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Women taking estrogen may be taking a risk if they also drink alcohol. For reasons yet to be determined, one or two drinks can increase the amount of estrogen circulating in the blood. And high levels of estrogen have been linked to an increase in breast cancer, though that link has never been conclusively proved. NPR's Vicky Que reports.

It's still raining over much of the west. Gamblers are trapped in Reno hotels, and the casinos and bordellos are closed down for the first time in 100 years. The governor of Idaho has declared several counties disaster areas. In California, rivers in Napa and Sonoma counties are above flood stage. Damage is in the hundreds of millions of dollars -- much of it because of bad planning, according to experts. NPR's Richard Gonzales reports.

The Food and Drug Administration is proposing to withdraw from the market a widely used antihistamine called Seldane. It says that the very rare occurence of potentially fatal heart disease outweighs the drug's benefits. A new variant of the drug was just approved by the FDA four months ago, and the agency is advising patients to ask their doctors whether to switch antihistamines. NPR's Vicky Que (KWAY) reports.

Several recent safety problems at a Connecticut nuclear power plant have prompted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to require nuclear plants across the country to update the safety information they have on file with the NRC. As NPR's Dan Charles reports, it's not clear whether plants are unsafe now, or whether updated safety instructions will make them safe if they're not.

NPR's Michael Goldfarb reports from Vienna on a two-day auction of artwork owned by Jewish families sent to the Nazi death camps. The proceeds benefit needy Holocaust survivors or the families of victims. The artwork had been held by the Austrian government and not returned to the families after the war. The auction is seen as an attempt by the Austrians to make amends for that controversial decision.

NPR's John Burnett reports on how the Christmas season looks to some who don't recognize its religious significance. Some Christians, such as Mennonites and Jehovah's Witnesses, do not celebrate it as the Nativity. For some non-Christians, December 25th is just another day of the week, but others like to follow the secular traditions of the holiday, such as gift-giving.

A massive irrigation and hydropower project in Turkey is alarming Syria and Iraq. They fear that around half their current supply of fresh water could be cut off by their neighbor. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Turkey that its plan to build 22 dams has the region realizing that water is as strategic a resource as oil has been to the area's politics and economies.

A year after the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996 went into effect, regional phone companies are applying to offer long distance service, television stations are preparing to broadcast digital images, and the industry has been swept by an unprecedented wave of enormous mergers. But as NPR's Phillip Davis reports, much of the law is under court challenge -- and it's still not clear how these changes will affect consumers.

Scientists at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology say they've proved that a chemical found in the brains of mice is responsible for turning long-term memories off and on. Some researchers say that the findings, which appear in tomorrow's issue of the journal Cell, could provide new insights into human memory disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. NPR's David Baron reports.

NPR's Don Gonyea reports from Detroit on the close race for resident of the nation's largest labor union, the Teamsters. Incumbent Ron arey has claimed victory in a hard fought battle against James P. Hoffa, the on of infamous Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa has yet to concede the lection and is challenging more than 40-thousand ballots that will be counted his coming week.