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Linda speaks with Rex Gephart, head of the Los Angeles MTA's "Metro Rapid" program, which aims to reduce bus travel times by 25 percent. As part of the plan, the MTA has equipped two of its major bus lines with a new device that hold a green lights for approaching buses. Gephart says ridership has increased significantly on the lines being tested. He says L.A. is the first city in the U.S. to implement so-called "signal priority" so extensively.

The last time Philadelphia hosted a political convention, it was 1948, and the city got three for one: Republicans, Democrats and the Progressive Party all gathered there. Although the Progressive Party would place last in the election, it sponsored one of the livelier conventions, with singalongs led by Pete Seeger and Paul Robeson. Many of the reforms it advocated were later adopted. Host Jacki Lyden talks with John Hyde, co-author of a biography of Henry Wallace, the Progressive Party Nominee. (American Dreamer: The Life and Times of Henry A. Wallace, by John C. Culver and John Hyde, W.W. Norton & Company; ISBN: 03930

Puzzlemaster Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a hallenge for everyone at home. 7:07 This week's on-air player lives in Anacortes (ah-na-COR-tes), Washington nd listens to these three NPR member stations: KUOW in Seattle, KPLU in akoma, and KZAZ in Bellingham. This week, Will Shortz presides at the annual convention of the National uzzler's League. The event is being held in Portland, Oregon at the Days nn/City Center. Puzzler's from the U.S. and Canada will be attending - and isteners are welcome to drop by Thursday or Friday, July 20th and 21st tarting around eight in the evening. Next Sunday Will joins us from NPR member tation KOPB in Portland.

While the Blizzard of '96 may have paralyzed New York City, it didn't stop the U.N. Security Council from meeting to adopt a statement condemning human rights violations in Croatia. The only problem was the U.N. had been declared to be officially closed Monday. The result was that the council action received little coverage in the news media. This prompted speculation that key council members may not have wanted to publicize their moral outrage and perhaps irritate Croatian leader Franjo Tudjman whose country has become a lynchpin in western diplomatic efforts in the Balkans. NPR's Trevor Rowe reports.

NPR's Mike Shuster reports on the journey of one man back to his home in the mountains outside Sarajevo. It was his first trip since the siege of the city began nearly four years ago. The man was reunited with his neighbors whom he had known for 25 years. (8:00) CUTAWAY 2C 0:59 2D 14. NORTH AMERICAN ASTEROIDS - NPR's Richard Harris reports that researchers have found evidence that the United States was hit by a series of asteroids or comets similar to those that struck Jupiter recently. In the case of the U.S., the impacts may have occurred an estimated 300 million years ago. If confirmed, this would be the first such string of impacts found on Earth.

on crime in post-Apartheid South Africa and what's being done about it... Today, she visits the black township of Soweto, outside Johannesburg, where young black residents have joined forces with white police to catch criminals. It's an unusual alliance between those who fought to overthrow Apartheid and those who fought to protect it. Soweto and the other black townships surrounding Johannesburg have a murder rate three times higher than that of New York City.

Like many other cities, Philadelphia is dealing with a massive police corruption case. Six officers have already been convicted, but the most serious result of the case is the possibility that dozens of drug convictions could be overturned if the officers involved are convicted. NPR's Eric Westervelt, of member station WHYY, reports. CUTAWAY 1C 0:59 1D 8. TORNADOES -- Noah talks with Officer Richard Hardin of the Hillview Police Department in Hillview, Kentucky, where severe weather injured eight people and destroyed hundreds of homes outside Louisville. Officer Hardin was chased by a tornado yesterday, and tells about his experiences...and the damage left in the wake of the storms.

In the second of two reports on Mexican immigrants, NPR's David Welna visits New Rochelle, a wealthy suburb of New York City which has became a favorite destination of young men from the poor town of Cotija (coh-TEE-ha) in central Mexico. A few thousand Mexicans--legal and illegal--live in New Rochelle. They're part of an eastward drift among growing numbers of Mexican immigrants attracted by good wages and little fear of immigration raids. Swamped by the massive illegal population in the southwest, the immigration service doesn't have the resources to focus on places like New Rochelle.

This coming Saturday, voters in Bosnia go to the polls as part of the effort to put their war-torn country back together. They'll be choosing men and women to represent them in a collective presidency, a house of representatives, assemblies for both the Muslim-Croat federation and Serb Republic, and councils for each canton. Linda talks about the upcoming election with NPR's Sylvia Poggioli in the northwest Bosnian city of Banja Luka ((BAHN-yuh LOO-kuh)). Banja Luka is home to the opposition parties who will contend for the vote with the nationalist party running the Serb Republic.

This year's winner of the National Book Award for poetry is Haydn Carruth for his collection of poems entitled "Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey: Poems 1991-1995". Carruth did not attend last night's awards ceremony in New York City because of poor health. For many years he has struggled with depression so severe that at times he has been unable to leave his house. Rebekah Presson has this profile of Carruth, who at age 75 has won many prestigious awards for his poetry and literary criticism.