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P-R's Wade Goodwyn reports on today's memorial services.

For years, ranchers and environmentalists have locked horns over who gets to use the land and how. But many on each side are getting tired of all the fighting and now, as Sandy Tolan reports, they're starting to work and even manage the land togther.

Beth Fertig of member station WNYC reports on an investigation by New York City and by the state that shows how the case of abused-to-death 6 year old Elisa was bungled...and how other cases have also slipped through the social welfare cracks.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu is quite struck by Timothy Leary's decision to have his suicide be a live event on the internet.

NPR's Claudio Sanchez reports that many while politicians got caught up in the debate over "whole language" reading instruction, many teachers have begun searching for a middle way that adds classic "phonics" instruction. "Whole language" stresses using good literature to get kids interested in reading, while phonics has emphasized basic reading skills--the ability to sound out words--and for years, supporters of the two systems have argued over which is more effective. Now, states like California, which was heavily invested whole language, are returning to phonics, but many educators are saying the best way is to combine the two approaches.

In the second of two reports on Mexican immigrants, NPR's David Welna visits New Rochelle, a wealthy suburb of New York City which has became a favorite destination of young men from the poor town of Cotija (coh-TEE-ha) in central Mexico. A few thousand Mexicans--legal and illegal--live in New Rochelle. They're part of an eastward drift among growing numbers of Mexican immigrants attracted by good wages and little fear of immigration raids. Swamped by the massive illegal population in the southwest, the immigration service doesn't have the resources to focus on places like New Rochelle.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu worries about a new study that says writers are especially prone to mental illness. Manic depression, mood swings, alcoholism, and sexual promiscuity are all apparently pitfalls of the profession. Codrescu wonders which of these vices and failings he might have.

Detroit is celebrating the one-hundred-year anniversary of the first time automobiles were produced in volume, with many events scheduled all summer long. NPR's Don Gonyea reports on one ongoing event where engineering students are trying to build a environmentally friendly sedan which can travel up to eighty miles on a gallon of gas.

Commentator Michael Hood takes his childrem on an annual tour of his childhood farmland. Every year he punches up his stories...and every year, the kids get a little more bored. Tales of runaway tractors and five-legged calves have a limited appeal to kids intent on living their own lives.

Linda interviews Alexandra Nechita (nuh-KEE-ta)...a ten year old artist...and her parents. Young Nechita has been compared to Picasso-- she is an abstract artist whose paintings are selling for thousands of dollars. She is doing a huge tour for the book of her paintings called "Outside the Lines" and giving dozens and dozens of interviews. Despite all the attention, she is looking forward to going home, seeing her baby brother and taking him to Chuck E. Cheese's pizza parlor.