opening. Public knowledge of the trail grew slowly. Today, it is one of the most famous trails in the world. However, it is not the longest hiking trail. Two others in the western United States are longer. They are the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. Still, the Appalachian Trail is the most famous.

People from around the world come to see the natural beauty of the mountains, lakes, rivers, and valleys near the Appalachian Trail. The trail makes it possible to see much of this beauty without having to see cities, towns, and other parts of the modern world. Instead, people can see many places along the trail that look very much the way they did before humans arrived many thousands of years ago.

This is one of the main reasons why the Appalachian Trail is so popular among Americans, especially those living in the eastern United States. The trail is not far from most of the major cities along the eastern coast, such as New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. It provides a place where people from these cities can leave behind the worries of modern life to enjoy the peace and beauty of nature.

Most people who use the Appalachian Trail go mainly for short walks that last for less than a day. Many of them want to look at the different kinds of plants and animals that live along the trail.

For many other people, the Appalachian Trail provides a chance to spend several days camping and hiking. They walk along the trail carrying all the things they will need to survive for several days. These hikers carry food, cooking equipment, water, sleeping bags and temporary shelters called tents.

In New Hampshire's White Mountains, there are special camps along the Appalachian Trail where people can stay. The Appalachian Mountain Club operates these camps. The club is one of the thirty-two groups that belong to the Appalachian Trail Conference. Volunteers in these groups supervise and operate the Appalachian Trail through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service.

The Appalachian Mountain Club has about ninety thousand members. It is the oldest conservation organization in the United States.

The Appalachian Mountain Club operates several camps along ninety kilometers of the trail. Each camp provides hikers with shelter, beds and food. Each camp is located about a day's walk from the next one.

These camps are so popular that it is necessary to request to stay at one a year ahead. It is especially difficult to find a place in such camps during summer weekends.

Many people hike along the trail to such camps with their families. Writer Eileen Ogintz is one of those people who stayed at an Appalachian Mountain Club camp with her family. She found it very different from what her family does every day at home. She and her family had to hike up a mountain path in the rain to get to their camp. There are no radios or televisions. So families spend time talking with each other. After two days in the wilderness, her family enjoyed the experience.

The Ogintz family’s two days on the Appalachian Trail is similar to the experience of many people. The first part is difficult. But the rewards of experiencing nature are very satisfying. This may be enough for most people. But there are some people who want more than just a day or weekend on the trail. These people try to walk from the beginning of the trail to the end.

They usually start at Springer Mountain in Georgia in the early spring. Generally, they hike the more than three thousand four hundred kilometers to Mount Katahdin in Maine in five to six months.

One person who tried to walk the Appalachian Trail is writer Bill Bryson. Mister Bryson tells the story of his long walking trip in his humorous book “A Walk in the Woods.” However, he and his friend did not complete the trip as planned.

At the end of their long trip, Mister Bryson and his friend asked each other how they felt about the experience and if they were sad to leave the trail. After thinking about it for a while, the two agreed that they were both happy and sad about ending their trip.

Mister Bryson said he was tired of the trail, but still very interested in it. He became tired of the endless forests, but felt great wonder at their endlessness. He enjoyed the escape from civilization, but wanted its comforts.

At the end of “A Walk in the Woods,” Bill Bryson suggests that his experiences on the Appalachian Trail changed the way he looks at life and the world.

Breastfeeding should begin right after a baby is born. There may be experts at a hospital or other health center who can show a new mother several different positions for breastfeeding.

A mother can get a painful back or neck if she leans over to feed her baby. Better to bring the baby to the breast instead. The baby's mouth should be open as wide as possible so that all of the nipple and area around it fit inside.

A baby should be fed often at the beginning, usually about every two hours. The Mayo Clinic in the United States also notes it is best to feed before a baby gets too hungry. Experts say that when a mother breastfeeds often, it helps increase her milk production.

Women can learn more about breastfeeding from books or support groups or the Internet. But some mothers face difficult decisions.

In developing countries, breastfeeding remains a leading way for babies to become infected with the AIDS virus. Yet formula mixed with dirty water can make a baby sick.

Earlier this week, at a conference in Boston, AIDS experts reported good news. They said a study of about two thousand babies showed that the drug nevirapine can cut the risk of HIV infection through breastfeeding.

Nevirapine is widely used in developing countries to prevent infected mothers from passing the virus to their babies during childbirth. The babies are currently given nevirapine just once, at birth.

But this is what the study found: Babies given nevirapine daily for six weeks had about half the rate of HIV infections as those given only a single dose. By six months of age, they still had almost one-third less risk of infection or death.

Scientists reported that six weeks of nevirapine appeared to be as safe as the single dose given under current guidelines. Teams from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland led the study with investigators from Ethiopia, India and Uganda.

In two thousand six the United Nations changed its policies on breastfeeding by HIV-infected mothers. The new advice supports breastfeeding for six months if mothers do not have money for basic foods or baby formula. The idea is that the benefits of breastfeeding are greater than the risks.

Experts say newborns who are not breastfed have five to seven times the risk of dying from pneumonia or diarrhea compared to breastfed babies.

People who have unusual difficulty with reading, writing, listening or working with numbers might have a learning disability. We talked last week about a reading disorder, dyslexia. Today we discuss a writing disorder, dysgraphia.

Writing is not an easy skill. Not only does it require the ability to organize and express ideas in the mind. It also requires the ability to get the muscles in the hands and fingers to form those ideas, letter by letter, on paper.

Experts say teachers and parents should suspect dysgraphia if a child's handwriting is unusually difficult to read. Letters might be sized or spaced incorrectly. Capital letters might be in the wrong places. The child's hand, body or paper might be in a strange position. These can all be signs of dysgraphia. Spelling problems can also be related to the disorder.

Many people have poor handwriting, but dysgraphia is more serious. Dsygraphia is a neurological disorder that generally appears when children are first learning to write. Writing by hand can be physically painful for people who have it. There are different kinds of dysgraphia. And it can appear with other learning disabilities, especially involving language.

Experts are not sure what causes it. But they say early treatment can help prevent or reduce many problems. For example, special exercises can increase strength in the hands and improve muscle memory. This is training muscles to remember the shapes of letters and numbers.

Children can try a writing aid like a thick pencil to see if that helps. Schools can also provide simple interventions like more time to complete writing activities or assistance from a note taker. Teachers could have students with dysgraphia take tests by speaking the answers into a recorder, or type their work instead of writing it.

Children with dysgraphia might be able to avoid the problems of handwriting by using a computer. Yet experts say they could still gain from special instruction to help them organize their thoughts and put them into writing. Such skills become more important as children get older and schoolwork becomes more difficult.

Dysgraphia

What is Dysgraphia?

Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects writing abilities. It can manifest itself as difficulties with spelling, poor handwriting and trouble putting thoughts on paper. Because writing requires a complex set of motor and information processing skills, saying a student has dysgraphia is not sufficient. A student with disorders in written expression will benefit from specific accommodations in the learning environment, as well as additional practice learning the skills required to be an accomplished writer.

What are the Warning Signs of Dysgraphia?

Just having bad handwriting doesn't mean a person has dysgraphia. Since dysgraphia is a processing disorder, difficulties can change throughout a lifetime. However since writing is a developmental process -children learn the motor skills needed to write, while learning the thinking skills needed to communicate on paper - difficulties can also overlap.

If a person has trouble in any of the areas below, additional help may be beneficial.

-Tight, awkward pencil grip and body position
-Illegible handwriting
-Avoiding writing or drawing tasks
-Tiring quickly while writing
-Saying words out loud while writing
-Unfinished or omitted words in sentences
-Difficulty organizing thoughts on paper
-Difficulty with syntax structure and grammar
-Large gap between written ideas and understanding demonstrated through speech.

What Strategies Can Help?

There are many ways to help a person with dysgraphia achieve success. Generally strategies fall into three categories:

-Accommodations: providing alternatives to written expression
-Modifications: changing expectations or tasks to minimize or avoid the area of weakness
-Remediation: providing instruction for improving handwriting and writing skills

Each type of strategy should be considered when planning instruction and support. A person with dysgraphia will benefit from help from both specialists and those who are closest to the person. Finding the most beneficial type of support is a process of trying different ideas and openly exchanging thoughts on what works best.

Below are some examples of how to teach individuals with dysgraphia to overcome some of their difficulties with written expression.

Early Writers

-Use paper with raised lines for a sensory guide to staying within the lines.
-Try different pens and pencils to find one that's most comfortable.
-Practice writing letters and numbers in the air with big arm movements to improve motor memory of these important shapes. Also practice letters and numbers with smaller hand or finger motions.
-Encourage proper grip, posture and paper positioning for writing. It's important to reinforce this early as it's difficult for students to unlearn bad habits later on.
-Use multi-sensory techniques for learning letters, shapes and numbers. For example, speaking through motor sequences, such as "b" is "big stick down, circle away from my body."
-Introduce a word processor on a computer early; however do not eliminate handwriting for the child. While typing can make it easier to write by alleviating the frustration of forming letters, handwriting is a vital part of a person's ability to function in the world.
-Be patient and positive, encourage practice and praise effort - becoming a good writer takes time and practice.

Young Students

-Allow use of print or cursive - whichever is more comfortable.
Use large graph paper for math calculation to keep columns and rows organized.
-Allow extra time for writing assignments.
Begin writing assignments creatively with drawing, or speaking ideas into a tape recorder
-Alternate focus of writing assignments - put the emphasis on some for neatness and spelling, others for grammar or organization of ideas.
-Explicitly teach different types of writing - expository and personal essays, short stories, poems, etc.
-Do not judge timed assignments on neatness and spelling.
-Have students proofread work after a delay - it's easier to see mistakes after a break.
-Help students create a checklist for editing work - spelling, neatness, grammar, syntax, clear progression of ideas, etc.
-Encourage use of a spell checker - speaking spell checkers are available for handwritten work
-Reduce amount of copying; instead, focus on writing original answers and ideas
-Have student complete tasks in small steps instead of all at once.
-Find alternative means of assessing knowledge, such as oral reports or visual projects
-Encourage practice through low-stress opportunities for writing such as letters, a diary, making household lists or keeping track of sports teams.

Teenagers & Adults

-Provide tape recorders to supplement note taking and to prepare for writing assignments.
-Create a step-by-step plan that breaks writing assignments into small tasks (see below).
-When organizing writing projects, create a list of keywords that will be useful.
-Provide clear, constructive feedback on the quality of work, explaining both the strengths and weaknesses of the project, commenting on the structure as well as the information that is included.
-Use assistive technology such as voice-activated software if the
mechanical aspects of writing remain a major hurdle.
-Many of these tips can be used by all age groups. It is never too early or too late to reinforce the skills needed to be a good writer.

Though teachers and employers are required by law to make "reasonable accommodations" for individuals with learning disabilities, they may not be aware of how to help. Speak to them about dysgraphia, and explain the challenges you face as a result of your learning disability.

How to Approach Writing Assignments

-Plan your paper (Pull together your ideas and consider how you want them in your writing.)
-Organize your thoughts and ideas
-Create an outline or graphic organizer to be sure you've included all your ideas.
-Make a list of key thoughts and words you will want to use in your paper.
-Write a Draft

This first draft should focus on getting your ideas on paper - don't worry about making spelling or grammar errors. Using a computer is helpful because it will be easier to edit later on.

Edit Your Work

-Check your work for proper spelling, grammar and syntax; use a spell checker if necessary.
-Edit your paper to elaborate and enhance content - a thesaurus is helpful for finding different ways to make your point.

Revise Your Work, Producing a Final Draft

-Rewrite your work into a final draft.
-Be sure to read it one last time before submitting it.
(from National Center for Learning Disabilities, Inc.)

How the convention heard details of the Virginia Plan was a fifteen-part plan of government prepared by James Madison and other delegates from the state of Virginia.

The plan described a national government with a supreme legislature, executive and judiciary. The convention debated the meaning of the words "national" and "supreme." Some delegates feared that such a central government would take away power from the states. But in the end, they approved the proposal.

On June first, they began debate on the issue of a national executive.

The Virginia Plan offered several points for discussion. It said the national executive should be chosen by the national legislature. The executive's job would be to carry out the laws made by the legislature. He would serve a number of years. He would be paid a small amount of money.

These points served as a basis for debate. Over a period of several weeks, the delegates worked out details of the executive's position and powers.

It seemed every delegate at the Philadelphia convention had something to say about the issue of a national executive. They had been thinking about it for some time.

Almost every delegate was afraid to give the position extended powers. Almost no one wanted America's chief executive to become as powerful as a king. Still, many of the delegates had faith in the idea of a one-man executive. Others demanded an executive of three men.

James Wilson of Pennsylvania argued for the one-man executive. He said the position required energy and the ability to make decisions quickly. He said these would best be found in one man.

Edmund Randolph of Virginia disagreed strongly. He said he considered a one-man executive as "the fetus of monarchy."

John Dickinson of Delaware said he did not denounce the idea of monarchy, of having a government headed by a king. He said it was one of the best governments in the world. However, in America, he said, a king was "out of the question."

The debate over the size of the national executive lasted a long time. Finally, the delegates voted. Seven state delegations voted for a one-man executive. Three voted against the idea.

During the debate on size, other questions arose about the national executive. One question was the executive's term. Should he serve just once or could he be re-elected?

Alexander Hamilton argued for a long term of office. He said if a president served only a year or two, America soon would have many former presidents. These men, he said, would fight for power. And that would be bad for the peace of the nation.

Benjamin Franklin argued for re-election. The people, he said, were the rulers of a republic. And presidents were the servants of the people. If the people wanted to elect the same president again and again, they had the right to do this.

Delegates debated two main proposals on the question. One was for a three-year term with re-election permitted. The other was for one seven-year term. The vote on the question was close. Five state delegations approved a term of seven years. Four voted no.

The question came up again during the convention and was debated again. In the final document, the president's term was set at four years with re-election permitted.

Next came the question of how to choose the national executive.

It was a most difficult problem. The delegates debated, voted, re-debated, and re-voted a number of proposals. James Wilson proposed that the executive be elected by special representatives of the people, called electors. The electors would be chosen from districts set up for this purpose.

Several delegates disagreed. They said the people did not know enough to choose good electors. They said the plan would be too difficult to carry out and would cost too much money.

One delegate proposed that the national executive be elected by the state governors. He said the governors of large states would have more votes than the governors of small states. Nobody liked this proposal, especially delegates from the small states. It was defeated.

Another proposal was to have the national executive elected directly by the people. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts was shocked by this idea.

"The people do not understand these things," he said. "A few dishonest men can easily fool the people. The worst way to choose a president would be to have him elected by the people."

So the delegates voted to have the national legislature appoint the national executive. Then they voted against this method. Instead, they said, let state legislatures name electors who would choose the executive. But the delegates changed their mind on this vote, too. They re-debated the idea of direct popular elections.

The convention voted on the issue sixty times. In the end, it agreed that the national executive should be chosen by electors named by state legislatures.

Now, someone said, we have decided how to choose the executive. But what are we to do if the executive does bad things after being appointed? We should have some way of dismissing him.

Yes, the delegates agreed. It should be possible to impeach the executive, to try him, and if guilty, remove him from office. Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania spoke in support of impeachment. A national executive, he said, may be influenced by a greater power to betray his trust.

The delegates approved a proposal for removing a chief executive found guilty of bribery, treason, or other high crimes.

The last major question about the national executive was the question of veto power over the national legislature.

Not one delegate was willing to give the executive complete power to reject new laws. And yet they felt the executive should have some voice in the law-making process. If this were not done, they said, the position of executive would have little meaning. And the national legislature would have the power of a dictator.

James Madison offered a solution:

The executive should have the power to veto a law, Madison said. But his veto could be over-turned if most members of the legislature voted to pass the law again.

