Among the news that made headlines this past week:
1) George W. Bush and John Kerry make their final appeals as the Presidential campaign dwindles down to its final days.
2) In a new videotape released on Al-Jazeera, Osama bin Laden says American security does not depend on who wins the election, but on U.S. foreign policy.
3) [...]

Many young Americans will be casting their first-ever votes in the upcoming presidential election. They are most concerned about the economy and the situation in Iraq. They believe Kerry is the more qualified Commander-in-Chief but think that Bush takes clearer stands on the issues.
Almost 3 million American students will have volunteered on a presidential campaign [...]

It’s just three more days before Election Day 2004, and lawyers in swing states across the country have already begun their legal wrangling.
In Ohio, there is a court battle over whether tens of thousands of voters will be allowed to cast their ballots next week. In Florida, the state’s new chief elections officer, Glenda Hood, [...]

In addition to Kentucky, eight other Senate races are still too close to call within a week of the vote. On the House side, a handful of races are also suddenly more volatile. A closer look at key Senate races.
Guests:
Gail Chaddock, covers Congress for the Christian Science Monitor
Chuck Todd, editor of The Hotline

While all eyes will be focused on the tight Presidential race, a fierce battle over control of Congress will also be waged on Election Day. In the House, Republicans appear to have a lock on majority status. But in the closely divided Senate, nine races are considered toss-ups. With Republicans now holding [...]

In every war there are prisoners, and in the terrible confines they are subjected to, they often have to choose between humiliation and humanity, between buckling-under and fighting back, and between surrender and survival. Making the right choice requires deep moral belief, and it requires a writer of the stature of Ha Jin to give [...]

The Red Sox finally did it. In sweeping fashion, they beat the Cardinals and won the World Series. Sox fans woke up this morning as winners for the first time since 1918.
Hear from life-long fan and On Point news analyst Jack Beatty as he looks back on this magical moment.
Guests:
Jack Beatty, On Point news [...]

Ailing Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat will go to Paris for treatment of an undisclosed medical condition. This will be the first time he has left his Ramallah compound since 2001 when the Israelis confined him to his West Bank quarters.
Hear from John Ward, foreign correspondent for The Washington Post, about the latest developments in Arafat’s [...]

Voters may know where Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry stands on the issues but many of them feel they still do not know the man behind the candidate.
New York Times Magazine writer Matt Bai had the unique opportunity to sit down with John Kerry. Bai describes a man that is guarded, and has become [...]

With all of the attention being paid to voters in Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin, those in the non-battleground states are left to wonder if their votes really matter. While the nation holds its breath to see if Iowa turns red or blue, there will be little drama in Wyoming, where George Bush holds a [...]

Less than a week before the U.S. presidential election, the candidates are making their last minute appeals to the all-important battleground states of New Mexico, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Colorado.
Of the 270 electoral votes a candidate needs to win, 7 of them could come from Iowa, 20 from Ohio, 9 from Colorado, 5 from [...]

Newspaper editorial boards are casting their ballots, and in many cases they are switching party allegiances. So far, 149 newspapers have endorsed Senator Kerry whereas only 126 have endorsed President Bush.
Hear journalist Greg Mitchell, editor of the journal Editor & Publishers, talk about wich newspapers are backing Bush, which are backing Kerry, and why.
Guests:
Greg Mitchell, [...]

With the 2004 U.S. presidential election just 6 days away, the candidates appear to be in a dead heat, but their constituencies are further apart now than at any time in recent history.
Austin American Statesmen’s journalist Bill Bishop has documented the dramatic and growing gap between Republicans and Democrats in his series entitled “The Great [...]

Historian Carl Sferezza Anthony has looked at American Presidents from a number of different angles. But when his friends started buying him gag gifts like George Washington soap and a Richard Nixon-shaped candle, he realized that there was an entirely unexplored realm of Presidential history: the ways in which American executives have been portrayed [...]

Many historians believe the United States has been governed traditionally by politicians who find their voice and their mandate somewhere in the broad center of opinion, rather than on the frontline of a winner-take-all political extreme.
But some political observers say this year’s election may provide the clearest contrast between two political philosophies in the modern [...]

Today, Israel’s parliament wrapped up two days of debate and approved an agreement to uproot settlers in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West bank. The vote comes after months of confrontation between Ariel Sharon and his own Likud Party.
Harvey Morris, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for the Financial Times, discusses the latest.
Guests:
Harvey Morris, [...]

Over this year’s long campaign season, the presidential candidates have staked out their positions on the issues. Most voters have made up their minds. The final days before the election often serve as a “gut” check on the candidates and what they would bring to the presidency.
In the first of a series of discussions about [...]

Last weekend was another bloody one in Iraq after an ambush took the lives of 50 newly trained Iraqi security forces. Fresh reporting also indicates that up to 380 tons of highly explosive material has been looted from an arms dump that was believed to have been guarded by the American military.
The war in Iraq [...]

With the election just 8 days away, George W. Bush and John Kerry today enlisted the help of some heavy hitters. The President campaigned in Greeley, Colorado with former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at his side. John Kerry appeared in Philadelphia with former president Bill Clinton.
Clinton blasted President Bush for huge [...]

Today, the Supreme Court announced that Chief Justice William Rehnquist has thyroid cancer and had a tracheotomy last Saturday. Although expected to be back on the bench next week, at 80 years old, many wonder how long Rehnquist’s tenure will last. Rehnquist is not even the oldest member of the court. Justice John Paul [...]

Eight days left until the presidential election.
Guests:
Matt Bai is covering the presidential campaign for the New York Times Magazine. His most recent article was “Kerry’s Undeclared War.”

Among the major news that made headlines this week:
1) The Presidential race between George W. Bush and John Kerry heats up as it approaches its final week.
2) Responding to an American request, Britain will redeploy 850 British troops from relatively calm Basra to Baghdad.
3) Kidnapped British aid worker and Iraqi citizen Margaret Hassan pleads for [...]

Born on March 12, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts, Jack Kerouac would become a literary legend by the time he died at the age of 47. His writings were a celebration of American cities, places, and people. The 1957 “On the Road,” his only attempt at a traditional novel, would become the touchstone of the Beat [...]

The first game of the 2004 World Series kicks off tomorrow in Boston. But for some Red Sox fans, the shock from the Sox’ dramatic pennant victory against the Yankees still hasn’t quite worn off.
In this radio diary, Boston native John Kenney wonders what other miraculous events might soon grab headlines around the world, [...]

Boston’s Red Sox are in the World Series for the first time since 1986. The team that has a long history of getting so close and blowing it in the end came back from a 0-3 deficit against the Yankees to do it.
As fate would have it, vanquishing one foe has led to meeting [...]

New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer has accused Marsh and McLennan, American International Group and Ace Limited of fraudulent business practices, including bid rigging and improper payments to insurance brokers.
Carey Coolidge, staff writer for Forbes magazine, discusses the latest on the expanding investigation and the potential impact on insurance policy holders.
Guests:
Carey Coolidge, staff writer for [...]

After nearly a century of playing second fiddle to their New York rivals, the Boston Red Sox defeated the Yankees last night to win the American League pennant and advance to the World Series. For Red Sox fans, the victory was a big step towards breaking the dreaded “Curse of the Bambino,” which has [...]

As the 2004 presidential campaign heads into the final home stretch, Republican strategists are leaning hard on the use of the “liberal” label.
Democrats run from the “liberal” word like the plague but it has always come back to haunt them, and this year’s presidential race has been no exception.
Hear what “liberal” means in today’s political [...]

The Sinclair Broadcast Group owns 62 stations in 11 of 17 swing U.S. states. Sinclair was set to preempt regular programming and air a documentary highly critical of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry the week before Election Day. A Sinclair reporter voiced his concerns about the fairness of the documentary’s broadcast to the Baltimore Sun [...]

Iowa took center stage today, as George Bush and John Kerry spent much of the day courting the Hawkeye State and its 7 electoral votes. Kerry tore into the President in Waterloo, saying the war in Iraq was a diversion from the war on terror and has left the United States with two wars [...]

America is now less than two weeks away from choosing the next U.S. president. But if the 2000 election and its angry fallout are any indication, America will not go to bed on November 2nd knowing who has won the White House.
The unsettling prospect of another deeply disputed election result looms. Armies of [...]

