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Guest host John Ydstie talks with Alberto Almeida, who has devised an index to measure fear among residents of nine major cities in Brazil. Almeida is the head of opinion research at Brazil's leading business school, the Fundacao Getulio Vargas, in Rio de Janeiro.

Guest host John Ydstie talks with Simson Garfinkel, a graduate student at MIT. Garfinkel and another MIT student recently purchased 158 used hard drives and found more than 5,000 credit card numbers, detailed personal and corporate financial records, numerous medical records, gigabytes of personal email and pornography.

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.

Michele Norris talks with NPR's Julie Rovner about today's arguments before the Supreme Court on the Family and Medical Leave Act. At issue is whether the law applies to state employees. States -- as they have in other cases in recent years -- argue the Constitution forbids the federal government from imposing certain worker protection measures on them.

Today's transgenic (genetically modified) crops contain have been tinkered with in a relatively simple way. And there is no evidence that they pose any health risk. But scientists are now working on the much more complex modifications needed to enhance the nutritional value of food crop -- by increasing their vitamin content, for example. This could have unpredictable consequences. NPR's Eric Niiler reports.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu ponders the disappearing American mustache. He says only bad guys have them. He was born with a mustache but recently shaved it off. Now he wonders if he really is one of the bad guys.

NPR's Andy Bowers reports that naturalist John Muir is back. Or so it seems. A man who has played Muir on stage for decades has just become a California county supervisor representing the Yosemite Valley... where he plans to take up Muir's environmentalist causes against a slate of property rights advocates.

Quinn Klinefelter of WDET in Detroit reports the head of the National Highway Traffic Administration says automakers must improve the safety of sport utility vehicles or the government may force them to do so. But car companies counter that they are already offering improved safety devices on the popular vehicles.

President Bush says the administration will file a brief supporting white students who sued the University of Michigan's law school. The Supreme Court is hearing the students' challenge to an affirmative action policy that gives minority students an advantage in applying for admission. Hear NPR's Michele Norris, NPR's Don Gonyea and NPR's Mara Liasson.