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  • In most states, if you are poor and disabled, you can get Medicaid -- the state-run medical care program for the poor that is partly financed by the federal government. But in Indiana, it's not necessarily so. In Indiana, if there is a treatment that would fix your disability, such as a hip replacement or open heart surgery, you are not considered disabled. That's true even if you can't afford the treatment. NPR's Barbara Bradley reports on this catch-22, and how the Indiana Supreme Court may finally decide a case on the issue that has been in the courts since 1992.
  • Michael Montgomery of American Radio Works reports that since NATO-led peacekeepers moved into Kosovo nearly two years ago, hundreds of Serbs and other minorities have been killed. Many others have disappeared and are feared dead. The majority ethnic Albanians are reluctant to give information about missing Serbs. They harbor anger over the killings and destruction wrought by Serbian forces during the Kosovo war, and they fear reprisals by other Kosovars. International officials say the disappearances seem to be part of a campaign to discourage displaced Serbs from returning to Kosovo, and to drive out those who remain out in the province.
  • NPR's Sarah Chayes reports from Paris that a high-profile French corruption trial was thrown into disarray today when a key defendant refused to testify. The defendant -- former oil executive Alfred Sirvan -- once boasted he had enough compromising information about former government officials "to blow the republic sky high." But when he appeared in court, he refused to answer any questions. Sirven's lawyers said he will talk -- but only after all related investigations into the corruption scandal are completed. Among the Sirven's co-defendants is former French foreign minister Roland Dumas.
  • Seattle has become one of the busiest places outside of Los Angeles for recording film scores. Session recordings made by some of the musicians from the Seattle Symphony Orchestra are cutting into a business once dominated by L.A. session musicians. The main reason is money -- film producers want to save money, and groups like the Seattle musicians help cut costs. Marcie Sillman of member station KUOW reports that musicians, some of whom are members of the Seattle Symphony recorded 100 soundtracks last year. Last month, they played 26 soundtrack jobs.
  • Eric Engleman reports from Moscow that Russian space officials have rebuffed a U.S. request to delay Saturday's scheduled lift-off of a Soyuz spacecraft bound for the International Space Station. NASA wants the Russians to delay their flight, because the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour has to spend extra time docked to the space station working on computer problems. The Soyuz will be carrying two Russian cosmonauts and American millionaire Dennis Tito. Over NASA objections, the Russians agreed to take Tito up to the station after he reportedly paid $20 million.
  • Brenda Tremblay of member station WXXI reports that many people in the city of Rochester, New York, are reading the same book. People in supermarkets and malls wear pins that say they're reading, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. Its the story of a young black man wrongly sentenced to death. Rochester's mayor says its allowing residents to talk about race relations in a way they'd usually avoid.
  • NPR's Nina Totenberg reports that the Supreme Court has ruled that it's unconstitutional for public hospitals to test pregnant women for illegal drugs and, without their permission, give the results to police for possible prosecution. The arrangement between doctors at a public hospital in South Carolina and local police was designed to identify pregnant women using crack, and protect their fetuses. The 6-to-3 decision concludes that such an arrangement between doctors and police violates the Constitution.
  • NPR's Rick Karr reports that Napster, the controversial online music-sharing service, has upped its profile in D.C.: It's retained a prominent GOP lobbying firm, hired as its chief counsel a former staffer for GOP copyright stalwart Orrin Hatch, courted right-libertarian think tanks, and encouraged users to call their members of Congress. Can the electoral power of 70-million Napster-users be harnessed to trump the established lobbying clout of the (mostly-Democratic-leaning) recording industry?
  • As part of NPR's ongoing series on how to get AIDS drugs to the developing world, NPR's Michael Sullivan reports on the AIDS situation in India. India has the world's largest number of people infected with the AIDS virus -- more than 4 million are infected by the most conservative estimates. But in a population of nearly 1 billion, AIDS takes a back seat to other pressing health concerns. Indeed, there is little discussion in India about how to get AIDS treatments to those who need them, unlike the current debates now going on in Africa. And in India, even basic prevention efforts face major cultural hurdles.
  • NPR's Larry Abramson reports on the 15-year journey of the world's first true space station. Russian cosmonauts as well as politicians recall Mir with fondness: it provided truly new scientific information about long-duration space flight's effects on humans, as well a politically valuable comeback for the Soviet Union after the U.S. pulled ahead in the space race. Mir outlived its expected life span, and recently the aging orbiter has experienced a series of mishaps and accidents. Russia will "de-orbit" the craft this week and bring it back to a fiery grave somewhere, hopefully, in the Pacific Ocean.
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