The final convention document listed more details about the national executive, or president. For example, it said the president had to be born in the United States or a citizen at the time the Constitution was accepted. He must have lived in the United States for at least fourteen years. He must be at least thirty-five years old.

The executive would be paid. But his pay could not be increased or reduced during his term in office. He would be commander-in-chief of the armed forces. And, from time to time, he would have to report to the national legislature on the state of the Union.

The final document also gave the words by which a president would be sworn-in. Every four years -- for more than two hundred years now -- each president has repeated this oath of office:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Scientists have reported finding remains of an ancient ape in eastern Africa. The scientists believe the remains came from an animal that lived almost ten million years ago. They say it may be close to the last common ancestor of modern African apes and human beings.

Yutaka Kunimatsu from Kyoto University led an international team of scientists. Japanese and Kenyan researchers discovered bones from the chin and mouth of the ancient ape in two thousand five. The jawbone fossils were found in northern Kenya. The team tested the fossils for almost two years. The findings were reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The jawbone fossils came from volcanic soil in Nakali, an area forty kilometers from the Rift Valley. In the past, other fossils were found there.

Mister Kunimatsu’s team named the ape Nakalipthecus nakayamai – or just Nakali. The jawbone held three teeth. The researchers also found eleven other ape teeth.

Mister Kunimatsu said the animal was about the size of a female gorilla or orangutan. He said the teeth showed the ape could have crushed hard food. The teeth are similar to those of another ancient ape that lived in what is now Greece.

The researchers used several methods to find Nakali’s age. They compared the fossils with remains of ancient horse-like creatures called hipparions. The hipparions had already been found to be ten million to eleven million years old. Geologists on the team collected rocks from the Nakali area. The geologists used radiation to learn the ages of the rocks. The team then combined all the methods to estimate the ape’s age. Mister Kunimatsu reported that Nakali lived about nine point eight to nine point nine million years ago.

The test results dispute a widely accepted theory. Some scientists believe the ape from Greece was the last common ancestor to both modern African apes and humans. They say the last common ancestor began life in Africa and then moved to Asia and Europe. Under this theory, the ancient ape returned to Africa where it developed into humans.

The theory resulted because scientists working in Africa have found few ape fossils from seven million to thirteen million years ago. But now there are the jawbone and teeth from Nakali.

Recently, other ape fossils from that period reportedly were found in eastern Africa. An aide to fossil researchers found an ape’s canine tooth about two years ago in Ethiopia. Last year, this research group found eight more teeth from the same kind of animal in the same place. Gen Suwa of the University of Tokyo led the researchers. He says the creature may have been a direct ancestor of a gorilla. Or, he says it may have been an animal that developed teeth like a gorilla but died out over time.

Millions of people break a hip at some time in their lives. In the United States alone, more than three hundred twenty thousand people suffer broken hips each year.

A broken hip, also called a hip fracture, is very painful. The hip is a boney area in the upper leg. For some older adults, a hip fracture can mean loss of ability to walk. The injury can end their chances for a normal life.

The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published two studies about hip fractures. The studies may help doctors identify people’s risks of broken bones during their later years.

Doctors usually order a bone mineral density test when an older adult breaks a hip by falling from a standing position. Such a break is called a low-trauma fracture. The doctors order the test because they suspect the bone-weakening disorder osteoporosis. The disorder thins the thickness, or density, of bones without causing pain. People usually do not know they have osteoporosis until a test confirms it.

But doctors may not order a test if the patient has suffered a high-trauma fracture. This fracture results from a car crash injury. Or, a fall from a chair may cause it.

One study included adults sixty-six years of age or older. Researchers collected nine years of information about eight thousand women. The researchers also studied five years of information about almost six thousand men. All those studied were tested for bone density. People who showed lower bone density suffered more high-trauma fractures.

Dawn Mackey led the study. She works at the Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco, California. Some women in the study had a high-trauma hip fracture during the period they were observed. These women had about eight percent less bone density than women who did not suffer such breaks. Men with high-trauma fractures had about six percent less bone density than the other men.

Miz Mackey’s team found that women with osteoporosis were two times as likely to get each kind of fracture than other women. Men who had osteoporosis were three times as likely as other men.

The Journal of the American Medical Association reported on a separate study of hip fractures. Jane Cauley of the University of Pittsburgh led a team that studied thousands of older women. Her team formed a step-by-step process. The process measured a woman’s threat for hip fractures over five years.

The women studied reported eleven facts about themselves. The researchers then considered the women’s ages, general health, height and weight. They also noted the women’s ethnicity, physical activity, and broken bones after age fifty-four. They noted whether or not the women smoked or had been treated with steroid drugs. They examined for history of diabetes and broken hips in the women’s parents.

The team then kept records of the conditions. They developed a measurement system for the possibility of hip fractures. The system may add to a doctor’s ability to know which of their patients might break a hip. The doctors then could advise protective measures.

Researchers in the United States have found an important reason why a virus known to kill birds has not infected many people. They found that the bird flu virus only infects people when it connects with one kind of cell receptor.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported their discovery in the publication Nature Biotechnology.

Not all influenza viruses affect people. Some flu viruses only attack birds or pigs. In recent years, the h-five-h-one bird flu virus has infected more than three hundred fifty people in fourteen countries. The World Health Organization says the disease killed more than two hundred of them.

The victims seem to have become infected as a result of being with or near birds. Experts fear the h-five-h-one virus could change and develop the ability to pass from one person to another.

Scientists know that a protein on the flu virus must join with sugar receptors in a human respiratory cell before the virus can infect a person. The virus uses the sugar receptor to enter the cell and infect it.

The new study has shown that this explanation was too simple. For a person to get infected, the virus must connect with a special shape of receptor in human lung cells. The receptor has two different shapes. One is similar to a three-sided object. The other looks like an open umbrella or sunshade.

The Massachusetts researchers found the bird flu virus must connect to the umbrella shaped receptor before it can spread from person to person. Currently, it has only a way to connect with the three-sided receptors.

Scientists say this discovery should help them develop a more effective way to observe changes in the bird flu virus. They now know to look for viruses that can connect to the umbrella shaped receptors. The knowledge could also lead to a vaccine against the bird flu virus.

The United States provides more than half the world's food assistance. American programs totaled close to two billion dollars last year.

But critics say the current system wastes money and delays the arrival of needed food.

Under current law, United States government agencies have to buy American-produced food. And seventy-five percent of the aid must be carried on American ships.

President Bush wants to change the system. His proposal would provide food assistance by purchasing crops directly from farmers in the developing world. Money in the form of cash grants would supply about twenty-five percent of food aid.

President Bush, in his State of the Union speech last month, called on Congress to support the proposal. He said it would build up local agriculture and, in his words, "help break the cycle of famine."

Last year, Congress' Government Accountability Office reported that sixty-five percent of the money for food aid was going to costs besides food. It said rising business and transportation costs had cut the average amount of food shipped over the last five years by fifty-two percent. Yet demand has grown.

Critics among charity groups have called for changes in the system. CARE USA, a major aid group, said last year that it would not take part in the current system after two thousand nine.

But the system also has supporters among agricultural, shipping and charity groups, and lawmakers in Congress. Supporters say the current system works well and that changing it could harm food aid programs.

The continuing debate over the most effective ways to provide food aid is not the only agriculture-related issue in Washington. Congress has been working for months on a major farm bill.

The House of Representatives and the Senate passed similar versions of legislation last year. President Bush says he may veto the final bill that reaches him. He says it would cost too much in its present form. He wants to end subsidy payments to farmers who earn a lot for their crops.

The president has a new agriculture secretary to deal with these issues. Former North Dakota governor Ed Schafer was sworn into office in late January. He replaced Mike Johanns, who resigned to run for the United States Senate from Nebraska.

Opera is a play that tells a story in music. The people in the opera sing, instead of speak, the play's words. Opera is one of the most complex of all art forms. It combines acting, singing, music, costumes, scenery and, sometimes, dance. Often there are many colorful crowd scenes.

Opera uses the huge power of music to communicate feelings and to express emotions. Music can express emotions very forcefully. So most opera composers base their works on very tragic stories of love and death. An opera often shows anger, cruelty, violence, fear or insanity. Opera has been very popular in Europe since it spread through it during the seventeenth century. It also has become popular in the United States.

Maria Callas was one of the best-known opera singers in the world. During the nineteen fifties, she became famous internationally for her beautiful voice and intense personality. The recordings of her singing the well-known operas remain very popular today.

Maria Callas was born in New York City in nineteen twenty-three. Her real name was Maria Kalogeropoulous. Her parents were Greek. When she was fourteen, she and her mother returned to Greece. Maria studied singing at the national conservatory in Athens. The well-known opera singer Elvira de Hidalgo chose Maria as her student.

In nineteen forty-one, when she was seventeen, Maria Callas was paid to sing in a major opera for the first time. She sang the leading roles in several operas in Athens during the next three years.

In nineteen forty-five, Callas was invited to perform in Italy. This was the real beginning of her profession as an opera singer. She performed major parts in several of the most famous operas. In nineteen forty-nine, she married an Italian industrialist, Giovanni Battista Meneghini. He was twenty years older. He became her adviser and manager.

In nineteen fifty, Maria Callas performed for the first time at the famous La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy. She sang in the famous opera "Eida" by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. She sang the part of Aida, an Ethiopian slave in ancient Egypt.

During the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, Maria Callas sang in about forty major operas in the most famous opera houses in the world.

In nineteen fifty-six, she appeared for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She sang the lead in the opera "Norma" by Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini. She was a great success. Norma, a religious leader in the ancient city of Gaul, became one of her most famous parts.

During the years, Maria Callas often had problems with her voice. Critics said some of her performances were not her best. Sometimes she had to cancel performances. Her relations with the officials of major opera companies often were tense. Many harmful stories were written about Callas. The stories suggested that people she worked with thought she was difficult. However, many people who worked most closely with her denied this.

When she was not singing in operas, Callas was making recordings. She made more recordings than any other singer of her time.

In nineteen fifty-nine, her marriage to Mister Meneghini ended. Maria Callas became the lover of a rich Greek businessman, Aristotle Onassis. Callas suffered more problems with her voice. So she sang less. In nineteen sixty-five, she sang in the opera "Tosca" by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. She was Floria, an Italian singer. It was a part she had sung many times. It was the last time she appeared in an opera.

Now that she was no longer singing, Callas wanted to marry Aristotle Onassis and have a child. However, in nineteen sixty-eight, Onassis suddenly said that he was leaving her. He had decided to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of the murdered American president, John Kennedy.

Three years later, Callas decided to teach young opera singers. In the early nineteen seventies, she taught twelve classes at the Juilliard School in New York. Parts of these classes were released as records. Terrence McNally wrote a play about Maria Callas and her opera students called "Master Class."

Maria Callas sang in many cities in Europe, the United States and East Asia in nineteen seventy-three and seventy-four. She performed with opera singer Giuseppe di Stefano. Critics said she was not able to sing as well as she had when she was younger. It is not known if Callas's troubles were caused by a physical problem or because she had not spent enough time training her voice.

Maria Callas died of a heart attack in her home in Paris in nineteen seventy-seven. She was fifty-three.

Many experts say Maria Callas influenced opera more than any other singer of the twentieth century. They say she had the deepest understanding of the traditional Italian opera. Her beautiful voice and intense feeling increased the effect of an opera. One expert said: "Callas sees and hears in the great operas the poetry of music. Others sing notes. She sings meaning. "

People who heard Maria Callas sing say they will not forget the experience. Her voice lives on in the many recordings she made. Some experts say Maria Callas is as popular now as she was when she was performing around the world.

They called her “the Black Pearl,” “the Black Gazelle” and “the fastest woman in the world.” In nineteen sixty, Wilma Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics. She was an extraordinary American athlete. She also did a lot to help young athletes succeed.

Wilma Rudolph was born in nineteen forty, in Saint Bethlehem, Tennessee. She was born too early and only weighed two kilograms. She had many illnesses when she was very young, including pneumonia and scarlet fever. She also had polio, which damaged her left leg. When she was six years old, she began to wear metal leg braces because she could not use that leg.

Wilma Rudolph was born into a very large, poor, African-American family. She was the twentieth of twenty-two children. Since she was sick most of the time, her brothers and sisters all helped to take care of her. They took turns rubbing her crippled leg every night. They also made sure she did not try to take off her leg braces. Every week, Wilma's mother drove her to a special doctor eighty kilometers away. Here, she got physical treatments to help heal her leg.

She later said: “My doctors told me I would never walk again. My mother told me I would. I believed my mother.”

Soon, her family’s attention and care showed results. By the time she was nine years old, she no longer needed her leg braces. Wilma was very happy, because she could now run and play like other children. When she was eleven years old, her brothers set up a basketball hoop in the backyard. After that, she played basketball every day.

As a teenager, Wilma joined the girl’s basketball team at Burt High School. C.C. Gray was the coach who supervised the team. He gave her the nickname “Skeeter.” She did very well in high school basketball. She once scored forty-nine points in one game, which broke the Tennessee state record.

Many people noted that Wilma was a very good basketball player and a very good athlete. One of these people was Ed Temple, who coached the track team of runners at Tennessee State University. Ed Temple asked C.C. Gray to organize a girl’s track team at the high school. He thought Wilma Rudolph would make a very good runner. She did very well on the new track team.

Wilma Rudolph went to her first Olympic Games when she was sixteen years old and still in high school. She competed in the nineteen fifty-six games in Melbourne, Australia. She was the youngest member of the United States team. She won a bronze medal, or third place, in the sprint relay event.

In nineteen fifty-seven, Wilma Rudolph started Tennessee State University, where she joined the track team. The coach, Ed Temple, worked very hard for the girls on the team. He drove them to track competitions and made improvements to the running track with his own money. However, he was not an easy coach. For example, he would make the members of the team run one extra time around the track for every minute they were late to practice.

Wilma Rudolph trained hard while in college. She did very well at her track competitions against teams from other colleges. In nineteen sixty, she set the world record for the fastest time in the two thousand meter event. She said: “I ran and ran and ran every day, and I acquired this sense of determination, this sense of spirit that I would never, never give up, no matter what else happened.”

That same year, Wilma Rudolph went to the Olympics again, this time in Rome, Italy. She won two gold medals -- first place -- in the one hundred meter and the two hundred meter races. She set a new Olympic record of twenty-three point two seconds for the two hundred meter dash.

Her team also won the gold medal in the four hundred meter sprint relay event, setting a world record of forty-four point five seconds. These three gold medals made her one of the most popular athletes at the Rome games. These victories made people call her the “world’s fastest woman.”

Wilma Rudolph received a lot of attention from the press and the public, but she did not forget her teammates. She said that her favorite event was the relay, because she could share the victory with her teammates Martha Hudson, Lucinda Williams and Barbara Jones. All four women were from Tennessee State University.

The Associated Press named Rudolph the U.S. Female Athlete of the year. She also appeared on television many times. Sports fans in the United States and all over the world loved and respected her. She said: “The feeling of accomplishment welled up inside of me, three Olympic gold medals. I knew that was something nobody could ever take away from me, ever.”

Wilma Rudolph was a fine example for many people inside and outside the world of sports. She supported the civil rights movement -- the struggle for equality between white and black people. When she came home from the Olympics, she told the governor of Tennessee that she would not attend a celebration where white and black people were separated. As a result, her homecoming parade and dinner were the first events in her hometown of Clarksville that white people and black people were able to attend together.

After she retired from sports, Wilma Rudolph completed her education at Tennessee State University. She got her bachelor’s degree in elementary education and became a teacher. She returned to coach the track team at Burt High School. She also worked as a commentator for women’s track competitions on national television. In nineteen sixty-three she married her high school boyfriend Robert Eldridge. They had four children, but later ended their marriage.

