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Music critic Meredith Ochs listens to 40 years of recordings by Chris Strachwitz. Forty years ago Strachwitz started on a journey to record great American music. His focus was on roots music; folk, blues, cajun, and zydeco. He liked to record the artists in their homes, beneath pine trees, and in other natural settings. Meredith Ochs says that this five CD collection tells the story of a great American journey. (6:00) The five CD set is Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Collection, The Journey of Chris Strachwitz. See http://www.arhoolie.com.

The new policy follows up on the tech giant's August announcement that it would take a number of steps aiming to protect minors' privacy. It is intended for cases in which the subject is under 18.

NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports that AOL and Time-Warner completed their merger today shortly after the FCC gave its conditional approval. The deal combines the nation's largest internet service provider with the second largest cable operator. It is valued at more than one-hundred-billion dollars. In a prepared statement, the newly merged company said its "scale, scope and reach" would enable it to capitalize on the digital revolution. Analysts say declining ad revenues may hurt the new company in the short run, but were mostly upbeat about its long-run chances.

Later this month and new online service called Questia will debut. It will provide a library containing 50,000 volumes of literature, scholarly journals and texts. The company hopes to eventually reach 250,000 volumes in the next three years. Questia is targeted mostly to students and will allow them to cross-reference, footnote and do a bibliography all online. Robert talks with Troy Williams, the CEO and President of Questia Media, about the new company and what it has taken to get started.

Noah talks with James G. Wright, Assistant Metro Editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, about aluminum plants on the West Coast, which have discovered they can make more money by shutting down production and reselling the electricity they bought from the Bonneville Power Authority in Washington State. Wright says this is because they locked in the price of electricity with the B.P.A. years ago when natural gas was very cheap. Their contracts allow them to resell the electricity back to B.P.A.

NPR Film Critic Bob Mondello says he's trying hard to keep Hollywood titles straight in his mind this year.

Western governors are meeting in Sacramento today to work out a deal on energy transfers to California. The state continues to struggle for a solution to its energy crisis as they deal with critically low power reserves and nearly bankrupt utility companies. NPR's Richard Gonzales reports.

California narrowly avoided cutting off electricity to part of the state yesterday as power reserves fell below critical levels. Rolling blackouts across the state may still be necessary in the near future. NPR's Ina Jaffe reports on how the electricity grid choreographs these rolling blackouts.

NPR's Pam Fessler reports on President Clinton's last economic report to Congress, which he sent to Capitol Hill today. The president rejected fears that a recession is coming. Speaking to reporters at the White House today, he said he hopes the Bush administration and Congress will work to pay off the national debt and will resist big tax cuts or spending increases.

Bob Garfield, co-host of NPR's On The Media, examines why the news media are so smitten with Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan.