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. Today, the Ford Motor Company will produce its two-hundred-and 50-millionth vehicle, AND this year marks the one hundredth birthday of automobile production in the U.S. We'll hear from Ralph NAder, New York City's traffic commissioner, a car loving poet, and from Tom and Ray, the hosts of Car Talk.

Liane Hansen talks with singer/songwriter/playwright/actor scar Brown, Jr. His 1960 debut album SIN & SOUL ...AND THEN SOME Columbia/Legacy CK 64994) has just been re-issued. He also sings one of his riginal songs for us in NPR's performance studio.

Russia is angry over the White House's decision to block the sale of ultra-fast supercomuters to Moscow. The Russians say they need the technology to conduct virtual nuclear tests so that they won't have to conduct real nuclear testing, which is forbidden under September's nuclear test ban treaty. NPR's Andy Bowers reports the decision demonstrates the lingering distrust surrounding the nuclear arms race.

, has turned the once-gray city into a festival of lights.

Poet and Commentator Andre Codrescu brings us a modern adaptation of an old Romanian fairy tale. Set in modern New Orleans, it is a cautionary tale about a wish for eternal youth. A young couple tries desperately to have a child. Finally when they were about to give up, a supernatural method brings them a baby, but at a cost...they must promise him that he'll never grow old. When the child, nicknamed Almond Joy, turns 18, he sets out on a quest for what his parents can't deliver. He winds up in the Valley of Christmas, but this paradise of eternal youth bores him and he hits the road. But when he arrives in New Orleans, there is nothing there. His home is covered with dust and Almond Joy has become an old man.

A study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that dietary suppliments of the trace element selenium protect against cancers of the lung, prostate and colon. NPR's Vicky Que reports that researchers involved in a 13-year investigation of a possible link between selenium and skin cancer found no protective effect but they did find that the research subjects had a 37 percent reduction in the incidence of lung, prostate and colon cancers after only 4 1/2 years.

Linda speaks with White House Correspondent Mara Liasson about the coming year for the White House...she says the President will not be seeking to pass huge legislative packages (like health care..) as he did in his first administration--and he faces many investigations into everything from Whitewater to campaign finance--but one new tool he will have in his second term will be the line item veto.

Commentator David Brooks writes in support of the election of Newt Gingrich. He says ousting Newt would have been an extreme punishment for some rather minor infractions...and that Republicans would have gotten only a short-term boost if they "betrayed" their leader. He says the Republicans today struck a blow for loyalty, for simple justice and for the good of the country.

recovery following his surgery yesterday.

NPR's Ted Clark reports on the resignation of Secretary of State Warren Christopher and the expected departure of many on his foreign policy team. Who President Clinton picks to succeed Christopher will indicate whether Clinton's second term will follow the same tenuous foreign policy...or whether there will be new initiatives in Bosnia, the Middle East, Russia and China...and in the area of international peacekeeping.