Wilma Rudolph won many important athletic awards. She was voted into the Black Athlete’s Hall of Fame and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. She was also voted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. In nineteen seventy-seven, she wrote a book about her life called “Wilma.” She wrote about her childhood problems and her athletic successes. NBC later made the book into a movie for television.

Rudolph said her greatest success was creating the Wilma Rudolph Foundation in nineteen eighty-one. This organization helped children in local communities to become athletes. She always wanted to help young athletes recognize how much they could succeed in their lives.

She said: “The triumph can’t be had without the struggle. And I know what struggle is. I have spent a lifetime trying to share what it has meant to be a woman first in the world of sports so that other young women have a chance to reach their dreams.”

Rudolph also influenced many athletes. One of them was another African American runner, Florence Griffith Joyner. In nineteen eighty-eight, Griffith Joyner became the second American woman to win three gold medals in one Olympics. She went on to win a total of six Olympic medals. Wilma Rudolph was very happy to see other African American female athletes succeed. She said: “I thought I’d never get to see that. Florence Griffith Joyner – every time she ran, I ran.”

Wilma Rudolph died of brain cancer in nineteen ninety-four in Nashville, Tennessee. She was fifty-four years old. She influenced athletes, African Americans and women around the world. She was an important example of how anyone can overcome barriers and make their dreams come true. Her nineteen sixty Olympics teammate, Bill Mulliken, said: "She was beautiful; she was nice, and she was the best."

This presidential election is creating unusual interest and excitement across America, especially with young people and Democrats.

The Democrats hope to reclaim the White House after eight years of Republican presidency. Yet candidates from both parties are promising change.

There are major issues facing Americans. The weakening economy. The Iraq war. Other concerns include the troubled housing market, high costs of health care and energy, and the debate over illegal immigration.

But interest in the election is also being driven by the candidates themselves.

Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama would become America's first female or first black president. Republican John McCain would become, at age seventy-two, the oldest president elected to a first term. Or if the Republicans nominate Mitt Romney and he wins, he would become the nation's first Mormon president.

Americans will choose their next president in general elections on November fourth. The names on the ballot will be the result of a nominating process that began just after New Year's Day.

Each state has its own process for choosing presidential candidates. But for candidates the goal is the same: to secure enough delegates to win their party's nomination.

State nominating elections will be held through June. Most of these votes take place in the form of primary elections. Other take place at meetings known as caucuses, or at state conventions.

The Democratic Party will hold its national nominating convention in August in Denver, Colorado. The Republican National Convention will take place in September in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota.

To win nomination, candidates will need a simple majority of their party's delegates. The rules for awarding delegates, though, are anything but simple.

Democrats and Republicans are the two major political parties in the United States. Small, so-called third parties like the Green Party also nominate candidates for president.

The nominating season began January third with the caucuses in Iowa. At caucuses, voters gather in local places like schools, libraries or even people's homes. Some caucuses use secret ballots like traditional elections. But others require voters to gather in different areas of a room to show their support for their favorite candidate.

The main difference between a primary and a caucus is the process involved. A primary is more like a traditional election. The majority of states hold primary elections.

VOICE TWO:

More than forty states will be holding primaries this year. Some are open primaries. That means independent voters can take part. Others are closed primaries: only members of a party can vote.

The ability to win a closed primary can be an important test of party support for a candidate.

For example, the first two primaries that John McCain won, in New Hampshire and South Carolina, were open. The Arizona senator won them on the strength of independent voters. His victory last week in Florida was his first win with only Republicans voting.

He defeated Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, thirty-six percent to thirty-one percent. Winning Florida put John McCain into the lead in Republican delegates.

Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Florida. But none of the Democratic candidates campaigned there. National party officials are refusing to seat Florida's delegates at the convention this summer. The dispute is over the decision to hold Florida's Democratic primary before February fifth -- Super Tuesday.

This is the week for Super Tuesday. The name is used for the day when the largest number of states hold presidential nominating elections. Super Tuesday is so big this time, "Super Duper Tuesday," it seems closer to a national primary than ever before.

Primaries did not become an important part of the nominating process until the nineteen sixties. Before then, only some states held them. Nominees were mainly decided at the conventions by party leaders.

Many Americans disliked that system. Pressure to end the political deal making led to more primaries. But that led to a new criticism: that states with early primaries have too much influence on presidential races. Candidates give more attention to small states with early contests than big states with later ones.

This time, many states moved their nominating elections earlier in the year. Super Tuesday will include big states like California and New York, which have hundreds of delegates.

In all, twenty-four of the fifty states will hold primaries or caucuses, with one exception. Republicans in West Virginia will hold a convention.

Alex Keyssar is a political historian and professor at Harvard University. He says having almost half the states vote on a single day puts greater importance on raising money for television advertising and travel.

It also put more pressure on candidates to do well early in the primary season or drop out, as several already have.

Last Wednesday, former North Carolina senator John Edwards left the race for the Democratic nomination. And former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani left the Republican race. Neither had won any states.

The Democratic race has narrowed to two candidates: Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. Former president Bill Clinton has campaigned for his wife. But his recent attacks on Barack Obama brought strong criticism within the party.

Going into Super Tuesday, Hillary Clinton has more delegates than Barack Obama. But even winning all twenty-two states holding Democratic votes would not give either of them enough delegates to secure the nomination.

About one thousand seven hundred Democratic delegates will be awarded. Two thousand twenty-five are needed for nomination.

Going into the primary season, many experts predicted that clear front-runners would be known by the close of Super Tuesday. Now they are not so sure.

Tom Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, says delegates could end up split among candidates. But he thinks it is likely that the parties will want to gather their support around one candidate.

At the national nominating conventions, delegates are generally expected to support the candidate who sent them. But some delegates have a right to vote for another candidate.

In a tight race, the nominee could be decided by hundreds of delegates known as superdelegates. These are party leaders and elected officials. Superdelegates are free to choose any candidate, but they often vote for the candidate who wins their home state.

The Democrats award delegates proportionally. For example, if candidates win forty percent of the popular vote in a state, they win forty percent of that state's delegates.

The Republicans generally use the winner-takes-all system. The candidate with the highest percentage of votes in a state wins all of that state’s delegates.

As a result, Super Tuesday is more likely to produce a commanding front-runner for the Republicans than for the Democrats.

One thousand one hundred ninety-one delegates are needed to win the Republican nomination. More than one thousand will be awarded on Tuesday.

Republican candidate Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses. That gave him a strong start. But now the former Arkansas governor is low on campaign money. Last week he finished fourth in Florida, behind John McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.

Ron Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas, finished fifth.

John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, says the biggest issue of the twenty-first century is "radical Islamic extremism." Mitt Romney presents himself as the true conservative. And he says his experience in business prepares him to deal with the economy.

Hillary Clinton says she has the experience to deal with America's problems from her first day as president. Barack Obama, forty-six years old and a first-term senator, says experience is important. But, he said at a California debate last week, "it is important to be right on day one."

The four main U.S. presidential hopefuls are campaigning across the country ahead of next week's so-called "Super Tuesday" political showdown when more than 20 states hold primary elections or caucuses.

Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona and Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois won a key endorsement Friday from the "Los Angeles Times" newspaper. The endorsement could give the candidates an extra boost of support when voters in the delegate-rich western state of California head to the polls Tuesday.

Obama faces a tight contest with Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, while McCain is competing against former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination.

The Republican candidates are also competing in minor caucuses in the northeastern state of Maine, where voting began Friday and continues until Sunday. Voters gather at small community meetings to express their preference for a presidential nominee, though a win will give the candidate nothing more than a political boost.

At stake Tuesday for the Democrats are more than 1,600 of the 2,025 delegates needed to win the party's nomination for the general election in November. For the Republicans, the 22 state elections and caucuses Tuesday represent more than 1,000 of the 1,191 delegates needed to clinch the party's nomination.

When U.S. voters choose a presidential candidate, they get a vice president as part of the package. Examine the factors that go into picking a vice presidential candidate in hopes of the ticket winning the White House.

Political conventions are filled with confetti, balloons, and cheers for the presidential candidate chosen to carry the party's banner to Election Day. But in the shadows of that attention is the party's vice presidential nominee.

For more than 200 years, U.S. voters have marked their November election ballots for two people running together on a party's White House ticket: one for president, the other, for vice president.

One scholar who has studied these vice presidential candidates in depth is George Mason University's Robert Dudley. Dudley explains the purpose of the vice president's nominiation. "What is the nomination of a vice president for? It's to boost election chances, where even a small advantage you might get could translate into a lot of electoral votes."

Perhaps the most significant pattern in the past 30 or so years can be termed 'outsider-insider.' Since Democrat Jimmy Carter won the White House in 1976, a number of politicians have campaigned for the presidency with the theme of an outsider coming to a so-called broken Washington to fix it. Mr. Carter's running mate, however, was veteran U.S. Senator Walter Mondale, who intimately knew the mechanisms of the federal government.

In 1980, when Republican outsider Ronald Reagan was elected to change Washington, he chose a very experienced Washingtonian, former ambassador and CIA Director George Herbert Walker Bush. In 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton came to Washington from Arkansas with an insider, Senator Al Gore. Eight years later, Republican Texas Governor George W. Bush picked former Defense Secretary and Ford administration Chief of Staff Dick Cheney as his vice president.

The vice presidential slot has also been used to bridge generations, or to transition between them. When the senior George Bush was vice president and ran for the Oval Office in 1988, he chose a very youngish Senator Dan Quayle as his running mate to appeal to the so-called "baby boom" generation born after the end of World War II. And in 1992, the Democratic Clinton-Gore ticket was not only outsider-insider, but was also the first ticket with two "baby boomer" candidates.

The 1984 team of Democrats Senator Walter Mondale and Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro was the first time a woman had ever been nominated by a major party. She thanked her supporters at the party's convention. "My fellow citizens, I proudly accept your nomination for Vice President of the United States," she said.

While White House tickets are designed for the widest possible voter appeal, the role of the vice president goes far beyond Election Day. As the old adage goes, the vice president is only a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.

The earliest process of making paper was done almost five thousand years ago in Egypt and the Nile Valley. In those days, paper was made from strips of the papyrus plant.

Modern paper-making began in China about two thousand years ago. This process produced paper from cloth, straw, wood or the bark of trees. The raw materials are struck over and over until they become loose. Then they are mixed with water.

After the water has been removed, the flat, thin form remaining is permitted to dry. This becomes a sheet of paper.

Large machines started to be used for making paper near the end of the sixteenth century. Today, paper-making is a big business. But it is still possible to make paper by hand, since the steps are the same as using big machines.

You should choose paper with small amounts of printing. Old envelopes are good for this reason. Colored paper also can be used, as well as small amounts of newspaper. Small pieces of rags or cloth can be added. These should be cut into pieces about five centimeters by five centimeters.

Everything is placed in a container, covered with water, and brought to a boil. It is mixed for about two hours with some common chemicals and then allowed to cool. Then it is left until most of the water dries up. The substance left, called pulp, can be stored until you are ready to make paper.

When you are ready, the pulp is mixed with water again. Then the pulp is poured into a special box or mold. The mold is made of small squares of wire that hold the shape and thickness of the paper. To help dry the paper, the mold lets the water flow through the small wire squares.

After several more drying steps, the paper is carefully lifted back from the mold. It is now strong enough to be touched.

The paper is smoothed and pressed to remove trapped air. You can use a common electric iron used for pressing clothes.

There are many other technologies for people making paper using small machines.

Today, we tell about the much-loved performer Lucille Ball. Her famous television series, “I Love Lucy,” was first broadcast in nineteen fifty-one.

The “I Love Lucy” show was a huge success. It was the most popular television show of the nineteen fifties. The kind of television program Miz Ball helped develop is called a situation comedy. Some television experts give her credit for inventing this kind of series. Today, some of the most popular television programs in America are situation comedies.

One reason for the great popularity of “I Love Lucy” may have been its real-life connection with Miz Ball’s family. On the show, she was Lucy, the wife of Ricky Ricardo, a Cuban musician. Ricky was played by band leader Desi Arnaz, who was Lucille Ball’s husband in real life. The show combined issues common to the life of married people living in the city with musical performances and comic theater.

Often, a show would include a part with Mister Arnaz acting seriously while Miz Ball added a funny element. In the following piece, Mister Arnaz tries to sing normally and Miz Ball adds the comedy:

(MUSIC: "By the Waters of the Minnetonka")

Also on the “I Love Lucy” show were Vivian Vance and William Frawley. Miz Vance played Ethel Mertz and Mister Frawley played Ethel’s husband, Fred Mertz. On the show, the Mertzes were friends of the Ricardos and owned the building in which they all lived.

Fred Mertz loved baseball, which was America’s most popular sport at the time. “I Love Lucy” often showed Fred Mertz intensely watching baseball or some other sport like boxing while Ethel added her own funny comments.

(SOUND: “Seeing a baseball game is fun”)

A well-known story about the “I Love Lucy Show” concerns the birth of the Arnaz’s son, Desi Junior. Officials of the broadcasting company wondered what to do when Miz Ball became pregnant in nineteen fifty-two. Miz Ball explains that her husband, Desi, came up with a solution:

(SOUND: “Why don’t we have it on the show?”)

Miz Ball’s pregnancy was made part of the show. In fact, critics say the show in which Lucy Ricardo tells Ricky that she is pregnant is one of the best. In it, Lucy goes to the entertainment place where Ricky’s band is playing to tell him that they are going to have a baby. Ricky suddenly understands that he is going to be a father after Lucy secretly requests the song, “We’re Having a Baby:”

(MUSIC: “We’re Having a Baby”)

Miz Ball gave birth to her second child on the same day that Lucy Ricardo gave birth. In fact, Desi Junior’s birth date was planned to happen on the same day as the broadcast.

The show in which Lucy gave birth was one of the most popular television programs ever broadcast in America. In fact, the story is that Desi Junior’s birth replaced reports about Dwight Eisenhower’s first presidential ceremony on the front pages of America’s newspapers.

The success of the “I Love Lucy” show did not come early in Lucille Ball’s life, or easily. Instead, it was the result of years of hard work.

Miz Ball was born near Jamestown, New York, in nineteen eleven. She tried to get into show business at an early age. Early on, she went to the same acting school as the famous actress Bette Davis. However, she left when she was told that she did not have enough acting ability.

In the early nineteen thirties, she moved to Hollywood. She appeared in a number of movies, but was not well known.

In nineteen forty, she met the leader of a musical group who had been born in Cuba. His full name was Desiderio Alberto Arnaz de Acha the Third. They worked together in a movie and married soon after they met. For the next ten years, she appeared in movies and on radio. He traveled a lot with his band.

In nineteen fifty, the broadcasting company, CBS, decided to make a television program based on the radio show, “My Favorite Husband.” Lucille Ball was the star of the radio show. She wanted Mister Arnaz to play the part of her husband on the television show. CBS rejected the idea. But she refused to give up. She and Desi traveled around the country performing in a show together to prove that they would do well on television. Their show was a success. CBS offered them both jobs.

Miz Ball had another demand. She wanted her show to be a production of the best quality. Early television pictures were not of good quality. Miz Ball wanted her program to be filmed, which would improve the picture, and then broadcast later. Yet she wanted people to watch the program as it was being filmed so the sound of their reactions could be captured.

Miz Ball also wanted to film the shows in Hollywood. CBS did not want the extra costs. So, Miz Ball and Mister Arnaz agreed to work for less pay. In exchange, CBS let them own the program. That agreement made them owners of what would become one of the most successful programs on television.

During the fifties, Miz Ball won almost every honor there was for television actors including several Emmy Awards. Yet, even the most popular performers could not escape the political realities of the time. Conservative lawmakers accused Lucille Ball of being a communist. The Federal Bureau of Investigation kept a secret record of information about her, just as it did about many Hollywood actors at that time.

Mister Arnaz supervised their company, Desilu Productions. The company produced sixteen different television programs and ran three production centers, called studios.

In nineteen sixty, Lucille Ball and Mister Arnaz legally ended their marriage. Mister Arnaz sold his part of the company to his ex-wife. Miz Ball became the first woman to head a major production company. It was one of the biggest in Hollywood.

Miz Ball also was the star of several other shows of her own. “The Lucy Show” was broadcast from nineteen sixty-two to nineteen sixty-eight. “Here’s Lucy” followed until nineteen seventy-four. Miz Ball later sold her production company to Paramount Studios.

“I Love Lucy” showed Miz Ball at her best. Mister Arnaz added something that was unusual for American television at the time. Many of the songs on the show were in Spanish. One song, “Babalu,” is popularly connected with “I Love Lucy”. Its words are Spanish and its sound is Latin American. It is this mixture along with the excellent performances that made the show special:

(MUSIC: “Babalu”)

Miz Ball died in nineteen eighty-nine after a heart operation. Yet, she still makes people laugh. Her programs are rebroadcast on television and there are hundreds of Internet sites about her. After all these years, everyone still loves Lucy.

(MUSIC: “I Love Lucy”)

The remaining U.S. presidential candidates are preparing for a major showdown on Tuesday when more than 20 states hold primaries or caucuses to choose delegates to the Republican and Democratic nominating conventions later this year.

The February 5 primaries and caucuses around the country loom as a decisive day in the battles for the Democratic and Republican presidential nominations.

In their latest debate in California, Democratic contenders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were noticeably nicer to one another compared to the previous encounter in South Carolina where both candidates attacked each other with abandon.

OBAMA: "I was friends with Hillary Clinton before we started this campaign. I will be friends with Hillary Clinton after this campaign is over."

CLINTON: "The differences between Barack and I pale in comparison to the differences we have with the Republicans."

A total of 22 states hold Democratic primaries or caucuses Tuesday with more than 1,600 delegates at stake.

To win the Democratic nomination, a candidate must win the support of 2025 delegates at the national nominating convention in Denver, Colorado, in late August.

In the Republican race, Senator John McCain of Arizona heads into Super Tuesday as the clear frontrunner, hoping to put more distance between himself and challengers Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.

McCain continues to emphasize his early backing for the U.S. troop surge in Iraq, which has improved the security situation there.

"Iraq is the central battleground in the struggle against al-Qaida, and if we had done what the Democrats wanted us to do six months ago, and that is to declare a withdrawal and leave, we would be fighting all over the Middle East, we would see chaos and genocide in the region," he said.

Romney argues that he is the only true conservative remaining in the Republican field.

McCain continues to come under fire from conservative activists for past stands against tax cuts and for comprehensive immigration reform.

Among his critics is the conservative radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh.

"He is not the choice of conservatives, as opposed to the choice of the Republican establishment," he said.

The Republican contenders will compete in 21 primary or caucus events on Tuesday with more than 1,000 party delegates at stake. A total of 1,191 delegates are needed to secure the Republican nomination.

Among those states holding primaries in both parties on Tuesday are California, New York, Illinois and New Jersey. Smaller states in all regions of the country are also taking part.

Democratic political strategist Tad Devine predicts the Republican race will probably be decided before the Democratic contest between Clinton and Obama.

"In the Republican process, somebody, most likely McCain, will pull way ahead and the other challengers simply will not be in a position to catch him," he noted. "That is not going to happen in our [Democratic] Party. We are going to have a close contest that proceeds probably through the month of February into early March."

Most of the Republican contests are winner take all events, which award all the delegates at stake in a given primary or caucus to the winner.

Democratic delegates are awarded on a proportional basis, meaning even the second place candidate can win some delegates based on the proportion of the vote won in a primary or caucus.

Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sparred over health care, immigration and the war in Iraq in a debate in Los Angeles Thursday. The last two major contenders for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination also found common ground as they head into party preference polls on Tuesday.

In front of an audience studded with Hollywood celebrities, Obama and Clinton highlighted their differences, as both promised a change from the Bush administration.

The discussion was cordial in contrast to a tense exchange last week in South Carolina, where Obama won Saturday's primary. In the debate broadcast on the Cable News Network, Clinton and Obama compared health care plans and highlighted their differences on illegal immigration. Clinton says on this issue, despite their differences, they share some of the same values.

"We want to be fair to people. We want to respect the dignity of every human being, every person who is here, but we are trying to work our way through to get to where we need to be. And that is to have a united Democratic Party with fair-mined Republicans who will join us to fix this broken immigration system," she said.

The candidates criticized Republican presidential frontrunner John McCain for his comment that U.S. troops could remain in Iraq for 100 years, and for supporting an extension of President Bush's tax cuts after twice voting against them.

Clinton was asked how she can bring change to the White House when just two families, the Bushes and Clintons, have held the office of president for decades. She says she is running on her own merits, not those of her husband -- former president Bill Clinton -- who defeated President George H. W. Bush in 1992.

"And you know, it did take a Clinton to clean (up) after the first Bush, and I think it might take another one to clean up after the second Bush," she said.

Clinton says her record of public service as an attorney, First Lady and U.S. senator from New York makes her the candidate best prepared to take on the duties of president on her first day in the White House. Obama responded:

"I respect Senator Clinton's record. I think it's a terrific record. But I also believe that the skills that I have are the ones that are needed right now to move the country forward, otherwise I wouldn't be running for president of the United States," he said.

California is one of 22 states that will hold Democratic Party contests Tuesday, which is known as Super Tuesday. Twenty-one states will hold Republican contests. Among Democrats, Clinton leads in opinion polls in California and several other key states, including New York and New Jersey.

However, Obama received important endorsements this week from Massachusetts senator Edward Kennedy and his niece, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, the daughter of the late president John F. Kennedy. She said Obama, like her father, can inspire the country.

Senator Clinton also boasts some members of the Kennedy family among her supporters, and says both her candidacy, and Obama's, have created enthusiasm.

The two had words of praise for former North Carolina senator John Edwards, who ended his campaign this week, leaving the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination a two-person contest.

Voters in 22 states, including California and New York, will go to the polls next Tuesday in the biggest primary election contest of the 2008 U.S. presidential race. The outcome of many of these elections and caucuses will be shaped by Latinos.

Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States and make up the fastest-growing voting segment among immigrant populations in the country. That's why political observers say they will play a key role in this year's presidential contest.

Cecilia Munoz, a Public Policy Director with the National Council of La Raza in Washington D.C., says Latinos are energized by the issues and mobilizing to get out the vote. "I think part of the energy is just because this is a growing constituency and as our numbers increase our proportion of the electorate is going to increase. But there is really much more going on. We (Latinos) care deeply about the major issues of the day, questions like education, or access to health care or the war."

Both the Republican and Democratic Party candidates know the importance of the Hispanic vote. That's why they've been campaigning hard in Latino communities, especially in western states. Senator Hillary Clinton is running Spanish language campaign ads in California.

William Ramos is the Washington Director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO).

He says holding earlier presidential primary elections this year means the Latino electorate will have a big say in deciding the nominee from the two major political parties. "By moving forward on the primary calendar it offered Latinos -- who are large populations in the Southwest where many of the states are, and in the northeast in New York, New Jersey and the like -- an opportunity to really have a voice in these presidential primary elections and beyond in the general election."

Political analysts say, traditionally, Hispanics are swing voters, meaning they do not always throw their sole support behind one political party over the other. Since the 1980s increasing numbers of Hispanics have been voting for Republican presidential candidates. President Bush markedly increased his share of the Latino vote when he was re-elected in 2004.

But some political analysts say the immigration debate could dramatically shift Latino support away from the Republican party. They believe many Latinos are angry over the tough position on illegal immigration taken by many Republicans, including threats to deport the millions of undocumented workers in the country now.

"The tough hard-line anti-immigration position that the Republican candidates, many of them, have taken on immigration is going to be a problem with Hispanic voters," says Norman Ornstein, who is a political expert at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "That is why Senator John McCain, who is not saddled with that tough anti-immigration line, is someone who scares Democrats a little bit more. As George Bush showed, if a Republican can get 35 to 40 percent of the Hispanic vote he can win an election, an election the Democrats think is theirs and in the bag."

Some political observers estimate more than nine million Latinos could cast ballots in the general election, a 23 percent increase from 2004. They believe those numbers could increase if one million Hispanics who have applied for citizenship become naturalized and vote in the November election.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney accused rival John McCain of dirty tricks during a lively debate Wednesday evening. The Republican candidates squared off at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, each invoking the legacy of the late president.

With the former presidential aircraft, Air Force One, as a backdrop, Republican frontrunners Mitt Romney and John McCain engaged in a spirited exchange over the question of whether Romney had supported a public deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. President Bush and Senator McCain have rejected a deadline, which they say would hurt the effort of U.S. troops and undercut the Iraqi government.

Romney said he has never supported a deadline, and he asked why McCain raised the issue just days before the Florida primary. McCain won the Florida contest Tuesday by five percentage points.

"It's an attempt to do the Washington-style old politics, which is lay a charge out there, regardless of whether it's true or not. Don't check. Don't talk to the other candidate. Just throw it out there," he said.

Romney said he wanted U.S. and Iraqi leaders to discuss timetables and milestones privately, and will not support a troop withdrawal until Iraq is secure. He said McCain was using the kind of dirty tricks that Ronald Reagan would have found reprehensible.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Texas congressman Ron Paul also took part in the debate, which was broadcast on CNN. Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who dropped out of the race Wednesday and endorsed John McCain, did not take part.

McCain complained that he and Huckabee were the target of unfair attacks by Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and millionaire businessman, in televisions ads in earlier state contests.

"As far as Washington politics is concerned, I think my friend Governor Huckabee, sir, will attest, the millions of dollars of attack ads and negative ads you leveled against him in Iowa, the millions of dollars of attack ads you attacked against me in New Hampshire, and have ever since. A lot of it's your own money, you're free to do with what you want to. You can spend it all," he said.

Congressman Ron Paul, a vocal opponent of the war and advocate of limited government, criticized the others for supporting continued spending in Iraq.

He said "The dollar is crashing and you're talking about these technicalities about who said what, when?"

McCain and Romney each questioned the other's commitment to conservative goals such as cutting taxes, ideas once championed by President Reagan. Each of the candidates was asked whether the late president would endorse him. Mike Huckabee turned the question around.

"I'm not going to pretend he would endorse me. I wish he would. I'd love that. But I endorse him," he said.

Huckabee said the former president inspired the country.

Mr. Reagan's widow, Nancy, was in the audience, along with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. News reports Wednesday said Schwarzenegger plans to endorse John McCain Thursday, giving another boost to the Arizona senator's campaign.

Wednesday's debate comes six days before Super Tuesday, when more than 20 states, including California, will hold primaries or caucuses that could position either McCain or Romney as a clear frontrunner in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

The field of U.S. presidential contenders shrank by two as Democrat John Edwards and Republican Rudy Giuliani decided to end their campaigns. Giuliani endorsed fellow Republican John McCain at a joint appearance in California.

The battle for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination is now down to two contenders, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Former North Carolina senator John Edwards ended his presidential campaign in New Orleans, the same place he announced his bid for the White House more than one year ago.

Edwards used a poor neighborhood ravaged by the floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as a backdrop to urge his supporters to continue the fight to eliminate poverty in the U.S.

"Do not give up on the causes that we have fought for. Do not walk away from what is possible, because it is time for all of us, all of us together, to make the two America's one. Thank you, God bless you and let us go to work," he said.

Edwards was the Democratic Party's nominee for vice president in 2004, part of a losing ticket with presidential nominee John Kerry.

Edwards finished second in the Iowa caucuses this year to Senator Barack Obama, but was never able to mount a serious bid to overtake Obama and the other top Democratic contender, Senator Hillary Clinton.

Edwards did not announce an endorsement, but Clinton and Obama are eager to win over Edwards' supporters.

Clinton made her appeal in a television interview.

"I wished him well. I wished his family well. Obviously, it is very important that the contribution he made, especially to encourage us to focus on poverty, remains a central cause of our campaign and, I hope, of my presidency," he said.

Obama made his appeal for support during a campaign appearance in Denver, Colorado.

"I am grateful to John Edwards for his service to this country. I am grateful to Elizabeth Edwards for her courage and inspiration," he said.

Elizabeth Edwards has battled cancer during her husband's campaign.

Clinton and Obama are now focused on the 22 Democratic contests on February 5, so-called Super Tuesday, when more than half of the Democratic nominating delegates will be at stake.

Meanwhile, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's departure from the Republican presidential race follows a big victory Tuesday by Senator John McCain in the Florida primary.

McCain is now the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

"We have a ways to go, but we are getting close. And for that you all have my profound thanks," he said.

McCain and former governors Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas now square off in 21 Republican contests on Super Tuesday that could determine who wins the party's presidential nomination.

Romney hopes to compete next week by tapping into his vast personal wealth.

But expert John Fortier of the American Enterprise Institute sees an advantage for McCain.

"Romney certainly has the resources to run a national campaign. But McCain has the advantage of being someone who appeals more nationally than does Romney. Romney has yet to prove that he can compete in certain regions," he said.

The early part of the presidential campaign required the candidates to engage voters one-on-one or in small groups in states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

But next week's Super Tuesday contests will force the candidates to spend lots of money on television advertising and fly from state to state to make brief appearances in hopes of winning support.

Candidates in this year's presidential election are targeting the growing number of minority voters in an effort to build a winning coalition.From Los Angeles, Democrats are courting African-Americans and Hispanics in California, a state where the minority vote can make a difference.

One in three Californians is Hispanic, and Hispanics, or Latinos, as they are called here, make up 14 percent of likely voters, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Hispanics can make a difference in the southwest, where most vote Democratic, and their support is important in the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

A group called Vote Latino is using ads on a political website called Declare Yourself to urge young Hispanics to register to vote. One is a mock drama that shows a beautiful young woman rejecting a handsome suitor because he is not politically active.

(WOMAN) "So how come you're not registered to vote?"

(MAN) "I just … I've never really gotten around to registering to vote."

(WOMAN) "But it's so easy."

In Nevada, Senator Hillary Clinton won the Democratic caucuses January 19 with help from Hispanic voters, who supported her by a margin of more than two to one. Eighty percent of African-Americans supported Senator Barack Obama.

According to a poll published Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times, Clinton holds a two-to-one lead over Obama among Hispanics in California. A survey last week by the Field Poll organization showed Obama leading among African-Americans by more than 30 per cent.

Political scientist Raphael Sonenshein of California State University, Fullerton, says both groups are important in this election.

Sonenshein says Latinos have a relationship with Hillary Clinton dating back to her husband's eight years as president. She has also received the endorsement of Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

More than 20 states, including California, Arizona and New Mexico, are holding primaries and caucuses February 5, known as Super Tuesday. Sonenshein says this year's compressed primary schedule hurts Obama, who is not as well known as Clinton, and faces additional hurdles as an African American.

"This is the whole experience we've had with black candidates throughout modern times is that as voters who are not black became more familiar with the candidate, they were more likely to vote for them. And time is short for Obama because these states are coming up so quickly all at once with a large Latino population. Hillary has that huge advantage of familiarity," he said.

Political analyst and civic activist Joe Hicks, of the group Community Advocates, agrees that race and ethnicity could play a role in the California primaries. Hicks is African-American and a Republican. He does not support any Democratic candidate, but blames the Clinton camp for injecting race into the campaign in what he sees as an effort to marginalize Obama as a minority candidate. Some Clinton supporters, including former president Bill Clinton, respond by saying Obama and his backers raised the issue of race.

Hicks believes the candidates should rise above racial divisions and focus on such issues as the economy, security and immigration.

Latino community worker Randy Jurado Ertll heads a social service center called El Centro de Accion Social in Pasadena, California. He agrees the candidates should focus on the major issues rather than race and ethnicity.

He says it is not enough for Hillary Clinton to come to East Los Angeles and eat Mexican tacos, or for Obama to shout political slogans in Spanish. He says Latinos have special concerns over such issues as immigration, but otherwise share the hopes and worries of other Americans. He offers this advice to those who want the Latino vote.

"Either candidate, from the Democratic or the Republican party, I think what they need to do is appeal more to the broad issues that impact all Americans, and not get stuck in trying to make promises to either community. I think we need to get them to commit to creating more jobs for the Latino community, to helping kids not join gangs by creating better public school districts throughout the United States."

Spanish media outlets are following the primaries and have noted the victors in Florida, Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

The candidates are making their appeals in English and Spanish-language television ads.

Political scientist Sonenshein says the candidacies of Clinton and Obama have brought the complicating factors of gender and race into the campaign, and no one knows the potential impact. He says the issue of religion adds an unpredictable element to the Republican race with Mitt Romney, a Mormon, as a major candidate.

Senator John McCain has won the Republican presidential primary in Florida, giving him a strong boost in the race for the party's nomination.

Candidates in both parties wanted a strong showing in the southeastern state, Florida, to give them momentum next week, when more than 20 states hold primaries and caucuses. Experts say the February 5 contests will likely determine which candidates receive the nominations.

John McCain adds Tuesday's victory in Florida to earlier wins in two other key primary states. It gives him a majority of delegates in the party's nomination process. Tuesday's results showed the Arizona senator edged out former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, followed by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in third and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in fourth.

Exit polls showed McCain won support from the state's many retirees as well as the influential Cuban-American community in the Miami area.

Speaking at a rally, McCain said the Florida primary victory will propel his candidacy in upcoming votes on so-called Super Tuesday.

"In one week, we will have as close to a national primary as we have ever had in this country. I intend to win it and be the nominee of our party," he said.

At a rally, Romney told supporters the race is not over and promised to continue his campaign focusing on the need to bring new ideas to Washington.

"So the right course for America is not to strengthen our government, but to strengthen our people. To do that, we will have to change Washington, and change will begin with us," he said.

In the Democratic race, Senator Hillary Clinton won a landslide over her chief rival Senator Barack Obama, with former Senator John Edwards in third. Clinton was the only candidate to appear on polling day in Florida, where Democrats had agreed not to campaign because of differences between state Democratic officials and national party leaders. Florida was stripped of its nominating delegates after state officials moved up the date of the primary.

Despite the problems, Clinton told supporters that turnout was strong in Florida and said the victory gives an important edge to her campaign.

"This resounding vote, with the millions of Americans who will vote next Tuesday, we will send a clear message that America is back and we are going to take charge of our destiny again," he said.

Candidates for both parties are set to campaign in several states ahead of polling on Super Tuesday. Republicans are holding a debate in California, Wednesday, and Democrats will meet in a debate in Los Angeles, Thursday.

Senator Barack Obama is hoping for a boost in his quest for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination after getting the endorsement of one of the party's elder statesmen, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Political experts are divided about the impact of political endorsements.

But Obama supporters are ecstatic in the wake of Ted Kennedy's endorsement on Monday and his statement that Senator Obama would be ready on day-one to assume the presidency if elected.

"He is a leader who sees the world clearly without being cynical," he said.

Kennedy remains a revered figure in Democratic Party politics. He is one of the last links to the so-called Age of Camelot when his brother, John F. Kennedy, was in the White House and inspired a generation of Democrats with his message of change and commitment to government service.

In receiving the endorsement, Obama acknowledged the Kennedy legacy and promised to carry on the ideals embodied by President Kennedy.

"I know what your support means. I know the cherished place the Kennedy family holds in the hearts of the American people," he said.

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President Kennedy, also endorsed Obama, as did Ted Kennedy's son, Congressman Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island.

But like Democrats in general, the Kennedy family is split between supporters of Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton.

Several children of the late Senator Robert Kennedy are supporting Clinton, including Robert Kennedy, Jr.

"Teddy and Caroline have made their judgment and I absolutely respect those judgments. I feel just as strongly about my reasons for supporting Hillary Clinton," he said.

Some veteran Democrats believe the Kennedy endorsement could help Obama as he and Clinton prepare to compete in the 22 Democratic contests on February 5 when more than half of the party's nominating delegates will be at stake.

"If Ted Kennedy is able to convey to Democratic voters that Barack Obama has that special something that he saw in his brother John Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy, that is a powerful signal to send to Democrats," said longtime Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin.

The Kennedy endorsement came days after Obama's landslide win in the South Carolina primary where he got strong support from African-American voters, one of the most loyal constituencies within the Democratic Party.

Some African-American leaders criticized the role played by former President Bill Clinton in his wife's campaign, as he raised questions about Obama's record and experience.

Political analyst Michael Barone argues that offending African-American voters could hurt the Democrats in the November general election.

"If Hillary Clinton win the Democratic nomination by visibly disrespecting an important Democratic core constituency, I think that is a political liability for the Democratic Party in November," he said.

But Bill Clinton remains popular with Democrats, and he remains active on the campaign trail on behalf of his wife, as he was Tuesday in New Jersey, which holds a primary on February 5.

"These are tough, complicated times, but we can bring America back. We have done it before and she [Hillary] will lead us in doing in again in rebuilding the middle class life," he said.

The schedule of presidential primaries and caucuses for both parties extends into early June, and many analysts now believe the Democratic Party race will not be settled for some time, perhaps not even until the Democratic Party's nominating convention in Denver, Colorado in late August.

"We could easily go, not only through Super Tuesday and the Mid-Atlantic primaries and through the March contests, but we might even see people looking ahead to Pennsylvania on April 22," said Norman Ornstein, a political expert at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

The Republican Party presidential contenders will also face a major test on February 5, the so-called Super Tuesday, when 21 states hold nominating primaries or caucuses. The Republicans hold their convention in early September in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The circumstance is unprecedented in U.S. history -- a presidential spouse running for the highest office. That is the case in the Democratic Party this year as former President Bill Clinton campaigns for his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, who seeks the job her husband left seven years ago. There have been father and son presidencies in the past. And distant cousins have served as commanders-in-chief. But not this, and Mr. Clinton has taken an increasingly high profile in his wife's campaign, a role that has become increasingly controversial in both political parties.

Former President Bill Clinton still attracts an enthusiastic crowd, such as one in California. There, a schoolgirl remarked, "Bill Clinton was going to be here, so everybody was, like, 'Oh, we want to go.'"

A woman said, "Seems like it's been a really, really, really long time -- way longer than eight years since I've had any hope. So, I'm looking for a little hope."

Campaigning for his wife, Mr. Clinton speaks of the possibilities. Senator Hillary Clinton, a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination, could become the first woman president.

He also points out, her Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, could become the first African-American to occupy the White House. "We are living the American dream. We're making America's tomorrow. And we should all be happy about that."

But in recent days, Mr. Clinton has argued with reporters -- such as bitingly asking one about Nevada's caucus rules. He has gone on the attack, in New Hampshire calling into question Obama's opposition to the Iraq war. "Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairly tale I have ever seen," Clinton said.

Mr. Clinton became an issue between Senator Clinton and Senator Obama in a South Carolina debate. Senator Obama said, "When Senator Clinton says-- er, President Clinton says -- that I wasn't opposed to the war from the start -- or says it's a fairy tale that I opposed the war -- that is simply not true."

Some leading Democrats, including Clinton's former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, are calling on the former president to tone down his rhetoric. "He may be hurting himself, hurting his legacy, hurting the Democratic Party and he may even be hurting his wife's campaign."

American University presidential historian Allan Lichtman says this is a new dynamic in American politics. "That is absolutely without precedent in the entire history of the country. Usually, ex-presidents try to stay out of political squabbles. Bill Clinton relishes it."

When George W. Bush ran for president in 2000, he could consult his father, who held the office eight years earlier. But Lichtman says former President George H.W. Bush kept a lower profile.

Mr. Clinton spent several days campaigning in South Carolina for his wife. Political experts say he is likely to help in Democratic Party primary elections. But scholar Norm Ornstein adds, "People remember the good things about the Clinton presidency but there's an awful lot of baggage there that becomes a problem in a general election."

In a recent Republican presidential debate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney raised the issue. "The idea of Bill Clinton back in the White House with nothing to do is something I can't imagine -- I can't imagine the American people can imagine."

This week, Mr. Clinton argued with another reporter who asked him about criticism within his own party. He said, "They're [the other candidates' campaigns] feeding you this because they know this is what you want to cover. This is what you live for. But this hurts the people of South Carolina," he said angrily.

As the campaign heads toward votes in more than 20 states, neither Clinton is backing down.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama won the South Carolina Democratic primary with more votes than his two rivals combined. This was a much-needed win for the African-American candidate and polling results show he had overwhelming support from black voters, Obama says he is seeking support from all voters, not just those who share his ancestry.

Coming before supporters at a Columbia hotel, Barack Obama said his campaign would continue to seek votes from all Americans of every race, ethnic group and religion. He said the victory here, along with his victory in Iowa and his strong showings in New Hampshire and Nevada, had put his campaign on a strong course to the nomination.

"After four great contests in every corner of this country, we have the most votes, the most delegates and the most diverse coalition of Americans that we have seen in a long, long time," he said.

Exit polls indicate that Obama won overwhelmingly among black voters, as had been expected, but he also won a much larger percentage of white votes than public opinion surveys had predicted. Race became a factor in the South Carolina contest after Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, made attacks on Obama that troubled some blacks. One prominent black South Carolina Democrat even told the former president publicly that he should tone down his rhetoric.

Obama won 55 percent of the overall vote. Senator Hillary Clinton received 27 percent, while former Senator John Edwards garnered 18 percent.

Some Obama supporters worried that a lopsided win in South Carolina that was based almost entirely on the black vote would hurt their candidate's chances going forward into other states where whites, Latinos and others might view him as a black candidate, not a candidate who transcends race, the image he had started with in winning the caucuses in Iowa, a state that is more than 90 percent white.

In his victory speech, Obama rejected what he called the assumption that the people of the United States are divided into rigid categories and that they cannot be brought together.

"The assumption that the wealthy care nothing for the poor and that the poor do not vote, the assumption that African Americans cannot support a white candidate and whites can't support the African American candidate, that blacks and Latinos cannot come together," he said. "We are here tonight to say that is not the America we believe in."

Hillary Clinton left South Carolina after initial vote counts were indicating Obama had won. Speaking to supporters in Nashville, Tennessee, she offered only a brief comment about the Obama victory.

"I want to congratulate Senator Obama tonight and I also want to thank the people of South Carolina for inviting us into their homes and their communities," she said. 'I want to tell you how excited I am that now the eyes of the country turn to Tennessee and the other states that will be voting on February 5th."

Twenty-two states hold contests on February 5 in what is called Super Tuesday. Clinton has strong organizations in many of the large states that will be at play, including California and New York, but the Obama victory in South Carolina could enhance his stature in some of those states and propel his campaign forward.

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards came in third in South Carolina, the state of his birth, but after he congratulated Obama on his win, Edwards spoke of carrying on to the upcoming primaries.

Given his lack of a victory in any contest so far, some analysts had thought he might drop out, but others say he may have a strategy of accumulating delegates so that he will have leverage at the Democratic convention. Edwards, however, denies this, saying he continues to see opportunities for victory in coming primaries.

After the overwhelming victory of Senator Barack Obama in the South Carolina Democratic primary Saturday, political analysts are examining the results and speculating on where the campaign goes from here.

Senator Obama and his supporters are looking over the results here in South Carolina and honing their strategy for the upcoming primaries. In some ways South Carolina was unique, especially in terms of the role played by black voters. Much of Obama's overwhelming margin of success was owed to black voters, who made up about half of the overall turnout.

But by winning a quarter of the white vote, Obama showed he could draw votes across racial lines even in a deep South state. In his victory speech, Obama rejected the idea that his campaign was about race or any other divisive issue.

"This election is about the past versus the future," said Barack Obama.

His words made clear that Obama sees himself as the champion of the future and his chief opponent, Senator Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as representatives of a past that many young people, in particular, would like to leave behind.

Obama won 50 percent of the vote among white people 18 to 29 years of age in South Carolina. He also scored well among middle-income voters with a college education. Obama South Carolina campaign spokesperson Amaya Smith says young people who support Barack Obama reject racial politics, gender politics and rigid partisan positions.

"I think they tend to be more concerned about bringing this country together, they are not involved in the old partisan fights and some of the old bickering that we have seen in the past from the politics of the old and, I think, they are not the type to demonize someone necessarily from the other party," said Amaya Smith. "They tend to be independent as well."

One segment of the electorate that has not responded well to Obama's message so far is that of Latinos. In Nevada, where there is a large Hispanic population, most of that vote went to Hillary Clinton.

Latinos are a much smaller part of the population in the South, but they are here. Maru Gonzalez, who comes from a Puerto Rican family, is an Obama supporter from Atlanta, Georgia, who came here to help with the campaign. She says many Latinos favor Hillary Clinton because they associate her with the accomplishments of her husband when he was president.

"A lot of people in the Latino community just remember what the Clintons did in the 1990's, in terms of jobs and economic growth and things like that," said Maru Gonzalez. "I think that is why many of them are placing their support with the Clintons. I think a lot of them still do not know a lot about Barack Obama, but my hope is that once they do learn about Barack Obama they will see that he is the right choice."

Gonzalez says she and other young Hispanics are backing Obama because they see him as the best option for the future and they are trying to convince others to do the same.

"I have actually talked to a lot of Latinos in my community, my family and things like that," she said. "A lot of people in my family were previously Hillary supporters and I have convinced them to join our side."

Hillary Clinton and former Senator John Edwards have their own appeals to youthful voters, but Clinton, in particular, has run a campaign that relies more on support from unions and traditional Democratic constituencies. She also has shown great strength in attracting votes from women. On February 5, voters in 22 states and American Samoa will have their chance to decide which of the candidates has the most appeal.

African-American voters are likely to play a key role in deciding who wins this year's Democratic Party presidential nomination. The leading candidates are a novel pair in American presidential politics -- an African-American man with strong support among whites and a white woman and former first lady with strong support among blacks.

African-American voters have left their mark on presidential politics, especially for Democratic Party candidates. Professor Lorenzo Morris is head of the political science department at Howard University in Washington. He says, "Since President Roosevelt's election in the 1940s, there has been no Democratic presidential election, meaning one in which a Democrat has won, that has not been largely determined by the black vote, except for the 1964 vote of President Johnson."

Professor Morris says 90 percent of African-American voters are Democrats and their participation has increased since the 1980s. In 1984, Reverend Jesse Jackson became only the second African-American to mount a nationwide presidential campaign, winning 21 percent of the popular vote in a losing effort. In 1988, he ran a stronger campaign, winning 13 primaries and caucuses and capturing nearly seven million votes.

Political analysts say the black vote could have a significant impact on the 2008 presidential race, especially since public opinion polls show Democrats running ahead of their Republican Party rivals.

David Bositis is a senior research analyst with The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington. "African-Americans are an important voting bloc in several key states that will determine the outcome of the election,” he says, “[in] states such as Missouri, Ohio and Florida. Those are states that if the Democrats carry [win] those states, the Democratic candidate is likely to be elected president."

That is good news for the leading Democratic Party hopefuls – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. Both campaigns have been pushing hard to win the support of African-Americans, especially in key battleground states.

Kurt Schmoke is dean of Howard University's law school. In 1987, he became the first black elected mayor of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. "I think that many black voters have been inspired by a number of candidates, but the Obama candidacy has added something new, interesting and exciting,” says Schmoke. “I do not necessarily want to imply that black voters are definitely going to vote for Barrack Obama but I think it simply added some excitement and interest and definitely is unique to the political environment."

