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NPR's Debbie Elliott reports that voters in Selma, Alabama elected their first black mayor yesterday. Businessman James Perkins defeated Joe Smitherman, a former segregationist who took office about six months before the bloody voting rights marches that eventually led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

NPR's Cheryl Corley reports that gasoline prices in the Midwest have dropped dramatically this month. In June, prices in Chicago and throughout the Midwest skyrocketed past $2 per gallon. Now, costs have dropped to as low as $1.27 in Indiana, and other states are close behind. Last month's rise led to investigations into claims of price fixing and the 0suspensions of gas taxes in several states. Oil producers attribute the drop in gas prices to fixing a pipeline problem that had limited its ability to deliver the fuel.

For a respected physicist to suggest that it's possible for something to travel faster than light, is rather like a geologist declaring that the earth is flat. But as NPR's David Kestenbaum reports, tomorrows issue of the prestigious journal Nature contains a paper that claims exactly that.

Scott Horsley of member station KPBS reports on aggressive trial lawyers who've sued the tobacco and gun industries and are now considering class action lawsuits against health maintenance organizations, drug makers, and liquor distillers. One such attorney is Dick Scruggs from Mississippi, who led the suit that won a 246-billion-dollar settlement for the states against cigarette makers and a 400-million-dollar fee for himself. Supporters of such lawsuits say they help reduce corporate irresponsibility Some critics say they're motivated by greed; other critics say that legislatures, not courts, should make social policy

Charlotte Renner of Maine Public Radio reports that although their numbers are dwindling, classic lakeside camps continue to be a favorite way for kids to spend their summer vacations. Still, many camps say it's hard to stay in business because of rising costs.

The House of Representatives today approved a bill that would raise the amount that certain savers can contribute to their tax-deferred retirement accounts. The current annual limit on these contributions is $2,000 but the new legislation, if passed by the Senate and signed by President Clinton, would raise that limit to $5,000. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Linda talks to Bill Buckholz, owner of Goodman Vending Service in Reading Pennsylvania, about problems the new five and ten dollar bills are causing for vending machine owners.

NPR's Christopher Joyce reports on a new discovery in the insect world... a wasp that manages to interfere with a spider's web-building instinct for it's own personal benefit.

Commentator Meghan Daum realizes that people like to make fun of the Midwest, but she couldn't believe it when someone tried to pick her up by teasing her about where she's from.

Host Bob Edwards talks to T.R Reid, London bureau chief for The Washington Post about the festivities in London surrounding the Queen Mother's birthday. The Queen Mum will be 100 on August 4th, and the party's already underway all over England.