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Mitch Teich of member station KNAU reports on the unusual weather conditions in parts of the Western U.S. that are posing a danger to parks like Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. Wildfires have broken out during a lapse in the normal wet season, and park employees face several challenges in stopping the blazes.

NPR's Jack Speer reports on the aging Woodrow Wilson Bridge in Washington, D.C. It's just one of the thousands of bridges considered obsolete in the U.S. The Federal Highway Administration is citing structural problems and the strain of increased use as its reasons for replacing the Wilson Bridge and others like it on schedule.

NPR's Andy Bowers looks at how some Internet companies will be covering this year's political conventions. In 1996 some dot coms covered the conventions but had to watch as their broadcast and print counterparts were given preferential treatment. This year, not only have many internet companies been given equal access, but both the Republicans and Democrats are broadcasting their own coverage over their web sites.

Commentator Marit Haahr is a little unnerved by the growth of dot-com companies that provide service to your doorstep, like Kozmo.com. She says it's spontaneous human contact, as in video stores, that keeps us all from becoming shut-ins.

Scott speaks with Brazilian author Paulo Coehlo, author of the bestseller, The Alchemist, about his new book, Veronika Decides to Die.

At the G-8 Summit in Okinawa today, leaders of the richest industrialized nations pledged to close the "digital divide" - the gap in access to technology between developed and developing countries. Demonstrators criticized the assembly for not acting more aggresively to provide debt relief for poor nations. President Clinton also spoke to U-S Marines stationed on the island. From Okinawa, NPR's Eric Weiner speaks with host David Wright about the President's message and what the G-8 meeting has accomplished.

Palestinian human rights groups are calling for an international boycott of Burger King. They're angry that the company has maintained a franchise in a West Bank Jewish settlement -- one Burger King officials promised last year they would close. Protesters charge by maintaining the restaurant in an area populated by Israeli Jews, the company is tacitly endorsing Israeli claims to the land. NPR's Linda Gradstein reports.

Dan Tritle from Member Station WNAN on Nantucket reports that tomorrow morning, a Boston woman and a blind Australian man hope to become the first to swim from Martha's Vineyard to Nantucket. The islands are off the Massachusetts coast, in often turbulent Atlantic waters.

Massachussetts has long been one of the most generous states for students with special needs. A 26-year old law has required school districts to give students the "maximum feasible benefits" to keep them on track in public schools. But lawmakers have recently limited those services, and that has parents of special needs kids worried. From Member Station WBUR, Toni Randolph reports.

Today in Harrison, New Jersey, producers of the HBO television series The Sopranos held a casting call for anyone and everyone interested in being an extra on the hit show. Ill-equiped to handle the thousands of hopefuls that showed up, HBO called off the search before many people had a chance to be seen. Host David Wright talks to a few of the disgruntled Sopranos fans.