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When Luciano Pavarotti calls in sick for what was to be his final performance, tenor Salvatore Licitra steps in and wows the audience at the Met in New York. He has since released a CD called The Debut, which has been winning critical acclaim. And he's in New York again tonight for a performance at Carnegie Hall. Salvatore Licitra talks with NPR's Robert Siegel.

A hearing to determine if two American pilots will be court-martialed for dropping a bomb that killed four Canadian troops in Afghanistan has ended. Majs. Harry Schmidt and William Umbach now await a decision. NPR's Lynn Neary talks to Derek Stoffel of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation who's been covering the hearing.

NPR's Robert Siegel and NPR's Lynn Neary read some of this week's listener letters.

Jeff Young of West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports that military reserves called up for a possible war in Iraq are having a disproportionate impact on state police and other law enforcement personnel in the state. That's because residents of West Virginia have a high rate of service in the armed forces, and the state police force is already under-staffed. It could lose up to 10 percent of its force to the armed services. For public safety agencies that are already stretched thin, this means shift juggling, stretched overtime budgets, and strain for those left to fill in the gaps.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu tells about his friend's dream of buying a coffee plantation in Costa Rica and making money selling beans on the Web. His friend also wants to use a certain duck that eats raw coffee beans and poops out a better bean. Of course, the friend has no money.

He discusses Gangs of New York, his new film set in pre-Civil War New York City about the street warfare between immigrant groups. It was inspired by the book The Gangs of New York published in 1927 by journalist Herbert Asbury.

Last month, Morning Edition invited listeners to share stories about "good deeds" they had witnessed or heard about. NPR's Susan Stamberg reports on some of the many responses that came in. And npr.org offers a few stories that did not make it on the air.

He writes about the Five Points neighborhood in Lower Manhattan which is the setting of Martin Scorsese's new film. Anbinder's book is Five Points: The 19th-Century New York City Neighborhood that Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum. Anbinder is an associate professor of history at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

External efforts to end a nearly two-month-old strike in Venezuela gain momentum. Former President Jimmy Carter's plan to address the crisis is embraced by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. The strike has crippled oil production in one of the world's major exporters. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

Control of the Senate Judiciary Committee officially switches from Democrats to Republicans, with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) taking over as chairman. Hatch says the panel will move quickly to consider President Bush's judicial nominees, including controversial candidates recently renominated by the president. NPR's David Welna reports.