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- in the days before the Palestinian elections, which take place January 20.

Linda Wertheimer speaks with sports reporter Robin Roberts of ABC and ESPN about this week's major sports activities. They include the Australian Open tennis finals, NBA All-Star voting, Rudy Galindo's figure skating victory and, of course, the Super Bowl.

NPR's Vicky Que examines the rationale for barring individuals infected with the AIDS virus from serving in the military. Like other service personnel with diabetes, cancer and other diseases, they are not deployed for combat or overseas duty. But they are healthy, can still perform their tasks and do not necessarily represent a risk to other soldiers.

Alan Cheuse reviews Mario Vargas Lllosa's new book "Death in the Andes". It's a political detective story set in his native country of Peru. (published by Farrar, Straus, Giroux)

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.

NPR's Mandalit Del Barco reports from Los Angeles on Congresswoman Andrea Seastrand's return home to California to visit with her constituents. Seastrand is one of the 73 freshman Republicans in Congress. And like many of her colleagues, Seastrand is now worried how the budget stalemate might impact her re-election campaign this fall.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu offers his thoughts on Harrah's Casino, now being built in the heart of New Orleans. Construction of the casino is snarling traffic, confounding politicians and, Andrei says, giving "the moralists among us a reason to shake our heads".

Former congressman Kweisi Mfume officially takes over as president of the NAACP (N-DOUBLE-A-C-P) today. He's being sworn-in in style, with President Clinton presiding, in the Great Hall of the Justice Department. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

Host Liane Hansen speaks with Fred Barnes, executive editor f the Weekly Standard, and David Corn, Washington editor for The Nation. Topics nclude the First Lady's testimony before the Grand Jury; President Clinton's tate of the Union address and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole's (R-Kan.) esponse to it; and Super Bowl picks.

director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, about the findings from the exit polls in New Hampshire.