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Commentator Vincent Hsia brings his personal perspective on immigration and assimilation in the United States.

The story behind the ground breaking hit from the Godfather of Soul, James Brown.

Host Bob Edwards talks to Commentator Paul Eisenstein about the Detroit Auto Show, which opens this week. Concept cars are the big attraction this year. Ford is featuring two models, which incorporate designs from the past: the Thunderbird and the Forty-Nine. Daimler-Chrysler is unveiling the Liberty, a new small sport utility vehicle.

NPR's Sarah Chayes in Jerusalem reports Israeli and Palestinian officials have agreed to resume high-level peace talks. The surprise announcement came after Israel eased some of the restrictions it has imposed on the Palestinians during the past three months of violence.

NPR's Amy Costello reports on the use of stun guns -- devices that deliver a strong electric shock -- in law enforcement. In 1994, a research branch of the U.S. Justice Department offered 900 stun guns to the Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff's department, to study whether the weapons would reduce violence between prisoners and officials. The sheriff swiftly put them into use by prison guards. Only a year later, the Justice Department proper was investigating charges of abuse of inmates by guards using the weapons.

NPR's Peter Kenyon reports on Senate confirmation hearings for Donald Rumsfeld to be Secretary of Defense, a position he held in the latter stages of the Gerald Ford administration. Rumsfeld is expected to win support from the Senate Armed Services Committee and go on to become confirmed with little difficulty. But some Democrats want to question him about his advocacy of a missile defense system.

NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from The Netherlands that the defense began its summation today in the trial of two Libyans accused of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The defense attorneys had called only eight witnesses in the course of the eight-month trial in a special Scottish court, convened at Camp Zeist. In his closing argument, lawyer William Taylor tried to poke holes in the prosecution's case, saying the Crown had failed to prove his client Abdel Ali al-Megrahi was a Libyan agent who was working in concert with the co-defendant, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah. The attorney again tried to shift the blame to a Palestinian group. Two hundred seventy people died in the 1988 bombing.

NPR's Howard Berkes reports on a lawsuit filed by the state of Utah alleging that the Census Bureau failed to count 14-thousand of its citizens last year, robbing the state of a congressional seat.

NPR's Madeleine Brand talks with Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman about diet.

Confirmation hearings will begin next week for John Ashcroft, the former senator from Missouri whom George W. Bush has nominated as his attorney general. Liberal groups who oppose Ashcroft have been vocal since his nomination was announced. But Ashcroft's supporters have been getting organized as well. NPR's David Welna reports on how the battle is taking shape.