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Scientists are unveiling an hourly earthquake forecast for California. The good news is that it's more likely to rain on any given day.

Syria's ruling Baath Party opened a congress Monday to discuss political and economic reforms. Syria, which has a centrally planned economy, suffers from a high unemployment rate. Economists and businessmen say they have seen positive changes in recent years, but warn that the government must do more to battle corruption and streamline the inefficient state bureaucracy.

Members of the New York-based band Songs from a Random House, an eclectic combo featuring two ukuleles, a viola and a string bass, join Scott Simon for a live performance and chat.

A judge rules that a political action committee formed by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay did violate Texas law. The ruling found that the group illegally funneled $500,000 in corporate campaign contributions to GOP candidates in the 2002 election.

Joseph Horowitz, author of Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall, talks with Robert Siegel about the past, present and future of classical music in this country.

Much of the world's cotton comes from Texas, even though it's not a particularly great place to grow the crop. Big subsidies and heavy technology and R&D spending have helped the United States dominate the global cotton trade for two centuries.

The House Judiciary Committee holds hearings on the "Downing Street Memo," notes that suggest the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq months before the conflict began. The memo is from a meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair with his aides in July 2002.

The new CD by rapper Common, called Be, could be the best hip-hop release of the year, Will Hermes says. It's produced by grammy award-winning artist Kanye West, a longtime rap friend of Common, and a fellow Chicagoan.

The alleged mistreatment of detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay sets off a heated Senate debate. Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, compared a description of mistreatment -- submitted to a Pentagon investigator by an F-B-I agent -- to actions carried out by Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. Some Republicans accused Durbin of maligning American military personnel.

Why are we compelled to read about celebrities such as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes? Commentator Jake Halpern says it's for the same reasons that the ancient Greeks loved myths about the gods on Olympus.