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President Clinton met with Congressional leaders at the White House today to talk about the budget, taxes and other issues. Before that meeting, Clinton said he continued to think that a Constitutional amendment that would require the government to balance the budget is unnecessary, but indicated he might embrace it...a reflection of the fact that Republican gains in the Senate may leave him no choice on the issue. NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports.

They were angry after Clinton's first two years in office and helped elect a Republican Congress in 1994. Now, as NPR's Howard Berkes reports, they're the "mollified" white men whose voting whims aren't drawing as much attention now that "soccer moms" and "waitress moms" are taking the limelight.

- The United States is frantically trying to arrange a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PLO leader Yasir Arafat after four days of fierce fighting in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. Danny speaks with Terje Larsen, the Special U.N. Coordinator in the West Bank and Gaza about the dangers facing the peace process. Then NPR's Eric Weiner reports from Jerusalem on the communal tensions that still grip the area.

NPR's Andy Bowers reports from Moscow that there were developments today on several lingering dilemmas in Russia. The Chechen rebel leader came to Moscow for meetings on the ceasefire agreement, and President Yeltsin met with his security chief, Alexander Lebed, to discuss the Chechen situation. Also, President Yeltsin declared in a six-minute radio address that he was firmly in charge of the nation's business despite his hospitalization.

The streets of South St. Petersburg, Florida are quiet today. The city is cleaning up from last night's riot - over 20 buildings burned, stores were looted and at least 11 people were injured. Police and community leaders met today to try to keep the situation calm. The riot began when a white police officer shot and killed a black motorist. From member station WUSF, Sally Watt reports.

NPR's Tovia Smith reports on an aggressive new policing program in Boston. The program sends cops and local probation officers out at night together to look for offenders out past curfew. Unlike police, probation officers don't need a warrant to go into an offender's home. Officials say they're catching lots of violators this way, but critics charge it crosses the line and is a violation of privacy.

NPR's Phillip Davis reports on the competing strategies for giving away pieces of the broadcast spectrum. The extra capacity will allow digital television to be phased in while analog service continues. The current telecommunications law orders the FCC to give them to braodcasters free, a plan bradcasters support. Others, including consumer groups and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain of Arizona want the agency to auction the frequencies.

NPR's Ann Cooper reports from Johannesburg that South Africa's highest court today approved the country's new, post-apartheid constitution. The document is one of the most liberal in the world; besides guaranteeing racial and gender equality, it outlaws capital punishment and protects gay rights. The Inkatha Freedom Party, the rival to the ruling African National Congress, criticized the constitution on the grounds that it grants too much power to the central government.

NPR's Peter Kenyon reports that the Immigration and Naturalization Service is changing the procedures it uses to screen immigrants before granting them citizenship to ensure that convicted felons and other criminals do not get through. Republicans had charged before the election that the Clinton administration was rushing through thousands of citizenships to boost the voter rolls with new immigrants who might vote Democratic. As a result of the rush, several cases of convicted felons being granted citizenship by mistake were uncovered.

Among the more unusual initiatives on ballots around the country next month is Proposition 215 in California. Prop 215 would legalize the cultivation and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Supporters say smoking pot helps more than taking cannabis pills, as NPR's Richard Gonzales in San Francisco reports. But the state is solidly against the proposal, despite the lampooning the state's officials are getting from cartoon characters in the Doonesbury comic strip.