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Robert talks to NPR's Jennifer Ludden in Gisenyi, Rwanda, about the mass return of refugees from the nearby town of Goma, Zaire. Relief agencies are scrambling to handle the unexpected crush of roughly half a million people who returned over the past four days. As the throngs have headed home, families have been separated, and relief agencies are caring for a few thousand children who can't find their parents. Meanwhile, returnees face the situation of returning home to find their houses occupied by squatters.

Daniel talks with Richard Krimm, Associate Director for Mitigation at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) about how communities can reduce the damage caused by floods. His agency favors the "non-structural" approach to flood plain management. Krimm says that levees give people a false sense of security - levees often overflow. Rather than build more levees, he suggests building houses that can withstand floods or not building on flood plains at all. He says federal regulations and insurance requirements eventually will force people to comply with these suggestions

The latest James Bond film, Die Another Day made a reported $47 million at the box office over the weekend. If your $8.50 was among those millions, you saw Pierce Brosnan in the starring role. And if you watched closely, you also might also have caught a glimpse Richard Cohen -- an experienced fencer brought in as an extra. Richard Cohen is the author of then new book BY THE SWORD: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions. (Random House)

Bob Mondello reviews the film Thirteen Days, starring Bruce Greenwood as President Kennedy and Kevin Costner as a presidential advisor. The movie is based on the book The Kennedy Tapes--Instead the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis. The story starts in October of 1962, when President John F. Kennedy announced the U.S. response to the presence of medium-range ballistic missiles in Cuba. For the following week, Soviet military vessels raced toward the Caribbean as the rest of the world held its breath. The film opened today in New York and Los Angeles.

NPR's Brian Naylor reports on trouble facing the nomination of Linda Chavez to be George W. Bush's Secretary of Labor. The nomination has run into some problems following the revelation that an illegal immigrant lived in Chavez's house for a period of time and apparently did some work for her. Opponents of the Chavez nomination point to similarities to Zoe Baird, President Clinton's first choice for attorney general, whose name was withdrawn after it was revealed she had what is now known as a "nanny problem."

NPR's Steve Inskeep reports from the Capitol on Senate passage of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Bill. By a vote of 59-to-41, the Senate approved the measure. The House has passed similar campaign finance reform bills in the past, but opponents of this one hope to slow it down, at least. (4:26) For moe NPR News coverage of campaign finance reform, check out Money, Power & Influence.

President Bush this afternoon announced he would proceed with developing a missile shield that would protect the United States from at least some forms of missile attack. The president said the system would be designed to stop a limited number of missiles that had been fired by minor powers, by terrorists or by accident. He said he thought this could be done without withdrawing from the 1972 treaty that banned anti-ballistic missile systems. NPR's Don Gonyea reports from the White House.

Linda Wertheimer talks with Rudy Penner, Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute and co-author of Updating America's Social Contract, about how realistic the federal budget projections -- and therefore the Bush plans for tax cuts -- are. Penner was Director of the United States Congressional Budget Office from 1983 to 1987, and Chief Economist of the White House Office of Management and Budget under President Gerald Ford. (5:00) Updating America's Social Contract, co-authored by Rudy Penner, is published by W.W. Norton, July 2000.

Talk of tax cuts continues to dominate both chambers of Congress. The tax writing committee of the House this week approved a second phase of President Bush's proposed $1.6 trillion package of tax cuts, this one eliminating the so-called marriage penalty and increasing the child tax credit. But on the Senate side, talk turned to another concept -- the granting of a swift tax rebate that might pump new money into the consumer economy relatively quickly. No sooner did one Republican mention the idea than several leading Democrats adopted it. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

Julián Castro went from being the youngest member of San Antonio's city council, to mayor of San Antonio, to U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.