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As the House prepares to vote on rolling back the "Great Society" welfare programs of the 1960's and to give states the power to run their own assistance programs, one state-based program -- child support enforcement - is likely to become a federal one. NPR's Peter Kenyon examines this exception to the devolutionary trend.

This past week, dieters learned some bad news: even if you lose weight, your body will still fight to return to its old weight. Gwen Machsai reflects on the endless battle over weightloss.

Daniel talks with Bowdoin College economics professor Rick Freeman about how one goes about doing a cost benefit analysis. The Republicans would like to pass legislation that could require such an analysis for every federal law that would have a major economic impact. Mr. Freeman explains exactly how the process works.

On this the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, Daniel talks to Frank Snepp, an analyst for the CIA in Viet Nam about the final hours of the American pullout from that city.

Daniel talks to Norman Mailer, author of "Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery." Mailer had access to the KGB documents on Lee Harvey Oswald's time in the Soviet Union, and he talked to many of the people there who knew Oswald.

NPR's Renee Montagne reports from Los Angeles on how much the O.J. Simpson trial is costing. No one knows how long the trial will take, but cost estimates now are about 700-thousand dollars a month.

- Danny speaks with Walter Adams, Distinguished Professor of Economics at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, about corporate mergers and takeovers. This week, Lee Iacocca and Kirk Kerkorian mounted a bid to takeover the Chrysler Corporation, an effort that recalls the merger mania of the 1980's. Adams says corporate takeovers, by and large, don't do the country any good, for they don't as a rule add to the productivity and creativity of the economy.

Daniel talks with Mark Kincaid who until recently worked for the Texas Office of Public Insurance Counsel (OPIC) - an independant state agency that monitors how insurance companies operate. OPIC recently conducted a survey of insurers doing business in Texas on those companies confidential underwriting guidelines. In many cases, Kincaid says, insurance companies will disqualify applicants for seemingly groundless reasons, such as working in casinos or beauty parlors.

NPR's Trevor Rowe reports from the United Nations that Iraq 's speaker of parliament today rejected a UN offer to allow Iraq to sell oil to finance the purchase of emergency humanitarian supplies. Ever since the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq has been barred from selling its oil on the world market. The embargo was imposed by the United Nations, and once the Gulf War ended, it stayed in place...leverage to force Iraqi compliance with Security Council resolutions regarding weapons of mass destruction. The sanctions have hurt the Iraqi people, and yesterday, the U.N. Council told Iraq it could sell two billion dollars worth of oil to help finance purchases of food, medicine and other humanitarian supplies. Today, Iraq rejected the U.N. move, and launched a new anti-American propaganda drive.

NPR's Corey Flintoff reports that President Clinton today said that his administration would look for a way to circumvent a Supreme Court ruling. Earlier this week, the high court struck down a federal law that prohibited guns within 1000 feet of a schoolyard, saying that the Congress does not have the power to create such a law under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The President said that keeping schools safe should be a priority for the nation and charged the Attorney General with finding a way to continue enforcing the law.