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A group of Republicans in the House are joining Democrats in a campaign to increase the minimum wage. Yesterday Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole postponed consideration of the immigration bill because Senate Democrats kept trying to attatch a minimum wage amendment. The bill announced today by House Republicans would raise the minimum wage one dollar, ten cents more than the Democrats are proposing. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

NPR's Linda Gradstein reports from Jeruslalem on Secretary of State Warren Christopher's diplomatic efforts to reach a cease-fire in the battle between Israel and the Lebanese-based Hezbollah guerrillas. Christopher is in Syria this evening on the first leg of his mission. He's meeting with Syrian President Hafez Assad, and tomorrow he'll travel to Israel. Meanwhile, the exchange of fire between Israel and Hizbollah continued unabated today.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports that in an effort to keep the Republic of Chechnya in its fold... Russian forces have destroyed much of the capital city of Grozny and laid waste to the rest of the republic. Life in Grozny, is difficult for both Chechens and Russians who live in the region. Even the Chechens who earlier may not have wanted to go to war with Russia are now so bitter about the destruction of their homes that they see no resolution to the conflict but complete independence from Moscow.

NPR's Tom Gjelten reports from Sarajevo that the city is whole again. Grbavica ((gur-buh-VEE-tsuh)), the last of five suburbs, has been returned from Serb control to the Muslim-Croat Federation. Today's hand-over was more orderly than the others. However, Muslims returning to the suburb they'd left four years ago found buildings and homes devesated by fires set by departing Serb arsonists.

Reporter Virginia Biggar joins union organizers as they try to recruit new members among the Latino community in Los Angeles. Labor union membership has been on the decline for years, but some unions now see the immigrant population as a source of new membership. Low-wage labor and qeustionable conditions in California's garment industry has also galvanized labor organizers.

Gasoline prices in the United States are higher than they've been since before the Gulf War. As Joe Smith from member station W-C-P-N in Cleveland reports, one of the reasons for the higher prices is that oil companies have been keeping inventories low, in part because they've expected crude oil prices to drop.

The United States continues to complain that China is NOT cracking down on operations that copy computer software, movies and music. NPR's John McChesney reports that the piracy business continues to boom in China, costing American software manufacturers millions in royalties. But counterfeiting operations also are hurting Chinese software businesses, who say they cannot compete with the low priced-software available on the black market.

JOHN DOUGLAS... author and former FBI unit chief who originated the Unabomber profile talks about the 18-year manhunt for the Unabomber suspect. Douglas has published a new book, "Unabomber: on the trail of America's most wanted serial killer" (Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster). His previous book is, "Mindhunter", a report on the criminal profiling program of the FBI's behavioral science unit.

Chris Arnold reports on Scott Cook and Tom Proulx (PROO), founders of Intuit, the hugely successful creater of home finance computer software. Ten years ago, the company almost went under, but they manaaged to survive by mortgaging their homes, borrowing from their parents' retirement money, and working very long days. Now, they sell "Quicken," the most popular home finance program in the world.

The Subway Vigilante was back in court today, eleven years after he made headlines for gunning down 4 black teens on a New York subway. Bernhardt Goetz (Gets) was in court for a pretrial hearing for 50-million dollar civil suit filed by one of who was shot. Robert Siegel speaks with National Law Journal reporter Andy Blum about why this case continues more than a decade later.