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Commentator Jeffrey Tayler visited a friend in Russia, and agreed to get a lock on her door fixed while she was away. He took the lock to a local shop, but was laughed out of the store. Men in small Russian towns fix their own locks. They don't have a repairman do it for them.

In the beachside condominiums of Florida's politically fertile 22nd district, state Representative Elaine Bloom is giving longtime House GOP incumbent E. Clay Shaw a run for his money. They've both raised more than $2 million and the race has taken on a decidedly negative tone.

Playwright Arthur Miller talks about his book Echoes Down the Corridor, a collection of his essays ranging from autobiography to commentary. The book spans nearly six decades of writing.

In a video posted to Instagram Monday, Dave Chappelle says he's willing to meet with Netflix employees who are upset over his comedy special, which has come under fire for transphobic material.

NPR's Mike Shuster in Jerusalem reports the outburst of violence in the West Bank and Gaza over the past few weeks has shocked many people. It came just two months after the Camp David summit talks where Israel and the Palestinians seemed closer than ever before to a final peace settlement. At Camp David, the fate of Jerusalem's holy places was on the table for the first time in the negotiations. The issue proved traumatic, and a catalyst for violence.

All Things Considered host Linda Wertheimer traveled to Michigan to attend a campaign rally for George W. Bush. She talked to the people in the crowd about what they were expecting when they came, and what they're taking away from the event.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan said today that surging oil prices bear close attention because they have the potential to disrupt the nation's longest ever economic expansion. As NPR's John Ydstie reports, Greenspan said higher oil prices have not sparked a new round of inflation, but that possibility still exists, especially given low inventories and tensions in the Middle East. He noted that federal budget surpluses have aided the expansion, but added that government's propensity to spend may mean smaller surpluses in years to come.

Laura Haydon reports that as Ireland has been transformed from an impoverished rural society to a booming information economy, the Irish are attending church less and sending fewer young men into the priesthood. This apparent decline in religious devotion is reflected in the falling numbers of pilgrims to Lough Derg, a remote outpost in northwest Ireland, where Saint Patrick is believed to have had a vision of heaven and hell. To draw worshippers back, the Church is now offering pilgrims the option of attending a one-day retreat, rather than the traditional arduous three days of fasting, walking barefoot and going without sleep.

Commentator Marion Roach thought she'd be fearful, but found beauty in the experience of watching an autopsy. She was allowed into the room as a journalist working on a book.

With the early resignation last week of Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic, former-Yugoslavia has now seen the departure of the three major nationalist figures of the nineteen nineties. NPR's Tom Gjelten looks at prospects for the Balkans without Izetbegovic, the late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman and Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic -- the men who led their nations in the wars that accompanied the break-up of the Yugoslav Federation.