Political observers believe if Obama were to win the Democratic Party nomination, black turnout at the polls in November would be record setting. But they maintain no matter who the Democratic nominee is they cannot win the race for the White House without getting a majority of the black vote.

A majority of women have chosen the winner in five of the last seven U.S. presidential elections. And since 1980, women have voted at higher rates than men in presidential contests. This year, there is a woman among the leaders vying for the Democratic Party nomination. In the first primary election, women proved to be a deciding factor, a trend analysts are watching as states vote separately in selecting the nominee.

American women have outvoted men in every election since 1964. It is a right their ancestors fought for decades to earn. Now, nearly 90 years after the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave them that right, women are a critical campaign target group.

Democratic political strategist Peter Fenn says, "The old joke was – women vote the way their husbands told them to vote. Well, that doesn't happen anymore. And now, of course, the majority of voters are women."

Women make up a majority of those who consider themselves Democrats -- 58 percent in one recent national survey. It is a factor that favored Senator Hillary Clinton in the early days of the campaign.

Exit polls showed Clinton emerged as the surprise winner in the New Hampshire primary because of the greater-than-expected female turnout.

A Gallup poll showed Senator Barack Obama pulling ahead of Clinton, even among women, in the days before the primary election. But in the survey, 46 percent of women said they voted for Clinton, while only 34 percent said they chose Obama

Founder of American University's Women and Politics Institute, Karen O'Connor, says Clinton's New Hampshire success depended upon women. "You can never underestimate the importance of one-to-one contact. New Hampshire was more one-to-one contact than even Iowa was,” she says. “So what you ended up with – the campaign really focusing on women's votes, because without them, Hillary Clinton cannot win."

Clinton's unique appeal is that she is the first viable woman candidate to run for president. "There is this sense of breaking the glass ceiling,” says Peter Fenn. “And you know, I think there's a lot of pride in that."

Many women say they do feel pride, but their opinions on Clinton are mixed. Part of this division is generational. Political analysts say older women tend to support Clinton.

"I know who is best qualified to be president and that's Hillary,” says one woman, while another adds, "I think she has compassion of what we women and what we mothers have gone through, because too many men have walked off and left us mothers with boys and girls the family to take care of."

Younger women are often among the enthusiasts at Obama rallies. Fenn says they are inspired by Obama's message of change.

One young woman reinforced that point. "My first instinct was that I would support Hillary. She's a woman and this is something that is really important to me. But the message of Obama has really touched me."

Whether for Clinton or against her, many women say they base their decisions on much more than what she symbolizes. "I can't say that I would vote for her just on the basis of being a woman," said a voter we spoke with recently.

And Clinton says that is exactly what she wants. "Neither race nor gender should be a part of this campaign," she said.

But with the huge turnout of women in New Hampshire, gender has already had a major impact on the race.

A new national opinion poll in the U.S. presidential race indicates Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton are each in the lead for their party's nomination.

Clinton, who has consistently led in national polls, was first among Democratic contenders with 42 percent support. Senator Barack Obama, who registered 21 percent in a similar poll in December, now has 33 percent support.

In South Carolina, where the next election contest takes place Saturday, Obama leads Clinton 39 percent to 24 percent. Former Senator John Edwards, who is solidly in third place in national polls, has 19 percent support in the state.

Republican candidates hold a televised debate Thursday in Florida, where polls indicate Senator McCain and former Governor Mitt Romney are locked in a tight contest for first place. Polls show former Governor Mike Huckabee, who has reported he is low on campaign funds, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has staked much of his campaign on winning the Florida primary, are vying for third place.

In the Democratic contest, news coverage in recent days has focused on the role race and gender are playing in the rivalry between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Barack Obama's lead in South Carolina has been attributed to strong support from black voters. National polls indicate Hillary Clinton is favored by female voters.

Senator John McCain claimed victory Saturday in the key Republican primary in South Carolina, while Hillary Clinton won a Democratic caucus in Nevada.

Hillary Clinton's campaign added the caucus victory in Nevada to earlier wins in New Hampshire and Michigan. The outcome follows a hard-fought battle between her and Senator Barack Obama, in which each received the support of important trade unions in the state.

Clinton campaign communications director Howard Wolfson told CBS Face the Nation that Nevada voters were drawn to the senator's economic proposals.

"Hillary Clinton won overwhelmingly and the reason is because she has a plan to inject stimulus and turn the economy around," said Wolfson.

Obama campaign officials also tried to claim a victory in Nevada, saying that while more Clinton voters turned out, Obama actually won more delegates than needed to receive the Democratic party's nomination.

Speaking on Face the Nation, an Obama strategist, David Axelrod, said the contest remains close.

"I think this race goes on, it is a dead-even race and it goes on to South Carolina," said Axelrod.

Experts say Obama needs to perform well in next Saturday's Democratic primary in South Carolina, which has a large African-American population.

On the Republican side, both John McCain and Mitt Romney claimed victories Saturday. McCain beat former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in the South Carolina primary, which is expected to signal key support for McCain in upcoming votes in other southern states. Romney won by a large margin in the party's caucus in Nevada, where he was the only candidate to campaign actively.

McCain told CNN that his victory on Saturday shows he appeals to a broad base of Republican voters.

"All over the state of South Carolina we received broad based, strong support from conservatives, moderates, liberals, all over the state," said John McCain. "We are very happy with the result."

Romney has sought to emphasize his business experience, saying it will help him find measures to overcome the nation's economic troubles. Speaking on Fox News Sunday, he said he appeals to voters seeking new ideas in Washington, while he says McCain has spent too much time in the nation's capital.

"If they want someone instead who has been in the real economy over the last 25, 30 years, who understands why jobs come and why they go, and what it takes to grow an economy, I think I will be that person," said Mitt Romney.

Candidates for both the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations agree that while the latest votes are important, there are still many states left to vote.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's victory in the Michigan primary on Tuesday has added another dose of uncertainty to a wide open race for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.

Romney told CBS television that voter concerns about the economy were the key to his victory in Michigan.

"You are seeing people across the country very concerned about the economy, very concerned about their job, about whether they are going to keep their health care or not," said Romney. "And they want somebody who understands how the economy works, who knows why jobs come, why they go."

Romney is the third Republican to win a primary or caucus contest in the state-by-state competition for delegates needed to win the party's presidential nomination in September at the national convention in Minnesota.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses on January 3, and last week Senator John McCain of Arizona won the New Hampshire primary.

McCain had hoped his New Hampshire victory would carry him to victory in Michigan, but now realizes it will be a drawn-out fight for the Republican nomination.

"For a minute there in New Hampshire, I thought this campaign might be getting easier," McCain said. "But you know what? We have gotten pretty good at doing things the hard way, too, and I think we have shown them we do not mind a fight."

The Republican battle now shifts to the South Carolina primary on Saturday, the first contest to be held in the South.

That should favor southerners Huckabee and former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who experts say needs a strong showing in South Carolina to remain in the race.

Huckabee is hoping for a strong turnout from conservative Christian voters in South Carolina, the same group that helped propel him to victory in Iowa.

But Huckabee acknowledged in an interview with MSNBC television that the Republican nomination battle is far from settled.

"It is very wide open and I think that makes it more exciting for you guys," said Huckabee. "I would frankly kind of like to see this get to the point where I just win. That would be great. But it is probably not going to happen all of a sudden."

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is hoping to make his mark on the Republican race in the Florida primary on January 29.

Rutgers University political analyst Ross Baker says Republicans are unaccustomed to such a wide open race for the party's presidential nomination.

"Republicans are extremely well-disciplined people and normally there is an acknowledged frontrunner who invariably comes out on top," said Baker. "Democrats are much more unpredictable. So, this is an unusual year for the Republicans and I think the party is experiencing some discomfort."

Meanwhile, the Democratic presidential contenders are focused on the Nevada party caucuses on Saturday.

During a debate in Las Vegas that was broadcast on MSNBC, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and former senator John Edwards stepped back from a divisive debate over race and tried to refocus the campaign on other issues.

Clinton said many of the voters she talks to are worried about the economy.

"An economy that I believe is slipping toward recession, with the results already being felt here in Nevada, with the highest home foreclosure rate in the entire country," said Clinton.

Washington - based political expert Stuart Rothenberg says the economy is a growing issue for voters in both parties.

"On the Democratic side, absolutely the economy, still the war in Iraq, and health care," said Rothenberg. "And on the Republican side absolutely the economy, certainly the war against terror and the war in Iraq, but also immigration. The economy a year or two ago did not look it was going to be up there as a top tier issue, and right now it looks like it could be emerging as the number-one issue in both parties."

Clinton and Obama are locked in a tight race in Nevada and are looking for a win to build political momentum for the rest of the upcoming caucuses and primaries.

Obama won the Iowa caucuses, but Clinton rebounded last week with a victory in the New Hampshire primary.

After Nevada, the Democrats face a critical primary test in South Carolina on January 26, where nearly half the voters are African-American.

White House contenders from both parties are also gearing up for the biggest single day of primary and caucus votes on February 5, when 22 states hold contests.

The unpredictable nature of this year's U.S. presidential election campaign suggests it will be some time before the nomination battles in both parties are resolved.

The Democratic race between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama now moves West and South.

Nevada will host party caucuses on January 19 and South Carolina holds a primary on January 26.

After that comes so-called Super Tuesday on February 5, when more than 20 states hold primaries or caucuses.

Obama's early victory in the Iowa caucuses and Clinton's stunning comeback win in the New Hampshire primary suggest an unpredictable battle ahead for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

"Well, I think it is going to be a much longer race than anybody anticipated," said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Baker adds a Clinton defeat in New Hampshire would have been devastating for her campaign.

Baker adds that Clinton's last-minute reversal of what had been a big Obama lead in the polls had a lot to do with women voters rallying around her in the final hours of the campaign.

"I think the real miscalculation on the part of the pollsters in New Hampshire was not the support for Obama, but the support for Clinton, and particularly the support for Senator Clinton among women," he added.

If anything, the battle for the Republican Party's presidential nomination appears even more wide open.

Stuart Rothenberg publishes a political newsletter in Washington called the Rothenberg Political Report.

"Like the Democratic race, the Republican contest is a toss-up," he explained. "The big difference is the Republican field is much larger, which means it can fracture more ways than the Democratic contest."

Experts say an argument can be made for any one of five Republican contenders to eventually win the party's presidential nomination. They include Senator John McCain, who won the New Hampshire primary, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who placed first in the Iowa caucuses.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has a huge stake in Tuesday's primary in Michigan while former Senator Fred Thompson is banking on a good showing in the South Carolina Republican primary on January 19.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is focused on winning the January 29 primary in Florida and using that as a springboard to gain momentum.

As in the Democratic race, the Super Tuesday contests involving more than 20 states on February 5 will be crucial.

But some experts speculate that for the first time in decades, the Republican nomination battle might not be resolved until the national nominating convention in early September in Minneapolis.

"All the way to the convention? It is hard to imagine because somewhere along the line, even in the Republican race, someone is likely to build up some momentum," Stuart Rothenberg noted. "But is it possible? Yes, I think people are now saying it is at least theoretically possible where six months ago they were dismissing it out of hand."

Much of the conventional political wisdom last year said the earlier and more compressed primary schedule would make it likely that apparent nominees would emerge for both parties fairly early in the process.

Ross Baker says a lot of analysts are revising their election timetables this year.

"I think that informed opinion was generally arguing for a quick knock-out," he said. "That is not going to happen and my guess is that we are not really going to have a clear picture until after the 5th of February when 22 states vote."

The primary and caucus votes continue until early June. The Democrats hold their national nominating convention in late August in Denver.

The U.S. presidential election will be held November 4.

The first events of the U.S. presidential election season, the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, drew coverage from all the major news media, but many people followed the events on internet sites featuring ordinary citizens as journalists and commentators.

At this year's Iowa caucuses there were about 2,500 accredited news media representatives, most of whom work for major newspapers, magazines and television networks. But there were also many citizen journalists working for non-traditional outlets, including small publications, internet blogs and video web sites.

At the Des Moines Convention Center, Google Incorporated, operated a lounge for reporters featuring video streams from its YouTube web site projected on the walls. YouTube is encouraging average citizens to document the campaign and provide their own insights using small, affordable camcorders and computers.

Google Political Director Steve Grove says YouTube is a platform for ordinary citizens with their cameras to explore issues and express their ideas.

"The great thing about YouTube is that anyone can upload anything they want, with their viewpoint on the issues and you do not have that traditional filter of the media deciding what is right and what is wrong," he said. "It is the voters decision to say, 'Hey, here is what I think and here is the video that demonstrates that point of view and it is your choice whether to look at it or not.' "

One of the most prolific groups putting videos up on YouTube is called "Why Tuesday?"

WhyTuesday? Executive Director Jacob Soboroff argues that the U.S. political system in some ways discourages people from voting, noting that elections are traditionally held on Tuesday because that was convenient for farmers in the nation's early years. But he says it makes little sense in today's urban society.

"What we are saying is 'Let us take a good, hard, honest look at the state of the voting system, have an open and honest conversation about it.' We are not giving answers, we are just asking provocative questions about it," Soboroff said. "We think that by having an open conversation we can get to some good, non-partisan solutions to help increase voter participation in the United States."

Soboroff says Why Tuesday? also benefits from video submissions by ordinary citizens who record encounters with politicians at all levels.

"People are becoming journalists themselves and putting their elected officials on the spot about something that in the mainstream media you do not hear much about and that is what can we do to increase voter participation," he said.

Keeping a wary eye on all this is Drake University Political Science Professor Arthur Sanders, who sees promise in the technology.

"The web technology, the way it has evolved makes it easier for individuals or groups of people to have information sites and not just for politics, but for anything you can imagine," he said. "People with an interest in politics decide to report on politics. It is an empowering shift for citizens because they have a lot more control over it."

But Sanders also sees danger ahead as traditional mass media outlets lose readers and viewers to the often less reliable and fragmented new media sites.

"There is a risk, there is a danger that we become tribalized [fragmented into partisan interest groups]," he said. "The internet as a technology, this kind of diversified technology, runs the risk of dividing us up much more fully."

Sanders is also concerned that these grassroots blogs and video uploads tend to attract people who are intensely interested in only one or two issues and fail to provide a broad forum where all issues can be discussed.

"Newspaper readership and traditional television news viewing is down, some of these other forms are up, but they do not seem to be up enough to compensate for how much the other forms are down," he said. "One of the impacts of this technology is smaller numbers of people actually paying attention to politics. Now, those who do pay attention have more resources than they ever had before."

Sanders and other academic researchers who follow developments in politics and journalism will be studying further the impact of these new grassroots media as this election year unfolds.

After their dramatic comeback wins Tuesday night in the New Hampshire primaries, Democratic candidate Senator Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Senator John McCain tried to build on the momentum ahead of the next state nominating contests. Analysts say both the Democratic and Republican races are wide-open, and tried to explain how Senator Clinton managed to beat Senator Barack Obama, after opinion polls showed him with a strong lead.

A beaming Hillary Clinton appeared on the national television talks shows on the day after the primary, trying to explain how she defied the polls and political analysts to narrowly defeat the presumed front-runner in New Hampshire, Barack Obama. She returned to her home in New York state to get some rest before hitting the campaign trail again.

In an interview with the music television channel MTV, she pointed to her efforts to reach out to young people as one reason for her victory.

"I think it played a role," she said. "I think my support among young voters will grow. I think that it is really picking up a lot of energy and steam, and we're going to be doing more and more outreach."

