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NPR's Mark Roberts reports on the difficulty many small towns have recruiting volunteer firefighters. Many potential volunteers must commute to other areas for work, and are unable to respond quickly to emergency calls. Others find the demand on their personal time hard to deal with. Some municipalities are adding to a few paid firefighters to their volunteer staffs, but even that solution has its drawbacks.

NPR's Ina Jaffe reports that civil rights groups and people who've sued the Los Angeles police department over racial profiling want to become monitors of the city's consent decree, which is designed to reform the L.A.P.D. With President-elect Bush on the record opposing such decrees, they are concerned that an appointed federal monitor won't effectively enforce the city's agreement.

Host Bob Edwards talks with Professor Yaron Ezrahi , Senior Fellow with the Israel Democracy Institute about the political situation in Israel. Former Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu says he won't run against Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

NPR John Ydstie reports one of the first challenges President Elect Bush and his top advisors will likely face is how to restart the stalled US economy. Bush has said a tax cut is the solution. Some experts disagree.

Susan Gage of Florida Public Radio reports on the 25 people who cast the state's contentious electoral votes for George W. Bush. Electors say they've been in a bright and unexpected spotlight in the weeks since the election.

As part of National Geographic's Radio Expeditions, NPR's Alex Chadwick checks in on African ecologist Mike Fay. Fay just completed a treacherous conservation walk through Central Africa to the coast of Gabon.

Host Bob Edwards talks with author and stand up comic Wallace Wang about how computer users can protect themselves from internet dangers. Privacy and personal information CAN be protected online...he says it just takes some work. Wang's book is "Steal This Computer Book 2: What They Won't Tell You About the Internet."

NPR's Steve Inskeep reports on President-Elect George W. Bush's trip to Washington. Yesterday, he met at the capitol with leaders of both parties from the House and Senate. Bush says he still plans to send an education reform bill to Congress after he takes office, and he will also pursue a large tax cut, though some Republican leaders seem wary of it.

NPR's Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg continues her December series on "giving," in a conversation with Lois Lowry, author of the Newberry Award winning novel, The Giver. It's a coming of age tale aimed at adolescents.

Leda Hartman pays a visit to an unusual Christmas museum in Brevard, North Carolina, where there is a collection of aluminum Christmas trees. Stephan Paul Jackson is the museums curator. He began collecting the trees about ten years ago. Generally they are relics of the 1960's and 70's. The trees are festooned with some very different and some might say tacky ornaments. One tree is decorated with Jim and Tammy Faye Baker ornaments, while another has copper toilet floats and toilet scrub brushes hanging from its branches.