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There is a new two CD set by Ani DiFranco. It is full of music with a wide range of emotions and influences. Music critic Will Hermes thinks that it is a powerful record by an artist that has done the kind of music she wants, the way she wants to do it. Over the years she has established herself as an independent and it pays off. She has her own label and her own studio. (4:30) It's on Righteous Babe Records.

NPR's Rob Gifford reports in a surprising turn of events, the Chinese Communist Party has started quoting Confucius. Most of the last half century, the party has tried to eliminate Confucius from public discourse. The revival of Confucionism might be an attempt to build public confidence in the government, which is riddled with corruption.

Noah Adams talks with NPR's Debbie Elliott about the verdict reached in the trial of a former Ku Klux Klansman for the 1963 bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama church. Thomas Blanton Jr. was convicted of murder in the explosion at the Sixteenth Street Church, which killed four black girls. Adams and Elliott discuss the closing arguments and reaction to the verdict.

Linda Wertheimer talks with NPR's Melissa Block about the federal government's closing arguments in the trial of four men charged in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The prosecution argued today that it has proven the bombings were carried out as part of a plot by followers of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden to wage Jihad -- or holy war -- against America. If convicted, two of the defendants could face the death penalty.

NPR's Alex Van Oss reports Lawrence Small, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. His decisions to change the Smithsonian's current system have drawn sharp criticism from current staff as well as outsiders.

NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports on preparations for what's expected to be another bad wildfire season in the West. But federal agencies are also getting the jump on fires by setting prescribed burns in some forests, in an effort to prevent them from burning out of control.

NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr offers his thoughts on former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey's revelation that he was involved in a raid that resulted in the killing of women and children as a Navy SEAL during the Vietnam War.

Legislators in North Carolina and throughout the Southeast and Midwest are proposing cuts in higher education to deal with their budget shortfalls. North Carolina has called for a 7 percent reduction in higher education. NPR's Adam Hochberg reports the proposal has met with student protest rallies and prompted administrators to say they will have to cut course selections and lay off faculty.

Yesterday's scheduled auto race -- the Firestone Firehawk 600 -- at the Texas Motor Speedway was postponed after it became clear that drivers practicing on the course were experiencing dizziness. Noah Adams talks with Dr. Steve Olvey, the medical director for Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. in Miami, Florida about the course and the "G" forces involved.

Maura Ferrelly of Georgia Public Radio reports that residents of Savannah, Georgia are divided over a statue that would commemorate slaves and their contribution to the city. The focus of the controversy is an inscription on the proposed slave memorial by poet Maya Angelou describing the horrors of the "middle passage," the voyage slaves took from Africa to the New World. Opponents say the inscription is divisive, others believe it is an accurate reflection of the voyage.