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Osteoporosis affects some 10 million Americans now, and those numbers are likely to grow as the baby boom generation ages. Wendy Schmelzer reports on a study in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, which finds that a drug treatment used by women to treat osteoporosis works just as well for men. That's important, because men account for 20 percent of those affected.

Alison Richards of NPR News begins a three part series on osteoperosis. Today she details how the disease has become a public health crisis in such a short period of time. No one realized the size of the problem until the accountants took a look at the heath care costs.

Writer Verta Mae Grosvenor examines how massive, rapid resort development has altered life on the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina. The long-time residents are the Gullah -- or Geechee -- people. The names are interchangable. The Gullah people are descendents of slaves, and managed for years to retain a distinctive, African-influenced way of life. Some 30 years ago, high-end tourism came to the region. One by one, land was bought up by outside developers. Now the Gullah people want to profit from the little land they still own.

Bill Zeeble of member station KERA in Dallas reports that the city has a new record -- sixty-one days and counting without rain. The previous record was 58 days set back in 1934 and tied in 1950. The dry spell has hit North Texas farmers hard, and it is starting to occasionally impact the city's drinking water. It is also drying out the soil causing the foundations of many houses to settle and generating business for local foundation repair companies.

NPR's Martin Kaste (KAH-stee) talks with host Linda Wertheimer about President Clinton's visit to Colombia to endorse his latest plan to curb drug trafficking. Clinton was meeting Colombian President Pastrana in the coastal city of Cartagena in the wake of a one-point-three-billion dollar package of aid and military support for the Colombian army to help fight guerillas and the drug overlords who support them.

After a gruesome start to the year, stocks have made a solid recovery this summer. As Jim Zarroli reports, while lots of dot-coms have hit rock bottom, many other sectors such as consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and financial stocks are faring well. The economy has cooled without coming to a halt, interest rates are falling, and many investors think the market looks reasonably healthy.

NPR's Vicky Que reports High School biology teachers are attending summer classes to study the human genome project. They want to stay current with all of the latest developments in order to teach it next Fall.

A former West Peoria steakhouse is becoming the area's first cannabis consumption lounge.

Commentator Mary Sojourner attempts to come to terms with the shooting death of a policeman in Flagstaff, Arizona. Unwilling to rely on standard responses to the usual questions of how and why this happens, she raises a few of her own.

The Justice Department is seeking to temporarily stop enforcement of the new Texas law that effectively bans most abortions in the state. The department is already suing to block the law altogether.