First analyses show that women and registered Democrats came out in big numbers to vote for Clinton, who is vying to become America's first woman president. The man who is seeking to become the country's first African American president, Barack Obama, 46, has enjoyed wide support among voters under age 30. Several opinion polls and exit polls in New Hampshire, and even Senator Clinton's own internal poll, had shown Obama with about a 10 percentage point lead over Clinton just ahead of the voting.

Political analyst Larry Sabato explained that what he called "racial voting" may explain the surprise result.

"The key to racial voting is that a small percentage of whites tell pollsters that they are going to vote for the African American candidate, and then in the secrecy of the ballot booth they vote for a white candidate," he said. "This has happened many times in American history. We were fooled by Iowa, and we forgot that Iowa, which did vote for Barack Obama and is also an overwhelmingly white state, is a caucus state."

In the Iowa caucus, Democrats gather in groups and publicly declare their support for a candidate.

In the Republican race, a jubilant John McCain, 71, resurrected his campaign. The former prisoner of war in Vietnam did well among New Hampshire voters concerned about national security and terrorism. Rallying on Wednesday, McCain told supporters the U.S. will prevail in the war on terror.

"In this great historic task we will never surrender; they will," he said.

McCain defeated former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who vowed to fight on in the next primary next Tuesday in Michigan. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee came in a distant third.

The candidates are already preparing to take their campaigns south and west for caucuses in Nevada on January 19 and primaries in South Carolina later this month.

Voters in 24 states across the country will have their say on February 5, billed as Super Tuesday. The race after this Tuesday's voting is wide open.

Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Republican Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas were the big winners Thursday in the Iowa caucuses, the first major test of the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign.

Obama is seeking to become the first African-American president, and he got off to a fast start in Iowa, where a record number of Democrats turned out on a cold winter's night.

Obama defeated former North Carolina Senator John Edwards and the longtime Democratic frontrunner for president, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York.

Obama thanked his supporters in Iowa and said his victory represented a yearning for change.

"In lines that stretched around schools and churches, in small towns and big cities, you came together as Democrats, Republicans and independents to stand up and say, we are one nation, we are one people and our time for change has come!" said Barack Obama.

Senator Clinton finished a disappointing third in Iowa, narrowly trailing John Edwards, who finished second.

"The one thing that is clear from the results in Iowa tonight is that the status quo lost and change won," said John Edwards.

The Democratic results in Iowa set up a showdown next Tuesday between Obama and Clinton in New Hampshire, which holds the nation's first presidential primary.

Obama and Clinton have been running near the top of the polls in New Hampshire, with Edwards trailing.

Clinton told supporters she will continue to push as hard as she can in New Hampshire and in the rest of the upcoming primaries and caucuses.

"Today we are sending a clear message that we are going to have change and that change will be a Democratic president in the White House in 2009!" said Hillary Clinton.

In the battle for the Republican presidential nomination, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee easily defeated former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, capping a remarkable political journey in which Huckabee went from an obscure Republican contender several months ago to the winner of the Iowa caucus vote.

"A new day is needed in American politics, just like a new day is needed in American government," said Mike Huckabee. "And tonight, it starts here in Iowa, but it does not end here. It goes all the way through the other states and ends at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue one year from now."

Huckabee's victory in Iowa was a big disappointment to former Governor Romney, who spent more time and money in Iowa than the other Republican contenders.

But Romney vowed to fight on in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, comparing his quest to that of an Olympic athlete.

"You win the Silver [medal] in one event, it does not mean you are not going to come back and win the Gold in the final event, and that we are going to do," said Mitt Romney.

Trailing behind Huckabee and Romney in the Republican race were former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee, Senator John McCain of Arizona and Congressman Ron Paul of Texas.

McCain is hoping his Iowa showing will boost his chances in New Hampshire, where he has been gaining in the polls on Romney, who had been leading there for months.

McCain spoke to reporters in New Hampshire following Huckabee's victory in Iowa.

"I very confident that with a strong, positive finish here that we are going to win here in New Hampshire and go on to Michigan and South Carolina," said John McCain.

Iowa is only the beginning of the 2008 race for the White House. After New Hampshire on Tuesday, the campaign moves on to Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina and Florida.

The presidential primary season will reach a climax on February 5 when more than 20 states will hold primary or caucus votes.

Republican Party contenders for the U.S. presidency appealed for support Friday before a group of social conservative activists meeting in Washington.

Social conservatives represent an important voting bloc in the party. They make up about a third of voters who take part in the Republican nominating caucuses and primaries that begin in January.

With that in mind, the Republican presidential hopefuls made their case for support before a gathering sponsored by the Family Research Council, a conservative advocacy group based in Washington.

Among them was Senator John McCain of Arizona. McCain has clashed with religious conservatives in the past but now emphasizes areas of agreement, including his opposition to abortion. "I have been pro-life my entire public career. I believe I am the only major candidate in either party who can make that claim," he said.

Former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee also made a pitch for support, even as he acknowledged his differences with conservative activists in the past. "We have not always agreed on the precisely right approach to absolutely everything, but our goal has always been the same. And that is to leave this country better off than when we came into it, just like our ancestors have done generation after generation for us," he said.

The gathering provided an opportunity for some of the less well-known Republican contenders to make a direct appeal for conservative support.

As he does in his campaign appearances around the country, Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo highlighted his opposition to illegal immigration. "When conservatives run on principles, we win. When we run away from principles, we lose," he said.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee will also address the gathering.

Giuliani leads in national public opinion polls among Republican voters, even though he supports abortion rights.

Some social conservatives are threatening to run a third party candidate in next year's election if Giuliani becomes the Republican nominee. So far, Giuliani's rivals have not been able to rally broad support from religious conservatives to the disappointment of many Republicans.

"And they are depressed that none of the four principle Republican candidates is really energizing the base, is really turning them on," said Stephen Wayne, a professor of government at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas had hoped his popularity with social conservatives would carry him to the Republican Party's presidential nomination next year. But Brownback has decided to abandon his White House bid after several months of disappointing showings both in the polls and in fundraising.

Republican presidential contenders appealed for support Friday from an influential conservative group in Washington, the National Rifle Association. Some uninvited protesters made sure the candidates would not forget about the war in Iraq.

The National Rifle Association is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington, boasting an active membership of more than four million members who are not shy about urging Congress to defend the rights of gun owners.

Gun enthusiasts and hunters tend to vote Republican, and with than in mind, several Republican presidential hopefuls made their way to an NRA conference in Washington to make a pitch for support.

"So, it is not just a matter of promises made, as far as I am concerned, it is a matter of commitments that have been kept," said former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee.

Thompson said he has a strong record of defending the right to bear arms, a contrast with some of the other Republican contenders who have had their differences with the gun lobby over the years.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has angered gun owners in the past with his support of some gun control measures. But Giuliani based his pitch for support on polls that show he would run a strong race against Senator Hillary Clinton if she is the Democratic Party's presidential nominee next year.

"You have to look at the overall candidate and then, I think, depending on the views that you have, you have to figure out who is electable, who can win," he said. "Because if we make a mistake about that, this country is going to go very much in the direction that I think you and I disagree with."

Democrats have made little headway in recent years in winning over gun rights supporters at election time.

The only Democratic presidential contender who addressed the NRA conference was New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who appeared in a videotaped message.

"I have a long record as a congressman and governor as a defender of the rights of citizens to own guns," he said. "You may have heard that I not only supported New Mexico's concealed [weapons] carry law, I have a permit myself."

At one point, anti-war protesters made their presence known when they interrupted remarks on Iraq by another Republican presidential hopeful, Senator John McCain of Arizona.

"We cannot choose to lose in Iraq, and I will not choose to lose," McCain said.

"We want the troops home and no war with Iran," said the protesters.

"We will not choose to lose. We will not choose to lose this conflict," he responded.

McCain is the most vocal Republican candidate in support of President Bush's military surge strategy in Iraq and he opposes Democratic attempts to set a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

McCain also has a history of conflict with the NRA gun lobby. Gun advocates say his sponsorship of a campaign finance reform law has unfairly limited the amount of money they can donate to politicians who support their cause.

A new poll in California shows Giuliani leading the Republican race in that state with 22 percent support, with Thompson, McCain and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney virtually tied for second place at about 16 percent each. The California poll generally reflects the trend seen in national surveys.

Opinion polls in the United States show the public's approval of President Bush's performance is approaching a historic low for any modern president. The polls also show a decline in the public's embrace of the conservative social and economic values that have been the hallmark of Mr. Bush's Republican Party politics. The trends have political analysts in Washington and elsewhere wondering whether America is making a political left turn.

When Karl Rove announced he would leave at the end of this month, the powerful White House aide faced blistering criticism.

Many U.S. news reports portrayed his departure as confirmation of the president's lame duck status. "So, I think my friend, I will be on the road behind you here in a little bit," said the president to his long-time advisor at the White House announcement.

Rove hoped President Bush would usher in a permanent Republican majority. Instead, about than one in three Americans now approve of the job Mr. Bush is doing.

Political analyst Stephen Hess says, "Yes, America is turning to the left [going more liberal] modestly at this moment."

Democrats took over Congress in January after sweeping into power in elections last November.

Yet conservative leader Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform says evidence of a leftward tilt in America is far from conclusive. "Had the Democrats won the House and the Senate by campaigning for big government, high taxes and new social programs then you would say, 'Oh my goodness, the country is moving to the left.' That is exactly what did not happen."

Indeed, some analysts, such as Stephen Hess, say the public's weariness with the Iraq war wears down support for the entire Bush agenda. "The Iraq war so permeates our society at this moment in political terms that it pulls everything else along with it."

Yet on a range of issues, such as health care, public opinion is on the move. A recent CBS-New York Times poll found nine out of 10 people want either major repairs to the health care system or a complete overhaul.

Social conservatism -- a centerpiece of the Bush political base -- is seen to be fading. The Pew Research Center has been studying values for 20 years. It found a decline in the intensity of religious beliefs and more acceptances of homosexuals.

On poverty, Pew found in the past 12 years, there has been a double-digit increase in the percentage of Americans who say government should care for those who cannot take care of themselves, even if that means incurring more debt.

And Pew found about half of Americans now see an economic system sharply divided between the haves and the have nots.

Andy Stern is president of the Service Employees International Union. He says, "People are up to their ears in debt. We have had five years -- according to the Census Bureau -- where American workers have not gotten a raise. People have less stock, less ownership in their homes because of all the home equity loans. Less personal savings than at any time in recent history. I think it is all a reaction to failure."

By a margin of more than 10 percent, people tell pollsters they want a Democrat in the White House.

By nearly as much, they say they will vote to put Democrats in Congress. Critics of polls say such findings often are meaningless until voters must choose between specific candidates.

Even if Democrats win more seats in Congress and capture the White House, Hess says fundamental change comes slowly. "Swings between Republican administration and the next Democratic administration -- assuming that I am right that there is one -- may not be as severe as many people think."

In 15 months, the American electorate might reject Republican rule entirely. But analysts liken an electoral swing to the left to a political pendulum that is continually on the move.

American presidential candidates are aggressively seeking support from Hispanics as the race for the 2008 presidential election heats up. Latinos have become an important voting bloc in key states -- such as California, Florida, Texas and New York. And, as Steve Mort reports from Orlando, Florida, the issue of immigration reform has galvanized Latino voters.

Candidates vying to become the next president of the United States are courting Hispanic voters at events such as one in Orlando, Florida.

The candidates, such as Democratic Senator Barack Obama, are trying to win support from Latinos by touting their credentials on issues like immigration.

"Nobody has been a more consistent supporter of comprehensive immigration reform than I have been".

Polls show immigration reform is the biggest issue for U.S. Hispanics, especially now that Congress failed to pass a bill to improve border security and legalize millions of undocumented workers, mainly from Latin America.

The most recent U.S. government data estimates there are more than 40 million Hispanics in the United States -- accounting for more than 12 percent of the total U.S. population.

Former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros was the first Hispanic leader of a major American city. He says Latino communities are growing fastest in places where presidential candidates most need support in order to win. "When you look at the most populous states in America -- California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois -- they also happen to be the states that have the largest Latino populations in America. Add to that some of the fastest-growing states like Arizona, Colorado, Nevada -- Latinos are going to be a factor".

President Bush's efforts to grab Latino support raised his share of the Hispanic vote from 35 percent in 2000 to 44 percent in 2004.

So 2008 presidential candidates, like Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton, have sought backing from high-profile Hispanics.

U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, who supports Clinton, says issues like immigration have motivated Hispanics to turn out to at the polls, making them a crucial voting block. "We've seen a continuous rise in the turnout of Latino voters in the year 2004 in the presidential election, last year in the midterm elections when the rest of the population dipped in turnout, our population rose in terms of turnout, and the projections for 2008 continue to rise."

The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials confirms this. At its recent conference in Orlando, it stressed that last November's U.S. midterm elections saw the highest Latino turnout on record -- nine million voters, compared to six million in 2002. Most of those votes went to Democratic Party candidates.

But Houston-based political researcher David Hill says neither party can count on unwavering support from Latinos."It's very much an independent vote that's up for grabs, and maybe that's the stimulus for more politicians looking at it to find some opportunity. But it's the kind of thing, I think, that makes some politicians pause because they haven't quite got a fix yet on 'who are Hispanics politically and which direction are they headed'?"

He says his research shows Latinos are interested in a range of issues, including education, health care, the economy and U.S. relations with Latin American countries like Mexico and Cuba.

And he agrees that Hispanics can have a decisive impact on the result of next year's Presidential election -- if they turn out to vote in large numbers.

NOTE: National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) was founded in 1976[1] by Edward R. Roybal as a non-profit organization, and created an educational fund that aims to empower Latinos to participate fully in the American political process, from citizenship to public service. Its founding executive director was Arturo Vargas. On July 1, 2007 Adolfo Carrión Jr. was appointed the new president of NALEO.

It carries out this mission by developing and implementing programs that promote the integration of Latino immigrants into American society, developing future leaders among Latino youth, providing assistance and training to the nation's Latino elected and appointed officials and by conducting research on issues important to the Latino population.

Public opinion polls show the two leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination are a woman -- Senator Hillary Clinton -- and an African-American -- Senator Barack Obama. Observers say the Hispanic governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, also could be a strong contender.

Twenty years ago, Ellen Malcolm started a political network in Washington called EMILY's List to raise money for Democratic Party women candidates. At that time, she says no one took women seriously in politics.

"Before we had a lot of women in office, I think voters didn't know what to make of a woman candidate,” says Ms. Malcolm. “They were sort of stymied; they had no reference points. What would a woman running for the Senate be like, or sound like or look like? And when they weren't used to it, they would kind of fall back on a lot of gender stereotypes."

Since then, Malcolm says voters have become much more comfortable with the idea of electing women to political office. EMILY's List is for the first time endorsing a woman -- Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton -- for president.

"I think voters now are used to seeing women run and women win and do good job in office. And I hope that new confidence in women in politics is going to make Hillary Clinton the first woman president," Malcolm says.

Public opinion polls show that Clinton is the Democratic frontrunner for president.

"I'm in, I'm in to win, and that's what I intend to do," the senator said to a gathering recently.

Viable candidates for president also include an African-American---Senator Barack Obama. He announced, "I'll be filing papers today to create a presidential exploratory committee."

And a Hispanic -- New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. "Our reputation in the world is diminished, our economy has languished, and civility and common decency in government have perished," said the governor in a prepared video.

All three of these political leaders are legitimate candidates for president.

Scott Keeter directs surveys for the Pew Research Center in Washington. "It's really a reflection of the growing diversity of the society,” says Keeter. “With the tremendous amount of immigration that's occurred in the last few decades in the United States and the growing diversity of our population, especially the younger population, people are much more comfortable with others who are not like them. And that has extended to politics as well."

Keeter says many Americans are now able to look beyond the gender or race of political candidates when evaluating their skills and leadership potential.

