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on states to suspend executions, `unless and until greater fairness and due process prevail,' in cases involving capital offenses. The ABA's House of Delegates issued the call yesterday at the ABA's national convention in San Antonio.

Reporter Frank Browning remembers lawyer and activist Tom Stoddard, who advanced the cause of equal rights for gay men, lesbians, people with AIDS in this country. Stoddard headed up the Lambda Legal Defense and Education fund for six years, making it a nationally influential organization, fighting discrimination against homosexuals and AIDS patients in employment, housing, health care, insurance, family law, and military service.

Several thousand residents in the Northwest were without power this Thanksgiving. Noah speaks with Debbie Holte, from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, about the creative Thanksgiving she and her family put together. Since the power has been out for the last ten days, the family barbecued the turkey, cooked the potatoes on a wood stove, and built snowmen outside the house.

The city council in Holyoke, Mass., fights a federal plan to house Somali war refugees there. Council members argue Holyoke lacks the resources to handle the refugees, but many townspeople are working to help the newcomers to stay. Karen Brown of member station WFCR reports.

President Bush today signed the law creating a vast new federal department to oversee security efforts within the 50 states. The new entity will include nearly two dozen agencies and more than 170,000 employees -- and it will take time to achieve the information sharing and coordination that are its main goals. NPR's Pam Fessler reports from the White House.

Last week, the White House asked the Supreme Court to declare the University of Michigan's affirmative action admissions policies unconstitutional. Host Bob Edwards talks with Jacques Steinberg, New York Times education reporter, about the administration's decision and how it will affect schools that are trying to ensure racial diversity through admission.

In their weekly political discussion, host Bob Edwards talks to NPR's Cokie Roberts about the shuttle Columbia tragedy and how it might affect other major issues facing the nation, including whether and when the United State might go to war against Iraq and the budget blueprint, which the White House releases today.

With the 108th Congress less than two weeks old, new lawmakers in both houses settle in and prepare for next week's State of the Union speech. NPR's Bob Edwards talks to Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AK) and John Sununu (R-NH).

NPR's Michele Kelemen reports the White House plans to push harder to bridge the gap between Venezuela's president and opposition forces that want him out, and end the opposition strike that's paralyzed Venezuela's oil industry. The Bush administration wants Latin American leaders to join the effort. Opposition forces have been striking for more than six weeks against President Hugo Chavez.

NPR's Peter Overby reports lobbyists on Capitol Hill are on the hunt for the legislator who will include their particular tax break in the economic stimulus bill. House Majority leader Tom DeLay says the president's $670 billion tax break is just the start, and its sending lobbyists for business groups into a frenzy.