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NPR's Howard Berkes traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where a 4,000-acre blaze came close to destroying dozens of homes, some valued in the millions of dollars. Many of the houses had taken no steps to make them more fire resistant.

Host Bob Edwards has the story of Holland Island, and the man who is trying to save it. Like many Chesapeake Bay islands, Holland is slowly being lost to rising tides and erosion. The island was once home to more than three hundred people, but now most of its buildings are underwater, and the rest will probably follow. But its 71-year-old owner Stephen White is fighting that fate.

Noah Adams travels to Southwestern Virginia to talk to people there about the pain-relief drug OxyContin. Now is the best selling narcotic pain medication in America, the drug has proven to be highly-effective for many users, but OxyContin is also being abused for fun and profit, and reports of overdoses and addiction to the drug have been steadily increasing.

One of the Bush administration's earliest pledges was to review and modernize the U.S. military. Now, with money short, Pentagon officials face the difficult job of deciding just what changes the Military can actually afford. NPR's Tom Gjelten explores the story of the much anticipated Navy ship, the DD-21: the Destroyer for "the Navy After Next."

Children with severe mental disabilities often need expensive treatment or round-the-clock supervision. NPR's Joanne Silberner profiles one family that had to give up custody of their child because they could not afford the care he needed.

As part of the Changing Face of America Series, NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports on the way the power to sue has changed both companies and consumers. The number of lawsuits filed hasn't really gone up, but more people are becoming comfortable with them as a way to attack the companies they see as irresponsible or dangerous. And the threat of litigation has businesses on the defensive.

Robert Siegel speaks with Bill and Miriam Brownwell, who founded WeTip, a non-profit organziation where citizens can anonymously report information regarding a crime. The Bromwells says that citizens fear reprisal from criminals if they report crimes to the police, so they act as the neutral third party.

NPR's David Molpus profiles short story writer George Singleton as part of Morning Edition's series on emerging Southern Artists. Singleton writes about the absurd and the grotesque...and finds plenty of inspiration in rural Dacusville, South Carolina, where he lives. His work includes a story about love at the local recycling center, a directive on how to collect fishing lures at the local flea market, and an examination of how a first marriage went sour because the husband went a little crazy caulking the house.

Morning Edition scoots over to the West Coast this week, broadcasting from NPR's Los Angeles bureau. As part of his series on L.A., John Ridley, NPR commentator and writer of film, television and novels, takes a road-eye view of the city's car culture.

A small but significant number of people are getting sick and finding the usual antibiotics don't work, because the strain of bacteria that's making them sick has become resistant to the drug. The cause is widely believed to be the common practice of feeding antibiotics to farm animals.