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NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from London that the worst storm in more than a decade struck Britain. The rain and gale-force winds brought the south of England to a virtual standstill. Fallen trees and floods closed roads and rail lines. At least four people were reported killed in storm-related accidents.

NPR's Peter Overby reports on how one group, the Sierra Club is makings its voice heard in the 2000 Presidential campaign by making issue ads. With no limit on what interest groups can collect and spend, issue ads are often one way they advocate for their preferred candidate. Vice President Al Gore is the beneficiary of the issue ad campaign by the Sierra Club, an environmental group.

Republican leaders in Congress today vowed to stay and fight for their versions of the last few spending bills still pending before adjournment. President Clinton has threatened to veto the bills in current form because the spending levels and various policy changes are not to his liking. That means the legislators might not get out of town before Election Day a week from tomorrow. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Democrat Al Gore held a old-fashioned political rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin today. Won by Democrats in each of the last three presidential elections, the state is being hotly contested by Republican George Bush as Green Party nominee Ralph Nader siphons liberal votes away from the Democratic Party. NPR's Anthony Brooks is with the Gore campaign.

NPR's National Political Correspondent Elizabeth Arnold reports that this year's Presidential election may be decided by a handful of states. In the final week before the election Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush takes his campaign to California as he continues to challenge Vice President Al Gore in states that are traditionally Democratic.

Both Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush say they support a patients' bill of rights, and both make the issue part of the daily stump speeches. But while Gore has been very specific about his support for a bill that is stalled in Congress, Bush has kept avoided talk of too many details. As NPR's Julie Rovner reports, Bush's generalities about the issues sometimes conflict with one another, but not so much as to roil voters.

A remembrance for comedian Steve Allen, who has died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 78. Allen was a pioneer of late night TV, as the original host of The Tonight Show on NBC in 1954. His prolific career in entertainment also included record albums, movies, Broadway shows, work as a disc jockey and forty books.

Robert talks to NPR's Eric Westervelt about the dismissal of attempted murder and assault charges against two New Jersey state troopers in a 1988 shooting on the New Jersey Turnpike. In dismissing the charges, the judge said prosecutors had abused their power and used unfair tactics. The troopers -- both white -- had argued that they fired in self defense injuring three of four men in a van they had pulled over for speeding. All four of those men are minorities. The case raised concerns about racial profiling. A remaining indictment against the troopers alleges the troopers tried to hid information about the race of the motorists.

Linda talks to E.J. Dionne, Political Columnist for the Washington Post, and David Brooks, Senior Editor at The Weekly Standard, about the hotly contested states in the presidential race, and what both candidates must do put together a majority of electoral college votes.

Critic Tom Moon reviews the new CD from the rock band P.J. Harvey, called Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. The band is led by British singer/songwriter Polly Jean Harvey, who has earned a certain reputation for intensity. Her songs move from feverish punk distortion to rich acoustic blues, always with a heavy gloomy atmosphere. There is a sense of lives unraveling and promises shattered for her songs' characters. (4:45) Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, is out today from Island Records, catalog # Islf 15162-2. See http://www.pjharvey.net or http://www.islandrecords.com for more information.