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NPR's Mara Liasson reports on the considerations being made by the Bush administration as it prepares to weigh in on the Supreme Court affirmative action case. The White House worked hard to limit fallout over the Trent Lott incident, and the decision to bring back the Judge Pickering nomination and join the white plaintiffs in the court case indicate that the administration feels the Lott controversy is behind them.

In the new film About Schmidt, Kathy Bates plays Roberta Hertzel -- an aging hippie and free spirit. Jack Nicholson plays the repressed insurance salesman Warren Schmidt. In one scene Bates strips nude in front of Nicholson. It's the scene everyone is talking about. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Kathy Bates about the scene and about her career in film.

Michele Norris talks with NPR's Julie Rovner about today's arguments before the Supreme Court on the Family and Medical Leave Act. At issue is whether the law applies to state employees. States -- as they have in other cases in recent years -- argue the Constitution forbids the federal government from imposing certain worker protection measures on them.

In space, one cannot hear sounds. But a new musical work -- commissioned by NASA -- is based on radio waves gathered from the far reaches of the solar system. For Morning Edition, Gayane Torosyan reports on Sun Rings, composed by Terry Riley and performed by the Kronos Quartet. The work includes sounds collected over 40 years by University of Iowa physicist Don Gurnett.

After nearly becoming extinct at the end of the 1800s, the bison -- also known as the American buffalo -- made a comeback, and buffalo meat is back on market shelves. But demand for the meat has dropped, and some ranchers are charging hunters to hunt and shoot the massive beasts on private land. Matt Hackworth of member station KCUR reports -- follow along as two hunters stalk a bull buffalo on the Kansas prairie.

NPR's Andy Bowers reports from Palmdale, Calif., where the space shuttle Columbia was upgraded in 2001. Palmdale is near Edwards Air Force Base, which was the original landing site during the space shuttle program's infancy. It is still the alternate landing site.

Stalker 3 is the title given to video of Russian troops being ambushed in Chechnya. It's being shown as art in a Manhattan gallery. The title is a play on the title of the Russian film classic, Stalker by Andrei Tarkovsky. David D'Arcy reports.

The home-improvement chains Home Depot and Lowe's seek to fulfill promises to environmentalists to protect and sustain supplies of the lumber they sell. The business rivals are tracking the lumber to its source, seeking to reduce the impact on endangered forests. NPR's Robert Smith reports.

The Hours is a new film based on Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the writer Virginia Woolf and two women living in a later time who Woolf profoundly influences. Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore star. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan offers a review.

President Bush puts the finishing touches on Tuesday's State of the Union address. He is expected to address a wide range of issues, including a possible war with Iraq, terrorism and the economy. NPR's Juan Williams talks with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.