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NPR's Brian Naylor reports on the move by Republicans in the House to authorize the building of a monument to former president Ronald Reagan on the National Mall in Washington. It has already passed the House Resources Committee and is on the way to a full floor vote before Congress adjourns next month. Democrats say the move is less about honoring Reagan than it is about injecting him into the current presidential campaign. The move, if it passes, would circumvent a law that says no one can be honored with a memorial in the nation's capital until 25 years after the person's death.

NPR's Peter Kenyon reports on yet another issue in the debate over the Presidential Debates. After both the Gore and Bush campaigns agreed on their debate formats, third party candidates are feeling excluded. For them to participate, third party candidates must meet what they call a ridiculous criterion set up by the bi-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates. That criterion states that a candidate must win an average of at least 15-percent in national polls to be invited to the debates.

NPR's Cheryl Corley reports that the Chicago chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Republican Presidential Candidate George W. Bush. Some say the endorsement is meant as a political statement against city's current administration. Police have been upset with Mayor Richard M. Daley because of on-going contract disputes. Daley's brother, William, is Vice President Al Gore's campaign chairman.

NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from London that the Royal National Theatre is currently presenting a feat never before undertaken. It is staging -- simultaneously -- Alan Ayckbourne's twin plays House and Garden. Actors move back and forth between two theaters, racing from one stage to the other to hit their cues. Audiences, though, can view only one play at a time. Ayckbourne calls the twin farces "a modern morality play."

NPR's Tom Gjelten reports that the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone is testing the UN's ability to carry out such operations. Yesterday, the Security Council approved another two months for the 13-thousand member force and tabled Secretary General Kofi Annan's proposal to increase the number of UN peacekeepers deployed in Sierra Leone. The UN operation there has proven to be costly and dangerous.

NPR's Phillip Davis reports that civil rights groups in Florida are trying to free a Muslim academic who is seeking admission to the United States. He has been held in jail by the Immigration and Naturalization Service for the past three years. The INS claims the man has links a Middle-eastern terrorist group, but refuses to reveal evidence, saying to do so would threaten national security. Civil rights groups say his constitutional right to confront his accuser is being violated.

Jon Miller reports from Lima that concern over the country's political crisis has abated somewhat now that the military has issued a statement. In the communiqui, the leaders of the armed forces said they still support the government of President Alberto Fujimori. The crisis was precipitated by release of a videotape showing Fujimori's intelligence chief handing a wad of money to an opposition member of Congress. In response to the bribery scandal, Fujimori has announced plans to step down and call for new elections. He also has announced the de-activation of the intelligence service.

Track and field gets underway at the Olympics Friday, with American sprinters Marion Jones and Maurice Greene competing in qualifying rounds. But the big track news was made OFF the track. As NPR's Howard Berkes reports, the mysterious French runner Marie-Jose Perec left Sydney a day before her first heat, claiming an intruder forced his way into her hotel room and threatened her. Perec, the defending Olympic champion in the 200 and 400 meters, avoided all public appearances in the weeks before the Games, communicating only through her Website.

The first American to win a gold medal in weightlifting in 40 years hardly fits the sport's image. She's a 105-pound former gymnast named Tara Nott. As NPR's reports, Nott was awarded the gold when it was stripped from a Bulgarian lifter who tested positive for a banned diuretic. In other Olympic action, Americans won twin gold medals today when they tied in swimming's mad dash, the 50 meters, breaking a run of victories by Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband.

From member station WXXI in Rochester, New York Brenda Tremblay reports on a new biography about Martha Matilda Harper, one of the most successful and innovative female entrepreneurs of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She is credited with inventing the concept of the Franchise. (3:09) Martha Matilda Harper and the American Dream : How One Woman Changed the Face of Modern Business (Writing American Women by Jane R. Plitt is published by Syracuse Univ Pr (Trade); ISBN: 08156