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NPR's Steve Inskeep reports on Republican Presidential nominee George W. Bush's campaign tour through the Midwest. Yesterday Bush attended religious services in the small town of Plainfield, Illinois.

NPR's Martin Kaste reports that in addition to all of the usual problems associated with illegal drug production, the drug trade in Colombia is causing environmental problems. Chemicals such as ammonia and sulfuric acid, used in the production of cocaine, end up in rivers that flow through sensitive ecosystems such as the country's rain forest. Colombian officials have used the environmental argument to obtain a billion dollars of U-S aid money to fight the cocaine industry. They say their efforts to eradicate illegal drug production will save vast areas of rain forest.

Beth Fertig of member station WNYC reports on New Jersey's new law regulating Halal foods - that is, foods that are lawful according to Islamic tradition. The law reflects a growing Muslim population in New Jersey and throughout the U.S.

Linda talks with Congressional Statistician Bruce Oppenheimer about Al Gore's Congressional voting record. Dr. Oppenheimer is a professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. His latest book is called Sizing Up the Senate; University of Chicago Press, October 1999.

Noah talks with Sam Norris a biologist with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources and a former president of the West Virginia Mycological Association. He says it's been an unusually good year for mushrooms due almost daily warm rains in the highlands of West Virginia. They've collected large amounts and rare varieties including one mushroom which changes to the color blue when picked.

The famous North Beach bookstore founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti is about to be named a historic landmark in San Francisco. From member station KQED, Cy Musiker reports.

NPR's Guy Raz reports from Berlin that the under the pressure of globalization, the German government is moving to loosen up the country's highly regulated economy. German officials are considering whether to abandon the country's strict regulation of shopping hours. Shops are still forbidden to open on Sundays and must close by 8 pm during the week.

Linda and Noah read from the All Things Considered listener mailbag, including reactions to commentator Carol Wasserman's Aug. 8 essay on the realities of aging.

Commentator Dave Bean, an English teacher at Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, wonders what's happened to Ricky Valarde, a student flirting with gangs and dropping out of school, who gets excited about climbing. He presses Bean to take him and they work in exchange for the gear. Bean goes climbing with him one last time, and learns they can count on each other.

NASA has decided to take advantage of the next landing opportunity on Mars and put two robotic rovers on the planet's surface. NPR's Christopher Joyce reports on what will be the the first-ever "twin-rover" expedition to explore the surface, and the first touchdown since last December's crash landing of the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander mission.