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NPR's Chitra Ragavan reports on a ruling from the Supreme Court today on the issue of how federal prison sentences are imposed. The case involved the sentences of former Los Angeles policemen Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell, convicted in the 1991 videotaped beating of Rodney King. At issue was whether the trial judge exceeded his authority when he sentenced the two to a shorter time in prison than specified by U-S guidelines. Today, justices voted unanimously to have a federal trial judge reconsider the validity of giving both ex-officers stiffer sentences. Koon and Powell are now free. Had the nation's highest court upheld a federal appeals court ruling against them, each man would have faced returning to prison for up to fifty- seven more months.

- President Clinton speaking at one of today's memorial services for the 19 Americans who died in a truck bombing of an American facility in Saudi Arabia this past week.

Edward Lifson talks with people in Chicago about why they don't vote.

accused of conspiring to blow up federal buildings in Phoenix. The arrest is the result of a six-month federal investigation.

Noah talks to Steve Delsohn (del-SON), author of 'The Fire Inside: Firefighters Talk About Their Lives.' Delsohn interviewed 108 firefighters for his book. Two of those firefighters, Phillip Buffa of Washington, D.C.'s Rescue 3 and Keith Walker, Jr. of Alexandria, Virginia's Engine 55, met with Delsohn while he was visiting the Washington area. The firefighters talked about their fears of flashovers (when entire rooms ignite all at once) and of being trapped alone in a burning building. Delsohn says that about 100 firefighters are killed in the line of duty every year while another 100,000 are injured. (The Fire Inside: Firefighters Talk About Their Lives' is published by Harper-Collins.)

NPR's Julie McCarthy reports that one of Japan's biggest companies is implicated in a growing scandal involving copper trading. Investigators in Britain and the United States are looking into whether the company may have approved of the actions of its star trader to allegedly hoard copper to help drive up its price.

As the 11th International AIDS Conference convenes in Vancouver, British Columbia, scientists report that they now understand better how HIV causes AIDS. Recently approved drug therapies, combining old anti-viral drugs and the new protease (pro-TEE-ase) inhibitors, have been successful in reducing the amount of virus in the blood. The health of people with the AIDS virus has improved -- they gain weight, some skin rashes disappear and their energy returns. A source says the new treatments may not be a cure...but they're the next best thing. NPR's Joe Neel reports.

Scott remembers Judge Elbert Tuttle, who died this week.

Political candidates may have four and a half months until Election Day, but already their ad money is flowing like never before, touting both national and local candidates. And there are no signs that the promotions, attacks, counter attacks, and independent advertisements are going to let up. NPR's Brooke Gladstone reports.

The Supreme Court ruled today that police who search cars for evidence of a crime during traffic stops are not violating a Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. The case involved two men who were convicted of drug possession when Washington, DC vice officers searched their car after stopping them for a traffic violation. In a separate decision, the Court also ruled today that even defendents who leave the country to escape criminal prosecution are entitled to challenge forfeiture of their property in court. That case involved an alleged drug dealer whose property was seized after he escaped charges by moving to Switzerland. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.