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NPR's Pam Fessler reports on President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore's appearance before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus dinner last night. Both democrats remarked on the gains Hispanics have made in the last several years. Gore promised to work toward increasing the minimum wage and to defend affirmative action if he's elected president.

NPR's Anthony Brooks reports on George W. Bush's attacks on his Democratic rival. The Republican candidate has been using a two-part strategy this week in an effort to attract voters: He's been casting doubt on Gore's character while trying to re-cast himself as the real friend of the middle class. Yesterday, Bush accused Gore of hypocrisy for criticizing the entertainment industry, and then raising money from it.

Andrea Bernstein of member station WNYC reports from New York City on the deal struck over the weekend between the campaigns of Senate candidates Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio. They agreed not to accept any soft money or outside contributions between now and Election Day. Advocates of campaign finance reform hope candidates in other races will do likewise and that the deal will encourage Congress to pass reform legislation in the next session.

In two of the most anticipated races of the Olympics, Michael Johnson and Cathy Freeman triumphed in the men's and women's 400 meters, fulfilling historic expectations. Freeman, the Australian who lit the Olympic cauldron, became the first Aboriginal athlete to win an individual medal. Johnson succeeded in defending his 400 meter title, the first male sprinter to do so. The win places him among the top runners in Olympic history. NPR's Howard Berkes reports.

NPR's Ina Jaffe reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a case about who owns the right to commercial use of a theatrical character -- the actor who played the part, or the studio for which it was created. The case centers on a lawsuit filed against Paramount studios by the actors who played barflies Cliff and Norm on the Cheers TV series. It returns now to the California courts.

NPR's Elaine Korry reports from San Francisco on Internet retailers' preparations for the Christmas shopping season. They expect on-line sales to be two-thirds higher than last year. And they're trying to prevent the problems that occurred last year, when websites began crashing; popular merchandise became scarce; and some presents weren't delivered in time.

NPR's Larry Abramson reports that the world of dot-com, dot-net and dot-org could give way to dot-xxx, dot-law and dot-kids. The international body responsible for managing Internet address names is entertaining proposals from 47 different organizations for new "top level domains," as they're called. The hope is that more choices will help avert some of the disputes that have erupted over ownership of valuable Internet names.

NPR's Richard Gonzales reports on an elementary school volunteer who's become very involved in student's lives. Diane Mintz started out as a ready tutor, but now she's paying for meals, dental work, and eyeglasses for needy students at Coronado Elementary in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mintz even helped raised enough money this summer to send dozens of kids to camp.

NPR's Mary Ann Akers reports on Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore's speech today at Howard University in Washington. Gore told the mostly-black audience that he would end racial profiling as the first "civil rights act" of his administration. Gore also said he would work for hate crime laws, affirmative action programs, and a tax deduction of up to 10-thousand dollars for college tuition.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports on another rough day for U.S. stocks. The NASDAQ composite plunged more than five-percent this morning on news that Intel will fall short of revenue targets for the third-quarter. The bad news on Intel's earnings managed to drag down all three major indexes, even though the NASDAQ did recover about half its initial loss by mid-day. Market watchers say investors are also concerned about the sliding Euro.