By the same token, observers say presidential candidates will be unable to win a general election by targeting minority voters alone.

Take the Hispanic population -- the fastest growing minority group in the United States. Stephen Hess, an elections expert at the Brookings Institution research group in Washington, says this trend does not necessarily benefit Richardson's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"As opposed to some other communities, which are much more set in their ways politically, such as the African-American community, which overwhelmingly identifies with the Democratic Party, the Hispanic community is very much up for grabs."

Similarly, Hess says there is no indication that Obama would win the African-American vote against Clinton. Opinion polls show she is popular among black communities.

"Barack Obama did not come up through the ranks as an African-American leader, as Jesse Jackson had, or another politician, Al Sharpton, where there are very strong feelings because basically they've made their mark as a leader of their own community, trying to make demands on the rest of society as a minority group,” Hess told us. “That hasn't been his route at all."

Hess says Obama has risen just as any other politician would, by representing the people of his state regardless of whether they are black or white.

Forty years ago, the idea of a female President of the United States was the premise of a frothy Hollywood comedy. In 2005, American television audiences were riveted by "Commander in Chief," a serious weekly drama about the first woman President. Now, with New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton's announcement that she plans to seek the nation's highest political office, the notion of a woman in the White House is no longer fiction, but a strong possibility.

For more than two centuries, Americans have elected only white males to the White House. But activists for women's equality believe the political tide in the United States is turning. Last November's national elections helped California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi become the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives, a post only twice-removed from the presidency. The fall balloting brought many other women into top political jobs. Women now hold 9 governorships, 71 House seats, and a record 16 out of 100 seats in the U.S. Senate.

Melody Drnach, a Vice President of the National Organization for Women, believes the stage is set for a woman to attain the highest office in the land. "I would like to think that we are moving in that direction," she says. "And with a lot of hard work in the next couple of years, I think that this country is prepared to elect a woman as president of the United States."

Drnach says voters have taken note of the highly visible leadership role being played by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It's the kind of role many voters believe is long overdue for American women, according to Stephen Hess. A senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Hess, too, believes that America is ready for a woman president.

"To begin with," he explains, "women are the majority of the voters in the U.S. Fifty-two percent of the voters are women. The public opinion polls seem to show that women are particularly interested and anxious to see a woman president. So, in some ways it may be not a disadvantage, but an advantage to be a woman running for president on a major party ticket in our next presidential elections." He concludes that the time has come for women in America to "climb the ladder" to the presidency after a long history of fighting for their rights.

But not everyone is convinced the time is right. Morgan Felchner, editor of the magazine Campaign & Elections, doubts that a majority of Americans would vote for a woman president.

"Americans, in theory, are ready for a female president," Felchner observes. "But when you actually look at the poll numbers, it becomes a little bit more troublesome for a female candidate." She adds that if you ask somebody whether they would vote for a woman candidate, they say yes, but if you ask somebody whether their neighbor would vote for a woman candidate, they more often say no. Felchner says that neighbor poll tends to hover around 50 percent. "So that seems to be a more real number," she concludes, "that about 50 percent of Americans are really ready for a female president."

Political scientists and historians argue endlessly about why there have not been more females in American elective office, and why, until now, there have been no viable, major-party female presidential candidates. But Brooking's Stephen Hess believes the idea of a female president is simply one that has had to evolve, as American society has evolved. "Politics in public life is like anything else," he observes. "You do not start at the top. It is a ladder which you climb up." He points out that women were not even allowed to vote until the time of World War I, so the nation would not have had a woman president before that. "So, in 220 years of the United States, half of that time, women were not national voters!"

Hess adds that for many years, American women were predominatly homemakers, and were less likely than they are today to be in the job market. "So they were not in the sort of lineup from which we choose presidents," Hess notes. But that lineup today includes a growing roster of well-known female lawmakers, governors, and other experienced political operators. It also now includes one announced candidate - Senator Hillary Clinton - who already has personal experience in the White House as First Lady.

Melody Drnach of the National Organization for Women says the Clinton element is likely to have a dramatic impact on the way Americans choose their next president. "Senator Clinton has a proven leadership [ability]," Drnach says. "She has got a track record of success and support, she has been a staunch supporter of women's rights and will continue to do so. She is very talented, very committed and she is a very good Senator. And we have great hope that, if she wins the [Democratic] party's nomination, she will be a very strong president."

According to a new Newsweek poll of registered voters in the United States, 86 percent say they would vote for a qualified woman candidate for president if their party nominated one. But when they were asked whether America is ready to elect a woman president, only 55 percent say yes. Still, that's up 7 percentage points from a 1999 poll. Curiously, the Newsweek poll found that men are more likely than women to say the country is ready for a woman president. Those attitudes may well shift between now and the 2008 Presidential election, still almost two years down the road.

News of the American central bank’s interest rate cut this week was the top story in financial markets around the world. In a surprise announcement Tuesday, the Federal Reserve lowered the federal funds rate to three and one-half percent. This is the rate that banks charge each other to borrow money overnight.

The announcement came one day after foreign stock markets suffered heavy losses. Losses between three and seven percent were reported in Japan, China, India, South Korea and across Europe.

Financial markets dropped as concern grew that an American recession could hurt the economies in countries that trade with the United States. Many markets suffered losses again Tuesday before the Fed lowered the interest rate.

Several foreign markets regained some of their losses in the days following the American interest rate cut. Stock prices rose almost eleven percent in Hong Kong on Wednesday. The main index in Mumbai, India increased more than seven percent. European and Asian markets also closed higher on Friday. Tokyo's Nikkei Index gained more than four percent. Share prices were also higher in Shanghai, Manila, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

Lower interest rates make it easier for businesses and people to borrow money for purchases and other activities that help the economy.

Financial experts expect the Federal Reserve will cut the interest rate another quarter of a percentage point at its official meeting next week. That would bring the federal funds rate to three and one-quarter percent.

As concerns of a possible recession in the United States grow, the Bush administration and congressional leaders agreed on an economic growth plan.

In Davos, Switzerland, political, economic and government leaders are attending the yearly meeting of the World Economic Forum. More than two thousand economic policy-makers are discussing the world's economic and social problems.

Opinion has been mixed on the future of the financial situation in the United States and how it will affect the rest of the world. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Forum the American economy has a strong structure and would remain an engine of growth.

But others are not so sure. Joseph Stiglitz is an economics professor at Columbia University in New York City and a winner of the Nobel Prize in economics. He said the current market trouble is far from over.

Bill Gates, the head of Microsoft, also spoke at the World Economic Forum. He said capitalism as an economic system may need some changes. Mister Gates proposed an idea he calls creative capitalism. He called on companies to think more about how their products can help society. Mister Gates said he believes capitalism should help the poor as well as the rich.

The New England Patriots and the New York Giants face each other Sunday in the forty-second yearly American football championship called the Super Bowl. The Patriots are expected to win. If they do, they will set a new record. They will have won more games during the season than any other team in history. The Patriots will not be the first undefeated team, but they will have won the most games. The Super Bowl will be an exciting game. And the stadium where it will be played has the most modern technology in the world. Barbara Klein has more.

The University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona is home to the Arizona Cardinals football team. It also holds a yearly college level championship game. But, this will be the first Super Bowl held there.

Workers began building the stadium in two thousand three. It was completed about three years and four hundred fifty-five million dollars later. Unlike most stadiums, it has a roof that fully opens. It is made of two parts that slide in and out.

This is important because Glendale is near the city of Phoenix, Arizona. This area is called the Valley of the Sun. It sometimes is a very hot place. The average high temperature in the summer is above thirty-seven degrees Celsius. So the roof of the stadium can be closed to permit air conditioning machines to be used. But the roof can be opened during the cooler months for sporting and other events, like big rock concerts and trade shows.

The stadium has an unusual feature that no other stadium has. The natural grass playing field rolls in and out of the structure as needed. The grass grows on an object like a giant tray. Most of the time the grass is moved outside to get sunshine and rain. Workers roll it back inside for football games. Officials say this makes the center more usable for non-sporting events.

Architect Peter Eisenman designed the huge stadium. Its shape represents the barrel cactus, a common plant in the area. The huge metal pieces that form its walls shine brightly in the desert sun.

Aerosmith is one of the best selling hard rock bands of all time. The five musicians have been performing and making records for over thirty-five years. Their intense and energetic music helped define rock and roll.

The members of Aerosmith are singer Steven Tyler, guitar players Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, bass player Tom Hamilton, and Joey Kramer on drums. The group formed in nineteen seventy in Boston, Massachusetts. In the notes of their first album “Aerosmith”, the group described themselves as “third-generation rockers with a desire to create something new.” Here is their hit song “Dream On” from that album.

Everytime that I look in the mirror
All these lines on my face gettin clearer
The past is gone
It went by like dust to dawn
Isnt that the way
Everybodys got their dues in life to pay

I know what nobody knows
Where it comes and where it goes
I know its everybodys sin
You got to lose to know how to win

Half my life is in books written pages
Live and learn from fools and from sages
You know its true
All the things come back to you

Sing with me, sing for the years
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tears
Sing with me, if its just for today
Maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away
(x2)

Dream on, dream on
Dream yourself a dream come true
Dream on, dream on
Dream until your dream come true
Dream on, dream on, dream on...

Sing with me, sing for the years
Sing for the laughter and sing for the tears
Sing with me, if its just for today
Maybe tomorrow the good lord will take you away

During the nineteen seventies, the band made many popular albums, including “Your Wings” and “Toys in the Attic.” But their success came at a price. Some members of the band became dependent on illegal drugs. Two members of the band left and were replaced by other musicians.

The original members of Aerosmith came together again in the nineteen eighties. Here is the song “Janie’s Got a Gun” from the album “Pump.”

Dum, dum, dum, honey what have you done
Dum, dum, dum, its the sound of my gun
Dum, dum, dum, honey what have you done
Dum, dum, dum, its the sound, its the sound...
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah....

Janies got a gun
Janies got a gun
Her whole worlds come undone
From lookin straight at the sun
What did her daddy do
What did he put you through

They say when janie was arrested
They found him underneath a train
But man, he had it comin
Now that janies got a gun
She aint never gonna be the same

Janies got a gun
Janies got a gun
Her dog days just begun
Now everybody is on the run
Tell me now its untrue
What did her daddy do

He jacked the little bitty baby
The man has got to be insane
They say the spell that he was under
The lightnin and the thunder
Knew that someone had to stop the rain

Run away, run away from the pain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Run away, run away from the pain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away

Janies got a gun
Janies got a gun
Her dog days just begun
Now everybody is on the run
What did her daddy do
Its janies las i.o.u.

She had to take him down easy
And put a bullet in his brain
She said cause nobody believes me
The man was such a sleeze
He aint never gonna be the same

Run away, run away from the pain
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away

Janies got a gun
Janies got a gun
Janies got a gun
Everybody is on the run

Janies got a gun
Her dog days just begun
Now everybodys on the run (honey, honey whats your problem)
cause janies got a gun (tell me it aint right)
Janies got a gun (was it daddys cradle robbin)
Her dog days just begun (that made you scream at night)
Janies got a gun
Her dog days just begun
Now everybodys on the run
Janies got a gun

More recently, Aerosmith released “Honkin’ on Bobo” and “Devil’s Got a New Disguise.” They began recording a new album in November. Here is the song “Angel’s Eye”. Aerosmith recorded the song for the movie “Charlie’s Angels.”

What ya gonna do when the angel's come
Ya move on; can't move them
I'm gonna get your kicks from the 911
It's moving; so soothing

Your passions deplete, it's just looking to feed
Your own fantasy
The blind side of you is a bad dream come true
That you can't see

[CHORUS]
From an Angel's Eye
Kiss Your Life Goodbye
From An Angel's Eye
Ain't no place to hide

Tell me what you see through an Angel's Eye
The halo; on fire
You never really know till it's do or die
Your devil's desire

Your running in place like a rat in a race
Going no where
The evil you speaks from the tongue of the freaks
So don't go there

[CHORUS]
[GUITAR SOLO]

What ya gonna do when the angel's come
What ya gonna do when you come undone
I'm gonna get your kicks from the 911
Ya so bad; can't hold them

From an Angel's Eye
Kiss your life goodbye
From an angel angel angel's eye
Ain't no place to hide

Fallen Angel
Fallen Angel
Fallen Angeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel.

The Sundance Film Festival takes place each January in and around Park City, Utah. It is America's top event for filmmakers working without the support of major film studios.

The Sundance Film Festival is a big event for independent filmmakers, film companies and people who love movies. Tens of thousands of people attend the film festival each year. They gather in the cold, snowy mountain town of Park City, along with famous movie stars and many reporters. More than one hundred twenty new films were chosen to be shown during the ten-day event. Many filmmakers show their movies for the first time, hoping that film companies will buy them.

"Up the Yangtze" by Chinese director Yung Chang was one of the movies purchased at Sundance. It examines the effect of China's Three Gorges Dam on the place where the director's grandfather grew up.

Thirty-two American films competed for prizes at Sundance. A five-member group of actors and directors chose the winners. Two films about people dealing with personal tragedy won the top prizes. The film "Frozen River" won the Grand Jury Prize for best American film drama. Courtney Hunt wrote and directed the film. It is about two poor women trying to bring Chinese immigrants illegally into the United States from Canada.

"Trouble the Water" was named the best American documentary, or true story. A woman and her husband show how they survived Hurricane Katrina and the deadly floodwaters in New Orleans, Louisiana. Tia Lessin and Carl Deal directed the movie. People who attend Sundance can vote for their favorite films. The winners receive the Audience Awards.

Sundance is also an important event for international filmmakers. Thirty-two films from twenty-five countries competed at the festival. The World Cinema Audience Award for drama went to "Captain Abu Raed," a film from Jordan directed by Amin Matalqa. A man whose real job is to clean the airport tells children magical stories about his make-believe life as a pilot.

Another foreign film shown at Sundance was "Dinner With the President: A Nation's Journey," directed by Sabiha Sumar. Her film explores the chances for democracy in Pakistan.

Last week, France's second largest bank, Societe Generale, announced that a single, middle-level trader had caused the bank to lose over seven billion dollars. It was the largest trading loss by an individual in banking history.

Jerome Kerviel reportedly made trades in European stock index derivatives. These complex investments are bets that stock indexes will rise or fall. Mister Kerviel's job was to place bets that indexes would both rise and fall. Doing this limits the risk of losing a lot. But it also limits gains. Mister Kerviel worked in a part of the bank that was supposed to take on little risk. The bank said Mister Kerviel took measures to avoid its risk controls.

Reports say Mister Kerviel found a way to hide the fact that he bet only on stock prices rising. He also hid the huge amounts of his bets from bank supervisors. When stock prices dropped, his financial positions, worth an estimated seventy-three billion dollars, had to be closed at a huge loss.

French government lawyers brought charges against the thirty-one-year-old trader on Monday. Mister Kerviel was charged with breach of trust and illegal computer activity. However, he was not charged with financial wrongdoing or false signing of documents. Mister Kerviel has denied that he tried to profit from his activities. His lawyer says he is being unfairly charged.

The bank said it only discovered Mister Kerviel's activities on January twentieth. But a government lawyer said exchange officials had warned the bank about the trader's deals late last year. The lawyer said Mister Kerviel told him he had started his activities at the end of two thousand five.

Many in the French government are pressuring the bank's chairman and chief executive Daniel Bouton to resign. Mister Bouton has offered to resign twice but both times the bank's board did not accept his resignation.

Some experts believe efforts by Societe Generale to close out Mister Kerviel's financial positions played a part in driving down European stock prices early last week.

In the United States, the Federal Reserve cut the federal funds rate for the second time in eight days. On Wednesday, the central bank cut the important interest rate by half a percentage point to three percent. The Fed said it is now more concerned about the slowing economy than about inflation.