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Much of the world's cotton comes from Texas, even though it's not a particularly great place to grow the crop. Big subsidies and heavy technology and R&D spending have helped the United States dominate the global cotton trade for two centuries.

The House Judiciary Committee holds hearings on the "Downing Street Memo," notes that suggest the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq months before the conflict began. The memo is from a meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair with his aides in July 2002.

The new CD by rapper Common, called Be, could be the best hip-hop release of the year, Will Hermes says. It's produced by grammy award-winning artist Kanye West, a longtime rap friend of Common, and a fellow Chicagoan.

The alleged mistreatment of detainees at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay sets off a heated Senate debate. Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, compared a description of mistreatment -- submitted to a Pentagon investigator by an F-B-I agent -- to actions carried out by Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. Some Republicans accused Durbin of maligning American military personnel.

Why are we compelled to read about celebrities such as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes? Commentator Jake Halpern says it's for the same reasons that the ancient Greeks loved myths about the gods on Olympus.

Virginia Gov. Mark Warner says Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, is putting states in financial peril, especially as Congress eyes $10 billion in federal cuts. The Democrat is chairman of the National Governors' Association, which has developed its own plan for Medicaid reform.

In the fifth part of our Vietnam series, Michael Sullivan travels to Quang Ngai province, where the massacre of My Lai occurred in 1968. Now, 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War, it seems old wounds are slow to heal.

Even before it disappeared in the 1940s, the ivory-billed woodpecker had near-mythical status. Christopher Joyce reports on what scientists are planning now that they believe they've rediscovered a species long thought extinct.

Several political figures are vying to succeed outgoing President Mohammed Khatami in Iran's election June 17. Both the conservative and reformist camps, according to opinion polls, are not very popular with the voters. And the race may yet have a wildcard candidate.

The ivory-billed woodpecker was thought to be extinct. Now, scientists say it's been sighted again and conservationists are planning ways to protect it. The striking bird has been discovered in the Big Woods area of Arkansas.