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It's Thursday, and that means we'll hear from listener letters. (3:45) Write to Letters, All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 635 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington DC, 2001. E-mail atc@npr.org.

NPR's Peter Kenyon reports on Senate confirmation hearings for Donald Rumsfeld to be Secretary of Defense, a position he held in the latter stages of the Gerald Ford administration. Rumsfeld is expected to win support from the Senate Armed Services Committee and go on to become confirmed with little difficulty. But some Democrats want to question him about his advocacy of a missile defense system.

Confirmation hearings will begin next week for John Ashcroft, the former senator from Missouri whom George W. Bush has nominated as his attorney general. Liberal groups who oppose Ashcroft have been vocal since his nomination was announced. But Ashcroft's supporters have been getting organized as well. NPR's David Welna reports on how the battle is taking shape.

NPR's Amy Costello reports on the use of stun guns -- devices that deliver a strong electric shock -- in law enforcement. In 1994, a research branch of the U.S. Justice Department offered 900 stun guns to the Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff's department, to study whether the weapons would reduce violence between prisoners and officials. The sheriff swiftly put them into use by prison guards. Only a year later, the Justice Department proper was investigating charges of abuse of inmates by guards using the weapons.

LA-Z Boy and Microsoft have come together to produce a product perfect for the Web-surfing couch potato in your home. It's a recliner they call The Explorer. It was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday. The chair's arm contains a wireless modem and a 110 volt outlet, and comes with a build-in keyboard. Robert talks with Don Willmott, technology editor for Yahoo Internet Life about it.

When President-elect George Bush takes office later this month, he'll have to consider new aggressive posturing by Russia. Russian jets recently buzzed a US aircraft carrier, and moved nuclear weapons to the western most point of the country. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

President Clinton's former campaign strategist and political advisor Paul Begala talks about life in the Clinton Whitehouse.

NPR's John Burnett reports on the celebration in Southeast Texas of the world's most important oil strike. It's been 100 years since Spindletop first spewed out black gold.

NPR's Madeleine Brand talks with Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman about diet.

President Clinton's former budget director and chief of staff Leon Panetta.