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President Bush sends Congress a 2004 budget totaling $2.23 trillion, with the largest increases going to defense and homeland security. But some in Congress say the president should scale back some of the proposed tax cuts and allow more social spending. NPR's David Welna reports.

NPR's Mandalit Del Barco reports that in California this month, Spanish-speaking radio listeners are tuning in to a daily soap opera about the lives of Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles. The radio drama -- known as a radionovela -- is based on a novel by Enrique Romero Moreno, a Mexican consulate official. He warns of the perils and frustrations of living in the United States.

A correction of one item from a Jan. 18, 2003, profile of American sculptor Elizabeth Catlett, who's made her life in Mexico. We correctly reported that she's returning to the U.S. to receive an award, but we misidentified the award. The International Scupture Society is giving Catlett a Lifetime Achievement Award.

As the economy lags and government grants and private funding begin to dry up, museum directors around the country scale back their efforts to expand and beautify their infrastructure. David D'Arcy reports.

Some states are revisiting laws requiring drug offenders to serve long prison terms. Some legislators say the laws put too many nonviolent criminals behind bars and strain the penal system. NPR's Adam Hochberg reports.

NPR's Ivan Watson reports on the Islamist movement that now controls the local government in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, along the border with Afghanistan. The new provincial government has launched a crackdown on what it terms immoral entertainment, including Western music and movies. Some in the region are comparing the government to the Taliban.

NPR's Kate Seelye reports Iraq's artists have survived -- even flourished -- during the U.N. embargo in place since the Gulf War. Some Iraqi artists say the current threat of war is making them even more determined to create. Others say they want nothing more than peace.

The Hawkeye State has fewer people than it did in the 1980 census. State Governor Tom Vilsack would like to turn the population tide by recruiting people from around the world. Yet the state with the slogan "Fields of Opportunities" is still 96% white, and isn't used to immigrants. From member station WOI in Ames, Joyce Russell reports.

Host Bob Edwards talks with reporter Richard Harris about the latest winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Two Americans and Swede got the one-million-dollar prize this year, for their work on "signal transduction" in the nervous system -- work which is necessary for understanding the origins of many neurological and psychological diseases.

NPR's Larry Abramson reports on a study that shows fewer people are falling victim to gunshot wounds during the commission of crimes. The Justice Department says the number of gunshot wounds fell almost 40 percent from 1993 and 1997. Experts credit a number of factors, including the aging of the population and longer prison sentences for violent criminals.