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Smallpox vaccinations for half a million health and emergency workers are scheduled to begin later this month. There have been some concerns about the safety of the vaccine for the recipients and the people around them who might also become infected with the vaccine virus. For commentator Anne Burt, anxieties are closer to home. Recently, she caught her daughter singing a version of Ring Around the Rosie, and it seemed ominous. After all, it's a retelling of the story of the Bubonic plague. "All fall down" is the result -- death. But after some research she discovered that Ring Around the Rosie is really a Victorian game, and "all fall down" is a curtsey at the end. Anne Burt won the 2002 Editors' Prize in fiction from Meridian Literary Magazine.

Chumbawamba, best known for the 1997 release Tubthumper, has released a new anti-war song called Jacob's Ladder (Not in My Name). They'll play it Saturday for those rallying in Washington, D.C., but they give a preview to NPR's Scott Simon.

A chain of Hong Kong health clubs emphasizes modesty -- or perhaps vanity -- in an age of instant information. Also, they name hurricanes, don't they? Well, Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson has a plan to personalize a much different -- and more local -- form of natural disaster.

The Supreme Court upholds a 20-year copyright extension passed by Congress in 1998. An Internet publisher challenged the extension, which lengthens copyrights to 70 years after the creator's death, arguing it threatened the public domain. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards and Rick Karr.

In Beijing, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State James Kelly continues efforts to end the impasse over North Korea's nuclear program. The United States wants China, North Korea's closest ally, to pressure Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions. Anthony Kuhn reports.

Dina Temple-Raston reports from Rwanda on the thousands of open-air, informal courts trying suspects in the 1994 genocide between Hutus and Tutsi. The government hopes this airing out of crimes will close the book on a horrific chapter of Rwandan history. Critics say the process is horribly arbitrary and is ignoring the crimes of the Tutsi.

The Bush administration proposes a plan that would use the gambling winnings of deadbeat parents to make up for unpaid child support. Under the plan, jackpot or ticket winners would be checked against a national database of deadbeat parents. NPR's Jack Speer reports.

Commentator Russell Roberts say before liberals dismiss the President's plan to end tax on investment dividends as a windfall for the rich, they should consider who else proposed the idea: President Jimmy Carter. Roberts' commentary is the second in a series of occasional commentaries on the Bush economic plan.

The California Supreme Court adopts tougher standards on what constitutes forcible rape, defining it as continued sexual intercourse by a man after his female partner withdraws initial consent. NPR's Richard Gonzales reports.

John Dankosky of member station WNPR reports the little city of Willimantic, Conn,, is dealing with a big heroin problem. After a newspaper dubbed Willimantic "heroin town," officials are scrambling to clean up the community's drug problem as well as its tattered image. But they're at odds over whether recovery clinics will help locals kick their addictions or draw even more addicts to town.