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-- NPR's Eric Westervelt reports on the summit on volunteerism continuing today in Philadelphia. Yesterday President Clinton, two of his predecessors, Vice President Gore, and six thousand other volunteers cleaned up an inner city neighborhood...today delegates begin working on developing ways to get people more involved in their communities. Meanwhile, protesters and observers don't believe that volunteers can perform all the tasks set out for them.

GOP leaders unveiled their list of legislative priorities today, two months after the start of the congressional session. Speaker Newt Gingrich and other top leaders were trying to answer claims that, compared to the start of the last session in 1995, this Congress has done little. The list of Republican priorities begins with balancing the federal budget, and also includes tax relief and a ban on certain late-term abortions. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole lost in a bid to pass a balanced budget amendment today. He brought the issue up for a vote, knowing the Democrats would not help him get the two-thirds margin required. But Dole forces consider the loss a plus. The Dole presidential campaign will accuse President Clinton and the Democrats of not being serious about wanting a balanced budget. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports on today's debate.

NPR's Elaine Korry reports on a growing trend among some companies to file for bankruptcy when they're not really broke. Sizzler International's recent decision to seek protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code while boasting of its financial health is the latest example. Sizzler is using the rules of the Code to close some of its less profitable restaurants and legally break leases and fire employees as part of its restructuring.

From member station W-B-U-R, NPR's Tovia Smith reports that as excavations continue on Boston's Harbor Tunnel project, archeologists are nearing the place where colonists dumped tea into the harbor 222 years ago. They hold out a chance that they may find the wooden tea crates still in place. The dumping site of the tea crates was in deep waters two centuries ago but today it's solid landfill.

Samuel Hendren of member station of WUAL reports that many of the residents of the tiny community of Gees Bend, in Alabama are excited of the prospects that ferry service will be restored to their town after 30 years. The community, one of the poorest in the state, is located in an oxbow of the Alabama River, surrounded on three sides by water. Thirty-five years ago ferry service was terminated to prevent civil rights organizers from working with the residents, who are the descendents of former slaves. (s

The Senate Whitewater Committee is wrapping up the week's hearing schedule with more witnesses from the fringes of the controversy. Republicans are keeping the panel going with second-tier witnesses, because the independent counsel has barred them from calling the higher-profile players during his investigation. The committee chairman, Sen. Alphonse D'Amato, hopes he can keep the panel in business long enough to get that possibly-explosive testimony. NPR's Jon Greenberg reports.

NPR's Mike Shuster reports that some of America's allies, as well as many in the US business community, are not happy with legislation agreed to yesterday that will tighten sanctions against Cuba. After Cuba downed two American planes last weekend, President Clinton and Congress worked out their differences on the proposed law. Countries such as Canada, which does a lot of business in Cuba, are angered that the bill would permit lawsuits against foreign companies which invest in Cuba.

Ley (Lee) Garnett of Oregon Public Broadcasting reports from Portland on the devastation from the week's rain and melting snow. The week's downpour has killed at least three people in Oregon and one in southern Washington state. In Portland, retaining walls along the Willamette River have been holding as the river nears it crest. But the Columbia River on the city's north side continues to rise. Half of Oregon's counties are disaster areas and the governor has asked for federal relief.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports that the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement has resurfaced, with political candidates making claims and counter-claims about the trade agreement's effect on jobs in the U.S. Pat Buchanan insists that NAFTA has cost the U.S. 300,000 jobs, but most economists say he has no hard evidence to support such claim.