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Democrat Ron Wyden wins the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Bob Packwood -- before interest groups were taking credit. Environmentalists, pro-choicers, unions, and the Democratic Party all say they made the difference in the reed-slim victory margin. NPR's Wendy Kaufman finds local pols saying negative campaigning, the weather, and the first-ever mail-in balloting had more to do with the result.

Linda Gradstein reports from Tel Aviv on the trial of Yigal Amir, who has confessed to killing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. On the day the prosecution rested its case, it was clear that the defense was in disarray and that Amir might be forced to use an insanity defense.

The Zairean government today announced it was closing a refugee camp that is home to almost 2-hundred thousand Rwandan refugees. NPR's Michael Skoler reports that the government is trying to force the refugees to return to Rwanda. Many of them have been living in the camp for more than one year, and Zaire now says it can no longer afford to take care of them.

Commentator Michele Mitchell says the GOP has and has had for a long time a very sophisticated machine in place to attract young voters. Since the days of Richard Nixon, the Republicans have reached out to young people on campus, through lunches, happy hours and other events. The Democrats have no such machine, and in big states like California, the average age of registered Democrats is more than 65.

SCOTT AND THE U.S. SENATE'S HISTORIAN LOOK AT THE LAST ELECTION YEAR WHEN LOTS OF INCUMBENT SENATORS DECLINED A CHANCE AT RE-ELECTION -- EXACTLY A CENTURY AGO.

Commentator Mickey Edwards says that neither Congress nor President Clinton will decide the outcome of the current budget crisis. He says it is the voters who made balancing the budget the issue in 1994, and it is the voters who will rule on it in this year's elections.

In New York City, dozens of pyschiatrists are volunteering to find and help homeless people suffering from mental illness. Reporter Richard Schiffman reports that they they are seeking out these non-traditional patients in some very non-traditional ways.

We ask a number of writers - specialists in mystery, science fiction, children's literature and magic -- to apply their craft to the unravelling of the case of a stack of subpoenaed Rose Law Firm documents that mysteriously appeared in a limited access White House residential room after they were long thought to be lost.

NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports that commentator Pat Buchanan headed to Iowa today after his surprise win in yesterday's Louisiana caucuses. He beat Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, who had hoped that a strong lead in Louisiana would give him a boost in the Iowa caucuses next week. Both men saw the Louisiana race as a contest for the conservative Republican vote. A strong showing by the Christian right and the anti-abortion wing of the party was credited with Buchanan's victory. Both men, however, have an uphill fight in Iowa, where polls show many voters are leaning toward millionaire Steve Forbes.

Political newcomer Steve Forbes has surprised practically everyone by stealing some of Bob Dole's limelight, and by making his call for a "flat tax" a central issue in the campaign. In this profile, NPR's Melissa Block looks at Forbes's background: how he came to inherit the fortune of his father, publisher Malcolm Forbes, and how he's run "Forbes" magazine since his father died. His editorials in the magazine have shown his fixation of some of the same issues he's stressed during the campaign (the flat tax and opposition to government regulation). As a businessman, he's changed few things put in place by his father, but "Forbes" continues to be quite successful.