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NPR's John Burnett reports from Big Bend National Park in Texas, where the drifting smoke from coal-burning power plants hundreds of miles away in Mexico has made the park one of the most polluted in the country.

Fishing conjures up images of rushing blue water and crystal clear streams. While the East River in Harlem hardly compares to the traditional setting, some hardcore fishing buffs -- New Yorkers, no doubt -- still get the best of what the old-time sports has to offer. Annie Cheney reports from New York.

Essayist Christopher Wynn contemplates a world in which anti-bacterial products become dangerous to one's health.

Puzzle master Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home. (This week's winner is John Slater from Wheaton, Illinois. He listens to Weekend Edition on member stations WBEZ, Chicago, and WNIJ in DeKalb.)

Liane talks with NPR's Anthony Brooks, who is travelling with Democratic Presidential hopeful Al Gore. The Vice President is gearing up for the Democratic Party convention, which begins next week in Los Angeles.

Reporter Alex Van Oss went in search of the perfect cup of coffee. He found it, not at some sterile, suburban Starbucks outlet in this country, but in the venerable, old world city of Budapest, Hungary. He brings us along for a most refreshing cup.

Jacki speaks with NPR's Washington Editor Ron Elving about what presidential candidate Al Gore will need to do to overcome his opponent's double-digit lead in the polls. On Tuesday Gore is scheduled to announce his choice for running mate.

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

From member station WXXI in Rochester, New York Brenda Tremblay reports on a new biography about Martha Matilda Harper, one of the most successful and innovative female entrepreneurs of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She is credited with inventing the concept of the Franchise. (3:09) Martha Matilda Harper and the American Dream : How One Woman Changed the Face of Modern Business (Writing American Women by Jane R. Plitt is published by Syracuse Univ Pr (Trade); ISBN: 08156

Commentator Shelley Fraser Mickle tells a tale about a horse's tail.