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The House voted today to increase the minimum wage by ninety cents. The vote was a victory for Democrats who gained the support of moderate Republicans for the proposal. The same coalition voted down a Republican amendment that would have exempted businesses earning more than half a million dollars a year -- and would have included most of the fast food restaurants and retail stores that pay the minimum wage. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

Linda and Noah read from listeners' letters. To send letters please write to LETTERS-ATC, 635 Masschusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20001, or by E-Mail to ATC@NPR.ORG.

Burma about the recent military crack down on the pro-democracy movement there.

Who decides what's conservative and what's not? Commentator Mickey Edwards says this year it's the real conservatives who will make the decisions for the party .... instead of those intolerant self-proclaimed conservatives who've been speaking for the rest of the party.

one who waited for hours to see Garth Brooks, one who has decided to abandon her career as a dental hygienist and move to Nashville to sing, and another who has been collected hundreds of photos, ticket stubs, and guitar picks for years.

Scott speaks with Rutgers University English professor William Lutz about the George Orwell essay "Politics and the English Language." Fifty years old, it is the most reprinted essay in the English language, and arguably, the most influential.

Scott and Weekend Edition sports commentator Ron Rapoport discuss major league baseball's aggressive recruitment of foreign players and what that suggests about the future of sport.

- Andrea De Leon (Ahn-DRAY-uh DAY-LAY-OWN) reports on the Senate Primary campaign in Maine, which was held this week. Republicans in the state cast ballots for Susan Collins, John Hathaway, and Bob Monks - who were fighting for the seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Senator William Cohen. Many people in Maine considered the campaign to be one of the nastiest in the state's history. A week before the primary, two newspapers reported that candidate Hathaway had been investigated for allegedly having sex with an underage girl. Hathaway accused candidate Bob Monk of leaking the story to the press. Candidate Susan Collins - who stayed out of the dispute - won the primary with more than 50-percent of the vote.

Linda talks with the author, A. S. Byatt, about her latest book, "Babel Tower" (BAY-bl). This is the third novel in an ongoing series, and Byatt says she had intended to write a novel about family life and group behavior, but the novel also became a portrait of swinging London in the 1960s. There are myriad literary and popular culture references, and there are other narratives and fictional works embedded in the novel -- including another novel called Babble Tower, trial transcripts, poems and fairy tales.

The government's worst-kept secret is being released today. The Medicare Plan A trust fund -- which is used to pay hospital and home health bills for more than thirty-seven million elederly and disabled people -- will go broke in 2001 instead of 2002, unless something is done to fix it. NPR's Joanne Silberner looks at the Medicare Trustees report and what it means for the future of the program. Most economic analysts find very little difference in the Republican or Democratic proposals to make it solvent.