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Linda and Noah read from listeners' letters. To send letters please write to LETTERS-ATC, 635 Masschusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20001, or by E-Mail to ATC@NPR.ORG.

Linda talks with Tom Boatner (BOHT-nur), a firejumper from the Bureau of Land Management based in Fairbanks, Alaska. Right now he's in Houston (HYOO-stun), Alaska. As many as 100 homes and an estimated 7,000 acres have burned in this fire which is believed to have started on Sunday. More than 300 firefighters, supported by firefighting aircraft, are now working to contain the blaze which is being fueled by forty mile-per-hour winds.

The House voted today to increase the minimum wage by ninety cents. The vote was a victory for Democrats who gained the support of moderate Republicans for the proposal. The same coalition voted down a Republican amendment that would have exempted businesses earning more than half a million dollars a year -- and would have included most of the fast food restaurants and retail stores that pay the minimum wage. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

Who decides what's conservative and what's not? Commentator Mickey Edwards says this year it's the real conservatives who will make the decisions for the party .... instead of those intolerant self-proclaimed conservatives who've been speaking for the rest of the party.

Tatiana Schreiber (tah-CHAH-na SHRY-bur) reports on the only accredited college in the U.S. exclusively serving students with learning disabilities. She attends a recent graduation ceremony to talk with students and teachers.

The government's worst-kept secret is being released today. The Medicare Plan A trust fund -- which is used to pay hospital and home health bills for more than thirty-seven million elederly and disabled people -- will go broke in 2001 instead of 2002, unless something is done to fix it. NPR's Joanne Silberner looks at the Medicare Trustees report and what it means for the future of the program. Most economic analysts find very little difference in the Republican or Democratic proposals to make it solvent.

Burma about the recent military crack down on the pro-democracy movement there.

NPR's Mara Liasson reports that President Clinton's proposal today of a fifteen-hundred dollar tax credit for students who attend two years of college. There's an argument among politicans and others over whether a tax cut should be targeted to a narrow group of taxpayers, like this one proposed by Clinton, or be aimed at a more general group of people, affecting a much wider population.

of how it acquiesced to the Croatian government's plans to smuggle Iranian arms to Bosnia two years ago. Appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said the Administration took the best available option in its response to Croatia, and that it in no way constituted a covert action.

California Governor Pete Wilson is releasing his proposal for the state's budget for the next fiscal year. Wilson says a healthy economy has yielded a two billion dollar surplus, much of which he wants to devote to education. Wilson's effort may be designed as much to help the state's ailing education system as to improve the political climate in a crucial state for fellow Republican Bob Dole. Wilson also wants to introduce a fifteen percent across-the-board tax cut. NPR's Virginia Bigar [BIG-ur] reports.