Tonight, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox play the seventh and deciding game of an epic American League Championship Series. For perennially-disappointed Red Sox fans, a Red Sox victory would be a huge step towards exorcising the dreaded “Curse of the Bambino.” Since the Sox traded Babe Ruth to their Bronx [...]

Of all the issues in this year’s bruising presidential election, perhaps none separates the candidates as clearly as the environment. From core philosophy to policies that touch the deepest American wilderness, George Bush and John Kerry stand miles apart.
President George W. Bush says he’s got a solid record, and would continue to be a [...]

At this year’s Democratic National Convention, former President Jimmy Carter addressed his party’s delegates by saying, “I do not despair for our country. I believe tonight, as I always have, that the essential decency, compassion, and common sense of the American people will prevail.”
The co-founder of an internationally renowned humanitarian organization with his wife Rosalynn [...]

It’s now just two weeks until Election Day 2004. It has been a long campaign, one that began almost 2 years ago, when the first campaign workers set up shop in the wintry streets of New Hampshire. Photographer Meryl Levin and campaign veteran Will Kanteres spent a year documenting the New Hampshire campaign, and [...]

When people in America line up in the pre-dawn hours, it is usually associated with rock concerts or playoff tickets. These days, another event has been added to that list: flu shots.
Ever since the United States lost nearly half of its expected flu vaccines for this year’s season, Americans, most of them elderly, have been [...]

The American military has “no-go zones.” So does the foreign press. They include whole cities - Falluja, Ramadi Tikrit and Mosul. Last week reporters in Iraq told us that it’s too dangerous
Guests:
Eric Manes, producer of “Voices of Iraq.” He has written and produced many films, including “Dodging Bullets” and “3,000 Miles [...]

In a rare media interview today, Sudan’s security chief told Reuters that rebels have been using villages in Darfur as bases for military operations. Attacks on villages by government planes and soldiers have driven 1.5 million Darfur residents from their homes.
Krista Ridley is Deputy Director of Policy for Oxfam America. She recently returned [...]

In his new book, “Blood and Oil,” Professor Michael Klare argues and the American military has become a global petroleum security force. Iraq is just the latest example in a string of conflicts based on the need to secure a steady supply of oil.
But, Klare asserts, the United States has chosen the course of “securitizing” [...]

No American presidential election has been this close for so long in more than a generation. With 15 days left before voters go to the polls, the race is still a horse one.
Guests:
Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief, USA Today.

Today, President Bush told voters in New Jersey that his plan for fighting terrorists is better than John Kerry’s. Last week, in their final debate, Kerry said that America is not safer under Bush’s leadership.
Which candidate will protect the nation better from a terrorist attack? How voters answer that question is a key issue [...]

Among the major news of this past week:
1) George W. Bush and John Kerry tussled in the last of their 3 debates.
2) Dick Cheney expresses anger that Kerry mentioned the Vice President’s lesbian daughter during the debate.
3) Elections are held in Afghanistan, not without problems and protest.
4) For the first time, a bomb is set [...]

As Election Day 2004 draws closer, musicians across America are taking the stage at concerts for and against the Bush administration and redefining political activism.
This week, American music icon Bruce Springsteen along with R.E.M., Pearl Jam, and the Dixie Chicks ended their anti-Bush administration politically-charged “Vote for Change” tour in nine out of seventeen swing [...]

Under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982, it is a crime for anyone who has access to classified information to disclose intentionally information identifying a covert agent.
At least five reporters have been subpoenaed for refusing to reveal who leaked the name of Valerie Plame, wife of retired Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, as a [...]

A nationwide strike in Nigeria has sent world oil prices to record highs, but turmoil and chaos is nothing new to the world’s seventh largest oil exporter.
In her award-winning debut novel “Purple Hibiscus,” 26-year-old Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes poignantly about her Nigerian homeland from the perspective of a 15-year-old girl, Kambili. It is a [...]

The violence in Iraq reached a grim benchmark today as insurgents successfully detonated bombs inside the U.S. Green Zone killing at least ten people, including four Americans.
And for journalists who are trying to cover and report on the war, work has become more dangerous with each passing day. A bloody string of beheadings and bombings [...]