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NPR's Michele Kelemen reports new Secretary of State Colin Powell met today with employees to hear their grievances. He was given a standing ovation from foreign service officers who are hoping he will use expertise developed over a career in the military to solve persistent morale problems. Foreign service officers complain about low pay, excessive bureaucracy and lack of opportunity for advancement. They say it's getting more difficult to attract the best and the brightest.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports that the chief prosecutor at the Hague war crimes tribunal, Carle del Ponte, concluded a visit to Belgrade today, saying she's cautiously optimistic about prospects that Yugoslavia will extradite Slobodan Milosevic and other suspects to the court. Ms. del Ponte had what is described as a stormy meeting with Yugoslav president Vojislav Kostunica. Kostunica considers the court anti-Serb and overly politicized.

NPR's Adam Hochberg reports that hundreds of Duke University students have been camping in tents for weeks waiting for a chance to get the best seats for the big basketball game Thursday against rival University of North Carolina. What started as an informal tradition more than 15 years ago has been institutionalized: students register their tents on the university Web site and agree to follow 12 pages of rules.

Noah Adams talks with Steve Sternberg, a reporter for USA Today about the 8th Annual Retrovirus Conference in Chicago. At the conference, the Centers for Disease Control announced it will use a new tactic in fighting the spread of the AIDS, emphasizing the need to educate people already infected with HIV. The goal is to cut the number of new infections in half by the year 2005. Also released at the conference: a study that shows a third of gay black men in large U.S. cities are HIV positive.

President Bush opened a week-long program advertising his tax cut plans today. {Joining him for a White House news conference were three families who would benefit under the proposed reductions. Mr. Bush campaigned on a promise to cut everyone's taxes, from those who pay the least to those who pay the most. And today he defended that approach as fair and equitable.} NPR's Don Gonyea reports from the White House.

California faces some immediate and long-term challenges as it struggles with a vexing power crisis. {The state must sign long-term contracts with some crucial electricity suppliers. A federal order expires tomorrow that requires out-of-state generators to sell power to California. And looming over everything is the prospect of a long, hot summer that could overwhelm the state's fragile electricity system.} Scott Horsley from member station KPBS reports.

Russell Lewis of member station KPBS reports that Mexican trucks will soon be allowed on U.S. highways. The White House announced that U.S. borders must be opened the trucks in order to comply with the North American Free Trade Agreement. Now, some American trucking groups are voicing concern about the safety of the trucks south of the border.

President Bush today tried to keep the focus on the tax cut plan he will submit to Congress tomorrow. But the shooting just off the White House grounds got most of the media attention. Earlier in the day, top aides to the president had scrambled to deny stories that said they were shutting down White House offices devoted to AIDS research and to promoting better race relations. NPR's White House correspondent Don Gonyea reports.

When Americans need a quick bite to eat, and don't want to make it themselves, they often call out for pizza. Jerome Socolovsky reports that in Spain, they've gone one better on that idea, with a way to call out for home-cooked food. Spaniards who are too tired, lazy or pressed for time to cook can call up a surrogate mother and order a home-cooked meal. Many of these "telemadres" are empty-nesters who want to earn a little extra cash.

Secretary of State Colin Powell says he believes China has considerable influence over North Korea, and urges the Chinese to do more to resolve the standoff with North Korea over its nuclear ambitions. NPR's Rob Gifford reports.